Chapter Summaries

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.

Lu Ping was promoted to inner disciple and Alchemy Hall steward, then discovered that his new cave abode came with expenses that could consume most of his salary. The chapter left him facing Zhao Li and deciding how to respond to the costly “benefits.”

• Han Changqing promoted Lu Ping to inner disciple and appointed him a steward of the Alchemy Hall.
• Lu Ping recognized Zhao Li’s hostility over their equal rank and politely built rapport with the other hall stewards.
• Lu Ping declined Liu Cheng’s offer to direct new disciples to the Alchemy Hall, deferring assignments to Qi Cangshu.
• Zhao Li showed Lu Ping his assigned cave abode and explained its rent, formation fees, and earthfire charges.
• Lu Ping realized the costs could exceed his monthly salary and faced options for dealing with Zhao Li.

Lu Ping moved into a better cave abode, but the cost of cultivation left him with little money. After learning how the Greenwood Sect profited from controlling alchemy, he bought two cultivation methods and discovered that the Hundred-Forged Medicine Body Formula could turn practitioners into Medicine Puppets; he faced a choice about how to investigate or attempt it.

• Lu Ping moved into Cave Abode No. 7, Earth, and realized that rent and formation fees left him with only fifteen Spirit Stones from his monthly salary.
• Lu Ping found that pills strained his body, calculated the cost of advancing his cultivation, and saw that spirit-stone-only training would take ten to fifteen years.
• Zhao Li showed Lu Ping the Alchemy Hall's accounts, and Lu Ping learned that the Greenwood Sect made money by controlling alchemy qualifications and supplies.
• Lu Ping bought the Greenwood Art Foundation Establishment Chapter and the Hundred-Forged Medicine Body Formula at the Scripture Pavilion.
• Lu Ping read that the Hundred-Forged method used pills to temper the body but could consume the practitioner's mind and leave a controllable Medicine Corpse, then considered what to do next.

Lu Ping used pills and poison with the Hundred-Forged Medicine Body Formula to strengthen his body, then began teaching new disciples at the Greenwood Sect. He recognized Xu Qingshi, who had died in an earlier simulation, and realized his actions had formed karmic ties in this world.

• Lu Ping tested Qi-Gathering, Qi-Replenishing, and Qi-Congealing Pills to temper his body, then chose to buy the Qi-Gathering Pill Formula.
• Lu Ping spent eight hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones on the formula and used his alchemy traits to produce Qi-Gathering Pills cheaply.
• Lu Ping tested Spirit-Eroding Powder with the Hundred-Forged Medicine Body Formula and found that poison improved his body nearly half as much as a mid-grade Qi-Gathering Pill.
• Lu Ping began refining an enhanced Spirit-Eroding Powder and taught new Outer Sect Disciples how to refine Qi-Replenishing Pills.
• Lu Ping recognized Xu Qingshi as Number 98, who had died beside him in an earlier simulation, and answered his question about refining pills.
• Lu Ping watched the disciples and realized that karmic entanglements had formed between him and the world.

Lu Ping uncovered how the Greenwood Sect exploited its disciples to fund the Azure Cloud Sect, but chose to keep quiet and continue serving the sect while cautiously improving his skills and helping Xu Qingshi. By age twenty-five, he had strengthened his cultivation and raised his Black-Feather Fire Crow into a useful lookout.

• Lu Ping discovered that the Greenwood Sect paid the Azure Cloud Sect for its mountain range, Spirit Vein, and protection, while disciples’ Spirit Stone labor and purchases sent most of their earnings upward; he chose to pretend he knew nothing.
• Lu Ping gained the Word King trait but kept his existing traits, then continued refining pills and gave Xu Qingshi occasional guidance while Qian Dafu began diligently assisting him.
• Lu Ping handled Zhao Li’s sudden Hemostatic Powder quota by dividing the work and sending the Mining Hall’s ledger to Zhao Li, prompting the Mining Hall deacon to confront him.
• Lu Ping improved his Breath-Concealing Technique, concealed his true cultivation from peers, and declined Elder Qi Cangshu’s offer to recommend him for an early second-grade alchemist examination.
• Lu Ping mastered the second layer of the Hundred-Forged Medicine Body Formula and continued raising his Black-Feather Fire Crow, which reached the Third Layer of Qi Refining and could patrol for him.

Lu Ping faced Zhao Li’s public accusation that he had embezzled medicinal ingredients, but the witnesses admitted Zhao Li had coached them and Lu produced records supporting his accounts. The audit ended with Lu offering to accept punishment if the records contained any errors.

• At the Alchemy Hall audit, Zhao Li accused Lu Ping of pocketing medicinal ingredients and presented disciples as witnesses.
• Lu Ping’s presence caused the disciples to confess that Zhao Li had ordered them to lie in exchange for favorable assignments.
• Lu Ping showed Elder Qi Cangshu account books matching the ingredients he obtained with the pills he submitted, explaining that his records excluded unstable test batches.
• Qian Dafu provided purchase receipts, and a Mining Hall deacon confirmed Lu Ping had supplied medicine after a mine collapse when the Internal Affairs Office delayed delivery.
• Lu Ping bowed to Qi Cangshu and offered to accept punishment if his account books contained errors.

