Recaps

After completing his analysis of the laboratory instruments, Li Xingkong met Wan Chongshan, who gave him coordinates to parallel worlds and taught him the Chasing Light technique. He gained an anchor for the main universe and was prepared to travel between universes to clean them out.

• Li Xingkong finished copying the laboratory instruments’ functions into his Divine Sense and sent the collected research data back.
• Wan Chongshan found Li Xingkong and revealed that she had captured the system, whose true form was a tiny golden figure.
• Wan Chongshan gave Li Xingkong coordinates for parallel worlds and warned him to run if he could not win and not to trust every clone.
• Wan Chongshan expanded Li Xingkong’s Divine Sense across the universe, giving it a main-universe anchor.
• Wan Chongshan taught Li Xingkong Chasing Light, a technique that let him travel instantly to places he had seen, heard, or read about, including across parallel universes.

Li Xingkong mastered enough of Chasing Light under Wan Chongshan’s accelerated time field to travel to another universe and search for her clones. He found a Wan Chongshan destroying the inhabitants of a vast ring, and she asked him to strike her with Dissociation Divine Light.

• Wan Chongshan accelerated time around the laboratory and helped Li Xingkong cultivate Chasing Light.
• After three months outside and ninety thousand days of cultivation inside, Li Xingkong prepared to leave, and Wan Chongshan warned him not to trust every version of her.
• Li Xingkong traveled to an unfamiliar star system and found a ruined ring with no apparent survivors.
• He saw the local Wan Chongshan destroy the remaining beings on the ring with powerful energy attacks.
• The local Wan Chongshan examined Li Xingkong and told him to hit her with Dissociation Divine Light, but he hesitated.

Li Xingkong sent one Wan Chongshan back to her origin, then traveled to another parallel world and discovered that its Thousand Mountains Body was a mindless berserker. After he failed to learn anything from her, he sent her back as well.

• Li Xingkong destroyed the first Wan Chongshan’s body and found documents written in the universal language, indicating she had lived in his universe.
• Li Xingkong saw the first parallel world shrinking and traveled to the next set of coordinates.
• Li Xingkong arrived amid a star-system-wide war and learned from a spacesuited man that it was year 203 of the Old Convention.
• Li Xingkong found the next Thousand Mountains Body slaughtering people and discovered she could not reason with him or answer his questions.
• Li Xingkong restrained the berserk Thousand Mountains Body and sent her back to her origin.

Li Xingkong continued hunting Thousand Mountains Bodies across parallel worlds, killing enormous numbers while the system estimated the task would last centuries. In a new galaxy, he joined the Axiom Arc’s effort to capture a mysterious life-form whose abilities matched those of a Thousand Mountains Body.

• Li Xingkong reflected on killing more than a hundred thousand Thousand Mountains Bodies and learned that the current one acted as a neutral force in a conflict between minor civilizations and the Holy Church of Truth.
• Li Xingkong asked the system how much time had passed, and the system estimated that ten years had elapsed and another three hundred years of hunting remained.
• Wan Chongshan seized the system after it insulted her, leaving Li Xingkong to continue alone through the coordinates on the list.
• Li Xingkong arrived in a seemingly peaceful galaxy in Axiom Arc territory and detected nearly ten Kilometer Arc deacons gathered there.
• A deacon invited Li Xingkong to join a capture operation targeting a life-form suspected of crossing parallel worlds, and Li Xingkong accepted and reviewed the intelligence.
• Li Xingkong learned that the target had destroyed a civilization and intercepted every escaping ship despite having no apparent intelligence network.

Li Xingkong hunted down Wan Chongshan’s counterparts in collapsing parallel worlds, but their reactions made him suspect that his connection to her went beyond the technique she had taught him. After collecting the Axiom Arc deacons’ final data, he continued the task while wondering whether Wan Chongshan might be Ajieta and who was watching him.

• Li Xingkong joined the Axiom Arc deacons’ search for Wan Chongshan and used his Divine Sense to locate her before they did.
• The Thousand Mountains Body accepted Li Xingkong’s attack, spoke of owing her life to him, and vanished when he struck her with Divine Light.
• The parallel world began collapsing, and the deacons recorded its annihilation data as they were swallowed by it.
• Li Xingkong collected the deacons’ data and continued eliminating Thousand Mountains Bodies across repeated parallel worlds.
• Li Xingkong noticed the Thousand Mountains Bodies were hiding more effectively and wondered whether Wan Chongshan was Ajieta.
• Li Xingkong questioned how he could travel through time and parallel worlds, and suspected that someone was observing his actions.

