Chapter Summaries

Ye Lin defeated three powerful enemies in his first battle after reaching the Quasi-Saint realm, impressing Qing Luo and her clansmen. After Blade Fanatic found a diagram pointing to a suspected Innate Spirit Treasure on the seventh level of the Reverse Time Golden Tower, Ye Lin decided to investigate it.

• Ye Lin killed the three enemies in less than ten breaths, leaving Qing Luo and her clansmen stunned.
• Sword Demon said Ye Lin's Sword Dao now rivaled his own, while Ye Lin modestly acknowledged Sword Demon's greater understanding.
• Blade Fanatic searched the enemies' storage treasures and found Identity Tokens, time-related materials, and a diagram of the Time Tower.
• Blade Fanatic revealed that the tower had seven levels and that its top level held a suspected Innate Spirit Treasure called the Time Hourglass.
• Ye Lin studied the diagram and decided to enter the Reverse Time Golden Tower to seek the treasure.

Ye Lin and the other three entered the Inverted Golden Tower and crossed a corridor filled with time traps. They found a Time Crystal, which Ye Lin gave up, and Blade Fanatic claimed it before the group moved toward the next level.

• Ye Lin entered the gate of light, and Sword Demon and the other two followed, while Qing Luo could not approach because the chaotic flow of time made her ill.
• Ye Lin and the others crossed a corridor showing images of history and avoided its time traps without difficulty.
• At the corridor’s end, Ye Lin identified a crystal containing the origin of time and learned it could improve comprehension of time laws.
• Ye Lin decided the Time Crystal was useless to him and left it to the others before heading toward the spiral staircase.
• After competing for the crystal, Blade Fanatic took it, saying he could sell it because he needed money.

Ye Lin and his companions crossed the Time-Space Maze with Blade Fanatic guiding them, then moved on to the Temporal Visions stage. Ye Lin ignored the Time-Space Array Diagram and inspected the next challenge before proceeding.

• Blade Fanatic led Ye Lin and the others through more than a thousand shifting rooms to the maze's center.
• Ye Lin passed up the Time-Space Array Diagram, which ultimately went to Sword Demon.
• Ye Lin learned from the blueprint that the Temporal Visions stage created copies of intruders that attacked with part of their strength.
• Ye Lin watched the stage rather than entering immediately because he wanted to verify the blueprint for himself.

Ye Lin and his companions cleared the time mirror trial, and Ye Lin passed up its Time Rune reward to keep his focus on the Innate Spirit Treasure. He then easily overcame the fourth floor’s inner-demon trial and found a bottle of Tears of Time.

• Ye Lin used his sword to disrupt time around each mirror image, destroying them as he advanced through the trial.
• Ye Lin reached the Time Rune reward but gave it up, leaving the companions to divide it; Iron Hammer took it with Sword Demon and Blade Fanatic’s agreement.
• Ye Lin left the fourth floor after easily breaking through its inner-demon trial.
• Ye Lin found that the fourth floor’s reward was a bottle of Tears of Time, a sacred medicine for healing.

Ye Lin reached the fifth level of the Cloud Heaven Secret Realm, where a Future Projection showed him worshipped as a powerful Venerable before an unseen force sent him back. He regained his composure, passed up the Seed of Foresight, and continued onward.

• Ye Lin entered the fifth level and saw a future vision of himself atop a sword mountain, worshipped by countless cultivators and powerful experts.
• An enormous, emotionless eye declared that Ye Lin did not belong there and sent him back to the platform.
• Ye Lin steadied his Dao Heart and decided to focus on the path before him rather than the future projection.
• Ye Lin learned that the Seed of Foresight could reveal the next two hours, but passed it by because he wanted an innate spiritual treasure more.
• Ye Lin reached the next level.

Ye Lin entered the sixth floor’s trial and found himself in a seemingly endless battlefield where countless races fought without anyone dying. After a month of searching for a way out, he remained trapped with no clue how to escape.

