Chapter Summaries

Qing Chen confronted Dayuan's Duke Who Guards the Nation over its secret trade with the Golden Tent Khanate, then offered to sell Dayuan military supplies in exchange for a massive payment. Helian Shan privately revealed that Dayuan could give Qing Chen a method to establish a fortune node without a Sky-Patrolling Dao Seal or an investiture.

• Qing Chen received Helian Shan and presented evidence that Dayuan had secretly supplied demon horses, spirit grain, and war materials to the Golden Tent Khanate.
• Qing Chen intimidated Helian Shan and the Dayuan envoys, then demanded a five-hundred-million-spirit-stone smuggling tax and a two-billion-spirit-stone purchase of supplies.
• Helian Shan offered a gift and asked Qing Chen to waive the smuggling tax, so Xu Jiuling led the other ministers out of the hall.
• Helian Shan showed Qing Chen a bone plate and offered a method for establishing a fortune node using the land and the vow power of its people.
• Qing Chen recognized the method's significance because it could let him wield the Power of Fortune independently of Great Jin's investiture.

Qing Chen negotiated a fortune-node method from Dayuan while granting the kingdom tax relief and a discount on its military order. After totaling the Seven Kingdoms’ contracts and reviewing his dwindling funds, he turned his attention to the Persian and Qingqiu envoys’ return routes and planned to stir up more trouble.

• Helian Shan offered Qing Chen a bone plate containing a method for establishing fortune nodes in exchange for waiving Dayuan’s five-hundred-million-spirit-stone tax and reducing its military supply costs.
• Qing Chen and Helian Shan settled on a ten-percent discount, set Dayuan’s bill at 1.8 billion low-grade spirit stones, and removed the tax; Helian Shan then gave Qing Chen the bone key needed to open the plate.
• The Seven Kingdoms’ envoys departed Yanmen Pass, and Xu Jiuling’s accounts showed their military supply contracts totaled 6.3 billion low-grade spirit stones.
• Qing Chen calculated that his net profit would be about 1.8 billion spirit stones, but found that his remaining funds were still insufficient for his needs.
• Qing Chen studied the Persian and Qingqiu envoys’ return routes and decided to add more fuel to the fire.

Qing Chen deployed two armies from the World Inside the Tower to ambush Persian and Qingqiu delegations, planting evidence to frame rival kingdoms and fuel further arms purchases. After secretly sending the forces beyond the tower, he prepared to travel to Suzhou to welcome Consort Nian and Ji Chengjing with conspicuous ceremony.

• Qing Chen ordered Lie Feng and Bu Jingyun to lead separate armies against the Persian and Qingqiu delegations, sparing their princes and selected high-ranking survivors while planting evidence implicating other kingdoms.
• Qing Chen assigned Demon God Pojun to accompany Lie Feng and the Xuanming Demon God to accompany Bu Jingyun, ordering both to act only if the armies faced Nascent Soul experts they could not handle.
• Qing Chen secretly released both armies outside Yanmen Pass, where Lie Feng headed southwest and Bu Jingyun traveled north through the snow.
• Qing Chen received word that Consort Nian's procession and Ji Chengjing would soon reach Suzhou, then ordered Xu Jiuling to prepare a highly publicized ceremonial welcome.

Qing Chen traveled toward Suzhou to welcome Consort Nian while Lie Feng and Bu Jingyun ambushed and nearly annihilated the Persian and Qingqiu envoys. Qing Chen arrived in Suzhou, where Governor Mei Zhili prepared to receive him and await Consort Nian.

• Qing Chen left Yanmen Pass with his fleet, publicly heading to the Nian Household in Suzhou.
• Lie Feng led a hundred thousand Body Cultivators in an ambush that destroyed most of the Persian delegation, while Altai escaped and Demon God Pojun devoured the Persian Attendant’s Nascent Soul.
• Bu Jingyun and the army overwhelmed the Qingqiu delegation, and the Xuanming Demon God swallowed its Attendant’s fleeing Nascent Soul; Qingqiu’s third prince escaped.
• Lie Feng and Bu Jingyun staged false traces, raided nearby settlements, and withdrew with their spoils into prepared bunkers in Liangzhou with Su Zixuan’s help.
• Mei Zhili welcomed Qing Chen in Suzhou and reported that the route and arrangements for Consort Nian’s arrival were ready.

