Recaps

Li Qing slipped away from the battle between Three Rivers City and the Heavenly Maiden Temple to raid the temple’s Treasury Hall, where he clashed with Daoist Yellow Weasel over the stored treasures. Their confrontation was interrupted by screams and a terrifying aura outside.

• Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden voiced her hatred as the battle erupted between Three Rivers City and the Heavenly Maiden Temple, with Li Sanchuan ordering the allied forces to charge.
• Li Qing used the Myriad Things Evasion Technique to follow Daoist Yellow Weasel and Li Daoist toward the Treasury Hall while the armies collided.
• Li Daoist exposed Daoist Yellow Weasel as a spy and attacked him, but Yellow Weasel fought back with soldiers and black-and-white flames.
• Li Qing broke the Treasury Hall’s restrictions with the Myriad Qi Dao-Extinguishing Wind and found five bags of treasures.
• Daoist Yellow Weasel entered the hall and argued with Li Qing over who had the right to claim the treasures, until screams and a terrifying aura outside made them pause.

Li Qing and Hua Tianming escaped the Heavenly Maiden Temple with several bags as the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden attacked Three Rivers City. From across the river, Li Qing watched Xin Shenzi defend the city with the Four Gates Array, whose barriers were close to breaking.

• The Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden emerged in a blood-red blaze, and Xin Shenzi warned everyone that she was halfway to breaking through Above Spiritual Sense.
• Li Qing and Hua Tianming seized bags from the temple rack and fought over them, then Hua Tianming revealed himself as a Painter Disciple and left with two bags.
• Li Qing escaped underground to the far side of Pu River with three bags and watched the battle from about three miles away.
• The Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden's presence spawned blood-colored insects in Li Qing's mind, but his Gods and Devils Heaven-Earth Observation Heart destroyed them.
• Li Qing saw Xin Shenzi control the Metal Tiger Puppet and Four Gates Array as the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden battered the city's barriers, which were already covered in cracks.

Li Qing watched the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden break through Xin Shenzi’s defenses, while her power mutated animals around Three Rivers City. Xin Shenzi trapped her in the Nine Fire Divine Array, and Li Qing left to loot the battlefield before the array faded and Xin Shenzi claimed a blood-colored crystal.

• Mutated rats, snakes, and insects swarmed toward Li Qing, who burned them with the Life-Death Wheel Tribulation Fire and realized the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden’s power polluted the surrounding land.
• The Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden shattered Xin Shenzi’s four light gates and attacked him as her body began to mutate.
• Nine pillars rose from Three Rivers City, and Xin Shenzi used the Nine Fire Divine Array to trap and compress the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden while its flames incinerated monsters and nearby wildlife.
• Li Qing slipped away to the Heavenly Maiden Temple and found the corpses of Monsters, Demons, Ghosts, and Rogue Cultivators, then gathered their intact possessions.
• After a day and a night, the Nine Fire Divine Array vanished, and Xin Shenzi drew a glowing blood-colored crystal into his palm.

Li Qing realized that Xin Shenzi had manipulated the Blood Bone Heavenly Maiden and the attack on Three Rivers City to refine her into a blood-red gem, deepening his distrust of righteous cultivators. After sorting his spoils, he upgraded the Humanity's Overview Technique into a True Law manual and used Essence Stones to cultivate until his body began strengthening.

• Li Qing recognized Xin Shenzi's plot and judged him dangerous for sacrificing ordinary people to achieve his goal.
• Li Qing reviewed the Dharma Coins, magical artifacts, manuals, herbs, and other spoils he had taken from the Heavenly Maiden Temple.
• Li Qing entered the spells and manuals into the Jade Tablet, transforming the Humanity's Overview Technique into a True Law manual with new abilities and no cost.
• Li Qing considered using the manual's possession and rebirth ability to infiltrate Dao Lineages if his current body or cultivation path failed him.
• Li Qing consumed eighty-nine Essence Stones, reached his essence limit, and realized that his body was strengthening.

After strengthening his cells, Li Qing found that the process had exhausted his essence and left his reserves depleted, so he planned to sell magical artifacts for Essence Stones. He reached Three Rivers City's Hundred Gates Alley and entered Treasure Moon Pavilion to begin selling them.

