Chapter Summaries

He Pingsheng arrived at the Mystic Sect’s holy land, Tawenian Mountain, with the Liang Kingdom’s delegation for the Nine-Nation Grand Tournament. There he unexpectedly saw Wang Dun among the Virgo Kingdom’s competitors, and Wang Dun immediately called out to him.

• He Pingsheng avoided Liang Huaqiu and cultivated aboard the Immortal Boat during the journey to He Thinks Mountain.
• Patriarch Zhenyu brought the Liang Kingdom delegation to Tawenian Mountain and warned them to respect the holy land and its venerable immortals.
• A Nascent Soul cultivator guided the delegation to their assigned courtyard and said the tournament would begin in three days.
• Patriarch Zhenyu greeted the arriving Virgo Kingdom delegation, whose competitors included Wang Dun.
• Wang Dun recognized He Pingsheng and waved while calling out to him, embarrassing He Pingsheng.

He Pingsheng reunited with Wang Dun at the Other Courtyard, then confronted Xiao Xuan, who demanded to know where Qiao Huizhu was. He Pingsheng revealed that Qiao was at home caring for their child, leaving Xiao Xuan spitting blood.

• He Pingsheng met Wang Dun, whose cultivation had reached the twelfth layer of the Golden Core Stage, and asked how he had escaped the Qi Kingdom's Imperial Family.
• He Pingsheng entered the Other Courtyard with Zhenyu's group, spoke with Liang Huaqiu about Wang Dun, and set up several third-grade formations around his building.
• Xiao Xuan arrived with the Qi Kingdom's contingent and recognized He Pingsheng, then came over to ask where Qiao Huizhu was.
• Xiao Xuan boasted about his eight-nine heavenly tribulation and demanded that He Pingsheng tell him where Qiao was.
• He Pingsheng said Qiao was at home looking after their child, and Xiao Xuan spat out a mouthful of blood.

He Pingsheng reunited with Wang Dun and received a fourth-grade talisman that could save his soul and rebuild his body after death. They exchanged valuable gifts, and Wang Dun hinted that the talisman came from beyond their Cultivation World.

• Xiao Xuan mocked He Pingsheng and challenged him to an arena fight, while Wang Dun promised to defeat Xiao Xuan within five exchanges.
• He Pingsheng and Wang Dun reunited after nearly fifty years and shared wine as they caught up.
• Wang Dun apologized for the trouble He Pingsheng had faced after Wang Dun escaped capture and gave him a fourth-grade talisman that could resurrect him up to the twelfth layer of the Nascent Soul Realm.
• He Pingsheng gave Wang Dun two bottles of supreme-grade Mingwu Pills, a supreme-grade Flame Crescent Blade, and an Instantaneous Teleportation Talisman.
• Wang Dun said the talisman had not been crafted and did not exist in their Cultivation World, and He Pingsheng accepted that Wang Dun had a great secret of his own.

He Pingsheng watched the first day of the Nine-Nation Grand Tournament, where the Liang Kingdom had a bye and Wang Dun faced Qi Kingdom’s Xiao Xuan. The chapter ended as the contestants entered arenas formed by a spatial formation, with He Pingsheng realizing its fourth-grade defense could not be broken through.

• He Pingsheng spent three days studying the Heavenly Moon Divine Formation and kept his Rebirth Talisman unused because he would not risk revealing the Treasure-Gathering Basin on Tawenian Mountain.
• Patriarch Zhenyu brought the Liang Kingdom contestants to watch the tournament, where they learned their second-round opponent would be the Qi Kingdom and that the losing kingdom would forfeit a commandery.
• A presiding elder announced rules barring external objects and attacks on an opponent’s Sea of Consciousness, while allowing a match to continue until surrender or death.
• Wang Dun and Xiao Xuan entered the first arena, and the formation made them appear to shrink by opening into a larger space.
• He Pingsheng sensed that the arena’s light barrier was made from a fourth-grade Defense Formation and concluded that it could not be broken through.

