Chapter Summaries

Shu Changsheng defended his Incense Path inventions, earned inner disciple and instructor status, and became Li Ling’s formal disciple. As Shu Changsheng planned to travel and make his own way, envoys recognized that Li Ling’s educational system could spread the Incense Path through a vast network of successors.

• Shu Changsheng demonstrated Fragrance-Releasing Powder and Self-Stinking Incense, impressing the examiners while filling the examination hall with a powerful stench.
• The examiners verified Shu Changsheng’s research and granted him instructor and inner disciple status after he completed his studies.
• Li Ling formally accepted Shu Changsheng as his disciple, warned him against expecting special treatment or inheriting the sect’s holdings, and gifted him a superior-grade magical artifact.
• Shu Changsheng told Shu Wangsheng he planned to travel and seek a chance to reach Foundation Establishment, while privately resolving to establish his own school.
• Envoys from the Myriad Treasures Tower and Money Guild reported that Li Ling’s educational system and shared lineage could build a far-reaching network that strengthened the Incense Path.

Shu Changsheng left Nine-Wan Island as the Incense Accumulation Sect welcomed a new generation of disciples and continued developing its academy. Years later, a Spirit Treasure Sect delegation sought a meeting with Li Ling, who returned from visiting Madam Zhao with an incense stone to study and spoke of traveling with Mu Qingsi after they could pass on their duties.

• Shu Changsheng departed Nine-Wan Island as a treasure ship carrying new disciples arrived, and the Incense Accumulation Sect began enrolling and settling them in.
• Senior Brother Lin helped organize the newcomers, then later taught the same disciples in the outer academy as second-year pupils.
• A Spirit Treasure Sect delegation toured the academy, learned about the Incense Accumulation Sect’s education system, and asked to meet Li Ling.
• The Fragrance-Sensing Upside-Down Bird’s return signaled that Li Ling had come back, and the delegation was told he could receive them the following day.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that Madam Zhao had gifted him a spirit-grade incense stone, which he planned to study for the Incense Path Compendium.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed retiring as supreme elders and traveling after the sect had a successor and Li Ling had reached Core Formation.

Li Ling commissioned the Spirit Treasure Sect to refine a magic treasure and reflected with Mu Qingsi on how the Incense Path could grow by becoming useful and integrating into established cultivation industries. He accepted an invitation from Lin Ji to attend a gathering of formation masters, leaving the Formation Dao as his next opportunity to explore.

• Yin Lanqing and the Spirit Treasure Sect experts assessed Li Ling’s bird feathers and agreed to refine the Flowing Wind Fan for just over eight hundred thousand talisman currency.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that the Incense Path needed to become useful enough to stand alongside traditional cultivation paths.
• Li Ling explained his plans to expand the Incense Path through incense products and by developing footholds in the Artifact Refining Dao, Pill Dao, Money Dao, Spell Dao, and Dream Dao.
• Lin Ji invited Li Ling to a gathering of formation masters, and Li Ling agreed to attend.

Li Ling visited Lin Ji on Tu Xingshan and tested the Four Symbols Derivative Primordial Chaos Formation, escaping by following distorted scents with his exceptional sense of smell. Lin Ji then challenged a gathering of Formation Dao experts, where Master Hong solved the formation while Master Jin and Master Wang failed to break it.

• Li Ling arrived at Tu Xingshan, where Lin Ji invited him to challenge the Four Symbols Derivative Primordial Chaos Formation.
• Li Ling became trapped by the formation’s distorted sights and sounds, then used Returning Soul Incense and his keen sense of smell to find a route out.
• Lin Ji revealed himself at the formation eye, and he and Li Ling discussed Formation Dao before other cultivators arrived.
• Lin Ji activated the formation’s Four Symbols transformations, which confused the visitors and disrupted their usual methods of navigation.
• Master Hong deduced the formation’s patterns and reached the formation eye, while Master Jin and Master Wang failed to break through it.

