Chapter Summaries

Zheng Fa learned that Zhao Jinglan planned to risk going to Taiyang Commandery for resources and feared the danger posed by the Great Freedom Demon Cult. Worried about Senior Sister Zhang and his ties to Nine Mountains Sect, he worked on his talisman research, while Tang Lingwu unexpectedly shot toward the ceiling during training.

• Zhao Jinglan told Zheng Fa she was going to Taiyang Commandery to seek lesser spirit materials and asked him to stop Seventh Young Master from acting rashly if she died.
• Zhao Jinglan revealed rumors that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had appeared in Taiyang Commandery, leaving Zheng Fa worried about Senior Sister Zhang's safety.
• Zheng Fa swallowed an Origin-Consolidating Pill, condensed the Spirit-Awakening Talisman, and recorded his progress on a jade slip.
• While helping Tang Lingwu and Old Man Bai practice the Spirit Crane Body, Zheng Fa told Old Man Bai he wanted to help an important woman and worried that research on the Talisman Diagram was too slow.
• Tang Lingwu suddenly shot toward the ceiling, and Zheng Fa caught her by the ankle before she hit it.

After Old Man Bai helped Zheng Fa let go of his worries, Zheng Fa advanced in the Five-Thunder Dharma Body but found his transformer could not support the next stage. On his eighteenth birthday, Tang Lingwu gave him Old Man Bai’s notes on the Three-Sub-Talisman Law, and the chapter ended with the two agreeing to let their classmates use their photo for the class album.

• Tang Lingwu showed off her newly mastered Spirit Crane Body in the park, where Old Man Bai advised her and Zheng Fa not to shoulder every problem or force themselves toward success.
• Zheng Fa calmly trained with the Five-Thunder Dharma Body, reached the muscle-forging realm, and discovered his 300V transformer could not provide enough power for bone forging.
• Tang Lingwu brought Zheng Fa architectural plans for a future mountain manor and asked what kind of home he wanted.
• Tang Lingwu gave Zheng Fa Old Man Bai’s notes describing how Talisman Diagrams contained three distinct Sub-Talismans, a discovery they called the Three-Sub-Talisman Law.
• Tang Lingwu revealed that the notes were Zheng Fa’s eighteenth-birthday gift, and she agreed to let a classmate use their photo for the class album.

Zheng Fa discussed the incomplete Three-Sub-Talisman Law with Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu, then gave a copy to Senior Sister Zhang as she departed for Taiyang Commandery. After Zhang Wuyi left with Zhao Jinglan aboard the Flying Shuttle, a young scholar and his companions planned to investigate Zheng Fa.

• Zheng Fa questioned Old Man Bai about the gaps in the Three-Sub-Talisman Law, and Tang Lingwu proposed that talismans might work like computer code with different kinds of statements.
• Old Man Bai showed Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu a video of an elderly agricultural researcher he admired, then said she would visit the provincial capital next month, and Zheng Fa offered to help.
• Zheng Fa hurried to the docks and gave Senior Sister Zhang a copy of the Three-Sub-Talisman Law before she left for Taiyang Commandery with her disciples.
• Senior Sister Zhang invited Zhao Jinglan aboard the Flying Shuttle, and Seventh Young Master suspected that Zheng Fa's book had made her especially happy.
• After the Flying Shuttle departed, a young scholar told his companions to investigate Zheng Fa's background.

A Holy Church young master sent two disguised cultivators to investigate and kill Zheng Fa, while Zheng Fa prepared to stay in Senior Sister Zhang’s safer courtyard and saw Seventh Young Master off to the Azure Wood Sect. The would-be assassins began questioning their assumptions about the Nine Mountains Sect after encountering its stage play and affordable spirit-rice program.

• The Holy Church young master ordered his uncle and nephew to investigate Zheng Fa and kill him if they found an opportunity, explaining that the sect feared overlooking rising geniuses.
• Senior Sister Yuan told Zheng Fa that Senior Sister Zhang wanted him to stay in her courtyard for protection, while Seventh Young Master decided to return to the Azure Wood Sect and cultivate for his sister’s sake.
• Zheng Fa saw Seventh Young Master off, and they promised to meet again as Nascent Soul cultivators; the disguised uncle and nephew watched Zheng Fa’s empty residence while waiting for a chance to act.
• The uncle and nephew attended Zheng Fa’s stage play, and the young man concluded that the Nine Mountains Sect treated its people differently from the Holy Church.
• The uncle and nephew saw the crowded, affordable Yellow Sprout Rice shop, and the uncle joined the line after hearing that the Nine Mountains Sect had arranged fair prices to help its lower-level disciples.

