Chapter Summaries

Qin Yuan anticipated trouble after modern firearms failed, while Gu Yuan prepared to exploit the arrival of the third-round players. At the Soaring Firmament Sacred Sect, resentment over the players’ privileges drove Yi Ran to summon his ancestor and plead for help.

• Five thousand third-round players arrived in the novice village, where a Spirit Transformation Dao Protector ordered them to join the Soaring Firmament Sacred Sect and threatened to scrap the accounts of anyone who refused.
• The newcomers who protested were killed, and the players learned that they would revive at the village after a one-hour cooldown.
• Gu Yuan observed that the new players seemed ordinary and decided to use his control over cultivators of the Qi Refining Formula to speed events along.
• Soaring Firmament Sacred Sect disciples complained that players were monopolizing resources and receiving special treatment, then urged Yi Ran to ask his ancestor for help.
• Yi Ran summoned his ancestor through a jade plaque, wept before the old man’s phantom, and pleaded, “Ancestor, please stand up for us!”

Yi Ran told Patriarch Yi that players’ privileges were hurting the Soaring Firmament Sacred Sect’s disciples, and Patriarch Yi admitted that some patriarchs opposed the policy but could not yet change it. At the Yuan Family, direct-line descendants protested the players’ arrival, and the patriarch’s son ordered the new players sent to menial work under threat of execution.

• Yi Ran reported the players’ privileges and the disciples’ grievances to Patriarch Yi, who said the patriarchs were discussing the issue but the Sacred Lord controlled sect decisions.
• Personal disciples elsewhere contacted their patriarchs, while the Yuan Family’s direct-line descendants gathered to demand that the players be expelled.
• The Yuan Family patriarch condemned the protest but recognized the players’ talent and feared losing them to rival factions.
• The patriarch’s son led the direct-line descendants to block the incoming players as the new arrivals traveled toward the Yuan Family.
• After the players disembarked, the patriarch’s son ordered them to the menial disciple district to clean the ferocious beast zone and threatened to execute anyone who refused.

Song Li emerged from an ancient ruin after learning that players were heavenly demons and the world faced a coming catastrophe, then found a rich cultivation site. Meanwhile, the Yuan Family crushed a player uprising, and Yang Jianghu ordered Yang Liu to use his player alliance to inflame conflicts as Yang Jianghu pursued a breakthrough.

• Song Li left a ruin with an ancient sword and learned from a remnant soul that heavenly demons had descended, players served them, and the world needed to be changed.
• Song Li sensed a dense gathering of spiritual energy in the Central Region and decided to cultivate there before making further plans.
• Gu Yuan observed the aftermath of a battle in which Yuan Family direct descendants killed or maimed nearly a thousand players, while concealment runes kept the higher-ups unaware.
• The Yuan Family's ancestors removed the family head, banned players under their command, and ordered players who sought to overthrow the family executed; news of the rebellion spread across the Central Region.
• Yang Jianghu warned Yang Liu to avoid the Yuan Family but directed him to organize his player alliance and stir up conflict, intending to weaken rival factions and players before breaking through to Void Shattering.

Players faced a crackdown after the Yuan Family incident as the worlds’ connection grew stronger, stirring conflict and excitement among cultivators. Gu Yuan descended into a mortal body to teach village children while waiting for the change in the heavens to finish.

• Players debated the Yuan Family’s persecution on the forums, while Qin Yuan judged that chaos would soon spread to the real world.
• Qin Yuan sensed spiritual energy increasing again and entered the game as Void-Shattering cultivators across the major forces sensed another world drawing near.
• Void-Shattering cultivators decided to keep players stable until the heavens’ change was complete, easing the pressure on players for the time being.
• Gu Yuan descended into a mortal body in a Northern Region village and taught the local children while monitoring his inheritors.
• When a child asked why everyone wanted to become stronger, Gu Yuan answered that it was desire and reflected that desire drove the major forces, the Heavenly Dao, and himself.

The Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect spent many lives and resources to send a Golden Core cultivator into the Urban World, hoping to gain an advantage there. Qin Yuan captured all five cultivators who arrived and brought them to the Cultivator Administration Bureau prison for questioning.

• The Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect sacrificed many cultivators to open a one-way passage and send a Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator into the Urban World.
• Qin Yuan reviewed reports of mutations and sensed several strange spatial fluctuations near the ocean.
• Qin Yuan caught the arriving cultivators one by one and tied all five together.
• Qin Yuan brought the five cultivators to the Cultivator Administration Bureau prison and prepared to question them.
• Qin Yuan pinned the silent captives to the ground with his pressure, then realized their mouths were still sealed.

Qin Yuan captured five Golden Core cultivators from other worlds and sent them to the laboratory, then decided to warn the Speaker about the growing threat. A month later, the Player Alliance had expanded under Yang Liu, who ordered it to hunt traitors and undermine the top-tier powers while remaining under the Yang Family’s control.

