Chapter Summaries

Chen Daoxuan established Redwood Island as the Western Defense Zone's garrison and planned to build a city and develop surrounding farmland to support its growing population. He appointed the mortal Chen Beiwang to oversee construction by cultivators, while the Spirit Vein and the first wave of settlers awaited development.

• Chen Daoxuan rallied the arriving cultivators by promising to nurture a third-tier Spirit Vein on Redwood Island and explained that the main force would arrive in three months.
• Chen Daoxuan planned to settle millions of mortals on Redwood Island and nearby islands, developing farmland to secure a stable food supply.
• Chen Daoxuan brought Chen Beiwang to survey Redwood Island, and Chen Beiwang judged its plains, lakes, rivers, and location well suited for a city.
• Chen Daoxuan asked Chen Beiwang to lead the city's construction and assured him that cultivators would carry out the work.
• Chen Beiwang doubted that cultivators would obey a mortal, but he accepted Chen Daoxuan's assurance and trusted his judgment.

Chen Daoxuan ordered the West Defense Zone’s cultivators to build a city for arriving mortals and arranged a major purchase of flying swords from the Chen Family. The chapter left the Chen Family poised to profit from the defense zone’s spending and control its new Spirit Veins.

• Wei Lidao objected to having cultivators build a city, but Chen Daoxuan pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people would soon need homes on Redwood Island.
• Chen Daoxuan persuaded the commanders to help build the city and warned that he would punish any cultivator who oppressed mortals.
• Chen Daoxuan asked about procuring Magic Artifacts, and Lei Zhen recommended the Chen Family’s low-grade flying swords.
• Chen Daoxuan ordered fifty thousand flying swords from the Chen Family for three and a half million Spirit Stones, with half paid as a deposit and delivery due within three years.
• Chen Daoxuan expected the Chen Family to gain influence over the West Defense Zone’s funds and Spirit Veins.

Chen Daoxuan brought Spirit Stones and plans for population growth to the Chen Family, then demonstrated how Centrifugal Wall Breakers could transform pill production. He established Changping Pharmaceutical Factory and assigned Chen Daochu the task of producing its machines as the family prepared to expand its factories.

• Chen Daoxuan delivered a deposit of 1.75 million Spirit Stones to the Chen Family and said another 1.75 million would follow, while Lei Zhen and his men departed with a reward.
• Chen Daoxuan showed Chen Daochu and Chen Daolian how Centrifugal Wall Breakers separated Spirit Herb Essence, allowing Chen Daolian to quickly refine a Qi Replenishing Pill.
• Chen Daolian explained that the machines greatly increased pill-making speed and reliability, and Chen Daoxuan decided to bring fifty Fu generation students with the best Alchemy scores to study and work at the factory.
• Chen Daoxuan named the new operation Changping Pharmaceutical Factory and told Chen Daochu to produce Spirit-Melding Furnaces and Centrifugal Wall Breakers for the planned factory expansions.
• Chen Daochu was stunned when Chen Daoxuan assigned him responsibility for refining both kinds of special Magic Artifacts.

Chen Daoxuan planned to build an Immortal City on Redwood Island while expanding the Chen Family’s spiritual resources and developing the West Defense Zone. After arranging Spirit Nurturing Grand Arrays on Twin Lakes Island and Redwood Island, he approved plans for the city and promised the soldiers would receive all their pay.

• Chen Daoxuan told Chen Daochu and Chen Daolian that the family would build an Immortal City on Redwood Island, and they shared their excitement about the family’s growth.
• Chen Daochu said he expected to finish tempering his true qi within a year, while Chen Daolian reported that she had tempered one-third of hers.
• Chen Daoxuan spent ten days setting up a second-tier Spirit Nurturing Grand Array on Twin Lakes Island, then began nurturing a third-tier Spirit Vein on Redwood Island.
• Chen Beiwang showed the cultivators his plans for the city, and Lei Zhen suggested assigning more workers to gathering and preparing building materials.
• Chen Daoxuan noticed the plans lacked an inner city and proposed building an Immortal City within the mortal city on Redwood Island.
• Lei Zhen raised concerns about using military funds, and Chen Daoxuan promised to distribute every last bit of the soldiers’ pay.

