Recaps

Great Calamity persuaded the White-Robed Mysterious Maiden to help train Su Mo so he could grow strong enough to pursue his goals, while concealing the terms of their wager from him. Meanwhile, at Great Hua Academy, the Dean tried to address a gathering that was missing Little Seven and Girl.

• Great Calamity proposed that the White-Robed Mysterious Maiden let Su Mo prove his Dao by defeating her through speed, and secretly urged her to help develop his many Dao intents.
• The White-Robed Mysterious Maiden agreed to tutor Su Mo but said she would intervene only if his life was in danger, and Great Calamity told her to keep their plans secret from him.
• Great Calamity and the White-Robed Mysterious Maiden agreed to take turns tutoring Su Mo for half a month each, beginning with the Mysterious Maiden.
• Great Calamity stopped Su Mo from calling the White-Robed Mysterious Maiden Senior and suggested he call her Big Sister Mysterious Maiden instead.
• At Great Hua Academy, the Dean began addressing the gathered group, but Sixth Senior Sister pointed out that Little Seven and Girl were absent.

The Dean tried to warn his disciples about an approaching calamity, but their questions, arguments, and Eldest Senior Brother’s nap repeatedly interrupted him. After everyone left, he hinted that his actions were meant to buy the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths more time.

• The Dean began a meeting without Little Seven and Girl, but Gu Yu and the others promptly tried to end it and leave.
• The Dean called everyone back and said a great calamity was approaching, prompting the disciples to question how it differed from the Upper Realm invasion.
• Fourth Senior Brother, Fifth Senior Brother, and Second Senior Brother discussed strange events involving Great Hua’s national fortune power, Great Xing, the Dao Sect, and the Demon Sect.
• The Dean said the calamity he meant was something else, but Eldest Senior Brother fell asleep before he could explain, and the Dean dismissed the gathering.
• After the disciples scattered, the Dean told the little Black Horse that he had never expected it to be the one, then lamented Su Mo’s absence.
• The Dean gazed toward the Unseen and said that his actions would buy the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths a little more time.

The Mysterious Maiden tested Su Mo by making him kill beasts as she guided him through the mountains, then demanded he kill an intelligent mystic deer and her fawns. Su Mo refused, choosing his principles over learning the Heavenly Mystery Dao, and the Mysterious Maiden acknowledged that the Nether Maiden had judged him correctly.

• The Mysterious Maiden ordered Su Mo to kill fierce beasts, and he obeyed while questioning the reason for the slaughter.
• Su Mo killed a giant snake and turned it to ash after it thrashed in the river.
• The Mysterious Maiden ordered Su Mo to kill a mystic deer sheltering her two fawns, but he could not bring himself to do it.
• The Mysterious Maiden warned that she would end her agreement with the Nether Maiden and stop teaching Su Mo the Heavenly Mystery Dao if he refused.
• Su Mo declared that he would not kill an innocent deer for no reason, even if it meant giving up the Dao, and the Mysterious Maiden said the Nether Maiden had not been wrong about him.

The Mysterious Maiden tested Su Mo’s restraint and then explained that the Heavenly Mystery Dao followed the Way of Nothingness, which could lead its practitioners to transcend human feelings. She guided Su Mo into the Dao, leaving him immersed in a vision of the mountain range from above.

• The Mysterious Maiden revealed that she had tested Su Mo by asking him to kill beasts and accepted his explanation for marking their bodies.
• The Mysterious Maiden asked Su Mo what heaven was, and he answered first in relative terms before questioning whether heaven existed at all.
• The Mysterious Maiden said there had never been a heaven and described the Heavenly Mystery Dao as the Way of Nothingness.
• Su Mo realized that pursuing the Dao’s true intention could mean transcending human feelings, and wondered whether he would lose his attachments.
• The Mysterious Maiden sent a streak of light from her Heavenly Mystery Pattern into Su Mo’s eyes and guided him into Dao comprehension.
• Su Mo’s consciousness rose until he could see the entire ten-thousand-mile mountain range.

