Chapter Summaries

After three years of tension, Yun Du faced the trials of Golden Core formation while a vast spiritual phenomenon gathered over White Cloud Temple. He succeeded, saving the sect and leaving Shi Jian confident that the Sun Clan would remain secure and prosper.

• Shi Jian received White Cloud Temple’s message thanking him for the favor and telling Hongtian City to guard itself and stay out of other affairs.
• For three years, White Cloud Temple sealed its mountain while the Fenghe Sect and southern Rogue Cultivators made no major moves.
• Shi Jian and Sun Bo'an witnessed a vast Spiritual Qi vortex gather above White Cloud Temple as Yun Du began forming his core.
• After three days, Yun Du drew in the Cloud Dao Qi Dynamic known as Cloud-Sky Morning Clear Qi, and the region waited in silence as he faced the next trial.
• Yun Du formed a flawless Golden Core, and its pressure swept across the commandery while Shi Jian alone remained standing.
• Shi Jian concluded that Yun Du's breakthrough had ended the threat from the Supreme Purity Sect and Yan Qiu, and predicted a safe, prosperous future for the Sun Clan.

After Yun Du formed his Golden Core, he summoned the cultivators of White Cloud Commandery, purged three clans, and restored White Cloud Temple’s control over the vacant counties. He rewarded the Sun Clan with a Foundation Establishment Pill and market privileges, and Shi Jian pledged the clan’s loyalty.

• Yun Du invited Foundation Establishment cultivators from the nine counties to his Golden Core formation ceremony, and Sun Bo'an prepared a gift worth fifteen hundred Spirit Stones.
• True Person Yunxiao demonstrated his Golden Core power at the ceremony, then hosted a banquet attended by twenty-two Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• True Person Yunxiao condemned Chen Yu and ordered the Chen Clan executed and its inheritance confiscated, then seized the Zhao and Liu Clan patriarchs for their crimes.
• True Person Yunxiao assigned four vacant counties to White Cloud Temple disciples, who would establish new clans and govern them.
• True Person Yunxiao rewarded the Sun Clan with a Foundation Establishment Pill and three rent-free storefronts, and Shi Jian pledged the clan’s allegiance.

Shi Jian secured Sun Yao’s entry into White Cloud Temple as True Person Yunxiao’s Registered Disciple and spent heavily at the auction on pills and medicine. Back in Hongtian City, he gave Sun Bo'an the Foundation Establishment Pill and ordered him to attempt Foundation Establishment, leaving the clan’s future in his hands.

• Shi Jian pledged the Sun Clan’s loyalty to True Person Yunxiao and requested that Sun Yao be allowed to join White Cloud Temple.
• True Person Yunxiao accepted Sun Yao as his Registered Disciple and promised to make her his personal disciple if she reached Foundation Establishment within ten years.
• At the White Cloud Minor Gathering auction, Shi Jian directed Sun Bo'an to buy a Marrow-Unblocking Pill and a Blood Bodhi for the Sun Clan.
• After returning to Hongtian City, Shi Jian kept the Blood Bodhi and gave Sun Bo'an the Foundation Establishment Pill and Marrow-Unblocking Pill.
• Shi Jian explained that Sun Yao’s sect placement would protect the clan and ease its resource burden, then told Sun Bo'an to seize his chance to reach Foundation Establishment.

Sun Bo'an prepared for Foundation Establishment with the Sun Clan’s help and began taking the Foundation Establishment Pill. He passed the first two trials, but during foundation stabilization his turbulent memories destabilized his true essence, leaving his breakthrough on the verge of failure.

• Sun Changping spent three months using medicinal baths and the Marrow-Unblocking Pill to clear Sun Bo'an’s meridians.
• Sun Kezheng and the Sun Clan secured Hongtian City while Shi Jian arranged a second line of defense with Lord Rat and his kin.
• Sun Bo'an entered the cave abode and took the Foundation Establishment Pill, gathering his spiritual power into a vortex and passing the first trial.
• Sun Bo'an endured the dangerous liquid-condensation trial, formed liquid true essence, and passed the second trial despite suffering pain and bleeding.
• Sun Bo'an began the foundation-stabilization trial, but memories of his burdens and the clan made his true essence shake as he feared his breakthrough would fail.

