Chapter Summaries

Lin Chenxing spent years developing the Nine Tribulations Lightning Sutra and searching for a suitable youth to cultivate as his figurehead. He chose Zhuang Yu and arranged for the boy to discover a book that would lead him toward his opportunity.

• Lin Chenxing arrived in a poor region nominally controlled by Golden Scale Lake, intending to build strength and undermine the Monster Race's factions.
• After seven years of work, Lin Chenxing completed the Nine Tribulations Lightning Sutra, a method that used lightning to temper the body through nine dangerous tribulations.
• Lin Chenxing spent nine years assessing youths from nearby villages and chose Zhuang Yu, whose bloodline leaned toward lightning and whose disposition was promising.
• Lin Chenxing disguised himself as a beggar and gave a tattered history book to a family that fed him, carefully arranging for Zhuang Yu to find it.
• Zhuang Yu spotted the book on his neighbors' windowsill and began reading it with interest.

Zhuang Yu’s storytelling helped Liliya Sand become a leader among the village children, while the stories sparked her desire to become a Dharma Image Realm expert. As Lin Chenxing prepared the next stage of his plan to develop the village, Taibai Sect and the Xuan Family sent martial arts teachers there.

• Zhuang Yu became known as the King of Stories, and Liliya Sand began wondering how she could become a Dharma Image Realm expert.
• A year later, Zhuang Yu adapted Mingyun Cave’s Monster Race-leaning histories into more balanced stories, while Liliya led the children in exercises, reading, and discussions.
• Lin Chenxing noticed the changes among the children and decided to begin the next step of his plan.
• Taibai Sect and the Xuan Family supported Lin Chenxing by sending martial arts teachers from towns under their jurisdictions.

Lin Chenxing arranged for the children of Baishui Village to find a hidden collection of martial arts techniques after one of them reached the Blood Refining Realm. The treasure hunt began when a child found the map and nearly tore it up.

• A martial arts teacher from the Xuan Family's town arrived in Baishui Village, and the elders welcomed him to teach the children.
• A Taibai Sect martial arts teacher arrived a month later, and the village elders took him in to teach body development.
• Liliya became the first child to reach the Body Forging Realm, while Zhuang Yu joined the children's training and brought more of them to the lessons.
• Lin Chenxing prepared a treasure hunt with clues leading to martial arts techniques and the first two tribulations of his Nine Tribulations Lightning Sutra.
• After a child reached the Blood Refining Realm, Lin Chenxing waited for the children to find the map he had hidden.
• Three days after Lin Chenxing hid the map, a boisterous child found it and started tearing it up, but a companion noticed the drawing before it was destroyed.

Liliya and the children followed Lin Chenxing’s treasure map, found a second map, and enlisted Zhuang Yu to decipher its clues. The decoded message gave them a route to the next treasure, though they had not yet reached it.

• Liliya led the children to the marked location, where they dug up a large Qinghua Stone before finding a metal box containing the second treasure map.
• Liliya opened the box, and the children returned to Baishui Village with the map’s coded writing to seek help solving it.
• Zhuang Yu recognized that the map’s lines matched stories in a book that had first inspired his interest in learning.
• Zhuang Yu used a story about assembling selected characters from a passage into a message to decipher the map’s clues.
• The children learned to head north to a river, follow it upstream to a square stone, then search a grove and move a diamond-shaped rock on a hill slope.

Zhuang Yu persuaded Zhuang Heng to send a guarded expedition to follow the decoded treasure map. The group reached the marked hill and found the diamond-shaped stone, while Lin Chenxing watched from a distance, relieved that the journey had gone smoothly.

• Zhuang Yu showed Zhuang Heng the two treasure maps and explained how he had decoded the second one.
• After the village elders met, Zhuang Heng assembled an expedition of seventeen cultivators and told Zhuang Yu to choose the strongest children to accompany them.
• The expedition returned to the first map location, where its strongest member recognized the Qinghua Stone and ordered everyone to bury it again.
• A man-eating fish attacked Zhuang Yu on the journey, but the cultivators guarding him quickly killed it.
• The group reached a small hill at dusk and found the diamond-shaped stone among the scattered rocks as Lin Chenxing watched from afar.

Zhuang Yu and the Baishui Village group discovered an underground secret land filled with Thunder Bamboo and a chest of attribute-based martial arts, then decided to report the find to their village elders. After they left, Lin Chenxing restored the entrance and revealed that he had prepared the place as a hidden base and foundation for their future growth.

