Chapter Summaries

Lu Ping watched the Mystic Nether Pavilion prepare for its grand auction and studied the Formation it set up around the nearby streets. After recognizing a hidden Formation beneath its visible defenses, he began investigating its purpose.

• Lu Ping watched Spirit Stones and materials being moved through the Mystic Nether Pavilion and learned that Spirit Stones were among the auction’s most sought-after lots.
• Lu Ping obtained an invitation by consigning pills as cultivators flooded Doushu City ahead of the auction.
• Five days before the auction, the Mystic Nether Pavilion’s Guards and Array Masters set up the Disarm Armor and Push Mountains Formation around nearby streets.
• A burly cultivator attacked a Rogue Cultivator and was forcibly teleported away when his Spiritual Power crossed the Golden Core threshold.
• Lu Ping suspected the incident had been staged, then recognized that the Formation worked much like the Baojia Tokens he had seen in Baodi City.
• Lu Ping activated his abilities to examine the Formation and discovered a deeper, inactive Formation secretly connected beneath its visible nodes.

Lu Ping disguised himself as a Mystic Nether Pavilion Array Master and secretly met chief steward Gu Wusuan to ask him about a matter. He left Gu Wusuan stunned by casually giving him five hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

• Lu Ping chose to confront the chief steward instead of attending the Auction or stealing its finale lots.
• Lu Ping used a forged Mystic Nether Pavilion waist token and the Formless Myriad-Breath Cloak to enter the pavilion undetected.
• Lu Ping reached Gu Wusuan's courtyard, revealed himself while appearing to be a mortal, and let his gray crow display its Transformation Stage presence.
• Gu Wusuan introduced himself and bowed to Lu Ping, mistaking him for a powerful cultivator.
• Lu Ping tossed Gu Wusuan five hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones and said he would not order a junior around for nothing.

Lu Ping pressured Gu Wusuan into handing over the Mystic Nether Pavilion’s records from the grand auction twelve years ago. The Jade Slip revealed that the yin-yang love-tribulation flower had been bought by Desire Sea Pavilion, though the auction records were incomplete for privately transferred invitations.

• Lu Ping asked Gu Wusuan for the final buyers’ list from the auction twelve years earlier, but Gu refused on grounds of client confidentiality.
• Lu Ping unleashed overwhelming pressure and secretly hindered Gu Wusuan’s Spiritual Power and Primordial Spirit with Spirit-Chaos Lure and Spirit-Winding Thread.
• Gu Wusuan relented and gave Lu Ping the original auction record, explaining that buyers using privately transferred invitations could not always be identified.
• Lu Ping searched the Jade Slip and found that the yin-yang love-tribulation flower had been bought by Desire Sea Pavilion under Grade C number thirty-three.

Lu Ping discovered that the Desire Sea Pavilion was likely a pawn in a greater scheme, but Gu Wusuan saw through his bluff and activated a formation that devoured cultivators across the area. Gu Wusuan planned to use the victims and Lu Ping and Crow-Crow to break into Void Refining, while Lu Ping faced another set of choices.

• Lu Ping decided to leave quietly rather than kill Gu Wusuan or confront him, but Gu Wusuan expelled the toxins and restraints and activated a hidden formation within the Mystic Nether Pavilion’s defensive formation.
• The formation transported cultivators who used Spiritual Power to its cores, where it consumed them as nourishment.
• Gu Wusuan realized Lu Ping was not a great talent and revealed that he planned to harvest the cultivators and use Lu Ping and Crow-Crow to reach Void Refining.
• Gu Wusuan dismissed the loss of the victims and claimed that his breakthrough would make the Mystic Nether Pavilion a first-rate power.
• Lu Ping remained calm as options appeared, including fleeing, attacking Gu Wusuan, or confronting him in a mocking pose.

Lu Ping and Crow-Crow fought Gu Wusuan, whose Spirit Transformation cultivation let him recover his body after Lu Ping’s strongest attack. As Gu Wusuan struck again, Lu Ping held back his saber while Crow-Crow self-destructed against him.

• Lu Ping chose B and used I'll Make Three Points, Spirit Stones, and Star River Myriad Blades to grind Gu Wusuan’s body into bloody mist.
• Gu Wusuan’s Primordial Spirit survived the attack, used Blood Qi to rebuild his body, and revealed the power of Spirit Transformation Principles.
• Gu Wusuan summoned his intrinsic Law Treasure and cleaved at Lu Ping with a blood-red saber.
• Lu Ping grabbed the saber with his bare hand and held it in place despite the damage.
• Crow-Crow appeared behind Gu Wusuan and self-destructed, unleashing Sun True Fire against him.

Lu Ping killed Gu Wusuan with Jiang Mutian’s Sword Talisman, then broke the blood formation trapping the Rogue Cultivators. As powerful figures in Doushu City closed in and blocked his teleportation, Lu Ping faced another choice.

