Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After tens of thousands of years of silence, Undying Mountain erupts with immortal light, immense vitality, and overwhelming Great Dao fluctuations. Cultivators across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands conclude that the Demon Venerable, Li Ming, is undergoing the transformation of his ninth lifetime.
• Centuries later, Li Ming emerges looking young and radiant. He has achieved Nine-Lifetime Red Dust Immortal ascension, becoming the first Red Dust Immortal in this world. His transformation triggers an unexpected Red Dust Immortal tribulation.
• Li Ming travels to the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland, where he is attacked by lightning phantoms of ancient Immortal Kings. The Desolate Pagoda’s weapon deity recognizes several figures—including the Qilin Immortal King and Immortal Monk King—but cannot recover their histories, hinting that the world has lost memories of an earlier age.
• Despite being battered, killed, and repeatedly restored, Li Ming endures the tribulation and defeats the phantoms. The ordeal reveals that the Red Dust Immortal realm is not the ultimate limit: Li Ming glimpses the possibility of a tenth-lifetime transformation and resolves to pursue it.
• After the tribulation, Li Ming consolidates his Red Dust Immortal status. His presence nourishes the world, and people across the land celebrate and revere him. He then disappears to continue cultivating in seclusion.
• The Desolate Pagoda chooses to follow him. Li Ming accepts indifferently, noting that he has little need for a weapon.

Character development and interactions

• Li Ming reaches the culmination of his nine-lifetime path, becoming youthful, timeless, and overwhelmingly powerful. Rather than treating his success as a final destination, he sees it as a step toward the legendary tenth lifetime and the immortal apex.
• The Desolate Pagoda’s weapon deity begins recovering fragments of erased history through the Immortal King phantoms. Its realization that the world has forgotten these ancient figures unsettles it, and it ultimately approaches Li Ming as a follower.
• The cultivators of the world move from uncertainty and awe to celebration, regarding Li Ming’s ascension as proof that the nine-lifetime cultivation path can succeed.
• Li Ming’s interaction with the Desolate Pagoda is notably casual: though the artifact once ignored him, he neither boasts nor shows particular interest when it offers to follow.

Significant themes

• Perseverance and transformation: Li Ming’s ascension validates the long path of repeated lives and renewal.
• Limits as invitations to go further: Reaching Red Dust Immortality reveals a still-higher possibility rather than ending Li Ming’s pursuit.
• History and forgotten memory: The tribulation’s Immortal King phantoms expose a buried past that even ancient beings can barely remember.
• Power and detachment: Li Ming becomes a world-shaking figure yet remains focused on cultivation, largely indifferent to worship, recognition, and weapons.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Li Ming achieves Mortal-World Ascension. After ages of preparation, he enters his ninth lifetime and becomes a Red Dust Immortal without using Immortal Medicine. He meditates on the Undying Mountain, while powerful figures across the world gather outside to honor him.
• A new golden age begins. Tens of thousands of years later, geniuses proliferate and a new emperor emerges: Divine State Emperor, who visits Li Ming for instruction in the Red Dust Immortal Transformation Method. Li Ming teaches him and gives him two Immortal Medicine fruits.
• Immortal Matriarch returns. A mysterious woman surpasses the Heavenly Heart Imprint and becomes emperor. She is revealed to be Xiao Yao, Li Ming’s former maid from the Age of Mythology. After awakening as a Perfected Sacred Spirit and living into her Third Lifetime, she reunites joyfully with Li Ming.
• Snow Lotus Empress returns as well. Snow Lotus Fairy, once a Demigod Medicine and another of Li Ming’s former maids, emerges from the Immortal Ascension Pool after reaching her Third Lifetime. She has merged her snow-lotus essence with the Chaos Green Lotus, becoming both at once.
• The women prepare for another lifetime. Snow Lotus Fairy gives Xiao Yao a unique Lotus Seed capable of granting another lifetime; Xiao Yao gives her a Nine-Revolution Immortal Elixir in exchange. Rather than use these immediately, Xiao Yao enters Eternal Grand Dream in the Reincarnation Sea, while Snow Lotus Fairy becomes a Sacred Spirit Stone Embryo in Kunlun.
• The Buddha Emperor begins to awaken. In a later golden age, Buddhist light spreads across Mount Sumeru. The Buddha Emperor’s illusory form appears from the Eight Treasures Merit Pool, signaling his return.

Character developments

• Li Ming is now an immortal with seemingly endless life and unmatched insight. He remains largely detached from worldly events, but warmly welcomes his former companions and continues guiding those who seek him.
• Divine State Emperor is powerful and revered, but devotes himself more to extending his life and mastering Li Ming’s method than to ruling.
• Xiao Yao / Immortal Matriarch has grown from Li Ming’s maid into a formidable empress and Perfected Sacred Spirit. Her reunion with Li Ming reveals her enduring affection and gratitude.
• Snow Lotus Fairy / Snow Lotus Empress has achieved a Third Lifetime and a unique merged nature as both snow lotus and green lotus. She shows generosity by sharing her rare companion treasure with Xiao Yao.
• The Buddha Emperor appears poised to return after more than a million years of Buddhist prosperity.

