Recaps

Lu Ping refined pills, advanced to the second layer of Qi Refining, and inadvertently helped the Greenwood Sect profit by turning his poisonous cave into an isolation facility. The chapter ended when he had to choose whether to pay for a pre-exam intensive course or pursue another option.

• Ding Thirteen bought the Spirit-Eroding Powder Formula, failed to refine an improved Poison Essence Pill, and preserved part of its medicinal properties.
• Lu Ping refined and consumed Qi-Replenishing Pills, used them to break through to the second layer of Qi Refining, and reviewed his growing debts and limited savings.
• Lu Ping refined more pills and drove disciples from nearby cave abodes, prompting an Alchemy Hall deacon to rent the vacated caves as expensive isolation abodes.
• An Alchemy Hall instructor told the students that pill refining required certification, and a deacon presented Lu Ping with a ten-Spirit-Stone intensive course fee.
• Lu Ping faced options to enroll, refuse the course, or start a paid class of his own.

Lu Ping used cheap substitute herbs to refine inferior Spirit-Eroding Powder, concealed his growing cultivation, and kept borrowing to fund his training while struggling under debt. After five years of service, he renewed his loan, earned a workplace trait, and learned that the Alchemy Hall would buy his effective pills back as defective goods because he lacked a license.

• Lu Ping refused a deacon’s demand for ten Spirit Stones, then used substitute herbs and his traits to make inferior Spirit-Eroding Powder and hide his cultivation breakthroughs behind a weak facade.
• Lu Ping continued studying, cultivating, and refining pills while rumors spread about him; he gained the Workstation Dust and Plant Killer traits and took on more debt to rent a standard Pill Furnace.
• At four years of service, Lu Ping reached the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining and renewed his loan rather than slowing his cultivation.
• At five years of service, Lu Ping gained the Workplace People-Pleaser trait and became able to refine Qi-Replenishing Pills cheaply, but he could not legally sell them.
• An Alchemy Hall deacon rejected Lu Ping’s effective pills as defective goods and offered only twenty percent of their price because Lu Ping lacked a license.

Lu Ping refused the Alchemy Hall deacon’s costly crash course and entered the First-Rank Registered Alchemist examination with inferior ingredients. He successfully produced stable Grain Avoidance Pills and Qi-Replenishing Pills, leaving the examiner to record his result.

• Lu Ping refused to borrow fifty Spirit Stones for the final intensive class, trusting his alchemy skills and experience with poor ingredients.
• At the examination, the Heavenly Certification Alliance examiner marked Lu Ping’s name because he had skipped intensive classes, while the supplied herbs proved exceptionally poor.
• Several examinees, including the veteran disciple who had mocked Lu Ping, failed to make usable pills and were told to retake the exam.
• Lu Ping activated Artisan Spirit and Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement, then produced stable batches of Grain Avoidance Pills and Qi-Replenishing Pills.
• The examiner found no rule to disqualify Lu Ping and wrote two words in the register.

After passing the First-Rank Alchemist examination, Lu Ping paid off his debts and thought his life in the Greenwood Sect was finally improving. Sect Master Han Changqing then confronted him over a peculiar Spirit Stone and revealed that Lu Ping had unknowingly served as bait in a five-year investigation.

• Lu Ping passed the First-Rank Alchemist examination and sold his accumulated pills, settling his debts and leaving himself seven Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Han Changqing silently broke into Lu Ping's cave abode and questioned him about a Spirit Stone from the Black Tiger Gang's storehouse.
• Lu Ping admitted where he had found the Spirit Stone and offered his alchemy insights in exchange for the sect master's trust.
• Han Changqing listed Lu Ping's unusual skills and circumstances, then said he had used Lu Ping as bait for five years without attracting any contact.
• Han Changqing concluded that someone behind Lu Ping was either extremely cautious or that Lu Ping did not know what he was carrying.

