Chapter Summaries

Li Shun learned from Han Qi that his experience with the Sole Righteousness Scripture revealed a rare affinity for that lineage, but his established Spring-Autumn Brush foundation prevented him from changing paths. Han Qi confirmed that he himself came from the Sole Righteousness lineage.

• Li Shun watched Han Qi debate Chen Mo, a Celestial Phenomenon Realm disciple of the Investigate Things, Gain Knowledge lineage, as an equal.
• Han Qi told Li Shun that despite his profound insight, he was also in the Profound Insight Realm and explained that Heaven's will barred him from advancing.
• Han Qi asked Li Shun to choose a Confucian branch, and Li Shun described losing control while reading the Sole Righteousness Scripture.
• Han Qi explained that Li Shun's reaction showed Unity of Text and Spirit and that his decisive nature made him a chosen disciple of Sole Righteousness.
• Han Qi warned that Li Shun's Spring-Autumn Brush foundation could not be changed without damaging his cultivation, and he admitted he came from the Sole Righteousness lineage.

Han Qi explained why the Imperial Academy urged students to study multiple schools: diverse teachings could anchor their minds against the Outer Gods, though the methods risked weakening their main lineage. Li Shun began studying the Sole Righteousness Scripture and the Jade-Attacking Method under Han Qi.

• Han Qi told Li Shun that Great Qian confined the Sole Righteousness lineage to the Imperial Academy to prevent its ideals from spreading.
• Han Qi gave Li Shun the Jade-Attacking Method, which let him absorb other schools' theories at the cost of distorting and slowing his main cultivation.
• Li Shun asked why the Imperial Academy encouraged students to cultivate additional methods, and Han Qi explained that broad knowledge created anchors against the Outer Gods' corruption.
• Han Qi dismissed the Eclectic School as too shallow to provide effective anchors against the Outer Gods.
• Over the following days, Li Shun studied the Sole Righteousness Scripture and the Jade-Attacking Method while asking Han Qi questions.

Li Shun consulted the Ancient Web about the dangers he had faced and learned that the Imperial Academy stood on the remains of the Ancient Heavenly Court’s Thunder Jade Palace. He discovered that Threefold Self-Reflection still worked there, but its use could leave traces that might expose him.

• Han Qi answered Li Shun’s questions and told him to focus on mastering the scriptures instead of worrying about his fate.
• Li Shun recounted his recent encounters to the Ancient Web, which warned him that facing Outer Gods had been reckless and dangerous.
• The Ancient Web identified the Imperial Academy’s ruins as part of the Thunder Jade Palace and warned that its active Thunder Pool could detect and destroy Li Shun because the Ancient Web was attached to him.
• Li Shun withdrew the Ancient Web into Square Inch, and the Thunder Pool’s lingering attention faded after nearly half a day.
• The Ancient Web confirmed Threefold Self-Reflection still worked in the ruins but warned that the Thunder Jade Palace could record anomalies; Li Shun asked whether his earlier uses had left traces.

Li Shun used the Ancient Web’s secret art to sense the Divine Power lingering in the Thunder Jade Palace Ruins beneath the Imperial Academy. He discovered a surviving Thunder Pool at the academy’s center and began cautiously drawing in a faint wisp near his courtyard.

• Li Shun realized the Imperial Academy might have recorded traces of his Threefold Self-Reflection and resolved to avoid using it while studying there.
• The Ancient Web taught Li Shun a soul-based method for sensing the remnants of Divine Power in the ruins.
• Li Shun followed the method and saw the Imperial Academy’s buildings give way to the ruins of the Ancient Heavenly Court.
• He spotted the surviving Thunder Pool at the heart of the academy and recognized that Divine Power restrained its destructive lightning.
• Li Shun focused on a faint wisp of Divine Power near his courtyard and patiently coaxed it toward his spiritual sense.

