Chapter Summaries

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Yuan transformed Nine Mountains Patriarch with the Great Sun True Fire, allowing him to overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation and attain Spirit Transformation. The Founder strengthened the Nine Mountains Sect’s spirit veins, while Vast Sun Mountain ordered the Profound Mystery Sect to hasten the Immortal-Trapping Sword and appointed Li Hao to lead its campaign against the Hundred Immortals Alliance.

• Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Yuan, and Xie Qingxue used the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation to rewrite Nine Mountains Patriarch’s cultivation method as the Great Sun True Fire burned away his old runes.
• Nine Mountains Patriarch survived the Spirit Transformation Lightning Tribulation, overcame his Heart Demon Tribulation, and emerged with a new body and the Mountains-and-Rivers True-Form Art.
• Nine Mountains Patriarch explained that he could alter spirit veins and increased the spiritual energy across the Heavenly Palace Nine Isles.
• At Profound Mystery Sect, Shi Nandang announced that the Holy Ancestor had ordered them to refine the Immortal-Trapping Sword within twenty years and promised twice as many resources.
• Shi Nandang told Li Hao that the Holy Ancestor had praised him and appointed him to lead the Profound Mystery Sect in harassing the Hundred Immortals Alliance.

Shi Nandang explained that Vast Sun Mountain had built the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array to refine Venerable Tianhe’s True Immortal-level Immortal-Trapping Sword, then put Zheng Fa to work operating the formation. When Zheng Fa used the Immortal-Trapping Sword Canon, the sword spirit appeared in his consciousness, pleaded to be freed, and suddenly turned violent, leaving Zheng Fa to suppress the sword while concealing what had happened.

• Shi Nandang told Zheng Fa and the others that the Immortal-Trapping Sword was a True Immortal-level Dao Fruit Dharma Treasure and that Vast Sun Mountain’s array was designed to refine it.
• Zheng Fa and the Profound Mystery Sect disciples learned to operate the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array, and Zheng Fa quickly impressed Shi Nandang with his skill.
• Zheng Fa took Shi Nandang’s place in the formation and secretly tested whether the Immortal-Trapping Sword Canon affected the sword.
• The Immortal-Trapping Sword Spirit appeared in Zheng Fa’s sea of consciousness, said the array hurt her, and asked him to break it so she could escape.
• The sword spirit’s pleas turned into threats and murderous cries, and the Immortal-Trapping Sword lunged toward Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa switched to the Scarlet Firmament Jade Register and used Stellar Power to subdue the sword, then pretended to Shi Nandang that nothing had gone wrong.

Zheng Fa planned to alter the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array and divert Spirit Veins to thwart Vast Sun Mountain’s attempt to refine the Immortal-Trapping Sword, while the threat of Vast Sun Mountain’s deadline forced him to seek ways to free Senior Sister Zhang from the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation. The chapter ended with Zheng Fa giving Tang Lingwu two cultivation manuals containing methods for creating intelligent entities through Talisman Diagrams.

• Shi Nandang relieved Zheng Fa from controlling the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array and assigned him responsibility for the Profound Mystery Sect.
• Zheng Fa spent a month in the Scripture Repository Cave and brought the Profound Mystery Sect’s Artifact Refining Methods back to the Nine Mountains Realm.
• Zheng Fa told Xie Qingxue and Senior Sister Zhang that the Immortal-Trapping Sword Spirit was insane, and proposed curing it with the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array.
• Zheng Fa asked the Nine Mountains Patriarch to investigate connecting the Profound Mystery Sect’s Earthfire Vein to Vast Sun Mountain’s Spirit Veins so they could secretly alter the array.
• Zheng Fa told Senior Sister Zhang to prepare for Spirit Transformation and suggested training disciples to take over the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation, but she chose to wait a year or two.
• Zheng Fa gave Tang Lingwu the Scarlet Firmament Jade Register and Immortal-Trapping Sword Canon as references for developing artificial intelligence for the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation.