• Lu Ping poisoned Gu Wusuan with Spirit-Winding Thread and chose to use his trump card rather than let him escape.
• Lu Ping crushed Jiang Mutian’s Sword Talisman, which shattered Gu Wusuan’s Life-Bound Law Treasure and destroyed his body and Primordial Spirit.
• Lu Ping used Star River Myriad Blades and Reverse Engineering to break the Ten Directions Spirit-Melting Blood-Devouring Formation and free the trapped Rogue Cultivators.
• Powerful cultivators in Doushu City revealed that they had been waiting for Gu Wusuan to weaken so they could claim him.
• Lu Ping tried to escape with a Self-Made Random Teleportation Talisman, but the cultivators’ combined power sealed the space and stopped the teleportation.

After escaping Doushu City, Lu Ping healed his ruined hand and examined Gu Wusuan’s Storage Ring. He realized the auction’s million Spirit Stones were Demonic Spirit Stones, possibly tied to Jiang Mutian’s Demonic Cult, and faced a choice about exposing or pursuing the currency war.

• Lu Ping used Early Leave to escape Doushu City, then healed his right hand with a homemade pill.
• Lu Ping erased his traces, teleported repeatedly, and hid in a secluded cave to inspect Gu Wusuan’s Storage Ring.
• Lu Ping found Gu Wusuan’s wealth disappointing but noted the rare treasures and Cultivation Methods in the ring.
• Lu Ping compared the auction’s million Spirit Stones with one from the Black Tiger Gang and identified both as Demonic Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping suspected the Demonic Cult was challenging the Azure Dragon Domain’s control over Spirit Stone currency, and the system offered him three choices.

Lu Ping analyzed Creation Spirit-Promoting Dew, recovered from his injuries, and prepared to travel toward Luxuan Mountain while developing a stronger poison. He left disguised as an ordinary Golden Core rogue cultivator and encountered the frequent appearance of secret realms and ancient ruins in the Domain of Chaos.

• Lu Ping chose to analyze the Creation Spirit-Promoting Dew and tested its effects on spirit herbs, then derived the formula for Pseudo-Creation Spirit-Urging Dew and learned the Spirit Plant Technique.
• Lu Ping took a Pseudo-Taiyi Origin-Returning Pill and fully healed, while the insights from his battle with Gu Wusuan slightly loosened his Nascent Soul Late Stage bottleneck.
• Lu Ping combined his old poison items and began deducing a new poison capable of fatally threatening a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Lu Ping found a detailed map of the Domain of Chaos among Gu Wusuan’s belongings, including Luxuan Mountain’s location.
• Lu Ping activated the Formless Myriad-Breath Cloak, disguised himself as an ordinary Golden Core Rogue Cultivator, and set out, observing secret realms and ancient ruins appearing throughout the Domain of Chaos.

Lu Ping traveled through the chaotic Domain of Chaos, avoided a dangerous bronze-door secret realm, and reached East Forest Town at the foot of Luxuan Mountain. He found mortals and cultivators living peacefully together and faced a choice about how to learn what was happening in town.

• Lu Ping chose to watch the road discreetly and encountered several unpredictable secret realms, most of which held no opportunities worth pursuing.
• Lu Ping hid near a bronze door in a swamp as Nascent Soul Perfection cultivators and a Spirit Transformation cultivator entered it, then left rather than risk being trapped inside.
• Lu Ping traveled for three months and arrived at Luxuan Mountain.
• Lu Ping suppressed his presence to Golden Core level and landed outside East Forest Town.
• Lu Ping entered the town and saw mortals and cultivators living peacefully alongside one another.
• Lu Ping considered keeping a low profile to investigate the town, revealing his Nascent Soul presence, or setting up a stall.

Lu Ping explored East Forest Town and found that Great Forest Temple kept the area peaceful despite its isolation and fluctuating Spiritual Qi. After presenting Wuming’s prayer beads at the Reception Hall, he was told to make his own way up the mountain, and the chapter ended with another choice before him.

• Lu Ping asked a tea-stall owner about Great Forest Temple and learned that locals knew little about it beyond its protection of the town.
• Lu Ping sensed Luxuan Mountain’s unusually abundant but fluctuating Spiritual Qi and observed the town’s sparse commerce and unregulated settlement.
• Lu Ping found Great Forest Temple’s Reception Hall, where Wuyan ignored him because he was practicing Closed-Mouth Zen.
• Wujue recognized Wuming’s prayer beads and directed Lu Ping to follow the mountain path through Stone Gate Ravine.
• Lu Ping stood outside the Reception Hall as options appeared, including going up the mountain, attacking the monks, or lecturing Wujue.

