Chapter Summaries

Lin Chen watched the crowds gather for the Immortal Ascension Site and decided to enter Yunmeng Marsh himself to prevent the seekers from killing one another before finding its treasures. As the Old Emperor arrived and ordered rebels to be used as bait, rival forces across the Dagan Dynasty mobilized for the coming exploration.

• Lin Chen revealed that he had staged the supposed immortal ascension with the Unquenchable Wood and a spirit formation, then decided to join the expedition into Yunmeng Marsh.
• The Old Emperor arrived in Jiangling with three thousand Imperial Tiger Leopard Guard and ordered the Qingzhou Prefect to send rebels into the marsh as bait for its beasts.
• The Daoist sect brought out its hidden Daoist Soldiers, while the great clans assembled elite troops, weapons, and retainers.
• Zhang Zhiping met Xie Yu and recruited unusual talents, as forces from the court, clans, martial world, and Barbarian Tribe gathered to seek the Immortal Ascension Site.

As the factions advanced into Yunmeng Marsh, Lin Chen witnessed the martial world, aristocratic clans, and imperial court confront a deadly crocodile pack by very different means. The aristocratic fleet moved on after using a Five-Venom Golden Toad and poisoned crossbow bolts, while the court sacrificed commoners as poisoned bait to clear its route.

• The Old Daoist of Yunmeng questioned Lin Chen about his unusual nature, but Lin Chen dismissed the suspicion.
• A pack of giant saltwater crocodiles attacked the boats, and the Old Daoist agreed to give the Miaojiang people three jars of Three-Yang Orthodox Wine in exchange for their help.
• The Miaojiang people released a Five-Venom Golden Toad, which poisoned the crocodiles in the waterway.
• Aristocratic clans used an Iron-Colored Repeating Crossbow to shoot crocodiles and the martial artists they had used as bait.
• The imperial court urged impoverished commoners to attack the crocodiles with promises of land and tax relief, while secretly feeding them poison so the crocodiles would die after consuming their bodies.

The Old Emperor, the aristocratic clans, and Lin Chen’s group each used different methods to cross Yunmeng Marsh’s lethal miasma. All three factions reached the Giant Island believed to contain the Immortal Ascension Site.

• The Old Emperor ordered Yu Fu to distribute miasma-warding pills to his soldiers, while secretly keeping three pills for Eunuch Zhou and Eunuch Yi.
• The aristocratic clans used specially made saltpeter to freeze and disperse the miasma, then sailed toward the marsh’s depths.
• Lin Chen’s group used herbs and Medical Valley’s Medicine Slaves as a protective barrier to cross the miasma.
• Lin Chen deliberately made the miasma rise above the island, clearing the forest route of its interference.
• The Old Daoist identified the island as the likely Immortal Ascension Site, and all three factions arrived there.

Lin Chen and the group entered the dense forest at the Immortal Ascension Site, where hidden insects began killing people in gruesome ways. After identifying the threats, Lin Chen watched the frightened survivors continue deeper into the forest, knowing casualties were unavoidable.

• Lin Chen, Zhang Zhiping, and the Old Daoist of Yunmeng agreed that the group would force its way through the forest after fire and other approaches proved impractical.
• The group arranged for Medicine Slaves, Daoist Soldiers, martial artists, and people from Miaojiang to lead the advance while the rest followed.
• After people began convulsing and dying, Lin Chen identified tiny black-ant-like insects whose venom caused excruciating pain and pointed out their hidden bites.
• More people collapsed, and Lin Chen found blood leeches covering a corpse and warned the group to check their bodies.
• Despite the deaths and their fear, the survivors resumed advancing through the forest, while Lin Chen reflected that casualties were unavoidable.

Lin Chen guided the survivors through a deadly forest, where a Miasma Mother killed many more before the group escaped into sunlight. After Lin Chen explained the danger, a grieving martial artist attacked him and was killed by thorn-covered vines, leaving the survivors to realize the woodland was still unsafe.

• Lin Chen identified poisonous creatures as the group crossed the forest, and their numbers dwindled from over five hundred to a little over three hundred.
• The group smelled a tempting fragrance near the forest's exit, but Lin Chen recognized it as a Miasma Mother and followed the Miaojiang people toward safety.
• The Miasma Mother spread brilliant, fragrant clouds that killed more than a hundred people before the survivors reached a sunlit woodland, where the miasma dispersed.
• Lin Chen explained the Miasma Mother after the Old Daoist and Zhang Zhiping saw how many people had died, and a grieving martial artist blamed him for Yue'er's death and attacked.
• Thorn-covered vines restrained the attacker, pierced him, and drained him into a corpse as Lin Chen warned the survivors that the woodland was not safe.

