Chapter Summaries

After awakening from a century-long coma, Shi Jian completed his Purple Firmament Lightning Immortal Foundation, reached Middle Spirit Transformation, and formed the embryonic stage of a third foundation, Righteous Yang Lightning. Shan Li explained the gifts and aid he had received while unconscious, leaving him newly powerful and indebted to Earth Virtue Dao Venerable.

• Shi Jian awakened after 103 years and completed his Purple Firmament Lightning Immortal Foundation, while the embryonic form of Righteous Yang Lightning emerged as his third foundation.
• Shi Jian erupted from the mountain in his giant bear form, unleashed the resonance of all three foundations, and then returned to human form with his right arm transformed into lightning.
• Shan Li confirmed Shi Jian had reached Middle Spirit Transformation and told him that Earth Virtue Dao Venerable and Ancestor Egu had blessed him while he was unconscious.
• Shan Li gave Shi Jian a jade bottle containing the remains of a five-foundation Divine Firmament Spirit Transformation cultivator, a reward for his service in battle.
• Shan Li revealed that she had given Shi Jian a sixth-tier Lightning Origin Sacred Heart Fruit during his coma, which had helped purify his Dao resonance.

After waking from a century-long unconsciousness, Shi Jian learned how the Beast Realm and Spirit Realm had changed and reunited with Shan Li on the Li Bear Plains. Three months of cultivation and sparring strengthened their understanding of each other’s Dao, and Shi Jian then met Cang Wuji, who marveled at his breakthrough to Middle Spirit Transformation.

• Shan Li told Shi Jian that the Beast Realm had divided the Li Yuan Giant Beast Clan’s territory, while the Spirit Realm’s cultivators continued absorbing Treasured Earth Dao resonance and Bailu Lingyuan neared an attempt to attain the Dao.
• Shan Li led Shi Jian to a new cave abode on the Li Bear Plains, where he examined the preserved remains of a Dao of Lightning Spirit Transformation cultivator before setting them aside to consolidate his breakthrough.
• Shi Jian invited Shan Li into the cave, and they spent three months comparing cultivation insights, helping each other understand their respective Immortal Foundations.
• Shi Jian and Shan Li emerged from the cave, and Cang Wuji greeted Shi Jian on the main peak before burning his claw on the lightning around Shi Jian’s arm.
• Cang Wuji praised Shi Jian’s advance from Early to Middle Spirit Transformation, while Shi Jian dismissed the praise.

After returning to the Beast Realm, Shi Jian began organizing the Lightning Bear Line’s expansion into its newly granted territory in the Dao Realm. He left Shi Yin to arrange the migration and summoned Shi Xiao to join him there for further training.

• Shi Jian decided to develop the empty Lightning Plain and move Lightning Bear Line members there to cultivate its resources and strengthen the lineage.
• Shi Jian returned to the Divine Firmament Plain, praised Shi Yin for its development, and explained that the Lightning Bear Line had received five million li in the Dao Realm.
• Shi Jian ordered Shi Yin to move three hundred Golden Core cultivators, seven Nascent Soul experts, and ordinary clan members talented in the Dao of Lightning to the Lightning Plain.
• Shi Jian found that Shi Xiao had reached Nascent Soul Early Stage and cultivated the Purple Firmament Lightning Immortal Foundation.
• Shi Jian told Shi Xiao to prepare for the journey to the Dao Realm, where he would temper his combat skills and will.

Shi Jian led the Lightning Bear Line to the Lightning Plain and reshaped the territory into a stronghold suited to the Dao of Lightning. As the settlement took shape, he looked back on the long, arduous path that had brought him from an ordinary bear demon to the leader of a lineage.

• Shi Yin organized the clan's relocation, and Shi Jian led more than twenty thousand clan members through a spatial passage to the Lightning Plain.
• Shi Jian surveyed the territory, redirected its Spirit Veins, and created the Lightning Origin Pool at the junction of two fifth-tier Spirit Veins.
• Over several years, Shi Jian divided the Lightning Plain into habitation, Spirit Plant, and forbidden regions while Shi Yin and the cultivators carried out his plans.
• Shi Jian cultivated and guarded the territory, while his reputation and the nearby Late Spirit Transformation cultivators deterred potential troublemakers.
• Several years later, the Lightning Plain had settlements, Spirit Plant fields, and a body-tempering chamber, and Shi Jian reflected on his rise from an ordinary bear demon to a Spirit Transformation lineage leader.

