Chapter Summaries

After learning that a disguised woman had tried to lure him into helping the wanted fugitives, Chu Mu stayed out of the search and continued his cultivation and experiments on Wangcai. As the chapter ends, Wangcai sensed someone hiding in the dark Medicine Hall, and Chu Mu and Xu Yuan prepared to confront them.

• Xu Yuan told Chu Mu that a disguised woman resembling the portrait had come seeking help, and Chu Mu realized she had tried to lure him to an injured companion.
• Chu Mu told Xu Yuan to post the wanted portraits and returned to reading while notices spread through Jingmen County.
• Chu Mu fed Wangcai medicinal broth and reflected on how half a year of training and experiments had made the dog powerful.
• Chu Mu considered his recent mental abnormalities and wondered whether his state of mind would affect his progress toward Spirit Manifestation.
• Wangcai barked at the dark Medicine Hall, and Chu Mu shouted for the intruder to come out as Xu Yuan drew his blade.

Chu Mu treated a badly wounded wanted man after accepting a Fragmented Spirit as payment, while keeping his distance from the fugitives. After they left, the woman and the man discussed Chu Mu’s cultivation and their missing Xiao Xiu as they disappeared into the darkness.

• A wanted woman and a middle-aged man asked Chu Mu to treat the man, and Chu Mu refused until he learned they could pay with a spirit stone.
• Chu Mu took the Fragmented Spirit and examined the man’s festering wound, concluding that he could save his life but not his cultivation.
• Chu Mu cleaned and stitched the wound, applied medicine, and gave the woman instructions for the man’s treatment.
• Chu Mu told the pair to leave and never return, then inspected the Fragmented Spirit after they departed.
• The woman and the middle-aged man discussed Chu Mu’s Great Accomplishment of Qi and Blood, worried about his suspicions, and spoke of the missing Xiao Xiu before vanishing into the darkness.

Chu Mu studied a spirit stone and discovered that its Spiritual Qi continuously nourished his body and spirit, advancing his cultivation even when he did nothing. He concluded that the Immortal Path was close, while the manhunt outside Hundred Herbs Pavilion continued without exposing the visitors he had sheltered.

• Chu Mu spent several days testing the spirit stone but could neither damage it nor directly sense its Spiritual Qi.
• Chu Mu used Spirit Radiance Blessing to perceive how Spiritual Qi entered his body, strengthened his Essence and Qi, and subtly nourished his Spirit.
• Chu Mu saw his Body Forging Art progress rise without cultivation and realized the spirit stone could advance his Qi and blood while he rested.
• Chu Mu reflected on the disparity between ordinary people and cultivators' descendants, then suppressed his melancholy about the unfairness of the world.
• Chu Mu went to Hundred Herbs Pavilion, where the wanted portraits and strict gate searches showed that the search for the man and woman was still ongoing.
• Chu Mu decided that the spirit stone's effects had removed the final likely obstacle to his cultivation, bringing the Immortal Path close at hand.

Chu Mu waited on East Lake for an opportunity to break through into Spirit Manifestation, then witnessed a battle between two cultivators. He recognized the black-clad fighter as the youth from Qili Village, who escaped after counterattacking a powerful Young Master.

• Chu Mu reviewed his cultivation and pondered how spirit could manifest while waiting alone on East Lake.
• A tremendous boom sent a column of water skyward, and Chu Mu steadied his boat against the resulting waves.
• A golden-lit black figure fled across the lake while a richly dressed Young Master pursued him with Sword Light.
• The black figure abruptly counterattacked, knocking the Young Master into the lake.
• Chu Mu recognized the black-clad figure as the youth from Qili Village and wondered what resources the old man had left him.
• The youth and the Young Master disappeared from Chu Mu’s sight as he stood stunned by the battle.

After the clash between Cultivators, Chu Mu discovered that his Body Forging Art had reached perfection and that his spirit had manifested. He explored his new perception, sensed restless spiritual energy in the surroundings, and rowed across the lake to investigate.

• Chu Mu wondered how powerful higher-ranked Cultivators might be after witnessing the fight.
• The Light Screen Panel showed that Chu Mu’s Body Forging Art had reached perfection, leading him to realize that his spirit had manifested.
• Chu Mu used his new divine-soul perception to clearly see inside his body and observe spiritual energy merging with his Qi and Blood.
• Chu Mu extended his perception outside his body, saw spiritual energy everywhere, and found that its specks carried an inexplicable restlessness.
• Chu Mu suspected the restless spiritual energy might be unusual, then picked up the oar and rowed across the lake.