Li Shun learned that the Divine Power he absorbed could let him open a Primordial Illusion Realm by tracing the past, provided he had a temporal coordinate or a surviving object as a medium. Ancient Web withheld the ritual’s principles until Li Shun’s soul became strong enough, and it could not explain how Great Qian’s people had learned the art.

• Li Shun drew a faint thread of Divine Power into his body and found that it did not interact with his Liqi.
• Ancient Web explained that Divine Power could open a Primordial Illusion Realm without the conditions used at Dai Mountain.
• Ancient Web said each illusion needed a known year or an object from that time, or else blended eras could allow an Outer God to appear.
• Ancient Web refused to explain the ritual’s principles until Li Shun reached the Creation Stage, though it said he could follow the steps without understanding them.
• Li Shun asked how Great Qian learned the art, but Ancient Web said no one there appeared capable of it and that the question went beyond theory.

Li Shun learned how to use the trace of Divine Power within him to open the Primordial Illusion Realm, though mastering the technique proved difficult. After an Outer God’s passage shook the Imperial Academy Estate, the Ancient Web began explaining why Outer Gods invaded Great Qian.

• The Ancient Web warned Li Shun that Great Qian might conceal powerful experts and explained how to open the Primordial Illusion Realm.
• Li Shun spent more than a month studying Through the Present to the Ancient while his Sole Righteousness studies advanced rapidly under Han Qi’s guidance.
• An immense shadow passed beyond the sky, causing the Imperial Academy Estate to tremble and fall silent.
• The Ancient Web identified the disturbance as a trace left by an Outer God traveling through Chaos and said Chaos contained uncountable worlds and Outer Gods.
• Li Shun asked why Outer Gods wanted to invade Great Qian, and the Ancient Web began listing the reasons.

The Ancient Web explained that Outer Gods descended into worlds out of curiosity and to seek shelter from Chaos, leaving Li Shun dispirited by humanity’s weakness. Han Qi used a fading lamp to help Li Shun understand his response to darkness, but the lesson was left unresolved.

• The Ancient Web told Li Shun that Outer Gods visited worlds out of boredom and curiosity, and that their power overwhelmed mortals.
• Li Shun questioned why so many Outer Gods repeatedly invaded Great Qian, and the Ancient Web explained that they sought refuge from the dangers of Chaos.
• After learning what the Outer Gods were, Li Shun lost his desire to cultivate and remained distracted the next day.
• Han Qi noticed Li Shun’s mood and asked about his doubts, which Li Shun attributed to the dark clouds he had seen near the Imperial Academy.
• Han Qi darkened the training hall and dimmed a lamp, prompting Li Shun to say that watching its light fade filled him with sorrow.

Li Shun overcame his despair through Han Qi’s lesson on the meaning of defending life, then returned to studying Sole Righteousness. Meanwhile, puppet Fang Han developed a sudden killing intent that stirred the entire Martial World, and Li Shun took control of him after noticing the change.

• Han Qi taught Li Shun that resisting death gave life meaning, dispelling Li Shun’s despair and helping him reenter the state of Unity of Text and Spirit.
• Puppet Fang Han continued analyzing the warriors of the Inner World as the sacred tree grew and the Martial World’s Mystic Yellow Qi yield stabilized at more than four hundred wisps a year.
• Fang Han suddenly spoke of avenging a feud across generations, and a powerful killing intent rose within him.
• The heavens responded to Fang Han’s killing intent with blood-red clouds, crimson lightning, and a murderous aura that swept through the Martial World.
• Li Shun noticed the puppet’s change, took control of Fang Han, and told Han Qi that lingering Outer God fluctuations had briefly distracted him.

Li Shun learned that Fang Han’s desire for revenge came from his stolen cultivation and decided to help him settle the score against the Fan Clan and Shao Lingxu. He visited the Yin-Yang Daoist Grounds to gather information, where a scholar’s angry criticism of the school’s teachings caught his attention.

