Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan organized the Mortal Domain into specialized pavilions and assigned its members leadership roles as the Camp prepared to expand and establish trade. With the new structure in place, he went to sleep while everyone else selected personnel and began their work.

• Chen Fan appointed Little Qiu to lead the Logistics Pavilion and assigned Qi Chong and A Le to lead the Hundred Grains Pavilion.
• Chen Fan named Wang Kui master of the Heavenly Storehouse Pavilion, Wang Mazi master of the Commerce Pavilion, Zhou Mo and Big Fish leaders of the War Pavilion, and Crippled Monkey master of the Punishment Pavilion.
• Chen Fan appointed Shao Qiu to lead the Shadow Pavilion and sent Little Qiu to bring the Wild Wolf Gang to the Camp and recruit workers.
• The pavilion masters selected personnel, and Shao Qiu chose a young man from the Wild Wolf Gang as a promising Shadow Pavilion recruit.
• Crippled Monkey began drafting the Mortal Domain's rules while Chen Fan returned to his room to catch up on sleep.

Chen Fan built a small city near Nameless Mountain and planned to use the Mortal Domain’s goods and trade routes to spread his business under the name “Silk Road.” He assigned the new recruits their posts, began searching the Sinkhole for earth gold, and left Shao Qiu training the first Shadow Pavilion candidates.

• Chen Fan built a walled city with wooden huts, levelled its ground with a Flatland Terrain Card, and placed a level-five Eerie Fire at its center.
• Chen Fan planned to attract factions to the Mortal Domain’s Auction and sell them cheap goods, naming the trade strategy “Silk Road.”
• Chen Fan gave the newly selected Mortal Domain recruits a brief speech and sent them to their pavilion masters for assignments.
• Chen Fan asked Weiwei to dig for earth gold in the Sinkhole, and Weiwei began breaking through the hard ground.
• Crippled Monkey reminded Chen Fan that both his parents were gone, and Chen Fan rebuked him for trying to make conversation.
• Shao Qiu began training seventeen Shadow Pavilion candidates in the Spirit-Nurturing Pavilion, teaching them the Yellow-Grade Shadow-Killing Seven Apertures Formula and its Concealment Chapter.

Chen Fan learned that the Sinkhole’s black gold was valuable earth gold, but the Mortal Domain lacked the experts needed to turn it into stealth gear and weapons. With Weiwei’s help, he found a buried level 10 Jade House and recovered a dangerous diary fragment left by the mysterious That One, whose lingering sword qi wounded Chen Fan and damaged his staff.

• Chen Fan inspected Shao Qiu’s Shadow Pavilion training, where Shao Qiu taught the assassins techniques for concealing killing intent, listening carefully, and controlling their breathing.
• A crocodile brought Chen Fan a large pile of earth gold, and Shao Qiu explained that it could be made into stealth garments and weapons that pierced defenses.
• Chen Fan agreed to reserve earth gold for the Shadow Pavilion, but learned that crafting it required a level 7 Artifact Refiner and that Clearheart Pills required a level 4 Alchemist.
• Weiwei led Chen Fan down a deep tunnel to an unowned level 10 Jade House, which Chen Fan recognized as That One’s former residence.
• Chen Fan found diary Bamboo Slips whose residual sword qi cut his finger and cracked his Jadeite Staff, then read an entry dated Year 176 of the Eternal Night Calendar describing That One’s boredom in Jiangbei.

Chen Fan learned that the aura protecting Jiangbei would fade in four years, leaving his Mortal Domain exposed to a massive undersea strange tide, and resolved to raise three hundred million eerie stones to defend the coastline. As Qi Yue began teaching the Mortal Domain’s people swordsmanship, Shao Qiu learned why Qi Yue planned to kill someone, while Qi Yue grew suspicious of Zhou Mo’s rapid cultivation.

• Chen Fan read That One’s Bamboo Slip and learned that his protective aura would dissipate in four years, exposing Jiangbei to an undersea strange tide.
• Chen Fan decided to build defenses along Jiangbei’s coastline, raise three hundred million eerie stones, and keep the danger secret while opening the Silk Road through the coming Auction.
• Qi Yue visited the Mortal Domain to teach its people swordsmanship for two months before he pursued someone he intended to kill, and Chen Fan offered the Mortal Domain’s help.
• Shao Qiu told Chen Fan that Qi Yue’s target was the cowardly version of himself and insisted that Shao Qiu could kill him, but Chen Fan explained that Qi Yue meant to end his own life.
• Qi Yue noticed Zhou Mo’s unusually rapid cultivation and asked whether he had been practicing Demonic Cultivation.

