Chapter Summaries

The Eight Royal Clans’ prodigies gathered above the sacred mountain and discussed how to take Karma from Langyu Qingming Heaven’s newcomers. Minglang declined to join the contest, leaving the other seven to divide their opponents as the approaching prodigies neared the summit.

• Qing Pingyi and Xiong Kuotian argued over Qing Pingyi’s past defeat until Minglang warned them not to disrupt the royal clans’ purpose.
• A woman from the Eternal Wood King Clan explained that defeating newcomers could replenish the Karma the clan prodigies had lost on the Ancient Road.
• Hu Zhantang noted that twenty-six prodigies were approaching from Langyu Qingming Heaven.
• Minglang refused to participate, focusing instead on his cultivation and the final Tide Pearl in the Sea Tide Secret Realm.
• The other seven royal clan prodigies agreed that each would face three opponents, while dividing the remaining five among themselves.

The Desolate Realm Sacred Mountain revealed climbers’ Karma, and Ao Zhen’s flood-dragon manifestation drew the attention of the royal clan successors. Bai Yi discovered that the Dao-Deriving Mirror could guide him toward an opportunity on the summit, and he continued climbing to find it.

• The woman of withering and flourishing spotted Ao Zhen’s flood-dragon Karma and Ao Ya’s faint viper form, while Xiong Kuotian and the others assessed Ao Zhen as a powerful prospect.
• Qing Pingyi decided to target Ao Zhen’s Karma to recover what he had lost.
• Qin Minmin and Li Changhe used karmic treasures to conceal their Karma as they hurried toward the summit.
• Bai Yi’s Dao-Deriving Mirror transformed his Karma into a horned dragon and revealed that an opportunity awaited him at the summit.
• Bai Yi realized he could use the mirror and his Karma to seek opportunities, then decided to climb toward the summit.

Bai Yi and the other prodigies gathered at the summit of the Desolate Realm Sacred Mountain, where Minglang opened the Heaven-Connecting Ancient Road trial. The Desolate Clan guardians sealed the mountain and challenged the assembled prodigies to defeat them for Ancient Road marks, and the first clash began.

• Bai Yi reached the summit, where Jin Guangyao and other prodigies from major powers had gathered with the Eight Royal Clans' inheritors.
• Xiong Kuotian nearly attacked Jin Guangyao but restrained himself after Minglang's cough reminded him of the Desolate Clan's rules.
• The remaining prodigies arrived, and Xiong Kuotian and six other royal clan inheritors stepped forward to face them.
• Minglang sealed the sacred mountain and announced that defeating the Ancient Road guardians would earn the prodigies Ancient Road marks.
• After Xiong Kuotian called the assembled prodigies third-rate, one of them summoned a storm of weapons with literary energy and attacked.

Xiong Kuotian overwhelmed prodigies from the Wen Tian Institute and Ice Abyss Palace, revealing how effectively he had integrated the Great Dao of Strength into his fighting style. As the Desolate Clan’s Royal Clan Heirs attacked the other prodigies on the Sacred Mountain, Qin Minmin and Bai Yi watched from the sidelines.

• Xiong Kuotian shattered the Confucian prodigy’s literary-energy weapons, Dharma Form, and protective treasures, then defeated him and the prodigy who came to his aid.
• Xiong Kuotian’s victory shocked the surrounding prodigies, while Qin Minmin wondered how many of his blows Bai Yi could endure.
• Bai Yi assessed that Xiong Kuotian’s strength came from integrating his Great Dao into his own cultivation methods and martial arts.
• Xiong Kuotian boasted that the defeated prodigies would become nourishment for his Path to Immortality and rejoiced as two streams of Karma flowed to him.
• The other six Royal Clan Heirs attacked the prodigies across the Sacred Mountain as Qin Minmin, Li Changhe, Ao Zhen, Jin Guangyao, and others watched.

