Chapter Summaries

Gu Daotian’s duel with Zhao Cheng pushed his martial arts toward a new understanding of the earth and heaven, while Zhao Cheng reflected and nourished that transformation. The chapter ended as Gu Daotian unleashed the greatest punch of his life.

• Gu Daotian’s spiritual world transformed as he grasped the deeper essence behind the Changes and the workings of heaven and earth.
• Zhao Cheng reflected Gu Daotian’s martial arts through the Mirror of Heart of Heaven and blended his own understanding into Gu Daotian’s spiritual world.
• Gu Daotian’s rising power caused an earth-like heartbeat and drying heat to spread around the Daoist temple, alarming the young martial wanderers outside.
• Zhao Cheng continued exchanging blows with Gu Daotian and deliberately helped him reach an unprecedented peak rather than disrupting the Eight Generals’ ritual.
• After more than a hundred exchanges, Gu Daotian forged his spiritual world into one furnace and struck with “Eight Aspects Return to Truth · Creation · First Came Earth, Then Came Heaven!”

Zhao Cheng fought Gu Daotian while the Daoists prepared to unleash Divine Thunder, and the battle revealed that Zhao Cheng was trying to comprehend the earth’s power. As the Divine Thunder approached, Mu Xuan questioned whether the Upper Realm’s immortals and Liu Guangzheng were truly what they claimed to be.

• Gu Daotian unleashed a heaven-splitting strike, and Zhao Cheng absorbed its martial profundities but still could not merge with the earth.
• Gu Daotian’s body began transforming as the earth’s power surged into him, while Zhao Cheng maintained an overwhelming advantage.
• Xuanzhenzi and the other Human Immortals wondered why Zhao Cheng had come alone and speculated that he sought to understand the earth.
• Fan Qingmeng suggested that the Heavenly Demon might be seeking another path, while the Human Immortals hoped the approaching Divine Thunder could destroy him.
• Mu Xuan watched the Divine Thunder approach and doubted the Upper Realm’s immortals and Liu Guangzheng, suspecting that political necessity had driven the decision not to aid Zhao Cheng.

Gu Daotian broke through martial arts to reach Divine Transformation and formed the Heart of Earth, knowing the approaching divine lightning would likely kill him. As he and Zhao Cheng prepared to test their limits, Zhao Cheng reflected on his past lives and remained unable to find a way to stop the Heavenly Demon.

• Gu Daotian completed his spiritual transformation, formed the Heart of Earth, and sensed that it could grant him 180 years of vigorous life.
• Gu Daotian accepted that divine lightning was approaching and challenged Zhao Cheng to test the limits of their martial arts before they died.
• Zhao Cheng sensed the destructive force and saw five black dots on the horizon, while reflecting that he still had not found a solution to prevent the Heavenly Demon from descending.
• Zhao Cheng recalled his ordinary life on Earth, his return to the countryside, and how reading, crafts, Daoism, and martial arts had brought him peace.

Zhao Cheng faced Gu Daotian’s ultimate martial arts and revealed overwhelming power, stopping his attack without killing him. He then intercepted five incoming missiles with his sword, leaving the witnesses to recognize him as a Great Luo.

• Zhao Cheng sheathed his sword and told Gu Daotian to make his move.
• Gu Daotian unleashed his Eight Seals, but his strikes could not move Zhao Cheng.
• Gu Daotian used Eight Seals · Ultimate · Annihilation as five missiles approached.
• Zhao Cheng subdued Gu Daotian and sent his sword flying into the sky to destroy the five missiles.
• Fan Qingmeng called Zhao Cheng “Great Luo” as the witnesses stared at the shattered altar and the sword’s rainbow.

After Zhao Cheng destroyed the ritual and East Wind Missile with a devastating sword strike, Gu Daotian struggled with the shock of facing a power he could not comprehend. Zhao Cheng left the surviving Daoists behind and turned his attention to the immortal Buddhas, divine saints, and Heavenly Demons who remained his true opponents.

• Gu Daotian lay buried in the ruins and reflected on how Ten Grounds Immovability let his shaken heart return to its peak without retreat.
• The young wanderers watched Zhao Cheng's sword strike and feared that no one could oppose such power.
• Zhao Cheng departed without pursuing the Daoists who had overseen the ritual, which had killed all seven generals and left the Human Immortals injured but alive.
• The surviving Human Immortals fled the ruined site after recognizing that Zhao Cheng had displayed power beyond the mortal world.
• Zhao Cheng considered how the world differed from the original novel and focused on the immortal Buddhas, divine saints, and Heavenly Demons as his real opponents.

