Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng confronted Kong Xuan and the Dao Protectors over an impending war, and Kong Xuan volunteered to handle a dangerous task while keeping it from the young cultivators. The Mortal World Trial ended without anyone passing, but Ku Mu chose to continue while Wu Du objected.

• Chen Changsheng rebuked a Seventh Grade Immortal King, then warned Kong Xuan that the Heavenly Court ruled the epoch and urged him to act decisively before the coming war.
• Kong Xuan agreed to take on the matter himself and asked Chen Changsheng to keep it from the young cultivators undergoing Mortal World Heart Refinement.
• Chen Changsheng challenged the Dao Protectors to pursue their own path and promised to admit defeat if they reached its end.
• After three months, Bai Zhi remained beneath the Hundred Fragrances Pavilion while Murong Xing Shuang flirted with Zhang Zixuan, and Chen Changsheng declared the Mortal World Trial a failure.
• Chen Changsheng took Liu Yidao away to discuss their next move, while Yan Ziyu escorted Xu Qianzhui away.
• Wang Zun announced that the Dao Protectors would soon enter the fight and offered Wu Du and Ku Mu another Mortal World Trial; Ku Mu agreed, but Wu Du protested.

Chen Changsheng sent Liu Yidao on another Mortal World Trial and told him that Wang Shanhuo was his tribulation, but Liu Yidao immediately killed her instead of falling in love with her. Later, Liu Yidao reunited with the others and proposed using the coming upheaval to advance their own goals in the Water Realm.

• Chen Changsheng told Liu Yidao that the Dao Protectors would enter the Book of Wonders Competition themselves and that Kong Xuan would lead the first clash against the Forbidden Grounds.
• Chen Changsheng warned Liu Yidao that he had to kill Wang Shanhuo in the cruelest way and fall in love with her to survive the Mortal World Trial.
• Liu Yidao appeared at Wang Shanhuo's cottage and stabbed her to death, then asked Chen Changsheng whether he could use cultivation during the trial.
• Xu Qianzhui returned to Zhang Zixuan with his cultivation restored, concealing that he was no longer the same Xu Qianzhui as before.
• Liu Yidao met with Ling Dao, Xu Qianzhui, and the others on a rooftop and proposed raiding high-level Water Realm cultivators' nests while they were distracted.
• Liu Yidao suggested that the group pursue their own paths to power in the troubled Water Realm, and Xu Qianzhui began to consider the opportunity.

Chen Changsheng explained why the Chang Sheng Epoch’s elders sacrificed themselves for the next generation and urged Cui Hao Yu to believe in miracles. He revealed that Cui Hao Yu’s decline in cultivation was part of a transformation he had anticipated, leaving Cui Hao Yu admiring Chen Changsheng’s foresight.

• Liu Yidao proposed that the gathering’s participants use their connections to reduce infighting and avoid drawing the attention of powerful elders, and Ling Dao and the others agreed.
• Cui Hao Yu asked Chen Changsheng why Kong Xuan had willingly gone to his death, and Chen Changsheng explained how the Chang Sheng Epoch’s elders had made way for future generations.
• Chen Changsheng told Cui Hao Yu that steady progress alone would not achieve his ambitions and that he needed to believe in miracles.
• Chen Changsheng revealed that he had recognized Cui Hao Yu’s cultivation problem fifty thousand years earlier and had allowed him to come to the Chang Sheng Epoch so he could transform.
• Cui Hao Yu realized that Chen Xiang had approached him with Chen Changsheng’s tacit approval and praised Chen Changsheng’s foresight.

Chen Changsheng gave Cui Hao Yu Jian Fei’s Sword Box and explained his path to becoming a top-tier sword cultivator. Outside Luoyang, Liu Yidao dug up Wang Shanhuo and revived her, then decided to keep her beside him until he discovered why his elders had ordered her death.

• Cui Hao Yu said he had come to see hope in the young cultivators of the Chang Sheng Epoch, and Chen Changsheng linked that hope to Kong Xuan’s sacrifice.
• Chen Changsheng gave Cui Hao Yu Jian Fei’s Sword Box and explained that his cultivation had regressed as his Sword Dao refined it.
• Chen Changsheng told Cui Hao Yu that Chen Feng would have to earn the Sword Spirit’s recognition to obtain the Sword God’s personal sword.
• Liu Yidao dug Wang Shanhuo’s body out of her grave and brought her back to his thatched hut.
• Wang Shanhuo confronted Liu Yidao, who admitted his elders had ordered him to kill her and said she would stay with him until he learned their purpose.

