Recaps

Wang Quan and the other Legend officers crushed the New-Method vanguard in the first magical contest, prompting its leaders to reject a costly siege and continue the contests at other ranks. Wang Quan discovered that defeating New-Method Cultivators earned him recurring primordial spirit light, and the junior officers’ contest ended with another New-Method defeat.

• Wang Quan killed a New-Method vanguard officer, seized his Nascent Soul, and let his corpse fall before the New-Method leaders as the other Legends’ kills followed.
• The New-Method leaders considered launching a siege, but Jiang Wuwei warned that it would cause heavy casualties and urged them to continue the magical contests.
• Wang Quan and the victorious Legends returned to the Twelfth Pass, where their Dao Seals revealed that winning the contest had granted them favor of the era and recurring primordial spirit light.
• Wang Quan eagerly asked to fight again, but the other officers reminded him that the remaining New-Method vanguard officers were dead and new ones had to be appointed.
• The Primordial Spirit junior officers finished their contest, with the orthodox cultivators killing the New-Method opponents and taking their Spirit Transformation prisoners.

New Method Void Refinement Cultivators fought orthodox Blessed Land Cultivators in duels, but the Magic Treasures they wielded shattered and the New Method fighters died. Jiang Wuwei flattered a New Method bigwig to protect his position, while the Body Integration Cultivators reluctantly received Magic Treasures and were told to fight next.

• After Dharma Form Cultivators complained about the lack of opponents, New Method bigwigs ordered lieutenant general-level duels between Void Refinement and Blessed Land Cultivators.
• New Method Void Refinement Cultivators argued with Body Integration Cultivators over who should receive the scarce Magic Treasures, and the bigwigs allotted a quarter to each realm.
• The Void Refinement Cultivators flew high above the battlefield and fought the orthodox Blessed Land Cultivators, but their low-grade Magic Treasures shattered and the New Method fighters fell to their deaths.
• Magic Treasure fragments killed many New Method cultivators in the army, while Jiang Wuwei stayed his hand and explained to a bigwig that the dead locals were keeping the Heavenly World fighters company.
• A New Method bigwig promised to help Jiang Wuwei become master of the New Method, then gave the remaining Magic Treasures to the Body Integration Cultivators and sent them into the duels.

New-Method cultivators continued their magical duels against the Old Cultivation Method forces, despite losing badly at lower realms. The New-Method tribulation transcendence experts initially dominated the legendary grotto heaven cultivators, but their opponents recovered from destruction while the New-Method fighters stayed dead, leaving the battle turning against them.

• A New-Method body integration cultivator killed himself to prevent the enemy from harvesting his consciousness, and a bigwig blamed him for weakening morale in a report to the Heavenly World.
• The New-Method body integration and Mahayana cultivators resumed the duels and were easily defeated by the grotto heaven cultivators.
• Jiang Wuwei warned the New-Method tribulation transcendence experts that their legendary grotto heaven opponents were unusually powerful, but they flew up to fight anyway.
• Wang Quan and the others answered the New-Method battle cheers with drums, monsters, and female spirits, while the New-Method cultivators beat fat men as makeshift drums.
• The New-Method tribulation transcendence experts blasted apart several legendary grotto heaven cultivators, who recovered instantly, while more than a third of the New-Method experts were killed within a few breaths.

After the Orthodox Cultivators routed the New Method cultivators in a preliminary duel, Wang Quan secured a place for a vanguard officer in the upcoming formal fights. He then reunited with the spirits who had gained the era’s favor and prepared to refine his spoils.

• The Grotto Heaven Cultivators collected the defeated Tribulation Transcendence Cultivators’ corpses, while Jiang Wuwei announced that formal duels would begin in three days.
• At the Twelfth Pass, Wang Quan persuaded the Golden Core Cultivators to reserve one dueling slot for a vanguard officer, then rejected his fellow officers’ request to share it.
• Wang Quan released the Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust and brought out the Officiant Daoist Nun and the other spirits, who reported that the era’s favor had improved their cultivation and restored their bodies.
• Wang Quan entered a Magic Implement residence with four Nascent Souls to refine, asked the Bump Spirit Monsters to wash them, and inspected the Bump Monkey for signs of change.