Zheng Fa brought the three Dao Fruit cultivation methods together with modern research to investigate their principles and flaws, while Old Man Bai helped make the Scarlet Firmament Jade Register usable for the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation. As Zheng Fa taught the new Nine Mountains University textbooks, he drew on his students’ ideas and arranged extra lessons for those who had fallen behind.

• Tang Mudao connected the Yang Spirit Method to the Daoist idea of Qi Refining Transforms into Spirit, and Zheng Fa theorized that the method had flaws that led to the Celestial River and Demonic Sect methods.
• Zheng Fa planned to use the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation and modern research to compare the three cultivation methods and develop a path suited to him.
• Old Man Bai gave Zheng Fa his detailed analysis of the Scarlet Firmament Jade Register’s Talisman Diagrams, helping Tang Lingwu and the programmers work with its material.
• Tang Lingwu gave Group Leader Yang and the other students a new set of cultivation textbooks, and Zheng Fa began teaching them at the Sermon Hall.
• Zheng Fa gathered ideas from his students to improve the textbooks, then asked struggling students, including Group Leader Yang, to stay for extra lessons and explain the material again.

After half a year of lectures, Zheng Fa discovered that teaching cultivators helped the Fusang Wood grow and strengthen his body, while Tang Lingwu announced that the redesigned Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation was nearly complete. He ended the first round of lectures by charging his disciples to use their knowledge to advance the Immortal Way, leaving them poised to become the first generation remembered in its history.

• Zheng Fa concluded that the Fusang Wood was evolving through his sermons, though its growth still could not let him face Dao Fruit cultivators with confidence.
• Tang Lingwu told Zheng Fa that the Nine-Chapter Calculation Formation’s redesigned language and intelligence algorithms were nearly complete, and Zheng Fa used the Creation Jade Disc to demonstrate its new analytical functions.
• Team Leader Yang overheard Professor Wu and his students realize that Zheng Fa had been accommodating their level during his lectures despite his extensive knowledge.
• Zheng Fa ended the first round of lectures and told his disciples that he had chosen them to create value and drive the Immortal Way forward, not to seek status or simply preserve themselves.

Zheng Fa learned that Spirit Root research had stalled and helped Senior Sister Zhang begin developing a Nine-Chapter Calculation Spirit, a Spirit Transformation technique tailored to her. After returning home, he discovered Zheng Shan wanted to join the Hundred Immortals Alliance to help him, so he gave her a new Comprehensive Mirror that let them communicate and see each other from afar.

• Tang Mudao explained that Spirit Roots measured the proportions of spiritual energy, while physical differences affected its total amount, and Professor Tian said genetic research lacked enough samples and precise indicators.
• Zheng Fa proposed developing Broadcast Calisthenics as a way to improve cultivation aptitude while Spirit Root research remained difficult.
• Zheng Fa gave Senior Sister Zhang research data and revealed a Nine-Chapter Calculation Spirit that could control the formation in her place and serve as her Spirit Transformation experiment.
• Zheng Shan asked Zheng Fa to let her work for the Hundred Immortals Alliance, but he refused because she could be captured or used to threaten the Nine Mountains Sect.
• Mother Zheng explained that Zheng Shan wanted to help Zheng Fa because she missed him, and Zheng Fa softened after learning she had worked hard to reach Foundation Establishment.
• Zheng Fa gave Zheng Shan a new Comprehensive Mirror with messaging and video communication, letting her see and contact him even when he was away.

Zheng Fa introduced the New-Style Comprehensive Mirror and outlined reforms that would turn Nine Mountains Sect toward research, while Madam Xuanhua revealed the device’s communication and commercial applications. The cultivators recognized its potential to transform the Xuanwei Realm and bring the sect enormous wealth.

• Zheng Fa explained that the Comprehensive Mirror’s Remote Classroom and Dao Discussion applications would support teaching, research, academic exchange, and new research-focused advancement standards.
• Zheng Fa described Merit rewards, research awards, and funding as part of a shift toward balancing education with research across the Nine Mountains Realm.
• Madam Xuanhua introduced Spirit Message, and Uncle-Master Pang and the other cultivators tested its real-time voice and video communication features.
• Uncle-Master Pang realized Spirit Message could help protect disciples outside the Nine Mountains Realm by speeding up communication during danger.
• Madam Xuanhua revealed that Nine Mountains Marketplace and Nine Mountains Entertainment could generate vast wealth for the Nine Mountains Sect through the Comprehensive Mirror.

