Chapter Summaries

After more than a year of traveling through one-way spatial doors, Zhou Zheng and the others abandoned their flying boat to investigate a doorway directly. The doorway sent each of them to a different space, leaving them separated but able to communicate through their Temporal Temple marks.

• Zhou Zheng, Dong Xuan Chen, and Zhu Jiuling continued studying the changing time and space, while Qian Yun Fengling grew impatient with their lack of progress.
• Dong Xuan Chen proposed that they leave the Delusion Breaking Flying Boat and experience passing through a door firsthand, and the others agreed.
• Qian Yun Fengling vanished when she reached a ripple in the Spatial Turbulence, so Dong Xuan Chen, Zhou Zheng, and Zhu Jiuling followed through it.
• Zhou Zheng found himself alone in a new space and could not detect the others anywhere nearby.
• Zhou Zheng contacted the others through their Temporal Temple marks, learned they had also arrived in separate places, and agreed with Dong Xuan Chen that they would search independently.

After nearly a century of searching and cultivating in the shifting spaces, Zhou Zheng fought the Star Divine Heart lifeform again and killed him. He followed the lifeform’s route through a gate into a living world, leaving him astonished by the change.

• Zhou Zheng continued exploring the random gates while cultivating his True Meaning of Time, which he felt was close to completion.
• Zhou Zheng encountered the tall lifeform with the Star Divine Heart, who attacked him with two giant hammers.
• Zhou Zheng used his Myriad Self Divine Heart to match the lifeform’s strength and forced him to flee.
• Zhou Zheng pursued the wounded lifeform, repeatedly striking him until he annihilated him completely.
• Zhou Zheng found a gate along the lifeform’s escape route and entered an intact world teeming with life.

Zhou Zheng investigated the Giant Hammer World and forced his way into the Bronze Hall atop Giant Mountain, where a Jade Statue drew his consciousness through countless layers of Spatial Turbulence. He discovered that the Statue had been carved in the likeness of an upright corpse standing in endless darkness.

• Zhou Zheng learned that the Chisheng Clan inhabited seven worlds and suspected the dead Giant Hammer had been the World Lord of the Giant Hammer World.
• Zhou Zheng found that his Micro-particle Divine Heart could not penetrate Giant Mountain, so he decided to investigate the Bronze Hall by force.
• Zhou Zheng killed the two Deity-level guards and entered the hall, where he found a towering Jade Statue resembling a Chisheng Clan lifeform.
• Zhou Zheng looked into the Statue's eyes and saw countless layers of Spatial Turbulence, including the worlds and unknown lands he had traveled through.
• Zhou Zheng's viewpoint reached a place of endless darkness, where an upright corpse stood identical to the Jade Statue.

Zhou Zheng entered the corpse’s collapsing particle structure and gained insight into how complex structures were built from simple ones. A wisp of the corpse’s Residual Will revealed a powerful cultivation method suited to Zhou Zheng’s special soul, but refused to teach it while the Temporal Temple still controlled part of that soul.

• Zhou Zheng observed the corpse’s particle collapsing and recognized familiar simple structures within its complex form.
• Zhou Zheng found himself in a dark realm, where an eight-armed figure appeared and identified itself as the corpse’s Residual Will.
• The Residual Will explained that Zhou Zheng’s soul met the requirements for a rare cultivation method but was incomplete because the Temporal Temple controlled part of it.
• The Residual Will refused to teach Zhou Zheng the method until he reclaimed the portion of his soul held by the Temporal Temple.
• Zhou Zheng promised to return after becoming a World God or comprehending First-grade True Meaning and restoring his soul.

After encountering the lingering will of the being worshipped by the Chisheng Clan, Zhou Zheng escaped Ancestral God Mountain and studied the collapse of ruined worlds. He finally discovered the pattern at the heart of particle structures and understood Material True Meaning.

• Zhou Zheng was confronted by more than ten Chisheng Clan Deity-level beings at Ancestral God Mountain and killed them before fleeing into Spatial Turbulence.
• Zhou Zheng used his new understanding of the doors to return to the vast Spatial Turbulence and locate its ruined worlds.
• Zhou Zheng destroyed ruined worlds and studied their collapsing structures, seeking to continue the insight he had gained from the corpse's particles.
• More than ten years later, Dong Xuan Chen, Zhu Jiuling, and Qian Yun Fengling learned that their mission had succeeded beyond its requirements and credited the absent Lightning Swordsman.
• After another ten years of research, Zhou Zheng recognized the fundamental pattern underlying particle structures as Material True Meaning.

Zhou Zheng comprehended the First-grade True Meaning of Time after mastering the Material True Meaning, giving him two First-grade True Meanings. He revealed both abilities to the Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit to demonstrate his exceptional potential and ended with the Spirit confirming his mastery of the Material True Meaning.

