Chapter Summaries

Lin Ke knocked Mo Tianji unconscious, then tried to bluff True Person Hanjiang with the captured Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators, but Hanjiang recognized him and attacked. As Hanjiang pursued him toward the Golden Autumn Garden, Lin Ke considered using the Dragon Cultivator souls or reviving the Centipede Dragon Cultivator to escape.

• Lin Ke struck Mo Tianji unconscious and trapped the pursuing Nascent Soul Cultivators in a net of Black Ice Centipedes.
• Lin Ke claimed he was a secret agent and offered to spare the captives, but True Person Hanjiang recognized him as Lin Ke and crushed the net, killing its captives.
• True Person Hanjiang said he wanted to settle their scores over Shi You and Shi Yuan, and Lin Ke fled toward the Golden Autumn Garden with Mo Tianji on his back.
• Lin Ke considered using the Dragon Cultivator souls in the Windglow Cloud Dragon Saber to strengthen Lu Yuanchun, but decided that reviving the Centipede Dragon Cultivator might be his best remaining option.

Lin Ke escaped True Person Hanjiang by using Blade Spirits as a diversion and hiding in an underground cave. He planned ways to strengthen himself and Lu Yuanchun before Hanjiang could find him again.

• Lin Ke recognized that True Person Hanjiang had tracked him using the Seven Stars Dazzling Eyes Art, which he had learned from Hanjiang's former disciple Shi You.
• Lin Ke summoned Blade Spirits with his Windglow Spirit Dragon Saber, then escaped with a rune circuit while the spirits held True Person Hanjiang back.
• Lin Ke hid in a cave, concealed his aura with Spirit Tree bark and Breath-Concealing Pills, and planned to revive the Centipede Dragon Cultivator, raise a Mirror Ancient Millipede, and strengthen Lu Yuanchun.
• Lin Ke summoned Lu Yuanchun and ordered him to absorb and refine any people or souls that appeared in the cave as enemies, increasing his strength.

Lin Ke used True Person Hanjiang’s attacks to supply Blade Spirits for Lu Yuanchun to kill, raising Lu Yuanchun’s strength toward the Fusion stage. While Lu Yuanchun began teaching spirit insects to establish his Dao, Lin Ke prepared layered illusory realms and restored his mental power as Hanjiang demanded to know why his opponents were protecting Lin Ke.

• Lu Yuanchun pledged his life to Lin Ke, then killed the Jade Hall Disciples whose souls Lin Ke had brought into the cavern.
• Lin Ke and Lu Yuanchun used the Blade Spirits destroyed by True Person Hanjiang to absorb the souls of Golden Autumn Garden Dragon Cultivators and raise Lu Yuanchun’s cultivation toward the Fusion stage.
• Lin Ke explained that Lu Yuanchun needed to establish a sect and teach a Dao to reach the Fusion stage, so Lu Yuanchun took spirit insects to teach them.
• Lin Ke had Mirror Insects build layers of illusory realms as a defensive trap, then began restoring his mental power.
• True Person Hanjiang roared at the monk and the Illusionless Gu Sect cultivator who kept blocking him, demanding to know their relationship with Lin Ke.

Lin Ke told Golden Autumn Monk that the Golden Autumn Garden cultivators had sacrificed their lifespans to help Lu Yuanchun reach the Fusion Realm. True Person Hanjiang caught up and entered Lin Ke’s illusory realm, where a strange scholar and a terrifying shadow unsettled him.

• Golden Autumn Monk returned to Lin Ke and urged him to flee, but Lin Ke explained that the Golden Autumn Garden cultivators had given their lifespans to Lu Yuanchun.
• True Person Hanjiang entered the cavern and stepped into Lin Ke’s illusory realm, confident he could break the formation and capture Lin Ke.
• Inside the mountain god temple, True Person Hanjiang encountered eerie disturbances, including extinguished flames and fleeting apparitions.
• A scholar appeared in the temple, and True Person Hanjiang eagerly offered to help him in hopes of breaking the formation.
• The scholar burned incense, revealing a shadow with pupil-less eyes and a maggot-filled wound in its neck, which horrified True Person Hanjiang.

