Recaps

After recovering from his injuries, Li Xingkong learned how healing spells simplified cultivation and completed the tempering of his first bone. The breakthrough marked the start of further tempering his body.

• Li Xingkong recovered from his injuries after nearly a week of painstaking self-repair.
• The system gave Li Xingkong the Rejuvenation Technique, and he understood how its mana seal handled the steps of healing.
• Li Xingkong realized spells made cultivation more accessible and found the technique easy to understand.
• Li Xingkong used Spiritual Qi, mana, and materials absorbed from food to finish tempering his first bone.
• Li Xingkong recognized that completing the bone's tempering began the further tempering of his entire body.

After tempering his vertebra, Li Xingkong’s new cells began adapting to magic power, triggering a major boost in his strength and energy. He tested his upgraded body at Mike’s house, where he estimated that full tissue renewal would take about two weeks and compared his current power to an armored personnel carrier.

• Li Xingkong observed golden strands appearing in his blood as newly produced cells began renewing his tissues with magic-adapted properties.
• Feeling overwhelmed by energy, Li Xingkong rode Mike’s exercise bicycle at tremendous speed to regain control of his strength.
• The bicycle and its battery broke after nearly half an hour, and Li Xingkong leapt clear but punched a hole in the ceiling with his head.
• Li Xingkong tested newly renewed skin and found it could withstand bullets of ordinary calibers.
• Li Xingkong estimated that his body’s tissue renewal would take about two weeks and judged his current strength comparable to an armored personnel carrier.

After finishing his business on Prisoner Continent, Li Xingkong prepared to return home and detoured to settle a score with the unlicensed taxi driver who had overcharged him. He left the driver unharmed, reclaimed the fare and interest, and continued toward the airport.

• Li Xingkong said goodbye to Mike and drove from Freedom City toward Nature City, hoping to encounter the unlicensed taxi driver who had overcharged him.
• Li Xingkong spotted the driver's modified taxi leaving Nature City, blocked it with his car, and disarmed the driver before pulling him out.
• The driver offered Li Xingkong the money in his car, and Li Xingkong took the old fare, returned the part he owed for the ride, and collected 304.6 yuan in interest.
• Li Xingkong kicked the driver, told him they were square, threw the hand cannon away, and got back into his car.

Li Xingkong reached Nature City and set out to find Guan Zhenzhen, the woman who had scammed him years earlier. After learning that tracking spells were beyond his current abilities, he decided to infiltrate the city's archives in disguise.

• Li Xingkong recalled that Guan Zhenzhen was the last person he needed to find before leaving Prisoner Continent, but he knew almost nothing about her.
• The system explained that available tracking spells required a target's genetic material, an Underworld, or more Spiritual Qi than Li Xingkong possessed.
• The system suggested searching Nature City's security records, and Li Xingkong remembered that he had once reported Guan Zhenzhen to the authorities.
• Li Xingkong changed his appearance and entered the archives physically, confident that its security focused on cyberattacks and that he could pass unnoticed.

Li Xingkong infiltrated the Security Bureau’s archives to identify Guan Zhenzhen using her WeChat number. He confirmed her identity and discovered that she had many credit cards in her name.

• Li Xingkong surveyed the Security Bureau headquarters and leaped over its perimeter wall unnoticed.
• Li Xingkong walked through the compound until he found the remote archives building.
• Li Xingkong entered the dark archives and used an administrator account found on a terminal to access the records.
• Li Xingkong searched the database using Guan Zhenzhen’s WeChat number and remembered appearance.
• Li Xingkong confirmed Guan Zhenzhen’s identity and found that her file listed an unusually large number of credit cards.

Li Xingkong tracked down Guan Zhenzhen after examining her records and waited outside her home to confront her. When he staged a robbery, her boyfriend fled and Guan Zhenzhen clung to Li Xingkong, leaving him bewildered.

• Li Xingkong reviewed Guan Zhenzhen's records, deleted his search history, and left the repository with her home address.
• Li Xingkong drove to Guan Zhenzhen's apartment building and waited in his car while cultivating.
• Li Xingkong saw Guan Zhenzhen arrive with a man he assumed was her boyfriend and disguised himself to stage a robbery.
• Guan Zhenzhen's boyfriend shoved her toward Li Xingkong and ran away.
• Li Xingkong caught Guan Zhenzhen, returned her bag, and tried to leave, but she lunged at him and wrapped her arms around him.

Li Xingkong confronted Guan Zhenzhen over a theft from years earlier and collected repayment before driving away. Guan Zhenzhen was left furious that he showed no interest in her.

