Chapter Summaries

Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi showed Liu Donghe the Witchcraft Silkworms they had developed and asked him to help promote them. After seeing their work, Liu Donghe recognized it as a worthy foundation for Liu Shenzhi’s Dao Path, but his response to their request remained unknown.

• Li Qi praised Liu Junyi’s breakfast, and Liu Donghe urged Liu Shenzhi to learn from his brother and care for daily responsibilities.
• Liu Shenzhi pretended to reform his lazy habits to put Liu Donghe in a good mood, while Li Qi backed him up as a good friend.
• Liu Shenzhi asked Liu Donghe to inspect their research, explaining that their work concerned his seventh-rank Dao foundation.
• After breakfast, Liu Shenzhi washed the dishes with a spell that broke several bowls, then led Liu Donghe and Li Qi to his courtyard.
• Liu Donghe used a Confucian technique to examine the Witchcraft Silkworms and praised the pair’s achievement.
• Li Qi told Liu Donghe they wanted to sell the Witchcraft Silkworms publicly and asked him to help promote them.

Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi persuaded Liu Donghe to write a piece for the Trumpet Flower God's literary gathering, and she received the good news in Chang'an. Her relief was interrupted when Bai Zhang of the Hanlin Academy arrived and announced that its members would attend the gathering.

• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi explained their plan to Liu Donghe and asked him to compose an essay or poem, and he agreed to write one for them to collect that afternoon.
• The Trumpet Flower God learned that Liu Donghe had agreed to write an essay praising the trumpet flower and rejoiced that his original manuscript would soon arrive.
• Bai Zhang introduced himself as a Hanlin Academy trainee who had come to visit the Trumpet Flower God.
• The Trumpet Flower God refused to let Bai Zhang close the door and reminded him of the Hanlin Academy's past mockery of her.
• Bai Zhang's words triggered the Upper Garden's rules, which injured the Trumpet Flower God when she tried to retaliate.
• Bai Zhang asked for invitations for Hanlin Academy members to attend the literary gathering, and the Trumpet Flower God told him they could come without invitations.

The Trumpet Flower God prepared to answer the scholars opposing her, while Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi collected Liu Donghe’s essay for her literary gathering. After reading its powerful Ode to the Trumpet Flower, they headed to Upper Garden with their preparations complete and the gathering about to begin.

• The Trumpet Flower God shut her gates after Bai Zhang left and decided to make further preparations rather than seek a courteous reconciliation with the scholars.
• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi finished preparing a Witchcraft Silkworm sample and publicity materials, then went to Liu Donghe’s study to collect his essay.
• Liu Donghe gave them the essay and reflected on the Witchcraft Silkworm’s significance as a Shaman Path assembly line and possible Dao foundation.
• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi opened Liu Donghe’s Ode to the Trumpet Flower, whose righteous energy dispelled Li Qi’s Difficult Yin Qi.
• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi read the essay’s dense allusions and understood its praise of trumpet flowers climbing from a withered tree, then set out for the literary gathering.

Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi delivered Liu Donghe’s essay to the injured Trumpet Flower God, Lingxiao, whose cultivation and health recovered as she read it. After agreeing to attend her literary gathering in four days, Li Qi called Rabbit, who deduced that his summons involved the Shaman God and reported that the Child of Destiny in the Sacred Flame Realm was nearing eighth-rank.

• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi visited the Trumpet Flower God and found that Shangyuan’s rules had injured her.
• Liu Shenzhi presented Liu Donghe’s essay, and Lingxiao recovered as its divine charm raised her cultivation and produced a sun-and-moon phenomenon.
• Lingxiao thanked Liu Donghe through Liu Shenzhi and told them to return for her literary gathering in four days.
• Li Qi called Rabbit, who inferred that his secret summons had involved the Shaman God and stopped asking after he refused to explain.
• Rabbit told Li Qi that the Child of Destiny was close to eighth-rank and gaining influence in the Sacred Flame Realm, while the Green Mountain God and his allies were expected to arrive soon.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi discussed their plans for the Sacred Flame Realm and Mount Luofu, then Li Qi focused on cultivating and studying the boundary between spiritual and material entities. The chapter ended with Yu Zao and Li Lieqi finding Li Qi so absorbed in thought that he had been chewing an iron bar instead of his meal.