Lu Ping reached Great Forest Temple through Stone Gate Ravine after witnessing monk Xingren destroy an intruder’s cultivation, then reunited with Wuming at the temple gate. The chapter ended as Lu Ping faced a choice about how to respond to a verse carved on an ancient stele.

• Lu Ping chose to travel to Stone Gate Ravine and encountered a wounded Golden Core cultivator fleeing a monk named Xingren.
• Xingren shattered the cultivator’s Golden Core after explaining that he had violated the temple’s precepts by taking a disciple hostage.
• Lu Ping revealed his Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivation and showed Xingren the prayer beads Wuming had given him, allowing him to pass through the cloud formation.
• Lu Ping entered Great Forest Temple and reunited with Wuming, exchanging greetings that hinted at the hardships Lu Ping had faced since their last meeting.
• Lu Ping arrived at the Mountain Gate and saw a four-line verse carved on a stone stele, whereupon options appeared for how to respond.

Lu Ping realized the Great Forest Temple had no interest in formalities and followed Wuming to Buddha Palm Cliff to seek the As-If-Original Seal’s inheritance. Wuming revealed that the complete Great Sun Primordial Void Seal Method lay in a doorless secret realm that would open only when fate arrived, leaving Lu Ping to decide how to respond.

• Lu Ping chose to contemplate the Great Forest Temple’s verses and gained a new insight into the Dao.
• Wuming guided Lu Ping through the temple grounds without taking him to meet the abbot or elders.
• Wuming brought Lu Ping to Buddha Palm Cliff, where the general outline of the As-If-Original Seal was said to be kept.
• Wuming explained that the complete Great Sun Primordial Void Seal Method was hidden in a secret realm with no entrance.
• Wuming said Lu Ping should settle in a cave abode and wait for fate to open the secret realm, prompting a choice of how Lu Ping would react.

Lu Ping settled into a cave abode on Buddha Palm Cliff to cultivate while waiting for fate to open the secret realm, after Wuming warned him that the previous monk to emerge from it had died. During seclusion, Lu Ping gained a trait that sped up plants grown at his workstation, leaving him to consider adjusting his traits despite having no workstation at the Great Forest Temple.

• Wuming told Lu Ping that the secret realm might open when fate arrived and warned that the monk who had emerged from it died soon afterward.
• Lu Ping chose to remain at Buddha Palm Cliff and moved into a spacious cave abode with a medicinal herb garden.
• Lu Ping cleaned and secured the cave, then began cultivating and absorbing what he had learned from his battle with Gu Wusuan.
• At age thirty-one, Lu Ping gained the B-grade trait Growing Flowers at the Workstation, which doubled plant growth but halved work efficiency.
• Lu Ping decided he could not use the trait without a workstation and considered adjusting his traits for his period of seclusion.

Lu Ping used his new Traits to accelerate his spirit-grass farming, continued cultivating, and completed an Earth Grade poison pill designed to kill powerful cultivators. The chapter ended with him judging that his forty-eight doses of Spirit-Binding Gauze were still not enough for the trap he wanted to prepare.

• Lu Ping replaced several Traits, equipping Working from Home, Growing Flowers at the Workstation, and Exclusive Workstation to boost his farming.
• With the Traits and Creation Spirit-Promoting Dew, Lu Ping accelerated the Thousand-Whisker Spirit-Luring Grass's growth so it could mature in a little over three years.
• Lu Ping continued farming, refining pills, and cultivating, while estimating that reaching Nascent Soul Perfection would take about fifteen years.
• Lu Ping received The Boss's Empty Promise Trait but declined to replace any of his equipped Traits.
• After repeated failures and deductions, Lu Ping developed the Earth Grade poison pill Spirit-Binding Gauze and refined forty-eight doses from three batches of ingredients.
• Lu Ping decided that forty-eight doses were still insufficient to thoroughly poison an area and threaten even an Integrated Body Great Talent.

Lu Ping cultivated spirit plants and refined pills to support his steady progress toward Nascent Soul Perfection. He finally broke through and entered seclusion again, while the system began generating another Trait at age forty-six.

• Lu Ping harvested Thousand-Whisker Spirit-Luring Grass, mass-produced spirit-stimulating dew, and began cultivating ingredients for Qi-Gathering and Qi-Consolidating Pills.
• He became self-sufficient in Qi-Consolidating Pill ingredients, increased his daily intake to four pills, and calculated that he could reach Nascent Soul Perfection by age forty-three.
• Lu Ping spent years farming, refining pills, cultivating, and deducing the Great Sun First-Emptiness Seal while ignoring the wider cultivation world's conflicts and Buddha Palm Cliff's secret realm.
• At age forty-three, he gained the B-rank Trait Tattling but decided against synthesizing Traits, suspecting the system was draining his luck.
• Lu Ping's Spiritual Power reached its critical point, and he broke through the Nascent Soul Late Stage bottleneck to become a Nascent Soul Perfection cultivator.
• He resumed farming, pill refining, and cultivation, then entered another period of seclusion as three years passed.

