Chapter Summaries

Li Ling prepared to establish the Incense Accumulation Sect, invited Mo Qingping and Dreamlike Island cultivators to its future ceremony, and organized its cultivation methods and teachings. When Shang Yuxian summoned him to Northsky Island, Kuang Li revealed that Master Shi and the Rare Treasures Tower also wanted Nine-Wan Island as the base for a sect, leaving Li Ling’s plans uncertain.

• Li Ling checked on Lin Rouniang in her dream residence and planned to visit Dreamlike Island for supplies and to invite Mo Qingping.
• Li Ling told Mo Qingping he had overcome the Incense Path’s crucial hurdles and was preparing to establish the Incense Accumulation Sect, then invited him and Dreamlike Island cultivators to attend its ceremony.
• Mo Qingping and Li Yuxiong discussed how the new sect could increase demand for essence-qi dross and strengthen ties between Dreamlike Island and the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Li Ling organized cultivation methods, Incense Manuals, and Incense Workshop materials for the sect while considering how to establish the Incense Path as a distinctive tradition.
• Shang Yuxian summoned Li Ling to Northsky Island, where Kuang Li told him Master Shi and the Rare Treasures Tower wanted Nine-Wan Island as the base for a sect and were seeking to buy out the Money Guild’s share.

Li Ling learned that Shi Jizi had vast resources and the support of the Moon Libation Sword Immortal, while Shi Jizi learned that Li Ling was backed by Yellow Cloud True Person and a promising Incense Path. Shi Jizi remained determined to contest Nine-Wan Island after Zou Yong promised to support him.

• Kuang Li told Li Ling that Shi Jizi had centuries of wealth, four Foundation Establishment disciples, and a close connection to the Moon Libation Sword Immortal, Zou Yong.
• Li Ling considered what distinguished true Sword Dao cultivators and recognized that the Moon Libation Sword Immortal’s reputation indicated formidable strength.
• A Rare Treasures Tower elder warned Shi Jizi that Li Ling had Yellow Cloud True Person’s backing and that the Incense Path’s Hearing-Reach Herb Fragrance had promising prospects.
• Shi Jizi reasoned that Yellow Cloud True Person might not intervene directly and resolved to consult Zou Yong before abandoning his bid for Nine-Wan Island.
• Zou Yong told Shi Jizi that Yellow Cloud True Person was no longer a concern and offered to stand behind him if he continued the contest.

Li Ling and Shi Jizi failed to resolve their rival claims to Nine-Wan Island, and Li Ling realized Shi Jizi might seize it by establishing a sect base first. While Li Ling secretly listened in, Shi Jizi and the Nine Spirits Sect planned a swift occupation and a Thousand-Autumn Pill sale to distract others.

• Li Ling and Shi Jizi rejected a compromise over Nine-Wan Island, leaving the dispute unresolved.
• Mu Qingsi advised Li Ling to use his youth and growing strength to outlast Shi Jizi, but Li Ling warned that Shi Jizi could seize the island first and create an accomplished fact.
• Li Ling projected his soul to spy on Shi Jizi and discovered that Han Kang had proposed landing on the island before their rivals.
• Shi Jizi and the Nine Spirits Sect began planning a rapid occupation, including arranging personnel, supplies, and support from the island's custodians.
• Shi Jizi planned to sell a Thousand-Autumn Pill to attract attention and disguise the sect's preparations, while Li Ling overheard their scheme.

The Nine Spirits Sect failed to land on Nine-Wan Island after Li Ling alerted Shang Yuxian, but Shi Jizi continued pressuring the Incense Accumulation Sect through public opinion and a proposed wagered duel. Shi Jizi proposed that the sects’ followers and guardians compete, and Li Ling countered by offering to settle the dispute in one match.

• Li Ling told Shang Yuxian that the Nine Spirits Sect planned to land on the island, and Elder Shang persuaded the guild to prohibit the move.
• After the landing attempt was blocked, the Nine Spirits Sect spread rumors that Li Ling was abusing powerful backing to seize the island.
• Shang Yuxian warned Li Ling that the Rare Treasures Tower was promoting a wagered duel, while the guild opposed deciding ownership that way.
• After three months of dispute and negotiations, Shi Jizi proposed matches between the sects’ registered attendants, disciples, allies, and guardians.
• Li Ling accepted a wagered duel in principle but suggested deciding the matter in a single match against Shi Jizi or another person from his side.

