Chapter Summaries

Patriarch Bodhi introduced Zhou Zheng, also known as Cheng Tian, to his fellow disciples at Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave. Jiang Jun and Silver Moon brought him to the Immortal Palace and arranged a Third-tier Puppet challenge to test his ability.

• Patriarch Bodhi introduced Cheng Tian as Jiang Jun’s junior brother, and Jiang Jun offered to help him.
• Jiang Jun took Cheng Tian to meet the Woodcutter, who recognized his powerful soul and encouraged him to visit again.
• Jiang Jun explained the Immortal Palace’s nine floors, challenges, and secret manuals, then led Cheng Tian there.
• Silver Moon defended Cheng Tian when visitors questioned his status and ordered them to greet him as their martial uncle.
• Jiang Jun asked Silver Moon to arrange a Third-tier Puppet for Cheng Tian to challenge.

Zhou Zheng challenged the Mount Fangcun puppets and revealed that he wielded immense power without invoking the Dao. He defeated a Sixth-tier Puppet quickly but lost to a Seventh-tier Puppet, leaving his limits unclear.

• Silver Moon summoned a Third-tier Puppet and had Zhou Zheng challenge it before the gathered cultivators.
• Zhou Zheng instantly defeated the Third-tier Puppet with a sword strike that showed no Dao fluctuations.
• Silver Moon and Jiang Jun recognized that Zhou Zheng had used a form of Essential Power and were astonished by his ability to wield it.
• Zhou Zheng asked for a stronger opponent, then quickly defeated a Sixth-tier Puppet.
• Zhou Zheng faced a Seventh-tier Puppet, felt the sharp increase in pressure, and was defeated.

After losing to a Seventh-tier Puppet, Zhou Zheng learned that his Power of Space-Time was still too weak and settled into his new life on Mount Fangcun. In a dream, Patriarch Bodhi began teaching him a Space-Time sword art, which Zhou Zheng memorized as the lesson unfolded.

• Zhou Zheng lost to the Seventh-tier Puppet, assessed his mastery of the Power of Space-Time, and realized he needed to improve his fundamental strength.
• Jiang Jun healed Zhou Zheng with a pill, while Silver Moon advised him to strengthen his divine soul; neither senior provided cultivation resources because Patriarch Bodhi would make arrangements for him.
• Jiang Jun showed Zhou Zheng around Mount Fangcun, chose a residence for him, and gave him a Talisman Token before leaving.
• Zhou Zheng fell asleep and met Patriarch Bodhi in a dream, where his master explained that he would teach him the Space-Time Dharma Gate there to prevent it from being leaked.
• Patriarch Bodhi demonstrated a Space-Time sword art, and Zhou Zheng watched closely and memorized its moves and mysteries.

Zhou Zheng recalled the Thousand Illusions Sword Art Patriarch Bodhi had taught him and visited his master on Mount Fangcun. Bodhi gave him Primordial Liquid and an Heaven and Earth Origin Water Bead to help him cultivate a Second Primordial Spirit.

• Zhou Zheng woke with the Thousand Illusions Sword Art imprinted in his mind and remembered that Patriarch Bodhi had summoned him.
• Qingshui and Baihe let Zhou Zheng enter Patriarch Bodhi's Daoist temple, where he told his master that he liked the peaceful life on Mount Fangcun.
• Patriarch Bodhi advised Zhou Zheng to keep comprehending the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth and the Great Dao of Time while improving his cultivation realm.
• Patriarch Bodhi gave Zhou Zheng thirty million jin of Primordial Liquid on the condition that he sweep the mountain path once a month for the next year.
• Patriarch Bodhi gave Zhou Zheng an Heaven and Earth Origin Water Bead as a vessel for cultivating a Second Primordial Spirit and explained how it could preserve his life if his Original Body died.

Zhou Zheng accepted Patriarch Bodhi’s conditions and received treasures and cultivation resources before rapidly advancing his qi cultivation to Myriad Manifestations perfection. After consulting Ji Dian, he learned that the Three Realms remained peaceful and began cultivating on Mount Fangcun.

• Zhou Zheng accepted Patriarch Bodhi’s condition to clear weeds over a fifty-li radius once a year for three years in exchange for the Heaven and Earth Origin Water Bead.
• Patriarch Bodhi gave Zhou Zheng treasures, the Bei Ming Scripture, and thirty million jin of Primordial Liquid, along with additional tasks.
• Zhou Zheng used the Bei Ming Scripture and Primordial Liquid to advance from Postnatal cultivation to Myriad Manifestations perfection, stopping when his soul neared its limit.
• Zhou Zheng began studying the Thousand Illusions Sword Art, researching manuals and gathering information about the Three Realms.
• Ji Dian told Zhou Zheng that the Three Realms were peaceful, so Zhou Zheng decided he could cultivate in peace for a while.

