Recaps

Lu Ping accepted Ye Zhi’s claim that he had once guided him, turning their encounter into a temporary alliance with the Thousand Mechanisms Sect. The chapter ended with Ye Zhi introducing Lu Ping to his disciples as their Martial Uncle, while Lu Ping considered how to respond.

• Lu Ping gave Ye Zhi high-grade Detoxification Pills and claimed his cultivation method came from a mysterious senior he had met as a child.
• Ye Zhi claimed to be that senior and said he had once guided Lu Ping in the Thousand Mechanisms Falling Blossoms Instruction.
• Lu Ping played along with Ye Zhi’s story and expressed gratitude for his past guidance.
• Ye Zhi told his disciples, including Ji Chengfeng, to greet Lu Ping as their Martial Uncle for saving them.
• Ji Chengfeng and the other disciples bowed to Lu Ping, who weighed his options for responding to the new title.

Lu Ping shared clues about the Dark Hall and Shenjizi with Ye Zhi, then learned that Ye Zhi wanted to recruit him as a Guest Elder of the Thousand Mechanisms Sect. The chapter ended with Lu Ping weighing Ye Zhi’s offer of the Star River Myriad Blades refinement method against the obligations of the position.

• Lu Ping helped Ji Chengfeng and the other disciples rise, defusing tensions over the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s Secret Method.
• Ye Zhi privately told Lu Ping that clues from massacred mortal villages pointed to the black-clad group, and Lu Ping shared fragments from his soul search about the Dark Hall and Shenjizi.
• Ye Zhi praised Lu Ping’s mastery of the Thousand Mechanisms Falling Blossoms Instruction and introduced the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s Star River Myriad Blades treasures.
• Lu Ping took out the black-clad leader’s Storage Ring, but Ye Zhi ignored it and invited him to become a Guest Elder, offering the Star River Myriad Blades refinement method.
• Lu Ping learned that the Guest Elder role was free of sect rules but could involve helping the sect and exchanging alchemy knowledge, then considered whether to accept.

Lu Ping accepted the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s guest elder position and received the difficult-to-refine Star River Myriad Blades method from Ye Zhi. After two days traveling together, they arrived at the sect’s vast mechanical headquarters, where Lu Ping faced another choice about how to react.

• Lu Ping accepted Ye Zhi’s offer of a guest elder position and received the sect token and the Star River Myriad Blades refining method.
• Ye Zhi admitted that the method required rare materials found mainly in the distant Ancient Battlefield Ruins of the Far Western White Tiger Domain.
• Lu Ping traveled with Ye Zhi and the injured disciples toward the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, while Ye Zhi healed his severed arm and explained the sect and the Yi Wood Middle Domain.
• Ji Chengfeng watched Lu Ping speak with Ye Zhi and became awed by his apparent standing with their master.
• After two days, Lu Ping and the others reached the Thousand Mechanisms Sect and saw its vast mechanical city and flying bridges.

Lu Ping joined the Thousand Mechanisms Sect as a Guest Elder and agreed to stop investigating the Dark Hall after meeting Sect Master Gongshu Ke. Ye Zhi brought him to the Alchemy Hall, where Hall Master Yi challenged his qualifications.

• Lu Ping chose to greet Gongshu Ke respectfully, and Ye Zhi explained how Lu Ping had helped expose the Dark Hall's ambush and save him and his disciples.
• Gongshu Ke ordered Lu Ping and Ye Zhi to end their investigation of the Dark Hall, and both agreed.
• Gongshu Ke told Ye Zhi to arrange Lu Ping's treatment as a new Guest Elder, so Ye Zhi took Lu Ping to the Alchemy Hall.
• Hall Master Yi questioned Lu Ping's appointment and alchemy skills while the other Alchemists watched, and Lu Ping faced options for proving himself.

Lu Ping presented his Third-Grade Alchemist certificate and joined the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s Alchemy Hall as a Guest Elder. Ye Zhi escorted him to his new cave abode, where Lu Ping secured the premises and prepared to settle in.