Zheng Fa recruited Uncle-Master Pang’s disciples to help secure the market, then learned that members of the Great Freedom Demon Cult had been watching him. After one captive woke in Nine Mountains Sect, Li Nuo mistook the blood Zheng Fa had collected from him for a fresh purchase.

• Zheng Fa asked Uncle-Master Pang to send disciples to guard and supervise the market, and Pang agreed after Zheng Fa offered them three Spirit Stones each month.
• Uncle-Master Pang gave Zheng Fa a jade slip containing cultivation secrets for the Void-Piercing Spirit Eye after noticing Zheng Fa had reached the sixth level of Qi Refinement.
• Sun Daoyu and other senior brothers told Zheng Fa that two suspicious men had watched his home from a nearby inn, and the men fled using the Great Freedom Demon Cult’s Heavenly Demon Disappearing Shadow.
• Master Yuan explained the demon sects’ origins and the Devil Ancestors’ bloodlines, then worried that traces of the Great Freedom Demon Cult had appeared.
• The two fugitives reached a hut where their young master’s formation cut off their life force; one took a Heart-Burning Pill and asked the pursuing Nine Mountains Sect disciples to save him.
• Zheng Fa revived the young man with a Blood-Siphoning Talisman, and Li Nuo entered looking for blood and assumed the filled bottle was a recent purchase.

Zheng Fa investigated the blood of the captured Great Freedom Demon Sect disciple Lin Bufan and learned that the sect was targeting Zhang Wuyi. After Li Nuo used Lin Bufan’s blood to make a Nourishing Spirit Talisman seal, Zheng Fa considered harvesting the Devil Ancestor’s Spirit Plants, prompting his master to offer Uncle-Master Pang’s Millennium Purple Bamboo instead.

• Zheng Fa questioned the awakened Lin Bufan, who revealed that someone in the Great Freedom Demon Sect was watching Zhang Wuyi and had arranged the attack on Zheng Fa.
• Zheng Fa told Senior Sister Yuan to watch Lin Bufan and planned to inform Zhang Wuyi and their master about the threat.
• Zheng Fa studied the unique sub-talisman patterns in Lin Bufan’s blood and suspected one was tied to the Devil Ancestor.
• Li Nuo told Zheng Fa that Lin Bufan’s blood had enabled him to make a Nourishing Spirit Talisman seal, unlike their own blood.
• Zheng Fa asked the Sect Leader whether harvesting the Devil Ancestor’s Spirit Plants would provoke retaliation, and the Sect Leader offered Uncle-Master Pang’s Millennium Purple Bamboo instead.

Zheng Fa decided to take in Lin Bufan after Lin offered his Soul Seal and revealed that he could sense the Great Freedom Devil Ancestor. In the modern world, Zheng Fa, Tang Lingwu, and Old Man Bai met the dying agricultural expert at a luxury hotel, where she explained that she was spending all her money before her predicted death.

• Zheng Fa agreed with Senior Sister Yuan that Lin Bufan should be killed if he refused to cooperate, but Lin offered to become Zheng Fa’s disciple and surrender his Soul Seal.
• Lin Bufan said the Great Freedom Devil Ancestor was probably outside the realm and that his clansmen would sense the Ancestor’s descent.
• Zheng Fa told the Sect Master he wanted to accept Lin Bufan so the sect could use his perceptions to prepare for the Devil Ancestor, and the Sect Master let him decide.
• Zheng Fa traveled with Tang Lingwu and Old Man Bai to the provincial capital to meet the agricultural expert at a luxury hotel.
• The old lady said she had six months to live and had planned to spend all her money before then, and she urged Zheng Fa and the others to eat with her.

After meeting Professor Tian, Zheng Fa considered helping treat her illness and recruiting her into the Nursing Home, while realizing they needed ways to judge character and guard their secrets. On the first day of the College Entrance Exam, Tang Lingwu arrived to cheer him on.

• Professor Tian told Old Man Bai that she had recurring liver growths and asked him to visit her mother after she returned home.
• Old Man Bai explained that he had arranged the dinner so Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu could assess whether Professor Tian would fit into the Nursing Home.
• Zheng Fa decided that Healing Talismans and Illusion Talismans should be among the remaining sub-talismans he would condense.
• Three days later, Zheng Fa went alone to Experimental Middle School to take the College Entrance Exam.
• Tang Lingwu found Zheng Fa at the examination center and cheered him on in a qipao.

