Chapter Summaries

Chen Yang climbed the Long Stairway to Godhood, where a meteor struck him and showed him the Divine Dao’s destruction. The meteor bestowed the Fleeting Years technique on him, leaving him with a new inheritance and a charge to continue the road ahead.

• Chen Yang discovered that only he could make the Long Stairway to Godhood solid enough to climb, and he sent Fu Yin, Wu Hua, and Ku Yun back to the Divine Palace.
• Chen Yang climbed into the starry sea and saw that the Shattered Divine Palace’s world had been pierced and broken apart.
• At the stairway’s end, a black-and-white meteor struck Chen Yang, knocking him back toward the Shattered Divine Palace as the stairway vanished.
• The meteor showed Chen Yang visions of the Divine Dao’s fall and of gods fighting an enormous black shadow.
• The meteor merged into Chen Yang’s spirit body and bestowed the lower tier Light Divine Technique Fleeting Years, which could manifest the Abyss of Time.

After an encounter with an unidentified deity, Chen Yang returned safely to the Shattered Divine Palace and learned that the abyss of time within him came from the divine art Squandered Years. Ku Yun explained the divine arts system and revealed that Squandered Years belonged to the renowned Light inheritance, leaving Chen Yang ready to test his new ability.

• Chen Yang dreamed through many lives and forms before waking as he fell toward the summit of the Shattered Divine Palace.
• Fu Yin and the other two deities caught Chen Yang in a divine-power net and helped him land safely.
• Chen Yang returned to the high platform, reassured the others, and asked Ku Yun about divine arts.
• Ku Yun explained divine art ranks and inheritances, including that the Paths of Life and Death, Reincarnation, and Light were governed by Divine Lords.
• Chen Yang realized his new divine art belonged to the powerful Light inheritance and prepared to test it.

Chen Yang tested the Time Erosion Divine Art and learned that evil power greatly increased its potency, while combining it with divine power improved his ability to restore damaged treasures. To meet the art’s future divine power demands, he began spreading worship of Cheng Yang through Yang Family roadside stations.

• Chen Yang used the Time Erosion Divine Art on a stone and condemned prisoners, confirming that it could rapidly wear away their time and kill them.
• Chen Yang discovered that evil power made the art much more effective but could shatter a target’s time abyss, making it a dangerous offensive technique.
• Chen Yang combined divine power with evil power to restore two damaged Qi Gathering spiritual treasures, but failed to reverse the time abyss of a condemned prisoner.
• Chen Yang concluded that the art could accelerate time erosion but could not truly turn time back, then returned his avatar at Pine Mountain to its position.
• Chen Yang asked Yang Lingqing to devise a way to spread worship of Cheng Yang, and the Yang Family placed worship steles at its roadside stations.
• Cultivators began bowing and offering incense at the steles in exchange for lodging discounts, bringing Chen Yang a growing supply of divine power.

The first Tiger Chasing trade caravans reached the eastern frontier, and the Yang Family prepared to join the new route under the Dynasty’s protection. After He Shenglai strengthened his ties with Yang Lingqing, the Yang caravan arrived safely at Befeng City, where trade brought new escort and route-planning businesses alongside persistent bandit attacks.

• The Yang Family packed its goods and sent Xie Chuan, Dai Wei, and Yuan Cheng with the Dynasty trade caravans, while Chen Huaien joined them disguised as an ordinary Qi Gathering cultivator.
• He Shenglai arrived with the He Family caravan after breaking through to Late Essence Condensation, booked the Yang Family’s relay stations, and stayed at its fief.
• Yang Lingqing welcomed He Shenglai, who praised her prospects and invited her to advise the He Family’s young disciples at Myriad Layer Forest; she accepted.
• Yang Lingqing’s four-person caravan joined the Dynasty contingent and traveled safely to Befeng City.
• Trade caravans faced attacks in Befeng City’s surrounding mountains, while escort agencies and Rogue Cultivators began offering protection and route-planning services.

Chen Huaien presented an unusual pill inheritance to the Befeng City Pill Workshop and waited for its leaders to respond. Meanwhile, Yang Yuanhong practiced artifact forging with Yao Santu and Dongfang Yingcai near the border of the Tiger Chasing Dynasty and the Moliang Dynasty.

