Chapter Summaries

Li Chen arranged for the Creation Sect to support his operations in the Righteous Qi Continent and sought resources from the Duke of Pingqiu’s Residence. When he arrived in Wushan City, the Yan family’s array tried to restrain Hu Ze’s body, but Li Chen broke through and confronted Yan Zheng.

• Shen Longcheng agreed to prepare a new Seven-Star Mechanical Body, establish a secret communication line, and provide Li Chen with Confucian Dao materials.
• Li Chen gave Shen Longcheng his transcriptions and cultivation notes, saying they had helped him reach the Grand Confucian Realm and might let him become a Second Sage.
• After receiving a reduced offer from the Duke of Pingqiu’s Residence, Li Chen rejected it and flew to Wushan City to confront Yan Zheng.
• The Yan family’s magic array restrained Hu Ze’s body, but Li Chen used his Nascent Soul Middle Stage power to break free.
• Li Chen landed in the duke’s rear courtyard, where Yan Zheng recognized Hu Ze, and Li Chen claimed to be Yan Zheng’s Grand Ancestor Uncle.

Li Chen used Hu Ze’s identity to negotiate with Yan Zheng for artisans and laborers, intending to recruit them into the Puppet Dao and establish a Branch Base. He then sent the Bone Kun Warship on a voyage to the Vermilion Sea to serve as a hidden base.

• Li Chen, posing as Hu Ze, persuaded Yan Zheng to provide fewer funds and laborers but recruit at least a thousand artisans.
• After Hu Ze left, Yan Zheng told Mei'er he had successfully fooled the demon fox and planned to hire slave workers.
• Li Chen revealed that he had bargained for artisans to teach the Puppet Dao and build a Branch Base, while planning to conceal his industrial expansion.
• Li Chen returned to his mansion and continued establishing the Cosmic Dao Beacon to fix the warship’s location.
• Li Chen ordered the Bone Kun Warship to sail through the Chaos Void toward the Vermilion Sea.

Yan Zheng and Yang Zhi visited Li Chen, disguised as Hu Ze, and proposed rules for relations between humans and demons, including a border market. Li Chen accepted while secretly planning to use the trade to connect with the outside world and develop his Puppet Dao plans.

• Yan Zheng and Yang Zhi arrived at Li Chen’s residence with a large procession and waited while the lesser demons announced them.
• Yang Zhi proposed three ground rules: protect local people, restrain the demons, and establish a border market for trade.
• Li Chen recognized that the promise of a Demon Immortal investiture was unreliable and that the proposed trade could exploit the demons.
• Li Chen pretended to accept the proposals and left the market’s details to Yang Zhi and Yan Zheng.
• After they departed, Li Chen planned to use the border market to contact outsiders, attract mountain folk, and develop the Art of a Hundred Crafts of the Puppet Dao.

Han Li advanced her swordsmanship while Li Chen demonstrated a trick with spatial technology and explained how cultivators used knowledge to make feats seem miraculous. Li Chen then received more than twelve hundred slave workers and artisans, provided them with food and clothing, and called the Puppet Masters forward.

• Han Li practiced the Sword Dao, mastered Yi Shoots Down Nine Suns, and struggled to control The Emperor's Chariot Soars with the Dragon.
• Li Chen caught a distant carp on a bare fishing line using a Waymarker and fish-attracting pheromones, then explained the trick to Han Li.
• Li Chen went to the front courtyard to receive more than twelve hundred slave workers and artisans escorted by the Yan Clan's men.
• Li Chen dismissed the escorts and conjured food and clothing for the hungry, ragged workers.
• Ten Puppet Master Craftsmen and more than a hundred Puppeteer Apprentices stepped forward when Li Chen called for them.

Li Chen organized the Puppet Masters into construction and fabrication roles, then improved their plans with his own expertise and Worker Bee Puppets. He gave Hong Xu and his group a separate assignment to analyze the demons in the mountain forests.

• Li Chen questioned the craftsmen and appointed Guan Qingshan to lead the mansion renovation, Li Kuixing to oversee casting, and Luo Yue to manage the inner household and project resources.
• Li Chen reviewed Guan Qingshan's construction plans, corrected their layout and schedule, and supplied workers, machinery, and Worker Bee Puppets.
• Li Kuixing, Luo Qing, and the others reported their plans, which Li Chen optimized using his computational ability.
• Li Chen summoned Hong Xu and assigned him and the Puppet Masters a gene sequencing and blood essence analysis project involving demons from the mountain forests.

