Chapter Summaries

Ma Liang explained that Xinghe had sent the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to the Medicine King Palace not to teach them pill refining, but to make them experiment with pill furnaces. Man Sheng realized that combining their totem techniques with a furnace might enable automatic pill refining, and the group prepared to try it.

• Ma Liang arrived at the Medicine King Palace and told Man Sheng, Mu Bai, and the others to stop despairing and trust his guidance.
• Ma Liang argued that Xinghe had never intended the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to learn pill refining, and prompted Mu Bai to reconsider why they had been sent there.
• Mu Bai reasoned that Xinghe had kept Tai Chu from teaching them techniques and had sent them straight to the furnaces so they could interact with the equipment.
• Ma Liang proposed using the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits' Totem Artifact Refining Technique to create automatic pill refining.
• Man Sheng suggested combining a perpetual motion power totem, a fusion totem, a flame totem, and other totems on a pill furnace, and Ma Liang urged them to begin.

Mu Xiaoqi revealed that he and the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits had developed a totem-powered furnace that could refine pills without a pill refiner. Its first successful batch of low-grade Spirit Gathering Pills convinced the gathered leaders that automatic refining would transform the pill industry, though the furnace could only handle pills up to Third Rank for now.

• Mu Bai’s group dragged Mu Xiaoqi to Man Sheng, and Mu Xiaoqi explained that he had previously explored automatic pill refining but had been unable to control furnace heat or medicinal fusion.
• Mu Xiaoqi proposed using flame and fusion totems to automate those processes, and he, Mu Bai, and Man Sheng began experimenting with the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits, repeatedly blowing up furnaces as they made progress.
• Ma Liang left after judging that the researchers could find a solution through continued experimentation, while Chu Xinghe realized the recent explosions came from automatic-furnace tests rather than ordinary pill refining.
• Man Sheng carried Chu Xinghe to the Medicine King Palace, where Mu Xiaoqi demonstrated a totem-powered furnace refining Spirit Gathering Pills without a pill refiner.
• Mu Xiaoqi said the furnace currently produced only low-grade pills and could handle pills up to Third Rank, prompting Palace Master Wu Qun and the other pill refiners to recognize that the invention would reshape their profession.

The leaders debated how the automatic pill furnace would affect alchemists and the Four Continents, while Man Sheng revealed that the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits had learned the Totem Artifact Refining Technique at the Medicine King Palace. Ouyang Ming credited the whole scheme to Chu Xinghe, who collapsed as everyone praised his supposed foresight.

• Wu Qun argued that the automatic pill furnace would pressure alchemists to advance while making low-rank pills more affordable across the Four Continents.
• Cheng Xiaotian explained that the furnace could hurt alchemists’ earnings but would benefit cultivators and ordinary people by lowering pill prices.
• Man Sheng claimed that Chu Xinghe had sent the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to the Medicine King Palace so they could learn artifact refining with simpler pill furnaces.
• Man Sheng revealed that every Strength Barbarian Evil Spirit had now learned the Totem Artifact Refining Technique, and Ouyang Ming concluded Chu Xinghe had planned it all along.
• Chu Xinghe collapsed under the praise, and Ma Liang called for someone to catch him and let him rest.

Ouyang Ming discovered that the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits had improved at artifact refining after Chu Xinghe transferred them to the Medicine King Palace. Elder He credited Chu Xinghe with deliberately arranging practical furnace training to overcome their poor comprehension, while Chu Xinghe remained bewildered by the unexpected success.

• Ouyang Ming tested several Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits and found that they could apply the Totem Artifact Refining Technique far better than before.
• Ouyang Ming and the visiting faction leaders looked to Chu Xinghe for an explanation, but Chu Xinghe was equally confused.
• Elder He explained that generations of reliance on totem inheritance had weakened the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits' ability to comprehend new knowledge.
• Elder He argued that working with medicine furnaces had allowed the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to learn artifact refining through practical exploration.
• Elder He praised Chu Xinghe for planning the transfer, while Chu Xinghe inwardly begged to retreat to the ninth floor of the Technique Repository Tower.

