Chapter Summaries

Long Xuan gathered Coffee Tree varieties, refined many Coffee Gu, and opened a shop selling his newly developed Gu species. The shop drew a crowd, and Long Xuan presented Coffee Gu as a new Gu Insect school while seeking materials for his Chess Gu Recipe.

• Long Xuan named the sleepless Coffee Gu Little Black and later called its type Sleepless Gu, then gathered Coffee Trees and refined many varieties of Coffee Gu.
• Qi Luoyou gave Long Xuan the Chess Insect, and Zhu Jiǔge gave him the Chess Gu Recipe to repay him for saving her life.
• Long Xuan rented a shop and opened the Coffee Gu Specialty Shop, displaying his unusual Gu Insects and posting the materials he needed for his Chess Gu Recipe.
• Qin Yumo and Shu Yuan examined the shop’s unfamiliar Gu Insects, and Shu Yuan recognized them as Coffee Gu from a new Gu Insect school.
• Long Xuan, disguised as an old man, announced that he had created the Coffee Gu school and invited customers to barter the listed materials.
• Shu Yuan asked Long Xuan to explain the ability of the shop’s sole supreme-grade Coffee Gu, the Sleepless Gu.

Long Xuan’s Sleepless Gu caused a buying frenzy, and his Coffee Gu shop sold out almost immediately. Worried that the profits would attract dangerous attention, he went to Sacred Gu Academy to involve Zhu Jiǔge in the business and use her protection.

• Long Xuan explained that the Sleepless Gu let its owner stay awake indefinitely without side effects, and Shu Yuan traded the listed materials for one and formed a blood contract with it.
• Envious Gu cultivators rushed to buy Coffee Gu, and Long Xuan sold out his entire stock before closing the shop and promising to restock in three days.
• Long Xuan worried that others would discover how to make coffee and that the shop’s profits would attract powerful enemies.
• Long Xuan decided to teach Zhu Jiǔge how to refine Coffee Gu and offer her a stake in the shop, then headed to Sacred Gu Academy.

Long Xuan discovered that a vast monster sealed beneath Sacred Gu Academy supplied spiritual power to the academy’s Nine-Level Black Tower, but he set aside his alarm to find Zhu Jiǔge. He found her writing a novel in the Book Academy and learned she hoped to use her Book Worm to create an extraordinarily powerful Book Gu.

• Long Xuan used the Eye of Heavenly Secrets to discover an immense monster sealed beneath Sacred Gu Academy and powering the Nine-Level Black Tower where its geniuses cultivated.
• Long Xuan disguised himself as a student and entered Sacred Gu Academy to find Zhu Jiǔge, who was in the Book Academy.
• Long Xuan found Zhu Jiǔge writing a novel and asked how novels could be used to refine Gu.
• Zhu Jiǔge explained that her Supreme-grade Spirit Insect, Book Worm, could comprehend abilities from exciting novels and transform into a Book Gu.
• Zhu Jiǔge declared that she intended to write an immortal masterpiece and refine the strongest Book Gu in the world.

Long Xuan learned how Book Gu grew by absorbing the spiritual nourishment of readers and considered the many original works he could use to create one. Meanwhile, the Sacred Gu Academy dean revealed that Yuan was close to breaking free and that Zhu Jiǔge’s Misfortune Gu might be their only hope of stopping him.

• Zhu Jiǔge explained to Long Xuan that Book Gu needed original works and many readers to grow and transform, and that different Book Worms preferred different kinds of writing.
• Long Xuan realized his knowledge of books from another life could help him create original Gu Insects, then told Zhu Jiǔge he wanted her help inspecting one and partnering to open a shop.
• At Sacred Gu Academy, the dean and an old woman discussed how Yuan had broken through nine seals and could threaten all humanity if he escaped.
• The dean said he would seek formation masters to reinforce the seal and ordered that Zhu Jiǔge remain at the academy because her Misfortune Gu might help stop Yuan.
• The old woman worried that using Zhu Jiǔge’s Misfortune Gu would harm her master, Qi Luoyou, but the dean said Qi Luoyou had knowingly accepted the risk and that Zhu Jiǔge herself faced the greatest cost.

