Recaps

Lu Ping bought all forty portions of sha soul crystal from the Azure Dragon Merchant Association and discovered that he and Liang Yishou had been given eighty-to-one odds in the alchemy competition. He tried to bet on his own team, but the gambling house refused because competitors were prohibited from wagering.

• Lu Ping used his Level Three VIP token to buy all forty portions of sha soul crystal in Baodi City.
• Lu Ping saw the city’s lavish promotions and betting frenzy surrounding the Seven-City Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition.
• Lu Ping found the Azure Dragon Merchant Association team, Liang Yishou and himself, listed at eighty-to-one odds.
• Lu Ping inferred that Yan Xuanyao had paired him with Liang Yishou to create a long-shot team that would attract bets.
• Lu Ping tried to wager his Spirit Stones on his team, but the gambling house Deacon identified him as a competitor and invoked the ban on bets by competitors and their close relatives.

Lu Ping recognized that the gambling house controlled the betting and returned to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association after failing to find Sha Soul Crystal. On the way, he entered the Dark Hall to buy intelligence about the Baodi City competition teams, but learned that it would sell only basic information while the competition was underway.

• Lu Ping realized the Four Domains Gambling House could confiscate both stakes and winnings, then left as gamblers bet on the competition.
• Lu Ping searched Baodi City’s materials market for Sha Soul Crystal, found none, and chose to return to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association.
• Lu Ping spotted the Dark Hall operating openly and chose to enter rather than walk away.
• Lu Ping asked a Dark Hall Deacon for Grade A intelligence on the competition teams, but the Deacon said only Grade D information was available during the competition.

Lu Ping paid the Dark Hall to deliver a Pseudo-Peach Blossom Meridian-Calming Pill to Si Wangshu and received intelligence on his opponents. He returned to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association to prepare for battle, where he considered how to handle his generous daily ingredient quota.

• Lu Ping paid two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones for a grade-D intelligence report from the Dark Hall.
• Lu Ping paid ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones for the Dark Hall to deliver a Pseudo-Peach Blossom Meridian-Calming Pill directly to Si Wangshu of the Si Clan in Dangang City.
• Lu Ping wondered why the Dark Hall seemed so poor and suspected its activities served a purpose beyond making money, but chose not to investigate further.
• Lu Ping returned to his cave abode and began preparing for battle by spending nearly every day in the Core Alchemy Chamber.
• The Azure Dragon Merchant Association gave Lu Ping a generous daily quota of medicinal ingredients, and he considered whether to take only what he needed or claim the whole quota.

Lu Ping stockpiled pills and studied rival Alchemists before the Baodi City Qualifier began. After Si Wangshu arrived, he placed a bet through her, and Yan Xuanyao privately told him to hold back as the first group was about to compete.

• Lu Ping chose to use the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s materials to refine pills, building up a large supply while studying techniques from past competitions.
• Liang Yishou gave Lu Ping a Jade Slip containing valuable information about the competing teams.
• When Si Wangshu arrived in Baodi City, Lu Ping asked her to bet ten thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones on the Azure Dragon Merchant Association and encouraged her to stay through the qualifier.
• The Baodi City Qualifier opened with more than twenty teams, a group-stage format, extensive broadcasts, and heavy betting activity.
• Yan Xuanyao called Lu Ping aside before the competition and told him not to stand out too much and to hold something back.

Lu Ping and Liang Yishou repeatedly scraped through the tournament rounds while making the Azure Dragon Merchant Association look weak, sending their betting odds soaring. Their semifinal opponent was the heavily favored Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and Yan Xuanyao told Lu Ping to defeat them the next day.

• Lu Ping and Liang Yishou defeated the Li Lineage after Liang's Detoxification Pill held off their Poison Qi and Lu's Poison Pill overwhelmed their defense.
• Lu Ping reviewed dossiers on the Heavenly Pill Pavilion's Xiao Han and the Ten Thousand Treasures Tower's Ye Hongshan, identifying them as leading contenders.
• Lu Ping and Liang Yishou advanced through two more matches by pretending to struggle and winning by narrow margins, frustrating bettors who had wagered against them.
• The semifinal lineup matched the Azure Dragon Merchant Association against the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and the odds against Lu Ping and Liang Yishou rose to one hundred to one.
• Yan Xuanyao told Lu Ping to beat the Heavenly Pill Pavilion, and Lu Ping faced three possible responses.

