Chapter Summaries

Wang Yan’s parchment released Lian’er, who took the name Hu Meier, and later brought Xu Long and the old fox out of its world. Xu Long killed Wang Yan’s brute and seized the parchment before beginning a battle with Wang Yan, while the two foxes disappeared.

• Wang Yan waited near Mount Yunmeng with his brute teammate until his parchment erupted with light and released Lian’er, who introduced herself as Hu Meier.
• Wang Yan learned that Hu Meier was one of the foxes his team had been searching for and grew closer to her as they waited.
• The parchment erupted again, releasing Xu Long and the old fox; Xu Long recognized Wang Yan’s attempt to trap him, took the parchment, and attacked.
• Xu Long killed Wang Yan’s brute with the World-Breaking Blade, while Wang Yan used the Law of Space-Time against him.
• Xu Long and Wang Yan fought away from Mount Yunmeng, and the old fox and Hu Meier vanished amid the destruction.

Xu Long overwhelmed Wang Yan in their rematch, while the injured old fox and Lian'er escaped and killed Brute. The chapter ended with Xu Long charging Wang Yan to finish the fight.

• Wang Yan used his new Space-Time Severance and Extinction technique, but Xu Long blocked it with the Power of Oblivion and mocked him.
• Wang Yan tried to hold Xu Long back while the old fox and Lian'er fled with Brute, who trusted Wang Yan to win.
• The old fox killed Brute, absorbed his power and memories, and left with Lian'er to find somewhere lively.
• Xu Long used the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram to bombard Wang Yan with spiritual qi and then pierced his chest with a sniper-rifle shot.
• Wang Yan healed and claimed the injury was not serious, while Xu Long drew the World-Breaking Blade and charged to end the battle.

Xu Long defeated Wang Yan in their second battle, but the Eternal Life Heavenly Palace rescued Wang Yan before Xu Long could kill him. Unable to locate the old fox and Lian'er, Xu Long concluded that a hidden conflict within the Heavenly Court lay behind the events surrounding the Heavenly Book.

• Xu Long used the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram to restrain Wang Yan and wounded him with the World-Breaking Blade, forcing Wang Yan to burn his magic power and soul to resist.
• Xu Long pressed his advantage as Wang Yan panicked, pierced his chest, and left him near death; the Eternal Life Heavenly Palace intervened and took Wang Yan away.
• Xu Long used a Divination Talisman to search for the old fox and Lian'er but could no longer detect their auras.
• Xu Long connected the foxes to Holy Auntie and Hu Meier from Secrets of the Heavenly Book and reasoned that the Heavenly Book and Yuan Gong's actions had concealed a struggle within the Heavenly Court.
• Xu Long resolved that his task involved contending with the Heavenly Court's hidden forces while avoiding unnecessary risks.

After Wang Yan’s rescue, Xu Long followed repeated divinations to Ji Province in search of Hu Chuer, but his trail vanished near a haunted temple. He left the temple after finding nothing and set out to question nearby people, while the restored temple hinted that something hidden remained there.

• Xu Long concluded the Eternal Life Heavenly Palace had paid dearly to rescue Wang Yan, left wine for Yuan Gong, and used divination to search for the lame fox Hu Chuer.
• Rumors of a ghost at the Hanging Temple spread after villagers, soldiers, and cultivators suffered the same nightmares, and Piao Guochang decided to visit the temple after dreaming of its horrors three times.
• Xu Long reached the area outside Ji Province City but could no longer divine Hu Chuer’s location, despite having narrowed the search there through more than a hundred readings.
• Xu Long searched the dilapidated Hanging Temple, destroyed its ruins while checking for hidden spaces, and left after finding no trace of Hu Chuer.
• After Xu Long departed, the temple and its rubble vanished and reappeared as they had been before; Xu Long then headed for a nearby settlement to question its residents.

Xu Long investigated the recurring nightmare affecting Ji Province City and entered it to find the temple at its center. He reached the temple gate with Piao Guochang and recognized it as resembling the dilapidated temple he had seen before.

• Xu Long learned that people in Ji Province City and the eastern region shared a nightmare that led them toward a temple.
• Xu Long entered the nightmare and met Piao Guochang, a scholar who had experienced it eight times.
• Xu Long resisted the nightmare’s compulsion and walked past a toad scare, while Piao Guochang was forced to endure it again.
• Xu Long and Piao Guochang continued toward the temple as other weak-looking souls joined the path.
• Xu Long reached the temple gate and recognized it as nearly identical to a dilapidated temple he had seen before.

