Chapter Summaries

Zhou Yang announced new opportunities and protections for the Zhou Lineage, then assigned plans to develop its people and resources. He left Zhou Guangxiang with several tasks, including recruiting cultivators for a future spell-casting team, while Xu Song prepared to test two juniors with an illusory formation.

• Zhou Yang’s Seed Plan, War Hall, and regular Foundation Establishment Pill production sparked excitement, and the third proposal to sell pills to outsiders met little opposition.
• Zhou Yang summoned twenty-three elders and promising juniors to the ancestral hall and had them entrust wisps of their divine souls to the Soul-Entrusting Heavenly Tome.
• Zhou Guangxiang reported that Liu Xuanxuan had become the Hall of Hundred Arts’ leading Artifact Forger, and Zhou Yang promised her Foundation Establishment if she forged a Third-tier Artifact while still at Qi Refining.
• Zhou Yang told Zhou Guangxiang to recruit suitable water- and wood-element cultivators and train them in joint-casting spells and secret arts recorded on a jade slip.
• Zhou Yang asked Xu Song to set up an illusory formation on Red Tiger Mountain to test Zhou Tongming and Zhou Guangyin, and planned for Xu Song to teach formation arts to Zhou Guangxiang.

Zhou Yang had Xu Song test Zhou Tongming and Zhou Guangyin’s love with an illusion formation, then publicly blessed their relationship after they endured every trial. He later began designing standardized War Hall equipment, aiming both to strengthen the Zhou Lineage and to develop his skills as an artifact creator.

• Xu Song built an illusion formation, and Zhou Tongming and Zhou Guangyin entered it to prove their devotion before the Zhou Lineage.
• The couple endured the formation’s trials, including separation, danger, and public condemnation, without abandoning one another.
• Zhou Yang recognized and blessed their relationship, while Zhou Guangxiang and the other clan members accepted his decree.
• Zhou Yang urged the couple to cultivate diligently and left them with advice about remaining true to one another.
• Zhou Yang began designing War Hall equipment, planning a set of five artifacts, spirit talismans, and future formation support while pursuing his first self-created artifact.

Zhou Yang rewarded his spirit beasts and set rules for Zhou Family Beast Tamers seeking a rare mutant Fire Bat. He then received Patriarch Lu and his daughter Xuewei, who asked him to take the High-grade Spiritual Root girl into the Zhou Family.

• Zhou Yang gave the Eagle-Lion Beast a Barbarian Beast Heart and the Divine Wind Eagle’s demon core, hoping it would advance to Tier 4.
• Zhou Yang gave Zhou Guangxiang a Barbarian Beast Heart for the Flying Divine Leopard and ruled that Beast Tamers must pay ten thousand Family Contribution Points to acquire the mutant Fire Bat unless they achieved Foundation Establishment.
• Zhou Guangxiang reported that Patriarch Lu had arrived with his daughter, and Zhou Yang agreed to receive them at Qianyang Cave.
• Zhou Yang examined Xuewei with his Li Fire Golden Eyes and confirmed her High-grade Spiritual Root Aptitude.
• Patriarch Lu knelt with Xuewei and asked Zhou Yang to take her into the Zhou Family.

Patriarch Lu asked Zhou Yang to accept his daughter, Lu Xuewei, as a disciple so the gifted girl could escape pressure from the Chen Family and Yellow Sand Sect. Zhou Yang agreed, but left the choice to Lu Xuewei, who had yet to answer.

• Zhou Yang questioned Patriarch Lu’s motives when he asked to bring Lu Xuewei into the Zhou Family.
• Patriarch Lu explained that powerful families and the Yellow Sand Sect were pressuring him to marry off or recruit his gifted daughter.
• Patriarch Lu offered for Lu Xuewei to take her mother’s surname and become a member of the Zhou Family if Zhou Yang accepted her as his disciple.
• Zhou Yang decided that accepting Lu Xuewei would benefit the Zhou Family and agreed, provided she chose freely.
• Patriarch Lu urged Lu Xuewei to acknowledge Zhou Yang as her master, promising she could learn to fly on a sword.