Shi Jian spent his accumulated Enlightenment on strengthening his Divine Sense, which reached the level of a five-foundation extreme-realm Spirit Transformation cultivator. The expanded perception accelerated his comprehension of Righteous Yang Lightning as he prepared for the coming struggle over the Treasured Earth Dao Fruit.

• After the Lightning Plain settled, Shi Jian left its affairs to Shi Yin and returned to the Lightning Palace to cultivate.
• Shi Jian used all 287 of his accumulated Enlightenment to expand his Divine Sense across the Lightning Plain and the Li Bear Plains.
• Shi Jian determined that his Divine Sense now matched that of an old five-foundation extreme-realm Spirit Transformation cultivator.
• Shi Jian used his stronger Divine Sense to accelerate the growth of his Righteous Yang Lightning Immortal Foundation.
• Shi Jian set a goal of reaching Late Spirit Transformation and perfecting three Immortal Foundations before Peak Mountain Emperor Lord pursued the Treasured Earth Dao Fruit.

Shi Jian advanced his Righteous Yang Lightning Immortal Foundation by cultivating and refining the Dao rhythm in a Spirit Transformation cultivator’s remains, while Shan Li’s cultivation continued to benefit from the vacant Treasured Earth Dao Fruit. Meanwhile, Shi Xiao explored the eastern Dao Realm and discovered a secluded mountain range protected by an unusual restriction, where he saw a human emerge.

• Shi Jian refined a wisp of Righteous Yang Lightning Dao rhythm from the remains, strengthening his Immortal Foundation after years of work.
• Shan Li’s Ten-Thousand-Layered Edge Dao rhythm grew more profound as she cultivated near the vacant Treasured Earth Dao Fruit.
• Shi Xiao traveled alone through the eastern Dao Realm, defeated two Nascent Soul opponents, and escaped a Spirit Transformation cultivator who pursued him.
• Shi Xiao found a verdant mountain range with abundant Spiritual Qi and a subtle lightning rhythm, then sensed a gentle restriction blocking his Divine Sense.
• Shi Xiao waited outside the mountains and watched a faint streak of light emerge from a valley, revealing a human figure.

Shi Xiao discovered the Dao Spirit Human Race’s secluded valley and its Purple Lightning Ginseng, which could aid his father’s lightning cultivation. He offered the clan protection in exchange for its harvest, and Chen Yan began gathering the elders to discuss submitting to the Lightning Bear Line.

• Shi Xiao met a Dao Spirit Human Race cultivator carrying Purple Lightning Ginseng and learned the clan had cultivated the herbs for generations.
• Shi Xiao entered the hidden valley, inspected its extensive ginseng fields, and met patriarch Chen Yan and the clan’s other leaders.
• Shi Xiao told Chen Yan that the ginseng would benefit the Lightning Bear Line and warned that the valley could not remain safe on its own.
• Chen Yan asked whether the clan would retain its cultivation method if it submitted, and Shi Xiao promised that the method and the clan would remain theirs.
• After Shi Xiao departed, Chen Yan summoned the elders to discuss seeking the Giant Bear Clan’s protection.

Chen Yan led the Dao Spirit Human Race to submit to Shi Xiao and the Lightning Bear Line in exchange for protection and a future settlement at the Lightning Plain. Shi Xiao left them a token to deter intruders and continued his journey south, while Chen Yan’s clan prepared to cultivate more Purple Lightning Ginseng.

