Chapter Summaries

Yue Youya emerged from Heart-Questioning Mountain Cliff to find the sect transformed and no one waiting to receive him. Meanwhile, Lu Qing returned to the Ninefold Heaven and traced the stirring fortune of the Northern Heaven Continent before entering the Long River of Time to investigate the origins of the coming variable.

• Yue Youya emerged from Heart-Questioning Mountain Cliff, while a young disciple considered his troubled standing in the sect.
• Elder Chen and the other elders discussed Yue Youya's return and the growing influence of the Profound Heaven Dao Academy in the Heavenly Domain.
• Lu Qing returned to the Ninefold Heaven, where Dao Lord Dumi sensed the heavens respond to his arrival.
• Dao Lord Dumi noticed fortune swelling on the Heavenly Net Chessboard around the Northern Heaven Continent and considered the region's competing powers.
• Lu Qing returned to his empty Heaven of Ice and Frost Dao field, then walked to the Long River of Time to search the past for signs of the coming variable.

Lu Qing examined the changing Nine Heavens and its destiny, then sent an avatar to the Northern Heaven Continent to investigate a possible future variable. At a banquet for geniuses in the Longevity Dao, the avatar heard that the ancient Devil Master’s Great Dao had revived.

• Lu Qing glimpsed the Nine Heavens’ past and sensed that a future variable was likely connected to reincarnation.
• Lu Qing chose to remain in the river of time, cultivating and waiting for future heavenly secrets to arrive.
• Lu Qing sent a specially forged genius avatar to the Northern Heaven Continent, where it entered the Longevity Dao.
• Lu Qing’s avatar visited the Longevity Immortal Tower and observed the fortunes of the gathered geniuses.
• Lu Qing’s avatar overheard diners say that the ancient Devil Master’s Great Dao had revived.

Lu Qing’s incarnation learned that the Devil Master’s Great Dao was reviving in the Demon Domain and chose the name Bifang as he entered the age of upheaval. In the Long River of Time, Lu Qing and the Incense Dao Master recognized that a wind of change had risen in the present, five hundred years after Lu Qing’s past era.

• Brother Qin told the gathered cultivators that the Devil Master’s Great Dao had revived in the Demon Domain and that signs of Demonic Path fortune had appeared.
• Lu Qing saw that Brother Qin had life-and-death karmic ties to another cultivator’s fortune and decided to use the turmoil to study Heaven’s will through his incarnation.
• Lu Qing’s incarnation chose the name Bifang and observed demonic qi surging in the northern lands as the ancient era approached.
• In the Long River of Time, Lu Qing watched a strange wind pause in the present, five hundred years beyond his position in the past.
• The Incense Dao Master asked Lu Qing about the changes, and Lu Qing told him that a wind had risen in the present.

Lu Qing watched the changes stirring across the Long River of Time while the present age began to shift. In the Heaven of Universe, Human Path cultivators settled into the West Sea, but new sect missions and news of the Devil Master’s awakening drew attention to the Demon Domain.

• The Incense Fire Dao Master accepted Lu Qing’s assurance that he was overseeing the past, then descended into the lower reaches of the Long River of Time.
• Lu Qing watched change ripple through the present age and examined the Demonic Path’s vast fortune across the river.
• Human Path cultivators gathered in the West Sea, where their cultivation and Inheritance Grounds remained barely intact despite pressure from heaven and earth.
• Cultivators discussed Human Path cultivation and the Sons of the Human Emperor, learning that the Human Emperor who attained the Dao would come from among them.
• The Profound Heaven Dao Sect and other great sect lineages issued new missions concerning the Demon Domain, and a cultivator announced that the Devil Master had awakened.

Cultivators across the Nine Heavens discussed rumors that the Devil Master's Great Dao had revived as Strange Gate Temple opened a passage to the Demon Domain. The powerful figures watching the gate recognized it as an ancient Demon Domain from another era and connected its arrival to a world-shaking variable.

• Cultivators debated whether the Devil Master had truly revived, with rumors suggesting only his Great Dao had appeared in the Demon Domain.
• The gate in the West Sea opened a passage revealing the Demon Domain and released a tyrannical aura of the Demon Race.
• Powerful figures recognized that the world beyond the gate belonged to another era and suspected it was the unprecedented variable foretold by their ancestors.
• Dao Masters gathered around the Heavenly Net Chessboard and identified the arriving era as the Demon Sect Ascendancy Era.
• The Dao Masters recalled the first two Devil Masters and agreed that they should not interfere with the variable.