After finishing the College Entrance Exam, Zheng Fa considered how university could support his research and the Nursing Home, then celebrated with Old Man Bai, Professor Tian, and Tang Lingwu. In the Xuanwei Realm, he reaffirmed his new master-servant relationship with Lin Bufan and offered him a larger bottle, leaving Lin Bufan uncertain about what Zheng Fa expected him to do.

• Zheng Fa finished his exam early and reflected on his plans to study science, build the Nursing Home, and investigate the Talisman Dao Foundation Establishment Method.
• Zheng Fa left the exam hall with Old Man Bai and said he hoped to travel to the capital in early July after handling matters at home and visiting his parents' graves.
• Old Man Bai, Professor Tian, and Tang Lingwu prepared a celebratory meal for Zheng Fa, and Zheng Fa ate Tang Lingwu's salty scrambled eggs to reassure her.
• In the Xuanwei Realm, Zheng Fa examined Lin Bufan's Soul Seal as Lin Bufan asked him to bestow a name.
• Zheng Fa rejected Lin Bufan's proposed name, Lin Fan, then showed him a larger porcelain bottle and asked whether he would do it himself.

Zheng Fa realized that someone had been impersonating Zhang Wuyi in their daily correspondence and suspected she was in danger. He concluded that the impostor knew the Nine Mountains Sect well enough to suggest a traitor within the sect.

• Lin Bufan told Zheng Fa what he knew about the Great Freedom Demon Cult, its Scripture of Freedom, and his past serving Lin Yangtian.
• Zheng Fa asked Lin Bufan for more blood to replenish a spirit talisman, then gave him two spirit stones as monthly pay.
• After receiving a communication talisman from Zhang Wuyi, Zheng Fa checked her recent messages against Senior Sister Yuan's records and noticed that the sender's answers seemed unlike Zhang Wuyi.
• Zheng Fa explained that someone had likely impersonated Zhang Wuyi and knew the Nine Mountains Sect's affairs unusually well.
• Senior Sister Yuan asked whether the impostor's knowledge meant there was a traitor in the Nine Mountains Sect.

Zheng Fa uncovered that someone had impersonated Senior Sister Zhang to delay the Nine Mountains Sect while she was in danger, and True Person Huang flew to Taiyang Commandery to investigate. As Zheng Fa cultivated and questioned the Great Freedom Holy Ancestor, Chen Ting refused the Great Freedom Demon Sect’s demand that he lure Zheng Fa out.

• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Yuan concluded that the false letters from Senior Sister Zhang were meant to stall the Nine Mountains Sect, and Zheng Fa stopped Yuan from rushing to Taiyang Commandery alone.
• Zheng Fa reported his suspicions to the Sect Master, who summoned True Person Huang; she flew to Taiyang Commandery after hearing that her disciple Wuyi might be in trouble.
• The Sect Master explained that True Person Huang was willing to risk her life and might destroy the Everlasting Spring Sect if it had betrayed them.
• Zheng Fa returned to Senior Sister Zhang’s courtyard, cultivated to the Seventh Layer of Qi Refinement Realm, and questioned whether the Great Freedom Holy Ancestor was human after reading Lin Bufan’s Scripture of Freedom.
• The Great Freedom Demon Sect urged Chen Ting to use Zhou Ganyuan to lure Zheng Fa out, but Chen Ting refused, unwilling to risk his position and life.

Zheng Fa discovered that Demon Sect bloodlines could be connected to Dao Bodies and deduced that a mysterious correspondent was hinting at possession through the Soul-Transference Profound Art. Half a month later, the Sect Master revealed himself during Chen Ting’s ambush and blasted the possessing black shadow out of Chen Ting’s body.

• Zheng Fa examined his blood and found traces of the Five-Element Sub-Talisman, leading him to suspect the Demon Sect had found a way to produce Dao Bodies.
• Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Yuan’s secret investigation failed to find the insider, but suspicious mistakes in letters from the false Senior Sister Zhang drew Zheng Fa’s attention to Zheng Ji and Ice-Soul Talismans.
• Lin Bufan explained that the Soul-Transference Profound Art let a cultivator possess and nurture another cultivator before taking their body, and Zheng Fa concluded that the correspondent had been driven into a corner.
• Chen Ting prepared to ambush Zheng Fa and Zhou Ganyuan, while the voice possessing him promised help escaping and said it would no longer need to seize Chen Ting’s body.
• The Sect Master appeared during the ambush and used lightning to blast a black-haired phantom out of Chen Ting, who realized the Sect Master had set the trap.

