Chapter Summaries

Lu Qing comprehended Life-and-Death True Intent and used it to bring vitality to his Inner World, advancing to the Golden Core Seventh Realm. He then refined his Sleeve Cosmos ability, leaving a nearby disciple confused by the mountain landscape’s sudden disappearance and return.

• Lu Qing realized that his Life-and-Death True Intent connected annihilation with renewed life and would aid the evolution of his Inner World.
• Lu Qing decided his future Inner World needed Life-and-Death Reincarnation and rejected turning it into a Grotto-Heaven as the path to the Primordial Spirit Realm.
• Lu Qing infused his Inner World with Life-and-Death True Intent, and its mountains, rivers, and winds began to feel alive.
• Lu Qing broke through to the Golden Core Seventh Realm, and his cultivation and Divine Consciousness strengthened.
• Lu Qing swept the surrounding mountains and trees into his sleeve with Sleeve Cosmos, then restored the landscape after a passing disciple mistook the change for a lapse in his own perception.

Lu Qing spent nearly three months in seclusion, refining his Sleeve Cosmos and completing the Star-Shifting Divine Ability. He emerged to find Tribulation Clouds gathering over many Sword Lineage Dojo disciples and learned from messages that the outside world had grown dangerous.

• Lu Qing realized he had mastered the rudimentary form of Sleeve Cosmos and could use it to contain living creatures and cut off Heavenly Secrets.
• Lu Qing cultivated in seclusion for nearly three months, tempering his dharmic power and completing the Star-Shifting Divine Ability.
• Lu Qing judged that using the Star-Shifting Divine Ability would bring more loss than gain for now because Stellar Destiny was difficult to obtain and tampering with Providence could invite Cause and Effect.
• Lu Qing sensed the three-month period for the Guidance Formation had arrived and saw Tribulation Clouds hanging over many Sword Lineage Dojo disciples as the number of people there dwindled.
• Lu Qing checked messages from Senior Brother Wang and White Crane Boy, learning that the outside world had become increasingly dangerous.

As tribulations and news of opportunities stirred the Dao Sect, Lu Qing reviewed Spirit Plant Garden matters and approved the departure of disciples who wanted to seek their own chances. A new group of prodigies arrived at the Profound Heaven Dao Sect, including familiar Golden Core and Purple Mansion cultivators, and began to be registered.

• Lu Qing checked the spiritual lights for news from Sun-Moon Mountain and considered how Tribulation Qi could threaten cultivators through their Dao Hearts.
• Hu Laozhang reported Spirit Plant Garden affairs, and Lu Qing approved the requests of several disciples who wished to leave.
• Lu Qing read reports of extraordinary opportunities appearing across the continents and recognized how they were tempting cultivators to seek their fortunes.
• A Guidance Formation brought several dozen newcomers to the Inner Sect, including Golden Core prodigies and Purple Mansion cultivators such as Gu Xuantian, Su Xinyue, Wan Feiyu, Zhou Shenlong, Chen Fan, and Ye Lin.
• Dao Sect disciples began registering the newcomers and asked which of them were True Person disciples as more arrivals appeared.

Newly arrived disciples chose among the Profound Heaven Dao Sect’s lineages while hidden powers and Providence influenced their decisions. Zhou Shenlong considered Beast-Taming Peak, Chen Fan resolved to advance to Golden Core, and Ye Lin learned that the Sword Lineage was his best option but could not confirm whether he could join.

• Zhou Shenlong’s Black Cat warned him that the aura at Reception Peak was terrifying and urged him to choose Beast-Taming Peak.
• Chen Fan asked Old Copper why he could not undergo Golden Core tribulation in the Heavenly Domain, and Old Copper warned him that its tribulations had grown too dangerous.
• Chen Fan agreed to cross the Golden Core as soon as possible, and his Providence grew stronger.
• Ye Lin consulted the Heavenly Secrets Jade and learned that the Sword Lineage suited him best.
• Ye Lin asked whether he could join the Sword Lineage, but the jade slip gave no answer without another treasure.

