Chapter Summaries

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.

Li Xingkong repeatedly reincarnated and challenged Wan Chongshan, refining his cultivation until he pursued the universe’s boundary and discovered it opened onto countless universes. He awakened in the Jade Void Palace with his memories intact, realized the Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao had likely tested him, and set out to find her.

• Li Xingkong repeatedly reached Golden Core perfection, fought Wan Chongshan, and mastered the abilities she used against him.
• Li Xingkong inferred that Wan Chongshan had come from outside the universe and decided to search for the universe’s boundary.
• Li Xingkong traveled for an unknown length of time through changing galaxies and violent streams of energy until he reached a vast curtain of matter and energy.
• Li Xingkong touched the curtain and saw his universe shrink into one bubble among countless others.
• Li Xingkong awoke beside a stream in the Jade Void Palace, remembered his reincarnations, and concluded that the Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao had tested him.
• Li Xingkong recognized that the Power of Creation had awakened him and resolved to find the Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao.

Li Xingkong completed the Jade Void Palace’s entrance trial, confirmed that his many lifetimes in Samsara had been real in some ways, and met the Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao. She explained that the simulated worlds were drawn from spacetime but could not change his acknowledged past, and urged him to focus on cultivating forward.

• Li Xingkong found the short blades he had received from a Thousand Mountains Body and recognized them as the blades he had drawn during Dao Integration, confirming that his Samsara experiences had not been mere dreams.
• Li Xingkong opened the cottage door and found a portal leading to a cloud-filled world and the Jade Void Palace.
• The Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao welcomed Li Xingkong as a disciple after he passed the entrance trial and asked what he had learned from Samsara.
• Li Xingkong admitted that he had sometimes lost his way in cultivation and asked whether his lifetimes in Samsara had been real or false.
• The Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao explained that the lifetimes were worlds derived from spacetime, but their pasts could not change Li Xingkong’s present, and advised him to cultivate toward the future.

Li Xingkong reunited with his system after leaving the Hall of Seeking the Dao and prepared to register at the Jade Void Palace. Their jokes about Wan Chongshan earned them a sudden reprimand, and the system guided Li Xingkong toward the profound gate.

• The Primordial Lady sent Li Xingkong to register and rest, then reunited him with the system that had accompanied him through reincarnation.
• Li Xingkong teased the system about being an early education machine as they left the Hall of Seeking the Dao.
• The system agreed to guide Li Xingkong if he promised to help it teach Wan Chongshan a lesson once he surpassed her.
• Wan Chongshan struck Li Xingkong and the system down and warned them not to return if they had the nerve.
• The system consulted its information and became an arrow that led Li Xingkong toward the profound gate.

Li Xingkong entered Dipankara Pavilion to register, but local cultivators mocked him and tried to block his way. He subdued them and their early-education machines, then entered the pavilion’s vast library, where an elderly voice carried him upstairs.

• Li Xingkong arrived at Dipankara Pavilion and learned from the system that local cultivators looked down on outsiders.
• Two cultivators blocked Li Xingkong and taunted him, so he pulled them into a black hole.
• The system captured and gagged the pair’s early-education machines, while Li Xingkong sealed everyone beneath a small stone and planned to take them to his hometown.
• Li Xingkong entered Dipankara Pavilion and found an endless library that his Divine Sense could not fully explore.
• An elderly voice called to Li Xingkong and carried him to the floor above.

Li Xingkong met Dipankara, master of Dipankara Pavilion, and completed the inscription that recorded his past and gave him protection against death and changes to his timeline. He officially joined the Jade Void Palace and received a bodhi seed for creating a small world before being sent back to the pavilion entrance.

• Li Xingkong rose above the pagoda and met Dipankara, who said Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao had asked him to guide Li Xingkong through the inscription.
• Dipankara explained that the inscribed book would preserve Li Xingkong's past timeline and recreate his true self if he died.
• Li Xingkong sent his memories and magic power into the book, completing the record of his life.
• Dipankara welcomed Li Xingkong as an official member of the Jade Void Palace and gave him a bodhi seed to plant as a small world.
• Dipankara advised Li Xingkong to visit Laojun Heaven, then sent him and the system to the pavilion entrance.