Chapter Summaries

Li Fan rescued books from Jiangling and assessed the battle between Xun Country and Luofeng before visiting Luofeng Cave Heaven to retrieve his disciples. There, the Luo Feng Old Lord refused to abandon the fight and revealed the history of the Nangong Seven Thieves, including a connection to Chen Jinu.

• Li Fan and Kun saved seventy thousand books from the fires in Jiangling City, and Li Fan then investigated old haunts around Jiujiang Mouth.
• Li Fan observed the brutal battle in the Luofeng Mountains and realized that Hengshan was using Xun Country's army and its allies to gradually encircle Luofeng, while Luofeng fought back with Mountain Ghost ambushes.
• Li Fan visited Luofeng Cave Heaven to retrieve Xiang Xiaoyu and Nie Feilian and warned Jueyin Shenjun that Hengshan might have prepared against the Chi Mei; Jueyin Shenjun and the Luo Feng Old Lord rejected his suggestion to negotiate or retreat.
• The Luo Feng Old Lord told Li Fan that he had named the Nangong Seven Thieves and explained how he and Feng A had investigated the Nangong faction's rebellion.
• The Luo Feng Old Lord discussed the mysterious seventh friend, Zhi Jingzi, and speculated that Huangfu Jing might be related to Huangfu Yi before mentioning Sword Ancestor Xuantian's disciple, Chen Jinu.

Li Fan uncovered the possible links between Chen Jinu, Mount Heng, and the Nangong family, then helped Luo Feng Old Lord prepare to fight Mount Heng. As Li Fan left Luo Feng Cave Heaven with his disciples and a swarm of moths, four Mount Heng Divine Lords ambushed him, and he killed them all.

• Luo Feng Old Lord explained that Chen Jinu had been a renowned Beichen Sword Sect disciple who may have secretly recruited ancient fiends for Nangong Wubu’s rebel army.
• Li Fan warned Luo Feng Old Lord that Chen Jinu, Mount Heng’s Dao Lord Zhi Jingzi, and a Nangong immortal bandit might be the same person, then helped him study ways to counter Mount Heng’s techniques.
• Jueyin Shenjun sent Li Fan away with Xiang Xiaoyu, Nie Feilian, a ship, and the Xie Family’s moth-summoning pearl, while Luo Feng prepared its younger generation to escape.
• Four Mount Heng Divine Lords attacked Li Fan as he left, and he repelled their spells before giving Nie Feilian the flying sword he caught.
• Li Fan’s spatial jump killed the first attacker in a grisly accident, and he quickly killed the other three Divine Lords before returning to his disciples with their dropped treasures.

Li Fan escorted the moth ship toward Ink Bamboo Mountain, helped Nie Feilian and Xiang Xiaoyu advance their cultivation, and faced repeated Mount Heng attempts to stop him. After defeating two Supreme Purity Daoists in a contest and negotiating with Zong Xin, he agreed to let Yellow Court Palace take twelve spirit moths in exchange for goods.

• Li Fan gave Nie Feilian and Xiang Xiaoyu magic treasures, helped them break through to Foundation Establishment, and taught them divine elixir techniques.
• Li Fan freed the injured Xiao Hanzhen and urged her to travel to Penglai, but she failed to persuade him to keep her company.
• Zhi Ningzi attacked Li Fan with the Nine Heavens Star-Chasing technique, but Li Fan reformed his body after taking the strike and Zhi Ningzi admitted defeat.
• Zhi Pingzi challenged Li Fan with the Origin Talisman Star Scripture formation, but Li Fan found his way through it and Zhi Pingzi conceded.
• Zong Xin offered goods for the spirit moths on behalf of Yellow Court Palace, and Li Fan bargained until they agreed that twelve moths would be lent in exchange for the cargo.

Li Fan handed Xuantian a note about Huangfu Jing and learned the Profound Heaven Void Star Sword Art, then traveled to Divine Sect headquarters to trade a pot for an altar-master position. There, Ali revealed the legion’s interworld network and asked Li Fan to hide its valuable assets while he fled the company.

