Chapter Summaries

Chang'e told Lu Ren that the Heavenly Court built the Heavenly Palace to escape the disappearance of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, but a battle between the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West disrupted its departure. Lu Ren continued questioning Chang'e in his Inner World, then tried to learn her cultivation technique, while Xu Fu, Chen Xuzi, Kong Qiu, and Subhuti argued over past abuses.

• Chang'e explained that the Heavenly Court sacrificed the Zhou Tian Star Lords and Dread Gods to build the Heavenly Palace, which could travel through the void and might reach The Other Shore.
• Chang'e said the Jade Emperor was attacked by the Queen Mother of the West before the Heavenly Palace departed, and he killed her after she tried to seize the vessel.
• Chang'e told Lu Ren that even the Jade Emperor and Tathagata had not discovered why Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy vanished, and that they later became enemies after entering the Land of Inner Phenomena.
• Lu Ren teased Chang'e about whether people in her era had dudou, then asked about her cultivation technique and said he wanted to learn from other schools.
• Xu Fu, Chen Xuzi, Kong Qiu, and Subhuti debated Xu Fu's past harem and the Buddhist sect's abuses.

Lu Ren studied the Zhouyou Liuyue True Art and considered adapting its dark matter cultivation method for his future body, while questioning the purpose of the three great scriptures. After communications with Earth went unanswered, he entered the Seeking Truth Realm and headed toward the planet.

• After lifting the barrier around the Inner World, Lu Ren left Chang'e behind and reflected on the Zhouyou Liuyue True Art he had obtained from her.
• Lu Ren compared the art’s dark matter energy with the Strange Particles absorbed by his Breathing Technique and considered incorporating its properties into Myriad Forms Convergence.
• Lu Ren returned to the lunar base and wondered whether gathering the past, future, and present scriptures would make him a guiding point for Shakyamuni.
• Three days later, Lu Ren received no response from the underground command center and suspected something had happened on Earth.
• Lu Ren entered the Seeking Truth Realm and traveled along the enormous, withered Cassia Tree toward Earth, then sensed a draft pass him.

Lu Ren endured the True Wind and entered the second layer of the Seeking Truth Realm, where he encountered the enormous creature Zhou Kun. Zhou Kun attacked him, and Lu Ren unleashed the Reality Tathagata Sutra’s ultimate manifestation to resist.

• Lu Ren regenerated the flesh stripped away by the True Wind, then manifested his Bodhisattva true body to withstand its increasingly violent assault.
• As the True Wind transformed his body and Spirit Soul, Lu Ren realized the Seeking Truth Realm had deeper layers and wondered whether travelers could become trapped within them.
• A system message identified the enormous creature beside Lu Ren as Zhou Kun and announced that Lu Ren had entered the second layer of the Seeking Truth Realm.
• Zhou Kun turned toward Lu Ren, roared, and charged with its enormous jaws, trapping him so he could not use techniques such as shrinking distance.
• Lu Ren invoked the Future Buddha True Scripture and then unleashed the Reality Tathagata Sutra’s ultimate manifestation, rapidly draining most of his Ten Realms True Qi.

Lu Ren used the Tathagata Dharma Manifestation to hurl away a Zhou Kun, then fled after discovering a herd of the beasts in the Seeking Truth Realm. Changxing explained the Realm’s True Imprint, and Chang'e revealed that Supreme One had devised a way to make one removable.

• Lu Ren summoned the Tathagata Dharma Manifestation, drawing energy from the Crimson Dragon Inner Core and straining his body.
• Lu Ren gripped Zhou Kun’s jaws and hurled the enormous beast through the void.
• Lu Ren spotted many awakened Zhou Kun and immediately left the Seeking Truth Realm.
• Changxing explained that adapting to the True Wind let cultivators perceive deeper layers and that a True Imprint helped them remain in the Realm without going mad.
• Chang'e told Lu Ren that Supreme One’s method used a special natal treasure to temper the True Imprint so it could be removed.

