Chapter Summaries

Luo Chen broke through to Qi Refining Seventh Layer, discovered strange black currents in Spirit Stones, and received Mi Shuhua’s pill-nurturing notes. After returning home, he planned to use the Sword Pavilion to regulate White Stone Plaza’s stalls and protect Yuan Xiaoyue’s business.

• Luo Chen broke through to Qi Refining Seventh Layer, expanding his dantian but damaging his meridians, and found that black currents escaped from a cracked Spirit Stone along with its spiritual energy.
• Mi Shuhua gave Luo Chen Deficiency Replenishing Meridian Nourishing Liquid, learned he had advanced, and reassured him that his growing Jade Marrow Pill dividends could help him reach Foundation Establishment.
• Mi Shuhua gave Luo Chen a page describing the Azure Origin Pill Nurturing Art, and Luo Chen studied its demanding requirements before putting it away for the future.
• Luo Chen agreed to attend next month’s auction with Mi Shuhua and later settled the snack stall accounts with Yuan Xiaoyue and Old Yuan.
• After Yuan Xiaoyue complained that other vendors were copying their snacks, Luo Chen told her to ask the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion to regulate White Stone Plaza’s stalls and reserve the best location for them.
• Luo Chen invited Yuan Xiaoyue and Old Yuan to his birthday feast, and Old Yuan declined while encouraging Yuan Xiaoyue to attend.

Luo Chen recovered from his meridian injuries while cultivating spells, reached Great Perfection in Carefree Wander, and received a Demon Fox Coat from Mi Shuhua. He hosted a lively birthday gathering with friends and colleagues, and the first snow fell as they reflected on the hardship winter would bring to independent cultivators.

• Luo Chen used Mi Shuhua's Deficiency Replenishing Meridian Nourishing Liquid to repair his meridians and decided to focus on spell practice while limiting his pill intake.
• After half a month of training, Luo Chen brought Carefree Wander to Great Perfection, improving his movement and the speed of his Wind Riding Art.
• Murong Qinglian gave Luo Chen a Demon Fox Coat sewn by Medicine Hall cultivators, and he promised to support her efforts to develop their winter coat business.
• Zeng Wen, Tang Quan, Yuan Xiaoyue, Qu Hancheng, and other guests arrived at Luo Chen's birthday gathering with gifts, and Gu Cai Yi performed the Startled Swan Dance for him.
• Luo Chen and his guests shared food, wine, stories, and games until snow began to fall, prompting them to worry about independent cultivators facing winter.

Luo Chen attended Great River Market’s winter auction with Mi Shuhua and the Mountain Shattering Gang, after learning that his Jade Marrow Pill dividends had been delayed because the pills remained unsold. The auction opened with a Sky Moon Purple Gold Wheel Magic Treasure, and Mi Shuhua made a major bid as the price climbed.

• Gu Cai Yi explained that the Dao Discussion Stage at Fallen Phoenix Mountain had drawn cultivators to Great River Market during winter, while Luo Chen joked about launching milk tea at his snack stall.
• Luo Chen refined Jade Marrow Pills and discovered that the gang had not sold the Mid-Grade pills or included their proceeds in his dividend; Mi Shuhua told him to keep refining and reminded him of the coming auction.
• Luo Chen counted his limited Spirit Stones and went with Mi Shuhua, Mi Junping, Sikong Shoujia, Luo Wudi, and Wang Yuan to the auction, where the others submitted goods for sale.
• Mi Shuhua explained the auction’s private rooms, guests, stages, and etiquette to the group before the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect’s Luo Tianhong began proceedings.
• Luo Tianhong introduced a Sky Moon Purple Gold Wheel Magic Treasure from Sky Sail City, bidders drove its price upward, and Mi Shuhua bid eighty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

At the auction, Mi Shuhua secured the Sky Moon Purple Gold Wheel and taught Luo Chen how to bid, while the Mountain Shattering Gang’s lots helped establish Luo Chen’s new title, Pill Dust Master. When the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion’s Four Symbols Cauldron came up for auction, Luo Chen urged Mi Shuhua to buy it for the Pill Hall.

• Mi Shuhua won the Sky Moon Purple Gold Wheel for eighty thousand Spirit Stones, then explained his bidding strategy to Luo Chen and the others.
• Sikong Shoujia’s spirit herb and Wang Yuan’s Magic Tools sold during the independent cultivators’ auction, while several of Luo Wudi’s and Mi Junping’s items went unsold.
• Mi Shuhua auctioned the Mountain Shattering Gang’s goods, including Luo Chen’s Jade Marrow Pills under the title Pill Dust Master, and Luo Chen realized the title helped conceal his identity and promote the pills.
• Wang Yuan bought a body-tempering pill during the sect auction, and Mi Shuhua explained how the high price of Storage Bags steered low-level cultivators toward buying sect resources.
• When the Four Symbols Cauldron was offered for three thousand Spirit Stones, Luo Chen urged Mi Shuhua to acquire it for the Pill Hall so he could make more pills for the gang.

