Chapter Summaries

After years of linking cities across the Polar Lands, Wang Quan learned that Far South · Spring Breeze and A Cup of Wine had joined, triggering sweeping changes throughout the world. The success confirmed his idea and left the All-Under-Heaven Dao Court poised to focus on connecting more cities.

• Ruo Jinghong reported that cities across the Polar Lands were opening territory, though some New-Method Golden Cores resisted the effort.
• Ruo Jinghong's group stayed in Far South · Spring Breeze to watch it link with A Cup of Wine, whose city lords were Blessed Land experts and Dao companions.
• As the cities approached their final connection, Wang Quan waited anxiously for news of whether the link would change the world.
• When the cities joined, a tremor passed through the world, and Ruo Jinghong reported new Spirit Veins, earth and mineral veins, collapsing abnormal weather, stronger spirits, and a surge in New-Method Golden Cores.
• Wang Quan declared that the plan had worked, while the All-Under-Heaven Dao Court drifted above the firmament as an enormous Magic Treasure.

The [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court] mobilized vast resources and cultivators to link the cities of the Polar Lands after concluding that doing so could greatly strengthen the region. Ye Quanzhen arrived in Stone City to assist Wang Quan, leaving him to wonder about the Polar Lands’ connection to the coming Era Cataclysm.

• The Grotto Heaven Cultivators issued orders requisitioning resources and cultivators from across the New Continent to open passages through the Polar Lands.
• Vast numbers of resources and powerful cultivators entered the Polar Lands, and experts arriving in Stone City spread out to assist.
• Ye Quanzhen of the Mountains and Waters Grotto Heaven introduced herself to Wang Quan and said she had come under orders to help open passages.
• Ye Quanzhen told Wang Quan that linking every city could increase the Polar Lands’ stability at least threefold and might help billions survive in the future.
• Wang Quan suspected the Polar Lands were connected to the Era Cataclysm, and Ye Quanzhen went to arrange the other Grotto Heaven Cultivators before promising to speak with him.

Ye Quanzhen led thousands of Grotto Heaven cultivators in studying Wang Quan’s method for opening a safe zone in the Second Layer of the Underworld, then spearheaded their attempt to establish one in the Polar Lands. Over ten years, Stone City connected with four neighboring cities and strengthened its foundations while Wang Quan amassed golden cores and worked on his sixtieth thousand Daoist Scripture scroll; Ye Quanzhen eventually returned.

• Ye Quanzhen asked Wang Quan for details on how he had opened the Second Layer of the Underworld, and he shared a visualization of his past experiences with her.
• Ye Quanzhen and nearly four thousand Grotto Heaven cultivators studied Wang Quan’s memories, then entered the Underworld to try to establish a second safe zone in the Polar Lands.
• Wang Quan accumulated roughly a million golden cores and began building a second warehouse to store them.
• Stone City connected with West Wind and then three more cities, stabilizing the Polar Lands and greatly strengthening Stone City’s foundations.
• Wang Quan advanced his Daoist Scriptures to fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine scrolls and began struggling to complete the sixtieth thousand.
• After years away, Ye Quanzhen returned to Stone City.

Ye Quanzhen reported that the All-Under-Heaven Dao Court had established a safe zone in the Second Layer of the Underworld, while Wang Quan continued studying the Daoist Scriptures and advanced to a sixth-grade Dao Seal. As he prepared to refine a Golden Core, he urged his companions to reach the sixth grade first, but Mei Niang argued that sect-developed divine abilities could make up for what they missed.

• Ye Quanzhen told Wang Quan that she and several thousand legendary Grotto Heavens had established a safe zone in the Second Layer of the Underworld, then left to recover and continue their work.
• Over the following decades, Ye Quanzhen led the establishment of more Underworld safe zones as the All-Under-Heaven Dao Court connected the Fifth-Layer World and strengthened the Polar Lands.
• After completing his sixty-thousandth scroll of Daoist Scriptures, Wang Quan advanced to a sixth-grade Dao Seal and learned secret knowledge about Primordial Spirits, Dharma Forms, greater divine abilities, and blessed lands.
• Wang Quan decided to focus on refining a Golden Core and told Ruo Jinghong, Ying Jiaren, and the others that they should reach the sixth grade to gain special greater divine abilities.
• Ying Jiaren said a sixth-grade Dao Seal was beyond her reach, while Mei Niang argued that sect-developed divine abilities could make them no weaker than Dao Seal cultivators.

