Chapter Summaries

You negotiated with Purgatory Demon Venerable through the White-Haired Devil, delaying the invasion in exchange for treasures and information. After refining three kinds of True Spirit descendant essence blood, you gained new transformations, then requested further knowledge of the Demon Abyss Realm and left Purgatory Demon Venerable furious.

• You rejected the offer to become a True Demon and demanded True Spirit essence blood and Demon Abyss Realm texts before considering allegiance.
• The White-Haired Devil returned with a Myriad Thoughts Flower, three kinds of True Spirit descendant essence blood, and secret art inheritances.
• You had Heavenly Monarch Extreme Sword test the Myriad Thoughts Flower and refined the three drops of essence blood, gaining Three-Colored Peacock, Water Qilin Beast, and Cambrian Turtle transformations.
• You asked for information about the World-Destroying Devil Master and the Ten Creation Devil Ancestors, then requested an explanation of the Demon Venerable realm.
• Purgatory Demon Venerable became enraged by your continued demands.

Yuan Qing stalled the Purgatory Demon Venerable while studying the Demon Venerable realm and strengthening his power, as the Human Realm endured a long stretch of uneasy peace. A Devil Moon Clan Moon Priest divined his intentions and revealed that he had never planned to pledge allegiance.

• The Purgatory Demon Venerable gave the White-Haired Devil a black jade description of the Demon Venerable realm, and Yuan Qing learned that void refinement corresponded to the sixth tier.
• Yuan Qing tested the Purgatory Demon Venerable’s Myriad Thoughts Flower on Heavenly Monarch Extreme Sword, who later died and passed the sword seed to the new Heavenly Monarch Dark Sword.
• Yuan Qing repeatedly asked the White-Haired Devil for more time, claiming he wanted to look upon his homeland before the Human Realm was assimilated.
• Yuan Qing cultivated all 120 of his Dharma Talismans to late fifth-tier quality while estimating that he had about three hundred years left to live.
• The Purgatory Demon Venerable invited a Devil Moon Clan Moon Priest to divine Yuan Qing’s intentions, and she told him Yuan Qing had no intention of pledging allegiance.

Heavenly Monarch Azure Origin’s attempt to delay the Demon Abyss Realm’s invasion ended with the Human Realm conquered and Purgatory Demon Venerable entering to kill him. As Azure Origin spent his lifespan on divination, the Sword Lord appeared and destroyed Purgatory Demon Venerable before the simulation ended.

• Purgatory Demon Venerable learned Azure Origin had never intended to defect and ordered an immediate assault on the Human Realm.
• Heavenly Monarch Azure Origin warned the Heavenly Monarchs that an invasion was imminent, then battled the arriving Devil Lords and revealed his full True Dragon Transformation.
• After three late fifth-tier Devil Lords overwhelmed the Human Realm’s defenses, Azure Origin hid in the Western Desert and gathered information while the realm became part of the Demon Abyss Realm.
• Purgatory Demon Venerable entered the Human Realm and located Azure Origin, who spent his remaining lifespan on divination as his body disintegrated.
• The Sword Lord manifested at the ruins of Heavenly Sword Peak and cut Purgatory Demon Venerable in two, while Azure Origin died and the simulation ended.

After his sixth simulation, Zhou Qing considered the gains he could inherit and planned how to conceal the aura of his Spirit Transformation cultivation. He chose the grotto-heaven fragment beneath Profound King Lake and went to Profound King Island, where he ambushed the Profound Venerable.

• Zhou Qing reviewed his sixth simulation, reflecting on his three fifth-tier arts, his stalled cultivation, and the Sword Lord’s contingency that had slain the Purgatory Demon Venerable.
• Zhou Qing weighed inheriting his simulation gains and decided he needed to hide the aura released when he inherited Spirit Transformation cultivation.
• Zhou Qing chose the grotto-heaven fragment beneath Profound King Lake as a place to conceal his aura and traveled to Profound King Island.
• Zhou Qing lured out the Profound Venerable by releasing the pressure of a near-fourth-tier puppet, then knocked the Profound Venerable unconscious with a divine soul attack.

