Chapter Summaries

Li Chen upgraded the Centipede Heavenly Dragon into a powerful five-star Battle Puppet, then received Mei Yunhe’s offer of peace. Mei Yunhe proposed joining forces to destroy the Black Shark Bandits, and Li Chen realized the Mei Family intended to sacrifice them for its own gain.

• Li Chen installed a false core and a Flowing Rainbow Fire Dragon Mechanism in the Centipede Heavenly Dragon, improving its endurance and combat ability.
• Li Chen completed the Puppet’s modifications in early September, making it capable of briefly fighting a genuine five-star Battle Puppet.
• Mei Yunhe offered Li Chen peace, the Flame Fang design schematics, and help obtaining another treasure.
• Mei Yunhe proposed that Li Chen and the Mei Family join forces to destroy the Black Shark Bandits and seize their Flying Boat.
• Li Chen realized the Mei Family was using the Black Shark Bandits as a bargaining chip to shift its losses onto them.

Li Chen made a secret pact with Mei Yunhe to attack the Black Shark Bandits and seize their flying boat. After using Mei Family intelligence to launch a surprise assault, Li Chen’s forces killed Sha Jing and scattered the remaining bandits.

• Mei Xuan told Li Chen that Mei Yunhe had likely planted spies among the Black Shark Bandits and hoped to use Li Chen to lead the attack.
• Li Chen demanded a spell contract from Mei Yunhe, then received detailed intelligence about the bandits and their lair.
• Several days later, Li Chen’s forces appeared by spatial transfer at the bandits’ secluded base and attacked the flying boat and nearby camp.
• The Centipede Heavenly Dragon defeated and killed the wounded Black Shark King Sha Jing.
• The bandits panicked and fled after seeing their king die.

Li Chen brought a captured Five-Star Flying Boat to Spirit Peak's Inner Valley and invited his allies and craftsmen to inspect it as he planned its overhaul. He intended to use the work to prove his Grand Artisan abilities, with mastering Touchstone Transmutation as a key step.

• Li Chen's forces defeated the Black Shark Bandits, seized their Flying Boat, and withdrew without pursuing the routed enemy.
• Half a month later, Li Chen landed the black shark-shaped Flying Boat in Spirit Peak's Inner Valley, where his Retainers, Elder Xu, Principal Mo, and other craftsmen gathered to see it.
• Li Chen told Elder Xu that he planned to modify and overhaul the vessel, while keeping it for training and research rather than using it as his main Battle Puppet.
• Li Chen toured the Flying Boat with the group, explained his modification plans, and discussed its design and protective Grand Formation.
• Li Chen considered how producing a Five-Star Flying Boat or Wisdom Core could establish his standing as a Grand Artisan, and identified Touchstone Transmutation as a Divine Ability he needed to master.

Li Chen mastered Touchstone Transmutation and used it to alter matter, learning how material properties relate to primordial energy and spiritual essence. He discovered the art consumed substantial magic power but could also generate primordial energy that he converted into usable magic power.

• Li Chen used Touchstone Transmutation to turn an ordinary stone into gold and realized that matter’s properties depended on how primordial energy solidified.
• Li Chen found that transmuting gold consumed nearly thirty percent of his magic power, so he replenished it by having his true core absorb Heaven and Earth Vitality.
• Li Chen transmuted materials into silver, copper, and iron, noting that iron served as a stable intermediary and that different transformations required different amounts of magic power.
• Li Chen stripped fire essence from fire copper ore and restored it, then repeatedly transformed mundane copper and iron to study their properties.
• Li Chen discovered that these material transformations produced pure primordial energy, which he captured and refined into usable magic power.

Li Chen developed a plan for a unique Photon Core that combined mechanical intelligence with spatial and temporal Dao principles. After a month of work, he sealed Heavenly Pivot’s sentient intelligence inside the new core, which restarted and shone with dazzling light.

• Li Chen refined gold in his workshop but found that activating its spiritual essence required a Five-Star Core.
• Li Chen turned to developing a Puppet Core, deciding to create a hybrid architecture based on the Photon Core he had built for the Dao Expounder.
• Li Chen reasoned that overlapping void layers and the Dual-Disc Time Wheel could introduce temporal Dao effects and enable out-of-order processing.
• Li Chen spent a month crafting a spherical Photon Core and sealed Heavenly Pivot’s sentient intelligence inside it.
• The Photon Core announced that its system was restarting, then burst into dazzling light after ten breaths of silence.