As Su Mo comprehended the Dao, his consciousness traveled from the mountains of Great Hua through the Ninth Realm and beyond, following smoke, wind, clouds, and stars. The Mysterious Maiden discovered that his consciousness had gone beyond the limits of the Heavenly Mystery Dao and could no longer be found.

• Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden discussed Su Mo’s remarkable comprehension and agreed that he should forge his own Dao rather than follow either of theirs.
• Su Mo’s disembodied consciousness rose above the mountains and saw all of Great Hua, then the entire Ninth Realm.
• Su Mo followed cooking smoke and a breeze, eventually becoming the wind and reaching a secluded lake where he watched fish and wondered whether their quiet life was what he wanted.
• Su Mo rose through the clouds, saw countless lights below like stars, and continued toward the stars in the sky.
• The Mysterious Maiden realized Su Mo’s consciousness had surpassed the limits of the Heavenly Mystery Dao, but she could no longer find him.

Su Mo wandered beyond the Heavenly Mystery Dao through a vast stellar vision while Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden waited for him to return. The fall of Great Xing brought its Human Emperor to entrust its national fortune and surviving people to Great Hua before choosing to die with his nation.

• Su Mo drifted through the stars, became part of a newborn star, and questioned who he was and where he had come from.
• Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden watched Su Mo, who had gone beyond their control through Heavenly Mystery Guidance, and decided to wait.
• The National Sacrifice Bell rang to announce that Great Xing had fallen, and Great Calamity said Su Mo cared about the mortal nations.
• The Human Emperor of Great Xing gave Great Xing's national fortune to the Human Emperor of Great Hua and asked him to protect its survivors.
• The Human Emperor of Great Xing asked to return to his fallen nation and perish with it, and the Human Emperor of Great Hua sent him back.

Su Mo contemplated his origin, existence, and destination while experiencing the birth and death of stars, then awakened to a profound realization about thought and being. As Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden waited anxiously, Su Mo opened his eyes and declared, “I think, therefore I am.”

• Su Mo drifted through space as a star, questioned where he came from, and watched an invisible force destroy the star he had become.
• Su Mo continued to wonder where he was going as Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden watched his meditation for nearly two months.
• Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden discussed whether Su Mo was comprehending a Dao beyond the Heavenly Mystery Dao, but neither knew what it was.
• Su Mo watched stars appear and perish, questioned the meaning of existence, and concluded that he had no origin, destination, or clear self.
• Su Mo shut his eyes in the darkness, recognized that all things had meaning to him only through his own perception, and opened his eyes as the stars trembled.

Su Mo broke through to Nascent Soul after comprehending a Dao that joined his attachment to the Mortal World with his search for eternity. Trapped in a barren world beyond the Nine Heavens and Ten Realms, he encountered a Giant God who called him a disgrace to the Divine Race.

• Su Mo rejected truth without attachment and formed a Dao that carried the Mortal World as he sought eternity, breaking through Core Formation into Nascent Soul Middle Stage.
• Great Calamity and Mysterious Maiden watched Su Mo's strange Nascent Soul and wondered what Dao he had comprehended.
• Su Mo tried to return but found himself in a seemingly endless wasteland outside the Nine Heavens and Ten Realms.
• After sensing an aura, Su Mo traveled across the wasteland and found a towering, armored Giant God with a Divine Race sigil.
• The Giant God recognized Su Mo as a young god, examined his consciousness, and berated him for practicing cultivation as a Divine Race Descendant.

Su Mo learned that the Giant God was a remnant soul and the last surviving elder of the Divine Race, who awakened Su Mo’s first layer of Divine Sense. Unable to return alone, Su Mo was carried across the stars by the Giant God to receive a first-meeting gift: a little pet.

