Chapter Summaries

The Lingxian Sect held a brief disciple acceptance ceremony, and 118 Azure Cloud Peak disciples chose masters while fourteen decided to wait. He Rui and three others hoped to become Lin Xiao’s disciples later, and Liu Chun arranged to teach one disciple at a time in Yuanling City.

• Jiang Youfu gained twenty-three disciples, Sun Yigao gained twenty, Liu Chun gained eighteen, Hu Liang gained fifteen, Mo Yuanjiao gained eleven, and Liao Pantu gained six.
• Liao Pantu initially resented receiving only six disciples, then felt pleased when he saw that five already had cultivation and one was at the Golden Core Stage.
• Liu Yunan learned that ten disciples wanted to focus on cultivation and four hoped Lin Xiao would accept them as disciples in the future.
• He Rui and the other three disciples chose to cultivate rather than take another master while waiting for Lin Xiao.
• Liu Chun agreed with Lin Xiao to teach one disciple at a time in Yuanling City, rotating disciples each month.

Yu Jie brought Han Weishu gifts from her mother, the Clear River Sect leader, and a sealed letter for Lin Xiao. Yang Jinshu discovered that the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree had finally borne three fruits and summoned Lin Xiao to see them.

• Yang Jinshu received Yu Jie, who delivered gifts for Han Weishu and a sealed letter for Lin Xiao from the Clear River Sect leader.
• Yang Jinshu accepted the gifts and agreed to pass the letter to Lin Xiao before Yu Jie returned to his sect.
• Yang Jinshu spotted three small fruits among the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree's blossoms and sent Han Weishu's box to Azure Cloud Peak.
• Yang Jinshu used her Lock Ring to summon Lin Xiao, who arrived and examined the tree's three fuzzy green fruits.

Lin Xiao received a letter from Han Shangyi hinting at an unspoken inheritance shared by Mortal Realm sects, and decided to meet him after completing his current work. He continued researching spatial formations while Sun Yigao and Liao Pantu worked on a pill to help Liu Qin recover her Dantian.

• Yang Jinshu gave Lin Xiao Han Shangyi's letter and took the Clear River Sect's gift to the Finance Hall.
• Lin Xiao inferred that Han Shangyi was offering to share the unspoken customs and inheritance of Mortal Realm sects, and decided a meeting would help the Lingxian Sect join their circle.
• Lin Xiao went to the Formation Hall to test his plans for a spatial-expansion formation, choosing to develop the technique without relying on system synthesis.
• Sun Yigao and Liao Pantu studied herbs for a pill to repair Liu Qin's Dantian after its surface began healing and she regained brief periods of consciousness.

Liao Pantu shared his long-standing idea of combining other arts with alchemy and began researching it with Sun Yigao. Meanwhile, the Lingxian Sect’s members stayed busy studying Lock Ring formations, teaching new disciples, and expanding spirit fields.

• Liao Pantu told Sun Yigao about his idea of combining alchemy with other arts and asked him to help test it.
• Liao Pantu brought out his research records, and he and Sun Yigao began discussing experiments after settling on Liu Qin’s recuperation Pill Formula.
• Liao Pantu and Sun Yigao spent long hours studying records in the Alchemy Chamber and talisman-making room while keeping up with their sect duties.
• Mo Yuanjiao studied the fifth Lock Ring formation diagram after failing to inscribe it five times, while the Formation Hall members practiced the first three diagrams.
• Jiang Youfu took on many new disciples and left Spirit Cuisine Hall dinners to Liu Shengsheng as his teaching duties grew.
• The Spirit Field Group’s elders began clearing land for spirit fields, and Lin Xiao adjusted the sect’s grand formation to reserve a large area on the back mountain.

The Lingxian Sect’s disciples kept busy with seed breeding and other work, while Lin Lei prepared a spirit boat for his wedding procession. On the wedding day, he flew to Songyang County with Lin Xiao and the other young men to fetch his bride, astonishing the crowds below.

• The Lingxian Sect reserved its remaining spirit rice for seed and served ordinary rice and vegetable dishes instead.
• Three months passed, and the sect began producing Lock Rings on the day of Lin Lei’s wedding.
• The Lin family and villagers prepared a large rolling banquet at the old Lin household.
• Lin Lei finished building and decorating a spirit boat so he could fetch his bride in it.
• Lin Lei, Lin Xiao, and the other unmarried young men flew to Songyang County, where the sight of their festive boat drew a crowd.
• A woman from the bride’s family rushed inside to announce that the groom had arrived by boat.