• Ye Lin entered the sixth floor and was transported to a vast battlefield where races fought in a chaotic melee.
• Ye Lin observed the battle and realized that the combatants could not die and did not seem able to see him.
• Ye Lin tried to learn from the cultivators’ fighting, but found their techniques disorderly and inferior to his own.
• Ye Lin searched the battlefield for an exit and discovered that his Sword Qi passed through the fighters without affecting them.
• More cultivators joined the endless battle, and after a month Ye Lin still had no way out.

After wandering for a month in a white space, Ye Lin found a passage leading to the lowest level of the Inverted Golden Tower, where the connate spirit treasure Hourglass of Time awaited. His attempt to seize it cost him an arm, which he severed and regrew, leaving him wary of the treasure.

• Ye Lin stopped wandering and meditated until the battlefield around him disappeared and a passage appeared.
• Ye Lin found a saber with a blade condensed from time, examined it, and returned it to its place.
• Ye Lin entered the tower’s lowest level and saw the Hourglass of Time surrounded by violent currents of time.
• Ye Lin used his Sword Dao to suppress the currents and reached for the Hourglass of Time.
• The Hourglass of Time rapidly withered Ye Lin’s arm, so he severed it and grew a new one.

Ye Lin risked the Godslayer Sword to retrieve the Hourglass of Time from its turbulent flow. He succeeded, but the sword was blackened and its spirit weakened, leaving him to promise it would be reforged.

• Ye Lin realized the Hourglass of Time had ruined his arm and that his Sword Dao Law could not suppress it.
• Ye Lin decided against risking Azure Frost and instead used the Godslayer Sword to reach the Hourglass.
• The Sword Demon and two others arrived and watched as Ye Lin drew the Hourglass out on the sword tip.
• Ye Lin endured the sword’s violent trembling and lifted the Hourglass free.
• The Godslayer Sword stopped trembling, but its divinity vanished and its sword spirit weakened, so Ye Lin promised to have it reforged.

Ye Lin and the others escaped the collapsing Inverted Golden Tower with the Hourglass of Time, then watched the tower vanish and the ancient city beneath it reappear. Ye Lin examined the hourglass, but he was left wondering whether it was truly an innate spirit treasure.

• Ye Lin took the Hourglass of Time and led Sword Demon and the others out of the collapsing Inverted Golden Tower.
• Ye Lin and his companions escaped as the tower rose, flipped over, and disappeared.
• The crystalline ground melted, revealing an ancient city whose long-frozen inhabitants crumbled into ash.
• Ye Lin examined the Hourglass of Time with Sword Demon, Blade Fanatic, and Iron Hammer, and questioned whether it was an innate spirit treasure.

Ye Lin tested the Hourglass of Time to determine whether it was an Innate Spirit Treasure and discovered that it could manipulate time. He invited Sword Demon to test its power, setting up a confrontation.

• Ye Lin and Blade Fanatic, Sword Demon, and Iron Hammer admitted they did not know how to identify an Innate Spirit Treasure.
• Iron Hammer suggested testing the Hourglass of Time, so Ye Lin poured his Quasi-Saint power into it.
• Ye Lin made the sand flow upward and watched the distant crystal ground freeze again, then reversed the effect and made it melt.
• Ye Lin realized the Hourglass of Time let him control time and challenged the three seniors to test its strength.
• Sword Demon accepted Ye Lin's challenge and prepared to draw his sword while Blade Fanatic and Iron Hammer moved aside.

Ye Lin tested the Hourglass of Time against the Sword Demon, using it to erase increasingly powerful sword strikes. The Sword Demon became serious and asked to fight for real, and Ye Lin agreed as the Sword Demon told the other two to protect his path.

