Chapter Summaries

In Incense Accumulation Year 323, the Incense Accumulation Sect enrolled new disciples while Dongfang Wangyue observed its institutions and Hu Gou took charge of Yan Ji, Hu Lao’s reincarnation. As prominent young disciples gathered at Nine-Wan Island, rumors of a new East Sea campaign grew, leaving observers convinced that the sect was preparing for something major.

• Dongfang Wangyue reflected on how the Incense Accumulation Sect’s focus on educating disciples differed from the Spirit Emperor Sect’s structure.
• Hu Gou secured Li Ling’s order to place Yan Ji, who had an innate Dao body, under the fox demon race’s guardianship.
• Nie Yingzhi reported that Luo Dao’s reincarnation, Xi Yuan, lacked exceptional aptitude, and Li Ling arranged discreet protection and a Foundation Establishment quota for him.
• After recruitment ended, laborers on Nine-Wan Island discussed rumors that the sect was preparing supplies for an East Sea campaign.
• Fang Xin, Ye Zhen, Han Zhen, Luo Zhen, Tong Daquan, Lin Feng, and other young experts returned to the sect, prompting visitors to suspect that a major campaign was approaching.

Nie Yingzhi gathered the Incense Accumulation Sect’s disciples and announced a major East Sea counterattack, assigning more than a hundred young cultivators to missions and giving them Li Ling’s incense-based teachings. Afterward, Nie Yingzhi reported that most of the disciples had grasped their assigned methods.

• Nie Yingzhi arrived at the Que Luo Immortal Abode and announced that the sect would join the Heavenly Court and East Sea Immortal Alliance in a counterattack.
• Nie Yingzhi assigned Luo Zhen, Han Zhen, Ye Zhen, Fang Xin, Tong Daquan, Lin Feng, and other disciples missions in the East Sea.
• Nie Yingzhi burned Peerless Returning Soul Incense, which could leave a memory imprint allowing those who smelled it to answer a future soul-summoning call.
• Nie Yingzhi distributed Secret Golden Treasury Incense Caskets containing Li Ling’s teachings to the selected disciples.
• Lin Feng and the others used the wisdom incense and gained insight into their respective Incense Path methods.
• Nie Yingzhi reported to Li Ling that eighty-two of the 105 disciples grasped their methods and visualized an incense deity, while the other twenty-three gained lesser insight.

Li Ling sent Shu Changsheng Supreme Wisdom Incense to help him master the law of instant death as he prepared to lead the Heavenly Court’s forces in the renewed East Sea campaign. After absorbing its true meaning, Shu Changsheng recognized its potential against vast enemy armies and began planning how to use it in battle and his bid to become Plague Division Heavenly Lord.

• Li Ling gave Nie Yingzhi an Incense-Storing Casket for Shu Changsheng and explained that its Supreme Wisdom Incense contained the true meaning of the instant death law.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect sent disciples and resources to the East Sea campaign, where Ye Zhen, Han Zhen, and Luo Zhen joined Shu Changsheng’s forces.
• Shu Changsheng opened Li Ling’s gift and burned the incense, using it to sense and assimilate the true meaning of Soul-Reaping Incense.
• Shu Changsheng absorbed the incense’s law and formed an origin dao seed that gave his dharma power the ability to generate Soul-Reaping Incense’s effect.
• Shu Changsheng realized the incense could kill large numbers of weaker enemies and began planning how to keep the method secret and use it to advance his contest for Heavenly Lord.

Dongfang Wangyue observed the Incense Accumulation Sect’s educational system and decided to arrange extra lessons for Dongfang Cheng after seeing Hu Gou’s preparations for tutoring Yan Ji. Hu Gou began Yan Ji’s specialized instruction while Li Ling supported the plan and kept lessons about Yan Ji’s past life deliberately limited.

• Dongfang Wangyue and the East Sea cultivators discussed how the Incense Accumulation Sect educated pupils before introducing them to combat spells and cultivation.
• Dongfang Cheng told Dongfang Wangyue about his lessons, then she saw Hu Gou taking Yan Ji and extensive study materials to tutoring.
• Dongfang Wangyue resolved to give Dongfang Cheng extra lessons, despite his protests.
• Hu Gou welcomed twelve qualified teachers to tutor Yan Ji with supreme-grade Mind-Clearing Incense.
• Hu Gou kept references to demon cultivators and Gathering Grotto Continent out of Yan Ji’s lessons, and Li Ling allowed her to do so while studying whether the Fragrance of Wisdom could preserve knowledge through incense.

