Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng reclaimed Jian Fei’s Sword Box and announced plans to restart the Heaven’s Pride Assembly across the Chang Sheng Epoch. As Jun Lin and Ruan Su Xian fought above, Chen Changsheng watched their poetic combat style and asked Zhang Bairen to help him compose fighting verses.

• Chen Changsheng took Jian Fei’s Sword Box from Jun Lin and agreed to return it if Jun Lin and Chen Xiao defeated Xu Qianzhui and Ruan Su Xian.
• Chen Changsheng told Chen Mengjie that the Sword Box belonged to Jian Fei, the greatest swordsman under heaven, and Zhang Bairen said Jian Fei had abandoned it during the Chang Sheng Epoch.
• Chen Changsheng asked Zhang Bairen to tell the Forbidden Grounds that he had returned and to invite them to a new Heaven’s Pride Assembly spanning the Chang Sheng Epoch, with unlimited prizes and no large-scale wars for three thousand years.
• Zhang Bairen began sending messages while Chen Changsheng watched Jun Lin and Ruan Su Xian begin their fight with elaborate poetic techniques.
• Chen Changsheng asked Zhang Bairen to help him come up with verses for fighting, and Zhang Bairen agreed.

Chen Changsheng explained to Zhang Bairen how poetry could affect morale and seize the initiative in combat, then pointed out that Chen Xiao and Xu Qianzhui’s duel was nearing its end. Xu Qianzhui recited a poem and turned its words into a dramatic display of sword qi and waves as the two prepared to decide the victor with one final strike.

• Zhang Bairen exposed Chen Changsheng’s feigned inability to write poems and persuaded him to help with two doggerel poems.
• Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen discussed how reciting poetry could influence an opponent’s morale and give a cultivator the initiative.
• Chen Changsheng predicted that Chen Xiao and Xu Qianzhui’s duel would likely end in a draw despite Xu Qianzhui being slightly weaker.
• Chen Xiao and Xu Qianzhui agreed to settle their duel with one final strike.
• Xu Qianzhui recited a poem whose golden words formed phantom waves, and his sword qi cleaved through them.

Xu Qianzhui demonstrated how a Great Aspiration let cultivators of the Chang Sheng Epoch resonate with destiny and borrow the power of the Great Dao, prompting a debate over which cultivation paths were righteous. Chen Changsheng spread news that raised suspicions of a planned slaughter, and Ancient Desolation debated whether the Undertaker was preparing a scheme.

• Xu Qianzhui struck Chen Xiao with powerful Bright Moon Sword Qi, while Zhang Bairen protected Chen Mengjie from the battle’s aftermath.
• Zhang Bairen explained that Great Aspirations let cultivators resonate with destiny, and Chen Changsheng linked the method to poetry stirring the Great Dao.
• Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen argued over whether following heaven or using destiny to refine pills was the righteous path, but agreed that cultivation had no settled answer about right and wrong.
• Chen Changsheng asked about Forbidden Grounds, and Zhang Bairen called them wicked and heretical because powerful cultivators gathered there to linger on.
• Zhang Bairen’s information spread among the Forbidden Grounds, and Chen Changsheng also sent it through the Qilin Communicator, prompting major powers to suspect he was arranging a slaughter.
• Leaders in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground debated whether Chen Changsheng’s plans were a scheme by the Undertaker, while disagreeing over whether he had enough support to carry it out.

The Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground and several major factions decided to attend the Imperial Tutor’s Golden Age Gathering, while the Jade Emperor learned that Zhang Bairen had appeared beside him. At the God and Demon Cemetery, Xu Qianzhui and Ruan Su Xian realized Chen Changsheng was Jun Lin’s godfather, and Chen Changsheng challenged Xu Qianzhui to kneel.

• The Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground agreed to attend the Golden Age Gathering and sent an old acquaintance to meet the Imperial Tutor.
• Su You ordered Yan Ziyu to represent Mountain and River Academy, leaving Yan to decide how to treat the Imperial Tutor according to his own principles.
• The Jade Emperor learned that Zhang Bairen accompanied the Imperial Tutor and went to find a suitable Dao Protector for him.
• Jun Lin narrowly defeated Xu Qianzhui, while Chen Xiao and Xu Qianzhui fought to a draw at the God and Demon Cemetery.
• Ruan Su Xian knelt after realizing Chen Changsheng was Jun Lin’s godfather, and Chen Changsheng asked Xu Qianzhui whether he would kneel too.

