Chapter Summaries

The Void Furnace investigated the Fire Meteor blast site and concluded that the wasteland explorer likely died or suffered a costly Immortal reconstruction, but became eager to claim the explorer’s fire-based Immortality. He stayed with Zhang Xuezhou, who promised him research materials, fire crystal stones, and introductions to powerful friends.

• The Void Furnace examined Sinkhole No. 2 and judged that the wasteland explorer had likely been destroyed during his dimensional crossing, unless Immortal reconstruction could save him.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested the explorer might have possessed Immortality because Huangdao Tuer described his mastery of fire, and the Void Furnace became interested in taking that power.
• The Void Furnace searched the blast zone with a flame in his palm while Ren Yisheng watched warily and noted the Void Furnace’s formidable but limited abilities.
• Zhang Xuezhou offered the Void Furnace access to past research, a place to rest, and food and water; Ren Yisheng then left to gather fire crystal stones from Qinmeng.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that Ren Yisheng’s friends had previously sought the Void Furnace’s help, and the Void Furnace promised to assist them if they returned.

Li Yingbo and the others arrived at the North Rehe Research Institute with research materials and played along with Zhang Xuezhou’s presentation of them as influential friends. The Void Furnace welcomed them and apologized to them, while the group recognized how thoroughly Zhang Xuezhou had deceived it.

• Ren Yisheng told Li Yingbo and the others how he had been treated as an old servant, and they memorized Zhang Xuezhou’s account of his conversation with the Void Furnace to avoid contradicting it.
• Wang Haoran reminded the group to be careful as their aircraft descended toward the restricted research area, carrying safes of North Rehe research records and fire crystals.
• Li Yingbo and the others arrived at the institute and saw the area marked off with seven red banners, while observers and online discussions reacted to the renewed research and the Void Furnace’s resemblance to Zhang Xuezhou.
• Zhang Xuezhou introduced Li Yingbo and the others to the Void Furnace as influential friends with ties to livestock, transportation, medical equipment, weapons, and other industries.
• The Void Furnace apologized to Zhang Xuezhou’s friends and welcomed them, while Li Yingbo and the others realized how convincingly Zhang Xuezhou had won its trust.

The Void Furnace used the Fire Seed to refine the group’s bloodlines, then identified a distortion at Sinkhole No. 2 that could conceal the Void Stone base he sought. Ren Anran manifested a golden-armored Yang Corporeal Soul, preparing to enter the distortion alongside him.

• The Void Furnace refined the group with the Fire Seed, leaving them stronger and helping Zhang Manqian sense that the fifth sequence was near.
• Zhang Xuezhou offered the Void Furnace fire crystals and promised the group would help him, easing the Void Furnace’s concerns about finding Immortality.
• The Void Furnace compared old records and drawings of Sinkhole No. 2 with the site and noticed a shadow that did not match the sunlight.
• The Void Furnace concluded that dimensional distortion hid the Void Stone base and that only an immaterial energy body could pass through safely.
• Ren Anran volunteered to enter the distortion and manifested a golden-armored Yang Corporeal Soul, surprising the Void Furnace.

The Void Furnace entered the distortion with Ren Anran’s Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation, while Zhang Xuezhou explained the dangers and reassured the others. The two vanished inside, leaving Ren Yisheng and the others waiting anxiously outside.

• The Void Furnace envied Ren Anran’s external true body and agreed to try learning the ability from Zhang Xuezhou later.
• The Void Furnace transformed into flames and rose toward the distortion, followed by Ren Anran’s Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation.
• The Void Furnace and Ren Anran disappeared into the distortion, prompting Ren Yisheng to worry about her safety.
• Zhang Xuezhou described how the distortion twisted bodies and disoriented those inside, and explained why Ren Anran’s armor and incarnation protected her.
• Ren Yisheng admitted that the unknown made him more timid, and Zhang Xuezhou comforted him by saying they could explore it more confidently once they understood it better.

Zhang Xuezhou and the others waited for Ren Anran to return from the distortion, while he promised to investigate if she remained missing for twelve days. The group discussed cultivation, talent, and the risks faced by Zhang Xuezhou and Luo Burang.

• After sixteen hours passed without Ren Anran emerging, Zhang Xuezhou told everyone to care for her Fleshly Body and said he would enter the distortion after twelve days if she had not returned.
• Wang Haoran learned that he could not cultivate the Yang Corporeal Soul Incarnation Technique until he improved his Mental Strengthening or reached the Divine Ability Realm.
• Luo Burang explained that Luo Gaogao's Realm Technique suited him but could not be advanced quickly through external resources, and Zhu Liangping suggested sending him to East Mountain.
• Song Bu'er called the group lucky ordinary people, while Ren Yisheng acknowledged that his Lineage and daughter had helped him succeed.
• Song Bu'er warned the others to prepare for trouble, fearing that Zhang Xuezhou and Luo Burang were more likely than Ren Anran to face danger.

