Chapter Summaries

Li Ling battled Lin Rouniang and her attendant in a dream, using his Child Celestial Aspect to overcome their dream-born powers and capture Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit. Lin Rouniang awoke in Sourcewater Township without her dream spirit and suspected that a Nascent Soul master had attacked her.

• Li Ling repelled Lin Rouniang’s Demon Monsters with evil-repelling incense essence and drove them back with flames.
• Lin Rouniang and the old woman used the Nether-Seeking Divine Eye, but Li Ling revealed his Nascent Soul-like Child Celestial Aspect and badly injured their dream spirits.
• The old woman’s dream spirit disintegrated, while Lin Rouniang recovered through her divine authority and summoned a blood river and eight Blood Spirit Divine Attendants.
• Li Ling burned the blood river, defeated the attendants with his clones, and bound Lin Rouniang with the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash.
• Li Ling compressed Lin Rouniang into a bead of blood and captured her dream spirit, causing her to awaken in Sourcewater Township.
• Lin Rouniang found that her dream spirit had not returned and told the old woman she believed a Nascent Soul master had attacked them.

Lin Rouniang and her nanny realized that the mysterious dream cultivator had a child-appearance Dharma Form and extraordinary potential, while Li Ling stole Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit and used it to draw her into his own dream. There, he negotiated for Ghost Soul Sect cultivation methods as she tried to buy time and sever their connection.

• Lin Rouniang explained that the mysterious cultivator’s child-appearance Dharma Form indicated terrifying potential, and her nanny agreed to report him and advance their plan.
• Lin Rouniang’s nanny left to contact the sect, while Lin Rouniang began preparing defenses against nightmare suppression.
• Li Ling killed the Demonic Path minion in her sleep, merged Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit into his own spirit body, and tried to establish a connection with her.
• Li Ling sensed Lin Rouniang’s dream anchor and used Soul-Possession Dream Transmission to pull her into his own dream.
• Lin Rouniang offered information about her sect’s plan and dragon soul fruit in exchange for her dream spirit, but Li Ling demanded commonly taught Ghost Soul Sect methods first.
• Lin Rouniang agreed to provide some cultivation methods while planning to placate Li Ling and sever her connection to the dream spirit.

Li Ling learned that the Ghost Soul Sect and Corpse Immortal Sect planned to unleash floods, plague, famine, and war across the Mystic Xin Kingdom, beginning in just over ten days. He refused to return Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit, crushed her in the dream, and gathered her remains into a blood pearl.

• Li Ling asked Lin Rouniang to collect cultivation methods, retrieved the box she left in her bedroom, and brought its contents to Barren Mountain.
• Lin Rouniang described the Great Lin River’s history and explained how sects had long fought over its spiritual resources and used the region as a training ground.
• Lin Rouniang revealed a plan to flood the river basin, kill civilians, spread plague and famine, and foment rebellion, with the operation moved up to the middle of the eighth month.
• Li Ling refused Lin Rouniang’s request to return her dream spirit and said her plans to slaughter innocents made her evil.
• Lin Rouniang attacked Li Ling with a small blade in the dream, but Li Ling crushed her form and gathered her blood, remains, and wronged souls into a blood pearl.

Li Ling discovered Lin Rouniang had escaped using a paper-figure secret art, then learned the Demonic Path had summoned days of rain with the Great Lin River God's authority. As flooding threatened the common people, he warned villagers by posing as the River God and continued searching for ways to thwart the Demonic Path.

• Li Ling tracked Lin Rouniang to a wood, but she revealed herself to be a paper figure and burned it to escape.
• Li Ling warned the Unusual Events Bureau about the Demonic Path, and the Bureau imposed a lockdown while investigating.
• After several days of torrential rain, the Ninth Princess told Li Ling that the Immortal Sects had confirmed the Great Lin River God's authority was being used to cause the downpour.
• Li Ling objected when the Ninth Princess dismissed the common people's plight, then used Soul Projection to reach villagers preparing a human sacrifice.
• Li Ling killed the shaman and warned the villagers that a flood was coming, then entered villagers' dreams across the region to urge them to evacuate.
• Despite recognizing that his warnings could create further problems, Li Ling continued searching the Divine Kingdom for Demonic Path practitioners.

