Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: Three Blossoms Blooming: Registered Disciple? Water-Carrying Boy?!

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan directs the Martial Alliance to prioritize:
  1. Protecting the people and their property across the ten counties.
  2. Securing Peach Garden’s grain production.
• He orders local militias to be formed, weapons distributed, villages jointly defended, and dangerous beasts eliminated before they become threats.
• Despite the Martial Alliance’s manpower shortage, Chen insists that Black Prison’s mining operations continue. Mu Junxiong arrives with excellent news: a second Spirit Stone mine has been discovered.
• Production in the Water Mansion Secret Realm exceeds expectations. Using large numbers of shrimp and crabs, the alliance extracts five thousand Clam Pearls in one month, yielding 60,000 Origin Force.
• Combined with Origin Force earned through cultivation in the Liang World, Chen raises his internal and external cultivation to the ninth level and his Dao Arts to the eighth level.
• After accumulating over 100,000 Origin Force, Chen activates the second Dao Fruit and enters a third world, whose time flow is 400 times faster than that of the Dharma Lord World.
• He awakens on a small coastal island in a frail mortal body. While scouting with Far-Sight and Wind-Hearing, he is suddenly confronted by Wuyuan, a powerful level-fourteen cultivator.
• Chen invents a story about seeking immortals after a shipwreck and immediately asks Wuyuan to accept him as a disciple.
• Wuyuan agrees to consider taking him as a registered disciple if Chen demonstrates the two inherited Dao Arts.
• After examining Chen’s detailed diagrams, Wuyuan explains that Far-Sight and Wind-Hearing are weakened Bloodline Arts, useful only to mortals and of little value to cultivators.
• Instead of becoming a registered disciple, Chen is offered the position of water-carrying boy for Wuyuan’s medicine garden. Chen readily accepts and begins working under him.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Demonstrates strong leadership, strategic thinking, and faith in ordinary people by organizing local defense forces. His resourcefulness and opportunism are also emphasized when he quickly fabricates a plausible identity and seeks protection by attaching himself to Wuyuan.
• His cultivation reaches a major milestone, matching the level of his Liang World self. Entering the new world, he remains cautious but bold, willing to accept a humble role in order to gain access to a powerful cultivator and unfamiliar cultivation system.
• Wuyuan: Introduced as an exceptionally powerful, reserved, and seemingly cold cultivator. Despite his stern demeanor, he is fair and compassionate: he does not harm Chen, explains the limitations of Bloodline Arts, and allows him to remain on the island as a servant.
• Mu Junxiong: Continues supporting the Martial Alliance by personally stabilizing Martial Victory City and reporting the discovery of the second Spirit Stone mine.

Significant Themes

• The importance of people and resources: Chen identifies civilian safety and grain production as the foundations of political and military stability.
• Mobilizing ordinary people: The chapter stresses that common people possess immense collective strength when organized for self-defense.
• Accumulation and preparation: Spirit Stones, Clam Pearls, cultivation, and Origin Force all contribute to Chen’s long-term growth and readiness for future upheavals.
• Adaptability and pragmatism: Chen is willing to deceive, flatter, and accept a lowly position when necessary to survive and gain opportunities in a dangerous new world.
• Inheritance and decline: Wuyuan’s explanation of Bloodline Arts reveals how powerful techniques can weaken over generations until they become useful only to mortals.
• Fortune through humility: Although Chen fails to become a registered disciple, becoming Wuyuan’s water-carrying boy places him under the protection of a powerful master and may provide an unexpected path to advancement.

Character Interactions

• Chen gives Wang Quan and Xue Zhong detailed orders regarding civilian protection, grain production, militia organization, and the continued operation of Black Prison.
• Mu Junxiong arrives late but brings the crucial news of the second Spirit Stone mine, reinforcing the alliance’s growing resource base.
• Chen and Wuyuan have an unequal but pivotal first encounter. Chen attempts to justify his presence, explains his supposed inherited arts, and boldly requests apprenticeship.
• Wuyuan evaluates Chen’s Dao Arts, dismisses their value to advanced cultivators, and warns him not to exhaust his body by using them.
• Their relationship begins not as master and registered disciple, but as master and servant, with Chen accepting the humble role in hopes of remaining close to Wuyuan and learning from him.

Chapter Summary: “Three Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan descends Jade Spring Mountain and discovers a medicinal garden at its base.
• He meets Pei Ze, a seven-year-old five-element Spiritual Root disciple, and Yu Chengbo, the garden’s elderly caretaker and an Innate Realm cultivator.
• Yu Chengbo assigns Chen Jichuan to live in a thatched hut with Pei Ze and carry Jade Spring water to fill the garden’s vats. He warns him not to touch the valuable herbs until he has studied them thoroughly.
• Through Pei Ze’s explanations, Chen learns about Jade Spring Island and the organization of Jade Spring Mountain:
  • Water-carrying boys are servants.
  • Herb-gathering boys have greater responsibilities and opportunities.
  • Disciples may be registered or direct disciples, with advancement depending on merit and accomplishment.
  • Wuyuan Immortal Master has roughly twenty disciples and granddisciples on the mountain.
• Chen examines his reorganized Immortal Register, discovering that his age and level have reset to zero and that he possesses Metal, Wood, and Fire Spiritual Roots.
• Unsure of the significance of Spiritual Roots, Chen decides to investigate them gradually while focusing on learning about immortal cultivation.
• He spends his first year diligently carrying water, sweeping leaves, studying the medicinal garden’s books, and using Origin Force to repair his weakened body.
• In his second year, he memorizes the properties of hundreds of herbs through the Insight Art, advances to herb-gathering boy, and begins learning the Flora Technique and Lesser Cloud-Rain Art.
• After three years, Chen has fully settled into life on Jade Spring Mountain and begun moving from menial labor toward genuine cultivation and herbal practice.

Character Development

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates patience, caution, humility, and relentless diligence. Although his past experience and knowledge exceed those of the people around him, he deliberately adopts a beginner’s mindset to avoid exposure and conserve Origin Force.
• He recognizes that his cultivation knowledge is incomplete, particularly regarding the path beyond the Innate Realm and the fundamentals of Qi Refinement, motivating him to use Jade Spring Mountain as a source of instruction.
• His disciplined work gradually earns him advancement from water-carrying boy to herb-gathering boy.
• Pei Ze is introduced as an innocent, sociable child who quickly becomes friendly with Chen after being called “Senior Brother.” He serves as Chen’s first source of information about the mountain and its hierarchy.
• Yu Chengbo appears stern, detached, and uninterested in Chen’s background, but his indifference gives Chen freedom to work and study without scrutiny.
• Wuyuan Immortal Master remains mostly offstage, but his authority and influence shape the structure of Jade Spring Mountain.

Significant Themes

• Starting over: Despite Chen’s previous accomplishments, entering a new world resets his status and forces him to rebuild from the beginning.
• Patience and long-term growth: Chen avoids rushing into cultivation before understanding his surroundings, choosing instead to accumulate knowledge and repair his body.
• Adaptation and humility: He suppresses his pride and accepts a servant’s role because survival and future advancement depend on understanding the new society.
• Knowledge as power: Memorizing herbs, studying books, and learning the mountain’s hierarchy are presented as essential steps toward cultivation and independence.
• Opportunity within hardship: Menial labor initially seems insignificant, but it provides Chen access to Jade Spring Mountain, its texts, and its cultivation traditions.
• Mystery of Spiritual Roots: Chen’s three Spiritual Roots introduce an unresolved question about talent, cultivation speed, and future potential.

Character Interactions

• Chen respectfully introduces himself to Pei Ze and Yu Chengbo, carefully avoiding behavior that might reveal his unusual background.
• Yu Chengbo gives Chen practical instructions but does not interrogate or personally engage with him, which Chen finds advantageous.
• Chen flatters Pei Ze by calling him “Senior Brother,” quickly earning the child’s trust and friendship.
• Pei Ze enthusiastically explains the island, the mountain’s inhabitants, and the disciple hierarchy, while also encouraging Chen to work hard and advance.
• Chen’s interactions with both characters reflect his cautious strategy: he maintains respect toward Yu Chengbo and cultivates a harmless, friendly relationship with Pei Ze.

Chapter Summary: “Qi-Nourishing Powder and the Innate Pill!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan spends the morning carefully watering hundreds of medicinal herbs in Jade Spring Mountain’s four-mu garden. His three years of experience have made him highly skilled and meticulous.
• Pei Ze arrives to announce that the auspicious hour has come for Chen Jichuan to formally take Yu Chengbo as his master.
• After bathing and changing, Chen Jichuan attends the ceremony with Yu Chengbo and Pei Ze. He kowtows, serves tea, and officially becomes a fourth-generation registered disciple of Jade Spring Mountain.
• Yu Chengbo gives him:
  • Twelve Qi-Nourishing Powder pills, which aid Later-Heaven cultivation.
  • One Innate Pill, said to have a sixty-to-seventy percent chance of helping someone open their dantian and advance to the Innate Realm.
  • A uniform and sword.
  • A jade slip containing twelve basic spells, including the Object-Control Art, Fireball Art, and Wind-Riding Art.
• Chen Jichuan immediately plans to use his Insight Art to analyze the medicinal pills and reproduce their formulas, continuing his former interest in pill refinement.
• Yu Chengbo praises Chen Jichuan’s rapid cultivation of the Flora Technique, which he reached the third level of in only two years. He explains that reaching the Innate Realm could earn Chen guidance from the patriarch, while reaching the Innate Limit would grant monthly instruction.
• Chen Jichuan is ordered to travel to White Jade Island at the beginning of the following month. There, he must work as an assistant at the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion for three years, studying alchemy, medicine, social dealings, and practical affairs.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan transitions from a lowly water-carrying and herb-gathering servant into an officially recognized Jade Spring Mountain disciple. He gains greater freedom to leave Jade Spring Island and pursue his own cultivation plans.
• His long-term strategy becomes clearer: secure a legitimate identity within the sect, leave the island to avoid suspicion over his disappearances in reality, and eventually return once he has grown stronger.
• Chen remains ambitious and practical. Although he considers the Flora Technique inferior to his more advanced inheritances, he diligently cultivates it as a means of progressing within the sect.
• His acquisition of the medicinal pills and spells greatly increases his confidence and gives him new opportunities for both cultivation and experimentation.
• Pei Ze has grown into a young man and maintains a close, affectionate relationship with Chen. He is sincerely delighted by Chen’s advancement.
• Yu Chengbo reveals more warmth and hope toward Chen, praising his talent and encouraging him to pursue the Innate Realm and beyond. However, his own old age and stalled cultivation expose his regret and fading hope.