After Luo Li warned Chen Daoxuan that Divine Absolute True Person had escaped death and possessed the Michen Banner, Chen Daoxuan reflected on the danger facing Guang'an Prefecture. He returned to Twin Lakes Island and found the Chen Family’s young disciples making progress at the pharmaceutical factory.

• Luo Li told Chen Daoxuan that the Chen Family had built Sea Viewing City and reacted with alarm when he revealed that Divine Absolute True Person was still alive.
• Luo Li explained that Divine Absolute True Person’s Michen Banner could carry him one hundred thousand li instantly and set transmission nodes, making him exceptionally difficult to catch.
• After Luo Li left, Chen Daoxuan considered the threat posed by Divine Absolute True Person and the importance of winning the war against the Lotus Island Corpse Tide to protect Guang'an Prefecture.
• Chen Daoxuan returned to Twin Lakes Island and visited the Changping Pharmaceutical Factory, where Chen Daolian reported that fifty Fu generation disciples had learned to refine First Grade Lower Rank pills.

Zhou Mubai realized that the Eastern Defense Zone’s supply shortages threatened to cripple the army and requested reinforcements from Guang'an Prefecture. Chen Daoxuan and other cultivators gathered for a war council, which began as he arrived at the Zhou Family residence.

• The Lotus Island Corpse Tide shifted to small harassment raids, exhausting the Eastern Defense Zone Allied Army’s pills and supplies.
• Wu Guangyi reported that pills had run out again, and Zhou Mubai concluded the army needed rear support to keep fighting.
• Zhou Mubai sent a message to Zhou Minghao requesting a response, and Zhou Minghao called a war council and summoned Yang and Chen Daoxuan.
• Chen Daoxuan received the summons, instructed Zhou Mucheng and Lei Zhen, and flew to Guang'an Prefecture.
• Chen Daoxuan arrived at the Zhou Family residence, where Zhou Minghao opened the war council.

With the frontline facing a severe shortage of pills, Chen Daoxuan offered the Allied Army his family’s stockpile and agreed to sell it at former market prices. He arranged to accept Qianyuan Sword Sect Battle Merit for part of the payment, hoping to use it to strengthen the Chen Family and obtain a suitable Foundation Establishment technique.

• Zhou Minghao asked Yang Linyuan to redirect the Yang Family’s pill supply to the frontline, and Yang Linyuan reluctantly agreed.
• Chen Daoxuan told Zhou Minghao that the Chen Family had stockpiled at least one million low-grade pills, easing the Allied Army’s urgent shortage.
• Yang Linyuan and Zhou Minghao promised to supply the Chen Family with Spirit Herbs so it could refine more pills.
• Chen Daoxuan offered to sell Detox Pills, Harm-Breaking Pills, and Qi Replenishing Pills at their former price of ten Spirit Stones each.
• Chen Daoxuan asked to receive Qianyuan Sword Sect Battle Merit for part of the payment, and the Zhang family’s red-haired cultivator said it was permitted if frontline soldiers agreed.

Chen Daoxuan arranged for the Chen Family to trade half of its Spirit Pill supply for Battle Merit, earning a vast reserve of Qianyuan Sword Sect credit. After reviewing the exchange catalog, he focused on acquiring powerful Cultivation Techniques for the Chen Family.

• Chen Daolian watched the Chen Clan’s young alchemists produce pills efficiently while cultivators and workers continued making pills and flying swords across Twin Lakes Island.
• Chen Daoxuan and Zhou Minghao agreed that half of the Chen Family’s Spirit Pills would be paid for in Battle Merit, with ten Lesser Merit valued at one pill.
• Chen Daoxuan returned with 1.07 million Spirit Pills, and the Eastern Defense Zone transferred 53,500 Great Merit to him alongside payment for the other half.
• Chen Daoxuan studied Qianyuan Sword Sect’s resource catalog and decided the Chen Family needed high-potential Cultivation Techniques for all five elements.
• Chen Daoxuan found the Qianyuan Sword Scripture listed for exchange and noticed it differed in some respects from what he expected.

Chen Daoxuan spent his Great Merit on the Foundation Establishment portion of the Qianyuan Sword Scripture, a Thousand Year Vermillion Fruit for Chen Xianhe, Five Elements Techniques for the Chen Family, and a fourth-tier Mountain Protection Formation. He began redeeming the chosen items from a red-haired Zhang family cultivator and received the Qianyuan Sword Scripture through the Arc Shadow Disk.