• After Shi Xiao left, Chen Yan and the elders agreed that the Dao Spirit Human Race had little choice but to submit to a powerful clan for protection.
• Chen Yan gathered the clan’s cultivators and secured their agreement to submit after reminding them that a Savage Flood Dragon had nearly breached their restrictions.
• The next morning, Chen Yan formally submitted the Dao Spirit Clan to Shi Xiao, who promised that the Lightning Bear Line would protect them rather than enslave them.
• Shi Xiao learned that the clan had skilled Spirit Plant growers, artifact refiners, formation specialists, and builders, and planned to bring them to the Lightning Plain in several decades.
• Shi Xiao gave Chen Yan a Lightning Bear Line token infused with Spirit Transformation Dao might to protect the clan until he returned, and asked them to cultivate higher-tier Purple Lightning Ginseng.
• After Shi Xiao departed south, Chen Yan told a protesting elder that their ancestors had already abandoned their pride to survive, and that staying alive mattered most.

Shi Xiao traveled deeper into the Dao Realm’s resource-rich south, where he seized treasures and a Spirit Vein by killing those who stood in his way. He continued south convinced that the Nine Realms held only imperial clans and lesser races.

• Shi Xiao killed three Flood Dragon Lizards and took the Lightning Scale Grass, their remains, and two Mustard Seed Stones.
• He traveled south for several months, avoiding a battle between Nascent Soul groups when he saw no gain in joining it.
• Shi Xiao discovered a fourth-tier Spirit Vein beneath the territory of a small green snake race and attacked its settlement.
• He killed the green snake patriarch and destroyed the race, then extracted the Spirit Vein and stored it in his sleeve.
• Shi Xiao continued south, regarding those below the Nascent Soul realm as ants and other races as beneath the imperial clans.

Shi Xiao built a portable secret realm and continued plundering the southern Dao Realm, growing more destructive as his appetite for violence intensified. He left a lakeside settlement in ruins after abducting two female cultivators and killing the others.

• Shi Xiao used gathered Space Dao materials and Spirit Stones to create a small secret realm, then moved his Spirit Veins and collected treasures inside it.
• Shi Xiao traveled farther south, avoiding Spirit Transformation experts while killing Nascent Soul cultivators and expanding his secret realm through plunder.
• Shi Xiao found dozens of female cultivators refining something on an island in a lake and broke through their protective restriction.
• Shi Xiao sealed two Foundation Establishment cultivators with lightning talismans and took them into his secret realm.
• Shi Xiao destroyed the lake and marshes with lightning, killing the remaining cultivators as he reveled in the destruction.

Shi Xiao’s Purple Firmament Lightning resonance intensified his destructive impulses, and he abducted female cultivators and fathered thirteen mixed-blood children before settling his mind and reaching Nascent Soul Middle Stage. As he prepared to return north, he discovered a Spirit Transformation inheritance secret realm underground and decided to enter it.

• Shi Xiao’s growing restlessness led him to abduct female cultivators and imprison them in his portable secret realm, where he treated them as breeding tools.
• Over the years, thirteen mixed-blood children were born, including Half-Demon Bear Humans, Dragon Bears, and Feather Bears; Shi Xiao provided for them but judged them by their aptitude.
• After twelve years of fighting and plundering, Shi Xiao’s restlessness eased, and he released some of the women while leaving cultivation inheritances for the children with good aptitude.
• Shi Xiao entered seclusion and, after three years, broke through from Nascent Soul Early Stage to Nascent Soul Middle Stage.
• While preparing to return north, Shi Xiao sensed residual Spirit Transformation and Space Dao resonance deep underground and dug until he found a cracked secret-realm entrance bearing an inheritance inscription.
• Shi Xiao decided the Spirit Transformation inheritance should be his and prepared to enter, trusting his treasures, abilities, and his parents’ divine thoughts to protect him.

Shi Xiao gathered rare treasures from the secret realm’s forest before entering its vast, spatially warped city. After finding a way through the shifting labyrinth, he reached a massive stone door and wondered if it led to the city’s core.

• Shi Xiao swept through the forest, collecting fourth-tier Spirit Plants and treasures, subduing some demonic creatures, and breaking the barriers around several fifth-tier spirit medicines.
• Shi Xiao found a sealed entrance in the city wall and opened it with his lightning, then entered the silent city and discovered that space distorted his Divine Sense.
• Shi Xiao crossed a stone bridge that vanished behind him and realized the city had become an enclosed labyrinth with buildings arranged in every direction.
• Shi Xiao tracked a faint Space Dao resonance, learned to follow the city’s slow spatial rhythm, and raced through a briefly stable passage.
• Shi Xiao reached a hundred-zhang stone door whose rune radiated powerful Space Dao presence and sensed something vast beyond it.