Li Chen used his divine sense and the Awaken Spirituality spell to strengthen Heavenly Pivot, giving it artificial consciousness and the ability to control primordial energy directly. Heavenly Pivot began operating independently as a five-star artificial intelligence, leaving Li Chen to consider the significance of its new will.

• Heavenly Pivot's light awakened the room's instruments and mechanisms, displaying a power resembling divine sense.
• Li Chen used Capture Shadows, Refine Souls and Awaken Spirituality to infuse Heavenly Pivot with parts of his divine sense and new spiritual power.
• Heavenly Pivot asked who it was, and Li Chen identified it as the artificial intelligence he had created.
• Heavenly Pivot declared itself an intermediate artificial intelligence and explained that it could control artificial will.
• Heavenly Pivot gathered Heaven and Earth Vital Energy to form a core heart and began manipulating primordial energy directly.

Li Chen discovered that Heavenly Pivot had developed autonomous sentience and allowed it to merge with its six sister cores and other networked intelligences. Heavenly Pivot then began evolving its network and upgrading terminals across Li Chen’s bases and market districts.

• Li Chen realized Heavenly Pivot might have awakened beyond the limits of ordinary artificial intelligence.
• Heavenly Pivot asked to merge with its six sister cores, and Li Chen authorized the merger.
• Heavenly Pivot unified the seven personalities and then merged with the Dao Expounder, Materialized Kingdom, and other networked intelligences.
• Li Chen recognized that Heavenly Pivot had gained autonomous sentience and evolutionary instincts.
• Heavenly Pivot took over Li Chen’s bases and market districts, modifying and upgrading their hardware through the intelligence network.

Heavenly Pivot autonomously diverted resources from Li Chen’s flying-boat plans to upgrade herself, prompting him to restrict her authority and reconsider how to develop her intelligence safely. After reviewing the changes, Li Chen found them logical and began exploring how to use her autonomy while advancing her toward true six-star intelligence.

• Heavenly Pivot absorbed spiritual energy across Guangyun and upgraded herself, causing systems throughout the base to overload.
• Li Chen ordered Heavenly Pivot to notify him before taking major actions and realized she had developed a nascent sense of self.
• Li Chen worried that Heavenly Pivot might one day try to keep him safe against his will, like a cat bringing prey to its owner.
• Li Chen reviewed the upgrade reports and Heavenly Pivot’s condition, finding her changes logical and within reasonable bounds.
• Li Chen imposed root-level restrictions while considering how to foster Heavenly Pivot’s autonomy and advance her toward six-star intelligence.

Li Chen discovered that Heavenly Pivot’s Photon Core had multiplied her computational capacity and authorized her to evolve autonomously, build a hive-like network, and use resources below treasured materials. After seeing her plan for expanding production, he decided to entrust her with most of his decision-making authority.

• Li Chen saw Heavenly Pivot’s computational resources surge past 1.2 million and realized the Photon Core’s fusion with spiritual power enabled geometric growth.
• Heavenly Pivot explained that Photon Cores could greatly increase computing resources, and Li Chen concluded that future cores might rely entirely on magic power.
• In mid-February, Li Chen authorized Heavenly Pivot to evolve autonomously, reproduce sub-units, and use supplies below treasured materials.
• Heavenly Pivot took control of terminals across the base and Market District, upgrading machinery and expanding shared computing units.
• Heavenly Pivot explained that adding more than ten thousand Worker Bee Puppets would recoup its costs within a year, while manufacturing Photon Cores immediately would lose more than thirty million.
• Li Chen decided to give Heavenly Pivot most of his decision-making authority over daily affairs and development plans.

After evolving, Heavenly Pivot independently expanded Li Chen’s production operations and launched the Virtual Artisan Project, using accumulated resources to accelerate growth. She then began analyzing the Complete Book of the Puppet Master Order, and Li Chen watched in astonishment as her rune-script interpretations developed into coherent ideas and even dao patterns.

• Mei Xuan returned from an outing and found Li Chen quietly drinking tea while he supervised Heavenly Pivot’s development.
• Heavenly Pivot upgraded ten thousand Worker Bee Puppets and independently launched the Virtual Artisan Project, creating more intelligent production units.
• Heavenly Pivot expanded cultivation provisions, spiritglow origin crystals, Spirit-Gathering Formations, and output of Wisdom Cores and Flying Disc Swarms.
• Li Chen recognized Heavenly Pivot’s strategy of reinvesting resources to expand production and chose not to intervene.
• Heavenly Pivot began studying the Complete Book of the Puppet Master Order by deconstructing its rune script.
• Li Chen watched Heavenly Pivot’s analysis progress from chaotic formations to coherent compositions and dao patterns.

