Chapter Summaries

Hou Tao and his Rogue Cultivator squad used Materialized Heaven’s advanced weapons to rout a West River Gate patrol, then continued their mission and recovered a Battlefield Recorder. They learned it held intelligence gathered by a scouting puppet and prepared to return it to the main city district.

• Hou Tao’s six-man squad, equipped with Enhancement Modifications and hundreds of puppets, ambushed West River Gate disciples with overwhelming gunfire and explosives.
• Senior Brother Ma and the surviving disciples fled after the squad killed two of their companions.
• Hou Tao stopped his men from pursuing the retreating enemies and led them onward to complete their assigned mission.
• The squad reached a valley three hundred li away, where a mechanical spider puppet revealed a Battlefield Recorder after their identities were verified.
• Hou Tao took the Hard Drive and explained that it contained battlefield intelligence collected by the puppet before the squad set out to deliver it.

Hou Tao and his fellow Rogue Cultivators returned safely from a reconnaissance mission and received merit from Materialized Heaven. Their intelligence helped Li Chen identify the West River Gate as a strategic target, and he ordered Heavenly Pivot to prepare an attack.

• Hou Tao persuaded his companions that Materialized Heaven could help their descendants become skilled Puppet Masters, and the group traveled to the pickup point.
• A Flying Harrier carried Hou Tao and his companions away before an Immortal Alliance team arrived to investigate the vanished anomalous readings.
• Hou Tao's group submitted their reconnaissance information at the Market District terminal and received their merit.
• Li Chen studied the battlefield map and identified the West River Gate's ore veins and Spirit Peak as valuable assets.
• Li Chen ordered Heavenly Pivot to simulate the conquest of the West River Gate, then told it to contact Queen Bee Number Ten and begin producing troops.

Li Chen launched his plan to conquer Nine Ridges Mountain, sending a massive Insectoid Legion against the West River Gate defenses. Hou Tao and the other cultivators joined the battle, but the insects breached a Side Peak and forced the defenders to retreat toward Nine Ridges Mountain.

• Li Chen decided Nine Ridges Mountain could support a major frontline base and ordered Queen Bee Number Ten to attack after the hidden Insect Hive had developed its forces.
• Materialized Heaven transported waves of insect troops to Nine Ridges Mountain while cultivators, including Hou Tao and his companions, arrived to fight behind enemy lines.
• Hou Tao and the others witnessed tens of thousands of Flying Ya and Hunting Hounds assault a Side Peak defended by West River Gate disciples.
• The West River Gate disciples killed many insects, but more kept arriving and some evolved by consuming the bodies of their own kind.
• The insects breached the Side Peak, forcing the West River Gate defenders to retreat to another position closer to Nine Ridges Mountain as more Mechanism Puppets converged.

Li Chen pinned Lin Xi in the Chaos Void while his vast Puppet Legion attacked West River Gate and threatened to overwhelm its defenses. The battle remained unresolved as Lin Xi realized he could not protect the sect while holding Li Chen off.

• West River Gate's Sect Master received reports that puppet forces had occupied the Pill Storehouse and were overwhelming the sect's peaks and disciples.
• Lin Xi arrived to defend West River Gate and confronted Li Chen beside the Bone Kun Warship.
• Li Chen sent avatars to probe Lin Xi, but Lin Xi destroyed them with swordlight imbued with the law of thunder.
• Li Chen argued that although Lin Xi had tied him down, his Puppet Legion could still defeat West River Gate through superior numbers.
• Li Chen continued directing his enormous forces against West River Gate, while Lin Xi could do nothing to stop the assault.

Li Chen’s forces captured Nine Ridges Mountain, while Lin Xi helped the West River Gate’s survivors escape. Li Chen then transformed the ruined Spirit Peak into an industrial stronghold called Nine Ridges City, and the chapter left him consolidating his deeper foothold in Immortal Alliance territory.

• The West River Gate Sect Master gathered his disciples in the mountain gate plaza and used a Minor Grotto-Heaven treasure to evacuate them as six Core Formation Elders fought their way out.
• Lin Xi struck down pursuing experts with lightning and guarded the fleeing West River Gate members, leaving Li Chen free to claim the main peak.
• The West River Gate’s Thunderclap Fire destroyed Nine Ridges Mountain’s main peak and nearby peaks, but Li Chen said the destruction would not affect his plans.
• Li Chen’s Bone Kun Warship and Worker Bee Puppets built an industrial city across the mountain, while Hou Tao and his companions patrolled the area.
• In just over a month, Li Chen completed Nine Ridges City and brought in cultivators from the rear to experience Materialized Heaven’s efficiency.

