Recaps

Li Xingkong welcomed Baili Qiu and the Sihali Kingdom’s projections to the space station, then learned that the three major factions were searching for something connected to the universe’s rules. He agreed to help investigate the Solar System with their detector while the Sihali Kingdom searched nearby star systems.

• Li Xingkong met Baili Qiu and the other projections at the completed teleportation platform and hosted them through Divine Land’s reception ceremony.
• Baili Qiu told Li Xingkong that the three major factions were searching the area and that their head start gave them time to investigate first.
• Li Xingkong reconsidered whether the factions were seeking his system, reasoning that its nature and history did not fit their search for something related to rules.
• Baili Qiu showed Li Xingkong a ring-shaped detector that became a virtual wristwatch and explained that Divine Land could use it to scan planets and empty space.
• Baili Qiu said his people would search nearby star systems while Li Xingkong and Divine Land investigated their own system.

Li Xingkong and Baili Qiu oversaw the Divine Land’s search of the Solar System for anomalies, but the scans found nothing. While watching alien mercenaries fight on Venus, Li Xingkong asked why civilizations with advantages over one another could coexist, and Baili Qiu explained how puppet states and chains of species advantages shaped their borders.

• The Divine Land began scanning the Solar System from its outskirts with devices supplied by the Sihali Kingdom, while its cultivators learned the devices’ functions.
• The scans found no unusual properties in the Solar System or the neighboring star systems, and Baili Qiu accepted the fruitless search without surprise.
• Li Xingkong and Baili Qiu watched a battle between alien mercenaries in the grand arena on Venus, where one side won after most of its fighters were killed.
• Li Xingkong asked Baili Qiu why civilizations with natural advantages over one another did not simply conquer each other.
• Baili Qiu explained that civilizations expanded until they met evenly matched rivals and often used dominated puppet civilizations as buffers against species with absolute advantages.

After the Sihali Kingdom’s investigation found nothing near the Solar System, Baili Qiu left the Divine Land valuable technical data before departing. Li Xingkong then encountered Jian Yu of the Kingdom of Fixed Light, who secretly surveyed the Solar System and left.

• Baili Qiu ended the Sihali Kingdom’s search near the Solar System and gave the Divine Land advanced technical documents before leaving.
• A few days later, Li Xingkong sensed a powerful threat entering the Solar System and flew toward it.
• Li Xingkong spotted a beam of light moving faster than light, and it approached him and transformed into Jian Yu.
• Jian Yu introduced herself as a reconnaissance team member of the Kingdom of Fixed Light and said Li Xingkong seemed familiar to her.
• Jian Yu gathered light around herself to survey the Solar System, then asked Li Xingkong not to tell anyone he had seen her and flew away.
• The system told Li Xingkong that Jian Yu had used direct sunlight to collect data across the Solar System, focusing on time.

Li Xingkong asked the system about time authority and why Jian Yu had seemed familiar to him. The system explained that her species was sentient light, that Li Xingkong’s Golden Core ability made him resemble them, and that beings from the Kingdom of Fixed Light were extraordinarily difficult to destroy.

• Li Xingkong learned that true control over time was an authority far beyond ordinary faster-than-light observation, and the system said only a handful of beings in the system pool could wield it.
• Li Xingkong asked why Jian Yu had seemed familiar, and the system joked that she might be his long-lost family before explaining that her species had close ties to most civilizations that evolved in environments with light.
• The system explained that Li Xingkong’s Earth-Traversing Golden Light divine ability had permanently changed his body, making him resemble Jian Yu and possibly causing their light-based forms to exchange information when they met.
• The system revealed that beings from the Kingdom of Fixed Light existed as an extended state across the paths their light had traveled, meaning they could only be killed by erasing every trace back to their origin.
• Li Xingkong realized that his techniques could not harm a being like Jian Yu and compared the advanced civilizations’ power with the Sihali Kingdom’s projection.

Li Xingkong considered the Divine Land’s vulnerability and decided to use his aura to make other advanced civilizations think he was a newborn citizen of the Kingdom of Fixed Light. With this false protection in place, he prepared to enter a long period of seclusion to improve his strength.

• Li Xingkong reflected that the Divine Land still needed greater strength and planned to build an Underworld across its sphere of influence.
• Li Xingkong and the system discussed the Sihali Kingdom’s fruitless search and the risks of relying on allies whose strength exceeded the Divine Land’s.
• Li Xingkong learned that the Kingdom of Fixed Light had finished scanning Earth Star, while the other two major powers might still arrive.
• Li Xingkong proposed releasing his aura to make visitors think he was a newborn from the Kingdom of Fixed Light, and the system agreed the deception might work.
• Li Xingkong decided to leave a trace of his aura and enter seclusion, expecting not to emerge for at least a hundred years.

