Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren traveled to Wailing Mountain to meet cultivators who had refined Drowning Water, hoping to trade for their rare varieties. Ying Jiaren offered her Incense Drowning Water for theirs, but the old Daoists demanded a favor, and rejected Wang Quan’s offer because he had not refined any Drowning Water himself.

• Ying Jiaren explained that her Incense Drowning Water could recover by absorbing spiritual energy, though it would take a month on Riverside Mountain.
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren rode to Wailing Mountain and met two old Daoists, who said no newcomers had arrived in nearly thirty years.
• The old Daoists explained that refining Drowning Water had once taken them decades and enormous sums, so most cultivators had abandoned the effort.
• Wang Quan offered to buy or trade for the old Daoists’ cold mountain drowning water and green beetle drowning water, but they refused to sell their treasured drops.
• Ying Jiaren offered to trade her Incense Drowning Water for theirs, and the old Daoists agreed on the condition that she owe them a favor.
• Wang Quan offered to owe the favor instead, but the old Daoists rejected him because he had not refined any Drowning Water.

Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren traded a favor for Drowning Water after two old Daoists learned how much Wang Quan had transformed the Second-Layer World. The old Daoists regained hope of establishing a safe zone on Wailing Mountain, while Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren planned to multiply their Drowning Water and accelerate their Foundation Establishment progress.

• Wang Quan told the two old Daoists that he had helped reshape the Second-Layer World, and Ying Jiaren explained how its safe zones had expanded.
• The old Daoists entered the Second-Layer World, confirmed Wang Quan's contributions, and agreed to trade him Drowning Water for a favor.
• Wang Quan and the old Daoists exchanged tokens, then Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren left rather than stay for a nighttime feast.
• The two old Daoists mourned their lost companions, then entered the Second-Layer World to renew their effort to establish a safe zone on Wailing Mountain.
• On Riverside Mountain, Ying Jiaren explained that she could multiply Drowning Water, allowing them to obtain three types within three months and save time for Foundation Establishment.

Wang Quan began constructing a Foundation Establishment Dao Platform in a valley beside Riverside Mountain, using spirit monsters and materials gathered by the Lower Court. After preparing and refining its foundation, he infused it with vast amounts of Dharma Power and ordered the next stage of construction.

• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren reduced the time they spent clearing out evil to focus more on cultivation and Foundation Establishment preparations.
• Wang Quan commanded spirit monsters to clear and level a valley beside Riverside Mountain for a platform three hundred and sixty-five zhang across.
• Wang Quan laid spirit bricks, refined them with spells, and had spirit monsters imitate a market ward until the bricks absorbed their multicolored light.
• Wang Quan infused the platform's framework with its blueprint and chanted three hundred and sixty-five Dao characters, causing it to absorb more than twenty-two thousand strands of Dharma Power.
• Wang Quan told a Flower Sprite to gather spirit monsters and tools to build the Foundation Establishment Dao Platform.

Wang Quan refined the Foundation Establishment Dao Platform with the help of shrunken spirit monsters while he and Ying Jiaren continued refining Drowning Water. After his rapid progress revealed the advantage of his Second-Rank Dao Seal, Ying Jiaren asked him to help her reach the same rank, and they entered secluded cultivation together.

• Wang Quan sent thirty-six thousand five hundred spirit monsters into the Dao Platform, where they shrank and used newly acquired skills to build it as it absorbed their mortal aura.
• In February, Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren visited Wailing Mountain and exchanged Drowning Water with the two old Daoists.
• In March, Ying Jiaren split Green Beetle Drowning Water and Cold Mountain Drowning Water and gave Wang Quan a drop of each, which he mastered and stored in his acupoints.
• In April, Ying Jiaren gave Wang Quan Incense Drowning Water, and it linked with the other two types to enhance his Dharma Power and spells.
• Wang Quan refined a drop of Drowning Water in two months for a little over a billion Green Beetles, while Ying Jiaren estimated her own process would take half a year and twenty billion.
• Ying Jiaren asked Wang Quan to help her reach the Second-Rank Dao Seal, and they prepared for secluded cultivation before entering the Second-Layer World and heading to the Scripture Repository.