• Li Qi told Shen Shuibi that a Fifth-Rank Flower Goddess would help Sacred Flame and Witchcraft Silkworm find buyers, and they discussed rebuilding Mount Luofu with the resulting wealth.
• Shen Shuibi said Yang Ning had already visited the Sacred Flame Realm and returned to inform Granny Mei and the others about their plans.
• Li Qi agreed to come to the Sacred Flame Realm by the end of the month and promised to share anything he could not resolve with Shen Shuibi.
• Li Qi cultivated by adjusting the boundaries and energy flows within his body's small world, while continuing to ponder the boundary between spiritual and material entities.
• At the Imperial Academy dining hall, Yu Zao and Li Lieqi found Li Qi absent-mindedly chewing an iron bar that he had mistaken for food.

Li Qi met Yu Zao and the Plague Lord, whose three bodies fused into a new person without regard for personal identity. Fascinated by this alternative answer to what made a person themselves, Li Qi began talking with the Plague Lord, who discovered Li Qi could identify the weaknesses in his strange body.

• Yu Zao confronted Li Qi after watching him for three days and insisted that the Plague Lord examine him.
• Li Qi agreed to the examination and recognized that the three classmates were connected as the Plague Lord.
• The Plague Lord fused his three bodies into a fourth person, shocking Li Qi because the fusion replaced the original minds.
• Li Qi questioned the Plague Lord about the fusion and considered how it challenged his ideas about self-identity.
• Li Qi used the True Knowledge Dao Charm to discover that the Plague Lord's body was built from countless tiny organisms.
• Yu Zao left Li Qi and the Plague Lord to talk, and the Plague Lord realized Li Qi could pinpoint his body's weak points.

Li Qi entered Plague Lord’s grotto-heaven to examine his true body and help him control the power leaking from it. He discovered that Plague Lord was an entire ocean ecosystem whose countless interchangeable minds formed a collective self, leaving Li Qi with a new perspective on what made a person themselves.

• Li Qi and Plague Lord discussed using boundary calculations to help Plague Lord control his power, and Plague Lord agreed to share his views on the self in return.
• Li Qi followed Plague Lord into a grotto-heaven and learned that its vast ocean was Plague Lord’s true body.
• Plague Lord disintegrated into the sea, revealing a glowing ecosystem of countless viruses that formed a complex food web and shared will.
• Li Qi realized that Plague Lord’s leaking power could infect living beings and inferred how the ecosystem had become a Seventh Rank existence.
• Plague Lord spoke through the ocean as Li Qi saw countless identical minds killing and replacing one another, demonstrating that Plague Lord’s collective self did not depend on preserving any individual mind.

Li Qi examined the Plague Lord and devised a method that let it control most of its power, then gained new insight into the nature of the self. He agreed to attend the Trumpet Flower God’s literary gathering with the Plague Lord, while Yu Zao followed him on his way home.

• Li Qi studied the Plague Lord’s body and calculated detailed models for controlling its power leakage.
• The Plague Lord used its shared memories and divided effort to maintain the method above ninety percent, surprising Li Qi.
• The Plague Lord’s explanation led Li Qi to question whether the mind and sense of self were essential to existence, but he could not yet grasp the answer.
• The Plague Lord invited Li Qi to a literary gathering featuring the Trumpet Flower God and a new work by Mr. Liu Donghe, and Li Qi said he was already planning to attend.
• Li Qi left the dining hall and walked home while pondering his discoveries, unaware that Yu Zao was following him.

Li Qi attended the Trumpet Flower God's literary gathering to promote the Witchcraft Silkworms, but discovered she was wearing one of their Dharma robes as part of the publicity. He realized she might deliberately make the robe look shoddy if she was about to lose, using their business as leverage, so he and Liu Shenzhi decided to find a way to help her win.