Zuo Zhongliang and the Unusual Events Bureau fought Demonic Path practitioners amid catastrophic floods, while Li Ling witnessed the suffering and hatred spreading through the region. The pervasive stench of decay signaled that Li Ling had entered a tribulation.

• Zuo Zhongliang’s team killed a group of Human-Head Centipedes and captured a boy who had practiced an evil art for revenge; the Attendant executed him.
• Zuo Zhongliang recruited A Xin to focus on serving the Unusual Events Bureau and slaying demons, though he admitted he sometimes wished for immortal powers.
• The bureau learned that floods had devastated a town upstream and debated reports that a mysterious figure was warning villagers to seek shelter.
• Li Ling overheard bureau members argue over refugees and witnessed flood victims and starving people, while their conflicting emotions left him unable to discern their hearts.
• Li Ling sensed a rotting-corpse stench throughout the world and realized that he had begun a tribulation.

Li Ling learned how karma and tribulations worked while continuing to protect refugees from floods and Demonic Path schemes. After hearing that the Demonic Path planned to flood the Royal City, he resolved to stop them by any means necessary.

• Li Ling chose to keep traveling among towns to warn residents about the floods, while Zuo Zhongliang and the Unusual Events Bureau fought Demonic Path lackeys.
• Jie Hua and the other maidservants discovered that reddish mineral-laced rain was falling, and the Ninth Princess explained that it could poison water and ruin crops.
• The Ninth Princess taught Li Ling about heavenly and human tribulations, and he concluded that his efforts to save people had drawn him into karmic entanglements.
• Eunuch Xu reported that the Demonic Path planned to flood the Royal City, and Li Ling decided to thwart the attack and protect the refugees at any cost.

Li Ling used the Great Lin River God’s name in refugees’ dreams to expose Demonic Path cultivators hiding in the Royal City, and the Unusual Events Bureau helped devise a discreet search. The chapter ended as a murdered merchant rose again and confronted the Demonic Path group as a blood-soaked revenant.

• Li Ling surveyed the refugees’ suffering and used Divided Spirit Manifestation to send dreams urging them to find the ill-omened people responsible for the disaster.
• The refugees recognized a Demonic Path lackey from Li Ling’s visions and captured him after Li Ling’s Sword Qi cut his legs.
• Zuo Zhongliang took custody of the lackey and ordered local leaders and City Patrol Guards to watch for suspicious people at porridge distributions.
• Master Huang confronted a group of suspected Demonic Path cultivators at his eastern-outskirts home, but they killed his servants and slit his throat.
• Master Huang rose from the dead and warned the Demonic Path cultivators to die, leaving their leader and lackeys stunned.

Li Ling secretly helped the Unusual Events Bureau defeat a Demonic Path hideout, and the Bureau used the captured leader’s confession to locate Blood Lady Lin Rouniang and Granny Wu near the Ten-Mile Pavilion. The Bureau prepared a direct assault, while Li Ling realized its members had deliberately shared their plans in hopes of cooperating with him.

• Li Ling’s invisible sword qi struck down the Demonic Path disciples as Senior Brother Zhao fled, and the Unusual Events Bureau party captured him.
• Elder Gong and the Bureau’s attendants connected Lin Rouniang’s search for a Heaven-Mandated Yin Maiden to her plans for refining blood spirits and advancing her cultivation.
• The Bureau’s interrogators tortured Senior Brother Zhao until he revealed that Lin Rouniang and Granny Wu had been hiding near the Ten-Mile Pavilion, though they might relocate if they did not receive a report by noon.
• Elder Gong ordered the Bureau to confirm the location and launch a direct assault, while arranging for Foundation Establishment cultivators to join them.
• Li Ling realized the Bureau had deliberately let him hear its plans as an invitation to cooperate against the Demonic Path.

Li Ling tracked the Devil Dao’s operations and discovered a Corpse-Raising Ground, then alerted the Unusual Events Bureau, which destroyed it. Lin Rouniang decided to proceed with the sect’s original plan despite the risk of attracting the mysterious expert, and Granny Wu began preparing the rite.