Significant themes

• Immortality and repeated transformation: Characters seek new lifetimes through different paths—Red Dust transformation, Eternal Grand Dream, Sacred Spirit transformation, or rare treasures.
• Time and reunion: Vast spans of history separate Li Ming and his former companions, yet their bonds endure.
• Mentorship and legacy: Li Ming’s teachings shape emperors and influence the wider world long after they are passed down.
• Transformation of identity: Xiao Yao and Snow Lotus Fairy transcend their former roles and origins, becoming powers in their own right.
• The cyclical nature of history: Golden ages, emperors, and awakenings recur across the ages.

Character interactions

• Rulers and powerful cultivators show reverence by gathering outside the Undying Mountain, while Divine State Emperor personally seeks Li Ming’s guidance.
• Li Ming and Xiao Yao share an affectionate reunion, reflecting their bond across millions of years.
• Snow Lotus Fairy reunites with Li Ming and Xiao Yao, then exchanges her Lotus Seed for an Immortal Elixir with Xiao Yao, ensuring both have a chance to pursue a Fourth Lifetime.
• The chapter closes with the Buddhist community collectively sensing the Buddha Emperor’s awakening.

Chapter Summary

Plot points and events

• The Buddha Emperor returns to Mount Sumeru after using the Buddhist Sect’s accumulated Faith Power to create a new body. His Sarira becomes his Immortal Platform and Buddha heart, allowing him to pass through Nirvana and begin a Third Lifetime.
• His return draws immense devotion from believers across the cosmos. As Faith Power gathers, the Buddha Emperor makes sweeping vows to free beings from suffering and the cycle of rebirth.
• The Buddha Emperor reveals the birth of a second True Buddha: a gifted child named Amitabha. He brings the boy to Mount Sumeru and personally builds his cultivation foundation.
• Amitabha rapidly advances, becoming a Saint and earning the stature of an Ancient Buddha while still young. At the Buddha Emperor’s request, he sets out to represent the Buddhist Sect on the Ancient Starry Sky Road and compete for the Emperor’s Path.
• Rather than immediately joining the road’s bloody contests, Amitabha spends much of his time helping people, spreading Buddhist teachings, settling conflicts, and restoring the Dao in neglected regions. His cultivation nevertheless continues to grow.
• When Amitabha returns to the road’s final stage, he defeats many Young Supremes without killing them. Some follow him, leading others to suspect he is using a forbidden art to turn opponents into followers.
• In the Chaos Thunder Sea, Amitabha captures a violent Nine-Headed Lion in his Palm-Within Buddha Kingdom and orders it to repent. He later defeats the Asura Clan’s formidable genius, whose unusual Dao laws can pierce Amitabha’s faith power, but whose attacks cannot break his golden body. The Asura and Luo Hou withdraw after Amitabha invites them to join the Buddhist Sect.

Character development

• The Buddha Emperor reappears at the height of his power, demonstrating that his devotion to saving beings is both a spiritual vow and a defining purpose. He becomes a mentor, personally preparing Amitabha for the Emperor’s Path.
• Amitabha grows from an unusually wise child into a powerful young Buddha. He combines formidable combat ability with compassion, choosing to reform or spare opponents rather than kill them.
• The Asura genius is presented as a rare opponent capable of resisting Amitabha’s faith-based power. Despite losing, he accepts the defeat with dignity and vows to challenge Amitabha again.
• Luo Hou remains mysterious and wary, intervening during the battle and leaving with the Asura genius.

Character interactions

• The Buddhist Sect’s monks and Ancient Buddhas welcome the Buddha Emperor’s return with reverence and joy.
• Amitabha’s birth parents willingly let the monks take him for cultivation, trusting their faith and the monks’ demonstrated powers.
• Amitabha addresses the Buddha Emperor as his master and accepts the mission to represent the sect.
• On the Ancient Starry Sky Road, Amitabha uses the Dharma to persuade wrongdoers to change and prevent conflicts.
• He confronts the Nine-Headed Lion and the Asura genius, but treats victory as an opportunity for repentance or invitation rather than execution. Both the Asura and Luo Hou reject his invitation and leave cautiously.

