Chapter Summaries

After Old Shen’s death, Qin Fei stayed wary of the Lin Household while helping Tang Zhan and Xu Meiniang prepare for their child’s arrival. Their celebration at the Gathering Immortals Pavilion was interrupted by a battle between the Lin and Lu Household ancestors, forcing Qin Fei and his companions to fight Lu Household attackers and protect Meiniang.

• A newcomer told Qin Fei that the Lin Household had tricked Old Shen into a fatal clash with the Lu Household, leaving Qin Fei worried he might be used the same way.
• Qin Fei brought spirit herbs to the chamber of commerce and suggested the names Tang Ping'an and Tang Lening for Tang Zhan and Xu Meiniang’s unborn child.
• The group set out for the Gathering Immortals Pavilion, but a Foundation Establishment battle between the Lin and Lu Household ancestors erupted nearby.
• Lu Household men attacked the group; Old Zhang stayed behind with Qin Fei and Wang Hu while Tang Zhan escorted Xu Meiniang away.
• Wang Hu drew three attackers into his golden alms bowl, and Qin Fei and Old Zhang prepared to hold off the remaining two.

Qin Fei and Old Zhang fought the Lu Household cultivators with the help of an arsenal of puppets and talismans, turning the battle against their stronger opponents. Qin Fei killed the long-bearded cultivator, and Wang Hu emerged from the golden bowl carrying two severed heads as another enemy fled.

• Qin Fei summoned Flame Martial Guards and two Desolate Rock Ghost Pythons, while the Lu Household cultivators split up to attack him and Old Zhang.
• A Flame Martial Envoy protected Old Zhang, who overwhelmed the scar-faced man by hurling talismans at him until he was blasted to pieces.
• The long-bearded man attacked Qin Fei with a silver mirror, but Qin Fei sheltered inside the Crimson Flame Shield as his puppets counterattacked.
• The long-bearded man tried to flee, but Qin Fei’s python delayed him and a flying sword pierced his brow after a bell disrupted his movements.
• Wang Hu burst out of the golden bowl carrying two severed heads, while another Lu Household cultivator fled and Wang Hu shouted after him.

After Qin Fei and his companions rescued Tang Zhan and Xu Meiniang, they decided to lie low and seek Senior Caiyi’s help against the Lu Household. Back at his secluded scrapyard, Qin Fei found advanced Technique Methods in a captured Storage Bag and considered how to break through to Late Qi Refining before the Lu Household retaliated.

• Qin Fei, Wang Hu, and Old Zhang killed the fleeing cultivator, then hurried to help Tang Zhan.
• Qin Fei and his companions joined Tang Zhan’s fight and killed all three Lu Household cultivators attacking him.
• Tang Zhan thanked them, and the group agreed to hide and notify Senior Caiyi after discussing the Lu Household’s likely retaliation.
• Qin Fei returned to the puppet scrapyard, examined a captured Storage Bag, and tested a powerful silver mirror Law Artifact.
• Qin Fei found a Jade Slip containing advanced Technique Methods and sent messages to Tang Zhan and Wang Hu to ask about breaking through to Late Qi Refining.

Qin Fei sought more Stage-Breaking Pills while the Lu Household faced a growing threat from Yama Hall. He and Wang Hu entered a hidden black-market passage to negotiate with an alchemist.

• Qin Fei asked Tang Zhan and Wang Hu to search for Stage-Breaking Pills as he cultivated and studied patterns recorded from scrapped puppets.
• A Foundation Establishment cultivator attacked Lu Tianchou, and Lu Household Ancestors confronted him over provoking Yama Hall; Lu Tianchou defied his father and left.
• Tang Zhan obtained two Stage-Breaking Pills, while Wang Hu found one for sale and learned that its seller was an alchemist who might refine more.
• Qin Fei posted a Yama Hall task offering five hundred Spirit Stones per pill and went with Wang Hu to negotiate with the black-market seller.
• Wang Hu presented a token at a secluded pawnshop, paid the gatekeeper, and led Qin Fei through a hidden doorway into the black market.

