Chapter Summaries

A century after Chen Changsheng unified the world under the Heavenly Court, Mister called a Peach Banquet to gather three million cultivators for a war against the Different World, warning them that the expedition was meant to end in their deaths. The factions agreed to fight, and Mister left Meng Yu behind as he prepared to visit Tian Xuan’s banquet.

• After Chen Changsheng departed, Mister unified the Five Continents for the Heavenly Court, with Bai Ze at his side, and a century of peace followed.
• At the Peach Banquet, Mister revealed the plan to send three million cultivators to their deaths in a war against the Different World and demanded the gathered leaders decide whether to join.
• The Northern Desert Buddhist sects, the Demon Race, Mountain and River Academy, Wan Tong Merchant Guild, and other factions agreed to fight and swore Blood Oaths.
• Mister told Meng Yu she could not join the war, explaining that Tian Xuan or Linglong had to lead the Demon Race and Bao'er had to represent Wan Tong Merchant Guild.
• Mister said the Investiture of the Gods List could revive those who died with most of their consciousness intact, then left to attend Tian Xuan’s banquet.

Tian Xuan tried to stop Linglong from joining the expedition against the Different World, but Chen Changsheng said she might have another way to fight without being placed on the Investiture of the Gods List. At a banquet with old friends, Qian Bao'er asked Chen Changsheng what position he had arranged for her on the list.

• Tian Xuan argued with Linglong and threatened to stop her from joining the battle, but she insisted on going.
• Chen Changsheng confirmed that he had agreed to Linglong joining the battle, then suggested she might not need to be placed on the Investiture of the Gods List.
• Chen Changsheng struck Bai Ze when he tried to warn him, then turned his attention to the banquet and its wine.
• Chen Changsheng welcomed old acquaintances, including Qian Bao'er, Meng Yu, and Nangong Ruoxue, and recalled Tian Xuan sparing Qingxu Heaven a century earlier.
• Qian Bao'er asked Chen Changsheng what position he had arranged for her on the Investiture of the Gods List, silencing the banquet.

Qian Bao'er confronted Chen Changsheng over the Qian Family being sent to the Investiture of the Gods War while Meng Yu and Tian Xuan were spared. After comforting her, Nalan Xingde revealed that the Demon Race was destined to rule the world if the war was won.

• Qian Bao'er demanded to know why the Qian Family was assigned to the Investiture of the Gods List while Meng Yu and Tian Xuan were exempted, and accused Chen Changsheng of treating her family as expendable.
• Chen Changsheng offered to exempt the Qian Family, but Qian Bao'er refused, saying the five hundred thousand cultivators of the Wan Tong Merchant Guild would not risk their lives unless all thirty-eight family members went to battle.
• Qian Bao'er left Chen Changsheng's gathering after giving Tian Xuan a Longevity Lock and advising him that Linglong should not join the war; Chen Changsheng then dismissed the others.
• Qian Bao'er wept on a mountain peak, where Nalan Xingde comforted her and explained that Chen Changsheng's bonds of fate were shallow and that some people had a more painful road than the Investiture of the Gods War.
• Nalan Xingde told Qian Bao'er that if the war ended in victory, the Demon Race would rule the world, and that its rise was unavoidable.

Nalan Xingde explained to Qian Bao'er why Chen Changsheng had prepared Tian Xuan to suppress the Demon Race and why he accepted the painful sacrifices demanded by the coming wars. In the Mystic Bird Clan's territory, Bai Ze learned that no Essence of All Things remained to save more people, then ran off in frustration as Chen Changsheng stayed behind.

• Nalan Xingde told Qian Bao'er that Tian Xuan would bear Heaven's mandate and suppress the Demon Race so the Human Race would suffer fewer casualties.
• Nalan Xingde explained that Chen Changsheng had to prepare for another perilous war and that Meng Yu and Thirteen had been preparing in Kongming Heaven.
• Qian Bao'er recognized Chen Changsheng's devotion to those around him and understood that he was forced to accept their deaths for the world's sake.
• Bai Ze challenged Chen Changsheng for spending his last drop of Essence of All Things to save Linglong, pointing out that many others might die.
• Chen Changsheng told Bai Ze that the Netherworld Forest had no Essence of All Things left in reserve.
• Bai Ze, unable to blame Tian Xuan, Chen Changsheng, or Qian Bao'er, roared and ran off while Chen Changsheng remained seated.

