Chapter Summaries

Si Zhanqing rewarded Fang Xun and the laborers before leaving Cold Mountain County, but Fang Xun kept the laborers’ silver and considered killing them if the court’s Cold Mountain Grass tribute failed. Li Shun returned to cultivating Cold Mountain Grass in his Square Inch space, where he had already produced two Cold Mountain Lords, and wondered how to cultivate the Cold Mountain Venerable.

• Si Zhanqing gave Fang Xun one hundred taels of gold and entrusted him with two hundred and thirty taels of silver for the laborers before departing that afternoon.
• Fang Xun investigated the abandoned mine and suspected that the loss of the remnant soul would weaken Cold Mountain’s cold aura and threaten the county’s Cold Mountain Grass supply.
• Fang Xun decided to keep the silver reward and sent the laborers only silk, wine, and dried meat, while privately reasoning that they might eventually die if the tribute could not be delivered.
• Li Shun accepted the meager gifts without complaint and considered that he had escaped the danger without using his Threefold Self-Reflection ability or School of Totality.
• Li Shun inspected his Square Inch spirit field, where the Cold Mountain Venerable stood among two Cold Mountain Lords and more than eighty ordinary plants, and wondered whether the Venerable’s aura had helped him cultivate a Lord.

Li Shun studied the Cold Mountain Venerable by consuming it and using repeated rewinds to investigate its nature, while Zhou Xunzhen’s sudden aging raised questions about the cost of the Twelve Longevity. As Cold Mountain County suffered abnormal heat and Fang Xun welcomed a son while evading Yu Niang’s demand for marriage, Li Shun’s cultivation experiment reached its final stage.

• Li Shun swallowed the Cold Mountain Venerable, greatly strengthening his soul and realizing it was an evolution of Cold Mountain Grass and the Cold Mountain Lord, with a still higher form at the end of their line.
• Li Shun found Zhou Xunzhen aged and forgetful at Jixia Bookshop, then wondered whether the Twelve Longevity had made him repay borrowed life.
• Li Shun rewound time with Three Reflections Upon Myself, restored the Cold Mountain Venerable, and swallowed it again to study the indistinct azure-green figure he glimpsed within its aura.
• By May, abnormal heat had made Cold Mountain County unbearably hot, while Fang Xun used a blood test to confirm that Yu Niang’s newborn son was his and avoided her request to marry her.
• After weeks of research and three rewinds, Li Shun watched dozens of Cold Mountain Grass stalks fight and devour one another as his cultivation experiment neared its final step.

Li Shun successfully cultivated a second Cold Mountain Venerable in Square Inch Space and discovered that the two would attack each other unless separated. As he considered the dangers surrounding Cold Mountain County and resolved to act, he found several mysterious silver spheres in the spirit field.

• Li Shun explained that cultivating a Cold Mountain Venerable required Cold Mountain Grass to fight, careful tending, a Venerable’s aura as guidance, and Square Inch Space to isolate the process from outside interference.
• After the surviving Cold Mountain Grass absorbed the defeated plants, it transformed into a second Cold Mountain Venerable, but the two immediately fought until Li Shun moved the original away.
• Li Shun realized that Cold Mountain Venerables would attack one another when they met, and judged that cultivating more was currently impractical because he lacked enough grass and labor.
• Li Shun worried about unusual heat in Cold Mountain County, recalled that Zhou Xunzhen had likely died after the Twelve Longevity Method’s effects faded, and decided to take action after reflecting on the Emperor’s use of the method.
• Li Shun noticed several silvery-white metal spheres in the spirit field and drew them over to inspect them.

Fang Xun considered pursuing a major merit by capturing Xiong Jin’s talented nephew, then heard Li Shun confess that he had secretly kept a Cold Mountain Lord. He decided to use Li Shun’s cultivation skills to tend the treasure rather than immediately grant his request to rise in rank.