Zheng Fa introduced Nine Mountains Marketplace and Nine Mountains Entertainment to the Nine Mountains Sect elders, revealing how they could expand commerce, earn Spirit Stones, and influence cultivators across Xuanwei. As the sect disciples assembled for reforms, Zheng Fa declared that the idealized Nine Mountains Sect in his storybook could become real through the reforms that day.

• Madam Xuanhua showed the elders Nine Mountains Marketplace, and Uncle-Master Pang realized that the Divine Firmament Warship could deliver goods bought through the Comprehensive Mirror.
• Zheng Fa explained that the marketplace would sell to customers, rent shops to other sects and Rogue Cultivators, and draw cultivators into the Nine Mountains Sect’s commercial system.
• Senior Sister Zhang, Aunt-Master Huang, Xiao Yuying, and Xie Qingxue browsed and bought clothing and accessories, while Uncle-Master Pang recalled that Aunt-Master Huang had once loved shopping.
• Zheng Fa opened Nine Mountains Entertainment, and Elder Xiong and Uncle-Master Pang became engrossed in his paid storybook after reaching its cliffhanger.
• Zheng Fa explained how Merit Cards let readers and viewers spend points on storybooks and plays, and Uncle-Master Pang observed that the story portrayed Vast Sun Mountain as corrupt and the Nine Mountains Sect as ideal.
• Sun Daoyu reported that the disciples had assembled, and Zheng Fa said that the sect reforms could make the Nine Mountains Sect in his heart a reality.

Zheng Fa announced the Nine Mountains Realm’s achievements and introduced reforms to resource distribution, entrusting the Nine-Chapter Calculation Spirit with managing the sect’s resources. He then proposed specialized tracks through colleges and a mentor system, leaving the disciples ready to hear more.

• Zheng Fa reported the Nine Mountains Realm’s growth in production, population, disciples, and Golden Core cultivators, and thanked the disciples for their contributions.
• Zheng Fa summoned the Nine-Chapter Calculation Spirit and announced that it would independently manage tasks, spiritual materials, and Merit according to publicly verifiable rules.
• Zheng Fa explained that resource rewards would be based on equal contributions rather than cultivation, talent, or a master’s authority, and the disciples showed support.
• Senior Sister Zhang told Aunt-Master Huang that fair, transparent distribution would help disciples share in the sect’s growth and strengthen their loyalty.
• Zheng Fa asked for objections to the first reform, then introduced Specialized Tracks, announcing colleges and a Mentor System at Nine Mountains University and Nine Mountains Military Academy.

Zheng Fa announced Nine Mountains’ new academy system, entrance exams, mentors, and ranks, appointing leaders and elevating Qian True Person to elder and Agriculture Academy dean. After the reforms prompted a flood of low-quality papers, Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang found one titled “Investigating the Decline of Red Feather Heavenly Astral Qi” and grew serious.

• Zheng Fa laid out the five-year foundation program, the specialized academies, inner and outer sect status, and the first inner sect examination.
• Zheng Fa explained the Mentor System and announced the academy leaders, including Zhang Wuyi, Xie Qingxue, Xiao Yuying, Han True Person, Blood River Ancestor, and Jiao Wuji.
• Zheng Fa invited Xiao Yuying, Xie Qingxue, and Han True Person to become guest elders, and they accepted.
• Zheng Fa appointed Qian True Person dean of the Agriculture Academy and an elder, recognizing his contributions to Nine Mountains Realm.
• Nine Mountains disciples submitted more than six thousand papers in just over twenty days, and Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang noticed one about the decline of Red Feather Heavenly Astral Qi.

