Recaps

Wang Quan and the cultivators strengthened their safe zone while he gathered newly born tumor Spirit Monsters beneath the mulberry tree. Two years later, letters from Qian Xiuyue and the Round-Faced Daoist Nun revealed how safe zones and an Underworld channel were changing their worlds, leaving Wang Quan wondering why the Far Western Land’s Underworld required them to establish an outpost themselves.

• Wang Quan summoned Yang Spirit Cultivators and Dao Seal Cultivators to help subdue the multi-barreled cannon Evils, and their shells had returned to their former strength.
• Over several months, Great Wind-Driller and Little Wind-Driller found tumor Spirit Monsters, which Wang Quan taught the Fundamental Method of the Way of Idiocy and gathered beneath the mulberry tree.
• After the final scroll of Daoist Scriptures was carved onto the first floor’s fourth wall, the multi-barreled cannons became more vulnerable, and cultivators declared that a new safe zone was near.
• Qian Xiuyue wrote that she had mastered the mulberry tree, was cleansing the mountain beneath the Drowning Dao Lower Court, and sent Wang Quan a box of Sun Flower Spirits.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun wrote that she had agreed to an Underworld emissary’s request to connect her Second-Layer World safe zone and Real World territory, and her ancestors later crossed through the channel as the three regions grew stronger.
• Wang Quan concluded that linked safe zones offered broad benefits but wondered why the Far Western Land’s Underworld required them to build an outpost.

Wang Quan waited for Ying Jiaren, hoping her help would let him complete the final Daoist scripture volume and reach the fourth-grade Dao seal. As Stone City’s cultivators learned that the sects had opened all four frontier regions and redirected their forces, Ying Jiaren still had not contacted him, and Wang Quan could only keep waiting.

• Wang Quan read Ying Jiaren’s letter saying she would complete Foundation Establishment and come find him whether or not she received a conscription order.
• Wang Quan continued inscribing Daoist scriptures, but unease stopped him from teaching the [Self-Crossing Scripture] to Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, Fierce Tiger Daoist, or Ma Qingqiu.
• Wang Quan told Ruo Jinghong and the others that a friend would arrive soon, and he waited for Ying Jiaren to help him master the final volume needed for the fourth-grade Dao seal.
• After months passed without word from Ying Jiaren, Wang Quan learned that the unorthodox paths and Orthodox Mystic Sects had opened the Far Northern Land and redirected cultivators there.
• Wang Quan discovered that the sects had opened all four directions, suspected Ying Jiaren had been sent to another region, and chose to wait rather than contact her through the crowded Inner Landscape.
• Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, Wang Quan, and the other Dao seal cultivators grew alarmed as Stone City’s reinforcements dwindled and powerful cultivators were transferred elsewhere.

With support for the Far Western Land being cut back, Wang Quan and the Stone City cultivators discussed how to preserve their population and resources. Wang Quan offered to bring friends and relatives to the region, while Mei Niang said she had slapped newcomers who mistook her for an innocent girl.

• Dao Seal Cultivators in the Far Western Land grew uneasy after receiving an announcement that the region was expected to become self-sustaining, while their logistical support and assignments dwindled.
• Wang Quan and the Stone City cultivators complained about reduced reinforcements, then agreed Stone City was better supplied than many other cities.
• A cultivator proposed stockpiling martial artists to grow Stone City's population, and Ma Qingqiu suggested feeding them with manure-soil collected from Spirit Monster feces.
• Ma Qingqiu warned that teleportation costs and restrictions might worsen as three more regions opened, while Wang Quan said they should wait for concrete news.
• Wang Quan asked his companions to report the names and addresses of friends and relatives willing to come to the Far Western Land, but said he lacked his Dao companion's exact address.
• Mei Niang told Wang Quan that she had slapped newcomers who wanted to be her exclusive Dao companion and seemed to think she was innocent.

Wang Quan searched the Second-Layer Inner Landscape for Ying Jiaren and finally learned she was leading the Ninth Legion in Bitter Cold City. Ying Jiaren agreed to meet him, but announced that she would keep commanding her legion and seek to control a city in the Far Northern Land.

