Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Gu Chen arrives at the Wing Chun White Crane gym, where students and onlookers doubt that the young, unassuming man can defend it. The Japanese challengers also dismiss him as inexperienced.
• Gu Chen criticizes their martial arts as powerful-looking but built on a weak foundation, then invites them to attack together.
• A judo expert charges him, but Gu Chen defeats him instantly with a vast palm of projected Qi and Blood Power, slamming him into the floor.
• Recognizing Gu Chen as a rare Marrow Cleansing Realm expert—and recalling recent defeats at the hands of similar fighters—the Japanese group abandons its arrogance and apologizes.
• When Gu Chen insists that an apology is not enough for injuring the coaches, the challengers break their own arms as penance and promise twenty million in compensation. Gu Chen accepts the settlement provisionally.
• A gym student demands that the Japanese release his younger sister, whom they had apparently been using to threaten him. Gu Chen declares that threatening a student’s family is a provocation against the gym, and the Japanese promise to free her unharmed.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen remains calm and self-assured throughout. His overwhelming display of skill establishes his authority, and he uses that authority to demand accountability and protect a student.
• The Japanese martial artists shift abruptly from mockery and confidence to fear, apology, and compliance once they recognize Gu Chen’s strength. Their response reinforces that they respect power more than principle.
• The student moves from uncertainty to speaking up for his sister, trusting Gu Chen’s presence to support him.
• The gym’s coaches, students, and bystanders go from relief or skepticism to astonishment and respect as Gu Chen proves himself.

Significant themes

• Power commands respect: The challengers yield only after encountering an opponent far stronger than themselves.
• Substance over appearance: Gu Chen’s youthful looks conceal exceptional ability, while the Japanese fighters’ apparent strength rests, in his view, on a flawed foundation.
• Protection and responsibility: Gu Chen treats threats against a gym member’s family as an attack on the gym itself.
• Martial hierarchy and rarity: The chapter emphasizes how uncommon and formidable Marrow Cleansing Realm experts are in the broader martial world.

Plot points and events

• Gu Chen helps Sun Cheng rescue his younger sister, whom Japanese martial artists had abducted to force him to surrender a Jade Talisman. Gu Chen frightens the kidnappers away, then declines Sun Cheng’s offer of the talisman, since he created it himself.
• After leaving the martial arts gym, Gu Chen takes a break from his usual routine of gathering Baleful Qi.
• Western nations and Japan obtain Jade Talismans and send expeditions into the Daotang Cave Heaven Small World. Their researchers confirm that it is rich in land and natural resources, and remarkably hospitable to human life.
• Eager to claim territory and counter Central Continent, these countries decide to use modern military force to conquer the seemingly feudal inhabitants. Confident in military simulations predicting near-certain victory, they begin moving troops and weapons into the Small World.
• Gu Chen notices the buildup and is astonished that they intend to invade a world whose cultivators he has created with powerful Daoist arts.

Character developments and interactions

• Sun Cheng is revealed as the person who found a Jade Talisman through clues hidden among his family’s belongings. Though he deleted his videos after realizing the danger, the Japanese team still targeted him and used his sister as leverage. He seeks help from the martial arts gym, where Gu Chen intervenes.
• Gu Chen shows little interest in material rewards and remains confident in the power of the cultivators within Daotang. His reaction to the invasion preparations mixes disbelief and amusement.
• Sun Cheng and his sister reunite. The Japanese martial artists, who had been intimidating the gym, quickly retreat once Gu Chen arrives.
• Western and Japanese leaders act in sharp contrast to Central Province Official: while Central Province proceeds cautiously and seeks contact with natives, the foreign powers rush toward conquest.

Significant themes

• Overconfidence and miscalculation: Foreign leaders mistake the natives’ apparent simplicity for weakness and trust military simulations over the possibility of hidden powers.
• Imperial ambition: The nations focus on seizing land and resources, even planning to enslave the inhabitants.
• Caution versus aggression: Central Province’s restraint contrasts with the Western nations’ and Japan’s drive to claim the Small World before their rivals.
• Hidden power beneath appearances: The Daotang natives seem harmless, but the world’s Daoist cultivators may be far beyond what the invading countries anticipate.

Plot points and events

• Jade Talismans send entrants to scattered villages and towns in the Daotang Cave Heaven Small World, rather than directly to major cities.
• After the Shenxiao Sect obtained talismans, more than a thousand of its disciples and companions entered. Other talisman holders began charging for entry and preparation, driving prices down and pushing the number of modern-world visitors past ten thousand.
• The Western nations and Japan entered the Small World and began assembling troops and modern military equipment, apparently preparing to claim territory.
• Central Continent martial artists recorded their activities and posted the footage online. The reports triggered public anger and speculation about a planned occupation.
• The Central Continent Security Bureau alerted officials. At a meeting, officials debated whether to strike first or avoid a confrontation that could spill into the real world.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen views the Western nations’ and Japan’s behavior as a continuation of their historical imperialism. He expects their confidence to fade when they encounter the Small World’s powerful cultivators.
• Central Continent martial artists grow increasingly resentful of the foreign forces and take action by exposing their preparations publicly.
• Central Continent officials recognize the threat but are divided: some favor eliminating the forces before they grow stronger, while others fear a wider war.
• Western nations and Japan are portrayed as dismissive of the Small World’s inhabitants and intent on asserting control; their actions provoke anger among Central Continent entrants and the public.

