Chapter Summaries

Li Ling agreed to help stop Shi Jizi after negotiating how the Nine Spirits Sect’s assets and dependents would be divided among the competing powers. As preparations began for the expedition, Li Ling invited Han Kang to join the Incense Accumulation Sect, but Han Kang planned to sail out with the guild’s cultivators instead.

• Mu Qingsi explained that the Nine Spirits Sect had spread its alliances among Li Ling, the Rare Treasures Tower, and the Moon Libation Sword Immortal, and Li Ling decided Shi Jizi had to be stopped.
• Li Ling agreed to intervene on the condition that the Nine Spirits Sect’s resources be separated from the Fangzai Kingdom’s and that those responsible for stealing his Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui be punished.
• Li Ling, Han Kang, Ji Feng, the Rare Treasures Tower, and the Money Guild negotiated the division of the Nine Spirits Sect’s disciples, assets, and interests, while Yuan Ding and Wu Xinye retained the sect’s headquarters and blessed land.
• Li Ling secured pill formulas, texts, disciples, and favorable supply terms for the Incense Accumulation Sect, while the Nine Spirits Sect kept Little Olive Island and agreed to provide one Foundation Establishment Pill every ten years.
• Han Kang lamented that his master’s life’s work was being divided up, and Li Ling invited him to become deputy sect master of the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Han Kang declined to decide immediately and said he intended to join the guild’s rogue cultivators on their expedition, asking Li Ling to produce Teaweed Incense to support them.

Li Ling produced more than a hundred portions of Teaweed Incense, then secretly projected his soul to Little Olive Island to investigate the merchant guild’s operation and the dangers within the Nine Spirits Sect ruins. He slipped past the island’s monsters and reached a mass of Flesh Lingzhi.

• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed the risks of others coveting Teaweed Incense, while Li Ling worried that the merchant guild could control his distribution network and enterprise.
• Li Ling used his three-headed, six-armed Dharma Form to produce more than a hundred portions of incense in three days.
• Li Ling secretly traveled to Little Olive Island and overheard Elder Qi and Han Kang discuss the merchant guild’s recruitment of rogue cultivators and Shi Jizi’s use of transformed people as Black Demon Corpses.
• Li Ling entered the Nine Spirits Sect’s formation and carefully navigated its black mist, which suppressed Spiritual Consciousness and concealed mutated creatures.
• Li Ling slipped past the wandering corpses and monsters and discovered a dense mass of Flesh Lingzhi.

Li Ling searched the Nine Spirits Sect’s corpse-filled valley for Shi Jizi but found the route to the spirit vein spring buried beneath mountains of flesh and soil. After watching rogue cultivators enter the island and learning the Merchant Association planned to wait for Teaweed Incense before sending its forces in, Li Ling delivered the completed incense in person.

• Li Ling found tens of thousands of corpses transformed into a breeding ground for mutated Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, but could not locate Shi Jizi.
• Li Ling discovered that the way to the Inner Valley had been sealed by collapsed mountains and corpses, then returned to the Treasure Ship.
• Han Kang and Elder Qi watched rogue cultivators attack Black Demon Corpses near the Nine Spirits Sect’s Market Ward and split into groups to explore the island.
• Elder Qi explained that the Merchant Association would wait for Li Ling’s Teaweed Incense before sending its forces into the sect.
• Li Ling sent word that the Teaweed Incense was ready, then arrived in person two days later aboard another Treasure Ship.

Li Ling delivered Teaweed Incense to the Merchant Association as Han Kang explained that Shi Jizi was likely using a Wood Refining Method to cultivate a grand pill from Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui. After infected rogue cultivators and mutated corpse-like creatures appeared, Elder Qi led an elite team into the valley to find Shi Jizi and investigate the burial mound.

• Li Ling delivered more than a hundred bottles of Teaweed Incense, and Elder Qi ordered most of them distributed while asking Li Ling to make more.
• Li Ling explained that pill refining methods required different conditions and times, and Han Kang said Shi Jizi appeared to be using the Wood Refining Method.
• Han Kang described wood refining as cultivating plants with nutrients from earth veins and compost, leading Li Ling to suspect that Shi Jizi was making tai sui flower and bear fruit.
• Rogue cultivators returned with reports of a huge burial mound, while an infected man’s growths shriveled after he was treated with Teaweed Incense and strange corpse-like creatures were found on the beach.
• Elder Qi concluded that Shi Jizi’s experiments risked unleashing further mutations, and Li Ling returned to making incense while the Merchant Association tightened its precautions.
• Elder Qi invited Li Ling and Han Kang to join an elite team into the valley, and they set out toward the reported burial mound to find Shi Jizi.

