Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan built a house in the Second Layer of the Underworld and used his authority and Yin Virtue to begin connecting it to the First Layer, a process expected to take forty-nine days. While he waited, Golden Light Daoist Wutian arrived seeking the Mysterious Daoist Scriptures, and another figure approached in a wave of cold air.

• Wang Quan found an empty place in the Second Layer of the Underworld, built a small house, and surrounded himself with defensive spells and magical artifacts.
• Wang Quan used his Underworld authority to begin imbuing the house, learned the process would take forty-nine days, and replenished his Yin Virtue from the city.
• Wang Quan waited for the connection to form while practicing his methods and refining Dharma Power.
• Golden Light Daoist Wutian arrived, mistook Wang Quan for the Flower-Scatter Daoist, and warned him that connecting the Underworld layers in the Polar Lands would bring great horrors.
• Wutian invited Wang Quan to join the contest for the Mysterious Daoist Scriptures, but Wang Quan declined because he was focused on connecting the Underworld layers.
• Another figure arrived in a streak of white light, sending a wave of cold air across the sky.

Wang Quan watched Lian Wuji and Wutian search stone statues for a mysterious Daoist scripture, but their attacks failed to damage them. As Wang Quan’s safe zone neared completion, Wutian warned that a great terror would come and recited scripture as if holding Wang Quan’s funeral in advance.

• Lian Wuji arrived and challenged Wutian over the Daoist scripture, but Wang Quan persuaded them to search together.
• Wutian explained that the scripture was reported to be at the beacon point and might have no limit on how many cultivators could learn it.
• Lian Wuji and Wutian spent twelve days examining and attacking the statues, injuring Wutian’s eyes and damaging Lian Wuji’s Ice Soul Divine Needle without finding the scripture.
• Wang Quan told them that Princess Tianxuan could pull Magic Treasures from Purple Mansions, and both cultivators memorized her name for future trips into fragments of history.
• As Wang Quan’s safe zone neared completion, Lian Wuji and Wutian prepared to leave, and Wutian recited sorrowful scripture while warning that a great terror would descend before the safe zone succeeded.

Wang Quan linked the First and Second Layers of the Underworld and was pulled into a strange world, while Wutian and Lian Wuji investigated the resulting anomaly. Years later, as the ghost god statues began to reappear, Wutian and Lian Wuji rushed into the area and incited the gathered powerhouses to follow.

• Wang Quan was transported into a world of blue skies and unusual buildings after the beam from the Underworld-linked house burst apart.
• Wutian and Lian Wuji tested the vanished area with spells, objects, ghosts, and cultivators, but nothing they sent inside returned.
• A ghost god carrying a bamboo basket explained that the area had retraced the past and that entrants would become ghost god statues when the memories ended.
• Wutian and Lian Wuji stayed to study the anomaly and secretly planned to use the gathered powerhouses to find the Mysterious Daoist Scriptures.
• Three years later, as the statues began reappearing, Wutian and Lian Wuji threw in hidden unlucky souls, shouted for everyone to charge, and rushed into the area.

Wang Quan entered a remembered past where he was a disciple of the Ruins Sect and learned that he had to find the lost Miracle Palace to escape. After testing the Flying Rope Technique and returning to the hall, he was asked to retrieve the Miracle Palace for the others.

• Wutian and Lian Wuji tricked ghosts and monsters into charging into the remembered past, but the region expanded and dragged them in as well.
• Wang Quan appeared at the Ruins Sect headquarters and received an instruction to find the Miracle Palace and decipher its information before leaving.
• A female cultivator took Wang Quan to hear Venerable Spirit Demon teach the Flying Rope Technique and urged him to try it.
• Wang Quan grasped the hemp rope and explored a grassland blessed land, discovering that the rope limited how far he could travel.
• Wang Quan returned to the hall, where Venerable Spirit Demon asked him to practice the Flying Rope Technique and retrieve the lost Miracle Palace.

Wang Quan learned that the Ruins Sect sought the vanished [Miracle Palace] and expected him to find it by mastering the [Flying Rope Technique]. When the sect members judged his luck inferior and prepared to offer him up, Wang Quan claimed authority over the [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court], and Venerable Spirit Demon offered him another chance.

• Venerable Spirit Demon explained that the [Miracle Palace] held the original hundred and eight thousand Fundamental Methods and that the Ruins Sect hoped to find it to avert calamities.
• Wang Quan questioned how the palace could have vanished and tried to persuade Venerable Spirit Demon to give him another task, but Spirit Demon insisted the [Flying Rope Technique] would lead him to it.
• Venerable Spirit Demon threatened to use Wang Quan as an offering if his luck proved poor, so Wang Quan boasted of his extraordinary fortune.
• A girl and several other disciples described their own astonishing good luck, judged Wang Quan unimpressive, and began preparing to tie him up as an offering.
• Wang Quan claimed he could summon the [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court], and Venerable Spirit Demon offered him another chance before Wang Quan eagerly declared himself willing.

