Chapter Summaries

Yanzhi revealed that the Desolate Realm’s people became demon beasts after the Three Pure Ones’ Elixir Art triggered a catastrophic mutation, and that they had attacked this world seeking the Immortal Gate. Su Mo realized the sages had long known the truth and ascended in hopes of changing the world’s subjugation by the Immortal Gate.

• Yanzhi explained that the desolate beasts had lost their human spiritual consciousness and apologized for the Desolate Realm’s invasions.
• Yanzhi revealed that the Three Pure Ones’ Elixir Art caused a mutation that trapped the Desolate Realm’s people between life and death, after which they entered symbiosis with demon beasts.
• Su Mo connected the Desolate Realm’s catastrophe to the red mist calamity in the Nine Heavens and turned his anger toward the Immortal Gate.
• The Ji Clan Sage Ancestor explained that the saint beasts had entered the pass because they believed doing so would open the Immortal Gate.
• Su Mo realized that the sages had known the truth and ascended to the Immortal Domain hoping to change the world’s fate under the Immortal Gate.

Su Mo remembered that his plan was to destroy the Immortal Gate, not fight Three Purities, and revealed the answers to the three questions his Imperial Father had left him. After reaching Sagehood and combining his power with the Sages of both realms, he shattered the Immortal Gate so the mortal world could ascend by another path.

• The Sages of both realms joined forces to attack Three Purities, but they suffered heavy losses and could not overcome him.
• The Scholar urged Su Mo to search his heart and remember his plan, leading him to recall his Imperial Father's three questions and their answers.
• Su Mo declared himself Pei Min'an and identified heaven's mandate with his sword, the emperor's mandate with the Pei Clan's resolve, and the mandate of all living beings with their hopes for peace.
• Su Mo reached Sagehood and used the mortal world's laws and the Heavenly Dao Sword to keep Three Purities from withdrawing the Immortal Gate.
• Su Mo summoned Human One and asked the Sages and Saint Beasts of the Desolate Realm to lend him their power.
• Su Mo wielded the Heavenly Dao Sword through his thousand-zhang Dharma Form and shattered the Immortal Gate.

Su Mo destroyed the Immortal Gate that let the Immortal Domain control the mortal world, then set out for the Ascend to Immortality Ancient Road so the world's hope of immortality would not end. There, he discovered that the black-robed old man was the Riverside Old Man who had guided him as Pei Min'an, and wondered whether the old man had known the Floating Leaf's whereabouts all along.

• With help from the Sages of both realms, Su Mo destroyed the Immortal Gate and severed the Immortal Domain's control over the mortal world.
• The Saint Beasts led the Desolate Beasts back to the Desolate Realm, while Su Mo told the gathered Sages that the matter was not over and walked toward the Ascend to Immortality Ancient Road.
• At the Stone Bridge, Su Mo spoke with a black-robed old man who revealed he was an Immortal from the Immortal Domain and had remained in the mortal world after loving a mortal woman.
• The old man warned Su Mo that people he knew might not share his long lifespan and urged him to let go when the time came.
• The old man showed Su Mo a black and a white Chess Piece, and Su Mo recognized him as the Riverside Old Man who had advised him when he was Pei Min'an.

Su Mo learned from the Black-Clothed Elder how to create a new Immortal Gate by bringing Peach Blossom Haven to the Immortal Domain, giving the world’s Sages a way to ascend again. The Elder departed after advising Su Mo about possible allies and warning him to wait before exposing the Three Pure Ones’ crimes.

• The Black-Clothed Elder told Su Mo he had never found Floating Leaf or Su Mo’s homeland, and gave him a black playing piece.
• The Elder explained that Su Mo could take Peach Blossom Haven to the Immortal Domain and use it, together with the Grotto-Heaven Gate, to create an Immortal Gate under his control.
• The Four Sages and Wu Qian rejoiced at the chance to ascend, and Su Mo promised Xiaoyueyue she could come too.
• The Elder advised Su Mo to visit the Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven, consider seeking help from the Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven, and delay revealing the Three Pure Ones’ crimes.
• The Black-Clothed Elder walked away, saying he would roam free now that matters were settled.

Su Mo walked the perilous Immortal Path alone, protected by the Mortal Realm’s Fortune and Incense energy, while the Brush of All Living Beings described how the path and Immortal Domain had changed. He found a Jade Slip left by Old Madman and recognized one of the three figures in its scenes as the Emperor of the Mortal Realm.

