Recaps

Wang Quan assessed whether Stone City’s cultivators could survive Heaven’s Collapse by relocating to the Second-Layer World, then demonstrated his growing power by transforming into a giant fish and devouring hundreds of evil beings. He left the surrounding evil beings stunned by the reversal.

• Beitang Xue agreed to save [Ghost Emperor Heart] during the next historical fragment after it promised to reveal a way to truly change history.
• Wang Quan surveyed the besieged safe zone and reasoned that Stone City’s cultivators would need to move inland and establish a new safe zone after Heaven’s Collapse.
• Wang Quan used a mirror artifact to probe the scarlet Great Sun, but the mirror exploded and its fragments became evil beings that the safe zone destroyed.
• Ruo Jinghong joined Wang Quan on a cloud, and they watched the evil beings lurking in the dark sky.
• Wang Quan transformed into a giant fish, left the safe zone, and swallowed hundreds of evil beings in one bite.

Wang Quan devoured evils in his big-fish form until they burst his belly, while Ruo Jinghong repeatedly sewed him back together so he could keep eating. After his belly burst a thousand times and Ruo Jinghong ran out of hair to use as thread, Wang Quan and the evils both fled, leaving the area outside the safe zone empty.

• Wang Quan grew larger as he devoured evils and gave a pair of leather boots to Ruo Jinghong.
• The evils overwhelmed Wang Quan by forcing their way into his belly until it burst, but he claimed he would return after finding a way to repair it.
• Ruo Jinghong arrived with needle and thread, sewed Wang Quan's belly shut, and urged him to resume eating the evils.
• Wang Quan's belly burst repeatedly as he consumed more evils, and Ruo Jinghong kept sewing it shut using thread braided from her hair.
• After a thousand bursts, Ruo Jinghong ran out of hair, so Wang Quan and the evils announced they would fight another day and fled in opposite directions.

Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong discussed their plans to cultivate and expand Stone City's refuge in the Second-Layer World. Near the banquet's end, Officiant and Dream reported that every New-Method Cultivator in Stone City and their descendants had fled to the Underworld, leaving Wang Quan stunned.

• Ruo Jinghong and Wang Quan discussed preparing for Heaven's Collapse by enlarging safe zones in the Second-Layer World and pursuing higher cultivation.
• Ruo Jinghong said she planned to open a Legacy Purple Mansion, reach Golden Core, and expand her Daoist Scriptures; Wang Quan agreed to work toward similar goals.
• Mei Niang invited Ruo Jinghong and Wang Quan to relax, but both returned to the Present World.
• Wang Quan studied Daoist Scriptures in the Fire Mulberry Tree while crystal brains and kidneys strengthened his intelligence and foundation.
• Officiant and Dream hurried to Wang Quan and reported that all New-Method Cultivators in Stone City, along with their descendants, had fled to the Underworld.
• Wang Quan initially dismissed the flight, then frowned when Officiant confirmed that every one of them had left.

Wang Quan consulted Ying Jiaren about the New-Method Cultivators who had fled Stone City, then entered the Underworld to pursue them. He found the city’s ghosts celebrating after a clash with the fugitives and raced north, where he encountered a mountain range shrouded in wailing black clouds.

• The Officiant Daoist Nun told Wang Quan that many New-Method Cultivators and their descendants had fled into the Underworld, but Wang Quan refused to send others after them.
• Wang Quan contacted Ying Jiaren, who advised him to pursue the fugitives and harvest them if they found a good place to live, while using their hardship as a warning to Stone City.
• Wang Quan changed Stone City's rules to require New-Method Cultivators to take turns battling the abnormal weather, with death for those who disobeyed.
• Wang Quan entered the Underworld and learned that the city's ghosts and monsters had attacked the arriving fugitives, seized some of them, and driven the rest north.
• Wang Quan flew north and encountered towering mountains covered in black smoke and clouds of wailing resentment.

Wang Quan encountered the resentful ghosts and monsters of Black Wind Ridge, who mistook him for an enemy after humans attacked them. He recruited them and refined their lingering resentment into a magical artifact so they could pursue the fleeing people with him.

