Chapter Summaries

Qin Yan killed the ancient Evil Corpse and pursued the fleeing Ancient Corpses, killing several before one escaped into the Corpse Grotto beneath Cypress Water River. He followed it through an unstable spatial crack, where the Ancient Corpse was destroyed after a hand emerged from its abdomen and took its inner core.

• Qin Yan stored the ancient Evil Corpse’s Corpse Pill and used its lifebound halberd to kill a Fourth Realm Ancient Corpse while the Sha Infant held off another.
• Qin Yan took another Ancient Corpse’s Corpse Pill as the Sha Infant attacked its body, then smashed a horde of Ancient Corpses with a blood-red palm.
• One Ancient Corpse survived by escaping underground and fled toward the Corpse Grotto beneath Cypress Water River, so Qin Yan followed it with the Sha Infant and Little Jade Turtle.
• Inside the Corpse Grotto, Qin Yan located the Ancient Corpse despite the area’s interference with spiritual probing, then charged through a spatial crack with the Little Jade Turtle’s help.
• A hand emerged from the Ancient Corpse’s abdomen and seized its pitch-black inner core, and the Ancient Corpse crumbled to dust.

Qin Yan stabilized the spatial rifts in the Corpse Grotto and reinforced the mass grave’s seal to protect Qinghe Town. As Huang Chao’s growing army drew the attention of other powers, Qin Yan sold Yunzhou’s retired weapons to the King of Chu, whose generals confirmed their superiority.

• Qin Yan transformed the Corpse Grotto’s cavern into a formation that stabilized its rifts, then sealed the passage to keep corpses from entering.
• Qin Yan spent three days and nights forming a seal over the mass grave and used Spirit Crystals to prevent Yin Qi from gathering there.
• Huang Chao expanded his forces in Cangzhou while the imperial court and the Thundering Firmament Immortal Sect constrained his growth, giving Qin Yan room to strengthen his army.
• Zhang Xin proposed selling Qin Yan’s retired weapons to other powers, and Qin Yan approved the plan.
• Jiang Wanqi presented the Yunzhou Foundry Bureau’s weapons to the King of Chu, whose generals tested them and found them far superior to their own arms.
• The King of Chu postponed his decision to consult his ministers, while Jiang Wanqi left confident that the deal would proceed.

The King of Chu and other factions bought Qin Yan’s affordable, high-quality weapons, making him a wealthy arms merchant. When Shadow disappeared in Qingzhou after a battle with powerful opponents, Qin Yan set out for Yunqi County to find him.

• The King of Chu asked the Thundering Firmament Immortal Sect for help producing weapons, but Lu Chunjie found that artifact-grade materials made them too costly for mass production.
• The King of Chu ordered five thousand sets of equipment from Qin Yan, and Prince Xiang and Huang Chao’s side soon submitted orders worth more than a million taels combined.
• Qin Yan’s refurbished equipment improved the King of Chu’s army, and Qin Yan began selling obsolete weapons to other forces for a large profit.
• Chen Ergou told Qin Yan that Shadow had been missing in Qingzhou for three days, and a report described signs of a fierce battle near Yunqi County.
• Qin Yan concluded that Ba Wei had faced at least two opponents of similar strength and left to investigate, telling Chen Ergou to carry on as usual.

Qin Yan investigated the revered Descending Cloud God in Yunqi County, finding a genuine incense deity whose daily blessings seemed inexplicably generous. He then tracked down the gravely wounded Ba Wei in a remote cottage, healed him and restored his severed arm, while the boy Yun Qiji mistook Qin Yan for an immortal.

• Qin Yan noticed Yunqi County's unusually healthy residents and discovered that Incense Aspiration Power flowed from them toward the Descending Cloud God’s temple.
• An old woman told Qin Yan that the Descending Cloud God’s blessed rain cured ailments and restored people’s vigor.
• Qin Yan examined the temple’s deity and found a powerful, genuine incense deity, but no sign of the Yinluo Way; he decided to find Ba Wei.
• Qin Yan traveled to a remote cottage in Yunyin Township and healed Ba Wei’s wounds, regrowing his severed right arm.
• Ba Wei thanked Qin Yan, while Yun Qiji knelt and addressed him as an immortal.