Significant Themes

• Hard work rewarded: Chen’s three years of difficult labor eventually lead to recognition, resources, and greater freedom.
• Cultivation as strategy: Chen treats sect membership, formal status, and access to pills and techniques as tools in a carefully constructed long-term plan.
• Freedom versus obligation: Though Jade Spring Mountain is an excellent cultivation environment, Chen cannot remain hidden there indefinitely because reality remains his foundation.
• The difficulty of immortality: Yu Chengbo’s situation demonstrates how even talented cultivators can become trapped at low realms, aging without reaching true immortality.
• Generational contrast and ambition: Chen’s vigorous pursuit of advancement contrasts with Yu Chengbo’s resignation and approaching old age, reinforcing Chen’s determination not to stagnate.
• Knowledge and adaptation: Chen intends to analyze and reproduce the sect’s pills, combining inherited abilities with newly acquired resources.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Pei Ze: Their relationship has developed from senior-junior formality into genuine friendship. Pei Ze encourages Chen and celebrates his official entry into the sect.
• Chen Jichuan and Yu Chengbo: Yu Chengbo acts as a restrained but supportive master, rewarding Chen, praising his talent, teaching him foundational knowledge, and assigning him his next stage of training.
• Yu Chengbo and Chen’s future: Yu Chengbo’s instructions reflect both practical sect expectations and personal concern. His final warning not to waste time carries the weight of his own unfulfilled cultivation ambitions.

Chapter Summary: “White Jade Island! [Please Vote!]”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Back in his room, Chen Jichuan examines two pills using the Insight Art: Qi-Nourishing Powder and an Innate Pill.
• He discovers that the Insight Art can reveal not only a pill’s effects but also who refined it. The Qi-Nourishing Powder was made by Shen Jingyuan, while the Innate Pill was personally refined by Wuyuan Immortal Master.
• Chen reflects on the extreme difficulty of reaching the Qi Refinement Realm. Despite being disciples of a powerful alchemist, all nine of Wuyuan Immortal Master’s personal disciples remain stuck at the Innate Limit.
• He realizes that learning alchemy could benefit both himself and his family. By working at the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion for three years, he hopes to obtain the formulas for all of Jade Spring Mountain’s pills and eventually reproduce them himself.
• After studying a jade slip containing twelve basic spells, Chen spends another month traveling by sea to White Jade Island with Xu Tianfang.
• White Jade Island is introduced as a major marketplace in the Profound Nether Sea. Although it lacks spiritual resources, it has become a commercial center selling pills, talismans, magical artifacts, spirit beasts, fine food, wine, and other goods.
• Chen and Xu Tianfang arrive at the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion, where Chen begins working as a clerk and Xu becomes the shopkeeper.
• Chen sets a goal of using his Insight Art to analyze every pill formula sold by the pavilion during his three-year stay.
• He rents a private courtyard and also leases Flying Bird Island as a secluded place for cultivation and experimentation.
• On a rest day, Chen visits the Hundred Crafts Workshop, a small store selling weapons, armor, ores, and unusual materials. He inspects the goods and prepares to ask the shopkeeper whether he has what Chen needs.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan becomes more ambitious and strategic. He sees alchemy not merely as a means of cultivation but also as a way to expand White Jade Capital’s business and secure Chen Shaohe’s future.
• His confidence in the Insight Art grows as he discovers it can identify the creators of pills and may allow him to reverse-engineer their formulas.
• He remains cautious about his own cultivation prospects, worrying about how long he may be trapped at the Innate Limit, but he responds by making practical plans rather than giving in to discouragement.
• Xu Tianfang is established as a capable Innate Realm third-stage cultivator with considerable knowledge of medicine and alchemy. Unlike the reserved Yu Chengbo, he is sociable and talkative, serving as Chen’s guide to White Jade Island.
• Xu also displays a relaxed, somewhat carefree personality: after becoming shopkeeper, he rents a private residence, cultivates, visits friends, and avoids spending much time at the pavilion.

3. Significant Themes

• The difficulty of cultivation: Even disciples personally taught by a powerful immortal master cannot break through to Qi Refinement, emphasizing the enormous barrier between the Innate and Qi Refinement realms.
• Knowledge as power: Chen recognizes that understanding pills, spells, local customs, and the wider cultivation world will help him avoid danger, recognize opportunities, and prevent others from deceiving him.
• Practical cultivation and entrepreneurship: Chen combines personal advancement with commercial planning, intending to use alchemical knowledge to strengthen White Jade Capital and support his family.
• Secrecy and self-reliance: He chooses private residences and a secluded island so he can cultivate and pursue his hidden abilities without attracting attention.
• The cultivation world as a marketplace: White Jade Island represents a society where powerful cultivators trade resources, techniques, artifacts, and services, with even Innate cultivators occupying only modest positions beneath true Qi Refinement experts.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen studies the pills alone, reflecting on Shen Jingyuan and Wuyuan Immortal Master’s alchemical abilities.
• During the journey, Xu Tianfang explains White Jade Island’s history, commercial importance, and social atmosphere to Chen. Chen listens attentively and occasionally responds.
• Upon arrival, Chen follows Xu directly to the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion, where their different roles are established: Xu as shopkeeper and Chen as clerk.
• Chen later visits the Hundred Crafts Workshop independently. He politely allows the shopkeeper to finish forging before browsing the merchandise, demonstrating his patient and unassuming manner.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan visits Hundred Crafts Workshop on White Jade Island and asks Feng Zhengyang for Azure Silver and Spirit Stones so he can construct an array formation.
• Feng Zhengyang realizes Chen intends to study array formations and provides him with refined Azure Silver and ten Standard Spirit Stones.
• Chen instead offers to exchange an Innate Pill for eighty Spirit Stones and three Azure Silver ingots. He knows Feng Zhengyang’s son is preparing to break through to the Innate Realm and that Feng urgently needs the pill.
• After some bargaining, Feng agrees to the deal, giving Chen eighty Spirit Stones and three somewhat larger Azure Silver ingots. Chen hands over the Innate Pill, which Feng confirms is genuine.
• Chen travels to Flying Bird Island, which he has rented, and prepares four mu of land:
  • Three mu for medicinal herbs.
  • One mu for Azure Sprout Rice.
• Using diagrams copied from an array in Jade Spring Mountain’s medicinal garden, Chen begins creating an array that can gather spiritual energy and transform ordinary land into usable spirit land.
• He engraves sixty Spirit Stones, ruining twenty but successfully preparing forty. After placing and adjusting them over several days, the array activates successfully.
• The enhanced land can now support medicinal herbs and spirit rice. Chen plans to use the herbs for alchemy experiments and sell or consume the rice depending on his future financial needs.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates his resourcefulness, foresight, and growing business ability. He recognizes that the Innate Pill is far more valuable to Feng than to himself and uses it to obtain materials that directly support his long-term plans.
• Chen’s experience from previous cultivation and his three years observing the medicinal garden allow him to reproduce Jade Spring Mountain’s spirit-gathering array.
• He becomes increasingly practical and self-sufficient, planning multiple sources of income through farming, alchemy, and the sale of medicinal herbs.
• Feng Zhengyang is shown as an experienced merchant and craftsman. Although he bargains and claims to be accepting a loss, he is clearly willing to pay a high price to help his son break through.

3. Significant Themes

• Resourcefulness and calculated investment: Chen converts an unnecessary Innate Pill into materials that can generate long-term wealth and cultivation resources.
• Self-reliance: Rather than depending entirely on Jade Spring Mountain or outside suppliers, Chen creates his own agricultural base.
• Patience and gradual accumulation: Chen understands that wealth and cultivation resources must be built slowly through steady farming, alchemy, and careful planning.
• Knowledge as power: His careful observation and memorization of Jade Spring Mountain’s array allow him to recreate a valuable technique despite limited resources.
• Balancing cultivation and commerce: Chen must choose between consuming spirit rice to improve his cultivation and selling it to finance alchemy, talismans, and magical artifacts.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen and Feng Zhengyang engage in a polite but shrewd negotiation over the Innate Pill. Chen uses his knowledge of Feng’s son and the scarcity of Innate Pill ingredients to justify his high price.
• Feng attempts to bargain the price down, but Chen refuses to yield because he understands the pill’s true value.
• Once the trade is complete, Feng becomes delighted and personally escorts Chen from the workshop, showing his gratitude and relief.
• Chen’s later work on Flying Bird Island is largely solitary, emphasizing his independence and determination to establish himself through farming and alchemy.

Chapter Summary: “Another Three Years, Setting Sail!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Over the next three years, Chen Jichuan devotes himself to cultivation on Flying Bird Island. He advances both his external martial arts and Dao Arts, practicing the Seventy-Two Chen Sect Arts, the Grand Yin Body-Refining Method, the Paper-Cut Soldier Creation Art, and related puppet-making techniques.
• He continues refining paper figures, clay generals, wooden figures, and other constructs that can improve gradually even when he is absent.
• His Dao cultivation soon catches up with and surpasses his Flora Technique. He postpones cultivating the Sword Diagram until after leaving the Profound Nether Sea, choosing to avoid unnecessary risks and complications.
• Instead, he studies the difficult Seven-String Immortal-Shocking Sword Technique while continuing to practice the twelve basic Dao techniques taught by Yu Chengbo. After two months, he has mastered only the Concealment Technique, though it combines effectively with another concealment art he already knows.
• Three years later, Chen returns from White Jade Island to Jade Spring Island. He reunites with Pei Ze, who has grown into a thirteen-year-old cultivator at the fourth level of the Flora Technique and has mastered five Dao techniques.
• Chen visits Yu Chengbo and gives him five catties of Azure Sprout Rice as a parting gift. He explains that he intends to return to his homeland after six years away, settle his worldly connections, and then pursue cultivation without lingering attachments.
• Yu Chengbo approves of his reasoning but warns him about dangers on the mainland. He gives Chen a mid-grade Golden Light Talisman and Earth-Escaping Talisman for protection.
• Chen tells Pei Ze that he will be gone for about a year, concealing his true intention to remain away for several decades unless circumstances force an earlier return. To ease Pei Ze’s sadness, he gives him a low-grade Carefree Shuttle.
• Back on White Jade Island, Chen sells his accumulated pills, medicinal herbs, and Azure Sprout Rice. He uses nearly all his wealth to prepare for the journey: purchasing the mid-grade Three-Yang Cauldron, a Flying Rainbow Sword, numerous talismans, and other necessities.
• He returns to Flying Bird Island, retrieves his Spirit-Gathering Formation and belongings, and boards the ship Azure Mountain.
• As the ship departs, White Jade Island disappears into the distance. Chen begins his journey back to the mainland, intending to cultivate there until he reaches the Innate Limit before eventually returning to the Profound Nether Sea.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Becomes increasingly disciplined, resourceful, and strategically minded. He develops rapidly in both martial and Dao cultivation, expands his alchemical and talisman-related preparations, and demonstrates a willingness to spend nearly all his wealth to protect his future. He also grows more emotionally detached, deliberately preparing to sever worldly ties while still showing gratitude toward his master and affection for Pei Ze.
• Pei Ze: Matures from a young child into a thirteen-year-old cultivator. His diligence earns him fourth-level cultivation and proficiency in five Dao techniques, making him unusually accomplished for his age. Despite his progress, he remains emotionally dependent on Chen and is visibly saddened by his departure.
• Yu Chengbo: His physical decay and stagnant cultivation have become more pronounced, but he remains a competent and perceptive master. His acceptance of Chen’s decision and gift of protective talismans reveal restrained concern beneath his detached demeanor.
• Feng Yuanji: Has failed to break through with the Innate Pill because of impatience, causing his cultivation to regress and damaging his foundation. His father consequently forces him to gain experience and maturity through work at the Hundred Crafts Workshop. He has also inherited his father’s sharp commercial instincts.

