Chapter Summaries

Tong Li and Prince Tong Lan brought Ashili Kingdom children to the Incense Accumulation Sect expecting a mountain-climbing trial, but Xin Dayuan explained that the sect used a school system of lessons and exams before admitting students as outer court disciples. They learned that cultivation came only after years of study and qualifications in the Incense Path.

• Tong Li and Tong Lan discussed the children they had gathered and Tong Household's hopes of placing relatives in the sect.
• Tong Li described a supposed mountain-climbing recruitment trial as the Treasure Ship approached the island.
• Tong Li and Tong Lan met Xin Dayuan after docking and joined him for a banquet in the Market Ward.
• Xin Dayuan explained that recruits began with literacy tests, classes, and regular exams, then took an entrance trial after years of study.
• Tong Li, Tong Lan, and Xin Dayuan confirmed that the sect had no mountain-climbing trial or martial tournament, and that cultivation began only after students met academic and Incense Path requirements.

Xin Dayuan showed Tong Li and Tong Lan around the Incense Accumulation Sect, including its gates, mountain grounds, and Heavenly Works Court, where he enjoyed a privileged place among the sect’s trusted veterans. He shared the court’s celebrated Hundred-Flower Spirit Brew with his guests and ended by lamenting that luxuries could not help rogue cultivators advance toward Foundation Establishment.

• Xin Dayuan led Tong Li and Tong Lan from the Market Ward to the sect gates and explained the Floating Cloud Platform and the sect’s plans for its grounds.
• Xin Dayuan showed them the Coiled Dragon Pillars, the mountain paths, and the Heavenly Works Court, where his pupils and acquaintances greeted him as Master Xin.
• Tong Li saw Xin Dayuan’s private courtyard and learned that he helped develop fragrances for the sect master while enjoying an influential position in the court.
• Xin Dayuan served Tong Li and Tong Lan Hundred-Flower Spirit Brew made with the Snail Shell Sanctuary’s permission and gave them packets to take home.
• Xin Dayuan told Tong Li that a packet cost three thousand in talisman currency, then agreed that saving for a Foundation Establishment Pill mattered more than buying luxuries.

Li Ling accepted the Ashili Kingdom as a vassal and planned to spread the Incense Path by sending teachings and trained disciples back to their homeland to establish independent schools. As the Ashili children began their studies and Tong Li and Tong Lan carried Incense Path texts home, merchant association leaders on Northsky Island discussed taking control of Little Olive Island.

• Li Ling agreed to protect the Ashili Kingdom and proposed that its people return with Incense Path teachings to build local ventures and schools, despite the risk to the Tong Household's authority.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi he intended to establish several independent Incense Path schools as branches of a wider alliance, while continuing to recruit students from multiple places.
• More than a thousand Ashili children enrolled in the sect's basic school, where officials tested and discreetly monitored them for Incense Path aptitude.
• Tong Li and Tong Lan began their return voyage with trade goods and printed Incense Path texts, planning to spread the teachings in the Ashili Kingdom.
• Merchant association leaders on Northsky Island discussed reclaiming and managing Little Olive Island after learning its output could supply materials for the Life-Origin Great Pill.

Elder Shang and the merchant associations debated who should control the sale of Li Ling’s Three Treasures Origin-Returning Pills, while the Rare Treasures Tower plotted to renegotiate its stake in Little Olive Island with help from the Nine Spirits Sect. Li Ling learned of the scheme from Shang Yuxian, who warned that the tower could obstruct his pill sales and use his debts to pressure him.

• The merchant associations rejected a proposal to take Little Olive Island from Li Ling, but argued over whether the Rare Treasures Tower or Money Guild should control sales of his new pills.
• Elder Shang learned that the Rare Treasures Tower had invited three renowned Pill Dao masters to study Li Ling’s samples and formula, potentially undermining his exclusive advantage.
• A Rare Treasures Tower steward urged Yuan Ding to help renegotiate the island’s shares or reclaim control, but Yuan Ding told Wu Xinye to delay committing to the plan.
• Wu Xinye suggested informing Li Ling, but Yuan Ding reasoned that Li Ling likely already knew and that taking sides could backfire.
• Shang Yuxian brought Li Ling news of the scheme, warning that the tower could stall the pills’ market approval and exploit his loans to pressure his sect.

