Chapter Summaries

Di Yi learned from the Female Kunpeng that the darkness had a powerful source that had once killed him, and he resolved to deal with the disaster connected to his former Kingdom. He returned to the present after sixty-four days and woke to find the Golden Hou had consumed the medicinal wine; Di Yi decided they would leave the Cave Abode without collecting its treasures.

• The Female Kunpeng told Di Yi that the darkness had another source powerful enough to kill him once, and Di Yi said he would resolve the darkness in this world.
• Di Yi linked the darkness to the Origin Ancient Artifact and the center of his former Kingdom, and the Female Kunpeng said she would cut away her memories to avoid disturbing time.
• Di Yi returned to the present and found the Golden Hou waiting after sixty-four days, worried that Di Yi had drunk himself to death.
• The Golden Hou admitted that he had consumed all the clear liquid while Di Yi was unconscious and had explored the Cave Abode for treasures.
• Di Yi declined to collect the treasures and told the disappointed Golden Hou that it was time to leave.

Di Yi took the Golden Hou to Xiling Beast Mountain to seek a True Hou legacy, warning that it needed to grow strong before they left the Lower Realm. They approached the mountain’s peaceful cultivation grounds, where something changed as they ventured deeper.

• Di Yi left the Kunpeng Nest with the Golden Hou, refusing to take anything from its treasure trove.
• Di Yi told the Golden Hou that he planned to take it to a True Hou legacy and that it would need to grow quickly for the Upper Realm.
• Di Yi redirected their passage toward the West Mausoleum, and the Golden Hou worried they had come to confront the White Tiger.
• Di Yi explained the West Mausoleum’s history and led the Golden Hou toward Xiling Beast Mountain, where the yin energy gave way to a bright, spiritual landscape.
• The Golden Hou admired Beast Mountain’s scenery, and Di Yi continued deeper into the range until something changed.

Di Yi and the Golden Hou encountered paranormal beings near West Mausoleum and discussed the cemetery’s possible dangers before reaching Xiling Beast Mountain. The Taowu King came to meet them, accompanied by a white tiger and a giant elephant.

• The Golden Hou spotted terrifying paranormal beings near West Mausoleum, and Di Yi explained that they were lingering images that could interfere with reality.
• Di Yi and the Golden Hou continued toward Xiling Beast Mountain, where the Golden Hou wondered whether a great figure such as Kunpeng was buried.
• Qiongqi descendants guarding the mountain recognized Di Yi and asked his forgiveness for stopping him.
• Di Yi asked whether the Taowu King had returned from the Stone Kingdom, and a Qiongqi went to announce his arrival.
• The Taowu King arrived with a white tiger and a giant elephant, who appeared in their true forms.

Di Yi and Golden Hou traveled with the Beast Mountain Venerables to the True Hou legacy ground. Di Yi explained that Xiling Beast Mountain formed a hidden dragon-leap configuration, then arrived at the legacy cave, which he compared to a tomb.

• Venerable Taowu, Venerable Giant Elephant, and Venerable White Tiger welcomed Di Yi and led him into Xiling Beast Mountain to find the True Hou legacy.
• Di Yi noticed the graves on the mountain and explained that its locations formed a coiled dragon with dragon qi and heavenly fortune, though the Venerables could not see it.
• Di Yi said the dragon had wings and told the Venerables not to dwell on the configuration because it was meant for West Mausoleum.
• Venerable Taowu led Di Yi and Golden Hou to the True Hou territory and explained that the Venerables could open the legacy ground for the mostly mixed-blood Hou descendants.
• Di Yi compared the True Hou legacy cave to other burial-ground legacies and wondered why so many legacies were left in tombs, leaving Venerable Taowu confused.

Di Yi questioned Venerable Taowu about Xiling Beast Mountain’s Zang Cave and arranged for Golden Hou to enter it and seek the True Hou’s legacy. After Golden Hou entered, Di Yi asked about the dangerous West Mausoleum and grew interested when he learned Female Kunpeng had no known history of visiting it.

• Venerable Taowu explained that Xiling Beast Mountain’s ancestors were laid in the wilderness and that its Zang Cave stored the True Hou’s legacies.
• Di Yi learned that ordinary scriptures were freely available but that a Deity’s legacy required a trial lasting up to two days inside the cave.
• Di Yi accepted Venerable Taowu’s apology and welcomed Venerable White Tiger’s promise to challenge him someday.
• Golden Hou entered the Zang Cave to face the True Hou’s legacy trial.
• Di Yi asked Venerable Taowu about the West Mausoleum and learned that Female Kunpeng had no recorded visit there.

