Chapter Summaries

Lin Yun realized he had been reincarnated in the world of A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality and continued cultivating with the White Yang Diagram. Meanwhile, two Black Fiend Sect brothers approached the valley to capture him for a Blood Sacrifice.

• Lin Yun absorbed solar purple qi and reflected on how the White Yang Diagram had restored his cultivation to the sixth level of Qi Refinement.
• Lin Yun recalled his previous life, the Daoist scriptures he had received, and his decision to abandon his former cultivation method and start over.
• Lin Yun sensed the scarce spiritual qi around him, demonstrated his ability to shape five-element qi into sword qi, and concluded that cultivation in the Tian Nan Continent was difficult.
• Lin Yun recognized his grandfather’s token as the Ascension Token of Yellow Maple Valley and realized he was in the world of A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality.
• Two Black Fiend Sect brothers traveled toward the valley, discussing their plan to capture Lin Yun and their hopes of gaining a chance at Foundation Establishment.

Lin Yun used heart demons to turn two Black Fiend Sect intruders against each other rather than risk contaminating his qi by fighting them directly. They killed each other, while Lin Yun learned about the sect and wondered whether the orthodox-demonic war was near.

• The short man and the baby-faced burly man crossed the mist array, found the Lin Family's herb fields, and discovered a barrier protecting them.
• Lin Yun sensed the intruders and recognized them as eighth- and ninth-level Qi Refining demonic cultivators, but chose not to confront them directly.
• Lin Yun sent a heart demon into each man's mind, stirring the short man's greed and the baby-faced burly man's suspicions and anger.
• The two Black Fiend Sect members attacked each other and fought to the death outside Lin Yun's courtyard.
• Lin Yun gleaned information about the Black Fiend Sect and considered whether Han the Old Devil had already entered Yellow Maple Valley.

After the Black Fiend Sect found his valley, Lin Yun decided to leave and seek a place to cultivate and join Yellow Maple Valley. He strengthened the valley’s defensive array, bid farewell to his grandfather, and departed.

• Lin Yun burned two Black Fiend Sect members and decided the valley was no longer safe.
• Lin Yun resolved to use his Yellow Maple Valley Ascension Token to enter the sect and seek a spiritual site and the ancient teleportation array.
• Lin Yun repaired the Cloudmist Illusion Array by transferring the Array Disk’s essential qi into its four flags, then reshaped it into the Cloudmist Dark-Light Array.
• Lin Yun set the flags in place and made two jade tokens to enter and leave the array.
• Lin Yun offered incense at his grandfather’s grave, gathered a few useful herbs, and left the valley.

Lin Yun reached Yellow Maple Valley, completed his initiation, and learned that he would receive a Foundation Establishment Pill in five years. Confident that his own cultivation method could let him establish his foundation without one, he settled into the new disciples’ quarters and planned to cultivate on Mystic Kun Mountain.

• Lin Yun arrived at Yellow Maple Valley and learned from the surnamed-Huang disciple that no one had used an Ascension Token to enter in four or five hundred years, so Han the Old Devil had not arrived.
• After waiting several days in the Guest Reception Lodge, Lin Yun met Uncle-Master Wang, who tested his four spirit roots and took him to meet sect master Zhong Lingdao.
• Zhong Lingdao encouraged Lin Yun and promised him a Foundation Establishment Pill in five years, after which Uncle-Master Wang completed Lin Yun’s initiation and explained the sect’s rules.
• Lin Yun settled into the new disciples’ quarters and considered asking Uncle-Master Lin about the Great Evolution Art, but decided to focus on cultivating the White Yang Diagram instead.
• Lin Yun estimated that completing the White Yang Diagram’s three hundred and sixty-four diagrams in Yellow Maple Valley would take several years, and remained confident he could establish his foundation without a pill.

After mastering the twelve Human True-Form Diagrams, Lin Yun sought a way to accelerate his progress through the White Yang Diagram without establishing his foundation prematurely. He left Yellow Maple Valley to gather materials for a Dew-Catching Plate, then prepared to extract five metals essence in a secluded cave.

