Chapter Summaries

Tang Yuan used the Earth Flood Dragon’s time-reversal technique to turn the attack on him around, then fought Luo Biao while trying to protect the Li siblings. The Li siblings helped him decapitate Luo Biao, but his body began healing and reassembling.

• The Earth Flood Dragon reversed time by half a finger snap, allowing Tang Yuan to redirect the blood-red orb and kill the thin Devil Cultivator while wounding Luo Biao.
• Tang Yuan used arrow talismans and an Eight Trigrams Earth-Fixing Formation to keep Luo Biao from closing in or escaping underground.
• The market master failed to intervene, and Tang Yuan ran low on talismans as Luo Biao approached and offered to join forces against the Li siblings.
• Tang Yuan declared he would protect the Li siblings and fought Luo Biao at close range after the formation failed.
• Li Laosan used a purple mirror to slice off Luo Biao’s head, and Tang Yuan hacked his body into pieces before collapsing to catch his breath.
• Li Si cried out when Luo Biao’s wounds began healing and his body parts started joining back together.

Tang Yuan killed Luo Biao, bought the Li siblings’ Great Kun Moonlight, and left Purple Moon Lake Market after advising Zhong Lisheng to charge an entrance fee. On the way to handle two urgent matters, Tang Yuan confronted the goateed cultivator who had been following him and revealed that killing him was one of those matters.

• Tang Yuan captured Luo Biao’s soul, then paid the Li siblings two hundred Spirit Stones for their Great Kun Moonlight.
• Tang Yuan thanked Zhong Lisheng for protecting the market’s traders, suggested he charge an entrance fee, and collapsed after pretending to be injured.
• Tang Yuan declined Zhong Lisheng’s offer to rest at the market and left after advising the Li siblings.
• Tang Yuan flew east, stopped to rest, and called out the goateed cultivator who had followed him beyond the market’s protected area.
• The goateed cultivator demanded Tang Yuan’s third-grade Spiritual Qi, and Tang Yuan said he knew the man’s true cultivation and intended to kill him for his treasures.

Tang Yuan fought Zhang Yang, a Golden Sand Sect body cultivator, and survived a deadly exchange by using a Replica Clone and the Mystic Spoon. As Zhang Yang gained the upper hand, Tang Yuan accepted the Earth Flood Dragon’s offer to intervene, and its black claw pierced Zhang Yang’s chest.

• Zhang Yang wore Tang Yuan down with repeated feints from beneath the sand, but Tang Yuan lured him close and detonated a [Blood Skeleton Technique Lightning] while holding him.
• The blast reduced Tang Jia, Tang Yuan’s Replica Clone, to a skeleton, but Tang Yuan emerged from the Mystic Spoon and wounded Zhang Yang, severing his hand.
• Tang Yuan revealed that Tang Jia was a Replica Clone and claimed to have a thousand more, then refused Zhang Yang’s offer to become sworn brothers and kept his severed hand.
• Zhang Yang resumed the fight, using sand and his body-cultivation defenses to overwhelm Tang Yuan while Tang Yuan’s blade failed to cut him.
• The Earth Flood Dragon offered to save Tang Yuan in exchange for twenty percent of the [great kun moonlight] and Zhang Yang’s soul; Tang Yuan agreed, and a huge black claw pierced Zhang Yang’s chest.

Tang Yuan killed Zhang Yang and discovered that Adamantine Sand had fused with Tang Jia’s skeleton, which he considered as a possible life-bound Law Treasure. After returning home, he shared a meal with his family and learned that his eldest son wanted to become a hero and cultivate immortality.

• Tang Yuan killed Zhang Yang, searched his Storage Bag, and found a Seven-Colored Invisibility Robe but not the Adamantine Sand.
• Tang Yuan discovered that the Adamantine Sand had fused with Tang Jia’s skeleton and put the skeleton away, considering it a possible life-bound Law Treasure.
• The Earth Flood Dragon took Luo Biao’s and Zhang Yang’s souls and told Tang Yuan that their remaining ghost spirits would require a ghost-summoning banner within ten years.
• Tang Yuan returned to his home in Dangwu Village and thanked his wife, Miao, for raising their children while he had been away.
• Tang Tiansong refused to learn the family trade of gathering flying squirrel droppings and declared that he wanted to cultivate immortality and become a hero, while Tang Yuan insisted he learn the trade.