Chen Changsheng prepared the Heavenly Court’s forces for the Investiture of the Gods War, accepting the karmic burden of sending three million cultivators to their deaths. After the army entered the Different World, Meng Yu confronted him over his ruthless methods, and he admitted the war was never righteous.

• Chen Changsheng told the System he would bear the karmic hindrance of killing three million people and declared that the Heavenly Court was destined to win the war.
• The world’s factions spent ten years assembling a three-million-strong army and building a Great Wall to guard the entrance to the Different World.
• At the Great Wall, Jin Yangzi tore open a passage, sacrificed the inhabitants of a city to stabilize it, and died as his blood-red Array Patterns sealed the rift.
• Qian Bao'er led the Shaking Mountain Army into the Different World, followed by the rest of the cultivator army over two days and one night.
• Meng Yu challenged Chen Changsheng over Jin Yangzi’s blood sacrifice and the deception used to recruit the army, and Chen Changsheng admitted that he had never considered the war righteous.

Chen Changsheng explained to Meng Yu why he had chosen an unjust preemptive war against the Uncanny rather than waiting for a devastating invasion, and described his own understanding of true freedom. After he left her to guard the Great Wall against both enemies and possible traitors, Meng Yu resolved to join the three million cultivators and wondered when the long-absent Little Thief would return.

• Chen Changsheng told Meng Yu that attacking the Uncanny before their destined invasion was unjust, but waiting for a just war would cost countless lives.
• Chen Changsheng explained that he could have waited to become a celebrated savior, but chose to act early and bear the burden himself.
• Chen Changsheng defined true freedom as acting on his own will without being forced or restrained by anyone or anything.
• Chen Changsheng ordered Meng Yu to defend the Great Wall against all crossings, including those by their own people, then vanished as the passageway sealed.
• Meng Yu resolved to become one of the three million cultivators and wondered why Little Thief had not returned for over a hundred years.

The Investiture of the Gods War entered its fiftieth year as the allied forces and the Different World’s cultivators suffered mounting losses, while the Uncanny turned its victims into deadly weapons. Qian Bao'er and Nangong Ruoxue wondered when Chen Shisan would return as he continued fighting in Netherworld Forest, still unable to leave.

• The Heavenly Court's plan to sacrifice three million cultivators was exposed, and Chen Changsheng killed three hundred thousand mutineers beneath the Great Wall.
• Both sides continued fighting for decades, and Nalan Xingde's discovery of the Immortal Venerable Realm helped strengthen the allied forces.
• Nangong Ruoxue told Qian Bao'er how an Uncanny-controlled cultivator had devoured three cities and self-destructed during an attack.
• Nangong Ruoxue asked whether she could have won Chen Shisan's affection and then set off on another mission, asking Qian Bao'er to find out when he would appear.
• Qian Bao'er worried that the allied forces could barely hold on and recalled that Sir had prepared a Divine Weapon for Chen Shisan.
• Chen Shisan defeated a Blood Moving Realm exotic beast in Netherworld Forest, but the forest still prevented him from leaving.

Chen Shisan drew a sword strike that split the Netherworld Forest and reached the Mortal Shedding Realm, then left to help the people waiting for him. As the Great Wall came under attack and its defenders neared defeat, the sound of silver bells announced that help had arrived.

• Little Tree showed Chen Shisan visions of Linglong, Qian Bao'er, Meng Yu, and the Master injured and calling his name, giving him a reason to draw his sword.
• Chen Shisan broke the Three-Foot Green Edge with a sword strike that cleaved the Netherworld Forest and advanced him to the Mortal Shedding Realm.
• Chen Changsheng sensed Chen Shisan's sword intent and feared that Thirteen's rigid heart would cost him his life.
• Bai Ze told Chen Changsheng that two Immortal Venerable Realm experts and their forces were attacking the Great Wall, but Chen Changsheng sent him back to battle.
• Meng Yu, Tian Xuan, and Bai Ze struggled to defend the understaffed Great Wall as the attackers threatened to break through.
• The defenders heard silver bells ring as reinforcements appeared to arrive.

Chen Shisan returned to the Great Wall and joined Tian Xuan to kill two Immortal Venerable Realm attackers with a sword formed from the Wall’s Sword Qi. Chen Changsheng burned the retreating enemies and their Uncanny, then confronted an old man hiding in the void.

