Chapter Summaries

Li Xingkong traveled with Liu Shinian aboard the Bottomless Boat through the battle-scarred Era of Chaos, encountering zones where concepts had been stripped away. After seven days and seven nights, they reached Flying Cloud Pass, where Liu Shinian told him to follow her.

• Liu Shinian explained how the Bottomless Boat carried souls and boarded it with Li Xingkong and the other Immortals.
• Li Xingkong watched the boat pass through the devastation left by battles and learned that the No-Standing Pool prevented anyone from standing.
• Liu Shinian described the rules restricting Immortal wars to the Era of Chaos as the boat crossed the No-Standing Pool.
• Li Xingkong tested his concept of traversal in a spatial dead zone and experienced several other regions with missing concepts.
• The Bottomless Boat arrived at Flying Cloud Pass after seven days and seven nights, and Liu Shinian told Li Xingkong to follow her.

At Flying Cloud Pass, Liu Shinian chose a battlefield cleanup task for herself and Li Xingkong, hoping to avoid combat while still visiting the front lines. A team of four challenged their claim, and Li Xingkong helped Liu Shinian argue that they could handle the work.

• Huang Feihu welcomed the arriving immortals to Flying Cloud Pass, explained its five divisions and warned them to guard their minds against the Spirit Clan.
• The immortals chose tasks suited to their abilities, while Liu Shinian and Li Xingkong considered what assignment to take.
• Liu Shinian led Li Xingkong to the Logistics Division and picked a cleanup task, which involved collecting and transporting battlefield loot.
• An experienced four-person team argued that its reconnaissance and transport skills made it better suited to the task, and the logistics officer confirmed that team composition mattered.
• Liu Shinian described her integrity role, and Li Xingkong claimed he could travel through space and use any technique he needed; they planned to rely on their anchor-point blessings if necessary.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian secured a battlefield cleanup assignment by demonstrating their unusual abilities, then discovered Li Xingkong could traverse space despite being a Human Immortal. After receiving orders to clear the Blade Flower Sea, they headed toward Flying Cloud Pass’s main gate.

• Liu Shinian convinced the logistics officer to award them the assignment, and the four-person team withdrew from the competition.
• Liu Shinian planned to use an anchor to help them take on several jobs, but Li Xingkong revealed his spatial traversal ability.
• Liu Shinian was astonished that Li Xingkong had mastered a spatial concept as a Human Immortal and decided not to question his research.
• The logistics department assigned Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian to clear the battlefield at the Blade Flower Sea after the fighting there paused.
• Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian received written orders and approached the main gate, where Li Xingkong sensed the many defensive concepts covering the walls.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian crossed the Calamity Ash wastes beyond Flying Cloud Pass and entered the dangerous Blade Flower Sea to carry out a cleanup assignment. After splitting up to search the vast region, Li Xingkong found a towering formation along its left edge.

• Liu Shinian explained that the black ground beyond Flying Cloud Pass was Calamity Ash, and Li Xingkong examined it as they traveled across the lifeless waste.
• Li Xingkong discovered that the Blade Flower Sea's blade qi could cut at the conceptual level, while its flowers drained life force.
• Li Xingkong tested his traversal ability and opened a spatial rift to the gate of Flying Cloud Pass, confirming that he could travel back there.
• Liu Shinian and Li Xingkong entered the Blade Flower Sea under the protection of the Toughness Blessing, which blocked both the blade qi and the flowers' life-force absorption.
• Li Xingkong gave Liu Shinian a traversal blessing so she could send anything she found to his personal space, and they split up to search the region.
• Li Xingkong searched along the left edge of the Blade Flower Sea and encountered a towering formation resembling a mountain ridge.

Li Xingkong recovered fragments of a giant broken cauldron and other battlefield debris, then summoned Liu Shinian to help clear the battlefield’s center. Their cleanup ended at a protected flower bud whose powerful vitality drew Li Xingkong’s attention.

• Li Xingkong refined and collected the cauldron’s upper half after its lingering power struck at him, then followed the cauldron’s trajectory toward the blade-flower sea’s center.
• Li Xingkong spent months freeing another cauldron fragment from flowers, collected it along with a broken hairpin, and found more scattered objects nearby.
• Li Xingkong summoned Liu Shinian, who arrived eager to search the battlefield and picked up a phoenix crown and shoulder drapes.
• Liu Shinian identified the victor as Fairy Qingjue, a battle Immortal who had mastered the Dao of the Reversed Five Elements.
• Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian cleared the battlefield’s center, where Li Xingkong warned her not to touch a protected, tightly closed flower bud.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian discovered a flower containing the blade wielder’s origin and learned that it had to be refined before it could become a Concept Pearl. Fairy Qingjue revealed herself from within the flower and left the refining to them while she dealt with reinforcements.

• Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian scanned the flower and found that its potent vitality came from Fairy Qingjue’s concept.
• Li Xingkong’s system found papers explaining how an immortal’s origin could be refined and sealed into a Concept Pearl.
• The system warned Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian that the blade wielder might have allies who would come to reclaim the origin.
• The flower’s leaf pulled Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian close, and Fairy Qingjue spoke to them from inside it.
• Fairy Qingjue asked Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian to refine the origin while she handled the reinforcements.

Liu Shinian and Li Xingkong began refining the saber wielder’s concept inside a flower bud while Fairy Qingjue and two allies prepared to face a Spirit Clan force. The Immortals clashed in a battle whose shockwaves battered the Blade Flower Sea as the two continued their lengthy refinement.

• Liu Shinian and Li Xingkong began refining the aggregation of concepts inside Fairy Qingjue’s flower bud.
• Fairy Qingjue, a Sword Immortal, and a stone man waited at the border for the Spirit Clan’s Immortals to arrive.
• A one-eyed Spirit Clan Immortal demanded the saber wielder’s concept, and Qingjue refused and attacked with a wave of flowers.
• The Sword Immortal fought Heart Sword, Qingjue engaged the one-eyed man, and the stone man summoned a vast meteor against two other enemies.
• The Immortals’ battle sent shockwaves through the Blade Flower Sea, shaking the flower bud and disrupting Liu Shinian and Li Xingkong’s surroundings.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian spent centuries refining a concept inside a flower bud while Sword Immortals battled outside, but the fighting shifted against Fairy Qingjue. As Qingjue came under heavier pressure, the battle line moved closer to them and the concept protecting the pair began to weaken.

• After two hundred years, Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian had refined less than one percent of the concept and watched the battle through the system's projection.
• They saw that Sword Qi had destroyed the Blade Flower Sea and that two Sword Immortals were fighting with evenly matched sword intents.
• Over the next twenty years, the flower bud's concept weakened, the battle's aftershocks grew stronger, and Li Xingkong reinforced their protection with his own concept.
• Qingjue fought the one-eyed blade Immortal while the stone man struggled to hold off two opponents wielding Rock Armor, wound constancy, and Position Swap.
• The opposing Immortals shifted their focus to Qingjue, forcing her to retreat and leaving her unable to spare attention for Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian continued refining the concept aggregate while Qingjue and her allies formed an array against the Spirit Clan. Yiying escaped the array and found the two logistics workers, but Li Xingkong’s spatial cage blocked his abilities as Liu Shinian kept refining.

• Li Xingkong maintained a spatial cage around the concept aggregate while he and Liu Shinian continued refining it.
• Qingjue and her companions formed an array to trap the Spirit Clan Immortals as their battle went badly.
• Yiying escaped the array by swapping places with marked rubble and headed toward the Blade Flower Sea to reclaim the concept.
• Yiying discovered Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian, but his ability could not pass through Li Xingkong’s cage.
• Li Xingkong estimated he could maintain the cage for around 2,000 years, and Liu Shinian continued refining the concept.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian endured Yiying’s attacks for nearly a century while waiting for help, until Liu Shinian revealed that she governed lies and reclaimed the concept aggregate. After learning she could withdraw her will from it, Li Xingkong proposed a plan to use the now-ownerless concept against Yiying.

• Yiying retreated to contact reinforcements, while Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian worried they could not escape his spatial abilities.
• Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian harassed Yiying with their Blessings of Fire, and the three remained locked in a stalemate for nearly a hundred years.
• When Liu Shinian’s blessing ran out, she asked Li Xingkong to conceal their actions and revealed that her concept was lies.
• Liu Shinian absorbed the concept aggregate, and Li Xingkong accepted her deception without concern.
• Liu Shinian withdrew her will from the concept aggregate and tossed it outside the spatial cage after Li Xingkong asked her to leave the rest to him.

