Chapter Summaries

After Qi Xinxian and Wang Xinyue died trying to help the people, Ye Lin comforted Luo Yao and remained in the city as spring returned. When the Demon Beasts began besieging the city, its defenders armed themselves and took their places on the Great Wall while Ye Lin watched to see whether he could alter the Heavenly Dao.

• Luo Yao blamed herself for Qi Xinxian and Wang Xinyue’s deaths, and Ye Lin comforted her, saying they would not blame her.
• Ye Lin reflected that Qi Xinxian and Wang Xinyue had set out prepared to die and had died because they were too weak to succeed.
• The old man found that sitting beside Ye Lin eased his pain and left him without need for food, water, or sleep.
• As the Demon Beasts stirred, Ye Lin stayed in the pavilion to see whether he could change the great tide of the Heavenly Dao without suppressing it.
• A month later, the city’s young men and elders put on armor and went to the Great Wall as the Demon Beasts began their siege.

After the Demon Beasts’ siege ended, Ye Lin comforted Luo Yao as she grieved for her friends’ father and explained that mortals’ lives followed Heaven’s laws. He then discussed immortals and the Heavenly Dao with the little old man, whose life appeared to be nearing its end.

• The Demon Beasts attacked Solitary City for three days, leaving only ten thousand old, weak, sick, or disabled residents alive before reinforcements arrived.
• The soldiers defended the city for another month until the Demon Beasts retreated, with fewer than one in ten of the hundred thousand reinforcements surviving.
• Luo Yao asked Ye Lin to bring Da Ya and Er Ya’s dead father back to life, and Ye Lin told her that death was part of mortal destiny and she must not interfere.
• The little old man asked Ye Lin whether immortals were heartless, and Ye Lin explained that immortals studied the Heavenly Dao while mortals studied the human heart.
• Ye Lin noticed that the little old man was growing frailer and had barely any teeth left.

Over the years after the last Demon Beast siege, Ye Lin watched the world shift through a life-and-death chess game as Wang Yun carried on Teacher Qi and Teacher Wang’s unfinished work. Wang Yun’s execution destabilized the imperial court as powerful martial artists and Demon Kings rose, leaving Ye Lin to observe the next moves in the struggle.

• Ye Lin told the little old man that the heavens, not the chessboard, had changed as black and white stones faced a life-and-death struggle.
• Ten years after the last Demon Beast siege, the grown academy students teased Luo Yao, who had not grown at all.
• Wang Yun asked Ye Lin to let him fulfill Teacher Qi and Teacher Wang’s unfinished wish, then left Solitary City to spread martial arts techniques.
• Soldiers reported the appearance of a massive Demon Beast as Demon Beasts began growing stronger and causing trouble again.
• The imperial court executed Wang Yun by a thousand cuts, prompting martial artists to seize territories while Demon Kings began commanding the Demon Beasts.
• Others told Ye Lin they would carry on their seniors’ unfinished work and fight for the cause.

The Great Wild Goose Dynasty collapsed as rebellion spread and the king took his own life. Three days later, the rebels entered the imperial capital and concluded that corrupt officials had deceived the king and drained the people.

• Martial artists went to fight the Demon Beasts, while rebel armies rose across the land against the court.
• The rebels grew to one million and advanced toward the imperial capital as the court struggled to suppress them.
• The king raged at his ministers, purged powerful families, and then questioned whether he had done wrong.
• The king slit his throat, and the court's army lost morale and surrendered as the dynasty fell apart.
• Three days later, the eighteen rebel factions entered the court hall and declared that the dream woven by corrupt officials had ended.

As the rebel armies united against the Demon Beasts and martial arts spread through the realm, Ye Lin’s elderly companion prepared for death. The old man died peacefully after asking Ye Lin to scatter his ashes beyond the world, and his disciple arrived to accompany Ye Lin.

