Chapter Summaries

Li Ping arrived at the Yun Household and learned that Yun Lingsu was in Heavenly Dao City seeking Bai Yaoyue’s help after Elysian High Person pressured the family to force her into marriage. Li Ping offered to protect his disciple and summoned her back, while Bai Yaoyue also set out to confront Elysian High Person.

• Li Ping reached Cliffsun Mountain with the Desolate Fire Sparrow and revealed his identity as Yan Bu to Yun Yuheng, who welcomed him into the Yun Household.
• Li Ping asked for Yun Lingsu and learned that Elysian High Person had pressured the Yun Household to marry her to his descendant, prompting her to seek Bai Yaoyue’s help.
• Li Ping declared that Yun Lingsu would not be forced to marry and told the Yun Household to summon her from Heavenly Dao City.
• Yun Yuheng sent a Core Formation cultivator to inform Yun Lingsu of Li Ping’s return while Li Ping settled into a secluded hall.
• After Yun Lingsu explained her situation, Bai Yaoyue agreed to speak with Elysian High Person and left with her to resolve the matter.

Li Ping reunited with Bai Yaoyue and realized she was offering herself as his Dao companion in repayment for his past rescue, but he pretended not to know Xiong Dahai and let her leave. He stayed on Cliffsun Mountain to guide Yun Lingsu and prepare to deal with Elysian High Person without letting him escape.

• Li Ping met Bai Yaoyue and Yun Lingsu at the Palace, then invited them inside while Yun Yuheng left to attend to clan matters.
• Li Ping congratulated Bai Yaoyue, discussed Yun Lingsu’s alchemy progress, and listened as Bai Yaoyue asked whether he knew Xiong Dahai, whom she hoped to take as her Dao companion.
• Li Ping realized Bai Yaoyue knew Xiong Dahai was one of his disguises, but he denied knowing him, and Bai Yaoyue accepted his answer and departed.
• On Cliffsun Mountain, Li Ping told Yun Lingsu he would stay for three years to teach her alchemy and handle Elysian High Person; he did not answer whether Xiong Dahai was his disguise.
• Li Ping chose not to pursue Bai Yaoyue and planned to strengthen his preparations before confronting Elysian High Person, considering a fourth-tier formation or the God-Slaying Thorn to prevent his escape.

A year after becoming Yun Lingsu’s master, Li Ping guided her alchemy and then refined the God-Slaying Thorn from the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword and Soul-Settling Stake. He freed the sword’s trapped human souls to enter reincarnation and completed a divine soul treasure that could strike and immobilize enemies instantly.

• Yun Yuheng delivered the materials Li Ping had requested and received spirit stones to reward the Yun Household cultivators who gathered them.
• Yun Yuheng reflected on the Yun Household’s past decision to sacrifice Yun Lingsu to protect the lineage and worried that Li Ping might not help them if danger came.
• Yun Lingsu completed a batch of seven Essence-Origin Pills under Li Ping’s guidance, demonstrating her improved alchemy skills.
• Li Ping began refining the God-Slaying Thorn, using the Three-Yin Soul-Slaying Sword as its foundation and freeing the human souls trapped inside it with the ten-thousand-year soul-nourishing wood.
• After several months of work, Li Ping completed the God-Slaying Thorn and bound it to his divine soul; the treasure could slay souls and briefly immobilize its targets.

Li Ping completed the God-Slaying Thorn and planned to lure the Elysian High Person away from Yin-Yang Valley so he could kill him. Yun Lingsu chose to leave with Li Ping, while the Elysian High Person accepted the Yun Household’s invitation and hinted he would target its other women.

• Li Ping tested the God-Slaying Thorn, discovered his Creation Magic Power could imbue treasures with spirituality, and tempered his three Life-Bound Treasures.
• Li Ping decided against attacking Yin-Yang Valley directly and secretly arranged for Yun Yuheng to invite the Elysian High Person to Cliffsun Mountain as bait.
• Yun Lingsu asked whether Li Ping would leave after resolving the matter, then chose to leave with him for the Heavenly Craft Sect.
• A messenger delivered Yun Yuheng’s letter to Yin-Yang Valley, and the Elysian High Person learned that Yun Lingsu had a Nascent Soul master.
• The Elysian High Person accepted Li Ping’s invitation and suggested he could still take other women from the Yun Household.

Li Ping lured Elysian High Person to Cliffsun Mountain and killed him with the God-Slaying Thorn and his other abilities. After the Yun Household cautiously pledged its support, Li Ping departed with Yun Lingsu.