• Xie Chuan and the other two sold out the Yang Family's goods in less than three days, then investigated Befeng City's markets for a report to Yang Lingqing.
• Chen Huaien reached the Pill Workshop, where its staff recognized his Spiritual Connection Realm cultivation and escorted him to the manager.
• Chen Huaien gave the manager a copied pill method and said his master would discuss it with the Workshop's leader if they were interested.
• The manager arranged for Chen Huaien to stay on the top floor and hurried to report the inheritance to the main Pill Workshop branch.
• Yang Yuanhong completed an artifact-forging exercise, and Yao Santu and Dongfang Yingcai praised his progress and talent.

Dongfang Yingcai gave Yang Yuanhong eight Wood Kites for protection before he, she, and Yao Santu crossed into the Moliang Dynasty. As they traveled on foot toward the Divine Weapon Convention, they saw the poverty and disorder affecting Moliang’s lower ranks, a reality hidden from most visiting artifact refiners.

• Dongfang Yingcai gave Yang Yuanhong eight Wood Kites and promised to protect him from threats such as Core Formation Cultivators.
• Yang Yuanhong voiced concern about facing stronger evil cultivators, and Yao Santu reassured him by pointing to Dongfang Yingcai’s abilities.
• The next day, Yang Yuanhong, Dongfang Yingcai, and Yao Santu passed through the checkpoint into the Moliang Dynasty using a Hundred Artifacts Tower travel permit.
• The chapter explained that Moliang’s imperial family concentrated power and wealth among itself and its allies, leaving poorer communities underdeveloped and poorly governed.
• The three traveled on foot toward the Divine Weapon Convention and witnessed the harsh conditions at the bottom of Moliang society.

Yao Santu helped Dongfang Yingcai come to terms with the suffering she had witnessed in the Moliang Dynasty, and the three reached Guanglu City for the Divine Weapon Convention. As they approached the Divine Weapon Secret Realm, Chen Yang sensed a familiar malicious force in its teleportation array.

• The trio defeated ten Rogue Cultivators who had followed them for a month to rob them, and Yang Yuanhong tested Dongfang Yingcai's Wood Kites.
• Dongfang Yingcai and Yao Santu destroyed a mountain Lineage that kept mortals captive, then arranged for Hundred Artifacts Tower cultivators to take the survivors into their care.
• Dongfang Yingcai confessed her doubts about the widespread exploitation of mortals, and Yao Santu encouraged her to hold fast to her convictions and keep helping people.
• Yang Yuanhong said he wanted to follow Dongfang Yingcai's example, and she embraced him, easing the group's somber mood.
• Two days later, the trio reached Guanglu City, where Dongfang Yingcai identified the formation above the city as the entrance to the Divine Weapon Secret Realm.
• Chen Yang sensed a familiar malicious force coming from the prepared teleportation array.

Chen Yang recognized that dense evil power in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm likely meant its resident Divine Path creature had become an evil god, and he feared the creature might already have gone mad. When the convention opened, Yang Yuanhong entered the realm and a failed trial triggered a potentially lethal attack, confirming that the danger was real.

• Chen Yang reasoned that the Secret Realm's evil power had likely overwhelmed its resident Divine Path creature, though he hoped it had not become a mindless mad god.
• The Divine Weapon Convention began, and artifact refiners entered the Secret Realm; Chen Yang recognized Lu Changfeng and considered him a possible ally.
• Before Yang Yuanhong entered, Chen Yang used divine power to protect Yao Santu and Dongfang Yingcai's seas of consciousness.
• Yang Yuanhong arrived in a distorted dark chamber, and Chen Yang suspected the Secret Realm's condition had worsened.
• After Yang Yuanhong failed the weapon-reforging trial, two broken blade segments attacked his neck, revealing that the trial could kill less capable entrants.

Chen Yang and Yang Yuanhong entered the Divine Weapon Secret Realm as its trials became deadly, while the Hundred Artifacts Tower elders discovered they could no longer reach or evacuate the cultivators inside. A captured image of a Spiritual Connection artifact refiner being killed and his Primordial Spirit devoured confirmed that the Secret Realm had turned ferocious.

