Chapter Summaries

Fifty years after Lin Chen left, scholars in the Great Peace Way discovered that their Inner Core Method worked in a world seemingly lacking the spiritual energy their theories required, and the Fifth Assembly of All Beings approved an expedition beyond their lands. More than a decade later, Xu Yue’s team crossed the northern snow mountains and encountered an Immortal Master, beginning contact between the Great Peace Way and another cultivation civilization.

• Scholars concluded that the world they knew was incomplete because the Inner Core Method cultivated successfully despite the apparent absence of spiritual energy.
• At the Fifth Assembly of All Beings, Xie Xuan urged the Great Peace Way to explore beyond its territory, invoking Lin Chen’s words, and the attendees considered the decision.
• More than a decade later, Xu Yue led an expedition across the northern snow mountains and reached a lush forest beyond the Great Peace Way’s lands.
• Xu Yue’s team reached a mountain village and learned that an Immortal Master would arrive to recruit people with spiritual roots in exchange for Spirit Stones.
• When the Immortal Master arrived, Xu Yue’s team prepared to approach, beginning contact between the Great Peace Way’s Inner Core Method civilization and the local Qi Refining Cultivation civilization.

Lin Chen began a dangerous attempt to advance to the Golden Core Realm by using his Artificial Dantian to form a Spiritual Energy Embryo outside his body. He left his heart, true essence, and divine soul to be drawn into the formation, while a backup plan preserved his body’s vitality.

• Lin Chen explained his model of the Golden Core as a complete Spiritual Energy Embryo formed by imprinting a cultivator’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit into spiritual energy.
• Facing powerful Golden Core and higher-level threats, Lin Chen decided to risk forming the embryo quickly with his Artificial Dantian.
• Lin Chen activated the Artificial Dantian and cut open his chest to remove his heart as the source of his Essence.
• Lin Chen activated the altar’s Backup Plan as blood mist sustained his heartless body.
• Lin Chen threw his heart into the Artificial Dantian while the formation extracted his true essence and divine soul.

Lin Chen began the three-stage process of forming a Spiritual Energy Embryo in the Artificial Dantian, imprinting his essence blood, vital energy, and consciousness into spiritual energy. He emerged from the ritual with his body restored and an illusory embryo-shaped spiritual energy pill floating in his dantian.

• Lin Chen drove the Artificial Dantian to begin forming a Spiritual Energy Embryo, despite the risk of failure and severe injury.
• The Artificial Dantian imprinted Lin Chen's essence blood into spiritual energy, forming a tiny, indistinct human embryo.
• Lin Chen's true essence and surrounding spiritual energy gathered around the embryo, imprinting his vital energy and giving it a trace of life.
• Lin Chen projected his soul from his body and transferred his consciousness into the Spiritual Energy Embryo.
• The Artificial Dantian released an illusory spiritual energy pill into Lin Chen's body, which drew in spiritual energy and restored his withered form.
• Lin Chen opened his eyes with an embryo-shaped spiritual energy pill floating in his dantian.

Lin Chen completed the condensation of a Spiritual Energy Embryo and discovered that he could advance to the Golden Core at will while possessing a Half Spirit Body. He turned his attention to the coming war in the Lingnan Cultivation Land and retrieved the [Instant Thousand Mile Talisman].

• Lin Chen recovered after condensing his Spiritual Energy Embryo and considered how Foundation Establishment prepared cultivators for Golden Core formation.
• After examining himself for several days, Lin Chen concluded that he could form a peerless Golden Core whenever he had enough third-rank spiritual materials.
• Lin Chen discovered that his lifespan remained that of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, but his body could regenerate after severe injuries as long as his spiritual energy pill remained intact.
• Lin Chen recognized that he possessed a Half Spirit Body with life-saving abilities comparable to those of a Golden Core Cultivator.
• Lin Chen decided to prepare for the coming war in the Lingnan Cultivation Land and took out the [Instant Thousand Mile Talisman] he had obtained from Zhang Hao.

Lin Chen weighed whether to use the Instant Thousand Mile Talisman to flee the Lingnan Great Land or return to the war between the Two Sects in search of resources, and chose to take the risk. After clearing out his Laboratory, he departed to pursue his plans and prepare for his return journey.

• Lin Chen examined the Instant Thousand Mile Talisman and considered why its void traversal required a Golden Core Cultivator.
• Lin Chen weighed fleeing against joining the war, recognizing that he needed resources but would face danger if he stayed.
• Lin Chen decided to return, hide his strength, avoid the frontline, target weaker enemies, and seek enough third-rank spiritual items to advance to the Golden Core Realm.
• Lin Chen planned to claim the legacy of whichever great sect fell, along with other valuable techniques and research materials.
• Lin Chen emptied the Laboratory beneath the mountain range and left without hesitation as dusk fell.