Li Ling agreed to settle the dispute over Nine-Wan Island with a duel against a fighter chosen by Shi Jizi, betting that his gifts and magic treasures could overcome the Nine Spirits Sect’s advantage in numbers. At the sea venue, he faced the renowned one-armed sword cultivator Xing Feng as invited witnesses gathered, but the duel had not yet begun.

• Li Ling accepted Shi Jizi’s proposal to decide the claim to Nine-Wan Island through a fight, and Shi Jizi promised either to yield the island or help Li Ling find another spiritual island depending on the result.
• Li Ling explained to Mu Qingsi that he had chosen a duel because his innate gifts and magic treasures gave him a better chance than a contest of manpower and resources.
• Ten days later, Li Ling practiced transforming his human incense before Mu Qingsi called him to the duel venue at sea.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi arrived at a treasure ship where Shang Yuxian and the merchant guild representatives awaited them alongside the Nine Spirits Sect’s larger contingent.
• Li Ling identified his opponent as Xing Feng, a one-armed sword cultivator famed for Thunder Ridge Sect sword techniques and heavenly lightning.
• Shi Jizi arrived with invited Foundation Establishment cultivators and other witnesses, who had gathered to oversee the wager and prevent the duel from causing an uncontrolled incident.

Li Ling fought Xing Feng in a wagered duel and endured a series of lightning attacks before revealing that his Incense Deities could heal and support him. He manifested Incense Deities of Spirit-Communing Incense and Evil-Repelling Incense, leaving the duel’s outcome undecided.

• Li Ling and Shi Jizi signed the duel contract, and the guild’s elders explained the terms before the contest began.
• Xing Feng attacked Li Ling with lightning-infused sword strikes, while Li Ling used Smoke Transformation to evade and withstand the assault.
• Xing Feng compressed his summoned power into a devastating bolt that caught Li Ling in its explosion.
• Li Ling’s Incense Deity appeared and restored his lightning-scorched body, prompting the spectators to realize she was not an ordinary person.
• Li Ling manifested two more Incense Deities: one of Spirit-Communing Incense and another of Evil-Repelling Incense.

Li Ling used his newly created incense deities to withstand Xing Feng’s attacks and counter with elemental assaults. He then trapped Xing Feng with the Red Light Mirror and a cloud of foul incense essence, leaving him dazed and reeling.

• Li Ling summoned three incense deities, which used their abilities to strengthen him, shield him, and withstand Xing Feng’s lightning sword strikes.
• Li Ling and the Spirit-Communing Incense deity attacked Xing Feng with Five Elements energy and waves of water blades, wearing down his Protective Gang Qi.
• Cold Beauty blocked Xing Feng’s Thunderclap Sword with a giant parasol barrier, while Elder Shang and Elder Qi recognized the power of Li Ling’s unusual clones.
• Li Ling revealed the Blazing Cloud Gourd but put it away, choosing to keep it as a trump card and use a blood gourd filled with impure stench instead.
• Li Ling aimed the Red Light Mirror at Xing Feng, slowing his thoughts long enough for the foul cloud to envelop him and leave him dizzy and disoriented.

Li Ling fought Xing Feng with poisonous Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui smoke and Mysterious Yin Water, but Xing Feng unleashed his Thunder Dragon Sword Art and destroyed Li Ling’s body. Li Ling’s corpse rose and counterattacked, forcing the exhausted Xing Feng to concede.

• Li Ling poisoned Xing Feng with impure stench and Mysterious Yin Water, while Xing Feng used a Snow Toad Pill and lightning to suppress the toxins temporarily.
• Xing Feng discarded his enchanted sword and transformed into a thunder dragon, concentrating his power into a lethal Sword Pellet attack.
• Li Ling escaped his locked body with Divided Spirit Manifestation, but the Sword Pellet charred his body and seemingly killed him.
• Li Ling’s charred corpse rose and attacked Xing Feng with Mysterious Yin Water, overwhelming him while he recovered from his strike.
• Xing Feng fell into the sea and conceded defeat.