Hong Xu’s Life Information Research Institute completed its collection of demon-beast samples, while Li Chen tested the growing physical power of his mutated dharma body and considered its dangers. After reviewing the completed basic database, Li Chen entered the Puppet World Heavenly Net.

• Hong Xu and his assistants implanted chips and sensors in a tiger, collected its blood, and sent the resulting data to the mansion.
• Hong Xu’s team wondered whether an expert behind King Hu Ze was using Puppet Dao methods to study the demon beasts.
• Li Chen manifested his mutated dharma body and tested its strength by smashing a waterfall and nearby cliffs with its tentacles.
• Li Chen reflected that the dharma body could shift between substance and illusion, greatly increasing his combat strength while exposing him to the danger of mental corruption.
• Li Chen reviewed the final batch of data, concluded that the basic sample database was complete, and entered the Puppet World Heavenly Net.

Li Chen entered the puppet world heavenly net to commission Feng Lin to analyze Qi Refining demon-beast data for research into enhancement secret potions and artificial cultivation. After arranging the commission and buying knowledge and supplies, he logged off because his connection was consuming too much energy.

• Li Chen entered the Creation Secret Realm’s virtual reality and saw that the puppet world heavenly net had spread to more Puppet Masters and Wilderness Rogue Cultivators.
• Li Chen posted a research commission restricted to Grand Artisans and above, and Feng Lin recognized him from their shared Grand Artisan Assessment.
• Li Chen hired Feng Lin to analyze Qi Refining demon-beast data and discussed possible future Body Deconstruction research on stronger demons and monsters.
• Feng Lin offered to involve other specialists, including Grandmaster Artisan Tang Sheng'an, and Li Chen agreed to let her handle the work.
• Li Chen arranged a deposit, exchanged for knowledge about demon beasts, the Confucian Dao, martial dao, the Righteous Qi Continent, and the Great Qian dynasty, then placed purchases to be forwarded to the Bone Kun Warship.
• Li Chen logged off when the magic array in his courtyard began drawing on his own magic power.

Li Chen expanded the King of Pingqiu's mansion into a fortified mechanical base and built a vast puppet network, but his efforts depended on rare materials and a Heavenly Pivot Subunit he did not yet have. When his mining operation disturbed a Mountain God Temple, Huang Yan reported that the Mountain God had taken the worker who fired the cannon.

• Li Chen completed much of the mansion's expansion and secretly built an underground fortress with mechanical factories.
• Li Chen controlled hundreds of thousands of puppet and monitoring-device threads, leaving him unable to travel far from the mansion without a Mind Core.
• Li Chen used spirit crystal essence to craft tiny computational chips, then discovered he had run out of suitable materials.
• Li Chen ordered a trusted Leopard Demon to demand spirit crystals, black iron, spirit iron, and refined gold from the Yan Clan.
• Huang Yan contacted Li Chen and reported that blasting at the mine had disturbed a Mountain God Temple and that the Mountain God had taken the cannon operator.

Li Chen investigated a disturbance in his territory and discovered it had been caused by an old locust tree spirit who had entered the Incense Apotheosis path. After sparing her in exchange for tribute and help recruiting nearby spirits, he considered seeking Fairy Zhang Hua’s support and reaching into the Great Qian’s dragon vein.

• Li Chen sent two Transformed Demons to investigate a reported mountain god while he reflected on the Great Qian’s apotheosis system and the Righteous Qi Continent’s cultivation and governance.
• The Transformed Demons returned with a captured old woman whose yin spirit had taken the form of a locust tree and whose cultivation was at Foundation Establishment.
• The old locust tree spirit explained that she had gained apotheosis after helping a lost hunter and had only recently learned that the miners she disturbed were Li Chen’s followers.
• Li Chen spared the old locust tree spirit and ordered her to pay tribute, submit her mountain to his jurisdiction, share her Incense Apotheosis Method insights, and contact nearby spirits.
• Li Chen considered broadening his alliances beyond bird and beast demons and seeking help from Fairy Zhang Hua, possibly to reach into the Great Qian’s dragon vein.

Li Chen studied the locust-tree spirit’s incense-and-fire cultivation method and considered how to investigate beings made entirely of divine soul and magic power. When Grandmother Huai brought him the ghost Yu’er as a concubine, he accepted her as a specimen and used Soul Deconstruction to uncover her past.