Ba Wei told Qin Yan that the Yinluo Way was creating a powerful deity, while Yun Qiji revealed that the village’s mountain god demanded a child every year in exchange for protecting the villagers. Qin Yan and Ba Wei learned that Qiji’s little brother had been sacrificed, and the chapter left them facing the threat of the Wild God.

• Yun Qiji refused a reward for saving Ba Wei, and Ba Wei offered to take him in and teach him.
• Ba Wei reported that the Yinluo Way was cultivating a beast-bodied, human-faced deity that fed on Incense Aspiration Power and that Granny Tang had helped two Supreme Grandmasters capture him.
• Qin Yan recognized Granny Tang’s name and sensed a powerful, ominous presence near the village that he believed was a Wild God.
• Yun Qiji warned Qin Yan and Ba Wei that the mountain god ate people, then explained that it demanded a child from the village every year.
• Yun Qiji revealed that the village had sacrificed his little brother the previous year, and Ba Wei angrily questioned the village chief’s choice.

Qin Yan and Ba Wei accompanied Yun Qiji to his remote village to confront its mountain god, but the villagers defended the creature because they willingly sacrificed one child each year in exchange for protection and prosperity. Yun Qiji was devastated to learn his younger brother had been offered up, while the villagers surrounded the three outsiders to stop them from disrupting the village’s peace.

• Qin Yan asked Yun Qiji about the mountain god, and Yun Qiji said it was a powerful lizard.
• Qin Yan, Ba Wei, and Yun Qiji entered the village, where the village chief and armed villagers confronted them.
• Yun Qiji announced that Qin Yan and Ba Wei had come to get rid of the mountain god, turning the villagers hostile.
• Yun Qiji accused the village chief of allowing the mountain god to eat his younger brother and other children.
• The village chief explained that the villagers sacrificed one child each year in exchange for the mountain god’s protection and refused to let the outsiders interfere.
• The villagers armed themselves with farm tools and surrounded Qin Yan, Ba Wei, and Yun Qiji.

Qin Yan killed the Lizard Mountain God despite the villagers’ pleas, then promised to take them from the mountain and give them land, education, and a life of dignity. The villagers were left to confront the loss of their protector and Qin Yan’s offer of a new future.

• The villagers attacked Qin Yan, Ba Wei, and Yun Qiji, but Ba Wei subdued them with his presence.
• Qin Yan led his companions to the mountain god temple while the village chief and villagers hurried after them.
• Yun Qiji asked Ba Wei to kill the Lizard Mountain God, who admitted he had eaten village children after the villagers offered them to him.
• Qin Yan explained that he wanted to kill the Lizard Mountain God because he saw him as a marauder preying on his kin.
• The village chief and villagers begged Qin Yan to spare the Lizard Mountain God, but Qin Yan destroyed the temple and killed him with the power of the Magnetic Field.
• Qin Yan told the villagers he was lord of Yunzhou and promised to give them land, food, education, and dignity.

Qin Yan investigated Yunxi Village, suspecting its Man-Faced God had been created by the Yinluo Way. He effortlessly restrained the god, but Yinluo Way figures surrounded the temple, led by an imposing fisherman.

• Qin Yan had the Yunqi County magistrate prepare land near Yunqi County for the relocated villagers.
• Qin Yan and Ba Wei concluded that the Yinluo Way had likely established Yunxi Village and created its Man-Faced God using the Incense-Fire Divine Dao.
• Qin Yan and Ba Wei entered Yunxi Village, where Qin Yan sensed abundant incense aspiration power and recognized signs of the Yinluo Way among the villagers.
• The Man-Faced God sensed the intruders, but Qin Yan appeared before it and immobilized it while questioning how it came into being.
• Ba Wei noticed powerful figures surrounding the temple, and an old fisherman warned Qin Yan that he should not have come there.