Significant themes

• Imperialism and exploitation: Modern powers treat the Small World as territory to seize rather than a society to respect.
• Power versus virtue: Public commentary argues that foreign aggressors respond to force, not moral appeals.
• Escalation and restraint: The authorities must balance preventing occupation against the risk of a conflict spreading into the modern world.
• Unequal assumptions: Modern technology gives outsiders confidence, but they may be underestimating the Small World’s cultivators.

Key plot points and events

• During a heated strategy meeting, the head of the Central Continent Security Bureau warns delegates that powerful cultivators may still live in the Grotto-heaven Small World. The Shenxiao Sect’s Incarnated Ancestors and the possibility of surviving Golden Core cultivators convince the officials that an invasion could provoke devastating retaliation.
• Central Continent revises its plan: rather than attack immediately, it will contact the Daotang Dynasty while allowing America, Britain, other Western European nations, and Japan to test the situation first.
• Central Continent publicly condemns the Western and Japanese military buildup as an invasion. The foreign governments and overseas media respond by presenting their intervention as a mission to bring freedom and modernity.
• Online arguments erupt. Central Province netizens mock the justification and overwhelm foreign commenters with insults; overseas websites eventually ban many of them.
• Western nations and Japan grow concerned that Central Continent controls most of the entry talismans and could reinforce its forces. They hold a joint naval exercise to deter intervention.
• Despite public expectations, Central Continent takes no action. After half a month, the Western and Japanese forces—nearly 10,000 soldiers equipped with modern weapons—begin their planned conquest of Daotang, confident that victory will come quickly.

Character and relationship developments

• The Central Continent officials shift from aggressive posturing to caution after acknowledging the possible strength of the world’s cultivators. They adopt a wait-and-see strategy rather than risk confronting unknown powers.
• Western and Japanese commanders remain wary of Central Continent but grow increasingly confident that Daotang can be conquered with little difficulty.
• Central Province netizens express fierce opposition to the foreign intervention, while foreign media and commentators frame it as liberation—deepening hostility between the two sides.

Significant themes

• Overconfidence versus uncertainty: The foreign powers assume modern weapons will easily defeat a feudal society, while the possible existence of powerful cultivators makes the situation far less predictable.
• Propaganda and competing narratives: Each side presents itself as justified: Central Continent denounces invasion, while the West and Japan claim to be bringing freedom.
• Restraint and strategic calculation: Central Continent’s decision not to act immediately contrasts with the invaders’ confidence and impatience.
• Nationalism and public opinion: Online exchanges and military displays show how the confrontation extends beyond the battlefield into politics and public discourse.

Plot and events

• American, British, other Western European, and Japanese forces launch coordinated assaults on several Daotang towns using tanks, armored vehicles, machine guns, and helicopters.
• The towns’ fifty-man garrisons, armed with traditional weapons and supported by Qi Refining Realm Formation Mages, are overwhelmed within minutes. One American attack leaves only the Military Leader and a mage alive to flee.
• Town leaders send Spirit Pigeons to alert higher authorities. The invading nations seize nearby towns and report their easy victories, prompting celebrations and plans for conquest, immigration, and resource extraction.
• Gu Chen observes the attacks through the system. He considers the outcome predictable but warns himself that the invaders have mistaken initial success for victory: Daotang also contains hidden Daoist cultivators, including Gangsha Realm experts.
• Central Province martial artists and Security Bureau representatives witness the fighting. Online, Central Continent citizens condemn the invasions and demand that their government intervene.

Character developments and interactions

• The invading commanders grow increasingly confident, dismissing Daotang’s people as backward and assuming modern weapons will secure the whole world.
• Daotang’s town heads and residents shift from curiosity to panic as their garrisons are destroyed; the surviving Military Leader and mage escape, while the town heads seek help.
• Gu Chen remains composed and quietly anticipates the invaders’ shock when they meet stronger opponents.
• Central Continent observers recognize modern military superiority in this engagement, while the public expresses anger at the foreign powers’ aggression.

Themes

• Technology versus supernatural power: Modern weapons decisively defeat ordinary troops and low-level magic, though the chapter suggests stronger formations and cultivators may change the balance.
• Overconfidence and hidden strength: Early victories encourage the invaders to underestimate Daotang’s deeper defenses.
• Imperialism and resistance: The foreign powers’ conquest plans provoke public condemnation and calls for intervention.
• Power and scale: Small garrisons cannot withstand modern forces, but Daotang’s more formidable defenders have yet to enter the conflict.