Li Xingkong visited the Arc-35 Galaxy while hunting down his Thousand Mountains Bodies and reunited with Guapilong, who had cultivated for over 2,000 years. Guapilong revealed her human form, which looked exactly like Wan Chongshan, leaving Li Xingkong stunned.

• Li Xingkong completed about three quarters of Wan Chongshan’s coordinates and jumped to the Arc-35 Galaxy.
• Li Xingkong visited the Heavenly Palace Above the Clouds and sensed Guapilong approaching the Golden Core Stage.
• Li Xingkong found Guapilong cultivating and learned that more than 2,000 years had passed in this parallel world.
• Guapilong surprised Li Xingkong by revealing that she had taken human form and was female.
• Li Xingkong recognized that Guapilong’s human form looked exactly like Wan Chongshan and asked why she looked like her.

Li Xingkong discovered that Guapilong had taken the form of Sister Ajieta and renamed herself Xiao Chongshan, then learned that the Deep River Dragon Clan had vanished and that she had pursued cultivation for revenge. Unable to carry out his mission to kill her, he returned to the main world, where Wan Chongshan greeted him with amusement.

• Guapilong revealed her human form and explained that she had modeled it on Sister Ajieta, while Li Xingkong learned her Golden Core was damaged and she could only restart Core Formation.
• Guapilong named herself Xiao Chongshan after a line of poetry, and Li Xingkong decided he could not kill his friend.
• Xiao Chongshan told Li Xingkong that the Deep River Dragon Clan had disappeared around five hundred years earlier after Space-Devouring Worms severed their connections and attacked their treasury spaces.
• Xiao Chongshan said the Axiom Arc controlled the later worms, but she had been left alone and cultivated relentlessly to seek revenge.
• Li Xingkong told Xiao Chongshan he would return soon, used the Chasing Light Evasion Technique to go back to the main world, and appeared before Wan Chongshan in the laboratory.

Wan Chongshan revealed that she had orchestrated Li Xingkong’s encounters with her and deliberately prevented him from saving her past self. After she trapped him and took the system, Li Xingkong chose to cultivate for two thousand years in the time acceleration zone, leaving Wan Chongshan with a task for the system.

• Li Xingkong confronted Wan Chongshan about her deception, and she admitted that she had arranged his first meeting with her and their journey together.
• Wan Chongshan revealed that she had prevented Li Xingkong from reaching her past self because she wanted that self to suffer as she had.
• When Li Xingkong tried to escape, Wan Chongshan reversed time and trapped him, then took the system and said she would train it.
• Wan Chongshan offered Li Xingkong a choice between drinking tea with her for two thousand years or trying to surpass her through cultivation.
• Li Xingkong chose cultivation and entered the time acceleration zone, while Wan Chongshan stayed behind and told the system she had a task for it.

Li Xingkong prepared to use the Dragon Gate Method to advance from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, hoping to gain the power to resist Wan Chongshan. After weighing the risks and his knowledge, he chose space as the foundation for constructing his Dragon Gate.

• Li Xingkong resolved to cultivate until he could gain some freedom under Wan Chongshan’s power.
• Li Xingkong set aside his distracting thoughts and prepared to construct his Nascent Soul with the Dragon Gate Method.
• Li Xingkong considered the method’s risk: his Dragon Gate model could be incomplete, making it difficult to perceive influences beyond the universe.
• Li Xingkong chose the path of space because his studies and the Thousand Mountains Method had given him a strong foundation in it.

Wan Chongshan forced the system to try to make Li Xingkong lose his composure, but the system refused to interrupt his secluded cultivation. After testing the system’s loyalty, Wan Chongshan spared it and ordered it to help Li Xingkong instead.

• Wan Chongshan ordered the system to make Li Xingkong lose his composure and sent it into the time acceleration zone.
• The system tried to contact Li Xingkong but found him too deeply immersed in cultivation to respond.
• Wan Chongshan caught the system when it stalled and threatened to tear it apart unless it completed her task.
• The system refused to disrupt Li Xingkong’s cultivation, even when Wan Chongshan demonstrated her power by cutting a massive rift across the continent.
• Wan Chongshan spared the system after testing its loyalty, then ordered it to help Li Xingkong with its cultivation technique pool.

