Chapter Summaries

Li Shun failed to open the second circle of land in the Square Inch Space and used his remaining Mystic Yellow Qi to gain cultivation insights toward the upper Spirit Resonance realm. In the Martial World, Fang Han and Fei killed Lu Yi to force the birth of a demon infant, whose unusually strong foundation suggested the Twelve Longevity Method had greatly improved the quality of demon offspring.

• Li Shun learned that clearing the second circle required eight hundred wisps of Mystic Yellow Qi, then recoiled from its barrier when it painfully repelled his divine soul.
• Li Shun spent less than three wisps of Mystic Yellow Qi to grasp the cultivation insights needed to reach the upper Spirit Resonance realm, then resumed practicing.
• Fang Han used his roster of Twelve Longevity Method grandmasters to identify Lu Yi as the closest to producing a demon infant, and he and Fei went to observe him.
• Fang Han and Fei secretly killed Lu Yi, causing the demon infant inside him to emerge as a small black snake.
• Fei found that the newborn snake had a much stronger constitution and foundation than previous demon infants, thanks to its host's cultivation.

Fang Han devised a way to remove the excess life essence from Demon Infants, making them appear naturally weak while giving the essence to Fei. Fei agreed to help him, and the chapter ended with Fang Han insisting they preserve the Pasture World for fifty years before deciding what came next.

• Fang Han warned Fei that the Thirteen Pastures could not hide their abnormalities from the Demon Race World.
• Fang Han used Reclaim the Divine Peak to extract the stolen life essence from a newborn black snake without leaving visible signs of deficiency.
• Fang Han gave the extracted essence to Fei, who absorbed it safely and agreed to take one-third of future extractions.
• Fei accepted the risk of helping Fang Han and said it hoped to serve him in an assault on the Main World someday.
• Fang Han said they should keep the Pasture World standing for fifty years before considering what came after.

Li Shun used Heaven-and-Earth Mystic Yellow Qi to derive a technique that reduced Demon Infants' excess vitality, but discovered that using it to affect others created an enduring karmic burden. He decided to use Mystic Yellow Qi with restraint and seek guidance from the Grand Arbiter, possibly by creating a new puppet.

• Li Shun had Mystic Yellow Qi derive a low-cost reversal of Reclaim the Divine Peak to reduce Demon Infants' vitality, learning that the technique would extract their life source uncontrollably and make them hate its caster.
• Li Shun noticed an unusual blue-black wisp of Mystic Yellow Qi above puppet Fang Han and realized it was karma caused by wishes that affected others.
• Li Shun inferred that karma could grow as his actions changed more threads of causality and might eventually harm even the puppet.
• Li Shun suspected the Square Inch Dome and the sealed Deep Profound Gate could counter karma, but decided there was no need to test the idea yet.
• Li Shun resolved to keep using Mystic Yellow Qi sparingly and considered approaching the Grand Arbiter through a new puppet.

Fei proposed creating a hidden independent world within the Martial World to build a force against the Demon Race, and Fang Han ordered him to complete it quickly. As Fei neared completion, Li Shun noticed something was wrong with Li Qing in East Mountain Town.

• Fei advised Fang Han to preserve the existing pasture while creating a separate world where chosen residents would know the truth and train to resist the Demon Race.
• Fang Han ordered Fei to build a new world one-fiftieth the size of the Martial World within a month, and Fei accepted.
• Fang Han used the puppet's Heavenly Eye to seek young, promising candidates, but the vast number of martial artists overwhelmed his spiritual sense.
• Li Shun activated the Fang Han puppet's autonomous control and assigned it to select candidates, freeing himself from the mental strain.
• Fei tirelessly carved out the new realm, and Li Shun sensed that Li Qing was in trouble in East Mountain Town.

Li Qing rediscovered his passion for swordplay and decided to leave East Mountain Town to pursue cultivation and become a renowned swordsman. He sent Li Shun a farewell letter and departed, fading from Li Shun's perception.

• After paying respects at Fang Xun's memorial tablet, Li Qing picked up his dusty Sword Branch and performed sword techniques with surprising skill.
• Li Qing reflected on his life and realized that practicing swordplay had made him feel alive again.
• Li Qing wrote Li Shun a farewell letter, explaining that he needed to leave East Mountain Town and pursue his own path.
• Li Qing sealed the letter and asked Fang Han to deliver it to Li Shun.
• Li Qing left East Mountain Town, and Li Shun sensed his Mystic Yellow Qi weaken until he could no longer perceive him.

Li Shun accepted Li Qing’s departure and focused on finding a way to travel between Great Qian and the Martial World. He sent Shentu Xin across the Heavenly Dao Severed Sea to search for a passage, leaving the attempt underway.