Lu Ping fought Han Changqing after learning that the Spirit Stone was a prohibited Demonic Spirit Stone, but Han's hidden Golden Core-level Divine Sense shattered Lu Ping's weapon and left his Dantian cracked. As Han prepared to kill him, Lu Ping faced another set of choices.

• Han Changqing revealed that the Spirit Stone was a Demonic Spirit Stone and accused Lu Ping of ties to the demonic cult.
• Lu Ping rejected surrender and unleashed the poison he had planted throughout his cave abode, using his traits to attack Han Changqing.
• Lu Ping wounded Han Changqing with Spirit-Eroding Powder and a short blade, but a Golden Core-level Divine Sense broke the blade and sent him crashing into the Pill Furnace.
• Han Changqing approached the badly injured Lu Ping and said he would send the Azure Cloud Sect a corpse.
• Lu Ping received three options: beg for mercy, detonate the remaining poison pills, or invoke his First-Rank Alchemist certification.

After Han Changqing killed Lu Ping in the simulation, Jiang Mutian’s hidden Divine Sense killed Han Changqing, and Lu Ping inherited the simulation’s cultivation and memories. Back in the real world, Lu Ping received a mission to join the Greenwood Sect and headed toward the rear courtyard, where gang members stopped him.

• Han Changqing crushed Lu Ping’s hand and chest, but blood opened the storage ring Jiang Mutian had left him.
• Jiang Mutian’s Divine Sense appeared, erased the Golden Core Divine Sense, and killed Han Changqing before fading away.
• Lu Ping died at twenty-five, then awoke in the woodshed with fifth-layer Qi Refining cultivation, new skills, traits, and seven years of memories.
• Lu Ping saw a mission requiring him to become a formal Greenwood Sect disciple, and decided he still had to take the job.
• Lu Ping left the woodshed and approached the rear courtyard storeroom, where a guarding gang member told him to stop.

Lu Ping retrieved a Demonic Spirit Stone and a token from the Black Tiger Gang’s warehouse, then confronted the Gang Leader about their origins. After learning the gang had looted them from a corpse at Sunset Glow Village and enslaved him, Lu Ping crushed the Gang Leader and his two deputies in a single burst of spiritual power.

• Lu Ping subdued the warehouse guards, took the Demonic Spirit Stone and token, and left the five hundred taels of silver behind.
• The bearded man escorted Lu Ping to a feast at the main hall, where the Gang Leader, Zhao Tiezhu, and Qian Cuihua waited with gang members lying in ambush.
• Lu Ping placed the two items on the table and questioned the Gang Leader about where they had come from.
• The Gang Leader admitted that the Black Tiger Gang had taken the items from a black-robed corpse at Sunset Glow Village and had captured Lu Ping as a survivor.
• The Gang Leader ordered an attack, but Lu Ping’s spiritual power killed him, Zhao Tiezhu, and Qian Cuihua in a single breath.

Lu Ping killed the Black Tiger Gang’s three leaders and took control, then discovered the gang’s Greenwood Sect Ascension Token and ordered the Mine slaves freed. The chapter ended with the slaves hearing Hu Dayou announce that their slave status had been abolished.

• Lu Ping subdued the gang members, punished four hidden crossbowmen, and ordered Hu Dayou to conceal the leaders’ deaths.
• Hu Dayou gathered the gang’s wealth and hidden possessions, including an Ascension Token that let someone at the first level of Qi Refining enter the Greenwood Sect as an Outer Sect Disciple.
• Lu Ping kept the Ascension Token and a manual called “Thousand-Hand Guanyin,” seeing potential in its hidden-weapon techniques.
• Lu Ping ordered Hu Dayou to bring the Mine slaves to the main courtyard.
• Hu Dayou announced that the Mine slaves were free, and the gathered slaves stared at one another in disbelief.

Lu Ping freed the Black Tiger Gang’s mine slaves, put Hu Dayou in charge under new rules, and treated Uncle Sun’s injured leg. He then forged weapons and began refining pills in the gang’s courtyard.

