Chapter Summaries

Meng Ran explained that the domain within Painting Saint Mountain could force Heavenly Humans to undergo the Five Decays ahead of schedule, a danger that had killed the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion’s former master. She revealed that reaching the domain’s heart might let someone claim its power and overcome the decays early, then urged the group to prepare for the deadly expedition.

• Pei Yin left after warning Meng Ran that she would see what use her companions were, and Meng Ran led the group onward.
• Qin Lan described her skill with the Soul-Breaking Spear, while Du Shan said he practiced the Mountain-Solid True Technique.
• Meng Ran explained the Five Decays of Heavenly Humans and said overcoming all five could lead to the ninth-tier realm of Shattering the Void and ascension to the Upper Realm.
• Meng Ran revealed that Painting Saint Mountain’s domain could trigger the Five Decays prematurely, and Master Wuxiang noted that an unprepared martial artist would die.
• Meng Ran recounted how the former Heavenly Mystery Pavilion master died when the domain prematurely triggered his fifth decay.
• Meng Ran said reaching the domain’s heart might grant its power and enable someone to overcome the decays early, then asked Chen Yan and Master Wuxiang to face the dangerous expedition with her.

Meng Ran led the group toward the Secret Realm, where they encountered a fearsome tiger guarding a cave. After the Brocade-Clad Youth destroyed it with a red streak, they discovered the beast was a painted paper cutout, leaving the group to wonder what had recently changed in Painting Saint Mountain.

• Meng Ran warned everyone to keep their keys activated as the group entered Triple Mountain.
• The group found a massive black tiger at a cave entrance, and the Brocade-Clad Youth identified it as a creature possibly mutated by the domain’s strange power.
• Meng Ran ordered an attack, but the tiger deflected nearly all their strikes with a black gale and overwhelmed them in close combat.
• Meng Ran slowed the tiger with smoke from her Green Jade Smoking Pipe while Pei Yin urged her to reveal her strength.
• The Brocade-Clad Youth struck the tiger’s eye with a silent red streak, causing it to dissolve into black smoke and leave behind a painted paper cutout.
• Meng Ran confirmed the tiger’s markings had been painted, and the Brocade-Clad Youth concluded that something new had changed in Painting Saint Mountain.

At the Painting Saint Mountain Secret Realm entrance, Meng Ran confronted Pei Yin, and their factions broke into battle. Chen Yan revealed the overwhelming power of his Indestructible Golden Body Dharma Image, leaving both sides stunned as the fight halted.

• A Dan-Holding Grandmaster nearly aged to death when he stopped supplying True Essence to his key, revealing the domain’s danger.
• The Brocade-Clad Youth led his group through the stone wall into the Secret Realm, and the other factions followed toward the entrance.
• Pei Yin blocked Meng Ran’s group and accused her of guarding against her, then one of Pei Yin’s guards was immobilized and Meng Ran ordered an attack.
• Pei Yin lunged at Meng Ran while two of her Heavenly Human subordinates attacked Chen Yan.
• Chen Yan’s Dharma Image absorbed their attacks, then killed the thin Heavenly Human with a golden palm and sent the hulking fighter flying with a single step.
• Both factions stopped fighting in shock, and Yan Zheng wondered why Chen Yan had held back against the Painting Tiger.

Chen Yan and his companions entered the Secret Realm, where the Painting Saint’s illusion trapped them in their deepest memories and impulses. Chen Yan resisted it, subdued Master Wuxiang when he fell into demonic possession, and the group continued to face the dangers within the realm.

• Chen Yan drove Pei Yin to retreat into the Secret Realm after defeating her two Heavenly Human Realm guards, and Meng Ran led her group in after her.
• Inside the Secret Realm, Chen Yan resisted an illusion with the protection of his Chaos Myriad Laws Golden Core while Meng Ran, Master Wuxiang, Qin Lan, and Yan Zheng became trapped in it.
• The illusion pushed Master Wuxiang into demonic possession, turning him into the Blood Buddha, and he attacked Chen Yan.
• Chen Yan called Meng Ran, Qin Lan, and Yan Zheng back to their senses, and they joined him in restraining Master Wuxiang.
• Chen Yan struck Master Wuxiang with a golden rune that ended his possession, and Master Wuxiang recovered as the group prepared for the dangers ahead.