• Lu Ping showed Hall Master Yi his Third-Grade Alchemist certificate, earning respect and qualification to affiliate with the Alchemy Hall.
• Lu Ping registered as a Guest Elder specializing in poisons and detoxification, and Hall Master Yi granted him a Third-Grade Alchemist’s stipend and limited access to herbs and earthfire.
• Ye Zhi took Lu Ping to a spacious cave abode on a side peak before leaving to recover from his injuries.
• Lu Ping explored the cave abode, activated its protective formations, and spread poison netting through its hidden corners.
• Lu Ping sat on the meditation cushion and considered whether to cultivate, review his spoils, or rent out the cave abode.

Lu Ping discovered that the black-clad leader had survived by hiding a remnant soul in his Storage Ring and tried to possess him. Lu Ping and the Fire Crow Seed devoured the remnant soul, but the memories he gained revealed how far the leader had gone to escape the Dark Hall.

• Lu Ping chose to inspect the black-clad leader's Storage Ring and found its Divine Sense Mark was still active, proving its owner was alive.
• The black-clad leader's remnant soul entered Lu Ping's sea of consciousness and attempted to take over his body.
• Lu Ping chose to eradicate the remnant soul, and he and the Fire Crow Seed devoured it.
• Lu Ping learned from the leader's memories that he had slaughtered mortals to nourish a hidden soul and faked his death to escape the Dark Hall.
• The black-clad leader's soul vanished completely, strengthening Lu Ping's soul and the Fire Crow Seed, while a complete stream of information imprinted itself in Lu Ping's sea of consciousness.

After obtaining useful cultivation methods and materials from the black-clad leader, Lu tried to buy what he needed to refine the Star River Myriad Blades, only to discover the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s prices and contribution requirements were steep. The chapter left him considering how to obtain the three thousand contribution points needed for the materials available.

• Lu found the Spirit Refining Technique, artifact-refining materials, and the As-If-Original Seal among the black-clad leader’s spoils, though the Storage Ring held fewer Spirit Stones than he expected.
• Lu studied the Star River Myriad Blades and learned its three stages required 108, 1,080, or 10,800 flying blades.
• Lu brought a materials list to the Thousand Mechanisms Sect’s Myriad Treasures Hall and learned his Spirit Stones could not cover even half the cost.
• The deacon told Lu that several core materials required Sect Contribution Points and that the treasury held only one-third of the materials for the Hundred-Blade Ring.
• Lu asked about exchanging for the available materials, and the deacon estimated they would cost three thousand contribution points.

Lu Ping cleared the Alchemy Hall’s neglected high-level missions with supreme-grade pills, then agreed to teach the hall’s Alchemists for contribution points. His first exam-focused lesson won the students’ enthusiastic praise.

• Lu Ping took more than a dozen high-level missions from the Alchemy Hall’s mission board and completed them all in less than ten days.
• Lu Ping cleared the remaining high-level missions within a month, earning a little over a hundred contribution points before the board ran out of work.
• Hall Master Yi offered Lu Ping one hundred contribution points per class for three monthly lessons, and Lu Ping agreed to teach.
• Lu Ping taught more than three hundred Alchemists practical techniques for the Heavenly Certification Alliance’s exam.
• The Alchemists cheered Lu Ping’s clear, useful lesson and praised him as a savior of the Dao of Alchemy.

Lu Ping settled into his role as a Guest Elder, saved contribution points for flying-blade materials, and sought Ye Zhi’s guidance on refining Star River Myriad Blades. Ye Zhi taught him despite warning that forty sets were insufficient, while rumors spread among the disciples that Lu Ping was the Peak Master’s illegitimate son.

• Lu Ping learned that the Alchemy Hall had charged students two contribution points each for his lecture, then continued refining pills, teaching, and cultivating for seven months.
• Lu Ping exchanged his savings for forty sets of flying-blade materials and went to Weizhao Peak to ask Ye Zhi for guidance.
• Ye Zhi warned that forty sets could not complete the Hundred-Blade Ring, but relented when Lu Ping insisted on trying.
• Lu Ping visited Ye Zhi daily for a month and learned how to refine Star River Myriad Blades, inscribe miniature Array Patterns, and practice the sect’s Artifact Refining Technique and Mechanism Arts.
• Weizhao Peak disciples speculated that Lu Ping was either Ye Zhi’s long-lost brother or illegitimate son.