Zhou Qing took the Profound Venerable to the Grotto-Heaven Fragment beneath Profound King Lake and inherited his cultivation and memories from the sixth simulation, becoming a Heavenly Monarch without alerting the other Heavenly Monarchs. He received the golden talent Undying After Death, which could let him experience a host’s perspectives and sensations after a simulation, while the Profound Venerable recognized his overwhelming aura as that of a Heavenly Lord.

• Zhou Qing captured the Profound Venerable, searched its soul, and ordered it to lead him to the Grotto-Heaven Fragment beneath Profound King Lake.
• Inside the fragment, Zhou Qing selected Option One and inherited his cultivation, strength, skills, and memories from the sixth simulation, reaching the Spirit Transformation Period and fifth-tier body cultivation.
• Zhou Qing suppressed his Heavenly Monarch aura and left the fragment without the other Heavenly Monarchs sensing his existence.
• The simulation results awarded Zhou Qing the golden talent Undying After Death, which let him possess an existence he had encountered for one hundred years and experience all the host’s perspectives and sensations.
• Zhou Qing considered using the talent to learn from the Purgatory Demon Venerable or even the Demon Abyss Realm Will in his next simulation.
• The Profound Venerable emerged from the fragment, sensed Zhou Qing’s vast aura, and recognized him as a Heavenly Lord.

After inheriting his simulated Spirit Transformation cultivation, Zhou Qing took the Grotto-Heaven Fragment to make it his own hidden paradise. He left with the fragment after sending the Profound Venerable to retrieve its core and rewarding him with a demonic beast inheritance.

• Zhou Qing examined his new Spirit Transformation strength and reviewed the skills, talents, and cultivation he had gained in the sixth simulation.
• Zhou Qing decided to seek a soul-path treasure in the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds to transform his second Nascent Soul into a second primordial spirit.
• Zhou Qing ordered the Profound Venerable to follow a safe route through the Grotto-Heaven Fragment and retrieve its core.
• The Profound Venerable crossed the fragment’s dangerous depths and used Zhou Qing’s white jade bottle to capture the grotto-heaven core.
• Zhou Qing refined the core, shrank the Grotto-Heaven Fragment into a crystal, and gave the Profound Venerable an inheritance that could help him advance.

After the sixth simulation, Zhou Qing refined the Grotto-Heaven Fragment, moved his cave abode and spirit vein inside, and gathered essence to temporarily raise the vein to the fifth tier. More than a month later, his simulation attempt refreshed, and he began the seventh simulation.

• Zhou Qing erased the Profound Venerable’s memories of him, left him an inheritance, and departed; the Profound Venerable woke in fear and retreated into seclusion.
• Zhou Qing moved his cave abode and fourth-tier spirit vein into the Grotto-Heaven Fragment, raising the vein to the fourth-tier upper grade and bringing Li Yan inside.
• Zhou Qing secretly extracted small amounts of essence from hundreds of fourth-tier spirit veins to avoid attracting attention.
• Zhou Qing refined the gathered essence into his spirit vein, temporarily raising it to the fifth tier and reducing the simulation cooldown to thirty-three days.
• After more than a month of waiting and studying his skills, Zhou Qing’s simulation count refreshed, and he began his seventh simulation.

At eighteen, Zhou Qing was already a Spirit Transformation Heavenly Monarch, and he used his power to implant memories from a previous simulation into Li Yan and Dachun. He entered the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds to take its trials, where the guardian’s test unexpectedly measured his divine soul as eighty years old.

• Zhou Qing implanted Li Yan’s memories from her previous life, and she accepted that she had been reborn with a new chance to reach Spirit Transformation.
• Zhou Qing implanted Dachun’s previous-life memories, then entered the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds.
• Zhou Qing asked the Armored Guardian God to let him take the trials and submitted to its aptitude test.
• The Armored Guardian God’s test identified Zhou Qing as human, early fifth tier, and eighty years old.