Lu Qing’s Bifang avatar learned that a gateway in the West Sea had opened onto the ancient Demon Domain and sensed a trace of foreign fortune there. The chapter left him wondering which cultivators would emerge from the Strange Gate Temple.

• Bifang befriended the young geniuses around Brother Qin while observing the strange rises and falls in Brother Qin’s fate.
• Qi Fangming told Bifang that a world resembling the Demon Domain had appeared beyond a gateway in the West Sea.
• Qi Fangming said rumors described the world as the ancient Demon Domain from another Long River of Time.
• Bifang wondered whether anyone could pass through the gateway from the ancient world into the present.
• Bifang sensed foreign fortune amid humanity’s fortune in the West Sea and wondered which faction would emerge from the Strange Gate Temple.

Cultivators debated whether the Strange Gate Temple’s newly revealed world and the Devil Master’s Great Dao indicated his revival or an inheritance, comparing the signs to the Divine Lord’s dojo. Lu Qing watched the Era of Variables unfold through heavenly secrets and noticed tribulation gathering around Bifang’s incarnation, while the chapter left the Dao Sect’s ancient origins and coming upheavals unexplored.

• Cultivators on Floating Light speculated that the Demon Domain’s new world and the Devil Master’s manifested Great Dao pointed to an inheritance rather than the Devil Master’s revival.
• The discussion turned to the Divine Lord’s dojo and the All-Immortal Gate’s inheritance, whose trials had yielded little for known prodigies.
• Bifang’s incarnation used a Floating Light talisman to glimpse future fortune and saw tribulation aura staining the strands of fate above him.
• Lu Qing observed that variables had clouded heavenly secrets and that unseen forces had entered the world beyond the gate and the Demon Domain.
• Lu Qing sensed the Dao Sect’s sword Dao and restriction formations, then recalled that its inheritance had begun with a patriarch who came from beyond heaven.

Lu Qing sensed that the Demonic Path’s hidden Five Elders might no longer share the same Dao as other cultivators, and he resolved to prepare beyond relying on Variable Fate or heavenly-secret deductions. As Variable Fate began to approach, the scene shifted to the Strange Gate Temple in the West Sea.

• Lu Qing observed the Demonic Path’s Providence and considered the influence of the Five Elders, whose presence remained concealed from his sight.
• Lu Qing saw that some Great Daos merged into voidness and connected this to warnings about Dao Companions who might no longer be fellow travelers.
• Lu Qing decided to make his own preparations and not entrust his cultivation or escape entirely to Variable Fate and the Heavenly Net Chessboard.
• Lu Qing let his Dao aura spread into the Time Tributary and continued his cultivation while his incarnations traveled through the Nine Heavens.
• Variable Fate began to arrive like the first droplets before a storm, and the scene turned to the Strange Gate Temple in the West Sea.

A gateway opened above the ancient Demon Domain, drawing the attention of demons and cultivators who recognized its Divine Path aura and questioned its connection to the future. Meanwhile, the Supreme Unity Immortal Court recorded a vision of lightning and purifying fire, prompting the Divine Firmament Thunder Jade Slip to urge its young charge to seize an opportunity in the Windfire Lightning Pool and leave Eastern Heaven Continent.

• A mountain-patrolling little demon saw a gateway appear over Black Mountain and feared an attack, while other demons recognized the Divine Path aura.
• Ancient great demons discussed whether the gateway was the future variable they had foreseen and whether they should enter it.
• Cultivators gathered near the West Sea gateway and speculated about its ancient Demon Domain and the Devil Master's revival.
• A duty immortal official recorded a vision of lightning and purifying fire in the Supreme Unity Immortal Court's Heavenwatch Tower.
• The Divine Firmament Thunder Jade Slip warned its young charge that Immortal Court heavenwatching could reveal him and told him to seize the Windfire Lightning Pool opportunity before leaving Eastern Heaven Continent.

Ancient Heavenly Secret sensed that a time-shaking upheaval was approaching and foresaw the Eastern Heaven Continent becoming a land of troubles. A dormant ancestor of the Li Clan awakened long enough to order its descendants to find and protect a figure hidden in bloodlight.

• Ancient Heavenly Secret reflected that the Devil Master might return from the river of time as part of a brewing upheaval, and that its own calculations had become unreliable.
• Ancient Heavenly Secret sensed bloody rain gathering over the Eastern Heaven Continent and concluded that the region would become a land of troubles.
• A coffin thudded in the Li Clan’s forbidden rear mountain, and the startled gravekeeper summoned the clan’s powerful cultivators and ancestral elders.
• The awakened ancestor sent the Li Clan a bloodlit vision and commanded them to find someone and protect that person’s Dao.
• The Li Clan elders debated who should go, whether to recruit the figure, and whether the bloodlight meant the person would bring calamity upon them.