Significant themes

• Faith as power and renewal: The Buddha Emperor’s return shows how collective belief can sustain life and recreate a spiritual leader.
• Compassion amid competition: Amitabha enters a brutal struggle for supremacy yet seeks to reduce suffering and avoids killing.
• Redemption and restraint: His treatment of wrongdoers reflects the belief that even violent beings can be guided toward change.
• Devotion and destiny: The Buddha Emperor’s vows, Amitabha’s name and innate gifts, and the sect’s sacrifices frame their roles as part of a larger spiritual purpose.
• The limits of persuasion: Amitabha offers even his defeated enemies a place in the Buddhist Sect, but they refuse, showing that peace cannot simply be imposed on those who reject its path.

Key plot points and events

• Amitabha Buddha reassures fleeing prodigies that rumors about forcing people to serve him are false, but most still refuse his invitation to enter Chaos Divine Mountain together.
• Protected by Faith Power, he leads more than a hundred followers through the Chaos Thunder Sea, an unprecedented feat. At Chaos Divine Mountain, the group studies the legacies of past emperors. Amitabha Buddha visits the Demon Venerable’s mountain, discovers the Red Dust Immortal Transformation Theory, and contemplates it before returning to Mount Sumeru.
• The Buddha Emperor welcomes him back and teaches him, “The multitudes are formidable.” He also entrusts Amitabha Buddha with damaged Divine Marked Purple Gold, hoping he will forge it into a Dao-Proving weapon.
• Amitabha Buddha travels across countless worlds, helping living beings and refining the fragments into the Vajra Demon-Subduing Pestle. After three thousand years, he undergoes the Ninefold Immortal Tribulation. He withstands it through his own strength, aided but not defined by Faith Power, and restores the pestle’s divine power.
• At the moment of proving his Dao, Amitabha Buddha refuses to claim the supreme immortal throne or rise above the Heavenly Heart Imprint. Instead, he gives his accumulated Faith Power back to living beings through a vow, healing them and helping them advance. He merges with the imprint and becomes a Great Emperor.
• After a period of peace and further travels, Amitabha Buddha visits the Demon Venerable, Li Ming, at the Undying Mountain. He thanks him for the Red Dust Immortal Transformation Theory and asks for guidance, determined to pursue the path toward becoming an Immortal King.

Character developments

• Amitabha Buddha grows from a gifted, misunderstood leader into a compassionate Great Emperor. He proves that his power rests on personal cultivation as well as Faith Power, and chooses service over supreme status.
• The Buddha Emperor acts as Amitabha Buddha’s approving master and guide, offering a concise teaching that shapes his outlook and entrusting him with the purple-gold fragments.
• Li Ming, the Demon Venerable, is revealed as Amitabha Buddha’s respected senior and the source of the theory he hopes to master. He receives Amitabha Buddha humbly but initially leaves the request for instruction open.
• The Nine-Headed Lion remains Amitabha Buddha’s companion and mount after the other followers disperse.

Significant themes

• Compassion and self-giving: Amitabha Buddha returns his vast Faith Power to the people rather than using it to surpass the world’s laws.
• Collective strength: “The multitudes are formidable” captures his belief that his Dao is connected to all living beings.
• Misunderstanding and reputation: Rumors make other prodigies fear and flee Amitabha Buddha despite his sincere intentions.
• Perseverance and spiritual growth: His long travels, discipline, trials, and study show that enlightenment requires sustained effort.
• Humility and lineage: Though an emperor, Amitabha Buddha approaches Li Ming as a junior, honoring both their relationship and his debt to the Demon Venerable.

Character interactions

• Amitabha Buddha invites the prodigies to study together, but fear and suspicion keep most away.
• The Buddha Emperor praises and instructs Amitabha Buddha, while Amitabha receives his master’s words and gift with reverence.
• Amitabha’s bond with his followers is expressed through the vow that distributes Faith Power’s benefits to them and all who recite his name.
• At the Undying Mountain, Amitabha offers respect and gratitude to Li Ming, then asks him to clarify the difficult theory that may lead to the Immortal King realm.

Key plot points and events

• After discussing the Red Dust Immortal Path with Li Ming, Amitabha Buddha spends over a thousand years in the Undying Mountain, then returns to Mount Sumeru to refine his own approach to immortality.
• He later travels to Beidou’s barren Western Desert, spreads Buddhism, and persuades the Buddha Emperor to move Mount Sumeru there. The region becomes Buddhism’s stronghold.
• After consuming Immortal Medicine and living a second lifetime, Amitabha gathers immense faith power and then vanishes. His fate remains uncertain: some believe he died, while others think he is transforming or preparing to return. The Buddha Emperor also disappears, secretly becoming a Sacred Spirit Stone Embryo.
• Tens of thousands of years pass. A new era of rising prodigies and Quasi-Emperors begins, but the usually illustrious Heaven-Piercing Ancient Star is strangely weak, with no Great Saints and no outstanding young Supremes.
• At the Great Xia Holy Land, its secluded Saint, Ancient Saint Xia Xin, emerges to lecture on the Dao. When his disciple Taihuang fails to attend, Xia Ning—Taihuang’s master—goes to fetch him.
• Taihuang, unearthed from Divine Source and already at the Second Immortal Platform after just over twenty years of cultivation, is pursuing a path inspired by a damaged copy of Demon Emperor Xue Yueqing’s scripture. He is developing dragon qi, seeking True Dragon blood, and building formations that draw power from underground Dragon Veins.
• Xia Ning considers Taihuang’s approach misguided and tries to break through his defenses. After struggling with the sophisticated formations, he smashes an entrance open—only to be attacked by a dragon made of dragon qi, powered by the mountain’s Dragon Veins.