• Li Qing used twenty-two Essence Stones to recover only part of his essence and realized that each round of Body Strengthening would consume his reserves.
• Li Qing chose three magical artifacts for his own use and sorted his remaining spoils into Universe Bags.
• Li Qing changed his face and used the Myriad Things Evasion Technique to return to Three Rivers City, where he noticed that the residents seemed unaware of the events before dawn two days earlier.
• Li Qing found the city's Hundred Gates Alley and observed its cultivators, shops, and stalls while considering how precepts might expose cultivators to weaknesses.
• Li Qing entered Treasure Moon Pavilion, one of several artifact shops, and met its shopkeeper, Yu Qingfeng.

Li Qing sold magical artifacts and cultivation methods he had collected from the Heavenly Maiden Temple battle, earning 240 Essence Stones while disguising himself to avoid being identified. After returning to his inn, he spotted someone he knew leading a group toward Hundred Gates Alley.

• Li Qing sold a black flying sword to Yu Qingfeng after comparing offers, then returned with twenty-seven artifacts and received 190 Essence Stones.
• Yu Qingfeng suspected Li Qing had looted the Heavenly Maiden Temple battlefield and sent a message to alert others.
• Li Qing changed his appearance and aura, then sold a Three Rivers Sect cultivation method at the Scripture Tower for fifty Essence Stones.
• Several figures arrived in Hundred Gates Alley searching for Li Qing, but he had already returned to his inn in disguise.
• Li Qing decided not to leave the city yet and saw someone he knew leading a group toward Hundred Gates Alley.

After learning that Li Qing had escaped him, Hua Tianming reflected on the fortune he had lost. Li Qing left Three Rivers City by carriage for Dragon Path City, but as a storm worsened, he learned their only nearby shelter was a Mountain God Temple he suspected would bring trouble.

• Hua Tianming told Yu Qingfeng that the disguised man was formidable and probably had already left the area.
• Li Qing finished absorbing 240 Essence Stones, completed his third round of Body Strengthening, and noted his growing hunger and need to earn money.
• Li Qing hired Old Man Wang to take him from Three Rivers City to Dragon Path City and set out with supplies.
• As rain and wind intensified near dusk, Li Qing asked Old Man Wang to find shelter, then objected when the driver named a Mountain God Temple.
• Old Man Wang reassured Li Qing that travelers often stayed at the temple and that there were no bandits along the road.

Li Qing and Old Man Wang took shelter from the storm in a mountain god temple, where they shared a meal with three armed jianghu men and a wealthy household. By midnight, everyone had settled in for the night, while Li Qing quietly practiced his incantation.

• Li Qing decided to test his supposed bad luck by traveling to a mountain god temple with Old Man Wang.
• Old Man Wang started a fire, and he and Li Qing cooked dried meat and flatbread into a hot meal.
• Three armed jianghu men arrived at the temple and made camp on the opposite side.
• A wealthy household arrived with guards, servants, and a young lady, and they set up their own meal.
• After dinner, the three groups settled in separate areas, with the jianghu men and wealthy household keeping watch.
• Li Qing lay down with his back against the wall and silently practiced Humanity's Fleshly Body Incantation of Ten Thousand Laws as midnight passed.

Li Qing woke the people in the Mountain God Temple as strange laughter drove them to attack and mutate, then used his techniques to destroy the resulting mass of flesh. He traced the laughter to the Mountain God Statue and launched the Life-Death Wheel Tribulation Fire at it, but the statue awakened and struck back.

• Li Qing sensed the strange laughter affecting the two men on watch and shouted to wake everyone.
• The guards, servants, and travelers turned on one another as the laughter spread through the Mountain God Temple.
• Old Man Wang mutated and attacked Li Qing, who used Myriad Qi Dao-Extinguishing Wind to turn him and the mass of twisted flesh to ash.
• Li Qing resisted the laughter’s influence and used Sensing Myriad Daos to locate its source in the Mountain God Statue.
• Li Qing sent the Life-Death Wheel Tribulation Fire at the statue, which opened its eyes and countered with a black-shrouded arm.

Li Qing destroyed the Foundation Establishment-level Anomaly at the Mountain God Temple, then continued toward Dragon Path City. Soldiers searching for Miss Han followed the road, and Li Qing arrived at the city gate, where he spotted a cultivator among the guards.

• Li Qing burned and cut apart the Anomaly, then replenished his essence by absorbing an Essence Stone.
• Li Qing freed the old horse and left the ruined Mountain God Temple for Dragon Path City.
• An officer found signs that an Anomaly had been destroyed and led soldiers toward Dragon Path City to find the cultivator involved.
• Li Qing evaded the soldiers as they rode past, then continued toward the city.
• Li Qing reached Dragon Path City and noticed that a cultivator was guarding its gate.

