Chapter Summaries

Li Ling traded at Beyond-the-World Valley, acquired nayun leaves, and explored the valley’s full-moon Market Gathering. After two rogue cultivators ambushed him for his Gu-Refining Cauldron, Virtue Incense Transformation unexpectedly erased the murderous intent between them.

• Li Ling entered Beyond-the-World Valley under the name Wu You, paid for a month at the inn, and learned how the hidden grotto-heaven operated.
• Li Ling exchanged listed Spirit Materials for fragrant plants, identified them as nayun leaves, and tested their mind-clearing incense essence.
• Li Ling attended the full-moon Market Gathering, traded Spirit Materials for basic talisman and Array techniques, and then left the valley.
• Two rogue cultivators who had failed to trade for Li Ling’s Gu-Refining Cauldron ambushed him on the forest path and demanded the cauldron.
• Li Ling sensed the fragrance of Virtue Incense Transformation, which dispelled the foul aura and murderous thoughts of everyone present.

Li Ling discovered that the Life-Cherishing Incense silently stirred compassion and weakened murderous intent, though it did not alter reason. After testing its effects on bandits, kitchen staff, and the Ninth Princess, he learned more about its limits and influence.

• Li Ling let two Rogue Cultivators rob his avatar and observed the incense make them reconsider killing him and worry about leaving him in the wilderness.
• Li Ling freed himself and fought the Rogue Cultivators, instinctively avoiding their vital points before killing both when they attacked.
• Li Ling identified the ability as Life-Cherishing Incense, learned that it arose from his mind faculty, and waited more than three days for it to recover.
• Li Ling tested the incense in the kitchen, where the staff stopped slaughtering animals and substituted meatless dishes for the planned meal.
• Li Ling used the incense while discussing disaster relief, and the Ninth Princess agreed to donate more food and clothing to the poor.
• Li Ling concluded that the incense intensified emotional influence without changing rational thought, and saw the kitchen staff eventually return to serving meat.

Li Ling traded a Cold Jade Pearl for Liu Daocheng’s Kyara and used it to improve his incense, creating a Self-Worship Method that strengthened his Divine Domain and Dharma Form. After advancing his cultivation over the following days, he returned to Beyond-the-World Valley, where a larger gathering of rogue cultivators was disrupted by the arrival of a man carrying a Black Tungwood Coffin.

• Li Ling met Liu Daocheng in Beyond-the-World Valley and exchanged a Cold Jade Pearl for a fist-sized piece of Kyara.
• Li Ling used the Kyara to refine Spirit-Communing Incense and Wish-Granting Incense, discovering that the incense could channel his mental power into his Divine Domain and strengthen his Dharma Form.
• Li Ling adapted the Incense Prayer Method into the Self-Worship Method and continued Incense-Feeding Soul Tempering, raising his divine sense and spiritual-consciousness range.
• Li Ling returned to the market gathering in Beyond-the-World Valley in mid-October and reunited with Liu Daocheng, who displayed Spirit Materials and natural gold for trade.
• Li Ling and Liu Daocheng noticed the larger crowd, and a man carrying a Black Tungwood Coffin bound to his back walked toward them.

Li Ling learned from Liu Daocheng that the coffin bearer, Zhao Wuyan, was a Corpse-Person tied to the Blood Inkstone Palace and the plague that destroyed Fuyou City. After seeing Zhao Wuyan defeat a cultivator outside the inn, Li Ling realized he had surpassed the usual limits of qi refining.

• Li Ling saw Zhao Wuyan carrying a coffin and heard Liu Daocheng explain how the hunter became a cultivator after the disaster in Fuyou City.
• Liu Daocheng revealed that the Blood Inkstone Palace had exploited the plague, transformed many victims into Corpse-People, and kept Zhao Wuyan bound by the promise of reviving his wife.
• Li Ling returned to the inn and found Zhao Wuyan fighting a middle-aged cultivator who had challenged him over taking a room with the coffin.
• Zhao Wuyan unleashed a surge of power that sent his opponent flying, then entered the inn without pursuing him.
• Li Ling judged that Zhao Wuyan had reached the qi refining peak and surpassed the realm's usual limits.