Chu Mu examined the two jade slips and absorbed their inheritances, discovering that one contained limited alchemy knowledge while the other held a foundational but coherent Puppet Art framework. The revelations changed his view of the Cultivation World, which he recognized as a spiritual-energy civilization with possibilities beyond those of his former technological era.

• Chu Mu used Divine Sense to absorb Old Li's jade-slip inheritance, which left him in pain as he received basic alchemy theory, a pill formula, and information about thirty-eight Spirit Herbs.
• Chu Mu judged the alchemy inheritance useful but incomplete and turned to the jade slip from the young man of Qili Village.
• Chu Mu absorbed the second inheritance without pain and spent the rest of the day studying its contents.
• Chu Mu discovered the jade slip contained a foundational framework for Puppet Art, including a method for refining a Giant God Arm Puppet.
• Chu Mu compared Puppet Art to exoskeletons, mechas, and robots, and concluded that the Cultivation World was a spiritual-energy civilization.

After realizing that his two new inheritances could not be used without magic power and gave him no path into the Cultivation World, Chu Mu began planning how to find a safe cultivator gathering. He decided to spend one more month in Jingmen, entrust the Hundred Herbs Pavilion to Xu Yuan, and test what his new divine sense could do.

• Chu Mu noticed that his inheritances required magic power, leaving him without cultivation techniques or a safe way to approach cultivators.
• Chu Mu reasoned that a gathering place protected by rules and formations would be safer than seeking out an individual cultivator, and considered finding the injured man and woman who had paid him with a Spirit Stone.
• Chu Mu told Xu Yuan he would leave after another month and asked him to keep the Hundred Herbs Pavilion running while he investigated the Cultivation World.
• Chu Mu lent Xu Yuan his Spirit Stone and used his divine sense to begin testing whether he could observe or control the effects of medicine inside Wangcai.

Chu Mu studied his divine sense and the broad knowledge systems behind Alchemy and Puppetry while investigating reports of cultivators near Guiling Island. He found a mysterious white mist that blocked his divine sense, suggesting a cultivator had created a formation or restriction.

• Chu Mu organized the inheritances he had received, finding Alchemy manageable but Puppetry too vast and difficult to understand.
• Chu Mu examined mundane Mineral Materials and wondered how they related to the Spirit Mines used by cultivators.
• Xu Yuan told Chu Mu that persistent white mist had appeared around Guiling Island and that people had seen sword-wielding Immortals nearby.
• Chu Mu asked whether anyone had found the two missing people, then left Jingmen County to investigate Guiling Island.
• At Guiling Island, Chu Mu found that the white mist stayed bound to the lake and blocked his divine sense, leading him to suspect a formation or restriction.

Chu Mu discovered that his Puppet Art jade slip let him enter the mysterious white mist over East Lake, but the mist vanished after briefly scanning him and did not return. After waiting eight days, he used sightings of Cultivators and fishermen’s accounts to estimate three directions where Cultivators gathered, giving him a guide for his next search.

• Chu Mu’s jade slip warmed and let his divine sense pass through the white mist, which pulled him inside and then cast him back out as the mist disappeared.
• Chu Mu suspected the jade slip was a token to an enclosed place and waited on the lake for eight days, but the white mist did not reappear.
• Chu Mu observed Cultivators traveling mostly southwest, north, and east, and questioned fishermen about when they had seen them.
• Chu Mu used rough flight-speed and timing estimates to map likely Cultivator gathering places in three directions from Jingmen.

After leaving Jingmen, Chu Mu spent three and a half months searching remote mountains for cultivators while advancing his qi-blood cultivation through spiritual energy and perfecting his saber art. He spotted a faint light rising into the sky and rushed toward it, apparently having found a clue to a cultivator.

• Chu Mu left Jingmen, telling Xu Yuan to keep cultivating and study the Medical Book while he searched for a way to find the immortals.
• Over several months, Chu Mu crossed mountains and breathed spiritual energy to strengthen his body after his Body Forging Art had reached its limit.
• Chu Mu's saber art reached consummate mastery, allowing him to wield a light saber as though it were immensely heavy and prompting him to sense an unexplained influence on his spirit.
• After searching many counties and finding no proof behind rumors of immortals, Chu Mu saw a faint light shoot up from the ground and sprinted to a mountaintop toward it.