Long Xuan introduced coffee and Coffee Gu to Zhu Jiǔge, whose uncanny luck let her discover a Coffee Gu Recipe as the new products rapidly swept Sacred Gu City. As the Huang Clan Patriarch plotted to kill Zhu Jiǔge and steal coffee’s secrets, Feng Wuhen killed him and the Huang Clan’s Great Elder, then took their identities to infiltrate Sacred Gu Academy.

• Zhu Jiǔge tasted Long Xuan’s coffee, agreed to experiment with Coffee Gu, and randomly combined coffees to refine a new Coffee Gu Recipe.
• Coffee and Coffee Gu became popular throughout the city, drawing the attention of its major forces.
• The Huang Clan Patriarch ordered his clan to investigate coffee and then decided to kill Zhu Jiǔge and seize the secret from its creator.
• Feng Wuhen abruptly killed the Huang Clan Patriarch and the Huang Clan’s Great Elder before either could react.
• Feng Wuhen declared that he would impersonate the Huang Clan Patriarch and assign the young man the role of Great Elder to help them infiltrate Sacred Gu Academy.

Long Xuan decided to promote Nineteen-Line Go so he could use its rules to refine his Board-Game Gu and find opponents for the Chess Insect. He planned to require customers buying Premium Coffee Gu to play the Chess Insect, leaving him eager to attract the Sacred Gu Academy’s geniuses with even better coffee.

• Long Xuan played Nineteen-Line Go with the Chess Insect, whose skill improved rapidly despite losing to him.
• Zhu Jiǔge watched the game and realized Nineteen-Line Go offered greater complexity than Seventeen-Line Go, potentially strengthening Board-Game Gu and replacing the older rules.
• Long Xuan claimed he had invented Nineteen-Line Go and explained that he needed to spread it so his future Board-Game Gu would work on opponents.
• Zhu Jiǔge agreed with Long Xuan’s plan to promote the game gradually.
• Long Xuan decided to post the Nineteen-Line Go rules outside his store and require Premium Coffee Gu customers to play the Chess Insect before purchasing.

Long Xuan introduced Nineteen-Line Go and traded a Sleepless Gu to Xiong Zhan for three chances to cultivate in the Nine-Level Demon-Suppression Pagoda. As Xiong Zhan played the Chess Insect, the gathered Go players recognized that the new board and rules could replace Seventeen-Line Go.

• Xiong Zhan offered Long Xuan a black card with three chances to cultivate in the Nine-Level Demon-Suppression Pagoda in exchange for a Sleepless Gu, and Zhu Jiǔge advised Long Xuan to accept.
• Long Xuan accepted the trade and told Xiong Zhan that he would have to play the Chess Insect under the shop's rules.
• The Chess Insect gave Xiong Zhan nine stones, angering him and prompting him to begin the game determined not to lose.
• A crowd packed into the shop to watch Xiong Zhan and the Chess Insect play Nineteen-Line Go.
• The spectators saw that Nineteen-Line Go offered more variations and fairer rules than Seventeen-Line Go, and expected it to transform the Go world.

Long Xuan’s Nineteen-Line Go spread through the city after the Chess Insect played a full day of matches, while Qi Luoyou ordered the Chess Academy to abandon Seventeen-Line Go. Long Xuan then used Xiong Zhan’s black card to enter the Nine-Level Demon-Suppression Pagoda, declaring that he would stay until he reached Peak Gu King.

• The Chess Insect lost to Qi Luoyou despite receiving a nine-stone handicap, then finished the day with two wins and two losses.
• Gu Masters left the Coffee Gu Specialty Shop obsessed with Nineteen-Line Go and began making boards and playing across the city.
• Qi Luoyou returned to the Chess Academy and ordered all students to play Nineteen-Line Go and refine Chess Gu according to its rules.
• Long Xuan closed his shop, took Xiong Zhan’s black card, and went to Sacred Gu Academy to enter the Nine-Level Demon-Suppression Pagoda.
• Two black-clothed Gu King guards explained that using Xiong Zhan’s card would cost him one of its remaining chances, but Long Xuan entered and vowed to cultivate until he reached Peak Gu King.