Lu Ping refined 108 flying blades into the low-grade Law Treasure Hundred-Blade Ring after enduring two months of engraving and tempering his Divine Sense. The successful refinement left him confident in his strength, but he promptly fainted from exhaustion.

• A young disciple speculated that Peak Master Ye and Elder Lu might be more than brothers or father and son, and his senior brothers silenced him in alarm.
• Lu Ping used the Moon Palace Fire-Devouring Furnace and forty portions of materials to form 108 flying-blade blanks.
• Lu Ping chose to keep engraving the blades while circulating the Spirit Refining Technique, pushing his Divine Sense beyond its limits.
• After two months, Lu Ping completed the Array Patterns on all 108 blades, linked them into a unified Restriction, and branded them with his Divine Sense.
• Lu Ping refined the blades with Essence Blood, completing the low-grade Law Treasure Hundred-Blade Ring and drawing it into his Dantian.
• Lu Ping felt confident he could face other Golden Core cultivators, then fainted from exhaustion.

After recovering from refining the Hundred-Blade Ring, Lu Ping left the Thousand Mechanisms Sect to seek a fortuitous opportunity and returned to the valley where Jiang Mutian had fought a brutal battle. He offered her an antidote for Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder, but her suspicion and killing intent remained as he faced a choice about how to explain himself.

• Lu Ping gained the Company Invisible Person Trait but chose not to replace any of his equipped Traits.
• After waking three days later, Lu Ping packed his belongings, erased his traces, and told Ye Zhi he was traveling because his cultivation had reached a bottleneck.
• Lu Ping left the Thousand Mechanisms Sect, paid for a transportation array, and returned to the valley in the Qingling Border Region.
• After waiting three days, Lu Ping sensed a brief, violent battle at roughly the Body Integration Realm level and approached its battlefield.
• Lu Ping found the wounded Jiang Mutian beside three corpses and offered her a bottle of antidote for Severed-Fate Hehuan Powder.
• Jiang Mutian grew more suspicious and concentrated her Sword Qi as Lu Ping considered how to answer her.

Lu Ping convinced Jiang Mutian that he had returned to settle debts from a past life, and she accepted his antidote and recovered in the cave. She rewarded him with Golden Core resources and a powerful sword talisman before disappearing, leaving Lu Ping alone beneath the moonlight.

• Lu Ping chose to claim that memories of a past life had led him to repay two life-saving debts, and Jiang Mutian believed him and withdrew her Sword Qi.
• Jiang Mutian drank Lu Ping’s antidote, led him to her cave, and began healing while Lu Ping stood guard outside.
• After two hours, Jiang Mutian gave Lu Ping a Storage Ring filled with Golden Core resources and a single-use sword talisman that could kill anyone below Spirit Transformation.
• Jiang Mutian vanished without another word, and Lu Ping accepted that her distance was a form of protection before leaving the cave.

After returning to the Greenwood Sect, Lu Ping strengthened its cultivation methods and watched it grow more stable before traveling to Qingyang City to seek passage to the Azure Dragon Upper Domain. The Heavenly Certification Alliance rejected his application, leaving him to choose how to respond.

• Lu Ping gave Qi Cangshu a completed Golden Core-stage Greenwood Art and alchemical knowledge, helping him break through a cultivation bottleneck.
• Lu Ping chose to have Crow Daoist put on a show for Wuming, who received three jade bottles before the crow vanished in flames.
• The Greenwood Sect recruited 226 of 312 Probationary Disciples without any fatal accidents, and Qi Cangshu named Xu Qingshi his Personal Disciple.
• Lu Ping left for Qingyang City to obtain Sha Soul Crystal and found the city under heavier guard than before.
• The Heavenly Certification Alliance Deacon rejected Lu Ping's application to enter the Azure Dragon Upper Domain, and new options appeared before him.

