Chapter Summaries

Wang Chen discovered Evil Spirits luring cultivators out of Mountain Lord Temple and draining their vital essence. He drove off several spirits and faced their attack as the chapter ended.

• Tan Zhiwen heard Xiao Juan's voice and followed the image of his dead lover into the courtyard, unaware that an Evil Spirit was clinging to him and draining his essence.
• Wang Chen sensed the evil presence, used Exorcism Talismans to clear his tent, and warned Li Yi'an before heading outside.
• The cultivator surnamed Xu activated the hall's defenses, destroyed several black shadows, and led a group out to fight the demons.
• Wang Chen found more than a dozen motionless cultivators with Evil Spirits on their backs and used Cave Truth Technique to reveal them.
• Wang Chen's Evil-Quelling Talismans nearly destroyed four Evil Spirits, drawing their hatred and prompting them to attack him.

Wang Chen and the cultivators fought off Mountain Ghosts and their Winged Grudge-grade leaders through the night. The spirits retreated at dawn, leaving seven dead, two missing, and dozens injured.

• Wang Chen killed four Black-tier Mountain Ghosts with a Mana-formed Evil-Quelling Talisman as cultivators emerged from the Defense Array to rescue their possessed companions.
• Wang Chen and Li Yi'an faced a dive by Gray Grudge Winged Mountain Ghosts, with Li Yi'an's Green Sun Umbrella shielding him and Wang Chen's Fire Crow Technique wounding one attacker.
• Wang Chen used his Heavy-Winged Fire Crow and Wind Thunder Sword to kill a Winged Mountain Ghost, then joined the other cultivators in suppressing the attackers.
• Wang Chen and the cultivators battled Mountain Ghosts from midnight until dawn, when the spirits withdrew.
• The cultivators counted seven dead, two missing, and dozens injured after the fight.

After the Mountain Crossing Society ferrymen abandoned the party at White Hair Peak, the cultivators split into groups to face the dangerous crossing. Li Yi'an refused an invitation to join a team and chose to attempt the peak with Wang Chen, leaving the two of them alone.

• The cultivators blamed the Mountain Crossing Society for their losses and depleted supplies while they stayed at Mountain Lord Temple.
• At White Hair Peak, the cultivator surnamed Xu declared that the ferrymen had fulfilled their contract and led them away.
• The stranded cultivators scattered into solo journeys and eleven teams to cross the peak, which was inhabited by dangerous demonic creatures.
• A young cultivator invited Li Yi'an to join his team, but she took Wang Chen's hand and refused.
• The teams departed, and Wang Chen and Li Yi'an were left alone at the foot of White Hair Peak.

Wang Chen and Li Yi'an climbed White Hair Peak, enduring its deadly freezing winds and stopping for the night in a shelter he carved from rock. In their cave, Li Yi'an revealed her true name, Li Qingxi, and said she would leave after they crossed the peak; Wang Chen answered with a poem expressing his wish to stay together.

• Wang Chen and Li Yi'an climbed into the increasingly brutal White Hair Wind, and Li Yi'an protected herself with a fur coat and a body protection spell while Wang Chen relied on his physique.
• Wang Chen and Li Yi'an passed several frozen corpses, including one of the cultivators who had recently entered the mountain.
• As night fell, Wang Chen hollowed a stone cave and sealed its entrance, and Li Yi'an prepared a warm meal inside.
• After they ate and cultivated together, Li Yi'an told Wang Chen her true name was Li Qingxi and said she would leave him after they crossed White Hair Peak.
• Wang Chen asked Li Qingxi to stay and wrote a poem declaring that he envied mandarin ducks, not immortals, leaving her entranced as the storm intensified.

Wang Chen and Li Qingxi crossed White Hair Peak and encountered a cultivator fleeing a pack of White-Haired Ice Fiends. After the fiends killed him and searched the area, Wang Chen and Li Qingxi emerged from hiding and continued on with the dead cultivator’s belongings.

• Wang Chen and Li Qingxi climbed through White Hair Peak’s icy wind and snow, protected by Wang Chen’s body-tempering power and Li Qingxi’s Green Sun Umbrella.
• A middle-aged cultivator ran toward them, pursued by a pack of White-Haired Ice Fiends, and Wang Chen recognized his attempt to draw the monsters onto them.
• Wang Chen immobilized the cultivator and attacked with Thunder Sound Sword Qi, exposing that he had seen through the man’s scheme.
• As the Ice Fiends overwhelmed the middle-aged cultivator, Wang Chen used Shrink Ground into Inch to take Li Qingxi behind a rock, where they concealed themselves beneath a frost-covered blanket.
• The Ice Fiends searched twice before leaving, and Wang Chen later recovered the cultivator’s Storage Bag and tortoiseshell shield from beneath the snow.

