Chapter Summaries

Li Shun's blood-and-qi method produced eight hundred superhuman soldiers, and Great Yu's army advanced to besiege Chen City. The chapter ended as the enhanced warriors began leaping onto the supposedly impregnable walls and slaughtering the defenders.

• Li Shun's secretly trained elites grew to eight hundred awakened veterans under Bai Yunlie.
• Bai Xianding described how Chen City's steep, self-sufficient defenses had repelled his earlier assaults.
• Great Yu's army began its siege, but most conventional siege engines became stuck on the mountain road.
• The enhanced soldiers pushed a specially built siege ladder to within a zhang of Chen City's wall.
• One giant-like soldier leaped onto the battlements and massacred the defenders who surrounded him.
• A second and third terrifying soldier leaped from the ladder onto the wall.

After Great Yu captured Chen City in half a day, Bai Xianding ordered Bai Yunlie to lead eight hundred elite troops on a swift raid to seize You Kingdom’s capital and king. As Bai Yunlie set out, Li Shun discovered Bai Xianding’s health had suddenly deteriorated and promised to extend his life by about a year.

• Great Yu’s elite troops broke Chen City’s defenses, and the city gates opened from within, giving Bai Xianding’s army the city in less than half a day.
• Bai Xianding told Bai Yunlie to conceal Li Shun’s existence and the Blood-Qi Circulation Technique from the court to protect Li Shun from political danger.
• Bai Xianding ordered Bai Yunlie to lead eight hundred elite troops directly to You City, capture its king, and destroy You Kingdom.
• Bai Yunlie led the eight hundred troops toward You City under cover of darkness, while Li Shun questioned Bai Xianding’s risky strategy.
• Bai Xianding began coughing badly, and Li Shun examined him and offered to extend his life by about a year.

Li Shun treated Bai Xianding, survived an assassin’s attack, and taught him Emperor Fist while Chen City braced for You Kingdom’s counterattack. On the eleventh day after Bai Yunlie departed, Li Shun witnessed Bai Yunlie capture the You King and felt a mysterious purple aura loosen the seal on his Liqi.

• Li Shun used acupuncture and massage to stabilize Bai Xianding, then prescribed regular treatments and the Blood-Qi Circulation Method.
• An escaped Chen City deputy general tried to assassinate Li Shun, but Li Shun subdued him, and Bai Xianding ordered a purge of the city.
• Li Shun taught Bai Xianding Emperor Fist and offered to have it transcribed for the army.
• After You Kingdom scouts appeared, Bai Xianding restricted the Blood-Qi Circulation Method to one hundred trusted guards to prevent it reaching the enemy.
• On the eleventh day after Bai Yunlie left, Li Shun saw him capture the You King and his family, then watched purple aura enter Bai Yunlie and himself, loosening Li Shun’s sealed Liqi.

Li Shun watched Bai Yunlie return after conquering the You Kingdom and helped Bai Xianding turn him against Great Yu’s court. The Bai Family built its power along the border, and when an envoy arrived to investigate the rumors, Bai Yunlie denied his victory.

• Li Shun sensed that the purple aura he gained from the King of You might be the fortune of a kingdom, while concealing his knowledge of Bai Yunlie’s success.
• Bai Yunlie returned to Chen City with the captured King of You and his family, and told Bai Xianding how he had conquered the You Kingdom.
• Bai Xianding warned that Great Yu might discard the Bai Family after using them, and Bai Yunlie began to question his loyalty to the sovereign.
• Bai Yunlie abandoned his plan to return to the capital, recruited troops, and secretly brought key members of the Bai Family to the border.
• Over half a year, the Bai Family expanded its influence across five cities and ignored messages from Great Yu’s capital.
• When Envoy Zhou came to investigate rumors of Bai Yunlie’s conquest, Bai Yunlie denied destroying the You Kingdom and mocked the envoy’s doubts.

