Chapter Summaries

Chu Ming entered the Hanmo Confucian Temple’s literary aura assessment and passed its first two trials, impressing the temple instructors with his speed through the Page Maze. Outside, Ji Wujiang and Jin Yuntang wagered Spirit Treasures on their juniors’ progress, while Chu Ming and Wang Ru remained among the seven who passed the second trial.

• Chu Ming registered for the Confucian Temple trial and passed the first test by revealing and copying the hidden words on his literary paper.
• Ji Wujiang and Jin Yuntang clashed at a tavern, then wagered a first-rate Spirit Treasure and five hundred Star Sand on which kingdom’s juniors would emerge from the temple first; Xuanyuan Ye agreed to witness.
• Chu Ming entered the Page Maze, read its scattered pages, and completed the trial in less than a quarter-hour, prompting the temple instructors to summon Temple Priest Xuanyuan Huikong.
• Zhuque Huan, Ling Long, Wang Ru, and others awoke from the maze; seven candidates, including Chu Ming, passed the second trial before the remaining ten were dismissed.
• Ji Wujiang and Jin Yuntang saw that their juniors had passed and continued their wager, while Wang Ru asked Chu Ming when he had awakened.

Chu Ming used the Literary Temple’s book-wall trial to expand his Lake of Books and awaken the Golden House Within Books, a hidden space capable of storing treasures. As the trial neared its end, Zhuque Huan correctly answered the third sage’s name, while Ling Long prepared to submit her answer and Chu Ming continued reading.

• Chu Ming entered the book-wall trial with the other six candidates and used his Sword Gourd Spiritual Sense to scan its many books while searching for the sages’ names.
• Xuanyuan Ye proposed new wager terms to Ji Wujiang and Jin Yuntang, offering to arrange admission and mentorship for a favored junior who passed while claiming both first-rate Spirit Treasures if neither passed.
• Chu Ming lit the first two answer grooves, surprising the temple instructors, who realized he had quietly found the relevant books while they watched Zhuque Huan and Ling Long.
• As Chu Ming read more than two thousand books, his Lake of Books expanded and his Book Intent Painting Realm advanced, revealing a Golden House Within Books that he used to store his Spirit Treasures and Mustard Seed Spaces.
• Near the end of the trial, Zhuque Huan correctly submitted the third sage’s name, and Ling Long went to submit her answer as well.

Chu Ming passed the Confucian Temple’s third trial while Wang Ru was expelled for breaking its rules, provoking humiliation and anger in the tavern. Xuanyuan Ye announced that Chu Ming had passed and insisted on honoring the wager by inviting him to the Azure Luan Marquis Manor; Chu Ming remained in the temple courtyard with the other two successful candidates.

• Ling Long answered the trial correctly, while Wang Ru tried to distract Chu Ming and was expelled for violating the Confucian Temple’s rules.
• Xuanyuan Ye summoned Wang Ru, who mistook the invitation for praise; after learning Chu Ming had passed, Wang Ru collapsed and Jin Yuntang dragged him away.
• Chu Ming submitted his final answer just before time ran out and passed the third trial alongside Ling Long and Zhuque Huan.
• Xuanyuan Ye confirmed Chu Ming had passed, and Ji Wujiang received Jin Yuntang’s first-rate Spirit Treasure as payment for the wager.
• Xuanyuan Ye insisted on keeping his promise to invite Chu Ming to Azure Luan Marquis Manor and went to the Confucian Temple with Ji Wujiang.

Chu Ming completed the Hanmo Confucian Temple’s entry ceremony and was personally accepted as a student by Temple Keeper Xuanyuan Huikong, then received a Qingwan Token from Xuanyuan Ye. As he left with Ji Wujiang, Ling Long introduced him to her mother, Ling Qiong, who greeted him and Ji Wujiang.