After Li Qingxi left, Wang Chen met Luo Zhen, a West Sea Sect cultivator, and paid for a recommendation that gave him a chance to take the sect’s entrance examination. He received temporary permission to travel through the West Sea Spirit Domain and prepared to pursue a place in the sect.

• Wang Chen and Li Qingxi reached the West Sea Spirit Domain and spent three peaceful months living and cultivating together near the Jade Dragon Mountain Range.
• Li Qingxi left Wang Chen a farewell letter and departed, so Wang Chen packed their belongings and burned their dwelling.
• Luo Zhen arrived and asked Wang Chen about his origins, cultivation level, and West Spirit Travel Permit.
• Wang Chen told Luo Zhen he wanted to join the West Sea Sect, and Luo Zhen explained that outsiders needed a recommendation to enter its assessments.
• Wang Chen gave Luo Zhen thirty thousand Spirit Stones for a recommendation scroll and another five thousand for a temporary identity Jade Tablet, then accepted the chance to take the entrance examination.

Wang Chen arrived at Datian Village to serve as its village chief for three years as part of an examination for entry into the West Sea Sect. He settled into the village chief’s residence, but sensed the villagers’ polite welcome concealed their reluctance to have him there.

• Wang Chen stopped a farmhand who challenged him and presented the scroll naming him Datian Village’s new village chief.
• Wang Chen gave three children Spirit Peaches and learned that the former village chief had disappeared two years earlier, leaving the elders to manage the village.
• Chen Anhe greeted Wang Chen, and Wang Chen revealed his Purple Mansion initial-stage cultivation and asked the villagers to help him pass his examination.
• Wang Chen moved into the village chief’s residence and noticed that Datian Village seemed to function smoothly without him and that Chen Anhe’s group subtly rejected his arrival.
• Chen Anhe gave Wang Chen the Village Chief’s Seal, which controlled a defensive formation protecting the residence and ancestral hall, and offered his great-granddaughter Xiao He to serve him.

Wang Chen struggled to gain the villagers’ acceptance as Datian Village’s new chief, then received an invitation from clan head Huang Deqi. He gave Xiao He two Foundation Establishment Pills and prepared to attend Huang Deqi’s banquet that evening.

• Wang Chen studied the Datian Gazette as he tried to learn more about Datian Village and understand why its villagers kept him at a distance.
• Huang Deqi sent Wang Chen an invitation to a banquet, and Wang Chen agreed to visit his home that evening despite suspecting a hidden motive.
• Wang Chen learned that Xiao He had been stuck at Mortal Transformation for two years and had never taken a Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Wang Chen gave Xiao He two Foundation Establishment Pills, and she gratefully pledged her loyalty to him.
• Wang Chen decided to take Xiao He to the county town for new clothes before attending Huang Deqi’s banquet.

Wang Chen took Xiao He to Wancheng City, promised her his Willow Leaf Flying Boat, and bought her fine clothes and personal items. Back in Datian Village, he visited the Huang Family and entered their residence while remaining wary of Huang Deqi’s confidence and possible backing.

• Wang Chen arrived in Wancheng City with Xiao He and promised to give her the Willow Leaf Flying Boat once she reached the middle Qi Condensation stage.
• Wang Chen observed Wancheng City’s prosperity and the low regard its residents showed for Purple Mansion cultivators.
• Wang Chen bought Xiao He three outfits and other personal items, including a Storage Talisman.
• Wang Chen and Xiao He returned to Datian Village and went to visit the Huang Family.
• Huang Deqi greeted Wang Chen at the gates, and Wang Chen entered the residence while concealing his suspicions.

After Huang Deqi, Chen Anhe, and an old woman plotted against him, Wang Chen investigated the West Sea Spirit Domain and suspected Datian Village concealed a scheme. He chose to hold his position, then took Xiao He to inspect the neglected fields assigned to the village chief.