Bai Yi watched as the Desolate Clan prodigies defeated nearly twenty heirs of ordinary major powers and took their karma. Qin Minmin then confronted a Desolate Clan woman and overwhelmed her with her Heaven-Burning Cocoon-Breaking Spear, while Qing Pingyi prepared to face Li Changhe.

• Bai Yi observed the Desolate Clan prodigies dominate the melee and praised their fighting techniques.
• The Desolate Clan heirs stripped nearly twenty defeated human prodigies of their karma and turned toward the remaining opponents.
• Qin Minmin stepped forward to fight the woman who wielded the power of withering and flourishing, summoning a spear amid blazing purple-gold flames.
• Qin Minmin’s Heaven-Burning Cocoon-Breaking Spear shattered the woman’s flower sea and deathly vortex, forcing her to retreat.
• Qing Pingyi watched Li Changhe and wondered how his own luck would fare.

Li Changhe defeated Qing Pingyi by revealing his mastery of the Great Daos of Life and Death, drawing the Desolate Clan prodigies’ attention. Minglang recognized Li Changhe as a first-rate Nascent Soul prodigy and invited him to challenge him after the trial, while Lü Qingmo faced an attack from the Ancient Elephant Royal Clan inheritor.

• Qing Pingyi enveloped Li Changhe in venom, but Li Changhe cut through the poison with a Life-and-Death Yin-Yang Disc.
• Li Changhe shattered Qing Pingyi’s Heavenly Serpent manifestation with a Life-and-Death Rotation Palm Seal, leaving Qing Pingyi severely injured.
• Ao Zhen and the Desolate Clan prodigies were shocked by Li Changhe’s strength, while Ao Ya admired him.
• Minglang descended to the Sacred Mountain, praised Li Changhe’s Dao intent, and said Li Changhe could challenge him after the trial.
• The Ancient Elephant Royal Clan inheritor used Heaven and Earth Manifestation to stomp at Lü Qingmo, who rang his Soul-Swaying Bell and stopped the blood-energy foot in midair.

The human prodigies defeated the Desolate Realm royal-clan challengers, leaving Bai Yi as the last target. Minghuang announced a final trial requiring the challengers to defeat Bai Yi regardless of their numbers.

• Lü Qingmo used the Soul-Swaying Bell to overwhelm the Ancient Elephant Royal Clan prodigy with ghostly souls.
• Jin Guangyao steadied his Dao heart, then used the supreme treasure copper coin and his wealth-based Dao to defeat Xiong Kuotian.
• Ao Zhen defeated the Sky Fox King Clan prodigy with his flood-dragon lightning and returned to Ao Ya's side.
• Xiang Kuang told Minghuang he intended to enter the Sage Realm, while Minghuang said he might last five hundred years.
• Minghuang invoked the Great Dao's voice to announce the final trial: defeat Bai Yi of Domain-Suppressing City, no matter the numbers.

Minglang challenged Bai Yi after a Sage urged the gathered prodigies to join forces against him. As Minglang’s ocean domain engulfed the summit, Bai Yi’s hidden power emerged as a blazing sun that drove the sea away.

• A voice from the void singled out Bai Yi as someone the gathered prodigies could not defeat, provoking surprise and anger among them.
• Minglang recognized the voice of his ancestor and approached Bai Yi to challenge him.
• Minglang unleashed his Jadeite Dragon Pearl and transformed the Sacred Mountain summit into an ocean domain.
• Ao Ya told Ao Zhen that Bai Yi’s power resembled a bright sun and far surpassed Minglang’s.
• A Golden Crow cried out as a golden-red sun rose from the tide, scorching the ocean until it receded.

