Chapter Summaries

After Xiao Yuying urged Zheng Fa to avoid isolating the Nine Mountains Sect from the wider cultivation world, he visited the recovering Senior Sister Zhang and learned the cost of her Spirit Transformation power. He proposed reforms to spread knowledge and reward research, and Senior Sister Zhang heard him out as the sect prepared to withdraw and rebuild.

• Xiao Yuying gave Zheng Fa books on electromagnetism and warned him that isolation could leave cultivators and sects stagnant, then departed the Nine Mountains Realm.
• Zheng Fa visited Senior Sister Zhang, who had awakened from her injuries, and caught Senior Sister Yuan pinching her cheeks.
• Senior Sister Zhang explained that the Founder's true body had perished and that she had used the Founder's Spirit Treasure and the Mountain-River True-Form Talisman to wield Spirit Transformation strength, badly injuring herself.
• Senior Sister Zhang said Nine Mountains could likely be moved inside, and she and Zheng Fa discussed how Life-bound Spirit Treasures could preserve a cultivator's original nature.
• Zheng Fa proposed reforming the Talisman Debate Pavilion and General Affairs Pavilion, sharing prior knowledge, educating mortals, and rewarding disciples for research; Senior Sister Zhang listened and recognized it as a new Dao Path for clever people.

Zheng Fa planned reforms for the Nine Mountains Realm, including education, research, immigration, and agriculture, while Senior Sister Zhang and Qian True Person agreed to help. The chapter ended with Zheng Fa turning to the modern world to find agricultural expertise.

• Senior Sister Zhang agreed to prepare Talisman Debate Pavilion textbooks and help teach disciples while Zheng Fa pursued broader reforms.
• Zheng Fa proposed settling newcomers on nearby islands, trading with Yan Wushuang and Venerable Tongming, and recruiting skilled people through an entry examination.
• Zheng Fa appointed Qian True Person to oversee an Agricultural Affairs Office and showed him plans for thunder techniques, Spirit Plant cultivation, and plant heredity.
• Zheng Fa assigned the Agricultural Affairs Office to test cultivation methods, develop food crops for the Nine Mountains Realm, and train agricultural specialists with help from Uncle-Master Pang's lineage.
• Zheng Fa called Team Leader Yang in the modern world to request agricultural experts.

Zheng Fa welcomed Elder Hou, his childhood idol, who came to request Nursing Home rice seeds for crop-breeding research rather than treatment. Zheng Fa agreed to support the work in exchange for research data and teaching materials, and proposed a separate project to investigate breeding spiritual staple crops.

• Group Leader Yang contacted Zheng Fa about Elder Hou's urgent visit, and Zheng Fa invited him to the Nursing Home.
• Zheng Fa welcomed Elder Hou and learned that he wanted rice seeds for research into improving mainstream crops and food security.
• Zheng Fa agreed to provide support if Elder Hou's team shared its research data and compiled breeding materials suited to cultivation under spiritual energy.
• Zheng Fa proposed genetic and hybridization research on peas and spiritual plants to develop staple food for cultivators.
• Group Leader Yang went to report and mobilize resources, while Elder Hou inspected the experimental fields with Professor Tian.
• Old Man Bai joked that the Nursing Home might become a third academy alongside the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering.

Zheng Fa assigned Old Man Bai, Tang Mudao, and Professor Tian roles in writing textbooks and coordinating cultivation projects, easing their worries that they had become unnecessary. Tang Lingwu’s parents arrived at the Nursing Home, where Zheng Fa welcomed them warmly, leaving her father confused by the contrast between Zheng Fa’s politeness and his intimidating reputation.

• Zheng Fa asked Old Man Bai, Tang Mudao, and Professor Tian to write textbooks connecting cultivation with modern subjects and to oversee related projects.
• Zheng Fa explained that the three would serve as trusted liaisons for mathematics, physics, and agriculture in cooperation with Team Leader Yang’s group.
• Tang Lingwu’s father told Aunt Ye that Zheng Fa’s influence seemed tied to the sudden improvement in his business and that an inquiry into Zheng Fa’s background had drawn a warning.
• Tang Lingwu’s father and Aunt Ye arrived at the Nursing Home and found Tang Lingwu standing with Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa greeted Aunt Ye and shook hands with Tang Lingwu’s father, who wondered how his daughter had ended up with someone so formidable.

