Chapter Summaries

Zheng Fa advanced to Foundation Establishment Late Stage after the Fusang Wood blossomed, and Senior Sister Yuan’s bloodline evolved after she swallowed its spiritual dew. A letter from Uncle-Master Pang then revealed that Venerable Tongming would send his Spirit Treasure to aid the Nine Mountains Sect, prompting Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang to reconsider the origins of the Immortal Sect’s cultivation methods.

• Zheng Fa fed spirit materials to the Fusang Wood until it produced a five-colored Thunder Blossom, advancing him to Foundation Establishment Late Stage and greatly expanding his Divine Sense.
• Zheng Fa gave the Fusang Spiritual Dew to Senior Sister Yuan, who transformed into her Azure Luan form as golden flames surrounded her and her bloodline began to evolve.
• The Little Golden Crow offered to recognize Zheng Fa as its master, explaining that it could cultivate Golden Crow True Fire and help the Fusang Wood grow.
• Senior Sister Zhang read Uncle-Master Pang’s letter and explained that Venerable Tongming would send his Spirit Treasure to help hold back Azure Cloud Great Sage.
• Zheng Fa connected the Spirit Transformation Anchor to the oath of Nine Nether and conjectured that the Immortal Sect combined the Demonic Sect Method with the Celestial River Method while abandoning the Immortal-Slaying Method.
• Senior Sister Zhang suggested that Spirit Treasures might develop intelligence through the same principle as Spiritual-Energy Circuits, and Zheng Fa became interested in investigating the idea.

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang discussed her new Spiritual-Energy Circuit adder, while Aunt-Master Huang was reassured that Venerable Tongming would help the Nine Mountains Sect. The chapter ended with the wounded Qian True Person arriving at Thunder Pool to report that the Demon Race had attacked the Thousand Grain Sect.

• Senior Sister Zhang revealed that she had built a Spiritual-Energy Circuit adder using yin and yang as binary switches.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang discussed how fixed Spiritual-Energy Circuits differed from spirit talismans and might support intelligence.
• Aunt-Master Huang and Senior Sister Zhang decided to update Uncle-Master Pang and noted that Venerable Tongming's aid could save the Nine Mountains Sect.
• Aunt-Master Huang and Senior Sister Zhang sensed someone approaching, and Zheng Fa identified Qian True Person of the Thousand Grain Sect from more than a hundred li away.
• Qian True Person reached Zheng Fa's courtyard, knelt, and begged for help after the Demon Race attacked the Thousand Grain Sect.

After the Thousand Grain Sect was destroyed, Qian True Person sought refuge with Zheng Fa and asked the Nine Mountains Sect to avenge his people. Zheng Fa suspected the attack was a trap aimed at his sect and Venerable Tongming, while Qian offered his sect’s cultivation methods in exchange for shelter and quietly planned how to secure his survivors’ future.

• Qian True Person told Zheng Fa that the Demon Race and Fufeng True Person of the Spirit Beast Sect had destroyed the Thousand Grain Sect, leaving only him and the disciples who escaped.
• Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Zhang, and Aunt-Master Huang suspected the survivors had been allowed to flee as part of a scheme connected to Uncle-Master Pang’s meeting with Venerable Tongming.
• Zheng Fa admitted to Qian True Person that the attack might have been connected to the Nine Mountains Sect and promised to inform Uncle-Master Pang so Venerable Tongming could be told.
• Qian True Person offered the Thousand Grain Sect’s secret Spirit Plant methods and asked the Nine Mountains Sect to shelter his group, then asked Zheng Fa to avenge his sect in the future.
• Qian True Person warned his disciples not to resent the Nine Mountains Sect and instructed them to act as loyal members while publicly emphasizing their desire for revenge.
• Senior Sister Zhang told Zheng Fa that Qian True Person’s schemes seemed harmless as they discussed the newly acquired Thousand Grain Secret Method.

