Chapter Summaries

Li Chen advanced through the Deification Method, then destroyed his divine seat and absorbed the prayer power to prevent it from influencing him. Later, he reviewed his work on a new infectious Wisdom Dao creation, the Taibai Worship Meme, designed to spread idol fanaticism.

• Li Chen ended his gathering in the Sacred Capital and departed by boat with Xiao Qian as admirers declared they would serve him.
• Li Chen contacted Great Elder Shen and explained how incense, prayer power, and the Deification Method had accelerated his cultivation.
• Li Chen warned Shen Longcheng that divine seats could warp people’s emotions and will, then shattered his own divine seat and absorbed its prayer power.
• By late June, Li Chen reviewed reports through Hu Ze’s Avatar, learning that the Dragon Child in Hu Meiniang was developing and Queen Bee No. 7 had deployed in nearby forests.
• Li Chen developed the Taibai Worship Meme, an infectious primordial spirit virus intended to spread fanatic devotion and reshape society.

Li Chen used the white meme to infect wild bees and test whether creatures without intelligence could develop faith and produce incense and fire prayer power. The experiment succeeded, drawing prayer power from the bees and opening a path toward his plans for the Insect Race.

• Li Chen examined the white meme, learned how it could intensify worship and affection, and absorbed its stock solution into his body.
• Li Chen infected a wild bees' nest with the white meme and reasoned that bees, ants, and mushrooms might be made to worship Taibai.
• Li Chen considered using the Insect Race Legion and virtual characters to gather prayer power, with the Insect Race fetus in Empress Dowager Hu's womb as a possible path to the necessary authorities.
• Li Chen recited a poem, cultivated feelings of praise for the bees, and activated the Primordial Spirit Virus with the Sea Emperor's power.
• Wild bees produced incense and fire prayer power that gathered toward Li Chen, confirming his experiment had succeeded.

Li Chen developed plans to spread the white meme through the Righteous Qi Continent as part of an unrestricted war against the Outer Dao, while investigating how fortune power was generated and transferred. As the five princes’ coalition advanced on the Sacred Capital, Hu Ze proposed taking the fight to the other princes before they could join the siege.

• Li Chen spread the white meme through an insect swarm and confirmed that it generated incense and fire prayer power and attracted fortune power.
• Li Chen told Shen Longcheng that the Puppet Dao should wage unrestricted warfare and asked for secret research into modified birds that could spread the white meme through the Righteous Qi Continent.
• Shen Longcheng agreed to find suitable experts, and Li Chen planned to select local species and multiple infection routes while keeping the project concealed.
• Li Chen found that the white meme infected intermediate-state bodies poorly and considered future research into transmitting it to spirit bodies and virtual personalities.
• The five princes’ combined armies captured routes toward the Sacred Capital, and many imperial troops surrendered and joined them.
• Emperor Kangping summoned Hu Ze to prepare the military, and Hu Ze proposed using the War Dragon Army to hold the coalition while he attacked the other princes approaching the capital.

Li Chen used Hu Ze to secure support for a campaign against the regional rebels, then launched a rapid offensive into Prince Gong’s territory. At the Earl of the Beautiful River’s underwater residence, Li Chen and Hu Ze prepared to confront the River God, who had sided with Prince Gong.

• Li Chen spoke through Hu Ze and persuaded court factions to let him direct the military campaign without interference.
• Hu Ze received authority and supplies, then led the Plain Hill Army southwest toward Prince Gong’s territory.
• Li Chen’s forces used Great Monsters and White Jade Mantis demons to launch rapid attacks on more than a hundred cities.
• At Beautiful Prefecture City, Li Chen discovered that local prayer power supported Prince Gong and identified the Earl of the Beautiful River as his ally.
• Hu Ze and Li Chen concealed themselves and entered the river, reaching the Earl’s underwater residence.

Li Chen secretly killed the Earl of the Beautiful River and transferred the River God office to King Demon Dragon, then used the Dragon Palace’s forces to seize Beautiful Prefecture City. Prince Gong discovered the loss of his home base while marching toward the Imperial Capital and blamed Hu Ze for deceiving him.

• Li Chen entered Lishui Dragon Palace with Hu Ze's Avatar and four Desolate Beast Battle Puppets, then ambushed and killed the Earl of the Beautiful River.
• Li Chen used his court authority to appoint King Demon Dragon as Lishui’s Orthodox God, giving him control over the river’s waters.
• Li Chen and King Demon Dragon impersonated the River God, redirected the Dragon Palace’s forces, and launched a night raid on Beautiful Prefecture City.
• Li Chen’s forces killed the officials who could command the city defenses and took control of the Provincial Prefecture.
• Prince Gong learned of the takeover while marching north toward the Imperial Capital and accused Hu Ze of deceiving him.