Zheng Fa agreed to establish a state-backed Grain Company under an Agricultural Research Institute and put Tang Lingwu in charge, while researchers confirmed how spiritual energy affected plant inheritance. In the Nine Mountains Realm, Senior Sister Zhang recognized that a circuit in the Mountain-River True-Form Talisman resembled a computational unit, leading Zheng Fa to consider using the talisman for large-scale computation.

• Team Leader Yang proposed establishing a Grain Company and presenting the Nursing Home as an Agricultural Research Institute to facilitate cooperation and protect its secrets.
• Zheng Fa appointed Tang Lingwu to manage the Grain Company, impressing Tang Lingwu's father with the scale of the opportunity.
• Elder Hou and Professor Tian reported that spiritual energy did not alter ordinary plant heredity and that Spirit Plants inherited traits through the maternal line, similarly to mitochondrial inheritance.
• Senior Sister Zhang examined Zheng Fa's books and artificial-intelligence circuit materials, then recognized a circuit resembling a computational unit in the Mountain-River True-Form Talisman.
• Zheng Fa wondered whether the Mountain-River True-Form Talisman could serve as a platform for large-scale computation.

Zheng Fa planned a mission system and a careful division between open foundational knowledge and restricted research, while Senior Sister Zhang warned him about the Great Freedom Devil Ancestor and the dangers facing the Nine Mountains Realm. In the Medicine Garden, Zheng Fa used the Sun-Moon Bell to gather rice seeds from across the mortal realm and discovered that it had long harvested spirit plants from there.

• Senior Sister Zhang agreed to help develop the mission system, cautioned Zheng Fa against spreading Spiritual-Power Circuit theory widely, and discussed classifying knowledge as basic theory or restricted applications.
• Qian True Person admitted that the Thousand Grain Sect lacked the knowledge to develop new crops, so Zheng Fa told him to come to the Medicine Garden for instruction.
• Zheng Fa observed the Sun-Moon Bell subduing Blood River Ancestor's flying sword and sent Xiao Qing and the other temples a command to gather rice plants.
• Zheng Fa rang the Sun-Moon Bell, drawing rice seeds from temples throughout the mortal realm as witnesses saw his divine figure and wept with hope.
• Zheng Fa examined dozens of new rice varieties and realized that the Sun-Moon Bell had regularly harvested spirit plants from the mortal realm, possibly sustaining the former Divine Way Civilization.

Qian True Person and his disciples learned how Zheng Fa used the Sun-Moon Bell and crossbreeding to rapidly cultivate a high-yield rice variety for the Nine Mountains Realm. Qian True Person urged his disciples to stop withholding knowledge, while Zheng Fa learned that three hundred thousand mortals would move to the realm, including his mother and younger sister.

• Qian True Person questioned his disciples about Zheng Fa’s books, and they admitted they could not understand them and feared the Nine Mountains Sect would take their secret arts and cast them out.
• Zheng Fa reassured Qian True Person that asking questions was part of learning and reminded the disciples not to crush students’ curiosity.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang used the Sun-Moon Bell to accelerate generations of rice breeding, producing a stable, heavy-yielding variety as Qian True Person and his disciples watched.
• Qian True Person recognized the value of the agricultural knowledge and told his disciples to stop treating the Nine Mountains Sect as outsiders or holding back what they knew.
• Senior Sister Zhang told Zheng Fa that three hundred thousand mortals would move into the Nine Mountains Realm, and Zheng Fa anticipated his mother and younger sister’s arrival.

Zheng Shan learned that Zheng Fa was bringing her and their mother to the Nine Mountains Sect, and Aunt-Master Huang arrived to take them there. After meeting Zheng Shan, Uncle-Master Pang recognized her promising aptitude and welcomed her with an expensive gift.

• Zheng Shan read Zheng Fa’s letter and told Mother Zheng that Nine Mountains Sect members would soon come to fetch them.
• At Zhao Residence Academy, Zheng Shan quietly tried to leave after seeing Aunt-Master Huang arrive with the Zhao family and the prefect.
• Aunt-Master Huang identified herself as Zheng Fa’s aunt-master, promised to protect Zheng Shan from anyone who had mistreated her, and agreed she could not stop Zheng Fa from testing her.
• Aunt-Master Huang took Zheng Shan to meet Uncle-Master Pang, who gave her a Dharma Tool as a meeting gift.
• Aunt-Master Huang told Uncle-Master Pang that Zheng Shan had a Single Wood Spirit Root and strong foundations, and he praised her potential.

Master Yuan's group struggled to protect hundreds of thousands of refugees as the Great Freedom Demon Cult surrounded them and threatened their food supply. Just as the Nine Mountains Sect prepared to flee, Zheng Fa arrived with the Golden Bell, drove away the demonic forces, and reunited with Zheng Shan.