Plot points and events

• Central Continent officials review footage of Western and Japanese forces attacking Daotang. Uncertain how strong Daotang’s higher-level cultivators are, they avoid direct intervention but secretly warn Daotang officials about the invaders.
• In Luoyang, Gu Chen reunites with six Group Chat companions over dinner. They compare their cultivation progress: most have reached Qi Refining, while Gu Chen reveals he recently entered Foundation Establishment after finding a five-hundred-year-old Purple Leaf Cloud Ganoderma.
• The friends discuss the invasion and expect the Daotang Dynasty to retaliate. The Empress has ordered nearby Daoist Academies to send Foundation Establishment cultivators alongside War Soldiers.
• Western and Japanese forces, emboldened by their early victories, expand their attacks. Daotang troops and cultivators from nearby cities move to stop them, bringing the opposing forces into a major confrontation.

Character developments and interactions

• Gu Chen remains far ahead of his friends and demonstrates his Foundation Establishment ability by floating in the air. He also secretly observes events across the small world using System Power.
• Fang Xiu, Liu Qing’er, Li Xingming, Wang Xiaoai, and Ye Zhen react with admiration, envy, and teasing to Gu Chen’s advancement. Ye Zhen maintains his boastful rivalry with him.
• Zhou Yuyan, newly at Qi Refining, envies her friends’ progress and wonders whether the mysterious person who once saved her was a powerful cultivator.
• The reunited group shares camaraderie and confidence in Daotang’s ability to defeat the invaders.

Significant themes

• Caution versus ambition: Central Continent’s officials hold back, while the Western and Japanese forces overreach after initial success.
• Hidden strength and underestimation: Daotang’s old-fashioned appearance conceals powerful armies and cultivators.
• Progress and rivalry: The friends’ different cultivation levels fuel affectionate teasing, envy, and competitive pride.

Key plot points and events

• Elite forces from America, Britain, other Western European nations, and Japan launch coordinated attacks near several Daotang Dynasty cities, confident that tanks, armored vehicles, and helicopters will overwhelm the local defenders.
• Each city’s Cavalry Colonel leads eight hundred elite soldiers in the White Tiger Geng Metal War Formation, which links their strength and channels it through the commander.
• Tank shells strike the formation but fail to break it. The soldiers absorb the impact, astonishing the watching martial artists and security personnel.
• The formation advances under machine-gun fire. Its commander releases a White Tiger-shaped strike of Gengjin Qi, flipping and tearing into a heavy tank.
• The attackers retreat their vehicles and call for helicopter support. As missiles close in, Foundation Establishment disciples rise into the air with their magical weapons. The chapter ends as the invaders sense that the balance may shift again.

Character developments

• The Cavalry Colonels and their soldiers move from cautious appraisal of unfamiliar machines to confident, coordinated action.
• Western and Japanese commanders’ initial contempt gives way to disbelief and alarm as modern weapons prove ineffective against the formation.
• The Foundation Establishment disciples, initially watching from the gates, intervene when the helicopters launch missiles.
• The Central Continent onlookers shift from tense spectators to excited witnesses, recording the reversal.

Significant themes

• Ancient power versus modern technology: Advanced weapons are formidable, but they are not invincible against spiritual cultivation and military formations.
• Collective strength: The soldiers’ unity lets an eight-hundred-person formation produce power beyond that of its individual members.
• Arrogance and humiliation: The invaders’ certainty collapses when their assumptions about the “natives” are disproved.

Character interactions

• The Cavalry Colonels command their troops through shared incantations and coordinated attacks.
• The invading commanders exchange boasts and orders, then react together in shock and call for air support.
• The watching martial artists and security personnel comment on the defenders’ feats and film them.
• The Foundation Establishment disciples answer the missile threat by taking to the air.

Key events

• Daoist Academy Foundation Establishment disciples intercept and destroy missiles, then pursue armed helicopters. Once the helicopters run out of missiles, the disciples disable them, causing them to crash.
• On the ground, eight hundred defenders use the White Tiger Geng Metal War Formation to smash armored vehicles, flip tanks, and defeat the Western and Japanese forces’ mutant warriors and martial artists.
• Within half an hour, the invasion becomes a rout. The attackers flee, with some captured.
• Gu Chen watches the battle through System Power and gains nearly fifty thousand Origin Points. He expects news of the victory to earn him more.
• After the fighting, Liu Qing’er receives confirmation from a friend in Luoyang. Videos of the battle soon spread outside the Grotto-heaven world, provoking widespread attention.

Character developments and interactions

• The invading commanders’ confidence collapses as they realize their intelligence about the Grotto-heaven natives was badly wrong. Their troops’ defeat exposes their lack of preparation and reliance on earlier easy victories.
• Gu Chen is amused by the invaders’ failure and unimpressed by their campaign, noting that stronger cultivators and larger formations have not yet been deployed. When he hints that the battle may already be over, the group-chat members are surprised; Liu Qing’er’s message confirms his prediction.
• The Central Continent observers move from anticipation to admiration, cheering the defenders’ success. Gu Chen’s companions share their satisfaction and suggest celebrating with a drink.