Li Xingkong refined the ownerless saber concept into a talisman and used it to fight off Yiying. Yiying retreated after recognizing the concept of severing, while Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian acknowledged each other’s hidden abilities.

• Liu Shinian drew the original owner's will out of the concept, and Li Xingkong absorbed the ownerless concept into a talisman.
• Li Xingkong discovered the concept combined saber and severing, then dispelled the space cage and summoned a concept-forged saber.
• Yiying demanded the missing concept, and Li Xingkong challenged him to take it.
• Li Xingkong blocked Yiying's attack and countered with a severing strike that forced Yiying to retreat.
• Li Xingkong switched to traversal to check the surrounding space, then exchanged remarks with Liu Shinian about their concealed strengths.

Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian discovered that his newly refined concept could imitate the saber wielder’s abilities, and Fairy Qingjue arrived to inspect it. After learning that Li Xingkong was Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao’s disciple, Qingjue waived their task and agreed to report to General Huang.

• Liu Shinian demonstrated how her lies let her disguise herself as wind and a cloud, while Li Xingkong considered how further study could deepen his use of concepts.
• Liu Shinian wondered whether they had completed their task after Li Xingkong absorbed the concept, and Fairy Qingjue revealed that she and her companions had overheard them.
• Fairy Qingjue warned that absorbing a jumble of concepts could endanger Li Xingkong’s cultivation, so he demonstrated the saber wielder’s concept for her.
• Qingjue recognized the concept, and Li Xingkong introduced himself as Primordial Lady Seeking the Dao’s disciple and invited them to the Hall of Seeking the Dao.
• Qingjue and her companions formally greeted Li Xingkong, accepted that he would keep the concept, and promised to explain the task’s completion to General Huang.

Li Xingkong returned to Flying Cloud Pass with Liu Shinian and learned that Huang Feihu would keep him inside after discovering his identity. Huang Feihu assigned him to research a way to deal with Calamity Ash, and Li Xingkong settled into a laboratory to begin.

• Qingjue and the others escorted Li Xingkong and Liu Shinian back to Flying Cloud Pass, then said goodbye once they arrived.
• Liu Shinian warned Li Xingkong that Huang Feihu would not let him leave the pass after learning who he was.
• Huang Feihu called Li Xingkong to the main camp, welcomed him as a fellow disciple, and gave him mission tokens so he could request anything he needed inside the pass.
• Huang Feihu tasked Li Xingkong with finding a way to deal with the Calamity Ash and offered him a laboratory in the logistics minor world.
• Li Xingkong met the neighboring researcher Qian Yuanzi, then used a mission token to summon Liu Shinian as his assistant.
• Li Xingkong considered how to study the Calamity Ash and wondered whether it could be used to refine pills.

Li Xingkong sent Liu Shinian to gather Calamity Ash so he could study it, while an old researcher teased them and offered Liu Shinian strange manuals. Li Xingkong began examining the Ash in his laboratory but found its chaotic, varied properties difficult to understand or use.

• Li Xingkong gave Liu Shinian task tokens and asked her to gather a large amount of Calamity Ash from widely scattered locations.
• An old researcher teased Li Xingkong about Liu Shinian and explained that he studied the anatomy of the foreign races.
• Liu Shinian returned with a sack full of Calamity Ash and handed it to Li Xingkong.
• Li Xingkong shut himself in the laboratory to begin experimenting, leaving Liu Shinian with the old man and his manuals.
• Li Xingkong found that each piece of Calamity Ash had different, chaotic rules and seemed unable to interact with other substances.

Li Xingkong studied Calamity Ash for two thousand years and discovered how to fuse concepts into a new Dao of Evolution. He rebuilt his conceptual system around the new Dao, leaving the Daos of Self, Traversal, and Severance as talismans within it.

• Li Xingkong secluded himself to study how the concepts within Calamity Ash were combined, while Liu Shinian trained with secret arts from the old man in the neighboring laboratory.
• After two thousand years, Li Xingkong began dismantling Calamity Ash as the system recorded the eruptions and their effects.
• Li Xingkong repeatedly dissected Calamity Ash until he mastered its fusion method and named it Dao Evolution.
• Li Xingkong rebuilt his system with Dao Evolution as its foundation, turning the Daos of Self, Traversal, and Severance into three talismans on a seven-treasure tree.