Ye Lin tried to join the Sword Lineage but learned that its trials and registered-disciple requirements were beyond what he could manage, so he chose the Outer Sect Lineage instead. Meanwhile, Sun Qidao glimpsed the Daoist Dojo through a fluctuation of Providence and saw the Cause and Effect of the people within it.

• Ye Lin learned that Sword Lineage outer sect disciples had to climb nine thousand steps and that registered disciples were few and held varying ranks.
• Ye Lin used the Heavenly Secrets Jade to ask whether he could become a registered disciple and how to join the Sword Lineage, but it answered no.
• Ye Lin gave up on the Sword Lineage and agreed to join the Outer Sect Lineage.
• The Heavenly Secrets Jade trembled at a terrifying gaze from beyond, then concealed its glow and pretended to be an ordinary jade fragment.
• While playing Go with Li Luoyang, Sun Qidao noticed a fluctuation of Providence and saw the Cause and Effect of countless people in the Daoist Dojo.

Li Luoyang and Sun Qidao sensed the Heavenly Mandate disciples’ Providence and recognized Dao-Seeking’s concealed plans around the Tripod Shadow, choosing to let the Heaven-derived Variable Fate unfold. Lu Qing saw the new arrivals enter the sect’s Fate Allotment as the distant Demon Land World appeared in the far north.

• Li Luoyang and Sun Qidao noticed a Dao Sect disciple’s Heavenly Secrets Jade and discussed whether the disciple could bear their great Providence.
• Li Luoyang and Sun Qidao recognized Dao-Seeking’s familiar Cause and Effect behind the concealed Heavenly Secrets surrounding the Tripod Shadow, then chose not to interfere.
• The figures at the chessboards accepted the Heaven-derived Variable Fate and overturned their earlier moves to observe it.
• Lu Qing saw the Heavenly Mandate disciples’ golden Providence surge into the sect’s Fate Allotment and realized they had arrived.
• The Demon Land World appeared in the far north, shocking cultivators across the world.

The Demon Land World settled into place, revealing the Divine Medicine Mountain Range and drawing cultivators from across the Four Lands to its immense spiritual energy and Fate Allotment. As the Six Paths converged, Spirit cultivators arrived seeking a chance to claim the Human Path’s great Fate Allotment.

• The sky showed cultivators across the world a vision of the Divine Medicine Mountain Range, its peaks covered in vanished Treasure Herbs and divine medicines.
• Cultivators and demonic beasts rushed toward the Four Lands as the vision intensified the world's Tribulations.
• The Demon Land World settled into place, and its immense Fate Allotment gathered while spiritual energy loosened the cultivators' shackles.
• Ghost and Spirit cultivators joined the Immortal and Demon Paths in the Four Lands, and cultivators discussed the Spirit Clan's hopes of establishing the Human Path.
• Spirit cultivators arrived in a palace complex, occupied the Xun position, and emerged with a golden-lit youth at their front.

The Six Paths gathered as a transformed world took shape, and the Immortal Path, Spirit Path, Divine Path, and Demon Path revealed their forces and preparations. Towering gates appeared and pulled the cultivators into the world, leaving the Rogue Cultivators confused as they were drawn in after the Six Paths.

• The Spirit Clan young lord surveyed the Demon and Immortal territories and sensed powerful auras among them.
• Divine beings arrived, including gods of the Incense Divine Path and the Innate Divine Path.
• Golden Feather Ancestor's disciple arrived with Demon Race cultivators, carrying the Dao-Refining Furnace to suppress his Immortal Path Fate Allotment and keep Tribulation Qi at bay.
• After the Six Paths took their positions, the Chaos Qi dispersed and towering gates appeared, scattering cultivators to different places.
• The Nine Immortals Sect sent warnings about the newborn world and its two possible destinations, including the merged Heavenly Domain.
• The gates sucked the Six Paths inside without resistance, then began pulling in the bewildered Rogue Cultivators.