Qin Fei and Wang Hu tracked down an alchemist who could refine Stage-Breaking Pills and discovered he was raising Gu in an attempt to prolong his mother's life. When his transformed mother attacked and swallowed his head, Qin Fei destroyed her and kept the alchemist alive for the pills.

• Wang Hu told Qin Fei that the black market had been established by a Foundation Establishment cultivator connected to the Azure Wood Palace.
• The alchemist refused Wang Hu's request to refine Stage-Breaking Pills, so Qin Fei and Wang Hu left and watched the stall until its owner departed.
• Qin Fei and Wang Hu followed the alchemist to his hut and saw him feed his Gu-infected mother a bowl of insect eggs.
• The old woman transformed and swallowed the alchemist's head, prompting Qin Fei to destroy her with the Still Water Sword while Wang Hu blasted the escaping Gu insects.
• Qin Fei stabilized the alchemist, who slowly opened his eyes.

Qin Fei obtained ten Stage-Breaking Pills after the death of the pill-refining man and entered secluded cultivation while Shangyu Market and the secret realm grew more dangerous. The chapter left Yunxiu trapped in Qin Fei’s mist-covered puppet scrapyard after her pursuers were killed, with a path opening before her.

• The pill-refining man used his remaining vitality to refine five Stage-Breaking Pills for Qin Fei, then died after refusing treatment.
• Qin Fei and Wang Hu buried the man, and Qin Fei returned to the puppet scrapyard with the pills.
• Qin Fei received two more Stage-Breaking Pills from Tang Zhan and obtained three through the Yama Pendant, bringing his total to ten before entering secluded cultivation.
• Fairy Caiyi and Daoist Fuchen contended in the secret realm’s core region, then Fairy Caiyi rushed ahead toward its treasures as other cultivators followed.
• Yunxiu fled into the puppet scrapyard, where a thick mist killed her pursuers and then opened a narrow path before her.

Qin Fei broke through to Late Qi Refining after using nine Stage-Breaking Pills, then refused Yunxiu’s request to help claim the Heavenly Secrets Sect’s secret-realm treasures. As Yunxiu recovered at his scrapyard, she recognized markings on his discarded puppets as characters unique to her sect, prompting Qin Fei to ask if she could read them.

• Yunxiu arrived at Qin Fei’s courtyard and was astonished to find that he had reached Late Qi Refining.
• Qin Fei recalled how he used nine Stage-Breaking Pills to break through and discovered that his Spiritual Power and divine soul had greatly improved.
• Yunxiu revealed that she had publicized the secret realm’s location after finding the Lin and Lu Households occupying the former Heavenly Secrets Sect ruins.
• Yunxiu urged Qin Fei to help her reach the secret realm’s core and offered to share its treasures, but he refused and invited her to recover at his scrapyard instead.
• While staying there, Yunxiu recognized the discarded puppets as belonging to her sect and identified their unique markings, so Qin Fei asked whether she could read the characters.

Qin Fei learned the strange seal script from Yunxiu before she left, but he could not yet decipher how to arrange the characters. He then joined his friends to celebrate Tiezhu’s breakthrough and discovered that he too had reached Late Qi Refining.

• Qin Fei persuaded Yunxiu to teach him her sect’s small seal script, and he recorded and memorized the characters while she recovered.
• Yunxiu left to travel to the secret realm, and Qin Fei returned to studying the characters but could not determine their proper order.
• Tang Zhan told Qin Fei that Tiezhu had reached Late Qi Refining, and Qin Fei went to celebrate with their friends at the Gathering Immortals Pavilion.
• Qin Fei’s friends sensed that he had also reached Late Qi Refining and celebrated their team’s growing strength.
• The group shared cultivation insights over a meal, then raised their cups and toasted to the hope of becoming Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Wang Hu explained the resources needed for Foundation Establishment as Qin Fei and the others discussed the dangerous struggle around the Heavenly Secrets Sect’s hundred-story tower. Back at the puppet scrapyard, Qin Fei received a mandatory Underworld Bureau task ordering him to map the tower in three days.