• After learning that the polar regions lacked Dao Seal Cultivators, Wang Quan posted messages to find the people Mei Niang and Ruo Jinghong had named and forcibly summoned dozens to Stone City.
• Wang Quan spent seven months messaging the Second-Layer Inner Landscape before Ying Jiaren replied that she was in Bitter Cold City with the Ninth Legion and would meet him the next day.
• Ying Jiaren told the Ninth Legion and the other legions that she would leave Bitter Cold City the next day, prompting cheers from the surrounding cultivators.
• Ying Jiaren revealed that she could return whenever she wished and would keep the Ninth Legion together to fight with her.
• Ying Jiaren said she wanted to control a city in the Far Northern Land, forming two horns with Wang Quan's Stone City in the Far Western Land.

Ying Jiaren stayed in Bitter Cold City after being persuaded to help Wang Quan, then traveled to Stone City and reunited with him. At the celebrations, she met his companions and judged them no threat, leaving Wang Quan bewildered.

• An important figure persuaded Ying Jiaren to remain in Bitter Cold City and help Wang Quan, offering her a third-tier [Inverted Wisdom] and promising a Purple Mansion Magic Treasure as a reward.
• Ying Jiaren reached Stone City and reunited with Wang Quan as Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and other cultivators awaited her arrival.
• Wang Quan organized banquets in the Present World, the Underworld, and the Second-Layer World to celebrate Ying Jiaren's arrival and irritate the evils there.
• Ying Jiaren asked Wang Quan about the women around him and dismissed them as no threat, calling them old, weak, sick, or crippled and leaving him bewildered.

While the Underworld and Stone City celebrated Grand Master Flower-Scatter’s Dao companion, the multi-barreled cannon Evil in the Second-Layer World plotted to make other Evil clean the contamination. They broke their ancestral rule against leaving the house, discovered they grew stronger outside, and dragged thousands of Evil back—only for the captives to burn to ash at the temporary safe zone.

• Wang Quan opened No. 95 Courtyard for a feast, and Underworld beings brought strange materials and body parts as gifts.
• Stone City held a three-day celebration for Grand Master Flower-Scatter’s Dao companion, while Ma Qingqiu and Mei Niang brought delicacies to the Second-Layer World.
• The multi-barreled cannon Evil decided to catch outside Evil and make them clean the contamination, despite their ancestral rule forbidding them to leave the house.
• One multi-barreled cannon Evil pushed open the door and grew stronger outside, prompting the others to follow.
• The multi-barreled cannon Evil captured thousands of outside Evil in webs and dragged them toward the temporary safe zone, where the captives turned to ash.

Ma Qingqiu and the others found Mei Niang taming the Multi-Barreled Artillery Evils in the Second-Layer World while Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren cultivated together. Wang Quan mastered the final scroll needed for his fourth-grade Dao Seal and began investigating its new traits.

• Ma Qingqiu and the others watched the Multi-Barreled Artillery Evils fire small Evils at the safe zone, where the light destroyed them.
• Mei Niang drew the Multi-Barreled Artillery Evils into a feast, and the Dao Seal Cultivators joined the merrymaking.
• Wang Quan told Ying Jiaren that he could not teach her the [Emperor's Scripture on Saving Oneself Rather Than Others] or the [Self-Crossing Scripture], and she offered to help him cultivate.
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren practiced [Beautiful Lady Yu] together, allowing Wang Quan to master the forty-thousandth scroll of Daoist Scriptures.
• Wang Quan's Dao Seal changed as he reached the fourth grade, and he teased Ying Jiaren by promising to reveal its new traits after they tried more difficult cultivation.

After attaining the Fourth-Grade Dao Seal, Wang Quan weighed his new traits and studied the knowledge it revealed while Ying Jiaren performed a divination to help him choose. He learned that fallen worlds could be revived and that capturing dying cultivators’ blessed lands and grotto heavens could hinder their expansion.

