Chapter Summaries

Li Chen monitored the Centipede Daoist while preparing to finish him with a single decisive strike, but held back from launching his only Blazing Sun Divine Thunder without a clear opportunity. His surveillance network then detected a huge force of flying Heavenly Treasure Centipedes heading for the hidden Four-Star Mecha.

• Li Chen used the Seven Great Intelligences and a network of hidden Mechanism Devices to track the Centipede Daoist, whose aura had remained in one area for more than three hours.
• Li Chen rejected a long-range Missile attack after Heavenly Authority calculated that its chance of success was below thirty percent.
• Li Chen decided to wait for a safer chance to use his single Blazing Sun Divine Thunder and explained that Qi Maigu would need rest and more materials before making another.
• The Detection Mechanism Devices reported more than a hundred Peak Qi Refining auras shaped like Heavenly Treasure Centipedes.
• Li Chen sent Flying Discs to investigate and saw a gigantic airborne monster made of human-bodied centipede segments charging toward the hidden Four-Star Mecha.

Li Chen identified Centipede Daoist’s grotesque Corpse-Gathering Abomination form and tested its defenses, but the monster destroyed the probes and routed his Warrior Constructs. The Great Wilderness Giant confronted Centipede Daoist, who realized Li Chen was not present.

• Li Chen located Centipede Daoist within his mass of connected Corpse Puppets and ordered Thunderhawk Fighters to attack.
• Centipede Daoist destroyed the fighters’ missiles and damaged one craft with a Bloodlight Void-Piercing Sword attack, prompting Li Chen to recall the fighters.
• Centipede Daoist destroyed many Detection Mechanism Devices, leaving Heavenly Pivot to switch to simulation mode.
• Centipede Daoist descended on the gathered Warrior Constructs and devastated them as they tried to stop him.
• The Great Wilderness Giant appeared before Centipede Daoist, who recognized that Li Chen was not there.

Li Chen taunted the Centipede Daoist over their communication link, but the Daoist unleashed a devastating storm of attacks powered by his primordial energy void. After battering the great wilderness giant, he flew toward Broad Cloud Ward to threaten Li Chen’s Market District.

• Li Chen told the Centipede Daoist that his defeat had left him with no future and that Li Chen no longer needed to face him personally.
• The Centipede Daoist drew in vast amounts of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy, creating a primordial energy void as he prepared to fight.
• The Centipede Daoist unleashed attacks from more than a hundred Heavenly Treasure Centipede bodies, destroying the unfinished base and killing Chang Clan Soldiers.
• The Centipede Daoist’s storm battered the great wilderness giant, forcing Li Chen to make it retreat into the sky.
• The Centipede Daoist abandoned the great wilderness giant and flew toward Broad Cloud Ward, threatening to destroy Li Chen’s Market District.

Li Chen lured Centipede Daoist into capturing a false Mei Xuan, then unleashed the long-prepared Blazing Sun Divine Thunder against him. The blast melted the ancient snow and ice on Broad Cloud Peak, while Centipede Daoist faced its full force.

• Centipede Daoist targeted Broad Cloud Ward, and Li Chen sent his Mecha and Puppets to intercept him.
• Centipede Daoist reached the estate, captured the Sixth Incarnation, and fled as the Merchants' Association's forces arrived.
• The Sixth Incarnation melted away in Centipede Daoist's grasp, and Li Chen and the Merchants' Association attacked him in fury.
• Li Chen unleashed the Blazing Sun Divine Thunder, engulfing Centipede Daoist in a searing explosion.
• The blast melted the ten-thousand-year snow and ice on Broad Cloud Peak, sending floods of water down its slopes.

Li Chen used Blazing Sun Divine Thunder to destroy the Centipede Daoist, and its Solar Divine Light melted Broad Cloud Peak’s snow, fulfilling the Shaman Folk’s prophecy. After Helm Master Lin accused him of acting suspiciously, Li Chen angrily left, while Mo Hong argued that Li Chen had helped salvage the situation.

• Li Chen watched the Blazing Sun Divine Thunder’s blast consume the Centipede Daoist and melt the snow on Broad Cloud Peak.
• The Shaman Folk prayed at the melted Sacred Mountain and called Li Chen a Sacred Emissary, while Li Chen reflected on the unforeseen consequences of the blast.
• Helm Master Lin and the others found the Centipede Daoist’s aura gone and questioned why Li Chen had used the thunder only after Miss Mei was killed.
• Li Chen denied planning the events, blamed Helm Master Lin for failing to protect Miss Mei, and left in anger.
• Mo Hong told Helm Master Lin that Li Chen had acted decisively and that the group should report what happened as it occurred.

