Chapter Summaries

Zhang Yang used Soul Stones and Soul Jade to advance as a spiritual cultivator, then channeled Heaven and Earth Dao Rhyme into his Soul Meridian Sword Core. He broke through to its fifth level and gained the Thorn Sword Array, greatly strengthening his defense against soul attacks.

• Zhang Yang absorbed his Soul Stones and Soul Jade, causing his Soul Force Field to collapse under the power of eighteen blue droplets.
• Zhang Yang used his Soul Meridian Sword Core and eighty-one Formless Soul Swords to overcome the droplets and weave a Spirit Domain from 15,000 materialized soul threads.
• Zhang Yang circulated his two hundred mouthfuls of Natal Spiritual Qi through his Soul Meridian, Heart Meridian, and Intent Meridian as midnight approached.
• Zhang Yang swallowed the modified unit of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, fused its Dao Rhyme into his spirit sea, and advanced the Soul Meridian Sword Core to the fifth level.
• Zhang Yang gained the Thorn Sword Array, which automatically struck soul attackers with 128 Formless Soul Swords and his Spirit Domain.

After declining a bounty to escort a wounded Great Dream Sword Sect disciple, Zhang Yang discovered that demonic winds and ghostly auras had surrounded Guanshan Town and were pursuing the escort party. He suspected the forces were targeting the disciple in the Profound Iron coffin and rushed toward the town’s outskirts.

• Zhang Yang considered his need for a Profound-grade Sword Artifact and went to the Earth God Temple to ask where he could find a skilled swordsmith.
• The Land God told Zhang Yang that the Great Dream Sword Sect could forge a Profound-grade Sword Artifact in exchange for ten Mortal-grade Wish-Fulfilling Tokens.
• The Land God offered Zhang Yang a bounty to escort a severely wounded Great Dream Sword Sect disciple in a Profound Iron coffin to Profound Iron City, but Zhang Yang refused.
• Zhang Yang headed back to pack for a trip to Yening City while the Rogue Cultivators carried the coffin out of town.
• A sword intent erupted and black clouds driven by Demonic Wind encircled Guanshan Town, forcing the escort party to retreat as Zhang Yang realized they were pursuing the wounded disciple.

Zhang Yang intervened when demonic forces surrounded Guanshan Town, and the Village Building Order reset with missions to save villagers and help Marshal Huang Gu defeat the Land God and Great Dream Sword Sect remnant Li Hanqiu. After protecting the villagers and watching Li Hanqiu flee into Master Wang's residence, Zhang Yang claimed the town as his territory and confronted Huang Gu.

• Zhang Yang stole twenty-three precious trees from a wealthy merchant's estate and turned them into five hundred Jade-Transformed Wood Spears as demonic forces surrounded Guanshan Town.
• The Village Building Order automatically reset and assigned Zhang Yang missions to save at least five hundred villagers and help Marshal Huang Gu kill the Land God and Li Hanqiu.
• Zhang Yang saved villagers at the town entrance, annihilated twelve hundred Substitute Soul-Chasing Ghosts, killed three Demon Race cultivators, and warned the demons not to harm anyone in the town.
• After the battle at the Earth God Temple, two rogue cultivators and the wounded Li Hanqiu fled into Master Wang's residence, while the Land God and the Great Dream Sword Sect's monitoring sword soul were killed.
• Marshal Huang Gu demanded that Zhang Yang let him kill Li Hanqiu, but Zhang Yang refused and declared that anyone outside his race who entered his territory would die.

Zhang Yang and Li Hanqiu fought Demon Commander Huang Gu as it attacked Guanshan Town, and Zhang Yang killed Huang Gu with a barrage of wooden spears and golden swords. The Village Building Order reset after Zhang Yang saved the town, granting him 10% control and prompting him to activate its village-building task.

• Zhang Yang shielded Guanshan Town's villagers and used Bewitchment and Armor-Stripping Wooden Spears to drive back Huang Gu's Demon Generals and soldiers.
• Huang Gu transformed into its saber-toothed tiger true form, shattered Zhang Yang's defenses, and killed several hundred villagers with its aura.
• Li Hanqiu attacked Huang Gu while Zhang Yang struck it with 180 wooden spears and Mountain River Sword Intent, stripping away its defenses.
• Huang Gu escaped Li Hanqiu's sword strike by teleporting, but Zhang Yang hit it with 200 spears and sealed its wings, leaving it vulnerable to three Triple Golden Swords that cut it into sixteen pieces.
• The Village Building Order reset after Zhang Yang saved 3,921 villagers, giving him 10% control and plundering Huang Gu's remains and techniques.
• Zhang Yang chose to activate the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Task.