Chen Yan's group reached the Secret Realm's second region and found a Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus, sparking a standoff with Leng Feng and the Brocade Guard. Just as the sides prepared to fight, Xu Guangzong arrived with three Grandmasters and ordered them to seize the lotus, effortlessly repelling the others' attacks.

• Chen Yan used Time Stroll to examine Master Wuxiang after his strange outburst, found no lingering anomaly, and led the group onward through the increasingly powerful illusions.
• Meng Ran's group emerged into a lush forest and discovered a Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus in a snowy valley, where Leng Feng and the Brocade Guard were already waiting.
• Meng Ran and Leng Feng argued over who had the right to claim the lotus, and both groups prepared to fight when she refused to yield.
• Xu Guangzong appeared with three Grandmasters, ordered them to take the lotus, and dispersed the attacks from Leng Feng's and Meng Ran's groups with a wave of his hand.
• Chen Yan recognized Xu Guangzong from Imperial Martial University and was shocked to encounter him again in the Secret Realm.

Xu Guangzong overwhelmed Leng Feng and the Brocade Guards with a sword formation, allowing his companions to harvest the Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus. When Leng Feng tried to seize it, Xu Guangzong crushed him, but the harvest awakened a monstrous eye beneath the ice and brought forth Ink Monsters that began corroding the defenders' True Essence.

• Xu Guangzong trapped the Brocade Guards and other attackers in a sword formation, disrupting their True Essence and triggering Decay Tribulations that killed three guards.
• Xu Guangzong dismissed Leng Feng's prospects of becoming a Martial Saint while his companions harvested the Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus.
• Leng Feng used a secret technique to charge at the lotus, but Xu Guangzong struck him down with a claw of sword qi.
• The valley shook after the lotus was harvested, revealing a giant crimson eye beneath the ice as Ink Monsters emerged from the fissures.
• The three men guarding the snow lotus found that their attacks passed through the Ink Monsters, which began corroding one man's protective True Essence.

Chen Yan helped the group escape the Ink Monsters and followed Meng Ran to a Heavenly Mystery Pavilion tribulation site, where its Five Decays Array activated. After Meng Ran passed the second decay and Wuxiang struggled through the first, Chen Yan chose to enter the array’s deepest region, leaving the others alarmed.

• The Ink Monsters overwhelmed Leng Feng and Xu Guangzong’s group, while Chen Yan discovered that his Heart Fire could destroy them without leaving any essence behind.
• Chen Yan urged the group to retreat, and Meng Ran used her smoke to slow the Ink Monsters as everyone escaped the valley.
• Meng Ran led the group to a cave where Heavenly Mystery Pavilion elders had died, explaining that it housed the Five Decays of Heavenly Humans Tribulation Array and that she had come to collect their remains.
• The array activated as the group approached the corpses, forcing Wuxiang to endure the first decay and Meng Ran to face the second, which she successfully overcame.
• After Qin Lan and Yan Zheng urged retreat, Chen Yan stepped toward the array’s deepest region to experience the Decay Tribulation, and Meng Ran warned that he was asking for death.

Chen Yan entered the Tribulation Array’s core and absorbed its Decay Tribulation Power to strengthen his Indestructible Body, triggering and withstanding his first Decay. After exhausting the array’s power, he found a mysterious blank sheet in a skeleton’s hand, and its hidden spiritual attack was overwhelmed by his vast sea of consciousness.

• Chen Yan suppressed his protective golden energy and let the Tribulation Array’s decaying power strike him, astonishing Meng Ran, Yan Zheng, Qin Lan, and Master Wuxiang when his body absorbed it without harm.
• Chen Yan walked into the array’s core, sat among three skeletons, and triggered his first Decay while enduring Tribulation Power stronger than Meng Ran’s second Decay.
• Chen Yan circulated the Indestructible Scripture and absorbed the core’s entire gray vortex, greatly strengthening his Indestructible Body.
• Chen Yan noticed a pure energy fluctuation from a skeleton’s clenched hand, pried its fingers open, and found a blank, undecayed sheet of paper.
• The sheet sent a spiritual attack into Chen Yan’s brow, but the intruder froze inside his immense sea of consciousness beneath the Giant Dharma Image.