• Su Mo began ascending the Immortal Path after storing the Grotto-Heaven Gate to Peach Blossom Haven in his Spirit Sea.
• The Brush of All Living Beings told Su Mo that the Immortal Path had once been less dangerous and more ethereal, and called the Immortal Domain dull.
• Su Mo walked for days without encountering danger as the Mortal Realm’s Fortune and Incense energy flowed into him.
• Su Mo found Old Madman’s Jade Slip beside the road and saw scenes of three people watching over the world after the Pei Clan’s line ended.
• Su Mo recognized the Emperor of the Mortal Realm among the three figures and wondered whether they had watched over the world.

Su Mo learned that a strange consciousness threatened those who traveled the Immortal Path, then found the remains of the senior who had left him a warning. He turned back to gather the bones of those who had died along the path, delaying his journey to the Immortal Domain.

• Su Mo read the Jade Slip’s warning that a strange consciousness devoured travelers’ Divine Sense and made him more vulnerable because of his Fortune.
• The Brush of All Living Beings sensed many gathered consciousnesses on the Immortal Path, though Su Mo could not detect them.
• Su Mo found two skeletons, recognized one as the senior who had left the Jade Slip, and placed both sets of remains in a storage ring.
• Su Mo turned back to collect the remains of those who had died near the start of the Immortal Path, intending to bring them to the Immortal Domain.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings continued along the path, gathering scattered skeletons as the Brush pointed them out.

Su Mo continued along the Immortal Path, collecting remnant bones while the Brush of All Living Beings resisted the road’s mysterious consciousness. Half a year after Su Mo’s departure, Wu Qian worried over him in Peach Blossom Haven, while Xiaoyueyue reassured her; later, Su Mo and the Brush found a familiar-looking stone stele.

• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings continued their slow journey along the Immortal Path, gathering remnant bones and bickering about the long road.
• In Peach Blossom Haven, Wu Qian watched Su Eternal Life’s name on the Incense Divine Stele and worried about Su Mo, but Xiaoyueyue comforted her and asked for food.
• Su Mo recalled Ji Ting’s warning, “Do not ascend to immortality,” and learned that the Brush of All Living Beings was tired from resisting a consciousness on the path.
• Su Mo stopped to rest and asked how far they had traveled, then chose not to hear the Brush’s uncertain answer.
• The Brush of All Living Beings spotted a stone stele, and Su Mo froze when he recognized something familiar about it.

Su Mo discovered that a warning carved on the Immortal Path matched his handwriting, though he could not explain how it had been left there. After walking for what may have been years while gathering bones, he and the Brush of All Living Beings found a second stele bearing another cryptic warning.

• Su Mo copied the first stele’s inscription and realized his handwriting exactly matched the ancient characters, unsettling him and the Brush of All Living Beings.
• Su Mo resumed walking along the Immortal Path and collected the scattered remnant bones as time passed and his weariness grew.
• The Brush of All Living Beings teased Su Mo about his relationship with the Demon Sage and suggested her talent would let her outpace him in the Immortal Domain.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings stopped when they saw a second stele inscribed, in the same handwriting, “Do not ask of Changyao; do not practice the Dao of Alchemy...”

Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings continued along the Immortal Path, increasingly unnerved by its unnatural quiet. They reached a pool covered with human hair and began crossing its unstable floating bridge, where a plank cracked beneath Su Mo.

• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings passed the stone stele and continued along the Immortal Path, feeling watched.
• They walked for another half year without encountering danger, and the Brush of All Living Beings suspected someone had cleared the way ahead.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings found a deep pool crossed by a narrow floating bridge, its surface covered in clumps of long hair.
• Su Mo stepped onto the bridge and saw that each clump of hair rose from a bulge beneath the water.
• As Su Mo cautiously crossed, his movements rippled the water and made the hair sway; then a plank cracked beneath him.

Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings were dragged underwater when the Floating Bridge sank, where eerie women in white closed in from every direction. The women retreated before reaching him, and Su Mo cautiously swam toward the far shore after sensing a strange aura there.

• Su Mo ran across the sinking Floating Bridge as the long hair vanished beneath the water, but hair wrapped around his ankles and pulled him under.
• Su Mo saw pale, long-haired women standing upright underwater and swam toward the opposite shore as they steadily approached.
• The Brush of All Living Beings spotted more women rising from the depths, and Su Mo found himself surrounded by the figures.
• As Su Mo prepared to open his Spirit Sea, the women stopped approaching and floated back to the water's surface.
• Su Mo sensed an eerie aura flash past the far shore and cautiously swam toward it while the women remained motionless overhead.

Su Mo continued along the Immortal Path after leaving the eerie deep pool, while the Brush of All Living Beings sensed the path's strange consciousness and its own ominous feeling fading. As they approached the apparent end, Su Mo felt unexplained grief and planned to flee using the power of law if the Three Pure Ones awaited them.

