Chapter Summaries

Su Mo granted Li Wudi’s request to die by his hand, and Li Wudi used his final strength to warn him about a hidden male Heavenly Prodigy of the Ji Clan. Su Mo killed him with the Book of Life and Death, and Li Wudi’s name vanished from the Incense Divine Steles.

• Li Wudi told Su Mo he could not hold on and asked him to kill him before his Great Dao shattered.
• Su Mo agreed, accepted Li Wudi’s Pass Lord Token, and heard his warning about a terrifying male Heavenly Prodigy of the Ji Clan.
• Li Wudi burned his remaining vitality and asked to see Su Mo’s Life-Bound Spirit Artifact.
• Su Mo summoned the Book of Life and Death and used its Life and Death Scroll to form Li Wudi’s name from three runes.
• Li Wudi thanked Su Mo, warned him to beware the Ji Clan, and died as his Dao dissipated.
• The names on the Incense Divine Steles trembled, and witnesses saw that Li Wudi’s name had disappeared.

After killing Li Wudi, Su Mo learned why he had massacred Wu Qian’s sect and listened as she revealed she had intended to give him the Beast Taming Art. As dawn broke, Wu Qian smiled and asked Su Mo whether he wanted to know her secret.

• Su Mo sat beside Li Wudi’s corpse and wondered about the Ji Clan’s hidden prodigy and the Immortal-Slaying Net.
• Wu Qian woke, saw Li Wudi’s body, and mourned him as Su Mo explained their fight and repeated Li Wudi’s warning about Floating Life Pass and the dangers beyond it.
• Wu Qian recounted how Li Wudi had killed her parents and the people of Spirit Beast Mountain while demanding the Beast Taming Art, but had spared her.
• Wu Qian told Su Mo that she had entered the Forbidden Land intending to give Li Wudi the Beast Taming Art, even though she still wanted revenge for her family and sect.
• Su Mo and Wu Qian remained together through the night, and at dawn she laughed at the filth on his head before asking whether he wanted to know her secret.

Wu Qian revealed the origin of Spirit Beast Mountain’s wondrous stone and explained why she followed Su Mo. She showed him the stone and its matching mark, leaving her personal secret exposed to him.

• Su Mo admitted he was curious, and Wu Qian explained that she followed him because his aura resembled hers.
• Wu Qian revealed an aura that silenced spirit beasts across a vast area of the Forbidden Land.
• Wu Qian told how a wondrous stone gained spiritual awareness, left its body, and began a bloodline whose descendants inherited its power.
• Wu Qian explained that Spirit Beast Mountain concealed the stone because it could bring strife back to the world.
• Wu Qian showed Su Mo the wondrous stone, revealed its mark on her chest, and identified it as her secret.

Wu Qian revealed that she and the Wonder Stone were one, making her the Spirit of All Spirits, and explained her clan’s long-guarded secret to Su Mo. When she offered him the stone, Su Mo refused and urged her to keep it safe and remember that she belonged only to herself; the chapter ended with Wu Qian bathing in a stream while still feeling she ought to belong to him.

• Su Mo realized Wu Qian’s bond with the Wonder Stone explained why Li Wudi had abandoned his plans to kill or abduct her.
• Wu Qian told Su Mo that she and the Wonder Stone were one and that she had considered giving Li Wudi the stone to help him.
• Wu Qian offered Su Mo the Wonder Stone, but he refused and told her no one should belong to anyone else.
• Wu Qian merged the Wonder Stone into the Divine Seal on her chest and agreed to keep it hidden and safe.
• Wu Qian entered a stream to bathe while Su Mo turned away, and she privately continued to feel that she belonged with him.

After Wu Qian absorbed the Moon Essence, Su Mo and she headed deeper into the Forbidden Land, where numerous factions had gathered before a vast mountain range. While hiding among rocks, they unexpectedly encountered Wu Pangzi, who feared Su Mo and Wu Qian as persistent nightmares.

• Wu Qian told Su Mo that the Moon Essence had strengthened her cultivation and brought her close to entering Inquiry.
• Su Mo decided to explore the Forbidden Land's depths and warned Wu Qian not to reveal the strange stone's power unless her life was in danger.
• Su Mo sensed a familiar presence entering the Forbidden Land but left without telling Wu Qian who it was.
• After traveling for half a month, Su Mo and Wu Qian found numerous factions gathered before an imposing mountain range and a bottomless abyss.
• Su Mo and Wu Qian hid among a pile of rocks, where they discovered Wu Pangzi already hiding.
• Wu Pangzi recognized Su Mo and Wu Qian and quietly cried out, asking why they kept haunting him.