Light-Escape Daoist brought a Strange Eye Alliance cultivator to a remote site, where orthodox cultivators built a new underground palace and installed the vertical eye No. 10087. The alliance began creating anomalies and preparing lethal defenses against intruders.

• Light-Escape Daoist found the former underground palace stripped bare, contacted his superiors, and fled to a mountain cave to open a spatial passage.
• A female cultivator emerged, sent Light-Escape Daoist away, and divined that the remote site suited the Strange Eye Alliance.
• The female cultivator gave two orthodox cultivators plans hidden in her flower basket and went into seclusion on an embroidered cloth.
• Hundreds of orthodox cultivators emerged from eggs, built an underground palace, and installed the caged vertical eye No. 10087 at its center.
• The orthodox cultivators suppressed No. 10087, altered captured brains to enforce loyalty, created anomalies, and prepared traps around the underground palace.

The [Strange Eye Alliance] tried to unleash anomalies in the Drowning Dao Lower Court, but the Market Ward’s plentiful refined sunlight destroyed them before they could cause trouble. As the Alliance’s cultivators lost faith, [Vertical Eye] saw an opportunity to rebel and resolved to learn what had killed its predecessor.

• The [Strange Eye Alliance] released anomalies toward the Market Ward, where streams of sunlight burned them to ash.
• The Alliance’s cultivators entered the Market Ward, studied its sunlight, and woke the female cultivator by worshipping the basket.
• The female cultivator led another attempt to infiltrate the Market Ward, but sunlight destroyed those anomalies too, so she returned to the floral cloth and told the cultivators to follow their orders without waking her again.
• The cultivators continued releasing anomalies, but the Lower Court’s widespread Sun Flower Spirit cultivation and routine use of refined sunlight made their attacks ineffective.
• After weeks of failure, the [Strange Eye Alliance] cultivators blamed Wang Quan and secretly discussed leaving the organization.
• [Vertical Eye] noticed the cultivators’ wavering resolve and planned to rebel after discovering what had killed its predecessor.

After earning the [Second-Rank Dao Seal], Ying Jiaren joined Wang Quan and Cultivator Zhong to help the cultivators claim a foothold on the evil wall. The cultivators discovered that Ying Jiaren had independently mastered the [People-Crossing Scripture] and could hear their secret voice transmissions.

• Ying Jiaren examined how the [Second-Rank Dao Seal] had improved her cultivation methods while Wang Quan surveyed the ruined Lower Court.
• Cultivators struggled to clear the evil wall, but the evil beings corroded the Daoist Scriptures they engraved there.
• Wang Quan agreed to help and waited for Ying Jiaren to emerge from the Scripture Repository; she accepted his invitation to join him and Cultivator Zhong.
• Wang Quan, Ying Jiaren, and Cultivator Zhong recited the [People-Crossing Scripture] while the cultivators prepared sunlight to attack the wall.
• The cultivators secretly wondered how Ying Jiaren had mastered the scripture, and she revealed that she had comprehended it herself and could hear their transmissions.

Wang Quan and the other cultivators struggled to establish Daoist Scriptures on the last evil building's wall, eventually gaining ground by recruiting thousands of Yin Spirit Cultivators nearing transformation into anomalies. As the evil beings prepared a counterattack, Wang Quan called for more cultivators and spirit monsters to be raised for the assault despite the cost in lives and resources.

• Wang Quan, Ying Jiaren, and Cultivator Zhong recited the People-Crossing Scripture while the other cultivators used sunlight to clear a small patch of wall.
• Wang Quan inscribed the 26,000th volume of the Daoist Scriptures with vine arms, and the cultivators reinforced it against the evil beings' attacks.
• Wang Quan abandoned defending the inscription and intensified the slaughter with Ying Jiaren, eating through his detached head while his body continued reciting.
• Wang Quan recruited Yin Spirit Cultivators on the verge of becoming anomalies to learn and recite the People-Crossing Scripture.
• Thousands of Yin Spirits helped clear a patch over ten feet across, allowing the cultivators to inscribe more volumes of Daoist Scriptures.
• Wang Quan demanded more rapidly matured Yin Spirit Cultivators or spirit monsters as enemies gathered, and a cultivator from the Si Household endorsed sacrificing others despite objections.