Chu Mu discovered Jade Emperor Valley, a hidden cultivation settlement concealed by an Illusion Array, and entered to find a bustling town of cultivators. He left the chapter observing its shops and residents, realizing everyone around him was stronger than he was.

• Chu Mu followed the rising spiritual energy to a mountain and found a cliff that concealed a gorge behind an Illusion Array.
• Chu Mu passed through the illusion and emerged into Jade Emperor Valley, a settlement protected by a barrier and filled with houses, a waterfall, and a lake.
• A young man at the entrance explained the valley's rules, warned Chu Mu not to stay overnight without permission, and tossed him a ring.
• Chu Mu walked around the lake toward the town's central district and observed its shops, including Returning Spring Pavilion's notice recruiting Qi Refining Realm apprentices for medicine testing.
• Chu Mu watched the varied crowds and realized that every person in the town was a cultivator stronger than him.

Chu Mu explored Jade Emperor Valley and discovered that he lacked the skills, cultivation, and resources needed to establish himself in the Cultivation World. He remained outside the valley, waiting for a chance to meet other newcomers while worrying about the dangers of finding work.

• Chu Mu studied shops and recruitment notices on Jade Emperor Valley’s streets, finding that available work required cultivation he did not have.
• Chu Mu entered a busy pavilion and realized it was a market for jobs and missions, including bounties and a request for a Dao Companion.
• Chu Mu learned that those below the Qi Refining Realm could not spend the night in the valley and noticed the valley’s spiritual energy seemed unexpectedly weak.
• Chu Mu left the valley and climbed a tree near its entrance to watch for other newcomers, but the ring’s warning arrived without anyone appearing.
• Chu Mu considered taking odd jobs to earn Spirit Stones and knowledge, but feared that his ignorance would leave him unable to recognize danger.

After learning that he needed four Low-Grade Spirit Stones to test his Spirit Root and buy a cultivation technique, Chu Mu returned to Jade Platform Mine as a miner. As Chang San sent him and the other new miners into a cave, Chu Mu studied the mine’s machinery and wondered about the mysterious old man’s jade slip.

• Chu Mu learned that Spirit Root testing cost one Low-Grade Spirit Stone and the first layer of a cultivation technique cost three, while his pay of eight Fragmented Spirits a month meant he needed five months of work to afford both.
• Chu Mu joined more than a hundred other non-cultivator miners at Jade Platform Mine, where the manager warned that each person had to produce one hundred jin of ore per day or lose a Fragmented Spirit.
• Chu Mu observed giant Puppet creations, cultivators using Technique Arts and Dharma Artifacts, and the mine’s conveyor system, which brought his buried knowledge of Artifact Refining and Puppetry to mind.
• Chang San assigned Chu Mu and the other miners to separate mine caves and told them to dig until they had each collected one hundred jin of ore.
• Chu Mu noticed Chang San’s runic Dharma Artifact robe and reflected on how costly such equipment was compared with what miners could earn.

Chu Mu endured the lethal purple lightning in the Mine Cave by using spiritual sense, Qi-Blood, and a Fragmented Spirit to resist it, then spent months mining Crimson Lightning Ore while studying Puppetry. With only sixteen more Fragmented Spirits needed and fifty-three days remaining, he wondered why life in the Cultivation World felt like his previous life.

• Chu Mu sensed purple lightning eroding his body and realized he could survive it by directing his Qi-Blood with spiritual sense and drawing strength from a Fragmented Spirit.
• Chu Mu located the Crimson Lightning Ore Vein and began mining alone, finding that even his powerful swings barely chipped the ore.
• Chu Mu settled into months of mining, meeting his daily quota and studying two inheritances during his spare time.
• After three months, Chu Mu counted twenty-four Fragmented Spirits, noted that he needed sixteen more and had fifty-three days left, and questioned why the Cultivation World felt familiar.

After months of mining and surviving in a blood-soaked mountain forest, Chu Mu remained cautious and prepared defenses around his shelter. As two miners came to rob him, they discovered his traps and hesitated outside his shed.

• Chu Mu returned from the Mine to his wooden shed and went down into the concealed underground hole where he ate and studied his Puppet Art inheritance.
• Chu Mu checked his Light Screen Panel, then went to sleep as violence continued through the mountain forest.
• Two men approached Chu Mu's shed, believing he had accumulated Spirit Stones and would be an easy target.
• The men found a poisoned pit trap and a network of traps linked to the shed, making them wary of Chu Mu's preparations.
• One man suggested retreating, but the other insisted they continue and urged caution as they approached the shed.

