Recaps

Li Xingkong learned that Eagle Country had used technology derived from the Gene Dictionary to claim it could extend human life, then met with Old Tang to hear how the research had been stolen. Old Tang revealed that the theft reached Eagle Country despite his efforts to uncover the espionage network.

• Li Xingkong read that Eagle Country claimed it had unlocked human immortality and lowered its immigration requirements, and suspected the genetic technology came from the Gene Dictionary and required test subjects.
• Old Tang messaged Li Xingkong and arrived at the cultivation facility, where staff escorted Li Xingkong to a lounge.
• Li Xingkong discussed the troubled situation in the Divine Land with Old Tang.
• Old Tang explained that the Earthly Capital had divided the Gene Dictionary among verification teams and that information from two key teams had been stolen.
• Old Tang said he had spent over two months dismantling the espionage network, but the research results had already been transferred to Eagle Country.

Li Xingkong learned that Eagle Country’s life-extension technology had turned its users into blood-dependent vampires, while Divine Land struggled to stop people from emigrating. The chapter ended with Ji Nanzhi studying the differences between human and cow brains at a farm in Shu Capital.

• Old Tang told Li Xingkong that Eagle Country had a history of experimenting on its own citizens and was recruiting people because its life-extension technology had serious flaws.
• Old Tang explained that genetic modification reversed aging but destroyed the body’s ability to produce blood, forcing those who underwent it to drink human blood.
• Li Xingkong learned that Divine Land had tried to discourage people from moving to Eagle Country but was letting them choose while the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan continued.
• Li Xingkong worried that the Gene Dictionary could fuel unforeseen schemes and deepen class divisions in Eagle Country.
• Ji Nanzhi studied a gray ox’s brain and compared its structure with his own on a farm in Shu Capital.

Li Xingkong asked Old Tang about the cultivation progress of the researchers on the moon and learned that some had chosen faster but less reliable Body Tempering methods. Old Tang reframed their experiments as widening the path of cultivation, and Li Xingkong realized that spreading cultivation required more than having everyone follow his own method.

• Li Xingkong asked Old Tang how the moon-based cultivators were progressing, and Old Tang said Little Cheng's group was mostly still in early Qi Refining and learning to construct mana circuits.
• Old Tang explained that the researchers had chosen simpler Body Tempering materials to advance faster, and the fastest had tempered two bones using aerogel and could float without spells.
• Li Xingkong noted that alternative materials could leave cultivators with weaknesses in areas such as lifespan, adaptability, or resistance to heat, but Old Tang said the pioneers had volunteered to explore those paths.
• Old Tang described Li Xingkong's method as the trunk of cultivation and the researchers' experiments as branches and leaves, prompting Li Xingkong to recognize that cultivation needed many paths to become accessible to everyone.

Li Xingkong and Old Tang discussed the next steps in the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan, including placing Earth Veins and using a national tournament to introduce cultivation to the public. The chapter ended with Old Tang outlining rules designed to showcase cultivators’ abilities and warn Eagle Country and its neighbors.

• Li Xingkong said the 334 Earth Veins, one for each city including Ryukyu Island, would need to be placed by a team rather than by him alone.
• Old Tang confirmed that enough people from the plan’s first phase had gained cultivation to help place the Earth Veins.
• Li Xingkong left the Earth Vein placement to Old Tang and his people so he could focus on cultivation.
• Old Tang proposed a large arena tournament to show the public the benefits of cultivation and warn Eagle Country and nearby countries.
• Old Tang outlined preliminaries with standard combat restrictions and official matches allowing weapons and armor.

Li Xingkong discussed the upcoming cultivator competition with Old Tang, who left after receiving troubling news about Eagle Country. Li Xingkong then decided to learn stronger Foundation Establishment Stage spells and reviewed three options offered by the system.