Li Xingkong entered seclusion in the sun’s corona to refine his Golden Core, setting himself the goal of reaching one turn over an estimated 192 years. As he began cultivating, his Magic Power created a fixed sunspot visible from Earth Star.

• Li Xingkong left the moon and flew to the sun, choosing its corona as a place where his aura could spread throughout the Solar System.
• He settled among the solar plumes and began cultivating with the sun’s energy after checking his Golden Core progress at 0 turns, 4.43%.
• Li Xingkong calculated that safely reaching one turn would take about 192 years and resolved not to risk shortcuts in refining his Golden Core.
• He considered the advanced civilizations’ methods of protecting themselves and decided to think about improving his own after seclusion.
• Li Xingkong activated his Hexagrams and began refining his Golden Core, pushing solar ion streams away and forming a fixed sunspot visible from Earth Star.

After 200 years of seclusion, Li Xingkong advanced his Golden Core to one disaster and discovered that the blue Core Fire had transformed his body and greatly increased his power. He remained in seclusion to pursue the Dao of space, which he saw as key to several other goals and to speeding up his future cultivation.

• After 200 years in sunlight, Li Xingkong carefully relit his Core Fire to advance his Golden Core from zero disasters to one.
• Blue flames erupted from Li Xingkong's Golden Core, transformed his Mana Circuits and body, then returned to the core.
• Li Xingkong found that his One-Disaster Golden Core converted energy at about 10 percent and had greatly improved his strength, physical body, and Divine Sense.
• Li Xingkong reviewed his plans to research space, master the Five Elements Divine Light, refine the Screening Baleful Qi, and plan the Underworld.
• Li Xingkong decided to prioritize the Dao of space so he could craft spatial items and use more Hexagram Computers to accelerate his cultivation.

Li Xingkong spent decades studying the Dao of space and designed a protected inner space to help him overcome the Soul Tribulation. His work led him to plan three inner palaces for his Hexagrams, memories, and Golden Core.

• Li Xingkong used his experience with the Snail People's spatial jump to deepen his practical understanding of space.
• He learned how the merchant association's ship used natural movements in space to make long-distance jumps.
• Over twenty years, Li Xingkong studied spatial theory and designed spaces to address the Soul Tribulation and expand his Hexagrams.
• Li Xingkong drafted a continent-sized space for storing memories and protected its entrance with a golden palace of Mana Circuits.
• After recalling the Yellow Court Classic, Li Xingkong decided to establish a Hexagram Palace, a Soul Hall, and a Dantian Palace for his cultivation.

Li Xingkong opened the Niwan Palace to expand his Hexagram’s computing capacity, then traveled to a remote star system to collect materials for more Hexagrams. He returned with half a planet’s resources and began preparing to refine them.

• Li Xingkong decided to create the Three Palaces but chose to open the Niwan Palace and upgrade his Hexagram before designing the Dantian Palace.
• Li Xingkong used his Mana Circuit to expand a cell near the Hexagram into a vast Niwan Palace and sealed its entrance with protective formations.
• Li Xingkong traveled through a spatial passage to an unoccupied star system to gather materials for constructing Hexagrams.
• Li Xingkong refined a planet with the Thick Earth City Fortification Technique, collected half its resources, and returned the other half to orbit.
• Li Xingkong jumped back to his starting point and prepared to refine the resources.

Li Xingkong refined hundreds of millions of Hexagrams inside his Niwan Palace, turning it into a powerful computing system while a stream of impurities from his work caused a brief spectacle on the sun. With the Niwan Palace complete, he began preparing to design the Dantian Palace at his Golden Core.

• Li Xingkong used the City-Fortifying Technique to refine materials inside his Niwan Palace, expelling impurities that fell into the sun and created a fountain-like phenomenon observed across the Solar System.
• Zhang Yumeng rejected researchers' proposals to investigate the solar phenomenon, while alien ships found nothing after probing the restricted area around the sun.
• Li Xingkong refined Hexagrams in bulk and used some of them to plan an efficient arrangement that accounted for computing power, heat dissipation, and response speed.
• Li Xingkong tested his Hexagram array and completed Golden Core cultivation calculations in less than ten minutes instead of a week.
• Li Xingkong decided to work out his cultivation method and prepare to design the Dantian Palace before the Crimson Palace.

