Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yi began cultivating the Divine Bull Transformation and remained cautious after encountering the corpse-refining cultivator Leng Yun. He learned why Leng Yun’s zombie wife was tolerated, then heard how Xiao Tiezhu had entered the cultivation world and recognized his story from a book.

• Zhou Yi studied the Divine Bull Transformation, decided to cultivate it, and posted a notice seeking Qi Refinement-stage bull demon essence blood.
• Zhou Yi irrigated his Spirit Fields and advised Xiao Tiezhu that spirit rice had only a thirty percent sprouting rate.
• Zhou Yi visited Cave Estate 702 to repair an array, sensed Leng Yun’s sinister aura, and quickly retreated without repairing it.
• Luo Xun explained that Leng Yun had refined his murdered wife into a zombie, and that Perfected Xuanlin allowed it because they were a devoted couple.
• Xiao Tiezhu offered Zhou Yi five dou of spirit rice and described how a dying Daoist had discovered his spiritual roots and given him a cultivation art.
• Zhou Yi recognized that Xiao Tiezhu’s life story matched characters in a storybook he had recently read.

Zhou Yi agreed to set up a formation for Leng Yun and discovered that the techniques Leng Yun offered included the source of the Heaven Devouring Demon Art and a spell that could accelerate spiritual herb growth. The Jade Dew Art’s lifespan-for-medicinal-age exchange left Zhou Yi eager to learn more.

• Zhou Yi advised Xiao Tiezhu to focus on cultivating instead of mining, then taught Liu Heng about formations while tending his medicinal field.
• Leng Yun asked Zhou Yi to set up a Lesser Five Elements Formation and offered techniques in place of five hundred Spirit Stones.
• Zhou Yi refused to cultivate the Heretical Devil arts but examined the Jade Slips Leng Yun had brought.
• Zhou Yi recognized the Troop Refinement Art as the complete source of the Heaven Devouring Demon Art, used to refine Dao soldiers by absorbing acquired energies.
• Zhou Yi discovered that the Jade Dew Art consumed Mana and lifespan to hasten spiritual herb growth, converting about one-tenth of the lifespan spent into medicinal age.

Zhou Yi exchanged for four demonic techniques, helped Leng Yun restrain his zombie wife with a Lesser Five Elements Formation, and secretly used the Jade Dew Art to accelerate spirit ginseng growth. He discovered that the art consumed his lifespan, which the Longevity Dao Fruit restored, and continued cultivating the medicinal plant.

• Zhou Yi sold Leng Yun the complete versions of four cultivation arts for five hundred Spirit Stones and memorized them himself.
• Zhou Yi found a letter from Xiao Tiezhun saying he had been swindled and was leaving to mine at Mount Qiyun.
• Zhou Yi crafted and installed a Lesser Five Elements Formation around Cave Estate Number 702, containing Leng Yun's raging zombie wife.
• Leng Yun told Zhou Yi that his wife had been killed by his enemies and joked about rumors of Zhou Yi's visits to Phoenix Cry Pavilion.
• Zhou Yi secretly cast the Jade Dew Art on spirit ginseng, spending a hundred years of lifespan as the Longevity Dao Fruit restored him to youth.
• After half a month of repeated treatment, Zhou Yi's spirit ginseng grew into a valuable hundred-year spiritual medicine.

After learning that a Celestial Starstone vein had been found at Little Dan Mountain, Zhou Yi fled to Heng City and survived an ambush on the way. Months later, a devastating attack shook the Yun Mountains and altered the world’s spiritual energy, while Zhou Yi sensed ghosts haunting a nearby courtyard.

• Zhou Yi ate a hundred-year spirit ginseng to cultivate and decided to consume spirit herbs rather than risk selling them.
• Pang Xun told Zhou Yi that Celestial Starstone had been found at Little Dan Mountain and that the young discoverer had returned to the sect with Perfected Xuanlin, so Zhou Yi requested a year’s leave and fled south.
• Two cultivators ambushed Zhou Yi outside the Yun Mountains, but he killed them with Heavenly Thunder Pearls and collected their meager spoils.
• Zhou Yi settled in Heng City, established a Spirit Gathering Formation in a courtyard, and planned to wait for news from Perfected Xuanlin before considering Tianyang Abyss.
• A terrifying attack struck the Yun Mountains, awakening Heng City and later making spiritual energy denser; Zhou Yi sensed vicious ghosts above a nearby courtyard as Yamen Runners arrived.

