Recaps

While cultivating on Everbright Mountain, Liao Pantu reunited the two halves of his soul and obtained the Original Essence Soul Sutra, a Heaven Rank method formed from the Original Essence Heart Sutra and the Soul Refining Instruction. He absorbed the mountain’s Yin Qi and began a thunderous transformation.

• Liao Pantu cultivated among Everbright Mountain’s Soul-Nourishing Trees, where the Yin Qi and his soul power sustained a cycle of growth.
• Liao Pantu followed a mysterious call through darkness to the stone coffin that had sealed part of his soul for nearly a hundred years.
• A strand of golden Yin Qi shattered the coffin’s seal, and Liao Pantu merged with the soul body inside it, restoring himself to greater than his former peak.
• Liao Pantu received the Original Essence Soul Sutra and recognized it as a Heaven Rank cultivation method combining the Original Essence Heart Sutra and the Soul Refining Instruction.
• Liao Pantu absorbed the surrounding Yin Qi as the sutra returned to his body, then endured thunderbolts that struck him like a blacksmith’s hammer.

Liao Pantu endured his Spirit Transformation Lightning Tribulation, regained his physical body, and returned to Everbright Mountain. In the Immortal Cultivation Realm, Yin Xuanzi found the body he had kept in a stone coffin turning to ash and doubted that his junior brother had truly died.

• Liao Pantu's soul form endured the lightning until his tribulation ended and a human-shaped wind returned the missing part of his soul.
• Liao Pantu's body was rebuilt with a beating heart, blood vessels, bones, flesh, skin, and long black hair as he advanced to the Spirit Transformation Stage.
• Liao Pantu awoke on Everbright Mountain, where Everbright explained that it had isolated his tribulation from the outside world and relayed the sect master's request.
• Liao Pantu thanked Everbright and flew to the floating island to see the sect master.
• Yin Xuanzi opened the stone coffin in his cave abode and watched Liao Pantu's preserved body crumble into ash.
• Yin Xuanzi mourned his junior brother, then questioned whether he had really died.

Lin Xiao’s city synthesis succeeded, and he prepared to place the city around Xiushui Village after notifying the villagers. Meanwhile, Yin Xuanzi discovered that Liao Pantu’s soul bodies had left their secret realms and ordered an investigation, fearing his junior brother had been killed.

• Yin Xuanzi sensed that the seals on the secret realms had been broken and suspected Liao Pantu’s soul had been destroyed when his physical body turned to ash.
• Yin Xuanzi ordered Feng Xin to investigate the secret realms and discover where Liao Pantu’s soul bodies had gone.
• Lin Xiao received confirmation that the city synthesis had succeeded, then told Mo Yuanjiao to gather Liu Yunan and inform the villagers before placement.
• Village Chief Du Liushui announced that Xiushui Village would become a city, delighting the villagers and confusing tourists who doubted the claim.
• Lin Xiao showed the gathered villagers the city’s phantom image and began choosing its placement, revealing its walls, trading district, protective shell, and formations.

Lin Xiao learned that Liao Pantu had reached Spirit Transformation and created the Original Essence Soul Sutra, then completed the placement of a city around Xiushui Village. He named it Xiushui City as its walls, roads, and buildings appeared before the astonished villagers and spies.

• Lin Xiao received a system notification that Liao Pantu had reached Spirit Transformation and created the Original Essence Soul Sutra.
• Lin Xiao aligned the city with its chosen location and confirmed its placement after Liu Yunan had settled the people.
• A towering wall rose around Xiushui Village and the surrounding villages, whose residents welcomed the news that they would become part of the city.
• Bluestone roads spread across the city, and buildings rose throughout it as villagers and foreign spies watched in amazement.
• Lin Xiao confirmed the name Xiushui City.

Lin Xiao hurried to see Xiushui City after its construction triggered a hidden reward, while Liu Yunan showed the villagers how their homes and daily lives had changed. The city now had modern conveniences and a protected residential area for the villagers, leaving them to adjust to their transformed home.