True Person Hanjiang repeatedly killed the tigers and disguised ghosts in the Illusory Realm, but the traps kept resetting. Outside, Lin Ke prepared a coordinated ambush and released every attack at once as the frozen time around Hanjiang ended.

• True Person Hanjiang followed a scholar to a cliff, killed a giant tiger and the scholar, then watched them reappear in new disguises with more requests for help.
• True Person Hanjiang killed the disguised farmer and another tiger, then encountered the same figure posing as a woman and realized the Illusory Realm kept repeating.
• Lin Ke positioned Lu Yuanchun, the Blade Spirits, Master Zhuang's Domain Body, and his other allies outside the Formations to prepare their attacks.
• Lin Ke used the Lu Ban Lantern to freeze True Person Hanjiang in time, then coordinated Lu Yuanchun, his allies, and the Blade Spirits as they aimed their attacks at him.
• Lin Ke put away his allies, took True Person Hanjiang's Storage Bag, and held a Teleportation Talisman as he extinguished the lantern and the attacks surged toward Hanjiang.

True Person Hanjiang escaped Lin Ke’s illusions only to be battered by his traps, then retaliated against nearby Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators and blamed Lin Ke for the deaths. He halted the expanding Guardian Array of the Ten-Thousand Longevity Eternal Spring Garden with an arrow, leaving the spread of the gardens’ formations in question.

• True Person Hanjiang destroyed the illusory realm, then discovered Lin Ke’s spell-art traps waiting in the cavern.
• Void Illusion Strangulation Flow disrupted True Person Hanjiang, and Lin Ke’s seals, Explosive Talismans, and heavenly thunder blasted him out of the mountain.
• Wounded and humiliated, True Person Hanjiang drained nearby Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators to heal, cut off his ruined hands, and fitted on prosthetic limbs.
• True Person Hanjiang aimed the Dead Spirit Bone Blade at the expanding white Guardian Array, pinning its leading edge and stopping its advance.

Lin Ke returned to Golden Autumn Garden and met Duan Dongqing and Duan Jihong, who brought him by boat to Supreme Elder Fangshan. Fangshan showed Lin Ke the Cloud Ink Sect's camp and boasted of its training methods.

• Lin Ke and Mo Tianji reunited with Duan Dongqing and learned that the Teleportation Formation had been repaired and five thousand Cloud Ink Sect disciples had entered Golden Autumn Garden.
• Duan Jihong explained that teleportation Talismans could trigger the Guardian Array's extermination mechanism, then sped the group upstream in a boat refined as a Formation Stone.
• Duan Jihong brewed reverent moonwhite tea and told the group that the Illusionless Gu Sect had sent the True Lord of the Five Poisons to the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm.
• Supreme Elder Fangshan summoned Lin Ke to the Golden Autumn Mountain Range and showed him the Cloud Ink Sect's elaborate camp.
• Fangshan boasted that the Cloud Ink Sect's disciples would surpass the Golden Wing Sect's, then complained that Hua Wujiang would not admit it.

Lin Ke turned True Person Fangshan’s argument for awarding Spirit Veins to cultivators nearing Fusion against him by revealing Lu Yuanchun’s strength. He left Fangshan facing the rule he had just set, which entitled Lu Yuanchun to two Spirit Veins.

• Duan Jihong insulted True Person Fangshan, while Duan Dongqing explained that his uncle had gone a little mad after a head injury.
• True Person Fangshan argued that the Cloud Ink Sect deserved most of the Spirit Veins and Dragon Tombs because the Golden Wing Sect had too few powerful cultivators.
• Zhuge Qi Tian objected that the Golden Wing Sect had contributed more cultivators and fought for the Golden Autumn Garden’s Grand Array.
• Lin Ke agreed that resources should go to cultivators close to Fusion, then summoned Lu Yuanchun to reveal that he had half a foot in the Fusion stage.
• Lin Ke granted Lu Yuanchun two Spirit Veins, citing Fangshan’s own reasoning about a cultivator’s breakthrough and future disciples.

Lin Ke overpowered True Person Fangshan in the Cloud Ink Pavilion and set rules for dividing Golden Autumn Garden’s spiritual veins between the Golden Wing Sect and Cloud Ink Sect. The Cloud Ink Sect disciples accepted his proposal, while Duan Dongqing was left considering how old Lin Ke was.

