Chapter Summaries

Li Chen developed a theory for creating artificial spiritual roots by extracting and redistributing spiritual essence, hoping to free cultivation and magic from innate aptitude. He began testing the idea and successfully transferred spiritual essence into spirit-repelling grand void spirit iron, restoring its spirit-iron properties.

• Li Chen reflected on the Puppet Dao’s history of bodily modification and concluded that poor spiritual-root aptitude had driven many Puppet Masters to seek alternative vessels.
• Li Chen reasoned that spiritual energy and the true spirit shared an underlying essence, and decided to research artificial spiritual energy and spiritual roots.
• Li Chen proposed extracting spiritual essence at its source and redistributing it through heaven and earth, but recognized that artificial spiritual roots had to come first.
• The Immortal Alliance’s discovery of a tenth Immortal Coffin alarmed the Earthly Immortal Continent, while Yu Bao and the others focused on research using knowledge Li Chen had given them.
• Li Chen injected spiritual essence from a Spirit Crystal into grand void spirit iron treated with Reverse Spirit-Gathering Technology, and the material regained the properties of spirit iron.

Li Chen used his creation technique to reformat Han Li’s spiritual traits and bring her to the Primordial Spirit Realm, then extracted her new Dao-heart state as a template. He applied similar traits to the Puppet Sisters and began upgrading others, rapidly depleting Heaven’s supplies.

• Li Chen discovered that his laws could manipulate spiritual essence and decided to focus on expanding their scope.
• After Han Li returned, Li Chen used his mind-only magic power and Burial-Return Method to reshape her spiritual traits and advance her to the Primordial Spirit Realm.
• Heavenly Pivot scanned Han Li and confirmed that her condition was flawless, while Li Chen extracted a complete Primordial Spirit Realm Dao-heart template from her.
• Li Chen ordered his followers to collect primordial spirits and memory information so he could study and copy spiritual traits.
• Li Chen infused Primordial Spirit Realm traits into Xiao Die and Xiao Ying, making the Puppet Sisters resemble naturally created lifeforms.
• Li Chen began crafting neutron dharma bodies and spiritual primordial spirits for Mei Xuan and Heaven’s guardian deities, causing Heaven’s supplies to dwindle rapidly.

Li Chen planned to reduce the cost of cultivating powerful fighters by developing replicable modification techniques and modularized dao fruits. His proposal reached Su Qing at Guangyun Cultivation Academy, where he recognized its potential to make cultivation widely tradable.

• Li Chen and Mei Xuan discussed the strain on Materialized Heaven’s spiritual essence reserves and the limits of Li Chen’s plan to create a million Great Powers.
• Li Chen proposed earning compensation through modification work and shifting research toward techniques that could be encoded, replicated, and used by lower-realm cultivators.
• Li Chen decided to investigate advancement modifications for Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators, then sent a recruitment order to the Central Sea.
• Su Qing reflected on the Puppet Dao’s rapid development and his divided loyalties while working and studying at the academy.
• Su Qing received Li Chen’s Dao Attainment Components and Dao Fruit Modularization Development Plan and considered how it could let cultivators obtain knowledge and power through the Myriad Realms Marketplace.

Li Chen used mind-only laws and a team of cultivators to develop standard meme samples that could enhance cultivation without requiring the recipient to possess cultivation or spiritual essence. He prepared a mortal-world pig as the first test subject, and Great Elder Shen and the other Grandmasters reacted with shock at the possibility that Li Chen had created standard Dao fruit samples.

• Li Chen explained how external elixir arts could be modernized into a mass-produced method for improving cultivation, leaving Su Qing stunned by the argument.
• Su Qing saw the Puppet Masters use mathematics, philosophy, and information analysis to investigate spiritual roots and cultivation bottlenecks.
• Li Chen used his mind-only laws to guide the research, helping the team rapidly model and solve problems.
• Li Chen and his collaborators refined five standard meme samples for different cultivation stages and used them to transform the spirituality of other spirit materials.
• Li Chen chose a mortal-world pig from the Wind Martial Continent as the first recipient of the enhancement, while Great Elder Shen and the other Grandmasters erupted in surprise.