Li Ling attended Lin Ji’s gathering, shared Incense Path knowledge, and learned that the Nine Spirits Sect was developing a life-extending pill. After trading for rare materials, he impressed several formation masters with ideas about spatial formations, and Lin Ji began a demonstration on the beach.

• Lin Ji hosted Li Ling and the other cultivators at his cottages, where Li Ling handed out gift boxes of Rain on the Empty Mountain tea.
• Lin Ji explained his Four Symbols Derivative Primordial Chaos Formation, and the cultivators exchanged knowledge from their respective Dao paths.
• Li Ling learned that the Nine Spirits Sect was developing the Star Origin Heavenly Mandate Pill and constructing platforms to draw down lunar power.
• Li Ling shared Incense Path methods and news about scarce materials, then traded for two pieces of ambergris and some gem salt.
• Li Ling discussed fractal geometry and wave function collapse algorithms with several formation masters, prompting Lin Ji to demonstrate on the beach.

Lin Ji explained Formation Dao to Li Ling and developed a more complex formation layout using Li Ling’s ideas about fractals and collapse. Impressed by Li Ling, Lin Ji gave him two Formation Dao books, and Li Ling asked the Formation Masters whether they knew about incense arrays.

• Lin Ji and Master Hong explained Dao Patterns, restrictions, and the principles of Formation Dao to Li Ling.
• Lin Ji applied Li Ling’s ideas about fractals and collapse to create a complex, deceptive inner landscape formation that impressed the Formation Dao experts.
• Lin Ji asked Li Ling to become his Dao Companion and learn Formation Dao, but Li Ling declined the companionship while accepting Lin Ji’s offer to teach him.
• Lin Ji gave Li Ling copies of Construction and the Ten Famous Arrays as thanks for his guidance.
• Li Ling asked Lin Ji and the other Formation Masters whether they had heard of incense arrays.

Li Ling and Lin Ji developed plans for combining the Incense Path with formation arrays, while Li Ling studied formation texts and promoted the Incense Market on Northsky Island. The festival was interrupted when a powerful demon, apparently at Core Formation, approached the island.

• Li Ling explained how incense sources and visualized incense deities could serve as array foundations and restrictions, and Lin Ji agreed to investigate incense arrays.
• Li Ling studied Lin Ji's books on formation Dao for more than a month before arriving on Northsky Island for the Market Gathering.
• Li Ling opened new incense shops and lit an aromatic woodpile at the Incense-Burning Festival, drawing crowds to the expanded Incense Market.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that attracting Qi Refining cultivators would build a future market among higher-level cultivators.
• A dark mass of demonic fumes appeared over the sea, and Li Ling recognized that a great demon was attacking as Northsky Island's protective array activated.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi witnessed the merfolk attack Northsky Island after the Merchant Association abducted and abused merfolk women. When Hairong’s forces withdrew, he smashed through the island’s protective array and killed Core Formation cultivators, leaving Li Ling to retreat with his wife and hide.

• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi recognized the merfolk attacking Northsky Island, while Merchant Association cultivators learned that the attackers accused them of abducting their people.
• The cultivator surnamed Zhu and his accomplice killed the captive merfolk women and tried to conceal their bodies, prompting Hairong to swear vengeance.
• Li Ling closed the Incense Market and led his people to Moon-Sand Island as Northsky Island declared a state of war.
• After the Merchant Association gained the upper hand, Hairong ordered a retreat, then drove a Sea Tower Beast into the great array and broke through it.
• Hairong killed two Core Formation cultivators while fighting the others, and Li Ling returned home with Mu Qingsi to hide.

After the merfolk blockaded Northsky Island, Elder Shang sought Li Ling’s help negotiating with them and offered him a chance to gain a seat in the guild. Yellow Cloud True Person arranged an audience with Sea Ji, but Lin Ji’s proposal to restore the island’s defenses gave Li Ling another opportunity to consider.