Light gates carried cultivators from the Four Lands into the Divine Medicine Mountain Range, while demonic-path survivors debated the dangers and fortunes within. Wang Chunfeng entered the Demon Land World with a Sword Pellet in his Purple Mansion Realm.

• Countless light gates appeared across the Four Lands and transported the cultivators already there away, leaving the gates open for those who arrived later.
• Later cultivators saw the Divine Medicine Mountain Range beyond the gates and began entering, believing they could reach the land of fortune.
• Disciples of Yellow Springs of Wrongful Death emerged from the Withered Graves and exchanged wary greetings about avoiding the danger.
• A Nine-Ghost cultivator returned to No-Dao Hall, judged the gates sinister, and arranged cleanup while deciding to wait for others to test them.
• A decree from one of the Five Elders urged cultivators to enter for possible fortune, and Wang Chunfeng entered the Demon Land World with his Sword Pellet spinning in his Purple Mansion Realm.

People entered countless strange worlds through light gates and discovered that escaping each world's confinement was a trial before they could enter the arena. Meanwhile, Lu Qing saw how contact with the Profound Heaven Dao Academy had brought new technology and a steady flow of disciples to the Dao Sect.

• Wang Chunfeng found a forest world with Red Dust Qi and spotted cooking smoke rising from a valley.
• Other entrants landed in radically different worlds, including a desert city steeped in Black Baleful Intent, a realm with nine suns, and worlds ruled by deities, demons, and other forces.
• Figures observing the entrants concluded that they had to break free from their worlds as a trial, while the Heavenly Demon figure refused to interfere with its trapped clan.
• Lu Qing opened a strand of spiritual light that displayed news after completing his breathing exercises.
• Lu Qing noted that closer ties between the Nine Heavens and the Heavenly Domain had enabled teleportation and spread the Dao Academy's cultivation tools among Dao Sect disciples.

Lu Qing read the Talisman Light’s reports about the gateways in the Four Lands, the Celestial Star Destiny, and the Dao Sect’s recruitment of talented disciples. He recognized that the sect was gathering promising cultivators to strengthen its Fate Allotment, and observed that its new arrivals possessed unusually strong providence.

• Lu Qing bought a Talisman Light and read messages shared across the Dao Sect’s expanding communication network.
• Disciples reported that Six Paths cultivators had entered gateways in the Four Lands, leaving some behind and cutting off news from those within.
• Lu Qing read reports that other Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands had gained opportunities from Celestial Stars and selected Star Lord Fate Allotment successors.
• Disciples discussed the Dao Sect accepting younger genius seeds from Minor Realms to strengthen its Fate Allotment against rival paths.
• Lu Qing observed that the new cultivators arriving at the Dao Sect all possessed providence of at least azure, with some reaching pale violet.

Lu Qing learned that a newly arrived Golden Core cultivator wanted to contend for his Spirit Plant steward position, and he sent a guarded response rather than leaving Sun-Moon Mountain. Months later, the challenger and his senior brother arrived and found that the mountain’s powerful formation seemed beyond what a First Golden Core Realm cultivator could establish.

• Lu Qing observed that the Dao Sect’s vast Fate Allotment weakened the Killing Tribulation within its mountain gates, though Tribulation Clouds beyond them continued to intensify.
• Hu Laozhang informed Lu Qing that a newly arrived Minor Realm Golden Core cultivator wanted to challenge him for the Spirit Plant steward position at Sun-Moon Mountain.
• Lu Qing sent a Talisman containing his power and Divine Sense, deciding to reveal some strength without rushing out to fight.
• Several months passed as Lu Qing cultivated in his Daoist Dojo while Hu Laozhang and the others tended to Sun-Moon Mountain.
• The challenger and his senior brother arrived above Sun-Moon Mountain and questioned whether its impressive Spirit-Gathering Formation could have been made by a First Golden Core Realm cultivator.