Su Mo and Wu Pangzi encountered each other while hiding near the Great Force Mountain Range and agreed to work together. Wu Pangzi revealed that the moving mountain range contained the Forbidden Land’s Ancient Ruins, where countless opportunities and deadly dangers awaited.

• Wu Pangzi accused Su Mo of repeatedly stealing his opportunities, while Su Mo insisted their meeting was a coincidence.
• Su Mo asked Wu Pangzi to work together, and Wu Pangzi agreed after they settled on an equal split of the spoils.
• Su Mo, Wu Pangzi, and Wu Qian hid together and watched the major powers gathered outside the Great Force Mountain Range.
• Wu Pangzi identified the moving mountain range as Ancient Ruins within the Forbidden Land and said that every Heavenly Prodigy who entered during one era had died there.
• Su Mo asked whether the Nine Heavens’ Difficult Realm experts had also died in the ruins.

Wu Pangzi explained that the Ancient Ruins were a dangerous tomb where people relived the same brief stretch of history whenever the Forbidden Land opened. Su Mo learned the rules for surviving there and that the ruins might hold a forbidden art, while the crowd gathering outside suggested someone had found a way to obtain it.

• Wu Pangzi recognized Su Mo as Su Eternal Life and warned him that the Ji Clan still had terrifying hidden forces despite its compromise.
• Wu Pangzi revealed that the Ancient Ruins were a supreme tomb whose inhabitants appeared alive and repeated the same plot whenever the Forbidden Land opened.
• Wu Pangzi explained that visitors had to follow the inhabitants’ predetermined history and avoid revealing their origins, harming anyone, or changing events, or they would face deadly consequences.
• Wu Pangzi said that blending in with the inhabitants could give someone a chance to learn their Sect’s inherited forbidden art.
• Wu Pangzi observed the many people gathered outside the Great Force Mountain Range and suspected someone had found a way to obtain the forbidden art, drawing others hoping to benefit.

Su Mo devised a plan for him and Wu Pangzi to impersonate people from the Ruins and rob the outsiders entering it without triggering its taboo rules. Wu Pangzi revealed he could disguise himself too, using a Strange Dagger that transformed him into a skinny man.

• Wu Pangzi proposed that Su Mo and he blend in with the Ruins' living people, find the treasury, and take its contents.
• Su Mo realized they could pretend to be living people and rob outsiders who feared violating the Ruins' taboo rules.
• Wu Qian identified that they would need to hide their identities and distinguish outsiders from the Ruins' inhabitants.
• Wu Pangzi said he could recognize the world's Heavenly Prodigies, while Su Mo planned to change his appearance and aura.
• Wu Pangzi revealed he had a way to avoid recognition, stabbed his thigh with a Strange Dagger, and transformed from a fat man into a pale, skinny man.

Su Mo and Wu Pangzi entered the Ancient Ruins after Wu Qian went to wait at the Ghost-Eyed Divine Flood Dragon's territory, but the passage sent them to separate locations. Wu Pangzi headed toward the sect, while Su Mo woke in a peach-blossom realm beside a beautiful woman and a formidable man in golden robes.

• Wu Pangzi used the Strange Dagger to drain his blood energy and slim down, and Wu Qian suggested combining his disguise with Su Mo's plan to pose as people from inside the Ruins.
• The Ruins opened, and Su Mo sent Wu Qian to wait at the Ghost-Eyed Divine Flood Dragon's territory before he and Wu Pangzi approached the entrance.
• Su Mo changed his appearance with the Spirit Jade River Moon, and he and Wu Pangzi entered the passage together.
• Wu Pangzi emerged alone in a world of peach-covered mountains and headed toward the golden palace, expecting to meet Su Mo inside the sect.
• Su Mo awoke among peach blossoms beside a beautiful woman, while a tall man in golden python robes stood nearby.

Su Mo awakened in the Ruins as the heir apparent, inheriting the memories of a troubled prince whose father was the War King. After realizing how much his parents cared for him, Su Mo told the War King that he wanted to cultivate, and the declaration shook heaven and earth.

• Su Mo woke in a palace beside a gentle woman and the stern War King, who reproached him for neglecting cultivation and told him to forget Hong'er.
• The woman left Su Mo to rest, and he discovered in a mirror that he had the heir apparent’s face rather than his own.
• The Book of Life and Death opened to reveal a Reincarnation Scroll, and Su Mo dreamed through the heir apparent’s life, including his beloved’s death at the War King’s hand.
• After awakening, Su Mo recognized the War King’s care beneath his coldness, and the War King left him a bottle of pills.
• Su Mo called the War King “Father” and said he wanted to cultivate, causing heaven and earth to change color.

