Chapter Summaries

Li Ping cared for his companions while the Earth Spirit Mouse prepared to advance, and Meng Wanjun broke through to the Foundation Establishment late stage. The Earth Spirit Mouse began its third-tier breakthrough under Li Ping’s watch, with the outcome still unresolved.

• Li Ping considered the Great Harmony Society’s strange collection of resources and decided to focus on cultivation and wait until after the Underground Auction before exploring further.
• Li Ping checked on Meng Wanjun and the Earth Spirit Mouse, which was refining a third-tier Demon Core, and recalled that Meng Wanjun had obtained earth-origin sand to help with its breakthrough.
• After settling matters at the White-Gathering Pavilion, Li Ping returned to cultivation; six months later, the Earth Spirit Mouse told him it was ready to attempt advancement.
• Meng Wanjun revealed that she had fed the Earth Spirit Mouse the earth-origin sand and that she had broken through to the Foundation Establishment late stage with the Essence-Origin Pills.
• The Earth Spirit Mouse began its breakthrough, releasing black mist and powerful demonic pressure; Li Ping shielded Meng Wanjun while the Earthrock Python was pressed to the ground and the Desolate Fire Sparrow remained unbothered.

The Earth Spirit Mouse advanced to the third tier, and Li Ping considered a utility-focused life-bound treasure for it while reflecting on the future of his shop and his slow progress raising Copper Corpses. He chose to proceed cautiously, leaving the corpses underground for now as he kept the Fourth-Tier Corpse King in mind.

• The Earth Spirit Mouse reached the third tier, and Li Ping decided to craft it a Spirit-Sealing Cord using materials Meng Wanjun would gather.
• Meng Wanjun asked whether they should find replacements for the aging Chu Xiu and Chen Guang, but Li Ping said the White-Gathering Pavilion would eventually close after he left Spirit Firmament City.
• Li Ping checked on the two Copper Corpses and found that they had made little progress in learning complex movements or combat.
• Li Ping decided not to move the Copper Corpses elsewhere yet, judging that they were not worth rushing to raise while he remained cautious about danger.

The Corpse King and Fellow Daoist Yu confirmed their agreement involving a hidden spirit land, the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword, and access to a teleportation formation to the Nine Provinces Continent. At the Riverside Cave Abode, Li Ping removed part of Wei Yiling’s Soul Devouring Restriction and advised Feng Xishuang on her first second-tier puppet.

• The Corpse King sensed Fellow Daoist Yu arrive at the heart of Northern Mang Mountain and greeted him.
• Fellow Daoist Yu and the Corpse King agreed that Yu could use a hidden spirit land in exchange for finding the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword and helping the Corpse King reach the Nine Provinces Continent.
• The Corpse King asked whether the Immortal Alliance’s teleportation formation would remain available, and Fellow Daoist Yu assured him he could use it.
• Li Ping met Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang at the Riverside Cave Abode, then severed part of Wei Yiling’s Soul Devouring Restriction.
• Li Ping examined Feng Xishuang’s second-tier lower-grade puppet, explained its flaws, and received her respectful thanks as her teacher.

Li Ping oversaw Feng Xishuang and Wei Yiling’s missions against evil cultivators while continuing his cultivation and learning about his aging associates and the Earth Spirit Mouse’s improved abilities. Feng Xishuang returned with the major tendon Li Ping needed to refine a Spirit-Sealing Cord, taken from a late-stage third-tier Dragon-Scale Lizard.

• Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang received a Great Harmony Society mission to kill a Core Formation Stage demon cultivator, and Li Ping warned them to investigate their target before acting.
• Li Ping noticed that Chu Xiu and Chen Guang had grown frail and learned that they had arranged marriages between their descendants.
• During Li Ping’s seclusion, the Earth Spirit Mouse advanced its treasure-sensing and Earth Escape abilities, and Meng Wanjun reported that Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang had not yet returned.
• Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang returned after killing two Core Formation Stage and more than ten Foundation Establishment Realm evil cultivators, earning Great Harmony Society contribution points and Demon-Slaying Bureau bounties.
• Feng Xishuang gave Li Ping a major tendon from a late-stage third-tier Dragon-Scale Lizard as a gift, providing the material he needed for the Spirit-Sealing Cord.

