Chapter Summaries

Ning Chen and Marquis Kaixuan fought the Eternal Night Martial Lord long enough for the Blackwater Army to retreat, but could not defeat him. Seeking the only person fast enough to help counter the Martial Lord, Ning Chen went to the Desolate City to find Mu Chengxue, where Sword One intercepted him.

• Ning Chen and Marquis Kaixuan battled the Martial Lord, who healed his wounds and gradually gained the advantage.
• Marquis Kaixuan ordered the Blackwater Army to retreat, and Ning Chen cut a rift through the earth to block the pursuing Eternal Night army.
• Ning Chen and Marquis Kaixuan prepared to face the Martial Lord's final form, but Ning Chen suddenly swept past him and escaped with Marquis Kaixuan.
• After recovering at camp, Ning Chen concluded that Mu Chengxue's speed was needed to break the Martial Lord's twin qi seas and left for the Desolate City.
• Ning Chen searched the Desolate City for Mu Chengxue and refused Sword One's demand that he leave, prompting Sword One to attack.

Ning Chen traveled to the Desolate City, where Mu Chengxue stopped his sword battle with Sword One and agreed to help him face the Martial Lord. They set out for the academy to prepare, but Ning Chen’s lingering injuries slowed their journey, and the chapter left them pausing in Tianluo City after he received updates from Kong Yu.

• Ning Chen and Sword One fought fiercely above the Desolate City until Mu Chengxue intervened, and Sword One withdrew.
• Ning Chen walked through the city with Mu Chengxue, who returned his Scroll of Life, and he asked her to help defeat the Martial Lord.
• Ning Chen explained the threat posed by the Martial Lord and the Four Extremes Sacred Lands, and Mu Chengxue agreed to join him after his injuries healed.
• Mu Chengxue lent Ning Chen the Great Yin Azure Sparrow Sword, and the two began traveling toward the academy so the Headmaster could help them prepare.
• Ning Chen’s injuries kept their journey slow, and Mu Chengxue continued with him after he warned that many enemies were seeking his life.
• In Tianluo City, Ning Chen received Kong Yu’s letter and learned there was still no news of the Ghost Maiden, the Underworld Son remained absent, Prince Hua was handling the Prajna City refugees, and Xia Ziyi had not awakened.

Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue reached Tiancang Academy, where Headmaster Tiancang tested their strength and warned them about the Martial Lord. Meanwhile, Xia Ziyi entered Great Xia’s forbidden land, Xuan Zhi returned from the dead to prepare a passage between realms, and Emperor Xia Mingri collapsed after being poisoned.

• Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue arrived at Tiancang Academy and asked Headmaster Tiancang to guide them as they prepared to face danger.
• Xia Ziyi awoke, left the Haowu Prince’s Estate, and entered the forbidden land beneath the imperial palace, where he disappeared from public view.
• Zong Qianqiu met with the Eternal Night Divine Cult’s master, learned that the search for the Scroll of Nothingness was still ongoing, and ordered Xuan Zhi to prepare the passage between realms.
• Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue fought Headmaster Tiancang in a fierce trial, and he warned them that the Martial Lord was stronger than he was.
• The Master summoned Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue, while Emperor Xia Mingri suddenly collapsed in the Heavenly Edict Hall after vomiting black blood.
• Physician Li tried to suppress Xia Mingri’s poison, but he told Grand Tutor to prepare to establish a new emperor for Great Xia.

As Xia Mingri died, Xia Ziyi emerged from the stone gate and carried his brother away, while Martial Lord fought his way toward Featherfall Valley. Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue faced Martial Lord together after he defeated Headmaster Tiancang, and Ning Chen awakened a powerful sword as their battle began anew.

• Xia Mingri passed the throne in an edict, then died before the nation-protecting artifact as Xia Ziyi broke through the stone gate and carried him away.
• Zong Qianqiu, Xuan Zhi, and others headed for Featherfall Valley, while the Eternal Night First Divine General kept Marquis Kaixuan from pursuing Martial Lord.
• Martial Lord defeated Headmaster Tiancang, but Ning Chen arrived and took his place in battle.
• Ning Chen fought Martial Lord with his blade, sword, and Heavenly Tome techniques, but Martial Lord's full power blasted him away.
• Mu Chengxue arrived and gave Ning Chen a blue sword, whose blood-red patterns awakened as Ning Chen declared their battle with Martial Lord would begin again.

Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue fought the Martial Lord with the temporarily completed Knowing Fate Sword and wounded him, but he unleashed his strongest technique. As the Martial Lord's Annihilation of the Universe threatened them, Ning Chen stood to meet it while Mu Chengxue launched herself toward the darkness.

