Chapter Summaries

Xu Yao defeated Ye Feng by refusing to trade her pursuit of freedom for his promise of safety, but a sudden invasion interrupted the fighting. As Xu Hu and Bai Ze fled with the Enlightenment Tree, Jiang Yongnian accused them of destroying the Qingyang Sect and stealing its treasure, while Chen Changsheng revealed he had planned the distraction to test his disciples.

• Xu Yao refused Ye Feng's offer to end the battle, asked whether his success had made him free, and persuaded him to concede.
• Xu Hu invaded the Four Directions Continent, overpowered the gathered experts, and attacked the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect before the Black Tortoise Sect intervened.
• Bai Ze fled with the Enlightenment Tree and called for Xu Hu to escape, prompting the experts to pursue them.
• Jiang Yongnian accused Bai Ze of destroying his sect and stealing its supreme treasure, drawing attention to the Qingyang Sect's rumored talent-enhancing treasure.
• Zhang Zhen asked Chen Changsheng whether he had planned the events, and Chen Changsheng said he had meant to help his disciples grow rather than force them to die.

After the Heaven's Pride Assembly ended in defeat, Jian Fei helped Ma Ling'er understand the helplessness they faced in the Four Directions Continent, and she resolved to keep going. Xu Yao remained shaken by the battle, while Ye Feng visited her with wine and insisted he liked her group, not her alone.

• Great powers joined the hunt for Xu Hu, and Chen Changsheng's group returned to a residence whose visitors had vanished after the Qingyang Sect's supreme treasure became known.
• Jian Fei told Ma Ling'er that the team's fear came from realizing that effort could not prevent defeat, and that the path of a Heaven's Pride was built on the fallen.
• Ma Ling'er stopped blaming herself for the plan and vowed to face fate courageously because she and the others were still alive.
• Ye Feng found Xu Yao on the rooftop and invited her to drink, saying he had come because he liked her group.
• Xu Yao challenged Ye Feng over whether her desperate fight had changed anything, and he clarified that he liked them all rather than liking her specifically.

Ye Feng explained to Xu Yao how the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect’s control over his life had crushed his desire for freedom, and why he had let her win. Their conversation left Xu Yao recognizing a familiar resemblance between Ye Feng and Nangong Xing.

• Ye Feng told Xu Yao he admired her freedom and revealed that the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect had controlled his upbringing and relationships because of his talent.
• Ye Feng recounted how the sect forced him to cultivate without rest, arranged a woman to keep him from being emotionally damaged, then married her to someone else.
• Ye Feng said he had resisted the sect and threatened suicide, but a stronger prodigy defeated him and taught him that only strength determined his rights.
• Ye Feng explained that he admitted defeat because Xu Yao’s scent of freedom awakened his former self, and said many prodigies were drawn to her for the same reason.
• Xu Yao asked whether Ye Feng would change the sect’s restrictions, and he said he wanted gradual reform rather than overthrowing the sect that had raised him.
• Xu Yao realized Ye Feng’s situation resembled Nangong Xing’s past.

After Ye Feng left, Chen Changsheng helped Xu Yao confront her doubts about strength, fate, and becoming Qiao Er, then began teaching her and the others cultivation. He started a lesson on cultivating two systems at once and explained the first two minor realms of the Grotto-Heaven Realm.

• Ye Feng left the rooftop, and Chen Changsheng appeared to tease Xu Yao with a wooden stick and ask why she had lost her battle.
• Xu Yao asked whether Ye Feng was Nangong Xing of old and she was Qiao Er; Chen Changsheng said she could choose whether to become Qiao Er and challenged her belief that strength could control her fate.
• Xu Yao cried over her inability to defeat stronger opponents, then told Chen Changsheng she would work hard to become Qiao Er.
• Chen Changsheng told Xu Yao not to force herself into becoming Qiao Er, urged her to trust her companions, and offered to teach her cultivation.
• Chen Changsheng gathered everyone in the garden and began teaching how to cultivate two systems at once, asking about the three minor realms of the Grotto-Heaven Realm.
• Gui Qianjie explained that the Divine Sense Realm involved projecting spiritual power outward and that the Original Self Realm involved discovering the True Self.

Chen Changsheng explained the Bitter Sea System’s realms and showed how the Heavenly Soul System could speed up cultivation in the Divine Realm. Jiang Yongnian struggled to keep up with the others, and the chapter ended with Xu Yao’s Nine-tailed Fire Fox demonstrating mind-spirit unity with her heavenly soul.

