Chapter Summaries

Lu Chen was transported from Mount Tai to Mars with the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin and met Ye Fan’s group after they emerged from the bronze coffin. As the group prepared to explore the barren surroundings, Lu Chen had no advice beyond proceeding cautiously.

• Lu Chen awoke on a dragon’s head at the Five-Colored Altar on Mars and realized he had entered the world of Shrouding the Heavens.
• Ye Fan and his classmates left the bronze coffin, saw Lu Chen in the distance, and wondered whether he was human or supernatural.
• Pang Bo called out to Lu Chen, who answered and approached the group.
• Lu Chen told the classmates he had been visiting Mount Tai when the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin carried him away, and he admitted he did not know where they were.
• Ye Fan and the others decided to leave the altar and explore the reddish-brown land, and Ye Fan asked Lu Chen for suggestions.
• Lu Chen told Ye Fan there was no clear plan and that they should take the road ahead one step at a time.

Lu Chen left Ye Fan’s group and searched the Great Thunderclap Temple for Buddhist treasures that could help him survive on Mars. He collected six Bodhi Leaves and found a Vajra Pestle, while deciding not to risk taking the Bodhi Seed.

• Ye Fan’s group identified the planet as Mars after finding ancient writing and seeing its two moons.
• Lu Chen slipped away from the panicked group and reached the Great Thunderclap Temple.
• Lu Chen picked the six remaining Bodhi Leaves from the withered bodhi tree but chose not to dig up the Bodhi Seed because it might contain a dangerous spiritual imprint.
• Lu Chen searched behind the Buddha statue and found the Vajra Pestle, an ancient sacred artifact he hoped to use for protection on Mars.

At the Great Thunderclap Temple, Lu Chen used Bodhi Leaves to grasp one secret of Buddhism’s Six-Character True Words before the temple and its protection collapsed. With the sheltering dome fading and classmates dying on the way, the survivors returned to the Five-Colored Altar in hopes of escaping Mars.

• Ye Fan and his classmates entered the Great Thunderclap Temple, gathered its Buddhist artifacts, and watched Pang Bo take the plaque while Ye Fan retrieved a Bodhi Seed.
• The Buddha statue cracked and the Six-Character True Words rang out; Lu Chen swallowed six Bodhi Leaves and gained the secret of the syllable “Pad.”
• The Great Thunderclap Temple and Ancient Bodhi Tree crumbled into ashes after the chant faded, leaving the group with the artifacts they had taken.
• A Martian dust storm struck the area, but a hazy dome protected the temple grounds; Lu Chen warned that the dome was fading and urged everyone toward the Five-Colored Altar.
• The group returned to the altar, and several classmates died inexplicably along the way.

Lu Chen, Ye Fan, and the others fought the Little Divine Crocodiles with the Buddhist artifacts as the Five-Colored Altar struggled to open the Starry Sky Gate. Their slaughter fed the altar mysterious energy, but the Starry Sky Ancient Road had not yet opened.

• Lu Chen identified the attackers as Little Divine Crocodiles and warned that the artifacts could protect the group from them.
• The light barrier shrank around the Five-Colored Altar, but a roar from the distance and a crocodile breaking through the barrier renewed the group's fear.
• Pang Bo killed the first Little Divine Crocodile with the Great Thunderclap Temple Plaque, demonstrating that the Buddhist artifacts could destroy them.
• Lu Chen and Ye Fan proposed killing the crocodiles as a blood sacrifice to supply the altar with energy, and Zhou Yi agreed that they had no other choice.
• Lu Chen, Ye Fan, Pang Bo, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, and others fought off waves of Little Divine Crocodiles with their artifacts, while the altar absorbed the glowing blood from the corpses.

Lu Chen, Ye Fan, and the others fled into the ancient bronze coffin as the Crocodile Ancestor attacked the Five-Colored Altar, and the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin carried them through the opened starry gateway. Trapped in darkness during their journey, Lu Chen stayed alert and reflected on his unexpected transmigration.

• The Crocodile Ancestor appeared above the altar and commanded swarms of Divine Crocodiles to probe the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin.
• Lu Chen and Ye Fan led the survivors into the ancient bronze coffin, where the nine dragon corpses' aura drove the Divine Crocodiles away from the altar.
• The Crocodile Ancestor shattered several Buddhist artifacts, whose released energy opened the starry gateway; the intact treasures then forced him to withdraw.
• The bronze coffin closed and rose with the nine dragon corpses, knocking the Crocodile Ancestor away when he tried to stop it before disappearing through the gateway.
• Inside the dark coffin, Lu Chen watched over Ye Fan and Pang Bo, remained wary of hidden threats, and thought about his transmigration as the exhausted group fell silent.