• Hu Dayou announced that the mine slaves could leave with silver and rations or stay for new arrangements, and the slaves beat the triangular-eyed overseer to death after Uncle Sun struck him with a whip.
• Lu Ping ordered Hu Dayou to run the Black Tiger Gang without slaves and to replace mine slavery with paid labor that allowed workers to eat, receive treatment, or leave.
• Lu Ping treated Uncle Sun’s leg and appointed him to watch the gang’s accounts under Hu Dayou.
• Lu Ping forged twelve throwing knives and a short saber, then converted the forge into a makeshift Alchemy Chamber.
• Lu Ping refined five nearly perfect Body Tempering Pills, but his first three batches of Qi-Replenishing Pills failed.

Lu Ping left the Black Tiger Gang after discovering he could not sustain cultivation there, then traveled toward the Greenwood Sect while improving his flying-knife techniques. He killed a Spirit-Maned Wild Boar that had once chased him in a simulation and ended the chapter looking toward the cliffs where Jiang Mutian would face trouble in a year.

• Lu Ping failed to refine Qi-Replenishing Pills and gave Hu Dayou Body Tempering Pills, helping him advance to the Middle Stage and promising more that could take him to the Late Stage.
• Hu Dayou vowed to serve Lu Ping, and Lu Ping asked him to keep the Black Tiger Gang's people alive; Lu Ping also prepared ordinary nourishing pills for Uncle Sun.
• Lu Ping left the Black Tiger Gang quietly with supplies and headed north, sensing slightly more Spiritual Qi in the mountains than at the gang's base.
• Lu Ping practiced Thousand-Hand Guanyin for seven days, using spiritual power and poison to strengthen his flying knives.
• A Spirit-Maned Wild Boar charged Lu Ping, and he killed it with a fingertip strike before harvesting its meat and materials.
• Lu Ping looked toward the southwest cliffs where Jiang Mutian had encountered trouble in the simulation.

Lu Ping reached Greenwood Market and used his Ascension Token to join the Greenwood Sect as an Outer Sect Disciple. His job-switching mission was completed, unlocking a third simulation attempt, a trait draw, and the ability to change traits in the real world.

• Lu Ping spent half a month gathering herbs and refining an inferior Spirit-Eroding Powder that lowered his cultivation to the first level of Qi Refining.
• Lu Ping reached Greenwood Market and hired Ma San to guide him to the External Affairs Hall.
• Lu Ping presented his Ascension Token to Liu Cheng and said he had obtained it as an Attendant of the Black Tiger Gang.
• Liu Cheng confirmed the token was genuine and registered Lu Ping as a Greenwood Sect Outer Sect Disciple.
• Lu Ping's system completed the job-switching mission and offered him the choice to begin a life simulation.

Lu Ping sold his mountain goods at Green Grain Shop, bought a Storage Ring, and returned to the Alchemy Hall to begin his Outer Sect life. He learned that the first-level registered Alchemist examination was next month, then saw that his third Life Simulation attempt had unlocked.

• Lu Ping declined to choose a hall until he could sell his mountain goods for Spirit Stones, and Ma San led him to Green Grain Shop.
• Lu Ping bargained with the shopkeeper Zhou and sold his goods for four hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping bought a Storage Ring for two hundred and eighty Spirit Stones and refused the shopkeeper’s offer of installments.
• Lu Ping returned to the External Affairs Hall and registered with the Alchemy Hall, where a deacon assigned him cave abode D-13 and told him the first-level registered Alchemist examination was next month.
• Lu Ping inspected the cave abode and saw a prompt announcing that his third Life Simulation attempt had unlocked.

Lu Ping replaced Friend of Women with Workplace People-Pleaser and quietly built his standing in the Alchemy Hall while earning his First-Grade Alchemist Certificate. The chapter ended with Zhao Li explaining the sect’s monthly pill quotas and the penalties for failing to meet them.