• The system announced that Xiushui City had been completed as the sect’s first subordinate city and delivered a hidden reward to Lin Xiao’s private vault.
• Lin Xiao saw that the city surrounded Xiushui Village and that the former village estate had become the Trade Affairs Center, with nearby fields planted with Spirit Plants.
• The villagers discovered that their houses had been rebuilt and worried when they found their accumulated manure missing; Liu Yunan explained that it had been moved to pits with pumping mechanisms.
• Liu Yunan demonstrated running water and explained that every household had a tap connected to Xiushui City’s water-pipe system.
• Liu Yunan described the city’s automatic streetlights, scheduled buses, and Xiushui Residential Community, whose fence would protect the villagers from outsiders.

The Lingxian Sect smoothly established Xiushui City and organized its administration with help from local villagers and the Pusi Kingdom. Lin Xiao then inspected the transaction affairs center’s concealed auction house and black market, which were designed to attract cultivators while remaining under the city’s oversight.

• Liu Yunan explained Xiushui City’s arrangements to villagers, reassuring them that they could remain where they were or pursue opportunities elsewhere.
• Lin Yun organized the city’s administration, appointing Yuan Jinsheng and Xuanyuan Haoyue as managers and selecting ten young villagers to oversee local affairs.
• The Lingxian Sect arranged for Tong Shuzheng, the former prefect of Liaoju Prefecture, to become Xiushui City’s court-appointed official after the New Year holiday.
• After confirming the city was in order, Lin Xiao returned to the transaction affairs center and inspected its concealed auction house and private stalls.
• Lin Xiao kept surveillance authority over the city’s hidden marketplace under his control, while limiting Lin Yun’s routine access to three uses per month.
• The auction house’s entrance was placed beneath trees outside the transaction affairs center, while its concealed exit appeared randomly in quiet public areas.

Xiushui City’s sudden construction delighted villagers and alarmed cultivators, who saw the Lingxian Sect’s power firsthand. As guests awaited the sect’s invitation, Li Zhanying concluded that the Mortal Realm would have to follow its lead.

• Xiushui’s villagers celebrated becoming city folk and trusted the Lingxian Sect to protect them from visiting cultivators.
• People in surrounding towns panicked at the city’s construction until government runners announced that the Lingxian Sect was building it.
• Venerable Xunfang found his Spiritual Power suppressed in Xiushui City and worried that the Lingxian Sect might pose a danger to the Mortal Realm.
• Venerable Xunfang and other early visitors considered what the Lingxian Sect would do next as they awaited its invitation.
• Li Zhanying told Li Yuanze that the Mortal Realm could only follow the Lingxian Sect’s lead.

Li Zhanying attended the Lingxian Sect’s gathering and sensed a pressure suggesting that the sect might have a Spirit Transformation cultivator, forcing him to question what he believed about the Mortal Realm’s limits. He was further astonished by how quickly the sect’s young disciples had advanced as the gathering was about to begin.

• Guests from sects and royal clans arrived at the Lingxian Sect’s plaza, but the Heavenly Heart Sect sent no one.
• Li Zhanying sensed an oppressive presence and suspected that a Spirit Transformation cultivator was in the Lingxian Sect.
• Li Zhanying reflected on how years of protecting the Li Clan had driven his cultivation and wondered whether Spirit Transformation truly existed in the Mortal Realm.
• A young Lingxian Sect disciple offered Li Zhanying spirit tea and fruit as the gathering approached.
• Li Zhanying recognized the disciple as a former beggar who had reached the Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement in only a few months, and noted that the sect’s other disciples had also advanced remarkably quickly.

The Lingxian Sect’s annual gathering began with the arrival of powerful clans and sects, including the mysterious Luo Goddess Mountain led by Bai Yu. Liu Yunan opened the gathering and the sect began handing out lavish awards, leaving the visiting guests astonished by the abundance of rewards.