Li Ling uncovered the connection between Zhao Wuyan, the Corpse Immortal Sect, and Inkstone Mountain Cultivators, then followed an Unusual Events Bureau operation into the wild mountains. He intervened in the ensuing confrontation, helping the Bureau capture the black-cloaked leaders, and the chapter ended with Zhao Wuyan and the Bureau facing one another.

• Li Ling spotted A Xin working undercover at an inn and learned that Zuo Zhongliang's team was watching Zhao Wuyan, who had booked a half-month stay.
• Li Ling read Unusual Events Bureau files and learned of the Inkstone Mountain City Lord's ambitions, corpse soldiers, and possible ties to the Blood Inkstone Palace and Granny Wu's experiments.
• Li Ling followed a Bureau force from the Royal City and found it confronting Zhao Wuyan, Corpse Immortal Sect disciples, and black-cloaked Inkstone Mountain Cultivators in the wild mountains.
• Zhao Wuyan attacked the black-cloaked group as the Bureau moved in, and Li Ling killed and bound Corpse Immortal Sect disciples with his sword and Cicada-Wing Gauze Sash.
• Li Ling withdrew while Elder Gong's forces captured the three black-cloaked leaders, leaving the Unusual Events Bureau and Zhao Wuyan facing each other.

Li Ling watched the Unusual Events Bureau attempt to capture Zhao Wuyan, but the Corpse-Person broke their restraints and withstood their attacks. Li Ling finally stepped in and revealed that Zhao Wuyan’s physical strikes could not harm his ethereal form, while the bureau mistook his actions for a deliberate test.

• Elder Gong interpreted Li Ling’s silence as approval and ordered the bureau personnel to capture Zhao Wuyan.
• Zhao Wuyan tore through the net and chains, resisted their Thunderclap Bombs and talismans, and overwhelmed the bureau’s fighters.
• Elder Gong ordered the bureau personnel to withdraw with their prisoners while the remaining Attendants tried to hold Zhao Wuyan back.
• Li Ling appeared in his Three Heads and Six Arms dharma form, told the bureau to stand back, and faced Zhao Wuyan.
• Zhao Wuyan attacked Li Ling, but Li Ling turned insubstantial like smoke and fragrance, leaving Zhao Wuyan unable to hurt him.

Li Ling used the coffin’s talisman and his Evil-Repelling Incense to uncover and contain a deadly corruption, then entered Zhao Wuyan’s mindscape and discovered the trapped man was Hunter Zhao. Zhao Wuyan regained his human form and pleaded with Li Ling to save him.

• Zhao Wuyan abruptly stopped pursuing his course and fled, while Li Ling followed him and tried to communicate.
• Li Ling removed a talisman from Zhao Wuyan’s coffin, releasing black smoke and a corpse stench that killed nearby creatures and spread black mold.
• Li Ling restored the talisman and called on the Great Lin River God’s power to rain Spirit Rain, suppressing the mold and averting a wider calamity.
• Li Ling entered Zhao Wuyan’s mindscape with Dream Entry and found a black-mold-covered man bound in a dark underground grotto.
• The man struggled to identify himself as Zhao San, and Li Ling’s Evil-Repelling Incense cleared the corruption until he recognized him as Zhao Wuyan.
• Zhao Wuyan regained his senses and urgently asked Li Ling to save him.

Li Ling learned that Zhao San had been transformed into Zhao Wuyan by the Blood Inkstone Palace and was carrying his wife Yi Niang in the coffin, though Li Ling suspected the palace had deceived him. He opened the coffin and found a rotting corpse whose dream revealed an old man, leaving Li Ling to discover who the figure was.

• Zhao San told Li Ling that the Blood Inkstone Palace had turned him into Zhao Wuyan, controlled him, and used him to hunt creatures for making Black Demon Corpses.
• Zhao San said the coffin held his wife Yi Niang, and Li Ling suspected the Blood Inkstone Palace had given him false hope of bringing her back.
• Li Ling noticed that plants had grown and taken on a shared fragrance, then restrained Zhao Wuyan and carried him and the coffin into the Great Lin River God's Divine Kingdom Domain.
• Li Ling removed the coffin's talisman and opened it, revealing a slimy, blackened corpse that began to stir.
• Li Ling entered the corpse's dream and confronted an old man in a grand hall, asking who he was.

