Chapter Summaries

Li Xingkong gave his parents Qi Refining cultivation and explained that they would need to cultivate if they wanted to remain with him through centuries of seclusion. After leaving home, he visited his old squad leader Wu Ting and found his office packed with well-used martial arts books.

• Li Xingkong awakened his parents with Qi Refining cultivation, restored their vigor, and gave them the simplified Qi Refining Method.
• His mother agreed to cultivate after Li Xingkong warned that his future seclusion might last hundreds of years, and his father promised to make sure she did.
• Li Xingkong decided to visit Wu Ting, whom he had not seen in several years, and used Divine Sense to enter his old workplace unnoticed.
• Wu Ting recognized Li Xingkong, welcomed him, and exchanged greetings with him.
• Li Xingkong noticed the office was filled with annotated martial arts books and asked Wu Ting if he had read them all.

Wu Ting told Li Xingkong how he mastered the Hibernating Dragon Technique and developed it through years of study into a way to spar with knowledge-based figures in his dreams. After the system explained Wu Ting’s unusual comprehension, the two friends agreed to test their martial arts in a spar.

• Wu Ting explained that he had mastered the Hibernating Dragon Technique on his own and spent years studying martial arts manuals, Buddhist and Daoist texts, and ancient classics.
• Wu Ting said his Hibernating Dragon Technique began turning what he read into figures he could fight in his dreams, and that he had reached a martial arts bottleneck.
• Li Xingkong asked the system about Wu Ting’s ability, and the system credited Wu Ting’s extraordinary comprehension and independent innovations.
• Wu Ting challenged Li Xingkong to spar, and Li Xingkong agreed to fight without spells or extraordinary methods.

Wu Ting and Li Xingkong walked beyond town to a clearing so they could practice their abilities. Wu Ting demonstrated his mana-powered movement, and the two arrived at a site where villagers had stolen soil.

• Wu Ting explained to Li Xingkong that ancient cultivation texts described only superficial traces of the systems behind their spells and methods.
• Wu Ting showed Li Xingkong how he used mana to strengthen his body and leap through the air.
• Li Xingkong flew after Wu Ting as he raced across treetops to a clearing beyond town.
• Wu Ting told Li Xingkong that villagers had reported soil theft at the clearing, where loaders had left marks on the mountainside.
• Li Xingkong expressed dismay that people would steal soil for profit.

Li Xingkong and Wu Ting sparred in a clearing, with Li Xingkong limiting his strength to match Wu Ting. Wu Ting unleashed his strongest move, but Li Xingkong withstood it, and the spar ended with Wu Ting exhausted and Li Xingkong unharmed.

• Li Xingkong and Wu Ting took positions across the clearing and began their spar after preparing themselves.
• Li Xingkong attacked with a straightforward punch, and Wu Ting redirected it with tai chi, but Li Xingkong's physical strength still drove Wu Ting back.
• Wu Ting recognized that Li Xingkong's physical abilities outweighed his technique and announced he would use his ultimate move.
• Wu Ting unleashed Fierce Tiger Pushes the Mountain, surrounding himself with mana shaped like a fierce tiger as he charged Li Xingkong.
• Li Xingkong protected himself with a mana membrane and took the attack head-on, creating a huge crater and damaging the nearby mountainside.
• Li Xingkong remained standing and unharmed while Wu Ting sat exhausted, and Li Xingkong acknowledged that Wu Ting could beat him at the same realm if he did not use spells.

Li Xingkong recognized Wu Ting’s unusual talent and explained that Spiritual Qi had returned, giving him the chance to cultivate properly. He gave Wu Ting the Rising Sun Guide and embedded advanced cultivation manuals in his mind, leaving him ready to explore the orthodox path alongside the techniques he had developed himself.

• Li Xingkong examined Wu Ting’s mana control as Wu Ting explained how he had combined several cultivation and martial arts systems to create Fierce Tiger Pushes the Mountain.
• Li Xingkong praised Wu Ting’s talent and explained that the world had lacked Spiritual Qi, but that he had returned to create a Spiritual Qi revival.
• Li Xingkong gave Wu Ting a copy of the simplified Rising Sun Guide so he could begin sensing Spiritual Qi and cultivate.
• Li Xingkong sent Wu Ting protected knowledge seeds containing the Sun and Moon Qi Refining Method and A Brief Explanation of Spell Structures.

