Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun left South Suppression · Lingbao Temple in Chen Tao’s care and returned to Lingbao Sect to seek the Ancestor’s method for forming a Nascent Soul. He entered the Nascent Soul cave and saw lamplight appear in the darkness.

• Li Qingyun instructed Mu Yu and Li Zuo to keep South Suppression · Lingbao Temple low-key, hold He Lao Dock, and continue training its Dao soldiers.
• Chen Tao explained that he had grown close to Li Qingyun because he sensed Senior Miaoxuan’s aura on him and chose to take a chance on him.
• Li Qingyun returned to Lingbao Sect, reunited with A'li, and learned that she had formed a middle-grade Dao Foundation.
• Yue Changsong directed Li Qingyun to use his true disciple token to enter the clouds and seek the Ancestor’s Nascent Soul method.
• Li Qingyun entered the cave above the clouds, where faint lamplight appeared ahead in the darkness.

Li Qingyun learned the True Infant breakthrough method and sought the rare materials it required. Yue Changsong revealed that Linghui Peak had only two drops of Yin God Blood left, both effectively reserved for other elders, leaving Li Qingyun’s hopes uncertain.

• Li Qingyun studied the Infant Transformation methods and chose the True Infant path, which required Ghost God Jade Bone, Yin God Blood, and Lingbao Pure Fire.
• Li Qingyun asked Yue Changsong where to find Yin God Blood and Lingbao Pure Fire, and Lin Jing warned him that Linghui Peak could not afford to lose more of its foundation.
• Lin Jing asked Li Qingyun for Jingxi Water for Lin Shuo, but Li Qingyun refused and left with Yue Changsong.
• At Qingyun Mansion, Yue Changsong explained that Linghui Peak had only two drops of Yin God Blood remaining: one was reserved for Lin Jing, while Senior Brother Xu still hoped to attempt the Yin God realm.
• Li Qingyun realized that obtaining a drop of Yin God Blood would be difficult because Linghui Peak’s scarce supply was reserved for others.

Li Qingyun sought a drop of Yin God Blood from Yue Changsong, who used turtle-shell divination before agreeing to invest one of Linghui Peak’s two precious drops in him. With the Yan family’s support secured, Li Qingyun and Yue Changsong went to Linghuang Peak to seek approval to obtain the Lingbao Pure Fire.

• Li Qingyun urged Yue Changsong to give him Yin God Blood, promising to repay Linghui lineage many times over if he reached the Yin God Realm.
• Yue Changsong divined with an ancient turtle shell, and the result shifted from misfortune to great auspiciousness; he gave Li Qingyun a sealed bottle containing a drop of Senior Miaoxuan’s Yin God Blood.
• Yue Changsong explained that obtaining the Lingbao Pure Fire required three votes from the six lineages, and Li Qingyun said the Lingming Yan family owed him a favor for saving Yan Zhao and the others.
• Li Qingyun sent folded paper white cranes to Yan Zhao, who replied the next day that he had persuaded the Yan family to vote for him.
• Li Qingyun and Yue Changsong flew to Linghuang Peak and greeted five Nascent Soul Daoists gathered on its summit.

Li Qingyun sought the Lingbao Pure Fire, overcoming opposition from several peak masters and pressure from Nangong Ting. He successfully extracted a bloom of the flame and left with it, determined to remember Nangong Ting’s attempt to hinder him.

• Yue Changsong and Feng Ming supported Li Qingyun’s request, while Chen Cheng and Zheng Chang objected.
• Li Qingyun confronted Yan Haitian over the Yan family’s debt, and Yan Haitian declared Lingming Peak’s support for him.
• Nangong Ting escorted Li Qingyun into the cave after three lineages supported his request.
• Li Qingyun repeatedly failed to separate the Pure Fire until he used lightning-intent dharma sense to extract a bloom.
• Li Qingyun sealed the flame in a bottle, thanked Nangong Ting, and left while resolving to remember his conduct.