Li Ping refined a Spirit-Sealing Cord for the Earth Spirit Mouse and continued treating Wei Yiling, whose Soul Devouring Restriction was nearly removed. He then heard that Chu Xiu and Chen Guang wished to resign from the White-Gathering Pavilion and return home in their old age.

• Feng Xishuang gave Li Ping third-tier Dragon-Scale Lizard sinew, and he accepted it before instructing her and Wei Yiling in the Puppet Art.
• Li Ping refined the Spirit-Sealing Cord and guided the Earth Spirit Mouse through its initial refinement of the Life-Bound Treasure.
• Two years later, Li Ping treated Wei Yiling and found that less than a fifth of her Soul Devouring Restriction remained; Feng Xishuang reported that she had made a second-tier lower-grade Puppet.
• A year later, Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that Chu Xiu and Chen Guang wished to resign, and Li Ping summoned the two elderly Appraisers.
• Chu Xiu explained that he and Chen Guang wanted to return home to spend their remaining years in peace, partly to avoid dying at the White-Gathering Pavilion and harming Li Ping's reputation.

Li Ping accepted the resignations of the two elderly cultivators, gave them retirement gifts, and began arranging to sell the White-Gathering Pavilion. An urgent message from Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang revealed that Wei Yiling had been gravely injured by the Soul Devouring Restriction after they completed a Great Harmony Society mission.

• Li Ping accepted the two elderly cultivators' resignations and gave each five hundred spirit stones for their years of work.
• Li Ping told Meng Wanjun to arrange the sale of the White-Gathering Pavilion and returned to cultivation.
• Less than four months into seclusion, Li Ping emerged after Meng Wanjun brought him a Heavenly Mystery Box sent by an unfamiliar Foundation Establishment Cultivator on behalf of Senior Feng.
• Li Ping opened the box and read the Jade Slip that Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang had sent through an intermediary.
• Li Ping learned that Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang had killed mortals labeled cultists on a Great Harmony Society mission, triggering the Soul Devouring Restriction in Wei Yiling's mind and leaving her unconscious and near death.

Li Ping learned that the Great Harmony Society had triggered the Soul Devouring Restriction in Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang, leaving Wei unconscious and near death. He left Spirit Firmament City and hurried to their hidden refuge, where Feng Xishuang sensed his arrival.

• Li Ping realized the Great Harmony Society had used missions to trick Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang into killing its real targets, then tried to silence them with the Soul Devouring Restriction.
• After reading Feng Xishuang's jade slip, Li Ping decided to leave Spirit Firmament City to avoid being implicated and subjected to a Soul Search.
• Li Ping and Meng Wanjun departed the city aboard his silver flying boat without incident.
• Li Ping used the Bloodwing Escape Art to reach the hiding place quickly, exhausting himself until his hair turned silver and his skin aged before he recovered.
• Li Ping found the concealed formation beneath a barren mountain, and Feng Xishuang sensed him and called out, "Master Li."

Li Ping reached Feng Xishuang and stabilized Wei Yiling’s damaged divine soul with five-thousand-year-old soul-nourishing wood. Feng Xishuang then revealed that the people she and Wei Yiling had been sent to kill were Confucian scholars, including Guan Qianzai.

• Feng Xishuang led Li Ping and Meng Wanjun to her hidden refuge, where Wei Yiling lay unconscious with a disintegrating divine soul.
• Li Ping placed soul-nourishing wood beneath Wei Yiling’s head, stopping her soul from deteriorating and beginning its slow recovery.
• Li Ping told Feng Xishuang that Wei Yiling would survive but might not awaken for more than ten years.
• Li Ping asked Feng Xishuang who the supposed mortal cultists were, and she said they had actually been Confucian School members discussing sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, including Guan Qianzai.

