Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuanqing and two eminent Daoists agreed to help the nation investigate whether Daoist texts pointed toward an ultimate goal of cultivation. At Bureau 749’s underground base, Li Yuanchao began phase one of the Southern Heavenly Gate Immortal Ascension Plan: the Spirit Root census.

• Zhang Xuanqing was collected by soldiers from White Cloud Temple and taken to a secret underground base.
• Zhang Xuanqing met the elders from the Celestial Master's Mansion and Louguan Terrace, and the officer asked them to help verify a hypothesis about civilization’s direction.
• Zhang Xuanqing and the two elders agreed to serve the nation and explore the Dao.
• Li Yuanchao received reports on the civilian, soldier, and Daoist test groups and ordered the Spirit Root census to begin.

A covert spirit-root test at 749 Base found one person with spirit roots in each of three groups, while Lu Yao and several others showed no response. After learning the apparent success rate was thirty percent, Li Yuanchao called an emergency meeting.

• Lu Yao and Liu Xiulan showed no spirit-root response during the disguised medical check, but Lu Dahai revealed a three-color spirit root; Lu Yao remained suspicious of the examination.
• Wang Lei and Li Zhuang showed no response, while Xu Mu displayed a four-color spirit root.
• Zhang Zhiqing and Li Jingxiu showed no response, but Zhang Xuanqing displayed a five-color spirit root and wondered whether cultivation novels had been based on truth.
• Li Yuanchao tested negative, reviewed the results showing one person with spirit roots in each group, and ordered core personnel to gather for an emergency meeting.

Li Yuanchao's team learned that three of ten people had spirit roots and debated who should attempt cultivation with their limited resources. They decided to let Lu Li choose between his father Lu Dahai and soldier Xu Mu, while making the search for a spirit vein their next highest priority.

• Li Yuanchao presented screening results showing that Lu Dahai had three spirit roots, Xu Mu had four, and Zhang Xuanqing had five, while the two elderly Daoist masters had none.
• Researchers debated whether the small sample could indicate how common spirit roots were across Great Xia, and agreed that more screening was needed before drawing conclusions.
• The team debated whether Lu Dahai or Xu Mu should make the first cultivation attempt, then decided to ask Lu Li to choose during their next communication.
• A strategic analyst recommended making the search for a spirit vein to bring back to Blue Star the highest-priority objective of the next phase.

Lu Li tested a Law Artifact and devised a way to form a Spiritual Power blade for close combat, then learned that his father had a Three Spirit Root. He chose soldier Xu Mu for Blue Star’s first cultivation trial and reviewed a strategic report highlighting the potential value of a Spirit Vein.

• Lu Li experimented with a cylindrical Law Artifact and developed an idea for armor that could form a Spiritual Power blade.
• Wang Zhiwen told Lu Li that Spirit Root tests had identified Lu Dahai with a Three Spirit Root, along with Xu Mu and Zhang Xuanqing.
• Lu Li rejected Lu Dahai as a trial subject because he could not keep the secret and chose Xu Mu instead.
• Li Yuanchao shared a strategic report describing how a Spirit Vein could accelerate research and production, prompting Lu Li to watch for news of one.
• Wang Zhiwen prepared Xu Mu to cultivate and arranged for Zhang Xuanqing to observe; Xu Mu nervously greeted Lu Li.

Lu Li guided Xu Mu through his first attempt to draw Spiritual Qi into his body using a Spirit Stone and the Five Elements Instruction. Xu Mu sensed and absorbed Spiritual Power, leaving the researchers in the command hall convinced that cultivation could work on Blue Star.

• Wang Zhiwen explained that Xu Mu would address Lu Li as Senior to bridge the distance between them.
• Lu Li taught Xu Mu the precautions for drawing Qi and instructed him to visualize the five elements before beginning.
• Xu Mu entered a monitored glass chamber, and the researchers began a countdown to his cultivation attempt.
• Following Lu Li's guidance, Xu Mu held a Spirit Stone and sensed Spiritual Power flowing toward his Dantian.
• Xu Mu felt pain and released the Spirit Stone, while Lu Li reassured him that repeated attempts would help him adapt.
• The researchers celebrated the energy cycle detected in Xu Mu, and Wang Zhiwen told Li Yuanchao that the path could work.

Lu Li learned about spirit veins and suspected that a calamity in Clearwater Commandery marked a newly forming one, so he accepted a mission to investigate. After leaving the General Affairs Hall, he ran into Bai Sheng, who revealed that he had arranged for Lu Li to marry into the Bai Household.

