Chapter Summaries

Zhang Mengyao rallied the people of Ruyue Market to link themselves to the failing grand formation so she could unleash her Golden Core Sword Qi, while Lin Chen completed and fired his overloaded cannon from afar. The chapter ended with the cannon shattered after launching an azure bolt toward the evil head.

• Lin Chen told Xu Mengyun that he was preparing a long-range attack, but Zhang Mengyao warned that the half-step Golden Core evil head could only be defeated by a Golden Core cultivator.
• Zhang Mengyao revealed she had a Golden Core Sword Qi and proposed using the grand formation to bear its backlash, then called on everyone in Ruyue Market to join the formation.
• Cultivators throughout the marketplace linked their auras to the formation, strengthening it while many suffered severe pressure or died; Zhang Mengyao raised her sword and unleashed its power against the evil head.
• Lin Chen used his Soul Computer to calculate the target and charge the Yin-Yang Yuan Magnetic Thunder Spirit Cannon beyond its normal limit.
• Lin Chen fired the cannon, sending an azure bolt across the sky as the cannon cracked apart and shattered.

Ye Ming and the demonic cultivators left Ruyue Market to activate a hidden plan while Zhang Mengyao and the market’s cultivators fought the head-shaped evil creature. Just as the creature overwhelmed them, Lin Chen struck it with a shot from far away and destroyed it.

• Ye Ming judged Zhang Mengyao’s stand doomed and left with the demonic cultivators to carry out the Blood Demon side’s hidden plan.
• Zhang Mengyao led the marketplace cultivators’ combined sword strike against the head-shaped evil creature, but its Vengeful Souls overwhelmed her and disrupted the formation.
• The creature’s Dead Person’s Heads attacked the formation and devoured the Golden Core sword light while the cultivators struggled against the assault on their souls.
• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang sensed a deadly threat and saw a deep-blue light approach from the western sky.
• Lin Chen fired from an iron mine mountain a thousand li away, blasting the head-shaped evil creature apart in a sea of lightning.

After an unknown lightning attack destroyed the human-head evil creature, the demonic cultivators withdrew mobilizable Foundation Establishment fighters and continued their plan. Ruyue Market survived and restored order, while Lin Chen arrived and discovered Zhang Mengyao alive but gravely diminished in a spirit pool.

• Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang told True Person Taiyin that an enormous lightning sphere had destroyed the human-head evil creature, and they could not identify who had wielded Golden Core-level power.
• True Person Taiyin ordered Demon Cultivator Fei Jiang to return to the sect and break through to Golden Core, while Ye Ming took charge of the demonic cultivators’ remaining operations.
• Xu Mengyun confirmed that Ruyue Market had survived, announced the victory, and ordered the cultivators to restore order, repair the formation, and treat the wounded.
• Xu Mengyun sent Liu Qiqiang to retrieve the Senluo Nie Death Pill and waited for Lin Chen to arrive at the Marketplace.
• Xu Mengyun led Lin Chen into a secret room, where he found Zhang Mengyao alive but shriveled in a spirit pool.

Lin Chen examined Zhang Mengyao, whose body and shattered soul were being sustained only by the eerie vitality of a Senluo Nie Death Pill, and found ordinary healing pills could not save her. He proposed trying the Human Elixir Method, an untested approach Xu Mengyun recognized as a demonic path method.

• Xu Mengyun explained how Zhang Mengyao had saved them and suffered severe injuries from the grand formation, sword light, and battle with the evil thing.
• Lin Chen froze Zhang Mengyao to preserve her remaining vitality and soul fragments, then learned Xu Mengyun had given her a Senluo Nie Death Pill.
• Lin Chen explained that ordinary and rare healing pills could not restore Zhang Mengyao because she had no living flesh and her soul was nearly shattered.
• Xu Mengyun begged Lin Chen to save Zhang Mengyao, and he revealed that he had a preliminary, untested idea.
• Lin Chen proposed using the Human Elixir Method, and he told Xu Mengyun that the distinction between medicine and methods lay in the human heart, not righteousness or demonhood.