After discovering that two miners had targeted him, Chu Mu prepared a poison trap and waited in the forest near his shed. He weakened the intruders and attacked them with his saber, leaving them pleading for mercy as the fight continued.

• Two men searched Chu Mu’s empty shed but failed to find the hidden tunnel beneath it.
• Chu Mu noticed signs that someone had visited his shed and realized that two people were likely targeting him for his Spirit Stones.
• Chu Mu prepared medicinal poison and hid in the mountain forest, waiting for the two men to approach his shed.
• The men discovered the tunnel and decided to charge in, but the poison began weakening their qi and blood.
• The men tried to flee, but Chu Mu caught up and wounded them with his saber as they begged him to spare them.

After killing two cultivators who tried to ambush him, Chu Mu took their Fragmented Spirit and traveled to Jade Emperor Valley to begin his cultivation journey. He learned that his Spirit Root was a four-attribute False Spiritual Root and received a warning to buy only a basic, reliable cultivation technique, leaving him wary of scams in the Cultivation World.

• Chu Mu searched the two corpses, took their belongings, and buried them before counting the fifty-two Fragmented Spirit he had gained.
• Chu Mu combined his spoils with his savings, then traveled through the night to reach Jade Emperor Valley safely.
• Wang Mazi offered to test Chu Mu’s Spirit Root for five Fragmented Spirit, but Captain Li of the Enforcement Team warned Chu Mu against the scam and told him to register and read the valley’s rules.
• Chu Mu paid one Spirit Stone for a Spirit Root test and learned that he had a four-attribute False Spiritual Root, with Fire as his strongest attribute.
• The shopkeeper explained Spirit Root aptitude and advised Chu Mu to buy the basic Blazing Fire Art, warning that market techniques could be flawed or incomplete.

Chu Mu visited Xue Zhi Hall in Jade Emperor Valley to buy the Blazing Fire Art and learned that cultivation techniques required a Dao Heart oath not to disclose them. After paying, he discovered that the shop measured Spirit Stone energy precisely and charged him for a small shortfall.

• Wang Mazi tried to sell Chu Mu cultivation techniques cheaply, but Chu Mu refused and entered Xue Zhi Hall instead.
• A shop attendant explained the common and uncommon Five Elements cultivation techniques and told Chu Mu that buyers had to swear a Dao Heart oath not to reveal them.
• Chu Mu swore the oath and bought the Blazing Fire Art for thirty Fragmented Spirits.
• The attendant measured Chu Mu's Spirit Stones and found they contained only 29.6 degrees of energy, so Chu Mu supplied another Fragmented Spirit to cover the deficit.

Chu Mu discovered that the knowledge and resources needed to cultivate were far beyond his means, and he questioned how scarce resources shaped life in the Cultivation World. Unable to understand the Blazing Fire Art, he bought a basic knowledge book from Wang Mazi with all his remaining Spirit Stones.

• At the Learn Knowledge Pavilion, Chu Mu learned that even basic cultivation knowledge and the prerequisites for spells cost far more than he could afford.
• Chu Mu left the marketplace disillusioned, considered how control of scarce resources might fuel violence among cultivators, and settled in an inconspicuous mountain cave.
• After reading the first layer of the Blazing Fire Art, Chu Mu realized he lacked the knowledge to understand it and refused to cultivate blindly.
• Chu Mu returned to Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace and bought Spiritual Energy Basics from Wang Mazi by handing over all his remaining Spirit Stones.

After studying Spiritual Energy Basics, Chu Mu learned how spiritual energy, cultivation paths, and the Qi Refining Realm worked. He left Jade Emperor Valley for Jade Pillar Mountain and began carefully studying the Blazing Fire Art, hoping to start cultivating.

• Chu Mu finished reading Spiritual Energy Basics and learned about Spirit Stones, Body Refining, Qi Refining, and the requirements for flight.
• Chu Mu considered seeking a backer but rejected the idea, then noticed cooking smoke in the mountains near Jade Emperor Valley.
• Wary of encountering dangerous cultivators, Chu Mu gathered his belongings and the two jade slips he had buried, then left for Jade Pillar Mountain.
• Chu Mu spent seven days studying Spiritual Energy Basics until he felt ready to practice the Blazing Fire Art.
• Chu Mu studied the Blazing Fire Art, worked to understand how it condensed spiritual qi into Fire Attribute Mana, and used Spirit Radiance Blessing when he struggled.