Wang Dun overwhelmed Xiao Xuan in their duel, breaking through his ice defenses with a strength-based punch and forcing him to surrender. The Qi Kingdom’s foremost cultivator fell, leaving the spectators wondering who could stop Wang Dun.

• The contestants entered the glowing formation spheres, and the sacred mountain projected their duels for the spectators to watch.
• Xiao Xuan mocked Wang Dun and questioned how he could defeat him in five moves, while Wang Dun confirmed he would attack.
• Wang Dun unleashed a strike combining fire and space laws, then smashed through Xiao Xuan’s ice pillars with sheer physical strength.
• Wang Dun struck Xiao Xuan and followed with another punch, forcing the injured cultivator to surrender before he could defend himself.
• Wang Dun’s redirected punch sent him crashing into the cliff, amusing the spectators while the Qi Kingdom’s people mourned Xiao Xuan’s defeat.

Wang Dun defeated four Qi Kingdom competitors in succession, forcing the Qi Kingdom to concede its match against the Virgo Kingdom. Ten days later, the Qi Kingdom faced the Liang Kingdom, and the chapter ended as Xiao Xuan and Tian Jiashen entered Arena Four for their first bout.

• Wang Dun won two consecutive bouts against the Qi Kingdom, then continued fighting until Long Yuan conceded the match for the Qi Kingdom.
• Long Yuan told Xiao Xuan that Wang Dun was likely the Great Fortune Bearer with Nine Dragons Fortune and urged him to focus on defeating the Liang Kingdom.
• He Pingsheng spent the next ten days meditating, taking pills, and refining his Dao instead of watching the remaining matches.
• Patriarch Zhenyu led the Liang Kingdom's cultivators to Arena Four, where the Qi Kingdom match began, and Wang Dun joined He Pingsheng to watch.
• Xiao Xuan and Tian Jiashen entered Arena Four, while Liang Huaqiu asked He Pingsheng who he thought would win and angrily told Wang Dun to be quiet.

Xiao Xuan defeated Tian Jiashen and Daoist Kuxing, then chose to keep fighting in the tournament. Long Yuan proposed settling the Qi and Liang Kingdoms’ disputes, including He Pingsheng’s possession of the Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear, through the tournament.

• Xiao Xuan defeated Tian Jiashen with his five-element abilities, and Tian Jiashen surrendered.
• Xiao Xuan chose to continue fighting and defeated Daoist Kuxing after six exchanges.
• Long Yuan told Zhenyu that the Qi Kingdom sought to reclaim Redstone Commandery and offered Shangdang Commandery if Liang won.
• Long Yuan demanded that Qiao Huizhu and He Pingsheng return to the Qi Kingdom, but Zhenyu rejected the demand and cited their freedom under the Nine-Nation Compact.
• Long Yuan accused He Pingsheng of taking the Qi Kingdom’s Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear and proposed settling the dispute in the Nine-Nation Grand Tournament; He Pingsheng admitted taking it but refused to return it.

He Pingsheng agreed to wager the Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear on the outcome of the Qi Kingdom–Liang Kingdom dispute. Xiao Xuan defeated eight Liang Kingdom contestants and then beat Liang Huaqiu, leaving He Pingsheng to face the remaining challenge.

• Long Yuan proposed that the Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear go to the winning kingdom, and He Pingsheng agreed to the terms.
• Sacred Mountain notarized the spear wager as part of the dispute between the Qi Kingdom and the Liang Kingdom.
• Xiao Xuan defeated eight of the Liang Kingdom's ten contestants in succession.
• Liang Huaqiu entered the arena and used Liang Emperor Heavenly Gang to empower her attack against Xiao Xuan.
• Xiao Xuan countered Liang Huaqiu's giant golden sword with Ice God Finger, knocking her from the fight.
• Liang Huaqiu sat beside He Pingsheng and asked him to win back her face.

He Pingsheng faced Xiao Xuan in the Nine-Nation Grand Tournament and overwhelmed him with repeated waves of fire crows. Xiao Xuan surrendered after his defenses and spiritual power were nearly exhausted.