Lin Chen tried to save Zhang Mengyao by using her blood, Natal Spirit Sword, and a spiritual placenta to grow a new body while repairing her shattered divine soul. By the end, the fetus had fully formed and a faint shadow of a divine soul had appeared within it.

• Lin Chen rejected flesh proliferation and proposed nurturing a new body to restore Zhang Mengyao’s consciousness and divine soul.
• Xu Mengyun found a placenta among the resources recovered after Lin Chen destroyed the evil human-head creature.
• Lin Chen used Zhang Mengyao’s scattered blood and Blood Gu to create a Blood Pool, then placed her body, Natal Spirit Sword, and the transformed spiritual placenta within it.
• Lin Chen used Soul Fire and the Same Breath Curse Soul technique to gather Zhang Mengyao’s divine-soul fragments and help them reorganize in the fetus.
• The fetus finished forming inside the placenta, and a faint shadow of a divine soul appeared within it.

Lin Chen used the Blood Pool to create a new body for Zhang Mengyao, preserved her original body in her Natal Spirit Sword, and began restoring her divine soul. After meeting Zhang Hao again, Lin Chen asked him to use the art of heavenly secrets to predict when and where Lin Chen would break through to the Golden Core Realm.

• Lin Chen created a new body for Zhang Mengyao and placed her original body within her Natal Spirit Sword so she could recover if problems arose.
• A sword cry rang out from the Blood Pool as Zhang Mengyao’s spirit sword merged with the blood fetus.
• After three days of waiting, Xu Mengyun received word that Zhang Hao had arrived from the front lines and hurried to meet him.
• Zhang Hao offered to save Zhang Mengyao, but Xu Mengyun told him Lin Chen was already treating her; Lin Chen then appeared and confirmed that Zhang Mengyao was recovering.
• Lin Chen reminded Zhang Hao of his promise to do three things for him and asked him to predict the time and place of Lin Chen’s breakthrough to the Golden Core Realm.

Lin Chen asked Zhang Hao to use Heavenly Secret Prediction to divine the time and place of Lin Chen’s Golden Core breakthrough, hoping to assess his future and prepare to alter his spiritual roots. The costly divination produced three cryptic lines, leaving Lin Chen wondering whether Heavenly Secrets revealed a predetermined future rather than predicting one.

• Lin Chen explained why he wanted to borrow Zhang Hao’s destiny to find a suitable time and place for his breakthrough and to explore changing his spiritual roots.
• Zhang Hao revealed his Tortoise Divination Blood Hex and said Heavenly Secret methods paid a price to question the unknowable Great Dao.
• Lin Chen supplied a drop of blood infused with his aura, and Zhang Hao began the divination in a Secret Room.
• The tortoise shell cracked as Zhang Hao lost vitality and lifespan, then the divination ended with him vomiting blood.
• Blood on the shell formed the words “Profound Yin Gate,” “Yin Yang Five Elements Spiritual Body,” and “The key to exploring the essence of spiritual energy.”
• Lin Chen wondered whether Heavenly Secret methods merely disclosed a future already determined by the universe’s laws.

Zhang Hao paid a heavy price for divining Lin Chen, but Lin Chen compensated him by demonstrating a method of alchemy based on medicinal properties and spiritual energy. Zhang Hao left with the technique after paying for it, while Lin Chen turned his attention back to the prophecy inscribed on the ground.

• Zhang Hao recovered from the divination’s backlash and confronted Lin Chen about the cost, but Lin Chen reminded him that he had agreed to help.
• Lin Chen recognized that Zhang Hao had become a second-rank alchemist and explained that alchemy depended on understanding medicinal properties rather than luck or fire control.
• Lin Chen transformed Zhang Hao’s pill into a flawless Non-toxic Qi Pill and produced dozens of pills by drawing on spiritual energy in the secret room.
• Zhang Hao knelt and asked Lin Chen to teach him, but he misunderstood Lin Chen’s explanation and wanted the techniques instead.
• Lin Chen charged Zhang Hao for the alchemy technique, and Zhang Hao left after paying with Yin Yang Five Elements attribute spirit items.
• Lin Chen studied the three lines of prophecy engraved on the ground.