Li Ling received Rare Treasures Tower experts to inspect the island’s produce and verify his Three Treasures Origin-Returning Pill, while reflecting on his growing entanglements with the Netherworld Sect. Meanwhile, Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen secretly entered Little Olive Island seeking Face Tree fruit, but the island’s strange formation disrupted their senses and communication as a dragon-like cloud appeared overhead.

• Li Ling reviewed records of the island’s strange plants and creatures, considered his accumulated karma with the Netherworld Sect, and agreed to host the Rare Treasures Tower’s managing elder and three Pill Dao masters.
• Li Ling guided the visitors through the sect’s medicinal and incense workshops before arranging a closer examination of his pill formula.
• A secret treasure ship carrying Yi Chen, Gao Qingchen, and their followers approached Little Olive Island under an illusion formation, and a report confirmed that Li Ling’s pill had passed verification as a low-grade treasure pill.
• Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen discussed seeking Face Tree fruit to extend their lives and investigate whether Shi Jizi had left other Dao Fruits behind, then secretly entered the island.
• The island’s formation darkened the sky and cut off contact with the two elders, while a dragon-shaped cloud appeared and transmitted a faint fragrance through Empathic Perception.

Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen followed an old route through Little Olive Island’s formation, overcame several monsters, and found a strange meadow where a Dragonwood attacked them. They failed to escape the burning, mist-shrouded place, where seven smoke dragons appeared and surrounded them.

• Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen sensed an elusive fragrance inside the Nightfall Gloom Dust-Baleful Formation and used the old Formation Diagram to enter the island.
• Yi Chen killed three Frost Serpents with his gold ingot, collected their parts, and avoided a mutated Yin Woman while the pair fought through other monsters.
• Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen reached an unmarked gray-white meadow of Seven-colored Netherdream Flowers, where the dragon manifestation became a huge winged Dragonwood rooted in the clouds.
• The Dragonwood attacked with fire and lightning, and Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen struck back with their magic treasures but failed to defeat it.
• Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen tried to retreat, but the strange terrain returned them to the burning Dragonwood, where seven smoke dragons rose and surrounded them.

Li Ling used the Dragonfire Incense divine ability to attack Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen through seven smoke dragons, while they struggled to discover how to stop them. Yi Chen survived the illusion, but Gao Qingchen died after Li Ling merged the dragons into a fire dragon and sent it into his body.

• Li Ling manifested seven smoke dragons from the burning Dragonwood and attacked Yi Chen and Gao Qingchen with soul-burning flames.
• Gao Qingchen used his treasured seal, Falling Star Sword, Golden Light Mantra talisman, and a spiritual pill, but none stopped the smoke dragons.
• Gao Qingchen and Yi Chen realized the burning Dragonwood was sustaining the dragons and attacked it, weakening the smoke forms.
• Li Ling merged the seven dragons into one and sent it into the depleted Gao Qingchen, whose body fell lifeless to the ground.
• The dreamlike immortal court vanished, leaving Yi Chen beside the scorched Dragonwood and Gao Qingchen's dead body.

Li Ling used dream arts and a new spirit-rain divine ability to trap Yi Chen in an army of regenerating Tai Sui Soldiers. Yi Chen fled into a ruined mountain residence, where the soldiers surrounded him with no clear escape.

• Yi Chen discovered that Gao Qingcheng’s dream injuries had become real and confronted Li Ling, who admitted he had attacked them and warned Yi Chen he would not leave the island alive.
• Yi Chen wandered through the island’s haze while Li Ling’s dream spirit followed him, waiting for another chance to attack.
• At the foot of the Main Peak, Yi Chen encountered Li Ling’s Luo Tian Grand Rite Radiant Rain, which caused Tai Sui Soldiers to grow from flesh beneath the soil and grass.
• Yi Chen smashed the Tai Sui Soldiers with his gold ingot, but they repeatedly regenerated, and his attack passed through the ethereal Silk Gauze Sash sustaining them.
• Li Ling’s radiant rain produced an expanding, coordinated army that threatened Yi Chen, who fled and became trapped in the corridor of a ruined mountain residence.