Long Xuan explored the Demon Suppression Tower and discovered he could withstand the violent spiritual power on its ninth floor. After learning that Number One Room was the tower’s lethal spiritual-power source, he entered it anyway, and its plaque changed to “Occupied.”

• Long Xuan climbed from the crowded lower floors to the ninth floor, testing the spiritual power as he went and finding that his five Mutated Spiritual Powers could suppress it.
• A bearded Gu cultivator mocked Long Xuan for coming straight to the ninth floor, but Long Xuan ignored him and looked for a room to cultivate in.
• Long Xuan asked why nobody used the empty Number One Room, and a young girl explained that its violent spiritual power had killed everyone who entered, even though it was the source of the tower’s power.
• Long Xuan decided the room was safe for him because it had no owner, opened the door, and walked inside despite claiming he would only look.
• The door shut behind Long Xuan, and the plaque on Number One Room flipped to “Occupied.”

Long Xuan discovered the source of the Demon Suppression Tower’s spiritual power and continued cultivating despite sensing danger beneath the tower. Below, the dean learned that the monster’s seals were breaking and that no Gu World formation master could repair them.

• Students feared Long Xuan would die in Number One Room, but a young girl ran to seek help while the others refused to leave their cultivation spots.
• Long Xuan found a bottomless pit beneath Number One Room and realized it connected to the place where a monster was sealed.
• The tower shook, and Long Xuan glimpsed a giant scarlet eye in the pit before deciding to keep cultivating with his five clones.
• The dean told Master Zhou that three more seals had broken, but Master Zhou said no formation master in the Gu World could repair the formation.
• An old woman suggested Zhu Jiǔge’s Misfortune Gu might create a chance to seal Yuan, but the dean doubted such a coincidence could repair the formation.

Long Xuan’s cultivation in the Demon Suppression Tower’s Number One Room drained most of the tower’s spiritual power, prompting the dean to explain that Long Xuan’s cultivatable clones and Ten Extremity Physique caused the anomaly. A month later, Long Xuan still had not emerged, and the frustrated crowd turned on Xiong Zhan for lending him a black card.

• Gu cultivators across the Demon Suppression Tower noticed that its spiritual power had sharply declined, and the dean and instructors hurried to the ninth floor.
• The dean identified Long Xuan as the cause, explaining that his five cultivatable clones, Ten Extremity Physique, and Mutated Spiritual Power had absorbed most of the tower’s energy.
• The dean refused to break academy rules or remove Long Xuan, ordered everyone not to cause trouble, and said they could cultivate after Long Xuan left.
• The crowd debated how long Long Xuan could endure in the Number One Room and began betting on when he would come out.
• After a month passed without Long Xuan emerging, Xiong Zhan regretted lending him his black card, and the bearded Gu cultivator urged the crowd to beat him up.

After two years of seclusion, Long Xuan completed a new Board-Game Gu Recipe and learned that Zhu Jiǔge had become an Early-Stage Gu King. Zhu Jiǔge brought him to help reinforce the seal beneath the Demon Suppression Tower, and Long Xuan estimated that his work could delay the monster’s escape by roughly one hundred to three thousand years.

• Long Xuan completed the Board-Game Gu Recipe with help from Zhu Jiǔge’s luck, while Coffee Gu spread across the world and reduced his shop’s profits.
• Zhu Jiǔge visited Long Xuan after two years and revealed that she had broken through to Early-Stage Gu King and received a graduation task to find a way to seal the monster beneath the Demon Suppression Tower.
• Zhu Jiǔge asked Long Xuan to inspect the seal, and he revealed that he could reinforce it by copying and shrinking its Formation Inscriptions.
• Long Xuan warned Zhu Jiǔge that his reinforcement would only delay the monster’s escape, estimating that it would buy between one hundred and three thousand years.

Long Xuan and Zhu Jiǔge entered the sealed abyss beneath the Demon Suppression Tower, where Zhu Jiǔge explained that Yuan was an ancient True Spirit trapped by a formation. As Sacred Gu Academy prepared for war with Feng Wuhen, he began rallying demonic factions to help him seize the academy and its tower.