• Lu Ping rejected the Coffee Keeps You Going reward and replaced Friend of Women with Workplace People-Pleaser.
• Lu Ping refined pills cheaply while keeping his results modest, completing assignments and cultivating a favorable impression with Zhao Li.
• Lu Ping passed the First-Rank Registered Alchemist examination and received his First-Grade Alchemist Certificate.
• Zhao Li summoned the certified alchemists and announced their monthly pill quotas, purchase prices, and the consequences of repeated failures.

Lu Ping adapted to the Alchemy Hall’s demanding pill quota by buying the Qi-Congealing Pill Formula and secretly using his alchemy efficiency to fund his cultivation. After a month of steady work, he reached Qi Refining Sixth Layer while keeping his apparent cultivation at Second Layer.

• Lu Ping submitted twenty acceptable Qi-Replenishing Pills, received 160 Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and bought the Qi-Congealing Pill Formula for 100.
• Lu Ping refined Qi-Congealing Pills, producing two acceptable pills on his third batch, and began relying on them to cultivate.
• Lu Ping took Alchemy Hall orders by day, refined pills for himself in the evening, and cultivated at night while saving ingredients through his efficiency skill.
• Qian Dafu and other disciples sought Lu Ping’s advice, and his reputation grew as a steady alchemist unlikely to die young.
• After a month and nearly fifty Qi-Congealing Pills, Lu Ping reached Qi Refining Sixth Layer and used Spirit-Eroding Powder to conceal his cultivation at Qi Refining Second Layer.

After reaching the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, Lu Ping visited the Scripture Repository to learn combat techniques, but his attempt to become a sword cultivator ended in failure. He switched to fire techniques, used them to improve his alchemy and gain a ranged attack, and began studying the Fire Crow Technique.

• Lu Ping spent nine Low-Grade Spirit Stones to borrow the Greenwood Sword Art and rented a wooden sword, then practiced its basic thrusts in his cave abode.
• Lu Ping tried practicing at the sect's small ground, where his weak swordsmanship drew suppressed laughter from fellow disciples, and he decided to abandon the sword.
• Lu Ping returned the sword art and wooden sword, then borrowed the Little Flame Art, Red Fire Finger, and Fire Crow Technique for twenty-seven Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping practiced the Little Flame Art and refined Qi-Congealing Pills whose medicinal potency was twenty percent higher than before.
• Lu Ping learned the Red Fire Finger and scorched a hole in a stone wall, then began reading the Fire Crow Technique.

Lu Ping studied the disappointing Fire Crow Technique and sought herbs and alchemy supplies while avoiding attention from the Greenwood Sect. Shopkeeper Zhou offered him a costly lead on a dangerous Black-Feather Fire Crow nest, and Lu Ping faced a choice about whether to buy it.

• Lu Ping found that the Fire Crow Technique turned a crow Demon Beast into a weak ornamental pet, then failed to make his Thousand-Hand Guanyin technique live up to its name.
• Qian Dafu delivered herbs from Greenwood Market, and Lu Ping gave him Qi-Replenishing Pills to keep him helpful and avoid leaving purchase records at the Alchemy Hall.
• At the Green Grain Shop, Shopkeeper Zhou showed Lu Ping Fire Vein Spirit Liquid, Fire-Avoidance Talismans, and a Jade Slip with information about a crow nest.
• Shopkeeper Zhou revealed that Black-Feather Fire Crows lived in a nearby mountain range and that the Jade Slip cost fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping learned the flock breathed fire and was dangerous even for Qi Refining cultivators, then considered whether to abandon the lead, buy it, or attempt to recruit the crows as alchemy workers.

Lu Ping was summoned by Qi Cangshu and an unfamiliar woman to assess three experimental Spirit-Urging Pills. After identifying the flaws in each version, he was given ten days and access to Alchemy Hall resources to produce a batch.

• Lu Ping bought information about the Black-Feather Fire Crows and learned that a Spirit Awakening Stage Demon Beast might guard them.
• A disciple escorted Lu Ping to the side hall, where he met Qi Cangshu and an unfamiliar woman who praised his Qi-Replenishing Pills.
• The woman showed Lu Ping three Spirit-Urging Pills, and he recognized them as crude experimental versions with dangerous effects.
• Lu Ping explained the strengths and weaknesses of all three pills, concluding that none could yet serve its intended purpose.
• The woman offered Lu Ping an Alchemy Chamber, ingredients, and earthfire, and gave him ten days to produce a batch.

