Chapter Summaries

Lu Gutian organized the Lu Family into ambush teams and taught them how to choose fights that would weaken their enemies without risking their own strength. Lu Guchun and Lu Gufeng discovered the Chi and Xu Families conspiring against the Lu Family, and one of them prepared to draw part of their force away.

• Lu Gutian told Lu Guchun and Lu Gufeng to disguise themselves as battered fugitives and lure only manageable enemy groups toward an ambush.
• Lu Gutian set rules for the Lu Family's attacks based on enemy numbers, while Lu Gujin agreed to follow his strategy.
• Xu Zihao and Chi Lan discussed spreading out their forces to search for the missing Lu and Xu Family members, and Chi Lan revealed they had hired help to deal with the Lu Family Patriarch.
• Lu Gufeng and the other Lu Gufeng overheard the conversation and realized the Chi and Xu Families had conspired against the Lu Family.
• One Lu Gufeng volunteered to draw some cultivators away while the other assessed the situation and brought back only a group the Lu Family could handle.

Lu Guchun and Lu Gufeng used themselves as bait to draw the Chi and Xu Families away from their teams and into ambushes. Lu Gutian’s group killed the four Xu Family pursuers, then searched the battlefield and hid again while Lu Gufeng explained the plan.

• Lu Guchun rustled a branch and drew Chi Lan and half of the Chi Family team into pursuit.
• Xu Zimo sent several Xu Family cultivators to watch the chase and ordered the rest to search for the Wang and Lu Families.
• Lu Gufeng lured four Xu Family cultivators into the woods by pretending to be exhausted and injured.
• Lu Gutian’s group formed a fan-shaped ambush and attacked the four Xu Family cultivators, killing them.
• Lu Gufeng stopped the attack, ordered the group to search the battlefield and hide, then explained that Lu Guchun had led the Chi Family away.

After the Lu Family ambushed and killed four Xu Family cultivators, Lu Gutian distributed their useful spoils to strengthen the team. Lu Guchun then led eight Chi Family cultivators toward the Lu Family’s ambush site, and the chapter ended with a scar-faced Chi Family cultivator charging after him in response to his taunts.

• Lu Gujin handed the four Storage Bags to Lu Gutian, who ordered the useful pills, weapons, armor, and Spiritual Talismans distributed among the team.
• Lu Gutian gave damaged second-tier Spirit Tool chainmail to Lu Gufeng so he could wear it while gathering intelligence alone.
• Lu Gufeng spotted Lu Guchun approaching with seven pursuers, and Lu Gutian ordered the Lu Family cultivators into ambush positions.
• Lu Guchun heard Lu Gufeng’s voice and sped ahead as the eight Chi Family cultivators chasing him began to tire and consider giving up.
• Lu Guchun taunted the Chi Family pursuers, provoking a scar-faced man to charge after him.

Lu Guchun lured eight Chi Family cultivators into the Lu Family’s prepared ambush, where Spiritual Talismans wiped them out. The Lu Family replenished its supplies and moved on to plan another ambush in a canyon while keeping watch on enemy movements.

• Lu Guchun provoked the pursuing Chi Family cultivators and sprinted toward the Lu Family’s prepared formation.
• Lu Gutian ordered the Lu Family disciples to unleash their Spiritual Talismans after all eight pursuers entered the attack range.
• The talisman barrage destroyed the eight Chi Family cultivators and left a huge crater, prompting Lu Gutian to remind the group that survival mattered more than supplies.
• The Lu Family members searched the area, found two Storage Bags, and distributed the Spiritual Talismans and pills they recovered.
• A day later, Lu Gujin and Lu Gutian chose a long canyon as a possible ambush site and arranged for search teams to monitor the enemy.

Lu Gutian’s hunting team wiped out the rival cultivators who entered Long Valley, then learned that Lu Wanyuan had destroyed the Xu, Wang, and Chi Families and that the Lu Family now dominated Luling Prefecture. Lu Wanyuan assigned the team to hunt the remaining enemies, and Lu Gujin asked the team to decide whether Lu Gutian should lead them.

• Lu Gutian’s team eliminated the cultivators from the other families in Long Valley and gathered their belongings.
• Lu Gutian told Lu Gujin that Lu Wanyuan had likely broken through to the Golden Core Realm and anticipated a major upheaval in Luling Prefecture.
• The team returned from Long Valley and reported their victory to Lu Wanyuan, who revealed that the Xu Family, Wang Family, and Chi Family had been wiped out.
• Lu Wanyuan warned that remnants of the rival families remained and appointed the group as the Lu Family’s pursuit team, allowing them to keep their spoils.
• Lu Gujin admitted that Lu Gutian had repeatedly saved the team and asked Lu Wanyuan to let the team decide who should be captain.

