Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Taiyin Sword Heir Yu Qianzi challenges Jiang Ding to a sword duel and objects to his super battleship serving as a “sword sheath.” Jiang insists it is part of his sword art; Yu threatens to use the Moon Palace, but does not, unwilling to violate her own sword tradition.
• Yu formally introduces herself as Taiyin and begins the duel. Their sword domains and flying swords clash: Jiang’s Great Sun sword has greater raw power, but Yu’s superior technique and control gradually give her the advantage.
• Jiang unleashes Sword Nine, a newly created technique that forms nine blazing suns. Yu identifies its structural flaws and dismantles eight suns with precise, economical strikes.
• The final sun forces a direct clash. Yu’s sword prevails, and she exploits Jiang’s opening with a near-lethal attack—reaching the threshold of the third sword realm, Refining Sword into Silk.
• Jiang survives, badly injured, and praises her timing. He then reveals the Great Sun battleship and prepares its cannon. Yu panics and insists they were only sparring.
• The battleship’s intervention reverses the fight. Jiang’s flying sword strikes Yu’s weapon away and nearly kills her; the Immortal Sect’s protective powers intervene just in time. Yu is left gravely injured, while Jiang—also severely wounded—struggles to contain his killing intent.

Character developments

• Jiang Ding remains committed to his unconventional, technology-assisted approach to swordsmanship. He recognizes the weaknesses in his unfinished technique and learns from Yu’s skill, but his near-death experience exposes how dangerous his openings are.
• Yu Qianzi proves herself a highly refined and disciplined swordswoman, combining composure, speed, and exceptional precision. Her commitment to traditional sword values shapes her reluctance to use an outside treasure, but her attempt to kill Jiang shows how ambition and sect history can override restraint.

Themes

• Tradition versus innovation: Yu’s inherited sword doctrine conflicts with Jiang’s willingness to integrate technology and unconventional tools.
• Technique versus raw power: Yu’s skill lets her overcome Jiang’s stronger weapon and flawed technique—until the battleship’s overwhelming force shifts the balance.
• The cost of ambition: Yu risks her sword heart and life pursuing her lineage’s long-standing goal of defeating the Great Sun heir.
• Perilous misjudgment: Both fighters underestimate the danger of the duel and the consequences of pushing it toward a real fight to the death.

Character interactions

• Yu challenges Jiang’s legitimacy and lectures him about the dangers of his path; he rejects her advice and questions the value of tradition without access to its resources.
• Their duel becomes a contest of mutual assessment: Yu diagnoses his technique’s flaws, while Jiang studies her swordsmanship and acknowledges her skill.
• After Yu’s near-fatal strike, Jiang’s praise turns to anger as he reveals his battleship’s power. The exchange ends with both fighters badly hurt and the duel abruptly transformed into a near-lethal confrontation.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding and Yu Qianzi have a sword duel. Jiang Ding uses his sword sheath to nearly kill Yu Qianzi, but she survives due to her high security as a hostage.
• Jiang Ding expresses his intention to improve his swordsmanship so that future duels can be pure and beneficial to both parties.
• Yu Qianzi believes that Jiang Ding's divided attention will hinder his progress in the sword dao.
• Jiang Ding reveals that he walks his own path, not the sword dao, and leaves with An Siyan and the other person.
• Yu Qianzi attempts to challenge Jiang Ding again but is repelled, realizing he has broken through to the second realm of the sword dao, Sword-Qi Thunderclap.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding shows his arrogance and confidence in his path, not bound by traditional sword dao rules.
• Yu Qianzi remains convinced of her superiority in the sword dao but is shaken by Jiang Ding's rapid progress.

Significant Themes

• The exploration of one's own path versus following established rules and traditions.
• The pursuit of power and growth in the cultivation world.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding and Yu Qianzi's interaction highlights their contrasting views on the sword dao and their competitive nature.
• Jiang Ding's departure with An Siyan and the other person suggests a growing bond between them.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding breaks through to the second realm of the sword path, Sword-Qi Thunderclap, during a battle with Yu Qianzi.
• He returns to Silver Sky Island and begins to refine his swordsmanship based on his new understanding.
• Jiang Ding accesses the Immortal Gate Library to study recent research papers on Causality of Metal, finding that most are produced by Spirit Transformation Heavenly Lords.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding: He gains a significant breakthrough in his swordsmanship, allowing him to threaten Nascent Soul cultivators. He also becomes more aware of the differences between the Immortal Gate's and immortal sects' approaches to cultivation.
• Yu Qianzi (mentioned): Her kidnapping by Jiang Ding proves beneficial to his cultivation progress.

Significant Themes

• The power of sword intent and its role in sword cultivation.
• The differences between the Immortal Gate's and immortal sects' cultivation philosophies.
• The importance of research and knowledge accumulation in cultivation advancement.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with Jin Lingfeng and An Siyan, bidding them farewell as they return to their respective sects for the year.
• Jiang Ding's divine sense interacts with the Immortal Gate Library, allowing him to study recent research papers on Causality of Metal.

