Chapter Summaries

Rhodes and Hathaway toured the newly created Lightning Element and Water Divine Planes as Rhodes searched for places where powerful divine beasts might be born. After returning to the Infernal Realm, Rhodes prepared to study a treasure he had kept since before becoming a Sovereign.

• Rhodes considered how the future Planar Battlefield could reward his emissaries and reflected on Orloff's potential and the Overgod Oath Orloff had sworn to hand over any Overgod Mission tokens he learned about.
• Orloff withdrew from Celestial Realm affairs to research strengthening his divine body, and the Celestial Realm's Sovereigns split into factions led by Augusta and Qing Lin.
• Rhodes and Hathaway toured the Lightning Element Divine Plane, where Rhodes marked areas rich in lightning elements and arranged for Deities to protect them from damage.
• Rhodes and Hathaway visited the Water Divine Plane before returning to the Infernal Realm, where Hathaway prepared to return to the Netherworld.
• Rhodes planned to enter seclusion and study a treasure that had come into his possession before he became a Sovereign.

After gathering with his fellow Sovereigns, Rhodes entered seclusion to study the Golden Sacred Flame and investigate the vanished system. When he empowered the flame with Sovereign Power in Spatial Turbulence, it burned away most of the turbulence and revealed a hazy gray expanse beyond.

• Rhodes reunited with Pash, Lei Ding, Feng Lan, and the others at Heaven-Reaching Peak Summit, where they discussed the Hall of the Gods and their prospects as Sovereigns.
• Rhodes entered seclusion to study the Golden Sacred Flame from Atezi, plan his future, and search for the system that had disappeared after he became a Sovereign.
• Rhodes sent Sovereign Power into the golden crystal, causing its casing to fall away and exposing a milky-white flame that raised temperatures across the Skyrite Mountains.
• Rhodes took the flame into Spatial Turbulence and increased his supply of Sovereign Power, making the flame burn away the surrounding turbulence.
• Rhodes saw a gray barrier or world beyond the remaining Spatial Turbulence and wondered whether it was Hongmeng Space.

Rhodes combined the milky-white flame with his Annihilation Divine Thunder and opened a breach in the universe’s barrier, releasing Hongmeng Spiritual Energy. He saw a path toward transcendence but realized he would need to find a way to contain the deadly energy, and he resolved to enlist researchers across the universe.

• Rhodes used the milky-white flame to clear Spatial Turbulence, then hurled his black Annihilation Divine Thunder into it.
• The collision pierced the universe’s barrier and released Hongmeng Spiritual Energy, which dissolved the flame and Divine Thunder as Rhodes fled.
• Rhodes concluded that Hongmeng Spiritual Energy could enable transcendence but would dissolve him if he touched it directly.
• Rhodes considered having researchers throughout the universe discover a way to contain and use Hongmeng Qi, potentially allowing him to transcend with Hathaway and others.
• Rhodes examined the crystalline flame, wondered about its origin, and laughed as he credited Atezi for bringing it to him.

After billions of years of cultivation, Rhodes and the other Sovereigns gathered as the Four Overgods created the Planar Battlefield. The battlefield was completed, and the Sovereigns learned that they were forbidden from entering it.

• Rhodes returned to Heaven-Reaching Peak and spent billions of years strengthening his Divine Body while tracking signs of Danniton, Bebe, and the Yulan Continent.
• Pash refined Hathaway's Fire Element Sovereign Spark, later reached Paragon while creating the Fire Element Divine Plane, and strengthened his Fire clone.
• Rhodes gave Lei Si an Earth Sovereign Spark, which Lei Si refined, and entrusted Hathaway with Dark and Light Sovereign Sparks while warning her to guard the Light one.
• Rhodes claimed the mountain born alongside the Earth Divine Plane, then led Pash, Lei Ding, Lei Si, and the others into Spatial Turbulence to meet the other Sovereigns.
• The Four Overgods created the Planar Battlefield, and a message warned the Sovereigns that they could not enter it and would die if they trespassed a second time.

