Chapter Summaries

The Heng Emperor opened the Road to Immortality on Big Dipper and retrieved the ruined body of the Lunar Essence Human Emperor. Yuangeng burned away the Human Emperor’s lingering obsession, allowing the Human Emperor to awaken, then sealed his remnant body and fragile form inside an Ancient Coffin.

• The Heng Emperor struck and opened a vast fissure above the Northern Region, revealing the Road to Immortality.
• The Heng Emperor reached into the chaos and pulled out the half-destroyed Remnant Body of the Lunar Essence Human Emperor.
• Dongfang Taiyi’s Human Emperor Seal and the Divine Thought in the eternal blue gold bell reacted to the Remnant Body.
• Yuangeng burned away the Divine Thought, awakening the Human Emperor’s Imperial Dao will.
• Si Yanning and Dongfang Taiyi paid their respects as the Human Emperor regained awareness and recognized Yuangeng as a later Human Emperor.
• Yuangeng drew the Human Emperor’s Remnant Body and lingering form into a towering Ancient Coffin.

Yuangeng sealed the Lunar Essence Human Emperor’s remnant spirit in the Stone Coffin and offered him a chance to revive through death-and-life Nirvana. Yuangeng then placed the coffin in the Nirvana Burial Pit, where the Underworld’s accumulated death energy and vitality could nurture it.

• Yuangeng’s Stone Coffin absorbed the Lunar Essence Human Emperor’s remnant spirit and reunited it with his remains.
• Yuangeng introduced himself as the Heng Emperor, and the Lunar Essence Human Emperor recognized him as another Human Race emperor who had mastered the lunar essence great Dao.
• The Lunar Essence Human Emperor recalled dying during his attempt to enter the Road to Immortality, and Yuangeng offered to nurture him back to life within the coffin.
• Yuangeng taught the Human Emperor Nirvana Immortal Arts, and the two discussed ancient history and their lunar essence great Daos.
• Yuangeng, the Qilin Emperor, and the others placed the Stone Coffin in the Nirvana Burial Pit as Underworld branches chanted the Burial Emperor’s name.
• The Heavenly Nether Treasure praised Yuangeng’s burial methods and predicted conflict with the Netherworld Venerable, but Yuangeng said he would rather speak with him.

Yuangeng discussed the Human Emperor’s eventual return with Si Yanning and offered Dongfang Taiyi a path to power in the Strange World. After Taiyi reached alternative Dao attainment and clashed with a Great Accomplished Tyrant Body, the starry sky quieted, and the chapter ended with the Heng Emperor’s second life coming to an end.

• Yuangeng told Si Yanning that the Human Emperor might return in thirty to fifty thousand years at the earliest and offered her a chance at longevity when her lifespan neared its end.
• Yuangeng offered Dongfang Taiyi the choice between sealing himself away to become an Emperor or going to the Strange World to pursue the pinnacle of Extreme Dao; Dongfang Taiyi chose the Strange World after settling his affairs.
• After the Heng Emperor left Big Dipper, two Great Perfection Saint Spirits failed to break his seal around the Road to Immortality, and many lineages later tried and failed to uncover its secrets.
• Two thousand years later, Dongfang Taiyi reached alternative Dao attainment, then fought a Great Accomplished Tyrant Body until Tai Chu intervened and stopped the battle.
• Dongfang Taiyi disappeared from the starry sky, and the top powerhouses fell silent for five thousand years.
• The Heng Emperor’s second life came to an end.

As his second life reached its end, Yuangeng summoned the four ancient Underworld supreme beings to witness him use the Three Burials Method as the core of his third life. He began his nirvana in the Epoch Burial Pit, where vast vitality emerged within the netherworld death energy.

• Yuangeng, aged and nearing death, met with the Corpse Emperor, Prison-Suppressing, Yama, and Rebirth on the Undying Mountain.
• Yuangeng shared the embryonic Three Burials Method with the four supreme beings and explained that he would use it to pursue a third life.
• Yuangeng gave the Heavenly Nether Treasure to the Corpse Emperor and traveled to the Epoch Burial Pit in the Underworld star domain.
• Yuangeng invoked the Three Burials Method from the Burial Emperor Throne as boundless netherworld death energy engulfed him.
• Underworld cultivators worshipped Yuangeng as vitality began to form within his decaying body, and the four supreme beings witnessed his third life gestating.