Plot points and events

• Over two weeks, Jiang Ding studies the Immortal Sect’s latest research, especially a paper on causality and the Supreme Truth Profound Cavern Golden Scripture. He notes questions for Yuan and attends online academic conferences, where senior cultivators help resolve many of his uncertainties.
• Jiang Ding manages six simultaneous mental tasks: cultivating, reading research, handling his avatar and miscellaneous affairs, attending scholarly discussions, developing the Great Sun Nascent Soul Formation Secret Art with Zhang Junsheng, and refining his sword technique, Sword Nine.
• Zhang Junsheng reveals that the Great Sun project may take another 1,887 years, even with many Spirit Transformation Heavenly Lords helping. He worries he may die before it is completed and wonders whether future Nascent Soul cultivators can take over.
• Zhang considers the possibility of attacking the Eight Great Immortal Sects before they act, but Jiang Ding warns that their strength cannot be judged by disorder among their lower ranks.
• Jiang Ding realizes the sects’ Dao Children have appeared. Since each sect can support only one Void Refining powerhouse at a time, this suggests their current powerhouses may be entering the final phase of their lives. Both men become alarmed at what those aging powerhouses might do.
• They calm themselves by noting that Void Refining twilight can last thousands of years, and that the danger may be far in the future.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Ding demonstrates growing scholarly discipline and impressive multitasking. Despite his confidence in research, the prospect of eight aging Void Refining powerhouses unsettles him.
• Zhang Junsheng, an experienced Nascent Soul cultivator and Jiang Ding’s teacher, shows mounting discouragement over the project’s immense duration. Nearing the limits of his own lifespan, he briefly becomes more reckless and hawkish.
• Their exchange shifts from friendly reassurance about Zhang’s prospects to mutual alarm over the Dao Children’s emergence. They steady one another by putting the threat into a longer perspective.
• The chapter also depicts a collaborative academic culture: Heavenly Lords readily answer questions, while cultivators share knowledge through conferences and research projects.

Significant themes

• Long timescales and mortality: Even powerful cultivators must reckon with finite lifespans and projects that outlast them.
• Knowledge through cooperation: Research advances through conferences, teaching, and the passing of work to future generations.
• Power and instability: The appearance of Dao Children hints at a major transition among the Eight Great Immortal Sects’ strongest figures—and the danger posed by rulers with little left to lose.
• Efficiency and discipline: High-level cultivation requires balancing many mental tasks rather than focusing on meditation alone.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Ding proposes coauthoring a research paper with Zhang Junsheng to earn Spirit Transformation merit and improve Zhang’s standing in the competition for a Spirit Transformation opportunity.
• Zhang dismisses the idea as unrealistic: research of that level is exceptionally rare and usually requires leading experts, large teams, and extensive institutional support.
• Jiang Ding sends him a substantial archive outlining his early insights into the Metal-Extinguishing Sword, along with hundreds of cultivation arts as references.
• Zhang initially doubts the work, but recognizes that its ideas resemble the research of top Spirit Transformation experts. He spends three years studying the source materials and confirms Jiang developed the work himself.
• After a month of intensive discussion, Zhang believes they can produce a major paper within ten years. He proposes a share of the merit, with additional credit reserved for researchers who help test Jiang’s largely theoretical claims; Jiang agrees.

Character developments

• Jiang Ding shows confidence in his original insight but is briefly unsettled by Zhang’s warning about the difficulty of high-level research. His willingness to share credit reflects pragmatism and trust.
• Zhang Junsheng moves from skepticism to astonishment and ambition. His ability to absorb a huge body of cultivation theory in three years demonstrates the advantages of his Immortal Sect education, while his attention to testing and authorship shows a practical research mindset.

Significant themes

• The difficulty of discovery: Breakthroughs involving immortal arts demand exceptional talent, accumulated expertise, and substantial effort.
• Collaboration and institutional support: Major research depends on teams and resources, not just individual inspiration.
• Merit and recognition: The chapter treats rewards and authorship as necessary parts of an orderly research system, even when contributors are personally virtuous.
• Different traditions of learning: Immortal Sect education enables unusually rapid synthesis of knowledge compared with other cultivation traditions.

