Chapter Summaries

Lin Chen investigated whether spiritual energy had different energy levels, finding that Qi Refining cultivators struggled to use mid-grade spirit stones and that higher-level energy degraded easily in his experiments. His attempt to trigger a spiritual energy leap failed, leading him to suspect that a living being’s consciousness or intelligence was necessary and that he would need to experiment on cultivators.

• Lin Chen reasoned that cultivators of different realms might be unable to use spirit stones of other grades because spiritual energy had different energy levels.
• He used a formation, low-grade spirit stones, a mid-grade spirit stone, and Spirit Condensing Liquid to model a Foundation Establishment breakthrough.
• Lin Chen observed that the spiritual energy liquefied but did not leap to a higher energy level, and that the mid-grade stone’s energy began to degrade.
• Lin Chen realized that known breakthroughs occurred only in intelligent living beings and wondered whether consciousness was required for a spiritual energy leap.
• Lin Chen concluded that he might need to conduct experiments on cultivators.

After waking in a prison, Yu Man recognized an old enemy among the captives and realized Lin Chen had captured him. Lin Chen prepared to test the Foundation Establishment Yuan Transformation Secret Ritual he had developed, and began the experiment.

• Yu Man woke naked, shackled, and powerless in an iron cage among other prisoners.
• Yu Man recognized the Jade-Faced Evil Cultivator, while Lin Chen emerged from the darkness and revealed himself as Yu Man's captor.
• Lin Chen removed Yu Man and other captives from their cages and brought them to his laboratory.
• Lin Chen explained his research into the Body, True Essence, and Soul Passes and why pills and conventional Foundation Establishment Spirit Items were unavailable to him.
• Lin Chen prepared formations, Spirit Condensing Liquid, and Soul Nurturing Incense for his Foundation Establishment Yuan Transformation Secret Ritual.
• Lin Chen activated the formations and began experimenting on a captive to test his method.

Lin Chen continued his experiments on cultivators and prepared Yu Man for dissection, but Yu Man tried to bargain for his life with the location of kidnapped children and secrets about the Azure Cloud Sect and Mysterious Yin Gate. Lin Chen refused to release him and began threatening to interrogate him by harsher means.

• Lin Chen recorded how an artificial anti-cyclone could cause Foundation Establishment failure or death, then selected Yu Man for his next experiment.
• Yu Man saw blood and remains in Lin Chen's laboratory and panicked, then threatened that kidnapped children would die if Lin Chen killed him.
• Lin Chen rejected Yu Man's attempt to shift blame and said he would not let him escape to harm others.
• Yu Man offered information about the Azure Cloud Sect, the Mysterious Yin Gate, and the hidden children in exchange for his freedom.
• Lin Chen demanded the information without agreeing to release Yu Man, then threatened to use interrogation techniques.

Lin Chen tortured Yu Man until he revealed what he knew about the Lingnan Great Land. Yu Man swore that an ancient cultivator’s records described it as a spirit land formed from an immortal’s fall, not a place with naturally formed spirit veins.

• Lin Chen threatened Yu Man with brutal punishments, then began crushing his fingers to force him to talk.
• Lin Chen crushed Yu Man’s right hand and used a true-qi needle to keep him conscious.
• Yu Man broke down and pleaded to reveal everything he knew.
• Lin Chen listened as Yu Man shared the information from an ancient cultivator’s records.
• Yu Man swore on his inner demon that the Lingnan Great Land had formed from an immortal’s fall.

Lin Chen learned that Lingnan was formed from the remains of two fallen Spirit Transformation immortals, then exposed Yu Man’s dangerous cultivation method and began using him in an experiment. The chapter ended as Lin Chen’s array gathered spiritual energy and a speck of milky-white light appeared, advancing his research into Foundation Establishment.

• Yu Man told Lin Chen that two Spirit Transformation immortals had fallen in Lingnan, creating its spirit veins and the origins of the Azure Cloud Sect and Mysterious Yin Gate.
• Yu Man offered Lin Chen a cultivation art and his service in exchange for his life, but Lin Chen questioned his claims.
• Lin Chen identified Yu Man’s Mountain Star Spirit Mist Art and explained that Yu Man had used blood-refining techniques to cultivate, causing dangerous symptoms and an imminent risk of death.
• Yu Man pleaded for Lin Chen to cure him, and Lin Chen promised to do so if he cooperated with the experiments.
• Lin Chen activated the charged array and directed spiritual energy through Yu Man’s body until a speck of milky-white light began to glow.

Lin Chen observed Yu Man’s breakthrough to Foundation Establishment and used its stages to develop a theory of spiritual energy and soul cultivation. Yu Man appeared to survive the transformation, but his body suddenly mutated and unleashed tentacles and Blood Mist that engulfed Lin Chen.

