Chapter Summaries

As the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation shook the Primordial World, Lu Chen prepared Guixu for the fallout while sensing Luohou’s defeat draw near. After the formation broke and the Western Lands fell silent, Luohou began his final strike, threatening to destroy the Primordial World.

• The Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation’s opening sent disturbances as far as Guixu, and Lu Chen refused to activate the Calamity-Viewing Platform.
• As the battle’s aftershocks worsened, Lu Chen put Guixu on high alert and ordered its people and defenses to shelter behind its gates.
• On the nineteenth day, a sword cry rang across the Primordial World, and the system reported that the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation was damaged and Luohou’s defeat was apparent.
• Ancestor Xuan Jia warned that Luohou might fight desperately, so Lu Chen activated every Tribulation-Bearing Rune on the Old Shell.
• After the Western Lands fell silent on the twenty-third day, Luohou vowed to give Hongjun a broken Primordial World and caused the entire western world to explode.

After Luohou detonated the Western Lands, a World-Destroying Demonic Tribulation targeted Guixu in the Northern Sea. Lu Chen drew it into the Old Shell and survived, leaving Guixu intact and raising Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation Substitution Progress to 31%.

• The Western Lands exploded, and Guixu’s defenders stabilized its gates, earth veins, and formations against the first wave of destruction.
• The system warned Lu Chen that Luohou’s demonic tribulation had locked onto Guixu and offered him three choices.
• Lu Chen chose to bear the tribulation with the Old Shell and drew it away from Dragon-Suppressing Pass.
• The Old Shell absorbed and refined the demonic tribulation, forming a second Tribulation-Bearing Rune while the Chaos Shell-Shedding Method reached its seventh layer.
• The system reported that Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation Substitution Progress had risen to 31%, and Guixu’s people knelt to honor Lu Chen.
• Luohou’s final demonic will dissipated, and the Western Lands fell silent.

After the Dragon-Han Cataclysm ended, Guixu received Heaven-and-Earth Clear Qi and began recovering as the surviving clans mourned their ancestors and rebuilt their lives. Lu Chen discovered that his Old Shell had changed the Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation from certain death into a possible escape, then returned to seclusion to strengthen it further.

• After a hundred years of silence, Lan Shuang and Lady Mingzhu recognized that the Dragon-Han Cataclysm had ended, while Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue bid farewell to Ancestral Dragon, Yuanfeng, and Primordial Qilin.
• Ao Lie saw Han Jue discipline the young Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin, and took comfort that the children could grow up without being forced to fight one another.
• Hongjun sent word that Luohou had been defeated and granted Guixu a share of Heaven-and-Earth Clear Qi, which strengthened the Three Lives Gate and helped restore Guixu.
• Lu Chen deduced the Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation again and saw his Old Shell let his true body retreat for the first time, while the system raised substitution progress to thirty-three percent and confirmed that escape was possible.
• Lu Chen resolved to keep nurturing his Old Shell and went into seclusion as Guixu returned to a peaceful routine.

After the Dragon-Han Cataclysm, remnants of the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans asked Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue to return and lead their people. The three agreed to seek Lu Chen’s permission, and the chapter left him weighing the clans’ converging Fortune against the danger of rebuilding their power.

• Dragon Clan elders chose Ao Lie to lead the Eastern Sea branches and sent a delegation to Guixu.
• Phoenix Clan remnants invited Feng Li back to Undying Volcano, while Qilin survivors asked Lin Yue to unite their scattered clans.
• The three delegations arrived at Dragon-Suppressing Pass, where Han Jue remarked that their former clans had come to poach them.
• Lan Shuang told Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue that they could leave Guixu if they wished, and all three decided to ask Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen received the request, and the system warned that the three clans’ remaining Fortune was converging upon Guixu.

Lu Chen chose to let the three clans' survivors rebuild without reviving their old hegemony, and Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue agreed to help their clans on those terms. The survivors left Guixu, the Ebb-Tide Mandate Pattern was completed, and news of Lu Chen's refusal of Three-Clan Fortune spread through the Primordial World.

