Recaps

Xu Taiping gathered the battle intent of more than twenty million ordinary people and used it to resist the Demon Mother's army-backed attack. As the Demon Mother's overwhelming thrust shattered their defenses, Xu Taiping continued raising the army's mobilized battle intent.

• Tens of millions of ordinary people stepped forward to lend Xu Taiping their battle intent, and his generals joined their formation.
• The Demon Mother's palm struck Third Watch Observatory's Geng Metal Thousand-Eyed Crow, sending it and Li Changeng's Dharma Aspect crashing toward the ground as the Different People Army charged.
• Xu Taiping united the ordinary people's battle intent into a Thunder Sound Grinding Disc, which struck the Demon Mother's attack and blocked her thrust with twenty percent of the army's power.
• Xu Taiping raised the mobilized battle intent to thirty percent and formed a Mysterious Wasteland Tower that protected the army from the Demon Mother's sword.
• As Lin Buyu counted the rising power from forty to sixty percent, the Mysterious Wasteland Tower shattered under the Demon Mother's thrust, which tore open hundreds of void rifts.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu fought the Demon Mother with the Battle Intent of their armies, and Lin Buyu’s risky support enabled Xu Taiping to unleash the Ultimate Dao Towering Form. His blade split the Demon Mother’s body and the sky, leaving the Battle Generals believing they had won.

• Xu Taiping awakened his Thousand Arms Divine Being Dharma Aspect and used the Mortal Bones’ Battle Intent to halt the Demon Mother’s sword and the Different People Army’s charge.
• The Demon Mother ordered her army to fight to the death, but Xu Taiping kept attacking as Lin Buyu used the army’s Battle Intent to help him.
• The Demon Mother sent a clone to wound Lin Buyu, who endured the Purgatory of True Fire and imprisoned the clone with Heaven-Sealing.
• Lin Buyu raised the mobilized Battle Intent to eighty percent, letting Xu Taiping shatter the Demon Mother’s Sword Intent.
• As the Demon Mother attacked with a powerful palm, Xu Taiping used ninety percent of the Battle Intent to unleash the Annihilating Blade Art’s Ultimate Dao Towering Form, cleaving her body and the sky in two.

Xu Taiping used the Human Race Army’s battle intent to trap and steadily wear down the Demon Mother and her Different People Army. As the Demon Mother’s forces dwindled, she enclosed herself and Xu Taiping in a Phantom Bronze Bell, setting up a contest between commanders.

• Fairy Lingyue and Kang Cangzi warned Xu Taiping that the Demon Mother was still alive, and she rejoined her severed body and caught his next saber strike with the battle intent of her army.
• More than three hundred human battle generals attacked the Demon Mother, but she repelled them, giving Xu Taiping time to unleash another assault and trap her in a Blade Prison.
• Xu Taiping’s repeated saber strikes depleted the Demon Mother’s battle intent and killed hundreds of Different People with each blow, while the Human Race Army met the charging Nine Abysses Different People Army head-on.
• Xu Taiping asked Buyu to take over the battle formation, and Buyu rode Xiaohei to lead the forces below as Xu Taiping continued attacking the Demon Mother.
• Xu Taiping severed the Demon Mother again, and her army shrank from ten million to nine million; she then condensed her forces’ battle intent into a Phantom Bronze Bell that enclosed both of them.

Xu Taiping let the Demon Mother batter his body inside the Phantom Bronze Bell, trusting Lady Jade Mother and the Lotus Eye’s prediction that the ordeal would temper his physique and sword. After his body was reduced to flesh and blood and the Demon Mother thought him dead, his sword burst forth and he seized her by the neck.

• The Demon Mother trapped Xu Taiping inside the Phantom Bronze Bell and attacked him with her ultimate Dao body while the Human Race battle generals failed to break in.
• Lady Jade Mother urged Xu Taiping to endure the Demon Mother’s blows, and his sixth Great Dao Golden Lotus showed him the same ordeal.
• Xu Taiping let the Demon Mother shatter his body, sensing turbid qi escape through his wounds as the sword forged within him began to cry out.
• The Demon Mother smashed Xu Taiping’s body and head into flesh and blood, then struck again when a heartbeat sounded from the remains.
• A sword light erupted from Xu Taiping’s remains, and he seized the Demon Mother by the neck, declaring that he had caught her.

