Recaps

Chu Bai defeated Black Sheep and captured him alive, then absorbed the Divine-Path Merit stored in the Water Earl’s seal ribbon. Black Sheep’s interrogation exposed the True Spirit Society’s plan to seize divine origins and implicated corrupt officials, while Zhang Cheng prepared to take the testimony to the Prefectural City.

• Chu Bai destroyed Black Sheep’s wooden defenses, sealed his Spell Power, and captured him alive as the government troops defeated the other Rogue Cultivators.
• Chu Bai opened the recovered case, absorbed the Divine-Path Merit from the Water Earl’s seal ribbon, then returned the ribbon to Feng Qin as a relic for safekeeping.
• Chu Bai and Pang Song led the victorious troops back to Anping, where Zhang Cheng praised their success and said Chu Bai’s Excellent rating was secure ahead of the Heavenly Examination.
• Zhang Cheng interrogated Black Sheep, who revealed that the True Spirit Society sought the Water Earl’s Divine Path Origin to force a Foundation Establishment breakthrough.
• Black Sheep’s testimony implicated corrupt officials in the Great Wall Prefecture Inspection Office, and Zhang Cheng ordered him imprisoned before taking the evidence to the Prefectural City.

Chu Bai returned the Water Earl’s stolen Divine Path Origin, restoring the god and unknowingly binding him as a loyal retainer. After half a year of cultivation, Chu Bai reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining and prepared to spend ninety days training for the Qingzhou Heavenly Examination.

• After the Chaos Bone Ridge case ended, Chu Bai worried that the Divine Path Origin he had absorbed from the seal ribbon would expose him to scrutiny.
• Chu Bai summoned the Brook Water Earl and returned the stolen origin, restoring the god’s awareness and making him acknowledge Chu Bai as his master.
• Chu Bai ordered the Water Earl to keep watch over the Three-Bath River in secret while maintaining his public role as an Orthodox God.
• Over the next half year, the Water Earl gradually appeared to recover, the True Spirit Society became Qingzhou’s most-wanted Rogue Cultivator organization, and Chu Bai cultivated to the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining.
• Chu Bai offered to resign from his Demon-Slaying Token post, but Zhang Cheng let him keep it as a fallback and encouraged him to pursue the Heavenly Examination.
• Chu Bai handed his squad duties to Feng Qin and Hu Hao, returned to Clearwind Courtyard, and began his final ninety days of preparation for the Qingzhou Heavenly Examination.

After three months of final cultivation in Anping County, Chu Bai reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining and departed for the Heavenly Examination in Great Wall Prefectural City. He reunited with Lü Qing there, who was stunned by Chu Bai’s strength, as the examination approached.

• Chu Bai completed his retreat with a secure Ninth Layer of Qi Refining foundation and a body nearing the Qi Refining realm’s limit.
• Zhang Cheng gave Chu Bai his notes on surviving the examination’s lawless secret realms and warned him to prioritize staying alive.
• Chu Bai ordered the Brook Water Earl to protect Chu Family Village, gave Xiao Man a protective jade talisman, and celebrated his departure with his family and former squadmates.
• Chu Bai left Anping County on his Fire Element Ring and reached Great Wall Prefectural City.
• Lü Qing met Chu Bai at the Cloud-Climbing Pavilion, was astonished by his cultivation and Divine Sense, and invited him to visit their former Dao Academy teachers after the examination.

Chu Bai registered for the Qingzhou Heavenly Examination in Great Wall Prefecture, where his cultivation shocked the clerks and Wei Chuan. After meeting Su Mu, he learned that tens of thousands of candidates might be forced into as few as three dangerous secret realms, and he prepared himself for the ordeal ahead.

• Chu Bai registered for the Heavenly Examination, and two clerks questioned whether his rapid cultivation had left his foundations weak.
• Chu Bai encountered Wei Chuan, who concealed his resentment and hinted that they might meet in the secret realm.
• Chu Bai met Su Mu, a Qi Refining Perfection cultivator from Forest Sea County, and agreed to remember their conversation if they crossed paths in danger.
• Su Mu explained that candidates from Qingzhou’s Thirty-Six Prefectures would be randomly sent into wild secret realms and that recent rumors suggested there might be only three large realms.
• Chu Bai realized the crowded examination could become a bloody struggle for Azure Ordination and resolved to face Qingzhou’s other prodigies.

