Chapter Summaries

Fang Yuan, the Grand Confucian and Academy Head of Luli Academy, joined the White Bone Dharma King in attacking Golden Light City, revealing Righteous Qi Continent’s entry into the war against the Puppet Dao. He broke through the city’s defenses and used the Book of Years to overwhelm its defenders, leaving Golden Light City in immediate danger.

• He Changnian and the senior figures realized that Righteous Qi Continent had joined forces with Earthly Immortal Continent, then ordered Golden Light City’s defenses raised and its controllers prepared to sortie.
• Heavenly Hero Divine Cranes surrounded Fang Yuan and the White Bone Dharma King, and the city’s experts identified Fang Yuan as an old enemy of the Puppeteer Dao Path.
• Fang Yuan used Lip Spear and Tongue Sword to damage the Heavenly Hero Divine Cranes, then charged past them toward Golden Light City.
• Grandmaster Artisans attacked Fang Yuan, but the Book of Years radiated its power and left many defenders stunned or overcome with shame.

Fang Yuan attacked Golden Light City with Confucian arts that subjugated Puppet Masters and killed defenders through their souls, while He Changnian and the elders struggled to resist. After the White Bone Dharma King was struck by the city's formation, Golden Light City rammed Fang Yuan with its Divine Cranes and fled into the void.

• Fang Yuan's Confucian radiance swayed Puppet Masters, but He Changnian and other Grandmasters awakened them and ordered their Battle Puppets to attack.
• Fang Yuan immobilized the Battle Puppets with Sage's Word Art, then killed a Grand Artisan and other defenders with ink characters that bypassed their defenses.
• He Changnian warned that Fang Yuan's brushwork attacked the divine soul and that only a strong Dao Heart could counter the Confucian Dao.
• The White Bone Dharma King boarded Golden Light City, but the city's protective formation struck him and nearly broke apart his skeletal Dharma Form.
• Golden Light City sent its Heavenly Hero Divine Cranes crashing into Fang Yuan, then accelerated into the void to escape while its elders were unable to defeat him.

Fang Yuan and the White Bone Dharma King pursued their attack on Golden Light City, while He Changnian chose to keep fighting despite the city’s damaged defenses. He learned that Pagoda City and Thousand Pearl City were under coordinated attack too, and considered warning others as the regional war escalated.

• Fang Yuan and the White Bone Dharma King decided to press their advantage against Golden Light City, hoping to eliminate its Puppet Masters while Shen Longcheng was occupied by the Martial Emperor.
• He Changnian reviewed reports showing that Golden Light City’s magic arrays and personnel had suffered heavy damage, but rejected hiding and ordered the city to fight on.
• Teng Xiong told He Changnian that Pagoda City was also under attack and would not send reinforcements while it defended itself.
• Thousand Pearl City reported that three Nascent Soul cultivators, including Lin Lan and Ye Feng, had broken into the city and were fighting its elders.
• He Changnian identified the attackers on his own city as the White Bone Dharma King and Fang Yuan, then considered warning others and seeking reinforcements.

Li Chen learned that Golden Light City, Pagoda City, and Thousand Pearl City were all under attack by Outer Dao Nascent Soul cultivators, leaving his territories vulnerable. Meanwhile, Golden Sun True Person completed his secluded training and became a Grandmaster Artisan.

• Li Chen restored contact with Golden Light City and reported that his side had defeated five Outer Dao Core Formation cultivators and captured another.
• The Golden Light City communications Puppet Master told Li Chen that Golden Light City, Pagoda City, and Thousand Pearl City were under attack and could not send help.
• Li Chen received an official notice confirming the attacks and warning that Nascent Soul experts might target his territories.
• Patrol disciples returned to their duty station on Mulberry Source Peak, where Golden Sun True Person had cultivated in seclusion for nearly a century.
• Golden Sun True Person attained the mastery of a Grandmaster Artisan and announced his achievement.