Qing Chen staged an elaborate welcome for Consort Nian and Ji Chengjing, leading them to mistake his calculated courtesy for deference. After the banquet, he ignored Ji Chengjing’s hints about becoming his disciple while Mei Zhili prepared a lavish gathering for him.

• Qing Chen entered Suzhou with both official retinues and greeted Nian Yao at the Nian Ancestral Residence.
• Consort Nian and Ji Chengjing arrived, and Qing Chen formally welcomed them and promised to accompany Ji Chengjing to inspect Yanmen Pass.
• Ji Chengjing regained his confidence and assumed Qing Chen might willingly become his master, while Consort Nian reconsidered her view of Qing Chen.
• The Second Prince of Persia and the Third Prince of Qingqiu fled their respective locations, unaware Qing Chen had shaped the circumstances around them.
• At the Nian Ancestral Residence banquet, Qing Chen entertained the guests but ignored Ji Chengjing’s hints about becoming his disciple.
• Mei Zhili arranged a private gathering at Qiyun Pavilion, inviting numerous adult half-demon women and female cultivators for Qing Chen.

Qing Chen studied the Great Liang method for gathering and controlling regional fortune, discovering how it could empower its master and threaten the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty. He decided to establish fortune nodes inside the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda, unknowingly avoiding Wu Gui’s scheme to turn him into a traitor and steal his cultivated fortune.

• Qing Chen entertained the foreign women at Qiyun Pavilion, then withdrew to a sealed quiet room to examine the bone plate and Pitch-Black Bone Key.
• Qing Chen used the key to unlock the bone plate and absorbed the Great Liang's Taiyi Treatise on Suppressing the Fortune of Mountains, Rivers, and All Living Beings into his consciousness.
• Qing Chen learned that the method linked land, people, an anchoring artifact, and a master to gather fortune capable of suppressing powerful cultivators.
• Qing Chen recognized that secretly establishing nodes in Great Jin would amount to treason and considered using the method within the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda instead.
• Wu Gui’s true plan was revealed: he intended to use the method to make Qing Chen a Great Jin rebel and eventually seize the fortune Qing Chen had cultivated, but Qing Chen’s pagoda unknowingly thwarted the trap.

After confirming that the Fortune Nodes method worked inside the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda, Qing Chen concealed his involvement as attacks on Persian and Qingqiu delegations heightened tensions across the Western Regions. As the kingdoms clashed and ordered more weapons from Yanmen Pass, Great Jin’s Wedding Procession arrived in the northwest.

• Qing Chen tested the Fortune Nodes method in the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda and confirmed it could condense threads of Fortune Rules.
• Altai reported that a hundred thousand armored body cultivators had destroyed the Persian delegation, but Persia could not identify the attackers.
• The Qingqiu court discovered that its delegation had been attacked as well, and Qing Chen sent investigators while publicly urging the kingdoms to exercise restraint.
• Persia, Loulan, Qingqiu, and Dayuan retaliated against one another as border clashes multiplied and kingdoms increased their weapons orders from Yanmen Pass.
• Great Jin’s Wedding Procession arrived in the northwest.

Qing Chen escorted Hening Commandery Princess to Loulan, then learned that Luan-yang Princess had gone on to Qiuci for reasons he could not determine. After months of secluded cultivation, he finally left the Governor-General’s Office when the Nian Household’s seventh visit offered a tempting treasure and an important matter to discuss.

• Qing Chen rejected the idea of abducting Hening Commandery Princess, escorted her wedding procession safely to Loulan, and sent twenty thousand Cangming Army troops to guard it.
• After Hening Commandery Princess married Loulan’s Great Prince, Luan-yang Princess traveled to Qiuci with Imperial Guards and unidentified cultivators, leaving Qing Chen uncertain of her purpose.
• Qing Chen began secluded cultivation with rare body-tempering medicines and spiritual materials, intending to remain at Yanmen Pass for years.
• The Nian Household repeatedly tried to persuade Qing Chen to take Ji Chengjing as his disciple, but Qing Chen ignored their visits and rejected the prince’s appeal.
• On the Nian Household’s seventh visit, Xu Jiuling told Qing Chen they offered a treasure capable of tempting a Heavenly Gang Ranking True Lord and had an important matter to discuss.
• Qing Chen emerged from seclusion, accepted the Nian Household’s letter, and ordered their Nascent Soul elder to lead the way.

