Chapter Summaries

Zhou Ming brought Jiang Ruonan to Heavenly Sun City and showed her his fleet of Spiritual Essence Warships. When she doubted that the Initial Number’s Super Spiritual Essence Cannon could kill a Spirit Manifestation Stage immortal, Zhou Ming prepared to test-fire it at Azure Cloud Mountain.

• Zhou Ming relocated more than 20,000 people and over 100,000 tons of equipment to Heavenly Sun City, his heavily defended base.
• Jiang Ruonan admired the Spiritual Energy Locomotive and asked Zhou Ming for one before spotting ten Spiritual Essence Warships assembled overhead.
• Zhou Ming grabbed Jiang Ruonan’s hand to stop her from boarding a warship unannounced, then apologized when she and her attendants objected.
• Aboard the Initial Number, Jiang Ruonan questioned whether its Super Spiritual Essence Cannon could kill a Spirit Manifestation Stage immortal, and Zhou Ming claimed only he could build such a weapon.
• Jiang Ruonan demanded a nearby test firing, but Zhou Ming said he would take her to Azure Cloud Mountain to demonstrate the cannon’s power.

Jiang Ruonan returned to Eastern Yuan Continent with Spiritual Essence Warships, rescued Free and Unfettered Palace from defeat, and helped it reclaim territory and devastate two rival sects. After Zhou Ming advised her to build strength before expanding further, she agreed to acquire more warships and let him improve Soul Stone mining in exchange for discounted ore.

• Jiang Ruonan returned to Heavenly Sun City with fifty-nine immortals under her control and demanded Zhou Ming's ten Spiritual Essence Warships, but he insisted on selling them.
• Jiang Ruonan led the fleet to Free and Unfettered Palace's island stronghold and annihilated the nine sects' besieging army with Spiritual Essence Cannon fire.
• Free and Unfettered Palace recaptured its mountain gate, then spent two months attacking neighboring sects and killing nine Spirit Manifestation Stage immortals.
• Free and Unfettered Palace expanded its control to more than three hundred cities within half a year, while the seven other great sects retreated and strengthened their defenses.
• Zhou Ming persuaded Jiang Ruonan to delay further attacks until Free and Unfettered Palace could build up its forces, and she agreed to let him provide mining technology for discounted Soul Stones.

A year after returning from Eastern Yuan Continent, Zhou Ming arrived in Central Yuan Continent to lead the Hundred Cities Alliance toward founding a nation. He had built a unified education system to foster elite support and found teachers and students were already urging him to begin.

• Jiang Ruonan let Zhou Ming return to Central Yuan Continent and allowed him to take half of the Spiritual Essence Warships.
• Zhou Ming returned to Heavenly Sun City and considered how to unite the Hundred Cities Alliance while leaving most powers with its city-states.
• Zhou Ming had established over a thousand primary schools, over a hundred middle schools, and ten Cultivation Academies across ten unified school districts.
• Zhou Ming regarded education as essential to national cohesion and believed the academies had won the support of many cultivator elites.
• Teachers and students sent telegrams urging Zhou Ming to return and lead the founding of a nation, as support for the idea grew across the academies.

Zhou Ming and leaders from across the Hundred Cities Alliance discussed founding a nation and establishing the Establish Origin Party. The conference ended with Zhou Ming proposing gradual, benefit-driven centralization while warning that nation-building might eventually require bloodshed.

• Over a hundred prominent figures and young heirs gathered in Heavenly Sun City for a consultation conference on establishing a nation.
• The delegates founded the Establish Origin Party and completed its constitution, platform, emblem, and oath around the goals of founding a nation and unification.
• The conference identified central revenue, a national military, and effective central governance as the main challenges to establishing central authority.
• Delegates argued over whether to consolidate city-state armies by force, but Zhou Ming rejected broad coercion and proposed pilot projects to demonstrate the benefits of a national military.
• Zhou Ming planned to fund the central government through fees for national services and to win city-states' support with shared infrastructure and development benefits.
• Zhou Ming intended to persuade and educate conservative opponents at first, but warned that bloodshed might follow once nation-building gained momentum.

