Chapter Summaries

Ying Huaixu worried that the Outsiders would target Tai Wangshu before the Heart-Questioning Valley raid and checked on her. Afterward, Lü Qingyi showed him souls attempting to enter the world and revealed that she could see his identity as a native.

• Ying Huaixu reasoned that Heart-Questioning Valley's raid mechanics would remain unchanged and that stronger intruders could trigger an instant kill for everyone inside.
• Ying Huaixu called Tai Wangshu to check whether the Outsiders had attacked her, and she teased him before he ended the call.
• Ying Huaixu visited Lü Qingyi, who turned her pond into a starry view of the heavens and caught souls trying to enter the world.
• Lü Qingyi destroyed one malicious soul and returned another that had arrived through time-space rebirth.
• Lü Qingyi tossed Ying Huaixu a stone that displayed his background as a native and greeted him as one.

Ying Huaixu worried about He Xixiang’s absence, so Lü Qingyi showed him a hidden refuge and explained his master’s extraordinary talent and strength. He learned that He Xixiang was Primordial Chaos’s Number One Artifact Refiner after struggling to lift a dagger she had forged as a child.

• Ying Huaixu asked Lü Qingyi why He Xixiang had not returned and admitted that he missed her and was worried.
• Lü Qingyi took Ying Huaixu to a hidden space in a barren mountain, where she recalled that He Xixiang had once sheltered and healed her there.
• Lü Qingyi explained that He Xixiang could master any Daoist art instantly but chose the Great Dao of Strength because she was lazy and liked using her fists.
• Lü Qingyi revealed that He Xixiang was Primordial Chaos’s Number One Artifact Refiner and showed Ying Huaixu a dagger she had forged as a child.
• Ying Huaixu struggled to lift the dagger, then watched a recording of young He Xixiang compressing metal and shaping it with her fists and fingers.
• Lü Qingyi explained that He Xixiang had reduced the weight of the sword she wore as a hairpin, which otherwise could crush an entire star to powder.

Lü Qingyi explained the half-step Immortal Emperors’ regenerative power and demonstrated her ability by creating a Great Universe from Chaos. Ying Huaixu returned to Tianqu Peak determined to master Shrinking Earth to an Inch and advance his cultivation, while Lü Qingyi resolved to keep her distance from him and the Heavenly Dao dodged her demand for repayment.

• Lü Qingyi told Ying Huaixu that He Xixiang was learning escape techniques after failing to catch the Old Ancestors of the Three Families, who kept regenerating and fleeing.
• Lü Qingyi tore off a piece of Chaos and shaped it into a Great Universe, which Ying Huaixu entered and admired.
• Lü Qingyi sent Ying Huaixu back to Tianqu Peak with a document about breaking through to Return to True, and he chose to keep grinding toward a higher realm.
• Ying Huaixu used Shrinking Earth to an Inch and resolved to master the technique after ending up somewhere unfamiliar.
• Lü Qingyi decided to keep her distance from Ying Huaixu, then asked the Heavenly Dao to repay its debt, but it pretended to be asleep.

Tai Wangshu was lured into a confrontation with a Nine-Color King, who trapped her in the Boundless Void Realm and challenged her to break through before fighting. She reached the Return to True realm and used Yin-Yang Balance to raise her cultivation to the sixth layer while lowering his to the fifth, and the battle began.

• Tai Wangshu spotted An Ruoyun cursing Ying Huaixu’s portrait and confronted her, but An Ruoyun revealed she had lured Tai Wangshu out for a Nine-Color King.
• A young Nine-Color King appeared and attacked Tai Wangshu, who used her Yin-Yang Formation Diagram and Balance to weaken him, though he shattered the formation.
• The Nine-Color King brought Tai Wangshu into the Boundless Void Realm and offered her the chance to break through without outside help.
• Tai Wangshu absorbed her Yin-Yang Goddess Dharma Aspect and the Heavenly Tribulation, entering the Return to True realm.
• Tai Wangshu used Yin-Yang Balance to rise to the sixth layer of Return to True and lower the Nine-Color King to the fifth layer, and he summoned armor and flames before the fight.

Tai Wangshu fought Loli inside the Boundless Void Realm and discovered that he was cycling through parallel selves to wear her down. After borrowing half of Ye Ningshuang’s power, Tai Wangshu destroyed the realm and drove the Lolis away, just as Ying Huaixu arrived carrying Ye Ningshuang.