• Lin Yun completed the twelve Human True-Form Diagrams, cleansing his meridians and marrow, but decided not to condense his true qi into True Essence and establish his foundation yet.
• Worried that mastering the remaining White Yang Diagram illustrations would take too long, Lin Yun decided to use pills made with precelestial substances to support his cultivation.
• Lin Yun traded at the Hundred Mechanisms Hall, obtained permission to leave Yellow Maple Valley, and went to the mortal lands to gather materials for a Dew-Catching Plate.
• Lin Yun spent three months earning money and buying raw copper, iron, and tin, intending to extract five metals essence for the plate.
• Lin Yun set up a temporary cave on a barren mountain between the Yue Kingdom and Yuanwu Kingdom, where he planned to extract the five metals essence away from Yellow Maple Valley.

Lin Yun refined a Golden Lamp from Gold Essence and used it to collect Solar True Fire, speeding up his work on the Five Metals Essence. He forged a Dew-Catching Plate and a sword-embryo, then set the plate out at midnight to begin collecting Yin-Yang Dew for cultivating the White Yang Diagram.

• Lin Yun realized he could use true fire to refine Gold Essence and shaped the metal into a miniature Golden Lamp.
• Lin Yun gathered Great Sun Divine Light into the lamp and obtained a wisp of Solar True Fire.
• Lin Yun used Solar True Fire to extract all his raw five metals into Five Metals Essence over the next month.
• Lin Yun refined a Dew-Catching Plate and used the remaining materials to forge a flying sword sword-embryo.
• Lin Yun postponed choosing a flying sword and placed the Dew-Catching Plate on the mountain summit at midnight to collect Yin-Yang Dew.

Lin Yun refined his first batch of spirit pills using the Yin-Yang Dew, then tested the Reversion Elixir Technique and resumed cultivating with a pill. With his assignment deadline approaching, he returned to Yellow Maple Valley and refined another furnace of pills before heading to the Hundred Mechanisms Hall.

• Lin Yun collected the Yin-Yang Dew and used the Pure Yang Alchemy Canon to refine a furnace of high-quality spirit pills.
• Lin Yun used the Reversion Elixir Technique to remake the pills into a larger batch of flawless pills, then decided the method wasted too much true qi to use again.
• Lin Yun swallowed a red pill and practiced the White Yang Diagram, allowing him to continue cultivating.
• Lin Yun recalled that his postponed Yellow Maple Valley assignments were nearly due and flew back using the Five-Metal Sword Embryo.
• Lin Yun returned to his cave abode on Mystic Kun Mountain, refined another furnace of pills for Strengthening the Foundation and Nourishing the Origin, and then went to the Hundred Mechanisms Hall.

Lin Yun traded Peiyuan Pills for Senior Brother Ye’s help securing a long-term assignment tending a herb garden. He took over Martial Uncle Ma’s Hundred Herbs Garden on Greenstone Ridge, where he planned to cultivate and obtain herbs for alchemy.

• Lin Yun gave Senior Brother Ye Peiyuan Pills in thanks for delaying his previous assignment and asked for a place where he could stay long-term.
• Senior Brother Ye tested a pill, confirmed its effects, and arranged for Lin Yun to tend Martial Uncle Ma’s private herb garden.
• Lin Yun arrived at the Hundred Herbs Garden and wondered whether taking the job would change Han Li’s future path.
• Martial Uncle Ma tested Lin Yun’s knowledge of medicinal herbs, then handed him the garden’s restriction token and management duties.
• After Martial Uncle Ma left, Lin Yun surveyed the garden’s abundant spiritual energy and varied herbs, satisfied that it could supply ingredients for pill refinement.

After spending over half a year cultivating in the Hundred Herbs Garden, Lin Yun prepared to leave the mountain to collect materials for refining his Clearvoid Invisible Sword. In Jingzhou, Han Li encountered glassware and perfume sold by Lin Yun’s Taobao Association, unaware that Lin Yun had built the business to gather metals.