After defeating the demons, Zhang Yang treated the wounded Li Hanqiu and learned that a demon spy had infiltrated the Great Dream Sword Sect. Guanshan Town offered him its Profound-tier Spirit Gathering Platform, and he began establishing the Heavenly Sword Gate while reviewing the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order’s requirements.

• Zhang Yang examined Li Hanqiu, whose sword cores had been badly damaged, and a powerful sword intent cracked Zhang Yang’s own Intent Meridian Sword Core when he tried to help.
• Li Hanqiu warned Zhang Yang that a demon-race spy, most likely the Abomination Demoness, had infiltrated the Great Dream Sword Sect’s leadership and urged him to inform the sect master.
• Zhang Yang ordered Guanshan Town’s elders to transport Li Hanqiu to Profound Iron City, then advised the town’s leaders to prepare for danger and consider migrating.
• Kou Ruo, Jiang He, Li Tian, and Dong Ruo offered Guanshan Town’s Earth Spirit Nexus to Zhang Yang, and he accepted it as a Profound-tier Spirit Gathering Platform.
• Zhang Yang identified himself as the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Gate and told the four lineages to prepare the land, Immortal Stones, shops, and spirit fields required for an offering town.
• Zhang Yang used the Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order to begin setting up the sect and learned that it required a mountain-gate site, an Innate Earth Spirit Nexus, and costly buildings, including a taboo Immortal-grade hall.

Zhang Yang finalized Guanshan Town’s offerings to the Heavenly Sword Gate and sold the remains of demons he had killed to the Kou Family for fifteen thousand Immortal Stones. Still short of funds for essential buildings, he asked about borrowing money and learned that the Jiang Family could lend him ten thousand Immortal Stones at nine out, thirteen back.

• The four family heads offered the Heavenly Sword Gate rice, property, offerings, and protection arrangements, and Zhang Yang agreed to leave the Earth Spirit Nexus maintenance payments unchanged.
• Zhang Yang rejected using the Backend Modifier to obtain the buildings, fearing it would expose him to his enemies.
• The old Kou offered to buy the demon corpses, and Zhang Yang agreed to let the Kou Family appraise and purchase them.
• The Kou Family paid Zhang Yang fifteen thousand Immortal Stones for the demon materials and quoted prices for various metals.
• Zhang Yang asked to borrow Immortal Stones, and the old Kou said the Jiang Family could lend up to ten thousand at nine out, thirteen back.

Zhang Yang established the Heavenly Sword Gate on three mountains near Guanshan Town, unaware that its powerful guests had come to collect on a debt after the surrounding region was abandoned. Li Hanqiu warned him of the political trap, and Zhang Yang appointed the crippled swordsman as Sword-Wielding Elder before facing the assembled forces.

• Zhang Yang chose Woodcutter Forest, Fallen Axe, and Dragon's Turn Peak as the Heavenly Sword Gate's headquarters and borrowed Immortal Stones to build its mountain gate.
• Several hundred guests attended the gate's completion, including representatives of the four great families, city lords, and the crippled Li Hanqiu.
• Li Hanqiu warned Zhang Yang that the Black Earth Plains were a buffer against the Demon Realm and that the Great Dream Sword Sect and Heavenly Origin Sect wanted his gate to serve as a foothold there.
• Li Hanqiu said he had never been a disciple of the Great Dream Sword Sect and warned Zhang Yang that the gathered guests had come to collect a debt after the region was abandoned.
• Zhang Yang offered Li Hanqiu the post of Sword-Wielding Elder, and Li Hanqiu bet that Zhang Yang would become a beggar as three Golden Core cultivators and nine Foundation Establishment cultivators confronted him.

Zhang Yang established the Heavenly Sword Gate on Falling Axe Peak and Woodcutter's Peak, then drove off creditors who tried to impose terms on him. His Profound-tier Anomaly swallowed a Golden Core expert’s treasures and began condensing its fourth transformation.

