Chapter Summaries

Lin Taichu bought an invitation from the fallen Wen Family and entered the Zhao Family’s noble gathering in search of treasures that could help him endure the curse. There, he discovered that Luofeng City’s nobles monopolized resources and exploited ordinary residents, then noticed a Red Flame Herb that could help stabilize his Soul Power.

• Lin Taichu learned that a noble gathering would offer rare herbs and pills that could suppress the curse, and a cultivator directed him to the fallen Wen Family for an invitation.
• Lin Taichu paid Old Man Wen one hundred mid-grade spirit stones to borrow the Wen Family’s invitation to the gathering at Zhao Family Manor.
• Lin Taichu entered the manor, where Zhao Feng opened the gathering and nobles began trading treasures.
• Lin Taichu overheard nobles admit that their families monopolized herbs used to make Evil-Clearing Pills and forced ordinary cultivators and commoners to pay exorbitant prices.
• Lin Taichu examined the treasures and spotted a Red Flame Herb that could help stabilize his Soul Power.

Lin Taichu outbid Wang Hu for a Curse-Breaking Pill at the Zhao Family Manor banquet, prompting Zhao Zhong to question his invitation and accuse him of being an impostor. The manor’s Guards and some nobles surrounded Lin Taichu, while Wang Hu urged them to seize him.

• Lin Taichu bought the Red Flame Herb from under Wang Hu’s bid and acquired an Evil-Warding Jade Pendant from Li Ran, which eased the curse’s suppression of his Soul Power.
• Zhao Feng presented a Curse-Breaking Pill, and Lin Taichu outbid Wang Hu with an offer of one thousand five hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
• Wang Hu accused Lin Taichu of stealing the Wen Family invitation and called for Zhao Zhong to investigate him.
• Zhao Zhong confirmed the invitation was genuine but questioned how Lin Taichu obtained it and threatened him when he said he had purchased it from the Wen Family.
• Zhao Zhong ordered the manor’s Guards to surround Lin Taichu, and Wang Hu urged the nobles to join them and seize him.

At the Zhao Family banquet, Lin Taichu was nearly attacked after Wang Hu and Zhao Zhong questioned his identity. Zhao Feng recognized Lin Taichu as the man who had once saved his life, punished Zhao Zhong, and turned his attention to Wang Hu.

• Zhao Zhong ordered the Guards to seize Lin Taichu, but Zhao Feng stopped them and slapped Zhao Zhong for offending him.
• Zhao Feng respectfully apologized to Lin Taichu and revealed that Lin Taichu had saved him in Fenglai Kingdom.
• Zhao Feng recounted how Lin Taichu had repaired his meridians, restored his cultivation, and guided him, allowing him to build the Zhao Family.
• Lin Taichu recalled saving Zhao Feng and dismissed the debt as a small kindness, while Zhao Feng insisted he would never forget it.
• Zhao Feng stripped Zhao Zhong of his steward post and ordered him to guard the manor's rear mountain.
• Zhao Feng turned his cold gaze toward Wang Hu.

Lin Taichu accepted Zhao Feng’s invitation to stay in Luofeng City and asked him about the curse suppressing cultivation there. Zhao Feng began explaining its origin, leaving the account at the moment Mo Wei used a forbidden technique to break through to the Spirit Transformation Realm.

• Zhao Feng reprimanded Wang Hu for inciting the crowd, spared him, and warned that he would destroy the Wang Family if it happened again.
• Zhao Feng offered Lin Taichu the Curse-Breaking Pill for free, but Lin Taichu paid its listed price of fifteen hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
• Zhao Feng invited Lin Taichu to the inner hall, where Lin Taichu agreed to stay in Luofeng City for a few more days.
• Lin Taichu asked Zhao Feng about Luofeng City’s curse and whether it could be broken.
• Zhao Feng said that a hundred years earlier, Mo Wei built an altar on a volcano and used a Forbidden Technique to tear open the barrier to the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Lin Taichu learned that a restriction left behind by the fallen Spirit Transformation cultivator Mo Wei suppressed Luofeng City’s Cultivators, then investigated how it worked from the Zhao Family manor. He discovered the restriction was a vast network of power lines he could not yet break, and emerged the next morning to find Zhao Feng waiting for news.

• Zhao Feng explained that Mo Wei’s death had formed a restriction over Luofeng City and showed Lin Taichu the Mo Wei Jade Pendant that weakened it.
• Lin Taichu decided to stay in the city and study the restriction, and Zhao Feng offered him access to the jade pendant and a secluded cultivation room.
• Lin Taichu tested spiritual herbs and ore, finding that fire-attribute herbs absorbed some restriction power while a black ore echoed its patterns.
• Lin Taichu sensed that the restriction consisted of countless interwoven power lines and concluded he could not break them with his currently suppressed strength.
• The next morning, Lin Taichu left the cultivation room and Zhao Feng asked whether he had made any discoveries.