Li Qingyun returned to Falling Star Abode and used the white jade toe bone, Yin God Blood, and Lingbao Pure Fire to awaken the infant within his Golden Core. The True Infant opened its eyes, though its appearance briefly reminded him of the mysterious soul corpse in the ancient bronze coffin.

• Li Qingyun prepared Falling Star Abode and began his True Infant breakthrough using the three required materials.
• He refined the white jade toe bone in the Precious Furnace and forged it into a platinum skeleton for the infant in his Golden Core.
• Li Qingyun suppressed and refined the Yin God Blood, then fused it into the infant to form its blood and complete its body.
• He refined the Lingbao Pure Fire and sent it into the infant's brow, igniting its life flame.
• Li Qingyun dispelled thoughts of the mysterious soul corpse as the True Infant opened its eyes, one black and white and the other golden.

Li Qingyun successfully broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm and sent his True Infant into the darkness of his inner landscape to find the Xuanming River. He discovered that the river’s yin chill could strengthen the infant spirit, then returned to his courtyard with his new magnetic aura still uncontrolled.

• Li Qingyun completed his True Infant breakthrough, raising his spiritual power to four thousand furnace-units and realizing that Nascent Soul cultivation would progress more slowly.
• Li Qingyun controlled his True Infant through the darkness beyond the Inner Mansion, where life-fire repelled dangerous shadows and its breath was gradually consumed.
• Li Qingyun reached the Xuanming River and entered its cold, murky waters, using the Spirit Washing God Record to absorb the yin chill and strengthen the True Infant.
• When the True Infant’s breath ran out, it returned to the Inner Mansion, where it meditated to recover before another trip to the river.
• Li Qingyun left his hall and entered the courtyard, where his newly formed magnetic aura drew in the surrounding void.

After breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm, Li Qingyun prepared to leave for Youjing despite warnings that Biyou Palace wanted him restrained. The chapter ended with Nangong Ting blocking his way and asking him to reconsider.

• Li Qingyun broke through to the Nascent Soul realm and notified Yue Changsong that he planned to leave the sect.
• Li Qingyun gave Jingxi Water and Returning Yang Grasses to Master's Wife Cai Yun, urged Zhu Wu to take night-watch duty, and told A'li to return to the Southern Border.
• Yue Changsong congratulated Li Qingyun and warned him that Biyou Palace had sent two Nascent Soul cultivators to Youjing, but Li Qingyun declared that he would go and make the world bear the Li Clan's backlash.
• Li Qingyun left the sect and encountered Nangong Ting, who revealed Biyou Palace's order to restrain him and tried to dissuade him from going to Youjing.
• Li Qingyun asked Nangong Ting whether he had truly decided to stop him.

Li Qingyun overwhelmed Nangong Ting in a contest of lightning methods, revealing that he had mastered the divine office of a Lightning Controller. He then arrived above besieged Qinghe County as Huo Tianxiong ordered his troops to keep attacking.

• Li Qingyun reversed Nangong Ting’s control of the surrounding power of heaven and earth, shattered his lightning field, and sent him flying.
• Nangong Ting admitted that Li Qingyun had likely taken command of the divine office of a Lightning Controller, and the other Lingbao Sect peak masters agreed that the six branches needed to reconsider their response to him.
• Li Qingyun appeared above Qinghe County, where the Red Lantern Cult’s forces were besieging the city against King Qinghe’s troops and Luo Junding.
• Huo Tianxiong rejected advice to attack another county and ordered his troops to capture Qinghe County, promising rewards to the first soldiers inside.
• Huo Tianxiong sensed something and looked up toward the sky.

Li Qingyun saved Qinghe County by killing a Fire God Gate Nascent Soul cultivator and Huo Tianxiong, then flew toward You Capital as the sects reacted to his defiance. In the capital, National Teacher Yuan Bailu confronted the court officials over their secret actions in the city and four commanderies.