• Li Ping sensed Elysian High Person arriving at Cliffsun Mountain and flew out to confront him, while the Yun Household prepared to welcome its guest.
• Li Ping used Star Escape to close in and attack Elysian High Person, then struck his soul with the God-Slaying Thorn and smashed his dharma body with the Star Banner.
• Elysian High Person's Nascent Soul attempted to escape with Instantaneous Movement, but Li Ping interrupted it with the God-Slaying Thorn and destroyed it with the Lunar Coldflame.
• The Yun Household cultivators arrived and, after witnessing Elysian High Person's death, respectfully greeted Li Ping and offered to hold a victory banquet.
• Yun Lingsu joined Li Ping, who announced that they were leaving.

Li Ping traveled to Shatou Mountain to obtain the Formation Abacus once used by True Lord Fire Dragon, hoping to learn the ancient grandmaster’s Formation Dao legacy. The Fire Dragon Sect agreed to provide the relic, and Li Ping offered to grant them a reasonable request in return.

• Li Ping finished sorting Elysian High Person’s treasures and decided to preserve his creation magic power’s healing effect, relying on spirit nurturing, vein creation, and a longer lifespan to support his cultivation.
• Yun Lingsu left the Yun Household with Li Ping after rejecting its offers to keep her, and Li Ping told the household that Elysian High Person was dead and Yin-Yang Valley could be destroyed.
• Li Ping chose the Fire Dragon Sect as the source of a fourth-tier Formation Dao legacy and arrived at Shatou Mountain with Yun Lingsu.
• The Fire Dragon Sect’s four Core Formation Cultivators welcomed Li Ping and hosted him in their hall.
• Li Ping asked for True Lord Fire Dragon’s Formation Abacus, and the Fire Dragon Sect agreed to fetch it.
• Li Ping promised to grant the Fire Dragon Sect a reasonable request in exchange for the relic.

Li Ping returned to the Heavenly Craft Sect after forcing the Returning to Sainthood Sect to stop threatening the Fire Dragon Sect, and Chao Xuan was shocked to learn that Li Ping had killed Elysian High Person. Chao Xuan stayed to discuss the Immortal Alliance with Li Ping, now wary of his formidable strength.

• Li Ping accepted True Lord Fire Dragon's Formation Abacus and agreed to help the Fire Dragon Sect resist the Returning to Sainthood Sect.
• Li Ping destroyed the Returning to Sainthood Sect's protective formation and warned its cultivators to leave the Fire Dragon Sect alone.
• Chao Xuan invited Feng Xishuang to join the Immortal Alliance, and she accepted before Li Ping returned to the Heavenly Craft Sect with Yun Lingsu.
• Wei Yiling, Meng Wanjun, and Daoist Gaoji greeted Li Ping and realized he had formed his Nascent Soul.
• Chao Xuan recognized that Li Ping's Folding Fan resembled a fiend's Life-Bound Treasure, and Li Ping revealed he had killed Elysian High Person.
• Chao Xuan reacted with horror and admiration, then agreed to discuss the Immortal Alliance with Li Ping.

Li Ping strengthened the Heavenly Craft Sect’s defenses and absorbed creation qi from its spirit vein, glimpsing a strange connection between spirit veins and the world. Meanwhile, Xiao Yunzhi returned toward Great Zhou with True Lord Yanshan, carrying new reasons to seek out Li Ping and join the conflict there.

• Li Ping concluded that tensions between Great Zhou’s Righteous Path and Demonic Path could erupt, then prepared to join the Immortal Alliance after Chao Xuan’s recommendation.
• Li Ping set up a new grand formation around the Heavenly Craft Sect, absorbed creation qi from the spirit vein, and briefly saw the vein as a serpentine presence beneath the earth.
• Li Ping wondered whether spirit veins were alien parasites and suspected that reaching Spirit Transformation might reveal the truth about spirit veins and spirit roots.
• After Granny Suyue’s death, Xiao Yunzhi left Sea Pole Island to find a successor, eventually avenge the Heavenly Craft Sect, and visit Li Ping in Great Zhou.
• Xiao Yunzhi traveled with True Lord Yanshan, a battle-loving cultivator from another cultivation world who hoped to join the Immortal Alliance’s war.

Li Ping discovered that Vein Creation produced creation qi only the first time he formed a formation over a spirit vein, then traveled with Meng Wanjun to a massacred cultivation region to cultivate and awaken a power resembling a domain. A year later, Xiao Yunzhi learned that Li Ping had formed his Nascent Soul and gone into seclusion, while Yun Lingsu continued to puzzle over her master’s many Dao companions.

