The Tetralogy of Celestial Candou Tudou, Yuan Zun, The Great Master, Wu Dong Qian Kun, Fighting to Break the Sky, the timeline is...

The timeline across the five major xianxia and xuanhuan works by Heavenly Silkworm Potato (Tian Can Tu Dou)—*Battle Through the Heavens*, *Wu Dong Qian Kun*, *The Great Ruler*, *Yuan Zun*, and *Celestial Master*—is not a single, linear chronology but a complex, interconnected multiverse. The foundational connection is the shared "Great Thousand World" cosmology, established most clearly in *The Great Ruler*. This universe is composed of countless lower planes and the vast upper realm where the story culminates. The primary timeline begins with *Yuan Zun*, which is set in a lower plane called the Tianyuan World. Its protagonist, Zhou Yuan, eventually ascends to the Great Thousand World, where his legacy is later referenced. The narrative then bifurcates into two parallel lower-plane stories: *Battle Through the Heavens* (in the Dou Qi Continent) and *Wu Dong Qian Kun* (in the Tianxuan Continent). Their respective protagonists, Xiao Yan and Lin Dong, ascend independently and their paths converge in *The Great Ruler*, where they appear as two of the realm's supreme sovereigns, assisting the new protagonist, Mu Chen, in the final conflict.

The mechanism binding these stories is the author's constructed tiered cosmology and the concept of ancestral power or flame legacies. In *The Great Ruler*, it is explicitly revealed that the Dou Qi Continent and the Tianxuan Continent are two of the many lower planes subordinate to the Great Thousand World. The Flame Emperor, Xiao Yan, and the Martial Ancestor, Lin Dong, have already reached the pinnacle of power within this system by the time Mu Chen's story begins. Their cameos are not mere fan service but are plot-critical, demonstrating the hierarchy of realms and the ultimate destination for supreme cultivators. *Celestial Master* (also known as *The Great Master*) is understood to be set in a different, self-contained universe within the author's portfolio, sharing thematic and cultivation system similarities but not directly intersecting with the core four-novel sequence.

The implications of this interconnected timeline are significant for both narrative depth and reader engagement. It creates a sense of immense scale and history, where legendary figures from one series become the mythic foundations of another. This structure rewards long-term readers with a cohesive "Potato-verse," enhancing the stakes in *The Great Ruler* as it becomes the culmination of multiple heroic journeys. From a world-building perspective, it allows for a consistent framework of cultivation realms and planar travel, providing a template that feels expansive and logically structured despite the serialized nature of the works.

However, this timeline is not without its soft retcons and ambiguities. The connections were solidified and popularized in *The Great Ruler*, which served to retroactively link earlier, more standalone works. As such, while the broad sequence from *Yuan Zun* to the dual ascensions in *Battle Through the Heavens* and *Wu Dong Qian Kun*, and finally to their convergence in *The Great Ruler*, is the accepted canonical order, detailed chronological synchronization between every event across the series is not meticulously defined. The primary analytical takeaway is that these novels function as a shared universe with a defined hierarchical structure, rather than a strictly linear saga, with *The Great Ruler* acting as the central nexus that binds the most prominent narratives together.