Zhao Cheng investigated the ruined altar and jade tablet, tracing their connection to the Mystic Maiden of Nine Heavens and learning from the ritual’s lingering traces. He assessed his Heaven, Human, and Earth Dao Fruits and considered the path to uniting them, while the setting sun marked the uncertain road ahead.

• Zhao Cheng reached the mountaintop and examined the shattered Five-Colored Altar and jade tablet, recognizing signs of Void authority.
• Zhao Cheng traced the traces at the site and identified Fan Qingmeng as connected to the Mystic Maiden of Nine Heavens, whose authority governed light and darkness.
• Zhao Cheng studied the ritual’s workings and learned that the jade tablet had consumed at least thirty percent of Great Cang’s national fortune to reveal hidden information about heaven and earth.
• Zhao Cheng reviewed his Dao Fruit values: Heaven at nine, Humanity at four, and Earth at one, while Gu Daotian’s Earth Dao Fruit stood at about three.
• Zhao Cheng considered how establishing an earthly Dao Kingdom could complete his Earth Dao Fruit and unite Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, then looked toward the setting sun.

Liu Guangzheng learned that Zhao Cheng’s forces had destroyed five missiles with a sword, confirming that the threat was far beyond what he had expected. As Zhao’s rapid conquest seemed imminent, Liu decided to prepare an escape route for himself.

• Liu Guangzheng heard the secret report that a Heavenly Demon had split five East Wind Missiles with a sword and doubted that ordinary armies could stop such power.
• Liu Guangzheng reasoned that Zhao Cheng could benefit more from Great Cang remaining intact until its opponents revealed themselves and could be eliminated.
• Liu Guangzheng reflected that hidden opposition could threaten the Dao Nation’s human path and would be difficult to remove because powerful people were bound by networks of connections.
• Liu Guangzheng concluded that Zhao Cheng would soon have to conquer the realm with overwhelming speed and decided to prepare to flee.

Liu Guangzheng decided to build a navy as an escape route rather than risk relying on the Void’s uncertain powers or surrendering to Zhao Cheng. Three months later, Zhao Cheng ordered a swift campaign to seize the Divine Capital and pacify the realm within two years.

• Liu Guangzheng concluded that his best chance of survival was to flee overseas and began preparations to build great ships.
• Liu Guangzheng submitted a memorial calling for the navy’s expansion, publicly claiming it would help defeat Zhao Cheng on waterways and canals.
• Three months later, Zhao Cheng gathered the new dynasty’s core figures in Yong Province and set a two-year deadline to pacify the realm and seize the Divine Capital.
• In the third month of the eighth year of Heaven-Answering Kingdom, Zhao Cheng led three million troops in a three-pronged invasion of the Divine Province.

Zhao Cheng led a three-million-strong army out from Yong Province to expand the New Nation, leaving Zhao Xiang in charge as regent. As the army disappeared from view, Zhao Xiang set aside her childhood memories and faced her new responsibility with resolve.

• Zhao Cheng organized the three-million-strong force into left, right, and central armies, appointing Liu Yi, Xu Qing, and Wang Shouzheng as deputy commanders.
• Zhao Cheng ordered the army to move out, while Lin Yi and the others followed him from the troop-inspection platform.
• Zhao Xiang watched the procession and remembered how Zhao Cheng had promised her land and grain when they were children.
• Zhao Cheng appointed Zhao Xiang regent before setting out, and Li Tonghai stood beside her as she assumed responsibility for the New Nation.
• After the army vanished into the distance, Zhao Xiang withdrew her gaze and hardened her expression.

Zhao Xiang took charge as regent while Zhao Cheng campaigned, and decided to prevent Father Zhao’s unofficial children from becoming a source of succession turmoil. She ordered Beauty Han executed and her child’s surname changed, while players debated her rise as the game world and their reality rapidly collapsed.

• Zhao Xiang summoned the ministers to make clear that she would rule firmly while Zhao Cheng’s army was away, and Li Tonghai promptly carried out her order.
• Zhao Xiang reflected on her growing distance from Father Zhao and resolved to manage the family’s succession affairs herself.
• Zhao Xiang ordered Little White to execute Beauty Han, change the child’s surname to Li, and give the child to Beauty Li to raise.
• Players on the Seize the Dragon Game forum discussed Zhao Cheng’s campaign and Zhao Xiang’s unexpected regency without noticing that both worlds were collapsing.