Li Chen publicly demonstrated a procedure for changing a living creature’s fundamental information, arguing that cultivation and Dao attainment could be installed like modular components rather than limited by innate bottlenecks. After transforming a pig into a human and feeding it standard meme samples, he triggered a transformation in its divine soul and magic power, leaving the experiment’s result unfolding before the observers.

• Lords of Sky Cities, Puppet Dao Masters, and invited observers gathered at the Azure Billow Immortal Abode to watch Li Chen’s experiment.
• Li Chen argued that fundamental information could contain Dao attainment and that cultivation bottlenecks reflected limits of knowledge rather than universal laws.
• Li Chen put an ordinary pig under anesthesia and used Creation-Promotion Secret Arts and Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting to transform it into a human.
• Li Chen fed the transformed pig standard meme samples, causing its divine soul to change and its life energy to become magic power.
• Spiritual energy flowed into the transformed creature and joined its energy in a complete cycle.

Li Chen demonstrated his Natural Creation Art by creating three intelligent Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators from nothing, astonishing the Puppet Dao experts. After declaring that he had surpassed the great grandmasters of the ancient texts, Li Chen was nominated to become a great grandmaster and lead the reform of the Puppet Dao.

• Li Chen used his Creation Divine Ability to turn a pig into a cultivator with Primordial Spirit Realm power.
• Li Chen formed two more Primordial Spirit Realm cultivators from mundane matter, granting them bodies, spiritual roots, cultivation, and intelligence.
• Shen Longcheng examined the creations and concluded that they were indistinguishable from natural beings.
• The Puppet Dao experts debated whether Li Chen had exceeded the feats of past great grandmasters, while Su Qing struggled to absorb what he had witnessed.
• Li Chen said he had reached and surpassed the great grandmaster realm, and Shen Longcheng nominated him to lead the Puppet Dao's reform.

Li Chen negotiated joint support for developing and sharing his Creation Art, then granted freedom and new lives to the beings he had created. He sent Shang Ren to the Wind Martial Continent and Yang Yao and Yin Hua to the Vast Sea Region, while reflecting on the bonds and risks created by his art.

• Li Chen set conditions for sharing his expertise, including mathematical methods, cooperation among the houses, and joint creation industries.
• After agreeing on a plan for joint development, Li Chen declared that the transformed cultivator and the two newly created humans had the rights of intelligent beings and were free to choose their futures.
• The transformed cultivator asked to return to the Wind Martial Continent, and Li Chen named him Shang Ren and warned him to avoid powerful figures.
• Yang Yao and Yin Hua accepted Li Chen's orders to rule among the half-demon descendants and foreign races in the Vast Sea Region.
• Li Chen sent Yang Yao and Yin Hua away and recognized the ethical risks and personal bonds involved in creating life.

After Li Chen created Yang Yao and Yin Hua, the Puppet Dao recognized them as humans and granted them citizenship. Li Chen also advanced many Puppet Dao members toward the Primordial Spirit realm, but limited resources led him to consider using the Heavenly Reach Money House to fund broader advancement.

• Wu Fangdao and Han Tong supervised a Double-Blind Test that confirmed Yang Yao and Yin Hua were equivalent to naturally born people, and the Puppet Masters debated their rights.
• Shen Longcheng and Pan Ning argued that Li Chen’s creations deserved the same rights as other humans, and the Puppet Dao Elders’ Council granted Yang Yao and Yin Hua citizenship.
• Li Chen explained why he would not create a sixth lineage or give his creations new identification prefixes, and the council accepted his reasoning.
• Li Chen advanced hundreds or thousands of Puppet Dao members by improving their true spirits and souls, while an Auxiliary Brain Chip guided their cultivation.
• Li Chen recognized that scarce resources made mass advancement to the Primordial Spirit realm impractical and turned to the Heavenly Reach Money House, asking Mei Xuan whether spirit stones could ever trade for talisman coins at a negative price.

