Chapter Summaries

Chang Buzai ordered the Wuchang Ghost Sect to find and destroy the Yang Family after learning that they had attacked Yellow Springs Hall. Unaware of the threat, Yang Zhengshan emerged from thirteen years of seclusion having reached Half-step Entering the Dao through the Way of Life and Death, and his Evergreen Bamboo Staff transformed into a Spirit Treasure.

• Zhong Mingshou told Chang Buzai that the Yunxiao Yang Family had attacked Yellow Springs Hall with three Golden Core cultivators and over a thousand Divine Generals.
• Chang Buzai recognized the Divine Generals as practitioners of the Yang God Method and ordered Hun Ji to find and destroy the Yang Family.
• Yang Zhengshan continued comprehending the Way of Life and Death in seclusion, connecting it with his Wither-Prosper Dao Intent.
• Yang Zhengshan's Dao Intent spread through the Life Realm Immortal Palace, allowing him to perceive its inhabitants as they sensed faint, mysterious fluctuations.
• Yang Zhengshan reached Half-step Entering the Dao, advancing his Divine Soul to the peak of the Golden Core Stage while his cultivation remained at the Golden Core Mid Stage.
• The Evergreen Bamboo Staff advanced from an Authority Artifact into a Spirit Treasure and transformed into a Fly Whisk for Yang Zhengshan.

Xuan Zhen, Yunxiao, and Kou Ta attacked Yellow Springs Hall, captured its Ghost King and tens of thousands of ghost cultivators, and stripped the settlement of its valuables. After returning to the Spirit Source Land to turn the captured ghosts into Divine Generals, they left the Wuchang Ghost Sect’s leadership to learn of the devastation.

• Xuan Zhen broke Yellow Springs Hall’s protective formation and began capturing its fleeing ghost cultivators while Yunxiao and Kou Ta confronted Xiang Yuan.
• Yunxiao and Kou Ta wounded Xiang Yuan, chased him down, and sealed the Ghost King inside a God Sealing Pearl.
• Xuan Zhen captured more than fifty thousand Yin Soul Ghost Cultivators, including nearly three thousand Ghost Generals, and dismantled Yellow Springs Hall for its Spiritual Materials.
• Xuan Zhen, Yunxiao, and Kou Ta returned to the Spirit Source Land, where Xuan Zhen began transforming the captured Ghost Generals into Divine Generals with help from Wuzhen Dao Palace disciples.
• Chang Buzai stood before Hun Ji and Zhong Mingshou in the Wuchang Earth Grotto-Heaven.

Xuan Zhen began teaching An Nianjiu the Golden Light Divine Curse in hopes of finding a cultivation path for Divine Generals as the army traveled to the Yellow Springs Hall. There, Xiang Yuan took charge as the new Hall Master and ordered the surviving Ghost Cultivators to improve their cultivation.

• Xuan Zhen joined An Nianjiu on the Vermilion Bird Cloud Boat and urged him to build a future of his own rather than remain defined by An Yuxing's past.
• An Nianjiu wondered whether Divine Generals could have a Dao Path, and Xuan Zhen proposed that the Golden Light Divine Curse might provide one.
• Xuan Zhen began teaching An Nianjiu the Golden Light Divine Curse while hoping to discover a way for Divine Generals to improve themselves.
• Xiang Yuan arrived at the Yellow Springs Hall as its new Hall Master, sent by the Wuchang Ghost Sect to oversee its surviving Ghost Cultivators.
• Xiang Yuan insulted the Ghost Cultivators, ordered them to work on their cultivation, and dismissed them.

Yang Zhengshan spent ten years in seclusion comprehending the Dao of life and death while the White Jade Capital grew stronger. After Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu achieved the Golden Core, Xuan Zhen led a plan to seize the Yellow Springs Hall for its Divine Generals.