• Chen Daoxuan learned that the Qianyuan Sword Scripture was restricted to individual exchange and chose its Foundation Establishment portion for ten thousand Great Merit.
• Chen Daoxuan exchanged fifteen thousand Great Merit for a Thousand Year Vermillion Fruit so Chen Xianhe could gain thirty years of life.
• Chen Daoxuan selected Foundation Establishment portions of five Five Elements Techniques for the Chen Family, but found that family exchanges cost ten times as much as individual exchanges.
• Chen Daoxuan spent his remaining Great Merit on knowledge of a fourth-tier Mountain Protection Formation for the Chen Family and Sea Viewing City.
• The next day, Chen Daoxuan made a Great Dao Oath to keep the Qianyuan Sword Scripture to himself, and the red-haired cultivator used the Arc Shadow Disk to transmit the technique into his Sea of Consciousness.

Chen Daoxuan paid to have a Thousand Year Vermillion Fruit delivered, then returned to Twin Lakes Island with his gains. He gave the fruit to Chen Xianhe, who accepted it, and the chapter left the two reaffirming their bond and Chen Daoxuan’s place in the family.

• Chen Daoxuan agreed to pay 10,000 Spirit Stones to have a Thousand Year Vermillion Fruit shipped from Cangzhou Immortal City, and Zheng Heng delivered it three days later.
• Chen Daoxuan returned to Twin Lakes Island and visited the Clan School, where he watched Chen Xianhe teach the Fu generation a sword path class.
• Chen Daoxuan told Chen Xianhe that he had earned 53,500 Great Merit from selling pills to the Frontline.
• Chen Daoxuan gave Chen Xianhe the Thousand Year Vermillion Fruit, and Chen Xianhe accepted the gift after recognizing the affection behind it.

Chen Daoxuan studied the Qianyuan Sword Scripture and learned how Foundation Establishment cultivators could temper their True Yuan to reach limit True Essence. After a night of cultivation, he recited the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture and was startled by what happened next.

• Chen Daoxuan absorbed the Qianyuan Sword Scripture’s knowledge and learned about the Limit State and limit True Essence.
• Chen Daoxuan discovered that Sword Cultivators who comprehended Sword Intent could create their own Sword Arts, and he inferred that Zhou Mubai had created the Azure Lotus Sword Art.
• Chen Daoxuan planned to use the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture to comprehend the Qianyuan Sword Scripture before converting to it over the coming year.
• Chen Daoxuan polished his True Yuan through the night, then recited the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture at dawn and suddenly changed expression.

Chen Daoxuan discovered that the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture had advanced to its second layer, raising the Enlightenment threshold but greatly increasing its effects. After entering Enlightenment with thirty Star Dust motes, he improved his understanding of the Qianyuan Sword Scripture and comprehended much of a fourth-tier Mountain Protection Formation, leaving him on the verge of becoming a fourth-tier Formation Master.

• Chen Daoxuan reasoned that the Star Dust motes no longer fused because the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture's Enlightenment threshold had risen.
• Chen Daoxuan recited the scripture the next day and confirmed it could still store comprehension by producing an eleventh Star Dust mote.
• Chen Daoxuan taught swordsmanship at the Clan School and identified promising sword talents among the Chen Clan's Fu generation Immortal Seedlings.
• After twenty days, Chen Daoxuan gathered thirty Star Dust motes and entered Enlightenment when they fused together.
• Chen Daoxuan comprehended and improved the Foundation Establishment Realm Qianyuan Sword Scripture in a dozen breaths.
• Chen Daoxuan comprehended roughly thirty percent of a fourth-tier Mountain Protection Formation and realized he could soon become a fourth-tier Formation Master.

Chen Daoxuan recognized Chen Fusheng’s determination to become a Sword Cultivator and began privately teaching him the sword Dao. During the lesson, the Golden Scripture’s resonance caused a mote of Star Dust to appear in Chen Fusheng’s Sea of Consciousness, and Chen Daoxuan discovered it matched the one in his own.

