Festival of Lights · Diwali
After Shen Tianzhi’s attack on Qin Li’s group ended in his death, the Withering and Flourishing Sect challenged the Shen Clan to a wager battle. The Shen Clan prepared Shen Wentian for the contest and drew the Liu Clan into the dispute, while the sect’s disciples gathered for the hundred-opponent match.
Gu Chen defeated Shen Wentian after Qin Li and the others turned Shen Tianxun’s Faith-Forging Field against him, forcing the Shen Clan to concede the wager. As the clan moved its treasures and tried to recover, Mu Fan and Xiao Ye arrived with a strange path to redemption that unleashed a new disturbance.
Lu Changzhi and his companions dismantled the Shen Clan’s power while Mu Fan gained new system abilities. The arc ended with Lu Changzhi’s bloodline ancestor intervening over the White Tiger Token, leaving Qin Li with the token and Lu Changzhi drained.
Lu Changzhi and his companions entered the Emperor Dao, where Lin Xie overwhelmed the Liu Clan’s juniors and fought the group led by Qin Li. Lin Xie pressed toward the emperor artifact while Qin Li pursued him, and Luo Zhen escaped with one of Lin Xie’s bodies.
Lu Changzhi claimed the Emperor-Conferment Chair, then joined the Liu Clan’s expedition to the Emperor’s Tomb while the clan planned to use him as a stand-in for Liu Tianming. Lin Xie spread rumors about the Liu Clan and followed the expedition, where tensions over the supposed fake Emperor’s son came to a head.
Lu Changzhi maneuvered the Liu Clan’s crisis while the Emperor Conferment Chair chose Liu Tianming, then entered the Emperor’s Tomb with his disciples. As Lin Xie’s past-life identity and the tomb’s connection to Xu Tiancheng came to light, Lu Changzhi’s group found a hidden inheritance and sensed someone approaching.
Lu Changzhi’s group stripped the Emperor Tomb of its hidden treasures, while Lin Xie fell into the Shen Clan’s hands and bargained with knowledge of the Primordial Emperor Road. The Black Tortoise underwent ancestral reversion, the Liu Clan lost its artifacts, and Gu Chen’s system evolved into a wishing system that advanced him to the second layer of the Saint Emperor Realm.
Lu Changzhi pursued time power while rival clans and Sacred Beast Races converged on the Liu Clan over its treasures and Emperor’s son. After the Black Tortoise Race ended the confrontation, Lu Changzhi demanded the Liu Clan’s ancestral burial land and supplied a recording to support his claim to possess its missing hatchling.
Lu Changzhi maneuvered the Liu Clan through the Black Tortoise Race’s protection while rival factions reacted to the Sacred Beasts’ Atavism. The White Tiger Clan opened its search for a Tianming Person, drawing the major races and cultivators together as Lin Xie prepared to test the real token.
The White Tiger Clan searched for its Tianming Person as Lin Xie claimed the title, while Lin Fan’s pendant exposed the clan’s lost token and drew the attention of a powerful presence. Qin Li later revealed the real token and guided Lu Changzhi’s experiment, which produced an atavistic White Tiger cub and left the other Sacred Beast Races questioning how it happened.
Lu Changzhi extended Atavism opportunities among the Sacred Beast Races, while Lu Lulu forced the Dragon Emperor to accept demands he had rejected. As Mu Fan gained new abilities and tested explosives with the Vermilion Bird Race, human faction leaders plotted to unite their race through fabricated history and provoked hatred.
The Human Emperor Inheritance united the Human factions against the Beast Race, though Lu Changzhi uncovered signs that the opportunity was fabricated. Meanwhile, Long Xiao challenged Longwang Clan’s leadership as the Dragon Race secured an Atavism hatchling, and the Ten Thousand Scale Armor passed to Gu Chen, whose next task led him toward Dragon territory.
Lu Changzhi mastered an Emperor Body technique and gained the power of time, while the Human Emperor Hall became fixated on Atavistic sacred beasts. Luo Zhen introduced the Desolate Ancient Emperor Stele, and the arc ended with factions preparing to obtain Beast Race waste to test for Atavism.
Appraisals of sacred beast dung exposed extraordinary cubs but humiliated Long Xiao, prompting Li Baimei to lead the Human Race against the Dragon Race. Lu Changzhi deployed his disciples to support the dragons, while Mu Fan opened a separate raid on an enemy faction’s base.
The White Tiger Clan and Vermilion Birds joined the Dragon Race against the human factions, while Lu Changzhi’s disciples sabotaged the enemy and staged a gathering on Li Baimei’s head. The human forces retreated, rumors implicated the Li Clan, and preparations began to open the Emperor Road.
Lu Changzhi reshaped the Emperor Road into a series of strange trials, drawing the Human and Beast Races into its paths. Gu De and the other cultivators entered, where their powers were suppressed and the first trials forced them to risk their resources and lives.
Gu De and the others survived the Emperor Road as the Tai and Jiang clans arrived and revealed that the Land of Contemplation had been trapped in repeating cycles. Li Baimei joined the Jiang Clan, while Gu De led his followers into the wider world and discovered their stored belongings had vanished.
Li Baimei destroyed the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom and gained Yang Kaizhi’s favor through the Jiang Clan’s recommendation, earning the clan the Huaxia Sect’s protection. Jiang Tong passed that reward to Lu Changzhi and arranged entry for him and Gu Chen into the World in the Painting, where the Tai Clan planned to target the Jiang Clan’s juniors.
Lu Changzhi entered the World in the Painting with Gu Chen and became entangled in the Tai Clan’s pursuit and the Artifact Spirit’s search for the power of time. As Jin Wuliang tried to make A Luo obtain that power for him, Lu Changzhi drew it into Li Baimei, who faced Jin Wuliang with his newfound ability.
Lu Changzhi and Li Baimei trapped Jin Wuliang in the World in the Painting, defeated him, and freed A Luo. The Huaxia Sect and Jiang Clan then maneuvered around the Power of Time, while Lu Changzhi pursued the Source of Heaven and Earth and drew Mu Fan into a plan targeting the Tai Clan.