• Yang Zhengshan refused to withdraw from the world and agreed to remain in Wanbao Immortal City, where Zhongli Xiayi explained the unstable situation across the Myriad Flower Domain.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to the White Jade Capital and secluded himself with the bamboo staff, deepening his comprehension of life, death, withering, and flourishing over ten years.
• Kou Ta and Hong Fuxiu achieved the Golden Core five years apart, strengthening the White Jade Capital’s ability to cultivate its own Golden Core cultivators.
• Yu Qingyi joined the gathering at Hongxiu Palace, where Kou Ta pledged to seek Great Void Star Cores to help Yang Zhengshan refine the Nine Tripod Divine Pill.
• Xuan Zhen asked Yunxiao and Kou Ta to help seize the Yellow Springs Hall, and they agreed to go together while Yu Qingyi urged them to avoid unnecessary risks.

Yang Zhengshan settled in Wanbao Immortal City, established two Yang Family shops, and spent three years studying the Evergreen Bamboo Staff. After Zhongli Xiayi emerged from seclusion, she warned him that the Struggle for Authority was nearing a major escalation, leaving him to consider keeping White Jade Capital hidden and profiting through trade.

• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Zhongli Jue as his nephew and gave him a Zhenyue Seal, then asked him to find a residence and two shops in Wanbao Immortal City.
• Zhongli Jue found Yang Zhengshan a large compound and two shops, which Yang Zhengshan purchased and opened as a Pill Shop and Spirit Material Shop.
• Yang Zhengshan left the shops in the care of Li Jianning, Li Jianan, Luo Zhen, and Zhen Tao, and the businesses grew popular over the following year.
• Yang Zhengshan studied the Evergreen Bamboo Staff for three years and nearly reached Entry Level in Life Control before Zhongli Xiayi emerged from seclusion with a Spirit Treasure.
• Yang Zhengshan told Zhongli Xiayi that the Wuchang Ghost Sect had turned much of the Yunxiao Mountain Range into a Ghost Domain, while Zhongli Xiayi warned that Wanbao Sect would likely fight Tianji Pavilion and that the Struggle for Authority would intensify.
• Yang Zhengshan considered keeping White Jade Capital out of the coming conflict and earning Spiritual Items through trade, while Zhongli Xiayi urged him to hide for two hundred years if he wanted to stay safe.

Yang Zhengshan explored Wanbao Immortal City and decided against bringing the Yang Family there, then contacted Zhongli Xiayi and met her nephew Zhongli Jue. He welcomed Zhongli Jue and told him that Zhongli Yue had spoken about his family.

• Yang Zhengshan questioned a pageboy about Wanbao Immortal City's clans, factions, and social structure.
• Yang Zhengshan toured the city for several days and abandoned his plan to establish the Yang Family there because its power structure was too difficult to enter.
• After staying in the city for half a month, Yang Zhengshan sent a Communication Talisman toward the Inner City and waited for Zhongli Xiayi.
• Zhongli Jue arrived at Yang Zhengshan's courtyard and introduced himself as Zhongli Xiayi's nephew and Zhongli Yue's nephew.
• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Zhongli Jue, served him tea, and said Zhongli Yue had mentioned his siblings to him.

Yang Zhengshan persuaded Pei Lun to choose the Pei Family’s destruction and rebuilding, left Jingshui to protect them, and continued to Wanbao Immortal City. After exploring the city and settling at Immortal Fate Inn, he asked a pageboy about the forces within it.

• Yang Zhengshan offered Pei Lun the choice between sheltering the Pei Family for a hundred years and breaking before rebuilding, and Pei Lun chose the latter.
• Yang Zhengshan summoned Jingshui to hold down the fort for the Pei Family for ten years, then left for Wanbao Immortal City.
• Yang Zhengshan surveyed Wanbao Immortal City’s walls, formations, Lava Divine Generals, and bustling streets before entering the city.
• Yang Zhengshan rented a courtyard at Immortal Fate Inn, restrained his aura, and asked the pageboy about the city’s forces.
• The pageboy explained that the Inner City belonged to the Wanbao Sect and that the Central City was known as the Immortal Clan District.

Yang Zhengshan claimed the Pei Family’s Green Bamboo Staff, an Authority Artifact that controlled Life Force, in exchange for promising to protect the family for a hundred years. After using it to wipe out the Shi Family, he urged Pei Lun to put the Pei Family through a Life and Death Tribulation so it could rise again rather than rely on his protection.