• Old Tang invited Li Xingkong to attend the competition finals as a special guest and exchange moves with the champion, and Li Xingkong agreed.
• Old Tang received a message about a new problem involving Eagle Country and hurried away.
• Li Xingkong decided to improve his spell repertoire while continuing his daily cultivation.
• Li Xingkong asked the system for a powerful, wide-area Foundation Establishment Stage offensive spell.
• The system offered Li Xingkong the Sword Control Technique, Cloud-Seizing Hand, and Blood Poison Curse, each with distinct attack methods and effects.

Li Xingkong chose to learn the Sword Control Technique and studied its different forms and requirements. After realizing he needed a sword to practice, he found a barbell bar to use as a substitute and took it to a weapons testing ground to begin.

• Li Xingkong chose the Sword Control Technique because it could be used for both combat and movement.
• Li Xingkong learned about three forms of sword control and settled on the familiar method of wielding a proper sword.
• Li Xingkong discovered that using the technique required Divine Sense and a sword, which he did not have.
• Li Xingkong found a bare barbell bar in the Earthly Capital's fitness area and decided it could serve as a practice sword.
• Li Xingkong carried the barbell bar to an unused weapons testing ground and examined how the spell connected the caster and sword.

Li Xingkong learned the basic Sword Control Technique and tested its control, vision, and sharpness effects. After taking his bar-sword to a remote mountain clearing, he found it easy to maneuver and prepared to test its maximum speed.

• Li Xingkong spent the afternoon constructing the Sword Control Technique's paired mana structures and used one to make a bar stand upright.
• Li Xingkong connected his Divine Sense to the mother talisman and used the bar-sword's viewpoint to see himself from a third-person perspective.
• Li Xingkong activated the spell's sharpness effect, turning the bar into a spiked weapon that sank into a sturdy test target without resistance.
• Li Xingkong went with a staff member through an unfamiliar exit from the Earthly Capital to a remote mountain clearing.
• Li Xingkong maneuvered the bar around the clearing and nearby hills, then prepared to test its maximum speed.

Li Xingkong tested the flying sword spell’s maximum speed and destructive power, sending it around Earth Star at nearly Mach 120. After it returned, he concluded that sword immortals’ speed and damage made them exceptionally powerful.

• Li Xingkong filed a flight notice and accelerated the flying sword until it shot away with a sonic boom and a ringing sword cry.
• He watched the sword race across oceans and split clouds, moving several times faster than his own flight.
• After people below fired at the sword in Eagle Country, Li Xingkong slowed it and attacked their area, slicing around nearby buildings until they crumbled into powder.
• Li Xingkong brought the sword back in less than fifteen minutes and estimated that it had circled Earth Star at nearly Mach 120.

Li Xingkong tested the Sword Control Technique, accidentally sending a barbell bar across Earth Star at extreme speed and causing an international crisis. Tang Cheng warned him about Eagle Country’s panic, while the weapon’s power left Divine Land’s nuclear deterrence calculations in question.

• Li Xingkong stopped his experiment when Tang Cheng rushed over and warned him that his high-speed sword flight had nearly prompted Eagle Country to launch nuclear weapons.
• Li Xingkong admitted the flight had been an accident and promised to test the technique elsewhere next time.
• Li Xingkong identified the technique as the Sword Control Technique and showed Tang Cheng the barbell bar that had served as his sword.
• The overheated barbell bar melted onto the ground, and Tang Cheng realized how powerful the technique had been despite its crude material.
• Tang Cheng considered how the weapon could undermine Eagle Country’s nuclear deterrence, while those in Eagle Country suspected Divine Land had access to more such weapons.

Eagle Country's leaders debated how to counter Divine Land's advanced weapons and agreed to steal its technology. They left the meeting with a plan to use Yellowstone Volcano as a doomsday deterrent against Divine Land.

• Eagle Country's military representative warned that Divine Land's flying sword could neutralize their nuclear missiles and end their status as a hegemon.
• The tax bureau representative clashed with the military and FBI heads over military spending, intelligence, and the crude vampire serum.
• Eagle Country's leaders agreed to send the intelligence department to steal technology from Divine Land.
• The man at the head of the table proposed detonating nuclear missiles near Yellowstone Volcano to trigger a world-ending eruption.
• Eagle Country's leaders ordered their nuclear missiles moved near Yellowstone Volcano so they could threaten to destroy the world if Divine Land attacked.

