Chapter Summaries

Wang Chen learned that Great Qin was using Great Yan’s rebellious tribes to invade Hanhai and divert Wu Zhao’s northern campaign. After reassuring the wounded Xi Jun, he set out for Hanhai City as the besieging enemy began to withdraw.

• Great Qin’s western campaign had kept Great Zhou on the defensive, while Qin-backed tribes and Yan remnants invaded Hanhai Commandery to capture its Dao Palace and tie down Wu Zhao and Ling Zhiyuan.
• Xi Jun told Wang Chen she was grateful he had returned, and he promised to handle what came next before she fell asleep.
• Wang Chen ordered Daoist nuns to care for Xi Jun and gave the female physician Healing Pills to dilute for the wounded.
• Wang Chen left for Hanhai City with an officer and climbed the palace wall to survey the city.
• Wang Chen heard horns as the enemy army besieging Hanhai City began to withdraw.

Wang Chen reached Hanhai City after the enemy withdrew and ordered Lu Yunfei to lead three thousand elite cavalry in pursuit. Wang Chen’s spell barrage shattered the enemy’s retreating ranks, leaving the tribal forces in a full rout as he drove toward their central army.

• Lu Yunfei greeted Wang Chen at Hanhai City and confessed that he had failed to protect the Dao Palace, but Wang Chen dismissed his guilt and asked how much cavalry he could gather.
• After learning that Wang Chen had killed the enemy commander, Lu Yunfei assembled three thousand elite cavalry and prepared a four-horse war chariot for him.
• Wang Chen led the cavalry west in pursuit of the retreating enemy, whose mixed forces became scattered and disorganized as they fell behind.
• Wang Chen’s protected chariot crashed into the enemy rear as he unleashed a barrage of spells, killing hundreds and triggering panic among the infantry.
• Lu Yunfei’s cavalry followed with firearms and sabers, while Wang Chen broke through the rear army and charged toward the tribal chiefs, turning the enemy’s disorder into a full collapse.

Wang Chen led the Hanhai cavalry to crush the leaderless rebel army, then ordered a western expedition from Hanhai City. When the Prefect resisted recruiting and equipping five thousand cavalry, Wang Chen killed him and challenged the assembled officials.

• Wang Chen's attacks and the Hanhai cavalry's charge sent the enemy army into a rout, while tribal warriors turned on one another and killed Great Qin officers trying to stop them.
• Wang Chen and the cavalry pursued the fleeing warriors for two shichen, then returned to Hanhai City after the enemy abandoned its camp and supplies.
• The Prefect and officials welcomed Wang Chen, and the Prefect hosted a banquet to celebrate the victory.
• Wang Chen ordered the Prefect to recruit and equip five thousand cavalry for a western expedition against the rebels and Great Qin.
• The Prefect refused without an imperial edict, and Wang Chen accused him of using equipment and provisions as an excuse before killing him with a raised hand.

Wang Chen restored the Mountain River Great Formation, learned of Ling Zhiyuan’s struggle against Great Qin’s Qin Qi, and assembled a fifty-thousand-strong cavalry force for a western expedition. He led the troops into Great Qin’s territory, carrying their supplies in the Cangqing Ring.

• Lu Yunfei audited Hanhai’s treasury, exposed widespread embezzlement, and led a purge of corrupt officials.
• Wang Chen put Xi Jun in charge of Hanhai City and had her and Lu Yunfei recruit cavalry and gather military grain.
• Wang Chen found that earthquakes had shifted the Mountain River Pillars, repositioned them, and restored the Mountain River Great Formation.
• Wang Chen contacted Ling Zhiyuan, learned that Qin Qi’s immunity to Dharma arts and command of the Great Qin Army had forced Ling Zhiyuan to defend the northwestern fortress, and arranged for Wu Zhao to issue an imperial decree to the southern prefectures.
• Wang Chen recruited fifty thousand cavalry, equipped them with firearms and supplies stored in the Cangqing Ring, and marched west into Great Qin.

