Chapter Summaries

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson successfully used Big Black Ox’s new Five Elements Teleportation Array to return from the Forbidden Sea and sailed toward the West Sea while waiting for the Heavenly Pass to open. When they emerged from the sea, they spotted Yu Family fleets searching the passing ships, but Chen Xun urged his companions to follow their plan and avoid acting in anger.

• Big Black Ox activated the Five Elements Teleportation Array, transporting Chen Xun and Little Crimson from a distant island back to their abandoned Great Mine Pit in the Forbidden Sea.
• Big Black Ox recorded improvements for the array, while Chen Xun proposed that they build another one on the Heaven Severing Great Plains and then head to the West Sea to fish.
• Chen Xun summoned the Giant Ship, and he, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson sailed through the Forbidden Sea as other cultivators struggled against its dangers.
• After more than a hundred years in the Forbidden Sea, the trio emerged into clear skies and spotted Yu Family fleets searching ships for someone.
• Chen Xun acknowledged the grudge with the Yu Family but told his companions not to attack ordinary cultivators or let anger disrupt their plan, and Big Black Ox concealed the ship as it rose into the sky.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson avoided the Yu Family’s blockade while preparing for their eventual advance to Spirit Transformation. After capturing essence blood from a Golden Jade Azure Crow, they left the island in their small boat to enjoy the sea.

• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox to establish multiple Teleportation Array connections and decided to avoid the Yu Family’s blockade until they reached Spirit Transformation.
• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson ambushed a Golden Jade Azure Crow with a formation and demanded two drops of its essence blood.
• Big Black Ox gave the crow two Thousand Year Spiritual Herbs in exchange for its essence blood, and the grateful crow flew back to its nest.
• Chen Xun and his companions boarded their small boat and drifted out to sea.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson encountered a merchant ship while fishing in the West Sea and learned that the Golden Core abbot’s challenge had thrown the Buddhist Ten Provinces into chaos. After giving the cultivators spirit herbs and releasing the big turtle, they continued across the sea.

• Chen Xun and his companions caught the same big turtle again and saw that it had reached Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
• Cultivators aboard a merchant ship discussed rumors about a Golden Core Buddhist abbot with dual Golden Cores who had challenged a Spirit Transformation Bodhisattva at the Ten Provinces Dao Discussion.
• Chen Xun stopped the merchant ship with his power and asked whether the abbot had come from Chan Sound Temple in Dinghui Province and whether the rumors were true.
• The white-robed cultivator confirmed the account, and Chen Xun and Big Black Ox gave spirit herbs to him and the merchant association before departing.
• Chen Xun's companions released the big turtle with a spirit herb, and it followed their boat briefly before returning to the sea.

Half a year later, Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson visited Chan Sound Temple and learned that the Abbot’s campaign against Incense to Godhood came from his belief that it trapped Buddhist cultivators in a dead-end path. When Chen Xun asked about the Heavenly River, the ancient war, and Defiled Lifespan, the Abbot’s aura turned cold, leaving the conversation at a tense cliffhanger.

• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson arrived at Chan Sound Temple, where they found the Abbot aged and the chief disciple still stalled at Late Golden Core.
• Chen Xun asked about the Abbot’s reputation for challenging Buddhism across Great Li’s ten provinces, and the Abbot explained that his debate with Qi Ji Bodhisattva had changed nothing.
• The Abbot explained that Incense to Godhood let Buddhist cultivators advance to Spirit Transformation, but failure erased their consciousness and success bound them to Buddhist incense.
• The Abbot said he opposed the practice because it left Buddhist cultivators with no freedom or road ahead, and Big Black Ox recognized the Abbot’s words as familiar.
• Chen Xun asked whether the path ahead by the Heavenly River was tied to the ancient war and Defiled Lifespan, and the Abbot’s aura grew cold as the hall fell silent.

Baili Fengyao explained the war against Defiled Lifespan and revealed that his Baili Clan still fought on the realm’s front lines. Chen Xun and Big Black Ox decided to cross the Heaven Pass and travel to the Bank of the Milky Way battlefield, leaving Baili Fengyao behind at Chan Sound Temple.

• Baili Fengyao told Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson that slaying Defiled Lifespan cost cultivators their lifespans and that the ancient war’s defenders had sacrificed themselves to reclaim lost lands.
• Chen Xun asked the abbot’s name and learned that Baili Fengyao belonged to the Baili Clan, descendants of ancient war marshals who still fought at the front lines.
• Chen Xun showed Baili Fengyao the War Realm Camp token and said he and Big Black Ox would undertake meaningful deeds, while Big Black Ox reacted with sudden intensity.
• Chen Xun announced that they would cross the Heaven Pass and go to the Bank of the Milky Way battlefield, and Little Crimson resigned itself to following them.
• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson departed Chan Sound Temple in a cyclone, while Baili Fengyao and his eldest disciple stayed behind and waited for an answer.