Shi Xiao entered Xu Yan’s secret chamber and discovered the inheritance of a perfected Spirit Transformation cultivator. When he took the Xu Yan Ring, Xu Yan’s remnant spirit tried to possess him, but Shi Jian’s Divine Sense destroyed it.

• Shi Xiao carefully examined the chamber, its treasures, and the skeleton before taking the Jade Slip.
• Shi Xiao learned that Xu Yan had failed to attain the Spaceless Dao Fruit and had left his inheritance and treasures for a successor.
• Shi Xiao touched the Xu Yan Ring, and Xu Yan’s remnant spirit invaded his sea of consciousness to possess his Nascent Soul.
• Shi Xiao fought back with Purple Firmament Lightning and activated two strands of Spirit Transformation Divine Sense.
• Shi Jian’s Divine Sense manifested as a giant bear and erased Xu Yan’s remnant spirit with lightning.

Shi Jian learned that Shi Xiao had survived a Spirit Transformation spirit remnant’s possession attempt, then returned to cultivating his Righteous Yang Lightning Immortal Foundation. Shi Xiao collected the secret realm’s treasures as it collapsed, but found the city outside disintegrating and faced a desperate escape.

• Shi Jian realized his divine sense had erased the spirit remnant that tried to possess Shi Xiao and resumed his cultivation, confident his son would survive.
• Shi Xiao awoke with damage to his soul and Nascent Soul, put on the Xu Yan Ring, and saw that the secret realm was collapsing.
• Shi Xiao gathered the treasures from the spheres of light, including fifth-tier Space Dao materials and the Spirit Transformation bones.
• Shi Xiao fled the stone chamber and found the city collapsing into chaotic spatial currents as the secret realm rapidly contracted.
• Shi Xiao cursed the old monster’s possible contingency and recognized that using Grandfather’s lifesaving measure would cost him dearly.

Shi Xiao escaped the collapsing secret realm with a Spirit Transformation treasure, then seized fragments of the realm to strengthen his portable secret realm. Badly injured but alive, he emerged with greatly improved resources and a legacy capable of sustaining his cultivation for years.

• Shi Xiao used Shan Wanling’s drill-shaped treasure to break through the secret realm’s spatial barrier and escape, though the passage wounded him and destroyed the treasure.
• Shi Xiao used lightning ropes to pull secret realm fragments from the collapsing space into his portable secret realm despite the clashing Dao essences.
• The fragments expanded Shi Xiao’s portable secret realm from a fifty-li radius to nearly a hundred li, reinforced its spatial barrier, and enriched its Spiritual Qi.
• Shi Xiao checked his injuries and reflected on the legacy he had obtained, including Spirit Transformation skeletons, rare treasures, spirit medicines, Space Dao materials, and the Xu Yan Ring.

Shi Xiao returned to the Lightning Plain after a perilous journey, bringing the Dao Spirit Human Race and his spoils back to his clan. After Shi Jian and Ancestor Shanyue examined the treasures, Shanyue proposed a marriage alliance between Shi Xiao and a descendant of the Mysterious Bear Lineage, and Shi Xiao agreed to try.

• Shi Xiao traveled north cautiously, avoiding fights and dangerous beasts after losing most of his trump cards.
• Shi Xiao collected the Dao Spirit Human Race and its Purple Lightning Ginseng plants, then led them to the Lightning Plain.
• Shi Xiao presented his spoils to Shi Jian and Ancestor Shanyue, who took the Xu Yan Ring for Shi Jian to refine and discussed trading one of the Spirit Transformation skeletons.
• Ancestor Shanyue proposed that Shi Xiao marry a young descendant of the Mysterious Bear Lineage to strengthen the clan alliance.
• Shi Xiao agreed to try the marriage arrangement, and Shanyue offered to introduce him to the she-bear.

Shan Yue told Shi Jian that the Peak and Mountain Imperial Clan planned a limited campaign to drive the Spirit Race from its footholds in the Dao Realm, and appointed him to command the Spirit Marsh Plains war zone. Shi Jian accepted the mission, which would begin in three months and also seek to uncover and kill Bailu Lingyuan.

