Chapter Summaries

Li Chen and Qi Maigu defended the camp against the Shaman Tribe Remnants and identified their Beast King Order and shamanic traditions. The elder refused Li Chen’s offer to stop fighting, and Qi Maigu realized the tribe had encountered Puppet Masters before.

• The Shaman tribesmen and their beasts attacked the camp, while its Combat Puppets rushed to defend it.
• Qi Maigu observed the elder and his elite riders as Li Chen explained the Shaman Tribe Remnants’ Beast King Order and Ancestral Spirit Art.
• Li Chen tried to persuade the elder to stop fighting, but the elder accused the defenders of killing his comrades and occupying the Sacred Mountain.
• Qi Maigu pointed out that the Shaman tribesmen seemed familiar with Puppet Masters and their creations, suggesting they had seen them before.

Li Chen used Combat Puppets and Jingang to repel the Shaman Folk warriors attacking the Field Camp. The enemy withdrew into the forest, and Li Chen expected them to return with a night raid.

• Li Chen and Qi Maigu speculated that the Shaman Folk had encountered advanced civilizations or other rogue cultivators before.
• Li Chen ordered the Combat Puppets into formations, and Jingang charged into the Shaman Folk force with his iron club.
• Jingang fought the Shaman Folk leader, endured a spear wound, and knocked him back before the old man ordered a retreat.
• The Shaman Folk withdrew in formation, then split into small groups and disappeared into the forest.
• Li Chen concluded that the enemy understood military tactics and might launch a surprise attack that night.

Li Chen and Qi Maigu treated the Field Camp’s wounded, and Li Chen unveiled automated Healing Apparatuses to help care for future casualties. Meanwhile, the Shaman Tribe Remnants recovered in a cave and reported their losses to the Great Shaman.

• Li Chen had the wounded brought to him, and Qi Maigu directed Golden Sun Gate disciples to practice treating them.
• Li Chen and Qi Maigu used advanced techniques to restore three gravely wounded men, then Li Chen told them to rest.
• Li Chen showed Qi Maigu the automated Healing Apparatuses he had installed in the Field Camp and offered him some for free.
• The Shaman Tribe Remnants tended their wounded in a cave, where a warrior showed the Great Shaman a poisoned, barbed arrowhead and reported their losses.

A Shan persuaded the Great Shaman to use guerrilla tactics against Li Chen’s forces, and warriors from several tribes arrived to join the fight. When the Remnants attacked after dark, Li Chen sent his elite Sword Guard Girls and Battle Puppets to counter them, while the Giant Puppet began moving.

• A Shan urged the Great Shaman to harass the camp and destroy the construction site rather than confront Li Chen’s forces directly.
• Red Wolf announced that warriors from the Maofeng Tribe, the Soaring Serpent Tribe, and the Valley Tribe had arrived, including Bao, who had subdued the Red Wolf King.
• The Great Shaman ordered the assembled warriors to eat and prepare to fight that night.
• The Shaman Tribe Remnants attacked the Field Camp and construction site with weapons and wild beasts after darkness fell.
• Li Chen sent thirty Sword Guard Girls, Xiao Die, and Xiao Ying into battle, and they quickly wounded or killed several warriors.
• The Giant Puppet moved from its position on the earthen slope as Li Chen committed to the fight.

Li Chen used the Giant Puppet to defeat and capture the enemy Great Shaman during the battle. He showed the captive an image of the men attacking the construction site, leaving the old man horrified.

• Li Chen sent the Giant Puppet to attack the Great Shaman, who tried to protect himself with Tiger Spirit Protection and Tiger Roar Wave.
• The Giant Puppet withstood the Great Shaman’s sound attacks and drove him back.
• Li Chen activated Earth Baleful Magnetic Pole, pinning the Great Shaman and his tiger in place.
• The Giant Puppet killed the tiger, tore away the Great Shaman’s lower body, and captured him alive.
• Li Chen ignored the Great Shaman’s demand to be killed and sent him an image of the men attacking the construction site.

Li Chen used an intelligence network and prepared defenses to defeat the Shaman Tribe Remnants’ attack, capturing their Great Shaman and many warriors. He then hinted that he would use the captured tribespeople to make their leader cooperate.