Zhang Xuezhou returned to the secret place and found the others struggling under its illusions, while his own power caused them to collapse. After the new emperor and Wei Qing tried to convince him they were real, Zhang Xuezhou accepted their proof only after Wei Qing subdued him, though Huo Qubing insisted he still did not believe them.

• Zhang Xuezhou entered the secret place and found Jin Wanliang and Huo Qubing collapsed while the new emperor and Wei Qing reeled under his intimidating presence.
• The new emperor and Wei Qing used the thumb ring to resist the formation and warned Zhang Xuezhou that the fiery clouds and his surroundings could be illusions.
• The new emperor explained that illusions could be tested by checking facts with another person, but Zhang Xuezhou refused to trust anyone he could not verify.
• Following Huo Qubing's suggestion, the new emperor struck Zhang Xuezhou with his sword hilt, prompting Zhang Xuezhou to retaliate and Wei Qing to restrain him.
• After Wei Qing dunked and struck him, Zhang Xuezhou said he believed they were real, while Huo Qubing urged Wei Qing to keep beating him.

Zhang Xuezhou regained his senses in the flooded secret realm, where Wei Qing and the new emperor had joined him after being thrown back inside. As the group searched for a way out and the water kept rising, Zhang Xuezhou looked for the illusory formation’s core so they could break it.

• Zhang Xuezhou admitted defeat after Wei Qing beat and dunked him, then explained that the group was trapped where the secret realm and Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation overlapped.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Wei Qing and the new emperor had entered two days earlier, and that Jin Wanliang’s attempt to carry them out had failed.
• Wei Qing warned that the remaining rotten wood was losing buoyancy and the rising water left them little time to find a way out.
• Huo Qubing and Jin Wanliang complained that a pill had made them drink excessive amounts of water, while Zhang Xuezhou mocked them.
• Zhang Xuezhou reasoned that breaking the secret realm’s formation might let the outside formation overwhelm it, and the new emperor agreed that they had to break one of the formations.
• Zhang Xuezhou held Wei Qing’s leather thumb guard and searched the surging illusory formation for its core.

Zhang Xuezhou tried to locate the secret realm’s formation core by comparing the fiery clouds’ refraction from underwater, while the new emperor watched from above. The new emperor was trapped in an illusion of the dead before waking amid ruins and muddy traces of water, as the secret realm’s formation appeared to have transformed.

• Zhang Xuezhou explained how he could use the fiery clouds’ refraction and an anchor point to find the formation core, but Wei Qing could not follow the calculations.
• The new emperor gave Zhang Xuezhou a luminous pearl, and Jin Wanliang took him underwater to search for the core.
• The new emperor criticized the court’s formation masters for being too slow to respond to trouble in remote places, while Wei Qing urged patience.
• The new emperor saw the dead reaching for him in an underwater illusion and struggled against being pulled into the darkness.
• A sharp pain woke the new emperor among broken walls, muddy ground, and waterlogged trees, where he realized the secret realm’s formation had changed dramatically.

Zhang Xuezhou took the Mirage Pearl from a mountaintop temple, breaking the hidden domain’s concealment and ending its flood. He searched for the others and found Jin Wanliang and the new emperor alive.

• Zhang Xuezhou examined the Mirage Pearl, then realized its illusions had hidden the changes around him and that the domain’s flood had receded.
• Zhang Xuezhou discovered the Mirage Pearl had come from a temple dedicated to Taiyi and tried to store it in his Lesser Heaven and Earth Bag.
• Zhang Xuezhou called for Liu Quji and the others, then found Jin Wanliang trapped between oaks with a hole in his swollen belly.
• Zhang Xuezhou drained some fluid from Jin Wanliang, healed his wound, and sent him to search while he looked for the others.
• Zhang Xuezhou found the new emperor beneath palace ruins; the emperor asked whether he was real, then quickly gave up when Zhang Xuezhou warned he might hit him.

After the secret realm’s illusion formation dissipated, Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor searched for Wei Qing and Huo Qubing amid the debris left by the receding water. They rescued Huo Qubing but could not find Wei Qing, and the new emperor proposed using the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation to save him if he was buried beneath the mountain of leaves and branches.

• The new emperor asked where Wei Qing and Huo Qubing were, and Zhang Xuezhou said they had not yet been found.
• Zhang Xuezhou found Huo Qubing wedged in an oak tree and got him breathing normally again.
• Zhang Xuezhou and Jin Wanliang searched for Wei Qing while the new emperor and Huo Qubing called out for him.
• The searchers gathered and considered whether Wei Qing might be buried under the enormous pile of dead branches and leaves.
• The new emperor suggested that the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation might be the only way to save Wei Qing if he was buried there.

Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor found the outer formation core of the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation while searching for a way to rescue Wei Qing. Zhang Xuezhou halted the formation and revealed that its core was a bronze waterwheel beneath a mountain spring.

• The new emperor used a Great Qin formation scroll to locate the formation core at a small spring on Mount Zhongnan.
• Zhang Xuezhou flew the new emperor through the Geomagnetic Primal Light on the Heaven-Riding Shuttle, and the journey nearly exhausted their protective talismans and scorched the shuttle.
• The new emperor dug beneath the spring while Zhang Xuezhou used the Acupoint-Fixing Technique to stop the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation.
• The spring surged and washed away the earth, exposing a buried water chamber and a bronze waterwheel that controlled the formation's water channels.

Zhang Xuezhou activated the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation to drain the secret place and open a passage through its boundary. He and the new emperor entered as the secret place began collapsing and fires spread across it.

• Zhang Xuezhou adjusted and activated the bronze waterwheel, causing the formation to draw water and loose soil from the secret place.
• Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor searched for a normal entrance while the water drained through the hidden channels.
• The ground collapsed where Zhang Xuezhou’s well overlapped with Mount Zhongnan, opening a passage through the Geomagnetic Primal Light.
• Zhang Xuezhou piloted the Heaven-Riding Shuttle through the opening with the new emperor protected by a Vajra Talisman.
• The secret place began collapsing throughout, and friction from the shifting ground ignited fires among the dead branches and fallen leaves.

As the secret land of Shanglin Park collapsed into Mount Zhongnan, Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor searched through fire and falling debris for Wei Qing. They rescued him and discovered that he had reached the Sole Self Realm, leaving the new emperor with his first Sole Self Realm close attendant.

• The secret land began collapsing after its Mirage Pearl was removed, and Zhang Xuezhou piloted the Heaven-Riding Shuttle while the new emperor searched for Wei Qing.
• The new emperor urged Zhang Xuezhou to keep searching and gave him Law Power Fortune Pills, but a spreading fire and thick smoke made the search increasingly dangerous.
• Zhang Xuezhou heard a roar and dived toward the burning debris, where the collapse exposed a powerful source of Spiritual Qi.
• Zhang Xuezhou and the new emperor found Wei Qing leaping among falling rocks, and the new emperor used his belt to pull him onto the Heaven-Riding Shuttle.
• Wei Qing said he had awakened from a daze to find himself in the Sole Self Realm after practicing swordsmanship, becoming the new emperor's first close attendant at that level.

As the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation pulled the burning secret realm toward Mount Zhongnan, the new emperor, Zhang Xuezhou, Wei Qing, and Jin Wanliang gathered the exposed great medicinal herbs. The formation remained difficult to stop, but a widening gap in the Geomagnetic Primal Light offered them a way out.

• The new emperor decided to gather purple lingzhi and Solomon's seal while the secret realm burned and sank.
• Jin Wanliang asked for an identity in Shanglin Park, then helped collect herbs after the new emperor promised him protection.
• The new emperor, Zhang Xuezhou, and Wei Qing used spells and bags to harvest the great medicinal herbs.
• The new emperor explained that the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation's bronze waterwheel was likely out of control and difficult to approach.
• The new emperor saw that a gap in the Geomagnetic Primal Light was widening, allowing them to escape without the Heaven-Riding Shuttle.

Zhang Xuezhou and the others gathered herbs in the collapsing secret realm, then escaped as the surrounding formations unleashed violent forces. After both formation artifacts were swept away and the formations fell into an uneasy balance, the new emperor ordered an investigation into Taiyi and considered adding the god to Han rites.

• Zhang Xuezhou gathered purple lingzhi and Solomon's seal while the secret realm's Spiritual Qi escaped as it collapsed.
• Huo Qubing read the temple stele, and Zhang Xuezhou explained that the secret realm's formation core had been a Mirage Pearl.
• The new emperor declined to return the Mirage Pearl and promised the Taiyi statue a nine-tiered stairway and offerings if it protected the secret realm.
• Zhang Xuezhou and the others fled Mount Zhongnan's Geomagnetic Primal Light and saw a tornado engulf the core of the Four Gates Bottom-Covering Formation.
• The tornado swept away the waterwheel, weakening the wind and the secret realm's rumbling as the two formations' remaining powers reached a strange balance.
• The new emperor appointed Wei Qing to investigate Taiyi and ordered him to consider adding offerings to the Orthodox God Taiyi if the god was unaffiliated with the Heavenly Court and Immortal Court.

The new emperor ordered the secret realm secured and its medicinal herbs handled as the danger subsided. He discovered that Huo Qubing had reached Realm Entry at five and took him to cultivate, while Wei Qing brought Jin Wanliang back to Shanglin Park under strict rules.