Tang Yuan returned to the Holy Cardamom Sect after three years away, only to be blocked at the gate by a disciple demanding inflated fees. Kou Cheng offered to cover the fee in exchange for Zhang Yang’s corpse, but warned Tang Yuan that collecting a cultivation method would be harder than ascending to heaven.

• Tang Yuan left his wife and five children and traveled for two months to reach Holy Cardamom Mountain.
• Blue Forehead demanded 150 spirit coins from Tang Yuan and refused to let him enter or pay by IOU.
• Tang Yuan argued that the fee was unfair, but he avoided fighting because the sect’s formation and methods made the mountain gate dangerous.
• Kou Cheng recognized Tang Yuan and, after hearing about the dispute, asked to see what he had brought back from outside the sect.
• Tang Yuan showed Kou Cheng Zhang Yang’s corpse, and Kou Cheng valued it at 230 spirit coins.
• Kou Cheng agreed to pay Tang Yuan’s entrance fee, then warned him that obtaining a cultivation method from the sect would be extremely difficult.

Tang Yuan and the new Qi Refinement disciples learned that the Holy Cardamom Sect charged steep prices for its cultivation methods and punished anyone who objected. The chapter ended with Tang Yuan facing a three-day deadline to decide whether to take out a predatory loan for the Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture.

• Ding Chunqiu introduced four Qi Refinement methods and told the disciples to choose one based on their circumstances.
• Tang Yuan chose the Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture, hoping to improve his chances of Foundation Establishment and distance himself from the sect’s devilish reputation.
• Ding Chunqiu revealed that the Jade Slips required payment to unlock, and he killed a disciple who protested the cost.
• Tang Yuan learned that the complete methods were sold in costly portions, making cultivation texts unaffordable for many disciples.
• Ding Chunqiu promoted the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association’s loans, whose high interest and collateral terms included borrowers’ bodies and souls.
• Tang Yuan asked for time to consider borrowing, and Ding Chunqiu gave the disciples three days before their next chance to buy a method would come thirty years later.

Tang Yuan tried to sell a strand of Great Kun Moonlight at the Eastern Huang Gathering to raise enough spirit coins to buy the Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture. Kou Cheng bought it with most of the payment in cash and unsold goods, leaving Tang Yuan still short and considering a loan from Ding Chunqiu.

• Ding Chunqiu's warning that the cultivation manuals would not be available again for thirty years drove disciples to buy manuals or sign loan agreements.
• Tang Yuan decided to sell a strand of Great Kun Moonlight after his other sales left him with only 2,200 spirit coins, short of the 4,050 he needed for both stages of the Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture.
• Tang Yuan offered the strand to Kou Cheng for 2,000 spirit coins, and Kou Cheng agreed to consult an expert before deciding whether it was worth the price.
• Kou Cheng returned and publicly warned other stallholders not to poach Tang Yuan's deal, then paid him 1,200 spirit coins and offered formation jade discs and the Hehuan Transformation Scripture for the rest.
• Tang Yuan accepted Kou Cheng's offer to sell the Great Kun Moonlight and considered Kou Cheng's advice to borrow from Ding Chunqiu.

Tang Yuan secured a four-hundred-spirit-coin loan and a promising apprenticeship after Ding Chunqiu learned he had a Thunder Spirit Root. With his cultivation-method jade slips in hand, Tang Yuan headed to Refining Peak, where the sect's brutal production workshops awaited him.

• Tang Yuan asked Ding Chunqiu to help him borrow four hundred spirit coins, offering jade formation plates and himself as collateral.
• Ding Chunqiu learned that Tang Yuan had a Thunder Spirit Root and arranged a loan through the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association.
• Ding Chunqiu gave Tang Yuan letters directing him to Liu Yixiao for the loan and discounted cultivation methods, and to Feng Bin for an apprenticeship in formation-making.
• Tang Yuan borrowed four hundred spirit coins from Liu Yixiao and paid eight hundred and ten spirit coins for jade slips containing the early- and middle-stage methods of the Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture.
• Tang Yuan flew to Refining Peak and saw its crowded workshops, where cultivators toiled under harsh conditions.

Tang Yuan became Feng Bin’s disciple to learn lightning-array making and received two cultivation methods, with three arrays due in three months. After leaving the workshop, he caught Du Qing’s escaped spirit chicken and flew away after giving it back to her.

