Chapter Summaries

Liang Zhaohuang completed the recovery of the Kunpeng Secret Realm and discovered a possible link to the Cloud Firmament Heavenly Palace beyond the heavens. As the restored realm’s origin power awakened the Giant Whale Demon’s bloodline, he tried to prevent it from advancing beyond his control, but it transformed into an azure roc.

• Liang Zhaohuang drew fragments of the shattered Sky Secret Realm into the Ocean Secret Realm, completing the Kunpeng Secret Realm, while Liang Zhaosong and Liang Family disciples gathered the scattered treasures and resources.
• The Giant Whale Demon caught a falling palace with wind and waves, displaying its strengthened control over wind and water after months of cultivation.
• Liang Zhaohuang projected his consciousness toward the Cloud Firmament Heavenly Palace but the astral winds scattered it, confirming a link while revealing he lacked the power to cross over.
• Liang Zhaohuang considered the Cloud Firmament Heavenly Palace, the Human Way Heavenly Court, and the True Spirit Heavenly Court, and concluded that pursuing the palace would require Nascent Soul-level strength and powerful beasts.
• As the Kunpeng Secret Realm’s origin cleansed the Giant Whale Demon and strengthened its bloodline, Liang Zhaohuang used Five-Colored Buddha Light to suppress its breakthrough.
• The Giant Whale Demon transformed from a whale into a colossal azure roc and soared through the secret realm’s sky.

Liang Zhaohuang and other clans witnessed the Immortal Dynasty’s ceremony to formally establish Ying Province and raise its state cauldron. After the Crown Prince offered sacrifices at the Earth Temple, the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty’s Human Way Heavenly Court appeared in the sky.

• Liang Zhaohuang, his relatives, and representatives of New Sea Commandery passed identity checks and entered Ying Province City for the ceremony.
• The group took its designated seats among cultivators from Ying Province’s clans, the Immortal Dynasty’s interior, and East Sea factions.
• An Immortal Dynasty Nascent Soul True Lord read an imperial edict whose arcane majesty pressed upon the gathered cultivators.
• The Crown Prince arrived in a brilliant ceremonial procession, and the witnesses bowed to him.
• The Crown Prince and his attendants performed rites before the Earth Temple and presented a sacrificial text.
• The Human Way Heavenly Court appeared in the sky, with its towering jade tree visible within it.

As Ying Province established its Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm, Xie Benqing used the ceremony’s gathered Human Way Destiny and Immortal Dynasty national fortune to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm. The Crown Prince appointed him Governor of Ying Province and elevated the Orchid and Jade Xie Family to a third-rank clan, and Xie Benqing announced a banquet for one month later.

• The Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm opened, and Human Way Destiny and Immortal Dynasty national fortune descended across Ying Province and its participating clans.
• Liang Zhaohuang recognized that Xie Benqing had gathered the Xie Family’s share of the fortune and was preparing to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm.
• Xie Benqing summoned a jade tree that shielded him from eighteen bolts of tribulation lightning, allowing him to complete his breakthrough unharmed.
• The Crown Prince issued an imperial decree appointing Xie Benqing Governor of Ying Province and elevating the Orchid and Jade Xie Family to a third-rank clan family.
• Xie Benqing accepted the decree, thanked those gathered, and announced a Nascent Soul Banquet to be held one month later.

Provincial Governor Xie Benqing instructed Ying Province’s acting commandery governors to prepare for security threats, prioritize development, and consider easing local taxes. Liang Zhaohuang maintained ties with the Xie Family before attending its Nascent Soul banquet, after which commandery and county cauldron construction was expected to begin.

• Xie Benqing told Liang Zhaohuang and the other acting commandery governors to guard against attacks, develop Ying Province’s Human Way, and consider reducing taxes below their level.
• Liang Zhaohuang and the other governors remained in Ying Province City to attend Xie Benqing’s Nascent Soul banquet before returning to oversee cauldron construction.
• Liang Zhaohuang visited the Xie Family residence to maintain the Liang Family’s relationship with Xie Wenyun, but True Person Hu explained that Xie Wenyun was busy preparing for the banquet.
• True Person Hu relayed Xie Wenyun’s thanks and invitation to meet after the banquet, while Liang Zhaohuang explained that he would need to return to New Sea Commandery to oversee its cauldron.
• The Xie Family held its Nascent Soul banquet one month later.

