Chapter Summaries

Xu Yunfan discovered the power of his completed Three Refinements and became determined to learn the full range of Heavenly Crafting arts after hearing Fu Jin explain how the divisions contributed to forging. He used his True Inheritance Token to enter the Hidden Scripture Pavilion, where a mechanism produced a portrait of him.

• Xu Yunfan tested his Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer and found that its layered force pulverized the bricks beneath it without damaging their surface.
• Fu Jin brought Xu Yunfan food and wine, praised the demand for his Flow Pattern Swords, and explained how the different divisions of Heavenly Crafting Cave contributed to forging.
• Xu Yunfan decided that he wanted to learn the complete Heavenly Crafting Forging Art rather than settle for one incomplete discipline.
• Xu Yunfan asked Zhan Yan for permission to visit the Hidden Scripture Pavilion, and Zhan Yan told him that his True Inheritance Token granted him access.
• At the Hidden Scripture Pavilion, Xu Yunfan presented his token, and an elder activated a mechanism that revealed Xu Yunfan's portrait.

Xu Yunfan studied the Hidden Scripture Pavilion’s books on ores, mechanisms, and construction, which further advanced his Heavenly Crafting Forging Art. He then borrowed the Nine Profound Dragon Subduing Mace manual and left with a new martial art to study.

• Xu Yunfan entered the Hidden Scripture Pavilion and learned from an elder how to use his token to access its underground levels.
• Xu Yunfan read the Earth Vein Mineral Identification Scripture and recognized that ores he had encountered while mining in Ningguta included red copper.
• Xu Yunfan studied the Mechanism Hall’s Thousand Machine Essentials and the Heavenly Crafting Essentials, gaining further progress in the Heavenly Crafting Forging Art.
• A Melting Gold Hall disciple explained how mining cultivated the Melting Gold Forging Iron Art, and Xu Yunfan realized that mastering the complete Heavenly Crafting Forging Art might require learning all four departments’ martial arts.
• Xu Yunfan borrowed the Nine Profound Dragon Subduing Mace with a borrowing slip bearing Zhan Yan’s seal.

Xu Yunfan’s relentless training drove disciples at Heavenly Crafting Cave to push themselves, while Nine Luminaries Sect Elder Yin Hong and Teng Lingchuan returned home and discussed Xu Yunfan’s strength. Teng Lingchuan asked for next year’s mountain-entry slot so he could challenge Xu Yunfan again.

• Xu Yunfan trained through a packed daily schedule, improving his Heavenly Cicada Force and studying martial arts and forging.
• Yue Shan, Qi Huan, and Yan Yuwei pushed themselves to imitate Xu Yunfan’s training, despite injuries and exhaustion.
• Yin Hong and Teng Lingchuan returned to Nine Luminaries Sect after the True Inheritance Ceremony, with Teng Lingchuan still injured from Xu Yunfan’s hammer strike.
• Yin Hong told Teng Lingchuan that Xu Yunfan had held back and that Old Ghost Hong would likely move against him.
• Teng Lingchuan asked Yin Hong to give Xu Yunfan next year’s mountain-entry slot so he could fight him again.

Teng Lingchuan persuaded Yin Hong to let him challenge Xu Yunfan by promising to break through the three training gates, while Xu Yunfan completed his bone training and underwent a dramatic transformation. The chapter ended as Xu Yunfan developed the exceptional martial talent Board Ribs Sinewy Tendons.

• Teng Lingchuan revealed his progress in Skin Training and Jade Meridians Revolving Scripture, and Yin Hong agreed to allow his challenge if he broke through all three gates by next year's Awakening of Insects.
• Xu Yunfan trained Heavenly Cicada Force until it reached completion, finishing his Tendons, Bones, and Skin training.
• Xu Yunfan's bones transformed, granting him heightened vibration-based senses and powerful resonance attacks.
• Xu Yunfan's completed martial arts merged, strengthening his blood, muscles, and fascia beyond his previous limits.
• Xu Yunfan's periosteum spread between his ribs, forming the exceptional talent Board Ribs Sinewy Tendons.

Xu Yunfan completed his third tempering, studied ancient records about those who had mastered all three temperings, and began cultivating the Pure Yang One Qi Art. Daoist Bi Sheng dismissed Li Haomiao’s claims about Xu Yunfan’s talent, while the chapter ended with Yan Yuwei greeting Xu outside the Scripture Pavilion.

