Chapter Summaries

After recruiting Li Yingling as his first disciple, Chu Xingchen received a flawless Golden Core and a cultivation manual from his system. He gave Li Yingling the battered book, whose readable title was Water Heart Sutra, and she doubted it was a genuine immortal technique.

• Chu Xingchen brought Li Yingling to his ruined temple and persuaded her to become his disciple rather than return home to an unwanted marriage.
• Li Yingling formally bowed to Chu Xingchen, completing his system quest and earning him a Flawless Golden Core.
• The system recognized Li Yingling’s single-attribute water spiritual root and supplied the Supreme Lunar True Profound Spirit Water Heart Sutra.
• Chu Xingchen’s cultivation rose as a golden core condensed, and he claimed he had no other disciples because he only accepted exceptional candidates.
• Chu Xingchen handed Li Yingling the worn cultivation manual, and she questioned whether the Water Heart Sutra could be a top-tier technique.

Chu Xingchen insisted that Li Yingling practice the heavily revised Water Heart Sutra, and she quickly advanced to the fifth level of Qi Refining. The next morning, he sent her out to catch food while asking her to save him both chicken drumsticks.

• Chu Xingchen refused Li Yingling's request for a different cultivation method and told her the Water Heart Sutra would keep her warm once she advanced.
• Li Yingling read the sutra and discovered that seventeen powerful experts had revised it, with much of its text crossed out or overwritten.
• Chu Xingchen assured Li Yingling that the sutra was safe, and she began cultivating, reaching the second level of Qi Refining.
• The system returned 100% of Li Yingling's cultivation to Chu Xingchen, who received a faint wisp of spiritual energy.
• Li Yingling cultivated through the night and reached the fifth level of Qi Refining by morning.
• When Li Yingling asked how to find food, Chu Xingchen told her to hunt a wild chicken and save him both drumsticks.

Li Yingling hunted, trained, and settled into life at the dilapidated temple while Chu Xingchen cooked for her and promised spirit plants to help her break through. He led her to a guarded medicinal field and told her to sneak in and take whatever she wanted.

• Li Yingling returned from hunting with a rabbit, and Chu Xingchen cooked it into several dishes that overcame her reluctance to eat the rabbit's head.
• Li Yingling became more enthusiastic about hunting and cultivation, then repaired and tidied the dilapidated temple.
• Half a month later, Li Yingling told Chu Xingchen she was stuck at the ninth layer of Qi Refining and asked for pills or spirit plants to aid her breakthrough.
• Chu Xingchen took Li Yingling to a remote medicinal field, quietly opened a hole in its barrier, and handed her a sack to steal spirit plants while he kept watch.

Chu Xingchen led Li Yingling in stealing herbs from a small sect, then used them to brew her a bitter cultivation pill. Li Yingling began cultivating, while Chu Xingchen checked the system and saw that his beginner quests still depended on her reaching Foundation Establishment.

• Li Yingling stripped a large section of a spiritual field, and a guard raised the alarm after discovering the stolen herbs.
• Chu Xingchen grabbed Li Yingling and used earth escape to evade pursuit before bringing her back to the ruined temple.
• Chu Xingchen sorted the stolen plants, explained his history with the sect, and cooked a green liquid pill for Li Yingling.
• Li Yingling swallowed the bitter pill, felt spiritual energy surge, and began cultivating.
• Chu Xingchen checked the system and noted that Li Yingling's Foundation Establishment would complete his second beginner quest and unlock further rewards and regular quests.

After Li Yingling broke through to Foundation Establishment, Chu Xingchen gave her a sword Divine Ability and a wooden sword, while lamenting that he needed more disciples. At a Mountain God Temple, the reborn Li Xingtian spotted Li Yingling practicing and was caught at swordpoint before he could claim the treasure there.

• Li Yingling broke through to Foundation Establishment, earning Chu Xingchen the Three Thousand Weak Waters Sword and new recruitment quests from the system.
• Chu Xingchen gave Li Yingling the Divine Ability manual and fashioned her a wooden sword for practice.
• Li Xingtian, reborn with memories of his past life, headed to the Mountain God Temple at Ten-Mile Slope to claim the Millennium Bone Jade and become a Heavenly Demon Dao Body.
• Li Xingtian saw Li Yingling practicing swordplay and realized she was using a powerful Divine Ability.
• Li Xingtian tried to retreat, but Li Yingling pointed her wooden sword at his throat and demanded to know who had sent him.

Chu Xingchen tried to recruit Li Xingtian, a regressor who had returned to a dilapidated temple seeking the Millennium Bone Jade. Li Xingtian refused to become Chu Xingchen’s disciple, then discovered that the treasure he sought was propping up a table.

