Chapter Summaries

The Yunshan Council of Elders distributed resource sites to recruit support, giving Li Chen Crouching Tiger Hill to develop. The cultivators then broke into Luo Changshan’s Underground Workshop and began dividing its human puppets, materials, and technical knowledge.

• The Council of Elders appointed Qi Yuetian an honorary Guest Adviser and awarded him woodland near Qishan Valley, while other attendees also received resource sites.
• After discussion, the Council assigned Li Chen three resource sites at Crouching Tiger Hill, which held an iron mine, a heavenfire stone mine, and a finewood forest.
• The cultivators agreed to enter Luo Changshan’s sealed inner valley and recover his manuals and diagrams.
• Feng Mingzhu, You Renzhi, and the others overcame the workshop’s mechanisms and restrictions, reaching the Underground Workshop in less than a day.
• The cultivators found thirty-four bodies in Nutrient Pods, including at least five three-star human puppets, and Feng Mingzhu proposed giving the puppets to the Council while dividing other materials.
• Li Chen declined the human materials and asked for methods and knowledge instead, while Zhen Zhuo and others offered him additional resources.

After the spoils at Yunshan Valley were divided, Lin Jiang and Zhen Zhuo used brutal force to assert the attendants’ authority over Yunshan Gate’s disciples. The conflict ended with Zhen Zhuo killing Du Shi and ordering his household punished and expelled.

• The cultivators left the secret chamber with their shares, then encountered a mourning child who cursed them; Zhen Zhuo knocked him down with a glance.
• Li Chen departed to discuss developing his holdings with Old He and Old Wu, while Lin Jiang learned the child was Du Shi’s son.
• Lin Jiang injured the child and demanded that Du Shi kneel at the Memorial Hall overnight as an apology, or the child would die.
• Du Shi arrived and cursed Lin Jiang, prompting Zhen Zhuo to kill him and order his household expelled, his direct blood relatives executed, and the punishments enforced by witnesses.

Li Chen attended Luo Changshan's funeral and discussed settling at Crouching Tiger Hill with Qi Yuetian. After the ceremony, Che Rong raided Yunshan Market again, prompting Yunshan Gate's elders to call for another campaign against him.

• Li Chen returned to Yunshan Valley with Wu Ding and He Ran, and Wu Ding condemned the Yunshan lineage for benefiting from its former patron.
• Qi Yuetian welcomed Li Chen's plans for Crouching Tiger Hill and offered advice and introductions for establishing a residence there.
• Li Chen reflected that he meant to strengthen himself in Suyang before eventually leaving the region to pursue greater opportunities.
• Li Chen, Qi Yuetian, and other Foundation Establishment experts watched Yunshan Gate complete Luo Changshan's funeral without incident.
• Che Rong attacked Yunshan Market's administrative offices while the experts were at the funeral, killing several people and stealing tax payments and spirit materials.
• Zhen Zhuo and his two companions urged the assembled experts to help plan another campaign to hunt down Che Rong.

Li Chen surveyed Crouching Tiger Hill and planned a resource outpost centered on a tower fortress, then began construction with hired workers. He learned how Old Ma had left rogue cultivation to become a construction worker after losing his leg.

• Li Chen left the counterterrorism meeting and recruited workers and construction-skilled Puppet Masters for his outpost.
• Li Chen surveyed Crouching Tiger Hill, chose a protected basin for the settlement, and planned its water supply, workshops, roads, and defenses.
• Li Chen decided to build a large tower in the basin as the first part of his residence and work site.
• Old Ma led the arriving workers as they set up temporary sheds, assembled mecha, and began excavating the mountain.
• Old Ma told Li Chen that an injury had forced him to abandon rogue cultivation and become a construction worker.

Li Chen oversaw construction at Crouching Tiger Hill and reflected on the struggle to build civilization amid war and danger. When a guard spotted a Tiger Demon near the site, Li Chen killed it and gave its carcass to the workers.

• Li Chen watched workers use converted Mecha to clear land and build the base under Old Ma's direction.
• Li Chen reflected on how spiritual barriers, social divisions, and attacks from the Other Continent hindered civilization.
• A guard spotted a Tiger Demon three li east of the construction site, and Li Chen flew out to confront it.
• Li Chen struck the Tiger Demon with his Thunder Whip, then killed it with his sword.
• Li Chen brought the carcass to the Kitchen Worker, ordering him to extract its inner core and share the meat with the workers.

