Chapter Summaries

Li Qingyun killed the corpse anomaly that had attacked Maple Mountain Lingbao Temple, then found and destroyed the Corpse Transcendence Immortal Ascension Chart while memorizing its Sha Refining method. After the remaining anomalies were suppressed, he announced that the Patrol Envoys and stewards would face punishment for the calamity.

• Li Qingyun blasted the corpse anomaly away and struck it with seven bolts of Divine Lightning, killing it and collecting its ash and storage Dharma ring.
• The corpse anomaly’s howl caused more than twenty disciples outside the hall to transform into anomalies, who killed dozens before the stewards fought back.
• Li Qingyun found an ancient human-skin scroll, the Corpse Transcendence Immortal Ascension Chart, hidden in Gong Tong’s cultivation room and memorized its Sha Refining method.
• Li Qingyun burned the scroll to prevent another calamity, while Nangong Xu and Mo Fangru led the effort to eliminate the remaining anomalies and suppress Zhang Qiyun.
• Li Qingyun gathered the stewards in Dao Lord Hall and said he would report their responsibility for the calamity to the sect and seek punishment under its rules.

Li Qingyun punished the officials responsible for Maple Mountain’s disaster, appointed Gong Hanxu as the new temple master, and gave Gong Tong’s dharma ring to Mo Fangru to deliver. He reunited with old friends, offered Zhao Keyi and Zhao Yifan cultivation aids for the upcoming sect selection, and then departed.

• Li Qingyun stripped Nangong Xu of a major merit and his patrol post, gave Mo Fangru a lighter penalty, and demoted several stewards.
• Li Qingyun asked Mo Fangru about the Gong Family and chose Gong Hanxu to succeed Gong Tong as temple master.
• Li Qingyun gave Mo Fangru Gong Tong’s dharma ring for Gong Hanxu and left a trace on it to ensure Gong Hanxu opened it himself.
• Li Qingyun met Zhao Nianshen, Song Jing, Zhao Yifan, Zhao Keyi, and others in the scripture-lecture courtyard.
• Li Qingyun gave Zhao Keyi and Zhao Yifan pills and Jingxi Water to help them prepare for the sect selection, then departed.

Li Qingyun visited He Xiao and gave him a Dao Lord statue and advice on talisman arts, then quietly rewarded Lin Wanjin and dispersed something foreign from Lu Liqian. He left Maple Mountain for Qinghe County, intending to help the Marquis break through with his Sha Refining Dao Foundation.

• Li Qingyun appeared before He Xiao, completed a high-grade Evil-Repelling Yellow Talisman, and advised him to worship the Most Pure Profound Talisman, Enlightened and Transforming Dao Lord.
• Li Qingyun carved a nanmu statue of the Dao Lord, summoned divine might into it, and left He Xiao excitedly praying before the statue.
• After Master Lu lost his position as Record Keeper, Lin Wanjin received a token and was appointed the Daoist temple's storehouse steward by Li Qingyun.
• Li Qingyun silently dispersed something foreign from Lu Liqian, who glimpsed his golden light as he departed.
• Li Qingyun flew to Qinghe County and decided to help the Marquis break through with his Sha Refining Dao Foundation.

Li Qingyun returned to Marquis Qinghe's Estate and began improving the clan's Sha Refining art, but he could not discover a path beyond Golden Core Sha Refining. He left the question aside to focus on cultivation and assessed his family when they joined him in the training chamber.

• Li Jiuling returned to the estate after drilling his troops and praised Li Ji for reaching the fifth layer of Sha Refining.
• Li Qingyun arrived during dinner, invited Li Jiuling, Li Ji, and Li Yong to the training room afterward, and went to meditate in the secret chamber.
• Li Qingyun merged an ancient Sha Refining method into the clan's art, strengthening its foundations but failing to reveal a road beyond Golden Core Sha Refining.
• Li Qingyun considered seeking Emperor Xuan's Sha Refining method from the Li Imperial Family, then set the idea aside and contemplated the Core Embracing Infant Art.
• Li Jiuling, Li Ji, and Li Yong joined Li Qingyun, who examined their cultivation and found them at Great Perfection, the fifth layer, and the second layer of Sha Refining, respectively.

Li Qingyun returned to Marquis Qinghe's Estate as a Golden Core cultivator, helped Li Jiuling achieve a superior-method Sha Refining Dao Foundation, and prepared the household to receive Prefectural Governor Li Ke. Li Ke had come seeking to honor the Qinghe Li Clan after learning of Li Qingyun's deeds, bringing his children, including Li Huawan, to meet him.