Lin Chen’s party encountered a Strange Tree that devoured people, then found the imperial court and great clans fighting another one. After Lin Chen helped them burn it, the Old Emperor tried to seize him, but the surrounding trees attacked the eunuchs, leaving the confrontation unresolved.

• A tree drained a middle-aged martial artist, and Lin Chen led his party toward distant screams despite the danger.
• Lin Chen found the imperial court and great clans battling a Strange Tree that dragged people into its branches and burned them.
• An Old Eunuch pierced the Strange Tree with his sword, but roots and branches seized him and the tree began to recover after absorbing his blood essence.
• Lin Chen told the imperial court and great clans to set the Strange Tree on fire, and the flames consumed both it and the trapped Old Eunuch.
• The Old Emperor blamed Lin Chen for defying his command and sent eunuchs to seize him, but branches swept the eunuchs away.

Lin Chen explained how the Tree Seedling hunted and revealed that its Blood Fruit could restore Qi and blood, prompting the crowd to covet it. The smoking old man safely took a fruit and recovered his vitality, while the Old Emperor and the great clans pressed Lin Chen to obtain more.

• The Old Emperor ordered his followers to seize Lin Chen, but they hesitated as the Tree Seedling stood nearby.
• Lin Chen explained that the Tree Seedling awakened to fresh blood or vigorous life force and warned the crowd to restrain their vitality.
• Lin Chen revealed that a Blood Fruit could replenish Qi and blood and might help an acquired-stage martial artist break through to the innate realm.
• The smoking old man concealed his life force with the Tortoise Breath method, used decayed clotted blood to approach the Tree Seedling, and knocked down a Blood Fruit.
• The smoking old man swallowed the fruit, regained vitality, and thanked Lin Chen for his guidance.
• The great clans and the Old Emperor offered rewards and forgiveness if Lin Chen would help them obtain Blood Fruits.

Lin Chen revealed how to steal Blood Fruit from the Tree Seedlings, then led the group through the forest by using blood to identify and avoid the dangerous trees. The group reached a wall of branches, where a young martial artist was injured after chopping at them.

• Lin Chen described a plan to use a willing blood relative as bait while another person stole Blood Fruit, prompting Zhang Zhiping to urge everyone to focus on the Immortal Destiny ahead.
• Lin Chen warned his companions that crowds could awaken Tree Seedlings, then used his blood to identify a dangerous tree when it attacked.
• The group followed Lin Chen’s method to avoid Tree Seedlings as they traveled through the forest, unknowingly helping heart-shaped Blood Fruits form in the trees they had drawn out.
• The group stopped before a dense wall of branches, and a young martial artist was struck by an unseen danger after chopping at them.

Lin Chen explained how Sound Wind Wood linked to people's auras, allowing the groups to pass through the forest while risking harm. The survivors reached a peach tree and a bronze cauldron, but the Old Daoist awoke trapped in a strange place and saw Zhang Zhiping's face on a peach as the ascended immortal approached.

• When a martial artist's arm became necrotic after he struck a tree, Lin Chen identified it as Sound Wind Wood and explained its aura link.
• Lin Chen had the injured martial artist control the tree, and the branches opened a passage; the groups then split up and entered the forest.
• Lin Chen, the old man, and the dark-faced man traveled together as the groups used their aura connections to make paths through the woods.
• The martial artists reached a grassy field beneath a vast peach tree and spotted a bronze cauldron, prompting some to rush toward it in search of Immortal Pills.
• Zhang Zhiping stopped the Old Daoist, who then lost consciousness and awoke seemingly trapped near a peach bearing Zhang Zhiping's face.
• The Old Daoist recognized the approaching youth as the immortal from the ascension vision.

The young Daoist revealed that the travelers had been transformed into Human Face Peaches while their bodies’ Essence and Qi were harvested to refine his Inner Elixir. He sent their peach-bound souls into his cauldron to complete the process.

• The Old Daoist and the others discovered that their souls had become Human Face Peaches while their bodies lay collapsed beneath the tree.
• The young Daoist appeared and explained that he had created the Inner Elixir Method by refining the human body’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit.
• The young Daoist showed how blood from the travelers’ bodies had grown into heart-shaped fruits, which flew into his blazing cauldron.
• The Sound Wind Wood had taken the travelers’ Qi, forming human faces that were stripped away and cast into the cauldron.
• The young Daoist called the Human Face Peaches into his cauldron, gathering the travelers’ souls with their harvested Essence and Qi.

Yunmeng dreamed that Lin Chen transmitted the Inner Core Method by refining him in the Bronze Immortal Cauldron, guiding him through its stages and urging him to verify what he could not yet understand. He awoke in the Daoist Temple of Jiangling City after sleeping for seven days and wondered whether the experience had only been a dream.

