Chapter Summaries

Li Chen’s networked puppet legions trapped the Outer Dao cultivators and demonstrated the power of combined strikes and concealed weapons. As the battle continued, Li Chen broke through in cultivation and the White Bone Dharma King was badly wounded, leaving the Puppet Dao’s three powerful weapons on display.

• Elder Xu and He Changnian praised Li Chen’s networked Grand Formation for coordinating puppet armies and exposing the Outer Dao forces’ isolation.
• Li Chen monitored the battlefield through his spiritualized brain, and his divine sense and magic power surged as he broke through in cultivation.
• The White Bone Dharma King was struck by Steel-Feathered Cranes carrying Blazing Sun Divine Thunder and was badly injured by a combined strike of Crimson Flame Divine Light.
• The puppet legions’ attacks demonstrated the danger of explosive armaments, combined strikes, and high-tier Battle Puppets concealed among expendable troops.

Li Chen’s forces wore down the Outer Dao Nascent Soul cultivators with relentless attacks until He Changnian’s Demon Eye killed one, turning the battle into a slaughter. Li Chen ordered every force to press the advantage, and Ye Feng also died as he tried to flee.

• Li Chen told He Changnian that Puppet Masters could outmobilize the Outer Dao through coordinated forces, resources, and flexible logistics.
• The Outer Dao cultivators realized the Mechanism Puppets were trying to trap them, but repeated attacks left them wounded and unable to break out.
• He Changnian piloted the seven-star Demon Eye and pierced a Shadow Sect cultivator, whose soul was shattered by the surrounding Mechanism Puppets.
• Li Chen ordered all forces to attack after the first Nascent Soul fell, unleashing Thunderhawk Fighters, mechanical Flying Cranes, and other weapons.
• Ye Feng’s body was ruined, and his fleeing divine soul was swept up and shattered into starlight.

Li Chen and the Puppet Masters killed the remaining Outer Dao Experts with a devastating swarm of self-destructing Wooden Cranes, securing a sweeping victory. As He Changnian celebrated, Li Chen discovered that Fang Yuan had escaped and sent Yu Bo into the void to search for him.

• Li Chen and the Puppet Masters kept attacking, and Lin Lan was killed after another quarter of an hour.
• The Puppeteers killed Luo Zhengyan and Fairy Caiyun in Thousand Pearl City with a deadly poison that destroyed their divine souls.
• Fang Yuan, Daoist Qinghe, and the White Bone Dharma King broke Pagoda City in half and tried to escape through the gap.
• Li Chen directed hundreds of millions of Wooden Cranes to self-destruct, and the ensuing explosions killed Daoist Qinghe and the White Bone Dharma King.
• He Changnian declared victory, but Li Chen ordered Yu Bo to search the void after realizing Fang Yuan had escaped.

After the Outer Dao’s defeat, Li Chen arranged for battle-damaged Mechanism Puppets to be scavenged and proposed turning the ruined Guangyun Domain into a Garbage Planet. The war ended, and Li Chen was granted Grandmaster Artisan-level privileges in the spoils allocation, where he saw the remains of Fairy Caiyun and Luo Zhengyan among the prizes.

• Li Chen vowed to kill Fang Yuan and ordered the Puppet Dao forces to pursue the retreating Outer Dao.
• Wilderness Rogue Cultivators scavenged damaged Mechanism Puppets, and He Changnian explained how this could support the underworld and the Dao Path.
• Li Chen asked to concentrate the battle wreckage and proposed making Guangyun Domain a Garbage Planet for Heavenly Dragon Peak.
• After the enemy Great Powers fled, He Changnian brought Li Chen to meet Shen Longcheng and Wu Fangdao, who granted him Grandmaster Artisan-level allocation privileges.
• Li Chen reviewed the spoils list and found the remains of Fairy Caiyun and Luo Zhengyan among the top prizes.

Li Chen secured the White Bone Dharma King's remnant soul to study the secrets of divine souls and Nascent Souls. The Creation Sect also offered him the Seven-Star Demon Eye to defend Heavenly Dragon Peak, and he accepted.

• He Changnian claimed Fairy Caiyun's remains as material for a seven-star poison corpse puppet, while a Pagoda City cultivator claimed a sword cultivator's corpse.
• Li Chen found the White Bone Dharma King's remnant soul among the rewards and bid on it for research into artifact spirits and Nascent Souls.
• He Changnian suggested Li Chen invite other cultivators to observe and discuss the remnant soul's analysis, and Li Chen agreed.
• The Merit Court informed Li Chen that he had secured the remnant soul and still had merit for other rewards.
• The Merit Court offered Li Chen use of the Seven-Star Demon Eye to help defend Guangyun and Heavenly Dragon Peak, and he accepted.

