Recaps

Yuan Jinsheng led the spy cultivators through the Cage Compound’s back gate to clear farmland behind the North Mountain Range. They found rich Spiritual Qi outside, but lightning punished their escape attempts, and they began working under close supervision.

• Venerable Guijia wrestled with whether working for a cultivator from the Immortal Ascension Domain would cost him face, while fearing life without Spiritual Qi.
• Yuan Jinsheng and a hundred assistants organized more than ten thousand spies into teams and led them toward the Cage Compound’s back gate.
• The back gate opened into wilderness rich with Spiritual Qi, and lightning struck spies who tried to escape or resist.
• Yuan Jinsheng warned the spies that trouble would send them back to the Cage Compound, but no one stepped forward to quit.
• The assistants divided the farmland into work areas and monitored the spies, while Yuan Jinsheng promised them half a shichen of meditation outside after each day’s work.

On February 1, Xiushui City’s trade center opened for business as crowds of cultivators and sects arrived, drawn by the city’s commercial district and reports of a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator. The city’s staff activated their emergency plan to house the visitors in the purpose-built northwestern accommodation area.

• Sects and royal families arrived in Xiushui City to deliver trade orders, open their stores, and sell goods from their inventories.
• Major sects used Spirit Ships to bring Rogue Cultivators and their families to the city, earning fares and contributing to the surge in visitors.
• Rogue Cultivators chose to relocate to Xiushui City for its cultivation resources and the possibility of meeting a Spirit Transformation Stage cultivator.
• The city lord’s manor staff held an emergency meeting and activated their plan to accommodate the many visitors.
• The visitors were directed toward the northwestern area, which Lin Xiao had designed with mountains, courtyards, and cloud-shrouded formations for visiting cultivators.

Xiushui City opened the Nine Firmaments Mountain Range, where sect cultivators booked discounted cave abodes with dense Spiritual Qi. As the city settled its influx of visitors, the Trade Affairs Center began receiving the first deliveries from the sects and imperial families.

• Lin Xiao named the new cultivation lodging area the Nine Firmaments Mountain Range, and Liao Pantu questioned the grand name.
• The staff explained the cave abodes’ regular prices, discounted rates, and guest capacities, prompting many sect cultivators to register.
• The city lord’s manor arranged lodging for newcomers while its staff worked to maintain order in the growing city.
• The various sects and imperial families queued at the Trade Affairs Center on the agreed delivery date with goods made over the previous month.
• Li Zhouxuan’s assistant called the first queue number, Crimson Firmament Sect.

The Trade Affairs Center used the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale to assess the sects’ goods in detail, earning their trust as they received payment. Afterward, the sects and imperial families bought goods from Bai Zhu and tested the Center’s inspection service, while Li Zhouxuan set a fee for outside inspections.

• The sects and imperial families waited anxiously, then entered one by one and left with full payment in Spirit Stones and agreements for future orders.
• Li Zhouxuan used Lin Xiao’s Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale to sort goods by grade and provide detailed records of their quality and flaws.
• The sellers used the Scale’s records to verify disputed judgments and grew more confident in Xiushui City’s capabilities.
• After settling their accounts, the sects and imperial families went to Bai Zhu to buy goods from the Trade Affairs Center.
• Li Zhouxuan allowed them to inspect goods bought or sold at the Center and set a fee for inspecting other items.

Bai Zhu continued helping with sect affairs as Xiushui City drew crowds of merchants, cultivators, and visitors. A cultivator punished by the city’s protective array wondered why Myriad Connections had concealed the city’s existence from the Immortal Cultivation Realm.

• Liu Yunan assigned Bai Zhu varied sect duties, appreciating his diligence while recognizing that he struggled to lead others.
• Xiushui City attracted merchants, visitors, and cultivators eager to trade, settle, or explore its facilities.
• Wen Liyun visited the bustling city with Wen the Eldest to buy school supplies after the household children were admitted to Lingxian Academy.
• The city’s protective array struck a cultivator with lightning when he violated its rules, alarming him with proof of the Mortal Realm’s powerful defenses.
• The punished cultivator suspected Myriad Connections had hidden Xiushui City from the Immortal Cultivation Realm and began considering why.

Yao Yuchang arrived in Xiushui City to meet He Yi and wondered whether Myriad Connections had built it as a headquarters in the Mortal Realm. After testing the city’s ban on attack spells, he waited in a crowded teahouse for He Yi’s reply and decided to contact the other cultivators.