• Chen Changsheng described the Bitter Sea System’s Grotto-Heaven, True Self, and Life Lamp realms, prompting Ma Ling'er, Gui Qianjie, and Jian Fei to form divine-sense true selves.
• Chen Changsheng explained how the Divine Realm transformed a cultivator’s blood, bones, and mortal body, and why its energy demands made it a lifelong obstacle for many.
• Xu Yao asked how the Heavenly Soul System could assist Divine Realm cultivation, and Chen Changsheng explained that uniting the heavenly soul with the life lamp could accelerate the refinement of divine blood.
• Jiang Yongnian offered to demonstrate mind-spirit unity, but Xu Yao’s Nine-tailed Fire Fox spoke and walked unsteadily, leaving Jiang Yongnian frustrated.

Chen Changsheng explained how the group could use their Heavenly Souls to condense Divine Blood and warned them about the dangers of cultivating inside their bodies. Afterward, he took Zhang Zhen outside Ten Thousand Beasts City, where Zhang Zhen questioned his unusual familiarity with the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.

• Xu Yao used her Heavenly Soul to control the Nine-Colored Glazed Life Lamp and condense Divine Blood, but Chen Changsheng explained that the method was dangerous and that the True Self could potentially double its cultivation speed.
• Chen Changsheng warned Jiang Yongnian and the others that internal cultivation could split their Divine Sense, and revealed that he had once gone mad for three hundred years after trying it.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Bitter Sea System’s cultivators could not safely cultivate inside their bodies because Divine Sense had to be involved in condensing Divine Blood, and he described a future step that could solve the problem.
• Chen Changsheng told the group to cultivate while the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect elders were away, then asked Zhang Zhen to accompany him.
• Outside Ten Thousand Beasts City, Zhang Zhen challenged Chen Changsheng’s detailed knowledge of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect and questioned why an enemy like him had been imprisoned there.

Chen Changsheng explained to Zhang Zhen how a mole in Four Directions Continent had helped him escape and revealed that they were going to meet the people he had used. Zhang Zhen agreed to accompany him for five thousand Points, while Chen Changsheng argued that only he could secure Zhang Zhen’s treatment.

• Chen Changsheng asked Zhang Zhen to deduce how he had escaped Four Directions Continent, and Zhang Zhen concluded that Chen had exploited a mole to escape with Ice-Fire Immortal King.
• Zhang Zhen realized Chen Changsheng had set up the people who dealt with him and suspected their upcoming meeting would be with those people.
• Chen Changsheng admitted he could not guarantee they would return alive, and Zhang Zhen negotiated a reward of five thousand Points to join him.
• Zhang Zhen questioned whether Chen Changsheng could really save him, and Chen explained that essential treatment resources were in Four Directions Continent and that Zhang’s remaining options were limited.
• Chen Changsheng urged Zhang Zhen to stay with him and earn Points, promising that he kept his word.

Jiang Yongnian struggled to keep pace with his companions as they trained to condense Divine Blood, while Chen Changsheng and Zhang Zhen entered Four Directions Continent’s dark side to confront the King of the Night. Chen Changsheng exposed the armored figure on the throne as empty armor, leaving the King’s identity unresolved.

• Chen Changsheng told Zhang Zhen that Four Directions Continent had provoked him, then continued toward the continent with him following.
• Jiang Yongnian found that he could condense Divine Blood for only two hours a day, far less than Xu Yao and the others.
• Su You urged Jiang Yongnian to be patient, keep cultivating, and prepare for the choice they would face when Ten Thousand Beasts Sect’s great powers returned.
• Chen Changsheng and Zhang Zhen entered the Black Triangle, where Chen Changsheng knocked down an Immortal Venerable Realm fat man and demanded that the King of the Night appear.
• A teleportation array carried Chen Changsheng and Zhang Zhen into a cave, where the King of the Night’s alluring companion and armored figure waited.
• Chen Changsheng hurled the armored figure from the throne and shattered its armor, revealing that nothing was inside.

Chen Changsheng tried to recruit Bai Qiuniang by promising to help Zhang Zhen become Soul Emperor of the Four Directions Continent and offering Bai Qiuniang dignity for those with low-quality Heavenly Souls. Bai Qiuniang remained wary but listened as Chen Changsheng argued that their cause was overthrowing a corrupt order, not betraying their home.