• The group entered a hidden passage beneath a diamond-shaped stone and found an underground chamber lit by lightning.
• They saw Thunder Bamboo growing beneath the lightning-filled ceiling and discovered a chest containing martial arts manuals with different attributes.
• The group took a few books as proof and agreed to consult the village elders before deciding what to do with the secret land.
• After the group departed by a shorter, riskier route, Lin Chenxing restored the site and watched them leave.
• Lin Chenxing planned to use the secret land as a hidden base and Thunder Bamboo as a resource, while a concealed clue would eventually lead to the Nine Tribulations Realm.

Lin Chenxing left Baishui Village and began planning the Nine Tribulations Realm, a secret trial ground designed to improve his Lightning Clone’s comprehension of the Origin Law of Lightning. He intended to reward human challengers for passing its nine rings and use their insights to refine his own understanding, while reserving the final trial for a worthy disciple.

• Lin Chenxing left the Baishui Village people after they returned safely and decided to monitor their progress rather than personally guide them.
• Lin Chenxing planned to turn an uninhabited island into the Nine Tribulations Realm, dividing it into nine rings marked by Thunder Bamboo and sealing its space with a Secret Pattern.
• Lin Chenxing arranged for the realm to open every fifty years to Human Race members at the Dharma Image Realm, with rewards for each ring and a chance to pursue the Extreme Realm.
• Lin Chenxing planned to use challengers’ different approaches to law comprehension to strengthen his own understanding of the Origin Law of Lightning.
• Lin Chenxing reserved the Ninth Ring as a final test of whether a challenger could reconstruct the laws they had mastered, making any successful challenger his disciple.

Crocodile’s inspection of Baishui Village nearly exposed the villagers’ hidden strength, forcing them to speed up their evacuation. Crocodile later found the village abandoned, while Liliya led the villagers’ descendants in offering their blood essence at the second base.

• A water snake’s impure blood awakened Crocodile’s intelligence, and Mingyun Cave recruited it and gave it cultivation techniques.
• Crocodile inspected Baishui Village and recognized a villager who had once escaped its jaws, prompting the villagers to accelerate their relocation.
• The villagers expanded their underground second base and moved people there, preparing to abandon Baishui Village.
• Crocodile recalled the earlier encounter and returned to Baishui Village, but found it deserted and in ruins.
• Liliya led the direct descendants of the village families in offering their blood essence at the second base.

Lin Chenxing unveiled the completed Nine Tribulations Realm, where a Thunder Bamboo revealed an underground forest and a tablet set rules for entering the realm. As Human and Beast Race forces clashed over those rules, Lin Chenxing defended his trial realm before gathered Immortals and World Lords.

• After three years of construction and a year of adjustments, Lin Chenxing activated the Nine Tribulations Realm between Qinghua Continent and Guhua Continent.
• A Thunder Bamboo absorbed lightning, crystallized the island’s soil, and exposed a vast underground forest to the gathered Human and Beast Race experts.
• The experts found Daoist Nine Tribulations’ tablet, which said the realm opened every fifty years to Human Race members with a Dharma Image and described a path toward the Extreme Realm.
• Several people tried to force their way into the underground passage and were killed by lightning from the Giant Bamboo, while Human and Beast Race experts began a standoff over access.
• High above the realm, King Jiangliu challenged a Monster Race Immortal’s objections and asked Lin Chenxing to explain the trial barrier.
• Lin Chenxing said the realm contained only World Lord-level-or-lower weapons, suitable martial arts, and resources produced inside it, then invited the Monster Race to create a similar place of its own.

Lin Chenxing secured an even-rate trade for Wuhua Holy Water from King Jiangliu and returned to oversee the Nine Tribulations Realm. After its entrance closed for fifty years, he observed how the Baishui Family had developed under Baishui Liliya and Baishui Yu.

• The Monster Race immortals withdrew after King Jiangliu and Lin Chenxing's allies turned the standoff against them, and King Jiangliu offered Lin Chenxing an even-rate trade for Wuhua Holy Water.
• Lin Chenxing declined King Jiangliu's invitation and returned to the Nine Tribulations Realm, where he watched its entrants struggle through the lightning trials.
• Only one entrant cleared the first ring and chose a Spirit Bamboo Weapon before the Nine Tribulations Realm closed for fifty years.
• Lin Chenxing returned to his old base near the Baishui Family and observed that Baishui Liliya had become its head, while Baishui Yu advised the family and its newborns received bloodline stimulation.

Lin Chenxing secretly established Shuxiang Garden and used implanted memories to make the Baishui Family believe he was their learned elder, Baishui Chenxing. He opened the school and selected sixteen children for their drive, imagination, and dedication to study.