• Master Yuan told Uncle-Master Pang that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had deployed Nascent Soul cultivators, while Venerable Tongming was consolidating the Hundred Immortals Alliance.
• Aunt-Master Huang reported that the Great Freedom Demon Cult controlled grain trading, and its cultivators gathered around the refugee column as their disciples harassed it.
• True Person Huang warned Zheng Shan and her family that she could evacuate them, but admitted she did not know what would happen to the mortals left behind.
• As the demonic clouds closed over the camp, Uncle-Master Pang began moving Zheng Shan and the Nine Mountains Sect disciples into his Five-Dragon Heavenly Palace.
• Zheng Fa arrived in the Golden Bell, whose tolls summoned lightning that scattered the black clouds, then reunited with Zheng Shan.

Zheng Fa settled three hundred thousand refugees in the Nine Mountains Realm and began teaching Thunder Methods to the sect’s disciples and elders. He ended the lesson by showing that his untrained younger sister, Zheng Shan, could produce a spark by rubbing silk against amber.

• Zheng Fa learned that Madam Zhao had gone to the Azure Wood Sect, then brought the newly arrived mortals into the Nine Mountains Realm and settled them in the Heavenly Palace.
• Zheng Fa showed Aunt-Master Huang and Uncle-Master Pang the rice seeds he had cultivated and planned to distribute them so the refugees could reclaim farmland.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang organized the Heavenly Palace’s islands, establishing areas for residents, commerce, cultivation research, and a library and classrooms.
• Zheng Fa began a Thunder Method lesson attended by the disciples and the four Nascent Soul cultivators, encouraging the students to offer their own definitions.
• Zheng Fa brought Zheng Shan forward and demonstrated that she could produce a spark by rubbing silk against amber, astonishing the Sect Leader.

Zheng Fa used his little sister’s friction-generated sparks to challenge the belief that only cultivators could wield the Thunder Method, then explained how observation, experimentation, and knowledge could reform immortal arts. The Sect Leader began grasping the new approach, while Zheng Fa’s praise made him realize his disciple had just undermined a long-held belief.

• Zheng Shan rubbed silk to produce sparks, and the cultivators realized that neither she nor Zheng Fa had used spiritual power or a spell.
• Zheng Fa defined thunder as a phenomenon and method as a tool, then placed knowledge between them as the basis for creating methods.
• Zheng Fa explained that observation alone was not enough: experiments had to test ideas, and untested theories remained conjectures.
• Zheng Fa said Zheng Shan’s experiment disproved the belief that only cultivators could wield the Thunder Method because it required spiritual power.
• The Sect Leader inferred that the Thunder Method might not depend on spiritual power, then recognized that Zheng Fa’s praise had exposed his mistaken assumption.

Zheng Fa introduced his scientific approach to Thunder Methods by teaching the Nine Mountains Sect disciples about electricity and charging. He left the disciples with a Mathematics lesson ahead and faced a reminder from the Sect Leader to advance his Yin-Yang Harmony Secret Art.

• Zhou Ganyuan asked Zheng Fa what use his theories had, so Zheng Fa distributed Introduction to Thunder Arts and promised that understanding it would make the disciples more formidable in Thunder Methods than he was.
• Zheng Fa presented the book’s guiding principle: lightning was the movement of charged particles, and Thunder Methods were ways of influencing that movement.
• Zheng Fa rubbed amber with silk, cleared spiritual energy from the classroom, and demonstrated a tiny spark when the charged amber approached the Sect Leader’s finger.
• The Sect Leader realized that the amber’s charge had flowed into his body, and Zheng Fa said the direction and flow of electricity would be covered in a later chapter.
• Zheng Fa announced that he and Senior Sister Zhang would teach Mathematics next, then explained that he had left blank spaces in the book for practical Thunder Methods and new techniques.
• The Sect Leader urged Zheng Fa to progress with the Yin-Yang Harmony Secret Art, while he remained engrossed in Introduction to Thunder Arts after Zheng Fa left.

The Sect Leader found that Introduction to Thunder Arts and Zheng Fa’s Spiritual-Energy Circuit theory could help him pursue Spirit Transformation, while Zheng Fa realized the Nine Mountains Sect needed stronger mathematical foundations. Zheng Fa then consulted Senior Sister Zhang about Yin-Yang Union and examined Senior Sister Yuan’s Golden Core, whose power unsettled him.