Yuan Heng encountered a spider demon in the Zhang Family courtyard and was saved by Zhou Yi, who learned that the Yuan Family had withdrawn from power. As demons and rebellions spread through Xuzhou, the imperial army restored order, while Zhou Yi stayed in Heng City to cultivate and experiment with the Jade Dew Art.

• Yuan Heng broke into the Zhang Family courtyard, where a spider demon attacked him after he found three corpses wrapped in silk.
• Zhou Yi killed the spider demon with a streak of sword light and learned that Yuan Heng was a descendant of the Yuan Family of Teng City.
• Demons and rumors fueled several rebellions across Xuzhou, but five hundred thousand imperial troops entered the province and suppressed the unrest.
• A year later, Zhou Yi observed the army exterminating demons in Heng City and saw it destroy an Iron Corpse with a Thunder Talisman.
• Zhou Yi tested the Jade Dew Art on spirit ginseng, learned that its conversion of lifespan and Mana diminished as the herbs aged, and decided to pursue alchemy.

Thirty years after the spiritual vein of Little Dan Mountain was shattered, Zhou Yi continued his slow cultivation and took in an unusually intelligent yellow ox, saving its owner’s sick wife. Ten years later, as he raised the ox under contract, spiritual energy began streaming toward Cloud Mountain, suggesting Little Dan Mountain’s Spirit-Gathering Grand Formation had restarted.

• Zhou Yi ate Spirit Ginseng porridge and pickles while cultivating, and estimated that another twenty years would bring him to Great Perfection in Qi Refining.
• Zhou Yi visited the Immortal Flavors Pavilion, where an old farmer tried to sell his intelligent yellow ox to support his sick wife.
• Zhou Yi offered the highest price for the ox, intimidated the bidders with his Sword Qi, and promised the farmer he would spare it and cure his wife.
• Zhou Yi cured the old woman, and the yellow ox chose to leave with him after agreeing to become his contracted servant.
• Ten years later, Zhou Yi fed the now-massive ox Spirit Ginseng before preparing to draw its blood.
• Zhou Yi sensed spiritual energy rushing toward Cloud Mountain and wondered whether Little Dan Mountain’s Spirit-Gathering Grand Formation had restarted.

Zhou Yi returned to Little Dan Mountain after its spirit vein was preserved, assessed the market and sought cultivation inheritances. He left without finding a cultivation art, wary that the market’s apparent opportunities concealed dangers and that the Cultivation Aristocratic Families were consolidating their power.

• Zhou Yi learned that Dan Ding Sect had barely preserved Little Dan Mountain’s spirit vein, though its spiritual energy had fallen to roughly half its former strength.
• After watching the mountain for several months, Zhou Yi entered the rebuilt market town and learned that cultivation goods were temporarily cheap and Rogue Cultivator inheritances had surfaced.
• Zhou Yi recognized that Quiet Void might be Pure Serenity True Monarch and left without approaching him, fearing that befriending a True Lord could expose his secret.
• Zhou Yi sold spirit ginseng and bought herb seeds and cultivation methods from Little Dan Pavilion and other shops.
• Zhou Yi found that the shops refused to sell cultivation arts and concluded that Cultivation Aristocratic Families were collecting scattered inheritances to strengthen their lineages.

Zhou Yi traveled to Tianyang Abyss and registered as Sun Xing in Tianyang City, seeking a stable place to cultivate and eventually pursue Foundation Establishment. He left the city’s Spirit Fields to their mortal cultivators and chose to rent a Cave Estate.

• Zhou Yi browsed Little Dan Mountain’s stalls, bought cultivation notes and pills, then left for the south.
• After traveling for over a year, Zhou Yi reached Linyuan City and observed Tianyang Abyss before descending into it.
• Zhou Yi entered Tianyang City and reflected on how cultivators and mortals lived together under the Dan Ding Sect’s rules.
• Zhou Yi registered at the administrative office as Sun Xing, a native of Chu Kingdom.
• The cultivator assigning Cave Estates and Spirit Fields told Zhou Yi that no Spirit Fields were vacant, and Zhou Yi chose to rent only a Cave Estate.