Wang Quan confronted the spherical Evil guarding the enclosing wall and rejected its warnings that removing the wall would expose the Lower Court to greater dangers. The Evil revealed that the wall embodied the laws of [Fury River God] and threatened divine retribution, leaving the cultivators facing a new potential threat.

• A grand Evil procession emerged from the enclosing wall, and the spherical Evil addressed Wang Quan by name.
• The spherical Evil argued that the wall’s aura protected the Lower Court from the Evils outside, but Wang Quan said cultivators could retreat to the Real World and return to clear the area again.
• Wang Quan and the cultivators dismissed the Evil’s warnings about the world beyond the Lower Court, saying they intended to clear the wall and develop the territory for future generations.
• Wang Quan offered the spherical Evil a chance to cooperate and possibly reincarnate with its memories intact.
• The spherical Evil declared that the enclosing wall embodied the laws of [Fury River God] and warned that divine wrath would follow the cultivators even into the Real World.

Wang Quan, Ying Jiaren, and Cultivator Zhong attacked the evil creatures inside the wall with the People-Crossing Scripture, while the spherical evil creature sought help from its master and was consumed. The remaining creatures were driven to the front, where the giants’ golden light and scripture spears destroyed them, even as the “Resist Tyranny” banner passed from one fighter to the next.

• Wang Quan, Ying Jiaren, and Cultivator Zhong resumed reciting the People-Crossing Scripture, and Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren focused their attacks on the spherical evil creature.
• The spherical evil creature fled to its manor and begged a twisted divine statue for help, but the statue consumed it and vanished.
• A chief steward ordered a wounded evil creature to the front, and the manor’s creatures gave it a banner reading “Resist Tyranny” and an eight-legged horse.
• The giants’ golden light and a People-Crossing Scripture spear struck the evil creature and its horse, turning them into blue smoke.
• The banner passed to other evil creatures, who charged the giants and were stopped by a barrier and destroyed.

Wang Quan and the cultivators used increasingly grotesque methods to clear evils from the wall, eventually establishing a three-zhang safe zone. The fighting eased, but the organizations behind the New-Method Cultivators resented their protests and considered disposing of them.

• Wang Quan accepted a plan to feed him mush through a tube while he recited the People-Crossing Scripture, and Ying Jiaren refused to do the same.
• The cultivators modified forcibly matured yin spirits with extra heads and stomachs, prompting an evil to declare humans the true evils before it was slain and sent to the Underworld.
• After more than a month and over ten billion Green Beetles spent, Wang Quan and the others stabilized a three-zhang safe zone and weakened the evils.
• The organizations reduced the number of modified yin spirits as New-Method Cultivators protested having their dead fellows' heads attached to them.
• The Orthodox Cultivators dismissed the protests and discussed using an excuse to eliminate the New-Method Cultivators.

Wang Quan watched the battle against the enclosing wall settle into a prolonged struggle while Evil beings sought reinforcements. In the Real World, Vertical Eye No. 10087 received orders to destroy the Drowning Dao Lower Court and began manipulating the female cultivators guarding it.

• Wang Quan remained unconcerned as the Orthodox Cultivators secured their foothold and continued fighting the Evil beings.
• A new city lord mobilized the Evil beings, then the many-armed Evil being called on the Vertical Eye idol for help.
• The Vertical Eye idol ordered its avatar in the Real World to destroy the Drowning Dao Lower Court to uphold its boast about its avatars' power.
• Vertical Eye No. 10087 reluctantly accepted the mission and used its adorable appearance and subtle influence to draw the female cultivators into sharing their troubles.
• Several days later, Vertical Eye offered the female cultivators strange objects and promised that indulging could bring a chance at eternal life or resurrecting their loved ones.

Wang Quan and the other cultivators steadily expanded their safe zone in the Second-Layer World while clearing out Evil, and snow began appearing there as the Real World influenced it. After years of progress, the Evil’s resistance weakened, leaving the cultivators confident they could continue taking control of the Lower Court.

