Chapter Summaries

Chen Changsheng revealed that he planned to reclaim the border territory for Purple Mansion Holy Land, while he and his True Self Realm split up to block Kunlun and Jade Radiance Holy Land during the campaign. As Su Tian launched an assault on Mad Dragon Fortress, the twelve-hour operation began.

• Chen Changsheng explained that his real goal was to seize the territory around Mad Dragon Fortress, Golden Light Cave, and Fierce Wind Inn for Purple Mansion Holy Land.
• Chen Changsheng promised to hold off Kunlun and Jade Radiance Holy Land while his forces took the three strongholds within twelve hours.
• At Kunlun Holy Land's border, Chen Changsheng sent his True Self Realm to confront Fu Yao with Little Gold and the Gluttony Root Bone.
• Su Tian led a surprise attack on Mad Dragon Fortress, capturing three strongholds while Ye Hensheng and the others flanked the fortress.
• Mad Dragon Fortress raised its formations and sent out its elders and elite disciples, and Su Tian ordered his troops to break through and attack.

Chen Changsheng met Fu Yao at Yaoguang Holy Land's Boundary Marker, where Fu Yao questioned his forces’ deployment near Fierce Wind Inn. Zhang Bairen of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground arrived and offered support to the Heaven's Mandate Bearer in exchange for a visit and a promise not to attack the forbidden ground, leaving Chen Changsheng willing to negotiate.

• Su Tian's two-hundred-man force deployed its disciples to block Mad Dragon Fortress's attacks and protect the formation.
• Chen Changsheng welcomed Fu Yao, who had become the Yaoguang Holy Master, and invited him to drink.
• Fu Yao challenged Chen Changsheng over his forces targeting Fierce Wind Inn, then said Chen Changsheng could take it and warned him he might not be so lucky next time.
• Zhang Bairen introduced himself as a member of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground and Hundred Defeats Immortal's eldest disciple, then stopped Chen Changsheng from escaping.
• Zhang Bairen offered the forbidden ground's support if the Heaven's Mandate Bearer visited it and refrained from attacking it while bearing Heaven's Mandate.
• Chen Changsheng accepted the offer as a basis for discussion, and Zhang Bairen produced a jade table.

Chen Changsheng learned that Zhang Bairen had once aided him in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground as part of a plan to contend for Heaven’s Mandate. Zhang asked Chen for help after the true Heaven’s Mandate Bearer entered the Sixth Realm, but Chen instead asked Fu Yao to kill Zhang.

• Chen Changsheng packed away Zhang Bairen’s Enlightenment Tea and Tea Caddy, then served Zhang and Fu Yao his own bitter tea.
• Chen Changsheng asked Zhang whether he had known about Chen’s entry into the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground, and Zhang explained that Chen survived because of his connection to Hundred Defeats Immortal.
• Zhang revealed that the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground had allowed Chen to take the Gluttony Root Bone and other items, hoping to gain a favorable connection with a potential Heaven’s Mandate Bearer.
• Chen deduced that Zhang had been sent to contend for Heaven’s Mandate and had mistaken Chen for its chosen bearer; Zhang confirmed the plan and said the true bearer’s rise had left him powerless.
• Zhang asked Chen for help, but Chen asked Fu Yao to kill Zhang instead; Fu Yao questioned their old agreement and warned he could not take on the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Ground.

Chen Changsheng learned that Netherworld Forest might be able to save Bai Ze and received Wind and Thunder Wings to help him survive the journey. After his True Self reunited with him during the battle against Kunlun Holy Land, he regained his full strength, while his defenses continued to withstand attacks from three opponents.

• Zhang Bairen refused to answer Chen Changsheng's questions about the Lower Realm and the Bronze Ancient Hall, but told him to seek a way to save Bai Ze in Netherworld Forest.
• Zhang Bairen gave Chen Changsheng a Jade Slip for finding Netherworld Forest in the Eastern Wilderness and joked that he hoped the journey would hinder a rival in the next Heaven's Mandate struggle.
• Fu Yao declined to go to Netherworld Forest herself and gave Chen Changsheng Fang Qiancheng's Wind and Thunder Wings, promising him a Human Sentiment if he saved her younger brother.
• Chen Changsheng stored the Wind and Thunder Wings and sensed that his True Self was fighting Kunlun Holy Land, so he hurried back to help.
• Jiang Ping and two Holy Land elders attacked Chen Changsheng, but his Thunder Beast Scale armor and other defenses left him unharmed.
• Chen Changsheng's True Self raced to him and merged with him, restoring his Divine Sense Power and making him complete again.