Qi Yue taught Zhou Mo how to infuse emotion into his weapon, while Chen Fan prepared the Mortal Domain Market and Auction. When the market opened, Medicine King Valley’s Valley Master Qi struggled to choose between buying profitable goods and saving his funds for a Yellow Grade Pill Furnace.

• Qi Yue explained to Zhou Mo how a weapon reflected its wielder’s emotions, and Zhou Mo listened as he trained for a month.
• Chen Fan reviewed the Auction lots Wang Kui had prepared, including a contract for the Mortal Domain to build matching Level-3 City Walls.
• Chen Fan welcomed Medicine King Valley to Mortal City, where Valley Master Qi planned to spend all his funds bidding on a Yellow Grade Pill Furnace.
• Valley Master Qi and Qi Feng passed vendors selling Eerie Fires and Ground Spikes at low prices, but decided not to buy them.
• At Elder Chen’s stall, Valley Master Qi saw Skeleton Horses, Wraith Camels, and carriages priced far below Jiangnan rates and learned the Mortal Domain wanted factions to distribute its goods through shared Trade Routes.
• Valley Master Qi weighed spending his funds on the lucrative horses against losing the chance to buy the Pill Furnace, while Elder Chen waited for his decision.

Medicine King Valley and other factions took advantage of the Mortal Domain’s credit program to buy Skeleton Horses, while Chen Fan expanded the market and explained how it would build the Mortal Domain’s influence. As factions rushed to qualify as Trusted Factions, Chen Fan discovered a valuable Builder Token that could become the auction’s grand finale.

• Elder Chen gave Valley Master Qi a Level One Trusted Faction Token, and Qi used its credit to reserve sixty-six Skeleton Horses and received upgraded inn rooms.
• Wang Kui recorded a surge of faction purchases and approved the One Sword Sect’s application for Trusted Faction status.
• Chen Fan explained to Crippled Monkey that generous credit and profits would build the Mortal Domain’s reputation and create allies, while nonpayers would face the Nine-Five Dragon Chariot.
• A merchant from East River sold his goods to the Mortal Domain so he could buy Skeleton Horses and secure one of the remaining Trusted Faction slots.
• Chen Fan identified a Green Grade Builder Token among the merchant’s goods, bought the shipment, and prepared to feature the Token as the auction’s grand finale.

The Mortal Domain’s Skeleton Horse sales drew factions into a booming trade, while the announced Builder Token stirred a rush toward its upcoming Auction. As rival businesses considered how to adapt and the Mortal Domain counted its earnings, Chen Fan explained his plan to defend Jiangbei and rewarded his people.

• A King Clan representative reached a Mortal Domain station, confirmed the clan’s Level One Trusted Faction status, and told its family head that the Auction would offer a Builder Token, prompting the clan to resolve to bid for it.
• The West Lake Tower Pavilion Master learned that the Mortal Domain’s cheap Skeleton Horses threatened his business, then proposed buying horses in bulk and selling them through West Pass Plains trade routes.
• Crippled Monkey reported that the Mortal Domain had sold 1,509 Skeleton Horses and other goods on its first day, bringing in 500,000 eerie stones upfront and more than two million in credit sales.
• Chen Fan explained that the Mortal Domain’s trade would bring in wealth from many regions and announced bonuses for its workers, while outlining his reasons for defending Jiangbei for four years.
• Crippled Monkey and the others accepted Chen Fan’s explanation and went with Wang Kui to collect their bonuses.

Chen Fan upgraded the Vehicle Workshop, built a Giant Turtle, and followed Weiwei to a cavern full of strange entity bones. There, Weiwei accidentally revealed and opened an Ancient Ruins inheritance, leaving Chen Fan to explore it before its announced trial could begin.

• Chen Fan reflected on his goals of extending his lifespan and making Jiangbei an impregnable fortress, then saw Shao Qiu's trainees reach level three.
• Chen Fan upgraded the Vehicle Workshop to level five, chose faster manufacturing, and built a Giant Turtle for the market.
• After Wang Kui reported that strange entity bones were running low, Weiwei led Chen Fan to a cavern beneath the Seaside.
• A light pillar announced an Inheritance Trial beginning in three days, but Weiwei slapped it down and swallowed its message before it could reach the sky.
• Weiwei shattered the Light Barrier and took Chen Fan into the Ancient Ruins, where he considered what kind of inheritance and dangers awaited them.