• The Lingxian Sect welcomed guests from neighboring nations and prominent sects to its annual gathering on New Year’s Eve.
• Bai Yu arrived with Luo Goddess Mountain’s Left Elder and three personal disciples, surprising the gathered guests.
• The Bai Clan’s ancestor greeted Bai Yu and wondered why Luo Goddess Mountain had come to show the Lingxian Sect such respect.
• Liu Yunan introduced the Lingxian Sect’s leaders and announced the gathering’s start.
• The Lingxian Sect presented more than twenty awards with generous Spirit Stones, pills, Law Artifacts, talismans, and formation plates, shocking the visiting guests.

The Lingxian Sect ended its awards ceremony and began its New Year banquet with a dish called Seven-Color Dip. The guests discovered that the lotus petals were top-grade Spirit Cuisine, and some cultivators began eyeing the portions their meditating disciples had left behind.

• Liu Yunan announced the end of the awards ceremony and introduced the New Year banquet.
• Seven-colored lotuses carrying small bowls floated to every table in the square.
• Liu Yunan introduced Ma Changlong, who explained how to dip and eat the lotus petals.
• The guests tasted Seven-Color Dip and found it delicious and rich in easily absorbed Spiritual Qi.
• Several lower-cultivation disciples began meditating after eating only a few petals, while senior cultivators ate their own portions and eyed the lotuses before their disciples.

After a lavish Spiritual Cuisine banquet, Elder Liu invited the cultivators to the first auction at the Xiushui City Trade Center. The guests entered through a concealed spatial entrance and discovered they could no longer identify one another inside.

• The guests finished the Lingxian Sect’s banquet, and Elder Liu announced a second event.
• Liu Yunan led more than twenty spirit boats from Xiushui City to the Trade Affairs Center.
• Liu Yunan invited the cultivators to attend the first auction at the Xiushui City Trade Center, while allowing some high-level cultivators to remain outside.
• The cultivators passed between the pine trees and entered a brightly lit, enclosed street through a spatial entrance.
• The guests found that Law Techniques did not work inside and that they could not distinguish the faces, scents, voices, or Spiritual Qi fluctuations of those around them.

Liu Yunan welcomed the sects and royal families to the Lingxian Sect’s first auction in Xiushui City, while the guests tried to understand the unusual venue and its mortal attendants. After the visitors settled into private rooms, the hall went dark and its barriers appeared to block both sight and sound, leaving the auction about to begin.

• Liu Yunan guided the guests into the largest auction hall and explained that smaller halls would host future auctions.
• Venerable Xunfang and other experienced visitors realized their attendants were mortals and wondered what the Lingxian Sect intended by using them.
• Du Changsheng and Hu Laosan recalled how Xiushui Village’s residents volunteered to receive the guests and trained with Liu Yunan.
• The villagers withdrew after escorting the guests to their rooms, and the lights in the central hall went out.
• Jiang Sisi and Qiu Junsong discovered that an invisible barrier blocked access to the windows and seemed to prevent sound from passing through.

Qiu Junsong warned Jiang Sisi not to underestimate Xiushui City’s mortals, but Liu Yunan’s auction announcement interrupted his lecture and revealed the Lingxian Sect’s plans for a cultivator-focused commercial district. The other sects recognized the Lingxian Sect’s role in their recent trade, while Li Zhanying accepted that the Li Clan’s privileged ties might fade.

• Qiu Junsong told Jiang Sisi that Xiushui City’s mortals might know more about cultivators than she assumed and urged her to be cautious.
• Liu Yunan announced that the Trade Center guaranteed auction goods, would hold regular auctions, and planned commercial districts with rent-free shops for sects and imperial clans.
• The attending sects considered the history of failed marketplaces and reacted with skepticism or doubt toward the Lingxian Sect’s plans.
• The Clear River Sect’s master connected the Li Imperial Clan’s recent supplies and talisman orders to the Lingxian Sect, and other sects reached the same conclusion.
• Li Zhanying regretted that the Li Clan might lose its special closeness with the Lingxian Sect, while Li Zeyuan worried that their trade would end; Li Zhanying reassured him that the clan had already gained greatly.