• Wang Hu told Qin Fei and the others that Foundation Establishment required abundant Spiritual Qi, materials to nourish Spirit Roots, and a Foundation Establishment Pill, whose scarcity and low breakthrough odds discouraged the group.
• The group discussed the secret realm’s tower and learned that Daoist Fuchen had forced Fairy Caiyi onto the defensive before the Foundation Establishment cultivators turned their attention to the tower.
• Qin Fei urged everyone to prepare for Foundation Establishment so they could protect themselves amid the conflict between Shangyu Market’s great lineages.
• Qin Fei returned to the puppet scrapyard and used the Yama Pendant to post tasks seeking metal, wood, water, and fire spiritual materials for his Spirit Roots.
• The Yama Pendant assigned Qin Fei a mandatory task to assemble with Underworld Bureau Seventy-Seven at the Heavenly Mystery Secret Realm in three days and map the tower’s structure and murals, warning that Impermanence would reclaim the pendant if he refused.

Qin Fei reluctantly accepted Yama Hall’s mandatory mission to document the hundred-story tower in the Heavenly Mystery Secret Realm and prepared for the dangerous trip. After arriving, he discovered a gu cultivator from his past was targeting him, but the Impermanence Envoy assigned them to separate teams and warned everyone against disrupting the mission.

• Qin Fei learned that he could not refuse his mandatory Yama Hall mission, so he planned to enter the secret realm, record the tower, and leave without pursuing treasures.
• Qin Fei upgraded the Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion, unlocked a handheld game console puppet, and stocked up on medicines, pills, talismans, and formations before departing.
• Qin Fei arrived at a remote valley in the secret realm wearing the Seventy-Seven mask and learned from Fifty-Eight that an Impermanence Envoy would lead the mission.
• The Impermanence Envoy arrived with two Underworld Bureau members, including the gu cultivator Qin Fei recognized as the man who had raised a gu using his own mother.
• Qin Fei found and erased the hidden mark the gu cultivator had placed on him, then told the Impermanence Envoy that they had an old grievance.
• The Impermanence Envoy assigned Qin Fei to partner with Fifty-Eight, placed the gu cultivator on another team, and warned everyone not to fight or interfere with the mission.

Qin Fei and Fifty-Eight entered the tower and began recording its murals and unusual floor tiles for Yama Hall. Qin Fei realized the murals’ inscriptions formed fragments of a Cultivation Method, while a floor mechanism teleported the Gu insect cultivator away when he attacked.

• Qin Fei and Fifty-Eight flew to the tower, entered its first-floor hall, and found Rogue Cultivators unable to proceed farther.
• Qin Fei and Fifty-Eight divided Yama Hall’s recording task, with Qin Fei studying the four murals and Fifty-Eight examining the jade floor squares.
• Qin Fei recognized the murals’ markings as the special seal script Yunxiu had explained and realized the four inscriptions formed part of a Cultivation Method.
• The Gu insect cultivator confronted Qin Fei over the death of his Gu insect and charged at him with white maggots.
• The Gu insect cultivator vanished after touching a jade square, and Qin Fei turned to the Rogue Cultivators to learn how the floor mechanism worked.

Qin Fei discovered that the tower’s jade tiles followed the same solution as the Heavenly Secrets Sect’s Inheritance Wooden Lock, allowing him to climb floors without being randomly transported. He reached the second floor, recorded its murals and layout, and left by stepping onto a jade tile to continue exploring.