Chen Yan learned that the sheet of paper was a fragment of the Heavenly Mystery Book and discovered Meng Ran had brought him to the Secret Realm to recover it. When Meng Ran tried to seduce him into handing it over, Chen Yan subdued her and forced her to surrender the book and the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, leaving her begging for her life.

• Chen Yan bonded with the Heavenly Mystery Book, learned it could discern cause and effect, and sensed that other fragments existed.
• Chen Yan used the book to discover that Meng Ran sought to recover it and gather its fragments for the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.
• Meng Ran privately offered Chen Yan her status, resources, and herself in exchange for the book, but he rejected her proposal and questioned whether the book could see through the Heavenly Dao Oath.
• Chen Yan grabbed Meng Ran by the throat and struck Yan Zheng aside when he tried to intervene, frightening Qin Lan into silence.
• Chen Yan released Meng Ran after she admitted why she had brought them there, and she offered him the book and the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion in exchange for her life.

Chen Yan bound Meng Ran, Wu Xiang, Qin Lan, and Yan Zheng with soul restrictions and ordered them to collect the Secret Realm’s treasures using the Heavenly Mystery Book. He then traveled deeper into the realm, slaughtered rogue cultivators who threatened him, and ate a Dragon Blood Vine, discovering that it strengthened his body and True Essence while calming his mind.

• Chen Yan returned the Heavenly Mystery Book to Meng Ran and ordered her, Wu Xiang, Qin Lan, and Yan Zheng to gather treasures for him under threat of their soul restrictions.
• Yan Zheng defied Chen Yan, but the restriction burned his soul until he submitted, leaving the group convinced that their lives were in Chen Yan’s hands.
• Chen Yan headed deeper into the Secret Realm, drawn by an aura linked to the Myriad Phenomena Painting Brush and his search for the Painting Saint.
• Chen Yan encountered rogue cultivators fighting over a Dragon Blood Vine, and they mocked and threatened him after identifying him as someone associated with Meng Ran.
• Chen Yan killed the scar-faced brute and the fleeing rogue cultivators with casual gestures, while the yellow-robed young man knelt and offered him the Dragon Blood Vine.
• Chen Yan ate the Dragon Blood Vine raw and felt its energy strengthen his body and True Essence while soothing his sea of consciousness.

Chen Yan destroyed the Ink Monster guarding the Dragon Blood Vine, then continued toward the Secret Realm's core after gaining new insight into his cultivation. He found evidence of a deadly contest among the entrants and reached an ancient bronze gate that someone had already opened.

• Chen Yan questioned Zhou Kang, but an Ink Monster burst through the stone wall and attacked Zhou Kang and the other cultivators.
• Chen Yan summoned his Dharma Form and annihilated the Ink Monster with a golden palm.
• Chen Yan sensed that the Dragon Blood Vine had strengthened and refined his power, then left the remaining branches for Zhou Kang and his companions.
• Chen Yan hurried toward the core of the Secret Realm and found numerous dead cultivators from Blue Star and the Blood Moon Realm along the way.
• Chen Yan reached a colossal stone wall and found an ancient bronze gate standing open, with darkness beyond it.

Chen Yan entered the Painting Saint’s secret realm, where Xie Xuan revealed the truth about the realm, Yinghuo, and the Black Tide. Chen Yan accepted Xie Xuan’s complete legacy and the burden of opposing the Black Tide and protecting Yinghuo’s descendants.