Character developments and interactions

• Amitabha Buddha is portrayed as compassionate, exceptionally insightful, and committed to putting his Buddhist Dao into practice. His disappearance leaves his ultimate fate unresolved.
• Li Ming supports Amitabha’s choice to pursue the Red Dust Immortal Path and helps him develop his method.
• Taihuang emerges as a startlingly gifted, independent-minded cultivator whose talent extends beyond cultivation to formations. He is determined to forge an unconventional path despite disapproval.
• Xia Ning admires Taihuang’s potential but is frustrated by his choices. He sees human cultivation and dragon cultivation as incompatible and tries to force Taihuang back onto what he considers the proper path.
• Ancient Saint Xia Xin takes a more open-minded stance: rather than condemn Taihuang, he wants to meet the young cultivator and judge him for himself.
• The other Great Xia disciples mock Taihuang and anticipate his humiliation, while Xia Ning’s attempt to discipline him turns into a confrontation with Taihuang’s formidable defenses.

Significant themes

• Choosing one’s own Dao: Amitabha and Taihuang each develop personal paths rather than simply following established routes.
• Faith, compassion, and legacy: Amitabha’s life is defined by saving others, and his influence endures even after his disappearance.
• Orthodoxy versus unconventional cultivation: Xia Ning’s rigid human-centered view clashes with Taihuang’s dragon-inspired methods.
• Talent and expectation: Taihuang’s exceptional potential draws both admiration and pressure to conform.
• Uncertainty and transformation: The disappearances of Amitabha and the Buddha Emperor suggest that apparent endings may conceal new forms of existence.

Plot points

• Taihuang demonstrates his Imperial Dao Dragon Qi, drawing on the Great Xia Holy Land’s Dragon Vein to fight his master, Xia Ning, nearly evenly. Xia Ning praises his achievement but warns that powerful enemies will not hold back.
• Taihuang reveals that he found and consumed all of a rare Dreamlike Divine Marrow, a treasure that can strengthen one’s foundation and prolong life.
• During a Saint’s sermon, Taihuang enters an extraordinary eighty-one-day enlightenment. His dragon qi and visions of the Grand Dao astonish the disciples and elders.
• The Great Xia elders accept that Taihuang has forged a genuine, distinctive path to the Dao. Founder Xia Xin gives him Great Saint Dragon Bones and urges him to seek a wider arena on the Ancient Starry Sky Road.
• Taihuang vows to become a Great Accomplished King within twenty years and a Saint within a hundred. He leaves alone, survives deadly battles, and fulfills his second promise before reaching the First Divine City.
• At the city, Taihuang senses its formidable Dragon Vein and arrives as a celebrated Young Supreme. The city’s envoys recognize him and prepare its trial grounds.

Character development and interactions

• Taihuang grows from an unconventional, sometimes doubted disciple into a recognized prodigy whose confidence in his self-forged path is affirmed by the sect’s elders. He remains respectful toward his teachers while boldly declaring his ambitions.
• Xia Ning shifts from trying to steer Taihuang toward conventional cultivation to proudly supporting him, though he still cautions him about the dangers ahead. Their relationship blends discipline with friendly familiarity.
• Ancient Saint Xia Xin and the Supreme Elders move from astonishment to acceptance and active support, treating Taihuang as the Holy Land’s hope. Xia Xin’s gift of dragon bones and advice mark his investment in Taihuang’s future.
• The disciples, some of whom once mocked Taihuang, are humbled by his display and gain insight from his dragon-qi resonance.

Significant themes

• Forging one’s own path: Taihuang’s unusual Imperial Dao Dragon Qi is ultimately recognized as a valid route to the Grand Dao.
• Talent tested through hardship: His potential becomes real through danger, persistence, and repeated transformation on the Ancient Starry Sky Road.
• Mentorship and institutional hope: Guidance, recognition, and material support help a gifted disciple carry the hopes of his sect.
• A larger world and fierce competition: The First Divine City reveals that even celebrated geniuses may be overshadowed; Taihuang must prove himself among the universe’s strongest.

