Chapter Summaries

Lu Li created the Second-Tier Five Elements Essence Condensation Scripture by modifying the Five Elements Instruction, then tested Great Xia’s Battle Law Armor 2.0. He considered improving the armor with an artificial intelligence modeled after a legendary artifact spirit.

• Lu Li altered the Five Elements Instruction’s meridian routes and circulation, condensing Spiritual Power into true essence.
• Lu Li named his new cultivation method the Five Elements Essence Condensation Scripture and sent his recorded insights back to Great Xia.
• Lu Li summoned and equipped himself with Battle Law Armor 2.0, finding it more powerful than the earlier version.
• Lu Li noticed the armor’s holographic display lacked an artificial intelligence and wondered whether one could resemble an artifact spirit.

Lu Li examined the limitations of combat armor 2.0 and considered building a cultivation-focused AI that might one day become an artifact spirit. As he prepared to meet Supreme Refinement Peak’s Peak Master, he realized Bai Yi had only recently advanced to Golden Core and wondered why the Azure Pool Sect had previously had only four Golden Cores.

• Lu Li considered feeding cultivation knowledge into an academic AI to create a cultivation database that might eventually develop into an artifact spirit, and sent the idea to Great Xia.
• Lu Li found that combat armor 2.0 was limited by its first-rank materials and decided it would need second-rank spiritual materials to improve its strength.
• Lu Li worried that declining armor sales and limited Spirit Stones left him without a good way to fund his Foundation Establishment needs, while expanding sales could put Xu Xiong in danger.
• Lu Li put away his armor and prepared to meet the Peak Master of Supreme Refinement Peak.
• Lu Li recalled that True Lord Bai Yi had only recently advanced to Golden Core and questioned why the Azure Pool Sect had previously had only four Golden Cores.

Lu Li went to meet Supreme Refinement Peak’s Peak Master, Chiyang, while worrying that Azure Pool Sect concealed a sinister scheme. Chiyang praised Lu Li’s artifact-refining talent, gave him a third-tier technique, and ordered him to visit monthly for examinations.

• A senior brother delivered Lu Li’s inner disciple robes and told him to collect a monthly stipend at the peak’s main hall.
• As Lu Li flew to meet the Peak Master, he considered the suspiciously stagnant population and strange treatment of cultivators across Azure Pool’s three commanderies.
• Chiyang probed Lu Li with Golden Core Divine Sense, then asked about his artifact-refining skill; Lu Li answered that he was a first-tier grandmaster.
• Chiyang praised Lu Li’s talent, gave him an incomplete third-tier artifact-refining technique, and told him to visit every month so Chiyang could examine his progress.

After receiving a third-tier artifact-crafting method from True Lord Chiyang, Lu Li visited Changming and Changye, then bought pills while considering how the technique might help Great Xia develop automated pill production. The chapter left him hoping that deciphering the method would make a constant-temperature pill furnace possible.

• True Lord Chiyang gave Lu Li a third-tier artifact-crafting cultivation method, leaving him puzzled about the reason for the gift.
• Lu Changye sensed good fortune for Lu Li within the sect, but a malfunctioning formation sent a metal-and-stone fragment flying toward Changye, and Lu Li destroyed it before it could injure him.
• Lu Li warned Lu Changye not to draw good fortune for him carelessly, then arranged for Changming and Changye to tend his inner-sect spirit fields and receive his cultivation guidance.
• Lu Li bought two bottles of second-tier Azure Spike Pills and reflected on Great Xia's progress in pill research and its need for automated production.
• Lu Li considered sending the third-tier artifact-crafting method to Great Xia so they could study it and develop a fully automated, constant-temperature pill furnace.

Lu Li comprehended the fragment of the tier-three Divine Craft Blade-Control Manual and sent it, along with his insights, back to Great Xia for study. Just as Great Xia began analyzing the technique and reported progress on optimizing his cultivation method, Li Yuanchao warned Lu Li that the entire Azure Pool Three Commanderies faced a serious problem.

• Lu Li studied the three incomplete sections of the Divine Craft Blade-Control Manual while Changming and Changye expanded and watered the spirit fields; three days passed before Changming reported their work.
• Lu Li gave Changming cultivation supplies and returned to studying, memorizing most of the technique over half a month.
• Lu Li used the fish-shaped jade pendant to send the tier-three technique and his insights to Great Xia, including information about True Lord Chiyang and his unanswered questions.
• Li Yuanchao, Wang Zhiwen, Xu Mu, and others gathered at Bureau 749's command hall, where Lin Xian said the country would analyze the Jade Slip and reported that work on the tier-two Five Elements Essence Condensation Scripture was progressing.
• Li Yuanchao told Lu Li that the entire Azure Pool Three Commanderies had a major problem.