Li Ling and the Merchant Association entered the island and saw how Shi Jizi’s mutated Tai Sui and living corpses had turned slaughter into a scheme for avoiding karma while creating new life. At the burial mound, Elder Qi hesitated to attack the creatures, and Shi Jizi emerged through his offer of a longevity Dao fruit, leaving the Merchant Association’s allegiance uncertain.

• Elder Qi explained that Shi Jizi had used mutated Tai Sui to kill the island’s people indirectly, making the resulting species’ struggle for survival appear to be natural evolution rather than murder.
• Han Kang warned Li Ling that the Merchant Association might protect Shi Jizi for his life-prolonging research, but Li Ling refused to be provoked into attacking without understanding the situation.
• Li Ling and the others reached the burial mound, where Elder Qi objected to attacking the living corpses because doing so would incur tremendous karma.
• Several cultivators attacked the mound, prompting a spiked, Foundation Establishment-level monster to emerge; Elder Qi restrained it until it vomited dozens of living parasites and escaped.
• Shi Jizi spoke from the Inner Valley, defended his actions as a path to Core Formation, and offered Elder Qi a share of his longevity Dao fruit.

Li Ling confronted Shi Jizi over his experiments with the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, while Shi Jizi revealed that his population-based research could produce pills and restore youth. As Shi Jizi demonstrated that he had merged with the earth vein and become a giant with Core Formation-level power, Heavenly Tribulation descended.

• Shi Jizi explained that he had used the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui to cultivate and reproduce living corpses, while Li Ling argued that his own Teaweed Incense offered a better path to longevity.
• Shi Jizi claimed that his propagated offspring could supply ingredients for pill refining, and Elder Qi weighed the value of his research.
• Han Kang attacked the Corpse Mountain, exposing Shi Jizi, and Li Ling used Teaweed Incense to dissolve the flesh and destroy a beating heart.
• Shi Jizi revealed that he had merged with the earth vein and could not perish unless the island was destroyed, then produced youthful copies of himself from the Corpse Mountain.
• Elder Qi ordered Li Ling and Han Kang to stop, but Han Kang and Li Ling continued attacking and began dissolving the corpse-people with Teaweed Incense.
• The flesh mountain collapsed, and a giant with Core Formation-level power emerged from a cavern as Heavenly Tribulation gathered above the valley.

Han Kang drew the Heavenly Tribulation onto himself, but Shi Jizi survived it by transforming into a gigantic Face Tree with immense vitality. As Shi Jizi attacked the Merchant Association, the Moon Libation Sword Immortal appeared as his hidden backer.

• Han Kang rushed onto the giant's head and took the Heavenly Tribulation strike, while Li Ling used Teaweed Incense to keep him alive.
• The lightning destroyed much of the giant's body, but a Face Tree grew from it, absorbing the valley's flesh and displaying powerful vitality.
• Li Ling realized Shi Jizi had become something nonhuman as Shi Jizi declared himself undying and began recovering his strength.
• A hidden limb among the tree's branches struck Elder Qi and poisoned him, while Shi Jizi launched a wider assault.
• The exotic beast and thousands of Corpse Soldiers attacked the Merchant Association, killing several stewards as the Face Tree devoured them.
• The Moon Libation Sword Immortal appeared above the Face Tree, revealing himself as Shi Jizi's backer.

The Moon Libation Sword Immortal killed Elder Qi and revealed that he had only used the Merchant Association as cover while Shi Jizi pursued a breakthrough. Shi Jizi grew three extraordinary Dao Fruits and offered one to Li Ling for the Teaweed Incense formula, but Li Ling rejected the bargain and launched a hidden attack as the fruits ripened.

• The Moon Libation Sword Immortal used his Core Realm Sword Pellet to grievously wound Elder Qi, and the Face Tree dragged him into its maw and devoured him.
• Han Kang confronted his master, but the Moon Libation Sword Immortal explained that his real aim was to break with the Merchant Association and help Shi Jizi obtain Elder Qi's blood essence and Origin Energy.
• The Moon Libation Sword Immortal declined to kill Li Ling and left him to settle matters with Shi Jizi, who suspected Li Ling possessed an immortality method and a mysterious Nascent Soul Cultivator ally.
• Shi Jizi offered Li Ling a flesh-and-blood Dao Fruit in exchange for the Teaweed Incense formula and explained the powers of the copper, silver, and golden fruits.
• The Face Tree withered and collapsed after producing the three ripened fruits, and Li Ling rejected Shi Jizi's offer before using Soul Projection and Fragrance-Guided Dream Entry.