The Sect Master defeated a Great Freedom Demon Cult infiltrator, while Chen Ting sacrificed himself and the infiltrator to the Nine Nether Devil Ancestor and revealed that Zhang Wuyi had vanished into the Thunder Pool. Zheng Fa learned the Thunder Pool could help him cultivate the Divine Firmament Thunder-Commanding True Method, then set off for the capital with Tang Lingwu and Old Man Bai, leaving Aunt Ye behind.

• The Sect Master used the Heavenly Cycle Divine Thunder Formation to trap the middle-aged demon sect phantom, who summoned the Great Freedom Devil Ancestor’s power and attacked Chen Ting.
• Chen Ting chanted a sacrifice spell, causing himself, the middle-aged man, and the summoned divine power to disappear before returning with a greatly strengthened aura.
• Chen Ting told Zheng Fa that Zhang Wuyi had been lost in the Thunder Pool, bowed to Pang True Person, and departed.
• The Sect Master explained that the Thunder Pool was ideal for cultivating the Divine Firmament Thunder-Commanding True Method, leaving Zheng Fa to consider its power and cost.
• Zheng Fa and Old Man Bai went to Tang Lingwu’s home before their planned trip to the capital, and Tang Lingwu’s mother, Aunt Ye, tried to join them.
• Tang Lingwu called Aunt Ye an outsider and left with Zheng Fa and Old Man Bai, prompting Aunt Ye to ask the housekeeper who the outsider was.

Zheng Fa and his companions arrived at Rainbow Mountain, inspected the Nursing Home, and Zheng Fa began practicing the Spirit Mountain Method there. His practice triggered a brilliant rainbow and a flock of birds, which the locals took as the Rainbow Mountain Goddess manifesting.

• Zheng Fa learned from Boss Mu that Rainbow Mountain had a legend about a goddess, while Boss Mu's grandmother dismissed the story as false.
• Zheng Fa, Old Man Bai, and Tang Lingwu inspected the nearly completed Nursing Home and the secluded home Tang Lingwu had designed for them.
• Zheng Fa used the Spirit Mountain Method and Spirit-Awakening Talismans to connect with Rainbow Mountain, sending spiritual power surging through him.
• Boss Mu saw a rainbow appear over Rainbow Mountain and birds circle its peak during his livestream.
• Boss Mu's grandmother prayed to the goddess and asked her to punish the Wang Family instead of her.

Zheng Fa studied how the Spirit Mountain Method transformed spiritual power into spiritual energy, then helped Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu begin cultivating in the modern world. Just as Tang Lingwu showed extraordinary talent, Senior Sister Yuan brought news that the Everlasting Spring Sect had been destroyed and Senior Sister Zhang was missing.

• Zheng Fa used the Spirit Mountain Method to observe spiritual power turning into spiritual energy and partially confirmed his theory about cultivation.
• Zheng Fa discovered that the spiritual energy around Rainbow Mountain shut down nearby phones, and Old Man Bai suggested it could prevent electronic spying.
• Zheng Fa gave Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu five introductory methods to test; Old Man Bai chose the Yellow Earth Method, while Tang Lingwu chose the Everlasting Spring Method.
• Zheng Fa found that Old Man Bai suited the Yellow Earth Method and Tang Lingwu absorbed spiritual energy at a rate suggesting she had a Single-Spirit Root.
• Senior Sister Yuan told Zheng Fa that the Everlasting Spring Sect had been annihilated, Senior Sister Zhang was missing, and the other disciples had been ambushed.

The Nine Mountains Sect learned that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had been exposed near the Thunder Pool, where Senior Sister Zhang and Junior Sister Huang had disappeared amid fierce fighting. Zheng Fa’s master barred him from joining the search for now, and Zheng Fa ended the chapter alone in Senior Sister Zhang’s courtyard, missing her.

• The Sect Leader told Uncle-Master Pang and the others that the Great Freedom Demon Cult had destroyed the Everlasting Spring Sect and that Senior Sister Zhang had led disciples into the Thunder Pool while pursued by Nascent Souls.
• The Sect Leader decided to seek help from the Hundred Immortals Alliance and send lower-cultivation disciples into the Thunder Pool to find Senior Sister Zhang and investigate the area.
• Zheng Fa volunteered to lead the search, but the Sect Leader and Uncle-Master Pang refused to let him go and chose Sun Daoyu instead.
• The Sect Leader explained that he was protecting Zheng Fa and revealed that Senior Sister Zhang had asked him to keep Zheng Fa safe because she believed Zheng Fa would make a better Sect Leader.
• Zheng Fa walked the route he and Senior Sister Zhang usually took for Dao Discussions, then sat alone in her courtyard and imagined her beside him.