• Lu Li studied the Record of Earth Veins, learned how rare spirit veins were, and redeemed the Mountain-Moving Method.
• Lu Li spotted a mission about surging Earth Qi in Clearwater Commandery and recognized that the symptoms matched those of a newborn spirit vein.
• Lu Li accepted the mission before another disciple could claim it, despite the risks of leaving the sect.
• Bai Sheng greeted Lu Li outside the General Affairs Hall and said he had been following his progress as an artifact craftsman.
• Bai Sheng told Lu Li that he had asked the Bai Household to let Lu Li marry into the clan.

Lu Li refused Bai Sheng’s demand that he marry into the Bai Household and planned to delay him while improving his artifact-refining skills to qualify for Supreme Refinement Peak. Bai Sheng returned to his cave abode and revealed his bitterness over the main branch’s control of the Lineage, then told his grandfather he might leave the sect soon.

• Bai Sheng threatened Lu Li with the dangers faced by Azure Pool menial disciples and urged him to marry into the Bai Household and raise children.
• Lu Li decided to seek entry to Supreme Refinement Peak by becoming a first-tier artifact-refining grandmaster, and planned to use an outside-sect mission to buy time and practice.
• Bai Sheng learned from his grandfather that the Lineage stipend would be delayed and that the main branch wanted thirty percent of his sect stipend.
• Bai Sheng rejected his grandfather’s advice to wait for the main branch, complained that the collateral branches had fewer prospects since the ancestor attained Golden Core, and said he would make his own plans.
• Bai Sheng told his grandfather that he might leave the sect in a few days and asked him to take care of himself.

Bureau 749 warned Lu Li that Bai Sheng might be trying to force him out of the sect, and Li Yuanchao advised him to prepare for the worst. Lu Li received the country’s backing: crates of weapons and a towering Spiritual Power mech.

• Bureau 749's strategy team concluded that Bai Sheng's marriage demand might be a ploy to drive Lu Li from the sect, and recommended that he prepare to leave.
• Li Yuanchao told Lu Li not to gamble on Bai Sheng's intentions and promised the country would provide supplies to protect him.
• Lu Li poured nearly all his Spiritual Power into the jade pendant to receive the supplies, draining several Spirit Stones in the process.
• Lu Li found crates of military weapons and a massive black Spiritual Power mech inside the pendant's space.
• Li Yuanchao urged Lu Li to maneuver around Bai Sheng if he followed the rules, and to use the country's firepower if he did not.

Lu Li learned that Great Xia had built a Spirit Machinery mech capable of theoretically matching Foundation Establishment and began studying its controls as a possible trump card. Meanwhile, Bai Sheng prepared to confront him, convinced that Lu Li’s good fortune was about to end.

• Li Yuanchao and the researchers explained to Lu Li that Great Xia had converted a Chengying mech into a Spirit Machinery mech powered by Spirit Stones and operated through a cultivation Jade Slip.
• The researchers estimated that the mech could rival Foundation Establishment if it had enough Spirit Stones, and Lu Li requested its weapons information and operating manual.
• Lu Li resolved to search for a Spirit Vein, improve his skills, and avoid Bai Sheng while he studied the mech’s manuals.
• Bai Sheng checked his Law Artifacts and talismans, then reviewed his covert report on Lu Li’s rise from menial disciple to artifact craftsman.
• Bai Sheng envied Lu Li’s success and concluded that his luck would end.

Bai Sheng followed Lu Li out of the sect, hoping to seize his resources and secure a chance at Foundation Establishment. When Bai Sheng confronted him in a secluded valley, Lu Li revealed a towering steel colossus, leaving Bai Sheng stunned.

• Bai Sheng secretly tailed Lu Li, believing the artifact refiner had accumulated valuable Spirit Stones and could help him reach Foundation Establishment.
• Bai Sheng reflected on how the Bai Household favored its main-line heirs and resolved to claim his own opportunity by attacking Lu Li.
• Lu Li changed course toward a secluded valley and used a thermal imager and fish-shaped jade pendant to detect Bai Sheng following him.
• Bai Sheng confronted Lu Li and admitted that his claim about marrying into the Bai Household had been fabricated.
• Lu Li vanished and reappeared in a steel colossus over ten meters tall, leaving Bai Sheng staring up at it in shock.

Lu Li tested Chengying, his spirit-mechanical mecha, against Bai Sheng and found its shield and armor could easily withstand powerful attacks. He pursued Bai Sheng to test the mecha’s flight speed, cutting off his escape in the valley.