Li Ling trapped Shi Jizi in a sealed dream and attacked him, but Shi Jizi unveiled successive transformations that revealed his monstrous true form and immense power. As Shi Jizi began to seize control of the dream, he realized Li Ling’s soul and the vast domain surrounding the dream were far beyond what he expected.

• Li Ling drew Shi Jizi into a sealed dream and declared that he intended to kill him there.
• Shi Jizi survived Li Ling’s lightning strike, then used Copper Flower, Essence Bloom and Silver Flower, Qi Essence Bloom to unleash Core Formation-level power.
• Li Ling suppressed Shi Jizi’s wind and lightning attacks, prompting Shi Jizi to bloom his Golden Flower and transform into a gigantic Face Tree.
• Shi Jizi explained that he had abandoned his humanity and used his three blooms to combine the powers of essence, qi, and spirit.
• Shi Jizi found that his dream-spore abilities could not affect Li Ling’s resilient soul and sensed that Li Ling’s dream extended into the vast Netherdream Realm.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi joined forces in the dream to defeat Shi Jizi’s Face Tree form, then Li Ling killed Shi Jizi by striking his true body with Nascent Soul Realm Divine Sense. The Moon Libation Sword Immortal withdrew, and Li Ling urged Han Kang to gather their belongings and leave.

• Li Ling summoned the three Incense Deities, whose incense cleared the Face Tree’s spores and mold, while its flesh formed Bark Armor against further effects.
• Mu Qingsi entered the dream and joined Li Ling, attacking with her Sword Pellet and Mo Lan’s Frostbreath Bow as they targeted the Face Tree’s eyes and flowers.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi battered the Face Tree until its body collapsed, but it claimed that dying in the dream would only give it a nightmare.
• Li Ling sent his soul power through the Face Tree’s Dream Spirit and killed Shi Jizi’s true body with Nascent Soul Realm Divine Sense, interrupting his rise to Core Formation.
• The Moon Libation Sword Immortal inferred that Li Ling had a Nascent Soul secret treasure and left, while Li Ling told Han Kang to gather their things and depart.

Li Ling and Han Kang discovered the truth about Shi Jizi and returned to the Treasure Ship, where Li Ling weighed whether to take responsibility for the corrupted Little Olive Island. Before he could decide, living corpses attacked the ship, and their faces looked like those of the survivors.

• Li Ling identified the rotting body as Shi Jizi and collected three strange fruits, suspecting they were elixirs meant for demons and monsters rather than ordinary cultivators.
• Li Ling and Han Kang found surviving members of the Merchant Association, revived them with Teaweed Incense, and returned with them to the Treasure Ship.
• Elder Shang offered Li Ling ownership of Little Olive Island if he contained its evil and shared Shi Jizi's research, while Li Ling warned that the island was devastated and nearly impossible to purify.
• Elder Shang proposed sealing off Little Olive Island with its great array, but fighting broke out on the Treasure Ship before Li Ling decided whether to accept.
• Living corpses ambushed the ship, and Li Ling noticed that their faces resembled those of the survivors who had returned with him.

Li Ling discovered that Corpse-Persons were spawned by parasitic growths on the returning cultivators and helped the survivors remove them. He concluded that Shi Jizi’s body had become the island itself and agreed to take responsibility for containing it, proposing to make it a periodically opened secret realm.

• Li Ling used Teaweed Incense to reveal parasitic growths on the returning rogue cultivators, whose offspring had produced the Corpse-Persons that pursued them.
• The cultivators and Merchant Association members removed the parasites, and Li Ling ordered the ship to establish fumigation and isolation procedures.
• Li Ling told Han Kang that Shi Jizi’s mind was dead but his body had fused with the island and spirit vein, leaving the island as a spreading source of offspring.
• Li Ling contacted Elder Shang and agreed to take responsibility for the island, provided its secrets were protected and its resources were not used without his approval.
• Li Ling proposed sealing and suppressing the island while periodically opening it as a secret realm for cultivators to clear monsters and harvest local resources.