• Li Qingyun warned the Fire God Gate elder to restrain the Red Lantern Army, then killed him with heavenly lightning when he refused.
• Li Qingyun struck down Huo Tianxiong, causing the Red Lantern Army to flee and shocking the watching sect cultivators.
• Li Qingyun warned the forces of the realm not to harm the Qinghe Li Clan and departed toward You Capital.
• Li Qingyun passed through Pingyang Commandery, where rebel armies fought over the city and Li Ke was nowhere to be found.
• At You Capital, Yuan Bailu accused the officials of secretly making moves in the capital and four commanderies without reporting to her.

Yuan Bailu and Wang Huaji tried to force the Li imperial court to surrender the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array, killing Li Yong and moving to execute Li Ke. Li Qingyun arrived to confront Biyou Sect’s cultivators and activated the array over Youjing, leaving the city’s fate poised on its power.

• Yuan Bailu demanded the array’s blueprints and threatened to kill members of the court, but Zhaozong, Li Xuanxiao, and the other Li officials remained silent.
• Yuan Bailu ordered Li Yong executed, and Wang Huaji had him dragged outside and torn apart by five horses.
• Wang Huaji restrained Li Ke and ordered him beheaded, but Li Xuanxiao broke the restraint and revealed his late Jindan cultivation.
• Li Qingyun arrived at the Hall of Supreme Harmony and declared that Biyou Palace disciples would be barred from Youjing and the four surrounding commanderies.
• Two more Nascent Soul cultivators appeared and challenged Li Qingyun to fight in the sky, but he summoned five dragon-patterned cauldrons and activated the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array.

Li Qingyun activated a fortune array that expelled Biyou Palace and other sect cultivators from Youjing, publicly killing Wang Huaji as he was forced out. Yuan Bailu and the other elders recognized the array’s immense power, and she suggested Biyou Palace use its ancestral and dao monarch statues to suppress the Li clan’s fortune.

• Purple qi from Youjing and four commandery cities gathered into a divine beast phantom, and the Kirin Seal in Li Qingyun’s bronze cauldron lit up.
• The fortune array repelled Yuan Bailu, two Nascent Soul elders, and Biyou Palace disciples from Youjing.
• As the array expelled Wang Huaji, it crushed him in a giant hand of bright-yellow aura, killing him before the gathered cultivators.
• Li Qingyun declared that the Li clan would occupy only the five cities and ordered sect cultivators to leave Youjing and the four commandery cities within three days.
• The array expelled cultivators from several other sects, while Yuan Bailu warned Elder Wang not to attack it and proposed using Biyou Palace’s ancestral statues to suppress the Li clan’s fortune.

Li Qingyun activated the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array across Youjing and the Four Great Commandery Cities, giving him control over cultivators inside its bounds. As Biyou Palace sent Yi Tianxing and other Nascent Soul cultivators to confront him, Li Qingyun fortified the array and prepared to defend the Li Dynasty.

• The arrays above the Four Great Commandery Cities revealed the same four-beast phenomenon as Youjing, and Li Qingyun used the five golden cauldrons to control the array and repel or crush cultivators within it.
• Li Qingyun ordered King You to expel Biyou Palace disciples from Youjing and destroy their idols and other traces, while he went to face the sect's cultivators outside the array.
• Yi Tianxing arrived with several Nascent Soul cultivators, identified Li Qingyun, and demanded that he leave Youjing because Great You's fate could not be reversed.
• Li Qingyun refused to withdraw, placed the five cauldrons at the array's cardinal positions, and added treasures and rare materials to strengthen the grand array.
• Yi Tianxing chose Yuan, Wang, Zhao, and Wu to enter the array with him, explaining that attacking it from outside could harm the people and asking whether they would venture inside.

Yi Tianxing and five Biyou Palace cultivators entered Li Qingyun’s Five Spirits Guarding Fortune Array, confident that the Crimson Dragon Sword would help them break it. The array overwhelmed them, killing Elder Zhao and mortally wounding Yuan Bailu while Yi Tianxing struggled to reach them.

