Recaps

Li Xingkong set out to observe the battlefield between the Mechanical Scourge and the Zerg while continuing his tachyon-state research. At an isolated teleportation point, an unseen attacker repeatedly tampered with his memories, but his defenses held and his particle-state transformation kept the attacker from taking anything.

• Li Xingkong chose the Mechanical Scourge and Zerg battlefield as his first destination and traveled toward it while studying tachyons.
• At a remote teleportation point, Li Xingkong noticed that he had forgotten his research and realized an unknown force had altered his memory.
• Li Xingkong checked the Hexagram's cognitive defense records, confirmed that he had been attacked, and searched the empty surroundings with his Divine Sense.
• When the attacker interfered with his memory again, Li Xingkong transformed into Earth-Traversing Golden Light and then into a particle state.
• The unseen attacker passed through Li Xingkong's particles but failed to take anything from him.

Li Xingkong used the Hexagram’s calculations to identify his invisible attacker as a lifeform made entirely of tachyons, then trapped it in a tachyon-state net. As he prepared to study the creature, it stopped moving and seemed to die, prompting him to spread out his Divine Sense.

• Li Xingkong endured the creature’s attacks while the Hexagram calculated how it existed.
• After three days, the Hexagram identified the creature as a lifeform native to the tachyon state, and Li Xingkong learned to perceive it.
• Li Xingkong observed the fishlike creature’s instinctive attempts to attack and devour him, then decided to capture it.
• Li Xingkong formed a tachyon-state fishing net and trapped the creature when it charged at him.
• The captive creature swelled, went still, and appeared dead, so Li Xingkong sensed that something was wrong and spread out his Divine Sense.

Li Xingkong followed the escaped tachyon fish to a barren planet and confronted Wan Chongshan, the person who had sent it after him. Wan Chongshan vanished after warning him they would meet again, and the system revealed she was an immensely powerful figure whose presence at this point in time made no sense.

• Li Xingkong tracked the fish through several star systems to a barren planet, where a tachyon being caught it and questioned it about its failed operation against him.
• Li Xingkong appeared before the being, confronted her over targeting him, and learned that she was called Wan Chongshan.
• Wan Chongshan evaded Li Xingkong's attack, claimed she had not been responsible, and said they had met before and would meet again.
• Wan Chongshan spoke a strange phrase and vanished along with the fish, leaving Li Xingkong with no explanation.
• The system recognized Wan Chongshan, warned Li Xingkong to stay away from her, and said she was as powerful as the system's main body but seemed weaker than she should be.

The system explained that Wan Chongshan was a time-traveling powerhouse whose perspective on their meetings differed from Li Xingkong’s, and urged him to focus on growing stronger. Li Xingkong reached a busy transit station and was welcomed into a Lanzhou beef noodle shop by Divine Land settlers, only for Wan Chongshan to appear again.

• The system told Li Xingkong that Wan Chongshan had met him before from her own perspective because she could travel through time.
• The system said Wan Chongshan was at least Daluo-level and possibly close to Sage, while Li Xingkong resolved to focus on getting stronger.
• Li Xingkong arrived at a large transit station and found a Lanzhou beef noodle shop run by a couple from the Divine Land Seed Project.
• The shop owner recognized Li Xingkong as the Sword Immortal and invited him in with his family.
• Wan Chongshan appeared at the shop and asked to join Li Xingkong for a meal.

Li Xingkong tried to enjoy a meal with Wan Chongshan, who teased him before revealing that she had come to meet him for a purpose. After she let him destroy her seemingly ordinary body, she gave him the Thousand Mountains Method.

• Wan Chongshan joined Li Xingkong for a meal and repeatedly snatched away the food he tried to eat.
• Li Xingkong finally grabbed the plate and ate while Wan Chongshan recorded his struggle and teased him about sending him on his way.
• Li Xingkong finished his meal, left a spatial ring as a gift for the owner, and prepared to face Wan Chongshan.
• Wan Chongshan copied Li Xingkong's ring, then let his punch tear apart her body as he fought back.
• Wan Chongshan crumbled into dust after telling Li Xingkong to aim for the head next time, and the Thousand Mountains Method was forced into his mind.