• Li Yingling stopped Li Xingtian at swordpoint, and Chu Xingchen arrived and identified him as a potential disciple with a regressor trait.
• Chu Xingchen called his sect the Heavenly Dao Alliance and hinted that he could see Li Xingtian’s karma of time.
• Chu Xingchen invited Li Xingtian to become his disciple and told him to claim the opportunity in the temple, but Li Xingtian declined.
• Chu Xingchen told Li Yingling to let Li Xingtian go, and Li Xingtian entered the temple to search for the stone he remembered.
• Chu Xingchen revealed that the Millennium Bone Jade Li Xingtian sought was being used to prop up a table leg.

Li Xingtian took the Millennium Bone Jade and left, determined to pursue his own path, but the Clearwind Sect caught him at an inn and its second elder nearly killed him. As Li Xingtian reconsidered Chu Xingchen’s warning, Chu Xingchen appeared and asked the elder to stop.

• Li Xingtian thanked Chu Xingchen, took the Millennium Bone Jade, and left the ruined temple while Li Yingling stayed to practice her sword art.
• Chu Xingchen departed, and Li Yingling wondered whether their sect was truly called the Heavenly Dao Alliance before resuming her training.
• Li Xingtian reached a nearby town, entered an inn, and encountered five Clearwind Sect disciples who recognized him from the Red Name List.
• Li Xingtian attacked the disciples, but the Clearwind Sect's second elder struck him with a Golden Core attack and left him gravely injured.
• Li Xingtian reflected that Chu Xingchen may have been warning him about the consequences of changing the past, and Chu Xingchen appeared and asked the elder to stop.

Chu Xingchen intervened to save Li Xingtian from the Clearwind Sect’s second elder, Shangguan Hong, and brought him back to the Ruined Temple. He credited his ability to unleash the Sword Qi technique to Li Yingling’s progress, then returned to find her practicing with the Wooden Sword.

• Chu Xingchen used Sword Qi formed from his chopsticks to stop Shangguan Hong from killing Li Xingtian, and Li Xingtian accused the Clearwind Sect of exploiting and abandoning its disciples.
• After inspecting Shangguan Hong’s traits, Chu Xingchen denounced him and threatened him, but the Demon-Suppression Bureau’s Bureau Chief arrived and urged them to avoid fighting in the mortal town.
• Chu Xingchen withdrew his threat, took Li Xingtian away, and evaded pursuit before heading to the Ruined Temple.
• Chu Xingchen told Li Xingtian to thank his eldest disciple, Li Yingling, because her mastery of a divine ability had let him use it too.
• Li Yingling welcomed Chu Xingchen and Li Xingtian, mistook his injuries as possibly inflicted by Chu Xingchen, and Chu Xingchen explained that she was joking.

Chu Xingchen treated Li Xingtian’s severe injuries with a foul-tasting but effective herbal medicine, then shared food with him at the ruined temple. Li Yingling ended the chapter by telling Li Xingtian he was not worthy of joining the Heavenly Dao Alliance.

• Chu Xingchen laid Li Xingtian on a bed, assessed his injuries, and made a healing medicine with Li Yingling’s help.
• Li Xingtian swallowed Chu Xingchen’s bitter medicine, which eased his injuries despite his body’s strong rejection of it.
• Chu Xingchen asked Li Yingling how she was progressing with her divine ability, and she said it was powerful but difficult.
• At the campfire, Chu Xingchen offered Li Xingtian half a rabbit, and Li Xingtian hesitated because he had not repaid Chu Xingchen for saving him.
• Li Yingling told Li Xingtian that Chu Xingchen had given him his opportunity and declared that his aptitude made him unworthy of joining the Heavenly Dao Alliance.

Li Xingtian accepted Chu Xingchen as his master and received a powerful, bloodthirsty cultivation art that could use unintelligent demonic beasts as offerings. As his disciples adjusted to the manual, Chu Xingchen discovered that his system reward was only a blueprint for a Spirit-Gathering Formation, leaving him to provide the materials and build it himself.

• Li Xingtian agreed to join the Heavenly Dao Alliance after Chu Xingchen assured him he would be free to travel, and the system registered him as Chu Xingchen's second disciple.
• Chu Xingchen gave Li Xingtian the Primordial Chaos Demon Bone Body-Refining Divine Art, and Li Xingtian and Li Yingling were alarmed by its instructions to make blood offerings.
• Chu Xingchen explained that the blood offerings could be unintelligent demonic beasts, and Li Xingtian decided to try the art after refining the Millennium Bone Jade.
• Chu Xingchen returned to his bed and worried that the system had awarded him only a Spirit-Gathering Formation blueprint, which he would have to fund and construct himself.