Wang Quan and his companions prepared to refine their Golden Cores, each choosing a top-tier core suited to their cultivation. Wang Quan searched the Underworld for a place to forge his own and found a mountain in the 88th Ring that matched the Imperial Scripture’s description.

• Wang Quan’s companions decided to reach Golden Core first, and Wang Quan began preparing to refine his Golden Core.
• Mei Niang chose [Though My Body Lacks the Paired Wings of a Colorful Phoenix], while Ruo Jinghong chose [Ten Thousand Dabs of Rouge Glow in the Setting Sun; Wine-Flushed Faces at the Gathering Spread a Faint Red].
• Ying Jiaren chose an incense-offering Golden Core and planned to fuse it with a Drowning Dao Golden Core; Wang Quan chose [People Today See Not the Moon of Ancient Times, Only the Bright Moon of Those Years First Shining upon Them].
• Wang Quan examined his sixth-grade Dao Seal but postponed choosing its remaining traits until after he reached Golden Core.
• Wang Quan searched the Underworld for a suitable place to forge his Golden Core and found a natural, cauldron-shaped mountain in the 88th Ring.

Wang Quan sent ghosts and gods to buy a mountain for his Golden Core furnace, unaware that they planned to steal it and keep the purchase money. He returned to the prosperous Drowning Dao Lower Court while the mountain’s landlord set off to complain all the way to the imperial capital.

• Wang Quan gave ghosts and gods gifts and Green Fly Coins to buy a special mountain outside City No. 10086 in the 88th Ring.
• The ghosts and gods decided to pocket the money and seize the mountain, planning to use their strength against its local residents.
• The ghosts and gods drove the mountain’s residents away, and the rich landlord vowed to report them to the city lord, the ring lord, and the imperial capital.
• Wang Quan returned to the Drowning Dao Lower Court and found its Market Ward, Sun Flower trade, and river commerce greatly expanded.

Wang Quan returned to the Drowning Dao Lower Court to ask Qian Xiuyue for resources to refine his special Golden Core. She found that the court could supply only a fraction of what he needed, but Wang Quan refused to settle for an inferior core.

• Wang Quan surveyed the flourishing Drowning Dao Lower Court and praised Qian Xiuyue's leadership before finding her in the Star Hall being pampered by cultivators.
• Qian Xiuyue joyfully reunited with Wang Quan, and the two teased each other before he explained that he had returned to refine a Golden Core.
• Wang Quan gave Qian Xiuyue a list of the materials he needed, and she realized the Drowning Dao Lower Court could gather only about one percent of them.
• Qian Xiuyue offered to use the court's Green Beetles and merchant caravans to obtain resources, but Wang Quan said the remaining materials had to come from Stone City and City No. 95.
• Qian Xiuyue urged Wang Quan to refine an inferior Golden Core, but he insisted his special Golden Core was worth the immense cost.

Wang Quan used his privileges from the spell duels to secure resources for refining his Golden Core and chose Crouching Tiger Mountain as his refining site. There, the Mountain Reliance Sect’s cultivators recognized him as their patriarch and begged him to lead them.

• Wang Quan sent the All-Under-Heaven Dao Court a list of needed resources and received enough to refine several top-tier Golden Cores.
• Wang Quan selected a mountain near the Fury River and told Qian Xiuyue that strange manifestations might appear during his refinement.
• Qian Xiuyue warned her people to stay calm if abnormal weather arose, and Wang Quan flew to Crouching Tiger Mountain.
• The Mountain Reliance Sect’s cultivators recognized Wang Quan and knelt, calling him their patriarch.
• The old cultivator explained that Wang Quan’s Twelve Houses of the Zodiac had helped them establish the sect, and asked him to lead them; Wang Quan said they had only met by chance.