Li Chen reassured He Ran and Wu Ding that he would share the land with them and take any friends who reached Foundation Establishment with him. Their plans were interrupted when Cook Zhang’s wife and daughter were reported murdered, and Li Chen sensed Che Rong nearby.

• Li Chen told He Ran and Wu Ding that he would not remain in the region forever and intended to share its foundation with them.
• Wu Ding vowed to reach Foundation Establishment within ten years, while He Ran teased him about being sold off like a piglet.
• Li Chen reflected on his friendship with the men and his regrets over Old Hou and Old You.
• A Construction Worker reported that Cook Zhang’s wife and daughter had been killed outside the worksite.
• Li Chen sensed a Foundation Establishment aura and blamed Che Rong for the killings.

Li Chen confronted Che Rong after tracking him with his reconnaissance discs and overwhelmed his modified Stone Octopus body with lightning. Che Rong escaped by sacrificing a tentacle, while Li Chen ran out of Magic Power and considered turning his Thunder Dragon Cannon into a fixed defense for his base.

• Li Chen used his reconnaissance discs to find Che Rong and attacked him with lightning.
• Che Rong transformed into his enormous Stone Octopus combat form, but Li Chen’s lightning attacks charred his body and disrupted his water-sphere attacks.
• Li Chen charged and fired the Thunder Dragon Cannon, blasting apart Che Rong’s apparent body.
• Che Rong’s body turned out to be a discarded tentacle as he fled beneath the treetops, and Li Chen could not pursue him because his Magic Power was depleted.
• Li Chen considered installing a Spirit-Gathering Formation to make the Thunder Dragon Cannon a fixed defense for the Crouching Tiger Hill basin.

After Che Rong’s attack, Li Chen rejected Yunshan Valley’s invitation to join the Demon-Slaying Alliance, suspecting someone was trying to manipulate him. He focused on strengthening his defenses instead, completing a signal-relay network that left Crouching Tiger Hill under surveillance.

• Zhen Zhuo visited Li Chen with condolences and supplies, invited him to join the Demon-Slaying Alliance, and left when Li Chen said he would think about it.
• Li Chen and He Ran suspected Che Rong’s attack was arranged to draw Li Chen into the conflict, and Li Chen resolved to grow stronger and fortify the construction site.
• Li Chen gave Chef Zhang three days off to arrange his family’s funeral, then built the Beehive signal relay and set up a hut to manage reconnaissance Flying Discs.
• Li Chen expanded the Worker Bee System with automated maintenance and a Puppet Core display, giving the Flying Discs coverage over the basin within ten li.
• Scarface Lin learned to operate the system and used the Eye Crystal function to assign more than thirty Flying Discs to track people at the construction site.

Li Chen enlisted Scarface Lin to monitor the area with mechanical creations, then learned from Qi Yuetian why Che Rong feared Qishan Valley. Qi Yuetian gave Li Chen a potent poison capable of killing Che Rong if he attacked again.

• Li Chen left Scarface Lin in charge of the cabin and its surveillance while he attended to other matters.
• Scarface Lin alerted Li Chen to Qi Yuetian's arrival, and Qi Yuetian warned that Che Rong's attack might be part of a plot to provoke Li Chen and destabilize Suyang.
• Qi Yuetian explained that he had developed a poison targeting Che Rong's blood essence after Luo Changshan took most of a True Demon's corpse and used it to modify Che Rong.
• Qi Yuetian gave Li Chen a vial of the poison, saying even a trace would dissolve Che Rong into rotten sludge.

Li Chen accepted Qi Yuetian’s poisonous substance and discussed how the Poison Dao had broadened to include threats to magic power and the divine soul. Their conversation left Li Chen wondering whether an Auxiliary Brain could run virus-like attacks against another person’s soul, allowing him to cultivate the Poison Dao himself.

• Qi Yuetian gave Li Chen a poisonous substance and warned him to use it mainly to frighten Che Rong, since killing him could draw the attention of the hidden conspirator behind him.
• Qi Yuetian offered to help Li Chen inspect the land around Crouching Tiger Hill for cash crops, while Li Chen steered their conversation toward the Poison Dao.
• Qi Yuetian explained that his flesh-and-blood Poison Dao had limitations and that modern practitioners also studied poisons that could contaminate primordial energy and counter magic power.
• Li Chen cited the idea that poison could mean excess, and Qi Yuetian described divine soul poison as a related field that faced counters such as soul uploading and Emotion-Slaying.
• Li Chen wondered whether virus programs could count as divine soul poison and whether his Auxiliary Brain could run them, then considered cultivating the Poison Dao alongside his current path.