Sun Bo'an forced his way through a dangerous breakthrough and reached Foundation Establishment, though the damage left him with a weak foundation and a shortened lifespan. He ordered the Sun Clan to announce its new strength with a grand ceremony, which drew factions from across White Cloud Commandery to Hongtian City.

• Sun Bo'an embraced his concern for the Sun Clan and forcibly stabilized his true essence, reaching Foundation Establishment at the cost of his health and lifespan.
• Shi Jian assessed Sun Bo'an's injuries and warned that his cultivation would remain at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage and his lifespan would end around age one hundred and eighty.
• Sun Bo'an reunited with Sun Kezheng and the waiting clansmen, then ordered a public Foundation Establishment ceremony to display the Sun Clan's strength.
• During the following month, factions reacted to Sun Bo'an's breakthrough, and True Person Yunxiao sent a level-three demon core as a gift while Sun Yao returned to visit her family.
• The Sun Clan held its ceremony in Hongtian City, where cultivators praised its two Foundation Establishment cultivators, Sun Yao's tutelage, and Shi Jian's power.

At Sun Bo'an’s Foundation Establishment ceremony, Shi Jian’s overwhelming presence deterred the gathered lineages while Sun Bo'an proposed a trade alliance to connect the nine counties. The households agreed to join, giving the Sun Clan a regional network for distributing spiritual resources.

• Sun Bo'an attended his Foundation Establishment ceremony as cultivators from across White Cloud Commandery gathered to congratulate him.
• Shi Jian arrived at the banquet and intimidated the Foundation Establishment ancestors with his powerful aura.
• Sun Bo'an announced that the Sun Clan would turn its three rent-free White Cloud Market storefronts into the Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance, taking ten percent of sales.
• Sun Bo'an offered to send a caravan through the nine counties each year to distribute supplies among participating households.
• The Li Household, Lin Household, Zhao Household, and other lineages agreed to join the alliance and signed contracts with the Sun Clan during the three-day ceremony.

Sun Mao established his reputation by swiftly putting down Rogue Cultivators who disrupted Hongtian City's new marketplace. Sun Bo'an praised his leadership and pill-refining progress, while entrusting him with an increasing role in the Sun Clan.

• Shi Jian swallowed the Blood Bodhi and entered seclusion, leaving Sun Bo'an to manage the Sun Clan.
• Over the next six months, Hongtian City’s population grew rapidly, and the Sun Clan began expanding the city and relocating its marketplace.
• Sun Mao, now an eighteen-year-old Qi Refining Seventh Layer cultivator and First-Tier Mid-Grade Alchemist, went to C Street after Rogue Cultivators injured clan patrol members.
• Sun Mao ordered Little Black to cripple the bald ringleader, then had the other troublemakers fined and expelled from Hongtian City.
• Sun Bo'an praised Sun Mao’s handling of the outer city and learned that his success rate refining First-Tier Mid-Grade pills had reached fifty percent.

Sun Mao led the Sun Clan merchant alliance’s first tour of the nine counties, searching especially for rare objects that could strengthen Demon Beast bloodlines. In Feng'an County, he bought a mysterious black bone fragment after Little Black reacted to it, and Sun Bo'an recognized it as something significant.

• Sun Bo'an gave Sun Mao authority to lead the merchant alliance tour and ordered him to seek rare spiritual objects, especially ones that could strengthen Demon Beast bloodlines or bodies.
• Sun Mao led the caravan to Qinghe County, where he negotiated purchases from the Li Household and other local cultivators but found no leads on the rare objects he sought.
• In Feng'an County, Sun Mao paid two thousand Spirit Stones for a black bone fragment after Little Black showed an intense interest in it.
• When the Lin Household young master raised the price after Sun Mao had paid, Little Black broke his wrist, and Sun Mao took the fragment and warned the Lin Household to follow the alliance's rules.
• Sun Mao activated the fragment with his Essence Blood and sensed ancient, aggressive Yao Qi; Sun Bo'an then arrived and recognized the object.