• Li Shun realized Li Qing had changed and could no longer be sensed through Mystic Yellow Qi, and he accepted that his younger brother needed to follow his own path.
• Fei neared completion of a realm dividing the Martial World into an Outer World for demons and an Inner World for their opponents, while Fang Han rejected the Mystic Yellow Qi’s offer to raise the world’s power ceiling.
• Fang Han considered how Great Qian might learn to capture fragment worlds and formed a plan involving the Martial World and the Demon Race World.
• Li Shun sensed that the Martial World lay east of Great Qian, beyond the Heavenly Dao Severed Sea.
• Li Shun sent Shentu Xin’s phantom eastward to seek a passage, while the puppet Fang Han guided him and Shentu Xin recorded what he encountered.

Fang Han organized the Inner World’s people to prepare for the Demon Race, fueling their resolve with the truth about the demons and a Flesh-and-Blood Divine Tree that could heal and strengthen them. After stabilizing the Martial World and increasing its Mystic Yellow Qi production, he tried to open a door to another world but found that the necessary conditions had not been met.

• Fang Han revealed that the Demon Race used human Martial Grandmasters as hosts for Demon Infants, then rallied the Inner World’s people to resist the coming invasion.
• Fang Han ordered Fei to show the Inner World each Demon Infant’s emergence and tore off his own arm to create a Flesh-and-Blood Divine Tree that could heal and temper cultivators.
• The Inner World’s people devoted themselves to cultivation, and Fang Han observed that the two worlds together now produced around one hundred and fifty strands of Mystic Yellow Qi per year.
• Fang Han decided to explore another unknown world, but the Mystic Yellow Qi did not respond when he tried to open a door.

Li Shun learned that Great Qian had implemented a new Nine-Rank Official System as rumors spread that the Left Prime Minister was nearing death. He continued cultivating until the day of the Kong Family ancestor’s five-hundredth birthday celebration arrived.

• Shentu Xin continued exploring the Heavenly Dao Severed Sea, slowly building resistance to its annihilation qi while Fang Han guided him from the Martial World.
• Kong Zhao visited Li Shun and invited him to attend the Kong Family ancestor’s upcoming five-hundredth birthday celebration, which would receive an envoy from Emperor Gan.
• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that Great Qian had implemented the Nine-Rank Official System Reform, with officials subject to regular assessments whose criteria were not yet public.
• Kong Zhao shared rumors that the Left Prime Minister was nearing the end of his lifespan and warned that his death could shatter the balance of power in court.
• Li Shun and Kong Zhao discussed speculation that the reform might help the Left and Right Prime Ministers break through to the Cosmos Realm, though they doubted the ministers would defy Emperor Gan.
• After Kong Zhao left, Li Shun resumed cultivating, and the day of the ancestor’s birthday celebration arrived.

Li Shun and Kong Zhao waited with the Kong Family for Emperor Gan’s promised birthday envoy, but none arrived, leaving the family facing disgrace and possible accusations of abusing the emperor’s name. Li Shun warned Kong Zhao that the promise might have been a deception, and Kong Zhao rushed to confront Kong Changqing as the patriarch sat in despair.

• Officials crowded the Kong Mansion to celebrate Kong Changqing’s five-hundredth birthday and await Emperor Gan’s envoy.
• When the envoy failed to arrive by noon, Li Shun questioned whether the imperial promise was genuine, and Kong Zhao began to panic.
• By nightfall, the high officials and other guests left the mansion without receiving the birthday banquet.
• Li Shun warned Kong Zhao that the Kong Family needed to find the swindler or risk being accused of using the emperor’s name to gain prestige.
• Kong Zhao rushed into the inner halls, where Kong Changqing sat slumped in despair.

The Kong Family discovered that the imperial decree was a forged message framing them for treason, and Jiang Yubai led the Imperial Guard in arresting the entire household. As the prisoners began their journey back to the capital, Li Shun activated Three Awakenings and returned to the start of the day.

• Kong Changqing read the document and collapsed in shock, while Kong Zhao and Li Shun saw that it described a plot to lure officials away from the Sacred Capital and let an attacker enter.
• Jiang Yubai arrived with the Imperial Guard and ordered the Kong Family and everyone still inside the mansion arrested for suspected treason.
• Li Shun protested that he was only a guest, but Jiang Yubai accused him of colluding with the Kong Clan and had him seized.
• Jiang Yubai cited attacks on government residences in the Sacred Capital as evidence, then ordered the guards to take Kong Changqing and the others away.
• As the prisoners traveled back to the capital, Li Shun used Three Awakenings to return to the start of the day.