• Li Qingyun gave Li Jiuling and the others jade talismans containing the Sha Refining method and used his Golden Core aura to protect them during their breakthroughs.
• Li Qingyun provided Great Demon Xian's blood, skull bone, and Jingxi Water, and Li Jiuling used them to achieve a superior-method Sha Refining Dao Foundation.
• Li Jiuling celebrated with Li Ji and Li Yong until a servant announced that Prefectural Governor Li Ke had arrived at the estate.
• Li Jiuling ordered the estate lit and decorated, then led Li Qingyun's brothers to welcome Li Ke at the gates.
• Li Ke recalled learning that Li Qingyun had suppressed the corpse fiend at Maple Mountain, and that he had proposed elevating Li Jiuling to King Qinghe and restoring the clan's orthodox sect status.
• Li Ke's children questioned the late-night visit, while Li Huawan silently anticipated meeting Li Qingyun, whose name she had remembered from earlier reports.

Pingyang Commandery King Li Ke visited Marquis Qinghe’s Estate and secured Li Jiuling’s enfeoffment as King Qinghe after the court recognized Li Qingyun as a Golden Core superior. The emperor then invited Li Qingyun to Youjing, and Li Qingyun decided the journey could help the dynasty endure longer and give him more time.

• Li Huawan wondered whether she might be matched with Li Qingyun, but Li Ke startled the gathered descendants by announcing that the Li family of Qinghe had produced a Golden Core.
• Li Ke introduced his daughter Li Huawan to Li Jiuling as a potential match for Li Qingyun, but Li Jiuling avoided pursuing the suggestion.
• Pei Xun arrived with the imperial edict, and Li Qingyun’s Golden Core aura rose from his secluded courtyard as the court officials gathered.
• Pei Xun proclaimed Li Jiuling King Qinghe and told him that Emperor Zhaozong wanted Li Qingyun to visit Youjing.
• Li Qingyun considered the emperor’s request and decided to travel to Youjing to help the Great You dynasty survive longer and buy himself time.

Li Qingyun arrived at the Imperial Ancestral Temple and told Zhaozong that dividing the realm five ways could prolong the Li clan’s fortunes. He left Zhaozong and Prince You Li Xuanxiao with a plan to secure five commanderies around You Capital and form a protective array.

• Zhaozong lamented the dynasty’s failing fortunes at the Imperial Ancestral Temple and summoned the Little Imperial Uncle and Prince You.
• Li Qingyun appeared, dismissed the eunuchs, and greeted Zhaozong as a Golden Core cultivator.
• Zhaozong asked Li Qingyun whether the Li Imperial Clan could survive, and Li Qingyun said it might endure a few more years if the emperor accepted his ideas.
• Prince You Li Xuanxiao arrived, and Li Qingyun recognized that he had secretly reached the upper Golden Core Realm.
• Li Qingyun showed Zhaozong and Li Xuanxiao a map and proposed dividing the realm among five powers while concentrating Li resources in five commanderies around You Capital.
• Li Qingyun explained that a Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array could protect You Capital unless Yin God Realm cultivators or stronger beings intervened.

Li Qingyun gave Zhaozong and Prince You a Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array to secure You Capital and four surrounding commanderies, while asking to study Emperor Xuanzong’s cultivation legacy. After learning Biyou Palace had restricted access to the remains, Li Qingyun went to Azure Nether Temple himself and clashed with its Golden Core elder, Wang Huaji.

• Li Qingyun rebuked Zhaozong for clinging to the idea of ruling all Thirty-Six Commanderies and explained his plan to preserve the Li clan’s power in five commanderies.
• Li Qingyun offered Zhaozong and Prince You the Five Spirits Fortune Protection Array, asking in return to examine Emperor Xuanzong’s cultivation insights and the imperial collection.
• Prince You explained that Biyou Palace had destroyed records beyond Palace Establishment and barred the imperial family from viewing Emperor Xuanzong’s remains; he gave Li Qingyun a baleful-intent refinement technique.
• Li Qingyun urged Prince You to oversee the array’s secret construction, secured the title of Marquis of Zhennan for Li Zuo, and promised to return to You Capital when the array was complete.
• Li Qingyun entered Azure Nether Temple to view Emperor Xuanzong’s remains, but Wang Huaji refused and challenged him.
• Li Qingyun and Wang Huaji released their Golden Core auras, and their phenomena collided as both cultivators were forced back two steps.