A hundred years of cultivation on Mount Fangcun brought Zhou Zheng to perfected Void Returning in Qi Refining and late Void Returning in Body Refining, with his body seemingly free of cultivation bottlenecks. He later returned to the Immortal Palace to challenge the seventh-floor Puppet, pursuing the Path of Puppetry as a possible counterpart to his Divine Heart of Matter.

• Over a hundred years, Zhou Zheng grew into a youth and advanced to perfected Void Returning in Qi Refining and late Void Returning in Body Refining.
• Zhou Zheng realized the Gate of Time and Space might be improving his body's aptitude, allowing his Body Refining breakthroughs to come naturally.
• Zhou Zheng considered how improved body aptitude might help him reach True God, a breakthrough achieved by very few in the Three Realms.
• Zhou Zheng visited the Immortal Palace and told Silver Moon he would challenge the seventh-floor Puppet because he had exhausted the eighth floor's Secret Manuals.
• Zhou Zheng recalled that the Path of Puppetry seemed similar to the Divine Heart of Matter, which he had struggled to connect to the Three Realms' other Daos.

Zhou Zheng studied the Path of Puppetry and realized its unusual power could function both inside and outside the Three Realms. After a century on Mount Fangcun, Patriarch Bodhi told him it was time to leave so he could temper his Dao Heart before facing the Inner Demon Tribulation.

• Zhou Zheng studied the Path of Puppetry, finding it compatible with his Divine Heart of Matter and learning why even Dao Ancestors had not mastered it.
• Zhou Zheng struck Silver Moon's Seventh-tier Puppet away with a single blow and entered the Immortal Palace to select a secret manual.
• Patriarch Bodhi summoned Zhou Zheng and asked about his plans after a hundred years on Mount Fangcun.
• Patriarch Bodhi told Zhou Zheng it was time to leave the mountain, and Zhou Zheng recognized that his Dao Heart needed more tempering before his tribulation.

Before leaving Mount Fangcun, Zhou Zheng visited Three Realms Palace and chose Hou Yi's Archery, hoping to learn how to condense Heartforce. He passed its difficult trial and drew the attention of a nearby onlooker.

• Zhou Zheng asked Patriarch Bodhi to let his Second Primordial Spirit remain on Mount Fangcun, and Bodhi agreed.
• Patriarch Bodhi wondered whether the Three Realms were approaching another great calamity as he reflected on Zhou Zheng's extraordinary cultivation.
• Zhou Zheng went to Three Realms Palace, where Ji Dian welcomed him and warned him not to choose too many divine abilities.
• Zhou Zheng chose Hou Yi's Archery because he wanted to learn its method for condensing Heartforce, leaving the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts for his Second Primordial Spirit to pursue later.
• Zhou Zheng practiced archery in the forest, sensed his awareness following an arrow, and hit the bullseye ten thousand li away.
• A nearby figure praised Zhou Zheng's talent and walked toward him.

After completing Hou Yi's Archery trial, Zhou Zheng learned about Taixu Valley, a perilous place said to temper the Dao Heart, and considered entering it before his tribulations. Patriarch Bodhi revealed its location and warned that neither strength nor his Space-Time Crystal could guarantee escape, leaving Zhou Zheng to weigh the danger.

• Zhou Zheng completed Hou Yi's Archery trial by attaching his will to an arrow, then met Hou Yi as he carried firewood.
• Hou Yi told Zhou Zheng that Taixu Valley could greatly improve spiritual cultivation and temper the Dao Heart, but only one in a million entrants survived.
• Zhou Zheng returned to the Three Realms Palace, obtained the complete Hou Yi's Archery method, bid farewell to Silver Moon and Jiang Jun, and visited Patriarch Bodhi.
• Patriarch Bodhi gave Zhou Zheng a Space-Time Crystal for cultivation and emergency escape, but said it might not work inside Taixu Valley.
• Patriarch Bodhi explained that Taixu Valley lay in the Flying Fox Great World and warned Zhou Zheng that he could not rescue him if he became trapped.

Zhou Zheng left Mount Fangcun and arrived in a Heavenly Realm Giant City, where he considered how to temper his Dao Heart and ruled out cultivating a Clone Method before his Heavenly God Tribulation. Needing resources, he went to Thousand Treasures Pavilion to sell Puppets and was invited upstairs by Qian Yu.