Rhodes prepared the Infernal Realm for the approaching Planar War while continuing his experiments to capture and store Hongmeng Spiritual Energy. The chapter ended with Lei Ding and Kleia Gaia welcoming twins, Gaiseresen Lei Ding and Gaia Lei Ding, as Rhodes and Hathaway held them.

• Augusta struggled to obtain a Light Element Sovereign Spark, while Rhodes refused to trade until he had earned ten consecutive victories.
• Rhodes and the Infernal Realm Sovereigns created Purgatory, where Deities strong enough to claim territory became Purgatory Commanders.
• Rhodes planned for the Wind Element to win ten consecutive Planar Wars, and the Sovereigns gathered in the Skyrite Mountains for Kleia Gaia's childbirth.
• Rhodes concluded that Divine Beasts could absorb Hongmeng Spiritual Energy but could not withstand it, and he suspected Bebe's Divine Artifact might be able to store it.
• Lei Ding and Kleia Gaia welcomed a boy and a girl, naming them Gaiseresen Lei Ding and Gaia Lei Ding.

Rhodes spent time with the Sovereigns and Lei Ding’s newborn children while discussing Orloff’s Overgod mission and the Hall of the Gods. As Gaiseresen and Gaia grew up, their bloodlines still had not awakened, leaving Lei Ding worried and the Sovereigns resolved to investigate the matter.

• Rhodes examined the Destruction Overgod mission tokens Orloff had delivered and told Lei Si to have the Hall of the Gods search for the remaining tokens.
• Rhodes put Hemmers to work alongside Lei Si, stopping Hemmers from continuing his long seclusion and giving Lei Si a possible successor to train.
• Rhodes protected Gaia from Lei Ding’s discipline, made her his Sovereign Emissary, and encouraged Lei Ding to forge her a defensive Sovereign Artifact.
• Lei Ding worried that Gaiseresen and Gaia’s bloodlines had not awakened, and Rhodes and the other Sovereigns agreed to research ways to help them.
• More than a hundred years later, Gaiseresen and Gaia had grown into young adults and complained as Rhodes, Pash, and the others laughed at them.

Lei Ding’s Dragon Transformation Pool successfully awakened Gaiseresen and Gaia’s Azure Dragon bloodline, granting them Azure Dragon abilities and Water Element Divine Clones. After ordering Gaiseresen to oversee the clan’s awakenings, Lei Ding told Rhodes that he could help advance the research into giving others internal Alternate Spaces, and indicated that the required super Divine Beast was present.

• Lei Ding gathered the Infernal Realm’s Sovereigns and his descendants to witness Gaiseresen and Gaia undergo bloodline baptism in the Dragon Transformation Pool.
• After absorbing the Dragon Transformation Crystals, Gaiseresen and Gaia transformed painfully, awakened their Azure Dragon bloodline, and released a Dragon Roar that dazed the gathered descendants.
• The baptism granted Gaiseresen and Gaia Water Element Divine Clones, and they confirmed to Lei Ding and Rhodes that the awakening had succeeded.
• Lei Ding gave Gaiseresen Dragon Transformation Crystals and ordered him to arrange bloodline baptisms for the rest of the clan.
• Lei Ding told Rhodes he was confident he could help perfect the project to replicate internal Alternate Spaces through essence blood, then turned his attention to a person present.

Rhodes prepared the Wind Element Divine Plane for its tenth consecutive Planar War victory, while the Light and Dark God Planes were established under costly agreements with Orloff and Augusta. The Wind forces defeated the Earth Divine Plane, and the seven Wind Sovereigns received portions of willpower as their reward.

• Pash offered Lei Ding his essence blood for research, but Rhodes objected before agreeing to let Lei Ding continue his work.
• Rhodes arranged the creation of the Light and Dark God Planes through agreements with Orloff and Augusta, who later returned the Sovereign Sparks after killing the relevant Sovereigns.
• Rhodes gathered his and the other Wind Sovereigns’ emissaries for the tenth Planar War, and the Wind Element Divine Plane faced the Earth Divine Plane.
• Hemmers and more than thirty Wind Sovereign Emissaries overwhelmed the Earth forces in both passages, securing the Wind Element’s victory.
• The Laws of Heaven and Earth enveloped the seven Wind Sovereigns and granted each a portion of willpower, strengthening the Wind Sovereigns.

