Chapter Summaries

Li Chen explained to Yu Bao that longevity and imperishability might depend on the nature of time, space, and entropy, and argued that the Book of Years could reveal their secrets. They reached the chamber holding the book, where Li Chen asked Yu Bao to share his findings.

• Li Chen described how beings pursuing longevity might become incomprehensible to mortals and explained that time was perceived through changes in matter.
• Yu Bao considered Li Chen's explanation of time and entropy but admitted he needed to study the ideas further.
• Li Chen argued that the Book of Years' ability to control local time could help reveal the path to longevity and imperishability.
• Yu Bao and Li Chen entered the secret chamber at Luli Academy, where the Book of Years rested on a metal platform.
• Li Chen asked Yu Bao to tell him what he had discovered about the Book of Years.

Li Chen learned that the academy’s book could manipulate time but remained difficult to activate, so he had Yu Bao continue researching it and pursue candidates with temporal abilities. Days later, Yu Bao’s team created a genuine dharma-ending zone, opening the way for Li Chen to investigate whether spirit materials could become semi-transcendent when drained of spiritual energy.

• Yu Bao reported that the book could accelerate, decelerate, or briefly stop time, but his team could not activate its possible power to reverse time.
• Li Chen discussed finding someone with a temporal dao spiritual root, then instructed Yu Bao to focus on materials research with their existing resources.
• Yu Bao and his team continued testing matter under accelerated and decelerated time and promised to report results through Heavenly Pivot.
• A few days later, Yu Bao’s team reported that they had created a laboratory environment with absolutely no spiritual energy.
• Li Chen considered using the dharma-ending zone to drain spiritual energy from materials and test whether mundane versions could be refined with his power of laws.

Li Chen examined Yu Bao and the others’ time-based formation, which used the Book of Years to create a barrier that drained spiritual essence from materials. After entering the accelerated region and testing samples, he failed to transform them at first, but eventually produced what seemed to be spirit iron stripped of its spirituality.

• Yu Bao explained how the formation used the Book of Years to magnify differences in time and block spiritual essence from tunneling across its boundary.
• Li Chen ordered the formation activated and entered its accelerated region after the blue indicators lit up.
• Li Chen used his divine sense and Confucian Dao abilities to analyze spirit materials and attempt to transform them, but his first effort failed.
• Li Chen waited as the formation continued draining spiritual essence, then produced a substance he identified as the spiritless form of spirit iron.

Li Chen confirmed that material treated through Cultivation Mortalization acquired an almost irreversible property that repelled spiritual essence and other supernatural power. Yu Bao and the others found that these materials could be exceptionally strong against magic, making them promising components for high-rank Mechanism Puppets, though their suitability still required verification.

• Li Chen tested the treated iron and found that it repelled spiritual essence after leaving the low-pressure formation, despite having absorbed it before.
• Li Chen explained the result to Yu Bao and the others, who compared it with previously extracted spirit-repelling materials.
• Yu Bao and the others concluded that the material resisted magic power and might be suitable for high-rank Mechanism Puppets, and Yu Bao promised further tests.
• Li Chen told Yu Bao and the others to compare it with other materials before making a decision that could affect his forces and the Ideal Heavenly Kingdom.
• Yu Bao and the others conducted five more extraction experiments, finding that spirit-repelling materials were easiest to obtain from gold-iron and minerals, while treated materials were brittle but far stronger against supernatural power.
• Yu Bao and the others failed to reverse the process and restore the materials to their original state.

Li Chen discovered that spirit-repelling treasured materials could form the basis of a new Puppet Dao system and began researching how to improve them. After testing grand void spirit iron and finding it physically weak, he planned to combine its resistance to magic with stronger materials, while addressing the dwindling supply of Temporal Dao materials needed for research.

• Li Chen named the new substances grand void materials, also called yin materials, and directed Yu Bao and the others to continue investigating them.
• Li Chen tested a cube of grand void spirit iron against the Kun Blood Warriors’ weapons and nuclear missiles, which eventually deformed and collapsed it.
• Mei Xuan praised the material’s defensive qualities, but Li Chen said it needed greater physical strength and heat resistance to become a qualified five-star material.
• Li Chen proposed combining spirit-repelling materials with other metals and searching for properties that could enable advanced Battle Puppets to fly and travel through the void.
• Mei Xuan warned that the Book of Years depended on scarce Temporal Dao materials, and Li Chen proposed sustaining it with secondary products.

Li Chen discovered that Grand Void Spirit Iron could support a major expansion of his puppet industry, then learned that the Cloud-Raising Immortal City had fallen during the Mount-Covering Campaign. Shen Longcheng asked him to help salvage or destroy the city, and Li Chen agreed, intending to make his Primordial Spirit strength known.