• He Yi asked Yao Yuchang to gather the other eight cultivators in Xiushui City for an important discussion.
• Yao Yuchang reached Xiushui City, tested its ban on attack spells, and was struck by the city’s protective array.
• Yao Yuchang explored the city, judged its shops and goods to be backward, and asked He Yi where they should meet.
• Yao Yuchang took a seat at the Xiushui Hu Teahouse, isolated himself from the mortals sharing his table, and tipped a tea server with a Spirit Stone.
• Yao Yuchang blocked out the teahouse’s noise and, growing impatient when He Yi did not reply, decided to contact the other cultivators.

He Yi and Liao Pantu captured Yao Yuchang in Xiushui City after he mistook them for Myriad Connections conspirators. Liao Pantu brought him to the Cage Compound’s prison, where Yao Yuchang recognized Fellow Daoist Su among the other captives.

• He Yi used a Sound Transmission Talisman to lure Yao Yuchang into an ambush, and Liao Pantu restrained him despite his efforts to escape.
• Yao Yuchang tore open a spatial rift, but Liao Pantu shut it and locked him inside a Spirit-Binding Cage.
• He Yi told the onlookers that the Lingxian Sect had caught a spy from another domain, while the townspeople welcomed his explanation.
• Liao Pantu carried Yao Yuchang through a spatial passage to the Cage Compound and took him to its prison building.
• Yao Yuchang failed to escape and spotted Fellow Daoist Su waving to him from a nearby room.

Yao Yuchang discovered that nearly all ten cultivators from the Immortal Cultivation Realm had been captured and confined, where they were assigned production work. Meanwhile, shops opened along Xiushui City's Number One Street, drawing cultivators and mortals eager to browse and buy; the Lingxian Sect general store particularly appealed to low-level and rogue cultivators.

• Yao Yuchang passed the cells holding Su Wanjun and other familiar cultivators, realizing that all but He Yi had been captured.
• Yao Yuchang failed to open a spatial rift in his cell and decided to conserve his strength while considering how to escape.
• Liao Pantu asked Yuan Jinsheng to assign the captured cultivators work producing pills, formations, artifacts, and other goods in exchange for scheduled Spiritual Qi and a share of Spirit Stones.
• The shops on Number One Street opened with decorations, firecrackers, and lion dances, attracting cultivators and mortal residents.
• Cultivators browsed specialized shops, found their shelves well stocked, and bought goods in hopes that the commercial street would remain open.
• Low-level cultivators and Rogue Cultivators noticed the Lingxian Sect general store and found its offerings especially appealing.

Xiushui City's commercial and agricultural districts drew crowds as sects and royal houses rushed to rent shops and trade goods. An evening auction announcement sparked a citywide race for limited places, and the promise of monthly auctions left many cultivators considering staying in the city.

• Han Weishu told visiting sect and royal-house representatives that each could rent one shop rent-free if they supplied suitable goods, and she directed them to the Trade Center's trade services.
• The representatives hurried to arrange shipments and crowded into the external trade office, where Li Zhouxuan and his assistants prepared to serve them.
• Cultivators explored the agricultural district and bought its fragrant spirit fruits and unusually rich spirit grains.
• Xiushui City announced a small evening auction for Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators, with only one hundred places available.
• Qi Refining Rogue Cultivators used their knowledge of the city and its buses to reach the Trade Affairs Center quickly and claim most of the places.
• Xiushui City announced that it would hold a small auction every month, prompting disappointed cultivators to consider staying until the next one.

Xiushui City’s expanding trade and monthly auctions drew cultivators from across the Mortal Realm, while sects and imperial households established transport routes and local offices. As prosperity spread and cultivators joined the city’s festivals, the Immortal Cultivation Realm remained unaware of the changes.

• Cultivators flocked to Xiushui City, and sects and imperial households began running low-cost spirit-ship passenger services.
• Xiushui City built spirit-ship docking grounds, prompting sects and imperial households to establish offices nearby.
• The Trade Affairs Center held three simultaneous auctions for Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators as the commercial district grew busier.
• The Yuan Household and Su Household handled growing shipments for the Lingxian Sect, while Su Yaoguang secured a permanent stall in the Southern Spirit Domain’s black market.
• Xiushui City’s festivals brought cultivators and ordinary people together, reviving cultivators’ memories of festival customs.

Over the year, the Lingxian Sect and Xiushui City settled into smoother routines, while sects and imperial families across the Mortal Realm saw gains in resources, cultivation, and craft skills. Exchange gatherings spread to Xiushui City, and the Lingxian Sect agreed to send high-level cultivators to gatherings about cultivation.