Hou Tao and his companions attended the inauguration of Li Chen’s new city, where Mei Xuan announced policies that drew Rogue Cultivators and merchants to settle and trade there. They explored the vast, heavily fortified city as its construction continued.

• Rogue Cultivators, merchants, and Creation Sect disciples arrived at Li Chen’s newly built city and marveled that it had been completed in just over a month.
• Hou Tao and his companions attended the inauguration ceremony, where Mei Xuan represented Li Chen and announced free trade, tax exemptions, and property support for contributors.
• Hou Tao’s party calculated that they could earn enough points to settle in the city, and they resolved to keep risking their lives for their own future.
• The merchants welcomed the tax exemption, while Mei Xuan promised to compensate them for losses caused by enemy Great Powers.
• Hou Tao and his companions toured the city and saw its Six-Star Mind Core, defenses, Battle Puppet cranes, Position Cannons, and Worker Bee Puppets still assembling its outskirts.

Li Chen negotiated with Qi Maigu to trade captured ore veins for Solar Dao resources and proposed researching neutron stars to break the transuranic limit of his Creation Art. Qi Maigu agreed to acquire Li Chen’s neutron bomb secret art in exchange for helping conduct high-yield implosion experiments.

• Qi Maigu praised Li Chen for finding another Stardust Mine while they discussed their agreement over the Puppet World Heavenly Net.
• Li Chen offered to sell the ore veins to the Golden Sun Gate for treasured materials and Solar Dao techniques, and invited Qi Maigu to join his research project.
• Li Chen explained neutron stars, the limits of his ability to create elements beyond uranium, and his goal of advancing the Creation Art through cultivation and research.
• Li Chen offered Qi Maigu the Neutron Bomb Principle, and Qi Maigu agreed to take the secret art after hearing its potential.
• Li Chen asked Qi Maigu to help perform extremely high-yield implosion experiments, and Qi Maigu recognized that Li Chen wanted to simulate collapse under extreme pressure.

Li Chen explained his theory that cultivators faced limits measured by celestial mass and that controlling a neutron star would require power on the level of the Great Dao. He proposed testing whether spiritual essence affected the laws of physics by stripping it from an uninhabited island and seeing if the landmass ignited into a star, but the experiment would wait until the war settled down.

• Li Chen told Qi Maigu that ordinary cultivators faced a planetary limit, while ancient great powers could reach the stellar level, and argued that controlling a neutron star would rival attaining a Dao fruit at the pinnacle of the Primordial Spirit realm.
• Qi Maigu questioned Li Chen's mass-based limits, citing enormous star islands and distinguishing mass from spiritual essence and magic power.
• Li Chen proposed using an Anti-Spirit-Gathering Formation to remove spiritual essence from a suitable island and test whether it would transform into a star.
• Qi Maigu agreed the experiment could be valuable and resolved to advance to grandmaster artisan so he could benefit from its findings.
• Li Chen invited several grandmasters, including Shen Longcheng and others, to support the experiment, and they agreed to help after the current war was settled.

Li Chen’s research on spiritual essence and Dharma’s Decline drew attention from Puppet Dao scholars, while the war against the Immortal Alliance pushed toward the Western Central Sea. After securing Nine Ridges City, Li Chen armed a vast Puppet Legion and set out for Cloud Province, where Cloudstride City lay.

• Grandmaster Artisan Jing Tianxing questioned Li Chen about his theory that spiritual essence obstructed natural changes, then shared a confidential archive of earlier experiments.
• Li Chen compared the archive’s findings with his own ideas and said that Grandmaster Artisan Shu’s principles resembled his own but differed in important details.
• The Puppet Dao captured several strategic locations and threatened Cloudstride City, Shanglin Peak, and other places in the Western Central Sea.
• The Immortal Alliance mobilized people, recruited cultivators, and revealed cultivation methods, but the Puppet Dao retained its advantage in production and coordination.
• The Immortal Alliance’s powerful experts, resource-rich territory, and high-level cultivation helped bring the war back to a stalemate.
• Li Chen organized affairs in Nine Ridges City, armed an enormous Puppet Legion, and set out for the Cloud Province Continent.

Li Chen observed how Materialized Heaven’s Insect Swarm used Wen Jing’s Mycelial Carpet to mine resources and establish a frontline base in a lesser Blessed Land. The base stood beside Cloudthunder Sect, a powerful sect that dominated Cloud Province.

• Li Chen examined the Mycelial Carpet’s rapid extraction process and learned that it could turn mineral deposits into refined materials, though prolonged use would leave land barren.
• Heavenly Pivot identified Wen Jing, daughter of Grand Artisan Wen Xun, as the Master Artisan behind the Mycelial Carpet, and Li Chen recognized her potential.
• Li Chen noted that other Puppet Masters’ biological modifications, including Lu Chen’s Firefly Array, had strengthened the Insect Race and its command capabilities.
• The Insect Swarm found a lesser Blessed Land and transformed it into a slime-covered frontline base with underground Insect Hives.
• The base settled near Cloudthunder Sect, a major Spell Dao sect with four Nascent Soul Experts, numerous cultivators, and control over most of Cloud Province’s fertile lands.