Zhou Yang accepted Lu Xuewei as his founding eldest disciple, gave her powerful artifacts, and added her to the Zhou Family while allowing her to keep her Lu surname outside the family. He later completed the Primal Yang Shield, a custom artifact intended for Zhou Family War Hall cultivators.

• Patriarch Lu urged Zhou Yang to accept Lu Xuewei as his disciple, and Zhou Yang agreed, naming her his founding eldest disciple and giving her the Mysterious Ice Bracelets.
• Zhou Yang added Lu Xuewei to the Zhou Family genealogy as Zhou Guangwei while allowing her to use Lu Xuewei outside the family, and he planned a formal ceremony five years later.
• Patriarch Lu returned to his family, while news of Lu Xuewei's discipleship spread through the Zhou Family, the Chen Family, and the Yellow Sand Sect.
• Zhou Yang gave Lu Xuewei the Ice Heart Art and limited personal instruction, leaving her daily cultivation to the Zhou Family school and other Foundation Establishment Cultivators.
• Zhou Yang began forging a personal artifact with materials delivered by Zhou Guangqing, while Zhou Guangxiang entered seclusion to seek a breakthrough to the Eighth Layer Foundation Establishment.
• After half a year and substantial material costs, Zhou Yang completed the Primal Yang Shield, a powerful Tier 2 High-grade Artifact designed for the Zhou Family War Hall.

Zhou Yang taught Liu Xuanxuan the method for forging the Primal Yang Shield, and her successful attempt brought him a new burst of enlightenment that improved the method and his artifact forging skills. After Xiao Ying emerged from seclusion and took Lu Xuewei under her care, Xu Song finished deciphering the Silver Talisman Script from the Beast Face Patterned Dragon Cauldron.

• Zhou Yang gave Liu Xuanxuan the Primal Yang Shield forging method and materials, then answered her questions about artifact forging.
• Zhou Yang discussed finding a place of yin balefulness for Xu Song, while he selected recruits for the Zhou Lineage's War Hall.
• Zhou Guangxiang emerged from seclusion after advancing to the Eighth Layer Foundation Establishment, and Liu Xuanxuan successfully forged a Primal Yang Shield after dozens of failures.
• Liu Xuanxuan's successful forging gave Zhou Yang an enlightenment that improved his Artifact Forging Art and the Primal Yang Shield method.
• Xiao Ying emerged from seclusion, welcomed Lu Xuewei as her disciple's master's wife, and began caring for her.
• Xu Song finished deciphering the Silver Talisman Script that Zhou Yang had copied from the Beast Face Patterned Dragon Cauldron.

Zhou Yang studied the Azure Dragon Body Refining Art, arranged equipment production for the War Hall, and sent Xu Song to cultivate at the Yin Puppet Sect Ruins. After half a year of practice, Zhou Yang mastered the art’s first level and gained remarkable physical strength and resilience, but he could not advance without Dragon Blood.

• Zhou Yang learned that the Azure Dragon Body Refining Art required Dragon Blood beyond its first level, then gathered herbs and asked Xiao Ying to prepare medicinal liquid for his cultivation.
• Zhou Yang tested and refined Xu Song’s modified Second-tier Artifacts, then taught Liu Xuanxuan how to make equipment for the War Hall cultivators.
• Zhou Yang returned Xu Song’s storage ring and warned him not to leave the Yin Puppet Sect Ruins or commit evil; Xu Song began refining the demonic corpse and plotted to obtain Zhou Yang’s corpse pearl.
• Xiao Ying prepared the medicinal liquid, and Zhou Yang asked her to refine Foundation Establishment Pills and teach the Lineage’s low-tier alchemists before he began secluded cultivation.
• After six months of monthly medicinal baths, Zhou Yang completed the first level’s entry cultivation, snapped a Tier 3 High-grade flying sword with his fingers, and lamented that he could not advance without Dragon Blood.