• Li Ping learned that each spirit vein produced formation-related creation qi only once and decided to cultivate at the site Ten Thousand Souls High Person had devastated.
• Li Ping summoned the Scarlet Flood Dragon, and Meng Wanjun confirmed it was ready to attempt transformation with her Dragon-Transforming Finger.
• Li Ping left Yun Lingsu at the Heavenly Craft Sect and took Meng Wanjun to the fourth-tier spirit vein, where forming a grand formation gave him creation qi and a faint sense of domain power.
• One year later, Wei Yiling told Xiao Yunzhi that Li Ping had formed his Nascent Soul and was cultivating about ten million li away.
• Xiao Yunzhi chose not to visit Li Ping, while Yun Lingsu noticed how concerned she seemed about her master.

After three years of cultivation, Li Ping learned that joining the Immortal Alliance could give him access to the Intercontinental Teleportation Formation and a path to the Nine Provinces, then prepared to support Xiao Yunzhi against the Frost Flood Dragon. Three years later, he emerged from seclusion to oversee the Scarlet Flood Dragon’s transformation attempt.

• Li Ping left seclusion, accepted spirit materials gathered by his beasts, and learned that the spirit vein had recovered to fourth-tier middle-grade.
• Meng Wanjun gave Li Ping a Heavenly Mystery Box from Wei Yiling, and he learned that he was now an Immortal Alliance Elder eligible to seek permission to use the Intercontinental Teleportation Formation.
• Li Ping destroyed his Immortal Alliance token and resolved to help Xiao Yunzhi confront the Frost Flood Dragon after he obtained the Heavenly Craft Sect’s inheritance.
• Three years later, Meng Wanjun summoned Li Ping as the Scarlet Flood Dragon prepared to attempt transformation, and he ordered her to begin.

Meng Wanjun used the Dragon-Transforming Finger to help the Scarlet Flood Dragon break through and transform, while the breakthrough's mysterious energy strengthened her and prepared her golden core for Nascent Soul. After the Scarlet Flood Dragon survived its tribulation and emerged in human form, Li Ping used newly enhanced creation magic power to awaken the intelligence of the Earth Spirit Mouse and the Mountain-Suppressing Softshell Turtle.

• Meng Wanjun poured her origin essence into the Dragon-Transforming Finger, strengthening the Scarlet Flood Dragon's aura and helping it begin its advancement.
• Li Ping caught and healed Meng Wanjun after she exhausted herself, then watched the Scarlet Flood Dragon draw spiritual qi from across the region.
• The Scarlet Flood Dragon reached the fourth tier, and a mysterious golden energy strengthened Meng Wanjun and cracked her golden core in preparation for forming a nascent soul.
• The Scarlet Flood Dragon wielded the Coiling Dragon Pillar to destroy its tribulation lightning, received heaven and earth's reward, and transformed into a young man.
• Li Ping learned that Meng Wanjun did not understand the golden mist surrounding her when she used the Dragon-Transforming Finger, and he urged her to study her bloodline.
• After absorbing creation qi from the Scarlet Flood Dragon's transformation, Li Ping awakened the intelligence of the Earth Spirit Mouse and the Mountain-Suppressing Softshell Turtle.

Li Ping derived plans for a life-saving armor and a faster escape art, then cultivated through a breakthrough while Fang Chuge killed a Turtle Demon to pressure the Eastern Sea foreign races into war. After leaving seclusion, Li Ping read news that Bai Qing had disappeared and Wang Xingwei had died in meditation.

• Li Ping found that Derivation Island had produced a Spirit-Transforming Armor plan, rejected an impractical escape-art proposal, and began deriving a more agile version of the Bloodwing Escape Art.
• Fang Chuge ambushed and killed a fourth-tier Turtle Demon near the Sea Spirit Abyss, then used Soul Search to learn why the Eastern Sea Foreign Race Alliance had held back from war.
• Li Ping's Second Golden Core reached the Core Formation middle stage, and his body refinement advanced to the third-tier middle stage after twenty years of cultivation.
• Li Ping emerged from seclusion, checked on his companions and beasts, and planned to help the Earth Spirit Mouse and Meng Wanjun advance.
• Li Ping read Wei Yiling's message and learned that Bai Qing had disappeared and Wang Xingwei had passed away in meditation.

Li Ping learned of Wang Xingwei’s death and Bai Qing’s disappearance, then sent Meng Wanjun and two spirit beasts to investigate the Western Wasteland. Meanwhile, the dying Feng Yuan appointed Teng Feng chief of the ruined Windchaser Tribe and passed him the tribe’s memories and secret art.