• Li Ling followed an Unusual Events Bureau company as it pursued Devil Dao lackeys, learned that Lin Rouniang and Granny Wu had withdrawn with ten special envoys, and watched the company’s pursuit fail.
• Li Ling traced Lin Rouniang’s scent to a Corpse-Raising Ground, recognized its mass corpse-refining formation, and used Divided Spirit Manifestation to alert Laborer Hall members in the Bureau.
• The Unusual Events Bureau wiped out the Corpse-Raising Ground, while Lin Rouniang and Granny Wu discussed their dwindling manpower and the need for prayer power to carry out their plans.
• Lin Rouniang secretly used a scale to create a pretext for claiming that Ten Thousand Spirits Mountain had ordered the original plan to proceed, and Granny Wu agreed to prepare the sacrifice while keeping Lin Rouniang hidden.
• Granny Wu and Lin Rouniang sent away several capable followers, then Granny Wu began performing a rite on a newly built altar inside the cavern.

Li Ling used Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit to trace her to the desolate mountains east of the Royal City, where he discovered the Demonic Path’s ritual site and alerted the Unusual Events Bureau. As the bureau’s Foundation Establishment cultivators fought Granny Wu, the Great Lin River God’s Divine Domain suddenly enveloped the battlefield.

• Li Ling sensed the water essence gathering in the Divine Domain and learned that the enemy’s ritual could soon merge the unreal with reality.
• Unable to find the ritualist, Li Ling used Lin Rouniang’s dream spirit to connect to her and followed her scent trail toward the eastern mountains.
• Li Ling found the enemy’s hidden domain and reported its location to the Unusual Events Bureau.
• Three Foundation Establishment cultivators pursued Granny Wu, and Li Ling followed as they fought across the mountains.
• As Granny Wu appeared close to defeat, the Great Lin River God’s Divine Domain spread over the battlefield and the god’s presence descended.

Granny Wu sacrificed herself to become the Great Lin River God and tried to flood Xuansin Royal City, but Li Ling used evil-repelling incense to sever her from the divine kingdom domain and defeat her. He claimed the River God’s dragon vein and left, while Lin Rouniang watched from hiding and blamed herself for Granny Wu’s death.

• Granny Wu gave up her life to become the Great Lin River God, whose flood swept through the mountains as she headed for Xuansin Royal City.
• Liang Yinglong and Yin Wuming fought the River God but fled when her body repeatedly reformed after their attacks.
• Li Ling blocked the River God’s connection to the divine kingdom domain with evil-repelling incense and wore down her spirit until she left behind a golden filament.
• Liang Yinglong and Yin Wuming returned, mistook Li Ling for a powerful senior, and identified the filament as a dragon vein that he took along with Granny Wu’s Treasure Pouch and walking stick.
• Lin Rouniang emerged from hiding, mourned Granny Wu, and concluded that Li Ling had waited for the River God to reveal her power before taking the dragon vein.

After recovering from his tribulation, Li Ling discovered that the foul stench around him had vanished and a strange fragrance now emanated from his soul. As he prepared to exploit the flood’s aftermath and a supposed River God’s divine decree, the Skycloud Sect mistook his scheme for the work of a powerful rogue cultivator, and Li Ling began arranging a ritual and Spirit Incense.

• Li Ling woke feeling better, found a new fragrance coming from his soul, and realized the stench that had tormented him had disappeared.
• After the rain stopped, Li Ling donated surplus medicinal herbs to help refugees as the Prefect warned that plague was spreading.
• Li Ling entered wealthy households’ dreams in the form of a three-headed, six-armed River God and ordered them to hold a ritual assembly.
• Li Ling and the Ninth Princess consulted Yellow Cloud True Person, who said the supposed expert was likely a rogue cultivator seeking a dragon vein and a share of dynastic fortune.
• Yellow Cloud True Person told Li Ling to cooperate with the supposed expert, while Li Ling resolved to use the situation to arrange a River God ritual and prepare Spirit Incense.

At a River God blessing ritual, Li Ling used incense and fragrant wood to dispel pestilential energy and clarify his own Dao heart. His cultivation advanced to the Day Wandering Realm, and his Child Celestial Aspect formed a true Divine Domain with the innate ability to divide thought and amplify it threefold.