Li Xingkong created and tested the Dao Calamity Pill, a grenade-like weapon made from controlled Calamity Ash that contaminated Nascent Soul cultivators and cut off their paths of cultivation. After seeing its battlefield potential, the logistics officer asked to try one himself.

• Li Xingkong shaped controlled Calamity Ash into pills and infused them with Dao Evolution, naming them Dao Calamity Pills.
• Li Xingkong followed a logistics officer to Quaking Prison, where prisoners of war volunteered for a grade B experiment.
• Li Xingkong threw a Dao Calamity Pill into the arena, where it released disordered concepts that warped the prisoners' bodies and disrupted their spells.
• The Dao Calamity Pill contaminated the Nascent Soul cultivators, tied them to existing concepts, and prevented them from comprehending new ones.
• The logistics officer praised the pill for potentially turning enemy Nascent Soul troops against their commanders and asked Li Xingkong to let him test one.

After completing Huang Feihu’s task by developing the Dao Calamity Pill, Li Xingkong revealed that he was researching the Human Immortal path. Huang Feihu gave him a token to collect Concept Pearls, and Li Xingkong entered Flying Cloud Pass’s storage minor world to search for them.

• Li Xingkong handed the extra Dao Calamity Pills to the logistics officer and completed Huang Feihu’s task by submitting the refining method.
• Huang Feihu recognized that Li Xingkong was a Human Immortal researching the path and urged him to focus on his studies.
• Huang Feihu gave Li Xingkong a token authorizing him to collect Concept Pearls from the immortal armory and Flying Cloud Pass.
• Soldiers escorted Li Xingkong through security checks into Flying Cloud Pass’s storage minor world.
• Li Xingkong left the soldiers at the entrance and flew into the treasure piles to search for Concept Pearls.

Li Xingkong searched Flying Cloud Pass's treasury for Concept Pearls, duplicating unfamiliar materials along the way, and found three pearls before returning to the laboratory. There, Liu Shinian confronted him about leaving without notice and revealed that her assistant mission still paid her contribution points despite the experiment having ended.

• Li Xingkong explored the treasury's small world, analyzed unfamiliar materials, and used Manipulation of Creation to make copies while searching for Concept Pearls.
• In his fifth year of searching, Li Xingkong found a pearl containing the damage-reduction concept and registered it with the treasury guards.
• Li Xingkong later found pearls containing the seven-emotions and blood-lock concepts, then registered all three and left the treasury.
• Li Xingkong gave the soldiers pills to improve their cultivation before returning to the laboratory with the pearls.
• Liu Shinian scolded Li Xingkong for leaving without telling her and explained that her assistant mission still paid her contribution points because only Huang Feihu could end it.

Li Xingkong refined the concepts of Damage Reduction and HP Lock, then focused on deepening his mastery of both defensive Daos. By the end, his defenses had become exceptionally difficult to breach, and he wondered how he could defeat an opponent with the same abilities.

• Li Xingkong thanked Liu Shinian for the contribution points and entered the laboratory to refine Damage Reduction and HP Lock.
• Li Xingkong learned that Damage Reduction negated individual attacks below a damage threshold, while HP Lock capped powerful hits at a portion of his body's capacity.
• Li Xingkong decided to develop his defensive concepts instead of refining Seven Emotions, choosing survival over improving his attack or traversal abilities.
• Li Xingkong studied Damage Reduction and raised its protection to block attacks below the Immortal level, then gained slight resistance to conceptual attacks.
• Li Xingkong improved HP Lock until it formed 99 locks, each representing 1% of his HP, and wondered whether HP regeneration would make him invincible.

Li Xingkong emerged from secluded cultivation confident that his two concepts made his defense nearly unbreakable, but Liu Shinian demonstrated how easily a counter could bypass it. The old man warned him about the Era of Chaos’s many tactics and explained that it had been divided into servers, with the brutal first server known as 1.0.

• Li Xingkong left the laboratory and boasted to Liu Shinian and the old man about his improved defensive concepts.
• The old man warned Li Xingkong that battles between concepts depended on strategy and that strong defense alone could not ensure victory.
• Liu Shinian approached Li Xingkong unnoticed by his concepts and held a sword to his neck, explaining that her body had imitated his concepts.
• The old man listed methods that could counter or bypass Li Xingkong’s defense and advised him to stay cautious in the current Era of Chaos.
• The old man explained that powerful factions had separated the Era of Chaos into randomly assigned servers and that 1.0 was its first, more brutal server.