Zhou Ming’s nation-building plan began with a year-long publicity campaign that won merchants and many city leaders over by promising stronger trade, infrastructure, and security. Fifty-five cities had agreed to join, while many One-Family Cities resisted to protect their rulers’ power.

• Zhou Ming and the negotiators approved a Three-Step Plan to build momentum, establish the nation among some cities, and then expand it, while privately accepting that stubborn holdouts might eventually need to be eliminated.
• The Establish Origin Party used the Hundred Cities Alliance’s newspapers, magazines, and social gatherings to promote nation-building, and merchants enthusiastically supported it for the promised end to repeated road taxes and improved trade protections.
• Family heads in one city debated the benefits of national infrastructure and economic growth against surrendering their right to collect road taxes, with most favoring the gains and some insisting on retaining power.
• Zhou Ming identified forty-three One-Family Cities whose ruling families were especially protective of their authority, and some of those cities banned public discussion and imprisoned merchants petitioning to join.
• After the momentum-building phase, the next step advanced smoothly, and fifty-five cities agreed to join Zhou Ming’s proposed nation.

Zhou Ming founded Ten Thousand Chariots Nation and promised to raise its share of the Hundred Cities Alliance’s GDP by fifteen percentage points in three years. Three years later, after three major economic initiatives, the nation’s GDP share had risen from 61% to 77%, while thirty city-states still remained outside it.

• Zhou Ming founded Ten Thousand Chariots Nation with fifty-five city-states and became its first Head of State.
• Zhou Ming announced that he would increase the member regions’ GDP share of the Hundred Cities Alliance from 61% to more than 75% within three years, drawing widespread skepticism.
• Zhou Ming established the National Infrastructure Construction Bank, which funded roads, railways, airports, industrial parks, reservoirs, and mines across member city-states.
• Zhou Ming expanded exports to the Eastern Yuan Continent, where Jiang Ruonan’s Free and Unfettered Palace became a major customer for warships and construction materials.
• Zhou Ming launched a Spiritual Energy industrial revolution using Soul Stones from the Eastern Yuan Continent, increasing production and transportation efficiency.
• After three years, Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s GDP share reached 77% and its membership grew to eighty-five city-states, while thirty city-states still held out.

Bai Tao refused to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation despite his children warning that Xuan Qing City would face pressure. Zhou Ming explained that the city’s popular support made forced annexation unjustifiable, so Xuan Qing City remained free.

• Bai Ze and Bai Xue urged Bai Tao to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, warning him about the consequences of resisting.
• Bai Tao refused, insisting that Xuan Qing City was satisfied with its life and did not need to be controlled by others.
• After six months passed without action against the city, Yang Lin Kong asked Zhou Ming why the nation had not annexed it.
• Zhou Ming explained that the Bai family’s popular support left the nation without a just cause to intervene, and that ruling the city by force would damage the government’s reputation.
• Zhou Ming decided to leave Xuan Qing City completely free as long as it retained popular support and justice.

Zhou Ming inspected the Sky-Soaring Equipment Manufacturing Factory and learned that its affordable-to-produce flight gear was selling rapidly to cultivators, including students who earned money through energy-replenishment work. He left satisfied that the factory’s success demonstrated the promise of emerging industries and was helping drive wider economic and social change in Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.

• Zhou Ming asked Factory Director Ding about the annual output and production costs of Sky-Soaring Boots and Sky-Soaring Wristguards.
• Factory Director Ding explained that the equipment sold out within days, with wealthy cultivators placing custom orders years in advance.
• The chapter described how cultivators’ high incomes and students’ part-time Spirit Replenishment Work and Energy Replenishment Work made the costly flight equipment accessible to many buyers.
• The demand for Sky-Soaring Sets increased student energy-replenishment work, supplying factories and helping spread spiritual-energy products among ordinary people.
• Zhou Ming judged the factory’s growing output and sales to be proof that emerging industries had a bright future.