• Li Ling arranged a blessing ritual with Vice Minister Pei, the Ninth Princess, and the Mystic Xin Kingdom's officials, merchants, and commoners, using donated fragrant wood and a massive Giant Incense.
• Li Ling blended Spirit-Communing Incense with Evil-Repelling Incense, and the incense smoke veiled the Divine Kingdom Domain while the ritual offerings gathered incense essence.
• Li Ling burned a vast pile of fragrant wood, and the resulting incense essence weakened and dispelled the pestilential energy around the Royal City.
• Li Ling made four vows to heaven, spirits and gods, earth, and all living beings, solidifying his resolve and forging a transcendent Dao heart.
• Li Ling's Dharma Form emerged as a three-headed, six-armed Child Celestial Aspect, revealing that he had reached the Day Wandering Realm.
• Li Ling's Child Celestial Aspect formed a new Divine Domain of laws, and he gained the Dharma Form's innate ability to divide thought and amplify it threefold.

Li Ling used the Returning Soul Incense ritual to weaken the pestilence and discovered that Evil-Repelling Incense could block the Great Lin River God's influence. After investigating ways to wield the River God's water authority to help the flood-stricken region, he found that he could potentially control it through a Magic Treasure, but he did not know how to make one.

• The Returning Soul Incense spread through the city, suppressing pestilent energy and slowing its transmission as a sick old man revived and onlookers credited the River God.
• Li Ling projected his spirit into the crowd, learned that the old man had likely experienced apparent death, and saw that Evil-Repelling Incense was filtering prayer power and severing its connection to the Divine Kingdom Domain.
• Li Ling considered making the doctored incense the officially designated offering to the Great Lin River God, then vanished from sight after Unusual Events Bureau soldiers noticed his supernatural abilities.
• Li Ling surveyed the flood damage and, hoping to use the River God's authority to help, examined Granny Wu's belongings and found notes about controlling divine power through the dragon vein.
• Li Ling rejected merging his soul with the dragon vein and concluded that refining it into a Magic Treasure could let him exercise the River God's authority, but he did not know how to refine one.

The Ninth Princess explained how dharma power and magic treasures worked, helping Li Ling understand how a Heavenly Treasure might be refined. Li Ling cleansed and transformed the Dragon Vein, then attached it to the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash, causing a golden dragon pattern and physical gauze to appear.

• Li Ling asked the Ninth Princess how cultivators refined magic treasures, and she explained that they sealed their dharma power within objects.
• The Ninth Princess taught Li Ling that dharma power arose naturally when a cultivator's understanding of the Dao reached perfection, and described how it accumulated and amplified divine abilities.
• The Ninth Princess suggested that Li Ling could use the Dragon Vein's properties and its ability to gather and disperse dharma power to make it a magic treasure.
• Li Ling took the Dragon Vein to the Fragrant Incense Pavilion and used the Myriad Wonders Incense Transformation Art to cleanse the prayer power it had absorbed.
• Li Ling repeatedly fed incense and fire prayer power into the Dragon Vein and cleansed it until it transformed into an image of his child celestial aspect.
• Li Ling placed the transformed Dragon Vein on the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash, creating a golden five-clawed dragon pattern as actual gauze appeared in the room.

Li Ling used the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash and the Great Lin River God's authority to remove floodwaters and cleanse the land poisoned by the blood rain. The chapter ended with the disaster victims seeing their crops revive and the threat of famine beginning to lift.

• Li Ling discovered that the Dragon Vein had transformed the Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash into a tangible treasure with the Great Lin River God's authority.
• Old Han and officials inspected the flooded fields and learned that the sour, corrupted soil could remain barren for years, while villagers had sold their children to survive.
• Li Ling used the sash to draw floodwaters into the divine kingdom domain, and witnesses knelt as Grandfather River God manifested.
• Li Ling summoned Spirit Rain that neutralized the blood rain's corruption, purified the land, and caused fish, plants, and crops to flourish.
• The officials and disaster victims saw the revived fields offer hope that the famine and blood-rain crisis could be overcome.