• Lu Chen chose the option that let the Three Clans' Flame Seeds remain in Guixu while preventing their former hegemony from continuing, earning the Ebb-Tide Mandate Pattern.
• Lu Chen asked Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue to help their former clans, and each agreed to assist with resettlement or repairs but refused to restore the clans' old dominion.
• Ao Lie told the Eastern Sea dragon remnants he would quell disorder and settle young branches, but would not rebuild the Four Seas hegemony.
• Feng Li offered the Phoenix Clan Remnants help resettling survivors, while Lin Yue offered to repair earth veins and care for young beasts but rejected a renewed struggle for dominion.
• After seven days, the remnants accepted the terms and departed; Lan Shuang added rules protecting Guixu members' clan identities and barring outside clans from forcibly conscripting them.
• The Ebb-Tide Mandate Pattern was completed and Lu Chen's Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation Substitution Progress reached 35%; the Primordial World then wondered what the Mysterious Abyss Emperor was plotting after he refused Three-Clan Fortune.

Ao Lie returned to the Eastern Sea to settle the Dragon Clan’s conflicts without taking the Dragon King title or reviving Ancestral Dragon’s hegemony. After restoring order, he returned to guard Dragon-Suppressing Pass, while the Phoenix Clan’s arrival at the Frostflame Parasol Tree hinted at a new challenge.

• Ao Lie refused the Northern Sea Dragon King Seal, choosing to finish guarding Dragon-Suppressing Pass before addressing the Eastern Sea’s turmoil.
• Lu Chen allowed Ao Lie to handle Dragon Clan affairs on his own, and Ao Lie went east with a small group of young cultivators.
• Ao Lie stopped the fighting among the Eastern Sea lineages, reorganized the water palaces, and sent would-be rivals to repair the sea eyes.
• After a century, Ao Lie left the Dragon King Seal in the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace and returned to the Northern Sea, promising to help if trouble arose.
• Lu Chen welcomed Ao Lie’s return as the Dragon Clan’s order recovered, while the Phoenix Clan arrived outside the Frostflame Parasol Tree.

Feng Li declined to return the Frost Phoenix Lineage to the south, choosing to remain in Guixu with its young. After the Phoenix Clan Remnants took a branch of the Frostflame Parasol Tree back south, the Frost Phoenix Lineage independently chose Guixu as home, while Lin Yue also kept Mysterious Peak Mountain as the Water Qilin Branch’s ancestral heartland.

• The Phoenix Clan Remnants asked Feng Li to return south, but she said Frost Phoenixes could go voluntarily and explained that she would stay in Guixu to care for the young and honor Yuanfeng’s last wish.
• The white-haired Phoenix Clan woman visited the Young Clans Court and watched young members of different clans argue and play together without carrying their parents’ old hatred.
• The Phoenix Clan Remnants asked to take a branch of the Frostflame Parasol Tree south, and Lu Chen approved it while forbidding them from using his name to recruit followers.
• Feng Li gave the remnants a branch and promised to visit the south, but affirmed that the Frost Phoenixes’ home was Guixu for now.
• The remnants departed, and Lu Chen’s system confirmed that the Frost Phoenix Lineage had independently chosen Guixu without inheriting the Phoenix Clan’s burden of hegemony.
• Lin Yue chose to restore the old lands’ earth veins while keeping Mysterious Peak Mountain as the Water Qilin Branch’s ancestral heartland.

After the Dragon-Han Cataclysm, Lan Shuang established rules to keep Guixu from inheriting the old three-clan hegemony, and the clans’ remaining karmic burden was severed. Just as Lu Chen prepared for a long retreat, Hongjun announced that he had attained the Dao, bringing the prospect of Nuwa’s rise—and renewed danger to Lu Chen’s four legs—closer.

• Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue helped their clans recover while Guixu’s people rebuilt and settled into a calmer era.
• Lan Shuang presided over Guixu’s first post-cataclysm grand assembly and established rules preserving clan inheritances while forbidding old hegemonic titles and forced conscription within Guixu.
• Ao Lie explained to a Dragon Clan representative that guarding Guixu’s gate was no easy post, then challenged Han Jue to spar and lightened the assembly’s mood.
• The assembly’s rules were recorded, and the three clans’ remaining Fortune receded into pure flame-seed imprints as Guixu’s karmic burden was severed.
• Hongjun announced across the Primordial World that he had attained the Dao, and Lu Chen realized that Nuwa’s future ascent could bring danger to his four legs.

After Hongjun attained the Dao and announced a lecture at the Purple Cloud Palace, Lu Chen decided not to attend, preferring to remain in Guixu and strengthen his Old Shell. A hundred years later, Hongjun sent Guixu a personal invitation, leaving Lu Chen facing a system choice.

• Hongjun attained the Dao, became the Primordial World's first Heavenly Dao Saint, and announced that he would teach at the Purple Cloud Palace in three thousand years.
• Lu Chen worried that future events, especially the Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation, threatened him, so he continued refining the Old Shell to draw heaven and earth's attention away from himself.
• When Han Jue asked whether Lu Chen would attend Hongjun's lecture, Lu Chen refused, citing Guixu's stability and the trouble of traveling through chaos.
• Guixu's inhabitants accepted Lu Chen's decision and continued their ordinary routines while powers across the Primordial World prepared to travel to the Purple Cloud Palace.
• A hundred years later, a violet aura crossed Guixu's Womb Membrane and formed a Purple Cloud Mark above the Northern Darkness Dao Palace; the system then presented Lu Chen with a choice.

Lu Chen chose to send an avatar made from the Old Shell to hear Hongjun's sermon at Purple Cloud Palace while his true body stayed in Guixu. He crossed Chaos at an unhurried pace and arrived after thousands of powerful guests had gathered outside the palace.

• Lu Chen selected the system's third option, condensed the Black Tortoise Old Shell Dharma Form, and sent the avatar toward Purple Cloud Palace.
• The great powers of the Primordial World departed for Chaos as the three-thousand-year deadline arrived, while Han Jue and Ao Lie saw Lu Chen off from Guixu.
• Lu Chen crossed the Primordial World and entered the Outer Chaos, where the Old Shell Avatar withstood the Chaos Astral Winds without difficulty.
• Lu Chen met Kunpeng in Chaos and said he was not competing for a seat, while Kunpeng hurried ahead to claim one.
• Lu Chen reached Purple Cloud Palace and found three thousand guests already gathered outside its gates.

Lu Chen attended Hongjun’s Dao lecture at Purple Cloud Palace but chose a seat by the door rather than compete for one of the six cushions, sensing that the seats carried heavy karma. When Nuwa looked back at him, his system warned that she was a key figure in his future Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation, leaving him wary as the lecture began.

• Lu Chen arrived at Purple Cloud Palace and watched the other mighty figures rush to claim the six front cushions while he chose a seat near the gates.
• Jieyin and Zhunti arrived late, and Hong Yun yielded his cushion while Kunpeng lost his place, entangling them in deep karma.
• Lu Chen told a nearby cultivator he preferred sitting by the door, and others interpreted his choice as proof that he did not value the cushions’ opportunity.
• Hongjun appeared on the high platform and began expounding the Dao as Nuwa turned to look at Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen’s system identified Nuwa as a key figure in his future Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation and reported his substitution progress at 36%.

At Hongjun’s first lecture in Purple Cloud Palace, Nuwa and Fuxi noticed that the Mysterious Abyss Emperor was listening through an avatar while his true body remained in the Northern Sea. Lu Chen recognized the faint karmic thread linking him to Nuwa and continued preparing to survive the future Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation as Hongjun began the lecture.

