Chapter Summaries

Li Ling investigated grudge essence brought back from the Underworld and developed Wish-Binding Incense to cleanse Ghost Dao treasures. By tracing the spiritual particles released in the process, he uncovered the Dharma-Realm Incense Burner’s true purpose: collecting a pure fragrance of wisdom that could impart skills and insight.

• Zuo Zhongliang explained that grudge essence formed tangible Ghost Dao treasures and warned Li Ling that its corrupting power made it dangerous.
• Li Ling used Wish-Binding Incense to cleanse a woman’s wooden hairpin, separated out its corrupt miasma, and confirmed that the substance could turn spirits into evil ghosts or nightmares.
• Li Ling improved Wish-Binding Incense to cleanse Ghost Dao objects while dispersing their grudge essence, then noticed that some spiritual particles vanished during the process.
• Li Ling traced the particles to the Dharma-Realm Incense Burner and found that it had gathered a sweet, pure spirit incense from human spiritual will.
• Li Ling inhaled the spirit incense and instantly gained mastery of ironworking and painting, then deduced that the burner collected a fragrance of wisdom capable of awakening spirituality.

During the Colored Lantern Festival, Young Master Zhao dismissed warnings about spirits and enjoyed the festivities before becoming lost on his way home after curfew. He and his servants accepted shelter from a stranger near Peace Bridge.

• Young Master Zhao’s mother made him wear an evil-repelling sachet from the City God Temple before he went to the festival.
• Young Master Zhao and his friends argued over whether gods, cultivators, and ghosts were real, then joined the lantern festivities and exchanged lanterns with young women.
• After curfew, Young Master Zhao, Uncle Fu, and Chang Gui lost their way through strangely deserted streets and eventually reached Peace Bridge.
• When the Night Watcher announced midnight, a stranger invited the three to shelter in his residence.

After befriending Zhao Yuanwai, the young gentleman learned about immortals but proved unable to cultivate or practice martial arts. Zhao Yuanwai took him to a full-moon cultivator market, where he brought his overwhelmed nephew to a pleasure house and introduced him to Madam Sang.

• The young gentleman thanked Zhao Yuanwai for helping him evade punishment, and the two grew close as uncle and nephew.
• Zhao Yuanwai revealed that immortals existed and demonstrated a magical gold ingot, then taught the young gentleman cultivation and martial arts, but he failed at both.
• Zhao Yuanwai invited the young gentleman on a trip, and they traveled to a coastal town before setting out on the full-moon night without their attendants.
• Zhao Yuanwai carried the young gentleman across the sea on a Rainbow Bridge to a bustling cultivator market on an island.
• Zhao Yuanwai led the young gentleman to a pleasure house, where Madam Sang and her beauties eagerly welcomed them.

Zhao Ziren indulged in the Sea Market, married Du Shi, and built a thriving business with Zhao Yuanwai’s help, but his son developed monstrous traits. While inspecting a tavern, Zhao Ziren encountered armed officers pursuing a strange fugitive and was struck by a painful, pungent sensation.

• Zhao Ziren repeatedly visited the Sea Market with Zhao Yuanwai, then gave up drinking after his indulgence left him gaunt.
• Zhao Yuanwai arranged Zhao Ziren’s marriage to Du Shi, and Zhao Ziren threw away a foul-smelling sachet on their wedding night.
• Zhao Ziren prospered in business, had twins with Du Shi, and discovered that their son was becoming grotesquely deformed.
• Du Shi advised Zhao Ziren on business, helping him acquire every tavern and inn in town.
• Zhao Ziren inspected Zhao Yuanwai’s tavern as officers stormed in and shot a gray-robed fugitive with powerful crossbows.
• The apparent constable captain questioned Zhao Ziren, who suddenly felt a pungent stench that caused him intense pain.

The head constable identified Zhao Ziren’s family as connected to ghost cultivators and led a covert raid to capture Du Shi. After the raid failed to subdue her, Du Shi revealed her nature to Zhao Ziren and tried to escape with him and Ying'er.