Lin Chen considered why the Mysterious Yin Gate figured in his path to a Golden Core breakthrough, then focused on pill refining and finding insect cultivators to support his research. As Azure Cloud Sect’s Golden Core Patriarchs remained silent, Ye You triggered a hidden plot at the Bai Family, foreshadowing chaos across the region.

• Lin Chen wondered whether the Mysterious Yin Gate held the opportunity to help him form a Yin Yang Five Elements Spiritual Body, but set the question aside.
• Azure Cloud Sect restored its defenses after the marketplace attack, while Zhang Mengyao’s new body continued to grow and Zhang Hao remained in Ruyue Market to recover.
• Xu Mengyun gave Lin Chen information about Fei Jiang, arranged for spiritual materials to be sent for pill refining, and identified the Bai Family of Yuanzhou Mountain as insect cultivators.
• Lin Chen learned that Azure Cloud Sect’s Golden Core Patriarchs had gone quiet and wondered whether True Person Qingyang was preparing to break through to Nascent Soul.
• The Bai Family Patriarch poisoned a Foundation Establishment elder with Corpse Poison and consumed him, revealing that he had turned to the Mysterious Yin Gate.
• Ye You watched the Bai Family from outside Yuanzhou Mountain and declared that he was activating hidden agents to spread killings and blood refining across the region.

Lin Chen began refining pills for Azure Cloud Sect in Ruyue Market while explaining to Xu Mengyun how he could analyze and draw the spiritual energy needed to make pills directly from Heaven and Earth. He left off preparing to refine the large batch of pills, aware that the many subtle forms of spiritual energy made his research difficult.

• Azure Cloud Sect Master Zhuang Yuanzhang assigned Lin Chen to refine pills in the rear rather than resolve his status as a True Disciple.
• Xu Mengyun questioned whether Lin Chen could handle the thousands of pills, and he said he could refine more than one furnace at a time.
• Lin Chen examined a Qi-Gathering Pill and identified several kinds of spiritual energy within it.
• Lin Chen explained that he could draw the spiritual energy needed for low-grade pills from Heaven and Earth, though complex high-grade pills remained beyond his grasp.
• Lin Chen described the many variations of spiritual energy and reflected that understanding their transformations was essential to his cultivation research.
• Lin Chen returned his attention to the herbs and prepared to begin refining the pills.

Lin Chen used a wood-based method to refine Essence-Gathering Pills, astonishing Xu Mengyun with a forest of flowering trees that shed pills like star rain. Meanwhile, Zhang Hao continued failing to imitate Lin Chen’s technique despite wasting herbs for three days and nights.

• Lin Chen extracted spiritual energies from the spirit herbs and combined the required energies into a glowing mass.
• Lin Chen planted tree stumps in the earthfire chamber and sent the gathered spiritual energy into them, growing a small forest.
• Flowers bloomed throughout the forest, then released bursts of light that became jade-green spirit pills as Xu Mengyun watched in amazement.
• Lin Chen described the process as the romance of alchemy while petals and pills drifted around him and Xu Mengyun.
• Zhang Hao kept trying to copy Lin Chen’s method after three days and nights of failure, refusing Tree Elder’s advice to give up.

Lin Chen challenged Zhang Hao’s reliance on pills and resources, then revealed that he knew about the mysterious presence in Zhang Hao’s mind. After learning that sect disciples had vanished while collecting tribute, Lin Chen suspected the Mysterious Yin Gate and decided to investigate personally.

• Lin Chen handed the sect’s required pills to a disciple for delivery to the front lines and kept the leftover herbs and Spirit Stones.
• Zhang Hao complained that he could not learn Lin Chen’s pill-refining technique, and Lin Chen questioned whether Zhang Hao truly understood his cultivation.
• Tree Elder praised Lin Chen’s understanding but admitted he could not refine pills without spiritual herbs using human methods.
• Lin Chen revealed that he had detected Tree Elder in Zhang Hao’s mind and warned Zhang Hao not to provoke him.
• A disciple reported that the sect members collecting tribute had disappeared, and Lin Chen suspected the Mysterious Yin Gate’s demonic cultivators.
• Lin Chen decided to go investigate the disappearances himself.

