Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi gave Jin Jing mutated Spirit Rice, later named Yi Rice, and watched villages flourish around Azure Wave Lake. After obtaining a Dragon Pearl, he divined that the Dragon Emperor was hidden at Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple in Buddha Province and set out there in disguise.

• Zhou Yi gave Jin Jing the mutated rice seeds and named them Yi Rice, prompting Jin Jing to lead Moyun City in cultivating them.
• Thirty years later, Zhou Yi met Jin Ye by Azure Wave Lake, gave him the Minor Evolution Divine Calculation, and decided to travel abroad.
• A black fish brought Zhou Yi a Dragon Pearl, completing the pair he needed with the reverse scale to seek the Dragon Emperor.
• Zhou Yi divined Bodhi and then Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple as the Dragon Emperor's location.
• Zhou Yi traveled to Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple and disguised himself as a monk in yellow robes.

Ben Kong and the eminent monks prepared to use the Bodhi Treasure Wheel to strike at Cloud Province and spread Buddhist rule across the Nine Provinces. Zhang Li left his family for the Buddha’s Birthday assembly, while his parents celebrated the status and protection they expected from his departure.

• Ben Kong persuaded the guardian monk to open Bodhi Cave, where the eminent monks used Buddhist scriptures to suppress the Bodhi Treasure Wheel’s demonic aura and prepared it for a powerful strike.
• Ben Kong said the monks would bring the treasure to Cloud Province during the Buddha’s Birthday assembly and use it to lay the foundation for Buddhist rule across the Nine Provinces.
• Zhang Shun’s family celebrated after Zhang Li was invited to the assembly, and Zhang Shun told his son that becoming a monk would bring the family status and protection.
• Zhang Shun rebuked his daughter for treating Zhang Li as her brother, and Zhang Li solemnly blessed her while suppressing his affection for her.
• Yamen Runner Hu apologized to Zhang Shun and repaid his wine tab after learning of Zhang Li’s new status.
• Zhang Li left for Bodhi Buddha Land by carriage, looked back at his family, and silently recited sutras to hold back his tears.

At Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, Zhou Yi exposed the Buddhist sect's blood sacrifice of believers to nourish its corrupted treasure and destroyed the demonic manifestation. After learning that the temple's eminent monks had all supported the sacrifices, he began killing them and searching their souls for the wider conspiracy.

• Ben Kong had the Bodhi Treasure Wheel drain the believers' essence, qi, and spirit during the Buddha's Birthday assembly, while the monks promised their families elevated status.
• Zhou Yi saw that the mountain's supposed Buddhist radiance was resentment from hundreds of thousands of blood-sacrificed victims and exposed the treasure by attacking it as a golden Buddha.
• The Bodhi Treasure Wheel revealed its corrupted form, but Zhou Yi's golden dragon swallowed its ghostly face and subdued it.
• Zhou Yi entered the Great Hero Hall, killed Ben Kong, and searched his remnant soul, learning that the monks there had supported the blood sacrifices.
• Pu Ji and the other monks tried to submit to Zhou Yi, but he killed them after learning of their crimes and searched their souls for the secrets of other temples and accomplices.

Zhou Yi purged Buddhist temples, recovered Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple’s treasures, and found the Dragon Emperor sealed in a blood crystal. He weakened the seal with the Nether Curse and destroyed the Dragon Emperor after he emerged, leaving Zhou Yi’s revenge complete.

• Zhou Yi manifested as the true Buddha at Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple, denounced the corrupt monks, proclaimed that all beings were equal, and cleared Xuanxiao’s name.
• Zhou Yi looted Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple’s treasure vault and found a blood crystal containing the sealed Dragon Emperor.
• Zhou Yi descended on Buddhist temples across Buddha Province, killed the corrupt monks, and took their scriptures and treasures.
• Zhou Yi used the Nether Curse on the blood crystal for sixteen years, gradually weakening its seal while living on an island in the Western Sea.
• The Dragon Emperor emerged weakened from the crystal and was destroyed by Zhou Yi’s formations, thunder, and fire.
• Zhou Yi divined a superior omen and celebrated his revenge against the Dragon Emperor.

