Recaps

Tang Cheng explained how the Star-Absorbing Cult arose from an unorthodox technique for stealing magic power, and Li Xingkong examined the technique’s flaws. The cultists were taken into custody, while Li Xingkong realized the technique doomed its users to a future of dependence on stolen magic power.

• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that Zhuo Tianyun devised a technique to draw magic power from others after his abusive boss beat him, and that Zhuo Tianyun’s only victim had been his boss.
• Tang Cheng explained that an officer who investigated Zhuo Yuntian later spread the technique, leading to missing-person cases and the formation of the Star-Absorbing Cult.
• Tang Cheng handcuffed the cultists and handed them to the patrol team, then sent Li Xingkong the technique from the cultivation database.
• Li Xingkong examined the technique and found that it contaminated magic power, weakened its user's control, and made Foundation Establishment difficult without a constant supply of victims.

Li Xingkong devised a way to undermine the Star-Absorbing Cult by secretly altering its technique so that practitioners would disperse their own magic power. Tang Cheng prepared to spread the altered version through unofficial channels, and Li Xingkong suggested using a fake online query to draw in more readers.

• Li Xingkong considered the Divine Land authorities’ limited capacity to stop the evil technique from spreading and decided they needed another approach.
• Li Xingkong used his Divine Sense to alter the technique so that anyone who practiced it would lose their magic power.
• Li Xingkong gave the altered technique to Tang Cheng and explained how circulating it through unofficial channels could crowd out the original.
• Tang Cheng passed the technique to relevant personnel and prepared to put the plan into action.
• Li Xingkong suggested posting on the dark web to ask which version was genuine and offering a reward to attract more readers.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng visited the Imperial Capital Inspection Department, where Tang explained why it handled cultivator cases separately and described the crimes that had emerged with universal cultivation. The chapter left Li Xingkong considering oversight as a way to address the roots of evil cultivation, while cultivators who stole back Divine Land relics were sent to military service.

• Li Xingkong concluded that dismantling the cult was the most he could do for now, though he planned to test ideas for an oversight mechanism.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng arrived at the expanded Imperial Capital Inspection Department, and Tang explained that it managed cases involving cultivators and other groups still unable to cultivate.
• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that revenge crimes had increased as formerly oppressed people gained cultivation, though such crimes had eased that year.
• Tang Cheng described cultivators who had burned part of a shrine in Cherry Blossom Country and stolen Divine Land cultural relics from abroad.
• Tang Cheng said the relic thieves were caught and sent to serve in military districts.

Li Xingkong toured the Inspection Department with Tang Cheng, who explained the shortage of staff and the planned cultivation pills to help people balance work and cultivation. In the Earthly Capital, Li Xingkong reunited with Old Tang, and their conversation ended when Old Tang asked whether he remembered Ji Nanzhi.

• Tang Cheng explained the Inspection Department's wanted posters and its shortage of staff across the provinces.
• Tang Cheng said the Pill Cauldron Department planned to release pills that would speed up cultivation and encourage people to keep working.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng descended to the Earthly Capital, where a formation made its cavern ceiling appear like a blue sky.
• Li Xingkong met Old Tang in the lounge and remarked on how much younger he looked.
• Old Tang and Li Xingkong discussed the space elevator, people's livelihoods, and changes in the world.
• Old Tang asked Li Xingkong whether he remembered Ji Nanzhi.

Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong how Ji Nanzhi, Ge Baoqi, and Ji Qiu fled Longzhou with the intelligent ox Ji Bei after a new official threatened to dissect him. They settled in India as revered divine emissaries and remained there as the Divine Land’s vanguard after installing an Earth Vein.

• Tang Cheng explained that a parachuted-in official tried to take over Ji Nanzhi’s research on Ji Bei and eventually planned to dissect the ox.
• Ji Nanzhi, Ge Baoqi, and Ji Qiu took Ji Bei and fled Longzhou, escaping the official’s pursuit by traveling west on foot.
• The Divine Land later found that the group had reached India, where Ji Bei’s displays of power led locals to treat them as divine emissaries.
• Local officials granted the group identification papers and permission to establish a religious site, setting aside a mountain for Ji Bei.
• Tang Cheng said the group installed an Earth Vein in India, so the Divine Land kept them there as its vanguard.

Li Xingkong and Old Tang discussed how Spiritual Qi was being managed in India and how neighboring countries had changed politically since cultivation began. The chapter left the Divine Land’s relations with Russia, Stick Country, and Cherry Blossom Country increasingly tense, with Cherry Blossom Country preparing a nuclear threat near Mount Fuji.

