Chapter Summaries

Li Chen presented the Puppet Dao faction with a plan to separate the combat abilities of high-rank cultivators from the rest of what made them people, then reproduce those abilities with specialized magical devices. He left the gathered artisans considering a transformation toward industrially produced weapons capable of fighting cultivators, while war with the Cloudthunder Sect continued to intensify.

• Lei Zongyuan realized Li Chen and the Puppet Dao faction would not spare the Cloudthunder Sect, and Wu Feng urged him to fight to the death.
• The Puppet Dao forces continued harassing Cloud Province as the Insect Race Legion produced flesh puppets and the Mechanical Race manufactured weapons and equipment.
• Li Chen told Huang Ding, Dongfang Mao, Mo Qing, Lin Yuanji, Hua Wucuo, Qi Maigu, Bei Feng, Zhu Yishan, and the other artisans to focus on reproducing the specific abilities that made cultivators dangerous.
• Li Chen advocated equipping ordinary units with high-rank magical treasures and developing laser weapons that could detect and destroy cultivators rapidly.
• Li Chen argued that the Puppet Dao should move beyond handcrafted artifacts and develop industries producing weapons capable of killing cultivators, immortals, and gods.

Li Chen explained his plan to modernize armaments and shift from thermonuclear weapons toward industrial-scale production of magical treasures. Qi Maigu accepted the decline of their Solar Dao cooperation and offered to help promote the transformation across the Golden Sun Gate’s vassal forces.

• Li Chen urged fellow cultivators to develop tools that could extract and use cultivators’ spiritual roots, magic power, and laws, then promoted his Armament Modernization Plan.
• Qi Maigu asked whether Li Chen intended to phase out Sun Divine Thunder, and Li Chen confirmed that thermonuclear weapons were inefficient against elite cultivators and costly to produce.
• Li Chen told Qi Maigu that their cooperation in thermonuclear weapons would gradually decrease, though their mineral-vein partnership would continue.
• Li Chen explained that he planned to replace workshop crafting with assembly-line production of magical treasures to build wealth and surpass the Outer Dao.
• Qi Maigu praised Li Chen’s plan and promised to lobby for it and encourage the Golden Sun Gate’s vassal forces to adopt it.

Li Chen toured a new magical treasure factory where cultivation techniques and automated machinery mass-produced false cores, then unveiled the Guangyun-Brand Thunder Essence False Core. He decided to promote the new energy source and its motors widely, leaving Lin Danran and Mochuan Peak poised to benefit from their partnership with him.

• Li Chen spent six months researching spiritual essence materials and magical treasure production while Heavenly Pivot and his forces continued the campaign against Divine Mist Mountain.
• Li Chen and Creation Sect experts toured a factory where automated equipment produced artificial false cores under precisely controlled conditions.
• Li Chen showed the visitors the Guangyun-Brand Thunder Essence False Core and explained that Lin Danran had helped develop it from the Thunder Essence Core-Body Secret Art.
• Lin Danran credited Li Chen and the Cloudthunder Sect’s methods for aiding his work, while Mochuan Peak’s partnership with Li Chen brought it new opportunities in the Equal Sea Domain.
• Li Chen decided to promote thunder essence false cores and their motors on a large scale, and Lin Danran continued building Mochuan Peak’s enterprise in Nine Ridges City.

Li Chen promoted cultivation industrialization by funding research into mundane materials and encouraging Puppet Masters to develop production methods beyond spiritual essence materials. Researchers in Materialized Heaven then created a cheap synthetic polymer resembling living skin, opening new possibilities for Mechanism Puppet coverings and enhancements.

• Li Chen told Mei Xuan that Materialized Heaven would promote new ideas, expand Mechanism Crane production with Golden Light City, and develop mundane materials for low-grade Mechanism Puppets.
• Li Chen offered patent royalties to researchers whose inventions reduced reliance on spiritual essence materials, while the Myriad Heavens Marketplace retained exclusive sales and operating rights.
• Puppet Masters and apprentices developed industrial alloy refining, improved spirit material formulas, and new electronic, construction, energy, and biological materials, forming what others called the Industrial Faction.
• In February, mortal scientists in Materialized Heaven synthesized polymer cloud mud that transformed a wooden Mechanism Automaton into a lifelike figure.
• Li Chen examined the synthetic skin and learned it cost far less than existing materials while offering potential protection from divine sense and spiritual energy.
• The researchers planned further studies into spell resistance, psychic energy insulation, dynamic biomimetics, and material enhancement.

Li Chen learned that Duan Zhai had developed a breakthrough artificial flesh material and arranged support for further research. Meanwhile, Nan Fengchai returned to visit his master Wang Dou for his hundredth birthday and hinted that he had found a mathematical formula that might advance Wang Dou’s research.

