Chapter Summaries

Forget Demon Venerable used an old enemy’s hidden trap to attack Lin Chen and erase memories and traces from reality. As the fading spread across the world, Lin Chen and others struggled to understand the threat while the Dream Realm’s warnings went unheeded.

• Forget Demon Venerable used his Demon Scissors to link forgotten figures to two vivid figures and launch an attack through the Heaven-Covering Heaven and Earth Great Formation.
• Lin Chen and the Mirror Female Cultivator realized Void Mirror Demon Venerable had planted a trap in the memories she provided, and Lin Chen identified Forget Demon Venerable as their attacker.
• Lin Chen summoned his Human Puppet, but its memories and physical traces began vanishing as Forget Demon Venerable’s power made forgetting affect reality.
• Xu Yuanyang forgot the name of the benefactor who had helped him, while the Human Puppet Method vanished from his jade slip.
• Elder Wang forgot his recent conversation with the Patriarch, and Daoist Yimu and True Lord Xuanhuang forgot the plan they had just discussed aboard the Ghost Ship.
• The palace above the sea of stars warned people with the proper authority, but they subconsciously ignored its warnings.

Lin Chen and the Mirror Female Cultivator were trapped in Forget Demon Venerable’s domain, where forgetting eroded memories and weakened reality. Lin Chen devised a way to resist by anchoring his memories from outside, while the Ghost Ship’s Split Spirits discovered that something was wrong and prepared to return to the Dream Realm.

• The Mirror Female Cultivator shattered her Bronze Mirrors to escape, but she and Lin Chen found themselves back in the room after the domain reset their perceptions.
• Lin Chen explained that his memories were protected by measures he had made after the Ghost Ship incident, and reasoned that the Split Spirits outside could anchor his memories and contact the Dream Realm.
• Gray-white demonic shadows absorbed spiritual qi as Lin Chen’s Radiant Sun Dao comprehension faded, and the figures began returning to the world.
• On the Ghost Ship, Sun Boy and the Split Spirits noticed that their memories did not match their surroundings and found that the main body received their signals but did not reply.
• Daoist Yimu warned that the main body’s silence could not be dismissed as coincidence, and the Split Spirits decided to return to the Dream Realm to investigate.

Lin Chen and the Mirror Female Cultivator faced the Demon Realm of Forgetfulness as demonic shadows returned to reality and fought over their places. Lin Chen revealed that prayers from thousands of his Dream Realm visitors anchored his memories and existence, giving him a way to escape the realm.

• The Demon Realm of Forgetfulness began erasing Lin Chen and the Mirror Female Cultivator while restoring the demonic shadows, and Flowing Light True Lord returned and attacked them.
• The Mirror Female Cultivator's Dao Domain combined with the Flowing Light Dao Domain, creating eighteen powerful flowing-light figures that overwhelmed their defenses.
• Lin Chen's simulated Paper World Dao Domain blocked the flames, but another demonic shadow appeared and replaced one of the flowing-light figures, igniting a battle among the shadows.
• Lin Chen considered whether Nascent Soul Dao Domains could be used to grant lower-level cultivators similar power, while the Mirror Female Cultivator warned that their memories were still being erased.
• Lin Chen heard prayers from his Dream Realm visitors and explained that their calls anchored his memories and existence against forgetting.
• Lin Chen declared it was time to leave, and the prayers of thousands of living beings, carrying Dream Realm starlight, descended upon them.

Lin Chen escaped Forget Demon Venerable’s dream domain with help from the Dream Realm and the Anchors of Living Beings, gaining new insight into how information could alter reality. Forget Demon Venerable identified him as a dangerous rival and decided to sacrifice the Heavenly Demon Cult’s escort mission to lure him into a confrontation in reality.

• Lin Chen and his split spirits returned to reality as the dream domain collapsed, leaving a transformed plain and spiritual energy behind.
• Lin Chen explained that the Dao of Dreams and the Dao of Spiritual Energy pursued different principles, then said he had gained insight into supreme Law Cultivator techniques.
• Forget Demon Venerable sensed the Dream Realm’s influence and realized that someone in reality had begun to alter reality through information.
• Forget Demon Venerable concluded that it could not track Lin Chen through dreams and decided to have a Demon Venerable find him in reality.
• Forget Demon Venerable chose to abandon the Heavenly Demon Cult’s concealment of the [Fuyao Cloud Whale] cub, risking its discovery by the Immortal Alliance’s Dark Division.