After emerging from seclusion, Zhou Yang planned to seek Jiang Yuyan’s help and accelerate the Zhou family’s preparations to create oases along the route to Rhino Horn Continent. He recruited Huang Yi for a five-year mission, promising a Foundation Establishment Pill if he succeeded.

• Zhou Guangxiang told Zhou Yang that Zhang Yunpeng had invited him and his wife to Jiang Yuyan’s four-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday celebration, and Zhou Yang considered using the occasion to ask for her help and the Yellow Sand Sect’s Puppetry Technique inheritance.
• Unsatisfied with the small number of water- and wood-element cultivators recruited, Zhou Yang ordered Zhou Guangxiang to offer generous wages and free exclusive spells to those willing to work on creating oases, then secretly explained his reasons to him.
• Zhou Yang summoned Huang Yi and offered his family a Foundation Establishment Pill if Huang Yi completed an important task.
• Zhou Yang instructed Huang Yi to travel to Rhino Horn Continent and bury Yuan Magnetic Attraction Formation Disks at suitable water sources every five thousand to ten thousand li, marking each location within five years.
• Huang Yi guessed that Zhou Yang planned to occupy Rhino Horn Continent, but Zhou Yang refused to explain and told him to prepare for the journey; Zhou Guangxiang would notify him when the disks were ready.

Zhou Yang visited Xu Song to discuss the dangers of his cultivation and refused to let him refine innocent people into ghost-shadow avatars. He then brought Xu Song to the Yellow Sand Sect, where he informed Zhang Yunpeng of True Person Qingyang’s support and asked to speak with Fairy Jiang about an important matter.

• Zhou Yang warned Xu Song that absorbing resentment and Killing Intent could taint his will, then rejected Xu Song’s proposal to refine the souls of wicked people into ghost-shadow avatars.
• Zhou Yang asked Xu Song to accompany him to the Yellow Sand Sect as a backup, and Xu Song entered the Spirit Nourishing Token.
• Zhang Yunpeng personally welcomed Zhou Yang and marveled that his cultivation had advanced to the fourth level of the Purple Mansion Stage.
• Zhou Yang told Zhang Yunpeng that True Person Qingyang had arranged for the Xuan Yang Immortal Sect to sell the Yellow Sand Sect Foundation Establishment Pills and Violet Cloud Pills at fair prices every fifty years for five hundred years.
• Zhou Yang asked Zhang Yunpeng whether Fairy Jiang was at the sect because he had an important matter to discuss with them.

Zhou Yang persuaded Jiang Yuyan to help with his plan to seize Rhino Horn Continent by offering her a Fifth-tier Demonic Core and arranging to borrow the Yellow Sand Sect’s Puppetry Technique inheritance. After Zhou Yang left, Zhang Yunpeng prepared a mission to verify his claims and worried that the Zhou Lineage would eventually supplant the Yellow Sand Sect as the Boundless Sea of Sand’s leading power.

• Zhou Yang revealed his plan to take Rhino Horn Continent and showed Zhang Yunpeng and Jiang Yuyan a Fifth-tier Demonic Core as proof that he had killed a Tier 5 Demonic Beast.
• Zhou Yang offered Jiang Yuyan the demonic core in exchange for her help and asked to borrow the Yellow Sand Sect’s Puppetry Technique inheritance; Jiang Yuyan accepted the transaction.
• Zhou Yang left the Yellow Sand Sect and planned to return in half a year to complete the transaction.
• Zhang Yunpeng summoned Yang Wenxiong and ordered him to travel to the Cultivation World of the Flowing Cloud Continent to buy pills and investigate Zhou Yang’s deeds.
• Zhang Yunpeng suspected Yang Wenxiong might not return and privately resented Cao Wenjin’s failed expedition, while fearing the Zhou Lineage would take the Yellow Sand Sect’s place as overlord.