Golden Sun True Person emerged from sixty years of seclusion after advancing to Grandmaster Artisan and mastering solar power. When two Nascent Soul experts revealed they had come to kill him, he overwhelmed them with his Golden Crow dharma form and Sun Divine Thunder, but another armored Martial Dao Nascent Soul expert suddenly entered the battle.

• Golden Sun True Person emerged from seclusion, manifested his Golden Crow dharma form, and received congratulations from the Golden Sun Gate disciples.
• Golden Sun True Person sensed intruders in the void, warned his sect members away, and confronted the blue-robed Daoist Qinghe and a shadowy cultivator.
• Qinghe and the shadowy cultivator admitted they had come to kill Golden Sun True Person, and the shadow called on Qinghe to join forces.
• Golden Sun True Person unleashed his Golden Crow dharma form and repeated Sun Divine Thunder blasts, suppressing both Nascent Soul opponents.
• An armored Martial Dao Nascent Soul expert carrying a longbow burst into the void.

Chi Zong wounded Golden Sun True Person with the Heaven-Shaking Bow and Sun-Shooting Arrow, but Golden Sun True Person escaped in a Sun Divine Thunder blast. As the Golden Sun Gate came under assault, Li Chen realized the Allied Front was facing coordinated attacks and teetering on the brink.

• Chi Zong struck Golden Sun True Person with the Sun-Shooting Arrow, and Golden Sun True Person detonated Sun Divine Thunder, badly injuring Chi Zong, Daoist Qinghe, and the Shadow Sect cultivator as he escaped.
• Chi Zong learned that the Golden Crow Puppet had been lured away to aid the Martial Emperor Yang against the Sky-Reaching Divine Dragon.
• The Shadow Sect cultivator attacked the Golden Sun Gate, slaughtering its disciples while other invaders and rogue cultivators plundered the sect's territory.
• Li Chen heard that the Golden Sun Gate was under attack and realized that many of his allies were facing coordinated assaults.

Li Chen questioned Dong Long about the Immortal Alliance’s campaign and considered whether to accept the captured cultivator’s offer to switch sides. Dong Long revealed that the Alliance was approaching local factions to recruit them, using force against those that refused.

• Dong Long told Li Chen he knew little about the Immortal Alliance’s high-ranking forces but had seen rogue cultivators recruited with Three-Turn Golden Cores and other rewards.
• Dong Long offered to change allegiance and serve Li Chen, while Mei Xuan urged Li Chen to kill him because he could not be trusted.
• Li Chen decided to keep Dong Long alive and ordered him to write down everything he knew about the Alliance’s deployments.
• Dong Long reported that groups of cultivators had gone to approach the Hecheng Merchants’ Association, the Everflow Merchants’ Association, and other local factions.
• Dong Long explained that the Immortal Alliance intended to recruit those factions and would destroy those that resisted.

Li Chen realized the Immortal Alliance planned a major war across the Vast Sea and prepared to rely on the Azure Billow Immortal Abode as a fallback. As fighting and trade disruptions spread, he awakened and controlled the Giant Kun skeleton, which began carrying the entire Grotto-Heaven world deeper into the Void.

• Li Chen told Mei Xuan that the Outer Dao’s movements suggested a campaign to establish a lasting presence, not merely a raid, and dismissed Dong Long while he verified the report.
• Mei Xuan predicted that her grandfather, Mei Yunhe, would try to curry favor with both sides, though the Everflow Merchants' Association was likely to support the Immortal Alliance with supplies and conveniences.
• Commercial routes under Puppet Dao control were cut off, the network around Aroma Leader Peak suffered failures, and battles continued near Golden Light City, Pagoda City, and Thousand Pearl City.
• Li Chen turned to the Azure Billow Immortal Abode and used a Magic Array and the giant kun source to awaken the Giant Kun skeleton.
• Heavenly Pivot used the Immortal Abode command token and the Beast-Taming Order to make the Giant Kun docile, and the Kun began carrying the Grotto-Heaven world deeper into the Void.