• Lin Chenxing created Shuxiang Garden underground and implanted memories so the Baishui Family believed the school had been planned by the clan.
• Baishui Family members discussed the school’s opening and wondered how it would fit alongside the martial arts grounds run by Baishui Xuan and Baishui Cheng.
• Lin Chenxing welcomed the clan’s senior members and promised to devote himself to educating the children.
• Lin Chenxing selected sixteen students for their enterprising spirit, imaginative minds, or single-minded dedication to study.

Lin Chenxing tailored Shuxiang Garden’s lessons to the children’s interests, helping students grow into capable contributors to the Baishui Family. Meanwhile, Mingyun Cave continued searching for the vanished Baishui Village, with Crocodile leading the hunt.

• Lin Chenxing asked the children what they most wanted to do and used their answers to understand their personalities and ambitions.
• Lin Chenxing created specialized classes and learning spaces for adventurous, imaginative, and research-minded children, alongside storytelling, geography, mathematics, and science lessons.
• Shuxiang Garden’s students rapidly gained knowledge, and Lin Chenxing selected new applicants by asking what they envisioned for the clan’s future.
• Graduates of Shuxiang Garden joined the clan’s management, contributing to the Baishui Family’s growth.
• Mingyun Cave continued searching for the vanished village, and Crocodile, now a Dharma Image Realm squad leader, organized a careful search for Baishui Village’s hiding place.

Mingyun Cave’s searches failed to find the Baishui Family, but Liliya’s journey toward the Nine Tribulations Realm exposed evidence that a Human Race faction had emerged. Golden Scale Lake punished Mingyun Cave for losing control of its territory, while the Baishui Family remained undiscovered.

• Mingyun Cave searched for more than ten years without finding the Baishui Family, then reduced its efforts to scattered patrols as the two sides remained at peace for another thirty years.
• Baishui Village grew to thirty-seven Dharma Image Realm cultivators, while Liliya learned that the Nine Tribulations Realm would soon open and left to seek the Nine Tribulations Lightning Sutra.
• Lin Chenxing stayed behind as Liliya traveled with two companions, a Xuan Family guide, and two attendants toward the Nine Tribulations Realm.
• A rival faction reported Liliya’s human-made traces to Golden Scale Lake’s investigators, who searched the area and concluded that a Human Race faction had emerged, though they did not find the Baishui Family.
• Golden Scale Lake punished Mingyun Cave by transferring territory, requiring guards in every human village, raising its taxes and grain payments, and assigning some of its forces to neighboring factions.

Liliya and the Baishui Family secured permits from the Xuan Family to enter the Nine Tribulations Realm, where a new group of cultivators attempted its trials. The results disappointed Lin Chenxing, while the watching Monster Race departed with mocking smiles.

• Liliya learned that entrants needed permits and persuaded Baishui Xuan to seek help from the Xuan Family.
• The Xuan Family inspected Liliya and the other Baishui family members, issued permits, and arranged for them to stay at its residence.
• Lin Chenxing watched the new entrants attempt the Nine Tribulations Realm trials and saw many pass the first trial quickly.
• Only three cultivators reached the fifth layer, and none passed it; most chose one of the first two rewards.
• Lin Chenxing considered adjusting the trials to better guide promising cultivators, while the Monster Race left after observing the results.

The Baishui Family reached the limits of its underground territory and split into the Bai and Shui Families, which settled elsewhere and faced growing risk of exposure. After both branches were questioned by other factions, the Baishui Family decided to emerge openly with its four Nirvana Realm experts.

• Liliya made two more attempts in the Nine Tribulations Realm before breaking through the fourth ring and gaining Nirvana Realm martial arts and her Fourth Tribulation.
• The Baishui Family split off the Bai and Shui Families to find room to grow, while Lin Chenxing stayed with the main branch.
• The three families continued exchanging martial arts, and the Baishui Family's disciples developed new techniques, including the gentler Thunder Tempering.
• Members of the Bai and Shui Families were questioned while gathering resources, raising fears that their settlements would be exposed as other factions prepared to leave Mingyun Cave.
• After the two branches reported the danger, the Baishui Family decided to step into the open with its four Nirvana Realm experts.

The Baishui Family used the five-year withdrawal of Mingyun Cave’s allies to build resistance through hidden manuals, raids, and training, while Lin Chenxing prepared a broader war with the Xuan Family and Taibai Sect. The chapter ended with the Xuan Family declaring war on Golden Scale Lake and Black Wind Cave as human factions emerged across the region.