Ten years later, Hu Gou worried about Yan Ji’s awakening past-life power and future, while Li Ling explained his doubts about reincarnation and the identity of Hu Lao. Li Ling then inspected the grafted reincarnation tree and found amber resin forming on its roots.

• Yan Ji’s teachers praised her quick learning, and she told Hu Gou that much of her coursework felt familiar from her previous life.
• Hu Gou asked Li Ling about Yan Ji’s Conversion Power and future, and he reassured her that Yan Ji should be allowed to grow freely as herself.
• Li Ling told Mu Qingsi that Hu Lao might have been the reincarnation of the Heavenly Demon Fox Queen and reflected on the conflict between preserving a person and preserving their past-life wisdom.
• Li Ling examined Yan Ji with Incense Perception, found that she was close to awakening, and promised to refine fragrance of wisdom for her.
• Li Ling visited Bai Xiaohuan in the secluded valley and inspected the grafted divine tree, now called the reincarnation tree.
• Li Ling noticed an amber-colored, fragrant resin lump forming at a wound near the reincarnation tree’s roots.

Li Ling refined Past-Wisdom Incense and used it to awaken Hu Lao’s past-life memories within Yan Ji. The awakening succeeded, reuniting Hu Gou with Hu Lao, but Li Ling noticed an unfamiliar fragrance on Yan Ji.

• Li Ling harvested kyara incense from the reincarnation tree and refined it into Past-Wisdom Incense.
• Li Ling told Yan Ji about her previous life as Hu Lao and asked whether she was willing to awaken those memories, and Yan Ji agreed.
• Li Ling lit the Past-Wisdom Incense while Yan Ji concentrated, and Hu Lao’s past-life memories and soul began to merge with hers.
• After nearly half an hour, Li Ling sensed Hu Lao’s return and brought Hu Gou and Mu Qingsi to Yan Ji’s room.
• Yan Ji woke with memories of both lives, and Hu Gou embraced her before Li Ling noticed an unfamiliar fragrance on her.

Li Ling discovered that Yan Ji was the awakened Demon Queen Jiuzhi, living through Hu Lao’s reincarnation, and agreed to let her continue the disguise for Hu Gou’s sake. The revelation made him suspect that Lin Rouniang was a true incarnation of Nether Heaven, so he refined Past-Wisdom Incense and went to find her, hoping to expose or seize Nether Heaven’s power.

• Li Ling entered Jiuzhi’s sea of consciousness and learned that the Demon Queen had awakened through the Past-Wisdom Incense and gathered the reserves of her past lives.
• Jiuzhi agreed to keep posing as Hu Lao and Yan Ji so Hu Gou would not learn the truth, and she told Li Ling her name.
• After Hu Gou left with Yan Ji, Li Ling asked Mu Qingsi where Lin Rouniang was and explained his concerns about hidden Nether Heaven power.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi reasoned that Lin Rouniang might preserve a complete Dao Fruit and that Li Ling’s Soul-Summoning and Conversion powers could awaken or absorb it.
• Li Ling refined more Past-Wisdom Incense and went to see Lin Rouniang.

Li Ling used Past-Wisdom Incense to awaken Lin Rouniang’s buried spirit resonance and help her resist Nether Heaven’s influence. As they absorbed the powers and laws of her past lives, Li Ling gained several valuable insights and condensed a reincarnation Dao Fruit, while Lin Rouniang emerged transformed.

• Li Ling explained that Lin Rouniang was a Responsive Avatar of Nether Heaven and proposed using Past-Wisdom Incense to restore her true nature.
• Li Ling lit the Past-Wisdom Incense, and visions of Lin Rouniang’s many past lives and Other Shore Flowers appeared around them.
• Li Ling used Conversion Power to take unassimilated laws from Lin Rouniang, strengthening his Death Dao Fruit and sharing some powers with her.
• Li Ling recognized laws related to ghosts, soul-summoning, and reincarnation, then condensed the reincarnation power into a Dao Fruit.
• Lin Rouniang opened her eyes with a transformed aura and an unfamiliar expression.