Li Chen planned a prolonged campaign against the Cloudthunder Sect, using industry-academia-warfare integration to expand the Materialized Heaven’s production and research. He ordered a full conversion program to develop mortal technology and puppet masters while holding Nine Ridges City as the war’s logistical base.

• Li Chen assessed the Cloudthunder Sect’s forces and allies, concluding that he would need to wear them down rather than rush the campaign.
• Li Chen told Heavenly Pivot to establish a defensive line at Nine Ridges City and strengthen production, research, weapons, and equipment.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that mortal scientists and craftsmen contributed most to Puppet Dao research, prompting Li Chen to promote cultivation mortalization and scientific methods.
• Li Chen approved opening the lesser unity realm and beginning a full conversion program for eligible candidates, including the Materialized Heaven’s Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Li Chen explained to Mei Xuan that the war zone would use local resources to mass-produce machines and improve technology through repeated battlefield testing.

Li Chen argued that tools and scientific inquiry could free Puppet Masters from traditional cultivation limits and eventually unravel the Power of Law, then wondered whether his own existence had already changed the universe. Meanwhile, Hou Tao and his companions struggled to find work in Nine Ridges City until he spotted a guard recruitment notice at one of Grandmaster Li’s research institutes.

• Li Chen explained to Mei Xuan that scientific methods could reveal how the Power of Law worked, even if they could not fully unravel it within their lifetimes.
• Li Chen recalled a failed ancient experiment to ignite a planet and considered whether his mind and existence had already altered the universe’s natural order.
• Hou Tao and other former Demon Hunters settled in Nine Ridges City, where they struggled to find hunting work because warplanes had driven away the nearby Demon Beasts.
• Hou Tao suggested applying for guard jobs at the First Biochemical Research Institute on Heavenly Dragon Peak after finding its recruitment notice.

Qi Fang introduced Hou Tao and the other new guards to the Nine Ridges City branch of Li Chen’s research institute, explaining their duties, pay, and benefits. They tried Carapace Battle Armor that boosted their cultivation, then saw the institute’s Spellbreaking Guns as the chapter ended.

• Qi Fang toured Hou Tao and the five other recruits through the institute and explained its research work, management, guard duties, contracts, and benefits.
• Qi Fang showed the recruits the armory and recommended that they use the institute’s Carapace Battle Armor.
• Hou Tao and the others put on the armor, whose tendrils connected to their bodies and raised their effective cultivation to peak Qi refining.
• Qi Fang told the guards that alloy combat suits would be tailored for them and brought them to collect weapons.
• Qi Fang presented the institute’s Spellbreaking Guns and warned that their Spell-Piercing Bullets could threaten Foundation Establishment experts.

Hou Tao and the other former Rogue Cultivators trained to use firearms at the First Biochemical Research Institute's Nine Ridges City Branch. When a Rune Beast escaped its transport cage, they rushed to subdue it but discovered too late that it had Core Formation strength.

• Hou Tao and the other trainees learned marksmanship with armor-form Battle Armor and studied the branch's firearms and Spell-Piercing Bullets.
• Hou Tao discussed the history and rising affordability of firearms with his fellow former Rogue Cultivators.
• An alarm alerted the instructors that a Rune Beast test subject from Guangyun had escaped its cage and was rampaging near the valley entrance.
• Hou Tao and the others grabbed their weapons and hurried out after the instructors ordered them to subdue the beast.
• The trainees opened fire, but the Rune Beast blocked most of their shots with demon essence and deafened Hou Tao with a shock wave.
• Hou Tao read the instructor's lips and learned that the creature had Core Formation strength.

Hou Tao and the guards struggled to contain a Windfiend Civet, a powerful artificial rune beast that escaped its cage. Their Carapace Battle Armor kept them alive through severe injuries, but the enraged beast unleashed a devastating attack that knocked Hou Tao unconscious.

• Hou Tao recovered from his injuries as the Carapace Battle Armor repaired his body, while the Windfiend Civet attacked the guards with wind blades and rampaged through the valley entrance.
• The guards fired at the monster, and an instructor revealed that the Windfiend Civet was a rune beast created through research combining biological modification and rune script dao.
• The instructor explained that the rune beasts possessed overwhelming power and were nearly impossible to kill, so the guards could only try to lure the Windfiend Civet away from the research institute.
• The Carapace Battle Armor reconnected guards who had been cut in half, raising morale when they discovered that none of them had died.
• The Windfiend Civet grew enraged and unleashed a tremendous attack, sending Hou Tao flying and leaving him unconscious.

