Chapter Summaries

Sun Ping adjusted to life in the Expeditionary Army’s base, reflecting on his past and the Cosmic Federation that had saved him. As the base opened a virtual environment to comfort survivors, he grew more curious about the Federation and learned that the earliest rescued people had already left for another world.

• Sun Ping recalled how contamination had warped his dreams and pushed him toward madness outside the base, while the vaccine had made his dreams normal again.
• After spending the night remembering the past and thinking about his future, Sun Ping got up at dawn and went outside.
• Sun Ping explored the base’s simulated ancient city, then switched to real mode to see its hemispherical metal interior and central plaza.
• Sun Ping reflected on how the Expeditionary Army had expanded survivors’ activity space with virtual reality while restricting access to important areas after a survivor nearly sabotaged the base.
• Sun Ping grew curious about the Cosmic Federation and learned that the earliest group of rescued people had already crossed a gate to another world.

Bai Luo sensed the Mother Empress’s growing restlessness and realized how terrifying a threat she posed, while Chu Guang explained his renewed path of swordsmanship and the limits of imagined courage. The chapter left them facing the Mother Empress’s upheaval as Chu Guang urged Bai Luo to judge strength only when a true crisis arrived.

• Bai Luo looked up from a snowfield and sensed the Mother Empress’s annihilating power drawing near.
• Chu Guang answered Bai Luo’s fears and reflected on how the Mother Empress had deliberately spared a fraction of humanity.
• Chu Guang recalled how Bai Luo’s ability had helped him establish crucial bases quickly and earn civilization points.
• Chu Guang used those points to rebuild his Sword Seed and chose to cultivate a new, higher path rather than reclaim his former Sword Saint realm.
• Bai Luo admitted that her confidence in the Federation had collapsed as fear of the Mother Empress took hold.
• Chu Guang argued that people’s courage could not be proven through meditation or boasts, only through real catastrophe.

Chu Guang explained to Bai Luo how confidence, restraint, and self-reliance could strengthen people, then offered her a chance to borrow the Demon God's power to help her recover. Four days later, Bai Luo confronted the research institute's bizarre design for the Divine Descent from the Heavens ritual.

• Chu Guang told Bai Luo that true strength came from restraint and confidence, and that the Expeditionary Army needed hardship to overcome its immaturity.
• Bai Luo reflected on the failures of her two lives and admitted that her attempts to build a paradise had been fragile.
• Chu Guang urged Bai Luo to grow stronger and offered her a Divine Descent from the Heavens slot so she could borrow the Demon God's power.
• Four days later, Bai Luo saw a statue of a young Demon God holding a sword inscribed with “Invincible Under Heaven” and “Please Grant Me Power.”
• Chu Guang explained that the research institute had chosen the statue and phrases to improve the ritual's resonance and direct the borrowed power.

Chu Guang used the raging destruction in the Void to temper his spirit and completed part of his Sword Seed talent. He reached level 15 in Basic Swordsmanship and gained the special effect Heart of Heaven.

• Chu Guang explained how to use the divine statue to Bai Luo and left the base.
• Chu Guang sensed the Virus Mother’s destructive influence in the storm and deliberately opened his mind to the Void.
• Chu Guang endured the destructive force while using the spirit of heaven and earth to temper his own spirit.
• Chu Guang’s mental strength and spiritual power were depleted, but a Bright Light bloomed in his spiritual world.
• The Log recorded that Chu Guang’s Basic Swordsmanship reached LV15 and granted him the special effect Heart of Heaven.

After surrendering divine descent to Bai Luo, Chu Guang gained a powerful swordsmanship insight that transformed his character and secured his bond with the Book of Civilization. As he tempered himself, the Mother Empress’s destructive influence intensified, overwhelming exposed soldiers and transforming terrifying monsters into reality.

• Chu Guang condensed a powerful special effect after giving up divine descent to Bai Luo and gaining insight into swordsmanship.
• Bai Luo sensed Chu Guang’s newly noble bearing, and Chu Guang explained that he had crossed a crucial threshold.
• Chu Guang realized his destiny had fused with his fortune, anchoring the Book of Civilization to him so that it would scatter if he died.
• Chu Guang stopped taking missions for precious minerals and focused on tempering his spirit beneath heavenly might, letting go of his former narrowness.
• The Mother Empress grew increasingly agitated as destructive information filled the void, causing exposed Expeditionary Army members to suffer illusions and natives to die within minutes.
• Giant beasts assembled from corpses began transforming, as monsters that had once terrified crowds evolved into reality.