• The Master used Grand Righteous Qi to complete the Knowing Fate Sword temporarily, and Ning Chen attacked the Martial Lord while Mu Chengxue warned that the sword would last less than a quarter of an hour.
• Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue coordinated their attacks, using the sword's Grand Righteous Qi to disrupt the Martial Lord and drive Chengying into his chest qihai.
• The Martial Lord suppressed his injury and increased his power, repeatedly blasting Ning Chen and Mu Chengxue away as they continued to strike at him.
• After the Martial Lord unleashed Annihilation of the Universe, Ning Chen told Mu Chengxue to go and faced the attack with Heaven and Earth Resonate, Life and Death Defy Fate.
• Mu Chengxue smiled and gathered massive sword-feathers before vanishing like a meteor toward the heart of darkness.

Headmaster Tiancang sacrificed himself to wound Martial Lord, who later died stabilizing the passage between the Four Extremes Realm and the Divine Continent. The Four Extremes Realm began its invasion, Xia Ziyi took the throne as acting emperor, and the Minister of Ceremonies called for Prince Hua to be recalled from Prajna City.

• Mu Chengxue wounded Martial Lord, and Headmaster Tiancang sent her and Ning Chen away before battling Martial Lord with a fatal technique.
• Martial Lord escaped to Featherfall Valley, where Zong Qianqiu and Xuan Zhi opened the realm boundary with the Four Extremes Realm Lord, Calamity King, and Xuantian.
• Martial Lord gave Zong Qianqiu charge of the Divine Cult, then died after using his remaining strength to stabilize the passage; its eruption destroyed the formation and scattered the fighters.
• The Four Extremes Realm Lord ordered Xuantian and Xuan Zhi to mobilize their armies and occupy the Divine Continent, while Luan Fengchen helped Meng Xuanji escape.
• Zong Qianqiu carried Martial Lord to the Abyss of Darkness, where its dark presence made the body vanish and ordered Zong Qianqiu to withdraw.
• Xia Ziyi became Great Xia's acting emperor, and the Minister of Ceremonies urged him to recall Prince Hua from Prajna City.

Xia Ziyi fought the Calamity King over Great Xia’s capital and summoned a heavenly tribulation to drive him away, while the Four Extremes Realm began conquering the Divine Continent. The chapter ended with Peerless City fallen and the Confucian elders delaying their return to the world as The Master mourned what their school had become.

• The Calamity King attacked Great Xia’s Imperial City and tried to seize little Chi’er, but Xia Ziyi rescued the boy and faced him alone.
• Xia Ziyi wounded the Calamity King with his ultimate sword technique, then broke through toward the Third Xiantian Tribulation and dragged him into the heavenly lightning.
• The Calamity King escaped the thunder sea, and the wounded Xia Ziyi left the capital as Grand Tutor reassured Chi’er that his Royal Uncle would return.
• The Four Extremes Realm Lord ordered his forces to seize Peerless City, where Xuantian killed the city’s Xiantian defenders and Prince Tai died defending his estate.
• Commander of Soldiers reported to the three Confucian Masters, who chose to watch events before revealing the Confucian school to the world.
• The Master looked toward Dragon Garden and lamented that the Confucian school’s founding purpose had disappeared.

Xia Ziyi brought Ning Chen back to the imperial city, where they discussed the fall of Peerless City and Great Xia’s preparations for war with the Four Extremes Realm. After hearing Xia Nianyi’s account of the attack, Ning Chen proposed recruiting allies and strengthening the capital’s defenses, then returned to Zhiming Marquisate to summon the head of the Ministry of Justice.

• Xia Ziyi visited The Master, who told him that Ning Chen was beside Lingbo Pool and reminded him not to lose his original heart.
• Xia Ziyi found Ning Chen watching the unconscious woman at Lingbo Pool and explained that Peerless City had fallen to the Four Extremes army.
• Ning Chen and Xia Ziyi returned to the imperial palace, where Ning Chen supported Prince Hua’s executions of corrupt officials despite opposition at court.
• Xia Nianyi described Peerless City’s fall and pleaded with Xia Ziyi to avenge her father; Ning Chen advised recruiting dissenters in the Four Extremes Realm and hidden experts from Great Xia’s sects.
• Xia Ziyi planned to summon Confucianism’s Command Bearers to protect the capital, while Ning Chen returned to Zhiming Marquisate and ordered the head of the Ministry of Justice to be invited.