Feng Xishuang explained that she and Wei Yiling had mistakenly killed the Confucian scholar Guan Qianzai and were now hunted by multiple factions. She planned to return with Wei Yiling to her homeland in the land of deathly silence, the Island of Life, and invited Li Ping to join them.

• Meng Wanjun identified Guan Qianzai as the Confucian scholar whose evidence had once forced Spirit Firmament City to execute a criminal guest elder.
• Feng Xishuang confirmed that she and Wei Yiling had killed Guan Qianzai without knowing who he was.
• Li Ping considered the threats from the Confucian Sect, the Immortal Alliance, and the Great Harmony Society, and worried that the pursuit could also expose him and Meng Wanjun.
• Feng Xishuang said she would take Wei Yiling back to her homeland in the land of deathly silence once Wei Yiling woke.
• Feng Xishuang explained that her homeland was a living region called the Island of Life and invited Li Ping to go with them.

Li Ping declined to accompany Feng Xishuang to the Island of Life, strengthened the safe house’s concealment, and traveled to Spirit Firmament City to sell intelligence about Guan Qianzai’s murder. He discovered that the Great Harmony Society had flooded the Black Market with conflicting reports, leaving his accusation unlikely to prompt action.

• Li Ping refused Feng Xishuang’s invitation to return with her to the Island of Life, and she agreed to wait until Wei Yiling woke before departing.
• Li Ping placed the Spirit-Eye Jade above the Spirit Spring, set up a stronger Concealment Formation, and left Meng Wanjun to cultivate there.
• Li Ping disguised himself as Yan Buping and traveled toward the Eastern Sea, planning to attend the Underground Auction and later return to the Western Wasteland.
• Li Ping entered Spirit Firmament City and went to the Shadowkill Tower to sell intelligence that the Great Harmony Society had masterminded Guan Qianzai’s murder.
• The snake-masked cultivator told Li Ping that the tower had received more than a hundred conflicting reports, and Li Ping withdrew his claim.

Li Ping found a third-tier top-grade spirit vein on an island in the Torrent Region, but a flock of powerful Giant-Scaled Eagles occupied it. He prepared a surprise attack to seize the island and its Formation Dao inheritance, while his Underground Auction token revealed that the auction was approaching.

• Li Ping traveled from Spirit Firmament City to the Torrent Region, seeking an unclaimed third-tier top-grade spirit vein for his Formation Dao inheritance.
• Li Ping found a suitable spirit vein on an island inhabited by a flock of White-Headed Giant-Scale Eagles, including three third-tier beasts.
• Li Ping decided to attack the flock, planning to ambush the third-tier middle-stage eagle first and then overwhelm the others with the Desolate Fire Sparrow, Earth Spirit Mouse, and Third-Tier Puppet.
• Li Ping's Underground Auction token displayed an arrow pointing toward the auction site, which he set aside for the moment.
• Li Ping ordered the Earth Spirit Mouse to use Earth Escape to carry the group underground toward the eagles for a surprise attack.

Li Ping ambushed and killed a third-tier middle-stage Giant-Scaled Eagle, then faced the third-tier late-stage leader with his Dragon-Slaying Guillotine. Their first clash sent one combatant crashing into a mountainside, leaving the outcome uncertain.

• Li Ping used the Earth Spirit Mouse to approach the resting third-tier middle-stage Giant-Scaled Eagle without alerting the flock.
• Mysterious One restrained the eagle with the Lotus Radiance Mirror, the Earth Spirit Mouse bound its talons with the Spirit-Sealing Cord, and Li Ping killed it with the Golden Executioner's Blade.
• Li Ping sent his two spirit beasts and Puppet to attack a third-tier early-stage Giant-Scaled Eagle while he prepared to face the leader.
• The furious third-tier late-stage Giant-Scaled Eagle charged Li Ping, and he met it with a swing of the Dragon-Slaying Guillotine.
• The blade collided with the leader's talons, and one of them flew backward into a mountainside.