Li Xingkong spent nearly 5,000 years in accelerated meditation constructing a model of the universe to find a path through the Dragon Gate. The model remained imperfect because the Thousand Mountains Method extended beyond its scope, and Li Xingkong was left wondering how to complete it.

• Li Xingkong began building a spatial model using the system's theories, knowledge from the Axiom Arc, and the Thousand Mountains Method.
• Li Xingkong spent nearly 2,000 years studying the Thousand Mountains Method until he understood it thoroughly.
• Li Xingkong spent the next 3,000 years trying to combine the method with his model and found that its principles reached beyond this universe.
• Li Xingkong saw that his completed model resembled a maraca, with a sphere and a strip extending from it, and judged it imperfect.
• Li Xingkong refused to use the flawed model to leap over the Dragon Gate and wondered how he could finish it.

Li Xingkong searched his memories for new ways to understand space, then used the Thousand Mountains Method to begin testing the theories he had developed. As he remained in seclusion, the System and Wan Chongshan discussed his prolonged cultivation and the mystery surrounding his future.

• Li Xingkong exhausted his existing knowledge of space and decided to draw ideas from other fields to form new theories.
• Li Xingkong spent nearly a year examining his memories with the Hexagram and organized his conjectures into dozens of modules that needed proof.
• Li Xingkong started using the Thousand Mountains Method to test his theories with Thousand Mountains Bodies.
• The System worried that Li Xingkong had cultivated for tens of thousands of years inside the time-accelerated region without a break.
• Wan Chongshan told the System that Li Xingkong could keep cultivating for the rest of his life and teased it about why it had chosen him.
• The System wondered whether Wan Chongshan had influenced its choice and why Li Xingkong's expected future seemed to have vanished.

Li Xingkong completed a Heaven-Opening Divine Axe model after testing his cultivation conjectures with countless Thousand Mountains Bodies. He began searching the Pangu myth for the external factor needed to form his nascent soul and identified “Force” as the key.

• Li Xingkong woke and circulated his magic power while most of his attention remained on refining his model.
• Wan Chongshan explained that Li Xingkong had made tens of thousands of Thousand Mountains Bodies, then told the system to watch quietly.
• Li Xingkong's tested conjectures reshaped his model from a maraca into an axe, giving him confidence that it represented a Heaven-Opening Divine Axe.
• Li Xingkong completed the axe model, admired it, and briefly swung it in his mind before returning to his cultivation.
• Li Xingkong studied the Pangu myth to find the factor for forming his nascent soul and settled on the word “Force.”

Li Xingkong searched for the external force needed to form his Nascent Soul and realized he could study the force involved in opening a new universe. As a war threatened the Deep River Dragon Clan, Wan Chongshan prepared to save them while preserving Guapilong’s experience of their civilization’s destruction.

• Li Xingkong focused on force as the key to breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm and immersed himself in his model of the universe.
• Two hundred years passed as Wan Chongshan guarded Li Xingkong and the Kilometer Arc and Kingdom of Fixed Light began a conflict that threatened the Deep River Dragon Clan.
• Wan Chongshan linked her clan members to a small world so fatal attacks would teleport them to safety, though Guapilong would still believe his civilization had been destroyed.
• Li Xingkong realized that the universe’s expansion depended on an external force that could help matter interact with the outside world.
• Li Xingkong decided to split off a Thousand Mountains Body, use Chasing Light to reach a newly formed parallel world’s boundary, and study what he named the Power of Creation.

Li Xingkong discovered that the strange energy within him was the Power of Creation and used it to form his Nascent Soul. As the Nascent Soul neared completion, he realized he would break free of the Cocoon-Breaking tribulation and no longer be bound to the birth and destruction of universes.

• Li Xingkong recognized a membrane-like energy connected to the Power of Creation and studied its abilities to ignore or contain matter.
• Li Xingkong decided to use the Power of Creation to complete his Dragon Gate Method and began forming a Nascent Soul.
• Li Xingkong built the Nascent Soul from his spatial model and the Power of Creation, consuming his mental strength as it took shape beyond the universe.
• After several hundred years, Li Xingkong's Nascent Soul became human-shaped, and his consciousness shifted so he felt that his body was like exoskeletal armor.
• Li Xingkong realized that completing his Nascent Soul would free him from the Cocoon-Breaking tribulation and the cycle of universes.