Yuangeng completed his third life by emerging renewed from the Netherworld, then forged his extinguished body into the supreme Imperial Dao Weapon known as the Heavenly Coffin. After meeting the Four Supreme Venerables and Tai Chu, he sensed that his transformation had connected him to the stone door that caused his transmigration.

• Yuangeng's old body became completely extinct, and he emerged from a luminous Dao Cocoon in his third life.
• Yuangeng transformed his old body's remains into a coffin-shaped Imperial Dao Weapon, the Heavenly Coffin.
• Tai Chu came from the Primordial Ancient Mine and joined the Four Supreme Venerables in watching Yuangeng forge his weapon.
• A hundred years later, Yuangeng completed the Heavenly Coffin, and the Four Supreme Venerables and Tai Chu congratulated him.
• Yuangeng sensed a connection to the stone door from the collapsed courtyard that had brought him from Immortal Ancient into this world.

At Heng Emperor's second Peach of Immortality Banquet, the returned Supremes reunited and discussed their lives, cultivation, and hopes of becoming immortals. Yuangeng learned that Carefree Heavenly Venerate had discovered something about Emperor Venerable, the master of the Old Heavenly Court.

• The Other Shore Flower Emperor and Kun Emperor recalled how many Supremes had been lost since the first banquet.
• Golden Emperor, Myriad Dragons, Blood Phoenix, and other former Primordial Ancient Mine Supremes welcomed Tai Chu and put their past enmity behind them.
• Light-Dark Supreme explained that Dongfang Taiyi was still too weak to join the Supremes' circle.
• Yuangeng strolled through the Undying Mountain, considered the Stone Door and his hopes of returning to Immortal Ancient, then approached Carefree Heavenly Venerate.
• Carefree Heavenly Venerate told Yuangeng that he was developing a method to dissolve and reconstruct his Primordial Spirit, while Prison-Suppressing Venerable revealed they had learned something about Emperor Venerable.

Carefree Heavenly Venerate revealed evidence that Emperor Venerable survived and had grown stronger, prompting Yuangeng and the others to revisit the ancient betrayal at the Heavenly Court. Yuangeng decided to seek Emperor Venerable out and began assembling candidates for three Mortal World Immortals, starting with Netherworld Venerable.

• Carefree Heavenly Venerate showed Yuangeng a hidden formation on an island, and the Heavenly Nether Treasure identified it as a powerful formation made by Emperor Venerable.
• The Heavenly Nether Treasure took Yuangeng, Carefree Heavenly Venerate, Prison-Suppressing Venerable, and the others to Emperor Venerable's Homeworld, where they compared its formations with the island's.
• Carefree Heavenly Venerate recounted how Emperor Venerable had tried to sacrifice the supreme beings before the Road to Immortality, leading them to attack him and destroy the Immortal Ascension Cauldron.
• Prison-Suppressing Venerable urged Yuangeng to find and kill Emperor Venerable, whom he considered a threat to the supreme beings.
• Yuangeng resolved to seek Emperor Venerable and advance his plans for three Mortal World Immortals, then offered to take the others to find Netherworld Venerable.

Yuangeng and the venerables uncovered the Netherworld Venerable’s hidden corpse in Central Province and discovered that he had three Reincarnation Seals, with a fourth beginning to form. Yuangeng decided to help him awaken and proposed searching for other Mythological Era Heavenly Venerables over the coming tens of thousands of years.

• The Heavenly Nether Treasure searched Central Province’s dragon veins but could not detect the Netherworld Venerable’s aura.
• Yuangeng shook Central Province and pulled an iron coffin from a dragon pearl beneath a lake.
• The Prison-Suppressing Venerable subdued the jade bowl guarding the coffin, and the Carefree Heavenly Venerate opened it to reveal the Netherworld Venerable’s corpse.
• The Heavenly Nether Treasure attacked the corpse, but three Reincarnation Seals destroyed its phantom treasure as a fourth began to take shape.
• Yuangeng said they should help the Netherworld Venerable form his fourth Reincarnation Seal, and the Prison-Suppressing Venerable volunteered to watch over him.
• Yuangeng proposed finding and resurrecting other Heavenly Venerables from the Mythological Era over the next tens of thousands of years.

