Chapter Summaries

Li Chen expanded his hidden operations in the mountain forests while the Demon-Hunting Group suffered a devastating defeat. The Xia Household lost its leaders, faced public blame, and saw Xia Ziyi’s engagement broken off.

• Li Chen used microchipped wild bees and hidden microfactories to gather spirit materials and produce Mustard-Seed Puppets throughout the mountains.
• A mountain ogre corpse puppet watched the battered survivors of the Demon-Hunting Group return from the forest.
• Xia Ziyi learned that his father, brother, and Elder Qi had died in the expedition, which had been ambushed by a powerful fox demon.
• The Mo Household gained influence in Cloudstride City as rumors blamed the Xia Household for the defeat.
• The Lin Household asked to dissolve Xia Ziyi’s engagement to Xiang'er, and the Xia elders accepted.

After the Lin Household broke off Xia Ziyi’s engagement, Li Chen revealed himself as Elder Bai and explained the power struggle that had left Xia Ziyi isolated. He urged Xia Ziyi to claim his family’s resources and promised to help him reach Foundation Establishment or even Core Formation, setting him on a path to take back power.

• The Lin Household ended Xia Ziyi’s engagement, and Second Elder Xia told him the lineage would arrange another marriage and gradually hand over his inheritance.
• Li Chen appeared to Xia Ziyi as Elder Bai and offered to help him avenge his father and brother and reclaim his family’s standing.
• Li Chen explained how Xia Ziyi’s second uncle and the Lin and Mo Households benefited from the broken engagement and the transfer of power.
• Xia Ziyi blamed his weak cultivation for his humiliation, but Li Chen pushed him to stop wallowing in self-pity.
• Xia Ziyi asked what to do, and Li Chen told him to take the resources belonging to him, his father, and his brother, promising to help him reach Core Formation.

Li Chen manipulated Xia Ziyi into demanding his family’s inheritance from the Xia Household treasury, prompting Madam Zhang to secure the family’s magical treasures and spirit materials. Madam Zhang suspected someone had influenced her son, but she remained relieved by his newfound diligence while their wider vulnerability persisted.

• Li Chen decided to use Xia Ziyi to pursue the Xia Household’s useful treasures because the boy was easier to manipulate than powerful cultivators.
• Xia Ziyi demanded his father’s Jade Knife, his brother’s Demon Bird Diagram, and their other inheritance from the treasury guards and clan elder.
• Xia Ziyi’s second uncle and the clan elders objected, but Madam Zhang arrived and negotiated for the magical treasures and spirit materials to be entrusted to her.
• Madam Zhang promised Xia Ziyi the Demon Bird Diagram if he reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining, and he eagerly agreed to work harder.
• After Xia Ziyi left, Madam Zhang suspected someone had put the idea into his head, though she felt relieved that he had begun striving to improve.

Li Chen manipulated Madam Zhang into placing her hopes and resources behind Xia Ziyi, then prepared machines to accelerate Xia Ziyi’s cultivation while keeping the changes discreet. As he guided Xia Ziyi, Li Chen began to perceive a connection between influencing people’s hearts and the power of law.

• Li Chen subtly changed Madam Zhang’s thoughts until she believed Xia Ziyi could uphold the family and resolved to support him.
• Xia Ziyi asked Elder Bai for help reaching the sixth cultivation level so he could receive a Magical Treasure from his mother.
• Li Chen offered to build a Psychic Energy Dialysis Machine and a Magic Power Circulation Pump, explaining that Xia Ziyi needed a strong enough foundation to withstand the modifications.
• Li Chen reflected on how guiding people’s desires could change the world and began to grasp a thread of the power of law.
• Li Chen built the machines and planned to use his own magic power to accelerate Xia Ziyi’s meridian circulation tenfold.
• Xia Ziyi worried that the accelerated cultivation would destabilize his foundation, and Li Chen explained that speed alone did not determine whether a foundation was solid.