Li Chen explained to Mei Xuan how the puppet dao’s new energy and technology could strip spirit stones of their value and let him wage financial warfare against the Immortal Alliance. He aimed to drive spirit stone prices below fifty and eventually down to twenty or thirty, leaving Mei Xuan to consider how to plan the scheme.

• Mei Xuan questioned how spirit stone prices could fall below zero when talisman coins had long been tied to spirit stones.
• Li Chen explained that new energy sources and puppet technology had reduced the cultivation world’s dependence on spirit stones.
• Mei Xuan acknowledged that spirit stone prices had already declined as Mechanism Puppets and Electronic Chips displaced older technologies.
• Li Chen said he could use the puppet dao’s industrial strength and financial warfare to drive spirit stone prices below zero briefly and shatter confidence in them.
• Li Chen revealed that his goal was to push prices below fifty, then down to twenty or thirty, devaluing the Immortal Alliance’s holdings.
• Mei Xuan began calculating how the plan could be carried out.

News of Master You’s Spirit-Gathering Furnace and Spirit-Fusing Mud triggered a fierce spirit stone market battle, even though his research was not yet ready for production. As prices surged past one hundred fifty, Master You completed Spirit-Fusing Mud, and Materialized Heaven immediately began producing it in vast quantities under the patent-sharing clause.

• Li Chen returned from his reincarnation empirical certification as a late Primordial Spirit Great Grandmaster, while the Immortal Alliance secretly concealed the fall of two Primordial Spirit Great Powers.
• Rumors exaggerated Master You’s research, prompting traders to sell spirit stone contracts and pushing prices down from ninety-five to ninety.
• The Elders’ Council questioned Master You, and factions supported Fuyou City’s efforts to advance his research toward production.
• Large, unexplained buy orders propped up prices as traders and mine owners bet against each other over whether the new technology would cause spirit stone prices to fall or rise.
• Spirit stone prices climbed above one hundred and then soared past one hundred fifty as buy orders flooded the market.
• Master You completed Spirit-Fusing Mud, and Materialized Heaven began producing it in enormous quantities under the patent-sharing clause.

Li Chen secretly built alliances and drove up Spirit Stone production and prices before launching a coordinated effort to crash the market. The price plunged below its historic support level as his campaign against the Immortal Alliance’s Spirit Stones industry began in earnest.

• Heavenly Pivot told Li Chen that twenty people on the Immortal Alliance’s list and twelve from the Earthly Immortal Continent had agreed to buy mining machinery and establish automated production lines in exchange for advancement and enhancement slots.
• Li Chen reassured Mei Xuan that staged enhancements would preserve the Puppet Dao’s advantage and could turn powerful outsiders into allies, while warning that divided interests among his own factions might obstruct cooperation.
• Li Chen spent more than half a year building connections and preparing his positions before Materialized Heaven flooded the market with Spirit-Fusing Mud, encouraging mine owners to increase extraction severalfold.
• Li Chen and his allies used production data, publicity, and heavenly ghosts to shape public opinion while Spirit Stone prices climbed above one hundred and fifty Talisman Coins.
• At year-end, Li Chen launched a market crash, promoted new technologies, and worked with the Puppet Dao to restrict Spirit Stone imports and use mundane materials.
• Spirit Stone prices plunged below one hundred Talisman Coins and then broke through the historic support level of eighty as Li Chen attacked the Immortal Alliance’s industry.

Li Chen’s spirit stone price scheme devastated the Immortal Alliance while enriching the Puppet Dao and its allies, and the Puppet Masters promoted new energy as an alternative to spirit stones. The chapter left Dharma King Yuanhao urging the Immortal Alliance to open the Immortal Coffin and release Guixu.

• The Puppet Dao Grandmasters and Elders recognized Li Chen’s role in the market upheaval and agreed to support his plan.
• Li Chen’s allies sold off spirit stones through the Myriad Realms Marketplace, while Materialized Heaven and other Sky Cities bought them at reduced prices.
• Spirit stone prices plunged to minus fifty before recovering, leaving mine owners unable to find an immediate solution.
• The Puppet Masters promoted Thunder Essence False Cores and Thunder Gang electricity as alternatives to spirit stones.
• Dharma King Yuanhao called on the Immortal Alliance to open the Immortal Coffin and release Guixu.

