Chapter Summaries

Chi Tongyue and the Chi Lineage used the Myriad Illusions Return to Truth Pool to contain Vajra Radiance’s Illusory Generation True Scripture and pass the trial. The Xuanhuang Ancient Plain then collapsed, leaving the Chi Lineage on one of twelve formation platforms facing a Gray-Gold Barrier.

• Vajra Radiance’s Illusory Generation End-Beginning seal sank into the Myriad Illusions Return to Truth Pool, freeing the Chi Lineage cultivators from its illusion characters.
• The Chi Lineage disciples recovered their Fate Soul foundations, and Vajra Radiance declared that they had passed before vanishing.
• The Xuanhuang Ancient Plain fractured and disappeared; Chi Tongyue understood the realm had been a trial illusion, and Chi Tianhong confirmed it.
• A force pulled the Chi Lineage through the void, and the ten thousand cultivators landed on an enormous circular formation platform.
• Chi Tongyue and Chi Tianhong recognized their platform as one of twelve trial positions connected to the world behind the Gray-Gold Barrier.

The Chi Lineage and other surviving clans reached the central barrier after passing trials guarded by the Twelve Zodiac Primordial Beast Luminaries. Chi Tongyue led her people through the entrance, where they found an immense gray-white space with an invisible, transparent floor.

• Chi Tongyue and the Chi Lineage surveyed the twelve platforms and realized that the other clans had also survived trials tied to the zodiac signs.
• The white-haired elder of the Xuan Yan Ancient Clan told Chi Tongyue and Chi Tianhong that only a few dozen of his several thousand clansmen had survived their ox-aspect trial.
• Chi Tongyue led the Chi Lineage and the approaching clans toward the central barrier after its entrance opened.
• Chi Tongyue tested the barrier with her Fate Soul origin, then led the Chi Lineage through after it parted without resistance.
• Chi Tongyue stopped inside the barrier and discovered an immense gray-white space beneath a transparent plane with no visible ground.

Chi Tongyue and the Chi Lineage entered a silent gray-white space and discovered an immense Twelve Zodiac Star Chart, with only the Rat and Ox positions illuminated. They found traces of those who had waited there before, while a mysterious point at the chart’s center left Chi Tongyue and Chi Tianhong wary.

• Chi Ninghua and Chi Tianhong examined the strange space as the Chi Lineage disciples gathered and closed ranks.
• Chi Tongyue spotted the Twelve Zodiac Star Chart, where the Rat and Ox positions glowed while the other ten remained dormant.
• Chi Tongyue became absorbed by a tiny point at the chart’s center and failed to hear Chi Tianhong calling her.
• Chi Tianhong noticed the point and warned Chi Tongyue not to look at it for long.
• Chi Tongyue observed an old depression, faint writing, wandering traces, and fading shadows left behind in the void.

The Chi Lineage entered the Twelve Star Pivot Seal Convergence Hall, where the Rat Position’s drifting light caused brief lapses in memory and the Ox Position’s weight affected cultivators differently. The chapter left the Chi Lineage shocked to discover that every one of them had gained an immovable, mountain-shaped black-and-yellow mark on the right shoulder blade.

• Chi Tongyue warned the Chi Lineage not to touch the Rat Position’s light dust after it caused disciples to forget what they had been saying and doing.
• Chi Lineage cultivators found that the Ox Position’s ancient weight bore down more heavily on outsiders, and Chi Tianhong connected their relative ease to the earlier Vajra Radiance Trial.
• Chi Tongyue read the floating characters “Twelve Star Pivot Seal Convergence Hall” and recognized the place as where the marks from the Twelve Zodiac Trial converged.
• Chi Tongyue spotted the battered Shangguan Lineage survivors led by Shangguan Wan'er and Elder White Brow, but the groups had not yet approached each other.
• Chi Tongyue discovered a black-and-yellow mountain-shaped mark on her shoulder, and Chi Tianhong and Chi Ninghua found the same mark on themselves.
• The Chi Lineage discovered that all ten thousand cultivators bore the marks, which had fused into their bodies and Fate Soul foundations and could not be removed by ordinary origin power.