Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi protected the Red Alliance by concealing its meeting place while its members finalized their plans and opened the Kunlun Immortal Gate with a mysterious stone bead. The alliance members entered the gate, and Zhou Yi took the bead and withdrew to cultivate after sensing an unseen presence.

• Zhou Yi killed Lu Bo, returned to Yu Jian Tavern, and set up a Heart-Bewildering Formation to protect the Red Alliance.
• Zhou Yi let Bai Shiyu carry food to the Red Alliance members upstairs while he kept watch, and the court’s ban on imperial examinations spread through the realm.
• After a month of discussion, the Straw-Coat Wanderer and the Red Alliance’s core members finalized their plans and tested the formation at the end of The Book of Great Harmony.
• The fortune-telling Daoist placed his inherited gray stone bead in the formation, opening the Kunlun Immortal Gate.
• The fortune-telling Daoist entered the gate, followed by the Straw-Coat Wanderer and the other alliance members, before the gate closed behind them.
• Zhou Yi took the gray stone bead, sensed an unseen god, and decided to enter seclusion and cultivate.

Ye Yun and the Red Alliance trained in Kunlun Grotto-Heaven, where Ye Yun passed a heart-tempering formation and gained new strength. After Zhou Yi left the tavern to see off an old friend, he spent fifteen years cursing a sealed figure out of a stone pearl and identified him as Heavenly Lord Yuanling of the One Qi Sect.

• Spirit Ginseng Child welcomed Ye Yun and the Red Alliance into Kunlun Grotto-Heaven, where they studied and trained for a year while the Venerable Immortal remained in seclusion.
• Ye Yun passed Spirit Ginseng Child’s heart-tempering formation, gained seven acupoints, and received healing life force; Bai Shiyu and the woman in red also tried the formation, and the blind man regained his sight after passing.
• Zhou Yi asked Yang Li to keep learning, then entrusted Yu Jian Tavern to Bai Shiyu and left to see off an old friend.
• Zhou Yi laid Formation Restrictions around the stone pearl on a remote East Sea island and continuously cast the Black Witchcraft Curse for fifteen years.
• Zhou Yi saw a figure inside the now-semitransparent stone pearl and identified him as Heavenly Lord Yuanling of the One Qi Sect.

After spending two centuries trapping and killing Heavenly Lord Yuanling, Zhou Yi returned to a modernized Great Zhou and began exploring the era. A chat invitation to a cultivation group appeared just as he reviewed the end of his second life and selected a reward.

• Zhou Yi sealed Yuanling on a remote island and watched the Spirit Transformation Heavenly Lord weaken for two centuries while they spoke about cultivation and the Dao.
• Zhou Yi exhausted Yuanling’s remaining power, then recovered the Supreme Clarity Talisman and the One Qi Sect’s inheritance.
• Zhou Yi returned to Kunlun Grotto-Heaven and began breaking open the object that had sealed Yuanling.
• Zhou Yi entered Binhai City, adapted to modern life, and used the internet to study recent history and search for old acquaintances.
• Zhou Yi received an invitation from True Person Xuan Ling to join the Nine Provinces Immortal Cultivation Group, then chose to inherit the talent “Dynamic Vision” after his second-life settlement.

Xiao Ran’s discovery of a stone man bearing an ancient prophecy and a modern communication number led True Person Xuan Ling to invite Zhou Yi into the Nine Provinces Cultivation Group. Zhou Yi investigated the Nine Provinces’ mysteries, decided to open an antiquities shop, and traveled to Immortal Capital, where he found his former home preserved as a memorial to Sun Wu.

• Xiao Ran found a stone man in the dried-up Luo River bearing the inscription, “The Luo River runs dry, and the realm shall rebel!” alongside a modern communication number, and Officer Zhao planned to publicize the mystery.
• Xiao Ran posted photos of the stone man in the Nine Provinces Cultivation Group, and True Person Xuan Ling used its communication number to invite Zhou Yi, who joined under the name White True Monarch.
• Zhou Yi befriended True Person Xuan Ling, uploaded simplified nourishing soup recipes to the group, and researched the Nine Provinces’ unsolved mysteries before deciding to open an unconventional antiquities shop.
• Zhou Yi obtained identification, traveled from Binhai toward Immortal Capital, and inspected a satellite in the astral winds, recognizing refined iron and artifact-refining techniques in its construction.
• Zhou Yi arrived in Immortal Capital, saw that the Heavenly Prison had become a tourist attraction, and found his former residence marked as the memorial of Mr. Sun Wu.