Chu Bai entered Qingzhou’s Heavenly Examination, learned that only five hundred of tens of thousands of cultivators could earn ordination, and drew a lot for the large Azure Nether Realm. He was swept into it alongside powerful competitors, ready to fight for a place.

• At Great Wall Prefecture’s Examination Office, Shen Xuance opened the Boundary Gate and sent Chu Bai and the other cultivators into the examination venue.
• A True Person announced that seven secret realms would open and that only cultivators who gained enough Merit and climbed the Heavenly Ladder could earn one of five hundred ordinations.
• Chu Bai spotted an elephant-headed Demon Cultivator who explained that Great Zhou had granted him White Ordination, revealing that demons could pursue official cultivation paths.
• The cultivators drew lots, and Chu Bai received an azure lot assigning him to the large Azure Nether Realm.
• Chu Bai entered the Azure Nether Realm alongside dozens of powerful competitors and brought himself to peak condition with the Origin Return Formula.

Chu Bai explored the Azure Nether Realm, where his cultivation methods let him withstand its baleful intent and hunt its monsters for Azure Nether Pearls. After discovering that the pearls awakened a ruined Land God statue, he gathered thirteen more and offered them, causing the statue’s eyes to light up.

• Chu Bai arrived in the Azure Nether Realm and found that he could absorb its baleful intent while other cultivators struggled against the realm’s gravity and corruption.
• Chu Bai killed a Nightmare Corpse Hound, earned one merit point, and discovered it had left an Azure Nether Pearl containing divine essence.
• Chu Bai hunted a Floating Mother and Headless Stone Golems, then avoided two cultivators fighting over Spirit-Transforming Grass.
• Chu Bai found a ruined Land God Temple and saw its statue respond faintly to an Azure Nether Pearl, so he resolved to collect more and make an offering.
• Chu Bai killed a pack of more than a dozen Nightmare Corpse Hounds and gathered thirteen Azure Nether Pearls.
• Chu Bai placed the thirteen pearls on the temple altar, and the Land God statue’s eyes lit up completely.

Chu Bai awakened a Land God who could survey the Earth Vein and guide him to spiritual treasures, then used that advantage to attack a guarded treasure site in the Azure Nether Realm. He killed one of three powerful abominations and escaped as the other two charged, claiming the site's first reward.

• Shen Xuance and He Wenyan learned that a Divine Flame Node had been lit in the Azure Nether Realm, giving Great Wall Prefecture a strong start in the examination.
• Chu Bai awakened a forgetful Land God by feeding it Azure Nether Pearls, and the spirit agreed to guide him and survey nearby Earth Veins.
• The Land God revealed a source of spiritual energy beneath an ancient Pill Kiln, where two Green-Furred Giant Apes and a mass of black fiery mist guarded the treasure site.
• Chu Bai sneaked past the apes and killed the black fiery mist with his techniques before the other abominations could react.
• Chu Bai collected three blue-green pearls and fled into the ruins as the two Green-Furred Giant Apes rushed toward him.

Chu Bai fed the weakened Land God Azure Nether Pearls, followed its guidance to defeat two Green-Furred Giant Apes, and harvested Blood Spirit Herbs from a hidden space beneath the Ancient Well Ruins. After the Land God briefly revealed bitterness toward past travelers, Chu Bai followed its directions deeper toward a lightning-shrouded palace, suspecting the Underground Palace held a greater treasure and unknown danger.