At a family meeting at Cui Mountain, Lu Wanyuan reviewed the Lu Family’s rapid growth and urged its cultivators to strengthen themselves and work together. He left them with the family’s resources open for their advancement and the goal of building a united clan.

• Lu Wanyuan entrusted the team’s internal duties and leadership to its members, urging them to build cohesion before returning to Cui Mountain on the Golden Beak Black Iron Eagle.
• Twenty days later, the Lu Family gathered at Cui Tower for its first family meeting in years, where Lu Wanyuan explained the rules governing generation names and spiritual roots.
• Lu Wanting reported that the Lu Family had 330 cultivators, a vast territory and mortal population, and numerous facilities and resources gained in recent years.
• Lu Wanyuan said the family’s people were its most important foundation and urged cultivators to improve their realms, techniques, and skills using the family’s resources.

Lu Wanyuan organized the Lu Family’s growing operations and outlined how its halls would strengthen the family and secure resources. He then revealed that he had planned a ten-thousand-year transformation, leaving the hall heads eager to learn what it involved.

• Lu Wanyuan urged the Lu Family to hunt down remaining enemies, watch the Murong Family, and establish specialized halls and a Merchant Alliance.
• Over the following month, the Lu Family appointed heads and deputy heads to its halls.
• Lu Wanyuan told the hall heads that the General Affairs, Merchant, and Intelligence Halls would receive priority because they could help the family gain resources.
• Lu Wanyuan explained the General Affairs Hall’s duties and announced a ten-thousand-year transformation plan, prompting the gathered hall heads to ask what it was.

Lu Wanyuan proposed turning the flood-prone land below Cui Mountain into Spirit Fields by controlling the Wolong River, which could feed the Lu Family’s growing population and strengthen its territory and Spirit Vein. The family supported the plan but had yet to find a safe way to work in the dangerous river or capture its spiritual energy.

• Lu Wanyuan explained that the Lu Family could transform as much as a hundred million mu of swampy land into Spirit Fields and eventually build a prosperous region around Cui Mountain.
• The Lu Family members recognized that the plan could enrich the land with spiritual energy, expand the family, and help the Second-tier Spirit Vein advance.
• Lu Wanyuan said the renovation would take decades and that the family first needed to protect workers from the Wolong River and create a Formation to store its spiritual energy.
• Lu Guquan, Lu Gulou, Lu Wanting, and Lu Wanhe offered ideas for dealing with the river, including moving mountains, redirecting its flow, or freezing it.
• Lu Wanyuan dismissed the suggestions as impractical, and Lu Wanshan warned that an enormous treasure used to hold back the current could be swept away or attract enemies.

Lu Wanyuan decided to travel to Qingzhou to seek Five Elements Mountain and a way to gather the Wolong River’s spiritual energy. He ordered the Lu Family to expand its communication network and explained how contact tokens could improve the family’s earnings, leaving the others considering their uses.

• Gu Cui told Lu Wanyuan about Five Elements Mountain, whose treasure appeared each July, and suggested he try to claim it.
• Lu Wanyuan proposed traveling to Qingzhou to seek both a major treasure and a Spirit Gathering Array to support the family’s renovation plan.
• Lu Wanyuan ordered the family halls to train successors, make more family contact tokens, and keep the Projection Array running around the clock.
• Lu Wanhe and the others objected to the Spirit Stone costs, so Lu Wanyuan explained that communication could be worthwhile if it increased the family’s income.
• Lu Wanyuan described using contact tokens to coordinate hunts, reduce injuries, and potentially charge family members a subscription fee.

Lu Wanyuan explained how the Family Communication Token could improve intelligence gathering and urged the Lu Family to find ways to use it and expand its operations. Five days later, he departed with Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuting for Five Elements Mountain, leaving the family in Lu Gucui and Baili Qiuyue’s care.

• Lu Wanyuan and Lu Gucui described how the Family Communication Token could speed up intelligence gathering and support the Lu Family’s work.
• Lu Wanyuan instructed the General Affairs Hall and Artifact Refining Hall to inspect the expanded territory, survey mineral deposits, and prepare for commercial growth.
• Five days later, Lu Wanyuan entrusted the Lu Family to Lu Gucui and told her to contact him or Baili Qiuyue if trouble arose.
• Lu Wanyuan flew south on the Golden Beak Black Iron Eagle with Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuting to visit Five Elements Mountain in Qingzhou City.
• Lu Wanyuan’s party headed toward the mountain, where cultivators gathered each seventh month to seek a treasure that no one had subdued for over a thousand years.