• The eighteen rebel armies joined forces, distributed martial arts manuals, and sent cultivated experts toward the Great Wall to face the Demon Beasts.
• Children at the academy began practicing martial arts in the morning and studying in the afternoon as martial arts became freely available to the public.
• Ye Lin offered the dying old man a hundred more years of life, but the old man refused and asked Ye Lin to scatter his ashes beyond the world.
• The old man died the next day, and his grieving disciple brought his ashes to Ye Lin and stayed to accompany him.

After the Demon Beasts’ month-long siege, the Eighteen Rebel Armies survived but the Great Wild Goose Dynasty descended into rebellion, famine, and lawlessness. The Rebel Armies feared that civil strife and a collapsing population would leave humanity defenseless against the Demon Beasts, but they could not restore order.

• Luo Yao cried when the little old man died, then winter passed and the city prepared for another Demon Beast assault.
• The Demon Beasts attacked Solitary City, where newly strengthened human soldiers fought back through a month of brutal combat until the horde retreated.
• The battle left the Great Wild Goose Dynasty paralyzed, and ambitious people across the realm began claiming territory and making themselves kings.
• Martial cultivation techniques spread among ordinary people, fueling rebellion and endless civil conflict as many forgot the danger posed by the Demon Beasts.
• The Eighteen Rebel Armies tried to restore order but lacked the strength to suppress the chaos, while landlords hoarded food and starving commoners resorted to exchanging children to eat.

Ye Lin sent ten martial artists from Solitary City into the Great Wild Goose Dynasty to feed and arm the people, then lead them against the court. At the academy, he advised the young Li Zheng on becoming emperor, and Li Zheng vowed to make his name known across the world.

• Ye Lin recognized that the Heavenly Dao's ten-year cycle turned hope into despair and decided to answer its violence with violence.
• Ten skilled fighters left Solitary City, distributed grain to the people of the Great Wild Goose Dynasty, taught them martial techniques, and began advancing toward the court.
• The academy's previous generation of students left to save the Great Wild Goose Dynasty, while other students remained behind.
• Li Zheng asked Ye Lin what an emperor was and how he could become the emperor of the realm.
• Ye Lin told Li Zheng to gain strength first and then develop his knowledge, talent, vision, and wisdom.
• Li Zheng bowed to Ye Lin and promised to make everyone under heaven know his name.

Ye Lin watched Li Zheng grow into a powerful and ambitious young man, seeing him as a possible hope for the Human Race. Li Zheng left Solitary City to seek answers in the Central Plains, while the Human Race’s million-strong army gathered beneath the imperial capital.

• Ye Lin sensed an emperor’s aura in Li Zheng and placed another white stone on the board, believing the Human Race still had hope.
• Li Zheng visited Ye Lin regularly, asking about the world beyond and learning that the stars were other worlds in the boundless Starry Sky.
• The ten people who had left Solitary City each commanded a hundred thousand troops and marched toward the imperial court.
• Li Zheng asked whether he was ready to become emperor, but Ye Lin said he was too young to convince everyone under heaven.
• Li Zheng declared he would make people accept him, then left Solitary City for the Central Plains and promised to return in a dragon robe.
• The million-strong Human Race army arrived beneath the imperial capital as Ye Lin saw the white stones’ chance of survival grow.

The eighteen former rebel leaders panicked when ten armies totaling one million men marched on the imperial capital, then prepared to defend the city. The ten armies arrived beneath its heavily guarded walls, leaving the coming assault poised to begin.

• The eighteen leaders discussed the approaching million-man army and dismissed most of its soldiers as farmers.
• The leaders recalled how their rule had sparked rebellions and how their troops had disappeared when sent to suppress them.
• The eighteen leaders decided to secure the imperial capital and rely on its defenses to repel the armies.
• They deployed one hundred thousand troops throughout the city and closed every gate.
• The ten armies reached the imperial capital, and their leaders frowned at its ten-meter-high, heavily guarded walls.

Li Zheng proposed surrounding the imperial capital instead of storming it, allowing the victors to establish a new court and consolidate the Human Territory. Great Qin began implementing policies to seize aristocratic wealth and grow its population.