Wang Shanhuo accepted that Liu Yidao intended to kill her and returned the black robe he had once given her. Meanwhile, Bai Zhi declared he would take Murong Xing Shuang from Hundred Fragrances Pavilion by force, after Zhang Zixuan learned someone else planned to take her away.

• Wang Shanhuo told Liu Yidao about her tragic past and returned the black robe he had given her, while insisting she was not asking him to spare her.
• Liu Yidao decided to take Wang Shanhuo's life but told her to go with him, saying her coming days would be happy.
• Zhang Zixuan worried that his one hundred thousand taels in Silver Notes would not be enough to redeem Murong Xing Shuang, and Xu Qianzhui warned him someone would take her away that night.
• Bai Zhi appeared before Murong Xing Shuang and said he had come to take her away; she agreed to leave with him before dawn.
• Bai Zhi said he had broken the Buddhist Sect's Precept Against Lust and would fight his way through Hundred Fragrances Pavilion with Murong Xing Shuang.

Bai Zhi revealed that he was the Buddhist Kingdom’s Buddha Child and gave up his future to take Murong Xing Shuang away from the Hundred Fragrances Pavilion. After Murong rejected Qin Liu and Zhang Zixuan, she and Bai Zhi left together, while the Buddhist Kingdom’s old monk resolved to bring Bai Zhi back despite Chen Changsheng’s warning not to interfere with the Mortal World Trial.

• Bai Zhi told Murong Xing Shuang that he was the Buddhist Kingdom’s Buddha Child and would give up his standing to deliver her from suffering.
• Bai Zhi and Murong Xing Shuang joined hands and walked out of the Hundred Fragrances Pavilion, defeating an attacker with his Buddha Light.
• Qin Liu tried to stop Murong Xing Shuang, but she told him he had lost his chance years earlier and that her affairs were not his to control.
• Murong Xing Shuang told Zhang Zixuan that his love had too many reservations, and he left; Heng Tian then told Qin Liu that Murong had chosen Bai Zhi’s sincerity.
• Bai Zhi and Murong Xing Shuang vanished into the night as the Buddhist Kingdom’s old monk vowed to guide Bai Zhi back, and Chen Changsheng warned him not to interfere with the Mortal World Trial.

Chen Changsheng stopped the old monk from interfering with the Mortal World Trial and argued that Bai Zhi had the potential to become a Buddha by choosing compassion over strict observance. Meanwhile, Zhang Zixuan confronted Xu Qianzhui over her attempt to change his fate, leaving their conflict unresolved.

• Chen Changsheng refused to let the old monk disrupt the Mortal World Trial, despite the monk's plea to save Bai Zhi.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Buddhism would flourish through Bai Zhi, whose compassion showed the potential to become a Buddha.
• Chen Changsheng warned the old monk that forcing Bai Zhi back onto his former path could turn him into another Follow the Heart.
• Zhang Zixuan returned to his room and accused Xu Qianzhui of being satisfied that he had lost a woman he liked.
• Zhang Zixuan challenged Xu Qianzhui's right to decide his fate after she said she wanted to free him from a mediocre life.

Xu Qianzhui questioned Zhang Zixuan about how mortals accepted loss and understood destiny, and realized that his own arrogance had kept him from seeing Zhang’s true path. He understood that the rules Chen Changsheng established were meant to make cultivators become mortals before experiencing the Suffering of the People and completing Mortal World Heart Refinement.

• Xu Qianzhui asked Zhang Zixuan how he accepted losing Murong Xing Shuang, and Zhang explained that mortals let go because their lives and abilities were limited.
• Zhang Zixuan described his modest hopes for the future and said that being forced to strive by Xu Qianzhui would be receiving someone else’s destiny, not changing his own.
• Zhang Zixuan told Xu Qianzhui that his arrogance and failure to understand mortal feelings made his help unwelcome.
• Xu Qianzhui realized that Chen Changsheng’s rules required cultivators to become mortals so they could understand the Suffering of the People and complete Mortal World Heart Refinement.