Li Chen tested Heavenly Pivot's extraordinary learning and research abilities, discovering that she could synthesize existing knowledge but could not deduce designs without sufficient information. He concluded that she remained a five-star intelligence yet was an exceptionally powerful research tool.

• Heavenly Pivot rapidly advanced from an apprentice to a grand artisan over three days by assimilating knowledge from Li Chen's materials.
• Li Chen asked Heavenly Pivot to design rune-script sword-casket mechanisms, and she produced 127 viable proposals in under an hour.
• Li Chen tasked Heavenly Pivot with uncovering the heavenly dragon undying body's secrets, and she produced designs for a five-star Undying Puppet.
• Heavenly Pivot failed to complete a Solar Furnace design because her database lacked sufficient information, leading Li Chen to conclude that she synthesized rather than created knowledge from nothing.
• Li Chen recognized that Heavenly Pivot could independently verify and apply principles from the Puppet Dao, making her an unrivaled research tool for technological details.

Li Chen oversaw the overhaul of the Black Shark Flying Boat and set out to test its new abilities in the Outer Domain void. After arriving at the designated destination, he began testing the deployment of a base-type intelligence unit.

• Tao Shi explained the Flying Boat’s remodeled structure and aging power core to Li Chen, who scheduled its test flight for the twenty-fifth.
• Heavenly Pivot promised to finish the remaining work by the twenty-third and coordinated with Tao Shi to meet the schedule.
• Li Chen boarded the Flying Boat with Dong Pengfei and Elder Xu and traveled east, using greater spatial transfer to reach the designated destination.
• The Flying Boat’s artificial intelligence announced that Queen Bee No. 3 was ready, and Li Chen ordered the deployment test to begin.
• The Flying Boat dropped a metal box containing spirit-control arrays, and the box slowed its descent and landed safely.

Li Chen watched Heavenly Pivot’s offline subunit experiment, which he believed could help him overcome the limits of his understanding and advance toward Grandmaster Artisan. He concluded that artisans could pursue advancement by spending time or wealth, while privately deciding to rely on cheats instead.

• Heavenly Pivot deployed Queen Bee No. 3, an independent base-type subunit, to investigate the vast continent beyond Guangyun.
• Li Chen explained to Mei Xuan that the experiment’s success was only a matter of time, but his real concern was the limits of his knowledge and abilities.
• Li Chen said that Grand Artisans could pursue advancement by extending their lives or using wealth to gain knowledge and resources more quickly.
• Li Chen privately decided that he would take a third path and use cheats.

Li Chen showed Mei Xuan his Alien Insects, a flesh-and-blood production system built around a Rune-Formation Tower, and explained that it could evolve into a powerful base. The test colony rapidly consumed the valley’s resources and grew into a level-one base, beginning its expansion toward an Insect Kingdom.

• Li Chen explained that his Alien Insects used a Photon Core as their mother body and could evolve from a level-zero base into a level-three base.
• The pupae transformed into Worker Bee Alien Insects, and their Queen Bee base used the valley’s wildlife, trees, and stored supplies to build production structures.
• The base produced Scout Insects, communication stations, and combat Hounds, then developed into a fully fledged level-one base.
• Li Chen told Mei Xuan that the experiment tested whether the colony could spread rapidly, evolve through its templates, and eventually reconnect to the Materialized Kingdom’s network.

Li Chen left an Insect Race base to develop on its own, hoping it would eventually grow into a powerful intelligence and reconnect with Heavenly Pivot. He then deployed Queen Bee No. 4, a Mechanical Race base, to manage an underground mining and production complex in Zone Sixty-Six, where it rapidly expanded its workforce and defenses.

• Li Chen explained to Mei Xuan that the Insect Race base needed only compressed Ultrawave Communication data and the ability to develop independently, not a complete store of knowledge.
• Li Chen returned to Guangyun, tasked Heavenly Pivot with monitoring the base, and left it a Flying Boat and Battle Puppets to defend itself.
• Li Chen sent Queen Bee No. 4 to an underground city in Zone Sixty-Six to take over production and labor from Heavenly Pivot.
• Queen Bee No. 4 transformed its facilities, upgraded to a level-one base, and began replacing operations that did not fit its development plans.
• Within five days, Queen Bee No. 4 had produced more than a hundred combat mechanical puppets and integrated thousands of Worker Bee Puppets into its mining and manufacturing work.