• Zhou Zheng emerged above the Heavenly River and used his senses to locate a distant Giant City.
• As Zhou Zheng wandered through the crowded city, he considered entering Taixu Valley and using a Clone Method, but decided against weakening himself before the Heavenly God Tribulation.
• Zhou Zheng entered Thousand Treasures Pavilion and asked whether it bought treasures.
• Qian Yu arrived to meet Zhou Zheng, and he told her he had Puppets with strength comparable to perfected Primordial Spirit cultivators.
• After Zhou Zheng clarified that the Puppets used Divine Demon Body Refining, Qian Yu invited him upstairs to discuss the sale.

Zhou Zheng traded peak Primordial Spirit Puppets to fox immortal Qian Yu for materials, then returned with three early-stage Returning to Void Puppets and sold them for a fortune in treasures. Qian Yu reported his apparent Puppet-making skill to her clan, while Zhou Zheng decided that refining more Puppets would waste his time.

• Zhou Zheng traded ten peak Primordial Spirit Puppets to Qian Yu for a mid-grade Immortal Tier magic treasure, which he had exchanged for rare materials.
• Zhou Zheng gave Qian Yu his Daoist title, Cheng Tian, and collected the materials before leaving the Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
• Half a year later, Zhou Zheng brought three early-stage Returning to Void Puppets to Qian Yu, who asked him to return in three days while she gathered treasures.
• Qian Yu told her Third Brother about Zhou Zheng and his Puppets, and he decided to report the matter to the Clan Leader.
• Zhou Zheng returned three days later and sold the Puppets for treasures, then concluded that making more Puppets would waste his time.

Zhou Zheng ambushed the eight immortals sent to capture him, killing six and taking two alive. After sensing a powerful pursuer approaching, he suppressed the surrounding space and teleported away to uncover who was behind the attack.

• Zhou Zheng noticed he was being watched after leaving the Thousand Treasures Pavilion and drew his pursuers away from the Giant City.
• Eight immortals used a Wind Roar Beast and a golden net to try to capture Zhou Zheng alive, believing he was a Void Returning Divine Demon skilled in puppetry.
• Zhou Zheng broke through their attack with a single palm strike, killing six Celestial Immortals and capturing one in his Cave-Heaven Treasure.
• Zhou Zheng teleported into the flying vessel, captured the masked man, and decided the eight immortals had been sent for a reason beyond his Puppets.
• When Zhou Zheng sensed a likely Heavenly God True Immortal approaching, he suppressed space around him and teleported away.

Zhou Zheng captured three Celestial Immortals and uncovered that the force behind their attempt to seize him was the Gate of No Return. After revealing the extent of Zhou Zheng’s cultivation, the chapter left him identifying the true mastermind behind the plot.

• Fuhua and Tianhu arrived too late to find Zhou Zheng or their missing clansmen, and Tianhu vowed to investigate who had acted.
• A giant hand shattered the Array Restriction over a Giant City and carried away the Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
• The chapter revealed that Zhou Zheng had advanced his Power of Space-Time to the Third Level in just over a hundred years, giving him the strength to overpower Celestial Immortals.
• Zhou Zheng interrogated three captives and learned that their orders to capture someone skilled in crafting Puppets came from a powerful backer.
• Zhou Zheng recognized the Gate of No Return as the force behind the plot.

Zhou Zheng recognized that the Gate of No Return was secretly recruiting cultivators skilled in puppet-making, but chose not to act on what he knew. He escaped a Snow Lotus’s freezing suppression, leaving Tianhu to learn that her captured clansman had died and that divining Zhou Zheng’s location carried serious risks.

• Zhou Zheng connected the faction seeking puppet cultivators to the Gate of No Return and suspected it was preparing for war.
• Zhou Zheng decided he could not warn Patriarch Bodhi about the Gate of No Return or the Heart Demon Lord without revealing how he knew.
• Tianhu unleashed her Nine Treasures Ice Pure Cold Lotus, but Zhou Zheng tore through the sealed space and escaped.
• Qingxu determined that Tianhu’s captured clansman, her Third Brother, had likely been killed, and Tianhu asked him to divine Zhou Zheng’s whereabouts.
• Qingxu began the costly divination, but his Dharma Power churned and his face flushed, suggesting Zhou Zheng was difficult to locate.

Zhou Zheng entered Taixu Valley to seek a chance to break through and avoid the Gate of No Return, but the valley’s first trial inflicted unbearable pain on everyone’s souls. He kept his consciousness intact by studying the Space-Time Crystal Patriarch Bodhi had given him.

• An old Daoist deduced that the person the woman sought had left the Heavenly Realm and was in the Flying Fox Great World.
• Zhou Zheng reached the Flying Immortal Sect’s Valley of Asking and secretly boarded a boat with more than ten Purple Mansion Cultivators heading into the mist.
• Zhou Zheng recognized the Valley of Asking as Taixu Valley and decided to enter to seek strength and escape the Gate of No Return’s reach.
• The boat crossed into another layer of Space-Time, where golden flames ignited in everyone’s souls and caused overwhelming pain.
• Eight Purple Mansion Cultivators died from the agony, while Zhou Zheng resisted by studying the Space-Time traces inside Patriarch Bodhi’s crystal.