• Chu Ming, Ling Long, and Zhuque Huan entered Hanmo Confucian Temple as literary students after completing the trials and paying respects to the Brush-and-Ink Sage.
• Xuanyuan Ye urged Xuanyuan Huikong to take Chu Ming as a student, and the Temple Keeper agreed after praising Chu Ming’s composure during the trials.
• Xuanyuan Huikong gave Chu Ming a golden document marking him as his personal student, while Zhuque Huan suppressed his jealousy and left to report to his family.
• Xuanyuan Ye gave Chu Ming a Qingwan Token granting him fifty grains of Star Sand each year, and Chu Ming learned that the gift fulfilled Xuanyuan Ye’s wager with Ji Wujiang.
• Jin Yuntang threatened Ji Wujiang from afar and killed Wang Ru, while Chu Ming exchanged communication tokens with Ling Long outside the temple.
• Ling Qiong arrived, scolded Ling Long for speaking with Chu Ming, then changed her attitude after learning he was the Temple Keeper’s personal student and greeted Ji Wujiang.

After earning three Spirit Treasures and the attention of powerful allies, Chu Ming used the Lake of Books to begin an unprecedented breakthrough from the Sixth Realm to the Seventh. As Ji Wujiang learned of his disciple’s breakthrough, Old Man Shi and Old Ji discovered Chu Ming was in Tianmu City and debated how to recruit him without driving him away again.

• Ling Qiong gave Chu Ming the Glazed Spirit Pendant, and Wuding Sheng and Ba Manshan later gave him two more Spirit Treasures while seeking his favor.
• Baihong Nanyou brought Yin Fang to meet Chu Ming, then sent her to deliver Spirit-Nourishing Pills; Chu Ming declined to open his door and focused on the fragments expanding his Lake of Books.
• Chu Ming used the expanded Lake of Books to devise a method for slowly infiltrating his Primordial Sense into the three connected parts of his Void Mansion and beginning his Seventh Realm breakthrough.
• Ji Wujiang received Chu Ming’s message that he was breaking through and realized his disciple might reach the Seventh Realm, while the others continued praising Chu Ming and discussing a possible match with Yin Fang.
• Tantai Xiu learned that Chu Ming had appeared in Tianmu City, and Old Man Shi and Old Ji resolved to find a way to recruit him without using force.

Tantai Xiu learned that Chu Ming was pursuing the Langshu Realm and planned to use the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway to approach him. Chu Ming broke through to the Seventh Realm, discovered the limits of his Golden House Within Books, and entered the Temple of Literature’s library ahead of the stairway trial.

• Tantai Xiu and Granny Yin concluded that Chu Ming was likely seeking the Langshu Realm, so Tantai Xiu arranged special trials to create a natural opportunity to meet him.
• Chu Ming transformed his three inner realms and reached the Seventh Realm’s early Spirit Opening stage, gaining three extra lives.
• Ji Wujiang learned of Chu Ming’s breakthrough and explained the dangers of the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway; Chu Ming decided to enter using treasures without revealing his strength.
• Chu Ming tested the Golden House Within Books, finding that it could hold a powerful Cold Flood Dragon but that weaker living things withered inside it.
• Chu Ming returned to Tianmu City and entered the Temple of Literature’s library, where he saw the vast wall of books before the stairway trial.

Chu Ming advanced Golden House Within Books while reading in the Hanmo Confucian Temple library, then revealed that he had entered literary cultivation and asked to join the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway. As Xuanyuan Huikong and the temple instructors questioned his reading and practical skill, Chu Ming demonstrated increasingly precise script arts, leaving them astonished and suspicious.

• Chu Ming read more than two thousand books, expanded Golden House Within Books to a hundred zhang, and discovered that its progress could continue beyond 100/1000.
• Xuanyuan Huikong summoned Chu Ming, who recited an insightful passage from Meng's Annotated Classics and demonstrated that he had independently cultivated literary qi.
• Chu Ming asked to participate in the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway, and Xuanyuan Huikong agreed and gave him the sixth-tier Origin Artifact Twenty-One Golden Scriptures.
• Xuanyuan Huikong reported Chu Ming's plans to Tantai Xiu, while Granny Yin and Old Man Shi discussed helping him reach the thirtieth level without exposing his strength.
• After Chu Ming spent two more days reading in the library space, Xuanyuan Huikong challenged his knowledge and practical skill, and Chu Ming answered questions and produced an azure script dragon and black tortoise.