Di Yi discovered that the West Mausoleum contained a newly forming world that reconstructed its buried beings as spiritual bodies, and he investigated its strange nature and immense graveyard. Deep inside the world, he sensed something familiar.

• Di Yi stepped into the West Mausoleum and found that one location opened into a wilderness resembling the Primordial Era, while another still showed ordinary burial mounds.
• Di Yi realized the wilderness was a newly formed world with traces of the Void God Realm, then explored the real graveyard and found millions of remains arranged in layers by strength.
• Di Yi entered the world as a True Spirit and found that it was an evolving world embryo where spiritual bodies were becoming material.
• Lightning-fast insects attacked Di Yi, but he killed them with a single sword strike and continued past reconstructed Divine Birds and ferocious beasts.
• Di Yi reached a deeper area and suddenly sensed something familiar.

Di Yi found a jade-white bone bearing an introductory portion of the Original True Understanding on an altar in the primeval Great Wilderness. After two relics awakened and told him the bone had come from behind the dam, they revealed they had died before the Immortal Ancient Battle, in the previous minor reckoning.

• Di Yi followed a familiar sensation into a forbidden area and found a towering altar surrounded by the bones of powerful beings.
• Di Yi examined a jade-white bone on the altar and recognized it as an incomplete introductory guide to the Original True Understanding, which he had left behind as a legacy.
• The altar shook as a blood-filled eyeball and a crystal skull awakened and asked Di Yi why he had disturbed their slumber.
• Di Yi asked whether they had damaged the bone, and the skull said it had already been split when they found it behind the dam.
• The eyeball and skull explained that they had been killed before the Immortal Ancient Battle, as losers of the previous minor reckoning.

Di Yi identified the jade-white bone as the Myriad Spirits Diagram, the first chapter of the Original True Understanding, and suggested that the Dao was his own. The hand bone rejected his claims about emperors and asked him to leave.

• Di Yi told the crystal skull and eyeball that the bone was the first chapter of the Original True Understanding, the Myriad Spirits Diagram.
• The eyeball realized the diagram had been separated from the Divine Guidance Chapter and wondered whether it had caused their Minor Reckoning.
• Di Yi explained that he knew the Original True Understanding itself, comparing its three chapters to seeds produced by a tree.
• The eyeball and crystal skull argued that the Original True Understanding was a natural product of the World-Creation Era and that no emperor had ever existed.
• The hand bone accused Di Yi's words of carrying great karma and disrespecting the emperor, then asked him to leave.

Di Yi led the hand bone, crystal skull, and eyeball out of the West Mausoleum to show them his true body and prove he was an emperor. Overwhelmed by his power, the three beings accepted his identity, and the eyeball apologized for their earlier disrespect.

• Di Yi teased the three beings for failing to bow before an emperor, and they challenged him to show them his true body.
• The hand bone, crystal skull, and eyeball shrank onto the altar and followed Di Yi through the self-contained realm.
• The three beings explained that they had accidentally created the realm while studying a Bone Scripture.
• After Di Yi led them into the real world, the crystal skull noticed the shattered entrance and the three sensed an ancient, overwhelming aura.
• Di Yi revealed his true body and let the three experience his emperor-level power, leaving them stunned and silent.
• The eyeball apologized for failing to recognize Di Yi, and Di Yi asked why they had accepted his identity so quickly.

Di Yi tried to put the three beings on the Sacrificial Altar at ease, but calling them Yellow Hand Bone, Blood Eyeball, and Crystal Skull seemed to alter their true names through the River of Time. He suspected their connection to darkness might explain the strange change.

• The three beings apologized for doubting Di Yi after the eyeball described an emperor’s power, and Di Yi urged them to speak to him normally.
• The crystal skull explained that the three had lost their memories and did not know their identities or names.
• Di Yi suggested addressing them by their appearances, and the hand bone and eyeball found themselves associated with the names Yellow Hand Bone and Blood Eyeball.
• Di Yi sensed through True Understanding that the names had caused temporal ripples and affected the River of Time.
• Di Yi wondered how naming beings from a distant Epoch could affect them and asked whether they had come into contact with darkness.

Di Yi questioned the three beings on the Sacrificial Altar about the darkness, their changed fate, and the reckoning that caused their downfall. The crystal skull and yellow hand bone explained how kings crossing the sea fought over darkness and the chance to become emperors, leaving Di Yi with an account of why minor reckonings erupted.