Li Ling spread Spirit Rain across the disaster-stricken regions, earning a merit golden cloud from heaven and earth. Meanwhile, the Unusual Events Bureau sought his help contacting the mysterious Nascent Soul cultivator and warned him that rogue cultivators could exploit the kingdom’s weakened order.

• Li Ling used the Great Lin River God's power to send Spirit Rain upstream, saving disaster victims while exhausting incense and fire prayer power.
• After enough people had been saved, heaven and earth bestowed a merit golden cloud upon Li Ling's dharma form, revealing that he had begun the path of merit attainment.
• The Unusual Events Bureau's leaders discussed the Spirit Rain, proposed promoting orthodox gods, and decided to ask Li Ling to help contact the Nascent Soul cultivator.
• Commander Huo and Elder Gong asked Li Ling to watch for the cultivator in his dreams and invite him to become a senior attendant.
• Elder Gong warned Li Ling that Demonic Path practitioners and newly emerging rogue cultivators could exploit the chaos, rapidly grow powerful, and threaten the kingdom.

Commander Huo and Elder Gong explained how uncontrolled rogue cultivators caused disasters and described the Unusual Events Bureau’s efforts to manage them. Li Ling agreed to help draw out a reclusive expert and proposed opening a Treasure Pavilion, then explained the origin of the Incense Prayer Method to Yellow Cloud True Person.

• Commander Huo recounted several disasters caused by rogue cultivators, and Elder Gong described how the Immortal Sects and the Unusual Events Bureau kept them in check.
• Elder Gong suggested that a reclusive expert had entered the mortal world to accumulate merit before a heavenly tribulation, and Li Ling agreed to try to contact him.
• Li Ling proposed opening a Treasure Pavilion to trade with rogue cultivators, and Commander Huo and Elder Gong suggested he first seek the Old Ancestor’s approval.
• Li Ling told the Ninth Princess about his plan, then contacted Yellow Cloud True Person and asked about Foundation Establishment Pills.
• Yellow Cloud True Person asked Li Ling about the Wish-Granting Incense, and he claimed the expert had provided the Incense Prayer Method and explained how he had obtained it from the Demonic Path.

Li Ling received Yellow Cloud True Person’s reward for the Cloud-Producing Incense and secured cultivation knowledge while asking for Youth-Preserving Pills for himself and Qing Si. With her approval, he began arranging to enter the Rogue Cultivator trade by establishing a Treasure Pavilion in Beyond-the-World Valley.

• Yellow Cloud True Person confirmed that the Cloud-Producing Incense pleased the Auspicious Cloud Spirit Venerable and offered Li Ling a reward for his contribution.
• Li Ling requested two Youth-Preserving Pills for himself and Qing Si, and Yellow Cloud True Person agreed to provide them along with more cultivation knowledge.
• Li Ling met Yang Zhi of the Unusual Events Bureau, who proposed a joint Treasure Pavilion in Beyond-the-World Valley and explained the valley’s customs and ownership shares.
• Li Ling named the business the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and agreed to use trusted servants while the Bureau placed covert agents and Attendants there.
• Yang Zhi described how he had become a cultivator and joined the Bureau, and Li Ling accepted him as his guide into the Rogue Cultivator world.

Li Ling arranged for Mo Heng and Xiao Yicheng to serve as resident attendants for the Myriad Treasures Pavilion and learned about the divided world of rogue cultivators. That night, he gathered Granny Wu’s spoils and traveled to Beyond-the-World Valley, where he passed through its illusion formation and entered.

• Li Ling met Mo Heng and Xiao Yicheng at the Drunken Immortal Tower and agreed to their stipends and shares in the Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
• Mo Heng and Xiao Yicheng told Li Ling about registered rogue cultivators, the influence of the Immortal Sects and Demonic Path, and their own public identities.
• Li Ling learned that Yang Zhi had gone ahead to manage the pavilion in Beyond-the-World Valley, while he would remain behind the scenes.
• Li Ling projected his soul, retrieved Granny Wu’s spoils, and sorted her writings, talismans, spirit materials, spirit stones, and a sealed Treasure Pouch.
• Li Ling traveled to Beyond-the-World Valley and stepped through the illusion formation hidden in a rock face.