• Long Xuan followed Zhu Jiǔge into the lightless abyss beneath the Demon Suppression Tower, and she explained Yuan's origins and abyssal power.
• The Demon Suppression Tower's visitors celebrated Long Xuan's departure after his two years of cultivation there.
• The Sacred Gu Academy dean warned that Feng Wuhen's Eye of Heaven's Revelation and the Void Insects in the Sealing Spirit Pagoda made him a dangerous opponent, and he pinned hope on Zhu Jiǔge's luck.
• Feng Wuhen learned that Sacred Gu Academy had sealed Yuan beneath its tower and decided to destroy the academy and take the tower for his Ling Tian Sect.
• Feng Wuhen ordered his followers to invite nearby demonic faction leaders to a meal so he could form an alliance against Sacred Gu Academy.

Four months after Long Xuan began repairing the formation beneath the Demon Suppression Tower, Ling Tian Ancestor led an alliance of demonic factions in an assault on Sacred Gu Academy. Long Xuan helped Zhu Jiǔge counter the invisible Void Insects, turning the battle back in the academy’s favor.

• Long Xuan and his Soul-Splittings spent four months carving Formation Inscriptions while Zhu Jiǔge cultivated nearby and stabilized her Gu King realm.
• Long Xuan learned that nearly a thousand Gu Kings from Sacred Gu Academy faced an alliance of demonic factions led by Ling Tian Ancestor, who demanded the academy surrender its territory and Demon Suppression Tower.
• The headmaster refused to yield, and the two sides began fighting; Ling Tian Ancestor released invisible Void Insects from the Sealing Spirit Pagoda, inflicting heavy losses on the academy.
• Long Xuan used his Eye of Heavenly Secrets and progress bars to locate the Void Insects hidden deepest, then relayed their positions to Zhu Jiǔge.
• Zhu Jiǔge summoned Shadow Demons that killed the Void Insects and demonic cultivators, relieving pressure on Sacred Gu Academy and restoring its advantage.

Ling Tian Ancestor fled Sacred Gu City, then slaughtered the demonic cultivators who had escaped with him and seized their belongings. Long Xuan found Zhu Jiǔge’s farewell note, named his completed Board-Game Gu Nineteen, and began a chess match with Qin Mingyue to win her Book Worm.

• Ling Tian Ancestor abandoned his attack on Zhu Jiǔge when the Sealing Spirit Pagoda began cracking, and his retreat caused the demonic army to collapse as Sacred Gu Academy trapped and slaughtered the invaders in Sacred Gu City.
• The surviving demonic cultivators confronted Ling Tian Ancestor in a valley, where he turned on them, released his invisible Void Insects, and killed them all before leaving with their storage pouches.
• Long Xuan returned from repairing the abyssal formation, found Zhu Jiǔge’s note saying she had left, and named his newly completed Board-Game Gu Nineteen.
• After reopening his coffee shop, Long Xuan met Qin Mingyue, the academy’s top-ranked genius, who offered a supreme-grade Book Worm for the Nine Songs Gu.
• Long Xuan insisted that Qin Mingyue play Nineteen-Line Go without a handicap, and the two began their game.

After defeating Qin Mingyue at board games, Long Xuan learned the limits of Book Gu and devised a plan to make novels popular by embedding a cultivation technique in Journey to the West. He completed the novel, and after his Book Worm transformed into a Book Gu, he learned it could gain more abilities as its readership grew, so he prepared to distribute copies.

• Long Xuan defeated Qin Mingyue at board games, and she warned him that Book Gu were weak because few people read novels before leaving.
• Long Xuan considered nurturing Qin Mingyue with music from his previous life, then examined the Book Worm she had given him.
• Long Xuan decided to write Journey to the West and include the Great Heavenly Immortal Art to entice people to read it; he entered the Soul Library to develop the technique while his clone managed the shop.
• After spending a year completing the technique and novel, Long Xuan gave Journey to the West to the Book Worm, which eagerly read it, then he prepared to print it in large quantities.
• The Book Worm awakened after half a year as a Book Gu and had comprehended Shrinking Earth Art; Long Xuan learned that more readers could let it comprehend additional abilities and prepared to distribute his printed copies.