Li Chen established a new Wildstead and began building a Hive Network to coordinate production and develop a future Puppet Legion. After explaining that his territory would become an open Market District, he announced plans to recruit young Puppet Masters, prompting a visitor to ask whether he intended to take apprentices.

• Li Chen inspected the completed iron tower and used the growing Hive Network to observe the surrounding wilderness through its devices.
• Li Chen crafted Worker Bee Puppets with swarm intelligence, intending them to support production and serve as the prototype for his Puppet Legion.
• Li Chen welcomed Demon Hunters and rogue cultivators, describing his Wildstead’s open trade, settlement, and recruitment plans.
• Li Chen announced that he would recruit local boys and girls aged ten to fifteen with some Puppet Master training, and a visitor asked whether he meant to take apprentices.

Li Chen recruited prospective nominal disciples and discussed the Hive Network’s communication and defenses with Wu Ding. He explained that upgrading the network depended on learning Array Dao and energy systems, knowledge he hoped to obtain from Feng Mingzhu.

• Li Chen set an assessment for prospective nominal disciples, requiring literacy and at least five years of apprenticeship schooling, and gave out tokens to help spread the word.
• Wu Ding returned from laying network components and praised how the base stations connected to the iron tower.
• Li Chen’s communication tool let people contact one another through their jade slips, and Wu Ding used it to call Old He and Old Jin.
• Li Chen explained that redundant base stations and encrypted core programs would protect the Hive Network, though a powerful cultivator could still destroy it.
• Li Chen told Wu Ding that he needed to study Array Dao and Spirit-Gathering Formations to upgrade the network, but Feng Mingzhu had refused his repeated attempts to obtain that knowledge.

Li Chen prepared to recruit apprentices for his Wildstead, hoping to pass on his craft, develop the region, and leave its later management to Old He. After dozens of youths arrived seeking instruction, he selected more than ten disciples and gave rejected candidates another chance; a second assessment began in early November under the first disciples' supervision.

• Li Chen told Wu Ding that he would recruit apprentices and hold an initiation ceremony once the candidates had arrived and the Wildstead was ready, probably in December.
• The Rogue Cultivators spread news of Li Chen's recruitment, prompting families across the region to bring their children and nephews to the Wildstead.
• Dozens of youths arrived within days, and Li Chen began assessments early, selecting more than ten disciples.
• Li Chen offered rejected candidates a second chance because some had potential despite weak foundations, earning praise from the families.
• In early November, more youths came for the second assessment, which sixteen disciples helped administer on Li Chen's behalf.

At Crouching Tiger Hill’s opening celebration, Li Chen received teaching materials from Qi Yuetian and used them to plan an intelligent, personalized training system for his disciples. He named the project the Ink Gate Compendium and declared that his lineage and sect would be called the Ink Gate.

• Li Chen welcomed cultivators and clans to the celebration as gifts and goodwill arrived from allies, including materials from Feng Mingzhu.
• Qi Yuetian presented Li Chen with carefully organized Puppet Master teaching materials said to have come from Grandmaster Artisans in the Sky City beyond the heavens.
• Li Chen decided to use Qi Yuetian’s materials to teach his disciples and later had the Auxiliary Brain scan and archive them.
• Li Chen crafted tablet-shaped Image-Recording Jade Slips and planned to combine the materials with intelligent programs and Crouching Tiger Hill’s hive network for personalized instruction.
• Li Chen named the archived project the Ink Gate Compendium and declared that his lineage and sect would be called the Ink Gate.

Li Chen established a ten-level apprentice ranking and advancement system for Ink Gate and used his surveillance network to uncover a plot to abduct two apprentices. He killed one of the conspirators with a Divine Fire Flying Crow and confronted the fleeing Che Rong in midair.

• Li Chen ordered Dominator to create an apprentice ranking system based on the Creation Sect's assessment criteria and reviewed its distribution of study materials.
• A surveillance device recorded a man reporting that Zhong Zhang and Lin Ruyi were the apprentices with the best aptitude and suggesting they be abducted to provoke Li Chen.
• Li Chen connected to the Hive Network, located the conspirators, and fired a Divine Fire Flying Crow at them.
• Che Rong survived the blast by transforming his arm to shield himself, while the other man was killed.
• Che Rong fled more than ten li, but Li Chen appeared before him on his Flying Chair.

Li Chen defeated Che Rong by combining lightning attacks with Crouching Tiger Hill’s hidden fire-support system and captured him alive. Che Rong revealed that Valley Master Luo was his patron, leaving Li Chen startled by the revelation.

