Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng blocked Xuanwu Kingdom’s Dao Protectors from interrupting the East Barrens Heaven’s Pride Group’s battle and defeated them under the Heavenly Dao’s suppression. He left them to care for the injured and delayed their return to Xuanwu Kingdom, while the National Teacher’s long-lost token raised questions about his past.

• Ye Hensheng joined Su Tian in fighting the other Heaven's Prides, and the two pushed their opponents back despite being outnumbered.
• Chen Changsheng stopped three Dao Protectors from Xuanwu Kingdom from entering the battlefield and ignored their questions.
• The Spirit Transformation elder attacked Chen Changsheng with a gourd-shaped dharma treasure, but Chen Changsheng trapped the three Dao Protectors in a formation and shattered the treasure with the Gluttony Root Bone.
• Chen Changsheng beat the three Dao Protectors and explained that the Heavenly Dao’s suppression left practitioners of the old cultivation system at a disadvantage.
• Chen Changsheng told the Dao Protectors to care for the injured and said his adjustments to Xuanwu Kingdom’s Teleportation Array would prevent their return for a month.
• The Spirit Transformation elder recognized the token Chen Changsheng had left him as Xuanwu Kingdom’s National Teacher token, which had been missing for eight hundred years.

Chen Changsheng humbled the East Barrens Heaven's Prides after Su Tian and Ye Hensheng defeated them, then drew attention across Kunlun Holy Land for his spending and discovery at Kunlun Stone Workshop. He prepared to return to the workshop the next morning, hoping to find sacred medicine for Xiao Hei.

• Chen Changsheng mocked the defeated Heaven's Prides and explained that Su Tian and Ye Hensheng had shown them the gap between top Heaven's Prides and ordinary geniuses.
• Chen Changsheng told the injured group to recover and warned Su Tian and Ye Hensheng that the Heaven's Pride Assembly would bring even stronger opponents.
• Ye Hensheng admitted he had much to learn, while Su Tian vowed to keep striving until he caught up with those stronger than him.
• Chen Changsheng's spending of several million Divine Sources and discovery of a mysterious living creature at Kunlun Stone Workshop attracted attention, though few knew he came from the Eastern Wilderness.
• Chen Changsheng woke, rubbed the sleeping Xiao Hei, and prepared to visit Kunlun Stone Workshop to seek sacred medicine for its damaged foundation.

Chen Changsheng wandered Kunlun Holy Land’s marketplace, exchanged secret code phrases with a stall owner from the Seventy-Two Paths of Dust and Smoke, and then went to the Kunlun Stone Workshop. There, Kunlun Holy Son Jiang Ping welcomed him and led him to meet several cultivators, including the Purple Mansion Holy Maiden.

• Chen Changsheng rejected a stall owner’s inflated price and traded secret code phrases with him to obtain a damaged scale, prompting the stall owner to pack up and leave.
• Chen Changsheng told Ye Hensheng that the code phrases belonged to the Seventy-Two Paths of Dust and Smoke, frightening Ye Hensheng into refusing to hear more.
• After spending most of the day in the marketplace, Chen Changsheng arrived at the Kunlun Stone Workshop with Ye Hensheng and another companion.
• Jiang Ping welcomed Chen Changsheng, exchanged pleasantries with him, and led the group to meet five cultivators, including the Purple Mansion Holy Maiden.

Chen Changsheng introduced himself to the gathered geniuses by recognizing their identities and backgrounds, including Magu of the Thousand Mountains Sword Sect, who sought to restore her sect. Jiang Ping then led Chen Changsheng to the rough stones for his stone-gambling demonstration, where important figures had already gathered.

• Chen Changsheng praised Mei Yongsi of Langya Pavilion and recognized Borjigin Baturu as a South Plains warrior.
• Baturu challenged Su Tian to a spar, and Su Tian accepted.
• Chen Changsheng identified Fu Yao as the Holy Son of Yaoguang Holy Land.
• Chen Changsheng and Mei Yongsi identified the quiet woman as Magu, successor to the supposedly vanished Thousand Mountains Sword Sect.
• Magu said she had come to the Heaven's Pride Assembly to restore her sect and urged Jiang Ping to begin the stone gambling.
• Jiang Ping led Chen Changsheng to the rough stones, where important figures were waiting.