• The Lingxian Sect held an internal New Year's gathering, gave its disciples a seven-day holiday, and arranged spirit ships to take some of them home.
• Lin Yun recruited thirty disciples to set off fireworks, and Bai Zhu led the Azure Cloud Peak disciples in planning a dazzling display over Xiushui City.
• Lin Xiao returned to a more leisurely routine as sect master while the Lingxian Sect's members continued cultivating, studying techniques, and managing the sect and city.
• At year's end, major sects and imperial families found that their resources, Spirit Stones, cultivation, and craft skills had improved.
• Sects began holding craft exchange gatherings, and Xiushui City offered a central lot for them on the condition that they remain open to the public.
• Sects invited the Lingxian Sect to send high-level cultivators to cultivation exchange gatherings, and the Lingxian Sect agreed.

The Lingxian Sect helped drive the Mortal Realm’s progress by sharing knowledge, while Xiushui City’s agricultural exchanges and trade grew. When ordinary residents struggled to buy low-cost cultivator goods, Lin Yun proposed creating a smaller currency, and Lin Xiao praised his insight.

• The Lingxian Sect agreed to share cultivation insights, prompting craft organizers to invite its experts to their gatherings.
• Sects and imperial families bought farming supplies and methods, and Old Master Lin and the Spirit Field Group arranged quarterly agricultural exchanges in Xiushui City.
• Ordinary residents earned Spirit Stones through work, and cultivators began selling them useful low-cost talismans, formations, and pills.
• Residents and Rogue Cultivators asked the city lord’s manor for help because these goods cost less than one Spirit Stone, making purchases difficult.
• Lin Yun proposed using gold and silver temporarily and suggested creating a currency worth less than a Spirit Stone; Lin Xiao praised his idea.

Lin Xiao used the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale to create Spirit Beads as smaller denominations of Spirit Stones for Xiushui City. The beads quickly became popular with cultivators as well as common folk, forcing Lin Xiao to lift the restriction on using them outside the city.

• Lin Xiao proposed that Spirit Beads could be exchanged for Spirit Stones and common currency, but gold and silver could not be exchanged for Spirit Beads.
• Lin Xiao used the Heaven and Earth Fairness Scale to turn ten thousand Spirit Stones into a million Spirit Beads.
• Lin Xiao gave Lin Yun the Spirit Beads and explained that each bead held one hundredth of a Spirit Stone’s Spiritual Qi.
• The City Lord’s Manor announced that residents could exchange Spirit Stones for Spirit Beads, and common folk began using the beads to buy goods from low-level cultivators.
• Low-level cultivators and visitors from other sects and royal families adopted Spirit Beads, so Lin Xiao lifted the rule restricting their use to Xiushui City.

Xiushui City’s Spirit Beads and paid work made it increasingly welcoming to low-level cultivators, while the imprisoned spies grew more accustomed to life in the Cage Compound. Yuan Jinsheng assigned them the spirit fields they had cleared and made their future pay depend on their harvests, leaving them with a chance at stable livelihoods if they obeyed the rules and farmed diligently.

• Xiushui City’s Spirit Beads earned goodwill among low-level cultivators, and the New Year holiday and restored Spiritual Qi eased the imprisoned cultivators’ resistance to life in the Cage Compound.
• After the holiday, most of the imprisoned cultivators returned to work more diligently, while the Spirit Field Group stopped clearing land beyond the protective barrier’s range and shifted the laborers to farming.
• Yuan Jinsheng handed out free farming manuals and told the spy cultivators that their pay would depend on the yield and quality of their spirit fields.
• Yuan Jinsheng assigned each cultivator the fields they had cleared and warned that neglected fields would be given to diligent farmers, while cultivators without fields would lose permission to go outside.
• The cultivators welcomed the chance to earn more from farming, and those previously punished for slacking or breaking rules regretted their past behavior.

The Mount Sumeru Clan recorded events in the outside world and required its historians to remain dispassionate. Wuguang wanted to visit Xiushui City and the Lingxian Sect, but his father refused because his records were too subjective.

• Spy cultivators without farmland hoped headquarters would destroy the area, while some planned to use visiting merchants to send messages out.
• The chapter described Mount Sumeru Valley, where the Mount Sumeru Clan gathered and recorded bamboo-slip histories of the world.
• Wuguang praised Xiushui City and asked his father to let him join the next group venturing into the world.
• Wuguang's father rebuked him for exaggerating in his historical records and refused to let him travel because he lacked dispassion.
• Wuguang's father discarded his flawed scroll and began carving a revised account of the latest news.