Li Qingyun defeated Wang Huaji at Azure Nether Temple, entered the side hall, and obtained the chance to study Xuanzong’s ancient bone incantations. He escaped National Teacher Yuan Bailu’s pursuit using illusion arts, leaving Wang Huaji behind east of Youjing City.

• Li Qingyun dispersed Wang Huaji’s fire art, overwhelmed him with thunder and illusion arts, and bound him in a lightning net.
• Li Qingyun entered the side hall, used a self-nurtured avatar to survive the Nine Heavens Azure Dao Lord effigy’s attack, and found Xuanzong’s skull in a bronze box.
• Li Qingyun copied and contemplated the incantations on the bone while Yuan Bailu arrived and broke through his illusion array.
• Li Qingyun took the unconscious Wang Huaji as a hostage, escaped with him, and promised to leave him twenty li east of Youjing City.
• Li Qingyun dropped Wang Huaji and split into nine illusions; Yuan Bailu freed Wang Huaji and shattered the phantoms, but Li Qingyun escaped.

Li Qingyun assessed the Southern Border’s factions and sect strength before returning to He Lao Dock, where he established a river-guarding statue for Dao Lord Lingbao Zhenhui. He revealed his Golden Core breakthrough to Mu Yu and Chen Shou, leaving them astonished.

• Li Qingyun judged that the Li Dynasty’s secret defenses would buy time amid the coming disorder and surveyed the Southern Border’s powerful chieftain factions and sect cultivators.
• Li Qingyun returned to He Lao Dock and carved a large statue of Dao Lord Lingbao Zhenhui beside the river.
• Li Qingyun invited the True Teach Ancestor’s divine might into the statue and told the mountain folk that it would bless them by the river.
• Mu Yu and Chen Shou greeted Li Qingyun, and Chen Shou sensed that he had reached the Golden Core realm.
• Li Qingyun confirmed his breakthrough, stunning Mu Yu and filling Chen Shou with envy and awe.

Li Qingyun persuaded Chen Shou and the Chen clan disciples to join the temple’s expedition north to suppress demons, then led them into the forests beyond He Lao Dock. The group was ambushed by Blood-Eyed Ape Demons, and Li Zuo pulled fleeing Chen clan disciples into his Dao soldier formation as the battle began.

• Li Qingyun invited Chen Shou and the Chen clan disciples to join the expedition, arguing that they needed to temper themselves and promising to protect them.
• Li Qingyun checked his disciples’ cultivation and agreed to let Li Zuo lead two hundred Dao soldiers to test their formation.
• Li Qingyun offered Shangguan Wan'er her freedom if she trained eight hundred Dao soldiers, while warning that her thunder curse would continue and requiring her to report on Moon Yin Palace.
• At midday, Li Qingyun led the temple disciples and Chen clan north from He Lao Dock, with Li Zuo’s Dao soldiers following behind.
• A swarm of Blood-Eyed Ape Demons ambushed the group; Mu Yu and Chen Shou engaged the Dao Foundation demons while several Chen clan disciples panicked and fled.
• Li Zuo swept the fleeing Chen clan disciples into his formation and called on his martial uncles to serve as array pivots.

Li Qingyun led his disciples and Dao soldiers through the Southern Border, where they fought several groups of demons before discovering a mountain village whose people were being drained by the Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly. He confronted the anomaly at its temple and opened a fierce battle with thunder and sword techniques.

• Li Zuo’s Dao soldiers used the Bull Demon Mountain Charge Formation to slaughter Blood-Eyed Ape Demons, while Li Zuo and Mu Yu killed their Dao Foundation leader.
• Li Qingyun’s group defeated two more demon waves, then stopped at Bell-Ringing Mountain after hearing soul-shaking bells from its summit.
• Li Qingyun saw that the Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly was posing as a mountain god and draining the souls of thousands of villagers through its bell.
• Li Qingyun cut off the temple’s link to the villagers, surrounded it with a formation, and challenged the anomaly.
• The Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly attacked with ghostly fire and its golden bell, but Li Qingyun countered with Divine Lightning and prepared a Purple Sun Sword Qi strike.

Li Qingyun fought the Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly, which repeatedly revived through the Anomaly Temple, and finally destroyed it with Divine Lightning. He collected the anomaly’s remains and several strange objects for future use as array anchors, while Yang Radiance returned to Bell-Ringing Mountain and its people.