• The ghosts and monsters of Black Wind Ridge accused Wang Quan of joining the humans who had attacked them and threatened to steam him as an offering.
• Wang Quan explained that he was pursuing the people who had fled his city, and the ghosts told him those people had passed through Black Wind Ridge attacking ghosts and monsters.
• The ghosts recognized Wang Quan as the Flower-Scatter Daoist and agreed to follow him to Emperor's Tomb City in exchange for a chance at revenge.
• An old ghost warned Wang Quan that their dead companions' resentment would drag them deeper into the Underworld if left behind.
• Wang Quan offered to refine the resentful dead into magical artifacts, and they agreed before he transformed the black clouds into a tract of black earth.
• Wang Quan told the ghosts to get on the artifact and chase down the fleeing people.

Wang Quan led a vast army of ghosts and monsters in pursuit of the New-Method Cultivators who had betrayed him and joined a pitch-black Evil. He crushed the fleeing cultivators and continued hunting the rest, convinced that they deserved no further mercy.

• Wang Quan recruited surviving ghosts and monsters along the route, and their numbers swelled into an immense army.
• Wang Quan caught up with several thousand injured New-Method Cultivators and condemned them for betraying him and siding with Evil.
• A female cultivator defended the New Method and denounced the Old Cultivation Method, while Wang Quan refused to keep arguing.
• Wang Quan ordered the ghosts and monsters to crush the group, and they flattened the hill and killed the cultivators.
• Wang Quan continued pursuing scattered New-Method Cultivators, eventually ordering his army to crush them instead of offering explanations.
• Wang Quan reflected on the cultivators’ defiance and wondered who had given them the courage to oppose orthodoxy.

Wang Quan watched as his ghosts and monsters fought the defecting New-Method Cultivators, who eventually broke into a rout when their leaders fled. White-Haired Ancestor and Black Hand escaped with the surviving Golden Core Ancestors, still promising to return and confront Wang Quan.

• The defecting New-Method Cultivators prepared to fight the approaching ghosts and monsters, while White-Haired Ancestor ordered them not to attack Wang Quan.
• The New-Method Cultivators and the ghosts and monsters battled across a vast battlefield, with both sides unleashing spells and strange attacks.
• White-Haired Ancestor noticed Black Hand and the other evil beings retreating, then gathered his followers and fled with them.
• The other Golden Core Ancestors realized their leaders were abandoning them and retreated, causing the lower-ranked New-Method Cultivators to rout.
• White-Haired Ancestor pulled Black Hand away from glaring at Wang Quan, and Black Hand fled with the surviving leaders toward the promised paradise beyond the world.

Wang Quan stopped the army of ghosts and monsters before the ghost gods and sent it to Emperor's Tomb City, while Black Hand led the surviving New-Method Cultivators to meet the ghost god lords. The cultivators learned that their supposed paradise would begin with mining a newly discovered vein.

• New-Method Cultivators who died joined the ghosts and monsters, and some surviving cultivators killed themselves to become ghosts and monsters too.
• Black Hand fled with the White-Haired Ancestor and the remaining Golden Core Ancestors as the ghosts and monsters overwhelmed their companions.
• Wang Quan halted the pursuing army before the ghost gods, warned the ghosts and monsters away, and sent them to Emperor's Tomb City.
• The ghosts and monsters reached City No. 95, where Death-Heralding Ravens gave them jars to live in and assigned them work.
• Black Hand showed the White-Haired Ancestor and the other cultivators how he could whip the laborers, then told them the ghost god lords had ordered them to mine a mineral vein.

Golden Core Ancestors who had been lured from Stone City were forced to mine under brutal conditions, while the White-Haired Ancestor persuaded a chosen group to cultivate. Six years later, the cultivators had grown stronger and embraced the mines, while the rest remained trapped and were silenced when they protested.

