Recaps

After consuming two third-grade treasures, Lu Zhen advanced to the late Third Realm and discovered that the Abyssal Dark Shadowless Sword contained a complete Eternal Night Netherworld Great Dao branch. He assessed his new strength and treasures, then entered the Void Realm to seek a powerful Dark Law technique.

• Lu Zhen consumed Star Abyss Grass and Heavenly River Jade Dew, breaking through to the late stage of the Third Realm as his star river grew immensely stronger.
• Lu Zhen concluded that his strength could approach the half-step Fifth Realm when he combined his foundation with his Great Dao embryos and Abyssal Dark Shadowless Sword.
• Lu Zhen discovered that the sword contained the complete Eternal Night Netherworld Great Dao branch and considered using Primordial Origin Light to activate it.
• Lu Zhen examined the Violet Firmament Heaven-Suppressing City and recognized its power to suppress enemies, isolate space, and protect him from Fifth Realm attacks.
• Lu Zhen decided he needed an upper-grade Dark Law technique to strengthen his combat skills and help him form the Netherglow embryo.
• Lu Zhen entered the Void Realm through his Void Terminal to search for a technique.

In the Void Realm, Lu Zhen’s wealth earned him Third Grade access, allowing him to deposit his spirit crystals remotely and enter an exclusive immortal island. He bought the Polar Night Meteor Sword, a dark-element flying sword art that could help him form the Netherglow embryo.

• Lu Zhen transferred his spirit crystals into his Space Ring and learned that his wealth had upgraded his Void Realm access to Third Grade.
• Lu Zhen used Void Materialization to deposit his spirit crystals remotely and gained access to an exclusive immortal island with cultivation and battle facilities.
• Lu Zhen searched the Myriad Manifestations Heavenly Pavilion for a dark-law sword-control art and learned that First Grade arts were not available for purchase with spirit crystals, while Second Grade arts cost billions.
• Lu Zhen chose the upper-tier Third Grade Polar Night Meteor Sword for 320 million mid-grade spirit crystals and received its sword Dao memories.
• Lu Zhen realized the art’s insights into darkness, lurking shadow, and annihilation could help him form the Netherglow embryo.

Lu Zhen fused Tribulation Light, Blazing Sun, and Netherglow into the Primordial Origin Light Great Dao branch, reaching the true Great Dao branch level. He then tested the power by combining it with the Polar Night Netherworld branch in the first level of the Polar Night Meteor Sword, revealing a devastating Silent Shadow strike.

• Lu Zhen formed the nascent Dark Law branch Netherglow while studying the Polar Night Meteor Sword.
• Lu Zhen used sudden enlightenment to understand how Tribulation Light, Blazing Sun, and Netherglow could unite, but he still lacked the final opportunity to fuse them.
• Lu Zhen repeatedly endured the Great Dao backlash from the Abyssal Dark Shadowless Sword until the three branches fused into Primordial Origin Light.
• Lu Zhen returned to the Martial Training Tower and channeled Primordial Origin Light into a simulated Abyssal Dark Shadowless Sword to activate Silent Shadow.
• Lu Zhen's sword combined Primordial Origin Light and Polar Night Netherworld, and its aftershock caused distant celestial bodies to erupt like supernovas.

The Void Realm rated Lu Zhen a Divine Radiance Rank genius and sent his encrypted file to the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty’s Hidden Dragon Plan. After learning of Lu Zhen’s new rating, Marquis Tianyan decided to protect him so he could compete in the upcoming Great Xia Star Battle.

• The Void Realm detected Lu Zhen’s half-step Dao Evolution power, rated him Divine Radiance Rank, and forwarded his file to the Celestial Mechanism Pavilion.
• Kong Rui filed Lu Zhen’s encrypted dossier in the Hidden Dragon Plan’s pending pool without examining its details.
• Marquis Tianyan received news that Lu Zhen had been rated Divine Radiance Rank but could not access his sealed dossier.
• Marquis Tianyan concluded that Lu Zhen was too valuable to let the Heavenly Punishment Bureau ruin and saw a chance to benefit from his Star Battle participation.
• Marquis Tianyan sent an order to the Heavenly Punishment Bureau declaring that the Star Envoy Institute would protect Lu Zhen.

Marquis Tianyan intervened to ensure Lu Zhen could participate in the Great Xia Star Battle, shifting the Heavenly Punishment Bureau away from a harsh sentence. At the public trial, Lu Zhen was fined five million mid-grade spirit crystals and sentenced to ten years in ordinary prison, leaving his allies relieved and Qi Xuan furious.