Lin Chen visited Changqing Sect’s rear mountain, where he exposed the elders’ scramble for influence and appointed the frightened Elder Wang to oversee the sect. As Elder Wang taught the Qi Refining method, Lin Chen considered creating a new kind of power and began explaining the role of spiritual qi intake and exhalation in cultivation.

• Jin Ling'er attended Elder Wang’s lesson while thinking that the Jin Family could rise amid Changqing Sect’s vacant positions.
• Elder Wang panicked when Lin Chen appeared and begged to serve him, prompting Lin Chen to put him in charge of the sect’s affairs.
• The other elders saw Elder Wang’s appointment and noisily tried to prove their loyalty, but Lin Chen silenced them.
• Lin Chen considered using Changqing Sect as an experimental ground for a power built around shared spiritual abilities and consciousness.
• Elder Wang taught the disciples Changqing Sect’s Qi Refining method, and Lin Chen explained that spiritual qi intake began cultivation while exhalation determined how far a cultivator could progress.

Lin Chen explained that cultivation depended on absorbing spiritual energy and limiting its loss, then unveiled the Spirit Puppet Method as a way for Changqing Sect cultivators to improve their prospects. He ended by announcing that the sect would introduce a new system called Lending Cultivation.

• Lin Chen taught the disciples that inhalation meant acquiring spiritual energy and exhalation meant losing it, with talent determining how well cultivators could absorb and retain energy.
• Wu Yong questioned Lin Chen’s theory, and Lin Chen named him a registered disciple before explaining how spirit bodies, spirit roots, and bloodlines affected cultivation.
• Lin Chen said powerful factions had concealed these principles and revealed that his Spirit Puppet Method could help even Pseudo Spirit Root cultivators approach the prospects of those with four spirit roots.
• Lin Chen described refining flesh with spiritual materials to reduce spiritual energy loss, and the gathered disciples and elders eagerly considered cultivating the method.
• Elder Wang asked whether the sect would provide the method’s required resources, and Lin Chen answered that he would add a new rule called Lending Cultivation.

Lin Chen proposed letting Changqing Sect disciples borrow resources to cultivate the Spirit Puppet Method, while Elder Wang realized the method carried a deadly cost connected to spirit puppets. When the elders opposed the lending plan to protect the sect treasury, Lin Chen silenced them with his power and ordered the plan to proceed, while privately intending to use and eventually eliminate them.

• Elder Wang recognized that Lin Chen’s Lending Cultivation resembled the East Sea Immortal Alliance’s investment in prodigies, but warned that poor disciples could not repay their debts.
• Lin Chen hinted that borrowers could repay after death and reminded Elder Wang that the Spirit Puppet Method had a hidden price; Elder Wang realized the connection to spirit puppets.
• Lin Chen announced that every disciple could borrow the spiritual items needed to cultivate the Spirit Puppet Method, prompting excitement among the lower-level disciples.
• The elders protested that lending resources would violate sect rules, endanger the treasury, and undermine their control over its supplies.
• Lin Chen’s power stilled the area and frightened the assembly; he treated the elders’ silence as consent and ordered the lending plan carried out.
• Lin Chen disappeared, and the elders withdrew in fear as Elder Wang recognized that their conflict with Lin Chen had only delayed their deaths.

Wu Yong questioned the Spirit Puppet Method and began devising a safer alternative, while Jin Ling'er planned to exploit the new system and eliminate him. Lin Chen dismissed the Jin Family’s schemes, prepared to spread his methods at the upcoming Flying Boat Sea Market, and invited Wu Yong to accompany him.

• Wu Yong studied the Spirit Puppet Method, worried about its flaws and the required castration, and decided to experiment with a small puppet made from flesh outside his body.
• Jin Ling'er told Jin Tian that the Jin Family would exploit loans by turning its slaves into Menial Disciples and test subjects, then ordered him to befriend Wu Yong before arranging his death.
• Elder Wang reported the elders’ covert resistance to Lin Chen, who told him to record the loopholes and said the sect’s schemes would not impede his plans.
• Lin Chen revealed that he intended to spread Lending Cultivation and the Spirit Puppet Method to powerful cultivators and lower-level practitioners across the East Sea to build influence and advance toward Nascent Soul.
• Lin Chen asked Elder Wang to bring Wu Yong to the Flying Boat Sea Market in one month, as the vast market began touring the East Sea.