Xu Qianzhui discovered that the Mortal World Trial had been designed to make the Heaven’s Chosen lower their guard, then asked Chen Changsheng to permanently cripple his cultivation so he could experience mortal life without pride in his strength. As Chen Changsheng began the procedure, Yan Ziyu tried to intervene, and the chapter left the two preparing to fight.

• Xu Qianzhui confronted Chen Changsheng about the false three-month trial, and Chen Changsheng confirmed that it had been staged to make the participants vulnerable to the mortal world.
• Xu Qianzhui chose to continue the trial and asked Chen Changsheng to destroy his cultivation, arguing that a seal would not erase his sense of superiority over ordinary people.
• Chen Changsheng warned Xu Qianzhui that his method was irreversible and dangerous, but Xu Qianzhui accepted the risk to pursue the path he had chosen.
• Chen Changsheng began Skinning and Bone Removal on Xu Qianzhui, who screamed as his aura weakened.
• Yan Ziyu tried to stop Chen Changsheng, but Chen Changsheng invoked the trial’s rules and refused to yield.
• Yan Ziyu challenged Chen Changsheng’s avatar, and Chen Changsheng invited him to attack.

Chen Changsheng fought Yan Ziyu while demonstrating his mastery of combat and explaining how to overcome an opponent with superior cultivation. In Luoyang City, he completed the skinning and bone removal of Xu Qianzhui, leaving him powerless with only sixty years to live.

• Yan Ziyu attacked Chen Changsheng, but Chen Changsheng used a Sword Qi Image to strike him from behind.
• Chen Changsheng immobilized Yan Ziyu with the Five-Colored Feather Fan and DuSheng True Fire, then absorbed the laws in Yan Ziyu's spear with a jade ranking list.
• Chen Changsheng explained that Yan Ziyu needed to use his full strength, and Yan Ziyu brought out an ancient book to continue the fight.
• In Luoyang City, Chen Changsheng told Xu Qianzhui that he could defeat his First Senior Brother despite their difference in cultivation realms.
• Chen Changsheng removed Xu Qianzhui's innate foundation and bones, leaving him without cultivation and with only sixty years to live.

Chen Changsheng stripped Xu Qianzhui of his cultivation, then fought Yan Ziyu before meeting the forbidden-ground figures to arrange the Book of Wonders Competition. He returned to the Water Realm and learned from Su You that Ye Hong had died without breaking through her bottleneck.

• Chen Changsheng fulfilled Xu Qianzhui’s request by making him a mortal for sixty years, then explained that the Supreme Sage had walked two cultivation paths at once.
• Chen Changsheng fought Yan Ziyu outside Luoyang City, praised his foundation, and revealed that his true body had returned several days earlier.
• Chen Changsheng met the forbidden-ground figures in the void and secured their agreement to settle matters through a competition, with Wang Hao permitted to participate.
• Chen Changsheng returned to the Water Realm and greeted Su You, who told him Ye Hong had died two thousand years earlier while stuck at the Fourth Grade Immortal King bottleneck.

Chen Changsheng offered Su You a chance to glimpse the future he might have chosen using the Source of Dreams, then turned his attention to the Water Realm. In the Mortal World, Xu Qianzhui joined Liu Yidao’s group on their way to Chang’an, while Ku Mu stood outside the Gu Mansion with his cultivation restored.

• Chen Changsheng told Su You that neither he nor his students had been wrong, then gave him the Source of Dreams and proposed using deduction to show him a possible alternative future.
• Liu Yidao explained that he was copying Buddhist Scriptures to clear his thoughts, while Xu Qianzhui revealed he had crippled his cultivation and wanted to become an ordinary man.
• Xu Qianzhui asked to travel with Liu Yidao’s group to Chang’an, and Liu Yidao agreed after Xu Qianzhui explained that he had no wealth or cultivation left to exploit.
• Liu Yidao led Xu Qianzhui and the others toward Chang’an, where many people were already gathering.
• Ku Mu arrived outside the Gu Mansion with his former restriction lifted, and his companion urged him to act before they missed opportunities in Chang’an.