Li Ling frightened Yin Changming into abandoning his plan to incite rebellion in Xu Xin and withdrawing the Blood Inkstone Palace, while posing as the senior cultivator Zixu. After Yin Changming left, Li Ling discovered a strange fragrance formed from the corpse matter in the coffin and took the transformed wood for further investigation.

• Yin Changming identified himself as the Blood Inkstone Palace's supreme elder and explained his plans to use the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui and seize dynastic fortune by supporting Inkstone Mountain.
• Li Ling questioned Yin Changming about death and eternal life, then used scripture and talk of karma to persuade him to withdraw the Blood Inkstone Palace from Xu Xin.
• Yin Changming accepted Li Ling's guidance, left the dream world, and departed south without Zhao Wuyan.
• Li Ling placed a talisman on Zhao Wuyan and confirmed that it could restrain Yin Baleful Qi and corpse qi.
• Li Ling examined the fragrance from the Paulownia Coffin, suspected it was connected to the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, and cut away and carried off the altered coffin wood.

Yin Changming withdrew Blood Inkstone Palace from the Mystic Xin Kingdom after encountering a mysterious expert, while Lin Rouniang persuaded the Inkstone Mountain City Lord to continue his plans without the palace. Li Ling investigated Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui and found that it was a fungal population that infected living creatures and turned them into half-living corpse puppets.

• Yin Changming recalled Blood Inkstone Palace's forces after encountering an expert near the Royal City and later explained that the palace would withdraw from the Mystic Xin Kingdom.
• The Inkstone Mountain City Lord confronted Lin Rouniang about the Nascent Soul expert, and she convinced him that Blood Inkstone Palace's withdrawal could benefit his bid for independence.
• Lin Rouniang privately worried that the expert's return threatened her plans, while Li Ling informed the Unusual Events Bureau of Blood Inkstone Palace's withdrawal and then went into hiding.
• Li Ling used poisonous incense on three rabbits and observed that their corpses developed the same black fungus associated with Zhao Wuyan and Yin Changming.
• Li Ling discovered that the infected rabbits had become half-living corpse puppets and concluded that Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui was a fungus that spread through infected creatures rather than an individual treasure.

Li Ling developed Teaweed Incense, which regenerated flesh and appeared capable of restraining Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui spores, and considered testing it on Zhao Wuyan. Before he could begin, rebellion broke out in Inkstone Mountain City and spread to nearby cities.

• Li Ling found that the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui required Spirit Resonance and developed a safer method of cultivating and extracting its Incense Essence.
• He produced and burned a new incense, which dissolved the cave’s fungal growth and regenerated flesh on infected rabbit corpses and bare bones.
• Li Ling named the incense Teaweed Incense after a legend and confirmed that it healed Black Demon Corpse rabbits, zombie rabbits, and wounds on a living rabbit.
• Li Ling considered using Teaweed Incense to restore Zhao Wuyan and began preparing for the experiment.
• Inkstone Mountain City declared its secession from Xu Xin, and several nearby cities also rose in revolt.

Li Ling tested Teaweed Incense on Zhao Wuyan, hoping to restore his flesh and investigate a path to longevity in a mortal body. The fumigation revived much of Zhao Wuyan’s flesh and sensation, but his recovery remained incomplete as opposing forces clashed within him.

• Li Ling discussed the rebellion and the dynasty’s troubles with the Ninth Princess, then hinted that he might find Spirit Materials capable of changing his fate.
• Li Ling decided that restoring Zhao Wuyan’s flesh would help him obtain information from the Blood Inkstone Palace and support his longevity research.
• Li Ling found that rabbits exposed to Teaweed Incense remained healthy and reproduced, then continued refining the incense.
• Li Ling used Soul-Possession Dream Transmission to explain the risks of Teaweed Incense treatment to Zhao San, who agreed to take the chance.
• Li Ling fumigated Zhao Wuyan with Teaweed Incense, and Zhao Wuyan woke as fresh flesh replaced much of the fungal growth and his lost sensation returned.
• Li Ling judged that Teaweed Incense could restore life but could not fully regenerate Zhao Wuyan’s flesh, and he promised to keep supplying it as yin and yang forces clashed in Zhao Wuyan’s body.

Li Ling settled Zhao Wuyan in the wilderness, tested the abilities he retained after recovering from his corpse transformation, and explained why Teaweed Incense could not truly resurrect his family. After Zhao Wuyan accepted the truth about his past, Li Ling left to prepare to cultivate him as an agent and establish a way to claim Teaweed Incense’s benefits through his real-world identity.