Lin Chen and his companions arrived at the Flying Boat Sea Market, where Elder Wang explained how the Immortal Alliance’s privileges controlled access to resources and status. After the group landed, Lin Chen teased Wu Yong with the lavish welcome reserved for privileged cultivators.

• Lin Chen brought Wu Yong, Elder Wang, and the Octopus Great Demon aboard his Flying Boat and left the other elders and the boy behind on Disheng Island.
• The group reached the Flying Boat Sea Market, and Lin Chen eyed its immense wealth as a source of future profit.
• A formidable black-robed sword cultivator flew into the Immortal City, prompting Elder Wang to explain that the Immortal Alliance’s privileges determined who could access restricted areas and resources.
• Lin Chen warned Wu Yong that privilege could corrupt his Dao heart, while Wu Yong insisted that he could withstand the temptation.
• After the Flying Boat landed, a crowd of scantily clad cultivators and other beings welcomed Lin Chen, who asked Wu Yong whether they were enough to test him.

Lin Chen toured the Flying Boat Sea Market and saw how its cultivation industries, trade, residences, and immense military strength formed a mobile city. Its lavish Pill Alliance sanctuary inspired him to consider a flying fortress as the headquarters of his future faction, though he remained unsure how he could acquire or sustain one.

• Lin Chen teased Wu Yong and Elder Wang about the female cultivators assigned to welcome the sect leaders, then followed a purple-dressed female cultivator onto a Spirit Boat.
• Elder Wang explained how the Mirage Realm enabled remote shopping and described the alliances and specialized cultivators gathered across the Flying Boat Sea Market.
• Lin Chen surveyed the sea market’s pill workshops, residences, transport network, and defensive forces, then considered making a mobile stronghold his faction’s headquarters.
• The purple-dressed female cultivator brought Lin Chen’s group to a Pill Alliance sanctuary where a spirit mountain served as an alchemy configuration and luxurious retreat.
• Lin Chen contrasted the sanctuary’s pill-fueled extravagance with the hardship of ordinary cultivators and reflected on the sea market’s prosperity.

Lin Chen settled into the Flying Boat Sea Market and sensed a familiar aura near Dan Ling Mountain, while demons secretly plotted to smuggle an Evil God Statue into the market. As the Immortal Alliance closed in on Shadow Concealment Demon Venerable and Primordial Turtle Demon King, the two decided to awaken the Fuyao Cloud Whale’s ancient Kunpeng bloodline to escape.

• Lin Chen entered his Cave Mansion at Dan Ling Mountain, sensed a familiar aura, and decided to wait and see what happened.
• Coffin Carrier and Hundred Herbs Master discussed bringing the Evil God Statue into Penglai Spirit Island aboard the Flying Boat Sea Market and pursuing their larger plan.
• True Lord Lie Kong monitored the sea with the Moon Bright Mirror and awaited reinforcements to trap the returning demon and devil forces.
• Primordial Turtle Demon King and Shadow Concealment Demon Venerable argued while hiding from the Immortal Alliance’s search and agreed to use the Fuyao Cloud Whale’s power to escape.
• Shadow Concealment Demon Venerable proposed burning the whale’s body to awaken its True Spirit Bloodline and summon the ancient Kunpeng’s power.

Lin Chen used the mirage pearl to create a lifelike illusion of the Rogue Cultivator Market, where Elder Wang explained its rare treasures and recounted the discovery of Soul Returning Wood. Intrigued by the market’s origins and treasures, Lin Chen decided to go treasure hunting before the group gathered at Penglai Spirit Island.

• Lin Chen activated the mirage pearl, transporting everyone’s senses into a convincing illusion of a bustling city street, and Wu Yong struggled to understand how real it felt.
• Lin Chen considered Wu Yong as a potential true disciple because of his balanced Three Spiritual Roots and disciplined pursuit of the Dao.
• Elder Wang identified the scene as the Rogue Cultivator Market and warned Lin Chen that the market had the East Sea Rogue Immortal’s backing.
• Elder Wang explained that the market’s Outer Domain and Return to Ruins items could yield rare treasures, then described how a branch of Soul Returning Wood had become an Immortal Alliance treasure.
• Lin Chen realized the Soul Returning Wood aboard his Ghost Ship was already dead within and abandoned the idea of refining it into medicine.
• Lin Chen decided to enter the Rogue Cultivator Market and treasure hunt, despite Elder Wang’s warning about gambling on spirit items.