Li Chen used mutated flesh, sensors, and the Giant Kun’s void-sensing abilities to turn its bones into a controllable warship. After successful movement, steering, and reversing tests, he left the Azure Billow Immortal Abode secured inside the skull as the warship’s control room.

• Li Chen decided to control the direction of the Giant Kun bones and make them the foundation of a cosmic warship.
• With Heavenly Pivot monitoring the Chaos Void, Li Chen used mutated flesh and sensors to help the Bone Kun harness void currents for movement.
• Li Chen deployed Waymarker Satellites across the Bone Kun and attached artificial bridges around its bone pillars.
• Li Chen ordered the Bone Kun to move, and Heavenly Pivot reported that its flesh-based Dao of Space Vector Engine test had succeeded.
• Li Chen completed successful steering and reversing tests, while the Azure Billow Immortal Abode remained secured inside the skull as the control room.

Li Chen approved Heavenly Pivot’s plan to turn the Giant Kun into a mobile fortress and production city, with spirit peak blessed lands to be moved inside it. After returning to Broad Cloud Peak, he learned that Outer Dao forces were disrupting the Myriad Realms Marketplace and realized they might soon target him.

• Heavenly Pivot proposed a sixty-trillion funding plan to develop the Giant Kun into a sky city with production facilities and military bases.
• Li Chen approved the renovation plan and ordered the spirit peak root vein and other blessed lands to be secretly relocated into the Kun’s belly.
• Li Chen reflected on why Puppet Dao Grandmaster Artisans built sky cities, concluding that they needed refuges from war and devastation.
• Mei Xuan told Li Chen that transaction volumes in the Myriad Realms Marketplace were fluctuating, and he asked Heavenly Pivot to investigate.
• Heavenly Pivot’s reports revealed that Outer Dao forces had seized merchants’ Myriad Realms Talismans and engulfed regional networks and delivery terminals.
• Li Chen realized that the Outer Dao forces might trace the marketplace’s origins to him and turn their attention his way.

Outer Dao cultivators discovered that Li Chen’s inventions had spread across Guangyun, then learned their forces had suffered a devastating defeat. The Confucian Academy prepared a renewed assault on Guangyun, with its head set to join the expedition.

• After defeating and capturing a Foundation Establishment puppet master, the Outer Dao cultivators activated his Myriad Realms Talisman and examined the battle puppet they had purchased.
• The captive explained Li Chen’s rise as a Puppet Dao grand artisan who had established the Star Sea trading network and spirit wave communications across Guangyun.
• The cultivators learned that Fellow Daoist Qi and his party had been wiped out.
• Two Core Formation cultivators toppled a communication base station near Aroma Leader Peak and then answered Elder Xu’s summons.
• At a gathering in the Star Sea, a Confucian Academy leader ordered the forces to redeploy to Guangyun and announced that the Academy’s head would personally join the campaign.

Zhu Si reported that Fang Yuan and the allied forces had nearly captured Golden Light City, taking many Puppet Dao artisans. Fang Yuan then joined the expedition against Guangyun and transported the force to the domain, where he discovered that void rifts blocked their way as alarms sounded at Broad Cloud Peak.

• Zhu Si told the gathered cultivators that Fang Yuan had gravely damaged Golden Light City and captured dozens of Master Artisans and nearly a thousand Craftsmen.
• The cultivators celebrated the victory and discussed how the captured Puppet Dao artisans would be divided among the allied parties.
• Fang Yuan arrived aboard the gourd with Confucian disciples and other reinforcements, then ordered the force to capture Li Chen alive if possible.
• Fang Yuan used a greater spatial transference art to bring the gourd and its passengers to the Guangyun Domain.
• Fang Yuan spotted void rifts across the region, while alarms spread through the Inner Valley of Broad Cloud Peak.