• Chu Bai gave all three Azure Nether Pearls to the Land God, restoring some of its strength and revealing a Blood Spirit Herb beneath the left corridor.
• Chu Bai fought and killed two Green-Furred Giant Apes after their coordinated attacks blocked his attempt to lure one away.
• Chu Bai found and harvested fourteen Blood Spirit Herbs, then ate one and used his fate destiny to refine its power, earning ten merit points.
• The Land God briefly spoke coherently and bitterly about travelers who took the realm's spiritual energy and abandoned him, then fell back into a vacant state.
• Chu Bai followed the Land God's directions deeper into the ruins, where the earth-vein energy led toward a lightning-shrouded palace and a suspected Underground Palace treasure.

Chu Bai entered the Underground Palace, fought the Sword Fiend Spirits, and took the Dark-Yellow Wu-Earth Essence, awakening the Ridge Vein Mountain God. After learning the Land God had guided him there in hopes of saving his former commander, Chu Bai agreed to try, but warned that he would flee with the Divine Dao Seal if the Mountain God turned demonic.

• Chu Bai survived the fivefold gravity and destroyed the Sword Fiend Spirits guarding the Underground Palace.
• The Land God explained that the Ridge Vein Mountain God had once ruled a thousand li as an Orthodox God appointed by Edict Investiture.
• Chu Bai found the Dark-Yellow Wu-Earth Essence and learned it could awaken the Mountain God's Divine Soul, while the Azure Nether Pearl could provide the energy needed to revive him.
• Chu Bai took the Earthly Treasure, shaking the Underground Palace and stirring the Mountain God, whose body had become a nest for Baleful Intent.
• The Land God confessed that he had led Chu Bai there to give his commanding officer a chance to live.
• Chu Bai agreed to try to save the Mountain God but said he would take the Divine Dao Seal and escape if the god turned completely demonic.

Chu Bai gathered Azure Nether Pearls from the examinees who rushed to claim the treasure, then returned to the Underground Palace to help awaken the corrupted Ridge Vein Mountain God. He offered more than a hundred pearls at the Divine Seat as the Mountain God’s corruption and the earth-vein tremors reached their limit.

• The earth-vein omen drew greedy examinees toward the Underground Palace, while the Land God warned Chu Bai that the Mountain God might fall completely to corruption.
• Chu Bai charged to the entrance and defeated Lin Yuanfei, taking his Azure Nether Pearls.
• Xia Xing, Lei Zhen, a cold-faced woman, and a towering man confronted Chu Bai, who demanded their pearls to stabilize the Mountain God.
• Chu Bai overwhelmed Lei Zhen and held off the woman and the towering man, forcing all four cultivators to leave their pearls and retreat.
• Chu Bai returned to the altar with more than a hundred Azure Nether Pearls and poured them out before the corrupted Mountain God.

Chu Bai restored the Mountain God’s body and awakened only its protective remnant will before the god returned to his Earth Vein. In Great Wall Prefecture, He Wenyan and Shen Xuance saw that Chu Bai had kindled the Mountain God Shrine and began questioning the source of his personal Merit and his true background.

• Chu Bai used Azure Nether Pearls and his own Merit to awaken the Mountain God, whose Divine Soul was gone and whose remnant will protected the land.
• The Mountain God healed the Land God, returned to the Earth Vein, and left Chu Bai with the Dark-Yellow Wu-Earth Essence and a high Merit Seal rank.
• He Wenyan discovered that Chu Bai had kindled a high-ranking Mountain God Shrine in the Azure Nether Realm, and she resolved to secure the secret realm for Great Wall Prefecture.
• He Wenyan told Shen Xuance that Chu Bai’s awakening technique had drawn on Merit he carried himself, not the Heavenly Examination’s Merit tally.
• After reviewing Chu Bai’s record, Shen Xuance and He Wenyan considered whether he had encountered a forbidden inheritance or had a powerful Divine Dao connection, and He Wenyan warned against forming ties with him.

Chu Bai used the Land God's expanded divine sense to search the Azure Nether Realm for treasures while learning that only a few dozen lesser deities and perhaps some of five great guardians remained. Elsewhere, Wu Ziqing gained the Spirit-Rearing Temple's approval to enslave examinees as human pets and set out to capture more.