• Li Xingkong asked Old Tang whether India’s people had gained access to Spiritual Qi, and Old Tang explained that its spread had been restricted to the mountain where Ji Nanzhi and the others stayed.
• Old Tang said fewer than twenty locals had sensed Spiritual Qi, while some Indian masters had used it to gather followers and establish religious sects.
• Old Tang described Russia moving closer to Eagle Country after the Divine Land displayed its aerospace carrier.
• Li Xingkong learned that Eagle Country’s base in Stick Country was now mostly staffed by locals and that Stick Country had become an increasingly neglected pawn.
• The people of Cherry Blossom Country continued relocating to South America while leaving nuclear warheads near Mount Fuji as a deterrent.

Li Xingkong learned about Divine Land’s changing relations with neighboring countries and the cultivation-driven changes to society after returning to Earth Star. He left the Earthly Capital and flew toward home, taking in the transformed Imperial Capital along the way.

• Divine Land prioritized its own development while planning to deal with neighboring countries whose loyalties favored Eagle Country.
• Li Xingkong spoke with Old Tang through the afternoon, learning about the current situation before leaving to visit his parents.
• Li Xingkong flew above the Imperial Capital, observing its layered air lanes and bright nighttime scenery.
• Li Xingkong saw how cultivation had changed commuting, real estate, and the separation of urban districts.
• Li Xingkong noticed fewer people in the city, as some returned to their hometowns to cultivate while others continued working for material comforts.

Li Xingkong returned to his village after years in seclusion, only to find his parents’ home empty. He learned they had moved to Dragon City and discovered that his disconnected phone had kept him from receiving their messages; as he prepared to leave, Brother Erniu asked him to help lower the village’s Magic Power Tax.

• Li Xingkong flew back to his village and found his family home locked, dusty, and overgrown.
• Li Xingkong visited Brother Erniu, who told him his parents had moved to Dragon City five or six years earlier.
• Li Xingkong checked his phone and realized his number had been reclaimed after he failed to pay the bill during seclusion.
• Li Xingkong relaxed after understanding why he had missed his parents’ messages and decided to contact them in Dragon City.
• Brother Erniu asked Li Xingkong to speak to the higher-ups about lowering the village’s annual Magic Power Tax, a term Li Xingkong had never heard before.

Li Xingkong learned that villagers had been forced to pay a yearly Magic Power tax and summoned Tang Cheng to investigate. After hearing Brother Erniu’s account, they arranged to visit the township office the next morning.

• Li Xingkong contacted Tang Cheng to ask about the supposed Magic Power tax, and Tang Cheng hurried to Li Xingkong’s hometown when he realized the report might be serious.
• Li Xingkong reassured Brother Erniu that something good was coming, while Erniu assumed he had been spared the tax.
• Tang Cheng arrived with several colleagues and asked Brother Erniu to explain the tax.
• Brother Erniu said villagers had been told to pay Magic Power at the township office each year or risk having their Spiritual Qi cut off, and that paying left his family bedridden for a week.
• Tang Cheng asked Brother Erniu to take them to the township office the next morning, and Li Xingkong left with the group.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng prepared to investigate the scheme involving an evil technique, arranging to intercept communications and arrest those involved when Erniu went to “pay taxes.” They set out for Erniu’s home, where he finished his morning cultivation before they headed to the township.

• Li Xingkong asked Tang Cheng about the scheme, and Tang Cheng suspected an evil technique but doubted the Star-Absorbing Cult was capable of it.
• Tang Cheng promised a thorough investigation and ordered his team to block communications, intercept information, and detain everyone involved during the next day’s operation.
• Li Xingkong stayed awake thinking about the broader implications while Tang Cheng and his team prepared plans through the night.
• At dawn, Tang Cheng sent his subordinates ahead to make arrangements, then he and Li Xingkong left to find Erniu.
• Li Xingkong learned that Tang Cheng’s team used a formation to block signals and create illusions during operations.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng found Erniu cultivating by pulling a tractor; after finishing his practice, Erniu prepared to go with them to the township.

Li Xingkong, Tang Cheng, and Erniu disguised themselves and went to a township office to investigate a young man who was drugging villagers and trying to extract their Qi. Tang Cheng and his team captured the man, who refused to cooperate and hinted that his Bone Tempering material gave him an advantage.