• Wang Quan examined his new traits, including Deathlessness, Longevity, and Rainbow Transformation, and asked Ying Jiaren to help him choose one.
• Ying Jiaren rejected some traits, considered others, and began divining with the Five-Colored Altar and the Wondrous Incense True Self Method.
• Wang Quan studied the Fourth-Grade Dao Seal’s information about forging golden cores and attaching external golden cores to improve combat strength.
• Wang Quan learned that the layered worlds were collectively called the Fallen World and could be revived by restoring their celestial bodies and seasons.
• Wang Quan discovered that claiming blessed lands and grotto heavens when their cultivators died could remove a foundation of the Fallen World’s expansion.

Wang Quan learned how the [Uninterrupted] trait could let cultivators begin a second life after death, and he chose it as a future safeguard. He and Ying Jiaren planned their next steps, with Ying Jiaren eager to gain power in the Far Northern Land while Wang Quan wanted to return to the Lower Court and cultivate in peace.

• Wang Quan studied information about the Underworld and Fallen World, including fallen cultivators who became Innate Ghost Gods and a route to summon fallen immortals with incense offerings.
• Wang Quan realized that [Uninterrupted] could preserve a cultivator’s memories through death and chose the trait for himself.
• Wang Quan explained the trait to Ying Jiaren, who decided she would choose it too after her divinations favored it.
• Wang Quan told Ying Jiaren that the Fourth-Grade Dao Seal granted an eight-hundred-year lifespan and shared what else he had learned.
• Ying Jiaren asked Wang Quan to help her cultivate so she could reach the Fourth-Grade Dao Seal and return to the Far Northern Land to rule a city and territory.
• Wang Quan said he wanted to leave the dangerous region, return to the Lower Court, and steadily cultivate toward immortality.

Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren discussed immortality and the upheaval in the polar regions, then spent months studying Daoist Scriptures. Ying Jiaren mastered a Fourth-Grade Dao Seal and chose [Uninterrupted], while Wang Quan prepared supplies for her return to the Far Northern Land.

• Ying Jiaren rejected Wang Quan’s plan to create Dao Seal Cultivators, explaining that her attempts to teach the method had failed.
• Ying Jiaren said she wanted to become a ruler in the upheaval, while Wang Quan vowed that he would become an immortal.
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren studied Daoist Scriptures together for months, with Ying Jiaren reaching forty thousand scrolls.
• Ying Jiaren mastered a Fourth-Grade Dao Seal and chose [Uninterrupted], which she and Wang Quan sensed had changed her.
• Ying Jiaren prepared to leave for the Far Northern Land, and Wang Quan gathered many things for her.

After Ying Jiaren returned to the Far Northern Land, Wang Quan and Ruo Jinghong recruited simple-faced newcomers to rebuild the Way of Idiocy. The recruited Spirit Monsters agreed to serve the cultivators, while Wang Quan told those left in Stone City to produce offspring and work there.

• Ying Jiaren exchanged farewells with Wang Quan and left through a teleportation vortex, and Wang Quan inhaled the incense she left behind.
• Ruo Jinghong explained that she had come to find honest newcomers for the declining Way of Idiocy, and Tongtong teased her and Wang Quan about their behavior.
• Dozens of Dao Seal Cultivators arrived to help recruit members, and Ruo Jinghong advised them that simple, honest people were well suited to the Way of Idiocy.
• Newcomers entered through a teleportation vortex, and Ruo Jinghong and the other cultivators selected those who looked simple and honest, who willingly agreed to serve them.
• Wang Quan told the remaining Spirit Monsters to produce offspring and contribute to Stone City, promising them grass, occasional feed, and places to sleep.

Wang Quan found that the Spirit Monsters and Evil had joined forces to clear darkness from the Second-Layer World, while he continued expanding the safe zone with Daoist Scriptures. Ying Jiaren returned to the Far Northern Land and learned that a newcomer had taken command of the Ninth Legion in her absence.

• The Spirit Monsters and other newcomers celebrated their survival in Stone City and resolved to produce offspring for their masters.
• Wang Quan entered the Second-Layer World and found Evil hauling away darkness under the Multi-Barreled Artillery Spirit Monsters' lashes while cultivators copied his Daoist Scriptures.
• Ma Qingqiu explained that the cultivators had befriended the Spirit Monsters and joined them in clearing the darkness, though he could not explain how the Evil could go outside.
• Wang Quan wrote a scroll of Daoist Scriptures in two hours, strengthening the temporary safe zone.
• Ying Jiaren returned to the Far Northern Land and learned that a newcomer had become commander of the Ninth Legion and won its acceptance.