• Guan Zhenzhen clung to Li Xingkong and begged him to take her with him, then failed to recognize him when he removed his mask.
• Li Xingkong brought Guan Zhenzhen to his car and reminded her of the flight where she had stolen from him by showing her an old note.
• Li Xingkong demanded two thousand dollars and used Guan Zhenzhen's phone to transfer the money to himself.
• Guan Zhenzhen asked him to reduce the amount because he had scared off her boyfriend, so Li Xingkong added another five hundred dollars for exposing the man.
• Li Xingkong declared their debt settled and drove away, leaving Guan Zhenzhen angry and wondering why he had no interest in her.

On the drive to the airport, Li Xingkong explained why he had resisted acting on his desires, tying his choices to his values and devotion to cultivation. The system warned that his extraordinary body might make it impossible to have children with an ordinary partner, leaving him to weigh family against the Dao.

• The system asked Li Xingkong why he had not pursued intimacy, and he said he felt it was inappropriate with a stranger and did not want desire to overrule his principles.
• Li Xingkong said he also feared that intimacy might distract him from cultivation and leave him regretting the loss of his virgin body.
• The system agreed that Li Xingkong’s temperament suited it, then explained how distractions and family obligations caused cultivators to stall at different realms.
• The system advised Li Xingkong to consider finding a partner because the world lacked Spiritual Qi and he could only cultivate on his own for now.
• The system warned that Li Xingkong’s extraordinary genes might make an ordinary woman unable to sustain a pregnancy, and Li Xingkong struggled to choose between starting a family and pursuing cultivation.

Li Xingkong chose to prioritize immortal cultivation and planned to avoid distractions after returning from the Prisoner Continent. He arrived home to find his parents waiting, and seeing their age made him feel an urgent need to cultivate faster.

• Li Xingkong decided to focus on cultivation and postpone starting a family until he could guide the Divine Land toward immortal cultivation.
• He left his car behind for Mike to sell and boarded an afternoon flight home from the Prisoner Continent.
• During the flight, Li Xingkong reflected on how his previous involvement in worldly affairs had slowed his cultivation and resolved to avoid stirring up trouble.
• After an uneventful flight, Li Xingkong hurried home and arrived around midnight.
• His parents welcomed him with a warm meal, and seeing his father's graying hair made Li Xingkong feel that he needed to cultivate much faster.

Li Xingkong asked the system how to speed up his cultivation, then searched for materials to assist with bone tempering. He discovered that the best materials were inaccessible, leaving him to consider using ordinary materials or building a production operation.

• The system explained that buying supplementary materials could shorten Li Xingkong's bone-tempering time, and that refined materials could speed it up even more.
• Li Xingkong began researching and selecting materials the next morning, using the system's categories to guide his choices.
• Li Xingkong found that many ideal materials were restricted, produced only in national laboratories, or unavailable without specialized equipment and raw materials.
• Li Xingkong weighed recruiting people to build a materials operation against settling for ordinary materials, and wondered whether the system could offer another solution.

Li Xingkong considered how to create bone-tempering materials and weighed industrial production against cultivating spirit plants. After the system warned that industrial technology could lead to monopolies and social stratification, Li Xingkong favored spirit plant studies.

• The system suggested that Li Xingkong make bone-tempering materials suited to his needs instead of searching for existing substitutes, and he agreed.
• Li Xingkong compared industrial preparation with cultivating a spirit plant that could produce materials to aid his body tempering.
• Li Xingkong questioned why immortal cultivation civilizations rarely used industrial production despite its potential for large-scale, low-cost output.
• The system explained that monopolizing cultivation technologies had divided people into fixed social ranks and hindered civilizations.
• Li Xingkong recognized that he might monopolize bone-tempering materials himself and concluded that spirit plants were preferable because the heavens would not hoard their benefits.

Li Xingkong weighed whether to monopolize the technology for producing Spiritual Qi materials or cultivate precious medicine and share it, then chose to spread the benefits across civilization. After a day of cultivation, he began selecting an ordinary fruit or vegetable as the foundation for his first precious medicine.

• Li Xingkong considered the gains of monopolizing immortal cultivation and the public benefits of sharing seeds, then decided to cultivate precious medicine for everyone.
• Li Xingkong resumed daily cultivation, focusing on tempering his bones, improving his mana circuits, and advancing the Sun and Moon Qi Refining Method.
• Li Xingkong made progress tempering his second vertebra, began upgrading his existing mana circuits, and expanded the area of skin he used to absorb mana.
• After finishing cultivation, Li Xingkong began choosing an everyday fruit or vegetable as the base for his first precious medicine.

Li Xingkong chose lettuce as the first plant for his spiritual plant cultivation and began preparing a village plot for planting. After arranging to clear the plot, he bought lettuce seeds and started examining their structure with spiritual qi before making any changes.