• Xu Yunfan completed his third tempering, gaining diamond-hard skin, powerful digestion, and strength that made his nearly four-hundred-jin hammer feel weightless.
• Xu Yunfan read an ancient codex describing masters who had completed the three temperings, but found that someone had torn out the pages that followed.
• Xu Yunfan compared the Pure Yang One Qi Art with Heavenly Crafting Cave’s martial arts and found it better suited to his completed temperings.
• Bi Sheng rejected Li Haomiao’s belief that Xu Yunfan could excel, insisting that Xu lacked the talent and resources to progress far.
• Xu Yunfan studied the Pure Yang One Qi Art until the Attribute Panel listed it as not initiated, and later Yan Yuwei awkwardly greeted him outside the Scripture Pavilion.

Xu Yunfan used a show of strength to persuade Yan Yuwei to dine with him at Emerald Wave Pavilion. As they rode toward Emerald Wave City, Mo Shisan and the Heavenly Crafting Department's chief disciple mistook their departure for a romantic outing, while an unknown observer watched them leave.

• Xu Yunfan recognized Yan Yuwei as Melting Gold Hall's chief disciple and startled her by placing a hand on her shoulder.
• Xu Yunfan invited Yan Yuwei to Emerald Wave Pavilion and crushed bricks and carved grooves into a pillar to pressure her into accepting.
• Yan Yuwei agreed to go with Xu Yunfan, and they fetched Scaled Horses and rode toward Emerald Wave City.
• Mo Shisan and the Heavenly Crafting Department's chief disciple saw Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei riding together and assumed he was attracted to her.
• An unknown observer watched Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei depart near the town outside Heavenly Crafting City.

Xu Yunfan met Yan Yuwei at Emerald Wave Pavilion to ask her to teach him the Melting Gold Forging Iron Art, but the Purple-Robed Old Man from the Incense Fire Sect interrupted them seeking revenge. The old man attacked Xu Yunfan while Yan Yuwei fought the Black-Clad Men crowding the stairway.

• The Purple-Robed Old Man received a message and vowed that Xu Yunfan would soon join his disciple in the grave.
• Xu Yunfan asked Yan Yuwei to teach him the Melting Gold Forging Iron Art, and she began to respond before the Purple-Robed Old Man burst into their private room.
• The Purple-Robed Old Man accused Xu Yunfan of killing his disciple outside Dingbei City and said the Incense Fire Sect had slaughtered all thirty-two cities of Wu Province.
• Xu Yunfan and the Purple-Robed Old Man clashed, with Xu Yunfan dodging the steel whip and grappling with the old man's hand.
• Yan Yuwei knocked over a screen and fought three Black-Clad Men, breaking their Plain Daos as fragments struck her forearm.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei fought the Purple-Robed Old Man and the Incense Fire Sect during a battle that wrecked Emerald Wave Pavilion. Xu Yunfan overwhelmed the old man with his strength, but the old man struck Yan Yuwei as she joined the fight.

• The Purple-Robed Old Man failed to injure Xu Yunfan, who smashed through the pavilion’s roof and drove the Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer down on him.
• Xu Yunfan trapped the old man’s Nine Section Whip with his muscles, struck his shoulder, and sent two Black-Clad Men flying while Yan Yuwei attacked the Incense Fire Sect members below.
• Xu Yunfan entangled the old man’s whip with his hammer chain, cut his cheek, and chased him through the floors into the second-floor banquet hall.
• The old man shifted his vital point to evade Xu Yunfan’s knee strike, while Xu Yunfan bit down on the whip’s venomous barb.
• Yan Yuwei burst through a window and swung her extended blade at the old man’s neck, but he knocked it aside and lashed her across the body with his Nine Section Whip.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei survived the fight at Emerald Wave Pavilion, but Xu Yunfan’s victory over the Purple-Robed Old Man left him injured and exhausted. Outside the burning ruins, an Incense Fire Sect commander arrived with a large force and confronted Xu Yunfan.