After decades of seclusion, Zhou Yi left Cave Estate No. 1024 and sought a way to obtain the Foundation Establishment Pill formula. He opened a tavern in Tianyang City to attract people selling inherited treasures, but dealt harshly with suspected swindlers.

• Chen Yang refused to leave the market, and sixty years later he celebrated his eldest grandson’s Spirit Roots while telling him to repay Senior Sun’s kindness.
• Zhou Yi left seclusion after cultivating the Divine Bull Transformation to great mastery and decided to seek the Foundation Establishment Pill formula before considering registered disciple status.
• Six months later, Zhou Yi opened Yu Jian Tavern in Tianyang City and offered Crimson Flame Wine in exchange for goods.
• A man tried to sell Zhou Yi a jade bottle supposedly containing an ancestor’s inheritance, but Zhou Yi rejected it.
• The man and several other suspected swindlers suffered mysterious calamities after visiting the tavern, and the Enforcement Team failed to identify a culprit.

Zhou Yi avoided a dangerous expedition organized by Xuan Qing and later bought a supposed True Lord’s legacy from Wang Gui, recognizing it as a long-term spirit weapon refinement technique. He suspected a dying Rogue Cultivator had wiped out the True Lord’s descendants and was now selling their inheritance to raise Spirit Stones.

• Zhou Yi agreed to the market merchants’ rules for buying and selling inherited spiritual items, then left his tavern to attend Xuan Qing’s cultivation gathering.
• Xuan Qing invited the cultivators to explore a tomb and offered his Essence Nourishing Pill refinement method as payment, but Zhou Yi refused and left.
• Half a year later, rumors spread that Xuan Qing and the cultivators who joined his expedition had vanished, and Zhou Yi stopped attending the gatherings.
• After three years in business, Zhou Yi heard that a True Lord’s descendants had died after planning to leave Zhengyang City, leaving their legacy to be sold.
• Wang Gui offered Zhou Yi a Jade Slip called Spirit Treasure Art, and Zhou Yi identified it as a lengthy blood-refinement technique and bought it with the original copy for one thousand Spirit Stones.
• Zhou Yi suspected that a Rogue Cultivator near the end of his lifespan had murdered the family and was selling the legacy to buy Foundation Establishment Pills.

Zhou Yi refused Zhao Zhi’s plan to target the Li family, continued cultivating and experimenting with the Spirit Treasure Art, and was approached by the elderly Chen Yang seeking revenge for his grandson. The chapter ended with Chen Yang offering an ancestral jade pendant and asking Zhou Yi to avenge him.

• Zhou Yi studied a map of Great Qian’s dangerous places and resolved to search for natural spirit lands after reaching Foundation Establishment.
• Zhao Zhi told Zhou Yi that a Foundation Establishment Pill would appear at the auction and tried to recruit him into a scheme against the Li family, but Zhou Yi refused to help harm cultivators.
• Zhou Yi used the Jade Dew Art on his spirit herbs, scolded the intelligent spirit ginseng, and studied the Spirit Treasure Art.
• Zhou Yi smelted five-metal essence into the Rivers and Mountains Cauldron, but found that the costly process had increased its weight only slightly.
• Chen Yang entered Zhou Yi’s tavern, knelt before him, and offered an ancestral jade pendant while asking him to avenge his grandson.

Zhou Yi prepared to protect Chen Yang’s Lineage, then ambushed and killed the cultivators who attacked them after they left Tianyang Market. As Real Person Xuanyu arrived, Zhou Yi fled underground using his Earth Travel Pearl.

• Chen Yang asked Zhou Yi to avenge his grandson and protect the Chen Lineage, offering him their ancestral inheritance as payment.
• Zhou Yi acquired Earth Fire Pearls, Thunder Talismans, Clone Talismans, and a high-grade Earth Travel Mystic Item before Chen Yang’s family departed Tianyang Market.
• Eight black-robed cultivators surrounded Chen Yang’s Lineage and demanded the pill refiner’s inheritance, but Zhou Yi struck them with lightning and fire, killing them.
• Zhou Yi checked the attackers’ corpses and collected their belongings after ensuring they were dead.
• Real Person Xuanyu approached Zhou Yi, who scattered Clone Talismans and escaped underground with the Earth Travel Pearl.