Significant themes

• Supernatural cultivation versus modern technology: Spiritual weapons, flight, and coordinated formations overwhelm missiles, helicopters, armor, and conventional troops.
• Arrogance and faulty intelligence: The invaders underestimate their opponents and pay for treating supposed technological superiority as a guarantee of victory.
• Collective strength: The defenders’ formation, working alongside the Academy disciples, proves more decisive than individual weapons or combatants.
• Public spectacle and shifting morale: Witnesses’ recordings carry the victory beyond the battlefield, turning the defeat into a widely shared event.

Key plot points and events

• Footage of the Daotang Dynasty defeating elite Western and Japanese forces goes viral. Eight hundred soldiers use a Gengjin-powered War Formation to withstand tank fire and overturn a tank, while Foundation Establishment cultivators intercept missiles and bring down attack helicopters.
• Central Continent viewers celebrate the victory, and the Foreign Affairs Office issues a pointed statement condemning aggression. Western and Japanese officials, shocked by the footage, discover their intelligence badly underestimated Daotang’s supernatural capabilities; intelligence staff are blamed and dismissed.
• Back in Coastal City, Gu Chen checks the online reaction and learns that the intense attention has earned him 800,000 Origin Points. Delighted, he considers arranging another incident to draw the Western Nations and Japan into a further defeat.

Character developments

• Gu Chen is pleased by the bounty of Origin Points and reveals a calculating, opportunistic side: he is willing to engineer more conflict for personal gain.
• Western and Japanese officials shift from confidence in modern weapons to shock and embarrassment, then direct their anger at failed intelligence departments.
• Central Continent officials and netizens take satisfaction in the foreign forces’ defeat, treating it as both a military triumph and a public humiliation for their rivals.

Significant themes

• Hidden power and mistaken assumptions: Daotang’s apparently feudal society proves to possess formidable supernatural strength.
• The limits of technology: Tanks, missiles, and aircraft are ineffective against the dynasty’s War Formation and cultivators.
• Public attention as a resource: The viral spectacle translates directly into Origin Points for Gu Chen.
• Triumph and opportunism: A victory celebrated as justice also becomes an opportunity for Gu Chen to profit and potentially provoke more conflict.

Character interactions

• Daotang’s soldiers and Daoist Academy cultivators work together to repel the invading forces.
• Central Continent netizens celebrate the victory and mock the Western and Japanese defeat; officials echo that sentiment through an ostensibly formal diplomatic statement.
• Western and Japanese leaders react to the footage by scrutinizing their intelligence agencies and removing those held responsible.
• Gu Chen observes the worldwide reaction from outside the small world and privately weighs how to exploit it again.

Plot and key events

• After their defeat by the Daotang Dynasty in the Grotto-heaven Small World, America, Britain, Western Europe, and Japan abandon plans for direct conquest. They instead send covert agents to investigate the locals’ supernatural cultivation.
• The Daoist Academy’s Foundation Establishment disciples swiftly reclaim the occupied towns. Captured foreign soldiers are branded with Slave Marks and forced to mine ore; their protests about freedom and prisoners’ rights are met with a whipping.
• Intelligence agents learn that the world’s cultivation system is taught through government-run Daoist Academies and independent Daoist Sects. The foreign powers decide to infiltrate and steal cultivation methods.
• They rule out the academies, whose entrance trials, required service, and scrutiny make infiltration too risky, and turn instead to the less restrictive sects.
• Meanwhile, Central Continent reaches an agreement with the Daotang Dynasty, helps build infrastructure, and sends officials to study at the academies; most quickly enter the Qi Refining Realm.
• Gu Chen discovers the foreign powers’ plan and realizes they are targeting major Daoist Sects whose members include Gangsha Realm experts. He sees an opportunity to provoke a disaster and harvest Origin Points.

Character developments and interactions

• The foreign powers shift from confidence in military force to cautious espionage after discovering they cannot match Daotang’s cultivators.
• Captured soldiers learn that their modern expectations of humane treatment carry no weight under Daotang rule; the mine inspector enforces obedience through force.
• Central Continent’s officials build a cooperative relationship with Daotang, contrasting with the foreign powers’ covert, hostile approach.
• Gu Chen moves from hesitating over whether to engineer a trap to eagerly welcoming the foreigners’ reckless plan as a chance to profit.

Significant themes

• Power and pragmatism: Military superiority is useless against supernatural abilities, forcing the outsiders to change tactics.
• Clashing systems of justice: The prisoners’ appeals to human rights collide with Daotang’s harsh treatment of defeated invaders.
• Knowledge as power: Cultivation methods become the next strategic prize, pursued through diplomacy or espionage.
• Manipulation and unintended consequences: The foreign agents’ ambition may lead them into danger—and provide Gu Chen with exactly the opportunity he wants.