Lu Ren surveyed Earth from the Seeking Truth Realm and saw Netherworld entrances and the Kunlun Otherworld overlapping the planet. Meanwhile, Zhang Tongxuan and Director Chen prepared to destroy the Queen Mother of the West Tomb, but a blazing object appeared overhead and forced everyone to flee.

• After healing and adapting to True Wind, Lu Ren reentered the Seeking Truth Realm and flew toward Earth.
• From near-Earth orbit, Lu Ren saw black qi rising across Earth and phantoms of the Kunlun Otherworld overlapping its landscape.
• Zhang Tongxuan and Director Chen ordered explosives to blast open the mountain around the suspected Queen Mother of the West Tomb.
• Zhang Tongxuan explained that they needed to destroy the tombs before the immortals and gods revived, while Director Chen revealed the nearly completed Starfire Project would send people fifteen light-years away.
• When Director Chen noticed heat above him, Zhang Tongxuan shouted for everyone to retreat as they saw a blazing object overhead.

Lu Ren descended from orbit in his Bodhisattva Dharma Appearance and crashed into the Queen Mother of the West Tomb, alarming Zhang Tongxuan and Director Chen. After Zhang Tongxuan attacked the emerging figure, he recognized Lu Ren, who explained that he had come to investigate the tomb’s dense Yin energy and changing Magnetic Field.

• Director Chen and Zhang Tongxuan led their people away from the Queen Mother of the West Tomb as a fireball plunged toward it.
• Zhang Tongxuan used his Heavenly Eye to identify a Buddha within the fireball, and he and Director Chen retreated before its impact.
• The fireball struck the tomb, creating a vast crater and releasing a powerful force that Zhang Tongxuan sensed within.
• Zhang Tongxuan attacked a golden hand emerging from the crater with the Celestial Master Sword, but the hand knocked the sword away and quickly healed its wound.
• Lu Ren climbed from the crater in a sixteen-foot Bodhisattva Dharma Appearance, and Zhang Tongxuan recognized him as the man he had believed died on the moon.
• Lu Ren told Zhang Tongxuan that he had drifted across distant planets and had descended to investigate the tomb’s dense Yin energy and changing Magnetic Field.

Lu Ren and Zhang Tongxuan found the Queen Mother of the West sleeping in a Jade Boat protected by a powerful barrier, and discussed the danger she posed and how to kill her before she awakened. Director Chen arrived and recognized Lu Ren, leaving the group together at the crater.

• Lu Ren recovered from his fall while Zhang Tongxuan questioned his unusual body.
• Lu Ren and Zhang Tongxuan examined the Queen Mother of the West in her Jade Boat and learned that its defenses had stopped Lu Ren's impact.
• Zhang Tongxuan explained the precious liquid beneath the Jade Boat and the dangers of the Queen Mother of the West awakening.
• Zhang Tongxuan proposed killing the sleeping Queen Mother of the West, and Lu Ren asked how they would do it.
• Director Chen arrived, recognized Lu Ren, and Zhang Tongxuan introduced him as Chen Yuehua, commander of the operation.

Lu Ren joined Zhang Tongxuan and Chen Yuehua as they prepared to kill the sleeping Queen Mother of the West with a Soul-Nailing Awl. She awakened and attacked Lu Ren’s spirit, but his system shielded him, and he drove the awl into her glabella.

• Lu Ren demonstrated his Seeking Truth Realm ability to Zhang Tongxuan and Chen Yuehua, then used his Magnetic Field to block spiritual energy from reaching Queen Mother of the West.
• Zhang Tongxuan and Chen Yuehua explained their losses fighting immortals and gods and showed Lu Ren the Soul-Nailing Awls they planned to use on her.
• Lu Ren took an awl and positioned it against Queen Mother of the West’s glabella as Zhang Tongxuan instructed him.
• Queen Mother of the West opened her eyes and unleashed a primordial spirit attack, knocking Chen Yuehua unconscious and terrifying Zhang Tongxuan.
• Lu Ren’s system automatically shielded him from the attack, and he pressed the Soul-Nailing Awl into Queen Mother of the West’s glabella.

