Chapter Summaries

Li Ye bought an earth-attribute spirit vein and the equipment to install it, then purchased a restraint for a plant-based Golden Core spirit beast. He left after Su Ya invited him to join a delivery in a few days, eager to use his new items on the Huai Spirit Scroll and Spirit Vein Willow.

• Li Ye bought a first-tier earth-attribute spirit vein and a Spirit Vein Plate from Uncle Spirit Vine.
• Li Ye asked for a restraint that could control a Golden Core spirit beast and chose a Seal Character for plant-based lifeforms.
• Li Ye paid fifty thousand Spirit Stones for the restraint and gave Peach Blossom Wine and Purple Oil Spring Rain to Uncle Spirit Vine, while also giving Su Ya a bottle of wine.
• Su Ya invited Li Ye to join him delivering wheat to the Four Seasons Sect's mortal territory and told him to bring Aura of Golden Fortune.
• Li Ye left to try the restraint on the Huai Spirit Scroll and use the spirit vein with the Spirit Vein Willow.

Li Ye awakened the Spirit Vein Willow, discovered its earth-control power, and used his symbiosis panel to bind it to the Golden Horn Ant Queen and the Huai Spirit Scroll. The scroll began transforming after the binding succeeded, leaving Li Ye waiting to learn what it could do.

• Li Ye activated the Spirit Vein Plate, released an earth spirit vein, and restored the Spirit Vein Willow, which grew from the Spirit Vein Orb and cracked it.
• Li Ye bonded with the Spirit Vein Willow and gained enhanced control over earth, then asked it to tend the courtyard’s plants and beasts.
• Li Ye placed the Seal Character restriction on the Huai Spirit Scroll and prepared to bind it through symbiosis.
• Li Ye bound the Golden Horn Ant Queen to the Spirit Vein Willow, spending six hundred points of Vital Essence before replenishing them with pills.
• Li Ye bound the Huai Spirit Scroll to the Spirit Vein Willow, spending two thousand points of Vital Essence as the scroll began to transform.

Li Ye unsealed the Huai Spirit Scroll and discovered it contained the Life-Breath Spirit Transformation Scroll, a divine ability that preserved lingering spirituality in ink paintings. The Black Cat returned to the scroll after helping him paint a Glass Snow Lotus, while Li Ye was left with a damaged Seal Character and a new inheritance to master.

• The Huai Spirit Scroll drew power from the Spirit Vein Willow and filled Li Ye's courtyard with living ink-painted plants before revealing a Black Cat.
• The Black Cat's cry caused an ink-wash locust tree to form within Li Ye's Divine Sense, and Li Ye realized he had learned the Life-Breath Spirit Transformation Scroll.
• Li Ye used the divine ability to paint the Glass Snow Lotus, preserving its lingering spirituality in a lifelike ink-wash form.
• The Black Cat returned to the Huai Spirit Scroll, and the ink-painted courtyard flowed back into the book.
• The Black Cat tossed Li Ye's Seal Character back to him after draining its Spiritual Energy, leaving Li Ye to worry about the loss of his fifty thousand Spirit Stones.

Li Ye had a new courtyard built with the help of spirit beasts and considered how to use his Golden Horn Ants to mine accompanying minerals from a gold mine. After paying for the finished courtyard, he entered his expanded grounds and wondered what to plant there.

• Deacon Yang brought Li Ye a courtyard catalog, and Li Ye chose a simple design with a pavilion and running water.
• Deacon Yang’s cultivators used Luban Spirit Hounds and Yellow Mud Oxen to dig waterways and construct the courtyard.
• Li Ye considered seeking death qi for his Life-Breath Spirit Transformation Scroll and realized his Golden Horn Ants might help mine accompanying minerals at the Mo Family’s gold mine.
• Two days later, Deacon Yang presented the completed courtyard, and Li Ye paid him one hundred Spirit Stones.
• Li Ye entered the new courtyard, watched the beavers explore it, and considered planting something despite the lack of a spirit vein or spring.