Chen Changsheng defeated Kunlun Holy Land’s elders and repelled a hidden powerhouse with three punches, forcing the holy land to withdraw. At Purple Mansion Holy Land, the elders celebrated his strength and planned to have the Sacred Beetle test his fortune, though one questioned what would become of Wu Li.

• Jiang Ping charged Chen Changsheng, but Chen sent him flying with one swing of his staff.
• Chen Changsheng used Law, Manifest Heaven and Earth and his cemetery phenomenon to overpower Kunlun Holy Land’s six elders.
• Chen Changsheng ordered Kunlun Holy Land not to cross the Boundary Marker for twelve hours, but a hidden powerhouse attacked him with two Giant Hands.
• The Big Fat Silkworm pierced one Giant Hand, while Chen Changsheng shattered the other and answered with three punches that cracked Kunlun Holy Land’s formation and a Blood-colored Boulder.
• An aged voice recalled Jiang Ping and the others, and Chen Changsheng stopped fighting as the Big Fat Silkworm returned with a thumb-sized gourd.
• At Purple Mansion Holy Land, the Second Elder proposed that the Sacred Beetle test Chen Changsheng’s fortune, and an elder asked what would happen to Wu Li.

After discovering that body cultivation made limb regeneration costly, Chen Changsheng considered how to improve it and sent Wu Li to kidnap Nalan Jing without harming her. Wu Li confronted Nalan Jing in a valley and attacked while holding back, leaving their fight underway.

• Chen Changsheng restored his severed right hand with Golden Silkworm Silk and pills, then resolved to focus more on strengthening his body.
• Chen Changsheng told Xiao Hei that A Li would have to face future dangers on his own and that he planned to retire once A Li and Nalan Jing settled their affairs.
• A Li and Wu Li prepared an ambush after Wu Li received Chen Changsheng's order to kidnap the Purple Mansion Holy Master without injuring her.
• Wu Li activated a formation and confronted Nalan Jing, who recognized him and challenged him to fight her one-on-one.
• Wu Li punched Nalan Jing while holding back thirty percent of his strength so he would not accidentally hurt her.

After the Purple Mansion disciples completed a bloody mission, Chen Changsheng spoke with Gongsun Huaiyu and Zi Ning about the people they had killed and the weight of war. He left them with a warning that their ruthless instincts could make them resemble the elders they criticized.

• Chen Changsheng learned that six hundred of the 1,080 Purple Mansion disciples survived and ordered the corpses and spoils gathered.
• Chen Changsheng told the operation’s leaders to accept the consequences of choosing war and remember their feelings when commanding others.
• Gongsun Huaiyu described killing a young man and ordering everyone left in Golden Light Cave exterminated.
• Zi Ning recounted injuring Wan Tong’s father and arranging the deaths of people at Mad Dragon Fortress, including those who had begged for mercy.
• Chen Changsheng joked about exterminating an entire race and told the women that repeated killing would become familiar.
• Chen Changsheng challenged Gongsun Huaiyu’s distinction between personally killing people and ordering their deaths, then warned that she and Zi Ning might become like the elders they disliked.

After helping the Purple Mansion Holy Land defeat three factions, Chen Changsheng enjoyed a month of peace before Third Elder Lin Kaishan confronted him with a ransom letter saying Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes had kidnapped the Holy Master. Chen Changsheng admitted his group was responsible and refused to pay, leaving the Holy Master’s fate uncertain.

• Chen Changsheng explained to Zi Ning that powerful factions used schemes when possible but resorted to killing when those failed, then sent her and Gongsun Huaiyu to gather the battlefield spoils.
• Chen Changsheng returned to the Purple Mansion Holy Land, where he taught Zi Ning a cultivation method and studied while the younger generation gained fame for defeating three factions.
• After a month of peace, Lin Kaishan arrived in a rage and demanded that Chen Changsheng come out to answer him.
• Lin Kaishan accused Gongsun Huaiyu of beguiling the Holy Land, but Chen Changsheng appeared and asked what he had done wrong.
• Chen Changsheng opened Lin Kaishan’s letter, which said Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes had kidnapped the Holy Master and demanded ransom.
• Chen Changsheng confirmed that Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes had taken the Holy Master, then wrote that they would not pay and left them to deal with it themselves.

