Chapter Summaries

Li Fan watched Bai Shuangying fight two Heng Mountain disciples while analyzing the Shangqing True-Descending Demon-Subduing Skill, then investigated the demons escaping their seals at Yunmeng Marsh. He captured a weak Heng Mountain true disciple who attacked him and began to suspect that the sect’s forces were missing or involved in a larger scheme.

• Li Fan covertly cleared Bai Shuangying’s cultivation blockages, allowing her to fight two Heng Mountain disciples with improved Shangqing demon-subduing true qi.
• Li Fan sensed successive surges of demonic qi and flew through the battle, distracting Bai Shuangying’s opponents so she could defeat one and pursue the other.
• Li Fan inspected the third demon’s seal and found signs that someone had secretly fed baleful qi to the sealed demons, likely using the God Sect’s methods.
• A Heng Mountain cultivator ambushed Li Fan with a jade ruyi, but Li Fan broke the treasure, pursued the fleeing man, and crushed his shoulder before sealing and capturing him.
• Li Fan and Xuantian realized the captured Nascent Soul cultivator was probably a recently advanced true disciple, leaving Li Fan to wonder why Heng Mountain had so few people responding to three escaped demons.

Li Fan followed his compass to a Hengshan shrine, intending to rob it, and discovered that Hengshan cultivators were fighting over a hidden Sword Casting Pool. He joined the battle and killed everyone there, while an unexplained burst of speed left him wondering what had happened.

• Li Fan tracked the compass to a fortified Hengshan shrine and decided to infiltrate it for its treasures.
• Xuantian recognized that the shrine had been moved and revealed that it held Hengshan's Sword Casting Pool, which had come from Hotong Mountain.
• Three Hengshan Nascent Soul cultivators attacked two Divine Lords, and Li Fan realized the fight was likely an effort to root out traitors.
• Li Fan charged into the battle near its end, killed the fleeing Divine Lord, and turned on the remaining Hengshan cultivators.
• Li Fan suddenly moved with extreme speed, killed the cultivators, and was urged by Xuantian to destroy their treasures as well.

Li Fan raided Hotong Mountain's Sword Casting Manor, stealing Sword Talisman blueprints and equipment before discovering a protected Sword Pool containing forty-eight unfinished swords. Convinced Hengshan would become Ink Bamboo Mountain's enemy, he decided to sabotage the swords, and Xuantian explained how to use a sealed chest and a luminous pearl to do it; Li Fan revealed he had a Suihou Pearl.

• Li Fan destroyed the magical treasures and collected Sword Talisman blueprints and other materials from Hotong Mountain's Sword Casting Manor.
• Li Fan followed Xuantian through a hidden waterway and discovered that the Sword Pool was linked to the manor by a spatial-transfer mechanism guarded by the Four Sacred Beasts.
• Xuantian warned Li Fan that taking the forty-eight swords would alarm Hengshan, but Li Fan resolved to destroy them because he considered Hengshan an enemy of Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Xuantian explained that Li Fan could project Sword Talismans onto the unfinished swords by hanging a luminous pearl on a qilin statue, though opening the sealed chest would alert Hengshan.
• Li Fan produced a Suihou Pearl, surprising Xuantian with the rare treasure.

Li Fan sabotaged Hengshan’s sword-forging equipment, then discovered that his northern Daoist body had become a powerful half-human, half-tiger Non-Thing that was nearing Divine Transformation. Driven by hunger, he attacked a Company mining shuttle excavating an ancient demon city and took control of it, where he prepared to investigate what the Company was seeking.

• Li Fan activated the Suihou Pearl, damaged Hengshan’s flying swords, and followed Xuantian’s advice to smear evil qi on the precisely fitted qilin parts before fleeing Hengshan.
• Li Fan returned to the northern sword array and found that Daoist Qiongqi’s body had become a half-human, half-tiger Non-Thing controlled in part by Qiongqi and Guiche.
• Li Fan realized that the transformed body was rapidly growing stronger and that the Taosu primordial spirits might turn it into a Divine Transformation Non-Thing Devil Embryo.
• Overcome by hunger, Li Fan flew to a Company mining operation and evaded its defensive drones and energy weapons.
• Li Fan entered the mining shuttle, killed and consumed its cloned crew, then used the Chang Gui to learn about the Company’s effort to excavate an ancient demon city and recover equipment.
• Li Fan learned that the advance team was exploring the buried city and began learning how to pilot the shuttle while waiting to discover the Company’s target.