Zheng Fa proposed that Spirit Plants might cultivate unconsciously through spiritual energy and seasonal electromagnetic changes. The group agreed to test his theory, and Tang Mudao offered a possible way to obtain the needed magnetic-field data.

• Senior Sister Zhang questioned why Zheng Fa valued the Thousand Grain Secret Method, and Zheng Fa explained that it raised new questions about cultivating Spirit Plants.
• In the modern world, Professor Tian and the others identified season and spiritual energy as the secret method’s key factors.
• Zheng Fa hypothesized that solar-term electromagnetic changes affect plants’ bioelectric currents and act like an unconscious cultivation method.
• Professor Tian suggested simulating seasonal magnetic-field changes to test the theory, while Old Man Bai cautioned that growing Spirit Plants might take time and require specific conditions.
• Tang Lingwu asked how they could find the magnetic-field strength during the solar terms, and Tang Mudao said he might have a way.

Tang Lingwu and the others searched observatory records for electromagnetic signals on solar-term days to test Zheng Fa’s theory. After finding candidate waveforms for Awakening of Insects Lightning and Great Heat, they had their first evidence that the special signals might exist in the Modern World.

• Tang Mudao found public electromagnetic records from observatories, and Zheng Fa proposed comparing signals from solar-term days with those from other days.
• Tang Lingwu led a computer search through the huge collection of records while the group waited for results.
• Zheng Fa arranged a movie night to help Tang Lingwu relax, and Tang Mudao explained that his supposed experimental tricks had begun as a joke.
• The next day, Tang Lingwu revealed that her search had found a signal appearing on Awakening of Insects day in records from five observatories.
• Tang Lingwu also found a matching candidate signal on Great Heat day after comparing the records with the Spiritwood Lightning waveform.

Zheng Fa and his allies learned more about Spiritwood Lightning before Venerable Tongming set out for the Nine Mountains Sect amid a crisis. Azure Cloud Great Sage intercepted him and revealed that the Demon Race had joined forces with the Great Freedom Demon Cult, leaving Zheng Fa and the others facing a much larger threat.

• Zheng Fa and the researchers identified six more special electromagnetic waves, bringing the known Spiritwood Lightning types to eight, while Zheng Fa considered testing them in the Heavenly Stele Realm’s Medicine Garden.
• Xiao Yuying told Zheng Fa she was leaving the Heavenly Stele Realm and gave him a Jade Pendant he could use to contact her; Zheng Fa wondered how to persuade her to study Spiritwood Lightning with them.
• Aunt-Master Huang showed Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang a message in which Venerable Tongming said the Nine Mountains Sect must remain stable and that he would deal with the threat from Azure Cloud Great Sage.
• Venerable Tongming and Uncle-Master Pang traveled toward the Nine Mountains Sect, but Azure Cloud Great Sage stopped their Five-Dragon Heavenly Palace on the way.
• Azure Cloud Great Sage explained that Life-bound Spirit Treasures used the spirits of Demon Race Nascent Souls and revealed that the Demon Race had sent more than one Spirit Transformation cultivator to aid the Great Freedom Demon Cult.

Zheng Fa learned that Senior Sister Zhang had returned to the Nine Mountains Sect to try to awaken its Patriarch, while two Spirit Transformation cultivators threatened the sect. After Aunt-Master Huang stopped Zheng Fa from pursuing her, he appealed to Xiao Yuying with his knowledge of electromagnetic induction, and Zhang Wuyi arrived outside the sealed sect.