Wang Quan refined a Four Seasons formation diagram to prepare for the Era Cataclysm, then joined the cultivators waiting for magical duels with the New-Method army. When the enemy failed to appear, the cultivators debated waiting longer or launching an army-wide assault.

• Wang Quan sensed the Bump Spirit Monsters were behaving strangely, so he grew an eye on the back of his head to watch them while he worked.
• Wang Quan chose the Four Seasons formation diagram, had Dream Nun weave its cloth, and used four Nascent Souls to embroider and complete it.
• Wang Quan placed the unfinished formation diagram within the Seventy-Two Paths of Smoke and Dust, then urged the Officiant, Dream Nun, Fairy Qin, and the other cultivators to attack during the coming duels.
• Wang Quan and the cultivators waited atop the twelfth pass, but the New-Method army stayed in its camp and only used mirrors to observe their formations.
• The cultivators considered storming the enemy camp, but agreed to wait longer in case the magical duels could still be arranged.

After the New Method’s disastrous spell combat defeat, its leaders searched for someone to blame and forced Jiang Wuwei to take responsibility. Jiang accepted the black pot, despairing that his hopes of becoming an immortal were over.

• The New Method bigwigs met to explain their humiliating defeat and worried that their superiors would punish them.
• A bigwig blamed Jiang Wuwei, but the others first objected that he was only a mascot and lacked authority.
• One bigwig argued that Jiang should bear the blame because he was the mascot and had prepared the bodies used for the descent.
• Jiang defended the bodies as carefully selected prodigies, but the bigwigs declared him responsible rather than admit fault themselves.
• A bigwig threw a black pot at Jiang, and Jiang accepted it while mourning the end of his hopes of becoming an immortal.

After losing the contest of spells, the New Method bigwigs blamed their defeat on Jiang Wuwei and sent one of their own back to the Heavenly World to request reinforcements. A Ministry of Personnel administrator ordered talented outsiders to descend for the rematch and arranged resources and a treasure to prepare them.

• The New Method bigwigs gathered names of more than a hundred thousand overlooked talents and forced the bigwig who had saddled Jiang Wuwei with the blame to return to the Heavenly World.
• The bigwigs sacrificed thousands of New Method natives to teleport the unconscious emissary away, while Jiang Wuwei earned their praise.
• The emissary reported the Mortal World's defeat to the Ministry of Personnel administrator, who told him to let Jiang Wuwei lead the army and promised him future advancement.
• The Ministry of Personnel administrator ordered funds distributed to young talents so they could descend and fight the contest, promising immortal quotas if they won.
• The Ministry of Personnel administrator also ordered the emissary to take the Flesh and Blood Creation treasure and use it to prepare the natives' bodies before the talents descended.

The unlucky fellow collected resources from the director’s storehouses, was beaten and cheated at every turn, and decided to skim resources himself while recruiting cannon fodder in Amid Mountains and Waters. He recruited Chen Xi and Ye Fei and continued down the Stellar River toward the next waypoint.

• The storehouse keepers gave the unlucky fellow inferior treasures and beat him when he objected, then shorted him on supplies from the other storehouses as well.
• The unlucky fellow realized that the director’s longtime servants did not care about the director’s plans and decided to skim even more resources himself.
• The unlucky fellow traveled by star boat along the Stellar River to Amid Mountains and Waters, where Chen Xi agreed to join his mission in exchange for a chance to rise higher.
• The unlucky fellow told Chen Xi that successful recruits might receive immortal slots, but asked her to offer her fortune instead of using feminine charms.
• The unlucky fellow reached Ye Fei and recruited him as cannon fodder for the lower realm, urging him to board the boat at once.

A group of Heavenly World prodigies descended into the Fourth Layer Evil World in possessed bodies, only to discover that the bodies were old and mismatched. Chen Xi defeated a Legend Golden Core in a brutal duel, but an ominous aura began seeping from her as black patterns spread across her skin.