By June of the eighth year of Heaven-Answering, Zhao Cheng’s three-million-strong army had conquered Yong Province and pushed into Ji Province, rapidly taking control of its cities and resources. The chapter left the Heaven-Answering Army poised to expand further after defeating Great Cang’s border forces and securing its new territory.

• Players considered how bringing medicines and other modern items into the game could enrich them, though they believed the unpredictable bug had likely been fixed.
• The Heaven-Answering Army marched from Yong Province into Ji Province, where Shi Xingxue’s three hundred thousand border troops were defeated and he died in battle.
• Cities across Yong Province surrendered before the Heaven-Answering Army arrived, while Zhao Cheng’s forces threatened extermination for aristocratic clans that resisted until the army reached their walls.
• Civil and Daoist officials seized military and administrative power in conquered cities, redistributed land, and broke apart local garrisons.
• Within three months, Zhao Cheng’s forces secured Yong Province’s military, administrative, and financial authority through their system of Daoist officials and divided duties.

Zhao Cheng rested his army after conquering Ji Province, used the pause to discipline soldiers and officials, and punished military families whose descendants preyed on civilians. Lin Yi explained why Xu Qing had been reprimanded over his nephew’s misuse of soldiers, leaving his own adopted son chastened by the lesson.

• Zhao Cheng rested his troops after three months of marching and repeatedly instructed military and civil officials on the army’s purpose.
• Zhao Cheng punished military hooligans, executing those with grave crimes and demoting or stripping the status of others and their elders.
• Lin Yi’s adopted son mocked Xu Qing for kowtowing after Zhao Cheng reprimanded him over his nephew accepting gifts from a merchant.
• Lin Yi told his adopted son that Xu Qing’s nephew had misused public soldiers for private ends and that Xu Qing had failed to discipline him properly.
• Lin Yi warned his adopted son that his own shallow judgment resembled Xu Qing’s nephew’s.

Lin Yi recognized that Zhao Cheng’s warning over Xu Teng’s misconduct also exposed the danger of his own growing faction in the army. After hearing how Lin Yi and Xu Qing reacted, Zhao Cheng continued reviewing a memorial, having used the incident to caution his commanders.

• Lin Yi reflected on his fear of Zhao Cheng’s growing power and decided to restrain his adopted sons and send unsuitable ones away from the army.
• Xu Teng knelt before Xu Qing, who explained that Zhao Cheng had used the demotion to warn them and give Xu Teng a chance to improve.
• A spy reported to Zhao Cheng exactly what had happened in Lin Yi’s and Xu Qing’s tents.
• Zhao Cheng dismissed the spy and continued reading, viewing the army reorganization as a warning meant to keep even loyal commanders in check.

Zhao Cheng reflected on the need to restrain his commanders and the overwhelming strength behind Great New as it prepared to conquer Great Cang. Meanwhile, Wang Xu and his companions saw the Heaven-Answering Army’s vast camp and weighed whether to raid Great Cang while avoiding a fight with Great New.

• Zhao Cheng considered reorganizing his army early to prevent future abuses and avoid killing meritorious officials after Great New took more territory.
• Zhao Cheng concluded that Great Cang could not withstand Great New’s three million trained troops and vast support base.
• Wang Xu and his companions surveyed the Heaven-Answering Army’s enormous camp and judged their own force of about one hundred thousand unable to oppose it.
• Wang Xu proposed raiding Great Cang for wealth and supplies, then placating Great New with surrender and tribute.
• A shaman beside Wang Xu said the Heaven-Answering Army’s aura resembled a demon god and warned that it could not be opposed by force.

Wang Xu abandoned his ambition to invade Divine Province after seeing the strength of the New Nation’s army. In Gan City, the New Nation rebuilt infrastructure and mobilized residents, who worked under conditions far better than those they had known under Great Cang.

• Wang Xu considered the barbarians’ plans to exploit Divine Province’s turmoil but recognized that the New Nation’s massive army made invasion impossible.
• Wang Xu left after accepting that his dream of ruling provinces in Divine Province could not overcome the New Nation’s military power.
• In Gan City, the New Nation reorganized land, relocated powerful clans, and brought in new residents as rebuilding began.
• New Nation officials mobilized people to restore fields, build waterworks, widen streets, and repair houses.
• After fieldwork, workers rested and drank tea, knowing they could eat unlimited rice rather than the meager rations Great Cang had provided.

Bing Province, You Province, and Yang Province submitted letters of surrender, and Zhao Cheng weighed whether to accept them or conquer the provinces by force before summoning their envoys. Later that year, northern barbarians ravaged the Northern Plains as Great Cang neared its end.