Lu Ping led the Azure Dragon Merchant Association to victory over the Heavenly Pill Pavilion in the semifinals and the Ten Thousand Treasures Tower in the finals by rapidly refining pills that sabotaged his opponents. After the team qualified to represent Baodi City, Yan Xuanyao arrived at Lu Ping’s cave with two other Nascent Soul cultivators, and Lu Ping considered how to respond.

• Lu Ping chose a fast pill-making strategy, and his pill redirected the formation’s Earthfire into Xiao Han’s cauldron, knocking out Xiao Han and his teammate and winning the semifinal for the Azure Dragon Merchant Association.
• Two days later, Lu Ping chose another fast assault against Ye Hongshan, whose pill exploded after Lu Ping’s grayish-white pill Qi corroded her veil and disrupted her refining.
• The Azure Dragon Merchant Association defeated the Ten Thousand Treasures Tower and qualified to represent Baodi City, while the competition’s betting odds and the crowd’s reactions swung wildly.
• Yan Xuanyao visited Lu Ping’s cave abode that night with a middle-aged man in Shen Household attire and an Azure Dragon Merchant Association elder, all three of them Nascent Soul cultivators.
• Lu Ping weighed three possible responses to the visitors, including pretending to cooperate, confronting them, or staging a public scandal.

Lu Ping was offered three hundred thousand Spirit Stones to withdraw from the Seven-City Grand Competition, and he was about to accept when Si Wangshu arrived to pay her respects. Her visit changed the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s tone, and Shen Sifeng offered Lu Ping the reward and a Fourth-Level Alchemist certificate.

• Yan Xuanyao offered Lu Ping three hundred thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones to withdraw from the Seven-City Grand Competition, explaining that the association would claim Lu had damaged his Dao foundation.
• Lu Ping chose to accept the payment, but Liang Yishou announced that someone from the Si Clan had come to see him.
• Si Wangshu entered with a veiled old woman and gave Lu Ping a junior’s salute, surprising Yan Xuanyao and the Shen Household representatives.
• Shen Sifeng warmly greeted Si Wangshu, who exchanged courteous compliments with him before sitting beside Lu Ping.
• Shen Sifeng reframed the Spirit Stones as a reward and said the Shen Household had proposed giving Lu Ping a Fourth-Level Alchemist certificate.

Lu Ping accepted Shen Sifeng’s gift and gracefully parted ways with the Azure Dragon Merchant Association, then collected his enormous betting winnings from Si Wangshu. After discovering she had won far more than he had, he congratulated her Core Formation with a mass-producible Meridian-Clearing Pill formula, leaving her deeply impressed by his generosity.

• Lu Ping accepted Shen Sifeng’s Storage Ring and told the Azure Dragon Merchant Association he would help them again if needed.
• Si Wangshu gave Lu Ping his principal and eight and a half million Low-Grade Spirit Stones in winnings.
• Si Wangshu revealed that she had bet a million Low-Grade Spirit Stones and won eighty-five million, stunning Lu Ping.
• Lu Ping noticed Si Wangshu had reached Golden Core Early Stage and gave her the Meridian-Clearing Pill formula as a congratulatory gift.
• Si Wangshu recognized the formula’s potential to benefit low-level cultivators and solemnly thanked Lu Ping.

Lu Ping entered the White Tiger Domain to collect materials for Star River Myriad Blades and discovered that Sha Soul Crystals were controlled by White Tiger Hall and exchanged for military merits. He stood at the recruitment notice, weighing how to obtain enough crystals without committing to thirty years of service.

