Chapter Summaries

Ling Pengyun prepared Lingyun Mountain for a quiet period by planting his improved spirit rice seed and tending to the Thorn Vine, then planned a demanding daily cultivation routine. He decided he would have to rely on his family to obtain more Cloud Forest Spirit Water because he could not leave the mountain while the rice grew.

• Ling Pengyun used the Azure Leaf Sword Array and Spirit Nurturing Art to create a small spirit field inside the Bamboo House and planted his improved spirit rice seed there.
• Ling Pengyun watered the seed with the Cloud Rain Technique and wondered whether it would mature and how much spirit rice it would produce.
• Ling Pengyun fed the Thorn Vine two bottles of Cloud Forest Spirit Water over four days, bringing it to the bottleneck of the Qi Training Late Stage.
• Ling Pengyun concluded he could not leave Lingyun Mountain to hunt for more Cloud Forest Spirit Water and decided to rely on his family to obtain it.
• Ling Pengyun watered the mountain's twenty-one mu of spirit fields and planned a daily routine for cultivation, training, crafting, and tending the plants.

Ling Pengyun tested more than a thousand children for spirit roots and then worked to keep his unstable improved spirit rice seedling alive. He reunited with Ling Xiaoshun and Yang Qiuyun for the New Year before they departed for Cloudwater Market Town, leaving him to tend the seedling and finish his weapon-refinement commission.

• Ling Pengyun tested 1,108 children in Lingyun Small City, but none possessed spirit roots.
• Ling Pengyun used three traces of Yi Wood Essence from Thorn Vine to settle a conflict inside the newly sprouted improved spirit rice seedling.
• Ling Xiaoshun and Yang Qiuyun visited Ling Pengyun on Lingyun Mountain for the New Year and admired the seedling he had planted.
• Ling Pengyun and his parents prepared an eighteen-dish spiritual meal and celebrated together with aged Rice Flower Wine.
• Ling Xiaoshun and Yang Qiuyun prepared to return to Cloudwater Market Town, and Ling Pengyun gave them ten Azure Spirit Swords, eight Round Iron Shields, and a bottle of fruit honey.

Ling Pengyun’s parents left Lingyun Mountain, while Ling Pengqiu broke through to Qi Training at Lingxiao Mountain. The Immortal Spirit Crane King then completed Foundation Establishment, giving the Ling Clan another powerful protector.

• Ling Xiaoshun and his wife said goodbye to Ling Pengyun and flew away from Lingyun Mountain, and Ling Pengyun resumed his cultivation.
• Ling Pengqiu broke through from the Innate realm to Qi Training, and Ling Pengshan celebrated the milestone with him over their long-awaited New Year’s Eve dinner.
• Ling Pengqiu missed his parents and resolved to cultivate harder so he could reach the Qi Training Middle Stage and visit them.
• The Immortal Spirit Crane King began Qi Infusion after consuming Hundred Spirits Water, and Ling Yunhong and the Ling Clan members hoped it would survive the Foundation Establishment process.
• After three days, the Immortal Spirit Crane King awakened with Foundation Establishment pressure, and Ling Yunhong welcomed it as a new protector of the clan.
• The Ling Clan held a feast to celebrate the crane’s breakthrough without officially publicizing it.

Ling Pengyun harvested spring Azure Spirit Bamboo Shoots and exchanged them with the clan for his annual supplies. Ling Yunqian reported that the Ling Clan’s Immortal Spirit Crane King had reached Foundation Establishment, then helped harvest mature crops before departing, leaving Ling Pengyun to tend his improved spirit rice seedling.

• Ling Pengyun found and harvested Azure Spirit Bamboo Shoots across Lingyun Mountain, keeping the portions left after the clan’s required share.
• Ling Yunqian arrived with Ling Pengyun’s stipend, artifact-refining materials, rice seeds, and Spirit Peaches, and announced that the Immortal Spirit Crane King had entered Foundation Establishment.
• Ling Pengyun checked the delivered supplies and gave Ling Yunqian one hundred and twenty jin of Azure Spirit Bamboo Shoots for the clan.
• Ling Pengyun and Ling Yunqian harvested mature Azure Jade Spirit Rice and bamboo stalks, with Ling Pengyun assigning the rice share to Ling Rucong because she had tended those fields longer.
• Ling Pengyun asked Ling Yunqian to look for Heaven and Earth Spiritual Water, then returned to guard the improved spirit rice seedling as Ling Yunqian departed.