• Chen Fusheng explained that the Chasing Wind Sword Art worked by merging the sword into the wind, impressing Chen Daoxuan with his understanding.
• Chen Fusheng told Chen Daoxuan he wanted to become a Sword Cultivator, and Chen Daoxuan agreed to train him and excused him from production-related classes.
• Chen Daoxuan took Chen Fusheng to his courtyard and taught him the Chasing Wind Sword Art and his understanding of the sword Dao.
• The Golden Scripture resonated as Chen Daoxuan taught, and Chen Fusheng unknowingly fell asleep before waking to find a mote of Star Dust in his Sea of Consciousness.
• Chen Daoxuan examined Chen Fusheng and confirmed that the mote of Star Dust matched the one in his own Sea of Consciousness, though it was dimmer.

Chen Daoxuan discovered that the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture’s second-layer Dao transmission could rapidly improve his clansmen’s skills and let them benefit from his insights. After Chen Fusheng demonstrated a remarkable breakthrough in Sword Dao, the Chen family swore to keep the ability secret, and Chen Daoxuan saw his family becoming a source of strength rather than a burden.

• Chen Daoxuan determined that Dao transmission filled recipients’ Sea of Consciousness with Star Dust, which fused into Enlightenment based on the knowledge he had taught them.
• Chen Daoxuan reflected that his growing strength had outpaced the Chen family, but his ties to Chen Xianhe and his clansmen kept him from abandoning them.
• Chen Fusheng completed a month of Sword Dao instruction and demonstrated Great Accomplishment in the Chasing Wind Sword Art, moving his Crimson Shadow Flying Sword silently at high speed.
• Chen Daoxuan’s lectures had also advanced Chen Daochu’s Artifact Refining and Chen Daolian’s Alchemy, while Chen Daoxuan warned them not to reveal the family’s method.
• Chen Daochu, Chen Daolian, and Chen Fusheng swore oaths of the Great Dao to keep Dao transmission secret, then praised Chen Fusheng’s talent.

Chen Daoxuan explained how Qianyuan Sword Sect restricted powerful Spirit Armor and War Artifact inheritances to limit the strength of great clans, then assigned Chen Daochu to establish an Artifact Research Institute. Chen Daochu agreed to recruit talented Fu generation cultivators and begin building the institute.

• Chen Daoxuan kept Chen Daochu behind and explained that Spirit Armor could dramatically strengthen cultivators, while Qianyuan Sword Sect restricted its forging inheritances.
• Chen Daoxuan described how Qianyuan Sword Sect also controlled War Artifact inheritances to prevent great clans from becoming too powerful.
• Chen Daoxuan laid out his plan to divide Chen Family cultivators between military and production roles, with the military focused on strength and family defense.
• Chen Daoxuan assigned Chen Daochu to establish an Artifact Research Institute to develop new Magic Artifacts for the Chen Family.
• Chen Daochu agreed to select dependable Fu generation cultivators with Artifact Forging talent and build the institute's initial framework.

Chen Daochuan delivered the Chen Family’s increased supply of pills and Magic Artifacts to the Zhou Family, while Chen Daoxuan discussed Guanhai Immortal City’s defenses and finances with Chen Xianhe. The chapter ended as Chen Daoxuan faced a report that the West Defense Zone could not afford its troops’ monthly pay.

• Chen Daochuan delivered and sold the Zhou Family 337,500 pills and thousands of flying swords, settling half the payment in Battle Merit.
• The Zhou Family Steward praised the Eastern Defense Zone’s victory over the Lotus Island Corpse Horde and Zhou Mubai’s role in destroying a second-tier Yin Vein.
• Chen Daoxuan told Chen Xianhe that the Chen Family would upgrade its Spirit Vein and build a fourth-tier Mountain Protection Formation once it had accumulated ten million Spirit Stones.
• Chen Xianhe asked whether the Chen Family needed to cover the nearly sixty million Spirit Stones spent on Guanhai Immortal City, but Chen Daoxuan said they should wait and see.
• A Spirit Armor-clad cultivator told Chen Daoxuan that the West Defense Zone’s monthly military pay was due, revealing that the allied forces were short of funds.

Chen Daoxuan explained the Chen Family’s financial strain and its plans to build Guanhai Immortal City into the foundation of its influence. He decided to entrust the Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shops in Guang'an Prefecture to Wei Sihai and left Chen Daochuan convinced that the Chen Family could recruit outsiders by helping them establish vassal families.

