Chapter Summaries

Su Mo learned that everyone but him would die if the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths fell, and devised a plan that depended on his own death and a notebook reaching Girl. As the Calamity of the Nine Heavens arrived, golden light transported Great Calamity, the Mysterious Maiden, and others to Peach Mountain.

• The Reincarnation Mirror told Su Mo that only his life soul was whole, so no one else could escape the calamity if the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths collapsed.
• Su Mo gave the Reincarnation Mirror a notebook to deliver to Girl after his death, hoping his plan would let him escape destiny's tragic cycle.
• Great Calamity left Su Mo sleeping and met the Mysterious Maiden near an entrance to the Forbidden Lands.
• Great Calamity and the Mysterious Maiden decided to face the calamity themselves to give Su Mo another ten thousand years to grow.
• The calamity struck, opening a spatial rift as golden light from Flowers of the Other Shore transported the women and other figures to Peach Mountain.
• The Forbidden Lands opened, and the Calamity of the Nine Heavens arrived after ten thousand years.

As the Forbidden Lands opened and a blood-red calamity spread across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, the Flowers of the Other Shore transported many of Su Mo’s loved ones to Peach Mountain. Luo Yin played the Qixi melody beside the dying Su Mo, but his breath vanished, leaving him dead as the others disappeared in golden light.

• Phoenix Woman ordered the great demons into the Forbidden Lands, but the laws of Heaven and Earth sealed the Demon Realm’s barrier and prevented them from leaving.
• Du Pingsheng agreed to let Qing Yi accompany him to find her Master, and golden light from the Flowers of the Other Shore carried them away.
• The Flowers of the Other Shore transported Su Mo’s loved ones to Peach Mountain as the calamity reached the mountain woods.
• Prince Ying’s Princess Consort and Little Girl found Su Mo close to death while Prince Ying and Luo Yin stayed outside the hut.
• Luo Yin played the Qixi melody, then coughed blood as her Ink Zither strings snapped and Su Mo’s breath vanished.
• Golden light carried the people in the mountain woods away, while Su Mo remained dead in the hut.

The Black-Clothed Elder stood alone against the Nine Heavens Calamity as waves of outsiders descended into the Forbidden Lands. After defeating Spirit Transformation and Inquiry Realm forces, he faced several hundred peak Inquiry Realm cultivators.

• The Black-Clothed Elder entered the Forbidden Lands and waited beneath the blood-red sky, vowing to protect the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths alone.
• Several thousand Spirit Transformation outsiders descended and attacked, and the Black-Clothed Elder killed them all.
• A thousand-odd Inquiry Realm cultivators arrived, and the Black-Clothed Elder fought them for three days and nights, killing them while suffering many wounds.
• Several hundred cultivators at the peak of the Inquiry Realm descended before the Black-Clothed Elder could recover.

Su Mo brought the people he cherished into the Divine Mountain to keep them from interfering with his plans to face the Calamity of the Nine Heavens. Yuan Yuan’s remnant soul let the last Flower of the Other Shore depart, then begged the Divine Stele to save her little brother, but it gave no answer.

• Gu Yu found Little Girl weeping, Luo Yin holding the broken Ink Zither, and learned that Little Seven was gone.
• Du Pingsheng and Qing Yi arrived, and Great Calamity and Mysterious Maiden realized Su Mo had kept them from entering the Forbidden Lands.
• Phoenix Woman tried to leave the Divine Mountain to face the calamity with White-Clad One, but Su Mo’s elder sister told everyone they could not leave until it had passed.
• Yuan Yuan’s remnant soul told the Flower of the Other Shore to go and do what it wished, and the flower vanished as a wisp of golden light.
• Yuan Yuan’s remnant soul asked the Divine Stele if it could save her little brother, but it gave no response.

The White-Clad One met the wounded Great Peng in the Forbidden Lands, where they discussed the truth behind the Calamity of the Nine Heavens and Great Peng’s past as a little demon charged by the Confucian Sage to defend the world. The White-Clad One sent Great Peng away and remained alone as the next wave approached, hinting that the Flower of the Other Shore would soon lose its poison.