• Fang Xun worried about his prospects in the capital and his son Huan'er’s future, while dismissing his concerns about Yu Niang for the time being.
• Fang Xun considered capturing Xiong Jin’s nephew, a young Xiang Kingdom royal with exceptional talent, to earn merit and improve his standing.
• Wu Kuang brought Li Shun, a laborer who had reported the Xiang Kingdom’s plot, before Fang Xun.
• Li Shun confessed that he had found and concealed a Cold Mountain Lord in the mine tunnels, then surrendered it to Fang Xun.
• Fang Xun realized Li Shun could cultivate Cold Mountain Grass and decided to have him tend the Cold Mountain Lord, leaving his request for promotion unresolved.

After Li Shun was promoted to first-rank Gongshi, Fang Xun personally taught him the Great Qian court’s Twelve Longevity Method. Li Shun returned home and began cultivating, starting the first of its twelve stages.

• Fang Xun spared Li Shun punishment for surrendering the Cold Mountain Mine Cave resources and submitted a report seeking his promotion.
• Ten days later, Li Shun learned that he had been promoted to first-rank Gongshi, and Constable Wu Kuang escorted him to Fang Xun.
• Fang Xun learned that Li Shun’s courtesy name was Tui Zhi, sealed the study, and transmitted the Twelve Longevity Method to him.
• Fang Xun answered Li Shun’s questions about the method and told him to begin cultivating at home.
• After waiting until the next day, Li Shun began circulating the Twelve Longevity Method.

Li Shun used the Twelve Longevity Method to borrow Life Qi from Heaven and Earth, transforming his aging, crippled body into that of a vigorous sixteen-year-old. He realized the borrowed lifespan would eventually run out and considered using Threefold Self-Reflection to turn back time and borrow more.

• Li Shun perceived the Life Qi flowing through Heaven and Earth and saw that his own supply was nearly exhausted.
• Li Shun repeatedly demanded that Heaven and Earth lend him Life Qi, and the flow of qi shifted in response to his will.
• A stream of azure qi entered Li Shun, restoring his youth, health, and ability to walk normally.
• Li Shun realized he had borrowed seventy years of lifespan and recalled the stages he would pass through before returning the borrowed life and dying.
• Li Shun remembered Zhou Xunzhen and considered using Threefold Self-Reflection to turn back time and borrow more lifespan.

After Li Shun became a Public Knight, Fang Xun offered him a county-office post tending the Cold Mountain Lord instead of returning to his ancestral home in East Mountain Town. Li Shun then used Three Reflections Upon Myself to reset Heaven and Earth and borrowed 130 years of lifespan, leaving him to ponder the stone statue’s power.

• Fang Xun learned that Li Shun had borrowed 55 years of lifespan and explained that borrowed lifespan reflected a person’s potential and weight in Heaven and Earth.
• Fang Xun offered Li Shun a county-office post tending the Cold Mountain Lord, and Li Shun accepted rather than return to East Mountain Town, where his siblings might still live.
• Wu Kuang rushed into the study with news that his men had found traces of a boy, but stopped speaking when he noticed Li Shun.
• Li Shun considered the Cold Mountain mutation and his Square Inch Space, then chose to keep his Cold Mountain Grass for personal use and spent the day studying the Twelve Longevity Method.
• Li Shun activated Three Reflections Upon Myself and discovered that its reset restored all of Heaven and Earth, leaving him with no trace of his previous lifespan borrowing.
• Li Shun borrowed lifespan again and gained 130 years.

Li Shun borrowed the maximum two hundred years of lifespan, gaining immense vitality while keeping the true amount secret from Fang Xun. He secured Fang Xun’s permission to remain at his side, but Constable Wu Kuang arrived with news about a trail and stopped short upon seeing him.

• Li Shun tested Fang Xun by falsely claiming he had borrowed fifty-five years, and Fang Xun said that skilled cultivators could judge a person’s Life Qi.
• Li Shun worried that borrowing too much might expose his Square Inch secret, then resolved to continue borrowing lifespan.
• On his third attempt, Li Shun borrowed two hundred years, while the Twelve Golden Men and the million silver soldiers in an underground space trembled faintly.
• Li Shun again told Fang Xun he had borrowed fifty-five years and asked to serve at his side instead of returning home; Fang Xun agreed and assigned him to tend to the Cold Mountain Lord.
• Constable Wu Kuang rushed in to report that they had found the brat’s trail, then stopped when he saw Li Shun, and Fang Xun’s smile disappeared.