Li Qing entered Dragon Path City by disguising himself as an ordinary traveler and bribing a gate soldier, then sought information about Jixia Academy. He learned where the academy was and how its examinations and public gatherings worked, leaving him suspicious that the gatherings served another purpose.

• Li Qing discovered that cultivators guarded all four city gates and that underground restrictions made sneaking beneath the walls impossible.
• Li Qing disguised himself as a scholar, bribed a soldier with silver, and entered Dragon Path City unnoticed.
• Li Qing ate at a wonton stall and decided to find out what was happening at Jixia Academy.
• Li Qing rented a room at Tongfu Inn and paid the assistant to answer his questions about the academy.
• The assistant told Li Qing that Jixia Academy stood in the city's north, held spring and summer entrance examinations, and welcomed ordinary people to public gatherings; Li Qing suspected those events had a hidden purpose.

Li Qing investigated Jixia Academy and learned that the four frontiers were preparing for war while tensions within Great Tang were worsening. After deciding to approach a righteous Confucian practitioner openly, he went to the academy as classes began.

• Li Qing used the Sun-Moon Divine Eye Technique to see a vast formation and a Grotto-Heaven beneath the city, then decided to delay showing his token.
• Li Qing overheard talk that the four frontiers were preparing to attack Great Tang and worried that war could reach the Northern Continent.
• A young scholar blamed court factionalism and powerful local clans for Great Tang's troubles, then left after arguing with noblemen.
• Li Qing concluded that Confucian cultivation depended on strict spiritual precepts and decided to show his token to a trustworthy Confucian practitioner.
• Li Qing went to Jixia Academy as students in white robes entered for classes.

Li Qing went to Jixia Academy to meet its Master, presenting a token image that Old Man Zheng recognized as the Master's Token. After publicly clashing with Zhou Xinglong, Li Qing entered the Academy with Old Man Zheng, having made sure witnesses saw him arrive.

• Li Qing approached Jixia Academy and asked Old Man Zheng to pass the Master an image of a token.
• Old Man Zheng recognized the image as the Master's Token and went inside to inform the Master.
• While waiting, Li Qing observed the students and considered how the Jade Tablet could analyze schemes using information he gathered.
• Zhou Xinglong challenged Li Qing for standing at the entrance, and Li Qing retorted until Old Man Zheng intervened and reprimanded Zhou Xinglong.
• Old Man Zheng told Li Qing that the Master would see him, and Li Qing followed him into the Academy after ensuring others had witnessed his arrival.

Li Qing visited the Master at Jixia Academy to use the Dragon Palace Master's Token to request a position and access to the academy's cultivation texts. After resisting the Master's overwhelming righteous aura, Li Qing received the World Patrol token and left with Old Man Zheng.

• Old Man Zheng led Li Qing through Jixia Academy's gardens to the Natural Abode.
• The Master descended, and his righteous aura nearly overwhelmed Li Qing until Gods and Devils Heaven-Earth Observation Heart suppressed its influence.
• The Master explained that the Dragon Palace Master's Token allowed Li Qing to make one request that did not violate humanity's righteous way.
• Li Qing requested a position that granted access to the academy's texts and freedom from orders by anyone but the Master.
• The Master appointed Li Qing as a World Inspector under the name Li Wushuang and gave Old Man Zheng the Master's Token in exchange.
• Old Man Zheng escorted Li Qing outside, where the Natural Abode closed itself and became shrouded in mist.

Li Qing toured Jixia Academy with Elder Zheng and learned about its lineages, facilities, and duty to clear Anomalies from Dragon Path City. After reflecting on the Master’s influence and deciding to focus on gathering cultivation techniques, Li Qing returned the next day to receive his room.

• Elder Zheng showed Li Qing around Jixia Academy and explained the Ten Halls, Library Tower, Debate Hall, mission hall, and other facilities.
• Elder Zheng told Li Qing that the academy cleared Anomalies from Dragon Path City and that its mission hall shared a system with the Demon Extermination Hall.
• Li Qing invited Elder Zheng for a drink, but Elder Zheng declined because he was on duty and promised to arrange Li Qing’s room.
• After Li Qing left, Elder Zheng suspected that Li Qing had hidden cultivation and a strong will, while Li Qing worried about the Master’s influence and resolved to collect cultivation techniques.
• The next day, Li Qing returned to Jixia Academy, and Elder Zheng led him to a room marked Patrol in Peaceful Abode Pavilion.

