Chapter Summaries

Lu Qing reviewed the Profound Heaven Dao Sect’s recent reforms and the turmoil facing the other paths, then divined the sect’s past to understand how its great-family factions had been challenged. He saw that the sect had gained a new path forward, while the changes within it had unfolded without his involvement.

• Lu Qing considered how conflicts across the continents and among the Six Paths had left the Profound Heaven Dao Sect room to act against entrenched great-family strongholds.
• After catching up on the sect’s affairs during his three years in seclusion, Lu Qing divined the past and saw an image of a clear sun dispelling the night.
• Lu Qing recalled how challenges from great-family disciples had tested the sect before a Primordial Spirit devil interrupted the probing.
• Lu Qing reasoned that the Law Enforcement Head had acted decisively against the great families and that the Artifact Refining Head might also have come from one of them.
• Lu Qing saw that the sect’s Fate Allotment had changed and sensed that its internal transformation had continued without his participation.

Lu Qing returned to the Profound Heaven Dao Sect, used its Fate Allotment to arrange cultivation courses, and left an avatar to oversee the work. After departing again, he sensed that the events ahead would concern the Human Path.

• Lu Qing recognized the sect’s elders’ turn to the Demonic Path and set about addressing the sect’s affairs without taking on long-term responsibility.
• Lu Qing borrowed the Profound Heaven Bell’s Fate Allotment and established cultivation courses, completing the work in seven days.
• Lu Qing created an avatar to remain at the sect and oversee its affairs, then departed to return to his Dao field.
• The Profound Heaven Bell watched Lu Qing leave and saw Fu Huazi and White Crane Ancestor discussing his departure and the difficulty of earning Great Merit.
• Lu Qing sensed that the next events were tied to the Human Path.

After reaching the second step, Lu Qing left his Daoist Dojo to explore an Earth Realm emerging from the Dharma-Ending Age and study its Great Dao. He found a Son of Providence being pursued, chose not to interfere, and settled on a misty mountain peak.

• Lu Qing decided to avoid the growing turmoil around the Human Path and departed his Daoist Dojo after breaking through.
• Lu Qing examined an Earth Realm coordinate and sensed a world shifting from the Dharma-Ending Age toward a Great Era.
• Lu Qing entered the Earth Realm and saw a richly dressed young master pursuing a little thief whose golden Fate Allotment marked him as a Son of Providence.
• Lu Qing chose not to interfere with the pursuit and traveled across the land to seek a place for cultivation.
• Lu Qing settled on a mountain peak where mist and clouds gathered.

Lu Qing witnessed the Purple Radiance World emerge from the Dharma-Ending Age into a new Great Era, while tracing the hidden Reincarnation Great Dao and its connection to the Nether Sea. He left the chapter considering the Purple Radiance World as a place to comprehend Reincarnation.

• Lu Qing observed memories of the Dharma-Ending Age, when Spiritual Vitality withered, Immortals and local deities fell, and True Spirits continued circling heaven and earth.
• Lu Qing concluded that his presence had likely helped awaken the Mountain God's Millennium Banquet.
• Lu Qing watched the Purple Radiance World revive as Spiritual Vitality returned, decay receded, and sweet rain fell across the land.
• Lu Qing examined the Nether Sea, the Reincarnation aura, and a segment of the Azure River reflected in his Reincarnation World.
• Lu Qing considered the Purple Radiance World a promising place to comprehend Reincarnation, unlike the perilous Nether Sea.

Lu Qing studied a tributary of the Reincarnation Great Dao and used records and his own observations to examine reincarnation and different forms of possession. He sensed hidden abnormalities among possessed cultivators and True Spirits but chose not to investigate the Netherworld yet.

• Lu Qing discovered that the Azure River he had encountered was a tributary and focused on comprehending the Reincarnation Great Dao.
• Lu Qing considered how reincarnation, True Spirit rebirth, and True Spirit Awakening differed from possession, and reflected on the dangers posed by old-monster enemies.
• Lu Qing studied records in the Profound Heaven Dao Sect’s jade slips and identified three kinds of possession: taking a new body, merging Divine Souls, and secretly diverting another’s Dao Heart.
• Lu Qing observed cultivators whose bodies, Divine Souls, or Dao Hearts showed signs of possession, including cultivators who changed their paths after the Dharma-Ending Age ended.
• Lu Qing sensed dark and muddy auras linked to possessed cultivators, but he delayed exploring the region resembling the Netherworld and turned his attention to the True Spirits circling the heavens.