Lin Taichu investigated rare materials that could resist Luofeng City's restrictions, buying herbs and ores at the market and testing their effects. He left the city to inspect where they grew and reached the foot of the Lingyun Mountain Range.

• Lin Taichu learned that cultivators gathered restriction-touched herbs and ores outside the city and decided to inspect the market for them.
• Lin Taichu bought Black-Vein Herb and Vein Stone, finding that the herb loosened the restrictions on his meridians and the ore bore lines resembling the restriction lines.
• Lin Taichu bought Flame-Heart Herb and other special materials, then tested the Vein Stone and Black-Vein Herb while resting at a tea stall.
• Lin Taichu left Luofeng City, where his Soul Power recovered to around thirty percent of the Half-Saint level, and headed west toward the Lingyun Mountain Range.
• Lin Taichu arrived at the foot of the Lingyun Mountain Range to investigate the materials' growing environment.

Lin Taichu traced the restrictive lines in the Lingyun Mountain Range to the volcano summit where Mo Wei had fallen, then studied Mo Wei’s records and discovered that the Vein Stone patterns matched Mo Wei’s mental method. After ten days of practice, Lin Taichu stabilized his usable strength at seventy percent and decided to keep mastering the method rather than risk approaching the summit.

• Lin Taichu found Black-Vein Herb and Vein Stones growing near restrictive-line nodes and sensed that the lines led to the volcano summit.
• Lin Taichu returned to the Zhao Family Manor, where Zhao Feng warned him about the summit’s deadly restrictions and monster beasts and brought him a map and records about Mo Wei.
• Lin Taichu compared the Vein Stone patterns with Mo Wei’s mental method and found that the lines matched, allowing him to loosen the restrictions suppressing his Soul Power.
• Lin Taichu abandoned his plan to approach the volcano summit and devoted himself to practicing Mo Wei’s mental method.
• After ten days, Lin Taichu fully circulated the mental method and increased his stable usable strength from sixty percent to seventy percent.

Lin Taichu converted the Mo Wei Mental Method’s Soul Power into a restriction that suppressed opponents and tested it on monsters in the Lingyun Mountain Range. After defeating several first-rank beasts, he confronted an early second-rank Crimson Flame Tiger, whose roar he countered with the mental method.

• Lin Taichu spent five days refining a technique that turned Soul Power into a restriction capable of suppressing a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s Soul Power by thirty percent.
• Lin Taichu told Zhao Feng he would visit the Lingyun Mountain Range to test the technique, accepted supplies, and left Luofeng City alone.
• Lin Taichu reached a Restriction Node and used its power to strengthen a transformed restriction.
• Lin Taichu subdued and killed a peak first-rank Black-Vein Wolf with the restriction and his Soul Power, then killed more Black-Vein Wolves and Venom-Fang Snakes along the way.
• Lin Taichu encountered an early second-rank Crimson Flame Tiger and used the Mo Wei Mental Method to withstand most of the force from its roar.

Lin Taichu tested his transformed restrictions against Yao Beasts in the Lingyun Mountain Range, then returned to Luofeng City. The next morning, he learned that Yao Beasts across the region had grown unusually aggressive, leaving the market short of materials and prices sharply higher.

• Lin Taichu killed an early second-order Crimson Flame Tiger and continued testing the Mo Wei Mental Method and transformed restrictions against Yao Beasts in the mountains.
• At the mountain's foot, Lin Taichu met the wounded cultivators who said a Crimson Flame Tiger had killed two of their companions before they escaped.
• Lin Taichu returned to Zhao Family Manor, put away the materials he had gathered, and prepared to buy more restriction materials the next morning.
• Lin Taichu found the market nearly empty, with Black-Vein Herb, Vein Stone, and Flame-Heart Herb scarce and more expensive than the day before.
• A stall owner told Lin Taichu that Yao Beasts in the mountains and near the volcanoes had become unusually aggressive, driving gatherers away and pushing prices up.

Lin Taichu investigated the Monster Beasts’ frenzy in the Lingyun Mountain Range and found that chaotic restriction power was spreading from a Restriction Node. At the node, he discovered a new crack emitting violent restriction power and a scorching red aura.