Zhou Yi escaped Xuan Yu after attacking her and learned that she had come for the Profound Yang Pill Scripture. He examined his spoils in the Southern Frontier and discovered the scripture included a Foundation Establishment Pill formula requiring thousand-year spirit ginseng.

• Xuan Yu destroyed Zhou Yi’s clones, but Zhou Yi transformed and struck her before fleeing underground toward Linyuan City.
• Xuan Yu failed to find Zhou Yi and confronted Chen Yang, who insisted that his family had not colluded with the Demon Race and credited Senior Niu with helping them.
• Xuan Yu gave the Chen family a communication jade token and departed, while Chen Yang reminded his family that Senior Niu was their only benefactor.
• Zhou Yi crossed into the Southern Frontier of Great Qian, hid in a city, and examined the damaged Mystic Items and Jade Slips he had taken.
• Zhou Yi found a Soul-Soothing Brew formula and studied the Profound Yang Pill Scripture, discovering its Foundation Establishment Pill formula called for thousand-year spirit ginseng.
• Zhou Yi realized the Spirit Ginseng Child in his arms possessed the miraculous ingredient’s properties, but it slept through his call.

Zhou Yi returned to Great Qian to seek a safe spirit ground where he could refine Foundation Establishment Pills, and he learned that the imperial clan recruited Rogue Cultivators through the Immortal Salaries Bureau. After finding a way to use the Zhou family name to approach the court, he set his plan in motion.

• Zhou Yi rejected the Dan Ding Sect's markets as too dangerous and decided to investigate the Hu family and Great Qian's spirit grounds.
• Zhou Yi visited Lao Bai's grave in Qian Capital, shared wine and memories with him, and left feeling refreshed.
• Zhou Yi examined the imperial notice and returned to his abandoned courtyard, where he found a Jade Slip containing Li Hong and Chen Jinyu's final words and promise to repay the Zhou family.
• Zhou Yi observed the imperial palace and questioned cultivators, learning that the Li imperial clan had founded the Immortal Salaries Bureau and controlled spirit grounds.
• Zhou Yi sent Zhou Can to strike the Drum of Grievances and demand an audience with the emperor.

Emperor Cheng Lu and the imperial clan elders discussed how to receive Zhou Yi, a supposed descendant of Mister Zhou, and decided to use the occasion to build trust with cultivators. After secretly testing Zhou Yi and learning he had no spirit root and poor martial aptitude, the Emperor granted his request to cultivate on imperial spiritual land with an annual allowance of Spirit Stones.

• Emperor Cheng Lu summoned the Court of the Imperial Clan elders to discuss Zhou Yi's claim and the imperial clan's response.
• Prince Zhong explained that Mister Zhou had cared little for wealth or status, so the Zhou descendant might instead seek spiritual land and Spirit Stones.
• Emperor Cheng Lu argued that supporting Zhou Yi would establish the imperial clan's reputation and encourage capable Rogue Cultivators to seek its protection.
• Emperor Cheng Lu questioned Zhou Yi under the Soul-Bewildering Art, learning that he knew only farming and brewing wine and lacked a spirit root and strong martial aptitude.
• Zhou Yi asked to cultivate on the imperial clan's spiritual land, and Emperor Cheng Lu granted him a place and one hundred Spirit Stones each year.

Zhou Yi spent his days in Qianjing avoiding entanglements until Emperor Cheng Lu summoned him to travel with royal children to the Royal Family’s spiritual land. After learning its rumored history from Li Xun, Zhou Yi entered the hidden grotto beneath a cold pond, where he sensed dense water spiritual energy.

• Zhou Yi’s carefree visits to Spring Breeze Pavilion led Duke Wei’s Residence to quietly order experts to protect him, while Zhou Yi remembered his contracted yellow ox was still alive.
• An imperial eunuch summoned Zhou Yi to meet Emperor Cheng Lu, who sent him with Gu Yun and royal children toward the Royal Family’s spiritual land.
• During the journey, Li Xun befriended Zhou Yi over wine and told him that the spiritual land had been discovered while the Sacred Emperor and Holy Empress pursued a female ghost.
• Gu Yun led the group to a cold pond surrounded by military camps and gave them Water Avoidance Talismans to walk beneath its waters.
• Gu Yun revealed an illusion array in a ravine, and Zhou Yi passed through the stone wall into a grotto filled with dense water spiritual energy.

