Chapter Summaries

Shen Bai heeded Niu Ba’s warning about the True Knowledge Secret Realm and decided not to enter it yet. In Fuzhou City, Cheng Yu taught Snow Spirit about making choices, then realized she needed to learn more about romance and decided to send her to school.

• Shen Bai thanked Niu Ba for his warning and agreed to be careful about entering the True Knowledge Secret Realm.
• Cheng Yu took Snow Spirit to a bookstore and let her choose one storybook, teaching her that people had to make choices.
• Cheng Yu explained that hesitation could make opportunities pass by, and Snow Spirit concluded that she liked him because he made her happy.
• Cheng Yu realized Snow Spirit was becoming curious about romance and decided to send her to school.

Cheng Yu decided to take Snow Spirit to school after realizing that the novels she read had distorted her view of academies. As they traveled toward Fuzhou City, a carriage procession carrying a composed woman was also nearing the city.

• Cheng Yu wondered whether Snow Spirit’s soul would remain pure when she entered the outside world, despite the seven deadly sins clinging to it.
• Cheng Yu asked Snow Spirit if she wanted to go to school, but she refused because the academies in her novels were full of villains.
• Cheng Yu took Snow Spirit’s novel away and sealed her powers when she tried to grab it back.
• Snow Spirit demanded meat-stuffed flatbread as an apology, and Cheng Yu agreed to buy her two while still refusing to return the book.
• A carriage procession approached Fuzhou City, and a woman told the composed woman inside that they were nearly there.

Cheng Yu brought Snow Spirit to Skycloud Academy to enroll her, where an enormous payment persuaded an old teacher to recommend her a place. As the old teacher showed them around, Cheng Yu heard that Teacher Shi was giving his first lecture and began to take an interest.

• Cheng Yu asked about the crowd outside Skycloud Academy and learned that a teacher from Abyssal Firmament Academy was arriving, so he took Snow Spirit away and planned to return the next day.
• At the academy, Cheng Yu objected to its new enrollment rules, offered a huge banknote, and started to leave when the old teacher hesitated.
• The old teacher offered to recommend a teacher for Snow Spirit, and Cheng Yu revealed that he had already placed the tuition inside the old man's robe.
• The old teacher showed Cheng Yu and Snow Spirit around the academy, where Snow Spirit eagerly admired the buildings and surroundings.
• The old teacher explained that students were gathering for Teacher Shi's first lecture, and Cheng Yu became interested in attending.

Cheng Yu brought Snow Spirit to Skycloud Academy, where Grand Libationer Mu Feng accepted her as his student and discussed the unusual purity of her true spirit. Cheng Yu entrusted Snow Spirit to Mu Feng’s care, insisting that her happiness mattered more than whether she reached transcendence.

• Mu Feng took over Cheng Yu’s tour of Skycloud Academy and asked whether Cheng Yu had altered Snow Spirit’s true spirit.
• Cheng Yu explained that he had modified Snow Spirit’s deficient true spirit, and Mu Feng offered to become her master.
• Snow Spirit accepted Mu Feng’s jade pendant and called him Master.
• At Mu Feng’s residence, Mu Feng explained that Snow Spirit’s flawless innocence could make her tribulation of love a turning point between transcendence and failure.
• Cheng Yu said Snow Spirit should choose her own life and that her happiness mattered more than her cultivation, then left her in Mu Feng’s care.

Cheng Yu reunited with Shi Lian, who had returned to Skycloud Academy and asked him to answer her long-held question about her feelings for him. When she hesitated over whether she would give up everything for him, Snow Spirit interrupted, and Cheng Yu invited Shi Lian to share stories from her years away.

• Snow Spirit tearfully begged Cheng Yu to stay at Skycloud Academy, and he promised to take her away once she understood the things she wanted to learn.
• Shi Lian arrived at Mu Feng's residence, recognized Cheng Yu, and greeted him as her lord after ten years apart.
• Mu Feng left Cheng Yu and Shi Lian alone, and she explained that she had taken the surname Shi but still could not make peace with her past.
• Shi Lian asked Cheng Yu for an answer about her feelings, and he questioned whether her love was gratitude and whether she would give up everything for him.
• Snow Spirit declared that Cheng Yu mattered most to her, then ran off with the novels he gave her; Cheng Yu asked Shi Lian to tell him about her experiences over the years.

Shi Lian told Cheng Yu how she had overcome years of hardship and confessed that she wanted to spend her life with him, even if she could never be the special person in his heart. Cheng Yu refused to encourage her feelings, and after Shi Lian left in tears, he reflected that he did not want to be one of her choices.