• Yunmeng was cast into the cauldron, where Lin Chen's voice guided him through the Inner Core Method until he formed a golden core.
• Yunmeng emerged before the young immortal and thanked him for transmitting the Dharma.
• The young immortal explained how he had created the Inner Elixir Method and told Yunmeng to seek understanding through practical verification.
• The young immortal departed, telling Yunmeng it was time for the dream to awaken.
• Yunmeng woke in a room at the Daoist Temple in Jiangling City, and a young Daoist told him he had slept for seven days since returning from Yunmeng Marsh.

Lin Chen learned that the people who returned from the Immortal Ascension Site had received his teachings and resources, and he planned to let their research on the Inner Core Method develop before disrupting their monopolies. As soldiers hunted the inheritors across Jiangling City, Lin Chen freed Xiao Wu’s elder brother from a Heart-Devouring Gu and helped Xiao Wu escape when the soldiers closed in.

• In a tavern, Lin Chen heard people gossip about Master Chu and Guo Heizi’s return, while he reflected on how he had given the explorers the Inner Core Method, resources, and inspiration.
• Lin Chen left the tavern as a black-clad youth followed him, and soldiers arrived to question the tavern’s patrons about people on a wanted list.
• The youth, Xiao Wu, asked Lin Chen to save his elder brother, and Lin Chen followed him to an abandoned residence and removed the Heart-Devouring Gu from the injured man.
• Soldiers surrounded the residence after a black-clad man betrayed the group, and Lin Chen killed the traitor and urged Xiao Wu to flee through a tunnel.
• Soldiers sealed Jiangling City and hunted down the people who had entered the Immortal Ascension Site and obtained the Inner Core Method inheritance.

The Old Emperor backed Yu Fu’s plan to refine the Human Pill Method by consuming cultivators, while the Daoist Sect and Zhang Zhiping fled Jiangling. Lin Chen watched the city’s survivors leave and planned to let the Inner Core Method spread for ten years before overturning the old order.

• The Old Emperor learned that the great clans withheld their treasures and full teachings, then approved Yu Fu’s plan to develop the Human Pill Method by consuming people.
• The Daoist Sect Master urged the confused Old Daoist to flee, and the sect escaped Jiangling through a secret passage.
• Zhang Zhiping escaped through a tunnel with help from young scholars and resolved that the Emperor had become a beast.
• Those who had awakened from the seven-day dream evaded the soldiers and left Jiangling, unaware that Lin Chen’s invisible eyes were monitoring them.
• Lin Chen observed the city through a Spiritual Light Screen and decided to wait ten years before acting against the imperial authority and great clans.

Ten years after the world changed, Lin Chen treated Xu Yue, a hunted martial artist, and agreed to travel with him to Yun Jing. As government riders arrived seeking Xu Yue, Lin Chen revealed that he intended to help remake the realm and give its rulers a dignified exit.

• City residents discussed the rise of immortals, the Great Peace Way, and the court's destruction of the Martial Alliance.
• More than a hundred government riders entered the city and questioned residents about a wanted man, learning that he often visited Physician Lin.
• Xu Yue thanked Lin Chen for curing his injuries and explained that he planned to go to Yun Jing to seek justice.
• Lin Chen agreed to travel with Xu Yue and showed him a poem declaring his ambition to change the old order.
• Lin Chen said that since the law of heaven descended upon the world, the era no longer belonged to its current rulers, and he would give them a dignified exit.

After three thousand days and nights of studying the Inner Elixir Method, Xu Yue unveiled Gang Qi and annihilated the Demon Suppression Division soldiers sent to capture him. As the city worshipped him as an immortal, Lin Chen watched, pleased that a seed he had planted had finally flourished.

• Xu Yue accepted Lin Chen’s invitation to travel to Yun Jing and help overthrow the dynasty, but first prepared to face the soldiers outside.
• The Demon Suppression Division attacked Xu Yue’s courtyard with poisoned arrows, which shattered against his invisible defense.
• Xu Yue revealed that his Inner Elixir path refined Innate Qi into Gang Qi, then slaughtered the soldiers with its overwhelming power.
• Xu Yue pursued the fleeing captain by sword flight and crushed him and his horse with a giant Gang Qi hand outside the city gate.
• The townspeople knelt before Xu Yue as he declared that Gang Qi had opened the immortal gate, while Lin Chen reflected that his long-planted seed had flourished.

The Demon Suppression Division chief was attacked by Chen Huan and a Su Family member, who stole intelligence and revealed the aristocratic families’ plans to seize power and exploit an Inner Core Method cultivator. Later, Chen Huan confronted Lin Chen at an inn, and Lin Chen eagerly invited him to demonstrate his illusion techniques before the room transformed into a terrifying underground chamber.