Ku Mu asserted control of his body while attempting Mortal World Heart Refinement, and Jun Lin learned that Ruan Su Xian planned to confront the Children of the Forbidden Ground. Jun Lin proposed marrying Princess Wu Yang of the Li Yang Dynasty as a way to interfere in its affairs and secure an heir for the Great Shang Dynasty.

• Ku Mu rejected Wu Du’s doubts and took control of their body for ten days, alarming the Gu Residence with his aura.
• A military-clad princess ordered her subordinate to investigate the people in Chang'an and kill them if they proved to be enemy spies.
• Jun Lin asked Chen Xiao about Mortal World Heart Refinement, and Chen Xiao explained that it was meant for people with damaged Dao Hearts.
• Ruan Su Xian told Jun Lin and Chen Xiao that Liu Yidao and other Children of the Forbidden Ground planned to meddle in the Li Yang Dynasty’s court to reach its treasury.
• Ruan Su Xian proposed joining Jun Lin and Chen Xiao to fight the Children of the Forbidden Ground, and Jun Lin agreed to pursue a different approach.
• Jun Lin proposed a marriage alliance with Princess Wu Yang, arguing that marrying her could help secure an heir for the Great Shang Dynasty.

Jun Lin proposed quickly marrying Princess Wu Yang and securing an heir, while Chen Changsheng warned Yin Qi that a Dark Turmoil would come in three thousand years. In the Water Realm, Zhang Bairen and Chen Changsheng discussed Epoch Heaven's Mandate before Zhang used the Water Book Fragment to turn the realm’s newly formed Mandate into a gateway.

• Jun Lin told Chen Xiao he wanted to follow the Rules, then proposed marrying Princess Wu Yang the next day and conceiving an heir the following year.
• Chen Changsheng defended Jun Lin and Yin Qi, then told Yin Qi that the Forbidden Ground would likely launch a Dark Turmoil in three thousand years.
• Zhang Bairen asked Chen Changsheng how much power Epoch Heaven's Mandate could grant, and Chen Changsheng explained their likely limits.
• As a figure began bearing the Water Realm's Heaven's Mandate, Zhang Bairen took the Water Book Fragment and cast it into the Mandate.
• Zhang Bairen chanted an incantation, causing the Water Realm's Heaven's Mandate to form a gateway.

The Water Realm's Mandate of Heaven was fully claimed, while Liu Yidao and Ku Mu advanced their plans in the Li Yang Dynasty. Ku Mu secured the Gu Mansion's cooperation and prepared to treat the long-bearded man's daughter.

• The man bearing the Mandate of Heaven completed his task, more than doubling the Water Realm's vitality and making its laws easier to comprehend.
• Chen Changsheng warned Zhang Bairen not to study the Mandate of Heaven, and Zhang Bairen understood his signal before the experts left through the special gate.
• Liu Yidao told Zhang Zixuan that he planned to wait for the situation in Chang'an to stabilize, then join the strongest side, and threatened him into serving as their representative.
• Ku Mu defeated a Gu Mansion Vassal in a prolonged exchange and entered the Gu Mansion courtyard under the protection of an Immortal King Realm treasure.
• Ku Mu told the long-bearded man he would treat his daughter and demanded cooperation to eliminate his enemies and obtain the Li Yang Dynasty's treasure vault; the man agreed.

Ku Mu visited Gu Jiu and, with Wu Du’s help, planned an unusual treatment for her unexplained illness. Meanwhile, Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, and Ruan Su Xian forced their way into the Summer Palace, where Jun Lin confronted Princess Wu Yang and declared his intention to marry her.

• Ku Mu entered Gu Jiu’s room, failed to identify the cause of her illness, and agreed to let Wu Du control his body for eight hours to treat her.
• Ku Mu asked the Gu Residence servants to prepare Coptis Chinensis, Mountain Spring Water, and an embroidery needle for the treatment.
• Jun Lin, Chen Xiao, and Ruan Su Xian stormed the Summer Palace, with Chen Xiao holding off two Title Immortal Venerables and Ruan Su Xian confronting an elder’s golden laws.
• Jun Lin summoned Princess Wu Yang, suppressed her Black Obsidian Life Lamp with his Nine-Colored Glazed Life Lamp, and defeated her spear attack.
• Jun Lin held Wu Yang and told her he intended to marry her, while she objected to his behavior and said she had never agreed to marry him.