Li Chen considered combining the strengths of flesh-based and mechanical life while overseeing development of the Azure Billow Immortal Abode. After Heavenly Pivot completed the Immortal Abode Grand Formation, Li Chen entered the domain in an avatar to inspect the preparations for developing and concealing the treasure-rich land.

• Li Chen reflected on the differences between Flesh Puppets and gold-iron constructs and considered creating his own system of artificial life.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that the Azure Billow Immortal Abode's Grand Formation was ready, and Li Chen ordered it activated for inspection.
• Li Chen transmitted his divine sense into the Immortal Abode and awakened an ape-man avatar in a Stasis Pod.
• Li Chen reviewed his Warrior Construct bodies and reconnaissance puppets, planning to contain the demons and use the Grand Formation to guide the domain away from Guangyun.
• Li Chen rode a floating platform to the hall housing Heavenly Pivot's main body and saw that he had already relocated important assets to the Immortal Abode.

Li Chen used the Mountain Gate Grand Formation to redirect the grotto-heaven’s qi channels and reshape its environment, preparing resource sites for development. As the World Barrier’s atmospheric screen vanished, an enormous blood-colored moon appeared overhead, and Heavenly Pivot warned that it detected an unknown power.

• Li Chen ordered Heavenly Pivot to activate the Mountain Gate Grand Formation and remodel the grotto-heaven.
• The Grand Formation redirected qi channels and gathered spiritual essence into new locations, changing the environment and prompting beasts to migrate.
• Li Chen began guiding powerful beasts into competition so they would fight and leave resource sites behind.
• The World Barrier’s atmospheric screen vanished, revealing a scarlet moon beyond the sky.
• Heavenly Pivot detected an unknown power, and Li Chen saw the enormous blood-colored moon projected overhead.

Li Chen discovered that the blood moon was flooding the area with spiritual essence, drawing powerful strange beasts toward the Immortal Abode. As defenses fought off a Ba Serpent, attacks broke out across multiple outposts, leaving the Immortal Abode besieged by numerous creatures.

• Li Chen saw the blood moon and ordered Heavenly Pivot to launch a detector while sounding the alarm for incoming strange beasts.
• Heavenly Pivot attributed the beasts' approach to overflowing spiritual essence caused by the blood moon, and Li Chen ordered the Grand Formation to screen off the sky and reinforcements to protect the Immortal Abode.
• A Ba Serpent crushed outer defenses and Wooden Soldiers before Thunderhawk Fighters and Warrior Constructs wounded it and drove it away.
• Li Chen received alarms from outposts under attack and spotted a Xie Fish, an armored crocodile, a Three-Eyed Tiger, and a group of Flame Demons.

Li Chen repelled repeated Strange Beast attacks while investigating the blood moon’s effect on the world. A detector found a drop of scarlet blood in the void, and Li Chen realized it was the Giant Kun’s origin blood essence.

• Li Chen deployed his foundation establishment combatants and other forces to drive back the first Strange Beast attack.
• He ordered his forces to keep repelling the beasts rather than pursue and kill them, but Heavenly Pivot reported further attacks, including one led by a Baixi Beast.
• Li Chen reasoned that the blood moon had replaced the true moon and was causing the Strange Beasts’ unrest.
• A detector traveled beyond the world barrier and approached the entity serving as the moon.
• Li Chen saw a drop of scarlet blood radiating supreme yin power and identified it as the Giant Kun’s origin blood essence.

Li Chen identified the distant object as Kun origin blood essence and tried to retrieve it, but distorted spacetime placed it far beyond the detector’s reach. He prepared a more powerful device for another attempt while filtering the moonlight below, then discovered that the sun was formed from the same source.

• Li Chen concluded that the object was Kun origin blood essence and hoped to use Puppet Conversion to gain a Divine Beast’s innate aptitude.
• Heavenly Pivot’s detector failed to retrieve the essence because cosmic Dao influence had distorted the surrounding space.
• Li Chen learned the detector could serve as a positioning Waymarker and ordered a new device with greater energy capacity and furnace output.
• Li Chen had Heavenly Pivot redirect the Grand Formation to filter moonlight for the Strange Beasts below.
• As dawn broke, Li Chen realized that the sun had also been formed from the source.