Li Shun investigated the Kong Family’s danger and learned that rumors about the Left Chancellor and the ancestor’s growing favor toward the Confucian School might be connected. He left with Kong Zhao for the gathering, still trying to understand the threat facing the family.

• Li Shun realized his time reset had affected only the Great Qian World and suspected the attacks on the three dukes’ residences were part of a ruthless court struggle.
• Kong Zhao came to fetch Li Shun for the gathering, unaware that the Kong Family might soon face catastrophe.
• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that rumors about the Left Chancellor’s absence and loss of authority had prompted Confucian leaders to gather in the Sacred Capital.
• Li Shun asked whether the Kong Family had changed its stance toward the Hundred Schools, and Kong Zhao revealed that the ancestor had begun favoring the Confucian School.
• Kong Zhao explained that the ancestor’s dreams of the Confucian Sage’s return had changed his outlook, and that he expected the Confucian School to win the contest for the Great Dao.

Li Shun suspected his use of Threefold Self-Reflection had influenced Kong Changqing and considered how to protect himself while preventing the Kong Family’s coming calamity. At the birthday banquet, a stranger challenged the authenticity of Emperor Gan’s promised blessing, and the officials accepted the imperial document as genuine, leaving Li Shun to wonder whether it was fake.

• Li Shun reasoned that even powerful cultivators might sense the world’s resets and decided he needed to protect himself before intervening in the Kong Family’s coming disaster.
• Li Shun told Kong Zhao he had inferred the Kong Family’s troubles from the backgrounds of newly admitted cultivators, then apologized when Kong Zhao rejected his warning.
• At the birthday banquet, a stranger accused the Kong Family of inventing the story that Emperor Gan had sent an envoy and imperial document.
• Kong Changqing ordered his document brought from his study, and senior officials examined it and affirmed that it was authentic.
• The stranger slipped away during the uproar, while Li Shun privately wondered whether the convincing document was actually fake.

Li Shun’s provocation prompted Kong Changqing to reveal Emperor Gan’s decree early, exposing that its writing had changed while the Sacred Capital could not be contacted. The ministers rushed to the capital as Kong Changqing stayed behind, then he wondered whether the strange madman had helped his family escape a calamity tied to the Sage’s Threefold Self-Reflection.

• Li Shun watched from the sidelines as the imperial envoy failed to arrive and officials discovered they could not contact the Sacred Capital.
• Kong Changqing opened Emperor Gan’s decree and found that its writing had changed, revealing a plot to frame him and destroy the Kong Family.
• Jiang Yubai led the ministers toward the capital while Kong Changqing remained at his estate to protect his family and calm the guests.
• Kong Changqing questioned the Kong Family members about the vanished madman and recalled the Confucian Sage saying his apparent foresight came from Threefold Self-Reflection.

Kong Changqing concluded that the Confucian Sage had saved the Kong Family and publicly committed the clan to the Confucian path. Li Shun and Kong Zhao discussed the attack on the three grand councillors and questioned whether the chancellors were testing the emperor, whose apparent youth raised doubts about his condition.

• Kong Changqing recalled the Confucian Sage's Three Reflections Upon Myself and suspected the Sage had intervened to save the Kong Family from a deadly trap.
• After dreaming of the Confucian Sage's aura lingering over the estate, Kong Changqing formally declared that the Kong Clan would honor the Confucian path.
• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that attackers had struck the three grand councillors' residences in the Sacred Capital, seriously injuring Patriarch Dong, then vanished as the city was locked down.
• Kong Zhao revealed that the court suspected the left and right chancellors had arranged the attacks to test the emperor, and said the chancellors had previously seen him looking like an eighteen-year-old.
• Li Shun and Kong Zhao questioned whether the emperor's youthful appearance was genuine, noting the unfinished Imperial Tomb and the absence of signs that he had surpassed the Cosmos Realm.

Li Shun and Kong Zhao discussed suspicions about Emperor Gan and the strange communication deception during the Sacred Capital’s unrest. Kong Zhao showed Li Shun a passage written by Emperor Gan himself, then revealed that it came from the emperor’s surviving pre-founding records, the Indra Scripture.

• Kong Zhao suggested that officials suspected Emperor Gan’s power was failing, while Li Shun questioned why the rebels were acting so urgently.
• Kong Zhao explained that messages sent from the Sacred Capital during the unrest appeared to reach their recipients but were actually diverted to false apparitions.
• Li Shun connected the deception to Han Sushu’s trick in Cold Mountain County and told Kong Zhao about Han Sushu and Jiang Chongguang’s role in the Imperial Tomb incident.
• Kong Zhao reacted with alarm at Han Sushu’s connection, then returned with a gold-foil passage written by Emperor Gan about a failed campaign before Great Qian was founded.
• Kong Zhao revealed that the passage came from the Indra Scripture, the emperor’s sole surviving record of the erased years before Great Qian’s founding.