After the Mountain Reliance Sect left Crouching Tiger Mountain, Wang Quan prepared a ritual to connect with Great Tripod Cauldron Mountain in the Underworld. There, ghost gods from City No. 95 launched a battle against the forces of City No. 10086, hoping to shift the blame for their failure onto their opponents.

• Wang Quan gave the Mountain Reliance Sect cultivators treasures and portraits of himself, then watched them leave Crouching Tiger Mountain with everything they could carry.
• Wang Quan used Paper People and treasures from his Hundred-Treasure Pouches to prepare a mountaintop altar and ritual array.
• Wang Quan bathed, changed his clothes, and began a ritual intended to connect him to Great Tripod Cauldron Mountain in the Underworld.
• A wealthy landlord ghost led a large force from City No. 10086 on its sixth campaign to capture the ghost gods guarding Great Tripod Cauldron Mountain.
• The outnumbered ghost gods from City No. 95 decided to fight briefly and blame their failure on the local ghost gods, then charged at them.
• The local ghost gods rallied and charged back as the wealthy landlord blew his horn and shouted, "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Wang Quan brought Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain from the Underworld to Crouching Tiger Mountain and prepared to refine his Golden Core. After warning the ghost gods to guard the mountain, he ascended the Five-Colored Altar and began the refinement.

• Local ghost gods and those from City No. 95 battled until Lord Flower-Scatter anchored Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain with golden chains.
• The ghost gods from City No. 95 guarded the mountain as it flew through the Underworld, while the local ghost gods chased it and eventually stopped to celebrate.
• Wang Quan guided Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain to Crouching Tiger Mountain, where the ghost gods connected it to the Earth Veins and held it in place.
• Wang Quan told the ghost gods he would begin refining his Golden Core in three days and that the process could take ten to a hundred years.
• Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, Ying Jiaren, and the others accelerated their own core refinement, and Mei Niang vowed to refine her Golden Core before Wang Quan.
• On the fourth day, Wang Quan swallowed purple qi, paid homage to the heavens and earth, and ascended the Five-Colored Altar to refine his Golden Core.

Wang Quan began refining his Golden Core on Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain, feeding it vast quantities of treasures and New Method Golden Cores while ghost gods assisted him. After a year, the twin women he had visualized wove a new figure into the forming core, which sent a beam of golden light through the mortal world and the Underworld.

• Wang Quan poured True Solar Fire and countless treasures into Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain and gave the ghost gods spells to help refine his Golden Core.
• The ghost gods watched as Wang Quan used New Method Golden Cores to visualize twin women, whose first forms remained in the mountain while later images merged into it.
• Over months, the twin women grew increasingly lifelike as tens of millions of Golden Cores and other materials accumulated around them.
• After a year, the twins caught the falling Golden Cores, spun them into golden threads, and wove a new female figure.
• The newly woven figure leaped into the ball above the twins, and a beam of golden light pierced through the mortal world and the Underworld.

Wang Quan’s golden-core refinement produced vast, tangible manifestations across the Real World and Underworld, drawing powerful cultivators to Crouching Tiger Mountain. After watching him consume ten million new method golden cores in a year, many great cultivators left, while some golden core cultivators remained.

• Golden light shattered the skies of the Real World and Underworld as Wang Quan and his twin sat motionless during the refinement at Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain.
• Resources emerged from Crouching Tiger Mountain, and Wang Quan summoned Qian Xiuyue and Senior Sister Round Face to help cultivators gather them.
• Golden lotuses and auspicious blessings spread across thirty thousand li, while great cultivators traced the manifestations to Wang Quan’s golden-core refinement and wondered about its mysteries.
• Wang Quan let the great cultivators observe, but prepared to defend himself with the [Sky Patrol Magic Treasure], the [Drowning Dao Court], and the [All-Under-Heaven Dao Court] if they tried to seize his golden core.
• After a year of watching Wang Quan consume ten million new method golden cores, many great cultivators abandoned their plans and left, while some golden core cultivators stayed.

Wang Quan spent twelve years refining an enormous Golden Core in Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain, while the Ming Yue he visualized became mysterious, independent beings. As Golden Core Cultivators gathered to seize the treasure, a powerful female cultivator killed one of them and demanded that the newcomers leave their Golden Cores.

