Chapter Summaries

Zhou Ming and the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation planned to weaken Guang Lei Mountain by winning over the mortal cities it ruled. After hearing Ye Feng describe the oppression and economic failures in those cities, Zhou Ming ordered a campaign to take them all within three to five years.

• Zhou Ming concluded that the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation needed to unify the Central Yuan Continent and eliminate threats to its future expansion.
• Ye Feng presented a report detailing Guang Lei Mountain's harsh rule, failed economic policies, and widespread abuses across its ninety-one mortal cities.
• Ye Feng explained that these injustices had bred deep resentment, despite warnings from Guang Lei Mountain's Ye Kong going unheeded.
• The Ten Thousand Chariots Nation proposed helping border cities prosper and sending cultivators to protect them from oppression and retaliation.
• Zhou Ming approved the plan and ordered the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation to strive to take all of Guang Lei Mountain's mortal cities within three to five years.

Zhou Ming approved Li Daoshi’s diplomatic plan to persuade Guang Lei Mountain to join Ten Thousand Chariots Nation while covert agents prepared a separate subversion campaign. Li Daoshi agreed to serve as envoy and take his immortal wife along, and his mission would expose some of Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s trump cards to convince Guang Lei Mountain to submit.

• Zhou Ming decided to pursue an open diplomatic offensive alongside the covert plan to weaken Guang Lei Mountain, using generous offers first and threats and displays of strength if they refused.
• Yang Ze suggested Li Daoshi as envoy because he was capable and knew Guang Lei Mountain, his hometown, well.
• Li Daoshi received the assignment and worried that Guang Lei Mountain might kill him if he angered its people.
• Li Daoshi’s wife insisted on accompanying him to protect him, and he agreed after learning he could not dissuade her.
• Li Daoshi drafted a diplomatic action plan, and Zhou Ming approved it despite concerns that it would reveal too many of Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s trump cards.

Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s delegation arrived at Guang Lei Mountain, where Ye Kong led Seventh Mountain’s welcome. The lavish gifts delighted the receiving elders, while Li Daoshi reflected on the sect’s pride and its failure to recognize the strength of wealthy mortals.

• Ye Kong defended mortals and warned that immortals who forgot their humanity risked falling into the demonic path.
• Ye Kong and Seventh Mountain’s elders received Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s delegation, while two Spiritual Essence Warships remained on guard nearby.
• Li Daoshi introduced himself and his wife, then presented the eleven welcoming personnel with valuable gifts.
• Ye Kong’s elders eagerly exchanged gifts for better-fitting items, and Ye Kong ultimately accepted his own chest.

Li Daoshi led the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation delegation to Guang Lei Mountain, winning over its elders with gifts and generous hospitality before meeting Ascension Void Dao Ancestor to propose cooperation. The Dao Ancestor rejected the offer, but Li Daoshi presented profitable goods and the Spirit Fusion Pill, leaving the hall shaken and tempted.

• After receiving gifts, Seventh Mountain's elders and disciples warmly welcomed Li Daoshi's delegation, and Ye Kong stopped disciples from competing to serve them.
• Zhu Chang tried to lure the delegation to Sixth Mountain, but Li Daoshi gave him a chest of gifts and stayed on Seventh Mountain.
• Elders from Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Mountains visited Li Daoshi, who gave each of them a chest of gifts.
• Ascension Void Dao Ancestor summoned the delegation to Guang Lei Grand Hall after their growing influence alarmed him.
• Li Daoshi proposed stable relations, trade, and cooperation, but Ascension Void Dao Ancestor refused, suspecting Ten Thousand Chariots Nation intended to conquer Guang Lei Mountain.
• Li Daoshi displayed Spirit Brocade, Purple Mother Crystal, the Spirit Fusion Pill, and other goods, prompting the hall to recognize the pill's cultivation benefits and the potential profits of cooperation.

Guang Lei Mountain debated the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s offer of cooperation, with Ye Kong seeing it as a prelude to conquest. After the sect declined to cooperate for now, it agreed to send a return delegation, and Ye Kong was chosen to lead it.