Liu Yunan opened the Lingxian Sect’s first Xiushui City auction with twenty high-grade Spirit Absorption Pills, which sold for two thousand Spirit Stones to the Cloud and Mist Sect. Han Shangyi and Elder Lü of the Clear River Sect restrained themselves from bidding because Han Shangyi’s daughter had told him to save their money for something else.

• Liu Yunan announced the auction’s opening and presented twenty high-grade Spirit Absorption Pills as the first item.
• The sect elders recognized the pills’ rarity and high quality, then bid against one another after Liu Yunan set the starting price at two hundred Spirit Stones.
• The Cloud and Mist Sect elder in private room three won the pills with a bid of two thousand Spirit Stones.
• Han Shangyi and Elder Lü watched the sale without bidding, though both struggled to hold back; Han Shangyi had been told by his daughter to save their money.
• Liu Yunan auctioned several more cultivation pills, while the chapter revealed that Sun Yigao had refined the high-grade pills under Liao Pantu’s guidance.

Liu Yunan auctioned premium spirit grain seeds, fruit tree saplings, and vegetable seeds, which Han Shangyi bought for the Clear River Sect after learning they were valuable. The next auction lot was two spirit piglets, offered for a starting bid of eight hundred Spirit Stones.

• Liu Yunan opened the auction of five varieties of premium spirit grain seeds at five hundred Spirit Stones.
• Han Shangyi bid seven hundred Spirit Stones from private room nine, and the Clear River Sect won the seeds.
• Han Shangyi told Elder Lü that his daughter Weishu had informed him that the farming-related auction items were valuable.
• The Clear River Sect bought the premium fruit tree saplings and spirit vegetable seeds as well.
• Liu Yunan presented a male and a female spirit piglet and set their starting bid at eight hundred Spirit Stones.

The auction sold a pair of spirit piglets to Han Shangyi and Elder Lü’s sect for 2,100 Spirit Stones before Lin Xiao ended the bidding. Liu Yunan announced regular future auctions and a long-term business arrangement from Xiushui City, leaving the sects and imperial families eager to learn more.

• The bidding for the spirit piglets climbed past 2,000 Spirit Stones as the participants began raising offers in tiny increments.
• Han Shangyi told Elder Lü that the sect could afford to keep bidding because payment for recent orders was due soon, and Elder Lü secured the piglets for 2,100 Spirit Stones.
• After several more items sold, Lin Xiao told Liu Yunan to end the auction because the attendees likely could not afford the more valuable items.
• Liu Yunan announced that the No. 1 venue would hold auctions every six months and the No. 2 and No. 3 venues would begin monthly auctions for Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Liu Yunan offered the organizations a long-term business arrangement and invited interested attendees to wait at the Trade Affairs Center.

After the auction, cultivators gathered at the Trade Affairs Center, where Lin Xiao entrusted the Li Imperial Clan with continuing to manage Xiushui City's external trade. Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan discussed the villagers’ reception of the visitors and prepared for the evening’s activities, while Liu Yunan remembered a message he had yet to pass on to Yigao.

• After the auction, cultivators hurried to the Trade Affairs Center, hoping to hear how they could earn Spirit Stones.
• Lin Xiao asked the Li Imperial Clan to keep managing external trade, and Li Zhanying agreed and took charge of the meeting room and a dedicated office.
• The Li Clan began discussing trade with the visiting sects and imperial clans, whose confidence grew from the clan’s record of dealing with Pusi Kingdom’s three great sects.
• Liu Yunan asked Lin Xiao whether he had hosted the auction well, and Lin Xiao praised him.
• Lin Xiao warned Liu Yunan that cultivators’ politeness toward the villagers might only reflect that they were on Lingxian Sect territory, and he privately considered the need to change cultivators’ attitudes toward ordinary people.
• Liu Yunan assured Lin Xiao that the evening’s activities were arranged, then remembered he had a message to pass on to Yigao.