Zhan Wenping, a Guang Lei Mountain spy who had built a happy family and settled life in Town Lin City, feared being exposed and forced to leave. His sect ordered him to buy ten Sky-Soaring Sets within three months, leaving him furious and unsure how to obey without drawing the Intelligence Agency’s attention.

• Zhan Wenping reflected on how much he loved his wife, children, and comfortable life in Town Lin City and how strongly he wished to avoid returning to Guang Lei Mountain.
• A contact explained that Immortal Fan Fei’s successful tests of the Sky-Soaring Set had prompted Guang Lei Mountain to order its four agents in Town Lin City to buy ten sets each.
• Zhan Wenping warned that purchasing ten sets at once could expose him to the Town Lin City Intelligence Agency.
• The contact left Zhan Wenping with 10.1 million Spirit Coins and ordered him to deliver ten Sky-Soaring Sets within three months, regardless of the risk.
• Zhan Wenping slammed his fist on the table and cursed the sect for treating outer disciples as expendable, then wondered how he could complete the mission without being exposed.

Zhan Wenping recruited Zheng Qi and his classmates to buy ten Sky-Soaring Sets for him, offering them a large reward. After they delivered the sets to his villa, contact personnel collected them, leaving Zhan Wenping hoping he would not be given another such task.

• Zhan Wenping approached Zheng Qi outside Da Xian Academy and offered him a lucrative deal to buy Sky-Soaring Sets on his behalf.
• Zhan Wenping explained that the shop limited each customer to one set and sold only to eligible cultivators, so he wanted Zheng Qi and local classmates to buy ten sets together.
• Zheng Qi agreed to the deal, expecting to share the reward with his classmates.
• More than twenty days later, Zheng Qi and his classmates bought ten Sky-Soaring Sets and delivered them through various channels to a warehouse at Zhan Wenping's villa.
• Contact personnel loaded the sets into a Spiritual Energy Car and left, while Zhan Wenping muttered that he hoped he would not receive another task like this.

Zhan Wenping was forced by a Guang Lei Mountain contact to purchase a large batch of weapons after the sect threatened his family. He learned the order was meant to help the sect recover from a humiliating defeat by Azure Cloud Mountain and turned to Zheng Qi and purchasing agents again.

• A Guang Lei Mountain contact demanded that Zhan Wenping buy more equipment, and Zhan Wenping tried to quit the sect.
• The contact mocked Zhan Wenping’s mortal wife and threatened his wife and children, forcing him to accept the mission.
• The contact ordered Zhan Wenping to buy ten more Sky-Soaring Sets, three hundred Divine Weapon Brand Spirit Swords, one hundred sets of Heaven Craftsman Brand Spiritual Essence Armor, and five hundred Fine Craft Brand Spiritual Essence Handguns.
• Zhan Wenping realized the sect wanted the Divine Weapon Three-Piece Set after Azure Cloud Mountain disciples used it to defeat more than a hundred Guang Lei Mountain disciples.
• Zhan Wenping contacted Zheng Qi and purchasing agents to acquire the equipment.

Zhou Ming explained to Intelligence Bureau director Ye Feng why he allowed foreign forces to buy the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s refining equipment: the profits would fund superior weapons and widen the nation’s military and economic advantage. Ye Feng abandoned his call to arrest the purchasing agents, while Zhou Ming’s export strategy continued.

• Ye Feng urged Zhou Ming to arrest purchasing agents and spies because foreign forces were buying large quantities of Sky-Soaring Sets and divine weapons.
• Zhou Ming rejected Ye Feng’s arrest list and explained that exporting the equipment would draw wealth from the mountain sects into the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• Zhou Ming argued that profits from each sale could fund more advanced weapons, making the nation’s strength grow faster than that of its customers.
• Zhou Ming described how the sects’ escalating arms purchases could drain their Spirit Coins and force them to sell treasures, Cultivation Methods, and eventually seek work in the nation.
• Ye Feng understood Zhou Ming’s strategy, abandoned his objections, and left the side hall in a cheerful mood.