After attending the Xie Family’s Nascent Soul Banquet, Liang Zhaohuang returned to New Sea Commandery and oversaw its cauldron establishment. The Immortal Dynasty formally founded the commandery and appointed him governor, while the Liang Family was promoted to a sixth-rank commandery-prestigious clan.

• Liang Zhaohuang gained insight into the earth and wood Dao Rhythms at the Xie Family’s Nascent Soul Banquet before returning to New Sea Commandery by ship.
• After the Azure Roc warned him of Fierce Beasts fighting at sea, Liang Zhaohuang changed course and safely reached Golden Swallow Island.
• Liang Zhaohuang retrieved the Spirit Cauldron from the Earth Temple and prepared New Sea Commandery for its cauldron-establishment ceremony.
• An Immortal Dynasty official read the edict establishing New Sea Commandery’s cauldron, which opened its Spirit Cauldron Secret Realm and began purifying the region’s spiritual energy.
• The Immortal Dynasty promoted the Liang Family to a sixth-rank commandery-prestigious clan and appointed Liang Zhaohuang commandery governor of New Sea Commandery.

After the Liang family received its new rank and rewards, Liang Zhaohuang considered how the family would build connections with the central court and use its new destiny. Reviewing the family’s relocation and younger descendants, he discovered that nineteen-year-old Liang Xiangbin had become the first of his generation to establish a foundation.

• The imperial decree awarded the Liang family more merit points than the other clans and confirmed the families of New Sea Commandery as Sixth-Rank commandery-renowned clans.
• Liang Zhaohuang and the other clan leaders hosted the court eunuchs, forming preliminary connections before the eunuchs departed the next day.
• Liang Zhaohuang examined the family genealogy and concluded that the family’s new Human Way Destiny and Immortal Dynasty national destiny could support at most two members in reaching the Golden Core realm.
• Liang Zhaojun had relocated the family to New Sea Commandery, leaving Fifth Uncle Liang Xuegui and some descendants at the ancestral land in Ludong County.
• Liang Zhaohuang noticed that Liang Xiangbin had established his foundation at nineteen after awakening his five-element Spirit Light in one year, marking him as a rare cultivation talent.

Liang Zhaohuang reviewed the Liang Family’s Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivators and considered their prospects for reaching the Golden Core Realm, which the family needed to protect its new commandery and expand its trade. After assessing Liang Ruiqin’s promise and the family’s growing inheritance, he turned to a sealed jade slip containing confidential information.

• Liang Zhaohuang reviewed the circumstances of his father and stepmother on Five Elements Island and planned to invite them to New Sea Commandery to join the family’s establishment ceremony and discuss the East Sea.
• Liang Zhaohuang considered Liang Zhaojun and Liang Zhaoyu’s stalled efforts to complete the fifth transformation of the Five Elements Creation Body and noted they were studying the Five Elements Heavenly Scripture as another path.
• Liang Zhaohuang judged Liang Ruiqin a strong prospect to become the family’s second Golden Core cultivator, based on his talent and independent cultivation.
• Liang Zhaohuang studied third-rank Five Elements treasure formations with Liang Ruiqin, helping him test ideas while benefiting from his insights.
• Liang Zhaohuang recognized that the nearly completed family vessel would need a Golden Core cultivator aboard to travel safely and conduct business.
• Liang Zhaohuang set down the genealogy and picked up a purple jade slip sealed with the family’s five-colored lotus emblem.

Liang Zhaohuang reviewed the Liang Family’s East Sea campaign gains, finding that its collected inheritances and resources had built a strong foundation for a commandery-renowned clan. He was especially pleased that the captured medicinal garden palace could merge with the Kunpeng Secret Realm and support the family’s future cultivation of spirit herbs.

• Liang Zhaohuang opened the Five-Colored Lotus Flower seal on a jade slip and examined the family’s records of its East Sea gains.
• Liang Zhaohuang assessed the collected classics, cultivation methods, spells, divine abilities, and arts, concluding that the family’s inheritance framework was already sufficient for a commandery-renowned clan.
• Liang Zhaohuang reviewed the resources seized from the South Mountain City Flying Boat and the Cloud Firmament Heavenly Palace, noting that the latter’s medicinal garden contained a broad range of first- to fourth-rank spiritual medicines.
• Liang Zhaohuang placed the medicinal garden palace in the Kunpeng Secret Realm, where its origin and energy could sustain the garden and potentially allow it to be expanded.