Bai Xianding and Bai Yunlie kept Yan Kingdom's ambitions hidden while building strength, then conquered You Kingdom and launched surprise attacks on four rival capitals. By the chapter's end, Yan Kingdom had captured the four kings and stunned the world.

• Bai Yunlie refused the imperial envoy's request to return to the capital, and Bai Xianding explained that Yan Kingdom needed time to secure its rule and grow stronger.
• Bai Xianding planned to absorb You Kingdom over three years while Great Yu was occupied fighting a coalition on its eastern frontier.
• In the fourth year after Li Shun descended into the world, the Bai Family destroyed You Kingdom and proclaimed Yan Kingdom.
• Bai Yunlie sent four detachments of Crimson Blood Elite toward the capitals of Xiang, Yong Kingdom, Liang Kingdom, and Xu Kingdom, coordinating them with Li Shun's Communication Jade Tokens.
• The four armies captured the capitals and brought their kings back to Chen City as prisoners, and news of Yan Kingdom's victories spread across the world.

The Yan Kingdom conquered the other realms and laid siege to Great Yu, but Emperor Gan revealed godlike power and erased the Yan Kingdom from existence. Li Shun awoke outside Yu Capital, realizing Emperor Gan had spared him and wondering what the trial was meant to be.

• The Yan Kingdom annexed four kingdoms, then invaded Great Yu and captured nearly all its territory.
• Bai Xianding and Bai Yunlie led the final assault on Yu Capital, where Li Shun felt his foreboding grow.
• The army found Emperor Gan alone in the Golden Hall, and his presence forced everyone except Li Shun to kneel.
• Emperor Gan transformed into a colossal figure and erased the Yan army and Bai Family, wiping the Yan Kingdom from history.
• Li Shun awoke outside Yu Capital and realized Emperor Gan's power rivaled that of the Outer Gods, leaving him to question the trial and why he had survived.

Li Shun traveled through a world without the Hundred Schools and decided to introduce their teachings, transforming its warring kingdoms into a flourishing age of scholarship. Decades later, he watched the schools’ ideas continue to develop and marveled at the people’s intellectual achievements.

• Li Shun discovered that Emperor Gan had restored the world to an earlier state, while the Fortune he had gathered remained within him and temporarily returned his strength.
• For three years, Li Shun traveled among the kingdoms in disguise, observing how war and natural disasters burdened a world without extraordinary powers or the Hundred Schools.
• Li Shun decided to spread the Hundred Schools’ teachings and began shaping the world by fostering their founders and doctrines.
• The Sages of the Hundred Schools spread their teachings, and their ideas endured and developed across generations after they died.
• Li Shun watched from above as later thinkers produced theories and writings that rivaled those of present-day Great Qian.

Li Shun returned from a trial world after spending decades there as the Sage of the Hundred Schools, and the Imperial Academy cleared him of suspicion and rewarded his performance. He realized the Academy did not know about his failed attempt to conquer the world and suspected Emperor Gan had concealed it.

• Li Shun reflected that the world's Fortune had flowed away from him and suspected Emperor Gan would reveal his power if the world were disturbed.
• A force from beyond the world returned Li Shun to the Imperial Academy, where the Grand Chancellor declared his suspicions cleared.
• The Grand Chancellor and the instructors agreed to give Li Shun more resources because Great Qian faced growing threats from the Outer Gods and the Grand Arbiter was absent.
• The Grand Chancellor gave Li Shun a sealed sphere containing a Deep Profound Gate and told him Han Qi would explain how to use it.
• Li Shun noticed the Grand Chancellor's account of the trial omitted his attempted conquest and concluded that Emperor Gan must have concealed it.

Li Shun suspected Emperor Gan had helped him pass the Imperial Academy’s test and feared that the emperor, whose power rivaled an Outer God’s, was watching him. After discussing the mystery with the Ancient Web, Li Shun learned that Outer Gods could not cultivate and questioned whether the Grand Arbiter’s Spirit Wandering Realm could truly challenge them.