Qing Chen followed the Nian Household Elder to a hidden mountain hall, where he found Consort Nian meeting him in secret despite her imperial home-visiting restrictions. After she explained how the Nian Household concealed her journey, she approached and bowed to Qing Chen.

• Qing Chen traveled with the Nian Household Elder to a heavily fortified branch hall in the Red Copper Mountain Range.
• Qing Chen entered a hidden hall and discovered Consort Nian seated above Ji Chengjing.
• Qing Chen tried to leave and warned Consort Nian to return to Suzhou before her secret trip was discovered.
• Consort Nian explained that the Nian Household used secret translocation formations and a Phoenix-Shadow Dharma Body to conceal her absence.
• Consort Nian approached Qing Chen and bowed to him.

Consort Nian asked Qing Chen to accept Ji Chengjing as his disciple, but he refused until she offered an unusual Jade Slip as an apprenticeship gift. The Jade Slip contained a high-level Dream Cultivation method, and Consort Nian revealed that she knew of Emperor Jingtai’s interest in Qing Chen’s dream-related abilities.

• Consort Nian bowed to Qing Chen and asked him to teach and protect Ji Chengjing, but Qing Chen refused the request.
• Consort Nian ordered Ji Chengjing to kneel before Qing Chen, and Ji Chengjing reluctantly obeyed.
• Consort Nian offered a substantial apprenticeship gift and sent Ji Chengjing out of the sealed hall.
• Consort Nian showed Qing Chen a dark red Jade Slip whose aura resembled the Dream Cultivation materials he had studied, stirring his interest.
• Consort Nian explained that Emperor Jingtai cultivated Dream Arts and had taken notice of Qing Chen’s discourse and studies.

Consort Nian gave Qing Chen the first volume of the Yinghuo Illumination-of-the-World Dream Scripture as an apprenticeship gift for Ji Chengjing, hoping to secure Qing Chen’s protection for her son. Qing Chen questioned the Nian Household’s motives and pressed for more, approaching Consort Nian until she raised her spiritual pressure.

• Consort Nian revealed that the Nian Household had found the first volume of the Yinghuo Illumination-of-the-World Dream Scripture and gave its jade slip to Qing Chen.
• Qing Chen sensed the scripture’s extraordinary dream-cultivation inheritance and considered using it to gain access to the fourth Yinghuo Grand Void Dream Seal and pursue resources for Spirit Transformation.
• Consort Nian explained that the Nian Household offered the scripture as Ji Chengjing’s apprenticeship gift because she wanted Qing Chen to protect her son after he left the imperial capital.
• Qing Chen suspected the Nian Household might have ambitions beyond helping Ji Chengjing survive and said the first volume alone was not enough to secure his protection.
• Qing Chen approached Consort Nian as she retreated to the jade desk, whereupon she raised Dharma Nascent Soul-level spiritual pressure.

Qing Chen coerced Consort Nian into granting his demands during a private meeting, while Ji Chengjing waited outside, unaware of what had happened. When the doors opened, Qing Chen asked Ji Chengjing whether he was willing to become his disciple.

• Qing Chen used magnetic-origin power and threats against Ji Chengjing and the Nian Household to pressure Consort Nian into compliance.
• Qing Chen sealed the hall so Ji Chengjing could not sense what was happening inside, and Consort Nian eventually broke down in fear.
• Ji Chengjing waited outside for two hours, unable to breach the restriction or sense the negotiations.
• The hall doors opened, revealing a composed Qing Chen and an exhausted Consort Nian, whom Ji Chengjing assumed had conceded after a difficult negotiation.
• Qing Chen solemnly asked Ji Chengjing whether he would take him as his master, join his school, and follow his rules.