Zhou Zheng endured Taixu Valley’s agonizing soul flames, advancing his Heartforce and reaffirming his resolve until he lost consciousness. He awoke with a greatly strengthened soul and discovered that only a few years had passed outside, despite his feeling that he had endured hundreds of years.

• Zhou Zheng used the pain of the soul flames to reach the Ice Heart level of Heartforce while comprehending the Power of Space-Time.
• As the pain intensified, Zhou Zheng recalled his ambition to grow stronger and his obligations to Patriarch Bodhi and his senior brothers, then advanced to the Sovereign level of Heartforce.
• After perceiving several hundred years of agony, Zhou Zheng’s consciousness sank into darkness as the flames engulfed his soul.
• Zhou Zheng awoke as points of light flowed into his soul, rapidly strengthening it to near the Heavenly God True Immortal threshold.
• Zhou Zheng found that the other Purple Mansion Cultivators aboard the boat had died and realized only a few years had passed, though his comprehension had advanced as if hundreds of years had gone by.

Zhou Zheng chose the Wheel of Reincarnation Path instead of leaving Taixu Valley and began experimenting with ways to apply his third-level Heartforce. After months of practice, he succeeded in using Heartforce to strengthen his body, reaching the ultimate might of a Celestial Immortal with a palm strike.

• Zhou Zheng spotted the Wheel of Reincarnation Path and chose it over the stream that led out of Taixu Valley.
• As he walked the seemingly endless path, Zhou Zheng considered how to apply his Heartforce and decided to draw on Hou Yi's Archery as a reference.
• Zhou Zheng repeatedly struck the mountain walls while trying to channel Heartforce into his attacks, but made little progress at first.
• After three months of practice, Zhou Zheng landed a palm strike with the ultimate might of a Celestial Immortal and realized he had succeeded in applying Heartforce to his body.

Zhou Zheng endured an illusion in which he lived through countless reincarnations and struggled to distinguish fantasy from reality. By reaffirming his true self, he broke the illusion and advanced his Heartforce to the fourth level, the Mortal Realm.

• Zhou Zheng encountered an illusion that made him experience repeated reincarnations, from an ordinary hunter’s son to a supreme being across the realms.
• Zhou Zheng repeatedly tried different lives and methods to escape the illusion, but spent hundreds of millions of years unable to find a flaw.
• Zhou Zheng gradually grasped the essence of the cycles and reaffirmed that his real self belonged to the real world.
• Zhou Zheng’s Heartforce broke through to the fourth level, the Mortal Realm, and rapidly strengthened with the insights he had gained.
• Zhou Zheng unleashed his Heartforce and shattered the illusion.

After escaping the Wheel of Reincarnation Path, Zhou Zheng chose to continue into Taixu Valley rather than leave and found a vast hall filled with passageways embodying different fundamental powers. He wondered whether the Third Trial would test his understanding of the Dao instead of the heart.

• Zhou Zheng broke free from the Wheel of Reincarnation Path’s illusion after experiencing hundreds of millions of years and learned that only a little over a hundred years had passed outside.
• Zhou Zheng spent three years readjusting himself and reaching the end of the mountain path, realizing he might have died if he had remained trapped much longer.
• Zhou Zheng weighed leaving Taixu Valley, where his Heartforce was close to the Fifth Level, against risking the Third Trial, then chose to press onward.
• Zhou Zheng entered a vast hall lined with passageways filled with powers such as Sword, Taiji, Yin, Yang, and Space-Time, and questioned whether the trial now concerned the Dao.

Zhou Zheng learned that the Trial Ground had been displaced into the Chaos World and that passing its final test would qualify him to become its creator’s Personal Disciple. He entered the Space-Time path, where he was tasked with creating a Space-Time secret manual within a thousand years.

• Jiang Feng explained that his master had created the Trial Ground to find talented mortals, but an unknown force had carried it through endless darkness and into the Chaos World.
• Jiang Feng told Zhou Zheng that he had passed the first two trials and could gain qualification for the Personal Disciple position, along with a treasure and a Secret Manual, by passing the Third Trial.
• Jiang Feng explained that the Third Trial tested comprehension and instructed Zhou Zheng to choose a path.
• Zhou Zheng chose the Space-Time path and found himself in a starry expanse filled with Space-Time classics of varying depth.
• Zhou Zheng received the task of creating a Space-Time secret manual within a thousand years and began rapidly reading the manuals.