Wang Chen led fifty thousand Great Zhou cavalry in an attack on the Tulu tribe, whose warriors had recently returned from a crushing defeat. After the cavalry slaughtered the people living outside the fortress and killed a Tulu Elder who tried to surrender, Wang Chen deployed field cannons against the stronghold.

• Aguda saw Great Zhou cavalry advancing toward the Tulu fortress and was killed by an arrow while trying to warn his tribesmen.
• Great Zhou cavalry charged into the settlements outside the fortress, killing the Tulu people and setting their homes ablaze.
• Tulu leaders shut the fortress gates, leaving more than a hundred thousand people outside, while their defenders were driven from the walls by musket fire.
• A Tulu Elder waved a white flag and begged to surrender, but Wang Chen ordered him killed.
• Wang Chen drew more than a hundred field cannons from the Cangqing Ring and opened fire on the fortress.

Wang Chen led the Western Expeditionary Army through the former lands of Great Yan, destroying three tribes and building a reputation that left local officials too frightened to resist. He then marched against Great Qin’s Gujin Pass and promised his commanders that he would open its gates.

• Wang Chen’s army massacred the Tulu tribe, seized its wealth, and celebrated with a feast before resuming its march.
• The Western Expeditionary Army destroyed the Hudi and White Wolf tribes, while survivors spread tales of Wang Chen’s terrifying army.
• Wang Chen marched through former Great Yan territory, accepted local officials’ submission, and expanded his army to sixty-five thousand cavalry.
• After a brief rest, Wang Chen led his forces west toward Great Qin and arrived at Gujin Pass, where a guide described its defenses and fifty thousand Qin soldiers.
• Wang Chen told his commanders he would open Gujin Pass’s gates, and they devised their attack plan on that basis.

Wang Chen brought the Western Expeditionary Army’s heavy artillery to Gujin Pass and began bombarding the Qin fortress. The attack left the Qin defenders suffering heavy casualties, while Wang Chen prepared his cavalry to intercept any response.

• Wang Chen approached Gujin Pass, where Qin cannons fired at him but fell short; one Qin officer’s overloaded cannon exploded and caused casualties among its crew.
• Wang Chen judged that Qin’s weapons were still poorly made but resolved not to give the empire time to improve them.
• Wang Chen used his Mana and a Spirit Gathering Array Disk to build eight platforms taller than a hundred chi before Gujin Pass.
• Wang Chen placed eight Divine Might Cannons on the platforms and ordered them to fire, with several cannonballs striking the walls and others landing inside the fortress.
• Wang Chen ordered the bombardment to continue and told his cavalry to prepare to intercept the enemy.

Wang Chen and the Western Expeditionary Army destroyed Gujin Pass’s defenses, annihilated a Qin cavalry counterattack, and stormed the fortress. By the end of the battle, Gujin Pass had fallen, with tens of thousands of Qin troops and auxiliary workers dead.

• The Western Expeditionary Army’s Divine Might Cannons devastated Gujin Pass and destroyed the Qin artillery on its walls.
• Wang Chen used the Cangqing Ring to cool the cannons and continue the bombardment until Qin cavalry charged out of the fortress.
• The Western Expeditionary Army’s cannons, muskets, and Martial Ancestors annihilated the attacking Qin cavalry.
• Wang Chen stopped the bombardment, then ordered the Divine Might Cannons to batter Gujin Pass’s iron gate.
• Wang Chen shattered the damaged gate with the Seven Absolutes Greatsword and led the Great Zhou troops into the fortress.
• The battle raged until night, leaving 53,000 Qin troops and more than 70,000 auxiliary soldiers, laborers, and slaves dead.

Wang Chen rebuilt Gujin Pass as a base for Great Zhou’s invasion, then led the Western Expeditionary Army into Great Qin and seized seven cities. The chapter ended as his fifty thousand troops faced a much larger Qin army and opened the battle with artillery and gunfire.