• The Sect Leader told Uncle-Master Pang that studying Introduction to Thunder Arts and Spiritual-Energy Circuits had given him ideas about Spirit Transformation.
• The Sect Leader explained that Electromagnetism might provide a minimal circuit capable of commanding all Thunder Methods, but worried that Zheng Fa’s cultivation was too low for the Dao he wished to spread.
• Zheng Fa decided to establish middle-school education and seek modern physics and mathematics textbooks for the Nine Mountains Sect.
• Zheng Fa visited Senior Sister Zhang and Senior Sister Yuan on Myriad Immortals Island and showed Senior Sister Zhang the Yin-Yang Union secret art.
• Senior Sister Zhang said Yin-Yang Union imitated the Golden Core and could greatly benefit Zheng Fa’s Core Formation.
• Zheng Fa asked to see Senior Sister Yuan’s Golden Core, and she revealed its brilliant, powerful core to him.

Zheng Fa learned from Senior Sister Zhang that Golden Cores undergo unstoppable reactions and that forming one requires carefully choosing its Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Sha. Back at the Nursing Home, he and the others considered the Golden Core’s energy and reactions, and Zheng Fa sought help from nuclear engineers.

• Zheng Fa asked Senior Sister Zhang where the energy produced by a Golden Core went, and she explained that it had been used to nurture Life-bound Dharma Treasures.
• Senior Sister Zhang told Zheng Fa that Golden Core reactions could not be stopped once begun and urged him to study the available methods and choose his Qi of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Sha carefully.
• Senior Sister Zhang explained that Golden Core quality depended on impurities and that her own Core Formation had taken nearly seventy years.
• Zheng Fa discussed with Old Man Bai, Tang Mudao, and the others why Golden Cores involved both fusion and fission and how spiritual qi related to energy.
• Zheng Fa called Team Leader Yang and asked for nuclear engineers, claiming he wanted them to authenticate his sect’s ancestral nuclear fusion method.

Elder Hou and the Nursing Home developed a promising rice variety that combined high yield and good flavor, and the group prepared to pass it on for further testing. As officials recognized the institute’s achievements and brought nuclear-fusion researchers to meet Zheng Fa, Team Leader Yang suggested that successful breakthroughs could make him seem like a god.

• Elder Hou showed Zheng Fa a new rice variety that yielded over 1,200 kilograms per mu and tasted better than most market varieties, then bowed and said he could die without regrets.
• Team Leader Yang announced that the Grain Industry Company had been registered with Tang Lingwu as chairwoman, and Old Man Bai volunteered to accept a National Science Progress Award on the Nursing Home’s behalf.
• Old Man Bai received the award and praised Zheng Fa during a national news interview, while Zheng Fa and the others watched to make sure he did not reveal his cultivation in public.
• Team Leader Yang drove two nuclear-fusion researchers to the Nursing Home, where one questioned the rushed award and the existence of cultivation.
• Team Leader Yang told the researchers that if Zheng Fa’s rice and nuclear-fusion methods succeeded, people might treat him as a god.

As Tang Lingwu broke through to the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer, Zheng Fa led a seminar on Golden Core structures and reconsidered what Golden Cores produced. A young researcher suggested they might create matter, leaving Zheng Fa to connect the idea to Nascent Soul Formation.

• Tang Lingwu began breaking through to the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer while Zheng Fa guarded her cultivation.
• Team Leader Yang brought two researchers to meet Zheng Fa, telling them that writing papers could help them earn chances to cultivate.
• Zheng Fa explained twelve Golden Core structures at a seminar and described how their processes involved fusion and fission.
• A young researcher suggested that Golden Cores might produce matter rather than energy, prompting Zheng Fa, Tang Mudao, and Old Man Bai to consider them particle factories.
• Zheng Fa theorized that particles produced by Golden Cores formed Nascent Souls, then asked the young researcher his name.

After studying Yin-Yang Union, Zheng Fa connected Golden Core formation to particle production and proposed Golden Core Engineering to improve Core Formation. He prepared a syllabus and examinations for the Nine Mountains Sect, then left the elders considering whether Golden Cores could also produce spiritual materials.