Lu Ping failed to break through to Spirit Transformation despite consuming Spirit Transformation Pills and spent years in death seclusion seeking the Principles. At age fifty-nine, he learned two major battles would erupt next year and faced a choice about whether to intervene.

• Lu Ping swallowed Spirit Transformation Pills, but his Nascent Soul only grew more translucent and he realized the path from Nascent Soul to Spirit Transformation required comprehending the Principles.
• Lu Ping observed clouds, spiritual herbs, and his talismans in search of insight, then entered death seclusion for nine years.
• Lu Ping received the Grade A Trait Men and Women Working Together Don't Tire and chose not to replace a Trait.
• Lu Ping's memories warned him that battles would break out next year at Demon-Severing Cliff and White Tiger Hall, where Song Fuan and Jiang Mutian would be involved.
• Lu Ping was presented with choices to remain in seclusion, aid Song Fuan, or head to White Tiger Hall.

Lu Ping entered the Buddha Palm Rock Secret Realm and found himself stripped of his cultivation and living as a mortal rice-shop clerk. His Dao Heart let him resist the realm’s false memories, but he faced a choice about how to respond when Shopkeeper Chen berated him.

• Lu Ping chose to suppress the warning in his Divine Sense and entered a state without self or consciousness.
• He awoke in Brahma Sound City, where his Divine Sense, Spiritual Power, and Storage Ring were inaccessible and he seemed to be an ordinary young clerk named Lu Ping.
• Lu Ping chose to play along with his memories, while Salty Fish kept him aware that he was a Nascent Soul cultivator trapped in the secret realm.
• He arrived at Chen’s Rice Shop, where Shopkeeper Chen scolded him and ordered him to copy the previous day’s accounts.
• Lu Ping faced options to act like a clerk, attack Shopkeeper Chen, or excitedly ask the shopkeeper to keep insulting him.

Lu Ping worked as a mortal in Brahma Sound City, where his Work Experience trait restored his cultivation to the Qi Refining Stage. After witnessing the city’s strange devotion to Marici Buddha, he received a Peaceful Dwelling Talisman from Auntie Wang and faced a choice about whether to wear it.

• Lu Ping copied the rice shop ledger and used Work Experience to advance from a mortal to Body Tempering Realm Completion and then the Qi Refining Stage.
• Lu Ping kept a low profile at work, and Shopkeeper Chen paid him and gave him a small bag of broken rice.
• Lu Ping observed that Brahma Sound City was unusually peaceful and prosperous, with residents treating one another honestly and kindly.
• A bell rang through the city, and the townspeople stopped to chant “Namo Marici Buddha” in unison, while Lu Ping sensed something trying to enter his mind.
• Auntie Wang brought Lu Ping a Peaceful Dwelling Talisman from the temple and urged him to wear it, leaving him to choose what to do.

Lu Ping tested the healing power of Brahma Sound City’s Buddha worship and discovered that the city’s roads led back to its gates. He learned that temple masters could leave for the Central Buddha Capital as Willing Envoys and considered how to enter the temple.

• Lu Ping accepted Auntie Wang’s Peaceful Dwelling Talisman, resisted its powerful fragrance, and continued restoring his cultivation.
• Huzi fell from a tree and badly injured his arm, but a beam of Buddha light healed him at the temple; Lu Ping learned that Huzi seemed never to grow up.
• Lu Ping left through Brahma Sound City’s eastern gate, walked all day, and found himself back at the western gate.
• Lu Ping questioned a tea-stall owner, who explained that temple masters could travel to the Central Buddha Capital as Willing Envoys every ten years.
• Lu Ping returned to Brahma Sound City and considered sneaking into the temple to become a monk and secure a way out.

Lu Ping used a display of spiritual power and the might of the Lihuo Fire Crow to convince a temple overseer that the Buddha Lord had summoned him. He secured a place in the temple and faced the prospect of having his head shaved and receiving the precepts.

• Lu Ping impressed a fat monk by making a withered weed grow into a flourishing vine, then claimed the Buddha Lord had told him to enter the temple.
• The fat monk took Lu Ping to meet the temple overseer, who questioned why he cultivated and doubted he could become a pilgrimage envoy.
• Lu Ping released a trace of the Lihuo Fire Crow's presence, frightening the overseer into accepting his claim of the Buddha Lord's decree.
• The overseer arranged a separate meditation room for Lu Ping, and novice monks arrived with razors and a copper basin to prepare him for temple rites.
• Lu Ping considered whether to accept the shaving and precepts, impress the novice monks with Buddhist verses, or offer them wigs.