Ling Pengyun uncovered a Fragmented Map among the belongings of a slain Azure Bamboo Wang Clan cultivator and decided to investigate its river location only after he grew stronger. He later completed a large batch of magical artifacts, earning a substantial personal profit from his weapon-refinement work.

• Ling Pengyun destroyed the divine-sense imprint on the last Storage Bag and found a Fragmented Map, a terrain map, and two Azure Bamboo-patterned Daoist robes among its contents.
• Ling Pengyun realized the Fragmented Map showed a stretch of the Huai River matching two locations marked on the terrain map, and planned to explore with clan elders once his cultivation reached the eighth or ninth level of Qi Training.
• Ling Pengyun refined a superior-quality Azure Spirit Sword and considered focusing on superior Round Iron Shields to help build his parents' general store's reputation.
• Over the next two months, Ling Pengyun refined three more superior-quality Azure Spirit Swords and two superior-quality Round Iron Shields from the remaining materials.
• Ling Pengyun counted 133 Azure Spirit Swords and 95 Round Iron Shields, calculated that his commission and surplus artifacts could earn him more than three thousand spirit stones, and praised the Hundred Arts as a way to make money.

Ling Pengyun planned to expand his artifact-refining work and successfully forged a First Rank Low Grade Golden Scale Inner Armor from demon serpent materials. He tested its defense, put it on, and continued cultivating while hoping to find Cloud Forest Spirit Water to help the Thorn Vine advance and accelerate his own progress.

• Ling Pengyun decided to pursue First Rank Middle Grade artifacts and use leftover demon serpent hides and bones to practice refining Golden Scale Inner Armor.
• Ling Pengyun studied the refining instructions, prepared the furnace, and processed an Early-Stage Qi Training serpent hide, scales, and bone liquid.
• Ling Pengyun wove the materials into Golden Scale Inner Armor and completed it by inscribing a Fortification Spirit Inscription.
• Ling Pengyun tested the armor with an Azure Spirit Sword and found that the strike left only a small indentation in one scale.
• Ling Pengyun put on the armor and began cultivating, reflecting that reaching the Qi Training Eighth Layer could take at least five years without the Thorn Vine's breakthrough and spiritual-power feedback.

Ling Pengyun successfully matured and named his improved spirit rice Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice, then developed and tested a reliable method to create its seeds. After establishing the Autumn Cloud Secret Method, he planned to sell his remaining magic artifacts and buy materials and spirit fruits.

• Mo Congxin discussed expanding Jiao Province with Wu Tian after noting that Serpent Dragon Lake's Golden Core water flood dragon and the White Cloud Mountain Range had not retaliated.
• Ling Pengyun tended the Spirit Fields through autumn as weeds spread and the rice harvest began around Lingyun Small City.
• Ling Pengyun found that his improved spirit rice had matured, judged its yield superior to Water Spirit Rice, and named it Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice.
• Ling Pengyun spent half a month devising a stable method to combine Water Spirit Rice and Golden Marrow Spirit Rice seeds, then successfully created and tested Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice seeds.
• Ling Pengyun named the method the Autumn Cloud Secret Method and planned to sell his stored magic artifacts to his parents so he could buy Golden Scale Inner Armor materials and spirit fruits.

Ling Pengyun traveled to Cloudwater Market Town to deliver commissioned and self-made magic tools to his father, Ling Xiaohua, and exchange them for spirit stones. After receiving 4,010 spirit stones and celebrating with his parents, Ling Pengyun learned an earth-shattering piece of news, which the chapter did not reveal.

• Ling Pengyun left Lingyun Mountain after activating its protective array and warning Ling Yu to guard the area while he was away.
• Ling Pengyun arrived at Cloudwater Market Town and delivered commissioned, self-made, and recovered magic tools to Ling Xiaohua for inspection and sale.
• Ling Xiaohua agreed to buy the tools and calculated that the clan owed Ling Pengyun 4,010 spirit stones.
• Ling Pengyun told his father he planned to buy materials and refine First Rank Middle Grade Golden Scale Inner Armor, and Ling Xiaohua approved of the plan.
• Ling Pengyun, Ling Xiaohua, and Yang Qiuyun celebrated together, then Ling Pengyun learned an earth-shattering piece of news from his parents.

After discussing the Hundred Spirits Sect’s expansion and recruitment plans with his parents, Ling Pengyun went shopping in Cloudwater Market Town to buy gifts and weapon-refinement materials. He bought a spirit skirt for Yang Qiuyun, then purchased a Thousand Jun Bracelet and a large batch of materials from Hundred Spirits Artifact Hall.