• Cheng Yun reported that Yin-Yang Union was a controllable fusion process, and Group Leader Yang gave Zheng Fa a proposal for a fusion power plant at Rainbow Mountain.
• Zheng Fa praised Cheng Yun’s idea of using a Dharma Treasure to imitate a Golden Core, and Group Leader Yang predicted Cheng Yun would earn immortal arts and a promotion.
• Zheng Fa explained his Golden Core theory to Senior Sister Zhang and the elders, after which the Sect Leader announced he would pass the Nine Mountains Sect leadership to Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa proposed major examinations and a staged education syllabus, and Senior Sister Zhang and the elders added courses and teaching methods of their own.
• Senior Sister Zhang cautioned Zheng Fa about spiritual-material costs, prompting him to ask whether a Dharma Treasure could create spiritual materials; Uncle-Master Pang volunteered for Golden Core Engineering, but Zheng Fa doubted his Talisman Arts grade.

Zheng Fa learned that Qian True Person had crossbred rice with the Medicine Garden’s spirit plants, producing Thousand Grain Rice that could help cultivators train in Thunder Method. The chapter ended with the Nine Mountains Sect disciples discovering an education syllabus that offered access to powerful cultivation techniques through an examination.

• Thousand Grain Sect disciples discussed their unease with life in the Nine Mountains Realm and Zheng Fa’s focus on mortal affairs, while acknowledging that he had helped them settle in.
• Zheng Fa discussed laboratory observation with Uncle-Master Pang and heard that the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye still lacked the precision he wanted.
• Qian True Person showed Zheng Fa a new spirit plant created by crossbreeding the Medicine Garden’s plants with rice, and Senior Sister Yuan discovered that its grains carried an electric charge.
• Zheng Fa recognized that the new Thousand Grain Rice could help Nine Mountains Sect disciples cultivate lightning Dharma Forms, and Qian True Person named it in memory of the destroyed Thousand Grain Sect.
• Qian True Person reflected on how Zheng Fa and the others had praised his work, then returned to the fields with renewed purpose alongside his disciples.
• At the General Affairs Hall, Zhou Ganyuan and Sun Daoyu found an education syllabus listing powerful cultivation methods and learned that an examination would determine who could study them.

Zheng Fa held examinations for Nine Mountains Sect disciples and Heavenly Palace mortals, using the results to award resources and select promising candidates. As the exams spurred competition and discussion about fairness, he worked with Uncle-Master Pang and Senior Sister Zhang to create a Microscopic Formation that magnified a Mystic Thunderstone.

• Uncle-Master Pang questioned the difficulty of Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang's exam papers, while Zheng Fa explained that Senior Sister Yuan would take the separate examination for mortals.
• Sun Daoyu and Zhou Ganyuan entered the formal Mathematics examination hall, where the difficult questions and stern proctors left them struggling to complete the paper.
• Zheng Fa announced Zhou Ganyuan as the top Nine Mountains disciple examinee and awarded him spirit materials, then introduced monthly exams with rewards for the top ten.
• Uncle-Master Pang and Senior Sister Zhang told Zheng Fa that the exams and public rankings had motivated disciples to study, while also making resource allocation feel fairer.
• Zheng Fa, Uncle-Master Pang, and Senior Sister Zhang formed spirit talismans into a Microscopic Formation, which magnified a Mystic Thunderstone several hundred times for Uncle-Master Pang to examine.

Zheng Fa and Uncle-Master Pang used the Microscopic Formation with the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye to examine spiritual materials, while Yan Wushuang and Old Han traveled through lands devastated by the Great Freedom Demon Cult. Yan Wushuang reached the Nine Mountains Realm for Zheng Fa’s Sect Leader Inauguration Ceremony, where Zheng Fa reunited with the unexpected arrival, Seventh Young Master.

• Zheng Fa discovered that the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye revealed stable spiritual-qi cloud clusters inside materials, and Uncle-Master Pang volunteered to study the formation and examine more treasures.
• Zheng Fa explained that he was delaying his Sect Leader Inauguration Ceremony until invited guests arrived, including Yan Wushuang, Xiao Yuying, and Seventh Young Master.
• Yan Wushuang and Old Han saw the Great Freedom Demon Cult’s followers plundering a mortal town, and Old Han explained how the cult’s vast population and scale worsened its treatment of mortals.
• Yan Wushuang witnessed refugees suffering and intervened against the Great Freedom Demon Cult, while Old Han warned that conflict between the Immortal Sect and Demonic Sect would bring further hardship.
• Uncle-Master Pang guided Yan Wushuang and Old Han through the Nine Mountains Realm, where they saw villages, compulsory schooling, and cultivators helping farmers through the Agricultural Guidance Office.
• Zheng Fa received Venerable Tongming and recognized Seventh Young Master among his guests, learning that disrupted communication during the Azure Wood Sect’s relocation had kept them apart.