The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin reached the Big Dipper Star Domain after a Little Divine Crocodile killed Chen Hao inside the coffin. As the group prepared to leave, Lu Chen recognized that their journey had reached its destination.

• The awakened classmates argued over Chen Hao's death, and Liu Yunzhi accused Ye Fan of killing him.
• Lu Chen found Chen Hao's crushed throat and warned that a Little Divine Crocodile was likely hiding in his corpse.
• The Little Divine Crocodile attacked Lu Chen, but Ye Fan burned it with the Ancient Bronze Lamp and Pang Bo crushed it with the Great Thunderclap Temple Plaque.
• Ye Fan heard scripture from the small bronze coffin, though Lu Chen could not hear it.
• The coffin walls drained the artifacts' remaining power to display a star map pointing toward the Big Dipper Star Domain.
• The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin crashed to a stop, and its lid slid open as Lu Chen recognized their destination.

Lu Chen, Ye Fan, and Pang Bo explored the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land after the bronze coffin carried them to the Other Shore of the Starry Sky. They found and consumed the Sacred Fruits and Divine Spring, then returned to the group with food and water.

• The group escaped the bronze coffin and watched the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin slide into the abyss surrounded by nine peaks.
• Lu Chen joined Ye Fan and Pang Bo to search the thickets for food and shared biscuits with them.
• The three found a Divine Spring surrounded by thirteen trees bearing Sacred Fruits, and Lu Chen recognized the divine medicine.
• Lu Chen ate three Sacred Fruits, while Ye Fan and Pang Bo ate five each, and all three drank from the spring and filled their bottles.
• The three returned to the group, and Lu Chen had also taken the Sacred Fruits originally meant for Zhang Wenchang and Liu Yiyi.

Lu Chen and the others left the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land after glimpsing the ruins of the Heavenly Court, but its strange power stripped away their vitality and transformed them. Lu Chen awoke rejuvenated and began considering how he would make his mark in the age ahead.

• Lu Chen and the others spotted a Golden-Winged Roc and an immense, mist-shrouded palace complex, which Lu Chen recognized as ruins of the Ancient Heavenly Court.
• The group spent a fearful night near the Desolate Ancient Abyss, then found a stone stele that identified the region as the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
• After leaving the forbidden land, Ye Fan and Pang Bo overheard Liu Yunzhi and his companions plotting against them, beat them, and left them bound in a wild beast's den.
• The forbidden land's power caused Lu Chen and the others to collapse in agony as their bodies rapidly changed.
• Lu Chen awoke first with jade-like skin and renewed strength, while Ye Fan and Pang Bo had become children and the others had aged into elderly people.
• Lu Chen suspected the Bodhi Leaves had helped him awaken early and pondered whether he could distinguish himself in the coming Golden Age.

Lu Chen left Ye Fan and the others to seek the fortune hidden in the Heavenly Palace ruins, hoping to build the foundation for his cultivation. Despite his newfound strength and repeated attempts, he could not cross the final mountain between himself and the palace.

• Lu Chen resolved to pursue immortality and set out alone toward the Heavenly Palace with the Vajra Treasure Pestle.
• Lu Chen recalled how the Heavenly Palace ruins had helped Ye Fan's classmates and decided to risk entering them for his own cultivation foundation.
• Lu Chen tested his strength by breaking a thick tree, then ran across several peaks toward the palace.
• Lu Chen repeatedly changed direction around the last mountain but could not get any closer to the Heavenly Palace.
• Ye Fan and the others awoke, lamented their changed appearances, and hoped the Heavenly Palace could help them before an Immortal Maiden carried them away after nightfall.
• Lu Chen continued circling the palace's outskirts, grew dejected, and sat on a rock as wild beasts roared nearby.

Lu Chen entered the Heavenly Court Ruins and discovered a box containing Divine Mark Purple Gold, which he carried away in its weightless magical container. After searching several empty halls, he found a Bronze Furnace in the seventh palace.