• True Person Fangshan used his pressure to pin down Golden Wing Sect cultivators, but Lin Ke summoned Master Zhuang's Domain Spirit and broke through it.
• True Person Fangshan brought out the Flying Leaf Bone Flute, but Lin Ke, Lu Yuanchun, and Jiang Ruoyan drove back the Cloud Ink Sect elders and wounded Fangshan.
• Lin Ke declared that strength determined who had the final say and proposed how the two sects would divide the spiritual veins and govern their territories.
• The Cloud Ink Sect disciples praised Lin Ke's proposal and wondered about his age, while Duan Dongqing silently pondered the question.

Lin Ke arranged a meeting for the Golden Wing Sect and the Cloud Ink Sect to decide how they would face the conflict outside, while Duan Jihong joined the Golden Wing Sect in exchange for help setting up a formation. That night, Lin Ke assessed his techniques and artifacts and realized he needed stronger spirit artifacts to reliably unleash his most powerful method.

• Duan Dongqing and the other disciples joked about her interest in Lin Ke, while True Person Fangshan restored the damaged hall and left.
• Lin Ke told the two sects to choose ten representatives each and meet in Golden Autumn Garden in seven days to discuss their policies and resources.
• Duan Jihong asked to join the Golden Wing Sect, accepted the position of elder, and requested materials for a Heaven-Watching Formation to survey the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm.
• Lin Ke sorted through his gains and reviewed the strengths and limitations of his spell arts, mental power methods, and spirit artifacts.
• Lin Ke concluded that he needed more high-quality spirit artifacts to reliably use the Four-Armed Dharma Aspect True Body, then heard someone call to him from outside his door.

Lin Ke accepted Duan Dongqing’s precious willow dew and used it to temper the Windglow Spirit Dragon Saber, advancing it to origin tier superior. He then planned to seek Duan Jihong’s help with formations while gathering Mantle Spider eyes.

• Duan Dongqing gave Lin Ke materials for Duan Jihong’s formation work and a vial of dew from the Cloud Ink Sect’s ten-thousand-year-old weeping willow.
• Lin Ke tried to return the gift with Grain Rain Dragon Pearl Spirit Liquid, and Duan Dongqing hurriedly left with the vial.
• Lin Ke used the willow dew to temper the Windglow Spirit Dragon Saber, awakening a dragon pattern and advancing the saber to origin tier superior.
• The Blade Spirits grew stronger as the saber improved, and Lin Ke considered whether adding other Divine Souls to it could make them undying.
• Lin Ke decided to help Duan Jihong find Mantle Spiders and ask him for guidance on the Nine Buddhist Radiance Treasure Arrays.

Lin Ke and Nan Shang searched for Mantle Spiders so Lin Ke could obtain male spiders’ eyeballs for Duan Jihong. After luring out several males and using the Dream-Eating Gecko to immobilize them, Lin Ke drew the intelligent female Mantle Spider into the open, where an invisible wall blocked its escape.

• Nan Shang guided Lin Ke toward the Mantle Spiders, and Lin Ke used a Teleportation Talisman to carry him to the Southern Summer Garden.
• Nan Shang pinned down a male Mantle Spider, but a female emerged and destroyed it before Lin Ke could take its eyeballs.
• Nan Shang explained that female Mantle Spiders protected the males, so Lin Ke returned to gather wild spirit-beast corpses as bait.
• Lin Ke used Master Zhuang’s Mental Power to hold the bait in place, then had the Dream-Eating Gecko immobilize the male Mantle Spiders with Nightmare.
• The female Mantle Spider burst from the desert and destroyed the corpses, but an invisible wall stopped it as it tried to burrow away.

Lin Ke and Nan Shang returned to Duan Jihong with Mantle Spider eyeballs and asked to study formations under him. Duan Jihong accepted them as disciples and began teaching them a difficult low-level Heaven-Watching Formation.