Plot points and events

• At the Chaos Thunder Sea, the final trial of the Ancient Starry Sky Road, peerless young fighters battle for the chance to become the next Emperor.
• Taihuang unleashes his Imperial Dao Dragon Qi, turning the sea’s lightning into a devastating weapon. In dragon form, he slaughters the other contenders and stands alone amid the battlefield.
• His Dao companion, Fairy Qing Shi, helps collect the fallen fighters’ treasures. Together they travel deeper into the Thunder Sea and discover Chaos Divine Mountains bearing the legacies of past Great Emperors and Ancient Emperors.
• They encounter the Demon Venerable, whose aura surpasses even those of legendary Emperors. Taihuang and Qing Shi pay their respects and are welcomed by him.
• The Demon Venerable recognizes Taihuang’s Imperial Dao Dragon Qi as a technique with the potential to rival the Nine Secrets: Dou, but warns that it is burdened by excessive killing intent and baleful energy. If left unresolved, this could destroy Taihuang’s chance of attaining a Third Lifetime.

Character developments

• Taihuang is revealed as an immensely powerful and ambitious contender, but his victory exposes a dangerous loss of control: his fighting style has become far more lethal than he intends. Meeting the Demon Venerable offers him both rare guidance and a chance to confront that flaw.
• Fairy Qing Shi is established as Taihuang’s close, supportive Dao companion. She shares his awe and respect for the Demon Venerable, and shows a practical, treasure-seeking side while helping him clear the battlefield.
• The Demon Venerable appears as a revered, compassionate figure whose immense power is matched by discernment. He quickly identifies both Taihuang’s technique’s potential and its hidden danger.

Character interactions

• Taihuang and Qing Shi act as partners: he reassures her when danger appears, and she assists him in searching the battlefield for spoils.
• The pair approach the Demon Venerable with sincere reverence. He recognizes their origins and speaks directly with Taihuang about the strengths and risks of his cultivation.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: Taihuang’s formidable technique brings a dangerous accumulation of killing intent and resentment.
• Rivalry and survival: At the final trial, even prodigies without personal grudges fight to the death because their paths to the Emperor’s throne are at stake.
• Legacy and guidance: The Chaos Divine Mountains preserve the wisdom of past rulers, while the Demon Venerable’s counsel may help Taihuang avoid a catastrophic fate.
• Ambition versus self-mastery: Raw strength alone may not secure enlightenment; Taihuang must also control the force he has created.**

Plot points and events

• In the Chaos Thunder Sea, the Demon Venerable reassures Taihuang that killing on the Emperor’s Path is part of its brutal struggle. He advises him that, once he becomes a Great Emperor, a benevolent heart will let him resolve his curse.
• The Demon Venerable is impressed by Taihuang’s Imperial Dao Dragon Qi and develops it further, demonstrating its immense potential. He invites Taihuang and Fairy Qing Shi to visit the Undying Mountain after becoming Great Emperors, where he will teach them the Red Dust Immortal Method.
• Taihuang and Qing Shi leave the trial grounds as Ninth Heaven Quasi-Emperors and return to Heaven-Piercing Ancient Star. News of Taihuang’s victories across the Ancient Starry Sky Road spreads, and the planet celebrates his return as an unrivaled contender for the Great Emperor throne.
• Taihuang reunites with his master, Founder, and the Great Xia Holy Land. He presents the Founders with Perfect Evolution Fluid, which can extend their lives by thousands of years. They welcome him joyfully and vow to witness his eventual enlightenment.
• Over the next thousand years, Taihuang and Qing Shi travel the mortal world while he calmly defeats challengers. He kills a Forbidden Zone Heir whose vendetta leaves no alternative, then refines the opponent’s essence and studies the Grand Dao fragments within it.
• After another five hundred years, Taihuang enters the Chaos Sea and triggers his enlightenment tribulation. He withstands its legendary trials, absorbs lightning through his Imperial Dao Dragon Qi, and reforges his Dragon-Patterned Black Gold Sword. As the tribulation ends, the Heavenly Heart Imprint appears before him.

Character developments

• Taihuang grows into a composed, overwhelmingly powerful contender for Great Emperor. The Demon Venerable’s counsel influences him to avoid killing when possible, though he remains decisive when forced into a life-or-death fight. His Imperial Dao Dragon Qi reaches its utmost potential.
• Fairy Qing Shi remains Taihuang’s close companion, sharing his journey home and his years of wandering.
• The Demon Venerable appears unexpectedly benevolent and mentor-like, recognizing Taihuang’s potential and offering future instruction.
• The Great Xia Holy Land’s elders see Taihuang’s return as proof that he may become a Great Emperor; their joy deepens when he offers them life-extending treasure.