Li Fan watched the Company's advance team search the underground Demon Race city while a spiny slug approached from the frozen sea. After Non-Things overwhelmed the team and a surviving combatant detonated a tactical nuclear device, the mine collapsed and Li Fan began preparing to dig for the hidden target himself.

• Li Fan learned to operate the shuttle, made emergency biscuits, and watched the advance team destroy its way through the underground city toward the target.
• A whale-sized spiny slug approached the ruins, while the advance team encountered swarms of flesh-like Non-Things and lost its drone support.
• The Company's orders drove the combatants onward despite their injuries and deaths, until one survivor reached a giant eyeball-covered lump of flesh.
• The surviving combatant inserted a metal canister into the giant creature, triggering a nuclear fusion blast that collapsed the underground mine and cut off all signals.
• The spiny slug fled back into the frozen sea, and Li Fan decided to start mining.

Li Fan destroyed the company’s shuttle and recovered a black iron wok that had survived the nuclear blast, then discovered he was communicating with the company and the Outer Realm Legion through a virtual network. Both factions tried to bargain for the wok, which the Octopus-headed Sergeant identified as a priceless “monster,” leaving Li Fan to realize he might possess more such objects.

• Li Fan found that the nuclear blast had destroyed the huge flesh lump but left smaller lumps and an apparent target, while the shuttle’s automatic recovery system began retrieving it.
• Li Fan tore apart the shuttle and its drones, cleared the remaining flesh lumps, and recovered a plain black iron wok from the mine.
• After leaving his clone, Li Fan found himself in the shuttle’s main cabin as Qingxu Second Yuanshen and answered a call from the company’s Apostle.
• The Octopus-headed Sergeant arrived through the virtual channel and offered Li Fan a place in the Ten Absolutes God Sect, while the Apostle countered with promises of power and wealth.
• The Octopus-headed Sergeant explained that the wok was a priceless “monster” that could pass through a gate, and Li Fan realized he might have several such objects.

Li Fan learned that the pot could cross the Door and sought a drug that might let Qiongqi pass as human, while his original body faced a pursuer and a flying-sword ambush. He found a blood-soaked altar and learned from Xuantian that the attackers were tied to the Beichen Killing Sword and its Sword Attendants.

• Octopus-headed Sergeant offered Li Fan a drug that could make him human and gave him the location of an injector, but the company employee cut off their conversation and Li Fan was expelled from the channel.
• Li Fan decided to keep the pot and retrieve the drug so Qiongqi could travel safely across the Central Plains, then flew west with the pot swallowed in his clone.
• After Li Fan returned to his original body, Xuantian warned him that a Nascent Soul body cultivator had followed them from Heng Mountain.
• Li Fan fought the masked pursuer, identified his White Crane Fist as a secret technique of Hotong Mountain, and learned from Xuantian that the stolen Sword Talismans might be the reason for the attack.
• Two flying swords ambushed Li Fan, but he deflected them and traced their launch points to a forest altar holding a mutilated child’s corpse.
• Xuantian identified the child as a Sword Attendant and recognized the altar’s technique as the lost Beichen Killing Sword.

Li Fan learned that the Sword Attendants’ lethal technique came from the Sword Sect’s ancient sword-nourishing art, and Xuantian revealed he had once been one himself. After Li Fan burned the bodies, he spoke with the Yin Fish Child and Yang Fish Child about the company, the Legion, and the monster, then arranged for them to attack the company’s cruiser.

• Xuantian explained how the Sword Attendant technique concealed flying swords inside children and described the brutal training its practitioners endured.
• Xuantian revealed that he had been a Sword Attendant under Tiangang and recounted how outer-mountain disciples were made to serve the ancestral mountain’s heirs.
• Li Fan burned the Sword Attendants’ bodies and poured wine onto the funeral pyre while discussing the Sword Sect’s abuses with Xuantian.
• Li Fan asked the Yin Fish Child and Yang Fish Child about the monster, the company, the Legion, and the Door; they said they would not interfere with his dealings but could help recover the monster through his true body.
• Li Fan offered the cauldron in exchange for help protecting Ink Bamboo Mountain, and the Yin Fish Child and Yang Fish Child agreed to destroy the company’s cruiser the following night.

