Chapter Summaries

Chi Yingting captured Ma Tu’s soul and accepted the Horse Demon surrender, while the Netherworld Sect prepared a final assault on Black Valley. As the attack began, Hundred-Eyed Boy trapped Li Ling inside a sealed minor cave heaven.

• Ma Tu used Disintegration Art to escape death, but Chi Yingting summoned his soul with Soul-Guiding Incense and sealed it in a precious burner.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect accepted the Horse Demons’ surrender, and Chi Yingting explained to Yan Ji that low-ranking cultivators could serve as laborers while criminals would face judgment.
• The Netherworld Sect decided to send powerful cultivators to Black Valley, and Chi Yingting prepared defenses with help from the Heavenly Court and its allies.
• Li Ling ordered the sect to defeat the assault and claim Black Valley, while the Netherworld Sect assembled Hundred-Eyed Boy and other high-ranking cultivators.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy surrounded the Incense Accumulation Sect’s camp with twelve Nascent Soul auras, then trapped Li Ling in a sealed minor cave heaven with his Golden Gong.

Li Ling and Hundred-Eyed Boy fought over Black Valley, with Hundred-Eyed Boy seeking to learn the Incense Path’s mysteries. Li Ling’s demonstration helped Hundred-Eyed Boy comprehend the White Bone Path’s origin, and Hundred-Eyed Boy broke through to Spirit Transformation before escaping.

• Hundred-Eyed Boy challenged Li Ling, offering to relinquish Black Valley in exchange for instruction in the Incense Path.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy manifested his White Bone Incense-Birth Method, and Li Ling instantly understood its connection to White Bone Contemplation.
• Li Ling used Incense Path methods to reflect White Bone Contemplation back at Hundred-Eyed Boy, prompting him to contemplate his bones and reach a state of origin comprehension.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy summoned skeletons from the long river of history and fled toward the Bone Realm as Li Ling attacked.
• Li Ling attained a white bone avatar, but Hundred-Eyed Boy escaped after his shattered Dao body revealed his breakthrough to Spirit Transformation.

Hundred-Eyed Boy attained Spirit Transformation and summoned the White Bone Dao Palace, while Li Ling’s Incense Path power resonated with the White Bone Path and let him summon its power too. Their opposing bone giants battled across the mountains, leaving the fight unresolved as Hundred-Eyed Boy sought a way to withdraw.

• Hundred-Eyed Boy comprehended the origin of the White Bone Path, reached Spirit Transformation, and gained the ability to summon Bone Men from the Bone Realm.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy’s breakthrough summoned the White Bone Dao Palace, whose history and store of remains from 108 Spirit Transformation powerhouses astonished the cultivators at Black Valley.
• Li Ling realized his white bone luminous form also resonated with the Bone Realm and the Dao Palace, allowing him to summon an identical giant.
• Li Ling took control of one giant and attacked Hundred-Eyed Boy’s, and the two giants’ battle devastated the surrounding mountains and forests.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy considered retreating so he could investigate what had happened.

Li Ling defeated Hundred-Eyed Boy’s attempt to seize the White Bone Dao Palace, forcing him to retreat, and the Orthodox Path took control of Black Valley. Afterward, Li Ling claimed the valley for the Incense Accumulation Sect and refined his varied powers into separate avatars as he advanced toward mid Spirit Transformation.

• Hundred-Eyed Boy suppressed Li Ling’s White Bone Giant, but Li Ling countered him with the Bone-Burning Curse Art, contaminating his bone incense.
• Hundred-Eyed Boy transformed into a Crystal Skull, sealed the curse’s black smoke inside a severed finger, then concealed the Bone Realm and fled with the White Bone Sect lineage.
• The Demonic Path cultivators summoned a Corpse-Insect Centipede, but Li Ling subdued it with Spirit-Bewildering Incense, allowing the Orthodox Path to rout their opponents and secure Black Valley.
• The Netherworld Sect’s abandoned cultivators surrendered or were defeated, and factions across the region learned that Hundred-Eyed Boy had advanced to Spirit Transformation.
• Li Ling gathered Chi Yingting, Yan Ji, and the others to plan a trading hub in Black Valley for the Incense Accumulation Sect.
• Li Ling separated powers such as the White Bone Path into avatars and used the insights from his battle with Hundred-Eyed Boy to progress toward mid Spirit Transformation.

