Chapter Summaries

Zheng Fa cultivated the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye and discovered that it let him see connections between Talisman Diagrams. After he shared Millennium Purple Bamboo Tears with Senior Sister Zhang, she urged him to give Uncle-Master Pang the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method to maintain support between the sect’s factions.

• Zheng Fa used Millennium Purple Bamboo Tears to cultivate the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye in his right eye, enduring severe pain as his vision improved and revealed faint lines connecting some Talisman Diagrams.
• Senior Sister Yuan noticed Zheng Fa had not visited for two days, and Senior Sister Zhang explained that his new position as Uncle-Master Pang’s disciple made their relationship more complicated.
• Zheng Fa visited Senior Sister Zhang and gave her a share of the Millennium Purple Bamboo Tears that Uncle-Master Pang had given him.
• Senior Sister Zhang accepted the gift and advised Zheng Fa to bring the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method to Uncle-Master Pang to show impartiality and gain his support.

Zheng Fa broke through to Qi Refinement fourth level, but the Sect Master could offer him no cultivation methods or spiritual materials and instead showed him a stage play. After Zheng Fa revised the play, the Sect Master asked him to teach his approach, then took the opportunity to claim he could teach Zheng Fa after all.

• Zheng Fa broke through to Qi Refinement fourth level, and the Sect Master summoned him to the thatched hut.
• The Sect Master told Zheng Fa that his cultivation was too low for the methods he could teach and directed him to get spiritual materials from Uncle-Master Pang.
• The Sect Master showed Zheng Fa his stage play, Saving Little Cultivator Zheng Fa, then changed the protagonist's name to Pang Qian at Zheng Fa's request.
• Zheng Fa recounted a revised version of the play from memory, and the Sect Master remade it while Senior Sister Zhang and Senior Sister Yuan watched.
• Senior Sister Zhang and Senior Sister Yuan praised the Sect Master's version, but their reluctance to rewatch Zheng Fa's version revealed their real preference.
• The Sect Master asked Zheng Fa to teach him how to make stage plays, and Zheng Fa echoed the Sect Master's earlier words about being unable to teach him at his current level.

The Sect Master explained his talisman formations and gave Zheng Fa a revised Spirit Mountain Method that required a suitable mountain range, while revealing how the declining spiritual qi had made his old methods impractical. After Senior Sister Zhang reported a spirit acupoint in Taiyang Commandery that could draw rival sects into conflict, Zheng Fa sought a way to help her and realized Tang Lingwu’s family might provide access to a mountain.

• The Sect Master admitted he had little useful cultivation advice for Zheng Fa because conditions in the Xuanwei Realm had changed, then described his talisman formations and their extravagant costs.
• The Sect Master gave Zheng Fa a revised Spirit Mountain Method and a Spirit Vein Treatise, explaining that the method needed mountain ranges to release spiritual qi.
• Senior Sister Zhang told the Sect Master that a spirit acupoint had emerged in Taiyang Commandery and that the Everlasting Spring Sect had requested the Nine Mountains Sect’s aid.
• Senior Sister Zhang reassured Zheng Fa that the Nine Mountains Sect still had her and three Nascent Soul True Persons, while Zheng Fa understood the situation was serious.
• Back in the modern world, Zheng Fa decided to establish a spiritual qi laboratory but worried about finding a suitable mountain range.
• Tang Lingwu brought Zheng Fa soup from her mother, and Zheng Fa realized her family might provide the mountain he needed.

Zheng Fa invited Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu to join an immortal cultivation research laboratory that would be based on a suitable mountain, and both agreed. They began searching for a location and enlisted Tang Lingwu’s mother to help; the chapter ended with Zheng Fa arriving at her home and being warmly greeted by Aunt Ye.

• Zheng Fa explained that he wanted to establish an immortal cultivation laboratory on a mountain and invited Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu to join him.
• Old Man Bai enthusiastically accepted, and Tang Lingwu said she had never considered refusing.
• Zheng Fa described the laboratory’s likely recruits and discussed possible names with Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu.
• Zheng Fa showed them the Spirit Vein Treatise, and Tang Lingwu suggested using satellite maps to search for suitable mountains.
• Zheng Fa, Old Man Bai, and Tang Lingwu identified several possible mountains near Capital City, and Tang Lingwu offered to ask her mother to arrange an expedition and help with construction.
• The next day, Zheng Fa arrived at Tang Lingwu’s home, where Aunt Ye eagerly opened the car door and welcomed him.