• People celebrated the three provinces’ surrender and compared Great New’s rule favorably with Great Cang’s.
• The three provinces’ local powers chose surrender after Zhao Cheng’s forces made resistance seem hopeless.
• Zhao Cheng decided to accept the surrender rather than risk more bloodshed, trusting he could contain future rebels.
• Zhao Cheng summoned the three envoys, who entered his tent and paid homage to him.
• In the eighth month of the eighth year of Heaven-Answering, Bing Province, You Province, and Yang Province surrendered; in the eleventh month, 150,000 northern barbarian cavalry plundered the Northern Plains.

Liu Guangzheng reflected on why Zhao Cheng had defeated him, dreamed of his former ordinary life, and woke to continue ruling Great Cang. Meanwhile, Zhao Cheng consolidated control over the three surrendered provinces and struggled to balance rewards with punishing corrupt former officials.

• Liu Guangzheng concluded that Zhao Cheng’s victory came not only from superior weapons but from winning the common people’s support while Great Cang’s system had alienated them.
• Liu Guangzheng refused to surrender because he would not place his life in Zhao Cheng’s hands, and he dreamed of the quiet life he had lived before transmigrating.
• Liu Guangzheng woke at dawn and descended the tower, delaying his planned escape because Great Cang’s remaining four provinces still needed his attention.
• Zhao Cheng replaced officials across the three surrendered provinces and granted their governors hereditary marquis titles without fiefs or real power.
• Zhao Cheng faced the difficult task of rewarding useful figures while executing former officials whose corruption made them dangerous to the state.

Zhao Cheng completed the conquest and unification of the Divine Province, while Liu Guangzheng fled overseas rather than defend the Divine Capital. After the realm was pacified, a heavenly anomaly brought strange people into the world, and Zhao Cheng recognized the beginnings of his transmigration’s causes and remembered old acquaintances.

• Great New settled its rule over the three provinces, punishing officials responsible for deaths and recruiting a few worthy officials, while Zhao Cheng delayed his sacrifice to Heaven and Earth.
• Zhao Cheng brought his army to Central Province as Liu Guangzheng fled by ship with loyal followers, grain, and seeds to seek a kingdom overseas.
• The Divine Capital opened to Zhao Cheng without a fight, and his followers entered the city reflecting on their decade-long rise and the losses along the way.
• Northern Plains, Eastern Pole, and Western Liang submitted, uniting all under heaven, and officials across the realm completed their replacements and rewards.
• Zhao Cheng rewarded his officials without sacrificing to Heaven and Earth, while a heavenly anomaly appeared and the Heaven-Answering Emperor ordered local authorities to send the strange newcomers to the Divine Capital.
• Zhao Cheng watched the anomaly from the Divine Capital, pieced together the causes of his transmigration, and remembered old acquaintances he would meet again.

Zhang Huang'er told Zhao Cheng about dreams of worlds converging and glimpses of his past, while he dismissed them as belonging to a former life. Meanwhile, Han Jinyue traveled toward the Divine Capital to learn why outsiders had descended into the world, sensing that the world had collapsed.

• Zhang Huang'er told Zhao Cheng that she had dreamed of a world resembling the present and gained memories through their karmic connection.
• Zhang Huang'er felt jealous after seeing Zhao Cheng’s past romances in her dream, but kept her feelings and most of what she had seen to herself.
• Zhao Cheng told Zhang Huang'er that what appeared in dreams belonged to the past.
• Han Jinyue reflected on her preserved cultivation and the disappearance of the game forum while traveling to the Divine Capital.
• Han Jinyue went to the Divine Capital in response to the Yingtian Emperor’s edict, seeking the truth about the outsiders’ arrival.
• Han Jinyue sensed that the world had collapsed.

After Earth crossed into the New Heaven World, Wang Yun was caught in the Cold Mountain Tunnel urban legend and nearly killed by a monster. Her wooden bracelet destroyed the attacker and revealed the spirit-like Zhao Cheng, whose appearance left her wondering when he had died.

• Earth and its people merged into the New Heaven World, and the Yellow Heaven Saint later erased a rift and its monsters.
• Over a month after the crossing, Wang Yun investigated the disappearance of her friend Zhao Cheng before returning to work.
• Wang Yun and her company's bus entered Cold Mountain Tunnel and appeared in a wilderness where monsters attacked the passengers.
• A monster lunged at Wang Yun, but her bracelet erupted with light and aged the creature into dust along with itself.
• A translucent figure appeared in the light, and Wang Yun recognized Zhao Cheng and asked when he had died.