• The Giant God questioned Su Mo about Divine Sense, then learned Su Mo was the last trace of the Divine Race’s bloodline in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• The Giant God grieved over the loss of his race and revealed that he had died long ago, leaving only a remnant soul.
• The Giant God used his greatsword to awaken the first layer of Divine Sense in Su Mo and urged him to focus on the Divine Race’s inheritance.
• The Giant God explained that Su Mo could not return without the Boundary Gate opening, but offered a first-meeting gift that could take him back.
• The Giant God carried Su Mo across the stars to another celestial body and told him the gift was a little pet.

Su Mo and the Giant God awakened a Void Beast to take its cub as Su Mo’s pet, but the cub was frightened and confused. Su Mo abandoned the plan to force it into becoming his master and asked it to help him return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths instead.

• The Giant God split open the star and awakened a Void Beast that had been sleeping in an abyss.
• The Giant God explained that the Void Beast ate stars and demanded its cub as a pet for the Divine Race lineage.
• The mother Void Beast flung its lone cub out of the abyss, then closed its eyes and went back to sleep.
• The Giant God told Su Mo to use his divine sense to force the cub to acknowledge him as its master.
• Su Mo saw the cub’s fear, withdrew his divine sense, and promised he would not force it to become his master if it helped him return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

Su Mo befriended the Juvenile Void Beast, which agreed to take him back to his physical body in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Meanwhile, Great Hua’s emperor and ministers faced the approaching Upper Realm Immortal Cultivators, and a crushing aura announced their arrival.

• Su Mo calmed the Juvenile Void Beast, and the Giant God explained that Void Beasts usually shrank only after accepting a master.
• The Juvenile Void Beast sensed Su Mo’s physical body and agreed to take him back to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• The Giant God returned to guard the Realm Gate after reminding Su Mo to preserve the Divine Race’s bloodline.
• The Juvenile Void Beast swallowed Su Mo and vanished into the void, while a huge figure emerged from the abyss and followed.
• Great Hua’s emperor confirmed that he held Great Xing’s National Fortune Power as ministers debated whether to surrender it or fight the Upper Realm Immortal Cultivators.
• A powerful aura pressed down on the Imperial Palace, and someone announced that the Immortal Cultivators had arrived.

Great Hua braced for an invasion by Upper Realm cultivators led by the Old Woman Lei Li and the Cloud Sect elder. As the general and his soldiers stood against them, the Nation-Guarding Grand Array rose to shield Great Hua, though the attackers doubted it would hold for long.

• People across Great Hua sensed the approaching killing intent, while a mother sent her child to hide and a scholar and his wife vowed to face death together.
• A girl in purple searched anxiously for someone she believed was still alive and urged him to return before Great Hua was lost.
• At Great Hua's border, the general and his soldiers vowed to fight the arriving Upper Realm cultivators, while the Old Woman Lei Li and the Cloud Sect elder discussed vanished national fortune power.
• The general rose to block the invaders, but Lei Li struck him down with her cultivation pressure; he stood again with his deputy's help as the soldiers renewed their battle cries.
• A curtain of light carrying Great Hua's national fortune power rose and blocked the cultivators, and the Cloud Sect elder identified it as the Nation-Guarding Grand Array.

Su Mo returned to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths after the Void Beast brought his consciousness body back. He reunited with Great Calamity and Mysterious Maiden, while the Void Beast was left frightened and grieving over its missing mother.

• Great Calamity kept watch over Su Mo as he remained unconscious, and a Void Beast suddenly appeared before her and Mysterious Maiden.
• The Void Beast fled from Great Calamity, returned to its abyss, and discovered that its mother was gone.
• The Void Beast remembered it was supposed to take Su Mo back to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, then returned and spat out Su Mo's consciousness body.
• Great Calamity recognized Su Mo and rushed to him, while the frightened Void Beast hid behind him.
• Su Mo embraced Great Calamity, and she stiffened before falling silent.

Su Mo returned to his body and awakened the Divine Race’s power, drawing the attention of a surviving Divine Race woman and stirring the Void Beast into following him as Big Strong. When the Heaven and Earth Consciousness awakened and issued a Ninth Realm-wide Ban Immortals decree, Su Mo sensed the Dean’s presence and rode Big Strong into the void.