Significant Themes

• The cost of cultivation: Magical artifacts, talismans, alchemical tools, and spiritual resources are extraordinarily expensive. Even after years of farming and alchemy, Chen has accumulated less than two hundred Spirit Stones and quickly spends nearly all of them on essential preparations.
• Investment versus hoarding: Chen believes that wealth is meaningless if it cannot preserve his life or improve his future prospects. He willingly sacrifices his savings for equipment, reasoning that lost wealth can be earned again, while a lost life cannot.
• Severing worldly attachments: Returning home is presented as a conventional and necessary step for cultivators. By settling his family obligations and personal connections, Chen hopes to cultivate with a clear heart.
• Long-term planning and restraint: Chen delays cultivating the Sword Diagram and hides the true length of his departure. He consistently avoids unnecessary risks, prioritizing survival and future growth over immediate advancement.
• Departure and transition: The voyage marks the end of Chen’s six-year life in the Profound Nether Sea and the beginning of a new stage in the mortal world. His departure is both practical and emotionally significant, combining hope for advancement with melancholy over the people and places he leaves behind.
• Patience versus impatience: Chen’s steady progress contrasts with Feng Yuanji’s failed breakthrough, reinforcing the danger of greed and haste in cultivation.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Pei Ze: Their reunion is warm and affectionate. Pei Ze eagerly shows Chen his improved Quicksand Art and expresses distress at his impending departure. Chen responds like a caring senior brother, encouraging him and giving him the Carefree Shuttle.
• Chen Jichuan and Yu Chengbo: Chen shows respect and gratitude through the Azure Sprout Rice gift. He formally asks permission to return home, while Yu Chengbo offers pragmatic advice and protective talismans. Their relationship remains restrained but genuine.
• Chen Jichuan and Feng Yuanji: Their interaction is friendly but transactional. Feng Yuanji tries to sell the Three-Yang Cauldron at an inflated price, while Chen bargains it down to eighty Spirit Stones. Their exchange reflects both familiarity and the commercial nature of the cultivation world.
• Chen and his past life: Though his family does not appear directly, Chen’s decision to return home demonstrates that his memories and responsibilities still influence him. His departure is not a rejection of his past, but an attempt to resolve it before fully committing to the Dao.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan travels west aboard the Azure Mountain, leaving White Jade Island for the mainland. The voyage is expected to take six months because of storms, supply stops, and the vast distance.
• He plans to use the journey for secluded cultivation, converting the inner force of the Flora Technique back into the Sword Diagram, then grafting the Primordial Unity Technique onto it. His goal is to prepare for advancement into the Innate Realm, including Hidden Force and Spirit Projection.
• During the voyage, Chen practices sword cultivation, Hidden Force, and soul-tempering. Because the ship limits his ability to use destructive techniques and practice sword forms, he spends much of his free time studying maps and speaking with fellow passengers to gather information about the mainland.
• After half a year, the Azure Mountain reaches Shamen Island, a large island near the mainland coast. Passengers must hire another vessel to continue onward.
• The Qian brothers, Qian Jibang and Qian Jimin, invite Chen to travel with them for protection, warning that some passengers intend to rob or kill others after reaching shore. Chen politely declines, preferring to rest and make his own plans.
• After disembarking, Chen leaves the crowded harbor and enters a forest. Two Later-Heaven cultivators ambush him, but he kills them almost instantly with his sword, vines, and Sword Qi. He takes their talismans, pills, and magical weapons as spoils.
• Chen then detects another pursuer, Zhao Mingchang, an Innate Second Realm cultivator carrying a conch shell. Chen reveals that he had already identified the malicious passengers aboard the ship and secretly prepared a curse against them.
• Using the Five-Thunder Oil-Pool Fire Curse, Chen ignites the “Stove Fire” he had planted in Zhao Mingchang through the Rice-and-Meat-Cooking Curse. Zhao’s true qi becomes uncontrollable, damaging his body and preventing him from using his abilities effectively.
• Zhao attempts to escape using talismans, including a Glacier Talisman and an Earth-Escaping Talisman. Chen traps him with the Iron Encirclement Art, rendering escape techniques useless.
• Chen then kills Zhao with a supernatural arrow that pierces his heart. Paper figures strip Zhao of all belongings, while his body later burns to ashes.
• The chapter ends by emphasizing the overwhelming difference between Chen’s preparation and his opponent’s strength: an Innate Second Realm expert is killed without ever seeing Chen directly.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan becomes more independent and confident after escaping the restrictions imposed by Jade Spring Mountain and the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion. He now has the freedom to cultivate and plan his future settlement.
• His cultivation strategy shows increasing sophistication. Rather than relying solely on direct combat, he combines martial techniques, talismans, curses, formations, reconnaissance, and summoned paper figures.
• Chen also becomes more cautious and distrustful. Although the Qian brothers appear friendly, he recognizes that their invitation may be motivated by their desire to use his strength and magical artifacts.
• His confidence is justified: he easily defeats Later-Heaven cultivators and methodically eliminates the more dangerous Innate Realm ambusher.
• Qian Jibang is portrayed as rational and pragmatic. He understands that Chen does not trust them and does not force the issue after Chen refuses their invitation.
• Qian Jimin is more warmhearted and concerned about Chen’s safety, but he ultimately follows his elder brother’s judgment.
• Zhao Mingchang represents an overconfident predator who underestimates Chen. Despite possessing Innate Second Realm cultivation, he is rendered helpless by Chen’s prior preparations and dies in frustration and confusion.

3. Significant Themes

• Preparation versus brute strength: Chen defeats stronger opponents because he detects their intentions in advance and prepares curses and techniques specifically for them.
• Freedom after confinement: The long voyage symbolizes Chen’s release from the surveillance and obligations that previously limited his actions. He looks forward to establishing a new life and cultivation routine on the mainland.
• Distrust and hidden motives: The ship contains people whose friendly appearances conceal greed and murderous intentions. Chen’s caution protects him from being exploited or ambushed.
• The dangers of travel and the cultivation world: Reaching land does not mean safety. The harbor and surrounding forest are filled with opportunists, bandits, and cultivators seeking easy targets.
• Integration of multiple paths: Chen’s strength comes from combining martial arts, cultivation, talismans, curses, formations, and spiritual techniques rather than relying on a single discipline.
• Predation and reversed power dynamics: Those who plan to hunt Chen become his victims instead. The attackers expect an easy score but are instead stripped of their possessions and killed.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen regularly exchanges sword techniques and cultivation insights with passengers aboard the Azure Mountain, building loose friendships while collecting information about the mainland.
• The Qian brothers invite him to join their journey and warn him about murderous passengers. Chen declines because he suspects their motives and prefers to act alone.
• The brothers discuss Chen after he leaves, acknowledging both his wealth and his formidable guard. Qian Jibang admits that their invitation was partly intended to benefit from Chen’s strength.
• Chen confronts the ambushing cultivators without negotiation, killing them immediately.
• His conflict with Zhao Mingchang is indirect and heavily tactical: Chen curses and traps Zhao from a distance, while Zhao panics, attempts escape, and dies unable to identify his attacker.
• Chen’s paper figures and wooden or ghostly assistants act as extensions of his power, looting Zhao’s body in a comically bandit-like manner after his death.

Chapter Summary: “Robbing Homes, Getting Rich!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan inventories the possessions of Zhao Mingchang, an Innate Realm cultivator he killed. The loot includes four magic artifacts:
  • Mystery-Pointing Sword, a high-grade offensive artifact
  • Duality Shield, a high-grade defensive artifact
  • Hundred-Li Sound-Hearing Conch, a powerful concealed listening and tracking device
  • Dust-Treading Boots, which greatly increase movement speed
• He also obtains numerous talismans, pills, Spirit Stones, and silver, realizing that Zhao Mingchang’s attempt to rob him has instead made Chen wealthy.
• Chen decides to refine the new artifacts before targeting other hostile cultivators on Shamen Island. He emphasizes caution and preparation rather than reckless action.
• Over the next ten days, Chen secretly kills eight Innate Realm cultivators, using Dao Arts and prearranged curses to eliminate them quickly without exposing himself.
• He discovers and dismantles an Eight-Gate Glazed Light Formation, collecting its eight Glazed Light Mirrors after finding its owner reduced to ashes.
• By the end of the killing spree, Chen has amassed a huge fortune, including dozens of magic artifacts, hundreds of pills and talismans, six high-grade artifacts, three formations, and more than a hundred Spirit Stones.
• Chen confirms that Spirit Stones from the Dao Fruit World cannot be converted into Origin Force for his real body, likely because his presence there is only a projected copy. He accepts this limitation without dwelling on it.
• Recognizing that continued robbery would increase the danger of being killed in return, Chen decides to leave Shamen Island the next day.
• After studying the map, he chooses to travel inland toward Ying Kingdom, preferring a stable and less dangerous environment over the conflict-heavy Profound Nether Sea and densely populated cultivation regions.