• Lin Yun chose to refine a Clearvoid Invisible Sword and judged his current weapon to be only a Formless Sword Embryo that needed further refinement.
• Lin Yun asked Martial Uncle Ma for leave to gather raw materials, and Martial Uncle Ma approved on the condition that he return within three months.
• Han Li met Li Feiyu, who showed him glassware and perfume obtained from the Taobao Association.
• Han Li learned that the Taobao Association accepted copper, iron, and tin as payment, which puzzled him.
• Lin Yun’s businesses and gangs collected metals for his sword materials, and he had used martial arts manuals and mind-clouding tricks to secure their loyalty.

Lin Yun traveled to the Yuanwu Kingdom to gather raw metals and discovered an ancient formation surrounding a mountain. Inside, he met a wary young woman who had found the ruins first, and he left the opportunity in her hands.

• Lin Yun entered the Yuanwu Kingdom to establish new merchant associations for collecting raw metals.
• Lin Yun spotted an ancient formation on a hill and cautiously confirmed it was unattended before entering.
• Lin Yun used his knowledge of formations to pass through the Five Elements Reversal Formation.
• Lin Yun met a young woman outside dilapidated bamboo huts and learned she had stumbled through the formation and found the ruins.
• Lin Yun concealed his Invisible Sword, reassured the woman, and declined the opportunity because he believed it was destined for her.

Lin Yun discovered that Xin Ruoyin was an array prodigy whose DragonYin Body would kill her if she continued cultivating, and gave her pills that could temporarily suppress its effects. After studying arrays with her for two months and establishing a commercial association, he left for Yellow Maple Valley, promising to return with more medicine.

• Xin Ruoyin offered Lin Yun access to the books and jade slips in her bamboo house, and he learned about her background and exceptional talent for cultivation and arrays.
• Lin Yun examined Xin Ruoyin and diagnosed her with the DragonYin Body, warning that cultivation could dry out her meridians and kill her.
• Lin Yun gave Xin Ruoyin a Flowing Moon Pill that temporarily suppressed her Yang energy, and she swallowed it and felt relief.
• Lin Yun stayed for several days to study arrays with Xin Ruoyin, then traveled to nearby cities to select personnel and establish a commercial association over the next two months.
• Lin Yun gave Xin Ruoyin a sword talisman for protection and left for Yellow Maple Valley, telling her to take a Flowing Moon Pill every three days and promising to return.

Lin Yun collected his Foundation Establishment Pill and learned that Han Li had entered Yellow Maple Valley with an Ascension Token. Han Li arrived to help tend the Hundred Herbs Garden, where Lin Yun began showing him how to manage it before his planned seclusion.

• Martial Uncle Ma told Lin Yun that another Ascension Token entrant had left the valley short of Foundation Establishment Pills, so Lin Yun hurried to collect his own from Zhong Daoling.
• Lin Yun concealed his perfected thirteenth-level Qi Refining cultivation and accepted the Foundation Establishment Pill from Zhong Daoling, who believed Lin Yun was at the eleventh level.
• Lin Yun told Martial Uncle Ma he would cultivate longer before entering seclusion and asked to do so in the Hundred Herbs Garden.
• Han Li arrived as the new assistant gardener, and Lin Yun recognized him as Han the Old Devil.
• Lin Yun and Han Li discovered they had both entered Yellow Maple Valley with Ascension Tokens, and Lin Yun offered him cultivation notes and a choice of hut.

Lin Yun studied a Foundation Establishment Pill and explained to Han Li how Yellow Maple Valley's alchemy recipes were scarce and its pill-making techniques wasteful. He sealed the pill's escaping medicinal power with an unfamiliar technique, leaving Han Li amazed.