• Li Qi arrived at the crowded Imperial Garden and saw Hanlin scholars gathered among the cultivators at the literary gathering.
• Liu Shenzhi admitted that he had given the Trumpet Flower God a Witchcraft Silkworm Dharma robe to wear for publicity.
• Li Qi warned Liu Shenzhi that their seventh-rank robe could be damaged in a confrontation between the high-rank cultivators present.
• Li Qi realized the Trumpet Flower God might deliberately make the robe look poor to pressure them into helping her succeed.
• Li Qi and Liu Shenzhi agreed to find a way to help the Trumpet Flower God win before settling accounts with her.

Li Qi gathered Zhong Minglou, Yan Ke, and Bo Yue to carry out Zhong Minglou’s plan at Shangyuan’s literary gathering. He and Bo Yue confronted the Trumpet Flower God about the robe woven from Witchcraft Silkworm, and she claimed it was on her person.

• Li Qi summoned Zhong Minglou, Yan Ke, and Bo Yue, while Zhong Minglou instructed Yan Ke to approach the Hanlin scholars and Li Qi to take Bo Yue to the Trumpet Flower God.
• Zhong Minglou arrived with Miss Lan, gave Li Qi his plan, and stayed behind to admire the flowers.
• Yan Ke agreed to persuade Hanlin scholars to leave, then went to meet them.
• Bo Yue arrived exhausted from repeatedly using the Demon Seed to simulate lottery tickets and joined Li Qi.
• Li Qi and Bo Yue found the Trumpet Flower God at her literary gathering, and Li Qi demanded the Witchcraft Silkworm robe.
• The Trumpet Flower God said the robe was on her person and asked if Li Qi wanted her to remove it.

Li Qi and Bo Yue inspected the Witchcraft Silkworm ritual robe and began improving its living, adaptive qualities. Bo Yue realized the robe’s core technology could aid him, and after the Trumpet Flower God restored his vitality, they finished the modifications just before the literary gathering began.

• The Trumpet Flower God teased Li Qi about taking the ritual robe, then let him inspect it after he turned to leave.
• Bo Yue examined the robe and praised its adaptable, mass-producible design, then began enhancing its living trait with divination arrays and simulated thought.
• Bo Yue asked to study the Witchcraft Silkworm’s core technology, and Li Qi agreed to introduce him to Liu Shenzhi so he could join their undertaking.
• Bo Yue used the Demon Seed to steal time for his work, exhausting his medicine and returning to a corpse-like state.
• The Trumpet Flower God gave Bo Yue some of her essence, restoring his vitality, and he and Li Qi completed the robe’s modifications before the gathering began.
• The modified ritual robe fluttered into the air like a butterfly.

At the literary gathering, the Trumpet Flower God debuted a dance wearing the Witchcraft Silkworm ritual garment made by Li Qi, Liu Shenzhi, and Bo Yue, which reacted to her movements and drew the crowd’s admiration. She then opened the gathering by presenting a disputed piece of writing, and her exchange with a fifth-rank Confucian scholar began the verbal clash over whether attendees would praise or criticize her.

• Yan Ke mingled with the Hanlin apprentices while Li Qi waited for the literary gathering to begin and left Liu Shenzhi to promote the Witchcraft Silkworm.
• The Trumpet Flower God performed a foreign maiden’s dance in the ritual garment, whose predictive responses complemented her movements and displayed its unusual capabilities.
• After the dance, the Trumpet Flower God introduced the importance of writing and said she had brought an excellent work from Baiyue, which she claimed to have obtained through her connection to White Horse Temple.
• A fifth-rank Confucian scholar argued that writers should not compose praise contrary to their feelings, and the Trumpet Flower God invited both praise and criticism while warning against flattery.

The Trumpet Flower God diverted the literary gathering into a calligraphy contest while concealing the truth about Liu Donghe’s handwritten work. Outside the venue, Yu Zao approached Li Qi on behalf of the Miscellaneous School to buy the ritual garment’s production process, but Li Qi rejected the offer despite her warning about Mount Luofu’s looming troubles.

