Recaps

Twenty years after losing his Spirit Root and leaving the mountain, Yi Xuan ran a humble weapons stall near the Azure Cloud Sect. When Liu Xing asked about him, Senior Brother Zhao explained how Yi Xuan had once been a gifted disciple before his Spirit Root vanished.

• Yi Xuan lost his position as heir, and the Azure Cloud Sect master severed their master-disciple bond but allowed him to remain a sect disciple.
• Yi Xuan left the mountain, and twenty years later he sold weapons at a stall near the sect.
• Senior Brother Zhao brought newly Foundation-Established Liu Xing to Yi Xuan, who sold him a triangular bayonet for five low-grade Spirit Stones.
• Senior Brother Zhao told Liu Xing that Yi Xuan had once possessed a seventh-grade Spirit Root and reached the twelfth level of Qi Refining in one year.
• Senior Brother Zhao explained that Yi Xuan's Spirit Root disappeared after he spent three years failing to break through to Foundation Establishment.

Liu Xing learned that Yi Xuan was a Rootless Person who had lost his Spirit Root and could not enter Foundation Establishment, while Yi Xuan continued cultivating in secret. After reaching the seventy-ninth layer of Qi Refining, Yi Xuan prepared to reopen his weapons stall.

• Senior Brother Zhao explained that Rootless People lost their Spirit Roots at the twelfth layer and could only keep advancing through Qi Refining, describing how the sect's earlier Rootless Person died of old age at the thirty-sixth layer.
• Liu Xing and Senior Brother Zhao left the market and headed up the mountain, while Yi Xuan returned to his courtyard and cultivated through the heat of the day.
• Yi Xuan broke through to the seventy-ninth layer after two days of cultivation and wondered how the earlier Rootless Person would react to his progress.
• Yi Xuan recalled that he had transmigrated into the Azure Cloud Sect with a seventh-grade Spirit Root, but became a Rootless Person after reaching the thirteenth layer.
• Yi Xuan noted that his cultivation speed had accelerated and that a black-hole-like feature in his Dantian absorbed and concealed most of his True Qi.
• As the sun began to set, Yi Xuan picked up weapons from his courtyard and reopened his stall by the gate.

Yi Xuan bought a transparent sphere from his fugitive senior brother, Shi Zhenghao, and installed it in a computer he had built in a hidden room. With the computer booting successfully, Yi Xuan planned to bring technology to the cultivation world.

• Shi Zhenghao visited Yi Xuan's stall and offered him a transparent sphere, which Yi Xuan bought for five hundred low-grade Spirit Stones.
• Shi Zhenghao left after joking that he cultivated for the sake of women.
• Yi Xuan returned to his courtyard and entered a hidden room filled with objects from another world.
• Yi Xuan placed the sphere in a computer and powered it on, making its screen light up and play music.
• Yi Xuan saw that the computer had booted successfully and decided to introduce technology to the cultivation world.

Yi Xuan used the Book of Technology to pursue a scientific path in the cultivation world, adapting artifact refinement, formations, and Jade Slips to build a computer. He activated Primordial No. 01, an artificial intelligence formed from a blank soul and a program, and prepared to feed it knowledge from the book.

• Yi Xuan discovered that the Book of Technology contained advanced technologies beyond those known in his previous life and resolved to use science to reach the summit of the cultivation world.
• Yi Xuan adapted cultivation-world resources, including artifact refinement, formations, and Spirit Stones, to overcome the lack of technological tools and materials.
• After nearly ten years, Yi Xuan completed his computer and activated Primordial No. 01, which combined his program with a blank soul Shi Zhenghao had obtained from a demonic cultivator.
• Primordial No. 01 completed its self-diagnostics but initially recognized commands only when Yi Xuan used its full name, so Yi Xuan taught it to recognize No. 01 as equivalent.
• Yi Xuan prepared Primordial No. 01 to receive and organize information, using a Jade Slip as the computer's storage and a means to enter knowledge from the Book of Technology.

Yi Xuan finished transferring technical knowledge to the cultivation-world computer, then met Boss Lin about making more money from summer goods. He told Boss Lin he had something better than fans: an air conditioner.