Character interactions

• Jiang and Zhang begin with a teasing, skeptical exchange, but it turns into serious mentorship and scholarly collaboration.
• Zhang challenges Jiang’s confidence, then validates his originality after examining the evidence.
• Their discussion becomes mutually enthusiastic, and they negotiate credit openly before committing to the project.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding concludes that researching the Great Sun Nascent Soul Formation Secret Art will take approximately 1,887 years, far beyond his remaining lifespan of six hundred years. He recognizes that the research must be accelerated to avoid being overtaken by time or unforeseen dangers.
• He reflects on the secret art’s immense history. The inheritance survived countless sects, wars, failed experiments, and generations of deaths before eventually reaching the Great Sun Sword Pavilion. Jiang Ding acknowledges that while inheritances can endure for ages, individual cultivators cannot.
• Jiang Ding resolves to eventually visit the Great Sun Sword Sect and reclaim what he considers his rightful inheritance. Because he possesses the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword, he believes he has the strongest claim to the Great Sun Sword Pavilion’s legacy and is prepared to kill anyone who challenges that claim once he becomes powerful enough.
• After three years of refinement, the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword has reached sixty Earthly Baleful restrictions, with only twelve remaining before it reaches the peak of its current stage. Thanks to the stabilization of Sword-Qi Thunderclap, Jiang Ding expects the remaining refinement to take only three or four years instead of six.
• He demonstrates Sword-Qi Thunderclap by creating a temporary spatial passage extending thirty-two kilometers. However, he still cannot produce the more advanced “Path of Space,” which requires a deeper understanding of spatial nodes and four-dimensional structure.
• Jiang Ding continues his disciplined routine: attending classes, researching the Nascent Soul secret art, writing a paper on the Sixteenth Power of the Metal-Extinguishing Sword’s Prototype, refining his flying sword and warship, practicing swordsmanship, and traveling through the Spiritless Desert.
• After another year, he finally reaches Tushan Immortal City, the settlement he personally built from the wilderness. He sends out a Golden Core-level nanoliquid robot, Jin-94, to act in his place.
• His other robot, Jin-92, remains hidden in the Black Snow Grassland under the protection of a sixth-tier Cause-Swaying Fruit-Erasing Talisman. Jin-92 monitors Northern Plains developments and constructs an ultra-long-distance teleportation array across the Spiritless Desert.
• Jiang Ding plans to establish a teleportation network linking the Land of the Three Kingdoms and the Black Snow Grassland. Though each array costs roughly one billion low-grade spirit stones, he expects the investment to pay for itself in about twenty years while also providing a vital escape route.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding becomes increasingly aware of the urgency surrounding his cultivation. His long-term ambitions remain vast, but his limited lifespan forces him to think more strategically and seek faster methods of advancement.
• His confidence and sense of entitlement grow. He sees himself as the legitimate heir of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion and is willing to use overwhelming force to reclaim its inheritance.
• His swordsmanship advances substantially. He gains greater mastery of Sword-Qi Thunderclap and develops a clearer understanding of spatial principles, though he recognizes that he still falls short of Yu Qianzi’s swordsmanship.
• Jiang Ding demonstrates patience and discipline by maintaining a demanding daily routine while steadily improving multiple areas of cultivation, research, technology, and infrastructure.
• His use of Jin-94 and Jin-92 shows his increasing reliance on distributed bodies and long-term preparation rather than personally handling every task.

Significant Themes

• Inheritance versus mortality: The secret art survives across ages while its creators and sects disappear, emphasizing the contrast between enduring knowledge and fragile individual lives.
• Ambition and rightful succession: Jiang Ding views himself as the natural continuation of the Great Sun Sword Pavilion’s legacy and intends to impose that claim through strength.
• Time and urgency: His lifespan is far shorter than the time required for his research, forcing him to optimize cultivation and seek breakthroughs.
• Perseverance and gradual progress: His steady routine illustrates how immense achievements are built through repeated, incremental effort.
• Technology, cultivation, and strategy: Nanoliquid robots, teleportation arrays, sword refinement, and research work together as parts of Jiang Ding’s broader plan for power and security.
• Preparation and infrastructure: The planned teleportation network represents both economic foresight and military contingency planning.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding’s fifth processing thread has been discussing the Great Sun Nascent Soul Formation Secret Art with Zhang Junsheng, though the discussion ends at the beginning of the chapter.
• He mentally compares his swordsmanship with Yu Qianzi’s, acknowledging Yu’s superior spatial sword technique while believing his own stronger soul gives him greater potential for rapid improvement.
• He also reflects on the difference between himself and the Taiyin Sword Heir, attributing his disadvantage to inferior swordsmanship education rather than lack of innate ability.
• Jiang Ding briefly interacts with Jin-94 after materializing the nanoliquid robot. They exchange a glance before separating, emphasizing Jin-94’s role as an independent operative.
• Jin-92, though absent in person, remains an important extension of Jiang Ding’s will, secretly monitoring the Northern Plains and constructing strategic teleportation infrastructure.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Ding’s true body heads deeper into the Spiritless Desert to hide underground and avoid attracting powerful enemies. He plans to keep in touch through an encrypted teleportation array and move again after a few years.
• A second Jiang Ding, appearing as a young man in azure robes, returns to Tushan Immortal City after decades away. He finds the city far more lawless than he remembers: demonic cultivators operate openly, and people are robbed and killed near the gates.
• He recognizes the severed head of Li Mingda, an old acquaintance who once brought him into the Seven Feathers Sect. Li Mingda’s soul is still being tortured inside the head.
• At the gate, officials advertise rewards for capturing remnants of the Seven Feathers Sect and Blood Slaughter Hall. Rumors reveal that the city is unstable: the Greenfire Old Devil has destroyed a spirit mine, and the Hei Clan’s internal struggles have left the region increasingly chaotic.
• Ghosthead Xu San tries to intimidate Jiang Ding but is overwhelmed by instinctive fear. He instead grabs a frightened young wandering swordsman, then unexpectedly apologizes and gives the swordsman compensation.
• When Jiang Ding reaches the gate, Xu San kneels and treats him with extreme deference. Jiang Ding registers under the name “Tu Shan” and announces that he has come to kill the Hei Clan’s Golden Core cultivators and demonic cultivators who use people as cultivation materials.