• Yu Man endured the spiritual energy compression and reached the Energy Level Leap as Lin Chen watched the array register blood-red, higher-level spiritual energy.
• Lin Chen concluded that cultivation involved imprinting spiritual energy with a cultivator’s information and advancing it through energy levels, then realized Yu Man was undergoing the soul pass.
• When Yu Man’s soul transformation became unstable, Lin Chen burned Soul Nurturing Incense, and Yu Man’s howls gradually weakened as his true essence remained intact.
• Lin Chen inferred that the experiment had succeeded and began considering how to prepare for his own Foundation Establishment without relying on pills.
• As Yu Man’s wounds healed and his aura rose, Lin Chen feared his implanted explosive talisman might no longer restrain him.
• The room dimmed as a fishy stench and crawling sounds appeared, then flesh-and-blood tentacles erupted from Yu Man and Blood Mist spread over Lin Chen and the laboratory.

Lin Chen’s experiment produces a deranged Foundation Establishment Realm monster whose Spiritual Sense attacks him, forcing him to unleash increasingly destructive protocols. After the threat weakens, Lin Chen considers having other cultivators test and refine his future cultivation methods, but first he must deal with the creature trapped below.

• Lin Chen escaped Yu Man’s Spiritual Sense illusion and saw that Yu Man survived with half his head destroyed by sacrificing his Life Origin to regenerate.
• Lin Chen activated the Level Three Destruction Protocol, sealing the laboratory and setting it ablaze, but Yu Man’s eerie laughter continued attacking his senses.
• Lin Chen activated the Level Two Destruction Protocol and collapsed the passage, triggering explosions that weakened Yu Man’s soul attack.
• Lin Chen lit Soul Nurturing Incense to ease his pain and reflected on the danger of future experiments.
• Lin Chen conceived of spreading his cultivation ideas so other cultivators could test and improve them, then turned his attention back to the collapsed passage.

After taking a break from the Laboratory, Lin Chen summarized his research into three laws of spiritual energy and realized that its transformations shaped the world. Inspired by the shared pursuit of knowledge across civilizations, he resolved to explore the mysteries of this world and pursue his own Dao.

• Lin Chen reviewed his research and summarized three laws stating that all things were composed of spiritual energy, spiritual energy could transform into all things, and it possessed activity levels, energy levels, and self-information.
• Lin Chen used true qi in his palm to envision the formation of the world and concluded that changes in spiritual energy's energy levels and transformations formed the world's Dao.
• Lin Chen recognized that civilizations in both his lives had advanced by observing, understanding, and mastering nature, and he imagined the voices of countless seekers of truth joining his own.
• Lin Chen returned to his senses after his realization and vowed to explore every mystery in the world and pursue his own Dao, no matter the hardships.

Lin Chen considered vaporizing his true qi and planned to descend the mountain to obtain Hundred Year Jade Marrow, but his cousin Lin Tianhao arrived asking him to represent the Lin Family in the Jiangcheng Grand Competition. Lin Chen rejected the family’s appeal to kinship without offering compensation and sent Lin Tianhao back to demand genuine sincerity.

• Lin Chen reviewed his cultivation experiments and decided he needed Hundred Year Jade Marrow as a safeguard for his plan to vaporize his true qi.
• Lin Tianhao visited Lin Chen and asked him to help the weakened Lin Family by competing in the Jiangcheng Grand Competition half a year later.
• Lin Tianhao described how two rival families were suppressing the Lin Family and using the competition to threaten its survival.
• Lin Chen asked what compensation the Lin Family would provide, but Lin Tianhao insisted that helping was his duty and that the family would reward him later.
• Lin Chen confronted Lin Tianhao over the Lin Family’s past treatment of him and its attempt to exploit kinship, then told him to return and demand that the elders show enough sincerity.

Lin Chen rejected the Lin Family’s attempt to recruit him and considered taking its resources after improving his strength. He traveled to Jia Tai Market and entered the underground auction venue, where the Hundred Year Jade Marrow auction was to be held.

• Lin Chen suspected Lin Tianhao of trying to manipulate him into fighting for the Lin Family and resolved not to risk his life for them.
• Lin Chen considered returning to the Lin Family to take its resources, but decided to strengthen himself first and prepare for the upcoming auction.
• Lin Chen left the Azure Cloud Sect, traveled by way of Dandelion Grass and the Divine Movement Technique, and reached Jia Tai Market after a day and a night.
• Lin Chen followed Xu Mengyun’s address to a general store and used her passphrase to gain access to a hidden stairway.
• Lin Chen followed the underground passage to a guarded door, arriving at the entrance to the auction.