Qin Yan confronted the Yinluo Way, displaying his power by breaking down its experts and forcing the fisherman to kneel. When Granny Tang arrived and recognized him from Qinghe Town, Qin Yan sealed the village and ordered the remaining Yinluo Way disciples killed, leaving Granny Tang alive but afraid to move.

• Qin Yan questioned the fisherman about the Wind God and the mysterious presence within him, then revealed Divine Blood from the Lizard Mountain God.
• Qin Yan broke the Yinluo Way experts beside the fisherman into molecular-scale particles and forced the fisherman to his knees.
• Granny Tang arrived, recognized Qin Yan as the former boy from Qinghe Town, and realized how far his strength had surpassed hers.
• Qin Yan sealed the village with his Magnetic Field, and Ba Wei killed the trapped Yinluo Way disciples while Granny Tang stayed still.
• The village was left filled with corpses, and a black flag fluttered at its entrance.

Qin Yan defeated the fisherman’s ambush, destroyed the Ink Dragon Banner’s flood-serpent spirit, and seized the forbidden artifact from Granny Tang. He turned the fisherman’s own net against him as Granny Tang and the Man-Faced God attacked.

• The fisherman attacked Qin Yan with his fine-threaded net and fishing line while Granny Tang used the Ink Dragon Banner to send its flood serpent after Ba Wei.
• The flood serpent shattered Ba Wei’s staff attack, but Qin Yan blocked the fisherman’s net and pierced the serpent with lightning.
• Qin Yan intercepted the banner, took it from Granny Tang, and erased its soul imprint to claim preliminary control of the artifact.
• The Man-Faced God unleashed a wind blade, but Qin Yan’s Magnetic Field kept it from reaching him.
• Qin Yan controlled the fishing net and tightened it around the fisherman, slicing his flesh as he screamed.

Qin Yan and Ba Wei defeated the Yinluo Way’s forces in the village, and Qin Yan questioned the captured Granny Tang about Divine Blood and the group’s activities. After she revealed the Yinluo Way’s plans in Qingzhou but claimed ignorance about Lizhou, Qin Yan began torturing her to force the truth out.

• Qin Yan killed the fisherman while Ba Wei prevented Granny Tang from using her copper pot, and Qin Yan struck down the fleeing Man-Faced God with a blood-red palm.
• Ba Wei defeated Granny Tang and threw her, badly injured, before Qin Yan.
• Granny Tang explained that the Yinluo Way had received Divine Blood from the Dao Lord and used it to awaken creatures that could gather Incense Aspiration Power as local guardian gods.
• Qin Yan asked about the Yinluo Way’s activities in Lizhou, but Granny Tang claimed not to know what its other members were doing.
• Qin Yan accused Granny Tang of hiding something and began repeatedly peeling away and healing her skin and flesh to make her talk.

Qin Yan learned that the Yinluo Way was preparing to resurrect a mysterious being whose blood could create gods, then summoned the Descending Cloud God to investigate whether he was one of those creations. The Descending Cloud God doubted his origins as Qin Yan offered to help him.

• Granny Tang told Qin Yan that the Yinluo Way’s leaders were preparing to resurrect a mysterious being, whose blood might be the source of the faction and its Divine Blood.
• Qin Yan killed Granny Tang and the Man-Faced God, taking another drop of Divine Blood from the monster.
• Qin Yan summoned the Descending Cloud God from Yunqi County and confirmed that Divine Blood was present in his soul body.
• Qin Yan told the Descending Cloud God that he might have been created by the Yinluo Way using a century of worship and Divine Blood.
• The Descending Cloud God rejected Qin Yan’s claim but began to doubt his origins, and Qin Yan offered to help him.

Qin Yan subdued the Descending Cloud God and tasked him with pursuing Divine Dao cultivation and killing Wild Gods in Qingzhou. After returning to Qinghe Town with Ba Wei, Qin Yan refined several treasures, including a Netherworld halberd that he remade into a small flying sword.

