Chapter Summaries

Su Mu learned that Great Liang was beset by powerful demons as its national fortune declined, while the Eldest Princess received an offer from the Academy of Righteousness for the person behind his six-inch calligraphy. Back on Earth, Su Mu found that the places where he had cultivated had run out of Spiritual Power, leaving him unsure how to advance without spending money he needed for living.

• Xiao Wu stopped Su Mu from touching spirit-spring water and explained that his yin-natured remnant soul could contaminate the spirit fields.
• Su Mu and Xiao Wu saw Demon Extermination Bureau cavalry leave the capital, and Xiao Wu explained how Great Liang's declining national fortune and powerful demons threatened the realm.
• Xiao Wu told Su Mu about the Black Dragon King in the Qin River and the fox demon in Green Hollow before returning to report to the Eldest Princess.
• The Eldest Princess told Xiao Wu that the Academy of Righteousness wanted to admit the person who had produced the six-inch calligraphy, and Xiao Wu was to ask whether he would accept.
• Su Mu returned to Earth and found no Spiritual Power left at his previous cultivation sites, then weighed job offers as his savings dwindled.

Su Mu joined the Foundation Establishment Group’s training trip, hoping a place known for wild ginseng would have enough spiritual power to advance his cultivation. After meditating on the train, he met the other participants and rode with them toward the training site, eager to see whether he could cross the threshold.

• Su Mu saw the group owner invite members to further training and signed up after connecting the mention of ginseng to places rich in spiritual power.
• Su Mu booked a train ticket, packed for the trip, and traveled to the meeting point the next day.
• Su Mu cultivated during the train ride and helped a young woman lift her suitcase onto the luggage rack.
• Su Mu read the group’s messages about cultivation, then got off at the station and met the group owner, Xiao Guan, Wu You, and Ming Lan.
• The group owner drove Su Mu and the others away in his minivan, promising that the training location would satisfy him.

Su Mu joined the Foundation Establishment group on a mountain hike and discovered that the cabin’s cliffside offered a rich supply of Spiritual Power. As he meditated there, strange wind and leaves gathered around him, leaving Ming Lan convinced that someone extraordinary had joined the group.

• The group owner led Su Mu, Ming Lan, and the others through the forest and up the mountain, checking that Su Mu could keep going.
• The group reached the group owner’s wooden cabin, which Ming Lan said had cost over a million to build.
• Su Mu sensed that the area held far more Spiritual Power than the parks he had visited before.
• Su Mu sat cross-legged on a cliffside rock and began cultivating, absorbing the concentrated Spiritual Power around him.
• The wind died near Su Mu and leaves whirled around him, startling Ming Lan as she realized someone extraordinary had joined her Foundation Establishment group.

Su Mu cultivated at camp, causing leaves to spin around him and mist to gather as the group watched in awe. After he revealed that he had been cultivating, the others questioned him over dinner and admitted they had only stumbled upon cultivation through trial and error.

• Ming Lan brought the group owner and two others to see leaves spinning around Su Mu as he cultivated.
• The group watched as the leaves fell and mist enveloped Su Mu until moonlight revealed him again.
• Su Mu finished cultivating, felt unusually light, and agreed to discuss what had happened over dinner.
• The group prepared dinner for Su Mu and pressed him to confirm that he had been cultivating.
• Su Mu confirmed it and learned that the others had found only an incomplete way to cultivate through trial and error.

Su Mu agreed to teach Ming Lan and the others basic cultivation the next day, then explored the changes cultivation had brought to his body. While he spent the night discovering sharper senses and brighter eyes, Ming Lan and the others anxiously waited for morning.

• Ming Lan asked Su Mu to guide the group in cultivation, and he agreed while warning that he was still inexperienced.
• Su Mu postponed the lesson until the next day so he could investigate the changes he had gained from crossing the threshold of cultivation.
• After bathing off a greasy residue, Su Mu meditated and discovered that his hearing and eyesight had improved and his eyes looked brighter.
• Su Mu continued exploring his new abilities through the night while Ming Lan and the others struggled to sleep as they awaited his lesson.
• At six thirty, Ming Lan and the others got out of bed as dawn began to brighten the misty world.