Xu Long explored the dream temple, where a lame fox drained the souls of its visitors, and learned from Master Roshi how the dream world had formed. Master Roshi tried to lure Xu Long into the lake to retrieve a treasure, but Xu Long saw through the trap and carried the turtle back toward the temple courtyard.

• Xu Long entered the temple with Piao Guochang, who succumbed to a fox enchantress after seeing her tail.
• Xu Long explored the temple and observed that its guests’ souls were slowly being drained.
• Xu Long met Master Roshi, who explained that the dream had grown from living beings’ fantasies before a lame fox seized control of it.
• Master Roshi urged Xu Long to retrieve a treasure from the lake and claim the dream world, but Xu Long refused to follow the suggestion.
• Xu Long tried and failed to break Master Roshi’s shell, then carried the taunting turtle toward the temple courtyard.

Xu Long discovered the truth behind the Dream Realm, absorbed the old turtle’s energy, and condensed his consciousness into will. He found Hu Chuer at the bottom of the soul-energy lake and attacked him, but Hu Chuer grew seven tails and the fight continued.

• Xu Long found the unusual oil lamp and used its flame to force Master Roshi out of his shell, then tore off the old turtle’s head.
• The old turtle’s corpse became pure energy and entered Xu Long, strengthening his consciousness and revealing the Dream Realm’s origins and Hu Chuer’s role in it.
• Xu Long learned that Hu Chuer was hiding beneath the lake and jumped into its soul energy to confront him.
• Xu Long formed a new body from the soul energy and beat the sleeping Hu Chuer until his body was pulp.
• Hu Chuer absorbed the lake’s soul energy and grew seven tails, but Xu Long grabbed one and repeatedly swung him into the ground.

Xu Long killed Hu Chuer, claimed another Dream World Fragment, and set out to find more fragments in Chuzhou. A lost traveler entered a strange, welcoming house as Xu Long investigated disappearances and punished the corrupt prefect.

• Xu Long beat Hu Chuer to death, absorbed his soul power, and obtained a Dream World Fragment that fused with Wang Yan's fragment.
• Xu Long refined the Dream Realm, returned to Ji Province City, and used a Divination Talisman to locate another fragment to the east.
• Mai Guoyin lost her way in a storm, found a warmly lit house, and entered after receiving no answer at the door.
• Xu Long searched Chuzhou's records and learned that many people had vanished without a trace, while the prefect neglected his duties.
• Xu Long cursed the corrupt prefect with lasting afflictions and safeguards that kept him alive and prevented others from easily curing him.

Xu Long investigated the disappearances near Chuzhou and followed a sudden storm to a mysterious courtyard that appeared in the rain. He realized its owner had noticed him and was using space to keep him away, but Xu Long continued toward it.

• Xu Long learned that dozens of people had disappeared near Chuzhou and that the prefect had failed to investigate.
• Xu Long rode with a bandit disguised as a traveler and questioned him about the missing people.
• When the bandit formed the intent to kill Xu Long, he aged millions of years in an instant and turned to ashes.
• A sudden downpour revealed a courtyard, and Xu Long recognized it as a fragment of an unformed small world.
• Xu Long sensed that the courtyard's owner was manipulating space to keep him from reaching the gate.

Xu Long fought the soul-energy Red-Tailed Fox, absorbed much of her power, and entered the courtyard to confront the hidden force behind the strange small world. After realizing he had reached the courtyard for a third time, he stepped into darkness and found a figure he suspected was not its true body.

• Xu Long opened the gate and found the seven-tailed Red-Tailed Fox, whose attacks his Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram blocked.
• Xu Long overpowered Red-Tailed Fox, but she severed two tails to escape and drew on the small world's soul energy to strengthen herself.
• Xu Long countered her attacks with his body and World-Breaking Blade, severed a tail, and beheaded her before absorbing her soul energy.
• Xu Long entered the courtyard and cut down the fake vicious beasts that charged him.
• Xu Long realized he was entering the courtyard for a third time, stepped into the darkness, and challenged the figure ahead, saying it was not its true body.

Xu Long entered the small world fragment, overcame its illusions, and discovered that he had to defeat seven Innate beings to claim its treasures. He began the first trial by draining the water-attribute Innate being, who surrendered as his energy dwindled.