Zheng Fa discussed funding and cooperation for his nursing home with Tang Lingwu’s mother, Aunt Ye, who offered to pay for the project in exchange for future medical help. In the Xuanwei Realm, Sun Daoyu and Zhou Ganyuan climbed Nine Mountains and spotted Zheng Fa ahead of them.

• Aunt Ye served Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu a home-cooked meal and fondly recalled Tang Lingwu’s childhood favorites.
• Aunt Ye offered to arrange the nursing home’s site, permits, roads, and construction after reporting that her medical tests had greatly improved under Zheng Fa’s treatment.
• Aunt Ye explained that she wanted Zheng Fa to treat people she referred in the future, and she and Zheng Fa agreed to send a survey team to assess possible sites.
• On the Eighth Peak of Nine Mountains, Sun Daoyu told Zhou Ganyuan that their master had been in a bad mood while noting Zhou Ganyuan’s resentment toward him.
• Sun Daoyu spotted Zheng Fa walking ahead on the mountain path.

Zheng Fa visited Pang True Person and gave him the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method, easing the tension between their branches. Pang True Person sent Zhou Ganyuan to Zheng Fa’s side, partly to protect him from his fellow disciples and partly to test whether Zheng Fa would treat the branch fairly; Zhou ended the chapter realizing Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang were willing to include him in their discussions.

• Zheng Fa sensed the estrangement on Eighth Peak and met Sun Daoyu and a dispirited Zhou Ganyuan on his way to see Pang True Person.
• Zheng Fa gave Pang True Person the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method, and Pang asked whether Zhou could stay with Zheng Fa and receive his guidance.
• Pang True Person explained to Sun Daoyu that Zhou’s transfer would protect him from exclusion while testing Zheng Fa’s fairness toward their branch.
• Zheng Fa invited Zhou to accompany him to Senior Sister Zhang’s home, but Zhou assumed Zheng Fa would treat him as an outsider.
• Senior Sister Zhang and Zheng Fa discussed talisman theories in front of Zhou, then Zheng Fa asked for his thoughts, showing that they included him in the conversation.

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang drew Zhou Ganyuan into their Talisman Dao discussions, exhausting him with lessons and quizzes until Uncle-Master Pang learned what was happening and began assigning him extra instruction. Meanwhile, Han Qi and his companions watched construction begin on a huge open-air venue at the market.

• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang asked Zhou Ganyuan and Senior Sister Yuan for their thoughts on Talisman Dao, but both were unable to answer.
• Uncle-Master Pang saw Zhou Ganyuan’s weary state and ordered Sun Daoyu to bring him to the Eighth Peak.
• Zhou Ganyuan explained that Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang let him listen to their discussions but gave him quizzes and required him to review their lessons at night.
• Uncle-Master Pang scolded Zhou Ganyuan for falling behind and ordered him to attend extra lessons after visiting Senior Sister Zhang’s courtyard.
• Han Qi and his companions watched Foundation Establishment cultivators use Strength Warrior Talismans to build a large open-air venue at the market.

Zheng Fa and the Sect Master staged a free preview of Saving Little Cultivator Pang Qian for Nine Mountains Sect disciples and asked them to submit feedback. The screening deeply moved its sparse audience, whose main criticism was that the play was too short.

• Han Qi and his companions realized that the rumor of Zheng Fa becoming the Sect Master's disciple had changed how other market-district disciples treated them.
• Zheng Fa brought Senior Sister Zhang and Zhou Ganyuan to the new theater, where he proposed screening the play for free and collecting audience feedback; the Sect Master approved.
• Fewer than a thousand disciples attended the preview, while the Sect Master's branch was largely absent because Uncle-Master Pang had forbidden his disciples from coming.
• The Sect Master used World Within the Hut to immerse the audience in the play, and Senior Sister Zhang calmed the disciples when they mistook the illusion for a real battle.
• After the screening, nearly every audience member submitted a questionnaire, and Senior Sister Yuan found that they all thought the play was too short.

Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang arranged paid screenings of Saving Little Cultivator Pang Qian, which drew a huge audience and even tempted Zhou Ganyuan to sneak in against his master's orders. The chapter ended with Senior Sister Zhang proposing that Zheng Fa become an instructor at the Talisman Arts Pavilion.

• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang set ticket prices and divided the drama's income among the General Affairs Hall, the sect master, and Zheng Fa.
• They scheduled screenings every half month to suit Nine Mountains Sect disciples and attract outside cultivators arriving on the Jieyin Ship.
• Zhou Ganyuan disguised himself as Senior Brother Sun Daoyu to attend a screening, but he encountered the real Sun Daoyu in the theater.
• Pang True Person confronted Zhou Ganyuan about sneaking in, then revealed that he had watched the drama himself without paying for a ticket.
• Senior Sister Zhang asked Zheng Fa to serve as an instructor at the Talisman Arts Pavilion.

Senior Sister Zhang asked Zheng Fa to teach at the Talisman Arts Pavilion and eventually help balance the sect’s rival branches, whose disagreement reflected opposing responses to the decline of spiritual energy. Zheng Fa accepted and proposed using the World Within the Hut for realistic combat training, leaving the sect master tasked with developing the technique while Zheng Fa prepared to cultivate.

• Senior Sister Zhang explained the ideological and resource disputes between her branch and Uncle-Master Pang’s branch, and proposed that Zheng Fa eventually take charge of the Talisman Arts Pavilion.
• Zheng Fa hesitated over his ability to reconcile the branches, but the sect master urged him to accept an instructor position, and he agreed.
• Zheng Fa proposed modifying the World Within the Hut into realistic simulated battles so Talisman Arts Pavilion disciples could train for combat.
• Senior Sister Zhang, Senior Sister Yuan, and Zhou Ganyuan supported the idea, and Zheng Fa persuaded the reluctant sect master to develop the new technique.
• At home, Zheng Fa decided to use the time before the technique was ready to cultivate and attempt a breakthrough to the fifth level of Qi Refinement Realm.

Zheng Fa condensed the Evergreen Talisman, broke through to the fifth level of Qi Refinement, and helped refine the sect leader’s illusion-based combat trial. In the modern world, he began studying popular games for ideas and learned that the expedition team’s report had arrived.

• Zheng Fa condensed the Evergreen Talisman to support future spiritual agriculture and broke through to the fifth level of Qi Refinement.
• Pang True Person warned Zhou Ganyuan not to fall behind Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang, then gave him a jade tube to pass to Zheng Fa if he proved capable of winning over his senior brothers.
• The sect leader tested his illusion realm with Zheng Fa, Senior Sister Zhang, and Senior Sister Yuan, and Zheng Fa proposed varied maps, squad competition, and lower costs.
• Zheng Fa asked Wang Chen to teach him popular competitive games so he could draw inspiration for the illusion trials.
• Tang Lingwu told Zheng Fa that the expedition team had sent back its report, and Old Chen caught Zheng Fa and Wang Chen playing games in class.

Zheng Fa needed to inspect possible sites for the Nursing Home but could not spare time before the college entrance exam, until a school trip to the capital gave him a chance to travel. After reaching the capital, he left with Tang Lingwu, Aunt Ye, and Old Man Bai to head into the mountains, while Old Man Bai revealed he also planned to visit a man on the verge of death.

• Zheng Fa decided he needed to inspect the remaining sites himself, but worried he could not get leave from Old Chen before the college entrance exam.
• Old Chen told Zheng Fa that the top twenty students could join a free educational trip to the capital, and Zheng Fa agreed to go.
• Tang Lingwu arranged for Zheng Fa to sit beside her on the bus, then admitted it had been a group operation.
• After the group arrived in the capital, Aunt Ye and Old Man Bai joined Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu, and they set out for the mountains late at night.
• The vice principal explained that Tang Lingwu's family had funded the trip to help Zheng Fa without singling him out, while Old Chen received Zheng Fa's message that he was safe.
• Old Man Bai told Zheng Fa he had come to visit a man on the verge of death.