• The unlucky fellow brought over a hundred thousand young prodigies to the Fourth Layer Evil World and sent their consciousnesses into prepared bodies.
• The prodigies emerged in old bodies, and Chen Xi complained that hers was male; Jiang Wuwei suggested something had gone wrong with the process.
• Chen Xi adjusted her body and cultivation, transformed into a woman, and challenged the natives from the cloud platform.
• A Legend Golden Core fought Chen Xi, but she repeatedly destroyed him and declared victory.
• Wang Quan and the other Legend Golden Cores noticed black patterns on Chen Xi's skin, white patches in her hair, and an ominous aura unlike that of normal living beings.

The Old Cultivation Method cultivators examined Chen Xi and discovered that the ominous presence in her body could dissolve divine abilities. The contest turned into a chaotic battle, and the New-Method youths began withstanding thunderfire before black patterns and smoke appeared on their bodies, with the smoke piercing into the Heavenly World.

• A Grotto Heaven Cultivator dissected Chen Xi with white mist, and the cultivators discovered that her flesh destroyed divine abilities aimed at it.
• The New Method bigwigs urged their young prodigies to exploit their modified bodies, while the Blessed Land and Grotto Heaven cultivators continued the contest.
• The young prodigies from both sides rushed onto the cloud platform, and Wang Quan and the other Old Cultivation Method cultivators attacked with thunderfire.
• The contest became a mass brawl as thunderfire blasted the New-Method Cultivators, but their bodies soon began withstanding even powerful blasts.
• Black patterns spread across the New-Method youths, and their smoke pierced through the Evil World and manifested in the Heavenly World.

Over a hundred thousand black-smoke apparitions vanished across the Heavenly World, leaving experts uneasy and the First Imperial District silent. In the Mortal World, Wang Quan’s group investigated the New-Method Cultivators, then sent monsters down from the clouds to seize some for study.

• The black smoke appeared across the Heavenly World, and powerful figures in the four great regions suspected the First Imperial District was settling accounts with them.
• Wang Quan and the others watched the smoke dissipate along with the boys and girls, while both armies withdrew to their camps.
• Wang Quan proposed capturing New-Method Cultivators to test whether Greater Divine Abilities could overcome their strange adaptations.
• Wang Quan’s group lowered monsters on Ascension Ropes into the New Method camp, where some monsters died on impact and others abducted cultivators.
• The remaining New-Method Cultivators panicked at the monsters falling from the sky and called for rites to dispel the ill omen.

New Method natives mistook the Monsters descending from the cloud for an ill omen and learned bizarre sacrificial rites from a possessed companion. As the New Method bigwigs argued over who should take the blame for their failed experiment, Jiang Wuwei took three black woks of blame onto his back and warned them that something serious had happened outside.

• Wang Quan and the others lowered Monsters on ropes from a cloud, prompting New Method natives to demand sacrifices to dispel what they thought was an ill omen.
• A New Method native whose head briefly split open taught the crowd one thousand and one bizarre sacrificial methods in the name of the [Emperor of Withering and Flourishing].
• The New Method bigwigs argued over the cannon fodder's spontaneous combustion and deaths while avoiding blame for [Flesh and Blood Hardening].
• Jiang Wuwei saw strange howls, curses, weeping, and magical combat outside, then volunteered to shoulder the blame and took three black woks onto his back.
• Jiang Wuwei urged the New Method bigwigs to go outside, but they dismissed the disturbance as natives clamoring for sacrifices.

Jiang Wuwei fled to the Twelfth Pass after New-Method Cultivators began sacrificing millions of their own to summon the Emperor of Withering and Flourishing. He begged the Old Cultivation Method masters for help, and Wang Quan agreed on the condition that Jiang Wuwei obey them.