• Lin Taichu bought Flame-Heart Herbs and Vein Stones, then headed back to the Lingyun Mountain Range to investigate the Monster Beasts’ frenzy.
• Lin Taichu found the restriction outside Luofeng City had grown stronger and discovered corpses and bloodstains along the road to the mountains.
• Lin Taichu examined a Black-Vein Wolf corpse and sensed that chaotic restriction power had caused its frenzy.
• Lin Taichu ventured deeper into the mountain range, where he found more dead Monster Beasts and restriction power that increasingly suppressed his Soul Power.
• Lin Taichu reached the Restriction Node and sensed that violent power spilling from it had spread through the forest and disrupted the Monster Beasts’ minds.
• Lin Taichu found a new crack at the node, touched it, and forced the scorching power that invaded his body back out.

Lin Taichu reached the Restriction Node in the depths of the Lingyun Mountain Range and discovered that Forbidden Fire sealed underground had fused with the restriction, causing the mutation and the Monster Beasts’ fury. As the crack widened and lava began to emerge, the danger escalated.

• Lin Taichu pushed through the worsening restriction and black fog, following the strange flame power to a clearing in the mountain range.
• Lin Taichu found a huge crack releasing Black Flames beside an Enlightenment Stone, surrounded by burned Monster Beast corpses.
• Lin Taichu touched the stone and used the Mo Wei Mental Method to calm its power, learning that Forbidden Fire left by Mo Wei had broken through its seal and corrupted the restriction.
• The crack trembled and widened as Lin Taichu retreated behind cover, and he saw lava flowing from the volcano summit into the fissure.

Lin Taichu discovered that lava from the volcano had fused with the Lingyun Mountain Range’s restriction, killing nearly all the Monster Beasts and strengthening the barrier. He returned to Zhao Family Manor and told Zhao Feng that Luofeng City was safe from the beasts, though the destruction of mountain resources threatened many cultivators’ livelihoods.

• Lin Taichu observed that the lava and restriction had combined, burning the remaining Monster Beasts and making the barrier stronger than ever.
• Lin Taichu left the ruined Lingyun Mountain Range, where lava had destroyed most of the spirit herbs and ores.
• Lin Taichu returned to Luofeng City and noticed that cultivator stalls had fewer materials and much higher prices.
• Zhao Feng asked Lin Taichu about the Monster Beasts’ abnormal movements, and Lin Taichu explained how the lava had entered the mountain range and reinforced its restriction.
• Zhao Feng welcomed the removal of the Monster Beast threat but worried about cultivators who depended on gathering resources, while Lin Taichu said their livelihoods were Luofeng City’s responsibility.

Lin Taichu told Zhao Feng that he could not break Luofeng City's Restriction and prepared to leave after helping remove the city's hidden danger. Before departing, he suggested turning the city into a safe trading hub, giving Zhao Feng a way to support the city's cultivators.

• Lin Taichu explained that Mo Wei's Spirit Transformation power and the lava-strengthened Restriction were beyond his ability to break, and Zhao Feng accepted the answer.
• Zhao Feng offered Lin Taichu supplies and a carriage, and Lin Taichu accepted the gifts and set out for the eastern gate.
• Lin Taichu told Zhao Feng that the Restriction's suppression could make transactions safer by leveling the strength of cultivators.
• Lin Taichu proposed opening a trading ground in Luofeng City, enforcing rules, and collecting a handling fee from transactions.
• Zhao Feng recognized that the trading ground could revive livelihoods in the city and thanked Lin Taichu for the advice.

Lin Taichu left Luofeng City, recovered his full Soul Power, and discovered that the Restriction power inside him terrified Monster Beasts. He reached Qingshi City and learned that Zhao Feng had turned Luofeng City's Restriction into a thriving, safe trading ground.

• As Lin Taichu traveled away from Luofeng City, the Restriction lifted and his cultivation strengthened toward the sixth level of the Half-Saint realm.
• Monster Beasts along the road panicked and prostrated themselves before Lin Taichu because his transformed Restriction power restrained them.
• Lin Taichu continued to Qingshi City, where he entered an inn and listened to cultivators discuss Luofeng City's new trading ground.
• Lin Taichu learned that Zhao Feng's family managed the busy market and collected a ten-percent handling fee as cultivators flocked there to trade safely.
• A low voice from the neighboring table interrupted Lin Taichu as he prepared to leave.

Lin Taichu learned that powerful factions were coveting Luofeng City and its profitable trading ground, so he warned Zhao Feng and stayed in Qingshi City to watch for trouble. As pressure mounted from the Dantai Family and other forces, a sinister black-robed cultivator confronted him.

• Lin Taichu overheard a Half-Saint cultivator and his companions discussing plans to seize Luofeng City, then followed them to their residence.
• Lin Taichu contacted Zhao Feng, who confirmed that unfamiliar powerful cultivators were arriving and that the trading ground earned more than thirty thousand Spirit Stones a day.
• Lin Taichu warned Zhao Feng that attackers could overwhelm the city's Restriction by sacrificing cultivators and promised to remain in Qingshi City.
• Lin Taichu heard that the Dantai Family had demanded control of Luofeng City, while rumors spread that major forces were drawn to its trading ground.
• A black-robed cultivator entered the inn, sat opposite Lin Taichu, and asked whether he was Lin Taichu.

