Chapter Summaries

Xiao Ying negotiated with representatives of the realms over renewing the eternal covenant and compensation for Great Huan. Luo Lun offered territory, political assistance, and three Great Resurrection Spells, but Xiao Ying questioned whether the resurrection offer was sufficient.

• Princess Yunmiao told Xiao Ying that the realms had come to discuss the eternal covenant, and Xiao Ying rebuked Luo Mo for interrupting.
• Luo Lun proposed a shared Dao oath to uphold the covenant and said the realms would compensate Great Huan for its losses.
• Luo Lun offered three Great Resurrection Spells and promised to help Wei and Shu withdraw from China's Divine Land and return Great Huan's former territories.
• Luo Lun said Wei and Shu wanted Liu Bei and Cao Cao released, but Xiao Ying said Liu Bei was dead and made Cao Cao's release depend on Bian Qirong's wishes.
• Bian Qirong said she belonged to Great Huan and would not take part in the negotiations, while Xiao Ying asked Luo Lun to explain what the three Great Resurrection Spells could accomplish.

Chapter Summary: “Establishing the Covenant”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Luo Lun presents Great Huan with three Great Resurrection Spell jade talismans, gifts from his master, the Light Immortal Venerable, as compensation and a gesture of goodwill.
• He explains that each talisman can revive nearly any being in Pangu World whose life imprint remains. If the target’s remains or soul fragments exist, countless beings may potentially be revived, limited only by the user’s divine sense.
• Xiao Ying recognizes the talismans’ enormous value but deliberately acts unimpressed, provoking Luo Lun and testing whether the offer is genuine.
• Princess Yun Miao confirms that the talismans truly came from the Light Immortal Venerable and warns Xiao Ying not to oppose such a powerful figure.
• Xiao Ying realizes that the Light Immortal Venerable’s involvement means Pangu World has unusual importance, though the reason remains unknown.
• Luo Lun proposes that Light Empire and Great Huan Celestial Dynasty form an offensive and defensive alliance.
• Xiao Ying refuses to immediately agree, criticizing Light Empire’s past role in Great Huan’s troubles and using the negotiations to gain leverage.
• He firmly declares that the deceased King of Shu cannot be surrendered and that the Wei Emperor will neither be killed nor handed over, since he remains Great Huan’s greatest enemy.
• After Xiao Ying angrily confronts the representatives for supporting Wei and Shu, Empress Qi Ji reinforces his position by pointing out their inconsistency.
• Luo Lun produces the Eternal Covenant, a powerful oath-scroll jointly established by hundreds of Upper Realm factions. Its seals carry substantive binding force, functioning almost like a curse.
• Xiao Ying demands the three resurrection talismans before signing, claiming he trusts the Light Immortal Venerable but not Luo Lun personally.
• Angered by the insult, Luo Lun hands over the talismans. Xiao Ying immediately stores them and seals the covenant with the Great Huan Imperial Seal.
• The representatives are relieved that Great Huan has joined the covenant, believing its strength will deter other factions and stabilize the situation.
• Luo Lun then objects that the covenant is intended for Upper Realm factions and questions why Xiao Ying used Great Huan’s imperial seal.

Character Developments

• Xiao Ying demonstrates sharp political instincts, shameless bargaining, and deliberate emotional manipulation. He understands the talismans’ value but pretends otherwise to pressure Luo Lun into revealing more and handing them over.
• He also shows himself to be protective of Great Huan’s interests, refusing to sacrifice the Wei Emperor or surrender the dead King of Shu despite external demands.
• Luo Lun remains loyal to the Light Immortal Venerable but struggles to control his temper when Xiao Ying insults his master and questions his integrity. His emotional reactions allow Xiao Ying to gain the upper hand.
• Princess Yun Miao acts as a pragmatic intermediary, confirming the talismans’ authenticity and subtly warning Xiao Ying of the danger of defying an Immortal Venerable.
• Empress Qi Ji supports Xiao Ying with restrained amusement, exposing the opposition’s contradictions and strengthening Great Huan’s negotiating position.
• The representatives of the Upper Realm factions are revealed to value Great Huan primarily for its military power and the deterrence its participation provides.

Significant Themes

• Power and influence: The resurrection talismans demonstrate the overwhelming power of Upper Realm figures, who appear capable of controlling life and death on a world-wide scale.
• Political bargaining: The negotiations show that even priceless gifts are tools of diplomacy, and Xiao Ying seeks to extract maximum advantage from the agreement.
• Trust and suspicion: Xiao Ying distinguishes between trusting the Light Immortal Venerable and distrusting Luo Lun, highlighting the fragile nature of political alliances.
• Strength as legitimacy: Great Huan is valued not for moral authority but for its military strength and ability to intimidate rival factions.
• The hidden importance of Pangu World: The Light Immortal Venerable’s intervention suggests that the seemingly minor world contains secrets or potential significant enough to attract Upper Realm attention.
• Pride and emotional control: Luo Lun’s wounded pride contrasts with Xiao Ying’s calculated provocations, showing how composure can be used as a political weapon.