Character Development

• Chen Jichuan’s wealth and power increase dramatically. The high-grade sword and shield significantly improve both his offensive and defensive capabilities.
• He demonstrates growing confidence in his ability to confront stronger Innate cultivators, while still maintaining a cautious and methodical approach.
• His attitude toward wealth becomes pragmatic: he views the accumulated resources as enough to sustain him for decades, but he does not allow greed to override his judgment.
• Chen displays strong self-control and strategic thinking. Rather than continuing indefinitely, he recognizes the proper moment to withdraw.
• His personality retains a humorous, down-to-earth side. Despite being a cultivator, he jokes about carrying Spirit Stones and artifacts in baskets with a shoulder pole, comparing himself to an ordinary farmer.
• His central goal becomes clearer: he values stability and survival over fame, conflict, or rapid advancement.

Significant Themes

• Risk and reward: Chen’s successful counterattacks show the profits available through cultivation conflict, but Zhao Mingchang’s fate reminds him that greed and carelessness can lead to death.
• Preparation over recklessness: Chen refuses to strike until his new artifacts are refined, prioritizing a secure advantage.
• The dangers of wealth: His growing fortune is useful but also makes him a more tempting target, reinforcing the need to leave before circumstances worsen.
• Contentment and restraint: Although Chen celebrates his gains, he understands that excessive ambition could undo everything he has earned.
• Stability versus conflict: The chapter contrasts the dangerous, violent Profound Nether Sea with safer inland regions. Chen deliberately chooses a slower but more dependable path.
• The ordinary within the extraordinary: His farming background, shoulder pole, and practical attitude humorously contrast with his status as an immortal cultivator.

Character Interactions

• Chen’s main interactions are indirect and posthumous:
  • His conflict with Zhao Mingchang ends with Zhao’s attempted robbery being reversed, as Chen kills him and claims his carefully prepared equipment.
  • Chen also targets other hostile cultivators from the Azure Mountain, killing eight Innate Realm practitioners who had likely preyed on weaker cultivators.
• There are no substantial face-to-face conversations in the chapter. Instead, Chen interacts with his enemies through surveillance, curses, formations, and carefully planned ambushes.
• His relationship with the broader cultivation world is defined by caution: he avoids indiscriminate killing but is willing to eliminate villains and hostile figures when the opportunity is advantageous.

Chapter Summary: Echo Valley: Thirty-Two Years!

Key Plot Points and Events

• After traveling for a year from Shamen Island through several kingdoms, Chen Jichuan settles in Three Realms Pass, a remote and beautiful region bordering Ying, Xue, and Fan Kingdoms.
• He chooses a secluded valley with excellent terrain for cultivation and names it Echo Valley because of its powerful, lingering echoes.
• Chen establishes defensive formations:
  • The Eight-Gate Glazed Light Formation at the valley entrance.
  • The Twelve Azure Dragon Grand Formation to protect his medicinal gardens.
  • The Five Elements Reversal Formation to conceal and confuse intruders.
• He develops a disciplined routine of cultivation, farming, pill refinement, swordsmanship, Dao Arts, and teaching disciples.
• Over the following decades, Chen’s cultivation advances steadily:
  • He begins at the sixth layer in internal cultivation, external cultivation, and Dao Arts.
  • After six years, he reaches the Innate Realm.
  • Ten years later, he reaches the True Qi Realm.
  • Sixteen years after that, he reaches the True Essence Realm, with his Sword Diagram at the ninth layer.
• By age fifty-seven, Chen has spent thirty-two years at Echo Valley and is only one step below the strongest Innate cultivators in the region.
• During this period, Echo Valley grows from a simple residence into a substantial sect with more than a hundred disciples, numerous palaces, training grounds, and a reputation for swordsmanship and external cultivation.
• Chen’s disciples become known as the “Twelve Swords” and the “Thirteen Guardians.”
• Four prominent disciples—Bian, Kang, Meng, and Huang—disappear while traveling through Fan Kingdom.
• Wu Shouyang investigates and discovers that the missing disciples were last seen in Fan Kingdom, where an influential body-tempering master named Zhang Zhihe has recently risen to prominence.
• The chapter ends with Chen suspecting that Zhang Zhihe may be responsible for the disappearances.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan transitions from a wandering cultivator into a settled sect founder and teacher. He becomes more patient and methodical, emphasizing long-term cultivation and institution-building rather than rapid advancement.
• His cultivation and swordsmanship improve substantially through decades of independent study and practice. His Seven-String Immortal-Shocking Sword Technique approaches the Divine Mastery Realm.
• Chen recognizes that disciples are a more valuable long-term investment in a Dao Fruit World than personal cultivation or magical creations, since they continue advancing even when he is absent.
• Wu Shouyang, Chen’s first senior disciple and the “Jade Dragon Sword,” emerges as a capable leader and investigator. He is respectful toward Chen but also bold enough to pursue the mystery of the missing disciples.
• The disciples of Echo Valley develop into a powerful second generation, with many reaching the Innate or Transformative Force Realms.

Significant Themes

• Patience and steady cultivation: Chen avoids rushing his progress, believing that time and solid foundations are more valuable than reckless breakthroughs.
• Building a legacy: Rather than focusing solely on himself, Chen establishes a sect that can continue developing across generations.
• Knowledge as a source of joy: Swordsmanship, pill refinement, farming, and cultivation are portrayed as fulfilling scholarly pursuits, with every breakthrough bringing satisfaction.
• Strategic adaptation: Chen applies lessons from previous worlds, using formations, pills, disciples, and organizational experience to establish Echo Valley efficiently.
• Hidden danger beneath prosperity: Echo Valley’s growth and reputation bring the possibility of conflict, especially as suspicious disappearances point toward a powerful figure in Fan Kingdom.

Character Interactions

• Chen maintains a teacher-disciple relationship with more than a hundred sect members, personally instructing the earliest disciples in the Sword Diagram and Seventy-Two Chen Sect Arts.
• Wu Shouyang arrives at Echo Valley by flying eagle and respectfully praises Chen’s sword technique before reporting the disappearance of four fellow disciples.
• Chen dismisses Wu Shouyang’s flattery and focuses immediately on the facts, asking whether Zhang Zhihe is suspected.
• The four missing disciples had been close companions who traveled together and challenged martial experts throughout the region, making their disappearance especially significant.
• The chapter concludes by setting up a likely confrontation or investigation involving Chen’s sect and Zhang Zhihe of Fan Kingdom.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wu Shouyang reports to Chen Jichuan that Zhang Zhihe, the Imperial Preceptor of Fan Kingdom, is the chief suspect in the deaths and disappearances of Bian Cheng, Kang Jiuhua, Meng, and Huang—the Four Guardians of Echo Valley.
• Chen Jichuan orders the investigation to continue and vows that Zhang will pay with his life if his guilt is confirmed. He is especially enraged because the four victims were his disciples and had been chosen to accompany him overseas to visit his dying master, Wuyuan Immortal Master.
• Zhang Zhihe is revealed to be experimenting on the four Guardians. Using his Grand Corpse-Control Art, he has transformed them into corpse puppets and forces them to fight four Iron Corpses. Meng and Huang are destroyed, while Bian and Kang damage the Iron Corpses before being subdued.
• Zhang realizes that Echo Valley’s external martial arts could greatly enhance his Iron Corpses when combined with his Elephant Armor Technique. He orders his subordinates to capture all Echo Valley disciples entering Fan Kingdom, insisting that they be taken alive.
• Zhang declares that once his Iron Corpses are perfected, he will return to the Profound Nether Sea and kill his way back—revealing a larger ambition and a connection to his past.
• In the capital, Chen Jichuan disguises himself as a Ministry of Works official and observes Zhang during the grand court assembly. Through his Insight ability, he identifies Zhang as “Master Xuanzhen,” age 202, at Level 11, a Qi Refinement Realm cultivator skilled in corpse control, armor techniques, sound arts, and mind control.
• Chen confirms through the Circle-Light Technique that Bian and Kang are still alive, while Meng and Huang died only a few days earlier. The Demon-Slaying Bureau has also begun capturing Echo Valley disciples throughout the capital.
• Wu Shouyang proposes luring Zhang out of his estate, but Chen rejects the plan. Zhang’s Qi Refinement cultivation, magical power, Iron Corpses, and Overlord Armor make a direct confrontation extremely dangerous.
• Chen orders everyone to remain patient while he prepares a more covert strategy, implying that he intends to defeat Zhang through surprise or trickery rather than open combat.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Displays deep loyalty and affection toward both his disciples and Wuyuan Immortal Master. His grief and anger harden into a determined resolve to avenge the Four Guardians. However, he remains controlled and strategic, refusing to let his disciples act recklessly against a stronger opponent.
• Wu Shouyang: Shows courage and loyalty by volunteering to lure Zhang out, confident in his swordsmanship, mobility, and ability to escape. His willingness to take risks contrasts with Chen’s more cautious judgment.
• Zhong Dahai: Becomes openly furious over the deaths of his junior brothers and the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s persecution of Echo Valley disciples. His reaction reflects the growing emotional pressure within the group.
• Zhang Zhihe / Master Xuanzhen: Is revealed as a ruthless and ambitious cultivator who treats the Four Guardians as experimental materials. He is intelligent, calculating, and interested in combining external martial arts with corpse refinement to create stronger weapons.
• Wuyuan Immortal Master: Though absent from the main events, his approaching death motivates Chen’s decision to travel to Jade Spring Island and makes the loss of the four disciples even more significant.

Significant Themes

• Revenge and loyalty: Chen’s determination to avenge his disciples stems from both personal attachment and the responsibilities of a master.
• The corruption of martial knowledge: Zhang seeks to exploit Echo Valley’s martial arts by converting living disciples into corpse puppets, turning honorable cultivation into tools of domination.
• Caution versus recklessness: Wu Shouyang favors a bold ambush, while Chen recognizes the danger of Zhang’s magical abilities and insists on preparation.
• Hidden power and deception: Zhang operates behind the authority of the Fan Kingdom court, while Chen infiltrates the capital in disguise. Both sides rely on secrecy and manipulation.
• Mortality and the passage of time: Wuyuan Immortal Master’s nearing death and the loss of Chen’s disciples emphasize the fragility of life, even as cultivators seek longevity and power.
• Escalating conflict: Zhang’s plan to capture Echo Valley disciples and return to the Profound Nether Sea suggests that the murders are part of a much larger confrontation.