Plot and events

• Western nations and Japan lose nearly 90% of the troops they sent into the Grotto-heaven World, but publicly promise retaliation and rescue while privately focusing on stealing its supernatural knowledge and treasures.
• Their spies initially infiltrate small temples, gaining only basic Qi Refining techniques and minor artifacts. Frustrated by the slow path to advanced teachings in major Daoist sects, the nations devise a faster, riskier plan.
• Spies infiltrate Tianshi Dao, the Maoshan Sect, Louguan Dao, and other great traditions. During a coordinated assault using explosives, missiles, and drones, they trigger further explosions inside the sects and use the resulting chaos to raid Scripture Repositories and Ancestor Halls.
• Gu Chen watches the operation through his System Power. He recognizes that stealing revered artifacts is likely to provoke a severe response—and sees an opportunity to bring Gangsha experts into the real world and gain more Origin Points.

Character developments and interactions

• The Western and Japanese governments appear cautious in public but act aggressively behind the scenes, valuing cultivation secrets over rescuing their captured soldiers.
• Their spy agents move from patient infiltration to outright theft when normal advancement proves too slow. Their raids pit them directly against the Daoist sects’ defenders, including Foundation Establishment disciples drawn out by the attacks.
• Gu Chen shifts from observer to opportunistic strategist: rather than intervening, he anticipates the sects’ retaliation and considers how to profit from it.

Significant themes

• Greed and impatience: The nations’ desire for powerful techniques leads them to abandon long-term infiltration for a dangerous raid.
• Deception and escalation: Spies disguise themselves as disciples, while attacks intended to create a diversion turn the theft into an open provocation.
• Power and opportunism: Gu Chen treats the coming conflict as both a threat to the infiltrators and a chance to harvest rewards.

Plot points and events

• Western nations and Japan launch a coordinated nighttime assault on Tianshi Dao, Maoshan Sect, and Louguan Dao, using missiles, drones, and explosions inside the sect grounds.
• The sects’ Mountain Protection Arrays block the missiles and drone munitions. Their Foundation Establishment disciples shoot down the attacking drones.
• Explosions draw guards away from key locations, allowing infiltrators to target the Scripture Repositories and Ancestor Halls. Their goal is to steal Daoist cultivation texts and treasured artifacts.
• The attacks trigger the Ancestor Halls’ protective arrays and rouse the sect leaders, elders, and secluded Gangsha Experts, who respond furiously.
• News and video of the assault spread through the Grotto-heaven Small World and into the present-day world, provoking widespread shock.

Character developments and interactions

• Present-day visitors and newcomers at the three sects move from confusion to understanding as they realize the bombardment is a diversion for a planned infiltration.
• The Foundation Establishment disciples respond quickly, defending the sects and pursuing the explosions.
• Sect leaders and elders, initially roused by the thefts, display their outrage and mobilize the powerful Gangsha Experts.
• The attackers’ coordinated use of agents, explosives, and aerial weapons shows deliberate planning, but their assault also unites the sects in defense.

Significant themes

• Hubris and consequences: The attackers’ audacity turns into a grave provocation by awakening the sects’ strongest defenders.
• Modern weapons versus spiritual defenses: Missiles and drones cause alarm but are stopped by ancient arrays and magical power.
• Diversion and infiltration: The bombardment is a cover for theft, showing that the real danger lies beyond the visible attack.
• Escalation and public spectacle: Videos spread the crisis beyond the sects, making the assault a major international and inter-world event.

Chapter Summary

• Key events: The Western nations and Japan used missiles and drones to raid Tianshi Dao, the Maoshan Sect, and Louguan Dao inside the Daotang Cave Heaven. They stole the sects’ cultivation classics and the spiritual treasures kept in their Ancestor Halls, provoking widespread outrage.
• Public and official reaction: The raids dominated Central Continent’s news and online discussion. Many questioned whether the sects’ Gangsha Realm experts could leave the small world and retaliate. The Central Continent Security Bureau and provincial officials urgently assessed that possibility, mindful of the devastation powerful cultivators could cause.
• Character developments: No individual character takes center stage, but the three sects’ leaders and elders are presented as potentially formidable forces whose response may determine what happens next. Their anger is implied by the scale of the theft and the sect-wide summons.
• Interactions and turning point: The modern-world visitors staying at the sects’ mountain gates watch anxiously for a response. Then nine bells ring from the three sects’ Council Halls—the highest-level assembly order—summoning every disciple. The chapter ends as the sects appear ready to decide how to answer the attack.
• Themes: The chapter explores the danger of provoking powerful opponents, the uncertainty surrounding the boundary between the modern world and the grotto-heaven, and the tension between a successful raid and its possible long-term consequences.