• Qin Yan trapped the Descending Cloud God with a force field, then told him to explore Divine Dao breakthroughs and help kill Qingzhou's Wild Gods for their Divine Blood.
• The Descending Cloud God accepted Qin Yan's orders, resolved to grow stronger, and received a Sound Transmission Jade Slip.
• Qin Yan returned to Qinghe Town with Ba Wei after killing three Wild Gods, each of whom carried Divine Blood.
• Qin Yan reassured Ba Wei and gave him ten Spirit Crystals to support his cultivation.
• Qin Yan assessed his acquired treasures, turned the fisherman's silver-thread net into a binding treasure, and reforged the Netherworld Artifact Halberd into a pitch-black flying sword.

Qin Yan cultivated Qinghe First-Generation Spirit Rice and ordered it planted on a large scale while planning to turn his expanded deep-mountain base into Secluded Mountain Academy. As Huang Chao’s campaigns and Qin Yan’s support fueled unrest across Great Li, Qin Yan continued strengthening Yunzhou’s academies, industry, and army.

• Qin Yan harvested Qinghe First-Generation Spirit Rice, which contained gentle Spiritual Qi and yielded up to eight or nine hundred jin per mu, and ordered Qin Xiaoyi to collect seeds for large-scale planting.
• Qin Xiaoyi reported that martial arts education had uncovered increasing numbers of talented people across Yunzhou, including rare geniuses entering the Qi-Blood Realm within days.
• Qin Yan announced that he would rename the deep-mountain base Secluded Mountain Academy and educate children in ideas, martial arts, and academic knowledge.
• Huang Chao’s brutal resurgence alarmed the King of Chu, Youzhou, and the imperial court, while Qin Yan secretly supplied uprisings with weapons, armor, grain, and funds.
• Qin Yan converted two grotto-heavens and blessed lands into academies, expanded his army to 120,000 troops, and directed factories and mines toward the war effort.

Qin Yan released the Qi Circulation General Compendium Version Two for free across Yunzhou to break the martial sects’ control over cultivation and draw talented people into his army and academies. As sect disciples secretly adopted the stronger technique and began leaving their sects, the martial factions feared for their future.

• Qin Yan explained to Han Chen that the public technique was only a basic version, while advanced arts would be earned through military merit.
• Qin Yan distributed the Qi Circulation General Compendium Version Two through the army and academies.
• Jianghu sect leaders cursed Qin Yan after discovering that his published technique surpassed their treasured arts.
• Sect disciples secretly cultivated Qin Yan’s technique, finding that it improved their Qi circulation and foundations.
• Sect leaders confiscated the manuals and banned cultivation, prompting many disciples to resent their sects and leave for Qin Yan’s army.
• Famous martial factions realized that Qin Yan’s technique threatened their ability to recruit disciples and preserve their lineages.

On his eighteenth birthday, Qin Yan reunited with Xia Chengqian, who asked for his help securing his position as Great Li’s crown prince. Qin Yan left the alliance request unanswered until the next day.

• Qin Yan turned eighteen and told his friends he had no plans to marry while he focused on growing stronger.
• Qin Yan learned that Xia Chengqian had arrived in Youshan Prefecture and went to meet the Great Li crown prince.
• Xia Chengqian saw the peace and prosperity of Qin Yan’s domain and greeted him after two years apart.
• Qin Yan teased Xia Chengqian about his father favoring his younger brother, who had become Immortal Master Yunchen’s disciple.
• Xia Chengqian asked Qin Yan to help him deal with the Dao One Immortal Sect in exchange for intelligence on Great Li, and Qin Yan said he would answer tomorrow.

Qin Yan secretly allied with Crown Prince Xia Chengqian, giving him spirit stones in exchange for help and access to Great Li’s secrets. Xia Chengqian used the resources to build support at court and within the Dao One Immortal Sect, securing a foothold as the Hongwen Emperor noticed his growing influence.