• Fuxi told Nuwa that the Mysterious Abyss Emperor in the back was only an avatar, and that his true body remained in the Northern Sea.
• Nuwa and Lu Chen exchanged a peaceful nod, while Lu Chen resolved to keep preparing for the future when Nuwa might target his limbs.
• Lu Chen detected a new, faint karmic thread connecting him and Nuwa, and used the Chaos Tortoise Breathing Method to weaken it without erasing it.
• Hongjun surveyed the assembled powers and noticed how much further Lu Chen’s Old Shell Avatar had developed since his last visit to Guixu.
• Hongjun began his first lecture, and Lu Chen turned his attention to learning what might help him survive.

Lu Chen used Hongjun’s teachings to refine his methods for hiding his true body and making the Old Shell a convincing vessel for Heaven-Mending causality. As Hongjun began explaining the path beyond the Great Principle, Lu Chen received a system prompt asking him to choose his next direction of Dao comprehension.

• Hongjun expounded on the Great Dao, the Great Principle, causality, space, and Grotto-Heavens, while Lu Chen applied each idea to his escape plans.
• Lu Chen’s Old Shell Avatar blurred its shell patterns and aura, drawing the attention of Zhen Yuanzi, Hong Yun, Fuxi, Tongtian, Yuanshi, and Laozi.
• Lu Chen deduced that he could transfer Heaven-Mending causality onto a lifelike Old Shell and make Guixu briefly shift from its fixed coordinates.
• Hongjun noticed Lu Chen’s unusual survival-oriented Dao path, met his gaze, and then continued teaching.
• After a thousand years of teachings, Lu Chen’s avatar had nearly blended into Purple Cloud Palace’s chaotic aura.
• As Hongjun began explaining the path ahead of Quasi-Saints, the system asked Lu Chen to choose his next direction of Dao comprehension.

Lu Chen chose to study space, karma, Grotto-Heavens, and concealment during Hongjun’s teachings, seeking a way to protect Guixu and survive the future Heaven-Mending tribulation. He gained the Guixu Escape Realm Chapter, which could briefly shift Guixu’s manifested location, and ended by wondering why Tongtian kept watching him.

• Lu Chen rejected options focused on offense and combat, choosing instead to perfect his methods of escape and concealment.
• Hongjun’s teachings on Grotto-Heaven anchors led Lu Chen to realize Guixu might use its internal foundations to shift away from its Northern Sea coordinates.
• Lu Chen comprehended layers of spatial concealment and Primordial Spirit relays, making his presence increasingly difficult to locate.
• After a thousand years of teachings, the system integrated the Guixu Escape Realm Chapter, granting Lu Chen the ability to briefly displace Guixu’s external coordinates.
• Lu Chen opened his eyes and noticed Tongtian staring at him, wondering why the future Cult Master kept looking his way.

During the sermon, Tongtian asked Lu Chen what Dao he was comprehending, and Lu Chen’s simple advice about surviving long enough to cultivate impressed the Three Pure Ones. After several hundred years, Di Jun and Taiyi appeared before Lu Chen, bringing a new source of trouble.

• Tongtian asked Laozi and Yuanshi to interpret Lu Chen’s shifting phenomena, and Yuanshi called it the Dao of survival.
• Tongtian questioned Lu Chen, who explained that cultivators should survive first and fight, flee, or risk their lives depending on the circumstances.
• Tongtian returned to Laozi and Yuanshi, and the Three Pure Ones concluded that living long enough let one comprehend anything.
• The claim that Mysterious Abyss Emperor cultivated the Life-Preservation Dao spread through Purple Cloud Palace as the sermon continued.
• After several hundred years, Di Jun and Taiyi suddenly appeared before Lu Chen.

Di Jun and Taiyi invited Lu Chen to join their effort to unite the scattered clans, offering him the position of common lord of the north. Lu Chen refused to let Guixu enter the struggle for hegemony, while Kunpeng decided to test him after the first sermon.

• Di Jun explained that he and Taiyi wanted to unite the scattered clans and establish a new order in the Primordial World.
• Taiyi offered Lu Chen the position of common lord of the north if Guixu joined them.
• Lu Chen refused, saying Guixu would not enter the hegemony and wished only to guard its own gate.
• Di Jun accepted Lu Chen's decision and hoped they could talk if the situation changed, while Taiyi dropped the matter.
• Kunpeng wondered why Lu Chen accepted so many clans but refused authority, then resolved to test him after the first sermon.