Li Chen’s forces seized control of Beautiful Prefecture City, appointed new Orthodox Gods, and prepared to face Prince Gong’s returning army. As Prince Gong besieged the city and sought help from Aristocratic Clans inside, Li Chen led a surprise attack backed by Nie Chen’s Fourfold Mantra.

• Black Spirit and Hu Ze’s forces destroyed the local gods opposing them, and Li Chen appointed his followers to divine offices in Li Prefecture.
• Li Chen sensed an elite army approaching, while Nie Chen reported that they had gained control of the City-Guarding Grand Formation.
• Hu Ze ordered the troops to prepare for Prince Gong’s return and summoned forces outside the city to gather there.
• Prince Gong returned with powerful experts, demanded Hu Ze surrender, and waited for Aristocratic Clans inside Beautiful Prefecture City to coordinate an attack.
• Li Chen secretly led an elite force around Prince Gong’s camp as Nie Chen used the Fourfold Mantra to empower their charge.

Li Chen used Hu Ze's Avatar and the Mysterious Nonbeing Art to break through Prince Gong's defenses and attack him amid a battle between their forces. Prince Gong’s protectors tried to expose the illusion, but Hu Ze killed him and taunted them.

• Li Chen marveled at the Qimen Dunjia battle formation’s empowering force as Hu Ze’s troops engaged Prince Gong’s army.
• Prince Gong’s scholars summoned Divine Dao Heavenly Soldiers and giant strongmen, slowing Hu Ze’s forces.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar used the Mysterious Nonbeing Art to pass through attacks and reach Prince Gong’s carriage.
• Hu Ze shattered the carriage and wounded Prince Gong, then pursued him through his guards’ formation.
• Men Zhong attacked an empty spot after Kong Nao warned that they were seeing an illusion, but Hu Ze killed Prince Gong and told them they had guessed wrong.

Hu Ze’s Avatar killed Prince Gong and defeated his forces, securing Li Prefecture and a vast store of cultivation resources. The chapter ended with Hu Ze and Li Chen inspecting the captured wealth, including large quantities of Divine Dao Silver Coins.

• Hu Ze’s Avatar seized Prince Gong from afar and killed him, triggering signs of his death across Li Prefecture and the Underworld Bureau.
• Men Zhong and Kong Nao fought Hu Ze’s Avatar while several of Prince Gong’s allies surrendered or fled.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar killed Kong Nao, Men Zhong escaped, and Prince Gong’s army collapsed and scattered.
• The next day, Hu Ze’s Avatar’s forces occupied Prince Gong’s camp, pursued his troops, accepted surrenders, and captured supplies and prisoners.
• Li Chen and Hu Ze’s Avatar inspected the spoils, including Divine Dao Silver Coins infused with incense and fire prayer power.

Hu Ze's Avatar and his officers inventoried Prince Gong's enormous stores of spiritual power, weapons, armor, and rare materials. Hu Ze then proposed using crime-redemption and office-donation levies to test local elites' loyalty and secure their wealth, leaving Li Prefecture under a mix of conciliation and coercion.

• Hu Ze's Avatar broke down a silver ingot and absorbed the spiritual energy and incense power sealed inside it.
• Officers reported Prince Gong's military supplies, captured artifact dao experts, over a hundred thousand sets of armor, and chests filled with valuable materials.
• Nie Chen suggested seizing the wealth of Li Prefecture's powerful families, but Hu Ze's Avatar rejected wholesale extermination and proposed levies instead.
• Hu Ze's Avatar introduced crime-redemption silver and office-donation silver as conditions for local clans and sects to prove their allegiance.
• Nie Chen explained that the levies would identify loyalists and resisters, while recalcitrant clans could be punished and their estates confiscated.

Li Chen arranged for the rescued artisans and slave workers to be assigned to Mount Li Camp, while planning to settle some of them in the Bone Kun Warship as part of his Sky City plan. He learned that defeating Prince Gong had earned him immense wealth, planned upgrades and military spending, and news of Hu Ze’s victory reached the realm as Men Zhong fled to Prince Kang.

• Li Chen summoned the captured Artifact Dao and Puppet Dao workers, including Master Artisan Ma, and decided to assign most of them to Mount Li Camp.
• Li Chen planned to move the rescued workers into the Bone Kun Warship’s satellite cities when his Sky City plan was ready, admitting that not everyone would qualify.
• Mei Xuan reported that Prince Gong’s seized treasures were worth at least two or three quadrillion Talisman Coins, with additional divine-path silver worth at least eight hundred trillion by spiritual energy measure.
• Li Chen directed Mei Xuan to use the wealth to expand war equipment, upgrade Xiao Die and Xiao Ying, and improve Heavenly Pivot, while keeping most divine-path silver out of the market.
• News of Hu Ze’s victory over Prince Gong spread, and Men Zhong fled north to Prince Kang with intelligence about Hu Ze’s strength.