• The White-Clad One arrived in the Forbidden Lands as a remnant soul and avatar, then sat beside the wounded Great Peng.
• Great Peng explained that he had once planned to devour cultivators above Spirit Transformation to reach Sainthood Entry and defend the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Great Peng revealed that he had been a little Peng Bird left in the world by the Confucian Sage, who ordered him to defend the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths at any cost.
• Great Peng said cultivators had to join the battle or the calamity would overturn the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, while the White-Clad One said he knew part of the truth.
• The White-Clad One refused to cure Great Peng’s Flower of the Other Shore Poison and used golden power to transport him out of the Forbidden Lands.
• The White-Clad One remained alone in the Forbidden Lands and said the Flower of the Other Shore would soon no longer be poisonous.

The White-Clad One waited alone in the Forbidden Lands until Shi Jiuxuan arrived with dozens of Difficult Realm experts. They acknowledged their past as husband and wife, but accepted that they were enemies, and the chapter ended as her followers prepared to face him.

• The White-Clad One waited alone in the Forbidden Lands for the final people to arrive.
• Shi Jiuxuan descended with dozens of Difficult Realm experts and greeted the White-Clad One as her husband.
• The White-Clad One asked whether she was Ning Baixue or Shi Jiuxuan, and she said she was the sovereign Shi Jiuxuan.
• Shi Jiuxuan explained that Ning Baixue was one of her three thousand incarnations and that meeting the White-Clad One had been an accident, not a deception.
• The White-Clad One said he had no cultivation left and asked why she had come to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Shi Jiuxuan's experts released their auras as the White-Clad One stood alone before them.

The White-Clad One survived attacks from the Difficult Realm experts and revealed that he had made himself undying through countless flower of the other shore clones. He trapped the experts in the Forbidden Lands and summoned the Life and Death Scroll, leaving his method of killing them still to come.

• A Difficult Realm expert struck the White-Clad One with a sword, but he emerged unharmed, and an old woman’s curse flames also failed to burn him.
• The White-Clad One revealed that he had killed his main body and spread his soul through the flowers of the other shore, making himself impossible to destroy while any remained.
• Shi Jiuxuan asked whether his suffering had been worth it, and the White-Clad One said he had acted to prevent the Nine Heavens from perishing if the experts entered the realm.
• The White-Clad One told Shi Jiuxuan he had severed the heavens of the Forbidden Lands and could kill every Difficult Realm expert there.
• Shi Jiuxuan chose to remain beside him, and the White-Clad One summoned an immense book of black characters called the Life and Death Scroll.

Shi Jiuxuan revealed that the Calamity of the Nine Heavens arose because two worlds, each a floating leaf in a river, were sinking under their weight and drawing together. She explained the deadly choices facing both worlds, then began to reveal the truth behind the catastrophe.

• The White-Clad One prepared to sacrifice everyone in the Forbidden Lands with his Life-Bound Spirit Artifact, knowing its Fourth Volume would be lost.
• Shi Jiuxuan told the White-Clad One that the Confucian Sage had revealed the truth in the second illusion at the altar of the Divine Realm Ghost Gate.
• Shi Jiuxuan explained that the two Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were separate floating leaves, and that a stopped Heavenly Cataclysm Calamity caused them to draw together and sink.
• Shi Jiuxuan said the worlds could either invade and destroy one another or have everyone above Spirit Transformation die before the leaves sank.
• Shi Jiuxuan revealed that ten thousand years earlier the Confucian Sage had killed the invaders, shared the truth, and led cultivators on the White-Clad One's side to cut themselves down.
• Shi Jiuxuan began to name the true Calamity of the Nine Heavens: Floating Leaf Sinking into the River.

Shi Jiuxuan explained that the people of both realms had planned to sacrifice those above Spirit Transformation to save their worlds, but Su Mo’s arrival changed the outcome. As the Life and Death Scroll killed the Difficult Realm experts, Shi Jiuxuan died in Su Mo’s arms, leaving him alone in the Forbidden Lands.

• Shi Jiuxuan told the White-Clad One that her realm’s people had planned to die after killing everyone above Spirit Transformation in his realm, hoping to save both worlds.
• The Life and Death Scroll assembled names and killed the Difficult Realm experts one by one while Shi Jiuxuan and the White-Clad One held each other.
• Shi Jiuxuan recalled that she had chosen to sacrifice herself in the Ghost Gate illusion so the White-Clad One could remain on the floating timber.
• The White-Clad One promised to find Shi Jiuxuan soon, and they admitted how deeply they had missed each other.
• Shi Jiuxuan lost consciousness and died in the White-Clad One’s arms, leaving him alone as the remaining people fell.

The White-Clad One revived the person in the Redwood Coffin, uncovered the truth about the Heavenly Dao, and used Execution Seven to change the life souls of the people across both realms. He then sacrificed himself and the Flowers of the Other Shore to hold up the Floating Leaf, leaving Yu Gu to wonder how long it would endure.