Li Ling helped Lin Rouniang escape Nether Heaven’s immediate influence, but a confrontation with their reward bodies revealed that Nether Heaven still threatened her and that Li Ling’s own future was tied to the struggle. After learning that Yan Ji had reached Foundation Establishment, he chose to train her as a true disciple and proposed an alliance for the coming Apocalyptic Cataclysm.

• Lin Rouniang awakened at the Nascent Soul level, but karmic threads connected her to Nether Heaven, whose will began trying to regain control.
• The Lord of Yellow Springs appeared as Nether Heaven’s reward body, and Li Ling’s own reward body arrived to confront her before both projections dissolved.
• Li Ling concluded that he could protect Lin Rouniang from Nether Heaven for now and encouraged her to grow strong enough to become another sea rather than flow back into Nether Heaven.
• Li Ling returned with Lin Rouniang to the Floating Cloud Platform, where Mu Qingsi learned about the higher realms and Li Ling reflected on their uncertain futures and his fate.
• After Yan Ji reached Foundation Establishment, Li Ling asked about her plans and decided to train her as a true disciple, proposing that they ally during the Apocalyptic Cataclysm.

Yan Ji demonstrated her mind-bewitching fox incense to Li Ling, who named it and warned her not to misuse it. After Mu Qingsi reflected on their mortal friends’ deaths and the possibility that their paths would one day part, Li Ling realized reincarnation could not guarantee they would remain the same people and began questioning his plans for her future.

• Yan Ji used her new fox-seduction incense on Li Ling, who resisted its influence, assessed its effects, named it fox incense or Enchanting Incense, and warned her against using it carelessly.
• After Yan Ji left, Mu Qingsi asked Li Ling about her; he explained that Yan Ji’s supreme forgetfulness made her apparent affection no promise of lasting attachment.
• Mu Qingsi recalled their early years together and mourned the friends and elders who had grown old or died, then worried that her limited cultivation might eventually separate them.
• Mu Qingsi told Li Ling not to become obsessed with saving her if their lifespans diverged and said she would rather remain herself than reincarnate as someone else.
• Li Ling realized reincarnation might change Mu Qingsi’s identity and their feelings for each other, and he questioned why he had planned to send her through it.
• Mu Qingsi suggested having descendants if immortality proved unattainable, and Li Ling trembled as he understood the point she was making.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi had nine children, then raised them until they were old enough to leave the Floating Cloud Platform and rule their own fiefs. As their children departed, Mu Qingsi accepted that she needed to focus on cultivation and would see them again when they brought their own children to visit.

• Li Ling used Past-Wisdom Incense to examine Mu Qingsi’s past lives, but found no special origins that could help her advance to Nascent Soul.
• After forty-nine months of pregnancy, Mu Qingsi gave birth to five boys and four girls, all of whom could speak and walk immediately.
• Li Ling announced the births and told Nie Yingzhi to hold a grand celebration, while clarifying that his children’s bloodline inheritance would remain separate from the sect’s cultivation lineage.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi raised their children, and Li Ling arranged royal fiefs for them as they grew up.
• The nine children left to govern their fiefs, and Mu Qingsi decided to resume cultivation rather than watch them grow old and die.

Li Ling and Mu Qingsi’s children took up fiefs across the North Sea, where their eldest son established the White Gull Kingdom with help from the Incense Accumulation Sect. After the family’s territorial network took shape, reports from the East Sea revealed that Shu Changsheng’s army had found an opportunity to reclaim lost territory.

• Li Ling’s fifteen-year-old eldest son traveled for over a month to the White Gull Kingdom, guided by Imperial Preceptor Guo Cheng and the sect’s officials.
• The King of the White Gull Kingdom arrived to find a desolate but resource-rich territory, while Guo Cheng and the officials began surveying it and planning its development.
• Eight rogue cultivators who had occupied the territory tried to negotiate with the newcomers, but Guo Cheng ordered them seized and the sect’s forces defeated them.
• Envoys from neighboring kingdoms brought gifts and established diplomatic relations, helping the King of the White Gull Kingdom set his rule on a firm footing.
• Li Ling and Mu Qingsi received reports that their nine children had been enfeoffed across the North Sea, forming a network of territories tied to the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• After thirty years of war, Shu Changsheng and the East Sea Immortal Alliance found an opportunity to cut off the enemy army and recover lost territories.