Chen Changsheng explained the coming calamity, his past slaughter, and the competing plans to face the enemy to Xu Qianzhui and Ruan Su Xian. He invited them to follow him deeper into the God and Demon Cemetery to learn the truth of the past and experience a true forbidden ground.

• Chen Changsheng gave Xu Qianzhui and Ruan Su Xian Imperial Preceptor Decrees and warned them that the struggle for more plaques could be deadly.
• Chen Changsheng described the earlier calamity, his Epoch Massacre, and the elders’ plan to resist the coming threat by sacrificing high-level cultivators.
• Chen Changsheng said he would let the current era decide its own course, but would slaughter again if the elders’ plan failed.
• Xu Qianzhui questioned the elders’ idealistic approach, and Chen Changsheng said he had returned as the Undertaker to conduct funerals rather than control the world’s direction.
• Xu Qianzhui and Ruan Su Xian asked to accompany Chen Changsheng, and he led them deeper into the God and Demon Cemetery.

As the group explored the God and Demon Cemetery, Zhang Bairen and Chen Changsheng explained its origins and the bloody wars that shaped the Heavenly Court. Chen Changsheng revealed why he had ordered three million cultivators to die and why he fought to conquer the Ascension Road.

• Zhang Bairen explained that Chen Changsheng had founded the cemetery for fallen cultivators and that Zhang later nurtured it to support the Bitter Sea System.
• Zhang Bairen said the Heavenly Court moved the cemetery beside the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground after Chen Changsheng conquered the Eight Wastes, so the cemetery could restrain it.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had ordered the destruction of a tainted Small World, sacrificing three million cultivators to stop the Uncanny from spreading, and that Jun Lin's grandmother had died in the war.
• Chen Changsheng explained that few powerful cultivators were available during the Investiture of the Gods War and that only he, Zhang Bairen, the Supreme Sage, Chen Shisan, and Meng Yu survived the second Ascension Road War.
• Chen Changsheng said he had fought up the Ascension Road to break the Three Thousand Zhou's control over the Lower Realm and give future generations a chance to rise.

Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen explained how the old factions monopolized cultivation resources and persecuted cultivators who refused to submit, and why Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li and later generations fought to open a path forward. Chen Changsheng also recounted Tian Xuan’s rise and the disastrous war that followed, leaving everyone silent at the suffering their elders had endured.

• Chen Mengjie asked what it meant to have no chance of rising, and Zhang Bairen explained that cultivators once had to submit to powerful factions or face obstruction and assassination.
• Zhang Bairen and Chen Changsheng described how Desolate Heaven Emperor Wu Li was hunted for refusing to join a faction and raiding the Three Great Holy Lands’ mines, whose factions monopolized cultivation resources.
• Chen Changsheng explained that joining a faction required a Blood Oath, barred members from joining others, and denied newcomers access to core cultivation arts; he said the Supreme Sage founded Mountain and River Academy to give humble cultivators a way forward.
• Chen Changsheng told Chen Xiao that Tian Xuan had stayed out of the Investiture of the Gods War to mediate conflicts among humans, demons, and beasts, then seized the Mandate of Heaven after sweeping through the Three Thousand Zhou.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that Tian Xuan ordered the Three Thousand Zhou to attack the Forbidden Grounds, and that the resulting Two Realms War left only three of the Supreme Sage’s seventy-two Direct Disciples alive.
• Everyone fell silent as Chen Changsheng finished recounting the pain and despair of the war.

Chen Changsheng recounted the wars and sacrifices that shaped his choices, while Xu Qianzhui challenged the justice of his methods. Xu acknowledged that later generations could not judge the hardships of Chen Changsheng’s era, but said those methods should not be used now that Chen Changsheng no longer walked the road alone.

• Chen Changsheng told Chen Mengjie that he had hidden after the Two Realms War, but the mastermind’s persecution drove him back into the fight.
• Chen Changsheng described raising a new generation of chosen ones and winning the Reincarnation War at immense cost, with Nalan Fuyao helping from within the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground.
• Xu Qianzhui told Chen Changsheng that using unjust means for a just result was wrong, and defended the opposition of the Chang Sheng Epoch’s experts.
• Chen Changsheng challenged Xu Qianzhui’s judgment, but Xu argued that later generations could not condemn the choices made under the hardships of Chen Changsheng’s era.
• Xu Qianzhui said Chen Changsheng should not use those methods in the present era because he no longer had to walk the road alone.