After studying a report on Red Feather Heavenly Astral Qi, Zheng Fa devised the Heaven-Earth Furnace and tested it by devouring spiritual energy, rapidly advancing his Nascent Soul while draining Nine Mountains Patriarch. Meanwhile, Comprehensive Mirrors remained scarce and were being resold at huge markups to buyers from beyond the Nine Mountains Realm, a trade Zheng Fa knowingly allowed.

• Zheng Fa read a report explaining that Red Feather Heavenly Astral Qi lost its spiritual energy in the Nine Mountains Realm and became red phosphorus, prompting him to consider how matter behaved without spiritual energy.
• Zheng Fa asked Nine Mountains Patriarch to strengthen the spiritual energy on Myriad Immortals Island and persuaded him with the promise of recommending him for Taishang elder after one month of help.
• Zheng Fa tested the Heaven-Earth Furnace, absorbing spiritual energy through Great Sun True Fire and rapidly growing his Nascent Soul while Nine Mountains Patriarch struggled to supply enough energy.
• Uncle-Master Pang arrived and saw Zheng Fa's enlarged Nascent Soul and Nine Mountains Patriarch's depleted body.
• Xie Qingxue explained to Yan Wushuang and Old Han that Comprehensive Mirrors were scarce, highly marked up, and being resold to buyers including people from the Profound Mystery Sect and Vast Sun Mountain.
• Old Han told Yan Wushuang that Zheng Fa knew about the outside buyers and had smiled when he heard of the resales.

Junior Sister Ye and other Profound Mystery Sect disciples secretly watched Nine Mountains broadcasts and grew troubled by their sect’s decline and Vast Sun Mountain’s treatment of them. Zheng Fa then entrusted Ye with managing Profound Mystery Sect’s affairs, unaware that the disciples were considering how to secure their future, before he climbed the summit to retrieve his lost Immortal-Trapping Sword.

• Junior Sister Ye bought a Comprehensive Mirror, and she and fellow Profound Mystery Sect disciples watched Nine Mountains News and an interview with Sect Master Song of Azure Wood Sect.
• The disciples compared their worsening circumstances with Nine Mountains Sect and Azure Wood Sect, and one urged Junior Sister Ye to persuade Senior Brother Li Hao to act for their future.
• The group watched the first three episodes of Nine Mountains Immortal Path and pooled Spirit Stones to buy access to the drama and goods from Nine Mountains’ marketplace.
• Zheng Fa summoned Junior Sister Ye, gave her resources to exchange for spiritual materials, and told her to find trusted helpers to manage the sect’s affairs.
• Junior Sister Ye and her fellow disciple discussed Zheng Fa’s trust and his loyal nature, while the disciple called him foolishly loyal to Profound Mystery Sect.
• Zheng Fa climbed the summit to retrieve his lost Immortal-Trapping Sword.

Zheng Fa cultivated the Immortal-Trapping Sword Spirit’s competing personalities into considering loyalty to him while he continued overseeing the Heaven-Earth Divine Baleful Array. He returned to the Nine Mountains Realm to interview inner sect candidates, where Mu Qingyan met Gu Chang, a low-cultivation disciple who had earned full marks on the Talisman Dao exam.

• Zheng Fa weighed healing the Immortal-Trapping Sword against erasing its intelligence, then secretly contacted its fractured sword spirit through the Immortal-Trapping Sword Canon.
• Zheng Fa convinced the Immortal-Trapping Sword Spirit that he controlled the formation and offered to spare one personality, prompting the others to compete for survival.
• After two months at Divine Fire Mountain, Zheng Fa returned to the Nine Mountains Realm and told Uncle-Master Pang that he might accept only one disciple, excluding Zheng Shan from consideration because he was her brother.
• More than forty candidates gathered to interview for Zheng Fa’s sole disciple position, and Mu Qingyan noticed that Gu Chang had only reached the Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement.
• Gu Chang told Mu Qingyan that he had passed the examination by earning full marks on the Talisman Dao exam, including its extra questions.

Zheng Fa discovered that Gu Chang’s half-finished paper proposed that Spirit Roots were determined by the nervous system, a theory that could transform cultivation but which Gu Chang had tried to verify through damaging his own body. The chapter left Gu Chang planning to marry and start a family, while revealing that he had left his child a gift with Zheng Fa.