After giving up on reclaiming the Ninth Legion, Ying Jiaren focused on developing a self-sustaining patch of land in Bitter Cold City by coordinating 1.2 million Orthodox Cultivators. An important figure from the city recognized the method as one used long ago in the Far Western Land, while Ying Jiaren remained convinced it worked quickly.

• Ying Jiaren brought 1.2 million Orthodox Cultivators to Bitter Cold City and used their spells and spirit soil to establish ten mulberry trees and plant Five Elements Fruit Trees.
• Ying Jiaren bound the ten mulberry trees to the land and prevented them from propagating, then directed cultivators to build earth veins and sustain the trees.
• Over two months, Ying Jiaren's cultivators formed a stable cycle of trees, soil, and veins, deepening the earth to ten meters and gradually wearing away volatile forces beneath it.
• The commander of the Ninth Legion refused to trouble Ying Jiaren over taking her legion and said he would accept being beaten by her.
• An important figure from Bitter Cold City visited Ying Jiaren, recognized her cultivation method as one formerly used to establish cities in the Far Western Land, and explained why it had not been widely continued.

Ying Jiaren learned that the old method of creating cities required a cultivator’s sacrifice, so she resolved to develop Bitter Cold City through Wang Quan’s slower method and build stronger Dao Soldiers. In Stone City, Wang Quan continued his studies until Ruo Jinghong contacted him about a matter in the Underworld.

• An important figure told Ying Jiaren that one [One-Way Passage] cultivator could sacrifice their life to create a city and a million li of territory in one day.
• The important figure explained that the old cultivators had stopped drawing lots to sacrifice themselves, forcing others to wear away the polar region through bloodshed and toil.
• Ying Jiaren chose to follow Wang Quan’s method, deepen Bitter Cold City’s foundations, and create Dao Soldiers that could grow stronger with her.
• Ying Jiaren planned to use incense power and her ten mulberry trees as she worked toward taking control of Bitter Cold City.
• Wang Quan continued studying and writing Daoist Scriptures and learning Fundamental Methods in Stone City.
• Ruo Jinghong contacted Wang Quan and said that a matter in the Underworld needed his attention.

Wang Quan returned to Residence No. 95 to confront human ghost gods who had appeared there and terrorized its inhabitants. After defeating them with Bull-Head Towers empowered by Yin Virtue, he demanded to know who had sent them, and one ghost god was swallowed when it claimed they had wandered in by mistake.

• Ruo Jinghong told Wang Quan that powerful ghost gods transformed from humans had appeared in Residence No. 95 and were overwhelming its defenders.
• Wang Quan used his authority and a million cubic units of Yin Virtue to transform the residence’s high-rises into powerful Bull-Head Towers.
• The Bull-Head Towers defeated and brutalized the ghost gods until they shrank and begged Wang Quan for mercy.
• Wang Quan asked the ghost gods who had sent them, but one claimed they had wandered in by mistake.
• Wang Quan rejected the excuse, and a Bull-Head Tower pierced and swallowed the ghost god.

Wang Quan interrogated the human ghost gods who attacked No. 95 Courtyard and learned that [Divine Emperor Heart] had empowered them and sent them to cause chaos. After bargaining for a scripture, he faced the surviving ghost gods’ claim that they were all one family because they had once praised his flower-scattering.

• The Bull Monster Tower devoured the human ghost gods as Wang Quan questioned them, and one revealed that [Divine Emperor Heart] had given them ghost-god powers and ordered them to disrupt the Underworld.
• [Divine Emperor Heart] arrived in a display of holy light, but a surviving ghost god identified her as the one who had recruited them and accused her of targeting No. 95 Courtyard.
• Wang Quan confronted [Divine Emperor Heart] and demanded compensation for the damage; she offered him a scripture for roaming the Underworld in spirit instead of rare treasures.
• [Divine Emperor Heart] admitted she had not mastered the scripture, handed Wang Quan a box containing it, and departed after threatening the ghost gods.
• The surviving ghost gods called themselves Wang Quan’s family and said they had once cheered his flower-scattering, told newcomers about it, and erected a statue of him in No. 95 Courtyard.

