Chapter Summaries

Li Ping traveled toward Silver Moon City to retrieve Daoist Gaoji’s third-tier materials and prepare for a future cultivation-method change. While examining Long Jie’s recovered storage bag, he found radiant pole starwood, a rare star-aspected spiritwood that could serve as the main material for his Zhou Tian Star Banners.

• Li Ping fed the Earth Spirit Mouse a Millennium Bloodline Fruit to improve its chances of reaching the third tier.
• Li Ping opened Long Jie’s storage bag and discovered a sealed jade box containing an unfamiliar, patterned spiritwood.
• Li Ping asked Daoist Gaoji to identify the spiritwood, and Daoist Gaoji recognized it as radiant pole starwood.
• Daoist Gaoji explained that radiant pole starwood had once been used in the star-aspected level of the legendary Ninefold Profound Heaven Treasure Pagoda.
• Li Ping realized the rare spiritwood could be used to craft his Zhou Tian Star Banners.

Li Ping learned that radiant pole starwood could form the poles of his future Zhou Tian Star Banners, and decided to cultivate it for a hundred years before changing his cultivation method. After finding no needed materials or Xu Guike in Silver Moon City, he headed to retrieve Daoist Gaoji’s hidden treasures and entered the glacier vault alone.

• Daoist Gaoji explained the properties of radiant pole starwood, and Li Ping decided to grow his specimen to a hundred thousand years before refining Star Banners.
• Li Ping sold unneeded items in Silver Moon City but failed to find materials for third-tier puppets or meet Xu Guike, who was away hunting Ice Sea Demon Beasts.
• Li Ping encountered Lu Chang'an, declined to linger with him, and learned nothing of Lu Chang'an’s plans to prepare for the Academy Head’s attempt to slay the Ice Flood Dragon.
• Li Ping left Silver Moon City and flew to the glacier where Daoist Gaoji had hidden his treasures.
• Li Ping carved an entrance into the glacier and descended alone through a passage toward the hidden vault.

Li Ping returned to the Western Wasteland after nearly sixty years away, hiding his true cultivation as he sought information in Heavenly Wound Immortal City. Lin Zhixing secretly marked him and pursued him with two allies, but Li Ping was waiting for them in a valley.

• Li Ping returned to the Western Wasteland after a long journey, during which the Earth Spirit Mouse helped him find a valuable spirit ore and he avoided or defeated Otherfolk cultivators.
• Li Ping concealed his aura as a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivator and headed to Heavenly Wound Immortal City to learn about changes in the region.
• At the Immortal Dao Pavilion, Li Ping used the assumed name Xiong Dahai and bought intelligence from Lin Zhixing, who told him Madam Snow had become the Dao companion of a Core Formation True Person.
• Lin Zhixing suspected Li Ping was a wealthy rogue cultivator, secretly placed a tracking mark on him, and enlisted Elder Feng and fellow Daoist Ruan to help ambush him.
• Lin Zhixing and his two allies chased Li Ping to a valley, where Li Ping revealed that he had been waiting for them.

Li Ping returned to Jiang Kingdom after killing three Foundation Establishment Cultivators and reviewing the Western Wasteland’s shifting balance of power. He reunited with the aged Ji Shuchen at Little Plum Mountain, where the Ji, Yan, and Yu families trained their young cultivators.

• Li Ping burned the three corpses, took their Storage Bags, and flew toward Jiang Kingdom while You Zichong sensed his powerful divine sense and fled back to Heavenly Wound Immortal City.
• Li Ping reflected on the Western Wasteland’s uneasy peace between the Defender Alliance and the Four Demonic Sects, and wondered why Xiao Yunzhi had not returned.
• Li Ping learned that Yan Hengchuan oversaw the Yan Household and Meng Qingyi managed Windmist Immortal City, then flew to Little Plum Mountain several days later.
• Ji Shuchen welcomed Li Ping and explained that the mountain’s Spirit Land had become a school for spirit-rooted children from the Ji Lineage, Yan Household, and Yu Household.
• Ji Shuchen revealed that he had kept the underground spirit vein secret and led Li Ping into the school lounge, where two youths served them Spirit Tea.