• Li Fan told Xuantian about Huangfu Jing, and Xuantian refused to interfere in the sword disciples’ coming fight before teaching Li Fan his Void Star sword art.
• Li Fan possessed his Qiongqi clone, ate baleful-qi solution, and traveled with Zhang Yanzhi to the Divine Sect headquarters to become an altar master.
• Li Fan gave Ali the pot, and Ali promised to arrange Li Fan’s appointment once the Light Dharma King returned from Kunlun.
• Ali explained that the legion linked organizations across worlds and showed Li Fan its forces slaughtering a foreign population to replenish Divine Sect disciples.
• Ali warned Li Fan that a company executive might pursue him and asked Li Fan to shelter the legion’s private assets while he escaped to another world.

Li Fan explored the Divine Cult’s war-driven organization and merit system, earning enough merit to become altar master of the Qingyang Altar. Zhang Yanzhi revealed that the Profound Maiden, a high-ranking legion commander, had answered the cult’s call for help, leaving Li Fan surprised by her connection to the legion.

• Li Fan agreed to watch over the sergeant’s belongings while the sergeant arranged to hide his accumulated trash and prepare to leave.
• Li Fan toured the Divine Cult with Zhang Yanzhi and learned that legion machines tracked members’ merits and distributed rewards, while the cult’s western forces exploited conquered nonhuman civilizations for resources.
• Zhang Yanzhi recorded Li Fan’s mission accomplishments, and his accumulated merits qualified him to become altar master of the Qingyang Altar.
• Li Fan spent part of his merit on regional guides and a suit of the Divine Cult’s mass-produced Protectorate Army armor.
• Zhang Yanzhi explained that surviving cult members had summoned help from Beyond Heavens and that the Profound Maiden, not the Divine Lord, had arranged for the legion to assist them.
• Zhang Yanzhi revealed that the Profound Maiden had been an eleventh-level legion officer, far above the sergeant’s rank.

Li Fan fought off four Demon Gods while the True Saintess abducted Zhang Yanzhi and brought her to a ruined temple to claim her holy spirit. As the True Saintess urged Zhang Yanzhi to fulfill her oath, Li Fan tried to distract her, while Qiongqi remained distracted by devouring its defeated enemies.

• Li Fan sent Guiche after the abducted Zhang Yanzhi and faced four Demon Gods who challenged him on behalf of the True Saintess.
• Li Fan used the Eighteen Layers of Force Fist and his Qiongqi body to kill the four Demon Gods, then let Qiongqi devour their true forms.
• Li Fan's primordial spirit caught up with Guiche and found Zhang Yanzhi surrounded by Demon Gods in a ruined temple.
• The True Saintess arrived through a void door and demanded that Zhang Yanzhi offer up her holy spirit to fulfill her oath as a candidate Saintess.
• Li Fan taunted the True Saintess to draw her attention, while she called Zhang Yanzhi back to her arms and urged her to awaken.

Li Fan used Guiche and the Nine Songs of Taiyi to defeat the Poison Dragon King, possess its body, and deceive the True Saintess. After Zhuoma sacrificed herself and opened a Door, the calamity swallowed her and half the Divine Sect's headquarters, leaving Li Fan to investigate what had emerged.

• The True Saintess summoned Meng Run, the Poison Dragon King, and empowered him with blood jade to fight for her.
• Li Fan used Guiche's nine heads and the Nine Songs of Taiyi to shatter Meng Run's primordial spirit, then possessed his body.
• Li Fan posed as the Blood-Record Crimson Crow and hypnotized the True Saintess into accepting Zhang Yanzhi as the True Saintess.
• Zhuoma sacrificed her heart and ignited the Holy Flame, opening a Door that swallowed her and half the Great Guangming Temple district.
• Li Fan carried Zhang Yanzhi away with Zhuoma's heart and arm, then returned to find black, baleful residue surrounding the temple.

Li Fan turned Zhang Yanzhi into the Divine Church’s True Saintess and secured Qiongqi an official position, while he developed a way to use the black baleful gel for cultivation. After donating Wanyu immortal silk to Lou Guan Dao, he learned the sect was ready to march south and conquer the Ten-thousand-mountains.

• Li Fan failed to consume the black gel, killed several demons who attacked him, and fed their bodies to Qiongqi.
• Li Fan recruited Zhang Yanzhi into the Outer Heaven Immortal Group and had her become the Divine Church’s True Saintess, with Qiongqi named Altar Master of the Qingyang Altar.
• Li Fan began devising a cultivation method for Qiongqi using the black gel and the Tai Xuan Scripture.
• Guiche secured Qiongqi’s Divine Church credentials, allowing Li Fan to unlock the God Lord Jade and retrieve Wanyu immortal silk.
• Li Fan donated some immortal silk to Lou Guan Dao, and the temple master ordered the sect to march south and sweep through the Ten-thousand-mountains.