• Su Mo left the deep pool and learned from the Brush of All Living Beings that it had not existed during its previous journey.
• After Su Mo departed, the floating bridge resurfaced and revealed a stone stele warning against beholding Heavenly Secrets and unraveling Reincarnation.
• Su Mo traveled onward without further danger, and the Brush of All Living Beings sensed the Immortal Path's eerie consciousness growing fainter.
• Su Mo felt unexplained sorrow, as though people he did not know were leaving him as he advanced.
• The Brush of All Living Beings reported that its ominous feeling lay ahead but was also fading.
• Su Mo proposed fleeing with the power of law if they encountered the Three Pure Ones, despite the Brush of All Living Beings warning that he could continue hunting them throughout the Immortal Domain.

The White-Clad One reached the end of the Immortal Path and was killed by the Three Pure Ones, whose attack erased him into ash. Su Mo then arrived with the Brush of All Living Beings, troubled by a dream of someone sacrificing themselves to save them, and found that the bones in his Spirit Ring had also turned to ash.

• The Three Pure Ones waited at the end of the Immortal Path and told the White-Clad One that he had taken five years to arrive.
• The White-Clad One realized that Ji Ting had warned him not to ascend because the Three Pure Ones ambushed those who reached the Immortal Domain.
• The Three Pure Ones struck the White-Clad One before he could fight back, then pressed his body into drifting ash.
• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings reached the end of the Immortal Path, but Su Mo felt that something was missing and could no longer sense the ominous presence.
• Su Mo recalled a dream of someone using their lingering obsession to save them, then saw that the withered bones in his Spirit Ring had turned to ash.

Su Mo discovered that the vanished consciousness on the Immortal Path was made of the lingering obsessions of countless predecessors, who had cleared his way and sacrificed themselves to protect him. After revealing his true name, he left the Immortal Path vowing to let them see the Immortal Domain through him.

• The Brush of All Living Beings and Su Mo realized the predecessors’ obsessions had removed the dangers along the Immortal Path and used a life-substitution technique to die in Su Mo’s place.
• Su Mo mourned the predecessors, understanding that their regrets and desire to reach the Immortal Domain had ended with their sacrifice.
• Su Mo told the Immortal Path that his true name was Su Mo, courtesy name Jing Yan, and revealed his origins and other identities.
• Su Mo vowed to bring the predecessors to Ascend to Immortality and become their eyes in the Immortal Domain.
• Su Mo walked out of the Immortal Path as its consciousness dissipated, leaving behind the predecessors’ regret and his own regret that he had not thanked them.

Su Mo entered Piaomiao Immortal Domain but felt lost and cautious, so he buried a seed made from the Remnant Bone’s ashes near the Mortal Realm. After rejecting the idea of seeking help from Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven or Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven, he agreed to follow the Brush of All Living Beings and retrieve the Old Codger’s hidden belongings.

• Su Mo reached Piaomiao Immortal Domain and decided not to release the Grotto-Heaven Gate until he found a safe place and dealt with the Three Pure Ones.
• Su Mo transformed the Remnant Bone’s ashes in the spirit ring into a seed, planted it on the mountain, and promised the seniors he would return.
• Su Mo declined to visit Heavenly Secrets Grotto-Heaven or Immortal Furnace Grotto-Heaven, fearing that using Heavenly Secrets’ Chess Piece could reveal his origins.
• The Brush of All Living Beings explained that the Immortal Domain had no ordinary Mortals and that Su Mo, despite being a prodigy, had only just entered the Immortal Realm.
• The Brush of All Living Beings proposed retrieving the belongings Old Codger had hidden in the Immortal Domain, and Su Mo agreed to go with him.
• As Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings departed, a green shoot emerged from the planted seed.

Two dead elders of the Heavenly Secrets Lineage waited for a heavenly secret left by their ancestor and persuaded their young disciple Xuanji to divine a related matter instead. Xuanji lost his voice from the divination’s backlash and wrote that a change in the Ancestral Lineage was coming.

• The slightly younger elder complained that he and his master had waited tens of thousands of years for their grandmaster’s heavenly secret.
• The slightly younger elder summoned Xuanji and asked him to divine whether their lineage would change soon.
• Xuanji resisted, fearing that divination would shorten his life, but eventually performed it.
• Xuanji lost his voice and wrote that a change in the Ancestral Lineage was coming.