• New-Method big shots witnessed robed cultivators sacrificing their companions to summon the Emperor of Withering and Flourishing, then fled to the Heavenly World.
• Jiang Wuwei tampered with the big shots' abandoned bodies and traveled to the Twelfth Pass to seek help.
• Wang Quan and the others studied captured New-Method Cultivators but found no sign of anything inauspicious within them.
• Jiang Wuwei knelt before the masters and blamed the Extraterritorial Heavenly Devils for forcing him to lead the New-Method army and contaminating cultivators.
• Wang Quan offered to help Jiang Wuwei if he obeyed, and Jiang Wuwei readily agreed.

Wang Quan and the Old Cultivation Method cultivators set hidden divine abilities in bodies at the New-Method camp, inspected the uncanny treasure [Flesh and Blood Hardening], and took valuables and golden cores. Meanwhile, New-Method officials returned to the Heavenly World to report their army’s destruction, and the Ministry director prepared to receive an honored guest.

• Wang Quan and the other Old Cultivation Method cultivators planted dormant divine abilities in bodies inside the New-Method command tent, intending to trigger them against the Extraterritorial Heavenly Devils.
• Jiang Wuwei explained the ominous aura around [Flesh and Blood Hardening], and Grotto Heaven and Blessed Land cultivators examined it before one of them stored it in a Hundred-Treasure Pouch for later refinement.
• Wang Quan and the others searched the New-Method warehouses and took valuables; Jiang Wuwei gave Wang Quan over a hundred thousand golden cores and promised to grow more for the other Golden Cores.
• Dozens of New-Method big shots returned to the Heavenly World and told the director of the Ministry of Personnel that over a hundred thousand combat experts had been reduced to dust and ashes.
• A retainer announced an honored guest, so the Ministry director sent the New-Method big shots to wait in a side room and went to greet the visitor.

The Ministry of Personnel supervisor gave the New Method a black box that could summon powerful fighters, while mysterious figures across the Heavenly World collected dark beings in identical boxes. Back in the Mortal World, the New Method leaders used their box to interrupt the sacrifices and summon their practitioners.

• The unlucky New Method fellow deflected the supervisor’s questions, and the supervisor gave him a black box containing mighty combatants and taught the group its ritual.
• The supervisor questioned warehouse keepers and accountants about [Flesh and Blood Creation], sensed that examining their memories would bring certain death, and severed his own memory of the matter.
• Experts in several Heavenly World districts summoned pitch-black figures with scarlet eyes, then captured them in black boxes identical to the New Method’s.
• The New Method bigwigs awoke in the Mortal World after a day and night away and found that the flesh-and-blood sacrifices had continued unchecked.
• Jiang Wuwei struggled to gather the New Method practitioners, so the unlucky fellow suggested striking the black box; when a bigwig rang it, the practitioners stopped their rites and stared at it.

New Method cultivators used the black box to resurrect Chen Xi, who challenged the Old Cultivation Method fighters and fought a Legend Golden Core. The Legend Golden Core summoned an illusory mountain that pinned Chen Xi beneath it and began grinding her down.

• The New Method army followed an unlucky cultivator carrying the black box to the Twelfth Pass, where Wang Quan and the others were grinding away at the [Flesh and Blood Hardening] treasure.
• The unlucky cultivator beheaded a New Method cannon fodder cultivator over the black box, which infused the corpse with black light and resurrected it as Chen Xi.
• Chen Xi challenged a Legend Golden Core, while Wang Quan and the other Legend Cultivators watched cautiously.
• The Legend Golden Core transformed into a black-smoke giant and summoned a mountain to bind Chen Xi and crush her beneath it.
• The mountain pinned Chen Xi to the ground and began grinding her down as the Legend Golden Core laughed.

Chen Xi broke free from the Legend Golden Core’s mountain and killed him repeatedly until his resurrection measures ran out. His Purple Mansion escaped into the sky, leaving behind his wish to be a beast in his next life.