• Di Yi reassured the crystal skull, blood-colored eyeball, and yellow hand bone that their changed fate offered a new path, though it carried a distant danger connected to darkness and the uncanny.
• The three beings pleaded for the truth about darkness, but Di Yi declined to explain and asked what the Great Reckoning was and whether it concerned the war between the Foreign Realm and the Primordial Ancient Realm.
• The crystal skull explained that reckonings arose from conflict over whether the darkness across the sea was a calamity to be quelled or a blessing that could help beings Break the King Realm and Become Emperor.
• The yellow hand bone said that kings fighting over the sea’s supposed blessing attacked one another’s home realms to draw out their enemies, destroying many great realms in the process.
• The yellow hand bone explained that generations of grudges and the loss of former boundaries eventually triggered minor reckonings.

Di Yi questioned the three beings on the Sacrificial Altar about the Dam Realm and the coming Great Reckoning. They explained that a man-made catastrophe driven by darkness and the ambitions of powerful kings was approaching, leaving Di Yi to reflect on how the human heart fueled calamity.

• Di Yi learned that the Dam Realm connected all realms and bore footprints that guided those who came after, though the yellow hand bone could not recall whether they had crossed it.
• The yellow hand bone explained that the Great Reckoning would begin when upheavals and storms of darkness erupted at the far end of the sea, forcing kings to retreat and stirring conflict among them.
• The crystal skull said signs in the sea showed that the prophesied Great Reckoning was nearly upon them, while the blood eyeball lamented that their side had already failed.
• The yellow hand bone told Di Yi that most kings would refuse to retreat because they believed they had no second chance, and returning kings might fight to monopolize the sea’s fortunes.
• Di Yi reflected that many calamities attributed to darkness were instead driven by the human heart and the desire to become an emperor.

Di Yi reconsidered his hostility toward darkness and proposed regulating it and granting dark beings a path to survival, believing the human heart—not darkness itself—to be the source of evil. He planned to test his idea during the coming Great Reckoning, leaving the three beings on the altar unsettled about whether he would suppress the turmoil.

• The three beings on the altar concluded that kings who used darkness, rather than darkness itself, were the true source of calamity.
• Di Yi realized that he might use the black blood and darkness instead of trying to eradicate them, since dark beings were innocent beings born because of him.
• Di Yi proposed consolidating darkness into an orderly force and making its fortune widely available, so kings would no longer fight over something rare.
• Di Yi reassured the three beings that the Original True Understanding and other paths to becoming an emperor could keep darkness from becoming the only path.
• Di Yi said he would test his idea through people's hearts during the Great Reckoning, leaving the three beings uneasy about his intention to let the turmoil unfold.

Di Yi questioned the three beings on the altar about the creatures of darkness and learned that the Foreign Realm might help him test their “hearts.” He then asked Venerable Taowu for routes to the Upper Realm, preparing to travel there and seek a way to the Foreign Realm.

• Di Yi said he would not interfere with the choices of living beings, even if those choices led to ruin, and hinted that an unexpected event would eventually occur.
• The three beings on the altar suggested that Di Yi investigate the Foreign Realm or the Burial World to learn about the creatures of darkness.
• Di Yi asked the three beings how to reach the Foreign Realm, but they knew no route and suggested he search for a passage in this world.
• After returning from the West Mausoleum, Di Yi asked Venerable Taowu for routes to the Upper Realm.
• Venerable Taowu said several routes existed but were guarded by Upper Realm beings, and Di Yi asked him to name some so he could choose.

Di Yi questioned Venerable Taowu about routes to the Upper Realm and became interested in dangerous ancient passageways. At Xiling Beast Mountain, he waited for Golden Hou, who had remained inside Zang Cave longer than expected.

• Venerable Taowu told Di Yi about established routes to the Upper Realm and said there were no ordinary direct passageways between the realms.
• Venerable Taowu described rumors of dangerous narrow paths, including the Cross of Yin and Yang phenomenon, that mighty beings may have opened in ancient times.
• Di Yi suspected the narrow paths might have been opened by the Ten Fiends and asked Venerable Taowu to explain the Cross of Yin and Yang's origins.
• After spending three days at Xiling Beast Mountain, Di Yi noticed Golden Hou had been inside Zang Cave for four days, longer than usual.
• Di Yi suspected Golden Hou had delayed his return by pursuing too many inheritances and stopped watching the cave.

Di Yi discovered Golden Hou had been resting instead of completing the Zang Cave inheritance trials and punished him before asking why he had chosen to travel together. Golden Hou reaffirmed that he did not want to be alone, and the two set out for Heaven Domain through a passage toward a feared Life Forbidden Zone.