Su Mo's cautious words about cultivating repeatedly distort the Ruins, but the War King decides to teach him after his recovery. When the War King's Wife visits, Su Mo calls her “Mother,” and the Ruins warp again as she leaves in tears.

• Su Mo's tentative refusal to cultivate warps the Ruins, so he quickly says he wants to cultivate before taking it back, restoring the world to normal.
• The War King tells Su Mo he will teach him to cultivate once his body recovers, and Su Mo discovers that a strange power has sealed his cultivation.
• The War King's Wife visits and asks whether Su Mo has finally decided to cultivate; his answer triggers another brief distortion of the Ruins.
• The War King's Wife says Su Mo's decision will ease the War King's worries, and Su Mo unexpectedly calls her “Mother.”
• The Ruins warp again as the War King's Wife covers her face and leaves, and Su Mo finds cold tears on his hand.

Su Mo rejected the nine elders’ refusal to teach him and insisted that he would not let his mother beg for his sake. His defiance twisted the ruins again, leaving the elders staring at him as outsiders faced another frightening disturbance.

• The War King's Wife told Su Mo that his father had gone to the Imperial City to seek a Sea-Splitting Pill, then took him to the drum tower to try to secure a master for him.
• The War King's Wife knelt before the nine elders and asked them to take Su Mo as their disciple so the Pei Clan could continue guarding the world.
• When the elders silently rejected her plea, Su Mo tried to help her up, but she ordered him to kneel.
• Su Mo refused to kneel and told his mother she did not need to beg for Yan'er, declaring that he could do without strength if it had to be begged for.
• The ruins twisted with an eerie aura, the nine elders opened their eyes and stared at Su Mo, and Wu Pangzi complained as the outside world was shaken again.

Su Mo swallowed the Sea-Splitting Pill and awakened a second cultivation and Fate Pattern, causing upheaval throughout the Ruins. An old monk sensed the birth of Dual Fate and the first appearance of the Emperor's Fate.

• The War King's Wife accompanied Su Mo as he waited in the Ruins, and the War King returned from the imperial capital with a Sea-Splitting Pill.
• The War King gave Su Mo the pill, which could open a Spirit Sea and bring him directly to Spirit Transformation, and warned that he would need to fight to stabilize his foundation.
• Su Mo swallowed the pill, triggering a disturbance that left people throughout the Ruins insubstantial and alarmed Wu Pangzi.
• Su Mo gained a second cultivation and a second Fate Pattern, while the power accumulated by the Book of Life and Death surged into his new cultivation and carried it into the Inquiry Realm.
• The landscape in Su Mo's Spirit Sea changed as new words appeared on the stone and a bridge emerged beside it.
• An old monk sensed the birth of Dual Fate and declared that the Emperor's Fate had first revealed itself.

Su Mo gained a new strand of cultivation in the Inquiry Realm and agreed to join the War King on the front lines after inspecting the Floating Life Sect’s recruits. He arrived at the disciple trials, where Wu Pangzi and Ji Yue were among those seeking entry.

• The War King's Wife celebrated Su Mo’s new cultivation and said the Pei Clan could continue guarding the world.
• The War King told Su Mo to temper a Dao Art at the front lines, and Su Mo asked to inspect the disciple trials before going to war.
• The War King assigned dozens of golden-armored guards to obey Su Mo’s commands.
• Wu Pangzi searched the outside world’s Heavenly Prodigies on the Ascension Stairway but found no sign of Su Mo, while Ji Yue climbed with her elder.
• Su Mo arrived at the trial with the guards, and the trial elder bowed as the recruits, including Ji Yue and Wu Pangzi, reacted to his presence.

Su Mo watched the Floating Life Sect disciple selection and recruited Wu Pangzi to help identify spies among the candidates. He arranged to question each participant individually after the current trial, then took his seat above the steps to begin the interrogations.

• Su Mo arrived with his Golden Armor Guards and authorized the selection elder to begin the second trial, a free-for-all for three hundred places.
• Wu Pangzi joined the melee without revealing his supreme treasures, while Su Mo observed the contestants.
• Su Mo had Wu Pangzi removed from the arena and asked whether he could identify spies among the trial participants.
• Su Mo told the selection elder to arrange a separate round in which every candidate would answer his questions, and Wu Pangzi agreed to help find the spies.
• Su Mo followed the selection elder to a platform and sat above the steps, preparing to question the candidates one by one.