Lu Qing used a talisman to manifest his magical power at Sun-Moon Mountain, where Jing Xuan and Liu Cai had tried to claim the land. He bound them to guard the mountain and left his power there, while he sensed the situation from seclusion.

• Jing Xuan and Liu Cai challenged Hu Laozhang and the other stewards, but Hu Laozhang activated Lu Qing’s talisman and summoned an overwhelming aura.
• Lu Qing appeared through the talisman’s power and heard Jing Xuan and Liu Cai offer to guard Sun-Moon Mountain for three hundred years.
• Lu Qing collected their storage bags and bound them with a strand of Cause and Effect, then left his magical power stationed on the mountain.
• Liu Cai speculated that serving Lu Qing might benefit them, while Hu Laozhang introduced himself and the other stewards to the two newcomers.
• Lu Qing sensed the events at Sun-Moon Mountain from beneath a tree and decided that the power he had left there would prevent future problems.

Lu Qing discovered that his Dharma Power could form a controllable incarnation and resumed cultivating as the Great Tribulation drew most disciples away. At Sun-Moon Mountain, Jing Xuan and Liu Cai learned of his strength and status and decided to earn his favor, while more disciples from Minor Realms began eyeing positions in the Dao Sect.

• Lu Qing realized that his Divine Soul had reached the Eighth Golden Core Realm and that his Dharma Power incarnation could handle matters he could not attend to personally.
• Lu Qing concluded that the Great Tribulation gave him a chance to cultivate without interference and believed he could reach the Primordial Spirit Realm before Fate Allotment peaked.
• Jing Xuan and Liu Cai learned that Lu Qing was a powerful chief disciple and regretted having considered taking his deacon position.
• Liu Cai urged Jing Xuan to work seriously and seek Lu Qing's favor, and Jing Xuan agreed.
• More disciples brought from Minor Realms through Guidance began looking for Dao Sect positions that suited their cultivation and resources.

Lu Qing remained in seclusion while visitors who coveted his Spirit Plant steward position were turned away by his guards and the sect. During cultivation, he entered a profound state of mind and glimpsed the Dao rhythm within the flowing streams, sensing that his next step toward the eighth Golden Core realm required a flawless path.

• Jin Yu rejected applications from disciples seeking Lu Qing's Spirit Plant position, warning that they had not understood the situation.
• A failed Golden Core cultivator approached Sun-Moon Mountain, but Liu Cai and Jing Xuan stopped him and he left after learning they guarded the mountain for Lu Qing.
• Other visitors also gave up their claims to the position after learning Lu Qing was a chief disciple, and Sun-Moon Mountain returned to calm as its spirit rice grew more vigorous.
• Lu Qing cultivated for several more days and entered a state of profound mental clarity, watching repeating streams that seemed to embody truth and falsehood.
• Lu Qing realized the state was not the threshold of the eighth Golden Core realm and refused to let his mind fall into the streams, wary of compromising his complete foundation.
• Lu Qing used Qi-Seeking Divine Light to see that every droplet in the streams contained Dao rhythm and began glimpsing the nature of that realm.

Lu Qing recognized that the streams confronting him formed a Refine the Self, Seek the True Self mental barrier usually faced before the Primordial Spirit realm. He found the true path, broke through the barrier, and strengthened the true intent in his inner world as news from the Demon Land World finally spread outside.

• Lu Qing realized the streams were manifestations of his own Dao heart and identified the challenge as a Primordial Spirit mental barrier.
• Lu Qing distinguished his true cultivation path from the countless illusory streams and stood firm despite the doubts arising within his mind.
• Lu Qing broke through the barrier, stabilized at the eighth Golden Core realm, and gained another layer of true intent in his inner world.
• More than a month passed, and news from within the Demon Land World spread outside.