Chu Xingchen began preparing a Spirit-Gathering Formation at Ten-Mile Slope and waited for Li Xingtian to finish refining the Millennium Bone Jade, hoping his reborn disciple could suggest a way to obtain the missing materials. Li Yingling ended up digging alone, and Li Xingtian overheard Chu Xingchen saying his aptitude was poor.

• Chu Xingchen marked locations for a Spirit-Gathering Formation and stopped Li Yingling from scattering the excavated soil as she dug its foundation holes.
• Chu Xingchen checked on Li Xingtian, who was refining the Millennium Bone Jade, and planned to ask him about ways to make money or find a secret realm.
• Li Yingling returned exhausted and challenged Chu Xingchen for not helping her dig, but he claimed he had been watching over Li Xingtian.
• Li Yingling acted hurt until Chu Xingchen praised her and said Li Xingtian’s aptitude was inferior, then she left to hunt.
• Li Xingtian apologized for his poor cultivation and aptitude, and Chu Xingchen told him to work harder.

Chu Xingchen learned of the Clearwind Sect’s spirit-stone mine from Li Xingtian and left to scout it, framing the planned raid as revenge and justice. While Chu Xingchen was away, Li Xingtian began cultivating the art he had given him and tried to cook for Li Yingling.

• Li Xingtian told Chu Xingchen that the Clearwind Sect’s mine had spirit stones and only one Golden Core cultivator guarding it.
• Chu Xingchen declared that they would raid the mine to avenge Li Xingtian and those persecuted by the Clearwind Sect, then gave Li Xingtian teleportation talismans and a protective talisman.
• Chu Xingchen left to scout the mine, and Li Xingtian used the Primordial Chaos Demon Bone Body-Refining Divine Art, awakening his Path Body.
• After Li Yingling returned and asked where Chu Xingchen had gone, Li Xingtian told her he would be away for two days.
• Li Xingtian cooked the pheasant Li Yingling had caught, and she complained that his cooking might kill her.

On the first day after Master left the Ruined Temple, Li Xingtian and Li Yingling adjusted to living without him while Li Yingling continued building her cabin. Li Yingling put Li Xingtian to work practicing spiritual control, then went to find demon beast meat for his cultivation and hoped Master would return soon.

• Li Xingtian woke in his makeshift bed behind the Divine Statue and reflected on his poor sleeping spot and the chicken he had finished eating.
• Li Yingling felled trees with her Wooden Sword while practicing her Divine Ability, and Li Xingtian admired her progress.
• Li Yingling asked whether Li Xingtian was hungry and, after he declined, told him to turn a fallen tree into planks as cultivation practice.
• Li Yingling left to gather demon beast blood and flesh for Li Xingtian's cultivation, thinking that Master should come back soon because Junior Brother's cooking was inedible.

Chu Xingchen scouted the Clearwind Sect’s spirit stone mine and found Ning Qianqian trapped nearby. After rescuing her and giving her food, water, and silver, he tried to send her to safety, but she called after him as he left.

• Chu Xingchen surveyed the mine, observed its abused Qi Refining miners and Foundation Establishment guards, and sketched a map for later planning with Li Xingtian.
• Chu Xingchen found Ning Qianqian, a cultivationless girl trapped in the formation, and took her away using earth escape.
• Ning Qianqian resisted Chu Xingchen’s questions, so he tied her to a tree before discovering she was starving.
• Chu Xingchen fed Ning Qianqian flatbread and water, then gave her silver and more food and pointed her toward the nearest town.
• Chu Xingchen turned to leave, but Ning Qianqian called, “Great Immortal, wait!”

Chu Xingchen learned that Ning Qianqian’s father had been lured away by the Clearwind Sect, whose food offerings turned into soil and killed villagers. He agreed to take Ning Qianqian with him and plan a rescue, while she asked him to bring her back if he gave up.

• Chu Xingchen claimed to belong to the Myriad Laws Immortal Gate, and Ning Qianqian pretended to recognize its reputation before feigning a tearful plea for help.
• Ning Qianqian told Chu Xingchen that Clearwind Sect members had persuaded her father and other young men to leave for cultivation in exchange for food.
• Ning Qianqian showed Chu Xingchen soil that had once been food and said villagers had died after eating the sect’s offerings.
• Chu Xingchen inspected the soil, found traces of spiritual energy, and recognized that the Clearwind Sect had cheated the villagers.
• Chu Xingchen said he needed to make a plan before rescuing Ning Qianqian’s father and asked her to come with him.
• Ning Qianqian agreed to go with Chu Xingchen but asked him to bring her back if he decided not to rescue her father.