• Yuan Bailu, Elder Wang, and the Zhao and Wu elders agreed to enter the array with Yi Tianxing, who brought the Crimson Dragon Sword.
• Yi Tianxing cut open the array, and the five cultivators followed him inside as Li Qingyun concealed himself in the shifting formation.
• The array’s bell and lightning hand badly injured Elder Zhao, and Li Qingyun killed him with a sword strike.
• Yuan Bailu attacked Li Qingyun in grief and fury, but the array trapped her and battered her with lightning and spells.
• Yi Tianxing raced to help Yuan Bailu, but arrived too late to stop Li Qingyun’s sword from inflicting several severe wounds on her.

Li Qingyun trapped Yi Tianxing, Wu, and Wang inside his fortune-powered formation and killed the two Nascent Soul cultivators as Yi Tianxing struggled to escape. The chapter ended with Yi Tianxing launching another attack on Li Qingyun, who answered by throwing his thunder cone.

• Yuan Bailu died in Youjing, and Yi Tianxing tried to escape the formation with Wu and Wang using the Crimson Dragon Sword.
• Li Qingyun blocked their escape and summoned formation fiends and suppression artifacts to attack them.
• Yi Tianxing destroyed several formation fiends with the Crimson Dragon Sword and clashed with Li Qingyun’s lightning, but the formation kept the three trapped.
• The formation fiends and Li Qingyun’s lightning severely injured Wu and Wang; Elder Wu was reduced to thunder ash.
• Elder Wang charged Li Qingyun in a desperate attempt to detonate his infant spirit, but Li Qingyun killed him with lightning.
• Yi Tianxing vowed to kill Li Qingyun and swept his Crimson Dragon Sword toward him, while Li Qingyun threw his thunder cone.

Li Qingyun challenged True Lord Luoyan after the Yin God rescued Yi Tianxing, then used the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array to summon the Emperor Sha of the Profound Sect. The Emperor Sha fought Luoyan but could not leave the array, so Li Qingyun stepped forward to face him himself.

• True Lord Luoyan tore open Youjing’s array, knocked aside Li Qingyun’s Lightning Cone, and rescued Yi Tianxing while threatening to kill Li Qingyun another day.
• Li Qingyun activated the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array and drew its Baleful Intent into the form of the Profound Sect, prompting Zhaozong, the King of You, and Youjing’s citizens to worship him as their Founding Ancestor.
• The Emperor Sha of the Profound Sect drew his sword and broke Luoyan’s giant phantom hand, allowing Luoyan to escape with Yi Tianxing.
• True Lord Luoyan struck at the Emperor Sha, and their clash shattered both attacks before the Emperor Sha began to disperse.
• The Emperor Sha tried to leave the array but immediately collapsed back into Baleful Intent, and Li Qingyun stepped forward to challenge True Lord Luoyan with his lightning.

Li Qingyun used his Thunder Duke divine rank and the fortune array to defeat True Lord Luoyan, a Yin God Realm cultivator. True Lord Luoyan ordered his disciples to retreat and fled, but Li Qingyun pursued him.

• Li Qingyun broke free of True Lord Luoyan’s spatial restraint with his Thunder Duke divine rank and drove him back with lightning attacks.
• True Lord Luoyan’s curse destroyed Li Qingyun’s wooden substitute, but the fortune array pulled Li Qingyun’s true body to safety.
• With the array’s power behind him, Li Qingyun unleashed Ten Thousand Thunders Execute and split True Lord Luoyan’s Yin God phantom apart.
• Wounded and weakened, True Lord Luoyan ordered the Biyou Palace disciples to retreat as onlookers marveled at Li Qingyun’s victory.
• Li Qingyun pursued True Lord Luoyan, who swallowed his anger and fled.

Li Qingyun pursued and fought True Lord Luoyan, resisting his death curses and striking back with the power of the Thunder Lord divine office. True Lord Jihua intervened, but True Lord Fengchuan saved Li Qingyun and challenged him to achieve the Yang God and escape his fate.