Li Ling secluded himself to pursue a breakthrough while the Incense Accumulation Sect consolidated Black Valley and Orchid Fragrance Market prospered under its rule. The chapter ended with local Ruins Seekers discovering a possible site for an Incense Garden in Tiger Leaping Gorge, prompting General Manager Fang to keep the find secret until reinforcements arrived.

• Li Ling left Black Valley's affairs to Chi Yingting and the others, providing them with Incense Deity Avatars before entering secluded cultivation.
• Over several decades, Black Valley developed, and the Netherworld Sect accepted the Incense Accumulation Sect's control of the region.
• Ding Lingyi arrived at Orchid Fragrance Market and learned from Uncle Shang how the market united rival groups and rewarded local cultivators who had served the sect.
• General Manager Fang received a report that a Spirit Vein might support an Incense Garden at Tiger Leaping Gorge and ordered the discovery kept secret.
• The Ruins Seekers offered to return to Tiger Leaping Gorge under the cover of surveying iron deposits and defend the site from outsiders.

The Incense Accumulation Sect developed Tiger Leaping Gorge into a productive incense garden while the Demonic Path watched without intervening. After emerging from seclusion, Li Ling considered competing for Bashan and continued refining his Incense Path origin, revealing signs of Dharma Body Transformation.

• The Incense Accumulation Sect cleared land at Tiger Leaping Gorge, built a defensive grand array, and established an incense garden as the Demonic Path’s reconnaissance remained limited.
• The garden began producing abundant incense materials, and the Demonic Path declined to act because its strategic focus lay elsewhere and the site’s value was uncertain.
• Li Ling emerged from seclusion and told Nie Yingzhi that he had created Clear-Mind Incense to aid cultivation of the Dao Heart.
• Nie Yingzhi reported the sect’s successful expansion across Black Valley, including the Tiger Leaping Gorge Garden, and Li Ling said he might eventually contend for Bashan after mastering Dharma Body integration.
• Li Ling appraised the garden’s incense materials, enriched his Incense Path origin and Dao Fruit, and separated newly comprehended powers into incense deities as his body began showing signs of Dharma Body Transformation.

Li Ling continued his long cultivation toward his first dharma body while the Incense Accumulation Sect received high-grade incense from Gathering Grotto Continent. After Long Leshui reached Core Formation through white bone incense, Nie Yingzhi promoted research into Clear-Mind Incense and weighed whether the sect should expand into Bashan.

• Li Ling reflected on his centuries of cultivation and entered seclusion to advance toward the Xiyi Dharma Body.
• Nie Yingzhi supervised the inspection of high-grade incense sent from Gathering Grotto Continent and arranged for special offerings to be sent to Li Ling.
• The Ascension Court reported that Long Leshui had reached Core Formation in under two hundred years by using Dragonfire Incense and white bone incense to form White Dragon True Intent.
• Nie Yingzhi met Long Leshui, then appointed him to research and refine Clear-Mind Incense after learning how it had awakened his inherited power.
• Nie Yingzhi considered pursuing incense resources in Bashan but hesitated because the Heavenly Court and the Netherworld Sect were fighting there and the sect's strength remained untested.

Long Leshui wrestled with the harmful effects of his Dragon Bone Incense research, then sought guidance from the Incense Accumulation Sect, which approved continuing under safeguards. A decade later, he discovered that the worry-free tree could provide a promising material for bone incense, though the sect still needed to solve how to propagate it reliably.

• Long Leshui welcomed new Inner Sect Disciples to White Dragon Valley and confirmed that they all responded to Dragon Bone Incense.
• Long Leshui recognized that crude Dragon Bone Incense caused lasting harm to mortals and Qi Refining Realm disciples, rejected secretly testing it on the disciples, and reported the problem to the sect.
• Nie Yingzhi and his advisers approved continuing the research, drew up procedures, and supported Long Leshui's work.
• After another ten years, Long Leshui found that the worry-free tree from Mount Gaiwang could be used to refine bone incense.
• The sect learned that worry-free trees needed at least three hundred years to produce incense material and that reliable propagation remained unresolved.

As the Incense Accumulation Era reached its thousandth year, the Incense Accumulation Sect held a grand celebration that drew delegations from across the cultivation world. Li Ling appeared above the mountain gate with the power of a Dharma Body, and a hidden Demonic Path enemy fled from the gathering.