Li Ling arranged for Little Olive Island to be sealed and developed into a secret realm where cultivators could hunt its monsters, while examining the dangerous Dao Fruits he had recovered. That night, a red-veiled figure appeared and drifted toward the bag holding the fruits.

• Li Ling persuaded Elder Shang to fund his plan for Little Olive Island and keep its expenses carefully accounted for.
• Master Hong arrived and began altering the island’s formation to conceal its nodes and seal the area.
• Li Ling designed an Exotic Species Nursery that would guide the island’s monsters into separated areas for future expeditions and purges.
• Elder Shang approved the plan, and Li Ling finished gathering the Nine Spirits Sect’s resources and left the pursuit of Xing Feng to others.
• Li Ling examined three Life Dao Fruits, sensed that consuming them would bring grave karmic consequences, and put them away.
• That night, Li Ling practiced dual cultivation with his wife from afar as a red-veiled figure drifted toward the bag containing the Dao Fruits.

Lin Rouniang consumed the Wood-Refined Dao Fruit and transformed into eighteen Blood Spirit Brides, gaining the ability to enter dreams and harm people in reality. Li Ling contained them in a dream prison, while the attack on a cultivator was blamed on Shi Jizi and the wider danger remained concealed.

• Lin Rouniang ate the Wood-Refined Dao Fruit, grew a physical body, and divided into eighteen Blood Spirit Brides bearing Li Ling’s distinctive incense mark.
• Li Ling learned that Lin Rouniang’s transformation had severed her former means of resurrection but left her with a dangerous blend of ghost-spirit and Tai Sui abilities.
• One Blood Spirit Bride escaped into a rogue cultivator’s dream, strangled him there, and left bruises infected by Tai Sui spores in reality.
• Li Ling examined the injured cultivator and realized the Blood Spirit Brides could spread a nightmare infection that threatened anyone who dreamed of them.
• Li Ling sealed the eighteen brides inside a prison he created with the Dream-Evolving Art, and the attack was blamed on Shi Jizi.
• Han Kang proposed fumigating Little Olive Island with Teaweed Incense, but Li Ling agreed only to fumigate the treasure ship and its visitors because money was short.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi sorted through the Nine Spirits Sect’s seized treasures, arranged to receive a hundred of its disciples, and examined Shi Jizi’s research into the Life-Origin Great Pill. As Li Ling considered the dangers of seeking longevity through unorthodox methods, he put his new resources to work and discovered Lin Rouniang’s extraordinary combat strength.

• Shang Yuxian delivered the island’s collected supplies to Mu Qingsi, who reviewed the public ledger of building materials, artifacts, books, pills, and other goods.
• Li Ling showed Mu Qingsi the private spoils, including the Fire-Refined Golden Bowl Furnace, the Firefeather Brocade Cloud Fan, Little Olive Island’s formation controls, secret Pill Dao materials, and five Thousand-Autumn Pills.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed the hundred Nine Spirits Sect disciples who would join the Incense Accumulation Sect and help put their pill recipes to use.
• Li Ling studied Shi Jizi’s notes and reflected on the risks of pursuing longevity and advancement through unorthodox methods.
• Li Ling sorted the gains, assigned Xing Feng’s corpse-monster to an underground prison, and tried to earn merit from the complicated karmic entanglements without receiving a response.
• Li Ling studied Lin Rouniang and discovered that her eighteen Blood Goddesses were all Foundation Establishment-level avatars, making her the strongest combatant under his command.

Li Ling suppressed Lin Rouniang’s latest attempt to manifest in reality and decided to use Shi Jizi’s Origin Energy Dao Fruit to create an Incense Deity capable of restraining her. After the new Weird Dream Incense Deity subdued Lin Rouniang’s Blood Spirit Brides in a dream within a dream, Li Ling gained a way to seal her and considered studying the Ghost Soul Sect’s Ten Thousand Ghosts Entering Dreams.

• Lin Rouniang summoned a blood moon and Blood Sea in Li Ling’s dream, but he suppressed the upheaval and dragged her physical form onto the bed in reality.
• Li Ling scattered Teaweed Incense powder, making the Blood Spirit Bride vanish, and explained how Lin Rouniang’s abilities had grown more dangerous.
• Li Ling decided to purify Shi Jizi’s Origin Energy Dao Fruit and use it to create an Incense Deity that could restrain Lin Rouniang.
• Several days later, Li Ling formed a spectral woman from Netherdream Incense Essence and used the silver Origin Energy Fruit to create Weird Dream Incense.
• The Weird Dream Incense Deity suppressed Lin Rouniang’s Blood Spirit Brides inside a dream within a dream, giving Li Ling an advantage and a new way to seal her.