• Li Chen assessed Grand Void Spirit Iron's potential for mass-producing puppets and strengthening equipment, then uploaded its properties to the Puppet World and sought trading opportunities.
• Li Chen received news that the Puppet Masters had lost the Cloud-Raising Immortal City during their campaign against the Mount-Covering Sect.
• Shen Longcheng asked Li Chen to help rescue the city's people and resources or destroy the city before the Spell Dao could exploit it.
• Li Chen agreed to join the operation and set out to reach the campaign within three days.

The Cloud-Raising Immortal City had crash-landed after the Spell Dao damaged its propulsion, leaving it unable to fly and vulnerable to a renewed assault. Lin Yuanji struggled to defend it and waited for Great Elder Shen as hostile forces closed in.

• The Cloud-Raising Immortal City’s Grand Formation absorbed the crash, but its power reserves and connected facilities were badly damaged, and the city could no longer fly.
• Lin Yuanji learned that Spell Dao cultivators were advancing in coordinated formations and attacking the city with thunder, fire, and wind.
• Outer Dao forces and summoned Spell Cultivators approached from the crater, slipping through gaps in the damaged defenses as the Puppet Legion sent Battle Puppets to meet them.
• Lin Yuanji sensed hidden hostile presences watching him and restrained himself from joining the fighting.
• Lin Yuanji admitted the city could not hold much longer and asked when Great Elder Shen would arrive.

Shen Longcheng’s Sky-Reaching Divine Dragon battled Xiao Linyue while Cloud-Raising Immortal City endured another assault. As Lin Yuanji watched enemy reinforcements surround the city, a barrage of Blazing Sun Divine Thunder annihilated most of them, revealing that Puppet Master reinforcements had arrived.

• Shen Longcheng confronted Xiao Linyue through the Sky-Reaching Divine Dragon, and the two Great Powers traded attacks in the void without fighting to the death.
• Spell Dao forces launched another assault on Cloud-Raising Immortal City while Lin Yuanji helped oversee puppet repairs and supplies.
• Lin Yuanji learned that tens of thousands of enemy reinforcements had arrived and watched them surround the city.
• A barrage of Blazing Sun Divine Thunder struck the Immortal Alliance forces, wiping out nearly all of them and sending the surviving experts fleeing.
• Lin Yuanji recognized the attack as a Puppet Master method and realized that his side’s experts had arrived.

Li Chen arrived at Cloud-Raising Immortal City and annihilated the besieging cultivators with nuclear weapons and artillery. He revealed himself as a Primordial Spirit Realm Great Power and trapped two Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul Experts in golden bodies.

• Xiao Linyue and Shen Longcheng stopped fighting when nuclear bombs destroyed much of the army surrounding Cloud-Raising Immortal City.
• Lin Yuanji used the devastation to warn his disciples about the danger of war and resolved to rely on fortified cities and a Puppet Legion.
• Li Chen contacted Lin Yuanji, then used High-Speed Thunder Cannons and the Puppet Sisters to kill the surviving enemy cultivators.
• Two Immortal Alliance Nascent Soul Experts emerged and ordered Li Chen to stop, but he revealed his mutated dharma body and overwhelmed them with Corrupting Shadow.
• Li Chen transformed the two experts' bodies into grand void refined gold, trapping their primordial spirits and magic power.

Li Chen tested his Void Creation ability against Nascent Soul Experts before Xiao Linyue and other Immortal Alliance Great Powers arrived and attacked him and the Puppet Dao forces. As Lin Xi thrust his lightning sword at Li Chen, Li Chen summoned the Giant Kun into battle.

• Li Chen trapped Nascent Soul Experts in Grand Void Refined Gold and found that the Primordial Spirit Virus could still erode their Primordial Spirits.
• Xiao Linyue arrived and attacked Li Chen with moonlight, but he resisted with his Golden Body Transformation.
• Lin Xi and Dharma King Yuanhao joined Xiao Linyue, while Wu Fangdao and the Sky-Reaching Divine Dragon engaged the Immortal Alliance Great Powers.
• The Immortal Alliance Great Powers coordinated their attacks, and Lin Xi thrust a lightning sword at Li Chen while the others prevented Shen Longcheng and Wu Fangdao from intervening.
• Li Chen shouted, "Ship, come!" and the Giant Kun rose from the void.

Li Chen revealed the Giant Kun, an enormous armored warship, and used it to seize Cloud-Raising Immortal City before flying to the Mount-Covering Sect. The chapter ended with the Giant Kun crushing the sect’s Mountain Gate Grand Formation and headquarters.

• The Giant Kun burst into the battle and sent Lin Xi flying, while its armored shell withstood his attack and the Immortal Alliance’s assaults.
• Li Chen directed the Giant Kun to swallow Cloud-Raising Immortal City, and it carried the city away as Shen Longcheng and Wu Fangdao held off the pursuing Great Powers.
• The Giant Kun crossed the Star Sea in six hours and reached the Mount-Covering Sect’s headquarters.
• Li Chen brought the Giant Kun down on the Mount-Covering Sect’s Mountain Gate Grand Formation, crushing it flat.