• Xu Yunfan defeated and killed the Purple-Robed Old Man with his Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer, then pinned the last surviving man in black to a pillar.
• Yan Yuwei limped over, badly wounded, and realized Xu Yunfan had perfected all three refinements of Tendons, Bones, and Skin.
• Xu Yunfan spotted a red falcon and warned Yan Yuwei that people were outside.
• Three hundred Incense Fire Sect Disciples advanced through the street behind shield formations, poisoned Hook Scythe Spears, and pious followers.
• A Blood Exchange Realm commander carrying the precious artifact Mingwang Spear rode up on a Flood Dragon Horse and told Xu Yunfan that the man he killed had been the sect’s stupidest Patrol Envoy.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei discovered that Incense Fire Sect infiltrators had seized Emerald Wave City and were slaughtering its residents. As Yan Yuwei fought the sect disciples, Xu Yunfan faced their Blood Exchange Realm expert and prepared to meet his spear strike with a hand seal.

• Yan Yuwei suspected that Incense Fire Sect members had infiltrated Heavenly Crafting Cave and helped the sect seize Emerald Wave City without resistance.
• The Incense Fire Sect began massacring the city, and its Blood Exchange Realm expert revealed that the defending general was fighting the sect's Great Guardian.
• Xu Yunfan gave Yan Yuwei a distress flare and attacked the expert, but his hammer, crossbow bolts, and kick failed to injure him.
• Yan Yuwei charged into the Incense Fire Sect's formation, while Xu Yunfan remained facing the expert's spear attack.
• Xu Yunfan formed a seal and shouted, "Lin!" as the Mingwang Spear struck toward him.

Xu Yunfan escaped the Incense Fire Sect’s attack on Emerald Wave City with the wounded Yan Yuwei and decided to return to Heavenly Crafting City to warn Heavenly Crafting Cave. On the way, they discovered the sect performing grotesque rites with corpses and preparing to sacrifice children.

• Xu Yunfan evaded a Blood Exchange Realm expert’s spear thrust, escaped across Emerald Wave Lake, and pulled the wounded Yan Yuwei out of the water.
• Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei watched Emerald Wave City burn beneath the Incense Fire Sect’s banner and saw human candles hanging at its gates.
• Xu Yunfan decided they should return to Heavenly Crafting City to warn Heavenly Crafting Cave, and Yan Yuwei immediately set off with him.
• Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei hid near Emerald Wave City and watched Incense Fire Sect disciples scrape flesh from bones and collect it in jars labeled “Longevity Sweet Wine.”
• An Old Priest led the sect disciples in a ritual while children sang, and black-clothed disciples began cutting open the children’s bellies.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei uncovered Zhou Yuande’s role in the Incense Fire Sect’s slaughter of Emerald Wave City and fought their way through his mechanism array. Xu Yunfan killed Zhou Yuande, but the cult’s plan to summon Venerable Light still threatened other cities.

• Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei rescued a surviving Heavenly Crafting Cave disciple while the Old Priest declared the Emerald Wave City ritual complete.
• Yan Yuwei recognized Zhou Yuande, who revealed that he had helped the Incense Fire Sect and sought eternal life through Venerable Light.
• Zhou Yuande activated a mechanism array across the mass grave, attacking Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei with traps and bronze puppets.
• Xu Yunfan smashed through Zhou Yuande’s puppets and beat the elderly hall master with his Thunder Fire Hammer.
• Xu Yunfan uprooted a cypress tree and crushed Zhou Yuande against the mountainside, then finished him with a hammer blow.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei returned toward Heavenly Crafting Cave after burning the cultists’ hideout. In Jade Capital, the Empress ordered mass sacrifices to awaken the Heaven and Earth Primal Spirit, leaving Guo Lang horrified by the scale of her plans and her newfound power.

• Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei set the cultists’ hideout ablaze and hurried toward Hump Mountain to reach Heavenly Crafting Cave.
• Guo Lang reported that the Incense Fire Sect had sacrificed more than twelve million people in Blood Lotus Arrays across six provincial regions.
• The Empress ordered every male over seventeen in Shengzhou turned into a blood sacrifice and demanded thirty-six million living souls by the seventh day of the next month.
• The Empress ordered the Incense Fire Sect to target Great Yi Cave and Damo Grotto so the Six Great Sects would be drawn into the blood sacrifices.
• Guo Lang realized the Empress had become a Supreme Grandmaster of Ninth Realm Qi Refining as she declared that reopening the sealed Spirit Pivot would let her live another life and restore Great Zhou.

Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei discovered that the Incense Fire Sect had seized Heavenly Crafting City, and Xu Yunfan fought his way into Heavenly Crafting Cave through a secret passage. He reached his master Zhan Yan and told him about the massacre in Emerald Wave City, leaving Zhan Yan alarmed.

• Xu Yunfan and Yan Yuwei saw unfamiliar impostors guarding Heavenly Crafting City's gates and realized the city had been seized.
• Xu Yunfan entered the secret passage to the Casting Hall and survived poisoned traps before Wang Huan attacked him with a Ghost Entangling Chain.
• Xu Yunfan found an Incense Fire Sect Heart Erosion Pill mark on Wang Huan and killed him, then saw the bodies of many poisoned Heavenly Crafting Cave disciples in the passage.
• Xu Yunfan reached Zhan Yan in Thunder Fire Cave and told him about the massacre in Emerald Wave City and their encounter with Zhou Yuande.
• Zhan Yan questioned how the Incense Fire Sect could have slaughtered the city, then saw the blood on Xu Yunfan's hammer and crushed his wine pouch.

After Xu Yunfan revealed that Zhou Yuande belonged to the Incense Fire Sect, Zhan Yan rang the Nine Peaks Bell to warn Heavenly Crafting Cave. The leaders discovered that the city’s mechanisms had been sabotaged and that Zhou Yuande, Bao Yan, and possibly many disciples were tied to a wider infiltration, while Mo Han launched a mechanical bird to investigate.

• Xu Yunfan told Zhan Yan that Zhou Yuande had worshiped the Incense Fire Sect’s Venerable Light, and Zhan Yan rang the Nine Peaks Bell and ordered the Casting Hall to prepare.
• Yan Yuwei heard the ninth toll, gathered the Melting Gold Hall disciples, and sent word to the Heavenly Crafting Department and Mechanism Hall.
• Mo Han and Wan Chen found the Heavenly Crafting Hall gates locked from within and triggered a crossbow trap, which Xu Yunfan stopped with his hammer.
• Mo Han discovered that the city’s mechanisms had been tampered with, and Zhan Yan suspected Bao Yan of Hidden Edge Pavilion.
• Xu Yunfan recounted Zhou Yuande’s death to the assembled leaders, and Mo Han realized that Zhou Yuande, Bao Yan, and the missing sect master Hong Baichuan pointed to a serious infiltration.
• Mo Han restored the hall’s mechanisms and sent the mechanical bird Thousand Eyes into the sky to investigate.

Mo Han and the other leaders discovered that the Incense Fire Sect had used dream possession to infiltrate Heavenly Crafting Cave and prepare a blood sacrifice in Emerald Wave City. Mo Han took command and ordered the city sealed while Xu Yunfan raced to find Fu Shixiong and Hong Menzhu.

• Mo Han used the mechanical giant bird's eagle eye to reveal the Incense Fire Sect's massacre and Blood Lotus Array outside Emerald Wave City.
• Chu Xu, Wan Chen, and Mo Han admitted that an ancient-robed man had questioned them in dreams, while Zhan Yan realized he had revealed secrets after drinking; Xu Yunfan said he had stayed awake.
• Mo Han took temporary command, ordered the Incense Fire Sect infiltrators purged, and directed Wan Chen to seal the industrial gates and activate the Black Tortoise Mechanism.
• Wan Chen and Zhan Yan stopped three Hidden Edge Pavilion swordsmen from attacking disciples, and Mo Han trapped the traitors with steel hoops.
• Zhan Yan gave Xu Yunfan his command token and ordered him to find Fu Shixiong, killing him if he seemed compromised.
• Mo Han restarted the Azure Dragon Winch and told Zhan Yan to find Hong Menzhu, while Xu Yunfan sped across the Heavenly Crafting Corridor Bridge.

Xu Yunfan confronted Bao Yan on Heavenly Crafting City’s dangerous corridor bridge and learned Bao Yan served the Great Zhou Empress while planning a blood sacrifice in Cangzhou. When Bao Yan tried to recruit him to destroy Heavenly Crafting City, Xu Yunfan attacked, and the chapter left him bringing his hammer down on Bao Yan.