Liang Zhaohuang mastered the Wood Escape Divine Power while cultivating beneath the medicinal garden’s spirit tree, and considered how the Liang Family could develop its alchemy talent and support its wives who had married into the clan. The story left off as he received news that the family’s first seagoing ship had been completed.

• Liang Ruiwei and Liang Zhengshi led family disciples in cataloguing the medicinal garden’s herbs, a task made difficult by the family’s shortage of experienced talent.
• Liang Zhaohuang comprehended the wood-element Dao resonance beneath the garden’s spirit tree for nearly a year and cultivated the Wood Escape Divine Power.
• Liang Zhengshi tended the spirit herbs, and Liang Zhaohuang resolved to seek a suitable wood-aligned Golden Core inheritance to support her advancement as an alchemist.
• Liang Zhaohuang considered finding opportunities for the other wives who had married into the Liang Family to develop their talents.
• Three months after leaving the secret realm, Liang Zhaohuang received a report that the Liang Family’s first seagoing ship had been completed.

Liang Zhaohuang inspected the Liang Family’s newly built Black Lotus Ship while observing the family’s efforts to clear berserk Fierce Beasts from Ying Province’s seas. After testing the ship’s sailing capabilities, he found a third-tier octopus Fierce Beast devouring the survivors of a wrecked boat and prepared to test the ship’s defenses and combat strength.

• Liang Zhaohuang watched Liang Xiangbin lead Liang Family disciples riding whale demons to hunt berserk Fierce Beasts, then offered them guidance after their battle.
• Liang Zhaohuang inspected the Black Lotus Ship, the Liang Family’s first independently built sea ship, and considered how the family might build more despite lacking additional Golden Core True Persons.
• Liang Zhaohuang tested the Black Lotus Ship across more than ten thousand li of ocean, checking its speed, navigation, and ability to withstand waves and storms.
• Liang Zhaohuang used Heavenly Eye Insight to find a target for testing the ship’s combat capabilities and ordered it northwest.
• Liang Zhaohuang encountered a third-tier octopus Fierce Beast feeding on corpses amid the wreckage of a destroyed boat.

Liang Zhaohuang tested the Liang Family’s first self-built ocean-going vessel, the Black Lotus Ship, by battling and defeating a third-order giant octopus Fierce Beast. On the return voyage, the family made contact with the Jin Family of Golden Spirit Water, a commandery-renowned clan from Golden Sand Commandery, opening the possibility of future ties.

• Liang Zhaohuang ordered the Black Lotus Ship to attack the giant octopus Fierce Beast, and its Five-Colored Lotus Formation battered the beast until it ran out of black water and charged the vessel.
• The Five-Colored Lotus Formation withstood the beast’s tentacle strike, then sealed it and used its Black Lotus killing move to dissolve it into black water, which Liang Zhaohuang collected.
• Liang Zhaohuang judged that the Black Lotus Ship had passed its acceptance test and ordered it to return.
• The Black Lotus Ship encountered a vessel from the Jin Family of Golden Spirit Water, whose crew had come to aid the Fierce Beast-clearing team the octopus had destroyed.
• The Jin Family sent Liang Zhaohuang a third-order water-element treasure pearl in thanks for killing the octopus, and he accepted it as a first step toward building relations between their families.

Liang Zhaohuang welcomed his father, stepmother Liu of the Liang Family, and younger sister Liang Zhaorong to New Sea Commandery and showed them the Liang Family’s growing strength. Liu then asked to use the family’s destiny to break through to the Golden Core stage, explaining that her birth family urgently needed a successor to protect it.

• Liang Zhaohuang greeted Liang Xueyan, Liu of the Liang Family, and Liang Zhaorong aboard the Black Lotus Ship and told them the Liang Family owned it.
• Liang Zhaorong asked Liang Zhaohuang to let her command a sea vessel after she reached the Golden Core stage, and he promised she could.
• Liang Zhaohuang brought his family to Liang Family Guard City, where they paid respects at the ancestral hall and attended a welcoming banquet.
• Liang Xueyan and Liu of the Liang Family asked Liang Zhaohuang to let Liu use the Liang Family’s destiny to aid her Golden Core breakthrough.
• Liu explained that her Third Granduncle had suffered a lasting injury and had less than half a jiazi to live, leaving the Liu Family without a Golden Core successor to defend it.