• Meng Yu joyfully reunited with Chen Shisan, but he urged her to focus on the crisis at the Great Wall.
• Chen Shisan said he needed Tian Xuan’s help and a sharp sword to kill the two Immortal Venerable Realm attackers.
• Bai Ze destroyed Tian Xuan’s Vajra Pestle, revealing an inch-long “Embroidery Needle” that became an iron staff in Tian Xuan’s hand.
• Chen Shisan summoned an illusory longsword from the Great Wall, and Tian Xuan channeled wind and thunder power into him.
• Chen Shisan’s sword strike killed the two Immortal Venerable Realm cultivators, and Chen Changsheng burned their bodies and the retreating Divine Realm cultivators to ash.
• Chen Changsheng called out a hidden observer, and an old man stepped out of the void.

Chen Changsheng exposed Mei Yongsi, the vanished successor of Langya Pavilion, as the hidden force behind the Great Wall attack and the cultivator mutiny. Mei Yongsi escaped the trap through a Tri-Color Teleportation Array, promising to meet Chen Changsheng again on the Ascension Road.

• Chen Changsheng recognized the old man as Mei Yongsi, and Bai Ze identified him as Langya Pavilion’s successor from the era of Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Mei Yongsi’s cowardice at the Heaven’s Pride Assembly and Langya Pavilion’s support for Wu Li’s attack on the Ascension Road had raised his suspicions.
• Mei Yongsi admitted he had attacked the Great Wall after Chen Changsheng launched the Investiture of the Gods War, and Chen Changsheng revealed he had deliberately moved the Great Wall’s defenders to lure him out.
• Nalan Xingde and three Immortal Venerable Realm experts appeared to capture Mei Yongsi, but he activated a Tri-Color Teleportation Array and escaped after their combined attack destroyed most of his body.

Chen Changsheng explained to Nalan Xingde that he had forced Chen Shisan’s body past its natural limits, causing his cultivation to surge uncontrollably at the cost of his life. Nalan Xingde left, declaring that Chen Changsheng was the one person with the right to question his choice.

• Chen Changsheng admitted that Mei Yongsi had escaped despite the group’s efforts, and explained that he had been stalling for time.
• Nalan Xingde congratulated Chen Shisan on his clarity in cultivation and secretly sent a streak of golden light into his body before dismissing him with Tian Xuan and the others.
• Nalan Xingde confronted Chen Changsheng about what he had done to Chen Shisan, and Chen Changsheng explained that Chen Shisan’s steadfast heart had broken through his body’s limits.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that Chen Shisan’s cultivation would now advance unstoppably, and that the cost of breaking through his limits was death.
• Chen Changsheng defended his haste by pointing to the people awaiting rescue after the brutal battle at the Ascension Road, while admitting that he could neither treat Chen Shisan as a tool nor keep him alive.
• Nalan Xingde said that Bao'er, Meng Yu, and Chen Shisan had no right to question Chen Changsheng, but Chen Changsheng did, then left him in silence.

Chen Shisan and Meng Yu reunited and discussed his promise to Chen Changsheng, while Bai Ze explained the Great Wall’s Sword Soul and urged Tian Xuan to accept that he could not take Thirteen’s place. The all-out assault began, and in its third year Nangong Ruoxue fell, leaving only a strand of consciousness on the Investiture of the Gods List.

• After Tian Xuan and Bai Ze left, Chen Shisan embraced Meng Yu and told her he had missed her for 160 years.
• Meng Yu asked Chen Shisan to run away with her after the Investiture of the Gods War, but he refused because he had promised Chen Changsheng to stay.
• Bai Ze told Tian Xuan that the Great Wall collected cultivators’ Sword Qi and that Thirteen’s illusory sword held the Great Wall’s Sword Soul.
• Tian Xuan offered to take the Ascension Road and face danger in Thirteen’s place, but Bai Ze said their paths could not be exchanged and that Chen Changsheng had no other choice.
• After Chen Changsheng cleared traitors from the Investiture of the Gods army, the all-out assault on the Different World began.
• In the third year of the assault, Nangong Ruoxue fell, leaving only a strand of Divine Sense Realm consciousness within the Investiture of the Gods List.

