Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan sought a way to curb his Yin Spirit’s relentless urge to transform, but neither advice nor an extreme remedy helped. He later met Ying Jiaren, who asked whether she was right to delay practicing the Fundamental Method until she discovered the benefits of mastering the Ten Thousand Scrolls Dao Canon.

• Wang Quan asked a cultivator in the Second-Layer World about his frequent urge to transform, and the cultivator suspected it might be linked to how quickly he condensed Dao characters.
• The cultivator suggested slowing down or using mind-clearing aids, while other cultivators discussed Wang Quan’s rapid progress and the rewards they hoped he would earn.
• Wang Quan asked the Round-Faced Daoist Nun about remedies, tried severing and reattaching part of his body on her advice, and found that the urge to transform remained unchanged.
• Wang Quan decided to suppress the urge and refine Dharma Power, then encountered Ying Jiaren sitting on his coffin.
• Ying Jiaren told Wang Quan that she had resisted practicing the Fundamental Method because she wanted to learn the benefits of mastering the Ten Thousand Scrolls Dao Canon first, and asked whether she was right to persist.

Wang Quan urged Ying Jiaren to follow her own path and kept the benefits of mastering the Ten Thousand Scrolls Dao Canon to himself. Meanwhile, cultivators angered by Qin Feng’s death launched a coordinated ambush against Wang Quan, whose fate remained uncertain as their attacks entered the landscape painting.

• Wang Quan told Ying Jiaren that cultivating toward immortality was lonely, and she thanked him before heading off to cultivate.
• Ying Jiaren asked whether Wang Quan had mastered the Ten Thousand Scrolls Dao Canon before spell cultivation, but he answered only, “Guess!”
• The New-Method Alliance gathered to plan revenge on Wang Quan for killing Qin Feng, but several orthodox cultivators refused to risk retaliation for someone they barely knew.
• The alliance’s leaders persuaded the reluctant orthodox cultivators to contribute thunderfire and other means, then prepared a coordinated attack using fierce winds, heavy rain, and a Light-Fixing Mirror.
• The cultivators locked onto Wang Quan’s figure in a landscape painting and sent the New-Method cultivators’ spells through the mirror’s light to attack him.

Wang Quan traced the source of a coordinated long-distance attack and fought off its spells, thunderfire charges, and spatial seal. After breaking free, he taunted his attackers and challenged them to try again.

• Wang Quan sensed an attack carried by unnatural wind and rain, then used the Backtracking Art to locate the cultivators behind it.
• Wang Quan summoned paper palace maidens and decoys, but a spatial seal stopped his Moonlight Escape as spells rained down on him.
• A female cultivator identified Wang Quan and hurled dozens of thunderfire charges at him, while other cultivators joined the attack.
• Wang Quan swallowed the thunderfire charges with smoke and dust and countered the incoming spells with Great Yin Yin Thunder.
• Wang Quan's yin spirit cast Hundred Boats Vie for the Current and shattered the spatial seal, allowing him to break free and taunt his attackers.

Wang Quan counterattacked the cultivators who had tried to kill him across space, overwhelming them with Yin Lightning and Nightmare-Subduing techniques. The survivors prepared another attack while one of their number began a ritual targeting Wang Quan.

• After recognizing that Wang Quan was counterattacking instead of fleeing, more than a dozen orthodox cultivators escaped the hall.
• Wang Quan struck the hall with Illusory Moon Yin Thunder and over a hundred more blasts, killing more than a dozen New-Method Cultivators and disorienting the rest.
• The female cultivator used her landscape painting to absorb Wang Quan's next attacks, while an orthodox cultivator broke the others out of their illusions.
• When the cultivators prepared to attack Wang Quan across space again, his Yin Spirit's Nightmare-Subduing Technique killed one New-Method Cultivator.
• The wind-summoning cultivator bound the group with protective ribbons, but a cultivator whose ribbon failed died as he tried to flee.
• A companion began a Nightmare-Subduing ritual against Wang Quan using an incense altar, eggs, and blood.

