Chapter Summaries

Jiang Tong spared the captured Cao Clan expert and ordered the Jiang Clan to tell everyone that the Land of Contemplation’s cycles had ended. As the crowd learned that their world was only one part of a much larger realm, Gu De reflected on the time he had spent and prepared himself for what lay beyond.

• A Jiang Clan expert tried to strike the Cao Clan expert, but Jiang Tong stopped him and ordered the man released; the expert was gagged and sent through a rift in the void.
• Jiang Tong told the Jiang Clan to keep the maze road open and let everyone decide whether to leave or stay after learning the truth about the Land of Contemplation.
• Lu Changzhi released Gu Chen, Mu Fan, Qin Li, and the others, and Mu Fan realized they were still on the Emperor Road.
• A Jiang Clan expert explained that the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom had been destroyed and that the Land of Contemplation’s repeated cycles would not begin again.
• Gu De concluded that the outside world had continued advancing while his home remained trapped in cycles, then resolved to rely on the experience he had gained.

A Jiang Clan expert explained that the Land of Contemplation was small compared with the wider world, then offered Li Baimei a place in the Jiang Clan and protection for his clan. Li Baimei accepted, agreeing that the Li Clan would join under the Jiang Clan’s conditions.

• The Jiang Clan expert told the crowd that greater powers existed beyond the Land of Contemplation and that those without strong backing would struggle to advance.
• The Jiang Clan expert singled out Li Baimei and asked whether he wanted to venture into the wider world, surprising the crowd and pleasing the Li Clan.
• Li Baimei agreed that he wanted to leave, while Chu Ping'an suspected the Jiang Clan expert might have noticed something unusual but decided not to worry.
• The Jiang Clan expert offered Li Baimei membership in the Jiang Clan and promised protection for the Li Clan in exchange for his contributions.
• Li Baimei considered the loss of independence that joining would entail, then accepted the Jiang Clan’s offer on behalf of the Li Clan.

The Jiang Clan made Li Baimei and the Li Clan its protected force, awarding them the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom’s remaining resources and summoning Li Baimei to the Jiang Clan after three days. Lu Changzhi learned that Li Baimei had been chosen for his unusual reaction to lightning, a talent the Jiang Clan could offer a use for.

• A Jiang Clan expert granted Li Baimei Jiang Clan member status and declared the Li Clan under Jiang Clan protection.
• The expert assigned the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom’s remaining resources to the Li Clan and gave Li Baimei three days to arrange matters before visiting the Jiang Clan.
• The Jiang Clan experts and Jiang Tong departed through a gate, leaving the gathered powers to react to Li Baimei’s selection.
• Lu Changzhi asked Jiang Tong why the Jiang Clan had chosen Li Baimei instead of Gu De, and Jiang Tong said Li Baimei had met certain conditions and that this was the first time his talent had been discovered.
• Jiang Tong explained that Li Baimei reacted strongly to lightning, and Lu Changzhi confirmed through Xiao Ye’s footage that Li Baimei seemed to enjoy being struck by it.
• Jiang Tong said people with that talent were not rare, but the Jiang Clan had chosen Li Baimei because it could offer him something he wanted.

After the Jiang Clan chose Li Baimei alone, the cultivators debated whether to leave the Emperor Road and explore the outside world. Gu De led his followers toward the exit, drawing a crowd to join him as Chu Ping'an considered how Gu De’s journey might benefit him.

• Jiang Tong confirmed that the Jiang Clan planned to send Li Baimei away and had chosen him alone.
• The cultivators discussed whether to leave through the Jiang Clan expert’s exit, with some eager to explore and others wary of being unable to return.
• Chu Ping'an thought that Li Baimei’s system explained his selection and that Gu De’s unchosen journey could bring Chu Ping'an opportunities.
• Gu De led his followers toward the exit, prompting the crowd to gather behind him.
• Gu De’s follower praised his ability to rally people, but Gu De remained focused on strength and leaving the Land of Contemplation.

After passing through the gate, Gu De and his followers entered a world that seemed much like the Land of Contemplation, though Gu De sensed a subtle difference. They discovered that their storage artifacts had been emptied, and the chapter ended with Gu De warning his attendants to think carefully about their lost savings.

• Gu De sensed that the new world differed slightly from the Land of Contemplation, though he could not tell what effect the difference had.
• Gu De decided to explore the area instead of seeking out the Jiang Clan.
• Gu De's followers discovered that their storage artifacts and means of travel were gone.
• Gu De found his storage artifacts intact but discovered that their contents had vanished and one contained an Artifact Spirit.
• Gu De questioned the Artifact Spirit, learned nothing, and told his attendants to consider why their savings were lost.

