Chapter Summaries

Wang Quan and the cultivators cleared the Miscellaneous Goods Hall, earning blessings and discovering that the reflected hall supplied basic materials. As they celebrated their rewards, Wang Quan wondered whether the Second-Layer World might eventually replace the Real World.

• Wang Quan joined the cultivators in clearing the hall and delivered its eight-armed boss, Eight-Slash Evil, with the People-Crossing Scripture.
• Eight-Slash Evil left behind a jade-and-gold writing brush, which Wang Quan claimed after the other cultivators offered him first pick.
• When the Real World's Miscellaneous Goods Hall was reflected into the Second-Layer World, purple-azure blessings fell on Wang Quan, a Zhong Household cultivator, and others, while the recipient of another streak remained unknown.
• Wang Quan suspected Ying Jiaren had received the unidentified blessing and found the reflected hall stocked with abundant basic materials at market prices.
• The cultivators held a feast and reported that their accumulated gifts had transformed into Foundation Establishment Spirit Light; they asked Wang Quan what he had received.

Wang Quan focused on killing the Strange Eye Alliance’s persistent vertical eye while cultivators in the Second-Layer World chose their next Evil building without him. After a few months, he finished refining the seventy-two types of Earthly Sha and planned a banquet, while the Round-Faced Daoist Nun urged him to use it to collect gifts.

• Wang Quan told the cultivators that his latest favor only enhanced buildings slightly and said he would focus on killing the vertical eye in the Real World rather than help choose their next target.
• Wang Quan returned to his routine, studied an unfamiliar writing brush, and learned that Ying Jiaren had refined Wu Yong into the first Dao Soldier.
• Over the next few months, the cultivators breached a twisted tower of Evil and reflected the Spirit Soil Hall into the Second-Layer World, where they competed for its daily Wu Earth Killing Intent.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun told Wang Quan that the seventy-two types of Earthly Sha were nearly finished, and he decided to refine Heavenly Sha afterward and hold a banquet on Riverside Mountain.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun urged Wang Quan to invite the Second-Layer World cultivators and collect their gifts, but he denied that he was trying to rake in wealth.

Wang Quan accepted the Round-Faced Daoist Nun and Qian Xiuyue’s plan to host a grand banquet at Riverside Mountain, then instantly fused Iron Chain Baleful Intent into his Yang Spirit. He tested its new powers and prepared to temper his body with it, while the women planned to showcase his speed of refinement at the banquet.

• Wang Quan agreed to hold a lavish banquet at Riverside Mountain the next day and gave the Round-Faced Daoist Nun and Qian Xiuyue thirty million Green Beetles to arrange it.
• A parrot spirit delivered Iron Chain Baleful Intent, and Wang Quan fused it into his Yang Spirit in an instant, astonishing the Round-Faced Daoist Nun.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun decided to have Wang Quan refine another kind of Earthly Sha before the banquet guests to display his speed.
• Wang Quan tested his Yang Spirit and found it could turn trees, rocks, and water into rust, consuming the baleful intent as it did so.
• Wang Quan used the Iron Chain Baleful Intent to withstand a Thunderfire blast, then planned to return his Yang Spirit to his body and see how the baleful intent tempered it.

After absorbing Iron Chain Baleful Intent, Wang Quan discovered that his Yang Spirit had given his flesh-and-blood body weak spell-like abilities that consumed no Dharma Power. He then practiced Beautiful Lady Yu with Ying Jiaren, and they found that combining their spirits and physical bodies more than doubled their cultivation efficiency.

• Wang Quan’s returning Yang Spirit expanded his Inner Landscape, and Iron Chain Baleful Intent increased its upper limit by a little over two-thousandths.
• Wang Quan expelled Iron Chain Baleful Intent from his body and used it to fly, immobilize a bird, and bind it with a chain formed from wind.
• Wang Quan tested his body’s spell-like abilities on creatures, then asked the Round-Faced Daoist Nun about them; she said such effects were impossible and had never happened to her.
• Wang Quan concluded that the abilities came from his Yang Spirit merging with baleful intent and wondered whether more baleful intent could grant further powers.
• Ying Jiaren proposed practicing Beautiful Lady Yu with her Primordial Spirit and physical body together, and she told Wang Quan she needed one more Dao character to reach ten thousand.
• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren practiced Beautiful Lady Yu together and found that their combined spirits and bodies increased their reading speed and efficiency by more than twofold.

Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren advanced their cultivation through study and spell practice, while the Strange Eye Alliance tested the weakened Tentacled Vertical Eye. The test revealed that its traits had permanently lost 90% of their potency, and the Alliance ordered its cultivators to target Wang Quan and seize the weakening treasure.

• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren studied fifteen volumes of Daoist Scriptures each after practicing [Beautiful Lady Yu] together overnight.
• Ying Jiaren explained how she cultivated spells during her grooming, then declined Wang Quan's banquet invitation because it lacked performances that would advance her spells.
• Qian Xiuyue told Wang Quan that Riverside Mountain was ready for the banquet, and he traveled there using moonlight.
• The Strange Eye Alliance questioned the Tentacled Vertical Eye, which blamed Flower-Scatter Daoist's special treasure for its decline and pleaded for rescue.
• The Alliance tested the Tentacled Vertical Eye with a mirror and discovered that Vertical Eye No. 10086's traits had permanently weakened by 90%.
• The Alliance ordered its cultivators to severely injure Wang Quan, take him in as a dog, and obtain the treasure and its refining method.

The Strange Eye Alliance planned to ambush Wang Quan at Riverside Mountain, but a banquet drew powerful cultivators from across the Second-Layer World. The Round-Faced Daoist Nun caught the Alliance plotting and ordered them to help liven up the festivities, prompting one cultivator to ready thunderfire.

• The Strange Eye Alliance discovered that the Tentacled Vertical Eye's power had fallen by 90%, then left him sealed and guarded while they went to capture Wang Quan.
• The Alliance studied Wang Quan's routine for several days and prepared to ambush him, but Riverside Mountain suddenly became busy with preparations for a banquet.
• The Alliance decided to infiltrate the banquet and attack Wang Quan, then grew fearful as powerful cultivators arrived one after another.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun appeared behind the Alliance, revealed she had heard their plotting, and ordered them to create effects for the banquet.
• One Alliance cultivator sneered, produced a string of thunderfire, and prepared to make his move.

Wang Quan hosted a banquet where the Strange Eye Alliance cultivators were forced to perform after a thousand Yang Spirits arrived. The guests negotiated for his hundred thousand Innate Martial Artists and agreed to help him fuse with Earthly Sha, while one performer was accidentally fired from a cannon.

• A thousand Yang Spirits descended, causing the Strange Eye Alliance cultivators to turn their threats into performances for the banquet.
• The cultivators discussed clearing evil from the Second-Layer World and negotiated with Wang Quan for his Innate Martial Artists.
• Wang Quan agreed to make all one hundred thousand Innate Martial Artists available, divided into a thousand lots, so the cultivators could use them to gather sunlight.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun urged the guests to help Wang Quan fuse with the remaining seventy-one strands of Earthly Sha.
• Qian Xiuyue set a cannon in motion, and it fired Little Ma’s head into the distance.

Wang Quan demonstrated his extraordinary ability to refine Baleful Intent by rapidly absorbing seventy-two strands and unleashing their combined power. The Strange Eye Alliance fled, while Wang Quan declared that he would make them witness the Evil they supported being destroyed.

• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun invited the gathered cultivators to help Wang Quan refine Baleful Intent, while the Strange Eye Alliance plotted to ambush him.
• Wang Quan swallowed strands of Frost Ice Baleful Intent and Earth-Lung Poison Baleful Intent and revealed that he had refined them immediately.
• Wang Quan absorbed seventy-two types of Baleful Intent, then used them together to demolish a boulder and found that doing so cost less than activating Iron Chain Baleful Intent alone.
• The Strange Eye Alliance slipped away from the crowd and fled, while the cultivators praised Wang Quan's abilities.
• Wang Quan refused to pursue the fleeing alliance, saying he had locked onto an Evil they supported and would make them watch it burn to ashes.

Wang Quan hosted a final night of feasting as the Innate Martial Artists and spirit monsters faced uncertain fates and his fellow cultivators prepared to part ways. The Round-Faced Daoist Nun revealed she would return to her hometown, leaving Wang Quan newly aware that even cultivators’ partings could last forever.