Li Xingkong learned from the system that Wan Chongshan had given him the powerful Thousand Mountains Method, then discovered its true ability to create real parallel worlds from uncertain choices. He realized the Wan Chongshan who had visited him was a weaker version from another world, and began studying the technique.

• Li Xingkong spoke with the system, which revealed that Wan Chongshan had beaten it before disappearing.
• Li Xingkong told the system that Wan Chongshan had given him the Thousand Mountains Method, making the system jealous and astonished.
• The system explained that the technique could connect parallel selves, overcome probability, and provide ways to escape.
• Li Xingkong found a secluded place and began studying the technique.
• Li Xingkong discovered that the method created real parallel worlds for uncertain choices, and realized the Wan Chongshan who had given it to him came from another world.

Li Xingkong learned that the Thousand Mountains Method required a Dao Enemy to kill his parallel-world selves before he could advance to Daluo. After Wan Chongshan’s explanation, he began cultivating the method and used one of her slain Thousand Mountains Bodies to help find his parallel-world selves.

• Wan Chongshan had explained that creating parallel worlds split off portions of the true spirit, and that a Dao Enemy had to kill those selves so they could later merge into the true self.
• Li Xingkong accepted that Wan Chongshan had chosen him as her Dao Enemy and decided to cultivate the method despite its cost.
• Li Xingkong withheld details from the system, which praised his discretion and fell silent as he began cultivating.
• Li Xingkong studied the method and learned that its calculations let him plan parallel selves’ actions and select the most suitable path as the main world.
• Li Xingkong began with the method’s hardest step, sensing his parallel-world selves, and analyzed a Thousand Mountains Body he had killed to locate its corresponding world.

Li Xingkong used the Thousand Mountains Method to accelerate his Golden Core cultivation, then emerged from a brief cultivation session having unexpectedly reached Golden Core Six Revolutions. The system warned that he might have advanced even farther if it had not interrupted him.

• Li Xingkong spent nearly a month sensing a parallel world and nearly five years learning to use the Thousand Mountains Method.
• He used the method to create two cultivation paths and decided to attempt advancement once his deductions reached 70%.
• Li Xingkong became absorbed in cultivation until the system repeatedly called him back.
• When he awoke, Li Xingkong accidentally unleashed enough magic power to clear a vast stretch of the asteroid belt.
• Li Xingkong discovered that his Golden Core had reached Six Revolutions, and the system said he had nearly advanced to Nine Revolutions.

Li Xingkong discovered that the Thousand Mountains Method had made his cultivation advance with startling certainty, but his uncontrolled Divine Sense had transformed a civilization in a neighboring galaxy. He relocated the affected people to a habitable planet and revived the dead, leaving the native civilization worshipping him.

• Li Xingkong told the system that the Thousand Mountains Method had turned cultivation probabilities into certainty, while keeping its cost secret to honor Wan Chongshan’s permission.
• The system pointed out that Li Xingkong’s cultivation was affecting a nearby native civilization, and Li Xingkong used his Divine Sense to investigate.
• Li Xingkong found that his aura had driven researchers mad, altered their bodies, and caused an evil cult worshipping him to arise amid an extermination campaign.
• Li Xingkong adapted another planet to support life, moved all the people he had affected there, and tried to revive those who had died.
• After witnessing Li Xingkong’s power, the native civilization changed its view of him and bowed in worship.

Li Xingkong struggled to control his rapidly advancing cultivation while his parallel-world selves vanished, then discovered Wan Chongshan had hunted them down. Her fierce counterpart asked him to kill her so he could help the other Wan Chongshan gather her true spirit.

• Li Xingkong withdrew his Divine Sense, left a Spiritual Root Server as an apology, and spent over a year practicing control of his cultivation.
• Li Xingkong noticed his parallel-world selves disappearing rapidly and feared a powerful enemy was coming for him.
• After Li Xingkong gained control of his cultivation, his last parallel-world self lost contact, and a battle-clad Wan Chongshan appeared before him.
• Wan Chongshan explained that the Thousand Mountains Method revealed Li Xingkong was the main body, then gave him a saber and said she had killed his other selves to find him.
• Wan Chongshan told Li Xingkong to kill her so he could help the other Wan Chongshan gather her true spirit, and revealed that he would meet every version of her.