Zheng Fa weighed two mountain sites for the Nursing Home and set rules to keep it focused on treatment and research rather than worldly influence. In the Xuanwei Realm, the play’s growing popularity drew a flood of visitors and promised Nine Mountains Sect new income, leaving Senior Sister Zhang visibly delighted.

• Zheng Fa used a Nourishing Spirit Talisman to ease Aunt Ye’s exhaustion as the group traveled to inspect two mountain sites.
• Aunt Ye explained the sites’ trade-offs, and Zheng Fa laid out principles for the Nursing Home: no pretending to be supernatural, no chasing or flattering power, and a focus on research.
• Han Qi reported that demand to watch Saving Little Cultivator Pang Qian had overwhelmed the available Jieyin Ships after the play’s reputation spread among visiting cultivators.
• Zheng Fa told Senior Sister Zhang that Nine Mountains Sect would earn enough from outside to fund her research without using the sect’s resources.
• Senior Sister Yuan teased Senior Sister Zhang for being unable to hide her delight as she stared at the waterfall.

Han Qi encountered the impoverished Senior Brother Li, who learned that Zheng Fa’s innovations had made the Nine Mountains Sect Marketplace thrive and asked to meet him. Zheng Fa began teaching at the Talisman Arts Pavilion, where the lecturers treated him courteously, but lecturers from the Talisman Debate Pavilion soon arrived, still unconvinced.

• Han Qi told his companions that Zheng Fa would teach at the Talisman Arts Pavilion and worried that older Foundation Establishment Realm lecturers might pressure him.
• Han Qi and the tall, thin man met Senior Brother Li, learned he was still poor and obsessed with Talisman Seals, and directed him toward dock work.
• A wealthy Thousand Grain Sect Marketplace manager hired Senior Brother Li, praised Zheng Fa’s free Jieyin Ship and stage plays, and sparked Li’s interest in meeting Zheng Fa.
• Senior Brother Li found Han Qi and the others and asked them to introduce him to Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa arrived at the Talisman Arts Pavilion, where the lecturers greeted him with conspicuous politeness as Senior Sister Zhang observed.
• Several Talisman Debate Pavilion lecturers, including disciples of Uncle-Master Pang’s lineage, entered Zheng Fa’s classroom, showing that they remained unconvinced.

Zheng Fa introduced Immortal Strife, a simulated team battle, to the new disciples as his first lesson and watched them struggle to cooperate. He ended by condemning their mistrust of fellow sect members, leaving the instructors who had come to judge him ashamed.

• Zheng Fa welcomed the gathered disciples and launched Immortal Strife, explaining its teams, victory conditions, and consequences for defeat.
• The disciples fought chaotically, often attacking their own teammates, while Zhou Ganyuan led a mixed-branch group in a coordinated plan to destroy the opposing stronghold.
• Zhou Ganyuan's group won the trial, and the disciples enthusiastically asked to play again and learn from Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa said he was disappointed that disciples from the same sect had failed to trust and cooperate with one another on the battlefield.
• The Foundation Establishment Realm instructors exchanged ashamed glances after hearing Zheng Fa's criticism.

Zheng Fa confronted the Talisman Arts Pavilion lecturers over the feud between the two branches, then taught the disciples talisman techniques using footage from Immortal Strife. As Zhou Ganyuan decided to deliver his master's jade tube, Zheng Fa began discussing a market partnership with Thousand Grain Sect.

• Zheng Fa blamed the Foundation Establishment lecturers for fostering hostility between the two branches and announced that he would mix students into groups for daily Immortal Strife trials.
• Zheng Fa taught the Immobilization Talisman by reviewing disciples' mistakes on a water screen, earning respect from the students and several lecturers.
• Zhou Ganyuan heard that Pang True Person was playing Immortal Strife with his senior brothers and decided that the game could bridge the branches, so he went to deliver the jade tube to Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa warned Qian True Person that Thousand Grain Sect's Jieyin Ship might attract few customers, then proposed selling its spirit grain at Nine Mountains Sect Market.

Zheng Fa arranged for Thousand Grain Sect to supply affordable Yellow Sprout Rice to Nine Mountains Sect, then condensed his fifth Origin Talisman and discovered a new change in his dantian. He met Li Nuo, whose dangerous Talisman Seal research prompted him to seek a loan.