Zhou Yi visited the dying Emperor Taishi, formerly Qin Zheng, and agreed to watch over his successor, Qin Xiao, after the emperor confessed his crimes and died. After Qin Xiao survived an attempt to force his abdication, Zhou Yi withdrew to Serpent Coil Mountain to cultivate, care for the Jianmu Tree, and examine the Dragon Emperor’s pearl.

• Zhou Yi celebrated at Spring Breeze Pavilion, arranged for a musician from the Immortal Sound Sect to sing, and then traveled through the snow to Kunlun Palace.
• Emperor Taishi warned Qin Xiao about White Cloud Temple and the court, then asked Zhou Yi to protect his son; Zhou Yi agreed to observe in secret, and Qin Zheng died soon afterward.
• Qin Xiao ascended the throne, but White Cloud Temple and court officials branded him a threat and tried to force him to yield; a thousand Daoist soldiers attacked the imperial palace and were destroyed by heavenly lightning.
• The True Persons of White Cloud Temple ascended with their court allies, leaving Qin Xiao free to rule as the Jiading Emperor.
• Zhou Yi settled on a remote peak at Serpent Coil Mountain, promised Spirit Ginseng Child he would move less often, and checked on the Jianmu Tree and the yellow ox’s remnant soul.
• Zhou Yi studied the Dragon Emperor’s pearl, considering it a suitable material for forging a magic treasure.

Zhou Yi explored the Dragon Emperor Pearl and discovered a vast inner space, then began trying to pierce its barrier so it could hold living beings and become a mobile cave estate. After a century of cultivation on Kunlun Mountain, he forged the Star Constellation Body and continued refining the pearl, hoping to move back to the capital once the work was complete.

• Zhou Yi failed to inscribe restrictions on the Dragon Emperor Pearl’s outer shell, but used a split soul to enter its three-hundred-zhang inner space and mark its soft interior.
• Zhou Yi’s split soul collapsed inside the Pearl Space, leading him to suspect living beings could not remain there and to begin boring through the barrier with his soul.
• Zhou Yi named the previously nameless mountain Kunlun and resumed cultivation, including study of the Nirvana Sutra and work on the pearl.
• A hundred years passed, and Zhou Yi forged the Star Constellation Body as a heavenly phenomenon appeared near Serpent Coil Mountain.
• Zhou Yi estimated he would need about another hundred and eighty years to finish piercing the pearl’s barrier and make a mobile cave estate, then wondered whether his house in the capital still remained.

Zhou Yi sheltered the starving Zhu Kang on Kunlun Mountain and learned that the Qing Kingdom was nearing collapse under the Yongyan Emperor. He gave Zhu Kang a year of refuge and a chance to learn practical crafts, leaving him to study another mysterious invention.

• Zhu Kang stumbled upon Kunlun Mountain, where Zhou Yi freed him from the Spirit Ginseng Child and offered him food and shelter.
• Zhu Kang described the hardship and disorder in the Qing Kingdom, and Zhou Yi read his memories and concluded the dynasty was nearing its end.
• Zhou Yi enhanced Zhu Kang’s memory, assigned him to tend the Spirit Field, and directed him to a book in the Imperial Library.
• Zhu Kang built a new-style spinning wheel that worked more than ten times faster than ordinary ones.
• Zhou Yi sent Zhu Kang back to the Imperial Library to study another Nameless book, whose cover depicted a boiling teapot.

Zhou Yi tested a steam engine and explained why he wanted to advance technology despite its potential harms to the people. After refining the treasure pearl into the Kunlun Grotto-Heaven, he moved his temple and spiritual herbs inside and began cultivating there.

• Zhou Yi explained that teaching Zhu Kang martial arts would only hasten his rise and might lead him to become a tyrant.
• Zhou Yi and the Spirit Ginseng Child tested a coal-powered steam machine, and Zhou Yi replaced its fuel with a spiritual-energy formation.
• Zhou Yi said he hoped to push technological progress forward because ordinary people continued to suffer through every dynasty.
• Zhou Yi used the Soul-Severing Art and the Dividing Light Sword to open and test a passage through the treasure pearl, then filled it with earth from two mountain peaks.
• Zhou Yi watched the Spirit Ginseng Child live and cultivate inside the treasure pearl, then moved the Daoist temple, ancient trees, and spiritual herbs into it.
• Several years later, Zhou Yi planted the Jianmu Tree inside the Kunlun Grotto-Heaven and began cultivating there.