• At midnight, the mountain vanished, allowing Lu Chen to reach the Palace Complex in the Heavenly Court Ruins.
• Lu Chen explored the first palace and found it empty.
• In the second palace, Lu Chen found a box containing Divine Mark Purple Gold and realized the magical box made the immensely heavy metal easy to carry.
• Lu Chen searched six more halls and found them empty.
• Lu Chen entered the seventh palace and discovered a Bronze Furnace at its center.

Lu Chen discovered and consumed a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill in the Heavenly Court Ruins, then underwent a month-long transformation inside a radiant cocoon. He emerged reborn with immense life essence and potential, ready to begin cultivating.

• Lu Chen opened a massive furnace in the Heavenly Palace ruins and found a nine-colored, human-shaped pill that he believed was a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill.
• Lu Chen ate the pill, and its power enveloped him in a nine-colored cocoon that floated inside the palace.
• A month passed while Ye Fan and Pang Bo began their cultivation journey at Spirit Ruins Paradise and wondered about Lu Chen's origins.
• The cocoon cracked apart, and Lu Chen emerged with a transformed body and soul, convinced that he had consumed a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill.

After the Immortal Palace teleported Lu Chen to an unknown wilderness, he survived its beasts, reached a town, and learned the local language and script. He discovered he was in the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland, near the southern border of the Flowing Cloud Dynasty.

• A jade avenue teleported Lu Chen from the Heavenly Court Ruins to a primeval forest.
• Lu Chen killed a charging One-Horned Black Tiger with the Vajra Pestle and grew more confident as he traveled through the wilderness.
• After more than ten days, Lu Chen reached a town, traded game for money, and rested at an inn for three days.
• Lu Chen hired an elderly scholar to teach him the local language and writing, mastering both in less than a month.
• Lu Chen used books and local knowledge to identify his location as the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland, in a small town near the Flowing Cloud Dynasty’s southern border.

Lu Chen weighed the risks of joining a small sect or a holy land before meeting the cultivator Gu Ling in a restaurant. He accepted Gu Ling’s offer to guide him onto the Immortal Path, learning that his new master was an independent cultivator at the Other Shore.

• Lu Chen considered leaving town and weighed the freedoms of a small sect against the resources and restrictions of a holy land.
• An old man named Gu Ling asked to share Lu Chen’s table and examined his powerful blood and vitality.
• Gu Ling revealed that he was an immortal cultivator and invited Lu Chen to begin the Immortal Path under his guidance.
• Lu Chen accepted Gu Ling as his master, confident he could seek out the resources he needed with his aptitude and foreknowledge.
• Gu Ling explained that he was a two- or three-hundred-year-old independent cultivator whose cultivation had reached the Other Shore.

Lu Chen learned the principles of the Shrouding Method from his master, Gu Ling, and began cultivating the Sea of Bitterness. He sensed it in one day and opened it on the next, astonishing Gu Ling with his extraordinary aptitude.

• Gu Ling told Lu Chen that he had returned to his hometown with only six months to a year left to live, and promised to guide him onto the Immortal Path.
• Over the following month, Lu Chen studied cultivation fundamentals and learned about the body's gates of potential and the five secret realms.
• Gu Ling examined Lu Chen's life source wheel and found eighteen marks on it.
• Gu Ling taught Lu Chen how cultivators opened the bitter sea and advanced toward the Life Spring stage.
• With Gu Ling's help, Lu Chen sensed his Sea of Bitterness in one day and opened it the next, leaving Gu Ling astonished.

Lu Chen opened his Bitter Sea in two days and cultivated diligently under Gu Ling's guidance. Six months later, he broke through to the Life Spring Realm, leaving Gu Ling delighted to have found such a talented successor.

• Lu Chen opened a tiny, pitch-black Bitter Sea in two days and realized he had an Ordinary Body with extraordinary potential.
• Gu Ling taught Lu Chen the Zixia Art and answered his questions about cultivation.
• Lu Chen spent six months cultivating while also studying pill refining, artifact forging, Dao patterns, and formations.
• Lu Chen's Bitter Sea expanded, and its Life Divine Spring pierced through to connect with his Wheel of Life.
• Lu Chen reached the Life Spring Realm and rose into the sky amid multicolored divine flames.
• Gu Ling flew up to congratulate Lu Chen, delighted that he had found such a gifted successor.

After Gu Ling died, Lu Chen left the Border Wasteland for Cloud Capital to seek out powerful natural flames for forging his natal artifact. He learned that no such flames were known nearby, while the famous Fire Domain lay far away in the Southern Region.