• Shi Lian told Cheng Yu about the hardship and mistreatment she had endured while becoming a respected teacher in the Central Capital.
• Shi Lian confessed that she wanted to spend her life with Cheng Yu and could accept not being the special person in his heart.
• Cheng Yu offered Shi Lian a handkerchief but avoided comforting her in a way that might give her false hope.
• Shi Lian ran out of Mu Feng's residence in tears, and Mu Feng reflected on love as he swept the Academy streets.
• Snow Spirit asked Cheng Yu why Shi Lian had cried, then settled beside him to read her novel.
• Cheng Yu concluded that he did not want to be one of Shi Lian's choices.

As Snow Spirit studied under Cheng Yu and Shi Lian, Shi Lian broke down while struggling with her desire to stand proudly beside him and her fear of being valued only for her beauty. Cheng Yu left her unconscious and reflected that he wanted to discover whether he could still feel his heart stir.

• Snow Spirit began her apprenticeship, while Shi Lian visited Cheng Yu and tutored Snow Spirit in her coursework.
• Cheng Yu urged Shi Lian to love herself and remain true to herself rather than sacrifice everything for him.
• Snow Spirit questioned Shi Lian's motives, prompting Shi Lian to cry out that she wanted to stand proudly beside Cheng Yu and not be a useless ornament.
• Cheng Yu used his power to make Shi Lian unconscious and carried her into a room; he reassured Snow Spirit that she had done nothing wrong.
• Cheng Yu told the system he wanted to find out whether his heart could still stir.

Cheng Yu visited Mu Feng and discussed the Heavenly Dynasty, the Demon Race's White King, and Mu Feng's unconventional views on Confucianism. After hearing about the White King's debate with human prodigies, Cheng Yu wondered whether Shen Bai's plans to merge with the Dao would affect his own role.

• Cheng Yu visited Mu Feng's courtyard, drank tea, and asked about the White King of the Demon Race.
• Mu Feng said the White King had debated the Dao with human prodigies at Hidden Moon Bay, drawing the Sages' attention, though the debate's contents remained secret.
• Cheng Yu said he was an unregistered outsider and had no reason to worry about the Heavenly Dynasty, then called the dynasty impressive.
• Mu Feng described the world as ruled by powerful forces and said ordinary people could only find their own peace amid ongoing conflicts.
• Cheng Yu teased Mu Feng for sounding more like a Daoist than a Confucian scholar, and Mu Feng dismissed the importance of the distinction.
• Cheng Yu privately thought Shen Bai might soon merge with the Dao and wondered whether it had any connection to his current role.

Shi Lian continued trying to win Cheng Yu’s affection, while Mu Feng taught Snow Spirit the difference between liking and love through the story of a flower. Snow Spirit began to understand that love meant choosing someone’s well-being over her own happiness and that love could not be replaced.

• Shi Lian brought Cheng Yu food she had made herself and told him she refused to give up on him.
• Cheng Yu invited Shi Lian to eat with him, and she said she could not learn to let go of him.
• Mu Feng gave Snow Spirit a flower and explained that it would survive only if she planted it back in the soil, even though it would lose its beauty.
• Snow Spirit chose to show the flower to others, then returned after it had withered and asked Mu Feng whether she had done wrong.
• Mu Feng explained that happiness at receiving the pretty flower was liking, while choosing to let it live despite its ugliness would have been love.
• Mu Feng gave Snow Spirit an identical flower and explained that love was unique and put the beloved’s happiness above one’s own.

Shen Bai pursued a mysterious figure who had urged him to seek answers in the True Knowledge Secret Realm, where he learned that corruption might counter corruption. He asked Niu Ba to accompany him, while Shen Tian watched the events with Shen Yue and Cheng Ming and asked for their thoughts.

• After meeting the human prodigies, Shen Bai and Niu Ba encountered a hooded figure who warned that Shen Bai was destined to become a vessel for a supreme Overlord and directed him to the True Knowledge Secret Realm.
• The Man in Black appeared in the Human Emperor's bedchamber and reported that the matter had been taken care of.
• In the forest, Shen Bai and Niu Ba fought a being from the True Knowledge Sacred Domain, and Shen Bai destroyed it after questioning how it reached the Origin Great World.
• Shen Bai's palm became infested with white worms that consumed the gray fog, leading him to wonder whether corruption could counter corruption.
• Shen Bai told Niu Ba he needed answers about his mission and whether Dao Integration would leave him himself, then asked Niu Ba to accompany him.
• Shen Tian watched the events at Mirror Lake with Shen Yue and Cheng Ming, then asked Shen Yue and Cheng Ming what they thought.