• Tai Wangshu battled Loli, whose spear attacks she countered with her Taiji Diagram and Yin-Yang Balance.
• Loli revealed that Tai Wangshu was especially difficult to defeat in a group and used the Boundless Void Realm to bring versions of himself from parallel timelines into successive fights.
• Tai Wangshu realized Loli was testing the limits of her abilities while using countless Nine-Color Kings to exhaust her.
• Tai Wangshu sensed Ying Huaixu and Ye Ningshuang approaching, borrowed half of Ye Ningshuang’s power, and cut Loli and the Boundless Void Realm in two with a Black Sword.
• The remaining Lolis fled when Ying Huaixu and Ye Ningshuang arrived, and Ye Ningshuang angrily confronted Ying Huaixu after he carried her over his shoulder.

After the Nine-Color King attacked Tai Wangshu, Ying Huaixu and Ye Ningshuang discovered spatial fragments hidden in her hair and learned they could be used by someone who cultivated Spatial Laws. Meanwhile, Third Martial Uncle explained that the prophecy no longer matched the changed world, and warned Zhuang Mu that he could not use Self-Severing to bypass Heart-Questioning Valley’s laws.

• Ying Huaixu checked on Tai Wangshu after Ye Ningshuang got down from his shoulder, then decided he would keep Tai Wangshu close so she would not be alone.
• Tai Wangshu asked Ye Ningshuang to inspect her, and Ye Ningshuang found spatial fragments in her hair after searching her with Purple Miasma.
• Ying Huaixu called Third Granduncle, who identified the fragments as ordinary spatial fragments that a Spatial Laws cultivator could shape or insert into someone’s body.
• Zhuang Mu and Meng Wuya handled the administrative work while Tong Xinran and the others trained under Lü Qingyi for the coming Instance.
• Third Martial Uncle told Zhuang Mu that the prophecy described a different future and had become unreliable after Ying Huaixu killed Azure Fox in the Cold Pool Secret Realm.
• Zhuang Mu proposed using Self-Severing to enter the Instance with Ying Huaixu, but Third Martial Uncle warned that Heart-Questioning Valley judged a person by their highest past realm.

Third Martial Uncle dreamed that Ying Huaixu and the others were devastated in the Heart-Questioning Valley's Secret Realm, then warned Lü Qingyi, who learned from the Heavenly Dao that the dream was no certain prophecy. The future was severed from the River of Time, and Ying Huaixu was told once more not to break through to Return to True.

• Third Martial Uncle advised Zhuang Mu to keep cultivators above Tribulation Transcendence from interfering with the Secret Realm and warned him not to trouble Ying Huaixu.
• Third Martial Uncle dreamed that Ye Ningshuang, He Xiuyuan, Huang Tianqi, Qiu Shiyi, and others lay dead or gravely injured, while a woman threatened Ying Huaixu.
• Third Martial Uncle told Lü Qingyi about the dream, and the Heavenly Dao said Ying Huaixu and Lü Qingyi would not die but refused to reveal what it had endured.
• Lü Qingyi saw that the future stretch of the River of Time had been severed, and the Heavenly Dao told her not to reconnect it.
• Lü Qingyi warned Ying Huaixu to temper his character when he was close to breaking through to Return to True.

Ying Huaixu struggled to temper his disposition before entering the Return to True Realm, learning that its immense power demanded careful control. Tai Wangshu guided him to reflect on the difference between mortal life and cultivation, but his thoughts about using his strength after returning to Earth exposed how far he still had to go.

• Tai Wangshu explained that Ying Huaixu needed to temper his disposition so he could control Return to True power without endangering the world, and demonstrated how she could flatten and restore mountains and rivers.
• Ying Huaixu asked Ye Ningshuang how she had entered Return to True, and she said she had always considered herself ordinary and credited her strength to him.
• Ying Huaixu tried several ways to think of himself as ordinary, but his memories of Azure Fox and his self-hypnosis made little progress.
• Tai Wangshu told Ying Huaixu to recall his past hardships and consider what his current power could change, prompting him to imagine transforming Dragon Nation and enjoying life after returning to Earth.
• Tai Wangshu and Ye Ningshuang called Ying Huaixu out for grinning over his fantasies of wealth, maids, and pleasure.