Li Xingkong completed and linked the Niwan Palace, Dantian Palace, and Crimson Palace, improving his computing power, Magic Power capacity, and memory. He discussed the method’s rarity with the system and agreed to publish it with the system listed as his advisor.

• Li Xingkong constructed simulated Mana Circuits to support the Niwan Palace’s calculations without overloading his body.
• After five years of cultivation, Li Xingkong completed the Dantian Palace and connected it to his Mana Circuits.
• Li Xingkong opened the Crimson Palace and linked its memory units through an artificial nerve.
• Li Xingkong tested all three palaces and found they had increased his computing power, Magic Power supply, and memory capacity.
• The system explained that few cultivators could develop such a method independently because factions usually provided their disciples with cultivation resources and support.
• Li Xingkong agreed to publish his three-palace method and include the system as his advisor.

After opening all Three Palaces, Li Xingkong controlled the side effects of his immense Magic Power and began studying artifact refining. Overwhelmed by the vast knowledge, he chose to start by learning how to refine a Seven-Colored Cloud and Rosy Mist Robe from Screening Baleful Qi.

• Li Xingkong adjusted his Magic Power until he could control the gravity and magnetic effects surrounding him.
• Li Xingkong began studying artifact refining and the Five Elements Divine Light after completing his cultivation training.
• Li Xingkong received a vast collection of artifact-refining knowledge from the system and stored most of it in his Crimson Palace.
• Li Xingkong decided to focus on refining a Seven-Colored Cloud and Rosy Mist Robe using the Screening Baleful Qi he had on hand.
• Li Xingkong followed the map to find the steed and selected theories about Screening Baleful Qi for study.

After nearly two years of practice, Li Xingkong finished refining the Cloud and Rosy Mist Robe and tested its remarkable ability to let light and particle streams pass through him. As he grew closer to the robe’s spiritual intelligence, he discovered he could spread its protection as a cloud curtain and wondered whether its principles could inspire a cultivation technique.

• Li Xingkong used the reusable Screening Baleful Qi to practice artifact refining for nearly two years.
• Li Xingkong completed the Cloud and Rosy Mist Robe and found it could fly to him when he joined it with his Divine Sense and Magic Power.
• Li Xingkong wore the robe and tested how it let the corona’s sunlight and particle streams pass through him while producing seven-colored clouds and rosy mist.
• Li Xingkong joked with the system about the robe’s spiritual intelligence, then spent several days exploring the treasure’s abilities.
• Li Xingkong found that his connection to the robe had deepened enough for him to command a protective cloud curtain, and he considered studying its principles to derive a cultivation technique.

Li Xingkong spent years deducing and beginning to cultivate the Five Elements Divine Light, turning the ability into practical combat strength. With most of his seclusion tasks complete, he began planning the Underworld’s operating system, including resurrection, reincarnation, and judgment.

• Li Xingkong used the Taiyi Ice Soul Divine Light as a reference to deduce the other divine lights and made rapid progress with the Jia Wood Ascendant Dragon Divine Light.
• After a year, Li Xingkong had barely begun mastering the Jia Wood Ascendant Dragon Divine Light and sensed its vitality and chaos while testing it on himself.
• Nearly ten years later, Li Xingkong had begun cultivating all five divine lights and identified their different properties.
• Li Xingkong used the Hexagram to simulate the divine lights against the Snail People’s Truth Shield and concluded he had ways to break it, while the system warned him not to become complacent.
• Li Xingkong turned to designing the Underworld’s framework, including resurrection, reincarnation, and judgment.

Li Xingkong designed more humane psychological and physical punishments for the Underworld, then began working out how reincarnation could function without violating the rights of souls. He set aside the ethical question of human reincarnation and planned to build the system around animals first, using Spatial Consciousness to connect its parts.

• Li Xingkong planned an illusion-based hell that confronted souls with their obsessions or the lives of those they had harmed.
• Li Xingkong designed a bodily torture hell based on relentless work, exhaustion, hunger, and abuse, as well as a solitary confinement cell for souls.
• Li Xingkong considered when a human soul formed and whether reincarnation could take the place of an existing soul, but he postponed the ethical question.
• Li Xingkong decided to establish the reincarnation framework with animals and separate souls from their memories before rebirth.
• Li Xingkong proposed storing memories in a River of Forgetfulness and using the Three Lives Stone as a terminal to search the records.
• Li Xingkong recognized that constructing the Underworld's hells, memory repository, and reincarnation system depended on Spatial Consciousness.