Character Interactions

• Wu Shouyang reports the investigation to Chen and seeks his decision on how to handle Zhang.
• Chen and Wu discuss the danger of confronting Zhang, with Chen taking command and demanding more intelligence.
• Zhang interacts with his elderly subordinate, accepting intelligence on Echo Valley and ordering the Demon-Slaying Bureau to capture its disciples.
• Zhang observes the Four Guardians battling the Iron Corpses and analyzes how their martial techniques could improve his experiments.
• In the capital, Chen secretly observes Zhang in disguise, then returns to brief Wu Shouyang, Zhong Dahai, and the others.
• Wu Shouyang offers himself as bait, but Chen refuses and orders the group to wait for his plan, reinforcing his authority as both master and strategist.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After thirty-nine years in the Fan Kingdom—twenty-three spent cultivating—Chen Jichuan has reached the peak of the Ninth Layer in the Transformative Force Realm. His Sword Diagram and Grand Yin Body-Refining Method have also reached the Ninth Layer, though he remains below his former Liang World peak.
• Unsure how to advance beyond Transformative Force, Chen continues exploring external cultivation while teaching his disciples.
• Fearing that Zhang Zhihe may track him down, Chen prepares an elaborate ritual in the mountains. After three days of purification and meditation, he casts the Plowhead Curse, targeting Zhang Zhihe at the State Preceptor’s Residence.
• The curse consumes fourteen mouthfuls of Chen’s vital essence and 20,000 Origin Force, nearly exhausting him. He is willing to pay this price because he believes the attack must end in either Zhang’s death or his own.
• Chen then casts a Concealment Art, transforming himself into the terrifying True Martial Patriarch and hiding his presence. The concealment is intended both to prevent Zhang from locating him and to reduce the danger of curse backlash.
• At the State Preceptor’s Residence, Zhang Zhihe senses an ominous storm and is suddenly struck by the curse. He experiences the sensation of an iron plow tearing through his body and soul.
• Zhang uses a Soul-Summoning Bell to summon eleven black-clad protectors, then activates a powerful Soul-Suppressing Talisman. The talisman blocks the first assault, forcing the cursed apparition to retreat.
• Although Zhang appears to recover, Chen explains that the Plowhead Curse is also called the Seven-Day Death Curse. Unless Zhang can remove it, his life force should be extinguished within seven days.
• Zhang orders the Demon-Slaying Bureau to search its archives for information on curses and evil arts, revealing that he is taking the threat seriously despite his outward confidence.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Demonstrates greater confidence and ruthlessness. He has mastered Qizhenzi’s Plowhead Curse through inheriting his Dao Fruit and is prepared to risk severe physical depletion to eliminate Zhang. His careful use of concealment shows strategic caution rather than reckless aggression.
• Zhang Zhihe: His composed image as an immortal master collapses under the curse’s pain. Though he successfully blocks the initial attack, he becomes suspicious, angry, and anxious, recognizing that a hidden enemy has launched a serious assault.
• Qizhenzi’s influence: Though absent, his former use of the Plowhead Curse provides the basis for Chen’s current attack. Chen’s version is stronger because he invests more Origin Force and vital essence and possesses deeper overall cultivation.

Significant Themes

• Vengeance and escalation: Chen repays Zhang with the same kind of sinister curse once used against him, turning past suffering into retaliation.
• Preparation versus pride: Chen combines overwhelming force with concealment, emphasizing that survival depends on preparation and caution rather than merely confronting an enemy openly.
• The cost of power: The curse is extremely effective but drains Chen’s vital essence and may require years of recovery, showing that powerful techniques demand serious sacrifice.
• Hidden conflict: The battle takes place across a distance and largely through spiritual and ritual means, reinforcing the danger of unseen enemies and indirect warfare.
• Limits of cultivation: Chen has achieved remarkable progress but still lacks a clear path beyond Transformative Force, leaving his future advancement uncertain.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Zhang do not meet directly, but their confrontation is intense and personal: Chen launches the curse from hiding, while Zhang attempts to resist and identify the attacker.
• Chen’s present actions mirror Qizhenzi’s earlier attack on him, creating a cycle of inherited techniques and retaliatory violence.
• Zhang relies on his summoned guards and Soul-Suppressing Talisman for protection, then commands the kingdom’s investigative authorities to uncover a countermeasure.
• The chapter ends unresolved: Zhang survives the first wave, but the curse remains active, and Chen believes the seven-day effect may still kill him.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• After three days of recovery, Chen Jichuan launches another surprise attack on Zhang Zhihe using the Five Ghosts of the Five Directions and Ten Roads, renewing the Plowhead Curse.
• Zhang has already exhausted his three top-grade soul-defense talismans. Although he uses additional talismans and concealment techniques, the curse bypasses them and directly damages his soul.
• Over the next several days, Zhang repeatedly searches the Demon-Slaying Bureau’s records for clues about the curse caster. Because Chen has not used curse techniques publicly, Zhang investigates in the wrong direction.
• The Plowhead Curse is revealed to be a Seven-Day Death Curse. By the sixth day, Zhang is physically and mentally depleted, consumed by fear, anger, regret, and hatred toward Heaven.
• A wind blows a portrait onto Zhang’s face. He recognizes the young man as Chen Jichuan and realizes the curse has been coming from Echo Valley all along.
• With his death imminent, Zhang orders the Demon-Slaying Bureau to attack Echo Valley and kill Chen, threatening the official who hesitates.
• On the seventh day, the curse strikes for the final time. Chen’s Five Ghosts attack Zhang simultaneously, tearing at his soul while he desperately retaliates with spells.
• Zhang’s residence is destroyed during the struggle. Despite killing several ghosts, Zhang is overwhelmed and dies with blood flowing from his seven orifices.
• Official accounts later portray Chen as a righteous patriarch who personally stormed the State Preceptor’s Residence, killed the “demonic Daoist,” destroyed his ghost creatures, and demolished his stronghold.
• Great Fan sends its Crown Prince to apologize and offer gifts, but Chen has already departed overseas on an eagle in search of immortals and the Dao.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates patience, strategic thinking, and ruthlessness. He recovers between attacks, carefully maintains his concealment, and uses the curse and Five Ghosts to defeat a stronger, more experienced opponent without confronting him directly.
• Zhang Zhihe deteriorates from a confident immortal master into a desperate, paranoid, and hysterical man. His inability to identify the hidden attacker leaves him powerless and humiliates him.
• Zhang’s past is exposed: driven by resentment and limited talent, he obtained corpse-control techniques, abducted physically powerful cultivators, and refined them into puppet corpses. His greed and overconfidence led him to remain in the Fan Kingdom, ultimately causing his death.
• At the end, Zhang’s hatred and regret overwhelm his judgment. Even after discovering Chen’s identity, he can only respond with a doomed revenge order.

3. Significant Themes

• Patience and indirect warfare: Chen defeats Zhang through concealment, attrition, and repeated spiritual attacks rather than direct combat.
• Hubris and delayed consequences: Zhang’s decades of cruelty and corpse refinement eventually catch up with him. His decision to remain in the Fan Kingdom for stronger corpses becomes fatal.
• Heaven’s apparent unfairness: Zhang repeatedly curses Heaven, believing his death unjust, but the chapter suggests that his downfall is the consequence of his own choices rather than arbitrary divine injustice.
• Light versus darkness: Zhang is trapped in the visible world while Chen remains hidden, reversing the usual advantage of a powerful cultivator.
• Reputation and historical distortion: Chen’s covert assassination is later reframed as a heroic public campaign against a demonic official, while the true method remains unknown.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen and Zhang never meet face-to-face during the curse attack. Their conflict is expressed through Chen’s invisible techniques and Zhang’s increasingly frantic attempts to locate him.
• Zhang interacts with the Demon-Slaying Bureau by demanding investigations and ordering arrests, but their efforts fail because they search for a curse practitioner who has left no obvious trace.
• Zhang confronts the elderly court official, ordering him to mobilize the Bureau against Echo Valley. The official obeys out of fear after Zhang threatens the destruction of his entire clan.
• Chen’s disciples later interact with the visiting Crown Prince, explaining that their Patriarch has already departed overseas. The Crown Prince leaves without meeting Chen, deepening Great Fan’s sense of awe and regret.

Chapter Summary

A year after using a deadly curse to kill Zhang Zhihe, Chen Jichuan is still recovering on Shamen Island. Although his appearance is largely unchanged, a lock of hair has turned white, and he realizes the curse severely damaged his vitality and shortened his lifespan. He concludes that such evil techniques must be used sparingly, especially since even a small loss of lifespan could affect his future cultivation and chances of reaching the Qi Refinement Realm or forming a Dao Fruit.
Despite the cost, Chen gained several valuable techniques from Zhang Zhihe: the Corpse Control Formula, the Elephant Armor Technique, and Overlord Armor. The Corpse Control Formula is too complex to cultivate immediately, but the two armor techniques provide powerful methods of strengthening the body through internal force. Chen recognizes that they grant tremendous defense and strength but reduce agility and conflict with the balanced hardness and softness of the Seventy-Two Chen Sect Arts. He plans to study and integrate their principles into his own martial cultivation, potentially allowing him to advance Transformative Force to its tenth level. He reflects that knowledge and cultivation methods are more valuable than material treasures, especially because they can continue benefiting him in future worlds.
Chen also recalls the fate of Bian Cheng and Kang Jiuhua, two men Zhang Zhihe had been trying to refine into corpses. Their souls and vitality had been scattered through their bodies, but Chen used the Soul-Settling and Soul-Returning Method, along with pills and prolonged treatment, to restore them fully. Now they serve him willingly and are preparing to travel overseas with him.
When Bian Cheng announces that the Azure Mountain has arrived at Shamen Island, Chen immediately orders everyone to prepare for departure. He has waited a year for this ship because he is anxious to return to Profound Nether Sea, Jade Spring Island, and White Jade Island. His primary motivation is to see his aging master, Wuyuan Immortal Master, who is now 305 years old. Chen fears that if he delays any longer, Wuyuan may die before he can return and say farewell.
After thirty-three years, Chen sees the Azure Mountain again. The vessel is no longer the same ship he remembers, having been replaced by a newer one. He is distressed by the high fare—ten Spirit Stones per passenger—and the cost of bringing eleven disciples and companions, which consumes roughly half his savings. Among those traveling with him are Wu Shouyang, Zhong Dahai, Bian Cheng, Kang Jiuhua, and other members of Echo Valley’s Twelve Swords and Thirteen Guardians.
The passengers aboard this voyage are markedly different from those on Chen’s earlier journey. Nearly all are Innate Realm experts, including powerful figures from various nations and cultivators returning to Profound Nether Sea after visiting their homelands. Wu Shouyang is astonished by the concentration of experts, but Chen explains that most have reached bottlenecks in their inland cultivation and are traveling overseas in hopes of finding new opportunities. The Azure Mountain can safely carry so many powerful passengers because a Qi Refinement Immortal Master is stationed aboard and the ship is backed by the Azure Mountain Sect.
Chen’s disciples are filled with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of entering the overseas cultivation world. Chen shares their eagerness, particularly at the thought of reuniting with old friends and returning to familiar islands. Just as he stands on deck looking toward the distant sea, two familiar voices call out to him from behind, setting up the chapter’s cliffhanger.