Lu Ren and Zhang Tongxuan discovered that the Queen Mother of the West was an Earth Immortal whose sleeping body unleashed dangerous psychic attacks, and they planned to seal her away from spiritual energy. As a fortified base was built around her, Lu Ren learned that Spatial Rifts had helped advance combat suit technology and asked whether they had become more frequent.

• Lu Ren failed to pierce the Queen Mother of the West with the Soul-Nailing Awl, while her psychic assault left Zhang Tongxuan and Chen Yuehua incapacitated.
• Lu Ren consulted Changxing, who identified the Queen Mother of the West as at least an Earth Immortal, and found that closing her eyes stopped her attacks.
• Zhang Tongxuan warned that the Queen Mother of the West's mind might have been distorted by chaotic contamination, and Lu Ren proposed isolating her from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.
• Chen Yuehua suggested a storage site underground, but Lu Ren and Zhang Tongxuan chose to build a fortified base and a formation with at least three layers around the Queen Mother of the West.
• Lu Ren admired his advanced Fish Scale Suit, and Chen Yuehua explained that technology from Spatial Rifts had enabled its development.
• Lu Ren asked Chen Yuehua whether Spatial Rifts had been erupting frequently lately.

Lu Ren left Eastern Kunlun after the Heaven-and-Earth Isolation Formations sealed off the pit, then traveled through the snow-covered mountains, where Yin energy was spreading and martial artists were clearing demons. He left a newly formed expedition marketplace behind and continued toward the place Zhang Tongxuan had asked him to visit.

• Zhang Tongxuan told Lu Ren that Spatial Rifts had become less frequent and that the return of ancient immortals and gods was inevitable, while many awakened beings had become irrational.
• Two weeks later, three interlocking Heaven-and-Earth Isolation Formations drained Spiritual Energy from the area around the pit, and Lu Ren left Zhang Tongxuan and Chen Yuehua to handle the aftermath.
• Zhang Tongxuan warned Lu Ren about the coming return of the immortals and gods and asked him to visit a place that might interest him.
• Lu Ren traveled alone through the mountains, where he sensed Netherworld Yin energy eroding reality and killed demons, monsters, and spirits in remote areas.
• Lu Ren encountered a marketplace where martial artists and Qi Refiners formed teams to explore the wilderness, but he refused a woman’s invitation to join an expedition and disappeared from her sight.

Lu Ren learned why immortals and gods buried themselves in the real world rather than the Seeking Truth Realm, then returned to Shu Capital and reconnected with his university classmates after years away. His classmates began asking where he had been as an eighteen-year reunion approached.

• Lu Ren asked Chang'e and Changxing why the Queen Mother of the West had been buried in reality, and Chang'e explained that the Seeking Truth Realm could contaminate sleeping immortals.
• Lu Ren reflected on how technology had replaced supernatural power and recalled the authorities' failed attempts to damage the Queen Mother of the West's body for research.
• Lu Ren returned to his former villa in Shu Capital and found that the Security Administration Bureau had arranged for it to be cleaned.
• Lu Ren turned on his phone and found messages about an eighteen-year university reunion, then sent a message in his class group chat.
• Lu Ren told his classmates he had been cultivating, and they eagerly asked where he had been all these years.

Lu Ren reconnected with old acquaintances on Earth and agreed to meet Ji Quanzhen after the Daoist raised questions about the Seeking Truth Realm. Their conversation began at a crowded night market, where Ji Quanzhen was poised to reveal what he had learned.

• Liu Bei invited Lu Ren to an eighteen-year class reunion, and Lu Ren replied that he might attend.
• Ji Quanzhen called Lu Ren to check on him and asked to discuss the location of the Seeking Truth Realm over a meal the next day.
• Lu Ren slept instead of cultivating, then ran into Li Shu and teased her about neglecting martial arts.
• Lu Ren told Li Shu that even people with little martial arts talent could improve through perseverance, then left after calling her a frog at the bottom of a well.
• Lu Ren met Ji Quanzhen at a busy night market, where Ji Quanzhen ordered grilled meat and fatty intestines so they could talk.