• Yi Xuan transferred basic technical information to the computer and left it to process while he went to sleep.
• Lin Er brought Yi Xuan a chest of more than a thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones from Boss Lin and left after Yi Xuan promised Boss Lin a chance to make money.
• Yi Xuan ate at his usual tavern and left the server a Spirit Stone fragment as payment.
• Yi Xuan visited Boss Lin, advised him again to lose weight, and told him he had something better than fans to sell.
• Boss Lin asked what an air conditioner was after Yi Xuan introduced the idea.

Yi Xuan demonstrated his air conditioner to Boss Lin, who went from doubting the strange device to eagerly wanting to sell it. The chapter ended with Yi Xuan agreeing to let Boss Lin handle the deal, though they had not yet discussed its price.

• Boss Lin tried to ingratiate himself with Yi Xuan, then asked how the air conditioner could make money.
• Yi Xuan showed Boss Lin the air conditioner and ordered the servants to shut all the doors and windows.
• Yi Xuan turned on the air conditioner while Boss Lin doubted that the pillow-shaped device did anything.
• A servant pointed out that the room had become cooler, and Boss Lin realized the air conditioner had relieved the summer heat.
• Boss Lin begged Yi Xuan to let him sell the air conditioner, and Yi Xuan caught him as he pretended to kneel.

Yi Xuan explained the air conditioner's functions and cultivation-based design to Fatty Lin, then discussed how to price it. Fatty Lin proposed selling each unit for five Spirit Stones, and Yi Xuan agreed before returning to his courtyard.

• Yi Xuan explained that the air conditioner could cool rooms in summer, heat them in winter, and dehumidify and purify the air.
• Yi Xuan described how he used formations and Spirit Stones to build the air conditioner without an outdoor unit or refrigerant.
• Yi Xuan proposed selling each air conditioner for one Low-Grade Spirit Stone, explaining its cost and yearly consumption.
• Fatty Lin recognized the product was meant for wealthy buyers and proposed raising the price to five Spirit Stones.
• Yi Xuan accepted Fatty Lin's pricing suggestion, ate dinner at his residence, and returned to his courtyard.

Yi Xuan advised Fatty Lin to share the fan business with other powers to protect his fortune, then tested No. 01’s newly processed knowledge by asking it to design an assistant robot. No. 01 produced a feasible plan, which Yi Xuan saved before leaving it to continue learning.

• Fatty Lin admitted that other powers were pressuring his businesses because his fan sales dominated the market.
• Yi Xuan explained that Fatty Lin should bring the other powers into the fan business, and they agreed to sell the fan technology and share the profits.
• Yi Xuan returned home, cleared the alcohol from his body with True Qi, and went to the secret room to check No. 01.
• No. 01 presented a virtual engineer avatar and generated an assistant robot design after Yi Xuan specified its functions and available technologies.
• Yi Xuan reviewed and saved the feasible plan, gave No. 01 more information to study, and went to bed.

Yi Xuan’s quiet day running his stall was interrupted when Mu Anqing brought word that the sect had ordered him to meet the sect master. A new rule threatened to expel him in six months, and he headed up the mountain to learn why it had been issued.

• Yi Xuan opened his stall and spent the morning waiting for customers in his secluded alley.
• Mu Anqing arrived and told Yi Xuan that the sect master wanted to see him immediately.
• Mu Anqing explained that Qi Refining disciples who failed to reach Foundation Establishment after twenty years would be expelled.
• Yi Xuan realized the rule would affect him in six months and suspected it had been created to target him.
• Yi Xuan left his stall and went to the sect to question the sect master.

Yi Xuan learned that the Azure Cloud Sect’s new rule was aimed at Master Xiao Anhe, not at him, and that the enforcement elder had secretly reached the Nascent Soul Realm. Xiao Anhe began explaining his rivalry with the enforcement elder, leaving the reason for the rule unresolved.

• Mu Anqing told Yi Xuan she had to leave on a mission to hunt a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Demon Beast with three fellow disciples.
• Yi Xuan gave Mu Anqing five strange spheres and instructed her to fill one with True Essence and throw it at an enemy if she faced danger.
• Yi Xuan went to see Xiao Anhe, who reaffirmed that he regarded Yi Xuan as his disciple.
• Xiao Anhe revealed that the enforcement elder had broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm two months earlier.
• Xiao Anhe explained that the new sect rule was aimed at him, then told Yi Xuan that the enforcement elder had once been his only rival for sect master.