Key Developments and Themes

• Consequences of power: Chen’s victory over Zhang Zhihe came at the price of lost vitality and lifespan.
• Cultivation over material wealth: Chen values techniques and knowledge because they remain useful across worlds and lifetimes.
• Integration and advancement: He seeks to combine the strengths of different body-tempering systems to improve the Chen Sect’s martial arts.
• Loyalty and responsibility: Chen takes responsibility for restoring Bian Cheng and Kang Jiuhua and brings his followers with him overseas.
• Mortality and farewell: His urgency to return stems from concern for Wuyuan Immortal Master’s advanced age.
• Anticipation of a wider world: The Azure Mountain voyage marks Chen and his disciples’ return to the dangerous, opportunity-filled realm of Profound Nether Sea.
• Important interactions: Bian Cheng reports the ship’s arrival; Chen instructs him to gather the others; Wu Shouyang discusses the experts aboard; and two unidentified familiar figures address Chen at the end.

Chapter Summary: “Return to the Profound Nether Sea!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan unexpectedly reunites with the Qian brothers, Qian Jibang and Qian Jimin, aboard the Azure Mountain. They had first met thirty-three years earlier on the same ship and once exchanged swordsmanship insights.
• During a celebratory meal, the brothers explain that they delayed returning overseas because their eldest brother died, leaving behind their mother, widowed sister-in-law, and two nephews. They claim to have stayed inland to care for the family until their mother’s death three years earlier.
• After leaving Chen Jichuan, the brothers secretly seal their cabin and discuss whether the encounter was suspicious. They are carrying a powerful treasure and have become extremely cautious. Both have reached the Innate Zenith and plan to break through to Qi Refinement after returning to the Profound Nether Sea.
• Chen Jichuan privately doubts the brothers’ story. Using his knowledge of fate, physiognomy, and the Circle-Light Technique, he senses that they are lying about their mother’s death and mourning period. Their rapid cultivation progress and deliberate stay inland suggest they are hiding a major secret.
• Despite his suspicions, Chen decides not to interfere. Since the brothers have not harmed or offended him, he resolves to leave them alone unless they become hostile.
• The Azure Mountain remains docked at Shamen Island for a month while passengers, supplies, and acquaintances gather. Chen and his disciples reconnect with old friends before the ship finally departs for the Profound Nether Sea.
• During the half-year voyage, Chen focuses on recovering his severely damaged vital essence after using the Plowhead Curse. He estimates that he needs another four to six months to fully restore himself.
• While recuperating, he reflects on his future cultivation. He plans to advance the Elephant Armor Technique and Overlord Armor toward the tenth layer, continue developing his Dao Arts, and eventually compress his true essence into liquid true essence to reach the Innate Zenith.
• At the end of the chapter, the Azure Mountain reaches White Jade Island, Chen’s destination.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Demonstrates warmth toward old friends but remains perceptive and cautious. He detects inconsistencies in the Qian brothers’ story yet chooses restraint over greed or suspicion. He also shows strong discipline by prioritizing the restoration of his foundation rather than forcing further cultivation.
• Qian Jibang: Appears sincere and emotionally affected when recounting his family’s supposed hardships. He reassures his younger brother and tries to maintain calm, though he secretly remains wary of Chen.
• Qian Jimin: Is more suspicious and anxious than his brother, fearing that others may covet their hidden treasure. He eventually accepts Jibang’s reasoning but remains visibly cautious.
• Zhong Dahai: Admire the Qian brothers’ apparent filial devotion and sees their story as admirable.
• Wu Shouyang and the other disciples: Become enthusiastic about meeting fellow travelers and discussing the possibility of the Qian brothers reaching Qi Refinement. Chen reprimands them for worrying about distant achievements before strengthening their own cultivation.

Significant Themes

• Hidden motives and deception: The Qian brothers’ fabricated family story suggests that appearances can conceal powerful secrets. Chen’s ability to recognize the lie highlights the gap between ordinary perception and cultivators’ deeper insight.
• Caution and survival: The brothers’ paranoia is shaped by possessing a valuable treasure while lacking corresponding strength. Their careful behavior reflects the dangers of the cultivation world.
• Filial piety versus concealed ambition: The brothers present themselves as devoted family members, but Chen suspects their years inland served another purpose, raising questions about the difference between genuine virtue and a carefully constructed disguise.
• Restraint and moral character: Although Chen suspects the brothers possess a great treasure, he refuses to seize it simply because he might be able to. He chooses peaceful coexistence unless they threaten him.
• The difficulty of cultivation: The chapter emphasizes that every major realm becomes harder to advance through. Chen’s path beyond the tenth layer of Transformative Force and the third realm of Dao Arts remains uncertain, while Qi Refinement offers the clearest but still difficult route.
• Protecting one’s foundation: Chen recognizes that recovering his vitality is more important than rushing his cultivation, reinforcing the theme that impatience can damage long-term progress.

Character Interactions

• Chen and the Qian brothers reconnect warmly over wine, reminiscing about their shared history and exchanging updates.
• The brothers privately analyze Chen’s intentions after the meeting, revealing their distrust and the secret burden they carry.
• Chen discusses the brothers with Zhong Dahai and the other disciples, silently correcting their idealized interpretation of the brothers’ character.
• Chen encourages and disciplines his disciples, reminding them to focus on their own cultivation rather than speculating about distant breakthroughs.
• The month at Shamen Island allows Chen, his disciples, and other travelers to strengthen old friendships before entering the unfamiliar overseas cultivation world.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan arrives at White Jade Island with Wu Shouyang, Zhong Dahai, and eleven other disciples after a six-month voyage across the sea.
• He instructs the disciples to remain on White Jade Island temporarily, familiarize themselves with the Profound Nether Sea, and await further arrangements.
• Chen plans to establish an independent branch of Echo Valley rather than return the disciples to Jade Spring Mountain, avoiding internal conflicts and dependence on Wuyuan Immortal Master’s faction.
• After settling the disciples in a large residence with servants and guides, Chen travels to Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion.
• There, he unexpectedly reunites with his former senior brother, Pei Ze, whom he has not seen for thirty-three years.
• Pei Ze has suffered a sea accident that crippled his leg, damaged his dantian and meridians, and ended his cultivation prospects. He now works as a low-ranking groundskeeper outside the alchemy pavilion.
• Chen learns that his former master, Yu Chengbo, died seven or eight years earlier, and Chen regrets not returning in time to see him.
• Although Pei Ze refuses Chen’s offer to return to Jade Spring Mountain for treatment, Chen resolves to help him in the future and protect him from being mistreated.
• Chen then travels to Jade Spring Island. At the harbor, a young disciple named Chen Yu initially refuses to believe Chen’s identity.
• Chen Yu recognizes the truth after connecting Chen’s return with Pei Ze’s tragic history: Pei Ze had secretly gone to sea decades earlier to search for Chen, suffered the accident, lost his cultivation future, and even missed an arranged marriage. The chapter ends with Chen Yu realizing, “So it was you!”

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Returns as a far more powerful and independent cultivator, intending to build his own lineage. Despite his increased status, he remains emotionally affected by his past relationships and feels guilt over abandoning Pei Ze for more than three decades. He also demonstrates compassion and loyalty by resolving to aid Pei Ze.
• Pei Ze: Once an optimistic and promising young cultivator, he has become physically disabled, emotionally withdrawn, and resigned to a humble life. Though he maintains a distant attitude toward Chen, his hidden smile and reddened eyes reveal that the reunion deeply moves him.
• Wu Shouyang and the other disciples: Begin adapting to the unfamiliar Profound Nether Sea and appear excited about their new surroundings and future life there.
• Chen Yu: Initially suspicious and dutiful, he becomes shocked and enlightened when he realizes Chen’s identity and understands the connection between Chen’s disappearance and Pei Ze’s downfall.
• Yu Chengbo: Though already deceased, his death highlights how much time has passed and marks the disappearance of another important link to Chen’s past.

Significant Themes

• The cruelty of time and fate: Thirty-three years have transformed Chen and Pei Ze in completely different ways—Chen has advanced in cultivation, while Pei Ze has been crippled and left behind.
• Regret and missed opportunities: Chen regrets failing to return sooner, see Yu Chengbo before his death, or prevent Pei Ze’s suffering.
• Loyalty and old bonds: Despite their awkward reunion, Chen still regards Pei Ze as a true senior brother and feels responsible for him.
• Independence and legacy: Chen’s decision to establish his own lineage reflects his desire for autonomy, stability, and freedom from the political struggles of Jade Spring Mountain.
• Hidden consequences: Chen’s disappearance affected others more deeply than he realized; Pei Ze’s attempt to find him led directly to the accident that destroyed his future.
• The contrast between appearance and reality: Chen appears unchanged and powerful, while Pei Ze’s damaged body conceals the emotional significance of their reunion.

Character Interactions

• Chen warmly guides and reassures his disciples before separating from them on White Jade Island.
• His reunion with Pei Ze is restrained and painful. Chen expresses concern and offers practical help, while Pei Ze responds politely but keeps an emotional distance.
• Chen and Pei Ze’s shared memories recall their early days at Jade Spring Mountain and establish the depth of their former brotherly relationship.
• Chen later speaks with Chen Yu at the Jade Spring Island harbor. Chen Yu’s suspicion turns into astonishment when he identifies Chen as the missing junior brother whose disappearance indirectly led to Pei Ze’s tragic fate.