Li Qing began his new post as World Patrol by secretly gathering knowledge from the Library Pavilion’s books on Dao Lineages and cultivation. Meanwhile, Zhou Suhua and Zhou Xinglong learned that Li Wushuang had taken the position Zhou Suhua wanted and began plotting to investigate him.

• Elder Zheng showed Li Qing his new office, and Li Qing checked it for surveillance before heading to the Library Pavilion.
• Li Qing met Elder Xu, who opened the Foundation Establishment section and warned him to leave before dusk to avoid dangerous forces and Anomaly corruption.
• Li Qing entered the frigid library, used Sensing Myriad Daos to secretly copy information from its books, and watched for signs of danger.
• Zhou Xinglong asked Zhou Suhua why his appointment as World Patrol had fallen through, and Zhou Suhua said Li Wushuang had received the Master’s approval.
• Zhou Suhua told Zhou Xinglong to use his Academy connections to investigate Li Wushuang, while Zhou Xinglong angrily cursed the new World Patrol.

After spending three days surveying the Library Pavilion, Li Qing used the Jade Tablet to fuse and refine its knowledge into nine innate spells and six comprehensive cultivation compendiums. He wondered about the Jade Tablet’s origin and whether its power concealed a problem.

• Li Qing reviewed the Jade Tablet’s compilation of the Hundred Schools’ cultivation techniques into the Humanity's Overview Manual and discovered that his innate spells had expanded to nine.
• Myriad Laws and Myriad Daos Essence circulated through Li Qing’s body as new spell structures formed in his dantian and Niwan Palace.
• The Jade Tablet combined 365 independent spells into the Compendium of Worldly Spells and gathered talismans, arrays, alchemy, crafting, and miscellaneous arts into five more compendiums.
• Li Qing considered how the compendiums and Humanity's Overview Manual could form a supreme tome of the Immortal Path, then questioned the Jade Tablet’s origin and whether it posed a danger.

Li Qing considered how to turn his knowledge into resources before rejecting an invitation to the Menglan Literary Gathering because he suspected a trap. Zhou Xinglong and other Jixia Academy students planned to use the gathering to humiliate Li Qing and force him to resign as World Patrol, then decided to report him when he refused to attend.

• Li Qing weighed learning the Six Great Compendiums and planned to investigate artifact-forging materials and prices in Hundred Gates Alley.
• A Jixia Academy student invited Li Qing to judge the Menglan Literary Gathering, but Li Qing rejected the invitation and shut the door.
• Li Qing suspected that the invitation was a scheme and considered whether Zhou Xinglong was behind it.
• Zhou Xinglong told fellow students that he wanted revenge because Li Qing had become World Patrol instead of his father, and proposed humiliating Li Qing at the gathering.
• When the messenger reported Li Qing's refusal, Zhou Xinglong broke his chopsticks and urged the others to report Li Qing to the Academy for refusing to preside.

Li Qing investigated Zhou Xinglong's conduct, visited Hundred Gates Alley, and determined that crafting artifacts would not provide a viable income. He went to the Academy's Mission Hall to seek work, where a sinister voice greeted him and he sensed extreme danger.

• Ying Huayue and Zhou Xinglong considered troubling a man, but Brother Ling warned them against offending the Master, while Li Qing listened from the shadows.
• The Master told Elder Zheng that billions of Anomalies would descend on Great Tang and ordered the academies to search for an extraordinary Heaven's Chosen; he also told Elder Zheng to watch Li Wushuang.
• Li Qing inspected Hundred Gates Alley and concluded that high material costs, low profits, and guarded crafting secrets made artifact-making unsuitable for Rogue Cultivators.
• Li Qing decided to earn resources through the Academy's Mission Hall and entered it through the hidden corridor in Peaceful Abode Hall.
• A sinister voice asked Li Qing if he was new, and he felt an extreme sense of danger.

Li Qing accepted a task to clear mutated corpses from the Mass Grave and went to investigate, while Zhou Xinglong secretly watched him and sought out a blood-red palm. The chapter left Zhou Xinglong speaking the words “Sea of Blood Hell” to a Rogue Cultivator in Hundred Gates Alley.

• A strange old man explained the task system and gave Li Qing the case file for clearing mutated corpses in the Mass Grave.
• Li Qing traveled west of the city to inspect the Mass Grave, relying on his abilities to find and destroy buried mutated corpses.
• Zhou Xinglong spotted Li Qing leaving Jixia Academy and used Mysterious Heaven Void Eye to spy on him.
• Zhou Xinglong went to Hundred Gates Alley, approached a stall displaying a dried, blood-red palm, and said, “Sea of Blood Hell.”