Character Interactions

• Xiao Ying and Luo Lun engage in a tense verbal contest, with Xiao Ying repeatedly provoking Luo Lun while Luo Lun defends his master’s honor.
• Princess Yun Miao mediates between them by validating Luo Lun’s claims and warning Xiao Ying of the consequences of resistance.
• Xiao Ying confronts all the faction representatives over their past interference in Great Huan’s affairs.
• Empress Qi Ji backs Xiao Ying by challenging Luo Lun’s attempt to dismiss the Wei and Shu issue as insignificant.
• The chapter ends with Luo Lun confronting Xiao Ying over the improper use of Great Huan’s imperial seal, leaving the covenant’s final validity or terms unresolved.

Xiao Ying signed the Eternal Covenant with Great Huan’s imperial seal, provoking Luo Lun’s suspicions, then used the agreement to secure a Great Resurrection Spell while keeping room to interpret its restrictions. He ordered preparations to resurrect Great Huan’s dead, especially its Terracotta Warriors, setting the stage for a dramatic expansion of the dynasty’s strength.

• Luo Lun challenged Xiao Ying for signing a covenant against Upper Realm forces with Great Huan’s imperial seal, but Xiao Ying claimed he lacked the Immortal Kingdom’s Heavenly Seal and angrily ended the discussion.
• Princess Yunmiao urged Luo Lun to accept the agreement, while privately suspecting Xiao Ying had deliberately used Great Huan’s seal as part of a hidden plan.
• Hours later, Xiao Ying met with Great Huan’s officials as Prime Minister Tian Dan reported that Wei and Shu would withdraw from the Divine Land within half a month under the covenant’s terms.
• Xiao Ying dismissed the covenant as imperfect, reassured Bian Qirong that he did not intend to break it, and ordered Tian Dan and Eunuch Qiu to announce that deceased Great Huan subjects could be resurrected in half a month.
• Xiao Ying asked whether Huating had been notified and considered how resurrecting Great Huan and Great Qin’s Terracotta Warriors could greatly increase Great Huan’s military power.

News of the Heavenly Grace Ceremony and the Great Resurrection Spell spread across the world, prompting political shifts and preparations throughout Great Huan. Xiao Ying received the Penglai Commerce Association, whose leader was revealed to be Princess Yunmiao, who explained that the association’s Four Secret Clans came from the Origin Heavenly Court.

• God Emperor Luo Tian's explanation of the Great Resurrection Spell spread, and Wei and Shu agreed to withdraw from their territories in the Divine Land of China.
• Xiao Ying dispatched Immortal Guards to collect Great Huan subjects' source essence, both to prepare for the eternal covenant and to strengthen loyalty to the Great Huan Immortal Kingdom.
• Xiao Ying and Qi Ji discussed finding space in Nine Dragons Commandery for the ten billion Great Huan Terracotta Warriors.
• Dongfang Shi arrived at the Forbidden Palace with the Penglai Commerce Association delegation, walking behind Princess Yunmiao, who appeared to be leading them.
• Princess Yunmiao told Xiao Ying that the Penglai Commerce Association's Four Secret Clans were hereditary retainer clans of the Origin Heavenly Court's First Source Clan.

Princess Yunmiao offered to transfer the Penglai Commerce Association to Great Huan in exchange for an alliance and help for the Four Secret Clans after ascension. Xiao Ying accepted, but Dongfang Shi revealed that the clans preserved hundreds of thousands of ancestral souls and remains, leaving Great Huan to consider this unexpected burden.

• Princess Yunmiao revealed that the Penglai Commerce Association's Four Secret Clans descended from the Origin Heavenly Court's retainer families and denounced Heavenheart Island as traitors.
• Princess Yunmiao proposed handing the association to Great Huan if Xiao Ying helped the Four Secret Clans leave after ascension and formed an alliance with her personally.
• Xiao Ying questioned Princess Yunmiao's motives and the value of her offer, then agreed to the deal after she promised to help Great Huan look beyond the Heavenfall Sea.
• Dongfang Shi led the Four Secret Clans in pledging themselves to Xiao Ying and disclosed that they had preserved the souls or remains of hundreds of thousands of ancestors.

Xiao Ying negotiated with Dongfang Fu over the Penglai Commerce Association’s submission and learned that many renowned figures could not be resurrected because their life imprints lay beyond the Pangu World. Dongfang Fu then warned that Prince Lü Fengxian was likely possessed by a dangerous Demon Star.