Li Xingkong faced a devastating saber slash from Wan Chongshan’s leather-clad clone and survived after she erased herself and her saber. He realized his strength had reached galaxy level, but decided to digest his gains before heading to the battlefield between the Zerg and the Mechanical Scourge.

• Wan Chongshan attacked Li Xingkong with a slash embodying the Dao of Sharpness, splitting his Magic Power shield and cutting through him as his regeneration failed.
• Wan Chongshan explained that her saber could not be separated from her and erased herself, while the saber in Li Xingkong’s hand also vanished.
• The system explained that Wan Chongshan had mastered Sharpness Slash, which could sever anything within the world’s jurisdiction and physical laws.
• Li Xingkong learned he could not tell whether a Wan Chongshan was the original or a Thousand Mountains Body, and decided to focus on improving his strength.
• Li Xingkong’s instinctive saber strike shattered the galaxy where he had been cultivating, revealing his power had reached galaxy level and strengthening his confidence about visiting the Zerg–Mechanical Scourge battlefield.

Li Xingkong reached a civilization near the battlefield and discovered that the darkness swallowing the stars was an enormous Zerg swarm. He recognized signs that the Zerg had a biological intelligence system, then met Zhuoyin, a Zerg diplomat offering visitors several services.

• Li Xingkong arrived at a populated planet and saw that the surrounding darkness was a vast Zerg army consuming stars and planets.
• Li Xingkong observed the swarm and concluded that specialized bugs communicated and formed a biological computer.
• Travelers debated whether the Zerg were intelligent, and Li Xingkong told them the swarm was more sophisticated than it appeared.
• Zhuoyin introduced himself as a Zerg diplomat and offered protection in exchange for genetic codes, combat in the Heaven-reaching Tower, and other services.

Zhuoyin explained how the Zerg used the Heaven-reaching Tower to test newly evolved species, but Li Xingkong had no interest in its trials. Zhuoyin offered him a chance to fight on the battlefield above, and Li Xingkong agreed to consider it after hearing the Zerg would guarantee his safety.

• Zhuoyin explained that the Zerg protected gene providers and used the Heaven-reaching Tower to test new species through combat.
• A mercenary invited Li Xingkong to join his team in the tower, but Li Xingkong declined.
• Zhuoyin recognized Li Xingkong as the Planet Exterminator and said the tower would be too easy for him.
• Zhuoyin offered to contact the Overmind and arrange a battlefield where Li Xingkong could fight at full strength with his safety guaranteed.
• Li Xingkong felt tempted by the offer but remembered Fang Ritu's warning to look around without getting involved.

Li Xingkong investigated the restraints keeping the Zerg in check, but could not identify how they worked. Zhuoyin escorted him to the Convention’s battlefield entrance, where he met Yan Jun of Kilometer Arc, who invited him to join.

• Li Xingkong examined the Zerg swarm and found that insects probing his Divine Sense turned back without any apparent spatial influence.
• Zhuoyin told Li Xingkong the battlefield was ready and explained that only etiquette insects could leave the Zerg territory under the Convention’s rules.
• Zhuoyin escorted Li Xingkong to a spherical building and introduced him to the Convention’s Ring Envoy.
• The Ring Envoy introduced itself as Yan Jun, a Dao seeker from Kilometer Arc, and sensed an aura of light in Li Xingkong.
• Yan Jun invited Li Xingkong to join Kilometer Arc, and Li Xingkong said he would consider it.

Li Xingkong entered the Zerg battlefield to test their evolutionary abilities after Yan Jun explained that the creatures were contained in a vast single-sided space. He began fighting the swarm and watched it adapt to his attacks, then dodged its corrosive spit.

• Yan Jun explained that the Zerg and Mechanical Scourge were trapped in a single-sided spatial structure and opened a passage into the battlefield for Li Xingkong.
• Li Xingkong entered the Zerg's core territory, where Zhuoyin told him through a communicator that he could begin.
• Li Xingkong blasted the approaching swarm with divine light, but the Zerg devoured their fallen and adapted their bodies to withstand his attacks.
• Li Xingkong increased the divine light's power and reduced every bug within several astronomical units to ash.
• The remaining Zerg surged toward Li Xingkong and spat corrosive liquid at him, but he analyzed it with his Divine Sense and dodged.