• Li Zheng told the ten leaders to blockade the imperial capital and establish a new court beside it rather than attack.
• The leaders accepted Li Zheng's plan, surrounded the capital, and founded a temporary court.
• The new dynasty adopted Great Qin as its era name, and news of its founding spread throughout the Human Territory.
• Great Qin confiscated the wealth and grain of major landlords and aristocratic clans for state ownership.
• Great Qin encouraged childbirth and promised state care for children, and its population began to rise in its first year.

As Great Qin developed, Ye Lin watched another ten-year cycle begin. In the eighth year, Li Zheng prepared to sacrifice a million soldiers to defend the Great Wall from the Demon Beasts, vowing to retaliate next time.

• In Great Qin's second year, officials took their posts, and in its third year, martial arts training spread across the population.
• Ye Lin watched the snow fall and wondered how the coming ten-year cycle would unfold; Luo Yao had left Solitary City with the academy students.
• By Great Qin's eighth year, Li Zheng had grown into a stern young emperor and asked his ministers how to defend against the Demon Beasts.
• The ministers agreed to send a million troops to the Great Wall, hoping to hold the line until the next generation matured.
• Li Zheng ordered the deployment, regretted the soldiers' coming deaths, and vowed to make the Demon Beasts pay next time.

Great Qin’s million-strong martial army fought off a devastating Demon Beast siege, losing nearly all its soldiers but buying the empire time to recover. Over the following years, Li Zheng consolidated Great Qin, and the Human Race’s population, military strength, and fortune grew.

• Li Zheng sent Great Qin’s final million-strong army to the border, where it faced a battle that would determine the empire’s survival.
• The Demon Beasts attacked the Great Wall, and the fighting continued for a month before they retreated.
• Fewer than thirty thousand of Great Qin’s million soldiers survived the siege.
• Li Zheng consolidated Great Qin over the following years as the empire expanded, reclaimed its capital, and grew its population and martial forces.
• By Great Qin’s sixteenth year, the Human Race had gained renewed vitality and its fortune was rising.

Li Zheng ordered Great Qin to invade the wilderness before the Demon Beasts’ next ten-year attack, beginning a relentless campaign to bring the Anxuan Realm under his rule. As Ye Lin watched the battle unfold from Solitary City, Great Qin expanded its territory and grew stronger.

• Li Zheng declared that Great Qin would strike the Demon Beasts first and ordered the army to conquer the Anxuan Realm.
• Great Qin sent one and a half million soldiers into the wilderness after a brief rest at the Great Wall.
• When the ten-year term arrived, Demon Kings led the Demon Beasts against the army, and both sides fought to a stalemate.
• Ye Lin placed a white piece on the board in Solitary City, believing he still had the advantage.
• Li Zheng kept sending reinforcements as Great Qin fought day after day, defeating the Demon Beasts and expanding its territory.

Ye Lin concluded his game against Heaven as Great Qin flourished under Li Zheng, while Luo Yao returned from her travels and asked to go back. Li Zheng arrived at the academy and told Ye Lin that he had succeeded.

• Ye Lin placed the final white stone, winning his game against Heaven after decades of Great Qin’s growth.
• Great Qin’s people prepared for Li Zheng’s visit to Star City, where he was celebrated as the Human Race’s emperor.
• Luo Yao returned to Ye Lin and excitedly recounted her travels before asking to go back because she missed Shangguan.
• Li Zheng arrived at the academy in a golden dragon carriage, faced Ye Lin, and said he had succeeded.

Ye Lin rejected Li Zheng’s offer to become Great Qin’s Imperial Preceptor and departed with Luo Yao, revealing how small the Anxuan Realm was to him. Left behind, Li Zheng recognized himself as a chess piece in Ye Lin’s game and vowed to conquer the realm and destroy its Demon Beasts.

• Li Zheng asked Ye Lin to become Great Qin’s Imperial Preceptor, but Ye Lin refused and said he was leaving.
• Ye Lin told Li Zheng that the Anxuan Realm and its rulers were insignificant to him, then rose into the sky with Luo Yao and disappeared.
• Li Zheng studied the chessboard and realized that he and the dead had been pieces in Ye Lin’s game.
• Li Zheng swept the chessboard to the ground and ordered everyone in Great Qin who could wield a weapon to hunt Demon Beasts.
• Li Zheng vowed to exterminate the Demon Beasts within three years and unify the Anxuan Realm within five.