• Zhang Yang spent Immortal Stones to purchase the Heavenly Sword Gate’s buildings and activated the Earth Spirit Nexus on Woodcutter's Peak.
• Jiang Rui offered to erase Zhang Yang’s debts in exchange for ten creditor-backed core disciples, but Zhang Yang destroyed his flying dharma artifact and ordered the guests to leave.
• A Golden Core cultivator attacked Zhang Yang and the two peaks with three treasures, but Zhang Yang summoned his Profound-tier Anomaly, which swallowed them.
• The young city lord of Yening City ordered the guests to withdraw, leaving behind the crippled Li Hanqiu.
• Zhang Yang sealed the anomaly between Falling Axe Peak and Woodcutter's Peak as it began condensing its fourth transformation.

Zhang Yang appointed Li Hanqiu to recruit for the Heavenly Sword Gate and began building the sect, discovering that Dissolution Palace needed his sword intent to create its illusions. As Guanshan Town’s villagers fled after the major sects abandoned the area, Li Hanqiu offered some refuge through work and combat-cultivator positions, while warning Zhang Yang that the town’s future looked bleak.

• Zhang Yang appointed the crippled Li Hanqiu Sword-Wielding Elder and asked him to recruit disciples and sect members.
• Li Hanqiu explained the recruitment grades of the Heavenly Origin Sect and the Great Dream Sword Sect, and Zhang Yang chose to recruit combat sword cultivators rather than cultivation geniuses.
• Zhang Yang oversaw construction at Woodcutter's Peak and learned that he had to pay 100 Immortal Stones and seal his Mountain River Sword Intent into Dissolution Palace to create its first illusion.
• As villagers fled Guanshan Town after the Great Dream Sword Sect and the Heavenly Origin Sect abandoned it, Li Hanqiu offered places to combat sword cultivators and farmers, stabilizing about three thousand villagers.
• Li Hanqiu warned that Guanshan Town had lost its trade routes and wondered whether Zhang Yang had prepared for the worst.

Zhang Yang arrived in Guanshan Town and left Li Hanqiu to stabilize its people and resources while he recruited a hundred aging, injured warriors as Combat Sword Cultivators. He brought them to Sword Human Valley for a dangerous trial that could reshape their bodies and give them a chance to shed their mortal forms.

• Li Hanqiu told Zhang Yang about Guanshan Town’s food supplies, the villagers’ need for a Celestial Master, and the loss of the trade routes.
• Zhang Yang ordered Li Hanqiu to distribute a hundred mu of Immortal Spirit Rice Fields among the villagers and asked for the hundred Combat Sword Cultivators.
• Li Hanqiu presented a hundred mostly elderly, disabled former warriors, and Zhang Yang reluctantly accepted them.
• Zhang Yang led the recruits to Sword Human Valley and explained that sword qi might remodel their bodies and meridians.
• The hundred old warriors charged into Sword Human Valley despite the danger.

Zhang Yang put one hundred elderly recruits through painful sword-qi illusions to awaken their willpower and train them as enforcers. Forty-four survivors became Combat Sword Cultivators of the Heavenly Sword Gate, ready to learn sword arts and serve in Guanshan Town or patrol the mountains.

• The old recruits crossed Zhang Yang’s gravel-valley illusion barefoot, enduring real sword-qi radiation and pain.
• Zhang Yang used Natal Spiritual Qi to heal and strengthen them, then sent them into a blazing-fire illusion where two died after their past trauma was triggered.
• As the trials continued, Zhang Yang exhausted his spiritual qi while the recruits endured increasingly intense illusions, leaving sixty-two by the fourth stage.
• The table advised Zhang Yang to eliminate forty-four recruits who would not survive the fifth stage but could still become Combat Sword Cultivators.
• Zhang Yang released the forty-four recruits from the illusion, taught them the Azure Cloud Sword Control Art, and planned to station them in Guanshan Town or use them to patrol the mountains.

Zhang Yang trained with Autumn Water and organized the Heavenly Sword Gate’s Combat Sword Cultivators into patrol squads while Jiang Rong sought deeper insight into the Mountain River Sword Intent. The Village Building Order then issued a task to obtain the advanced Rivers and Mountains Illusion Dream sword intent, and Sword Human Valley asked Zhang Yang for nine spirits to fuel its advancement.

• Zhang Yang tempered Autumn Water each morning while the Combat Sword Cultivators trained, and he formed four patrol squads to guard the peaks and Guanshan Town.
• Jiang Rong asked Zhang Yang to let him return to Dissolution Palace after gaining new insights into the Mountain River Sword Intent, and Zhang Yang approved.
• The Village Building Order triggered the Rivers and Mountains Illusion Dream task, offering the advanced sword intent as its reward.
• Zhang Yang visited Sword Human Valley with 1,200 wisps of Natal Spiritual Qi and reviewed the eighteen old fellows still trapped in its illusion.
• Sword Human Valley asked Zhang Yang for nine spirits, explaining that the trapped men’s mortal experiences, wills, and souls helped it advance.