• Lin Yun analyzed the Foundation Establishment Pill and compared its medicinal properties with ingredients from the Herb Garden.
• Han Li told Lin Yun he had traded his own Foundation Establishment Pill to Elder Ye for cultivation supplies.
• Lin Yun said refining the pill was not especially difficult but required jade marrow zhi, purple monkey flower, and heavenly spirit fruit.
• Lin Yun told Han Li that Yellow Maple Valley's usable pill recipes were limited to the Foundation Establishment Pill and the Youth-Preserving Pill, with other recipes held by powerful clans and cultivators.
• Lin Yun criticized the Foundation Establishment Pill's wasteful refinement and used a flame to seal its leaking pill qi, leaving Han Li dumbstruck.

Lin Yun refined pills using Yin-Yang Dew while Han Li watched and recognized similarities to his Little Green Bottle. Lin Yun left the mountain for a few months, giving Han Li a chance to tend the garden and use his bottle, and gave him Peiyuan Pills that greatly increased his cultivation.

• Han Li visited Yuelu Hall but found no new pill formulas, then waited for Lin Yun to enter seclusion so he could use the Little Green Bottle.
• Lin Yun collected Yin-Yang Dew, refined a batch of pills, and scattered the remaining dew over the herb beds while Han Li secretly watched.
• Han Li noticed the Dew-Catching Plate and Yin-Yang Dew resembled his Little Green Bottle and wondered what Lin Yun knew about it.
• Lin Yun told Han Li he would be away for one to three months and gave him a bottle of Peiyuan Pills for taking care of the Herb Garden.
• Han Li consumed a Peiyuan Pill, felt his cultivation increase substantially, and wondered whether he could ask Lin Yun for its formula.

After returning to the Hundred Herbs Garden, Lin Yun reunited with Han Li, whose cultivation had advanced to the eleventh level of Qi Refining. Han Li sought Lin Yun’s help with alchemy, and Lin Yun refined Han Li’s crude Yellow Dragon Pills before inviting him to test them.

• Lin Yun returned to the Hundred Herbs Garden after spending three months helping Xin Ruoyin repair the Five Elements Reversal Formation.
• Lin Yun praised Han Li’s progress to the eleventh level, while Han Li worried that his Yellow Dragon Pills no longer worked and wondered how to obtain the Peiyuan Pill formula.
• Lin Yun reassured Han Li about his cultivation prospects and explained that pills could help make up for slow cultivation speed.
• Han Li thanked Lin Yun for the Peiyuan Pills and, hoping to learn alchemy, showed him the Yellow Dragon Pills he had refined.
• Lin Yun criticized Han Li’s pills as crude medicine, then used flames to refine them and handed the improved pills to Han Li to try.

Lin Yun explained his unconventional pill-making method to Han Li and gave him alchemy instructions, while Han Li’s gifts helped Lin Yun advance his White Yang Diagram cultivation. When Han Li mentioned the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land, Lin Yun realized it could supply the spiritual Qi he needed and began preparing to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill for him.

• Lin Yun explained why ordinary flames could not properly refine pills, then gave Han Li a jade slip containing alchemy methods and the Peiyuan Pill formula.
• Over the following year, Han Li learned to refine Peiyuan Pills and reached the Twelfth Level of Qi Refining, while a gift of aged medicinal material helped Lin Yun cultivate the White Yang Diagram’s three hundred and sixty-fourth diagram.
• Lin Yun failed to cultivate his final true-form diagram because Yellow Maple Valley’s spiritual Qi was insufficient, and he worried about how to proceed.
• Han Li told Lin Yun about the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land and worried that obtaining the three ingredients for a Foundation Establishment Pill would be dangerous.
• Lin Yun realized the forbidden land could support his cultivation, promised Han Li a Foundation Establishment Pill, and began setting up his alchemy equipment to refine one.

Lin Yun refined an improved Foundation Establishment Pill for Han Li, who decided he no longer needed to enter the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land. When Han Li later showed Lin Yun the liquid from his Little Green Bottle, Lin Yun identified it as weakened Cosmic Light True Water and Three Lights Divine Water.