Ye Lin scattered the old man's ashes in the Starry Sky, then returned with Luo Yao to their hidden star. There, he reunited with Bao Xiaotou and learned Shangguan Wanyu had advanced to the Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal realm, before Wang Tian arrived and could not find the star.

• Ye Lin scattered the old man's ashes and comforted Luo Yao as she mourned the friends she had lost.
• Ye Lin contacted Bao Xiaotou, who revealed the hidden star beneath them with his formation skills.
• Ye Lin saw that Shangguan Wanyu had reached the Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal realm.
• Bao Xiaotou asked where Ye Lin had gone, and Ye Lin recounted observing mortals and playing chess with a small world's Heavenly Dao.
• Wang Tian called out beyond the Starry Sky, then wondered where the home was when he could not find it.

Wang Tianyi returned after a thousand years of wandering and announced that the Water Spring Secret Realm was about to descend nearby. Ye Lin and the others arrived at the gathering of heavenly prodigies and learned that the realm produced valuable Water Spring Crystals.

• Wang Tianyi told the group he had reached the second layer of the Golden Immortal realm and brought news of an approaching secret realm.
• Ye Lin and the others left their star and headed for the realm's location.
• The group found a crowd gathered around five-colored rosy light as Immortal Qi surged through the starry sky.
• A heavenly prodigy explained that the realm was called the Water Spring Secret Realm and naturally produced Water Spring Crystals.
• The heavenly prodigy said the crystals could strengthen one's foundation and temporarily enhance one's Wuxing, drawing excited reactions from those nearby.

A young cultivator explained why the valuable Water Spring Secret Realm was open to everyone: it was a public secret realm too valuable for any one faction to control. The cultivators waited for it to open and speculated about its treasures and other public secret realms.

• A prodigy questioned why the great powers were giving access to the precious Water Spring Crystals for free.
• The young man accepted the cultivators’ flattery and explained the difference between private and public secret realms.
• He said the Water Spring Secret Realm was public because no single faction could claim its immense value, and that such realms opened when the Third Region’s interests were threatened or a great age arrived.
• The young man fell silent to wait for the secret realm to open.
• The cultivators speculated that other public secret realms might appear and that Water Spring Crystals would be difficult to obtain.

A three-headed man opened the Water Spring Secret Realm to prodigies holding Identity Tokens, explaining that its Water Spring Crystals could boost cultivation ahead of their future entry into the Second Region. Ye Lin and his group entered, while those without places were left behind to struggle for another chance.

• A three-headed man emerged from the secret realm and explained that the Third Region’s major powers had opened it to nurture prodigies with Water Spring Crystals.
• The three-headed man allowed only those with Identity Tokens to enter, leaving those without Second Region places behind.
• The left-behind prodigies watched their peers enter and resolved to keep striving during the next two thousand years.
• The three-headed man glanced deeply at Luo Yao and Shangguan Wanyu before Ye Lin and the others entered the secret realm.
• Other prodigies questioned why a child and a Primordial Unity Mystic Immortal had received places, while others defended their inclusion.

After entering the Water Spring Secret Realm, Ye Lin and the others learned that Water Spring Crystals lay beneath its desolate mountains and that Water Spring Worms could kill even Golden Immortals. They set out to search the mountains, and Li Xiaoyao proposed blasting one flat.

• Bao Xiaotou remarked that the Water Spring Secret Realm looked much like the outside world, and a young prodigy explained where the Water Spring Crystals were hidden and warned them about the deadly Water Spring Worms.
• Ye Lin comforted Bao Xiaotou, while Wang Tian said he wanted to study the worms' venom.
• Ye Lin suggested searching beneath the desolate mountains as the other prodigies flew off to explore on their own.
• Li Xiaoyao looked at a mountain and proposed blasting it flat to find the Water Spring Crystals.