Lu Ping secured a route to the Azure Dragon Upper Domain by accepting a specially appointed alchemist position with the Azure Dragon Merchant Association, but Shen Yuerong recruited him for a dangerous trade fair tied to the Zhao Household’s inheritance. The chapter ended with Lu Ping facing options for how to respond.

• Lu Ping rejected the steward’s suggestion to force his way into the Upper Domain and learned he needed an employment certificate to obtain a travel permit.
• Lu Ping asked Shen Yuerong for help, and she offered him a specially appointed alchemist position in exchange for competing in an upcoming alchemy competition.
• Shen Yuerong asked Lu Ping to attend a trade fair at the Zhao Household as her accompanying pill appraiser.
• Shen Yuerong revealed that Qingyang City’s Nascent Soul factions believed the Zhao Household Ancestor had left behind a Spirit Transformation opportunity and planned to divide the household’s inheritance.
• Lu Ping recognized the trade fair as a dangerous gathering of powerful cultivators, and options appeared for how he would respond.

Lu Ping agreed to accompany Shen Yuerong to the Zhao Household trade fair after realizing she had recruited him as a possible hidden trump card. At the gathering, Han Shishan recognized him, and Lu Ping faced a choice about how to respond.

• Shen Yuerong explained that Lu Ping’s ability to produce two hundred Top-Quality Qi-Gathering Pills made her suspect he was far stronger than his Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivation suggested.
• Lu Ping realized Shen Yuerong had been testing and maneuvering him, then agreed to attend the trade fair with her.
• Lu Ping and Shen Yuerong traveled under curfew to the Zhao Household, where Qingyang Guards stood watch and three Nascent Soul cultivators awaited them.
• The Jin Household Ancestor challenged Shen Yuerong’s arrival without Shen Silan, and she introduced Lu Ping as the merchant association’s newly hired appraiser.
• Han Shishan recognized Lu Ping from their encounter a year earlier, concealed his reaction, and prompted Lu Ping to choose how to deal with him.

Lu Ping watched the city lord’s manor stage an auction where the household stewards overpaid for worthless goods, then saw Zhao Qingsu present a jade box containing a purported wisp of Dao Resonance from the Zhao Household Ancestor’s attempted breakthrough. Lu Ping recognized that the claim was suspicious, and Shen Yuerong also sensed a plot as the three Nascent Soul ancestors focused on the treasure.

• Lu Ping chose to pretend he did not know Han Shishan and stood quietly behind Shen Yuerong as Zhao Qingsu entered and fawned over the three ancestors.
• Zhao Qingsu began the trade fair, and the Jin, Wang, and Han household stewards bid extravagant sums for ordinary goods from the city lord’s manor.
• Lu Ping chose to stay silent as the manor finished selling its goods and the hall grew tense for the main event.
• Zhao Qingsu presented a sealed jade box and claimed it held insight from the Zhao Household Ancestor’s attempt to reach Spirit Transformation, asking the three households to spare the Zhao Household.
• Lu Ping recalled that he and Crow Daoist had killed the ancestor and destroyed his Nascent Soul, so he suspected the purported Dao Resonance was a trap.
• Shen Yuerong tensed and touched her Storage Ring as Lu Ping considered whether to stay, urge her to leave, or offer to assess the treasure for a fee.

Lu Ping watched as Zhao Qingsu activated a bloodline formation that sacrificed the entire Zhao Household to force his breakthrough to Nascent Soul. The three Nascent Soul ancestors were trapped inside as Zhao Qingsu declared that he alone was the Zhao Household.