• Li Ling gave Zhao Wuyan a place to stay, helped him clean up, and explained that his recovered memories came from his years as a Corpse-Person.
• Zhao Wuyan attacked Li Ling so he could test his strength, and Li Ling found that Zhao Wuyan retained powerful Yin Baleful Qi, strong defenses, and regenerative abilities.
• Zhao Wuyan asked whether Teaweed Incense could revive his family, and Li Ling explained that it could restore flesh but not minds that had dispersed after death.
• Zhao Wuyan realized Yin Changming had lied about the hope of resurrection, while Li Ling judged that Zhao Wuyan had been used as a tool rather than acting of his own will.
• Li Ling instructed Zhao Wuyan to remain in the wilderness and left to plan how to train him as a representative and transfer Teaweed Incense’s provenance to his own identity.

Li Ling refined Teaweed Rejoining Powder into Teaweed Incense and studied its healing effects, realizing that safe use required research he could not conduct on ordinary people without risking their lives. To obtain the Blood Inkstone Palace’s research records, he sent Zhao Wuyan to contact Yin Changming under the identity of True Person Zixu.

• Mo Heng tested a disguised Li Ling’s Teaweed Rejoining Powder on a chicken, a servant, and himself, then bought it for six Spirit Materials and a thousand spirit stones.
• Li Ling claimed the powder for the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, refined it into Teaweed Incense, and reported its healing properties to the Skycloud Sect, which gave him an ordinary commendation.
• Li Ling experimented on animals and concluded that safe healing depended on balancing the incense’s vitality costs with the Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui, while human trials could kill many people.
• Li Ling decided to obtain the Blood Inkstone Palace’s research records and asked Zhao Wuyan to contact Yin Changming in territory controlled by the Blood Inkstone Palace.
• Zhao Wuyan agreed to go, and Li Ling used the Dragon Vein to transport them more than a thousand li in an instant.

Li Ling sent Zhao Wuyan into the Inkstone Mountain area to draw out Yin Changming and investigate the local cultivator factions. After Yin Changming discovered Zhao Wuyan had become a living man through Grand Tai Sui Rebirth, he contacted Li Ling and hurried to meet him at the Yan River.

• Li Ling brought Zhao Wuyan to the Inkstone Mountain area and instructed him to attract the Blood Inkstone Palace’s attention while avoiding conflict with Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Zhao Wuyan investigated the area for several nights before contacting members of the Blood Inkstone Palace, whose informants reported his return to Yin Changming.
• Yin Changming personally found Zhao Wuyan, confirmed he was alive, and examined his blood, realizing Zhao Wuyan had undergone Grand Tai Sui Rebirth and gained extraordinary vitality.
• Yin Changming asked how to contact True Person Zixu, and Zhao Wuyan gave him a Communication Talisman through which Li Ling sent a meeting location.
• Yin Changming took Zhao Wuyan to the Yan River, where Li Ling was waiting to meet him.

Li Ling met Yin Changming and Zhao Wuyan at a waterfall, where Yin Changming examined Zhao Wuyan’s transformed body and discussed its prospects. Li Ling and Yin Changming completed a clean exchange of research on Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui for secret medicine and selected treasures, leaving them with no further obligations to each other.

• Yin Changming arrived at the waterfall and mistook Li Ling’s elusive presence for the profound aura of a powerful elder.
• Yin Changming examined Zhao Wuyan and explained that he had developed the beginnings of a yang-soul dao body, gained at least three hundred years of life, and approached Foundation Establishment.
• Li Ling proposed that he and Yin Changming exchange what each needed without further entanglement, offering the secret medicine that had transformed Zhao Wuyan for Yin Changming’s research findings on Ji Earth Grand Tai Sui.
• Yin Changming assessed the medicine’s value and offered compensation, including the Blood Essence Gourd and the Purple-Gold Flying Shuttle.
• Li Ling chose the Purple-Gold Flying Shuttle and several books from Yin Changming’s collection to complete the transaction.

Li Ling perfected Teaweed Incense and weighed how to profit from it while keeping the method and his freedom out of the Skycloud Sect’s control. His plans were interrupted when he learned the Mystic Xin King was close to death, and he prepared to go to the palace with Teaweed Incense.