• Researchers explained that Duan Zhai had created a remarkable artificial material, and Li Chen praised him and promised support for the research.
• Nan Fengchai arrived at South Academy Station, where his junior sister criticized his appearance and took him to buy new clothes before the birthday banquet.
• Nan Fengchai and his junior sister reached Wang Dou’s household, where Wang Dou welcomed his former disciple.
• Wang Dou discussed his belief that mathematics could explain rune formations and the Great Dao, and Nan Fengchai said he had discovered a strange formula that might bring progress.

Nan Fengchai presented Wang Dou with a mathematical formula that she believed could identify coordinates in the Chaos Void, which she called antispace. Wang Dou recognized that the work might also offer a way to investigate Great Dao laws, and told her to submit it to Grandmaster Li for review.

• Nan Fengchai explained how her formula could produce antispace coordinates corresponding to Cosmic Dao space.
• Wang Dou realized that the formula could help unravel the Chaos Void and potentially transform the Way of Mathematics.
• Wang Dou warned that Nan Fengchai might face criticism and controversy if she published the theory without support.
• Wang Dou examined the formula and noticed traces suggesting it could apply to rune formations and the power of Great Dao laws.
• Wang Dou decided to have Nan Fengchai submit the formula to Grandmaster Li for review.

Nan Fengchai’s mathematical formula led Li Chen to suspect it described imaginary number space and could let ordinary people wield power akin to laws. After the formula went largely ignored, Li Chen gathered the Creation Sect’s Grandmasters to test it, and True Person Miaobao offered to help.

• Nan Fengchai submitted his formula, and Li Chen used mental certification to recognize its possible connection to antispace and the power of law.
• At Wang Dou’s request, Nan Fengchai published the formula on Materialized Heaven’s Dao Debate Platform, where Puppet Masters mostly dismissed or ignored it.
• Li Chen summoned the Creation Sect’s Grandmasters and explained that the formula might enable new imaginary number spaces and applications of Minor Grotto-Heavens.
• The Grandmasters doubted they could help with the mathematics or provide computational resources, but True Person Miaobao offered her assistance.

Li Chen met True Person Miaobao, who offered to use the Truth-Discerning Immortal Mirror to help advance his research without conditions. True Person Miaobao revealed that his lifespan was nearly over and shared a prophecy that Li Chen’s mathematical work would foster many new Great Powers, while his efforts to understand Dharma’s Decline would fail for years.

• Li Chen guessed that True Person Miaobao could use the Truth-Discerning Immortal Mirror to help him avoid mistaken paths.
• True Person Miaobao offered to help Li Chen without conditions, explaining that his lifespan was nearly exhausted.
• True Person Miaobao said his prophecies began deviating 153 years earlier, the year Li Chen was born, and revealed that the mirror had found no answer identifying Li Chen as a reincarnated immortal or Great Power.
• Li Chen realized True Person Miaobao had investigated his origins but decided his established strength and allies made the discovery no longer troubling.
• True Person Miaobao prophesied that Li Chen would struggle to comprehend Dharma’s Decline but that his Way of Mathematics would flourish and produce many new Great Powers, beginning with a formula.

Li Chen and the mathematicians of the Guangyun Academy developed a framework for imaginary number space and used True Person Miaobao’s Truth-Discerning Immortal Mirror to verify their formulas. After more than a hundred days of research, they completed the work and prepared to use its theorems as the foundation for further results.

• Li Chen heard that new Great Powers were emerging and considered that his Perfect Person Project might come true.
• Li Chen gathered Wang Dou, Nan Fengchai, and mathematicians from the Guangyun Academy in materialized heaven to develop and check the theory.
• The mathematicians established more than a hundred interrelated formulas, and Li Chen invited True Person Miaobao to verify their first results.
• True Person Miaobao used the Truth-Discerning Immortal Mirror, which confirmed the formulas as true.
• Li Chen directed the scholars to build on the verified theorems and derive proofs, completing the work after more than a hundred days.

After the Mathematics Institute verified its latest results, Li Chen celebrated the Way of Mathematics’ advance and planned to use it to comprehend a new law. True Person Miaobao revealed that he was near death, arranged his inheritance and donations, and nominated Li Chen for promotion to Grandmaster.

• The Mathematics Institute confirmed its research results, and Li Chen said he would pursue an imaginary-number dharma body through the new insights.
• True Person Miaobao coughed up blood and told Li Chen that his days were numbered, so Li Chen summoned the Creation Sect Grandmasters.
• True Person Miaobao explained that his blood relatives would inherit Spirit Peak, while his disciple Xiao Hu would inherit Miaobao World and his Dao lineage.
• True Person Miaobao donated the Truth-Discerning Immortal Mirror and the Falsehood Divine Mirror to the Creation Sect, warning that the latter was dangerous and deceitful.
• True Person Miaobao nominated Grandmaster Artisan Li Chen for promotion to Grandmaster.