Sun Bo'an identified the black bone fragment as a remnant of the Dark Gold Ape and arranged for it to be given to Shi Mo. He then confronted the Lin Household ancestor, who punished his own young master to avert a conflict with the Sun Clan.

• Sun Bo'an explained to Sun Mao that the fragment came from the Dark Gold Ape and might trigger a bloodline mutation in a growing Level 1 Demon Beast.
• Sun Mao decided to save the fragment for Shi Mo, and Sun Bo'an approved the plan.
• Sun Bo'an went to the Lin Household residence to address the dispute over Sun Mao breaking the young master's hand.
• The Lin Household ancestor broke the young master's other hand, ordered his cultivation crippled, and sent him to Cold Wind Cave for three years.
• Sun Bo'an left after the Lin Household ancestor accepted responsibility, while the ancestor recognized that the Sun Clan's strength left him little choice but to seek peaceful coexistence.

Sun Mao’s caravan reached Ninghe County, where he bought the Zhou Household’s spirit fruit harvest and discovered a Thunder Essence Fruit whose unusual properties might gradually give a Demon Beast’s spiritual power lightning attributes. He acquired the ancestral Thunder Essence Fruit Tree in exchange for supplies, Spirit Stones, and a formation plate, leaving him with a new approach to strengthening a beast.

• Sun Mao’s caravan visited Yongchang and Linjiang, trading goods successfully while Sun Bo'an stayed hidden and concluded that Sun Mao no longer needed his guidance.
• In Ninghe County, Sun Mao negotiated with Zhou Dehou and bought the Zhou Household’s Emerald Spirit Fruits and Jade Leaf Ginseng Fruits at ten percent above market price.
• Zhou Dehou showed Sun Mao a Thunder Essence Fruit, and Sun Mao recognized that its faint lightning-like energy could have a special effect with long-term consumption.
• Sun Mao reasoned that feeding Thunder Essence Fruits to a powerful Demon Beast over many years might gradually transform its spiritual power and flesh with lightning properties.
• Sun Mao offered Zhou Dehou cultivation materials, two hundred low-grade Spirit Stones, and a First-Tier Mid-Grade formation plate for the Thunder Essence Fruit Tree.
• Zhou Dehou accepted the offer, and the two signed a contract and exchanged the agreed payment for the tree.

Sun Mao completed the Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance’s first circuit, earning the Sun Household a substantial profit and establishing its own trade route. Before returning home, he visited Sun Yao at White Cloud Temple, gave her clan resources, and received her wish for a safe journey.

• Sun Mao finished business in Ningshui, Jing'an, and Dong'an Counties, using the alliance's accounts to silence a Rogue Cultivator leader who criticized the Sun Clan.
• Sun Mao opened the Autumn Cry shops in White Cloud Market, and they drew crowds with genuine goods priced below their competitors.
• Sun Mao reported that the first circuit had earned more than 4,300 low-grade Spirit Stones, or 4,800 including an agreed purchase, and Sun Bo'an judged the result sufficient.
• Sun Mao met Sun Yao at Clear Moon Pavilion, reassured her about the Sun Household, and gave her Spirit Stones, a cultivation formation diagram, and pills.
• As Sun Mao prepared to return home with the Dark Gold Ape bone fragments and Thunder Essence Fruit Tree, a White Cloud Temple disciple delivered Sun Yao's note wishing him a safe journey.

Sun Mao established a medicine garden to cultivate the Thunder Essence Fruit Tree and gave Shi Mo a Dark Gold Ape bone fragment. Shi Mo transformed and showed affection toward Sun Mao, leaving him hopeful that they would protect the Lineage together.