Chen Changsheng brought Jun Lin and the others to the Sage Residence, explaining why he could not stop his family from pursuing their plan and hoped the younger generation would grow strong enough to carry on. After Zhang Bairen warned them about the dangers and hinted at treasures inside the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, the group entered the ordinary-looking courtyard, where Ruan Su Xian proposed going inside.

• Chen Changsheng heard the group's mixed support for his stance and admitted that he could neither stop his relatives without killing them nor bear to watch them die.
• Chen Changsheng explained that he wanted Jun Lin and the others to grow strong and inherit their elders' burdens, then identified the courtyard as the Sage Residence that suppressed the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground.
• Zhang Bairen barred Jun Lin and the others from following him deeper, warned them of the danger, and revealed that treasures remained at the Extinguish Heaven War battlefield.
• After Zhang Bairen left, Jun Lin and the others entered the Sage Residence and found it like an ordinary farmhouse courtyard.
• Jun Lin accidentally broke a corner of the wall, and Xu Qianzhui warned that repairing it might worsen the taboo and urged them to leave.
• Ruan Su Xian said he wanted to go inside, prompting Jun Lin to question whether he feared losing his life.

Ruan Su Xian persuaded Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, and Xu Qianzhui to enter the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, while Chen Mengjie stayed behind to summon help if they did not return within three days. Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen descended into the abyss, where Zhang demanded the Forbidden Ground’s share of Reincarnation’s authority and threatened its inhabitants after they refused.

• Ruan Su Xian argued that the group needed the courage to face the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, and Jun Lin and Chen Xiao agreed to go for personal reasons.
• Xu Qianzhui agreed to enter with Jun Lin and Chen Xiao, while Chen Mengjie stayed behind to heal them or fetch reinforcements if they were missing after three days.
• Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen headed into the abyss, and Zhang explained that he needed the authority held by the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground to recover part of his Divine Sense Realm.
• After falling for two hours, Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen encountered the Forbidden Ground’s inhabitants, who refused to lend Zhang their authority.
• Zhang Bairen threatened to attack the inhabitants once he recovered his Divine Sense Realm and True Spirit, and they warned him he would not leave.

Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen visited the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, where Chen proposed a no-holds-barred battle during the coming Dark Turmoil while forbidding attacks on ordinary living beings. The Reincarnation Forbidden Ground spared them and lent them the Reincarnation Authority for three days, and the two departed for the Underworld.

• Chen Changsheng told the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground that he wanted it to launch the Dark Turmoil early and proposed settling the conflict through direct battles between a few fighters from each side.
• Chen Changsheng said he would enter the game and fight with only his own cultivation, while forbidding the Forbidden Grounds from harming the world's living beings until his side was defeated.
• The Reincarnation Forbidden Ground declined to fight Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen at that moment, saying they would face them when the Dark Turmoil began.
• Chen Changsheng said he would stay out of the conflict unless targeted, while Zhang Bairen said he would intervene according to his own judgment.
• The Reincarnation Forbidden Ground agreed to lend Chen Changsheng the Reincarnation Authority for three days and opened a passage to the Underworld.
• After Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen left, another voice explained that the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground had little need to begin the Dark Turmoil soon and did not want to provoke them.

The mysterious powerhouse defended the Forbidden Grounds’ pursuit of longevity, while Zhang Bairen explained to Chen Changsheng why their hidden strength made a direct war dangerous. Chen Changsheng learned that the hostile faction was preparing to fight to the death and that he would have to deal with the Forbidden Grounds gradually.

• The mysterious powerhouse told the Forbidden Ground experts that longevity required enduring loneliness and humiliation, and that time would eventually wear down their enemies.
• Zhang Bairen and Chen Changsheng emerged from the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground into the Underworld, where Zhang Bairen explained that its new master preferred waiting for enemies to die with time.
• Zhang Bairen revealed that most of the Dead Sea Forbidden Ground’s forces had fled before its destruction, while many others had since fallen asleep across the Forbidden Grounds.
• Chen Changsheng learned that the faction now seeking his death was nearing the end of its lifespan and would not retreat from a confrontation.
• Zhang Bairen warned Chen Changsheng that using the Four Calamities could awaken the sleeping powerhouses, so he needed to target the Forbidden Grounds gradually rather than provoke a full-scale war.