Xu Taiping awakened the full power of his Shangqing ultimate Dao body and turned the commoners’ battle intent into sword attacks that battered the Demon Mother and her army. When the Demon Mother transformed into a black flame lotus to self-destruct, Xu Taiping prepared to seal her by summoning the strength of the Human Race’s forebears through his treasures.

• Xu Taiping realized his ultimate Dao body’s nature, recovered from the Demon Mother’s blows, and battered her with his fists.
• The commoners’ battle intent lifted Xu Taiping out of the Demon Mother’s palm strike, and he shaped their conviction into sword light that broke her attack.
• Xu Taiping wielded the battle intent of more than twenty million commoners to overwhelm the Demon Mother and the Different People Army, shattering her saber and piercing her body.
• The ten million demon seeds exploded into blood mist and merged with the Demon Mother, who became a black flame lotus and began unfolding its petals to self-destruct.
• Xu Taiping recognized that his body was meant to seal the Demon Mother, raised his blade and treasures, and called on Lord Flame Emperor and the Human Race’s forebears for strength.

Xu Taiping and the Flame Emperor’s battle-intent projections destroyed the Demon Mother’s black lotus, leaving its seed for Xu Taiping to seal inside his body. The Nine Abysses scourge receded, and the Flame Emperor’s legacy offered Xu Taiping a choice of two supreme fortuitous opportunities, beginning with Sword Liberation Ascension.

• Xu Taiping summoned the Flame Emperor and other Human Race predecessors, who struck down the Demon Mother’s black lotus until only its seed remained.
• The Flame Emperor said the seed could not be destroyed by his projection, so Xu Taiping swallowed it and suppressed its power with Reverse Furnace.
• The Flame Emperor warned Xu Taiping that the seed had to remain sealed and that he must find a successor if he died before ascending to the Immortal Realm.
• The Nine Abysses Edict and demonic qi dissipated, and Zhang Tianze and the Human Race commanders declared victory as spiritual rain fell across the land.
• The Flame Emperor’s divine sense appeared from the shattered Demon-Suppressing Steles and awarded Xu Taiping the greatest battle merit, allowing him to choose between two fortuitous opportunities.
• The golden figure announced the first opportunity: Sword Liberation Ascension, Dao Attainment and Ascending to Heaven.

Xu Taiping learned that he could ascend through the Flame Emperor’s Liberation by Violence or begin the Heaven-Treading Contest to restore a path to heaven for the world. Though his companions urged him to ascend, he resolved to choose the contest so future cultivators would not find their way to the Upper Realm blocked.

• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Flame Emperor had left multiple methods of ascension, including Liberation by Violence, and revealed that it was the path she had hoped Xu Taiping would pursue.
• The golden figure described the Heaven-Treading Contest as a struggle against heaven that could reclaim an Ascending Great Dao, and Xu Taiping realized Taiqing Paradise had constrained the worlds’ paths to ascension.
• The golden figure told Xu Taiping he could choose only one of the two opportunities, while Fairy Lingyue, Lin Buyu, Lü Daoxuan, and the Azure Profound Sect disciples urged him to ascend.
• As the people called on Xu Taiping to ascend, he became resolved to choose the Heaven-Treading Contest despite Fairy Lingyue warning that it could cost him his life.
• Xu Taiping told Fairy Lingyue that he could not accept future cultivators discovering that their path to the Upper Realm had been blocked long ago.

Xu Taiping prepared to choose one of two opportunities, but Fairy Lingyue paused him to explain the stakes of the Heaven-Treading Contest. He learned that the contest could reopen the Shangqing Realm’s passage to the Immortal Realm and that Taiqing Paradise had risen to Yujitian.