Lu Qing examined the Nether Domain’s incomplete Reincarnation and concluded that Possession could not truly steal Heavenly Lifespan, though it offered other benefits. After locating a Reincarnation Portal in the Purple Light Realm, he entered it and found a bleak, eerie region.

• Lu Qing observed that the Nether Domain trapped True Spirits in an incomplete Reincarnation and reasoned that its Possession Method could not extend Heavenly Lifespan.
• Lu Qing considered how Possession altered Destiny and inherited identity, while old monsters seeking more life could not escape their predestined ends.
• Lu Qing used records of Destiny changes after Possession to locate the Reincarnation he wanted to study.
• Lu Qing departed as the old ape recognized the mountain god’s aura and suspected his arrival was connected to the Millennium Banquet.
• Lu Qing found the Reincarnation Portal in a valley and entered the dim, desolate region beyond it.

Lu Qing entered the Reincarnation Nether Domain and examined its Azure River and the strange Reincarnation Dao cultivation practiced there. He discovered that ancient cultivators were gathering outside the entrance, hoping to enter Reincarnation before the Great Era began.

• Lu Qing surveyed the Nether Domain and found that its Azure River was the only sign of life amid the surrounding deathly stillness.
• Lu Qing judged the Reincarnation cultivators’ path to be crude and unsettling, with their Dao Hearts seemingly assimilated by the Great Dao.
• Lu Qing noticed the cultivators moving outside the Nether Domain’s entrance and faded from view.
• The Purple Light Realm cultivators discussed the Primordial Era and hoped Reincarnation would let them restart their cultivation as True Spirits.
• An old man warned that they needed to enter Reincarnation before Heaven’s Will awakened and the Great Era arrived.
• A black-robed cultivator reflected on how many of their companions had perished and feared the calamity that had destroyed the Immortals.

Lu Qing discovered that the Nether Domain’s Reincarnation River was incomplete and tainted by Primordial Era Tribulation Qi, making the old experts’ plan to reincarnate doomed. He sat down to study Reincarnation through his own Dao, while cultivators in the Nine Heavens watched a radiant thread of Fate Allotment.

• Lu Qing realized the old monsters intended to use the Reincarnation process to escape their fading lifespans and enter new bodies.
• Lu Qing examined the Azure River and saw that its apparent vitality concealed the dense aura of Reincarnation.
• Lu Qing found that someone had buried their Dao in the river, which was incomplete and tainted by Primordial Era Tribulation Qi.
• Lu Qing concluded that the old monsters’ attempt to use Reincarnation to evade Heaven’s Will and Heavenly Tribulation would fail.
• Lu Qing sat beside the river and studied the path through Reincarnation using his own Dao.
• The Nine Heavens cultivators looked toward their Fate Allotment and a radiant thread of Fate Allotment.

Lu Qing noticed a small group of Buddhist Cultivators traveling through the mountains toward Clearless Immortal City, while the emergence of Humanity Fate Allotment stirred speculation across the Nine Heavens. The Buddhist group reached the city gate, where their arrival drew a crowd before the Immortal City Enforcement Team dispersed it.

• Cultivators across the Nine Heavens discussed the reappearance of Humanity Fate Allotment and speculated about the coming Human Emperor and the Human Path’s influence.
• Lu Qing, stationed in Clearless Immortal City as his Red Dust Avatar, glimpsed a fleeting Buddha Light over the West Sea.
• Lu Qing spotted an elderly Buddhist monk and several young Buddhist Cultivators walking along a mountain road, then let them pass without intervening.
• Several decades later, the Buddhist Cultivators appeared near Clearless Immortal City’s gate, surprising local residents and Cultivators.
• The Immortal City Enforcement Team arrived and dispersed the people gathered to watch the Buddhist Cultivators.

Lu Qing observed a Buddhist monk and his young disciple settling in Immortal City, then examined a damaged branch of Reincarnation in the Purple Light Realm. He watched True Spirits attempting to reincarnate get crushed by the River and began tracing the Reincarnation Dao through the past.

• A lead law-enforcement cultivator calmed the commotion as an old Buddhist monk and his young disciple arrived in Immortal City.
• The young disciple asked whether they would find Buddhist Law One-Line Heaven, and the old monk said they would settle in the city while seeking their own Buddhist Law.
• Lu Qing observed the monk’s hardship-tempered Buddha Light and found no Destiny connection between their Buddhist Affinities.
• Lu Qing watched True Spirits enter the Reincarnation Portal and get crushed by the River before they could carry their former wisdom into new lives.
• Lu Qing examined the Azure River’s origins and traced the present and past of its Reincarnation Dao into a single thread.