Character development and interactions

• Jiang Ding is cautious enough to hide his true body, yet returns to a place with deep personal significance. His grief at seeing Li Mingda’s fate contrasts with his calm resolve to confront the city’s abuses. He presents himself as sixteen and dismisses Xu San’s deference, then states his purpose plainly.
• Ghosthead Xu San, ordinarily a bully who abuses his authority, is visibly terrified by Jiang Ding and abruptly changes from threatening him to groveling before him.
• Li Mingda appears only through his severed, tortured head, but his fate recalls his former connection with Jiang Ding and underscores the city’s cruelty.
• The wandering swordsman is powerless before Xu San’s threat; Xu San’s sudden apology and gift leave him and the onlookers bewildered. Older cultivators recognize Jiang Ding and react with fear, while younger ones do not know who he is.

Significant themes

• The passage of time and change: Jiang Ding returns to a city he helped shape, but decades have erased his place in its residents’ memories.
• Power and lawlessness: Official rules coexist with widespread predation, and authority is often used to persecute the weak.
• Mortality and the cost of conflict: Li Mingda’s grim end and the dead at the spirit mine show how ordinary cultivators suffer amid factional struggles.
• Justice and retribution: Jiang Ding’s stated mission challenges both the Hei Clan’s power and the demonic practices tolerated in the city.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• The cultivators at Tushan Immortal City recognize the returning azure-robed youth as Tu Shan, a legendary patriarch who has been absent for nearly a century. His return reminds them of the old, orderly city and the brutal rule imposed by the Hei Clan.
• The crowd reacts in different ways: some older Foundation Establishment cultivators openly kneel in hope of reclaiming a path to the Golden Core; others hesitate, fearing for their families or doubting the stranger. Hei Clan loyalists quietly send messages for help.
• Jiang Ding takes the severed head of Li Mingda, frees his soul from its restrictions, and uses spiritual power and medicines to restore it. He explains that he is helping an old acquaintance.
• More than a hundred Black Guards arrive and attack Jiang Ding under orders from their Hei Clan officer. Jiang Ding defeats them instantly with a single, unsheathed-less burst of Sword Qi, killing the entire force without leaving visible wounds.
• Li Mingda awakens and recognizes Jiang Ding as the Seven Feathers Sect’s “Little Uncle Master.” Reassured that he is truly there, Li Mingda is put aside to rest.
• Jiang Ding detects and exposes a hidden observer: Hei Zefeng, a late-Golden Core cultivator and son of the Hei Clan patriarch. Jiang Ding identifies him and his connection to the city’s refuge; Hei Zefeng demands to know who Jiang Ding is.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Ding remains composed and focused on healing Li Mingda even while surrounded and attacked. His overwhelming power contrasts with his gentle, deliberate care for the wounded soul. His reputation as cautious and difficult to provoke is also confirmed through Li Mingda’s relief at seeing him.
• Li Mingda shifts from a tortured, nearly shattered soul to a lucid, joyful reunion with his former junior sect figure. Their exchange is affectionate and reassuring.
• The city’s cultivators reveal their varying priorities through their responses to Tu Shan’s return: ambition, loyalty, fear, hope, and concern for family all shape their choices.
• Hei Zefeng emerges as a powerful representative of the ruling clan, but Jiang Ding’s ability to locate and identify him immediately puts him on the defensive.

Significant themes

• Oppression and lost order: The Hei Clan has transformed the city from a relatively stable community into a violent system that suppresses talent and controls who may pursue greater power.
• Powerlessness and survival: Ordinary cultivators can only choose how to endure events beyond their control.
• Memory and hope: Tu Shan’s return revives memories of a better era and gives some cultivators hope for change.
• Compassion amid violence: Jiang Ding’s care for Li Mingda stands in stark contrast to the Black Guards’ cruelty and the city’s brutality.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Hei Clan ambushes Jiang Ding with a top-grade third-tier formation, Black Heaven Slaughtering Life Formation, and over 20 early- and mid-stage Golden Core cultivators.
• Jiang Ding draws his sword, unleashing a powerful killing intent that disorients and terrifies the cultivators.
• Hei Zefeng activates the formation, which temporarily counters Jiang Ding's sword intent.
• Jiang Ding fully draws his sword, slicing through the formation and killing Hei Zefeng.
• The remaining Golden Core cultivators attempt to flee, but Jiang Ding's sword marks them, causing them to collapse and die.
• The Foundation Establishment and Qi Refinement cultivators involved in the formation also die.
• Jiang Ding walks through the rain of blood and corpses, heading towards his residence.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding demonstrates his immense power and control over his sword intent, effortlessly cutting through the Hei Clan's defenses.
• Hei Zefeng shows desperation and willingness to sacrifice himself to protect the Hei Clan's legacy.
• The Hei Clan cultivators display fear and panic in the face of Jiang Ding's power.