Chen Changsheng visited Fengdu City and found that the Underworld’s laws barred all living beings from entering, regardless of status. After speaking with Mao Shiba about the coming Dark Turmoil, he met Zhang Yu Sheng to discuss the Underworld’s strength and view of the era.

• Chen Changsheng and Zhang Bairen reached Fengdu City, where Ghost Messengers refused to admit them under the city’s rules.
• Chen Changsheng summoned Mao Shiba and accepted that he could not enter the city because the Underworld’s law prohibited all living beings from entering Fengdu City.
• Chen Changsheng asked Mao Shiba how he would respond to the Dark Turmoil, and Mao Shiba vowed to defend the Underworld even if it cost him his life.
• Zhang Yu Sheng arrived, and Chen Changsheng said he had come to learn the Underworld’s exact strength and Zhang Yu Sheng’s view of the era.

Chen Changsheng discussed the Underworld’s resolve and the changing ways of young cultivators with Zhang Yu Sheng, then entrusted him with the other half of Reincarnation’s authority and a task involving Zhang Bairen’s hidden Divine Sense Realm. Meanwhile, Wang Hao learned of Chen Changsheng’s Golden Age Gathering and proposed a deal to the monk guarding the Blood Sea, leaving the monk to consider whether the Buddha Child could convert Wang Hao’s successor.

• Zhang Yu Sheng explained that the Underworld would uphold its beliefs even at the cost of death, while Chen Changsheng accepted his chosen path and promised to prepare his coffin.
• Zhang Yu Sheng praised the current era and said its young people understood before acting, unlike his generation, which had been driven forward by fate.
• Chen Changsheng gave Zhang Yu Sheng the other half of Reincarnation’s authority and asked him to help recover the part of Zhang Bairen’s Divine Sense Realm hidden within it.
• Wang Hao received Zhang Bairen’s message about Chen Changsheng’s return and told the monk guarding the Blood Sea about the planned Golden Age Gathering.
• Wang Hao proposed that the monk’s Buddha Child try to convert his successor, offering to keep the Asura Tribe from leaving the Blood Sea for three thousand years and from joining the Dark Turmoil if the effort succeeded.

Wang Hao negotiated with an old monk over the Asura Tribe, while Jun Lin and his companions discovered that the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground was the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield and that a giant head hung in its sky. The group began to connect the battlefield to Mengjie's ancestor and the origins of their own powers.

• Wang Hao told the old monk he intended to join Chen Changsheng's wager, but the monk warned he would still stop Wang Hao if the Buddha Child failed to convert the Child of the Forbidden Ground.
• Wang Hao returned to the Blood Sea and called for Liu Yidao to help him vent his anger when they went out.
• Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, Xu Qianzhui, and Ruan Su Xian found golden Dao Patterns that had severed their marks and blocked their way back.
• Ruan Su Xian explained that the God and Demon Cemetery and the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield were separate places, and that they had mistaken the former for the latter because the two were adjacent.
• Jun Lin used his Double pupils to discover that the apparent sun was a human head, then connected it to records of fallen peerless experts from the Four Brahma Three Realms.
• Xu Qianzhui asked Jun Lin whether he knew where the Double pupils and Supreme Bone in their bodies had come from.

Xu Qianzhui explained that Jun Lin’s double pupils and Chen Xiao’s Supreme Bone had originally belonged to Jade Completion and the Supreme Heavenly Emperor, and that Chen Changsheng had taken them while saving the wounded emperor. He said Zhang Gu revealed the truth because he was dying and wanted later generations to judge Chen Changsheng, leaving Jun Lin and the others with unanswered questions about the Epoch Calamity.

• Xu Qianzhui said double pupils and the Supreme Bone were inborn, then recounted how Zhang Gu told him that Jade Completion had double pupils and his son, the Supreme Heavenly Emperor, was born with the Supreme Bone.
• Xu Qianzhui revealed that the Supreme Heavenly Emperor’s bone had been forcibly dug out and that Jade Completion gave Chen Changsheng a pair of double pupils in exchange for saving his gravely wounded son.
• Xu Qianzhui said Chen Changsheng had helped create an “Epoch Conscience” to protect living beings after the Epoch Calamity, but had driven people away because he suspected them in the strange death of the Supreme Sage.
• Xu Qianzhui explained that Zhang Gu had shared the story because he was about to die and wanted later generations to judge Chen Changsheng’s merits and wrongs.