Lu Ren shared a meal and drinks with Ji Quanzhen, who explained how ordinary life helped restore Lu Ren’s humanity and discussed the dangers of advancing beyond Dao Determination. Ji Quanzhen revealed that the Seeking Truth Realm was a subspace, a conclusion he had reached after a year of experiments.

• Lu Ren realized Ji Quanzhen had brought him to eat in order to reconnect him with ordinary human life.
• Ji Quanzhen warned Lu Ren that rising strength and cultivation could erode his humanity and make him treat people like lesser beings.
• Over food and drinks, Ji Quanzhen explained that advancing past Dao Determination required a person to comprehend and follow their own path.
• Ji Quanzhen said a sect patriarch had devised a dangerous method that let him sense and enter the Seeking Truth Realm, where he encountered chaotic, contaminating things.
• Ji Quanzhen told Lu Ren he had concluded the Seeking Truth Realm was a subspace after a year and roughly a thousand measurements at the Space Measurement Research Institute.

Ji Quanzhen warned Lu Ren that the Seeking Truth Realm was dangerous and that deeper cultivation could bring aberration and contamination, urging him to stay connected to ordinary people. As Lu Ren walked through the night market, a Spatial Rift appeared nearby, and he watched the Special Response Team arrive to handle it.

• Ji Quanzhen showed Lu Ren a horrifying mass of flesh on his abdomen, which he said he had picked up in the Seeking Truth Realm and was gradually wearing down.
• Ji Quanzhen paid for their meal and told Lu Ren to spend more time among people and cultivate cautiously to avoid aberration and contamination.
• Lu Ren wandered through the night market, bought food, and walked home while reflecting on Ji Quanzhen's warnings.
• The system detected a Spatial Rift ahead and prompted Lu Ren to enter, but he left the prompt unanswered as the rift's pull intensified.
• Zhang Li called Lu Ren after the rift appeared, and he reported that several people had been sucked inside and that he could not safely approach.
• The Special Response Team arrived in powered armor, and Lu Ren watched them prepare to deal with the Spatial Rift.

Lu Ren watched the authorities stabilize a Spatial Rift, declined a young woman’s invitation to explore it, and returned home. The next morning, he rode to Falcon Fist Martial Arts Hall and began to understand Ji Quanzhen’s warning about staying connected to ordinary human life.

• Lu Ren observed the Special Action Team deploy alloy cylinders around the Spatial Rift and listened as nearby Martial Daoists discussed the dangers and opportunities of entering other worlds.
• A young woman with extraordinary, faintly glowing eyes asked Lu Ren to explore the Spatial Rift with her, but he declined and questioned her about her eyes.
• Lu Ren returned home, slept instead of cultivating, and reflected on the Primordial Path and the risks of pursuing power at the expense of human connection.
• Lu Ren rode his motorcycle to Falcon Fist Martial Arts Hall, where the familiar presence of people eased his tension and helped him understand Ji Quanzhen’s message.

Lu Ren returned to Falcon Fist Martial Hall after five or six years and sought out its hall master, Li Qingling, but a trainee mistook his request to spar with her for a challenge to the hall. He faced Chen Shengnan, a powerful Falcon Fist practitioner, and calmly evaded her opening attack as she unleashed Bird Beak.

• Lu Ren arrived at Falcon Fist Martial Hall and asked a trainee where he could find Li Qingling.
• The trainee called for Senior Sister Chen, and Lu Ren learned that the towering fighter was Chen Shengnan, who practiced a blend of Phoenix Zenith Fist and Falcon Fist.
• Chen Shengnan introduced herself and agreed to spar with Lu Ren, while the trainees gathered to watch.
• Chen Shengnan charged and threw a heavy Bird Beak punch, but Lu Ren dodged it and criticized her inability to land a hit.
• Chen Shengnan launched a rapid series of Bird Beak punches that stirred the air into wing-like currents, and Lu Ren watched with keen interest.