• Li Shun discovered that the Fan Clan had stolen Fang Han’s Creation Realm cultivation and offered it to Shao Lingxu in exchange for Fan Cheng’s discipleship.
• Li Shun decided to let Fang Han take revenge on the Fan Clan and Shao Lingxu, but resolved to plan carefully because Fang Han’s strength and taboo Witch Clan arts posed risks.
• Li Shun requested leave from Han Qi and went to the Yin-Yang Daoist Grounds to learn about Shao Lingxu.
• Li Shun observed the lively grounds and listened to the visitors, searching for useful information without drawing attention.
• Li Shun heard a Yin-Yang School disciple condemn the school’s focus on relations between men and women and praise the older understanding of yin and yang as Heaven and Earth’s ceaseless turning.

Li Shun learned about the Yin-Yang School’s branches, Shao Lingxu’s history, and Ling Xuanji’s rumored role in the school’s rise. After Qiu Tianchi emerged from a private meeting with his bearing transformed, Wang Zheng explained the likely reason, while Li Shun remained intrigued by the mysteries of the Yin-Yang Mutual-Birth Art.

• Wang Zheng told Li Shun that the Yin-Yang School had several powerful branches and that a rumor credited Ling Xuanji with helping its Creation Stage cultivators advance.
• Wang Zheng explained how Shao Lingxu’s Five Virtues Transformation lineage had once legitimized Great Qian’s founding but later lost influence because its doctrine conflicted with the dynasty’s claim of enduring forever.
• Wang Zheng praised Shao Lingxu for living among ordinary people and secretly using his cultivation to protect the land and its people.
• Qiu Tianchi emerged from the residence after an hour with a calmer bearing and praised the senior sister’s understanding of Yin-Yang.
• Wang Zheng privately told Li Shun that Qiu Tianchi had likely changed because he had lost his virginity, while Li Shun suspected the Yin-Yang Mutual-Birth Art held deeper mysteries.

Li Shun rejected the shortcut of the Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Art after Wang Zheng explained how it could block the path to the Cosmos Realm. He resolved to avenge Fang Han by investigating the Fan Clan and Shao Lingxu, and Fang Han’s phantom vanished after ordering Fei to guard the world.

• Li Shun learned that Shang Qingqiu was Ling Xuanji’s direct disciple and the Grand Primordial Unity lineage’s successor.
• Wang Zheng warned Li Shun that dual cultivation could undermine a cultivator’s foundation and declared his resolve to become a Cosmos Saint.
• Li Shun and Wang Zheng exchanged contact details after spending the day talking.
• Li Shun decided to begin avenging Fang Han by targeting the Fan Clan while investigating Shao Lingxu’s possible role in stealing Fang Han’s Creation Realm.
• Li Shun’s resolve caused Fang Han’s blood-red thunderstorm and killing intent to cease.
• Fang Han ordered Fei to guard the world, then vanished.

Fang Han returned to Great Qian to take revenge for the theft of his Creation Blood, openly using the Primordial Ten Blessings despite the danger of revealing himself. His use of Azure Wood Invocation provoked Great Qian’s Heavenly Dao into summoning a terrifying lightning tribulation, while Li Shun sensed a connection between the tribulation and the Imperial Academy’s Thunder Pool.

• Fei watched the Inner World martial artists train frantically and wondered when Fang Han would lead them back to the Main World.
• Fang Han returned to Great Qian in East Mountain Town and resolved to pursue revenge openly, despite his incomplete body and the risk of exposing himself.
• Fang Han used Azure Wood Invocation to travel toward Qingyuan County, drawing in Great Qian’s vitality and sensing an ancient consciousness calling for help.
• Great Qian’s laws recognized Fang Han as an outsider, severed his connection to the ancient consciousness, and summoned a powerful lightning tribulation against him.
• Li Shun sensed the tribulation through his puppet and suspected that Great Qian’s heavenly lightning came from the Imperial Academy’s Thunder Pool.
• Observers challenged Fang Han but did not intervene, so he cried out and sped onward beneath the gathering storm.

