Chapter Summaries

After the Providence Rain, Xiang Qingshan and Chen Huan examined the gains and karmic debts they had received. Xiang Qingshan discovered that he would need to guide someone into the Dao, while Chen Huan realized the Ghost Path genius whose Providence he claimed had been born through Cause and Effect and died because of it.

• Xiang Qingshan awakened to find his Inner World revitalized by the Providence Rain and gained the Palm Moon-Viewing Method.
• Xiang Qingshan used his new Divine Ability to see that he had inherited a Cause and Effect requiring him to guide someone into the Dao.
• Chen Huan left the crowded Peace Mountain area after obtaining a strand of central-core Providence and began refining it.
• Chen Huan used his fortune-telling art to view fragments of the Ghost Path genius’s life, including the genius’s death and an enraged ghostly hand.
• Chen Huan realized the genius had been made and undone by Cause and Effect, but concluded that his own cultivation foundations would keep the inherited Cause and Effect from undoing him.

After refining the Ghost Path genius’s Heaven’s Will Providence, he determined that he needed to protect the genius through one Tribulation, though he could not discover why the genius had fallen. Meanwhile, Bifang traveled through an ancient region and passed unseen by cautious cultivators who glimpsed his vast providential phenomenon.

• He calculated that he had to protect the Ghost Path genius through one Tribulation to repay the karmic debt from refining the genius’s Providence.
• He considered whether the genius’s downfall was caused by their strand of Cause and Effect, but his further deduction revealed nothing.
• He glimpsed what seemed to be a colossal phenomenon of providential clouds, then doubted what he had seen when the sky appeared clear.
• Bifang noticed the cautious cultivators in the area, most of them Dreamland Guides who had obtained Providence.
• Bifang traveled onward through the demon-qi-filled ancient region and sensed the deep imprint of the demon lord’s Dao.

Bifang assessed the upheaval surrounding Ghost Mountain and concluded that the merging Second Cultivation World would bring a major crisis within three to five days. At Ghost Mountain, suspicious possessed bodies arrived as cultivators gathered to watch.

• Bifang sensed a Dao Lord's Energy Flow and considered how the ancient powerhouses and other Dao Lords might avoid fighting in Nine Heavens.
• Bifang watched the Second Cultivation World gradually merge with Nine Heavens and predicted that the upheaval would unfold within three to five days.
• Bifang connected Ghost Mountain's danger to Ghost Vine and the Longevity Devil Master's Great Dao, and foresaw that many cultivators would die.
• Three pale, soulless figures descended near Ghost Mountain, and demonic fiends whispered that the reincarnated bodies had likely been possessed.

A Demonic Cultivator watched the strange figures near Ghost Mountain and suspected their crude body-seizure appearances concealed a greater danger. The Night of Ageless Longevity descended, drawing Black Mountain and ancient Great Dao figures into a coffin before the darkness receded and left the region flattened into wilderness.

• A Demonic Cultivator reported his suspicions to the Skin-Painting Demon Sect, which told him to keep observing.
• Three pale, hollow figures arrived, and the Ghost Vine raised a tomb with a coffin above it.
• The three figures slipped into the coffin as darkness swallowed Ghost Mountain and stripped away the cultivators’ senses.
• The Demonic Cultivator crushed his Jade Token as the Night of Ageless Longevity descended over Black Mountain.
• Ancient beings crossed over and were dragged into the coffin along with Black Mountain and their Great Dao figures.
• The darkness was confined to Black Mountain, then receded and left the Demon Domain’s region leveled into wilderness.

Bifang and the Dao Lords learned that Ghost Mountain had vanished and the Longevity Devil Master's Great Dao had failed to descend, though a thread of vitality survived beyond their cosmos. As the Second Cultivation Realm emerged as a new arena for the coming age of Variable Fate, Dao Lord Calamity-Crossing sent Cloud Boy to assist his senior brother in the lower realm.

• Bifang sensed that Ghost Mountain had disappeared and that the coffin containing the Devil Master's Great Dao had failed to descend.
• Fu Huazi explained that a thread of the Great Dao's vitality remained within the tribulation, and Lu Qing sensed a new opportunity forming in the Boundary Sea Beyond the Heavens.
• Dao Lord Calamity-Crossing learned of events in the lower realm and ordered Cloud Boy to help his senior brother undergo a trial.
• The Six Paths' factions spread news of the Second Cultivation Realm, which they had built as a place for future Dharma Combat and cultivation.
• The Dao Lords inferred that the Devil Master's surviving vitality had entered another cosmos, while cultivators near Ghost Mountain felt an overwhelming terror without knowing what had happened.