Chapter Summary

• The Three Great Daoist Sects display their strength: After the sect bell summons them, hundreds of Foundation Establishment disciples and more than a thousand Qi Refining disciples gather before the Daoist Palace. Visitors from the present-day world are astonished by the sects’ scale and power.
• The leaders respond to the thefts: Ten Gangsha Realm Experts arrive—four from Tianshi Dao, three from the Maoshan Sect, and three from Louguan Dao. They condemn the theft of Daoist Classics and spiritual treasures as an insult to all Daoist sects, add infiltrating spies and agents to a joint hunt list, and name the Western Nations and Japan as enemies.
• The response remains unclear: The Gangsha experts and Daoists from the present-day world depart for the Daoist Council Hall without explaining how the outside powers will be punished. Their departure leaves observers wondering whether the experts can enter the modern world.
• Warnings are rejected: The three sects publicly demand that America, Britain, other Western European nations, and Japan return the stolen items. Those governments dismiss the warnings, boast that the loot is theirs, and challenge the Daoists to confront them.
• A direct response is prepared: Outraged by the defiance, the modern-world Daoists report back to the grotto-heaven. Foundation Establishment disciples and Gangsha elders are already preparing a teleportation array to send people into the present-day world.

Character and Relationship Developments

The Three Great Daoist Sects’ leaders act in unity, turning the theft into a collective cause rather than a dispute between individual sects. Their resolve contrasts sharply with the outside powers’ contemptuous confidence. The present-day visitors shift from awe at the sects’ strength to uncertainty about what the leaders intend—and apprehension as preparations suggest the conflict may soon become physical.

Significant Themes

• Power and institutional strength: The massed disciples and Gangsha experts reveal the formidable foundations of the ancient sects.
• Arrogance and consequences: The outside powers assume the Daoists cannot retaliate, while the sects’ preparations suggest that assumption may be dangerously mistaken.
• Unity and retaliation: A shared attack draws the three sects together and sets the stage for a coordinated response.
• Escalation between worlds: The potential use of a teleportation array raises the stakes from public threats to possible direct conflict in the modern world.

Key plot points and events

• Gu Chen establishes the rules for crossing between the Grotto-heaven Small World and reality: Qi Refining cultivators can use Jade Talismans, but Foundation Establishment cultivators and Gangsha Realm Experts require Teleportation Arrays. This restricts powerful cultivators’ movement and helps Gu Chen maintain balance—and continue harvesting Origin Points.
• While the Daoist Three Great Sects build their arrays, they make no major moves beyond pursuing Western and Japanese arrivals. Real-world observers suspect the sects cannot yet leave, and some begin eyeing other sects.
• Western nations and Japan, fearing retaliation, keep their militaries on alert. When no cultivators appear, they relax and focus on the Daoist texts and Spiritual Artifacts they stole.
• Western researchers struggle to understand the Daoist Classics without the cultural background needed to interpret their concepts. Japanese researchers fare somewhat better but rely on incomplete knowledge and ninja traditions, likely producing unorthodox cultivation.
• Research on the Spiritual Artifacts yields more promising results: Western scientists discover extraordinarily dense, durable energy sources, while Japanese researchers copy artifact runes onto ninja tools and find that they work.
• After nearly seven days, the Daoist Three Great Sects finish their Teleportation Arrays. Their Gangsha Experts activate them, with Foundation Establishment disciples ready beside them. Arrays then appear above the Western and Japanese research facilities, locking onto the stolen texts and artifacts.

Character developments

• Gu Chen reveals that the limits on travel were intentional. He remains confident and patient, waiting for the arrays’ completion.
• The Daoist Three Great Sects’ cultivators shift from restraint to imminent action, preparing to cross into reality.
• Western and Japanese researchers move from frustration with the texts to excitement over the artifacts, becoming increasingly convinced they can gain power from them.
• Real-world martial artists grow bolder while the major sects appear unable to intervene.

Significant themes

• Power requires control: Restrictions on travel prevent powerful cultivators from destabilizing the worlds.
• Knowledge depends on cultural context: Technical translation alone cannot convey the meaning of a tradition’s concepts.
• Technology and ancient power converge: Modern instruments and research methods uncover the artifacts’ energy, while copied runes bridge magic and technology.
• False security: The nations lower their guard just as the Daoist sects complete their means of reaching reality.

Character interactions

• Gu Chen observes the sects’ progress and anticipates the consequences of the travel rules he designed.
• The sects’ silence leaves real-world observers uncertain, encouraging some to test the limits elsewhere.
• Western and Japanese researchers collaborate within their institutions, but interpret the Daoist material through very different cultural lenses.
• The chapter closes with the Daoist cultivators poised to confront the institutions studying their stolen possessions.

Key plot points and events

• Enormous, glowing Teleportation Arrays suddenly appear above secret research facilities in America, Britain and Western Europe, and Japan. Their runes resemble Central Continent’s Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
• The phenomenon attracts public attention and spreads rapidly through online videos and live news reports, despite the governments’ efforts to keep the facilities secret.
• Central Continent’s netizens connect the arrays to a recent clash in the Grotto-heaven World, where those nations stole Daoist texts and magical treasures and provoked the Three Great Daoist Sects.
• The arrays activate, and Gangsha Realm Experts from the Three Great Daoist Sects emerge above the facilities. Officials recognize them and realize the sects have found a way into the modern world using Teleportation Arrays, bypassing the limits of Jade Talismans.
• Gu Chen, who arranged the developments, watches with delight, expecting the unfolding conflict to earn him many Origin Points.