• Bai Qiuniang confronted Chen Changsheng over the destruction of her strongholds and threatened to kill him, while Chen Changsheng proposed they work together.
• Bai Qiuniang discovered that the Chen Changsheng before her was an Original Self Clone, and Chen Changsheng revealed himself from the shadows with Zhang Zhen.
• Chen Changsheng had Zhang Zhen display his White Heavenly Soul and proposed making him Soul Emperor of the Four Directions Continent.
• Bai Qiuniang doubted Zhang Zhen could become Soul Emperor or survive long, but Chen Changsheng said he might be able to save him.
• Chen Changsheng told Bai Qiuniang that people with lesser Heavenly Souls deserved dignity and argued that their cause was overthrowing a decayed system rather than betraying the Four Directions Continent.

Chen Changsheng had Zhang Zhen fight Bai Qiuniang to prove his worth, then treated Zhang Zhen with Heaven Mending Paste and negotiated with Bai Qiuniang. Bai Qiuniang refused to cooperate unless Chen Changsheng revealed how he planned to save Zhang Zhen, and offered to pay for the information herself.

• Bai Qiuniang agreed to test Zhang Zhen after Chen Changsheng vouched for him, and Zhang Zhen challenged her to a ten-move duel.
• Zhang Zhen unleashed his Miao saber technique and broke Bai Qiuniang's spear, but she disarmed him before he could overcome her defenses.
• Chen Changsheng applied Heaven Mending Paste to Zhang Zhen, easing the effects of his condition, and Bai Qiuniang explained that it could only extend his life by seven days.
• Bai Qiuniang refused to cooperate because she still doubted Chen Changsheng could save Zhang Zhen, and demanded to hear his plan.
• Chen Changsheng refused to reveal the method before Zhang Zhen earned fifty thousand Points, so Bai Qiuniang offered to pay the price to hear it now.

Chen Changsheng explained Zhang Zhen’s rapidly aging True Spirit, strange poison, and failing body, then outlined a treatment using the Ten Thousand Years Ice Toad and Bai Qiuniang’s Immortal Tears. He took the Immortal Tears from Bai Qiuniang, but insisted Zhang Zhen still had to pay the agreed one hundred thousand Points for treatment and sixty thousand more to buy the Tears.

• Chen Changsheng explained that Zhang Zhen’s congenital illness made his True Spirit age at an accelerating rate, while a strange poison kept his body unnaturally young and would eventually destroy it.
• Chen Changsheng said he would use the Ten Thousand Years Ice Toad to absorb and regulate the poison, then heal Zhang Zhen’s ruined body with the King of the Night’s Immortal Tears.
• Bai Qiuniang refused to hand over her Immortal Tears, but Chen Changsheng insisted they were payment for the method to save Zhang Zhen and warned her against reneging on the deal.
• Bai Qiuniang handed Chen Changsheng a Wooden Box containing the Immortal Tears, and he snatched it away despite her grip.
• Chen Changsheng told Zhang Zhen that the agreed treatment still cost one hundred thousand Points and that the Immortal Tears had to be bought separately for sixty thousand Points.

Chen Changsheng outlined the difficult steps needed to cure Zhang Zhen, including repairing his True Spirit and helping him bear Heaven’s Mandate. Bai Qiuniang agreed that only Chen Changsheng could guide Zhang Zhen through the process, then admitted she had a question for him.

• Zhang Zhen challenged Chen Changsheng over the price of Immortal Tears, but Chen Changsheng defended his profit and continued explaining the cure.
• Chen Changsheng said Zhang Zhen needed the God King Cauldron, the Seven-Colored Flower, and Five Elements Essence to repair his True Spirit, and claimed he knew where to find a Treasure Vomiting Rat that could produce the essence.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Zhang Zhen would also need to bear Heaven’s Mandate and Merge with the Dao, a dangerous process only the Phoenix Empress had comparable experience with.
• Bai Qiuniang acknowledged that Chen Changsheng was the only person who could help Zhang Zhen overcome the coming competition and buy him time before the two worlds’ Heaven’s Mandate Bearers clashed.
• Bai Qiuniang praised Chen Changsheng’s courage in choosing Zhang Zhen as a candidate and said she had a question for him.