Mei Qianhong tried to persuade Ying Shiyu to visit their estranged son Zhang Shanhe in Capital City, using the Spirit Fusion Pill and their grandson Zhang Jin’s possible succession as reasons. Ying Shiyu finally agreed to go see his grandson.

• Mei Qianhong packed for a trip to Capital City, but Ying Shiyu refused to visit Zhang Shanhe because of their dispute over the deaths of 124 women and the Flying Tassel Sect’s punishment.
• Mei Qianhong reminded Ying Shiyu that Zhang Shanhe would not sell them Spirit Fusion Pills unless they traveled together.
• Ying Shiyu hesitated when he considered how Spirit Fusion Pills could help his Direct Disciples catch up with the International Student Disciples.
• Mei Qianhong told Ying Shiyu that their grandson Zhang Jin had become an immortal and might come to Flying Cloud Mountain to inherit the sect.
• Ying Shiyu agreed to travel to Capital City to visit Zhang Jin, and Mei Qianhong laughed at his change of heart.

Ying Shiyu and Mei Qianhong reunited with their aging son Zhou Ming and their descendants in Capital City. Zhou Ming urged Ying Shiyu to purge criminals from the Flying Tassel Sect, warning that the nation’s laws and military would eventually destroy the sect if it failed to change.

• Ying Shiyu and Mei Qianhong arrived in Capital City and reunited with Zhou Ming and their descendants at White Egret Palace.
• Mei Qianhong wept when she saw how much Zhou Ming had aged, and the family spent several days growing closer.
• Zhou Ming offered to sell Ying Shiyu Spirit Fusion Pills in bulk if he overhauled Flying Cloud Mountain and purged criminal disciples from the Flying Tassel Sect.
• Ying Shiyu rejected Zhou Ming’s accusations and tore up the evidence file, but Zhou Ming offered to bring witnesses and victims for questioning.
• Zhou Ming warned Ying Shiyu that the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s successor and its fleet of Spiritual Essence Warships could destroy the sect if its lawless conduct continued.
• Zhou Ming asked Ying Shiyu to trust Zhang Jin to reform the sect, and Ying Shiyu fell into contemplation over the future of the Flying Tassel Sect.

Zhou Ming showed Ying Shiyu the industrialized production of Spirit Fusion Pills, persuading him of the value of the National Pill Refining Industry. The factory’s enormous output and low costs left Ying Shiyu stunned as Zhou Ming positioned access to its pills as an advantage for sects allied with Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.

• Ying Shiyu agreed to follow Zhou Ming’s arrangements for Flying Cloud Mountain after considering his son’s contributions and advice.
• Zhou Ming took Ying Shiyu to Heavenly Sun City and showed him the First Pill Refining Factory’s assembly line for Spirit Fusion Pills.
• Ying Shiyu learned that the factory could produce 300,000 pills per day using mostly artificially cultivated ingredients.
• Zhou Ming explained that a bottle cost at most 500 Spirit Coins to produce but sold for 5,000, citing research costs, the pills’ effects, and other medicines in development.
• Ying Shiyu recognized that the factory and its pills could give allied sects a major cultivation advantage, while disrupting traditional pill-refining work.

Red Star Mountain's leaders debated how to preserve their failing sect as the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation drained away its disciples, wealth, and influence. Old Ancestor Yinkui proposed merging with Azure Cloud Mountain, but before the elders could decide, Shen Quan arrived seeking an audience.

• Hongyan Daozu reflected on Red Star Mountain's dwindling disciples, lost tribute, and growing defections to the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• Red Star Mountain's elders argued over relocating the sect or resisting the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, while Hongyan Daozu rejected assassination as ineffective and too dangerous.
• Old Ancestor Yinkui proposed merging with Azure Cloud Mountain, where Red Star Mountain would lose its name and become subordinate.
• A disciple reported that Shen Quan, a former Red Star Mountain disciple and Ten Thousand Chariots Nation ambassador, had come to request an audience.