Wang Quan survived the cultivators’ attacks and returned to the Lower Court, then turned the tables on those who had tried to kill him. The landscape painting’s female cultivator was left wounded inside the Lower Court, where its Yin Spirits refused to intervene.

• The Nightmare-Subduing Technique cultivator repeatedly shot Wang Quan’s egg-born doubles, but Wang Quan remained alive and killed a cultivator with Yin Lightning.
• The Light-Fixing Mirror cultivator found that Wang Quan had returned to the Lower Court, then saw him leave and return to the mountain to attack the group.
• Wang Quan killed the Nightmare-Subduing Technique cultivator with his own Nightmare-Subduing Technique before he could use eggs to escape death.
• The landscape painting’s female cultivator fled toward the Lower Court, but Wang Quan ruined her painting and wounded her along the way.
• The female cultivator reached the Lower Court and collapsed, but its Yin Spirits said they would not intervene because her wounds had been inflicted outside.

Wang Quan killed several orthodox cultivators who attacked him outside the Lower Court, then prepared to settle his remaining grudges. He left to demand his wages, warning that he might kill more people if they refused to pay.

• A female cultivator realized Wang Quan’s Illusion Art had trapped her and died after failing to escape.
• Wang Quan emerged from moonlight, collected the corpses in a magical box, and erased the traces of the battle.
• Wang Quan returned to his coffin and rebuilt his paper-effigy death-substitution defenses.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun noticed the resentment clinging to Wang Quan and advised him to learn the Record of Wrongs Cleansed spell.
• Wang Quan asked her for high-grade Illusion Art and Nightmare-Subduing Technique materials, saying he was going to collect his wages and might kill people if they refused.

Wang Quan demanded overdue wages from the Blissful Union House, while the New-Method Alliance’s leaders argued over whether to pay him or kill him. He seized a steward’s jade pendant and threatened the Alliance, then demonstrated his resolve by blasting apart walls in the house.

• Wang Quan went to the largest Blissful Union House and told a greeter he had come to collect his wages as the Flower-Scatter Daoist.
• A steward received warnings that Wang Quan had killed members of Branch 96, then read conflicting orders from Alliance leaders about whether to pay him or attack him.
• Wang Quan took the steward’s jade pendant, erased its mark, and joined the leaders’ discussion to demand payment and threaten to curse New-Method Cultivators to death.
• Wang Quan explained that the Blissful Union House and the Zhao Household had withheld wages related to burying Zhao Fei and the others, and said paying him would prevent further attacks.
• When an Alliance leader asked what would happen if they refused, Wang Quan blasted through walls on the Blissful Union House’s seventh floor with Yin Lightning.

Wang Quan received two million Green Beetles in overdue wages after threatening to destroy the New-Method Alliance’s property, then returned to the Lower Court and sorted the spoils from several dozen corpses. He kept useful pills, pouches, and high-quality training materials while selling the rest, including the female cultivators’ clothing to a shop in the outer market.

• Orthodox cultivators praised Wang Quan’s destructive tactics, while New-Method Foundation Establishment Ancestors protested that he was ruining their property and killing their people.
• A female orthodox cultivator who supported the New Method warned that Wang Quan needed to be dealt with carefully, so the Foundation Establishment Ancestors paid him two million Green Beetles in wages and interest.
• Wang Quan abandoned his plan to kill more people, exchanged pleasantries with the New-Method Foundation Establishment Ancestor, and drifted toward the Drowning Dao Lower Court.
• At the Miscellaneous Goods Hall, Wang Quan asked the Round-Faced Daoist Nun to help sort his valuables and released corpses from a box.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun taught Wang Quan how to sort the corpses’ belongings, and together they stripped and processed several dozen bodies.
• Wang Quan sold damaged artifacts, excess pouches, and low-quality training materials, while keeping pills, useful pouches, and high-quality spell-training materials.