Jun Lin persuaded Princess Wu Yang to marry him so he could enter the Li Yang Dynasty’s struggle against the Children of the Forbidden Ground, and she agreed on the condition that the Great Shang Dynasty formally honor the marriage. They held a swift wedding, and Jun Lin gave Wu Yang the iron rod he had used since childhood to restrain himself.

• Jun Lin stopped fighting at Wu Yang’s request, then explained that he and his companions had entered the Li Yang Dynasty for a Mortal World Trial involving the Children of the Forbidden Ground.
• Jun Lin proposed marrying Wu Yang as a way to enter the political conflict, and Wu Yang agreed after securing a formal betrothal and bridal procession from the Great Shang Dynasty.
• Jun Lin and Wu Yang held a modest wedding at the Summer Palace, with Chen Xiao and Ruan Su Xian serving as witnesses.
• Jun Lin lifted Wu Yang’s veil in the bridal chamber and gave her his three-inch iron rod, declaring that she would be his restraint from then on.

On their wedding night, Wu Yang told Jun Lin that she wanted his help to claim the Li Yang Dynasty’s Imperial Throne and that their marriage might remain a political exchange unless they fell in love. The next morning, Jun Lin promised to support her, then set out to investigate Prime Minister Gu and the Crown Prince’s faction.

• Jun Lin told Wu Yang that the coming Dark Turmoil could be delayed but not fully prevented, and that the Li Yang Dynasty was a trial ground where they were chess pieces of greater powers.
• Wu Yang explained that she wanted Jun Lin and the Great Shang Dynasty to help her seize the throne because she believed her younger brothers were unfit to rule.
• Wu Yang described their marriage as a possible exchange of interests, and Jun Lin promised to make her fall in love with him before telling her how Tian Xuan and Linglong had come together.
• The next morning, Wu Yang asked Jun Lin to help stabilize Chang'an while she prepared to act, and Jun Lin promised that no one would be able to hurt her.
• Ruan Su Xian and Chen Xiao teased Jun Lin for winning Wu Yang’s hand, then left him alone after calling him narcissistic and shameless.
• Jun Lin headed to the Gu Residence to investigate Prime Minister Gu and the Crown Prince’s faction, which stood in the way of helping Wu Yang.

Wu Du exposed Gu Jiu’s feigned madness and revealed that he shared his body with Ku Mu, asking her to make Ku Mu fall in love with her to help resolve their struggle for control. After Wu Du brought Gu Jiu to meet Jun Lin, Ku Mu rejected Jun Lin’s proposal to talk and said they would inevitably become enemies.

• Wu Du identified Gu Jiu’s unusual reactions to the bitter medicine and embroidery needle as proof that she was pretending to be mad.
• Wu Du told Gu Jiu about his origins and offered to help her end her engagement to the First Prince without harming the Gu Family.
• Wu Du explained that he and Ku Mu shared a body and said Gu Jiu had to make Ku Mu fall in love with her to help settle their conflict.
• Wu Du took Gu Jiu to the rooftop, where Jun Lin recognized that the person before him was not Ku Mu.
• Wu Du yielded control to Ku Mu, and Ku Mu refused Jun Lin’s offer to talk, saying they would eventually become enemies.

Jun Lin left Ku Mu after confirming his intentions, while Gu Jiu was stranded on a roof. In Chang'an, Xu Qianzhui and his companions remained trapped in a strange village as the Crown Prince arranged a court position for Ling Dao.

• Ku Mu told Gu Jiu he had no interest in women, then vanished and left him stranded on the roof.
• Liu Yidao failed to escape the village, and Xu Qianzhui grew anxious after Wang Shanhuo and Liu Yidao reminded him that he was mortal and had limited time.
• Liu Yidao revealed that he had sent a distress message to the Crown Prince and went into a wooden house.
• Xu Qianzhui questioned Wang Zixuan about the shortness of mortal life and wondered whether difficult, unfinished goals still had meaning.
• Lu Muzhen recommended Ling Dao for the position of Crown Prince Tutor, and Lu Jin approved the appointment.