Chapter Summaries

Li Ling found Lin Ping with the Greenfly Coin, but could not simply take the karmic treasure and began seeking a proper way to obtain it. He kept his Core Formation advancement secret from Mu Qingsi and waited on the seaside cliffs for an opportunity.

• Lin Ping discovered that the Greenfly Coin was missing and returned to the shore to search for it before the tide came in.
• Li Ling approached Lin Ping and tried offering him gold and silver coins in exchange, but Lin Ping refused them and accepted the Greenfly Coin when Li Ling finally found it.
• Lin Ping agreed not to reveal that Li Ling was staying on the seaside cliffs, then hurried home.
• Li Ling met Mu Qingsi in a dream and told her he would keep his Core Formation advancement secret until he obtained the Greenfly Coin and prepared to master cave-heaven methods.
• Li Ling explained that the Greenfly Coin had to become his through karmic bonds before he could use it, so he waited for the right opportunity.

Li Ling taught Lin Ping while cultivating void transformation, then became revered as an immortal after helping the fishing village. The king of Boli Kingdom arrived at Eaglebeak Point with the state preceptor to meet him and seek a path to immortality.

• Lin Ping offered Li Ling the Greenfly Coin as tuition, but Li Ling insisted it had to be given sincerely and began teaching him to read and write.
• Li Ling practiced void transformation and briefly created a black hole that drew in origin energy.
• After Lin Ping's friends discovered Li Ling, he demonstrated his powers and helped villagers, drawing people from across the surrounding area to seek his aid.
• The king and state preceptor arrived at Eaglebeak Point, and the state preceptor recognized Li Ling as an exalted master.
• The king ordered his entourage to wait while he and the state preceptor went to meet Li Ling.

The king of Boli and the Imperial Preceptor sought longevity from Li Ling, while young Lin Ping’s Greenfly Coin became the key to a bargain. After the king and Imperial Preceptor traded the coin for life-extending pills, they tried to kill each other, and both died before they could benefit from their prize.

• Li Ling rejected the king’s and Imperial Preceptor’s claims to deserve longevity, then shared incense methods as villagers were barred from seeing him.
• The king’s investigation traced the Greenfly Coin to Lin Ping, who surrendered it in exchange for money and a palace maid.
• The king and Imperial Preceptor brought the coin to Li Ling, who granted them two Sixty-Year Life-Extending Spirit Pills in return.
• Li Ling sensed that both men intended to kill each other and considered how to prevent innocent deaths and avoid bloody karma.
• At a banquet, the king’s men attacked the Imperial Preceptor, but the Imperial Preceptor killed the king before dying to meteoric-iron crossbow bolts.
• The Eldest Prince took the throne, while the two spirit pills lost their fragrance and were discarded without anyone discovering their value.

Li Ling used Great Unity Incense to restore the souls of the Boli ruler and state preceptor as incense gods, then continued his plans while learning that the Blood Shark Bandits were preparing for war. After announcing his Core Formation achievement, he drew congratulations from powerful allies and prepared to use his growing influence against the pirates.

• Li Ling revived the former ruler and state preceptor with Great Unity Incense, gave them spiritual power, and instructed them in divine cultivation.
• Li Ling warned the new king through a dream to protect the fishing village and Lin Ping's family, then resumed his journey and refined the Greenfly Coin.
• Mu Qingsi told Li Ling that the Blood Shark Bandits were recruiting and that Northsky Island was debating how to counter the Black Market.
• Li Ling said he would support Northsky Island while acting independently, and decided to announce that he had reached Core Formation and obtained the Greenfly Coin.
• Mu Qingsi announced Li Ling's achievement, prompting leaders and allies from across the region to declare that they would come congratulate him.

After reaching Core Formation, Li Ling helped establish the Shark-Slaying Alliance and considered joining the Money Guild while planning to step down as sect master. As the alliance struck the Blood Shark Bandits, the bandits gathered under the Jade-Eyed Demon King, and a colossal presence rose from the sea.