Ying Huaixu wandered through the Mortal World with Tai Wangshu and Ye Ningshuang to temper his temperament, while reflecting on cultivation and the world he had left behind. After contemplating heaven and earth, he perceived a power beyond ordinary spiritual energy but failed to control it, and Tai Wangshu explained that he needed to understand and communicate with it.

• Tai Wangshu used a Quieting Mind Whisk to calm her mind after admitting that her own breakthrough had left flaws in her temperament.
• Ying Huaixu and the others traveled through the Mortal World, where even farmers had cultivation and existing class divisions remained in place.
• Ying Huaixu considered why Earth had never entered an age of universal cultivation despite the discovery of spiritual energy.
• Tai Wangshu ran a fortune-telling stall, Ye Ningshuang learned embroidery, and Ying Huaixu went fishing before returning with two fish caught using system prompts.
• Ying Huaixu contemplated heaven and earth, saw luminous specks containing powers beyond spiritual energy, and frightened them away when he tried to control them by force.
• Tai Wangshu told Ying Huaixu that he needed deeper understanding to bear the power, while Ye Ningshuang absorbed it with her purple mist.

Tai Wangshu explained that Return to True depended on understanding and perfecting one’s temperament, while Ying Huaixu began figuring out how to fulfill his own. After Tai Wangshu kissed Ying Huaixu to improve her temperament, his state of mind unexpectedly reached perfection when he casually professed love for Lü Qingyi and Lao Xiang.

• Tai Wangshu explained that Return to True required a temperament shaped by mortal experience and understanding the patterns of heaven and earth.
• Ying Huaixu realized fulfillment improved temperament and found he could use the power of the world, but chose to wait until he could upgrade through the system.
• Ye Ningshuang threatened Tai Wangshu, while Tai Wangshu secretly obtained a supreme treasure from the Taiyin Sacred Land.
• Tai Wangshu bound Ye Ningshuang with a golden rope, kissed Ying Huaixu, and hurried back to her room.
• Ying Huaixu’s state of mind improved after the kiss, then reached perfection when he casually said he loved Lü Qingyi and Lao Xiang.
• Lü Qingyi spat out her tea and blushed after hearing Ying Huaixu’s words.

Lü Qingyi questioned Heavenly Dao about its plans for Ying Huaixu and its interference in people’s feelings. She learned the world faced an invasion threat and that Heavenly Dao had manipulated some circumstances, then sent it a large amount of Creation Power.

• Lü Qingyi learned Heavenly Dao had bought seventeen Child Rights and withheld Ying Huaixu’s Exit Key, which it had paid 90 billion Mythic Coins to obtain.
• Heavenly Dao revealed that the Cheat Distributor had prepared a large-scale invasion, but it had stopped the attack in favor of a project requiring the world to awaken fully.
• Lü Qingyi realized Heavenly Dao had considered abandoning this world and starting over elsewhere, while Heavenly Dao explained that Ying Huaixu’s attachment to family would make him fight to protect it.
• Heavenly Dao said it had only amplified feelings that already existed, and Lü Qingyi crushed her cup while denying that she was jealous of Ying Huaixu.
• Lü Qingyi caught Heavenly Dao admitting it had put a block on Ying Huaixu’s disposition, then sent it a large amount of Creation Power, alarming it.

Lü Qingyi agreed to help Heavenly Dao financially, then stopped cultivating while she waited for Ying Huaixu. Ying Huaixu entered Return to True, struggled to control his overwhelming new powers, and returned to find Ye Ningshuang with Tai Wangshu tied up beside a boiling pot.

• Lü Qingyi offered Heavenly Dao money without asking for repayment, but Heavenly Dao grew suspicious and told her to stop cultivating until Ying Huaixu reached Immortal Emperor.
• Ying Huaixu used the system to enter the First Layer of Return to True, transforming his body and sea of consciousness as his power surged.
• Ying Huaixu accidentally froze the area around him and destroyed nearby mountains, then restored the living beings and landscape with a thought.
• Ying Huaixu tested his new abilities and discovered that his former skills were unified, constantly active, and greatly strengthened.
• Ying Huaixu returned and found Ye Ningshuang sharpening a knife beside a boiling pot while Tai Wangshu was strung up, so he intervened and kissed Ye Ningshuang.