Li Fan drove off a group of orthodox cultivators who accused him of demonic practices, then encountered five Immortal Palace cultivators carrying young girls. He recognized Nangong Wuqing among them and abducted her as he continued south.

• Li Fan faced five Nascent Soul cultivators outside the Moon Worship formation, who accused him of practicing demonic arts after Shenxiao Yuqing Bikong Dunyin revealed the burned child’s remains.
• Li Fan fought Tian Xiren of Danxia Mountain, severed his right arm with the Tai Sha Sword Embryo, and kept Tian Xiren’s sword after he conceded.
• Li Fan identified himself as Li Yaoshi from the South Sea and gave Pei Shiqing a Golden Dragon hairpin for Xu Luoyan; Pei Shiqing and Yan Benjing departed, and Cai Zhun left soon after.
• Li Fan reburied the child’s remains and flew south, where he came across five Immortal Palace cultivators carrying young girls in baskets.
• Li Fan recognized one girl as Nangong Wuqing, sealed the five cultivators’ meridians, and carried the girl away in her basket.

Li Fan saved a young girl from being consumed by Nangong Wuqing’s reincarnated soul, then worked with the system to infiltrate a survey ship and destroy a company cruiser threatening Ink Bamboo Mountain. The cruiser disintegrated in orbit disguised as Zhu Long, and Li Fan learned the system had finished the attack before its planned half-hour show was over.

• Li Fan recognized Nangong Wuqing’s reincarnation in a kidnapped girl and decided to prevent her past-life soul from possessing the child.
• Li Fan and Xuantian used a sword formation to pierce the Vermilion Bird egg in the girl’s divine court, allowing its primordial spirit to nourish her instead of awaken and take over.
• Li Fan entered the Abyss and learned the system planned to use a Scientific Ethics Council survey ship to hack a company cruiser and make it self-destruct.
• Li Fan teleported to the survey ship, simulated the Octopus-headed Sergeant’s ghost-shell, and connected to the ship’s control room while the system took over its systems.
• Li Fan provided voice authorization, and the system revealed it had already made the cruiser disintegrate, though it kept up a half-hour electronic-warfare charade.
• The system projected the cruiser’s destruction near Earth’s North Pole and revealed that the ship’s disguise was Zhu Long.

Li Fan authorized the destruction of Zhu Long, a company-made biological cruiser, and feared that his choice would intensify the conflict between civilizations. Days later, he reached Peach Blossom Mountain amid shifting alliances and signs that the age of chaos had begun.

• Li Fan authorized a trap that would destroy the company Apostle’s system, then obtained Zhu Long’s genetic schematics and access to its Iron Guards and tomb complex.
• Li Fan ordered the system to dismantle Zhu Long, scattering its burning remains across the Central Plains and leaving him afraid of the conflict his actions might accelerate.
• Xuantian celebrated the falling stars as an omen of chaos while Qingyue slept, and Li Fan accepted that they would press on despite the risks.
• Li Fan crossed the mountains and reached Peach Blossom Mountain, where Nangong Wudi’s army had occupied the strategic border region and local factions had united under the Nangong Family.
• Li Fan learned that the Empress Dowager had died after a reported clash with the Guardian General, deepening the rift between the Ziwei Yuan and the Grand Tutor Manor.

Li Fan and Li Tangyuan traveled incognito through Peach Blossom Mountain while Li Fan assessed the turmoil and planned to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain. At an inn, he overheard a meeting between Nangong officers and Li Country soldiers that ended with Commandant Niu Yunguang promising to attack Northern Town.

• Li Fan disguised himself and Li Tangyuan to slip past the Nangong Family's forces and stopped at an inn during their journey home.
• Li Fan learned that the Central Plains factions were distracted by Zhu Long's scattered remains and planned to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain and cultivate.
• Li Fan named the hungry girl Li Tangyuan while they ate peach-blossom rice balls at the inn.
• Niu Yunguang and Su Yu told two Nangong officers that Grand Tutor Wang E had sidelined them and asked to defect, but the Nangong woman ordered them to help seize Northern Town.
• After Niu Yunguang explained that Wei Hu controlled the town's defenses, the Nangong woman insulted him and his men, prompting Li Country soldiers to surround the group.
• Niu Yunguang vowed to kill Wei Gao and take Northern Town, then rode east with his men; the Nangong officers returned to camp while Li Fan advised Li Tangyuan to be polite.