Cultivators entering the Demon Land World found themselves isolated in limited trial worlds and had to discover what would let them pass. In a desert city caught in a cycle of time, Wu Han chose to enter its past as a Divine Soul while his companions waited outside.

• A ghost cultivator trapped beneath nine blazing suns concluded that he had to challenge them before their heat destroyed him.
• Cultivators in different trial worlds tested their strange surroundings through force, observation, and attempts to understand the inhabitants.
• Wu Mu and Wu Han recognized the Desert Ancient City as a projection of the past, where mortals repeatedly lived and died before the city was buried in sand.
• Wu Han decided to enter the city's cycle as a Divine Soul and ordered the two elders to send him in, despite their warnings.
• Wang Chunfeng hesitated as he looked outside from the place where he had entered the trial.

Wang Chunfeng investigated a world divided between the New Dao and Old Dao and concluded that their conflict formed his trial. Across many worlds, cultivators faced trials suited to different paths, while the gateways began releasing the first entrants back into the outside world, where most quickly died.

• Wang Chunfeng listened to a teahouse argument and recognized the conflict between the New Dao and Old Dao as the likely focus of his trial.
• Wang Chunfeng considered whether to aid either Dao, then spent days observing their competing paths and their ties to the Primordial Golden Core Dao.
• Cultivators in other worlds faced trials ranging from rebuilding the Six Paths and restoring the Ghost Path to hunting demons, founding sects, and winning debates.
• More than a month after the trials began, Chaos Qi dispersed and figures emerged from the gateways above the Four Lands, but most died within moments.
• A cultivator with dual pupils saw the Demon Land World inside a gateway, and the discovery drew attention as information spread from the bodies of those who had died.

As the Demon Land World’s trials intensified turmoil and tribulations across the Nine Heavens, Lu Qing discovered that Zhang Meng'an carried a Four Symbols Azure Dragon Celestial Star Destiny. Zhang Meng'an left the Dao Sect to seek Tribulation Responders, while Lu Qing sensed a mysterious connection between the young geniuses’ destinies and Fate Allotment across heaven and earth.

• Reports about the Demon Land World spread through the Four Lands as tribulations, bloodshed, and deaths surged across the Immortal and Demonic Paths and the Four Seas.
• Lu Qing learned about Senior Brother Wang’s trial and considered the Demon Land World’s origins, its dangerous trials, and the high death rate among those who entered.
• Lu Qing recognized Zhang Meng'an as a bearer of Celestial Star Destiny and identified his Azure Dragon Divine Human destiny as Four Symbols rank.
• Lu Qing reasoned that providential geniuses needed to leave the Dao Sect and develop their potential rather than bring their growing tribulations upon the sect.
• Zhang Meng'an rode his Azure Bird past the Sword Lineage Dojo, agreed not to enter the Demon Land World yet, and set out to seek Tribulation Responders as his breakthrough neared.
• Lu Qing sensed a faint connection between Zhang Meng'an’s Celestial Star Destiny and a strand of Fate Allotment in the world.

Lu Qing sensed that Providence would soon reach a peak and felt a faint Karmic Affinity with a peerless Fate Allotment. Meanwhile, a mysterious Variable Fate arrived from Beyond the Heavens and entered Qin Yang, who awakened to cultivation after seeing an image preserved in a spiritual herb.

• Lu Qing sensed that Providence might reach its peak within roughly a dozen years and suspected that countless peerless geniuses would emerge.
• Lu Qing felt a faint connection to a Fate Allotment veiled by Heavenly Secrets and associated it with the Profound Heaven Domain.
• Months passed as news from the Demon Land World spread and Killing Intent appeared in more places.
• Qin Yang climbed down a cliff to collect a spiritual herb, then slipped and fell while holding it.
• A Heavenly Outer Profound Light entered the Nine Heavens as a Variable Fate, but no faction could locate it.
• Qin Yang saw a cultivation scene imprinted in the spiritual herb's Spiritual Resonance, said “Cultivation,” and his Fate Allotment produced boundless phenomena.