Ning Chen met with Luan Fengchen, discussed the threat posed by the Four Extremes Realm, and later traveled to Northern Mongol with Qing Ling and Xia Xinyu to seek help from the Golden Staff National Master. The chapter ended with the Golden Staff National Master rejecting Ning Chen’s claim that Xia Xinyu had a minor ailment and demanding to know why he had come.

• Ning Chen ordered Kong Yu to watch Prajna City and sent a sealed letter to the Northern Mongol palace.
• Ning Chen reassured Ning Xi about her marriage prospects, then met Luan Fengchen, who said Meng Xuanji was recovering somewhere safe.
• Ning Chen and Ning Xi visited Changsun, who discussed possible marriage matches for Ning Xi and announced that she had chosen Marquis Anguo’s legitimate granddaughter as Xia Ziyi’s future Empress.
• Ning Chen asked Changsun to let Qing Ling accompany him to Northern Mongol, then brought Xia Xinyu along to try the Heavenly Pool.
• Ning Chen, Qing Ling, and Xia Xinyu met the Golden Staff National Master, and Ning Chen asked to borrow the Heavenly Pool for Xia Xinyu.

Ning Chen used the Heavenly Pool to ease Xia Xinyu’s Seven Absolutes Body and persuaded the Golden Staff National Master to help him target the Calamity King for Phoenix Blood. Back in the palace, Ning Chen advised Xia Ziyi on the war and the major sects, then Xia Ziyi asked him to take the young Imperial Prince Chi'er as his master.

• Ning Chen brought Xia Xinyu into the Heavenly Pool and used the Scroll of Life to suppress the erosion of her constitution while Qing Ling guarded against the Golden Staff National Master.
• Ning Chen showed the Golden Staff National Master his Phoenix Blood and proposed working together to kill the Calamity King; the National Master agreed, unaware that Ning Chen had exaggerated how much Phoenix Blood remained.
• After Xia Xinyu recovered enough to travel, Ning Chen and Qing Ling returned her to the Princess's Residence and reported to Xia Ziyi that the treatment would only help temporarily.
• Ning Chen and Xia Ziyi discussed the Four Extremes Realm’s advance on Peerless City, the Yao Family’s possible elevation to marquis, and an attempt to negotiate with Peerless City.
• Xia Ziyi asked Ning Chen to take the young Imperial Prince Chi'er as his master.

Ning Chen accepted the little Imperial Prince Chi'er as his disciple and began teaching him while Great Xia prepared for war against the Four Extremes Realm and the Eternal Night Divine Cult. After the court crushed the remaining holdout sects in the Southeast Territory, the region submitted, and troops gathered near Peerless City as war drew close.

• Xia Ziyi entrusted Chi'er to Ning Chen, who accepted him as a disciple and brought him to the Zhiming Marquisate.
• Ning Chen began Chi'er's lessons and considered Great Xia's lack of intelligence about the Four Extremes Realm Lord and the hidden strength of the Eternal Night Divine Cult.
• Ning Chen and Xia Ziyi discussed the court's response to the sects, while Ning Chen wondered whether Consort Luo could be trusted.
• The Golden Staff National Master entered Peerless City to investigate Ning Chen's claims and found powerful experts guarding Silver Garden Heavenly Snow.
• The court's forces shed blood among the Southeast Territory sects that refused to submit, prompting the remaining holdouts to declare their allegiance the next day.
• Troops from Featherfall Valley assembled near Peerless City, and the atmosphere grew tense as war approached.

Great Xia’s army struggled against the Four Extremes Realm as Luan Fengchen and Meng Xuanji gravely wounded the Calamity King but failed to kill him. Ning Chen used the setback to draw the Golden Staff National Master into an agreement to help kill the Calamity King in exchange for a share of the Phoenix Blood.

• Peerless City sent two hundred thousand troops west, and Great Xia’s forces retreated while avoiding direct clashes with the Four Extremes army.
• Luan Fengchen and Meng Xuanji ambushed the Calamity King, but he wielded the Gilded Feathered Halberd and forced them into a desperate fight.
• Meng Xuanji and Luan Fengchen wounded the Calamity King with the halberd, but he escaped, leaving both attackers grievously injured.
• Ning Chen learned that the Calamity King’s injuries had stalled the Four Extremes army and waited for the Golden Staff National Master to approach him.
• The Golden Staff National Master agreed to help Ning Chen kill the Calamity King for an eighty-twenty share of the Phoenix Blood and gave him a token to summon him.

Ning Chen returned Chi'er to the palace, discussed the Calamity King plot and the poisoning with Xia Ziyi, and reassured Xia Xinyu that he would help her brother. At the Eternal Night Divine Cult, Zong Qianqiu learned that the Tuoluo Flower poison had also been found in King Shoushan and ordered an investigation into the other princes.