• Zhou Zheng's soul grew stronger under the nourishment of the Material True Meaning, and his faster thinking helped him comprehend the True Meaning of Time.
• Zhou Zheng used the True Meaning of Time to stop time in a small area, prompting the Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit to ask if he had mastered it.
• Zhou Zheng told the Artifact Spirit that the Material True Meaning had been his first First-grade True Meaning and explained that he wanted the Temporal Temple to recognize his potential.
• Zhou Zheng transformed the surrounding grassland into a surging ocean with the Material True Meaning, and the Artifact Spirit confirmed his mastery.

The Island Master of Time and Space learned that Zhou Zheng had become the first Transcendental in the God Realm Abyss to grasp two First-grade True Meanings, including the Material True Meaning. He summoned Zhou Zheng and invited him to formally join the Temporal Temple, and Zhou Zheng accepted.

• The Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit told the Island Master of Time and Space that Zhou Zheng had grasped the Material True Meaning and the True Meaning of Time as a Transcendental.
• The Island Master of Time and Space reviewed Zhou Zheng's cultivation history and recognized how he had comprehended both First-grade True Meanings.
• The Island Master of Time and Space summoned Zhou Zheng to the Divine Palace.
• The Island Master of Time and Space told Zhou Zheng he was the first Transcendental in the God Realm Abyss to grasp two First-grade True Meanings and asked him to join the Temporal Temple.
• Zhou Zheng accepted the invitation and formally joined the Temporal Temple.

Zhou Zheng accepted the Island Master of Time and Space’s offer to become his Personal Disciple if he became a Second Heaven World God within 2,500 years, but the Island Master refused to return the portion of Zhou Zheng’s soul held by the Temporal Temple until he became a Great Power. The Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit then offered him a residence, guidance on cultivating the Clone Technique, and the chance to become a Material Realm Lord, which Zhou Zheng accepted.

• The Island Master of Time and Space promised to make Zhou Zheng his third Personal Disciple if he became a Second Heaven World God within 2,500 years, and Zhou Zheng agreed.
• Zhou Zheng asked the Island Master to return the portion of his soul held by the Temporal Temple, but the Island Master said he would return it only after Zhou Zheng became a Great Power.
• Zhou Zheng returned to his Private Space and reflected on the Island Master’s refusal to grant his request.
• The Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit told Zhou Zheng that he could send a Clone to a residence on Time-Space Island after cultivating the Clone Technique.
• The Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit offered to send Zhou Zheng back to his Material World so he could become a Material Realm Lord, and Zhou Zheng accepted.

Zhou Zheng reunited with Feng Zhuhong and Mo Zitong and offered them a way to leave the Temporal Temple, but both chose to stay and pursue godhood. He then cultivated two bodies in parallel, advancing the Material True Meaning and fusing the True Meanings of Time and Space into the Space-Time True Meaning.

• Zhou Zheng summoned Feng Zhuhong and Mo Zitong to Black Wind Divine Mountain and offered to pay to free them from the Temporal Temple.
• Feng Zhuhong and Mo Zitong both chose to remain in the Temporal Temple; Feng Zhuhong wanted to pursue a chance at becoming a Deity after her family had died.
• Zhou Zheng bought the Clone Technique, created a second body, and assigned one body to cultivate the Material True Meaning and the other to cultivate the True Meaning of Time.
• Zhou Zheng quickly advanced the Material True Meaning to the Third-tier and then focused his other body on comprehending the True Meaning of Space.
• Zhou Zheng reached the First-tier of the True Meaning of Space in about a month, fused time and space into the Space-Time True Meaning six months later, and advanced it to the Third-tier after another year or so.

Zhou Zheng returned to the Xia Clan World and visited the graves of his old servant and parents in Nine Mountain City. There he found a surviving Zhou Family branch and offered to take a young boy as his disciple, claiming to have known the boy’s famous ancestor.

• Zhou Zheng arrived in the Xia Clan World, sensed the Dragon Mountain Emperor and Red Stone Mountain, and traveled to Nine Mountain City.
• Zhou Zheng restored his old servant’s grave and visited his parents’ graves in the Zhou Family ancestral cemetery.
• Zhou Zheng sensed a family in the city that carried the Zhou Family Bloodline.
• Zhou Zheng entered a tavern, saw the owner’s young son practicing swordsmanship, and praised the boy’s skill.
• Zhou Zheng asked to take the boy as his disciple, then told the wary father that he had known Zhou Zheng, the family’s famous ancestor.
• The father realized Zhou Zheng must be a Transcendental.