Significant Themes

• The power of Jiang Ding's sword and his resolve to protect Tushan.
• The desperation and willingness to sacrifice among the Hei Clan cultivators to preserve their lineage.
• The consequences of underestimating one's enemy and the futility of resistance against overwhelming power.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding and Hei Zefeng's confrontation ends in Hei Zefeng's death.
• The Hei Clan cultivators' attempts to flee are futile, showcasing Jiang Ding's relentless pursuit of justice.
• The cultivators' fear and silence in the face of Jiang Ding's power highlight his intimidating presence.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding returns to Tushan Immortal City after years and finds it chaotic and disorderly, with shops selling dark artifacts and cultivators living in harsh conditions.
• He meets a rabbit demon girl, Yu Bai, who lives in fear due to the Demon Butcher's reputation.
• Jiang Ding learns about the Hei Clan's rules that keep low-level cultivators in poor living conditions, fueling the demand for dark artifacts.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding: Shows empathy and understanding towards the rabbit demon girl, Yu Bai, and begins to see the potential value of the Demon Race in his pursuit of true immortality.
• Yu Bai: Overcomes her fear and provides Jiang Ding with information about the Hei Clan's rules, showing courage and resilience.

Significant Themes

• The pursuit of true immortality and the importance of unity and foundation in cultivation.
• The exploitation of low-level cultivators and the creation of class distinctions.
• The potential value of the Demon Race in Jiang Ding's plans.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with Yu Bai, showing kindness and understanding, which helps her overcome her fear.
• Jiang Ding's conversation with Yu Bai reveals the harsh living conditions of low-level cultivators and the Hei Clan's rules that maintain this situation.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding arrives at the former Tushan Demon Palace site, now a beautiful garden built by the Hei Clan.
• He discovers the garden's dark secrets: it's grown from human remains, used for cultivation, and contains enslaved spirits.
• Jiang Ding destroys the garden's formation, freeing the trapped spirits and souls.
• He takes the spirit plants and herbs, and later the wealth from Tushan Immortal City's treasury.
• Jiang Ding sits on the Black Crow Throne, the city's central seat of power.
• He sends Gong Caiyu and Winter Snow to reclaim the Chu and Yue Kingdoms for Tushan Immortal City.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding demonstrates his moral compass: he appreciates art but abhors its dark origins. He uses the resources left behind by the Hei Clan, showing pragmatism in pursuing justice.
• Gong Caiyu and Winter Snow remain loyal and dedicated to Jiang Ding. They've been cultivating in hiding and are ready to serve him again.

Significant Themes

• The corrupting influence of power and wealth, as seen in the Hei Clan's garden.
• The tension between aesthetics and morality, with Jiang Ding appreciating the garden's beauty but condemning its source.
• The pragmatism of Jiang Ding, who uses resources left behind by his enemies without hesitation.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with the freed spirits and souls, offering them peace and freedom.
• He gives orders to Gong Caiyu and Winter Snow, demonstrating his leadership and trust in them.
• The interaction between Jiang Ding and the former Tushan Demon Palace site highlights his appreciation of art and his disdain for its corrupt use.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Ding organizes the restoration of Tushan Immortal City’s authority after the Hei Clan’s defeat. He assigns experienced maidservants to reclaim territory and administer the region.
• He instructs Wan Zhouling, his chief administrator, to govern fairly and efficiently, while postponing a decision on how to integrate non-maneating Demon Race cultivators. He orders the swift removal of man-eating demons, demonic cultivators, and widely hated figures.
• Jiang sends Gong Caiyu to reclaim the Seven Feathers Sect and gives her a soul bead containing Li Mingda, an old Foundation Establishment cultivator nearing the end of his life, so he can see the sect restored.
• Over several months, Tushan’s forces retake Tuo Kingdom, then the Chu and Yue Kingdoms. The Seven Feathers Sect’s name and ancestral rites are preserved, while Tushan’s laws and governance spread throughout the Yue Kingdom.
• Within a year, the Land of the Three Kingdoms is largely brought under the Tu Shan Code. Officials suppress demonic crime and punish factions that obstruct the law, though corruption and uneven enforcement remain.
• Jiang ends a year of standby cultivation to review the finances: despite war and rebuilding costs, the region has produced a tax surplus of 27 million low-grade spirit stones. Once recovery and investment are complete, annual revenue is projected to reach 60 million.

Character developments

• Jiang Ding acts as a strategic ruler, delegating administration and military action while maintaining firm control over policy. He shows personal compassion by ensuring Li Mingda can witness the Seven Feathers Sect’s restoration.
• Wan Zhouling demonstrates confidence and practical judgment. She admits what she does not know, proposes consulting local expertise, and later uses decisive measures to ensure factions comply with the law.
• Gong Caiyu carries out the mission to reclaim her former sect, despite having little personal attachment to it, fulfilling Jiang Ding’s promise to preserve its legacy.