• Aunt-Master Huang reported that Uncle-Master Pang suspected the other Spirit Transformation cultivator was the Blood River Ancestor, and Zheng Fa ordered the disciples to retreat into the Thunder Pool or follow her.
• Senior Sister Zhang told Aunt-Master Huang she planned to return to the Nine Mountains Sect and awaken the Patriarch, whom she believed might have lost consciousness during Spirit Transformation.
• Aunt-Master Huang restrained Zheng Fa when he tried to chase after Senior Sister Zhang and gave him the Jade Slips she had left behind.
• After studying Senior Sister Zhang's Spiritual-Energy Circuits, Aunt-Master Huang asked Zheng Fa about his method of entering Spirit Transformation.
• Zheng Fa told Xiao Yuying that his knowledge of electromagnetic induction might help her control the lightning produced by her Magnetic Rail Body, and she listened with interest.
• Senior Sister Zhang reached the Nine Mountains Sect, found its protective formation closed, and identified herself to the Sect Leader.

Senior Sister Zhang returned to the Nine Mountains Sect and revealed that she and Zheng Fa believed the Original Patriarch had entered Spirit Transformation but could not awaken because his method was incomplete. As the elders feared the sect’s shallow heritage and the Blood River Ancestor, Zheng Fa discovered that Aunt-Master Huang’s lethal Fleeting Splendor Method might help complete their plan, while she questioned her past choices.

• Senior Sister Zhang told Master Yuan, Uncle-Master Pang, and the Nine Mountains Patriarch about Spirit Transformation, the Tianhe New Method, and Life-bound Spirit Treasures, explaining her and Zheng Fa’s theory about the Original Patriarch.
• Master Yuan and Uncle-Master Pang celebrated Zheng Fa’s talent, then privately worried that completing the Founder’s method was unlikely and discussed protecting Senior Sister Zhang from the Blood River Ancestor.
• Uncle-Master Pang gave Master Yuan Aunt-Master Huang’s Fleeting Splendor Method, which they believed could forcibly induce Spirit Transformation at the cost of the user’s life.
• Zheng Fa realized Aunt-Master Huang’s method used her meridians to imitate the Nine Mountains Patriarch’s state, though she lacked the strength and Life-bound Spirit Treasure needed to survive it.
• Aunt-Master Huang told Zheng Fa why she had never taught the method to Wuyi and asked whether everything she had done was wrong.

Zheng Fa studied Aunt-Master Huang’s Fleeting Splendor Method and worked to earn Heavenly Merit so he could help Senior Sister Zhang and the others. With Xiao Yuying’s help, he verified six of eight Spiritwood Lightning patterns in the Medicine Garden, then asked the Nursing Home to identify more candidates.

• Zheng Fa studied the Fleeting Splendor Method, then welcomed Xiao Yuying and Senior Sister Yuan to the Nine Mountains Sect stronghold.
• Zheng Fa asked Senior Sister Yuan to stay and help him earn Heavenly Merit, and Xiao Yuying agreed to assist while reserving the right to escape danger.
• Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Yuan, and Aunt-Master Huang earned more than twenty thousand Heavenly Merit, while Aunt-Master Huang asked Zheng Fa to review her pleas for aid to other sects and cultivators.
• Zheng Fa brought Xiao Yuying to the Medicine Garden, where she sensed the electromagnetic differences in his Spiritwood Lightning and found corresponding changes for six of the eight patterns.
• Zheng Fa asked the Nursing Home to find candidate electromagnetic waves for the remaining Spiritwood Lightning patterns, and Old Man Bai proposed showing the outside world their value.

Zheng Fa and his companions used Evergreen Talismans to make Rainbow Mountain burst into spring, hoping to attract the authorities and begin cooperative research. Three days later, a woman arrived with a detailed file on Zheng Fa and his companions.

• Tang Mudao advised Zheng Fa to respect social order, state his purpose, and demonstrate his value if he sought cooperative research.
• Zheng Fa decided to approach the authorities, and Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu agreed to stand with him despite the changes it could bring.
• The guesthouse owner livestreamed as Rainbow Mountain suddenly bloomed, with trees, grass, birds, and beasts awakening amid the winter cold.
• Zheng Fa, Old Man Bai, Tang Mudao, and Tang Lingwu scattered Evergreen Talismans across the mountain and waited for someone to contact them.
• Three days later, a woman arrived at Rainbow Mountain with files detailing Zheng Fa's and his companions' histories.