Men Zhong warned Prince Kang that Hu Ze’s elusive art made him nearly impossible to attack, prompting orders to study and defend against him. Meanwhile, Li Chen consolidated control over Li Prefecture and chose Prince Yi as the next target.

• Men Zhong arrived at Prince Kang’s city with more than a thousand Fierce Martial Gate disciples seeking refuge.
• Men Zhong told Prince Kang and his advisers that Hu Ze had used an elusive secret art to kill Prince Gong amid an army of ten thousand.
• Prince Kang ordered his forces to investigate Hu Ze’s methods and prepare defenses against him.
• Li Chen learned that local clans and sects were submitting in response to crime-redemption and office-donation silver, while some remote groups remained defiant.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar told Nie Chen that their next campaign would target Prince Yi.

Li Chen secretly approached Prince Yi and found that a heavenly warning had prompted the prince and Mister Su to prepare extensive defenses. Li Chen bypassed their precautions, distracted the eunuch guarding the Nether-Revealing Mirror, and stole the treasure.

• Li Chen traveled ahead of the Plain Hill Army to Pingzhou Prefecture, unsettling Prince Yi through an unseen heavenly resonance.
• Prince Yi told Mister Su about a nightmare in which an invisible attacker hunted him, and Mister Su suspected Hu Ze's Secret Art.
• Prince Yi summoned his guards and Dingjia Divine Generals, while Mister Su arranged for the Nether-Revealing Mirror to watch him constantly.
• Li Chen entered Prince Yi's mansion using his Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting art and distracted the eunuch holding the mirror with a stream of digits.
• Li Chen struck the eunuch with the Brainwashing Technique and pocketed the Nether-Revealing Mirror while the onlookers failed to react.

Li Chen infiltrated Prince Yi’s chambers, discovered the prince’s vast wealth and brutal treatment of captured slave workers, and concluded that the Outer Dao’s resources had to be seized for his own Dao path to rise. He killed Prince Yi with a sudden strike.

• Li Chen absorbed an Artifact Dao treasure into his body and used it to locate Prince Yi and the hidden Core Formation guards.
• Li Chen secretly entered Prince Yi’s inner room and watched him allocate enormous sums on supplies, luxuries, and magical treasures.
• A scholar presented a list of escaped mine workers who had been recaptured, and Prince Yi ordered them all killed without mercy.
• Prince Yi approved funds to replace the workers and rewarded the overseers and guards who had crushed the escape attempt.
• Li Chen reflected on the Outer Dao’s wealth, cheap labor, and disregard for craftsmanship, then decided its resources must be seized.
• Li Chen struck Prince Yi from behind, and the prince fell and died.

After Prince Yi’s death threw Pingzhou Prefecture into disorder, Li Chen restored control and sent Hu Ze’s Avatar to Flower Mountain Mine. There, Pi Qiong and his guards abused the slave workers, and an alarm sounded just as they seized Lady Huang.

• Prince Yi’s death sparked a struggle among his commanders, while Li Chen used Imperial Court troops and donations to restore order and recover wealth.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar led Imperial Court troops toward Flower Mountain Mine to aid the cultivators and oppressed slave workers there.
• Chief Steward Pi Qiong blamed the workers for a riot, though his subordinates had provoked it by withholding rations, imposing punishments, and abusing their families.
• Pi Qiong’s patrol seized Lady Huang and threatened to put her husband Lin San on a list of alleged troublemakers.
• An alarm bell and the sound of gongs and drums startled the guards at the mine.

Hu Ze's Avatar and Han Li captured the Flower Mountain Mine, rescued its prisoners and workers, and destroyed the site. As Han Li questioned the oppression inherent in the world, Hu Ze's Avatar admitted he still lacked the strength to establish the ideal kingdom he envisioned.

• Han Li led Hu Ze's Avatar's demon troops and imperial soldiers in an assault on the Flower Mountain Mine, and Han Li killed overseer Pi Qiong.
• Hu Ze's Avatar ordered the rescued death-row prisoners, artisans, workers, and their families taken away, then had the mine stripped and burned.
• Han Li watched the mine burn and asked Hu Ze's Avatar why people oppressed one another and how power and wealth could be used selflessly.
• Hu Ze's Avatar discussed resistance, equality, and the difficulty of escaping the world's cycle of consuming resources, then said he was still too weak to pursue his ideal kingdom.

After Prince Yi’s assassination, Prince Kang joined forces with Prince Yong’s envoy to seek Hu Ze’s secrets and plot against him, while Li Chen prepared to target Prince Gu. Li Chen converted his spoils into supplies, mutant-demon blood, and rented war beasts, then waited for the next campaign to begin.