Wang Quan learned that the Drowning Dao Lower Court was thriving, then received a Daoist Scripture from [Divine Emperor Heart] and wondered why she had given it to him. He turned his attention back to the Present World and summoned the ghost and monster leaders to discuss their work.

• Wang Quan questioned the human ghost gods from No. 95 Courtyard, learned the Lower Court was prospering, and let them go; they burned to ashes as they tried to return to the Present World.
• Wang Quan suspected [Divine Emperor Heart] had hidden intentions in the scripture she gave him and summoned [Ghost Emperor Heart] to inspect it.
• [Ghost Emperor Heart] identified the scroll as the Daoist Scripture [Ghost Says: Scripture of Spirit Roaming and the Transformations of Mountains and Rivers], which Wang Quan could not understand.
• Wang Quan decided to focus on the Present World and called the ghost and monster leaders to a meeting about gathering materials and crafting weapons and magical artifacts.

Wang Quan reorganized Residence No. 95’s factions and expanded the gardens so they could gather materials for his weapons and Magic Treasures faster. He sent two descendants of ghost gods into the alleys to spread his name, backed by a scroll containing curses made from the descendants who had fled.

• The human cultivator reported that material shortages had slowed the red copper millstones, so Wang Quan doubled the gardens and demanded a hundred millstones within ten years.
• Ghosts and monsters reported that alley beings had taken many of the materials, so Wang Quan ordered the factions merged into six teams and planned a procession through the alleys.
• When the other descendants of ghost gods fled, Wang Quan instructed an octopus-like descendant to beat the gongs and another descendant to wave banners and shout.
• Wang Quan used the Nightmare-Subduing Technique to kill the fleeing descendants of ghost gods and refine them into curses, which he placed in a scroll bearing his image.
• Wang Quan sent the two descendants into the alleys to proclaim his name and ordered them to return if threatened, warning that he would sacrifice a thousand ghosts and monsters and burn the city if his methods failed.

Two descendants of ghost gods collected materials for Lord Flower-Scatter by force, provoking the monsters of City No. 95. Zhao Hongyi fled the city, while the alley creatures vowed to stop Lord Flower-Scatter from gathering resources.

• Two descendants of ghost gods demanded that the alley monsters gather materials for Lord Flower-Scatter and killed those who resisted.
• The monsters attacked, but the descendants used a banner, gongs, drums, and Hundred-Treasure Pouches to dismantle and collect them.
• Zhao Hongyi heard that Lord Flower-Scatter’s agents were killing monsters, packed her residence into a bottle, and fled toward another ring.
• Cloaked creatures confronted the descendants and refused to supply materials, arguing that the resources fed the alley’s inhabitants.
• The cloaked creatures gave Lord Flower-Scatter ten days before they would prevent him from collecting any more bones or flesh.

Two descendants of ghost gods used Lord Flower-Scatter’s black-light curses to force the cloaked monsters to consider surrendering resources, but a black cat intervened and demanded that Lord Flower-Scatter pay his respects to the alley’s bosses. The descendants retreated, leaving the cat to dismiss the threat posed by their lord.

• Two descendants of ghost gods challenged the cloaked beings to withstand Lord Flower-Scatter’s strike, and the first monster’s defenses and body were destroyed by a black-light curse.
• The descendants warned that more than thirty curses remained, then demanded the monsters provide commonplace resources for ten years.
• When the cloaked beings invoked the alley’s rules and refused to cooperate, the descendants unleashed more black-light curses against them.
• A black curtain trapped the curses before they could strike, and a black cat caught the bundle on its stick.
• The black cat told the descendants to have Lord Flower-Scatter buy resources slowly or pay respects to the alley’s bosses, then ridiculed the claim that a Foundation Establishment Cultivator had damaged a third of the city.