• Dongfang Fu offered the Four Secret Clans’ preserved remains and souls to Great Huan, and Xiao Ying limited their resurrection places to ten thousand in exchange for a hundred years of service.
• Dongfang Fu accepted Xiao Ying’s terms and was appointed Eastern Marquis to help merge the three great commerce associations and allocate supplies for the heavenly grace ceremony.
• Jiang Yao reported that Shi Ji’s remains had been recovered, but many other famous figures’ remains were missing or had turned to dust.
• Dongfang Fu explained that renowned figures’ life imprints often lay outside the Pangu World, making resurrection impossible when only their remains survived.
• Tianzhi Baize suggested that some renowned figures were Upper Realm Great Adepts, and Xiao Ying reconsidered his hopes of gathering them.
• Dongfang Fu revealed that Demon Stars could consume their hosts’ true selves and warned that the eldest imperial prince, Lü Fengxian, was likely one of them.

Dongfang Fu warned Xiao Ying and the Great Huan court that Lü Fengxian was likely a Demon Star whose demon soul could erupt upon reaching the True Immortal realm. Xiao Ying vowed to suppress the danger, then turned the court’s attention to a request from Zhen Yi concerning Zhen Mi.

• Dongfang Fu explained that renowned historical figures could be Demon Stars and identified Lü Fengxian as a likely one, while saying Crown Prince Fengtian probably was not.
• Dongfang Fu said a Demon Star’s soul might erupt after reaching the True Immortal realm; Xiao Ying reassured Lü Zhi that he could suppress it, and Bai Ze backed his confidence by describing Xiao Ying’s power.
• Xiao Ying told Dongfang Fu to monitor the Demon Stars and prioritize the heavenly grace ceremony.
• Dongfang Fu presented a letter from Zhen Yi of the Zhongshan Zhen Clan, who asked Xiao Ying to save someone rather than resurrect the dead.
• Guo Jia deduced that the Zhen Clan wanted Xiao Ying to save Zhen Mi, and Dongfang Fu teased him about his own likely Demon Star fate.

Xiao Ying’s court debated who should rescue Zhen Ji and whether Great Huan should tolerate Wei and Shu, then ordered the Carefree Evil King to handle her rescue and planned to destroy the two states if they refused to surrender. As the heavenly grace ceremony approached, Wei and Shu withdrew to nearby regions under the protection of a growing alliance of foreign powers, leaving Great Huan facing a tense stalemate.

• Dongfang Fu teased Xiao Ying about marrying Zhen Ji, while Bian Qirong and Lü Zhi argued that rescuing her could help Great Huan and spare Cao Pi from certain death.
• Xiao He proposed sending Crown Prince Xiao Fengtian to rescue Zhen Ji, but Qi Ji objected because she feared Zhen Ji’s influence would threaten the crown prince’s position.
• After Lü Zhi and Qi Ji both blocked his other options, Xiao Ying ordered the Carefree Evil King, his third prince, to rescue Zhen Ji and declared that success was required.
• Xiao Ying ordered Bian Qirong to press Wei and Shu to surrender and commanded Great Huan to crush them after the heavenly grace ceremony if they refused.
• Wei retreated to the northern steppes and Shu withdrew to Myanmar, while the Russian Federation and India sent armies to support them as part of a coalition meant to restrain Great Huan.

With the Heavenly Grace Ceremony three days away, Xiao Ying heard Tianzhi Baize’s warning that the ceremony might bring disaster rather than prosperity. Dongfang Fu and Lü Zhi connected the danger to the Immortal Venerables and the three Great Resurrection Spells, leaving Xiao Ying to face the shocking suggestion that the ceremony be canceled.

• Xiao Ying welcomed Wenzhao Zhen Ji to the Forbidden City and told Eunuch Qiu to arrange her accommodations without restrictions.
• Lü Zhi asked Tianzhi Baize about his growing unease, and he said he sensed an immense calamity tied to the approaching Heavenly Grace Ceremony.
• Dongfang Fu argued that the Immortal Venerables’ motives for giving Great Huan three Great Resurrection Spells were unlikely to be simple or benevolent.
• Lü Zhi and Tianzhi Baize suggested that the Light Immortal Venerable might have a hidden purpose, with Pangu as his true opponent.
• Tianzhi Baize warned that the Heavenly Grace Ceremony could be a great calamity and asked whether Xiao Ying should cancel it, shocking everyone in the hall.

