Chapter Summaries

Qin Yan welcomed Qi Zhen and Qi Hao into his forces as he expanded his military strength and prepared for threats across the realm. The chapter ended when Daoist Mi discovered Qin Yan’s residence in the valley and angrily confronted the intruder.

• Qi Zhen and Qi Hao offered to serve Qin Yan, driven by Qi Hong’s death and their hatred of Great Li.
• Qin Yan assigned Qi Zhen to oversee military logistics and placed Qi Hao in the infantry battalion to learn the new firearms.
• Qin Yan assessed his growing physical strength while developing weapons capable of threatening powerful martial experts.
• A Ghost Abyss Rank evil entity massacred an entire city as the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s high-end forces suffered heavy losses.
• Daoist Mi entered the valley where Qin Yan was cultivating the Lunar Yin Corpse Puppet and demanded to know who had taken over his territory.

Daoist Mi tried to claim Qin Yan’s Lunar Yin Corpse Puppet, but the corpse defeated him and Qin Yan intervened. Daoist Mi begged for his life and offered information about why the Yinluo Way’s three great experts had appeared in Qinghe Town.

• Daoist Mi opened the bronze coffin and tried to subdue the Lunar Yin Corpse Puppet with a purple-gold talisman and a bone chain.
• The Lunar Yin Corpse Puppet shattered Daoist Mi’s bone chain, seized him, and slammed him into the ground.
• Qin Yan stopped the corpse and confronted Daoist Mi, who recognized him as Marquis Qin and begged for mercy.
• Daoist Mi denied belonging to the Yinluo Way and said he had studied under Cui Qiao, the Five-Foot Demon Daoist.
• Qin Yan prepared to kill Daoist Mi, but Daoist Mi offered to reveal why the Yinluo Way’s three great experts had appeared in Qinghe Town, and Qin Yan asked him to explain.

Qin Yan learned that Daoist Mi knew of a Ghost Market where Yinluo Way followers gathered, then forced him into obedience and ordered him to lead the way. Three days later, Qin Yan and Daoist Mi entered the hidden market on Mingfeng Mountain, where evil cultivators traded strange goods and living souls.

• Daoist Mi told Qin Yan that the Yinluo Way had raised a Medicinal Corpse to make a powerful life-extending pill and revealed that its followers gathered at a monthly Ghost Market in Youshan Prefecture.
• Qin Yan placed a deadly restriction on Daoist Mi’s Primordial Spirit and ordered him to reveal the Ghost Market’s location and owner, Mingfeng Mountain Lord.
• Qin Yan brought Daoist Mi to his residence, where Daoist Mi saw that Ba Wei, a Supreme Grandmaster, obeyed Qin Yan without question.
• Three days later, Qin Yan and Daoist Mi reached Mingfeng Mountain and passed through an illusion beneath a locust tree to enter the Ghost Market.
• Qin Yan saw that the market held fewer than two hundred concealed visitors and stalls selling items including little ghosts, burial objects, and living souls.

Qin Yan attended the Ghost Market auction with Daoist Mi and identified a Yinluo Way operative, whom he secretly marked while planning to bring the evil path practitioners under his control. The first auction deal revealed a suspected murderer, and the next item was a bounty on General Bingfeng.

• Daoist Mi led Qin Yan to the auction at Mingfeng Market and used his Grandmaster token to secure them seats in the first row.
• Daoist Mi pointed out the Yinluo Way's representative in Youshan Prefecture, and Qin Yan placed a soul mark on her.
• Han Dezhao opened the auction, where a masked man offered Daoist Yun Fulong's magical artifact in exchange for an evil path artifact.
• Qin Yan recognized the seller as Li Chuanjin, whom he suspected of killing Yun Fulong and murdering five infants to cultivate the Five Spirit Children.
• Li Chuanjin accepted an offer, and Han Dezhao sent the buyer to the third floor to complete the discreet transaction.
• Han Dezhao announced a commission to kill Jin Shizhong, General Bingfeng, for a reward of one hundred thousand taels of silver.