Lin Chen warned Wu Yong about the hidden dangers of buying unknown cultivation methods and pills, then led his companions into the Rogue Cultivator Market to seek safer external treasures. He chose a dangerous paper shop filled with items from the Return to Ruins and ordered Changqing Sect’s treasury emptied to gamble there.

• Wu Yong proposed searching the market for ancient cultivation methods or pills, but Elder Wang and Lin Chen explained how unknown methods and medicines could conceal deadly dangers.
• Lin Chen told Wu Yong to learn and create cultivation arts himself, then objected when Wu Yong asked about methods ordinary cultivators could use.
• The Octopus Great Demon suggested buying external items such as talismans and Spirit Artifacts, which Lin Chen said could be re-refined to reduce their risks.
• Lin Chen led Wu Yong, Elder Wang, and the Octopus Great Demon through the bustling market to a six-story paper shop whose wares came from the Return to Ruins.
• Elder Wang warned that the shop was dangerous and costly to enter, but Lin Chen ordered Changqing Sect’s entire treasury emptied so they could gamble there.

Lin Chen brought Wu Yong to the Paper Effigy Shop in Return to Ruins, where he explained how dangerous buried objects could be repurposed and reforged into treasures. He ended by teaching Wu Yong that the Hundred Arts of Cultivation all imitated Heaven and Earth, offering him a principle for mastering them.

• Lin Chen explained that Return to Ruins was a tomb of dead worlds and powers, and that its Yin ceramic jars stored dangerous objects as burial offerings.
• Wu Yong inspected a jar and nearly fell under the influence of a mask inside, but Elder Wang jolted him awake and warned him not to touch such objects carelessly.
• Lin Chen identified the contents and dangers of several jars, explaining how their cursed and decaying objects could be turned into weapons and materials.
• Lin Chen told Wu Yong that skill, rather than luck, let cultivators transform seemingly useless objects into treasures, and described methods for reforging several items.
• Lin Chen taught Wu Yong that the Hundred Arts of Cultivation all imitated the phenomena of Heaven and Earth and shared the same underlying principles.

Lin Chen demonstrated to the Green Robe Old Man that the Hundred Arts of Cultivation shared one essence, using the five stall items to explain his principles of one path, two methods, and ten refinements. He left the stall owner with methods for producing powerful spiritual treasures and warned that cultivation techniques must change with the world.

• The Green Robe Old Man questioned Lin Chen’s claim that the Hundred Arts were fundamentally one, and Lin Chen agreed to take five items from the stall.
• The Golden Core stall owner waived payment, revealed the items’ identities, and explained that he hoped to befriend Lin Chen.
• Lin Chen transformed the Yin Soil and Sword Pellet into a Sword Talisman, refined it into a Sword Pill, and shattered it to reveal sword-formation memories, convincing the Green Robe Old Man of his expertise.
• Lin Chen explained how the Ice Spring Jade Pendant could be refined into [Innate Spirit Infant Qi] and secretly gave the stall owner the method, drawing covetous attention from nearby cultivators.
• Lin Chen gave Wu Yong the Yuan Magnetic Spirit Iron and taught him how to use its Innate Yuan Magnetic Qi to pursue a High-grade Golden Core.
• Lin Chen defined the ten refinements and cautioned that cultivation methods were not eternal, concluding that understanding change and constancy was essential to the path of cultivation.

A black-robed figure searched the Flying Boat Sea Market for a way to save Tree Elder, then followed a crowd drawn by Lin Chen’s teachings. Lin Chen explained how the Hundred Arts changed with the world and ended by defining the Dao as Heaven and Earth forging all things.

• The black-robed figure failed to find a healing treasure and considered remaining in the market or breaking into its treasury to save Tree Elder.
• After hearing that a Hundred Arts Grandmaster had arrived, the black-robed figure followed the crowd upstairs, hoping the figure could help him.
• Lin Chen taught the Green Robe Old Man that mastering an art required understanding change and constancy, using artifact refining as his example.
• When Wu Yong asked what the Dao was, Lin Chen answered, “Heaven and Earth are the furnace, creation is the craftsman; yin and yang are the coals, and all things are the copper!”