• Qin Yan decided to help Xia Chengqian and saw the crown prince’s position as a valuable source of intelligence about Great Li.
• Qin Yan and Xia Chengqian formed a secret alliance, agreeing to exchange support and benefits.
• Qin Yan gave Xia Chengqian spirit stones and explained how they could accelerate cultivation and help him gather followers.
• After returning to the capital, Xia Chengqian resumed court duties and befriended Daoist masters with the spirit stones.
• The Dao One sect master named Xia Chengqian his personal disciple and tested the power of the spirit stones.
• Xia Chengqian gained support in court and the sect, while the Hongwen Emperor noticed his rising maturity and reputation.

Qin Yan sent his reorganized forces to conquer Qingzhou while Huang Chao’s Heaven-Soaring Army attacked Youzhou. The Red Shadow Army and Red Edge Army seized much of Qingzhou, and Zong Xiaoshan arrived at Yunqing Prefecture to confront the powerful Xie Lineage.

• Qin Yan recognized that Xia Chengqian’s alliance with the Dao One Immortal Sect had shifted the balance of power at court and left the Hongwen Emperor reliant on the second prince’s maternal relatives.
• After learning that Huang Chao’s Heaven-Soaring Army had broken through toward Youzhou, Qin Yan ordered the Red Shadow Army, Divine Machine Battalion, and thirty thousand Red Edge Army troops to prepare to take Qingzhou.
• In June, the Red Shadow Army seized Tao'an Prefecture, while the Red Edge Army attacked in three columns using firearms and artillery to overwhelm Qingzhou’s defenses.
• Qin Xiaoyi reported that the Red Shadow Army had taken three prefectures in three days and that half of Qingzhou was under Qin Yan’s control.
• Zong Xiaoshan led the Red Shadow Army to Yunqing Prefecture, where the Xie Lineage controlled much of the land and local government; Qin Yan had ordered the Lineage wiped out.

Zong Xiaoshan led the Red Shadow Army to confront Xie Jiuying, the Xie Lineage's ancestor, and rejected his offer to submit because Qin Yan had ordered the lineage exterminated. Zong Xiaoshan killed Xie Jiuying and ordered the army to leave no one alive.

• Xie Jiuying recognized the approaching Red Shadow Army and flew out to meet Zong Xiaoshan, offering the Xie Lineage's support to Qin Yan.
• Zong Xiaoshan declared that Qin Yan had ordered the Xie Lineage's extermination and attacked Xie Jiuying.
• Xie Jiuying fought back, blaming Qin Yan for valuing commoners over the lineage's wealth and power.
• Xie Jiuying unleashed a tiny gray beast in a surprise attack, but the treasure Qin Yan had given Zong Xiaoshan stopped it.
• Zong Xiaoshan shattered the beast, beheaded Xie Jiuying, and ordered the Red Shadow Army to exterminate the Xie Lineage without leaving anyone alive.

After conquering Qingzhou with little resistance, Qin Yan secured the people’s support through disciplined soldiers and land redistribution, then went to Cloud Allure City to oversee the new territory. Qin Xiaoyi reported rapid recruitment and an influx of martial heroes, and Qin Yan revealed that an infiltrator had slipped in.

• Zong Xiaoshan followed Qin Yan’s orders as the Red Shadow Army breached Cloud Allure City and exterminated the Xie Lineage, confiscating enormous wealth and many cultivation texts.
• Qin Yan’s army took all of Qingzhou in a month, winning the people’s allegiance with strict discipline, aid, and promises fulfilled, while suffering only a few hundred casualties.
• Qin Yan consolidated control of Qingzhou, distributed fertile land, and traveled to Cloud Allure City to keep officials and soldiers in check.
• Qin Xiaoyi reported that Qingzhou had supplied twenty thousand recruits in three days and that many martial heroes, including Xiantian and Grandmaster-level experts, had joined.
• Qin Yan listened to Qin Xiaoyi’s report and said that a rat had infiltrated them.