Li Chen continued using the Xia family’s resources to strengthen Xia Ziyi and recruited Lin Xiangyue as an informant while avoiding directly altering their feelings. The Immortal Alliance arrived in Cloudstride City and began destroying Li Chen’s hidden assets, leaving him uncertain whether they had found him or were trying to flush him out.

• Li Chen completed the second phase of the Spirit-Particle Memory Meme implantation in Xia Ziyi and taught him some Puppet Dao knowledge and research methods.
• Xia Ziyi encountered Lin Xiangyue, and Li Chen used suggestions to recruit her to report unusual actions by the Lin Household.
• The Immortal Alliance cultivators arrived in Cloudstride City and demanded help from the local aristocratic clans in searching for someone.
• The Immortal Alliance destroyed Li Chen’s hidden surveillance devices and Signal Towers and placed the Market Fair under strict surveillance.
• Li Chen wondered whether the Immortal Alliance had identified him and whether its Nascent Soul Experts or Primordial Spirit Great Powers were involved.

Elder Fang ordered a renewed search for Li Chen’s puppet network, and Li Chen evaded the investigation by leaving Xia Ziyi before the investigators reached him. Xia Ziyi later discovered that the Bronze Ring and his valuables had disappeared.

• The Immortal Alliance cultivator warned the gathered city leaders that Li Chen had planted puppet cores and altered the memories of more than two hundred people posing as Li Bai.
• Elder Fang ordered the clans to inspect their treasuries with True-Sight Talismans, and they agreed after learning about Li Chen’s mind-reading and memory-altering abilities.
• Li Chen learned that investigators were searching for missing supplies that could aid primordial spirit recovery and decided not to risk staying near Xia Ziyi.
• The investigators found that secret potions were missing from the Xia Household’s treasury, but their True-Sight Talismans could not trace the theft back to Li Chen or Xia Ziyi.
• Li Chen removed his belongings from Xia Ziyi’s room and moved the Bronze Ring to a tree outside, escaping the investigation shaken but unharmed.
• Xia Ziyi noticed that Old Bai, the Bronze Ring, and his money and treasured materials were gone, and he cried out in dismay.

Li Chen helped Xia Ziyi use the Blood God Secret Cache and a Foundation Establishment Pill to reach foundation establishment. He then took Xia Ziyi out of the city and prepared to raise him to core formation using a false core.

• Li Chen returned with the Bronze Ring and explained to Xia Ziyi that he had hidden from the Immortal Alliance because powerful enemies backed them.
• Li Chen explained the Blood God Secret Cache and used the Puppet Dao's Creation-Promotion Secret Art to reshape Xia Ziyi's body and primordial spirit.
• Xia Ziyi used a Foundation Establishment Pill to achieve foundation establishment while Li Chen helped activate and record the secret art through the Auxiliary Brain.
• Li Chen told Xia Ziyi to disguise himself with Painted Skin and leave the city after daybreak.
• Xia Ziyi traveled to the desolate mountains, where the Mountain Ogre Corpse Puppet gave him the false core Li Chen planned to use for core formation.

Li Chen explained the value of the Dragon-Elephant Type A Psychic-Energy False Core and transplanted it into Xia Ziyi, advancing him to Core Formation. After waking Xia Ziyi, Li Chen sent him to register their departure so they could hunt a great monster for a new Core Formation avatar.

• Li Chen told Xia Ziyi that the Dragon-Elephant Type A Psychic-Energy False Core cost over ten billion talisman coins and explained how clans spent wealth to cultivate and support their members.
• Xia Ziyi realized Li Chen was a Puppet Master using Puppet Dao methods to help him advance, and worried he could not repay the gift.
• Li Chen said Xia Ziyi should create value and bear the karma of receiving resources taken from heaven and earth.
• The mountain ogre corpse puppet brought Xia Ziyi to a hidden cave, where Li Chen transplanted the false core and modified his muscles, bones, and meridians.
• Li Chen woke Xia Ziyi and told him to register their departure so they could hunt a great monster and use it to make a new Core Formation avatar.