Bai Yi overwhelmed Minglang with his Great Sun Golden Crow inheritance and powerful body cultivation, despite Minglang’s mastery of the Great Dao of Water. Minglang awakened his Azure Water Flood Dragon bloodline and unleashed a devouring vortex, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Bai Yi revealed his Great Sun phenomenon and burned away Minglang’s water attacks with blazing punches.
• Qin Minmin and Li Changhe watched in shock as Bai Yi’s power and Golden Crow inheritance became clear.
• Bai Yi’s cultivation and Pure Yang Dao let him withstand Minglang’s changing water techniques and grow stronger as the fight continued.
• Minglang awakened his Azure Water Flood Dragon bloodline and declared that Bai Yi would still lose.
• Minglang enveloped Bai Yi in a hundred-li azure vortex that devoured spiritual power, blood energy, and the Great Dao.

Bai Yi overwhelmed Minglang in their battle on the Sacred Mountain, defeating him with his Golden Crow Heaven-Burning Fist Canon. Afterward, Minghuang agreed to help Xiang Kuang and announced a final battle in which anyone who defeated Bai Yi could claim a Dao Resonance Fruit.

• Bai Yi unleashed his full Pure Yang Golden Crow power and broke through Minglang’s azure sea attacks.
• Minglang used the Tide Pearl and other Dharma Treasures to defend himself, but Bai Yi’s punches steadily overwhelmed him.
• Bai Yi struck Minglang with Golden Crow burns the heavens, smashing apart his flood-dragon form and leaving him defeated on the Sacred Mountain.
• Minghuang praised Bai Yi’s talent and agreed to help Xiang Kuang hold off some of their opponents, while leaving success dependent on Bai Yi’s progress on the Ancient Road.
• Minghuang announced that whoever defeated Bai Yi, regardless of numbers, would receive one Dao Resonance Fruit, stirring the gathered prodigies to fight.

Bai Yi overcame Lü Qingmo’s soul attack and suppressed his army of spirits, but Qin Minmin, Li Changhe, and Ao Zhen joined forces to attack him. The chapter ended with Bai Yi trapped amid their spear, death, and lightning domains.

• Lü Qingmo unleashed his Divine Soul Dao and attacked Bai Yi’s consciousness, but Bai Yi’s Dao-Deriving Mirror helped him repel the assault.
• Bai Yi struck Lü Qingmo with a sun-like punch, which Lü Qingmo crushed with giant arms formed from divine souls.
• Lü Qingmo released ten thousand spirits, but Bai Yi’s Golden Crow prison-suppressing diagram sealed them away.
• Qin Minmin shattered Bai Yi’s prison-suppressing manifestation with her spear, while Li Changhe sealed Bai Yi within a land of death.
• Ao Zhen summoned a storm of lightning and struck the trapped Bai Yi with a dragon claw.

Bai Yi faced Lü Qingmo, Qin Minmin, Li Changhe, and Ao Zhen as they joined forces to test his strength, then broke their combined arts with a single sword strike. He defeated Qin Minmin and froze Lü Qingmo, leaving Li Changhe and Ao Zhen still facing him.

• Lü Qingmo and the other prodigies joined forces against Bai Yi to test the strength of the Domain-Suppressing City prodigy.
• Bai Yi shattered the four cultivators' combined Dao arts with one sword strike, stunning them and the Desolate Clan prodigies watching from the Sacred Mountain.
• Bai Yi attacked Qin Minmin with his Little Breeze Sword Art, breaking her spear domains and driving her into the Sacred Mountain despite her defensive Dharma Treasure.
• Bai Yi severed Lü Qingmo's surprise soul attack and froze him into an ice sculpture with a sword strike.
• Bai Yi smashed the frozen Lü Qingmo between Qin Minmin and Minglang, while Li Changhe and Ao Zhen remained to face him.

Bai Yi overwhelmed Li Changhe and Ao Zhen after they joined forces, then revealed a sword strike that dismantled their domains and left them defeated. He named the strike Heavenly Azure Void Sword—Guixu.