• The White-Clad One placed the person in a Redwood Coffin, where their heartbeat returned, and sat beside it for days.
• The Divine Seals merged into the White-Clad One, restoring his divine sense and marking him again as a member of the Divine Race.
• The White-Clad One concluded that the current Heavenly Dao was not the original one and challenged it, declaring that the world had no need for it.
• The White-Clad One summoned the Book of Life and Death and used Execution Seven to shoot a black arrow into the firmament, changing the life souls of people in both realms.
• The White-Clad One dissolved into starlight, and every Flower of the Other Shore across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths disappeared.
• Yu Gu realized that the White-Clad One had used the Flowers of the Other Shore and the cultivation of those who died in the Forbidden Lands to hold up the Floating Leaf.

After the Calamity of the Nine Heavens ended, Su Mo vanished, leaving those who remembered him to carry on without him. Letters and gifts from Su Mo reached several people, bringing comfort, confusion, and trouble in his absence.

• The Void Beast searched the stars for Su Mo after realizing he had sent it away, then returned to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and continued searching for its master.
• The Black-Clothed Elder accepted two copper coins from a little girl and wondered if protecting the world had been worth losing the Flower of the Other Shore’s poison.
• Chen Meiren found that the paper Su Mo had left had lost its aura, called himself swindled, and kept it anyway.
• Little Cat Demon found a land deed, a key, and a letter from Mr. Flower Demon offering him a restaurant of his own.
• Cheng An'an read Su Mo’s letter about why he could not return her affection and regained some of her devilish spirit as she angrily rejected his explanation.
• Dao Hua read Su Mo’s letter asking him to watch over Cheng An'an and offering him a fief, then was caught by Dao Twelve and his wife, who had a letter accusing him of wanting to be a prince.

After Su Mo sacrificed himself to end the great calamity, his letters and keepsakes reached the people he had left behind. They grieved for him, while Du Pingsheng resolved not to refine the dangerous pill.

• Qing Yi read her master's warning to protect Du Pingsheng and left him alone with the letter from his disciple.
• Du Pingsheng read that his disciple could not help refine the pill and had asked him to care for Qing Yi, then decided not to refine it.
• Phoenix Woman received Su Mo's letter explaining his departure and wept as she recalled their conversation about love.
• Great Calamity and Fairy read Su Mo's farewell, in which he explained why he had ended the calamity himself and confessed that he loved them both.
• At the Ends of the Earth, Su Mo's companions found a flute for Luo Yin and a painting of their academy; Sixth Senior Sister recognized it as the memory Little Seven had missed most.

After Su Mo vanished, Little Girl learned the truth about their bond and found his plan for her to use a Flower of the Other Shore clone to search for him. On the Divine Mountain, Yuan Yuan read Su Mo’s letter and mourned that he had forgotten himself.

• Little Girl grieved over Su Mo’s disappearance as Prince Ying and his wife struggled to comfort her.
• The fierce tiger gave Little Girl the Long River Stone, which could lead her to her brother.
• The Reincarnation Mirror showed Little Girl her journal and restored her memories, revealing that Su Mo was her brother and she had searched for him before.
• Little Girl read Su Mo’s final instructions and agreed to use a Flower of the Other Shore clone to find him.
• Yuan Yuan read Su Mo’s letter and saw the two Divine Seals he had left together for her.
• Yuan Yuan wept and wondered whether Su Mo had remembered himself.

After countless years, a fragile consciousness awakened within the Book of Life and Death beneath the Stone Stele and began learning about existence from the white-dressed woman who had waited for him. The woman told him that he existed between life and death, though he still did not understand what he was.

• The Book of Life and Death drifted through the white mist as it nourished the sleeping consciousness, while the woman waited beneath the Stone Stele.
• The consciousness gradually awakened and learned human words, then asked the woman what she was; she answered that she was nothing.
• The consciousness asked why he existed, but the woman could not understand and answer him, so he fell asleep again.
• After awakening, the consciousness asked what he was, and the woman described him as being between life and death.
• The woman explained existence and nonexistence by drawing and erasing a person, then pointed to the consciousness and said that he was between them.

After years of conversation, the consciousness asked the woman in white for a form, and she restored his original body by giving it vitality from a newborn star. He awoke as a human youth, then asked what distinguished males and females, leaving the woman unable to explain except by showing him.