• Lu Li attacked Bai Sheng with Chengying’s chainsword, then assessed the mecha’s speed and power after Bai Sheng dodged.
• Bai Sheng summoned his Yin Soul Banner and sent resentful souls at Lu Li, but Chengying’s Spirit Magnetic Shield destroyed them with electricity.
• Bai Sheng fled after his strongest law artifact failed, and Lu Li pursued him through exploding talismans that could not damage Chengying’s armor.
• Lu Li fired all six thrusters to test Chengying’s flight speed and blocked Bai Sheng’s path before he could escape the valley.

Lu Li killed Bai Sheng in a fierce battle, then continued toward Clear River Commandery to investigate a possible Spirit Vein. While sorting through Bai Sheng’s belongings, he found spirit rice and a letter that revealed the Lineage’s plans for him and Upper White Peak.

• Lu Li fired Chengying’s eight Spiritual Power cannons, killing Bai Sheng and destroying his flying sword.
• Lu Li gathered Bai Sheng’s scattered belongings, reflected on his opponent’s resolve, and flew onward to carry out the mission in Clear River Commandery.
• Lu Li found a bag of spirit rice among Bai Sheng’s possessions and imagined how valuable the crop could be to his homeland.
• Lu Li read Bai Sheng’s letter home and discovered that Bai Sheng had hoped to reach Foundation Establishment and represent the Lineage in the four peaks’ “Hastening the Seedlings to Immortal Ascension.”

After killing Bai Sheng, Lu Li contacted Great Xia, reported his survival, and sent spirit rice and Spirit Machinery combat data back for research. When Xu Mu announced that he had entered Qi Refinement, Lu Li asked him to help the country with its cultivation research.

• Lu Li decided to pursue Supreme Refinement Peak, improve his artifact-refining skills, investigate the Spirit Vein, and send information to Great Xia.
• At midnight, Lu Li contacted Bureau 749, and Li Yuanchao and the strategy team celebrated that he was safe.
• Lu Li reported that Bai Sheng was dead and recounted the day's events to the Great Xia team.
• Lu Li sent half a bag of spirit rice and the Spirit Machinery mech's combat data to Great Xia for study.
• Xu Mu told Lu Li that he had drawn Qi into his body, and Lu Li summoned the Yin Soul Banner and asked him to help the country research cultivation.

Lu Li sent Bai Sheng’s Yin Soul Banner to Great Xia, prompting Bureau 749 to launch the Auspicious Grain spirit-rice project and the tightly controlled Netherworld soul-research project. The chapter ended with Great Xia mobilizing researchers and resources nationwide, including an urgent order for one hundred thousand laboratory mice.

• Lu Li sent Bai Sheng’s Yin Soul Banner to Xu Mu and explained how to refine and use it.
• Wang Zhiwen proposed a special project exploring the connection between soul control and consciousness-based brain-computer interfaces.
• Li Yuanchao approved the Auspicious Grain workshop, and Academician Yuan began analyzing spirit rice and searching for suitable growing conditions.
• Li Yuanchao established the Netherworld workshop to study the Yin Soul Banner under strict safety and ethical restrictions.
• Great Xia dispatched teams to collect soil samples from around the world and placed an urgent order for one hundred thousand laboratory mice.

Bureau 749 researchers studied the soul body released from Lu Li’s Yin Soul Banner, using Xu Mu to test how it responded to commands. Wang Zhiwen found that its fluctuations resonated with a brainwave monitor, suggesting soul bodies and Law Artifacts might function as biological signal receivers.

• A soldier reported to Li Yuanchao that Bureau 749’s seven research workshops were operating, and Li asked for a progress report and an update on Xu Mu’s mastery of the Law Artifact.
• The soldier went to the soul consciousness information workshop, where Wang Zhiwen asked Xu Mu to activate Lu Li’s Yin Soul Banner for observation.
• Xu Mu used Spiritual Power to release a soul body and controlled it through movement commands while researchers recorded its behavior and instrument readings.
• Xu Mu exhausted his Spiritual Power and stopped channeling, leaving researchers to analyze the soul body’s translucent, apparently unconscious state.
• Wang Zhiwen noticed that the soul body’s fluctuations resonated with a brainwave monitor and wondered whether soul bodies and Law Artifacts were biological signal receivers.

Wang Zhiwen, Yuan Yi, and Lin Xian directed research across Bureau 749’s workshops, advancing experiments on soul bodies and spirit rice while shifting cultivation-method research toward two techniques Lu Li had sent back. The chapter ended as the other three experimental workshops began their first joint research project.