Li Xingkong studied the Zerg swarm as it evolved resistance to his Divine Light and attacked his Divine Sense. He continued using Divine Light alone to hone his control as the swarm replaced its cannon fodder with resistant troops.

• Li Xingkong watched new bugs consume their fellows, reproduce, and grow highly resistant to Divine Light.
• A spirit-like sentinel bug fed on the Magic Power in Li Xingkong’s Divine Sense, and successive waves forced him to withdraw his probe.
• Li Xingkong identified the swarm’s specialized troops, commanders, researchers, laborers, and sentinels as parts of a highly unified organism.
• The cannon-fodder bugs withdrew, and an army of bugs resistant to Divine Light took their place.
• Li Xingkong kept fighting with Divine Light alone to train his control without teaching the Zerg more of his methods.

Li Xingkong fought the evolved bugs and realized that limiting their access to matter was key to reducing their numbers. After studying their tactics, he unleashed his full power as a Golden Core Sixth Level cultivator and wiped out every bug touched by his Divine Light.

• The evolved bugs adapted to Li Xingkong's Divine Light, sealed the space to block his teleportation, and tried to consume his magic power shield.
• Li Xingkong observed that the bugs relied on matter to grow and reproduce, and realized he could vaporize matter by converting it into magic power.
• Li Xingkong drew the surrounding bugs together with a growing gravitational force, compressing them into a thin wall of flesh and clearing space around himself.
• Li Xingkong unleashed his Divine Light in earnest, and every bug it touched melted away.

After wiping out the Zerg around him, Li Xingkong learned that his attack had drawn the Mechanical Scourge toward the battlefield. Yan Jun moved him into the Mirror Realm to watch the coming fight, while the system explained the Axiom Arc’s seemingly untouchable spatial nature.

• Li Xingkong destroyed nearly all the Zerg in the area, and a Zerg squad warned him that the Mechanical Scourge would arrive within twenty minutes.
• Li Xingkong signaled to withdraw, and Yan Jun brought him into the Mirror Realm, where they could observe the Zerg without being seen.
• Yan Jun explained that the Mirror Realm placed them outside a space like a bottle, and that the Axiom Arc had mastered its use.
• The system called the realm a fragmentary parallel space and warned Li Xingkong that Yan Jun existed as a one-sided space beyond attacks that operated in reality.

Li Xingkong learned more about the three powers in the Convention as he and Yan Jun awaited the Mechanical Scourge. The Scourge then attacked the bugs, and its first large warship deployed a weapon that stopped the bugs in their tracks.

• Yan Jun explained that the Kingdom of Fixed Light excluded outsiders, the Holy Church of Truth sought to create a god, and the Kilometer Arc welcomed talented researchers and transformed its members.
• Li Xingkong decided he did not want to join any power or give up his physical body.
• The Mechanical Scourge opened a spatial passage and bombarded the waiting bugs with bombs, but the bugs swallowed the resulting energy and shock waves.
• Mechanical creatures poured through the passage and clashed with the bugs in a battle where both sides sought to recover the fallen for materials.
• A large Mechanical Scourge warship charged its weapon and released a ripple that halted the bugs as it passed over them.

The Mechanical Scourge used its Element Extraction Wave to kill bugs by condensing the iron in their bodies, and Li Xingkong discussed how the technique resembled the Five-Color Divine Light. The bugs countered by assimilating wreckage and mechanical life-forms into new bugs, leaving both sides locked in a rapidly escalating war of attrition.

• Yan Jun explained that the Mechanical Scourge’s Element Extraction Wave gathered iron from affected organisms and killed the bugs it struck.
• The Mechanical Scourge teleported in more warships, while Li Xingkong recognized that its iron-controlling weapon resembled the Five-Color Divine Light.
• The system explained that the Five-Color Divine Light required mastery over many elements but could overwhelm beings whose existence depended on physical matter.
• The bugs launched fleshy lumps that assimilated dead and active organisms into new bugs, including mechanical bodies immune to the extraction wave.
• The bugs surged back across the battlefield, and Li Xingkong watched the conflict become an endless war of attrition.

Li Xingkong watched the bugs and the Mechanical Scourge fight across several star systems, learning how both sides rapidly replaced their losses and hearing that their main war had continued for over a hundred thousand years. The battle remained unresolved, but Li Xingkong decided to leave for his next destination, humbled by the universe’s power and reassured that his visit had been worthwhile.