Li Chen used the Bone Kun Warship to crush the Mount-Covering Sect’s mountain gate and rescue Cloud-Raising Immortal City, then began dismantling the sect’s territory. He left the Mount-Covering Sect’s blessed land devastated and forcibly dragged out its Fushan Grotto-Heaven.

• The Giant Kun shattered the Mount-Covering Sect’s Mountain Gate Grand Formation and crushed its buildings and peaks as the sect’s experts rescued disciples.
• Lin Yuanji and the Cloud-Raising Immortal City survivors watched Li Chen’s Bone Kun Warship and offered to cover the rescue’s expenses.
• Li Chen promised to help repair Cloud-Raising Immortal City after dismantling the Mount-Covering Sect’s mountain gates and spirit peaks.
• Li Chen merged his mind with Heavenly Pivot and the Giant Kun, then launched a barrage of nuclear missiles across the Mount-Covering Sect’s territory.
• Li Chen swallowed buildings and mountain peaks, then forcibly dragged the Fushan Grotto-Heaven out of the interstitial void.

Li Chen captured the Mount-Covering Sect’s blessed land and grotto-heaven with the Giant Kun, choosing not to massacre its people but to leave them as a burden for the Immortal Alliance. After discussing the strategic meaning of war with Lin Yuanji, Li Chen received Shen Longcheng’s order to withdraw and prepared to return in triumph.

• The Giant Kun swallowed the Mount-Covering Sect’s defenses, and its cultivators’ attacks could not damage it significantly.
• As the Mount-Covering Sect’s cultivators charged the Giant Kun’s mouth, a seven-colored Sun Divine Thunder struck them down.
• Li Chen explained to Lin Yuanji that war was a contest between groups and that sparing the sect’s people would burden the Immortal Alliance.
• Lin Yuanji wondered whether Spell Dao cultivators would still need to exist after the Immortal Alliance defeated them, but Li Chen did not answer.
• Shen Longcheng contacted Li Chen and told him it was time to leave, so Li Chen prepared to withdraw.

Li Chen offered to repair Cloud-Raising Immortal City for only three hundred trillion by using Worker Bee Puppets and grand void spirit iron, far below the estimated 1.8 quadrillion cost. Lin Yuanji and the Creation Sect leaders were stunned by the offer, leaving Lin Yuanji unsure whether to accept it.

• Lin Yuanji and Cloud-Raising Immortal City's senior figures thanked Li Chen and gave him temporal dao materials.
• Shen Longcheng and other Creation Sect leaders asked Li Chen how the city could be repaired when its estimated cost was at least 1.8 quadrillion.
• Li Chen pointed out that the dispute over ownership prevented the Creation Sect from simply funding Cloud-Raising Immortal City's repairs.
• Li Chen explained that his Worker Bee Puppets and grand void spirit iron could cut labor and materials costs, letting him handle the repairs for about three hundred trillion.
• Lin Yuanji described the damage to the Main Furnace and Power Cores, but Li Chen insisted the price would remain far below five hundred trillion.
• Lin Yuanji and the Puppet Dao Grandmasters were stunned by the estimate, and Lin Yuanji struggled to decide what to do.

Li Chen revealed that he had created Grand Void Spirit Iron with his Root Dao Art, producing a material with exceptional Spell Resistance at a fraction of ordinary costs. He planned to use it mainly for Sky Cities, and Shen Longcheng agreed that the innovation could greatly strengthen the Puppet Dao as they awaited Cloud-Raising Immortal City's renovation.

• A Creation Sect Grandmaster Artisan recognized Grand Void Spirit Iron and described its high Spell Resistance and low price to Lin Yuanji, Shen Longcheng, and the others.
• The Grandmaster Artisan revealed that Grand Void Spirit Iron cost only one hundred Talisman Coins per jun, far less than comparable materials.
• Shen Longcheng asked whether Li Chen had created the material, and Li Chen confirmed that his Root Dao Art had produced it.
• Li Chen explained that he would direct most of the supply toward large-scale projects such as Sky Cities rather than flooding the market or supplying individuals.
• Shen Longcheng offered his sect's Sky City renovation projects to Li Chen, who proposed showing the results after he had renovated Cloud-Raising Immortal City.

Li Chen rapidly rebuilt the Cloud-Raising Immortal City with grand void spirit iron, a fusion-powered furnace, and an intelligent management system, prompting Lin Yuanji to consider reforms. Immortal Alliance cultivators surveyed the nuclear contamination left by the Sun Divine Thunder and concluded that the Mount-Covering Sect could never be rebuilt.