Li Chen prepared Guangyun for an invasion by Nascent Soul experts, evacuating civilians and assembling its forces. As Grand Confucian Fang Yuan began a composition meant to condemn and destroy the city, Guangyun launched a missile barrage at the attackers.

• Li Chen received warning of the incoming Nascent Soul attackers and ordered Guangyun to prepare for battle.
• Heavenly Pivot alerted the city, and Yu Youxian, Jixia Academy, and the residents evacuated to shelters.
• Guangyun's City Guard Army, Puppet Legion, and other forces assembled to defend the city.
• Fang Yuan arrived with the invading cultivators and began writing a memorial that treated Guangyun as already dead.
• Li Chen recognized Fang Yuan's Spring and Autumn Writing Technique as an attempt to turn the city's destruction into a foregone conclusion.
• Heavenly Pivot activated Guangyun's strategic missile system, sending a barrage toward Fang Yuan and the attackers.

Fang Yuan used the Book of Years to age and destroy Guangyun City, then escaped Li Chen’s nuclear barrage with a Confucian stabilization art. Li Chen reaffirmed his faith in the Puppet Dao and ordered his forces to attack as Fang Yuan’s allies confronted the incoming puppets.

• Fang Yuan unleashed the Book of Years, causing Broad Cloud Ward’s buildings, machinery, and defenses to decay and collapse.
• Li Chen watched Guangyun City crumble as his systems failed under Fang Yuan’s Temporal Dao attack.
• Li Chen’s automated forces launched a coordinated nuclear barrage, but Fang Yuan froze time around himself and nearby cultivators with the Stabilization Character Formula and escaped.
• The missiles devastated the surrounding land and parts of Guangyun City, but Heavenly Pivot reported that Fang Yuan’s group had suffered no casualties.
• Li Chen resolved to press on and sent a legion of Patrol Mountain Cranes toward Fang Yuan, whose allied Core Formation experts rose to meet them.

Li Chen and Heavenly Pivot used the Puppet Legion to slow the Outer Dao army and draw it into Guangyun, hoping to divide its forces and hold out for Creation Sect reinforcements. As the legion was nearly destroyed, Fang Yuan and other cultivators ordered their people to capture Li Chen alive, while a spell cultivator produced a compass that might locate him.

• Heavenly Pivot coordinated hundreds of thousands of puppets and the First Mutant Insect Legion against the invading Outer Dao cultivators.
• Fang Yuan protected the attackers from the Puppet Legion’s bombardment, while Heavenly Pivot feigned weakness and Li Chen prepared mobile reserves to draw the enemy deeper into Guangyun.
• Li Chen sent word to the Creation Sect for help, but Sky City had not responded.
• After several hours, the Puppet Legion was nearly wiped out, and the Outer Dao army prepared to split up and search the cities for Li Chen and Puppet Dao cultivators.
• Fang Yuan told Zhu Si to capture Li Chen alive for the Great Qian, while other cultivators plotted to seize him for his knowledge of mechanisms.
• A spell cultivator in blue robes revealed a compass that he claimed could locate Li Chen.

After the Outer Dao forces split up to search and plunder Guangyun, Li Chen used his information network to track them and secretly deploy his elite forces. As the invaders realized they could find no leads to Li Chen, Golden Light City arrived to reinforce Fang Yuan.

• The Immortal Alliance and the Righteous Qi Continent’s forces fell into discord, and several groups set off separately toward Guangyun’s interior.
• Heavenly Pivot informed Li Chen that the enemy had split up, and Li Chen ordered his elite legions and other forces to deploy.
• Li Chen and Heavenly Pivot used their surveillance network to follow the invaders from a distance as they raided cities, shelters, and stores of supplies.
• The Outer Dao cultivators realized that Li Chen had no secular vassals and that his network let him command his forces without ordinary political structures.
• Fang Yuan saw Golden Light City streak across the sky to reinforce them.