Fang Han faced the Great Qian thunder tribulation, repeatedly dying and being reborn with a stronger body that absorbed lightning and gained Witch Markings. After enduring nine purple-gold bolts, he confronted a final, world-ending Annihilation Mystic Thunder.

• Fang Han drained vitality from sacred lands across Great Qian to strengthen himself, provoking the Heavenly Dao to strike him with purple-gold lightning.
• The first bolt reduced Fang Han to ashes, but he regenerated and discovered that his body drew in vitality more efficiently.
• Further bolts shattered Fang Han again, and he reassembled with arcane Witch Markings that let him absorb vitality at an even greater rate.
• Fang Han absorbed threads of tribulation lightning, recalled Wu Peng bathing in heavenly thunder, and stood firm against three rounds of lightning totaling nine bolts.
• The thunderclouds collapsed into a black point and released an Annihilation Mystic Thunder toward Fang Han.

Fang Han was annihilated by black heavenly lightning that carved a vast void into Great Qian, while Li Shun learned that the lightning was a weapon against Outer Gods and might have been deliberately controlled. The Ancient Web revealed the names and purpose of the Primordial Ten Blessings but said Li Shun could not learn them without a witch’s inheritance.

• Black heavenly lightning destroyed Fang Han and left a bottomless void dozens of miles wide in Great Qian.
• The Imperial Academy’s Thunder Pool reacted to the lightning, but a phantom alchemical furnace absorbed the escaping power and calmed the pool.
• Li Shun asked the Ancient Web about the black lightning and learned it was an absolute destructive response to Outer God invasions, which someone may have deliberately controlled.
• The Ancient Web explained that Fang Han’s totem helped him absorb life force through the Azure Wood Invocation.
• The Ancient Web named the Primordial Ten Blessings and said they let the Ten Shamans command fundamental laws of Heaven and Earth.
• The Ancient Web refused to teach Li Shun the other Blessings, explaining that only a witch’s inheritance could pass on witch power.

Li Shun learned that Fang Han’s inheritance might help locate the other Primordial Blessings and that gathering all ten could restore the Witch God Gu’s power. He also asked Han Qi about the Outworld Trial and learned how dangerous soul descent could be, though he remained eligible to face it soon.

• The Ancient Web explained that the ten Blessings came from the fallen Primordial Witch God and offered Li Shun a Source-Tracing Secret Art to detect other inheritances through Fang Han.
• Li Shun considered the legends of Gu and agreed that even a slim chance of attaining the Witch God’s power was worth pursuing.
• The Ancient Web derived the secret art, but Li Shun had to wait for the injured Fang Han to recover before testing it.
• Li Shun asked Han Qi whether the previous day’s disturbance was an Outer God’s work, and Han Qi confirmed it was not while withholding the reason until Li Shun passed the Outworld Trial.
• Han Qi explained the risks and advantages of bodily travel through Gates of Stars and soul descent, noting that only about three percent of Imperial Academy students completed the trial.
• Li Shun recalled that he himself had once crossed into Great Qian as a laborer and understood how much success could depend on luck.

After resuming his cultivation, Fang Han returned to the Great Qian World and was trapped by five Creation Stage masters. He ignited all the Life Qi stored in his Witch Clan body, releasing energy powerful enough to burn an entire province.

• Li Shun admitted his recklessness, continued studying Sole Righteousness, and reflected on Fang Han's possible transformation after taking revenge.
• After seven days of recovery in Square Inch, Fang Han descended into the Great Qian World and found that no other shamanic lineage responded to his sensing art.
• Fang Han endured the purple tribulation lightning and rushed toward Qingyuan County, drawing the attention of Great Qian.
• A Creation Stage master of the School of Names trapped Fang Han in a golden cage, and four more Creation Stage masters appeared around him.
• Fang Han declared that one force shattered ten thousand arts, then ignited all the Life Qi in his body and released province-burning energy.