Long Xuan’s free distribution of Journey to the West drew the Book Academy dean Shu Zheng’s attention, and he discovered that the story contained an incomplete Heaven Tier cultivation technique. As Shu Zheng considered completing it to pursue immortality, Qin Mingyue recognized Long Xuan as the author and decided to cultivate the technique herself.

• Long Xuan sent out his clones to distribute Journey to the West for free, then waited for readers to discover its hidden appeal.
• Shu Zheng read Journey to the West and realized that the Great Celestial Art within it was a genuine, incomplete Heaven Tier cultivation technique.
• The assistant warned Shu Zheng that the technique demanded rare insight, while Shu Zheng resolved to try completing it because he had less than a hundred years to live.
• Shu Zheng learned the author could not be found and concluded they would have to complete the Great Celestial Art themselves.
• Qin Mingyue identified Long Xuan as the author, weighed the risks of changing cultivation techniques, and resolved to cultivate the Great Celestial Art.

Long Xuan’s worldwide promotion of “Journey to the West” caused the Book Gu to gain a weakened Seventy-Two Transformations ability, while his board-game scheme gathered Sacred Gu Academy’s top thirty geniuses. He contacted Long Dan and learned that Long Dan was alive and would compete in the Western Region Genius Tournament in one month.

• “Journey to the West” spread across the Gu World, and the Book Gu fainted after absorbing too much spiritual sustenance before awakening a weakened Seventy-Two Transformations ability.
• Long Xuan continued selling goods and playing board games, lighting thirty of his 361 game pieces with Sacred Gu Academy’s top-ranked geniuses and giving them Thatch Gu Houses.
• Long Xuan decided to contact Long Dan and sent him a Message Transmission Talisman asking whether he had survived and where he was.
• Long Dan replied that he had returned to the Western Land, had become the Dragon-Teng Empire’s chief genius, and would attend the Western Region Genius Tournament in one month.
• Long Dan worried that Long Xuan might enter the tournament and take the championship, while Long Xuan read his lengthy reply and called him a chatterbox.

Long Xuan reunited with Di Xin and agreed to help her cultivate the Bone Tempering Formula in exchange for a game of chess. After discovering the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum beneath their pavilion, they decided to lure Gu Kings inside to explore it while they sought the Heavenly Spirit Tree.

• Long Xuan contacted Di Xin and met her at an old pavilion, where she demanded his help cultivating the Bone Tempering Formula as payment for playing chess.
• Long Xuan read the Bone Tempering Formula and learned that Di Xin planned to turn her golden bones into the foundation of a mobile Peerless Vicious Formation.
• Di Xin told Long Xuan she had come to find the Heavenly Spirit Tree in the Cangyue Imperial Mausoleum, hoping its fruit would help her break through to Gu King.
• Long Xuan used the Eye of Heavenly Secrets to locate the mausoleum beneath the pavilion, then used Book Gu's earth escape ability to reach its stone gate and assess its dangers.
• Long Xuan concluded that he and Di Xin could not explore the mausoleum alone, so he proposed drawing Gu Kings into it to scout the way.
• Di Xin agreed and suggested auctioning the mausoleum's location after she mastered the forbidden art, using the auction to attract Gu Kings and make a profit.

Long Xuan helped Di Xin begin cultivating the Bone Tempering Formula while sending his Flame Clone to Xuanyuan City to find fated geniuses at the Western Region Genius Tournament. After a month of trading at his stall, he had gained powerful resources and recruited several promising people to play chess with him, though Zhang Renshan’s tournament prospects remained uncertain.

• Di Xin decided to begin cultivating the Bone Tempering Formula immediately, and Long Xuan sent his Flame Clone toward Xuanyuan City while staying to help her.
• Long Xuan set up a stall in Xuanyuan City and offered Tears of the Moon to attract tournament geniuses.
• Zhang Renshan traded Long Xuan a Boundary-Breaking Gu for a hundred bottles of Tears of the Moon and agreed to play chess, though his opening move showed he barely knew the game.
• Long Xuan traded Radioactive Metal Toxin to a genius with the Myriad Poisons Physique for five of the Gu World’s ten great strange poisons, which greatly strengthened his Calamity Poison Gu.
• Long Xuan traded liquor for treasures with the Wine Clan’s young woman who possessed the Wine King Gu, while the poison genius remained unconscious in an inn.