Contest Between Strategists — Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tianzhi Baize shocks the court by proposing that the Heavenly Grace Ceremony be canceled. He explains that, despite calculating for several days, he has been unable to trace the source of the danger surrounding the ceremony—something only an Immortal Venerable could supposedly accomplish.
• Baize warns that the ceremony’s enormous benefits may conceal an equally enormous disaster. If the ceremony could increase Great Huan’s power dozens or hundreds of times, the corresponding danger might also be dozens or hundreds of times greater.
• Eastern Marquis Dongfang Fu argues against cancellation. Great Huan has already accepted the three Great Resurrection Spells, and abandoning the ceremony would destroy the dynasty’s reputation, anger countless people who sacrificed everything for the promised resurrections, and leave Great Huan without the strength needed to face its enemies.
• Heaven-Questioning Marquis Xiao He initially agrees with Baize and supports cancellation. He believes the alliance of hostile forces exists mainly because they fear Great Huan’s potential rise. Without the ceremony, much of the alliance would lose its motive to attack.
• Marquis of Strategic Wisdom Zhang Liang strongly objects. He points out that enemy armies—especially those of the Russian Federation and India—have already mobilized and cannot simply withdraw after expending so many resources.
• Zhang reframes the dispute as one of military balance. Canceling the ceremony would leave Great Huan too weak to resist the forces already assembled, whereas completing it could provide ten billion troops and give the dynasty a chance to fight the entire world.
• Xiao He counters that continuing the ceremony would provoke an immediate, devastating war and cause immense civilian suffering. Zhang responds that in an age of chaos and contention, retreat will not create peace; weakness will only invite annihilation.
• Ghost Marquis Guo Jia ultimately supports Zhang Liang. Although he acknowledges Xiao He’s compassion, he argues that Great Huan is already living in a “Hell Realm” and must gamble on victory rather than surrender its future. Even failure might allow the dynasty to retreat from the world, while success could lead to unprecedented strength.
• As the arguments unfold, Tianzhi Baize begins to understand the possible scheme of the Immortal Venerable behind the entire situation.

Character Developments

• Tianzhi Baize shifts from confident diviner to troubled strategist. His inability to calculate the threat makes him suspect the involvement of an Immortal Venerable, and he becomes increasingly convinced that the ceremony is part of a hidden plot.
• Dongfang Fu reveals her conflict between personal and political interests. The Penglai Commerce Association stands to gain ten thousand revived Loose Immortals, yet she suppresses her objections because openly defending the ceremony could make her appear selfish or disloyal to Great Huan.
• Xiao He is characterized as compassionate and cautious. He prioritizes reducing casualties and preserving the possibility of peace, but becomes angry when Zhang and Guo Jia advocate risking war.
• Zhang Liang demonstrates his reputation as a strategist. He methodically exposes weaknesses in Xiao He’s reasoning, turning the argument from morality and fear toward military strength and long-term survival.
• Guo Jia moves from apparent loyalty to Xiao He to supporting Zhang Liang’s position. He embraces a bold, high-risk strategy and argues that Great Huan cannot survive by continually retreating.
• Xiao Ying remains largely silent, listening as his ministers debate the dynasty’s future. His judgment will ultimately determine whether Great Huan proceeds with or cancels the ceremony.
• Ministers such as Lü Zhi, Hua Qiandai, and Jiang Yao are visibly distressed because they have personal hopes of reviving deceased relatives and friends.

Significant Themes

• Great rewards conceal great dangers: The chapter emphasizes that extraordinary blessings may carry equally extraordinary risks.
• Knowledge versus uncertainty: Baize’s inability to calculate the enemy highlights the limits of even supposedly all-knowing wisdom when confronting an Immortal Venerable.
• Peace versus survival: Xiao He values minimizing suffering, while Zhang Liang and Guo Jia argue that avoiding conflict may only ensure eventual destruction.
• Strength as deterrence: The debate centers on whether Great Huan can survive without completing the ceremony and gaining the military power it promises.
• No regret or retreat: Since Great Huan has already accepted the resurrection spells and provoked the fears of other powers, the characters recognize that returning to the past is impossible.
• Strategic balance and calculated risk: Both sides use the idea of “balance,” but reach opposite conclusions about which course gives Great Huan the better chance of survival.
• Hidden manipulation: The chapter increasingly suggests that the external alliance, the ceremony, and Great Huan’s predicament may all be components of an Immortal Venerable’s larger scheme.

Character Interactions

• Dongfang Fu respectfully challenges Baize and Xiao He, arguing that canceling the ceremony would create consequences just as severe as continuing it.
• Xiao He and Zhang Liang engage in the chapter’s central strategic confrontation. Zhang repeatedly turns Xiao He’s hypothetical arguments back against him, exposing the assumptions behind his calls for cancellation.
• Xiao He reacts with frustration and anger toward Zhang, believing his willingness to accept mass casualties treats ordinary people as expendable.
• Guo Jia cautiously opposes Xiao He while still flattering his benevolent intentions, creating a tense personal contrast between their positions.
• The court’s emotional silence reflects the conflict between private grief—the desire to revive loved ones—and public responsibility for the survival of the dynasty.
• Baize listens to the debate and uses the opposing arguments to piece together the likely design behind the crisis, ending the chapter with a partial realization about the Immortal Venerable’s plan.