Lu Qing examined the Reincarnation River and witnessed the lives of cultivators who had tried to comprehend its Dao. He saw that the latest practitioners had been separated by three thousand years and learned why one predecessor had abandoned cultivation for an ordinary life before dying in a flood.

• Lu Qing observed that the Reincarnation River contained traces of many cultivators and that its latest practitioner had appeared three thousand years earlier, when a great Tribulation had struck the Nine Heavens.
• Lu Qing watched the latest practitioner return to the Reincarnation Nether Domain, pursue the path of Immortals through Reincarnation, and finally throw himself into the river in despair.
• Lu Qing saw another predecessor, a cultivator who had nearly returned to simplicity, living as a farmer in a small courtyard three thousand years ago.
• The farmer's ordinary Fate Allotment led to his death in a flood, but a thread of divine light revived his True Spirit, which revealed that he had failed to comprehend Reincarnation because entering it meant risking true death.

Lu Qing traced the dangers and history of the Reincarnation Dao, discovering links between the Reincarnation River and the Seeking Dao Immortal Cauldron. He then reshaped his Netherworld with a new principle: Reincarnation must have order and law.

• Lu Qing sensed that entering Reincarnation carried hidden dangers and saw a predecessor undergo Dao Transformation.
• Lu Qing found that the Reincarnation River had been disrupted in the Primordial Era and connected its missing section to the Seeking Dao Immortal Cauldron.
• Lu Qing concluded that predecessors had mastered the Reincarnation Dao and resolved to keep comprehending it.
• Lu Qing infused his Netherworld with a cold, merciless will and declared that his Reincarnation must have order and law.

Lu Qing pondered the Reincarnation Great Dao’s links to the Primordial Era and the hidden forces pursuing Humanity Fate Allotment, while changes in that Fate Allotment stirred the Nine Heavens. In the Outer Void, a White Marsh searched for the Human Path’s core and wondered where the Son of the Human Emperor was.

• Lu Qing connected the Reincarnation River to Nine-Nether and recalled that reincarnation might explain how the Void Ground’s old monsters evaded time and Heavenly Retribution.
• Lu Qing’s incarnation observed Buddhist cultivators settling in an Immortal City, while he continued his cultivation without concern.
• Humanity Fate Allotment emerged across the Nine Heavens, prompting cultivators to divine its meaning and consider the Human Path’s future.
• A White Marsh in the Outer Void failed to locate the core of Humanity Fate Allotment within the Nine Heavens and suspected it lay in a Variable Fate beyond them.
• The White Marsh used its Qi-Reading Meridian-Determining Divine Ability to seek the Son of the Human Emperor.

White Marsh sensed the Son of the Human Emperor’s Fate Allotment and set out to find its bearer, fearing that the chosen person might not survive the perilous road ahead. Meanwhile, Lu Qing examined the River of Time and its inherited cultivation insights, then decided to avoid Reincarnation until before Dao Inquiry.

• White Marsh detected the Human Emperor Fate Allotment and reasoned that the Son of the Human Emperor was unlikely to appear in the Nine Heavens.
• White Marsh followed the thread of Cause and Effect and Fate Allotment toward the person it had sensed.
• Lu Qing discovered that the Dao Rhyme left by several Reincarnation Dao practitioners concealed pitfalls that had led later cultivators astray.
• Lu Qing resolved to avoid the eerie Void Ground until he reached Dao Inquiry.
• Lu Qing concluded that entering Reincarnation was extremely dangerous and planned to do so before Dao Inquiry.

Lu Qing purified the lingering obsessions in the Reincarnation River and considered how the Human Path’s resurgence might shape the Heaven-Earth Grand Trend. After White Marsh passed through the Earth Realm on its journey toward the Human Path’s core, Lu Qing left and looked back at the realm’s faint purple radiance from Beyond the Heavens.

• Lu Qing drew Dao Rhymes from the Reincarnation River, dissolved its inherited traps, and purified the traces of lingering obsession.
• Lu Qing sensed the current White Marsh passing through Beyond the Heavens and inferred that its destination held the core of the Human Path’s Fate Allotment.
• Lu Qing considered how the Human Path’s transformations could echo through the Heaven-Earth Grand Trend and chose not to involve himself in its weighty Cause and Effect.
• White Marsh noticed a faint trace of purple qi in the Earth Realm, then continued along its water path through Beyond the Heavens.
• Lu Qing entered Beyond the Heavens and looked back at the Earth Realm, which glimmered faintly against the void.