Li Xingkong completed his Nascent Soul formation with the Original Universe’s help and crossed into the Cosmic Sea. After returning his consciousness to his body on Earth Star, he discovered he could see the system’s connection to him.

• The Original Universe carried Li Xingkong’s Nascent Soul to its boundary and infused it with the Power of Creation, transforming it until it matched his physical body.
• Li Xingkong hesitated to leave his universe, but a force from the boundary pushed him through its curtain and into the Cosmic Sea.
• Li Xingkong relied on the rules within his Nascent Soul to survive outside the universe and realized he had crossed the Dragon Gate and formed his Nascent Soul.
• Li Xingkong used his Divine Sense to reconnect with his body on Earth Star and regained control of it.
• The system woke and celebrated Li Xingkong’s breakthrough, while Li Xingkong saw the system’s connection to him and noticed its side of the link looked like a turtle-shell bondage harness.

After forming his Nascent Soul, Li Xingkong set out to save Guapilong but was diverted to a strange star system, where the will of the universe introduced itself as Huan. Huan began checking its records and asked Li Xingkong about his cultivation realm.

• Li Xingkong realized that his Nascent Soul's rules prevented him from touching the system's methods, and the system congratulated him on his breakthrough.
• Wan Chongshan said she would not stop Li Xingkong from going to save Guapilong, so he activated Chasing Light and departed.
• Wan Chongshan caught the system and vanished with it, saying the real show was still to come.
• Li Xingkong arrived in a strange system of stars instead of the Heavenly Palace Above the Clouds, and one of the stars addressed him.
• The star introduced itself as Huan, the will of the current universe, and asked Li Xingkong whether he was a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Li Xingkong met Huan, the will of his universe, who explained why cultivators mattered to universes and asked him to sign a Heavenly Dao Contract. The contract’s terms required Li Xingkong to repay three times the resources and energy he had consumed while cultivating, and he read the agreement through the covenant instrument.

• Huan told Li Xingkong that universe wills had limited influence outside their universes, while Nascent Soul cultivators could act as extensions of their home universes.
• Huan revealed that universe wills learned their duties through an alliance, but he had skipped classes and had not established Spiritual Qi in his universe.
• Huan explained that Nascent Soul cultivators had to repay their home universes for the resources invested in their cultivation and invited Li Xingkong to sign a contract.
• Li Xingkong agreed to repay his universe, and Huan summoned a Heavenly Dao Covenant that exposed their origins and took the form of a young girl.
• Li Xingkong and Huan touched the covenant instrument and learned that Li Xingkong had to return three times the resources and energy he had consumed while cultivating.

Li Xingkong signed a protection contract with Huan and learned that his cultivation made him a scholar type connected to the Jade Void Palace. The contract immediately transported him there, leaving him protesting that he had other things to do.

• Huan signed the contract first, and Li Xingkong read about the Jade Void Palace and the Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao of Myriad Worlds.
• Li Xingkong learned that cultivators were classified as scholar types, combat types, or all-rounders, and Huan praised him as a talented scholar type.
• Li Xingkong asked whether the Primordial Lady had helped make him a cultivator, and Huan was shocked to learn he had encountered her.
• Li Xingkong signed the contract, forming a connection with Huan that would last until he repaid the resources he owed the universe.
• The scroll automatically wrapped up Li Xingkong and carried him toward the Jade Void Palace, despite his protests that he had other business to attend to.

A scroll carried Li Xingkong out of the Cosmic Sea and into the Primordial World, where Jiang Ziya freed him and offered to guide him to the Jade Void Palace. After a wondrous journey, Li Xingkong saw the enormous palace towering above him.

• The scroll took Li Xingkong through the Cosmic Sea and out into the Primordial World, where universes merged into its boundless expanse.
• Jiang Ziya caught the scroll with a fishing line, weakened its seal, and freed Li Xingkong.
• Jiang Ziya introduced himself as a guide for the Jade Void Palace and said someone there had been waiting for Li Xingkong.
• Li Xingkong followed Jiang Ziya on a seemingly miraculous climb until Jiang Ziya pointed out the vast Jade Void Palace.