• Lu Ping obtained his Fourth-Level Alchemist certificate, bought all the Sha Soul Crystals available in Baodi City, and traveled through the cross-domain Teleportation Array to the White Tiger Domain.
• At the checkpoint, Lu Ping used one of his Sha Soul Crystals to activate a White Tiger Token and keep the Sha Qi at bay.
• Lu Ping arrived in Maoyuan City and saw that its fortified streets and wary, armored cultivators contrasted with the Azure Dragon Domain.
• At the supplies exchange, Lu Ping learned that Sha Soul Crystals cost one hundred military merits each and could not be traded without White Tiger Hall authorization.
• Lu Ping read that White Tiger Hall required a thirty-year commitment, and calculated that obtaining three thousand Sha Soul Crystals would require three hundred thousand military merits.

Lu Ping traveled from Maoyuan City to the White Tiger Hall’s headquarters at the Sha-Suppressing Great Wall, hoping to join the Pill Camp as a Fourth-Level Alchemist. The recruitment officer dismissed his certificate and assigned him to a three-month battlefield assessment at Black Moon Gorge.

• Lu Ping boarded a troop transport after learning he needed to travel by flying boat to reach the West-Suppressing Sword Pass.
• A scarred young man warned Lu Ping that life in the White Tiger Domain belonged to the military as the boat carried them west.
• Lu Ping arrived at the Sha-Suppressing Great Wall and joined the line of new recruits after a horn sounded.
• Lu Ping presented his Fourth-Level Alchemist certificate and asked to join the Pill Camp.
• The recruitment officer mocked Lu Ping, assigned him to the War Division as an army Alchemist, and ordered him to survive a three-month assessment at the Black Moon Gorge outpost.

Lu Ping joined a recruit unit bound for the Black Moon Gorge outpost, where he encountered Wandering Sha and discovered that his superiors had left the recruits exposed to danger. The chapter left him facing a Wandering Sha and choosing how to respond.

• Lu Ping joined the new recruits after choosing to serve at the front lines, and the White Tiger Sword Lord briefly looked toward him from the sword tower.
• Captain He Zhantao led Lu Ping and more than a hundred recruits out of the West-Suppressing Sword Pass toward the Black Moon Gorge outpost.
• The recruits crossed a wasteland where the gray mist suppressed Divine Sense and Wandering Sha lurked.
• He Zhantao and four veterans formed a perimeter around the recruits without protecting them as Wandering Sha attacked.
• A recruit's sword techniques passed harmlessly through a Wandering Sha, which then struck his spirit shield and spread panic through the group.
• A Wandering Sha was pushed toward Lu Ping as options appeared for how he would respond.

Lu Ping traveled with He Zhantao’s recruits to Black Moon Gorge, where he avoided fighting the Wandering Sha and was mocked for lacking sword talent. Camp General Lei Hanxiao appointed him Commandant of the Alchemy Chamber, and Lu Ping realized the recruitment office and Lei had arranged his transfer before facing a new set of choices.

• Lu Ping chose to remain still as He Zhantao killed the Wandering Sha and explained that pure Sword Intent or supreme yang power could harm Ruin Sha.
• The squad encountered more Wandering Sha, while Lu Ping stayed out of the fights and endured the recruits’ contempt.
• He Zhantao led the recruits through the array barrier into Black Moon Gorge, where they met Camp General Lei Hanxiao.
• After Lu Ping’s flattery activated, Lei Hanxiao appointed him Commandant of the camp’s Alchemy Chamber and placed him in charge of its pills.
• Lu Ping suspected the recruitment office and Lei Hanxiao had schemed to send him to the camp, and the System offered him three choices.

Lu Ping became Black Moon Gorge’s new alchemy captain, kept the camp’s routines unchanged, and discovered its Earthfire Formation used Nine Netherworld Fire. He extracted a wisp of its origin true fire for Yaya, then settled into a regular routine with control over the camp’s medicinal ingredients.