• Su Mo reunited with Great Calamity and told her and Mysterious Maiden how the Void Beast had brought him back from outside the realms.
• Su Mo’s Divine Body awakened, and a woman beneath the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths sensed the Divine Race and wept at finding a survivor.
• The Void Beast grew to match Su Mo’s towering size, played with him, then used its void power to shrink him back to normal.
• Su Mo offered to let the Void Beast go, but it chose to follow him, and he named it Big Strong.
• A paper talisman marked Ban Immortals appeared over the Ninth Realm, suppressing Mysterious Maiden’s cultivation and revealing that the Heaven and Earth Consciousness had awakened.
• Su Mo sensed the Dean, sent Great Calamity and Mysterious Maiden into his Spirit Sea, and rode Big Strong into the void.

The Thunder Sect’s Thunder Spirit attacked Great Hua’s Nation-Guarding Grand Array as Great Hua’s Human Emperor used succession decrees from fallen kingdoms to gather their National Fortune Power and strengthen the barrier. After the Human Emperor called out to the Dean, a figure in green appeared behind him and offered to wait with him.

• The old woman Lei Li summoned the Thunder Spirit, which struck Great Hua’s Nation-Guarding Grand Array and made its barrier shudder.
• Great Hua’s Human Emperor crushed Great Xing’s final decree, passing its throne to Yuanqing and merging its National Fortune Power with Great Hua’s to reinforce the barrier.
• The Human Emperor crushed Great Qing’s decree and then the Li Kingdom’s decree, receiving their National Fortune Power and grieving over the Li Kingdom’s Human Emperor, his lost love.
• The Human Emperor crushed the remaining Divine Runes and said the rulers had acted for a hope he could not see, then asked the Dean what he was waiting for.
• A figure in green appeared behind the Human Emperor and offered to stay with him, and the Human Emperor addressed him as the Dean.

Great Hua’s Human Emperor and the Dean watched the Nation-Guarding Grand Array fail as Upper Realm cultivators descended on the Imperial City. The Human Emperor drew on the Ninth Realm’s National Fortune Power to confront them, while the Dean continued waiting for the calamity to unfold.

• The Dean told Great Hua’s Human Emperor that the people’s suffering was buying time for a greater calamity, and the two waited at the palace threshold.
• The Thunder Spirit shattered Great Hua’s Nation-Guarding Grand Array, plunging the kingdom into darkness and despair as families said their farewells.
• The Dean suppressed his struggle as a consciousness above the firmament began to awaken, while Great Hua’s Human Emperor felt the people’s pain through the National Fortune Power.
• The Thunder Sect’s Old Woman, Lei Li, and the Cloud Sect’s old man arrived over the Imperial City with more than a thousand cultivators, including over a hundred at Spirit Transformation.
• Great Hua’s Human Emperor rose to face the cultivators with the National Fortune Power and the Four-Clawed Golden Dragon behind him.
• Lei Li questioned whether he believed the Ninth Realm’s National Fortune Power could stop them, and the Human Emperor answered that he had only sought a hope.

Old Woman Lei Li struck down the Human Emperor, but the Dean revealed a Ban Immortals Decree that suppressed the Upper Realm cultivators to Spirit Transformation. As the Dean invoked a Life Sacrifice, Su Mo returned to the Imperial City and found him standing on the Altar.

• Old Woman Lei Li struck the Human Emperor from the sky, and the Dean helped him up before revealing his Spirit Transformation cultivation.
• The Dean summoned the Ban Immortals Decree, suppressing Old Woman Lei Li, the Cloud Sect elder, and the other Upper Realm Immortal Cultivators to Spirit Transformation.
• The Dean invoked the Life Sacrifice, and nine pillars of light converged on Great Hua's Imperial City to raise an illusory Altar beneath him and his enemies.
• The Void Beast brought Su Mo back to the Imperial City, where the Dean smiled and greeted him as Su Mo stared at him in shock.