Themes and character interactions

• The Emperor’s Path is portrayed as a ruthless contest where survival may demand violence, balanced by the ideal of retaining compassion and benevolence.
• Mentorship and accumulated insight drive advancement: the Demon Venerable’s guidance, Taihuang’s study of Dragon Qi, and his analysis of defeated foes all contribute to his growth.
• Homecoming and filial gratitude are central to Taihuang’s reunion with the Great Xia Holy Land, where he shares his gains with the Founders.
• Taihuang’s exchanges with Qing Shi, his mentors, and challengers show different sides of his journey: companionship, gratitude, restraint, and formidable resolve.

Plot and key events

• Taihuang rejects the usual path to becoming emperor: instead of fusing with the Heavenly Heart Imprint, he shatters it and attempts to rise above the world’s myriad Dao.
• A catastrophic tribulation assails him with manifestations of Immortal Spirits, Immortal Medicines, and legendary emperors. With the Demon Venerable’s earlier guidance and his Imperial Dao Dragon Qi, Taihuang endures the ordeal, fuses with his qi as a colossal purple dragon, and succeeds in surpassing the imprint.
• Having become emperor, Taihuang visits the Demon Venerable at the Undying Mountain. The Demon Venerable recognizes his achievement and teaches him the Red Dust Immortal Transformation Method.
• Nearly eighteen thousand years into his first lifetime, Taihuang’s vitality fades. He asks whether he can force his way into another lifetime without an Immortal Medicine. The Demon Venerable says he is not ready and advises him to use one for his second lifetime, then attempt to achieve his third through his own strength.
• Taihuang accepts the risk of pursuing the Red Dust Immortal Path. After consuming the gifted Immortal Medicine, he regains his youth, and Li Ming takes him to the Immortal Ascension Grounds in Qinling, Beidou, where Taihuang may undergo his next transformation.
• They discover someone has arrived ahead of them. The grounds contain the Immortal Pool and a death-haunted Eternal Dragon Cave, where a powerful Yin God—once an Underworld Supreme—confronts them in the Underworld’s name. The chapter ends with Li Ming casually questioning whether the being is truly from the Underworld.

Character developments and interactions

• Taihuang evolves from a formidable contender into an emperor who has surpassed the Heavenly Heart Imprint, then commits himself to the more demanding Red Dust Immortal Path. His ambition and resolve are matched by humility: he recognizes his limits and thanks the Demon Venerable for his guidance.
• The Demon Venerable (Li Ming) remains vastly more powerful than Taihuang, even after Taihuang’s breakthrough. He offers frank advice rather than promising success, and later escorts Taihuang to a suitable place for his next lifetime.
• Taihuang and the Demon Venerable interact as respectful teacher and student: Taihuang credits him for his success, while the Demon Venerable praises Taihuang’s unique Dragon Qi and warns him about the dangers ahead.
• The Yin God asserts the Underworld’s authority, but Li Ming and Taihuang regard it as no meaningful threat.

Significant themes

• Ambition and transcendence: Taihuang seeks not merely to inherit the established order but to surpass it.
• Limits, effort, and merit: Guidance can point the way, but talent, comprehension, and personal strength determine who can follow it.
• Mortality and transformation: Even an emperor faces decline; renewal requires sacrifice, risk, and continued cultivation.
• Power and perspective: Taihuang’s rise is immense, yet meeting the Demon Venerable reveals how relative power remains.

Plot points and events

• A self-proclaimed Underworld Yin God threatens Li Ming and Taihuang, but Li Ming quickly overpowers him, destroys his armor, and kills him after extracting his memories.
• The Yin God had long since lost contact with the Underworld. He had seized the Immortal Ascension Grounds after sensing an immortal’s corpse in the Eternal Dragon Cave.
• Li Ming and Taihuang find the ancient Great Dragon, a Sacred Spirit forcibly dragged from Qinling’s ancestral dragon vein by the Yin God. They discover a human-shaped True Immortal corpse in the cave’s sea of lunar energy, then Li Ming seals away the dangerous corpses.
• Taihuang offers the Great Dragon a chance to begin again as a human. The dragon agrees, surrendering his Sacred Spirit body in exchange for possible future cultivation.
• With Li Ming and Taihuang’s help, the dragon begins gestating as a plant-like being in the Immortal Transformation Pool. Its flower bud soon awakens with a new consciousness: it renounces its former life and names itself Jiuli.
• Taihuang chooses to remain at the Eternal Dragon Cave to study Sacred Spirit transformation and pursue a new life as a Sacred Spirit Stone Embryo. Li Ming prepares to leave, pondering the Immortal Transformation Pool’s mysteries.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Ming exposes the Yin God’s bluff, dominates him, and investigates the cave’s secrets. He shows both pragmatism—destroying threats rather than leaving them behind—and curiosity about the Immortal Transformation Pool and the origins of Jiuli.
• Taihuang acts as mentor and benefactor to the Great Dragon, offering a path to rebirth while also hoping to study the Sacred Spirit method. He is committed to attempting his own transformation.
• The ancient Great Dragon is unusually peaceful for a Sacred Spirit and accepts the loss of his original body with equanimity. As Jiuli, he treats the Great Dragon as a past life and resolves to cultivate solely as a new being.
• The Yin God’s arrogant threats collapse into fear and pleading once Li Ming reveals his overwhelming power.