• Qin Yuan questioned five cultivators from major factions, sealed their spiritual energy, and ordered the guards to take them to the laboratory.
• Qin Yuan worried that stronger cultivators might cross worlds next and went to tell the Speaker about the other world, while large-scale weapons remained unusable.
• The Player Alliance grew rapidly under Yang Liu as players turned against the top-tier powers and secretly joined the alliance.
• Yang Liu directed the alliance to identify and kill suspected traitors repeatedly, while ordering its members to sow discord and compete for power within the major factions.
• Yang Liu left the meeting to report to the Yang Family Divine Son, regretting that the alliance had left him serving the Yang Family.

Gu Yuan watched as Yang Jianghu’s breakthrough to Void Shattering drew down heavenly punishment, then intervened through Divine Manifestation when the Yang Family’s ancestors could only buy him time. Yang Jianghu survived and reached Early Void Shattering, while Gu Yuan’s attack cleared the sky and left the onlookers stunned.

• Gu Yuan sensed Yang Jianghu beginning his Void Shattering breakthrough and saw heavenly punishment gather over the Yang Family.
• Void Shattering cultivators from the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect and other factions watched as Yang Jianghu was locked in place by the descending lightning.
• The Yang Family’s Sixth Ancestor and four other ancestors appeared to protect Yang Jianghu, but the Sixth Ancestor was struck down as Yang Jianghu continued breaking through.
• Yang Jianghu reached Early Void Shattering while the five Yang Family members were severely injured buying him time.
• Gu Yuan used Divine Manifestation to let Yang Jianghu sever and mark his little toe, then sent it into the heavenly punishment.
• The skies cleared above the Yang Family, and Gu Yuan returned to fishing.

Yang Jianghu celebrated his breakthrough to the Void Shattering Realm as the Yang Family’s secret art made the other great powers wary. At the ceremony, the Third Ancestor of the Yuan Family confronted the disguised Gu Yuan, whose gaze turned toward the Yuan Family as it stood on the brink.

• Yang Jianghu reassured the Yang Family ancestors after surviving Heavenly Punishment, and news of his secret art spread fear among the top-tier powers.
• Players debated Yang Jianghu’s feat and complained that their limited abilities made the game feel less useful.
• The Yang Family held a grand ceremony for Yang Jianghu, drawing powerful guests and gifts from across the Five Domains.
• Gu Yuan entered the ceremony disguised as an elderly mortal and quietly watched the festivities.
• When abandoned players begged to join the Yang Family, the Third Ancestor of the Yuan Family tried to claim them, but a Yang Family disciple refused.
• The Third Ancestor of the Yuan Family threatened Gu Yuan, who revealed his attention was on the Yuan Family as he regarded it as being on the brink.

Song Li attacked the Yuan Family and killed an ancestor, while the Heavenly Dao drove the major powers into escalating internal conflict. The Yang Family remained peaceful as Yang Jianghu watched the turmoil unfold.

• Song Li emerged from seclusion, then blasted through the Yuan Family’s formation and attacked its territory.
• A Yuan Family ancestor fled the Yang Family’s ceremony, and news spread that Song Li had killed one of the family’s ancestors.
• Qin Yuan recognized Song Li’s name while reading forum posts and considered visiting the cultivation world.
• Song Li accidentally entered another secret realm as the cultivation world and Urban World continued developing.
• Three months later, violence erupted among disciples and affiliated forces of the major powers, with the Heavenly Dao accelerating the chaos.
• Yang Jianghu suspected the Heavenly Dao was behind the turmoil and calmly watched as the Yang Family remained unaffected.

The patriarchs ended a month of chaos by crushing rebellions, and the other top forces blamed the Yang Family for the unrest. As the players’ world began merging with theirs and players died, Qin Yuan declared a state of war, while Gu Yuan watched the change from a cinema.

• Void-Shattering patriarchs suppressed rebellions across the Five Regions, leaving sects in ruins and the surviving forces terrified.
• The patriarchs turned their suspicions toward the Yang Family, and Yang Jianghu cursed the Heavenly Dao before preparing to face the accusations.
• A phantom of the players’ world appeared as the worlds began merging, and players in the cultivation world suddenly collapsed dead.
• In the Urban World, Qin Yuan reassured the deputy director, heard the Level One spiritual-energy alert, and ordered preparations for war.
• Gu Yuan looked up at the changing sky in a cinema, then fell asleep beside the moviegoers.

As the phantom of another world appeared and chaos spread across the Five Regions, Song Li learned that demons from beyond the realm had corrupted the Void-Shatterers and set out to kill them. He fought dozens of them at once, while the Five Regions fractured and Yang Jianghu struggled to protect the Yang Family; Song Li grew stronger during the battle.