• Li Ping refused True Lord Xuanyun’s request to join the war in the Eastern Sea, then learned from Meng Wanjun that Wang Xingwei had given his Returning Yang Pill to a descendant and died after mourning Cheng Yao.
• After discovering that Bai Qing had been missing since the day of Li Ping’s nascent soul tribulation, Li Ping sent Meng Wanjun, the Mountain-Suppressing Softshell Turtle, and the Earth Spirit Mouse to the Western Wasteland to investigate.
• Li Ping refined fourth-tier pills and prepared to make a Shape-Transformation Pill for the Earth Spirit Mouse using the Mist Flood Dragon Reverse Scale.
• Feng Yuan, whose Windchaser Tribe had been destroyed, told his surviving people not to seek revenge or rejoin the war between the Flood Dragon Clan and humans.
• Feng Yuan appointed Teng Feng as chief of the Windchaser Tribe and transmitted the tribe’s memories, including the Ninefold Nascent Soul Escape secret art.

After Feng Yuan died and Teng Feng became chief of the Windchaser Tribe, Teng Feng sought Li Ping’s help to obtain Nascent Soul Formation Treasures. Li Ping discovered heavenly meteoric iron among Teng Feng’s offerings, traded him four Nascent Soul Transformation Pills, and prepared to support Teng Feng’s attempt to form a Nascent Soul.

• Feng Yuan named Teng Feng chief, secured the other Core Formation Cultivators’ submission, and died after entrusting him with the tribe’s future and its treasures.
• Teng Feng moved the Windchaser Tribe’s survivors to the former Dead Sea Region and later visited Li Ping to ask for help with his Nascent Soul breakthrough.
• Li Ping recognized a fingernail-sized piece of heavenly meteoric iron among Teng Feng’s spirit materials and offered four Nascent Soul Transformation Pills in exchange.
• Teng Feng gave Li Ping the Nine-Soul Essence-Splitting Escape Art, which Li Ping decided to improve through Derivation Island.
• Li Ping prepared Nascent Soul Transformation Pills for Teng Feng, and Teng Feng began attempting Nascent Soul formation.

Li Ping reached the age of six hundred as war between the Immortal Alliance and the Eastern Sea foreign races continued, and he reflected on the people he had outlived. Ji Shuwen visited him before her death, recounting the Western Wasteland’s growth and the arrangements she had made for the Cloudtreading Sect and Huang Family.

• Li Ping sent Teng Feng home after helping him form a Nascent Soul and reforge his life-bound treasure, then considered how Fang Chuge had provoked the Eastern Sea war.
• Li Ping used Derivation Island to select the Ninefold True Illusory Body for derivation and practiced the new Bloodwing Escape Art before returning to cultivation.
• Over the next decades, Li Ping advanced his second golden core and body refinement, then marked his six-hundredth birthday and reflected on the friends and loved ones he would outlive.
• Meng Wanjun returned with Ji Shuwen, who visited Li Ping after more than two hundred and thirty years apart.
• Ji Shuwen told Li Ping that the Three Families had rebuilt the Defender Alliance and arranged for Yan Jing to inherit the Cloudtreading Sect while the Huang Family’s legacy remained secure.

Li Ping heard Meng Wanjun’s theory that Bai Qing had died in the heavenly lightning that accompanied the change in the heavens, then helped her and the Earth Spirit Mouse prepare for their breakthroughs. After the Earth Spirit Mouse transformed and Meng Wanjun successfully formed her Nascent Soul, she told Li Ping she could now stay by his side.

• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that Bai Qing had vanished after flying into the sky during the heavenly upheaval, and guessed that the tribulation lightning might have killed him.
• Li Ping asked Meng Wanjun and the Earth Spirit Mouse to remain at the Heavenly Craft Sect and prepare for their breakthroughs; months later, he sent Ji Shuwen home with gifts and a letter for Wei Yiling.
• Li Ping watched the Earth Spirit Mouse refine Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Herbs until it was ready to undergo transformation, while Meng Wanjun waited to attempt Nascent Soul formation after it.
• Li Ping gave the Earth Spirit Mouse a Shape-Transformation Pill, and it survived its transformation tribulation with help from the Desolate Fire Sparrow and the Scarlet Flood Dragon.
• After the Earth Spirit Mouse transformed, Meng Wanjun formed her Nascent Soul and survived her tribulation with the Desolate Fire Sparrow’s help.
• Meng Wanjun passed her inner-demon tribulation and told Li Ping she could now always stay by his side.