• Huang Deqi, Chen Anhe, and the old woman discussed whether to share their plans with Wang Chen and decided they could kill him if he interfered.
• Huang Deqi revealed a spirit talisman from his granduncle ancestor, a Golden Core True Person, and claimed its power could match a high-level Purple Mansion's full-force strike.
• Wang Chen read the Records of the West Sea Domain, learned how the West Sea Sect governed its territory, and wondered whether Luo Zhen had deliberately sent him to Datian Village.
• Wang Chen burned the books and decided to avoid trouble unless it came looking for him.
• Wang Chen and Xiao He went to receive the village chief's one hundred mu of neglected residence fields, and Wang Chen refused Chen Anhe's offer to gather villagers to reclaim them.

Wang Chen took over the abandoned Chief's Fields and used his spells to clear and prepare the land before ordering Shattered Silver wheat planted. He began visiting the fields daily to hasten the crop's growth, leaving the villagers and local leaders puzzled and somewhat less wary of him.

• Chen Anhe introduced Old Yuan Tou, whose name was Yuan Fang, as the former caretaker of the Chief's Fields.
• Wang Chen inspected the overgrown fields, then burned away the weeds across all hundred mu with his Fire Crow spell.
• Wang Chen cast the Cloud Rain Art to soak the cleared fields and gave Old Yuan Tou a Storage Bag of Shattered Silver wheat seeds to plant.
• Old Yuan Tou warned Wang Chen that the planting season had passed, but Wang Chen told him to proceed and cover the expenses.
• Wang Chen cast the Cloud and Rain Spell over the newly sown fields every day, while rumors about his farming spread through Datian Village and Huang Deqi and Chen Anhe lowered their guard somewhat.

Wang Chen tended his Spirit Fields in Datian Village, using farming to cultivate and showcasing his skill at finding and eliminating pests. As the villagers grew accustomed to him, people who had been watching him decided to find him something to do.

• Wang Chen used the Spring Rain Fertilization Technique on his Spirit Fields, then ate lunch prepared by Xiao He.
• Wang Chen scanned the wheat with his Divine Sense and found twenty-three disguised Leaf-Eating Insects.
• Wang Chen used Gengjin Finger to kill the insects in his fields within ten breaths.
• Wang Chen returned to the Village Chief's residence, greeting villagers who had grown more comfortable with him and increasingly recognized his down-to-earth manner.
• Some people watching Wang Chen decided to find something for him to do.

Wang Chen arbitrated a dispute between Old Chen’s sons, using a simple method to divide their inheritance. Afterward, he realized the dispute had been used to test him, while Huang Deqi and Chen Anhe discussed replacing him as village chief.

• Xiao He told Wang Chen that Chen Anhe had summoned him to the Three-Surname Ancestral Hall over Old Chen’s family dispute.
• Chen Anhe explained that Old Chen’s sons could not agree on how to divide their father’s estate, and Wang Chen ordered the elder brother to split it into two portions for the younger brother to choose from.
• Chen Anhe backed Wang Chen’s decision, and Wang Chen left, suspecting the inheritance dispute had been a deliberate probe of his authority.
• After the villagers dispersed, Chen Anhe asked Huang Deqi why they were targeting Wang Chen, and Huang Deqi said they might need to replace the village chief again.
• Huang Deqi dismissed Chen Anhe’s concerns and said he would arrange the matter himself.

Huang Deqi learned that Wang Chen had been recommended by the feared Luo Zhen and postponed his plan to replace the village chief, instead arranging to burden Wang Chen with village affairs. The next day, villagers brought Wang Chen a rush of reports about a missing cow, Burrowing Rats in the fields, and bandits who had abducted two people.

• Huang Deqi received word that Luo Zhen had recommended Wang Chen for the post of Datian Village chief, alarming Chen Anhe.
• Huang Deqi told Chen Anhe to postpone replacing Wang Chen and arrange village matters for him to handle.
• Huang Deqi urged Temple Priestess Xu to speed up their plan, but she warned that haste could expose them.
• Wang Chen returned to the Village Chief's residence, where Xiao He asked whether his earlier matter had been resolved.
• An old villager reported a missing cow, farmers reported Burrowing Rats in their Spirit Fields, and villagers reported a bandit attack that left two people abducted.

Wang Chen investigated the abduction of two Datian Village residents by masked bandits and used a Tracking Talisman to reveal their trail. He pursued the clues into the forest, leaving the bandits’ whereabouts unresolved.

• Wang Chen silenced the villagers, healed the injured survivor, and heard how gray-clad, masked bandits had abducted two people.
• Wang Chen questioned the villagers about the bandits and learned that kidnappings had happened in the area before.
• Wang Chen took the survivor to the attack site, then sent him back while setting off to pursue the bandits.
• Wang Chen searched the forest, found faint footprints with his Divine Sense, and used a Tracking Talisman to make the trail visible.

