Chapter Summaries

Su Mo spent a year searching books for a way to save the little girl, while her memories continued to fade and his hair turned white. He found that the Flower of the Other Shore could mend an incomplete soul, but it no longer existed, and the little girl had forgotten what it was like to first meet him.

• Su Mo rejected the Great Calamity's claim that the little girl's soul could not be saved and continued searching books for clues.
• The little girl told Su Mo that she was forgetting important things and feared she would forget him, and they promised never to forget each other.
• The little girl reported that many people had entered the Divine Realm, but few had come back; Su Mo said it had nothing to do with them.
• Winter arrived, and Su Mo finished reading the Academy's books, finding in the Record of Divine Herbs that the Flower of the Other Shore could mend an incomplete soul but had vanished from the world.
• The little girl told Su Mo she had forgotten what it was like when they first met.

Su Mo comforted the dying Girl by recalling how they first met and read aloud from her journal, which recorded their life together. As he sat with her in the Book Tower, news arrived that someone had seen the flower of the other shore inside the Divine Realm.

• Su Mo told Girl how he found her as a hungry child, and Girl remembered protecting his steamed buns from stray dogs before agreeing to travel with him to the capital.
• Girl told Su Mo she was content with the life they had shared and feared only forgetting him and their loved ones.
• Su Mo showed Girl her journal and read its entries about their journey and time together.
• A figure rushed into the Book Tower and reported that someone had seen the flower of the other shore inside the Divine Realm.
• Su Mo raised his head, his white hair trembling and his eyes alight.

Su Mo learned from the Dean that the Divine Realm was a dangerous world with no heaven, where strange entities rendered most cultivators powerless and even Confucian Cultivators suffered. He set out alone to find the Flower of the Other Shore and save Girl, while the Dean stayed behind to slow her deterioration.

• The Dean explained that the Divine Realm was the earth without a heaven among the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and that little was known about the worlds beyond their own.
• The Dean told Su Mo that strange entities in the Divine Realm made cultivation useless against them, and that Confucian Cultivators who returned often died, went mad, or refused to speak of what they had seen.
• The Dean warned Su Mo that the Divine Realm was dangerous, that people could be more frightening than its strange entities, and that its opening had become more frequent and prolonged.
• Su Mo asked the Dean to look after Girl, and the Dean agreed to seal her to slow her deterioration while urging Su Mo to return if he could not find the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Su Mo resolved to find the Flower of the Other Shore and left for the Divine Realm alone.

Su Mo reached the Ruined Temple and prepared to enter the Divine Realm, where he reunited with Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan. After learning that their sect elders had not returned, the three faced the strange man’s warning, and Su Mo revealed his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation.

• Su Mo entered the Ruined Temple, found the rift to the Divine Realm, and ignored a strange man's warning that the realm was no place for humans.
• Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan arrived, recognized Su Mo, and spoke with him about the Great Calamity that had altered West City's land and rivers.
• Zhixuan and Mude explained that they planned to enter because their sect elders had gone into the Divine Realm and never returned.
• Su Mo said he had no choice but to enter, and Zhixuan advised him against it unless he had reached Foundation Establishment.
• Su Mo revealed his aura, stunning Mude and Zhixuan with his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation; the strange man recognized the Confucian Dao.

Su Mo entered the ghostly Divine Realm with Mude and Zhixuan, then continued alone after they withdrew. He sensed an unseen presence watching him and reached a deserted village while searching for the Flowers of the Other Shore.

• Su Mo, Mude, and Zhixuan entered the Divine Realm and found a mist-shrouded world with no living inhabitants.
• A bloodied man demanded their opportunities, begged them to kill him, and took his own life to escape the Divine Realm’s control.
• Mude and Zhixuan chose to leave, while Su Mo stayed to search for the Flowers of the Other Shore and found a paper on the corpse bearing the Holy Sect’s aura.
• Su Mo continued through the mist, sensed that something was watching him, and heard Great Calamity warn him to be careful.
• Su Mo tried to use a Dao Art to reach the Flowers of the Other Shore, suffered backlash, and then came upon a deserted village.

Su Mo found a strand of the Confucian Sage’s hair on a tablet describing the slaughter of eighty-six villagers during the Heavenly Cataclysm, then hurried toward a distant phenomenon that might be the Flower of the Other Shore. When two Holy Sect cultivators blocked him and tried to seize his opportunities, he killed them with Confucian Dao swordsmanship and continued toward the phenomenon.