• Pei Qingguang invited Li Ling to join the Money Guild, offered support for his campaign against the Blood Shark Bandits, and warned that eliminating them would not end the causes of piracy.
• Li Ling helped form the Shark-Slaying Alliance, which attacked the Blood Shark Bandits and killed their new Tenth Chieftain and former Sixth Chieftain, Fathead Fish, while uncovering and destroying Old Money's shore-based power.
• Li Ling reflected on the Incense Path's lack of combat methods and decided to retire as sect master and focus on developing the Dao Path, favoring Chi Yingting as a possible successor while also considering Nie Yingzhi.
• The Blood Shark Bandits gathered their chieftains and leaders at the summons of the Jade-Eyed Demon King, and towering waves surged as a colossal creature seemed to rise from the depths.

The Blood Shark King rallied his forces to attack Northsky Island, while the Shark-Slaying Alliance prepared its defenses and the Blood Shark Bandits began raiding settlements. As Li Ling organized new cultivators on Nine-Wan Island, he sensed a massive sea beast approaching through the waves.

• The Blood Shark King declared war on Northsky Island and led his clan's forces toward battle.
• A spy reported the Blood Shark King's plans, prompting the Shark-Slaying Alliance to mobilize defenses and recruit aquatic demons.
• Sharks gathered along shipping routes as factions stockpiled weapons and supplies for war.
• The Blood Shark Bandits attacked Weixing, killing a million people, and raided nearby market wards while conscripting survivors.
• Li Ling welcomed newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivators and offered support for their campaigns against the bandits.
• Li Ling sensed a huge sea beast stirring up a towering wall of waves as it approached Nine-Wan Island.

Li Ling discovered that the Blood Shark Bandits’ raids were a coordinated campaign of feints, then learned that their leaders were targeting his holdings. After rescuing Xiangtai Island from a diversionary force, he hurried back to Nine-Wan Island when a real attack began there.

• Li Ling defended Auspicious Ward from sea beasts and learned that the Blood Shark Bandits were attacking multiple locations to scatter the Shark-Slaying Alliance.
• Huang Lu tracked the stolen plunder to a deserted island near Kaichao Market, where the Alliance destroyed pirate ships and captured the Eighth and Ninth Chieftains.
• Li Ling received word that the Jade-Eyed Demon King’s forces had surrounded Xiangtai Island, where his eldest disciple Li Ying had established his household.
• Li Ling crushed the demons’ array and forced their old catfish leader to reveal that the Blood Shark King was attacking Northsky Island while the Jade-Eyed Demon King was targeting Nine-Wan Island.
• Li Ling learned that warships and sharks were approaching Nine-Wan Island, warned its defenders to be careful, and rushed back.

The Blood Shark Bandits attacked the Incense Accumulation Sect while Li Ling hurried back, and Mu Qingsi discovered that the Immortal Register could summon heavenly soldiers and generals. The summoned troops devastated the pirates’ ships, but the battle remained underway.

• The Jade-Eyed Demon King led eighteen treasure ships in an assault on Nine-Wan Island, and the Incense Accumulation Sect’s forces fought back from the shore and its Grand Array.
• The pirates’ Foundation Establishment cultivators attacked the sect’s defenses from the cliffs while Mu Qingsi and Min Lian debated how to protect Auspicious Ward and hold the stronghold.
• Li Ling received news of the attack but remained minutes away as the pirates widened their breach in the defenses.
• Mu Qingsi’s Immortal Register reacted to the murderous intent on the battlefield, revealed an invocation, and summoned heavenly soldiers and generals.
• The heavenly troops charged the Blood Shark Bandits’ ships, setting the Jade-Eyed Demon King’s flagship ablaze and inflicting heavy casualties.

Mu Qingsi and the others watched mysterious Heavenly Soldiers and Generals turn the battle against the pirates, then falter when the Jade-Eyed Demon King unleashed a giant water spirit. Li Ling returned and used incense offerings and a new incense he called Deity-Invoking Incense to restore the soldiers, summoning four Core Formation deities as the battle continued.