• The Shaman Tribe Remnants attacked the construction site but were ambushed by Li Chen’s puppets, mechanisms, and defensive forces.
• Qi Maigu and his apprentices watched the battle through Li Chen’s surveillance network, and Yu Feng explained how the intelligence advantage had foiled the enemy’s tactics.
• Old Hong and the others joined the fight, routed the attackers, and captured more than thirty warriors and their Great Shaman.
• Li Chen returned with the defeated Great Shaman, who admitted his force had never had a chance to breach the camp.
• When the Great Shaman refused to talk, Li Chen ordered the captured tribespeople brought over and said the tribe should stay together.

Li Chen subdued the Shaman Folk by threatening their Great Shaman, then used a creation art and artificial blood to save him. After modifying the shaman to keep him under control, Li Chen obtained a stream of local knowledge through Heavenly Pivot’s mind-reading work, leaving him with new information about Broad Cloud Peak and its people.

• Li Chen threatened the Great Shaman and his people until both sides stopped resisting.
• Li Chen used the Creation-Promotion Secret Art and artificial spirit blood to restore the Great Shaman’s damaged body and keep him alive.
• Li Chen ordered Old Hong to treat and watch the Shaman Folk captives, then took the Great Shaman to the camp.
• Li Chen replaced much of the Great Shaman’s body with artificial organs and installed mechanisms that left him weak and controllable.
• Li Chen used Heavenly Pivot to study the brain of a dead Shaman Folk member, and she transmitted a data package about Broad Cloud’s indigenous people into his mind.

Li Chen learned that the Centipede Daoist and the Shaman King had conquered the Western Continent, while Wushi Yan’s people had mistaken Li Chen’s group for their enemies. By questioning Wushi Yan, Li Chen discovered that the Heavenly Dragon Gate was another Outer Domain power feared by the locals.

• Li Chen learned from the Shaman Tribe Remnants’ memories that the Centipede Daoist had built a vast power with the Shaman King and driven rebels east toward Broad Cloud Peak.
• Li Chen realized that Yan’s people had attacked because they mistook his group for the Centipede Daoist’s followers.
• Heavenly Pivot told Li Chen that Wushi Yan had awakened, and Li Chen returned to question him.
• Wushi Yan accused Li Chen of serving the Centipede Daoist, but Li Chen denied being anyone’s subordinate and asked about the Heavenly Dragon Gate.
• Wushi Yan explained that the Heavenly Dragon Gate was another Outer Domain power and despaired at the arrival of yet another potential conqueror.

Li Chen prepared to seek resources from the Golden Sun Gate and Sea Eye City while planning to use the captured Wushi Yan to bring the Shaman Folk into his fold. When Red Wolf arrived to negotiate with a force of Shaman warriors, Wushi Yan ordered him to send them home.

• Li Chen and Qi Maigu discussed reporting the nearby threat and securing support, and Li Chen sent confidential letters asking Yu Youxian and Sea Eye City for resources.
• Li Chen told Qi Maigu he would keep Wushi Yan alive and use him to help bring the Shaman Folk under his rule.
• As the Market District took shape, Shaman Folk gathered near the Field Camp, and Li Chen displayed the prisoners to discourage an attack.
• Red Wolf came to the Field Camp seeking Wushi Yan and claimed he had brought over ten thousand warriors to rescue him.
• Li Chen told Wushi Yan that resistance was futile, and Wushi Yan ordered Red Wolf to disperse the warriors and leave.

Li Chen used his captives and advanced surveillance systems to deter the Shaman Folk while building a fortified Market District. A drone feed from nearly ten thousand miles away revealed a bustling civilization plunged into sudden chaos, leaving Li Chen watching in alarm.

• Red Wolf left the camp after seeing the rapidly expanding construction site and worried about the Sacred Mountain's future.
• Li Chen refused to release Wushi Yan's people, warned him about his artificial organs, and kept him under guard as construction continued.
• Li Chen's people tracked the Shaman Folk hunting parties with drones and detection devices while he showed Wushi Yan the Heavenly Eye System to undermine his confidence.
• Li Chen remotely viewed a distant city through a drone feed and saw its crowded streets erupt into panic as people and horses fled.

Li Chen used a Reconnaissance Flying Disc to observe monsters attacking civilians in Heavenly Dragon Gate territory, but a powerful one destroyed it. Qi Maigu identified the creatures as Human-Head Centipedes and explained how their creator made stronger variants by joining human corpses and stealing spiritual roots.