• Liu Ruoxi laughed after the Golden Staff National Master left, and Ning Chen took Chi'er back to the palace.
• Ning Chen told Xia Ziyi about his plan involving the Calamity King and the Golden Staff National Master, while Xia Ziyi reported that the Emperor’s poisoning remained unexplained.
• Ning Chen confirmed to Xia Xinyu that he had asked Miss Luo for help partly to test her identity, and promised to support Xia Ziyi.
• The Poisonous Hag told Zong Qianqiu that the Emperor was likely poisoned by Tuoluo Flower and that King Shoushan’s blood contained the same poison.
• Zong Qianqiu ordered the Poisonous Hag and Canfeng to investigate whether the other Great Xia princes had also been poisoned.

Ning Chen attacked the Four Extremes Realm’s reinforcements at Featherfall Valley, then withdrew when Xuan Tian challenged him. As Ning Chen joined Great Xia’s army and shifted the battlefield’s balance, the Four Extremes Realm Lord sought troops from Zong Qianqiu, who refused and ordered the Tuoluo Flower poison investigation accelerated; a golden-staff-bearing figure approached Great Xia’s army.

• Chi'er waited for Marquis of Knowing Fate, who appeared at dusk, spoke with him, and vanished after Chi'er nodded.
• Ning Chen struck the spatial passage at Featherfall Valley, killing a newly arrived Xiantian expert and confronting guards Xuan Gu and Xuan Mo.
• Xuan Tian arrived and fought Ning Chen, who retreated and promised they would meet again.
• Ning Chen joined Great Xia’s army, strengthening its Xiantian forces while the Four Extremes Realm’s peak experts remained stretched thin.
• The Four Extremes Realm Lord asked Zong Qianqiu to lend troops, but Zong Qianqiu refused and instructed Can Feng to hasten the investigation into the Tuoluo Flower poison.
• A figure carrying a golden staff appeared in eastern Great Xia and walked toward the army.

Ning Chen lured the Calamity King to Mu Bai, whose sword strike grievously wounded him, then joined Mu Qianshang and the Golden Staff National Master in a planned assault. The Calamity King unleashed a devastating attack and seemed defeated, but his Phoenix Blood triggered Nirvana and began restoring him, so Ning Chen asked his allies to lend him their strength.

• Ning Chen displayed Phoenix Blood to draw the Calamity King to the end of heaven and earth, then concealed it and left Mu Bai to face him.
• Mu Bai revealed his identity and struck the Calamity King with the Great Yin Azure Sparrow Sword, shattering his treasures and piercing his body.
• The Golden Staff National Master, Ning Chen, and Mu Qianshang attacked the fleeing Calamity King and broke his Sea of Qi, crippling most of his cultivation.
• The Calamity King unleashed Karmic Fire Scorches Heaven, the Nine Heavens Fall, and the resulting explosion left the three attackers injured.
• The Calamity King's Phoenix Blood gathered in the flames and began a powerful Nirvana rebirth, prompting Ning Chen to ask Mu Qianshang and the Golden Staff National Master to lend him their True Yuan.

Ning Chen and his allies stopped the Calamity King from completing nirvana, but the clash left Ning Chen wounded and burdened with Phoenix Blood in his spiritual consciousness. After visiting the Underworld Netherworld and Mingyue, he returned to Great Xia and told Xia Ziyi he planned to enter the Four Extremes Realm to destroy its reinforcement teleportation array.

• Ning Chen, the Golden Staff National Master, and Mu Qianshang used the three scrolls together to suppress the Phoenix Blood, but its chaotic will struck them and the Great Yin Azure Sparrow Sword blasted them away when Ning Chen picked it up.
• The Golden Staff National Master gave Ning Chen ten days to find the Phoenix Blood in the Longevity Palace, then left for the Great Xia Imperial City as the Four Extremes Realm Lord arrived too late to intervene.
• Ning Chen returned to the Zhiming Marquisate, spent three days investigating the Phoenix Blood in his spiritual consciousness, and found that the Ghost Maiden was absent from the Underworld Netherworld and its divine weapons still rejected him.
• Ning Chen visited Mingyue in Northern Mongolia, stayed with her for three days, and then returned to Great Xia.
• Ning Chen told Xia Ziyi that he would go to the Four Extremes Realm to destroy the teleportation array used to send reinforcements.