Chapter Summary: “What Martial Uncle Doesn’t Know”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan learns the full truth behind Pei Ze’s ruined life. Years earlier, after Chen Jichuan disappeared while returning to the mainland, Pei Ze—then a talented sixteen-year-old who had already reached the Sixth Layer of the Later-Heaven Realm—left Jade Spring Island to search for him.
• Pei Ze was caught in a disaster at sea, surviving but suffering severe injuries that crippled his leg and damaged his dantian. His cultivation future was destroyed, and he eventually became a humble sweeper at the Jade Spring Alchemy Pavilion.
• The accident also caused Pei Ze to break off his engagement with Xu Tianfang’s granddaughter. His father became bedridden from anger and grief, while his mother later became blind from crying.
• Deeply burdened by guilt, Chen Jichuan decides to seek a way to repair Pei Ze’s dantian. He asks Xu Tianfang about miraculous medicines or methods that might restore it.
• Chen Jichuan returns to Jade Spring Mountain with Chen Yu and prepares to pay respects to Wuyuan Immortal Master. Before seeing the Patriarch, he meets Xu Tianfang, now an Innate Zenith expert and one of the mountain’s leaders.
• Xu Tianfang explains that Pei Ze’s dantian could potentially be repaired by an extremely rare Immortal Lingzhi Fruit, an Embrace-Origin Pill, or by Wuyuan Immortal Master personally using his Magic Power. However, the first two are nearly impossible to obtain, while the last option is unrealistic.
• Xu Tianfang asks why Chen Jichuan vanished for so many years. Chen explains that his elder brother had died before his return, leaving behind a vulnerable family. He stayed to care for his mother, widowed sister-in-law, and nephew, only returning to the Profound Nether Sea after his mother’s death four years earlier.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: His normally hardened, detached temperament is shaken by the revelation that Pei Ze suffered because of him. He feels guilt, remorse, and responsibility, and resolves to help repair Pei Ze’s dantian despite the enormous difficulty.
• Pei Ze: His past is revealed in greater detail. Once exceptionally talented and full of promise, he sacrificed his future out of loyalty to Chen Jichuan. Though he is not directly present, his tragic decline becomes the emotional center of the chapter.
• Xu Tianfang: He has risen from the shopkeeper Chen Jichuan once knew to an Innate Zenith expert overseeing Jade Spring Mountain. Despite his increased status, he remains sympathetic toward Pei Ze and understands the magnitude of his wasted potential.
• Chen Yu: He serves as the person who reveals Pei Ze’s history and guides Chen Jichuan back to Jade Spring Mountain.
• Wuyuan Immortal Master: Though he does not yet appear directly, his age, declining time, and elevated status establish why asking him to save Pei Ze would be difficult.

Significant Themes

• Guilt and responsibility: Chen Jichuan realizes that his disappearance indirectly caused Pei Ze’s downfall and feels obligated to make amends.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Pei Ze’s willingness to risk the sea searching for Chen demonstrates extraordinary loyalty, while Chen’s decision to care for his family shows another form of responsibility.
• Fate and missed timing: Xu Tianfang repeatedly frames Pei Ze’s tragedy as the result of a single disastrous turn of fate, emphasizing how one event can destroy an otherwise brilliant future.
• The passage of time: Decades have changed Jade Spring Mountain. Earlier generations have died, new leaders have taken over, and Chen Jichuan returns to a world where familiar people and places have largely vanished.
• The limits of power and resources: Even rare medicines and powerful cultivators may be unable to reverse Pei Ze’s injuries, highlighting the limitations faced by ordinary disciples compared with Qi Refinement Immortal Masters.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Chen Yu: Chen Yu explains Pei Ze’s history, prompting Chen Jichuan’s emotional reaction. He then escorts Chen Jichuan to Jade Spring Mountain.
• Chen Jichuan and Xu Tianfang: Their reunion is respectful but emotionally heavy. Xu Tianfang criticizes Chen Jichuan indirectly for the consequences of his disappearance while also sympathizing with him and sharing what he knows about possible cures.
• Chen Jichuan and Pei Ze: Though Pei Ze is absent, their relationship dominates the chapter. Chen Jichuan recognizes that Pei Ze regarded him as an elder brother and suffered because of that bond.
• Pei Ze and Xu Tianfang’s family: Their former engagement illustrates Pei Ze’s lost future and the broader consequences of his injury.
• Chen Jichuan and his family: His explanation reveals that his prolonged absence was not careless abandonment but the result of remaining behind to support his widowed sister-in-law, nephew, and aging mother.

Chapter Summary: Pei Ze

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan explains his long absence to Xu Tianfang, claiming that he had returned to the mainland to fulfill his filial duties and that letters sent back may have been lost at sea. Though the story is fabricated, his guilt toward Pei Ze is genuine.
• Xu Tianfang accepts the explanation, noting that Chen has no obvious reason to abandon his promising future on Jade Spring Mountain. He tells Chen that Pei Ze is still on White Jade Island and that Wuyuan Immortal Master is currently in seclusion.
• Chen visits Yu Chengbo’s grave and reflects on Pei Ze’s deteriorating condition. Pei’s damaged dantian, weakened spirit, and declining age make both Dao Arts and external cultivation unsuitable. Chen considers rare medicines such as the Immortal Lingzhi Fruit and Embrace-Origin Pill as possible cures.
• Concerned that Pei Ze’s emotional turmoil may worsen his injuries, Chen returns overnight to find him.
• Meanwhile, Pei Ze struggles with unstable cultivation. His internal energy repeatedly leaks from his damaged dantian, and his thoughts about Chen produce conflicting emotions—happiness, resentment, regret, relief, and bitterness.
• Pei’s agitation causes his internal energy to run wild. He suffers qi deviation, spits black blood, damages his meridians further, and loses consciousness.
• After waking, Pei assumes that merely surviving is enough. He notices that a magical artifact connected to his past is missing but decides it may be better not to keep it.
• He discovers Chen with his parents. Chen has concealed his identity under the name “Meng Chuan” and has cured Mother Pei’s blindness using a healing Dao Art. He also intends to cure Father Pei’s paralysis.
• Pei realizes that Chen is deliberately hiding his identity to avoid angering or distressing his parents, who suffered greatly because of the incident surrounding Chen’s disappearance. The chapter ends with Chen and Pei silently watching Pei’s parents leave, preparing to speak privately.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Although he maintains a false story, his guilt is sincere and increasingly painful. He is determined to repair the harm done to Pei Ze and his family, seeking both a cure for Pei’s cultivation injuries and treatment for his parents. His actions show compassion, responsibility, and a willingness to sacrifice recognition.
• Pei Ze: His physical and spiritual condition has deteriorated severely. He is tormented by contradictory feelings toward Chen but repeatedly tries to suppress resentment and blame. His qi deviation demonstrates how dangerous his emotional instability has become. Despite his suffering, he remains devoted to caring for his parents.
• Mother Pei: After more than ten years of blindness caused by grief, she regains her sight and becomes lively and grateful. She remains deeply concerned about Pei Ze and perceptively gives Chen and Pei space to talk.
• Father Pei: Though paralyzed, he is cheerful after Chen’s arrival and hopes that Chen may help his son. He supports the reunion by leaving the two former fellow disciples alone.

Significant Themes

• Guilt and responsibility: Chen cannot escape the consequences of his disappearance and feels genuine remorse despite the necessity of his lies.
• The lasting effects of trauma: Pei Ze’s physical injuries are inseparable from years of emotional strain, regret, and unresolved resentment.
• Filial devotion: Both Chen and Pei Ze are motivated by concern for their parents, while the parents’ suffering reveals the emotional cost of the past.
• Compassion versus recognition: Chen helps the Pei family while concealing his true identity, showing that repairing harm matters more to him than receiving gratitude.
• Reunion and reconciliation: The meeting between the former brothers begins the process of confronting their shared past, though much remains unspoken.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Xu Tianfang: Xu questions Chen about his disappearance but accepts his explanation and agrees to report his return to Wuyuan Immortal Master.
• Chen and Pei Ze’s parents: Under the alias Meng Chuan, Chen cures Mother Pei’s blindness and offers to treat Father Pei, winning their gratitude without revealing who he really is.
• Chen and Pei Ze: Their reunion is emotionally restrained but deeply charged. Pei recognizes Chen’s disguise and understands the sincerity behind it, while Chen’s treatment of the family serves as an indirect apology.
• Pei Ze and his parents: Pei remains devoted to them despite his own suffering. His parents’ recovery gives him comfort, but seeing Chen with them also forces him to confront the painful history between the two brothers.

Chapter Summary: “Fishing Law Enforcement!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan apologizes to his senior brother, Pei Ze, for disappearing more than thirty years earlier. Pei Ze admits that although he once felt regret and resentment, he never truly hated Chen Jichuan.
• Chen Jichuan avoids giving a direct explanation for his departure, believing that the truth would only deepen Pei Ze’s pain. Instead, he focuses on helping Pei Ze’s family:
  • He has already cured Pei Ze’s mother’s eye disease.
  • He promises to treat Pei Ze’s father’s paralysis through acupuncture and medicinal meals.
  • He hopes eventually to heal Pei Ze’s cultivation injuries and repair his damaged dantian, though he will not make promises before consulting Wuyuan Immortal Master.
• As Chen Jichuan cares for Pei Ze’s parents, the tension between the two brothers gradually lessens. Chen’s goal is not merely to restore their former relationship, but to prevent Pei Ze from spending the rest of his life consumed by regret and despair.
• Chen repeatedly visits Jade Spring Mountain to meet the secluded Wuyuan Immortal Master, hoping to ask about Pei Ze’s injuries, the Immortal Lingzhi Fruit, and the Embrace-Origin Pill. Each time, Xu Tianfang claims that the Patriarch’s seclusion has reached a critical stage and refuses him access.
• Chen realizes that Xu Tianfang is deliberately delaying him. He suspects Xu Tianfang fears that Chen, who has mysteriously returned and possesses unfathomable strength, may compete for Wuyuan’s belongings or inheritance after Wuyuan’s death.
• During Chen’s seventh visit, he pleads that Pei Ze’s injuries cannot be delayed. Xu Tianfang manipulates the situation by claiming that Chen’s insistence could offend Wuyuan and destroy Pei Ze’s final chance of recovery.
• Chen pretends to possess a secret treasure that he wishes to offer Wuyuan. Xu Tianfang’s apparent skepticism masks intense curiosity, but Chen sees through the tactic and refuses to reveal anything.
• Xu Tianfang ultimately dismisses Chen under the guise of protecting him and Pei Ze. Chen outwardly submits, but inwardly becomes determined to deal with Xu Tianfang through “fishing law enforcement”—baiting him into exposing his true intentions.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Becomes more patient and emotionally considerate toward Pei Ze, choosing practical acts of atonement over explanations that may cause further harm. At the same time, his frustration with Xu Tianfang grows into quiet hostility. He remains controlled, observant, and skilled at concealing his true thoughts.
• Pei Ze: Shows maturity by acknowledging that his past resentment was rooted more in regret and human weakness than hatred. His guarded relationship with Chen begins to thaw as Chen genuinely cares for his parents and takes responsibility for his future.
• Xu Tianfang: Reveals himself as politically calculating and self-interested beneath a façade of concern and righteousness. He uses Pei Ze’s welfare as leverage to restrict Chen’s actions and maintain control over access to Wuyuan.
• Wuyuan Immortal Master: Remains secluded and does not directly appear, but his declining condition and possible inheritance become the central reason for Xu Tianfang’s obstruction.