• Li Ling traded Teaweed Incense to Yin Changming for the Blood Inkstone Palace’s research and a Purple-Gold Flying Shuttle, then arranged to stay in contact through a Communication Talisman.
• Li Ling allowed Zhao Wuyan to return to Fuyou City and asked him to investigate rogue cultivators and report unusual activity through the Incense Prayer Method.
• Li Ling perfected New Teaweed Incense, assessed its effects and value, and decided to conceal its recipe from the Skycloud Sect for now.
• Eunuch Xu told Li Ling that the Mystic Xin King was close to death, and Li Ling said he would inform the princess and visit the Imperial Palace.
• Li Ling took a portion of Teaweed Incense paste and left to prepare for the palace visit.

Li Ling used Teaweed Incense to revive the dying Mystic Xin King long enough for him to settle his affairs before he died. As the Mystic Xin Kingdom’s crisis deepened, a rogue cultivator warned that its fortune was nearly exhausted, and the Old Ancestor confirmed that rivals within the Immortal Sects were probing Li Ling and the Ninth Princess.

• Li Ling used Teaweed Incense to briefly restore the Mystic Xin King, who named the Second Prince his successor, distributed his possessions, and died after completing his final arrangements.
• Li Ling and the Ninth Princess left the palace, and she reflected on her strained relationship with her father as the Second Prince became king and the kingdom’s unrest worsened.
• Pine Daoist visited Li Ling and declared that the Mystic Xin Kingdom would soon fall, then departed on a Mirage Cloud after Li Ling challenged him.
• Li Ling and the Ninth Princess suspected Pine Daoist was connected to the group supporting the Third Prince and asked the Old Ancestor for guidance.
• The Old Ancestor confirmed that rivals in the sect sought to seize her Fiefdom Establishment and had sent Pine Daoist to determine whether Li Ling and the Ninth Princess might oppose them.

Li Ling learned that rivals were maneuvering to seize the Ninth Princess’s Fiefdom Establishment and secretly followed Pine Daoist to a gathering with the Huai River Commandery Prince. He discovered the prince was plotting against the Second Prince and seeking Li Ling and the Ninth Princess’s support, then saw Pine Daoist and the other cultivators laugh after the prince left.

• The Ninth Princess explained that Immortal Sect rules allowed rivals to contest her Fiefdom Establishment while the Old Ancestor was secluded, and Li Ling reflected on how cultivators used institutions to divert karmic consequences.
• Li Ling decided not to rely fully on the Old Ancestor’s assurances and secretly followed Pine Daoist’s trail to a wealthy estate outside the Royal City.
• Li Ling found Pine Daoist and three other Qi Refining cultivators meeting the Huai River Commandery Prince, who questioned them about the Royal City’s defenses and the Second Prince’s position.
• Pine Daoist warned that the Ninth Princess and Li Ling could lend legitimacy and Immortal Sect connections to a claimant, then reported that Li Ling had rejected his overtures.
• The Huai River Commandery Prince resolved to win Li Ling over with three spiritual materials and other rare gifts, and Pine Daoist and the cultivators laughed after he departed.

Li Ling used Nightmare Suppression to invade Pine Daoist’s dreams and uncover his connection to the Dragon Lord’s scheme against the Prince of Huai River. Pine Daoist awoke in a scene that felt familiar and recognized an unfamiliar young man watching him as the Dragon Lord recruited cultivators for a campaign to expand his fiefdom.

• Li Ling overheard rogue cultivators explain that the Dragon Lord had sent them to manipulate the Prince of Huai River and use him to test the Royal City’s factions.
• Li Ling forced a dream upon Pine Daoist, whose attempts to fight off the manifested beasts and ghostly flames ended in a terrifying nightmare.
• Pine Daoist woke in a river aboard a tower ship, exhausted and confused, then followed the other cultivators to meet the Dragon Lord.
• The Dragon Lord promised the cultivators rewards and future recognition if they helped him wage war and expand his territory.
• The Dragon Lord assigned Pine Daoist and others to serve the Prince of Huai River and incite him to contend for the throne or establish an independent domain.
• As the Dragon Lord described his plans, Pine Daoist noticed an unfamiliar young man smiling at him from a corner of the hall.