After growing wealthy from selling spoils, Wang Quan struggled with uncontrollable thoughts of transformation as he condensed the [Yang Spirit Scripture]. He sought help from Dream Nun, but she failed to drain his yang energy and declared his condition incurable.

• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun settled Wang Quan’s share of the spoils at over nine million Green Beetles, while Wang Quan kept the pills and corpses for his own use.
• Wang Quan’s progress reached 9,500 Dao characters, and his restless Yin Spirit and thoughts of transformation began disrupting his cultivation.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun suggested that Fairy Qin or Dream Nun could relieve Wang Quan’s excess yang energy, and Wang Quan agreed to visit Dream Nun.
• Wang Quan arrived at Dream Nun’s room and discovered that spirit creatures were lining up to sell their yang energy.
• Dream Nun repeatedly tried to suck out Wang Quan’s yang energy but drew only cold air, then told him his condition was incurable and even Fairy Qin could not cure him.

Wang Quan discovered that a Daoist scripture explained his Yin Spirit’s resistance to transformation and revealed how he could surpass the supreme-grade Yang Spirit. He arranged to grow haze grass on a nearby mountain to suppress the transformation urge, leaving the Scripture Repository to prepare the site.

• Wang Quan left Dream Nun’s room puzzled that her [Nine Yin Devouring the Sun] could not draw out his yang qi, while the Spirit Monsters speculated about his resilience and Dream Nun vowed to drain him again.
• At the Scripture Repository, Wang Quan found a passage explaining that enduring his Yin Spirit’s rejection while engraving the [Yang Spirit Scripture] would let him surpass the supreme-grade Yang Spirit, and that haze grass could weaken the urge to transform.
• Wang Quan asked Round-Faced Daoist Nun to find haze grass and arrange for Spirit Monsters to grow it, then told Ying Jiaren he would be away for a few days.
• Wang Quan rode [Seventy-Two Streams of Smoke and Dust] to a barren nearby hill that suited haze grass and could be reached safely from the Lower Court.

Wang Quan hired cultivators and spirit monsters to prepare his hill and plant haze grass, hoping it would help him refine the [Yang Spirit Scripture]. When the workers’ growth spell proved too slow, he cast a far more powerful [Spring Rain Germination Art] and ordered them to join in.

• Wang Quan confirmed the planting contract with the cultivators, agreeing to pay one million Green Beetles upfront and ten thousand each month to cover the hill with haze grass.
• The cultivators surveyed the hill while spirit monsters smashed rocks, turned the soil, cleared rubble, and spread dung to prepare the ground.
• A cultivator sowed haze grass and spirit vein grass seeds, and the spirit monsters buried and fertilized them as the cultivators cast the [Spring Rain Germination Art].
• When a female cultivator said the seeds would sprout within three days, Wang Quan complained that this was too slow and cast his superior version of the spell across the hill.
• Wang Quan told the surprised cultivators to cast the spell alongside him and get the haze grass growing as soon as possible.

Wang Quan’s Spring Rain Germination Art made the haze grass sprout across the mountain, easing the urge of his Yin Spirit to transform. With Spirit Monsters tending the plants, he successfully branded the Yang Spirit Scripture onto his Yin Spirit and resolved to pursue a level beyond supreme grade.

• Wang Quan cultivated haze grass with Spring Rain Germination Art, and its growth eased the restlessness of his Yin Spirit.
• Wang Quan paid the cultivators in full, then asked them to leave their best Spirit Monsters to tend the plants.
• The Spirit Monsters asked Wang Quan for identity plaques, and he crafted them from fine jade engraved with “Flower-Scatter Daoist.”
• The Spirit Monsters tended the haze grass while Wang Quan repeatedly cast Spring Rain Germination Art over the mountain.
• Wang Quan branded the Yang Spirit Scripture onto his Yin Spirit after the growing haze grass reduced the interference.