• Li Chen watched Human-Head Centipedes emerge and kill civilians, then noticed a stronger monster pursuing his Reconnaissance Flying Disc.
• The pursuing monster sprayed poison that melted the Flying Disc, then struck its Eye Crystal and cut off the signal.
• Li Chen summoned Qi Maigu and displayed the monsters recorded by the Flying Disc.
• Qi Maigu identified the creatures as Corpse Monsters made with witchcraft, gu methods, and the Creation-Promotion Secret Art, likely by Centipede Daoist.
• Qi Maigu explained that the three-segment monster was a Three-Excellence Heavenly Treasure Centipede, a powerful creature with multiple elemental abilities.

Li Chen learned about Heavenly Treasure Centipedes and the Creation-Promotion Secret Art from Qi Maigu, who warned that the Heavenly Dragon Gate could threaten Broad Cloud Peak. As Li Chen prepared for war, he advanced construction on the Market District and began turning the spirit peak into a mountain fortress.

• Qi Maigu explained how Heavenly Treasure Centipedes were made and described the Creation-Promotion Secret Art as a foundational discipline of the puppeteer dao path.
• Qi Maigu praised Li Chen’s work with puppet intelligence and warned that the Heavenly Dragon Gate could be more dangerous than the Shaman Folk.
• Li Chen vowed to defend his territory, and Qi Maigu offered him a chance to practice using Solar Divine Light as a weapon.
• By late April, Li Chen’s expedition had established a Market District, and his team had excavated a deep shaft into the spirit peak.
• Li Chen planned to hollow out the mountain into a steel fortress, placing the Magic Cube Maze at its center and the Spirit Vein Spring Eye beneath it.

Li Chen visited Qi Maigu to witness the trial of a Solar Divine Light Emitter, a cannon-like mechanism capable of a powerful Qi Refining-level strike. After testing it, Li Chen used it to kill a hidden python-like monster, leaving the device’s practical value demonstrated.

• Li Chen monitored Heavenly Pivot’s production of Worker Bee Puppets and a growing Clay People Army, which he planned to deploy against the Heavenly Dragon Gate and the Centipede Daoist.
• Qi Maigu summoned Li Chen to the Market District to demonstrate his newly made Solar Divine Light Emitter.
• Qi Maigu fired a light sword from the device and pierced a large tree several miles away, demonstrating the power of a tenth-level Qi Refining attack.
• Qi Maigu explained that the device stored enough energy for one strike and handed it to Li Chen to test.
• After the Auxiliary Brain showed him something, Li Chen fired at distant shrubs, incinerating them and killing a concealed python-shaped monster.

Li Chen examined the Solar Divine Light Cannon’s power and learned that miniaturizing it for ordinary Warrior Constructs was impractical, so Qi Maigu modified one into a compact weapon for Li Chen’s own Puppet Chassis. Far away, a dignified man in a Forbidden Garden studied a ruined Flying Disc that Li Chen had sent out to scout.

• A Solar Divine Light Cannon killed a Human-Head Centipede, and Li Chen had Heavenly Pivot bring back its corpse.
• Qi Maigu explained the Solar Divine Light’s strength and why the equipment needed to use it was too costly and inefficient to mass-produce for Warrior Constructs.
• Li Chen accepted that broader long-range weapons would require Grand Artisan expertise and asked Qi Maigu to adapt the cannon for his Puppet Chassis.
• Qi Maigu fitted the cannon’s Core Module into a casing, giving Li Chen a compact floating weapon.
• In a distant city, a dignified man examined a damaged Flying Disc that Li Chen had sent to scout.

The Centipede Daoist learned from Elder Zhu that the Flying Disc wreckage pointed to a skilled Master Artisan and a sizable group of infiltrators. He ordered a ruthless search across the Shaman Folk Kingdom, while one of his subordinates unknowingly approached Broad Cloud Peak looking for a dead Human-Head Centipede.

• The Centipede Daoist asked Elder Zhu what he had learned from the Flying Disc wreckage.
• Elder Zhu explained that the device used an unusually large Spirit Stone compartment and a protected, compact core, suggesting its maker was a highly skilled Master Artisan with capable subordinates.
• The Centipede Daoist and Elder Zhu concluded that rebels might have infiltrated the Shaman Folk Kingdom, possibly reaching the Royal City.
• The Centipede Daoist ordered a sweeping search and commanded his people to kill anyone who refused to comply.
• A recruited subordinate of the Centipede Daoist blundered toward Broad Cloud Peak while searching for the Human-Head Centipede Li Chen had killed.