Zhou Yi refined Kunlun Grotto-Heaven into a protective refuge, then emerged after more than two hundred and sixty years of seclusion to find that Zhu Kang had founded Great Zhou and spread machine technology across the realm. He began learning how Zhu Kang’s efforts had transformed Yunzhou while visiting Dragon Coil Mountain and its nearby city.

• Zhou Yi spent fifty years refining Kunlun Grotto-Heaven with formations and spiritual treasures, making it a secure portable refuge.
• Zhou Yi told the Spirit Ginseng Child that the Grotto-Heaven might grow by incorporating spiritual treasures like the Dragon Emperor Pearl, then ended his seclusion to enter the mortal world.
• Zhou Yi visited Dragon Coil Mountain and Mount Reliance City, where he noticed the prosperity and signs of widespread mechanization.
• Zhou Yi read Annals of Great Ancestor Zhou and learned that Zhu Kang had used machine technology to build the Kunlun Trading Company and eventually found Great Zhou.
• Zhou Yi learned that Zhu Kang had promoted machines by invoking frontier wars and inviting Mohist successors, despite fierce resistance from conservative landowners.

After emerging into a transformed mortal world, Zhou Yi explored the capital and discovered that machines had reshaped both society and Daoist teachings. He bought a shop near his former residence and found his old courtyard still standing in the family’s possession, though much of it had collapsed.

• Zhou Yi examined Zhang Huaiyun’s Elixir Refinement Commentary and learned that the revered Daoist sage had rejected traditional elixir and artifact methods in favor of practical knowledge.
• Zhou Yi entered Immortal Capital, observed its factories, weapons, shops, and currency system, and used his Daoist Certificate to obtain directions.
• Zhou Yi bought a shop in Ningde Ward for twenty-five thousand taels and secured a household register with an illusion spell.
• Zhou Yi opened the gate to his thousand-year-old former residence and found its courtyard overgrown and its main house and east wing collapsed.

Zhou Yi opened Yu Jian Tavern and met Chen Chengye, whose appreciation for the wine and an ancient storybook brought him a circle of wealthy scholars as customers. The old men gathered at the tavern, where Lu Bo admired its furnishings, while the author’s note said the story would not become an urban cultivation face-slapping plot and that spiritual energy would begin to revive around the current level of technology.

• Zhou Yi opened Yu Jian Tavern after furnishing the shop and hiring workers to rebuild its upper floor as guest rooms.
• Chen Chengye visited the tavern, praised Zhou Yi’s Pear Blossom White, and bought his ancient storybook for five thousand taels in exchange for more storybooks.
• Zhou Yi subdued his detached aura, put away Daoist texts, and read an illustrated storybook to better blend into mortal life.
• The next day, Chen Chengye arrived with several elderly scholars to visit the tavern and taste its wine.
• Lu Bo examined the tavern’s tables and chairs and praised their resemblance to furniture from the Great Qian Dynasty.

Zhou Yi opened his tavern to experience mortal life and befriended old Lineage families who reserved vats of his Pear Blossom White. After a newspaper revealed a horse-less train, he explained how it could disrupt transport and left the old families scrambling to profit from the change.

• Zhou Yi welcomed Chen Chengye, Lu Bo, Yang Chong, and other collectors, recorded their wine preferences, and sold them reservations for private vats of Pear Blossom White.
• Zhou Yi bought newspapers from a young newsboy and arranged for twenty copies to be delivered to his tavern each day.
• Chen Jiye and Lu Bo argued over whether immortals existed and whether the Mohist School was real, until Zhou Yi stopped them with his strength.
• Zhou Yi explained that trains powered by coal could carry far more than carts and horses, leading Chen Jiye and the others to rush off and act on the news.
• Half a month later, Zhou Yi found a headline reporting that Dean Lu of Zhaowen Academy had predicted trains would make horse farms worthless.

Zhou Yi ran Yu Jian Tavern for half a year, drawing old wealthy families with his Pear Blossom White while navigating the rivalry between old and rising families. Meanwhile, Bai Shiyu escaped the East City City Patrol Bureau prison and slipped away after knocking out another prisoner.