• Chen Huan and a Su Family member infiltrated the Demon Suppression Division, took its intelligence, and left the chief incapacitated with an illusion that magnified every sound.
• The two discussed replacing the emperor and using his planned gathering of Inner Elixir Method factions to eliminate their opponents.
• Chen Huan and the Su Family member visited a captive whose flesh and blood were used to strengthen beasts, then flew away on a Giant Eagle to pursue another target.
• At an inn on the road to Yun Jing, Lin Chen discussed Xu Yue’s Qi Refining path and considered researching the Daoist sects, Confucianism, and the Great Peace Way.
• Chen Huan appeared in Lin Chen’s room, and Lin Chen recognized him and expressed interest in his illusion techniques.
• Chen Huan began his illusion, turning Lin Chen’s room into a dark, eerie underground chamber filled with wails.

Lin Chen confronted Chen Huan, whose illusion arts had transformed his father by distorting his senses, and challenged him with a more profound attack on his identity. After replacing Chen Huan’s perceptions and making his memories seem unreliable, Lin Chen left him believing he was Lin Chen.

• Chen Huan described how he had used his illusion arts to twist his father’s senses and personality, and declared himself the supreme ruler of the world.
• Lin Chen dismissed Chen Huan as a madman and resisted the terrifying scenes Chen Huan created in the underground chamber.
• Lin Chen shifted Chen Huan’s touch, hearing, vision, and voice, making him experience the world as though he were Lin Chen.
• Lin Chen used Chen Huan’s own memories and perceptions to undermine his sense of identity, and Chen Huan collapsed in confusion.
• The illusion realm vanished, and Chen Huan finally declared that he was Lin Chen.

Xu Yue fought the Su Family man, whose plundered Embrace the Core Method clashed with Xu Yue’s self-created Gang Qi path. After Lin Chen defeated and subdued the Su Family man, he used him to give a dead martial artist one final chance to appear and die in battle, leaving Xu Yue facing the revived young man.

• Xu Yue revealed his Gang Qi path and condemned the Su Family man for plundering cultivation through dual cultivation and bloodline arts.
• The Su Family man unleashed the Embrace the Core Method, but Xu Yue’s Gang Qi overwhelmed him and devastated the inn and surrounding area.
• Lin Chen appeared after defeating Chen Huan, disrupted the Su Family man’s qi, and exposed the flaws in his plundered cultivation.
• Lin Chen altered the Su Family man’s body and personality so the dead martial artist could appear once more and collect data for him.
• The young man asked Xu Yue to let him die in battle, and Xu Yue agreed.

Lin Chen and Xu Yue set out for Yun Jing after defeating one of the aristocratic clans’ hunters and learning that the court was summoning Inner Elixir Method cultivators. They stopped at Zhongxuan Mountain to seek help from the Daoist Order, where they found Yun Meng Dao Ren waiting for them.

• Lin Chen lamented that his limited spiritual energy and Soul Power had kept him from monitoring the cultivators, allowing several promising geniuses to be killed.
• Xu Yue reported defeating the martial artist who practiced the Holding Core method, and Lin Chen decided they should head for Yun Jing sooner.
• Xu Yue warned that the ruler was summoning Inner Elixir Method cultivators and suggested they seek an ally at Zhongxuan Mountain; Lin Chen agreed.
• Lin Chen and Xu Yue reached the Daoist Order’s mountain seat and found its temples strangely deserted.
• Lin Chen and Xu Yue entered the main hall, where Yun Meng Dao Ren welcomed them and said he had been waiting.

Lin Chen and Xu Yue met the old Daoist in a realistic dreamscape, where Lin Chen discussed how perception shapes the Reality World and rejected the offer to join the Daoist Order. The old Daoist accepted that they followed different paths and brought Lin Chen and Xu Yue to his Immortal Palace.

• Lin Chen and the old Daoist revealed that their meeting place was a dreamscape built from memories and perceptions, and Xu Yue tested its apparent reality with his Gang Qi.
• The old Daoist explained that life could resemble a dream, while Lin Chen argued that people could not distinguish reality from an illusion constructed through their senses.
• Lin Chen created a lifelike golden flower for Xu Yue and said he preferred exploring the unknown Reality World to creating a dreamscape of his own.
• The old Daoist urged Lin Chen to join the Daoist Order, but Lin Chen refused and said people following different paths could not make plans together.
• The old Daoist accepted Lin Chen's choice, declared them all Fellow Daoists, and transformed the dreamscape into the Immortal Court from ten years earlier.
• The old Daoist led Lin Chen and Xu Yue into his Dao Gate Immortal Palace.