• Lu Ping impressed Lei Hanxiao with his deference and was appointed captain of Black Moon Gorge’s Alchemy Chamber.
• Lu Ping left the Alchemy Chamber’s existing rules in place, earning the relief and respect of its alchemists.
• Lu Ping discovered that his cave abode’s Earthfire Formation drew on Nine Netherworld Fire rather than ordinary Earth Core Fire.
• Lu Ping extracted a wisp of Nine Netherworld Fire’s origin true fire, and Yaya swallowed it and grew stronger without harm.
• Lu Ping settled into a routine of refining pills, while the camp’s two Third-Grade Alchemists continued handling most daily affairs.
• Lei Hanxiao gave Lu Ping control over Black Moon Gorge’s medicinal ingredient allocations, and Lu Ping surveyed the huge, Sha Qi-tainted stockpile.

Lu Ping transformed the Alchemy Chamber at Black Moon Gorge into a reliable source of pills, earning the Sword Cultivators’ respect while secretly keeping most of his pill production for himself. He strengthened his body, aided Crow Daoist’s progress, and collected Sha Soul Crystals for Star River Myriad Blades; after two years of service, a new trait began generating.

• Lu Ping chose A and activated traits that helped him work efficiently and produce pills, improving the Alchemy Chamber’s supplies and service.
• The Sword Cultivators praised Lei Hanxiao for appointing Lu Ping, while Lu Ping kept most of the pills he refined and used them to strengthen his body.
• Lu Ping extracted more source true fire from the Nine Netherworld Fire, helping Crow Daoist approach the Middle Condensation Core Stage.
• Lu Ping exchanged his military merits for Sha Soul Crystals to complete the materials needed for Star River Myriad Blades.
• Lu Ping completed two years of service at age twenty, and a trait began generating.

Lu Ping gained Quality Sleep and paired it with Workaholic, then used his Traits to refine pills at a staggering pace. After a spell of heart palpitations forced him to rest, Quality Sleep restored him, and he prepared to continue refining.

• Lu Ping discovered that Quality Sleep increased recovery tenfold and could keep sudden death at bay, then linked it to the danger of his stored Workaholic Trait.
• Lu Ping replaced Flattery with Quality Sleep and Workwear Thug with Workaholic, keeping his other Traits equipped.
• Lu Ping activated Workaholic while refining pills, and his stacked Traits greatly increased his speed, output, and success rate.
• Lu Ping refined pills for eighty-one days until he had enough Qi-Gathering Pills to cultivate to the late Golden Core stage.
• Lu Ping felt his heart palpitate, stopped refining, and meditated until Quality Sleep restored him; he then declared he could keep refining.

After emerging from an eighty-one-day seclusion, Lu Ping restored the Alchemy Chamber’s pill supply and broke through to the Golden Core Middle Stage. A month later, the Ruin Tide struck Black Moon Gorge, and Lu Ping watched the camp’s Sword Cultivators meet the first assault.

• Wang Zhenli and Li Yuanzhi told Lu Ping that the Alchemy Chamber had run out of pills and Sword Cultivators were growing restless.
• Lu Ping chose to resume normal supply and cleared the month-long backlog in three days.
• Lu Ping broke through to the Golden Core Middle Stage, while his Red-Feather Fire Crow reached the Middle Condensation Core Stage.
• A month later, alarms sounded as the Ruin Tide brought Wandering Sha and Military Sha against Black Moon Gorge’s formation.
• He Zhantao formed the Sword Cultivators into a Hundred-Person Sha Formation, which repelled the first Military Sha before a shrill screech came from the mist.

Lu Ping treated wounded Sword Cultivators as Black Moon Gorge battled a growing Ruin Tide, and learned that Sha Soul Crystals came from Golden Core-level Blood Sha. When conventional medicine could not save a dying fighter, he gave him a Blood-Burning Pill that would let him fight for one more hour at the cost of his life.