Ye Zhen and the other Sixth-Generation True Disciples prepared for a major offensive against the demonic faction, coordinating their plans and recruiting grassroots cultivators. The assault on Huanwang Island began, and Ye Zhen joined the western front, where he charged ashore and killed a demonic cultivator.

• Ye Zhen reported the demonic faction’s probing attacks to Shu Changsheng, who warned that its growing influence over rogue cultivators threatened the righteous faction.
• Ye Zhen, Han Zhen, and Luo Zhen agreed to cooperate in the coming battle and arranged to seek safer, more rewarding assignments.
• Ye Zhen borrowed Three Treasures Floating Incense Pills from Luo Zhen, explaining that he used them to recruit capable rogue cultivators for the war.
• The Heavenly Court and East Sea Immortal Alliance launched a major assault on Huanwang Island, and Ye Zhen’s group joined the attack on the western front.
• Ye Zhen deployed his Cloud Veil Umbrella and Incense-Form Art, rushed through the battlefield, and killed a demonic cultivator who had been throwing darts.

Ye Zhen and Han Zhen fought across Huanwang Island as the battle’s first casualties mounted, especially among rogue cultivators. Shu Changsheng exploited a gap in the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array and unleashed Soul-Reaping Incense, killing thousands of demonic-path elites in one strike.

• Ye Zhen defeated three Netherworld Sect corpse puppet warriors, then turned back to protect his fellow disciples from an attack that killed several cultivators.
• Han Zhen used the Wondrous Method of Xiyi to evade incoming attacks and helped destroy corpse puppets, but a rain of poisoned needles devastated the rogue cultivators behind him.
• A demonic-path assault killed Zong'er after breaking through his protective Magic Treasure, and his clan's expert failed to recover the body.
• As the battle intensified, Shu Changsheng spotted an opening in the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array and led divine generals and heavenly soldiers through it.
• Shu Changsheng entered the enemy formation and unleashed Soul-Reaping Incense, killing thousands of demonic-path elites who inhaled its aura.

Shu Changsheng used the Soul-Reaping Incense and the Plague-Bearing Banner to rout the demonic defenders and retake Huanwang Island, then began extending righteous control across the Weiying Sea. In the North Sea, Nie Yingzhi planned to use the victory to strengthen the Incense Accumulation Sect’s influence in the East Sea.

• Shu Changsheng slaughtered the demonic army, forced Xiao Leng to order a retreat, and secured Huanwang Island for the righteous forces.
• Shu Changsheng ordered his troops to occupy the island and use it as a base to reclaim the Weiying Sea; local magnates and Rogue Cultivators began returning to the righteous camp.
• Shu Changsheng rewarded Ye Zhen, Tang Liang, Han Zhen, Luo Zhen, and other cultivators for their contributions in battle.
• Shu Changsheng asked the Three True Lords to help counter setbacks as the righteous forces advanced across the Weiying Sea.
• Nie Yingzhi celebrated Shu Changsheng’s victory and planned to send East Sea descendants and Incense Accumulation Sect cultivators to help govern and rebuild the reclaimed territory.

Dongfang Cheng and Dongfang Wangyue discussed Shu Moli’s interest in Dongfang Xi and the differences between the Incense Accumulation Sect’s merit-based culture and East Sea clan hierarchies. As the sect prepared a major rotation of forces for the East Sea war, Li Ling explained to Nie Yingzhi how the campaign could build the sect’s institutions and cultivate future leaders, leaving the war poised to become a major opportunity for the Incense Accumulation Sect.

• Shu Moli asked Dongfang Cheng whether Dongfang Xi would return to the East Sea, and Dongfang Cheng learned that Shu was born to a concubine.
• Dongfang Cheng and Dongfang Wangyue discussed Shu Moli’s chances with Dongfang Xi and reflected on how clan status constrained East Sea cultivators compared with the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect arranged for East Sea cultivators to return home and sent an even larger group of disciples to join the war and rotate out veterans.
• Li Ling told Nie Yingzhi that the deployment would develop experienced disciples, strengthen the sect’s standing, and help Changsheng compete for the position of Heavenly Lord.
• Li Ling urged Nie Yingzhi to prepare younger leaders, eventually relinquish the sect master position, and uphold fair standards for rewarding merit and assigning responsibility.
• Nie Yingzhi concluded that the East Sea war offered the Incense Accumulation Sect a rare chance to grow its ranks and advance the Incense Path.