After nearly 300 years in seclusion, Li Xingkong completed his cultivation and the design for the Underworld, then emerged to find the Solar System busier than before. On Mercury, he discovered that many people with Spiritual Roots were not cultivating because cultivation opportunities were allocated by drawing lots.

• Li Xingkong finished his preparations for the Underworld and confirmed that he had completed the opening of the Three Palaces and passed the Soul Tribulation.
• Li Xingkong left the solar corona and surveyed the bustling Solar System after nearly 300 years in seclusion.
• Li Xingkong scanned Mercury and found many ordinary people with Spiritual Roots living among cultivators.
• Li Xingkong questioned children on Mercury and learned that families drew lots for limited cultivation slots and that their school did not teach cultivation.
• Li Xingkong gave the children candy and stayed behind, pondering the cultivation lottery system.

Li Xingkong explored Venus and questioned a group of students who resented the cultivation quotas. Their textbooks revealed that the Divine Land had rewritten the history of cultivation and taught that people could not cultivate without Spiritual Roots.

• Li Xingkong found students outside a school and isolated them from everyone else so he could question them.
• The students explained that cultivation classes had ended decades earlier and only those who drew a spot could attend cultivation universities.
• Li Xingkong learned that students were taught that cultivation was impossible without a Spiritual Root, a claim that baffled him.
• Li Xingkong examined the students’ textbooks and found that their literature, history, and cultivation lessons had been extensively altered.
• Li Xingkong discovered that the textbooks described cultivation as beginning when an ancient tree produced Spiritual Roots, and he realized the Divine Land itself had rewritten the account.

Li Xingkong questioned students about Divine Land’s ties to the Sihali Kingdom, taught them basic cultivation, and decided to investigate further without revealing himself. On his way to Earth Star to seek out old acquaintances, he saw that Venus had become a crowded entertainment hub and was approached by an alien touting tickets and hourly rooms.

• Li Xingkong learned that students studied the Sihali Kingdom’s language and that the kingdom had invested in research and network businesses across the Solar System.
• Li Xingkong gave the students basic cultivation methods and warned them to cultivate carefully because qualifications restricted them.
• Li Xingkong decided to question Tang Cheng, Zhang Yumeng, or another old acquaintance while keeping his identity hidden.
• Li Xingkong flew toward Earth Star and saw that Venus had become a busy destination with battlefields, gambling halls, bars, and mercenary offices.
• An alien approached Li Xingkong to sell tickets, then offered rooms by the hour and young women.

Li Xingkong explored Venus to learn how cultivators lived and found the same document peddler he had met near Mars. After hearing that the Spiritual Root server was overloaded and learning about restricted worlds, he grew suspicious and decided to seek out Old Tang.

• Li Xingkong recognized the peddler from Mars and revealed himself after spotting the meteorite pendant he had given him.
• Li Xingkong offered the peddler a spatial bracelet in exchange for answers, and the peddler explained that he had moved to Venus to find more customers.
• The peddler said the Spiritual Root had become slow and unreliable because its server was full, and that the Divine Land had advised cultivators to practice at off-peak times.
• The peddler had never heard of immortal cultivation quotas and said Mercury and Earth Star were protected areas that barred cultivators without legitimate business.
• Li Xingkong left the stall puzzled by the server problems and protected areas, and decided to find Old Tang for answers.

Li Xingkong searched for Old Tang, Zhang Yumeng, and his parents, but found that they were all missing from their familiar places. After abducting several acquaintances and the young woman tending his parents’ medicinal fields to question them, he learned the woman called him “big brother.”

• Li Xingkong saw that the Spiritual Root Mother Tree was still producing fruit, but he could not find Old Tang nearby.
• Li Xingkong searched the Heavenly Crafts Institute and the moon’s medicinal fields, but found neither Zhang Yumeng nor his parents.
• Li Xingkong seized Ge Baoqi, Ji Qiu, Ji Nanzhi, Ji Bei, and the young woman tending his parents’ fields, bringing them into space.
• Ge Baoqi and Ji Qiu recognized Li Xingkong, and the young woman hesitantly called him “big brother.”

Li Xingkong learned that his sworn sister Tang Huhu had been tending the medicinal fields while their teachers joined the Great Expedition to the Weitian Galaxy. After hearing how the expedition had become a means of exiling unwanted cultivators, he sent Tang Huhu back safely and turned to question Ge Baoqi, Ji Qiu, and Ji Nanzhi.