A Mount Sumeru Clan elder reflected on Wuguang’s upcoming assessment and the fresh impact the Lingxian Sect had made on the Mortal Realm. Sun Yigao then arranged to take his disciples to Huanyou Nation to establish another Lingxian Academy, while the sects and royal families increasingly competed to hire Rogue Cultivators.

• A Mount Sumeru Clan elder worried that Wuguang might fail his assessment and lose his memories, and decided to encourage him with the prospect of joining the next group to enter the world.
• The elder noted that the Lingxian Sect had made a striking mark on the Mortal Realm, while no news or response had come from the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
• Sun Yigao told Lin Xiao he planned to travel to Huanyou Nation with his disciples and build a Lingxian Academy there before moving on to other places.
• Lin Xiao approved Sun Yigao’s plan, promised monthly cultivation allowances, and proposed a contribution-point system for disciples at the new academy.
• Lin Xiao judged the traveling group well protected by Sun Yigao’s cultivation and the disciples’ equipment, while Rogue Cultivators became sought-after workers for sects and royal families.

Sun Yigao traveled to Huanyou Nation with five disciples to open a Lingxian Academy, choosing impoverished Greenwood Township as their first site. They arrived and disguised themselves as ordinary people, leaving their questions about how the academy could succeed there unanswered.

• Qin Jianghe contacted Zhao Yunzhong, who agreed to support Sun Yigao's plan to establish an academy in Huanyou Nation.
• A month later, Sun Yigao departed the Lingxian Sect with five disciples, and Liao Pantu watched proudly as his eldest disciple set out to teach and gain practical experience.
• Sun Yigao and his disciples arrived in Huanyou Nation and headed for Greenwood Township, a remote area where many people struggled to find enough food and warm clothing.
• Wen Yuejun and the other disciples wondered how they could recruit students in such a poor place, but they decided to wait and observe before asking their master.
• Sun Yigao stopped the spirit ship at the foot of a mountain, gave the disciples coarse hemp clothing, and made their Lock Rings invisible so they would look like ordinary people.

Yang Zhuzi and Jiang Cuihua wondered whether the promised scholars would bring trouble to Greenwood Township. When Yang Zhuzi met Sun Yigao, Wen Yuejun, and Shen Yingzi, they asked to establish a village school, and he offered them an abandoned house.

• Jiang Cuihua asked Yang Zhuzi why the scholars promised by the county magistrate had not arrived, and they worried about what the newcomers might do.
• Yang Zhuzi’s youngest son called him to Third Granduncle’s house because visitors from another village had arrived.
• Yang Zhuzi went to Third Granduncle’s house and recognized Sun Yigao, Wen Yuejun, and Shen Yingzi as the scholars who had come to teach.
• Sun Yigao asked to rent an empty house for a village school, and Yang Zhuzi offered an abandoned house without charge.
• Sun Yigao said the house’s poor condition was no problem because they could repair it.

Sun Yigao and the five Lingxian Sect members chose two empty houses in Greenwood Township for an academy and began building it without using magic power. The villagers came to offer help after seeing the learned teachers doing manual labor themselves.

• Sun Yigao declined Yang Zhuzi's offer of a chicken because the group ate vegetarian food, and he chose two neighboring houses for the academy.
• Sun Yigao told the five disciples they would build the academy within ten days without using magic power, though he left the choice of whether to take shortcuts up to them.
• Villagers from Greenwood Township arrived early the next morning and saw the six teachers tamping earth, making bricks, carrying wood, and clearing the site.
• Some villagers questioned whether the young teachers were reliable, but Yang Zhuzi trusted his own impression of them and offered the villagers' help.
• Sun Yigao and the others looked up from their work when Yang Zhuzi called to them from the courtyard gate.

The Lingxian Sect’s five disciples planned the classrooms, dormitories, and other facilities for their academy while building it with help from Xiushui Village. Meanwhile, Lin Xiao was alarmed by news that the sect had auctioned ten entry permissions to a Qi Refining Stage secret realm, and the chapter left him worrying about the consequences.

• Sun Yigao let his five disciples decide whether to accept the villagers’ help, and Wen Yuejun welcomed them as they worked on the academy.
• During their midday break, the disciples planned classrooms and dormitories, adding a book corner, study room, separate boys’ and girls’ quarters, an office, dining hall, latrines, vegetable garden, and pavilion.
• Sun Yigao rested beneath a tree as the disciples’ plans took shape and the academy’s construction continued.
• At Xiushui City’s annual beginning-of-the-year auction, the Lingxian Sect offered ten entry permissions to a Qi Refining Stage secret realm as the grand finale.
• Lin Xiao became worried after learning of the auction, since the secret realm could contain rare resources, abundant Spiritual Qi, spirit beasts, or sprites.