After improving his physical strength through meditation, Su Mu taught the group to cultivate at the Moon-Gazing Stone and discovered he could guide others into meditation. The group owner and Ming Lan began absorbing Spiritual Power, and Su Mu told them to continue until they experienced its benefits.

• Su Mu woke after a night of meditation and noticed his stamina, strength, and endurance had improved.
• Su Mu led the group to the Moon-Gazing Stone and explained that they needed to empty their minds and sense Spiritual Power.
• After the group struggled to meditate, Su Mu entered meditation and found he could not sense them in that state.
• Su Mu guided the group owner into meditation, and the group owner began absorbing Spiritual Power.
• Su Mu helped Ming Lan enter meditation, then told the group owner to keep absorbing Spiritual Power until he experienced its benefits.

Su Mu discovered that Xiao Guan and Wu You could not cultivate, then sensed concentrated spiritual power on a nearby cliff and found an old wild mountain ginseng. After the group owner dug it up, Su Mu asked him to help sell it, and the group owner offered to buy it himself.

• Su Mu found that Xiao Guan and Wu You could not absorb spiritual power, while Ming Lan and the group owner had to stop cultivating after feeling full.
• Su Mu sensed concentrated spiritual power on a cliff and led the others to investigate.
• The group owner recognized a wild mountain ginseng and carefully dug it up, estimating it was fifty or sixty years old.
• Su Mu asked the group owner to help sell the ginseng, and the group owner offered to buy it.

Su Mu sold the wild ginseng, left the mountain, and became the owner of the cultivation group. On his way back to his rented apartment, he sensed something ominous around an overpass under construction.

• Su Mu sold the wild ginseng to the group owner for five hundred thousand and said he would leave the mountain the next day.
• Su Mu added Ming Lan and the others on WeChat, then explained that they would need to build up Spiritual Power before he could teach them to circulate it.
• The next morning, the group owner drove Su Mu down the mountain and transferred ownership of the group to him; Su Mu renamed it the Immortal Cultivation Squad.
• Ming Lan told the group that Su Mu was a real cultivator, and Su Mu said he hoped to discuss cultivation with everyone in the future.
• After returning to the city by train, Su Mu sensed a golden field with traces of black around an overpass under construction and asked the taxi driver to stop.

Su Mu sensed resentment at a construction site on Earth and learned from Xiao Wu that the black Qi came from an enraged Dragon Vein. He realized the workers might be in mortal danger and resolved not to ignore it.

• Su Mu noticed resentful black Qi at the construction site, warned a worker to be careful, and left without persuading the crew to stop working.
• Su Mu returned to the cultivation world and found Xiao Wu waiting with gold from their calligraphy sales.
• Xiao Wu told Su Mu the Academy of Righteousness wanted him to join, but he declined, and she agreed to turn down the invitation.
• Su Mu described the Qi at the construction site, and Xiao Wu identified it as an enraged Dragon Vein that could kill people within a hundred li.
• Su Mu realized the workers faced grave danger and decided he could not leave them unaided.

Su Mu learned how to invite the dragon to leave and obtained a prescription for strengthening the body and healing injuries, which he checked for ingredients available on Earth. Xiao Wu later told the eldest princess that Su Mu would not attend the Academy of Righteousness, prompting her to secretly decide to refine a body for him.

• Xiao Wu taught Su Mu how to invite the dragon to leave and gave him a prescription for treating physical injuries.
• Xiao Wu explained the prescription’s ingredients and medicinal properties while Su Mu copied them down.
• Xiao Wu told Su Mu about a spirit who had escaped after an immortal cultivator discovered her inside a restored painting.
• Xiao Wu reported to the eldest princess that Su Mu would not go to the Academy of Righteousness and confirmed that he wanted a body again.
• The eldest princess decided to refine a body for Su Mu but ordered Xiao Wu to keep it secret.
• Su Mu checked the prescription’s ingredients online, found substitutes for the three with unfamiliar names, and decided to test the medicine before giving it to his father.