• Xu Yunfan crossed a collapsing corridor bridge and discovered that Bao Yan had prepared deadly mechanisms to stop him.
• Bao Yan denied serving the Incense Fire Sect, claimed loyalty to the Great Zhou Empress, and revealed that Cangzhou had been chosen for a blood sacrifice.
• Bao Yan exposed Xu Yunfan’s origins and offered him a chance to atone by killing Zhan Yan and destroying Heavenly Crafting City.
• Xu Yunfan charged Bao Yan, but halted when Mo Shisan warned him about Bao Yan’s nearly invisible Heavenly Silkworm Silk.
• Xu Yunfan smashed through the silk with his hardened body and struck Bao Yan with the Thunder Fire Qilin Hammer’s Inverted Heavenly River, which Bao Yan caught with both hands.

Xu Yunfan sent Mo Shisan to safety, then used the Lin Stance and the Gilded Mace to defeat and kill Bao Yan. Exhausted, he watched the fighting in Heavenly Crafting City as the Azure Dragon Winch completed its reversal and Hump Mountain began to shake.

• Xu Yunfan kicked Mo Shisan off the bridge with his mechanism wings open, sending him falling toward Heavenly Crafting City while he stayed to face Bao Yan.
• Xu Yunfan summoned the Gilded Mace and entered the perfected Lin Stance, revealing his Third Tempering perfection and overwhelming Bao Yan.
• Bao Yan attacked with Black Gold Silk, Bone Penetrating Nails, and flying swords, but Xu Yunfan destroyed his defenses with the Nine Profound Dragon Subduing Mace and killed him.
• Xu Yunfan withdrew from the Lin Stance, collapsed from exhaustion, and later looked down at the slaughter between the Tempered Edge Army, the Incense Fire Sect Disciples, and the hypnotized Heavenly Crafting Cave Disciples.
• The Azure Dragon Winch completed its reverse rotation, causing Hump Mountain to quake.

Xu Yunfan watched Heavenly Crafting Cave deploy its mystic steel lotus fortress and mechanical tiger to repel the Incense Fire Sect, then entered the sealed city and found Fu Jin dealing with disciples corrupted by Heart Erosion Pills. Fu Jin revealed that the attack had turned former members of the cave against one another, and the chapter left him identifying the victims as he struggled to contain them.

• The mystic steel lotus fortress rose around Heavenly Crafting City, and its crossbows struck the encircling Incense Fire Sect army with mercury-laced javelins.
• A giant mechanical tiger emerged from Hump Mountain and fired explosive shells that trapped the Incense Fire Sect vanguard in rings of thunderfire.
• Mo Shisan told Xu Yunfan that the fortress had cost the cave half its accumulated wealth and thanked him for killing Bao Yan.
• Xu Yunfan rode a steam-powered platform into Heavenly Crafting City and found Fu Jin in the Earth Fire Chamber with frenzied disciples and thirty-seven bound people.
• Fu Jin explained that the Heart Erosion Pill had no cure and that possession by the Incense Fire Sect's Venerable Light had confused nearly half the cave's disciples.
• Fu Jin killed a struggling disciple and named him as he confronted the loss of people he had personally rescued and raised.

Xu Yunfan surveyed the devastation in Heavenly Crafting City as Zhan Yan explained the losses and took him to the city gate. There, they witnessed the Incense Fire Sect retreat from Mystic Steel Lotus City, and Zhan Yan warned that the other seven sects of Cangzhou were likely in trouble.

• Fu Jin killed disciples whose Heart Eating Gu had flared, recognizing them and grieving as he sent them into the Earth Fire Chamber’s lava.
• Xu Yunfan surveyed the ruined city, where Qi Huan and Yuan Ze organized cleanup and the dead included Yue Shan.
• Zhan Yan arrived and took Xu Yunfan to the city gate, explaining that Hong Baichuan had been held off by an Incense Fire Sect Grandmaster.
• At Mystic Steel Lotus City, Wan Chen defended the fortress against Yan Ming’s army with the Mechanical Tiger and Crouching Tiger Cannons.
• The Incense Fire Sect’s Great Guardian ordered a retreat after the Mechanical Tiger’s cannon blast, and Wan Chen greeted Zhan Yan and Xu Yunfan.
• Zhan Yan said the other seven sects of Cangzhou were probably in trouble.