• Ling Xiaohua and Yang Qiuyun discussed the Hundred Spirits Sect’s new territory and early disciple recruitment, and Ling Pengyun assured them the clan would help him obtain Foundation Establishment resources.
• Ling Pengyun bought Yang Qiuyun a red spirit skirt for one hundred and ten spirit stones.
• At Hundred Spirits Artifact Hall, Ling Pengyun tested and bought a Thousand Jun Bracelet for one hundred and twenty spirit stones.
• Ling Pengyun ordered demon serpent hides and mystic gold for refining Golden Scale Inner Armor, paying five hundred and thirty-five and a half spirit stones in total.

Ling Pengyun bought a faster flying magical item and other supplies in Cloudwater Market Town, then had his parents purchase additional resources to avoid attracting attention. He left for Lingyun Mountain, unaware that a Hundred Spirits Sect disciple reported his departure to others.

• Ling Pengyun bought the Swift Travel Hawk, two jars of Rice Flower Brew, and several high-grade talismans.
• Ling Pengyun gave gifts to Yang Qiuyun and Ling Xiaohua, then asked them to buy cultivation resources and weapon-refinement materials on his behalf.
• Ling Xiaohua and Yang Qiuyun bought the requested supplies and urged Ling Pengyun to leave Cloudwater Market Town promptly.
• Ling Pengyun said he would return for Spring Festival, left the market town, and rode the Swift Travel Hawk toward Lingyun Mountain.
• A Hundred Spirits Sect disciple watched Ling Pengyun depart and sent two Message Talismans reporting that he had left.

Sun Yuan and Wu Hai reported Ling Pengyun’s spending to Lin Lan, hoping to profit from an ambush, but Lin Lan discovered Ling Pengyun’s connection to powerful sect figures and called off the plan. After the managers left, Lin Lan considered how to deal with them for disregarding his rules.

• Sun Yuan and Wu Hai received a report that Ling Pengyun had spent thousands of spirit stones around Cloudwater Market Town and went to tell Lin Lan.
• Lin Lan asked whether they had investigated Ling Pengyun’s background, and Sun Yuan revealed that Ling Pengyun was connected to the Ling Xiaohua couple.
• Lin Lan recognized Ling Pengyun’s ties to Yang Si and Wu Yan, became furious, and rejected the idea of ambushing him because it could bring dangerous retaliation.
• Lin Lan threatened Sun Yuan and Wu Hai with his Foundation Establishment pressure, then let them leave after they begged for mercy.
• Lin Lan resolved that Sun Yuan and Wu Hai could not be trusted and considered killing them, but the City Protection Array’s image-recording restriction prevented him from acting openly.

Sun Yuan decided to pursue and ambush Ling Pengyun after Wu Hai refused to join him, hoping to escape Lin Lan and the Hundred Spirits Sect with a fortune. Lin Lan learned more about Ling Pengyun and spotted Sun Yuan leaving Cloudwater Market Town, seeing an opportunity to kill him and gain Ling Pengyun’s favor.

• Sun Yuan told Wu Hai that their absent backers could not protect them and urged him to help ambush Ling Pengyun, but Wu Hai refused to risk his son’s future.
• Sun Yuan left Wu Hai under a servant’s watch and departed Cloudwater Market Town to pursue Ling Pengyun, intending to kill him and flee the sect’s territory.
• Lin Lan reviewed information about Ling Xiaohua, his wife, and Ling Pengyun, and considered using their connections to help him obtain a Miasma Breaking Pill and advance his position.
• Lin Lan spotted Sun Yuan leaving the market town and decided to use the opportunity to silence him and befriend Ling Pengyun; he chose to spare Wu Hai if he behaved himself.

Ling Pengyun was pursued and attacked by Sun Yuan, but Lin Lan arrived and killed Sun Yuan before he could defeat Ling Pengyun. Lin Lan explained that he had come to punish Sun Yuan, gave Ling Pengyun the Mother-Child Flying Swords, and left Ling Pengyun wondering how much Lin Lan knew about his family.