Li Ping returned to Little Plum Mountain, rewarded the Three Families’ young cultivators with magic artifacts, and learned how their alliance had grown. He brought Ji Shuxuan’s ashes home and left Ji Shuchen to bury them before he returned to open the underground cave abode.

• Li Ping welcomed the Three Families’ young cultivators and gave each of them a first-tier upper-grade magic artifact.
• Ji Shuchen explained that the Yan Household, Ji Lineage, and Yu Household had formed a powerful alliance, though the Jiang Lineage was suppressing them and Foundation Establishment Pills were scarce.
• Li Ping told Ji Shuchen that Ji Shuxuan had died in the Far North and returned his ashes to the Ji Lineage.
• Li Ping described how Ji Shuxuan’s descendants had prospered in the Far North, including a son who became a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• After confirming Ji Shuchen had kept Little Plum Mountain’s spirit vein secret, Li Ping restored some of his vitality and asked him to bury Ji Shuxuan’s ashes before he returned to open the underground cave abode.

Li Ping returned to the Jiang Kingdom, visited the Swordforging Manor, and reunited with Yan Hengchuan after years away in the Far North. As Li Ping revealed his ability to reach through a powerful formation, Yan Hengchuan began to realize how much his grandmaster’s cultivation had advanced.

• Li Ping left Ji Shuchen at Little Plum Mountain, and Ji Shuchen wondered whether Li Ping had become a Core Formation True Person.
• Li Ping visited the Swordforging Manor’s ancestral hall, mourned his late master and third senior brother, and left precious healing medicines for the young disciples.
• Li Ping located Yan Hengchuan inside Spirit Island’s protective formation and summoned him outside, surprising him by transmitting his voice through it.
• Yan Hengchuan and Yu Peiling welcomed Li Ping, who explained that he had spent the intervening years in the Far North and told them that Ji Shuxuan had died there.
• Yan Hengchuan recounted his family’s successes, including his second son’s thunder-attribute variant spirit root and Foundation Establishment cultivation.
• Yan Hengchuan questioned how Li Ping’s voice had reached him through the formation, then began to realize what Li Ping’s feat implied.

After revealing that he had formed a golden core, Li Ping told Yan Hengchuan and Yu Peiling about the hidden spirit vein at Little Plum Mountain and his plans to leave the Western Wasteland for Great Zhou. Yu Peiling asked whether her late mother’s life might have been different if she had followed Li Ping, and Li Ping later learned that Bai Lin had raised orphans as his supposed children before she died.

• Li Ping confirmed that he had reached Core Formation and warned Yan Hengchuan and Yu Peiling to keep the third-tier spirit vein beneath Little Plum Mountain secret until their Lineages could protect it.
• Li Ping said he would take the cave abode’s treasures but leave the spirit vein and Cold Pool demon beast materials to the three Lineages, then travel to Great Zhou.
• Yu Peiling asked whether her mother, Yu Xuewei, would have had a different life if she had joined Li Ping in Windmist Immortal City, and Li Ping said he did not know.
• Li Ping paid his respects to an old friend, then flew with Yan Hengchuan toward Little Plum Mountain while Yu Peiling stayed at Azure Peak Lake.
• Yan Hengchuan told Li Ping that Bai Lin had adopted orphans at Five Cloud Pool, changed their surnames to Li, and claimed they were Li Ping’s children before dying two years earlier.

Li Ping took Yan Hengchuan into the underground spirit vein beneath Little Plum Mountain and cleared the Cold Pool of its demon beasts. After witnessing Li Ping’s Core Formation strength, Yan Hengchuan resolved that the three lineages would keep the third-tier spirit vein secret until one of their descendants could reach Core Formation.