Li Ye agreed to grow Bitter Spirit Gourds for Su Ya and learned he had been summoned to a Dao lecture by a powerful senior. In the senior’s Personal Grotto-Heaven, he chose a mysterious bean sprout that the female cultivator identified as the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean.

• Su Ya offered Li Ye Bitter Spirit Gourd seeds and explained that the gourds could preserve and purify stored materials and pills.
• Li Ye accepted the seeds after Su Ya mentioned that his elder sister’s senior brother owned the Spirit Vine, then learned several junior disciples would soon arrive.
• Su Ya told Li Ye that a senior had summoned him to a Dao lecture because he excelled at growing Start of Spring Wheat, and that the meal had been prepared by that senior.
• Li Ye ate the meal, asked Su Ya to arrange for him to take part in mining, and was transported to the senior’s Personal Grotto-Heaven.
• A female cultivator gave Li Ye gloves and told him to find suitable beans for learning Bean Soldiering; Li Ye immediately chose a small, wilted sprout.
• The female cultivator revealed that Li Ye’s choice was the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean, a spiritual seed left by the Hell Dao, and purified it to expose its blackened, blood-red beans.

Li Ye received the sealed Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean and learned Bean Soldiering from the female cultivator, then bonded with the bean despite its accumulated anguish. He turned one of its red beans into an unusual azure bird and faced the female cultivator’s demand that he praise her cooking to earn a pot of spirit soil.

• The female cultivator explained the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean’s origins, sealed its power, and brought Li Ye to her kitchen to teach him Bean Soldiering.
• She gave Li Ye the Bean Soldiering technique and explained how to cultivate bean souls and form a bond with them.
• Li Ye endured the bean’s painful longing, reached its spirituality, and branded it with a sigil after it recognized familiar auras within him.
• The female cultivator noticed Li Ye’s unusual connections to spirit plants and beasts, then had a little yellow-bean man bring over a flowerpot as a gift.
• Li Ye transformed a red bean into an azure bird and asked the female cultivator why it had taken that form.
• The female cultivator offered Li Ye a pot of Gold-White Spirit Soil if he praised her cooking, and he agreed to do his best.

Li Ye returned home with Gold-White Spirit Soil and planted the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean in it, preparing it to protect him on a future trip. He harvested and stored his courtyard’s produce, then planted Su Ya’s Bitter Spirit Gourd, which grew rapidly and was used to seal her materials inside.

• Li Ye returned through a spatial gate with Gold-White Spirit Soil and gave the largest beaver a Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean that could transform when needed.
• Li Ye placed the bean in the Gold-White Spirit Soil beside the Spirit Vein Willow and told it to grow strong enough to protect him.
• Li Ye harvested ore, fish scales, gourds, lotus parts, and other produce, then stored them in a frigid formation for Su Ya.
• Li Ye planted Su Ya’s Bitter Spirit Gourd in the outer courtyard, where it sprouted, climbed its trellis, and quickly bore tiny gourds.
• Li Ye opened one gourd, packed Su Ya’s materials inside, and let the gourd’s mucus seal its shell shut.

Li Ye left his courtyard with Su Ya to deliver Start of Spring Wheat to mortals and learned that the Four Seasons Sect’s wheat distribution would help future generations gain cultivation talent. Their Cloud Boat entered a Shanhe Cave Heaven, one of the mortal realms contained within a Jianmu leaf.

• Li Ye finished preparing his home, asked the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean to watch over it, and left for the market dock.
• Su Ya gave Li Ye a Four Seasons Sect daoist robe and explained that cultivators must respect the mortals they would visit.
• Su Ya told Li Ye that spirit-rich wheat could help mortal children develop cultivation talent and that the Myriad Gods Temple protected mortal towns.
• Su Ya pointed out the Shanhe Cave Heavens, realms of mortal towns and landscapes contained within leaves from Jianmu.
• The Cloud Boat sped into one of the green leaves as Su Ya explained that mortals saw cultivators as living in Blessed Grotto-Heavens.

Li Ye arrived in Tianhe City with Su Ya and learned about the mortal youths and the water gate at Tianhe Mountain. As Li Ye went to meet Old Tortoise, Su Ya explained that Junior Sister Liu might earn a celestial investiture after a century of service, leaving her to manage the city until he returned.