Jiang Ziya brought Li Xingkong to the Jade Void Palace and explained how the Primordial World gathered the concepts of merged worlds’ suns into one great sun. After Jiang Ziya sent Li Xingkong to find the Primordial Lady, Li Xingkong followed a stream and found himself back in his childhood, apparently forgetting his cultivation and taking the experience for a dream.

• Jiang Ziya explained that the great sun was formed from the concepts of the stars and sun gods of worlds merged into the Primordial World, then gave Li Xingkong a pebble that had once been a sun.
• Jiang Ziya brought Li Xingkong to the Jade Void Palace, where a cultivator greeted him and Jiang Ziya showed that his basket held fish called heluo.
• Jiang Ziya told Li Xingkong that he could return to his world and travel through time, then left him to find the Primordial Lady, who was waiting for him.
• Li Xingkong followed a stream, suddenly became a child in his old school, and found his childhood friends calling him out to play ball.
• Li Xingkong took the ball, kicked it high, and ran after it with his friends, believing his memories of cultivation had been a dream.

Li Xingkong mistook a vivid cultivation dream for a strange experience and resolved to pursue cultivation, spending his life searching for a way to achieve it. As he died without success, he returned to his childhood with memories of his previous life intact and renewed determination.

• Li Xingkong returned home after playing ball, reunited with his grandpa, and told him about his dream of cultivating at the Jade Void Palace.
• Li Xingkong dreamed again of the valley and sensed energy flowing through his body, then decided to devote himself to cultivation.
• Li Xingkong spent twenty years studying Daoist arts and searching for spiritual insight, then turned to modern medicine for help.
• After another twenty years, Li Xingkong became a medical expert but still could not cultivate, so he turned to machinery as another possible path.
• As Li Xingkong lay dying in a hospital, an unseen voice granted his wish for another youth, and he awoke as a child with his past-life memories restored.
• Li Xingkong answered his childhood friends' call to play ball, determined to advance the work he had left unfinished.

Li Xingkong repeatedly reincarnated, advancing his cultivation until he reached Golden Core Perfection but found no path forward. At Jade Void Palace, Wan Chongshan showed Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao his progress and watched as he considered pursuing Dao Integration.

• Across countless reincarnations, Li Xingkong developed cultivation methods and eventually reached Golden Core Perfection.
• Unable to find a way to advance, Li Xingkong wandered the universe and rejected the paths of its powerful figures.
• Wan Chongshan visited Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao and returned the system that had accompanied Li Xingkong.
• Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao revived the system, which tearfully complained about Wan Chongshan's treatment.
• Wan Chongshan showed Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao an image of Li Xingkong and explained that his strong fundamentals suited the Hall of Seeking the Dao.
• As Li Xingkong grew tired of wandering without a Nascent Soul method, he considered Dao Integration, while Wan Chongshan claimed to have a plan.

Li Xingkong spent millennia researching Dao Integration, but a mysterious woman repeatedly seized the rules he was studying to make divine weapons and trinkets. After she disrupted his progress for a third time, Li Xingkong finally challenged her to a spar.

• Li Xingkong spent nearly ten thousand years studying the rule of sharpness, but a mysterious woman claimed it to forge a pair of short blades and blocked his path to Dao Integration.
• After another thousand years, Li Xingkong tried to study water, but the woman took its rules to make a flask and offered him a drink.
• Li Xingkong relocated and studied wood, only for the woman to use its rules to make a necklace and admit they had met several times.
• Li Xingkong accused the woman of toying with him, then raised his magic power and challenged her to show him what she could do.
• The woman accepted and invited Li Xingkong to spar with her.

Li Xingkong fought Wan Chongshan, recognized that her Divine Sense revealed a path beyond his own cultivation, and sacrificed himself to sample it. Wan Chongshan arranged for a Thousand Mountains Body to deliver blades in the future, while Li Xingkong began another Samsara with a new goal.

• Li Xingkong attacked Wan Chongshan with compressed energy, but she dodged and dismissed the weakness of his Divine Sense.
• Li Xingkong recognized that Wan Chongshan's Divine Sense shared the roots of his own cultivation path and stopped trying to vent his anger.
• Li Xingkong detonated his body, drove his Divine Sense through Wan Chongshan's defenses, and took a sample before dissipating.
• Wan Chongshan summoned a Thousand Mountains Body and gave her short blades to deliver to a designated person in the future.
• Li Xingkong woke in the classroom again and resolved to pursue the stronger path he had glimpsed.