Chapter Summaries

Li Xingkong returned from Guanghan District Six toward Earth Star aboard the Medicine-Pounding Guest, learning how Earth Star’s cultivators had turned the journey to the moon into a rite of passage. The ship passed a cultivator making the perilous trip as Tang Cheng explained its growing popularity and the risks involved.

• Li Xingkong chose to return to Earth Star aboard the Medicine-Pounding Guest with Tang Cheng and the others.
• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that the spaceship could make a round trip between Earth and the moon in about a week.
• As the Medicine-Pounding Guest traveled toward Earth, Tang Cheng pointed out a cultivator slowly making the journey to the moon.
• Tang Cheng explained that he, Brother Wu, Brother Gou, Wang Dabao, and others had traveled from geostationary orbit to the moon together nearly two years earlier.
• Tang Cheng said the journey was now called the Road to Immortality, and that the Medicine-Pounding Guest rescued cultivators who gave up along the way.
• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that the Road to Immortality had a success rate of around sixty percent, which was falling as more cultivators attempted it.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng traveled toward Earth Star and saw the new White Jade Capital space shipyard, built with supplies carried up by the space elevator. Tang Cheng explained how Divine Land secured its space program after other countries protested, while Li Xingkong learned that Eagle Country had used a genetic weapon against its own ethnic Chinese community to intimidate Divine Land.

• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng passed several teams of cultivators traveling the Road to Immortality, and Tang Cheng explained their standard crew formations and the difficulty of navigating space.
• Tang Cheng pointed out White Jade Capital, Divine Land’s first orbital space shipyard, and said it had produced the Medicine-Pounding Guest spaceship.
• Li Xingkong asked whether other countries had objected to the shipyard, and Tang Cheng said dozens had protested while Eagle Country threatened Divine Land with a genetic weapon.
• Tang Cheng explained that the Western Military Region used the space elevator as an aerospace carrier in a military exercise, demonstrating its air defenses and ability to deploy aircraft and armored brigades.
• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that Eagle Country had released a genetic weapon in its largest ethnic Chinese community and sent a team to publicize its effects.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng discussed Divine Land’s defenses and space policy before leaving White Jade Capital for Earth Star. On their descent, Li Xingkong saw that the Divine Land Nation-Protecting Great Array was nearly forty percent complete and was expected to be finished the following year.

• Li Xingkong asked how Divine Land could counter a weapon, and Tang Cheng said a Restoration Technique could deal with it.
• Tang Cheng said Divine Land had withdrawn from the Outer Space Treaty because its restrictions hindered the country.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng arrived at White Jade Capital, where Li Xingkong noticed the space dock’s gravity array and praised its array design.
• Tang Cheng explained that Xia Yuqing, a civilian cultivator with exceptional talent in arrays, had designed almost all the dock’s arrays.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng jumped from the dock toward Earth Star because the space elevator was away from White Jade Capital.
• Li Xingkong stopped during their descent after seeing the Divine Land Nation-Protecting Great Array, and Tang Cheng explained its planned defensive and weather-protection functions.

Tang Cheng explained to Li Xingkong how Divine Land’s Nation-Protecting Grand Formation and cultivator-based military had transformed the country’s defenses and warfare. They expected the formation to soon make Divine Land invulnerable, paving the way for a possible move to unify the world.

• Tang Cheng told Li Xingkong that the Nation-Protecting Grand Formation had first been tested on Qiongzhou Island to defend against increasingly powerful typhoons.
• Tang Cheng explained that the formation had also proved capable of shielding against heavy firepower and was being expanded to protect Divine Land from outside attacks.
• Tang Cheng described how cultivators had become the military’s main force, requiring specialized weapons that ordinary soldiers could not safely use.
• Tang Cheng showed Li Xingkong how missiles could deploy squads of soldiers directly into designated areas, replacing parachute-based troop deployment.
• Tang Cheng said Divine Land was delaying a major war until the formation protected the country and its people from casualties.
• Li Xingkong said he wanted to witness the coming new era, and Tang Cheng agreed that Divine Land might become the world’s sole power before their next secluded cultivation.

Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng returned to the Imperial Capital and saw how cultivation had transformed the city’s transportation. After Tang Cheng received an emergency call about the Star-Absorbing Cult, Li Xingkong helped defeat its members and demanded to know more about the group.

• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng flew to the Imperial Capital, where Tang Cheng explained how cultivation and scientific advances had enabled widespread low-altitude transportation.
• Tang Cheng received a call reporting a clash between the Imperial Capital patrol team and Star-Absorbing Cult members at Guangmao Shopping Mall, where kidnapped people were being held.
• Li Xingkong used his Divine Sense to locate the fight and sent Swift Lightning ahead to disable the cult members.
• Li Xingkong and Tang Cheng arrived at the underground parking lot, where the patrol team arrested the immobilized cult members and freed the kidnapped people.
• Li Xingkong, furious that the Star-Absorbing Cult had emerged, asked Tang Cheng to explain the group.

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.