• Nie Yingzhi assigned Long Leshui the records of the World-Building Tree seed so he could research grafting and possible uses for cultivating the White Bone Tree.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect celebrated the millennium of the Incense Accumulation Era as visitors from its branches, allied powers, and major sects arrived at Que Luo Immortal Abode.
• Delegations waited through heavy congestion at Nine-Wan Island before entering the grotto-heaven, where they admired the sect’s grounds and its Heavenly Court–bestowed mountain gate couplet.
• Guests learned that the Incense Accumulation Sect had gained influence and rewards by supporting apotheosis, prompting some elders from other sects to consider preparing their own disciples for the Divine Path.
• Li Ling appeared above the mountain gate with the aura of a Dharma Body, stunning the gathered cultivators and revealing that he had successfully broken through during his seclusion.
• A black-light-wreathed Demonic Path enemy fled from the crowd toward the dome of the cave heaven.

Li Ling exposed and dissolved Devil Lord Konghuan, then publicly announced that he had attained the Dharma Body Dao Fruit. The Heavenly Venerables welcomed the news, sent resources to strengthen the Incense Accumulation Sect, and ordered Li Ling to help seize two ancient trees on Gathering Grotto Continent.

• Li Ling stopped Devil Lord Konghuan from escaping and used an Incense Path divine ability to dissolve him into smoke.
• Li Ling reassured Nie Yingzhi that the elders were not to blame for Konghuan's infiltration, then declared that he had attained the Dharma Body Dao Fruit.
• The gathered sects learned of Li Ling's achievement, and their messengers hurried to report the news to their factions.
• The three Heavenly Venerables discussed the Incense Accumulation Sect's growing importance and its shortage of Nascent Soul cultivators.
• The Heavenly Venerables sent treasures and golden writs to the Incense Accumulation Sect and instructed their official to ask Li Ling to seize the Ageless Tree and the Immortal-Chiming Tree on Gathering Grotto Continent.

Li Ling accepted that the Incense Accumulation Sect needed to enter the coming Bashan war to secure territory and resources, despite Chi Yingting’s objections to his personally taking the field. As fighting spread toward Black Valley, Li Ling secretly traveled to Shici Mountain, intending to help the Heavenly Court seize the Ageless Tree’s immortal roots.

• Li Ling examined the Heavenly Court’s valuable gifts, including red flame origin, true dragon blood, military treasures, and a fragment of the Heavenly Destiny Scroll.
• Fighting escalated around Bashan after righteous immortal elders attacked Shici Mountain, and demonic reinforcements pushed the conflict toward Black Valley.
• Li Ling told Chi Yingting that the Incense Accumulation Sect would join the offensive against the Ageless Tree to gain territory and resources, and he chose to fight personally.
• As war approached Black Valley, Chi Yingting restrained the sect’s forces while Li Ling secretly left the Que Luo Immortal Abode with the Heavenly Court’s support.
• Li Ling arrived at Shici Mountain unseen and flew through its barriers toward the Ageless Tree’s remaining immortal roots.

Li Ling used his Xiyi Dharma Body to ambush Venerable Lianwu during the struggle for the Divine Tree’s remaining root, while the Heavenly Court powerhouses joined the attack. He broke through Venerable Lianwu’s Golden Corpse Transformation with the Destruction Law and left him sprawled on the ground.

• Star Lord Jiuyào Zhenhui, Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang, and Venerable Xiaoyao rose as the Netherworld Sect powerhouses sensed Li Ling’s approach.
• Li Ling concealed himself with his Xiyi Dharma Body and used incense arts to erode Venerable Lianwu’s vigilance and attack his divine soul.
• Venerable Lianwu, the Red-Haired Ghost God, and Thousand-Armed Asura Moluohaduo struck at an apparent Li Ling, but he revealed that the figure was an illusion and withdrew beyond their combined reach.
• Li Ling resumed his attack on Venerable Lianwu as Star Lord Jiuyào Zhenhui and Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang struck him with starlight and sword light, driving him off the tree stump.
• Venerable Lianwu used Golden Corpse Transformation to resist Li Ling’s incense powers, but Li Ling struck his back with the Destruction Law and shattered his defenses.

Li Ling used the White Bone Path’s decay and lotus incense to break through Venerable Lianwu’s golden corpse defenses and tear apart his body. Venerable Lianwu tried to flee but was ultimately reduced to his immortalized skin.