Yuangeng uncovered Emperor Venerable’s hidden prison beneath Flying Immortal Star and freed Annihilation Heavenly Venerable, who emerged in a crazed state. After sealing him in the Heaven-Burying Heavenly Coffin, Yuangeng and the Carefree Heavenly Venerate set out to search for traces of Lingbao.

• Yuangeng and the Carefree Heavenly Venerate found a hidden formation beneath Flying Immortal Star containing Annihilation Heavenly Venerable and the calamity beast Huasheshe.
• Yuangeng freed Annihilation Heavenly Venerable from immortal source, but the ancient Heavenly Venerable attacked the Carefree Heavenly Venerate in a blood-maddened frenzy.
• Yuangeng defeated Annihilation Heavenly Venerable and bound him inside the Heaven-Burying Heavenly Coffin, suppressing Emperor Venerable’s hidden runes within him.
• The Carefree Heavenly Venerate told Yuangeng that Lingbao might have left remnant spirit or divine thoughts in treasure lands formed from his body.
• Yuangeng and the Carefree Heavenly Venerate decided to search those treasure lands for Lingbao.

Yuangeng and Carefree Heavenly Venerate searched the universe for traces of the Ancient Heavenly Venerables and collected Lingbao’s Immortal Platform essence. After they found and aided Longevity Heavenly Venerable’s lineage, the Underworld mobilized across the stars to seek the Heavenly Venerables’ remains and spirits so they could be brought back.

• Yuangeng and Carefree Heavenly Venerate searched Heavenly Venerable Lingbao’s Sea of Bitterness but found no remaining contingency there.
• Yuangeng discovered Lingbao’s Immortal Platform essence on Heavenly Soldier Ancient Star and drew it into a jade jar, hoping to use it to summon Lingbao’s remnant spirit.
• Yuangeng and Carefree Heavenly Venerate searched other Ancient Heavenly Venerable sanctuaries, but found little; they also discussed the uncertain identity of Emperor Venerable before he became Emperor Venerable.
• Yuangeng found Longevity Heavenly Venerable’s Changsheng Temple lineage on Ziwei Ancient Star and left it a copy of Longevity Heavenly Venerable’s Scripture and the complete Nine Secrets: Zhe.
• The Underworld’s lineages began searching across the stars for the Nine Heavenly Venerables’ remnant bodies and spirits, saying they intended to awaken and bring them back.

Five thousand years after Tai Chu began his second lifetime, Yuangeng received a seed of the Green Lotus Immortal Medicine and set out to cultivate spiritual awareness in immortal medicines. He then entered the Divine Ruins and summoned an ancient stone door, approaching it with caution.

• A disturbance in the source of the Heavenly Heart signaled the end of the reigning emperor's first lifetime.
• Yuangeng praised Tai Chu's fifteen-thousand-year first lifetime, and Tai Chu explained that he was retracing his path to recover his interrupted foundation.
• Tai Chu gave Yuangeng a Green Lotus Immortal Medicine seed that he had found in divine source in the mining area.
• Yuangeng explained the seed's affinity for transcendence and nurturing spirits, then sent a deity to cultivate the Azure Emperor and study awakening spiritual awareness in immortal medicines.
• Yuangeng entered the Divine Ruins, used the Heaven-Burying Coffin to seal the area, and summoned a crude stone door before reaching out to touch it.

Yuangeng used the Stone Door to enter the River of Time, where he saw its main current and branching tributaries, then consulted Carefree Heavenly Venerate about what they meant. He left understanding that changes could create alternate futures, while choosing to live in the present.

• Yuangeng touched the Stone Door and used its power to rise above the River of Time and glimpse its main channel and tributaries.
• Yuangeng returned to the Divine Ruins, fell into the Divine Spring after the Stone Door drained his vitality, and replenished himself with the lights of the sun, moon, and stars.
• Yuangeng touched the Stone Door again and entered the River of Time once more.
• Yuangeng's faith body visited Carefree Heavenly Venerate to ask about the River of Time and its tributaries.
• Carefree Heavenly Venerate explained that tributaries formed when people or events changed history, though many eventually flowed back into the main channel.
• Yuangeng wondered whether their timeline was only one possible tributary, and Carefree Heavenly Venerate said he hoped they could live in the present.