Director Yang and her driver investigated the Nursing Home, where Zheng Fa revealed his supernatural abilities and offered two research proposals. They left carrying the proposals and a sample of peas, hoping the residents genuinely wanted cooperation.

• Director Yang told her driver that the Nursing Home’s unexplained abilities had prompted the authorities to prepare contingency plans, and she suspected Old Man Bai was behind them.
• Tang Mudao welcomed Director Yang and Mr. Chen, then showed them the residents working on research, including crops growing in winter and Tang Lingwu floating in midair.
• Zheng Fa gave Director Yang proposals on special electromagnetic signals during the Twenty-Four Solar Terms and an artificial-intelligence circuit, and said the group was researching immortal cultivation.
• Zheng Fa made himself, Director Yang, and Mr. Chen invisible, then took them on a rapid aerial tour of Capital City.
• Director Yang left with the proposals and a bottle of peas, telling her driver that they could only hope Zheng Fa and the others truly wanted to cooperate.

Zheng Fa established a cooperative relationship with the authorities, who isolated and protected Rainbow Mountain while offering resources and support. In the Heavenly Stele Realm, he and his companions still had no news of Senior Sister Zhang and the others.

• Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu noticed that officials had isolated Rainbow Mountain, while Tang Lingwu's father and Old Man Bai's daughter received unexpected favors from higher-ups.
• Director Yang returned, reported that Zheng Fa's peas had helped an elderly patient undergo surgery, and introduced the Liaison Group and a protected area around Rainbow Mountain.
• Zheng Fa accepted cooperation on Spiritwood Lightning, Spirit Plants, and agricultural research, requesting access to all experimental data and reports.
• In the Heavenly Stele Realm, Zheng Fa, Aunt-Master Huang, and Senior Sister Yuan had earned more than twenty thousand Heavenly Merit points but still had no news from Senior Sister Zhang and the others.

Zheng Fa inherited the Heavenly Stele Realm and learned that he could shelter the Nine Mountains Sect but could not yet move the stele to rescue Senior Sister Zhang and the others. He used the Lesser God-Investiture Register to summon Zhang Wuyi, creating a way to speak with her remotely and share what he had learned.

• Aunt-Master Huang told Zheng Fa that messages from the Nine Mountains Sect were dwindling, might be forged, and offered no reliable confirmation that Senior Sister Zhang and the others were safe.
• At the Nine Mountains Sect, Senior Sister Zhang returned from the summit exhausted after failing to contact Founder, while Master Yuan busied himself preparing another play.
• The Golden Seal transformed as the tombstone became a blank scroll, and Zheng Fa received fragmented memories from the Heavenly Stele Realm's previous owner.
• Zheng Fa learned that he had become the realm's successor and could control its entrance and Thunder Pool, but moving the stele required him to refine the Sun-Moon Bell.
• Zheng Fa explained that the Lesser God-Investiture Register could preserve twenty-four people's blood essence and Divine Souls as gods in the realm, though their lives would be under his control.
• After Aunt-Master Huang urged him to trust Senior Sister Zhang's faith in him, Zheng Fa wrote Zhang Wuyi's name on the register, summoned her, and began discussing how to share knowledge with her remotely.

Zheng Fa explained that the Sun-Moon Bell had once controlled cultivators through the Divine Way Method, and that it might still be a dangerous, sleeping Spirit Treasure. After testing it with his Positive-Negative Five-Element Divine Light, he found that it seemed to mistake him for someone familiar and cling to him.