Lu Ping improved the Spirit-Urging Pill with Si Wangshu and the Alchemy Hall elder, earning a reward and greater respect in the sect. He then used his extra time and resources to advance his cultivation in secret, reaching the Qi Refining Seventh Layer and beginning to increase his daily pill intake.

• Lu Ping accepted the elder’s task and spent nine batches testing the unfinished Spirit-Urging Pill formula before producing a safer version on his tenth attempt.
• Lu Ping and Si Wangshu refined the formula over ten days, completing a fifteenth version that retained its effects while reducing the chance of the user’s body bursting apart by ninety percent.
• The Alchemy Hall elder exempted Lu Ping from his quota for three months, rewarded him with three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and ordered him to keep the trial secret.
• Lu Ping used his extra time and reward to refine pills and cultivate, while Zhao Li and other sect members began treating him with greater respect.
• Lu Ping submitted six months’ worth of Qi-Replenishing Pills at once, and Zhao Li allowed him to submit his quota every six months or even yearly.
• Lu Ping refined and consumed more than 180 Qi-Congealing Pills over two months, secretly reached the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, and increased his daily intake limit to three pills.

Lu Ping continued his quiet life in the Greenwood Sect, reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, and learned that Jiang Mutian’s troubles were near. Despite his reasons for staying, he chose to leave the sect and seek her out, beginning preparations by paying his next year’s quota to Zhao Li.

• Lu Ping chose to keep a low profile after hearing that multiple groups had died pursuing the Black-Feather Fire Crows, and he continued making pills and cultivating in the Greenwood Sect.
• At nineteen, Lu Ping gained the Workwear Thug Trait and replaced two of his equipped Traits with it and Friend of Women.
• Two months later, Lu Ping reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer and considered his growing ties to the sect alongside Jiang Mutian’s past help.
• Lu Ping chose to leave the Greenwood Sect and head for the valley where Jiang Mutian had encountered trouble.
• Lu Ping paid his entire quota for the coming year at the Internal Affairs Office, where Zhao Li examined his pills and began to speak to him.

Lu Ping prepared to leave the Greenwood Sect and waited near a valley for Jiang Mutian, whom he hoped to help. His Detoxification Pill worsened her Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder, and she carried him into a sealed cave, leaving him to choose his next move.

• Lu Ping packed his pills, weapons, spirit stones, and other supplies, cleaned his cave abode, and left the Greenwood Sect to wait near the valley.
• After a surge of spiritual power shook the valley, Lu Ping approached while pretending to gather herbs and found the wounded Jiang Mutian beside three corpses.
• Lu Ping introduced himself as a Greenwood Sect Alchemy Hall disciple and offered Jiang Mutian a mid-grade Detoxification Pill.
• Jiang Mutian took the pill, but it intensified the effects of the Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder as Lu Ping's favor-increasing Traits lowered her guard.
• Jiang Mutian carried Lu Ping into a cave, sealed its entrance, and told him ordinary Detoxification Pills likely could not cure her poison.

Lu Ping survived Jiang Mutian’s poison and advanced to Foundation Establishment, then used her costly parting gift before traveling to Red-Silk Mountain to pursue Black-Feather Fire Crows. The chapter left him deciding how to approach a three-person Foundation Establishment team entering the mountain.

• Lu Ping chose to let Jiang Mutian transfer Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder into him, and she helped control his surging spiritual power despite the danger to his life.
• Lu Ping broke through to Foundation Establishment and equipped new Traits before blacking out.
• Lu Ping woke alone in the cave, found Jiang Mutian’s Storage Ring, and discovered it contained Spirit Stones and high-grade pills.
• Lu Ping left the cave, disguised himself as a Rogue Cultivator, and traveled to Red-Silk Mountain to seek Black-Feather Fire Crows.
• Lu Ping watched the mountain for three days, then saw a young monk and two companions, all at Foundation Establishment Early Stage, enter its deepest area.