• Xu Long killed Sha Bi, a stone demon, after Sha Bi revealed his identity and refused to hand over the small world fragment.
• Xu Long destroyed the illusory courtyard with the Power of Oblivion and passed through a light curtain into a dark realm filled with soul-targeting illusions.
• Xu Long dispelled the visions of Hell and recognized a palace resembling the Dragon Palace from Journey to the West, then entered its enormous hall.
• The Main God announced trials against the Innate beings of the Five Elements and the Two Aspects, and Xu Long encountered the water-attribute Innate being amid rain of liquefied spiritual energy.
• Xu Long attacked the water-attribute Innate being, learned that the gentle spirit was poor at fighting, and began absorbing its energy until it surrendered with only about thirty percent remaining.

Xu Long absorbed the Water Essence, then forced the Fire Essence to surrender and join it in his small world. He repelled the Metal-attribute Innate lifeform’s sneak attack and began fighting it, leaving the metal creature injured but still standing.

• The water-attribute Innate lifeform admitted defeat and turned into the Water Essence, which Xu Long absorbed into his small world.
• The fire-attribute Innate lifeform charged Xu Long but abruptly knelt, begged for mercy, and turned into the Fire Essence.
• The Water Essence explained that water overcame fire, and the Fire Essence praised Xu Long from within his small world.
• The metal-attribute Innate lifeform attacked Xu Long with a golden sword, but the blade could not pierce his forehead.
• Xu Long fought back with the World-Breaking Blade, neutralized the Metal Essence’s Power of Tremors, and notched its blade.

Xu Long defeated the metal-element and earth-element Innate beings after they tried to interfere, then used the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram to uproot the wood-element being. The tree panicked as Xu Long prepared to destroy him root and branch.

• Xu Long cut down the metal-element Innate being despite his pleas for mercy, but the tree and stone puppet intervened before the final blow landed.
• Xu Long attacked the tree and stone puppet, severed them, and pinned the fleeing stone being down with the metal-element spirit.
• The stone being tried to escape underground, but Xu Long used the Power of Oblivion to kill him.
• Xu Long activated the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram to seal the tree's power, trap him, and uproot him with the Colossus Dharma Body.
• Xu Long used the move Lu Zhishen Uproots a Willow, and the tree panicked as Xu Long pulled him from the soil.

Xu Long defeated the great tree, gathered the Essences of Yin and Yang, killed Sha Bi, and claimed a fourth small-world fragment. After his divinations failed to locate the fifth fragment, he concealed his aura, found its general location, and flew toward Zhuzhou City.

• Xu Long tore the great tree from the ground and seized its heartwood, but discovered that part of its core and consciousness had escaped.
• The Essences of Yin and Yang surrendered and brought the stone demon Sha Bi to Xu Long, who killed Sha Bi and absorbed the fourth small-world fragment.
• After two Divination Talismans failed to reveal the fifth fragment, Xu Long used the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram to conceal his aura.
• Xu Long used a third Divination Talisman to learn the fifth fragment's general location and ordered the Vulture King to fly there at full speed.
• Three days later, Xu Long and the Vulture King approached Zhuzhou City, where rivers ran through fields and settlements.

Xu Long searched Zhuzhou City for the fifth small-world fragment and learned through Zhang Leshan’s memories that the city had nearly three million residents and pleasure boats run by Tayao maidens. He headed south toward the boats, while Zhang Leshan awoke from Xu Long’s dream search and later visited one himself, where Madam Song refused to let him stay the night.

• Xu Long entered Zhuzhou City, disguised himself as a clerk, and searched its gazetteer for clues to the fragment.
• Xu Long used Dream Soul Search on assistant official Zhang Leshan and discovered the city’s population and the pleasure boats outside the south gate.
• Xu Long left the government office and flew south on the Vulture King as Zhang Leshan woke and looked toward the sky.
• Zhang Leshan went to a pleasure boat, where Madam Song told him the guest rooms were full and he could not stay overnight.
• Zhang Leshan drank with two Tayao maidens and continued to study the boat and its people.

Zhang Leshan left Madam Song’s pleasure boat for Ruixian’s black-awning boat, where their shared sorrow over her pipa music gave way to an intimate night together. The next morning, Ruixian urged him to leave before the lotus maiden arrived to fetch her.

• Zhang Leshan charmed the tayao dancers at Madam Song’s banquet while Madam Song watched him for signs of suspicion.
• Madam Song told Zhang Leshan that Ruixian’s boat was waiting, and he promptly left the banquet without spilling a drop of wine from his cup.
• Ruixian played the pipa for Zhang Leshan in her cabin, and he listened without sharing his usual words of bitterness.
• Someone extinguished the cabin’s lamp, and Zhang Leshan and Ruixian spent the night together in the dark boat.
• The next morning, Zhang Leshan recited a line of poetry as Ruixian dressed, and she coaxed him to leave before the lotus maiden arrived.