Chen Fan and Weiwei bypassed the trials in the Undying Celestial Master’s Ancient Ruins and collected builder treasures, including two green-grade defensive blueprints. A Jade Slip revealed Jiangbei’s defeat eight thousand years earlier and the Celestial Master’s regrets, leaving Chen Fan confident that his Northbank Defense Line could withstand the future strange tide.

• Chen Fan found that Weiwei could shatter the Light Curtains, letting them bypass the builder trials and collect eerie stones and builder-related exotic treasures.
• Weiwei broke through the third trial, and Chen Fan took the Air-Defense Cannon Tower and Divine Cannon blueprints.
• Weiwei opened the final trial’s reward chamber, where Chen Fan found a Jade Slip, a Yellow Grade Building Blueprint, and a ring.
• Chen Fan watched the Jade Slip’s recording of the failed defense of Jiangbei, then considered how his own City Wall and Copper Pipes could prevent a similar defeat.
• Chen Fan learned that the Undying Celestial Master had failed to understand the Yellow Grade blueprint and had once built a Blue Grade building, and he realized his panel could decipher the blueprint at a glance.

Chen Fan built the Sky-Piercing Pillar and discovered it could store lightning, then investigated a group caught trying to construct buildings in Mortal City. Suspecting the prisoners were bait for a hidden plot, he secretly diverted them to Nameless Mountain’s Back Mountain and sent Shao Qiu to watch them.

• Chen Fan used 5,000 Eerie Stones to build the Sky-Piercing Pillar, climbed to its summit, and learned it could attract and store lightning for later use.
• Zhou Mo reported that a group of strangers had tried to construct Eerie Fire and Arrow Towers in Mortal City, and Chen Fan ordered Crippled Monkey to interrogate them.
• Chen Fan publicly announced that the prisoners would be taken back for questioning, then privately ordered Crippled Monkey to divert them to Nameless Mountain’s Back Mountain and told Shao Qiu to follow.
• Two observers in North River Market saw the apparent plan succeed and silently reported, “The fish has taken the bait.”
• Shao Qiu met Crippled Monkey at the Back Mountain, verified his identity with their Tokens, and watched the gagged prisoners from a tree.

Qi Yue and Shao Qiu discovered that a carriage full of people had been marked with the Nine-Heavens God-Devil Pattern and exploded, while Chen Fan’s enemies set a trap for him in the canyon. Chen Fan survived the ambush inside his Nine-Five Dragon Chariot, and Shao Qiu captured the enemy leader for questioning.

• Qi Yue and Shao Qiu found the carriage’s unconscious passengers covered in Nine-Heavens God-Devil Patterns, then escaped when the passengers exploded and left a crater.
• Chen Fan learned that enemies had infiltrated the canyon and ordered his people to capture them alive if possible.
• Dozens of Wind and Rain Tower operatives hid along the canyon walls, planning to kill Chen Fan after disabling the Mortal Domain’s defenses.
• The operatives ambushed Chen Fan’s Nine-Five Dragon Chariot with steel cables, poisoned bolts, and a rush through its windows, but Qi Yue posed as the driver and killed several attackers while Arrow Towers inside the carriage killed others.
• Shao Qiu caught the concealed leader on the cliff, held a Dagger to his neck, and offered him a pill in exchange for information.

Chen Fan interrogated a captured assassin and sent Shao Qiu’s Shadow Pavilion after the Wind and Rain Tower, then introduced Qi Yue to a dangerous sword-insight bamboo slip. Qi Yue survived repeated attempts to study it, joined the Mortal Domain, and created a powerful sword technique, but he ended by asking Chen Fan where the slip came from.

• Chen Fan questioned a captured Wind and Rain Tower assassin, who revealed that the organization’s young master and Pavilion Master had ordered the attack after members learned Chen Fan had left Mortal City.
• Heart-Devouring Gu killed the captured assassins, so Chen Fan ordered Shao Qiu to uproot the Wind and Rain Tower’s city shops and locate its headquarters island.
• Chen Fan showed Qi Yue the sword-insight bamboo slip, and Qi Yue was hurled away after touching it, suffering shattered bones and severe injuries.
• Qi Yue asked to join the Mortal Domain so he could study the slip and pursue a breakthrough; Chen Fan accepted him, and Qi Yue repeatedly endured the slip’s destructive backlash to gain insight.
• Qi Yue demonstrated a self-created sword technique that carved Chen Fan’s name into a rock face with force comparable to a Level-5 Cannon Tower, then asked where Chen Fan had obtained the bamboo slip.