• Mortal youths training in Tianhe City saw the Cloud Boat arrive and hoped the immortals would take disciples.
• Junior Sister Liu urged Li Ye to bring some of the youths back to the sect, but Su Ya objected that pressuring him violated sect rules.
• Junior Sister Liu offered to take Li Ye to Tianhe Mountain's water gate, and Su Ya told him to scatter Aura of Golden Fortune into Old Tortoise's pool.
• Zhao He led Li Ye toward Old Tortoise while the other youths helped the Golden Ape carry wheat down the mountain.
• Su Ya asked Junior Sister Liu about her remaining lifespan and told her a Nascent Soul elder might grant her a celestial investiture if her accumulated merit was sufficient.
• Su Ya left to distribute the remaining wheat, leaving Junior Sister Liu in charge and wondering why he had brought Li Ye there.

Li Ye visited the Earth God Temple’s sacred pool, where the Flint Flame Divine Tortoise rewarded him with Warm Water Resin Pine treasures in exchange for Aura of Golden Fortune. After returning, Senior Sister Liu asked whether he would let the mortal youth serve him, and Li Ye agreed to have the youth attend him while he was in Mountain River City.

• The youth guided Li Ye through the secluded pine forest and explained how Tianhe City’s Mountain and Earth Gods exchanged resources with cultivators.
• Li Ye reached the deep pool and met the Flint Flame Divine Tortoise, which asked him for Aura of Golden Fortune.
• Li Ye gave the tortoise two taels of Aura of Golden Fortune, and it gifted him pine resin that could heal meridians and aid breakthroughs, along with a pinecone that could conceal his cultivation when made into a Magic Tool.
• The Flint Flame Divine Tortoise gave the youth several pinecones before returning to the pool, and Li Ye declined the youth’s offer to share them.
• Senior Sister Liu asked Li Ye to let the youth serve him, and Li Ye agreed to have him attend him while he was in Mountain River City.

Li Ye met Senior Brother Li, a Land God, and discussed trading cultivator-grown goods for treasures made through incense offerings. After finding a Fox Fur Gourd that could hold living creatures, Li Ye asked how to earn enough offerings to obtain it, leaving Senior Sister Liu and the Land God delighted that he had agreed to cooperate.

• Senior Sister Liu brought Li Ye to a Land God Temple, where the Land God introduced himself as Senior Brother Li and sent Zhao He to fetch wine.
• The Land God and Senior Sister Liu explained that they needed cultivator treasures and offered Gray Wish Dust, which helped crops but could only be used within the sect.
• The Land God gave Li Ye a catalog of incense-divinity products, and Li Ye focused on the Fox Fur Gourd that could store living creatures.
• Li Ye considered supplying surplus spirit-plant and spirit-beast products in exchange for incense treasures.
• Li Ye asked what the Land God needed most and how he could quickly earn enough offerings for an Incense Spirit Fox's fur and the Technique of the Gourd imprint.

Li Ye agreed to help Tianhe City after learning its Incense Spirit Tree was close to withering, and he donated spiritual materials to support the city. After receiving Radiant Bloom Oil from Senior Sister Liu, he watched the grateful residents celebrate his gifts and praise him as an immortal benefactor.

• The Earth God explained that Tianhe City's Incense Spirit Tree was fading and asked Li Ye to help the city prosper; Li Ye agreed to do what he could.
• Li Ye gave the Earth God and Senior Sister Liu assorted spiritual materials, and they welcomed his contribution with a feast.
• Senior Sister Liu gave Li Ye one jin of Radiant Bloom Oil, and Li Ye returned the favor with Peach Blossom Wine.
• Li Ye accompanied Senior Sister Liu to watch the distribution of wheat and saw lotus products and fish scales displayed alongside it.
• Zhao He told the gathered residents that Li Ye had donated the treasures, prompting them to celebrate and praise him for helping Tianhe City.