As Lin Xiao’s wedding boat left Songyang County, Qin Jianghe confronted him about the sect’s mounting expenses. Lin Xiao explained that he had been preparing a wide range of cultivation methods for courses that would help willing sect members gain experience outside the sect.

• Lin Lei invited the bride’s family onto the wedding boat, which carried them east as Songyang County’s residents watched enviously.
• Qin Jianghe pulled Lin Xiao aside and asked why he had been ordering so many expensive items from the Finance Hall.
• Lin Xiao showed Qin Jianghe dozens of cultivation methods and explained that the sect needed more varied skills for members who ventured out.
• Lin Xiao said Senior Liao had warned him that sect members needed experience to improve their state of mind and avoid cultivation bottlenecks.
• Lin Xiao revealed that he planned to offer cultivation-method courses before starting an experience-gaining plan for willing sect members.

Lin Xiao decided the Lingxian Sect needed greater fighting strength without keeping its members shut away from the world. After Lin Lei’s wedding, he stayed up alone in the Formation Hall, working on formation plates modeled partly on the Lock Rings.

• Lin Xiao considered the danger of the Lingxian Sect’s advantages becoming known and resolved to protect his friends and family without confining them to the sect.
• Lin Xiao told Qin Jianghe that he would arrange a training expedition after Lin Lei’s wedding and asked about the materials, including Spirit River Fertile Soil.
• The Lingxian Sect and villagers gathered at the Lin Household’s old residence to celebrate Lin Lei’s wedding, where Lin Xiao had set up a defensive formation.
• After the feast, Lin Xiao and the others returned to the sect, while Liu Yunan recalled the Azure Cloud Peak disciples with their Lock Rings.
• While the sect members slept, Lin Xiao worked alone in the Formation Hall on formation plates resembling parts of the Lock Rings.

Lin Xiao experimented with linking spatial formations in parallel, successfully completing many pairs as he worked through the night. The next morning, he went to meet his new cousin-in-law and brought her a gift, hoping to support her interest in cultivation and help the newlyweds grow closer.

• Lin Xiao used spiritual threads to link two spatial formations in parallel and successfully expanded their combined space.
• Lin Xiao continued linking formations through the night, repeatedly replacing the finished disks with new batches.
• At dawn, Lin Xiao went to formally meet his new cousin-in-law after his eldest paternal cousin's wedding.
• Lin Xiao brought his cousin-in-law pills to strengthen her physique and gave Lin Lei storybooks that could introduce her to cultivation and give the couple more to discuss.

Lin Xiao assembled the Teaching and Research Group and assigned its members to learn over a thousand Cultivation Methods so they could teach them to the sect’s disciples. He continued researching in the Formation Hall while answering their questions, leaving the new courses to be arranged after the group studied the methods.

• After returning from his eldest cousin’s family banquet, Lin Xiao summoned Liao Pantu, Yang Jinshu, Sun Yigao, and Mo Yuanjiao to the Scripture Pavilion’s seventh floor.
• Lin Xiao showed the four piles of Cultivation Methods and asked them to learn the first level of each within a month so they could become teachers.
• After Lin Xiao explained how the methods could help disciples face cultivation bottlenecks and prepare for experience outside the sect, the four accepted the task.
• Sun Yigao proposed that they begin teaching the first levels while continuing to study, and that capable learners be promoted to teachers.
• The Teaching and Research Group postponed detailed teaching arrangements until its members had studied the methods, while Lin Xiao answered their questions through their Lock Rings as he researched in the Formation Hall.

Lin Xiao continued his spatial formation research while Lin Lei settled into married life with Huang Manying and helped her learn about cultivation. A surge of tourists disrupted Xiushui Village, so Du Liushui rang the Lingxian Sect's Sect Bell to seek help, and Liu Yunan received the report.

• Lin Xiao continued linking spatial formations into a larger composite formation after briefly attending Lin Lei's wedding.
• Lin Lei paid for Huang Manying's meals and spent his evenings sharing stories and teaching her to read and learn the sect's principles.
• Old Madam Lin, Eldest Uncle Lin's Wife, Lin Ying, and Lin Yan began visiting Huang Manying, and the young women grew close as they studied together.
• Tourists flocked to Xiushui Village after news spread that members of the Lin family had come down the mountain, and Du Liushui organized a response to the influx.
• Du Liushui rang the Lingxian Sect's Sect Bell at the foot of North Mountain, and Liu Yunan received the report in the General Affairs Hall.