• The guild meeting turned into a dispute over funding repairs and restoring trade, and Elder Shang privately asked Li Ling to contact powerful allies and help negotiate with the merfolk.
• Elder Shang offered Li Ling priority for a vacant guild seat and business shares if he helped settle the crisis, and Li Ling agreed to ask Yellow Cloud True Person for advice.
• Yellow Cloud True Person arranged for Li Ling to visit Sea Ji, the merfolk kingdom’s regent and heir, as an envoy, while leaving the negotiations to him.
• Lin Ji brought Li Ling a guild notice seeking ways to restore Northsky Island’s defenses and asked him to serve as an Incense Path adviser on a proposed formation project.

Li Ling and Lin Ji joined the effort to repair Northsky Island’s damaged grand array, and the Merchant Association selected Lin Ji’s design as part of a layered defense. Elder Shang then pressed Li Ling for an answer about an earlier request, and Li Ling agreed on behalf of his old ancestor but added that he had several conditions.

• Li Ling accompanied Lin Ji to inspect the eastern breach and learned that the grand array had to be repaired within half a month despite likely enemy raids.
• Lin Ji explained that the formation masters faced severe damage, enemy interference, and a looming threat from the Blood Shark Bandits.
• The Merchant Association offered increased pay and lifetime appointments, but many formation masters withdrew after realizing the commission’s difficulties.
• Lin Ji submitted a design inspired by Li Ling’s incense array, and Li Ling promised to support its construction if it was accepted.
• Elder Shang told Li Ling that the association had chosen Master Jin, Lin Ji, and Wang Xuandou to build defenses at different layers of the breach.
• Elder Shang asked Li Ling to give a definite answer about an earlier matter, and Li Ling said his old ancestor had agreed but that he had several conditions.

Li Ling and Lin Ji completed a compound incense and formation array on Northsky Island, combining folded space with incense-based illusions. When the merfolk launched a major assault, the array trapped their demon cultivators in a convincing cityscape, leaving them unsure whether they had entered a true minor cave heaven.

• Master Wang learned that he had been reassigned to the middle layer, while Lin Ji and Li Ling began surveying the inner layer for their array.
• Lin Ji and Li Ling built a compound array using the market streets, hidden underground foundations, folded space, and incense products, while merfolk attacks repeatedly damaged other construction sites.
• Li Ling explained that he wanted the Incense Path to become accessible to ordinary cultivators, and he and Lin Ji prepared the array to release incense and trigger illusions against intruders.
• Two merfolk Core Formation demon kings led a larger assault, and more than a dozen Foundation Establishment Great Demons charged into Lin Ji and Li Ling's array.
• The array transformed the demons' surroundings into an endless city, and their tests left them wondering whether they had entered real space and time or a minor cave heaven.

Li Ling and Lin Ji’s incense array trapped the demon cultivators in a dreamlike battlefield, where a vast army of golden soldiers overwhelmed them. The Merchant Association captured seven demon generals and decided to expand the formation for the war.

• Li Ling explained that he would make the Incense Path component of the array public, while preserving Lin Ji’s Formation Dao secrets.
• The demon cultivators rampaged through shifting dreamscapes, but the incense resonance made the illusory surroundings impossible to destroy.
• Li Ling’s Luo Tian Grand Rite Radiant Rain summoned thousands of golden-armored soldiers, who attacked and exhausted the demon cultivators.
• Several powerful demon cultivators escaped through spatial travel, leaving seven behind to be captured by Merchant Association experts.
• The Merchant Association elders questioned the array’s use of Tai Sui Soldiers, but Elder Shang supported Li Ling, and they ordered the formation expanded for the war.

Li Ling accepted the Merchant Association’s mission to negotiate with the Merfolk Kingdom and set out for its underwater capital with gifts and a Mystic Traversal Talisman. On the way, Hairong ordered his forces to capture travelers, and a demon general intercepted Li Ling as he headed toward the transportation node.