• Lin Ke collected five male Mantle Spider eyeballs while Nan Shang retrieved the needles controlling the female spider, and they teleported back to Golden Autumn Garden.
• Lin Ke gave Duan Jihong Duan Dongqing's Storage Bag and the eyeballs, and Duan Jihong offered Reverent Moonwhite in exchange for them.
• Lin Ke explained that formations could preserve cultivators' strength and provide powerful defenses, while Nan Shang described learning formations as a way to temper herself.
• Duan Jihong agreed to accept Lin Ke and Nan Shang as disciples, then offered to teach them the Heaven-Watching Formation because an enemy threat left little time for detailed instruction.

Duan Jihong taught Lin Ke, Mo Tianji, and Nan Shang to draw the Formation-Starting Talisman for the Heaven-Observing Formation. Lin Ke mastered it and was named Duan Jihong’s successor, then reproduced Mo Tianji’s explosive talisman and set it off.

• Duan Jihong demonstrated the Formation-Starting Talisman and began teaching the others to draw it.
• Mo Tianji drew a red talisman that exploded and blasted him away, while Nan Shang’s Supreme Yang Crystal model shattered.
• Mo Tianji successfully drew a pale-purple talisman that made him fall asleep, and Duan Jihong continued forming the Heaven-Observing Formation.
• Lin Ke used his Master Zhuang Domain Body to draw a perfect Formation-Starting Talisman, prompting Duan Jihong to claim him as his disciple and successor.
• Lin Ke reproduced Mo Tianji’s Self-Detonating Talisman, which immediately exploded.

Lin Ke and Duan Jihong discovered that the Illusionless Gu Sect was preparing a major threat, then warned the gathered sect representatives that it could revive a vast undead army. The chapter left the cultivators debating the danger as they faced the prospect of being trapped and killed in the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm.

• Lin Ke shocked Duan Jihong, Nan Shang, and Mo Tianji by copying a talisman, explaining that he used a Three-Dimensional Coordinate System to map its lines.
• Duan Jihong completed the Heaven-Watching Formation, and he and Lin Ke agreed that the Cloud Ink Sect and Golden Wing Sect needed to act against the Illusionless Gu Sect.
• Lin Ke and Duan Jihong convened a meeting at the communal Spirit Vein, beginning without True Person Fangshan's faction after waiting six hours.
• Duan Jihong used the Heaven-Watching Formation to reveal that the Illusionless Gu Sect had increased its forces in the Northern Frontier and that the Bone Emperor had revived.
• Lin Ke explained that the Illusionless Gu Sect likely sought the nearby Spirit Stone Vein to revive an undead army capable of overwhelming everyone in the secret realm.
• The representatives erupted into discussion after Lin Ke warned that the Illusionless Gu Sect could bury all the cultivators in the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm.

Lin Ke and Duan Jihong argued that the Cloud Ink Sect should send troops to support the Imperial Clan, but True Person Fangshan objected and clashed with Duan Jihong. Lin Ke intervened to stop their fight, leaving the dispute over the troop deployment unresolved.

• Lin Ke showed the assembly the Jade Great Radiance Church's battles against Imperial Clan forces and Mantle Spiders, and explained that Golden Autumn Garden could be defended while troops were away.
• Duan Jihong presented his Imperial Clan pass as proof that their army could enter the Imperial Clan's territory, and Lin Ke's proposal won support from all but two of fifty representatives.
• True Person Fangshan arrived late and opposed sending troops, arguing that the Cloud Ink Sect should avoid involvement with the Illusionless Gu Sect.
• Duan Jihong insulted Fangshan and warned him about the Illusionless Gu Sect's dangerous leaders, prompting Fangshan to attack him.
• Duan Jihong and Fangshan fought with formation weapons and a Domain Spirit, damaging the mountain summit as Lin Ke recorded their techniques.
• Lin Ke summoned Master Zhuang's Domain Body and caught both combatants' attacks, urging the elders to stop fighting.

Lin Ke and Duan Jihong studied the Dragon Head Annihilation Art, and Lin Ke used the Scorching Burn Dragon Pearl to complete its Golden Body Dharma Aspect. At dawn, Lin Ke’s allied force departed through teleportation arrays as a Blood-Colored Net began to spread.