After returning to the modern Great Zhou, Zhou Yi opened Yu Jian Pawnshop and began acquiring ancient objects while secretly refining his phone into a communication Mystic Item. He bought a magical flying sword from Cui Yu and exchanged messages with Xiao Ran and Xuan Ling, then ended the chapter sensing pure spiritual energy in a bronze wine flask.

• Zhou Yi revisited Yu Jian Tavern, reflected on the Red Alliance’s legacy, and opened Yu Jian Pawnshop on Zhuangyuan Street.
• Cui Yu sold Zhou Yi a short sword that Zhou Yi recognized as a dormant flying-sword treasure, and Zhou Yi paid him five hundred thousand.
• Zhou Yi inscribed Formation Restrictions into his phone to conceal his location and continued modifying it into a communication Mystic Item.
• Xiao Ran asked White True Monarch for cheaper medicinal ingredients, and Zhou Yi encouraged him to find ancient objects for appraisal and sale.
• Xuan Ling warned Zhou Yi that the court prohibited private martial-arts inheritances, while Zhou Yi continued studying the One Qi Sect’s cultivation techniques.
• Nearly a year later, Boss Gu sold Zhou Yi a bronze wine flask that tested as two thousand years old, and Zhou Yi sensed a wisp of pure spiritual energy within it.

Zhou Yi investigated a bronze pot from an ancient tomb and discovered that a fragile spiritual vein had begun forming, confirming that heaven and earth were reviving. He returned to his pawnshop and learned from Xiao Ran’s messages that Xiao Ran had encountered a ghost.

• Zhou Yi used Dream Inception Art on Boss Gu and learned that the bronze pot had come from an ancient tomb in Qiong Province.
• Zhou Yi read the Azure Ghost Tribe elder’s memories and discovered the pot was the Four Seas Pot, a Dharma treasure taken from the tomb.
• Zhou Yi found a tiny spiritual vein beneath the tomb, watched it grow for half a year, then accidentally destroyed it with a lightning strike.
• Zhou Yi returned to his pawnshop, concluded that spiritual veins would emerge over the coming centuries, and decided to investigate likely sites through an official identity.
• Zhou Yi read Xiao Ran’s messages and learned that Xiao Ran had repeatedly seen a ghost near Line Seven and dispersed it by punching it.

Xiao Ran hunted a ghost at a metro station and, with guidance from White True Monarch, helped the authorities confirm its existence and investigate it. Zhou Yi watched the research from afar, then discovered that a Yin-Fiend Spirit Vein beneath the station had created the ghost and trapped it there.

• Xiao Ran confronted a ghost in the station restroom, but patrol officers arrested him after his talismans and religious tools failed to harm it.
• White True Monarch told Xiao Ran that his Spirit Eyes let him see ghosts and explained how Ox Tears could give others temporary Yin-Yang Eyes.
• Xiao Ran persuaded the patrol captain to obtain Ox Tears, and the station was closed so researchers could study the ghost.
• Zhou Yi used the internet to nudge events forward, then secretly watched researchers question the ghost and learned that it had been a murdered company owner betrayed by a young master surnamed Zhu.
• Zhou Yi examined a spirit vein beneath the station and deduced that it would become a Yin-Fiend Spirit Vein and had created the ghost, which could not leave the area for now.

Zhou Yi watched the court turn ghost research into a ruthless state project while Xiao Ran struggled with guilt over Number Zero’s destruction. Xiao Ran left with the Origin Returning Art and a promise to seek justice when he grew strong enough.

• Zhou Yi preserved the spirit vein beneath the laboratory by surrounding it with surveillance and detonation restrictions.
• Commissioner Wang ordered researchers to increase the electrical torture of Number Zero until the ghost scattered into ashes and smoke.
• Xiao Ran visited Zhou Yi with a Buddhist Demon Suppression Pagoda and told him that Number Zero had died in the Investigation Bureau’s experiment.
• Zhou Yi suggested that Number Zero’s death was deliberate and warned that Ferocious Souls and Vengeful Ghosts would grow more numerous and violent.
• Xiao Ran admitted that guilt over Number Zero had become a torment, while Zhou Yi explained that revenge would have to wait until Xiao Ran had strength.
• Zhou Yi gave Xiao Ran the Origin Returning Art and told him to seek an explanation for Number Zero once he had mastered it.