• Li Qingyun relentlessly pursued True Lord Luoyan with Lightning Cones, badly wounding him despite True Lord Luoyan's fire intent and Yin God powers.
• True Lord Luoyan cursed Li Qingyun's Inner Mansion with a hundred years of lifespan, but Li Qingyun's foundations stabilized it, leaving cracks and a lingering shadow on his Golden Core.
• Li Qingyun unleashed Divine Lightning against True Lord Luoyan, who struggled to resist after sacrificing hundreds of years of his Yin God's fate.
• True Lord Jihua appeared, restrained Li Qingyun, and struck away his Lightning Cone.
• True Lord Fengchuan intervened to free Li Qingyun, then told him to achieve the Yang God within a few years, sever the Li clan's karmic ties, and escape his fate.

After Biyou Palace’s ancestral Dao Lords damaged You Capital’s protective array, Li Qingyun repaired it and redirected the dynasty’s worship to Lingbao Sect and himself. A message then revealed that someone he knew was in You Capital and had been captured by Prince You.

• Li Qingyun returned to the Hall of Supreme Harmony and demanded to know whether Biyou Palace’s disciples and Dao Lord statues had been removed.
• Biyou Palace’s ancestral Dao Lords unleashed incense light that blasted holes in the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array, costing the Li Dynasty a large portion of its fortune.
• Li Qingyun repaired the array and ordered You Capital and the other four commandery cities to worship Lingbao Sect’s ancestral Dao Lords and his own effigy.
• Zhaozong issued an edict naming Li Qingyun the Great You Heavenly Might National Fortune Guardian God and directing the five commanderies to worship him.
• Li Qingyun warned Zhaozong to watch the empress dowager, empress, consorts, and princes for possible sabotage.
• A paper crane brought Li Qingyun news that someone he knew was in You Capital and had been captured by Prince You.

Li Qingyun spared Wang Muyun and the captured Azure Nether disciples, though their reunion confirmed that she had chosen her sect over their old friendship. He then searched the Daoist Academy’s writings for a way to cleanse the stubborn shadow in his Golden Core’s Yang Radiance, finding unexpected ideas that strengthened his understanding.

• Prince You Li Xuanxiao executed an Azure Nether disciple and ordered the captured disciples taken away for execution.
• Wang Muyun revealed that she had once known Li Qingyun, and Li Qingyun appeared and ordered the soldiers to release her and escort the disciples out of the city.
• Wang Muyun told Li Qingyun they had become opponents, and he said he remained himself before leaving as the disciples departed.
• Li Qingyun watched Wang Muyun leave, felt regret over their lost affection, and sent nearly a hundred white cranes flying beyond the horizon.
• Li Qingyun searched the Daoist Academy’s old student writings for insight into the gray shadow contaminating his Golden Core’s Yang Radiance, and found several ideas that deepened his understanding.

Li Qingyun gave Princess Bao Sheng Li Shaojiang a Baleful Intent cultivation method and urged her to believe that fate could be changed, hoping her Heavenly Sha Physique would help advance the method. Later, he explored ancient ruins in his Inner Mansion’s surrounding darkness and discovered a hostile uncanny shadow trapped within them.

• Li Qingyun read Daoist Academy scholars’ theories about the Inner Mansion and gained new ideas about its nature.
• Princess Bao Sheng Li Shaojiang brought Li Qingyun tea, and he gave her a jade talisman containing a Baleful Intent cultivation method that could reach the Golden Core realm.
• Li Qingyun told Li Shaojiang that the number of the Dao was not fixed and that people could seize Heaven’s mandate, inspiring her to leave with renewed resolve.
• Li Qingyun reflected that the dynasty’s fate might be placing bets on both Li Xuanxiao and Li Shaojiang, and hoped her Heavenly Sha talent could advance his method beyond Nascent Soul.
• Li Qingyun entered the darkness around his Inner Mansion and found ruins that resembled a collapsed Inner Mansion, where a grayish-white uncanny shadow attacked him.
• Li Qingyun retreated beyond the ruins, and the shadow stopped at their edge, unable to leave its domain.