Character developments

• Britain’s queen moves from curiosity to foreboding, suspects the array is connected to the earlier Grotto-heaven operation, and orders elite troops to prepare.
• Officials and researchers in all three regions shift from alarm at the unexplained phenomenon to dread when they recognize the Daoist visitors.
• Gu Chen reveals his self-interested motive: he wants the confrontation to last, since its publicity and consequences will generate more Origin Points.

Significant themes

• Consequences of provocation: the nations’ thefts and attacks have invited retaliation from powerful sects.
• Modern secrecy versus public exposure: governments cannot contain a crisis once phones, livestreams, and social media spread it worldwide.
• Technology and supernatural power: modern Jade Talismans seemed to offer protection, but the sects overcome that barrier with an older supernatural method—Teleportation Arrays.
• Spectacle as opportunity: while others face danger, Gu Chen treats the crisis as a source of reward.

Character interactions

• The queen receives an urgent warning from the Privy Council and responds by mobilizing royal troops.
• Reporters and online viewers broadcast and discuss the arrays, while Central Continent’s netizens identify their symbols and interpret the arrival as retaliation.
• Daoist experts appear before officials who recognize them as members of the Three Great Sects, setting the stage for a confrontation between the sects and the countries that provoked them.

Key plot points and events

• The Daoist Three Great Sects launch a coordinated counterattack, sending Gangsha Realm leaders and Foundation Establishment disciples into the modern world through Teleportation Arrays.
• The Central Continent watches with relief: it had cooperated with the Daotang Dynasty and received a cultivation method instead of stealing the sects’ scriptures and treasures. Its foreign affairs office openly mocks the countries now facing the sects’ retaliation.
• In America, Tianshi Dao’s Celestial Master Zhang Jidao arrives at Area 51 with two elders and fifty disciples. He destroys a helicopter with a casual strike and threatens the Americans for stealing Tianshi Dao’s scriptures and ancestral treasures.
• In Britain, Maoshan Sect leader Mao Mingfeng arrives with an elder and thirty-six disciples. He crushes a rocket with Gangsha Qi and leads his disciples toward the Royal Research Institute.
• In Japan, Louguan Dao leader Tao Wanjin arrives with an elder and thirty disciples. She destroys attacking tanks with her horsetail whisk’s water-blue Gangsha Qi.
• Online spectators in the Central Continent celebrate the spectacle, while Western and Japanese officials and military personnel are alarmed by the overwhelming power of the invaders.

Character developments

• Zhang Jidao, Mao Mingfeng, and Tao Wanjin are introduced as forceful, confident leaders who personally confront the nations accused of stealing their sects’ property.
• Their followers demonstrate that the sects’ retaliation is organized and substantial, not merely a few leaders acting alone.
• Central Continent officials show cautious relief at having avoided a similar confrontation through cooperation.

Significant themes

• Consequences and retaliation: The sects respond directly to the theft of their scriptures and Spiritual Artifacts.
• Modern technology versus cultivation: Rockets, helicopters, fighter jets, and tanks prove ineffective against Gangsha Realm power.
• Political schadenfreude: The Central Continent treats its rivals’ predicament as deserved payback.
• Power and deterrence: The sects’ dramatic displays establish the danger of provoking forces whose abilities surpass modern weapons.

Character interactions

• The sect leaders accuse the Americans, British, and Japanese of theft and defiance, then attack their military responses.
• Area 51 personnel desperately call for reinforcements, while arriving pilots and crews realize they may be facing a hopeless fight.
• Central Continent officials publicly taunt the targeted nations, and online commenters cheer the sect leaders—especially Tao Wanjin and Louguan Dao’s female disciples.

Plot points and events

• The Daoist Three Great Sects launch a coordinated assault on research institutes in Freedom City, Britain, and Japan, seeking stolen Daoist Classics and spiritual artifacts.
• Modern forces open fire. Missiles, tanks, aircraft, and guns cannot harm the sects’ Gangsha Realm experts, whose protective energy shatters the attacks.
• The Foundation Establishment disciples are more vulnerable, but still prove far stronger than the human defenders.
• At Area 51, Colonel Wilson is ordered to stop Tianshi Dao. His Demonic Bloodline Mutant Warriors charge, but are swiftly battered aside, and the disciples enter the institute.
• In Britain, Maoshan disciples overwhelm the Royal Knights and advance into the Royal Research Institute.
• In Japan, Fujimoto leads drug-enhanced martial artists in a desperate, suicidal defense against Louguan Dao. The disciples kill them quickly and continue inward.
• By the chapter’s end, all three groups are pressing toward the locations of the items they came to reclaim, while their Gangsha Realm elders dominate the skies.