• Zheng Fa showed Senior Sister Zhang images revealing that the Sun-Moon Bell bore Composite Talisman Diagrams and might be alive.
• Zheng Fa explained that the Sun-Moon Bell had used cultivators as nourishment, while the Heavenly Venerable eventually erased its Heavenly Dao rules to stop it.
• Zheng Fa proposed studying the Immortal-Slayer Method and comparing the bell with the Tianhe New Method to understand the Founder's condition.
• Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Yuan, and Aunt-Master Huang found the Heavenly Stele Realm empty and went to the Medicine Garden, where he worried that improving Spiritwood Lightning might awaken the bell.
• Zheng Fa struck the Sun-Moon Bell with his Positive-Negative Five-Element Divine Light, and it woke, flew to him, and rubbed against his shoulder.
• Senior Sister Yuan joked that the apparently powerful Sun-Moon Bell looked cheap and worthless.

Zheng Fa learned that the Sun-Moon Bell had been severely damaged but still controlled the Thunder Pool and could alter the passage of time, and he considered inscribing his own Spiritual-Energy Circuits onto it. After meeting Xiao Yuying, Yan Wushuang, and Old Han outside the Heavenly Stele, he discussed using the Heavenly Stele Realm and building trade ties with Yan Wushuang before preparing to retrieve his fellow disciples.

• Zheng Fa discovered that the Sun-Moon Bell’s intelligence had been reduced to instinct, though it could move the Thunder Pool and manipulate time at a cost in Heavenly Merit.
• Zheng Fa emerged from the Heavenly Stele and found Xiao Yuying, Yan Wushuang, Old Han, and other cultivators waiting outside after everyone had been expelled from the realm.
• Old Han told Zheng Fa that Venerable Tianhe’s Life-bound Spirit Treasure had disappeared from the Celestial River Sect’s Heavenly Stele Realm after the sect betrayed its Founder.
• Yan Wushuang asked to use Zheng Fa’s Heavenly Stele Realm as a refuge for the Wushuang Association, and Zheng Fa proposed discussing a trade partnership that would benefit the Nine Mountains Sect.
• Yan Wushuang left with Old Han, while Zheng Fa invited Xiao Yuying into the realm and said he would retrieve his fellow disciples before returning to the Nine Mountains Sect.

Sun Daoyu and the Nine Mountains Sect disciples feared they had been abandoned in the Thunder Pool, but Senior Sister Yuan arrived to bring them back. Zheng Fa welcomed them to the newly named Nine Mountains Realm and began laying out reforms as he led them home.

• Sun Daoyu encouraged the dispirited disciples to stay in the Thunder Pool and protect the Nine Mountains Sect's people, while Zhou Ganyuan recalled his master's words.
• A doorway opened in the Thunder Pool, and Senior Sister Yuan announced that Zheng Fa had secured the Heavenly Stele Realm and that they could return to the Nine Mountains Sect.
• Qian True Person entered the doorway after Senior Sister Yuan told him Zheng Fa wanted him to help research farming.
• Zheng Fa renamed the Heavenly Stele Realm the Nine Mountains Realm and announced reforms to the Talisman Debate Pavilion and General Affairs Pavilion.
• Zheng Fa led the disciples onto a Rainbow Bridge and told them they were going home.

The Blood River Ancestor’s arrival transformed the world around Nine Mountains Sect, while the Sect Leader and Uncle-Master Pang feared the sect could not withstand what was coming. As Zheng Fa and Xiao Yuying traveled back with the Sun-Moon Bell, the Blood River Ancestor appeared before the sect and prepared to attack, seeking Zhang Wuyi and Zheng Fa.

• Uncle-Master Pang and the Sect Leader witnessed blood rivers alter the landscape and discussed the Blood River Ancestor’s growing influence on the Heavenly Dao.
• Uncle-Master Pang found Zhang Wuyi studying the Mountain-River True-Form Talisman and warned her that the Blood River Ancestor’s threat was worsening.
• The Azure Cloud Great Sage told Venerable Tongming that he had cooperated with the Great Freedom Devil Cult for the chance to obtain Great Freedom Heaven and survive Spiritual-Energy Decline.
• Zheng Fa and Xiao Yuying traveled toward Nine Mountains Sect as Xiao Yuying explained that commanding a Grotto-Heaven Spirit Treasure made Zheng Fa a person of immense fortune.
• Venerable Tongming learned that the Great Freedom Devil Ancestor had singled out Zhang Wuyi and Zheng Fa, then saw the Blood River Ancestor appear at Nine Mountains Sect with two Immortal Swords.