Wang Quan learned about the [Miracle Palace] and began practicing the [Flying Rope Technique] in the Ruins Sect, but he found conflicting accounts of the strange world he was trapped in. The elders disagreed over whether it was a repeating memory or a real place, and some claimed they could take him outside.

• Venerable Spirit Demon taught Wang Quan the [Flying Rope Technique] and explained that a rope over one thousand feet long might help him find the [Miracle Palace].
• At a feast, Venerable Spirit Demon told Wang Quan that the [Miracle Palace] contained countless treasures and belonged to the legendary Myth Among Myths, whose name was taboo.
• Wang Quan explored the Ruins Sect’s small, ten-thousand-li-wide world but found no way back to the Real World.
• Cultivators and old men in the pavilions urged Wang Quan to join the sect and search for the [Miracle Palace].
• Captives in the stone towers warned Wang Quan that the world was a memory that reset every ten thousand years, while the elders elsewhere denied it and claimed they could take him outside.

Wang Quan spent millennia cultivating inside a world that periodically reset, while Venerable Spirit Demon urged him to seek the [Miracle Palace] and warned that cataclysms threatened the Real World. After preserving his memories through a reset, Wang Quan studied Imperial Scriptures and finally found hope of escaping in one of them.

• Wang Quan accepted his confinement, cultivated the [Flying Rope Technique], and studied spells, Fundamental Methods, and Daoist Scriptures while the rope grew ten feet every thousand years.
• Venerable Spirit Demon told Wang Quan that the world would reset, warned him about the coming cataclysms, and said finding the [Miracle Palace] could end them.
• Wang Quan copied his memories into ten thousand crystal brains, then experienced a reset and confirmed that his memories and information remained intact.
• Wang Quan resumed cultivating and studied Imperial Scriptures, including the [Emperor's Scripture on Saving Oneself Rather Than Others] and the [Emperor's Discourse on Big Fish and Begonias Above the Soaring Heavens].
• In the fifth millennium, Wang Quan found hope of escaping within an Imperial Scripture.

Wang Quan endured countless resets and resisted the despair of the remembered world, restoring his youthful appearance and glimpsing its ruined reality. He finally saw the five-thousandth scroll of Daoist Scriptures.

• Wang Quan studied the Imperial Scripture but could decipher only a small portion, then spent repeated resets trying to access the five-thousandth scroll.
• Venerable Spirit Demon showed Wang Quan his aged reflection and warned that his mind and spirit were turning him into one of the old beings in the remembered world.
• Wang Quan gave up trying to find the [Miracle Palace] and continued studying the memories through each reset as he shifted from a courtyard to a pavilion and then a stone tower.
• Wang Quan fought off the tower's monsters and despair, and his transformed mind restored him to his youthful appearance.
• Wang Quan opened a window in the stone tower, saw the world reduced to ruins and bones, and then discovered the five-thousandth scroll of Daoist Scriptures.

Wang Quan completed the five-thousandth volume of Daoist Scriptures and advanced his Dao Seal to fifth grade, gaining a cascade of twelve simultaneous spells. The breakthrough transformed his lifespan and flesh, and he realized his Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha abilities had become permanent instincts.

• A slender skeleton tried to speak with Wang Quan, who promised to marry her after his secluded cultivation, and she bit his neck to drink his blood before running off.
• Wang Quan devoted himself to answering the five-thousandth volume of Daoist Scriptures through repeated resets, while the slender skeleton ground ink beside him.
• Wang Quan completed the volume without a mistake and advanced his Dao Seal to fifth grade.
• Wang Quan discovered he could release twelve spells at once and inspected the major changes to his Dao Seal.
• Wang Quan found that his lifespan had reached ten thousand years, his Life Cultivation was rising, and his Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha abilities had become part of his flesh and instincts.

After advancing his Dao Seal, Wang Quan gained nine points of Legend Rating and chose the [Bygone Days] trait, which dramatically amplified his existing abilities. He discovered he could understand the skeletal girl's clacking and ended the chapter by knocking her head off.

• Wang Quan found that his Dharma Power had exceeded the Purple Mansion Realm limit and become purer, while his Legend Rating rose to nine.
• He learned that reaching ten Legend Rating would let him forge a [title], and considered gaining more points through another duel and historical fragment.
• Wang Quan examined the new traits, including [Yin and Yang] and [Summon God], before choosing [Bygone Days].
• The [Bygone Days] trait doubled the power of his existing traits, making Wang Quan feel capable of easily suppressing a Legacy Purple Mansion cultivator.
• Wang Quan understood the skeletal girl's clacking, then slapped her head off; she picked it up and cradled it.