Village Chief Du asked Liu Yunan to help Xiushui Village prepare for its upgrade to town status, including funding construction. Qin Jianghe agreed that the Lingxian Sect would provide both a loan and a contribution, and the group began discussing the town’s needs.

• Du Liushui told Liu Yunan that Xiushui Village’s population had grown and the authorities were considering raising it to town status, pending the Lingxian Sect’s approval.
• Liu Yunan contacted Lin Xiao and the others, who were delighted by the news that their home village might become Xiushui Town.
• Du Liushui asked the Lingxian Sect to lend money for construction, explaining that the village wanted to establish a strong foundation for future growth.
• Qin Jianghe offered to provide some funds as a contribution and lend the rest, as well as send people to help if the village needed manpower.
• Du Liushui accepted the arrangement and outlined the buildings, materials, administrative offices, and operating funds planned for the town.

Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe finalized the Lingxian Sect’s funding arrangement for a village project, then discussed starting a sect monthly to share news and involve newer disciples. Liu Yunan began planning it himself and enlisted Qin Jianghe’s help despite their heavy workloads.

• Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe agreed with Village Chief Du on the project funding, loan interest, and an IOU, with the authorities and Lingxian Sect contributing roughly equal shares.
• After returning to the mountain, Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe posted notices about the village project and decided it was a good time to start the sect monthly.
• Qin Jianghe warned that the monthly needed a dedicated department and a capable manager, while many potential helpers were busy studying hundreds or thousands of Cultivation Methods assigned by Lin Xiao.
• Liu Yunan decided to begin the monthly himself and create rules so the work could eventually be handed over.
• Liu Yunan took the ledger from Qin Jianghe and asked him to help plan the sect monthly.

Xiushui Village’s prosperity culminated in its planned transformation into Xiushui Town, backed by funding from the Lingxian Sect and new donations from local residents. Village Chief Du then remembered that the village needed to replace its western shelter for beggars before winter.

• After the harvest, the villagers learned that Xiushui Village would be built into Xiushui Town, with funding and a loan from the Lingxian Sect.
• The villagers celebrated the news, and dignitaries and wealthy residents donated nearly as much as the Lingxian Sect had contributed.
• Village Chief Du told his son Changsheng that the village needed to build a new western shelter because the existing one offered too little protection in winter.
• The villagers had built and improved the shelter for seven or eight old people and children who had nowhere else to go.

Du Liushui learned that the frail beggar living in Xiushui Village’s shack wanted to rent land to grow produce, and he remembered how Liu Yunan had helped save the man. Meanwhile, Sun Yigao and Mo Yuanjiao developed new ways to improve farming at Lingxian Sect as the sect prepared for the autumn spirit-grain harvest.

• Du Changsheng told Du Liushui that the old beggar wanted to rent land, and Du Liushui told his son to make the decision himself.
• Du Liushui recalled how the beggar had come to the village near death, how Liu Yunan sent him a pill, and how the man later settled in the shack.
• Du Liushui decided to remind Du Changsheng to prepare cold-weather supplies for the shack’s residents.
• Sun Yigao earned the Spirit Field Group elders’ praise for developing specialized pills to nourish crops and treat plant diseases.
• Mo Yuanjiao created farming formations for regulating temperature, timing pollination, and administering Sun Yigao’s pills.
• The sect’s farmers arranged for the autumn harvest, when spirit grain naturally yielded best.

Lin Xiao secretly completed the construction of Everbright Mountain in a remote part of North Mountain, drawing in Yin Qi to bind the mountain ridges and ravine into the new sect building. He opened its hidden entrance and watched a white fox take shape from the stone stele.

• Lin Xiao went alone to the far end of North Mountain with a black cube he had spent months constructing.
• He unfolded the cube into a vast grid, placed a ball of light inside it, and spread the grid over two ridges and a ravine.
• Lin Xiao poured in his Origin Qi as the grid descended, absorbed Yin Qi, and merged with the mountain terrain.
• A stone stele bearing the name Everbright Mountain appeared, and the system announced that Lin Xiao had constructed and added the sect building.
• Lin Xiao knocked four times on the stele, summoning fog and a white fox face that formed from vapor.