Wang Quan advanced the [Yang Spirit Scripture] and completed its ten-thousandth Dao character, but the strange patterns that appeared on his Yin Spirit made him avoid the Second-Layer World. Meanwhile, Dream Nun began seclusion to pursue Foundation Establishment, promising to invite him to a night banquet afterward.

• Dream Nun told the Officiant Daoist Nun she planned to use her savings to perfect [Nine Yin Devouring the Sun] and seek a Foundation Establishment quota from the Lower Court.
• Wang Quan’s [Yang Spirit Scripture] progressed rapidly, and by March he had accumulated 1,001 strands of Dharma Power while nearing its final Dao character.
• In July, Dream Nun told Wang Quan she was entering seclusion to strive for Foundation Establishment and would invite him to a night banquet if she succeeded.
• In August, Wang Quan imprinted the ten-thousandth Dao character, causing black and gold patterns to appear across his Yin Spirit.
• Wang Quan decided not to enter the Second-Layer World until the abnormal patterns vanished or his Yin Spirit transformed, and he began condensing the ten-thousand-and-first Dao character.

Wang Quan continued struggling to imprint the final Dao character on his Yin Spirit while cultivating with haze grass, and learned that Dream Nun had reached Foundation Establishment. He sold a wisp of hazy mist to a group of cultivators and agreed to seek their help in the future, leaving him wondering whether they would quarrel over the magic artifact they hoped to make.

• Wang Quan steadily brought the final Dao character closer to his Yin Spirit, convinced that completing it would create a Yang Spirit beyond supreme grade.
• Dream Nun told Wang Quan she had reached Foundation Establishment and invited him to a banquet, and he agreed to attend and ask about her experience.
• Wang Quan considered his own future Foundation Establishment attempt but decided to finish transforming his Yin Spirit first.
• A group of cultivators arrived after discovering Wang Quan's hazy mist and asked to buy some for refining a mind-calming magic artifact.
• Wang Quan sold them one wisp for thirty thousand Green Beetles and agreed to seek their help if he needed it later.

Dream Nun explained that she had reached Foundation Establishment with the Lower Court’s help and invited cultivators to join her in establishing a new Drowning Dao Lower Court. She revealed the assignment’s high death toll and asked everyone to decide by the next day, then shared her Foundation Establishment experience.

• Wang Quan arrived at Dream Nun’s courtyard and found Officiant Daoist Nun, Qian Xiuyue, Fairy Qin, and other cultivators waiting.
• Dream Nun appeared and said she had reached Foundation Establishment three days earlier, using a quota provided by the Lower Court in exchange for three hundred years of labor.
• Dream Nun invited cultivators to help establish a new Drowning Dao Lower Court and offered cultivation benefits, access to resources, and authority within the new court.
• Dream Nun disclosed that a third of the Foundation Establishment cultivators and two-thirds of their helpers had died during the Lower Court’s founding more than five thousand years earlier.
• The cultivators weighed the risks, and Dream Nun asked them to discuss the offer and give her their answers the next day before sharing her Foundation Establishment experience.

Dream Nun invited Wang Quan to join her in establishing a Lower Court far away, but he refused and promised to see her off. Back on his hill, Wang Quan let his spirit monsters bring their families to safety as demand for spirit-monster jerky surged ahead of the journey.

• Dream Nun shared her Foundation Establishment experience and invited Wang Quan to join her Lower Court, but he declined because he expected to reach Foundation Establishment by another path.
• Dream Nun told Wang Quan that the Lower Court was so far away she might never return, and he promised to visit before she left and help if she needed him.
• A rabbit spirit warned Wang Quan that shops were buying spirit-monster corpses in bulk and cultivators were hunting spirit monsters to make jerky.
• Wang Quan allowed his spirit monsters to bring their families to live on his hill in exchange for two hours of daily work, food, and lodging.

Wang Quan welcomed the spirit monsters’ families, reassured cultivators that he would remain in the second-layer world, and led a moonlight-harvesting rite. He finished the night by storing the excess moonlight and continuing to hone the final Dao character of the [Yang Spirit Scripture].