Several clans discussed finding and guarding a person amid rumors of ancient inheritances, while Old Ghost of Formations discovered a tomb linked to the Ancient Demon Sect’s second Devil Master, Longevity. After Longevity’s presence called for later generations to return, strange movements stirred the Demon Domain’s fate in the northern Nine Heavens.

• Members of an aristocratic clan agreed to seek a diviner before finding the person their ancestor had ordered them to guard.
• Old Ghost of Formations escaped from underground into a vast graveyard and began reading the inscription on its lone gravestone.
• Old Ghost recognized the blurred Dao name Longevity as the Ancient Demon Sect’s second Devil Master and knelt to beg forgiveness.
• A manifestation of Longevity told later generations to return, and Old Ghost felt a terrifying presence use his eyes to be born anew.
• In the northern Nine Heavens, violent winds, thunderclouds, and lightning gathered as a vast tide of fortune in the Demon Domain began to stir.

Lu Qing observed the ancient era beginning amid the Demon Sect’s rising fortunes and the Devil Master’s Great Dao stirring again. He recognized the Demon Sect’s hidden safeguard and anticipated that the return of ancient ancestors would make the coming age more turbulent and unpredictable.

• Cultivators across the world were jolted awake by heavenly lightning and suffered backlash when they glimpsed a savage Great Dao taking shape.
• Lu Qing watched opposing camps place pieces and alter threads of fate while concealing their schemes behind outward calm.
• Lu Qing examined the Demon Domain and saw the Devil Master’s Great Dao stirring near a hidden space containing the black-robed old man.
• Lu Qing recognized the black-robed old man’s severed karmic trace as an extraordinary method and concluded that the Demon Sect’s backup plan had emerged.
• Lu Qing judged that the ancient era had arrived and that the returning supreme beings could make the world’s upheavals more unpredictable.
• A hazy figure on a high platform observed that the ancient era coincided with the Demon Sect’s first rise, when the fortunes of all paths stood in balance.

Lu Qing watched the Dao Masters agree to leave the Heavenly Net Chessboard’s game to living beings until the supreme immortals arrived. They established a Dao Pact that calmed the world’s turbulent fate, and Lu Qing noticed that the clearer board revealed a hidden connection to another matter.

• The Dao Masters discussed the Demon Sect’s rise and agreed not to interfere in the game before the supreme immortals arrived.
• The Dao Masters, including Lu Qing, sent down their Great Dao Pacts and bound their promise to heaven and earth.
• The Heavenly Net Chessboard’s chaotic fate settled, and Lu Qing saw that the cleared board revealed something previously hidden.
• Several Dao Masters departed after the pact was made, while Lu Qing decided his true body did not need to enter the game yet.

The Dao Pact spread through the Dao Lords’ domains, and the Five Elders of the Demonic Path joined it despite one elder’s scorn. Across the world, sects began searching for a young cultivator in azure robes as the pact changed how people sensed the Great Dao and heavenly secrets.

• The Five Elders of the Demonic Path examined the Dao Pact and discussed how ancient prophecies had largely come to pass.
• One of the Five Elders mocked the pact, but the Five Elders entered it as the Demonic Path’s aura descended.
• Cultivators across the West Sea and the north received orders from their sects and clans to find a young cultivator in azure robes.
• Veteran powerhouses sensed relief as the oppressive presence of the Dao Lords diminished and the heavenly secrets became less chaotic.
• Some cultivators found the Great Dao they comprehended had become more obscure.

Lu Qing watched the Dao Masters withdraw from the present age and reached the end of his own Dao path, then took part in a Profound Heaven Dao Sect assembly as new disturbances emerged across the Nine Heavens. The chapter left the sect considering reports of ancient ferocious beasts stirring in the Southern Sea.

• The Dao Masters returned to their Dao grounds under an unspoken pact, while Lu Qing remained in the Long River of Time and judged the ancient-era variable had arrived.
• Lu Qing found that his Dao path had ended in a vast emptiness, then examined the figures of his master and the Profound Heaven Dao Sect's sect master in seclusion.
• Lu Qing reviewed affairs at a major assembly of the Profound Heaven Dao Sect as elders reported new spatial rifts and other consequences of changes in heaven and earth.
• A disciple reported that new varieties of ferocious beasts had appeared in the Southern Sea, and Lu Qing recognized an aura of time in them as the assembly viewed their recorded rampage.