Wang Quan’s skeletal fiancée brought him skulls that greatly increased his wisdom and helped him study the Daoist Scriptures. After repeated world resets, he had made slow progress toward advancing beyond the fifth-grade Dao Seal and resolved to focus on mastering the scriptures and finding a way out.

• Wang Quan slapped the skeletal girl after she insulted him, and she went to complain to her skeletal friends while still wanting her betrothal gifts.
• The skeletal girl decided to help Wang Quan by gathering broken statue heads, which were actually skulls from skeletal corpses.
• Wang Quan poured water from a crystal brain over the skulls, and they floated behind his head as his wisdom and cultivation grew.
• The skeletal girl kept bringing him skulls, while Wang Quan studied the Daoist Scriptures and mastered the 50,001st volume in two hours.
• Across three ten-thousand-year world resets, Wang Quan’s progress slowed, and he concluded that he should study the scriptures, master Dao Script, decipher the Imperial Scripture, and escape.

After mastering more Daoist Scriptures, Wang Quan saw a hidden stone pillar and helped the Ruins Sect’s young people perceive it as well. They began climbing the legendary Heaven-Reaching Road toward the Miracle Palace, while Venerable Spirit Demon stayed behind to investigate the pillar and conceal it.

• Wang Quan mastered tens of thousands of Daoist Scripture volumes, gradually seeing the ruins and their inhabitants more clearly.
• Wang Quan asked a twisted dragon about the stone pillar, learned that a garden lay above it, and discovered that the others could not see the pillar.
• Wang Quan pressed the young woman’s hand against the pillar, letting her see it; the others then perceived it too.
• Venerable Spirit Demon identified the pillar as the Ruins Sect’s legendary Heaven-Reaching Road, said it was connected to the Miracle Palace, and explained that it had to be climbed on foot.
• Wang Quan and the young people set off up the pillar, while Venerable Spirit Demon concealed it and examined its carvings, wondering why the Era Cataclysm persisted.

Wang Quan discovered that the anomalies on the stone pillar attacked only when he could see them, so the young men and women carried him with his eyes closed as they raced toward the [Miracle Palace]. When they stopped and he opened his eyes, he saw two mountains at the end of the pillar, while the group continued their playful argument.

• Wang Quan dodged powerful anomalies on the stone pillar and used his Third-Tier Magic Treasures to deter some of his pursuers.
• Wang Quan explained to the young men and women that he could see terrifying anomalies that they could not.
• A girl suggested that the anomalies might stop attacking if Wang Quan closed his eyes, and she carried him as the group ran onward.
• After hours of travel without being attacked, the young men and women cheered that unseen danger did not exist and sped up toward the [Miracle Palace].
• When the group stopped, Wang Quan opened his eyes and saw two mountains; a young man offered to replace Wang Quan's eyes, and Wang Quan shoved him away.

Wang Quan and the other youths witnessed a phantom of the [Miracle Palace], its ruler [Taboo], and the war that destroyed it. After [Taboo] revealed that the palaces had been scattered across different eras, the youths began staining their stone pillar with blood in hopes of claiming a legacy, and Wang Quan joined them.

• Wang Quan and the youths saw a vast palace complex in the void, where countless beings worshipped a ruler whose face they could not remember and whose name was [Taboo].
• [Taboo] declared that he was the [Taboo] Emperor and commanded all living beings to praise and bow before him as a monstrous black pillar rose and burned beneath his palaces.
• A war erupted as powerful beings attacked and destroyed the palaces, and [Taboo] appeared with his heart blasted apart before telling the youths that the [Miracle Palace] had been scattered across eras.
• A boy claimed the stone pillar might hold [Taboo]'s legacy and spilled his blood over its carvings, but a girl warned that the phantom might not be true.
• The boys and girls all began bleeding onto the pillar, and Wang Quan sprouted extra arms, slit his wrists, and sprayed blood across it as they cursed him for joining in.

Wang Quan and the betrothal-gift girl competed to stain a damaged stone pillar, which awakened a power that possessed the girl and revealed a terrifying figure from the distant past. The girl lost consciousness as the figure’s power reached the Real World and the statues of Gods and Devils reappeared in the Second Layer of the Underworld.