Su Mo entered the Ancestral Image World with the Brush of All Living Beings to retrieve belongings Old Codger had hidden there, using the identity of a junior from a supreme grotto-heaven. Their arrival coincided with the return of two of the Twelve Wonders of the Immortal Domain, drawing a crowd as Su Mo and the Brush headed toward Old Codger’s cache.

• The Brush of All Living Beings explained the Immortal Realm’s three stages and led Su Mo to a cave near the ancestral veins, claiming Old Codger had hidden treasures there.
• Su Mo entered the cave after learning it led to the Ancestral Image World, and the Brush described the independent world and the prodigies who cultivated there.
• The Brush gave Su Mo a cover identity as a junior from a supreme grotto-heaven whose legacy had been severed.
• Su Mo and the Brush used a teleportation platform to enter a bustling immortal city in the Ancestral Image World.
• The city’s residents gathered after Hongxia Fairy, the Sword Wonder, and Wenge Fairy, the Book Wonder, returned, while Su Mo and the Brush set off to retrieve Old Codger’s belongings.

Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings searched an abandoned ancestral courtyard for the Old Codger’s buried belongings, but a barrier blocked their way. Su Mo used a law that let him pass as an ancestor, opened the gate, and uncovered a bundle; he planned to sever the karma his technique had stirred.

• Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings reached an abandoned ancestral courtyard and wondered why it stood where the Old Codger had buried his belongings.
• Su Mo noticed a barrier still guarded the gate, suggesting the sect might not have vanished, and decided to use his ultimate move to get inside.
• Su Mo invoked “This Shore is the Other Shore; your ancestors are my ancestors!” and opened the gate as his aura matched the barrier’s origin.
• Su Mo sensed karma from the technique and told the Brush of All Living Beings he would try to sever it after they retrieved the buried items.
• The Brush of All Living Beings led Su Mo to a corner of the rear yard, where Su Mo split the ground open and revealed a bundle.

Su Mo and the Brush of All Living Beings fled the Ancestral Courtyard after accidentally digging into its ancestral vein, then discovered they had stolen canned milk from the wrong hiding place. They headed for the Brush’s newly identified location, entering the space between two ancient trees as pursuers approached.

• Su Mo uncovered the ancestral vein while searching beneath the hole, hurriedly refilled it, and fled with the Brush of All Living Beings after sealing the courtyard gate.
• A toddler arrived at the Ancestral Courtyard, found his hidden things missing, accidentally dug into the ancestral vein, and filled the hole back in.
• Su Mo and the Brush opened their bundle and discovered it held cans of milk; the Brush realized he had searched the wrong place, and Su Mo stored the milk to return later.
• The toddler sensed Su Mo and the Brush’s direction and chased after them as they flew toward the location the Brush had identified.
• Su Mo and the Brush reached two ancient trees by a river, sensed approaching pursuers, and stepped into the space between the trees.

Su Mo entered the Ancestral Image World and learned that the ancient tree at its center was the transformed body of the deceased Immortal Emperor Rouyun. The Brush of All Living Beings remembered that Old Codger's belongings were buried beneath the tree, and Su Mo prepared to dig them up.

• Su Mo entered a vast realm of inverted stone mountains and mist, where the Brush of All Living Beings remembered that Old Codger's belongings lay beneath the central ancient tree.
• Su Mo walked across the floating mountains and felt an unexpected tenderness, which the Brush of All Living Beings attributed to the Ancestral Vein Source.
• Su Mo reached the ancient tree and remembered the elders and loved ones who had cared for him.
• The Brush of All Living Beings revealed that the tree was the heart of Immortal Emperor Rouyun, who had transformed into the Ancestral Image World before her death.
• Su Mo politely told Rouyun that he had come to dig up his things, and the Brush of All Living Beings agreed that doing so would not disturb their remembrance of her.

Su Mo found a Sacred Artifact ring hidden beneath the Rouyun Heart Tree, then entered the tree’s inheritance trial after sensing something inside was waiting for him. He arrived far beyond the trial’s starting point, puzzling the Brush of All Living Beings.

• Su Mo uncovered a ring beneath the tree, and the Brush of All Living Beings identified it as a Sacred Artifact left by Old Codger.
• The Brush of All Living Beings warned Su Mo that two women were approaching, so he hid while they discussed entering the Heart Tree to compete.
• The Brush of All Living Beings explained that Immortal Emperor Rouyun’s inheritance trial was harmless, and Su Mo decided to enter it.
• Su Mo merged his consciousness with the Heart Tree and appeared on a bluestone street surrounded by green and rosy light.
• The Brush of All Living Beings realized that Su Mo had arrived far beyond the trial’s starting point and wondered why the Heart Tree had sent him there.