• Chu Bai asked the Land God about surviving deities and the five guardians who had once governed the realm's pivotal nodes.
• The Land God sensed a medicinal stream nearby, and Chu Bai hurried toward it to gather more herbs before the Heavenly Examination ended.
• At Blackstone Small City, Wu Ziqing led the Greenstone Alliance in offering Azure Nether Pearls to revive the Night Patrol Wandering Deity and gain divine protections.
• At the Spirit-Rearing Temple, Wu Ziqing defended his enslavement of the cultivator surnamed Lin, and the Beast-Rearing Envoy praised him and strengthened his Divine Authority.
• Wu Ziqing ordered his demon beasts and enslaved follower to capture more examinees as Spirit Pets and gather blood food for the envoy.

Chu Bai learned that Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan’s obsession with freedom had driven him to tear open the Azure Nether Realm, forcing the examination officials to pull the collapsing realm into Great Zhou. As the realm contracted and void turbulence spread, Chu Bai raced to find safety and planned to refine his stored herbs to grow stronger.

• The clay Earth God told Chu Bai that gods in the Azure Nether Realm were born from obsessions and warned that reviving Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan would unleash his fury against the realm’s cage.
• Cultivators revived Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan with Azure Nether Pearls, but he ignored them, shattered his altar, and tore open the realm’s barrier while a minor god sealed its Divine Seat and fell dormant.
• Chu Bai abandoned his search for another forbidden ground and fled through the Earth Vein, deciding that reaching the Heavenly Ladder might be his only chance to survive.
• At the Examination Office, He Wenyan and Shen Xuance began forcibly pulling the collapsing secret realm into Great Zhou, knowing the contraction would kill candidates too far from the Divine Flame nodes.
• As the Azure Nether Realm contracted, Chu Bai searched for safety and prepared to refine his stored medicinal herbs to increase his strength.

As the Azure Nether Secret Realm collapsed, the awakened Night Patrol Wandering Deity slaughtered the cultivators who had summoned it, while the Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon prepared to break free. Chu Bai reached the Mountain God’s Underground Palace and began a desperate final push to strengthen himself before the world gave way.

• After a thousand Azure Nether Pearls awakened the Night Patrol Wandering Deity, it mistook the worshippers for intruders and killed them with its Black Iron Mace.
• The Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon felt the realm’s Earth Vein collapsing and drew on the incoming void currents to weaken its chains.
• As the Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan’s breach devoured the secret realm, Chu Bai fled toward the Ridge Vein Mountain God’s Underground Palace and saw the survivor count fall to 7,642.
• Chu Bai ignored cultivators who asked him to guide them and reached the stable Underground Palace near the realm’s central Earth Vein.
• Chu Bai swallowed rare spiritual herbs and used his Fate Destiny and cultivation methods to advance his Spell Power and temper his body.

As the Azure Nether Secret Realm collapsed, Chu Bai cultivated inside the Underground Palace while survivors gathered outside and Wu Ziqing led an army of enslaved cultivators and Demon Beasts in a massacre. The Night Patrol Wandering Deity arrived and clashed with the Beast-Rearing Envoy, leaving the examinees to flee around the battle while Chu Bai remained behind the palace’s closed doors.

• More than a thousand survivors gathered near the Underground Palace, and Xia Xing warned his group that Chu Bai killed anyone who approached or disturbed him.
• Chu Bai sensed the collapsing realm and wondered why he could not locate the Heavenly Ladder, while a force of enslaved cultivators and Demon Beasts pursued fleeing examinees toward Ridge Vein Mountain.
• Wu Ziqing led the rampaging army under the Beast-Rearing Envoy’s control, and the Envoy ordered them to kill the survivors and gather living vessels.
• The Night Patrol Wandering Deity arrived and attacked the Beast Tide, beginning a clash between the two Foundation Establishment Orthodox Gods.
• Xia Xing and the other survivors fled the battlefield’s center while the gods fought, and the Underground Palace remained shut and undisturbed.

As the Azure Nether Secret Realm collapsed, Xia Xing and the other cultivators fled toward Chu Bai's Underground Palace, where he opened the gates and sheltered more than a thousand survivors. The Night Patrol Wandering Deity then battered the palace with Foundation Establishment power, leaving Chu Bai searching for a way to protect everyone.