Li Ling won Nine-Wan Island after killing Xing Feng in their wagered duel, then returned to Moon-Sand Island to recover and explain how he survived. As his survival drew attention to Teaweed Incense, the Nine Spirits Sect investigated Xing Feng’s death, while Li Ling prepared to move his household to Nine-Wan Island.

• Li Ling revived from his apparent corpse and killed Xing Feng with a burst of origin energy spheres and Water Arrows, securing the wager for the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Han Kang accepted the defeat, and Li Ling offered to arrange Xing Feng’s funeral while claiming he had not meant to kill him.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that he had survived by projecting his soul and restoring his body with Teaweed Incense, then planned to explain his survival as the work of a powerful senior and a spent life-saving treasure.
• Observers began to suspect that Teaweed Continuity Paste could preserve life, bringing widespread attention to Li Ling’s incense products.
• Shi Jizi ordered the Nine Spirits Sect to examine Xing Feng’s corpse, and its disciples concluded that Li Ling’s abilities combined poison, baleful energy, and spiritual manifestations.
• After recovering, Li Ling received word that the Rare Treasures Tower had completed the handover, and he set out with his household and companions for Nine-Wan Island.

Li Ling toured Nine-Wan Island and planned the Incense Accumulation Sect’s headquarters, cultivation grounds, gardens, and school for future apprentices. After preparing to hold the sect-founding ceremony the following June, he publicly recruited adult craftsmen, incense makers, and Qi Refining cultivators to fill the sect’s middle ranks.

• Li Ling and Kuang Li chose a hill and nearby lowland on Nine-Wan Island for the sect headquarters and Market Ward, with the Money Guild funding construction.
• Li Ling instructed Han Guang to cultivate useful incense plants and inspected the Devil Finger Wood saplings, noting they might take a hundred years to mature.
• Li Ling visited a school for children from ordinary families and explained his plan to educate them before selecting Incense Path apprentices, while offering other graduates opportunities as craftspeople.
• Li Ling returned from the island, set the sect-founding ceremony for mid-June of the following year, and arranged for invitations to be sent.
• Li Ling decided to recruit publicly to find adult craftsmen, incense makers, and Qi Refining cultivators for the Incense Accumulation Sect.

Li Ling organized the newly founded Incense Accumulation Sect, recruited its first stewards, and established a Market Ward on Nine-Wan Island. With the sect’s administrative structure in place, he and Mu Qingsi planned how to secure the new stewards’ loyalty as the founding ceremony approached.

• Li Ling explained the Six Courts and Three Halls, then welcomed over a hundred rogue cultivators and began recruiting staff for the sect.
• Li Ling gave every applicant an incense gift package and used his scent-identification ability to screen out candidates he deemed unsuitable.
• Li Ling announced the opening of a Market Ward and arranged for applicants to rest while the selection process continued.
• Over ten days, Li Ling selected sixteen cultivators as the sect’s first steward elders, completing the Six Courts and Three Halls’ staffing structure.
• Mu Qingsi advised Li Ling to win over the stewards by prioritizing their descendants for nominal discipleships and using Soul-Possession Dream Transmission to learn about those without families.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi finalized preparations for the Incense Accumulation Sect’s inauguration and discussed Li Ling’s plans for educating disciples. The ceremony drew a large gathering of influential cultivators, and the arrival of the Nine Spirits Sect’s Master Shi briefly quieted the guests.

• Mu Qingsi reported that the ceremony’s supplies and decorations had arrived, and she and Li Ling reviewed the remaining preparations.
• Li Ling explained that the sect would educate newcomers in general knowledge before assessing their talents, and that cultivation and Dao inheritance required suitable innate abilities.
• Three days later, the Incense Accumulation Sect held its inauguration ceremony, attended by guests including Yellow Cloud True Person, Mo Qingping, Madam Zhao, Sea Ji, and many other cultivators.
• Li Ling welcomed Mo Qingping and Li Yuxiong as the assembled guests discussed the sect’s influence and the scale of the gathering.
• The master of ceremonies announced that the Nine Spirits Sect’s Master Shi had arrived, silencing the crowd.

Li Ling celebrated the founding of the Incense Accumulation Sect with a vast incense-burning feast whose fragrance benefited cultivators and mortals across Nine-Wan Island. True Person Zixu appeared to bestow Li Ling a life-saving Secret Talisman, leaving Shi Jizi shocked by Li Ling’s apparent Nascent Soul backing.