At the auction, Luo Chen learned that Foundation Establishment Pills were effectively divided among the major powers, leaving independent cultivators with little chance, but Mi Shuhua promised to support his future Foundation Establishment. Luo Chen resumed planning his cultivation, secured Dust Transformation Pills and a high-grade cauldron to boost pill production, and left the chapter ready to expand his Jade Marrow Pill output.

• Luo Chen admired the Four Symbols Cauldron, while Mi Shuhua explained its value and the auction proceeded to the Foundation Establishment Pills.
• Independent cultivators bid fiercely for the first Foundation Establishment Pill, but the remaining pills went to major powers under an apparent prior arrangement; Mi Shuhua warned Sikong Shoujia not to challenge them.
• Mi Shuhua promised to support Luo Chen’s Foundation Establishment, but Qin Liangchen revealed that Mi Shuhua had made the same promise to him and Han Dang before.
• Luo Chen bought five bottles of Dust Transformation Pills and Soul Calming Incense, then saw the heads of independent cultivators killed during the Outer City’s post-auction chaos.
• Luo Chen used the Four Symbols Cauldron to refine forty Jade Marrow Pills, and Mi Shuhua agreed to provide him four bottles of Dust Transformation Pills each month in exchange for increased pill production.

Luo Chen advanced his pill refining and cultivation while keeping his High-Grade Jade Marrow Pills secret, then used the Pill Hall’s success to win his staff’s support. As he flew back toward the Inner City, a Black-Robed Cultivator attacked him and his bodyguards, leaving their fate unresolved.

• Luo Chen cultivated with Mid-Grade Jade Marrow Pills and Soul Calming Incense, discovered his progress at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer had slowed, and considered opening another mine tunnel as an escape route.
• Murong Qinglian urged Luo Chen to find a Dao companion, but he teased her about being his ideal match until Qin Liangchen intervened and started a snow fight.
• Luo Chen expanded pill production with the Four Symbols Cauldron and other furnaces, reached Grandmaster Level Jade Marrow Pill proficiency, and secretly kept the High-Grade pills for his cultivation.
• Sikong Shoujia and Gu Cai Yi counted four hundred bottles of Jade Marrow Pills worth 8,800 Spirit Stones, while Luo Chen promised the Pill Hall staff he would seek better benefits for them.
• Luo Chen flew toward the Inner City with Liu Qiang and Zhou Yuanli, discussed recent conflicts, and noticed a Black-Robed Cultivator in the forest below.
• The Black-Robed Cultivator attacked with a streak of Jet-Black Light, and Liu Qiang and Zhou Yuanli raised a massive defensive barrier around Luo Chen.

Luo Chen escaped an ambush by four cultivators and used an array and his magic tools to kill two of them while Mi Shuhua rescued him from the remaining attackers. The gang regrouped after the battle, and Luo Chen returned to headquarters with new spoils and Zeng Wen eager to obtain his All Wonders Pills.

• Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang held off the Qi Refining Ninth Layer leader while Luo Chen fled from three pursuing Gray-Robed Cultivators.
• Luo Chen lured the three pursuers into his prepared grove, where his blade array, spells, Four Symbols Cauldron, and Jade Marrow Scrap Beads killed two of them.
• The surviving Gray-Robed Cultivator ambushed Luo Chen with a High-Grade spear, but Mi Shuhua arrived and disarmed him before taking Luo Chen to the Green Hemp Forest.
• Mi Shuhua learned that the enemy leader had escaped with a Second-Order Water Escape Talisman and left to pursue him while Luo Chen looted the unconscious cultivator.
• Luo Chen reunited with the injured Zhou Yuanli and Liu Qiang, took the captured cultivator's Storage Bag and robes, and admired the weapons he had acquired.
• Zeng Wen escorted Luo Chen to Mountain Shattering Gang Headquarters and pressed him about the All Wonders Pills he had refined.

After Lu Huaiben revealed that his group had ambushed Luo Chen for profit, Mi Shuhua investigated possible threats while celebrating the Pill Hall’s earnings. Luo Chen paid Yuan Xiaoyue, assigned Dongfang Liang to help her, and discovered a fortune of Spirit Stones and tools in Lu Huaiben’s Storage Bag.