• Ling Pengyun noticed Sun Yuan pursuing him and prepared spells, shields, and a sword formation for a fight.
• Sun Yuan attacked Ling Pengyun with flying swords, talismans, and a flying needle, then detonated his Mother-Child Flying Swords and broke Ling Pengyun’s sword formation.
• Ling Pengyun defended himself and counterattacked with Flame Blade Talismans, but Lin Lan suddenly killed Sun Yuan with a flying sword.
• Lin Lan told Ling Pengyun that Sun Yuan had abused his authority to ambush wealthy cultivators, then burned Sun Yuan’s body and gave Ling Pengyun the Mother-Child Flying Swords.
• Lin Lan revealed that he knew Ling Pengyun was related to Wu Yan and Yang Siling, offered to help him, and returned to Cloudwater Market Town.
• Ling Pengyun wondered why Lin Lan knew so much about him, collected his swords, and flew toward Lingyun Mountain.

After returning to Lingyun Mountain, Ling Pengyun tended his spirit plants and prepared a new spirit field to test the yield of Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice. He planted fifty seeds and successfully refined a Golden Scale Inner Armor, leaving the rice crop to grow for several months.

• Ling Pengyun returned to Lingyun Mountain, found some water-loving spirit plants beginning to yellow, and watered the mountain’s crops.
• Ling Pengyun rewarded the Wind Shadow Peng for guarding the Songhua Spirit Chickens and gave the chickens rice before restoring his spiritual power.
• Ling Pengyun spent more than three hundred spirit stones to transform a mu of wasteland into spirit soil, then used the Azure Leaf Array to preserve its spiritual qi.
• Ling Pengyun improved fifty Water Spirit Rice and Golden Marrow Spirit Rice seeds into Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice seeds, planted them, and watered the field to measure its eventual yield.
• Ling Pengyun absorbed Moonlight Power and successfully refined a First Rank Low Grade Golden Scale Inner Armor using demon serpent hide and Profound Gold.

Zhu Wen raised his Fireball Talisman success rate and negotiated a deal with Ling Xiaohua of Lingxiao Grocery Store to sell talismans and refine blank talisman paper. As he returned to the Eternal Inn, he worried that the Ling Clan might be connected to the cultivator he had once ambushed.

• Zhu Wen refined demon beast hide into blank talisman paper and raised his Fireball Talisman success rate to forty percent by successfully drawing six talismans.
• Zhu Wen visited Cloudwater Market Town shops to sell his Fireball Talismans, but most managers offered only fifteen spirit stones per ten talismans.
• Ling Xiaohua agreed to buy Zhu Wen's Fireball Talismans for seventeen spirit stones per ten, with a limit of five hundred, and purchased the six he had brought for nine spirit stones.
• Zhu Wen agreed to refine blank talisman paper from demon beast hides for Ling Xiaohua, bought fire-element hides, and accepted five earth-element hides for commissioned work.
• Zhu Wen returned to the Eternal Inn and worried that the Ling Clan might be the family of the young cultivator he and his brothers had ambushed.

Ling Pengyun harvested Winter Bamboo Shoots, then recognized Zhu Wen in Cloudwater Market Town as the cultivator who had once ambushed him. He captured Zhu Wen alive and arranged to take him to the Ling Clan ancestral mountain to make talismans, then celebrated the New Year with his parents before returning to Lingyun Mountain.

• Ling Pengyun used extra Spirit Rain to help Azure Spirit Bamboo grow Winter Bamboo Shoots, then harvested more than one hundred and thirty jin for himself.
• Ling Pengyun tested the spiritual roots of the children in Lingyun Small City and found none, then brought five Songhua Spirit Chickens and Winter Bamboo Shoots to celebrate the New Year with his parents.
• Ling Pengyun recognized Zhu Wen as the Heretical Cultivator who had ambushed him, and his parents helped surround Zhu Wen at Lingxiao Grocery Store.
• Ling Pengyun decided to spare Zhu Wen in exchange for his talisman-making work and ordered him to go to the Ling Clan ancestral mountain, threatening him with his Azure Spirit Swords.
• Ling Pengyun bought a Binding Spirit Rope, restrained Zhu Wen, and left him in a guest room under his parents' watch.
• After sharing New Year's Eve dinner with his parents, Ling Pengyun returned to Lingyun Mountain and told them to hand Zhu Wen to Eighteenth Great-Grandfather when the clan convoy arrived.

Ling Pengyun visited his maternal Yang family and thanked Yang Siling and Wu Yan for their past help. After he left, the Yang Clan secured Wu Yan’s aid in a plot to destroy the Red Leaf Ridge Ye Family, then decided they needed Ling Yunhong’s support to carry it out.