• Chen Daoxuan reassured Lei Zhen that the Chen Family would pay the West Defense Zone soldiers’ wages in full.
• Chen Daochuan returned to Guanhai Immortal City, and Chen Daoxuan explained that he wanted him to focus on the Chen Family’s work there rather than the six Rainbow Sound Flying Sword Shops in Guang'an Prefecture.
• Chen Daochuan said Wei Sihai managed the shops and raised concerns about entrusting the Chen Family’s business to an outsider.
• Chen Daoxuan argued that Guanhai Immortal City mattered more to the Chen Family’s future and proposed using incentives and strict financial controls to manage the risks of employing outsiders.
• Chen Daoxuan proposed helping outsiders who served the Chen Family for years establish vassal Cultivation Families, and Chen Daochuan enthusiastically agreed.

Chen Daoxuan explained why the Chen Family needed to issue Spirit Stone Coin backed by Spirit Stones and emphasized the challenges of earning trust and preventing counterfeiting. He visited the Changping Artifact Research Institute with Chen Daochuan, where Chen Daochu announced that the task Chen Daoxuan had assigned him had succeeded.

• Chen Daoxuan warned Chen Daochuan that establishing the Changping Central Bank and issuing currency were critical to the Chen Family's future.
• Chen Daoxuan recalled how transporting eighty million Spirit Stones had inspired him to replace Spirit Stones with currency, and reasoned that the coins needed Spirit Stone backing rather than the Chen Family's credit.
• Chen Daoxuan considered how the currency could be made both difficult to counterfeit and easy to produce, a problem he had assigned to Chen Daochu's Artifact Research Institute.
• Chen Daoxuan and Chen Daochuan arrived at the Changping Artifact Research Institute on Twin Lakes Island and found that most of its laboratories were empty.
• Chen Daochu greeted Chen Daoxuan and Chen Daochuan, then excitedly declared that he had succeeded at the task Chen Daoxuan had given him.

Chen Daoxuan examined the new Spirit Stone Coin, whose special Talisman Paper and simple Formation Pattern made it difficult to counterfeit, and judged that production could support a pilot circulation in Guanhai Immortal City. He then turned to his next priority: subduing the West Defense Zone Allied Army and using it to strengthen the Chen Family’s plans.

• Chen Daochu showed Chen Daoxuan the durable Paper Currency and demonstrated how a Bill Validator revealed its lotus-shaped anti-counterfeiting pattern.
• Chen Fulai explained that he had discovered the special Talisman Paper while studying the family’s Talisman Crafting inheritance, and Chen Daochu described how the institute fused a simple Formation Pattern into it.
• Chen Daoxuan reviewed the currency’s production rate and denominations, then decided to increase staffing so Spirit Stone Coin could begin pilot circulation in Guanhai Immortal City by the end of the month.
• Chen Daoxuan concluded that the currency plan required cooperation from Guang'an Prefecture’s major families and that he first needed to subdue the West Defense Zone Allied Army.
• Chen Daoxuan’s army command relied mainly on Rogue Cultivator officers, whom he had selected to make the allied forces serve as a private army for the Chen Family.

Chen Daoxuan persuaded Lei Zhen to become a Chen Family guest cultivator by promising to fund his advancement to the Purple Mansion stage and help him establish a cultivation family. After recruiting seven of the eight Rogue Cultivator Commanders in the West Defense Zone Allied Army, Chen Daoxuan summoned the remaining holdout and recognized the man who entered as an old acquaintance.

• Chen Daoxuan learned that Lei Zhen had returned from the Cloud Country Frontline after facing prejudice as a Cangzhou cultivator and had no appealing prospects beyond farming.
• Chen Daoxuan discovered Lei Zhen was an eighty-seven-year-old Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivator at the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment.
• Chen Daoxuan offered to provide Lei Zhen with the resources to reach the Purple Mansion stage and help him establish a Cultivation Family, and Lei Zhen knelt and pledged to serve the Chen Family.
• Chen Daoxuan told Chen Daochuan that seven of the eight Rogue Cultivator Commanders had joined the Chen Family and ordered the remaining holdout brought in.
• The ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator entered, and Chen Daoxuan recognized him as an old acquaintance.