• Qing Luo prepared to flee with her clansmen if the four great ones began fighting.
• Ye Lin used the Hourglass of Time to reverse the Sword Demon's fifty-percent-strength strike until its Sword Qi vanished.
• The Sword Demon increased his attacks to seventy and then ninety percent of his strength, but Ye Lin erased both strikes with the Hourglass.
• The Sword Demon became completely serious and asked Ye Lin if he dared to fight for real.
• Ye Lin agreed, and the Sword Demon told the other two to protect his path.

Sword Demon unleashed a powerful sword strike to test the limits of Ye Lin’s Innate Spirit Treasure. Ye Lin used the Hourglass of Time to reverse the Sword Qi until it vanished, leaving Sword Demon’s test answered but the spar unresolved.

• Sword Demon warned Blade Fanatic and Iron Hammer that he was about to strike with full force.
• Ye Lin accepted Sword Demon’s challenge and prepared to test the Hourglass of Time.
• Sword Demon drew his Long Sword and sent a terrifying wave of Sword Qi at Ye Lin.
• Ye Lin activated the Hourglass of Time and reversed the Sword Qi’s flow until it disappeared.
• Ye Lin took the Hourglass of Time back in hand after the strike vanished.

Ye Lin confirmed that the Hourglass of Time was an Innate Spirit Treasure after it blocked Sword Demon’s attack, then led the group onward along the ancient road. The map ended at unknown territory to the west, where rumors told of a floating mountain and a path to the heavens.

• Sword Demon accepted that Ye Lin’s treasure had blocked his attack, praised its power, and put away his sword.
• Ye Lin and Blade Fanatic concluded that the Hourglass of Time was an Innate Spirit Treasure, and Ye Lin put it away without objection from the others.
• Ye Lin suggested they continue along the ancient road, and Qing Luo agreed as she led her tribespeople behind the four lords.
• Ye Lin and the others left the Crystal Plains and traveled west with Qing Luo and her people.
• The group reached the end of Qing Luo’s ancestors’ map, which described the land beyond as unexplored and mentioned rumors of a floating mountain and a path reaching the heavens.

After three months of travel, Ye Lin and his companions reached a deadly barrier formed from Law Turbulence Belts. Qing Luo chose to settle nearby with her tribe, while Ye Lin and the others continued into the mist.

• Ye Lin and his companions reached a second layer of mist formed from turbulent, unstable laws.
• Blade Fanatic warned that even Quasi-Saints had to cross the Law Turbulence Belt carefully.
• Qing Luo thanked Ye Lin and the others and decided to lead her clansmen to settle nearby.
• Ye Lin accepted Qing Luo's decision and wished her tribe well before departing with his companions.
• Qing Luo led her clansmen away to search for a place to build a new life.

Ye Lin and his companions crossed the Cloud Heaven Secret Realm’s Law Turbulence Belt, fighting law creatures and collecting their fragments. They emerged into a vast suspended domain filled with countless islands formed from elemental crystals.

• Ye Lin released his divine sense into the mist and sensed powerful creatures and turbulent laws ahead.
• An earth-dragon law creature attacked the group, and Iron Hammer smashed it apart.
• Blade Fanatic collected the creature’s law fragments, prompting Ye Lin and the others to gather fragments from their own defeated enemies.
• After a month of fighting increasingly powerful law creatures, Ye Lin and his companions passed through the thinning mist.
• The group emerged into a boundless void filled with floating islands made from crystals of different attributes.

Ye Lin and his three companions reached a heavenly domain of floating cities and three thousand mysterious lights, where Star Lord Wenqu welcomed them on the city lord’s behalf. Ye Lin accepted the invitation to meet the city lord at the Starwatching Platform.

• Ye Lin observed the crystal islands, suspended cities, and nine layers of cloud-sea vaults, then guessed that the three thousand lights beyond them represented three thousand sacred lands.
• A bell rang from the central holy city, and a seven-colored Rainbow Bridge extended toward Ye Lin and his companions.
• Star Lord Wenqu crossed the bridge with two young Quasi-Saint cultivators and introduced himself as the Sky-Patrolling Envoy of the Floating Holy City.
• Wenqu invited the group to join the city lord for tea at the Starwatching Platform, while his powerful aura lingered without restraint.
• Ye Lin politely accepted the invitation on behalf of himself and the three seniors.