• Su Mo entered the ruined village, collected the Confucian Sage’s hair from a stone tablet, and read that the Sage had killed all eighty-six villagers on the third day of the Heavenly Cataclysm.
• Great Calamity explained that the Confucian Sage had severed the Divine Realm from the outside world, and that it later became a land of death.
• Su Mo spotted a radiant phenomenon and rushed toward it, hoping it marked the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Two Holy Sect cultivators stopped Su Mo and demanded the opportunities he had found; they revealed that they had attacked another entrant with Holy Paper.
• Su Mo evaded the men’s sword attacks, halted their flying swords with a Confucian Dao word, and killed them with a hiltless Spirit Sword.
• Su Mo left the two bodies behind and continued toward the fading phenomenon while Great Calamity followed him.

Su Mo was swallowed by the strange fog and woke in what seemed to be his former life, where he reunited with his parents. He shared a warm meal with them, though his parents’ presence felt fragile and unfamiliar.

• Su Mo followed the radiant vision into dense fog, fell through the ground, and lost consciousness as unseen eyes watched him.
• Su Mo woke in a classroom, ignored his classmates, and left alone after a ponytailed girl invited him on a trip.
• Su Mo returned to a familiar home and tearfully called the arguing couple Mom and Dad before embracing them.
• Su Mo ate with his parents, sharing meat with both of them as the family enjoyed a warm meal together.

Su Mo resisted Great Calamity’s demand to kill the illusion of his parents, choosing instead to leave and save the little girl waiting for him. The illusion shifted to scenes of the girl selling paintings and her life with a young master, and Su Mo watched until he awoke disoriented as the vision vanished.

• Su Mo recognized that the home with his parents was an illusion but refused Great Calamity’s order to kill them, saying he needed to return and save a little girl.
• Su Mo leaped from the balcony, shattering the scene and awakening in another illusion as a white-haired man.
• Su Mo bought a mask, paid the little girl ten qian for two Kaitai paintings, and learned she believed her young master sent her out to walk because she was unhealthy.
• Su Mo followed the little girl to the Painted Pleasure Boat and watched her nag the youth there about drinking and their lack of silver.
• Su Mo watched the girl’s life unfold for an indeterminate time until a white-haired youth entered a ruined temple in the snow, then abruptly awoke as the illusion disappeared.

Su Mo escaped the Divine Realm with the Flower of the Other Shore and used it to awaken the little girl. Months later, he wondered whether the life before him was real.

• Su Mo returned to the Divine Realm and learned from Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan that its exits led to a supposed Second Layer, while their Sect elders were still alive.
• Thick fog separated Su Mo from Mude and Zhixuan, then cleared to reveal the Flower of the Other Shore, which Su Mo picked.
• Su Mo crossed the Divine Realm alone, entered the black rift, and emerged in the Ruined Temple before returning to the Academy.
• Su Mo gave the Flower of the Other Shore to the Dean, who used it to wake the little girl; she asked Su Mo for a chicken drumstick.
• Several months later, Su Mo stood beside a lake and told the little girl he wished everything before his eyes were real.

Su Mo realized the Third Illusion had been built from reality and explored the Divine Realm inside it to find the Flower of the Other Shore. He concluded that triggering the Divine Realm's Death Tribulation could let him escape and prepare to obtain the flower in reality.

• Su Mo told the little girl he had to return to the Divine Realm to save her, then left to investigate his surroundings.
• Su Mo found West City reduced to ruins and gravestones, confirming the illusion followed reality rather than his memories.
• Su Mo entered the Divine Realm through a black rift and explored its layers, finding ruined settlements and stone tablets recording the Confucian Sage's massacres.
• Su Mo reached the palace in the Third Layer and found the Flower of the Other Shore before a statue of the Confucian Sage.
• Su Mo reasoned that the flower's presence in an illusion based on reality meant he could find it after returning to reality, and he invited the illusion to give him a Death Tribulation so he could escape.

Su Mo endured the Confucian Dao’s Withered Falling Leaves tribulation inside an illusion, formed a Golden Core, and woke in the real Divine Realm. After learning that he and his companions had been trapped there for months and that the Divine Realm’s rules erased his Confucian True Words, he realized time was running short for Little Girl.