Significant themes

• Order and state-building: Laws, institutions, taxation, and enforcement transform a war-torn region into a functioning polity.
• Efficiency versus fairness: Jiang seeks equitable governance and economic growth, but uses severe collective penalties against obstructive factions.
• Reconstruction and continuity: The old sect’s name and rituals survive even as a new political authority takes over.
• Limits of reform: The region stabilizes, but corruption, excessive enforcement, and administrative blind spots persist.

Character interactions

• Jiang gives Wan Zhouling clear goals while acknowledging the unresolved challenge of integrating Demon Race cultivators.
• He entrusts Gong Caiyu with both the Seven Feathers Sect’s restoration and Li Mingda’s final years, linking political duty with personal consideration.
• Wan Zhouling and her administrators rely on loyal local cultivators to establish institutions, while confronting factions that resist Tushan’s authority.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Ding calculates the cost of maintaining his cultivation and equipment. His annual income of sixty million low-grade spirit stones is dwarfed by his expenses: the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword and Great Sun battleship already demand enormous sums.
• The flying sword is nearing Nascent Soul treasure-grade. Its refinement would require peak fourth-tier No. 10 Synthetic Geng Metal, costing about 700 million spirit stones annually, plus scarce Gold-Copper Stone.
• Together, the sword and battleship would cost roughly 1.05 billion spirit stones each year. Jiang Ding recognizes that his savings will only last a limited time and considers how to fund his future needs.
• He could request support from the Immortal Sect, but hesitates because the Sect is already financially strained despite its immense talent and achievements.
• Jiang Ding revisits the rejected requests of Spring, Summer, and Autumn—the three leading Golden Core Tu Shan maidservants—to join the Blood King Army and fight in the Royal Court War. He considers allowing them to go, while resolving not to intervene personally beyond supplying Dao-soldier flying swords. If they die, he says, he will avenge them afterward.

Character development

• Jiang Ding’s enormous expenses reveal how dependent his power is on advanced equipment and rare materials. Though wealthy by ordinary standards, he is financially cautious and aware of the burden he may place on the Immortal Sect.
• He remains strategically detached: he is willing to let his subordinates pursue danger, but refuses to risk exposing himself to powerful Nascent Soul or Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Spring, Summer, and Autumn are portrayed as ambitious and determined, seeking battle and advancement rather than a safe but stagnant existence.

Significant themes

• The cost of power: Jiang Ding’s strength depends on astonishingly expensive weapons and technology.
• Individual ambition versus collective hardship: He weighs his own needs against the Immortal Sect’s poverty and the maidservants’ desire to advance.
• Risk and responsibility: Jiang Ding permits others to face danger but draws a firm boundary around his own involvement.
• Institutional ingenuity born of scarcity: The Immortal Sect’s technological achievements are presented as products of both exceptional talent and chronic financial pressure.

Character interactions

• Jiang Ding privately debates whether to seek funding from the Immortal Sect, balancing his needs against its struggling leadership.
• He reflects on the maidservants’ earlier appeals to join the war, reconsidering his previous refusals.
• His proposed support for them is limited: he will provide weapons, but not fight beside them; if they fall, he will seek revenge later.

Chapter summary

Jiang Ding considers whether the Tushan Maid Corps should be allowed to keep expanding and cultivating while they are meant to lie low. He concludes that his relationship with the maids is contractual, not selfless: he has provided them with powerful cultivation methods, instruction, resources, and weapons, and expects them to honor their agreement. If they disobey, he will treat it as a breach of contract and reclaim their Dao-Soldier Flying Swords. He recognizes that the spring, summer, and autumn leaders’ desire to extend their lives is understandable, but decides to leave the matter for his true body to address.
After awakening underground in the Spiritless Desert, Jiang Ding reviews several years of reports and summons the maid corps through the Radiant Sun Command Platform, a soul-based communication art built on his Supreme Clarity Flying Sword. He explains that a Great Sun Sword Heir could eventually command nine divisions of Dao Soldiers. His long-term ambition is to develop a force of 108,000 through generations of training and selection, though this plan remains only an outline.
The summons reaches the maids across the Land of the Three Kingdoms and the Northern Plains. Their descendants have grown the corps to 382 members, and the order to lie low has been only partly followed: the leaders quietly added some official maids and strengthened their formations, making their Golden Core forces formidable. Spring Sword, Shang Gong, and Shang Yun are uneasy, but Jiang Ding does not confront them. Instead, he asks for a report on the Northern Plains.
Spring Sword reports that Bloodflow Cloud controls nearly all of the Black Snow Grassland outside Beast-Spirit Immortal City. His army has grown dramatically, with more than a thousand Golden Core cultivators and an enormous number of Foundation Establishment cultivators. Dragon qi protects him from Nascent Soul attacks. Armies led by the Six Paths Saint Child, the Ice-Snow Saint Child, and the Joyous Union Sect’s Heavenly Maiden are advancing against him, making the situation dangerous.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Ding is shown as disciplined, pragmatic, and unsentimental about his obligations, while still understanding why the maids might resist restrictions. He uses the meeting to assess their situation rather than immediately punish them.
• Spring Sword, Shang Gong, and Shang Yun are revealed to have cautiously exceeded the order to lie low, but not openly challenged Jiang Ding. Their fear of his power—and their awareness that the other maids would not support a rebellion—keeps their actions limited.
• The maid corps has become a larger, more capable force through descendants and strengthened formations, despite the restrictions placed on it.
• Jiang Ding’s interactions with the maids remain formal and hierarchical: they address him as “Young Master,” salute in unison, and respond to his command without hesitation.