• Xu Taiping declared that he alone could not choose Sword Release and ascend, while Lin Buyu and Fairy Lingyue promised to stand by him.
• Fairy Lingyue asked the Stele Spirit for time and brought Xu Taiping into her Sea of Consciousness to discuss the contest.
• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Heaven-Treading Contest was the Shangqing Realm’s only way to reopen its passage to the Immortal Realm, which Taiqing Paradise had helped close.
• Xu Taiping realized Fairy Lingyue wanted him to name Taiqing Paradise as his opponent so that victory would not leave the hidden threat untouched.
• Fairy Lingyue revealed that Taiqing Paradise had become Yujitian.

Xu Taiping learned that the Heaven-Treading Contest was Shangqing’s only timely chance to avert its decline, despite Taiqing Paradise’s overwhelming strength, and chose to challenge it. After he launched the contest, a phantom image of Taiqing cultivators appeared beyond the Sky Canopy and its elders threatened to reduce Shangqing to Human-Rank Heaven.

• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Heaven-Treading Contest would pit seven cultivators chosen for Shangqing against three selected by Taiqing Paradise, including potentially ancient Ascension Realm experts.
• Xu Taiping learned that the alternative to challenging Taiqing would take hundreds of thousands of years, and decided Shangqing could not afford to wait.
• Xu Taiping told the Stele Spirit that he chose the Heaven-Treading Contest and accepted that neither he nor the chosen cultivators could refuse once it began.
• Xu Taiping declared his challenge to Taiqing Paradise on behalf of Shangqing and sent the Golden Sword Shadow through the Sky Canopy.
• A phantom image of dozens of Taiqing cultivators appeared in the breach, and two elders threatened to crush Shangqing and keep its people as livestock.

Xu Taiping learned that Su Chan had been Taiqing Paradise’s Overseer in Shangqing and that he had returned after Xu Taiping destroyed only a wisp of his Divine Sense. As the Heaven-Treading Contest selections began, Lü Daoxuan and Kang Cangzi were chosen, while another selection was still pending.

• Su Chan appeared in the Reflected Projection and revealed that Xu Taiping had disrupted his plan to let the Taixuan Ghost Domain replace the human race.
• Lü Daoxuan expelled Su Chan from the Azure Profound Sect, killing the knot in his heart and breaking through to Void Insight Nine Inches.
• Su Chan threatened to destroy Xu Taiping, then killed an elderly cultivator who challenged his right to compete and dismissed the name Su Chan.
• Golden Light chose Lü Daoxuan and Kang Cangzi for the Heaven-Treading Contest, while Fairy Lingyue hoped to be selected and another beam began to descend.

The Heavenly Dao chose Zhao Linglong as a participant in the Heaven-Treading Contest, alarming the Azure Profound Sect because she was not yet strong enough to survive it. After learning that she was forging Taiyi, the sect agreed to let her go if she finished the sword in time, while everyone waited for the fourth participant to be selected.

• A beam of golden light chose Zhao Linglong, and Zhao Qian protested that she was too weak to enter the Heaven-Treading Contest.
• Kang Cangzi explained that Zhao Linglong could refuse only by dispersing her cultivation, while Fairy Lingyue said the Heavenly Dao might have chosen her for a reason.
• Lü Daoxuan learned Zhao Linglong was forging Taiyi and said completing it would greatly help the contest; Zhao Linglong eagerly agreed to join Xu Taiping.
• Zhao Qian and Lü Daoxuan warned Zhao Linglong not to participate unless she finished forging Taiyi, and Fairy Lingyue estimated the contest would begin in three to five years.
• Another tremor shook the heavens, and Kang Cangzi announced that the Heavenly Dao Edict had likely chosen the fourth participant.

Duan Tianya appeared on the battlefield as the Heavenly Dao Edict’s chosen one and revealed how Su Chan and Taiqing Paradise had hunted him and cursed his clones. The golden light ultimately surrounded the jade gourd he carried, suggesting that it—not Duan Tianya—had been chosen.