• Shi Jizi attended the sect-founding ceremony and exchanged courteous greetings with Li Ling despite their past grievances.
• Li Ling lit a giant Incense Stick and launched an incense-burning feast that spread beneficial fragrance throughout the island.
• The incense essence improved cultivators’ senses and purified the surroundings, while some sick mortals recovered.
• True Person Zixu appeared by soul projection and gave Li Ling a Secret Talisman that could protect his life in danger.
• Shi Jizi realized Li Ling might have a Nascent Soul expert backing him, then told Han Kang that their plan would proceed.

The Incense Accumulation Sect gained broad support after True Person Zixu appeared at its founding banquet, while Shi Jizi’s Nine Spirits Sect began investigating its incense products and secretly obtained their unusual raw material. Li Ling and Mu Qingsi reviewed the banquet gifts and discovered that Madam Zhao had given them a rare Fragrance-Sensing Upside-Down Bird, which could help Li Ling study and use the Incense Path.

• Guests aboard the treasure ship speculated about Li Ling and the Incense Accumulation Sect, and several offered financial and material support for its development.
• Han Kang reported that the Rare Treasures Tower was prioritizing the Incense Accumulation Sect’s construction and floating-stone orders, worrying Shi Jizi about the sect’s growing influence and its possible competition with the Nine Spirits Sect.
• A Nine Spirits Sect disciple returned with port manifests and Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, which Shi Jizi learned was used to make Teaweed Incense and Teaweed Continuity Paste; the disciple warned that it was dangerous.
• Yellow Cloud True Person questioned Li Ling about True Person Zixu’s unexpected appearance, and Li Ling showed her the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash connected to the Dragon Vein.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi inventoried the congratulatory gifts, setting aside Yellow Cloud True Person’s magic treasures and examining gifts from their other friends and allies.
• Li Ling revealed that Madam Zhao had gifted them a Fragrance-Sensing Upside-Down Bird, which could perceive and command incense essence and might assist his research and treasure appraisal.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi planned to make the Incense Accumulation Sect an academy that would spread the Incense Path by training disciples and sending them out to establish new organizations. Meanwhile, Shi Jizi’s researchers uncovered the longevity effects of the stolen Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, and he ordered human trials despite Han Kang’s warning.

• Li Ling explained that the Incense Accumulation Sect would train incense makers and cultivators, then allow qualified disciples to complete their apprenticeships and build new organizations.
• Mu Qingsi reasoned that dispersing the Incense Path would preserve Li Ling’s lineage and reduce the sect’s risks, and Li Ling said he hoped to step down as sect master and become the Incense Ancestor.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi agreed to distinguish the sect’s communal assets from their private property and patiently cultivate enough successors to spread the Incense Path.
• At Little Olive Island, Shi Jizi’s Nine Spirits Sect studied the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui stolen from Li Ling and discovered that it could extend lifespan and affect mortals.
• Han Kang warned Shi Jizi that the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui might be dangerous, but Shi Jizi ordered trials to test whether it could enhance his Millennium Longevity Pill.

The Nine Spirits Sect’s experiments with the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui produced a healing pill and a growing Black Demon Corpse, but its spores also eroded the mind. Han Kang urged Shi Jizi to obtain Teaweed Incense instead, and Shi Jizi’s festering, zombie-like hand revealed that he was already affected.

• Han Kang explained to Ji Feng that Shi Jizi was rushing the experiments because age had made him desperate to extend his life.
• More than a year later, Han Kang and Ji Feng inspected the Tai Sui Blood Essence Pill, which could heal severe injuries at lower cost but had not proven capable of extending lifespan.
• The disciples showed Han Kang a corpse transformed into a Black Demon Corpse, whose body kept growing and whose spores could erode the minds of living test subjects.
• Han Kang reported that the researchers could not remove the Tai Sui’s toxicity and suggested secretly buying Teaweed Incense, but supplies were scarce and costly.
• After Han Kang left, Shi Jizi revealed a purplish-black hand with festering wounds that looked like a zombie’s.

A monstrous Corpse Puppet made from Xing Feng’s corpse broke out of its chamber, killed and injured Nine Spirits Sect disciples, and infected some of the wounded with Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui spores. Shi Jizi refused to stop the experiments and planned to use the infected disciples as test subjects, prompting Han Kang to denounce him.