• True Person Fangshan and Duan Jihong exchanged threats but refrained from fighting, and Lin Ke assigned Fangshan to guard Golden Autumn Garden while Zhuge and Mo Tianji joined the expedition.
• Duan Jihong examined the Dragon Head Annihilation Art and demonstrated how its formation runes could form a golden Dharma Aspect.
• Lin Ke empowered the formation with the Scorching Burn Dragon Pearl, producing a Domain Spirit Dharma Aspect that took on Duan Jihong’s likeness.
• Lin Ke asked Duan Jihong to teach him the Four-Armed Dharma Aspect True Body after the formation collapsed.
• At dawn, Lin Ke’s force of four thousand Golden Wing Sect and Cloud Ink Sect disciples departed through Duan Jihong’s teleportation arrays as a Blood-Colored Net spread open.

Lin Ke and the two sects’ cultivators recovered from a disrupted teleportation and realized they had been deceived by an illusory formation: the Spirit Stone Veins were occupied, and the princess supposedly guarding them was an undead royal cultivator. After their attempts to capture witnesses failed, Lin Ke revealed he could question the slain woman through his Blade Spirit.

• Lin Ke awoke in a ruined garden after spatial turbulence scattered the teleporting cultivators, and Duan Jihong explained that his own Formation-Breaking Talismans had disrupted the formation.
• Lin Ke realized the garden was an illusion and that the Spirit Stone Veins had already been occupied; five Illusionless Gu Sect cultivators appeared and fled.
• Lin Ke, Mo Tianji, and Zhuge Qi Tian killed three fleeing cultivators, while Zhuge Qi Tian captured another who turned out to be an undead royal family cultivator.
• Mo Tianji accidentally killed the remaining Illusionless Gu Sect cultivator before he could be questioned, leaving the assembled cultivators without a living witness.
• Lin Ke summoned the royal cultivator he had slain as his Blade Spirit, and Duan Jihong asked him to help create one for him too.

Lin Ke and the others learned that the Illusionless Gu Sect had used resurrected soldiers to attack the Eldest Princess and had trapped the forces in the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm. The chapter ended with Lin Ke confronting the group over whether they would help stop the sect.

• The Imperial Clan cultivator recalled how the Illusionless Gu Sect's scouts detonated inside the Traveling Palace and returned as Undead Armored Soldiers, killing her and causing her to attack the Eldest Princess.
• Duan Jihong found that his Positioning Talismans could not locate the Eldest Princess, while Mo Tianji urged the group to return to Golden Autumn Garden and Duan Jihong refused.
• Duan Jihong used the Heaven-Watching Formation to reveal countless Undead Armored Soldiers on the Ice Plains and True Person Hanjiang damaging the Royal Family's Sect-Protection Array.
• True Person Hanjiang sensed the formation's viewpoint, and the Undead Armored Soldiers pointed at it, causing the Heaven-Watching Formation to burst apart.
• True Person Fangshan reported that the Myriad Insect Abyss was destroyed, Golden Autumn Garden's entrance formation had been sabotaged, and the Burial Dragon Bone Ground was the Cloud Dragon Secret Realm's only remaining entrance and exit.
• Lin Ke asked whether the others still believed the Spirit Stone Veins had nothing to do with them.

Lin Ke and his companions went to the Imperial Clan's Traveling Palace to find the eldest princess and learn the state of the Spirit Stone Veins. After they reached her, she questioned why minor sects had come to help, and Lin Ke privately focused on securing the Spirit-Gathering Treasure Pearls.

• Lin Ke sent Zhuge Qi Tian and the others to establish defenses while he, Mo Tianji, Nan Shang, Duan Dongqing, and Zong Ya set out for the Traveling Palace.
• The group crossed a wasteland where undead power was stirring the bones of Spirit Beasts and spotted the palace heading west with undead soldiers swarming beneath it.
• Imperial Clan cultivators attacked the newcomers with arrows, but Lin Ke blocked them with the Small Earth Shield Formation and announced their purpose.
• The palace's defenders brought the five inside, where the eldest princess asked what had brought them to her Traveling Palace.
• Lin Ke warned that the Illusionless Gu Sect sought the Spirit-Gathering Treasure Pearls and offered to escort the princess to establish defenses at the Golden Autumn Garden.
• The princess questioned why the Imperial Clan needed help from minor sects, while Lin Ke privately resolved to keep the Spirit Power from the Illusionless Gu Sect.