Chapter Summary: “Truth, Falsehood, Illusion, Reality”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Tianzhi Baize finally understands the hidden purpose behind the three Great Resurrection Spells. He concludes that the spells were not truly gifts meant to save Pangu World, but part of an Immortal Venerable’s larger scheme.
• The Descended Immortal Gods likely provided the spells to provoke an enormous war among Pangu World’s factions. The revived forces of the Great Huan Celestial Dynasty would become a common target, encouraging every opposing faction to unite against them.
• Baize explains that the war may serve two major purposes:
  1. To draw out the Mysterious Supreme Treasure, whose appearance may require a world-shaking calamity.
  2. To force out Pangu’s true inheritance or consciousness. The Upper Realm factions suspect that Pangu Immortal Venerable may not have completely died and may still exist within the Pangu Great Dao.
• The destruction of Pangu World would potentially cause the Pangu Inheritance to emerge, or force Pangu himself to reveal his existence.
• The coming Tribulation makes direct intervention dangerous. Because Pangu World contains countless living beings, destroying it would generate immense karma and causality. By encouraging Pangu’s own people to start the conflict, the Immortal Venerables could shift most of the responsibility onto them while sharing only part of the karmic burden.
• Baize presents Xiao Ying with two choices:
  • Cancel the Heavenly Grace Ceremony, abandon Pangu World, ascend, and isolate themselves.
  • Continue the ceremony and fight through the coming catastrophe, accepting that endless war is now unavoidable.
• Baize ultimately advises continuing. By accepting the Resurrection Spells and signing the Eternal Covenant, Xiao Ying’s side has already entered the Immortal Venerable’s game and may no longer be able to withdraw safely.

Character Developments

• Tianzhi Baize shifts from confusion to certainty after connecting the various clues. He recognizes that the apparent rescue operation is actually a carefully constructed manipulation involving war, treasure, Pangu’s inheritance, and karma.
• Xiao Ying becomes increasingly uneasy as he realizes that his forces may have been deliberately turned into the centerpiece of a conflict designed by beings far above his level. Although skeptical of some of Baize’s reasoning, he recognizes that the situation is becoming impossible to escape.
• Dongfang Fu remains outspoken and skeptical. She repeatedly challenges Baize’s explanation, questioning why the Immortal Venerables would need such complicated schemes and whether mortal armies could truly destroy the world.
• Xiao He and Zhang Liang, who had previously disagreed with one another, temporarily find themselves united in disbelief over the idea that the Resurrection Spells could be a trap.
• Guo Jia quickly grasps the practical implications: the spells could make Xiao Ying’s side appear overwhelmingly dangerous, causing every faction to unite against them and potentially driving the world toward destruction.
• Heavenly Empress Zhi Ji understands the central strategy most clearly near the end: the Immortal Gods are disguising destruction as salvation, using others to bear the greatest karma while pursuing the Supreme Treasure and Pangu’s legacy.
• Baize also reveals personal concern, realizing that by accompanying Xiao Ying, he too may share in the karma created by the coming disaster.

Significant Themes

• Truth and falsehood: Acts presented as benevolent—giving Resurrection Spells and signing a peace covenant—may conceal destructive intentions.
• Illusion versus reality: The apparent purpose of the Immortal Gods’ descent is to search for the Mysterious Supreme Treasure, but their deeper aim may be to create the calamity needed to reveal it.
• Manipulation and powerlessness: Mortal factions are merely pieces in an Immortal Venerable’s game and lack the power to oppose the true players directly.
• Karma and responsibility: The chapter emphasizes that higher-level beings must carefully avoid accumulating too much karma. By making Pangu’s people the apparent instigators, the Immortal Venerables can reduce their own responsibility.
• Fate and inevitability: Once Xiao Ying’s side accepts the Resurrection Spells and enters the covenant, withdrawing becomes nearly impossible. The chapter presents the conflict as a trap that has already been set in motion.
• Sacrifice and survival: Xiao Ying must choose between abandoning Pangu World to preserve his forces or staying to fight for it, knowing that either path leads into an uncertain future.

Character Interactions

• Baize’s revelation causes the entire hall to reconsider the meaning of the Resurrection Spells.
• Xiao Ying repeatedly demands that Baize abandon his riddles and explain the situation directly, establishing tension between Baize’s cautious reasoning and Xiao Ying’s need for decisive answers.
• Dongfang Fu openly disputes Baize’s conclusions, especially his claims that the war could destroy Pangu World and that the Immortal Gods could evade responsibility.
• Guo Jia supports Baize’s interpretation by recognizing how the spells could make Xiao Ying’s side the target of a massive alliance.
• Zhi Ji reframes Baize’s explanation in blunt terms, identifying the apparent peace efforts as a method of provoking war while shifting the resulting karma onto others.
• The chapter ends with Baize forcing Xiao Ying to confront the central dilemma: whether to retreat from the board or continue playing a game whose outcome has likely been predetermined by the Immortal Venerables.