Liu of the Liang Family gave the family Five Elements Essence and the complete Five Elements Escape Divine Power inheritance, then began her Golden Core breakthrough in the Liang family grounds. Liang Zhaohuang used the third-tier essence to cultivate Earth Escape Divine Power, raising his earth-element Dao resonance to the mid-stage Golden Core level, and planned to continue improving his other elements.

• Liu of the Liang Family gave Liang Zhaohuang three tiers of Five Elements Essence and an inheritance of Five Elements Escape Divine Power in return for the family's support.
• Liu entered seclusion in Liang Family Guard City to attempt a Golden Core breakthrough while Liang Xueyan guarded her.
• Liang Zhaorong asked Liang Zhaohuang for a whale demon, and he sent her with the Azure Roc to choose one.
• Liang Zhaohuang cultivated with third-tier Five Elements Essence for more than two months and successfully learned Earth Escape Divine Power.
• Liang Zhaohuang realized he would need at least three of the five portions of third-tier essence to raise his remaining elemental Dao resonances to the mid-stage Golden Core level.

Liang Zhaohuang found an Earthcore Flame while cultivating in a volcano, then returned to guard Aunt Liu as she formed her Golden Core. A hidden demonic shadow was exposed and hunted through New Sea Commandery City, while Aunt Liu successfully advanced to the Golden Core stage.

• Liang Zhaohuang discovered and collected a third-order Earthcore Flame beneath the volcano, then resolved to focus on mastering Metal Element Dao Rhymes.
• Liang Zhaohuang sensed spiritual energy gathering around the Liang Family residence and recognized that Aunt Liu was breaking through to the Golden Core stage.
• Liang Zhaohuang intercepted a concealed demonic cultivator's Spiritual Sense, then ordered the commandery's forces to search for the intruder.
• Song Shihao, Li Liancheng, and other cultivators attacked the demonic shadow in a marketplace, but it split apart and tried to escape.
• Liang Zhaohuang sensed that Aunt Liu had succeeded in forming her core, giving the Liang Family a second Golden Core cultivator.

Liang Zhaohuang welcomed Aunt Liu after she advanced to the Golden Core stage and arranged for her to help the Liang Family establish connections in the East Sea. Her middle-grade Golden Core led him to reconsider the choices facing cultivators seeking to advance, while a hidden demonic cultivator prompted him to strengthen defenses and report the danger to the Ying Province Governor's Office.

• Aunt Liu thanked Liang Zhaohuang for protecting her during her breakthrough and agreed to lead the Liang Family fleet and use her East Sea connections after stabilizing her cultivation.
• Liang Zhaohuang realized Aunt Liu had formed a middle-grade Golden Core without cultivating a spirit body and considered whether his siblings should keep pursuing high-grade Golden Cores or focus on completing the Essence Gate.
• Liang Zhaohuang decided to seek Aunt Liu's guidance for the family and arranged a Golden Core Banquet for one month after she emerged from seclusion.
• Liang Zhaohuang met with Wu Daochong, Song Shihao, Li Liancheng, Zhao Danyang, and Lin Changdao to discuss the threat posed by shadow demon cultivators hiding in New Sea Commandery.
• Liang Zhaohuang ordered stronger patrols and defenses across the commandery and sent a memorial about the lurking demonic cultivators to the Ying Province Governor's Office.

At the Liang Family's Golden Core Banquet, Xie Wenyun arrived late and revealed that the Xie Family was investigating hidden demonic shadow cultivators across Ying Province. Liang Zhaohuang realized the investigation was also a bid to strengthen the Xie Family's control over the province and that Xie Wenyun was asking him to choose a side.

• Liang Zhaohuang held the Golden Core Banquet, where Aunt Liu gave a Golden Core Lecture after Xie Wenyun arrived.
• Xie Wenyun said he had killed a concealed demonic shadow cultivator on the way and that the Provincial Governor's Office had developed a method to detect them.
• At a private Liang Family banquet, Xie Wenyun explained that he was a Patrol Inspector Lieutenant tasked with investigating New Sea Commandery and its subordinate counties.
• Liang Zhaohuang suspected the Xie Family intended to use the investigations to learn about and tighten its control over every commandery and county in Ying Province.
• Liang Zhaohuang asked why Xie Wenyun had come to harm him, and Xie Wenyun called the investigation another cooperation between them.