Li Shun became the county yamen’s Cold Mountain Keeper, tending spirit plants while studying the original Spirit-Splitting Life-Creation Technique and wondering how to improve his puppet. Five months later, a massive flood surged toward the yamen.

• Fang Xun tested Li Shun’s Spirit-Splitting Life-Creation Technique and appointed him to tend the Cold Mountain plants at the yamen.
• Li Shun gained a stipend and status at the yamen while Fang Xun increased the number of plants and promised to take him to the Sacred Capital in spring.
• Fang Xun gave Li Shun the original Spirit-Splitting Life-Creation Technique, and Li Shun realized the plant’s dwindling supply might lead to its extinction.
• Li Shun considered whether his puppet could borrow lifespan, but held back because the Twelve Longevity Method was forbidden without official permission.
• Five months later, on the sixth day of the sixth month, Li Shun heard the flood alarm and saw a towering wall of water rushing toward the county yamen.

A sudden mountain flood threatened Cold Mountain County, but Fang Xun used the Bright Light Formation to shield the city. The flood then submerged the county beneath the water, leaving Li Shun uneasy as panic and tension spread.

• A towering flood struck Cold Mountain County, and Fang Xun activated the Bright Light Formation to protect the city.
• Yu Shang blamed the abnormal heat for melting mountain ice, while Cheng Yishu revealed that Black-Armored Army soldiers had been chiseling ice from the peaks.
• Fang Xun ordered Cheng Yishu to maintain order and Yu Shang to assess supplies, then told Wu Kuang he suspected Xiong Jin's nephew had melted the ice with Witchfire.
• Fang Xun sent Wu Kuang to search for the fugitive and said he would go personally once they found a trace.
• The flood kept rising until it submerged the city walls, turning Cold Mountain County into an underwater city.
• Li Shun heard a panicked argument next door and worried that even Cold Mountain County had not escaped the disaster.

After the flood struck Cold Mountain County, Li Shun sought a way to gain supernatural strength and learned how Great Qian’s cultivation schools worked. He returned home believing that his mysterious robes and ceremonial cap pointed him toward the Confucian School.

• Li Shun decided not to activate Threefold Self-Reflection, judging that he could not have stopped or warned anyone about the flood, and resolved to seek greater strength.
• After constables told Li Shun that Great Qian officials gained power through the court’s recognition, he went to assistant magistrate Yu Shang with dried meat and asked how to cultivate.
• Yu Shang explained the official academies and the Hundred Schools, warning that their inheritances were difficult to obtain and that Li Shun’s Spirit-Splitting Life-Forming Art was associated with the Agricultural School.
• Yu Shang said the Bright Light Formation should withstand the flood and advised Li Shun to follow the county magistrate, who might someday take him into the Confucian School.
• On his way home, Li Shun recalled the robes and ceremonial cap that appeared when he used Threefold Self-Reflection and concluded that the Confucian School suited him better than the Agricultural School.

Li Shun reflected on the damaged Threefold Self-Reflection Stone Statue as Cold Mountain County remained trapped beneath floodwaters and suffered from poisonous miasma. Fang Xun chose to activate the Bright Light Formation’s purification function while secretly planning to lure Xiong Jin’s nephew into a trap.

• Li Shun considered the stone statue’s possible Sage inheritance, then decided to focus on a more practical path to cultivation.
• Floodwaters submerged Cold Mountain County, and Fang Xun, Yu Shang, and Cheng Yishu estimated that supplies could last until the waters receded without reporting the disaster to the imperial court.
• The water level fell, but rotting animal carcasses spread poisonous miasma into the city, making townspeople sick.
• Fang Xun recalled that Xiong Jin’s nephew had escaped him despite being injured and resolved to capture the young man himself rather than report his whereabouts.
• Fang Xun agreed to keep the Bright Light Formation’s purification function active, presenting the choice as concern for the people while planning to lure his target out.