Shen Bai entered the True Knowledge Secret Realm to pursue the truth, despite Niu Ba’s warning not to open the Taoist Temple entrance. There, he encountered a mysterious being who took on his own appearance and called itself a Seeker of Truth.

• Shen Tian told Shen Yue and Cheng Ming to let events concerning Shen Bai unfold and ordered them to keep the matter secret.
• Niu Ba gave Shen Bai his blood and a broken horn that could help him leave the Secret Realm, while Xiao Luan urged him to return safely.
• Shen Bai used a Jade Token to enter the True Knowledge Secret Realm after Niu Ba warned him never to open the Taoist Temple entrance.
• Niu Ba explained to Xiao Luan that Shen Bai was pursuing answers despite the danger that knowledge posed to his heart.
• Shen Bai met a mysterious person in the Secret Realm who transformed into his likeness and identified itself as a Seeker of Truth.

Shen Bai met the Seeker of Truth in the True Knowledge Secret Realm and learned a truth he could not share. He emerged determined to become stronger than a Great Sage, while strange changes unfolded around Yog and Shub outside the Eternal True World.

• Shen Bai realized the Seeker of Truth had been formed from living beings’ primal yearnings and feared it might be a Great Sage born within the Secret Realm.
• Shen Bai declared that he wanted to know all the truth, and the Seeker of Truth warned him that he might not be able to accept it.
• Shen Bai emerged from the Secret Realm carrying a broken horn and told Niu Ba he wanted to become strong enough to protect everything he cared about.
• Shen Bai admitted he could not reveal what he had learned, and Niu Ba assured him that he trusted him while Xiao Luan checked that he was unharmed.
• A shifting figure in the Taoist Temple gazed toward the Supreme Dimension as a larger book appeared in Yog’s hand, Miss Puppet lay still, Grete vanished, and Shub watched the Eternal True World.

Cheng Yu rejected Shi Lian’s love, explaining that he wanted an exclusive, obedient partner rather than the love she could offer. Shi Lian accepted that she could not become his one and only and left after sharing a final embrace with him.

• Cheng Yu asked Shi Lian to look after Lingling at the Academy, but Shi Lian objected because they both loved him.
• Shi Lian accused Cheng Yu of seeking control and an obedient ideal rather than loving a real person.
• Cheng Yu admitted that he wanted the exclusive partner Shi Lian described, and said he could not return her feelings.
• Shi Lian said she understood and hoped Cheng Yu would remember that she had loved him deeply.
• Cheng Yu embraced Shi Lian for comfort, and she clung to him and sobbed.

Cheng Yu urged Snow Spirit to travel to the Small Grotto-Heaven and learn about love for herself, while she blurted out that she loved him. Mu Feng encouraged her to go on the study tour and find her own answers about what to do next.

• Cheng Yu told Snow Spirit that traveling to the Small Grotto-Heaven would help her grow, and suggested she might understand love when she saw him again without feeling anything.
• Snow Spirit ran to Mu Feng's courtyard, flustered by Cheng Yu's words, and declared that she loved Yuyu.
• Mu Feng asked Snow Spirit what she planned to do now that she knew whom she loved, but she admitted she did not know.
• Mu Feng advised Snow Spirit to seek her own answers and said the Small Grotto-Heaven would be a good place to start.

Cheng Yu admired Mu Feng’s newborn universe and arranged to discuss acquiring one, then reflected on what it meant to serve as an Apostle. Outside the Eternal True World, Shub asked Yog for Wan Zhuo, while Yog declared that the ending was already set and he would remain a spectator.

• Cheng Yu examined Mu Feng’s subsidiary world and learned that it was a newborn universe used as a training ground.
• Cheng Yu asked Mu Feng about obtaining a universe, and Mu Feng invited him to discuss it the next day.
• Cheng Yu told the System that an Apostle had to serve their god without expecting the god to handle every problem, and questioned whether loyalty alone had made him the Apostle who reached the end.
• Shub asked Yog to give her Wan Zhuo, and Yog agreed that she could take him because he was not yet worthy of meeting him.
• Yog said that the ending was set and that he would remain a spectator as the trials shaped the perfect Script.

Cheng Yu gave Mu Feng a drop of blood after warning him not to investigate it, and Mu Feng exchanged it for a young Grotto-Heaven universe. Cheng Yu examined the universe and looked forward to shaping it over the coming centuries.