• Bai Yi faced Li Changhe and Ao Zhen as they combined their domains of vitality and thunder to attack him.
• Bai Yi filled the thunder pool with more than a hundred sword phantoms, breaking through the combined domains and forcing Ao Zhen to retreat.
• Li Changhe recognized that Bai Yi’s sword comprehension had touched the Fourth Realm and charged him with his Yin-Yang Cycle Dharma Aspect while Ao Zhen sought an opening.
• Bai Yi severed Ao Zhen’s protective Dao light, and Li Changhe burned his Origin Power to trap Bai Yi in his perfected life-and-death domain.
• Bai Yi manifested his Dharma Aspect and used a sword strike that erased the life-and-death domain and collapsed the thunder pool, leaving shallow sword marks on Li Changhe and Ao Zhen’s necks.
• Li Changhe asked the name of Bai Yi’s sword strike, and Bai Yi called it Heavenly Azure Void Sword—Guixu.

After Bai Yi defeated Li Changhe, Qin Minmin, Lü Qingmo, and Minglang, they revealed that the upheaval on the Ancient Road was tied to a hidden crisis affecting their world. Learning Bai Yi was only sixty years old shocked the defeated group, and Qin Minmin said he would understand the truth behind Langyu Qingming Heaven after entering the Ancient Road.

• Li Changhe healed Qin Minmin, Lü Qingmo, and Minglang after Bai Yi defeated them, and said Bai Yi's rise was good news for their world.
• Bai Yi asked what the others knew about the upheaval on the Ancient Road, and Qin Minmin asked his age.
• Bai Yi said he was sixty, stunning the group and leaving Ao Zhen devastated that he had lost to someone so young.
• The group compared Bai Yi's accomplishments with their own longer cultivation and realized why he knew nothing about the world's hidden situation.
• Qin Minmin warned that the world's imprint had not yet seeped into Bai Yi, and said Sage Xiang had likely prepared him to learn the truth after entering the Ancient Road.

Bai Yi and the others received Minghuang’s approval to enter the Heaven-Connecting Ancient Road after he judged their trial and opened the passage. Bai Yi entered first, while Minghuang warned that those who crossed would stake their own Karma and have no retreat.

• Ao Ya praised Bai Yi as four times as amazing as her brother, easing the group’s gloomy mood.
• In the depths of chaos, Minghuang praised Bai Yi’s Nascent Soul Realm swordsmanship and exceptional talent to Xiang Kuang.
• Minghuang appeared above the Sacred Mountain, and his Mahayana-perfection aura forced Bai Yi, his companions, and the Desolate Realm prodigies to bow.
• Minghuang declared the group qualified for the Ancient Road, gave them Golden Law to shield them from Karma loss, and healed their injuries.
• Minghuang split the stone stele and opened the Heaven-Connecting Ancient Road, warning that entry meant no retreat.
• Bai Yi bowed to Minghuang, transformed into sword light, and plunged into the Ancient Road vortex.

After leaving the Ancient Road’s entrance, Bai Yi arrived in a realm where the Great Dao was far clearer than in Langyu Qingming Heaven. A message from Xiang Kuang revealed that Langyu Qingming Heaven was a manipulated prison where Six-Celestial City cultivated and harvested prodigies, leaving Bai Yi to confront the truth behind his world.

• Bai Yi, Lü Qingmo, and the others entered the Ancient Road vortex, while Minghuang confronted and drove a mysterious shadow back into the chaos.
• Bai Yi emerged from a rift onto a cliff, then sensed the Ancient Road’s stable space and clear Great Dao source.
• Bai Yi settled in a mountain cave and activated Xiang Kuang’s Great Sun Talisman to hear his final message.
• Xiang Kuang revealed that Langyu Qingming Heaven was a tampered prison controlled by Six-Celestial City.
• Bai Yi realized that destiny, bloodlines, and manifestations had been engineered to harvest the world’s prodigies.