• Chen Yang took control of Yang Yuanhong and quickly passed five trials, absorbing the evil force sent to make him fail.
• Chen Yang entered the Divine Weapon Secret Realm with Yang Yuanhong and decided to search for Yao Santu and Dongfang Yingcai as quickly as possible.
• The Hundred Artifacts Tower elders learned that cultivators' Life Tablets were shattering and tried to close the Secret Realm and teleport its survivors out.
• The elders discovered that an unknown force had cut off their connection to the Secret Realm, leaving their evacuation technique useless.
• A True Intent Realm cultivator revealed an image of a Spiritual Connection artifact refiner being killed by his saber and his Primordial Spirit being dragged back and devoured.

As the Divine Weapon Secret Realm turned ominous across the Moliang Dynasty and the Central Region, the Hundred Artifacts Tower could only delay rescue efforts while it addressed the wider crisis. Inside the Secret Realm, Chen Yang and Yang Yuanhong reached Yao Santu, and Chen Yang began breaking the Formation Array trapping him.

• Geng Zhi watched the Life Tablets as cultivators learned that weapons were devouring their wielders and feared for Yao Santu and Dongfang Yingcai, whose tablets remained intact.
• Elder Li told the gathered cultivators that the three Tower Masters had acted, but Secret Realms across the world, including the Central Region, had turned ominous, so the Northwest rescue would have to wait.
• Powers whose artifact refiners had died negotiated compensation with the Hundred Artifacts Tower while the remaining powers prayed for those still inside.
• Chen Yang carried Yang Yuanhong through the stone forest and found Yao Santu trapped in a Formation Array, fighting several ownerless Divine Weapons and Blades.
• Chen Yang told Yang Yuanhong to rescue Yao Santu, then used “Wasted Life Arises! Abyss of Time, Appear!” to manifest the Abyss of Time within the Formation Array.

Chen Yang rescued Yao Santu from a deadly formation and flew off with him and Yang Yuanhong to find Dongfang Yingcai. Meanwhile, Dongfang Yingcai prepared to lead six cultivators out of a tower besieged by arrow rain, though their survival remained uncertain.

• Chen Yang weakened the formation, allowing Yao Santu to destroy its weapons, then appeared in time to stop its final spear and smash the formation.
• Yao Santu recognized Chen Shitou as Senior Immortal Stone and thanked him for saving his life.
• Chen Yang took Yao Santu and Yang Yuanhong with him and flew toward Dongfang Yingcai's location.
• Dongfang Yingcai sheltered with six cultivators in a tower whose damaged formation was failing under a powerful arrow rain.
• Dongfang Yingcai used her puppet armor to deflect an arrow that threatened an injured Core Formation Cultivator.
• Dongfang Yingcai announced that she would attempt a breakout and raise a Daozhen shield, leaving the others to keep up as best they could.

Dongfang Yingcai led six cultivators through the arrow rain, using her puppet exoskeleton to shield them while balancing their pace against her limited true essence. After the Qi Gathering Cultivators and one Core Formation Cultivator died, she escaped with the two wounded Core Formation Cultivators and tried to break the larger formation with ant puppets, which began damaging it after a sudden tremor.

• Dongfang Yingcai led the six cultivators out of the collapsing tower and into the arrow rain, protecting them with her true essence shield.
• Dongfang Yingcai increased their speed, and the first Qi Gathering Cultivator fell behind and was killed by arrows.
• Dongfang Yingcai sped up again, and two more Qi Gathering Cultivators died; the last Qi Gathering Cultivator then perished as well.
• Dongfang Yingcai drove the puppet exoskeleton at full power and escaped the arrow rain with the two wounded Core Formation Cultivators.
• Dongfang Yingcai sent ant puppets to gnaw at the larger formation, but they initially failed to damage it.
• Dongfang Yingcai felt the formation tremble, and the ant puppets' gnawing began to work.