Gu De led the cultivators out of the Emperor Road while Xu Tianmiao chose to wait and assess the dangers. Lu Changzhi’s group left with the Longwang Clan, and news of the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom’s apparent collapse spread as the powers it had controlled began to challenge its remaining experts.

• Gu De forgave his followers for losing their storage items and urged them to explore the outside world for resources, while Xu Tianmiao advised waiting and watching before venturing out.
• Lu Changzhi led Gu Chen and the others onto the Longwang Clan’s back, and the Longwang Clan thanked him for saving his life and told the beasts they had followed the right person.
• Figures from the four Sacred Beast Races headed toward the Land of Contemplation, and cultivators leaving it realized the Beast Race had entered the Emperor Road as they had.
• People who returned from the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom’s Emperor Road reported the kingdom lord’s party had been wiped out, but the experts who remained dismissed their accounts and called them illusions.
• Some returnees took their families and fled the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom, while subordinate forces began demanding its territory and resources, causing the remaining experts to fear that the reports were true.

Li Baimei used a token from a Jiang Clan expert to disable the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom’s defenses, then led the Li Clan in its invasion. He left the kingdom’s people exposed to slaughter as he considered how much he might grow after going to the Jiang Clan.

• Li Baimei arrived above the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom with the Li Clan and declared that it would be destroyed.
• Li Baimei activated the Jiang Clan token, which erased the kingdom’s defenses and arrays without harming the people directly.
• Li Baimei ordered the Li Clan experts to kill the kingdom’s people and send them to meet Qian Guiyi.
• A Great Qian Ancient Kingdom elder tried to self-destruct, but Li Baimei stabbed him from behind and cut him in two.
• Li Baimei returned to the sky, resolved to eliminate the kingdom completely, and reflected on the power of the Jiang Clan token.

Jiang Tong revealed that he had deliberately confronted the Tai Clan and brought the Jiang Clan back because the young man surnamed Lu had an extraordinary past. He left the Jiang Clan elders wondering whose reincarnation the boy was and what groundwork he had laid in his previous life.

• A Jiang Clan member questioned why Jiang Tong had abruptly brought them back, and Jiang Tong said he had acted deliberately regarding the youngsters.
• Jiang Tong dismissed fears that the Tai Clan would destroy the Jiang Clan over the dispute and explained that he could not let outsiders see the Jiang Clan lose face.
• Jiang Tong sealed the space with layers of barriers and artifacts before telling the others that the young man's background was no simple matter.
• Jiang Tong clarified that he meant the boy himself had been someone important in the past, not that his family or Lineage was extraordinary.
• The Jiang Clan members wondered whether the boy had reincarnated and cultivated anew, then considered the advantages and risks of reincarnation and the previous-life groundwork such people could have prepared.

Jiang Tong reassured the Jiang Clan that a reincarnated figure would eventually approach them and hinted that more ancestors remained. At the Tai Clan, an ancestor tested Tai Jiuling and recognized the presence of Jiang Zu, leaving Tai Jiuling stunned by being hurt again.

• Jiang Tong told the Jiang Clan to wait for the reincarnated figure and help him when he arrived, then hinted that they had more ancestors.
• Tai Jiuling reported Jiang Tong's attack to a middle-aged Tai Clan man and showed him what had happened on the Emperor Road.
• The middle-aged man took Tai Jiuling and the others through a portal to the Tai Clan ancestor's reception place.
• The Tai Clan ancestor pulled Tai Jiuling toward him and hurt him while checking for Jiang Tong's presence.
• The ancestor recognized Jiang Tong as an ancestor of Jiang Zu who was still alive, and Tai Jiuling questioned why he had been hurt again.

The Tai Clan chose to wait for the World in the Painting before confronting the Jiang Clan and ordered Tai Jiuling to have the Cao Clan eliminate witnesses. As the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom fell, Chen Mingxuan hoped Luo Zhen had died, while Luo Zhen remained safely underground and Qin Li questioned her worth to Lu Changzhi.

• The Tai Clan ancestor decided to observe the Jiang Clan during the World in the Painting and ordered Tai Jiuling to have everyone involved in the incident killed.
• Cultivators gathered outside the ruined Great Qian Ancient Kingdom and speculated that the Desolate Ancient Emperor Stele bearer had died with its people.
• Chen Mingxuan watched the destruction and hoped Luo Zhen had been killed, fearing the newcomer might have gained more than he had.
• Luo Zhen stayed conscious underground and quietly enjoyed a strange, pleasant sensation rather than rushing out.
• Qin Li asked Lu Changzhi whether he had known her circumstances from the start, then wondered why he had chosen her despite her modest strength.