Nie Yingzhi and Shu Changsheng planned to secure Shu’s promotion to Plague Division Heavenly Lord by building on his victory at Huanwang Island and rallying East Sea allies to support him. As rival Li Haoran prepared to seize the Chang Kong Sea, he announced a general offensive in three days.

• Nie Yingzhi contacted Shu Changsheng, who said the Heavenly Court had taken notice of his capture of Huanwang Island and discussed his rivals, Li Haoran and Qiu Zhi.
• Nie Yingzhi pledged the Incense Accumulation Sect’s support and arranged to investigate the rival sects while Shu focused on the Weiying Sea.
• Nie Yingzhi learned that Qiu Zhi seemed unconcerned, while Li Haoran was preparing an offensive to take the Chang Kong Sea and strengthen his claim to the Heavenly Lord position.
• Dongfang Ming and Guo Yuanchi agreed to support a joint memorial recommending Shu, reasoning that the Heavenly Court might favor the newer, weaker Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Li Haoran learned of the Incense Accumulation Sect’s moves and ordered a general offensive in the Chang Kong Sea to begin in three days.

Li Haoran reclaimed the Chang Kong Sea for the Heavenly Court, while Shu Changsheng was sidelined from plans to campaign in the Du Sea. Ye Zhen uncovered how local gentry had aided the Demonic Path and warned Shu Changsheng that demonic influence remained entrenched; the chapter ended with news that local magnates in the Chang Kong Sea had counterattacked.

• Li Haoran's army defeated the Demonic Path's forces and reclaimed the Chang Kong Sea, while its Core Formation experts escaped.
• Shu Changsheng congratulated Li Haoran and offered supplies, but Qiu Zhi declined his offer of military assistance after arranging cooperation with Li Haoran.
• Ye Zhen led righteous disciples in capturing a gentry estate whose residents had murdered thousands and supplied corpses to the Demonic Path.
• Ye Zhen warned nearby cultivators that demonic sympathizers could remain dangerous, and Shu Changsheng received his report.
• Shu Changsheng learned that local magnates in the Chang Kong Sea had counterattacked.

After helping Qi Refining cultivators burn and bury the zombies outside Huanwang Island’s Market Ward, Zhang San accepted honest work at a new Incense Path workshop. Elsewhere, Heavenly Court forces pursued Corpse Immortal Sect allies, but Li Si escaped their search and slaughtered the remaining villagers to harvest their souls.

• Zhang San joined townsfolk in clearing the zombie corpses, which two Qi Refining cultivators purified with spirit incense before the remains were buried.
• A cultivator offered Zhang San work at the Huo Household’s Incense Path workshop, and Zhang San accepted.
• A Heavenly Court Brigade Commander and Primordial Origin Sect disciples fought through zombies raised by the Li landlord family, suffering casualties against the stronger ones.
• The Brigade Commander left a group of women and children behind to continue pursuing the demonic cultivators who had fled.
• Li Si, disguised as a pregnant woman, revealed himself after the troops departed and killed the villagers, collecting their blood-red souls in a gourd before escaping.

Zhang San discovered his complete five-element spirit root during the Incense Accumulation Sect’s recruitment drive and became a Named Disciple, beginning cultivation on Huanwang Island. The chapter then contrasted the sect’s orderly training with Li Si’s brutal method of selecting disciples on the Chang Kong Sea.

• Incense Accumulation Sect disciples tested workers at the Huo Household’s incense workshop and found that Zhang San possessed all five elements.
• A senior brother accepted Zhang San as a Named Disciple, explained the sect’s incense-based cultivation methods, and assigned him introductory techniques and resources.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect recruited more than a thousand people across the surrounding islands and trained them in its cultivation foundations.
• On the Chang Kong Sea, Li Si ordered a hundred-odd captive children to kill one another, then named the most vicious survivors as his disciples and threatened the rest with death.