• Li Ling agreed to serve as the Merchant Association’s envoy, received a loaned Mystic Traversal Talisman and gifts for Sea Ji, and learned to frame the negotiations around benefits to the Merfolk clans.
• Elder Shang gave Li Ling books about Merfolk customs, while Mu Qingsi stayed behind to look after the sect.
• Hairong learned that General Jia and the other Merfolk had been captured, ordered an investigation, and told his troops to seek reinforcements from the Blood Shark Bandits.
• A Crab Person reported that a Foundation Establishment cultivator had left Northsky Island, and Hairong ordered his forces to capture the traveler.
• A demon general caught up with Li Ling and demanded his surrender, so Li Ling offered valuables and talisman currency to bribe him; the demon general angrily attacked instead.

Li Ling defeated a sea-patrolling demon general and escaped, but the general was later killed by Huo Jiu of the Blood Shark Bandits. Li Ling used a Mystic Traversal Talisman to reach the waters near Deepwater Guestland, where a merfolk Great Demon attacked him.

• Li Ling used Spirit-Bewildering Incense and the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash to subdue the demon general, then left him sleeping on a rocky islet.
• Huo Jiu of the Blood Shark Bandits killed the demon general, and Tong Zhifeng suggested to Grand General Hairong that Li Ling was responsible.
• Hairong privately gave a trusted subordinate several instructions after Tong Zhifeng left.
• Li Ling used a Mystic Traversal Talisman to travel hundreds of thousands of li and flew toward Deepwater Guestland.
• A merfolk Great Demon confronted Li Ling and hurled a towering wave at him.

Li Ling fought Lianju, who accused him of killing a merfolk general, until Sea Ji arrived and stopped the battle. Sea Ji heard Li Ling’s account and said she trusted her intuition that he was not the culprit, while urging Lianju to investigate more carefully.

• Li Ling used the Soul-Seizing Mirror and summoned an incense deity to defend himself against Lianju’s attacks while seeking an audience with Sea Ji.
• Lianju blamed Li Ling for the death of the Sea-Patrolling General, and Li Ling suspected the Blood Shark Bandits might have killed the general and framed him.
• Lianju summoned a towering merfolk deity that destroyed Li Ling’s incense deity, but Cold Beauty’s umbrella shield blocked his next strike.
• Sea Ji arrived, dispelled Lianju’s divine statue, and reproached him for attacking Li Ling before the facts were clear.
• Li Ling explained that he had left the general alive after their earlier encounter and argued that the incense found at the scene could have been planted.
• Sea Ji said she believed Li Ling was not the culprit because of Yellow Cloud True Person and her own intuition, then urged Lianju not to trust clues blindly.

Li Ling negotiated with Sea Ji to ease the Merfolk conflict and offered gifts to win their goodwill, while denying responsibility for the sea-patrolling general’s death. Sea Ji accepted his diplomacy but challenged him to prove his innocence by entering the Filth Abyss.

• Li Ling persuaded Sea Ji to consider peace talks and argued that the Merfolk should avoid being exploited by outside conspirators.
• Sea Ji led Li Ling through the Merfolk settlement beneath the sea, where he observed their homes and living conditions.
• Li Ling apologized for the Four Seas Commerce Guild’s crimes and explained that Elder Shang would investigate the kidnappings if the Merfolk withdrew.
• Li Ling offered Sea Ji gifts and supplies for her people, and she distributed them at a gathering that afternoon.
• Sea Ji publicly asked Li Ling to descend into the Filth Abyss to prove his innocence.

Li Ling entered the merfolk’s sacred Filth Abyss Cave to prove he had not killed their Sea-Patrolling General, enduring visions of karmic burdens and the dead as he descended. As the merfolk grew concerned about how far he had gone, the Empress Mother urged Sea Ji to let him continue.