• Chen Yan entered the secret realm and encountered Xu Guangzong, Pei Yin, and six other people as the Painting Saint’s trial began.
• The others were transported away by the trial’s force, which left Chen Yan behind, and Xie Xuan appeared as the storyteller Chen Yan had met in Monan City.
• Xie Xuan saw through Chen Yan’s powers and overwhelmed his attempted defense with a glance before showing him the dying world sealed in a scroll.
• Xie Xuan explained that he came from Yinghuo, that the Black Tide had destroyed its civilization, and that he was a Martial God whose power and lifespan were nearly spent.
• Xie Xuan offered Chen Yan either his complete legacy and the duty to oppose the Black Tide and unite the Blood Moon Realm with Blue Star, or lesser opportunities without that burden.
• Chen Yan chose the complete legacy, and Xie Xuan laughed with relief after centuries of waiting.

Du Qionghua broke through to the professional level after three years of training, while the Professional League champion Bai Lingshuang declared her goal was to clear one hundred floors of the Trial Tower. The chapter left Du Qionghua eager to share her breakthrough with her family and Bai Lingshuang facing a daunting new challenge.

• Du Chun told Du Qionghua that Zhenyue Martial Arts Hall was preparing to open a branch in the Imperial Capital and expand to support Kefa and Xiao Yan's cultivation.
• Du Qionghua resumed training, drew in a sudden torrent of natural essence, and broke through from the peak of the amateur level to the professional level.
• At the East Continent Game, Old Zhang told his friend that the Trial Tower's challenges changed starting on the sixteenth floor.
• Bai Lingshuang received the champion's trophy at the Fourth East Continent Professional League awards ceremony.
• Bai Lingshuang told the audience that her next goal was to reach the Trial Tower's one hundredth floor.

Chen Yan used the Heavenly Human Tribulation Array and a pool of rare treasures to undergo the Fourth Decay, Body Filth. After the gray cocoon broke, he rose with new skin, but the chapter left his condition and progress beyond this decay unclear.

• Chen Yan prepared a pool of Water of Life and rare medicinal treasures to help him survive the Fourth Decay.
• Chen Yan triggered the Heavenly Human Tribulation Array, sending its gray-black tribulation energy into his body.
• The Body Filth caused Chen Yan's flesh, meridians, bones, and organs to decay as his Chaos energy struggled against it.
• Chen Yan absorbed the pool's Water of Life and medicinal power to counter the decay, while his Indestructible Golden Body Dharma Image weakened.
• The treasures ran out, the gray cocoon around Chen Yan cracked and burst, and he rose with smooth new skin.

After passing the Fourth Decay Tribulation, Chen Yan searched for a way to gather enough Tribulation Power for the Fifth Decay and tested the limits of his Heavenly Mystery Book. His question about the origin of his Martial Dao God-Ascension System caused the book to shut down, while its clash with Zhao Xinyue’s fragment left her shaken and forced Corpse Ancestor Hanba to escape.

• Chen Yan emerged from the Scroll World after passing the Fourth Decay Tribulation and asked the Heavenly Mystery Book for the fastest ways to gather Tribulation Power for the Fifth Decay.
• Chen Yan learned that even the fastest plausible methods were too dangerous or slow, and the Heavenly Mystery Book could not locate its other fragment or explain realms beyond its limits.
• Chen Yan asked where his Martial Dao God-Ascension System came from, and the Heavenly Mystery Book abruptly closed and stopped responding.
• Zhao Xinyue found Corpse Ancestor Hanba in the Zero Rift, evaded its attack with foreknowledge, and wounded it with her Heaven-Burning Flame.
• A mysterious force caused Zhao Xinyue’s Heavenly Mystery Book fragment to struggle against Chen Yan’s book, allowing Corpse Ancestor Hanba to escape using the Blood Escape Technique.
• After the force withdrew, Zhao Xinyue received no explanation from her fragment and flew away from the Zero Rift.

Corpse Ancestor Hanba was transformed by a sinister black jade, while Chen Yan arranged for Lipo and the Stone Spirit Clan to protect his family before venturing into space. At a survivable distance from the sun, Chen Yan formed a Heavenly Human Tribulation Array and discovered that it could gather tribulation energy from the cosmos.