• Wang Quan added materials, recited Daoist Scriptures, and used his Purple Mansion’s Dharma Power to refine the Golden Core as auspicious manifestations spread across the region.
• In the ninth year, the twin Ming Yue descended into the Real World, questioned Wang Quan about the era, then returned to Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain and entered the growing Golden Core.
• By the twelfth year, Wang Quan had used up more than a hundred million New Method Golden Cores and all the materials in Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain, creating a Golden Core three thousand three hundred zhang across.
• Golden Core Cultivators arrived near Dragon and Tiger Mountain and discussed working together to seize the treasure.
• A female Golden Core Cultivator pinned a newcomer with her gaze and burned him to ashes with her Wind of Yin and Yang, Life and Death.
• The female Golden Core Cultivator ordered the remaining newcomers to leave their Golden Cores before going.

In the fifteenth year of refining his golden core, Wang Quan completed the preliminary preparations and shared his method with Dao Seal Golden Core Cultivators. They were astonished by its immense cost, and Wang Quan explained that reproducing it would require control of both a city in the Polar Lands and a great city in the Underworld.

• Orthodox Golden Core Cultivators who arrived later surrendered their golden cores, then learned the Dao Seal cultivators considered them worthless and began cultivating to improve them.
• Orthodox Golden Core Cultivators used Earth-Sprung Golden Lotuses and auspicious manifestations to nourish their cores, while more cultivators gathered around Wang Quan's refining endeavor in rings.
• Wang Quan guarded Crouching Tiger Mountain for years, but the watching cultivators made no trouble and instead studied the golden core he was refining.
• In the fifteenth year, Ming Yue and the others vanished from the core, leaving a moonlike golden core rising within Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain.
• Dao Seal Golden Core Cultivators offered Wang Quan resources and two first-tier magic treasures for his method, but he asked for future assistance instead and explained his refinement and visualization methods.
• The Dao Seal cultivators balked at the enormous cost, and Wang Quan told them a city in the Polar Lands would not suffice without a great city in the Underworld.

Wang Quan continued refining his enormous golden core while the Dao Seal Cultivators around him completed their own. As his estimate for finishing kept growing, Ying Jiaren decided to bring Bitter Cold City's Golden Cores to help haul his core upward by force.

• The Dao Seal Cultivators left after learning the extraordinary materials Wang Quan needed, while he insisted that effort could still obtain them.
• Qian Xiuyue completed the first-grade [Ice and Fire Gods and Devils Pill], and Wang Quan urged her to expand the Drowning Dao Lower Court's territory.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun completed [A Hundred Charms and a Thousand Reds in the Mortal World] so Wang Quan could use it as a material for [Three Thousand Drowning Water].
• Mei Niang and Ruo Jinghong finished their golden cores, and Ruo Jinghong promised to keep Mei Niang from bullying Wang Quan.
• Ying Jiaren warned Wang Quan that Reincarnation cultivators, including New-Method Spirit Transformation patriarchs, had ambushed her, but she was safe in Bitter Cold City.
• Ying Jiaren completed her two golden cores, then offered to bring Bitter Cold City's Golden Cores to haul Wang Quan's slowly rising golden core upward by force.

Ying Jiaren gathered Golden Core cultivators to help Wang Quan, but many came hoping to mock him and search for a heavenly treasure. As Wang Quan continued refining his Golden Core at Crouching Tiger Mountain, a woman caught and bound him with her Divine Ability and Magic Treasure.

• Ying Jiaren recruited Golden Core cultivators in Bitter Cold City and led them toward Wang Quan at Crouching Tiger Mountain.
• The cultivators noticed auspicious manifestations and golden lotuses near the mountain, realized they could be used to refine treasures, and hurried to find the source before Wang Quan.
• Beitang Xue, Ruo Jinghong, Mei Niang, and other Golden Core cultivators also headed toward Wang Quan's location.
• Wang Quan continued refining his special Golden Core as its ascent slowed, then received messages that Ying Jiaren and the others were approaching.
• A woman caught Wang Quan with her Heaven-and-Earth Hand, defeated his attempt to fight back, and bound him with the Shimmering Gold Rope.