• Zheng Fa chose Mu Qingyan as his preferred disciple and learned that she had also attracted interest from Xiao Yuying and the Azure Wood Sect.
• Zheng Fa praised Gu Chang’s talent in Topology but warned that his hands-off mentorship would not suit Gu Chang’s needs, and Gu Chang explained that he had come to ask for help with a paper.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang read Gu Chang’s paper, which argued that Spirit Roots arose from the structure of the nervous system and connected the Five Elements to the five organs.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang realized Gu Chang had injured himself conducting experiments to test his theory, leaving his Dao Body damaged and threatening his cultivation and lifespan.
• Gu Chang’s mother urged him to stop researching and settle down, so he asked her to find him a wife and said he had left his child a gift with the Sect Leader.

Gu Chang learned that he had been admitted as one of Zheng Fa’s disciples, despite his severe cultivation damage, and accepted Zheng Fa’s encouragement to continue researching spirit roots. Zheng Fa also welcomed Mu Qingyan as his other disciple and tasked her with teaching Gu Chang.

• Mother Gu asked Auntie Chen to find Gu Chang a suitable wife, while Auntie Chen mocked his research and questioned his prospects.
• Mu Qingyan found her name on the inner sect admission list and saw that Gu Chang’s name was ranked above hers.
• Gu Chang’s colleague told him he had been accepted as Zheng Fa’s disciple, and marriage-seeking families crowded around him before Mu Qingyan rescued him.
• At Zheng Fa’s courtyard, Gu Chang questioned why he had been admitted and asked that his research paper and any Merit it earned be passed to his family if he died.
• Zheng Fa encouraged Gu Chang to continue studying how to alter spirit roots, and Gu Chang accepted him as his master.
• Mu Qingyan also acknowledged Zheng Fa as her master, and Zheng Fa assigned her to teach Gu Chang.

Zheng Fa and his colleagues confirmed that Gu Chang’s research had uncovered a promising link between nerves and Spirit Roots, then considered how to modify them with modern science and cultivation methods. To accelerate the work, Zheng Fa approved Team Leader Yang’s plan to attract elite foreign scholars with an Immortal Cultivation Visa.

• Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu praised Gu Chang’s paper, and Zheng Fa persuaded Old Man Bai to help teach his talented disciple.
• Tang Lingwu and Professor Tian reported that Nursing Home data supported Gu Chang’s theory that Spirit Roots reflected the nervous system’s microscopic structure.
• Professor Tian explained that neural remodeling remained beyond current biomedical methods, and Zheng Fa proposed combining spirit medicines with the Thunder Method.
• Team Leader Yang said the strongest relevant researchers were abroad, prompting Zheng Fa and the group to discuss inviting foreign talent.
• Team Leader Yang proposed an Immortal Cultivation Visa for exceptional scholars and holders of valuable technologies, and Zheng Fa approved a trial focused on Spirit Root research.

Song Cheng discovered that Professor Huntington planned to leave his research group for Zheng Fa’s Nursing Home, while researchers there advanced a treatment plan to rebuild Gu Chang’s Spirit Root. Zheng Fa also agreed to explore cultivating Spirit Plants, and he gave Gu Chang the completed neural-connection paper, insisting Gu Chang deserved first authorship.

• Professor Huntington asked Song Cheng to connect him with Nursing Home scholars so he could learn Immortal Zheng’s preferences and improve his application.
• Huntington joined the Nursing Home and presented a preliminary plan to treat Gu Chang by electrically stimulating nerve growth, though the researchers could not yet ensure his safety.
• Professor Tian proposed finding ancient plant seeds and using gene editing to recreate Spirit Plants, and Zheng Fa agreed to investigate the idea in the Nine Mountains Realm.
• Gu Chang told Zheng Fa that his cultivation was progressing too slowly to reach Foundation Establishment, while Mu Qingyan acknowledged his sacrifices for Spirit Root research.
• Zheng Fa gave Gu Chang the completed Study of the Neural Connections of Spirit Roots and insisted that Gu Chang be credited as its first author.