Kong Zhao revealed that the Kong Family had been drawn into the Sacred Capital upheaval and set a trap to lure out the people behind it. Li Shun staged a public quarrel to spread the rumor that Kong Zhao carried a forged document, and the two waited for the enemy to act.

• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that the Old Man Under the Bridge's lineage might be involved in the attempt to test the emperor.
• Kong Zhao explained that the Kong Family had received a forged document meant to frame them for colluding with rebels, and that the Sacred Capital was under investigation.
• Kong Zhao showed Li Shun a counterfeit document and asked him to let others believe Kong Zhao was carrying it as bait.
• Li Shun staged a heated argument with Kong Family disciples at the mansion gates, claiming he had seen the document and feared being implicated in rebellion.
• Li Shun hurried toward East Mountain Town while secretly asking Kong Zhao whether his performance had been too theatrical, and Kong Zhao said they should wait for their enemies to take the bait.

After the Kong Family’s ambush ended in disaster, Li Shun used Three Reflections Upon Myself to return to an earlier point and warn Kong Zhao. Kong Zhao survived the attack in Kong Li’s place, but the attackers’ strange cultivation left Li Shun wondering whether they had come from other worlds.

• Li Shun learned that two Creation Stage masters had killed Kong Zhao and the Kong Family elites, leaving the attackers unidentified.
• Li Shun used Three Reflections Upon Myself to turn back the day and warned Kong Zhao that the ambush might face more than one Creation Stage enemy.
• Kong Zhao replaced himself with Kong Li as bait, and two Creation Stage masters attacked, killing Kong Li while Kong Zhao escaped.
• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that the attackers’ Daoist arts did not belong to any of the Hundred Schools and might come from ancient cultivation systems.
• Li Shun wondered whether the unknown Creation Stage masters had come from other worlds.

Li Shun learned how Great Qian’s new Ninth-Rank Official System would use Heavenly Dao to evaluate officials and discovered that the people held the remaining power over their fate. The chapter ended as Kong Zhao revealed the reform’s startling delegation of authority to the common people.

• Li Shun suspected that outsiders connected to Otherworldly Heavenly Demons might be behind the unresolved case, while Great Qian’s investigation fell silent.
• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that the court had announced a new system for evaluating officials and led him into a hidden refuge grotto-heaven to discuss it.
• Kong Zhao explained that Great Qian Heavenly Dao would assess officials against thousands of codes of conduct and assign them one of nine grades, affecting their promotions or punishment.
• Kong Zhao said officials could resign rather than submit to Heavenly Dao oversight, but most hoped to earn high evaluations or conceal wrongdoing with deceptive arts.
• Li Shun asked what the system’s two parts in man meant, and Kong Zhao revealed that the court had given the common people power over officials’ fates.

Kong Zhao explained to Li Shun how the Nine-Rank Official System let the people influence officials’ assessments, and worried that the reform would make investigating censors obsolete. Li Shun argued that the people would recognize Kong Zhao as an upright official for rooting out corruption.

• Kong Zhao told Li Shun that people could shift an official’s assessment by two minor grades through anonymous judgments at Officials’ Towers.
• Kong Zhao explained that the towers would display officials’ names, careers, and recent deeds, while decrees would identify the officials involved.
• Li Shun learned that Emperor Gan’s remark that officials must not neglect the people had inspired giving them two points in the assessment system.
• Kong Zhao admitted that he feared the new system would leave investigating censors like him with no purpose.
• Li Shun said people had limited knowledge of governance and often judged officials as either corrupt or good.
• Li Shun assured Kong Zhao that the people would regard him as upright because he traveled the realm and punished corrupt officials.

Kong Zhao chose Zhou Shengzhe as the target of an impeachment that could raise his profile, while Li Shun followed a breakthrough opportunity to Dai Mountain's summit. There, he discovered that the heavenly barrier he needed to overcome was tied to a mysterious man in black, who pointed at him.

• Kong Zhao decided to impeach Zhou Shengzhe, a famous Lifespan Borrowing practitioner who charged disciples high fees for ineffective instruction.
• Li Shun sensed a breakthrough opportunity near the Kong Family Ancestral Residence and followed it to Dai Mountain.
• Li Shun climbed through the night to the summit and experienced a profound tranquility as he reached the peak at dawn.
• A man in black appeared on the summit despite Dai Mountain's restriction against flight and explained that strength could overcome the world's rules.
• Li Shun realized the man in black was connected to his heavenly barrier, greeted him as Senior, and watched as the man pointed at him.