• Marquis Tianyan's intervention made the Heavenly Punishment Bureau's deputy chiefs abandon plans to impose a severe sentence on Lu Zhen.
• Venerable Xuantian Sword told Lu Zhen that Marquis Tianyan had secured his chance to compete in the Great Xia Star Battle and that his life was safe.
• As the trial approached, martial artists across the Void Realm feared Lu Zhen would be executed, while Qi Xuan celebrated and Zhao Han vowed to surpass him.
• Pavilion Master Chu and Xing Lie argued that there was no evidence Lu Zhen had killed the Divine Scion.
• The Blood Prison Marquis announced that Lu Zhen would pay five million mid-grade spirit crystals and serve ten years in the Heavenly Punishment Bureau's Ordinary Prison.
• Leng Qiu and Leng Yan were astonished by the light sentence, while Qi Xuan raged that Lu Zhen had not been killed.

Divine Duke Wuji used the Netherblood Sect’s discovery of the Nine Provinces’ Primordial True Blood to seize control of Lu Zhen’s homeland through a legal transfer to Hongwu and Yu Qian. After learning that the transfer would take effect in a year, Lu Zhen refused to abandon the Nine Provinces and resolved to make his stand in the Great Xia Star Battle.

• Divine Duke Wuji learned that Marquis Tianyan had protected Lu Zhen from further punishment and vowed to retaliate through other means.
• Grand Elder Xue He discovered Hongwu and Yu Qian imprisoned beside evidence of the Nine Provinces’ Primordial True Blood, then brought them and the secret to Divine Duke Wuji.
• Divine Duke Wuji ordered the Heavenly Eagle Marquis to arrange a legal-looking transfer of the Nine Provinces Small World into Hongwu and Yu Qian’s names.
• Venerable Xuantian Sword told Lu Zhen that the transfer had been approved and would become final after a one-year public notice period.
• Lu Zhen refused to sever his ties to the Nine Provinces or leave its billions of inhabitants behind, and decided to fight for it in the Great Xia Star Battle.

Lu Zhen was imprisoned after Divine Duke Wuji targeted the Nine Provinces Small World, and Marquis Tianyan urged him to compete in the Great Xia Star Battle for a chance to save it. As the takeover notice period began, Marquis Honglian ordered the Propaganda Office to turn Lu Zhen’s plight into a public campaign against the powerful.

• Black Smolder Guards escorted Lu Zhen to Thunderfire Prison, where Marquis Tianyan visited and explained that Wuji’s purchase of the Nine Provinces Small World would become final unless circumstances changed within a year.
• Marquis Tianyan told Lu Zhen that reaching the top two hundred in the Great Xia Star Battle might persuade an important figure to intervene, though even the top five hundred would be difficult for a Third Realm competitor.
• After Marquis Tianyan left, Lu Zhen privately set his goal at reaching the top one hundred.
• Marquis Tianyan told his deputy general that Lu Zhen had little chance of reaching the top two hundred, but he had offered hope to push Lu Zhen toward a miracle that could benefit the Star Envoy Institute.
• As the public notice period began, Marquis Honglian ordered the Propaganda Office to portray Lu Zhen as a commoner prodigy oppressed by the privileged class and spread the story through the Void Realm forums.

Inflammatory reports turned public opinion against Divine Duke Wuji after he arranged to take the Nine Provinces, while Lu Zhen’s allies worried that he could not overcome the powerful enemies closing in. Leng Yan persuaded the Leng Family to lend Lu Zhen a treasured Dark Abyss Law Fragment, leaving them to bet on his success in the Great Xia Star Battle.

• The Propaganda Office spread reports portraying Lu Zhen as a wronged genius and Divine Duke Wuji as an oppressor, while Qi Xuan predicted Lu Zhen would lose the Nine Provinces and be left with nowhere to turn.
• The people of the Nine Provinces panicked over Hongwu and Yu Qian buying their homeland, and Xiao Zhengyan explained that Lu Zhen faced long odds in the Great Xia Star Battle.
• Chu Yunshu urged Lu Zhen’s family to believe he would win, recalling how he had overcome despair in the lower realm and the Hundred Realms League.
• Leng Qiu asked Leng Yan to help Lu Zhen, and Leng Yan decided that the Leng Family should support him because his success might help them return to the Central Province.
• Leng Yan asked Leng Yuan Ancestor to give Lu Zhen the Dark Abyss Law Fragment, but he agreed only to lend it, trusting her judgment rather than Lu Zhen’s chances.