Ten years after Li Ling took control of Little Olive Island, the Incense Accumulation Sect and Nine Spirits Sect sent disciples there to train and gather resources. Ji Feng reconsidered the Nine Spirits Sect’s methods after watching the two groups, while Li Ling’s unseen soul headed toward the island.

• Min Lian brought the Incense Accumulation Sect’s disciples to Little Olive Island, where Shang Yuxian and Ji Feng joined her aboard the treasure ship.
• The disciples split into small groups to explore the island, gather spirit materials, and face its dangers while Min Lian and the others watched through a viewing mirror.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect’s disciples overcame their fear of walking corpses with teamwork and wondrous incense, while the Nine Spirits Sect’s disciples fought with greater experience but pursued their own interests.
• Ji Feng questioned whether the Nine Spirits Sect had chosen the right path, but Yuan Ding argued that their limited resources forced them to cultivate talent quickly.
• Ji Feng reported the Incense Accumulation Sect’s incense, medicines, and other innovations to Yuan Ding and the others, while Li Ling’s soul secretly watched him and then flew toward the island.

Li Ling defeated the young Face Tree in the Inner Valley, harvested its three flower buds, and refined them into middle-grade Life-Origin Great Pills. After turning Little Olive Island into a resource site for rogue cultivators, he chose Director Shu to test the new pills.

• Li Ling used Teaweed Incense and repeated long-range attacks to weaken the Face Tree, then destroyed it with his Dharma Form and took its three flower buds.
• Li Ling told Min Lian to bring Formation Masters into the Inner Valley for maintenance, and the Incense Accumulation Sect disciples later departed with their collected resources.
• A Money Guild treasure ship brought a new group of rogue cultivators to Little Olive Island, where they paid admission to hunt Demonic Beasts and gather resources.
• Li Ling and the alchemists refined the Face Tree’s flower buds into three middle-grade Life-Origin Great Pills after seven days of work.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that he had reduced the pills’ negative effects and decided that Director Shu would be the first person to test them.

Li Ling gave Shu Wangsheng experimental Life-Origin Great Pills, and Shu Wangsheng reached Foundation Establishment, changing his prospects in the sect. Later, Li Ling caught his nominal disciple Shu Changsheng playing another foul-smelling prank and asked the pursuers what had happened.

• Shu Wangsheng complained to Li Ling about Shu Changsheng’s costly incense experiments and disruptive pranks, and Li Ling offered him three experimental great pills.
• Shu Wangsheng swallowed the pills and later reached Foundation Establishment, leaving Deputy Court Master Xiao convinced he had lost his chance to take over the court.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed the sect’s new Foundation Establishment elders, while Li Ling kept Shu Wangsheng’s authority limited to administrative work.
• Li Ling sought investment and knowledge from other powers, expanded the sect’s Incense Path Compendium, and learned that Yellow Cloud True Person believed the pills could not extend her life.
• Li Ling found Shu Changsheng fleeing after another prank had left several people bewildered, and the pursuers greeted the sect master as he stopped the boy.

Li Ling discovered that Shu Changsheng was naturally immune to many foul odors and considered how to find and cultivate people with unusual Incense Path gifts. He arranged for the Incense Accumulation Sect to recruit children from the Ashili Kingdom through Tong Li.

• Li Ling punished Shu Changsheng for tormenting inner sect disciples with foul-smelling grease, then confiscated the formula for the sect to study.
• Li Ling discovered that Shu Changsheng did not absorb the incense essence of many foul odors, though Face Tree Incense could still frighten him.
• Li Ling confirmed Shu Changsheng's unusual immunity, confined him for discipline, and told Shu Wangsheng to nurture the boy without exempting him from the entrance examination.
• Li Ling visited Shu Changsheng, found him studying sect manuals, and reflected that Incense Path aptitude did not necessarily match spirit root aptitude.
• Li Ling discussed recruiting children from the Bamboo Step Kingdom or Ashili Kingdom with Mu Qingsi, then wrote to Tong Li to arrange recruitment in Ashili.
• Tong Li agreed to Li Ling's arrangements and welcomed the chance to build ties with the Incense Accumulation Sect.