Lu Qing left the Earth Realm beyond the Nine Heavens after sensing Heaven’s Will and learning of the Reincarnation River and the dangers of the Cultivation Tribulation. He returned to Daoist Dojo Mountain as winter snow covered Dajing, where he sensed that the auspicious snowfall had dispersed some Tribulation Qi and foretold a good year.

• Lu Qing sensed a trace of Heaven’s Will in the Purple Radiance, declined its guidance to another world, and departed the Earth Realm.
• Lu Qing reflected on the Reincarnation River, the Cultivation Tribulation, and the dangers of becoming lost in Time Rifts and Temporal Illusions beyond the heavens.
• Lu Qing crossed the River of Time without disturbing the worlds of the Nine Heavens and returned beside the Star Tree atop Dao Field Mountain.
• Lu Qing saw the year-end celebrations and heavy snowfall across Dajing and his Daoist Dojo.
• Lu Qing sensed that the timely auspicious snow had dispersed some Tribulation Qi and foretold a good year.

A rare snowfall eased the Tribulation Cycle’s turbulence and deepened Lu Qing’s insights into Reincarnation and the Mortal World. When he visited Li Luoyang to ask about the Reincarnation Nether Sea, his Master sent him to receive an elder whose arrival seemed connected to that very matter.

• A great snowfall spread across the continents, briefly calming the Tribulation Cycle and stirring Lu Qing’s Red Dust Avatar’s cultivation insights.
• Lu Qing considered Reincarnation’s hidden authority, his own Dao Tribulation, and the possibility that senior cultivators knew more about the path.
• After judging the timing favorable, Lu Qing went to the Sword Lineage Dojo and found that several of his fellow direct disciples were away.
• Li Luoyang sensed that Lu Qing had encountered an obstruction in cultivation, then told him an elder had arrived and sent him to meet the visitor.

Lu Qing received Qing Yazi, a returning patriarch from the Primordial Era, and brought him to the Dao Sect, where the chief seats welcomed him. Qing Yazi agreed to guide Lu Qing and lecture on the Dao for three days, then asked which disciple was the current Dao Child.

• Lu Qing met Qing Yazi, who arrived on a White Deer and revealed himself as Lu Qing’s patriarch.
• Qing Yazi gave Lu Qing the Innate True Rhyme Sea-Heaven Qi and went with him to the Daoist Dojo.
• The chief seats welcomed Qing Yazi and explained that he had returned to see the sect and its disciples.
• Qing Yazi agreed to guide Lu Qing for three days and lecture on the Dao.
• Qing Yazi asked the chief seats who the current Dao Child was, and their expressions changed.

Qing Yazi returned from another era, summoned Lu Qing, and discussed the coming Human Path Tribulation with the Profound Heaven Dao Sect’s Chiefs. He then began explaining Reincarnation’s past, revealing that it once had a master.

• Qing Yazi departed with Lu Qing while the Chiefs discussed how the returning elder had crossed the Long River of Time.
• Fu Huazi warned that a new Tribulation could involve the Human Path and that the Dao Sect might emerge during it.
• Fu Huazi revealed a divination of someone obscured by ignorance, and Zhang Qingyun agreed to seek and awaken that person.
• Qing Yazi told Lu Qing that Reincarnation had once had a master and that some cultivators sought to control it as Nine-Nether Reincarnation.

Qing Yazi explained how the Primordial Fangxian Reincarnation faction entered Nine-Nether and became trapped, and Lu Qing recognized that the present Nether Sea offered a new chance to pursue Reincarnation. Before Lu Qing left, Qing Yazi gave him the Grindstone, whose vision showed Tribulation destroying realms and mysterious Immortals fading into the River of Time.

• Qing Yazi told Lu Qing that Fangxian Reincarnation had sought to enter Nine-Nether, succeeded only to become trapped there, and later pursued Reincarnation Authority.
• Lu Qing understood that the Reincarnation of the present era differed from the past and resolved to continue cultivating its Dao despite the risks.
• Qing Yazi gave Lu Qing a square wooden box containing the Grindstone as a means to temper his Dao Heart.
• Lu Qing saw visions of Tribulation destroying realms, Hong Guang and mysterious Immortals appearing in the River of Time, and a Great Realm's core drifting away.