• Li Xingkong, Tang Cheng, and Erniu traveled to the township office in disguise while Tang Cheng's team secretly set up a formation around the building.
• A young employee summoned Tang Cheng inside, gave him veterinary anesthetic, and waited until he appeared unconscious before preparing to reach for his Qi Sea.
• Tang Cheng grabbed the young man's hands as the formation activated, and his team broke into the building to help capture him.
• Tang Cheng identified himself as an Inspection Department investigator and demanded the young man's cooperation, but the man attacked and was quickly subdued.
• The young man refused to talk and asked whether Tang Cheng knew what material he had used for Bone Tempering.

Tang Cheng’s team tried to arrest a young man, who detonated white phosphorus flames in a last-ditch attack. Li Xingkong extinguished the fire and kept the severely burned man alive by rebuilding enough of his body to support his head, leaving Tang Cheng and the others stunned by his technique.

• Tang Cheng ordered his team to seal the young man’s Magic Power and cuff him.
• The young man unleashed a white phosphorus blast that set himself, two officers, and the office on fire.
• Li Xingkong gathered the flames with Divine Sense and extinguished them in a vacuum while Tang Cheng’s team treated the injured officers.
• Li Xingkong severed the young man’s head, used material from his charred body to form a mass of tissue around it, and revived him.
• The young man realized he had survived with only his head and a makeshift body, while Tang Cheng questioned Li Xingkong’s apparently sinister method.
• Li Xingkong explained that he had used biology and precise Divine Sense control to keep the man alive until he could be taken to a hospital.

Tang Cheng interrogated Zhang San and learned that his evil cultivation technique and tax-collecting orders traced back to Zhang Family Hamlet, prompting the Inspection Department to plan a formal investigation. Li Xingkong left for Dragon City to visit his parents, while Erniu celebrated being freed from the Magic Power Tax.

• Tang Cheng questioned Zhang San, who said people from his village had taught him the cultivation method and sent him to collect taxes for the village chief.
• Zhang San said the villagers had threatened them with a gu poison, though Li Xingkong found no trace of it.
• Tang Cheng decided to seek help from the Dragon City Inspection Department and investigate Zhang Family Hamlet without deploying an army prematurely.
• Li Xingkong declined to join the operation and said he would go home to visit his parents before meeting the others in Dragon City.
• Li Xingkong told Erniu that they would no longer have to pay the Magic Power Tax, and Erniu rejoiced and vowed to punch the impostors if he saw them again.

Li Xingkong spent a relaxing week with his parents in Dragon City before Tang Cheng called him to observe the Inspection Department’s first major local operation. He flew off on Swift Lightning, leaving his mother still urging him to find a girlfriend.

• Li Xingkong visited his parents, who had moved to a secure family compound in Dragon City after Divine Land arranged protection for them.
• Li Xingkong reflected that games and videos had become dull because his heightened reactions and vision outpaced ordinary technology.
• Li Xingkong’s mother pressed him to find a partner, but he said there was no rush and declined her suggestion to join square dancing.
• Tang Cheng called Li Xingkong to invite him to watch the Inspection Department’s first major local operation and sent him the location.
• Li Xingkong rode Swift Lightning to the operation after his mother urged him to meet girls while working.

Li Xingkong joined Tang Cheng and a large Inspection Department force preparing to investigate Zhang Family Village, whose records and recent history had been mysteriously concealed. The squads reached the village and found armed defenders waiting, but an experimental hypnosis grenade incapacitated them and let the Inspection Department secure the entrance.

• Li Xingkong arrived at the abandoned assembly point, where Tang Cheng introduced him as the operation’s backup and dismissed the squad leaders to prepare.
• Tang Cheng explained that Zhang Family Village had several thousand residents, that previous investigations had uncovered little, and that the operation included two Imperial Capital squads and nine Dragon City squads.
• Tang Cheng synchronized the squad leaders’ watches and ordered the force to move toward Zhang Family Village, while Li Xingkong followed from above and covered them with his Divine Sense.
• Several squads detected dozens of armed people behind defensive fortifications near the village entrance, suggesting the defenders knew about the operation in advance.
• An Imperial Capital squad leader threw a hypnosis grenade into the defenders, knocking nearly all of them unconscious, and the squad advanced to secure the entrance.

The Inspection Department surrounded the village and advanced on the Zhang Family, but the villagers had gathered and prepared to fight. Li Xingkong assessed the clash as the Department opened fire with anesthetic ammunition to suppress their charge.