Chen Changsheng secured Bai Qiuniang’s support for Zhang Zhen and explained why Zhang needed allies to contend for the Mandate of Heaven. Zhang refused to rely on Chen Changsheng, insisting he would defeat his rivals himself, and they headed back together.

• Chen Changsheng revealed he could use the Netherworld Forest’s Essence of All Things to save Zhang Zhen, so Bai Qiuniang agreed to help and sent them out of her domain.
• Zhang Zhen asked why Bai Qiuniang had wanted to marry Chen Changsheng, and Chen explained she wanted someone to rely on and later chose to invest in Zhang.
• Chen Changsheng listed the powerful backing and origins of Zhang Zhen’s rivals in the struggle for the Mandate of Heaven, including Xu Yao, Su You, Gui Daoran, Ma Ling’er, Jian Fei, and the Chen Family’s Three Heroes.
• Zhang Zhen refused to ask Chen Changsheng for direct help, saying that an outsider had to enter the contest to break the cycle of nepotism; Chen agreed to buy him time and asked him to spare Chen’s three sons if they lost.
• Chen Changsheng compared Zhang Zhen to Chen Shisan, then admitted he still missed the Sword God before leading Zhang back.

Ye Feng persuaded Ye Gaofei to let him handle winning over the tournament’s prodigies, and Ye Gaofei gave him authority to take them to the World Lord Assembly. At the residence, Xu Yao chose the Drumming Urn Gold Hammer as her reward, while Sima Lan’s teasing of Jian Fei ended with Ma Ling’er taking her away.

• Ye Feng argued that the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect should win over the Qingyang Sect survivors rather than press them about the Enlightenment Tree, and Ye Gaofei entrusted the prodigies to him.
• Chen Changsheng reassured Xu Yao that he would reunite her with her father and told everyone to prepare for a visit from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.
• Ye Feng arrived with Sima Lan and another Black Tortoise Sect emissary, offered Xu Yao a treasury reward, and invited the group to the World Lord Assembly.
• Xu Yao asked for the Drumming Urn Gold Hammer because the Eight Desolations Nine Regions had destroyed her sect, and Ye Feng agreed to give it to her with conditions.
• Sima Lan teased Jian Fei until Ma Ling’er offered to show her around, after which Baili Changkong suggested that everyone have a drink.

Jian Fei wrestled with his feelings for Ma Ling'er and the possibility that Sima Lan might change her stance, while his companions urged him to be clear about where she stood. Meanwhile, Ye Feng led a small group away from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect's main party to seek adventure at two perilous locations on the way to the World Lord Assembly.

• Baili Changkong teased Jian Fei about Ma Ling'er and urged him to look ahead, while Chen Changsheng said he would support a relationship if the other person's stance was acceptable.
• Xu Yao and Su You refused to settle Jian Fei's feelings for him, and Su You asked what Jian Fei would do if Sima Lan changed her stance.
• Jian Fei admitted he might not be able to reject Sima Lan if she pursued him, but hoped she would remain firm in her opposition.
• Ye Feng chose to travel separately from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect's main party and proposed visiting Mouse Mountain and Cloud Top Pavilion using his treasure map.
• Baili Changkong described the dangers of both locations, but Ma Ling'er, Jian Fei, and the others agreed to go with Ye Feng.

Desperate Valley decided not to pursue Ye Yongxian, fearing the allies and chosen experts who stood behind Chen Changsheng. At Cloud Top Pavilion, Xu Yao entered the dangerous Cloud Sea, and Chen Changsheng warned her not to draw the sword in her heart carelessly before she rushed back inside.

• Ye Yongxian escaped toward the Four Directions Continent, while Desperate Valley's leaders chose not to pursue him because Chen Changsheng had powerful allies and might recruit more experts.
• A Desperate Valley leader named the Ice-Fire Immortal King, the Phoenix Empress, the God of Wealth, the Chen Family's Three Heroes, and Chen Changsheng's two wives as possible targets.
• Xu Yao and Ye Feng discussed Cloud Top Pavilion's hidden opportunities, the restrictions within its mist, and the Cloud Beasts that attacked visitors.
• Xu Yao challenged the others to race to the summit and entered the Cloud Sea first, followed by Ye Feng and the others, while Chen Changsheng and Zhang Zhen stayed outside.
• Chen Changsheng pulled Xu Yao back and warned her that she must not draw the sword in her heart at will, then Xu Yao impatiently returned to the Cloud Sea.