After the Windfiend Civet devastated Nine Ridges City, Hou Tao survived but chose to retire after losing his comrades. Mei Xuan’s investigation suggested the disaster was no accident, and she informed Li Chen that someone had used the area to test a weapon of war.

• Hou Tao woke amid the destruction, found many of his colleagues dead, and went to face the Windfiend Civet as Battle Puppets and Mecha fought it.
• Mei Xuan sent two Guard Corps Sword Guards to hold back the beast until a Puppet Master subdued it with spirit waves.
• Several days later, Hou Tao rejected the institute’s offer to stay and left after accepting retirement benefits and an offer of future work.
• Mei Xuan oversaw damage assessments and compensation in Nine Ridges City, then told Li Chen that someone had apparently used the area as a weapons-testing ground.

Li Chen and Mei Xuan investigated a disaster at Heavenly Dragon Peak and suspected that someone had deliberately let the response lag, so Li Chen ordered a quiet inquiry under the regulations. He explained to Han Li why he upheld strict research rules, leaving her to understand the burden of balancing justice with the contributions of his followers.

• Mei Xuan told Li Chen that a Rune Beast disaster at Heavenly Dragon Peak might have been worsened deliberately by those responsible for the slow response.
• Li Chen instructed Mei Xuan to follow regulations and settle the matter discreetly.
• Han Li questioned whether Li Chen would truly handle the disaster according to the rules after it caused hundreds of casualties and extensive damage.
• Li Chen explained that he prohibited harmful human experimentation but allowed research involving puppets and nonnatural life, and that his rules reflected practical benefit rather than universal morality.
• Li Chen said strict, humane research policies helped civilization progress and reduced hostility toward Puppet Masters.
• Han Li realized Li Chen was burdened by the prospect of punishing longtime followers who had also contributed greatly to Materialized Heaven.

Han Li understood why the Materialized Heaven was designed as a closed society, while Mei Xuan uncovered that Wang Tong had deliberately delayed the response to a Rune Beast attack to collect research data. Li Chen sentenced Wang Tong to personality erasure, and the chapter ended with a newly created Wang Tong awakening as a citizen of the Materialized Heaven.

• Han Li reflected on the limits of the Materialized Heaven’s ideals and the difficulties faced by Puppet Dao Masters.
• Mei Xuan traced the Rune Beast incident to Grand Artisan Wang Tong, who had delayed the response to gather empirical data.
• Li Chen reviewed Wang Tong’s valuable research records and ordered the punishment prescribed by Materialized Heaven regulations.
• Kun Blood Warriors seized Wang Tong, and he was transported to the Materialized Heaven for primordial spirit formatting.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that a newly created Wang Tong had awakened with fabricated memories and provisional Fourth Tier citizenship.

Er Niu and the Cloudthunder Sect’s defenders fought exhausting battles as Li Chen’s Natural Disaster Legion overran Cloud Province. The sect’s forces retreated toward Divine Mist Mountain while the insect threat continued to grow, leaving the defenders waiting for a decisive move from their leaders.

• Er Niu and the Outer-Courtyard Disciples fought wave after wave of insect soldiers at Mastiff-Mouth Ridge until a Foundation Establishment True Disciple returned and slaughtered hundreds of enemies.
• Er Niu and the exhausted Qi Refining cultivators withdrew to rest, ate medicinal food, and circulated their energy before the next attack.
• A sect steward and his colleague described the four natural disasters associated with Materialized Heaven: intelligent puppets, demons, alien insects, and Divine Descentors.
• The stewards worried that the Cloudthunder Sect was nearing defeat while its powerful leaders hesitated because of the Bone Kun Warship.

Li Chen oversaw the conversion of captured Immortal Alliance resources into an expanding Insect Hive and cultivation industry, aiming to win the war through production and resource control. The hive began mass-producing enhanced insect soldiers as Li Chen watched its operations continue to grow.

• Li Chen argued that the Puppet Dao could counter the Immortal Alliance by developing bases, fortifying positions, and outproducing its enemies.
• He reviewed records showing the Immortal Alliance held far more spirit peak resources than the Puppet Dao camp and asked Heavenly Pivot Dao about production plans.
• Heavenly Pivot Dao showed mycelial carpets spreading as worker bees, mechanical attendants, and insect soldiers transformed the Mu clan's spirit peak into an industrial site.
• The Insect Race and Mechanical Race built an underground Insect Hive more than ten li long, installing modular production lines as construction continued.
• The hive's workshops enhanced mass-produced hunting insects with runes, artificial insect cores, armor, and reinforced skeletons, turning them into elite troops.