Ying Huaixu and Tai Wangshu discussed An Ruoyun’s mysterious cultivation and realized the Nine-Color King might be using Tai Wangshu to divert attention from a larger plan. As Ying Huaixu checked on the first echelon, Xu Yaoyang asked the group to rescue him from a secret attack by the Nine-Color King.

• Ye Ningshuang and Tai Wangshu argued over Ying Huaixu’s return to the sect, but Tai Wangshu persuaded him to stay and discuss the Nine-Color King.
• Tai Wangshu told Ying Huaixu she could not see through An Ruoyun’s cultivation, and Lü Qingyi replied that An Ruoyun was “between reality and unreality.”
• Tai Wangshu explained that the Nine-Color King’s duplicates may have been probes and that her breakthrough had let him observe her.
• Ye Ningshuang suggested the Nine-Color King had lured Tai Wangshu away to distract the other major powers, and Ying Huaixu warned the group that events had been suspiciously quiet.
• Ying Huaixu contacted the first echelon and learned what Huang Tianqi, Qin Erniu, Chen Zhiyuan, Qiu Shiyi, and He Xiuyuan were doing.
• Xu Yaoyang asked the group to save him, saying the Nine-Color King was attacking him secretly and that he could not defeat it.

Xu Yaoyang and several other fighters faced powerful Nine-Color Kings, prompting Ying Huaixu to send Divine Firmament Sword Sect reinforcements. After the others departed, Tai Wangshu returned and kissed Ying Huaixu.

• A Nine-Color King trapped Xu Yaoyang in an Infinite Origin World and overwhelmed him with rebounding saber waves, but his Divine Eye of Heaven helped him survive.
• Ying Huaixu learned Xu Yaoyang had not reached Return to True and sent Qin Erniu to reinforce him.
• The Shura Holy Son and the Third Prince of the Ten Thousand Dragons Sacred Land requested help against Nine-Color Kings, so Ye Ningshuang went to save the Shura Holy Son and Tai Wangshu went to support the Dragon Clan Princess.
• Ying Huaixu received another plea for help, and Ye Ningshuang left to rescue the endangered fighter.
• Tai Wangshu returned after leaving the Dragon Clan Princess with Revival Pills, knocked Ying Huaixu down, and kissed him.

Ying Huaixu returned to Shenxiao after Lü Qingyi interrupted his intimate moment with Tai Wangshu, then the Heavenly Dao manipulated events and discussed a hidden plan with Lü Qingyi. Back at the sect, Ying Huaixu found that recruitment records and the Illusory Dream Trial had changed in puzzling ways.

• Lü Qingyi interrupted Ying Huaixu and Tai Wangshu, then told Ying Huaixu to return to Shenxiao and help organize the sect.
• The Heavenly Dao watched Lü Qingyi and Ying Huaixu, then used her power to influence events and spoke to Lü Qingyi about a secret plan tied to the Hongmeng World.
• Ying Huaixu saw the upcoming Dao Companion Function's rewards and decided to focus on clearing the world before becoming intimate with anyone.
• The Heavenly Dao explained that she wanted Lü Qingyi to gain authority and hinted that Ying Huaixu might help bring the true Hongmeng World into reach.
• Ying Huaixu returned to Shenxiao, found the sect calm, and noticed that the quest to recruit a hundred thousand disciples remained incomplete despite far more Ascenders joining.
• Ying Huaixu discovered four statues of the Azure Fox Lady in the Illusory Dream Trial and wondered what had happened.

Lü Qingyi put Ying Huaixu through special training in a shattered world, where he learned to restore it and gained insights by invoking his feelings for others. He awakened a new passive skill from Tai Wangshu’s insight, allowing him to concentrate the Magic Sword’s power into a single attribute.

• A disciple told Ying Huaixu that the Azure Fox Lady’s Illusory Dream helped disciples improve by targeting their weaknesses, and Lü Qingyi explained that the Illusory Dream Tree faithfully recreated her exceptional comprehension.
• Lü Qingyi brought Ying Huaixu to Sword-Questioning Peak and sent him into a shattered world, ordering him to restore it while time passed much faster there.
• After Ying Huaixu spent ten years restoring the world, Lü Qingyi flooded it with tea and told him that his realm was part of him rather than a tool, prompting him to study its workings again.
• Ying Huaixu gained profound insights by repeating that he loved Lü Qingyi, then used his feelings for He Xixiang to reduce the experience needed to upgrade his Magic Sword.
• Ying Huaixu gained combat insights from Ye Ningshuang and unlocked Power Allocation through Tai Wangshu, letting him focus the Magic Sword’s abilities into strength, Sword Technique, or magic power.