• Li Chen fought Che Rong with his Floating Balls and Nine Heavens Divine Thunder, but Che Rong’s tough body withstood the attacks.
• Li Chen’s hidden electromagnetic artillery launched Divine Fire Flying Crows and Thunderfire Thunderclaps at Che Rong from multiple positions.
• The explosions nearly destroyed Che Rong, and Li Chen carried his true body toward the iron tower instead of killing him.
• Che Rong warned Li Chen that his patron would retaliate if Li Chen took him back.
• Che Rong named Valley Master Luo as his patron, shocking Li Chen.

Li Chen learned from Che Rong that Luo Changshan had faked his death and was hiding in a secret chamber, while Che Rong revealed that he himself was another of Luo’s backup puppets. Che Rong began recounting how Luo recruited and modified him, leaving Li Chen listening for the truth behind their history.

• Li Chen questioned Che Rong’s claim that Luo Changshan was alive, then considered how a Puppet Master could fake death with a lifebound puppet.
• Che Rong told Li Chen that Luo Changshan’s real lair was an enclosed secret chamber connected to the spirit peak’s roots, accessible through magic arrays and a Space-Jumping Technique.
• Li Chen recognized that Che Rong was trying to turn him against Luo Changshan and confirmed that Luo was weakened and had few puppets left.
• Che Rong revealed that he was Luo Changshan’s spare puppet and said he had been recruited over a hundred years earlier for his talents in demon primordial energy, Martial Cultivation, and Flesh-and-Blood Modification.

A flashback followed Xia Rong from his childhood in Yunshan Valley to his apprenticeship under Luo Changshan, who later chose him for a demon-based human modification experiment. As Xia Rong fell asleep in the secret chamber, Luo Changshan gave him a new identity as Che Rong and sent him to protect Yunshan Valley from the shadows.

• As a child, Xia Rong became fascinated by cicadas, and his father and uncle later sent him to study in Yunshan Valley’s Inner Valley.
• After Xia Rong was contaminated by a true demon’s flesh and blood, he absorbed its demonic baleful energy, prompting Luo Changshan to take him as an apprentice.
• More than twenty years later, Luo Changshan proposed modifying Xia Rong’s body to help him reach foundation establishment, and Xia Rong agreed and signed a Karmic Pact.
• Luo Changshan brought Xia Rong to an underground chamber and injected him with a blood-red blood essence spirit seed beside a huge demon corpse.
• As Xia Rong drifted off, Luo Changshan told him to become Che Rong, a rogue cultivator who would protect Yunshan Valley from the shadows.

Luo Changshan subjected Che Rong to a brutal experiment to control his berserk transformations, using the deaths of Che Rong’s wife, father, and companions to study the link between emotion and loss of control. The experiment eventually produced a True Demon Spirit Seed that could fully control the transformed state.

• Che Rong advanced to Foundation Establishment but repeatedly lost control and rampaged as an octopus monster, so Luo Changshan ordered the Blood Essence Spirit Seed injected to calm him.
• Luo Changshan brought Che Rong’s father and wife Lan’er to care for him, then secretly let Che Rong kill and devour them during another rampage while recording the scene.
• Che Rong awoke amid the ruins, remembered his family’s deaths, and wept, but his grief did not trigger another transformation.
• Luo Changshan summoned Che Rong’s former friends and arranged for them to work alongside him; after several calm days, Che Rong went berserk again and killed or injured them.
• Luo Changshan analyzed Che Rong’s essence blood and vital energy until he refined a True Demon Spirit Seed that granted complete control over the transformed state.

Che Rong told Li Chen how Luo Changshan had transformed and controlled him through experiments and a Karmic Pact. Li Chen killed Che Rong to prevent future trouble, but Che Rong returned from the dead with overwhelming vitality.

• Che Rong told Li Chen that Luo Changshan’s experiments had transformed his body and mind, destroyed his loved ones, and bound him with a Karmic Pact.
• Li Chen questioned Che Rong about Luo Changshan’s secret chamber, but learned that Che Rong’s memories had been partly erased and that he could not reveal how to find it.
• Che Rong explained that Feng Mingzhu had helped lure out threats to Yunshan Valley to protect the Feng Household.
• Li Chen decided that Che Rong was too dangerous to spare and struck him with Nine Heavens Divine Thunder using Lightning Gleam.
• Che Rong’s flesh and blood reassembled, reviving him with an even mightier vitality.