As the information virus awakened, the world erupted into horrific forms made from the dead, while Chu Guang told the survivors to prepare for a temporary glimpse of a peaceful Earth. At a research institute, Federation Scholars explained that destroying the Virus Mother would not heal the universe’s underlying damage.

• The active information virus transformed corpses into monstrous, suffering creatures, terrifying the survivors who had not yet passed through the Gate of the Universe.
• Bai Luo recognized part of a powerful transcendent from her era among the monsters and feared she might have suffered the same fate if she had died.
• Chu Guang explained that the creatures were not the souls of the dead but echoes produced by the information virus, and said Divine Descent from the Heavens would be ready in about three hours.
• Researchers told one another that destroying the Virus Mother would not fundamentally repair the damage to the universe, which they described as a corruption of its underlying rules.
• The Cosmic Federation’s research institute ranked its researchers as Scholars, Grand Scholars, and Sages, with no Sages yet appointed.

Jason Tutton explained how higher dimensions could affect matter and qualify his theory of time reversal while Zhao Cheng listened at the research institute. As the Divine Descent from the Heavens activated, Bai Luo’s statue connected with a phenomenon spanning both universes.

• Jason Tutton described how higher dimensions could enable error correction in the universe and change assumptions about time reversal.
• Tutton told Zhao Cheng that researchers planned to study the Virus Mother Empress and the world’s destructive factor.
• Zhao Cheng listened and let the researchers investigate possibilities he had already observed across timelines.
• The Divine Descent from the Heavens activated, converting energy stored at bases across the planet into waves transmitted outward.
• Bai Luo’s statue lit up, rose into the air, and connected with the phenomenon distorting both universes.

Bai Luo used Divine Descent from the Heavens to destroy the Mother Empress, allowing the survivors to evacuate before the two worlds overlapped. Earth expanded as the other world vanished, and the survivors faced trials for their past crimes.

• Bai Luo touched the statue, reached the summit of the Dao of Heaven, and used the Light of Civilization to resist losing herself.
• Bai Luo crushed the Mother Empress, shattering and remaking a layer of the world's time and space.
• The survivors evacuated, and the Expeditionary Army gathered resources and conducted research before dismantling its bases and returning to Earth.
• On the twentieth day, the other world vanished, and Earth's area expanded while mountains, rivers, roads, and buildings changed without earthquakes.
• The survivors mourned their former world and learned that some would serve on juries while others would face trial for their past sins.

Five days after receiving the Ladder of God Foundation, Chu Guang tested his rapidly improving Golden Flame and reflected on the Federation’s citizen system and his ability’s future potential. He had also become famous after a documentary about the Expeditionary Army premiered, leaving him surprised by how much attention his role had received.

• Chu Guang tested his Golden Flame and found that it lasted nearly three seconds before his energy was depleted and began to recover.
• Chu Guang considered how the Federation granted citizens benefits through military service or contributions, while limiting the privileges of those who did not advance its interests.
• Chu Guang compared his rapid improvement after the Ladder of God injection with his past life and recalled that his Golden Flame ranked seventh among recorded flame abilities.
• Chu Guang recalled that the documentary Civilization Expedition: Information Doomsday had made him globally famous, though he thought Li Hongyi’s battle-filled story was far more spectacular.
• Chu Guang noted that audiences debated his decision to let Feng Aotian invite divine descent, with some regretting his choice and others joking about the imperial court taking his bowl.

After the documentary made Chu Guang’s achievements famous, he attended a massive Civilization Court trial for hundreds of criminals from the apocalyptic world. As the judge stripped them of their rights and ordered their execution, Chu Guang sensed that the trial marked the survivors’ true integration into the Federation and a new beginning for their civilization.

• After the documentary went viral, Chu Guang received attention and romantic advances from former classmates but found them unimportant.
• Chu Guang arrived at the Civilization Court and saw survivors, Federation citizens, and Expeditionary Army members gathered for the trial.
• Sun Ping reflected on the survivors’ new lives, rejected political power games, and planned to finish his education and pursue painting.
• A floating metal-sphere judge appeared, and hundreds of concealed criminals were brought before the court.
• The court displayed evidence of the criminals’ deeds, and the judge stripped them of their rights and ordered their immediate execution.
• Chu Guang sensed extraordinary power and realized the trial marked the apocalyptic civilization’s integration into the Federation.

Zhao Cheng chose the unusually compatible Seize the Dragon instance as his Panel simulations refreshed, despite being unable to see how it related to qi. As he entered it, powerful beings watching Earth debated the rising power arriving from the future, and the Jade Origin Daoist grew suspicious of Taiyi but remained hesitant to trust Zhao Cheng.