Lou Guan Dao mobilized its cultivators for the campaign in the Ten-thousand-mountains, while Li Fan sent Mo Mountain disciples west and asked Lu Xing to repair a recovered divine weapon. Lu Xing revealed her family’s ties to the Divine Religion and rushed off after Li Fan mentioned finding the Xiao family’s vast book collection.

• The temple master ordered Lou Guan Dao’s guarding Real Persons and disciples to meet quotas by killing demons or seizing strongholds, and dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators headed south.
• Li Fan reviewed Bamboo Mountain’s slow progress, including Lu Qi’s accidental capture of Fashuang Mountain with his dog, and decided to stay at Ink Bamboo Mountain while sending Mo Mountain disciples west under Liuyun’s leadership.
• Li Fan gave Lu Xing the damaged Shangfang Divine Weapon to repair, and she explained that her eldest brother had bought it from a eunuch who sold armor removed from Liqiu Palace.
• Lu Xing told Li Fan that her family had served the Divine Religion and that an ancestor had joined the Divine Lord after the Lu clan was exiled; she also described the family’s lost mechanical manuals.
• Li Fan offered Lu Xing access to tens of thousands of books he had found from the Xiao family, and she hurried to the academy to claim a place in its library.

Li Fan entered the forbidden realm beneath the moon and discovered that it held Shi Tong’er's Beast Mother-like Non-Thing, where Luo Yin watched over the growing Beast Children. Learning what Mo Chanzi had sacrificed to protect the world, Li Fan embraced the role of Ink Mountain’s ninth-generation Juzi and declared himself a partner of justice.

• Li Fan used Blood Talisman seals to claim Lu Ya’s Blood God Child Dao body and entered the tunnel beneath the lunar blood pool.
• Li Fan recited the Key Scroll of Breaking Evil and Manifesting Evidence, opening a passage into the Non-Thing beneath the moon.
• Li Fan recognized that the lunar grotto was a Non-Thing born from Shi Tong'er’s understanding of the Beast Mother and that its Beast Children were revered by Ink Mountain’s disciples.
• Li Fan encountered the blind Luo Yin wandering among the growing creatures and left the secret realm rather than risk disturbing him.
• Li Fan pieced together that Mo Chanzi had defeated Lu Hansheng and Lu Ya, brought Luo Yin and Shi Tong'er to the moon, and sacrificed himself to protect the world.
• Li Fan resolved to follow Mo Chanzi’s example and proclaimed himself Mo Fanzi, the ninth-generation Juzi and a partner of justice.

Li Fan met Ink Bamboo Mountain merchants and Zhang Shan, who proposed a railway network funded through a bank and bonds. Li Fan agreed to support the project in exchange for Ink Mountain controlling and operating the railway section within its borders, and the merchants accepted.

• Li Fan discussed his idea of upholding justice with Xuantian, who explained that the Moon Soul sword was still being upgraded and introduced Zhang Shan and several merchants from Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Zou Chi and the other merchants asked Li Fan to support their plan to build mechanical roads, establish a bank, and issue bonds.
• Zhang Shan explained how railways had helped transport military supplies and spur prosperity in Bamboo Mountain, and why the merchants wanted to extend the network.
• The merchants asked Li Fan to act as a guarantor for a large bond issue, but Li Fan asked what he would gain in return.
• Li Fan required that the railway section within Ink Mountain be owned and operated by Ink Mountain residents and connect to Five Sons Peak, and the merchants agreed.

Li Fan established the Ink Bamboo Mountain Railway Institute and helped create a financial system to fund railway construction and the sect’s development. He recruited Yang Si'an to help with the Railway Institute after revealing Yang’s past life and hearing him reaffirm his political ambitions.

• Li Fan persuaded the abbot to establish the Ink Bamboo Mountain Railway Institute, raise funds through bonds, and contract railway work to local trade associations.
• Railway bonds drew investment from merchants, cultivators, aristocratic families, refugees, and ordinary people, and the sect created a Finance Institute to manage loans and internal bonds.
• Li Fan found Yang Si'an living in a ruined temple and offered him a paid position at Ink Bamboo Mountain.
• Li Fan opened a hidden tomb and revealed that Yang Si'an had been a Divine Lord in his past life, with treasures left to help him cultivate again.
• Yang Si'an chose to pursue his worldly ambitions and restore his official status, and Li Fan began to discuss the Railway Institute with him.