• Lu Chen mastered the mystical methods Gu Ling taught him, and Gu Ling asked him to look after his daughter Qingxia if they ever met.
• Gu Ling died three days later, and Lu Chen buried him in the mountains outside town.
• Lu Chen left the Border Wasteland and traveled to Cloud Capital, the Flowing Cloud Dynasty’s imperial capital.
• At a restaurant, Lu Chen asked two young cultivators where he could find powerful natural flames to forge his artifact from Divine Mark Purple Gold.
• The cultivators knew of no nearby flames and mentioned the distant Fire Domain in the Wei Kingdom of the Southern Region.

Lu Chen traveled to Fire Demon Ridge to seek divine fire and forge his Primordial Divine Patterns into an artifact. Deep beneath the volcano where the Fire Clan Saint Spirit had fallen, he began shaping the patterns into a pagoda.

• Lu Chen learned of an ancient divine-fire site in the Great Wilderness and traveled north from the Flowing Cloud Kingdom to find it.
• Lu Chen recognized the barren, snow-covered region as Fire Demon Ridge, where the Great Accomplished Saint Spirit of the Fire Clan had been slain by the Ruthless Great Emperor.
• Lu Chen searched the central volcano and found no treasures on its summit, then dug down toward its earth veins with the ancient sword Old Gu Ling had left him.
• At a depth of three thousand zhang, Lu Chen discovered blood-colored divine fire and drew its energy into his Bitter Sea.
• Lu Chen used the flames to melt his Primordial Divine Patterns and began forging them into a pagoda.

Lu Chen forged Divine Mark Purple Gold into a nine-story life-bound pagoda while advancing through the Sea of Bitterness to the Other Shore. The pagoda awakened and copied a scripture from the place where the Great Perfection Saint Spirit had fallen, which Lu Chen recognized but did not name.

• Lu Chen spent months tempering Divine Mark Purple Gold with the divine fire beneath Fire Demon Ridge, shaping it into a nine-story pagoda as his cultivation advanced to the Divine Bridge.
• Lu Chen overcame the Calamity of Lostness, reached the Other Shore, and glimpsed the Dao Palace secret realm.
• Lu Chen completed the Purple Gold Divine Pagoda and merged his soul with it, sensing its mysterious power.
• The pagoda captured a scripture from the Great Perfection Saint Spirit's land, and Lu Chen realized the immortal gold had awakened spiritually and could record traces of the Great Dao.
• Lu Chen examined the copied scripture and recognized it, saying, "So it's this one!"

Lu Chen obtained the Solar True Scripture and the Immortal Phoenix Slash at Fire Demon Ridge, then collected fire crystal source and traveled to Azure Moon. After hearing that cultivators were converging on Qing Emperor's Tomb, he headed toward the Southern Region to seek Source Arts rather than join the fight over the Desolate Pagoda.

• Lu Chen realized the Fire Clan Saint Spirit had studied the Solar Ancient Scripture and began cultivating its Wheel Sea Scroll at Fire Demon Ridge.
• After a month, Lu Chen completed his switch to solar saint power, and the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda captured the Immortal Phoenix Slash.
• Lu Chen searched the volcano's magma veins, found about a thousand jin of fire crystal source, and left Fire Demon Ridge.
• Lu Chen reached Azure Moon and heard cultivators discuss the struggle over the Desolate Pagoda at Qing Emperor's Tomb.
• Lu Chen decided not to join the struggle and planned to seek Source Arts left by a Source Heavenly Master in the Southern Region.

Lu Chen went to the Purple Mansion Holy Land to travel to the Southern Region and paid for passage through its Domain Gate with a rare piece of fire crystal source. He learned the gate was being opened because of Qing Emperor's Tomb, though he knew the Azure Emperor's Yin Tomb would not open and the pursuing powers would suffer heavy losses.

• Lu Chen waited at the Purple Mansion Holy Land with other travelers seeking passage to the Southern Region.
• The purple-robed man rejected many travelers’ offerings and accepted rare herbs and jade essence from others.
• Lu Chen offered a piece of fire crystal source, which the purple-robed man accepted in exchange for passage.
• The purple-robed man told the accepted travelers to return in three days and recorded their identifying marks.
• Lu Chen recognized that the Domain Gate was being opened because of Qing Emperor's Tomb and knew the Azure Emperor's Yin Tomb would remain shut.