• Guang Lei Mountain’s elders argued over whether cooperation with the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation would bring wealth or lead to the sect’s annexation.
• Ye Kong told Old Grandpa that he would fight for Guang Lei Mountain if attacked, and Old Grandpa advised him to wait and assess the situation.
• Ascension Void Dao Ancestor ended the debate and later joined most elders in deciding that Guang Lei Mountain should not cooperate for now.
• Ascension Void Dao Ancestor told Li Daoshi that the sect needed more time, and Li Daoshi proposed exchanges and a return visit to build mutual understanding.
• Guang Lei Mountain agreed to send a delegation to the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, and Ye Kong volunteered to lead it.

Ye Kong’s ten-day inspection of the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s factories and academy shattered his confidence in Guang Lei Mountain’s ability to compete with mortal technology and institutions. As he continued toward the capital, Old Grandpa urged him to learn the nation’s intentions rather than attack its leader, leaving Ye Kong to face an uncertain attempt at negotiation.

• Ye Kong watched the Sky-Soaring Passenger Plane fly at three times the speed of sound and questioned the value of becoming an immortal, while Old Grandpa urged him to trust immortals’ potential.
• In Town Lin City, Ye Kong saw mass-produced Spirit Swords, advanced Spiritual Essence Cannon manufacturing, and Da Xian Academy, and concluded that Guang Lei Mountain could not match the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• During visits to four more cities, Ye Kong witnessed large-scale mining, mechanized industries, and an enormous pill-refining factory, and his shock turned to despair.
• Ye Kong asked Old Grandpa how Guang Lei Mountain could survive, and Old Grandpa described the nation’s rise as a historical force that could not be reversed.
• Ye Kong considered confronting the nation’s leader, but Old Grandpa warned that the nation’s system would survive and an attack would hasten Guang Lei Mountain’s destruction.
• Old Grandpa advised Ye Kong to meet the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s upper ranks in the capital and learn their intentions, and Ye Kong accepted this as his only option.

Ye Kong visited Red Star Mountain and witnessed Sky-Soaring Battle Armor let two Core Solidification Stage immortals defeat a Spirit Manifestation Stage ancestor. After discovering Red Star Mountain's preparations to destroy Guang Lei Mountain, he confronted its leaders, and Zhou Ming revealed that Ye Kong himself was his real purpose.

• Ye Kong traveled to Red Star Mountain to meet Zhang Shanhe and watched two armored immortals drive off Old Ancestor Yinkui.
• Ying Shiyu and Zhou Ming discussed the Sky-Soaring Battle Armor's weapons and trade-offs while Old Ancestor Yinkui assessed its power.
• Ye Kong recognized that Red Star Mountain was preparing to attack Guang Lei Mountain and had gathered detailed information about its defenses.
• Ye Kong angrily challenged the gathered leaders for their plans and their pretense toward Guang Lei Mountain.
• Zhou Ming told Ye Kong that his real purpose had been Ye Kong himself.

Zhou Ming tried to persuade Ye Kong to help Guang Lei Mountain join the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, threatening the sect’s destruction if he refused. Imprisoned for three days, Ye Kong heard the Old Grandpa urge him to seek a peaceful merger and save as many disciples as possible.

• Zhou Ming explained that the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation wanted Guang Lei Mountain’s mortal cities, then offered Ye Kong leadership of the sect if he helped bring about its merger.
• Zhou Ming threatened to detain Ye Kong and kill Guang Lei Mountain’s disciples if he rejected his alternatives, while Old Ancestor Yinkui sealed Ye Kong’s cultivation.
• Ye Kong was imprisoned in the Immortal Trapping Cage for three days and considered whether to cooperate, escape, or seek revenge.
• The Old Grandpa advised Ye Kong to feign agreement, return to the sect, and persuade its members to merge peacefully while minimizing losses.

Ye Kong helped Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s allies take Guang Lei Mountain after persuading Mountains Six through Ten to turn against the ruling first five mountains. He became the mountain’s new leader, insisting he would restore its fortunes despite the losses it had suffered.