• Golden Core Ancestors regretted leaving Stone City as Lantern Monsters whipped them whenever they rested, and one tried to persuade the others that mining and beatings were useful tempering.
• The White-Haired Ancestor proposed selecting intelligent cultivators who would take turns cultivating while the others endured the lashes, and the ancestors chose one thousand and one for the task.
• The selected ancestors spent years interpreting the Fundamental Method through guesswork, while the White-Haired Ancestor claimed an Innate Single-Qi Great Grappling spell and dismissed the others' complaints.
• Six years later, the White-Haired Ancestor and his companions had grown powerful and refused to leave the mines, insisting the resources and teachers there were too valuable.
• When the other Golden Core Ancestors protested and demanded freedom, the White-Haired Ancestor ordered them to mine and sewed their mouths shut with his companions.

Wang Quan infiltrated the Pinnacle of the Mountain Range's construction disguised as a Lantern Monster and persuaded Black Hand to authorize shortcuts that sabotaged the weapon. After more than a year of studying its refinement method, he could not seize control because of its immense Dharma Power requirements, but he had planted hidden dangers he could trigger if it was used against him.

• Wang Quan disguised himself as a Lantern Monster and discovered that some ghost gods still bore wounds from his earlier strike with the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure].
• Wang Quan learned that the Tenth Reincarnation King intended to forge the Pinnacle of the Mountain Range to withstand the [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court]'s powerful magic treasures.
• Wang Quan persuaded Black Hand to reduce construction specifications for faster progress, and Black Hand put him in charge while planning to blame him for any failures.
• Black Hand searched for its original body to kill it while Wang Quan openly studied the weapon's construction.
• Wang Quan spent more than a year comparing the refinement method with [Emperor Tianxuan]'s Daoist Scriptures and confirmed that their frameworks shared the same lineage, though the weapon's method was faster and cruder.
• Wang Quan abandoned taking control of the unfinished weapon because he lacked sufficient Dharma Power, but retained hidden dangers he could detonate to escape a future attack.

Wang Quan tried to escape the Pinnacle of the Mountain Range, but the [Tenth Reincarnation King] captured him and brought him to a world of rings. The [Tenth Reincarnation King] asked about his identity and proposed an alliance against the true [Reincarnation King], leaving Wang Quan to consider the offer.

• Wang Quan gathered valuables from the Pinnacle of the Mountain Range and tried to leave for the beacon point he had agreed on with the Purple-Robed Marquis.
• The [Tenth Reincarnation King] revealed that he had seen through Wang Quan's disguise from the start, then swallowed him and took him to a world filled with rings.
• The [Tenth Reincarnation King] asked Wang Quan whether he was a replacement for the [Ninth Reincarnation King] or a separate being.
• Wang Quan told him that his identity mattered less than being alive and possessing power, but the [Tenth Reincarnation King] admitted he wanted to find and kill the other [Reincarnation King].
• Wang Quan refused to help him, so the [Tenth Reincarnation King] proposed that they ally against the true [Reincarnation King], whom he said was Wang Quan's mortal enemy.

Wang Quan allied with the Tenth Reincarnation King, who transported him to a dangerous Underworld location where the Purple-Robed Marquis had promised to leave a growth-type magic treasure. Wang Quan invoked the treasure and sensed a black umbrella beneath him, though it seemed impossibly far away.

• Wang Quan agreed to join forces with the Tenth Reincarnation King and exchanged contact information with him.
• The Tenth Reincarnation King warned Wang Quan about the forbidden zone and its rifts to the Second Layer of the Underworld, then offered to take him there.
• The Tenth Reincarnation King sent Wang Quan to the Dao coordinate using his gigantic ring and told him the ring would return in three days.
• Wang Quan recognized the location as the place where the Purple-Robed Marquis had promised to leave a growth-type magic treasure.
• Wang Quan chanted the three-thousand-language incantation, and sensed a hole-riddled black umbrella beneath his feet that seemed very far away.