Li Chen revealed how he had used Mei Xuan’s identity to deceive her family and secure supplies while keeping her real body hidden in the Cube. He told her she could never return and offered her a new identity in his “Materialized Kingdom,” leaving her to ask what it was.

• Li Chen explained that he had concealed Mei Xuan’s real body and used a clay body and her identity to turn the situation against the Centipede Daoist.
• Li Chen showed Mei Xuan the messages he had sent to her relatives and friends, requesting money and materials in her name.
• Mei Xuan attacked Li Chen, but he forcibly stopped her and made her sit down.
• Li Chen told Mei Xuan that she was effectively dead to her old life and offered either a new identity or a quick death.
• Mei Xuan asked Li Chen what the Materialized Kingdom was.

Li Chen explained his vision of the Nation of Transformation, a realm built through virtual reality and the Creation-Promotion Secret Art where people would share understanding, resources, and eternal life. Mei Xuan rejected the idea and secretly feared being assimilated, while Li Chen read her thoughts and resolved to continue developing the methods needed for great unity.

• Li Chen described the transformation of things through ancient cosmology and Zhuang Zhou’s butterfly dream.
• Li Chen explained that he planned to combine virtual reality with the Creation-Promotion Secret Art to create a unified, prosperous realm for himself and his followers.
• Mei Xuan questioned the purpose of the realm and argued that conflict and individual freedom made Li Chen’s vision impossible.
• Li Chen said he would begin by transforming himself and his followers, eventually spreading his Dao across the cosmos.
• Mei Xuan secretly decided to pretend to agree so she would not be assimilated, but Li Chen detected her thoughts through the Mind-Reading Art.
• Li Chen acknowledged that mind-reading alone could not achieve true mutual understanding and told Mei Xuan she would understand in time.

Li Chen planned to enlist the Golden Sun Gate and the Yu Household as protection against the Mei Family's response to Mei Xuan's death. In Broad Cloud Ward, Lin Qinghe learned headquarters would investigate and warned that the Everflow Merchants' Association might be left carrying the blame.

• Li Chen assessed the Mei Family's potential threat and decided to send letters to the Golden Sun Gate and the Yu Household for support.
• Lin Qinghe reported that the Everflow Merchants' Association headquarters understood the situation and would send someone to investigate.
• Lin Qinghe explained that Mei Xuan's death, the Association's earlier losses, and her agreement with Li Chen could all bring serious consequences for the branch.
• Lin Qinghe said the Association could not shift the blame onto Li Chen because of his backing, leaving the Heavenly Dragon Gate and the Shaman King as possible targets.

Li Chen reflected on whether reconstructing Jingang’s personality could count as resurrection, then decided to release his captive Wushi Yan. Wushi Yan was freed, though his reaction remained uncertain.

• Li Chen toured Base No. 1 with Jiang Xuan and visited the factory where Jingang’s body was being studied and rebuilt.
• Li Chen debated with Jiang Xuan whether a perfect virtual reconstruction of the dead could be considered resurrection.
• Li Chen returned to the Magic Cube Maze and told Wushi Yan that he was free.
• Wushi Yan stared at Li Chen in bewilderment and suspicion after hearing the news.

Li Chen showed Wushi Yan how he had saved and relocated the Shaman Folk, then explained his plan to educate them while recording their lives so their souls could be reborn as heroic spirits after death. Wushi Yan confronted Li Chen’s immense ambition, and Li Chen invited him to lead the people under a new identity.

• Li Chen told Wushi Yan that he wanted him to return to the Shaman Folk and lead them, and Wushi Yan suspected Li Chen meant to use him against the evil fiends.
• Li Chen brought Wushi Yan to the Nest Chamber, where recordings showed how Li Chen had impersonated him, relocated the Shaman Folk, and defeated the Heavenly Dragon Gate and Centipede Daoist.
• Li Chen showed Wushi Yan the Shaman Folk working, studying, training, and enjoying their lives in the Market District.
• Li Chen explained that he wanted to educate the Shaman Folk and record their experiences and thoughts with chips, then copy their souls after death to create heroic spirits.
• Wushi Yan wondered whether Li Chen was a god or demon, and Li Chen told him he could lead the Shaman Folk again under a different identity.

Wushi Yan returned from death and spread Li Chen’s new faith among the Shaman Folk, who came to believe that warriors could become heroic spirits. The chapter ended with the Crescent Moon arriving at Broad Cloud Ward with members of the Mei Family and an Everflow Merchants' Association envoy.