The Immortal Alliance’s Great Powers opened the seventh Immortal Coffin, unleashing the Dao of fate across the universe and revealing that fortune favored the Puppet Masters. Dharma King Yuanhao then opened the sixth coffin, which corresponded to the age of heart demon tribulations.

• The Immortal Alliance’s Great Powers agreed to open an Immortal Coffin to counter the Puppet Dao’s growing power.
• Dharma King Yuanhao opened the seventh Immortal Coffin, unleashing black threads of fate throughout the Myriad Heavens.
• The Great Powers saw deathly black auras over their own territory and auspicious fortune shining across the Puppet Dao’s lands.
• Dharma King Yuanhao opened the sixth Immortal Coffin, which was tied to the heart demon tribulation of late High Antiquity.

Dharma King Yuanhao and the Immortal Alliance opened the seventh Immortal Coffin, unleashing the Heart Demon Dao into the Great Dao of the Myriad Heavens. Li Chen discovered that his law domain could destroy the heart demon that entered him, but Heavenly Pivot reported that the Puppet Dao’s Great Elders and Sky City were already under attack.

• Dharma King Yuanhao released the seventh Immortal Coffin’s heart demon power, and Fu Changsheng used a blue-violet talisman to shield the cultivators from its first assault.
• Fu Changsheng explained that the Heart Demon King’s remnant had dispersed into the laws of the Myriad Heavens, where it could ambush cultivators who encountered the power of law.
• Dharma King Yuanhao observed that the new Heart Demon Dao was suppressing the Puppet Dao while changing the cultivation world for cultivators across many sides.
• A heart demon entered Li Chen’s Mindscape Wasteland law domain, where it began to dissipate because the domain countered it.
• Li Chen used the True Knowledge Art to trace the heart demon’s arrival to the Immortal Coffins and ordered Heavenly Pivot to warn Great Elder Shen and the others.
• Heavenly Pivot reported that the Great Elders and Sky City had already suffered unidentified heart demon attacks.

Li Chen helped his allies and Puppet Masters resist the heart demons, then confirmed that the Immortal Alliance had opened two Immortal Coffins. As spiritual energy from the Old Era began reviving across the Myriad Heavens, Li Chen condemned the Immortal Alliance’s reckless attempt to transform their era.

• Li Chen told those around him to use mechanical minds against heart demons, and his allies defeated their manifestations and purged buried negative emotions.
• Auxiliary Brains helped many Puppet Masters resist their heart demons, though a minority still succumbed to madness.
• At a gathering in the Creation Secret Realm, the Great Elders suspected the Immortal Alliance had opened Immortal Coffins, and Li Chen confirmed that two had been opened.
• Li Chen saw strange Great Dao sources spreading through the Unseen and observed five-colored fortune radiance above everyone, while rejecting reliance on the Dao of Fortune.
• Pan Ning noticed the spiritual energy growing denser, and the group identified it as energy from the Old Era released by the opened Immortal Coffins.
• Li Chen angrily warned that the Old Era’s remnant energy could destroy their era and condemned the Immortal Alliance for forcing spiritual energy revival.

Li Chen explained that the spiritual energy revival was actually the return of ancient true spirits and a reversal of time, unleashing demons and disasters across the worlds. He organized a response and went to the Earthly Immortal Continent, where a cultivator named Senior Brother Yuan was overcome by heart demons.