Lin Chen attended an underground auction planning to seize the Hundred Year Jade Marrow rather than bid for it. The auction began, and as the sixty-sixth item was introduced, the Blood Origin Marrow Refining Scripture caught his interest.

• Lin Chen entered the auction hall, chose a seat, and considered how to exploit the entrances and exits Xu Mengyun had mapped out.
• The auction filled with roughly a hundred cultivators, and Zhao Ming opened proceedings while a Foundation Establishment Realm Cultivator's Spirit Pressure enforced the rules.
• Bidders bought the Yellow Bud Pills and other items, while Lin Chen remained silent and waited for the Hundred Year Jade Marrow.
• Zhao Ming introduced the sixty-sixth auction item, the Blood Origin Marrow Refining Scripture, and Lin Chen became interested.

Lin Chen recognized the auctioned Blood Origin Marrow Refining Scripture as a possible basis for refining bone marrow to produce essence blood and strengthen his whole body. He won the scripture after confronting a bidder he recognized as the cultivator who had tried to kill him, then waited for the Hundred Year Jade Marrow auction to begin.

• Lin Chen reasoned that common body-refining methods could create dangerous imbalances and suspected the cultivation powers were withholding better knowledge.
• He recalled his research suggesting that refined bone marrow could continuously produce essence blood, and resolved to obtain the marrow-refining scripture for reference.
• Zhao Ming introduced the scripture and opened bidding at three hundred spirit stones; Lin Chen waited as the price rose to five hundred and fifty.
• Lin Chen bid five hundred and sixty spirit stones, provoking the grey-robed cultivator, whom he recognized as the attacker from outside Cloud Arrival Market who practiced the Blood Refining Spirit Returning Great Law.
• Zhao Ming warned the grey-robed cultivator after his spirit pressure was repelled, and Lin Chen paid for the scripture before waiting for the Hundred Year Jade Marrow auction.

Zhao Ming auctioned Hundred Year Jade Marrow and an Immortal Foundation Fruit as cultivators competed for Foundation Establishment treasures. Lin Chen planned to seize the jade marrow from its buyer, but the auction’s next item—a Foundation Establishment Secret Method—caught him off guard.

• Zhao Ming revealed Hundred Year Jade Marrow, and a Foundation Establishment Cultivator warned the crowd to follow the auction rules.
• Cultivators drove the jade marrow’s price up to six thousand Spirit Stones, and a burly cultivator won it.
• Lin Chen recognized the jade marrow’s buyer as his target and prepared to track him with surveillance and Jade Spirit Insects so he could take the treasure.
• Zhao Ming auctioned an Immortal Foundation Fruit whose medicinal efficacy had mostly dissipated, and the familiar black-robed cultivator bought it.
• Zhao Ming announced the next item as the Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method, surprising Lin Chen.

At an auction, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance offered the forbidden Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method, alarming Lin Chen and the Azure Cloud Sect cultivators present. A black-robed cultivator bought it for twenty-one thousand Spirit Stones, and the auction ended as everyone anticipated a wider conflict.

• Zhao Ming revealed the Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method, and Lin Chen resolved not to bid or leave evidence that could connect him to the auction.
• Second Uncle of the Chen Family decided his family had to obtain the method so they could escape the Azure Cloud Sect’s pressure and rebuild their strength.
• An azure-robed Azure Cloud Sect cultivator tried to leave to alert the elders, but the auction’s organizers blocked him; he then instructed Junior Brother Mo to bid.
• The Chen Family members, Junior Brother Mo, and the cultivator who had bought the Immortal Foundation Fruit competed for the method.
• A black-robed cultivator won the Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method for twenty-one thousand Spirit Stones, and the auction ended with the cultivators leaving in order.

After the auction of the Spirit Blood Foundation Establishment Method, Azure Cloud Sect moved to seal the western district while the auction house's leaders prepared to flee. The Chen Family nephew escaped the market by talisman, but someone confronted him in a forest.

• Zhang Zhiming ordered the market guards to seal the western district and sent his junior brother to alert the Foundation Establishment elder and seize the auction house.
• Elder Situ revealed that the Situ Family had sold the method at the Mysterious Yin Gate's request in exchange for a Golden Core Spirit Item, then ordered the auction house staff to evacuate through a secret passage.
• The Chen Family uncle sent his nephew away with the auction item while he drew their pursuers off, and the nephew used an Earth Escape Talisman to leave the marketplace.
• Outside the marketplace, the nephew believed he had escaped pursuit until an unseen cultivator called, "Fellow Daoist, please stay!"