Lin Chen investigated abandoned cities in Mysterious Yin Gate territory and discovered that millions of mortals had been relocated toward the Azure Cloud Sect. He suspected the demonic cultivators were assembling them for a Corpse Tide, then heard an explosion in a nearby forest and hurried toward it.

• Lin Chen entered a ruined city and found battle traces and dried blood but no people or bodies.
• He saw thousands of floating Dead Person's Heads, which he recognized as surveillance devices made from mortals' skulls and souls.
• Lin Chen traveled for seven days through five more empty cities and concluded that nearly ten million mortals had been forcibly moved toward the Azure Cloud Sect.
• Lin Chen wondered whether the demonic cultivators planned to use the mortals in a Corpse Tide numbering in the tens of millions.
• An explosion sounded in a distant forest, and Lin Chen hurried toward it.

Li Dazhu fought for his life against a Mysterious Yin Gate demonic cultivator while worrying that his family would inherit their Spirit Stone loan. Lin Chen intervened and killed the demonic cultivator, then tried to reassure the horrified Li Dazhu that he was a good person.

• Li Dazhu recalled how Azure Cloud Sect’s Spirit Vein Cave Mansion Rental Scheme pushed his family into debt and forced him to risk his life for war rewards.
• Li Dazhu tricked the demonic cultivator into lowering his guard, then struck him with a thunder talisman that gravely injured them both.
• The demonic cultivator survived behind a Human Skin Blood Robe but suddenly raved about ascending before burning to death, leaving behind his heart and soul-bearing skull.
• Lin Chen emerged after reading the demonic cultivator’s memories and said the man had been a minor figure.
• Lin Chen put away the demonic cultivator’s remains, saw Li Dazhu recoil in terror, and told him he was a good person.

Lin Chen questioned Li Dazhu about the war and learned that Mysterious Yin Gate had forced local mortals onto the battlefield. He deliberately left clues to draw out a stronger demonic cultivator, then prepared to confront the Inner Disciple who came hunting them.

• Lin Chen convinced Li Dazhu that he was a righteous cultivator from the Azure Cloud Sect and asked him for news of recent events.
• Li Dazhu explained that he was a rogue cultivator gathering intelligence to repay a Spirit Stone debt, and reported that Mysterious Yin Gate had driven local mortals to the front lines.
• Lin Chen reflected on the Spirit Vein Cave Mansion Rental Scheme and considered ways to use his past-life business knowledge to earn Spirit Stones.
• Lin Chen revealed that he had allowed a Head Balloon to monitor them and left a trace behind to lure demonic cultivators into pursuing them.
• A powerful Mysterious Yin Gate Inner Disciple appeared, and Lin Chen fixed his gaze on the newcomer as strange radiance emerged in his eyes.

Lin Chen used an illusion to make a Mysterious Yin Gate cultivator believe he had killed Lin Chen and Li Dazhu, then followed the cultivator to a graveyard stronghold. There, the cultivator reached Elder Fei Jiang as the graveyard’s floating heads spoke to him in unison.

• A Late Qi Refining Mysterious Yin Gate Inner Disciple attacked Lin Chen and Li Dazhu with demonic bone claws, but Lin Chen’s Five Elements Shield blocked the first strike.
• The cultivator used a Divine Sense Attack, mistook an illusion for Lin Chen, and believed he had killed both men before taking their Storage Bags.
• A floating dead person’s head ordered the cultivator to return, and he went to a graveyard where Mysterious Yin Gate preserved dead cultivators as zombies and made human heads from captured Azure Cloud Sect cultivators and rogue cultivators.
• The cultivator unknowingly revealed the graveyard’s secrets while Lin Chen’s illusion held, but soul restrictions prevented Lin Chen from extracting further intelligence.
• Deeper in the graveyard, the cultivator encountered Elder Fei Jiang amid numerous floating heads and fell to his knees as the heads greeted him in unison.

Lin Chen trapped a Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator in a Soul Illusionary Realm and tried to draw out his memories, but discovered that the man’s soul was protected by many linked restrictions. Lin Chen decided to split the cultivator’s soul by creating a second personality, and began shaping the graveyard illusion again.

• Lin Chen kept Li Dazhu quiet while the Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator stood motionless inside an illusion.
• Lin Chen discovered dozens of linked restrictions in the cultivator’s soul that could erase memories or destroy the divine soul if triggered.
• Lin Chen reasoned that the restrictions were designed to guard against members of the Mysterious Yin Gate and considered two ways to bypass them.
• Lin Chen chose to create a second personality and split the cultivator’s soul so he could extract information before the restrictions destroyed it.
• Li Dazhu saw Lin Chen’s illusion spread through the forest as a horrifying graveyard formed around the Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator.