Li Xingkong arrived at the Earthly Capital and met with Old Tang, who had prepared a cultivation room for him. Li Xingkong announced that he planned to enter seclusion to refine Earth Veins across the Divine Land, leaving Old Tang to ask how long he would be gone.

• After talking about cultivation with Wu Ting, Li Xingkong said goodbye and headed to the Earthly Capital for the first time.
• Li Xingkong toured the underground base and was shown the former aerospace laboratory that had been cleared out for his use.
• Old Tang greeted Li Xingkong and praised him for making cultivation available to the people of the Divine Land.
• Li Xingkong and Old Tang entered the prepared cultivation room, where they talked over tea about life on the moon.
• Li Xingkong told Old Tang he planned to enter seclusion and refine Earth Veins for the Divine Land.
• Old Tang asked how long Li Xingkong would be in seclusion, concerned about the demands of cultivation and government work.

Li Xingkong told Old Tang that refining the Earth Vein would keep him in seclusion for about a year, and Old Tang showed him the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan for spreading cultivation across the Divine Land. Li Xingkong approved the proposal before returning to seclusion, leaving the plan to proceed while he refined the Earth Vein.

• Li Xingkong estimated that refining the Earth Vein would take about a year, and Old Tang said the revival of Spiritual Qi would move forward within that time.
• Old Tang presented the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan, which divided the spread of cultivation into three stages projected to take ten years.
• The plan called for training cultivators in military regions, teaching stillness practice, introducing cultivation to the public, and adjusting national policies as cultivation transformed society.
• Old Tang proposed using Body Tempering Grass as the cultivation world's circulating currency because it could greatly increase cultivation speed.
• Li Xingkong said he saw no problem with the plan and sent the document back to Old Tang.

Li Xingkong gave Old Tang a collection of foundational cultivation books and urged the Divine Land to develop Qi Refining methods suited to Earth Star. Old Tang accepted the materials and supported the plan, while Li Xingkong remained unconcerned about the scrutiny and suspicion directed at him.

• Li Xingkong told Old Tang that the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan faced few obstacles amid the world’s current situation.
• Li Xingkong gave Old Tang several cultivation volumes covering Qi Refining, spells, and Body Refining.
• Li Xingkong asked the Divine Land to develop Qi Refining methods that drew on local characteristics, and Old Tang agreed that the people’s imagination could help.
• Old Tang praised Li Xingkong as the Teacher of the Divine Land and arranged to store the tokens nearby rather than take them away.
• Li Xingkong had already searched online for opinions about himself but paid little attention to them because his strength surpassed everyone else’s.

Li Xingkong completed his public appearances as the Xi People's representative while preparing to slip away and resume cultivating. After the visitors supposedly returned to the moon, he was left relieved and resolved to learn a clone technique for future obligations.

• Li Xingkong followed his public itinerary for about a week, using a gravity field to control the crowds that gathered around him.
• Li Xingkong staged his return to the moon, appearing to board the spaceship before quietly slipping away through a camera trick.
• Tang Cheng referred private approaches from foreign reporters and diplomats to the Divine Land's spokesperson, making the Divine Land the sole political link to the moon.
• Li Xingkong reflected that technological and military strength mattered more than diplomatic maneuvering while the Divine Land absorbed his cultivation knowledge.
• Li Xingkong watched the spaceship depart for the moon, felt relieved, and decided he should learn a clone technique to handle future public duties.

After a year in seclusion, Li Xingkong finished refining 334 Earth Veins and emerged with stronger divine sense. He discovered that the Rosy Clouds Ascension Plan’s stillness-exercise courses had reached schools but faced public criticism, and he wondered why the plan’s second stage had stalled.

• Li Xingkong completed his 334th Earth Vein and added it to the pile he had refined during his year in seclusion.
• Li Xingkong found that his Divine Sense Seed had doubled in size and that his divine sense could extend a few inches beyond his body.
• Li Xingkong cleaned the dusty cultivation room and contacted Old Tang, but received no immediate reply.
• Li Xingkong checked the internet and saw that stillness-exercise courses had drawn criticism, especially after replacing Eagle Language as a core subject.
• Li Xingkong learned that military-district teachers had brought the courses to schools, but the plan’s second stage had failed to win public support, leaving him puzzled.

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.