Su Mu brewed a medicinal mixture with Spiritual Power and planned to check the dragon's resentment that night. At the overpass construction site, a strange burst of flying debris badly injured Xiao Chen, leaving the workers fearing the pile was cursed.

• Su Mu bought herbs and a clay pot, then brewed the medicine according to Xiao Wu's instructions and sensed Spiritual Power blending into it.
• Su Mu drank the finished brew and decided to wait two days for side effects while planning to revisit the dragon's resentment that night.
• Su Mu returned to the Immortal Cultivation Realm as construction crews struggled to drive a pile at the overpass before their deadline.
• After a third drill bit broke, the supervisor berated Xiao Chen, and a sudden burst of sand and stones sent a rock through the cab window and into Xiao Chen's head.
• The supervisor accompanied Xiao Chen in the ambulance, while the workers speculated that the construction site demanded a human sacrifice.

Su Mu left the palace with Xiao Wu and wandered through the city, where he encountered a woman being revealed from a painting for a crowd. Xiao Wu explained why the onlookers were examining her, and the crowd began bidding for the painting.

• Su Mu asked Xiao Wu to accompany him outside the palace, and she took him to the Righteous Pavilion where she sold calligraphy.
• After Xiao Wu entered the pavilion, Su Mu wandered nearby and found that cultivators left him alone when they saw his imperial token.
• Su Mu heard a burly man advertise a fairy in a painting and floated over to watch.
• The burly man threatened to burn the painting, prompting the veiled woman inside to step out before the crowd.
• Xiao Wu returned and explained that the crowd was checking whether the woman had ever served a man.
• Several onlookers began bidding for the painting, exciting the burly seller.

Su Mu bought a spirit-lady’s painting, then brought her back to teach him how to read. The Eldest Princess learned the real reason for his purchase and let the matter go.

• Su Mu changed his mind and bought the painting for five taels of gold, despite Xiao Wu criticizing the price.
• After returning to his courtyard, Su Mu sent Xiao Wu away and called the woman out of the painting.
• Xiao Wu reported Su Mu’s purchase to the Eldest Princess, who used her Divine Sense to investigate.
• Su Mu asked the woman whether she could read, then admitted he wanted her to teach him.
• The woman agreed to teach Su Mu, while the Eldest Princess withdrew her Divine Sense and dismissed the purchase as a trivial matter.

Su Mu returned to Earth after practicing writing with the lady in the painting and discovered that videos of strange activity at the overpass had spread. He secretly drew the Dragon Vein away from the construction site, then fled when workers approached, leaving deep footprints behind.

• The lady taught Su Mu to write, laughed at his poor handwriting, and returned to the painting.
• Su Mu returned to Earth, noticed the medicine had made him feel stronger, and decided to get some for his father.
• Su Mu saw that videos of the overpass’s abnormal phenomena had spread and went to the construction site to deal with the Dragon Vein.
• Su Mu used the Seven Stars footwork to reveal the Dragon Vein and struggled to draw it away with his Spiritual Power.
• Workers arrived after hearing something, but Su Mu escaped and they found his unusually deep footprints.

Su Mu returned to his hometown with medicinal herbs for his ailing father and reunited with his parents. After giving his father a dose, he faced his parents’ worries about his marriage and urged them to stop exhausting themselves with work.

• Su Mu traveled home with herbs he had obtained to treat his father.
• Su Mu’s mother found him brewing medicine and learned he had returned to help his father.
• Su Mu went to meet his father on the hill and carried the heavy firewood home for him.
• Su Mu persuaded his wary father to drink the medicinal decoction he had brewed.
• At dinner, Su Mu’s parents urged him to find a girlfriend and marry, while he told them not to wear themselves out working.

Su Mu returned home and saw that his father’s medicine had eased his coughing, then went back to the cultivation world to learn about gathering literary essence from calligraphy. He began planning to sell calligraphy for Spirit Stones and use them to open a passage between Earth and the cultivation world.