• The Night Patrol Wandering Deity and the Beast-Rearing Envoy fought as Xia Xing led his companions toward the Underground Palace, their escape route cut off by collapsing space.
• The Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan was struck down by void lightning, accelerating the collapse of the Azure Nether Secret Realm and trapping survivors near Ridge Vein Mountain.
• At the clay effigy's plea, Chu Bai ended his seclusion and opened the Underground Palace gates, letting Xia Xing and a crowd of cultivators enter behind his dark-gold barrier.
• Chu Bai sealed the gates after more than a thousand cultivators reached safety, but the Night Patrol Wandering Deity struck the palace and cracked its ancient structure.
• Chu Bai endured the blow and realized he could not withstand another for long, so he began searching for a way out.

Chu Bai rallied more than a thousand cultivators to power the Mountain God's abandoned divine body, giving him Foundation Establishment strength as the Orthodox Gods closed in on Ridge Vein Mountain. Outside the Secret Realm, He Wenyan killed the Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan, but the Heavenly Ladder remained sealed until someone achieved Merit Perfection.

• The Night Patrol Wandering Deity's second mace strike crushed the Underground Palace doors inward and killed the cultivators bracing them, while Chu Bai realized the group could not withstand another attack.
• Chu Bai proposed using the Mountain God's body as a conduit, and Xia Xing and the other cultivators poured their spiritual power into the Sacrificial Altar's formation.
• The Earth God activated the formation with Chu Bai's Dark-Yellow Wu-Earth Essence, raising the Mountain God's hundred-zhang divine body from Ridge Vein Mountain.
• He Wenyan anchored the Azure Nether Secret Realm, then destroyed the Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan with a violet divine ray, while Shen Xuance explained that the Heavenly Ladder could not open before Merit Perfection.
• The Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon broke free and attacked as it, the Night Patrol Wandering Deity, and the Beast-Rearing Envoy gathered at Ridge Vein Mountain.
• Chu Bai joined his consciousness with the Underground Palace and mountain range, rose in the Mountain God's divine body, and declared that no slaughter was permitted on its land.

Chu Bai awakened the Ridge Vein Mountain God with the cultivators’ power, but three Foundation Establishment deities nearly overwhelmed the clumsy, edict-less body. He turned the Origin Return Formula into a way to coordinate the giant’s energy and protect a growing crowd of survivors, only for the immense spiritual currents to trigger his own Foundation Establishment breakthrough during their flight.

• Chu Bai and more than a thousand Qi Refining cultivators revived the Ridge Vein Mountain God, but the Night Patrol Wandering Deity, Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon, and Beast-Rearing Envoy attacked it together.
• Chu Bai failed to use divine arts, and the Mountain God suffered severe damage as the attacks caused deadly backlash among the cultivators inside the Underground Palace.
• Chu Bai ordered the Mountain God to focus on defense, then used his Subtlety-level Origin Return Formula to circulate the cultivators’ spiritual energy through its body and reduce the damage.
• The Mountain God fled with the three deities pursuing it, while Chu Bai gathered separated survivors into the Underground Palace until more than two thousand cultivators strengthened its defenses.
• Chu Bai absorbed chaotic Spiritual Currents to sustain the Mountain God, but the energy loosened his cultivation bottleneck and forced him to begin breaking through to Foundation Establishment while still controlling the giant.

Chu Bai broke through to Foundation Establishment inside the Ridge Vein Mountain God, forging the Superior Dao Foundation called the Cosmic Cycle Wheel while the Azure Nether Realm collapsed around him. After summoning the Heavenly Ladder, he chose to face the three pursuing deities and shattered the Night Patrol Wandering Deity’s iron mace.