Chen Changsheng used Dao Patterns to reveal the treasures hidden in nine Strange Stones at the Kunlun Stone Workshop and chose the stone called Welcoming Pine. Before the remaining stones could be contested, Wu Li and Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes attacked Kunlun Holy Land, while Jiang Ping challenged Chen Changsheng over capturing Gongsun Huaiyu and Magu interrupted him.

• Jiang Feng greeted Chen Changsheng and tried to recruit him to Kunlun Holy Land as Chen Changsheng began choosing stones.
• Chen Changsheng inscribed Dao Patterns that revealed blurred images inside nine Strange Stones, including a phantom Divine Sword, and the gathered powers tried to comprehend the patterns.
• Chen Changsheng chose the Welcoming Pine stone, leaving the other eight stones for competition under the Stone Workshop's Rules.
• Wu Li and seventy-two masked experts attacked Kunlun Holy Land, and Wu Li broke through the Grand Formation as Jiang Feng confronted him.
• Jiang Ping proposed that he and Chen Changsheng compete to capture Gongsun Huaiyu, but Magu asked whether Jiang Ping dared drink tea she served.

Gongsun Huaiyu used her Sleep Gu and a teleportation array to abduct the unconscious Chen Changsheng from Kunlun Holy Land, while Wu Li escaped amid the ensuing battle. In an unnamed cave, Chen Changsheng woke and quickly subdued the badly injured Gongsun Huaiyu.

• Jiang Ping and the gathered prodigies exposed Gongsun Huaiyu’s false identity as Magu, but the Yaoguang Holy Son recognized her Sleep Gu too late to stop her from targeting Chen Changsheng.
• Gongsun Huaiyu activated a White Jade Array Platform and escaped with the unconscious Chen Changsheng despite being wounded by the prodigies.
• Wu Li fled through a prepared Teleportation Array, and Jiang Feng pursued him into a Spatial Rift before emerging injured and ordering Kunlun Holy Land to fight Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.
• Ye Hensheng and Su Tian privately questioned the apparent capture, suspected Chen Changsheng and Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes were involved in a hidden plan, and agreed to act worried.
• In an unnamed cave, Gongsun Huaiyu tried to search Chen Changsheng’s robes for treasures, but he woke, resisted her attack, and subdued her within three moves.

Chen Changsheng healed Gongsun Huaiyu, then forced her to take him to Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes’ hidden lair. There, her master recognized Chen Changsheng as a descendant of their Patriarch and told her to address him as Martial Uncle.

• Chen Changsheng removed Gongsun Huaiyu’s disguise, treated her injuries, and stopped her attempted sneak attacks.
• Chen Changsheng demanded that Gongsun Huaiyu take him to Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes’ lair, and she agreed after he hinted that she lacked the latest news.
• Gongsun Huaiyu used a Directional Array Platform to bring Chen Changsheng to the sect’s hidden village.
• Gongsun Huaiyu greeted her master, who recognized Chen Changsheng as the Patriarch’s descendant and said she should call him Martial Uncle.

Chen Changsheng revealed himself to A Li, the farmer who had once followed him, and confronted him for taking disciples and creating the Secluded Paradise. A Li explained how his feud with Kunlun Holy Land began, leaving Chen Changsheng considering their long conflict.

• The farmer recognized Chen Changsheng as his former Sir, and Chen Changsheng told Gongsun Huaiyu to leave them alone.
• A Li knelt and apologized for passing on Chen Changsheng's cultivation techniques, but Chen Changsheng said he blamed him for creating a Secluded Paradise and taking on ties that could become weaknesses.
• A Li explained that he had protected the orphaned children of his old comrades, and Chen Changsheng acknowledged that he, too, had chosen to cultivate while holding on to emotion.
• Chen Changsheng told A Li to face the road ahead and asked how he had formed a mortal feud with Kunlun Holy Land.
• A Li said Jiang Bufan had targeted him after Chen Changsheng left without meeting him, and their conflict lasted seven hundred years as Jiang became Kunlun Holy Land's Holy Master and A Li became Commander of Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.