Ning Chen left the capital with the Golden Staff National Master and entered the Four Extremes Realm, where he secretly sought allies against the Four Extremes Realm Lord. Meanwhile, the Eternal Night Divine Cult prepared a scheme against Great Xia, and the Underworld Son attacked the cult before a Ghost Qi palm intervened.

• Ning Chen said goodbye to Changsun, Qing Ling, Ning Xi, and Liu Ruoxi, then departed with the Golden Staff National Master for the Four Extremes Realm.
• A spatial storm separated Ning Chen from the Golden Staff National Master; half a month later Ning Chen emerged in the Southern Borderlands while the Golden Staff National Master remained trapped.
• Ning Chen learned that the Four Extremes Sacred Lands controlled the realm and met Jiang Xin in secret, learning of a marriage alliance between the Lihuo Dynasty and the Hulei Dynasty.
• Zong Qianqiu asked the Eternal Night Divine Cult's master to let the Third Hall enter the world, but was told to appoint a temporary military commander instead.
• Zong Qianqiu ordered Can Feng to go to Peerless City with a grand gift, then the Underworld Son attacked the Eternal Night Divine Cult and an unknown cultivator struck at him with Ghost Qi.

Zong Qianqiu and the Four Extremes Realm Lord formed an alliance to undermine Great Xia by turning the people against it and eliminating the Confucian School. As the Hulei emperor’s wedding procession carried Li Youwei away, the allied forces attacked Dragon Garden while Xia Ziyi was blocked from reaching it.

• The Four Extremes Realm Lord proposed using popular discontent to weaken Great Xia and destroying the Confucian School, and Zong Qianqiu agreed to cooperate.
• Li Youwei passed through Cloudsong City in bridal robes as part of an envoy procession from the Lihuo Dynasty, while a man in white watched her carriage pass without their gazes meeting.
• Xuantian led Xingyun, Yu Yangtian, Canfeng, and Huazhuang to Dragon Garden as forces from the Four Extremes Realm and Eternal Night Divine Cult prepared to destroy the Confucian School.
• Xia Ziyi rushed toward Dragon Garden, but Xuan Zhi and Zong Qianqiu appeared to stop him; Xia Ziyi ordered the Four Command Bearers to provide support.
• Ripples stirred in the formation deep within Dragon Garden, revealing three stone houses in a desolate garden.

Xia Ziyi fought Zong Qianqiu and Xuan Zhi as the Confucian Sect’s hidden elders emerged to repel Xuantian’s attack on Dragon Garden. The elders then faced Xia Ziyi’s questions in Heavenly Edict Hall, while Ning Chen watched the Hulei emperor’s wedding in disguise.

• Xia Ziyi resisted Zong Qianqiu and Xuan Zhi’s attacks, briefly suppressing his demonic corruption when Xia Xinyu called to him.
• Consort Luo stopped Xuan Zhi from attacking Xia Xinyu, while Qing Ling and Grand Tutor guarded the imperial city.
• Xuantian and four Third Xiantian Tribulation experts attacked Dragon Garden, but Master Bing, Ritual Elder, and Music Elder emerged and forced them to retreat, killing Xingyun in the fighting.
• The three elders met Xia Ziyi, who demanded an explanation for their long concealment, and Grand Tutor escorted them to Heavenly Edict Hall.
• Changsun challenged the elders over deceiving the sovereign, and Master Bing said they had unavoidable difficulties.
• Ning Chen attended the Hulei emperor’s wedding in disguise as the bride arrived at the palace hall.

In the Heavenly Edict Hall, Changsun warned Xia Ziyi not to let his ties to the Confucian Sect outweigh his duties as emperor. At Li Youwei’s wedding in the Hulei Dynasty, Duke Muyang disrupted the marriage alliance and unleashed a deadly insect swarm, leaving the Hulei Emperor facing an impossible choice.

• Master Bing claimed that the Confucian Sect’s three Supreme Elders had fallen into false death while cultivating an art, and Grand Tutor supported his account.
• Changsun dismissed the elders and reminded Xia Ziyi that he was first the Emperor of Great Xia and only then a disciple of the Confucian Sect’s leader.
• As Li Youwei and the Hulei Emperor prepared to complete their wedding rites, Duke Muyang arrived with two elders and demanded that Li Youwei return with him.
• Duke Muyang attacked Li Youwei, and Jiang Hua appeared and struck him down after the Hulei Emperor clashed with the blue-robed elder.
• Venerable Yuan released a swarm of white insects that devoured nobles and threatened to overwhelm the Imperial Enshriners’ defenses.
• Duke Muyang demanded that Li Youwei return, while the Hulei Emperor prepared to choose between surrendering her and risking the dynasty’s destruction.