As the first World Martial Arts Tournament gained attention across Divine Land, ordinary people, professional fighters, and foreign competitors rushed to register and prepare. The tournament drew closer amid unconventional equipment and growing interest, while its organizers welcomed foreign entrants as credible participants.

• Li Xingkong stopped testing the Sword Control Technique because it caused too much commotion.
• The officially verified tournament announcement spread across Divine Land, prompting ordinary people and martial artists to sign up.
• Professional fighters criticized the tournament's lack of restrictions and weight classes but registered to gain publicity.
• Contestants devised unusual protective gear and tactics as city venues prepared to host the preliminaries.
• Foreign heavyweight competitors entered, and the authorities welcomed them as credible challengers who could advance to the next stage.

Li Xingkong watched the Imperial Capital preliminaries, where thousands of contestants competed in a crowded stadium. After a chaotic first round eliminated half the field, the second round began and several physically imposing and clearly trained fighters stood out.

• The Imperial Capital held its enormous single-bout preliminaries, with more than ten thousand registered contestants competing for three places in the finals.
• Li Xingkong took a seat with a clear view of the stadium and watched the first round, where many contestants were absent or fought without training.
• The first round ended with the winners advancing and the losers eliminated, leaving around two thousand contestants after forfeits were counted.
• The contestants began the second round after a short break, many still bruised from their first matches.
• Li Xingkong noticed several towering fighters who overwhelmed opponents with their size and trained fighters who easily countered wild punches.

Li Xingkong watched the preliminaries progress from clumsy brawls to bouts between trained fighters, including a notorious match between Ma Baoguo and Cai Kunkun. Ma Baoguo won by secretly shocking Cai Kunkun, and the referee exposed his trick.

• Li Xingkong spotted cultivators among the contestants by how little they reacted to punches.
• Ma Baoguo and Cai Kunkun introduced their martial styles and began their match before a crowd of fans.
• Ma Baoguo fell to the ground, clung to Cai Kunkun's foot, and pretended he had been injured.
• Cai Kunkun kicked Ma Baoguo, who got up and used a hidden device to shock him with his Lightning Five Consecutive Whips.
• The referee stopped the match, searched Ma Baoguo, and discovered the concealed discharge device and his silver-powder trick.

As the preliminaries narrowed to a field of heavyweight experts, Li Xingkong recognized cultivator Lin Yinxuan among the remaining contestants and expected him to win. Lin Yinxuan entered a match against a towering opponent, intending to rely on his rubber-tempered body rather than use mana; the fight had just begun when his opponent threatened him.

• Kunkun won the match after Old Ma was disqualified for breaking the rules.
• The preliminaries advanced until fewer than ten contestants remained, most of them powerful fighters and martial artists.
• Li Xingkong recognized Lin Yinxuan, a materials scientist and moon cultivator whose Bone Tempering had used rubber.
• Lin Yinxuan stepped into the ring against a much larger, bear-like opponent and decided to avoid using mana during the preliminaries.
• The burly opponent displayed his muscles and urged Lin Yinxuan to surrender before he was punched down.

Lin Yinxuan fought a burly opponent in a contest, using his rubber-like body and agility to withstand and evade attacks. After tiring the man out, he struck him with a spinning punch that sent him outside the field, while his unusual body protected his own arm from the force.

• Lin Yinxuan and the burly man exchanged punches, and Lin Yinxuan's rubber-like body absorbed and rebounded much of the impact.
• The burly man tried to seize Lin Yinxuan, but Lin Yinxuan bullet-jumped beneath his arms and kicked him into a face-first fall.
• The burly man got back up and attacked more cautiously while Lin Yinxuan dodged and countered through a prolonged fight.
• As the burly man grew tired, Lin Yinxuan spun up momentum and punched him out of the field.
• Lin Yinxuan's striking arm bent sharply from the impact, but his body's special properties kept it from breaking.