Chen Changsheng revealed why he had hidden his identity and planned to lure Jiang Bufan out of Kunlun Holy Land during the Great Dao Contention. He debated cultivation with A Li and Gongsun Huaiyu, arguing that no single Great Dao was universally strongest and concluding that Body Cultivation best suited the current era.

• Chen Changsheng told A Li that Jiang Bufan might recognize him and expose his secret, making him the enemy of the world.
• Chen Changsheng planned to return to Kunlun Holy Land and use the Great Dao Contention to draw Jiang Bufan out, asking A Li to help from inside.
• Chen Changsheng summoned Gongsun Huaiyu, warned her to keep his secret, and invited her to listen to their Dao Debate.
• Chen Changsheng explained that many Great Daos could reach the summit and that cultivators should seek a path suited to the era rather than chase the strongest system.
• After discussing qi and blood, meridians, acupoints, and artistic conception, Chen Changsheng declared Body Cultivation the path best suited to the era.

Chen Changsheng explained to Gongsun Huaiyu how internal cultivation and body refinement conflicted, then showed how the Eight Nine Mysterious Technique used Spiritual Power to temper the body. After A Li demonstrated his cultivation circulation and identified the dantian as the key, Chen Changsheng prepared to help him take the final step.

• Chen Changsheng explained the strengths and weaknesses of internal cultivation and body refinement to Gongsun Huaiyu.
• Chen Changsheng said that the dantian made the two systems conflict and recalled a genius who failed after trying to balance them.
• A Li realized that the solution lay in the dantian and used Spiritual Power to show his cultivation circulation to Gongsun Huaiyu.
• Chen Changsheng explained how the Eight Nine Mysterious Technique used dantian Spiritual Power to temper the body and why that method was its most precious aspect.
• Chen Changsheng formed a golden needle and told A Li to lower his defenses so he could help him cross the threshold.

Chen Changsheng helped A Li break through by completing his cultivation method, awakening a heavenly mandate that alerted powerful beings in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground and the Sacred Ruins. A Li and Gongsun Huaiyu bowed to Chen Changsheng as their teacher and grandmaster, while new rivals set out to claim the mandate.

• Chen Changsheng pierced A Li's dantian with a golden needle and told him to follow the changes in his body as his accumulated power transformed.
• A Li's body absorbed his spiritual power, qi and blood, and mental power, then produced blood-gold energy and manifested Nine Immortals Paying Homage to the Sun.
• A Li's breakthrough shattered Chen Changsheng's formation and caused heaven and earth to resonate, awakening the heavenly mandate.
• Beings in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground sent a young man toward the Central Court, while a winged man in the Sacred Ruins vowed to claim the mandate for the Ancient Clan.
• Chen Changsheng explained his Body Cultivation method to Gongsun Huaiyu and credited A Li with proposing its initial framework.
• A Li kowtowed to Chen Changsheng as his teacher, and Gongsun Huaiyu followed, honoring him as her grandmaster.

Chen Changsheng and A Li named the new cultivation system and explored its higher realms. As A Li entered seclusion, Chen Changsheng agreed to guide Gongsun Huaiyu and took charge of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.

• Chen Changsheng named the first major realm the Bitter Sea Realm, and A Li proposed its minor realms: Spring Eye, Divine Bridge, and Other Shore.
• A Li explained the Grotto-Heaven Realm, where spiritual power gathered and opened an inner space, and Chen Changsheng adjusted his cultivation method.
• Chen Changsheng reached the Divine Sense Realm and manifested a solid double; Gongsun Huaiyu suggested naming the next minor realm the True Self Realm.
• Chen Changsheng told A Li that advancing beyond the True Self might involve transcending or severing it, and A Li left to enter seclusion.
• After A Li departed, Gongsun Huaiyu persuaded Chen Changsheng to guide her, and he assumed responsibility for overseeing the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.

Chen Changsheng helped Gongsun Huaiyu reach the Divine Sense Realm and explained why the Yaoguang Holy Son and several other heaven’s chosen may have held back against her. After she dodged his questions about why she had gone to Kunlun Holy Land, they opened a stone together, and Chen Changsheng returned to Kunlun with her.