• Zhao Cheng observed that Earth's strengthened civilization had increased the Light of Civilization and accelerated his accumulation of Miracle Points.
• Zhao Cheng reviewed the refreshed simulations and selected Seize the Dragon after noticing its 132% compatibility.
• The Jade Origin Daoist and Great Mystery Patriarch discussed Earth's civilization and questioned why power from the future was arriving faster than expected.
• Taiyi attributed the change to the surging tide of calamity and swore that his explanation was true.
• The Jade Origin Daoist suspected Taiyi had a hidden problem but hesitated to contact Zhao Cheng because the Demon Fetus was still too weak.

The chapter recounts the rise and fall of ancient dynasties, from Jun’s first Sovereign Kingdom to the age of Emperors and the later Sovereign-Emperors. After Cang’s dynasty lost its sacred cauldron, contenders across the realm raced to seize it, beginning the struggle called Seizing the Dragon.

• Jun became the first Sovereign, established Jun Kingdom, and created a Divine Dynasty in the void after his death.
• Xuan overthrew Jun Kingdom, won the former dynasty’s people over, and founded a prosperous new dynasty.
• Successive kingdoms rose and fell until the nine Divine Dynasties transformed into the Nine Heavens and Jun became the first Heavenly Emperor.
• Yan usurped Tai Kingdom, changed his title from Sovereign to Emperor, and founded Yan Kingdom.
• After the age of Emperors ended, Qin united the warring kings and named himself the Sovereign-Emperor.
• Cang founded a later dynasty, which lost its sacred cauldron eighteen hundred years afterward, sparking the struggle called Seizing the Dragon.

Zhao Cheng entered an apocalyptic world divided between the material earth and the Void, where he discovered that a world-consuming horror had absorbed nearly everything and was nearing Immortality. He avoided looking at it and began examining the world's structure, which reminded him of his understanding of Immortality.

• Zhao Cheng assessed the instance's Origin-grade traits and learned that its earth and Void had radically different scales of time and power.
• He selected three traits and appeared on a lifeless earth, discovering that the Void and almost all of the material world had vanished.
• Zhao Cheng inferred that the apocalypse had fused the world's power into an ultimate horror nearing Immortality.
• He refused to perceive the horror directly, knowing that seeing it would alert it to his presence.
• Zhao Cheng examined the earth's stable material structure and the Void's amplified powers, connecting the world's nature to his understanding of Immortality.

Zhao Cheng studied the world’s structure and refined his body and spirit before confronting the Dark Emperor, whose Immortal power pushed him into a breakthrough. He glimpsed the Primordial Origin beyond the Four Calamities, but the Dark Emperor continued attacking after Zhao Cheng severed one of his fingers, annihilating everything around them.

• Zhao Cheng compared the world’s structure to Dao Gods and adjusted his cultivation while studying it.
• The Dark Emperor emerged from a black cocoon and struck at Zhao Cheng with the power of Immortality.
• Zhao Cheng welcomed the pressure, ignited Battle Blood, and swung Void Kalpa at the Dark Emperor.
• Zhao Cheng glimpsed the fifth calamity stage, Primordial Origin, and unleashed a sword strike that severed one of the Dark Emperor’s fingers.
• The Dark Emperor pressed down with his remaining fingers, blasting everything into a void finer than dust.

After fifteen battles with the Dark Emperor, Zhao Cheng condensed the embryonic Primordial Origin Kalpa and devised a plan to plant his Dao within the gestating Demon Fetus. He traveled to the Great Cang era a hundred years earlier, assumed the identity of a dying Daoist who shared his name, and sensed the Void’s mysteries.

• Zhao Cheng reflected on the Dark Emperor’s pseudo-immortality and concluded that defeating him had helped advance his cultivation.
• Over fifteen simulations, Zhao Cheng progressed from severing the Dark Emperor’s finger to cutting off his hand, but reached his limit and condensed the embryonic Primordial Origin Kalpa.
• Zhao Cheng decided to travel to the time anchor and plant a seed within the Demon Fetus while it was still gestating.
• Zhao Cheng descended into the late Great Cang period and planned to establish a nation to gain authority over a world within the Void without attracting the Demon Fetus’s attention.
• Zhao Cheng found a seventeen-year-old Daoist of the Yellow Heaven whose name matched his, took over the strand of qi left as the Daoist died, and sensed the Void’s mysteries.

The chapter explained how Daoist cultivation, imperial conferments, and the qi of living beings shaped power in the world, while Zhao Cheng’s original body became a lotus seed within the Yellow Heaven Dharma Realm. It ended by describing why Daoists pursuing an earthly kingdom had never succeeded: they could abandon a losing struggle and ascend, leaving others to bear the consequences.