Lu Ping exposed Zhao Li’s scheme, continued advancing his cultivation, and bought a Flying Boat. Just after celebrating that he had survived the year Han Changqing killed him in the previous simulation, Lu Ping was summoned to the Main Hall, where he arrived to find a gathering already underway.

• Qi Cangshu reviewed the accounts, ordered the disciples who framed Lu Ping punished, and relieved Zhao Li of his duties.
• Lu Ping reflected on reaching Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, improving his Breath-Concealing Technique, and strengthening his Fire Crow.
• Lu Ping bought an eighteen-hundred-Low-Grade-Spirit-Stone Flying Boat from Shopkeeper Zhou.
• After the Alchemist examination, Lu Ping celebrated surviving the year of his death in the second simulation, then received a summons to the Main Hall.
• Lu Ping concealed his cultivation, prepared Spirit-Eroding Powder, and went to the Main Hall with Qian Dafu and Xu Qingshi.
• Lu Ping entered the crowded Main Hall, where Han Changqing presided and a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator stood before the assembled elders and Deacons.

As Qi Cangshu prepared to enter seclusion, Han Changqing proposed appointing an acting elder for the Alchemy Hall, and Wu Yucheng challenged Lu Ping’s suitability. Lu Ping passed the decision to Qi Cangshu, then bested Wu Yucheng in a pill-refining contest, leaving Wu Yucheng speechless.

• Han Changqing announced that Qi Cangshu would enter secluded cultivation and called the elders together to discuss an acting Alchemy Hall elder.
• Wu Yucheng argued that Lu Ping lacked the cultivation to oversee the Alchemy Hall, and Lu Ping declined to claim the post while directing the decision to Qi Cangshu.
• Qi Cangshu praised Lu Ping’s record, winning the hall’s support, and Han Changqing set a contest to refine Qi-Gathering Pills.
• Wu Yucheng refined two Qi-Gathering Pills with ten percent greater potency, while Lu Ping used his worn standard furnace to produce three passing pills.
• Wu Yucheng looked toward Han Changqing with a grim expression and opened his mouth.

After proving his alchemy skill, Lu Ping became acting elder of the Alchemy Hall and reorganized its records and ingredient controls. He discovered that Si Wangshu’s incomplete formula described a pill that could improve a Low-Grade Spirit Root, but its core ingredient had been extinct for 3,000 years.

• Lu Ping declined an official elder’s title, and Han Changqing appointed him to manage the Alchemy Hall in an acting capacity.
• Qi Cangshu warned Lu Ping that the main hall would keep pressuring the Alchemy Hall before leaving for secluded cultivation.
• Lu Ping introduced cross-checks for ingredients, pills, and accounts, and assigned Qian Dafu and Xu Qingshi new responsibilities.
• Lu Ping opened the Alchemy Hall’s inner chamber and identified Si Wangshu’s incomplete formula as the Heaven-Mending Minor Restoration Pill.
• Lu Ping learned the pill could raise a Low-Grade Spirit Root to Middle-Grade, but its core ingredient, nine-orifice spirit embryo root, had been extinct for 3,000 years.

Lu Ping continued developing a usable Heaven-Mending Minor Restoration Pill while managing the Alchemy Hall and securing access to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association’s supply channels. He found an old formula for Mind-Erasing Powder that might counter a Golden Core-level threat, but kept his focus on the restoration pill as his next simulation began.

• Lu Ping chose to keep refining the Heaven-Mending Minor Restoration Pill, while his strict accounting practices brought order and respect to the Alchemy Hall.
• Shopkeeper Zhou gave Lu Ping a First-Class VIP token for the Azure Dragon Merchant Association and explained that he had delayed handing it over to protect his own business.
• Lu Ping used the association’s channels to request large quantities of substitute medicinal ingredients, then searched the Scripture Pavilion for alchemy texts.
• Lu Ping found a golden-page formula for Mind-Erasing Powder, a mid-grade pill that could injure a Golden Core cultivator’s Divine Sense, and recalled how Han Changqing’s talisman had killed him in a previous simulation.
• Lu Ping paid three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones for Tracing the Origins of the Dao of Alchemy, but returned to the Alchemy Hall without beginning the Mind-Erasing Powder formula.

Lu Ping pursued Mind-Erasing Powder to counter Han Changqing's Golden Core Talisman Seal while Greenwood Sect elders continued entering seclusion. After his Fire Crow was badly injured spying on Han Changqing at the Back Mountain Forbidden Ground, Lu Ping faced a choice about what to do next.

• Lu Ping noticed that a Foundation Establishment elder's cleanly recorded medicine requisitions suggested the elder had entered seclusion while injured, and he grew more urgent about his pill deductions.
• Lu Ping completed the Heaven-Mending Minor Restoration Pill formula but could not find Void-Aperture Jade Marrow, so he requisitioned discarded Sense-Erasing Grass to develop Mind-Erasing Powder.
• Lu Ping chose to keep refining Mind-Erasing Powder despite the damage to his Divine Sense, and the repeated failures gradually strengthened his resistance to it.
• Lu Ping received the Overtime Trait but did not equip it, wary that its efficiency penalty would combine with Salty Fish's.
• Lu Ping sent the Fire Crow to follow Han Changqing into the Back Mountain Forbidden Ground, where unfamiliar Demon Qi burned half its wings and forced it back to Lu Ping.
• Lu Ping faced options to confront Han Changqing, stop investigating, or seek a workplace injury allowance for the Fire Crow.