• Li Chen told Shen Longcheng and the others that spiritual essence carried ancient source information and that its release was reviving an era and bringing back calamities.
• Li Chen shared his true knowledge with everyone, letting them perceive the black mist and tangled laws spreading through the worlds.
• The Heavenly Will showed a demonic horde in a valley, and further reports revealed demons, strange beasts, and nature spirits appearing across human territories.
• Han Tong linked the outbreaks to the heart demon tribulation, and Li Chen called for psychological training, materialist education, local disaster response, and emergency supplies.
• Li Chen deployed his mechanical army and the Divine Descentors, then traveled to the Earthly Immortal Continent to confront the calamities at their source.
• At the Sky-Gazing Terrace, Senior Brother Yuan erupted from the mountains in a heart-demon frenzy and attacked the nearby disciples with sword radiance.

As spiritual energy revived, chaos spread across the world, while the Immortal Alliance’s leaders found the energy too muddled to restore their advantage over the Puppet Dao. Their discussion was interrupted when Li Chen infiltrated the vault of the Immortal Coffins in an untouchable phantom state.

• A flippant disciple shot Senior Brother Yuan with a Sword Pill pistol after Yuan succumbed to his demons and attacked fellow disciples.
• Cultivators across the world fell to heart demons as strange creatures and phenomena emerged amid the revived spiritual energy.
• Dharma King Yuanhao and the Immortal Alliance leaders discussed the muddled spiritual energy and their hopes of gaining strength before confronting the Puppet Dao.
• An alarm announced an enemy intrusion at the Immortal Coffins, and Dharma King Yuanhao and the other leaders teleported to the site.
• Li Chen appeared before the Immortal Coffins as an untouchable phantom, and he turned to address the arriving leaders.

Li Chen confronted the Immortal Alliance over its attempt to trigger the Spiritual Energy Revival and declared that he would suppress it and destroy the ancient remnants. As his law domain clashed with the power of the coffins, the coffin tied to early high antiquity began to open, but Li Chen forced its lid shut.

• Li Chen confronted Dharma King Yuanhao and accused the Immortal Alliance of starting the conflict by invading forbidden grounds and pursuing the Spiritual Energy Revival.
• Li Chen explained how different lands and peoples depended on their environments, then declared that he would suppress the revival and refine away the ancient remnants.
• Li Chen spread his law domain, and it collided with the black coffins’ overwhelming power, filling the area with chaotic visions and creeping black mist.
• The fifth Immortal Coffin began shaking as its lid loosened, and Dharma King Yuanhao feared an ancient entity was waking.
• Li Chen struck through the air and pinned down the coffin lid, suppressing the ominous presence within.

Li Chen suppressed the restless Immortal Coffin while Dharma King Yuanhao and the others attacked him to seize control of it. Though they struck his divine soul, Li Chen vanished into his Mindscape Wasteland and used a Coffin Nail to pin the lid shut, leaving the presence inside silent.

• Yuanhao explained that Immortal Coffins could contain the preserved roots of ancient Great Powers, and the group suspected Li Chen had awakened the presence inside.
• Dharma King Yuanhao decided to open three Immortal Coffins at once and attacked Li Chen with his immortal king dharma form.
• Pei Bairen and the others joined Yuanhao in attacking Li Chen, deciding to deal with their Puppet Dao enemy before worrying about the coffin.
• Li Chen turned a finger into a Coffin Nail and hid in his Mindscape Wasteland, beyond the others' reach.
• Li Chen's Coffin Nail pierced the Immortal Coffin's lid and stilled the presence inside.

Li Chen discovered that a Heart Demon had twisted Dharma King Yuanhao’s obsession with opening the Immortal Coffins, and the Immortal Alliance turned against him to stop him. Yuanhao then unleashed a powerful presence that claimed to be Immortal King Xuanling.

• Dharma King Yuanhao tried to open the fourth Immortal Coffin despite warnings that it held the Karma Tribulation.
• Li Chen used his Dharma Eye to detect Heart Demon influence consuming Dharma King Yuanhao’s reason.
• Pei Bairen and the other Great Powers urged Yuanhao to stop, warning that the third coffin contained the Five Decays of the Celestial.
• Li Chen held the fourth coffin shut as Yuanhao abandoned it and moved to open the third.
• The Immortal Alliance’s Great Powers decided to turn against Yuanhao, who erupted with a terrifying aura and identified himself as Immortal King Xuanling.