Li Fan investigated the Heavenly Silkworm Skill after Qin Nanxin broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm as Wanyu, a spirit insect linked to ascension and higher-dimensional life. As Li Fan experimented with strengthening his Tai Su Dharmic Body, a powerful expert arrived at the Divine Sect's main altar and the Sect Leader summoned the Saintess and Qingyang Altar Master.

• Yang Si'an agreed to oversee railway affairs while continuing to teach children, and Li Fan considered assigning other capable people to sect work.
• Li Fan weighed his uncertain prospects against Chen Jinu and continued studying the Great Slaughter Sword Scripture and cultivating the Blood God Child.
• Qin Nanxin completed the first turn of the Heavenly Silkworm Skill, survived tribulation as Wanyu, and told Li Fan about the spirit insects and their role in ascension.
• Li Fan compared Qin Nanxin's insect shell with immortal silk and used the Heavenly Silkworm Skill as inspiration to reinforce his Tai Su Qiankun Dharmic Body.
• A powerful Divine Sense swept over Li Fan through his Qiongqi clone, while Guiche reported that the Divine Sect's Sect Leader had summoned the Saintess and Qingyang Altar Master.

Li Fan met the Zhang Sect Leader, who asked him to protect Sarilang while he stepped down and entered seclusion to heal. The Sect Leader explained his tragic past, including how he had joined the sect, and left Li Fan with a glimpse of the loss that still haunted him.

• Zhang Yanzhi entered the Sect Leader’s hall while Li Fan waited outside and learned about the sect’s leadership traditions and the Zhang Sect Leader’s rise through its ranks.
• The Zhang Sect Leader met Li Fan, questioned him about joining the sect and saving Yanzhi, and asked him to watch over her while he recovered from grave injuries.
• Li Fan questioned the Sect Leader about his campaigns west of Kunlun, and the Sect Leader explained the sect’s long history of conflict with the heterodox tribes.
• Li Fan pressed the Sect Leader about his personal motives and learned that his parents had been killed, Xieluo Mountain had abused him, and he had joined the sect after rescuing a candidate Saintess who later died.
• Li Fan asked whether the Sect Leader wanted to destroy Xieluo Mountain, but the Sect Leader refused because his grandmaster would be sad.

Li Fan and Zhang Yanzhi discussed the Divine Sect’s succession struggle and the competing plans of the Light and Pure Dharma Kings. Zhang Yanzhi’s frustrated rant about the mess Sword Ancestor left in Kunlun unexpectedly carried her breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Stage.

• Li Fan reflected on the Saintess’s soul-splitting method and the bonds she formed with people, then Zhang Yanzhi explained that the Sect Leader had ordered her to recommend a successor between the Light and Pure Dharma Kings.
• Zhang Yanzhi described the Light Dharma King’s plan to invade the Three Enclosures by the old Hexi route and the Pure Dharma King’s plan to consolidate Kunlun before advancing east.
• Zhang Yanzhi explained that Li Fan’s Qingyang Branch Altar had once belonged to Qingyang Sect, which had guarded Qiongqi and the Qingyang Sword Lord, and said he could investigate its lost treasures.
• Zhang Yanzhi explained that Kunlun was difficult to conquer because it held many powerful cultivators and hidden dangers, while Sword Ancestor had looted Divine Sect inheritances and replaced their formations with troublesome Sword Sect seals.
• Zhang Yanzhi grew furious while describing Sword Ancestor’s damage to Kunlun and broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage during her outburst.

Zhang Yanzhi broke through to become a True Saintess, and she explained Pure Dharma King's standing in the Divine Sect's succession struggle. Li Fan traveled to Kunlun, where he intervened after a Divine Sect Guardian exposed his disguise and attacked him.

• Zhang Yanzhi broke through after resonating with the previous Saintess's emotions, and Li Fan asked her about Pure Dharma King.
• Zhang Yanzhi described the Ban Family's history and explained why Pure Dharma King could succeed the Divine Sect's Sect Leader.
• Li Fan sent Qiongqi back to cultivate, switched to his main account, and traveled to Kunlun to investigate the conflict between the Divine Sect and Daoist sects.
• Li Fan found a Divine Sect Guardian wearing down a Daoist group's ice-mountain formation and tried to pass the battle unnoticed in disguise.
• The Guardian saw through Li Fan's disguise with the God Lord Jade and attacked him with a Blood Talisman Sword Rainbow.
• Li Fan let the sword pass through his hollow body, then used the Tai Sha Star Core to devour the Guardian and retrieved the core.