• Su Mo provoked the illusion into inflicting the Withered Falling Leaves tribulation, formed a Golden Core, and shattered the illusion.
• Su Mo woke beside Daoist Mude and Monk Zhixuan, then questioned whether he was still in an illusion and spoke with Great Calamity in his Spirit Sea.
• Monk Zhixuan told Su Mo that they had been in the Divine Realm for several months and could enter but not leave, while Mude reacted sorrowfully when Su Mo asked about his elders.
• Su Mo realized the events matched his third illusion and feared there was little time left for Little Girl.
• Su Mo revealed his Core Formation aura and tried to use Confucian True Words to reach the Flower of the Other Shore, but an unknown force erased the rule.

Su Mo led Zhixuan and Mude through the Divine Realm toward the third level, where he sensed wandering souls trapping six people, including the monks’ masters. As time ran short to find the Flower of the Other Shore and save the Girl, Su Mo considered how to get past them.

• Su Mo urged Zhixuan and Mude to leave the strange area and led them toward the third level.
• As the mist thickened, Su Mo sensed six living auras and more than a hundred wandering souls surrounding them.
• Su Mo told Zhixuan and Mude that the trapped figures included their masters, and the two grew anxious.
• Su Mo considered whether Confucian arts could help against the wandering souls, while worrying that the Girl might not live to twelve without the Flower of the Other Shore.

Su Mo discovered that his Confucian cultivation let him pass safely through a formation filled with ghosts that had trapped six people. He led Zhixuan, Mude, and the others out of the formation, while questions remained about the Divine Realm’s dangers and the Confucian Sage.

• Su Mo, Zhixuan, and Mude approached a formation where over a hundred ghosts surrounded six people, including Ning Baixue, an old Daoist, and an old Monk.
• The old Monk warned Zhixuan and the others not to enter, while Mude and the old Daoist argued over the Scripture of Daoist Mysteries.
• Su Mo found that the ghosts moved aside for him and realized Confucian Cultivators were spared the Divine Realm’s eerie formations, though they faced illusions that others did not.
• Su Mo led Zhixuan and Mude through the ghosts to the trapped group, where Zhixuan reunited with his injured master and Mude saw his old Daoist master.
• After confirming he followed the Confucian Dao, Su Mo led everyone out of the formation as the ghosts parted for him.

Su Mo refused to escort the finely robed youth and his companions, recognizing that they wanted to force him to lead them deeper into the Divine Realm. When the youth’s Mid Spirit Transformation protector attacked, Su Mo used a talisman that suppressed her cultivation.

• Su Mo sent Mude, Zhixuan, their elders, and Ning Baixue toward the Divine Realm’s exit while he continued deeper in search of the Flower of the Other Shore.
• Ning Baixue warned Su Mo that the finely robed youth and the old woman with him were not from their world.
• The finely robed youth demanded that Su Mo escort him, but Su Mo refused; the old woman attacked, and the others returned to his side.
• Su Mo deduced that the youth wanted him to guide them to opportunities deeper in the Divine Realm, not help them escape.
• The old woman’s Mid Spirit Transformation pressure forced Su Mo down, so he unleashed a yellow talisman that suppressed her cultivation below Spirit Transformation.

Su Mo used the Deity-Sealing Edict to suppress the old woman, but a small, sword-pierced girl emerged from the fog and killed her and the young man. The girl recognized Su Mo after a memory fragment passed between their matching stones, and he asked whether her wound hurt.

• Su Mo activated the Deity-Sealing Edict, suppressing the old woman's cultivation, and identified himself as the Academy's seventh direct disciple.
• Su Mo considered asking Great Calamity to intervene, but she said a fearsome presence had already set its sights on the group.
• A small girl emerged from the fog and froze everyone except Su Mo, then killed the old woman and the lavishly dressed young man by pulling out their hearts.
• The girl noticed the white-haired youth approaching and recognized Su Mo when a light from his white stone merged with the matching stone on her chest.
• Su Mo saw the sword embedded in the girl's chest and asked if it hurt; she replied that it hurt very much.