Chen Fan returned to Mortal City, checked on the Mortal Domain’s affairs, and opened a blind-box exotic treasure at the market. He sold the worthless Blank Couplet for 10,000 Eerie Stones after the Zhao Family’s elder revealed he wanted Chen Fan to inscribe it as a sign of protection.

• Chen Fan named Qi Yue’s first sword move “Diary,” told him to rename the mountainside inscription “Mortal Domain,” and left the Canyon.
• Shao Qiu received specially made Tokens from Little Qiu and led the Shadow Pavilion on its first mission.
• Chen Fan returned to Mortal City, learned Wang Kui had considered Gongyang Yue for the bookkeeping job, and browsed the market’s trading street.
• Chen Fan bought a Blank Couplet for 1,600 pieces of eerie stone and had an Appraiser publicly reveal that its words would never fade.
• A Zhao Family elder offered Chen Fan 10,000 Eerie Stones for the Blank Couplet, then asked him to inscribe a couplet for the family.

Chen Fan recruited the Jiangdong Furnace Master, a renowned Level-9 Artifact Refiner, after meeting him at Mortal City's gate. The chapter left Chen Fan with a potential master craftsman for the Mortal Domain and its plans to strengthen Jiangbei's defenses.

• Chen Fan bought a Green Grade Fortune Whistle from a street vendor and learned it could slightly increase luck for three breaths.
• Chen Fan spoke with a former Qiuhe Wang Family Station Master, who described the Mortal Domain's generous pay, respect, and safety.
• Chen Fan considered using the Fortune Whistle while upgrading the Camp's City Wall and planned to connect it to Jiangbei's defense line.
• Crippled Monkey told Chen Fan that a ragged old man who appeared to be an Artifact Refiner was waiting outside Mortal City's gate.
• Chen Fan met the old man, who called himself the Jiangdong Furnace Master and agreed to hear a private offer to join the Mortal Domain.
• The Jiangdong Furnace Master told Chen Fan he was a Level-9 Artifact Refiner.

Chen Fan recruited Zhao Shengping, a Level-9 Artifact Refiner whose real passion was making braised food, and learned about his history in the West Pass Plains. He built a Heavenly Artifact Pavilion for Zhao and his apprentices, leaving Zhao ready to take charge of the Mortal Domain’s new workshop and braised-food room.

• Chen Fan forced the Jiangdong Furnace Master to kneel and join the Mortal Domain, then discovered that Zhao Shengping had staged his shabby appearance and arranged for his disciples to praise him.
• Zhao Shengping explained that he wanted to join the Mortal Domain, asked for modest pay, brought his artifact-refining disciples along, and requested a Braised-Food Room.
• Chen Fan contacted Shao Qiu, who identified Zhao Shengping as the Western Pass Braised-Food Master and recounted how the sect had expelled him for neglecting Artifact Refining to make braised delicacies.
• Chen Fan returned to camp and used the Fortune Whistle while upgrading a workshop, creating a Level-4 Heavenly Artifact Pavilion with a chance to improve crafted Spirit Treasures.
• Chen Fan gave Zhao Shengping the Heavenly Artifact Pavilion, living quarters for him and his apprentices, and a separate Braised-Food Room.

Chen Fan established the Artifact Pavilion under Zhao Shengping and introduced him to the Mortal Domain’s abundant resources and core members. As Zhao Shengping learned about Qi Yue’s past, Qi Yue began the perilous Ten Thousand Swords Tempering the Heart to break through to Martial King.

• Chen Fan appointed Zhao Shengping as the Artifact Pavilion’s provisional Pavilion Master and tasked him with making thirteen sets of Daggers and Night Garments for the Shadow Pavilion.
• Chen Fan asked Zhao Shengping to prepare Beggar’s Chicken, and Zhao Shengping eagerly promised to make it.
• Crippled Monkey introduced Zhao Shengping to the Mortal Domain’s core members, and Wang Kui revealed a vast supply of earth gold for the requested equipment.
• Zhao Shengping recognized Qi Yue as the Jiangbei Old Devil and recounted his killings in East River.
• Qi Yue began Ten Thousand Swords Tempering the Heart, and Zhao Shengping warned that the dangerous Demonic Cultivation method could help Qi Yue break through to Martial King but might drive him mad or kill him.

Qi Yue endured six hours of the demonic cultivators’ Ten Thousand Swords Tempering the Heart to achieve perfect body tempering, despite the risk of death and permanent phantom pain. He survived, reunited with Gongyang Yue, and thanked Chen Fan for giving him the chance to grow stronger.