• Yang Zhengshan recognized the Green Bamboo Staff as an Authority Artifact suited to his Wither and Flourish Divine Ability and asked Pei Lun to give it to him.
• Pei Lun agreed to hand over the staff if Yang Zhengshan protected the Pei Family, and Yang Zhengshan promised protection for a hundred years.
• Yang Zhengshan took the staff, learned it wielded Life Control, and drained the Shi Family members of their Life Force, magic power, and soul power.
• Yang Zhengshan accepted Pei Lun’s invitation and went with him to Pei Family Town.
• Yang Zhengshan told Pei Lun that the Pei Family needed a Life and Death Tribulation to overcome its decline and survive beyond his protection.

Yang Zhengshan secured a much larger trade order from Hengshan Sect, learned that Wanbao Trading Company’s other branches were struggling, and traveled toward Wanbao Immortal City through the densely populated Wilderness of Ten Thousand Waters. There, he witnessed the Pei and Shi Families fighting and recognized that Pei Lun’s Green Bamboo Staff wielded a power that seized lifespan.

• Yang Zhengshan received a large new supply order from Qihe Zhenjun, while Zhongli Yue explained that unrest had damaged most Wanbao Trading Company branches and directed him to Wanbao Immortal City.
• Yang Zhengshan left Taoyuan Mountain and flew across the Wilderness of Ten Thousand Waters, marveling at its abundant cultivators and resources.
• Yang Zhengshan stopped above a battle between the Pei and Shi Families and learned that the Shi Family had once served the Pei Family before rising to rival it.
• Pei Lun attacked Shi Yuansheng with a Green Bamboo Staff, causing bamboo shoots to grow around and engulf him.
• Yang Zhengshan realized that the staff’s power was Vitality Seizure and that using it had cost Pei Lun some of his lifespan.

Yang Zhengshan awoke in an unfamiliar feudal world inside the body of a thirty-eight-year-old widower with a large family. After meeting his children and grandchildren and seeing their poverty, he decided to stay with them and began adjusting to his new role as head of the household.

• Yang Zhengshan woke from a dream of the original owner’s life and realized he had transmigrated into the body of a widower with children and grandchildren.
• Yang Mingcheng entered to invite Yang Zhengshan to breakfast, and Yang Zhengshan tried to hide his shock at having a twenty-year-old son.
• Yang Zhengshan examined his scarred body, dressed, and resolved to maintain the original owner's quiet persona.
• Yang Zhengshan met his family at breakfast and learned their names, ages, and circumstances, including that the household struggled to afford food.
• Yang Zhengshan decided to remain with his family rather than face life alone, then ate porridge and declined his grandson Yang Chengye's offer of more.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to his room and told the family to work in the fields after breakfast, while Yang Mingcheng guessed that he was grieving for his late wife.

Yang Zhengshan discovered that his dream had given him a regenerating supply of Spirit Spring Water that could heal his injuries and improve his body, giving him hope of cultivating Martial Dao again. After demonstrating the Yang Family spear technique, his shoulder pain forced him to stop, and he resolved to find a new wife.

• Yang Zhengshan assessed the family’s modest savings and farmland, then dismissed the idea of making modern inventions because he lacked the knowledge and they would be ineffective against Martial Artists.
• Yang Zhengshan recalled the original owner’s severed path in Martial Dao and realized Spirit Spring Water could heal injuries and improve his physique.
• Yang Zhengshan drew water from his finger into a bowl, drank it, and felt his shoulder and body improve, though his injuries remained.
• Yang Zhengshan became more comfortable with his eldest grandson, picked him up, and agreed to demonstrate spear practice after watching Yang Yunxue train.
• Yang Zhengshan practiced the Yang Family spear technique before his family, but left-shoulder pain nearly made him stumble, so he stopped.
• Yang Zhengshan declined Wang’s offer to call a physician and decided that he would eventually marry again and find the family a stepmother.