Lu Ren demonstrated the intent of Phoenix Zenith Fist to Chen Shengnan and explained that cultivating the spirit was necessary to break through the limits of the body. Li Qingling reunited with him and recounted her life since his departure, leaving Lu Ren concerned about her slight build.

• Lu Ren caught Chen Shengnan's rapid fists and showed her how the intent in Phoenix Zenith Fist could overwhelm her.
• Lu Ren explained that martial artists who had reached the limits of their bodies needed to cultivate the spirit to achieve a Limit Breaker.
• Li Qingling rushed to Lu Ren, reunited with him, and told him she had visited Kunlun and accepted that Li Ziqing had died pursuing the Way.
• Li Qingling told Lu Ren she had competed in three National Martial Arts Tournaments and become a top expert at the sixth step of the Clairvoyance Realm.
• Lu Ren told Li Qingling that she was too thin and needed more muscle and sturdier bones to withstand blows.

Lu Ren tested Li Qingling’s Phoenix Rebirth True Intent and discovered that her Phoenix Fist could draw power from a Divine Phoenix. He wondered whether the Divine Phoenix intended to use Li Qingling as a vessel, while she recovered from their sparring and sent the students away.

• Lu Ren told Li Qingling that she needed harsher physical training if she hoped to enter Seeking Truth, then confirmed that she had comprehended the Phoenix Rebirth True Intent.
• Li Qingling demonstrated her Phoenix Fist, and Ao Li sensed its aura and muttered that the Divine Phoenix was using it as an anchor.
• Lu Ren ordered Li Qingling to attack and saw a Divine Phoenix claw emerge from a dark, lotus-like space behind her.
• Lu Ren shattered the phantom claw with an elbow, sending Li Qingling through a wall and into the courtyard wall.
• Lu Ren wondered whether the Divine Phoenix might seek to descend through Li Qingling, while students entered and mistook the sparring for an affectionate reunion.
• Li Qingling ordered the students to resume evening practice and go to sleep, and they quickly scattered.

Lu Ren questioned Ao Li about a True Phoenix using Li Qingling’s Phoenix Fist Scripture to escape, then dismissed Ao Li’s demand that he kill her and vowed to become strong enough to destroy the phoenix. Back in the real world, Lu Ren considered his cultivation and the dangers around the Primordial Path as his sudden return to Earth shocked many people.

• Lu Ren entered his Inner World and asked Ao Li whether a True Phoenix was trying to escape through Li Qingling’s Phoenix Fist Scripture.
• Ao Li explained that the phoenix could force Li Qingling to grow stronger through their connection, then mocked Lu Ren and urged him to kill her.
• Lu Ren argued that the phoenix would need centuries to descend and said he would become strong enough to destroy it by then.
• Ao Li unleashed his oppressive presence, but it dissipated before reaching Lu Ren, who taunted him for failing to take over his body.
• Ao Li hinted that others had left something within Lu Ren, then refused to explain who they were.
• Lu Ren returned to the real world, reflected on his cultivation and the Primordial Path, and learned that his unexpected return to Earth had shocked many people.

After harmonizing his life Magnetic Field with Earth, Lu Ren visited Yan Zhenghua and discovered that Yan had glimpsed the Phoenix Rebirth intent, then returned to the martial hall to check Li Qingling for a hidden mark. Zhang Tongxuan called to say he had found Sun Wukong's tomb, leaving Lu Ren to decide whether to investigate.

• Lu Ren returned to Yan Zhenghua's convenience store and offered him a chance to teach fist arts at Falcon Fist Martial Hall.
• Lu Ren questioned Yan Zhenghua about his visions of Phoenix Rebirth and concluded that the old bird had chosen him as a possible backup.
• Yan Zhenghua rejected Lu Ren's offer at first, but shut the store and decided to find out what Lu Ren was planning.
• Lu Ren scanned Li Qingling with his primordial spirit and found no mark, then considered how to advance his cultivation.
• Zhang Tongxuan called Lu Ren and told him he had found Sun Wukong's tomb.