Wang Chen tracked the abductors to a ravine and confronted a group of armed bandits. He slaughtered most of them, shattered a hidden cultivator’s Flying Sword with his bare fist, and left the middle-aged female cultivator under attack from a Fire Crow.

• Wang Chen followed the abductors’ tracks into the forest, where gray-clad bandits surrounded him with rune-engraved crossbows.
• The bandit leader admitted nothing about the villagers, but Wang Chen recognized that the group was stalling and attacked with Thunder Sound Sword Qi.
• The leader escaped the sword strike using a spirit talisman, while the other bandits fired crossbow bolts and tried to form a battle formation.
• Wang Chen dodged the bolts and used the Wind Thunder Sword to kill bandits before they could organize.
• Wang Chen sensed a hidden attack, punched the middle-aged female cultivator’s Flying Sword apart, and watched as a Fire Crow swooped toward her.

Wang Chen pursued the bandit leader to a hidden den and broke into its cave, where a Spirit Sealing Array trapped him. Surrounded by armed bandits and attacked with crossbow bolts and blades, he faced a dangerous fight with his Mana suppressed.

• Wang Chen killed the middle-aged female cultivator who ambushed him, and the bandits fled in different directions.
• Wang Chen pursued the bandit leader through the forest while concealing his presence and tracking him with Divine Sense.
• Wang Chen used the Cave Truth Technique to reveal an Illusion Array concealing the den's entrance, then broke through the stone doorway and entered.
• Wang Chen advanced into the karst cave and triggered a Spirit Sealing Array that restricted his Mana and cut off nearby spiritual energy.
• The bandit leader revealed himself with armed followers and ordered them to attack Wang Chen with crossbow bolts as three innate experts closed in.

Wang Chen survived the bandits’ Spirit Sealing Array and ambush by revealing his powerful Body Cultivation, then slaughtered the attackers with his Sword Pellet. He found an underground prison full of captured villagers and was recognized by Xu Lao Si.

• Wang Chen’s bronze body shattered the crossbow bolts and broke the weapons of the three Innate Martial Artists, killing them in succession.
• Wang Chen destroyed the stalactite pillars sustaining the Spirit Sealing Array, restoring the flow of spiritual energy.
• Wang Chen pursued and killed the bandit leader, then used his Sword Pellet to cut down dozens of fleeing bandits.
• Wang Chen searched the hideout and discovered an underground prison holding twenty to thirty villagers and farmers.
• Xu Lao Si recognized Wang Chen and called on him to rescue the prisoners.

Wang Chen interrogated a captured bandit and learned that the gang had been abducting villagers to work in a Purple Copper Mine. He promised to spare the bandit if he led him to the mine, and Chen Hu agreed.

• Wang Chen freed the imprisoned villagers and learned that they had been captured in the mountains within the past two days.
• Wang Chen brought the unconscious bandit Chen Hu before him and questioned him about the villagers’ intended destination.
• After Chen Hu refused to answer, Wang Chen used Marrow Extraction Soul Piercing Finger to break his resistance.
• Chen Hu revealed that the bandits planned to send the villagers to a Purple Copper Mine.
• Wang Chen promised to spare Chen Hu if he led him to the mine, and Chen Hu agreed to guide him there.

Wang Chen led Xu Lao Si and four villagers to the Gray Wolf Bandits’ Purple Copper Mine after learning about its defenses from Chen Hu. He destroyed the bandits’ stronghold and killed their fleeing Great Leader, leaving the surviving villagers waiting for his command.

• Wang Chen offered the rescued villagers the choice of returning home or following him to the mine, and Xu Lao Si and four others chose to join him.
• Chen Hu led Wang Chen’s group through a secret passage and revealed the mine’s defenses and the Great Leader’s abilities.
• After Wang Chen let Chen Hu go, Xu Lao Si ambushed and killed him, and Wang Chen gave Xu Lao Si Chen Hu’s Storage Bag.
• Wang Chen ordered the villagers to hide, then flew toward the mine and destroyed its watchtower with a Fire Crow.
• The Great Leader tried to flee after launching his copper hammer at Wang Chen, but Wang Chen deflected the Magic Tool and pinned him to the ground with the Wind Thunder Sword.
• Wang Chen unleashed a rain of fire across the mine, setting dozens of bandits ablaze.