Li Yuanchao and the researchers told Lu Li their analysis that Azure Pool Three Commanderies might be a cultivation farm where mortals, Spirit Roots, and Foundation Establishment cultivators were systematically managed and harvested. They advised him to make his artifact-refining talent conspicuous to secure his safety, leaving him with a plan to become famous throughout Azure Pool.

• Li Yuanchao recapped four suspicious features of Azure Pool: its stable population, hostility toward poor aptitudes, treatment of Rogue Cultivators, and the hundred-year Hastening the Seedlings to Immortal Ascension Assembly.
• Li Yuanchao proposed that the three commanderies were a breeding farm, with mortals as soil, inferior Spirit Roots and outside cultivators removed, and outstanding Foundation Establishment cultivators harvested every hundred years.
• Lu Li asked how likely the hypothesis was and whether he could escape, and Li Yuanchao said the odds were high but leaving would attract the farm owner's attention.
• Li Yuanchao explained that True Lord Chiyang likely taught Lu Li artifact refining to develop his skill and eventually obtain top-grade third-tier Law Artifacts.
• Lu Li read the strategy team's report and learned that he should publicly establish himself as an artifact-refining grandmaster, demonstrating the potential to reach Dao-grade immortal craftsmanship.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, Lu Li used his new Divine Sense and a third-tier artifact-crafting technique to repair a failed automatic Pill Furnace. Its successful test batch gave him an idea for bringing an industrial revolution to the cultivation world.

• Li Yuanchao arranged for Lu Li to receive unfinished Spirit Machinery devices for research.
• Lu Li inspected the fully automatic, constant-temperature Pill Furnace and used his Divine Sense to identify flaws in its components.
• Lu Li applied the Divine Craft Blade Controlling Manual to reforge the furnace, improving its construction and artifact inscriptions.
• Lu Li tested the rebuilt furnace and successfully produced five Yellow Sprout Pills.
• Lu Li assessed the furnace's high operating cost and slow production, then decided it could be the first step toward an industrial revolution in cultivation.

Lu Li attended Supreme Refinement Peak’s stipend gathering, planning to showcase his artifact-refining talent by selling Pill Furnaces. True Lord Chiyang announced that all inner disciples could compete in next month’s Hastening the Seedlings to Immortal Ascension Assembly, then ordered Lu Li and several aging cultivators to attend despite Lu Li’s wish to avoid the dangerous event.

• Lu Li decided to demonstrate industrial-scale artifact refinement and sell Pill Furnaces within the sect.
• Wu Changgeng told Lu Li that the upcoming assembly had no participant limit and that disciples from all four peaks could compete for opportunities.
• True Lord Chiyang arrived, distributed stipends, and announced the assembly would take place on the fifteenth of next month with no quota.
• The disciples became excited about the assembly’s Secret Realm Dao Fruit, while Lu Li suspected danger and resolved to stay out of it.
• True Lord Chiyang ordered several aging Foundation Establishment cultivators to attend, then singled out Lu Li and told him he must attend too.

Lu Li demonstrated his fully automatic Pill Furnace to True Lord Chiyang and the disciples of Supreme Refinement Peak, revealing its potential to produce pills without an Alchemist. Despite Lu Li’s hopes that his invention would excuse him from the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly, Chiyang insisted that he attend.

• Chiyang singled out Lu Li to attend the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly, surprising Lu Li, Wu Changgeng, and Su Yunzhou.
• Lu Li presented his strange Pill Furnace as a fully automatic artifact and offered to demonstrate it.
• Lu Li activated the furnace, which processed ingredients and produced pills on its own, leaving the crowd astonished and debating its value.
• Chiyang recognized the prototype’s potential for mass production and further development.
• Lu Li hoped his artifact-refining display would spare him from the assembly, but Chiyang praised him and firmly said he must attend.

Lu Li impressed Chiyang with his automatic Pill Furnace and concluded that the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly held a Dao Fruit opportunity reserved for him. He began cultivating and arranged for Xu Xiong to sell pills to rogue cultivators, but the Wang Household’s people questioned whether they would buy or target Xu Xiong.

• Chiyang examined Lu Li’s automatic Pill Furnace, praised his artifact-crafting talent, and ordered him to make more for the sect while forbidding him from selling pills in bulk within it.
• Lu Li took Chiyang’s remarks as confirmation that the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly’s secret-realm opportunity was intended for him, and he decided to attend.
• Lu Li returned to his cave abode, tended his spirit fields, and cultivated with a Second-Tier Azure Spike Pill.
• Three days later, Lu Li asked Xu Xiong to announce pill sales to rogue cultivators across the three commanderies.
• Xu Xiong offered First-Tier Yellow Sprout Pills at a ten-percent markup, and the Wang Household’s clan head ordered three bottles for the following month.
• After Xu Xiong left, three Wang Household cultivators emerged and one asked whether they would really buy from him next time.