Significant themes

• Duty versus self-preservation: The maids’ desire to cultivate and live longer conflicts with their agreement to remain hidden.
• Power and obligation: Jiang Ding frames his support as an exchange, insisting that generosity does not erase the need for loyalty.
• Long-term ambition: The planned nine divisions and 108,000 Dao Soldiers represent a vision built through generations rather than immediate conquest.
• Control and communication: The command platform lets Jiang Ding coordinate his forces, while his deliberately irregular use of it also protects him from being traced.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Northern Plains is in chaos due to the Great Sun Sect and Great Sun Sword Sect's manipulations during the two-hundred-year war.
• Rebel armies have gained the protection of dragon qi, occupying third-tier spiritual veins and avoiding fourth-tier ones.
• The Iron Clan is barely holding the borders against the Great Sun Sect and Great Sun Sword Sect, while the Righteous-Demonic Alliance is scattered and at a disadvantage.
• A member of the Iron Clan, Gu Yue (Tie Yue), known as the Great Love True Person, successfully leads a rebellion within the Great Sun Sword Sect.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding, the protagonist, is gathering information about the current state of the Northern Plains.
• Gu Yue (Tie Yue), the Great Love True Person, is introduced as a collateral-line descendant of the Iron Clan who has gained significant influence within the Great Sun Sword Sect through his kindness and virtue.

Significant Themes

• The theme of chaos and conflict in the cultivation world is emphasized, with various factions fighting for control and resources.
• The importance of bloodlines and direct-line descendants is highlighted, as they are crucial for gaining the protection of dragon qi.
• The power of kindness and virtue is demonstrated through Gu Yue's actions and influence.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with Spring Sword, his subordinate, to gather information and discuss the situation in the Northern Plains.
• Gu Yue interacts with various cultivators, showing kindness and mercy, and gains their admiration and support, even from enemies.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Ding evaluates Great Love True Person as an unusually capable figure, while reminding himself to judge people by their actions rather than their inner thoughts.
• Shang Gong explains that the Tushan Maid Corps must enter the Royal Court War to gain the resources and trials needed to grow. Their needs are too great for Jiang Ding to support directly, and remaining safely in one place would leave many unable to advance.
• Jiang Ding agrees. He requires one-tenth of the maids to remain behind to guard the Land of the Three Kingdoms, lets the rest choose freely whether to go, and promises a letter of introduction to Bloodflow Cloud.
• The maids depart for a dangerous, two-hundred-year conflict. Jiang Ding hopes they will return having achieved their ambitions, though everyone understands some may not survive.
• The chapter then shifts to the newly built Tushan Demon Palace. Jiang Ding receives his first Golden Core visitor: Li Qingyun, an old acquaintance from the Yue Kingdom, now known locally as the fearsome “Greenfire Old Devil.”

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Ding balances concern for the maids with the practical limits of his role as their sword master. He supports their independence but does not promise to protect them from the war.
• The Tushan maids, including Shang Gong, Shang Yun, Spring Sword, and Gong Caiyu, show ambition, loyalty, and acceptance of the risks ahead. Their solemn farewell underscores how much is at stake.
• Li Qingyun has changed from a celebrated young martial prodigy into a battle-hardened Golden Core cultivator with a fearsome reputation. Jiang Ding recognizes traces of the old friend beneath his mature appearance and welcomes his advancement.
• Jiang Ding also reflects on the uncertain fates of his remaining old acquaintances, especially Han Lin.

Significant themes

• Growth through hardship: The maids must risk death and hardship to develop their cultivation and Dao hearts; the Great Sun Sword Pavilion likewise makes its Dao soldiers through generations of battlefield trials.
• The cost of ambition and time: The two-hundred-year war may bring achievement, loss, reunion, and betrayal, while generations of people change across the longer cycles of cultivation.
• Duty and independence: Jiang Ding offers support without coercion, allowing the maids to decide their own paths.
• Reputation versus identity: Li Qingyun’s notorious present-day title contrasts with the young prodigy Jiang Ding remembers, highlighting how time and conflict reshape people.

Key plot points and events

• Li Qingyun meets Jiang Ding and learns that his master, Whitebrow True Person, is alive and pursuing a dangerous but unusually promising path to Nascent Soul.
• Jiang Ding offers Li Qingyun a leadership role in the rebuilt Seven Feathers Sect and promises resources and protection. Li Qingyun instead chooses to focus on cultivation, aiming to strengthen the sect before eventually joining his master in the Northern Plains.
• Jiang Ding appoints the Nine-Origin Spirit Ginseng as an adviser to Tushan Immortal City’s Agriculture Hall, expecting its expertise to greatly improve spirit-herb production.
• The ginseng demands an advance on its wages. Jiang Ding refuses under city rules but offers a loan at 36 percent interest. The ginseng accepts, signs an IOU, and takes spirit fertilizer while warning that Jiang is trying to trap it in lifelong debt.