Lin Chen used an illusion to question a Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator and uncovered a plan to turn millions of mortals into a Corpse Tide and destabilize the Azure Cloud Sect with hidden agents. The real Elder Fei Jiang then sensed Lin Chen spying through the cultivator’s memories and confronted him.

• Lin Chen’s illusion made the Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator believe he was speaking with Elder Fei Jiang, and the elder’s apparent praise and gift of a pill deepened the man’s loyalty.
• The Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator revealed that more than ten million mortals had been moved to the front, with a Corpse Tide planned to attack the Azure Cloud Sect.
• Lin Chen learned that the Demonic Cultivators had spread two dangerous cultivation methods inside the Azure Cloud Sect’s territory more than thirty years earlier to create hidden agents.
• The Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator abruptly changed demeanor as the real Elder Fei Jiang took control and detected someone spying on the sect’s secrets.
• Elder Fei Jiang saw through the illusion and fixed his gaze on Lin Chen’s hiding place, startling him.

Lin Chen deduced how Elder Fei Jiang used a soul restriction to control a disciple as an External Incarnation, but Fei Jiang attacked him with the Head Removal Technique. Lin Chen survived because his true body had become a Half Spirit Body, and he destroyed Fei Jiang’s remains.

• Lin Chen concluded that the restriction in the Mysterious Yin Demonic Cultivator’s soul let higher-ups refine disciples into remotely controlled External Incarnations.
• Elder Fei Jiang revealed himself through the disciple and used the Head Removal Technique, forcing Lin Chen and the disciple to pull off their own heads.
• Li Dazhu watched in horror as Lin Chen’s headless body stood, crushed Fei Jiang’s head, and retrieved its own head.
• Lin Chen’s neck regenerated because his true body had become a Half Spirit Body, and he burned Fei Jiang’s remains to ashes.

Lin Chen learned that the Azure Cloud Sect faced a planned Corpse Tide and hidden destabilization, then realized two blood cultivation methods had been planted decades earlier by a foreign Blood Demon faction. He headed back toward the border stronghold, while Mysterious Yin Gate’s Fei Jiang sensed that Lin Chen had survived his Method of Gu.

• Lin Chen erased Li Dazhu’s memories of the fight and studied the intelligence he had obtained from the dead Demonic Cultivator.
• Lin Chen concluded that the Mysterious Yin Gate planned to raise a Corpse Tide of several million and that hidden agents could destabilize the Azure Cloud Sect’s rear.
• Lin Chen recognized the [Blood Refining Yuan Returning Great Method] and the [Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method] from events thirty years earlier, and suspected a foreign Blood Demon faction had planted them.
• Lin Chen abandoned his speculation for lack of information, woke Li Dazhu, and set off with him toward the border stronghold.
• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang sensed that Lin Chen had survived his Method of Gu and wondered when the Azure Cloud Sect had produced such a figure.

Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang accelerated the Mysterious Yin Gate’s plan after sensing an unknown powerful cultivator who might know their arrangements. He activated the Human Head Altar, while Lin Chen remained unaware that his encounter had prompted the change and stood with Li Dazhu near a cave.

• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang told the Mysterious Yin Gate’s Foundation Establishment elders to launch their plan within seven days instead of three months because an unknown variable had appeared.
• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang explained that the plan aimed to throw the Azure Cloud Sect into chaos, then killed an elder who objected and ordered the others to proceed.
• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang activated the Human Head Altar, drawing power from the graveyard and sending an undetectable fluctuation toward the Azure Cloud Sect’s territory.
• Lin Chen, unaware that his contact had prompted the early launch, asked Li Dazhu whether a nearby cave was his gathering place.

Lin Chen reached a Rogue Cultivator gathering place and was recognized by the Azure Cloud Sect envoy, who prepared to lead a large group back to the Marketplace. Lin Chen stopped them and exposed one of the apparent Rogue Cultivators as a disguised demonic infiltrator.

• Li Dazhu explained how the Azure Cloud Sect gathered Rogue Cultivators at shifting locations and verified their identities before taking Lin Chen to meet the envoy.
• The azure-robed envoy prepared to ambush Lin Chen, but recognized him as Senior Brother Lin and welcomed him; Lin Chen asked about Xu Mengyun and learned she was at a Marketplace.
• Dozens of Rogue Cultivators chose to return with the envoy, an unusually large group that he checked using their soul lamps and identity talismans.
• Lin Chen questioned why demonic cultivators would infiltrate despite those checks, then approached a protesting Rogue Cultivator as others pressed toward him.
• Lin Chen snapped his fingers and severed the Rogue Cultivator’s head, revealing dark-red flesh instead of a living human body.

Lin Chen discovered that a rogue cultivator had been turned into a demonic cultivator’s puppet and began investigating the hidden threat among the group. After several rogue cultivators resisted inspection, Lin Chen killed them and demanded that the others obey or die.