Elder He explained how Chu Xinghe had helped the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits learn artifact refining through hands-on exploration, while Chu Xinghe tried to keep their successes from growing by delaying the totem artifact refining plan. After news of the automatic pill refining furnace spread, the Vast Heaven Holy Land announced major price cuts on low-rank pills, shaking the Four Continents.

• Elder He explained that Ma Liang had inspired the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to explore artifact refining themselves, helping them quickly grasp the Totem Artifact Refining Technique.
• Cheng Xiaotian said the Vast Heaven Holy Land needed a Gu Mingchao who could stop Chu Xinghe, and Chu Xinghe decided that the lack of someone like Cheng Xiaotian had caused his success.
• Ouyang Ming confirmed that the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits had learned the technique, but Chu Xinghe told him to delay the totem artifact refining plan and let them stay at the Spirit Crane Palace to work on the automatic pill refining furnace.
• Mu Bai explained that the automatic furnace would free Spirit Crane Palace disciples from making low-rank pills by hand, allowing them to pursue new research, and Ouyang Ming agreed to follow Chu Xinghe's arrangements.
• News of the automatic pill refining furnace spread, prompting low-rank pill refiners to protest before the Vast Heaven Holy Land announced a thirty percent price cut on pills below Third Rank, with some lifesaving pills reduced by fifty percent.
• People across the Four Continents praised the price cuts, which made essential medicine more affordable and promised to protect them from unsafe pills sold by small workshops.

The Vast Heaven Holy Land cut the prices of everyday pills and offered loans to help people who could not afford treatment, prompting the Misfortune Compass to reward Chu Xinghe with a breakthrough to Peak Martial God and an unusual Divine Sense. As Chu Xinghe investigated his new power, he discovered that the Haotian Sword Casket had begun another transformation.

• Chu Xinghe persuaded the Vast Heaven Holy Land's elders to lower pill prices and let people take essential medicine now and repay in resources later.
• The Misfortune Compass settled a reward for Chu Xinghe, raising his cultivation to Peak Martial God and granting him Divine Sense.
• Chu Xinghe discovered that the Fire of Nirvanic Rebirth had formed a vast Divine Sense that constantly surrounded him and could detect hostile intent.
• Chu Xinghe realized that his breakthrough had triggered a new transformation in the Haotian Sword Casket.

After reaching the Peak Martial God realm, Chu Xinghe unlocked new ways to fuse the Haotian Sword Casket’s divine swords and dramatically increased his combat and formation abilities. Just as he boasted that he feared nowhere, Senior Brother Shen Chun asked him to join Hua Xichen and Zheng Yu at a temple in the Land of Bewildered Spirits, and Chu Xinghe immediately tried to refuse.

• Chu Xinghe fused the Flying Locust into the Lightning Shadow and turned Purple Lightning Flash into a cascading lightning domain.
• Chu Xinghe fused the Lightning Shadow into the Flying Locust, empowering his formations with lightning and greatly increasing their strength.
• Chu Xinghe tried to fuse the Suspended Shears with the other swords but found the ability remained locked at his current cultivation.
• Senior Brother Shen Chun told Chu Xinghe that Hua Xichen and Zheng Yu had found a temple in the Land of Bewildered Spirits and wanted him to join them.
• Chu Xinghe took back his boast about fearing nowhere and asked Senior Brother Shen Chun to turn down the invitation.

As Chu Xinghe shut himself away in the Technique Repository Tower to avoid being tempted by rumors about a mysterious double in the Land of Bewildered Spirits, Vast Heaven Holy Land’s automatic pill furnaces began driving small workshops out of business. Meanwhile, Douding'er worried that the Beast Taming Palace’s slow progress with its divine-artifact pig-feeding experiment looked unimpressive, and Ouyang Ming grew suspicious of Tai Chu’s repeated visits to the Artifact Refining Palace.

• As teams flocked to the Land of Bewildered Spirits and rumors spread that a figure using Haotian Battle Intent might be Chu Xinghe, Chu Xinghe refused to investigate and entered seclusion on the Technique Repository Tower’s ninth floor.
• Man Sheng and the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits improved the automatic pill furnaces, and the resulting reliable, affordable pills let the Vast Heaven Chamber of Commerce push small workshops out of business.
• Douding'er felt pressured because the Beast Taming Palace’s Light of Xinghe Dark Gold Plate experiment had yielded no immediate returns, and the Grand Elder tried to reassure her.
• Douding'er asked Ouyang Ming for a more powerful Light of Xinghe plate, but he told her the Haotian Sword Casket was Vast Heaven Holy Land’s only complete super divine artifact and suggested she ask Chu Xinghe to lend it for raising pigs.
• Tai Chu brought the Taiyin Evil Spirits to the Artifact Refining Palace repeatedly, and Ouyang Ming realized that Tai Chu had something on his mind.