Significant themes

• Rebirth and identity: Jiuli deliberately separates himself from his former life, raising questions about whether a reincarnated being remains the same person.
• Sacrifice and opportunity: The Great Dragon gives up his Sacred Spirit body for the chance to continue cultivating in another form.
• Power and humility: The Yin God’s false confidence contrasts with Li Ming’s effortless strength.
• Cycles of life and death: The cleansing of the dead Sacred Spirits and the hints of a connection to the Underworld’s Reincarnation Path deepen the chapter’s focus on death, passage, and renewal.
• Uncertainty and hidden history: The immortal corpse, the shifting Immortal Ascension Grounds, and Jiuli’s origin suggest that the world’s past—and the history behind familiar figures—may be more complicated than previously believed.

Chapter Summary

Plot and major events

• After Taihuang exhausts his second lifetime, he completes the dangerous first stage of the Saint Spirit Transformation Method: his body turns to stone, and his consciousness briefly vanishes. His Immortal Platform then revives with an undying spark of True Spirit, beginning a long transformation into a Sacred Spirit Stone Embryo. Li Ming confirms the process is stable and leaves.
• Taihuang’s disappearance becomes legend. While the world’s Grand Dao suppresses cultivation for tens of thousands of years, few powerful cultivators arise. The environment eventually improves, ushering in a flourishing age of prodigies and a renewed contest for the imperial throne.
• Jiuli emerges as the leading contender. Once the Eternal Great Dragon nurtured in the Eternal Dragon Cave, he was reborn as a human with Li Ming’s help and later emerged from Dragon Wood. He reaches the quasi-ninth peak, combining a human form with a body as powerful as a perfected Sacred Spirit.
• Declaring that he will rule the age, Jiuli challenges all the Quasi-Emperors at once. He overwhelms them with his extraordinary physique, Dao comprehension, and Jiuli Diagram, killing many despite their use of Extreme Dao Weapons. When one opponent launches a surprise attack with a genuine Extreme Dao Weapon, Jiuli counters with the forbidden art Pangu True Form and sends it flying. He is left as the uncontested strongest contender.
• After several centuries of further training, Jiuli triggers his enlightenment tribulation. He easily survives it, briefly attempts—and fails—to surpass the heavenly heart imprint without suffering injury, then merges with it and becomes the Jiuli Great Emperor.

Character developments and interactions

• Taihuang accepts apparent death as a necessary stage of transformation. Though absent from the world afterward, he retains the possibility of returning in a future lifetime.
• Li Ming acts as Taihuang’s vigilant guardian during the transformation, then departs once he is certain the process has succeeded.
• Jiuli evolves from a reborn, human-form dragon into an overwhelming imperial candidate and finally a Great Emperor. His confidence becomes open defiance: he invites the Quasi-Emperors to attack him together, dismisses them as weak, and uses their assault to refine himself.
• The Quasi-Emperors initially resent Jiuli’s arrogance and unite against him. Their defeat forces them to acknowledge the immense gap between his power and theirs; even the surviving challengers lose the will to oppose him.

Significant themes

• Death and renewal: Taihuang’s transformation requires a period of apparent extinction before life returns in a new form.
• The vastness of the cultivation world: A shared realm does not mean equal strength; physique, Dao insight, and accumulated momentum can create an overwhelming gap.
• Ambition and the price of supremacy: Jiuli’s rise is marked by relentless trials and the defeat of every challenger.
• Cycles of decline and resurgence: The world’s suppression of cultivation eventually gives way to a new flourishing era, producing fresh contenders for the imperial path.

Jiuli Great Emperor tried to seize the Ancient Forbidden Land, believing its guardians could not resist him. Three great achievement Sacred Bodies defeated him and turned him into a Desolate Slave.

• After consolidating his cultivation, Jiuli Great Emperor sought to establish a Heavenly Court, then set his sights on taking over the Ancient Forbidden Land.
• Jiuli Great Emperor tore through the Forbidden Land’s formations and dismissed the great achievement Sacred Body who tried to stop him.
• Two more great achievement Sacred Bodies emerged, and the three drew Jiuli Great Emperor into the Mythical Battlefield to fight.
• The three Sacred Bodies overwhelmed Jiuli Great Emperor, repeatedly breaking his body and Primordial Spirit despite his forbidden arts.
• The three Sacred Bodies bound Jiuli Great Emperor with Grand Dao brands and turned him into a Desolate Slave before leading him out of the battlefield.