The Investiture of the Gods Allied Forces suffered devastating losses as Huineng, Qian Bao'er, and Linglong fell in the war against the Uncanny. Chen Changsheng allowed Tian Xuan ten days with Linglong, then returned her hidden Divine Sense Realm so she could revive and leave with him.

• In Year 54, Huineng held off five Immortal Venerable Realm experts for twelve hours, allowing Chen Changsheng to arrive and slay them, but Huineng turned to ashes.
• In Year 55, Qian Bao'er defeated her enemies before dying, and Bai Ze retaliated by killing every living thing within eight thousand li of the Different World.
• Linglong charged into the Uncanny's heartland and fell, while the surviving allied forces accepted that they could not safely leave the war behind.
• Nalan Xingde pleaded with Chen Changsheng to let Tian Xuan see Linglong's body, and Chen Changsheng granted them ten days under Tian Xuan's personal guard.
• Tian Xuan asked Chen Changsheng to return Linglong's hidden Divine Sense Realm, and Linglong revived, received a seal, and left with Tian Xuan after warning that the Uncanny must be destroyed.

Tian Xuan lost Linglong at Cloud Mountain Temple and turned against the Buddha statue she had worshipped. Sixty years after the Investiture of the Gods War ended, Zhang Bairen established God and Demon Cemetery, where Chen Changsheng became its Night Watchman.

• Chen Changsheng told Nalan Xingde he accepted that Tian Xuan might hate him, because hatred could give Tian Xuan something to hold on to.
• Tian Xuan spent ten days taking Linglong to Cloud Mountain Temple, where she died in his arms.
• Tian Xuan knelt before the Buddha statue and pleaded for Linglong, then left with her corpse and vowed to destroy the statue.
• In the war's sixtieth year, Chen Changsheng, Zhang Bairen, Nalan Xingde, and eight Immortal Venerable Realm experts attacked the Small World, and Zhang Bairen later renamed it God and Demon Cemetery.
• Zhang Bairen took control of the Heavenly Court and appointed Chen Changsheng Night Watchman at the entrance to God and Demon Cemetery.
• A scruffy, bearded man brought pig head meat and Erguotou liquor to the gravestones, and someone behind him asked why he had not been invited.

Chen Changsheng demanded that Zhang Bairen reveal the secrets of the Lower Realm and learned that it was the root of the Upper Realm, though the two worlds had long since become enemies. Zhang Bairen explained that Wu Li attacked the Ascension Road because he was willing to sacrifice himself for all living things, leaving Chen Changsheng to consider the cost paid by those below.

• Chen Changsheng met Zhang Bairen with white-haired Chen Shisan and threatened to have Shisan beat him unless he revealed the Lower Realm’s secrets.
• Zhang Bairen said an Upper Realm existed above the Lower Realm, and that the Lower Realm was the root on which the Upper Realm depended.
• Zhang Bairen explained that the two realms were once connected, later turned against each other, and sealed their passage, though he did not know why the conflict began.
• Chen Changsheng asked why Wu Li attacked the Ascension Road, and Zhang Bairen condemned him for breaking the rules governing the two realms.
• Zhang Bairen said Wu Li attacked because he was a good man willing to sacrifice himself for all living things, whose lives were most often lost in the realms’ struggles.

Chen Changsheng learned why Zhang Bairen planned to reopen the Ascension Road and heard that Zhang had been cast out by Hundred Defeats Immortal. Chen Changsheng then prepared Chen Shisan for the coming battle and showed him a divine weapon that still lacked a Sword Spirit.

• Zhang Bairen said he would reopen the Ascension Road in one year and explained that he had been cast out by Hundred Defeats Immortal.
• Zhang Bairen said his Heavenly Court sought to stand above all worlds, but he refused to reveal his full reasons for attacking the Ascension Road.
• Chen Changsheng gave Chen Shisan Essence of All Things, and Chen Shisan accepted it before insisting he would go to the Ascension Road.
• Chen Changsheng scolded Chen Shisan for asking for more treasures, then took him to see the weapon he was forging for him.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the weapon used two Golden Pages made of Profound Yellow Mother Metal, but he still needed a Sword Spirit to control it.