Character developments

• Li Qingyun shows renewed relief and devotion after hearing his master is alive. He puts the Seven Feathers Sect’s future before his own ambition, though his long-term goal is to seek the Dao alongside his master.
• Jiang Ding acts as a considerate patron to Li Qingyun but maintains a strict, rule-bound approach to administration—and is gleefully opportunistic when dealing with the ginseng.
• The Nine-Origin Spirit Ginseng is gruff, suspicious, and fiercely protective of its freedom. Despite its complaints about being forced to work, it willingly bargains for the fertilizer it wants.

Significant themes

• Duty and personal ambition: Li Qingyun balances cultivation with responsibility for rebuilding his sect.
• Risk and perseverance: Whitebrow’s perilous pursuit of Nascent Soul represents the rare chance cultivators have to advance beyond their limits.
• Power, labor, and debt: The ginseng’s appointment and loan turn Jiang Ding’s authority into a comic form of workplace control.
• Freedom versus obligation: The ginseng rails against servitude even as it signs an IOU that may bind it more tightly.

Character interactions

• Jiang Ding reassures Li Qingyun about Whitebrow and offers practical support, while encouraging him to consult on local affairs and cultivation.
• Jiang Ding and the ginseng trade dry, argumentative remarks: the ginseng protests its appointment and interest rate, while Jiang insists the arrangement is legitimate. Their exchange ends with the ginseng accepting the loan but accusing Jiang of engineering a debt trap.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding follows the route marked in his divine soul consciousness to find Divine Crow True Lord's sealed Nascent Soul.
• He retrieves the Nascent Soul, uses a Soul-Searching Talisman to extract its memories, and erases all traces of their encounter.
• Jiang Ding learns about the Righteous-Demonic Alliance's 'Clan-Dominated Realm' plan and the defection of Yinjiu True Lord from the Great Sun Sword Sect to the Six Paths Sect.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding demonstrates his patience, meticulousness, and power in retrieving and interrogating Divine Crow True Lord's Nascent Soul.
• Divine Crow True Lord's memories reveal his envy and resentment towards Yinjiu True Lord's success and acceptance by the Yin Clan.

Significant Themes

• The power dynamics and politics among the Northern Plains clans and sects.
• The appeal of lineage, bloodline, and clan glory among the Northern Plains cultivators.
• The long-term impact of the two-hundred-year war on the clans and their members.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with Divine Crow True Lord's Nascent Soul, extracting its memories without any dialogue.
• The chapter focuses more on Jiang Ding's actions and thoughts, with no other characters present.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding's Supreme Clarity Flying Sword undergoes its artifact heavenly tribulation after reaching the great completion of the Earth Fiend stage.
• The tribulation begins with a powerful lightning strike, which the sword withstands.
• Jiang Ding activates the Ten-Thousand Magnetic Thundercloud Formation to amplify the tribulation's power, causing a heavenly tribulation manifestation—a thunderblade that threatens Jiang Ding's life.
• The Supreme Clarity Flying Sword faces the thunderblade head-on, suffering severe damage but also tempering itself in the process.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding demonstrates his resolve and willingness to take risks by activating the formation to strengthen the tribulation.
• The Supreme Clarity Flying Sword reveals its inclination toward self-destruction and seeking transcendence through destruction, reflecting a part of Jiang Ding's own nature.

Significant Themes

• The power and danger of heavenly tribulations for both cultivators and artifacts.
• The willingness to take risks and face danger in pursuit of greater power and transcendence.
• The connection between an artifact and its refiner's will and nature.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword, acknowledging and accepting its nature and choices during the tribulation.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Ding, despite severe injuries, refuses to use healing pills and instead relies on his cultivation technique to heal his divine soul and mend his flying sword.
• He endures immense pain for over a month, repeatedly circulating his cultivation technique, with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the essence of the great sun gathering and collapsing around him.
• After a month, his range of influence expands dramatically, and he begins to heal both his divine soul and his flying sword, the Supreme Clarity Flying Sword.
• The sword expels residual destructive power of the lightning tribulation, creating deep holes on Silver Sky Island and triggering Clearwind University's defensive formation.
• After over a year, Jiang Ding's injuries are fully healed. His flying sword has transformed into a specialized Nascent Soul with an affinity for space, making it incredibly fast and powerful.

Character Developments

• Jiang Ding demonstrates remarkable resilience and determination, enduring immense pain to heal his injuries without relying on pills.
• He shows a deep understanding of cultivation, recognizing the opportunity for refinement and tempering his divine sense and flying sword.
• His cultivation base and flying sword's power significantly increase, placing him at a Nascent Soul level.

Significant Themes

• Endurance and perseverance in the face of adversity.
• The importance of self-reliance and understanding one's cultivation technique.
• The power of natural elements and the heavens and earth's spiritual energy.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ding interacts with no other characters in this chapter, focusing solely on his cultivation and healing process.