• Chen Fan watched as sword energy repeatedly pierced Qi Yue, while Zhao Shengping explained that the tempering could remove every impurity but carried severe risks.
• Gongyang Yiyue and Gongyang Yue arrived at the Mortal Domain in a damaged carriage after Gongyang Yue insisted on seeing Qi Yue.
• After two hours, Gongyang Yiyue revealed that Qi Yue had reached ninety-nine-percent body tempering but was continuing to pursue perfection.
• Gongyang Yiyue explained that perfect body tempering could let Qi Yue face a Wraith King without being at a disadvantage, though he could die or suffer lasting consequences.
• Four more hours later, Qi Yue completed the tempering and opened his eyes to find Gongyang Yue waiting for him.
• Qi Yue embraced Gongyang Yue, then knelt before Chen Fan and promised to follow his orders after taking revenge.

Qi Yue survived and joined the Mortal Domain, while Shao Qiu’s Shadow Pavilion began striking at the Wind and Rain Tower. As Mortal City prepared for its auction, Zhao Shengping was knocked unconscious after mistaking Weiwei’s response to his request for permission to pry off its scales.

• Qi Yue told Gongyang Yue and Gongyang Yiyue that he had joined the Mortal Domain after achieving perfect body tempering, and he consolidated his new Martial King breakthrough.
• Shao Qiu led the Shadow Pavilion in wiping out a Wind and Rain Tower pawnshop in Water City, then found intelligence that the Tower was transporting a Sea Embryo to its headquarters.
• Shao Qiu’s team left a Shadow Pavilion insignia and death warrant at the pawnshop before withdrawing to continue their hunt for the Wind and Rain Tower’s headquarters.
• Wang Kui reported to Chen Fan that seven factions had reached their credit limits and that Mortal Domain stations now reached Water City and beyond Flat City; Chen Fan said he believed Shao Qiu had not defected.
• Little Qiu told Chen Fan that Weiwei had struck Zhao Shengping unconscious, and Zhao Shengping’s disciple explained that Zhao had tried to pry off the Sky-Swallowing Crocodile’s scales after it appeared to nod.
• Chen Fan asked the Sky-Swallowing Crocodile whether it had agreed, and it shook its head, nodded, then shook its head again.

Chen Fan learned that Weiwei would soon shed its armor and realized its unusual ability to destroy formations was a special trait. Meanwhile, the Wind and Rain Tower planned to stake everything on killing Chen Fan at an Ancient Ruin, as Shao Qiu prepared to infiltrate its headquarters.

• Chen Fan understood that Weiwei had only agreed to lend Zhao Shengping scales after shedding its armor, and arranged for Qi Yue to hunt strange entities to feed it.
• Zhao Shengping explained that Sky-Swallowing Crocodiles were normally combat-type beasts, leading Chen Fan to suspect Weiwei had gained its formation-destroying ability through a mutation that the Snow Lotus had cured.
• Chen Fan visited Mortal City and reflected on Qi Yue's Martial King strength while wishing someone would attempt to assassinate him.
• At the Wind and Rain Tower's headquarters, the three Pavilion Masters argued over losses caused by Chen Fan's retaliation and the chief Pavilion Master proposed an all-out strike at builder-related Ancient Ruins.
• Shao Qiu waited beneath Rock Island, having traced the Wind and Rain Tower's headquarters and preparing to act after nightfall.

Shao Qiu infiltrated the Wind and Rain Tower during Eternal Night and killed its members, while the Gongyang Family Head planned to bring his clan into the Mortal Domain so Gongyang Qi Yue could become its successor. The chapter ended with Chen Fan and the others opening Zhao Shengping’s Beggar’s Chicken in camp.

• Shao Qiu used Heaven-Hiding to enter the Wind and Rain Tower and silently killed its members throughout the night.
• At dawn, Shao Qiu declared that he had wiped out the Wind and Rain Tower, then waited for Shadow Pavilion members to arrive and collect the spoils.
• The Gongyang Family Head scolded Gongyang Yue and Gongyang Yiyue for entering the Mortal Domain’s territory during Eternal Night with a Night Watcher.
• The Gongyang Family Head said he wanted the Gongyang Clan to join the Mortal Domain so Gongyang Qi Yue could inherit leadership and protect the clan.
• Zhao Shengping cracked open the clay shell around his Beggar’s Chicken, filling the camp with its aroma.