• Wang Chen recruited two hundred thousand Yan laborers and used fair wages, diluted Pills, and spells to speed the reconstruction of Gujin Pass.
• Wang Chen left fifteen thousand soldiers to guard the pass and led fifty thousand iron cavalry west into Great Qin.
• Wang Chen captured seven cities and a Great Qin prince, who was sent to Wu Zhao in the imperial capital.
• Wang Chen faced an elite Qin army of more than two hundred thousand men and ordered his artillery to fire.
• The Qin army charged, but Wang Chen’s musketeers shot at them and his troops trapped many soldiers in swampy ground.

Wang Chen returned to the imperial capital after defeating Great Qin’s forces at the Blood Plain, where Wu Zhao welcomed him and he helped prepare Great Zhou for its future war. As the Cangqing Realm began rejecting him, Wu Zhao asked him for a child, and he faced her sudden advance.

• Wang Chen withdrew to Gujin Pass after the costly victory at the Blood Plain, then traveled to the imperial capital with three thousand iron cavalry.
• Wu Zhao and the people welcomed Wang Chen outside the capital, and Wu Zhao embraced him before the assembled officials and citizens.
• Wu Zhao declared seven days of celebration and a general amnesty, while Wang Chen stayed in the palace for half a month and wrote Great Zhou’s secret Book of National Suppression.
• Wang Chen told Wu Zhao that he would soon leave because the Cangqing Realm was increasingly rejecting him.
• Wu Zhao, dressed in a thin gauze robe, asked Wang Chen to give her a child and suddenly raised her head toward him.

After returning from the Cangqing Realm, Wang Chen absorbed a Heavenly Dao reward that raised him to the peak of Golden Core ninth level, but he suppressed the urge to form a Nascent Soul. He concealed his rapid progress before meeting Huangfu Yongchun, who revealed that the Seven Absolute Sword Art came from Langya Abode, a grotto-heaven.

• Wang Chen returned from the Cangqing Realm and received a Heavenly Dao reward that pushed his cultivation to the peak of Golden Core ninth level, but he chose not to attempt a Nascent Soul breakthrough.
• After emerging from three days of seclusion, Wang Chen learned that Huangfu Yongchun had sent him messages and agreed to meet him at the Gathering Immortals Pavilion.
• Wang Chen bought the fourth-tier Taiqing Concealment Art from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and quickly learned enough to mask his aura at Golden Core seventh level.
• Wang Chen met Huangfu Yongchun alone in a sealed private room at the Gathering Immortals Pavilion.
• Huangfu Yongchun revealed that the Seven Absolute Sword Art had come from Langya Abode, a grotto-heaven.

Wang Chen agreed to help Huangfu Yongchun enter Langya Grotto-Heaven in exchange for treasures and Spirit Stones, and borrowed a powerful sword to prepare. After Wang Chen left, Huangfu and a black-robed cultivator revealed that they planned to use him to open the Xuan You Immortal Mansion and trap him with a Soul Capturing Array Formation.

• Huangfu Yongchun invited Wang Chen to explore Langya Grotto-Heaven, explaining that its inner estate required two high-level Golden Cores and that his former partner had died there.
• Huangfu offered Wang Chen three treasures and thirty percent of the Spirit Stones, and Wang Chen agreed to join him when the grotto-heaven opened in one year.
• Huangfu lent Wang Chen the Violet Lightning Sword, a top-grade Magic Treasure suited to the Lightning Severing Sword Art.
• After Wang Chen left, Huangfu met with a black-robed cultivator he called Third Brother and confirmed that Wang Chen had agreed.
• Huangfu and Third Brother revealed that they intended to use Wang Chen to open the true Xuan You Immortal Mansion and seize Treasure Daoist's legacy, with Huangfu planning to ensnare him using a Soul Capturing Array Formation.