Zheng Fa devised a treatment plan for Gu Chang’s Spirit Root, let Mu Qingyan choose Alchemy Dao, and supported Senior Sister Zhang as she prepared to enter seclusion for Spirit Transformation. He removed a storybook about Venerable Tianhe from Nine Mountains Entertainment after realizing its secrets could endanger the sect, only to discover its author was the Nine Nether Devil Ancestor.

• Gu Chang worried that publishing the Spirit Root research would give the Nine Mountains disciples false hope, and Zheng Fa showed him a Thunder Method and spiritual medicine treatment plan along with a reading list.
• Zheng Fa invited Mu Qingyan to choose what she wanted to learn, and she selected Alchemy Dao.
• Gu Chang teased Mu Qingyan about her earlier jealousy, while Senior Sister Zhang told Zheng Fa she would enter seclusion to reach Spirit Transformation and spent five days with him before departing.
• Zheng Fa considered the threats facing Nine Mountains Sect and the possibility of seeking help from Tianhe Sect or Xiao Yuying’s master.
• Uncle-Master Pang showed Zheng Fa Tianhe’s Immortal Cultivation Chronicle, whose apparently factual revelations about Venerable Tianhe and the Five Sects prompted Zheng Fa to remove it from the rankings.
• The Nine Nether Devil Ancestor sent Zheng Fa angry Communication Talismans demanding to know why his storybook had disappeared, revealing himself as its author.

Zheng Fa negotiated with the Nine Nether Devil Ancestor, learning that the Ancestor wanted to use the Comprehensive Mirror and that Vast Sun Mountain had ruled during the Divine Dao Era. After Zheng Fa demanded methods to control the Immortal-Trapping Sword, he joined the exhausted cultivators restraining it, unaware that its spirits were plotting to deceive him.

• Zheng Fa refused to publish the Nine Nether Devil Ancestor’s storybook and realized the Ancestor was interested in the Comprehensive Mirror itself.
• The Nine Nether Devil Ancestor revealed that Vast Sun Mountain and the Jade Pool had been powers in the Divine Dao Era, and explained that the Immortal-Mortal Divide both protected Xuanwei and trapped its cultivators.
• Zheng Fa learned that the Nine Nether Devil Ancestor and Sect Master Yan were waiting for him to confront Vast Sun Mountain, then bargained for ways to control the Immortal-Trapping Sword.
• The Nine Nether Devil Ancestor gave Zheng Fa secret arts, while Zheng Fa speculated that the Ancestor wanted to use the Comprehensive Mirror to prove the Dao through the internet.
• As Shi Nandang and six other Spirit Transformation cultivators struggled to restrain the increasingly violent Immortal-Trapping Sword, its spirits planned to offer false secret arts and turn the tables.
• Zheng Fa arrived at Fire God Mountain and replaced an exhausted Spirit Transformation True Person in the array.

Zheng Fa subdued the Immortal-Trapping Sword by exposing the sword spirits’ secret arts and offering them a chance to take revenge on the founder of the Immortal-Trapping Lineage. He then helped Senior Sister Yuan evolve her bloodline with Great Sun True Fire, and the chapter ended as Senior Sister Zhang and Old Yuan both showed signs of breakthroughs.

• Zheng Fa persuaded the Immortal-Trapping Sword’s personalities to surrender secret arts, criticized their attempts to possess him, and offered to help them thwart the founder of the Immortal-Trapping Lineage.
• The Immortal-Trapping Sword became obedient in the formation, allowing Shi Nandang and the other cultivators to let Zheng Fa leave the mountain.
• Senior Sister Yuan asked Zheng Fa to evolve her bloodline with Great Sun True Fire after Little Golden Crow reached the Golden Core Middle Stage.
• Senior Sister Yuan entered a long sleep during the process, while Zheng Fa stayed beside her; she later woke to find she had formed her Nascent Soul.
• Senior Sister Yuan sensed movement in Senior Sister Zhang’s courtyard, and Zheng Fa detected signs that both Senior Sister Zhang and Old Yuan were approaching breakthroughs.