Fang Xun used the Bright Light Formation to calm Cold Mountain and claimed to be resolving its flood, while secretly setting a trap for a hammer-wielding attacker. As the formation focused its power on the county yamen, the city’s weakened flood barrier gave way and the floodwaters poured in.

• Fang Xun drove away residents who petitioned for the formation’s cooling effect, then activated it the next morning and gained their praise.
• Fang Xun led the Black-Armored Army out to drain the waters and announced that the flood would soon be over.
• A burly attacker smashed through the county yamen’s defensive formation and charged toward Huan’er’s room.
• Fang Xun revealed his ambush and surrounded the attacker with soldiers and constables, then used the Master's words to weigh him down.
• Li Shun suspected the attacker was Xiong Jin as Fang Xun intensified the Bright Light Formation around the yamen, weakening Cold Mountain’s flood barrier.
• The floodwaters broke through the barrier and poured back into Cold Mountain.

Li Shun survived the flood that devastated Cold Mountain City by hiding underground and absorbing the rising water into Square Inch Space. Fang Xun arranged to have Xiong Jin's nephew escorted toward the capital, but the Black-Robed Envoys proved to be paper decoys, and a mysterious youth confronted the captive.

• Li Shun hid in a sealed underground chamber and repeatedly absorbed the floodwater until the tunnel stopped filling.
• After the water receded, Li Shun emerged to find Cold Mountain City in ruins and many residents dead.
• Fang Xun reported capturing a remnant of the Xiang Kingdom to his master, who ordered him to guard the prisoner until the Black-Robed Envoys arrived.
• The Black-Robed Envoys took Xiong Jin's nephew from Fang Xun and headed toward the Sacred Capital.
• The Black-Robed Envoys and their armored qilin horses transformed into paper figures, and a frail youth appeared before Xiong Jin's nephew, calling him Jiang Chongguang.

Han Sushu rescued Jiang Chongguang from Fang Xun’s trap and took him toward East Mountain to seek a treasure in Emperor Gan’s tomb. After discovering the escape and its mocking poem, Fang Xun panicked over the consequences and began concealing the truth while publicly rebuilding Cold Mountain County.

• Han Sushu freed Jiang Chongguang, then said they would go to East Mountain to dig up Emperor Gan’s tomb and find a treasure to transform Jiang Chongguang’s body.
• Han Sushu wrote a mocking poem on Great Qian’s official road, and he and Jiang Chongguang rode spirit cranes toward East Mountain.
• Fang Xun found the poem, realized the prisoner had escaped, and destroyed the road in a fury.
• Fang Xun feared punishment for Cold Mountain’s deaths and injuries, resolved to delay the truth and eliminate witnesses, then falsely told the county the rebel had reached the Sacred Capital.
• Fang Xun publicly promised rewards and led relief and reconstruction efforts, while Li Shun grew suspicious of his sudden change in behavior.

Li Shun grew more suspicious of Fang Xun, while Fang Xun struggled to maintain his act after learning that the damaged official road would delay his replacement. With his departure approaching, Fang Xun began recruiting County Lieutenant Cheng Yishu as a trusted ally and potential scapegoat.

• Li Shun questioned Fang Xun about a law punishing unexplained treasury surpluses, and Fang Xun explained that they signaled changes beyond the court’s control.
• Fang Xun privately wondered how heavenly calculation and human loss could withstand an unforeseen calamity, strengthening Li Shun’s suspicion that he meant no good.
• Over the next half year, Cold Mountain County recovered from the flood, while Li Shun continued cultivating Cold Mountain Grass and accumulating reversal power.
• Fang Xun learned from Yin Fengshuo that the damaged official road had not been repaired, delaying the incoming county magistrate’s appointment.
• Fang Xun resolved to find a scapegoat before departing for a new post and summoned Cheng Yishu, promising to help advance his career if he could be trusted.