• Li Ling recognized that Venerable Lianwu’s golden corpse path had left his immortal nature confined to his skin, giving the destruction law a way to penetrate it.
• Li Ling sent an incense manifestation into Venerable Lianwu’s consciousness and unleashed the White Bone Path’s putrid decay, dissolving the corpse puppets and rotting Venerable Lianwu’s body.
• Li Ling transformed the decay into Nirvana lotus incense, causing Venerable Lianwu’s flesh to split away from his bones as the White Bone Dharma King appeared.
• Venerable Lianwu fled, but Venerable Xiaoyao trapped him with the Galaxy Net; Venerable Lianwu broke through it with a Netherworld Ghost Claw and escaped as a skeleton.
• Venerable Lianwu tried to stitch his fleshly shell together and flee again, but black mold and decay consumed him until only his golden immortal skin remained.

Li Ling used the Wondrous Method of Xiyi and incense-powered techniques to overwhelm the gathered Spirit Transformation cultivators and erase Venerable Lianwu from their awareness. While the Netherworld Sect’s experts struggled against his domain, the Heavenly Court’s Star Lords and Immortal Venerables unearthed the Ageless Tree’s root.

• Moluohetuo attacked Li Ling through the void, but Li Ling’s Dharma Body Dao Fruit let him evade the strike without moving.
• Li Ling used the Seven-Faced Deity Dharma Form and incense offerings to manifest an Eight-Armed Asura, which battered Moluohetuo and drove the other experts back.
• Li Ling’s Xiyi domain made the Eight-Armed Asura and Venerable Lianwu fade, and Lianwu’s attempt at blood-drop rebirth failed as the domain erased him from sight and memory.
• Li Ling vanished again, briefly leaving the others confused about who they had been fighting.
• Li Ling sent a voice transmission urging the Star Lords and Immortal Venerables to seize the immortal root, and they uprooted the Ageless Tree’s enormous stump.

The Heavenly Court secured the immortal root and used its growing resources to support the Incense Accumulation Sect, while its three Heavenly Venerables established a peach garden to counter the immortal root’s withering. The Five Elders transformed into Heavenly Court deities, and a vast array began linking heaven and earth.

• The Red-Haired Ghost God and the Thousand-Armed Asura withdrew from Shici Mountain, allowing Venerable Xiaoyao to shrink and seal the stump containing the immortal root.
• Li Ling handed Venerable Lianwu over to the Heavenly Court and returned to the North Sea, while Heavenly Court forces collected their gains and the Primordial Origin Sect seized another immortal root at Daywater Mountain.
• The Heavenly Court distributed rewards and advancement opportunities among Incense Accumulation Sect members, including Mo Qingheng, Long Leshui, the Three True Ones of Incense Accumulation, Mu Qingsi, Song Yang, Luo Ying, and Nie Yingzhi.
• The three Heavenly Venerables oversaw the expansion and formation of a peach garden at Immortal Mountain, hoping its immortal roots and spirit veins would produce life-extending fruits and counter the withering of the immortal root.
• The Five Elders—Wood Emperor Heavenly Lord, Fire Emperor Heavenly Lord, Earth Emperor Heavenly Lord, Metal Emperor Heavenly Lord, and Water Emperor Heavenly Lord—transformed into Heavenly Court deities, and their divine light formed an array linking heaven and earth.

Li Ling learned that the Heavenly Court had taken control of the lifespan origin and was restricting the yin lifespans of lower-level cultivators to close loopholes in the Ghost Immortal path. As protests spread and the Heavenly Court offered longevity peaches as an alternative, the Netherworld Sect gathered in the Impure Land to activate the damaged Six Paths Heavenly Wheel.

• Li Ling sensed a new law binding beings across heaven and earth, and True Lord Guangde arrived to explain that the Heavenly Court had taken control of yin lifespan.
• Li Ling agreed to support the Heavenly Court's decree after learning it aimed to restrict Ghost Immortal reincarnation and bring the path under the Court's control.
• Chi Yingting, Tong Daquan, and other great cultivators noticed that joining the Netherworld Sect and attaining Ghost Immortality had become more difficult.
• Unaffiliated Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators protested the decree, while rumors spread that virtuous immortals might earn longevity peaches from the Heavenly Court.
• Netherworld Sect experts gathered in the Impure Land and began turning the damaged Six Paths Heavenly Wheel.