Chu Ming demonstrated extraordinary talent by performing two literary arts at once, and Xuanyuan Huikong urged him to challenge the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway. As Chu Ming became trapped on its first floor, his protectors and other challengers gathered on the stairway, while Tantai Yuyue climbed ahead and doubted he needed her protection.

• Chu Ming combined the Green Turtle and Literary Wind arts, then unexpectedly formed a Literary Wind Blade, shocking Xuanyuan Huikong and Canjue and Canquan.
• Xuanyuan Huikong learned that the library's blocked book wall led to the Yuanmo Literary Temple's collection, then persuaded Chu Ming to challenge the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway the next day.
• Xuanyuan Huikong arranged for Luo Chang and Luo Su to secretly protect Chu Ming, while Tantai Xiu arranged for Tantai Yuyue to protect him and the Yuanmo Literary Temple Master gave her the Heart-Washing Inkstone and Punishment Brush.
• Ji Wujiang, Baihong Nanyou, Wuding Sheng, and Ba Manshan decided to wager in support of Chu Ming's challenge.
• Chu Ming entered the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway and struggled against its first-floor pressure and murderous characters as Xuanyuan Huikong predicted he would stop there.
• Tantai Yuyue climbed to the seventh floor with ease and questioned why Chu Ming needed protection, while Luo Chang and Luo Su waited on the third floor and saw Chu Ming still stuck below.

Chu Ming rapidly climbed the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway as his Golden Script Divine Dragon grew stronger, while Tantai Yuyue secretly followed him and his true identity came under suspicion. He reached the nineteenth step, where several streaks of light attacked him.

• Chu Ming formed the Golden Script Divine Dragon in his sea of consciousness and discovered it could autonomously deduce cultivation techniques as it grew.
• Chu Ming climbed rapidly from the first step to the eleventh, and he used Xuanyuan Huikong's Twenty-One Golden Scriptures to punish a scholar who attacked him.
• Chu Ming realized Tantai Yuyue was concealing her identity and suspected she was the Tianmu Kingdom princess; she continued following him to show goodwill.
• Chu Ming and Tantai Yuyue passed the illusions on the upper steps, while Luo Chang and Luo Su struggled to catch up with them.
• At the seventeenth step, Chu Ming strengthened the Golden Script Divine Dragon by overcoming an illusion, then climbed to the nineteenth step, where azure and gray streaks of light shot toward him.

Chu Ming read within the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway’s sea-of-books illusion while Tantai Yuyue guarded him, then continued climbing with her escort. By the twenty-seventh step, Xuanyuan Huikong and Xuanyuan Ye had wagered on how far Chu Ming would go, while Chu Ming finally began to wake again.

• Chu Ming blocked attacks with five pages of the Twenty-One Golden Scriptures and entered a sea-of-books illusion, where he discovered that its books were real and read many of them.
• Xuanyuan Huikong suspected Chu Ming was deliberately lingering to read, while Granny Yin decided Tantai Yuyue should reveal her strength if Chu Ming showed gratitude and withdraw if he did not.
• Tantai Yuyue drove Luo Chang and Luo Su down ten steps after they attacked, and Chu Ming thanked her before moving on to the twentieth step.
• After identifying Tantai Yuyue through her Tianmu Record, Xuanyuan Huikong and Xuanyuan Ye discussed her escorting Chu Ming, while Ji Wujiang’s companions placed additional treasures on Chu Ming’s progress.
• Chu Ming and Tantai Yuyue climbed together through the twenty-fifth step to the twenty-seventh as she guarded him during each illusion.
• Xuanyuan Ye predicted Chu Ming would reach thirty steps, Xuanyuan Huikong wagered on thirty-three, and Tantai Yuyue noticed Chu Ming waking on the twenty-seventh step.

Chu Ming reached the thirty-fifth stair of the Heart-Questioning Heavenly Stairway, gained a new Lake of Mountains and Seas guide pointing to the Youli Sea, and was taken in as Xuanyuan Huizhi’s personal disciple at Songmo Literary Prefecture. After Chu Ming agreed to join Ji Wujiang’s group on an expedition to Thousand Demon Island, Xuanyuan Huizhi began introducing him to the Literary Prefecture.