• Sikong Shoujia tortured Lu Huaiben until he explained that the robber cultivators had acted on their own after learning when Luo Chen would deliver goods from Yuan Xiaoyue, and he revealed their leader Dan Xiu’s hideouts.
• Mi Shuhua told Luo Chen that the ambush likely involved robber cultivators, promised to investigate Gao Tingyuan, then learned that the Pill Hall had earned substantial profits from more than twelve hundred Mid-Grade Jade Marrow Pills.
• Mi Shuhua arranged to invite a guest from the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion, seek information about Dan Xiu from the Nangong Family, and meet with Wang Yuan, while also suggesting that Mi Junping find a new Dao companion.
• Luo Chen collected his share of the snack-stall earnings, paid Yuan Xiaoyue her wages and dividend, and assigned Dongfang Liang to make deliveries and look after her.
• Luo Chen emptied Lu Huaiben’s Storage Bag and found over a thousand Spirit Stones, Magic Tools, pills, Immortal Beans, and a Spirit-Hiding Array that he planned to use to conceal the Spirit Vein Cave.

Luo Chen considered how to use his newly acquired Magic Tools, learned that Duan Feng had been grievously wounded, and gave him medicine to help repair his meridians. After hearing Feng Xia had lost her job, Luo Chen offered her work in his new milk tea business, but his first recipe caused Qin Liangchen severe discomfort.

• Luo Chen counted his Spirit Stones and Magic Tools, then decided to test his fighting methods in the forest behind Slanting Moon Valley.
• Feng Xia told Luo Chen that Duan Feng had been badly injured on the Dao Discussion Stage, and Luo Chen gave her Deficiency Replenishing Meridian Nourishing Liquid for him.
• Luo Chen overheard that Feng Xia had lost her job at Hundred Herbs Hall and offered her a position managing his new business instead of joining Murong Qinglian's Medicine Hall.
• Luo Chen gathered the courtyard residents for dinner, and Feng Xia accepted his offer to help with the business.
• Luo Chen tested milk tea recipes with Feng Xia and Qin Liangchen, but an undiluted Fuzhu Deer milk recipe sent Qin Liangchen rushing out of the courtyard.

Luo Chen developed Fuzhu Milk Tea and began arranging the supplies, storefront, and promotion for a new shop, though the costs far exceeded his expectations. Meanwhile, Mi Shuhua recognized that Luo Chen still feared another ambush and decided to offer him the Mi Family’s Small Spirit Gathering Array as compensation.

• Luo Chen finalized a Fuzhu Milk Tea recipe, assigned Feng Xia to run the stall, and asked Gu Cai Yi to find a singer to help attract customers.
• Luo Chen secured a milk supply from Ke Yuelin for a monthly fee of three hundred Spirit Stones, paying a fifty-Spirit-Stone deposit.
• Yuan Xiaoyue told Luo Chen that He Youjun would rent him a shop at White Stone Plaza for ten Spirit Stones a month with a one-year lease, leaving Luo Chen worried about the shop’s roughly five-hundred-Spirit-Stone startup cost.
• Gu Cai Yi and Bai Mei Ling dressed and made up Feng Xia, who was surprised to see her beauty in the mirror.
• Mi Junping visited Luo Chen to urge him back to the Pill Hall, but he refused; Mi Shuhua concluded that Luo Chen still feared an ambush and ordered Mi Junping to give him Mi Zifan’s Small Spirit Gathering Array as compensation.

Luo Chen opened the Mixue Bingcheng milk tea shop with Feng Xia and promoted its drinks by hiring cultivators to pose as customers. After receiving a Small Spirit Gathering Array from Mi Junping, he tested its effects and then traveled to Slanting Moon Valley to restart Jade Marrow Pill production.

• Luo Chen arranged Feng Xia’s tea-brewing presentation and opened Mixue Bingcheng, using a recorded jingle and paid customers to attract attention to the shop.
• Tang Quan and other cultivators bought and praised Fuzhu Milk Tea, while Luo Chen watched for genuine customers and later explained the shop’s first-day earnings to Feng Xia.
• Mi Junping returned the Small Spirit Gathering Array her father had lent Luo Chen, and he tested it before considering how it might strengthen his cultivation in Slanting Moon Valley.
• Feng Xia gave Luo Chen the day’s shop earnings, and he let her keep most of the proceeds while assigning her the shop’s Magic Tools and a share of future profits.
• Luo Chen traveled under guard to Slanting Moon Valley and ordered the Pill Hall to resume refining Jade Marrow Pills.

Luo Chen improved his cultivation efficiency with a Small Spirit Gathering Array, explored a possible escape tunnel, and began teaching his apprentices to refine All Wonders Pills. After testing several magic tools and learning that his ordinary ones were worth little, he was asked what he thought of Mi Junping.