Dongfang Yingcai and two Core Formation Cultivators struggled to survive the formation’s arrow rain as the ant puppets weakened it, but one cultivator betrayed them and fled. Just as Dongfang Yingcai and the remaining cultivator faced certain death, an unknown man rescued them and shattered the formation with a single punch.

• Dongfang Yingcai asked the two Core Formation Cultivators to lend her their true essence so her shield could withstand the arrow rain while the ant puppets gnawed through the formation.
• As the formation concentrated its arrows on them, one Core Formation Cultivator secretly held back his true essence and waited for a chance to escape.
• The cultivator struck a gap in the damaged formation, knocked down the ant puppets, and fled alone, leaving Dongfang Yingcai and the other cultivator behind.
• Dongfang Yingcai shielded the remaining cultivator with her puppet armor and kept attacking the formation, but the armor shattered beneath the arrow rain.
• An unknown man reached through the formation, pulled Dongfang Yingcai and the other cultivator to safety, then punched through the arrow rain and shattered the formation.

Yang Yuanhong, disguised as Yang Hu, rescued Dongfang Yingcai and tested whether she could see through a treacherous cultivator’s false plea for mercy. After she killed the man, she joined Yang Yuanhong in rescuing others, while Chen Yang pursued the mad god he had drawn out.

• Dongfang Yingcai mistook Yang Yuanhong for Chen Shitou until Yao Santu introduced him as Senior Yang Hu, who had rescued them.
• Yang Yuanhong brought the Core Formation Cultivator who had abandoned Dongfang Yingcai before her, and the man pretended to beg for forgiveness while reaching for her.
• Dongfang Yingcai saw through the man’s scheme and severed his hands; Yang Yuanhong crushed his Origin Core, and she killed him with a final slash.
• Yang Yuanhong invited Dongfang Yingcai to help rescue cultivators, and she joined him and Yao Santu aboard a cloud boat.
• Chen Yang sensed that the mad god had been drawn out, located its true form through their divine-power connection, and pursued it.

Chen Yang found the Mad God at the top of the Divine Weapon Secret Realm and fought its Horse-Slaying Saber as the trapped cultivators below escaped. As the Mad God summoned a Giant Axe and drew all the realm’s evil power to the peak, Chen Yang prepared to counter both weapons with his Time Erosion Divine Art.

• Chen Yang sensed the Mad God’s evil power above the Apex of the Firmament and found Lu Changfeng and seven other Spiritual Connection cultivators trapped by flying swords.
• Chen Yang reached the rusted Horse-Slaying Saber hosting the Mad God and saw a vision of it destroying a planet’s worth of ghosts and monsters.
• The Horse-Slaying Saber cracked Chen Yang’s black armor, but his five true essence blasts knocked the weapon away.
• The Mad God summoned a Giant Axe, while the evil power converged at the peak and the formations across the Secret Realm returned to normal.
• Lu Changfeng broke the remaining flying swords and flew to help the other cultivators as Chen Yang faced the Horse-Slaying Saber and Giant Axe.
• Chen Yang poured his avatar’s divine power and evil power into two Time Erosion vortices as the weapons attacked him.

Chen Yang used the Time Erosion Divine Art to destroy the Giant Axe, but the Horse-Slaying Saber drew in evil power from multiple Secret Realms and resisted. As the resulting relief saved artifact refiners and brought Chen Yang a surge of prayer power, he converted it into divine power and accelerated the temporal abyss again.

• Chen Yang dismantled the Giant Axe with blasts of true essence, leaving the Horse-Slaying Saber as the last weapon resisting his divine art.
• The Horse-Slaying Saber opened passages to four other Secret Realms and gathered their evil power, slowing the temporal abyss and encasing itself in evil-power crystal.
• As the evil power receded, the three Hundred Artifacts Tower masters found they could stabilize the Central Region Secret Realm, and cultivator deaths elsewhere began to decline.
• Cultivators across Azure Waves prayed for the artifact refiners' safety, sending a great surge of prayer power to Chen Yang's main body in the Yang Family's fief.
• Chen Yang purified the prayer power into divine power and sent it to his avatar, which poured it into the Time Erosion vortex to accelerate the temporal abyss around the Horse-Slaying Saber.

