Chapter Summaries

Lu Zhao received orders to join the Zhou Household’s newly formed Hundred Arts Battalion, where he was assigned to the Artifact Division to produce military supplies for the coming war against the Tianfang Zhao Family. After Battalion Commander Zhou Qixuan imposed strict wartime rules, Lu Zhao encountered Chen Moyang in the Formation Division, and both recognized they had been drawn into the war effort.

• Lu Zhao found a transfer order at his cave abode commanding him to report to the Hundred Arts Battalion’s Artifact Division within three days.
• Steward Li explained that the battalion had been established to supply the Zhou Household’s war against the Tianfang Zhao Family and that Lu Zhao’s puppet-making skills made him a rare specialist.
• Lu Zhao joined the Artifact Division’s gathering and saw that he was its only Puppet Master among the battalion’s four divisions.
• Zhou Qixuan announced rules requiring cultivators to meet production quotas, register their work, remain at their stations, and obey wartime requisitions under threat of severe punishment.
• Lu Zhao met Chen Moyang in the Formation Division’s queue, and they silently shared their unease about being caught up in the war.

Lu Zhao accompanied the Zhou Household’s forces to the northern foothills, where they found Blue Stone Market devastated and established a military camp. As the Household’s troops ruthlessly cleared nearby rogue cultivators and small lineages, Lu Zhao recognized the campaign as a purge of potential threats to its rear.

• Lu Zhao marched with the Zhou Household’s forces, including the Hundred Arts Battalion and his own Flowing Cloud Sparrow Puppets, toward the northern front.
• After five days, the procession reached Blue Stone Market and found it reduced to bloodstained ruins littered with corpses and scavenging cultivators.
• The Hundred Arts Battalion established a fortified camp, and Lu Zhao was assigned to maintain the Flowing Cloud Sparrow Puppets guarding it.
• The Zhou Household sent its Enforcement Team and Cloud-Pattern Cavalry to suppress rogue cultivators and small lineages in nearby areas.
• Lu Zhao listened to reports of executions and massacres and concluded that the Zhou Household was eliminating unstable forces in its rear.

Lu Zhao’s army crossed the Heavencloud Mountain Range and besieged Greenrock Market, breaking its defensive formation after three days of bombardment. As Zhou Household forces charged into the market, Zhao Yongfeng, Zhao Changhai, and Zhao Changyan escaped through Minor Teleportation Talismans, leaving the market to fall.

• Lu Zhao marched with the Zhou Household’s army across the Heavencloud Mountain Range to Greenrock Market in Tianfang Commandery.
• The Zhou Household set up siege weapons and attacked the Greenrock Mystic Light Formation with ballista bolts, spells, and magical artifacts.
• After three days, the bombardment broke the formation, and Cloud-Pattern Cavalry and other Zhou Household forces charged through the breach.
• Zhao Yongfeng learned that the Zhao Family had ordered him, Zhao Changhai, and Zhao Changyan to hold the market for three days before escaping.
• Zhao Yongfeng, Zhao Changhai, and Zhao Changyan activated their Minor Teleportation Talismans and vanished just before Zhou Household cultivators entered the formation chamber.

After receiving a three-day rest order following Greenstone’s fall, Lu Zhao considered the risks and opportunities of a private trading gathering organized by Hundred Arts Battalion members. He agreed to attend and prepared to trade materials and puppets.

• Lu Zhao finished his duty shift and received an order granting off-duty personnel three days of leave, with daily roll call and a travel limit.
• Chen Moyang visited Lu Zhao and invited him to a private trading gathering at the former Thousand Stars Tower that night.
• Chen Moyang explained that participants could trade supplies and finished goods, and that entry cost one low-grade Spirit Stone.
• Lu Zhao agreed to attend the gathering with Chen Moyang and planned to buy needed materials cheaply and sell his finished puppets.
• After Chen Moyang left, Lu Zhao inspected three Frost Rat Puppets and an Ironwood Guard and reviewed his Spirit Stones and trading priorities.

Lu Zhao and Chen Moyang visited a crowded trading gathering at Thousand Stars Tower, where Lu Zhao explained how mortals lived alongside cultivators in smaller markets. He traded puppets for ironwood and bought three crystals that the Puppet Pearl identified as superior-grade earth vein crystal.

• Lu Zhao and Chen Moyang paid to enter Thousand Stars Tower and found a bustling trading hall on its second floor.
• Chen Moyang questioned why mortal maidservants served tea, and Lu Zhao explained that mortals depended on markets like Greenrock Market to survive.
• Lu Zhao and Chen Moyang separated to browse the stalls for bargains.
• Lu Zhao traded two Cold-Ice Puppets for five hundred jin of ironwood.
• Lu Zhao bargained for three earth spirit crystals, then saw the Puppet Pearl identify them as first-tier superior-grade earth vein crystal.