• Sun Mao entrusted Sun Caiya with cultivating the Thunder Essence Fruit Tree and approved the substantial costs of a dedicated medicine garden.
• Sun Caiya spent half a month preparing the western slope, then predicted the tree would resume fruiting within three years and eventually double its yield.
• Sun Mao brought the Dark Gold Ape bone fragment to Shi Mo, who swallowed it and gained a dark-gold patch of fur and sharper claws.
• Shi Mo approached Sun Mao and lowered his head to him, and Sun Mao patted him and spoke of protecting the Lineage together.

Over five years, Hongtian City and the Sun Clan grew rapidly, and Sun Bo'an formalized the clan’s generations as he reviewed its rising strength. The chapter left Sun Mao arriving with news from the back mountain, while Sun Bo'an feared it concerned the secluded ancestor, Shi Jian.

• Hongtian City expanded, its mortal population rose above eight hundred thousand, and the Sun Clan’s marriage alliances produced thirteen third-generation cultivation seedlings.
• Sun Bo'an established generation characters and entered the thirteen new seedlings into the genealogy as the Cheng generation, bringing the clan’s cultivating line to thirty-eight members.
• Sun Kezheng reported that all eighteen second-generation disciples had reached Qi Refining Fourth Layer, Sun Yao might achieve Foundation Establishment within three years, and Shi Mo had grown powerful enough to pulverize spiritual granite.
• Sun Kezheng said Shi Jian had remained in seclusion for nearly six or seven years, and Sun Bo'an ordered the clan to keep delivering annual offerings and wait.
• Sun Mao rushed into the ancestral hall with news from the back mountain, and Sun Bo'an anxiously asked what had happened.

After seven years in seclusion, Shi Jian emerged at the Foundation Establishment Late Stage and learned how the Sun Clan had developed. He examined Shi Mo’s Dark Gold Ape bloodline mutation and recognized both his potential and the difficulties ahead.

• Shi Jian broke through to Foundation Establishment Late Stage, emerged from his cave, and surveyed the transformed Hongtian City.
• Sun Bo'an and the clan members congratulated Shi Jian, who dismissed everyone except Sun Bo'an to hear his report on the past seven years.
• Sun Bo'an told Shi Jian that the Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance was thriving, the clan had thirteen cultivation seedlings, and Shi Mo had received a Dark Gold Ape bone fragment.
• Shi Jian summoned Shi Mo and saw the dark-gold fur and metal spirit Qi that marked his bloodline mutation.
• Shi Jian praised Shi Mo’s progress but warned that, although Foundation Establishment was within reach, advancing further would be difficult.

Shi Jian arranged an equal contract between Shi Mo and Sun Mao so the bear demon could accompany the Sun Clan leader and grow alongside the clan. After hearing Lord Rat’s report, he learned that a powerful family from Fenghe Commandery had begun acquiring resources in White Cloud Commandery, a possible sign of renewed trouble.

• Shi Jian told Shi Mo to leave Beast Valley and assigned him to accompany Sun Mao under an equal contract.
• Shi Mo sealed the contract with Sun Mao, and the two left to learn to work together.
• Shi Jian explained that he planned to integrate bear demons into the Sun Clan until the clan depended on them.
• Lord Rat reported on Sun Mao’s leadership, the Autumn Cry Merchant Alliance, White Cloud Temple, and a great clan’s acquisitions in White Cloud Commandery.
• Shi Jian suspected the acquisitions might be connected to Yan Qiu’s earlier scheme and ordered Lord Rat to expand his intelligence network and report anything unusual.

Shi Jian consumed a Thunder Essence Fruit and discovered that it had infused his Yao Essence with a trace of lightning power, offering hope of transforming his bloodline and breaking through its limits. Lord Rat then reported a storm-struck stone forest in the Clear Wind Mountain Range, and Shi Jian summoned Sun Bo'an to prepare for an important assignment.