• The head constable questioned Zhao Ziren, learned of his contact with Zhao Nian’s household, and ordered an investigation into Zhao Nian and Du Shi.
• Records revealed that Zhao Nian had been a Money House steward and concealed his cultivator connections, so the head constable prepared to seize Du Shi before sunset.
• An elite constable disguised as an itinerant physician entered Zhao Ziren’s home and pinned Du Shi to the wall with a golden Dart Shuttle.
• Du Juan and the Zhao Family Child attacked the physician, who escaped toward the gate while the head constable’s forces waited outside.
• Du Shi removed the dart, revealed to Zhao Ziren that she and Du Juan were ghost cultivators, and urged him to flee with her and Ying'er through a secret passage.

Zuo Zhongliang arrived in time to defeat Du Juan and her monstrous companion, while Feng Jide captured a Four Seas Commerce Guild steward who had helped the Netherworld Sect. Their investigation revealed that the guild’s local branch—and possibly its entire force on Horsehead Island—had been corrupted, so they sought Li Ling’s guidance.

• Du Juan revealed her ghostly strength and unleashed a transformed beast, overwhelming the chief constable and his men until Zuo Zhongliang arrived and killed them both with swordlight.
• Zuo Zhongliang learned that Du Juan and the beast had escaped through a secret passage, while Feng Jide brought in Steward Xie and accused him of helping the Netherworld Sect through the Four Seas Commerce Guild.
• Steward Xie defied his captors and proclaimed the Netherworld Sect’s coming victory, but Zuo Zhongliang struck him down and ordered an investigation into the sect’s hidden pawns.
• Zuo Zhongliang assigned divine generals to pursue Du Juan, while Feng Jide was ordered to issue a warrant for Zhao Nian and investigate the Zhao Family.
• Zuo Zhongliang and Feng Jide visited Li Ling and reported that the local guild branch was compromised, with the entire Horsehead Island force suspected of serving the demonic path.

Li Ling investigated the Netherworld Sect’s infiltration of the Four Seas Commerce Guild and ordered new Night Watchers to monitor the Misty Wave Kingdom. Zhao Ziren learned that Zhao Nian had been killed and feared Du Juan and Ying’er had also died, leaving him and Du Shi in hiding.

• Li Ling explained that ghosts arose from powerful fixations and warned that the Netherworld Sect was winning people over through gradual infiltration.
• Zuo Zhongliang and Feng Jide uncovered widespread corruption among the Horsehead Island chapter’s officials and merchants, including some who secretly practiced demonic cultivation.
• Li Ling ordered Zuo Zhongliang to consult veteran mortal legal officials and proposed severing ties with the association and establishing Night Watchers across the kingdom.
• Zuo Zhongliang stepped down as Tulin City God to support the reforms, while the authorities removed the Horsehead Island chapter’s leaders and killed Zhao Nian during his resistance to arrest.
• Zhao Ziren learned of Zhao Nian’s death and feared Du Juan and Ying’er had also been lost; Du Shi comforted him as an information peddler warned that the authorities were tightening their search.

The Merchant Association began dismantling its demonic trafficking operation on Horsehead Island as the Garrison Commissioners raided one of its sites. Zuo Zhongliang expanded the Night Watcher system by offering rogue cultivators lawful livelihoods, while Zhao Ziren and Du Shi sought refuge at the Netherworld Sect’s Sea Market.

• Xi Yuanlin ordered the Merchant Association to keep a low profile as Elder Li’s actions threatened its influence in the Misty Wave Kingdom.
• The Garrison Commissioners raided the Horsehead Island estate, captured a suspected Netherworld Sect Messenger, and uncovered records linking the traffickers to a recent plague and abductions by the Beggar's Gate.
• Zuo Zhongliang recognized that the Night Watcher system needed both more recruits and lawful jobs for grassroots rogue cultivators.
• The Garrison Commissioners recruited rogue cultivators across Horsehead Island with salaries, equipment, benefits, and opportunities for advancement, rapidly expanding the Night Watcher ranks.
• Zhao Ziren and Du Shi noticed the growing Night Watcher presence and headed to the Netherworld Sect-controlled Sea Market for protection.

Zhao Ziren and Du Shi sought refuge in the Sea Market, but Night Watchers killed Du Shi and Hu Laizi robbed Zhao Ziren, took their baby, and killed him. Zhao Ziren’s obsession-bound spirit followed his daughter to Gilded Den, where Chief Steward Jin recognized her rare nature and adopted her.