Zhou Yi helped Xiao Ran begin cultivating and sent him to intervene in a crime, then spent a night discussing medicine with the ghost of doctor Liu Hong. After Liu Hong departed for reincarnation, Zhou Yi sensed spiritual energy gathering near the Execution Grounds and worried that the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade was only a few years away.

• Xiao Ran cultivated with the Origin Returning Art, and Zhou Yi encouraged him to follow Dao Lord Xuanxiao's example and contact Li Chao.
• Zhou Yi told Xiao Ran about a girl abducted at the Chen Estate, and Xiao Ran transformed himself, killed the assailant, and carried out her corpse.
• As year's end approached, Zhou Yi arranged scriptures and artifacts on a display shelf in his pawnshop and refined a phone Mystic Item into a ring.
• Liu Hong entered the pawnshop and realized he was a ghost; he and Zhou Yi discussed medicine through the night.
• Liu Hong refused Zhou Yi's offer to stay, left to see his son and enter reincarnation, and Zhou Yi used a Buddhist secret art on him.
• Zhou Yi sensed faint spiritual energy near the Execution Grounds and reflected that the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade was only a few years away.

Zhou Yi considered how modern society could defend itself against ghosts and later heard about a case involving strange deaths. After learning the victims had been gnawed from within, he identified the culprit’s method as gu refinement.

• Zhou Yi decided to share cultivation methods online and develop protective Daoist robes to help people survive the coming ghost calamities.
• Number Sixteen asked Zhou Yi to exorcise her evil, and he hurried across the city to help her.
• Zhou Yi learned that Gu Fangzhai’s owner had been arrested for suspected tomb robbery and smuggling, though Boss Zhao suspected a powerful person had framed him over a treasure.
• Xiao Ran visited Zhou Yi with Li Chao, who thanked him for passing on a medicinal formula and asked for help investigating deaths caused by evil arts.
• Xiao Ran gave Zhou Yi an iron ring said to have belonged to Prince Chu of Great Qian, and Li Chao explained that the victims’ organs had been gnawed.
• Zhou Yi concluded that the deaths were caused not by insect control but by gu refinement.

Zhou Yi taught Xiao Ran a tracking spell and learned that Li Chao had found a spiritual vein, then accepted a group of ghosts into Kunlun Grotto-Heaven under soul contracts. Xiao Ran faced an approaching death calamity, while the newly arrived ghosts were greeted by a cursing Daoist child.

• Zhou Yi explained the origins of gu arts, learned about Li Chao's discovery of a spiritual vein in Qingliang Mountain, and lent him an ancestral martial arts manual.
• Zhou Yi taught Xiao Ran the Thousand-Mile Tracking spell and noticed a death calamity gathering around him, but declined Xiao Ran's offer to become an Investigation Bureau consultant.
• Lu Yuan led a group of ghosts to Yu Jian Pawnshop, where Zhou Yi made them form soul contracts before sending them into Kunlun Grotto-Heaven.
• Lu Yuan and the other ghosts recognized the Jianmu Tree and realized they had entered the legendary Kunlun Grotto-Heaven.
• A Daoist child came out of the temple while cursing at a game on his phone, startling the ghosts.

The Spirit Ginseng Child recruited ghosts to train as Nether Soldiers while Zhou Yi considered the growing threat of Ferocious Souls and Vengeful Ghosts. A retired professor died in Immortal Capital, then revived in a younger body and declared himself Heavenly Lord Yuanling.

• The Spirit Ginseng Child ordered the ghosts to cultivate for a year before gathering benevolent yin souls and forming Nether Soldiers, then recruited a King-rank gamer to help with an urgent task.
• Zhou Yi decided the ghost-training plan could help suppress ordinary yin souls, but worried about the growing number of ghosts and the resentment fueling them.
• Zhou Yi used the Minor Heaven Severing Art after a retired Immortal Capital history professor died, and the Oracle Slip declared, "I am The Evasion One!"
• A seven-colored light from an ancient stone bead entered the professor's body, reviving him and restoring his appearance.
• The revived professor asked where he was, learned that more than a thousand years had passed, and announced, "I am Heavenly Lord Yuanling!"