• Ye Kong and the forces of Flying Cloud Mountain and Red Star Mountain captured Guang Lei Mountain, killing its three Spirit Manifestation Stage ancestors and imprisoning the surviving elders and immortals.
• Ye Kong’s proposal to cooperate with Ten Thousand Chariots Nation was rejected by the first five mountains, driving Mountains Six through Ten to unite behind him.
• Ye Kong persuaded the latter five mountains to help the invasion, promising them equal shares of resources and protection for Guang Lei Mountain’s immortal mountains and Spirit Veins.
• The allied forces crushed resistance from the first five mountains, while Flying Cloud Mountain and Red Star Mountain copied Guang Lei Mountain’s cultivation manuals and Ten Thousand Chariots Nation took its ninety-one cities.
• Ye Kong visited the imprisoned Ascension Void Dao Ancestor, who blamed him for destroying Guang Lei Mountain’s foundation, and Ye Kong vowed to restore the sect and spared his life.

Zhou Ming completed the integration of Central Yuan Continent after Azure Cloud Mountain joined the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation without resistance. Having handed leadership to Yang Lin, he prepared to travel to Eastern Yuan Continent and confront Jiang Ruonan.

• Ying Shiyu, Hongyan Daozu, and Ye Kong urged Zhou Ming to destroy Azure Cloud Mountain, and he agreed to send an envoy with an ultimatum.
• Hongping Daozu and Azure Cloud Mountain accepted the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation's offer, frustrating Ying Shiyu, Hongyan Daozu, and Ye Kong, who had hoped to seize the mountain's cultivation manuals.
• Zhou Ming reassured Ye Kong that the National Library would collect and share cultivation manuals from all affiliated sects.
• Zhou Ming declared the integration of Central Yuan Continent complete, bringing its cities, population, Four Great Sects, and Spirit Vein under the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation.
• Zhou Ming appointed Yang Lin as Chief and prepared to go to Eastern Yuan Continent to settle matters with Jiang Ruonan.

Zhou Ming arrived at Jiang Ruonan’s Free and Unfettered Paradise Palace intending to earn her trust before killing her, but discovered that her extravagant projects had emptied her treasury and that her rule had no basic taxation system. He secured authority to address the financial crisis, setting up a purge that could target Jiang Ruonan’s own servants.

• Zhou Ming traveled to the Eastern Yuan Continent to eliminate Jiang Ruonan, whose power and stealth made her a difficult target.
• Zhou Ming saw the vast Free and Unfettered Paradise Palace and learned of Jiang Ruonan’s extravagant projects and the laborers who had died building them.
• Jiang Ruonan offered Zhou Ming a life-extending pill, then drained the vitality from two women who mocked him.
• Zhou Ming examined Jiang Ruonan’s account books and discovered that the Free and Unfettered Palace’s treasury was empty.
• Zhou Ming identified the lack of a taxation system as a fundamental cause of the financial crisis and warned Jiang Ruonan that fixing it would require killing people.
• Jiang Ruonan granted Zhou Ming authority to recover the money, and he began forming a plan.

Over the following year, Zhou Ming used the Purification Bureau to purge the Free and Unfettered Palace, separate its rule from the mortal world, and restore its depleted treasury. After clashing with Jiang Ruonan over the purges, he won her over with efficient construction and public amusements, while she began considering ways to restore his youth.

• Zhou Ming’s Purification Bureau executed Palace vermin and rebellious disciples, while his Separation of Immortals and Mortals policy returned mortal cities to self-governance and filled the Money Vault with more than eight hundred billion Spirit Coins.
• Jiang Ruonan confronted Zhou Ming over the deaths of her trusted followers, and he exposed their crimes and her lack of genuine allies before the Heart-Devouring Gu struck him with severe pain.
• After Jiang Ruonan disappeared for over three months, Zhou Ming ended conscripted labor and halted her costly projects, freeing more than one hundred million laborers.
• Jiang Ruonan returned and accepted Zhou Ming’s proposals to hire mechanized construction teams and use the Spiritual Essence Fleet to blast out her artificial lake.
• Zhou Ming helped Jiang Ruonan turn a maze and a Disney amusement park into public attractions that earned money, and she offered to refine a Yang-Enhancing Pill so he could serve her longer.
• Zhou Ming refused the pill and told Jiang Ruonan not to defy fate or kill people for his sake, while she secretly began thinking about restoring his youth.