Su Mo shared a quiet farewell with the tiny figure who resembled Girl, then learned the Flowers of the Other Shore were in the Confucian Sage Palace, not the Divine Realm. The tiny figure summoned the palace and vanished after asking Su Mo to call her Girl, leaving him facing the palace with a new, furious resolve.

• The tiny figure told Su Mo she was not Girl, led him to a cliff, and asked him not to question her identity or connection to Girl.
• The tiny figure revealed that there were no Flowers of the Other Shore in the Divine Realm and identified the place where Su Mo had seen them as the Confucian Sage Palace.
• When asked what he would pay to save Girl, Su Mo answered that he would pay any price.
• The tiny figure merged her white stone with Su Mo's, summoned the Confucian Sage Palace, and asked him to call her Girl before she dissipated.
• Su Mo watched the tiny figure vanish and turned toward the Holy Palace as an enormous black book appeared behind him.

Su Mo discovered that the Divine Realm had deceived him by using his bond with Girl to lure out and kill someone connected to her, and he resolved to destroy the realm. Using the Book of Life and Death, he transformed into a giant, sealed the Divine Realm’s monstrous consciousness, and left the rune descending onto the ground.

• Su Mo found no Flower of the Other Shore in the Confucian Sage Palace and accused the Divine Realm of using his connection with Girl to lure out and kill someone important to her.
• Su Mo declared that he would smash the Divine Realm because he sensed it had developed a dangerous consciousness, and he accepted the Book of Life and Death’s karma.
• Su Mo invoked the Human Book and merged with the Book of Life and Death, causing the Divine Realm to tremble and reveal a monstrous face across its land.
• The emperor looked at paintings of Su Mo and summoned an attendant, while the Dean noticed a change in the little girl’s condition.
• Su Mo became a giant in the Divine Realm, drew an enormous rune, and commanded it to seal the realm’s consciousness as it raised a mountain arm in resistance.

Su Mo summoned the Confucian Sage’s remnant to defeat the Divine Realm’s consciousness and learned that the Sage had destroyed every Flower of the Other Shore. He left the Divine Realm with Great Calamity, who took the Confucian Dao Inheritance, while the remnant faded away.

• Su Mo summoned the Confucian Sage with a spell, and the Sage’s sword strike sealed the Divine Realm’s entrances and ended its eerie influence.
• Su Mo woke beside Great Calamity and the Confucian Sage Remnant, then explained how the illusions and the Confucian Sage Palace’s use of the Sage’s hair revealed the deception.
• The Confucian Sage Remnant admitted he knew little about the Divine Realm and said he had destroyed all the Flowers of the Other Shore when he severed the heavens.
• Su Mo asked to leave the Divine Realm, and Great Calamity took the Confucian Dao Inheritance before pulling him through a rift.
• The Confucian Sage Remnant drew a trace of the Book of Life and Death’s aura from the void, then dispersed before he could finish the game.

Su Mo saved an old man and child from a venomous python with Confucian True Words, then hurried back to the Academy. He arrived to see a little girl riding a black horse, and her smile brought tears to his eyes.

• An enormous venomous python cornered an old man and his grandson in the forest, but Su Mo emerged from a black rift and commanded it to eat plants instead of people.
• The python obeyed Su Mo’s Confucian True Words and devoured the old man’s medicinal herbs, while the old man recognized Su Mo as Great Hua’s Top Scholar and thanked him.
• Su Mo rushed toward the Academy, using long-distance Confucian True Words and Spirit-Replenishing Pills before teleporting into its courtyard.
• Su Mo saw a little girl riding a black horse and tearfully called her “Girl.”

Su Mo reunited with Girl at the Academy and learned that her incomplete soul had grown stronger, though no one knew why. Girl appeared healthy and slightly taller, and she delighted Su Mo by revealing she could talk to animals.

• Girl recognized Su Mo and rushed into his arms, telling him how much she had missed him and asking him to buy her favorite foods.
• Su Mo spent several days with Girl at the Academy, where she played happily with little Black Horse.
• Su Mo asked the Academy disciples why Girl was recovering, but Third Senior Sister Gu Yu and the others had no explanation.
• Su Mo recalled that the girl in the Divine Realm had merged her white stone with his, and wondered if she had tried to replenish Girl’s life soul.
• Girl told Su Mo she felt a little taller and had learned magic, then showed him by asking Second Senior Brother’s Multicolored Bird if she was pretty.