Lin Taichu drove off Wu Xingyun of the Wuming Sect, then intervened when the Dantai Family threatened Luofeng City by blocking its trade routes. He forced the blockade to be dismantled, while the wider struggle over the city remained unresolved.

• Wu Xingyun tried to recruit Lin Taichu for the Wuming Sect and attacked him, but Lin Taichu suppressed Wu Xingyun’s cultivation and sent him away.
• Zhao Feng told Lin Taichu that the Dantai Family had demanded the city lord position and threatened to cut off Luofeng City’s supplies.
• Lin Taichu told Zhao Feng to hold the city, then traveled to the trade route outside Qingshi City.
• Lin Taichu defeated Dantai Yong and the Dantai Family cultivators who were blocking the passage.
• Dantai Yong removed the blockade and promised to tell the Dantai Family to leave Luofeng City’s trade routes alone.

Lin Taichu returned to Luofeng City and discovered that both the Dantai Family and the Wuming Sect had sent people to observe the city. As he headed toward Zhao Family Manor, a group of unidentified riders attacked the trading district, and Zhao Family Guards arrived to confront them.

• Lin Taichu hurried back to Luofeng City, fearing the Dantai Family and Wuming Sect might join forces against Zhao Feng.
• He entered the city over the wall and spotted members of both factions watching the streets and patrols without taking action.
• Lin Taichu headed toward Zhao Family Manor while keeping his presence concealed.
• A squad of black-clad riders rampaged through the trading district, smashing stalls and injuring Cultivators.
• Lin Taichu stayed hidden rather than intervene, and a Zhao Family elder arrived with more than thirty Guards to surround the attackers.

Lin Taichu saw Zhao Family Guards suppress a group of unidentified black-clad Cultivators and discussed the unrest with Zhao Feng. He left to investigate the trading grounds, where he spotted members of the Wuming Sect again.

• The Zhao Family elder defeated the black-clad Cultivator leading an attack in the street, and the Guards captured the group for interrogation.
• Lin Taichu went to Zhao Family Manor, where Zhao Feng reported that the attackers had no identifiable affiliations and were refusing to talk.
• Zhao Feng told Lin Taichu that Dantai Ming and Wu Yin had entered Luofeng City with their followers and appeared to be observing the city rather than preparing to attack.
• Lin Taichu told Zhao Feng to watch the Dantai Family and Wuming Sect and guard the City Lord's Mansion and trading grounds.
• Lin Taichu headed east toward the trading grounds and saw Wuming Sect members in the crowd.

Lin Taichu followed Wu Yin through Luofeng City, then learned from Dantai Ming that the Dantai Family planned to take the city by cutting off its supply routes. After discovering Wu Yin had passed through a wall into Zhou Mansion, Lin Taichu knocked at its closed gate but received no answer.

• Lin Taichu followed Wu Yin to an alley, where Wu Yin disappeared and evaded his pursuit.
• Dantai Ming confronted Lin Taichu, warned him not to interfere in Luofeng City's affairs, and revealed the Dantai Family could blockade the city and starve it into submission.
• Lin Taichu told Dantai Ming he would make the Dantai Family's decision a mistake, and Dantai Ming left without fighting.
• Lin Taichu examined the alley and detected the Wuming Sect's residual Soul Power in the wall adjoining Zhou Mansion, realizing Wu Yin had passed through it.
• Lin Taichu went to Zhou Mansion's front gate and knocked repeatedly, but no one answered.

Lin Taichu concluded that the Dantai Family and the Wuming Sect were acting independently and planned to protect Luofeng City’s trade while investigating the Auction House. The next morning, he arrived to find that someone had bought every item in the Auction House.

• Lin Taichu found no trace of Wu Yin in the residence and concluded that the Dantai Family and the Wuming Sect were not cooperating.
• Lin Taichu returned to Zhao Family Manor, where Zhao Feng reported that both groups were active in the east of the city and that the Wuming Sect seemed to be searching for something.
• Lin Taichu reasoned that the factions wanted control of Luofeng City’s Trading Holy Land rather than its destruction, and told Zhao Feng to protect the City Lord’s Mansion and trading grounds.
• Lin Taichu learned that Dantai Ming planned to blockade the trade routes and decided to inspect the Auction House the next day.
• Lin Taichu reached East City Square and learned that an unknown buyer had purchased every item in the Auction House.