Leng Yan and Leng Qiu lent Lu Zhen the Leng Family’s Dark Abyss Law Fragment before the Great Xia Star Battle. A divination led True Lord Xin You to believe the Star Battle’s new generation held a major variable, and his decision to recruit a successor drew other powerful True Lords onto the Dao Preaching Golden Ranking.

• Leng Yan gave Lu Zhen the Dark Abyss Law Fragment to study, and he accepted the Leng Family’s risky support.
• True Lord Xin You divined that a variable might emerge from the Great Xia Star Battle.
• True Lord Xin You asked True Lord Ziyun to place his name atop the Star Battle’s Dao Preaching Golden Ranking so he could find a successor.
• True Lord Lie Yan and True Lord Gu Jian added their names to the ranking after learning that True Lord Xin You had joined.
• Several more Sixth Realm powerhouses signed up, drawing attention across the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty.

The Great Xia Immortal Dynasty opened the Star Battle Realm and announced the Star Battle’s trials, drawing geniuses and spectators from across its territories. The contest offered True Lord discipleships to the top fifty-four and lasting protection and resources for the top hundred, leaving the Great Xia in a frenzy as the competition was about to begin.

• The Supreme Dao Sect, Myriad Demon Grotto, and other powers ordered their fourth-realm geniuses to enter the Star Battle, while Leng Yan agreed to participate and Leng Qiu asked to go with her.
• The Great Xia Immortal Dynasty opened the Star Battle Realm, allowing participants and spectators from across the dynasty and its subordinate small worlds to enter.
• An Immortal Court Edict announced that participants had to climb the divine mountain’s 100,000 steps, with 30,000 required to pass the preliminaries before an elimination round selected the finalists.
• The edict revealed that fifty-four Creation True Lords had joined the Dao Preaching Golden Ranking and that the top fifty-four could earn a True Lord’s favor and become personal disciples.
• The edict promised that the top hundred would receive resources and lasting support to establish clans, with Central Province territory and protection for those from Great Xia and relocation and ancestral-register status for those from subordinate small worlds.
• The rewards sparked intense excitement among spectators and clans across the Star Battle Realm as the contest’s opening approached.

Lu Zhen entered the Star Battle preliminary, where contestants had to climb the Divine Mountain’s White Jade Stairway and reach thirty thousand steps to pass. He climbed easily with Leng Yan, while Leng Qiu was eliminated at step eight hundred and hurriedly left the Void Realm.

• Martial artists across the small worlds celebrated the chance for the top hundred contestants to relocate to Central Province and protect their worlds from the Civilization Kill Line.
• Leng Yan and Leng Qiu met Lu Zhen and explained the stairway trial and its thirty-thousand-step passing mark before the three began climbing.
• Lu Zhen recognized that the stairway tested Divine Soul, law comprehension, and Dao heart, and he continued upward with little difficulty.
• The three passed hundreds of steps as other contestants faltered, while Leng Qiu struggled with an ordeal tied to her emotions and bloodline.
• At step eight hundred, Leng Qiu was eliminated and left the Void Realm without saying goodbye; Leng Yan told Lu Zhen to continue with her.

Lu Zhen passed the Divine Mountain Stairway’s preliminary test and continued climbing as prodigies Jun Jiuling and Qin Wuyan advanced far above him. Leng Yan was eliminated when the Dao heart test stirred her suppressed Taiyin Bloodline, while a spectator’s criticism of the Qin Family hinted at controversy over its role in securing peace.

• Lu Zhen and Leng Yan climbed past twenty-five thousand steps, where the Dao heart test exposed Leng Yan’s feelings for Lu Zhen and caused her to be eliminated.
• Leng Yan left the Void Realm and disconnected from the Void Terminal to suppress her awakened Taiyin Bloodline.
• Lu Zhen reached thirty thousand steps, passed the preliminaries, and saw many other cultivators leave to absorb their insights before attempting the mountain again.
• Spectators identified Jun Jiuling as the leader near fifty thousand steps and learned he had mastered four complete Great Dao branches.
• Qin Wuyan climbed past forty-five thousand steps, while nearby spectators praised his family’s role in saving the Immortal Dynasty.
• An itinerant cultivator challenged the praise of the Qin Family, claiming the peace had been bought with the Northern Guardian Divine General’s life.