Lu Wanyuan and his companions arrived at Qingzhou City and learned how its Four Great Families controlled the city and exploited rogue cultivators. A man in their queue insisted the Five Elements Mountain master-recognition event was real, then claimed the treasure had once belonged to his family, leaving Lu Wanyuan stunned.

• Lu Wanyuan brought Xu Yuhe and Shangguan Qianxue to Qingzhou City, put away his Golden Beak Black Iron Eagle, and joined the entry queue.
• Lu Wanyuan asked a middle-aged cultivator about the privileged people entering without waiting, and learned that the Murong, Ouyang, Tian, and Zhang Families controlled Qingzhou City's main trades.
• The middle-aged cultivator explained that rogue cultivators paid five Spirit Stones to enter the city because the surrounding area was dangerous, and Shangguan Qianxue considered avoiding the city.
• Lu Wanyuan suspected the Four Great Families had arranged the danger outside the city and wondered whether the Five Elements Mountain event was a scheme to draw in outsiders.
• The middle-aged cultivator said he had attended the event for years and claimed the Five Elements Mountain magic treasure originally belonged to his family, stunning Lu Wanyuan.

Lu Wanyuan heard conflicting accounts from Yang Xiu and a mole-faced man about the magic treasure and the dangers surrounding its master-recognition ceremony. He decided not to trust either story blindly, while the mole-faced man admitted the treasure’s promise was too tempting to resist.

• Yang Xiu claimed the magic treasure had belonged to his family’s ancestor before it fled three hundred years earlier and that the Yang Family had been ruined by their enemies.
• A mole-faced man interrupted Yang Xiu and called him a fraud who lured people toward the treasure, warning that many had disappeared after listening to him.
• Lu Wanyuan reconsidered the two conflicting stories and decided to handle the treasure hunt his own way rather than take either man’s claims at face value.
• The mole-faced man explained that crowds, strange events, and deliberate attacks turned the treasure’s master-recognition ceremony into chaos where many people vanished.
• Lu Wanyuan asked why the mole-faced man had returned despite the danger, and the man said no one could resist the treasure’s promise of power.

Lu Wanyuan and his companions entered Qingzhou City after hearing warnings about a magic treasure and noticing people mysteriously vanish near the gates. Above them, Yang Xiu and the man with the mole watched and discussed their hopes that Lu Wanyuan’s fortune would help reunite their group.

• Lu Wanyuan thanked the man with the mole for his warning but insisted that he and his companions had to see the situation for themselves.
• Lu Wanyuan noticed that Yang Xiu and the man with the mole had vanished without a trace, then led Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuhe toward the city gates.
• Yang Xiu and the man with the mole watched from the clouds as Yang Xiu declared that Lu Wanyuan’s great fortune could help restore their glory and reunite their brothers and sisters.
• Lu Wanyuan paid fifteen Spirit Stones for three entry tokens and was astonished that Foundation Establishment Cultivators guarded the city.
• Lu Wanyuan, Shangguan Qianxue, and Xu Yuhe entered Qingzhou City through its imposing, heavily damaged gates, hurrying past the pressure of the wall Formations.

Lu Wanyuan and his companions explored prosperous Qingzhou City, where its bustling streets inspired him to rethink how the Lu Family could develop Cui Mountain. He decided the family should first improve conditions for mortals, and hurried to finish their mission so he could begin.

• Lu Wanyuan, Xu Yuhe, and Shangguan Qianxue entered Qingzhou City and were surprised by its busy streets and thriving shops.
• Lu Wanyuan searched for a shop selling a Spirit Gathering Array while studying the city's buildings as a model for the Lu Family.
• Lu Wanyuan concluded that the Lu Family lacked the strength to build a city like Qingzhou City, but could start by developing smaller cities for mortals.
• Lu Wanyuan realized that the Lu Family's fertility incentive plan neglected mortals' need for reliable food, warmth, and safety.
• Lu Wanyuan explained to Xu Yuhe and Shangguan Qianxue that prosperous living conditions would encourage mortals to have children and help trade flourish.

Lu Wanyuan visited Myriad Treasures Pavilion with Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuhe, seeking a Formation that could draw spiritual energy from river water. Shop Assistant Xiao Hong recommended the Mystic Tortoise Plays in Water Array, which could replenish its Spirit Stones with energy from the water.

• Lu Wanyuan explained to Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuhe that mortals needed food, warmth, and safety before they could focus on having children, and proposed learning from Qingzhou City's methods.
• Lu Wanyuan brought the two women into Myriad Treasures Pavilion, where Shop Assistant Xiao Hong welcomed them and led them to the second floor.
• Xiao Hong explained that Spirit Gathering Arrays drew spiritual energy from the surrounding space and came in different grades and types.
• Lu Wanyuan asked about drawing spiritual energy from river water, and Xiao Hong recommended the Mystic Tortoise Plays in Water Array, which replenished its Spirit Stones underwater.