Character developments and interactions

• Wilson recognizes the attackers’ superiority and hesitates, but obeys the order despite expecting his warriors to die.
• Fujimoto and his martial artists embrace sacrifice as a patriotic and religious duty; their courage cannot overcome the power gap.
• The Daoist disciples treat the defenders with disdain or brief acknowledgment of their bravery, then defeat them without being meaningfully slowed.
• Human officials and military leaders respond with urgency and desperation, but their commands and forces have little effect.

Significant themes

• The gulf between modern technology and cultivation: Conventional weapons are useless against the strongest cultivators, while even elite human fighters are outmatched by Foundation Establishment disciples.
• Resistance and sacrifice: Defenders risk their lives under orders or out of patriotic conviction, despite bleak odds.
• Power and inevitability: The attackers’ overwhelming strength makes the invasions feel unstoppable, leaving the research institutes—and the treasures inside—exposed.

Plot and key events

• The Daoist Three Great Sects send Gangsha Realm Experts and Foundation Establishment Disciples through Teleportation Arrays to Freedom City, Fog City, and Edo, then swiftly reclaim the stolen Daoist Classics and Spiritual Artifacts from research facilities in America, Britain, and Japan.
• The disciples overwhelm the facilities’ defenses. Researchers who try to protect their work are knocked unconscious.
• After recovering the artifacts, the Gangsha Experts unleash their power to demolish the facilities’ reinforced walls. This is a warning rather than a massacre: no one is killed, but the leaders understand that the experts could have wiped them out.
• The sects track down and capture the agents responsible for the theft, then return to the Grotto-heaven Small World through the Teleportation Arrays.
• The Western nations and Japan breathe easier, while authorities arrive to deal with the destruction. Online, people in Central Province celebrate the sects’ victory. The incident leaves people in the modern world more wary of provoking powerful cultivators.
• Gu Chen watches the sects depart and turns his attention to assessing the gains from the affair, which he orchestrated.

Character developments and interactions

• The researchers’ intense attachment to their discoveries makes them desperate to resist the disciples, but their helplessness underscores the disparity between modern technology and cultivation.
• The Gangsha Experts show both overwhelming strength and restraint: they punish and intimidate, but spare the people inside the facilities.
• The facility leaders recognize the destruction as a deliberate warning. The captured agents are brought before the sect leaders.
• Gu Chen remains quietly satisfied, revealing himself as the person behind the events and preparing to evaluate his rewards.

Significant themes

• The imbalance of power: Cultivators easily overcome modern weapons and defenses.
• Consequences and deterrence: The sects reclaim what was stolen and use force to discourage future interference.
• Knowledge and ambition: Researchers see the artifacts as revolutionary scientific opportunities, but cannot claim them against the sects’ authority.
• Gu Chen’s hidden influence: The apparent international confrontation is also part of his larger scheme.

Plot and key events

• The Daoist Three Great Sects’ attacks on Western and Japanese capitals make headlines worldwide. Gu Chen, the mastermind, gains one million Origin Points.
• Having already gathered most of the Baleful Qi needed for his next advancement, he decides to spend his points and break through to the Gangsha Realm.
• Seeking privacy—and a taste of ordinary life—Gu Chen travels by bus to a remote island. Two young women notice his Daoist-style appearance and discuss approaching him, but let him leave without asking for his contact details.
• On the island, Gu Chen begins combining spiritual energy with Baleful Qi to form Gangsha Qi. The process would normally take weeks, so he uses his formidable Qi and Blood Power to compress the energies and accelerate the transformation.
• After several hours, the process culminates in a spectacular eruption of Seven-Colored Gangsha Qi. Gu Chen emerges from the island and plunges into the sea, completing his breakthrough.
• The two women photograph the phenomenon and recognize Gu Chen inside it, regretting that they did not speak to him earlier.

Character development and interactions

• Gu Chen shows both immense power and a desire to remain connected to ordinary life. Despite his ability to control events and advance rapidly, he deliberately takes a bus and enjoys a mundane journey. His confidence in his body’s strength also leads him to force a breakthrough that ordinary cultivators could not survive.
• The two young women are curious and attracted to Gu Chen, but hesitate to approach him. Seeing him emerge within the rainbow-like energy turns their missed chance into a humorous regret.
• Their brief, playful conversation contrasts with Gu Chen’s serious cultivation and foreshadows their surprise at witnessing his breakthrough.

Significant themes

• Power and humanity: Gu Chen’s immense influence has made him feel detached from ordinary life, so he seeks simple experiences to regain perspective.
• Strength and risk: His physical cultivation lets him accelerate a dangerous process, demonstrating both the value of bodily power and the extraordinary danger of his method.
• The hidden extraordinary in everyday life: A routine bus ride and a quiet island become the setting for an event that draws public attention and transforms the two women’s impression of an ordinary-looking stranger.