• Fifty-Eight learned from the Rogue Cultivators that the tower’s jade tiles randomly transported anyone who stepped incorrectly, and that only a flawless climb from the first floor could reach the top.
• Fifty-Eight was transported away after several successful steps, prompting Qin Fei to realize the floor pattern matched the Inheritance Wooden Lock laid flat.
• Qin Fei forced the remaining Rogue Cultivators out of the first-floor hall so he could test his solution without witnesses.
• Qin Fei followed the correct sequence through the first floor and entered the second floor before another cultivator appeared.
• Qin Fei drew the second floor’s layout and murals, noted the order of four more characters, and stepped onto a jade tile to continue.

Qin Fei completed his mural-mapping task, evaded the Gu worm cultivator with a puppet, and secretly climbed the hundred-floor tower. He reached the final floor, where he found Fairy Caiyi waiting in the safe zone.

• Qin Fei reported mapping 105 floors to the Impermanence Envoy, who accepted the task as complete and let everyone go.
• The Gu worm cultivator attacked a black-robed figure, but the figure exploded into a puppet and destroyed his Gu worms.
• Qin Fei returned to the tower and began waiting for empty floors so he could climb without being seen.
• As fewer cultivators explored the tower, Qin Fei climbed faster and reached the 108th floor three months later.
• Qin Fei saw Fairy Caiyi sitting cross-legged in the final floor's safe zone.

Qin Fei was trapped at the secret realm’s bronze door while Fairy Caiyi waited nearby, but a barbarian attack on Shangyu Market forced her to leave. Alone at last, Qin Fei deciphered the murals and uncovered the Creation Spirit-Bestowing Scripture.

• Fairy Caiyi recognized Qin Fei, stayed by the bronze door, and spent a month answering some of his cultivation questions while he waited for a chance to investigate.
• Fairy Caiyi learned that the Barbarian Tribe’s army had reached Shangyu Market and left to help defend the city, warning Qin Fei to stay behind.
• Qin Fei worried about his friends in the city, then examined the final mural and arranged its characters in the correct order.
• A brilliant light appeared in Qin Fei’s sea of consciousness, revealing an ancient book titled the Creation Spirit-Bestowing Scripture.

Qin Fei used the Heavenly Mystery Key to pass through the bronze door and discovered a hidden space containing a vast pool and the Heavenly Mystery Elder’s offerings. After finding a concealed exit, he left with the offerings and the pool’s spirit liquid, gaining a secluded place for his puppet factory.

• Qin Fei used the Heavenly Mystery Key to open the bronze door and entered after sending puppets to scout ahead.
• Qin Fei followed a winding path through the fog to a pool of strange spirit liquid, then found the Heavenly Mystery Elder’s portrait, a metal-headed yellow dog, a bone, and bamboo slips.
• Qin Fei activated the bone with Spiritual Power and discovered a separate space containing a ruined cottage named Puppet Abode, which he planned to use for his puppet factory.
• Qin Fei kowtowed before the offering table, causing an arched exit to appear, then collected the objects and thanked the Heavenly Mystery Elder.
• Qin Fei used the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse to drain the pool of spirit liquid and left through the archway.

Qin Fei escaped the Barbarian Tribe’s capture of the secret realm and returned to Shangyu Market, where Daoist Fuchen took control and ordered the city sealed. Qin Fei tried to leave with his friends, but they found the city gate closed and heavily guarded.

• Qin Fei learned that the Barbarian Tribe’s attack on Shangyu Market had been a feint to seize the secret realm, and he fled through the chaos.
• Daoist Fuchen took charge of Shangyu Market, ordered a counterattack, and sealed the city so no one could leave.
• Qin Fei returned to his courtyard, packed away his puppets, and decided to leave Shangyu Market because he feared the city could fall.
• Tang Zhan, Tiezhu, Xu Meiniang, Old Zhang, and Wang Hu joined Qin Fei as he prepared to leave.
• Qin Fei and his companions reached the city gate and found it shut, with guards enforcing the order that no one could leave.

Shangyu Market sealed its gates and conscripted its registered Rogue Cultivators as war with the barbarians loomed. After Fairy Caiyi secured safer duties for Qin Fei and his companions, Qin Fei refined his mustard seed space and was visited by the blood-stained Yunxiu, who offered him a great fortuitous opportunity.

