Chapter Summaries

Li Chen inspected his underground fortress and watched the first mass-produced Kun Blood Warriors emerge from trial production. He established the Kun Blood Warrior First Army and set its planned strength at three hundred ordinary warriors and ten leaders.

• Li Chen visited the heavily fortified underground stronghold he had built beneath the Azure Billow Immortal Abode.
• Heavenly Pivot showed Li Chen the trial production line, where kun blood and other ingredients were used to grow Kun Blood Warriors in nutrient chambers.
• A hundred ten-foot-tall Kun Blood Warriors with pseudo-Foundation Establishment cultivation emerged, confirming that the production method was ready for mass production.
• Li Chen established the Kun Blood Warrior First Army and planned a force of three hundred Two-and-a-Half-Star warriors and ten Three-and-a-Half-Star leaders.

Li Chen completed the Kun Blood Warrior First Legion by giving its warriors virtual personalities, arming them, and creating three stronger commanders. He tested the legion against demon lairs in the Azure Billow Immortal Abode, leaving him ready to begin clearing its occupied lands and resources.

• Li Chen gathered funds and materials, then ordered his workshops to produce equipment for more than three hundred Kun Blood Warriors and their leaders.
• Li Chen used heroic spirits and Shaman Folk warriors’ traits to create virtual personalities that made the Kun Blood Warriors loyal, brave, and experienced guards.
• Li Chen created three advanced Kun Blood Warrior Commanders, gave them four-star intelligence, and equipped them to lead the First Legion.
• Li Chen took the legion into the mountain valleys and riverlands, where it swept through several demon lairs with few difficulties.
• Li Chen recognized that the powerful legion could finally drive demons and nature spirits from the Azure Billow Immortal Abode’s blessed lands and resource sites.

Li Chen used the captured Stone Octopus King to advance his research into biological modification, creating a powerful, obedient puppet through his Five-Star Puppet Conversion Technique. He ordered Heavenly Pivot to monitor it and return it to its original habitat if it proved stable.

• The Kun Blood Warrior legion overwhelmed and captured the Stone Octopus King with cannons, missiles, and a coordinated assault.
• Li Chen explained that he needed biological modification techniques applicable beyond Kun blood to demonstrate true mastery for the Grand Artisan assessment.
• Li Chen modified the Stone Octopus King with flesh-and-blood procedures, limb transplantation, brain-body replacement, gene editing, and Kun blood.
• The transformed Stone Octopus King gained the might of a great monster and obeyed Li Chen after he commanded it to stop destroying the laboratory.
• Li Chen told Heavenly Pivot to keep the Stone Octopus King in a pool behind the mountain, monitor it, and release it into its original habitat if it remained stable.

Li Chen completed the Five-Star Modification Art and used Myriad Realms Talismans to connect with Core Formation cultivators preparing for the Grand Artisan assessment. He joined them in the Myriad Realms Marketplace and began discussing how they could exchange insights through a dedicated contact group.

• Li Chen combined his modification methods into a progression from Qi Refining to Core Formation and told Qi Maigu that he had mastered the Five-Star Modification Art.
• Qi Maigu asked Li Chen for Myriad Realms Talismans to share with fellow cultivators preparing for the Grand Artisan assessment, and Li Chen agreed.
• Li Chen sent Talisman Tokens to cultivators from the Three Mountains and Six Sects, most of whom were Core Formation experts preparing for the Creation Sect's Puppet Master assessment.
• Li Chen joined Qi Maigu and the other cultivators in the Myriad Realms Marketplace, where they welcomed him and agreed to address one another as fellow Daoists.
• Li Chen discussed matters with the group and considered establishing a contact group for exchanging insights and discussing the Dao.

Li Chen founded the Myriad Heavens Alliance, or Heavenly Forum, after discussing the risks of virtual communication and the charm Dao with Yin Xiuning. He left the platform’s expansion on hold until he earned his Grand Artisan qualification, while another Puppet Master offered help with maintaining the Communication Network.

• Yin Xiuning explained how the charm Dao could affect minds, and Li Chen listened because its techniques could improve virtual personalities and virtual reality.
• Yin Xiuning warned that the Myriad Realms Marketplace could secretly monitor and manipulate users, so Li Chen promised to make its foundational rune formations open source for supervision.
• Li Chen created the Myriad Heavens Alliance, also called the Heavenly Forum, and asked Qi Maigu and others to help maintain it.
• Li Chen rejected expanding the platform to other Core Formation experts and underworld Grand Artisans in the Vast Sea Domain until he earned his Grand Artisan qualification, citing the cost of Ultrawave Communication.
• A Puppet Master focused on the spirit planting Dao volunteered to give Li Chen new technology to help maintain the Communication Network.