• Zhao Ziren brought Du Shi and their daughter to the Sea Market, but Du Shi discovered they had to enter through a dreamscape.
• Night Watchers confronted the family in the dreamscape, and Du Shi stayed behind to fight while Zhao Ziren fled with their daughter.
• The Night Watchers overwhelmed Du Shi and scattered her soul, while Zhao Ziren reached the market and was robbed and killed by Hu Laizi.
• Zhao Ziren’s spirit endured the yin winds and followed Hu Laizi as he tried to sell the baby at Gilded Den.
• Chief Steward Jin recognized the baby as a fortunate Yin Woman protected by her blood kin’s obsession-bound ghost and declared her adopted daughter.

Sixteen years later, the Incense Accumulation Sect’s efforts had made Lai’er Island a stronghold of the righteous path, but a demon-filled Mirage Tower injured visiting disciples and killed three captives. When Lü Xianyun sought help for Yang He’s damaged soul, Yao Lingxian appealed to Li Ling, who sensed the summons and decided to answer.

• The Incense Accumulation Sect held a vast ceremony on Lai’er Island, and Yao Lingxian learned that righteous disciples had been badly injured after attacking a Mirage Tower at sea, with three companions captured.
• Yao Lingxian ordered a search for the Mirage Tower, but later learned the three captives had been killed and that the survivors, including Yang He, suffered damage to their minds and souls.
• When physicians could not heal Yang He, Yao Lingxian told Lü Xianyun that his patriarch, Incense Accumulation True Lord Li Ling, might be able to help, then led Lü to pray for an audience.
• Li Ling sensed Lü Xianyun’s earnest summons while spending time with Mu Qingsi in the Netherdream Realm, divined its cause, and chose to answer for the sake of his ties with the Heaven-Illuminating Sect.

Li Ling used four kinds of Wisdom Incense to treat Yang He after her damaged souls returned but left her mind impaired. She awakened after he cleansed and repaired her soul, while Li Ling continued investigating the nature of spirituality and wisdom.

• Lü Xianyun prayed for Li Ling's help, and Li Ling appeared with Yao Lingxian to treat Yang He.
• Li Ling created Returning Soul Incense from the Twin Yin-Yang Swords and told Lü Xianyun to keep it burning while Yang He's lost souls returned.
• Three days later, Yang He's souls had returned, but her damaged spirit left her confused and unable to sleep, so Li Ling began treating her with Wisdom Incense.
• Li Ling used the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom Incense to nourish Yang He's soul and the Equality Wisdom Incense to mend her scattered souls.
• Li Ling used the Wondrous Observation Wisdom Incense to cleanse impurities from Yang He's soul, then the Accomplishing What Is to Be Done Wisdom Incense to consolidate her true self.
• Li Ling called on Yang He to understand the four wisdoms, and she awakened as though from a dream.

After Yang He recovered, Xiao Changchen discovered that Li Ling had seemingly resurrected her through the power of incense and speculated that Li Ling had reached a profound realm beyond ordinary life and death. Li Ling gave Xiao Changchen four kinds of wisdom incense, and Xiao Changchen soon cried out that he had attained enlightenment.

• Yang He recovered, and Xiao Changchen arrived at Lai'er Island after the crisis had already passed.
• Xiao Changchen examined Yang He, found traces of incense essence in her restored soul, and concluded Li Ling had effectively brought her back from the dead.
• Xiao Changchen explained his ideas about life, death, and advanced cultivation, then suspected Li Ling had touched the threshold of mighty beings who transcended those distinctions.
• Xiao Changchen visited Li Ling to ask about life, death, and the soul, and Li Ling offered him four kinds of wisdom incense.
• After trying the incense in seclusion for a day, Xiao Changchen shouted that he had attained enlightenment.

Xiao Changchen broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm after using Li Ling’s wisdom incense, and Li Ling explained the Incense Transmission and Wisdom Revelation method behind it. The incense attracted attention from cultivators and commerce groups, and Li Ling began preparing to introduce it through the Incense Accumulation Sect and the Four Seas Commerce Guild.