Lu Wanyuan learned that the Carp Leaping Upstream Formation could transfer spiritual energy from the Wolong River to Cui Mountain, potentially providing the Lu Family with an abundant source of energy. While he waited for Xiao Hong to bring the formations, Shangguan Qianxue and his other wife began cultivating in the private room.

• Lu Wanyuan asked Xiao Hong how intercepted river energy could be redirected, and she introduced the Carp Leaping Upstream Formation.
• Xiao Hong explained that the formation transferred spiritual energy between paired disks, with its range depending on the materials used.
• Lu Wanyuan realized he could channel the Wolong River's spiritual energy to Cui Mountain and possibly replenish the Lu Family's Spirit Vein.
• Xiao Hong escorted Lu Wanyuan and the two women to a private room while she went to retrieve the formations.
• Lu Wanyuan reassured Shangguan Qianxue and the other woman, and they began cultivating on the room's cushions.

Lu Wanyuan examined a formation at Myriad Treasures Pavilion while Shangguan Qianxue and another woman cultivated inside a soundproof booth. He began bargaining with Shop Assistant Xiao Hong over the formation’s price, leaving the deal unresolved.

• Lu Wanyuan left the booth so Shangguan Qianxue and the other woman could cultivate without being disturbed.
• Lu Wanyuan told Xiao Hong that he wanted to buy a formation and asked her for a discount.
• Xiao Hong presented the Mystic Tortoise Plays in Water Array and explained its materials and effects.
• Xiao Hong priced the formation at 100,000 Spirit Stones, and Lu Wanyuan pretended to misunderstand her price and offered 40,000.
• Lu Wanyuan claimed that 50,000 Spirit Stones was the most he could pay.

Lu Wanyuan bought two formations from Xiao Hong after bargaining for a discount, then asked her about the Five Elements Mountain magic treasure event. Xiao Hong explained that locals had stopped participating after centuries without results, while outsiders kept arriving, and the story left Lu Wanyuan with that information.

• Xiao Hong persuaded Lu Wanyuan to inspect the Carp Ascending the Stream Formation and explained how its flags worked.
• Xiao Hong told Lu Wanyuan that blood from high-tier Demonic Beasts could strengthen the Formation Flags, and he balked at its cost.
• Lu Wanyuan offered one hundred thousand Spirit Stones for both formations, and Xiao Hong accepted the deal.
• Lu Wanyuan asked how the Five Elements Mountain magic treasure recognized its master, and Xiao Hong said locals had largely stopped participating while outsiders still came.

Lu Wanyuan heard two familiar voices from Five Elements Mountain and tried to flee with Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuhe. The voices revealed that they were artifact spirits of the spiritual treasure, the Nine-Toothed Rake, leaving Lu Wanyuan questioning why it had two spirits.

• Lu Wanyuan learned that Five Elements Mountain's master-recognition event happened only once a year and that someone who had claimed the treasure had been assassinated.
• When Five Elements Mountain glowed, Lu Wanyuan heard a voice urging him to open the space in his mind.
• Lu Wanyuan ignored the voice, woke Shangguan Qianxue and Xu Yuhe, and led them away from the crowd.
• Lu Wanyuan recognized the voices as Yang Xiu and the man with a mole, and Yang Xiu called him back for fleeing.
• Yang Xiu and his companion told Lu Wanyuan they were the artifact spirits of the Nine-Toothed Rake, and Lu Wanyuan asked why a spiritual treasure had two artifact spirits.

Lu Wanyuan learned that the Nine-Toothed Rake had been split and damaged, but he remained wary of its spirits as he hurried through the crowd with Shangguan Qianxue and their companion. When the Man with a mole appeared and confirmed their story, Lu Wanyuan accepted the treasure after making it swear loyalty, then let it enter his Chaos Space.

• Yang Xiu explained that the Nine-Toothed Rake had split into two halves and that its spirit had divided among them.
• Lu Wanyuan questioned the spirits’ claims and kept moving through the crowd with Shangguan Qianxue and their companion.
• Yang Xiu sent Fourth to persuade Lu Wanyuan to accept them so they could restore their brothers and sisters.
• The Man with a mole appeared before Lu Wanyuan and confirmed that the spirits needed him and could suppress and stabilize fortune.
• Lu Wanyuan required the Man with a mole to swear an oath of loyalty to the Heavenly Dao, then opened his Chaos Space and let the spirit enter.