• Feng Bin accepted Tang Yuan as a disciple and assigned him to make lightning arrays, warning him about Gang Lightning Mountain and setting a deadline of three arrays in three months.
• Feng Bin gave Tang Yuan two cultivation methods and required him to pay for materials himself, offering five spirit coins for each completed Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Array.
• Tang Yuan left the workshop and saw Du Qing struggling to catch a purple-crested, five-colored spirit chicken while the other cultivators ignored her pleas.
• The chicken escaped the courtyard and dropped droppings under Tang Yuan’s foot, so he caught it as it sprang into the air.
• Tang Yuan returned the chicken to Du Qing and explained how to catch one safely, then flew east without answering her question about his name.

Tang Yuan used Tang Yi to expose the hidden requirement for making Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Arrays, then built a profitable production routine that helped him reach Qi Refining Fourth Layer and repay his loan. Ding Chunqiu offered him work with the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association, but after Tang Yuan refused, Ding Chunqiu barred him from selling his arrays, leaving Tang Yuan intent on getting rid of him.

• Tang Yuan rented a cave abode near Gang Lightning Mountain and had Tang Yi test Feng Bin's cultivation methods before using them himself.
• Tang Yi discovered that the arrays required cultivator Essence Blood, so Tang Yuan bought it through Kou Cheng and began making arrays for Feng Bin.
• Tang Yuan's eel harvest fell sharply, but Tang Yi made more than 550 arrays over the next year while Tang Yuan cultivated to Qi Refining Fourth Layer.
• Tang Yuan repaid 880 spirit coins to Ding Chunqiu, who offered him a position as an array maker for the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association.
• Tang Yuan declined the offer to preserve time for cultivation, and Ding Chunqiu threatened to prohibit him from selling his arrays.
• Tang Yuan decided he had no choice but to get rid of Ding Chunqiu.

Tang Yuan emerged from closed-door cultivation and agreed to refine two thousand thunder arrays for Feng Bin, hoping to earn enough spirit coins for the coming secret realm. After Feng Bin left, Du Qing arrived and asked to stay the night, leaving Tang Yuan to connect her visit to the rabbit he had seen in his courtyard.

• Tang Yuan cultivated in seclusion while Tang Yi remained away on a trip north to pick up scraps.
• Tang Yuan found a magpie and a snow rabbit squabbling over spirit bean alfalfa in his courtyard before Feng Bin arrived.
• Feng Bin complained about the sect’s preparations for the Barbarian Di Secret Realm and asked Tang Yuan to make two thousand Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Arrays for seven spirit coins each.
• Tang Yuan accepted Feng Bin’s offer despite the risk of later trouble with Ding Chunqiu, since Tang Yi would bear the cost of refining the arrays.
• Du Qing arrived at Tang Yuan’s gate after dark and asked to stay the night.

Tang Yuan defeated Du Qing's attempt to harm him, advanced to the Qi Refinement Fifth Layer, and secured a large array order despite rising material costs. After hearing about Ding Chunqiu's interference, Kou Cheng suggested that Tang Yuan find a Foundation Establishment High Person to back him.

• Tang Yuan hosted Du Qing and learned artifact-refining insights before she attempted to exploit him through dual cultivation.
• Tang Yuan used the Hehuan Transformation Scripture to drain Du Qing despite her confession that Su Wei had sent her and knew of a Foundation Establishment opportunity in the Starfall Sea.
• Tang Yuan reached the Qi Refinement Fifth Layer, collected Du Qing's soul, destroyed her corpse, and recovered artifact-refining instructions from her belongings.
• Tang Yuan signed an eight-thousand-spirit-coin array order with Feng Bin, then discovered that rising material prices would leave him only two thousand spirit coins in profit.
• Kou Cheng treated Tang Yuan to a meal and offered to buy more Great Kun Moonlight Spiritual Qi, but Tang Yuan said he had none left.
• Tang Yuan explained that Ding Chunqiu had forbidden him from selling arrays, and Kou Cheng suggested finding a Foundation Establishment High Person as a backer.

Tang Yuan arranged to buy materials from Kou Cheng and learned about the sect’s power structure, then traveled to the Starfall Sea seeking a Foundation Establishment opportunity. There, Su Wei confronted him, and Tang Yuan’s attack vanished against him, leaving Tang Yuan fearing his opponent was far stronger than expected.