Xiao Ying and his ministers decided to continue the Heavenly Grace Ceremony despite realizing that the Light Immortal Venerable had drawn the Great Huan Celestial Dynasty into a larger scheme. They accepted that an ultimate war was unavoidable and discussed preserving their people and finding a chance to escape, while Xiao Ying still wondered whether the Pangu World could be saved.

• Tianzhi Baize warned that the Great Huan Celestial Dynasty could not simply withdraw from the Immortal Venerable's scheme, and Xiao Ying's ministers unanimously agreed to continue the Heavenly Grace Ceremony.
• Bai Ze said they had no way to prevent the war and urged Xiao Ying to prepare to preserve the dynasty's people as best they could.
• Guo Jia and Bai Ze reframed the war as a chance to revive the dead, test the subjects' strength, and carry the elite into the Upper Realm.
• Xiao Ying lamented that the Pangu World might not be saved, while Bai Ze said only an opposing Immortal Venerable—or Pangu's survival—could change the outcome.
• Zhang Liang proposed putting obstacles in the enemy's path, and Xiao He vowed that manipulating him would come at a cost.

Chapter Summary: “Final Battle Deployment”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xiao Ying and Great Huan’s leadership prepare for the inevitable ultimate war against the Upper Realm, recognizing that even the Immortal Venerables cannot confirm whether Pangu Immortal Venerable has truly died.
• Marquis of Strategic Wisdom Zhang Liang identifies four essential foundations of warfare: military strength, wealth, resources, and tactics.
• Great Huan’s military and finances are considered adequate, but logistics are dangerously inadequate. Imperial Consort Qi Ji reveals that existing food reserves could sustain approximately 20 billion resurrected soldiers for three months, or those soldiers plus 100 billion citizens for only one month—less if everyone is fully fed.
• Xiao Ying resolves the manpower shortage by placing most of the Immortal Guards under Qi Ji’s command for agricultural labor.
• He then gives Qi Ji the Landscape of Mountains and Rivers Map, an artifact capable of vastly expanding her agricultural reach and available farmland. By refining it, Qi Ji can control the internal world of the map, cultivate enormous areas efficiently, and protect the logistical base from enemy attack.
• With the artifact, the Immortal Guards, and the expected return of resurrected citizens to productive work, Great Huan’s resource crisis is effectively solved.
• Zhang Liang declares that resources have secured “a small half” of the war’s foundation and turns to tactics.
• Rather than relying on battlefield surprise attacks, Zhang Liang proposes publicly revealing the Upper Realm’s scheme and the apocalyptic consequences of the final war.
• The announcement would weaken the enemy’s popular support, morale, and willingness to fight. Many forces might refuse to fully cooperate with the Upper Realm even if they outwardly obey.
• Heavenly Charm Marquis Eunuch Qiu reports that the China Alliance has already involved Otherworlders across nearly every nation. The Otherworlder community will be used to spread the information, unite Otherworlders, destabilize enemy territories, and undermine the enemy’s rear.
• The strategy is praised as a means of defeating the enemy without direct combat. Xiao Ying privately wonders whether his apparent insight was partly accidental.

Character Developments

• Xiao Ying shifts from a mostly hands-off ruler to a more attentive wartime planner. He realizes that logistics, which he had previously left entirely to his ministers, could determine the survival of the dynasty.
• Imperial Consort Qi Ji is reaffirmed as one of Great Huan’s most important contributors. Her agricultural abilities have sustained the dynasty for years, and she accepts the additional responsibility of managing the Immortal Guards and the Landscape of Mountains and Rivers Map.
• Zhang Liang demonstrates his strategic brilliance by moving from conventional military analysis to psychological and political warfare. His proposal targets the enemy’s will to fight rather than merely its armies.
• Tianzhi Baize remains emotionally detached from the fate of Great Huan, viewing the crisis more rationally because he is not one of Pangu’s people.
• Chengshalina misunderstands Zhang Liang’s reference to “tactics,” expecting a discussion of battlefield maneuvers, and is visibly uncomfortable with his attractive appearance and smile.
• Eunuch Qiu proves the effectiveness of the Otherworlder network and shows that the China Alliance has already laid the groundwork for information warfare.
• Xiao He and Guo Jia enthusiastically recognize the strategic value of Zhang Liang’s plan, while Xiao He continues to praise Xiao Ying with exaggerated reverence.