Zhang Yang dismissed the illusion in Sword Human Valley and made the surviving elders choose between becoming Combat Sword Cultivators and swearing loyalty as his direct disciples. Fifteen passed his test and joined the Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate, which Zhang Yang formally opened on Woodcutter's Peak.

• Zhang Yang rejected the anomaly's proposal to sacrifice his subordinates, dismissed the illusion, and revealed the sword-filled abyss of Sword Human Valley.
• Zhang Yang offered the eighteen elders a choice between leaving as Combat Sword Cultivators and kneeling to become his direct disciples.
• Liang Xiaotian swore loyalty to Zhang Yang, and Wu County passed Zhang Yang's test and became the senior disciple.
• The elders swore their oaths; two who failed Zhang Yang's test were fed to the table, while the remaining fifteen became direct disciples of the Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate.
• Zhang Yang warned the disciples about their perilous cultivation path and promised the first to form a Soul Meridian Sword Core the right to ascend Falling Axe Peak's Sword Soul Palace.
• Zhang Yang gathered everyone on Woodcutter's Peak, announced the fifteen disciples and their names on the sect wall, and officially opened the Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate.

Zhang Yang discussed the Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate’s urgent problems with Li Hanqiu and learned that his spirit-cultivation abilities could help forge sword artifacts. When Zhang Yang opened a demonic gourd, its qi transformed into Li Hanqiu’s inner demon, and after destroying it, Li Hanqiu asked him to slay his eight remaining inner demons.

• Li Hanqiu warned Zhang Yang about five dangers facing the newly founded Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate, including weak weapons, a missing mountain-protecting formation, and the need for patrols and a trade route.
• Li Hanqiu explained that the sect needed Fire Artisan Daoists or disciples to operate its artifact-forging furnace, and Zhang Yang revealed that he was a spirit cultivator with a sixth-level Soul Meridian Sword Core.
• Li Hanqiu concluded that Zhang Yang’s spirit cultivation could let him control Yin and Yang Flames to forge Mortal Grade Swords, while explaining that Yin Fire was difficult to obtain.
• Zhang Yang produced a black gourd taken from a demonic cultivator, and Li Hanqiu warned him that its demonic qi could endanger nearby life.
• When Zhang Yang released the qi and used his Formless Heart Sword, it transformed into a demonic head shaped like Li Hanqiu; Zhang Yang destroyed it with Mind Bewitchment and Golden Sword Demon Annihilation.
• The system identified the demonic head as Li Hanqiu’s mutated inner demon, and Li Hanqiu thanked Zhang Yang before asking him to slay his eight remaining inner demons.

Zhang Yang tried to help Li Hanqiu cut away another inner demon and learned that Li Hanqiu had chosen the path of a sword demon to avenge his master. The quest system then tasked Zhang Yang with making the Heavenly Sword Gate the Northern Region’s leading sword sect within fifty years.

• Li Hanqiu explained the four directional flames and urged Zhang Yang to forge four exorcising swords.
• Zhang Yang released demonic aura to draw out Li Hanqiu’s inner demon, but when it formed an impenetrable mass, he summoned a Strange being to swallow it.
• Li Hanqiu thanked Zhang Yang, saying he had cut away his eight inner demons and would serve him for another ten years.
• Li Hanqiu revealed that he sought revenge on the Great Dream Sword Sect’s leaders for framing his master and letting him die.
• Zhang Yang received a quest to replace the Great Dream Sword Sect as the Northern Region’s number-one sword cultivation sect within fifty years.

Zhang Yang used demon essence blood, Profound Gold, and Abyssal Demonic Flame to forge hundreds of swords at the Heavenly Sword Gate. The sword embryos were sorted at Sword Human Valley, where the disciples began practicing to find swords that suited them.

• Zhang Yang opened the furnace on Dragon Head Peak and used thirty fireballs to heat a pool of iron, copper, and silver.
• Zhang Yang added Demon Commander Huang Gu's essence blood and Profound Gold, then used Abyssal Demonic Flame to freeze the molten metal into sword embryos.
• After three days, Zhang Yang and the disciples collected and sorted the embryos, including three Profound Grade and twelve low-grade Profound Grade sword embryos.
• Li Hanqiu warned Zhang Yang that Fire Artisan Daoists might come after him for disrupting their livelihood.
• Zhang Yang sent the sword embryos to Sword Human Valley, where the disciples practiced to find swords compatible with them.