• Chu Ming climbed to the thirty-fifth stair, where his reading progress reached 737 and Lake of Mountains and Seas gained a painted guide pointing toward the Youli Sea.
• Wuding Sheng, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou collected their gambling winnings with Ji Wujiang, whose wager earned him ten first-rate Spirit Treasures.
• Tantai Yuyue urged Xuanyuan Huizhi to accept her and Chu Ming as disciples, and Xuanyuan Huizhi named Chu Ming his personal disciple and brought him to Songmo Literary Prefecture.
• Tantai Xiu confirmed that Tantai Yuyue would study under Xuanyuan Huizhi, the Literary Edict of the Lofty Ink Literary Temple.
• Ji Wujiang agreed to join Wuding Sheng, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou on an expedition to Thousand Demon Island after Chu Ming agreed to accompany them.
• Xuanyuan Huizhi introduced Chu Ming to Songmo Literary Prefecture and began explaining its cultivation methods.

Chu Ming joined the Literary Manor, rapidly comprehended its three cultivation methods, and revealed that he had already reached the middle stage of the First Realm. After arranging a return to Qi Kingdom as a cover, he set out with Ji Wujiang and the others for the Youli Sea, while Jin Yuntang and Dark Baleful followed.

• Mr. Xie gave Chu Ming three Seventh Realm literary cultivation methods and the defensive Blackwater Mystic Tablet, while Xuanyuan Huizhi assigned Xuanyuan Ye to guide him.
• Chu Ming secretly used the book repository space for three days, then demonstrated deep understanding of all three methods to Xuanyuan Huizhi and revealed seven strands of Yuan after less than twenty days of cultivation.
• Xuanyuan Huizhi gave Chu Ming Enlightenment Pills and protective treasures, then allowed him to leave the Literary Manor for Qi Kingdom with Ji Wujiang.
• Xuanyuan Ye helped Chu Ming and Ji Wujiang's companions confront Jin Yuntang and Dark Baleful, who had threatened them over a stolen treasure.
• Chu Ming arranged for Jiang Zhan to impersonate him in Qi Kingdom, returned to Tianmu Kingdom in black as Hong Jun, and departed with Ji Wujiang, Wuding Sheng, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou for the Youli Sea.
• Jin Yuntang and Dark Baleful followed the group, while Tantai Kui reported Chu Ming's departure to Old Man Shi and Granny Yin.

Chu Ming traveled with Ji Wujiang’s group to Thousand Demon Island while Tantai Xiu secretly followed, hoping to assess Chu Ming and keep him from fleeing. On the island, Jin Yuntang and two allies ambushed the group over Ji Wujiang’s treasures, leaving them facing a powerful mid-Seventh Realm attacker.

• Granny Yin sent Tantai Xiu to secretly watch Chu Ming in the Youli Sea, and Tantai Xiu brought Lu Wang and Guo Qi as helpers.
• Chu Ming crossed the Youli Sea with Ji Wujiang, Wuding Sheng, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou, sensing Tantai Xiu’s group following them as they fought black tiger sharks and survived black-wave tsunamis.
• The group reached Thousand Demon Island and began advancing toward a valley while Chu Ming detected Jin Yuntang and two others approaching from behind.
• Tantai Xiu told Lu Wang and Guo Qi not to intervene until Ji Wujiang’s group was nearly overwhelmed, then directed Lu Wang to rescue them.
• Jin Yuntang confronted Ji Wujiang, while Bone South demanded that Ji Wujiang hand over the first-rate Spirit Treasures he had won.

Chu Ming killed Bone South and the traitors who had allied with him, then became trapped with Tantai Xiu and others inside the Riftspace Golden-Winged Roc clan’s trial forbidden ground. Tantai Xiu explained that they could leave only when the dangerous trial ended and offered Chu Ming information about it.