Xu Long, disguised as Zhang Leshan, investigated the rising river, Ruixian’s departure, and a blanked-out flood record in Zhuzhou’s prefectural gazetteer. After using the Curse Speech Technique to recover his severed link to the Power of Oblivion, he traced it to a lake where several mysterious black-awning boats were moored.

• Zhang Leshan listened to a boat and bamboo clapper approach, put Ruixian’s shoes on her, and watched her leave aboard a black-awning boat with a lotus girl.
• Zhang Leshan discovered that the prefectural gazetteer’s page about Zhuzhou’s floods had gone blank and revealed that he was Xu Long, who had entered Zhang Leshan’s dream to read his memories.
• Xu Long realized his Power of Oblivion marker on Ruixian’s shoes had been cut off when the black-awning boat disappeared into the fog, and suspected the boat was connected to the fifth world fragment.
• Xu Long used the Curse Speech Technique to locate his Power of Oblivion again, endured the pressure of the world’s laws, and teleported to the river.
• Xu Long followed the marker downstream to a vast lake, where he found several black-awning boats moored along its shores with lotus girls at their bows.

Xu Long attacked the black-awning boats after discovering that one held his Power of Oblivion, then fought an old fisherman who wielded the lake’s laws. After Xu Long struck the fisherman down, another presence intervened and sent him crashing into the lake, but Xu Long sealed the sky to stop it from escaping.

• Xu Long resisted the lotus women’s ballad and killed them with the World-Breaking Blade.
• Xu Long cut through the lake’s towering waves and found an old fisherman on the last black-awning boat.
• Xu Long summoned the Azure Firmament Celestial Star Formation Diagram and battled the fisherman’s waterspout with Sealing, Spiritual Qi Bombardment, and the World-Breaking Blade.
• Xu Long killed the old fisherman and weakened the waterspout, but a sudden spiritual pressure crushed it and made the boat vanish.
• A hidden force struck Xu Long and his Colossus Dharma Body into the lake, and Xu Long sealed the sky to keep the presence from escaping.

Xu Long killed the Void Beast and recovered the Innate Wood Essence from the black-canopied boat, learning that Zhuzhou City’s repeated floods and deaths had nourished it. With all five fragments gathered, their power loosened his cultivation barrier, but he suppressed the coming tribulation and diverted much of the energy into his True Dragon Clone.

• Xu Long used the formation diagram, Precision Sniping, Spiritual Qi Bombardment, and the World-Breaking Blade to kill the Void Beast above the lake.
• Xu Long recovered the black-canopied boat and found the Innate Wood Essence inside it, learning that Zhuzhou City’s inhabitants had fueled its vitality through repeated floods and deaths.
• Xu Long absorbed the wood essence, completing his collection of the Five Elements fragments and drawing their immense energy into himself.
• Xu Long’s cultivation barrier loosened and clouds gathered for a Lightning Tribulation, but he suppressed the energy to postpone his breakthrough.
• Xu Long transferred much of the remaining Five Elements energy into his True Dragon Clone, and the clouds and spiritual pressure around him dispersed.

Xu Long awakened his Tribulation Transcendence Stage true dragon avatar and headed toward Mount Yunmeng, where Yuan Gong confronted a Heavenly Palace envoy and departed after entrusting Dansheng with the Heavenly Book and Divine Brush. Left alone, Dansheng resisted the book’s temptation until a woman’s plea for rain led him to write “rainwater” for the first time, causing the world’s laws to shift.

• Xu Long awakened his true dragon avatar, sealed the Void Beast’s corpse, and flew toward Mount Yunmeng to settle unfinished business.
• A skull made of gray crows confronted Yuan Gong on Mount Yunmeng, and Yuan Gong entered a spatial rift with it after leaving a shadow behind to instruct Dansheng.
• Yuan Gong’s shadow gave Dansheng the Divine Brush and the translated Heavenly Book, warned him not to write until he understood its contents, and then disappeared.
• Dansheng studied the Heavenly Book, resisted its temptation to write on the blank page, and remembered his purpose of benefiting the people.
• After a drought-stricken woman prayed for rain, Dansheng consulted the climate calendar and wrote “rainwater” in the Heavenly Book, making dark clouds gather as the laws of the world surged.