Qin Yan discovered that Mingfeng Mountain Lord had accepted a contract to assassinate his subordinate and unleashed his power against the Ghost Market. He left Mingfeng Mountain Lord pinned beneath a massive handprint while his force-field barrier crushed the market’s surroundings and herded everyone toward him.

• Han Dezhao announced that the Blood-Bone Hand Li Brothers had accepted the contract to kill Jin Shizhong, and Daoist Mi recognized them.
• Qin Yan sealed the Ghost Market inside a force-field barrier and killed Han Dezhao with a single word.
• Mingfeng Mountain Lord confronted Qin Yan, while the Li Brothers were killed and Daoist Mi revealed that Qin Yan was his lord.
• Mingfeng Mountain Lord recognized Qin Yan and offered silver compensation, but Qin Yan crushed the restaurant with a bloody handprint and pinned him beneath it.
• Qin Yan ordered Daoist Mi to watch Mingfeng Mountain Lord as the shrinking barrier crushed buildings and trees and forced the Ghost Market’s people toward him.

Qin Yan subdued a gathering of evil-path cultivators, binding Ruan Mei and several faction contacts to him while killing the unaffiliated rogue cultivators. He learned the Yinluo Way’s stronghold was in Yunchang Prefecture and that a mysterious Flesh and Blood Dao leader was watching him.

• Qin Yan used his spiritual pressure to force more than a hundred people to their knees and identified Ruan Mei as the Yinluo Way’s contact in Youzhou Prefecture.
• Ruan Mei offered to lead Qin Yan to the Yinluo Way’s stronghold in Yunchang Prefecture, where three Supreme Grandmaster experts had reportedly appeared, and Qin Yan bound her with a Soul Restriction.
• Qiu Wei revealed that the Flesh and Blood Dao was monitoring Qin Yan on its master’s orders and carried a Dao Seed that strengthened his Qi, blood, and body; Qin Yan bound him as well.
• Qin Yan controlled several other evil-path contacts and learned about their deployments in Youshan Prefecture, deciding to keep them alive to track their factions.
• Qin Yan destroyed the souls of unaffiliated rogue cultivators and gave their intact corpses to Daoist Mi to make Evil Corpses.

Qin Yan healed Mingfeng Mountain Lord, forced him to submit with a soul restriction, and learned that the Gongshu Family had arranged the attempt on Jin Shizhong’s life. He ordered the family destroyed, and their former servants were freed and given land as registered subjects of Great Li.

• Qin Yan healed Mingfeng Mountain Lord, compelled him to submit, and bound his life and death with a restriction on his soul.
• Qin Yan ordered Mingfeng Mountain Lord to rebuild the Ghost Market and gather intelligence, and Mingfeng revealed Du Chan’s ties to the Gongshu Family.
• Qin Yan ordered Jin Shizhong, Han Cui, Zong Xiaoshan, and the troops to eliminate the Gongshu Family within three days.
• Tao Wang sealed the family’s businesses as nearly six thousand troops attacked its forces, while Zong Xiaoshan, Jin Shizhong, and Han Cui killed the family’s experts and patriarch.
• Qin Yan’s officials freed the Gongshu Family’s 3,178 servants, distributed fertile fields to them, and registered them as subjects of Great Li.
• Young scholars taught the newly freed people that they were equal to others and had not been born to serve powerful families.

Qin Yan expanded his military and social reforms while preparing to confront the powers resisting his influence. After Jiu'an Prefecture seized his goods and employees, he sent the Divine Machine Battalion and other troops across the border, where Prefect Du Yunlong and the major families assembled to oppose them.

• Qin Yan spread his ideology across Youshan Prefecture, ordered martial arts training and literacy lessons for children, and published a Qi Circulation General Compendium.
• Several surrounding prefectures blocked or seized Youshan Prefecture's goods, and Qin Xiaoyi told Qin Yan that Jiu'an Prefecture's major powers had harmed the Jiang Family and asked for help.
• Qin Yan ordered troops to march into Jiu'an Prefecture and chose the Divine Machine Battalion to lead the campaign.
• Han Chen rallied the Divine Machine Battalion, and nine thousand soldiers, including cavalry and spearmen, marched toward Jiu'an Prefecture.
• Prefect Du Yunlong and Jiu'an's major family heads gathered their ten thousand troops and four thousand family fighters to face Qin Yan's forces.