Yang Zhengshan ordered the household to begin eating three meals a day and took Yang Mingcheng to Anning County to buy food and visit Yang Minghao. After spending most of their silver on supplies, he left his third son food and money and resolved to improve the family’s living conditions.

• Yang Zhengshan ordered Wang to prepare lunch and announced that the family would eat three meals a day, then shared the meal with Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingcheng rode an ox cart to Anning County to buy grain, cooking supplies, pork, pork bones, and meat buns, spending nearly all the ten taels of silver.
• Yang Zhengshan visited the blacksmith shop where Yang Minghao apprenticed and gave Lu Zhou pork in thanks for looking after his son.
• Yang Zhengshan gave Yang Minghao five meat buns and one hundred copper coins before leaving with Yang Mingcheng.
• Yang Minghao watched his family depart, while Yang Zhengshan reflected on the family’s hardship and the need to provide them with food and warm clothes.

Yang Zhengshan recovered his strength and decided to hunt in Changqing Mountain to earn money for his family. He took his second son Yang Mingzhi into the forest, where they camped overnight and began tracking beasts the next day.

• Yang Zhengshan shared meat and buns with his family, and the household grew livelier over the following days.
• The Spirit Spring healed most of Yang Zhengshan's old injuries, restoring him to the Force Conversion stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
• Yang Zhengshan told his family he would enter the mountains to hunt, then chose Yang Mingzhi to accompany him.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingzhi traveled west into the forest, and Yang Zhengshan joked that he would run faster than his son if they met a tiger.
• After spending their first day traveling, Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingzhi camped beneath a cliff; the next day, Yang Zhengshan began searching for animal tracks.

Yang Zhengshan hunted down two large wild boars and caught two piglets, revealing his recovered Martial Artist strength to Yang Mingzhi. He stayed in the mountains to guard the animals overnight while Yang Mingzhi went to fetch Jiang He and others to help carry them down.

• Yang Mingzhi spotted a family of wild boars, and Yang Zhengshan set out to kill the two large boars while his son tried to catch the piglets.
• Yang Zhengshan struck one boar with a Short Spear, dodged the other’s charge, and killed both using his spear and woodcutter’s knife.
• Yang Mingzhi caught two piglets and realized Yang Zhengshan’s injuries had healed, while Yang Zhengshan confirmed it and asked him to fetch Jiang He and helpers from Jiang Family Village.
• Yang Zhengshan began hauling the animals down the mountain, then made camp after dark and kept a fire burning to guard them from beasts.

Yang Zhengshan’s in-laws helped carry his two huge wild boars out of the mountains, and his family and neighbors celebrated his recovery as a Martial Artist. He sold the boars to the county magistrate’s steward and returned to the market to buy food and winter supplies.

• Yang Mingzhi told Jiang Cheng that Yang Zhengshan had killed two huge wild boars and asked the Jiang Family to help carry them down from the mountain.
• Jiang Cheng led hunters into the mountains, where they found Yang Zhengshan and hauled the boars back to Jiang Family Village, leaving the two piglets as payment.
• Yang Zhengshan returned home with Yang Mingcheng and was welcomed by his family and neighbors, who learned that his injuries had healed.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yang Mingcheng took the boars to the county town, where the county magistrate’s steward bought them for thirty taels and invited Yang Zhengshan to bring him more large prey.
• Yang Zhengshan used some of the proceeds to buy pork, bones, cloth, cotton, and fragrant meat buns for his family.

Yang Zhengshan settled into family life after recovering from his injuries and repaired his strained relationship with Yang Zhengxiang, the Yang Clan chief. With Yang Zhengxiang’s support, he joined the clan’s leadership and became an elder, though being called Great-Grandpa made him feel old.

• Yang Zhengshan shared buns with his grandchildren and daughter, then began preparing the household for winter.
• Yang Zhengxiang visited Yang Zhengshan to check whether his injuries had healed, and Yang Zhengshan confirmed his strength had mostly returned.
• Yang Zhengshan thanked Yang Zhengxiang for protecting his family and admitted he no longer held a grudge against him.
• Yang Zhengshan offered to help with clan affairs and recognized the Yang Clan’s importance in village life.
• Over the next ten days, Yang Zhengxiang guided Yang Zhengshan into the clan’s leadership, and Yang Zhengshan became a clan elder.
• Yang Zhengshan disliked being addressed as Great-Grandpa because it made him feel old.