Zhou Yi revealed his identity as a cultivator to the Xu Family and began planning to rebuild his sect without cooperating with the court. In Yi City, Xiao Ran tracked a murderer to a basement, where Blood Cloud Child faced an Investigation Bureau assault squad after completing his Blood Shadow Divine Power.

• Zhou Yi told the Xu Family that he was a cultivator from a thousand years ago and promised cultivation opportunities to relatives with spiritual roots.
• Zhou Yi rejected Xu Ce's suggestion to cooperate with the court and approved Xu Yu's plan to recruit disciples through the internet.
• Xiao Ran used a bloodstained scrap and a tracking art to locate a murderer on the second basement level of Central Tower.
• Investigation Bureau squads found Blood Cloud Child seated in a blood pool amid desiccated corpses and prepared to attack.
• Blood Cloud Child declared that he had just refined the Blood Shadow Divine Power, and the squads fired rockets and machine guns at him.

Blood Cloud Child fought the Investigation Bureau’s squad and cornered Xiao Ran, but Zhou Yi revealed himself as Heavenly Lord Yuanling and destroyed the demon. Zhou Yi learned Blood Cloud Child’s history and reflected on the Blood God Sect’s escape from an ancient calamity.

• Blood Cloud Child possessed the captain, but the captain detonated his combat suit and grievously wounded him before the squad attacked again.
• Blood Cloud Child escaped into the building, resisted Xiao Ran’s illusion, and prepared to devour him as the command center debated an annihilation strike.
• Protective spiritual light saved Xiao Ran, and Zhou Yi appeared, identified himself as Yuanling, and struck Blood Cloud Child with the Supreme Clarity Talisman.
• Zhou Yi ignored Blood Cloud Child’s pleas, destroyed him, and examined the wisps of his remaining soul.
• Zhou Yi learned that Blood Cloud Child had escaped the Blood Demon Child’s slaughter, sealed himself away for a thousand years, and resumed cultivating after breaking free half a year earlier.

After Zhou Yi escaped with Xiao Ran and Li Chao, the court investigated the mysterious Heavenly Lord Yuanling and debated how to respond to the emergence of immortal cultivators. The Investigation Bureau director argued that cultivation techniques could not be suppressed and proposed a technological method for granting people spiritual power.

• Zhou Yi used the Supreme Clarity Talisman to take Xiao Ran and Li Chao underground and escape.
• The commander learned that Heavenly Lord Yuanling was Elder Xu and ordered an investigation into his sudden recovery and the murderer’s transformation.
• Investigation Bureau headquarters debated whether to contact Elder Xu, but Director argued the central issue was the spread of cultivation techniques.
• Director explained that the court feared losing power because spiritual roots were rare and cultivation could produce a new force beyond its control.
• Director revealed that researchers had infused spiritual-energy particles into mice and called for patriots to test the proposed New Cultivation Method.

The court and Royal Family backed human trials of Subject Zero Elixir, a dangerous formula that fused beast bloodlines into people to create powerful fighters. After inspecting the laboratory, Zhu Jin promised Professor Hong more funding and test subjects, leaving the research poised to expand.

• The director told Investigation Bureau officials that the court required human trials of the New Cultivation Method, and said he would take the elixir himself alongside members of the Royal Family.
• Zhu Jin visited Subject Zero Laboratory and pledged twenty billion to support Professor Hong's research.
• Professor Hong showed Zhu Jin mutated beasts, including Number 1895, whose body fused into a mass of flesh that advanced despite gunfire.
• Professor Hong demonstrated footage of Number Seven transforming into a horned, ox-like fighter whose explosive power left him exhausted and difficult to control.
• Zhu Jin pledged another thirty billion and said the Royal Conglomerate would purchase people from countries that permitted population trading to provide more test subjects.
• Professor Hong explained that the elixir implanted mutated beast organs and that incompatible bloodlines could produce monsters; Zhu Jin demanded a thirty-percent success rate and promised him a princely title if the research succeeded.