Significant Themes

• Preparation determines victory: The chapter emphasizes that wars are decided not only by combat power, but also by wealth, resources, and strategic planning.
• Logistics as the foundation of war: Even a powerful dynasty can be crippled by shortages of food, farmland, and labor.
• Leadership and delegation: Xiao Ying’s strength lies partly in trusting capable consorts and ministers, though he must also recognize the consequences of neglecting practical affairs.
• Technology and cultivation transforming warfare: The Landscape of Mountains and Rivers Map changes the scale of agriculture and renders ordinary logistical limitations far less relevant.
• Psychological and information warfare: Exposing the Upper Realm’s destructive plan may fracture its coalition before the main battle begins.
• Unity against manipulation: The chapter contrasts the Upper Realm’s attempt to control others with Great Huan’s effort to awaken resistance among the threatened nations and Otherworlders.
• Subduing the enemy without fighting: Morale, legitimacy, and popular support are presented as weapons capable of weakening an army before physical conflict begins.

Character Interactions

• Xiao Ying consults Zhang Liang and the court regarding the war’s four fundamental requirements.
• He directly questions Qi Ji about food reserves, initially reacting with alarm to her prediction that supplies may last only weeks.
• Xiao Ying gives Qi Ji the Immortal Guards and the Landscape of Mountains and Rivers Map, demonstrating trust in her abilities and strengthening her role in the war effort.
• Zhang Liang exchanges remarks with Chengshalina, who misunderstands his meaning and becomes irritated by his teasingly elegant demeanor.
• Zhang Liang presents his information-spreading strategy to Xiao Ying, winning immediate approval from Xiao He, Guo Jia, and the wider court.
• Eunuch Qiu explains how the Otherworlder community will carry out the plan, linking the court’s strategic decision to the China Alliance’s existing operations.
• Xiao He praises Xiao Ying extravagantly, while Xiao Ying silently questions whether he truly deserves the credit.

As the Heavenly Grace Ceremony approached, rumors that the Great Huan Celestial Dynasty had become an Immortal Kingdom and faced a coalition plot spread across the world. Xiao Ying declined to personally meet the Calamity Dynasty’s delegation, prepared for possible interference, and began the ceremony amid a vast gathering of people and Descended Immortal Gods.

• News spread that the Descended Immortal Gods had signed the Eternal Covenant and that factions were conspiring to destroy the Great Huan Celestial Dynasty and Pangu World.
• Eunuch Qiu reported that Prince of Roars Greil and the Calamity Dynasty’s delegation sought Xiao Ying’s assurance and the resurrection of Calamity Emperor Arthas; Xiao Ying sent them an imperial decree and offered a hundred places at the ceremony.
• Chancellor Tian Dan warned Xiao Ying that factions might disrupt the ceremony, but Xiao Ying ordered that only the Terracotta Warriors and Immortal Guards be deployed and dismissed the threat of interference.
• On the ceremony’s day, Terracotta Warriors filled Nine Dragons Forbidden City and its surroundings, while Empress Huating remained in Xianyang Imperial Capital amid similarly extensive defenses.
• A giant bell rang eighty-one times across the Pangu World, and Xiao Ying emerged from the palace as countless people and more than ten thousand Descended Immortal Gods gathered for the ceremony.

Xiao Ying began the heavenly grace ceremony with little pomp, then activated the Great Resurrection Spell talisman at the Heaven-Sacrificing Altar. The spell resurrected Terracotta Warriors and selected outsiders while dramatically increasing the power of nearly every living and undead being in the Pangu World, leaving Xiao Ying troubled by the Immortal Venerable’s methods.

• Xiao Ying rode with eight hundred Ravenous Wolf Guards to the Heaven-Sacrificing Altar without encountering trouble.
• Xiao Ying began the ceremony with Eunuch Qiu and used Grand Edict Art to activate the Great Resurrection Spell jade talisman.
• The talisman unleashed a vast light that shook heaven and earth and spread across the Pangu World.
• The Terracotta Warriors in the Nine Dragons Forbidden City and Xianyang Imperial Capital crumbled to reveal living Great Huan soldiers, while the outsiders on the altar steps were resurrected.
• Spiritual energy surged throughout the Pangu World, causing nearly every living and undead being to break through their cultivation limits.
• Xiao Ying sighed, recognizing the transformation as the Immortal Venerable’s method and feeling no joy at its effects.

The Heavenly Grace Ceremony raised the Pangu World’s spiritual energy and brought the dead back to life, earning Xiao Ying widespread gratitude even as he feared the change would hasten the world’s destruction. Great Huan mobilized its enormous armies, and rival factions prepared for the war that Xiao Ying’s next move might unleash.