Li Chen took Xia Ziyi into the jungle to hunt the Great Monster and found it concealed in an underground cavern. After the demon fox attacked Xia Ziyi, Li Chen seized control of his body and subdued it, leaving it paralyzed.

• Li Chen explained that the Great Monster was unlikely to face another organized hunting party, and Xia Ziyi agreed to help kill it despite worrying about leaving home.
• Xia Ziyi used the Xia Household's Spirit Medicine Garden as a cover while Li Chen helped him adapt to his new strength with a Memory Meme.
• Li Chen explained how his Primordial Spirit Dharma Eye and divine sense could locate targets, then discovered the Great Monster hiding in a valley.
• Xia Ziyi entered the cavern and found a beautiful human-shaped figure, which attacked him with a fox tail.
• Li Chen took over Xia Ziyi's body, trapped the demon fox with the Earth-Covering Cloud-Banishing Banner, and beat it until it revealed its true form.
• Li Chen resisted the demon fox's attempt to beguile Xia Ziyi and severed its neural responses, leaving it paralyzed and twitching.

Li Chen defeated the Demon Fox and, after Xia Ziyi left the choice to him, killed it and possessed its body. He transformed into its human form and plundered its stored treasures, but planned to use a special chip and auxiliary brain while his primordial spirit recovered.

• Li Chen overpowered the Demon Fox, which begged for its life, while Xia Ziyi struggled with whether to kill it for his family's deaths.
• Xia Ziyi left the decision to Li Chen, who entered the Demon Fox's consciousness with a Primordial Spirit Virus and killed it.
• Li Chen possessed the Demon Fox's body, found it stiff and difficult to control, and used its Shapeshifting Formula to take human form.
• Li Chen said the body's poor compatibility with his primordial spirit would hinder its recovery and planned to refine a chip and auxiliary brain.
• Li Chen imitated the Demon Fox's aura and emptied its Demon Pellet and Minor Grotto-Heaven of their stored treasures.

Li Chen sent Xia Ziyi back to the city as bait for the Immortal Alliance while he took stock of the demon fox’s treasures and prepared to hide in its body. He discovered the fox was Hu Ze, a Heavenly Fox Clan agent from the Righteous Qi Continent entangled in a scheme involving the Demon God Palace, the Great Qian Dynasty, and the Myriad Demon Emperor.

• Li Chen told Xia Ziyi to return home, cultivate discreetly, and help gather spirit materials and information while Li Chen watched from the shadows.
• Li Chen revealed that he had raised Xia Ziyi’s cultivation to use him as bait for the Immortal Alliance and continued preparing other refuges against its pursuit.
• Li Chen found soul-returning grass among the demon fox’s treasures and used the Heavenly Demon Hide to disguise the fox’s body.
• Li Chen read the dying demon fox’s memories and learned that it was Hu Ze, a six-tailed Heavenly Fox serving the Demon God Palace under a mission from the Myriad Demon Emperor.
• Li Chen discovered that Hu Ze had links to the Great Qian Dynasty, including bloodline ties to the Duke of Pingqiu and a mission to sow chaos among humans.

Li Chen hid in Hu Ze’s domain in the underworld and used an intelligent avatar built from Hu Ze’s memories to command the demons gathering there. He ordered them to search for materials to nourish his primordial spirit and make Puppet Dao Creations, then asked for reports on human activity in the wilderness.

• Li Chen cultivated in seclusion while consolidating Hu Ze’s scattered demon forces in the underworld.
• Hu Xi, the Shiba Inu Demon, the Pheasant Demon, the Snake Woman, and other demons gathered at Hu Ze’s cavern.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar welcomed the demons and acted like Hu Ze, while Li Chen observed from within his spirit core.
• Li Chen inspected the demons’ transformation progress and found that Hu Xi had fully formed a Dao body, while the others remained at different stages.
• Li Chen ordered the demons to search their territories for spirit-nourishing materials and pure-aspect spirit crystals, then asked them to report unusual developments and human hunting parties.