• Lin Chen identified the headless corpse as a rogue cultivator whose soul had been refined, while the blue-robed cultivator forced the crowd back into the cave.
• The blue-robed cultivator suggested killing all the rogue cultivators, but Lin Chen said they needed to eliminate the mastermind and inspected the corpse’s Soul Fire.
• A rogue cultivator urged the others to unite against the Azure Cloud Sect, and Li Dazhu tried to stay unnoticed as the crowd quietly agreed.
• Lin Chen and the blue-robed cultivator returned and ordered everyone to undergo inspection, but some rogue cultivators challenged them and gathered threateningly.
• Lin Chen caused the resisting rogue cultivators to explode into bloody fireworks and told the survivors to obey or die.

Lin Chen used the Same Breath Curse Soul Method to identify rogue cultivators whose souls had been replaced and trace the curse back to Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang. He concluded that the Azure Cloud Sect’s marketplaces were likely already under attack.

• Lin Chen tested the rogue cultivators with a soul lamp, and the blue-robed cultivator learned that the technique was called the Same Breath Curse Soul Method.
• The lamp revealed cursed connections in several rogue cultivators, and Lin Chen killed those whose heads and divine souls had been replaced.
• Lin Chen used seven soul lamps to trace the cursed souls to a graveyard altar, where a floating head recognized him as he cut off the vision.
• Lin Chen asked where the rogue cultivators were stationed, then warned that the marketplaces near the front lines were likely already in trouble.

At Ruyue Market, Xu Mengyun and Liu Qiqiang worried over dwindling supplies as the Azure Cloud Sect struggled against the Mysterious Yin Gate’s overwhelming Corpse Tide. Mysterious Yin Gate True Disciples led by Ye Ming unleashed an attack on the market and declared the final great battle underway.

• Xu Mengyun questioned Liu Qiqiang about a shipment’s supplies and learned it contained only a little over nineteen hundred talismans, urgently needed to fight the Corpse Tide.
• Liu Qiqiang worried that he and Xu Mengyun would be sent to the front if Lin Chen did not return, but screams interrupted their conversation.
• Xu Mengyun and Liu Qiqiang saw pale, bloodless heads fill the sky above Ruyue Market as its cultivators mobilized in panic.
• Ye Ming and the other Mysterious Yin Gate True Disciples revealed that they had infiltrated Azure Cloud Sect territory and prepared an evil creature with power near the Golden Core Realm.
• Ye Ming said Grand Ancestor Taiyin had found the Azure Cloud Sect’s Golden Core cultivators distracted by Old Ghost Qingyang’s possible breakthrough, and ordered the final great battle to begin.

Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang’s floating heads devastated the rogue cultivators outside the marketplace and formed a giant four-faced head whose curse overwhelmed the Heavenly Azure Myriad Forest Great Formation. As the defenders faced imminent defeat, Xu Mengyun contacted Lin Chen, who promised to destroy the giant head from a thousand li away by sniping it.

• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang’s floating heads slaughtered rogue cultivators outside the marketplace with head-lowering curses and Earthly Yin Sha Qi.
• Zhang Mengyao fought the heads but returned injured, while Xu Mengyun activated the Heavenly Azure Myriad Forest Great Formation to defend the marketplace.
• The floating heads gathered into a rope and formed a giant four-faced head; a Ghost Shadow destroyed the marketplace’s Third Order Talisman attack.
• The giant head’s sway triggered a spreading curse that overloaded the formation, killed some formation-guarding cultivators, and left the marketplace close to defeat.
• Xu Mengyun received a sound-transmission from Lin Chen, who said he was a thousand li away but could take down the head by sniping it.

Lin Chen learned that the Mystic Radiance Sect had launched coordinated attacks across the front line and identified Ruyue Market as the likely target of their main assault. Unable to reach True Ancestor Changqing or arrive in time, he built a long-range Yin-Yang Yuan Magnetic Spirit Thunder Cannon and prepared to target the evil entity threatening Xu Mengyun.

• Lin Chen saw reports of attacks on three marketplaces and the Azure Cloud Sect front line, then failed to contact True Ancestor Changqing.
• Lin Chen recognized the head-born evil entity forming over Ruyue Market, where Xu Mengyun was, and decided to destroy it before it broke through.
• Lin Chen landed at an iron mine, ordered the rogue cultivators to hand over their spiritual items, and began constructing a cannon platform.
• Lin Chen used Yuan Magnetic Spirit Iron and his research into spiritual-energy conversion to assemble the Yin-Yang Yuan Magnetic Spirit Thunder Cannon.
• Lin Chen sent a gigantic eye skyward to calibrate the cannon's aim and took out the Messaging Spirit Artifact to contact Xu Mengyun.