The Puppet Dao Grandmasters unanimously promoted Li Chen, who deferred his public ceremonies until after conquering Cloud Province. True Person Miaobao then proposed merging her consciousness and memories into heavenly will, the faction’s supreme authority and repository of its Grandmasters.

• True Person Miaobao nominated Li Chen for promotion to Grandmaster, and the Grandmasters unanimously approved him.
• Shen Longcheng formally declared Li Chen a Grandmaster and granted him the associated rights and obligations.
• Li Chen asked to postpone ceremonies until after his conquest of Cloud Province, and Shen Longcheng agreed.
• The Puppet Dao’s Great Powers decided to announce Li Chen’s promotion publicly after some time had passed.
• True Person Miaobao proposed merging her consciousness and memories into heavenly will to carry on the Puppet Dao’s kindling.

Li Chen and the other Grandmasters witnessed True Person Miaobao upload his memories before he died, then Li Chen studied the results and mastered a new spatial law based on imaginary number space. He began transforming his Primordial Spirit and True Spirit to explore the law’s applications and make its power accessible beyond himself.

• True Person Miaobao uploaded his consciousness and memories, then died, and Shen Longcheng asked Han Tong to take his body back to the Miaobao World.
• The Grandmasters agreed to keep True Person Miaobao’s death quiet until after Li Chen’s elevation ceremony to protect their faction and the war effort.
• Li Chen devoted himself to studying True Person Miaobao’s research and spent three days constructing models of imaginary number space and its spatial laws.
• Li Chen entered imaginary number space and found that his mutated dharma body could pass through solid objects and remain undetectable while still allowing him to touch it.
• Li Chen concluded that imaginary number space could support a new power grounded in rune formations and accessible to other cultivators with the right aptitude.
• Li Chen began condensing imaginary-number magic power and transforming his Primordial Spirit and True Spirit to explore the law’s applications.

Li Chen explained how his imaginary-number law formed the mysterious nonbeing dharma body and could enable intangibility, teleportation, and a hidden network for the Puppet Dao. Meanwhile, the Cloudthunder Sect prepared a counterattack against the Puppet Dao, as Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue arrived near Divine Mist Mountain and considered destroying the realm rather than surrendering Cloud Province.

• Li Chen told Shen Longcheng, Wu Fangdao, Pan Ning, and the others that his imaginary-number law had produced the mysterious nonbeing dharma body, granting Primordial Spirit intangibility and potentially unrestricted teleportation.
• Li Chen proposed building void base stations to create a concealed imaginary-number network that could improve communication, logistics, and the Puppet Dao's reach.
• Lei Zongyuan summoned the Cloudthunder Sect's elders and announced a counterattack against the Puppet Dao, with ten Nascent Soul cultivators from the Immortal Alliance providing support.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue arrived near Divine Mist Mountain and discussed fighting to retain Cloud Province, with Lin Xi proposing to shatter the realm if surrender became inevitable.

Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue discussed whether the Immortal Alliance would destroy Cloud Province to deny its resources to the Puppet Dao. Nearby Divine Descentors spotted them, mistook them for isolated high-ranking enemies, and summoned allies to attack.

• Lin Xi told Xiao Linyue that the Immortal Alliance would preserve Cloud Province if the Cloudthunder Sect could counterattack, but otherwise would deny it to the enemy.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue watched insect soldiers haul resources toward an Insect Hive as the Puppet Dao expanded its military strength.
• A group of Divine Descentors recalled intercepting Outer Dao scouts and celebrating their captured treasures.
• One Divine Descentor detected Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue with a flying magic artifact and sent their images through Materialized Heaven's network.
• The boar-headed leader ordered the Divine Descentors to charge, then called friendly allies to attack the two cultivators caught alone.

Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue encountered Divine Descentors, whose headless bodies kept fighting with powerful weapons and bizarre tactics. After a woman fired a devastating cannon through a cat, the hill where Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue had stood was obliterated.

• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue recognized the attacking group as Divine Descentors rumored to be strange, dangerous beings from Materialized Heaven.
• Lin Xi killed the boar-headed leader and then struck down the other charging attackers with his Flying Swords.
• Several headless bodies kept advancing and fired a barrage of powerful Divine Gang Spears at Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue.
• Lin Xi caught the incoming Sword Gang and redirected it into an armored giant rabbit, which survived and resumed its attack.
• Xiao Linyue spotted a headless woman holding a cat and firing a primordial energy cannon from its mouth.
• The cannon blast razed the hill where Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue had been standing.