Lu Ping entered the cave after three cultivators and helped the monk fight off a flock of fire crows, only to face the demon-raising cultivator who controlled them. He spread Spirit-Eroding Powder while stalling the Foundation Establishment Perfection man, and the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Lu Ping followed the monk and his two companions into the cave, where fire crows killed the iron-staff cultivator and the sword cultivator and forced the monk to retreat.
• Lu Ping chose to save the monk and attacked the fire crows with Red Fire Finger while secretly scattering Spirit-Eroding Powder.
• Lu Ping and the monk weakened the crow formation, but a middle-aged man with Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivation emerged and revealed that he raised demons to gather human flesh and blood.
• Lu Ping kept spreading poison and flattered the middle-aged man, asking why he stayed in the border region instead of going to the Azure Yang Central Region.

Lu Ping and the monk fought the middle-aged man after learning he planned to make a False Core and become a Demon Cultivator. Lu Ping killed him, began refining the lead crow’s soul, and pressed the awakened monk for information about the secret realm.

• The middle-aged man explained that he planned to form a False Core and join the Demon Cultivators, whose leader came from the south and expected the Azure Dragon Upper Domain to fall into chaos.
• Lu Ping detonated the Spirit-Eroding Powder, weakening the middle-aged man, the fire crows, and the monk before attacking alongside the monk.
• The middle-aged man’s fire rings knocked the monk unconscious, but Lu Ping killed the lead crow, disrupted the flock, and finished off the middle-aged man and the remaining fire crows.
• Lu Ping refined the lead crow’s soul and formed a Fire Crow Seed, discovering that the technique required feeding the seed spirit fire.
• After the monk woke and performed rites for his fallen companions, Lu Ping divided the Storage Ring’s contents and demanded that the monk explain the secret realm.

Lu Ping joined Wuming in dividing their spoils and harvesting Earth Core Fire, then used his share to form a Black-Feather Fire Crow. After returning to the Greenwood Sect and asking Shopkeeper Zhou to find him a flying boat, Lu Ping was summoned by Elder Qi.

• Lu Ping and Wuming split the middle-aged man's meager belongings and gathered ten strands of Earth Core Fire from the lava pool, dividing them evenly.
• Lu Ping fed his five strands of Earth Core Fire to the Fire Crow Seed, forming a Black-Feather Fire Crow that could scout for him.
• Lu Ping returned to the Greenwood Sect market, sold fire crow materials to Shopkeeper Zhou, and asked him to look for a small flying boat, postponing payment until he could see it.
• Lu Ping returned to his cave abode and was summoned to the side hall by Elder Qi through a disciple from the Alchemy Hall's Internal Affairs Office.

Lu Ping helped Si Wangshu refine a stable Spirit-Urging Pill, but the Si Clan claimed ownership of the formula and compensated him with spirit stones, pills, and an incomplete formula. After the pill helped many Probationary Disciples break through, Sect Master Han Changqing summoned Lu Ping and Qi Cangshu to the main hall.

• Lu Ping explained that the Ascension Hall's intense Spiritual Qi infusion worsened the Spirit-Urging Pill's dangers, then agreed to keep improving it.
• Over four months, Lu Ping and Si Wangshu refined a stable pill that increased breakthroughs and sharply reduced deaths.
• Si Wangshu and Qi Cangshu claimed the completed formula for the Si Clan, while Qi Cangshu gave Lu Ping spirit stones and Qi-Gathering Pills and Si Wangshu gave him an incomplete formula.
• The Ascension Hall reported that 108 of 371 Probationary Disciples had broken through, and its formation required major repairs.
• Sect Master Han Changqing summoned Qi Cangshu and Lu Ping to the main hall, where he praised the Alchemy Hall's recruitment results and addressed Lu Ping.