Blood River Ancestor attacked the Nine Mountains Sect to force it to hand over Zhang Wuyi, breaking its protective formation and defeating the sect’s defenses with ease. As his giant blood-colored palm reached for her, Zhang Wuyi called on the Founder for help.

• The Sect Leader and Uncle-Master Pang activated the Nine Mountains Sect’s formation as Blood River Ancestor appeared, and Pang set off to protect Zhang Wuyi.
• Blood River Ancestor’s flying sword struck Venerable Tongming a thousand miles away, and the two clashed as Blood River Ancestor demanded that the sect surrender Zhang Wuyi.
• Blood River Ancestor revealed that he was threatening the Nine Mountains Sect by attacking Tongming, then broke the sect’s formation with his other Immortal Sword.
• Blood River Ancestor demanded Zhang Wuyi, and she appeared before the Sect Leader and Uncle-Master Pang as he prepared to seize her.
• The Sect Leader and Uncle-Master Pang tried to stop Blood River Ancestor’s giant palm, but Zhang Wuyi rose into the air and called for the Founder’s help.

Senior Sister Zhang fused with the Nine Mountains and the Mountain-River True-Form Talismans to fight Blood River Ancestor, while Venerable Tongming and Azure Cloud Great Sage took opposing sides. After Senior Sister Zhang held out for days, Zheng Fa arrived with the Thunder Pool and Sun-Moon Bell, forcing Blood River Ancestor to flee; Venerable Tongming then warned that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had emerged.

• Senior Sister Zhang merged with the Nine Mountains and Mountain-River True-Form Talismans, displaying Spirit Transformation-level power against Blood River Ancestor.
• Venerable Tongming joined Senior Sister Zhang against Blood River Ancestor, while Azure Cloud Great Sage eventually sided with Blood River Ancestor and fought Venerable Tongming.
• Azure Cloud Great Sage later let Venerable Tongming escape, and Senior Sister Zhang endured Blood River Ancestor’s attacks for several days as her power faded.
• Senior Sister Zhang revealed she was waiting for Zheng Fa, who arrived with the Thunder Pool and Sun-Moon Bell and struck Blood River Ancestor with lightning.
• Senior Sister Zhang suppressed one of Blood River Ancestor’s flying swords with the Nine Mountains Seal, and Zheng Fa swallowed it through a portal as Blood River Ancestor fled.
• Venerable Tongming returned and warned the Nine Mountains Sect that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had emerged.

After driving off Blood River Ancestor, the Nine Mountains Sect refused to rejoin the Hundred Immortals Alliance and prepared to retreat into the Nine Mountains Realm. Senior Sister Zhang collapsed from her injuries, and Zheng Fa began arranging the evacuation of the sect, its disciples, and willing mortals.

• Venerable Tongming warned the Nine Mountains Sect that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had entered Xuanwei and asked the Hundred Immortals Alliance to prepare for it.
• Zheng Fa told Venerable Tongming that the Nine Mountains Sect would withdraw from the alliance and move entirely into the Nine Mountains Realm.
• Aunt-Master Huang criticized the alliance for neglecting the Nine Mountains Sect, while Zheng Fa explained that the sect could not afford to involve itself in the coming conflict.
• After Venerable Tongming departed, Senior Sister Zhang fainted from exhaustion, and Zheng Fa carried her into the Nine Mountains Realm to recover.
• Zheng Fa asked the Sect Leader, Uncle-Master Pang, and Aunt-Master Huang to retrieve dismissed disciples and help willing mortals and the disciples' families relocate.