After Rhodes’s faction secured ten consecutive Planar War victories, he and Hathaway welcomed a daughter, and Rhodes unexpectedly comprehended the Destruction Rule when he held her. Sovereigns from across the planes gathered at Heaven-Reaching Peak to celebrate the universe’s new little princess, while Rhodes arranged for them to protect her when she traveled.

• Yi Han explained that every Sovereign in a faction would receive a portion of Willpower after ten consecutive Planar War victories, making future wars more fiercely contested.
• Rhodes returned to the Infernal Realm and spent his free time with Hathaway as the Four Divine Beasts’ descendants expanded their clan’s influence.
• After more than five hundred years, Hathaway gave birth to a daughter, and Rhodes gained a Destruction Divine Clone when he let go of his lingering memories of his previous life.
• Rhodes held his newborn daughter and rebuked Pash for wanting to celebrate with drinks while the baby was asleep.
• When the girl could walk and fly, Sovereigns from across the planes came to Heaven-Reaching Peak with gifts and blessings, memorized her soul aura, and promised to protect her.
• After the guests departed, Rhodes, Lei Ding, Pash, and the others drank Lei Si’s long-preserved wine and reminisced about their early years.

Rhodes sought ways to cultivate an internal space capable of safely using Hongmeng Spiritual Energy while caring for Annie and arranging fragments to help awaken her bloodline. After Pash completed the Overgod of Destruction's mission, Rhodes's requests about transcendence were refused, and Pash received an offensive Overgod Artifact; Rhodes was left relying on Lei Ding's ongoing research.

• Annie spent centuries playing havoc in the Skyrite Mountains while Hemmers and Rhodes and Hathaway watched over her, and the clans gradually moved away to escape the chaos.
• Rhodes asked Orloff for fragments of all seven elements' Profound Mysteries and discussed Divine Beasts' Innate Divine Abilities as he pursued a way to open an Alternate Space inside his body.
• Pash brought Rhodes all the tokens for the Overgod of Destruction's mission, and Rhodes summoned the Overgod after confirming the tokens were complete.
• Rhodes asked the Overgod for ten additional requests and a treasure that could store Hongmeng Spiritual Energy, but the Overgod refused his requests related to transcendence and an internal space.
• Pash requested an Overgod Artifact but was told he could choose only an offensive, defensive, or soul-defensive type, so he selected an offensive destruction-type artifact.
• Rhodes remained disappointed but looked to Lei Ding, who was nearing the end of his experiments on an internal Alternate Space.

Lei Ding reported that he had successfully created an Alternate Space inside a body by triggering an explosion within it, giving Rhodes hope for his experiment. Rhodes planned to run more tests before trying it himself, with Pash supplying more Divine Beast Essence Blood.

• The Planar Wars drew every Sovereign, while Rhodes continued to miss wars that did not involve the Water Divine Plane.
• Annie grew into a Deity with eight Divine Clones and developed the Sovereign Summoning Technique using hundreds of Sovereign Scrolls.
• Rhodes waited in the garden while Hathaway and Annie visited the Material Planes.
• Lei Ding arrived and told Rhodes that two experiments had successfully opened small, functionless Alternate Spaces inside bodies.
• Lei Ding explained that powerful attack energy had recreated an explosion like the one in the Creation Divine Plane, and Rhodes decided to conduct more experiments before testing it on himself.

Rhodes tested whether spaces opened inside Divine Beasts could absorb Hongmeng spiritual energy, then began opening one in his own body using Pash's blood essence. A second, full-powered collision of sacred flame and Annihilation Divine Thunder left all his divine clones unconscious as a grain-sized black hole formed.