• Huo Xuan told Xu Taiping that the Four Symbols Army commanders were settling the civilians, reassuring Xu Taiping as he focused on the Heaven-Treading Contest.
• Duan Tianya arrived on the battlefield under the golden light, and Xu Taiping recognized the old man he had met in the Taixuan Ghost Domain.
• Duan Tianya explained that Taiqing Paradise’s shadows had pursued him, that Su Chan had cursed one of his clones, and that Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu had helped sever the karma trapping him.
• Duan Tianya said he had stayed hidden because Su Chan could kill him and revealed that the jade gourd he carried held his hope for revenge against Taiqing Paradise.
• The golden light shifted from Duan Tianya to the jade gourd, and Xu Taiping realized the Heavenly Dao Edict had chosen the object instead of the old man.

Duan Tianya revealed that Nangong Yu possessed the power to counter the Taiqing Edict and had been chosen by the Heavenly Dao Edict as a Heaven's Chosen. The fifth Heaven's Chosen then began to appear, and a ray of golden light landed on the Immortal Boat housing the Abyssal Pavilion.

• Duan Tianya shattered the Jade Gourd, freeing Shang Jiu and Nangong Yu, and Shang Jiu was astonished by Xu Taiping's cultivation.
• Duan Tianya explained that he had found the power within Nangong Yu in a Sumeru Realm ruin and that Taiqing Paradise had pursued her through Su Chan's schemes.
• Xu Taiping and the others realized Su Chan had orchestrated the Yin God's hunt for Shang Jiu and Nangong Yu, while Duan Tianya had kept them asleep and hidden until it was safe to awaken them.
• Duan Tianya and Shang Jiu assured Fairy Lingyue that Nangong Yu would be prepared to protect herself before the Heaven-Treading Contest.
• Golden clouds gathered overhead, and a ray of light descended onto the Immortal Boat housing the Abyssal Pavilion as the fifth Heaven's Chosen appeared.

Xu Taiping learned that the Heaven-Hunting Great Sage had brought a mysterious elder from the Land of Chaos, whom the Heavenly Dao Edict had chosen as the fifth of Heaven’s Chosen. The elder revealed his connection to Xu Taiping’s grandfather and congratulated Xu Taiping for fulfilling his grandfather’s wish.

• Xu Taiping and the others discovered that the Heaven-Hunting Great Sage appeared to be the fifth person chosen by the Heavenly Dao Edict.
• The Heaven-Hunting Great Sage clarified that the chosen person was an elder imprisoned in a scroll, whom he had invited from the Land of Chaos to help face the Nine Abysses Demon Mother.
• The Great Sage unfurled the scroll, releasing an elderly Daoist whose appearance resembled Xu Taiping’s grandfather.
• The Daoist recognized Xu Taiping as Xu Anzhi’s grandson and recalled that Xu Taiping had received a pill and a soybean from his grandfather on his deathbed.
• Xu Taiping realized the Daoist was the one who had given his grandfather the Spirit Bone Pill, and the Daoist said Xu Taiping had fulfilled his grandfather’s lifelong wish.

The gray-robed Old Daoist revealed that Fairy Lingyue's master and eldest senior brother died after entering Taiqing Paradise, with the eldest senior brother killing the master. As the sixth Heaven's Chosen was about to appear, the Old Daoist also told Xu Taiping that he was adopted, leaving Xu questioning the truth of his memories.

• Xu Taiping thanked the Old Daoist for giving his grandfather the Spirit Bone Pill, and the Old Daoist explained how it had reached the family too late.
• Fairy Lingyue recognized the Old Daoist as the one who had saved Sumeri legacies and learned that her master had entrusted her sleeping soul to an Earth Fruit before entering Taiqing Paradise with her eldest senior brother.
• The Old Daoist revealed that Fairy Lingyue's master and eldest senior brother had both died in battle, and that the eldest senior brother had killed the master; Fairy Lingyue watched proof in a Moonlight Stone.
• Xu Taiping learned that Fairy Lingyue's eldest senior brother would likely represent Taiqing Paradise in the Heaven-Treading, and Fairy Lingyue vowed to confront him if she was chosen.
• As the sixth Heaven's Chosen was about to appear, the Old Daoist revealed that Xu Taiping was not Xu Zhian's biological grandson, making Xu question whether the parents in his memories were his birth parents.