• Sea Ji explained that Filth Abyss Cave tested visitors’ hearts and invited Li Ling to enter and clear the dispute over the Sea-Patrolling General’s death.
• Li Ling declared that he had not killed the general and descended into the cave, where its pressure and visions began to test his resolve.
• Li Ling endured apparitions of the poor, the people he had killed, and those who resented him, then continued downward as the visions were swept away or attacked by other figures.
• Li Ling passed deeper tests involving resentment from people around him and figures from his past, and felt increasingly free as he dived farther.
• Sea Ji worried that Li Ling was descending beyond what someone of his realm should withstand, but the Empress Mother told her to let him continue.

Li Ling descended deep into the Filth Abyss Cave, where his purified heart let him pass depths that challenged powerful cultivators and discover ancient inscriptions and treasures. He found Yellow Cloud True Person’s hidden message about her foretold death, raising questions about who had revealed her fate and how Li Ling helped her defy it.

• Li Ling’s heart and soul became purer as he descended, and his body turned translucent within the strange depths of the Filth Abyss Cave.
• Sea Ji let Li Ling continue diving while the merfolk worried about how far he had gone, and Li Ling eventually passed beyond a thousand zhang.
• Li Ling found Gu Canghua’s million-year-old inscription and gathered purifying water leaves before reading generations of cultivators’ inscriptions farther down.
• Li Ling passed three thousand zhang with ease and realized his unusual soul might let him descend to Nascent Soul-level depths.
• Li Ling found Yellow Cloud True Person’s sealed message, which said that her lifespan would end in Xu Xin year 3022 and that she would defy Heaven and change her fate.
• Li Ling wondered who had told Yellow Cloud True Person about her death and whether that person was the figure he had seen while consuming the dragon soul fruit.

Li Ling descended through the Filth Abyss to a depth of roughly one hundred and eight thousand zhang, where he reached a mirror-like seabed and encountered an unknown imprint. He returned to the surface after ten days and nights, carrying a strange fragrance that caught Sea Ji’s attention.

• Li Ling’s body reverted to his three-headed, six-armed child celestial aspect as he descended into the Filth Abyss and studied the spiritual imprints left by accomplished predecessors.
• At thirty thousand zhang, Li Ling sensed that he could go much deeper and continued downward, confronting a profound loneliness that made him question whether Qing Si could reach the same depths.
• Li Ling’s body and primordial spirit vanished as he descended past one hundred thousand zhang, while his dharma power carried him through the surrounding nothingness.
• At roughly one hundred and eight thousand zhang, Li Ling reached a smooth, pale seabed, gathered nearby stones and seawater, and memorized the aura of an unfamiliar imprint before turning back.
• Li Ling returned to the surface after ten days and nights, unaware that the Filth Abyss had recorded his presence as a peculiar fragrance.
• Sea Ji greeted Li Ling and asked what had happened, then noticed the lovely scent he carried.

After emerging from the Filth Abyss, Li Ling discovered that his Incense Path and Fragrance-Sensing Talent had transformed, letting his fragrance dispel foul odors and influence those around him. He used his new presence to persuade the Merfolk leaders to withdraw their forces and pursue peace with Northsky Island, while their demands for compensation eased.

• Li Ling emerged from the Filth Abyss unharmed, proved himself a friend of the Merfolk, and agreed with Sea Ji to pursue peace talks.
• Li Ling realized his fragrance had reached the realm of immaculate incense, transformed his perception, and created a controllable field that concealed foul odors nearby.
• Sea Ji summoned the four Merfolk tribal leaders and announced that Li Ling was an honored guest who should be treated with courtesy.
• The leaders agreed to withdraw their forces, while the male Merfolk demanded compensation for the war's costs and losses.
• Li Ling used his fragrance and friendly appeal to persuade the Merfolk to reconsider their reparations, and even Lianju began to admire him.