• Li Chen examined the incense-and-fire method and concluded that its techniques could aid his Primordial Spirit Projection, though he wanted a way to dissect spiritual beings.
• Grandmother Huai returned to Pingqiu King's Residence with Yu’er, a peak Qi Refining ghost she offered to Hu Ze.
• Li Chen accepted Yu’er and sent Grandmother Huai away, while privately intending to study the ghost.
• Li Chen pretended to welcome Yu’er, then restrained her and used Soul Deconstruction to read her memories.
• Li Chen learned that Yu’er had died of illness in a desolate village and become a ghost after being buried in a place of Yin baleful energy.

Li Chen used Yu'er to experiment with a soul-level mental imprint while considering how to secure official incense offerings for Grandmother Huai. At the end of the year, he completed a teleportation array in his underground base and successfully brought a metal crate through it.

• Li Chen judged that Grandmother Huai and Yu'er could pursue divine cultivation through incense offerings, then planted a pseudo-root Dao art in Yu'er's mind as an experiment.
• Hu Xi grew jealous of Yu'er and asked Li Chen to summon several fox demons from Zhang Mountain, but he put off the decision until a future visit.
• Li Chen completed an underground secret base and built a teleportation array for transporting physical matter.
• Li Chen powered up the array, opened the Void Gate, and brought a silver-white metal crate into the underground city.

Li Chen completed his secret base by installing the Heavenly Pivot Subunit and awakening Queen Bee No. 7, freeing himself to deal with threats across his territory. He set out to punish the Skeleton Great General at an ancient battlefield, arriving above the Netherworld Ghost Domain.

• Li Chen inspected the containers of supplies, equipment, and research instruments delivered to his underground base, then awakened Queen Bee No. 7 and sent it to its Insect Hive.
• Li Chen installed the Heavenly Pivot Subunit and delegated repetitive work, allowing him to address mounting problems across his holdings.
• Li Chen reviewed the threats posed by Grandmother Huai, the Aquatic Race Great Monsters, Black Tiger, the Skeleton Great General, the Yan Clan, and the Demon God Palace.
• Li Chen decided to consolidate Demon Race forces across the surrounding regions and chose the Skeleton Great General as his first target after the Great Monster killed his messenger.
• Li Chen flew to the ancient battlefield, where his Dharma Eye revealed the dark, baleful Netherworld Ghost Domain below.

Li Chen used Hu Ze's avatar and the mutated Dharma Body to crush the Skeleton Great General and its forces. After killing the bone demon, he ordered the surviving spirits and demons to submit, leaving him to gather its former territory under his control.

• Li Chen challenged the Skeleton Great General, a bone demon from the Nine Netherworld, for defying his commands and killing his envoy.
• Hu Ze's six tails, empowered by Li Chen's mutated Dharma Body, shattered the bone demon's attack and devastated its troops with Corrupting Shadow.
• Li Chen considered the danger of the Dharma Body's chaotic influence and resolved to remain cautious about its power.
• Li Chen found the injured bone demon and killed it after it begged for mercy.
• Li Chen ordered the bone demon's nearby followers to submit or die.

Li Chen used overwhelming force and his claim of kinship with the Demon Empress to pressure the rulers of the Five Great Lakes into meeting him about joining his Demon Kingdom. He then traveled north to find King Black Tiger and discovered she was a tigress.

• Li Chen ordered the region’s shapeshifting Demons to report to Pingqiu King's Residence by the last day of the month and flew toward the Five Great Lakes.
• Li Chen scorched the lake with sun ash, forcing King Iron Armor to emerge, and burned through her armor when she attacked him with a Water Dragon Wave.
• King Iron Armor recognized Li Chen as the King of Pingqiu and agreed that the seven Great Monsters of the Five Great Lakes would meet him at his residence on the last day of the month.
• Li Chen traveled into the northern mountains, used his primordial spirit dharma eye to locate King Black Tiger, and discovered that she was a tigress.

Li Chen confronted a proud tiger demon who refused to submit, then faced her hidden attack using chang ghosts. After dispersing the ghosts, he still could not locate the tigress, and the ghosts reformed to attack him.

• Li Chen identified the tigress as a great monster and ordered her to submit, but she refused and challenged his authority.
• The tigress filled the valley with mist, sent chang ghosts after Hu Ze's Avatar, and vanished using her innate concealment ability.
• Li Chen used the Primordial Spirit Virus and pseudo-root dao art to disrupt the chang ghosts, causing them to dissolve into black vapor.
• Li Chen searched for the tigress with his dharma eye but could only detect her fading aura.
• The chang ghosts reformed and launched mind-powered attacks at Li Chen.