• The Heavenly Soldiers and Generals overwhelmed the pirates with their fiery yang bodies, and Mu Qingsi and the Incense Accumulation Sect elders suspected they were divine immortals connected to the Skycloud Sect.
• The Jade-Eyed Demon King scattered many soldiers and weakened the rest with a towering wave and a Profound Water Spirit Beast.
• Li Ling returned, recognized the Heavenly Court Talisman Token, and told Mu Qingsi to burn incense offerings to help the soldiers recover.
• Li Ling activated the Incense-Rhyme Flowing Wind Grand Formation and created Deity-Invoking Incense from incense essence and prayer power.
• The incense renewed the collapsing Heavenly Soldiers and Generals, and four golden-armored Core Formation deities appeared in the sky.

The Four Heavenly Gods descended to defend Li Ling’s sect, devastating the Jade-Eyed Demon King’s pirate fleet and defeating him with their combined power. After Li Ling bolstered their recovery with incense, the gods departed under orders, leaving him to suspect that the Returning Soul Incense had played a role in summoning them.

• The Four Heavenly Gods unleashed lightning, fire, wind, and water against the pirates, while Li Ling realized that their heavenly authority let them escape the usual burden of slaughter’s karma.
• The gods destroyed ships and killed thousands of the Jade-Eyed Demon King’s followers, prompting him to attack with a compressed sphere of seawater that badly wounded several gods.
• Heaven-and-Earth Origin Energy, incense, and prayer power restored the gods and even revived fallen Heavenly Soldiers and Generals, so Li Ling ordered the sect to burn more incense.
• The Four Heavenly Gods overwhelmed the Jade-Eyed Demon King, froze him in ice, and killed him as Li Ling judged their combined strength formidable.
• The Flame Heavenly God said they had come under orders, and the Thunder Heavenly God warned Li Ling not to use the summoning talisman casually before the gods dispersed.
• Li Ling recognized a trace of his Returning Soul Incense as the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals vanished.

After the battle with the Blood Shark Bandits, Li Ling searched for the Jade-Eyed Demon King and organized the cleanup while the Incense Accumulation Sect salvaged food and ships. He discovered the demon king had died to fire tribulation and realized the Heavenly Court could wield tribulation power.

• Min Lian and the sect elders urged Li Ling and Mu Qingsi to make use of the divine beings' help, but Li Ling warned that the sect should rely on itself.
• Li Ling ordered a search for the Jade-Eyed Demon King and directed the sect to clear the battlefield, prevent disease, and process spirit-resonant sea creatures safely.
• Mu Qingsi agreed with a disciple's proposal to use Hundred Flavors Gate methods to preserve Demon Beasts, and Li Ling ordered Luo Ying and Song Yang to assist.
• Search parties found the Jade-Eyed Demon King's and Blood Lion's ships, and Li Ling arranged to salvage and inspect them.
• Li Ling found the Jade-Eyed Demon King's charred corpse and recognized residual fire tribulation, leading him and Mu Qingsi to suspect the Heavenly Court had developed the power to unleash tribulation.

Li Ling returned to Northsky Island with the Jade-Eyed Demon King’s corpse, and its tribulation-fire wounds sparked discussion of Great Qian’s tightening control over cultivators. The Shark-Slaying Alliance then received word that its expedition had been annihilated, including all four Core Formation leaders.

• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed their suspicions about the Skycloud Sect and then oversaw the cleanup of the Incense Accumulation Sect’s grounds.
• Li Ling welcomed the newly recruited Xie Wujian and entrusted his disciples with overseeing the sect before secretly leaving for Northsky Island with the Second Chieftain’s corpse.
• Elder Shang, Yun Li, and others recognized tribulation-fire wounds on the corpse and discussed Great Qian’s unrest and its expanding restrictions on cultivators.
• The guild received news that the Shark-Slaying Alliance had been crushed and Special Envoy Huang and the other expedition members had died.
• The Council Hall confirmed that Huang Lu, Xiong Feiyu, Cheng Yisheng, Yang You, and more than thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators had all been killed.

After the Blood Shark First Chieftain wiped out Elder Huang Lu and the guild’s force, the North Sea Branch struggled to organize a defense while Li Ling returned to Nine-Wan Island to protect his own holdings. There, he sensed intruders, traced a bloodstained Blood Shark bandit in the marketplace, and confronted him as the Blood Shark King.