• Tang Yuan negotiated with Kou Cheng to buy materials for two thousand formations, and Kou Cheng described the sect’s cultivation ranks and influential Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Tang Yuan decided to seek backing from High Person Li Bai, and Kou Cheng said Li Bai wanted a rare purple jade huang hidden in the Barbarian Di Secret Realm.
• Tang Yuan decided he would not enter the secret realm, obtained a travel permit, and flew west to search the Starfall Sea for the opportunity Du Qing had mentioned.
• Tang Yuan searched the Starfall Sea for several days, then flew farther east until he reached a deserted island to rest.
• Su Wei confronted Tang Yuan and demanded to know what he had done to Du Qing.
• Tang Yuan attacked Su Wei with mystical light, but the attack vanished against him, making Tang Yuan suspect Su Wei might have reached Foundation Establishment.

Tang Yuan battled Su Wei and the white-robed soul spirit, then used a deceptive ambush that seemingly destroyed both their bodies. Su Wei escaped into his Dark Nether Cave-Vista Ten Thousand Ghost Banner, leaving Tang Yuan stunned as he held an ordinary soul-summoning banner.

• Tang Yuan discovered that Su Wei carried an extraordinary purple-lettered soul-summoning banner and fought him, forcing Su Wei to summon Zhao Xiaode, a powerful white-robed soul spirit.
• Tang Yuan struggled against Zhao Xiaode and fled underwater to recover while Su Wei and the soul spirit waited above the sea.
• Tang Yuan returned with an Explosive Talisman, then used smoke talismans to conceal his approach and seize Su Wei from behind.
• Su Wei escaped Tang Yuan's Blood Skeleton Technique Lightning with a soul-shedding technique, while the blast shattered both Tang Yuan's and Su Wei's physical bodies.
• Tang Yuan appeared in an identical flesh-and-blood body with a soul-summoning banner, but Su Wei slipped into his purple-lettered banner before Tang Yuan could capture him.

Tang Yuan reversed time to capture Wuma Lin’s soul and learned about the Ghost Qi Sect treasures and the banner found at Nine Springs Mountain. After returning to the Holy Cardamom Sect, he heard that its northern campaign centered on Nine Springs Mountain and began considering investigating it himself.

• Tang Yuan used Time Reversal to seize Su Wei’s departing soul and made the soul spirit Zhao Xiaode submit to him.
• Wuma Lin explained that he had found the Profound Nether Cavern Radiance Myriad Ghost Banner and ghost-cultivation texts in a cave on Nine Springs Mountain.
• Tang Yuan searched Wuma Lin’s Storage Bag, found several cultivation manuals and spirit coins, and studied the Witch Ghost Dao Book on a deserted island for ten days.
• Tang Yuan returned to the Holy Cardamom Sect, arranged another delivery date with Kou Cheng, and went to his cave abode.
• Tang Yi reported that the sect’s northern campaign focused on Nine Springs Mountain, where the Ghost Qi Sect had once been based, and Tang Yuan considered investigating the site for more treasures.

Tang Yuan prepared for the Barbarian Di Secret Realm assessment, hoping to find a purple jade pendant while securing a chance to obtain complete cultivation methods from High Person Li Bai. At the gathering, he considered joining Qian Xiaobao’s team before six Foundation Establishment cultivators arrived and High Person Ming Kun announced the trial’s objective: pull out the orcs’ teeth.

• Tang Yuan bought the Soul-Driving Technique from Kou Cheng and learned from Zhao Xiaode that he knew where the purple jade pendant was hidden.
• Over two years, Tang Yi refined two thousand lightning arrays, while Tang Yuan refined three souls into ghost spirits and prepared for the secret realm.
• At Seeking the Dao Square, Tang Yuan weighed the risks of the assessment and the possibility of using the Mystic Spoon to escape danger.
• Qian Xiaobao invited Tang Yuan to join a team with Gao Rui, Huang Jie, and Qi Yao, arguing that Tang Yuan’s Purple Cloud Nine Mysteries Scripture made him valuable in close combat.
• Six Foundation Establishment cultivators appeared, and High Person Ming Kun revealed that the secret realm’s orc tribes were the targets of the trial and ordered the disciples to pull out their teeth.