After Ghost Mountain vanished and the surrounding wilderness was flattened, cultivators in Floating Light debated whether the vanished Longevity Devil Master's Dao had been bait and what had happened to those who visited. Reports said the visitors’ Soul Flames still flickered despite divinations showing them dead, while observers elsewhere wondered at the claim that the mountain and Great Dao would never appear again.

• An elderly cultivator looked over the vanished Ghost Mountain and said that Longevity had been bait.
• Cultivators in Floating Light discussed Ghost Mountain’s disappearance, the missing visitors, and the Devil Master's Reincarnation.
• Insiders reported that the visitors’ Soul Flames had not gone out, though divination indicated they were dead, prompting speculation that they had obtained Longevity.
• A supposed informant said the Black Mountain and its Great Dao would not appear again, causing an uproar in Floating Light.
• An old man in a palace wondered whether one of Heaven’s forty-nine evolutions had escaped.
• A figure in Golden Jade Ruyi Tower read the messages and remarked that the vanished people were no longer in this world.

Golden Jade Ruyi Tower’s elders considered the weakened threat of the Ancient Era and learned of the Second Cultivation Realm, a virtual world where cultivators could practice without truly dying. The chapter ended with the elders agreeing that their sect should participate and guide its young disciples.

• Senior Brother Chen encouraged Golden Jade Ruyi Tower’s elders not to despair after the Great Tribulation, noting that the future remained uncertain.
• An elder revealed a Floating Light carrying the aura of Nine Heavens Mountains and Seas and explained that it would open into a Second Cultivation Realm within three to five days.
• The elders learned that cultivators could practice and debate the Dao inside the realm without truly dying or suffering the usual costs of cultivation.
• Golden Jade Ruyi Tower’s elders agreed that their sect should participate so they could guide their disciples and learn from the cultivation methods of later generations.

Primordial sects discussed the Second Cultivation Realm and its potential to advance cultivation, while the Realm spread across the Nine Heavens and the Boundary Sea. After it appeared, cultivators began preparing to enter and seek enlightenment, and Dreamland Guidance cultivators returned to Dreamland to exchange information.

• Primordial sects received messages about the Second Cultivation Realm and debated its mysteries, risks, and promise for passing down their Dao.
• Cultivators in Floating Light speculated about how the Second Cultivation Realm would work and learned that it was evolving the Three Thousand Great Daos to give rise to Half-Step Dao Potential.
• After several days, Merit Golden Clouds gathered as the Second Cultivation Realm spread across the Nine Heavens, the Outer Void, and the Boundary Sea.
• Figures across the Nine Heavens considered entering the Realm to seek enlightenment and turn Half-Step Dao Potential into One-Step Dao Potential.
• In the Demon Domain, Dreamland Guidance cultivators completed their missions and entered Dreamland to submit them, exchange intelligence, and trade cultivation materials.

Dreamland Guides gathered to discuss the approaching Second Cultivation Realm, and one attendee shared detailed information about its safety and benefits for cultivation. The Mountains and Seas Realm then officially descended, reshaping the heavenly secrets.

• Dreamland Guides asked whether cultivators could truly return from death inside the Second Cultivation Realm, and several attendees paid mission points for information.
• A confident Dreamland Guide said death inside was not a concern and described the realm’s Mountains and Seas Great Realm, its regions, and its cultivation opportunities.
• The Guide explained that time passed faster inside and that cultivation there could benefit cultivators in the present world, though its effects needed to be experienced firsthand.
• Xiang Qingshan considered the realm an alternative place to accelerate cultivation, while Zhao An resolved to focus on cultivating toward the Great Dao.
• The Mountains and Seas Realm officially descended, bringing rolling Providence and causing Floating Light to appear within the heavenly secrets.

Bifang explored the newly formed Mountain-Sea Cultivation World and considered its illusory nature, its recognition by Heaven's Will, and its role in dispersing Tribulation Qi. The realm offered cultivators a vast place to practice and pursue enlightenment, though its protections might weaken their fear of death; its future laws would depend on its own evolution.