Li Ping fought the Giant-Scaled Eagle leader, using the Dragon-Slaying Guillotine, Bloodwing Escape Art, and Longevity Art to keep pace with the stronger demon. As his allies approached, the wounded leader began to consider retreating.

• Li Ping recovered from being knocked into a mountain and saw that the Dragon-Slaying Guillotine had wounded the Giant-Scaled Eagle leader's talon.
• The Giant-Scaled Eagle leader tried to fly to its subordinate, but Li Ping pursued it with his Blood Wings and struck its talon again.
• The leader unleashed a sonic cry and a storm of wind blades, destroying Li Ping's purple-patterned wood shield and briefly stunning him.
• Li Ping sealed his ears and continued fighting, steadily mangling the leader's talons while relying on speed and healing to survive.
• The remaining Giant-Scaled Eagle's aura vanished, and two beasts and a puppet hurried to support Li Ping as the leader considered retreating.

Li Ping used the fourth-tier Lunar Coldflame to kill the Giant-Scaled Eagle leader, then prepared to receive the third-tier top-grade Formation Dao inheritance. The inheritance began just as Teng Feng and other cultivators debated joining the Yinghai Trading Company’s dangerous mission to the outer sea.

• Li Ping froze the Giant-Scaled Eagle leader with the Lunar Coldflame, but the flame destroyed its body and valuable materials when he melted the ice.
• Li Ping harvested what he could from the other Giant-Scaled Eagle, gave the two demon cores to the Desolate Fire Sparrow and Earth Spirit Mouse, and found cloudsky wood at the spirit vein’s eye.
• After restoring his magic power and instructing the Earth Spirit Mouse to hide them underground, Li Ping activated the Inheritance Tree and fell into an illusion.
• Fellow Daoist Yuan led a group of Core Formation Cultivators to an island, where they killed the Sea-Gazing Apes before he revealed that their mission would take them across the Torrent Region to the outer sea.
• Teng Feng agreed with Minggu that the outer sea was too dangerous, but Fellow Daoist Yuan privately offered him ghost jade gold as payment for joining the mission.

Teng Feng agreed to join Yuan’s dangerous mission near the Sea Spirit Abyss after Minggu warned him that a Nascent Soul cultivator was secretly watching the group. Meanwhile, Li Ping reached the remote area marked by his auction token, concealed a spirit island, set his beasts to work, and began cultivating while waiting for the Underground Auction.

• Minggu told Teng Feng that a Yu Household Nascent Soul cultivator was following the group and warned that the Yinghai Trading Company’s mission might end with them being silenced.
• Teng Feng accepted Yuan’s mission in order to stay alive for the moment, and five more cultivators joined while two withdrew freely.
• Li Ping learned that his Formation Dao attainment had reached third-tier top-grade and continued toward the location marked by his Underground Auction token.
• Li Ping found a small island with a third-tier middle-grade spirit vein, concealed it with a formation, and built a house at its spirit eye.
• Li Ping sent the Earth Spirit Mouse to search nearby waters for treasure and ordered the Desolate Fire Sparrow to cultivate before entering seclusion himself.

Li Ping emerged from three years of seclusion to oversee the Desolate Fire Sparrow’s successful advancement, then returned to cultivation. Meanwhile, Teng Feng joined the Yinghai Trading Company’s mission and discovered that its formation was designed to kill those who operated it; the chapter ended with Elder Yu taking the captured beast from Yuan and abandoning the six cultivators to their fate.

• Meng Wanjun worried that Li Ping had been gone for three years and planned to purify the Earthrock Python’s bloodline when she could do so in secret.
• Li Ping emerged from seclusion, collected the spiritual treasures the Earth Spirit Mouse had found, and guarded the Desolate Fire Sparrow as she advanced to the third-tier middle stage.
• Teng Feng traveled with the Yinghai Trading Company’s group toward the Sea Spirit Abyss and suspected the dangerous mission would not end safely for him.
• Yuan gave Teng Feng and five others Formation Banners for the Shockwave Sunflower Water Formation, and Minggu warned Teng Feng that the formation would drain its operators to death.
• Teng Feng began refining his banner with Minggu’s help, while Yuan and four others later delivered a captured beast to Elder Yu and left the six formation operators behind to die.