• Rhodes found that artificially opened spaces could absorb and convert Hongmeng spiritual energy, and that they had greater potential than innate spaces.
• After the experimental Divine Beasts died, Rhodes stopped testing and gathered Pash's blood essence for his own attempt.
• Rhodes reassured Hathaway, entered his Miniature Plane, and began refining Pash's blood essence while his Sovereign clones guarded him.
• Rhodes used Pash's innate divine ability, Devour, and collided Annihilation Divine Thunder with sacred flame to open a space within his body.
• Rhodes powered the flame and thunder to their maximum and caused a second collision, knocking the consciousnesses of all his divine clones into chaos as a grain-sized black hole formed.

Rhodes’s soul aura vanished while he was opening a Miniature Plane, leaving Hathaway, Annie, and Pash convinced he had fallen but unwilling to abandon his secluded realm. Countless years later, Hathaway had become a Paragon of the Death Rule, while Rhodes remained missing and his family continued to wait at Heaven-Reaching Peak.

• Hathaway and Annie sensed that something had happened to Rhodes, and Hathaway struck Pash back when he tried to enter Rhodes’s place of seclusion.
• Pash, Hathaway, and Annie remained on Heaven-Reaching Peak, grieving and waiting for Rhodes to emerge from the Miniature Plane.
• Ten thousand years later, Pash forbade everyone from setting foot on Heaven-Reaching Peak, while Lei Ding suspected a grave secret and chose not to investigate.
• In the years that followed, Annie became the Darkness Sovereign and Xingyi became a Destruction Sovereign, while Rhodes stayed absent and the Wind Element Divine Plane lost several Planar Wars.
• Hathaway naturally became a Paragon of the Death Rule more than ten trillion years later, and she continued to refuse Pash’s requests to enter the Miniature Plane.

Rhodes awoke to find he had created a small world filled with Xuanhuang Qi, then formed a new body and returned to his family after countless years. He explained his transformation to Hathaway and offered to show her the world that had opened a new path toward transcendence.

• Rhodes discovered that his soul occupied an expanding world and found that he could shape its landscape and sense the Xuanhuang Qi within it.
• Rhodes realized his soul had transformed, left the small world, and used its energy to form a new body after discovering that his original body and clones had fallen.
• Hathaway, Pash, Annie, and the Sovereigns arrived when Rhodes's aura returned, and Hathaway wept with relief as she embraced him.
• Hathaway slept in Rhodes's arms for thirty days, then woke to his promise that he would never leave her again.
• Rhodes told Hathaway that his failed attempt to create an internal space had instead opened a small world, costing him his Sovereign clones but granting him a developing path to greater power.
• Rhodes offered to take Hathaway into the small world so she could see what had happened for herself.

Rhodes showed Hathaway the Small World where his Sovereign powers had vanished but his strength could continue to grow, then returned with her to the Skyrite Mountains after a thousand years. After reuniting with Annie and the other Sovereigns, the story shifted to two figures fleeing a pursuing group of Deities, with Danniton and his companion blaming each other for the trouble.

• Rhodes showed Hathaway that she could not use Willpower or divine power in his Small World, and explained that his Sovereign clones and former rank were gone while his new power could grow.
• Rhodes and Hathaway embraced and kissed, while Annie and the other Sovereigns waited outside the Miniature Plane for a thousand years.
• Rhodes and Hathaway emerged in the Skyrite Mountains and reunited with their waiting family and the Wind Element Sovereigns.
• Annie tearfully embraced Rhodes, then learned through Hathaway that her father had lost his Sovereign clones and mistakenly believed he had become an ordinary Highgod.
• Rhodes sent the Sovereigns back to their peaks, including Pash, who agreed to rest before hearing the full story.
• Two fleeing figures were pursued by Deities, and Danniton and his companion accused each other of causing the pursuit.

Bebe and Danniton fled across the Infernal Realm after a bounty was placed on Bebe, puzzling over who wanted him captured. They crossed the Star Mist Sea to seek refuge on another continent, while Bebe remained confident he could defend himself with his Innate Divine Ability.