• Bifang entered the Mountain-Sea Realm and saw its vivid landscape, where mountains and oceans alternated within the same space.
• Bifang noticed cultivators arriving after news of the realm spread and distinguished it from the Four Great Continents and the Ancient Heavenly Court.
• Bifang saw Heaven's Will and Providence gather above the realm, indicating that heaven and earth had acknowledged it.
• Bifang considered how the realm could help sects disperse Tribulation Qi and free cultivators from some of their existing duties.
• Bifang reflected that the realm's protections might reduce cultivators' awe of death, while its laws and future development remained uncertain.

Huang Wuxuan awakened an ancient divine sword identified as the First Divine Sword, drawing attention to its history and his connection to the Human Path. Li Beiyun arrived to challenge him for his providence, and the two began a clash of their Great Daos.

• Bifang sensed a shift in the heavenly secrets as a spectacular sword-light phenomenon appeared over a mountain range.
• Cultivators identified the sword as the First Divine Sword, a weapon from before the Ancient Era that had been wielded by a Heavenly God, the second Human Emperor, and the Storm and Rain Emperor.
• Huang Wuxuan took the sword and felt it was perfectly compatible with his Great Dao, but Stone Elder warned him not to be bewitched by its power.
• Li Beiyun and Humanity-Dao White Marsh arrived, and Li Beiyun declared that he would take Huang Wuxuan's providence.
• Huang Wuxuan struck with the sword, and Li Beiyun answered with the Heavenly Dipper Big Dipper Steps as their Great Daos collided.

Stone Elder confronted ancient Supreme Treasures in the void as they moved to stop him from protecting a person with the Three Bodies Dao. Meanwhile, cultivators entered the Second Cultivation Realm and explored its vast, peaceful Earth Continent, where Tribulation Qi was absent.

• Stone Elder recognized that the slaughter had begun and warned that acting directly could bring greater danger upon him.
• Ancient Supreme Treasures emerged from the void and challenged Stone Elder, who left the Sea of Consciousness to face them.
• The ancient beings attacked Stone Elder with immense waves and mountain-born Dao light while distant cultivators watched.
• Cultivators entered the Second Cultivation Realm and found it realistic, peaceful, and free of Tribulation Qi.
• Explorers used Floating Light to stay connected as they ventured across the vast Earth Continent and its surrounding Boundary Sea realms.

Bifang considered the Mountain-Sea Cultivation Realm’s Providence and watched as a month-long Dharma Combat between a Human Path Variable Fate and Zhao An ended without a clear victor. After the fighters fled in opposite directions and pursuers followed, Ling Congzi entered the realm and found himself drawn to a message about the Human Emperor’s struggle.

• Bifang concluded that the realm’s opportunities were governed by trials and reflected on how its illusory Providence might let someone break through into the Nine Heavens Cultivation Realm.
• Bodhi Hall and Universe Palace cultivators discussed Zhao An, the unknown Human Path Variable Fate, and the uncertain outcome of the struggle for the Human Emperor’s position.
• Ling Congzi entered the Mountain-Sea Cultivation Realm with Floating Light and opened a message about the Son of the Human Emperor and the Human Path Variable Fate, feeling an unexplained stir of intuition.
• After a month of fighting, the two combatants fled in opposite directions, leaving the onlookers unsure which had won.
• Hidden observers said both combatants’ Providence remained strong as pursuers chased them through spatial rifts.

Bifang’s Golden Finger reached a flourishing Cosmic Heaven beyond the Nine Heavens, where it disguised itself and gathered basic information. It unexpectedly bound itself to someone who had just been defeated by a Son of Providence, leaving Bifang puzzled about its choice.

• Cultivators entered the Mountain-Sea Cultivation Realm, where sects and alliances formed and conflicts broke out despite the realm’s protection from death.
• Bifang sensed that the Golden Finger was about to arrive in another Cosmic Heaven.
• The Golden Finger descended into a star-surrounded land in a realm also called Dimension Heaven or All-Universes Heaven.
• The Golden Finger learned that Sea-Crossing, Heaven-Crossing, and Dimension Heaven were major powers spanning the cosmos.
• Bifang discovered that the Golden Finger had bound itself to someone who seemed to oppose a Son of Providence and had just been defeated by him.

Bifang established Infinite Paradise in a cosmos dominated by Sea-Crossing, drawing desperate people into missions to build a connection with the world. As contractors entered a station murder mystery, Bifang discovered a vast corpse spanning the firmament and realized his true body might need to investigate it.