Li Chen learned from Grand Artisan Wen Xun that the rapidly multiplying divine bean seed could provide energy and serve as large-scale computing hardware. After accepting Wen Xun’s cultivation and modification techniques, Li Chen asked Heavenly Pivot to study it and discovered it could also enrich soil and water.

• Li Chen visited Wen Xun’s private space in the Materialized Kingdom and agreed to help create a Spirit Plant research simulation.
• Wen Xun gave Li Chen a divine bean seed and explained its rapid growth, many uses, and potential as Wisdom Core hardware.
• Li Chen examined Wen Xun’s information and concluded the divine bean seed could store energy and perform computations across a vast network.
• Wen Xun transferred his cultivation and modification techniques to Li Chen.
• Li Chen sent the information to Heavenly Pivot, whose findings showed that the divine bean seed could gather dispersed Spiritual Energy and improve soil and water over time.

Li Chen developed the Azure Billow Immortal Abode and upgraded Heavenly Pivot, which advanced to six-star and awakened a true will. Heavenly Pivot neared the artifact-spirit threshold, while Li Chen turned his attention to its next advancement.

• Li Chen worked on new flesh-and-machine bodies for Xiao Die and Xiao Ying, aiming to give them Core Formation-level strength and abilities.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that more than a million mu of divine bean fields had been planted and could expand rapidly, though the crops would consume Guangyun’s spiritual essence.
• Li Chen agreed to convert Guangyun into a planting base and promised to prioritize resources for Heavenly Pivot’s upgrades.
• Li Chen used computational capacity from the divine bean seeds to help Heavenly Pivot complete its self-modifications in two months.
• Heavenly Pivot advanced to six-star, awakening a true will and approaching the artifact-spirit threshold.

Li Chen discovered that Heavenly Pivot’s computational capacity had surged and used Divine Bean Seeds to build a vast spiritual plant network that greatly expanded her resources. He ordered Heavenly Pivot to use the network to extend the Materialized Kingdom across Guangyun, leaving the domain poised to become an illusory landscape overlapping reality.

• Heavenly Pivot told Li Chen that her computational capacity had reached three million units, and she independently built a realistic virtual scene from his instructions.
• Li Chen began upgrading Heavenly Pivot’s terminals and expanded the Divine Bean Seed fields to more than a million mu.
• Heavenly Pivot fused her computing capacity with the Divine Bean Seeds, turning hundreds of millions of plants into a spiritual network that supplied thirteen million five hundred thousand units of computational resources.
• Li Chen instructed Heavenly Pivot to use the new resources to manifest the Materialized Kingdom across Guangyun and support the Myriad Realms Marketplace.

Li Chen oversaw the rapid planting of Divine Bean Seeds across Broad Cloud Peak and received a signal from Queen Bee No. 3. He connected to her newly developed Flesh Hall and confirmed that her insect base had advanced to level three.

• Li Chen's unmanned aircraft and constructs planted Divine Bean Seeds across millions of mu, supplying food and computational capacity.
• Li Chen considered using the Void Insect Race and Mechanical Race to create large puppet legions.
• The Auxiliary Brain detected a signal from Queen Bee No. 3's First Mutant Insect Legion, and Li Chen connected to it.
• Li Chen saw a giant Flesh Hall grown with kun blood and identified it as Queen Bee No. 3's new Insect Hive.
• Li Chen confirmed that Queen Bee No. 3 had reached level three base status and connected the Flesh Hall to the Materialized Kingdom's network.

Li Chen examined Queen Bee No. 3’s evolved Alien Insect legion and found it capable of overwhelming local powers through rapid mass production. He also discovered that its expansion had smothered life across thousands of li, leaving the Outer Domain Continent scarred by an enormous, malignant colony.

• Li Chen ordered Queen Bee No. 3 to open its database so Heavenly Pivot could review its units and structures and transfer the files to the Auxiliary Brain.
• Li Chen reviewed the Alien Insects’ combat forms, from Hunting Insects and Exploding Insects to Blazing Katydids and Giant Demon Insects, along with their production and communication structures.
• Li Chen estimated that the legion could defeat a local power or small lineage and rapidly multiply into millions by consuming the region’s spiritual essence and primordial energy.
• Li Chen discovered that the Mycelial Carpet covered almost all terrain within several thousand li and that no other species remained there.

Li Chen discovered that the Insect Race’s expansion was destroying its surroundings and learned that the Sea Folk had come to attack it. As the Sea Folk’s scouts approached Queen Bee No. 3’s territory, Li Chen decided to contact them.

• Li Chen used the Insect Race’s neural network to survey the region and spotted more than a thousand Sea Folk marching toward the Insect Race’s wooded territory.
• The Sea Folk set up camp and sent over a hundred elite scouts into the forest, while Queen Bee No. 3 dispatched mayflies to investigate.
• Li Chen accessed Queen Bee No. 3’s memories and learned the Sea Folk had been fighting the Insect Race since their warriors first mistook it for monsters more than a year earlier.
• Li Chen sent a message telling the Sea Folk to stop, and their Sharkman leader cried out in alarm as he asked who was speaking.