• Xiao Changchen reached the Nascent Soul Realm and credited his breakthrough to Li Ling’s spirit incense, bowing to him in gratitude.
• Li Ling explained how Incense Transmission and Wisdom Revelation worked and described the effects of the four fragrances of wisdom.
• Xiao Changchen praised Li Ling’s incense, and word of his advancement spread as he publicly credited Li Ling with helping him break through.
• Cultivators who had struggled to advance asked to use the incense, while aristocratic clans and major sects tried to learn its price and availability.
• Li Ling began arranging the incense’s testing and promotion, and the Three Great Treasure Envoys asked the head of the Money Guild to contact him about collaboration.
• Li Ling told the Four Seas Commerce Guild the names and effects of the four fragrances of wisdom.

Li Ling arranged support from the Four Seas Commerce Guild while keeping control of how the Incense Accumulation Sect trained its disciples, then announced an open Incense Transmission Assembly for low-level cultivators. As the assembly neared, three Incense Accumulation Sect disciples began a separate gathering in the West Sea, where cultivators were asked to offer whatever they sincerely wished for a chance to smell the fragrance of wisdom.

• Pei Qingguang explained that the Four Seas Commerce Guild would provide resources in exchange for shares of future fragrance-of-wisdom supplies, and the guild approved the initial plan.
• Yao Lingxian reported the first shipment of aid, and Li Ling told Xi Yuanlin that the guild could supply resources but would have no say in the sect’s disciple training.
• Li Ling invited Yao Lingxian to attend an Incense Transmission Assembly and later announced that every disciple could participate regardless of lineage, while setting a cultivation limit for attendees.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect prepared the assembly, drawing crowds of North Sea cultivators and grassroots rogue cultivators to its gates.
• Three Incense Accumulation Sect disciples arrived in the West Sea and said cultivators could smell the fragrance of wisdom by offering whatever they sincerely wished, prompting several attendees to pledge treasures or talisman currency.

Gu Bohou and the three Incense Accumulation Sect disciples used Spirit Incense and a staged Foundation Establishment breakthrough to con rogue cultivators into paying for supposed wisdom and enlightenment. After dividing the profits with local power brokers, they moved on to another Market Ward, where returning attendees and new cultivators paid even higher fees.

• The three disciples performed an incense ceremony that gave the gathered cultivators visions of Li Ling preaching, but most could not recall what they had learned afterward.
• Gu Bohou staged a Foundation Establishment breakthrough, convincing the crowd that clever cultivators could gain real benefits from the Spirit Incense.
• Yu Zongbai asked to attend another assembly, and the disciples offered him a discounted fee payable later while arranging their next gathering.
• Gu Bohou and the local power brokers split the first assembly's proceeds and discussed how to collect far larger sums, while Gu explained that the incense created mind-reflection illusions and weakened its users.
• Days later, the group held another assembly in a distant Market Ward, where returning attendees paid higher fees and their presence persuaded new cultivators to sign up.

Li Ling taught the Fragrance of Wisdom at the Incense Transmission Assembly and explained that those with affinity would benefit from it. His words reached Yu Zongbai during a confrontation with the counterfeit disciples, and Yu Zongbai achieved Foundation Establishment.

• Yu Zongbai attended assembly after assembly for nearly half a year but gained no insight, spent his savings, and failed to break through with a Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Li Ling taught the Fragrance of Wisdom to thousands at the Que Luo Immortal Abode and explained that affinity arose from the causes and connections among all things.
• Li Ling sensed someone invoking his name and extended his divine power toward the distant source of the call.
• The counterfeit disciples rebuked Yu Zongbai for freeloading and threatened to exclude him from future assemblies unless he paid full price.
• Yu Zongbai appealed to True Lord Incense Accumulation and Grandmaster Li, and Li Ling appeared in the sky to declare that he would deliver those with affinity.
• Yu Zongbai saw Li Ling's teaching from afar, attained enlightenment, and reached Foundation Establishment.

Yu Zongbai exposed Gu Bohou’s incense scam after Li Ling’s revelation and was tasked with spreading wisdom incense across the West Sea. As Li Ling’s disciples and guests gained insights and breakthroughs at the incense assembly, Li Ling pursued Gu Bohou into the Netherworld and discovered a powerful hidden force behind the sea-market beast.