Lu Qing attended a Dao Sect court deliberation where the disciples discussed the Southern Sea Fierce Beasts, pioneering newly discovered worlds, the West Sea, and the Demon Sect. The Law Enforcement Lineage took charge of the Fierce Beasts, while Lu Qing considered how new territories might hold Variable Fates.

• Clan Master True Person explained that the Fierce Beasts came from the savage ancient times and possessed a trace of Dao essence, prompting several Peak Masters to call for their eradication.
• Chief Jiang assigned the matter of the Southern Sea's Fierce Beasts to the Law Enforcement Lineage, and Lu Qing judged that their appearance was part of Variable Fate.
• Lu Qing reviewed Jade Slips about the Ancient Era's effects and considered sending his True Name incarnation to newly discovered territories in search of Variable Fates.
• The assembly decided to let matters in the West Sea proceed as usual and briefly discussed the Demon Sect's resurgence.
• Bai Changshou and Liao Bufan sorted messages arriving from Beyond the Heavens and submitted them to the Council Hall.

Qingxuan accepted a mission to travel from Li Mountain to the dangerous Demon Domain, believing the clearer Heavenly Secrets left room for fortunes with fewer schemes. Bai Changshou examined the Nine Heavens Hidden Dragon Ranking and found unfamiliar ranked cultivators linked to ancient lineages thought to have vanished.

• Qingxuan handed Bai Changshou a jade slip for a Demon Domain mission, and Liao Bufan agreed to accept it for him.
• After Qingxuan departed, Bai Changshou and Liao Bufan discussed the Hidden Dragon Ranking and opened it through Floating Light.
• Bai Changshou saw that Ye Kong remained first while other positions had shifted and unfamiliar names had appeared.
• Bai Changshou recognized Gao Mingsheng, Xu Yun, and Green Robe as inheritors of ancient sects and lineages long thought lost.

Bai Changshou and Liao Bufan discussed how the arrival of the Ancient Era had brought ancient geniuses onto the present-day Hidden Dragon Ranking. As the heavenly secrets cleared, cultivators began investigating the new variable and its gathering momentum, while some noticed a sect appearing unexpectedly.

• Liao Bufan told Bai Changshou that the Ancient Era was likely behind the new names on the Hidden Dragon Ranking.
• Bai Changshou and Liao Bufan discussed the challenge ancient geniuses posed to cultivators of the current age and the Dao Lords' withdrawal to the Ninth Heaven.
• Cultivators who studied heavenly secrets calculated that the Golden Jade Ruyi Tower, Heavenly Brow Mountain, and the All-Immortal Gate were great sects from ancient times.
• As the heavenly secrets became clearer, some cultivators sought opportunities and fortunes revealed by the changes.
• Figures watching the chessboard observed the Ancient Era's momentum gathering, while old cultivators wondered how a sect had suddenly appeared.

An old cultivator followed a heavenly omen to the Golden Jade Ruyi Tower and realized he had entered a real ancient sect territory rather than an illusion. As reports spread that ancient sects and cultivators were appearing across the Earth Continent, he suspected the mysterious new regions were where these lineages had emerged.

• The old cultivator found the Golden Jade Ruyi Tower where there had previously been only emerald mountains, and his compass broke as he approached it.
• A cultivator invited him to attend the Ruyi Feast, and the old cultivator recognized the man’s emblem as belonging to Heavenly Brow Mountain.
• The old cultivator entered the tower and heard cultivators discussing strange regions that some believed were mirages, while he wondered whether the Nine Heavens world was being mistaken for one.
• He conjectured that the new mysterious regions might contain ancient sect lineages such as Heavenly Brow Mountain and the All-Immortal Gate.
• Cultivators on Floating Light debated the sudden appearance of ancient sect successors and recognized one Heavenly Brow Mountain figure as a genius from an earlier era.

Ancient Era cultivators and sects appeared as variables in the present world, intensifying competition across the rankings. Ancient demons found the passage to the present cost them their lifespans, while other factions considered whether the newcomers offered a path to Longevity.

• The appearance of Ancient Era cultivators on the rankings led people across Floating Light to wonder how the new variables would affect the Nine Heavens cultivation world.
• Ancient Era sects, including Golden Jade Ruyi Tower, Heavenly Brow Mountain, All-Immortal Gate, and the ancient Spirit Palace, appeared throughout the worlds.
• Ancient demons tried to cross the gateway from the Demon Domain but found that passing through time rapidly drained their lifespans.
• Divine Path deities lamented that their supreme treasure had occupied one variable and recalled that great Dao Lords would not intervene in this round.
• Observers watching the Demon Domain discussed whether the Ancient Era cultivators' long lifespans could offer them a chance at Longevity.