• Zheng Fa negotiated for Thousand Grain Sect to sell at least three hundred dan of Yellow Sprout Rice monthly to Nine Mountains Sect at three dan per Spirit Stone.
• Zheng Fa explained that the rice would provide affordable food for poorer disciples while diversifying the marketplace's goods.
• Zheng Fa condensed the Rosy-Cloud Talisman, and his five yin-aspected Origin Talismans merged on a golden lotus dais as another phantom dais appeared below it.
• Han Qi told Li Nuo that Zheng Fa had arranged for affordable Yellow Sprout Rice, easing Li Nuo's anxiety before their meeting.
• Li Nuo asked Zheng Fa to lend him Spirit Stones for Talisman Seal research and showed him a successful Golden Armor Talisman seal, explaining that his father had died in an experiment.

Zheng Fa considered funding Li Nuo’s talisman seal research, but Senior Sister Zhang warned that the seals were costly and threatened the livelihoods of the sect’s Talisman Masters. When Zheng Fa argued that mass-produced talismans might matter in an approaching war, Senior Sister Zhang agreed to fund the research herself and shield him from the backlash.

• Li Nuo explained that his blood-based talisman seal could produce about a thousand Yellow-grade Golden Armor Talismans but cost six Spirit Stones, making it unprofitable.
• Li Nuo asked Zheng Fa for money to continue researching talisman seals, and Zheng Fa proposed seeking sect investment in exchange for a share of future profits.
• Zheng Fa visited Senior Sister Zhang and Senior Sister Yuan, who were relaxing over food, and discussed Li Nuo’s proposal with them.
• Senior Sister Zhang opposed General Affairs Pavilion funding because spirit beast blood was expensive and successful seals could put the sect’s Talisman Masters out of work.
• Zheng Fa argued that mass-produced talismans might change the course of a coming war, and Senior Sister Zhang offered to provide the Spirit Stones herself.

Senior Sister Zhang prepared to leave the Nine Mountains Sect for Taiyang Commandery, where a spirit aperture had revealed a spirit stone mine and drawn many factions into conflict. Before Zheng Fa could dwell on his limited cultivation, Zhou Ganyuan delivered a jade slip, and Seventh Young Master arrived with gifts to visit him.

• Senior Sister Zhang explained that the Everlasting Spring Sect had sought aid after a spirit aperture containing a spirit stone mine emerged in Taiyang Commandery, and she entrusted Zheng Fa with watching over Senior Sister Yuan while she was away.
• Senior Sister Yuan told Zheng Fa that Taiyang Commandery was likely in danger and that Senior Sister Zhang had already sent many people there.
• Zheng Fa worried that his cultivation was too low, and Zhou Ganyuan arrived to deliver him a jade slip from Pang True Person.
• Seventh Young Master barged in while Zheng Fa was reaching for the jade slip, then explained that he had come to visit Zheng Fa and brought him Azure Wood Sect specialties.
• Han Qi and two others arrived with parcels from market vendors, and Zheng Fa ate a piece of brown sugar cake, easing Seventh Young Master's disappointment.

Zheng Fa reunited with Seventh Young Master and Zhao Jinglan, who visited Nine Mountains Sect and learned how far Zheng Fa had advanced. While Zheng Fa studied Pang True Person’s unusual talisman diagrams and managed sect affairs, his visitors discovered his influence in the sect and market.

• Zhao Jinglan and Seventh Young Master visited Zheng Fa, and Seventh Young Master bragged about his progress in Azure Wood Sect before giving Zheng Fa pills.
• Zheng Fa studied Pang True Person’s jade slip and found that its talisman diagrams contained unfamiliar patterns that might reveal their deeper nature.
• Zheng Fa took over numerous sect and market duties while Senior Sister Zhang prepared to leave Nine Mountains Sect.
• Han Qi showed Zhao Jinglan and Seventh Young Master around the thriving market, where the stallholders treated Han Qi and his companions with respect.
• Seventh Young Master learned that Zheng Fa was the Sect Master's sole disciple, had Senior Sister Zhang’s trust, and had reached the fifth level of Qi Refinement, then regretted giving him the pills.
• Zhao Jinglan smacked Seventh Young Master and remarked that both his foolishness and his fortune had gone too far.