• Tiezhu learned that the Lin and Lu Households had sealed Shangyu Market because war was imminent and registered Rogue Cultivators would be conscripted.
• Qin Fei gave Tiezhu puppet balls for protection, then returned to the puppet scrapyard after accepting that he could not flee.
• Shangyu Market announced that all registered Rogue Cultivators had to defend against and counterattack the barbarian army, while a military merit exchange offered valuable rewards.
• Fairy Caiyi arranged relatively safe assignments for Qin Fei and the others, though Tiezhu was tasked with escorting supplies to the front lines.
• Qin Fei refined his mustard seed space so its puppets could work while stored inside, then discovered Yunxiu at his array.
• Yunxiu arrived covered in blood and told Qin Fei that she had a great fortuitous opportunity for him.

Yunxiu offered Qin Fei several Heavenly Secrets Sect inheritances in exchange for help escaping Shangyu Market, and he agreed before secretly hiding her in the Mustard Seed Space. Qin Fei cultivated the Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eye with Clear Spirit Liquid, then installed the Puppet Core in the big yellow dog, which suddenly came to life.

• Yunxiu told Qin Fei she had obtained the Heavenly Secrets Sect's inheritance from the Barbarian Tribe's region and asked him to get her out of the city.
• Yunxiu showed Qin Fei the Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eye, a Puppet Core, and half of the Foundation Establishment Pill Formula, and he agreed to help her.
• Qin Fei knocked Yunxiu unconscious and hid her in the Mustard Seed Space, then erased the traces of her visit as Lin Household officers searched the puppet scrap yard.
• Qin Fei cultivated the Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eye and used Clear Spirit Liquid to enhance it, allowing him to see Spiritual Qi and the Black Tortoise Breath-Concealing Array's weak points.
• Qin Fei found a recess beneath the big yellow dog's fur and inserted the Puppet Core, causing the dog's head to jerk upright as it barked.

Qin Fei learned the big yellow dog's origins and made a pact with him before taking command of Jia Sixteen Squad. The squad members doubted their new captain, but Qin Fei's response left them wondering whether he had overheard their private transmissions.

• Qin Fei questioned the big yellow dog and learned that the Heavenly Mystery Elder had saved the aging pet by placing his soul in a puppet and giving him flesh and blood.
• After learning the Heavenly Secrets Sect had been destroyed, the big yellow dog begged Qin Fei to keep him and offered to find treasures that could nourish Qin Fei's Spirit Root.
• Qin Fei and the dog made a Blood Pact, and Qin Fei planted a soul mark in the dog's mind.
• Three days later, Qin Fei reported for patrol duty and was assigned to lead Jia Sixteen Squad after its captain died in an encounter with barbarian soldiers.
• The squad's four injured members doubted Qin Fei's ability, but he assured them he would not lead them to their deaths, making them suspect he had heard their voice transmissions.

Qin Fei led Jia Sixteen on patrol and used Big Yellow’s senses and his own techniques to avoid danger, gather spirit herbs, and locate the barbarian troops. After revealing that their camp was a decoy and drawing out the hidden soldiers with puppets, Qin Fei announced that he had counted them and led the team away.

• Qin Fei led the patrol team to the valley where their previous captain had died, and Big Yellow’s warning helped him confirm the valley was safe.
• Qin Fei entered the poisonous miasma alone, found Fire Network Grass with his Illusion-Breaking Spirit Eye, then hid the sleeping Yunxiu in a tree hollow before returning to the team.
• Big Yellow located several more five-element spirit herbs, which Qin Fei collected as the team followed the barbarian traces.
• Qin Fei stopped the team at a gorge and used Wooden Kites to discover a silent camp that appeared to be the barbarian troops’ main base.
• Qin Fei sent two rock serpents to destroy the empty camp, drawing hidden barbarian soldiers out of the forest, then said he knew their numbers and ordered the team to leave.