Wang Chen traveled through demon-haunted lands to replenish the spiritual power stored in the Heavenly Net to Punish Evil. He left Sifang Town after using the treasure to destroy its Evil Spirits, bringing its reserves to nearly sixty percent.

• Wang Chen journeyed west from Luodu Immortal City for three months, seeking forbidden lands to train and gather spiritual power.
• Wang Chen disguised his aura as that of a newly formed Golden Core cultivator and entered the abandoned Sifang Town to attract Evil Spirits.
• Wang Chen used an Evil-Guiding Pill to draw the Evil Spirits toward the old opera stage.
• Wang Chen unfurled the Heavenly Net to Punish Evil and captured and consumed every Evil Spirit in the area.
• Wang Chen recalled the net, satisfied that its stored spiritual power had reached nearly sixty percent.

After a year of training, Wang Chen brought the Seven Absolute Sword Art to minor mastery and traveled with Huangfu Yongchun to find Langya Grotto-Heaven. They reached its hidden entrance beneath Feiyun River, where Huangfu Yongchun revealed a bronze token.

• Wang Chen completed a year of training and advanced the Seven Absolute Sword Art to minor mastery, gaining confidence that he could fight an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
• Huangfu Yongchun sent Wang Chen a message asking him to return to Luodu Immortal City before Langya Grotto-Heaven opened, and Wang Chen immediately set out.
• Wang Chen and Huangfu Yongchun boarded a Golden Core flying ship, and Huangfu Yongchun explained that damage to his Dao foundation made him eager to form Nascent Soul.
• During the journey, Huangfu Yongchun shared cultivation insights and stories with Wang Chen and praised his chances of forming Nascent Soul within twenty or thirty years.
• Huangfu Yongchun brought Wang Chen to Feiyun River, where they dived to the riverbed and found a stele bearing the words “Langya Grotto-Heaven.”
• Huangfu Yongchun took a bronze token from his Sumeru Ring.

Huangfu Yongchun lured Wang Chen into an immortal grotto-heaven and trapped him in a sacrificial array, revealing that he and his brother planned to use Wang Chen to break the inner residence’s seal. As Huangfu Yongchun ordered an attack, Wang Chen’s aura suddenly surged to the peak of Golden Core, destabilizing the array.

• Huangfu Yongchun brought Wang Chen into the grotto-heaven and led him to the sealed inner residence.
• Huangfu Yongchun placed array plates around Wang Chen and tricked him into activating the formation with a bronze token.
• Huangfu Yongchun revealed that the Soul Devouring Spirit Severing Array required the blood and soul of a high-level Golden Core cultivator as a sacrifice.
• Huangfu Yongchun’s younger brother, Huangfu Yongqiu, emerged from the wooden house, and Huangfu Yongchun admitted that they had plotted against Wang Chen.
• Wang Chen’s aura rose from the seventh level of Golden Core to its peak, making the array fluctuate as Huangfu Yongchun ordered an attack.

Wang Chen revealed his peak Golden Core cultivation and used his treasures to break Huangfu Yongchun’s Soul Devouring Spirit Severing Array. When Huangfu Yongchun tried to retreat, Wang Chen trapped him and his younger brother in the Seven Severing Sword Formation, which overwhelmed them.

• Huangfu Yongchun discovered that Wang Chen was a peak Golden Core and called on his younger brother to control the array with him.
• Wang Chen used his first-grade Pill Formation and Five-Colored Feather Fan to break the array and destroy one of its discs.
• Huangfu Yongchun attacked Wang Chen, but the Five-Colored Feather Fan dispersed his strike, so he ordered his younger brother to retreat.
• Wang Chen summoned seven top-grade Magic Treasure Flying Swords and formed the Seven Severing Sword Formation around Huangfu Yongchun and the black-robed cultivator.
• Wang Chen’s sword formation destroyed Huangfu Yongchun’s protective treasures, swallowed him in sword radiance, and ground his younger brother into dust.