• Li Shun resolved to deepen his understanding of Square Inch or find another Outer God to counter Emperor Gan, then returned his mind to Square Inch and told the Ancient Web what had happened.
• The Ancient Web agreed that Emperor Gan’s power rivaled a god of Chaos but said it could not explain how he had acquired it.
• The Ancient Web explained that Outer Gods were born with fixed power and could neither grow stronger nor weaker through cultivation.
• Li Shun realized that news of a human reaching an Outer God’s power could draw countless Outer Gods to Great Qian, and wondered why Emperor Gan had revealed his secret to him.
• Li Shun asked whether anyone in Chaos had ever reached an Outer God’s power and cited the Grand Arbiter’s Spirit Wandering Realm, but the Ancient Web said it remained far below an Outer God.

Li Shun endured Chaos’s backlash by steadying and repairing the Square Inch Space, then corrected his distorted sense of time after returning to Great Qian. Once he recovered, Han Qi came to teach him about the Mind-Communicating Bead and showed him a text from a new school that had arisen in the trial realm.

• Li Shun calmed the upheaval in the Square Inch Space by chanting and repaired its fissures, prompting the Ancient Web to say he had accomplished what countless gods of Chaos could not.
• Li Shun realized that his body had aged along with his distorted perception of time, so he used the Imperial Academy’s sundial to recalibrate it over five days.
• Han Qi visited Li Shun after his recovery and offered to explain how to use the Mind-Communicating Bead.
• Han Qi showed Li Shun the Treatise on Ten Thousand Balances, and Li Shun recognized it as a work of the School of Totality, which had emerged in the trial realm after he spread his teachings.

Li Shun learned that the Treatise on Totality could resist Outer Gods and qualify as a new school, despite being only a fragile mental anchor. He discovered he could not remember its founder, while Han Qi concluded that a Sage had manifested in the trial spacetime.

• Han Qi explained that the Imperial Academy had recreated Ancient Past Inquiry Spacetime 748 times, but only three trials had produced a new school among the Hundred Schools.
• Han Qi recited the Treatise on Totality and explained that a school had to resist the encroachment of Outer Gods to be recognized in Great Qian.
• Han Qi revealed that the Imperial Academy had verified the treatise could serve as a fragile mental anchor against Outer Gods, and praised its doctrine as the Supreme Unity Complete Method.
• Li Shun realized he could not remember the founder's name, age, or appearance, and privately wondered whether Emperor Gan had created the treatise.
• Han Qi said an unaccounted-for figure in a trial spacetime meant a Sage had manifested, while Li Shun questioned how that could be true when no Sage had appeared in his trial world.

Han Qi explained how the Mind-Communicating Bead could open a door to another world when guided by a theory, then sent a wisp of his soul through a door formed by the Supreme Unity Complete Treatise. He returned injured after spending nearly fifty years in a world ruled by an extreme religion, where he discovered a method resembling the Supreme Unity Complete Method but not useful enough to fulfill his search.

• Han Qi explained that removing Sages from a trial timeline could prompt space and time to restore itself, sometimes creating a Sage or theory that had never existed in Great Qian's history.
• Han Qi used passages from the Supreme Unity Complete Treatise to open a new door inside his Mind-Communicating Bead and explained that the bead could send a wisp of the soul to a fixed destination in another world.
• Han Qi sent a wisp of his soul through the door while Li Shun sensed Chaos gathering around him.
• The door suddenly shattered, and Han Qi spat blood as his soul returned damaged; he told Li Shun that the world beyond had resembled Great Qian but was ruled by an extreme religion.
• Han Qi told Li Shun that he had spent nearly fifty years there, risen to pontiff, and discovered the Divine Transmission Art, which resembled the Supreme Unity Complete Method but could not help his search.

Han Qi explained how the Mind-Communicating Bead made crossing into other worlds safer and allowed repeated visits, then showed Li Shun how he had risen to become the Church World's sole God. Li Shun was left wondering why Han Qi had returned to Great Qian and whether his power abroad could strengthen his original body.