Lin Chen ambushed and killed a cultivator fleeing with the Hundred Year Jade Marrow, then took the marrow for himself. As he tried to return to the Azure Cloud Sect, a treasure-seeking mouse exposed his prize, while a pursued cultivator carrying the Foundation Establishment Secret Method arrived nearby, giving Lin Chen a chance to turn the confrontation to his advantage.

• Lin Chen used his sensing methods to track the fleeing young cultivator underground, then killed him with a surprise attack and dissolved his corpse.
• Lin Chen searched the seized Storage Bag with a puppet and found the Hundred Year Jade Marrow with the spirit insect’s help.
• Lin Chen decided to return to the Azure Cloud Sect and break through his Cultivation Level, but a nearby battle and a powerful fireball forced him to change course.
• A Grey-robed Cultivator and several others blocked Lin Chen’s path, and the Grey-robed Cultivator’s treasure-seeking mouse sensed the Hundred Year Jade Marrow.
• Lin Chen realized the group was waiting for the cultivator carrying the Foundation Establishment Secret Method, then charged at the Grey-robed Cultivator with the mouse.

Lin Chen used his refraction-based Invisibility Technique to evade the Grey-robed Cultivator’s attacks and kill him, then walked through the frightened crowd. As Lin Chen neared the exit, the buyer of the Foundation Establishment Secret Method unleashed a growing Ball Lightning that swallowed the people around him.

• The Grey-robed Cultivator attacked Lin Chen with a Golden Spirit Sword and a poisoned Spirit Needle, but the attacks passed through him because of light refraction.
• Lin Chen appeared beside the Grey-robed Cultivator and tore off his head, killing him before the onlookers could react.
• The rogue cultivators stepped aside as Lin Chen walked forward, while he reflected on how he had improved the Invisibility Technique and hoped to develop it into Upright Shadowless.
• As Lin Chen reached the edge of the crowd, the man who had bought the Foundation Establishment Secret Method clenched a small black ball and unleashed expanding Ball Lightning that swallowed the people nearby.

Zhang Hao escaped a group of cultivators hunting him for a Foundation Establishment Secret Method by unleashing his Purple Thunder Pearl. As he relaxed in the wilderness, a ghostlike attacker appeared behind him with a dagger.

• Zhang Hao’s history revealed how he rose from an orphaned villager to an Azure Cloud Sect Outer Disciple despite his poor Five-element Spirit Roots.
• Zhang Hao was surrounded by cultivators pursuing him over the Foundation Establishment Secret Method and considered using his Purple Thunder Pearl to escape.
• Zhang Hao seized an opening created by a black-robed cultivator’s bizarre battle and unleashed the Purple Thunder Pearl, injuring or killing everyone in the room.
• Zhang Hao escaped into the forest and relaxed when he heard a flute melody that reminded him of his mother’s lullaby.
• A tall, gaunt figure appeared behind Zhang Hao and stabbed at his back with a Dark Red Dagger.

Zhang Hao was ambushed by three cultivators who tried to kill him for his wealth, and he detonated a Foundation Establishment Spirit Artifact to take them down with him. Lin Chen emerged after the explosion, killed the surviving woman, and left with more than twenty Storage Bags.

• A purple-clad Sound Cultivator, a Chen Family man, and a hidden assassin surrounded Zhang Hao and attacked him.
• The Chen Family man’s saber broke Zhang Hao’s talisman shield and protective Spirit Artifact, but Zhang Hao’s Spirit Armor stopped the blade from cutting through his shoulder.
• Zhang Hao let the hidden assassin stab his shoulder, seized him, and grabbed the Chen Family man before detonating a Foundation Establishment Spirit Artifact.
• The explosion left the purple-clad woman badly wounded, and she survived while the other cultivators were caught in the blast.
• Lin Chen appeared behind the woman and crushed her upper body, then left with more than twenty Storage Bags.

Lin Chen used Soul Nurturing Incense and a corrosive mist to kill the wounded cultivators and take their Storage Bags. After a nearby explosion drew his attention, he killed the survivor at its center and realized the survivor was the cultivator he had expected to find.

• Lin Chen hid and lit treated Soul Nurturing Incense around the wounded cultivators, making them fall asleep despite the Pockmarked Cultivator taking a Detoxification Pill.
• Lin Chen crushed the sleeping cultivators’ heads with a hand of spiritual energy, then used corrosive mist to dissolve their bodies and collected their Storage Bags.
• Lin Chen heard a huge explosion nearby and worried that other cultivators would assume he had the Foundation Establishment Secret Method.
• Lin Chen used the Invisibility Technique to approach the blast site and found a survivor coughing in the smoke.
• Lin Chen killed the survivor, took their Storage Bag, and recognized them as the cultivator he had expected.