Li Chen accepted the Creation Sect’s rewards after the war, including a thousand-year lease on the Demon Eye, military forces, and a karmic flame spirit seed. The sect then exceptionally promoted him to Grandmaster Artisan, leaving him to accept the title and prepare to develop his expertise with its support.

• Li Chen signed a free thousand-year lease for the Demon Eye, which the Creation Sect intended him to use to protect Heavenly Dragon Peak.
• He Changnian lamented that he would have to part from Golden Light City, while Li Chen learned the damaged city might still be repaired and take to the skies again.
• The Creation Sect gave Li Chen a powerful karmic flame spirit seed and military forces from Golden Light City’s armory, restoring Guangyun Domain’s garrison strength.
• Two special envoys informed Li Chen that the Elders’ Council had exceptionally promoted him to Grandmaster Artisan and provided him with the title’s tokens, secrets, and communication channels.
• Li Chen accepted the promotion, reasoning that the Creation Sect wanted him to oversee construction in the Creation Secret Realm and would help him become worthy of the title.

Li Chen led a conference to study the remnant soul of the White Bone Dharma King, and the experiments helped him form a half-step Nascent Soul Dao Fruit. After the conference, Qi Maigu reported the Golden Sun Gate’s rise and asked how Li Chen would use the remaining soul.

• Li Chen gathered the Myriad Heavens Alliance’s cultivators on Heavenly Dragon Peak and conducted experiments on the White Bone Dharma King’s remnant soul.
• Li Chen attempted to resurrect the White Bone Dharma King with Soul-Summoning, but the ritual failed as the soul dissipated.
• Li Chen gained insight into the divine soul and formed a half-step Nascent Soul Dao Fruit, while Hua Wucuo and the other attendees also benefited from the conference.
• Li Chen concluded the conference, and the attendees thanked him before dispersing.
• Qi Maigu told Li Chen that the Golden Sun Gate’s Sect Master had become a Grandmaster Artisan and that the Creation Sect planned to rebuild the Sun Palace.
• Li Chen told Qi Maigu that Elder Xu in Golden Light City was preparing to refine the remnant soul into a high-grade magical treasure or mechanism.

Li Chen refined a Substitute Puppet using a fragment of his true spirit, giving himself a hidden means to survive if his body was destroyed. He then learned Queen Bee No. 6 had mutated in the ruins of Broad Cloud Peak, developing organs that could absorb and expel primordial energy.

• Li Chen used his Soul Deconstruction insights to refine a mechanical Substitute Puppet and implant a seed of life drawn from his true spirit.
• Li Chen placed the puppet in the Azure Billow Immortal Abode's main base, where Heavenly Pivot was located, as a backup for escape and rebirth.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that construction of the Bone Kun Warship and its internal satellite city was only one percent complete, with an estimated completion time of three hundred years.
• Heavenly Pivot told Li Chen that Queen Bee No. 6 remained beneath the ruins of Broad Cloud Peak and had changed after devouring corpses of Outer Dao cultivators and Shaman Folk.
• Heavenly Pivot revealed that Queen Bee No. 6 had begun growing organs that could absorb and expel primordial energy, like those of a Qi Refining demon.

Li Chen went to the Guangyun Ruins to inspect Queen Bee No. 6, which had escaped control and begun evolving independently. He found its growing insect swarm underground and discovered that both the Queen Bee and its offspring instinctively feared him.

• Li Chen chose to observe Queen Bee No. 6 and traveled to the Guangyun Ruins with Dong Nü and Yu Ling.
• Yu Ling cleared a passage into the underground shelter, where Li Chen encountered mutated creatures and demons.
• Li Chen met Queen Bee No. 6's Hunting Insects, which fled as he pressed deeper underground.
• Li Chen tracked Queen Bee No. 6 to a cavern and saw that it had grown into a giant beetle laying enormous eggs.
• The insect swarm gathered around Queen Bee No. 6 but kept its distance from Li Chen, and the Queen collapsed when he approached.

Li Chen observed Queen Bee No. 6’s evolving Insect Race and the growing recovery of the Guangyun Domain. He learned that Outer Dao disciples, including members of Luli Academy, were hiding in the Chess Mountain Domain and changed his mind about pursuing them.

• Li Chen discovered that Queen Bee No. 6 had begun producing Mother Empress Juveniles and told Heavenly Pivot to secretly observe and guide it.
• Li Chen saw Scavengers salvaging a heavy Position Cannon and noted how the ruins and remaining spirit veins were sustaining the region’s recovery.
• Heavenly Dragon City grew into the region’s principal city as scavenging, trade, crafting, and conflict spread through the Guangyun Ruins.
• Li Chen heard that Creation Sect and Golden Sun Gate had discovered Outer Dao members preparing to leave the region and needed cultivators to escort them.
• Li Chen learned that Luli Academy disciples connected to Fang Yuan were hiding in the Chess Mountain Domain and decided to pursue them.