After more than two thousand years of studying the Stone Door and the River of Time, Yuangeng prepared to enter seclusion and entrusted Tai Chu and others with guidance for the future. He then traveled upstream past the sword light that severed the eternal ages, entered a divergent branch of history, and saw a wisp of black blood merge into the Nine Heavens.

• Yuangeng repeatedly used the Stone Door to explore the River of Time, learning its dangers and mastering the Great Dao of Time while cutting away his memories of the countless possible futures he witnessed.
• More than two thousand years after leaving the Divine Ruins, Yuangeng told Tai Chu that the world's longevity substance was depleted and explained how to handle future emperors and other groups.
• Yuangeng gave similar instructions to Carefree Heavenly Venerate, the Qilin Emperor, and others, then sealed off the Divine Ruins and prepared treasures and Changsheng Great Pills for his journey.
• Yuangeng pressed his hand to the Stone Door and traveled upstream through the River of Time, passing the histories of Ancient Emperors and other powerful figures until he reached the sword light that severed the eternal ages.
• Using the Stone Door, Yuangeng passed through the sword light and entered a divergent tributary, where he saw the Desolate Heaven Emperor defeat a corpse-like creature of darkness and a wisp of black blood merge into the Nine Heavens.

Yuangeng arrived in the late Desolate Ancient Era during Chaotic Ancient’s Great Emperor tribulation and discovered that darkness had become the universe’s accepted source of cultivation. After learning how Chaotic Ancient rose through dark inheritances, Yuangeng was suspected of being a survivor from the Old Nine Heavens because he had not been baptized by darkness.

• Yuangeng emerged from the river of time near the Thirtieth Pass of the Human Race as Chaotic Ancient underwent his Great Emperor tribulation.
• Yuangeng saw that Chaotic Ancient was devouring the darkness within his tribulation and that the Thirtieth Pass had been tainted by darkness.
• Yuangeng went to the Fiftieth Pass and heard a fully realized Indestructible Golden Body recount Chaotic Ancient’s hardships, dark inheritances, and rise to the extreme Dao.
• Yuangeng recognized that Chaotic Ancient, the Indestructible Golden Body, and the people of this universe had all been assimilated by darkness.
• The Indestructible Golden Body sensed that Yuangeng was different and asked whether he was a surviving remnant of the Old Nine Heavens.

Yuangeng, calling himself the Burial Emperor, confronted and defeated Yang Yu, a dark perfected Indestructible Golden Body, while questioning him about the Dark Heavenly Court. After capturing Yang Yu’s Primordial Spirit to learn about the parallel universe, Yuangeng sensed eight more dark perfected Indestructible Golden Bodies watching him.

• Yang Yu blood-sacrificed the fiftieth pass of the Human Race Ancient Road and demanded that Yuangeng reveal his identity.
• Yuangeng called himself the Burial Emperor, and Yang Yu linked him to the Netherworld Venerable, Cao Yusheng, before attacking with the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist.
• Yuangeng evaded and overwhelmed Yang Yu’s attack, asking about the Dark Heavenly Court as they fought.
• Yuangeng crushed Yang Yu’s Primordial Spirit and flesh, then restrained his Primordial Spirit to question him about the parallel universe.
• Yuangeng sensed eight other dark perfected Indestructible Golden Bodies awakening and watching him.

Yuangeng learned the history of the Shrouding the Heavens universe by searching the dark perfected Indestructible Golden Body Yang Yu’s soul. After destroying Yang Yu’s primordial spirit, he sensed the other eight perfected Indestructible Golden Bodies approaching.

• Yuangeng forcibly searched Yang Yu’s primordial spirit with the Burial Dao Taboo Method and seized his memories.
• Yuangeng learned that the Dark Heavenly Court had risen under Emperor Venerable, battled the Underworld led by Netherworld Venerable, and later come under the rule of the Undying Heavenly Emperor.
• Yuangeng concluded that he would likely have to confront the Undying Heavenly Emperor and suspected Netherworld Venerable was still resisting darkness somewhere in history.
• Yuangeng ground Yang Yu’s primordial spirit into dust with burial dao light.
• Yuangeng sensed the remaining eight perfected Indestructible Golden Bodies tearing through heaven and earth toward him.