• Shi Jian ate a Thunder Essence Fruit and suppressed its savage spiritual power with his Yao Essence.
• Shi Jian tested his changed Yao Qi and found that it carried a faint trace of lightning.
• Shi Jian realized that repeated use of Thunder Essence Fruits might transform his bloodline, but their scarcity meant he needed other sources of lightning power.
• Lord Rat reported that storms drew lightning to a strange, exceptionally hard stone forest in the Clear Wind Mountain Range.
• Shi Jian decided the stone forest might help him cultivate thunder power and ordered Lord Rat to summon Sun Bo'an.

Shi Jian set out from Hongtian City and took Sun Lin with him on a discreet journey toward the Clear Wind Mountain Range. Along the way, he recognized Sun Lin’s talent for talisman-making and began instructing him, leaving Sun Lin newly encouraged and Shi Jian considering how to make use of him.

• Shi Jian told Sun Bo'an he would be away for several months, gave him instructions about clan affairs and the infiltration in Fenghe Commandery, and ordered him to send Sun Lin along.
• Sun Lin met Shi Jian at Hongtian City’s north gate before dawn and followed him and Lord Rat into the wilderness.
• The group traveled by wilderness trails toward the Clear Wind Mountain Range, resting by day and moving at night; Sun Lin endured the exhausting journey without complaint.
• During a rest, Sun Lin drew Aura-Concealing Talismans and explained how he planned to combine them with other talismans to hide Shi Jian’s Yao Qi.
• Shi Jian corrected Sun Lin’s brush grip, helping him produce a brighter talisman, and Sun Lin thanked him for the guidance.

Shi Jian reached the lightning-saturated stone forest in the Clear Wind Mountain Range and challenged its Level 4 Thunder Leopard. He killed the leopard with a lightning-infused blow, while Sun Lin remained concealed at the forest’s edge.

• Shi Jian and Sun Lin arrived at a barren stone forest where lightning had charged the iron-blue pillars.
• Lord Rat sensed demons in the stone forest, and Shi Jian identified a Level 4 Demon Beast in its depths.
• Shi Jian ordered Sun Lin to hide under breath-concealing talismans, then entered the stone forest and challenged the Thunder Leopard.
• The Thunder Leopard attacked with lightning and its bloodline ability, but Shi Jian endured its blows and drew the lightning into his body.
• Shi Jian struck the Thunder Leopard with a lightning-infused blow, smashing it through three pillars and killing it.

Shi Jian absorbed the Thunder Leopard’s Level 4 Demon Core, then claimed the thunder-rich stone forest and made its surviving beasts serve as sentries. He established a cave abode and searched the forest with Lord Rat, finding Spirit Plants to bring to Sun Caiya and mysterious white lightning crystals.

• Shi Jian crushed the Thunder Leopard’s head, swallowed its Demon Core, and spent two hours refining its thunder spirit power.
• Shi Jian claimed the stone forest and ordered the surviving Demon Beasts to guard its perimeter.
• Shi Jian found a sheltered cave abode in the northeastern corner, where thunder spirit Qi was especially strong.
• Shi Jian and Lord Rat searched the stone forest and dug up Thunder Radiance Grass, Purple Lightning Moss, and Thunder-Patterned Fungus to give to Sun Caiya.
• Shi Jian tested the white crystals scattered across the stone pillars and found that they contained a small amount of pure lightning-attribute spiritual power.

Shi Jian and Sun Lin prepared for a recurring heavenly lightning storm in the stone forest, hoping Shi Jian could use it to refine his body. When the storm arrived, Shi Jian faced the gathering lightning and prepared to test its power.

• Shi Jian had Sun Lin scrape crystalline powder from the stone pillars, filling six Storage Bags over three days.
• Sun Lin mapped the lightning scorch marks and concluded that storms struck every two to three months, with lightning converging toward the stone forest’s center.
• Shi Jian spent the following weeks cultivating and studying the remnant lightning spirit Qi while Sun Lin documented the forest and set up warning talismans; Lord Rat organized patrols.
• Two months and seventeen days later, dark clouds gathered, and Sun Lin told Shi Jian that the heavenly lightning had arrived.
• Shi Jian stood at the center of the stone forest and challenged the coming storm, hoping its lightning would advance his Heavenly Lightning Body Refinement.