Zhou Zheng’s disciple grew up in Nine Mountain City while Zhou Zheng cultivated for over nine hundred years and fused the Divine Hearts of Matter and Space-Time, becoming a Second Heaven World God at just twelve hundred years old. The Island Master of Time and Space announced Zhou Zheng as his new Personal Disciple, and Zhu Jiuling realized Zhou Zheng might be the mysterious Lightning Swordsman from their past mission.

• Zhou Zheng accepted Zhou Feng as a nominal disciple, settled in Nine Mountain City, and refined the Heart of the World while guiding him as he grew.
• Zhou Feng comprehended a Third-grade True Meaning, easing Zhou Zheng’s concern that the Zhou Family Bloodline might end.
• After more than nine hundred years of cultivation, Zhou Zheng comprehended the Divine Heart of Matter, which fused with his Divine Heart of Space-Time and made him a Second Heaven World God.
• The Island Master of Time and Space ordered the Temporal Temple to hold a grand Apprenticeship Ceremony and spread the news that Zhou Zheng had become his disciple.
• The God Realm Abyss was astonished to learn Zhou Zheng had become a Second Heaven World God at twelve hundred years old, surpassing Annihilation Great Emperor’s record.
• Zhu Jiuling connected Zhou Zheng to the Transcendental who had sought his guidance and to the mysterious Lightning Swordsman from a previous mission.

While waiting on Time-Space Island for the Apprenticeship Ceremony, Zhou Zheng discovered that the Gate of Time and Space had finished cooling down and learned he could travel using only his True Spirit memories. He considered leaving the God Realm Abyss to escape the Temporal Temple’s control, despite the approaching ceremony and the benefits of becoming the Island Master of Time and Space’s disciple.

• Zhou Zheng learned from the Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit that the Island Master of Time and Space would hold his Apprenticeship Ceremony in a year and was told to stay on Time-Space Island.
• The Gate of Time and Space reappeared in Zhou Zheng’s soul after twelve hundred years and revealed two travel methods: bringing his body and soul or traveling with his True Spirit memories.
• Zhou Zheng concluded that using True Spirit memories would avoid the risk of his body and soul collapsing in a world with different rules.
• Zhou Zheng realized that returning to another world and coming back later could let him escape his identity as a Temporal Temple Cyclic Reincarnator while retaining his realm.
• Zhou Zheng decided to leave despite the coming Apprenticeship Ceremony and silently apologized to the Island Master of Time and Space.

Zhou Zheng used the Gate of Time and Space to travel through his True Spirit memories, causing his soul and the True Spirit in the River of Fate to vanish in his original world. He was reborn as a three-year-old Heavenly Being in another world, where a silver-haired woman in golden armor found him.

• Zhou Zheng traveled through the Gate of Time and Space, and the Island Master of Time and Space found his soul collapsed in both his secluded cultivation site and the Xia Clan World.
• The Island Master of Time and Space and other Great Powers investigated Zhou Zheng's death, confirmed his True Spirit had vanished, and concluded that he was truly dead.
• News of Zhou Zheng's death spread through the God Realm Abyss, prompting many Great Powers to cancel their plans to visit Time-Space Island.
• Zhou Zheng regained consciousness above an endless river beneath countless light spheres and realized he had been born from one of them as a three-year-old child with control over water.
• A golden tower ship arrived, and a silver-haired woman in golden armor brought Zhou Zheng into an antique room and gave him a red bellyband.

Zhou Zheng learned about the Three Realms and the life of Innate Beings at the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao, where he had been reborn as the Spirit of the Heavenly River. After arranging to visit the Daoist Scripture Pavilion with the Spirit of Departing Fire, he began using his prior Space-Time insights to cultivate in this new world.

• Crane Immortal taught Zhou Zheng and the other young Innate Beings about the Three Realms, their origins, and the path of cultivation.
• Zhou Zheng learned that Innate Beings would grow at the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao until age sixteen, when most would awaken memories of their past lives and leave.
• Zhou Zheng returned to his residence and watched the Spirit of Departing Fire practice Blazing Fist, then asked him to take him to the Daoist Scripture Pavilion.
• After the Spirit of Departing Fire agreed, Zhou Zheng rested and used his Divine Heart of Space-Time from the Snow Eagle World to comprehend the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and the Great Dao of Time.

Zhou Zheng chose three cultivation methods at the Daoist Scripture Pavilion and began studying characters, while continuing to comprehend the Great Daos of Heaven and Earth and Time. A game board shown by the pavilion’s white-bearded guardian helped him perceive the Power of Space-Time, leaving him wondering who the old man really was.