Su Mo learned that the Divine Talisman was formed from the blood and souls of the slaughtered people, and that the Dean was a severed fragment of heaven and earth consciousness. The Dean revealed that he planned to sacrifice himself and two Inquiry Realm cultivators to awaken heaven and earth consciousness, leaving Su Mo shaken but hopeful that his senior brothers and sisters were not dead.

• Su Mo recognized that the Divine Talisman had been created from the blood and souls of countless people in the realm.
• The Dean told Su Mo that he cultivated the Heavenly Dao and was a fragment of heaven and earth consciousness severed by the Confucian Sage.
• Su Mo realized that the Academy’s six senior brothers and sisters were the other fragments of consciousness that had developed minds of their own.
• The Dean explained that the fragments had to be sacrificed to awaken heaven and earth consciousness and delay the coming great tribulation.
• The Dean revealed that he had changed his plan and would sacrifice himself, Lei Li, and the Cloud Sect elder, two Inquiry Realm cultivators, to awaken heaven and earth consciousness.

The Dean explained how his interlocking schemes brought Upper Realm cultivators to the Lower Realm and prepared a sacrifice to awaken the Heaven and Earth Consciousness. As he faced his own death, he left Su Mo with a fourth scheme and warned him of a calamity that could destroy the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.

• The Dean told Su Mo that he had lured Upper Realm cultivators into the Lower Realm, used their slaughter to draw the Ban Immortals Decree, and arranged for the Imperial City to become the sacrificial altar.
• The Dean explained that Yuanqing’s plans would bring the Upper Realm cultivators to the Imperial City and that their deaths would leave no one above Spirit Transformation in the realm.
• The Dean reminded Su Mo of his vow to secure peace for all generations and said that saving the many could require bloodshed and sacrifice.
• Su Mo told the Dean that he did not want him to die, but the Dean said he was only returning to the Heaven and Earth Consciousness.
• The Dean revealed a fourth scheme: he had borrowed Yuanqing’s plans to leave the world a ray of hope, even though Upper Realm cultivators would remain.
• The Dean told Su Mo that the coming calamity could destroy the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and that no Confucian Sage remained to sever the heavens.

The Dean faced execution on the Void Altar after revealing that he had arranged the crisis to awaken the heaven and earth consciousness and save the people beneath heaven. Su Mo and the people of Great Hua bid him farewell, and the chapter ended with the Dean’s death and Su Mo’s grief.

• The Dean told Su Mo that he had sent his senior brothers and sisters Beyond the Realm and asked Su Mo to find them there once he had settled matters in this realm.
• The Dean reflected on his disciples and his bloody schemes, while Su Mo knelt beside the Void Beast and watched the guillotines rise.
• People throughout the Imperial City and Great Hua knelt and bowed to bid the Dean farewell, including the Human Emperor and An'an.
• At the Dean’s request, Su Mo recited an elegy as the powers of rules gathered in the three guillotines.
• The three guillotines fell and killed the Dean and the other two figures on the altar, and Su Mo bowed farewell to his master.

Su Mo stood alone after the Dean and the others vanished, facing the remaining Upper Realm cultivators as the Ninth Realm was sealed off again. The Human Emperor revealed that the West City conspiracy had involved the Liu Household and ended by identifying the woman who had drawn Su Mo into the scheme as Liu Feng’s mother.

• The Deity-Sealing Edict rose into the sky, the breach above the Snow Domain disappeared, and the Ninth Realm was cut off from the outside world again.
• Su Mo faced the remaining Upper Realm cultivators alone, while the wounded Human Emperor of Great Hua came to his side and confessed that he had planned the West City trap.
• The Human Emperor explained that Little Tongtong’s involvement had been accidental and that he had concealed the truth from Prince Ying.
• The Human Emperor revealed that Liu Cheng and the Liu Household had knowingly joined his plan to create a Confucian Cultivator, even accepting their own deaths.
• The Human Emperor told Su Mo that the Woman Holding a Baby who had led him to West City was Liu Cheng’s wife and Liu Feng’s mother.