After Purple Firmament's first lecture, Kunpeng tested Lu Chen with a palm strike, only to be knocked back by the Old Shell Avatar's defenses. Lu Chen prepared to return to Guixu with his gains, while Taiyi briefly eyed his Chaos Bell before Di Jun led him away.

• After the lecture ended, Lu Chen left Purple Cloud Palace at the back of the departing guests, and Kunpeng stopped him to propose exchanging one move.
• Lu Chen reluctantly agreed, and Kunpeng struck his shoulder using the Daos of wind, water, space, and speed.
• Lu Chen's Old Shell Avatar absorbed and redirected the strike, leaving him unharmed while the rebound numbed Kunpeng's hand and pushed him back three steps.
• Kunpeng acknowledged Lu Chen's defensive path and departed without starting a conflict, while Tongtian laughed and Yuanshi declined to test the shell.
• As Lu Chen prepared to return to Guixu, Taiyi looked at his shoulder and the Chaos Bell, but Di Jun called him away before he could act.

After the first Zixiao Dao Lecture, Lu Chen returned to Guixu, where rumors of his encounter with Kunpeng further magnified his reputation. As he strengthened Guixu in seclusion, Di Jun and Taiyi began uniting clans around the Sun Star, and Lu Chen learned that the Demon lineage was taking shape.

• Lu Chen shared basic insights from Hongjun's lecture with Guixu Academy but kept the Guixu Escape Realm Chapter secret.
• Stories exaggerated Kunpeng's test of Lu Chen, raising Mysterious Abyss Emperor's reputation across the Primordial World.
• The system awarded Lu Chen the Guixu Escape Realm Chapter and raised his Heaven-Mending Death Tribulation Substitution Progress to 38%.
• Lu Chen integrated the chapter into Guixu's foundations while Lan Shuang ordered the realm's departments not to disturb his seclusion.
• Di Jun and Taiyi began gathering clans beyond the old Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin bloodlines to establish order around the Sun Star.
• Lu Chen received a system notice that Fortune was converging on the Sun Star and the Demon lineage was beginning to form.

Di Jun and Taiyi began forming a broad alliance called the Demon Clan for beings outside the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin systems. Guixu rejected Di Jun’s invitation to join, leaving the question of whether its many inhabitants counted as demons unresolved.

• Di Jun explained that the name demon would unite beings of different origins under a shared order, and he and Taiyi began gathering tribes around the Sun Star.
• Han Jue heard about the new category and questioned whether he counted as a demon, while Ao Lie explained that the definition included his Ice-Scaled Tribe.
• Lan Shuang recognized the potential reach of Di Jun’s alliance and received his invitation offering Mysterious Abyss the title of co-ruler of the north.
• Lu Chen ordered Guixu to decline the alliance and the title, while agreeing not to obstruct Di Jun’s efforts.
• Di Jun accepted Guixu’s refusal, then realized that most of Guixu’s inhabitants appeared to qualify as demons under the new definition.

A Great Principle Demon envoy came to Guixu to register its clans in Di Jun’s Ten Thousand Demons Alliance, but Lan Shuang let each clan decide for itself. After many Guixu residents declined or hesitated, the envoy received word that registered clans might face conscription, leaving Han Jue to ask whom the alliance intended to conscript.

• A Great Principle Demon envoy passed the Three Lives Gate and asked Lan Shuang to register Guixu’s clans in the Ten Thousand Demons Register.
• Lan Shuang refused to register Guixu as a whole and allowed individual clans to choose whether to join.
• Han Jue, Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue declined to register, while some smaller clans joined for access to trade and resources.
• Over a hundred years, the register recorded more than a thousand Guixu residents, but most showed little attachment to the Demon Clan identity.
• The envoy received an order announcing a Ten Thousand Demons war division and possible conscription for registered clans.
• Han Jue asked the envoy whom the alliance planned to conscript.