Recaps

Li Chen pursued the mysteries of the Blue Sea Water Realm, clashed with the Immortal Alliance, and escaped to Cloudstride City. There he used Xia Ziyi and a cultivation system to build influence and puppets, but the Immortal Alliance’s arrival threatened to expose him.

• Li Chen entered the Illusionary Realm with Dancing Maiden, discovered that the Sea Emperor had destroyed the Water Realm, and grew his mutated Dharma Body while absorbing its memories.
• Zong Yiyang attacked Li Chen, but Li Chen corrupted him with the Primordial Spirit Virus before Zong Yiyang sent Li Chen toward Immortal Alliance Headquarters with a Divine Travel Talisman.
• Li Chen disguised himself as Li Bai, altered the Stewards’ memories, and evaded the Immortal Alliance’s search by planting false identities among travelers.
• In Cloudstride City, Li Chen used a Bronze Ring system to guide Xia Ziyi’s cultivation and secretly built a powerful corpse puppet from a mountain ogre.
• After Xia Ziyi’s father and brother died and his engagement was broken, Li Chen urged him to claim his inheritance and helped him seek greater cultivation and family influence.
• Li Chen recruited Lin Xiangyue to watch the Lin Household and taught Xia Ziyi Puppet Dao knowledge, while the Immortal Alliance arrived in Cloudstride City and destroyed his surveillance devices.

Li Chen escaped the Immortal Alliance, advanced to Grand Confucian, and fled across the Central Sea to the Righteous Qi Continent. There he began building a new foothold while guiding Han Li toward the Sword Dao and cautiously exploring his power over illusion and reality.

• Li Chen reshaped Xia Ziyi’s body and spirit, gave him a false core, and used him to hunt the Demon Fox Hu Ze, whose body Li Chen then took over.
• Li Chen gathered Hu Ze’s demons and beasts, taught them the Analects, and advanced to Grand Confucian while Elder Fang pursued him with the Immortal Alliance.
• Li Chen trapped Elder Fang in the Earth-Covering Cloud-Banishing Banner and defeated him, then escaped with Hu Xi aboard a Flying Boat.
• Li Chen intervened after Old Han died in an unsafe foundry, rescued Old Han’s wife and daughter, and named the daughter Han Li.
• Li Chen taught Han Li the Puppet Dao, but she chose the Sword Dao to seek freedom and protect herself and her mother.
• Li Chen subdued Qi Feng and took the western passage through the Chaos Void, arriving with Han Li on the Righteous Qi Continent.
• Li Chen settled near Pingqiu Kingdom, prepared defenses with bird-shaped puppets, and planned to gain the Demon Empress’s trust and find Fang Yuan.
• Li Chen recognized that his cultivation touched a law linking illusion and reality, resolved to proceed cautiously, and began teaching Han Li his Long Song Poetry Sword Formula.

Li Chen established himself as the King of Pingqiu, expanded his hidden Puppet Dao base, and studied the spirits and demons under his rule. After killing the Skeleton Great General and demanding submission from the Five Great Lakes monsters, he faced the elusive King Black Tiger, whose chang ghosts attacked him.

• Li Chen taught Han Li to understand sword methods through mechanics and created the Long Song Poetry Sword Formula, which spread through Wushan City and beyond.
• Li Chen met Fairy Zhang Hua, gained her trust and the Heavenly Fox Heart Sutra, then returned to Pingqiu as a Demon King and began demanding workers and materials from the Yan Clan.
• Li Chen secretly built a communication network and underground Puppet Dao base, recruited artisans, and directed research into demon-beast blood and spirit cultivation.
• Li Chen investigated the old locust-tree spirit Grandmother Huai and the ghost Yu’er, spared Grandmother Huai, and used Soul Deconstruction to study Yu’er.
• Li Chen resolved to consolidate the surrounding Demon Race forces, killed the Skeleton Great General after defeating its troops, and ordered its followers to submit or die.
• Li Chen forced King Iron Armor to agree that the Five Great Lakes monsters would meet him, then tracked down King Black Tiger in the northern mountains.
• King Black Tiger evaded Li Chen with mist and concealment, but he disrupted her chang ghosts with the Primordial Spirit Virus and pseudo-root dao art before the ghosts reformed and attacked his mind.

Li Chen secured his place as King of Pingqiu, built the Demon Kingdom, and advanced his research into artificial primordial spirits while Great Qian’s political crisis drew near. After Prince Yong’s treason came to light, Li Chen’s Avatar attacked him and exposed the protection of a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon.

• Li Chen subdued Black Tiger and other resistant demons, then received Great Qian’s imperial edict investing him as King of Pingqiu.
• Li Chen established the Demon Kingdom, appointed demons to official posts, and discovered that drawing on the kingdom’s fortune brought disasters to the region.
• Li Chen created the artificial primordial spirit Xiao Qian and later gave Hu Ze’s Avatar an artificial spirit so it could maintain a living aura.
• Shen Longcheng explained the Puppet Dao’s artificial-human lineages and their connection to the Creation-Promotion Secret Art, while Li Chen continued developing his Dao and the Demon Kingdom.
• Han Li rescued a court envoy from Prince Yong’s attackers and fought Yang Zhaihou and the Blood Robe Bandits on the way to Pingqiu.
• The envoy presented Hu Ze’s Avatar with evidence of Prince Yong’s treason, including a plan to siphon imperial qi through a feng shui formation near Thorn Mountain.
• Li Chen consulted Shen Longcheng and Pan Ning about the succession crisis, secured authorization to act, and appointed Nie Chen to lead the Demon Kingdom’s army and civil affairs.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar killed the Blood Robe Bandits, tracked Prince Yong to Thorn Mountain, and attacked him, but the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon’s aura repelled the blow.