• The Inspection Department seized the village entrances, captured people there, and set up a formation to prevent anyone from escaping.
• The squads advanced toward the village center, where they found sturdy young men guarding a building resembling an ancestral hall.
• A villager announced that the Zhang Family would show its strength, then caught an Inspection Department hypnotic grenade and threw it away.
• The villagers charged the squads after the grenade was stopped, while the Department formed a barricade and prepared to engage.
• Li Xingkong observed that the villagers' boosted magic power made them formidable despite their weaker cultivation techniques.
• The Inspection Department's snipers opened fire with anesthetic bullets, overwhelming the villagers' shields with sustained fire.

Tang Cheng’s Inspection Department squads fought off a wave of attackers who detonated their Magic Power, then confronted the village’s remaining leader. After a fierce duel, Tang Cheng arrested the man, who surrendered with unsettling ease.

• The attackers charged the Inspection Department with phosphorus-fire explosions, so Tang Cheng lifted the restrictions on live fire and ordered the squads and drones to attack at full power.
• The squads wiped out the attackers in a chain of Magic Power explosions and surrounded the man who had stopped the grenades.
• Tang Cheng demanded the man surrender, but the man revealed strength far beyond the failed test subjects and fought Tang Cheng to a draw.
• Tang Cheng questioned how the man had obtained the Original Qi Refining Method, but the man taunted him and continued fighting.
• The man proposed ending the fight, then unexpectedly held out his hands and let Tang Cheng bind him, claiming he had cultivated the principle of keeping his word.

Tang Cheng brought Zhang Ru to the Dragon City Inspection Department after capturing him in Zhang Family Village, but Zhang Ru’s evasive answers frustrated the interrogation. Before Tang Cheng left for a victory banquet, Zhang Ru warned him that powerful factions were influencing cultivation reviews, Inspection Department recruitment, and public opinion.

• Tang Cheng questioned Zhang Ru during the trip back, but Zhang Ru’s literal answers revealed little about the evil technique or how he obtained the Advanced Qi Refining Method.
• The team returned to the Dragon City branch, where Li Xingkong went home and Tang Cheng placed Zhang Ru in prison before attending a victory banquet.
• Zhang Ru urged Tang Cheng to investigate the backgrounds and surnames of cultivation technique reviewers, new Inspection Department recruits, and people controlling online public opinion.
• Tang Cheng said he would return to interrogate Zhang Ru after the meeting, while Zhang Ru laughed and agreed to wait.

Tang Cheng returned to the Inspection Department to question Zhang Ru, only to find that the prisoner had vanished from his locked cell. After the guards found no clear explanation and the surveillance camera proved badly damaged, Tang Cheng called Li Xingkong to inspect it.

• Tang Cheng arrived at the Inspection Department and learned that Zhang Ru had escaped.
• Tang Cheng examined Zhang Ru's empty cell and questioned the guard, who said Zhang Ru had disappeared without anyone approaching.
• Tang Cheng learned that the surveillance server was under maintenance and Zhang Ru had smashed the camera.
• Tang Cheng detained the guard and placed Earthly Capital Inspection Department personnel in charge of guarding him.
• Tang Cheng asked Li Xingkong to see whether he could recover anything from the broken camera, and Li Xingkong dismantled it.

Li Xingkong restored the broken camera and helped Tang Cheng uncover that a guard had released Zhang Ru, but Zhang Ru’s escape and the suspected infiltration of the Dragon City Inspection Department left the investigation stalled. Tang Cheng decided to interrogate the guard with a Truth-Telling Formation, and Li Xingkong offered to try another approach while they waited.

• Li Xingkong used the Hexagram and his Divine Sense to repair the camera so Tang Cheng could review its footage.
• Tang Cheng saw the guard open Zhang Ru’s cell, let him leave, and then smash the camera after Zhang Ru waved at it.
• Tang Cheng suspected the force behind Zhang Ru had deeply infiltrated the local authorities and chose to question the guard again.
• The guard tried to destroy the repaired camera, so Tang Cheng kicked him, sealed his Qi Sea, and demanded to know who had ordered him to help Zhang Ru.
• The guard refused to talk, claiming he would die if he revealed anything, and Tang Cheng ordered a request for the Truth-Telling Formation.
• Li Xingkong offered to try questioning the guard himself rather than wait for the formation.

Li Xingkong forcibly searched Xiao Chen’s memories and gave Tang Cheng the fragments that revealed who had arranged Zhang Ru’s release. The chapter left Tang Cheng pursuing the fat man in the memories while Zhang Ru’s warning about the Zhang Family’s ambitions came to light.