• Gongsun Huaiyu reached the Divine Sense Realm and manifested a green lotus with three Nine-colored Lotus Seeds.
• Chen Changsheng told Gongsun Huaiyu that the Yaoguang Holy Son had held back and questioned why the other heaven’s chosen had not crippled her.
• Chen Changsheng pressed Gongsun Huaiyu about sneaking away to Kunlun Holy Land, but she changed the subject and asked him to teach her stone gambling.
• Chen Changsheng explained how he recognized the Divine Source inside Kunlun Stone Workshop’s signboard and took out the Welcoming Pine to cut it open.
• Chen Changsheng encouraged Gongsun Huaiyu to develop the divine abilities of her lotus seeds, then returned to Kunlun Holy Land with her after being gone for more than twenty days.

Chen Changsheng returned to Kunlun Holy Land with Gongsun Huaiyu, who claimed to have abandoned the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes and joined him. After Chen Changsheng blocked Jiang Feng and argued for her right to attend, the Heaven's Pride Assembly was set to begin the next day; back at East Barrens Courtyard, Su Tian asked to challenge Gongsun Huaiyu.

• Jiang Feng confronted Chen Changsheng and Gongsun Huaiyu, but Chen Changsheng insisted she had turned from darkness to light.
• Gongsun Huaiyu refused to offer Kunlun Holy Land a Proof of Allegiance, and Chen Changsheng blocked Jiang Feng when he tried to seize her.
• Chen Changsheng argued that Gongsun Huaiyu qualified for the Heaven's Pride Assembly, and Jiang Feng allowed them to enter while warning Chen Changsheng not to involve himself in the feud with the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.
• Jiang Feng announced that the Heaven's Pride Assembly would begin the next day, and Chen Changsheng and Gongsun Huaiyu went to East Barrens Courtyard.
• Su Tian asked Chen Changsheng whether she could challenge Gongsun Huaiyu.

Su Tian challenged Gongsun Huaiyu, a descendant of Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes, to defend Xuanwu Kingdom’s pride, but her superior strength put him at a disadvantage. After Chen Changsheng urged them to fight seriously, both Heaven’s Pride revealed their full power, leaving the battle at its fiercest point.

• Su Tian told Gongsun Huaiyu he would surpass Chen Changsheng and make her his first stepping stone, and she agreed to fight him.
• Su Tian explained that Xuanwu Kingdom’s banner came from challenging powerful opponents, then went outside to face Gongsun Huaiyu.
• Chen Changsheng watched the fight at ease and told Zuo Jing that Su Tian’s disadvantage came from Gongsun Huaiyu being stronger, not from her opening with a sudden attack.
• After exchanging more than thirty moves, Su Tian realized Gongsun Huaiyu surpassed him in strength, technique, experience, and cultivation.
• Chen Changsheng scolded them for fighting without drawing blood, so Gongsun Huaiyu and Su Tian unleashed their full strength, manifesting a blue lotus and a field of stars.

Chen Changsheng arranged paid matches between Heaven's Chosen, and Gongsun Huaiyu defeated Su Tian before Baturu battered her with a surprise attack. After the fighters gathered at Chen Changsheng's side, he berated them and criticized Su Tian for using the Heavenly Body Tempering Art only to defend himself.

• Gongsun Huaiyu broke through Su Tian's defenses with her Law Manifestation of Heaven and Earth and beat him into a deep pit.
• Baturu launched a surprise attack on Gongsun Huaiyu, shattered her manifestation with nine blows, and forced her to retreat.
• Chen Changsheng stopped Baturu and Gongsun Huaiyu's rematch and revealed his sign charging one hundred jin of Divine Source per match.
• Ye Hensheng and Mei Yongsi finished their battle in a draw, and Ye Hensheng ignored Mei Yongsi's attempt to turn him against Chen Changsheng.
• Chen Changsheng scolded Gongsun Huaiyu, Su Tian, and Ye Hensheng, then rebuked Su Tian for turning the Heavenly Body Tempering Art into a defensive shell.