The Netherworld Sect released reincarnation-related powers and arts into the world, disrupting the laws of life and death and causing the dead to return in several strange ways. After reports of resurrections reached the Incense Accumulation Sect, Nie Yingzhi explained the cause and urged the sect to restrict spirit incense and related inheritances.

• Li Ling sensed the Netherworld Sect release blood-red divine abilities and spells tied to reincarnation, and worried that cultivators would exploit the newly accessible powers.
• A poisoned man in the North Sea sat up in his coffin after a wandering soul was drawn into his corpse, alarming his family and mourners.
• Shipwreck victims in the East Sea rose as animated skeletons, while Old Master Lin returned to life during his funeral after his grandson-in-law offered Returning Soul Incense.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect received reports of borrowed-body resurrections, sentient undead, and people returned from the Underworld before their lifespans ended.
• Nie Yingzhi told the elders that the Netherworld Sect had disrupted the origin of reincarnation and proposed sealing incense recipes, materials, and related true-art inheritances.

The Incense Accumulation Sect investigated cases of souls occupying other people’s bodies and found that it lacked the authority and procedures to resolve them. After the Heavenly Court offered the Scripture of Deliverance to help contest the Netherworld Sect’s control of samsara, Li Ling accepted, committing the sect to study the Ghost Dao and prepare a lesser cycle of samsara.

• Two Incense Accumulation Sect disciples investigated the Meng household, confirmed that a man’s soul occupied another person’s corpse, and detained it for the City God.
• The City God sentenced the confused Yin Soul to three years in the Ghost Prison, and Nie Yingzhi received the case record.
• Nie Yingzhi and a sect elder recognized that the sect lacked proper officers and procedures for governing ghosts, while the Heavenly Court admitted it could not control samsara without the Underworld.
• The Heavenly Court offered the Incense Accumulation Sect the Scripture of Deliverance in exchange for helping extend its authority into the Ghost Dao.
• Li Ling ordered Nie Yingzhi to accept the offer, and the sect secretly appointed more ghost constables and began preparing its own lesser cycle of samsara.

Over more than a century, the Incense Accumulation Sect developed incense and an underworld system that gave it growing influence over reincarnation in the North Sea. After studying a disciple’s breakthrough, Li Ling refined Past-Wisdom Incense from the spirit resonance of forgotten past-life memories and decided to speak with Fu Qing about carrying the discovery forward.

• Nie Yingzhi reported that the sect had developed Worry-Erasing Incense and other formulas to support soul cleansing and reincarnation, and Li Ling praised the disciples’ work.
• After absorbing the sect’s research, Li Ling recognized that Heavenly Court authorization could help the Incense Accumulation Sect govern reincarnation, though cultivators’ souls remained beyond its control.
• Li Ling learned that Fu Qing had uncovered a way to extract spirit resonance from forgotten memories by building on generations of failed research.
• Li Ling refined Past-Wisdom Incense from gathered spirit resonance and realized it could transmit the knowledge of many people into a newborn at lower cost.
• Li Ling considered the injustice the incense might cause and decided to summon Fu Qing to discuss whether he should inherit the method.

Li Ling rewarded Fu Qing for devising a method to mass-produce Past-Wisdom Incense, then the Incense Accumulation Sect expanded its production and use across the North Sea. As the sect helped establish an orderly reincarnation system there, urgent reports warned that other continents faced rampant ghosts and rogue forces, with a major Underworld invasion looming.

• Fu Qing met Li Ling, who confirmed his Past-Wisdom Incense production method and promised to support his path toward Core Formation.
• Nie Yingzhi presented Fu Qing with exceptionally refined Past-Wisdom Incense made for him by Li Ling, and Fu Qing used it to absorb spiritual wisdom and knowledge.
• Li Ling asked Nie Yingzhi to oversee Fu Qing and address the incense’s impurities as the sect began mass production.
• The incense spread throughout the North Sea, strengthening cultivation and creating a cycle in which newly trained incense makers improved production and reduced its drawbacks.
• The Incense Accumulation Sect established underworld officers under the City Gods, helping maintain order and shape a minor reincarnation cycle across the North Sea.
• The Longevity Blessed Land, Purple Mansion Palace, Great Expansion Sect, and Boundless Sect reported rampant ghosts, rogue cultivators, and demons, while warnings emerged of an impending large-scale Underworld invasion.