After more than four hundred years in Great Li, Chen Xun developed the Forgetfulness Talisman, which could induce Qi Deviation in Foundation Establishment cultivators. As powerful forces gathered and the West Coast was sealed ahead of a coming crisis, he told Big Black Ox and Little Crimson to prepare to depart.

• Chen Xun showed Big Black Ox and Little Crimson his newly created Forgetfulness Talisman and explained how it could disrupt a cultivator’s qi and blood to cause Qi Deviation.
• Chen Xun described the talisman’s hidden resonance with the Essence of Heaven and Earth, and Little Crimson recognized its potential for ambushes.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox that he was interested in studying the blood of Defiled Lifespan, while Little Crimson warned them of its danger.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox and Little Crimson to pack up and prepare to leave after more than four hundred years in Great Li.
• Chen Xun noted that Great Li’s major powers had sealed off the West Coast as powerful cultivators gathered and the region braced for a major event.

Chen Xun reassured Big Black Ox that reincarnation through merit was real, then pondered the ancient war and the origins of Defiled Lifespan. One month later, more than a hundred War Realm Boats appeared over the West Coast, carrying an immense army of Golden Core cultivators.

• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox that the abbot was Senior Brother Le Feng's reincarnation and that their past deeds had gathered merit.
• Big Black Ox cried with relief, then joined Little Crimson in joking and roughhousing.
• Chen Xun questioned how the Ji Clan had reached the Bank of the Milky Way and theorized that an ancient war and sealed path had given rise to the domains and Defiled Lifespan.
• Chen Xun imagined Little Crane and Giant Ship breaking through a domain wall and becoming World Breaking Ships.
• One month later, over a hundred War Realm Boats arrived above the West Coast as war drums sounded and iron-blooded Baleful Intent filled the sky.

The Baili Clan’s warships and cultivator army set Great Li abuzz as cultivators gathered for the Heavenly Pass expedition. Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson headed toward the West Coast teleportation arrays, while a disciple of the Spirit Enlightenment Ancient Immortal Sect prepared to depart.

• The Baili Clan’s army advanced, inspiring some cultivators to join the expedition and frightening others into retreat.
• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson left their shop and joined the crowds traveling toward the West Coast teleportation arrays.
• Qi Geng Yun told Zhuang Yun he was enlisting in the army, though he stayed close to her as they traveled.
• Little Crimson panicked at the gathering armies, and Big Black Ox carried it on his back as cultivators arrived at the teleportation arrays.
• At the Spirit Enlightenment Ancient Immortal Sect, a disciple told his master he had decided to leave for the Bank of the Milky Way and asked him to activate the teleportation array.

As the Thousand Year Heavenly Pass opened, Yu Chen left his family for the Bank of the Milky Way, while clans and cultivators across Great Li gathered to head for the West Coast. The Jiang Clan’s divination treasure cracked as the clans launched their vanguard, and the story left with a growing tide of cultivators entering the Teleportation Arrays.

• Disciples across the Spirit Enlightenment Ancient Immortal Sect entered Teleportation Arrays after Senior Yan Yu warned that learning the truth might test their resolve.
• Yu Chen rejected Yu Yiwei and Uncle Chu’s pleas, entrusted his sister’s resources and safety to them, and departed for the Bank of the Milky Way.
• The Jiang Clan’s ancestors tried to divine their descendants’ fate, but the Rising Sun Departing Dream Slip cracked and the ancestors were injured.
• Baili Wentian ordered the Baili Clan and its allies to enter the Teleportation Array as the Nine Heavens Demon Sealing Ape offered its descendants for the campaign.
• The next day, cultivators and spirit beasts across Great Li used free Teleportation Arrays to travel toward the West Coast and the Thousand Year Heavenly Pass.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson joined the vast fleet preparing to cross the Heavenly Pass, where the Baili Clan arrived with the Nine Heavens Demon Sealing Apes. Chen Xun spotted Huang Shao and Dai Xinqing among the forces, while the two men remained wary of the stranger who had watched them.

• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson rode their Small Broken Boat amid the warships and braced themselves for the expedition.
• The Baili Clan arrived with its army and the Nine Heavens Demon Sealing Apes, inspiring the assembled cultivators.
• Chen Xun recognized Huang Shao and Dai Xinqing and watched them from his boat.
• Huang Shao and Dai Xinqing discussed joining the expedition to pursue opportunities and avenge their enemies, though Huang Shao had planned to leave Dai Xinqing behind.
• Huang Shao and Dai Xinqing noticed Chen Xun watching them, grew suspicious, and moved away from the edge of their ship.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson joined the Baili Clan’s fleet on its year-long voyage across the West Sea toward the Overseas Four Immortal Mountains. They crossed into the Upside-Down Sea Territory and watched the ancient mountains send out their warships, leaving the fleet poised to join the journey to the Bank of the Milky Way.