Lin Chen used a lamp and the Same Breath Curse Soul Method to track the slaughtered tribute convoy west to Yuanzhou Mountain, home of the Bai Family. He recognized the Bai Family’s expertise in insect cultivation and saw an opportunity connected to his plans.

• An Azure Cloud Sect Inner Disciple reported that a tribute convoy and its cultivators had vanished, leaving only faint traces behind.
• Lin Chen examined the scene and used a strange oil lamp with the victims’ aura to reveal the convoy’s dead cultivators and track their killer westward.
• Lin Chen took the disciple and other cultivators aboard a Qingzhou and followed the lamp’s direction to a mountain peak.
• The disciple identified the mountain as Yuanzhou Mountain, controlled by the Bai Family, an Azure Cloud Sect subordinate faction known for insect cultivation.
• Lin Chen recalled his plans to acquire spirit insects and build a Miniature Intelligent Nanocluster Factory, then remarked that the trip might prove worthwhile.

Lin Chen led the Azure Cloud Sect into Yuanzhou Mountain and discovered that strange insects had taken over the Bai Family and drained the mountain’s spiritual energy. He entered the underground passage to confront the Queen Insect, where he recognized the swarm as the rare Heaven and Earth Ant.

• Lin Chen landed outside Yuanzhou Mountain, sent a disciple to announce their visit, and secretly used an avatar to scout ahead.
• Lin Chen accepted the Bai Family’s invitation and led the Azure Cloud Sect up the mountain, where he noticed the spiritual energy had nearly vanished.
• The Bai Family members turned on Lin Chen and the disciples, and burning their bodies revealed swarms of strange insects inside them.
• Lin Chen guided the disciples to the underground passage and told them to hold back the pursuing hosts while he went to kill the Queen Insect.
• Lin Chen advanced through the tunnel and identified the insects as the rare Heaven and Earth Ant.

Lin Chen fought through the Heaven and Earth Ant swarm and captured its intelligent queen, only to face a soul-assimilation attack. He overwhelmed the queen with the vast information in his memories, leaving it screaming in distress.

• Lin Chen entered the cave, enduring the attacking ants so he could find the queen without teaching it how to counter his techniques.
• The ants used an improved version of Lin Chen’s Fireball Technique, prompting him to burn his avatar’s essence blood and charge deeper into the cave.
• Lin Chen found the queen’s crystalline ant nest and shattered the surrounding swarm with a surge of spiritual energy before capturing the queen.
• The queen attacked Lin Chen’s soul with the help of special Soul Spirit Insects, and he realized it intended to assimilate him using its accumulated memories.
• Lin Chen flooded the queen’s consciousness with knowledge from his previous life, including exam workbooks and advanced mathematics, driving it into a desperate scream.

Lin Chen tried to overwrite the Queen Insect’s mind, but it chose death rather than submit, and he created a replacement Queen Insect using the Blood Demon Method. He left the cave with the new ant king, then burned the old Queen Insect and its swarm, granting the former Queen Insect the dignified death it had chosen.

• Lin Chen used soul power and mathematical knowledge to reshape the Queen Insect’s thoughts, intending to turn the Heaven and Earth Ant colony into a research and construction force.
• The Soul Spirit Insects attacked the Queen Insect to help it die, while the ant swarm launched a desperate assault on Lin Chen and destroyed its own bodies rather than surrender.
• The original Queen Insect died resisting Lin Chen, but he used the Blood Demon Method and his heart’s blood to create a new Heaven and Earth Ant mother that inherited its bloodline and some intelligence.
• The newborn Queen Insect submitted to Lin Chen and asked to devour the old Queen Insect, but he refused and said he would nurture it in another way.
• Lin Chen left the cave with the new ant king on his shoulder and set the insect corpses ablaze, saying the old Queen Insect deserved a dignified death.

After discovering that a Blood Demon cultivator had caused the spirit-insect chaos, Lin Chen learned that dangerous demonic techniques were spreading across the region. As he and the other Foundation Establishment cultivators considered retreating to Azure Cloud Sect, their elder spirit leaves received a summons from the sect’s Golden Core True Persons.