Xiao Anhe explained cultivators’ lifespans and recounted how he became sect master after his master died. He revealed that the Enforcement Elder had proposed annihilating a rival sect, a plan later judged more profitable than Xiao Anhe’s approach.

• Yi Xuan joked about the Enforcement Elder’s grim expression, and Xiao Anhe began telling him about the succession a hundred years earlier.
• Xiao Anhe explained the cultivation realms and their lifespans, including how his grandmaster had died after reaching the Golden Core Realm.
• Xiao Anhe promised to seek life-extending pills for Yi Xuan if he ever needed them, and Yi Xuan urged his master to focus on advancing his own cultivation.
• Xiao Anhe described how he and the Enforcement Elder had competed to succeed his master by presenting plans to resolve a sect conflict.
• Xiao Anhe said he had won with a plan that seemed successful, but the sect later realized the Enforcement Elder’s proposal to mobilize the sect and annihilate their rival would have brought greater gains.

Xiao Anhe explained how the Law Enforcement Elder’s resentment stemmed from their opposing visions for the sect and revealed that he had framed Shi Zhenghao to block Xiao Anhe’s branch from the succession. Xiao Anhe stepped down from daily leadership and entered seclusion to pursue the Nascent Soul realm, leaving the Law Enforcement Elder to manage the sect and assuring Yi Xuan he would not be expelled.

• Xiao Anhe told Yi Xuan that the Law Enforcement Elder had resented his cautious leadership after a risky plan to attack a rival sect was rejected.
• Xiao Anhe revealed that the Law Enforcement Elder had framed Shi Zhenghao to drive him away and prevent Xiao Anhe’s branch from producing the next sect master.
• Xiao Anhe explained that he believed the sect needed the Law Enforcement Elder’s leadership to achieve major growth, despite disagreeing with his methods.
• Xiao Anhe promised to protect Yi Xuan from expulsion, then announced he would enter closed-door seclusion until he reached the Nascent Soul realm.
• The Law Enforcement Elder agreed to manage the sect during Xiao Anhe’s seclusion, and Yi Xuan bowed to his master and went down the mountain.

Yi Xuan kept improving No. 01 and his cultivation while living quietly, until sect disciples arrived with a fragment of the grenade he had given Mu Anqing. After learning that Mu Anqing had used it to help kill a powerful Demon Beast and had returned safely, Yi Xuan was asked to sell more grenades.

• Yi Xuan fed No. 01 information and had it optimize a robot design, then cultivated overnight and advanced to the eightieth layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
• A month later, several sect disciples came to Yi Xuan’s stall and showed him a fragment of a grenade he recognized as one he had given Mu Anqing.
• A young man explained that Mu Anqing had used the grenade against a Demon Beast that had advanced to Foundation Establishment Perfection, and its explosion injured the beast enough for the disciples to kill it.
• Yi Xuan learned Mu Anqing had returned safely and gone into seclusion after gaining insights from the battle.
• The young man asked Yi Xuan whether he would sell them grenades.

Yi Xuan sold five grenades to Tang Haoqian at a far higher price than he had planned, then tried to take the day off. The next morning, a crowd of sect disciples arrived with deposits for fifty more grenades, leaving Yi Xuan astonished by how quickly his business had grown.

• Tang Haoqian offered increasingly high prices for Yi Xuan's grenades, and Yi Xuan agreed to sell him five at 110 low-grade Spirit Stones each.
• Yi Xuan packed up his stall after the sale and decided to take the rest of the day off.
• The next morning, more than a dozen sect disciples came to Yi Xuan's courtyard to buy grenades and paid deposits for future orders.
• Yi Xuan collected 5,500 low-grade Spirit Stones in deposits for fifty grenades and wondered whether doing business had become unusually easy.

Yi Xuan stopped taking grenade orders after receiving requests for 150, then sought a way to increase production without making every grenade by hand. With No. 01’s help, he devised a mold-based mass-production plan and prepared to make the molds using his improved artifact-refining cauldron.