Zhou Yang rewarded Xu Song with demonic materials and a Corpse Pearl, receiving formation annotations for Zhou Guangxiang in return. At Jiang Yuyan’s birthday celebration, Zhou Yang’s gift of a fifth-tier Demonic Core revealed the Zhou Family’s close alignment with the Yellow Sand Sect and strengthened the sect’s position beyond her lifetime.

• Zhou Yang gave Xu Song the Gen Mountain Turtle’s remains and other beast souls to refine a demonic soul banner, then handed over his Corpse Pearl in exchange for Xu Song’s annotated formation jade slip.
• Huang Yi departed for Rhino Horn Continent with Yuan Magnetic Attraction Formation Disks, while Zhou Guangxiang entered seclusion to study formations and Zhou Yang took over the clan head’s duties.
• For half a year, Zhou Yang managed Lineage affairs, taught younger cultivators and Zhou Family Foundation Establishment Cultivators, and strengthened his bond with his Golden Winged Thunder Eagle.
• At Jiang Yuyan’s four-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday celebration, Zhou Yang presented a Tier 5 Low-grade Demonic Core as the Zhou Family’s gift.
• The Foundation Establishment Cultivators realized the core could let Zhang Yunpeng refine an External Dao Golden Core, while Zhou Yang’s gift showed that the Zhou Family stood firmly with the Yellow Sand Sect.

After returning to the Zhou Lineage, Zhou Yang studied the Yellow Sand Sect’s Puppetry Technique inheritances, strengthened the clan’s resources, and established regular cultivation lectures. The chapter ended when the Eagle-Lion Beast successfully advanced to Tier 4.

• Zhang Yunpeng let Zhou Yang study the Yellow Sand Sect’s Puppetry Technique inheritances and gave him the Ice Soul True Scripture for Lu Xuewei.
• Zhou Yang gathered materials, practiced puppet crafting, and made twelve Tier 3 Puppet Beasts, placing three in the clan’s secret vault and the rest in its treasury.
• Over four years, Zhou Yang settled back into the Zhou Lineage and established annual Dao lectures for its members and affiliated cultivators.
• At a lecture, Zhou Yang diagnosed a woman’s cultivation problem as damage from excessive spirit-pill use and explained how she could recover.
• A piercing cry and powerful aura rose from Red Tiger Mountain as the Eagle-Lion Beast advanced to Tier 4.

Zhou Yang oversaw the Eagle-Lion Beast’s advancement to Tier 4 and prepared Red Tiger Mountain Oasis for a major auction, but his plans were interrupted when his father, Zhou Xuanhao, died. After arranging a grand funeral, Zhou Yang buried his parents together and reflected on the losses he had endured.

• Zhou Yang watched the Eagle-Lion Beast molt after advancing, plucked its old feathers himself, and rewarded it with Tier 5 Gen Mountain Turtle meat.
• Over the next three months, the Eagle-Lion Beast stabilized as a Tier 4 Demonic Beast, gaining new wind and fire abilities and the Berserk divine ability.
• Zhou Yang organized patrols to protect travelers heading to Red Tiger Mountain Oasis ahead of the Grand Auction.
• Zhou Xuanhao died at age two hundred and fourteen after injuries to his vital essence shortened his lifespan, and Zhou Yang left the funeral arrangements to Zhou Guangxiang and the elders.
• Zhou Yang cremated Zhou Xuanhao and buried him beside Lin Yuting, then sat before their graves and reflected on life and loss.

After his parents’ deaths, Zhou Yang vowed to keep the Zhou Family prosperous and devoted himself to arranging Zhou Xuanhao’s funeral and preparing for the family’s first Grand Auction. As the auction approached, he formally accepted Lu Xuewei as his chief disciple, while other cultivators watched the ceremony and considered the rivalry between the Zhou Family and the Yellow Sand Sect.