Xu Xiong returned to Azure Pool and found Pill Hall disciples eager to buy Lu Li’s fully automatic Pill Furnace. He offered them presales at a steep price, arguing that the furnace could generate income, and left them weighing the cost against the chance to profit early.

• Xu Xiong returned to the sect and was approached by Pill Hall disciples who wanted to buy an automatic Pill Furnace.
• Xu Xiong told them Lu Li would begin selling the furnaces in a few months and offered priority to disciples who registered and paid a thirty-percent deposit.
• The disciples asked about the deposit, and Xu Xiong revealed it was a thousand Spirit Stones, prompting them to protest the price.
• Xu Xiong defended the price by explaining that the furnace could continually produce pills and earn Spirit Stones, unlike a consumable Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Xu Xiong recalled Lu Li’s warning that wider access would drive down pill prices and that early buyers would profit most.

Xu Xiong promoted Lu Li’s automatic Pill Furnaces with presales, crowdfunding, and deposit insurance, while Lu Li heard warnings about powerful rivals at the upcoming assembly. After Xu Xiong returned with pill orders and growing excitement about business methods, Lu Li suspected he had a talent for the Dao of Commerce and offered to teach him leverage.

• Xu Xiong persuaded cultivators that they could reserve automatic Pill Furnaces and buy them together through crowdfunding, with deposit insurance to protect against reneging.
• Wu Changgeng warned Lu Li about the formidable Foundation Establishment prodigies competing for Dao fruits at the Immortal Seedling-Pulling Assembly.
• Xu Xiong returned and reported taking orders for over a hundred bottles of first-tier Yellow Sprout Pills and attracting interest in the automatic Pill Furnaces.
• Xu Xiong said Lu Li’s business methods had loosened his cultivation bottleneck and asked to learn more.
• Lu Li suspected Xu Xiong might be gifted in the Dao of Commerce and introduced leverage as his next method.

Lu Li taught Xu Xiong financial methods such as leverage, credit, risk diversification, compound interest, and market information, helping him grasp the Dao of Commerce. Xu Xiong resolved to enter seclusion and break through to Foundation Establishment before helping Lu Li, as the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly approached.

• Lu Li explained leverage to Xu Xiong, showing how borrowed Spirit Stones could amplify both profits and losses.
• Lu Li taught Xu Xiong about credit, diversifying risk, compound interest, information advantages, and supply and demand.
• Xu Xiong became excited by the lessons, and his Spiritual Power stirred as his Foundation Establishment bottleneck showed signs of weakening.
• Lu Li warned Xu Xiong that wealth required strength to protect it, and Xu Xiong gained clarity and resolve.
• Xu Xiong vowed to enter seclusion until he reached Foundation Establishment, then use the Dao of Commerce to help Lu Li.
• Lu Li reflected that Xu Xiong might become a powerful figure in the Dao of Commerce as the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly drew near.

Bai Kun prepared to enter the inner sect and attend the Immortal Ascension Grand Assembly, while Azure Pool’s leaders sent their top geniuses to assert their dominance. After learning that Lu Li had been ordered to attend, Ye Chenfeng resolved to accompany him despite Elder Jian’s warnings.

• Bai Kun reached Foundation Establishment, prepared to move to Upper White Peak, and promised his relatives he would support them if he attained the Golden Core Dao.
• Bai Kun’s second uncle warned the Bai Household juniors against following Bai Sheng’s example and leaving the sect.
• True Lord Xuanyu and True Lord Yuanhao ordered Xuanming and Yuanyan to display their strength at the secret realm assembly.
• Ye Chenfeng learned that Lu Li had been ordered to attend the assembly and discussed the danger with Elder Jian.
• Despite Elder Jian’s warning that rescuing him could be difficult, Ye Chenfeng vowed to accompany Lu Li.

The Hastening the Seedlings to Immortal Ascension Assembly began, and Lu Li entered the blood-red secret realm with Ye Chenfeng after his jade pendant briefly trembled. The five True Lords waited outside while Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng searched the realm and spotted Bai Kun approaching.

• The five True Lords opened the secret realm, and Xuanming and Yuanyan led the Foundation Establishment disciples inside.
• Lu Li felt his fish-shaped jade pendant tremble and fought back nausea, but it fell still before he could inspect what had caused the reaction.
• Ye Chenfeng joined Lu Li, saying he had come to look out for him, and they flew into the secret realm together.
• After the entrance closed, True Lord Xuanyu and True Lord Yuanhao envied Chiyang for taking in Lu Li, while Chiyang teased Bai Yi about Upper White Peak’s lack of talented disciples.
• Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng searched the vast blood-red realm for opportunities and Dao Fruits, then recognized Bai Kun flying toward them.