Li Ping sent his transformed spirit beasts to hunt for treasures while he cultivated and learned that his younger brother Qi Hanmo had successfully formed a nascent soul. After mastering the Ninefold True Illusory Body art, Li Ping was drawn into the Southern Splendor Illusory Realm, where a steward named Yudie began explaining the place.

• Li Ping reforged the Scarlet Flood Dragon's and Earth Spirit Mouse's life-bound treasures, then sent them with the Desolate Fire Sparrow and Mountain-Suppressing Softshell Turtle to hunt for treasures and ordered them to return within thirty years.
• Li Ping received Qi Hanmo's letter announcing that he had formed a nascent soul and inviting Li Ping to his ceremony, which was scheduled for fifty years later.
• After another decade of cultivation, Li Ping obtained the Ninefold True Illusory Body art from Derivation Island and mastered its first level within a few months.
• Li Ping activated the art and found himself in a bustling street in the Southern Splendor Illusory Realm, stripped of his cultivation and unable to extend his divine sense.
• Yudie approached Li Ping, introduced herself as a steward of Yanshan City, and asked whether he had purchased his Dream Butterfly.

Li Ping entered the Southern Splendor Illusory Realm without a Dream Butterfly, learned from A Dream of Nanhua how the realm worked, and discovered that it let him create an elaborate cave abode. After returning safely, he worried that the realm might have damaged his Divine Soul and resolved to avoid it for a hundred years before trying again.

• Yudie moved Li Ping from Yanshan City's marketplace into a cave abode and left him A Dream of Nanhua to read.
• Li Ping learned that Emperor Nanhua's dream encompassed three thousand great worlds, that Dream Butterflies granted access, and that the realm barred cultivators below Spirit Transformation to protect their Divine Souls.
• Li Ping transformed his empty cave abode into an elegant retreat and created lifelike figures of people he knew before waking in reality.
• Li Ping examined his Divine Soul and found no apparent damage, but suspected that his Ninefold True Illusory Body Secret Art or hidden injuries might explain his condition.
• Li Ping decided not to enter the realm again for a hundred years, when he would reassess whether his Divine Soul had resisted Emperor Nanhua's Great Dao.

Li Ping raised the spirit vein beneath his hall to fourth-tier top-grade, then inherited Fire Dragon True Person’s fourth-tier top-grade Formation Dao. After the inheritance consumed the spirit vein, he created a weak new one and prepared to return to the Heavenly Craft Sect, confident that the Zhou Tian Star Banners would let him challenge even Nascent Soul late-stage cultivators.

• Li Ping emerged from cultivation after raising the spirit vein to fourth-tier top-grade and found Meng Wanjun and the beasts waiting outside.
• The Desolate Fire Sparrow showed Li Ping the treasures the squad had collected, including earthcore primordial stone that could help reforge a Zhou Tian Star Banner.
• Li Ping entered Fire Dragon True Person’s inheritance illusion and assimilated his fourth-tier top-grade Formation Dao knowledge.
• Li Ping discovered that the Inheritance Tree had absorbed the spirit vein, then used vein creation to form a weak, ungraded spirit vein underground.
• Li Ping told Meng Wanjun and the beasts they would return to the Heavenly Craft Sect, where his new formation skills would let him deploy a powerful array with the Zhou Tian Star Banners.

Li Ping returned to the Heavenly Craft Sect, learned that Ji Shuwen had died, and planned several projects before traveling to Qi Hanmo’s Nascent Soul Formation ceremony. On the way, he rescued human cultivators from a Sea Folk-led beast swarm, learned that the Eastern Sea war had worsened, and found an old demon acquaintance in the Sea Folk cultivator’s memories.

• Li Ping carried Meng Wanjun back to the Heavenly Craft Sect using his improved Bloodwing Escape Art.
• Li Ping learned from Yan Jing’s jade slip that Ji Shuwen had died and been buried among the Ji Lineage, then planned to strengthen the sect and travel to Great Zhou.
• Ten years later, Li Ping encountered human cultivators besieged by a Sea Folk-led demon beast swarm and captured the hidden Sea Folk commander.
• Li Ping performed a Soul Search, disrupting the swarm and allowing Junior Sister Kan, Senior Brother Chen, and the other human cultivators to escape.
• Li Ping learned that the Immortal Alliance was losing ground in the Eastern Sea war, then recognized an old demon acquaintance in the Sea Folk cultivator’s memories.