Lin Yinxuan advanced to the final four of the Imperial Capital preliminaries and drew the middle-aged internal martial artist as his next opponent. The sanda fighter lost his match against the wrestler after being repeatedly thrown and conceded.

• Lin Yinxuan's victory left four contestants in the Imperial Capital preliminaries, with only three set to qualify.
• The draw paired Lin Yinxuan with the middle-aged internal martial artist and matched the sanda fighter against the wrestler.
• The sanda fighter struck the wrestler's knee but was caught and crushed beneath him when the wrestler fell.
• The sanda fighter tried to attack the wrestler's head, but the wrestler hooked his raised leg, tripped him, and slammed him onto the platform.
• The wrestler seized the dazed sanda fighter and threw him several times until he conceded.

Lin Yinxuan faced a middle-aged Internal Martial Arts practitioner whose Hidden Jin could not harm him, prompting the man to surrender and offer to teach him. By the midday break, the strange match had sparked rumors about Lin Yinxuan and drawn attention to his identity.

• Lin Yinxuan entered the ring to face a middle-aged practitioner, who warned him that his Hidden Jin could strike his internal organs.
• Lin Yinxuan took the man's palm strike without injury and answered with several punches, revealing that Hidden Jin had no effect on him.
• The middle-aged practitioner surrendered after their brief exchange, leaving Lin Yinxuan and the spectators bewildered.
• The man examined Lin Yinxuan's pulse, sensed his unusual internal energy, and offered to teach him his method for enlarging his hands; Lin Yinxuan accepted.
• During the midday break, speculation about Lin Yinxuan spread among spectators, and the match pushed him into the eye of the storm.

The middle-aged internal martial artist faced the sanda fighter for the final qualifying spot and proved his Hidden Jin was genuine. He defeated the sanda fighter, who left promising to compete again at the next tournament.

• The sanda fighter dismissed the middle-aged internal martial artist's claims about Hidden Jin and entered the match confident he would win.
• The sanda fighter opened with a powerful roundhouse kick, which the internal martial artist blocked before countering and redirecting his follow-up attack.
• The internal martial artist caught the sanda fighter's straight kick and twisted his leg, injuring his thigh and forcing him to spin and roll across the ground.
• The internal martial artist targeted the sanda fighter's injured right side and knocked him down with a heavy punch to the stomach.
• The sanda fighter conceded and left the ring, promising to return for the next martial arts tournament.

Lin Yinxuan fought the wrestler for first place in the preliminaries and used mana to enlarge and strengthen his body, then threw his opponent out of the ring. The match ended with the wrestler stunned and the spectators baffled by Lin Yinxuan’s abilities.

• Lin Yinxuan faced the wrestler in the final preliminary match after the sanda fighter conceded.
• The wrestler tried to take Lin Yinxuan down, but Lin Yinxuan went limp, wrapped around him, and repeatedly rapped his bald head.
• Lin Yinxuan slipped free, circulated mana, and accidentally enlarged his entire body instead of only his arms.
• Lin Yinxuan locked up with the wrestler, used mana to boost his strength, and lifted him overhead.
• Lin Yinxuan threw the wrestler out of the ring, leaving him and the spectators stunned.

Lin Yinxuan won the Imperial Capital preliminary final with a mana-enhanced blow, silencing doubts about his fighting ability. Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng left before the award ceremony ended and examined the tournament organizers’ files on contestants advancing to the official competition.

• Lin Yinxuan defeated the wrestler in the final, and livestream viewers speculated about his strength and techniques.
• Li Xingkong watched the victory proceedings with Tang Cheng, who declined an invitation to take part in a champions’ friendly.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng left the venue and went to the tournament organizers’ workplace to see who had advanced from other regions.
• Li Xingkong picked up Huang Huihong’s file and saw the organizers’ detailed records and assessment of the contestant.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng reviewed the finalists’ profiles, including Wu Ting and Eagle Country’s genetically modified contestants, while discussing preparations for injuries and the risks they posed. The official competition rules were then announced, allowing nearly all weapons and protective equipment and prompting contestants and sponsors to prepare for the matches.