• Li Chen used Worker Bee Puppets and a detailed plan from Heavenly Pivot to repair the Cloud-Raising Immortal City in less than half a month.
• Li Chen reinforced the city with grand void spirit iron, recast its Power Furnace, and installed an intelligent power grid managed by the Mind Core.
• Lin Yuanji praised Li Chen's methods and considered reforming the Cloud-Raising Immortal City to keep pace with the Dao of Mechanical Intelligence.
• Immortal Alliance cultivators surveyed the ruined Mount-Covering Sect and found radioactive contaminants poisoning the land, water, and living creatures.
• The Immortal Alliance cultivators judged the contaminated region unfit for habitation or rebuilding and declared the Mount-Covering Sect struck from the Immortal Register.

The Mount-Covering Sect learned that Li Chen, a newly ascended Great Power, had destroyed its home, while Elder Feng urged its survivors to abandon revenge and join the Immortal Alliance. Meanwhile, Li Chen and Lin Yuanji restored the Cloud-Raising Immortal City’s power core and successfully returned the city to flight, sending news of its revival racing across the Puppet World Heavenly Net.

• Elder Feng told the Mount-Covering Sect that Li Chen had destroyed its home and warned its survivors they had no chance of taking revenge.
• Li Chen completed the installation of the Cloud-Raising Immortal City’s Furnace and asked Lin Yuanji to ignite it.
• Lin Yuanji started the nuclear reactor, and the city’s power systems and auxiliary reactors came back online.
• Lin Yuanji ordered the Cloud-Raising Immortal City to take off, and it rose into the air to cheers from its inhabitants.
• The Cloud-Raising Immortal City flew out of the Giant Kun and headed back to the front lines as news of its revival spread across the Puppet World Heavenly Net.

Li Chen managed the supply of grand void spirit iron while considering the limits of pursuing a perfect material, then met younger Grand Artisans in the Creation Secret Realm. Seeing Bei Feng’s long-standing problems with Chip architecture, he realized he had neglected to develop the path he had introduced.

• Li Chen instructed Heavenly Pivot to answer inquiries about grand void spirit iron and keep its distribution regular, controlled, and beneficial to Puppet Masters.
• Li Chen reflected that materials needed weaknesses to remain practical to process, and questioned whether a perfect treasured material could ever see widespread use.
• Li Chen entered the Creation Secret Realm to review temporal Dao spirit materials and met Li Shengyuan, a newly qualified Grand Artisan.
• Li Shengyuan brought Li Chen to the Dao Debate Platform, where younger Grand Artisans gathered around him and Bei Feng asked for help with Chip architecture designs.
• Li Chen recognized that Bei Feng’s difficulties reflected his own failure to cultivate and develop the Chip path he had introduced.

Li Chen met Bei Feng and other practitioners, offering guidance and discussing his standing as a creator and Grandmaster Artisan. After Shen Longcheng reported that the Heavenly Works Court experts had arrived in Sea Eye City, Li Chen arranged for them to help remodel the Mount-Covering Sect’s seized grotto-heaven blessed land.

• Li Chen learned that Bei Feng had studied his works at Guangyun Academy and belonged to the Guangyun School, then encouraged him and gave him his contact details.
• Li Chen asked other practitioners about their accomplishments and offered to help them obtain information and materials for their research.
• Two Puppet Dao Masters arrived, paid their respects to Li Chen, and discussed current affairs, Cloud-Raising Immortal City, and his creation law.
• Li Chen told the Grandmaster Artisans that he had studied Heavenly Ghost's Return to the Hidden and might achieve a law related to artificial primordial spirits.
• Shen Longcheng told Li Chen that the Heavenly Works Court experts had arrived in Sea Eye City, and Li Chen arranged to have them help remodel the Mount-Covering Sect’s seized grotto-heaven blessed land.

Li Chen oversaw the Heavenly Works Court’s relocation of an upper-grade spirit peak into the Giant Kun, strengthening its inner world. After accepting a new sky-city renovation commission and explaining why he valued industrial work over maximum profit, he learned that the supplies needed to enter Equal Heaven were ready.

• The Heavenly Works Court elders transplanted the Mount-Covering Sect’s upper-grade spirit peak into the Giant Kun, expanding its grotto-heaven and strengthening its reserves.
• Mei Xuan discussed the spiritual resources lost during the abrupt relocation, and Li Chen explained that moving the remaining peaks would have been impractical.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that the Creation Sect had paid for Cloud-Raising Immortal City’s repairs and ordered renovations for Great Smelting Immortal City, and Li Chen accepted the commission.
• Li Chen told Mei Xuan that he took engineering commissions to train his Worker Bee Puppets and sustain large-scale infrastructure work, rather than merely maximize profits.
• Mei Xuan informed Li Chen that the supplies he had requested were ready, meeting the conditions for him to enter Equal Heaven.