• The Many-Armed City Lord waited for the master's distant cousin to help, while Vertical Eye was beaten by cultivators in the underground palace.
• Wang Quan followed his routine of studying scriptures with Ying Jiaren, clearing out Evil, and refining Drowning Water for months.
• Snow fell inside the Lower Court’s safe zone, and Wang Quan realized the Real World’s weather might be affecting the Second-Layer World.
• Ying Jiaren asked whether Wang Quan would stay if the Second-Layer World became like the Real World, and he said their home and roots were in the Real World.
• Over the next three years, the safe zone expanded faster as the Evil’s resistance faded, and the cultivators no longer needed to accelerate the creation of Yin Spirit Cultivators.

After three years of forced Yin Spirit production, the Orthodox Cultivators began reducing it as the Evils remained passive. In the Real World, Wang Quan advanced his Foundation Establishment Dao Platform and expanded his cultivation, but he and Ying Jiaren remained short of the Daoist Scriptures needed to reach the Third-Rank Dao Seal.

• The Orthodox Cultivators reduced Yin Spirit production after the three-year period ended, while the Evils continued to lie flat.
• Wang Quan used his Yang Spirit to gather moonlight into his Dao Platform, which strengthened the Spirit Monsters, Sun Flower Spirits, martial artists, and spirit plants.
• Wang Quan continued building his Dao Platform with new materials and expanded his foundations by mastering Drowning Water, spells, Thunderfire, and escape arts.
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren worried that completing thirty thousand Daoist Scriptures would take too long and wondered how other Dao Seal holders had managed it.
• Ying Jiaren suggested that other Dao Seal holders might have used external brains to draw on many minds.

Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren continued advancing their Daoist Scripture studies while avoiding the risks of external brains, as events unfolded in the Real World and Second-Layer World. The chapter ended with Wang Quan learning that the Round-Faced Daoist Nun was under attack and in dire danger.

• Wang Quan persuaded Ying Jiaren to postpone attaching external brains, and they continued studying Daoist Scriptures instead.
• Over two and a half years, Old Man Qin bred Incense Earth Spike Spirits, while New-Method Cultivators secretly formed a group to overthrow the New-Method Alliance.
• In the Second-Layer World, cultivators neared completion of the enclosing wall’s safe zone and anticipated a reward of Foundation Establishment Spirit Light.
• Qian Xiuyue predicted that she and her Dao companions would reach Foundation Establishment after reflecting the Real World's enclosing wall into the Second-Layer World.
• Wang Quan received a letter from the Round-Faced Daoist Nun saying New-Method Cultivators, unaffiliated cultivators, and Spirit Monsters had attacked her and her Lineage while the Great Sun Way watched for an opportunity.

Wang Quan arranged for Sword Express priority service and left his affairs in the Lower Court in order to find Senior Sister Round Face. He reached her frozen homeland, where martial artists discovered a field of corpses before an injured Foundation Establishment Ancestor demanded they carry him away.

• Wang Quan joined Sword Express as a guest retainer and received its highest-tier token after confirming Senior Sister Round Face had sent the letter herself.
• Wang Quan left Ying Jiaren to oversee the Foundation Establishment Dao Platforms and entrusted Riverside Mountain to Qian Xiuyue before departing alone.
• Wang Quan explained to Qian Xiuyue that the wider world held stronger Dao lineages than the Lower Court and that knowing when to flee was important.
• Wang Quan arrived in Senior Sister Round Face's homeland, where martial artists found a vast field of corpses and realized that several immortal cultivators had been killed.
• An injured Foundation Establishment Ancestor, Zhang Wang, emerged from a crater and ordered the fleeing martial artists to carry him away in a sedan chair.

Round-Faced Daoist Nun fought off a coalition attacking her as she tried to claim the blue lotus, while unseen killing intent slaughtered wounded Foundation Establishment Ancestors. Surrounded and under pressure from a Great Sun Way cultivator and another hidden threat, she resolved to hold on until Wang Quan arrived.

