Recaps

Li Ling developed his Incense Path, expanded his incense business, and rescued Zhou Cheng from the Blood Shark Bandits. After the bandits’ pursuit team collapsed into betrayal, Li Ling killed Tong Yuan and Mo Lan, leaving the pirate conflict unresolved.

• Li Ling earned Madam Zhao’s trust with his ability to perceive incense essence, then worked with her on human incense and improved formulas.
• Li Ling taught Shang Yuxian and Min Lian to prepare incense essence, expanded production, and exposed Xin Dayuan, Wang Ji, and Tong Li for counterfeiting his Incense Pills.
• Li Ling took Xin Dayuan and Tong Li into his service, discovered Granny Wu’s treasures, and continued studying incense with Madam Zhao.
• Li Ling developed the Heaven-Borrowing Art and incense resonance, formed an Incense Deity resembling Mu Qingsi, and explored its use as an avatar.
• After Yi Yi reported Zhou Cheng missing, Li Ling tracked the Blood Shark Bandits to their island and found Zhou Cheng and two others tortured and near death.
• Li Ling secretly rescued the captives, used Teaweed Incense to heal them, and organized an ambush when Lian Li pursued them.
• Lian Li fought off the ambush until Tong Zhifeng revealed his betrayal, then Tong Yuan and Mo Lan killed Lian Li and took his appearance.
• Li Ling used Netherdream Incense to distract Tong Yuan and Mo Lan, then killed them both.

Li Ling developed the Incense Path, guided Min Lian to Foundation Establishment, and founded the Incense Accumulation Sect. After defeating Xing Feng in a wagered duel, he secured Nine-Wan Island and began preparing the sect’s headquarters and founding ceremony.

• Li Ling exposed the Ling Household’s collusion with Lian Li and helped Zhou Cheng establish the Moon-Gazing Trading House.
• Li Ling studied Rose Dew and developed Cherimoya Blossom Incense, then created Heavenly Incense Guidance to cultivate an Incense Body.
• Min Lian cultivated her own human incense and established her foundation, proving the Incense Path could support cultivation.
• Li Ling founded the Incense Accumulation Sect with Money Guild support and chose Nine Fields as its initial blessed land.
• Shi Jizi challenged Li Ling’s claim to Nine-Wan Island, and Li Ling agreed to settle their dispute with a duel.
• Li Ling defeated Xing Feng using his incense deities, transformations, and toxins, winning the wager for the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Li Ling moved his household and companions to Nine-Wan Island, selected sites for the sect headquarters and Market Ward, and began recruiting for the coming founding ceremony.

Li Ling founded the Incense Accumulation Sect while Shi Jizi’s experiments with Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui turned Little Olive Island into a breeding ground for monsters. After killing Shi Jizi and containing the island, Li Ling took in the sect’s spoils and faced a new danger when Lin Rouniang transformed into eighteen Blood Spirit Brides.

• Li Ling staffed the Six Courts and Three Halls, held the Incense Accumulation Sect’s inauguration, and used a grand incense feast to welcome guests and attract support.
• Shi Jizi experimented on stolen Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, creating infected disciples and Black Demon Corpses before sacrificing Little Olive Island’s people to pursue a longevity medicine.
• Li Ling negotiated the division of the Nine Spirits Sect’s resources, supplied Teaweed Incense, and joined Han Kang and the Merchant Association to confront Shi Jizi on the island.
• Shi Jizi transformed into a Face Tree and offered Li Ling a Dao Fruit, but Li Ling and Mu Qingsi defeated him in a sealed dream, killing his true body and stopping his rise to Core Formation.
• Li Ling agreed to contain Little Olive Island, arranged for its formation to be sealed, and planned to manage its monsters as a controlled secret realm.
• Lin Rouniang ate a Wood-Refined Dao Fruit and became eighteen Blood Spirit Brides, one of whom attacked a rogue cultivator through a dream before Li Ling imprisoned the brides.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi reviewed the Nine Spirits Sect’s spoils, while Li Ling studied Shi Jizi’s notes and learned that Lin Rouniang’s avatars were all at Foundation Establishment level.

Li Ling strengthened the Incense Accumulation Sect through new pills, schools, and a growing incense trade while countering schemes against his island and reputation. The stretch ended with the sect’s education system drawing outside attention as Shu Changsheng sat its teaching certification examination.

• Li Ling created a Weird Dream Incense Deity that suppressed Lin Rouniang’s Blood Spirit Brides within a dream.
• Li Ling expanded the sect’s cultivation and recruitment efforts, refining Life-Origin Great Pills, advancing Shu Wangsheng to Foundation Establishment, and sending Tong Li to establish Incense Path schools in Ashili.
• Li Ling killed the intruders Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen on Little Olive Island, then authorized the Money Guild to sell his Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi absorbed Shi Jizi’s Dao Fruits together, each gaining sixty years of cultivation, while the pill auction brought Li Ling 2.67 million.
• Li Ling uncovered Xiong Feiyu’s scheme to sell imitation pills under the sect’s name and used evidence from Zhou Fu to help Yun Li remove Xiong Feiyu from power.
• Li Ling chose to replace disrupted mortal industries with incense-path workshops, while the Incense Market spread among cultivators and rogue cultivators.
• Yun Li tried to disrupt the incense trade, but Li Ling’s allies and market standards blocked his recruits and pushed their shops out.
• Teacher Lin taught incense appraisal to pupils as Spirit Treasure Sect cultivators observed, and Li Ling called Shu Changsheng to take the teaching certification examination.