Yang Zhengshan stored the family’s abundant harvest, prepared for winter, and found a valuable thirty-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng. His daughter Yang Yunyan returned with news that she was pregnant, and he welcomed her and Jiang He with nourishing food and warm clothes.

• Yang Zhengshan decided to store the family’s grain after a plentiful harvest and use the surplus to pay the autumn tax.
• Yang Zhengshan prepared Short Spears and gathered small game near Changqing Mountain before discovering a thirty-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng he planned to sell.
• Yang Yunyan and Jiang He returned to tell Yang Zhengshan that Yang Yunyan was nearly three months pregnant.
• Yang Zhengshan asked Wang to buy more beef for Yang Yunyan and the family, then accepted the padded clothes Yang Yunyan had made for him.
• Yang Zhengshan asked Yang Yunyan to make clothes for her maternal grandparents and put the Old Mountain Ginseng away in a wooden box.

Yang Zhengshan sold a thirty-five-year-old Old Mountain Ginseng for 180 taels, then decided to focus the Yang Family on martial arts and building its future. The chapter leaves him satisfied with the family’s renewed training and busy household, though he realizes he has little to do himself.

• Yang Zhengshan sold his Old Mountain Ginseng to Song Yuanbo for 180 taels after Song Yuanbo examined him and found his old injuries healed and his cultivation improved.
• After noticing a county notice about bandits, Yang Zhengshan planned to use his money to strengthen the Yang Family rather than withdraw from society.
• Yang Zhengshan told Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi to stop earning money with the ox cart and resume practicing martial arts.
• Yang Mingcheng, Yang Mingzhi, and Yang Yunxue practiced the Spear Technique while Yang Zhengshan trained with a spear and threw Short Spears in the back mountain.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to find the family repairing the house and making cotton-padded clothes, and realized he was the household’s idlest person.

After bandits destroyed Little Forest Village, Yang Zhengshan took in three orphaned children and decided to train Lin Zhan and Wang Daya as disciples. He left them in his household, with Lin Zhan beginning martial training and Wang Daya staying with Yang Yunxue.

• Yang Chengze told Yang Zhengshan that refugees from Little Forest Village had arrived after bandits burned their village and killed over a hundred people.
• Yang Zhengxiang arranged temporary shelter for two refugee households and explained that Lin Zhan, Wang Daya, and her infant brother had lost their families.
• Yang Zhengshan brought the three children home and had Wang feed the infant.
• Yang Zhengshan learned that Lin Zhan was Scholar Lin's son and told him and Wang Daya to become his disciples and begin martial training.
• Yang Zhengshan assigned Lin Zhan to his third son's room and sent Wang Daya to stay with Yang Yunxue.

Yang Zhengshan was teaching the young people of Yang Family Village when smoke revealed that Jiang Family Village was under attack by mountain bandits. He reached his eldest daughter Yang Yunyan’s home and found her safe, but the bandits were approaching as the villagers prepared to defend themselves.

• Yang Zhengxiang brought Yang Chengze, Yang Chengxu, and Yang Qinwu to Yang Zhengshan for martial arts instruction, and Yang Zhengshan began training them alongside Yang Mingcheng and Yang Mingzhi.
• Yang Yunxue spotted smoke rising from Jiang Family Village, and Yang Zhengshan hurried there after telling the others to alert Yang Zhengxiang and await the clan chief’s arrangements.
• Yang Zhengshan climbed the mountain to survey the burning village, recognized the notorious bandit Scarface Liu, and slipped into the village while avoiding him.
• Yang Zhengshan reached Jiang Cheng’s home, found Jiang Cheng’s family and neighbors sheltering there, and reunited with his frightened daughter Yang Yunyan.
• When villagers warned that the bandits were approaching, Yang Zhengshan left Yang Yunyan inside and joined the young men preparing to fight.