• The Baili Clan’s army set sail with Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson aboard their small boat, linked to the fleet by a blood-colored array.
• After a year at sea, the fleet reached the Upside-Down Sea Territory, where the sea tilted upward and the warships began ascending.
• Big Black Ox activated the boat’s array to secure it to the tilted sea, and Chen Xun and his companions watched the fleet climb.
• One month later, the fleet approached the Overseas Four Immortal Mountains, whose ancient voices and immortal light shook the sea and sky.
• The four mountains opened their misty centers and sent out fleets of young cultivators, who prepared to join the Realm Lifeforms heading for the Bank of the Milky Way.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson witnessed the Four Immortal Mountains open the Upside-Down Heavenly Pass for the thousand-year blood battle. As the cultivators sailed into the Heavenly River, Chen Xun chose to stay behind and watch rather than join them.

• Battle cries and warships filled the Upside-Down Sea Territory as cultivators gathered before the Four Immortal Mountains.
• Baili Wentian and the other leaders greeted the gathered cultivators, then called for the Heavenly Pass to be opened.
• The Four Immortal Mountains activated the Ancient Array, drawing down the sea and transforming the purple-gold light curtain into an upside-down Heavenly River.
• The leaders ordered the warships to set sail, and the gathered cultivators advanced into the Heavenly Pass.
• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson stayed at the rear while Chen Xun explained that they had come to see the spectacle, not join the battle.

Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson prepared to evade the Upside-Down Heavenly Pass and secretly teleport through the sea. As Yu Weizi searched for them under Baili Wentian’s warning, Big Black Ox activated a powerful multi-directional teleportation array, whisking the trio away and drawing the attention of distant experts.

• Chen Xun decided to sneak across the Forbidden Sea by another route, and Big Black Ox prepared a teleportation while Chen Xun and Little Crimson stood guard.
• Yu Weizi searched the passing warships for three Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators, while Baili Wentian warned her not to abuse her power at the Heavenly Pass.
• Big Black Ox revealed his prepared route map and completed the teleportation array built into their small boat.
• Chen Xun, Big Black Ox, and Little Crimson raced back toward the Upside-Down Sea Territory, where the boat’s Five Elements array gathered immense spiritual energy.
• The boat vanished in a burst of light, and several powerful gazes turned toward the strange disturbance.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox reached the closed Heavenly Pass and broke through its ancient array with the War Realm Camp Token, opening a golden passage into the Realm Battlefield. They sailed into the darkness, preparing to confront Defiled Lifespan as the battlefield’s war began.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox used the War Realm Camp Token to guide their Giant Ship toward the Heavenly Pass, while Little Crimson was repeatedly overwhelmed by their power.
• After finding the purple-gold array closed, Big Black Ox activated the token and used the Five Elements Restriction Breaking Art to break open the Ancient Array.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox declared they would enter the battlefield and kill Defiled Lifespan, then sailed their Giant Ship through the golden passage.
• Inside the dark passage, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox prepared their Starfall Art and escape array as Little Crimson fainted again.
• The Giant Ship accelerated deeper into the passage, and Defiled Lifespan on the Realm Battlefield recalled the terror of Eternal Life Beings as the two nemeses approached.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox entered the hostile Realm Battlefield known as Black Earth Land, where spiritual and essence qi were absent and four Defiled Lifespans ambushed them. After defeating the attackers, they discovered that the Yin Cold Qi released by the dead had turned into divine sense power and entered Big Black Ox’s Divine Apertures.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox prepared to fight as the Giant Ship crossed into a realm cut off from ordinary heaven and earth.
• They reached the Black Earth Land, where they found a vast, lifeless landscape and no sign of cultivators or Defiled Lifespans.
• Four Foundation Establishment Realm Defiled Lifespans ambushed Chen Xun and his companions with weapons formed from their blood.
• Big Black Ox summoned a meteor that melted all four attackers into ash.
• Big Black Ox told Chen Xun that the Defiled Lifespans’ Yin Cold Qi had entered his body and transformed into divine sense power.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox waited on the Giant Ship while Defiled Lifespans gathered across the Black Earth Land. Chen Xun unleashed his full strength and charged into the battlefield, slaughtering wave after wave as his divine sense grew and his realm bottleneck loosened.