Li Chen confronted the Sea Folk commander Sha Tan and warned him to keep the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom away from the territory Li Chen had claimed on the Inkstone Continent. When the Sea Folk entered Insect Race territory, Queen Bee No. 3's forces overwhelmed their vanguard, leaving Sha Tan fighting alone with a halberd that Li Chen recognized as familiar.

• Li Chen told Sha Tan that the Sea Folk must leave the thirty thousand li around his territory and warned their King of Yan Pond Sea not to provoke him.
• Sha Tan concealed his conversation with Li Chen and ordered his troops to find and kill the Insect Race.
• Queen Bee No. 3 sent Hunting Insects to attack while nearby hives drew nutrients from the Mycelial Carpet and rapidly produced more insects.
• The Insect Race surrounded the Sea Folk vanguard and routed it with Enhanced Hunting Insects and waves of hastily produced fighters.
• Sha Tan held off more than a hundred Hunting Insects with his halberd, and Li Chen wondered why the weapon looked familiar.

Li Chen recognized Sha Tan’s Battle Halberd and armor as equipment from the Blue Sea Water Realm’s Sea Emperor’s army, suggesting a possible link to the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom. He ordered Queen Bee No. 3 to capture Sha Tan for the information he might hold, but the battle ended with Sha Tan killed by the insect swarm.

• Li Chen directed Mayfly Insects and his divine sense toward Sha Tan to examine his Battle Halberd more closely.
• Sha Tan used his Battle Halberd and water-essence armor to hold back the Hunting Insects while becoming increasingly exhausted.
• Li Chen identified Sha Tan’s gear as standard equipment from the Sea Emperor’s army and suspected the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom had ties to the Blue Sea Water Realm.
• Li Chen ordered Queen Bee No. 3 to capture Sha Tan at any cost, and she sent three Blazing Katydids into battle.
• After a little over two hours, the Hunting Insects overwhelmed Sha Tan and bit through his throat.

Li Chen used the Soul-Seizing Art to extract General Sha Tan’s memories and uncovered a clue linking an ancient armory to the Sea Emperor’s hidden hoard. He wondered whether the treasure legends of the Guangyun region pointed beyond the Azure Billow Immortal Abode to the lost wealth of the Blue Sea Water Realm.

• Li Chen remotely read Sha Tan’s memories through the Spirit-Particle Memory Meme, leaving the Sea Folk general’s mind completely erased.
• Li Chen reconstructed Sha Tan’s memories with Heavenly Pivot and learned that the general had found ancient Treasure Weapons in the Royal Palace armory.
• Steward Turtle told Sha Tan that the armory dated back to the previous dynasty and that its treasures came from the era of the Sea Emperor.
• Li Chen recalled the legend that the armory concealed a clue to the Sea Emperor’s hidden hoard.
• Li Chen connected the legend to the Guangyun region’s treasure clues and questioned whether the Azure Billow Immortal Abode was only one part of a larger mystery.

Li Chen created puppet replacements for Sha Tan and his troops so they could infiltrate the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom and investigate its former dynasty’s treasury. Sha Tan reached the kingdom and was summoned to meet its ruler, the female King of Yan Pond Sea.

• Li Chen decided to investigate the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom by using Sha Tan as an infiltrator.
• Li Chen implanted a virtual personality in Sha Tan and replaced several dozen of his shrimp and crab soldiers with puppets who could vouch for one another.
• Sha Tan and his reconstructed troops pretended to escape an insect swarm and joined the kingdom’s reinforcements.
• A sea demon general withdrew after scouts reported an insect swarm far larger than his forces.
• The King of Yan Pond Sea summoned Sha Tan, and Li Chen directed his incarnation to attend the audience.

Li Chen, controlling Sha Tan, reported the Insect Swarm’s growing strength to Ye'e Di Luosha and urged the Sea Folk to fight it before it spread further. His proposal to use the royal clans’ ancient weapons provoked outrage and revealed that they were a closely guarded secret tied to the Sea Emperor’s Armory.

• Li Chen had Sha Tan plead for mercy before Ye'e Di Luosha, while Prime Minister Turtle and other ministers defended the defeated general.
• Ye'e Di Luosha demanded a detailed battle report, and Sha Tan revealed the Dominator-led swarm’s vast territory, army, and ability to produce powerful combatants.
• The Sea Folk discussed retreating to the Yan Pond Sea, but worried the insects would eventually adapt to underwater combat.
• Sha Tan urged Ye'e Di Luosha to unite the royal clans and fight a decisive battle on land before the swarm grew stronger.
• When Sha Tan proposed deploying the royal clans’ ancient weapons, guards and ministers condemned his presumption and identified the weapons as a secret treasure from the Sea Emperor’s Armory.