Chen Changsheng scolded Gongsun Huaiyu for her poor fighting choices, then invited Mei Yongsi to spar while telling Ye Hensheng to study his boxing. The chapter left Mei Yongsi reeling after Chen Changsheng used a puppet to demonstrate the same technique with overwhelming force.

• Chen Changsheng berated Gongsun Huaiyu for fighting to her weaknesses and mocked her with the name “Number One Stupid Sect.”
• Chen Changsheng told Ye Hensheng to meet him in his room that night, saying Ye’s problem did not lie with him.
• Chen Changsheng summoned Mei Yongsi to spar, while Baturu offered to join and then backed down when Chen Changsheng’s expression turned dangerous.
• Chen Changsheng reasoned that Mei Yongsi knew something about Gongsun Huaiyu and was laying a scheme, then watched the Yaoguang Holy Son vanish from a distant rooftop.
• Chen Changsheng told Ye Hensheng to watch the Invincible Daoist’s boxing technique and sent a wooden puppet at Mei Yongsi.
• The puppet’s single punch forced Mei Yongsi back and left him shaken by the technique’s power.

Chen Changsheng defeated Mei Yongsi and Ye Hensheng recognized him as Supreme Clarity Temple’s long-lost tenth Direct Disciple. He explained that he had come to the Heaven’s Pride Assembly because he wanted certain people to live, leaving Ye Hensheng with a warning about the burdens ahead.

• Chen Changsheng used the Nameless Fist Technique to beat Mei Yongsi, who thanked him for the spar before leaving with a cold expression.
• Chen Changsheng returned to East Barrens Courtyard, and Ye Hensheng later visited him privately.
• Ye Hensheng knelt and addressed Chen Changsheng as his Martial Uncle, explaining that ancient records and the fist technique had revealed his identity.
• Chen Changsheng confirmed who he was and said Ye Hensheng’s Second Master had exposed him by calling his fist technique superior.
• Chen Changsheng refused to reunite with his former masters, saying he had come to the assembly to help some people survive and that someone had to bear the burdens of the new era.

Chen Changsheng explained why Ye Hensheng should help Wu Li prepare for the Great Dao Contention, revealing his ties to Wu Li and several influential figures. He left Ye Hensheng to take on the responsibility, then disclosed his deadly grudge against Jiang Bufan and left him worried about what lay ahead.

• Ye Hensheng accepted that he and the other young disciples needed to shoulder responsibility in the Great Dao Contention.
• Chen Changsheng named Wu Li, commander of the Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes, as the best candidate to contend and explained his past ties to Ye Hensheng’s masters and Emperor Zuo.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had taught Wu Li his skills, convincing Ye Hensheng that helping Wu Li meant helping a fellow disciple.
• Chen Changsheng told Ye Hensheng that he might kill Jiang Bufan, the Holy Master of Kunlun Holy Land, because of their grudge.
• Chen Changsheng left, while Ye Hensheng worried that he would never sleep with the Great Dao Contention and Kunlun Holy Land hanging over him.

Chen Changsheng tracked Gongsun Huaiyu and discovered the Yaoguang Holy Son was helping her evade pursuit. The Yaoguang Holy Son revealed that the sickly man accompanying Gongsun Huaiyu was his younger brother, and Chen Changsheng asked whether he had sought revenge for the injuries that left him near death.

• Chen Changsheng used Xiao Hei's sense of smell to follow Gongsun Huaiyu after she erased his Divine Sense mark.
• Chen Changsheng confronted a Kunlun Holy Land scout, demanded that he report events truthfully, and warned against following him unless Jiang Feng came in person.
• Chen Changsheng watched Gongsun Huaiyu gather medicinal herbs with a pale man whom she called Brother Nalan.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son appeared behind Chen Changsheng and told him not to interfere, while Chen Changsheng deduced that he had helped Gongsun Huaiyu evade pursuit.
• The Yaoguang Holy Son explained that the sickly man was his younger brother, who had suffered severe injuries in the womb, and said he had cut him from their mother's belly.
• Chen Changsheng asked the Yaoguang Holy Son whether he had taken revenge for his younger brother's injuries.