• Wang Quan used his many arms and blood to stain the stone pillar, but the betrothal-gift girl gathered the other boys’ and girls’ blood through black tubes and overtook him.
• Wang Quan stopped competing and helped the betrothal-gift girl stain the pillar, causing it to blaze with light and awaken its strange power.
• The stone pillar’s power made the black tubes absorb the other boys’ and girls’ essence, energy, and spirit, while a hole in the girl’s chest spoke about the collapse of the mortal world.
• A man manifested inside the girl and released a fraction of his power, making beings across the remembered past bow and sending his power into the Real World.
• Lian Wuji, the bald Wutian, and other beings in the Second Layer of the Underworld saw the Gods and Devils statues reappear and rushed toward them.
• The betrothal-gift girl regretted seeking the pillar’s treasures and Fundamental Methods, then lost consciousness as she realized she had inherited the man’s memories.

A being from the Great Unification Era possessed the betrothal-gift girl, shared research with Wang Quan, and urged him to fight his way through countless eras as a cure for cataclysms. After the world reset, the story shifted to Wutian, who found himself in a grotesque Underworld and encountered Lian Wuji transformed into a sphere.

• The possessing being told Wang Quan it came from the Great Unification Era and passed its research on External Brain techniques to him.
• Wang Quan asked how to resolve the Era Cataclysm, and the being answered that he should kill his way through eras and worlds before vanishing.
• The youths awoke, but the betrothal-gift girl's chest wound would not heal; Wang Quan said the next world reset would restore them.
• The surrounding space exploded, and the youths became streams of light that formed a new world of past recollections.
• Wutian wandered through a grotesque Underworld where twisted beings welcomed him without attacking.
• Wutian found Lian Wuji in the form of a sphere and asked how he had ended up that way.

Lian Wuji explored the strange world in search of an Imperial Scripture while Wutian searched separately. Lian Wuji found a courtyard where a patriarch was about to expound the [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves], which he believed was an Imperial Scripture.

• Lian Wuji told Wutian to wait while he scouted, but Wutian soon set off in another direction to search for the Imperial Scripture.
• Lian Wuji searched a monstrous head and its surroundings, then spotted a normal-looking building and went to investigate it.
• A girl with a hole through her heart found Lian Wuji at the gate and brought him inside with chained ghosts and monsters.
• The girl said the patriarch would expound the [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves], and Lian Wuji eagerly agreed to attend.
• The girl promised Lian Wuji a seat in the front row and offered to treat him better if he gave her betrothal gifts.

Wang Quan forced Lian Wuji and the other newcomers to hear his exposition of [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves], using them to test the scripture as they endured a storm of painful metal lotuses. The lesson left one ghost transformed into a steel lotus, and it announced that it had understood.

• The girl who was missing one bear whipped Lian Wuji and the other ghosts into the great hall, where they saw Wang Quan seated as patriarch.
• Wang Quan threatened the newcomers with either listening to his teaching or becoming cultivation materials, and the ghosts subdued one who tried to escape.
• Wang Quan explained that he would test his understanding of [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves] on the newcomers because the world would reset without harming them.
• As Wang Quan expounded the scripture, a ghost transformed into a gold-and-iron lotus, and metal lotuses battered Lian Wuji and the others.
• A ghost's head split open and transformed into a steel lotus that absorbed the falling lotuses, and the ghost declared that it had understood.

Wang Quan taught [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves], and Lian Wuji gained a mechanical brain and developed a theory of expanding intelligence with machinery. Meanwhile, Wang Quan struggled to understand the scripture's runes, while Wutian became trapped outside an inaccessible building.

• Wang Quan's chanting summoned steel lotuses, and one ghost smashed a lotus into Lian Wuji's skull to open his mind.
• Lian Wuji mistook his altered perception for seeing through illusions, then learned that his brain had been fitted with gears and water.
• After listening to Wang Quan expound the scripture, Lian Wuji concluded that adding machinery to brains could continually increase intelligence, and Wang Quan praised his idea.
• Wang Quan tried to decipher the scripture's runes but, lacking a sample, used Dao Script in their place while leading everyone in experiments.
• Wutian saw the boys and girls drag Lian Wuji into a strange building, then found he could neither enter it nor escape the area with his teleportation methods.

Bald Wutian found himself surrounded by awakened corpses who mistook him for a creature of the Real World and possessed his body to escape their memories. He entered the phantom building believing their power made him invincible, but the ghosts gave him a mechanical brain so he could listen to Wang Quan’s scripture, and the corpses began guiding his cultivation.

• The corpses and distorted plants grew mechanical brains, awakened, and recognized that they were powerful figures living in memories.
• The corpses decided Wutian was an outsider and rushed to possess him so they could return to the Real World.
• Wutian convinced the corpses that they were alive, but they realized their bodies had been restored by the mysteries of [Mechanical Great Emperor's Cerebral Nerves] and possessed him anyway.
• Wutian entered the phantom building, where the ghosts placed a steel lotus on his head to give him a mechanical brain.
• Wang Quan recited his scripture, and the corpses inside Wutian listened and began guiding him in cultivation.