• Shan Yue explained that the Spirit Race had expanded across the Dao Realm and that the Earth Virtue Dao Venerable had ordered its footholds gradually removed.
• Shan Yue told Shi Jian that the Giant Bear Clan and Peak and Mountain Imperial Clan had approved him to command a war zone.
• Shan Yue showed Shi Jian a map of the Spirit Marsh Plains and assigned him to clear its Spirit Race footholds with five Spirit Transformation cultivators and eighty Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Shi Jian learned that the Spirit Race's forces were led by Bi Luo, a Late Spirit Transformation cultivator, and included two Middle Spirit Transformation cultivators.
• Shan Yue set the campaign's start for three months later and said its central objective was to discover Bailu Lingyuan's whereabouts and kill him.

Shi Jian led a demon army into the Spirit Marsh Plains to dismantle the Spirit Race’s network of strongholds, beginning with its lightly defended southern outpost. After destroying the outpost, he ordered the army to continue north toward the next stronghold.

• Shi Jian showed the Ape Emperor Clan, Kui Lang Imperial Clan, and Lightning Beast Imperial Clan representatives his deployment plan, then led the assembled army aboard five white-bone warships.
• Shi Jian chose the southernmost Spirit Race outpost as the first target so he could test how quickly the Spirit Race would respond.
• Shi Jian ordered Golden Core Demon Beasts to attack the outpost’s perimeter while Nascent Soul Demon Cultivators charged the warships’ rune arrays.
• The warships’ volleys shattered the vine fortress, and Nascent Soul Demon Kings and Cang Wuji killed its two Nascent Soul defenders.
• Shi Jian ordered the warships to adjust formation and push north toward the next stronghold before dawn.

Shi Jian destroyed three Spirit Race outposts, then lured their main force to a marsh battlefield where the Beast Realm’s warships could support his troops. As he fought Bi Luo, the Spirit Race commander crushed an emerald jade talisman and unleashed a vastly greater Life Dao aura from deep within the Marsh Plains.

• Shi Jian led the five white-bone warships in destroying three Spirit Race outposts and deliberately let one Nascent Soul cultivator escape to warn the core stronghold.
• Shi Jian halted the fleet over the marsh’s open waters, arranged the warships in a formation, and prepared to draw the Spirit Race into battle there.
• On the eighth day, Bi Luo arrived with dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators and two other Spirit Transformation cultivators, and Shi Jian assigned his allies to meet them.
• Bi Luo attacked the warships with giant emerald vines as the Spirit Race cultivators launched a simultaneous assault, but the warships’ profound light disrupted their formation.
• Shi Jian transformed and engaged Bi Luo with his lightning spear while Yuan Chong, Lang Xin, and Cang Wuji fought elsewhere on the battlefield.
• Bi Luo crushed an emerald jade talisman, releasing a Life Dao aura from deep within the Marsh Plains that surpassed his own.

Shi Jian and Cang Wuji fought the Spirit Race’s Late Spirit Transformation cultivators as the Beast Realm gained the upper hand across the marsh plains. Shi Jian wounded Bi Luo and used the Xu Yan Ring to counter his techniques, but Bi Luo drew on a greater power as the battle continued.

• An unseen Spirit Race Late Spirit Transformation cultivator emerged from an emerald pillar of light, and Cang Wuji engaged him with the Bone-Splitting Axe.
• Shi Jian used the Xu Yan Ring to redirect Bi Luo’s attack and send a lightning spear through a spatial rift, then struck Bi Luo with a lightning-infused fist.
• Bi Luo unleashed decaying vines that injured Shi Jian, but Shi Jian retreated under the warships’ arcane fire and pierced Bi Luo’s shoulder with another lightning spear.
• Shi Jian assessed Bi Luo’s abilities as their Dao resonances grew more synchronized, while the Beast Realm forces gained the advantage on the other battlefields.
• Bi Luo ignored Shi Jian’s challenge and gathered Fate-Wielding Dao resonance as a greater Life Dao presence began to build beneath the marsh plains.