• Li Ping told Ji Shuchen and Yan Hengchuan to keep the demon beast materials within their lineages and have them made into magic artifacts.
• Li Ping led Yan Hengchuan through the hidden passage to the Cold Pool, where Yan Hengchuan saw the third-tier spirit vein and imagined the three lineages sharing power in the Jiang Kingdom.
• Yan Hengchuan reminded himself that the three lineages were not yet strong enough to challenge the Jiang Lineage and that they must not use the spirit vein until Yan Jing or Ji Shuwen reached Core Formation.
• Li Ping used the Essence-Devouring Sword to kill the Cold Pool’s demon beasts, including its Second-Tier Late Stage demon beasts.
• Li Ping finished searching the pool and confirmed that he had killed every demon beast there.

After Li Ping cleared the demon beasts from the Cold Pool, he gave Yan Hengchuan the Blood Rakshasa Banner and allowed him to harvest the beasts. Li Ping then entered the island’s concealed abode by having the Desolate Fire Sparrow burn through its formation, where he found a rich spirit vein and a mostly withered herb garden containing rare treasures.

• Li Ping killed the demon beasts in the Cold Pool, and Yan Hengchuan asked permission to refine their blood.
• Li Ping warned Yan Hengchuan about poisonous blood, then bestowed the Blood Rakshasa Banner and told him how to handle the corpses.
• Li Ping searched the island’s formation and sent the Desolate Fire Sparrow to burn an opening through its barrier.
• Li Ping followed the Desolate Fire Sparrow into the island after confirming with his divine sense that the interior was safe.
• Li Ping surveyed the abode’s third-tier top-grade spiritual qi, its bronze palace, and a Spirit Herb Garden containing surviving third-tier herbs and three thousand-year-old Golden Marrow Jade Zhi.

Li Ping searched a deserted cave abode, found a stele, and learned Mystic Script from Daoist Gaoji so he could decipher it. The stele revealed a Teleportation Formation leading to Great Zhou and a profound method for cultivating a second Golden Core.

• Li Ping gathered several dozen millennium spirit herbs and searched the empty houses and bronze hall with five puppets.
• Li Ping discovered a stone stele bearing unfamiliar writing and a map of the Cloudmist Mountains, then copied its contents onto a Jade Slip.
• Daoist Gaoji identified the writing as Mystic Script and gave Li Ping a Jade Slip explaining how to read and write it.
• Li Ping deciphered the stele and learned that its map showed a Teleportation Formation linking the cave abode to Great Zhou.
• Li Ping read the stele's secret art, the Great Purity Jade-Liquid Golden Core Method, and learned that it could cultivate a second Golden Core.

Li Ping realized the Great Purity Jade-Liquid Golden Core Method could let him cultivate a second Golden Core and pursue both the Marsh Water Life-Nourishing Art and the Nine Tribulations True Spirit Sacred Canon. He began preparing Yan Liming’s Golden Core for refinement and decided to compensate the Yan and Ji lineages for his share of the expedition’s gains.

• Li Ping concluded that a second Golden Core could let him cultivate a clone, gain greater combat strength, and extend his lifespan through whichever core reached the higher cultivation.
• Li Ping identified the spiritual liquid in his blue Purifying Bottle as forgotten river water and recognized that he could use it to erase the imprints in Yan Liming’s Golden Core.
• Li Ping placed Yan Liming’s Golden Core in the forgotten river water, where it needed to soak for eighty-one days, and planned to study the method and gather other spirit materials.
• Li Ping left the third-tier formation with the Desolate Fire Sparrow and told Yan Hengchuan to take his time sorting the demon beast materials.
• Li Ping decided to refine two of the three golden marrow jade zhi into batches of Foundation Establishment Pills for the Yan and Ji lineages.

Li Ping gave Yan Hengchuan and Ji Shuchen twenty Foundation Establishment Pills, securing a major resource for their lineages. He then headed west to prepare for secluded cultivation and planned to strengthen his abilities before eventually traveling to Great Zhou.