• After the troops withdrew, the Baishui Family began rebuilding its strength and used the Nail-Burying Strategy to encourage villages under Mingyun Cave’s rule to form factions.
• The Baishui Family planned minor raids on Mingyun Cave’s important locations to steal resources and mislead its forces.
• As Mingyun Cave recovered, the Baishui Family trained village experts to reach the Dharma Image Realm, while Lin Chenxing contacted Immortals and World Lords behind the Xuan Family and Taibai Sect to propose a continent-wide war.
• The Xuan Family and Taibai Sect brought their secretly cultivated human factions into position near the territories around Mingyun Cave.
• The Xuan Family declared war on Golden Scale Lake and Black Wind Cave, while only a handful of Beast Race factions appeared within its territory.

The Human and Monster Races gathered above Qingxuan Continent to oversee the all-out war, while their factions revealed hidden forces and launched attacks. In the palace, King Jiangliu revealed the Human Race’s plan to target Golden Scale Lake and Black Wind Cave, and King Sulong began investigating Lin Chenxing’s Nine Tribulations Realm.

• The Xuan Family, Golden Scale Lake, and Black Wind Cave drew reinforcements as Heguang Forest, the Ziyu Mountain Range, and a divided Taibai Sect sent forces into battle.
• Lin Chenxing left the Baishui Family after leaving it a fast passage to the island where the Nine Tribulations Realm was located, then withdrew to the palace above Qingxuan Continent.
• King Jiangliu and King Sulong arrived at the palace, where King Jiangliu warned that Chonghua Mountain would not survive long enough to receive help.
• King Jiangliu revealed that an unknown Human Race Extreme Realm expert had appeared on Chonghua Mountain and said the Human Race intended to take Golden Scale Lake.
• The Immortal controlling the Xuan Family claimed the Extreme Realm expert belonged to his faction, prompting King Sulong to suspect the Xuan Family planned to seize territory and rise to Purple-Grade.
• King Sulong questioned Lin Chenxing about the Nine Tribulations Realm and searched the mirrors for its affiliated faction, while Lin Chenxing stayed still and gave nothing away.

Lin Chenxing watched the planned war on Qinghua Continent turn in the Human Race’s favor as the Baishui Family became the Baishui Pavilion. With defeat looming, King Sulong proposed a World Lord duel between the races for a valuable treasure.

• King Sulong failed to identify which faction Lin Chenxing supported and resolved to punish him and target the lightning-oriented factions after the war.
• Lin Chenxing reviewed his Lightning Clone’s law comprehension and secret techniques while monitoring the battles near Golden Scale Lake.
• The war spread across Qinghua Continent, and both races reinforced their forces as hidden factions prepared to enter the conflict.
• After a hundred years of fighting, the Baishui Family reunited with its branches as the Baishui Pavilion, a Cyan-Grade faction that held Mingyun Cave in check.
• The hidden factions appeared and the Monster Race’s forces began to lose hope as the Human Race gained the advantage.
• King Sulong proposed that World Lords of both races duel for a treasure worth at least ten thousand mixed units.

King Sulong and King Jiangliu agreed to wager their treasures on a nine-person contest between their World Lords, with no restrictions on strength or weapons. After several bouts, Lin Chenxing was selected to fight Minoda, a swift Monster Race World Lord recognized by the Origin Law of Fire.

• King Sulong and King Jiangliu revealed their wagers: a Secret Realm Compass and mineral materials from Sulong, and an Ever-Gold Essence planet from Jiangliu.
• The kings agreed that each side would send nine fighters in turn, with defeated fighters barred from returning and surrender ending a bout.
• The early fighters tested each other, and a human World Lord used water-and-light blade techniques to control and defeat a Monster Race opponent.
• Lin Chenxing was randomly chosen to fight Minoda, a lean, leopard-like Monster Race World Lord skilled in the Origin Law of Fire.
• Lin Chenxing began the bout by using his Lightning Clone technique, Wind-Thunder Escape, to match Minoda's speed.

Lin Chenxing defeated Minoda with the Sixth Tribulation of his spear art, securing a victory for the Human Race in the contest. King Sulong ordered the remaining fights to continue, where the Monster Race fighters began overwhelming their opponents and Black Jackal World Lord challenged Lin Chenxing with a look.

• Minoda revealed that his weapon had fused with his body hair and used his compound eyes to track Lin Chenxing’s movements, but Lin Chenxing countered with successive Tribulations of his spear art.
• Lin Chenxing’s Sixth Tribulation pierced Minoda’s abdomen and killed him before either side could intervene.
• King Jiangliu congratulated Lin Chenxing and learned that his secret art had nine Tribulations, while King Sulong accepted Minoda’s death and ordered the contest to continue.
• The remaining Monster Race fighters badly injured their opponents, and Black Jackal World Lord displayed strength comparable to Lin Chenxing’s before signaling him after a kill.