Qing Chen accepted Ji Chengjing as his third personal disciple and tested his cultivation, finding that his Imperial House training had left him flashy but inexperienced. He recognized Ji Chengjing’s exceptional five-elements aptitude and began teaching him primordial magnetism arts, ending with a demonstration of their power.

• Ji Chengjing kowtowed to Qing Chen, who accepted him as his third personal disciple after Lin Changsheng and Hua Tieshou.
• Qing Chen warned Ji Chengjing that despite his peak Golden Core cultivation and abundant resources, he lacked the skill and experience to safely form a Nascent Soul.
• Qing Chen examined Ji Chengjing’s cultivation and criticized his magic power and combat skills as flashy but hollow.
• Qing Chen redirected Ji Chengjing’s magic power into the Primordial Magnetism Annihilation Great Art, revealing that his five-elements constitution suited primordial magnetism.
• Qing Chen took control of Ji Chengjing’s body to demonstrate Magnetic Essence Step and a compressed Yin-Yang Magnetic Wheel attack against a testing pillar.

Qing Chen guided Ji Chengjing onto the path of Primordial Magnetism and accepted him as a disciple, while warning him to keep their relationship secret. Ji Chengjing left to begin training with the Cangming Army, and Consort Nian asked Qing Chen to treat her son well.

• Qing Chen spent a day and night guiding Ji Chengjing through Primordial Magnetism techniques and new circulation routes.
• Qing Chen gave Ji Chengjing the Primordial Magnetism Annihilation Great Art and promised to provide the resources for his transition.
• Qing Chen ordered Ji Chengjing to follow Xin Bairen into the Cangming Army and learn battle formations, military orders, and troop command.
• Qing Chen told Ji Chengjing to conceal that he was his disciple and accept cold treatment in public, and Ji Chengjing agreed.
• Ji Chengjing left the great hall, and Consort Nian asked Qing Chen to treat her son well before telling him to leave.

After leaving Consort Nian, Qing Chen vented his anger on a Nian Household elder before returning to the Governor-General's Office. He entered the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda to use the Seven-Luminaries Body-Refining Platform and pursue a breakthrough to late immortality.

• Consort Nian rejected Qing Chen's advance, bit his lip, and said he would only be qualified to conquer her after becoming a Spirit Transformation Venerable.
• Qing Chen emerged from the palace and repeatedly slapped the Nian Household elder who had invited him, then departed without explaining his anger.
• Qing Chen returned to the Governor-General's Office, delegated its affairs to his subordinates, and ordered that no one disturb him unless a crisis threatened the office.
• After three days of preparation, Qing Chen entered the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda and stepped onto the Seven-Luminaries Body-Refining Platform.
• Qing Chen used the platform's glazed power to refine his body, hoping to overcome the lack of grotto-heaven power that had stalled his cultivation at immortality middle stage peak.
• Qing Chen had gathered fourth-tier body-tempering treasures, including a Heavenly Horse Ancestral Blood Crystal and Six-Tusked Sacred Elephant Marrow, for his cultivation.

Qing Chen used rare body-tempering treasures and four years of brutal cultivation to break through the barrier to late Immortality. He emerged with greatly strengthened immortality true blood and a body capable of healing through its own flesh and blood.

• Qing Chen summoned his body-tempering treasures and began cultivating the twelfth level of the Immovable Wisdom King under the Seven-Luminaries World’s crushing power.
• Qing Chen refined heavenly horse ancestral blood, vajra sand, and sacred elephant marrow over three years, rebuilding his flesh, bones, and organs through repeated destruction and recovery.
• When Primordial Magnetism Annihilation Divine Thunder nearly stopped Qing Chen’s heart, his blood path rules and immortality true blood restored its beat and revived his qi and blood.
• Qing Chen learned that the twelfth level connected his flesh, blood, organs, and Brahma apertures so that any surviving true blood could rebuild his body.
• Qing Chen crushed the remaining ancestral blood crystals and marrow into vital essence and endured the combined assault of the treasures and seven mountains.
• Qing Chen opened all 129,600 minute apertures, shattered the barrier to late Immortality, and celebrated his breakthrough.