• Chen Xun confirmed that Defiled Lifespans could not shorten his lifespan and warned Big Black Ox to stay alert.
• Defiled Lifespans of several realms awakened across the Black Earth Land and sacrificed their blood to attack the Giant Ship.
• Chen Xun told Big Black Ox to protect the Giant Ship, then drew his second Death Qi Mountain-Splitting Axe and unleashed his Five Heads and Ten Arms image.
• Chen Xun and Starfall attacked the Defiled Lifespans, destroying rivers of defiled blood and killing countless enemies across the battlefield.
• Big Black Ox and Little Crimson watched Chen Xun’s overwhelming assault in shock as his divine sense grew and his realm bottleneck loosened.

Chen Xun and Big Black Ox fought waves of Defiled Lifespans on the Realm Battlefield, using the Extinguishing Divine Wind to destroy their enemies. Little Crimson transformed into a giant Flame Radiance Crimson Ancient Lion and tried to join the battle, but Chen Xun and Big Black Ox knocked it down.

• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox drew Defiled Lifespans toward them and began fighting across the Black Earth Land, while Little Crimson and Brother Crane guarded the Giant Ship.
• Chen Xun opened all sixteen Divine Apertures and unleashed the Extinguishing Divine Wind, annihilating the divine consciousness of nearby Defiled Lifespans.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox charged through the battlefield, slaughtering Defiled Lifespans as reinforcements continued to arrive.
• Little Crimson transformed into a hundred-zhang Flame Radiance Crimson Ancient Lion and announced that it would share the burden of battle.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox rushed to Little Crimson and knocked it into a crater before it could join the fight.

After a year of slaughtering Defiled Lifespans on the Black Earth Land, Chen Xun and Big Black Ox reached the peak of Nascent Soul and prepared to break through. Chen Xun began his Spirit Transformation tribulation, but Heaven, Earth, and man’s tribulations descended together, leaving Big Black Ox unable to tell whether Chen Xun had survived the first strike.

• Little Crimson revealed that it could rebuild its body from the essence blood stored in its Nascent Soul, then returned to the Giant Ship while Chen Xun and Big Black Ox resumed fighting.
• Chen Xun and Big Black Ox spent a year clearing Defiled Lifespans from the Black Earth Land and studying their strange nature, while avoiding the more dangerous depths.
• Once their divine consciousness reached its limit, Chen Xun asked Big Black Ox to send him to the center of their killing formations so he could attempt Spirit Transformation.
• Chen Xun began his breakthrough as Big Black Ox prayed for him and Little Crimson watched from the Giant Ship, but the ground and sky stirred with an ominous force.
• A lightning storm engulfed the area, and Chen Xun realized that an Earth Tribulation had descended alongside the heavenly tribulation as his mind began to scatter.
• Little Crane shielded the Giant Ship from the storm, while Big Black Ox could not see whether Chen Xun had survived and Little Crimson collapsed in shock.

After waking from a three-year coma, Chen Xun remembered being defeated by Chu Zhong and glimpsed the Gou Sect's Sect Master traveling with a mysterious man and a Big Black Ox. The man revealed that countless Chen Xuns were trapped in repeated reincarnation and that the Black Ox held the key to breaking their deadlock.

• Wang Xuan told Chen Xun he had been unconscious for three years after Chu Zhong defeated him during the sect's centennial competition.
• Chen Xun remembered the beating and demanded his Mountain-Splitting Axe, confusing Wang Xuan with his strange behavior.
• Chu Zhong arrived to apologize, but Chen Xun suddenly saw NanGong HeLing, a mysterious man, and a Big Black Ox.
• The mysterious man told Chen Xun that countless versions of him were reincarnating within the River of Time and that Chen Xun was their point of connection.
• The man said the Black Ox held the key to escaping their cage, while NanGong HeLing would die before annihilation unless salvation came through reincarnation.

Chen Xun overcame the heart demons by rejecting their visions of reincarnation and annihilation, then endured the heavenly tribulation in the Realm Battlefield. He completed his breakthrough into a Spirit Transformation Great Expert, leaving Big Black Ox and Little Crimson celebrating his survival and new power.

• Chen Xun saw through the heart demons’ attempt to guide him toward annihilation and declared that he would keep living alongside his old friends and brothers.
• Chen Xun broke free of the heart-demon illusion and awakened on the battlefield amid the lightning storm, while Big Black Ox and Little Crimson watched from the Giant Ship.
• Chen Xun endured six hours of heavenly tribulation, absorbed its tempering power, and transformed his five Nascent Souls into Primordial Spirits.
• The tribulation ended as seven-colored rays filled the Realm Battlefield, and Chen Xun’s Primordial Spirits returned to his body.
• Chen Xun tested his new strength by crushing a distant black mountain with a Sky Covering Giant Palm, startling the Defiled Lifespans and the figures aboard the Giant Ship.