• He replaced Daoist Zhao Cheng’s qi without the Demon Fetus detecting him, and Zhao Cheng’s original body became an invisible seed.
• Zhao Cheng’s seed merged into his third-grade golden lotus, which was sheltered by the Yellow Heaven Dharma Realm.
• The chapter laid out the thirty-six grades of the Yellow Heaven Great Method and the different immortal fruits reached at major thresholds.
• It explained that Daoist merit and imperial conferments drew upon the qi of living beings, while lavish conferments weakened dynasties and invited calamity.
• The chapter described emperors exploiting and later purging Daoists, while Daoists continued seeking conferment as a path to immortality.
• Daoists who tried to establish kingdoms on earth had never succeeded, because they could withdraw from defeat and ascend, leaving the struggle behind.

Zhao Cheng reflected on Yellow Heaven Daoist’s selfless rebellion and the doomed history of the Yellow Heaven Army while coordinating his true body with his fragile Daoist vessel. He awoke in a hidden shack in the Southern Wasteland, where he considered how to act without exposing supernatural abilities.

• Zhao Cheng recognized Yellow Heaven Daoist as an unusual Daoist who persisted in leading the Yellow Heaven Army despite repeated defeats and the risk of losing his Golden Immortal fruition.
• Zhao Cheng recalled that Zhang Taiping had turned to rebellion after poverty and a corrupt examination system blocked his efforts to serve the Cang Dynasty.
• Zhao Cheng’s true body merged into a third-grade golden lotus while his Daoist vessel remained in the material world, and he reasoned that their thoughts were effectively joined.
• Zhao Cheng’s Daoist vessel opened its eyes inside a concealed forest shack, its former owner’s soul badly injured.
• Zhao Cheng recalled that Wu Qi had routed fifty thousand Yellow Heaven Army soldiers with three thousand Tiger Leopard Cavalry, while a captain under Wu Qi had inflicted the vessel’s injuries.

Zhao Cheng awakened after two days unconscious and assessed the remnants of his army, whose morale had begun to falter while Wu Yuan hunted him. He ordered his men to form up and faced the soldiers, leaving their spirits slightly steadier as he prepared to bolster their resolve.

• Zhao Cheng recalled how Wu Yuan had defeated his force and recognized him as his greatest immediate threat.
• Zhao Cheng awakened and reassured his personal guards, who had feared for his life.
• Zhao Cheng ordered Wei Ye to form up, and Wei Ye led the personal guards outside.
• Zhao Cheng stepped before the soldiers and saw their morale strengthen somewhat at his appearance.

Zhao Cheng rallied his exhausted Yellow Heaven Army survivors and assessed how Wu Yuan had used the Tiger Leopard Cavalry to drive them into the forest. He recognized Wu Yuan’s talent but, unable to recruit him and facing him as an enemy, resolved that he had to kill him.

• Zhao Cheng ordered the more than fifty dispirited veterans to form ranks, and his commanding presence briefly steadied them.
• Zhao Cheng considered how Wu Yuan had harried his force, exploited its exhaustion, and pursued it into unfamiliar forest terrain.
• Zhao Cheng judged Wu Yuan to be a gifted general whose future service under Cao Zheng would leave him few chances to distinguish himself.
• Zhao Cheng concluded that he could not win Wu Yuan’s loyalty in his current position and would have to kill him.

Zhao Cheng used the glowing talisman token and a claim of Yellow Heaven’s favor to restore his soldiers’ faith and rally them to fight. As his army rested, Wu Yuan ordered his troops to approach and make noise without attacking, while a veiled woman observed that Zhao Cheng’s fate had begun to rise again.

• Zhao Cheng showed his soldiers the glowing talisman and claimed Yellow Heaven had revealed that their peril was a test and that fighting for Yellow Heaven promised eternal life.
• The talisman’s radiance brought the soldiers a brief sense of peace, and Wei Ye led them in shouting their willingness to die for Zhao Cheng.
• Zhao Cheng saw the army’s gathering qi replenish the energy he had spent on his Daoist art, then ordered the soldiers to rest, eat, and drink for a quarter hour.
• Wu Yuan halted his twenty-five armored soldiers and ordered them to pursue Zhao Cheng’s troops noisily without killing them, judging that their ranks were close to mutiny.
• A veiled woman on a mountain pavilion assessed Wu Yuan as a potential fierce general and noted that Zhao Cheng’s fortunes had reversed and begun to rise.