As Zhou Ming grew frail, Jiang Ruonan tried to obtain Yang-Enhancing Pills by slaughtering mortal cities, but his precautions stopped her. He took her to see the completed Thousand Layer Tower, where she lit all one thousand floors and watched fireworks before Zhou Ming asked her to stay forever.

• Jiang Ruonan tried to refine Yang-Enhancing Pills by destroying a city, but a Free and Unfettered Palace elder stopped her on Zhou Ming's orders.
• Jiang Ruonan attempted to find an unguarded city, but Zhou Ming's people intercepted her each time, so she went to Feng Luo Continent instead.
• Jiang Ruonan returned with a hidden Yang-Enhancing Pill, but Zhou Ming told her that the Thousand Layer Tower had been completed and invited her to visit it on Lightless Day.
• Jiang Ruonan poured her mental power into the tower's crystal sphere and lit all one thousand floors, surpassing the elders' achievements.
• Zhou Ming took Jiang Ruonan to the tower's summit, where they watched fireworks across the mortal world, and she thanked him for arranging the spectacle.
• Zhou Ming told Jiang Ruonan to stay there forever.

Zhou Ming sealed Jiang Ruonan inside the Demon Suppression Tower, but she responded by declaring her love for him and keeping him close. After months of failed attempts to escape, Zhou Ming faced a new danger when someone entered the tower.

• Zhou Ming explained that the Demon Suppression Tower blocked spiritual energy and sealed Jiang Ruonan inside, leaving her rejected by the world.
• Jiang Ruonan cried, then told Zhou Ming she loved him and used a Yang-Enhancing Pill to restore his vitality so they could live together as husband and wife.
• Zhou Ming considered suicide to leave the instance, but Jiang Ruonan stayed close and watched him constantly.
• For three months, Zhou Ming played the role of a loving husband, but Jiang Ruonan revealed that the Heart-Devouring Gu let her sense when he moved too far away.
• The Demon Suppression Tower shook, and someone opened the first-floor gate before quickly shutting it again.

Gao Xiuzhen forced her way into the Demon Suppression Tower to rescue Zhou Ming, but he could not leave Jiang Ruonan without suffering the heartbreak tied to her. After crossing the tower’s threshold, he collapsed and died, ending the instance.

• Gao Xiuzhen learned that Zhou Ming had supposedly died sealing the demon, fought the tower’s guards, and rallied the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation to demand his rescue.
• Gao Xiuzhen returned with a Spiritual Essence Fleet, threatened to bombard the Demon Suppression Tower, and secured permission to enter alone without spiritual energy or weapons.
• Gao Xiuzhen found Zhou Ming on the 707th floor and declared she would stay with him, but Zhou Ming hesitated because Jiang Ruonan remained inside.
• Gao Xiuzhen fought and bound Jiang Ruonan, and Zhou Ming began leaving with her despite Jiang Ruonan pleading for him to stay.
• Zhou Ming crossed the tower’s threshold, suffered overwhelming heart pain, and died after asking Gao Xiuzhen to stop hurting Jiang Ruonan and let go of hatred.
• The system announced that the instance character had died and that Zhou Ming was exiting the instance.

After the Spirit Essence Continent run ended with an F rating, Zhou Ming learned that the system judged him mainly by Plane Analysis, which his character Zhang Shanhe barely increased. The system promised that fully analyzing the plane could eventually let Zhou Ming cultivate in a Domain Space in reality and bring real-instance abilities into the real world.

• Zhou Ming woke beside his wife and recalled the pain of Zhang Shanhe's heart being destroyed by the Heart-Devouring Gu, resolving to seek a body with exceptional aptitude in the next run.
• Zhou Ming checked the run results and saw that Zhang Shanhe had gained vast wealth, prestige, descendants, and achievements but contributed only 0.1% to Plane Analysis, earning an F rating.
• Zhou Ming complained that the system's rating depended almost entirely on Plane Analysis and noted that real instances yielded few Achievement Points compared with farming other games.
• The system explained that spiritual cultivation could not currently work in reality because its laws prevented Spiritual Essence Particles and mental power from affecting matter.
• The system told Zhou Ming that 100% Plane Analysis could create a Domain Space for cultivation and might eventually let it transform reality, leaving him tempted by the prospect.