The Green Field Mystic Realm access rights sparked fierce bidding, and sects and royal families pooled resources to secure them. As the Lingxian Sect gained pledges of allegiance and system rewards, Lin Xiao learned that the next sect-construction task required him to establish a base in the Immortal Cultivation Realm within ten years.

• Sects and royal families bid aggressively for the ten Green Field Mystic Realm access rights, and Han Shangyi agreed to share costs and slots with Yang Quan’s Clear Wind Sect.
• Several sects and royal families formed joint bids, winning five or six access rights together, including one claimed by five royal families.
• Sects and royal families sent gifts and pledges of allegiance to the Lingxian Sect, which accepted them and returned gifts.
• Lin Xiao received personal and sect rewards after the system recognized the Lingxian Sect’s support and prestige.
• The system unlocked the version 2.0 sect-construction tasks and ordered Lin Xiao to establish a sect base in the Immortal Cultivation Realm within ten years, leaving him too dismayed to check his rewards.

Lin Xiao proposed that Liao Pantu research steam engines, turbines, and trains to improve transportation across the Mortal Realm. He argued that development for ordinary people would help cultivate a broader supply of talented disciples, but Liao Pantu challenged his concern about poor families losing their support.

• Liao Pantu reviewed the Lingxian Sect’s growing income and became less worried about repaying its debt to the Yuan Household.
• After approving partial access to the sect’s secret realms, Liao Pantu began enjoying a carefree life in Xiushui City.
• Lin Xiao found Liao Pantu on an antique bargain-hunting street and invited him to take on a research project.
• Lin Xiao showed Liao Pantu plans for trains that would carry people and goods through the Mortal Realm on set routes and schedules.
• Lin Xiao argued that improving ordinary people’s lives would help ensure a steady supply of talented cultivators, and Liao Pantu objected that cultivators could support their families.

Lin Xiao persuaded Liao Pantu to help develop trains, and the pair built an electric locomotive and related technology. Lin Xiao then arranged negotiations with the various countries, which agreed on a plan to manufacture trains and build railways, though difficult terrain remained a challenge.

• Lin Xiao convinced Liao Pantu that trains could help develop the Mortal Realm and improve ordinary people's lives.
• Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu researched trains in Lin Xiao's bamboo house and developed a steam train, a generator, a motor driver chip, and a wind-generating formation.
• After completing an electric locomotive, Liao Pantu asked how many to make, and Lin Xiao admitted he had not yet discussed the project with the various countries.
• Lin Xiao asked Lin Yun and Li Zhouxuan to begin negotiations, and Li Zhouxuan represented Xiushui City in talks with the Pusi Kingdom's royal family.
• The countries agreed to supply workers and raw materials while Xiushui City organized a central manufacturing plant and coordinated railway construction.
• Xiushui City required local workers for railway stretches where possible, but remote areas with miasma, fierce beasts, or rivers remained difficult for mortals to cross.

Xiushui City planned to recruit volunteers and additional workers for its railway project, offering certificates with city privileges and permanent contracts to dependable employees. Lin Yun considered how the train factory could retain workers after construction and returned to managing the city’s expanding affairs.

• Xiushui City recruited railway volunteers by offering certificates that granted holders special privileges.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue asked Lin Yun whether railway workers should be hired permanently or only for the project.
• Lin Yun advised her to trial recruits and offer long-term contracts to those who proved dependable, explaining that factory workers could maintain and replace trains after construction.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue thanked Lin Yun and left to arrange the recruitment.
• Lin Yun reflected on his rise from farm boy to city lord and resumed reviewing documents concerning agreements with other countries.

Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu began researching low-cost agricultural tools that ordinary people could afford, while Lin Yun addressed the financial and labor challenges facing the railway project. The chapter left the railway effort moving forward as Xiushui City also promoted waterwheels for the countries to use.

• Lin Yun told Lin Xiao that many countries struggled to pay railway construction costs, and farmers were reluctant to leave their fields to work on the railways.
• Lin Xiao brought Liao Pantu to the Spirit Field Group and proposed developing agricultural products from cheap mortal materials that could boost yields and reduce labor.
• Liao Pantu agreed to help Lin Xiao research ways to make affordable products with effects comparable to spirit-grade tools.
• Lin Xiao sought advice from Old Master Lin and the other experienced farmers as the research began.
• Lin Xiao had Xiushui City promote waterwheels to the countries, and Lin Yun added waterwheel construction to the cultivator volunteer projects.