• Lin Yun used a Foundation Establishment Pill, herbs, spiritual energy, and Yin-Yang Dew to refine two improved Spirit Pills, giving one to Han Li and keeping the other for Xin Ruoyin.
• Lin Yun told Han Li that his pill guaranteed Foundation Establishment even for cultivators with fake spiritual roots, so Han Li decided not to risk entering the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land.
• Lin Yun accepted that Han Li would not join him, then prepared to finish refining his Invisible Sword before entering the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land.
• Han Li asked Lin Yun about the essential energy of the sun and moon, and Lin Yun showed him the Dew-Catching Plate and explained how it gathered that energy.
• Han Li handed Lin Yun a jade bottle of green liquid, and Lin Yun identified it as Cosmic Light True Water and Three Lights Divine Water whose potency was weakened because the lower realm lacked primordial qi.

Lin Yun identified Han Li’s green liquid as a dangerous mixture of Cosmic Light True Water and Three Lights Divine Water, warned him to keep it secret, and used it to refine the Clearvoid Invisible Sword. He stopped after two cycles of refinement, leaving the sword transformed but in need of years of nurturing to stabilize its spirituality.

• Lin Yun explained the properties of Cosmic Light True Water and Three Lights Divine Water and recognized that Han Li’s green liquid contained both.
• Lin Yun warned Han Li not to reveal the liquid or the Little Green Bottle, and cautioned him against using the mixture to refine pills.
• Lin Yun said he could separate the Three Lights Divine Water after reaching Foundation Establishment, which he expected to achieve after visiting the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land in seven months.
• Han Li gave Lin Yun the remaining liquid, and Lin Yun used it to refine the Clearvoid Invisible Sword.
• Lin Yun stopped the sword’s refinement after two cycles and made a Talisman Treasure from a strand of its sword qi to prevent the sword from being ruined.

Lin Yun finished refining the Clearvoid Invisible Sword and gave Han Li a Talisman Treasure in thanks. As the Blood-Colored Trial approached, Lin Yun prepared to leave while Han Li stayed behind, and the Seven Sects gathered at the agreed meeting place before setting out for the forbidden land.

• Lin Yun completed the Clearvoid Invisible Sword and gave Han Li its Talisman Treasure, which could attack with invisible sword qi and perform Formless Sword Escape.
• Lin Yun noticed Han Li return with the scent of rouge and powder, then told Martial Uncle Ma that Han Li would wait five years before entering the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land.
• Lin Yun joined the Blood-Colored Trial expedition and spotted the Deity Transformation cultivator Xiang Zhili among the assembled disciples.
• After traveling with Li Huayuan to the Seven Sects' meeting place, Lin Yun avoided Xiang Zhili and watched the sects gather.
• Lin Yun recognized Old Monster Qiong as he joined Li Huayuan and Fuyunzi's wager, then observed the remaining sects arrive.

Lin Yun entered the Blood-Colored Forbidden Land and made his way to the mist-sealed ring-shaped mountain range, gathering spirit herbs and helping a few Yellow Maple Valley disciples along the way. He concealed a chamber deep underground, prepared a Spirit Gathering Array, and began meditating before starting his cultivation.

• The Seven Sects' Core Formation cultivators opened a passage, and Lin Yun entered the forbidden land with Yellow Maple Valley's disciples.
• Lin Yun used the Clearvoid Invisible Sword to travel toward a region rich in spiritual vitality, stealing guarded spirit herbs and killing several Spirit Beast Mountain disciples who were ambushing others.
• Lin Yun reached the ring-shaped mountain range, rested, then used Formless Sword Escape to enter it before the Seven Sects dispersed its mist.
• Lin Yun dug a hidden stone chamber deep underground and set up an array to conceal its spiritual fluctuations.
• Lin Yun placed a Spirit Gathering Array in the chamber and meditated while reciting the Mind-Calming Mantra.