• Li Qingyun decapitated the Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly, but it escaped into the ground, and he killed its two Daoist child attendants with lightning.
• The Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly revived from the Anomaly Temple and attacked Li Qingyun with its Soul-Shattering Bell and a Yin-Earth Corpse Python, but his array and lightning overwhelmed it.
• The Iron-crowned Corpse Anomaly reappeared on the altar, and Li Qingyun destroyed the temple and its anomalous manifestations with repeated heavenly lightning and Divine Lightning.
• Li Qingyun trapped the fleeing Corpse Anomaly with his array and destroyed it with Divine Lightning, then sealed its ash and the golden bell for later use.
• Li Qingyun found and cleansed an ancient stone-carved eyeball beneath the altar, and heavenly lightning cleared the yin clouds as sunlight returned to Bell-Ringing Mountain.

After Li Qingyun rescued and relocated tens of thousands of mountain folk, their fervent worship greatly strengthened South Suppression · Lingbao Temple, and he focused on cultivation while expanding the settlement. At year’s end, Patrol Envoy Zheng Tianyu arrived and began challenging the temple’s accounts, setting up a dispute with Li Qingyun’s community.

• Li Qingyun led the relocation of nearly eight thousand Bell-Ringing Mountain residents to He Lao Dock and arranged food, clothing, and shelter for them.
• The relocated mountain folk began worshipping the Lingbao Dao Lords, and their pure wish-power incense offerings rapidly increased the temple’s influence.
• Li Qingyun rescued more than ten thousand additional mountain folk, expanded South Suppression Fields, and helped establish animal husbandry and new temple disciples.
• Li Qingyun stopped expanding, sensed threatening malice from the Southern Border’s depths, and devoted himself to cultivation as his Golden Core Realm advanced.
• Zheng Tianyu arrived with two other Patrol Envoys, and after Mu Yu received them, Zheng Tianyu complained that the temple’s accounts were unclear.

Li Qingyun protected South Suppression · Lingbao Temple from Zheng Tianyu’s attempt to pry into its spirit-field accounts and sent A'li to the Lingbao Sect. As his cultivation advanced and unrest spread across Great You, an urgent plea revealed that Yan Zhao and more than twenty disciples were trapped at Yellow Mud Ridge.

• Zheng Tianyu questioned Mu Yu about the South Suppression Fields, but Li Zuo invoked Li Qingyun’s authority and refused to let him investigate.
• Li Qingyun suppressed the three Patrol Envoys with his Golden Core aura, warned them to leave the fields alone, and insisted that A'li be selected.
• A'li passed the Twin Steles test, and Li Qingyun gave her a Qingyun Mansion token and advice before she left for the Lingbao Sect with Zheng Tianyu and other disciples.
• Li Qingyun freed Shangguan Wan'er to return and instructed her to send intelligence about the Moon Yin Palace through paper cranes.
• After the Spring Festival, Li Qingyun reached the fifth layer of Golden Core and learned that the Moon Yin Palace was fomenting unrest, including through the Red Lantern Cult.
• Yan Zhao sent Li Qingyun an urgent talisman message saying that he and more than twenty disciples were trapped by an aberrant thing at Yellow Mud Ridge.

Li Qingyun followed a powerful guiding sensation to Yellow Mud Ridge, where a Jade Weird named Yaya had trapped Yan Zhao and dozens of Lingbao Sect cultivators by making them mold mud figures. He began using a modified suppression array to fight her, but the trapped cultivators’ clay figures all resembled him.

• After Yan Zhao sent a plea for help, Li Qingyun’s divination connected the danger at Yellow Mud Ridge to the xun and Miaoxuan, so he flew there.
• At the edge of the yellow clouds, Li Qingyun encountered Yaya, who tried to bewitch him into joining her game; his Lightning Controller’s divine might broke her influence.
• Li Qingyun blasted Yaya apart with heavenly thunder, but she reappeared from the mud and invited him to play again.
• Li Qingyun deployed the Mysterious Fiend Subduing Array using hundreds of array flags and three suppression items, then unleashed lightning into the yellow clouds.
• The lightning revealed Yan Zhao, Yan Ruo’an, and more than thirty other cultivators trapped and molding mud figures; Yan Zhao briefly begged Li Qingyun for help before Yaya made him resume.
• Li Qingyun saw that the figures being molded by the trapped cultivators all looked like him.

Li Qingyun used the Mysterious Fiend Subduing Great Killing Array and divine lightning to destroy the yellow Jade Ghost and free Yan Zhao and the others. After discovering a white-jade toe bone linked to Senior Miaoxuan and sensing a threat from the Southern Border’s interior, he asked the Yan family to support him within the sect.