The Divine Firmament Dao Master and the East Sea Rogue Immortal debated Lin Chen’s extraordinary talent and suspicious origins, while Lin Chen turned away recruitment offers at the Flying Boat Sea Market. The chapter ended with Lin Chen angrily dismissing a Rogue Cultivator who claimed Lin Chen’s name resembled his Senior Brother’s.

• The Divine Firmament Dao Master praised Lin Chen’s insights, while the East Sea Rogue Immortal suspected Lin Chen might be possessed or an ancient cultivator reincarnated.
• The Divine Firmament Dao Master revealed plans to test Lin Chen, promote him, and send him to Tiangong Island, while privately wondering why the East Sea Rogue Immortal and other forces were acting strangely.
• Cultivators flocked to Lin Chen’s cave mansion with recruitment offers, and the cultivator who obtained the conversion secret technique escaped the Flying Boat Sea Market, leaving nearby Spirit Islands damaged in unexplained collapses.
• Lin Chen accepted gifts from visiting factions but rejected their requests to recruit him, and he refused to meet the people gathering near Danling Mountain.
• Wang Changlong returned to report that a Rogue Cultivator wanted to see Lin Chen because Lin Chen’s name resembled his Senior Brother’s, and Lin Chen ordered him to send the man away.

Lin Chen received a visit from Su Liyue, the Dao Child of the Sun Moon Immortal Palace, after recognizing an old acquaintance from Lingnan was also waiting to see him. He identified Su Liyue’s formidable Talisman Dao and asked what benefits she offered and what price she expected.

• A black-robed cultivator offered Elder Wang a Nascent Soul Pill to pass along his message that an old acquaintance from Lingnan had come to visit Lin Chen.
• Lin Chen recognized the visitor as someone from his past and told Elder Wang to bring him in, but paused when he sensed a presence in the moonlight.
• Lin Chen prepared a late-night welcome in his courtyard as Su Liyue appeared through the moonlight and snow.
• Lin Chen identified Su Liyue’s snow-and-ice techniques as part of her powerful Talisman Dao and praised her unique path.
• Su Liyue asked Lin Chen if he knew why she had come, and he asked what benefits he would receive and what price he would pay.

Lin Chen accepted Su Liyue’s offer to join the Immortal Alliance, learning that he would be sent to Tiangong Island after helping attack the Hell Ten Paths. After extracting further intelligence through their conversation, he planned to profit from the campaign, then realized he had forgotten something as a black-robed figure continued waiting for news of him.

• Su Liyue offered Lin Chen the benefits of an Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul reserve member in exchange for joining its campaign against the Hell Ten Paths.
• Lin Chen agreed to join, and Su Liyue said the Alliance would arrange for him to go to Tiangong Island, which was connected to an Ancient Cultivator legacy but difficult to control.
• Lin Chen learned that the Alliance planned to shift the East Sea Ten Thousand Islands into the Outer Domain and gathered other intelligence from Su Liyue during their overnight conversation.
• After Su Liyue left, Lin Chen reflected on how he had gained her trust and planned to use the Hell Ten Paths campaign to profit from the Alliance’s cultivators.
• Lin Chen set out to investigate Tiangong Island through the Dream Realm, then stopped and wondered what he had forgotten while a black-robed figure asked Elder Wang for news of Senior Brother Lin for the one hundred and eighth time.

Lin Chen reunited with Zhang Hao, who revealed the Painted Skin that had hidden his identity and recounted a century of persecution across the Return to Ruins, Outer Domain, and East Sea. Zhang Hao then asked Lin Chen to save Tree Elder, leaving Lin Chen puzzled about what could threaten the being from the Land of Fallen Spirit Transmutation.

• Lin Chen recognized Zhang Hao after Zhang Hao removed the Human Skin Magic Treasure, and Lin Chen tried to take the Painted Skin for himself.
• Zhang Hao explained that he had obtained the weakened Painted Skin by chance and used it to evade pursuers.
• Zhang Hao recounted how he had been hunted by the Taiyi Immortal Sword Sect, the Tianhe Sect, the Death River Cult, and other factions during his travels.
• Lin Chen calmly accepted that Zhang Hao had offended several major sects and asked why he had come seeking help.
• Zhang Hao asked Lin Chen to save Tree Elder, and Lin Chen realized Tree Elder came from the Land of Fallen Spirit Transmutation but wondered what had gone wrong.