Li Chen traveled to Chess Mountain to investigate suspected cooperation between local clans and the Outer Dao, with Mu Suo’s assistance. He confronted the Chess Mountain Trade Alliance while Meng Fuyun and Lu Ming discussed the danger of exposure and Lu Ming invited Meng Fuyun to defect to the Heavenly Sword Sect.

• Li Chen and Mu Suo reviewed intelligence suggesting powerful Chess Mountain clans might be sheltering Outer Dao factions for profit.
• Li Chen decided to confront the suspects while keeping himself hidden at first to lure the conspirators into revealing themselves.
• Li Chen arrived in Chess Mountain with Frostblade Dong Nü and Shadowless Sword Yu Ling, and the Trade Alliance swallowed its anger as he demanded full cooperation.
• Meng Fuyun worried that his dealings with the Outer Dao would be exposed, while Lu Ming reassured him that most of their people had already withdrawn.
• Lu Ming invited Meng Fuyun to abandon the Puppet Dao and join the Heavenly Sword Sect, promising him a blessed land and a prestigious welcome.

Lu Ming told Meng Fuyun about the opportunities awaiting him on the Earthly Immortal Continent, then planned to assassinate Li Chen while the stranded Outer Dao cultivators lay low. That night, an unseen Sword Cultivator attacked Li Chen, who survived the strike and pursued the fleeing assailant.

• Lu Ming explained that Meng Fuyun could gain standing among the Outer Dao on the Earthly Immortal Continent, but Meng Fuyun remained undecided.
• Lu Ming ordered the stranded Outer Dao cultivators to hide during a Great Inspection and secretly decided to gamble on assassinating Li Chen.
• Li Chen considered the Ying Family's hospitality and suspected other families or Meng Fuyun of colluding with the Outer Dao.
• A Sword Pill pierced Li Chen's defenses, but Li Chen survived because of the Heavenly Dragon Undying Body's power of life.
• Li Chen transformed Yu Ling into his sword, attacked the intruder with Sky-Splitting Slash, and chased the assailant toward the mountains.

Li Chen and Dong Nü battled Lu Ming in an illusion array until Mu Suo intervened and killed him. After returning to Chess Mountain Peak, Li Chen confronted the elders over Lu Ming’s presence, while Meng Fuyun discovered Lu Ming’s death and entered a hidden room.

• Lu Ming lured Li Chen into an illusion array, where Li Chen and Dong Nü wounded him with their attacks.
• Lu Ming launched his Sword Pill at Li Chen, but Mu Suo appeared and seized it with his Iron Gauntlet.
• Mu Suo subdued Lu Ming with his Flying Claw and killed him with a concealed golden spike.
• Meng Fuyun learned from Lu Ming’s Soul Jade that Lu Ming had died, then entered a hidden room behind a painting.
• Li Chen and Mu Suo returned to Chess Mountain Peak, and Li Chen threw down Lu Ming’s corpse and demanded that the elders explain who had hosted him.

Li Chen pursued Outer Dao followers hiding in the Market District while searching Chess Mountain for the missing Grand Artisan Meng. When the disciples used a Confucian Dao technique to summon an army of paper soldiers, Li Chen entered the battle to prevent further casualties.

• Li Chen sealed off Chess Mountain, ordered a search of Meng Fuyun's residence, and went to oversee the capture of the Outer Dao followers in the Market District.
• Li Chen's pursuers surrounded a manor where Steward Han and dozens of Outer Dao Disciples were hiding, and Steward Han prepared to lead a desperate escape.
• The Outer Dao Disciples charged out rather than surrendering, and the pursuers attacked them as Li Chen arrived.
• Li Chen recognized that several Confucian Dao disciples had combined their strength to create a technique rivaling a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• The Confucian Dao disciples used Waging War on Paper to summon more than six hundred armored soldiers, prompting Li Chen to descend into the battle on his Mechanized Flying Chair.

Li Chen captured the Confucian Dao disciples at Chess Mountain Peak, then brought the Luli Academy prisoners back to Heavenly Dragon Peak to investigate the Great Qian Dynasty and its cultivation system. After learning how Confucianism drew power from human belief and righteous principles, he wondered whether he could cultivate its Dao himself.

• Yu Ling killed Steward Han with the Heavenly King Cloud-Breaking Strike, and Dong Nü froze the fleeing Outer Dao cultivators while Li Chen's followers captured the rest.
• Mu Suo returned without finding Meng Fuyun, took most of the prisoners, and left Li Chen with six Confucian Dao disciples from Luli Academy.
• Li Chen brought the Luli Academy prisoners to Heavenly Dragon Peak and gathered information about the Great Qian Dynasty from multiple sources.
• Li Chen explained that the Great Qian Dynasty controlled advancement through a deity rank system and that Confucianism had become an independent Dao rooted in righteous qi and Orthodox Names.
• Li Chen described Confucian cultivation as building power through literacy, learning, virtue, merit, and words, then wondered whether he could cultivate the Confucian Dao himself.