Li Ling killed Yi Chen and learned that the Three Treasures Origin-Returning Pill had become a valuable auction item, while the forces behind the island conflict hesitated to act. After entrusting the pill’s sale to the Money Guild, he watched news of its effects spread and draw interest from cultivators across Northsky Island.

• Li Ling’s Tai Sui Soldiers killed Yi Chen, who died before revealing the person directing him; the treasure ship later left without news of the attack.
• The merchant associations classified the Three Treasures Origin-Returning Pill as a low-grade spirit pill and Foundation Establishment treasure, then invited Li Ling and Mu Qingsi to discuss its sale.
• At the Shang Family Garden, Elder Shang offered the Money Guild’s auction services, and Li Ling agreed to let the guild act as agent for the pill.
• Mu Qingsi asked why the Money Guild offered such favorable terms, and Li Ling explained that the guild sought publicity and relationships as well as auction profits.
• News of the pill’s life-extending, youth-restoring, and advancement-enhancing effects spread, attracting attention from elderly Foundation Establishment cultivators and others seeking to meet Li Ling.

Li Ling and the Money Guild built his reputation around the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill, using cultivators’ hopes of longer life and advancement to create demand. Ten years later, Li Ling refined stronger pills from mature Face Trees, and the Money Guild announced an auction that drew eager buyers to Northsky Island.

• Li Ling agreed to the Money Guild’s plan to market the Three Treasures Origin-Returning Pill as the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill, and discussed its value and sales strategy with Shang Yuxian.
• The Money Guild introduced Li Ling to Core Formation cultivators, while Li Ling gave away incense and spirit pills to build connections and promote his products.
• Li Ling spent over two million cultivating his reputation, and Mu Qingsi encouraged him by pointing to the growing interest in Dragonfire Incense.
• In 3050 of the Xu Xin Calendar, Li Ling harvested six Face Trees and found that older trees produced stronger effects and that their flower corollas could increase pill yields.
• Li Ling refined ten-year and twenty-year pills, kept two for himself, and offered the remaining four to the Money Guild, which chose to sell only one that year.
• The Money Guild announced the auction, and invited customers rushed to Northsky Island, eager to bid on the pill.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi attended the Money Guild’s first auction of the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill, while Li Ling reflected on how cultivation and wealth were controlled. The bidding surpassed his expectations and stopped at three million five hundred thousand, leaving the pill’s first sale poised for a decisive result.

• Shang Yuxian told Li Ling and Mu Qingsi that the Money Guild had invited wealthy cultivators and arranged strong endorsements for the auction.
• As the auction progressed, Li Ling discussed with Mu Qingsi and Shang Yuxian how resource allocation and spirit-root limits shaped access to cultivation.
• The Money Guild presented the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill, whose Qi-Contained Manifestation impressed the guests, and announced a starting price of one million two hundred thousand.
• Bidders quickly raised the price past two million, while Li Ling considered the demand and the potential wealth the pill could bring his sect.
• An unknown bidder offered three million five hundred thousand, and no one else spoke up.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi consumed Shi Jizi’s re-refined Dao Fruits through dual cultivation, gaining sixty years of cultivation each and greatly strengthening their spiritual abilities. Meanwhile, Xiong Feiyu lamented the Rare Treasures Tower’s loss of control over the pill and ordered its managers to sell ineffective imitation pills on the black market.

• Li Ling settled the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill auction terms with the Money Guild and learned he would receive 2.67 million in total.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that he had safely re-refined Shi Jizi’s Qi-Origin and Spirit-Origin Dao Fruits and proposed that they share their potency through dual cultivation.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi fasted, prepared, and entered seclusion, then absorbed the Dao Fruits together and each gained sixty years of cultivation.
• The Spirit-Origin Dao Fruit strengthened Li Ling’s Child Celestial Aspect and incense control, while Mu Qingsi’s spiritual consciousness and divine sense grew stronger.
• Xiong Feiyu reviewed the Rare Treasures Tower’s small share of the auction proceeds and complained that Li Ling and the Money Guild had taken control of the pill’s profits.
• Xiong Feiyu told the manager to sell the Tower’s ineffective imitation pills on the black market.

Li Ling advanced his incense-transformation art while counterfeit Floating Incense Pills spread through the North Sea and the Money Guild considered joining the trend. After rejecting Elder Shang’s proposal to use his name on imitation pills, Li Ling investigated sellers falsely claiming ties to his sect and learned that the original Eight-Treasure pill sellers were connected to the Black Market.