Tai Chu told Ouyang Ming that the Taiyin Evil Spirits wanted combat strength, after Chu Xinghe had been unable to find them a solution. Ouyang Ming’s attempts to make treasures recognize them as masters failed, but he refused to let them give up and resolved to find an answer before Chu Xinghe left seclusion.

• Ouyang Qingyan pointed out that Tai Chu and the other Taiyin Evil Spirits kept visiting the Artifact Refining Palace because they wanted something.
• Tai Chu explained to Ouyang Ming that the Taiyin Evil Spirits could learn and teach countless techniques but could not use them or fight, and that Chu Xinghe had promised to consider their problem during seclusion.
• Ouyang Ming brought out spirit treasures and tried blood recognition, soul recognition, and contracts, but none worked for the Taiyin Evil Spirits.
• Tai Chu prepared to leave after the failed attempts, but Ouyang Ming ordered the Taiyin Evil Spirits to stay while he searched for a solution to surprise Chu Xinghe.

Ouyang Ming and Ma Liang tried to find a breakthrough for the Taiyin Evil Spirits so they could surprise Senior Brother Xinghe, but their experiments failed. Ma Liang then interpreted Xinghe's suggestion to study the problem scientifically as a clue to invite Chief Wu Erke, and the group prepared to seek his help.

• Ouyang Ming decided that he and the others had never truly surprised Senior Brother Xinghe, so he called Ma Liang to help devise a big surprise.
• Ouyang Ming told Ma Liang about Tai Chu's problem, and the two began testing ways to help the Taiyin Evil Spirits break through their inability to use power.
• After their experiments failed, Tai Chu said the Taiyin Evil Spirits had accepted that this was their fate, prompting Ma Liang to ask him to repeat what Xinghe had said.
• Ma Liang concluded that Xinghe's advice to study the problem scientifically referred to Chief Wu Erke's teachings and ordered someone to invite Wu Erke from Wujiang.

Wu Beichen welcomed Ma Liang, Ouyang Ming, and the Taiyin Evil Spirits to Wujiang and explained how he had opened the region to outsiders and made its poison-based resources profitable. Ma Liang promised to report Wujiang’s progress to the grand elder and Chu Xinghe, while the visitors prepared to seek out Wu Erke, who was absorbed in his laboratory.

• Wu Beichen hosted Ma Liang, Ouyang Ming, and the Taiyin Evil Spirits and described how he had developed Wujiang under the Vast Heaven Holy Land’s protection.
• Wu Beichen explained that one new city attracted alchemists and poison cultivators to gather local resources, while another bred poisonous creatures and substances for sale.
• Ma Liang praised Wu Beichen’s management and promised to tell the grand elder about Wujiang’s progress; Wu Beichen asked him to tell Chu Xinghe too so he could surprise him.
• Ma Liang asked where Wu Erke was, and Wu Beichen explained that his father was probably in the laboratory and might not welcome visitors.
• Ma Liang understood Wu Erke’s eccentricity and prepared to approach the inventor, who would readily answer Chu Xinghe’s summons.

Ma Liang brought the Taiyin Evil Spirits to Wu Erke so he could use science to solve their inability to wield power. Wu Erke diagnosed their condition and proposed two possible solutions, including extracting and strengthening their souls before placing them in new bodies.

• Wu Beichen led Ma Liang and the others to Wu Erke's laboratory, where Wu Erke ignored them until Ma Liang called him the Great Inventor.
• Ma Liang explained that Chu Xinghe had sent them to ask Wu Erke to help the Taiyin Evil Spirits, and Wu Erke eagerly examined them.
• Wu Erke concluded that the Taiyin Evil Spirits lacked spirit seas and rejected spiritual power, preventing them from cultivating or using spiritual treasures.
• Wu Erke proposed extracting Tai Chu's soul and placing it in a newly dead body, while first sending it to Avici Hell for ten years of torture to strengthen it.
• Ma Liang and the others were horrified by Wu Erke's brutal proposal but recognized that his theory might solve the Taiyin Evil Spirits' problem.