Li Qing investigated the Mass Grave and discovered Zhou Xinglong secretly using human-skin blood to transform a mutated corpse. He watched the creature sprout strange limbs underground, unsure what it was becoming.

• Zhou Xinglong bought a drop of human-skin blood using 20 Curse-Grade Essence Stones.
• Li Qing surveyed the Mass Grave and found many mutated corpses, including several dangerous areas he avoided.
• Li Qing suspected Zhou Xinglong was having him watched because of the World Patrol position, then secretly returned to observe the graveyard at night.
• Zhou Xinglong entered the Mass Grave and poured human-skin blood into the soil above a mutated corpse.
• The blood transformed the corpse, causing strange limbs to spread underground as Li Qing watched in horror.

Li Qing discovered Zhou Xinglong had created a Hundred-Corpse Monster to target him, but chose to seek justice through Jixia Academy’s rules. Elder Zheng promised to report the crime and punish Zhou Xinglong and his father; after Li Qing returned to his room, someone knocked at his door.

• Li Qing saw the monster absorb scores of corpses and decided to deal with Zhou Xinglong through the rules rather than risk his World Patrol Officer position.
• Li Qing slipped back into Jixia Academy and visited Elder Zheng with a jug of Blue Flower Brew.
• Li Qing told Elder Zheng what Zhou Xinglong had done, and Elder Zheng explained why people coveted the World Patrol Officer post.
• Elder Zheng said Zhou Xinglong would be expelled and publicly denounced, while Zhou Suhua would also face punishment, and promised to report the matter to the Master.
• After returning to his room, Li Qing heard a knock at his door.

Li Qing narrowly avoided opening his door to an apparent aberrant contamination that imitated Elder Zheng and tried to lure him outside. Elder Zheng explained the danger and brought Li Qing to meet the Master, where an ominous yellow-robed man was waiting.

• Li Qing sensed that no one was outside his door despite hearing a voice and knocking, and he used Humanity's Righteous Path is Vicissitudes to suppress the strange sounds.
• The next morning, Li Qing told Elder Zheng what had happened, and Elder Zheng identified it as aberrant contamination that could let an Anomaly descend.
• Elder Zheng explained that cultivators risk contamination and aberration, while Dao Lineages use their principles to help practitioners maintain their precepts.
• Elder Zheng took Li Qing to the Master's Natural Abode, where the Master and a dark-faced man in a yellow robe awaited him.

Elder Zheng used the Karma Soul-Chasing Incense to prove that Zhou Xinglong created a Hundred-Corpse Monster, and the Master ruled that Zhou Xinglong would be expelled from the Academy. Li Qing accepted Zhou Suhua’s apology and compensation, but suspected the Zhou Family would continue to target him.

• Elder Zheng accused Zhou Xinglong of creating a Hundred-Corpse Monster to kill Li Wushuang and showed a recording of the monster’s destruction.
• Zhou Suhua challenged Elder Zheng to prove his son had created the monster, and Elder Zheng used the Karma Soul-Chasing Incense to trace its creator.
• The incense smoke found Zhou Xinglong, and Zhou Suhua offered to have him stripped of student status and disciplined.
• The Master stated that Zhou Xinglong would be expelled and publicly disgraced, while Li Qing accepted Zhou Suhua’s apology and Mystic Gold Divine Iron.
• Li Qing accepted that the matter could not go further and resolved to advance to the Human Tribulation Realm before the Zhou Family could threaten him again.

Li Qing learned that the Teacher was testing him through Zhou Suhua, then went to the Library Pavilion to study the world’s history, customs, and Anomalies. At the Zhou Mansion, Zhou Suhua and Zhou Xinglong resolved to find Li Qing’s weakness and bring about his downfall.

• Elder Zheng warned Li Qing that Zhou Suhua was skilled at manipulation, while the Teacher revealed that he was testing Li Qing because he might be a Heaven’s Chosen.
• Li Qing returned to his room, considered the dangers of cultivation and Anomalies, and decided to gather more knowledge about the world.
• Elder Xu opened a hidden library room where Li Qing began recording a vast collection of books in the Jade Tablet.
• Zhou Xinglong learned that he had lost his student status, and Zhou Suhua advised him to take the provincial examination and pursue cultivation in the imperial court.
• Zhou Suhua told Zhou Xinglong they would find Li Qing’s weakness and make him turn into an Anomaly.