After resting in reality, Zhou Ming used his advanced technology to cure his infant son’s fever and reassured Su Yuxiang about his inventions. That night, he entered the Spirit Essence Continent instance again, ready to seek a talented body and begin a fresh cultivation run.

• Zhou Ming chose to retain the profound memories from his previous instance rather than erase them.
• Zhou Ming cared for his family while his businesses prospered and the Technology Tree Website drew covert attention from major powers.
• When Zhou Yuhu developed a high fever, Zhou Ming tested his blood and used a Material Printer to produce Nanomachine treatment fluid, which quickly lowered the fever.
• Su Yuxiang questioned Zhou Ming about his technology, then claimed the gold rings produced as waste; Zhou Ming agreed, and she threatened him for showing off.
• After resting for three days in reality, Zhou Ming entered the Spirit Essence Continent instance and planned to find a body with exceptional aptitude.

Zhou Ming searched the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation for a wealthy family and an infant with peerless aptitude, passing up many candidates while reflecting on Zhang Shanhe’s growing legacy. In Free City-State Xuan Qing City, he finally found a boy with aptitude seen only once in a hundred million and immediately chose to enter him.

• Zhou Ming set strict requirements for his next match: a well-off family, extraordinary aptitude, and preferably an infant boy with no complicated past.
• He spent more than a year searching across the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation, rejecting candidates for poverty, insufficient talent, or unwanted complications.
• Zhou Ming missed the chance to match a city lord’s highly talented unborn daughter, then found no better candidate for six or seven months as the system complained.
• While searching more than two hundred cities, Zhou Ming discovered that Zhang Shanhe had become a revered national saint, commemorated across the country each year.
• In Free City-State Xuan Qing City, Zhou Ming found that Lan Zhixi was about to give birth to a boy with aptitude seen only once in a hundred million, and he immediately pounced to match him.

At three years old, Zhou Ming reflected on his hidden Myriad Spirit Body and the poor state of Xuan Qing City, where he had been reborn as Bai Feiyang. He decided to use his spare years before cultivation to help the city grow wealthy and fund his future rise.

• Zhou Ming was born as Bai Feiyang, the long-awaited male heir of the Bai family in Xuan Qing City.
• After three years, Zhou Ming recalled that an aptitude test had mistaken his rare Myriad Spirit Body for an ordinary mortal physique, allowing him to conceal his talent.
• Zhou Ming assessed Xuan Qing City's poverty, citing its remote location, poor transport, weak industries, and low dried-fruit processing capacity.
• Zhou Ming realized that improved factories, better roads, and tourism could greatly increase Xuan Qing City's revenue and expand sales of Xuan Qing Fruit.
• Zhou Ming resolved to guide his family toward prosperity so he could afford cultivation resources and pursue his path as a genius.

Three-year-old Zhou Ming gave Bai Ze a detailed plan to develop Xuan Qing City through improved Xuan Qing Fruit processing, a highway, investment, and tourism. Bai Ze praised the proposal, and Zhou Ming asked him to keep its authorship secret so people would not be frightened by his intelligence.

• Zhou Ming privately gave Bai Ze his illustrated five-year development plan for Xuan Qing City.
• Bai Ze was impressed by Zhou Ming’s shelling-machine designs and proposal to build a highway by exchanging Xuan Qing Fruit for materials and mobilizing the city’s residents.
• Zhou Ming argued that Xuan Qing City should attract investment and develop tourism, while avoiding gray industries that could draw the Ten Thousand Chariots Nation’s attention.
• Bai Ze praised the proposal and promised to study it, believing Zhou Ming could bring great glory to Xuan Qing City.
• Zhou Ming asked Bai Ze to claim the plan as his own, and Bai Ze agreed to keep the secret after Zhou Ming kissed him.