• The Trumpet Flower God blocked the crowd from sensing Liu Donghe’s handwritten work, claimed it was too fragile to copy, and offered a calligraphy manual by Bao Gong as the prize for a contest.
• The calligraphers began competing while the Trumpet Flower God kept the gathering’s troublemakers occupied, and Li Qi left to sit in a garden.
• Yu Zao praised Li Qi’s ritual garment and explained that the Miscellaneous School valued practical ideas regardless of Dao Lineage.
• Yu Zao revealed that she represented the Miscellaneous School and offered to buy the garment’s entire production process, including its core technology, but Li Qi refused.
• Yu Zao warned Li Qi that Mount Luofu’s decline and the Sun Moon True Lead Cauldron’s fall in rank were inevitable, and Li Qi asked what that had to do with him.

Li Qi rejected the Miscellaneous School’s attempt to buy the Witchcraft Silkworm technology and followed Yu Zao to a private Earth Flow Chariot, where he discovered that she could transfer her mind between multiple bodies. Yu Zao’s explanation of how body and mind shaped the self gave Li Qi the insight he had been seeking, and he closed his eyes to explore it.

• Li Qi argued that he had the resources and people to develop the Witchcraft Silkworm himself and planned to sell its products throughout the heavens.
• Yu Zao changed her offer, saying she wanted to purchase the core technology in her personal capacity, but Li Qi questioned whether she was truly the Yu Zao he knew.
• Yu Zao took Li Qi to a private Earth Flow Chariot and led him to a room containing dozens of suspended, sleeping Yu Zao bodies.
• Yu Zao transferred her mind into another body, awakened with a lively personality, and explained that the body was part of the self and could influence personality.
• Li Qi connected Yu Zao’s explanation with his previous insights and realized what being himself meant to him, then closed his eyes and opened all his senses.

Li Qi understood the self as a unique cause within the web of karma, and his realization transformed his human-body minor universe. He agreed to discuss exchanging non-core Witchcraft Silkworm technologies with Yu Zao, while Demonic Energy Li Qi learned about karma from Amitabha Buddha and feared the lesson would endanger his future Dao Path.

• Li Qi drew on Yu Zao's explanation and his own experiences to understand how causes, effects, and influence formed a web of karma.
• Li Qi concluded that the self was a unique karmic cause that could not be copied, and the world became real and clear to him despite heavenly demon illusions.
• Li Qi's human-body minor universe transformed from the illusory into the real, greatly increasing its power without raising his cultivation.
• Li Qi thanked Yu Zao and offered to exchange non-core Witchcraft Silkworm technologies for the Miscellaneous School's technology, including information about consciousness transfer.
• Amitabha Buddha explained karma to Demonic Energy Li Qi, who thanked him but worried that the lesson had created a hidden danger for his future Dao Path.

Demonic Energy Li Qi accepted that his memories and attachments made it difficult to follow Amitabha Buddha’s advice, and he left to pursue his worldly obsessions. Back in Chang'an, Liu Shenzhi told Li Qi how the literary gathering had turned against the Trumpet Flower God, ending as a fifth-rank Hanlin scholar began an essay that insulted her.

• Demonic Energy Li Qi acknowledged that he could not let go of the people and memories he believed were his, despite knowing they belonged to another Li Qi.
• Amitabha Buddha urged Demonic Energy Li Qi to enter the mortal world and pursue what he wished, and Li Qi departed with his black hair restored.
• Yu Zao completed a deal with Li Qi for the first batch of Witchcraft Silkworms in exchange for two Seventh Rank Worlds.
• Liu Shenzhi found Li Qi outside the literary gathering and explained how the Trumpet Flower God’s display of Liu Donghe’s Ode had exposed her connection to Liu Shenzhi.
• The Trumpet Flower God offered Liu Donghe’s authentic work as a prize, prompting the guests to compete with essays and poetry.
• A fifth-rank Hanlin scholar began reading an essay that compared the Trumpet Flower God to a flower clinging to a dead branch.

Li Qi returned to the literary gathering as the Trumpet Flower God faced a Fifth Rank Hanlin scholar who accused her of relying on powerful patrons. As the dispute threatened to bury their plans for the Witchcraft Silkworm, Li Qi stepped forward to challenge the scholar’s idea of what it meant to cling to another.

