Chapter Summaries

Xu Taiping’s Human Race Army faced another assault from the Different People Army as the Abyssal Pavilion and the Heaven-Hunting Great Sage intervened. The Demon Mother then raised the enemy’s battle intent to its ultimate realm, leaving Xu Taiping unsure whether the Human Race could survive.

• Xu Taiping reformed the Human Race Army’s Defensive Battle Formation and learned that Lei Huo, Jiang Yu, Lei Xiao, Li Shi, Ling Feng, Zhai Mo, and Gongshu Nanxing had died.
• Heavenly Lord Cangzhu and the Abyssal Pavilion attacked the Different People Army, but battle-intent projections countered them and forced the Immortal Boat to retreat.
• The Heaven-Hunting Great Sage arrived and covered the Abyssal Pavilion’s withdrawal, but the Different People Army struck him with a massive battle-intent fist.
• Xu Taiping shattered the spears aimed at the Heaven-Hunting Great Sage and told him to enter the Human Race formation, strengthening it with his presence.
• The Demon Mother ordered the Different People Army to raise its battle intent to the ultimate realm, overwhelming Xu Taiping with doubts about whether the battle was lost.

Xu Taiping and the Human Race Army repeatedly held off the ten-million-strong Nine Abysses Different People Army, using Heroic Spirits and dangerous charges to kill enemy generals. As their own generals and Heroic Spirits fell, Xu Taiping promised the dead that the survivors would soon join them.

• Xu Taiping summoned eight hundred thousand Demon-Slaying Army Heroic Spirits to reinforce the Human Race Army's battle intent, then led the generals into the enemy formation to kill its officers.
• Ji Ye died while saving Mu Yun, and Lü Daoxuan rescued a Zhenwu Demon-Slaying Army Peak Lord from the enemy formation.
• Xu Taiping rallied the grieving soldiers, and the Human Race Army held firm against another charge by the Nine Abysses Different People Army.
• Xu Taiping sent his Origin Beginning Clone and Heroic Spirits Battle Generals to hunt enemy generals, buying the Human Race Army time to recover.
• Xu Taiping swallowed thousands of Demon Seeds to strengthen his generals, then led repeated charges against the enemy as their own numbers dwindled.
• Du Qianjiang, Qi Chan, and many other generals and Heroic Spirits died, and Xu Taiping mourned them, saying the survivors would soon join them.

Xu Taiping led the dwindling Human Race Army in a final charge against the vastly larger Nine Abysses Different People Army. After learning the Flame Emperor Heaven-Shaking Fist and piercing the enemy’s battle-intent phantom, he was struck and swallowed by their forces, but human reinforcements began gathering around him as sparks of light.

• Xu Taiping led fewer than a million human soldiers in a final charge against the ten-million-strong Nine Abysses Different People Army.
• The human formation broke under the enemy’s battle intent, leaving Xu Taiping and the other generals struggling to defend themselves.
• Xu Taiping fought a battle-intent phantom formed from four million otherworlders, and his Origin Beginning Clone was destroyed while protecting Lin Buyu.
• As the phantom’s spear threatened him, Xu Taiping resonated with the Flame Emperor’s image and unleashed the Ultimate Dao, Flame Emperor Heaven-Shaking Fist, piercing the phantom’s chest.
• A battle-intent longsword pierced Xu Taiping, and the Different People Army’s forces swallowed him as his senses faded.
• Human fighters called out to Xu Taiping and gathered toward him as faint, warm specks of light.

Xu Taiping was trapped beneath the Nine Abysses Different People Army’s battle intent and believed he was about to die. Tens of millions of ordinary mortals rallied to save him, tore open the enemy formation, and lifted him from the ground.

• A powerful flaming fist struck Xu Taiping and drove him underground as the enemy army’s battle intent cut off his senses.
• Xu Taiping sensed what he thought was Sister Lingyue, Master, and their forces trying to reach him, but their battle intent could not free him.
• A golden river of battle intent formed from ordinary mortals surged toward Xu Taiping and began breaking through the Nine Abysses Different People Army’s formation.
• A female general called farmers, blacksmiths, butchers, and other common folk to join her formation and save Xu Taiping and the people of the world.
• The mortals’ combined battle intent tore apart the enemy’s surrounding force and raised Xu Taiping into the air amid tens of millions of cheering people.

Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu extended their battle intent over the twenty million ordinary people who had arrived to fight the Demon Mother. The chapter ended with Xu Taiping calling on everyone willing to defend the mortal realm to step forward.

• Xu Taiping and the Half-Immortals stopped the Demon Mother's strike, and Xu Taiping used the edict Life Without End to restore his broken body at the cost of his lifespan and cultivation realm.
• The Third Watch Observatory, led by Qi Haitang and Li Changeng, intercepted the Demon Mother while Xu Taiping and the other powerful fighters headed for the battle formation.
• Xu Taiping saw ordinary people dying from the battle's aftershocks, then landed in the formation with Xiaohei and joined Demon Emperor Yangling, Xuanyuan Xueluo, Liu Zijin, and Cui Tiegu.
• Xuanyuan Xueluo told Xu Taiping that Ancient Buddha Kasyapa and Dipankara Buddha had brought twenty million people willing to fight, and that they would die unless they entered the formation.
• Xu Taiping and Lin Buyu used their Divine Marrow Power to spread their battle intent over every common person on the battlefield.
• Xu Taiping roared a call for the elders and brothers willing to fight for the mortal realm to take one step forward.

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.