• Wushi Yan appeared in Broad Cloud Ward, convinced Shan and the Shaman Folk elders that he had returned from death, and told them the Ancestral Spirit could grant them life as heroic spirits.
• Li Chen shaped a new faith around a materialized heavenly kingdom, presenting Great Shamans and fallen warriors as those favored to become heroic spirits.
• Li Chen created warrior constructs modeled on deceased Shaman Folk, gave them virtual personalities and memories, and briefly reunited them with their surviving friends and relatives.
• The Crescent Moon arrived at the Market District carrying the Mei Family’s delegation and a special envoy from the Everflow Merchants' Association.
• Li Chen welcomed the arrivals as a young nobleman, a scarred swordsman, a sorrowful noblewoman, and the association’s envoy emerged from the flying boat.

Li Chen received Mei Xuan’s family at her ruined residence, where Madam Lin and Mei Tang blamed him for her death and clashed with him. Lin Hongting later revealed that the Everflow Merchants' Association intended to renegotiate the agreement over the Heavenly Dragon Gate’s properties.

• Madam Lin arrived with Lin Hongting and Mei Tang, and Li Chen escorted them to Mei Xuan’s former residence.
• Madam Lin accused Li Chen of failing to protect Mei Xuan, and he rejected her accusations.
• Mei Tang ordered Leader Gu to attack Li Chen, but the Puppet Sisters blocked the strike.
• Lin Hongting calmed the confrontation, and Madam Lin left while he stayed to handle the handover.
• Lin Hongting said the association’s headquarters planned to renegotiate the agreement over the Heavenly Dragon Gate’s properties.

Li Chen negotiated a new agreement that secured Heavenly Dragon Peak as his personal property while granting the Everflow Merchants' Association commercial interests in exchange for ending its access to local resources and Shaman Folk. Lin Hongting hinted that the association’s leadership wanted closer ties with Li Chen, while Madam Lin continued to grieve Mei Xuan and suspect something strange about her death.

• Li Chen rejected Lin Hongting’s demand to renegotiate the supposed earlier agreement, arguing the Everflow Merchants' Association had no leverage over him.
• Li Chen and Lin Hongting negotiated terms that barred trade in abducted Shaman Folk and living weapons, while granting the association commercial rights and a role in establishing Heavenly Dragon Ward.
• Li Chen’s allies joined the negotiations, and the parties agreed on commercial shares, with the Dong Household backing Li Chen and the Golden Sun Gate receiving a small share.
• The agreement made Heavenly Dragon Peak Li Chen’s personal property, independent of any other power.
• Lin Hongting hinted that the Everflow Merchants' Association’s senior leadership wanted closer ties with Li Chen and announced that Lin Qinghe, Steward Mo, and others would remain behind.
• Madam Lin sobbed aboard the Flying Boat over Mei Xuan’s death and said she suspected something was wrong but could no longer investigate.

Li Chen visited Heavenly Dragon Peak to inspect his new territory and consider extending his spirit wave network across it. After reviewing the site and its former Heavenly Dragon Gate elders, he accepted their records and offered Yuan Keshan and Duan Yong positions as his Attendants.

• Li Chen concluded that Elder Mei's faction and the Shaman King should be treated as threats, while the other Merchants' Association elders might be allies.
• Lin Hongting and the others departed Guangyun aboard a Flying Boat, and Li Chen chose to inspect Heavenly Dragon Peak before launching a campaign.
• On October fifth, Li Chen arrived at Heavenly Dragon Peak in a Silver Pearl with two Human Puppets and was welcomed by Old Hong and the stewards.
• Li Chen toured the mountain halls and reflected on Yuan Keshan and Duan Yong's diminished status after surrendering.
• Yuan Keshan and Duan Yong gave Li Chen detailed Heavenly Dragon Gate texts and Human-Head Centipede refinement records, and he offered to employ them as Attendants.

Li Chen studied the Heavenly Dragon Gate’s incomplete Essential Arts of Immortal Zhi and planned to have specialists analyze it rather than follow the Centipede Daoist’s path. He discovered the Shaman King controlled the mother queen behind the region’s Human-Head Centipedes and decided to eliminate him quickly.

• Li Chen told the surrendered Heavenly Dragon Gate disciples that he would investigate their actions and decide their dispositions individually.
• Li Chen examined the Essential Arts of Immortal Zhi, recognized its original purpose as a body-cultivation art, and assessed the Centipede Daoist’s adaptations.
• Li Chen ordered the Auxiliary Brain to record and compare the scripture with biological knowledge in the Complete Book of the Puppet Master Order.
• Li Chen planned to assign former Heavenly Dragon Gate and Golden Sun Gate disciples to research the art and develop new Master Artisans under his command.
• Li Chen learned that the Shaman King controlled the Centipede Heavenly Dragon that served as the mother queen of the region’s Human-Head Centipedes and Heavenly Treasure Centipedes.
• Li Chen decided to kill the Shaman King as soon as possible while uprisings spread through his kingdom.