Han Chen divided his forces to seize Linxian Town and prepare an ambush for Jiu'an Prefecture’s reinforcements. Zhang Chong and Yan Hongtao’s troops reached Guzi Gorge, where the Divine Machine Battalion destroyed the defenders’ resistance and blasted open the gate.

• Han Chen ordered Zhang Chong to lead two thousand cavalry and a thousand Divine Machine Battalion soldiers toward Linxian Town, while he sent other troops toward Yu Family Village and Taichuan Lookout.
• Zhang Chong’s force reached Guzi Gorge outside Linxian Town and left the assault to Yan Hongtao and the Divine Machine Battalion.
• Yan Hongtao’s riflemen shot down the pass defenders and their ballista operators from beyond the range of their weapons.
• The defenders took heavy casualties under rifle fire, and their commander killed a soldier for refusing to obey his order to counterattack.
• Yan Hongtao sent two demolition soldiers to the gate, and their explosives blew it apart while Zhang Chong watched in shock.

Yan Hongtao’s Divine Machine Battalion captured Guzi Pass with overwhelming gunfire, then joined Han Chen’s ambush against the Jiu'an Army. The chapter ended with the Jiu'an Army surrounded and under attack from both front and rear.

• Yan Hongtao led the Divine Machine Battalion in a rifle assault that killed the Guzi Pass commander and forced the defenders to surrender or flee.
• Zhang Chong’s soldiers arrived after the fighting, and the army took Guzi Pass with 412 enemy soldiers killed, the rest captured, and only one ankle injury among their own troops.
• The Jiu'an Commandant marched more than ten thousand soldiers toward Guzi Pass, unaware that Han Chen had prepared an encirclement.
• Yan Hongtao’s troops killed the Jiu'an scouts, while Zhang Chong fired a flare to signal the ambush forces.
• Zhang Chong’s cavalry drew the Jiu'an Army’s attention as Han Chen attacked from the flank and blocked its retreat.
• The Divine Machine Battalion swept the Jiu'an Army with gunfire from the front and rear, leaving the Jiu'an Commandant to realize his force was surrounded.

Han Chen’s Divine Machine Battalion repelled the Jiu'an Commandant’s attempted breakthrough, killing or grievously wounding the charging Xiantian experts with grenades, electromagnetic sniper rifles, and Gatling guns. Qin Yan watched from hiding and judged that the weapons worked remarkably well, though their users needed to conceal their presence better.

• The Jiu'an Commandant ordered the high-level martial artists and Xiantian experts to spearhead a breakthrough against Qin Yan’s army.
• Han Chen prepared the Divine Machine Battalion and Warrior Response Force to meet the enemy charge with grenades and heavy weapons.
• The soldiers unleashed a concentrated grenade barrage that halted the charging martial artists and wounded several Xiantian experts.
• Snipers using electromagnetic rifles killed or injured more of the Xiantian experts with armor-piercing rounds.
• The Warrior Response Force used Gatling guns alongside sniper fire to kill the remaining attackers and stop the breakthrough.
• Qin Yan watched from hiding and noted that the weapons were effective, but their users were not skilled enough at concealing themselves.

Qin Yan’s Divine Machine Battalion crushed Jiu'an Prefecture’s forces, and Han Chen occupied the prefecture while targeting the noble families and redistributing their land. The Jiang Family decided to keep supporting Qin Yan’s radical challenge to the Great Li Dynasty and its ruling order.

• Qin Yan concluded that Great Li was too weakened and divided by immortal factions to threaten him, so he sent troops to occupy Jiu'an Prefecture.
• Yan Hongtao and the Divine Machine Battalion celebrated their victory, while Han Chen concluded that firearms could offset the Secluded Mountain Army’s weakness against Xiantian fighters.
• Han Chen’s army defeated Jiu'an Prefecture’s troops, taking the survivors prisoner, and then seized the prefecture and punished noble families accused of wrongdoing.
• Jiang Daoxi worried that Qin Yan’s campaign against the noble families would make them his enemies, but Jiang Daoqi argued that Qin Yan’s reforms were enriching and educating the common people.
• Jiang Daozhen resolved that the Jiang Family would continue supporting Qin Yan, and Han Chen killed landlords and distributed their land to household slaves and tenant farmers.