Shen Quan urged Red Star Mountain to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, arguing that it would gain disciples, financial support, and access to strategic resources while keeping its independence. His proposal left Hongyan Daozu and the elders weighing it against their plan to merge with Azure Cloud Mountain.

• Hongyan Daozu allowed Shen Quan to enter, and the elders learned he had become an immortal.
• Shen Quan proposed that Red Star Mountain join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, prompting the elders to mock and reject him.
• Shen Quan revealed that Red Star Mountain might relocate to Azure Cloud Mountain and be placed on an ordinary mountain rather than an immortal one.
• Old Ancestor Yinkui seized Shen Quan and demanded to know how the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation had learned of the relocation plan.
• Shen Quan described the disciples, subsidies, industries, and purchasing privileges Red Star Mountain could gain by joining, along with the laws and obligations it would accept.
• Shen Quan concluded that Red Star Mountain could keep its home and autonomy while benefiting from the alliance, and the hall fell silent as its members considered his offer.

Shen Quan invited Red Star Mountain’s leaders to visit Flying Cloud Mountain and see how much it had prospered through its alliance with the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation. After the visit, Hongyan Daozu and the others returned shaken by Flying Cloud Mountain’s wealth and growing strength, while Ying Shiyu’s threat left them weighing whether to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.

• Shen Quan offered to take Red Star Mountain’s leaders to Flying Cloud Mountain, and Hongyan Daozu and Old Ancestor Yinkui agreed to inspect it.
• Hongyan Daozu, Old Ancestor Yinkui, and more than ten Red Star Mountain leaders traveled to Flying Cloud Mountain with Shen Quan as their guide and hostage.
• The visitors saw Flying Cloud Mountain’s talented disciples, advanced cultivation facilities, prosperous industries, and thirteen Immortals, and concluded it was close to surpassing Red Star Mountain.
• At a banquet, Ying Shiyu declared that Flying Cloud Mountain planned to destroy Red Star Mountain in two years and take its mountain as the Flying Tassel Sect’s new home.
• Hongyan Daozu and the others returned to Red Star Mountain without retaliating, troubled by the choice of whether to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.

Red Star Mountain debated joining the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, with its elders resisting the arrival of International Student Disciples. After Shen Quan explained their value, Hongyan Daozu agreed to accept them, and Red Star Mountain joined the nation.

• An elder proposed that Red Star Mountain join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, and others argued that they would agree only if the nation stopped sending International Student Disciples.
• Hongyan Daozu summoned Shen Quan to hear the sect's conditions, and Shen Quan challenged the elders' assumptions about the students.
• Shen Quan explained that International Student Disciples were exceptional talents whose insights, methods, and connections greatly benefited affiliated sects.
• Shen Quan warned that Red Star Mountain would fall behind Flying Cloud Mountain if it rejected the students, while offering to respect the sect's refusal if necessary.
• Hongyan Daozu declared that Red Star Mountain would accept International Student Disciples, and the sect officially joined the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.

After Red Star Mountain agreed to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, Zhou Ming considered how to bring the powerful Guang Lei Mountain into the alliance. He rejected conquest as his first choice and ended the chapter still searching for a less destructive way to make it submit.

• Zhou Ming handed responsibility for Red Star Mountain to Shen Quan after Shen secured its agreement to join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• Zhou Ming explained that the International Student Disciple system benefited mortals, expanded sect knowledge, and helped prevent immortals from forming an independent privileged force.
• Zhou Ming chose Guang Lei Mountain as the next target for membership in the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• Intelligence personnel and military representatives reported that Guang Lei Mountain was heavily armed, hostile to the nation, and steadily encroaching on Azure Cloud Mountain.
• Staff officers and an old general urged Zhou Ming to conquer Guang Lei Mountain by force, but he worried about the costs of governing it and the loyalty of Ye Kong, a Guang Lei Mountain elder.
• Zhou Ming sought a relatively peaceful way to make Guang Lei Mountain submit.