• Xiao Xuan chose to fight He Pingsheng immediately after defeating nine Liang Kingdom contestants.
• He Pingsheng filled the arena with poisonous thorn vines, but Xiao Xuan repelled them with his Poison-Repelling Divine Ability.
• Xiao Xuan shattered He Pingsheng's first twelve fire crows with his Ice God Finger and ice arrows.
• He Pingsheng unleashed sixty more fire crows, which pursued Xiao Xuan and broke through his defenses.
• Xiao Xuan surrendered when more than thirty fire crows remained and his spiritual power was nearly depleted.

After defeating Xiao Xuan, He Pingsheng learned that the Qi Kingdom had captured a senior sister from the Great Void Sect and sent him her severed arm. He went with Wang Dun to confront Long Yuan, determined to learn what had happened without compromising Liang Kingdom’s interests.

• He Pingsheng defeated Xiao Xuan, but Long Yuan postponed the remaining matches until the next day.
• Patriarch Zhenyu praised He Pingsheng and warned him to play safely because the tournament would decide ownership of a commandery.
• Wang Dun brought He Pingsheng a jade box containing a severed arm delivered by a cultivator from the Qi Kingdom.
• He Pingsheng recognized the arm’s aura as belonging to a senior sister surnamed Zhao from the Great Void Sect and feared that other acquaintances had also been captured.
• He Pingsheng told Zhenyu he needed answers from Long Yuan, promised not to betray Liang Kingdom’s interests, and left with Wang Dun for the Qi Kingdom’s Other Courtyard.

Long Yuan revealed that he had captured He Pingsheng’s sect members and threatened them to force He to lose a rematch against Xiao Xuan. He agreed to the rematch the next morning, leaving his Liang Kingdom allies shocked and unsure why he had accepted.

• Wang Dun warned He Pingsheng to use his Instantaneous Teleportation Talisman if a fight broke out, but He said the Qi Kingdom would not dare defy the world.
• Long Yuan told He Pingsheng that he had captured his senior sister, senior brother, and master, and had severed his senior sister’s arm to make his threat believable.
• He Pingsheng asked Long Yuan to release the captives, but Long Yuan demanded that He lose the next day’s match against Xiao Xuan in exchange for their release and an end to the dispute over the Heaven-Deficiency Divine Spear.
• At the competition grounds, the host announced that the Qi Kingdom had requested a rematch, which would proceed only if He Pingsheng agreed.
• He Pingsheng agreed to fight Xiao Xuan again, prompting Liang Huaqiu to question him and True Person Zhenyu to defend his decision.

He Pingsheng fought Xiao Xuan again and nearly killed him with Heavenly Snow Locks the Realm before Patriarch He Asks intervened and saved Xiao Xuan. He Pingsheng accepted that the old man’s intervention repaid his earlier favor, then declared that he would keep fighting until the Qi Kingdom was defeated.

• Patriarch Zhenyu chose to allow He Pingsheng’s rematch with Xiao Xuan despite Liang Huaqiu’s suspicion that He Pingsheng had made a deal with the Qi Kingdom.
• He Pingsheng unleashed Heavenly Snow Locks the Realm, overwhelming Xiao Xuan with growing waves of lethal snowflakes.
• Patriarch He Asks appeared and saved Xiao Xuan, explaining that he used He Pingsheng’s earlier favor to offset his intervention.
• Patriarch He Asks called He Pingsheng the strongest Golden Core cultivator in the Cultivation World, past or present, astonishing the crowd and angering Long Yuan.
• He Pingsheng won the bout and announced that he would continue fighting until the Qi Kingdom was utterly defeated.

He Pingsheng continued fighting for the Liang Kingdom, killing the Qi Kingdom’s second and third contestants with poison needles and an ice arrow. Long Yuan debated whether to continue the matches, hoping Xiao Xuan could still win the later contests.