After Qin Yan seized Jiu'an Prefecture, Heavenly Star Lord traveled to Youshan Prefecture hoping to recruit him into the Heavenly Heart Immortal Sect. Their meeting turned into a duel, and Heavenly Star Lord realized Qin Yan’s strength rivaled a Fourth Realm cultivator’s.

• Officials and the Hongwen Emperor denounced Qin Yan for taking control of Jiu'an Prefecture, while Xia Chengqian questioned why he had done it.
• Heavenly Star Lord studied reports of Qin Yan’s achievements and decided to visit Youshan Prefecture to recruit him as a disciple.
• Heavenly Star Lord arrived in orderly Youshan Prefecture and admired its electric lights and Qin Yan’s governance.
• Qin Yan sensed Heavenly Star Lord’s powerful presence, confronted him in Qinghe Town, and rejected his offer to teach immortal cultivation.
• Heavenly Star Lord challenged Qin Yan to demonstrate the difference between immortals and mortals, and the two flew into a forest to fight.
• Qin Yan shattered Heavenly Star Lord’s light barrier with a physical attack, prompting Heavenly Star Lord to suspect he was a cultivator from the previous era.

Qin Yan and Heavenly Star Lord fought, with Qin Yan revealing powerful body cultivation and the Dao of Primordial Magnetism against Heavenly Star Lord’s Star Chart Scroll. After Qin Yan’s Heaven-Splitting Style struck the scroll, Heavenly Star Lord called a halt to the battle.

• Qin Yan attacked Heavenly Star Lord, who blocked his blows with the Star Chart Scroll and proposed that they talk.
• Qin Yan increased his power and shattered part of Heavenly Star Lord’s starry firmament with a barrage of punches, but the scroll restored it.
• Heavenly Star Lord summoned a purple star to suppress Qin Yan, who countered with the Dao of Primordial Magnetism and pushed the star back.
• Qin Yan used Magnetic Field Rotation and the Heaven-Splitting Style to strike Heavenly Star Lord’s Star Chart Scroll.
• Heavenly Star Lord concealed his shock and raised his hands in salute, asking to stop the fight for the day.

Qin Yan and Heavenly Star Lord fought to a standstill, then parted without revealing their identities or making peace beyond agreeing to avoid each other’s territory. As the Hongwen Emperor grew more resentful of Qin Yan and his dependence on the Dao One Immortal Sect, he resolved to cultivate immortals of his own and escape being controlled.

• Qin Yan and Heavenly Star Lord recognized that neither could safely defeat the other, and Heavenly Star Lord apologized for mistaking Qin Yan for his reincarnated body’s disciple.
• Heavenly Star Lord left after inviting Qin Yan to visit the Heavenly Heart Immortal Sect, while Qin Yan worried that he still lacked the strength to defeat old monsters from the previous era.
• Heavenly Star Lord returned to his sect and decided to focus on recovering his strength, suspecting Qin Yan was an awakened expert who had concealed his identity.
• Spies reported the mountain battle to the imperial court, and the Hongwen Emperor concluded that Qin Yan likely had a powerful force supporting him.
• The Hongwen Emperor resented Qin Yan’s popularity and the Dao One Immortal Sect’s demands, then vowed to raise immortal cultivators of his own so he would not become anyone’s puppet.

After taking Jiu'an Prefecture, Qin Yan prepared to seize Tongzhou Prefecture to secure his growing territory and resources. Tongzhou governor Lin Xuansong chose to submit and help Qin Yan win over the local troops, and Qin Yan’s army advanced as the great families fled.

• The Hongwen Emperor flew into a rage over Qin Yan’s memorial accusing the Jiu'an governor and prominent families of rebellion.
• Qin Yan redeployed three thousand troops and the Divine Machine Battalion to prepare for an advance into Tongzhou Prefecture.
• Lin Xuansong weighed resistance, flight, and surrender, then decided to join Qin Yan and monitor the great families as a pledge of allegiance.
• Qin Yan accepted Lin Xuansong’s submission and tasked him with persuading Tongzhou’s eight thousand troops to surrender.
• At the beginning of the twelfth month, Qin Yan’s army set out, local officials opened their gates, and the great families fled while cursing Lin Xuansong.