Tang Yuan learned the Barbarian Di Secret Realm trial rules and entered the realm to hunt orcs for spirit teeth. The High Persons revealed that the sect had sent so many disciples to gather resources for True Essence Pills, and they feared that at most a hundred disciples would return.

• Ding Chunqiu explained that disciples had to collect specified numbers of orc spirit teeth during the forty-day trial, with rewards for exceeding the minimum and no sect cut from other spoils.
• Tang Yuan declined to join Qian Xiaobao’s team and entered the secret realm alone, following the other disciples through the gate.
• After the disciples departed, High Person Yaoxi questioned why the sect had sent more than two thousand Qi Refinement disciples into the dangerous realm.
• High Person Ming Kun explained that the sect needed spirit teeth to refine ten True Essence Pills for aging Foundation Establishment High Persons, or it risked losing them and inviting attacks from rival sects.
• High Person Kui Xuan predicted that one or two in ten would return, while High Person Li Bai estimated that at most a hundred would survive.

Tang Yuan entered the Barbarian Di Secret Realm and headed north in search of the purple jade huang, but a juvenile Four-Horned Rhinoceros brought its enraged mother after him. After three days of fleeing, he escaped into a cave and, hearing ghostly sounds within, ventured deeper with his ghost spirits.

• Tang Yuan traveled north through the secret realm, hoping to find the orc tribe that possessed the purple jade huang.
• He tried to kill a juvenile Four-Horned Rhinoceros, but its tough hide repelled his attack, and its mother charged in and resisted his spells and talismans.
• Tang Yuan fled as the adult Four-Horned Rhinoceros pursued him for three days, thwarting his attempts to escape or distract it.
• Tang Yuan found a cave too small for the rhinoceros to enter and took refuge inside, leaving Tang Yi to guard him while he slept.
• Awakened by cold, resentful Qi and faint weeping, Tang Yuan summoned Luo Biao, Zhang Yang, Du Qing, Wuma Lin, and Zhao Xiaode and cautiously led them deeper into the cave.

Tang Yuan left the Thousand Ghost Cavern after harvesting ghost spirits, red ore, and orc teeth, then headed north in search of the purple jade huang. He rescued Qi Feiming and six other disciples from a demonic spider and learned that orc canines were tied to the sect’s higher cultivation breakthroughs.

• Tang Yuan and his ghost spirits spent ten days fighting and devouring the cave’s wandering souls, though Luo Biao and Zhang Yang were killed; he then mined red ore and collected thousands of orc canines before leaving the Thousand Ghost Cavern.
• Tang Yuan traveled north and found a demonic spider feeding on Holy Cardamom Sect disciples, including Qian Xiaobao and Qi Feiming, who begged him to save them.
• Tang Yuan used six Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Arrays to weaken and kill the spider, then destroyed its remains.
• Tang Yuan rested with the rescued disciples and asked them for orc canines, claiming a Four-Horned Rhinoceros had chased him for half a month.
• Qi Feiming arranged for the disciples to give Tang Yuan their canines and explained that orc teeth helped the sect’s cultivators advance toward the Purple Mansion Realm and Golden Core fruition.

Qi Feiming explained how cultivation realms, Spiritual Qi grades, and Lodge Positions worked, and why the Holy Cardamom Sect needed orc canines from the Barbarian Di Secret Realm. As the group rested, Tang Yuan learned how Qian Xiaobao and his companions had survived and grew wary of Qi Feiming’s search for a jade necklace.

• Qi Feiming described the cultivation realms and explained that cultivators needed increasingly rare grades of Spiritual Qi to advance and attain a Lodge Position.
• Tang Yuan asked why the sect collected orc canines, and Qi Feiming said they yielded third-grade Spiritual Qi needed by Foundation Establishment cultivators attempting to reach Purple Mansion.
• Tang Yuan asked whether extra canines could be sold to the sect, and Qi Feiming estimated that each orc elite canine could be worth at least five Spirit Stones.
• The group agreed on a watch order for the night, and Qian Xiaobao told Tang Yuan that he, Gao Rui, Huang Jie, and Qi Yao had barely survived after orc tribes united and sect disciples began fighting over canines.
• Qian Xiaobao explained that Qi Feiming had offered to recommend the four survivors as inner disciples if they helped him find a jade necklace.
• Tang Yuan suspected Qi Feiming might be seeking a purple jade huang and decided to keep his own plans guarded in case Qi Feiming had ill intentions.