• Yi Xuan turned away disciples who wanted to order grenades, explaining that he had too many orders to fulfill and would accept more once production improved.
• Yi Xuan calculated that making all 150 grenades by hand would take five months, while an automated production line was beyond his current capabilities.
• Yi Xuan asked No. 01 to display information about the True Essence Grenade and find a way to increase production.
• No. 01 proposed using molds to make grenade components, allowing Yi Xuan to focus on assembling them.
• Yi Xuan refined the production plan with No. 01, copied the mold designs into his mind, and started his improved artifact-refining cauldron.

Yi Xuan refined precise molds and spent the night upgrading his artifact refining cauldron with automated controls and mechanical arms. He tested it by producing ten identical grenade parts, confirming that the modified cauldron worked.

• Yi Xuan used the cauldron’s fire-control system and his Divine Sense to make precise black iron molds.
• After making the remaining molds, Yi Xuan worked through the night to upgrade the cauldron’s controls and machinery.
• Yi Xuan added automatic material and cooling controls, mold storage, a vat for molten metal, and four hydraulic mechanical arms.
• Yi Xuan selected a grenade-part mold and set the material and quantity on the cauldron’s screen.
• The cauldron completed the test and produced ten identical parts.

Yi Xuan confirmed his artifact refining cauldron could reliably produce grenade parts and began making grenades in batches. After cultivating to the eighty-first level of the Qi Refining Realm, he hired Liang Shi to deliver notices to customers, leaving the boy with his sect token to enter the Azure Cloud Sect.

• Yi Xuan assembled ten grenades from parts made by the cauldron and calculated that he could earn 3,300 Low-Grade Spirit Stones a day if he had enough orders.
• Yi Xuan cultivated through the night and reached the eighty-first level of the Qi Refining Realm.
• Yi Xuan found another batch of parts finished, replenished the cauldron, and assembled more grenades faster than before.
• Yi Xuan met Liang Shi near his courtyard and offered him work delivering notices to grenade customers.
• Yi Xuan gave Liang Shi the order sheet and his sect token so he could notify customers inside the Azure Cloud Sect, then went to find breakfast.

Yi Xuan sold his first batch of grenades and hired Liang Shi to help notify customers. As demand kept outpacing his daily sales, Yi Xuan complained that the business was highway robbery.

• Yi Xuan handed out thirty grenades to the customers who had placed orders.
• Liang Shi returned with the list of customers he had notified, and Yi Xuan tested his honesty by offering him a large silver ingot.
• Liang Shi suggested that one tael was fair payment, so Yi Xuan let him keep the ingot and told him to notify more customers each day.
• Yi Xuan sold thirty grenades daily, but new orders kept piling up even after he filled the earlier ones.
• Liang Shi continued helping Yi Xuan contact customers as the grenades brought in more Spirit Stones and demand grew.

After two months of selling grenades, Yi Xuan had earned a fortune with Liang Shi’s help and given Mu Anqing more grenades after scolding her for taking a reckless risk. A powerful young disciple named Li then confronted Yi Xuan and demanded the grenade-making method, revealing that he was the enforcement elder’s grandson.

• Yi Xuan had Liang Shi deliver grenades to customers, and Liang Shi used his earnings to buy a courtyard near Yi Xuan’s alley.
• Mu Anqing visited after reaching the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and Yi Xuan rebuked her for risking a grenade before giving her five more for free.
• More than ten people arrived at Yi Xuan’s courtyard, with their leader holding Liang Shi by the collar until Yi Xuan intervened.
• The leader showed Yi Xuan a grenade and demanded that he name a price and hand over the method for making them.
• The leader’s attendant identified him as Young Master Li, and Li revealed that the enforcement elder was his grandfather.

Yi Xuan placated Young Master Li, who wanted to take over his grenade business, and bought time by inviting him to lunch. Over the meal, Yi Xuan claimed the business was costly to expand and described the huge profits it could bring, leaving Young Master Li astonished.

• Yi Xuan decided to appease Young Master Li while he looked for a way out of the situation.
• Yi Xuan invited Young Master Li and his companions to lunch, then sent Liang Shi away safely.
• Yi Xuan treated Young Master Li to a lavish meal at the Ascend to Immortality Abode.
• Yi Xuan claimed each grenade cost one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones to make and said he could produce only thirty a day with his special artifact-refining furnace.
• Yi Xuan told Young Master Li that more furnaces could let him sell grenades throughout the Southern Frontier, and Young Master Li was startled by the potential income.