Wang Quan dug deep beneath the earth to find the Purple-Robed Marquis’s growing Magic Treasure, following its presence through magma and into the black magma at the Underworld’s boundary. As he descended toward the Second Layer of the Underworld, Flower Sprite-like creatures attacked him with poisonous smoke that dissolved his defensive spell.

• Wang Quan used dissolution killing intent to dig underground, but the Magic Treasure remained beyond his reach.
• He descended through a vast magma sea and met a winged tiger from the Fire Fire Fire Tribe, which warned him about the black magma below.
• Wang Quan ignored the warnings and entered the black magma, while the winged tiger asked him to bring back stories if he survived.
• His Legacy Purple Mansion absorbed the intense heat as he descended, but the black magma dissolved a magic artifact he released.
• Flower Sprite-like creatures released poisonous smoke toward Wang Quan’s seven orifices and pores, and laughed when his defensive spell dissolved.

Wang Quan searched the colored lava regions for the Purple-Robed Marquis’s black umbrella but found no one who knew of it. After growing three heads and six arms to match the local giants, he was brought before their elders, who questioned his resemblance to their kind.

• Wang Quan interrogated the Flower Sprites, then used [Inverted Wisdom] to search their minds and found no information about the black umbrella.
• Wang Quan descended through the white, green, and blue lava regions, but the creatures there also knew nothing about the umbrella.
• In the purple lava region, Wang Quan grew three heads and six arms to satisfy the giants, who mistook him for a little friend and carried him away.
• Wang Quan saw the giants raising reincarnated beings as livestock before they brought him to a pavilion filled with enormous elders.
• The elders recognized Wang Quan as Flower-Scatter Daoist and questioned why his spell made him resemble their lineage so closely.

Wang Quan learned that the Three Heads and Six Arms technique came from the previous dynasty and that its people were relics of an earlier age. A three-headed beauty explained that the Dynastic Cataclysm would arrive after the current dynasty’s hundred-cycle span and revealed that it involved collapsing worlds contaminating and assimilating the mortal world.

• Wang Quan told the old woman how he learned his spell, and she identified it as an old cultivation method from the previous dynasty.
• The old woman transformed into a three-headed, six-armed beauty and explained that cultivators’ dynasties rose and fell with the [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court].
• The beauty said the Hundred-Armed Giants were Lesser Aberrant Humans who had served as military officers in the previous dynasty, which ended roughly ninety-nine cycles and eleven thousand years earlier.
• The beauty told Wang Quan that a Dynastic Cataclysm would come in a few hundred years and offered to answer three of his questions because of his Legend Rating.
• Wang Quan asked what the Dynastic Cataclysm was, and the beauty explained that collapsing worlds could contaminate the mortal world and assimilate its mountains, rivers, and lakes into the Underworld and Second-Layer World.

Wang Quan learned that the Dynastic Cataclysm coincided with an even more devastating Era Cataclysm, which could only be stopped by changing the past. After the beautiful woman revealed her ancient lineage and tried to persuade him to have a child with her, Wang Quan asked about the umbrella, and she recognized it as a treasure.

• The beautiful woman explained that the Era Cataclysm would make the thirty-two layers of worlds and eighteen layers of the Underworld overlap with the Real World for fifty years, awakening beings that would devour the world.
• She told Wang Quan that survival during the Era Cataclysm depended on luck, and that the strongest beings, including immortals, could die fastest.
• The beautiful woman said Wang Quan had once descended into the First Era to kill the being who sold out the world, but had failed; killing that being in the past could end both cataclysms.
• She revealed that her Hundred-Armed Giant ancestors descended from First Era Aberrant Humans and had preserved secrets in their bloodline, then proposed having a child with Wang Quan.
• Wang Quan declined and showed the beautiful woman an image of the umbrella given to him by the Purple-Robed Marquis; she asked how he knew about the treasure.

Wang Quan learned that the black umbrella Magic Treasure had once been broken by Lady [Tianxuan] in battle and set out for the Second Layer of the Underworld to find it. The Hundred-Armed Giants gave him a pearl and a secret incantation, hoping he would use them to contact their ancestors and help them return before the coming calamity.