• As Chu Bai circulated the Origin Return Formula, the Land God fed the Sky-Suppressing Hongyuan’s corpse into the formation, and Chu Bai absorbed its power and spatial Dao resonance.
• He Wenyan discovered that the Azure Nether Realm’s spiritual energy was rapidly vanishing, while Chu Bai received confirmation that his examination Merit was complete and the Heavenly Ladder had appeared.
• Chu Bai used his accumulated cultivation and Relentless Toil Fate Destiny to break through Qi Refining and forge the Cosmic Cycle Wheel Dao Foundation.
• After completing his breakthrough, Chu Bai summoned the Qingzhou Heavenly Ladder, giving the trapped cultivators a way to escape the collapsing realm.
• When the three deities attacked, Chu Bai stayed to fight, caught the Night Patrol Wandering Deity’s mace, and shattered it with his newly manifested Dao Foundation.

Chu Bai used his newly forged Cosmic Cycle Wheel Dao Foundation to fight three gods and escape their killing blows by leaping onto the Heavenly Ladder with the Ridge Vein Mountain God. After thousands of examinees joined the formation to support him, he climbed higher and fully stabilized his Foundation Establishment cultivation by refining the Azure Nether Realm's remaining source.

• Chu Bai crushed the Night Patrol Wandering Deity's mace, refined its fragments into Geng Metal Qi, and fought off attacks from the Night Patrol Wandering Deity, the Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon, and the Beast-Rearing Envoy.
• The Beast-Rearing Envoy fused enslaved cultivators and Demon Beasts into a three-headed, six-armed general, but Chu Bai pierced one of its heads with an enhanced Spirit Water Needle.
• As the Azure Nether Realm collapsed, Chu Bai absorbed its concentrated spiritual energy while the three gods targeted the exhausted cultivators inside the divine body.
• Chu Bai split off part of his soul to take control of the formation, launched the Ridge Vein Mountain God onto the Heavenly Ladder, and brought the survivors into the Underground Palace.
• Xia Xing rallied the newcomers to supply the formation with spiritual energy, helping Chu Bai continue climbing while the three gods remained below.
• After climbing a thousand zhang, Chu Bai refined the Azure Nether Realm's remaining core source and stabilized his Foundation Establishment cultivation.

Chu Bai refined the Ridge Vein Mountain God's body into the Mountain God Seal, defeated three Foundation Establishment gods, and saved the earth god by granting him a higher divine rank. He won first place in the Heavenly Examination and returned to Great Wall Prefecture, where He Wenyan deferred judgment on his illegal Foundation Establishment.

• Chu Bai left the Ridge Vein Mountain God behind at the Heavenly Ladder, carried the cultivators onward, and refined its body into the Mountain God Seal.
• Chu Bai used the seal and his new powers to kill the Beast-Rearing Envoy and Night Patrol Wandering Deity, then severed the Prison-Suppressing Evil Flood Dragon with a spatial fissure.
• Chu Bai bestowed the seized divine origin and merit on the fading earth god, raising him to Principal Seventh Rank, while Great Zhou stabilized and annexed the Azure Nether Realm.
• Chu Bai crossed the Heavenly Ladder in ten breaths and entered Great Wall Prefecture as the unquestioned first-place candidate; Xia Xing resolved to climb higher to defend him against legal charges.
• Shen Xuance praised Chu Bai's achievements but condemned his unregistered Foundation Establishment, and He Wenyan questioned him about forbidden arts before postponing judgment until the examination ended.

After recovering from his unauthorized Foundation Establishment, Chu Bai learned that his breakthrough had saved thousands but had also destroyed the Astronomical Bureau’s Spirit Realm. Shen Xuance arranged for him to receive Azure Ordination before the Merit Office summoned him, and Chu Bai left for his hearing with the outcome still uncertain.

• Chu Bai inspected his Cosmic Cycle Wheel, refined the Mountain God Seal, and devoured the remains of three divine beings, strengthening his body and expanding his Divine Sense to one thousand zhang.
• Shen Xuance told Chu Bai that the court would judge his unauthorized breakthrough and the destruction of the Azure Nether Realm, while confirming he had earned the Qingzhou First title and that Great Wall Prefecture would support him.
• Shen Xuance summoned Chu Bai and eighteen other survivors to the martial arena, where he conferred Azure Ordinations on all nineteen candidates.
• Three Merit Office Judges arrived and ordered Chu Bai to attend a hearing; Shen Xuance insisted on accompanying him and joined the journey to the Merit Office.
• As they flew toward the Merit Office, Chu Bai weighed his legal offense against the lives he had saved and the factions’ competing interests.