• Bebe and Danniton argued as they fled the Deities pursuing them, blaming each other for their predicament.
• Bebe reasoned that the bounty was aimed specifically at him, while the narrator revealed that Rhodes had allowed the search to continue because he still wanted Bebe's cooperation.
• Bebe and Danniton fought off pursuing Deities and learned from prisoners that a powerful figure had ordered Bebe's capture in exchange for a reward.
• Bebe and Danniton boarded a Metal Lifeform and crossed the Star Mist Sea to hide on another continent.
• Bebe considered returning to the Material Plane but chose to remain in the Infernal Realm, trusting his Innate Divine Ability against any enemies they might face.

Bebe and Danniton crossed the Star Mist Sea, where Danniton tricked Bebe into flying into a deadly Fog Sea Riot, before they continued toward the Blood Peak Continent. As they neared land, Bebe sensed danger, and an enemy who had waited eighty years was ready for them.

• Bebe and Danniton flew into the Star Mist Sea, and Danniton lured Bebe into the fog as a vast Fog Sea Riot formed around them.
• Bebe and Danniton dodged lightning and sparred inside the storm, then Bebe knocked Danniton toward the lightning and fled into the sea.
• Lightning pursued Bebe into the depths, and both men eventually emerged from the storm with their hair and beards singed.
• Bebe and Danniton traveled for eighty years until Danniton recognized the Blood Peak Continent and anticipated testing himself against its experts.
• Bebe sensed a terrifying presence ahead, while an unnamed man who could resist even a Paragon waited by the sea for them.

Bebe and Danniton were intercepted in the Star Mist Sea by Hemmers, an immensely powerful expert ordered to capture them. After failing to defeat or escape him, they agreed to go with him.

• Hemmers identified Bebe and Danniton and told them he had been waiting years to take them with him.
• Danniton recognized Hemmers as an undefeated expert, and Bebe and Danniton attacked him rather than surrender.
• Hemmers withstood their physical and soul attacks, protected by Sovereign Artifacts, and wounded both of them.
• When Bebe and Danniton tried to flee, Hemmers used Earth Sovereign Power and his Material Attack Sovereign Artifact to overpower them.
• Bebe and Danniton realized they could not defeat Hemmers and agreed to accompany him.

Hemmers brought Bebe and Danniton to the Skyrite Mountains after revealing that a Sovereign wanted to meet them. They reached the Hall of the Gods and stood before Sovereign Rhodes, who told Hemmers to leave and said he would make arrangements for them.

• Hemmers told Bebe and Danniton that a Sovereign wanted to see them, and Danniton explained to Bebe what Sovereigns were rumored to be.
• Hemmers guided the pair through the guarded, mist-covered entrance to the Skyrite Mountains using a token.
• Bebe and Danniton saw the immense peaks and dragon statue, then followed Hemmers to the Hall of the Gods.
• Sovereign Rhodes emerged from the hall, dismissed Hemmers, and told Bebe and Danniton to raise their heads.

Bebe arrived at the Skyrite Mountains and learned that Rhodes would take him as a Sovereign Emissary only if he won the upcoming tournament. As the tournament drew near, Gaiseresen worried about two rising challengers, while the clans prepared to host a much larger field of competitors.

• Lei Si brought Bebe and Danniton to Rhodes, where Hathaway appointed Danniton her Sovereign Emissary and granted him a soul-defense Sovereign Artifact.
• Rhodes learned that Bebe was a God-Slaying Rat and offered to make him his Sovereign Emissary if he won the Skyrite Mountains tournament and represented Heaven-Reaching Peak.
• Rhodes told Annie he expected Bebe to defeat most of the competing Deities, then arranged for the Sovereigns to attend the tournament.
• Lei Si told Rhodes that Bebe and Danniton had become renowned in the Infernal Realm, with some people suspecting they were Paragons.
• Gaiseresen met with Quick Bowen and other clan members, learned that 108 participants were entering the tournament, and worried that his father would beat him again if the Azure Dragon Clan ranked poorly.