Li Chen watched as Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue led hundreds of Divine Descentors into battle, testing how far Materialized Heaven’s forces had advanced. Lin Xi’s sword attacks failed against the Zhou Tian Celestial Formation, and its Divine Light Cannons forced him to evade while his gang essence absorbed the blasts.

• Heavenly Pivot Dao told Li Chen that more than five hundred and sixty Divine Descentors had gathered to fight Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue, and Li Chen chose to watch rather than intervene.
• Materialized Heaven relayed footage of the battle, showing Light-Energy Talisman Towers and War Spear Flying Boats assembling into a Zhou Tian Celestial Formation.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue realized the formation had trapped them and wondered whether Li Chen was watching from nearby.
• Lin Xi launched Swordlight at the towers, but the attacks lost their targets as the formation twisted space and time.
• The towers fired Divine Light Cannons at Lin Xi, who evaded the beams and was astonished that he could not dodge their attacks directly.

Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue battled the Divine Descentors’ fleet, whose formations and weapons managed to injure Lin Xi and threaten him with a concentrated barrage. Lin Xi unleashed a sword strike that destroyed many warships, but a mysterious sigh left him frozen, and he could not detect its source.

• Xiao Linyue asked whether Lin Xi could dodge the attacks, and he explained that he could not evade them without anticipating them.
• Lin Xi entered the formation and destroyed hundreds of Light-Energy Talisman Towers, but dark-gold spheres trapped him long enough for their beams to injure him.
• Lin Xi healed, then shattered almost all the towers with his flying swords, while the surviving weapons and spheres formed up and continued attacking him.
• More than a thousand warships converged their fire on Lin Xi, who broke through the focused divine-light strike with a sword technique and cleaved through over a hundred ships.
• A faint sigh sounded through the void, leaving Lin Xi frozen; Xiao Linyue asked if Li Chen had arrived, and Lin Xi said he could hear the presence but could not detect its aura.

Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue escaped the Divine Descentors, but Li Chen caught up with them in the Chaos Void and revealed how rapidly his artificial-intelligence puppet dao could proliferate. The chapter left the Immortal Alliance facing a growing industrial threat that its divided leadership lacked the means or resolve to confront.

• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue escaped through the breach Lin Xi had cut in the Zhou Tian Celestial Formation as the Divine Descentors detected an unidentified energy fluctuation.
• In the Chaos Void, Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue sensed that Li Chen was nearby, but their attacks struck empty space before he chose to appear.
• Lin Xi recognized that Li Chen had become stronger since their encounter fifteen years earlier, and Li Chen described the exponential growth of self-replicating machines.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue realized that Li Chen's industrial system was already expanding rapidly and that resources were its main constraint.
• The Immortal Alliance's divided leadership faced a dilemma: abandon the Central Sea and let Li Chen grow stronger, or defend it without enough troops and Great Powers to turn the tide.

Li Chen explained his vision of materialized great unity and a world where cultivation was no longer reserved for a few, while warning Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue that conflict would only worsen the coming upheaval. He revealed that he now had the power to overwhelm them, then seized control of their bodies.

• Li Chen told Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue that he intended to take the Central Sea and Cloud Province because his Puppet Dao needed spiritual essence materials and extraordinary technologies.
• Li Chen argued that the unequal distribution of immortal mountains and blessed lands justified changing the cultivation world, and warned that the Immortal Alliance should prepare for revolution and a long war.
• Li Chen described his goal of materialized great unity, where collective civilization could give everyone the chance to become an immortal or Great Power.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue rejected Li Chen's vision, insisting that the hierarchy between immortals and mortals could not—and should not—be erased.
• Li Chen said he had waited to explain his ideals until he was stronger than them, then caused Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue to undergo involuntary Primordial Spirit Projection and held their exposed brains in his hands.

Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue fled after Li Chen overwhelmed them with an undetectable, law-level concealment art, then reported their defeat at the Immortal Alliance Outpost. Dharma King Yuanhao identified Li Chen as a likely Dharma Body Realm expert and addressed him in the void.

• Li Chen attacked Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue from concealment, forcing Lin Xi to escape through repeated attacks and leaving Xiao Linyue's hand transformed into spirit-repelling alloy.
• Lin Xi and Xiao Linyue reached the Immortal Alliance Outpost beyond Cloud Province, where Lin Xi ordered the Grand Formation activated.
• Lin Xi told Dharma King Yuanhao and Tu Taiyuan that Li Chen had defeated them, while Xiao Linyue noticed that Lin Xi omitted part of their encounter.
• Dharma King Yuanhao explained that Li Chen's art operated at the level of fundamental origins and that countering it required advanced abilities such as controlling time or reversing causality.
• Dharma King Yuanhao concluded that Li Chen was likely a Dharma Body Realm expert, then addressed him in an apparently empty spot in the void.