• Corpse Ancestor Hanba touched the black jade, which consumed its identity and reshaped it into a black-eyed monster with a crystal limb.
• Lipo reflected on Chen Yan's help to the Stone Spirit Clan, then met him in a dream and promised to protect his family.
• Chen Yan told Lipo to bring the Stone Spirit Clan into the Zhenyue Group because a disaster could one day destroy all life on Blue Star.
• Chen Yan traveled into space to find a safe distance from the sun, stopping when the surrounding temperature neared five thousand degrees Celsius.
• Chen Yan established a Heavenly Human Tribulation Array in the vacuum and sensed faint tribulation energy gathering from the distant void.

Chen Kefa led a group of young elites through Zero Rift when a powerful Hanba ambushed them, forcing him to defend them with a formation and his sword. As the Hanba overwhelmed their defenses, Chen Kefa used Chen Yan’s album to summon five eighth-rank Demon Kings, leaving the monster surrounded.

• Chen Kefa led the selected newcomers across Zero Rift and warned them not to interfere when a Hanba ambushed the group.
• Chen Kefa fought the Hanba, but its black crystal arm blocked his attacks and withstood his Heavenly Thunder technique.
• Chen Kefa formed the newcomers into the Small Heavenly Cycle Hunyuan Formation, but the Hanba threatened to overwhelm them as their barrier began to fail.
• Chen Kefa poured the formation’s True Essence into Chen Yan’s album, which released a crimson wyrm, a golden-flamed giant ape, a Cyan Strange Bird, a nine-headed serpent, and a stone giant.
• Chen Kefa watched the five eighth-rank Demon Kings surround the Hanba and told the stunned newcomers, “That’s all you’ve got.”

Chen Kefa and the Five Great Demon Kings destroyed Hanba after the black jade failed to control them, and Chen Yan later investigated the battlefield. The Heavenly Book identified the black crystal fragments as Black Tide Creation, a force that could transform living beings into mindless killers.

• The black jade emerged from Hanba and tried to control the Five Great Demon Kings, but its black threads had no effect on them.
• The Five Great Demon Kings tore Hanba apart, and the black jade fled into the ground before Chen Kefa confirmed the danger had passed.
• Chen Kefa ordered the exhausted newcomers to take medicine and hurry to the Forward Base, where Chen Yan sensed that they were safe.
• After ending his month-long retreat, Chen Yan checked the Heavenly Human Tribulation Array and then traveled to the battlefield at Zero Rift.
• Chen Yan found black crystal fragments that resonated with a violent energy, and the Heavenly Book identified the substance as Black Tide Creation.

Chen Yan realized Blue Star was unprepared for the Black Tide’s possible invasion and resolved to grow stronger. At Zero Rift Base, Chen Kefa reported a mutated Hanba encounter, then learned that an upcoming East Continent Game could bring him the resources and training to reach the great grandmaster realm.

• Chen Yan sensed that the Black Tide could return as a full-scale invasion and focused on advancing toward the Martial God realm.
• Chen Kefa reported the recruits’ encounter with a mutated Corpse Ancestor Hanba to Zhou Ling at Zero Rift Base.
• Zhou Ling approved Chen Kefa’s evacuation of the recruits and said the Hanba’s mutation warranted investigation.
• Zhou Ling told Chen Kefa that the East Continent Game would soon open a module for fighters above grandmaster level, with rankings affecting cultivation resources.
• Zhou Ling offered to request special training for Chen Kefa, who accepted the challenge and hurried off to prepare.

After months of training in the starry sky, Chen Yan advanced his divine abilities and unlocked Mastery and Integration. He fused Dream Weaver with Mastery of the Soul Dao to create Nightmare Return to Void, while the Eye of the Great Dao failed to reveal his own fate.

• Chen Yan trained in the vacuum for months and found he could endure only ten days before retreating to the Scroll World to recover.
• True Pupil of Myriad Phenomena advanced to Eye of the Great Dao, which let him glimpse the general course of fate at the cost of tremendous backlash.
• Wide Learning advanced to Mastery and Integration, granting Chen Yan the ability to combine divine abilities and create new arts.
• Chen Yan used the Eye of the Great Dao to examine his reflection but could not discern his own fate.
• Chen Yan combined Dream Weaver and Mastery of the Soul Dao, creating the new divine ability Nightmare Return to Void.