• The North Sea Branch learned that the Blood Shark First Chieftain had killed Elder Huang Lu and dozens of cultivators, and its leaders considered asking Elder Xiao Zhihe to take charge.
• Li Ling left Northsky Island for Nine-Wan Island, while the branch elders decided to send the inexperienced Elder Yao Yeming to inspect the massacre site.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi discussed the branch’s inability to unite the North Sea’s powers, and Li Ling sensed that someone had entered his territory.
• Li Ling used Returning Soul Incense to project his soul into the marketplace, where he detected the traces of three to five bloodstained intruders.
• Li Ling found a plain-clothed man eating seafood noodles and identified him as a Blood Shark bandit before greeting him as the Blood Shark King.

Li Ling discovered that the diner was the Blood Shark King, who demanded tribute from the Incense Accumulation Sect and challenged Li Ling to fight. The battle began far from the sect, where Li Ling revealed a powerful three-headed, eight-armed form but found the Blood Shark King stronger than expected.

• Li Ling recognized the diner as the Blood Shark King, who had infiltrated the sect to assess its strength and demanded tribute or threatened to destroy it.
• Li Ling rejected the Blood Shark King's demand and agreed to fight him away from the island so their battle would not damage the sect.
• Mu Qingsi activated the grand array and ordered a search, while the sect's forces exposed and attacked infiltrated pirates, including Old Money and Nie Hanfeng.
• Li Ling and the Blood Shark King moved more than a hundred li out to sea, where Li Ling concealed the battle from distant observers and manifested a three-headed, eight-armed false Dharma form.
• The Blood Shark King blocked Li Ling's enormous weapon strikes and battered his giant form, forcing Li Ling to shrink back and summon several treasures for the continuing battle.

Li Ling fought the Blood Shark King, revealing the strength of his three-headed, eight-armed Dharma Form and using the Incense Path to attack the pirate's mind. As the Blood Shark King shifted toward Nine-Wan Island, Li Ling's actual body awakened on the Floating Cloud Platform.

• Li Ling and the Blood Shark King traded close-range blows, and the Blood Shark King marveled that Li Ling could keep up with his combat skill.
• The Blood Shark King attacked with the Towering Demon Hand, but Li Ling resisted its drowned spirits and pinned him with Soul-Seizing Divine Light before burning him with the Blazing Cloud Gourd.
• Li Ling used headwind incense to inflict the Yin-Fire Bone-Burning Stench on the Blood Shark King, whose thoughts and senses became filled with visions of burning corpses.
• The Blood Shark King revealed his Hundred-Eyed Bloodstar Shark form and moved toward Nine-Wan Island, where smoke rose and fighting had begun.
• Li Ling dismissed the apparent diversion, and his actual body opened its eyes in a room on the Floating Cloud Platform.

Li Ling used his Core Formation strength and the Mountain Gate Grand Array to fire frost arrows that devastated the Blood Shark Bandits’ Foundation Establishment forces. He arrived at Mountain Gate Square as the surviving enemies fled, where Nie Hanfeng’s strange flesh lump began consuming corpses and growing.

• Li Ling learned from Mu Qingsi that the Blood Shark Bandits’ chieftains and Foundation Establishment fighters had attacked, then decided to kill their forces quickly and fired Frostbreath Bow arrows across the battlefield.
• Li Ling’s arrows wounded Old Money, killed an electric-eel demon general fighting Wan Yin, and froze another demon general facing Xu Yan.
• Min Lian considered summoning the Dharma Protector Divine Dragon as Li Ling’s arrows struck several Foundation Establishment pirates at Mountain Gate Square.
• Li Ling finished firing more than a dozen arrows, then flew to Mountain Gate Square, where Nie Hanfeng and the other surviving leaders fled from him.
• Nie Hanfeng threw down a hideous lump of flesh that swallowed nearby corpses and began to grow, and Li Ling recognized it as the creature Tong Zhifeng had once used.