• Zhou Zheng quietly cultivated the Great Daos of Heaven and Earth and Time, then decided to strengthen his weak soul through cultivation.
• The Spirit of Departing Fire brought Zhou Zheng to the Daoist Scripture Pavilion, where the white-bearded old man let him choose three methods.
• With the Spirit of Departing Fire’s help, Zhou Zheng selected the Heavenly River Scroll, the Soft Water Sword, and the Ziwei Star Dou Scripture.
• Zhou Zheng studied writing for a day, then resumed his nightly meditation and recalled the old man’s game board.
• Zhou Zheng recognized that the board revealed the Power of Space-Time and concluded that the old man’s identity was likely extraordinary.

One year after entering the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao, Zhou Zheng had grown and trained until his swordsmanship let him defeat a much larger Spirit of the Heavenly Earth. As other Heavenly Beings competed to advance on the Qi Refining path and qualify for Immortal Sects, observers recognized Zhou Zheng’s exceptional Body Refining talent.

• Zhou Zheng and the other Heavenly Beings matured through a year of training in the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao.
• The Heavenly Beings learned that joining an Immortal Sect required either exceptional Body Refining aptitude or standing out in Qi Refining, while becoming a Heavenly Soldier or General chiefly suited Body Refiners.
• Zhou Zheng fought a Spirit of the Heavenly Earth on a cloud-shrouded mountain peak and defeated it with ease.
• The watching Heavenly Beings discussed Zhou Zheng’s Ziwei Star Dou Scripture, its celestial signs, and his rare Body Refining talent.

Zhou Zheng won the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao’s competition and received a token allowing him to choose a cultivation method from the Daoist Scripture Pavilion’s second floor. He returned to the pavilion with the Spirit of Departing Fire and went upstairs to make his selection.

• Zhou Zheng defeated the four-year-old Spirit of the Breathing Earth and won the competition, displaying exceptional body-refining progress and swordsmanship that showed a trace of Dao Intent.
• The Primordial Spirit Daoist gave Zhou Zheng a Storage Treasure, Primordial Liquid, a magical artifact, and a Daoist Scripture Pavilion Token, then resolved to report his swordsmanship to the sect.
• Zhou Zheng met the Spirit of Departing Fire and invited him to accompany him to the Daoist Scripture Pavilion.
• Zhou Zheng presented his token to the white-bearded old man, who allowed him to enter the second floor and reminded him that he could choose only one cultivation method.

After Zhou Zheng chose the Heavenly River Sword Techniques, an old man used a chess game to help him connect his understanding of Space-Time to this world. Zhou Zheng reached the first level of the Power of Space-Time, leaving the old man astonished and delighted.

• Zhou Zheng selected the Heavenly River Sword Techniques, and the old man gave him a handwritten copy before asking him to place a black piece on the chessboard.
• The old man gave Zhou Zheng three black stones, then summoned him to the Daoist Scripture Pavilion that night to teach him chess.
• Zhou Zheng learned the rules and played while following the old man's guidance, gradually focusing on how the game revealed this world's Space-Time.
• As the board neared completion, silver light and ripples surrounded Zhou Zheng, and he comprehended the first level of the Power of Space-Time.
• The old man realized Zhou Zheng was an extraordinary Space-Time genius and felt delighted by his breakthrough.

After Zhou Zheng comprehended the Power of Space-Time during a chess game, Bodhi revealed his identity and accepted him as a disciple, giving him the Daoist title Cheng Tian. Bodhi took Zhou Zheng to his Original Body, where Zhou Zheng formally completed his apprenticeship.

• Zhou Zheng emerged from an overnight state of enlightenment, and Bodhi identified the power he had grasped as the Power of Space-Time.
• Bodhi revealed that he was Patriarch Bodhi, and Zhou Zheng agreed to become his disciple.
• Bodhi gave Zhou Zheng the Daoist title Cheng Tian, and Zhou Zheng said farewell to the Spirit of Departing Fire before leaving the Immortal Palace of Teaching the Dao.
• Bodhi brought Zhou Zheng through layers of space-time to his Daoist temple, where Zhou Zheng bowed to Bodhi's Original Body and formally became his disciple.

Patriarch Bodhi welcomed Zhou Zheng to Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave, laid out the sect’s rules, and gave him powerful cultivation scriptures while advising him to progress patiently. Zhou Zheng considered how to learn whether the Three Realms’ great tribulation was near, and the chapter ended with Senior Brother Jiang Jun arriving.

• Patriarch Bodhi explained Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave’s two rules and advised Zhou Zheng to cultivate steadily.
• Zhou Zheng wondered how to determine the era of the Three Realms, using the fate of the Six Paths of Reincarnation as his marker for approaching danger.
• Patriarch Bodhi passed the Bei Ming Scripture and the remaining volume of the Ziwei Star Dou Scripture to Zhou Zheng.
• Patriarch Bodhi spoke at length with Zhou Zheng about cultivation and temperament, believing him to be a newly born Heavenly Being without past-life memories.
• A young attendant announced that Senior Brother Jiang Jun had arrived.