Chen Changsheng used the Council of Elders’ authority to command Purple Mansion Holy Land’s disciples to conquer the Central Court, naming Gongsun Huaiyu’s unit Tiger Guard and Zi Ning’s unit Phantom. Meanwhile, Wu Li questioned hostage Nalan Jing about the unpaid ransom, but Nalan Jing dismissed his threats.

• Chen Changsheng showed Lin Kaishan the Council of Elders’ token and asserted his authority as Holy Son, prompting Lin Kaishan to leave and seek an audience with the Grand Elder.
• Chen Changsheng ordered Purple Mansion disciples to follow Zi Ning and Gongsun Huaiyu and eliminate every force below the first rank in the Central Court.
• Chen Changsheng named Gongsun Huaiyu’s unit Tiger Guard and Zi Ning’s unit Phantom, and the disciples chose their camps to join the campaign.
• Zi Ning and Gongsun Huaiyu left Purple Mansion Holy Land to wage war, while Chen Changsheng withdrew into the Sea of Learning.
• Lin Kaishan visited the Deep in the Back Mountain and thereafter stopped mentioning Chen Changsheng, though he still refused to call him Holy Son.
• Wu Li confronted Nalan Jing about Chen Changsheng’s refusal to pay the ransom, but Nalan Jing asked for a softer pillow and dismissed Wu Li’s threats.

Nalan Jing repeatedly allowed herself to be “kidnapped” by Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes, while Chen Changsheng quietly arranged for Wu Li to take over the Purple Mansion Holy Land. Wu Li reunited with his teacher Chen Changsheng in the Sea of Learning, where Chen Changsheng told him the next move was up to him.

• Nalan Jing refused Wu Li’s offer to send her home without a ransom, and Wu Li confined her after she mentioned Chen Changsheng.
• The Purple Mansion Holy Land ignored Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes’ ransom demands, and Nalan Jing was returned unharmed after three months.
• Chen Changsheng spoke privately with Nalan Jing, who flew off to find someone; afterward, he forbade the Purple Mansion Holy Land from contacting Seventy-Two Wolf Smokes.
• Nalan Jing continued returning to the Purple Mansion Holy Land and willingly being kidnapped again, until a year later she returned with a man at her side.
• Wu Li took over as Holy Master, and the Purple Mansion Holy Land gained the Seventy-two Earthly Fiends without opposition.
• Wu Li reunited with Chen Changsheng in the Sea of Learning, where Chen Changsheng praised his achievements and told him to carry out the next part of the plan.

Chen Changsheng praised Wu Li for creating a third path in Body Cultivation, gave him guidance for the realms ahead, and sent him away to pursue his own path. Over the next six years, Wu Li led Purple Mansion Holy Land through a devastating struggle for Heaven's Mandate and defeated Kunlun Holy Land, though the war's true details remained unknown.

• Wu Li showed Chen Changsheng the Nine-Colored Glazed Lamp that joined his physical body and divine sense, and Chen Changsheng praised his breakthrough.
• Chen Changsheng gave Wu Li a Jade Slip containing deductions about later Body Cultivation realms and told him Feng Yuxiu and Yang Feng had learned the new system.
• In the first year, Wu Li visited the two great holy lands; Yaoguang Holy Land withdrew from the struggle for Heaven's Mandate, while Kunlun Holy Land declared war on Purple Mansion Holy Land.
• In the fifth year, Wu Li defeated prodigies including Ruthless Immortal, Demon Monk Xuan Xin, Baturu, and Jiang Feng, whose corpse was buried by a mysterious Undertaker.
• Kunlun Holy Land allied with Fang Qiancheng, and Wu Li later returned from an unexplained absence with eight hundred sets of Bronze Armor before setting a date for battle.
• At the beginning of the sixth year, Purple Mansion Holy Land fought Kunlun in a catastrophic battle; Kunlun sealed itself for a thousand years, and rumors claimed Wu Li had summoned a powerful being to suppress the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground.

Chen Changsheng buried the defeated Jiang Bufan, who revealed that the holy lands were footholds for powerful beings above and that contact would return when Wu Li bore Heaven’s Mandate. After Jiang Bufan recognized Chen Changsheng as the strongest living being under heaven, Chen buried him under the name “Undertaker” and flew toward the Purple Mansion Holy Land.