• Zhou Yang swore at his parents’ graves that he would never let the Zhou Family decline, then returned to oversee Zhou Xuanhao’s funeral.
• After the funeral, Zhou Yang and the Zhou Family prepared a wide range of treasures for their Grand Auction, which was drawing cultivators to Flowing Cloud Market.
• Patriarch Lu reminded Lu Xuewei to honor Zhou Yang as her master, while she prepared for the ceremony that would strengthen her family’s standing.
• Zhou Yang completed the disciple-acceptance rites and declared Lu Xuewei, renamed Zhou Guangwei, his chief disciple and heir to his mantle.
• Zhang Yunpeng congratulated Zhou Yang, while other attending cultivators preferred the Zhou Family to benefit rather than see the Yellow Sand Sect grow stronger.

The Zhou Lineage held its first Grand Auction, selling rare treasures—including two Foundation Establishment Pills and a Violet Cloud Pill—for enormous sums. Zhou Yang announced that the auction would recur every thirty years, then learned that its proceeds were enough to officially begin the New Homeland Plan.

• Zhou Yang oversaw the Grand Auction at Flowing Cloud Market, where Xie Lingying auctioned the Zhou Lineage’s selected treasures to a packed hall.
• Bidders bought the two Foundation Establishment Pills for fifty-two thousand and fifty-five thousand low-grade spirit stones, and the rogue cultivator who won the second left the hall after paying.
• Nie Qiufeng won a Tier 4 Mid-grade Artifact for one hundred and ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, while the Violet Cloud Pill sold for one hundred and twenty-five thousand.
• Zhou Yang promised that the Zhou Lineage would hold a Grand Auction every thirty years and offer at least one Foundation Establishment Pill at each event.
• Zhou Guangyun reported total auction proceeds of 575,600 low-grade spirit stones and overall earnings of about 650,000, prompting Zhou Yang to declare that the New Homeland Plan could begin.

Two years later, Zhou Yang began the Zhou Lineage’s New Homeland Plan by building the first artificial oasis along a route to Rhino Horn Continent. He left Zhou Guangxiang in charge, while the larger plan promised to connect the continents, draw cultivators and resources into Zhou territory, and secure the lineage’s future.

• Huang Yi guided Zhou Yang and more than one hundred recruited cultivators to the first water-source site on his map, and Zhou Yang rewarded Huang Yi for completing the route survey.
• Zhou Yang instructed Zhou Guangxiang to oversee the oasis and assigned two Formation Masters to establish its artificial spirit vein.
• Zhou Yang planned twenty-five artificial oases to link the Cultivation World of the Boundless Sea of Sand to Rhino Horn Continent, where the Zhou Lineage could claim territory and attract explorers.
• Zhou Yang arranged to work with Jiang Yuyan in twenty-seven years to drive away a Tier 5 Demonic Beast, which would allow oasis construction to proceed on two fronts.
• The cultivators began drawing underground water, enriching the sand into soil, and planting grass while the Formation Masters prepared the spirit vein.
• Zhou Yang returned to Red Tiger Mountain, leaving Zhou Guangxiang to guard and supervise the construction site.

Zhou Yang searched for his missing adoptive mother Zhou Xuanyu and sister Zhou Yuanyao with Xu Song, eventually locating them inside an underground ruin sealed by a powerful formation. Unable to break the formation at once, Zhou Yang agreed to support Xu Song’s efforts, though the search could take years.

• Zhou Yang left Red Tiger Mountain with Zhou Hong and asked Xu Song to use Zhou Hong’s blood to search for Zhou Xuanyu and Zhou Yuanyao.
• After two years of searching more than a million miles with the kin-seeking spell, Zhou Yang and Xu Song found no trace of the mother and daughter.
• Zhou Yang gave Xu Song Zhou Xuanyu’s soul tablet, and Xu Song used its soul fragment to cast the Ghost Chasing Soul Technique, sacrificing a beast soul in the process.
• The ghost-face mark led Zhou Yang and Xu Song to an underground ruin where they discovered Zhou Xuanyu and Zhou Yuanyao were trapped behind a Tier 5 High-grade formation.
• Xu Song estimated that studying and breaking the formation could take three to twenty years, and Zhou Yang agreed to provide whatever help he could short of killing people and extracting their souls.