• Li Ping told Yan Hengchuan and Ji Shuchen that he had found three stalks of thousand-year-old Golden Marrow Jade Zhi and refined two into Foundation Establishment Pills.
• Li Ping gave Yan Hengchuan and Ji Shuchen one jade bottle containing ten pills each, and they resolved to keep the pills secret and use them sparingly.
• Li Ping left the Jiang Kingdom for Windmist Immortal City to pursue secluded cultivation, refine a second Golden Core, and advance the Nine Tribulations True Spirit Sacred Canon.
• Li Ping planned to visit old acquaintances, inspect the teleportation formation to Great Zhou, and learn enough Formation Dao to pass through Little Plum Mountain’s formation gate.
• Li Ping intended to develop his craft skills and use his Peerless Talent to reverse-engineer higher-tier legacies from the tools their practitioners had used.

Li Ping returned to Windmist Immortal City after nearly seventy years away, revisiting the places where he had struggled in his youth. He reunited with Gu Musheng, learned that the three sects were moving to take direct control of the city, and agreed to let Gu Musheng gather their old friends.

• Li Ping entered Windmist Immortal City using his old Identity Token and revisited familiar places in the Outer City, rewarding several Qi Refining cultivators who offered to help him.
• Li Ping chose not to visit Immortal Peach Mountain and went to the Ten Thousand Arts Pavilion to see its manager, Gu Musheng.
• Gu Musheng worried that a Purple Cloud Valley Inspector auditing the pavilion's accounts would expose problems as the three sects pressed to take direct control of Windmist Immortal City.
• Gu Musheng recognized Li Ping and warmly welcomed him back after nearly seventy years apart.
• Li Ping briefly told Gu Musheng about his travels, and Gu Musheng offered to summon Zhang Tie and their other old friends for a reunion.

Li Ping stayed at the Immortal Arrival Inn while processing materials for a third-tier puppet under Daoist Gaoji’s guidance, then reunited with Zhang Tie after nearly seventy years apart. Zhang Tie recounted his family’s struggles, and Li Ping’s reason for staying at an inn remained unexplained.

• Li Ping asked Gu Musheng to gather spirit materials for a third-tier puppet and arranged to meet him at the Immortal Arrival Inn.
• Li Ping began processing the puppet materials while Daoist Gaoji advised him on improved techniques.
• Zhang Tie learned of Li Ping’s return and hurried to the inn, where the two reunited after nearly seventy years.
• Li Ping described his journey to the Far North, and Zhang Tie shared news of his late wives, remarriage, and descendants in the Zhang and Lin families.
• Zhang Tie asked why Li Ping was staying at an inn instead of moving into Immortal Peach Mountain.

Li Ping reunited with his sworn siblings in Immortal City and met Li Qingshan, a descendant of the Five Cloud Pool Li Family. Their banquet was interrupted when Ye summoned Gu Musheng over problems with the Ten Thousand Arts Pavilion’s accounts.

• Li Ping told Zhang Tie that he would leave Immortal City in a few days and asked after the younger members of his lineage.
• Bai Zhengheng refused to visit Li Ping, so Bai Qing brought Li Qingshan from the Five Cloud Pool Li Family instead.
• Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, Cheng Yao, Bai Qing, Wang Xingwei, and Li Qingshan met Li Ping at the inn and went together to the Emerald-Gathering Tower.
• Li Ping was surprised by Wang Xingwei’s rapid cultivation progress and invited Li Qingshan to join the banquet after learning he was a descendant of the Five Cloud Pool Li Family.
• As the group reminisced over dinner, Ye entered and asked Gu Musheng to address problems with the Ten Thousand Arts Pavilion’s accounts.

Ye Chen confronted Gu Musheng over allegedly selling spirit materials at a loss, using evidence supplied by Gu Musheng’s son-in-law Shi Lang. Li Ping admitted he had bought the materials, then revealed his Core Formation aura and asked Ye Chen if he intended to take him away too.

• Ye Chen arrived at Gu Musheng’s gathering and ordered him to answer to Purple Cloud Valley Inspector Huang.
• Ye Chen accused Gu Musheng of selling spirit materials from the Ten Thousand Arts Pavilion at nearly cost price and revealed that Shi Lang had betrayed him.
• Gu Musheng agreed to go with Ye Chen, but Li Ping told him to sit and said he would handle the matter.
• Li Ping admitted he had purchased the materials through Gu Musheng, and Ye Chen called him a culprit as well.
• Li Ping released his Core Formation aura over Ye Chen and asked whether Ye Chen intended to take him away too.