• As dusk fell, Wang Quan told the spirit monsters and Innate Martial Artists to feast, then invited his fellow cultivators to a quieter evening gathering by the river.
• Qian Xiuyue announced that she and several cultivators had become Dao companions, and she told Wang Quan that multiple organizations had offered them money to arrange introductions to him; Wang Quan told them to refuse such offers.
• Qian Xiuyue and her Dao companions said they planned to repay their debts and improve their cultivation, while Wang Quan promised them a wedding gift.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun said she would return to her hometown to gather her lineage’s strength and create Foundation Establishment Spirit Light, and Wang Quan realized their separation might be permanent.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun and Qian Xiuyue explained that they had tried to obtain sunlight in the Second-Layer World but could secure too little, as sunlight was in high demand.

Wang Quan learned that refined sunlight remained scarce and spoke with the Round-Faced Daoist Nun before she returned to her hometown to pursue Foundation Establishment Spirit Light. Later, he left the Fury River for the Lower Court while the cultivators he met speculated that winning his favor could earn them Foundation Establishment Spirit Light.

• Wang Quan promised the Round-Faced Daoist Nun that he would help her if she encountered trouble, and she told him she planned to seize seekers of immortality for the Lower Court to support her cultivation.
• After the feast ended, Wang Quan stayed alone by the river and watched cultivators and spirit monsters gather resources under the light of Little Sun Lanterns.
• Cultivators told Wang Quan that Hunchback's daughter had assembled a team that kept anomalies scarce along that stretch of the Fury River.
• Wang Quan asked the cultivators whether higher sunlight prices would make refining it worthwhile, then left in a sedan chair carried by Paper Palace Maidens toward the Lower Court.
• The cultivators guessed that Wang Quan was an imitator of the Flower-Scatter Daoist, then discussed rumors that winning Wang Quan's favor could earn someone Foundation Establishment Spirit Light.

Wang Quan completed his seventy-two Earthly Sha transformations, tested the strength of his baleful-intent body, and decided to obtain thirty-six Heavenly Gang. He performed a ritual targeting the Tentacled Vertical Eye, which sensed that his strike had descended.

• Wang Quan and Ying Jiaren agreed to begin life cultivation while their bodies studied Daoist scriptures and their Yang Spirits refined spells.
• Wang Quan's returning Yang Spirit expanded his inner landscape and brought seventy-two Earthly Sha traits into his body.
• Wang Quan transformed his body into seventy-two fused strands of baleful intent and tested them against more than two hundred spells.
• Wang Quan decided to obtain thirty-six Heavenly Gang so he could gain thirty-six more traits.
• Wang Quan performed a ritual targeting the Tentacled Vertical Eye, which cried out that the strike had descended.

The Light-Escape Daoist confronted Wang Quan to learn how he had weakened the Tentacled Vertical Eye, but fled when Wang Quan tried to teach him the dangerous People-Crossing Scripture. While the Strange Eye Alliance expected the Daoist to defeat Wang Quan, Wang Quan continued striking the trapped eye with his scripture.

• The Light-Escape Daoist arrived at the Strange Eye Alliance’s underground palace and tormented the Tentacled Vertical Eye after hearing its account of what happened.
• The Light-Escape Daoist found Wang Quan on Riverside Mountain and asked how he had weakened the Tentacled Vertical Eye.
• Wang Quan explained that he used the People-Crossing Scripture, and the Light-Escape Daoist warned that anyone who learned it without comprehending it independently would die.
• When Wang Quan insisted on teaching him, the Light-Escape Daoist covered his ears and escaped using a succession of techniques.
• The Strange Eye Alliance waited for the Light-Escape Daoist to defeat Wang Quan, but Wang Quan kept striking the Tentacled Vertical Eye with the People-Crossing Scripture for ten days until it pleaded for mercy.

Wang Quan made the Strange Eye Alliance believe the Tentacled Vertical Eye had died, then used the cultivators’ relief and greed to draw them into a trap. He exposed the alliance’s betrayal and punished its members, leaving the survivors to face his judgment.