Xie Wenyun organized an investigation into hidden demonic cultivators in New Sea Commandery, forcing its families to pledge support and provide troops. The investigation uncovered demonic cultivators, who then launched coordinated uprisings across the commandery, including Liang City's.

• Liang Zhaohuang introduced Xie Wenyun's investigation to New Sea Commandery's officials, and Song Shihao and the other leaders pledged their support to the Xie Family.
• Xie Wenyun asked each family to provide two hundred-man battle formations, and Liang Zhaohuang chose Liang Zhaosong and Liang Ruijian to lead the Liang Family's forces.
• Within three days, Xie Wenyun began searching the commandery city with a jade compass bearing a tiny jade tree, while Liang Zhaohuang watched from afar and confirmed that important Liang Family items were secured in a secret realm.
• The jade compass exposed a hidden demonic cultivator, whose demonic shadow split and fled; Xie Wenyun and the leaders of the surrounding satellite cities destroyed the shadows.
• Demonic cultivators triggered explosions and began coordinated attacks throughout the main city and satellite cities, including Liang City, plunging New Sea Commandery into chaos.

Liang Zhaohuang helped suppress demonic cultivators who erupted across New Sea Commandery, then secluded himself at the Gold Lotus Pool to refine the Five Elements Essence and advance his cultivation. After half a year, he reached the middle stage of the Golden Core Realm and demonstrated new transformations of his Five Elements Divine Light Needles.

• Liang Zhaohuang sealed Liang Family Guard City with its lotus-pool formation and destroyed the demonic cultivator that attacked the Wood Lotus Pool, while Liu of the Liang Family helped guard the city.
• Demonic cultivators revolted across New Sea Commandery, but Xie Wenyun and the great families suppressed them; the Lin Family suffered the greatest losses after four demonic cultivators attacked its guard city.
• Xie Wenyun continued searching New Sea Commandery and then led teams into its counties, while Liang Zhaohuang returned to secluded cultivation at the Gold Lotus Pool.
• Over the next half year, Xie Family searches across Ying Province met resistance from long-established commandery clans, while the Liang Family stayed out of the disputes and focused on cultivation.
• Liang Zhaohuang advanced to the middle stage of the Golden Core Realm and demonstrated his Divine Light Needles transforming into a Five Elements Life-Extinction Sword Formation and a Five-Direction Five-Colored Lotus Suppression Formation.

Liang Zhaohuang prepared New Sea Commandery for Governor Xie's inspection tour as the Xie Family moved to stabilize Ying Province. As the inspection date arrived, a Giant Whale Demon transformed into an Azure Roc and flew toward Yingzhou Island.

• Liang Zhaohuang reviewed reports of unrest in Ying Province and suspected the Xie Family's purge had been exploited by other forces.
• Liu and Liang Xueyan told Liang Zhaohuang they would sail east to open trade routes, leaving Liang Zhaorong with the family while Liang Zhaoyu joined the caravan.
• Liang Zhaohuang received notice that Governor Xie would tour the commanderies and summoned officials and clans to prepare New Sea Commandery for the inspection.
• Liang Zhaohuang and the commandery officials assigned preparations, including purging Fierce Beasts and inspecting for hidden dangers.
• When the inspection date arrived, a Giant Whale Demon emerged from the sea, transformed into an Azure Roc, and flew toward Yingzhou Island.

Liang Zhaohuang watched Governor Xie's inspection fleet confront and subdue the resistant Li Family of "Flowing Spring Brew" in Ice Spring Commandery, where he found no sign of demonic shadow cultivators. After the tour passed through several commanderies with little resistance, a sudden upheaval erupted.

• Liang Zhaohuang observed Governor Xie's fleet approach Ice Spring Commandery, where the Li Family's ships tried to encircle it while hunting Fierce Beasts.
• Governor Xie's fleet attacked first, and the Li Family's ships backed down when a Jade Tree Branch and a terrifying golden pressure appeared above the warship.
• Liang Zhaohuang saw that Ice Spring Commandery was densely populated, largely by settlers brought from the Immortal Dynasty's interior by its established clans.
• After seven days in Ice Spring Commandery, Governor Xie's inspection force departed without any visible battle or evidence of demonic shadow cultivators.
• Liang Zhaohuang watched Governor Xie's fleet inspect five commanderies as the others offered little resistance, until a sudden upheaval erupted.