• The three-headed, six-armed woman told Wang Quan that her bloodline memories described Lady [Tianxuan] breaking a black umbrella wielded by a purple-robed cultivator in the Underworld.
• Wang Quan decided to search the Second Layer of the Underworld for the damaged Magic Treasure despite the dangers, and the woman gave him a luminous pearl and taught him an incantation.
• Wang Quan performed a ritual to reach the Second Layer, but his physical body could not enter, so he sent in his Yang Spirit with several Hundred-Treasure Pouches and returned his body to the Real World.
• After Wang Quan entered the Second Layer, the woman revealed to the other Hundred-Armed Giants that she hoped the pearl would help their ancestors escape back to the First Layer and support them before the calamity.

Wang Quan explored the eerily silent second layer of the Underworld, then found a populated region where ghosts and monsters hid from the Black Hair Wind. After he warned them that the deadly wind had entered their tunnel, it froze the creatures at the front into black blocks of ice.

• Wang Quan found that his black umbrella magic treasure was not in the second layer and prepared a ritual to return to the first layer before scouting the area.
• Wang Quan flew through a barrier and discovered a lively region filled with ghosts, monsters, birds, and strange beasts.
• Wang Quan landed among ghosts and monsters hiding underground and learned that the Black Hair Wind blew at the start of every month and could freeze their insides.
• Wang Quan noticed black-light-like wind entering the tunnel and warned the group, but the creatures at the front were frozen into pitch-black blocks of ice.

Wang Quan learned several conflicting legends about the Black Hair Wind and the [Land of Dead Silence], then pursued the wind and created a Black Gourd that could absorb it. The Black Hair Wind began avoiding him and raced toward the Land of Dead Silence.

• Wang Quan drove the Black Hair Wind from the tunnel with flames and questioned the ghosts about its origins and the [Lands of Dead Silence].
• Wang Quan left a cloud of the Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust to protect the ghosts and chased the Black Hair Wind toward the [Land of Dead Silence].
• The ghosts worshipped the cloud of smoke until it endured, then carried it through the wilderness and eventually built a village around it.
• Wang Quan used five-colored earth, a gourd seed, and Black Hair Wind to grow a Black Gourd, then carved Dao script on it and made it absorb the wind.
• A stream of Black Hair Wind warned the others to avoid Wang Quan, and the mass of wind swerved around him toward the Land of Dead Silence.

Wang Quan pursued the Black Hair Winds deep underground and discovered that they were sealing an enormous giant beneath black ice. The giant offered information about the black umbrella in exchange for help, leaving Wang Quan asking who had last possessed it.

• Wang Quan chased the Black Hair Winds underground and captured their attackers with his black gourd.
• Wang Quan followed the remaining Black Hair Winds into a vast underground space and discovered a giant a hundred and eight thousand li long sealed beneath black ice.
• Wang Quan showed the Black Hair Winds an image of the black umbrella, but they denied knowing it and ordered him to leave.
• The sealed giant offered information about the black umbrella in exchange for help blocking the Black Hair Winds, and Wang Quan agreed despite their warnings.
• The giant said the black umbrella originated in the first era, belonged first to the first Central Ghost Emperor of the First Layer of the Underworld, and appeared in legends about later eras.
• Wang Quan asked when the black umbrella had last appeared and what sort of living being had possessed it.

Wang Quan abandoned his search for the black umbrella and left the giant imprisoned beneath the profound ice, but he secretly stopped the Black-Hair Wind Ritual. After three million years, the giant broke free and declared his return.

• The giant told Wang Quan that the black umbrella had fallen into the Third Layer of the Underworld, and Wang Quan decided to return when he was stronger.
• Wang Quan flew away, while the Black Hair Winds mocked the imprisoned giant and claimed that Wang Quan would not keep his word.
• The Black Hair Winds dwindled and vanished after a series of underground blasts, and water began melting the profound ice around the giant.
• The giant shattered the ice, and tornado spirits formed to fight the Black Hair Winds as the giant announced that he had returned.