• The Corpse Puppet smashed through its confinement, killed a guard, and injured other disciples before Han Kang sealed it inside an iron-ring cage.
• Han Kang reported the casualties to Shi Jizi, who celebrated the Corpse Puppet’s lifelike growth and ordered the sect to conceal the deaths.
• Han Kang and the other disciples criticized Shi Jizi’s experiments, but Shi Jizi insisted that abandoning the Corpse Puppet would waste their work and resources.
• Han Kang learned that disciples injured in the attack had been infected by Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui spores and isolated the exposed people in the valley.
• Shi Jizi called the infected disciples useful Qi Refining Realm test subjects, and Han Kang angrily condemned him for pursuing immortality.

Han Kang confronted Shi Jizi over his reckless experiments, prompting Shi Jizi to recall his past and reaffirm his pursuit of immortality above all else. As his disciples resolved to halt the research, Shi Jizi secretly altered the Mountain Gate Grand Array and released a black mist toward the construction site.

• Han Kang rebuked Shi Jizi for risking the Nine Spirits Sect and its disciples, but Shi Jizi defended the experiments as the price of transcending birth and death.
• Shi Jizi remembered his mortal life as Shi Bao, his work as a physician, his losses, and the experiences that led him to seek immortal cultivation.
• After returning to the present, Shi Jizi decided that his original aim had been to transcend life and death, and that he would pursue it without regard for what the Fangzai Kingdom, his disciples, or other things could offer him.
• Han Kang left in despair, while the disciples agreed to stop the dangerous experiments with the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui.
• Shi Jizi secretly entered the array holding the infected, disabled its protections, altered the Mountain Gate Grand Array, and sent a spreading black mist toward the construction site.

Tai Sui spores spread across Little Olive Island after Shi Jizi’s experiments went awry, forcing Han Kang and Ji Feng to confront the monster and evacuate the mortals. They discovered Shi Jizi had sealed the inner valley and was using the island’s people and earth veins to refine a great medicine for himself.

• Han Kang ordered the evacuation of newly advanced Qi Refining cultivators and led the others into the spore-infested valley, where they found the laborers transformed and Shi Jizi emerging from within.
• Shi Jizi explained that the monster had damaged the restrictions and ordered the disciples to seal off the area and rescue survivors.
• Han Kang and Ji Feng went to the harbor, where the monster attacked the laborers, escaped their Magic Treasures, and spread infections while the available ships proved insufficient for an evacuation.
• Ji Feng suspected Shi Jizi was behind the disaster, and Han Kang found the island’s formation barring his return to the inner valley.
• Shi Jizi appeared across the formation with a rotting body and admitted he had implanted the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui in himself to experiment.
• Shi Jizi revealed that he planned to use the valley, the earth veins, and the vital blood of the island’s people to refine a great medicine that would restore and strengthen him.

Shi Jizi defended his plan to sacrifice countless people for a chance to form his core, while Han Kang and Ji Feng fled and the Nine Spirits Sect’s disciples scrambled to manage the fallout. As rogue cultivators prepared to enter the poisoned Little Olive Island, Li Ling learned that Yuan Ding was using them in a dangerous scheme that could either aid Shi Jizi or bring him down.

• Shi Jizi argued that heavenly tribulations let cultivators bear the cost of their actions, dismissed his disciples’ lives as expendable, and reshaped his heart with black energy as Han Kang and Ji Feng fled.
• Several days later, Han Kang, Ji Feng, Yuan Ding, and Wu Xinye agreed to conceal the truth from the public, explain it to their superiors, and wait for the merchant association to act.
• Elder Qi learned of Shi Jizi’s deeds and the theft of the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui from Li Ling, then turned back toward the North Sea Branch Headquarters to seek help rather than intervene himself.
• Rumors of abandoned treasures on Little Olive Island drew rogue cultivators to the merchant association’s recruitment notices, which promised rewards for recovering treasures and hunting a monster.
• Han Kang secretly told Li Ling that Yuan Ding planned to exploit the rogue cultivators, and Li Ling recognized that the scheme could either feed Shi Jizi with their vital essence or help destroy his formation and reclaim the island.