• Yu Zongbai realized that Gu Bohou and the three impostor disciples had staged fake breakthroughs to swindle people, and he exposed Gu Bohou hiding behind a courtyard wall.
• Li Ling subdued Gu Bohou, ordered the impostor disciples to hold eighty-one incense assemblies and repay their debts, and gave Yu Zongbai nine orchids to refine wisdom incense.
• At Li Ling’s teaching ground, Fang Lin, Chi Yingting, Shu Changsheng, Luo Dao, and other disciples gained insights, while Zhu Lisheng formed his core and cultivators around them advanced.
• Li Ling traced Gu Bohou into the Netherworld, where a sea-market spiritual force absorbed his soul and its master sent a powerful force toward Li Ling’s teaching ground.
• Li Ling sensed that a powerful being, possibly a Spirit Transformation expert, stood behind the Core Formation beast.

Li Ling recognized Ye Hengsheng, the Ye Family's Old Ancestor, as a powerful Netherworld Sect adversary who had come to undermine the Incense Transmission Assembly. Ye Hengsheng's Netherworld visions captivated the crowd and began corrupting and drawing away Li Ling's disciples and guests, leaving Li Ling to confront the threat.

• Li Ling concluded that a powerful figure had targeted him and identified the phantom intruding into his Immortal Abode as a deliberate challenge.
• Ye Hengsheng introduced himself as the Ye Family's Old Ancestor and claimed he had come to discuss the Dao, then questioned the results of Li Ling's Incense Path.
• Ye Hengsheng praised his own Netherworld Dao and recited a verse that stirred the crowd's disappointment and resentment, causing black lotuses and ghostly figures to manifest above them.
• Ye Hengsheng projected an alluring vision of the Netherworld, presenting its inhabitants and bustling streets as a peaceful afterlife.
• Some people in the assembly broke through while becoming tainted by demonic power, and others closed their eyes and prepared to follow the vision into the Netherworld.

Li Ling exposed the Netherworld Sect’s seductive vision of the afterlife as a filthy realm built on endless torment, then invoked his Dao and incense arts against the Ye Family’s Old Ancestor. His fragrance awakened those ensnared by the mirage, and his Dharma form broke through the Market Ward’s Grand Array as his counterattack began.

• Li Ling used the Orchid of the Secluded Valley and his incense essence to dispel the Netherworld teachings’ corrupting influence and awaken those tempted by death.
• The Ye Family’s Old Ancestor launched another illusionary assault, but Li Ling located his malice within the mirage and revealed the demon-filled reality behind its prosperous appearance.
• The crowd saw the Netherworld’s rigid hierarchy and the endless torment endured by its common dead, realizing the Old Ancestor’s promises of easy cultivation were lies.
• Li Ling declared that he would show the Old Ancestor’s followers the orthodox Immortal Sects and the immortal Dao, then manifested his Divine Domain and Dao Fruit.
• Li Ling recalled his vows to protect the people of the Mystic Xin Kingdom and sent his fragrances through the realm, breaking the Market Ward’s Grand Array and awakening its inhabitants.

Li Ling overwhelmed Ye Hengsheng’s Mirage Tower with Incense Path methods, purifying its corrupted souls and gathering them into his Incense Accumulation Kingdom. As the Ghost Soul Sect sensed the threat to its Netherworld interests, Ye Hengsheng severed and carried the central district into the Netherworld Soil to escape.

• Ye Hengsheng summoned black rain that corrupted Market Ward residents and spawned corpses and monsters, but Li Ling’s incense restored the dead and purified the ghosts.
• Li Ling opened his Incense Accumulation Kingdom, drawing the liberated souls inside as incense deities and causing a disturbance felt by cultivators across the continents and in the Netherworld Pure Land.
• Ghost Soul Sect cultivators learned from Elder Ye that Li Ling was attacking the Mirage Tower, and Meng Chu warned them that Li Ling was difficult to defeat.
• Ye Hengsheng failed to stop Li Ling’s fragrance with demonic manifestations, barriers, wind, or corruption, so he isolated the central district with his Dharma power.
• Ye Hengsheng lifted the Clam Corpse Demon’s shell, abandoned the surrounding island, and fled with the central district into the Netherworld Soil.