• Li Xingkong chose lettuce because it grew quickly, tasted good, and could be harvested repeatedly.
• Li Xingkong found that his fifteen-by-fifteen-meter plot had become a village garbage dump.
• Li Xingkong hired the village loader operator to clear the plot and planned to build a fence and shed.
• Li Xingkong bought lettuce seeds at the produce market.
• Li Xingkong used spiritual qi to study the intact seeds in detail before attempting to modify them.

Li Xingkong studied a lettuce seed’s structure and modified its DNA so its leaves would absorb more iron and grow tougher. After preparing his homestead plot, he planted the first batch of altered seeds and eagerly wanted to plant more.

• Li Xingkong compared a seed’s coat, endosperm cells, and endosperm to a ship’s hull, supplies, and operating system as he studied how to modify it.
• Li Xingkong spent five days analyzing the seed and designing changes, while continuing his cultivation routine and refining the design in his dreams.
• Li Xingkong learned that his homestead plot had been leveled and fenced, then modified lettuce seeds to increase the leaves’ iron absorption and toughness.
• Li Xingkong used a hoe to till the soil, planted his first batch of improved seeds, and decided he wanted to plant another batch.

Li Xingkong tended his first-generation spirit lettuce and confirmed that its leaves had grown unusually tough. When he realized he might not be able to eat the increasingly sturdy plants he planned to cultivate, the system explained that processing materials required auxiliary spells he did not yet possess.

• Li Xingkong lived in a crude shelter beside his vegetable patch and maintained a regular routine of cultivation and tending his seeds.
• He found that the quiet countryside and nearby mountains seemed to make his Qi Refining cultivation slightly faster.
• Li Xingkong used Spiritual Qi to supply his modified seeds with the elements they needed as they grew.
• Two days later, the first-generation lettuce sprouted golden shoots with leaves tough enough to require scissors to cut.
• Li Xingkong worried that he would be unable to chew or digest later generations of the plant and asked the system for help.
• The system explained that cultivation materials required appropriate auxiliary spells for processing, leaving Li Xingkong unable to use the lettuce for cultivation yet.

Li Xingkong learned that cultivation required an Ingestion Spell to safely consume spirit plants and other materials, then began building its mana structures. He quickly completed the structures on his teeth and prepared to work on digesting the spirit plant needed for bone tempering.

• The system explained that cultivation ranks protected cultivators from materials whose radiation could be deadly, and said the Ingestion Spell was essential alongside the Qi Refining Technique.
• Li Xingkong received the Ingestion Spell’s knowledge and learned that it strengthened the mouth and teeth, then used the digestive system and Spiritual Qi to process and absorb materials.
• Li Xingkong decided he only needed to refine the spell enough to digest a spirit plant for bone tempering, rather than master its full range.
• Li Xingkong stopped watching his growing seedling and focused on the spell, using his existing mana circuits and prior practice to construct the structures on his teeth quickly.

Li Xingkong completed a basic, specialized version of the Ingestion Spell and tested it by eating coal. The spell crushed the coal easily and his stomach began processing it, though the chapter ended before he learned its full effects.

• Li Xingkong finished the basic mouth and stomach structures of a simplified Ingestion Spell.
• Li Xingkong chose coal from his family's pile as his first unusual food to test the spell on.
• Li Xingkong coated the coal in batter and breadcrumbs, fried it, and seasoned it to make it easier to eat.
• Li Xingkong used the spell to crush and swallow the fried coal.
• Li Xingkong observed his stomach's magic power structure separating ordinary food from substances it could process and preparing them for delivery through Spiritual Qi.

Li Xingkong harvested and ate a leaf from his first-generation spirit plant, finding that it accelerated his bone-tempering progress. He decided to develop a second-generation Bone-Tempering Grass and wait for the first plant to produce seeds so he could test whether its modifications would carry over.

• Li Xingkong experimented with the Ingestion Spell by chewing on many objects, and his bone-tempering progress sped up.
• Li Xingkong harvested a mature leaf from his first-generation spirit plant and found it tough, metallic-feeling, and resistant to pests.
• Li Xingkong ate the leaf and used it to temper his bones, progressing a tenth faster than before.
• Li Xingkong decided to create a second-generation plant called Bone-Tempering Grass and leave some of the first-generation plant intact to test its seeds.
• Li Xingkong restrained himself from eating more leaves and planned to find someone to grow the completed plant for him.

Li Xingkong spent more than half a year researching and refining Bone-Tempering Grass, accelerating his cultivation and learning that the Qi Refining Technique offered principles rather than a fixed method. He left the chapter with nearly forty bones tempered and his body greatly strengthened, while spiritual qi remained the main limit on his progress.