• A remnant soul told Song Li that demons from beyond the realm had descended and taken control of the Void-Shatterers before vanishing.
• Song Li left the forbidden ground, saw another world in the sky, and headed for the gathering of Void-Shatterers.
• Song Li launched a sudden attack on dozens of Void-Shatterers, while Gu Yuan watched from nearby.
• The battle split the Central Region and shattered the Five Regions into islands as Yang Jianghu defended the Yang Family's territory.
• Void-Shatterer corpses fell as Song Li broke through and grew stronger in battle.

Song Li reached late-stage Void Shattering while fighting the cultivators who had been beguiled by extraterritorial heavenly demons, and the battle devastated the world as the worlds drew closer. After the survivors revealed that the Yang Family had destroyed his sect, Song Li vanished, leaving Gu Yuan to wonder whether the Heavenly Dao had been waiting for this revelation.

• Song Li killed the Void Shattering cultivators who tried to negotiate and fought on for three days and nights as the continent fractured and flooded.
• Qin Yuan worried that the approaching worlds would threaten the Great Wind Empire, but he could no longer enter the game world to gather information.
• Song Li broke through to late-stage Void Shattering, leaving only seven badly injured cultivators alive; Yuan Yun laughed that he had been played, then died without explaining what he had realized.
• Song Li killed another survivor who lamented his fate, then seized a cultivator who said the Yang Family had destroyed Song Li's sect.
• The remaining survivors disclosed that a Yang Family ancestor had leveled a mountain range near where the Heavenly Unity Sacred Sect later acted, then died as space stabilized.
• Song Li murmured the Yang Family's name and vanished, while Gu Yuan concluded that the Heavenly Dao had been waiting for the revelation.

Gu Yuan possessed Song Li and confronted the Heavenly Dao, which had manipulated Song Li and plotted against the Yang Family. He overwhelmed and destroyed the Heavenly Dao, leaving its origin erased and its schemes ended.

• Song Li confronted Yang Jianghu at the Yang Family mountain gate, and Yang Jianghu admitted the family had acted because Song Li's master tried to kill him.
• Song Li refused to believe Yang Jianghu and attacked, but Gu Yuan took control of his body and redirected the sword strike toward the sky.
• Gu Yuan entered the Heavenly Dao's hidden space in Song Li's body and attacked the Heavenly Dao, which recognized him as an outsider from beyond the realm.
• The Heavenly Dao revealed its true form, but Gu Yuan found it weaker than expected and raised Song Li's power to great perfection of Void Shattering.
• Gu Yuan seized the Heavenly Dao's giant eyeball, crushed it, and ground away its aura.

Song Li learned that the Heavenly Dao had manipulated his life and used him as a pawn, while Gu Yuan used his body to kill it and stop the world fusion. Three months later, the worlds were safe, the Yang Family rebuilt the cultivation world, and Song Li remained withdrawn beneath a white mask.

• Yang Jianghu and the Yang Family First Ancestor sensed the Heavenly Dao's death and realized the Yang Family had become the foremost power.
• Song Li absorbed some of the Heavenly Dao's memories, learned that it had schemed against him and made him its nourishment, and broke down over the people who had died.
• Gu Yuan realized the world fusion had stopped and turned to Yang Jianghu to counsel Song Li.
• In the Urban World, Qin Yuan confirmed that thermal weapons had recovered and later learned from Gu Yuan that the world fusion had ended and the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demon was dead.
• Over the next three months, the Yang Family rebuilt a smaller continent and supported the restoration of civilization in the cultivation world.
• Yang Jianghu found Song Li playing Go in the mountains; Song Li, wearing a white featureless mask, refused to leave or meet other people.

Jiang Yang awakened the Strongest Deduction System after surviving a beast attack and used simulations to find a path through the demon-filled wilderness to Third Great City. Gu Yuan then converged into Jiang Yang’s world and followed him as he continued toward the city.

• Jiang Yang discovered the Strongest Deduction System and began a simulation using the purple talent Luck at Work.
• Jiang Yang’s first simulation ended when a resting stone demon rose and trampled him, but the system rewarded him with Luck at Work.
• Jiang Yang’s second simulation led him to an unknown Qi Refining Formula and showed him reaching the city, so he claimed the formula and learned it.
• Gu Yuan converged into Jiang Yang’s world and inspected him, discovering that Jiang Yang had reached Early Qi Refining.
• Jiang Yang moved through the wilderness toward Third Great City while demons repeatedly failed to notice him, and Gu Yuan inferred that the world was a cultivation society under demonic invasion.