After Yuangeng killed the eighth fully accomplished Indestructible Golden Body, eight more emerged from the Golden Body Ancestral Star and confronted him outside the Human Race's Fiftieth Pass. Yuangeng dismissed their combined strength and shattered their attack, leaving the eight stunned as he prepared to kill them.

• Yuangeng annihilated the eighth fully accomplished Indestructible Golden Body, and the Golden Body descendants mourned his death.
• Eight fully accomplished Indestructible Golden Bodies emerged from immortal source on the Golden Body Ancestral Star and set out to capture Yuangeng.
• Yuangeng examined the eight approaching enemies and recognized that the strongest might be the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body remembered from the original timeline.
• The eight Golden Bodies surrounded Yuangeng and claimed they had enough power to kill him.
• Yuangeng spat out black light that shattered the eight Golden Bodies' combined attack, then declared that they would die.

Yuangeng slaughtered the nine Dark great accomplished Indestructible Golden Bodies, including their strongest fighter, who transformed beneath black, red, and golden hair. With the battle over, Yuangeng remained seated among the stars and looked toward the distant Dark Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor.

• Yuangeng used overwhelming speed and Lunar Essence laws to kill the first great accomplished Indestructible Golden Body with a stomp.
• Yuangeng killed two more golden bodies with the Immortal Tribulation Sword Art, then destroyed another with burial Dao fire.
• The remaining fighters questioned whether Yuangeng was Netherworld Venerable, and Yuangeng declared that Burial Emperor was a separate identity.
• The strongest golden body covered himself in black, red, and golden hair and attacked with the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist, but Yuangeng severed his arm and destroyed him.
• Yuangeng pursued and killed the final three golden bodies, then sat among the stars and looked toward the Dark Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor.

Yuangeng overwhelmed the eight Indestructible Golden Bodies and attacked the newly enthroned Dark Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor, nearly killing him. The Heavenly Court Battle-War Emperor and Demon Emperor Xue Yueqing arrived to face Yuangeng together.

• Yuangeng's battle with the eight Indestructible Golden Bodies was witnessed across the universe, and Dark Beings called on the Dark Heavenly Court to intervene.
• Yuangeng struck the Dark Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor with Immortal Tribulation Sword intent, shattering his axe and severing his arm, but the emperor escaped using his talisman and mastery of the void.
• The Dark Chaotic Ancient Great Emperor used Eternal Banishment against Yuangeng, but Yuangeng stopped the attack with his bare hand.
• The Heavenly Court Battle-War Emperor arrived and wounded Yuangeng's hand with his iron staff, then explained that he was a new god born from the dark-baptized body of the Fighting Saint Emperor.
• Demon Emperor Xue Yueqing arrived beside the Battle-War Emperor and confronted Yuangeng with the Ink Dragon Dao Ruler.

Yuangeng, the Burial Emperor, fought the Dark Fighting Emperor and Dark Demon Emperor after rejecting their offer to join the Dark Heavenly Court. As the battle raged, the court’s ancient powers watched and debated his origins, while Heavenly Venerable Lingbao vowed to drag him into darkness.

• The Dark Demon Emperor and Dark Fighting Emperor urged Yuangeng to join the darkness, but he declared his allegiance to the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
• Yuangeng struck both dark emperors with Burial Dao lightning, and they defended themselves with the Ink-Colored True Dragon Body and the Fighting Emperor Iron Rod.
• Yuangeng summoned the Netherworld Ancient Hall, drawing death energy from the Epoch Burial Pit as his laws clashed with the emperors’ weapons.
• Longevity Heavenly Venerable and other Dark Heavenly Court Supremes watched the battle and speculated that Yuangeng was an ancient Nine Heavens survivor or a being from the Immortal Domain.
• The dark Undying Heavenly Emperor ordered Yuangeng brought into the darkness, and Heavenly Venerable Lingbao vowed to make him one of them.