• Tang Cheng handed Xiao Chen to Li Xingkong, who used his Divine Sense to search Xiao Chen’s memories and rendered him unconscious.
• Li Xingkong transferred the relevant memory fragments to Tang Cheng’s computer, where the first video showed Xiao Chen pledging himself to a fat man.
• Tang Cheng watched a second fragment in which the fat man ordered Xiao Chen to release a prisoner and promised him a deputy position.
• Tang Cheng sent someone to identify the fat man after the memories exposed him as Xiao Chen’s superior.
• Tang Cheng watched Xiao Chen’s memory of releasing Zhang Ru and heard Zhang Ru warn that the Zhang Family might rise to power.

Tang Cheng learned that Zhang Ru’s schemes reached beyond Dragon City, while Li Xingkong watched how institutional obstruction hampered the investigation. After Zhang Ren was arrested and sent to the Imperial Capital, Tang Cheng set out to pursue the case there, and Li Xingkong prepared to put his own plan into action.

• Tang Cheng and Li Xingkong left Xiao Chen’s cell and waited at the local Inspection Department for confirmation of the man behind him.
• Tang Cheng learned that Zhang Ren, the head of Dragon City’s Security Bureau, had been arrested by people from Hedong Province and had named those involved.
• Tang Cheng recognized the list Zhang Ren provided as a convenient sacrifice of minor figures and decided to question him.
• Tang Cheng learned Zhang Ren had already been sent to the Imperial Capital, then asked Li Xingkong to hold the fort in Dragon City and hurried away.
• Li Xingkong reflected on the obstacles Tang Cheng faced within the system and decided it was time to begin his own plan.

Li Xingkong refined a book-shaped artifact to monitor whether officials abused their powers, while limiting its reach to work-related thoughts and actions. After a week, he finished the artifact and named it the Luo Shu, but had not yet tested it.

• Li Xingkong decided to create a cultivation-based oversight system for the Divine Land and used his observations of Tang Cheng to guide its design.
• Li Xingkong obtained refining materials from the Earthly Capital and began crafting an artifact at the Inspection Department.
• Li Xingkong designed the book-shaped artifact to record the work-related thoughts and actions of those who signed their names, with subsidiary books extending its reach.
• Li Xingkong spent a week refining the artifact while Tang Cheng remained away in the Imperial Capital.
• Li Xingkong finished the golden, book-shaped artifact, named it the Luo Shu, and did not test it yet.

Li Xingkong gave Tang Cheng the Luo Shu after Tang Cheng returned from the Imperial Capital discouraged by how major families had gained influence through legitimate examinations. Tang Cheng remained determined to investigate the Zhang Family and hurried to bring the artifact to his father.

• Li Xingkong finished refining the Luo Shu and decided to hand it to Old Tang for practical use.
• Tang Cheng returned from the Imperial Capital and told Li Xingkong that Zhang Ren had refused to provide useful answers.
• Tang Cheng reported that major families had placed many members in government departments through legitimate, compliant examinations.
• Tang Cheng explained that family dominance could eventually turn departments into private fiefdoms, while Li Xingkong argued that the feared outcome had not yet happened.
• Tang Cheng said the Zhang Family investigation had stalled but vowed to find every remaining member and associate.
• Li Xingkong gave Tang Cheng the Luo Shu, and Tang Cheng absorbed its instructions and decided to return to the Imperial Capital with it.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng discussed the Zhang Family’s secret magic-power absorption and the nearly completed Nation-Protecting Grand Formation. Old Tang then warned that Mount Fuji’s eruption could trigger nuclear bombs and a catastrophic tsunami, and Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng rushed to respond.

• Tang Cheng estimated that the Zhang Family had absorbed magic power from around 60 million people in Hedong without visibly harming them, and planned to stake out Zhang Ru’s house.
• Li Xingkong accepted that modern law prevented them from taking down the entire Zhang Family by association.
• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that the Nation-Protecting Grand Formation was almost complete and would soon protect the whole Divine Land.
• Old Tang sent them a video of Mount Fuji erupting and explained that nuclear bombs near the volcano could trigger a disaster threatening the mainland.
• Old Tang told Li Xingkong to stop the emergency by any means necessary and ordered Tang Cheng to go to the Yellow Sea coast.
• Li Xingkong set out immediately, and Tang Cheng agreed to help contain any natural disaster.