Chu Xingchen brought Ning Qianqian back toward the Ruined Temple, reassuring her that his sect and disciples followed the righteous path. As they arrived, they found the temple surrounded by animal carcasses and dark red energy, leaving Ning Qianqian horrified to learn this was where Chu Xingchen was headed.

• Chu Xingchen told Ning Qianqian that the Clearwind Sect was reputable but concealed its misdeeds, then praised his own sect and disciples as righteous.
• Chu Xingchen sensed a powerful stench of blood near the Ruined Temple and confirmed that his two disciples were still alive.
• Chu Xingchen carried Ning Qianqian through the air toward the Ruined Temple, where she briefly enjoyed her first flight.
• Ning Qianqian saw piles of animal carcasses and dark red energy around the Ruined Temple and asked if Chu Xingchen meant to subdue a demon.
• Chu Xingchen told Ning Qianqian that the Ruined Temple was their destination.

Chu Xingchen returned to the Ruined Temple with Ning Qianqian and found Li Yingling and Li Xingtian surrounded by animal remains from Li Xingtian’s cultivation. After explaining Ning Qianqian’s situation and the Clearwind Sect’s abuses, Chu Xingchen asked Li Xingtian how they could rescue the mine workers, and Li Xingtian proposed making a detailed plan.

• Chu Xingchen found Li Yingling and blood-covered Li Xingtian at the Ruined Temple, where animal heads and bones had accumulated during Li Xingtian’s cultivation.
• Li Xingtian admitted responsibility for the remains, and Chu Xingchen burned the bones and scattered the ashes.
• Ning Qianqian feared the temple’s bloody entrance, but Chu Xingchen explained that the remains came from wild beasts and brought her inside.
• Chu Xingchen told Li Yingling about Ning Qianqian and the Clearwind Sect’s treatment of people at the mine, and Li Yingling promised to help.
• Chu Xingchen showed Li Xingtian his map of the mine and asked about rescuing the workers; Li Xingtian said a detailed plan could make it possible.

At the Ruined Temple, Chu Xingchen tested Li Yingling’s Strong Fortune trait with a dice game, but she lost every round even when Ning Qianqian shook the dice. The chapter ended with Li Yingling going to her cabin and Ning Qianqian taking her former bed, while Chu Xingchen wondered whether his luck had somehow affected the results.

• Li Xingtian cultivated toward Foundation Establishment while Chu Xingchen prepared for the worst in the Clearwind Sect rescue plan.
• Chu Xingchen challenged Li Yingling to a dice game, and she lost the first round despite rolling a high total.
• Chu Xingchen had Ning Qianqian shake the dice, but Li Yingling still lost every round and ended up with her face painted black.
• Li Yingling returned to her nearby cabin, and Chu Xingchen told Ning Qianqian to sleep in Li Yingling’s former bed.
• Ning Qianqian asked if Chu Xingchen had cheated, and he denied it before settling down to rest.

Li Xingtian broke through to Foundation Establishment with the help of Chu Xingchen’s experimental pill and Spirit Gathering Formation. After recovering, he told Chu Xingchen they could begin the plan involving Ning Qianqian.

• Chu Xingchen used his remaining spirit stones to set up a Spirit Gathering Formation for Li Xingtian’s breakthrough.
• Chu Xingchen made Li Xingtian swallow a sickly green pill, and Ning Qianqian gave him water when the sticky mixture lodged in his throat.
• Li Xingtian absorbed spiritual energy and successfully reached Foundation Establishment.
• Li Xingtian and Li Yingling suggested using Chu Xingchen’s pills to extract confessions instead of making disciples eat them.
• Li Xingtian ate a skewer of meat, glanced at Ning Qianqian, and told Chu Xingchen they could begin the plan.

Li Xingtian infiltrated the Clearwind Sect’s spirit ore mine and found Ning Qianqian’s father, Ning Kun, while Chu Xingchen and Li Yingling waited outside. As Li Xingtian followed the miners deeper into the tunnels, he sensed something was wrong and discovered a horrifying sight around the bend.

• Chu Xingchen explained the rescue plan as Li Xingtian entered the mine disguised as a miner.
• Li Xingtian signaled Chu Xingchen, who triggered a sword cry and alarm to distract the Clearwind Sect guards.
• During the ensuing commotion, Li Xingtian spotted Ning Kun among the miners and slipped Ning Qianqian’s token into his hand.
• Li Xingtian told Ning Kun to stay close, then followed the miners into the tunnel while the Golden Core cultivator remained absent.
• Li Xingtian felt an ominous presence near a bend and saw a horrifying sight beyond it.