Lu Changzhi encouraged Qin Li to travel beyond Hidden Origin Peak and gave his companions jade bottles that would let them cultivate outside the Land of Contemplation. Meanwhile, Li Baimei prepared to lead the Li Clan into the outside world, but the Jiang Clan instructed him to build up his strength before going to the Huaxia Sect.

• Lu Changzhi told Qin Li to focus on her own cultivation path and offered to let her venture out for experience; Qin Li realized she needed to assess her own strength beyond her master's support.
• Jiang Tong visited Hidden Origin Peak and gave Lu Changzhi jade bottles that would allow the Land of Contemplation's people to continue cultivating outside, advising them to refine the contents before leaving.
• Lu Changzhi shared the bottles with his companions, who took them to their cultivation places and began refining them.
• Li Baimei told the Li Clan that it had gained the Great Qian Ancient Kingdom's resources and urged the clan to prepare for growth beyond the Land of Contemplation.
• Li Baimei left to scout the outside world, and a Jiang Clan expert told him the Huaxia Sect was the right place for the Li Clan to develop but directed him to build up his strength and learn about the outside world first.

Li Baimei learned that he could not refine the outside world's unfamiliar power and discovered a possible lead in the Huaxia Sect's history. He accepted a bowl of the Jiang Clan's treasured medicine, while the attendant urged him to drink it immediately.

• Li Baimei asked his attendant whether a special cultivation method would let him refine the outside world's power, and the attendant said he might master it through continued effort.
• Li Baimei studied the outside world's powers and read that the Huaxia Sect had remained strong for tens of thousands of years.
• Li Baimei focused on Yang Kaizhi, who had come from a resource-poor place and mastered a seemingly impossible power, and considered seeking his method.
• Li Baimei doubted he could reach the Huaxia Sect, but resolved that he might still close the gap with the outside world.
• The attendant brought Li Baimei a basin of black Jiang Clan treasured medicine and urged him to drink it while it was fresh.

Li Baimei received five days of increasingly potent medicinal nourishment from the Jiang Clan, which greatly strengthened his body and established his foundation. Jiang Tong then offered him the chance to compete for selection as Yang Kaizhi’s favored disciple, explaining that the Jiang Clan had chosen him because he met the conditions.

• Li Baimei drank the medicinal liquid and felt it nourish his body far more effectively than the resources in the Land of Contemplation.
• The attendant brought Li Baimei another basin of medicine the next day, and Li Baimei learned that it was provided daily.
• Over five days, the medicine grew more potent and made Li Baimei about twenty percent stronger.
• The attendant told Li Baimei that the medicine had established his foundation and took him to meet Jiang Tong.
• Jiang Tong told Li Baimei that Yang Kaizhi was selecting talented people for a chance to become his favored disciple.
• Li Baimei asked why the Jiang Clan offered him the opportunity, and Jiang Tong said he met the conditions.

Li Baimei learned that the Jiang Clan had selected him for an opportunity to become Yang Kaizhi’s beloved disciple, and took a pill that sharpened his senses before setting out the next day. Meanwhile, two Tai Clan figures confronted the Cao Clan over its failed attempt to use the Tai Clan’s influence against the Jiang Clan.

• Jiang Tao told Li Baimei that his opportunity depended on the Jiang Clan’s recommendation and that he would represent both the Jiang Clan and his own clan.
• Li Baimei suspected that his qualifications were related to his physical body, and Jiang Tao gave him a pill to prepare for the trials.
• Li Baimei swallowed the pill, felt his perception sharpen throughout his body, and concluded that Yang Kaizhi’s test would involve reaction speed.
• Two Tai Clan figures arrived above Cao Clan territory and demanded that the Cao Clan answer for its failed scheme against the Jiang Clan.
• The Cao Clan experts recalled that they had discovered someone wielding untouchable power in the secret realm and had hoped the Tai Clan would take interest in the Jiang Clan’s methods.

The Tai Clan forced the Cao Clan to accept a Tai Coin and ordered them to kill everyone who had been in the secret realm. As the Cao Clan debated how to handle the Jiang Clan, reports surfaced that the Jiang Clan had made a move involving the Huaxia Sect and Yang Kaizhi.

• The Tai Clan expert told the Cao Clan to kill everyone present in the secret realm and tossed them a Tai Coin, making the assignment a matter of life and death.
• The Tai Clan members announced they would stay at the Cao Clan until the job was done, and Cao Tian agreed to arrange lodging and carry out the task.
• Cao Tian summoned the Cao Clan experts, who weighed the dangers of confronting the Tai Clan against dealing with their longtime rivals, the Jiang Clan.
• A Cao Clan member reported that the Jiang Clan had made another move, and the others examined images linking the Jiang Clan with the Huaxia Sect and Yang Kaizhi.
• The Cao Clan members debated whether the Jiang Clan had gained Yang Kaizhi's support, while others dismissed the connection as an underhanded attempt to borrow his influence.