• The consciousness grew strong enough to leave the Book of Life and Death, which merged into him, and he told the woman he wanted a form like the youth in his visions.
• The woman created the white-haired youth’s original body and told the consciousness that he had ceased to exist completely and lacked vitality.
• The woman gathered vitality from a newborn star and infused it into the youth’s body.
• The consciousness entered the body, fused with it, and awakened as the youth.
• The youth asked what being human meant and why he differed from the woman, so she removed her clothes and admitted she could not explain.

In the space beyond heaven and earth, the youth questioned what it meant to exist and whether changing form altered who he was. After sleeping for an immeasurable time, he awoke with emotions, and the woman identified his disappointment as an emotion.

• The youth questioned whether he and the woman were human, and whether they would remain human if they became mist.
• The youth asked how they could prove they existed, and the woman placed his hand on her body and told him this was existence.
• The youth sat with the woman beneath the Stone Stele and fell asleep for the first time since gaining a form.
• After waking, the youth felt a strange sensation when he saw the woman unclothed and said he could not describe it.
• The woman dressed, making the sensation disappear, and the youth wondered what his feeling of disappointment was.
• The woman told the youth that disappointment seemed to be an emotion.

Su Mo recovered his memories and learned that the emotionless woman had created the Divine Race and the isolated world where they lived. She explained that Su Mo could not return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths because that small world could not bear his weight.

• The youth questioned the woman about existence and learned that she could not remember how she had come to exist.
• After a long dream awakened by the Book of Life and Death, the youth remembered that he was Su Mo.
• Su Mo recognized the Radiant Mark on their foreheads as belonging to the Divine Race, and the woman said she had created the race to protect the people of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Su Mo realized that the woman was the one who had sought him through Cheng An'an, and she explained that their space was a smaller world she had created between the small world and the greater world.
• The woman told Su Mo that he could not return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths because he was not originally from that world and it could no longer bear his weight.

Su Mo learned that the life force that saved him had made it impossible for him to return to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and realized his plans had fulfilled fate rather than escaped it. He uncovered the Longevity Stele’s origin and learned that the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths was a floating-leaf world whose location neither he nor the woman could find.

• Su Mo concluded that Girl’s clone had returned to the past while her main body waited for him at the end of the Long River, and that his arrangements had fulfilled fate.
• Su Mo learned that the Book of Life and Death had kept him from dying completely, while the woman’s life force restored him; she said both he and the book came from beyond the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Su Mo examined the Longevity Stele and read that alchemy cultivators had forged it to create eternal life and protect the world from the Calamity of the Nine Heavens.
• Su Mo understood that their attempt had produced the Red Mist, which prevented aging and death but erased people’s minds.
• Su Mo asked the woman to retrieve the floating leaf that held the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, but she said its location was unknown and explained that the world existed as an independent space.

The woman told Su Mo that she had found his consciousness drifting through the stars and watched it enter the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths as the young man named Su Mo. Su Mo learned that countless years might have passed since he left his former home, but resolved to reach the great world and find the Floating Leaf.

• Su Mo asked why the woman had searched for him, and she said she wanted to know who she was and believed they were alike in their uncertainty.
• The woman questioned Su Mo's memories, his origins in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and why he possessed the Book of Life and Death.
• The woman explained that she had drifted through the stars, found Su Mo's sleeping consciousness, and followed it until it entered the world and became Su Mo.
• Su Mo realized that he had drifted for countless years and bitterly wondered whether he could ever return to his former home.
• Su Mo asked about the outside world and the woman's power, then declared that he would find the Floating Leaf and fish it out so he could seek a way back.

Wu Qian led Spirit Beast Mountain’s members to the Ancestral Mountain after their spirit beasts became frightened and submissive, where they found a mysterious white-robed figure surrounded by prostrate beasts. After sending her sect away, Wu Qian explained that she had called him Ancestor to give him an identity, and the conversation remained unresolved.

• Wu Qian heard that the sect’s spirit beasts had grown fearful and suspected something unusual had happened on the Ancestral Mountain.
• Wu Qian led the sect’s elders toward the mountain, where their spirit beasts became increasingly terrified and fell silent.
• Wu Qian and the others found a white-haired, youthful-looking figure in the bamboo grove, with numerous spirit beasts prostrated beside him.
• Wu Qian addressed the figure as the Ancestor, and the sect members knelt before withdrawing at his request.
• The White-Clad One asked Wu Qian why she had called him Ancestor, and she said she thought he might need an identity.