• The Tentacled Vertical Eye appeared to crumble and vanish after thanking Wang Quan, causing many Strange Eye Alliance cultivators to lose hope.
• The Vertical Eye reappeared and persuaded the cultivators that he was still undying, then lured them closer by promising a method for everlasting life.
• The cultivators entered a mental illusion in which paper tubes extracted their brains as Wang Quan’s Palace Maidens and paper machinery surrounded them.
• Wang Quan’s Exotic Treasure Blanks struck down the New-Method Cultivators who had sided with the Vertical Eye, while surviving alliance members accused them of betrayal.
• Wang Quan’s Yang Spirit appeared on a paper altar and declared the slaughter punishment for disrupting his banquet; a cultivator’s desperate plea ended as he fell silent forever.

Wang Quan helped the Revenge Organization clear the underground palace, collected his rewards, and discovered that killing the vertical eye had earned him yin virtue and a strange chronicle. Unable to locate [Thousand Eyes, Thousand Illusions, Thousand Hands] or the [Strange Eye Alliance], he decided to focus on life cultivation and prepare to descend into the Second-Layer World.

• Wang Quan watched the Magic Treasure Blanks escape his earthly sha barrier after the [Strange Eye Alliance] cultivators died.
• The Revenge Organization cleared the underground palace and paid Wang Quan two hundred strands of [Stellar Essence], while Wang Quan kept more than a hundred strands of [Yin-Yang Essence].
• Wang Quan converted fifty strands of [Stellar Essence] into heavenly opportunity and discovered that killing the [Tentacled Vertical Eye] had earned him ten units of yin virtue.
• Wang Quan opened the Wordless Book, which became the [Chronicle of the Flower-Scatter Daoist's Struggles] and recorded his slaying of the vertical eye.
• Wang Quan failed to locate [Thousand Eyes, Thousand Illusions, Thousand Hands] or the [Strange Eye Alliance] with his spells and rituals.
• Wang Quan resolved to focus on life cultivation and strive to descend into the Second-Layer World.

Wang Quan began practicing his improved Great Sun Body-Tempering Method, coordinating spirit monsters and martial artists to burn a giant incense stick and direct golden threads, molten gold, and sunlight toward him. The sun dimmed across thousands of li, leaving cultivators alarmed and arguing over who could replace it.

• Wang Quan prepared his cultivation site and ordered the flower fairy to signal the start of his practice.
• Spirit monsters and martial artists raised the giant inscribed sandalwood incense, set up bronze mirrors and golden threads, and prepared tracks for molten gold.
• Wang Quan brought the millstone onto the altar, had sun patterns painted on himself, and entered the incense smoke as the sandalwood ignited.
• Wang Quan commanded sunlight, molten gold, golden threads, and worship, while a hundred thousand martial artists and hundreds of thousands of spirit monsters recited his scripture.
• The sun darkened across the region, and cultivators panicked as some claimed they could become the sun while others tried to stop the ensuing bickering and disorder.

Wang Quan used an enormous ritual at Riverside Mountain to gather sunlight and refine it into [Great Sun Across the Sky Dharma Power], shocking the Lower Court and causing darkness and turmoil in the Second-Layer World. He opened all 1,001 apertures available at the Qi Refining Realm and began rapidly tempering his body through his connection with Riverside Mountain.

• Lower Court cultivators traced the sudden darkness to Riverside Mountain and discovered that Wang Quan was refining Dharma Power.
• Cultivators returning from the Second-Layer World reported that the dimmed sun had let Evil attack the safe zone, so most rushed back to reinforce it while others went to check on Wang Quan.
• At Riverside Mountain, the cultivators saw the ritual gather sunlight and flames into incense smoke, which flower fairies, butterfly spirits, and spider spirits spun into golden threads for Wang Quan.
• Wang Quan transformed the threads into [Great Sun Across the Sky Dharma Power] and used it to open his first aperture, strengthening his body.
• Wang Quan opened all 1,001 apertures allowed at the Qi Refining Realm, then used the ritual's power, Earth Veins, and other resources to temper his body.
• Wang Quan's body developed patterns resembling Riverside Mountain's terrain and became connected to the region, causing its sunlight and firelight to breathe with him.