• The Legend Golden Core’s Mountain-Summoning Divine Ability collapsed, freeing Chen Xi, who vowed to kill him rather than endure another five hundred years of imprisonment.
• Chen Xi donned a cloak of black smoke and fought the Legend Golden Core inside his Great Dark Heaven, shattering his black sun and dark sky.
• Chen Xi killed the Legend Golden Core more than a hundred times as his death-substitution and resurrection measures revived him again and again.
• Wang Quan and the others mistook the Legend Golden Core’s desperate looks and prepared to seize his Purple Mansion when his resurrections ran out.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator’s ring stopped them, and the Legend Golden Core’s Purple Mansion vanished into the sky as he wished to be a beast in his next life.

Red-eyed Chen Xi overwhelmed the Legend Golden Cores, while Wang Quan recognized her origins and claimed he could kill her with one finger. As Chen Xi unleashed a barrage of bizarre techniques, Wang Quan advanced to face her.

• A Legend Golden Core’s curse revealed that Chen Xi’s soul belonged to a bizarre monster, but trying to visualize it caused him to lose his memories and collapse.
• Red-eyed Chen Xi defeated another Legend Golden Core, and Wang Quan noticed her techniques resembled those in the General Compendium of Unorthodox Paths.
• Wang Quan stopped a cultivator from challenging Chen Xi and said he had recognized her origins from a Historical Fragment.
• Wang Quan declared that one finger would be enough to kill Chen Xi, while the Officiant Daoist Nun and others prepared to celebrate his victory.
• Chen Xi challenged Wang Quan and spread her black cloak across hundreds of li before unleashing over a thousand bizarre techniques toward him.

Wang Quan defeated the red-eyed young Chen Xi by finding a flaw in her Golden Crow World Annihilation divine ability. After she asked him to recover the memories hidden in her brain, he killed her, buried her with an epitaph, and announced her death.

• The red-eyed young Chen Xi unleashed Golden Crow World Annihilation, sending a three-legged crow with a blazing sun and bow toward Wang Quan.
• Wang Quan entered the crow's head and explained that he had used a flaw in Chen Xi's divine ability to bypass its attack.
• Wang Quan repeatedly stabbed Chen Xi in the head until she asked him to retrieve the memories of her ten thousand years of imprisonment.
• Chen Xi confessed that she had only wanted to become an immortal, then died after Wang Quan wrenched off her head.
• Wang Quan wrote an epitaph, buried Chen Xi's corpse with Death Declaration, and announced her death to the world.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun ordered the cannons fired as Wang Quan stood beneath fireworks holding Chen Xi's head.

Wang Quan used Chen Xi’s memories to learn about the strange beings and guided a Legend Golden Core to defeat the second challenger. Chen Xi was restored as a headless immortal beneath a gravestone, while the New-Method Cultivators prepared for further battles.

• Wang Quan killed Chen Xi, then studied her memories and discovered that she had spent ten thousand years climbing an enormous chained creature to seize plum wine before entering an unknown space with more than a hundred thousand companions.
• Wang Quan sent Chen Xi’s head to the epitaph, where she reattached it unsuccessfully and met a group of boys and girls who asked her to put on clothes.
• The New-Method Cultivators opened a second box and released a Golden Core fighter who challenged Wang Quan.
• A Legend Golden Core fought the challenger, followed Wang Quan’s instructions to exploit his weaknesses, and beheaded him.
• The victorious Legend Golden Core celebrated with female Monsters, then gave the corpse to Wang Quan as payment for his guidance.

Wang Quan guided the Old Cultivation Method fighters to defeat every New Method combatant summoned from the black box, earning Favor as the New Method leaders grew desperate. The Ministry of Personnel supervisor learned that stronger experts were being stocked for the treasure, but the New Method army was told to hold on while its leaders waited for help.

• Wang Quan helped Legend Golden Cores defeat the black box’s Golden Core combatants, then collected their cores and brains while earning Combat Favor.
• Wang Quan guided traditional Primordial Spirit fighters to defeat the summoned experts, and the New Method leaders released groups of combatants that lost across every realm.
• Jiang Wuwei carried and polished black pots as the New Method leaders blamed and struck him after he predicted their defeats.
• The New Method leaders withdrew their army, which returned to camp and continued building altars and chanting scriptures.
• The New Method unlucky wretch contacted the Ministry of Personnel supervisor, who learned that the black box had not yet been stocked with many experts.
• The important figure told the Ministry of Personnel supervisor that stronger experts were being added and instructed the New Method forces to hold on longer.