Lin Xiao reassured Liu Yunan that trusting the Li Clan with external trade could turn them into a dependable ally, while the Trade Affairs Center finalized orders with visiting sects and imperial clans. The guests were invited to celebrate New Year in Xiushui City, where they considered the opportunities ahead and discovered how warm the refurbished homes felt compared with the winter outdoors.

• Liu Yunan worried that giving the Li Clan full authority over external trade exposed the Lingxian Sect to the risk of losing goods and Spirit Stones.
• Lin Xiao told Liu Yunan that taking a chance on the Li Clan could bring them into the sect's circle of trusted allies.
• Li Zhanying and the Trade Affairs Center worked with visiting sects and imperial clans to finalize supply lists and manufacturing orders.
• The visiting cultivators learned that official business would resume after the seventh day of the new year, then accepted the Lingxian Sect's invitation to stay for the festivities.
• Xiushui City's residents realized their homes felt warm indoors even though the winter air outside remained cold.

Xiushui City celebrated New Year’s Eve with lantern arrays, bonfires, dancing, and fireworks, giving visiting cultivators a glimpse of simple happiness. The chapter left them reflecting on how their relentless pursuit of cultivation had crowded joy out of their lives.

• Xiushui City’s residents gathered for a generous reunion dinner and shared New Year treats in the brightly lit streets.
• Venerable Xunfang swept the city with his Divine Sense and noticed crowds gathering around lantern arrays and bonfires.
• The lanterns rose into the sky and formed auspicious images as the residents joined hands and danced around the bonfires.
• At midnight, the lanterns formed the words “Happy New Year” above Xiushui City before bursting into fireworks.
• The visiting cultivators watched the celebration and felt longing as they remembered the simple happiness they had lost while pursuing cultivation.

Lingxian Sect held a New Year celebration for Xiushui City’s mortals, astonishing visiting cultivators with its care and generosity. As the festivities continued, the cultivators resolved to strengthen ties with the sect and eagerly joined the mortals in sampling Spirit Cuisine.

• Visiting cultivators realized Lingxian Sect had arranged the celebration primarily for the mortals, while Venerable Xunfang watched the fireworks and felt something stirring within him.
• At the sect’s New Year feast, Senior Liao and other elders drew the older Azure Cloud Peak disciples into conversation, while Liu Yunan led younger disciples to watch the city’s festivities.
• The younger Azure Cloud Peak disciples recognized their practice lanterns displayed above Xiushui City before the lanterns burst into fireworks.
• Spirit Cuisine floated through the streets for the mortals to sample, and visiting cultivators were astonished that the spiritual ingredients had been made safe for them to eat.
• The major sect representatives decided to establish ties and a presence in Xiushui City, and cultivators joined the crowd to taste the dishes.

Xiushui City celebrated its first New Year while Lin Yun and the city’s officials worked to manage its growth and attract residents. The Lingxian Sect and Li Clan agreed to send a Li clansman to join the sect, but Li Zhanying struggled to choose someone qualified to pass the Heart-Questioning Road.

• Xiushui City’s residents celebrated New Year’s Eve while Lin Yun, Yuan Jinsheng, Xuanyuan Haoyue, and ten Azure Cloud Peak disciples worked on city affairs.
• Lin Yun’s holiday decree closed businesses and city offices, leaving cultivators seeking to lease shops waiting until the seventh day of the New Year.
• Lin Xiao proposed that the Li Clan send a trade manager to join the Lingxian Sect by passing the Heart-Questioning Road, and Li Zhanying agreed.
• Li Zhanying considered the Lingxian Sect’s requirements for management ability, character, and perseverance but found choosing a suitable clansman difficult.