• Li Xingkong returned to his quiet routine at home and in the vegetable garden, researching spiritual herbs for more than half a year.
• Li Xingkong developed the tenth and likely final version of Bone-Tempering Grass, which improved his bone-tempering progress enough to cut the expected time from ten years to about two.
• Li Xingkong tempered nearly forty bones, completing the bones in his torso and strengthening his blood and skin until bullets could no longer harm him.
• Li Xingkong advanced quickly in the Qi Refining Technique and learned from the system that it provided basic principles for building mana circuits rather than a fixed set of graded methods.
• Li Xingkong recognized that creating the kind of cultivation guide he had imagined was still up to him, while limited spiritual qi constrained his progress.

Li Xingkong assessed his near-major mastery of Qi Refining and considered why ancient cultivation techniques could surpass modern ones. After harvesting Bone-Tempering Grass and deciding to keep its seeds hidden until he became stronger, he turned to learning more spells.

• Li Xingkong concluded that major mastery of the Sun and Moon Qi Refining Technique let him absorb solar energy without needing sunlight or visibility.
• Li Xingkong reflected that a few exceptional pioneers could advance cultivation and technology far faster than the majority, allowing ancient knowledge to stay ahead.
• Li Xingkong harvested Bone-Tempering Grass, which had become too metallic for ordinary people to handle safely.
• Li Xingkong decided not to spread the seeds because governments might seize the valuable plant, and he planned to wait until his Qi Refining reached major mastery.
• Li Xingkong stopped his seed research, cleaned his shed, and decided to expand his limited repertoire of spells.

Li Xingkong planned which practical spells to learn as his cultivation progressed and compared three spells for travel. He chose the Wind Riding Spell first, leaving mobile phone charging and healing spells among the other areas he intended to study.

• Li Xingkong considered spells for daily needs, including travel, charging his phone, and treating illnesses.
• Li Xingkong asked the system to find travel spells suited to low Spiritual Qi consumption, speed, and convenience.
• The system presented the Wind Riding Spell, Cloud Climbing Spell, and Sun Chasing Spell with their advantages and drawbacks.
• Li Xingkong chose the Wind Riding Spell because it was safer and more maneuverable than the alternatives.

Li Xingkong chose the Thunder Vein Technique as a sustained source of electricity and learned it could make him extraordinarily dangerous in close combat. He then considered a healing technique that could treat illnesses, since his Rejuvenation Technique only healed injuries.

• Li Xingkong ruled out destructive lightning techniques for charging a phone and selected the body-tempering Thunder Vein Technique.
• The system explained that the Thunder Vein Technique generated electricity from bodily functions, used little mana, and could protect against certain sinister techniques.
• The system said mastering the technique would make Li Xingkong's attacks carry continuous high-voltage current, eventually allowing him to produce lightning in every direction.
• Li Xingkong chose the Thunder Vein Technique despite joking that its lightning attacks resembled the Lightning Five Consecutive Whips.
• Li Xingkong considered a final healing technique and decided he wanted one that could cure illnesses, since the Rejuvenation Technique only treated wounds.

Li Xingkong chose the versatile Restoration Technique to broaden his healing abilities and treat his parents’ health. After accepting it, he began absorbing the spell’s complex knowledge of communicating with the body’s many kinds of cells.

• Li Xingkong sought a broad healing spell and received the system’s recommendation to learn the Restoration Technique.
• He chose the Restoration Technique for its versatility and its potential to address the causes of many illnesses, despite its limitations.
• Li Xingkong settled on the Wind Riding Spell, the Thunder Vein Technique, and the Restoration Technique as his three spells.
• He decided to learn the Restoration Technique first so he could use it on his parents as soon as possible.
• Li Xingkong accepted the spell and began learning its mana structure and the cellular knowledge needed to communicate with the body.

Li Xingkong finished constructing the Restoration Technique and tested it on a sick village dog. The spell entered the dog’s head, but the chapter ended before its effect was revealed.

• Li Xingkong studied the Restoration Technique and began constructing its mana structure between his eyebrows.
• After nearly a week, Li Xingkong completed the structure and used Spiritual Qi to activate and control it outside his body.
• Li Xingkong went looking for an animal to test the spell and found a sick local dog near his home.
• Li Xingkong took the dog into his courtyard, tied it up, and sent the Restoration Technique into its head.

Li Xingkong used the Restoration Technique to treat a stray dog, discovering and eliminating parasites in its brain and rabies viruses throughout its nervous system. With the dog sleeping and its damaged brain left to recover over time, he continued testing the technique’s ability to cure illness.

• Li Xingkong put the unruly dog to sleep with the Restoration Technique’s anesthetic effect and began examining it.
• Li Xingkong discovered worms throughout the dog’s brain and used the Restoration Technique to eliminate them and patch the damaged tissue.
• Li Xingkong continued treating the dog and found rabies viruses spreading through its nervous system.
• Li Xingkong gathered and destroyed all the viruses in the dog’s body, then reflected on the possibility of wars fought with overwhelming, unseen power.