Zheng Fa cultivated the Thunder Shackles Talisman and pushed the Five-Thunder Dharma Body toward its next stage so he could go to the Thunder Pool for Senior Sister Zhang and prepare for the conflict with the Great Freedom Demon Cult. His promise to go within a month calmed the panicked market, and the Sect Master gave him Mystic Thunderstones to support his training.

• Zheng Fa condensed the Thunder Shackles Talisman and decided to cultivate as quickly as possible before heading to the Thunder Pool.
• Zheng Fa used up a Mystic Thunderstone while tempering his bones, then told Senior Sister Yuan he would go to the Thunder Pool within half a month to a month.
• Han Qi found the market in turmoil after news spread that Senior Sister Zhang and other disciples had disappeared, but Zheng Fa's promised departure eased the crowd's fears.
• Zheng Fa told the Sect Master he planned to reach the blood-changing stage using Mystic Thunderstones, and the Sect Master gave him dozens from his storage pouch.
• Pang True Person praised Zheng Fa to the Sect Master, who said Zheng Fa had prestige and remembered kindness but did not listen.

Zheng Fa used high-voltage electricity to advance to the Bone Tempering stage of the Five-Thunder Dharma Form, changing his physique. Tang Lingwu then discovered that plants near Zheng Fa’s Spirit Mountain Method cultivation site had grown unusually large, suggesting spiritual energy could cause mutations.

• Zheng Fa helped Old Man Bai cultivate the Five-Thunder Dharma Form with electrical gloves, then tried a new high-voltage power supply himself.
• At 2,100 volts, Zheng Fa entered cultivation and achieved the third level of the Five-Thunder Dharma Form, Bone Tempering.
• Old Man Bai and Tang Lingwu noticed Zheng Fa had grown taller and more proportionate, and Old Man Bai tried to measure his changed physique.
• Tang Lingwu showed Zheng Fa and Old Man Bai weeds that had grown larger and greener near the place where Zheng Fa practiced the Spirit Mountain Method.
• Zheng Fa and Old Man Bai suspected spiritual energy had caused the plants to mutate, and Old Man Bai remarked that they needed an agricultural expert.

In the modern world, Old Man Bai visited Professor Tian and gave her an unusual gift that caught her interest. In the Xuanwei Realm, the Nine Mountains Sect learned that Junior Sister Huang had discovered the Thunder Dao Heaven Stele and decided to share access to it, while Zheng Fa proposed building a Marketplace nearby.

• Old Man Bai ignored Professor Tian's request to stay away and visited her house with Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu, where Granny Wu welcomed him and tried to bring the two together.
• Granny Wu explained that she wanted Old Man Bai to keep Professor Tian company despite her illness, and revealed that she enjoyed shipping them as a couple.
• Old Man Bai gave Professor Tian a clump of grass from the Nursing Home, and she carefully examined its roots, apparently recognizing something unusual about it.
• The Sect Leader told Uncle-Master Pang, Zheng Fa, and the others that Junior Sister Huang had found the Thunder Dao Heaven Stele, an ancient Spirit Treasure associated with Venerable Tianhe.
• The Sect Leader decided to open Taiyang Commandery to Nascent Soul sects of the Hundred Immortals Alliance so they could comprehend the stele, and Zheng Fa proposed establishing a Marketplace near the Thunder Pool.

Zheng Fa traveled with Uncle-Master Pang toward Taiyang Commandery aboard the Five-Dragon Heavenly Palace, where they met fellow Hundred Immortals Alliance cultivators and encountered Spirit Beast Sect’s True Person Ling. At a banquet, Ling disparaged Zhang Wuyi and boasted about his young disciple, but a Nine Mountains Sect disciple advanced to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement Realm, undercutting his boast.

• Uncle-Master Pang showed Zheng Fa the Five-Dragon Heavenly Palace and explained that he was taking a long, cautious route toward Taiyang Commandery.
• As the palace traveled, cultivators from other Hundred Immortals Alliance sects joined them, and on the eighth day they met True Person Ling of the Spirit Beast Sect on a giant Black Tortoise.
• Uncle-Master Pang warmly welcomed True Person Ling, then hosted him and his disciples at a banquet that evening.
• True Person Ling criticized Zhang Wuyi and praised his disciple, claiming the youth had reached the Seventh Layer of Qi Refinement Realm after nine months of cultivation.
• A disciple advanced to the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement Realm, and Uncle-Master Pang told True Person Ling that the disciple had also joined at the Immortal Selection Fair and had been brought into the sect by Zhang Wuyi.