• Su Mu’s parents noticed that his father was breathing more easily and had not coughed that night after taking the medicine.
• Su Mu returned to the cultivation world and found the lady gathering literary essence from his calligraphy.
• The lady explained that repeated copies of a calligraphy work gradually lost their righteous Qi and eventually could no longer yield literary essence.
• Su Mu decided to have the lady gather literary essence from more calligraphy so he could earn back the gold he had spent on her.
• Su Mu planned to sell calligraphy for Spirit Stones and use them to form a small passage between Earth and the cultivation world.

Su Mu tried to use the Tao Te Ching to earn the eldest princess’s protection, but the painted maid could not hear him and his attempt to write the text burned the paper. His recitation caused a mysterious star to brighten, drawing the attention of Great Liang’s court and giving the Nine-Tailed Fox a new thread of hope.

• Su Mu weighed the risks of producing more Righteous Qi calligraphy and decided to seek the eldest princess’s protection by offering her something valuable.
• Su Mu recited the opening of the Tao Te Ching, but the painted maid could not hear it, so he sent her back into the painting.
• Su Mu tried writing the Tao Te Ching in private, but the paper burst into flames as soon as the characters appeared.
• A dim star brightened in the night sky, and the State Preceptor found that its appearance had slightly strengthened Great Liang’s National Fortune.
• The Nine-Tailed Fox divined that a thread of hope had appeared for her Heavenly Tribulation, with the turning point still expected on her birthday.

Su Mu continued learning to read and write the Tao Te Ching, then brewed medicine for his parents before returning to the cultivation world to propose sharing profits from his calligraphy with the eldest princess. She rejected the offer, leaving Su Mu to realize his earnings were insignificant to her.

• Su Mu asked the painted lady to keep teaching him, learned her name was Xiao Lian, and practiced writing before returning to Earth.
• Su Mu brewed medicine for his father and persuaded his mother to drink some too; his father said the medicine had stopped his coughing and helped him sleep.
• After his parents left for the mountain, Su Mu returned to the cultivation world and met Xiao Wu in the courtyard.
• Su Mu asked Xiao Wu to have the eldest princess assign people to help with his calligraphy business in exchange for a share of the profits.
• The eldest princess declared she had no interest in his earnings, and Xiao Wu explained that even many calligraphy works would bring only pocket money to the princess.

Su Mu learned that his six-inch calligraphy was worth thirteen thousand Spirit Stones and produced another six-inch piece with Xiao Lian’s help. The eldest princess bought it, gave him a Storage Bag containing ten thousand Spirit Stones, and warned him that others would seek him out.

• Xiao Wu explained that Su Mu’s first six-inch calligraphy was worth about thirteen thousand Spirit Stones and could attract greedy cultivators.
• Su Mu asked Xiao Lian to help him compose another piece of calligraphy, and she wrote it as Righteous Qi gathered.
• Xiao Wu and Xiao Lian confirmed that Su Mu had produced another six-inch piece, leaving both astonished.
• The eldest princess offered Su Mu thirteen thousand Spirit Stones for the calligraphy, and he accepted.
• The eldest princess gave Su Mu a Storage Bag with ten thousand Spirit Stones inside and warned him to be careful when going out.
• Su Mu stored his Spirit Stones and gold in the Storage Bag while Xiao Wu and Xiao Lian wondered at his ability.

Su Mu learned that his repeated six-inch calligraphy treasures had attracted attention and continued producing secondary copies while hearing about the dangers of the Ten-Thousand-Li Withered Bones Wasteland. The chapter ended when the Eldest Princess admitted a visitor from Green Hollow to her residence.

• Xiao Wu explained that Core Formation Cultivators might seek to befriend Su Mu for his calligraphy treasures, while scholars from the Academy of Righteousness disliked Yin souls.
• Su Mu asked Xiao Lian and Xiao Wu to keep writing secondary copies, then learned they were disposable wards against minor demons and ghosts.
• Xiao Wu told Su Mu that Great Liang stored the copies to defend against ghosts from the Ten-Thousand-Li Withered Bones Wasteland and warned him not to go there.
• Su Mu considered the Spirit Stone he was holding and regretted that Earth had none.
• A maid reported that someone from Green Hollow wanted to see the Eldest Princess, and she ordered the visitor admitted.