After five years in seclusion, Qing Chen emerged with a body that had reached late immortality and reviewed the Northwestern Circuit’s finances with Xu Jiuling and Su Zixuan. The public treasury held only five hundred million low-grade spirit stones, while secret wartime trade had earned the Governor-General’s Office a net five billion one hundred million.

• Qing Chen destroyed Black Stone Peak with a casual punch, returned to his secret chamber, and suppressed the immense qi and blood of his newly strengthened body.
• Qing Chen summoned Xu Jiuling and Su Zixuan, who congratulated him on his advancement and then reported on the Northwestern Circuit’s affairs.
• Su Zixuan reported that the fifteen provinces collected eight billion low-grade spirit stones in five years, including five billion remitted to the Immortal Dynasty.
• Su Zixuan detailed two billion five hundred million in military and administrative expenditures, leaving five hundred million in the public general treasury.
• Xu Jiuling and Su Zixuan revealed that secret trade through the Western Regions had earned the Governor-General’s Office a net profit of five billion one hundred million low-grade spirit stones.

Qing Chen reviewed his growing wartime profits, rewarded his followers, and approved a limited smuggling route to the Black Fox King Tribe while advancing Wei Ting’s career. Su Zixuan then revealed that Jia Daoyi had died.

• Qing Chen ordered a one-billion-spirit-stone merit treasury to reward Xu Jiuling, Su Zixuan, and his other longtime followers.
• Xu Jiuling reported that Yue Ting had gained the Black Fox King Tribe’s trust and proposed reopening a smuggling route; Qing Chen approved the plan with strict limits on its scale and goods.
• Xu Jiuling reported Wei Ting’s victories and military rewards, and Qing Chen promised further support and a senior general’s post if Wei Ting reached the Nascent Soul late stage.
• Xu Jiuling reported that Qin Wujiang had been released and Luo Chong remained in the Imperial Prison.
• Su Zixuan told Qing Chen that Jia Daoyi was dead.

Qing Chen learned that Jia Daoyi had died after briefly condensing a true Nascent Soul, then ordered a search for the missing Ding Buxing and approved Su Zixuan's plan to form a Dharma Nascent Soul. He ended the chapter by ordering a campaign to harass the Black Fox King Tribe.

• Su Zixuan showed Qing Chen how Jia Daoyi survived the first two Nascent Soul tribulations but died beneath the seventh bolt of heavenly lightning, leaving a will that offered his savings to repay Qing Chen.
• Su Zixuan reported that Ding Buxing had betrayed the Eighth Prince a year earlier and disappeared, and Qing Chen ordered the Fifteen Northwestern Provinces to hunt him down.
• Su Zixuan asked Qing Chen for permission to form a Dharma Nascent Soul, and he granted her rare cultivation materials and Jia Daoyi's notes.
• Qing Chen ordered Pei Xuance and Dugu Wuqing to lead five hundred thousand Border Army troops in harassing the Black Fox King Tribe's subordinate tribes, caravans, pastures, and mines.

Qing Chen withdrew four billion Spirit Stones and gathered years of collected corpses to refine in the Nine-Luminaries Glazed Vidyaraja Pagoda. After four years of preparation, he spent his fortune to begin enlightenment in the Blood Path rules, leaving his consciousness inside a boundless realm of blood-colored paths.

• Qing Chen ordered Xu Jiuling and the others not to disturb him during seclusion, then took four billion Spirit Stones and the stored corpses from the Governor-General's Office.
• Qing Chen transported the corpses into the pagoda and activated the Mara Blood-Refining Bone-Transforming Grand Formation to refine them.
• Over four years, Qing Chen dismantled hidden measures in the corpses and developed his understanding of Blood Path methods, rules, and domains.
• Qing Chen decided to use the refined blood qi to strengthen his body and magic power while rejecting foreign wills and imprints.
• Qing Chen activated enlightenment in the Blood Path rules, spending over 4.48 billion Spirit Stones as the Treasure Pagoda poured a wisp of glazed radiance into his brow.
• Qing Chen's consciousness entered a boundless dark-red world filled with interwoven paths representing the many possibilities of the Blood Path.