Li Fan tested his membrane-flying black hole technique, destroyed Mount Song’s snow-mountain formation, and observed a Wulu match between Pingyangzi and Godly Monarch Chijin. When the two cultivators calculated his identity, they realized he had killed many of their people and was not human, so Li Fan attacked them.

• Li Fan explained how he could use his Tai Sha Star Core as a membrane-flying black hole to kill an opponent, though the technique required careful calculations and a stationary target.
• Li Fan took control of the Blood Sea Sword Formation, used the Blood God Child to break Mount Song’s icy defense formation, and buried most of its cultivators beneath the collapsing snow mountain.
• Li Fan traveled to another mountain and watched Pingyangzi and Godly Monarch Chijin compete in a dangerous Wulu game while he studied their calculation methods.
• Pingyangzi offered Li Fan a hidden treasure and a message to deliver to his disciples, while Chijin proposed a similar arrangement, and Li Fan claimed to be from Emei.
• Pingyangzi and Chijin stopped their game and calculated Li Fan’s identity, discovering that he had killed many of their people and was not human; Li Fan invoked Membrane-Flying Sword.

Li Fan tested his new techniques across Kunlun, fought off two fleeing Godly Monarchs, and gathered treasures while crossing paths with several cultivators and beasts. In an opened immortal cave, he studied Profound Heaven’s sword marks and discovered that he could survive its Lightning Style only three times out of 108 simulations.

• Li Fan fought Chijin Godly Monarch and Pingyangzi, but both escaped after coordinating their attacks and retreat.
• Li Fan absorbed Chijin Godly Monarch’s discarded Dao body and blood, took Pingyangzi’s game board, and flew on.
• Li Fan killed a white ape demon and three monster hunters, then found an immortal’s remains and discarded cultivation manuals in the ape’s cave.
• Li Fan picked stone ear mushrooms, killed the snow leopard and mountain goat guarding them, and left a hidden orthodox-sect cultivator undisturbed.
• Li Fan entered an immortal cave and studied the sword marks left on its inheritance murals by Profound Heaven.
• Li Fan simulated facing Profound Heaven’s Lightning Style and found he survived only three of 108 thrusts, leaving him doubting his sword talent.

Li Fan cultivated by devouring the Tai Su Realm, then learned that the system upgrade had failed because a system chip shipment was stolen. He crossed the membrane to the Qingyang Branch Altar to recover the stolen pot, while discovering his mood-point account had reached its limit.

• Li Fan killed a Blood Talisman God Sect guardian who interrupted his Sword Heart meditation and released the fleeing Escape-and-Disassemble Golden Cicada.
• Li Fan worshipped the False Moon, sent his Tai Sha Star Core into the Tai Su Realm to devour matter, and formed Dao Body clones while studying its creatures.
• After cultivating this way for days, Li Fan learned the system upgrade had failed because the courier and middleman had disappeared with the system chip.
• Li Fan jumped across the membrane to the former Qingyang Sect and attacked the God Sect branch altar to retrieve the pot, smashing equipment while searching.
• The system finished loading and told Li Fan that his mood points were maxed out and that recovering the stolen chip was his task.

Li Fan traveled through the Quantum Network into a rented cyborg body to recover a stolen game pod, following Li Kun and Li Gan’s instructions. After beating information out of a corporate employee, he learned the pod’s location, but the company traced him and OP173 began disintegrating as his shadow rose from the debris.

• Li Kun and Li Gan explained how Li Fan could reach the Quantum Network through a game pod and warned him to recover the shipment carefully.
• Li Fan entered a rented cybernetic body at the Shanshan branch altar and traveled through the space stations toward OP173.
• Li Fan used the Body Domination Technique to strengthen the rented body while traveling to the orbital factory.
• Li Fan ambushed a corporate employee at his apartment, injured him, and extracted records that revealed where the stolen game pod had gone.
• Li Fan learned the middleman had died and the shipment was waiting at a junkyard, but the corporate employee also died after his insurance had been canceled.
• The company traced Li Fan, OP173 began disintegrating, and Li Fan saw his shadow rise in a falling piece of glass.