After killing Huangfu Yongchun and his brother, Wang Chen discovered that the Grotto-Heaven was the Xuan You Immortal Mansion, a legacy of Treasure Daoist. He opened its gate and entered, where he found the White Colt Tower, a cultivation treasure that could accelerate time by up to a hundredfold.

• Wang Chen lamented that his strike had destroyed Huangfu Yongchun and his brother along with their treasures, leaving him only Heavenly Merit.
• Wang Chen touched the rock wall, and the Primordial Dao Stele absorbed the restriction's force and revealed the Grotto-Heaven's true name and its connection to Treasure Daoist.
• Wang Chen used the method revealed to him and the spiritual energy stored in the Heavenly Net to Punish Evil to ignite the True Script Runes and open the gate.
• Wang Chen received a golden key that let him control and freely enter the Xuan You Immortal Mansion.
• Wang Chen entered the cavern and discovered the White Colt Tower, which could alter the passage of time for cultivation by up to a ratio of one to a hundred.

Wang Chen brought Su Ziling to the Xuan You Immortal Mansion, entrusted her with partial control, and secluded himself in the White Colt Tower to strengthen his cultivation. After ten years of inner cultivation and a difficult breakthrough, he formed a Nascent Soul and glimpsed a higher realm.

• Wang Chen returned to Luodu Immortal City, bought supplies with Su Ziling, met True Person Shen, and refined a Magic Treasure for a member of the Seven Severing Society.
• A month later, Wang Chen took Su Ziling to the Xuan You Immortal Mansion and gave her the Xuan You Secret Key to control part of the grotto-heaven.
• Wang Chen entered the White Colt Tower and adjusted its time flow to one year outside for ten years within.
• Over ten years in seclusion, Wang Chen revisited his cultivation and perfected his Golden Core before beginning the Nascent Soul breakthrough.
• Wang Chen broke his Golden Core, shaped its core qi into a Nascent Soul, and completed the breakthrough without being struck by heavenly lightning.
• After the Nascent Soul returned to his body, Wang Chen sensed a loftier realm ahead.

Wang Chen emerged from seclusion as a Nascent Soul True Immortal after stabilizing his realm and mastering the Nascent Soul portion of the Grand Unity Primordial Chaos True Law. He reunited with Su Ziling, promised to walk the Dao path with her, and extended his Divine Sense across the world.

• Wang Chen broke through to Nascent Soul Level 1, gaining a longer lifespan and greatly increased attributes and strength.
• Wang Chen spent another year in the White Colt Tower stabilizing his realm and transitioning to the Grand Unity Primordial Chaos True Law, which drained the tower’s spiritual energy.
• Su Ziling joyfully welcomed Wang Chen back, and the two practiced dual cultivation for three days, raising her cultivation by one level.
• Wang Chen told Su Ziling that he had advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, and she was astonished and discouraged by the distance between their cultivation levels.
• Wang Chen promised Su Ziling that he would walk the Dao path hand in hand with her, and she was deeply moved.
• Wang Chen extended his Divine Sense through the cabin walls of the Golden Core flying ship and across the surrounding world.

After reaching Nascent Soul, Wang Chen returned to Luodu Immortal City in secret and learned that Huangfu Yongchun had died. He chose to keep his cultivation hidden and later returned to Cangqing Realm to seek resources while letting the Xuan You Immortal Mansion recover.

• Wang Chen arrived in Luodu Immortal City, concealed his Nascent Soul cultivation, and returned home with Su Ziling.
• True Person Shen told Wang Chen that Huangfu Yongchun had been missing for over a year and had been confirmed dead by divination.
• Wang Chen agreed with True Person Shen that the Seven Severing Society should disband after Huangfu Yongchun's death.
• A Nascent Soul True Immortal divined matters concerning Wang Chen, costing him one hundred Heavenly Merit points.
• Wang Chen stayed in Luodu without revealing his true cultivation and avoided applying for a Nascent Soul Cave Mansion.
• Half a year later, Wang Chen returned to Cangqing Realm.