Ye'e Di Luosha led the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom’s forces against Queen Bee No. 3, breaking through the Insect Race’s defenses and attacking its elite insects with a powerful treasure weapon. As Li Chen watched, he learned that the saber and the kingdom’s founder’s other seemingly miraculous achievements suggested an unexplained outside influence.

• Ye'e Di Luosha led a hundred thousand Sea Folk and the kingdom’s strongest fighters upstream to attack the Insect Race, while Li Chen directed Queen Bee No. 3 to send waves of cannon fodder against them.
• The Sea Folk held off the Hunting Insects, broke through the defensive line, and sent an elite force toward the mother nest to kill Queen Bee No. 3.
• Mutant insects led by Blazing Katydids and Giant Demon Insects intercepted the elite force, and Ye'e Di Luosha charged them with the Thunder-Controlling Saber and five other weapons.
• Ye'e Di Luosha split a Giant Demon Insect in two with a lightning-charged strike, and Li Chen recognized that the treasure weapon supplied most of the attack’s Core Formation-level power.
• Li Chen learned that the saber had helped Ye'e Di Luosha’s ancestor seize the throne and wondered whether the ancestor’s other legendary miracles had also come from an outside source.

Li Chen’s forces ambushed Ye'e Di Luosha, captured her, and brought her to the Inkstone Continent so he could extract information about the Blue Sea Water Realm. When he tried to alter her brain, her Foundation Establishment cultivation resisted his will.

• Ye'e Di Luosha weakened the Giant Demon Insect, but the Sha Tan avatar attacked her while she was distracted.
• Sha Tan’s body regenerated with insect machinery, and a swarm of insects trapped Ye'e Di Luosha’s forces as she realized he was an impostor.
• Li Chen’s Kun Blood Warriors joined the battle, and a three-headed tiger swallowed Ye'e Di Luosha and fled with her.
• The tiger delivered the unconscious Ye'e Di Luosha to a hive, where her Thunder-Controlling Saber was confiscated and Li Chen ordered Queen Bee No. 3 to prepare her for modification.
• Li Chen tried to descend into Ye'e Di Luosha’s brain to read her memories, but her Foundation Establishment cultivation repelled his will.

Li Chen questioned the captured Ye'e Di Luosha about the Night Calamity Clan’s rise and its guarded history. She revealed that her ancestor’s secret concerned the Last Sea Emperor and a hidden Sea Emperor Token, leaving Li Chen with a clue to the Blue Sea Water Realm.

• Ye'e Di Luosha woke inside Li Chen’s living flesh chamber and offered to help him rule the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom or become his concubine in exchange for her life.
• Li Chen questioned Ye'e Di Luosha about how the Night Calamity Clan took power from the Merfolk while monitoring her thoughts through the Meridian-Connection Method.
• Ye'e Di Luosha admitted that many ancestral miracles had been fabricated to strengthen the clan’s rule, though she did not know whether the genuine ones involved its guarded secret.
• Ye'e Di Luosha explained that the clan’s secret concerned the Last Sea Emperor, who had planned to save the Blue Sea Water Realm from a calamity.
• Ye'e Di Luosha revealed that her ancestor’s fortuitous encounter had uncovered the Sea Emperor Token, which proved authority and granted entry to and exit from the Water Realm.

Li Chen questioned Ye'e Di Luosha about the Sea Emperor Token, the Secret Palace Treasuries, and the possibility that the Sea Emperor's descendants could find the true cache. He set aside his own pursuit of the legacy and told Ye'e Di Luosha he would enhance her through modifications so she could return and help him gain influence over the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom.

• Ye'e Di Luosha explained that the Sea Emperor Token was guarded by the royal clan's elders and could locate the Secret Palace Treasury only once every sixty years, while repeated expeditions had cost the kingdom lives and wealth.
• Ye'e Di Luosha revealed that she opposed further exploration, while stubborn elders continued sending others into the Puzzle Palaces in hopes of gaining treasures.
• Li Chen asked whether the token could guide them to familiar locations and proposed that the Sea Emperor's bloodline might lead to the true cache, but Ye'e Di Luosha said the clan had found no evidence that the bloodline survived.
• Li Chen decided not to become fixated on the Sea Emperor's legacy and focused instead on gaining the strength to claim the Blue Sea Water Realm's Immortal Mountain and Blessed Land.
• Li Chen told Ye'e Di Luosha he would enhance her cultivation and let her return to rule the Yan Pond Sea Kingdom more effectively, revealing that he was Li Chen of Broad Cloud Peak and a Puppet Master.