• Prince Kang learned of Prince Yi’s death and agreed with Wang Ran to share intelligence and cooperate against Hu Ze.
• Li Chen turned his attention to Prince Gu, the third rebel prince he planned to attack.
• Li Chen used Great Qian’s earth veins to transfer supplies to the Flat Hill Demon Kingdom and exchange them through the Puppet World Heavenly Net.
• Li Chen bought materials to upgrade Xiao Die, Xiao Ying, and Heavenly Pivot, and kept the Nether-Revealing Mirror and soul-returning grass from Prince Yi’s spoils.
• Li Chen acquired great wilderness ancient demon true blood to strengthen his expendable mutant demons.
• Li Chen spent another hundred trillion to rent ten Ancient Wilderness War Beasts, then waited for his preparations to be completed.

Li Chen infiltrated Prince Gu’s camp to assassinate him, but discovered his target was a stand-in and that the princes had lured him into a Dragon-Locking Formation. Surrounded by Great Qian’s forces, Hu Ze’s Avatar evaded their attacks and struck two Martial Kings, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Li Chen entered Prince Gu’s camp disguised as Hu Ze’s Avatar and killed a man in a yellow dragon robe, then discovered the man was an impostor.
• The camp’s horns sounded as spatial barriers closed around Hu Ze’s Avatar, and Men Zhong, Wang Ran, and other experts arrived to spring their trap.
• The attackers activated the Ten-Direction Dragon-Locking Well, using Great Qian’s Dragon Vein to imprison Hu Ze’s Avatar.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar recognized the trap and faced a joint assault from the assembled forces, including two Martial Kings and a barrage of poisoned arrows.
• Hu Ze’s Avatar’s illusion caused the attacks to pass through him, while his palm strike hit both Martial Kings and sent them flying.

Hu Ze and Li Chen used layered illusions and the Mysterious Nonbeing Art to outmaneuver the experts attacking them inside the Ten-Direction Dragon-Locking Well. Li Chen escaped and the Mutated Dharma Body sealed the well’s entrance, leaving the trapped fighters facing Hu Ze as he prepared to fight in earnest.

• Men Zhong and the others used secret treasures to see through Hu Ze’s mind realm and struck the Mutated Dharma Body, but its strange power disrupted their thoughts.
• The heavenly soldiers’ golden light cleared the group’s minds, yet the Mutated Dharma Body shifted positions and attacked, killing a Martial King and crushing over a hundred soldiers.
• Wang Ran and the other Grand Confucians wounded the Mutated Dharma Body with their secret arts, then realized the group had been deceived again.
• Li Chen emerged from the bottom of the well and escaped while the Mutated Dharma Body vanished and reappeared to block the entrance.
• The fighters realized an unfamiliar expert had been hiding with Hu Ze, while Hu Ze declared his intent to kill them and Wang Ran recognized that Li Chen was getting serious.

Li Chen used the True Mysterious Nonbeing Art to attack the coalition encircling him, exploiting their inability to perceive his movements. After he killed Wang Ran and Elder Gao, the coalition’s resolve collapsed and its members fled toward the Deep Well’s exit.

• Wang Ran warned the encircling experts that seeing through Li Chen’s illusions might not be enough, as Li Chen could move through gaps in space and time.
• Li Chen emerged from the void and wounded several Great Martial Masters before vanishing again.
• Li Chen ambushed Wang Ran with the Azure Dragon Horn, then crushed him with his mutated dharma body.
• Li Chen wounded Men Zhong and the attendants of Prince Gu and Prince Kang, then killed Elder Gao.
• Prince Kang’s attendant called for retreat, and the coalition members scattered toward the Deep Well’s exit.

Li Chen killed Men Zhong after the battle, while Wang Ran survived through a god-investiture ritual arranged by Prince Yong. As Hu Ze's fame spread and his enemies studied his methods, he and his advisers turned their attention to Prince Gu and the growing support for Hu Ze in Bingzhou.

• Li Chen charged Men Zhong, wounded him with hidden attacks, froze him with the Azure Dragon Horn, and swallowed him with his Mutated Dharma Body.
• Wang Ran's remains rose in a golden glow, and a decree from Prince Yong invested him as Wenqu Dharma King, preserving his spirit as a god.
• Reports of Hu Ze's victory over the nine enemies spread, revealing his Mysterious Nonbeing Art and drawing the attention of Great Qian's princes and powerful figures.
• Han Li worried that Hu Ze's enemies would learn to counter his Secret Art, but Hu Ze said his methods would keep improving and that superior strength would still prevail.
• Nie Chen advised Hu Ze to weaken Prince Gu by eliminating his commanders, while Hu Ze noted that Bingzhou's clans and sects were already approaching to switch sides.
• Hu Ze agreed to accept the support of the people and the groups seeking to oppose Prince Gu.