• Chen Changsheng dug a grave for the mutilated Jiang Bufan and explained that history would record the Kunlun Holy Master as dead in the great battle.
• Jiang Bufan revealed that powerful beings above controlled the holy lands and had been cut off from this world by a Heaven’s Mandate Bearer.
• Jiang Bufan told Chen Changsheng that contact with those above would return when Wu Li bore Heaven’s Mandate, and declared that he would still defy them.
• Chen Changsheng activated an array and burned Jiang Bufan, who recognized him as the strongest living being under heaven and urged him to seek the secrets above.
• Chen Changsheng collected Jiang Bufan’s ashes, buried him under the name “Undertaker,” and flew toward the Purple Mansion Holy Land.

Wu Li conquered West Continent, unified the world’s cultivation standards, and made Purple Mansion Holy Land the foremost power. After the Ruthless Immortal died, he stormed the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground, killed Fang Qiancheng, and destroyed Boundless Hate Pavilion; afterward, Chen Changsheng prepared to leave the Sea of Learning.

• Wu Li conquered West Continent, while South Plains and Northern Desert quietly acknowledged Purple Mansion Holy Land’s dominance.
• Purple Mansion Holy Land announced a cultivation method that established the first five realms and led to a unified cultivation system.
• Demon Monk Xuan Xin brought the dying Ruthless Immortal to Purple Mansion Holy Land, and Wu Li charged into the Holy Ruins Forbidden Ground in fury.
• Wu Li returned with Fang Qiancheng’s head, then wiped out Boundless Hate Pavilion; Xuan Xin left with Yao Yingying’s corpse after acknowledging Wu Li’s help.
• Wu Li gave Chen Changsheng the Golden Page taken from Fang Qiancheng, and Chen Changsheng said he was ready to leave the Sea of Learning.

Chen Changsheng said goodbye to Wu Li and the people of the Purple Mansion Holy Land, promising to return when their time came to bury them. He left for the Netherworld Forest to seek help for Xiao Hei and Nalan Xingde, while those he left behind reflected on their brief time with him.

• Wu Li gave Chen Changsheng a Jade Slip of his cultivation insights and pleaded with him to stay or at least reveal where he was going.
• Chen Changsheng promised Wu Li that he would return to bury their friends and would choose Wu Li's burial ground too.
• Zi Ning and Gongsun Huaiyu watched Chen Changsheng leave in the snow and discussed why his life could not be captured by the Holy Land's historical records.
• Wanyan Yue told Zuo Xinghe she lacked the courage to follow Chen Changsheng, and Zuo Xinghe reflected on his father's courage.
• A hundred li away, Chen Changsheng decided to fly toward the Eastern Wilderness rather than return for a Teleportation Array, intending to visit the Netherworld Forest for Xiao Hei and Nalan Xingde.

Wu Li fought the White-Clad Woman over the Mandate of Heaven until Song Yuanshan recognized her as the Longevity Fairy and delivered Chen Changsheng’s letter and wooden carvings. The Fairy accepted Wu Li as worthy of bearing the Mandate, then recognized Wanyan Yue as Li Niansheng, a Linglong Sect prodigy from a thousand years ago.

• In the fiftieth year, the White-Clad Woman challenged Wu Li for the Mandate of Heaven, and they fought in the void while Nalan Jing and the others protected the Purple Mansion Holy Land from the aftershocks.
• Song Yuanshan recognized the White-Clad Woman as the Longevity Fairy and stopped the fight, explaining that Chen Changsheng had left something for her.
• The Longevity Fairy opened Chen Changsheng’s box, read his letter, and agreed to leave the Mandate of Heaven to Wu Li because she trusted Chen Changsheng’s judgment of his disciple.
• As the Longevity Fairy prepared to leave, she approached Wanyan Yue and identified her as Li Niansheng, a Linglong Sect prodigy from the Great Qian Dynasty a thousand years earlier.

Song Yuanshan revealed that Chen Changsheng had a past connection with the Longevity Fairy, while Chen Changsheng followed Zhang Bairen’s clues to Dead Man’s Pool and discovered a deadly Corpse Tide. Zhang Bairen’s message revealed that he had deliberately trapped Chen Changsheng in the Netherworld Forest to keep him out of the competition for Heaven’s Mandate.