• Chen Jiye visited Zhou Yi, thanked him for warning the Chen Family, and reflected on his search for immortality and the identity of the tavern's manager.
• Zhou Yi served the tavern's growing crowd by day and cultivated in Kunlun Grotto-Heaven by night as Yu Jian Tavern became a gathering place for old wealthy families.
• Ningde Ward constables inspected Yu Jian Tavern over alleged unpaid taxes, but Zhou Yi's display of skill stopped them from returning in uniform.
• Zhou Yi learned that White Cloud Temple Daoists had used old formulas to profit from commerce and adapt their teachings to the new age.
• Bai Shiyu picked his cell lock in the East City City Patrol Bureau prison, freed a neighboring prisoner, knocked him unconscious, and escaped.

Bai Shiyu, the Thief Saint and a descendant of the Bai family, met with Divine Kingdom elder Jin Cheng, who recruited him to infiltrate Yu Jian Tavern and obtain machinery blueprints. Days later, Bai Shiyu arrived at Zhou Yi’s tavern looking for work, and Zhou Yi recognized how much he resembled someone from his past.

• Bai Shiyu delivered a stolen gear to Jin Cheng and learned that the elder knew his identity as the Thief Saint.
• Jin Cheng asked Bai Shiyu to work at Yu Jian Tavern and gain the trust of its aristocratic patrons, but Bai Shiyu refused and left.
• Jin Cheng told his subordinate that Bai Shiyu would still go to the tavern because he secretly led the Red Alliance’s Immortal Capital branch.
• Jin Cheng argued that the Divine Kingdom had to accept machinery and improve its believers’ lives to survive, even if machinery weakened faith in the Golden God.
• Several days later, Yang Li sold roasted peanuts at Zhou Yi’s tavern and agreed to sweep up the shells each evening.
• Bai Shiyu arrived at the tavern seeking work, and Zhou Yi used the Nirvana Secret Art after noticing how much Bai resembled someone he knew.

Zhou Yi hired Bai Shiyu as a waiter and celebrated his seventeenth-hundredth birthday by taking him to Spring Breeze Pavilion. Hearing Bai Shiyu criticize Lao Bai’s favorite tune, Zhou Yi concluded that Bai Shiyu was probably only similar to his old friend and not Lao Bai reincarnated.

• Zhou Yi hired Bai Shiyu as a waiter at the tavern, while Yang Li kept his work selling peanuts and cleaning up.
• Zhou Yi offered Bai Shiyu a room, two taels a month, and a year-end bonus, then told him to change into clean clothes.
• After work, Zhou Yi invited Bai Shiyu to the Pleasure Quarter to celebrate his birthday and their reunion.
• At Spring Breeze Pavilion, Zhou Yi and Bai Shiyu discussed its changing fashions and the scholars behind them.
• Bai Shiyu criticized the music and the courtesan queen, and Zhou Yi decided that Bai Shiyu was likely not Lao Bai reincarnated.

Zhou Yi learned that nirvana rebirth converted spirit children and condemned the practice, while a court order barred public discussion of state affairs after rebels attacked a workshop district. He agreed to display the required signs at his tavern and suggested inviting a blind musician who knew Bai Shiyu to perform there.

• Zhou Yi concluded that nirvana rebirth converted a spirit child using an eminent monk’s lingering thought and called the secret art demonic.
• Bai Shiyu told Zhou Yi about deadly conditions at a Royal Family weaving mill and praised the Grand Ancestor’s rules for treating workers well.
• Patrolman Liu told Zhou Yi that the court required restaurants and teahouses to display signs reading “Do not discuss state affairs” after Red Alliance rebels attacked the Royal Family market district over a worker’s death.
• Zhou Yi agreed to put up the signs and accepted Patrolman Liu’s suggestion to turn them over when patrons discussed state affairs.
• Bai Shiyu criticized the court for silencing people instead of improving workshop conditions, and Zhou Yi suggested inviting a blind qin player who knew him to perform at the tavern.

After the court crushed the Red Alliance in the capital, Zhou Yi sheltered Bai Shiyu and two other survivors at his tavern. Martial law was lifted the next day, but Patrolman Liu warned Zhou Yi to watch for Red Alliance remnants, unaware that three were already under his roof.