After years of work on the new oases and secluded cultivation, Zhou Yang supported Zhou Guangxiang's decision to attempt opening the Violet Palace without Violet Heart Jade Marrow. A review of the Zhou Family's population revealed that most of its cultivators descended from the Pleasure House, leaving Zhou Yang worried about future factional conflict and how to protect the clan's secret vault with a Bloodline Divine Restriction.

• Zhou Yang delivered Xu Song's requested materials, helped move cultivators to establish another new oasis, and then entered secluded cultivation.
• After eight years, Zhou Yang emerged when Zhou Guangxiang reached Ninth Layer Foundation Establishment and announced he would try to open the Violet Palace without Violet Heart Jade Marrow.
• Zhou Yang accepted Zhou Guangxiang's decision and gave him a Violet Cloud Pill and a Ghost Tear Stone before sending him into seclusion.
• With Zhou Guangxiang away, Zhou Yang temporarily took over the patriarch's duties and questioned the Steward Elders about the clan's rapid growth.
• Zhou Guangjian reported that 264 Zhou Family cultivators had ancestry from the Pleasure House, prompting Zhou Yang to fear future conflict between them and the orthodox cultivator line.
• Zhou Yang worried that a future secret vault protected by a Bloodline Divine Restriction could either exclude most Pleasure House descendants or become ineffective if it admitted every clan cultivator.

Zhou Yang uncovered rising hostility between Zhou cultivators of Pleasure House and direct-descendant origins, then secretly made arrangements to keep the conflict contained. He later honored Liu Xuanxuan's achievement in artifact forging by giving her Foundation Establishment Pills, and she became the Zhou Lineage's first Class A Guest Official Attendant.

• Zhou Yang reviewed two decades of law enforcement records and found that fights between cultivators of different origins were increasing.
• Zhou Yang reduced Pleasure House spending, reassigned some mixed-blood cultivators, and staged and quashed a rumor to deter clan members from pursuing power struggles.
• Liu Xuanxuan presented Zhou Yang with the third-tier Wind Feather Fan she had forged from Eagle-Lion Beast feathers.
• Zhou Yang gave Liu Xuanxuan a Foundation Establishment Pill after she successfully forged the artifact, but her first attempt at Foundation Establishment failed.
• Liu Xuanxuan took a second Foundation Establishment Pill and succeeded in establishing her foundation, becoming the Zhou Lineage's first Class A Guest Official Attendant.

After Zhou Guangxiang failed to Open the Violet Palace, Zhou Yang reprimanded him and resumed cultivation, reaching Fifth Layer Purple Mansion Stage at age 163. He then helped Xu Song break the formation around an underground ruin, where he found Zhou Xuanyu and Zhou Yuanyao, trapped for nearly eighty years, and promised to take them home.

• Liu Xuanxuan's successful Foundation Establishment spread through the Zhou Lineage, and Zhou Yang accepted her as his second disciple to inherit his Artifact Forging Art.
• Zhou Guangxiang emerged from seclusion after failing to Open the Violet Palace, and Zhou Yang reprimanded him before assigning him Lineage affairs while he recovered.
• Zhou Yang reached Fifth Layer Purple Mansion Stage after another year and a half of secluded cultivation.
• Xu Song explained how to break the underground ruin's formation, and Zhou Yang, Xiao Ying, the Eagle-Lion Beast, Xu Song, and his demon corpse attacked its weak points until the barrier shattered.
• Zhou Yang found Zhou Xuanyu and Zhou Yuanyao beneath the altar, reunited with them after nearly eighty years, and comforted them as they wept.