• Song Yuanshan told Wu Li and the others that Chen Changsheng was his junior brother and that the Longevity Fairy had pursued him a thousand years earlier.
• Wu Li realized the Longevity Fairy might have been Chen Changsheng’s old love, and Zuo Xinghe dispersed the group before they could gossip further.
• Ye Hensheng warned Song Yuanshan that Chen Changsheng or the Longevity Fairy might punish him for spreading Chen Changsheng’s secrets.
• After searching the Eastern Wilderness for twenty years, Chen Changsheng reached Dead Man’s Pool and descended into it.
• Chen Changsheng encountered countless well-preserved corpses that all turned to look at him.
• Zhang Bairen’s Jade Slip warned Chen Changsheng that the Corpse Tide attacked anyone who tried to leave and admitted he had trapped him there to avoid competing with him for Heaven’s Mandate.

Chen Changsheng escaped the Corpse Tide and entered the Netherworld Forest, where he discovered that Tianji Zi of Langya Pavilion had died after being trapped there for six thousand years. After testing the forest’s restrictions and fighting his way toward its center, Chen Changsheng realized he might be trapped as well.

• Chen Changsheng crossed the Corpse Tide, jumped through the hole of light, and found himself at the entrance to a dense forest beside a skeleton.
• Chen Changsheng buried the skeleton and read Tianji Zi’s warning that the Netherworld Forest shifted unpredictably and had trapped him for six thousand years.
• The forest transported Chen Changsheng inside, where he defeated a Violent Vajra Bear in three punches.
• Chen Changsheng discovered that he could fly only fifty zhang high, his Divine Sense Realm was swallowed beyond that distance, and the forest’s central region lay ten li away behind trees and powerful demonic beasts.
• Chen Changsheng set out for the center, but three hours later demonic beasts sent him flying backward, and he realized the forest might be impossible to escape.

Chen Changsheng spent one hundred and eighty years trapped in the Netherworld Forest, where its endless, adapting beasts thwarted his attempts to reach the central region. Before entering another six-hundred-and-forty-year slumber, he claimed he had found a way to deal with the forest, but it did not respond.

• Chen Changsheng unleashed his full strength and fought through the forest, but the shifting terrain and demonic beasts forced him back to the Stone Tablet before he could advance five hundred paces.
• Chen Changsheng spent a hundred years trying to escape and discovered that the forest could strengthen its beasts and adapt them to counter his techniques, so he abandoned his attempts and focused on cultivation and reading.
• Chen Changsheng sealed Xiao Hei inside the Longevity Bloodstone after the Heaven Mending Paste stopped working, and he realized Xiao Hei could survive there for at most six thousand years.
• After another eighty years, Chen Changsheng warned the forest to send him to the central region, then entered the Hundred Defeats Immortal's Stone Coffin for a six-hundred-and-forty-year slumber.

After sleeping for 640 years, Chen Changsheng found that his defense had not advanced beyond the unnamed Seventh Realm, then began a long plan to force the Netherworld Forest to respond. By his 800th year of chopping down trees, he was still trapped there and celebrated another day’s work with a large dinner.

• Chen Changsheng woke after 640 years in the Stone Coffin and discussed with the system how sleep could leave him forgotten by the world.
• Chen Changsheng added 640 points to his defense, but it remained in the Seventh Realm because the cultivation realms had enormous gaps.
• Chen Changsheng asked the Netherworld Forest to teleport him to its central region, received no response, and began his plan against it.
• Chen Changsheng spent 800 years chopping down trees in the Netherworld Forest and celebrated by eating two Saber-Toothed Tiger Kings and a bear.

Chen Changsheng used his vast System Space and relentless harvesting to drain the Netherworld Forest, provoking it into a war of attrition. After sixty years of battle, he killed an eighth realm demon beast and escaped long enough to recover, then turned to pursue the remaining enemy.

• Chen Changsheng rejected the Netherworld Forest's offering of three fruits and resumed their conflict.
• Chen Changsheng realized the forest's enclosed energy cycle could be broken by absorbing its resources into his System Space, and began his Black Hole plan.
• After four hundred more years of harvesting, Chen Changsheng's cultivation improved, and the Netherworld Forest sent two eighth realm demon beasts and hordes of beasts to kill him.
• Chen Changsheng and the Golden Silkworm Gu fought the forest's forces for sixty years, with Chen Changsheng eventually severing an eighth realm demon beast's head and storing its corpse.
• Chen Changsheng fled with fatal wounds until the golden silkworm silk healed him, then turned around and announced that he would chase the remaining beasts.