• Lu Ping sent Shen Yuerong away with a voice transmission, then stayed hidden to observe the Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Han Shishan lunged for Zhao Qingsu’s jade box, and the Jin Household Ancestor and Wang Family Ancestor attacked him.
• Zhao Qingsu slammed the jade box into the formation’s core while Sun Jingli’s projection shielded him from the ancestors’ combined attack.
• The formation killed the Zhao Household’s thousands of blood relatives and drew their blood essence into the hall, trapping the three Nascent Soul ancestors.
• Zhao Qingsu swallowed the blood pearl made from the Zhao Household Ancestor’s remains and used the clan’s sacrificed essence to break through to Nascent Soul.
• Zhao Qingsu rose with a Nascent Soul and declared, “As long as I become a Nascent Soul ancestor, I am the Zhao Household.”

Lu Ping escaped the Zhao Estate’s Nascent Soul tribulation, then intercepted and killed the gravely wounded Han Shishan. He collected Han Shishan’s Storage Ring and faced a choice about what to do next.

• Lu Ping used Early Leave to escape the Zhao Estate as a heavenly tribulation engulfed the blood Formation.
• A crow showed Lu Ping that Han Shishan had survived the trap but was fleeing with his cultivation ruined, so Lu Ping chose to intercept him.
• Lu Ping used I'll Make Three Points and his Hundred-Blade Ring to overwhelm Han Shishan and erase his Nascent Soul.
• The Hundred-Blade Ring nearly exhausted Lu Ping’s Divine Sense, but he collected Han Shishan’s Storage Ring and found no Law Treasures or appealing Cultivation Methods inside.
• Lu Ping considered erasing the evidence, heading to the Azure Dragon Upper Domain, or billing the Azure Cloud Sect for Han Shishan’s funeral expenses.

Lu Ping returned to Qingyang City, learned that the city lord had profited from the Zhao Estate disaster, and secured a travel permit before setting out for the Azure Dragon Upper Domain. He reached the Boundary Pass and faced a choice about how to enter.

• Lu Ping returned to Qingyang City and found it quiet, though Qingyang Guards patrolled in greater numbers and the city lord's guards inspected Wang Family and Jin Household shops.
• Shen Yuerong gave Lu Ping his travel permit and explained that the Wang Family and Jin Household had donated half their assets, while the Han Household planned to leave the city.
• Lu Ping spent heavily at the Azure Dragon Merchant Association on rare medicinal herbs, but could not replenish his invisibility or Random Teleportation Talismans.
• Lu Ping traveled through the Teleportation Hall to the Azure Dragon Upper Domain and arrived at the Boundary Pass.
• Lu Ping saw the long inspection queues and considered whether to wait, cut in, or propose a new clearance system.

Lu Ping entered the Azure Dragon Upper Domain, paid its checkpoint fee, and learned that staying in its cities required a Baojia Token that consumed Spirit Stones every day. He arrived in Baodi City and faced a choice between reporting to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association, exploring, or investing his Nascent Soul inheritances.

• Lu Ping joined the inspection queue and presented the travel document Shen Yuerong had given him, identifying himself as a participant in the Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition.
• Lu Ping paid five hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Stones to enter the Azure Dragon Upper Domain and was struck by its dense Spiritual Qi.
• A Deacon gave Lu Ping a free Baojia Token and explained that its formation consumed Spirit Stones daily; Lu Ping imprinted it and deposited eight Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping paid to teleport to Baodi City, one of the Azure Dragon Upper Domain’s seven main cities and the location of the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s headquarters.
• Lu Ping saw Baodi City’s towering businesses and scrolling market news, then considered reporting to the Merchant Association, exploring, or investing his three Nascent Soul inheritances in pill futures.

Lu Ping joined the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s team for the Seven Cities Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition and received a place to stay and an advance allowance. After local participants looked down on him as a Central Region outsider, team leader Yan Xuanyao defended him and warned him to follow Upper Domain rules.

• Lu Ping chose to buy a map of Baodi City and used Shen Yuerong’s appointment token to register at the Azure Dragon Merchant Association.
• A Golden Core Perfection elder confirmed Lu Ping’s eligibility, gave him a competition token, and advanced him 240 Low-Grade Spirit Stones as his Baojia Allowance.
• An attendant showed Lu Ping to his cave abode, where he met team leader Yan Xuanyao, a Fourth-Level Alchemist.
• When local participants mocked Lu Ping’s Central Region origins, Yan Xuanyao rebuked them and warned Lu Ping that he had to follow Upper Domain rules.
• Lu Ping entered his well-equipped cave abode and considered whether to study the competition, explore Baodi City, or pitch Yan Xuanyao a proposal for monetizing the competition.