• Zhenyu asked He Pingsheng about his connection to Patriarch He Asks, and He Pingsheng explained that the patriarch had once given him a cultivation technique.
• He Pingsheng defeated the Qi Kingdom’s second contestant with his Poison Thorn-Vine Sphere Cage, and the contestant died from his wounds.
• He Pingsheng entered the next match and warned the Qi Kingdom’s third contestant to surrender if she feared death.
• The woman attacked with spiritual-power whips, but He Pingsheng blocked her strike and killed her with one black ice arrow.
• Long Yuan considered whether the Qi Kingdom should continue fighting and placed his hopes on Xiao Xuan.

After Qi Kingdom conceded the tournament match, He Pingsheng demanded that Long Yuan release his imprisoned master and fellow disciples, then warned him not to use them as leverage. He left Long Yuan gravely injured with a divine sense attack, revealing that his power had grown far beyond what Long Yuan expected.

• Long Yuan conceded the match for Qi Kingdom, and the host disqualified Xiao Xuan from the tournament.
• Zhenyu praised He Pingsheng for defeating Qi Kingdom and suggested granting Shangdang Commandery to Liang Huaqiu as her fief.
• He Pingsheng went to Qi Kingdom's Other Courtyard and told Long Yuan that his master Yu Ning and senior martial siblings must be released after ten years of teachings.
• He Pingsheng warned Long Yuan not to threaten him with his imprisoned loved ones and hinted that he could target Long Yuan's family in return.
• He Pingsheng struck Long Yuan with six Divine Sense Nails, severely damaging his Sea of Consciousness, then left without killing him.
• Long Yuan realized that He Pingsheng had likely been responsible for the divine sense attack at the Five Dragon Ravine Secret Realm and trembled at his strength.

He Pingsheng stayed in seclusion through most of the Nine-Nation Grand Tournament, then entered the Sacred Realm with the other contestants to hear the Sacred Lord’s teachings. Inside, he recognized golden runes resembling markings on a damaged Formation Plate he owned.

• He Pingsheng stayed in seclusion while the Liang Kingdom won several rounds, then defeated six Chu Kingdom geniuses and forced the Chu Kingdom to surrender.
• Patriarch Zhenyu conceded the final match against the Virgo Kingdom after Liang Huaqiu lost to Wang Dun, leaving the Liang Kingdom in second place.
• Liang Huaqiu showed He Pingsheng the tournament rankings, where Wang Dun placed first and He Pingsheng ranked sixth among the contestants.
• He Pingsheng prepared Mingwu Pills and Essence-Gathering Pills for the Sacred Realm’s teachings, which would last ten years there and more than twenty years by his reckoning.
• He Pingsheng entered the Sacred Realm with Zhenyu and the other contestants, then recognized golden rune patterns like those on his damaged Formation Plate.

He Pingsheng and the other cultivators entered the great time formation for a Dao comprehension session with Sacred Lords He Asks and He Thinks. When He Thinks appeared, He Pingsheng recognized him as the old swindler who had once sold a poisonous plant seed to Zhao Ling'er, Xu Kunlun, and Tian Xiaoqing.

• The cultivators took their assigned seats inside the formation, where Liang Huaqiu told He Pingsheng that the golden and white runes represented temporal and Spatial Daoist Law.
• He Pingsheng chose to focus on Spatial Daoist Law, and Liang Huaqiu said she would study it too before asking whether he would take her as a Senior Concubine; he rejected her.
• Patriarch He Asks appeared, followed by Patriarch He Thinks, and the cultivators rose to greet them.
• He Pingsheng recognized He Thinks as the old swindler who had sold a poisonous plant seed to Zhao Ling'er, Xu Kunlun, and Tian Xiaoqing at Horsehead Mountain Market.

He Pingsheng spent the century-long equivalent of a Dao lecture comprehending the Spatial Daoist Law, reaching the tenth layer of the Golden Core Stage and improving his formation skills. After the lecture ended, he chose to return to the Liang Kingdom's Imperial Capital with Liang Huaqiu to check whether his master and fellow disciples had arrived.