Significant Themes

• Regret and reconciliation: Past mistakes cannot always be fully explained or undone, but sincere actions can help prevent further suffering.
• Responsibility and atonement: Chen accepts that he owes Pei Ze and attempts to repay that debt by healing his family and restoring hope to Pei Ze’s life.
• Manipulation disguised as benevolence: Xu Tianfang’s phrases about procedure and protection conceal an effort to preserve his own advantage.
• Patience versus urgency: Chen wishes to avoid conflict, but Pei Ze’s age and worsening injuries make delay increasingly dangerous.
• Truth, deception, and strategy: Both men use carefully chosen words and false appearances, but Chen is more perceptive and begins preparing a counterstrategy.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Pei Ze share an emotionally restrained but meaningful reconciliation. Pei Ze remains somewhat distant, yet accepts Chen’s medical help and begins lowering his defenses.
• Chen and Xu Tianfang engage in a polite but increasingly adversarial exchange. Chen pleads humbly while Xu Tianfang adopts the role of a stern, protective elder.
• Their conversation becomes a battle of hidden motives: Xu Tianfang tries to force Chen into either submission or reckless action, while Chen pretends to be helpless and tests Xu Tianfang’s reactions.
• The chapter ends with Chen deciding that direct confrontation will not work and that he must lure Xu Tianfang into revealing his greed and obstructive intentions.

Chapter Summary: “Just This?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan returns to White Jade Island and continues caring for Father and Mother Pei while cultivating.
• He acquires Flying Bird Island and six surrounding islands, renaming them Seven Immortals Island as a future residence for himself and his disciples.
• Expecting Xu Tianfang to pursue the secret treasure, Chen prepares a trap:
  • He performs the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare Method for seven days, creating a formation that suppresses spells, artifacts, and evil techniques.
  • He secretly casts the Rice-and-Meat-Cooking Curse, placing “Stove Fire” inside Xu Tianfang’s body. The curse will gradually destroy him once activated.
• While awaiting Xu Tianfang, Chen improves his cultivation by integrating the Eight-Rivers Meridian-Traveling Method into his sword-based practice. Eight streams of Sword Qi temper his true essence and increase the purity and efficiency of his cultivation.
• Chen reflects on the difference between accumulating true essence, which Origin Force can accelerate, and refining its quality, which requires painstaking cultivation and insight.
• Xu Tianfang finally infiltrates Seven Immortals Island. Using a mirror to bypass the island’s formations, he employs the Flower Mirror illusion and drugged smoke to put Chen to sleep.
• Chen’s apparent vulnerability is a trap. When Xu enters the room, Chen attacks and activates the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.
• Xu’s escape talisman fails, and his artifacts become difficult or impossible to control within the formation.
• Chen seizes Xu’s prized Vast Sun Halberds and bronze bell, then kills him with eight streams of Sword Qi.
• The hidden Stove Fire incinerates Xu’s body and scatters his soul. Chen gathers and disposes of the ashes at sea, eliminating all traces of him.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates increasing strategic sophistication. Rather than confronting Xu directly, he prepares layered defenses and curses, ensuring victory before the battle begins.
• His cultivation becomes more advanced as he combines sword techniques with the Eight-Rivers method, showing his talent for adapting and synthesizing different systems.
• Chen also displays greater confidence and ruthlessness. He is no longer merely defending himself; he actively anticipates threats and decisively eliminates them.
• Xu Tianfang, despite his reputation and powerful artifacts, is revealed to be overconfident. His infiltration strategy initially succeeds, but he fails to recognize Chen’s preparations and is completely suppressed once trapped.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus raw power: Chen defeats a formidable opponent through planning, ritual, and layered techniques rather than a straightforward contest of strength.
• The limits of cultivation shortcuts: Origin Force can accelerate accumulation, but true refinement, quality, and breakthrough still require time, study, and personal effort.
• Knowledge and synthesis: Chen’s progress comes from studying multiple cultivation manuals and adapting their best principles into his own methods.
• Deceptive appearances: Xu believes Chen is helpless after his illusion and sleeping smoke take effect, but the apparent advantage is deliberately staged.
• Finality and retribution: Xu’s earlier schemes against Chen return upon him. His death is swift, absolute, and leaves no possibility of revenge.

Character Interactions

• Chen’s relationship with Father and Mother Pei remains caring and responsible, contrasting with his harsh treatment of enemies.
• Chen and Xu’s confrontation is brief but psychologically important: Xu accuses Chen of setting a trap, while Chen refuses to waste words and immediately attacks.
• Chen’s seizure of the Vast Sun Halberds reinforces the power reversal—Xu arrives as the hunter but leaves his best treasures in Chen’s possession.
• The chapter ends with Chen mocking Xu’s former claims that his actions were “impartial” or intended to help, revealing Chen’s satisfaction at settling the conflict permanently.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After killing Xu Tianfang, Chen Jichuan examines his spoils and discovers three top-tier magical artifacts:
  • Vast Sun Halberd, useful for both offense and defense.
  • Yellow Spirit Bell, focused on defense.
  • Light-Splitting Treasure Mirror, capable of seeing through formations.
• Chen decides to sell all three. Although they are valuable, he already possesses superior or comparable artifacts, and using Xu Tianfang’s treasures could reveal his involvement in the killing.
• To determine whether Xu Tianfang had alerted anyone, Chen uses the Circle-Light Technique. He confirms that Xu Tianfang acted alone and secretly, meaning his disappearance can remain hidden for several days.
• Chen deliberately maintains his normal pattern of visiting Jade Spring Mountain, waiting four days before making his next move.
• When he arrives, a disciple informs him that Xu Tianfang has been absent for several days. Chen pretends to leave, then secretly bypasses the mountain guards and travels to Ancestor’s Cave, where Wuyuan Immortal Master resides.
• With Xu Tianfang gone, Chen is able to meet Wuyuan without interference or accusations of trespassing.
• Chen presents Wuyuan with jade slips containing:
  • The translated Sword Diagram.
  • The Commentary on the Water Classic.
  • The Seventy-Two Chen Sect Arts, a body-refinement system.
• Wuyuan recognizes the methods as profound and valuable, though he notes that the body-refinement path has no advancement beyond the Transformative Force Realm.
• Wuyuan correctly realizes that Chen has offered the techniques for a specific purpose. Chen asks him to help restore the damaged dantian of his junior senior brother, Pei Ze, either personally or through medicines such as the Embrace-Origin Pill.
• Wuyuan reveals that he can leave behind an Origin Seed after death. An Innate Zenith cultivator who obtains it has roughly a thirty-percent chance of comprehending magic power and entering the Qi Refinement Realm.
• Wuyuan offers Chen a choice: receive the Origin Seed in exchange for the cultivation methods, or have Pei Ze treated.
• Chen immediately chooses to help Pei Ze, refusing to sacrifice his senior brother’s recovery for a chance at future advancement.
• Impressed—or at least willing to compensate him—Wuyuan gives Chen two Embrace-Origin Pills and twelve Grain-Repelling Pills, explaining that this is all he can offer for the techniques.
• Chen leaves Ancestor’s Cave delighted and heads toward White Jade Island to deliver the pills.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates caution and strategic thinking by concealing Xu Tianfang’s death, investigating his final communications, and exploiting the temporary absence of opposition at Jade Spring Mountain.
• His loyalty becomes especially clear when he rejects the Origin Seed, despite its enormous value, in favor of obtaining medicine for Pei Ze.
• Chen also shows confidence in his own long-term prospects. Because he possesses immense time and unique advantages, he does not depend heavily on the Origin Seed to reach the Qi Refinement Realm.
• Wuyuan Immortal Master is portrayed as aged, shrewd, and near the end of his lifespan. Though initially curious about Chen’s methods and motives, he quickly recognizes the true value of the cultivation manuals and Chen’s hidden intentions.
• Wuyuan’s willingness to provide two Embrace-Origin Pills suggests that Chen’s loyalty and sincerity make a favorable impression, even though Wuyuan does not openly praise him.
• Xu Tianfang, though dead, continues to influence events through the treasures he left behind and the political obstruction he had previously created around Wuyuan.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus personal advancement: Chen chooses Pei Ze’s recovery over the Origin Seed, emphasizing loyalty and brotherhood over increased cultivation potential.
• The value of time and patience: Chen carefully delays his visit, hides Xu Tianfang’s death, and waits for the right opportunity to approach Wuyuan.
• Cunning and political maneuvering: Xu Tianfang’s absence creates a temporary power vacuum, and Chen uses deception and familiarity with the mountain’s layout to reach Wuyuan safely.
• Legacy and succession: Wuyuan’s Origin Seed represents the continuation of his cultivation lineage after death and explains why control over him and access to him are so important.
• Different paths to power: The Sword Diagram, Water Classic, body refinement, and Qi Refinement are presented as distinct systems, with Chen willing to share his methods because his true foundation lies elsewhere.
• The limits of age and cultivation: Despite Wuyuan’s wisdom and power, his nearing lifespan limit makes even profound techniques less meaningful unless they can extend his life or enable a breakthrough.

Character Interactions

• Chen interacts respectfully with the young attendant but uses deception to bypass him after learning that Xu Tianfang is absent.
• His meeting with Wuyuan begins with nostalgic recollection of Chen’s youth and his first connection to Jade Spring Mountain.
• Wuyuan probes Chen’s motives, recognizing that the cultivation manuals are not being offered purely out of generosity.
• Their central exchange becomes a moral test: Wuyuan tempts Chen with the Origin Seed, while Chen firmly insists that Pei Ze be helped.
• Wuyuan ultimately responds by giving Chen the pills, ending the encounter on a mutually beneficial but emotionally restrained note.