Three great achievement sacred bodies defeated and enslaved the Jiuli Great Emperor, then exiled him to the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland to create training grounds. Later, Emperor Huang emerged from the Underworld after living into his third lifetime and set out to visit the Demon Venerable.

• The three great achievement sacred bodies bound the Jiuli Great Emperor and chose to make him a Desolate Slave rather than kill him.
• They brought the subdued Jiuli Great Emperor to the Big Dipper, announced his defeat, and later exiled him to the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland to open Chaos Small Worlds.
• The Jiuli Great Emperor's defeat spread across the world, and the three great achievement sacred bodies contacted the lineage on the Sacred Body Ancestral Star.
• An extraordinary aura arose from the Underworld, drawing Quasi-Emperors and Great Saints who realized it belonged to Emperor Huang.
• Emperor Huang emerged from a Great Dao Cocoon after living into his third lifetime through the Saint Spirit Transformation Method.
• Emperor Huang set out for the Undying Mountain to visit the Demon Venerable, who had achieved Mortal-World Ascension.

Emperor Huang visited the Demon Venerable, thanked him for helping him begin a new lifetime, and received permission to observe the Boundless Heavenly Venerable and Chaotic Body Wang Bo while being warned not to attempt becoming a chaotic body too soon. At the Chaos Sea, Emperor Huang humiliated and beat the Jiuli Great Emperor, then an enlightenment tribulation appeared while the Jiuli Great Emperor’s imperial imprint was still at its peak.

• Emperor Huang thanked the Demon Venerable for teaching him the Red Dust Immortal Transformation Method and asked about transforming into a chaotic body.
• The Demon Venerable allowed Emperor Huang to observe the Boundless Heavenly Venerable and Chaotic Body Wang Bo, but warned him against attempting the transformation before his fifth lifetime.
• Emperor Huang found the Jiuli Great Emperor laboring in the Chaos Sea and mocked him for becoming a Desolate Slave.
• Emperor Huang suppressed the Jiuli Great Emperor, slapped him into a spin, and kicked him across the Chaos Sea.
• An enlightenment tribulation erupted in the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland while the Jiuli Great Emperor’s grand dao imprint remained at its peak.

Emperor Huang shattered the Heavenly Heart Imprint and rose to Heavenly Emperor-level power, while the Jade Emperor awakened from a million-year transformation and returned to emperorship as Ziwei Great Emperor. After exploring the changed world, Ziwei Great Emperor encountered Jiuli Great Emperor laboring to open chaos, and Jiuli quietly returned to work when he recognized him.

• Emperor Huang endured a savage heavenly tribulation, shattered the Heavenly Heart Imprint and Jiuli Great Emperor’s imprint, and stood above the myriad Dao as a Heavenly Emperor-level figure.
• The Jade Emperor revived in the Undying Mountain after more than a million years and thanked Li Ming for his past guidance and protection.
• The Jade Emperor surveyed the Beidou Starfield, discovered that many Forbidden Zone Supremes had become Sacred Spirit Stone Embryos, and spoke with the Qilin Ancient Emperor’s incarnation.
• The Jade Emperor studied the Great Emperors’ and Ancient Emperors’ scriptures at the Ancient Starry Sky Road’s final trial and proved his Dao again as Ziwei Great Emperor.
• After thousands of years of cultivation, Ziwei Great Emperor found Jiuli Great Emperor opening chaos in the Cosmic Frontier Wasteland; Jiuli recognized him and silently resumed his labor.

Li Ming watched Emperor Huang and Ziwei Great Emperor pursue new lifetimes while Jiuli Great Emperor’s long existence as a Desolate Slave ended. After Ziwei Great Emperor left for the Strange World, the age of the unmanifest Grand Dao ended and a new flourishing age began, with contenders gathering on the Ancient Starry Sky Road.

• Ziwei Great Emperor toured the worlds and studied the Eternal Kingdom before joining Li Ming and Emperor Huang beneath the Ancient Enlightenment Tea Tree.
• Emperor Huang endured a transformation between life and death and successfully began his fourth lifetime.
• After failing for millennia to cultivate longevity essence, Ziwei Great Emperor entered the Immortal Ascension Pool and eventually succeeded in beginning his fourth lifetime.
• Jiuli Great Emperor asked Li Ming to remove his Desolate Slave imprint, and Li Ming erased it, causing Jiuli Great Emperor to vanish and a new Land of the Other Shore to appear.
• Emperor Huang created a Divine Silkworm Transformation Method and sealed himself inside a coffin to pursue another lifetime.
• Ziwei Great Emperor entered the Strange World, the age of the unmanifest Grand Dao ended, and a new flourishing age sent peerless contenders onto the Ancient Starry Sky Road.