Xu Taiping learned that Lin Buyan had been chosen for the Heaven-Treading Contest, which would begin in ten years, and Fairy Lingyue revealed clues about Taiqing Paradise and the Great Void Calamity. She explained that the Ancient Heavenly Court fell in an internal conflict over whether to confront the calamity or abandon Shangqing and Sumeru.

• The Old Daoist promised to tell Xu Taiping about his past if they survived the Heaven-Treading Contest.
• A pillar of golden light chose Lin Buyan, surprising her and the others, while Fairy Lingyue lamented that she could not join Xu Taiping.
• Duan Tianya urged the unchosen cultivators to keep preparing, and the Heavenly Dao Edict announced that the contest would begin in ten years.
• Fairy Lingyue told Xu Taiping that she had found clues in Taiqing Paradise and that the Heaven-Treading Contest might help resolve the Great Void Calamity.
• Three months later, Fairy Lingyue explained that the Ancient Heavenly Court had been destroyed by an internal dispute: the Jade Mother's faction wanted to confront the calamity, while the Jade Emperor's faction wanted to abandon Shangqing and Sumeru and rebuild the Heavenly Court.

Fairy Lingyue revealed that the Spiritfolk Clan used the Spirit Bone Steles and the succession of races to keep the Great Void Calamity asleep and raise their realm, a method later adopted by Taiqing's Heavenly Court. Xu Taiping's victory over the Nine Abysses and the Demon Mother had disrupted Taiqing's plan, and Lin Buyu asked whether the Great Void Calamity would now awaken early.

• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Jade Emperor abandoned the Ancient Heavenly Court and rebuilt it in Taiqing Paradise, leaving Shangqing and Sumeru to bear the Great Void Calamity through cycles of racial destruction and replacement.
• Fairy Lingyue revealed that the Spiritfolk Clan of the Xuankong Realm had once ascended with its world after discovering how to control the Great Void Calamity.
• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu identified the Spirit Bone Steles as the means by which the Spiritfolk Clan accelerated succession among the Divine Being Clan, the Dragon Clan, and the Human Race.
• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Spiritfolk Clan used the sleeping Great Void Calamity's power to raise its realm, and that Taiqing's Heavenly Court was repeating the same method.
• Fairy Lingyue said Xu Taiping's victory over the Nine Abysses and the Demon Mother had shattered Taiqing's plan, and Lin Buyu asked whether the Great Void Calamity would awaken early.

Fairy Lingyue explained how winning the Heaven-Treading Contest could delay the Great Void Calamity, while Lady Jade Mother revealed the Jade Emperor’s massacre and an ancient way to resist the calamity. Jade Mother said the old method might be possible again if the Heavenly Court were reforged, and she led Xu Taiping to see what the Ancestral Dragon had left for him.

• Fairy Lingyue told Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu that winning the Heaven-Treading Contest could raise Shangqing’s rank and delay the Great Void Calamity for up to a hundred years.
• Fairy Lingyue explained that the Jade Emperor had erased memories of the Heavenly Court Civil War, leaving the Immortal Officials unable to recover their greatest combat power until their memories were restored.
• Lady Jade Mother appeared and revealed that the Jade Emperor had massacred the Immortal Officials who opposed his plan to flee to Taiqing Paradise, while she saved some by sending them into the Lower Realm.
• Lady Jade Mother said the Ancient Heavenly Court had found a way to delay the Great Void Calamity by hundreds of thousands of years, but using it again would require restoring the Heavenly Officials and reforging the Heavenly Court.
• Lady Jade Mother told Xu Taiping she could help him win the Heaven-Treading Contest and invited him to see what the Ancestral Dragon had left for him.

Xu Taiping and his companions opened the door to the Ancestral Dragon’s hidden Scripture Repository, where they encountered the Ancestral Dragon. The Ancestral Dragon learned that the Dragon Clan’s fortune had been severed and asked who was responsible.