Bai Yi learned that Heavenly City had secretly controlled Langyu Qingming Heaven for hundreds of thousands of years, harvesting its prodigies, and that Xiang Kuang’s sacrifice had bought him and the others five hundred years. He began forming his Cangxu Sword Heart, while a merchant convoy headed to congratulate the Jiu Household on the marriage of its eldest legitimate daughter to a prodigy from beyond this world.

• Bai Yi learned from Xiang Kuang’s message how Heavenly City had disguised itself as a righteous faction while harvesting generations of prodigies.
• Bai Yi steadied himself, resolved to make Xiang Kuang’s sacrifice worthwhile, and began forming his Cangxu Sword Heart through sudden enlightenment.
• A merchant convoy crossed the Heleng Mountains carrying lavish gifts for the Jiu Household.
• A youth questioned Uncle Xing about the Jiu Household’s marriage, and Uncle Xing explained that the bride had rescued a prodigy from beyond this world.
• Uncle Xing told the youth that even his talented eldest brother would pale beside such outsiders, leaving the youth stunned.

A beast tide bore down on the Xu Household convoy, but Second Master Xu realized the beasts were fleeing a human cultivator. The tide passed around the convoy, and a calm young man in pale blue-and-white robes approached its formation and fixed his gaze on Second Master Xu.

• Second Master Xu and Uncle Ming detected an approaching beast tide and ordered the Xu Household convoy to activate its defensive formations.
• Uncle Ming and Second Master Xu argued over who would stay behind to face the beasts while the other escaped with Luo'er.
• Second Master Xu saw five Nascent Soul beasts, including a silver-backed peng bird demon king, and rallied the convoy to fight.
• Uncle Ming spotted a human cultivator amid the tide, and Second Master Xu realized the beasts were fleeing from him.
• The beasts swept around the convoy and fled into the mountains, while the young man approached the formation and looked directly at Second Master Xu.

After condensing his Sword Heart, Bai Yi sought directions to Guanhai City and learned that the Sea Tide Secret Realm would open in six months. He joined the Xu Household convoy traveling to Luoshan City, where a competition could provide a fast route toward his destination.

• Bai Yi asked Second Master Xu whether they were in Canghai Province and where Guanhai City was, then learned that the city lay an immense distance away.
• Bai Yi explained that he needed to reach Guanhai City before the Sea Tide Secret Realm opened in six months, and Second Master Xu said the Xu Household could not help him travel there quickly.
• A young cultivator mentioned the Luoshan Grand Competition, whose top ten could use the Lanhai Sect's spatial formation to travel to the Three Light Heavenly Sea.
• Second Master Xu explained that the competition accepted cultivators under two hundred, and Bai Yi said he qualified and would accompany the convoy to Luoshan City.
• Bai Yi stepped through the Xu Household's defensive formation without damaging it, and Second Master Xu escorted him onto the carriage, recognizing him as a prodigy from beyond the heavens.

Bai Yi invited Xu Changqing into his carriage, discovered the boy’s secret sword cultivation and examined the broken sword that had granted him two inheritances. After learning the Xu family forbade sword cultivation because of its bloody past, Bai Yi asked Xu Changqing what he understood about the sword and the sword Dao.

• Second Master Xu panicked when his nephew asked about Bai Yi, but Bai Yi invited Xu Changqing into the carriage and offered to teach him.
• Bai Yi detected Xu Changqing’s hidden Sword Intent, and Xu Changqing revealed that a broken sword had taught him a sword technique and canon tied to the Myriad Swords Dao Sect.
• Xu Changqing gave Bai Yi the broken sword, which crumbled after Bai Yi examined it and received its two inherited cultivation arts.
• Bai Yi severed the sword’s decaying aura and praised Xu Changqing’s talent, then asked whether he truly loved the sword.
• Xu Changqing described his longing for the sword Dao, but his enthusiasm faded as he recalled that the Xu family had forbidden it since sword cultivators slaughtered his ancestors.
• Bai Yi asked Xu Changqing whether he understood what a sword and the sword Dao were.