• The new emperor ordered Wei Qing to summon three formation masters to seal in the secret realm’s Spiritual Qi, then asked Dongfang Shuo to handle the water-soaked medicinal herbs.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that Solomon’s seal in his Grain Avoidance Pills had caused Jin Wanliang and Huo Qubing’s bloated bellies, and that martial-arts techniques could use up the excess essence Qi.
• The new emperor and Wei Qing discovered that Huo Qubing had reached Realm Entry at five and praised his cultivation talent.
• Huo Qubing concealed his distress over seeing people and the world as paper cutouts, fearing the cost of treatment and rejection by the Marquis of Pingyang.
• The new emperor took Huo Qubing aboard the Heaven-Riding Shuttle and instructed Zhang Xuezhou to fly carefully, while Wei Qing escorted Jin Wanliang to Shanglin Park and warned him to keep the secret realm secret and obey the rules.

After escaping the Mirage Pearl’s illusion, Zhang Xuezhou recalled the Purple Cloud Palace but could not remember why he needed to go there, so he recorded its name to prompt his memory. At Shanglin Park, Huo Qubing sought a simple three-aperture Technique, and Zhufu Yan demonstrated one that Huo immediately copied.

• Zhang Xuezhou realized the illusion in Shanglin Park’s secret grounds had held him for nearly four days and wrote down Purple Cloud Palace as a reminder.
• Huo Qubing complained about the Grain Avoidance Pills and asked Zhang Xuezhou to teach him a three-aperture Technique, but Zhang said he did not know one.
• Zhufu Yan reappeared, explained that he had left Chang'an City after failing to get an official post, and asked Zhang for a way to make a living.
• After hearing Huo Qubing needed a Technique using the Juque, Shangqu, and Qixue apertures, Zhufu Yan demonstrated one with a thrusting hand and a backward kick.
• Huo Qubing immediately copied Zhufu Yan’s Technique before Zhufu Yan could explain it further.

Zhufu Yan complained to Zhang Xuezhou about his failure to find a foothold and sought work as a teacher for Huo Qubing. After Zhang Xuezhou allowed him to approach, Zhufu Yan began demonstrating his combat techniques to the boy.

• Zhufu Yan told Zhang Xuezhou that poverty and rejection across several regions had kept him from advancing, while Zhang Xuezhou considered whether to recommend him to Chancellor Tian Fen.
• Zhufu Yan offered to teach Huo Qubing after realizing he could not get work refining pills or medicine.
• Huo Qubing asked Zhang Xuezhou to let Zhufu Yan demonstrate his three-aperture techniques, and Zhang Xuezhou agreed.
• Zhufu Yan crossed over, complained about the Feathered Forest Guards, and learned Huo Qubing's name and that his large belly came from eating pills.
• Zhufu Yan began teaching Huo Qubing his close-combat martial art, Eighteen Strikes on Contact with Clothing.

Zhang Xuezhou learned practical close-combat moves from Zhufu Yan while Huo Qubing defended his abilities, and Zhufu Yan soon left to await the commander's recommendation. The new emperor and Wei Qing then delivered 782 chests of medicinal ingredients for Zhang Xuezhou to process, though the supplies had already been picked over by other Alchemists.

• Zhang Xuezhou practiced Zhufu Yan's Eighteen Strikes on Contact with Clothing and combined the moves with his own close-combat skills.
• Zhufu Yan offered to correct Zhang Xuezhou's technique, but Huo Qubing challenged his ability to defeat Zhang Xuezhou with one hand.
• Zhang Xuezhou rebuked Huo Qubing, and Zhufu Yan stopped demonstrating his martial arts and went to await the commander's recommendation.
• The new emperor and Wei Qing arrived with Feathered Forest Guards carrying 782 chests of medicinal ingredients.
• The new emperor explained that he had bargained with the Palace of Eternal Faith for the medicines, which the Office of the Inner Clerk's Alchemists had already selected from.

Zhufu Yan waited outside the side hall while Zhang Xuezhou and the others refined pills, then used the potent medicinal fumes to aid his cultivation. He learned that the Alchemy Chamber had produced two hundred Qi and Blood Fortune Pills in one batch, leaving him stunned by the abundance of a pill he had sought for years.

• Zhufu Yan watched Wei Qing oversee the medicine chests and envied the court officials and the scale of Zhang Xuezhou's work.
• Zhufu Yan smelled the medicinal fumes from the side hall and breathed deeply, feeling his Qi and Blood stir.
• Zhufu Yan moved closer to the side hall, persuading the patrolling Feathered Forest Guards to approach and breathe in the medicinal Qi too.
• Zhufu Yan heard that the Alchemy Chamber had produced two hundred Qi and Blood Fortune Pills in one batch and realized his long pursuit of one had been dwarfed.