Chen Changsheng sent Zhang Zhen to assassinate an Azure Dragon Sect Core Disciple and stir up conflict between the Azure Dragon Sect and the Black Tortoise Sect. He then confronted Ye Yongxian and Wang Hao, whose killing intent toward him became clear, and exposed Wang Hao’s vulnerability to Ye Yongxian’s control.

• Chen Changsheng gave Zhang Zhen information on an Azure Dragon Sect Core Disciple, Millennium Ice Toad poison, and a four-day deadline for the assassination in exchange for nine thousand points.
• Chen Changsheng sent his Original Self Clone into the Cloud Sea to protect the others, then used a Compass to search for Ye Yongxian.
• Gui Qianjie killed an illusion of Gui Daoran and continued toward the mountaintop through Cloud Top Pavilion’s dense, impassable fog.
• Chen Changsheng found Ye Yongxian and demanded his help, warning that his research into Ye Yongxian’s bloodline had advanced.
• Chen Changsheng forced Wang Hao out of hiding and opened a rift that made Wang Hao and Ye Yongxian realize they could not kill him.
• Wang Hao blamed Ye Yongxian’s ancestor for the situation, and Chen Changsheng warned Wang Hao that Ye Yongxian kept him alive because his body remained useful.

Chen Changsheng forced Ye Yongxian and Wang Hao into an agreement to destabilize the Four Directions Continent, while Xu Yao wandered through the eerie darkness of Cloud Top Pavilion toward a distant light. The story left Ye Yongxian and Wang Hao preparing to act and Xu Yao approaching an unknown presence.

• Chen Changsheng ordered Ye Yongxian to throw the Four Directions Continent into chaos and assigned Wang Hao to kill its leaders.
• Ye Yongxian agreed after Chen Changsheng promised him anything he seized, but refused to destroy Desperate Valley and accepted the revised demand to teach it a lesson.
• Chen Changsheng left, and Wang Hao and Ye Yongxian discussed their willingness to accept his authority for the protection it offered.
• At night in Cloud Top Pavilion, Xu Yao heard an eerie operatic voice and spotted a distant light in the fog.
• Unable to bear the darkness and dread, Xu Yao walked toward the light.

Xu Yao and Ma Ling'er faced illusions in the Cloud Sea that exploited their deepest fears, and Chen Changsheng warned Xu Yao that loneliness was making her vulnerable. Elsewhere, Ma Ling'er confronted an illusion of Jian Fei that challenged her denial of her feelings, leaving her to face whether she truly believed she was unworthy of him.

• Xu Yao found Ma Ling'er in a clearing where an opera performance put Ma Ling'er under an illusion, so Xu Yao destroyed the stage and carried her away.
• After Ma Ling'er woke, she stabbed Xu Yao and blamed her for Nangong Xing's death, but Chen Changsheng's sword qi exposed her as an illusion.
• Chen Changsheng explained that the Cloud Sea manifested Xu Yao's fear of loneliness and warned that repeated illusions could make her lose herself.
• Ma Ling'er encountered an illusion of Jian Fei, who questioned whether her feelings had wavered after Nangong Xing rejected her and Jian Fei repeatedly risked himself for her.
• Ma Ling'er destroyed the Jian Fei illusion, but another appeared and asked whether she rejected him because she thought herself unworthy.

Ma Ling'er confronted her feelings for Jian Fei in the Cloud Sea, while Jian Fei faced his fear and broke through his heart demon. Chen Changsheng's clone identified the Cloud Top Pavilion's poisonous fog as tampered with and sensed the Golden Page of the Eight Nine Mysterious Technique nearby.

• Ma Ling'er accused Jian Fei of being too proud to admit his feelings, and Chen Changsheng urged her to follow her heart and pursue him.
• Ma Ling'er understood that she had to honor her past feelings for Nangong Xing before pursuing someone else, then spotted the mountaintop through the clearing fog.
• Jian Fei ignored his heart demon, which took Chen Changsheng's form, until a real Chen Changsheng appeared and reassured him that he was Jian Fei, not Yang Feiyun.
• At dawn, Chen Changsheng and his clone discussed the palace atop the mountain and the battles within it.
• Chen Changsheng's clone explained that someone had strengthened the hallucinatory poisonous fog and detected the aura of the Golden Page of the Eight Nine Mysterious Technique.