Professor Hong promised Zhu Jin that the Subject Zero Laboratory would safely develop the elixir, while the intelligent Six Ears secretly sought its formula to aid the Demon Race. Meanwhile, Zhou Yi prepared to spread the One Qi Sect’s cultivation manuals across the Nine Provinces through an official website.

• Zhu Jin offered Professor Hong and the other attendants royal support for their families and warned that the laboratory’s Ferocious Beasts must never escape.
• Six Ears disguised himself as a mindless test subject and listened to the researchers, hoping to obtain the Subject Zero Elixir formula for the Demon Race.
• Xu Ce showed Zhou Yi the One Qi Sect’s website, which would let applicants register and download manuals after their Dao oaths passed review.
• Zhou Yi ordered the sect’s website promoted throughout the Nine Provinces, and Xiao Ran and Li Chao went to notify the court.
• Zhou Yi produced gold to fund the promotion, while Xu Ce arranged to sell it and Xiao Ran reported the sect’s plans to the Investigation Bureau.
• Xiao Ran worried that the court might secretly copy the manuals, but Zhou Yi explained that the website offered only the first three levels of Qi Refinement and would help spread cultivation to people with spirit roots.

Li Sheng discovered that an online cultivation manual was real, awakened Mana, and left his ordinary city life to cultivate with his family in his hometown. After earning money through pills and advancing in cultivation, he began refining a Mystic Item for protection.

• Li Sheng registered for the One Qi Sect Outer Disciple website, recited the Tai Xuan Scripture Qi Refining Chapter, sensed spiritual qi, and produced Mana in half an hour.
• Li Sheng studied the sect website, learned that his rapid cultivation indicated exceptional spiritual roots, and began to embrace the Path of Immortality.
• Li Sheng resigned, sold his city house, and moved his family to their mountain village, where he reached the completion of the first level of Qi Refining in half a month.
• Li Sheng made Body Tempering Pills, helped his family advance in martial arts, and earned several decades' worth of wages selling pills to fellow disciples.
• Li Sheng decided to refine a Mystic Item for protection, produced a small lump of Refined Iron, and chose to make a Flying Needle.

The Cabinet accepted that cultivation could no longer be suppressed and approved nationwide spirit-root testing and accelerated research into the Subject Zero Elixir. After the meeting, Emperor Mingxiang joined the Chief Minister and the Red Alliance leader for dinner, where they discussed the balance of power in Great Zhou.

• Emperor Mingxiang and Wei Zheng privately discussed the spread of the One Qi Sect and the Royal Family’s prospects in the new era.
• Wei Zheng urged Emperor Mingxiang to form marriage ties with cultivators who had top-grade spirit roots.
• The Investigation Bureau director accepted responsibility for the spread of cultivation techniques and offered to join the Subject Zero Laboratory.
• The Cabinet unanimously approved universal spirit-root testing and faster development of the Subject Zero Elixir.
• The Chief Minister invited Emperor Mingxiang and the Red Alliance leader to dinner, where they recalled how the Royal Family had become a figurehead under alternating New Party and Red Alliance rule.

The Chief Minister persuaded Emperor Mingxiang and Alliance Leader Zhang to work together to enter Kunlun and take a guarded object, with Mr. Wei expected to help. After returning from a year of sealing spirit veins, Zhou Yi found Zhuangyuan Street thriving on the trade in ancient Mystic Items and heard how widespread hopes of cultivating immortality had become.

• The Chief Minister told Emperor Mingxiang and Alliance Leader Zhang that Kunlun could counter the One Qi Sect, and revealed that the Red Alliance knew how to open the Immortal Gate but lacked the hardest object in the world.
• The Chief Minister said there had been progress locating the object, which was enshrined in the Golden God Cathedral, and asked Emperor Mingxiang to help recruit Mr. Wei; Emperor Mingxiang agreed to consult his uncle-in-law.
• Zhou Yi returned to Zhuangyuan Street after spending a year sealing more than thirty spirit veins, though he had found none of their accompanying spiritual objects.
• Zhou Yi found antique shops selling imitation Mystic Items and warned Shopkeeper Xu not to deceive cultivators.
• Shopkeeper Xu explained that ordinary customers bought Mystic Items in hopes of breaking through spiritual-root limitations, amid widespread rumors and public fascination with cultivation.