• The rabbit spirit thanked Wang Quan for letting him return home, explaining that Wang Quan’s identification token had saved his family from cultivators who wanted to capture them.
• The spirit monsters settled their families at the foot of the hill while Wang Quan continued imprinting the final Dao character of the [Yang Spirit Scripture].
• Wang Quan replied that he would not establish a Lower Court, relieving the cultivators in the second-layer world, who then returned to clearing the Cafeteria.
• Wang Quan performed the [Bright Moon Shines on Me Method] as the spirit monsters and their offspring carried out the [Moon Worship Rite], drawing down abundant moonlight.
• Wang Quan refined ten strands of Dharma Power, collected the spirit monsters’ excess moonlight in a white jade gourd, and continued honing the final Dao character.

As the Market Ward prepared for the departure of cultivators establishing new Lower Courts, Qian Xiuyue sought Wang Quan’s advice about leaving the Star Alliance. The Officiant Daoist Nun later departed with Dream Nun, while the expedition’s diviners received troubling results before its journey began.

• Qian Xiuyue told Wang Quan that the Star Alliance’s growing demands and pressure had left her unsure whether to stay.
• Wang Quan suggested that Qian Xiuyue leave with Dream Nun or settle on an unoccupied mountain and develop a Manor herself.
• Qian Xiuyue explained that building a properly refined Manor would cost far more than she and her companions could afford, then left Wang Quan’s place.
• The Officiant Daoist Nun told Wang Quan she was leaving with Dream Nun and said they might meet again if fate allowed.
• At Immortal-Welcoming Mountain, diviners’ tortoise shells shattered after giving troubling results, and the gathered cultivators prepared to try larger tortoise shells.

Officiant Daoist Nun prepared to leave with the expedition to establish a new Lower Court, and Wang Quan came to bid her farewell. After the expedition departed, Wang Quan stayed behind, where spirit monsters continued working and pursuing their ambitions.

• The Officiant Daoist Nun told Wang Quan that Dream Nun had advised her to risk the mission for a chance to reach Foundation Establishment with three or five rays of spiritual light, and he wished her a smooth journey.
• Wang Quan, the Officiant Daoist Nun, and Dream Nun talked about the past and future while diviners determined that the journey would be auspicious; construction cultivators patched the tortoise spirits' shattered shells.
• More than two million cultivators departed from the Drowning Dao Lower Court on a vast connected cloud, leaving Wang Quan melancholy as he watched them go.
• After the Market Ward became busy again, spirit monsters dependent on Wang Quan chose to stay because the place was safe and offered food and work.
• A groundhog spirit told Wang Quan he hoped to save enough to marry a genuine monster and planned to dig a huge underground palace for his future wife, and Wang Quan encouraged his ambition.

Wang Quan imprinted the final Dao character into his Yin Spirit and entered the Second-Layer World, where its golden radiance made the physical-body cultivator mistake him for a newly transformed supreme-grade Yang Spirit. He left without transforming, intending to return the next day after adjusting, and learned about the dangers of the Second-Layer World by day.

• Wang Quan found that his Yin Spirit could absorb sunlight, which sped up his imprinting of Dao characters.
• After days of struggling with the final gap, Wang Quan imprinted the last Dao character, completing the ten thousand and one characters of the [Yang Spirit Scripture].
• Wang Quan prepared protections, then sent his Yin Spirit into the Second-Layer World, where golden light emerged from it and he sensed it could transform at any time.
• Wang Quan explored the daytime Second-Layer World and saw grotesque buildings, giants, and spirit monsters in the Market Ward.
• A physical-body cultivator recognized Wang Quan as a newly born supreme-grade Yang Spirit and warned him about daytime dangers and delaying his choice of Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha.
• Wang Quan did not correct the cultivator's mistaken assumption; he said he would adjust and return the next day to help clear the Cafeteria.