Fang Han discovered that the Mohist and School of Diplomacy techniques redirected all damage onto him, so he unleashed a destructive inferno to overwhelm the five Creation Realm experts. The eldest expert then turned the Heaven and Earth vitality Fang Han relied on into poison, weakening his flames.

• Fang Han burned through the golden cage and attacked the School of Names expert, but the Mohist formation made the damage rebound onto himself.
• Fang Han attacked the Mohist expert and again suffered the full backlash, then realized the School of Diplomacy had isolated him from the shared bond.
• Fang Han concluded that the five experts had formed a nearly unbeatable alliance and chose to overwhelm them by releasing his Life Qi in a massive self-destructive inferno.
• The five Creation Realm experts endured Fang Han's assault as he drew in Heaven and Earth vitality to sustain his flames.
• The eldest expert chanted a technique that turned the vitality entering Fang Han into poison, causing his flames to dim.

Fang Han was overwhelmed by five Creation Realm cultivators, but the Dream School cultivator who tried to enter his mind died after glimpsing the power behind him. Fang Han perished, and Li Shun learned from the Ancient Web that Square Inch had caused the cultivator’s death.

• The Medical School’s poisoned vitality devastated Fang Han and the surrounding land, leaving him trapped by the five Creation Realm cultivators.
• Fang Han compressed his remaining Life Qi into the School of Totality as the hunched youth transformed into azure smoke and invaded his consciousness.
• The hunched Dream School cultivator screamed and disintegrated, while the other four Creation Realm cultivators retreated from Fang Han.
• Fang Han declared that he would return and vanished as his Life Qi ran out, leaving the four cultivators fearful of his final words.
• At the Imperial Academy, Li Shun asked the Ancient Web why the Dream School cultivator had died, and it explained that he had tried to probe Fang Han and encountered the power of Square Inch.

Li Shun learned more about Chaos and received a warning from Ancient Web to beware the Grand Arbiter. At the Imperial Academy, students were tasked with devising a way to defeat a follower of an Outer God whose traits matched Fang Han’s, and Li Shun went to Han Qi to learn about the trial’s rewards.

• Ancient Web told Li Shun that the Grand Arbiter could wander beyond Heaven and Earth in spirit and urged him to be extremely cautious around the man.
• Li Shun remained confident that Fang Han would eventually reach Qingyuan County despite his failed attempts and Great Qian’s defenses.
• The Chief Chancellor summoned ninety-eight Hundred Schools disciples and described a seemingly immortal Outer God follower who could revive endlessly and must not be investigated through karma or his divine soul.
• The Chief Chancellor set a five-day trial, offering the top three policy essays a chance to observe the Outer Heavenly Dao Marks, a drop of Hundred Schools Essentials, and a Turtle Treasure.
• Li Shun recognized that the described follower was Fang Han and visited Han Qi, who explained that Hundred Schools Essentials condensed the accumulated thoughts and traces of generations of Imperial Academy teachers and students.

Han Qi explained the Hundred Schools Essentials and showed Li Shun a Turtle Treasure, revealing that it came from an ancient civilization whose people borrowed power from an Outer God. The academy believed that civilization had once rivaled gods, shamans, and demons before those powers united to destroy it.

• Han Qi explained that the Hundred Schools Essentials contained the accumulated insights of Imperial Academy disciples and scholars, but warned Li Shun that absorbing it carried risks because the schools' ideas conflicted.
• Han Qi showed Li Shun a Turtle Treasure, whose symbols resembled those on the broken shell Li Shun had found beneath Emerald Plume Lake.
• Han Qi said the Turtle Treasure came from an ancient civilization that used its writing to communicate with an Outer God.
• Han Qi explained that the Outer God restrained its power, allowing the civilization's people to borrow strength without losing their sanity.
• Li Shun and Han Qi concluded that the civilization had become powerful enough to rival gods, shamans, and demons, who eventually joined forces to wipe it out.