• Unseen killing intent beheaded Zhang Wang as he fled the icefield, and several more gravely wounded Foundation Establishment Ancestors were silently killed.
• Round-Faced Daoist Nun and her lineage defended the ice mountain against a vast coalition while she continued trying to capture the blue lotus.
• Round-Faced Daoist Nun used her strengthened yang spirit to ambush New-Method Foundation Establishment Cultivators, killing or gravely wounding several.
• A golden-haired cultivator from the Great Sun Way watched Round-Faced Daoist Nun without attacking, while she sensed another hidden enemy waiting for an opening.
• Round-Faced Daoist Nun resolved to hold on for a month until Wang Quan could reach her.

Wang Quan arrived on the battlefield to help the Round-Faced Daoist Nun and challenged the Great Sun Way cultivator to demonstrate their strength against their enemies. He unleashed a vast array of coordinated spells, killing roughly a fifth of the cultivators and spirit monsters before the Great Sun Way cultivator praised his skill and prepared to show his own.

• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun was stunned when Wang Quan arrived far earlier than she expected, and he told the Great Sun Way cultivator he had come to help his senior sister.
• Wang Quan argued that the Great Sun Way cultivator should accept losing two-thirds of the Immortal-Tutoring Bureaus, then proposed that they display their abilities against the surrounding cultivators and spirit monsters.
• When the surrounding fighters objected to being called wild cultivators, Wang Quan released paper warriors that overwhelmed the spirit monsters and used yin winds to kill cultivators by scattering their spirits and souls.
• Wang Quan followed with spells involving fire, thunder, cold, golden spears, dandelion seeds, and grass serpents, killing about a fifth of the surrounding attackers in thirty breaths.
• The Great Sun Way cultivator admired Wang Quan's thirteen interconnected categories of spells and asked to see what he could do.

Wang Quan demanded to know who had ordered the attack on his senior sister, but the cultivators argued over whether she had stolen a blue lotus Magic Treasure. When they refused to answer, he used Image Tracing to kill them, leaving the Great Sun Way cultivator watching his own portrait take shape.

• The Great Sun Way cultivator accused Wang Quan of being a spy from an Orthodox Mystic Sect, while a New-Method Foundation Establishment Ancestor lamented being treated as a chive.
• Wang Quan asked who had ordered the cultivators to attack his senior sister and steal her treasure.
• The unaffiliated Orthodox Cultivators claimed the Round-Faced Daoist Nun had seized their blue lotus Magic Treasure, while she insisted it had been born of heaven and nurtured by earth.
• Wang Quan rejected the cultivators' claim that they had refined the blue lotus and demanded to know who had ordered the attack.
• When the cultivators stayed silent, Wang Quan used Shadow Portrait and Image Tracing to depict and kill them, splitting their bodies and escaping spirits with ink.
• The Great Sun Way cultivator realized Wang Quan was painting his portrait too.

Wang Quan forced the surviving attackers to reveal that the Strange Eye Alliance had ordered them to target Round-Faced Daoist Nun, then tried to help her claim the Blue Lotus Magic Treasure. The treasure revealed its owner and froze nearly everyone nearby, while an unknown cultivator asked Wang Quan to help find the plotters.

• Wang Quan used Image Tracing to kill the attackers and made a Foundation Establishment Ancestor disclose that the Strange Eye Alliance had supported their plot against Round-Faced Daoist Nun.
• Wang Quan kept the Great Sun Way cultivator under suspicion while Round-Faced Daoist Nun tried to take control of the Blue Lotus Magic Treasure.
• The iceberg broke apart, and the Blue Lotus immobilized Round-Faced Daoist Nun, the Great Sun Way cultivator, and the fleeing attackers.
• Wang Quan traced the Blue Lotus with Image Tracing, but the treasure's essence returned to it, and the attackers froze into ice sculptures that exploded into mist.
• Wang Quan rescued Round-Faced Daoist Nun and prepared spells as the treasure's owner searched for the plotters.
• The unknown cultivator told Wang Quan that the attackers had damaged the treasure and asked him to help locate them.