Ye Lin and his companions entered the Sky Domain and traveled toward the Holy City, where he suspected they had reached the Cloud Heaven Secret Realm’s central core. They arrived at the Starwatching Platform and assessed the powerful cultivators waiting there.

• Star Lord Wenqu escorted Ye Lin, Sword Demon, and their two companions across the Rainbow Bridge toward the Holy City.
• Star Lord Wenqu explained that the Sky Domain’s sects, clans, and Heavenly Palace divisions maintained the realm, while its turbulent-flow belt served as a barrier and trial ground.
• Ye Lin inferred that the Sky Domain might maintain the entire Cloud Heaven Secret Realm and kept the possibility to himself.
• The Rainbow Bridge brought the group to the Starwatching Platform, where a white-haired elder, two other elders, and several Quasi-Saints and Daluo Golden Immortals awaited them.
• Ye Lin judged the elders’ cultivation levels and concluded that the gathering posed no threat he could not handle.

Xuanwei explained that Ye Lin’s Hourglass of Time was the incomplete shell of an Innate Spirit Treasure, and offered a trade to obtain it for the Sky Domain. Ye Lin heard the terms but had not yet accepted.

• Star Lord Wenqu introduced Ye Lin and his companions to Xuanwei, the lord of Floating City.
• Xuanwei identified Ye Lin’s Hourglass of Time as the Time Scar Shell, one half of the Cosmic Light Hourglass, and explained its role in stabilizing heaven and earth.
• Ye Lin realized the Hourglass of Time was an incomplete Innate Spirit Treasure.
• Xuanwei offered to exchange information about the Three Thousand Sacred Lands and the Sword Dao Holy Land, four Heaven-Ascent Tokens, and substantial resources for the Time Scar Shell.
• Ye Lin listened to Xuanwei’s proposal without agreeing to the trade.

Xuanwei offered Ye Lin detailed information and a direct route to the Three Thousand Sacred Lands in exchange for help retrieving the Cosmic Light Source Crystal from the Tomb of Time. He also offered Ye Lin the option to hand over the Time Scar Shell and let Xuanwei’s people take the risk, leaving Ye Lin to weigh the value of the information against his Innate Spirit Treasure.

• Ye Lin considered the offer of information about the sacred lands, the Sword Dao Holy Land, its trials, and a direct route there, but realized he might lose the Hourglass of Time.
• Xuanwei asked Ye Lin to enter the Tomb of Time and retrieve the Cosmic Light Source Crystal, explaining that only someone carrying the Time Scar Shell could approach its core restriction.
• The Red-Robed Elder offered to send people to assist Ye Lin against the tomb’s traps and formidable spirit generals.
• Xuanwei offered Ye Lin an alternative: hand over the Time Scar Shell so Xuanwei’s people could retrieve the crystal, in exchange for the promised information but not the additional resources.
• Xuanwei warned that outsiders had only a hundred years in the region and needed to reach a sacred land within ninety years to complete its ten years of training.

Ye Lin realized that Xuanwei and the others needed his Hourglass of Time to repair the secret realm and would not let him leave with it. He accepted that refusing could lead to a costly fight and asked what resources they would offer in exchange.

• Ye Lin weighed selling the Hourglass of Time for a direct route to the Sword Dao Holy Land and information about the sacred lands.
• The Sword Demon tapped Ye Lin, bringing him back to his senses.
• Ye Lin understood that Xuanwei and the others needed the Hourglass of Time to mend the secret realm and that they might seize it if he refused.
• Ye Lin considered the danger of fighting them and asked Xuanwei what abundant resources he would receive.