Li Ye watched the land distribute Spiritual Materials in Tianhe City, where Zhao He received three fish scales and was chosen to help connect Li Ye with Senior Sister Liu. After refining the Flint Flame Divine Tortoise’s Pine Resin in meditation, Li Ye discovered his Divine Sense could control a pine cone and saw the azure bird transform into a tortoise resembling the Flint Flame Divine Tortoise.

• The land scattered wheat flour to households and bestowed Spiritual Materials on selected people in Tianhe City.
• Zhao He received the only three fish scales, boasted about earning them, and drew the anger of the other youths.
• Senior Sister Liu arranged for Zhao He to leave with Li Ye and help carry Spiritual Materials and facilitate communication.
• Li Ye examined the brighter Aura of Golden Fortune in his brocade pouch, then burned the Pine Resin and entered deep meditation.
• The azure bird spat a dark flame at the Pine Resin, which quickly liquefied and flowed into the pine cone.
• Li Ye awoke able to control the pine cone through Divine Sense, and the azure bird transformed into a tortoise resembling the Flint Flame Divine Tortoise.

Li Ye gained control of the pinecone as a Magic Tool and recovered before Senior Sister Liu summoned him to Locust Village. There, he found Senior Sister Liu and Senior Brother Su pouring a large quantity of Aura of Golden Fortune over a gigantic Hungry Ghost Evil Bone.

• Li Ye learned that the Life-Death Bean could transform into forms it had copied and discovered that the pinecone could control fire, release Pine Resin, and conceal its aura.
• Li Ye left seclusion fully healed with more than a thousand Vital Essence and agreed to accompany a young Daoist girl to Locust Village.
• Li Ye entered the eerie village alone with the Azure Bird on his shoulder and sensed deathly aura and second-rank Soul-Stabilizing Locusts.
• Li Ye found Senior Sister Liu and Senior Brother Su beside a gigantic Hungry Ghost Evil Bone, and Su Ya covered it with several dozen jin of Aura of Golden Fortune.

Li Ye helped Su Ya and Senior Sister Liu deal with the Hungry Bones in a Locust Tree grove, where he captured a newly born Locust Spirit Courier and painted an Ink Wash Hungry Bone. Su Ya wondered whether Li Ye’s creation could counter the divine abilities of the Hungry Ghost Path.

• Su Ya explained that the Aura of Golden Fortune was helping tens of thousands of souls ascend, while evil ghosts appeared among the Locust Trees.
• Li Ye used the Azure Bird, Flint Fire, and Buddhist light to purify the evil ghosts and search for an unusual soul.
• The Azure Bird caught a frightened Locust Spirit Courier, which Su Ya identified as a spirit material that could transport objects and messages.
• Su Ya gave Li Ye a Spirit Artifact to hold the courier and advised him to entrust confidential matters only to spirit materials that belonged entirely to him.
• Li Ye used his ink-wash brush to paint an Ink Wash Hungry Bone from the crumbling Hungry Ghost Evil Bone, leaving Su Ya and Senior Sister Liu stunned.

Li Ye finished gathering the Hungry Ghost Evil Bone’s essence into a powerful Hungry Bone and returned from Locust Village with Zhao He. Back home, he discovered that the Beaver had filled a newly dug stream with more than ten catties of Purple Oil Spring Rain.

• Li Ye created an Ink Wash Hungry Bone that could imprison and torment Divine Sense, Soul Essence, and spirit bodies, then collected the remaining ink from Locust Village.
• Li Ye agreed to take Zhao He with him, and Zhao He brought a fine cured ham from his parents as a gift.
• Li Ye promised Zhao He medicines for his aging parents and arranged for him to work as his steward in Returning Shore Market.
• Li Ye returned home with Zhao He, where the Beaver eagerly welcomed him and led him into the back courtyard.
• Li Ye found a newly dug stream beside the Beaver’s nest filled with more than ten catties of Purple Oil Spring Rain.

Li Ye investigated the sudden Purple Oil Spring Rain, checked his courtyard and stored his recent gains, then went to the Four Seasons Sect’s shop to discuss the mine vein. There, a desperate sword cultivator singled him out for help, leaving Li Ye bewildered as Spirit Vine took him aside.