• Li Ling used his increased dharma power to manifest and sustain incense, bringing his Myriad Wonders Incense Transformation Art to minor mastery.
• Shang Yuxian warned Li Ling that the Eight-Treasure Floating Incense Pill imitated his Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill, and he agreed to deny any connection to it.
• As Eight-Treasure pills gained popularity, Elder Shang proposed that Li Ling guarantee a Money Guild imitation, but he refused.
• Elder Shang arranged for others to make imitation incense pills, and the trend swept the North Sea.
• Li Ling asked Elder Shang to investigate sellers falsely claiming that their pills came from the Incense Accumulation Sect, and she said the original sellers had Black Market connections tied to the Earthly Sha Sect.

Li Ling uncovered that the Rare Treasures Tower was using his name and the Incense Accumulation Sect’s reputation to sell incense pills, then discovered Elder Xiong was also plotting against Little Olive Island. He planned to reveal the threat to the Money Guild and use its interests to secure its support.

• Li Ling used the Dream-Reversing Great Art to identify Rare Treasures Tower personnel after the Money Guild and Elder Shang refused to help him.
• After days of trying, Li Ling entered a steward’s dream and learned that Elder Xiong had arranged with the Earthly Sha Sect to produce Eight-Treasure Floating Incense Pills and planned to falsely use Li Ling’s name and the Incense Accumulation Sect’s reputation.
• Li Ling learned that Elder Xiong had previously sought his cooperation, then decided to use the sect’s name anyway after Li Ling refused.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi concluded that the Merchant Association’s power made it difficult to bring the schemers to justice, but Li Ling saw that the Rare Treasures Tower’s plans could put it in conflict with the Money Guild.
• Li Ling recognized Elder Xiong as the mastermind he had sought and discovered that his faction had already begun scheming to seize Little Olive Island’s profits if the Old Ancestor’s fortunes changed.

Li Ling uncovered Zhou Fu’s illicit workshops in the Red Sand Kingdom and gathered evidence of Xiong Feiyu’s embezzlement and collusion. He delivered the evidence to Yun Li, leaving the rival Rare Treasures Tower elder wondering who was moving against Xiong Feiyu and what to do next.

• Li Ling entered Zhou Fu’s dream aboard a treasure ship and witnessed mortal miners being poisoned while extracting red cherry stone for the Merchant Association’s profit.
• Li Ling saw Zhou Fu negotiate with rogue cultivators to staff incense pill workshops and plan to shift blame onto them if the operation went wrong.
• Li Ling confronted Zhou Fu, asked for evidence against Xiong Feiyu, and obtained an account book documenting diverted Merchant Association funds.
• Zhou Fu tried to signal the ship’s Core Formation attendant, but the attendant sensed nothing of Li Ling’s presence, and Zhou Fu handed over the account book.
• Li Ling visited the Rare Treasures Tower managers he had targeted and later placed the collected evidence before Yun Li, who wondered who was moving against Xiong Feiyu.

Li Ling’s covert maneuvering helped Yun Li bring down Xiong Feiyu, while Li Ling kept his distance from Yun Li and let the two Core Formation cultivators continue their feud. After learning that the Red Sand Kingdom’s mining and alchemy industries had stalled, Li Ling began expanding incense production through the Shang Family to provide mortal people with new livelihoods and strengthen the incense path.

• Yun Li used Li Ling’s secret support to strip Xiong Feiyu of his position, followers, and holdings, leaving him despondent despite retaining his Core Formation cultivation.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed using Yun Li and Xiong Feiyu to counterbalance each other, and Li Ling later visited Yun Li but withdrew after finding alarm restrictions in his room.
• Yun Li asked Li Ling for further help against Xiong Feiyu, but Li Ling refused to commit and left, after which their feud continued without his involvement.
• Li Ling learned that the conflict had disrupted Red Sand Kingdom’s mining and alchemy industries, threatening the livelihoods of mortal people, and decided to replace them with incense-path industries.
• Li Ling proposed that Elder Shang expand the Shang Family’s workshops and sell Cherimoya Blossom Incense, and Elder Shang agreed to establish more workshops in mortal kingdoms.