Li Zhanying persuaded Li Zhouxuan to risk the Heart-Questioning Road despite the possibility of leaving the throne, and brought him with four other carefully chosen Li Clan youths to the Lingxian Sect. Liu Yunan prepared to test the five, while Li Zhanying trusted his selections and accepted that the clan would not insist if none passed.

• Li Zhanying added Li Zhouxuan to the list for the Heart-Questioning Road and told him that passing could be a fortuitous opportunity worth leaving the imperial throne for.
• Li Zhouxuan decided to do his utmost to pass and planned how he could still assist his successor if he joined the Lingxian Sect.
• Li Zhanying brought five Li Clan youths, including Li Zhouxuan, to the Lingxian Sect on the fourth day of the first lunar month.
• Liu Yunan recognized Li Zhouxuan and asked whether the Li Clan needed to bring more candidates, but Li Zhanying said he had selected the five most steadfast and virtuous youths.
• Li Zhanying explained that he had carefully assessed the candidates, using Mo Yuanjiao and Xuanyuan Haoyue as examples of people who had passed the sect's selection.

Four Li Clan descendants passed the Heart-Questioning Road and joined the Lingxian Sect, with Li Zhouxuan assigned to oversee external trade. Mo Yuanjiao reunited with his former emperor cousin and revealed how powerful the sect’s cultivators had become.

• Four of the five Li Clan descendants passed the Heart-Questioning Road and joined the Lingxian Sect.
• The sect assigned Li Zhouxuan to the Trade Affairs Center and distributed the other three newcomers among mountain affairs while they cultivated.
• Mo Yuanjiao visited Li Zhouxuan’s dormitory and greeted him with the familiarity of their childhood.
• Li Zhouxuan explained that the Li Clan ancestor had driven him to the sect and ended his reign as emperor.
• Mo Yuanjiao told Li Zhouxuan that he had reached Middle-stage Golden Core and that other sect members had reached Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation.

Mo Yuanjiao told Li Zhouxuan about the Lingxian Sect’s strength and secrets, then Li Zhouxuan began his first day working at the Trade Affairs Center. He settled into the job with tea-making supplies from Mo Yuanjiao.

• Mo Yuanjiao reflected on how Lin Dayou had taught him practical skills and grounded him, and he remained determined to keep Lin Dayou as his master.
• Mo Yuanjiao enthusiastically told Li Zhouxuan about Senior Liao’s Spirit Transformation, the sect’s connection to the Immortal Cultivation Realm, and other facts, while warning him not to share details with outsiders.
• Li Zhouxuan left for the General Affairs Hall to collect his disciple allowance, still eager to hear more from Mo Yuanjiao later.
• On the seventh day of the new year, Li Zhouxuan went to work at the Trade Affairs Center with the other sect disciples.
• Li Zhouxuan set up a kettle and a miniature fire-starting array at his desk, then prepared to make spirit tea that Mo Yuanjiao had grown and given him.

Li Zhouxuan prepared his office and began receiving sect leaders and imperial clans at Xiushui City's trade center. He helped the Crimson Firmament Sect secure a shop rental voucher and offered them lists of goods to supply and purchase.

• Li Zhouxuan brewed Mo Yuanjiao's spirit tea while arranging trade plans and contracts in his office.
• Li Zhouxuan welcomed Venerable Xunfang and the Crimson Firmament Sect's second elder, who requested a shop in the city's commercial district.
• Li Zhouxuan explained the rental terms and gave Venerable Xunfang a voucher to sign a contract and draw lots for a shop.
• Venerable Xunfang agreed that the Crimson Firmament Sect was interested in trade orders, and Li Zhouxuan gave him the trade center's purchase list.
• Li Zhouxuan also handed Venerable Xunfang a bulk sales list, whose goods and prices surprised him.