• Li Qingyun weakened the yellow Jade Ghost with the array’s suppression objects and attacked it with divine lightning while Yan Zhao and the other disciples remained under its influence.
• Li Qingyun struck the ghost with more lightning, and it fled as a giant mud ball carrying Yan Zhao and the others; the array’s suppression objects held it back until Li Qingyun finished it with lightning and Purple Sun Sword Qi.
• A white-jade toe bone and rare Jade Ghost ash emerged from the fallen mud, and Li Qingyun sealed the bone’s aura after sensing that it was connected to his Inner Mansion and possibly Senior Miaoxuan.
• A malicious intent from deep within the Southern Border warned Li Qingyun not to approach again, and he drove it away before waking the survivors.
• Li Qingyun found that six or seven foundation-establishment disciples and one Opening Mansion Realm cultivator had died, burned their bodies to prevent them from becoming ghosts, and demanded that Elder Yan Zhao repay his favor by speaking up for him within the sect.

Li Qingyun advanced to the eighth level of Golden Core and broke through the lightning dharma sequence toward the seventh divine seat, Thunder Duke. As other Lightning Controllers recognized his rapid rise and learned that he was the cultivator He Xiao from You Kingdom, they began reacting with awe and hostility while he neared the seat.

• Li Qingyun left Yan Zhao after making clear that Yan Zhao owed him for helping suppress the wraith, while Yan Ruo'an complained about being ignored and mocked Li Qingyun’s prospects.
• Yan Zhao warned Yan Ruo'an to consider the deaths among their disciples, but Yan Ruo'an dismissed the losses and gloated that the Li clan would fall.
• Li Qingyun returned to the temple, resolved not to rely on the sect, and cultivated until he reached the seventh level of Golden Core; A'li reported that she had reached middle-grade Dao Foundation.
• As Great You descended into rebellion and the Red Lantern Cult expanded, Li Qingyun warned Luo Junding and Mo Fangru to protect the Qinghe Li lineage and secretly urged Shangguan Wan'er to stir conflict between Moon Yin Palace and Fire God Gate.
• A month and a half later, Li Qingyun broke through to the eighth level of Golden Core and formed the lightning dharma qualifications for Thunder Duke, causing a seventh bronze seat to appear in the sequence space.
• Li Qingyun’s Lightning Dharma Giant Spirit rose toward the Thunder Duke seat as Lightning Controllers watched; Zhan Feng revealed that the rising cultivator was He Xiao from You Kingdom, provoking shock and hostile interest.

Li Qingyun climbed toward the seventh Thunder Lord seat, but Chou and Feng Ying joined forces to suppress him with two Lightning Mountains. He resisted their attack and continued ascending, while the white-bearded old Daoist secretly hoped their interference would delay them and give him a chance at the position.

• The white-bearded old Daoist, Chou, and Feng Ying agreed that Li Qingyun’s rise threatened their standing, and Chou summoned a Lightning Mountain to block him.
• Li Qingyun accused the old Daoists of scheming and rammed the Lightning Mountain, forcing it backward with his Lightning Dharma foundation.
• Chou urged Feng Ying to help, and she added a second Lightning Mountain that drove Li Qingyun back onto the steps.
• Li Qingyun pushed against both mountains and climbed several more steps, shocking Chou and Feng Ying as the Lightning Controllers below argued over the suppression.
• The white-bearded old Daoist secretly welcomed Chou and Feng Ying’s interference, hoping the backlash would keep them from advancing.

Li Qingyun defeated Feng Ying and Qiu Ma on the Great Dao Staircase and claimed the Thunder Duke throne, then returned to find that war had engulfed Dayou. After reaching Golden Core Great Perfection, he received an imperial summons to Youjing and agreed to go there to help manage the crisis.

• Li Qingyun broke through Feng Ying and Qiu Ma’s lightning mountains, took the seventh bronze seat, and became a Thunder Duke while resolving to remember their names.
• Feng Ying identified herself as being from the Zhu Kingdom, Qiu Ma named the An Kingdom, and Yan Jiu invited Li Qingyun to share wine if they met again.
• Back in the Abbot's Main Hall, Li Qingyun considered the power of the Thunder Duke office and vowed to keep cultivating toward the Yin God Realm.
• Li Qingyun advanced to the ninth layer of Golden Core in the ninth month, then reached Golden Core Great Perfection in mid-October with help from incense-fire merit.
• As war spread through Dayou, Pei Xun arrived with Mu Yu and Li Zuo to summon Li Qingyun to Youjing on the emperor’s orders, and Li Qingyun agreed to appear shortly.