• Han Qi explained that the Mind-Communicating Bead could scan another world and select suitable bodies for a divine soul to possess.
• Han Qi showed Li Shun the Church World's oppressive hierarchy and warned that a poorly chosen identity could leave a traveler vulnerable to pursuit.
• Han Qi demonstrated that the bead preserved world beacons and could find people connected to a previous host during later crossings.
• Using the bead, Han Qi returned to the Church World, rose from an illegitimate bishop's son to pope, and defeated its god after a hundred-year divine war.
• Li Shun realized Han Qi had reached power comparable to Great Qian's Heaven and Earth Realm abroad, and wondered why he had returned and whether that strength could benefit his original body.

Han Qi explained how his divided soul had become a god in another world and taught Li Shun how to use the Mind-Communicating Bead. After studying the bead, Li Shun consulted the Ancient Web, which suspected it had been made from an Outer God's corpse.

• Han Qi told Li Shun that his divine incarnation remained in the Church World, though its power had little effect on his true self in Great Qian.
• Li Shun realized that Square Inch Space could let him bring powerful puppets from other worlds into Great Qian, and recognized the Mind-Communicating Bead as a way to discover new worlds.
• Han Qi explained the bead's use and dangers, reminded Li Shun to collect theories about the Supreme Unity Complete Method, and left him a book containing the Divine Transmission Art.
• Li Shun memorized the Divine Transmission Art, then tried and failed to understand the Mind-Communicating Bead with his divine sense.
• Li Shun described the bead to the Ancient Web, which asked to inspect it and deduced that it was likely made using an Outer God's corpse.

Li Shun learned that the Great Qian Mind-Communicating Bead had been forged from the corpse of the Outer God Mingxing Wangyu, whose mysterious death Ancient Web wanted to investigate. Li Shun agreed to help in exchange for Ancient Web’s assistance understanding the bead and traveling to other worlds, and Ancient Web proposed that the Universal Thought Sphere matched destinations using Mingxing Wangyu’s memories.

• Ancient Web examined the Mind-Communicating Bead and identified its material as the corpse of Mingxing Wangyu, an Outer God that had once traveled freely through Chaos.
• Ancient Web explained that an Outer God’s corpse could remain if it died inside a world, but neither it nor Li Shun could determine how Mingxing Wangyu had died.
• Li Shun suggested investigating Great Qian, but refused when Ancient Web asked him to uncover the truth without offering anything in return.
• Ancient Web offered to analyze the Mind-Communicating Bead and help Li Shun travel to other worlds in exchange for his future help investigating Mingxing Wangyu’s fall, and Li Shun accepted.
• Ancient Web examined the Universal Thought Sphere and suggested it matched users with worlds Mingxing Wangyu had visited during its life.

Li Shun learned that Mind-Communicating Beads relied on the Great Qian Heavenly Dao to protect users from Mingxing Wangyu’s lingering power. The Ancient Web proposed ways to create private soul travel, and Li Shun realized he might reproduce the method in the Martial Dao World, whose Heavenly Dao was under Fang Han’s control.

• The Ancient Web explained that Mingxing Wangyu’s traces endured after its fall and that the Mind-Communicating Bead was only a terminal connected to a larger system.
• The Ancient Web revealed that the Great Qian Heavenly Dao relayed soul travel and shielded Great Qian natives from Mingxing Wangyu’s residual aura.
• The Ancient Web proposed constructing a private Dao web, but Li Shun rejected the plan after learning it would provoke the Great Qian Court and require substantial energy.
• The Ancient Web described a riskier method: steal the Great Qian Heavenly Dao’s soul-travel information and use it to alter another world’s Heavenly Dao.
• Li Shun realized he might replicate the method in the Martial Dao World, whose Heavenly Dao had passed from Fei to Fang Han.