Li Fan followed the border patrol deserters into Beizhen to see what Wei Gao would do as the Nangong army threatened the city. Wei Gao exposed and executed Niu Yunguang, then rallied the garrison to swear an oath to defend Li Country.

• Li Fan crossed Peach Blossom Mountain into Li Country and slipped into Beizhen after spotting Captain Niu Yunguang and his men.
• Wei Gao distributed back pay and severance wages to the soldiers, allowing those unwilling to fight to leave the garrison.
• Niu Yunguang and Su Yu were seized in the Duhu Manor after being lured into a side hall, while Wei Gao’s young clerk swallowed a talisman to cast a curse.
• Wei Gao had Niu Yunguang brought before the soldiers and forced him to reveal that he planned to surrender Beizhou to the Nangong army for a reward.
• Wei Gao beheaded Niu Yunguang, challenged the soldiers to leave or fight, and led those who stayed in a blood oath to defend Li Country.

Li Fan learned that the God Sect remnants in Northern Town were secretly supporting Wei Gao, then traveled to Ink Bamboo Mountain’s Southern Town camp. Real Person Wei assigned Li Fan to capture Huang Hai alive and told him to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain, while Li Fan left Li Tangyuan in his care.

• Xuantian told Li Fan that the God Sect controlled Northern Town and that its local altar supported Wei Gao’s defense.
• Li Fan revealed himself to Xue Tao as a God Sect Protector, instructed her to support Wei Gao and distrust false envoys, and gave her a gold hairpin worth twenty million.
• Li Fan spotted Li Country troops near Northern Town, avoided their camp, and traveled south with Li Tangyuan.
• Li Fan reached Southern Town, registered at the Lou Guan Dao altar, and met Real Person Wei, who told him that Ink Bamboo Mountain had signed a non-aggression pact with the Nangong Family.
• Real Person Wei assigned Li Fan to capture Huang Hai alive and return to Ink Bamboo Mountain, and Li Fan left Li Tangyuan in his care.

Li Fan accompanied Censor-in-Chief Wei Gao to the Nangong camp to demand the return of Huang Hai and other Li Country criminals. Wei Gao provoked a confrontation and revealed he was prepared to die defending Beizhen, leaving Li Fan stunned as the Nangong gathered against them.

• Li Fan met Wei Gao outside Beizhen and learned Wei Gao had an informant among the Nangong troops but did not know Huang Hai's location.
• Wei Gao questioned Li Fan about his pursuit of Huang Hai and argued that restoring order required a capable ruler and ministers, while Li Fan rejected his approach.
• Wei Gao invited Li Fan to join him at the Nangong camp, where they demanded the return of Li Country criminals sheltered by the Nangong.
• Nangong Wutian threatened Wei Gao, and Li Fan knocked him back when he tried to strike.
• Wei Gao declared he had prepared a blood tomb and would defend Beizhen to the death, while Xuantian explained his resolve to become a guardian spirit if killed.

Li Fan and Wei Gao forced the Nangong Family to surrender wanted criminals by threatening to expose its alleged treason and ties to the demonic path. Wei Gao revealed that the prisoners were his spies, but Li Fan chose to take them back for public punishment before flying south.

• Wei Gao provoked the Nangong Family at Starwatching Terrace, and Li Fan held back their attackers while preventing the confrontation from becoming a massacre.
• Wei Gao drew a dagger and accused the Nangong Family of rebellion, harboring sect renegades, and colluding with the demonic path, prompting Li Fan to threaten a crackdown.
• Nangong Wutian agreed to hand over the wanted criminals, and Li Fan and Wei Gao searched the military camps and arrested the men on Wei Gao's register.
• Wei Gao explained that the prisoners were his spies and had surrendered to earn merit, while Li Fan insisted they should face public punishment for their crimes.
• Li Fan escorted Wei Gao back to Beizhen, then flew south without entering the city.

Li Fan explained his plan to build an Ink Mountain Dao that taught ordinary people cultivation, but the Thousand-Faced Immortal’s visit left him weakened and the people in his sleeves mentally ruined. After finishing his assignment, he learned that Li You was nearing death and the powerful families wanted his opinion on the succession, while Li Fan refused the throne and tried to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain.