Over the past decade, Li Ling’s Incense Accumulation Sect spread incense products and formulas throughout the North Sea cultivation world, creating new markets and opportunities for rogue cultivators and merchants. After hearing reports of Li Ling’s growing influence, Elder Shang recognized the breadth of his plans and his standing as a grandmaster.

• Two rogue cultivators discovered Northsky Island’s Incense Market, tested Face Tree Incense, and bought it along with Beast-Repelling Incense.
• The two sold their treasures at the Wen Spirit Materials Shop, learned that demand for Incense Path materials had surged, and set out to gather spirit camphor.
• Fellow Daoist Ping explained that the Zhou Incense Workshop sold authentic goods through its ties to Master Li and the Moon-Gazing Trading House, while the Incense Accumulation Sect was standardizing market quotas.
• Rogue cultivators discussed how incense products and formulas had become common cultivation aids and credited Sect Master Li with creating opportunities for them.
• A Wind-Catching Agent reported Incense Market conversations to Elder Shang, who realized Li Ling had deliberately built support among the grassroots and saw him as a grandmaster.

After burying White Lion, Li Ling and Mu Qingsi reflected on aging, mortality, and their resolve to cultivate together rather than face life apart. Meanwhile, the Incense Accumulation Sect’s growing incense markets drew the attention of the Four Seas Commerce Guild, whose elders debated whether to challenge the new commercial power.

• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi buried White Lion and discussed how cultivation, rather than longevity medicines, was the surest way to extend life.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that he wanted them to pursue Core Formation and greater freedom together instead of transcending all emotion alone.
• Li Ling reviewed routine reports and approved the Incense Accumulation Sect’s established arrangements for disciples and incense makers.
• After a Northsky Island auction, Elder Shang sent Shang Yuxian to deliver the guild’s payment to Li Ling and then attended a meeting about the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Yun Li argued that the Four Seas Commerce Guild should take control of Li Ling’s expanding incense markets, but several elders and managers objected to treating the sect as anything but an equal commercial power.

Yun Li tried to rally merchant factions to take control of the Incense Market, but their support for Li Ling and the Incense Accumulation Sect thwarted his plans. After Li Ling traced the threat to Yun Li, Xiong Feiyu’s return and the Incense Accumulation Sect’s control of legitimate trade channels left Yun Li’s covert effort in ruins.

• Yun Li presented the Branch Headquarters’ senior figures with figures on the Incense Market’s profits, but they rejected his proposal to challenge Li Ling because the market benefited cultivators across the region.
• Yun Li told a confidant to coordinate with several aristocratic clans to stockpile incense materials, while Li Ling sensed a threat, identified Yun Li, and reviewed reports from his allies.
• Yun Li secretly bought incense materials and recruited rogue cultivators to disrupt regional markets, but Xiong Feiyu regained a seat on the Rare Treasures Tower’s Council of Elders and forced Yun Li to divert his attention.
• Yun Li’s recruits suffered fires, damaged goods, blocked sales, and supply cutoffs, while shops associated with him were pushed out of the Incense Market.
• A shopkeeper warned newly advanced rogue cultivators against Earthly Sha Sect scammers, and a report showed Yun Li that Li Ling’s appraisal and rating system made it difficult for outsiders to sell incense materials as legitimate goods.

An Incense Accumulation Sect teacher taught children practical agarwood appraisal and explained how Li Ling’s incense essence doctrine unified the sect’s standards. Visitors from the Spirit Treasure Sect questioned the sect’s mass-education system before Shu Changsheng began the teaching certification examination before Li Ling and invited observers.

• Teacher Lin demonstrated agarwood appraisal methods and taught his pupils that incense essence was the ultimate standard established by Li Ling.
• Teacher Lin explained that the sect’s Fragrance Identification Art could identify spirit materials, while outer sect pupils relied on knowledge and experience.
• Qi Refining cultivators from the Spirit Treasure Sect observed the lesson and debated the Incense Accumulation Sect’s policy of producing talent through a large, stable educational system.
• A steward told the visitors that teaching certification graduates could teach the sect’s arts, establish sects, or return to teach, but the visitors were barred from the examination plaza.
• Li Ling called Shu Changsheng to answer the teaching certification examination questions as sect cultivators and invited envoys watched.