Yan Bai and the Heavenly Dragon Gate disciples searched for a missing Human-Head Centipede, using the hunt as an excuse to terrorize a mountain village and seize people. When Big Head confessed to killing the centipede, Yan Bai ordered his men to capture him and the villagers who stood with him.

• Yan Bai led cultivators and Shaman Folk soldiers east, while his men discussed using the missing Human-Head Centipede as a pretext to loot and collect human-material taxes.
• Yan Bai's party reached a mountain village that had resisted taxation and ordered the locals to gather.
• Yan Bai's Human-Head Centipedes sniffed the villagers but found no trace of the missing creature.
• Yan Bai told the villagers that the Heavenly Dragon Gate would punish them if the centipede was not found.
• Big Head confessed that he had killed the centipede, and several villagers stepped forward beside him.
• Yan Bai laughed and ordered his men to seize Big Head and the others.

Yan Bai led his Rogue Cultivators through the Shaman lands, slaughtering a village and capturing people while claiming to search for Human-Head Centipedes. Near Broad Cloud Peak, his party encountered a fleet of strange flying discs commanded by Li Chen.

• Yan Bai's Rogue Cultivators killed the Shaman Folk who resisted and loaded their bodies into Mechanism Beasts.
• Yan Bai ordered the village slaughtered, killed a Kingdom warrior who questioned him, and had the settlement burned.
• Yan Bai's party continued east, hunting Shaman Folk and abducting women while seeking Human-Head Centipedes.
• By the end of April, Yan Bai's group reached the point where the aura trail vanished near Broad Cloud Peak and considered returning home.
• A scout spotted dozens of Flying Discs under Li Chen's command, and the fleet arrived and circled overhead.

Li Chen discovered a Heavenly Dragon Gate force sweeping nearby tribes and launched a rocket attack from over a hundred li away. The strike devastated Yan Bai’s force, while Yan Bai escaped into a river as Flying Discs pursued him.

• Wushi Yan identified the approaching force as Heavenly Dragon Gate cultivators conducting a sweep against nearby tribes.
• Li Chen decided to test the force and launched a rocket guided by the hive network from a mountain east of Broad Cloud Peak.
• The rocket struck Yan Bai’s group with Thunderclap Bombs, killing many and leaving the survivors scattered and wounded.
• Yan Bai mistook the missile’s source for the Flying Discs and fled into a nearby river as they pursued him.
• The surviving subordinates abandoned their armor and followed Yan Bai into the water.

Li Chen assessed the rocket’s effectiveness against a centipede group and considered how to deploy his Puppet Legion more quickly, while recognizing that he needed to develop his Spirit Fields and prepare for a possible Heavenly Dragon Gate invasion. Yan Bai survived the blast, escaped downstream, and contacted Mountain Gate headquarters with an urgent report.

• Li Chen and Qi Maigu watched footage showing that the rocket killed many centipedes but left the Heavenly Treasure Centipede and several Human-Head Centipedes alive.
• Li Chen judged the attack cost-effective against low-ranking forces but inadequate against experts, and considered specialized transport for his Puppet Legion.
• Li Chen reflected on developing his Spirit Fields, building wealth, and preparing for a possible large-scale invasion by the Heavenly Dragon Gate.
• Yan Bai emerged from the river badly injured after escaping the explosion and swallowed medicine to treat his wounds.
• Yan Bai used a Jade Talisman Token to contact Mountain Gate headquarters, prompting a call to notify the Sect Master immediately.

Li Chen's Worker Bee Puppets uncovered the Spirit Peak Root Vein and found rich spirit stone deposits, giving him a major new source of wealth. After the Golden Sun Gate promised aid by Immortal Ship, the Auxiliary Brain detected the Centipede Daoist approaching.

• Li Chen's Worker Bee Puppets broke through a rock layer and discovered a powerful spirit spring beneath the mountain.
• Li Chen followed the underground river, confirmed the main spring eye measured about fifty thousand degrees, and identified several sites for spirit stone mining.
• Li Chen redirected Worker Bee Puppets to expand construction and begin excavating a promising mining area.
• Li Chen told his allies that the spirit mine had been located and used a Secret Talisman Seal to contact the Golden Sun Gate.
• The Golden Sun Gate replied that an Immortal Ship carrying aid would arrive around mid-month.
• The Auxiliary Brain showed a figure riding a Three-Excellence Heavenly Treasure Centipede flying toward Li Chen.