• Li Ye found that the Hungry Bones in the Beaver nest had weathered away into golden liquid and wondered whether they had gathered the Purple Oil Spring Rain.
• Li Ye considered buying a Pocket Mountain-River Box for the Beavers and discovered that his Frost Wheat and Start of Spring Wheat were heading again and producing Wheat Pellets.
• Li Ye returned the red bean to the Love-Sickness Life-Death Bean, gave it the Locust Spirit Courier to train, and put his recent gains into his cabinet.
• Li Ye warned Zhao He to keep visitors from taking anything in the rear courtyard, then left to discuss the mine vein.
• At the Four Seasons Sect’s shop, a sword cultivator pleaded with Spirit Vine to let Li Ye examine him because he recognized Li Ye as a Four Seasons Sect Spirit Herbalist.
• Spirit Vine sent Li Ye behind the curtain to discuss the request, while the sword cultivator watched and begged him for help.

Li Ye learned the Dawnlight Seed-Soothing Art and used it to calm a Sword Cultivator’s Sword-Vein Shoot, helping it grow into a bamboo sword. The Sword Cultivator accidentally cut off a strand of Li Ye’s hair while testing the sword.

• Spirit Vine explained that a Sword Cultivator needed help soothing the Sword-Vein Shoot in his body and asked Li Ye to learn the Dawnlight Seed-Soothing Art.
• Li Ye studied the spell from a jade slip and condensed a nearly white Dawnlight Bell, shattering the jade slip in the process.
• Spirit Vine sent Li Ye to a quiet chamber, where the Sword Cultivator showed him a Sword-Vein Shoot that was about to detach and wither.
• Li Ye used the Dawnlight Seed-Soothing Art, and the Sword-Vein Shoot calmed down and began drawing in the Sword Cultivator’s essence blood and spiritual power.
• The Sword-Vein Shoot grew into a bamboo sword, but the Sword Cultivator accidentally cut off a strand of Li Ye’s hair while testing it.

Li Ye accepted five hundred Spirit Stones from Wei Qingye after helping with his resistant Sword-Vein Shoot, then learned why the Sword Cultivator refused to replace it. The Spirit Vine sent Li Ye to claim a mineral vein, where the Treasure-Sniffing Spirit Rat eagerly guided him into a vast mechanical mining complex.

• Wei Qingye apologized to Li Ye, paid him five hundred Spirit Stones, and promised to seek his help again in two months.
• The Spirit Vine explained that Wei Qingye was tempering the Sword-Vein Shoot for his future natal Magic Treasure and gave Li Ye five Hungry Bone plants.
• The Spirit Vine gave Li Ye a token for Room C-9 to claim a mining vein and told him that a mulberry tree and silkworms would arrive at his home the next day.
• The Treasure-Sniffing Spirit Rat mistook Li Ye's Autumn Harvest Token as a sign that the Spirit Vine might take him as a disciple and enthusiastically offered to help him choose a vein.
• The Treasure-Sniffing Spirit Rat led Li Ye through a lit tunnel to a vast mechanical platform lined with thirty shimmering doors.

Li Ye entered the Mo Family’s mine to search for Buddha’s Crown Gold, but found Stone Grease Aroma Ore after fighting Stone Grease Ghouls. He left with about sixty jin of ore, unaware that the mine had shifted and hidden the wax wall behind him.

• The White Rat told Li Ye about the mechanical gate and hinted that the eleventh mineral vein on the left held something unusual; Li Ye offered Peach Blossom Wine with Purple Oil Spring Rain in return.
• Li Ye entered a mineral vein and searched for Buddha’s Crown Gold, but found no gold before sensing a monster watching him.
• Li Ye chased a Stone Grease Ghoul and burned it with golden-red fireballs, discovering that its burning body gave off a crisp, cold fragrance.
• Li Ye killed dozens more Stone Grease Ghouls and found a wax wall of Stone Grease Aroma Ore, then mined about sixty jin before his hoe began to crack.
• Li Ye left the mine with his ore, and the tunnel rumbled behind him, burying the wax wall and erasing his marks.