Lin Xiao inspected Everbright Mountain and met its white fox gravekeeper, then explored the layered spaces and the Soul-Nourishing Tree saplings growing in their buffer zones. He discovered that his spatial design let living things grow in spaces he had once thought he could not create.

• A white fox appeared atop the Everbright Mountain stele, introduced itself as the gravekeeper, and recognized Lin Xiao as the sect master.
• The gravekeeper sent Lin Xiao into Everbright Mountain, where he saw Soul-Nourishing Tree saplings planted in Spirit River Fertile Soil.
• Lin Xiao walked into the mist until the space returned him to the entrance, revealing that the mountain consisted of many separate spaces.
• Lin Xiao explained that buffer zones formed between the spaces and connected them to the outside world, letting living things enter and grow there.

Lin Xiao named Everbright Mountain’s white fox formation spirit Everbright after confirming the formation was working properly. Meanwhile, He Yi sensed an unusual flow of Yin Qi in the Pusi Kingdom’s capital and began investigating what might be drawing it.

• Lin Xiao withdrew from Everbright Mountain after checking that its Soul-Nourishing Trees and other features were in order.
• Lin Xiao named the white fox formation spirit Everbright, and it bowed and thanked him.
• When Everbright Mountain’s formation was first established, He Yi sensed Yin Qi flowing in an unusual direction while meditating in the Pusi Kingdom’s capital.
• He Yi formed a talisman directly from spiritual power and sent it outside his room.
• He Yi considered the brief flow of Yin Qi strange because he had not encountered one like it during his time in the Mortal Realm.

He Yi traced a force drawing Yin Qi to the east and questioned Li Zhouxuan about what lay in that direction before leaving the imperial city to investigate. Meanwhile, Liu Yunan completed a plan for a sect monthly, and he and Lin Xiao worked through the night preparing it before Lin Xiao’s scheduled lesson.

• He Yi’s Spirit-Detecting Talisman confirmed that a distant force had briefly drawn Yin Qi, and he determined it was due east.
• He Yi asked Li Zhouxuan what lay east of Pusi Kingdom, learned about Hufang Province and the distant mountains and sea, then left to travel for several days.
• Li Zhouxuan reported He Yi’s departure to the old ancestor and returned to dealing with court business, including a plague-relief effort involving the Clear River Sect.
• Liu Yunan showed Lin Xiao his proposed sect monthly and departmental plan, and Lin Xiao praised him and took him to the new building for the publication.
• Lin Xiao and Liu Yunan worked on the sect monthly through the night before Lin Xiao was due to teach at the Cultivation Hall on Azure Cloud Peak.

Xuanyuan Haoyue woke He Rui in time for Lin Xiao’s class, where he introduced the disciples to the new Lingxian Monthly. Lin Xiao let them read the sect’s first issue before beginning the lesson.

• Xuanyuan Haoyue entered He Rui’s room and woke her, reminding her that the sect master was teaching that day.
• He Rui hurried to get ready, and she and Xuanyuan Haoyue went together to the Cultivation Hall.
• Xuanyuan Haoyue and He Rui joined the disciples asking Lin Xiao questions before the class bell rang.
• Lin Xiao handed every disciple a copy of the Lingxian Monthly and explained that it would share sect updates and outside news.
• Lin Xiao invited the disciples to read the first issue, promising to make up the lesson time afterward.

After reading the Lingxian Monthly, the sect members visited Everbright Mountain, the new burial ground, and several elders agreed to move their family graves there with Yang Jinshu. As the group prepared to leave, one person remained inside and no longer wanted to come out.

• Lin Xiao let the Azure Cloud Peak disciples browse the Lingxian Monthly before starting class, while other sect members gathered to discuss it.
• The sect members used spirit boats and flying swords to visit Everbright Mountain, following the monthly report’s directions.
• The elders found Everbright Mountain thoughtful and reassuring, while Qin Jianghe had worried they might be upset by the graveyard.
• Yang Jinshu told the group that her father had died and that her mother had brought his ashes to the sect, then asked whether anyone would join her in breaking ground there.
• Lin Dayou and three other elders agreed to relocate family graves to Everbright Mountain with Yang Jinshu.
• After the group finished its visit, one person stayed inside Everbright Mountain and no longer wanted to leave.