• Cheng Yu considered Mu Feng’s research abilities and explained that his Big Shot title prevented even the Eternal Heavenly Dao from seeing through him.
• Cheng Yu warned Mu Feng not to probe his blood, then squeezed a pale silver drop from his fingertip.
• Mu Feng encased Cheng Yu’s blood in a glowing glass ball and gave him a pitch-black glass ball containing a Grotto-Heaven.
• Cheng Yu nearly dropped the universe because of its immense weight, then used his mental power to inspect it.
• Cheng Yu discovered the universe was extremely young, with no formed pan-universe consciousness, and anticipated enjoying the role of its Creator God.

After ten years spent experimenting with creation, Cheng Yu returned to Fuzhou City and found it tense and heavily patrolled. Mu Feng told him that Shen Bai had disappeared and the Human Emperor had remained hidden, leaving the continent fearful of a crisis.

• Cheng Yu ended his creation experiments, realized ten years had passed, and set out to visit Mu Feng at Skycloud Academy.
• Cheng Yu noticed worried civilians and increased military patrols, then sensed a warning from a group of Epics and teleported to Mu Feng's courtyard.
• Mu Feng told Cheng Yu that Teacher Shi had returned to the Central Capital and left him a letter, while Cheng Yu pressed him for news about Fuzhou City's tense atmosphere.
• Mu Feng revealed that Shen Bai, the Demon Race's White King, had disappeared three years earlier, stirring fears of another Human-Demon War.
• Mu Feng explained that the Human Emperor had withdrawn into the palace ten years earlier and never reappeared, despite leaving the Chancellor and Divine Dragon to govern the Heavenly Dynasty.

Cheng Yu learned that the Sages had begun entering the world, signaling a crisis tied to Shen Bai’s disappearance or a change in the Heavenly Dao. Shen Yuan and the other Sages discussed Shen Bai, the missing Human Emperor, and the danger of destabilizing the peace between Humankind and the Demon Race.

• Mu Feng told Cheng Yu that Shen Bai had vanished within Humankind Territory while Qin Shuo had stopped appearing in public, leaving Cheng Yu to fear the peace of the Eternal True World was at risk.
• Yuan Chen, Di Yi Yun, Dong Hao, Netherworld, and Shen Yuan announced that they would enter the world, while Ling Xuan did not.
• On Wangshu Mountain, Shen Yue asked Shen Yuan what to do about Xiao Bai, and Shen Yuan told him to send their aunt to him.
• Shen Yuan looked toward the peacock statue and resolved to act, while Shen Yue said he had finally grown up and left the mountain.
• Before the Human Emperor’s inner palace, Di Yi Yun said he could not divine the Human Emperor’s whereabouts, and Dong Hao proposed establishing a new ruler for Humankind.
• Yuan Chen rejected interfering in the succession, and the Sages warned that mishandling the missing Heaven-United One could destroy the peace they had maintained for ten thousand years.

With Fuzhou City under martial law and household registration checks underway, Cheng Yu accepted Mu Feng’s offer of refuge in a Small Grotto-Heaven after giving him another drop of blood. Cheng Yu entered the grotto-heaven to find Snow Spirit, while Mu Feng remained behind with two glass spheres containing Cheng Yu’s silver blood.

• Cheng Yu worried that the household registration checks would expose him and ruin his role-playing mission.
• Mu Feng offered Cheng Yu refuge in the Small Grotto-Heaven where Snow Spirit was training, in exchange for another drop of blood.
• Cheng Yu questioned Mu Feng’s motives, then gave him a drop of silver-glowing blood and received the grotto-heaven’s wooden key.
• Cheng Yu reflected on Mu Feng’s mysterious identity and the mission’s uncertainties before entering the grotto-heaven.
• Mu Feng returned to reading in his courtyard while holding two glass spheres containing Cheng Yu’s blood.

Cheng Yu arrived in Snow Spirit's technologically advanced world and investigated the universe's pan-universe consciousness, discovering that Mu Feng had intervened in its past. After finding no explanation for the world's rapid development, he left rather than pursue the mystery and continued on his way to find Snow Spirit.

• Cheng Yu arrived on Snow Spirit's planet and noticed its technology had advanced dramatically in little more than a dozen years.
• Cheng Yu sat on a smart bench and examined the universe's pan-universe consciousness, learning that Mu Feng had once intervened and that the current consciousness was a second generation.
• Cheng Yu found no answer to the mystery of time's passage and decided not to investigate further.
• A young Law Enforcement Officer became fixated on the consciousness in Cheng Yu's hand and asked to buy it, but Cheng Yu refused.
• The officer recovered her composure and left, and Cheng Yu acknowledged that he still did not understand the consciousness before disappearing at sunset.