• Liu Shenzhi told Li Qi that a Hanlin scholar’s essay had attacked the Trumpet Flower God and that their allies had used Liu Shenzhi as evidence that she relied on patrons.
• Li Qi agreed to return to the gathering, explaining that he had already traded Witchcraft Silkworms and technology to the Miscellaneous School for worlds, equipment, and Shaman Path research.
• Li Qi told Liu Shenzhi he would bring people from a drained world into the world at large rather than leave them without a chance to advance.
• At the gathering, the Fifth Rank Hanlin scholar mocked the Trumpet Flower God’s appeal to Liu Donghe and questioned whether her return to Chang'an was truly deserved.
• Li Qi stepped forward and asked whether trees clung to the earth beneath them, challenging the scholar’s claim that relying on others made the Trumpet Flower God unworthy.

Li Qi tried to defend the Trumpet Flower God in a public debate with a fifth-rank Confucian scholar, but the scholar exposed her past and left Li Qi unable to answer. As Li Qi withdrew, his description of her as timid shook the Trumpet Flower God's Dao heart and disrupted her cultivation.

• Li Qi stepped in to defend the Trumpet Flower God, arguing that everyone relied on others in some way, and challenged the Confucian scholar to debate the issue rather than ask about his identity.
• The fifth-rank Confucian scholar distinguished borrowing support from exploiting others and accused the Trumpet Flower God of lacking gratitude and ritual.
• When a supporter nearly turned the dispute into a conflict between Dao paths, Li Qi stopped him and redirected the debate by asking the scholar to define benevolence.
• Li Qi argued that the Trumpet Flower God might have sought support out of timidity rather than greed, but the scholar cited her past treatment of other flower gods and silenced him.
• Li Qi withdrew from the debate, and the Trumpet Flower God trembled as his words about her timidity unsettled her Dao heart and disrupted her cultivation.

The Trumpet Flower God’s attempt to tear out the Imperial Garden’s foundation triggered a battle that ended when the formation turned against Fu Yuelong and aided her. The Peony Flower God arrived with Zhong Minglou, sent the guests away, and asked Li Qi to stay; when he returned, he found the Trumpet Flower God reduced to a trumpet flower.

• The Trumpet Flower God’s Dao heart wavered after Li Qi identified her problem as cowardice, and her cultivation turbulence shook the Imperial Garden.
• Fu Yuelong used his Book of Documents Dharma manifestation to shield everyone, but Li Qi saw that the Trumpet Flower God was destroying the Imperial Garden’s foundation and warned him.
• Fu Yuelong attacked with a river of history, but the Imperial Garden’s formation switched sides, blasted him away, and helped the Trumpet Flower God succeed.
• Zhong Minglou arrived with the Peony Flower God, who asked everyone to leave and privately told Li Qi to remain for the aftermath.
• Li Qi returned to the battlefield and saw that the Trumpet Flower God could no longer maintain her human form.

After shattering Lingxiao Grotto-Heaven, the Trumpet Flower God survived by making the Lingxiao Kingdom bear her fatal injuries and spoke privately with the Peony Flower God about her choice. Li Qi learned more about Zhong Minglou’s ability to follow karmic threads and, when the Peony Flower God left with Zhong Minglou, heard the Trumpet Flower God offer him Lingxiao Grotto-Heaven’s essence and ask him to come closer for an important matter.

• The Trumpet Flower God explained that the Lingxiao Kingdom had borne her fatal injuries, while the Peony Flower God noted that shattering Lingxiao Grotto-Heaven had freed her from her Flower God status.
• The Peony Flower God questioned why the Trumpet Flower God had abandoned her foundation, and the Trumpet Flower God said Li Qi’s remark had helped her find her own answer.
• Zhong Minglou told Li Qi he could follow the lines connecting people and described those connections as karmic threads that could neither break nor transfer.
• Li Qi spotted Iron Begonia hiding in a pavilion, but she sent a wave that briefly disrupted his focus and then disappeared.
• The Peony Flower God took Zhong Minglou away and asked Li Qi to speak with the Trumpet Flower God, who apologized for using him and offered him Lingxiao Grotto-Heaven’s essence.
• The Trumpet Flower God asked Li Qi to lean closer because she had an important matter to tell him.