• Chu Ming killed Bone South with a single slash of True Intent, then killed Dark Baleful and Jin Yuntang as they fled.
• Chu Ming struck down Wuding Sheng after Ji Wujiang found evidence that he had secretly betrayed them, and Ba Manshan and Baihong Nanyou accepted the evidence and thanked Chu Ming.
• Tantai Xiu charged toward Chu Ming, but a black-mist seal covered Thousand Demon Island and trapped those inside a Riftspace clan trial.
• Tantai Yu confronted the Riftspace Golden Peng outside the seal, but learned that the forbidden ground could not be opened before the trial ended.
• Inside the forbidden ground, Chu Ming saw someone die after crashing into the black mist, then met Tantai Xiu and Lu Wang.
• Tantai Xiu gave Chu Ming jade slips about the trial and explained that the humans and strange beast clans trapped inside were trial-takers.

Chu Ming led Ji Wujiang, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou through the Riftspace Trial as waves of beasts hunted the humans trapped inside. After revealing his perfected first-level True Intent of Destruction, Chu Ming drove off a Riftspace Golden Roc and continued toward the trial’s depths.

• Tantai Xiu gave Chu Ming jade slips explaining that the forbidden ground was the Riftspace Golden-Winged Roc’s trial, where humans had to fight for Beast Blood Crystals.
• Chu Ming rescued Ji Wujiang, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou from five Bone-Eroding Demon Ants, while beast attacks killed half the humans in the trial’s first wave.
• Tantai Xiu and Lu Wang fought two powerful Riftspace Golden Rocs; Tantai Xiu revealed his Divine Speed True Intent as they tried to escape.
• The Riftspace Golden Roc King watched the trial with Tantai Yu and revealed that a late-stage roc was heading toward Chu Ming and the others.
• A Riftspace Golden Roc confronted Chu Ming and his companions, but Chu Ming’s Seven Stars Divine Sword and Mutated Black Flame wounded it and forced it to flee.
• Chu Ming declined to pursue the wounded roc and led his companions deeper into the forbidden ground.

Chu Ming drove off two Riftspace Golden Rocs and reached the Riftspace clan’s final trial ground with Ji Wujiang and his companions. The beast blood trial began, and two of the clan’s young Golden Rocs were cut down by the Old Ancestor’s wind blades.

• Tantai Yu learned that Chu Ming had mastered first-layer-complete True Intent of Destruction and chose not to intervene as the Riftspace Golden Rocs pursued him.
• Chu Ming used black flames and a Seven Stars Divine Sword to frighten off two pursuing Riftspace Golden Rocs, then continued toward the clan’s final trial ground with Ji Wujiang, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou.
• Tantai Xiu met Chu Ming at the forbidden ground, explained the trial, and gave him a jade slip containing research on the Riftspace Golden Roc bloodline.
• Chu Ming studied the jade slip and sensed that three stateless people might be connected to the Classic of Mountains and Seas and Great Wilderness.
• The beast blood trial began, and Lie Kong Lei led the eleven Riftspace Golden Rocs inside to face the Old Ancestor’s wind blades.
• Two mid-stage seventh-rank Riftspace Golden Rocs failed to withstand the wind blades and were cut down.

Chu Ming and Tantai Xiu survived the Riftspace Trial’s wind blades, and Chu Ming discovered a way to break them and shared a secret art with Tantai Xiu. Chu Ming entered the deadly Blood Sea and found a platform occupied by six Split-Space Golden Rocs and the stateless man, while Lie Kong Tie tried to hide his fear of him.

• Scaled beasts and humans entered the forbidden ground, where failed outsiders were killed by the wind blades and swallowed by the Blood Sea.
• Tantai Yu traded a True Intent battle weapon and swore an oath to see the trial projection; Tantai Xiu and Lu Wang then entered the trial and blocked the wind blades.
• Chu Ming entered the forbidden ground, endured the wind blades, and used his insight to make one crumble; he gave Tantai Xiu a jade slip containing a wind-blade secret art.
• The stateless man and six Split-Space Golden Rocs entered the Blood Sea, while the Split-Space Golden Roc King warned the humans to stay out.
• Chu Ming descended into the Blood Sea, saw the platform beneath it, and faced the six Split-Space Golden Rocs, including Lie Kong Tie.

