Chapter Summaries

Lin Xiao finished preparing formations and appointed Lin Yun to help manage the trading center before the system announced that Spirit-Rich Mountain had nurtured a spirit vein and rewarded him with a token for another floating island. The chapter ended as Sect Leader Han finally received Han Weishu's letter at the Clear River Sect.

• Lin Xiao spent a month making formations while Xiushui Town was completed and the sect made progress on cultivation courses and trading-center plans.
• Lin Yun broke through to the Golden Core realm, and Lin Xiao appointed him to help manage the trading center alongside Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe.
• Spirit-Rich Mountain nurtured a first-tier spirit vein, raising Yaoguang Floating Island by one level and improving its size, soil, and Spiritual Qi.
• Lin Xiao received a Tianquan Floating Island Token but chose to leave the new island in storage until the sect had more people.
• Sect Leader Han received Han Weishu's letter at the Clear River Sect, a month after it had been sent.

Han Shangyi considered his daughter’s account of the Lingxian Sect and took out his sect master’s seal, while the Li Imperial Clan completed three plans for the trading center in Xiushui Village. Lin Xiao received the plans and examined their ambitious designs for a mountain city and an underground city.

• Han Shangyi read Han Weishu’s letter describing the Lingxian Sect’s resources and rapid cultivation progress, then took out his sect master’s seal.
• The Li Imperial Clan used a miniature formation of Xiushui Village to help the Ministry of Works design the trading center.
• The Ministry of Works completed a main city plan and supplementary plans for a mountain city and an underground city, and Li Zhanying approved them.
• Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe reviewed the plans before handing them to Lin Xiao.
• Lin Xiao examined the plans and noticed the craftsmen’s bold designs for the mountain city and underground city.

As the new year approached, Lin Xiao prepared extra plans while the Lingxian Sect considered the Clear River Sect’s proposal to become an affiliated sect. The elders supported further discussions, and the chapter ended with the sect preparing to contact Han Shangyi.

• Lin Xiao noticed snow falling with ten days left until New Year’s Eve and instructed Liu Yunan to prepare for his new year plans.
• The Lingxian Sect received a Sound Transmission Talisman in which Clear River Sect leader Han Shangyi proposed that their sects become brother sects, with the Clear River Sect taking a subordinate position.
• Lin Xiao asked the system whether accepting the proposal would advance his task, and the system said it would depend on the sects’ actual standing after acceptance.
• Yang Jinshu described the proposal as affiliation, and Mo Yuanjiao, Qin Jianghe, Liu Yunan, and Yang Jinshu supported pursuing it.
• The elders decided to contact the Clear River Sect for further discussions.

Lin Xiao and the Lingxian Sect finished preparing for their annual gathering and trading center, inviting allied sects and gathering the materials needed to build the city. With the supplies delivered, Lin Xiao prepared to synthesize the city before the guests arrived.

• Liu Yunan confirmed the invitations to Prefect Tong's household and the imperial clan, and Lin Xiao added the three major sects, the Azure Lotus Sect, and other organizations to the guest list.
• Liu Yunan, Qin Jianghe, Yang Jinshu, Lin Xiao, Mo Yuanjiao, and Mo Que prepared the gathering and trading center, while Lin Xiao synthesized office buildings and refined additional items.
• Old Master Lin and the Spirit Field Group converted a hundred mu of land into spirit fields and planted common Spirit Plants for the future trading center.
• The supplier delivered the building materials before New Year's Eve, and Li Zhouxuan provided the Li Imperial Clan's share of the cost.
• Lin Xiao stored the materials in his private storage and prepared to synthesize the city as Mo Yuanjiao eagerly watched.

Lin Xiao began synthesizing a city for the Lingxian Sect, which would take twelve hours. Six or seven days earlier, invitations to the sect’s annual gathering reached several sects, whose leaders and disciples considered whether to attend.

• Lin Xiao placed the city designs and materials, including a Spirit Dike turtle shell, into the Building Synthesizer and saw that synthesis would take twelve hours.
• Lin Xiao told Mo Yuanjiao to cultivate while he checked preparations for the annual gathering.
• Jiang Sisi received Lingxian Sect’s invitation at the Azure Lotus Sect, and Qiu Junsong decided to attend and asked her to consult the elders about who would accompany him.
• Venerable Zhiyu received the invitation at the Heavenly Heart Sect, ordered an attendant to investigate which other sects had been invited, and returned to cultivating toward Spirit Transformation.
• Venerable Xunfang received the invitation at the Crimson Firmament Sect, dismissed Xiao Lan’er’s prepared gift boxes to the disciples, and invited her to go with him.

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.