Chu Bai faced judgment for establishing his foundation without Azure Ordination and destroying the Azure Nether Realm, but Zhu Wuji sentenced him to exile rather than death or loss of cultivation. Chu Bai left for the Far North with his official rank, rewards, authority to enforce the law, and binding orders to walk thirty thousand li and repay the Astronomical Bureau.

• Zhu Wuji reviewed Chu Bai's record while Chang Buyu, Shen Xuance, and He Wenyan argued over whether he should be executed, stripped of his cultivation, refined into a Dao Soldier, or made to repay the Astronomical Bureau.
• Chang Buyu accused Chu Bai of breaking Great Zhou law, and Chu Bai said he would have established his foundation again to save himself and the five thousand examinees.
• He Wenyan proposed making Chu Bai serve the Astronomical Bureau for a hundred years, but Zhu Wuji rejected the proposal and judged Chu Bai's legal violation and destruction of the Spirit Realm separately.
• Zhu Wuji sentenced Chu Bai to walk thirty thousand li into exile in the Far North and work for the Astronomical Bureau until he repaid its losses, while allowing him to retain his official rank and waiving the usual lightning sentence.
• Zhu Wuji awarded Chu Bai a Foundation Establishment cultivation method, Spirit Stones, a Golden Merit Scroll, and discretionary authority to execute threats and report afterward; Chu Bai's Fate Destiny manifested the effect Burdened by Sin, Tempered Dao Heart.
• Zhu Wuji sealed the exile with Golden Shackles that bound Chu Bai to his route, and Chu Bai accepted the judgment and departed for the Far North.

Chu Bai left Great Wall Prefecture for a thirty-thousand-li exile in the Far North, where Golden Shackles forced him to travel on foot. At Falling Star Slope, he used its crushing gravity and magnetic storm to forge a new Geng Metal body art, then demonstrated its cutting power against a massive meteorite.

• Chu Bai accepted the Five Phases Returning to the Celestial Palace Art and left Great Wall Prefecture with Li Dean, while the Golden Shackles warned him not to return south before traveling thirty thousand li.
• More than a hundred surviving examinees bowed farewell to Chu Bai, while Wei Chuan abandoned his jealousy and Shen Xuance anticipated his return.
• Chu Bai crossed into the wilderness and began traveling north on foot, using the shackles' restraint to refine his spiritual power as he studied the Far North and cultivated his new art.
• After traveling more than ten days, Chu Bai reached Falling Star Slope and entered its tenfold-gravity core, enduring the Magnetic-Element Storm without relying on spiritual protection.
• Chu Bai absorbed magnetic energy to awaken the Night Patrol Wandering Deity's essence, perfected the Iron-Bone Body-Tempering Method, and created the Geng Metal Body-Forging Art.
• Chu Bai split a house-sized meteorite in two with a bare-handed strike, revealing the sharpness of his newly forged Geng Metal body.

The Ridge Vein Land God began restoring the barren land left by the Azure Nether Realm, while Chu Bai reached Sea Radiance Prefectural City during his exile and prepared to travel on foot into the Far North. There, he reunited with Xia Xing, who supplied him with provisions, a sea chart, and the Swimming Dragon Water-Splitting Art.

• The Ridge Vein Land God vowed to restore the wasteland, and Sun Yi agreed to bring refugees and resources to settle it.
• Chu Bai left Falling Star Slope and walked north, tempering his body through the journey until he reached Sea Radiance Prefectural City.
• The city gate guards recognized Chu Bai's Azure Ordination and welcomed him through the central gate.
• Chu Bai reunited with Xia Xing, who offered help preparing for his journey into the Far North.
• Xia Xing gave Chu Bai provisions, a chart of the Frozen Sea, and his Xia Family's Swimming Dragon Water-Splitting Art.