Lu Ping studied the dangerous rules for the Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition and bought its expensive Pill Formula bundle before preparing for two months. At the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s internal selection, he met his assigned partner, Liang Yishou, and faced a choice about how to approach him.

• Lu Ping learned that the competition used poison pills and a formation that sent Pill Qi against opposing teams, and discovered that the Pill Formulas had to be purchased separately.
• Lu Ping bought the competition’s bundle of more than a hundred Pill Formulas for seventy thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Lu Ping spent two months studying the formulas and medicinal ingredients while preparing for the association’s internal selection.
• Lu Ping arrived at the selection arena and met his partner, Golden Core Perfection Third-Grade Alchemist Liang Yishou.
• Lu Ping faced options to greet Liang Yishou, treat him dismissively, or require him to sign a cooperation agreement.

Lu Ping used an unconventional set of ingredients to make a fast-acting poison pill and win the alchemy qualifier before his opponents could finish refining their pills. The arena fell silent as the merchant association’s Alchemists stared at him, and he faced a choice about how to respond.

• Lu Ping chose to attack while Liang Yishou focused on defense, then selected obscure supplementary ingredients and One-Step Grass for his pill.
• Lu Ping reassured Liang Yishou that his detoxification strategy was sound while leaving his own alchemy unexplained.
• Lu Ping traced the Great Expansion Alchemy Formation’s Spirit Veins before rapidly refining a black pill with One-Step Grass.
• Lu Ping sent the pill’s fast-moving poisonous Qi through the formation, disrupting the gaunt old man’s alchemy and causing both opponents’ cauldrons to explode.
• Lu Ping won the qualifier while Liang Yishou and the spectators stared in shock.

Lu Ping defeated successive opponents in the merchant guild’s alchemy selection with rapid, unconventional pills, earning wary silence from the local Alchemists. At the final match, Yan Xuanyao’s disciple prepared defensive pills to counter him, and Lu Ping faced a new set of options.

• Lu Ping chose option A and withdrew from the platform with Liang Yishou after winning their first match.
• Lu Ping used Deadwood Vine and auxiliary ingredients to make his pill Qi reach his second opponents before their Poison Pills were ready, causing both cauldrons to explode.
• Lu Ping won his later matches by rapidly combining unusual ingredients and forcing opponents to lose control or blow up their cauldrons.
• Yan Xuanyao’s Personal Disciple challenged Lu Ping in the final selection match and chose defensive Turtle-Breathing Purity Pills instead of Poison Pills.
• Lu Ping was presented with three options: refine a Poison Pill, try something different, or challenge the Taiyan Formation’s judging mechanism.

Lu Ping defeated Yan Xuanyao’s Personal Disciple by channeling pill Qi through the formation’s Spirit Vein to trigger an earthfire explosion, earning a place on the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s team for the Baodi City Grand Competition. Yan Xuanyao gave him access to the core Alchemy Chamber and assigned Liang Yishou as his partner, leaving Lu Ping to consider whether to train there or visit a major city.

• Lu Ping chose B and refined unusual ingredients, then used pill Qi to trigger an explosion beneath his opponent’s furnace and win the selection match.
• Yan Xuanyao named Lu Ping to lead the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s team for the Baodi City Grand Competition and warned him about the Great Expansion Alchemy Formation and the powerful opponents ahead.
• Lu Ping accepted Yan Xuanyao’s advice, and Yan gave him a pass to the association’s core Alchemy Chamber.
• Yan Xuanyao assigned Liang Yishou as Lu Ping’s competition partner, leaving Liang overwhelmed by the news.
• Lu Ping returned to his cave abode and considered using the pass to train, visiting a major city, or asking Si Wangshu to recruit him for the Si Clan.