Li Ling used his Incense Path abilities to neutralize the Blood Shark Bandits’ flesh monster and trap and kill their attackers while fighting the Blood Shark King elsewhere. After learning the bandits had been routed, the Blood Shark King retreated into the ocean, and Li Ling pursued him underwater.

• Li Ling summoned the Three Great Incense Deities, whose powers purified the Great Demon Stone Octopus’s flesh and made it useless as a weapon.
• Li Ling trapped the fleeing pirates in a maze and unleashed Blood Spirit Brides, killing several before attacking the survivors with his Dragonfire Incense deity.
• Li Ling fought the Blood Shark King to a stalemate while the Incense Accumulation Sect defeated most of the bandits; Old Money and Nie Hanfeng escaped.
• The Blood Shark King conceded the fight and swam away, but Li Ling refused to let him leave and pursued him beneath the sea.

After failing to kill the Blood Shark King underwater, Li Ling used incense resonance to locate him and began a ritual curse with a straw effigy. The effigy started burning from afar as the Blood Shark King sensed an inexplicable irritation and the smell of burning hair.

• Li Ling pursued the Blood Shark King into the deep sea but could not catch him, though he left incense resonance in the king’s sea of consciousness.
• Li Ling ordered Director An to build a ritual altar and told Mu Qingsi that he planned to curse the Blood Shark King through the formation Dao and divine arts.
• On the completed altar, Li Ling used Netherworld Communion to find the Blood Shark King’s consciousness, then fashioned and burned a straw effigy infused with the king’s aura.
• The straw effigy began to blacken in the deserted valley while the Blood Shark King ate on a distant pirate island and discussed avoiding Li Ling in future battles.
• The Blood Shark King felt a strange irritation and smelled burning hair, while the Black Market Trader also noticed a burning smell.

Li Ling used the Bone-Burning Curse Art to turn his incense research into a trigger for heavenly tribulation, and the Blood Shark King suffered a devastating yin fire calamity. Sensing the weakened king’s location, Li Ling ordered the Incense Accumulation Sect and Northsky Island’s forces to attack while he pursued the enemy by soul projection.

• The Blood Shark King discovered that Li Ling’s curse had made him reek of burning bones, and bathing and Fragrant Body Pills failed to remove the stench.
• Li Ling explained that his seven-day ritual used Thought Transmission to the Profound Nether to make the Heavenly Dao notice the Blood Shark King and bring down a tribulation.
• The Blood Shark King sensed the approaching calamity and fled into the sea, where yin fire ignited within him and burned across his body.
• The Blood Shark King killed and devoured dozens of servants and pirate underlings to replenish his strength, then sank beneath the water, gravely weakened.
• Li Ling realized the curse had successfully triggered a heavenly tribulation and sensed the Blood Shark King’s location more clearly.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi to summon Elder Shang and the experts on Northsky Island for an immediate attack, then pursued the Blood Shark King through soul projection.

Li Ling tracked down and killed the weakened Blood Shark King, but the shark’s death triggered new dangers and exposed a hidden power struggle. After returning to Northsky Island with the corpse, Li Ling learned that sharks and raiders were attacking across the region, while Myriad Treasures Tower moved to regain influence.

• When Northsky Island’s elders refused to send substantial help, Li Ling pursued the Blood Shark King alone, guided by his connection through Dreamscape Reversal.
• Li Ling trapped and attacked the wounded Blood Shark King with the Water-Moon Mirror, the Soul-Seizing Mirror, and his giant Dharma Form until the shark died.
• Old Ancestor Stone Octopus’s flesh emerged from the corpse and attacked Li Ling, who defeated it and sealed it in the Water-Moon Mirror as the Blood Shark King’s spirit resonance vanished.
• Li Ling returned to Northsky Island and displayed the Blood Shark King’s remains, shocking the elders and prompting them to report the kill to the General Association.
• Merchant Association stewards reported that sharks were attacking ships and coastal villages and that unidentified assailants had seized supplies from the Yi Island branch.
• On Eastchang Island, a man at Myriad Treasures Tower celebrated the Blood Shark King’s death and offered one billion in talisman currency to regain the Tower’s seat on the Council of Elders.