• Blood Sha attacked Black Moon Gorge’s formation, but He Zhantao led the Sword Cultivators in killing them and collecting their Sha Soul Crystals.
• Lu Ping realized that gathering enough crystals for Myriad-Blade Star River could take decades at the current rate.
• Lu Ping used a Sha-Cleansing Pill and a Spirit-Exploding Pill to heal a Sword Cultivator whose body had been corroded by foul blood, and the man returned to battle.
• As the Ruin Tide continued, a badly wounded Sword Cultivator’s companion begged Lu Ping to save him, but Lu Ping found that Sha Qi had sealed off the man’s life force.
• Lu Ping gave the companion a Blood-Burning Pill and explained that it would let the wounded man fight for an hour before he died.
• The Sword Cultivator took the pill, rose with bloodlight in his eyes, and promised to repay the thirty military merits he owed when he returned.

At Black Moon Gorge, Lei Hanxiao led the Thousand-Person Tiger Roar Formation to slay the Sha General, and the battlefield erupted in celebration. As he prepared to descend, a hidden spear of Sha Qi pierced his chest.

• You treated wounded Sword Cultivators and prepared pills as casualties mounted at Black Moon Gorge.
• A Sha General emerged from the gray fog and shattered the gorge’s Defensive Formation.
• Lei Hanxiao ordered the Sword Cultivators to form the Thousand-Person Tiger Roar Formation and merged with its white tiger phantom.
• Lei Hanxiao struck down the Sha General, leaving behind black bone and damaged High Antiquity Battle Armor.
• The survivors cheered as Lei Hanxiao prepared to return to the ground, but a concealed spear of Sha Qi pierced his right chest.

Lei Hanxiao survived an ambush long enough to help the exhausted Sword Cultivators strike the Cloaked Sha General, but the battle formation shattered before it could kill the creature. As the wounded general fell, the Cloaked Sha General began consuming the battlefield’s Ruin Sha to rebuild itself, and choices appeared about what to do next.

• The Cloaked Sha General stabbed Lei Hanxiao from behind, but he seized its spear and held it in place.
• Lei Hanxiao’s Nascent Soul commanded the Sword Cultivators to reform the White Tiger formation, and He Zhantao rallied them to attack again.
• The formation’s second strike sheared away much of the Cloaked Sha General’s body but failed to kill it.
• The Thousand-Person Tiger Roar Formation shattered, leaving the Sword Cultivators collapsed and Lei Hanxiao falling from the sky.
• The Cloaked Sha General began absorbing Wandering Sha, Military Sha, and residual Sha Qi to reconstruct its body.
• Choices appeared, offering escape, another attack, or a message to the West-Suppressing Sword Pass.

Lu Ping destroyed the Cloaked Sha General with his fire techniques and Hundred-Blade Ring, saving the battered cultivators in Black Moon Gorge. As the group began sorting out the spoils, he considered the Sha-tainted concealment cloak and faced a new choice about what to do with it.

• Lu Ping used I'll Make Three Points to stun the Cloaked Sha General, then attacked it with the Red-Feather Fire Crow, Sun True Fire, and his flaming Hundred-Blade Ring.
• Lu Ping killed the Cloaked Sha General, and its body vanished, leaving behind an arm bone and a tattered cloak.
• Lei Hanxiao praised Lu Ping and explained that the cloak was a High Antiquity relic corrupted by Sha Qi, usually melted down in Yinwei City.
• Lu Ping recognized the cloak's value as a concealment treasure and considered keeping it rather than letting it be destroyed.
• The system offered Lu Ping three options: send the cloak to Yinwei City, forcibly refine it, or list it for sale through a trading formation.

Lu Ping spent forty-nine days refining the damaged Formless Myriad-Breath Cloak, a Law Treasure that concealed him even from powerful Divine Sense. After recovering, he returned to his duties at Black Moon Camp, where his deeds had become the subject of incredulous rumors.

• Lu Ping chose the cloak and used the Southern Bright Separation Fire to burn away its Sha Qi while resisting its fierce counterforce.
• Lu Ping worked through forty-nine days of refinement, clearing the Sha Qi and imprinting his Divine Sense onto the cloak’s Array Patterns.
• Lu Ping completed the Formless Myriad-Breath Cloak, discovered its concealment and weakened transformation abilities, and tested its power to erase his presence.
• Lu Ping collapsed from exhaustion, then woke refreshed after four hours of rest.
• Lu Ping returned to cultivation, alchemy, teaching Wang Zhenli and Li Yuanzhi, and exchanging military merits for Sha Soul Crystals as Black Moon Camp recovered.
• Veterans spread stories of Lu Ping killing a Sha General alone, while new recruits refused to believe them.