Li Guokui and Zhu Ti’s squad investigated signs of an unknown presence near a trade road and suspected a merchant caravan was a trap. Their suspicions proved correct when they exposed Demon Soldiers hiding in the hills and the caravan, and a warning talisman sounded as the demons attacked.

• Li Guokui noticed that weeds on a nearby hill had withered unnaturally and told Zhu Ti’s squad that something had passed through recently.
• The squad spotted a merchant caravan approaching Yening City, and Zhu Ti suspected it was a trap.
• Li Guokui and two other Combat Sword Cultivators launched five Ninefold Mountain Sword Forms at a nearby hill, revealing more than a hundred hidden Demon Soldiers.
• A warning talisman shot into the sky as Demon Soldiers charged from the hill and more than a hundred others emerged from the caravan.

Zhang Yang’s patrol teams fought off a Golden Eagle Gate assault, then discovered three more Demon Cultivator sects claiming territory around the Heavenly Sword Gate. Suspecting their village chiefs had come for his Backend Modifier, Zhang Yang chose to avoid provoking them and build strength while both sides developed.

• Zhu Ti, Li Guokui, and their squad used the Ninefold Mountain Sword Array to overwhelm the Golden Eagles until the Golden Eagle King shattered it with a purple-gold feather and declared a territorial boundary.
• Zhang Yang recognized the Golden Eagle King as a fellow player with a complete Immortal Cultivation Village Building Order and rewarded Zhu Ti’s squad with time to cultivate.
• Gou Dao’s patrol found the Azure Wolf Gate, Ji Ming’s patrol found the Tyrant Bear Gate, and Jiang Rong’s patrol found the Heavenly Punishment Gate, each of which claimed territory around the Heavenly Sword Gate.
• Zhang Yang suspected the four Demon Cultivator sects had come for his Backend Modifier and decided to accumulate strength while avoiding conflict.

After a year of secretly cultivating disciples and forging sword embryos, Zhang Yang prepared the Heaven Heavenly Sword Gate to strike back at the Demon Cultivator sects. He sent his new Sword Cultivators to destroy two enemy gates and set out alone to attack the Heavenly Punishment Gate.

• Zhang Yang reviewed the progress and potential of his disciples while secretly nurturing sword embryos in Sword Human Valley.
• Over the next five months, nine disciples established Sword Cores with five Heavenly Meridians, and the sect gained new sword intents and techniques.
• Zhang Yang gathered the sect's disciples on Woodcutter's Peak and assigned Li Hanqiu to guard the mountain gate.
• Zhang Yang ordered Wu County, Zhao Baiyi, Tao Yao, Zhu Ti, and Ji Ming to exterminate the Tyrant Bear Gate.
• Zhang Yang ordered Jiang Rong, Li Guokui, Gou Dao, and Guan Shan to destroy the Golden Eagle Gate, then set out alone for the Heavenly Punishment Gate.

Zhang Yang waited for his disciples to destroy the Golden Eagle Gate and Tyrant Bear Gate, then entered the poisonous tunnels beneath the Heavenly Punishment Gate. Deep underground, he discovered a wounded Spider Evil God and received a mission to kill it, leaving him weighing a desperate plan.

• Zhang Yang waited outside the Heavenly Punishment Gate until Wu County and Jiang Rong completed their missions to wipe out the Golden Eagle Gate and Tyrant Bear Gate.
• Black Spiders emerged from the canyon and headed toward Guanshan Town and the Heavenly Sword Gate, confirming Zhang Yang’s suspicion that the demon sects were cooperating.
• Zhang Yang entered the poisonous canyon, used a mid-grade Star of Hope to resist the poison, and spent his low-grade Star of Hope to find the tunnels’ most valuable location.
• Zhang Yang reached a vast underground pit and discovered a gigantic, wounded green spider that he suspected was an illegal trespasser from a higher sequence.
• The world’s Will issued Zhang Yang a mission to slay the Spider Evil God and promised to let him activate the Backend Modifier without punishment if he succeeded.
• Zhang Yang concluded that he could not defeat the Spider Evil God by direct combat and began considering a desperate alternative.