• Zhou Yi warned Bai Shiyu that the blind musician would face a deadly calamity and that the court would soon search the capital, then revealed his Innate Grandmaster strength and confirmed the Royal Family had Martial Grandmasters.
• As Zhou Yi studied Great Zhou's history and wrote The Book of Great Harmony, the court imposed martial law and its forces attacked suspected Red Alliance members and other targets across the capital.
• Bai Shiyu brought Zhang Li and Li Chao to the tavern, and Zhou Yi agreed to take them in after the capital's Red Alliance suffered a calamity.
• Zhou Yi learned that Zhang Li had joined the Red Alliance after his granddaughter was killed by a machine, while Li Chao prepared an expensive menu of homestyle dishes.
• Chen Jiye sampled Li Chao's cooking and praised it, and martial law was lifted around noon.
• Patrolman Liu showed Zhou Yi portraits of wanted Red Alliance remnants and warned him not to shelter them, and Zhou Yi denied harboring any.

At Yu Jian Tavern, guests discussed Great Zhou’s military victories, the Red Alliance, and the growing power of machines. Zhou Yi learned that Jin Cheng, an envoy from Divine City, was trying to obtain machine technology, and he concluded that Yunzhou needed a new force to disrupt the status quo.

• Boss Hu and other guests praised Great Zhou’s victory over Xuan Country and discussed using captured prisoners in factories.
• Master Cui dismissed the Red Alliance as a trifling malady, while Bai Shiyu steered the discussion toward Great Zhou’s military and industrial strength.
• Jin Cheng and his sword-bearing guard arrived at Yu Jian Tavern, and Zhou Yi recognized their origins as Moyun City in the Ten Thousand Mountains.
• Bai Shiyu told Zhou Yi that Jin Cheng was secretly pursuing machine parts and blueprints for Divine City.
• Zhou Yi learned that the Red Alliance had gained little understanding of the machines and that their development had stagnated since Great Ancestor Zhou’s death.
• Zhou Yi concluded that Yunzhou needed a catfish to stir up the situation.

Jin Cheng received a Machine Golden Scroll from the Golden God, while the Red Alliance’s revolt was crushed by the Capital Garrison. Zhou Yi told the wounded Bai Shiyu and his companions that the Red Alliance needed a program for common action, and Bai Shiyu later sneaked into Funing Princess’s estate.

• The Golden God appeared before Jin Cheng and bestowed a Machine Golden Scroll to help the Divine Kingdom confront Great Zhou’s machines.
• Workers linked to the Red Alliance burned Royal First Workshop, but the Capital Garrison used the unrest to lure out and kill Red Alliance members.
• Bai Shiyu, the cook, and the blind man returned injured to Zhou Yi’s tavern, where medicinal wine healed them and Bai Shiyu reported the Red Alliance’s defeat.
• Zhou Yi told the three that the Red Alliance was only a rabble because it lacked a program for common action.
• After the capital’s military restrictions were lifted, Bai Shiyu left the tavern at night and entered Princess Funing’s estate, where Funing Princess opened a window to him.

Bai Shiyu discovered the Book of Great Harmony and recognized its ideas as a possible guide for the Red Alliance. Months later, as Emperor Tianshun suspended the civil examinations and the Red Alliance gathered at Yu Jian Tavern, Lu Bo tried to leave and report them but was killed by an unseen Daoist.

• Funing Princess told Bai Shiyu that a powerful Daoist had invaded the palace on New Year's Eve and fought two Attendants, and Bai Shiyu realized Shopkeeper Sun had not been the intruder.
• Bai Shiyu found the Book of Great Harmony by the palace wall, read that it described Kunlun Grotto-Heaven and a way to open its gate, and decided its ideas could guide the Red Alliance.
• Emperor Tianshun's proclamation suspended the civil examinations and introduced new laws, prompting old magnates at Yu Jian Tavern to discuss resisting the court and supporting the Red Alliance.
• Bai Shiyu and the tavern guests received numerous visitors using the phrase "Number One Heavenly," while Lu Bo suspected the remaining Red Alliance members were gathering there.
• Lu Bo left the tavern intending to report the gathering and protect his family, but an unseen Daoist sighed that he had ties to Lu Bo's ancestors, and Lu Bo died.