After two years of cultivation, Li Ping traveled to the Underground Auction and used his Illusory-Breaking Golden Eyes to inspect its island venue. He browsed the cultivators’ trading square, where a stallholder’s unusual stock of millennium spirit herbs caught his attention.

• Li Ping collected his formation equipment, stored his two spirit beasts, and set off for the auction with nearly two thousand third-tier spiritual treasures.
• Li Ping used his Illusory-Breaking Golden Eyes to see through the mist and locate the island and its Auction Hall.
• Li Ping entered the mist with his Token, landed under the Flight-Restricting Formation, and walked toward the Auction Hall.
• Li Ping browsed the trading square but could not barter for the items that interested him.
• Li Ping noticed a stallholder offering more than a dozen millennium spirit herbs for pills that could help a Core Formation Cultivator reach the middle stage, then used his golden eyes to inspect the man.

At the Underground Auction, Li Ping recognized Chao Xuan, the owner of Sage Xu’s Alchemy Furnace, and decided to approach him after the event. As the auction began, Li Ping followed Chao Xuan into the hall.

• Li Ping saw through a stallholder’s disguise and watched her trade millennium spirit grass for three Ice Lotus Pills.
• Li Ping recognized the cultivator offering the pills as Chao Xuan, who possessed Sage Xu’s Alchemy Furnace.
• Li Ping decided to seek a trade with Chao Xuan after the auction and speculated that Chao Xuan had come to find a Nascent Soul Formation Treasure.
• Li Ping browsed the stalls, trading for spirit grass and crafting materials while more cultivators arrived.
• A masked late-stage Core Formation Cultivator announced the auction’s start, and Li Ping followed Chao Xuan into the auction hall.

Li Ping attended an underground auction, buying silver qu stone and Extreme Rainbow Liquid for his Star Banners while watching Chao Xuan bid on an earth sunflower. The auction continued into its second day, where the old man introduced a liter of Fourth-Tier Immortal Flow Dew with an opening bid of eighty thousand spirit stones.

• A masked Nascent Soul Cultivator intimidated the auction attendees, then the Core Formation Late Stage auctioneer began selling lots.
• Li Ping bid forty-five thousand spirit stones for silver qu stone, securing an auxiliary material for his Star Banners.
• Chao Xuan bid on a three-thousand-year-old earth sunflower but gave up when its price passed fifty thousand spirit stones; another cultivator bought it for seventy thousand.
• On the second day, Li Ping bought a bottle of third-tier top-grade Extreme Rainbow Liquid for fifty-four thousand spirit stones.
• The auctioneer introduced one liter of Fourth-Tier Immortal Flow Dew with an opening bid of eighty thousand spirit stones.

Li Ping bought a liter of contaminated fourth-tier Immortal Flow Dew for his inheritance, while the auction’s Nascent Soul Transformation Pill sparked fierce bidding. After Chao Xuan won the pill, the old man brought out a cage containing a scarlet-scaled, loach-like creature.

• The old man explained that the fourth-tier Immortal Flow Dew was contaminated with nether baleful qi and had lost most of its efficacy.
• Li Ping bid the starting price of eighty thousand spirit stones and bought the Immortal Flow Dew for the Inheritance Tree.
• The auction continued for several days, and a pill that enhanced late-stage core formation cultivation sold for a hundred and seventy thousand spirit stones.
• Bidders drove the Nascent Soul Transformation Pill’s price above three hundred thousand spirit stones before Chao Xuan won it for nine hundred and twenty thousand.
• The old man brought out a large cube-shaped cage containing a loach-like creature covered in scarlet scales.