The Cao Clan decided to send Cao Qianyu to the Huaxia Sect to investigate the Jiang Clan’s connection to Yang Kaizhi, while Tai Jiuling prepared to pursue the Jiang Clan himself. Gu De learned that Li Baimei had gone to the Jiang Clan and weighed the value of seeking support from a powerful faction.

• Cao Tian assigned Cao Qianyu to find someone and investigate Yang Kaizhi, promising him three years in the ancestral grounds if he returned with useful information.
• Tai Jiuling told a Tai Clan middle-aged man that the Jiang Clan might be hiding a secret and asked for help stopping them from sending away someone who controlled untouchable power.
• The middle-aged man let Tai Jiuling take people and go after the Jiang Clan, warning him not to act rashly if their business was already settled.
• A messenger told Gu De that Li Baimei had gone to the Jiang Clan, prompting Gu De to consider whether to seek support from a powerful faction like the Tai Clan.

Gu De decided to seek Yang Kaizhi’s backing at the Huaxia Sect after learning that Li Baimei had gone there, while Chu Ping'an discovered the danger and followed to turn Gu De into a new target for his system. Chu Ping'an set out expecting the trip to help him improve the system and eventually plant Li Baimei.

• Gu De learned that the Jiang Clan had taken Li Baimei to the Huaxia Sect to recommend him to Yang Kaizhi.
• Gu De rejected advice to stay behind and chose to leave immediately to find Yang Kaizhi.
• A local man told Gu De that Yang Kaizhi had unusual preferences and that cultivating with him could be fatal if things went wrong.
• Chu Ping'an paid the man for information, learned Gu De did not know the danger, and hurried after him.
• Chu Ping'an looked forward to using the trip to plant Gu De as a new leek and improve his system, while noting that Li Baimei should have reached the Jiang Clan.

Jiang Tao brought Li Baimei to the Huaxia Sect for Yang Kaizhi’s disciple selection, where Li received number sixteen and learned later candidates might face greater pressure. Gu De then arrived with attendants, declaring himself the recommending party and the others participants.

• Jiang Tao made the Jiang Clan’s arrival conspicuous before taking Li Baimei through shifting space to the Huaxia Sect.
• Jiang Tao introduced the Jiang Clan at the gate, and a young attendant used an artifact to open a passage into the sect’s hall.
• Li Baimei observed the gathered candidates and received token number sixteen; Jiang Tao explained that later candidates might need to show greater ability to satisfy Yang Kaizhi’s thirst for talent.
• Gu De arrived at the Huaxia Sect with attendants and said he would be the recommending party while they all participated.
• A young attendant opened a gate for Gu De and his group to enter.

Gu De and Li Baimei met at the Huaxia Sect as they prepared to seek Yang Kaizhi’s tutelage, and Li Baimei’s pointed remarks pushed Gu De to join the selection. The chapter ended with Chu Ping'an arriving with token seventeen and wondering whether the numbering had a trick.

• Li Baimei greeted Gu De as the Human Emperor, drawing the hall’s attention and angering Gu De.
• Gu De received token twenty-one, while Li Baimei said he had token sixteen and encouraged them both to seek Yang Kaizhi’s tutelage.
• Gu De took token six from one of his followers and claimed the earlier place as a shortcut.
• Jiang Tao told Li Baimei that Yang Kaizhi generally took only one person each time and explained that Gu De would still be behind him in line.
• Chu Ping'an arrived holding token seventeen and wondered how he had received that number despite the crowd.

Chu Ping'an watched the selection at the Huaxia Sect and learned that candidates were chosen according to Yang Kaizhi’s personal preference. As Li Baimei’s turn drew near, Cao Tian and Cao Qianyu confronted Jiang Tong, who accused them of acting like clowns out of fear.

• Chu Ping'an spotted Li Baimei at the Huaxia Sect and wondered why he had come, then decided the selection was likely a good opportunity because Li Baimei had a protagonist’s fortune.
• A speaker explained that candidates could not back out, would be transported in turn by their tokens, and would be judged according to whether they caught Lord Yang’s eye.
• The selection began, and candidates were transported away one after another, often after only a brief time inside.
• Li Baimei asked Jiang Tao why the candidates’ turns passed so quickly, and Jiang Tao explained that Lord Yang’s first impression usually decided their fate.
• Cao Tian and Cao Qianyu approached Li Baimei and Jiang Tong, and Jiang Tong challenged them for coming to make a spectacle and asked whether they were afraid.