Chu Ming entered the Riftspace Golden Roc trial platform with Tantai Xiu and Lu Wang, where they drew down beast blood crystals and began fusing with them. Chu Ming absorbed the crystals’ power to comprehend teleportation, and when his crystal shattered, its dark-golden blood qi helped Lie Kong Lei complete all twelve blood patterns; Lie Kong Lei then looked down in confusion.

• Chu Ming walked through the Blood Sea Wind Blades, and Tantai Xiu used Chu Ming’s secret art to lead Lu Wang safely onto the platform.
• The beast blood crystals descended over the Riftspace Golden Rocs, Chu Ming, Tantai Xiu, and the Stateless One; Chu Ming absorbed the crystal’s violent power inside his Golden House and comprehended teleportation.
• The Stateless One exploded while attempting to fuse a second blood pattern, while Lie Kong Lei fused eleven patterns and struggled to complete the final one.
• Chu Ming absorbed the last of the crystal’s dark-golden blood, and his cracked beast blood crystal shattered as the trial’s blood pillars withdrew.
• The dark-golden blood qi from Chu Ming’s shattered crystal enveloped Lie Kong Lei, allowing him to fuse all twelve patterns and succeed; he then looked down in confusion.

Chu Ming survived the Rift-Splitting Golden Roc Clan’s hostility after the clan’s king mistook the Old Ancestor’s bloodline aura within him for a sign of their ancestor’s favor, then escorted him off Thousand Demon Island with a precious golden feather. Back in Tianmu Kingdom, Chu Ming joined the Martial Palace as Hong Jun and prepared to keep his identities separate from Ji Wujiang.

• Chu Ming asked Tantai Xiu to protect Ji Wujiang, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou, but the Rift-Splitting Golden Roc King barred him from leaving after the beast blood crystal shattered.
• Lie Kong Lei told his father that Chu Ming had helped him fuse with the crystal, and the Rift-Splitting Golden Roc King sensed the Old Ancestor’s pure bloodline aura in Chu Ming.
• The Rift-Splitting Golden Roc King welcomed Chu Ming, gave him a Split-Space Golden Feather, and escorted him off Thousand Demon Island with Lie Kong Lei.
• Chu Ming returned to Tianmu Kingdom with Ji Wujiang, Ba Manshan, and Baihong Nanyou, then accepted Tantai Yu’s invitation to join the Martial Palace after Tantai Xiu mentioned its cultivation methods.
• Chu Ming gave Ba Manshan and Baihong Nanyou some treasures and handed Ji Wujiang a Mustard Seed Space containing treasures and martial arts, while explaining that Hong Jun’s enemies meant he could not stay long.

After obtaining treasures and a fragment of the Wilderness Classic, Chu Ming spent three months breaking through to the Seventh Realm and visited the Tianmu Kingdom Martial Palace to study its techniques. He gained insight into the kingdom’s place in the Guxuan Western Continent, received Tantai Yu’s Tianmu True Technique, and advanced Book Intent Painting Realm into Boundless Sea of Books, whose spatial teleportation effect he planned to test after leaving.

• Chu Ming examined the Split-Space Golden Feather and the Stateless One’s Mustard Seed Space, finding pills, innate Spirit Treasures, and a fragment of the Wilderness Classic.
• Chu Ming used the Wilderness Classic and his preparations to cultivate for three months, breaking through to the martial Seventh Realm, the Guiyuan Realm.
• Chu Ming met Ji Wujiang, then went to the Martial Palace, where Tantai Yu and Tantai Xiu welcomed him and learned he had advanced to the Seventh Realm.
• Tantai Yu explained why Tianmu Kingdom did not unify the other thirty kingdoms, discussed the higher realms, and gave Chu Ming the Tianmu True Technique and his cultivation insights.
• Chu Ming read the Martial Palace’s techniques and martial skills, advancing Book Intent Painting Realm to Boundless Sea of Books and gaining the effects Golden House Mark and Spatial Teleportation.
• After reading for more than a day, Chu Ming finished the available books and prepared to leave the Martial Palace to test his new spatial ability.