Jiang Yang entered the Third Great City, enrolled at Human Race Third Cultivation University, and struggled to cultivate with the Qi Refining Formula. Gu Yuan then possessed librarian Chen Jin and passed the formula to a student, while discovering that the library cleaner Wang Chi was an unknown expert above Shattering the Void.

• Jiang Yang passed the city guards’ inspections and entered the Third Great City, where news reported that Su Qingtian had cleared a route between the Fifth and Sixth Great Cities.
• Jiang Yang registered at Human Race Third Cultivation University and spent the night trying to cultivate, but made almost no progress.
• Gu Yuan searched for someone who could help spread the Qi Refining Formula and chose the librarian Chen Jin, then possessed his body.
• Gu Yuan gave a student a copy of the Qi Refining Formula and checked the identity of the library cleaner, Wang Chi.
• Gu Yuan’s deduction system revealed that Wang Chi’s cultivation was above Shattering the Void, though his identity and status remained unknown.

Gu Yuan learned about humanity’s history and cultivation ranks while secretly spreading the Grand Dao Grand Qi Refining Formula through books. As Jiang Yang’s simulations continued to end in absurd deaths, Zhao Mingrui and Wang Chi each discovered the strange book, leaving several powerful figures awake and investigating through the night.

• Gu Yuan researched the world’s history and learned that Wu Yong had led humanity against demons and monsters before ascending beyond the Saint rank.
• Zhao Mingrui opened the borrowed Human Race War History and received the Grand Dao Grand Qi Refining Formula in his mind.
• Gu Yuan gave Wang Chi a strange book, and Wang Chi took it away after recognizing its contents.
• Jiang Yang’s third simulation ended when a demon or monster killed him, and his fourth ended when something fell on him.
• Gu Yuan noticed Zhao Mingrui and Wang Chi were still occupied with the formula and continued relaxing while Jiang Yang went to sleep.

Jiang Yang learned that the freshmen would challenge the Human Sacred Tower in seven days and reported information about a demon to earn contribution points. Meanwhile, Zhao Mingrui studied Gu Yuan’s Qi Refining Formula, discovered its extraordinary potential, and decided to test it with promising students while beginning to cultivate himself.

• Wang Chi swept the library entrance while Gu Yuan watched Jiang Yang and noted that Jiang Yang had not begun cultivating.
• At the freshman assembly, Zhao Ruiming announced the slogan “Humanity Eternal,” and Jiang Yang worried about his upcoming Human Sacred Tower challenge.
• Jiang Yang reported information about a demon to his counselor, hoping to earn contribution points for cultivation resources.
• Zhao Mingrui studied the Qi Refining Formula and realized its realms could strengthen cultivation and extend lifespan beyond what common techniques allowed.
• Zhao Mingrui planned a small trial with promising freshmen, then went to his cultivation room to begin transforming his cultivation into a Nascent Soul.

Jiang Yang’s simulation deaths pushed him to cultivate, and he earned Marrow Cleansing Pills that helped him reach the thirteenth floor of the Human Sacred Tower. As the Combat Academy’s tower challenge ended, another freshman reached the eighteenth floor and tied the freshman record.

• Jiang Yang’s simulation showed him being assassinated after ranking fifth, but he received a Marrow Cleansing Pill as a reward.
• In a second simulation, Jiang Yang reached third place, while the Li Family’s young master killed the fourth-place student and was arrested and executed.
• Jiang Yang took another Marrow Cleansing Pill and cultivated for seven days as new students challenged the Human Sacred Tower.
• Gu Yuan declined to watch the challenges, while Wang Chi sat with him in the library and watched videos.
• Jiang Yang entered the tower with the Combat Academy freshmen and deliberately climbed to the thirteenth floor before being expelled in third place.
• Another freshman, Number Sixty-Six, reached the eighteenth floor and tied the freshman record.

After the Human Sacred Tower event, Jiang Yang cultivated, gained a fist technique through the simulation, and prepared for an upcoming mission outside Third City. Meanwhile, Zhao Ruiming’s selected students and Zhao Ruiming himself began seeing results from the Qi Refining Formula.

• The Human Sacred Tower freshman event ended, and the dean announced resource allocations before calling Lu Chuan and Zhang Wei to the administration building.
• Zhao Mingrui offered a group of talented students a new cultivation technique, while Gu Yuan urged Wang Chi to try the technique he had found.
• Jiang Yang cultivated with the Qi Refining Formula and waited for his simulation cooldown to end.
• In the simulation, Jiang Yang won a fight with a second-year student, befriended Shen Yicheng, and later survived a demon attack that wiped out his team before dying during an investigation.
• Jiang Yang received the Tiger Embrace Fist from the simulation and decided to train it before his upcoming academy assignment outside Third City.
• The students selected by the principal made breakthroughs or approached early Yellow Rank while cultivating the Qi Refining Formula, and Zhao Ruiming felt his own realm improve.