• Venerable Taowu used a special artifact to find Golden Hou sleeping comfortably inside Zang Cave.
• Di Yi hauled Golden Hou out and beat him for neglecting the trials, then healed his injuries with the Three Talents Reincarnation Formation.
• Di Yi asked why Golden Hou had chosen to accompany him, and Golden Hou said it was so they would not be alone.
• Di Yi offered Golden Hou the choice of ruling in the Lower Realm or following the unknown road ahead, and Golden Hou chose to go wherever Di Yi went.
• Di Yi and Golden Hou set off for Heaven Domain through a multicolored passage toward the mist-shrouded Life Forbidden Zone.

Di Yi brought the Golden Hou into a Life Forbidden Zone in the Heaven Domain and overcame its disorienting Domain. At the zone’s destination, Di Yi opened a path to a cross-shaped convergence of the Taiyin and Sun Long Rivers, where the pair approached mysterious halls and the Golden Hou faced a powerful trial.

• Di Yi and the Golden Hou entered the Life Forbidden Zone, where an enormous Domain distorted the surroundings and made the Golden Hou crash into a mountain.
• Di Yi explained the Domain’s effects, then led the Golden Hou through the fog-shrouded region to a mysterious cobblestone stairway.
• Di Yi recognized the stairway as a cross-shaped convergence of yin and yang and unleashed its Domain, revealing the Taiyin Long River and the Sun Long River.
• Chaos Qi formed a gateway where the two rivers crossed, and magnificent halls appeared above the clouds.
• Di Yi climbed the stairway toward the convergence, while the Golden Hou followed and struggled against its immense pressure.
• Di Yi recognized that the stairway acted as a screening mechanism and slowed down to experience its pressure.

Di Yi and the Golden Hou reached a gateway leading to the Upper Realm, then returned to investigate a forbidden zone and met its powerful master. The chapter ended with Di Yi praising the man’s cultivation and suggesting they continue their conversation elsewhere.

• Di Yi and the Golden Hou reached the Cross of Yin and Yang, where Di Yi opened a gateway leading to the Upper Realm.
• Di Yi turned back down the pebble steps and revealed a hidden medicinal garden and forbidden zone unrelated to the Ten Fiends.
• The forbidden zone’s master spoke to Di Yi and summoned a wooden bridge made from an immortal-path tree he had killed.
• Di Yi and the Golden Hou crossed the bridge and met the master, who welcomed them near his thatched cottages.
• Di Yi recognized the master’s extraordinary cultivation and teased him about standing around talking.

Di Yi visited the Master of the Forbidden Zone, who used a cup of tea to show him his own history and ask him to carry on the struggle beyond the Dam. Di Yi refused the inheritance and urged him to wait for a successor who would forge a different path, leaving the Master to reconsider how he chose his disciples.

• The Master of the Forbidden Zone invited Di Yi to tea, and Di Yi recognized the bitterness in the tea as a reflection of the master's path.
• Di Yi used True Understanding to see the master's past, including his journey beyond the Dam and his bloodied return.
• The Master of the Forbidden Zone explained that his disciples had gone beyond the Dam and never returned, and offered Di Yi everything contained in the tea.
• Di Yi refused the offer, saying he had not come for the inheritance and that the master's accumulated power was useless to him.
• Di Yi advised the Master of the Forbidden Zone to stop training disciples to follow his path and instead wait for a successor unlike the others.

Di Yi restored the master of the forbidden zone and his attendants before leaving with the Golden Hou to follow the ancient path toward the Upper Realm. The Golden Hou endured the path’s crushing pressure as Di Yi treated it as a chance for further tempering, and they continued upward through the increasingly visible rules and order.

• Di Yi used the Three Talents Reincarnation Formation, the Sea of Potential, and True Understanding to restore vitality to the master of the forbidden zone and his two attendants.
• Di Yi told the master of the forbidden zone to keep waiting and answered that the mysterious cobblestone steps might have been made by the person who left faint footprints on a similar path in the Dam Realm.
• The master of the forbidden zone rejected an attendant’s guess that Di Yi was the person from the dam, then vanished, leaving only three skulls, a teapot, and teacups behind.
• Di Yi and the Golden Hou returned beneath the Cross of Yin and Yang and stepped onto the grayish-brown ancient path, whose pressure nearly overwhelmed the Golden Hou.
• Di Yi reassured the Golden Hou that the path led to the Upper Realm and used the Three Talents Reincarnation Formation to help it withstand the crushing pressure.
• Di Yi and the Golden Hou continued up the ancient path as rules and order appeared around them in the void.