• The bugs mass-produced troops while the Mechanical Scourge deployed a shielded factory that recycled wreckage into new mechanical units, slowing the bugs’ advance.
• The two sides fought fiercely for over a month as the bugs’ repeated charges destroyed warships between the Mechanical Scourge’s element-extraction attacks.
• Li Xingkong asked whether battles like this were always so large, and Yan Jun explained that the main conflict had lasted more than a hundred thousand years.
• Li Xingkong reflected on the civilizations’ endless war and recognized that his own strength remained far below that of the three great powers.
• With his purpose for visiting fulfilled and the battle unlikely to end soon, Li Xingkong prepared to leave for the next place.

Li Xingkong prepared to leave after watching the battle and discussed his future with Yan Jun, who gave him an Arc token and told him about a long-running search for a time reset point. Li Xingkong recognized it as the same investigation that had drawn three major powers near Divine Land and decided he could continue traveling before returning home.

• Li Xingkong told Yan Jun he might leave soon, and Yan Jun said the Axiom Circle Alliance would remain open to him.
• Yan Jun offered Li Xingkong a ring that served as a preliminary selection token and explained its connection to the Arc’s control over pi.
• Yan Jun told Li Xingkong that Arc scholars in the Kingdom of Fixed Light were searching for a time reset point.
• Li Xingkong connected the project to the earlier search by three major powers near Divine Land and concluded there was no need to hurry back.
• Li Xingkong planned to continue traveling and later return to see how construction of Divine Land’s Thirty-Three Heavens was progressing.

Li Xingkong studied Tachyon State Transformation on his return journey and scattered small Spiritual Root Servers along the way. He stopped at his fellow countryman’s restaurant for a meal and met Guapilong, who introduced himself as a member of the Deep River Dragon Clan.

• Li Xingkong realized that mastering Tachyon State Transformation would let him return instantly to any place with a server, so he focused on studying it during his journey.
• He made and scattered small Spiritual Root Servers along his route as potential teleportation points.
• Remembering his fellow countryman’s cooking, Li Xingkong landed on the planet and found the man harvesting a tentacle from a giant octopus before returning to his restaurant.
• Li Xingkong joined the line outside the closed restaurant and resumed studying while he waited.
• Guapilong approached Li Xingkong, offered to treat him to takoyaki, and asked to share a table.
• Li Xingkong agreed to eat with Guapilong, who introduced himself as being from the Deep River Dragon Clan and called Li Xingkong his good brother.

Li Xingkong met Guapilong, a talkative member of the Deep River Dragon Clan who introduced himself as a traveling merchant and tried to attach himself to Li Xingkong. While they ate at a restaurant, Guapilong demonstrated his psychic power gloves, and Li Xingkong effortlessly used Divine Sense to make his food cut and feed itself.

• Guapilong told Li Xingkong that the Deep River Dragon Clan traded throughout the Convention, though Li Xingkong had never heard of them.
• Guapilong guessed that Li Xingkong was a prince or noble and said he wanted to cling to him for a life without worries about food or clothes.
• Li Xingkong ordered extra food at the restaurant and introduced Guapilong to the owner.
• Guapilong used psychic power gloves to cut and eat the roasted tentacle while explaining how the gloves worked.
• Li Xingkong used Divine Sense to make his tentacle cut itself into pieces and feed him, leaving Guapilong astonished.

Li Xingkong and Guapilong shared a meal, and Li Xingkong found himself enjoying the company. Guapilong offered him a ride in his spaceship, and Li Xingkong expanded the ship’s interior with a formation so he could sit comfortably.

• Guapilong used a mental-power-amplifying hat to carve a flower into a piece of meat, and Li Xingkong reshaped it into a proper flower for him.
• Li Xingkong and Guapilong finished their meal, and Guapilong packed the leftover tentacle into his spatial pocket.
• Guapilong offered to repay Li Xingkong by taking him where he was going in his spaceship.
• Guapilong explained that every Deep River Dragon Clan member’s pocket connected to a shared storage space larger than a galaxy.
• Li Xingkong boarded the cramped spaceship, expanded its interior with a formation, and made himself a chair.