• Ling Pengyun arrived at Level Cloud Mountain with his parents, reunited with the Yang family, and gave them Fruit Flower Honey.
• Ling Pengyun thanked Yang Siling for the talismans she had given him and presented her with three White Cloud Fox pelts; Wu Yan offered to help him with talismans in the future.
• Yang Changxing asked Wu Yan about securing Wu Tian’s support for destroying the Red Leaf Ridge Ye Family, and Wu Yan required the Yang Clan to increase its pill payment by thirty percent.
• Yang Changxing accepted the higher price, and Wu Yan gave him a Second Rank High Grade Formation Breaking Talisman and proposed luring a Ye Foundation Establishment cultivator to the Cloud Water Gathering.
• Yang Changxing concluded that the Yang Clan needed Ling Yunhong’s help to attack the Ye family, and Yang Mingquan and Yang Mingtian agreed to bring the Ling Clan into the plan.

Ling Yunqian delivered Ling Pengyun’s stipend and told him the clan would provide materials for new artifact-refining work. After discovering Pengyun had improved a new spirit rice variety, he arranged a large Azure Spirit Sword commission for him and prepared to cut down bamboo for the materials.

• Ling Yunqian praised Ling Pengyun for bringing Zhu Wen back to the clan and said he would request materials for refining middle-grade Golden Scale Inner Armor and Azure Spirit Swords.
• Ling Pengyun revealed that he had developed Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice, and explained its origins and promising grain yield to Ling Yunqian.
• Ling Yunqian gave Ling Pengyun three bottles of Cloud Forest Spirit Water that Ling Yunhong had purchased for him.
• Ling Yunqian explained that the clan would replace five mu of Azure Spirit Bamboo with Qi Training Grass and commission Pengyun to refine 1,250 Azure Spirit Swords, with a higher required success rate and payment spread over ten years.
• Ling Yunqian gave Ling Pengyun Qi Training Grass seeds, his stipend, and Azure Profound Iron, then invited him to cut down the bamboo together.

Ling Pengyun helped Ling Yunqian harvest Azure Spirit Bamboo, replanted the fields with Qi Training Grass, and used Cloud Forest Spirit Water to help his Thorn Vine break through. The Thorn Vine’s power pushed Ling Pengyun to the Qi Training Eighth Layer, and he began restoring the vine’s weakened cultivation with spirit stones.

• Ling Pengyun and Ling Yunqian uprooted the weaker Azure Spirit Bamboo, prepared enough stalks for 1,250 Azure Spirit Swords, and Ling Yunqian left for Cloudwater Market Town.
• Ling Pengyun planted Qi Training Grass in the cleared fields and watered the seeds with the Cloud Rain Technique.
• Ling Pengyun helped the Thorn Vine absorb three bottles of Cloud Forest Spirit Water until it broke through to the Qi Training Late Stage.
• The Thorn Vine fed its remaining spiritual power and its own cultivation back to Ling Pengyun, advancing him from the peak of the Qi Training Seventh Layer to the Qi Training Eighth Layer.
• Ling Pengyun arranged a Spirit Gathering Array around his spirit stones and instructed the weakened Thorn Vine to absorb their spiritual energy while he cultivated with a Spirit Tangerine.

Ling Yunqian returned to the Ling Clan with Zhu Wen and reported that Ling Pengyun had improved Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice. After inspecting the rice, Ling Ruda exchanged the Autumn Cloud Secret Method for the clan’s three Jade Series rice-improvement methods and supplied Ling Pengyun with weapon-refinement materials before returning to the clan.

• Ling Yunqian brought Zhu Wen back to Lingxiao Mountain, where Ling Ruda arranged for Zhu Wen to stay under the clan’s supervision and draw spirit talismans.
• Ling Yunqian told Ling Ruda that Ling Pengyun had improved Autumn Cloud Spirit Rice, and Ling Ruda warned him to keep the news secret before traveling to Lingyun Mountain to inspect it.
• Ling Pengyun gave Ling Ruda the Autumn Cloud Secret Method, and Ling Ruda said the clan would likely sell it while giving Ling Pengyun the three methods for improving Jade Series spirit rice.
• Ling Pengyun memorized the three Jade Series methods and burned the written copies under Ling Ruda’s supervision.
• Ling Ruda gave Ling Pengyun materials for refining Golden Scale Inner Armors, Azure Spirit Swords, and Mystic Water Shields, then guided him through his cultivation and spirit-planting questions.
• Ling Ruda returned to the clan, while Ling Pengyun began studying the Jade Series methods and continued his cultivation on Lingyun Mountain.