Chen Changsheng prepared Chen Shisan to become the spirit of a vicious sword and bid farewell to Qian Bao'er before leaving to meet Tian Xuan. Tian Xuan entrusted him with a sealed infant and revealed his hatred of those who shaped the world, intending to act against them while asking Chen Changsheng to keep the child safe.

• Chen Changsheng told Chen Shisan that he would become the Sword Spirit of a sword forged from Profound Yellow Mother Metal and fragments of magic treasures, and instructed him to complete its forging by envisioning it beside the furnace.
• Chen Changsheng visited Qian Bao'er in the Heavenly Court and explained that he wanted to see his old friends one last time because time had erased their traces from the world.
• Chen Changsheng reassured Qian Bao'er that he would remember her and said the Luck Investiture of the Gods would keep her in the Heavenly Court, where she could have five thousand peaceful years.
• Chen Changsheng met Tian Xuan in the Mystic Bird Clan's territory, where Tian Xuan agreed to seal himself away until seven thousand years later.
• Tian Xuan gave Chen Changsheng a sealed infant in a Longevity Bloodstone and asked him to find the child a peaceful home and keep him from emerging until Tian Xuan had been dead for some time.
• Tian Xuan admitted that he hated those who laid out schemes and said he intended to find a target, believing his actions would benefit all living things.

Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen reached the end of the Ascension Road after twenty years, where Limitless Celestial tried to dissuade Chen Changsheng from attacking it. Chen Changsheng uncovered a long-running conspiracy involving the Uncanny and surviving Heaven's Mandate Bearers, and Limitless Celestial summoned allies as the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground emerged.

• Tian Xuan laughed after Chen Changsheng left, unknowingly giving birth to a notorious Heaven's Mandate Bearer.
• A year later, the Heavenly Court ascended with only a few powerful beings, and twenty years after that the sky split open to reveal a bloodied Zhang Bairen.
• On the Ascension Road, Zhang Bairen told Chen Changsheng that he had staged his bloody appearance to discourage Lower Realm cultivators from pursuing ascension.
• At the road's end, Limitless Celestial warned Chen Changsheng that opening the Ascension Road would bring disaster and urged him to join forces to control the Lower Realm.
• Chen Changsheng accused Limitless Celestial of exploiting the Uncanny and blamed him and other surviving Heaven's Mandate Bearers for the Bronze Ancient Halls' destruction.
• Limitless Celestial confirmed Chen Changsheng's deductions, called two allies forth, and the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground emerged from the void.

Chen Changsheng and the Heavenly Court’s allies battled the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground’s forces to open the Ascension Road, while powerful opponents drew the strongest fighters away into the void. The fighting continued across the road, where Meng Yu faced a powerful enemy despite feeling overwhelmed.

• Zhang Bairen confronted Limitless Celestial and took him into the void to fight, while Chen Changsheng stayed on the Ascension Road.
• Nalan Xingde challenged a Heaven's Mandate Bearer and entered the void with him, leaving Chen Changsheng to face the remaining elder.
• Chen Changsheng fought the elder, who had arranged the Three Great Holy Lands' conflict, and followed him into the void.
• The Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground's experts attacked the Heavenly Court's forces as battles also broke out at the Ascension Road's exit and elsewhere in the void.
• Meng Yu killed an enemy, reflected on the overwhelming strength of the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground's fighters, and charged at an Immortal Venerable Realm opponent.

After thirty years of fighting on the Ascension Road, Chen Changsheng and his allies used hidden trump cards to destroy the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground and exile it into the void. Chen Shisan offered one final sword strike as powerful enemies still blocked their way.

• Chen Changsheng killed the old man who had defeated him by unleashing the Golden Silkworm Gu and detonating his body, then regenerated.
• Zhang Bairen fought on despite his injuries, while Nalan Xingde sealed a Heaven's Mandate Bearer in a golden book and collapsed.
• Chen Changsheng summoned Bai Ze and Blind Old Monk, who broke through the sealed Ascension Road, and called the Three Million Souls of Heroes into his graveyard phenomenon.
• Xuan Xin unleashed his pent-up resentment against the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground, but a giant hand caught the descending Buddha.
• Chen Shisan arrived at Chen Changsheng's side and split the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground with one sword, allowing Chen Changsheng to bury and exile it into the void.
• Chen Shisan supported the unsteady Chen Changsheng and asked the figures ahead whether they would yield, offering to strike once more.