After learning the truth behind the Liu Household’s deaths, Su Mo grieved as the Human Emperor faced the surviving Upper Realm Immortal Cultivators. The Human Emperor activated the Deity-Sealing Edict, then wielded the Human Emperor Sword and killed a Thunder Sect cultivator.

• The Human Emperor revealed that he had buried the Liu Household with his own hands, leaving Su Mo anguished over Liu Feng and the woman who died before him.
• The surviving Upper Realm Immortal Cultivators recovered and prepared to continue their slaughter, while the Human Emperor stepped forward to confront them.
• The Human Emperor invoked the National Fortune Power of Great Hua and explained that the unreachable heaven he meant was the Upper Realm.
• The Human Emperor shouted to seal the gods, and a talisman from the Imperial Palace suppressed the Upper Realm cultivators’ Spirit Transformation power to the Nascent Soul realm.
• The Human Emperor summoned the Human Emperor Sword and killed a Thunder Sect cultivator with a single strike.

The Human Emperor revealed that his schemes had been meant to prepare Su Mo to take the throne, then sacrificed himself to weaken the Upper Realm cultivators and atone for Tongtong’s death. As the Deity-Sealing Edict faded and the cultivators regained their power, the Human Emperor’s final edict named Jing Yan as his successor.

• Su Mo joined the Human Emperor and asked why he had spent years cultivating a Confucian Cultivator; the Human Emperor asked whether Su Mo dared become Human Emperor, and Su Mo agreed.
• The Human Emperor called on the Four-Clawed Golden Dragon to transform and carry him into the Upper Realm cultivators’ formation.
• The Human Emperor detonated himself with Great Hua’s National Fortune Power, killing and injuring many cultivators and opening a gap in their formation.
• Hua Dragon returned its National Fortune Power to Great Hua, then dissipated into golden starlight alongside the Human Emperor.
• The Deity-Sealing Edict exhausted its power, restoring the Spirit Transformation cultivators’ cultivation as they turned their attention to Su Mo.
• A dragon-patterned Divine Rune shattered and delivered the Human Emperor’s final edict, passing the throne to Jing Yan.

Su Mo became the Ninth Realm’s Human Emperor and used national fortune power to protect Great Hua’s people from the Upper Realm cultivators. After killing a probing attacker and halting the enemy’s spells, he summoned the Human Emperor Sword and prepared to fight.

• Su Mo received the throne through the Human Emperor’s final edict, gaining the national fortune power of the Ninth Realm.
• People across Great Hua, including Cheng An'an, paid homage to Su Mo as the new Human Emperor.
• A Cloud Sect cultivator sent a Nascent Soul Late Stage attacker to test Su Mo, and Su Mo killed him with the Confucian Dao True Word “Punish.”
• The Cloud Sect Spirit Transformation cultivator ordered the Upper Realm cultivators to attack Su Mo together.
• Su Mo formed a screen of light to protect the people in the Imperial City and used “Forbid” to stop the attackers’ spells.
• Su Mo summoned the Human Emperor Sword and told his subjects to watch as he slew the immortals.

Su Mo wielded the Human Emperor Sword and borrowed the power of mountains and rivers to slay several Spirit Transformation cultivators, then endured another combined attack while the Upper Realm cultivators targeted the mortals. He summoned Big Strong to slaughter the Nascent Soul cultivators, while the remaining Spirit Transformation cultivators prepared to attack his body directly.

• Su Mo called on the power of mountains and rivers through the Human Emperor Sword and destroyed the Cloud Shield and several Spirit Transformation cultivators with one strike.
• Nascent Soul cultivators attacked the mortals behind the screen of light, and Su Mo used Buddhist arts to survive a combined strike from nearly a hundred Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Su Mo called Big Strong, who grew into a gigantic Void Beast and began swallowing the Nascent Soul cultivators attacking the screen.
• The Cloud Sect's Spirit Transformation cultivator urged the others to exploit Su Mo's supposedly weak body and attack him at close range.