• Fairy Lingyue explained that she had left Xu Taiping clues after he rescued Immortal Elder Wuji and found the Heavenly King's Skull.
• Lady Jade Mother summoned Dragon Emperor Cangzhou and arranged for him and herself to enter the room first, with Xu Taiping following and Fairy Lingyue and Lin Buyu at the rear.
• Xu Taiping opened the door, entered the room, and used Thousand-Zhang Seal Domain to dispel the invisible pressure and reveal the Scripture Repository.
• Cangzhou explained that the repository held archives of many races, and Lady Jade Mother suggested it might contain a way to overcome the Great Void Calamity.
• The Ancestral Dragon appeared and asked Cangzhou whether the Dragon Clan’s fortune had been extinguished; Cangzhou confirmed it had been severed.
• The Ancestral Dragon calmly asked which race had extinguished the Dragon Clan’s fortune.

Xu Taiping and the others learned from the Ancestral Dragon about the Dragon Clan’s fate, the Spiritfolk Clan’s role in raising the Great Void Calamity, and the need to preserve their great domain’s inheritance. The Ancestral Dragon then prepared to reveal a method for restraining the calamity that he had discovered beyond the domain.

• Xu Taiping told the Ancestral Dragon that the Human Race had mastered the heavens’ origin edicts and ascended to the Immortal Realm, and the Ancestral Dragon said he had foreseen the Dragon Clan’s destruction.
• The Ancestral Dragon explained that he had traveled beyond the domain and discovered clues about the Great Void Calamity, while dragons could enter other great domains without being treated as Otherworldly Heavenly Demons.
• Xu Taiping and Lady Jade Mother confirmed that the Spiritfolk Clan used destruction and rebirth within their great domain to rear the Great Void Calamity, and the Ancestral Dragon said the Mystic Azure Spirit Domain might surpass the Immortal Domain.
• The Ancestral Dragon said that ascended beings, including himself, were concerned with the Mystic Azure Spirit Domain, but urged Xu Taiping and the others to safeguard their great domain’s inheritance.
• The Ancestral Dragon revealed that he had left a strand of divine sense to share a method for restraining the Great Void Calamity, then told everyone to listen.

The Ancestral Dragon explained that the Great Void Calamity was a manifestation of the Heavenly Dao Edict, “taking from excess to replenish deficiency,” and led Xu Taiping and the others to consider how the cultivation world had deprived mortals of fortune and vitality. Xu Taiping concluded that the realm’s fortune was not finite; the cultivation world had weakened because fewer people were striving for it.

• The Ancestral Dragon told Xu Taiping and the others that the Great Void Calamity came from the Heavenly Dao Edict and appeared when a domain’s balance was disrupted.
• Xu Taiping recalled the suffering he had witnessed among mortals and asked whether the cultivation world had taken too much from ordinary people.
• The Ancestral Dragon challenged Lady Jade Mother to consider whether Shangqing’s decline stemmed partly from its cultivation world’s excessive plundering of mortal bones and common people.
• Lady Jade Mother acknowledged that very few mortals had ever entered the cultivation world, but argued that this was the natural order.
• Xu Taiping declared that the Great Domain’s fortune and vitality were not finite and said Shangqing had weakened because fewer people were striving for them.

Xu Taiping and the others learned from the Ancestral Dragon that the Great Void Calamity was Heavenly Retribution for cultivators monopolizing the world’s fortune, and that restoring opportunity to all living beings was the Great Dao as it originally was. With the Heaven-Treading Contest approaching and little time to change the cultivation world, the Ancestral Dragon gave them inheritances to address what they lacked.

• Xu Taiping concluded that the Great Void Calamity was Heavenly Retribution, and the Ancestral Dragon confirmed that the calamity would erase any group that monopolized a realm’s fortune.
• Lin Buyu and Fairy Lingyue acknowledged how cultivators had marginalized mortals and seized the world’s grotto-heavens and blessed lands.
• The Ancestral Dragon explained that the calamity would renew the world for ordinary beings and that it would also destroy the Nine Abysses if they treated the realm’s inhabitants the same way.
• Xu Taiping proposed returning the heavens to all living beings, and the Ancestral Dragon called this the Great Dao as it originally was.
• Jade Mother grasped the Ancestral Dragon’s teaching and showed signs of breaking through to the Ascension Realm.
• After Xu Taiping and the others noted the difficulty of reforming the cultivation world before the Heaven-Treading Contest, the Ancestral Dragon summoned golden inheritances for them.

