Chapter Summaries

Lu Ping observed that the Greenwood Sect’s Ascension Hall used a formation that killed failed cultivators and converted their Qi and Blood into Spiritual Qi, while he cautiously studied how to survive. When the disciple beside him began to die from a failed breakthrough, Lu Ping faced a choice about whether to intervene.

• Lu Ping rejected the suggestion to force a breakthrough and chose to lie low while observing the Ascension Hall.
• He watched seventeen disciples attempt to break through: one succeeded, while the other sixteen died and fed the hall’s formation.
• Lu Ping discovered that the formation intensified its Spiritual Qi infusion at midnight and that successful cultivators had Spirit Roots that helped them process the energy.
• He realized his own Spirit Root was likely poor and continued cultivating cautiously despite lacking the Artisan Spirit trait.
• On the nineteenth night, the disciple on cushion Number 98 began convulsing as his Spiritual Qi ran wild, and Lu Ping considered whether to save him, ignore him, or cheer him on.

Lu Ping survived the Ascension Hall’s dangerous cultivation methods and discovered that Liu Cheng had used him to test an experimental Spirit-Urging Pill. After gaining and equipping the Bully at Home trait, Lu Ping was summoned again and faced another defective pill from Liu Cheng.

• Lu Ping stopped Number 98’s cultivation before he exploded, exposing traces of Soul Bewildering Incense and Spiritual Qi sediment in the hall.
• Liu Cheng questioned Lu Ping, then gave him an experimental Spirit-Urging Pill, which Lu Ping took and purified with Heavy Tomato User.
• Lu Ping traded his belongings for Grain Avoidance Pills as disciples who took Liu Cheng’s pills exploded and their blood fed the Ascension Hall’s formation.
• After completing two years of service, Lu Ping gained the Bully at Home trait and replaced Friend of Women with it.
• Liu Cheng summoned Lu Ping again and offered him a defective Spirit-Urging Pill, leaving Lu Ping to choose how to respond.

Lu Ping broke through to the first level of Qi Refining and became a formal Outer Sect Disciple of the Greenwood Sect. He learned that cultivation required a steady supply of Spirit Stones, which the sect expected disciples to produce, and left the Ascension Hall with twenty-three other newly promoted disciples.

• Lu Ping spent months strengthening his meridians before successfully breaking through to the first level of Qi Refining.
• Lu Ping equipped Friend of Women, Artisan Spirit, and Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement, replacing Flattery and filling his Trait slots.
• Liu Cheng gave Lu Ping an Outer Sect identity token and a Low-Grade Spirit Stone, then taught him to absorb its Spiritual Qi.
• Lu Ping learned from the Greenwood Art that he could make Spirit Stones by filling Spirit Blanks with Spiritual Qi, while the sect kept one stone out of every ten.
• Lu Ping asked Liu Cheng how many Spirit Stones were needed to advance to the second level of Qi Refining, and Liu Cheng answered that an ordinary cultivator needed thirty.
• Liu Cheng led Lu Ping out of the Ascension Hall, where twenty-three other newly promoted Outer Sect Disciples were waiting.

Lu Ping chose the Alchemy Hall and took out a fifty-spirit-stone student loan, leaving him with only sixteen after fees and advance payments. He settled into a shabby alchemy cave abode and learned that he could not sell his pills until the next registered Alchemist exam in five years.

• Lu Ping rejected the Miscellaneous Affairs and Mining Halls and chose the Alchemy Hall despite its ten-spirit-stone deposit.
• The recruiting disciple persuaded Lu Ping to borrow fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones, of which only sixteen remained after the deposit, rent, training, and exam registration fees.
• Lu Ping followed the recruiting disciple into the Alchemy Hall and saw that its facilities and services all carried separate fees.
• An Alchemy Hall deacon assigned Lu Ping a low-grade cave abode with a damaged Pill Furnace, and Lu Ping decided to keep it rather than pay extra for a replacement.
• The deacon told Lu Ping that the next Level One registered Alchemist exam would be in five years and warned him that selling unlicensed pills could bring a tenfold fine.

Lu Ping trained as an alchemist, infusing spirit stones and refining poison pills while discovering that his low-grade spirit root made cultivation unusually slow. His poisonous cave abode drove away his neighbors, and when disciples tried to confront him, his strange trait made them flee in fear.

• Lu Ping read the alchemy textbook and infused spirit blanks at four times the efficiency of disciples at his cultivation level.
• He confirmed he could absorb only two Low-Grade Spirit Stones a day and remained far from Qi Refining, Second Layer.
• Lu Ping studied pill-making and poison formulas, and his poison-resistant trait let him refine poison pills without concern for their fumes.
• The poisonous gas from Ding Thirteen drove several neighboring disciples to move out, while rumors spread that Lu Ping was a dangerous lunatic.
• After fifteen days, Lu Ping had infused sixty Spirit Stones and absorbed thirty but had not advanced, confirming he had a Low-Grade Spirit Root.
• When disciples tried to cause trouble at his cave abode, Lu Ping's Bully at Home trait made them stumble and retreat, convinced he knew demonic arts.

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.