Ying Huaixu reached the pinnacle of Return to True as Lü Qingyi tested him by locking his system skills and unleashing disasters and flying swords. He learned to rely on his own cultivation and the power of heaven and earth, but Lü Qingyi kept attacking him after he tried to flirt.

• Ying Huaixu wondered why Tai Wangshu had given him a skill, then chanted his love for Lü Qingyi until his understanding of Return to True reached its pinnacle.
• Lü Qingyi transformed the world into a realm of violent natural disasters and locked Ying Huaixu's system abilities so he would have to rely on his own strength.
• Ying Huaixu used Return to True to manipulate the power of heaven and earth, countering the disasters with little effort.
• Lü Qingyi threw a sword at Ying Huaixu, who sensed its weaknesses and parried it, then struggled against the many swords she summoned.
• Ying Huaixu shaped the power of heaven and earth into Frost Annihilation, linked his passives to Return to True, and fought back with ice and damage effects.
• Ying Huaixu declared his love for Lü Qingyi, but she continued attacking until he begged her to spare him.

Ying Huaixu rapidly adapted to Lü Qingyi’s training, discovered that Ye Ningshuang’s ability was Execution, and learned that Return to True cultivators could create their own planes. He began forming a world within his Star Vortex and learned why the Outsiders sought to exploit the undeveloped Hongmeng World.

• Ying Huaixu adapted to Lü Qingyi’s flying-sword attacks and realized that purple light marked targets for Execution.
• Lü Qingyi showed Ying Huaixu that the Hongmeng World contained countless worlds and explained the difference between great worlds and plane worlds.
• Lü Qingyi told Ying Huaixu to create a plane, and he formed a world within his Star Vortex using the rules of his Daoist Arts.
• Lü Qingyi compared Ying Huaixu’s immense Star Vortex with a ninth-layer disciple’s smaller ones and explained that the Outsiders wanted to drain the Hongmeng World for further cultivation.

Ying Huaixu created his own plane world and learned why Lü Qingyi was training him to face the Nine-Color Kings and Heart-Questioning Valley. Lü Qingyi secretly negotiated with the Heavenly Dao, which warned that He Xixiang would return soon and Ying Huaixu could not withstand her physical strength.

• Ying Huaixu created a plane world and realized the Hongmeng World had endless power and no discernible boundaries.
• Ying Huaixu joked that he loved the Heavenly Dao, prompting the system to award a female Phoenix Crown and Scarlet Robe outfit and leaving the Heavenly Dao silent.
• Lü Qingyi told Ying Huaixu that she could influence his authority because hers was more developed, then warned him not to rely too heavily on his cheat when facing the Nine-Color Kings.
• Lü Qingyi said Heart-Questioning Valley was more powerful than Ying Huaixu expected, then sent him away from Sword-Questioning Peak.
• The Heavenly Dao told Lü Qingyi that He Xixiang would return soon and Ying Huaixu could not withstand her physical strength; Lü Qingyi threatened to reveal how to contact the Heavenly Dao if it tried this again.

Lü Qingyi learned how Authorities awakened and adapted, then watched a simulation of Ying Huaixu’s early cultivation. The simulation ended with Ying Huaixu escaping the immortal’s cave as a rogue cultivator after turning the old man’s resources into strength.

• Lü Qingyi blocked the Heavenly Dao from influencing her senses and destroyed a bead containing evidence of Ying Huaixu’s remarks.
• The Heavenly Dao explained that innate Authorities awakened differently depending on a person’s circumstances and could even guide their owners toward external objects that became Authorities.
• Lü Qingyi asked about her own Authority, and the Heavenly Dao created a simulation showing her as Ying Huaixu after transmigration.
• In the simulation, Ying Huaixu investigated his surroundings, discovered his All Rivers Run to the Sea talent, tested its limits, and killed a second-level Open Mic cultivator who had tried to kill him.
• On the fifth day, Ying Huaixu used All Rivers Run to the Sea to turn the old man’s possessions into strength and left as a rogue cultivator.