Zhou passed every assessment at the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds with unprecedented aptitude, then learned that its master might one day appear within the grounds. He selected the Sword Master's Notes, heavenly phoenix blood, and a myriad-calamity soul stone as his three rewards, and began reading the notes.

• The Armored Guardian God confirmed Zhou was eighteen, at early fifth tier, and an anomalous existence, then recorded that he had passed the spell-cultivator assessment.
• Zhou passed assessments in other cultivation paths and learned that his aptitude ranked first among all trial participants.
• The Armored Guardian God said the trial grounds' master would appear within the grounds in the distant future, but offered no further explanation.
• The Armored Guardian God expanded Zhou's reward list to include every treasure and resource in the trial grounds and let him choose three items.
• Zhou chose the Sword Master's Notes, heavenly phoenix blood, and upper-grade fifth-tier myriad-calamity soul stone.
• The Armored Guardian God delivered the three rewards after Zhou accepted that he could only read the Sword Master's Notes within the trial grounds, and Zhou began leafing through them.

Zhou Qing read the Sword Master's Notes and learned that the Sword Scripture created sword slaves, while a Heavenly Sword seed could control them. He passed the spell cultivation trials and began the ultimate trial, confident that its death penalty could not threaten him.

• Zhou Qing used his Spirit Transformation magic power to open the final pages of the Sword Master's Notes and learned about the Sword Lord's sword slaves, Heavenly Sword, and plan to repair the Ascension Passage.
• Zhou Qing returned the notes to the Armored Guardian God, collected the Heavenly Phoenix Blood and Myriad-Calamity Soul Stone, and chose the spell cultivation trials.
• Zhou Qing instantly passed the first two spell cultivation trials and received the Nine-Star Ancient Soul Fruit and Myriad Souls Jade.
• Zhou Qing defeated every participant in the third-stage trial in twenty breaths and selected the Yin-Yang Tower, Transformation Origin Fruit, and Myriad Void Armor.
• Zhou Qing demonstrated that he had mastered the third and fourth levels of the Divine Origin Transcending Void Great Art and began the ultimate trial despite its warning that failure meant death.

A Spirit Transformation Heavenly Monarch entered the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds’ ultimate mountain-climbing trial and reached the summit in moments, despite six Nascent Soul cultivators already climbing. His victory ended the trial and killed the other participants, and he awaited his reward.

• The Armored Guardian God explained that the first participant to climb the mountain within one hundred years would win, while the remaining participants would be erased.
• The Heavenly Monarch chose to join the trial already underway and used spatial shifts to race up the mountain.
• A female cultivator and the purple-and-gold-robed man realized a Heavenly Monarch was competing, while True Lord Phantom Leaf continued climbing in the lead.
• The Heavenly Monarch appeared at the summit after only two or three breaths, ending the trial and causing the six other participants to fall to their deaths.
• The Heavenly Monarch recalled that True Lord Phantom Leaf had once joined an attack on him and looked forward to receiving his reward.

The challenger cleared the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds’ ultimate trial in two breaths and selected three treasures before leaving the secluded mountain. He then turned his attention to finding a second Primordial Yin Treasure Body in the Southern Sea, though its owner had not yet been born.

• The Armored Guardian God awarded the challenger the fifth and sixth levels of the Divine Origin Transcending Void Great Art and let him choose three treasures.
• The challenger chose a Zhou-Tian Book of Changes stone, Mysterious Black Jade, and a Supreme-Grade Primordial Spirit Pill for Li Yan.
• He confirmed the black jade resembled the purple-eyed jade stone and Reincarnation Stone, then put away his rewards without studying them.
• The Armored Guardian God refused the challenger’s request to take trials for another path, and the challenger left the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds.
• The challenger recalled Heavenly Sword Peak’s investigation into Primordial Yin Treasure Bodies and looked toward the Southern Sea, where a second owner had not yet been born.

After clearing the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds, Zhou Qing used his rewards to strengthen himself and helped Li Yan and Dachun prepare for their new lives. He revealed his Heavenly Monarch status to the Zhou Family and raised their estate into a protected floating island, declaring them the strongest family in the Human Realm.