Chen Xiao and his companions encountered life-devouring black mist and a powerful phantom in the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, leaving them trapped and gravely wounded. After the phantom crushed them, their blood seeped into the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield and triggered a subtle change.

• Ruan Su Xian resolved to live one brilliant life and forge a new path, but the ground shook and black mist rose from a distant pit.
• Chen Xiao sent out his Original Self Clone to investigate the mist, which devoured the clone and its treasures on contact.
• A headless man appeared, and Jun Lin's Double pupils failed as the group fled from the mist.
• A towering phantom blocked their escape, so Ruan Su Xian spent Life Lamp Realm oil to form a talisman that made it begin to dissipate.
• The phantom came alive, seized the four prodigies, and crushed them; their blood soaked into the battlefield and caused a subtle change.

Nalan Xingde rescued Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, Xu Qianzhui, and Ruan Su Xian from a battlefield obsession and explained that they had been lured into danger without knowing how to enter the forbidden grounds safely. After learning that Nalan Xingde had left a fragment of his Great Dao to suppress the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground, Xu Qianzhui asked to stay and see it.

• Nalan Xingde rescued Jun Lin and the others from the phantom erasing them and healed their injuries.
• Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, Xu Qianzhui, and Ruan Su Xian introduced themselves, and Nalan Xingde revealed that he was a fragment of Great Dao left by the deceased Mountain and River Academy teacher.
• Nalan Xingde learned that Zhang Bairen had brought the four into the forbidden grounds with Changsheng and explained that Teacher had deliberately stirred their competitive spirit.
• Nalan Xingde explained that the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield's obsessions awoke when they sensed living beings and that the safest response was to conceal their life force and play dead.
• Xu Qianzhui asked whether Nalan Xingde's Great Dao suppressed the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground and requested that the group stay to see it.

Jun Lin and Chen Xiao sacrificed the inherited power in their bloodlines so Nalan Xingde could awaken the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield and show them their ancestors’ final battle. Nalan then entered the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground to suppress it for another three thousand years, while Chen Changsheng prepared for the conflicts ahead and Chen Xiang left the Rust Sword after being rebuked by its Sword Spirit.

• Jun Lin and Chen Xiao agreed to give up their bloodline origins so Nalan Xingde could recreate the battlefield, and Jun Lin explained that he wanted his grandfathers to finally rest.
• Nalan Xingde extracted their origins, awakening the Extinguish Heaven Battlefield and summoning the figures of the dead warriors.
• Nalan Xingde sent the Sage Residence into the Reincarnation Forbidden Ground and vowed to suppress it for another three thousand years, causing the black mist to disperse.
• Chen Changsheng told Zhang Bairen that the vanished battlefield marked the start of a wider conflict, and they planned to lure prodigies into competing for one of the Four Great Books.
• The Sword Spirit refused to reunite with Chen Xiang and urged him to bear responsibility for the choices he and his allies had made; Chen Xiang accepted her words and left.

Wang Hao sent his disciple Liu Yidao out of Nether River Forbidden Ground with a mission to free a Heretical Buddha, while warning him about the dangers beyond. After Liu Yidao departed, Wang Hao and Zhang Zhen discussed why they would wait before confronting Chen Changsheng.

• Wang Hao told Liu Yidao that his journey began, gave him three warnings, and admitted that he had taught him flaws in his cultivation techniques in case he needed to devour him.
• Wang Hao ordered Liu Yidao to free a Heretical Buddha sealed by the Buddhist Kingdom, placed a Blood Curse on him, and revealed that he had defeated Liu Yidao’s attempt to incite the Asura Tribe.
• Liu Yidao accepted Wang Hao’s view that all living beings were equal as objects to use or discard, and Wang Hao ended their master-disciple bond as he left Nether River Forbidden Ground.
• Wang Hao and Zhang Zhen agreed that they should not act against Chen Changsheng yet, since the Chen Family's Three Heroes and the Four Heavenly Emperors were watching them.