Li Chen recited half of the Analects to Hu Ze’s demons, awakening their understanding and helping them refine their demonic auras. He realized that enlightening new students could advance him toward Grand Confucian status, while the scripture also strengthened his Primordial Spirit and aided his recovery.

• Li Chen learned about the demons’ resources and the lack of recent activity, then offered to teach them half a classic.
• Li Chen recited the Analects, and its words filled the cavern with golden radiance as the demons listened in rapt attention.
• The demons’ auras grew purer, and Snake Woman’s scales fell away as she absorbed the Transformation Elixir.
• Li Chen recognized that enlightening the demons could help him reach Grand Confucian status and glimpsed a path toward Sainthood.
• The recitation strengthened Li Chen’s Primordial Spirit and helped heal his old injuries, while the demons became too overwhelmed to hear more.

Li Chen completed the Analects before a gathering of demons, gaining a surge of literary fortune that transformed his primordial spirit and advanced his cultivation. He suspected that earning merit and the great dao’s recognition could let him become a Grand Confucian, and resolved to pursue that rank.

• Hu Xi tried to win Li Chen’s favor with grapes, but he tested her with an arithmetic problem she could not solve.
• Li Chen summoned the demons and beasts to hear him teach the final chapter of the Analects.
• As Li Chen recited, the gathered demons gained insights, while literary fortune strengthened his divine soul and magic power.
• Li Chen’s primordial spirit transformed, his cultivation advanced to the middle stage or beyond, and his injuries healed further.
• Li Chen concluded that completing the Analects could help him reach Grand Confucian rank if he earned merit and the great dao’s recognition.

Elder Fang received Great Elder Hong’s order to find Xia Ziyi, whom the Immortal Alliance suspected might be connected to Li Chen. In Cloudstride City, Xia Ziyi resisted the agents sent to seize him but was bound after Elder Fang’s vision of a meeting with his mother disrupted his transformation.

• Elder Fang’s subordinates reported no success finding Li Chen until headquarters ordered them to search for Xia Ziyi in Cloudstride City.
• Xia Ziyi continued secretly protecting Lin Xiangyue while planning to take her away and reveal his intentions to his lineage.
• A middle-aged man and two Sword Cultivators approached Xia Ziyi on a market street and demanded that he come with them.
• Xia Ziyi used Tendon-Breaking Finger to disable the two Sword Cultivators, but the middle-aged man stunned him with a strange bird’s cry and bound him with a golden rope.
• Elder Fang transmitted an image of himself speaking with Xia Ziyi’s mother into Xia Ziyi’s mind, causing Xia Ziyi’s aura to falter as he prepared to transform.

Elder Fang confronted Xia Ziyi about his false core and possible connection to the puppet Dao, then explained Li Chen’s methods and asked him to cooperate with the Immortal Alliance’s investigation. After discovering Mechanism Puppets in the Xia Residence, Fang suspected Li Chen was monitoring them and decided to recruit Xia Ziyi and the Xia Household rather than act against them.

• Elder Fang questioned Xia Ziyi about his Core Formation and possible ties to Li Chen and the puppet Dao.
• Elder Fang used a True-Sight Talisman to reveal the dragon-elephant false core in Xia Ziyi’s Dantian.
• Elder Fang explained the investigation and Li Chen’s powers, and Xia Ziyi agreed to cooperate.
• Immortal Alliance cultivators reported finding Mechanism Puppets in the Xia Residence, confirming Li Chen had been there.
• Elder Fang warned that the Immortal Alliance should avoid destabilizing the underworld and ordered Xia Ziyi and the Xia Household summoned into its ranks.