Yi Xuan persuaded Young Master Li to fund his grenade business by promising him a large share of the profits and handling production while Li Jingming managed sales. With Li Jingming’s investment and protection, Yi Xuan planned to expand production and research more inventions.

• Young Master Li became excited by Yi Xuan’s claim that grenade sales could earn ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones a day.
• Yi Xuan convinced Young Master Li to invest in expanding production and sell the grenades through his own channels.
• Yi Xuan offered to take only five percent of the profits, and Young Master Li agreed to invest two hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• The next morning, Young Master Li’s lackey delivered twenty Mid-Grade Spirit Stones and said Li Jingming would provide more money if needed.
• After the lackey left, Yi Xuan saw Li Jingming’s funding and influence as protection for his business and a way to pursue further research.

Yi Xuan taught Liang Shi to assemble grenades and told him he wanted him to become independent rather than rely on him. He then went to the Scripture Pavilion to research Rootless People and investigate his unusually rapid cultivation, leaving the Supreme Elder guarding the entrance.

• Yi Xuan ignored Liang Shi for a month, prompting Liang Shi to visit and ask why he had been pushed away.
• Yi Xuan explained that he wanted Liang Shi to stop depending on him and trained him to assemble a grenade.
• Yi Xuan revealed that he had reached Qi Refining, Eighty-Sixth Layer after only five cultivation sessions in two months.
• Yi Xuan went to the Scripture Pavilion to look for more information about Rootless People.
• The Supreme Elder recognized Yi Xuan's excuse for visiting and let him slip into the Scripture Pavilion.

Yi Xuan searched the Scripture Repository for information about Rootless Persons and discovered that a predecessor had created a Cultivation Method called the Spirit Refining Instruction. The Supreme Elder confirmed that the method could let Rootless Persons cultivate, but warned Yi Xuan not to get his hopes up and told him where to find it.

• Yi Xuan searched the repository’s records for two days but found no other Rootless Person besides the predecessor he already knew about.
• Yi Xuan reread the predecessor’s Jade Slip and noticed a passage describing the Spirit Refining Instruction, a Cultivation Method created for Rootless Persons.
• Yi Xuan hurried to the Supreme Elder and asked whether the Spirit Refining Instruction could really let Rootless Persons cultivate.
• The Supreme Elder confirmed that it could, but warned Yi Xuan not to expect much and directed him to a book in the northeast corner of the repository’s first floor.

Yi Xuan learned that the Spirit Refining Instruction strengthened Divine Sense through visualization and mental hammering, rather than increasing cultivation. When he tried the method, the first blow jolted him out of his inner vision, and the Supreme Elder laughed, leaving Yi Xuan to discover why nobody had succeeded.

• Yi Xuan read the Spirit Refining Instruction and learned how a Rootless Person had developed it to cultivate Divine Sense after failing to advance through ordinary cultivation.
• Yi Xuan questioned the method’s safety because damaging Divine Sense could have severe consequences.
• The Supreme Elder told Yi Xuan that people discovered the method every year, but none had ever successfully cultivated it.
• Yi Xuan visualized a block of iron and a hammer, then struck the block with the hammer.
• The blow exploded in Yi Xuan’s head and forced him out of inner vision, while the Supreme Elder laughed.

Yi Xuan took the Spirit Refining Instruction home, determined to follow the example of the sect senior who had mastered it through sheer willpower. After discovering Liang Shi’s talent for assembling grenades, Yi Xuan returned to his workshop and hit on the idea of using a 3D printer to expand production beyond grenades.

• The Supreme Elder told Yi Xuan that a sect senior had cultivated the Spirit Refining Instruction until his Divine Sense matched that of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, and guessed the senior had succeeded through willpower.
• Yi Xuan borrowed the Spirit Refining Instruction and returned to his courtyard, where Liang Shi had spent two days practicing with grenade parts.
• Liang Shi assembled a grenade accurately in under nine minutes, surpassing Yi Xuan’s own assembly speed.
• Yi Xuan told Liang Shi to come each morning to assemble grenades, then restarted his artifact-refining cauldrons and updated No. 01.
• After worrying that grenade production would occupy all his workshop capacity, Yi Xuan thought of making a 3D printer.