• Patriarch He Asks and He Thinks began their Dao lectures inside the Time Grand Formation, where time passed more than twice as fast as outside.
• He Pingsheng took supreme-grade pills, focused on the Spatial Daoist Law, and studied the Heavenly Moon Divine Formation while his cultivation advanced from the sixth to the tenth layer of the Golden Core Stage.
• He Pingsheng hit a bottleneck at the tenth layer and continued comprehending the Spatial Daoist Law until the lecture ended.
• After leaving the formation, He Pingsheng learned that only ten years had passed outside, though his pill-enhanced Dao comprehension had amounted to a century and his formation study might let him set up a fourth-grade formation.
• He Pingsheng told Liang Huaqiu he would return to the Liang Kingdom's Imperial Capital, while Wang Dun declined to join a rescue trip to the Qi Kingdom and said goodbye.

He Pingsheng returned to the Liang Kingdom after the contest, collected his reward, and learned that his master and companions had not visited the Taixu Commerce Association. He began preparing to rescue them himself, building layers of formations before enhancing Wang Dun’s Substitute Death Talisman.

• Zhenyu gave He Pingsheng Greed and Anger Fruits, promised further rewards, and handed him a token for visiting the imperial palace.
• He Pingsheng returned to the Taixu Commerce Association and found that Yu Ning, Zhao Ling'er, Xu Kunlun, Tian Xiaoqing, and the others had not come there.
• Ling Zhiwang told He Pingsheng that his cultivation had recovered and that he had reached the second layer of the Golden Core Stage.
• He Pingsheng obtained fourth-grade formation materials and spent half a year making a Divine-Sense Sealing Formation, then another three months making a Warning Formation.
• After setting up additional formations around his great hall, He Pingsheng placed Wang Dun’s Substitute Death Talisman in the Treasure-Gathering Basin and began enhancing it.

He Pingsheng refined his spatial Daoist law through seventeen years of seclusion while bringing his body and divine cultivation up to the tenth layer of the Golden Core Stage. After learning that Xiao He had also reached the tenth layer, he planned to visit Sister Qiao once he made a teleportation array.

• He Pingsheng enhanced two Substitute Death Talismans into Yin-Reversing Yang-Transforming Immortal Talismans, used one on himself, and set aside the other for Sister Qiao.
• He Pingsheng tried to study teleportation arrays but found he could not set one up until he refined his spatial Daoist law, so he entered seclusion to temper it and advance his body and divine cultivation.
• Seventeen years later, He Pingsheng had made no progress in cultivation, but his spatial Daoist law had advanced and his body and divine cultivation had reached the tenth layer.
• He Pingsheng asked Ling Zhiwang about news of his master and the others, then ordered him to bring all the formation materials they had collected.
• Xiao He told He Pingsheng that she had reached the tenth layer of the Golden Core Stage and asked for a Dao companion; he gave her a Greed and Anger Fruit for her next breakthrough.
• He Pingsheng wondered whether Sister Qiao had reached her bottleneck and resolved to visit the Free and Carefree Immortal Sect after making a teleportation array.

After learning that the Liang Kingdom had acquired Shangdang Commandery and Princess Qinghe had formed her nascent soul under an unusual tribulation, He Pingsheng organized the construction of a long-distance teleportation array. Its first test succeeded, leaving him ready to travel to the Qi Kingdom to rescue his master and the others.

• Ling Zhiwang told He Pingsheng that the Liang Kingdom had taken Shangdang Commandery, renamed Qinghe Commandery, and that Princess Qinghe had faced a five-nine heavenly tribulation during nascent soul formation.
• He Pingsheng asked Ling Zhiwang, Xiao He, and Old Cheng to help build a long-distance teleportation array and gave them its formation diagram to study.
• He Pingsheng spent about half a year making two formation plates, then worked with Old Cheng on the teleportation platform while Xiao He and Ling Zhiwang built the receiving platform ten million li away.
• He Pingsheng stopped Old Cheng from testing the unproven array and sent a rabbit through it instead.
• Ling Zhiwang confirmed through the Heartbond Talisman that the rabbit had arrived safely, and He Pingsheng told him to dismantle and bring back the array.