• Zhou Qing learned of a Primordial Yin Treasure Body that would be discovered in the Southern Sea centuries later and considered taking the person away to nurture them.
• Zhou Qing gave the Nine-Star Ancient Soul Fruit and Myriad Souls Jade to his second Nascent Soul, began refining heavenly phoenix blood, and cultivated the Heavenly Sword Seed secret art.
• Li Yan told Zhou Qing she had been reborn, then resolved to rebuild her cultivation and improve her musical arts using her recovered memories.
• Zhou Qing refined the Myriad-Void Armor and Yin-Yang Tower, then sealed a drop of his essence blood inside Dachun before sending him into the Secluded Realm Trial Grounds.
• Zhou Qing returned to the Zhou Family, offered to give Zhou Wu the ability to cultivate, and revealed that he was a Heavenly Monarch.
• Zhou Qing moved the Zhou Family estate into the air within a Fifth-Tier Grand Array and declared the family the strongest in the Human Realm.

In the simulation, Zhou Qing empowered his family, secured powerful allies, and collected the Reincarnation Stone while keeping his identity and actions concealed. He arrived at Heavenly Sword Peak, where Heavenly Monarch Extreme Sword recognized his authority, but Zhou Qing chose not to announce that he had taken command.

• Zhou Qing gave his parents and elder brothers spiritual roots and cultivation inheritances, then brought Purple Void True Lord, Upper Firmament True Lord, and other True Lords under his control to guide the family.
• Zhou Qing left the Zhou Family on a floating island with a spiritual vein, then departed to raise the Blood Roc in the Myriad Beasts Mountain Range.
• Zhou Qing took the Reincarnation Stone from Infinite Hall and left a token that could avert a great calamity, while True Lord Qingtian ordered the witnesses to keep the encounter secret.
• Zhou Qing confirmed that the Reincarnation Stone resonated with the Mysterious Black Jade and formed the Heavenly Sword seed.
• Heavenly Monarch Extreme Sword recognized Zhou Qing as the Supreme Sword and offered him command of Heavenly Sword Peak, but Zhou Qing refused a public announcement to avoid drawing the Demon Abyss Realm's attention.

You stayed at Heavenly Sword Peak and focused on cultivation, choosing not to confront the Void Whale Lord or the Deep Sea spatial rift because doing so would only delay the Demon Abyss Realm's invasion temporarily. After stabilizing the Grotto-Heaven Fragment and checking on Li Yan's progress, you prepared to study the original stone of the Celestial Cycle Book of Changes.

• You recalled that the Void Whale Lord had pledged allegiance to the Demon Abyss Realm and that sealing the Deep Sea spatial rift would not prevent a future invasion.
• You decided to leave the Void Whale Lord and the rift alone for now, hoping to delay the invasion while spending the intervening time cultivating.
• In the fifth year, you completed the stabilization of the Grotto-Heaven Fragment, allowing its fifth-tier spirit vein to endure for a long time.
• You observed Li Yan's progress and found that her musical arts had reached the second tier, improving her prospects for surviving the Annihilation Tribulation.
• You took out the original stone of the Celestial Cycle Book of Changes and prepared to study it.

The Purple-Eyed Jade Stone, Mysterious Black Jade, and Reincarnation Stone fused into a Black Chessboard called the Three Thousand Illusory Realms. After entering its first illusion, the cultivator discovered that breaking through its layers could improve the will of his divine soul, and he began studying the realm’s hidden flaws.

• The three strange stones melted together and formed a Black Chessboard.
• The cultivator, acting through a puppet inhabited by his second primordial spirit, reached into the chessboard with his spiritual sense and was drawn inside.
• Information revealed that the chessboard held three thousand illusory realms whose layers could strengthen a cultivator’s divine-soul will.
• The cultivator examined the first realm, found a tiny flaw, and caused the illusion to collapse.
• Afterward, the cultivator repeatedly recalled the details he had observed in the first layer.