Li Ping revealed that he had reached core formation and forced Ye Chen to apologize before letting him leave. He reunited with his sworn family, gave them gifts, and planned to visit Jixia before traveling to Great Zhou, then encountered three acquaintances waiting in the restaurant.

• Li Ping's core formation pressure terrified Ye Chen, who knelt and kowtowed for an hour until Li Ping dismissed him.
• Ye Chen backed out of the room while still kowtowing and wiped the blood from the floor with his robes.
• Zhang Tie and the others resumed their gathering, relieved that Li Ping remained their Big Brother despite his status as a Core Formation True Person.
• Li Ping assessed Cheng Yao and Wang Xingwei's prospects, while Li Qingshan realized his grandfather showed him no affection.
• Li Ping told the group he planned to visit Jixia before going to Great Zhou and gave them puppets and magic artifacts.
• Li Ping left the private room and found three acquaintances waiting respectfully in the restaurant hall.

Li Ping received Xiong Pohai’s apology and rejected Meng Qingyi’s and Huang Yan’s invitations to take senior positions. He agreed to stay in the Immortal City for a few days and learned that Ji Shuwen was progressing well in her cultivation.

• Xiong Pohai offered Li Ping a Storage Bag and apologized for his past offenses, and Li Ping accepted the apology after making him wait bent over for half an hour.
• Xiong Pohai left the restaurant and revealed that he had only pretended to be frail to win Li Ping’s sympathy.
• Meng Qingyi invited Li Ping to become the Immortal City’s supreme elder, but Li Ping declined and agreed only to stay a few days.
• Huang Yan invited Li Ping to join Purple Cloud Valley as an elder, but Li Ping refused and asked about Ji Shuwen’s cultivation.
• Huang Yan told Li Ping that Ji Shuwen had reached the peak of foundation establishment middle stage and was waiting for an Essence-Origin Pill to attempt the next breakthrough.

Li Ping learned that the Meng Family Ancestor had been murdered before attempting core formation, then agreed to help Meng Qingyi with a limited favor in exchange for a third-tier Formation Dao inheritance. Meanwhile, Li Qingshan returned to Five Cloud Pool with gifts from Li Ping, and Bai Zhengheng learned that his brother-in-law was a Core Formation True Person.

• Li Ping learned from Huang Yan that Ji Shuwen had become his Dao companion and cultivated to the foundation establishment middle-stage peak.
• Meng Qingyi revealed that the Meng Family Ancestor had been murdered while preparing to attempt core formation and asked Li Ping for help with his own attempt.
• Li Ping refused to guard Meng Qingyi, but agreed to a smaller favor and asked for a third-tier Formation Dao inheritance instead of the family's Treasure.
• Li Qingshan returned to Five Cloud Pool with a Magic Artifact and Spirit Talismans from Li Ping, then told Bai Zhengheng about the trip to the Immortal City.
• Bai Zhengheng learned that Li Ping was a Core Formation True Person and asked whether his brother-in-law was still in the Immortal City.

Li Ping took Meng Qingyi away from the Immortal City while Huang Yan, Xiong Pohai, and Ye Chen arranged to stop her from reaching Core Formation. On their journey, Li Ping studied the Inkcloud True Explanation and considered how to obtain the rare materials needed to master its Formation Dao inheritance.

• Li Ping and the black-robed Meng Qingyi departed the Immortal City aboard his flying boat.
• Huang Yan, Xiong Pohai, and Ye Chen speculated that Li Ping was repaying a favor to the Meng Family and learned that Huang Yan had alerted Uncle-Master Qu.
• Li Ping urged Meng Qingyi to sit and meditate, then examined the third-tier Formation Dao inheritance she had given him.
• Li Ping saw that mastering Formation Dao required third-tier materials and a spiritual vein, but he did not want to sacrifice materials reserved for a third-tier puppet.
• Li Ping considered seeking a third-tier spiritual vein in the Cloudmist Mountains and decided to address its demon beasts after finishing the puppet.