Chapter Summaries

A female Grotto Heaven cultivator witnessed Wang Quan rapidly open a temporary safe zone in Stone City and tried to convince him and Drowning Dao Headquarters to use his method. The headquarters mistook her account for hysteria and gagged her, leaving her unable to spread the news.

• The female cultivator told Wang Quan that his safe-zone method had achieved in moments what countless cultivators had spent years working toward, and urged him to go to Drowning Water Headquarters.
• Wang Quan refused to leave Stone City, and the female cultivator returned to Drowning Water Headquarters to report what she had seen.
• The female cultivator described Wang Quan's method and the million Foundation Establishment Cultivators in Stone City, but the important figures assumed her hysteria had worsened.
• She presented memories as evidence and explained the details of the temporary safe zone, but the important figures believed those memories were part of the delusion.
• The female cultivator insisted she had no hysteria and urged the important figures to visit Stone City, but they gagged her and ordered her into seclusion.

Wang Quan planted the special seed Qian Xiuyue had sent him in Stone City's spirit field, expecting little from it. The seed grew into a tree that stabilized the local earth and spirit veins and produced refined sunlight for the [Sun Flower Spirits].

• Wang Quan told Ruo Jinghong and the others that the female cultivator had caused the evil in the Second-Layer World to strengthen, and they agreed to develop Stone City before entering again in a month.
• Wang Quan reassured Great Wind-Driller that the strange woman was gone, then had spirit monsters prepare a hundred-mu spirit field.
• Wang Quan planted the special seed Qian Xiuyue had mailed him and used spells to make it sprout and grow.
• The sapling sent roots into the earth veins and spirit veins, stabilizing them and continuing to grow without Wang Quan's spells.
• The tree produced refined sunlight, which Wang Quan sent to nearby [Sun Flower Spirits] to store in gourds, and he recognized the tree as a treasure.

Wang Quan tried to master the strange mulberry tree but could not overcome a hidden barrier until he discovered that Bump the snake spirit had been sleeping inside it. After Bump was captured and removed, Wang Quan claimed the tree, but he and Ruo Jinghong remained wary of both the tree and the snake spirit.

• Wang Quan investigated the mulberry tree with spells and his Yang Spirit, but found its starry interior impossible to control.
• Ruo Jinghong asked Wang Quan for a mulberry branch, and the branch he snapped off transformed into a fast-fleeing snake spirit that they captured.
• Bump the snake spirit said it was a Stone City orphan who had hidden in the tree to avoid labor service, while its parents and neighbors explained that its dreams trapped anyone who entered its sleeping place.
• After Bump was removed, Wang Quan found that his imprints had returned to the tree's surface and successfully branded it completely.
• Wang Quan asked Ruo Jinghong to control Bump and have it sleep in the tree; she planned to make a special magical artifact while he questioned the snake spirit's parents.

Wang Quan discovered that dozens of tumor-covered Spirit Monsters had been born on the same day and gathered them to investigate their unusual abilities and origins. Rather than kill or bind them, he taught them the Fundamental Method of the Way of Idiocy, leaving the monsters grateful on the surface while secretly plotting revenge.

• Wang Quan questioned the snake spirit couple and their neighbors, learning that many improper, tumor-covered Spirit Monsters existed.
• Wang Quan gathered dozens of the monsters and learned they had all been born on the same day, then asked Ruo Jinghong and the others to investigate what had happened then.
• The cultivators recalled several strange events but could not determine the monsters' origins, and they debated killing, controlling, or exploiting them.
• Wang Quan refused to kill the monsters and announced that he would reform them by teaching the Fundamental Method of the Way of Idiocy.
• Wang Quan cast the cultivation method into the monsters' minds, and they thanked him as their master while secretly vowing to take revenge.

Wang Quan linked the spiritual mulberry tree to himself with [Self Manifestation] and cultivated tumor Spirit Monsters to serve as external brains. When he and the others returned to the Second-Layer World, they found the Multi-Barreled Artillery Evils had broken down after failing to stop the expanding white light.

• Wang Quan helped the tumor Spirit Monsters cultivate the Way of Idiocy and arranged for them to practice beneath the spiritual mulberry tree.
• Wang Quan studied the mulberry tree, used [Self Manifestation] to link it to himself, and considered how the connection would change if he died at different cultivation realms.
• Wang Quan planned to have the tumor Spirit Monsters wash his brains once they reached Foundation Establishment.
• After a month, Ruo Jinghong and the others joined Wang Quan in entering the Second-Layer World, where they saw that the walls had gained another scroll of Daoist Scriptures.
• The Multi-Barreled Artillery Evils told Wang Quan and the others that they could not approach or blacken the walls despite growing stronger, and Mei Niang comforted one of them.

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.