• Li Xingkong learned that Tang Huhu was his mother's eldest disciple and his sworn sister, not his biological sister.
• Tang Huhu told Li Xingkong that her teacher and the others had joined the Great Expedition to the Weitian Galaxy, leaving her to care for the medicinal fields.
• Ji Nanzhi explained that the Great Expedition began as a plan to develop nearby galaxies but later became a way to exile cultivators whom the authorities disliked.
• Tang Huhu told Li Xingkong that his parents had gone with the first expeditionary group alongside an uncle surnamed Wu.
• Li Xingkong gave Tang Huhu a token that could bring her to him in an emergency, then sent her back to the medicinal fields.
• Li Xingkong told Ge Baoqi, Ji Qiu, and Ji Nanzhi that he had more questions, and Ge Baoqi nervously asked him not to kill them.

Li Xingkong questioned Ge Baoqi, Ji Qiu, and Ji Nanzhi about the Divine Land’s shift away from the Great Expedition and the problems with Spiritual Roots. Ji Qiu’s discovery that Spiritual Roots had a server sparked his research obsession, while Ji Nanzhi explained that his work had helped preserve their Spiritual Roots’ computing power.

• Li Xingkong brought the group into a space he had created and asked about the campaign to eliminate dissenters.
• Ji Qiu said expedition supporters had been sent away after the Divine Land’s leaders shifted their focus to development and cooperation with the Sihali Kingdom.
• Ge Baoqi defended the leadership, explaining that officials had pursued development to gain recognition and avoid a dangerous internal conflict.
• Ji Qiu said technological development had taken priority, cultivation techniques were tightly controlled, and Spiritual Roots had lost much of their ability to aid cultivation.
• Ji Qiu realized Spiritual Roots might connect to a server and became absorbed in researching the idea.
• Ji Nanzhi said Ji Qiu’s research had improved their Spiritual Roots’ computing power, and he showed Li Xingkong his own Spiritual Root.

Ji Nanzhi explained how the Spiritual Root Server could restrict cultivation and strengthen the Development Faction’s control, prompting Li Xingkong to reject the Divine Land’s treatment of ordinary people. After Li Xingkong sent the group back to the moon, Ji Qiu discovered that he had received an orthodox Foundation Establishment Method.

• Ji Nanzhi said whoever controlled the Spiritual Root Server could control cultivation and suggested the server was being used to limit cultivators.
• Ji Nanzhi told Li Xingkong that the Development Faction might view him as an outsider and prefer technology from the Sihali Kingdom because it concentrated power in fewer hands.
• Li Xingkong decided he would not abandon ordinary people or tolerate those who kept power by restricting cultivation.
• Li Xingkong sent Ji Qiu, Ge Baoqi, and the others back to the Ducks Quack Statistics Office and warned them to pretend they had not seen him.
• Ji Qiu found an orthodox Foundation Establishment Method in his mind, and Ge Baoqi struck him and threatened to sew his mouth shut.

Li Xingkong visited Tang Huhu in the medicinal field while seeking a quiet place to inspect the moon and get to know his younger sister. He learned that his parents had adopted Tang Huhu after her birth parents died in a clash involving a visiting cultivator, and that their father had kept her off the great expedition.

• Li Xingkong secretly crossed the moon and arrived in the medicinal field where Tang Huhu was tending spiritual plants.
• Tang Huhu examined Li Xingkong's precise watering technique and asked him to teach her how to use Divine Sense that way.
• Li Xingkong learned that Tang Huhu was from Earth Star and had been adopted by his parents after Mother Li found her as a newborn.
• Tang Huhu explained that her birth parents died when Earth Star's deities fought a cultivator who had secretly arrived there.
• Tang Huhu said Dad had refused to let her join the great expedition because it was too arduous, leaving Li Xingkong feeling that he had been treated more harshly.

Li Xingkong investigated the Spiritual Root Server and found it functioning normally, but its computing capacity was being consumed by a flood of VIP research requests. He traced the requests to the Sihali Kingdom, which appeared to be using ordinary people with Spiritual Roots to exploit the server for its own research.

• Li Xingkong spoke with Tang Huhu and learned that the Divine Land’s turmoil had not affected her because he was only in seclusion.
• Li Xingkong bypassed the server’s anti-Divine Sense shield and confirmed that the Spiritual Root Server had no physical faults.
• Li Xingkong discovered that VIP requests had clogged the server, leaving ordinary cultivators waiting days for calculations.
• Li Xingkong inspected the VIP requests and found research into topics including Spiritual Roots, anti-Divine Sense shields, genetics, and projection design.
• Li Xingkong concluded that the Sihali Kingdom was using ordinary people with Spiritual Roots to access the server, likely taking most of the Spiritual Roots produced by the mother tree.