Zhou Yi cultivated in the Li family’s spirit land while mastering pill refinement, and Li Xun left after reaching a hundred years of internal energy. After twenty-five years of practice, Zhou Yi successfully refined two Foundation Establishment Pills.

• Li Yu welcomed Zhou Yi and the imperial descendants to the spirit land, offered Zhou Yi help with cultivation, and led them in paying respects at the Li family ancestral hall.
• Zhou Yi settled into a Cave Estate, studied pill formulas, and secretly bought spiritual herbs at Little Dan Mountain.
• Zhou Yi learned to refine Essence Nourishing Pills and used one to help Li Xun’s internal energy grow, though Li Xun believed his progress came from his own talent.
• Li Xun reached a hundred years of internal energy and left the spirit land to pursue life in the martial world rather than seek the throne.
• Zhou Yi spent years mastering several low-grade pills, then repeatedly attempted the more difficult Azure Sun Pills and Foundation Establishment Pills.
• After twenty batches, Zhou Yi successfully refined two Foundation Establishment Pills.

Zhou Yi used twelve Foundation Establishment Pills to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, then left his Cave Estate and severed his ties with Li Yu. He returned to Qianjing City to retrieve Lao Bai’s blood-soaked jade pendant and departed after linking it to the Bai family’s future safety.

• Zhou Yi began his breakthrough, carefully preserving some of each Foundation Establishment Pill’s medicinal power in case his attempt failed.
• After nearly half a year without Zhou Yi leaving his Cave Estate, Li Yu broke in and found a Jade Slip with an Essence Nourishing Pill recipe and a message saying their former ties were severed.
• Zhou Yi consumed twelve Foundation Establishment Pills and broke through, gaining stronger spells and physical strength, but found that his cultivation art had no further chapters.
• Zhou Yi flew away from the cold-pool cavern, concealed his aura, and reminded himself to remain cautious despite reaching Foundation Establishment Early Stage.
• Zhou Yi entered the Bai Estate’s ancestral hall, took Lao Bai’s blood-soaked jade pendant, and infused it with his essence blood so he could sense danger to the Bai family in the future.

Zhou Yi uncovered the secrets behind Emperor Chongming’s blood sacrifice and learned how Huang Yuniang had become a Heavenly Ghost. He left Qianjing for Little Dan Mountain to seek cultivation methods and begin secluded training, where Xuan Kong greeted him as he arrived.

• Zhou Yi entered Emperor Chongming’s tomb and found Huang Yuniang’s jade hairpin, which revealed how Chongming had plotted to create a Heavenly Ghost through a sacrifice of a hundred thousand laborers.
• Zhou Yi learned that Huang Yuniang had devoured Chongming’s lingering soul, formed a Heavenly Ghost body, and reached the third layer of Qi Refinement before the Li and Chen couple drove her from the cold pool.
• Zhou Yi read Huang Yuniang’s request to safeguard her life-bound hairpin and reflected on the consequences of good and evil.
• Zhou Yi left Qianjing for Little Dan Mountain, hoping to obtain cultivation methods and cultivate there in seclusion.
• Zhou Yi entered Little Dan Mountain disguised as a middle-aged Daoist, and Xuan Kong greeted him.

Zhou Yi met Xuan Kong, a Dan Ding Sect steward, who explained the sect’s rules and tried to recruit him. Zhou Yi learned how tightly the sect controlled Yun Province’s cultivation resources and confirmed that Pure Serenity True Monarch was Quiet Void, leaving him wary of being recognized.

• Xuan Kong explained that Foundation Establishment cultivators could enter the Dan Ding Sect marketplace but could not reside there permanently, then invited Zhou Yi to tea in a nearby Cave Estate.
• Xuan Kong described the sect’s merit system and recruitment of Rogue Cultivator True Persons, while Zhou Yi secretly poured away the spirit tea and questioned the terms of joining.
• Xuan Kong said recruits needed to leave a trace of Mana aura, while future true disciples had to leave a wisp of Spirit Soul; Zhou Yi declined to commit.
• Zhou Yi reasoned that the Dan Ding Sect’s control of spirit veins, Foundation Establishment Pills, and inheritances prevented independent True Lords from rising in Yun Province.
• Zhou Yi learned that Pure Serenity True Monarch was buried at Divine Fire Peak and concluded that Quiet Void had been a True Lord in disguise, making their earlier acquaintance dangerous.