The Ancestral Dragon gave Xu Taiping, Lin Buyu, and Fairy Lingyue secret opportunities and advised Xu Taiping on strengthening his edict powers. After dismissing the others, he revealed that Xu Taiping needed to reach the Ascension Realm’s Ultimate Realm within ten years, leaving Xu Taiping doubtful.

• The Ancestral Dragon offered three Golden Pearls, explaining that he had prepared the opportunities for Xu Taiping, Lin Buyu, and Fairy Lingyue, who could join the Heaven-Treading Contest despite not being Heaven’s Chosen.
• Fairy Lingyue, Lin Buyu, and Xu Taiping each took a pearl and agreed to keep their opportunities secret from everyone, including one another.
• The Ancestral Dragon told Xu Taiping to cultivate in the Scripture Repository and explained that he should use external treasures to bring his origin edict powers to their fullest.
• The Ancestral Dragon sent Lin Buyu, Fairy Lingyue, and Lady Jade Mother to other cultivation rooms, then told Dragon Emperor Cangzhou that dragons could be born again if Shangqing and the great domain survived.
• After Cangzhou left, the Ancestral Dragon warned Xu Taiping that the Heaven-Treading Contest would be harder than he expected and told him to reach the Ascension Realm’s Ultimate Realm within ten years; Xu Taiping questioned whether he was joking.

Xu Taiping learned that his side needed an Ultimate Realm Ascension Realm expert to win the Heaven-Treading Contest, and the Ancestral Dragon offered him three hundred years of secluded cultivation. Half a year later, the Azure Profound Sect reunited at Moon Perching Pavilion, where Liang Zhu announced she wanted to win the Golden Scale Assembly to send Xu Taiping and the others off to the contest.

• The Ancestral Dragon warned Xu Taiping that an Ultimate Realm Ascension Realm expert was essential to victory and offered to freeze time so Xu Taiping could cultivate for three hundred years.
• Xu Taiping asked whether the other Heaven's Chosen could join him, but the Ancestral Dragon said the time-freeze power could sustain only him.
• The Ancestral Dragon explained that winning the Heaven-Treading Contest could prevent Taiqing Paradise from unleashing the great void calamity, and Xu Taiping promised to try to restore the world's laws if his side won.
• Half a year later, Lü Daoxuan, Zhao Qian, Meng Qingqiu, and the others gathered at Moon Perching Pavilion after the Azure Profound Sect returned to Cloud Cottage Mountain and helped restore order.
• Liang Zhu insisted that she wanted to enter the Golden Scale Assembly and win its championship to give Lü Daoxuan, Zhao Linglong, and Xu Taiping a send-off for the Heaven-Treading Contest.

Xu Taiping supported Liang Zhu’s wish to compete in the Golden Scale Assembly, and Dugu Qingxiao agreed after hearing why preserving her youthful spirit mattered. The group decided to travel together to watch the assembly, while Xu Taiping introduced century-aged Hidden Immortal Wine.

• Liang Zhu asked Dugu Qingxiao to let her enter the Golden Scale Assembly, and Xu Taiping granted his permission.
• Xu Taiping explained that Liang Zhu’s sincere youthful spirit was worth protecting, and Lü Daoxuan and Dugu Qingxiao agreed.
• Dugu Qingxiao told Liang Zhu not to treat victory as the only goal, and Xu Taiping reminded her that the journey itself was cultivation.
• Lin Buyu suggested attending the Golden Scale Assembly together, and the others agreed to travel from the Azure Profound Sect to Youyun Heaven.
• Xu Taiping poured Hidden Immortal Wine that Ping'an had brewed from an ancient recipe and stored in Moon Perching Pavilion for over a hundred years.