As Fang Xun prepared to leave Cold Mountain, Li Shun grew uneasy about the missing court reward and Fang Xun’s plans for Huan'er. Wu Kuang revealed to Yu Shang that tunnels beneath the county city might cause a catastrophic collapse, leaving the danger unresolved.

• Fang Xun appointed Cheng Yishu acting county magistrate to strengthen his record before leaving office, and Cheng eagerly took up the role.
• Fang Xun packed for the capital while Li Shun wondered why the court reward had not arrived and worried about his own safety there.
• Fang Xun responded to Yu Niang’s screams, then carried Huan'er into a sealed bedchamber and coldly ignored the child’s pleas.
• Wu Kuang secretly told Yu Shang that Fang Xun had often disappeared and that the reward for capturing the Xiang Kingdom remnant had never arrived.
• Wu Kuang revealed that he had found many new tunnels beneath Cold Mountain, several of them running under the county city and threatening to bring the mountain down.

Yu Shang discovered Fang Xun’s vast network of dangerous mine tunnels beneath Cold Mountain County, but greed led him to try to expose the scheme alone, and Fang Xun captured him. As Yu Shang and Wu Kuang disappeared, news that Cold Mountain Grass might stop growing drove desperate laborers toward the abandoned mine.

• Yu Shang inspected the mine tunnels with Wu Kuang and concluded that Fang Xun had secretly hollowed out the ground beneath Cold Mountain County.
• Yu Shang abandoned his plan to seek help through official channels and decided to report the tunnels to the commandery governor for a chance at advancement.
• Fang Xun intercepted Yu Shang on the road to Shuofang, and golden chains formed from the character “Prison” bound him.
• The next day, Fang Xun claimed Yu Shang and Wu Kuang had been sent on secret business, temporarily quieting suspicions at the county office.
• News spread that Cold Mountain Grass might vanish, leaving laborers unable to meet their yearly requirement and sending its price soaring.
• Desperate laborers recalled that seedlings might remain in abandoned mine shafts and surged toward the Cold Mountain Mine Cave.

Fang Xun prepared to trigger a mine collapse and leave Cold Mountain, while Li Shun sensed danger and devised a way to preserve his awareness if his body died. Li Shun began transforming a midge so he could use it to observe events from the Square Inch Space.

• Cheng Yishu sealed the Cold Mountain Mine Cave and told the crowd that Cold Mountain Grass had not gone extinct, though he knew the remaining plants had withered.
• Fang Xun planned to blame a mine collapse on laborers searching for Cold Mountain Grass and used his official letter to arrange his departure for the Sacred Capital.
• Fang Xun made the unconscious Yu Shang and Wu Kuang his hidden pieces by binding them to his Confucian Way.
• Li Shun noticed that Fang Xun, Yu Shang, and Wu Kuang had disappeared and feared a disaster he could not understand or prevent.
• Li Shun decided to send his consciousness into the Square Inch Space and attach a strand of it to a creature, then began transforming a midge with Cold Mountain Lord leaves and his blood essence.

Li Shun cultivated a network of tiny creatures to spy without exposing his intent. Meanwhile, Cheng Yishu caught up with Fang Xun on the road, where Fang Xun attacked him, as a group secretly left Cold Mountain for the mine.

• Li Shun discovered that the gnat he had altered was faster and easier to control, then began creating more creatures to use as covert observers.
• Cheng Yishu learned that Fang Xun had left Cold Mountain alone, investigated the residence, and found Yu Niang confined there in a deranged state.
• Cheng Yishu took Yu Niang out of the city, and she sensed Fang Xun's trail and led him toward the road to the Sacred Capital.
• Cheng Yishu caught up with Fang Xun and demanded that he return to Cold Mountain and resume his post as acting county magistrate.
• Fang Xun appeared to agree, then ambushed Cheng Yishu with a golden True Word attack and grievously wounded him.
• A large group slipped out of Cold Mountain and headed for the mine beneath it.