Sword Cultivators at Black Moon Gorge traded increasingly extravagant rumors about Lu, claiming he was the Fire God reincarnated and the Sword Lord’s illegitimate son. He Zhantao broke up their gossip, then watched a strangely familiar crow fly away.

• A recruit challenged veterans’ stories about Lu, and they offered conflicting claims that he was an alchemy master, the Fire God reincarnated, and the Sword Lord’s illegitimate son.
• Scarface defended the Sword Lord’s looks and insisted Lu must have inherited his peerless appearance.
• He Zhantao emerged from the shadows, ordered the Sword Cultivators to return to their duties, and threatened them against spreading more rumors.
• He Zhantao looked toward Lu’s cave abode and wondered about the rumors as a crow flew off, seeming familiar to him.

Lu Ping ran out of Sha Soul Crystals while refining his Hundred-Blade Rings, then learned from Lei Hanxiao that coordinated Ruin Sha attacks had devastated other outposts and might signal a coming Great Tide. Lei Hanxiao asked Lu Ping to scout the Lifeless Plain, and the chapter ended with Lu Ping facing a choice about whether to accept.

• Lu Ping refined eight Hundred-Blade Rings over seven months before running out of Sha Soul Crystals and gained the Wage Arrears trait.
• Lei Hanxiao told Lu Ping that two Sha Generals had worked together during the last lesser Ruin Tide, suggesting that a higher power had directed them.
• Lei Hanxiao said he suspected an unprecedented Great Tide was brewing and that twenty-three other outposts had been wiped out in similar attacks.
• Lei Hanxiao revealed that seven scout teams had vanished and asked Lu Ping to investigate the Lifeless Plain, one of only two people in Black Moon Gorge capable of returning alive.
• Lu Ping received three choices: refuse, accept the mission, or threaten Lei Hanxiao with a labor-arbitration complaint.

Lu Ping accepted Lei Hanxiao’s assignment to investigate the Lifeless Plain and received Sha Soul Crystals, the Sha-Melting Art, and a map. He then spent forty days refining Thousand-Blade River, completing the formation of 1,080 flying blades as he prepared for the expedition.

• Lu Ping agreed to venture into the Lifeless Plain, and Lei Hanxiao advanced him a hundred Sha Soul Crystals and gave him the Sha-Melting Art and a map.
• Lu Ping returned to his Alchemy Chamber and decided to refine Thousand-Blade River before setting out.
• Lu Ping entered seclusion for forty days, leaving Wang Zhenli and Li Yuanzhi to handle the Alchemy Chamber’s affairs.
• Lu Ping completed his tenth Hundred-Blade Ring and used his Divine Sense to form 1,080 blades into a flowing silver river.
• Lu Ping carved the formation’s final core Array Pattern and commanded the Thousand-Blade River to set.

Lu Ping completed the Thousand-Blade River and disguised himself as a Military Sha to explore the Lifeless Plain for Sha Soul Crystals. After finding the outskirts strangely empty and clearing several Blood Sha, he reached a mapped safe point that had become flooded with dangerous Sha Qi.

• Lu Ping completed the middle-grade Law Treasure Thousand-Blade River, then mastered the Sha-Melting Art and used his cloak to disguise himself as a Military Sha.
• Lu Ping left Black Moon Gorge and ventured into the Lifeless Plain, where the outskirts held few Ruin Sha and appeared to have been cleared out.
• Lu Ping ignored the warning signs and continued deeper, killing a Half-Step Sha General and several high-rank Blood Sha to collect Sha Soul Crystals.
• Lu Ping followed Lei Hanxiao's map to a cavern marked as a safe point and found deep fissures allowing violent Sha Qi to flood it.
• Lu Ping faced a choice between retreating, entering the dangerous cavern, or leaving a one-star review of Lei Hanxiao's map.