• Lin Chen returned from Yuanzhou Mountain with the Queen Insect enslaved and ordered the Azure Cloud Sect Disciples to investigate nearby Blood Cultivator massacres.
• Lin Chen pieced together from the Queen Insect’s memories that a Bai Family calamity and a failed attempt to control the Queen Insect had led to its evolution into a Heaven and Earth Ant.
• Several days later, Zhang Hao, Xu Mengyun, Liu Qiqiang, and Lin Chen discussed reports that demonic arts were spreading throughout the surrounding regions.
• Lin Chen identified the bloodstained [Blood Refining Spirit Returning Great Law] as a technique that could help cultivators reach Foundation Establishment, but warned that it carried severe risks of mental change and control.
• Lin Chen suspected the techniques had been spreading secretly for thirty years and proposed abandoning the frontline defenses to protect Azure Cloud Sect’s headquarters.
• The four Foundation Establishment Cultivators received a summons from Azure Cloud Sect’s Golden Core True Persons through their glowing spirit leaves.

Lin Chen received an urgent summons from Azure Cloud Sect's Golden Core Patriarchs, and True Ancestor Changqing ordered him to return with Zhang Mengyao. Zhang Mengyao awoke in a new body after Lin Chen revived her, and the three departed for the sect, leaving Xu Mengyun to guard the Marketplace.

• Xu Mengyun read the order for Foundation Establishment elders to hold their posts while Lin Chen received instructions to return to Azure Cloud at once.
• True Ancestor Changqing contacted Lin Chen, learned that Zhang Mengyao had been revived, and ordered him to bring her and the others back to the sect.
• Zhang Mengyao awoke in the Blood Pool and learned from Lin Chen that he had placed her soul in a new body and fused her old body with her Natal Spirit Sword.
• Zhang Mengyao thanked Lin Chen for saving her life and agreed to return to the sect.
• Lin Chen told Xu Mengyun to use every method available to survive, then departed for Azure Cloud Sect with Zhang Mengyao and Zhang Hao.

Lin Chen, Zhang Mengyao, and Zhang Hao returned to Azure Cloud Sect and registered their identities amid rumors about the sect's True Disciples. The chapter left them before Azure Cloud Mountain, where Lin Chen recognized a third-rank grand formation drawing in five-colored spiritual energy.

• Lin Chen led Zhang Mengyao and Zhang Hao through Azure Cloud Sect's identity checks and toward the General Affairs Hall.
• Zhang Hao teased Lin Chen about rumors calling him a Golden Core Patriarch's illegitimate son and a sect big shot's pillow companion, while Zhang Mengyao explained that his secrecy had encouraged gossip.
• The three completed their return registration, and a middle-aged cultivator realized afterward that he could not remember Lin Chen's face or even recall his presence clearly.
• Lin Chen, Zhang Mengyao, and Zhang Hao reached Azure Cloud Mountain, where Lin Chen identified the five-colored spiritual energy waterfalls as a third-rank grand formation.

Lin Chen, Zhang Hao, and Zhang Mengyao inspected Azure Cloud Mountain’s immense, layered formation and discovered the Azure Cloud Sect had prepared powerful defenses and forces. They met the sect’s senior experts, while the struggle between Azure Cloud and Profound Yin remained uncertain.

• Lin Chen, Zhang Hao, and Zhang Mengyao saw the great formation drawing on Azure Cloud Sect’s resources and sensed it might contend with a Nascent Soul cultivator.
• The three entered Azure Cloud Mountain, where Lin Chen recognized dozens of overlapping third-rank formations combining the five elements, lightning, and yin-yang transformations.
• Zhang Hao spotted over a hundred Foundation Establishment-level treants in the mountain’s spirit forest.
• Zhang Zhiming appeared with Wang Cheng and several other Foundation Establishment Late Stage experts, asserting that the Azure Cloud Sect had not yet revealed its full strength.
• Lin Chen greeted the sect’s True Disciples and learned that the ten experts present, three Golden Core Cultivators, and True Person Qingyang formed the sect’s upper echelon.