Li Chen strengthened more than a hundred demon beasts while recovering memories from his past and present lives through his cultivation and work transcribing classics. Elder Fang awakened Xia Ziyi’s true memories, and the search for Li Chen soon pointed toward Barren Mountain.

• Li Chen used Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting and a Three-Star Furnace to enhance more than a hundred demon beasts to Foundation Establishment-level strength.
• Li Chen copied classics and poems with the demons, deepening his Primordial Spirit and recovering memories from both his previous life and his present one.
• Elder Fang used a truth-peering spell to awaken Xia Ziyi’s true-self spirit.
• Xia Ziyi remembered his strange experiences, including the Mechanism Puppet, the ring, and the mountain ogre Corpse Puppet.
• A messenger told Elder Fang that Li Chen might be hiding in Barren Mountain east of Cloudstride City.

Elder Fang led Xia Ziyi and the Immortal Alliance to confront the Red-Faced Mountain Ogre, whom Xia recognized as Li Chen’s incarnation. While the alliance fought Li Chen’s modified beasts, Li Chen prepared to advance in a secluded valley and ordered his followers to guard him.

• Elder Fang brought Xia Ziyi and the other cultivators to the modification site in Eastern Barren Mountain, where he told Xia that the Puppet Dao had been exploiting him.
• The Red-Faced Mountain Ogre appeared amid a horde of giant Demon Beasts, and Xia recognized him as Elder Bai.
• Elder Fang accused Li Chen of deceiving Xia and offered Li Chen a place in the Immortal Alliance, including the prospect of becoming an Artifact Dao Grandmaster or Supreme Elder.
• Li Chen’s modified beasts fought the Immortal Alliance’s twelve Core Formation Cultivators while the Red-Faced Mountain Ogre faced them at the battlefield.
• Ten thousand li away, Li Chen used Hu Ze’s Body to prepare for advancement and ordered his enhanced demons and Demon Beasts to keep humans away from the mountain.

Elder Fang and the Immortal Alliance cultivators fought through the forest toward Li Chen, only to be confronted by demons wielding the Confucian Literary Dao. When Elder Fang rushed to intercept a Grand Confucian, the Earth-Covering Cloud-Banishing Banner sealed him inside the Grotto-Heaven with an elegant young gentleman.

• Elder Fang led the Immortal Alliance group east after the cultivators reported that they had defeated the Demon Beasts blocking their way.
• The group encountered a vast host of Modified Demon Beasts, including the Black Bear Demon, who recited a Confucian greeting as the demons unleashed Literary Dao attacks.
• Elder Fang struggled to repel the demons' Lip Spears, Tongue Swords, and poetic assaults, then spotted purple qi rising from a distant mountaintop.
• Elder Fang charged past the demon defenses to stop the apparent Grand Confucian, but the Earth-Covering Cloud-Banishing Banner sealed the Grotto-Heaven and trapped him inside.
• Elder Fang saw an elegant young gentleman reading from a Bamboo Scroll and reciting about destiny, propriety, and understanding words.

Li Chen attained the status of a Grand Confucian and manifested a Literary Palace filled with Sage Dao purple qi, leaving Elder Fang unable to reconcile his Confucian aura with his apparent Demon King disguise. When Elder Fang attacked, Li Chen exchanged blows with him and left him gravely injured with Command the Mountains and Rivers.

• Li Chen's literary fortune transformed into a Literary Palace, marking his attainment as a Grand Confucian.
• Elder Fang questioned Li Chen's identity, then decided to capture him, believing he was connected to Li Chen's whereabouts.
• Li Chen sensed Elder Fang's intent and summoned a vast river with a Tang poem.
• Elder Fang froze the flood and struck Li Chen's Literary Palace with the Mystic Yin God-Slaying Blade.
• Li Chen endured the strike and countered with Command the Mountains and Rivers, devastating Elder Fang's body and divine soul.