Li Chen consulted He Changnian about studying Confucian methods and learned that his status as a Puppet Dao Master allowed him to pursue outer Dao techniques, though betraying the Puppet Dao would make him its enemy. After researching the Literary Star School’s methods, he prepared to begin practicing Confucian arts by copying books.

• Li Chen visited He Changnian in the virtual Creation Secret Realm to ask whether he could study the Confucian Dao.
• He Changnian said Li Chen could study outer Dao methods but warned that siding with the outer Dao would make him an enemy of the Puppet Dao.
• He Changnian told Li Chen that Meng Fuyun had been recruited by the Heavenly Sword Sect and might take Creation Sect secrets to the outer Dao.
• Li Chen consulted records on Confucian arts and contacted the Literary Star School to learn about its research.
• At the end of October, Li Chen decided to practice Confucian methods and planned to begin by copying books.

Li Chen used poetry from his past life to cultivate the Confucian Dao, astonishing his captive students when his first poem earned Heaven and Earth’s recognition. He reached Tongsheng rank and began composing another poem that carried a profound principle.

• Li Chen brought Lin Yunwen and the other captive Confucian students to witness him cultivating literary qi.
• Li Chen told them he would enter the Dao through Confucianism, then recited a poem about moonlight and homesickness.
• Lin Yunwen and the other students felt the poem’s homesickness, and literary brilliance gathered around Li Chen as Heaven and Earth recognized him as its author.
• Li Chen absorbed the literary talent and attained Tongsheng rank, comparable to the fifth level of Qi Refining.
• Li Chen recited another poem about climbing higher to see farther, and Lin Yunwen was struck by its profound principle.

Li Chen recited poems from Three Hundred Tang Poems, drawing overwhelming literary talent energy and shocking Lin Yunwen, the scholars, and onlookers below. His literary palace nearly formed, but Lin Yunwen claimed Li Chen could not advance beyond the cultivated scholar realm without grasping the sages’ teachings, a limitation Li Chen recognized.

• Li Chen recited several classic poems, raising his Confucian Dao cultivation to the peak of the novice scholar rank.
• Talent energy formed a radiant pillar above the Inner Valley, and Dong Long recognized it as a manifestation of someone cultivating the Literary Dao through poetry.
• Li Chen recited the poems he remembered from Three Hundred Tang Poems, causing his literary qi to surpass that of an ordinary presented scholar as his literary palace neared completion.
• Lin Yunwen accused Li Chen of stealing the sect’s literary fortune and said he could never advance beyond the cultivated scholar realm.
• Li Chen acknowledged that advancing required understanding the sages’ moral teachings, which were entangled with the dynasty’s ideals and could corrupt a cultivator’s dao heart.

Li Chen challenged Lin Yunwen and the Confucian students by writing from the classics of his previous world, seeking a path to overcome the Puppet Dao’s limits. The Analects’ power overwhelmed his cultivation before he could finish a line, but it revealed a road toward sagehood that he had not yet reached.

• Li Chen explained that he planned to write original classics to avoid the Dao Heart corruption caused by studying another path’s writings.
• Li Chen used his finger as a brush and wrote “Analects,” causing the literary qi around Lin Yunwen and the Confucian students to surge.
• Li Chen wrote the Analects’ opening line, but the Sage Dao rejected his attempt to create a work of such power, and he stopped after spitting blood.
• The Analects’ manifestation left Lin Yunwen and the others stunned, while purple qi and profound literary talent gathered around Li Chen.
• Li Chen told them he had not become a Grand Confucian but had already found the road.

Li Chen explained how he could become an unaffiliated Grand Confucian by founding his own school, then experimented on Luli Academy students to test how Confucian arts and original works used laws. His discoveries about literary qi and Ink Treasures gave him a new path toward understanding laws and reaching Nascent Soul.

• Li Chen told Lin Yunwen and the other students that he could bypass Great Qian's examinations by writing books and establishing doctrines, and urged them to become his disciples.
• When the students resisted, Li Chen used law threads to control them and implanted a drop of his essence blood in Lin Yunwen's right arm.
• Li Chen used Lin Yunwen's arm to recite his original poem, sensing a law that corroded metal and confirming that he could activate it through another person's hand.
• Li Chen prompted Lin Yunwen and other disciples to cast their own poems, discovering that their literary qi and minds—not the implanted flesh—powered their Confucian arts.
• Li Chen concluded that Confucian creation could help him understand laws, then wrote a poem as an Ink Treasure and found it carried energy and will through a principle he could not explain.