Wu Erke explained the difference between body possession and returning in a corpse, then proposed ways for Tai Chu and the other Taiyin Evil Spirits to gain power despite their inability to use cultivation arts directly. After they rejected his Avici Hell plan and Ouyang Ming ruled out mechanical bodies controlled by their brains, Wu Erke devised a workaround using the Eternal Life Jade Talisman as an intermediary.

• Wu Erke explained that body possession required a powerful soul to overpower a living host, while returning in a corpse involved entering a recently dead person's body before its soul dispersed.
• Wu Erke proposed sending Tai Chu's soul to Avici Hell for ten years to strengthen it before attempting to return in a corpse, but Ma Liang said Tai Chu and the others would not accept the ordeal.
• Wu Erke offered a second plan to build mechanical bodies that could use the Taiyin Evil Spirits' knowledge of cultivation arts, but Ouyang Ming said their brains and bodies could not use spiritual power to control them.
• Tai Chu confirmed that the Taiyin Evil Spirits could use the Eternal Life Jade Talisman to store and access cultivation arts.
• Wu Erke proposed using the Eternal Life Jade Talisman to relay commands and cultivation arts to mechanical bodies, and Ouyang Ming and Ma Liang praised his intermediary theory.

Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke created an Eternal Life Jade Talisman that let Taiyin Evil Spirits control a mechanical ghost hand, proving that their invention worked. After Wu Erke demonstrated it to Vast Heaven Holy Land’s leaders, they learned Chu Xinghe was in seclusion and the grand elder demanded that he be brought over to celebrate.

• Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke built a conversion Eternal Life Jade Talisman and a powered ghost hand, which Tai Chu used to make the hand perform the opening move of Ice Palm.
• Ma Liang tried to activate a teleportation array before leaving Wujiang, but Wu Erke stopped him and explained that it would send them back and forth within the area.
• After reaching the Vast Heaven Holy Land, Ma Liang had Senior Brother Shen Chun summon the grand elder, the palace chief elders, and the Holy Lord to the Artifact Refining Palace.
• Wu Erke demonstrated the ghost hand, and Elder He explained that its mechanical body could become immensely powerful if it continued to evolve.
• Elder He asked Chu Xinghe to explain the invention, but Shen Chun said Chu Xinghe was in seclusion on the ninth floor of the Technique Repository Tower, prompting the grand elder to demand that he be brought over.

Shen Chun brought Chu Xinghe to the Artifact Refining Palace, where Ouyang Ming demonstrated a mechanical body for Tai Chu. Elder He explained that mechanical bodies could let people overcome limitations in cultivation, work, and disability, and the chapter ended with Chu Xinghe growing pale as Ma Liang mistook his shock for excitement.

• Shen Chun pulled Chu Xinghe out of seclusion and took him to the Artifact Refining Palace.
• Ouyang Ming demonstrated the ghost hand and Tai Chu, prompting Chu Xinghe to realize he was facing another backstab despite having done nothing.
• Elder He explained that Ouyang Ming could develop a mechanical body tailored to Tai Chu and powerful enough to greatly enhance his combat abilities.
• Elder He argued that mechanical bodies could let people perform professions and techniques beyond their natural talents, operate machinery, and help injured prodigies regain their abilities.
• Ma Liang saw Chu Xinghe's pale face and assumed he was overwhelmed with excitement.

Ma Liang and Wu Erke celebrated the mechanical body as a breakthrough, while Chu Xinghe struggled to suppress Thunder Shadow and Flying Locust. Wu Erke declared that science was his path, and the factions recognized that mechanical bodies could give injured heaven’s chosen a way to fight again.

• Ma Liang told Senior Brother Xinghe that he and the others had matured enough to create profitable results without his guidance, while Chu Xinghe struggled to suppress Thunder Shadow and Flying Locust.
• Wu Erke declared that he had found his calling in science and would devote himself to research rather than cultivation.
• The factions’ leaders saw the mechanical body as a breakthrough that could change lives across the Four Continents.
• The leaders considered how many heaven’s chosen died or suffered permanent injuries while training, even when their sects tried to save them.
• The leaders realized that Wu Erke and Ouyang Ming could build mechanical bodies to restore combat ability to fallen heaven’s chosen whose minds and comprehension remained intact.

Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke completed the first-generation mechanical body, giving crippled cultivators a chance to fight again. Zhang Wei, a Vast Heaven Holy Land disciple who had long been unable to move, controlled the machine and stood up for the first time in years.

• The chapter explained that a clan could collapse after losing its promising heaven's chosen, and that mechanical bodies offered fallen cultivators a new chance.
• Chu Xinghe welcomed the possibility that injured Vast Heaven Holy Land disciples could regain their strength, while Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke planned further work to improve the machines' power use and endurance.
• Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke built the first-generation mechanical body, which looked like a giant Iron Man and consumed substantial power.
• Zhang Wei entered the machine after years bedridden with a damaged Qi sea and body, and discovered that he could control it through his mind.
• Zhang Wei stood, walked, and threw a punch with the mechanical body, moved to tears at being able to move again.

Zhang Wei regained the ability to stand and move in a mechanical body designed by Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke, who credited Chu Xinghe with inspiring their research. As the elders and Ma Liang interpreted Xinghe’s earlier stories as a carefully planted plan, Xinghe silently endured their praise.

• Zhang Wei stood and moved in the first-generation mechanical body, then repeatedly thanked Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke.
• Ouyang Ming and Wu Erke credited Chu Xinghe with inspiring the idea for the mechanical body.
• Wu Erke explained that Xinghe had told him science-fiction stories about mechanical development, which later helped guide his research with Ouyang Ming and Ma Liang.
• Ma Liang realized that Xinghe’s earlier meeting with Wu Erke had supposedly laid the groundwork for the mechanical body, and the elders agreed with his interpretation.
• Elder He reasoned that Xinghe had planted an idea without imposing restrictions, and Wu Erke agreed that this had allowed his inspiration to develop.
• Chu Xinghe remained outwardly calm while privately wondering how everyone had turned his improvised stories into a grand plan.

Chu Xinghe sent Ouyang Ming, Ma Liang, and the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to the Beast Taming Palace, hoping to keep their unpredictable breakthroughs and Ma Liang’s meddling under close watch. The chapter ended with Man Sheng arriving to announce another automatic pill furnace breakthrough, only to be reassigned as well.

• Chu Xinghe sent Ouyang Ming to the Beast Taming Palace to repair the Light of Xinghe Dark Gold Plates and study them for a breakthrough.
• Ma Liang urged Ouyang Ming to follow Chu Xinghe’s deeper purpose, prompting Chu Xinghe to realize Ma Liang’s inspections let him meddle throughout the palaces.
• Chu Xinghe assigned Ma Liang to the Beast Taming Palace too, calling it a test and deciding to keep the unpredictable group in one place.
• Man Sheng arrived excited to report a new automatic pill furnace breakthrough, but Chu Xinghe sent the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to the Beast Taming Palace as well.

Chu Xinghe sent everyone he considered a threat to the Beast Taming Palace and kept watch there, believing that mixing their different pursuits would stop Ma Liang from guessing his plans. Meanwhile, families across the Four Continents asked the grand elder for mechanical bodies to help their injured children, but the craftsperson they needed was in the Beast Taming Palace.

• Chu Xinghe assigned Cheng Xiaotian, Ouyang Ming, Ma Liang, Man Sheng, Mu Bai, and the Strength Barbarian Evil Spirits to the Beast Taming Palace, forbidding Mu Bai from bringing pill-refining work.
• Chu Xinghe brought his rocking chair and teapot to the Beast Taming Palace and patrolled its grounds, while its gathered occupants wondered why they had all been sent there.
• Ma Liang repeatedly asked Chu Xinghe what he was planning, but Chu Xinghe told him to think for himself, leaving Ma Liang determined to keep trying.
• Families across the Four Continents sought mechanical bodies for their disabled children after seeing Zhang Wei stand using one on the Haotian Mirror.
• The grand elder told the families that Ouyang Ming, who could make the mechanical bodies, was currently in the Beast Taming Palace and urged them to wait.