• Xiao Ying realized that the Great Resurrection Spell jade talismans had caused the Pangu World’s spiritual energy to surge, threatening to worsen its impending collapse.
• The Great Huan subjects, revived Terracotta Warriors, and visitors praised the Great Huan Celestial Lord, while Xiao Ying accepted their gratitude with guilt and vowed to save Pangu’s people.
• Xiao Ying vanished from the ceremony, and God Emperor Luo Tian and other Descended Immortal Gods argued over the Eternal Covenant and their preparations for war.
• Shakyamuni pressed Hades about the Nether Realm’s forces, and Hades insisted they would be ready for the coming offensive.
• Great Huan’s armies began deploying across China’s Divine Land as factions stirred and the world awaited Xiao Ying’s next move.

Xiao Ying reunited with the Great Huan officials resurrected after the Heavenly Grace Ceremony, welcomed them, and granted Shi Ji a marquis title. He disciplined Li Yuan for the Battle of Sishui and promised the families of Wu Chen and Lü Chen that he would seek to resurrect them after ascending.

• Xiao Ying found the resurrected Great Huan officials and their families gathered in the palace square, including Shi Ji and Li Yuan.
• Xiao Ying welcomed Shi Ji back and appointed him Loyalty-and-Bravery Marquis, causing Shi Ji's cultivation to surge to peak early-stage Loose Immortal.
• Xiao Ying rebuked Li Yuan for his role in the Battle of Sishui, stripped him of his other posts, and barred him from commanding troops until he reflected on his failings.
• Xiao Ying learned that Wu Chen and Lü Chen had not been resurrected and promised their families he would seek to bring them back after ascending.

After the heavenly grace ceremony, Xiao Ying promised to investigate the deaths of Lü Chen and Wu Chen and the resurrected Great Huan Forbidden Guard grew to about 510,000 soldiers. In Di Province, Cao Pi and Sima Yi urged the allied powers to invade Great Huan, and Cao Pi ordered the Great Wei army to march south, threatening to surrender if its allies failed to reinforce it within three days.

• Xiao Ying promised the families of Lü Chen and Wu Chen that he would investigate their deaths and try to resurrect them after his ascension.
• The Ravenous Wolf Guards and Huan Martial Guards returned to the Forbidden Palace, bringing the Great Huan Forbidden Guard to roughly 510,000 soldiers equipped with weapons and armor.
• Reports of the ceremony reached Di Province, where Cao Pi pressed the allied representatives to begin their campaign against Great Huan.
• Erian and Tana objected that Great Huan's sudden increase in troops made an immediate invasion too risky, but Sima Yi argued that Great Huan would need time to manage its forces and supplies.
• Cao Pi ordered the Great Wei and Northern Di armies to march south immediately and declared that Great Wei would surrender to Great Huan if its allies did not send reinforcements within three days.

Emperor Cao Pi and Sima Yi secured the powers’ agreement to attack Great Huan, then launched a coordinated invasion from several directions. By the end, allied armies had breached the Great Wall, seized dozens of cities, and attacked Great Huan across its northern, southwestern, southern, and eastern fronts.

• Cao Pi and Sima Yi persuaded the allied powers that their forces would attack Great Huan together, with Great Wei leading the campaign.
• Sima Yi laid out a plan in which five kings would lead six million troops while allied mobile legions and cultivators supported them.
• More than ten thousand Loose Immortals attacked the Great Wall, and allied forces seized control of the defensive line.
• Cao Zhang and the four other kings led their armies into Great Huan, capturing forty-three cities by sunrise and killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
• Cao Pi and the allied main forces crossed the Great Wall as the Southwestern Alliance invaded from the southwest and the Southern Alliance marched north.
• The North and South American Alliance attacked Penglai Commandery while allied armies gathered to enter Great Huan through Teleportation Formations.

After the Great Wall fell, Han Xin briefed Xiao Ying and the court on a coordinated invasion by alliances across the world. He urged Xiao Ying to abandon exposed territories and destroy their Teleportation Formations before the enemy could seize them, leaving the court awaiting the emperor’s decision.

• Han Xin reported that the Northern Alliance had breached most of the Great Wall and detailed the vast forces gathering to attack Great Huan from several directions.
• Ji Bu and Gao Gong protested the invasion, while Guo Jia and Chengshalina blamed the Descended Immortal Gods for turning the world against Great Huan.
• Xiao Ying ended the debate and directed Han Xin to explain the military response.
• Han Xin recommended withdrawing forces and subjects from exposed regions, defending natural barriers, and concentrating troops in the heartland.
• Xiao He objected to abandoning the territories, but Han Xin argued that reinforcements could not arrive in time and that holding the regions would cause more deaths.
• Han Xin asked Xiao Ying to order the destruction of Teleportation Formations in threatened cities and to send elite troops, including Otherworlders, to destroy nearby formations before the enemy could use them.