Li Shun weighed Ancient Web’s proposal to enter the Great Qian World and steal the Heavenly Dao’s soul-travel method, then went to investigate Shang Qingqiu after a disciple was drained during dual cultivation. As Li Shun and Wang Zheng questioned why the academy instructors had not arrived, an unfathomable presence passed beyond the Imperial Academy’s sky.

• Li Shun questioned whether Ancient Web was truly only an imprint, and Ancient Web refused to reveal the truth while urging him to let it into the Great Qian World.
• Li Shun considered testing the Mind-Communicating Bead, but Wang Zheng’s message drew him to the Yin-Yang Daoist Grounds.
• Li Shun found Shang Qingqiu beside the withered Chen Mo as Medical School disciples failed to save him and other students demanded an explanation.
• Shang Qingqiu said the Grand Primordial Unity Art had begun normally, but the crowd refused to believe she had lost control of it.
• Li Shun argued that Shang Qingqiu had little reason to deliberately drain Chen Mo and noticed that no instructors had arrived.
• Li Shun and Wang Zheng looked up as an unfathomable presence passed close beyond the Imperial Academy’s sky.

An Outer God’s power threw the Yin-Yang Qi into chaos, allowing Shang Qingqiu to unleash an unbalanced Grand Primordial Unity Art and drain the Imperial Academy students’ vital essence. Li Shun tried to stop her with Confucian teachings, but Shang Qingqiu attacked him and the Taiji Diagram swallowed him.

• The Outer God’s influence disrupted the Yin-Yang Qi and drove the Imperial Academy students to attack Shang Qingqiu.
• Shang Qingqiu used the distorted Taiji Diagram to dissolve the students’ spells, then expanded it and forcibly drew them into the Grand Primordial Unity Art.
• Li Shun narrowly escaped the diagram while Wang Zheng broke free and warned him that Shang Qingqiu’s technique could kill students across the academy.
• Li Shun invoked Confucian teachings to challenge Shang Qingqiu, but she rejected his argument and sent the Taiji Diagram directly at him.
• The Taiji Diagram swallowed Li Shun, stopped expanding, and spun in place as the pink mist fell still.

After surviving Shang Qingqiu’s Unbalanced Tai Chi Diagram, Li Shun learned that an Outer God’s manifestation had worsened Great Qian’s long-standing imbalance of yin and yang and plunged the land into chaos. The Vice Chancellor sent the students across the realm to find and repair focal points of imbalance, and Li Shun, Wang Zheng, and Shang Qingqiu headed for Bing Province.

• Li Shun endured the Unbalanced Tai Chi Diagram until yin and yang returned to balance, while the Imperial Academy disciples collapsed and Shang Qingqiu’s frenzy faded.
• The Vice Chancellor arrived, explained that the imbalance had thrown Great Qian into chaos, and revealed that its unusually long days and short nights had persisted for nearly four hundred years.
• The Vice Chancellor ordered the students to travel across Great Qian, locate focal points of imbalance with talismans, and help restore stability.
• Li Shun, Wang Zheng, and Shang Qingqiu were assigned to Bing Province, where Wang Zheng asked Li Shun how he had resisted the diagram and restored its balance.

Li Shun realized that the Square Inch Dao’s mysterious power could restore whatever his body needed to survive, but the revelation was interrupted by a catastrophic collapse in Bing Province. As the calamity continued spreading beneath a crescent moon, Li Shun recognized the figure emerging at its center as the dormant Cold Mountain Soul.

• Li Shun concluded that a force connected to the Square Inch Dao had replenished his Yang qi and could restore any vital element his body lacked.
• A crescent moon appeared over Bing Province as the land collapsed, drawing vitality and lives toward the sky and swallowing Cold Mountain Commandery.
• Wang Zheng tried to contain the disaster with his black square ruler, while Li Shun, Shang Qingqiu, and cultivators across Bing Province joined the effort.
• The cultivators’ defenses broke, the crescent moon grew toward fullness, and a figure began taking shape at the calamity’s center.
• Li Shun identified the emerging figure as the Cold Mountain Soul, whose return had triggered the disaster.