• Li Xingkong found Wu Ting’s profile at the top of the Hedong Province stack and saw that he had won first place in the preliminaries.
• Tang Cheng showed Li Xingkong profiles of Eagle Country-linked contestants who had undergone genetic modification, and the two discussed the danger they might pose to ordinary competitors.
• Tang Cheng explained that a trained team would provide on-site healing using spells from Li Xingkong’s spell encyclopedia.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng joked that the foreigners’ attacks could motivate injured contestants to cultivate harder.
• The official competition rules were released, keeping one-on-one arena matches but imposing few restrictions on weapons and none on protective equipment.
• Contestants began considering how to equip themselves, while companies offered to help fund gear in exchange for placing their watermarks on it.

Li Xingkong continued refining his sword control as the main tournament began in the Imperial Capital. Contestants in traditional armor and bizarre custom gear entered the first round, where Dayun used a human-powered armored cart to knock his opponent out of the ring.

• Li Xingkong improved the accuracy and speed of his flying sword while preparing for the tournament.
• More than a hundred contestants gathered in the Imperial Capital, displaying traditional armor, strange designs, and a few unarmored outfits.
• The first round began with contestants fighting simultaneously in separate rings, and many heavily armored fighters resorted to shoving matches.
• Dayun drove his armored cart into a plate-armored opponent and pushed him out of the ring.
• Viewers praised Dayun's tactics and joked about his cart online.

Willow Knight used his unusual chain weapon to bind and throw Demon Knight out of the arena, while Lin Yinxuan used a Blood Coagulation Spell to incapacitate and eliminate his opponent. The livestream audience was left questioning whether spells were real.

• Willow Knight swept his chain weapon across the arena, trapping Demon Knight in his own armor and throwing him out to win.
• Spectators saw how Willow Knight’s competition-specific weapon could outperform traditional arms in the arena.
• Lin Yinxuan cast a Blood Coagulation Spell on a Song-armored opponent, making his legs fail and sending him to the ground.
• Lin Yinxuan lifted the armored contestant with one foot and threw him out of the arena.
• The commentator identified Lin Yinxuan’s technique as a Blood Coagulation Spell, leaving spectators and livestream viewers baffled.

During a martial arts tournament, Lin Yinxuan’s spell and the commentator’s remarks reveal that cultivators are competing, just as Divine Land announces that Spiritual Qi has revived and cultivation is open to everyone. The public rushes to understand the new cultivation guidance while spectators keep watching the tournament to see cultivators fight.

• Lin Yinxuan used a spell to defeat his opponent, and the commentator identified him as an Early Qi Refining cultivator.
• Divine Land published guidelines announcing that everyone could cultivate, explaining the existing legal system and telling citizens how to claim cultivation techniques.
• The cultivation website crashed under the surge of visitors as people discussed the announcement and realized the tournament contestants were likely cultivators.
• The first round ended with just over fifty contestants remaining, and the second round drew less attention as spectators chased cultivation news.
• Netizens connected meditation classes in schools to cultivation, and users who obtained the guidance confirmed that cultivation began with meditating until they could sense Spiritual Qi.
• Many spectators returned their attention to the tournament to witness the cultivators’ abilities firsthand.

In the third round, cultivators Brother Gou and Dabao faced each other in the competition’s first clash between cultivators. Brother Gou outmaneuvered Dabao and sent him crashing down just outside the arena.

• The third-round draw paired the unarmored cultivators Brother Gou and Dabao, drawing the venue’s attention.
• Dabao charged Brother Gou with a powerful punch, but Brother Gou dodged by jumping into the air.
• Dabao launched himself upward with another forceful punch, and Brother Gou used a Magic Power-assisted double jump to evade him and switch positions.
• Dabao attacked from above with a kick, while Brother Gou created three apparent copies and moved behind him.
• Brother Gou lightly kicked Dabao, shifting his landing point so he crashed outside the arena.