Li Chen ordered his legions to target the Outer Dao forces’ weaker fighters while Golden Light City held Fang Yuan back. Meanwhile, Outer Dao cultivators discovered Guangyun’s underground defenses and realized its survivors had been hiding nearby.

• He Changnian saw Guangyun City’s devastation and prepared Golden Light City to fight Fang Yuan.
• Li Chen learned that eliminating the enemy Core Formation Experts could take at least six hours, so he followed Heavenly Pivot’s advice to attack lower-ranked enemies first.
• Li Chen told Golden Light City that he was alive and asked them to hold Fang Yuan while his legions hunted Outer Dao cultivators.
• He Changnian trusted Li Chen’s plan and sent three repaired seven-star Battle Puppets to fight Fang Yuan.
• Elders Huang and Mu found an underground bunker defended by Mechanism Automatons, and Elder Huang realized Guangyun’s survivors had been hiding nearby.

Heavenly Pivot coordinated guerrilla attacks against the Outer Dao forces while scattered invaders raided a market district and its facilities. As the Confucian Sect disciples began looting a Puppet Dao factory, nearby legion units prepared to close the net around them.

• Heavenly Pivot directed the underground transport network and Worker Bee Puppets in attacks that exploited the terrain and information advantage.
• Confucian Sect disciples attacked a rogue cultivator market district, but Spirit Firmament Gate disciples arrived first and claimed its treasury and Four Seas Merchants' Association branch.
• Senior Brother Hong rewarded the rogue cultivators who guided his group by promising to report their service and teaching them more of the Righteous Yang Thunder Technique.
• Confucian Sect disciples searched elsewhere, found a Puppet Dao processing factory, and began looting it.
• Nearby legion units assembled, and their forces announced that they were ready to begin closing the net.

Li Chen ambushed the Outer Dao cultivators looting a Market District, using his Maiden Automaton Guard Legion and Warplanes to destroy their forces. After capturing the blue-robed scholar to investigate Outer Dao methods, he learned of more isolated enemies and sent superior forces to kill a Core Formation cultivator.

• Li Chen dispatched more than a hundred Demon Blade Princesses and Great Sword Princesses to surround the Outer Dao scholars at the processing factory.
• The Battle Puppets overwhelmed the scholars, and Li Chen ordered them to capture the blue-robed scholar alive before continuing the slaughter.
• Mei Xuan warned Li Chen that Outer Dao arts were difficult to learn, but he chose to keep investigating them.
• Li Chen's forces routed the invaders, and Warplanes pursued and killed the fleeing cultivators with missiles and aerial bombing.
• Li Chen coordinated attacks across several battlefields while Fang Yuan and other Core Formation cultivators were occupied elsewhere.
• After the Outer Dao cultivators rushed to regroup, Li Chen tracked them with the Cosmic Dao Satellite and sent superior forces against an isolated Core Formation cultivator.

Li Chen’s forces attacked the Outer Dao cultivators with Kun Blood Warriors, Warplanes, and the Yu Xiao Tiger, killing several opponents. As Fang Yuan overwhelmed Golden Light City’s defenders, he paused to listen and then flew toward the heart of Guangyun.

• Li Chen deployed the Kun Blood Warrior Legion, whose barrage killed an early Core Formation cultivator and forced the middle-aged Sword Cultivator to defend himself with his Wine Gourd.
• The middle-aged Sword Cultivator unleashed a powerful sword strike, but the Kun Blood Warriors survived and retaliated with Sword Caskets and volleys of sword light.
• A force led by the Yu Xiao Tiger and dozens of Warplanes attacked Zhu Si and another Confucian scholar, killing both with bombardment and follow-up attacks.
• Fang Yuan tore through Golden Light City’s Puppets and injured its Garrison Elders, Elder He and Elder Xu.
• Fang Yuan suddenly stopped to listen, abandoned Golden Light City, and flew toward the heart of Guangyun.