Bai Kun recognized Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng, but Ye Chenfeng killed him before he could escape. Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng then flew toward the Secret Realm Dao Fruit, where hundreds of cultivators gathered and formed rival groups, leaving Lu Li wondering why some older cultivators seemed frightened.

• Bai Kun recognized Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng, then turned to flee because he was outnumbered.
• Ye Chenfeng pursued Bai Kun and killed him with four flying swords, then collected his Storage Bag.
• Lu Li noticed Bai Kun's corpse being absorbed by the blood-colored soil before spotting a five-colored auspicious cloud on the horizon.
• Lu Li and Ye Chenfeng flew toward the cloud and encountered Wu Changgeng and hundreds of other Foundation Establishment cultivators gathering for the Secret Realm Dao Fruit.
• The cultivators formed rival groups, and Lu Li wondered why several older True Persons stood apart looking frightened.

Lu Li watched the Dao Fruit contest erupt into a deadly melee, where Wu Changgeng was killed almost immediately after joining the fight. After Lu Li preserved Wu Changgeng’s soul, a golden Dao Fruit shot straight toward him.

• Lu Li questioned why the elderly Foundation Establishment cultivators had seemed reluctant to pursue the Dao Fruits, while Ye Chenfeng’s Elder Jian warned him not to fight and risk being marked.
• Three golden Dao Fruits emerged from the five-colored clouds, and hundreds of True Persons rushed into the sky to seize them.
• Wu Changgeng charged into the battle, was beheaded within moments, and Lu Li retrieved his soul before it could perish.
• Ye Chenfeng warned Lu Li to dodge as a golden Dao Fruit shot toward him.

Lu Li swallowed a Dao Fruit and was immediately hunted by more than a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators, while Elder Jian warned Ye Chenfeng that Lu Li would be trapped in Azure Pool. Ye Chenfeng chose to help anyway, and Lu Li equipped them with his mechanical artifacts before unleashing a laser cannon and opening his Swarm Sword Case.

• A Dao Fruit flew into Lu Li’s mouth, and the pursuing cultivators swarmed after him, trying to seize it before he could refine it.
• Elder Jian told Ye Chenfeng that Lu Li would never leave the Azure Pool region, but Ye Chenfeng ignored his warning and rushed to help Lu Li.
• Lu Li threw Spirit Fire Grenades to halt the attackers briefly, then apologized to Ye Chenfeng for drawing him into the fight.
• Lu Li gave Ye Chenfeng Battle Law Armor 2.0 and a Spirit Machinery Mech 1.0, then focused on refining the Dao Fruit.
• Lu Li fired his Spirit Machinery Laser Cannon and Spiritual Power Cannon at the crowd, injuring several cultivators.
• Lu Li opened his black Swarm Sword Case, revealed three hundred and sixty metal fragments, and called the swords forth.

Lu Li fought off a crowd of Foundation Establishment cultivators with his sword fragments and powerful five-element spells while Ye Chenfeng was gravely wounded protecting him. Lu Li completed refining the Dao Fruit, and the surge of power left him on the verge of a breakthrough.

• Lu Li unleashed a swarm of sword fragments that pierced the defenses of several Foundation Establishment cultivators, killing some and driving Xuanming and others away.
• The remaining cultivators blasted apart Lu Li's Spirit Machinery Mech as Ye Chenfeng fought them with his flying swords, then wounded Ye Chenfeng in the shoulder.
• Furious at Ye Chenfeng's injury, Lu Li abandoned the ruined mech and used second-tier mid-grade five-element spells to hold back the attackers while refining the Dao Fruit.
• Golden light emerged from Lu Li as he completed refining the Dao Fruit, prompting the surrounding cultivators to abandon him and race toward the other two fruits.
• The Dao Fruit's power surged through Lu Li's Dantian, and he realized he was about to break through.

Lu Li refined part of the Dao Fruit and advanced to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, but as the secret realm’s exit vanished and a terrifying will began searching the realm, his hidden jade pendant appeared to draw its attention. The chapter left Lu Li fearing that the living secret realm’s will was looking for his pendant as the pendant erupted with light.

• Lu Li refined two-tenths of the Dao Fruit and broke through to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.
• Xuanming and Yuanyan swallowed the other Dao Fruits, then Foundation Establishment cultivators moved to attack all three before the secret realm opened its exit.
• Lu Li tried to leave, but his fish-shaped jade pendant emerged from his spiritual platform, visible only to him.
• The secret realm closed its exit, and a terrifying will pressed everyone down; black blades of grass killed Xuanming and Yuanyan.
• Lu Li sensed that the secret realm was alive and suspected its searching will wanted his jade pendant, which then burst into dazzling light.