Lu Zhao exchanged an Ironwood Guard for Icewind Stone, discovered that a bargain Earth Spirit Crystal was actually a valuable Earth Vein Crystal, and prepared to advance his puppet-making skills. The army reached the fortified Zhao Family Market District, where Lu Zhao expected the Hundred Arts Camp to be drawn into the coming assault.

• Lu Zhao traded an Ironwood Guard for ten catties of Icewind Stone at the market gathering.
• Lu Zhao used the Puppet Pearl to identify his Earth Spirit Crystal as a first-tier superior-grade Earth Vein Crystal, bought for far less than its value.
• Lu Zhao studied the Icewind Wolf Puppet's materials and abilities, then decided to improve his Ironwood Guard success rate before attempting it.
• After a month of repairs and recovery, the army resumed its march and reached the Zhao Family Market District.
• Lu Zhao learned the market district had a second-tier formation and suspected the Foundation Establishment cultivators would leave the assault to the Qi Refining forces.
• Lu Zhao sold two Ironwood Guards to fellow cultivators for 130 and 140 Spirit Stones.

Lu Zhao helped the Zhou Household sustain its siege of the Market District while cultivating and crafting Ironwood Guards, and he joined the attacks that gradually weakened the district’s protective formation. As the formation began to ripple, he bought overpriced Ice Jade Pills, anticipating that the decisive assault was near.

• Lu Zhao stayed in camp to produce Ironwood Guards while the Zhou Household launched a prolonged siege, then received orders to join the Hundred Arts Battalion’s formation attacks.
• For months, Lu Zhao took the field once every ten days and followed a strict routine of cultivation, puppet crafting, and study as the Market District’s formation resisted the bombardment.
• In the sixth month, a Mountain-Hunting Ballista bolt made the formation ripple for the first time, and Lu Zhao unleashed his improved seven-layer Thousandfold Overlapping Waves Art in the attacks.
• After another month of bombardment, ripples spread repeatedly across the formation, though the Zhou Household’s leaders kept the attack frequency unchanged.
• Lu Zhao argued with an Alchemist over the price of twelve Ice Jade Pills and bought them for fifty-five Spirit Stones, convinced that an all-out assault was approaching.

Lu Zhao broke through to the qi refining sixth layer after spending heavily on pills, then focused on improving his Puppet Art and obtaining materials for an Icewind Wolf Puppet. His plans were interrupted when Zhou Kang and the new Nine Abyss Pavilion shopkeeper, Zhou Hua, visited with an offer that would make Lu Zhao the tutor of Zhou Hua’s youngest son.

• Lu Zhao reached the qi refining sixth layer after two and a half months of intensive cultivation and checked his improved Puppet Art success rates.
• Lu Zhao traded a finished Ironwood Guard for three middle-first-stage demonic wolf carcasses and prepared to attempt an Icewind Wolf Puppet.
• Zhou Kang arrived at Lu Zhao’s stone house with Zhou Hua, the new shopkeeper of the Nine Abyss Pavilion.
• Zhou Hua offered Lu Zhao a Quasi-Second-Tier Ice Sword Talisman if Lu Zhao agreed to take Zhou Hua’s youngest son as a disciple after the battle.
• Lu Zhao asked for time to consider the offer, and Zhou Hua warned him that others were interested in buying the talisman.

Lu Zhao learned why Zhou Kang had grown old and learned that the shopkeeper was being sent to risk his life against the Market District’s formation. Zhou Kang advised him to delay handing over his Puppet Art, asked him to look after his grandson if he reached Foundation Establishment, and later joined the force assembled for an all-out assault.

• Lu Zhao questioned Zhou Kang about his sudden decline, and Zhou Kang confessed that he regretted neglecting cultivation and feared being sent against the Market District’s great formation.
• Zhou Kang warned Lu Zhao that Zhou Hua’s faction was safer than Zhou Ming’s and advised him to stall over the Puppet Art until he reached the seventh layer of Qi Refining.
• Zhou Kang asked Lu Zhao to remember his grandson and speak of him to the Zhou Household if Lu Zhao ever reached Foundation Establishment, and Lu Zhao promised to do what he could.
• A month later, the army ordered two thousand Qi Refining cultivators into ten teams to attack the formation.
• Lu Zhao advanced with the Hundred Arts Battalion and saw more than thirty Mountain-Splitting Ballistas, the Cloud-Pattern Cavalry, the Enforcement Team, the Flowing Cloud Ship, and a group of aged late-stage Qi Refining cultivators that included Zhou Kang.

The attackers battered down the Zhou Household Market’s outer barrier, only for the Zhao Family’s core defensive formation to activate and begin closing the breach. As hope faded, three cultivators at the great perfection of the ninth level of Qi Refining launched from the flying vessel.

• Mountain-Splitting Ballistas and spellcasters struck the barrier while the Cloud-Pattern Cavalry and Enforcement Team attacked its weakened edges.
• The attackers poured their remaining strength into the barrier and punched a room-sized hole through it.
• The Zhao Family’s core defensive formation activated and began sealing the breach.
• Three ninth-level Qi Refining cultivators at great perfection shot from the flying vessel toward the battlefield.