The New Method cultivators received only encouragement from their masters, while Wang Quan and the Old Cultivation Method cultivators continued harvesting their cultivation. Wang Quan offered the New Method big shots a business deal that could earn them merits, leaving them intrigued.

• The experts tasked with summoning souls complained about their endless assignments, and their leader revealed that his previous team had worked itself to death.
• The unlucky New Method cultivator told the New Method big shots that their masters planned to fill the black boxes with experts but offered only encouragement.
• Jiang Wuwei reported that Wang Quan and the others had come to harvest New Method cultivators again, while the big shots admitted they had grown used to it.
• Wang Quan told the New Method big shots that the Old Cultivation Method cultivators needed them to recover for another harvest, and he argued that both groups were being exploited.
• Wang Quan offered the New Method big shots a business deal, claiming they could earn merits in abundance.

Wang Quan persuaded the New Method bigwigs to stage victories over the Old Cultivation Method and report them as military merits, with Jiang Wuwei agreeing to take the blame if their deception was exposed. A fabricated battle report reached the Ministry of Personnel's supervising official, who saw images of the supposed victory and the New Method’s triumphant declaration.

• Wang Quan learned that the New Method bigwigs sought immortal ascension slots for carrying out orders to destroy Old Cultivation Method cultivation.
• Wang Quan explained that replacing the Old Cultivation Method would take tens of thousands of years, far beyond the bigwigs’ lifespans, and offered to help them fake victories for merits.
• The New Method bigwigs agreed to stage battles and destroy prepared cities, while Jiang Wuwei offered to take the blame if the plan was exposed.
• A retainer told the Ministry of Personnel's supervising official that the New Method had overwhelmingly defeated the Old Cultivation Method in the Mortal World.
• The supervising official examined the battle report and its images, which showed a ruined city, defeated Old Cultivation Method Cultivators, and New-Method Cultivators shouting, “The New Method is eternal!”

A Ministry of Personnel administrator sent a staged battle report up the imperial chain, and a powerful figure rewarded the New-Method army. In the Mortal World, the New Method leaders staged another battle report and then used their preparations to kill a powerful figure released from a box.

• The Ministry of Personnel administrator recognized that the battle images were real but the victory was staged, then sent the report onward with a comment praising the New Method army's advance.
• An important person criticized the report's crude acting but passed it up the chain, and a powerful figure ordered a storehouse of wealth given to the army.
• In the Mortal World, Wang Quan and the others staged a battle in a newly built city, recording New-Method fighters defeating Orthodox Cultivators.
• After the staged report, the New-Method group prepared a battlefield and opened a box that released a powerful figure who had been imprisoned for thirty thousand years.
• Wang Quan and the Legend Golden Cores quickly suppressed and killed the released figure, and Wang Quan wrote his epitaph and proclaimed his death.

Wang Quan helped the New Method bigwigs earn repeated Heavenly Spiritual Root rewards by submitting battle reports, then persuaded them to promise him large numbers of Nascent Souls and consider future cooperation. As they celebrated their gains, Jiang Wuwei wondered whether he would ever have a chance to become an immortal.

• The New Method bigwigs received three thousand Heavenly Spiritual Roots for their first battle report and explained their value to Wang Quan.
• Following Wang Quan's advice, the bigwigs submitted hundreds of battle reports over two years, earning rewards while Wang Quan and his allies gained Combat Favor.
• At a celebration, a New Method bigwig promised Wang Quan a million Nascent Souls, and the others made similar promises.
• Wang Quan proposed that the bigwigs cooperate with him after becoming immortals by arranging combat opportunities, exchanging resources, and helping one another across worlds.
• Jiang Wuwei received none of the rewards and wondered whether he could still ascend while watching New-Method and Old Cultivation Method Cultivators enjoy themselves together.