• Li Fan told Xuantian he would reform Ink Mountain and teach the Tai Su Dao to ordinary people so humanity could face the Non-Things beyond the Gate.
• The Thousand-Faced Immortal’s visit caused Li Fan to collapse, wither his three flowers, damage his Gui Xu Nascent Soul, and leave the people in his sleeves insane.
• Real Person Wei accepted the ruined survivors Li Fan had brought to Lou Guan Temple and gave him a bamboo talisman as payment for his assignment.
• Li Fan tried to fly back to Ink Bamboo Mountain with Li Tangyuan, but turned back when she needed to change clothes.
• Wang Ji asked Li Fan who should inherit the Liqiu Palace because Li You was weak and nearing death, and Li Fan said he would not take the throne and wanted succession to follow the rules.
• Li Fan resolved to return to Ink Bamboo Mountain, but his trip with Li Tangyuan was delayed again when she had an upset stomach.

Li Fan rebuilt his Nascent Soul in the Tai Su Realm, returning to the Taiji Realm as a strange, stronger life-form. After discovering Li Tangyuan had been raised on phoenix blood, he fought Nangong Wushuang and rescued her from another attacker, leaving her safely asleep in her basket.

• Real Person Wei confirmed Li Tangyuan had top-grade aptitude, and Li Fan arranged to take her back to Ink Bamboo Mountain after she rested.
• Li Fan found Huang Hai and the other brain-dead traitors undergoing grotesque transformations, then practiced Moon Worship in the Tai Sha Desert and began rebuilding his shattered Nascent Soul.
• Li Fan returned to the Taiji Realm with a crystalline, shadowlike Nascent Soul and found that Li Tangyuan had been fed phoenix blood by the Nangong Family.
• Li Fan left the flying boat to confront Nangong Wushuang, defeated him, and struck him down after he survived the first two attacks.
• Li Fan returned to find a Nascent Soul cultivator had killed everyone aboard and stolen Li Tangyuan; he killed the attacker and recovered her while she slept.

Li Fan escaped an ambush with Li Tangyuan and reasoned that someone had used Nangong Wushuang to target Li Qingyue and provoke conflict with Ink Bamboo Mountain. As he traveled toward Lou Guan Tower through Li Country’s massive Jingbian Convoy supply network, Xuantian warned him that the Temple Master, Feng Qingniu, was suspiciously obscure and might have hidden motives.

• Li Fan sent a warning about the sabotaged flying vessel, fled south with Li Tangyuan, and concluded that the attack had likely been aimed at Li Qingyue and used Nangong Wushuang as a pretext to spark a feud.
• Li Fan decided to bypass Changsi City and followed the refugee and supply routes toward Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Li Fan observed the Jingbian Convoy transporting vast quantities of provisions and military equipment, while refugees traveled north aboard its ships.
• Xuantian warned Li Fan that Ink Bamboo Mountain might be preparing to take Kun Country and questioned why Feng Qingniu had remained unknown despite his abilities.
• Xuantian cautioned Li Fan that Feng Qingniu might have ulterior motives for repeatedly helping him, and Li Fan decided to ask the Temple Master about it when they met.

Li Fan returned to Ink Bamboo Mountain after compensating a disciple for accidentally injuring her Dang Kang, only to discover that Kun had turned Li Qingyue’s tofu IOUs into widely traded “immortal notes.” After settling the notes and registering his Dao certificate, Li Fan learned that Ink Bamboo Mountain was under heavy attack from the Ten-thousand-mountains demons and took up his old patrol mission.

• Li Fan mistook a disciple’s Dang Kang for demonic beasts, injured one, and paid her with a Changchun Pill and coins after learning they were clearing baleful qi from farmland.
• Li Fan reached Lou Guan Tower, saw Ink Bamboo Mountain’s expanded settlement, and learned that Kun’s tofu IOUs had become valuable immortal notes used in trade.
• Li Fan reunited with Kun, Lin Xiang, and the leopard, learned that demons had taken over Li Family Village, and sent them to deliver sword cases to Xiao Yao.
• Li Fan reclaimed Kun’s IOUs, registered his Dao certificate, and paid off the debts before asking about the fighting against demons.
• Li Fan learned that the Ten-thousand-mountains demon army was attacking Ink Bamboo Mountain and that its cultivators were fighting across the front line, so he resumed his patrol mission around the four mountains.