Wang Quan used a ritual and vast resources to push his [Life Cultivation] body to its limit, then entered the Second-Layer World with his original body. There, his powerful organs and limbs developed unruly consciousnesses, forcing him to return to the Real World, where other cultivators asked to learn his technique.

• Wang Quan burned through a hundred-meter Sandalwood Incense and formed a sea of blood that strengthened his body and rapidly improved his seventy-two Earthly Sha abilities.
• Wang Quan realized that adding the thirty-six Heavenly Gang would complete his Qi Refining Realm body, then sent his original body into the Second-Layer World.
• Wang Quan's Inner Landscape expanded by three hundred zhang as his organs, flesh, and limbs developed consciousnesses and tried to escape his body.
• Wang Quan used Dharma Power, his Yang Spirit, spells, and the People-Crossing Scripture to suppress his rebellious organs, but they continued resisting.
• An original-body cultivator warned Wang Quan that his unusually strong body made his organs harder to control, so Wang Quan returned to the Real World.
• Two original-body cultivators praised Wang Quan's technique and asked him to teach it in exchange for payment or essences.

After his technique refinement reversed day and night across thousands of li, Wang Quan learned that his overpowered organs and limbs could rebel if his true body entered the Second-Layer World. He still planned to enter and search for a solution, but his spirit monsters then discovered newly awakened sunflower spirits that could condense valuable sunlight.

• True-body cultivators told Wang Quan that sealing could suppress ordinary organ rebellions, but his body was too strong, and they advised him to wait until Foundation Establishment before entering the Second-Layer World.
• Wang Quan insisted that his true body needed to enter the Second-Layer World so he could reach the Scripture Repository and practice [Beautiful Lady Yu].
• Wang Quan's technique refinement ended, sunlight returned across thousands of li, and distant cultivators marveled that a Qi Refining cultivator had affected the weather so widely.
• Spirit monsters on Riverside Mountain found that some surviving plants had gained spirit-herb qualities, and they began planning to cultivate fruit trees and medicinal plants.
• Wang Quan prepared to enter the Second-Layer World to test spells against his organ rebellion, but bird spirits reported that newly born sunflower spirits could condense refined sunlight for sale.

Wang Quan discovered that a group of wild sunflower Spirit Monsters could produce purified sunlight and had them breed Sun Flower Spirits with the same rare ability. He offered Qian Xiuyue the Sun Flower Spirits as a gift, urging her to raise as many as possible before their secret spread.

• The wild sunflower Spirit Monsters agreed to work for Wang Quan in exchange for Green Fly Coins for each ray of sunlight they produced.
• Wang Quan had the wild sunflowers produce offspring, and his Enlightenment Art awakened several of them as Spirit Monsters.
• The new Sun Flower Spirits produced purified sunlight, while other newly enlightened sunflowers produced ordinary sunlight.
• Wang Quan named the purified-light producers Sun Flower Spirits and urged them to breed more, then invited Qian Xiuyue to see them.
• Qian Xiuyue warned Wang Quan that the Sun Flower Spirits should remain secret, but he gave them to her and told her to raise as many as possible.

Wang Quan sent four pairs of Sun Flower Spirits with Qian Xiuyue and set out to deliver another four pairs to the Round-Faced Daoist Nun aboard a cloudship. As he pursued her, he considered how to settle his old grievance with the Great Liang Empire, while the Round-Faced Daoist Nun rejected cultivators who approached her on the journey.

• Qian Xiuyue accepted four pairs of Sun Flower Spirits from Wang Quan and agreed to help look after Riverside Mountain while he was away.
• Wang Quan contacted the Round-Faced Daoist Nun, learned she was traveling aboard a cloudship, and decided to deliver the Sun Flower Spirits himself.
• Wang Quan packed four pairs of Sun Flower Spirits and set off in Earthly Sha Spirit Light, asking Ying Jiaren to expect him to be away that night.
• As he crossed the Great Liang Empire, Wang Quan considered attacking the Immortal-Tutoring Bureau and the residence of an important figure, but decided to identify the person who had stolen his slot first.
• The Round-Faced Daoist Nun turned away several male cultivators who approached her aboard the cloudship, and some recognized her identity while others asked whether she was from an Unorthodox School or a Left-Hand Path.