Wizard Ze’s rebel army attacked Sufang City but was overwhelmed by the Shaman King’s elite forces and demon centipede until two allies from Broad Cloud Ward arrived in armored craft. Far away, Li Chen watched two rogue cultivators remotely linked to the battlefield, leaving their intervention poised to turn the fight.

• Wizard Ze led the rebel army’s assault on Sufang City, where the Kingdom’s defenders fought fiercely for the Shaman King.
• The Shaman King appeared with a demon centipede and two empowered warriors, who drove back Wizard Ze and his allies as the centipede’s poison devastated the rebels.
• Wizard Ze reflected on the Shaman Folk’s division under Centipede Daoist and resolved to keep fighting the Shaman King despite the deaths ahead.
• Two silvery-white spheres crashed into the city, and armored figures bearing Broad Cloud Ward’s Winged Dragon emblems emerged.
• More than a thousand li away, Li Chen watched two rogue cultivators whose consciousnesses were linked to the battlefield.

Li Chen assessed the Human Puppets’ combat performance while their operators fought the Demon Centipede and Shaman King, then ordered a rocket strike to aid the rebel army. The six Falling Stars shattered the enemy formation and opened the city for the rebels to breach.

• Two Rogue Cultivators sent their Human Puppets to fight the Demon Centipede and Shaman King.
• Li Chen evaluated the puppets’ performance and considered how trained operators and intelligence systems could wield power beyond their own cultivation.
• Old Hong and the others watched anxiously as the Spellcaster Human Puppet struggled against the Shaman King.
• Li Chen ordered Heavenly Pivot to launch six Falling Stars at the enemy positions.
• The rockets devastated the enemy formation, and the rebels poured through breaches in the city wall.

Li Chen’s forces overwhelmed the Shaman King’s army and discovered the hidden underground palace where the Centipede Heavenly Dragon was kept. As Li Chen’s fighters confronted the creature, the Shaman King leaped into its mouth, leaving the battle’s outcome uncertain.

• Li Chen sent soldiers and Warrior Constructs into the palace to search for the Shaman King’s treasures and the rumored Centipede Heavenly Dragon.
• Li Chen’s human puppets and Wizard Ze drove the Shaman King back, and he fled into a secret passage beneath a side hall.
• Li Chen’s forces broke into the underground palace and found the Centipede Heavenly Dragon surrounded by swarming demon centipedes.
• The Shaman King declared that he would make his enemies pay and leaped into the Centipede Heavenly Dragon’s mouth before Wizard Ze could stop him.

After the Shaman King sacrificed himself to the Centipede Heavenly Dragon, the monster devoured his flesh and blood, grew more dangerous, and escaped into the caves while Li Chen’s group fought off its swarm. Li Chen withdrew his people and prepared to send puppets underground, then recognized that the limestone caves resembled terrain near the Spirit Vein Spring Eye.

• The Shaman King let the Centipede Heavenly Dragon swallow him, and his blood energy strengthened the monster and nearby centipedes.
• Wizard Ze and Li Chen’s Controllers attacked the Centipede Heavenly Dragon, but their strikes failed to break its armor as the smaller centipedes swarmed them.
• The Centipede Heavenly Dragon burrowed into a deep tunnel to evolve, and a Sword Cultivator Human Puppet pursued it through the swarm but lost its trail in the branching caves.
• Li Chen reasoned that the monster would eventually need to hunt and ordered his people to withdraw while he sent puppets in its place.
• Li Chen noticed that the limestone cave resembled the terrain near the Spirit Vein Spring Eye.

Li Chen discovered that the Shaman King's Palace concealed a third spirit peak blessed land near Heavenly Dragon Peak. Fearing that knowledge of it would bring disaster, he destroyed the records and decided the region could have only two such lands until he became a Grand Artisan.

• Li Chen ordered Heavenly Pivot to preserve recordings and send Warrior Constructs to guard the suspected site beneath the Royal Palace.
• Li Chen received a Sealed Box found in the Shaman King's bedchamber and unlocked it to reveal a map and records of the Underground Palace.
• After studying the Shaman King's records, Li Chen learned that the palace stood atop a hidden blessed land discovered more than forty years earlier.
• Li Chen learned that the Shaman King had buried the palace's builders to conceal the spirit vein and had used it to raise the Centipede Heavenly Dragon.
• Li Chen destroyed the records and declared that the Guangyun region could have only two spirit peak blessed lands until he became a Grand Artisan.