Qin Yan reorganized Tongzhou Prefecture’s garrison and ordered a harsh campaign against bandits, thugs, and corrupt officials in Tongzhou and Jiu'an Prefectures. The crackdown restored public order, and the grateful common people praised Qin Yan.

• Qin Yan ordered Zuo Rutang to take Tongzhou Prefecture’s eight thousand soldiers to Secluded Mountain Camp to be split up and retrained under strict military law.
• Chen Ergou reported that powerful clans had stirred up unrest and that bandits and local thugs were terrorizing Tongzhou and Jiu'an Prefectures.
• Qin Yan ordered Bai Yi to use the bandits to train new soldiers and to send troops to suppress crime.
• Bai Yi led twelve thousand recruits on a campaign that arrested and punished thugs, including Liu Sanqiu and Liu Xiaodao.
• The crackdown eliminated local thugs and exposed corrupt officials, while the common people celebrated the improved public order and praised Qin Yan.

Qin Yan used his improved mental and magnetic-field control to create Spirit Crystals from the primordial Qi around him, then gave one to Qin Xiaoyi to support his cultivation. He stopped producing them after draining the energy from the surrounding area and disrupting other cultivators’ progress.

• Qin Yan refined his control over matter, shaping dust into objects and extending his influence across a wide area.
• Qin Yan gathered primordial Qi and solidified it into Spirit Crystals with a Spiritual Qi content of 91%.
• Qin Yan produced nearly thirty Spirit Crystals before exhausting the primordial Qi in the surrounding area.
• Qin Yan sensed cultivators elsewhere struggling to cultivate and stopped making more crystals to avoid causing panic.
• Qin Yan gave Qin Xiaoyi a Spirit Crystal and told him to cultivate toward the Xiantian Martial Realm.

Qin Yan used a Spirit Crystal to help Qin Xiaoyi break through to the Marrow-Washing Realm while consolidating his control of Yunzhou. As his rule spread across the province, a new rebel force led by Huang Chao rose in Cangzhou and seized three prefectures.

• Qin Xiaoyi absorbed energy from a Spirit Crystal and broke through to the Marrow-Washing Realm, while Qin Yan urged him to keep cultivating toward the Innate level.
• Qin Yan stored the remaining Spirit Crystals to use as rewards for his subordinates and continued expanding his influence across Yunzhou.
• Qin Yan's forces took control of all Yunzhou, while land distribution and punishment of corrupt officials won him widespread support among the common people.
• In February, a rebel army called the Heaven-Soaring Army emerged in Cangzhou, defeated seven thousand prefectural troops with four thousand men, and seized a prefecture.
• Huang Chao's Heaven-Soaring Army grew to thirty thousand men and occupied three prefectures, killing wealthy gentry and dividing land wherever it conquered.

Qin Yan learned that Huang Chao was likely the Supreme Grandmaster leading the Heaven-Soaring Army and the Flesh and Blood Dao, which had been stealing his weapons and technology. Using Qiu Wei to expose the Dao’s spies, Qin Yan ordered a coordinated sweep across Youshan Prefecture, leaving Qiu Wei to flee under pursuit so he could continue working undercover.

• Qin Yan received intelligence that Huang Chao had formed the powerful Heaven-Soaring Army and likely reached the Supreme Grandmaster realm.
• Chen Ergou reported that the Flesh and Blood Dao was stealing Qin Yan’s weapons and technology, and advisers suspected Huang Chao was its master.
• Qin Yan learned that more than three hundred Flesh and Blood Dao spies were scattered across Youshan Prefecture and ordered them arrested.
• Chen Ergou and Qiu Wei prepared the operation as the Red Shadow Army and Han Chen’s mechanized troops sealed off Qinghe Town and carried out simultaneous arrests.
• Qin Yan’s forces captured nearly all the spies, while Qiu Wei fled from pursuing experts to remain undercover and provide intelligence.