Wang Quan tried to obtain materials from the alleys through negotiation rather than striking them with the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure]. The city lord secured an agreement just as Wang Quan summoned the weapon, leaving its strike descending while the city lord began to mention the deal’s conditions.

• Wang Quan contacted the city lord, who explained that he had no authority over the alleys and offered to negotiate with their powerful figures.
• Wang Quan asked Ruo Jinghong to tell the two descendants of ghost gods to make their sacrifice more elaborate while he waited for the city lord’s news.
• The two descendants led a prolonged sacrificial rite, offering alley ghosts and monsters to Wang Quan as Ruo Jinghong and Wang Quan waited for negotiations to conclude.
• After the sacrifice ended, the city lord arrived and announced that the alley figures had agreed to trade with Wang Quan and gather materials, though they had conditions.
• As the city lord started to mention those conditions, Wang Quan summoned the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure], and a tongue of flame descended from the split gray sky.

Wang Quan unleashed the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure on City No. 95, directing its full force into the alleys and destroying the hidden beings there. After the strike ended, frightened residents carried their homes away and fled toward Ring No. 90.

• Ghost gods and other residents of City No. 95 saw the Sky Patrol Magic Treasure descend and realized they had been locked onto.
• Wang Quan used Inverted Wisdom to direct the full strike into the alleys while sparing everything outside them.
• The flames erupted through the alleys, consuming their inhabitants and leaving the area quiet and burned out.
• Zhao Hongyi watched from outside the city, celebrated her decision to flee, and headed toward Ring No. 90 with her companions.
• Ghost gods carried their courtyard residences out of City No. 95 and set off for Ring No. 90.

After the city lord and the ghosts and gods fled City No. 95, its residents declared Wang Quan the new city lord. Wang Quan accepted the role amid staged auspicious signs and celebrations.

• The city lord told Wang Quan that the alley big shots had left and asked him to take over their territory and rules, which Wang Quan reluctantly accepted.
• The city lord tried to persuade the ghosts and gods to flee with him, and they agreed to carry away his residence and seek a barren land where they could rule.
• Wang Quan learned that the city lord was leading more than a hundred ghosts and gods out of the city with his residence on their shoulders.
• A descendant of ghosts and gods proposed Wang Quan as the successor, and the ghosts and monsters staged auspicious signs to convince him.
• Wang Quan accepted the title of Lord City Lord as the assembled ghosts, monsters, and descendants of ghosts and gods celebrated.

Wang Quan established control over City No. 95, reorganized its alleys, and continued developing his powers in the Present World. As he considered opening a safe zone in the Second-Layer World, Bump announced that the snake spirit had mastered a brainwashing spell.

• Wang Quan's guards collected taxes and resources from the ghosts and monsters living in City No. 95's alleys.
• Wang Quan used his control of Residence No. 95 to become city lord, changed the city's rules, and accelerated the gathering of materials for his Three Heads and Six Arms form.
• Wang Quan returned to the Present World, studied Daoist arts, refined drowning water, and used Moonlight Drowning Water to nurture the mulberry tree.
• Wang Quan considered opening a safe zone in the Second-Layer World to increase worship of the sun, moon, and stars.
• Bump told Wang Quan that the snake spirit had mastered a brainwashing spell, and Wang Quan offered to find brains for testing.

Wang Quan had the Bump Spirit Monsters cleanse twelve brains and tested one as an external brain in the Second-Layer World, where it resisted corruption. After connecting it, his wisdom returned and his thoughts grew exceptionally clear.

• Wang Quan had the Bump snake spirit and the Bump Spirit Monsters cleanse one of his twelve brains into a crystal brain, which passed his detection spell.
• Wang Quan told the Bump Spirit Monsters they had been tortured by evil forces in the Second-Layer World and instructed them to cultivate the Fundamental Method and seek revenge.
• The Bump snake spirit and a Bump butterfly spirit questioned the Fundamental Method, but the snake spirit urged the others to cultivate it for now.
• Wang Quan brought the crystal brain into the Second-Layer World, where it resisted the darkness without developing self-awareness or mutating.
• Wang Quan connected the crystal brain externally, felt his wisdom return, and laughed as his thoughts became exceptionally clear.