• Wang Zhiwen guessed the Soul-Nurturing Secret Method might erase soul bodies’ original biological consciousness and imprint new signals, then ordered preparations for virtual experiments and new mouse samples.
• Yuan Yi oversaw the planting of all 6,212 grains of spirit rice in soil from 10,000 regions, including lunar and Martian samples, and agreed to help the stalled medicinal pill bio-extraction workshop.
• Lin Xian learned that simulations of Five Elements Instruction 4.0 were progressing slowly and ordered researchers to continue that work while prioritizing two techniques Lu Li had sent back.
• The other three experimental workshops began their first joint research project.

At Bureau 749, three workshop heads proposed combining cultivation inscriptions with modern remote sensing to build a Spirit Vein detection Law Artifact. Meanwhile, Lu Li reached Clear River Commandery to investigate signs of a possible Spirit Vein, where a frightened boy warned him to stay indoors.

• Zhou Zhenhua, Su Qing, and Li Mingyuan agreed that finding Spirit Veins was their most urgent research challenge and planned a joint detection project.
• Su Qing proposed combining sensitive talisman inscriptions with artifact and formation techniques, while Li Mingyuan and Zhou Zhenhua outlined a Spirit Qi detection array.
• Su Qing suggested integrating the inscriptions with radar and satellite remote sensing, and Zhou Zhenhua requested that national experts join the workshop.
• Lu Li arrived in Clear River Commandery and learned that an earth demon appeared intermittently near a barren mountain, matching the signs of a newly formed Spirit Vein described in the Record of Earth Veins.
• Lu Li paused to take in the city's bustle, then a ragged boy collided with him and warned him to stay indoors for the next few days.

Lu Li followed Gousheng after the youth seemed to predict danger, then discovered that Gousheng and his younger brother Goudan suffered from strange illnesses. After learning enough to recognize their unusual potential, Lu Li took the brothers away to become his disciples and left a letter, money, and grain for their godmother.

• Lu Li watched Gousheng avoid tattooed ruffians before they appeared at an alley, convincing him the youth might truly foresee events.
• Lu Li followed Gousheng to his dilapidated home, where Gousheng collapsed during an attack and Goudan and their godmother cared for him.
• Lu Li examined Gousheng and sensed that his five senses were sealed while his vitality slowly drained away.
• Goudan asked Lu Li to hear what he knew about the brothers' illnesses, and Lu Li took both youths somewhere private.
• Lu Li returned without the brothers and told their godmother that they had chosen to become his disciples, leaving her a letter, money, and grain.

Lu Li reunited with Goudan and began treating his older brother, Gousheng, after Goudan accepted him as Master. Learning that Goudan’s fortune-seeking brought calamity while Gousheng’s danger-sensing left him debilitated, Lu Li suspected Gousheng’s ability also drained his fortune and asked about its effects.

• Lu Li returned to the deserted courtyard, where Goudan accepted him as Master and received food.
• Lu Li used Spiritual Power to free Gousheng’s stiff body and reassured him that he could choose whether to become a disciple.
• Goudan explained that he and Gousheng had gained their abilities at ten: he sensed good fortune but suffered misfortune when pursuing it, while Gousheng sensed danger but grew weaker after using his ability.
• Lu Li suspected that Goudan’s ability attracted calamity and Gousheng’s ability took away fortune, and reasoned that cultivation might help them bear the side effects.
• Gousheng recovered enough to accept Lu Li as Master, and Lu Li tested both brothers’ Spirit Roots and asked Gousheng about further effects of his ability.

Lu Li took Gousheng and Goudan as disciples, named them Lu Changming and Lu Changye, and agreed to help their godmother settle in the city. Lu Changming warned that black Qi above Lu Li signaled danger, while Lu Changye sensed something good waiting to the northwest.

• Gousheng explained that his warnings of danger often coincided with promised food, clothes, or coal falling through, while Goudan's good fortune seemed to bring bad luck instead.
• Lu Li decided to nurture the brothers and bestowed on them the names Lu Changming and Lu Changye, telling them to support each other on the path of cultivation.
• Lu Changming asked to bring their godmother, and Lu Li offered to establish a household for her in the commandery city to keep her safe from cultivation's dangers.
• Lu Changming told Lu Li that he saw black Qi above him and advised him to stay home for the next few days because danger was coming.
• Lu Changye announced that something good for Lu Li lay to the northwest.