Su Mo used the Floating Life Sect’s spy investigation to force Ji Yue to reveal and surrender all her belongings. He let her proceed while claiming the items would be examined, leaving their fate—and whether Ji Yue would discover his true intent—unresolved.

• Su Mo told Wu Pangzi to identify suspected spies among the selection candidates, and the first newcomer passed after Wu Pangzi signaled they were not an outsider.
• Ji Yue arrived, and Su Mo challenged her to prove she belonged within the ruins; she admitted she had no such proof but denied being a spy.
• Su Mo demanded that Ji Yue name her home and warned that the sect could verify her claim, leaving her unable to provide a convincing answer.
• Ji Yue offered to let Su Mo inspect her possessions, and he agreed to check whether they contained anything from beyond the pass.
• Ji Yue laid out her belongings, including supreme treasures, and Su Mo sent her on while delaying their return pending an examination.

Su Mo collected the possessions of the Ruins entrants while directing the selection elder to continue the trials and watch the disciples. Back at the palace, he began to suspect the Ruins were tied to Pei Hongyan’s regret, then learned the War King would take him to fight beyond the Border Pass the next day.

• Su Mo and Wu Pangzi screened the entrants, and the golden-armored guards compelled them to surrender their belongings.
• Su Mo told the selection elder to continue the trials, granted Wu Pangzi direct entry into the Sect, and ordered surveillance of the new disciples.
• At the palace, Su Mo wondered whether the Ruins embodied Pei Hongyan’s dream and regret, though he remained unsure whose regret it was.
• The War King announced that Su Mo would accompany him beyond the Border Pass the next day to build a Dao Foundation through battle.
• The War King told his wife that Su Mo had to grow strong enough to bear the burden of the Border Pass and the world, while she wished for his peace and joy.

At Floating Life Pass, the War King showed Su Mo why the peach blossoms represented the soldiers’ wish for peace and happiness, prompting Su Mo to recite the Four Sentences of Hengqu and trigger a great change in the ruins. Ji Yue and an old man realized the ruins’ story had changed, abandoned their plan to steal a Taboo Technique, and decided to leave.

• The War King led Su Mo into Floating Life Pass and explained that the peach blossoms carried the soldiers’ wish for peace to those who died defending it.
• Su Mo thought of Li Wudi and understood the conviction behind his choice to walk the Invincible Dao.
• The War King challenged Su Mo to name an emperor’s convictions, and Su Mo recited the Four Sentences of Hengqu, awakening a vast aura across the ruins.
• An old man told Ji Yue that the ruins had changed and that the heir’s survival had disrupted the original story and their plan to obtain the Taboo Technique.
• Despite Ji Yue’s concern that her Supreme Treasures remained with the heir, she agreed with the old man to leave the ruins and report back to the clan.

Su Mo spent nearly a year slaughtering beasts beyond Floating Life Pass, forging a new Dao before the War King recalled him. Wu Pangzi’s letter told him the reincarnation was nearing its end, and the lady asked whether he was leaving.

• The War King gave Su Mo the Cold Spear and sent him beyond the pass to find a Dao through battle.
• Su Mo fought among the beasts and gradually formed a new Dao that immersed him in slaughter.
• As the ruins’ closing approached, Wu Pangzi left a letter for Su Mo and departed the Floating Life Sect.
• After nearly a year, the War King ordered the gong sounded, and Su Mo returned to the pass.
• The lady gave Su Mo Wu Pangzi’s letter, which said reincarnation neared its end, and asked if he was leaving.

Su Mo learned that the War King and his wife knew he was an outsider, and that the reincarnation was tied to his own regret rather than Pei Hongyan’s. As the secret realm dissolved, he witnessed the memory of his birth as Pei Min'an, twin brother of Pingle, and his mother’s death.

• The War King and his wife revealed that they knew Su Mo was not their child and questioned his belief that he was only a passerby.
• The lady told Su Mo that the reincarnation was his regret, and the secret realm vanished into his memories.
• The War King recalled returning to the Imperial City with his gravely wounded wife after defending Floating Life Pass.
• Pei Hongyi and the empress welcomed twins, and the empress named their daughter Pingle and their son Min'an before she died.
• Su Mo recognized the infant boy as Pei Min'an and realized the scene was the dream he had seen at the Divine Realm Ghost Gate.