Mei Niang seized Wang Quan, but Ruo Jinghong and Ying Jiaren intervened, ending the fight and driving the rivals away from him. The Dao Seal Golden Cores then gathered around Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain as Wang Quan refined cores, and after a year many left when the golden lotuses and manifestations no longer helped them.

• Mei Niang seized Wang Quan, but Ruo Jinghong caught up and fought her while Tongtong and the watching Golden Cores became involved.
• Beitang Xue told the Bitter Cold City Golden Cores that Mei Niang and Ruo Jinghong were exploring love, and Mei Niang briefly seduced one of them.
• Ying Jiaren attacked Mei Niang and Ruo Jinghong, then warned them to stay away from Wang Quan; Wang Quan flew to Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain to continue refining cores.
• The Dao Seal Golden Cores gathered near the mountain, collected manifestations and golden lotuses, and pursued their cultivation while Wang Quan refined cores.
• After a year, many newly advanced Golden Cores left for the Polar Lands or the Third-Layer World, while a few stayed behind.

After fifty-five years of refining, Wang Quan and the others hauled his golden core out of Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain and sent it from the Underworld into the mortal world. Its arrival created a thirty-thousand-li cultivation wonderland, while its heartbeat deepened the cultivators’ understanding and Wang Quan began absorbing it into his Purple Mansion.

• Ruo Jinghong suggested pulling Wang Quan’s slowly rising golden core out of Three-Legged Cauldron Mountain, and the cultivators agreed to help.
• Wang Quan, the cultivators, and the ghosts and gods hauled the golden core upward, enduring the mountain’s intense flames until it broke free.
• Wang Quan chanted an incantation, and the golden core shot through the boundary between the Underworld and the mortal world.
• The golden core’s arrival brought auspicious manifestations, golden lotuses, and new veins across thirty thousand li, benefiting living beings, ghosts, and monsters.
• The golden core’s heartbeat enhanced the cultivators’ understanding, and Ying Jiaren, Ruo Jinghong, Beitang Xue, and the others began reading Daoist scriptures.
• Wang Quan released his Purple Mansion and began absorbing the golden core into it.

Wang Quan struggled to accommodate the Bright Moon Golden Core, whose immense power cracked his Purple Mansion until its inhabitants and treasures worked to hold it together. Chu Zhaoren revealed herself within the core and explained that she had hoped to return to the mortal world, then withdrew and let the Golden Core settle into Wang Quan’s Purple Mansion.

• Ying Jiaren and others guarded Wang Quan as he began accommodating the Bright Moon Golden Core, while Mei Niang tried to distract him and then gathered cultivators to practice Beautiful Lady Yu.
• As the Golden Core nearly entered the Purple Mansion, its growing size cracked buildings, so Wang Quan sent monsters and martial artists to repair and brace them and used his Magic Treasures to stabilize the damage.
• Wang Quan questioned the Golden Core and learned that Chu Zhaoren had been waiting for a chance to return to the mortal world through Bright Moon, but his foundations could not yet bear her.
• Chu Zhaoren said she had died in the primordial chaos and told Wang Quan to seek the Great Unification Epoch Belt if he could enter it.
• Chu Zhaoren withdrew from the Golden Core, which shrank to normal size and entered the Purple Mansion as the damaged structure rumbled.

Wang Quan’s Golden Core and Purple Mansion merged, transforming his inner world and giving him a prolonged surge in wisdom. He selected a framework of one hundred and eight Divine Ability classifications and completed his advancement into a Golden Core Cultivator.

• The restored Purple Mansion took shape, and Wang Quan allowed the turtle monster to carry its Hall Pillar as Baxia.
• During the merging’s surge of clarity, Wang Quan studied the one hundred and eight Divine Ability categories and selected all of them, then refined his choices to three hundred and twenty-four smaller classifications.
• The Golden Core and Purple Mansion imprinted themselves upon each other, while the Yang Spirit and Foundation Establishment Dao Platform received matching patterns.
• The Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha merged into the Golden Core, which became the Great Sun above the expanding Purple Mansion.
• Wang Quan fully mastered [People today see not the moon of ancient times, only the bright moon of that year first shining upon mankind] and became a Golden Core Cultivator.