Li Chen analyzed the tigress demon’s ability to restore shattered chang ghosts and suspected it involved Divine Soul Derivation. After disrupting their regeneration with his Corrupting Shadow, he realized ordinary divine sense attacks could also defeat them and set out to find the tigress, who had fled.

• Li Chen examined the chang ghosts’ recovery and considered how Divine Soul Derivation might relate to the creation of primordial spirits.
• Li Chen attacked with his mutated dharma body’s Corrupting Shadow, scattering the chang ghosts and infecting them with chaotic root information.
• The tigress demon’s attempt to restore the chang ghosts failed when they crumbled apart under the Corrupting Shadow’s influence.
• Li Chen realized he could defeat the chang ghosts with ordinary divine sense attacks and concluded that the tigress had retreated from the battlefield.
• Li Chen searched the area with his Primordial Spirit Dharma Eye and flew toward a mountain valley to pursue the tigress.

Li Chen tracked down and subdued the Black Tiger demon, ordering her to report to the Pingqiu King's Residence by the end of the month. After returning home, he sought research on Tiger Race stealth and chang ghosts so he could study both with her cooperation.

• Black Tiger fled through Wedge Valley after Hu Ze's Avatar wounded her, but Li Chen followed her to her demon lair.
• Li Chen exposed Black Tiger's hiding place by setting the valley ablaze and attacked her with his battle spear and soul-shaking divine thunder.
• Li Chen defeated Black Tiger and forced her to submit, ordering her to report to the Pingqiu King's Residence on the last day of the month.
• Li Chen traveled around subduing other demons who had resisted or hesitated to submit, then returned home.
• Li Chen posted bounties in the Puppet World Heavenly Net's communication center for knowledge about countering Tiger Race stealth and for research materials on chang ghosts.

Hu Ze hosted a grand gathering of human officials, local powers, and demon leaders as he pursued the establishment of a Demon Kingdom. The arrival of King Black Tiger of Black Wind Ridge left the gathering poised to continue.

• Nature spirits decorated Pingqiu King's Residence and prepared a banquet for Hu Ze's guests.
• Yan Zheng and Yang Zhi discussed Hu Ze's political skill, his ties to the Demon Empress, and the court's petition to grant him a title.
• The lords and renowned experts of the Flat Hill Demon Kingdom arrived, including King Demon Dragon and several great monsters.
• The Ironblood Stronghold chiefs arrived, startling the Great Qian officials with evidence of their ties to Hu Ze.
• An announcer declared the arrival of King Black Tiger of Black Wind Ridge.

Li Chen welcomed King Black Tiger, whose real name was Black Spirit, to Hu Ze’s gathering, then received imperial envoys who invested Hu Ze as the King of Pingqiu. Hu Ze accepted the royal seal and gained an Aura of Kingship from Great Qian’s Dragon Vein.

• Black Spirit arrived at the hall and saluted Hu Ze’s Avatar as the King of Pingqiu.
• Yang Zhi and Yan Zheng assessed Black Spirit’s strength and wondered how Hu Ze had subdued her.
• Li Chen announced the arrival of imperial envoys and led the gathered humans and demons outside to meet them.
• Lord Lan read the imperial edict investing Hu Ze as the King of Pingqiu, and Hu Ze’s Avatar knelt to receive it.
• Hu Ze accepted the Golden Seal and was surrounded by the blue-and-purple Aura of Kingship formed from Great Qian’s Dragon Vein.

Li Chen celebrated his formal investiture as King of Pingqiu and learned that his imperial rank let him establish a court and appoint officials. After the ceremony, he consulted Shen Longcheng about the royal seal and dynasty fortune, leaving Shen stunned that the investiture had truly happened.

• The imperial decree and golden seal formally made Li Chen the King of Pingqiu, shocking officials and guests while the demons celebrated.
• Yang Zhi recognized the royal aura as a source of fortune-based cultivation provisions, while Li Chen calmly greeted the imperial envoy and guests.
• Eunuch Yu explained that Li Chen could use his rank to establish offices, appoint officials, invest subjects, and form a court within his commandery kingdom.
• Li Chen decided to use Fairy Zhang Hua's support to build a loyal power base and cultivate ties with palace eunuchs for intelligence.
• After the ceremony, Li Chen studied his royal seal and contacted Shen Longcheng, who was astonished that Li Chen had become a commandery king of Great Qian.