• Bifang selected Shangguan Yang to receive a Golden Finger, and Shangguan Yang accepted the invitation to Infinite Paradise, hoping to gain the power to kill Zhao Qi.
• Newly summoned mission-takers rode a train to a dilapidated station for a mission called Station Murder Case, where veteran contractors warned them to follow their roles and find the murderer.
• The station filled with illusory crowds and luggage carts, and a scream signaled that the murder mystery had begun.
• After months of expanding Infinite Paradise, Bifang observed that the cosmos's sky was decayed and saw a gigantic corpse stretching across the Firmament.
• Lu Qing's Divine Sense nearly crumbled under the corpse's boundless Dao Rhyme, and Bifang concluded that his true body would need to come investigate.

Sea-Crossing Envoys prepared to recruit in remote worlds as Bifang’s expanding Paradise drew mission-takers into increasingly dangerous assignments. A group of mission-takers entered an S-class world for an escort mission and began a long journey toward Capital City.

• Two Sea-Crossing Envoys complained about their assignments before setting out to recruit in the Little An Realm and other remote worlds.
• Mission-takers in an Infinite Paradise tavern bought intelligence about an S-class world offering rewards for every attribute and a rare Paradise reward.
• The intelligence broker revealed that the world’s main mission was to escort a treasure to Capital City, while warning that S-class powers could appear anywhere.
• Thirty-odd mission-takers entered the world, identified three newcomers among them, and learned that all of them were escorts in the Yuanming Escort Agency.
• The mission-takers found themselves in a convoy nearing White Tiger Mountain, with a long route ahead from the south to Capital City in the north.

A group of mission participants escorted seven crates of treasures toward Capital City for the emperor’s birthday banquet, with a deadline one month away. As they reached White Tiger Mountain, bandits ambushed the caravan and eyed the crates greedily.

• The mission participants confirmed they had to reach Capital City by the tenth day of the seventh month, thirty days away.
• The participants learned the crates contained valuables and medicinal herbs, while the caravan’s escorts did not know which treasure was most important.
• Call Me Know-It-All warned that bandits operated around White Tiger Mountain and described the world’s Land Immortal experts.
• The caravan continued north and reached White Tiger Mountain.
• A one-eyed bandit and his men sprang from the grass, demanded payment, and fixed their attention on the treasure crates.

Bifang observed the mission world and considered how it might reveal the origins of a mysterious corpse, while the mission participants neared Capital City after a perilous journey. The convoy fell unnervingly silent just before reaching its destination.

• The convoy escorts fought off bandits, while hidden figures in black ordered a White Tiger released to test the group.
• Bifang reflected on Infinite Paradise’s mission world, the corpse’s connection to it, and the possibility that its past held answers about the Great Dao.
• Bifang watched the mission participants trigger events in the past and wondered whether the Longevity Banquet was connected to the Longevity Devil Master.
• After more than half a month of travel, the mission participants neared Capital City with all seven treasure chests still in their care.
• The participants discussed the Longevity Banquet and the dangers awaiting them, then noticed that the escorts had gone silent as if someone had caught them unaware.

A thousand-man army led by a lavishly robed man ambushed the mission participants on the forest road and tried to recruit them, but they refused and the battle began. Meanwhile, the commotion near the Imperial Capital drew attention from powerful families, whose members wondered whether the palace Immortals would intervene.

• The mission participants discovered a concealed army of a thousand troops led by Black Wind and a lavishly robed man.
• The robed man offered the mission participants wealth, power, and eternal life if they joined him, but they refused.
• The mission participants launched a surprise assault with varied powers, and the robed man ordered his forces to kill them.
• The battle caused tremors and thunderous noise across the Imperial Capital, alarming members of great aristocratic families.
• A faceless figure said that the Immortals in the palace would not intervene because they did not want an emperor who could live forever.

The Crown Prince learned that the Longevity Banquet would soon fulfill the Faceless Man’s promise, while mission takers survived their final battle and prepared to deliver the treasure. News of the banquet stirred powerful figures across the world, and two Sea-Crossing Envoys arrived at the Mortal World Planet as Bifang watched.

• The Crown Prince questioned the Faceless Man’s certainty, and the Faceless Man promised that the Crown Prince would get what he wanted after the Longevity Banquet.
• The mission takers defeated their final enemies, lost two newcomers, and discussed the Immortal Cultivator power released by the Robed Man.
• The mission takers learned that the Longevity Banquet was about to begin, and news of it reached the Grand Elder in the western desert and the Man in the Bamboo Hat on the eastern seas.
• Two Sea-Crossing Envoys arrived above the Crimson Planet to recruit candidates, while Bifang observed their arrival.