Chen Yang accepted the mission of the Divine Dao, reclaimed his place as master of the Canglan Divine Palace, and used its authority to destroy the mad Horse-Slaying Saber. He gave the dying Divine Path creature one final lucid moment before its spiritual body faded, lamenting that Chen Yang had not come sooner.

• Chen Yang resisted the Horse-Slaying Saber's pleas and concluded that he might be the one destined to confront mad god calamities.
• Chen Yang accepted the mission to correct the Divine Dao's ancient mistake, causing the Shattered Divine Palace to awaken and rise from beneath the land.
• Fu Yin, Wu Hua, and Ku Yun were summoned to the palace, where Ku Yun recognized Chen Yang's return to his rightful place as Divine Lord.
• Chen Yang took up the scepter, imposed the Canglan Divine Palace's authority over the Northwest Divine Weapon Secret Realm, and declared divine punishment upon the mad god.
• Chen Yang broke the Horse-Slaying Saber and drew its spiritual body into the palace, where he granted it a final stretch of lucid consciousness.
• The authority's effect ended, and the dying creature lamented that Chen Yang had come too late.

After mourning a Divine Path creature who died in the Divine Weapon Secret Realm, Chen Yang accepted the burden of rescuing the Divine Dao’s scattered survivors and studied the inheritance granted by the True God Authority. He realized that, as an otherworldly variable with no prior divine mark, he would have to forge a new Divine Dao lineage himself.

• Fu Yin, Wu Hua, and Ku Yun silently bowed to Chen Yang after mourning their fallen fellow cultivator.
• Chen Yang gathered the remaining ownerless evil power and gave it to the Blood Sun youngling, which entered a dormant state as it began its first transformation.
• Chen Yang examined the True God Authority and learned that its miracles lasted ten breaths before requiring three to five months to recharge.
• Chen Yang studied the Divine Dao’s cultivation stages and the possible lineages for Fu Yin, Wu Hua, and Ku Yun.
• Chen Yang found no True God mark on his Authority and concluded that he was an otherworldly variable destined to create a new lineage.

After reflecting on the ancient powers and allies behind his mission, Chen Yang resolved to continue forging a new Dao lineage and recognized his new Lower God cultivation as crucial support. He planned to send Yang Yuanhong to the Central Region to save imperiled Divine Path creatures, and obtained the Divine Weapon Creation Chapter, which offered a way to refine an independent celestial grotto.

• Chen Yang compared his undertaking with the achievements of the Divine Lords of Life and Death and Reincarnation, then realized he was supported by the plans and sacrifices of earlier generations.
• Chen Yang examined the Divine Dao cultivation bestowed by the Canglan Divine Palace, which had raised him to the Lower God level and let him wield the True God Authority.
• Chen Yang decided that Yang Yuanhong should train in the Central Region, where Chen Yang could now conceal him from most powerful cultivators and help save Divine Path creatures from calamity.
• Chen Yang's avatar completed absorbing the Divine Weapon Creation Chapter after the Horse-Slaying Saber transformed into the inheritance.
• Chen Yang recognized that the inheritance provided a way to carry out Ku Yun's methods for refining an independent celestial grotto.

After the Divine Weapon Secret Realm lost its spirituality, the cultivators escaped and Yang Yuanhong left Dongfang Yingcai with a letter to deliver. A month later, a package from him reached Dongfang Yingcai, and its sweet cake and brief note made her smile.

• The three Hundred Artifacts Tower masters salvaged several treasures, accepted the loss of the secret realm, and opened the way for cultivators to leave.
• Yang Yuanhong accepted tokens from the cultivators he had rescued, then obtained a Dongfang Family token from Dongfang Yingcai and asked her to deliver a letter to the Immortal Patrol Division.
• Yang Yuanhong departed, and Dongfang Yingcai and Yao Santu later left the secret realm with Geng Zhi and returned to Hundred Artifacts Tower.
• Dongfang Yingcai delivered Yang Yuanhong's letter in Tuoyue City, then grew quiet after returning, prompting Ma Yongsheng to suspect she had fallen for him.
• A month later, Dongfang Yingcai received a package containing sweet cake and a note from Yang Yuanhong telling her to try some too.