Wang Quan helped a sealed giant absorb the Black Hair Winds, allowing the giant to break free after three million years and transform Wang Quan’s tools into powerful treasures. The giant departed after giving Wang Quan an incantation, leaving him to wonder what forces could have sealed such a being.

• The giant awakened, used wind and fire spirit monsters to defeat the Black Hair Winds, and fully escaped his seal.
• The giant’s gaze transformed Wang Quan’s Celestial Circuit Star Great Banners and Black Gourd into third-tier magic treasures.
• The giant burned the Black Hair Winds as an offering, then thanked Wang Quan and gave him an incantation promising aid against his enemies.
• The giant vanished, and the Land of Dead Silence collapsed as the remaining Black Hair Winds were absorbed into the Black Gourd.
• Wang Quan surveyed his new treasures and considered the giant’s power, the deeper dangers of the Underworld, and his own ambitions.

Wang Quan absorbed the Black Hair Wind into his Legacy Purple Mansion and gained two Third-Tier Magic Treasures, then found that most of his other promised treasures were beyond his reach. After considering the coming cataclysms, he decided to prepare by building his reserves and linking the Second Layer of the Underworld with the Third-Layer World.

• Wang Quan watched the giant’s power and saw the Black Hair Wind ritual destroyed, then absorbed the remaining wind with his black Gourd.
• Wang Quan integrated the Celestial Circuit Star Banners and black Gourd into his Legacy Purple Mansion, where they began producing and refining resources.
• Wang Quan tried calling the Magic Treasures left by Yu Wanzhou, the Great Cultivator of Decay, and the others, but most gave no response or only a faint one.
• Wang Quan returned to the First Layer of the Underworld and traveled to City No. 95.
• Wang Quan resolved to prepare for the approaching Dynastic Cataclysm and Era Cataclysm by strengthening his cultivation, reserves, and Stone City’s permissions.
• Wang Quan decided to find a way to link the Second Layer of the Underworld with the Third-Layer World.

After the New-Method Cultivators left Stone City, Wang Quan changed its rules and discussed its future with Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the others. He urged them to cultivate quickly after revealing that a Dynastic Cataclysm and Era Cataclysm would threaten the New Continent within a few hundred years, and the group resolved to prepare for the crisis and keep fighting even in the Underworld.

• Wang Quan changed Stone City's teleportation rules to prevent New-Method Cultivators from returning, while Mei Niang described plans to build up its population and resources.
• Wang Quan proposed reconnecting with the Second Layer of the Underworld and the Third-Layer World, but Mei Niang and the others urged him to wait until they had strengthened their cultivation and expanded their safe zone.
• Wang Quan asked everyone to reach the Purple Mansion Realm within ten years and revealed the coming Dynastic Cataclysm and Era Cataclysm.
• Mei Niang clung to Wang Quan and said she wanted to enjoy herself before they died, but Wang Quan argued they could survive or continue fighting in the Underworld after death.
• Ruo Jinghong encouraged everyone to cultivate and become powerful ghosts or monsters in the Underworld, possibly even claiming the position of a regional Ghost Emperor.

Wang Quan and the other Dao Seal Cultivators agreed to spend ten years strengthening themselves before attempting to connect Stone City to the Third-Layer World and the Second Layer of the Underworld. A year later, overwhelmed by Stone City's growing population, Fairy Qin received authority to recruit caregivers and began training female martial artists at the [Pure as Ice and Jade] Manor.

• Wang Quan, Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and the other Dao Seal Cultivators decided to build their foundations for ten years before attempting to connect to two other realms.
• Fairy Qin and other female cultivators cared for Stone City's many children and spirit monsters while Wang Quan cultivated beneath the Fire Mulberry Tree.
• Fairy Qin told Wang Quan that her caregivers could not keep up with the growing number of children, and he gave her authority to recruit replacements herself.
• Fairy Qin recruited several thousand female martial artists and led them to the [Pure as Ice and Jade] Manor to train in serving adults and spirit monsters.