• Luo Chen concealed the Spirit Vein Cave, used the Small Spirit Gathering Array to raise his cultivation efficiency to about eight times its former level, and found a narrow tunnel heading toward the Howling Moon Mountain Range.
• Luo Chen began teaching Tang Quan, Mi Li, and the other apprentices to refine All Wonders Pills so he could save time for cultivation, but their first attempt burned in the furnace.
• Luo Chen tested his magic tools in the forest, discovered the emerald bells could deliver soundwave attacks, and named them the Soul Loss Bell.
• Sikong Shoujia told Luo Chen that his ordinary Low-Grade Magic Tools would sell for little, so Luo Chen decided to keep them.
• Sikong Shoujia asked Luo Chen what he thought of Mi Junping, the Merit Hall Master.

Luo Chen rejected Mi Shuhua’s attempt to arrange a marriage with Mi Junping and learned that cultivation methods and Elf Pills could help purify spiritual power. After receiving news about his would-be killer and settling his businesses’ accounts, he considered joining the Dao Discussion Stage to gain combat experience and refine his spiritual power.

• Sikong Shoujia tried to learn Luo Chen’s opinion of Mi Junping, but Luo Chen refused the idea of becoming her Dao companion and recognized Mi Shuhua’s marriage-alliance plan.
• A month later, Mi Shuhua counted the Pill Hall’s output of Jade Marrow Pills with Sikong Shoujia and Gu Cai Yi, then paid Luo Chen his share of the profits.
• Mi Shuhua explained that better cultivation methods could purify spiritual power and that the Spirit Medicine Pavilion might auction Tier 1 Elf Pills next year; he also told Luo Chen he had news about Dan Xiu.
• Luo Chen examined the Dao Discussion Stage rankings, saw that Duan Feng had fallen to ninth place, and considered fighting ranked cultivators to improve his combat skills and spiritual power.
• Luo Chen settled his businesses’ accounts, paid Yuan Xiaoyue and Feng Xia, and agreed that Duan Feng could work at the milk tea shop, though Duan Feng later refused a salary and said he still planned to fight after recovering.

Luo Chen entered his first Dao Discussion Stage battle under the alias Murong Yuan and defeated Huang Bin with his spear and Jade Marrow Scrap Beads. After returning home, he found that battle slightly purified his spiritual power, but he doubted the effect would be enough to prepare him for Foundation Establishment.

• Tang Quan told Luo Chen he had failed again to refine the All Wonders Pill, and Luo Chen learned from him that Zeng Wen could explain Dao Discussion Stage battles.
• Luo Chen arrived at Fallen Phoenix Mountain with Zeng Wen and his new companion, then entered the Dao Discussion Stage under the alias Murong Yuan to face Huang Bin.
• Zeng Wen bet ten Spirit Stones on Murong Yuan, while Luo Chen waited in a Quiet Room with unusually dense spiritual energy.
• Luo Chen used his Fire Tipped Spear and Jade Marrow Scrap Beads to overwhelm Huang Bin, who surrendered before the stage formation could be breached.
• The crowd accused the match of being fixed, and Luo Chen received ten Spirit Stones and a Low-Grade Magic Tool as his prize.
• Luo Chen circulated the Evergreen Art at home and noticed that battle had slightly purified his spiritual power, but he decided to rely on cultivating the art rather than fighting to refine it.

Luo Chen discovered that the Howling Moon Mountain Range’s Demon Wolves were fighting among themselves, then used his newly achieved Grandmaster Level Cleanse Spell to remove foreign auras and detect Mi Shuhua’s spiritual-power mark on him. He continued studying Wang Yuan’s Blood Fiend Pill Recipe and devised a Tier 1 Blood Burning Pill, deciding to secretly gather its ingredients and refine it himself.

• Luo Chen dug a tunnel from Slanting Moon Valley into the Howling Moon Mountain Range and witnessed Gray Leaf Wolves and Frost Wolves battling amid a vast wolf conflict.
• Luo Chen found that his Grandmaster Level Cleanse Spell could remove foreign auras, then detected Mi Shuhua’s spiritual-power mark and chose to leave it in place.
• Luo Chen studied Wang Yuan’s Blood Fiend Pill Recipe and recorded possible ingredient substitutions and improvements in his notebook.
• Luo Chen used the system to assess his revised Pill Formula and learned it could reach Entry Level as a Tier 1 Blood Burning Pill.
• Luo Chen decided to refine the Blood Burning Pill without the Mountain Shattering Gang’s knowledge and planned to secretly acquire its ingredients.

Luo Chen investigated Immortal Abode Residence and paid a steep price for Earth Fire Fiend to make his self-derived Blood Burning Pill. After gathering the ingredients and refining the first batch at home, he discovered that he had succeeded on his first attempt.

• Luo Chen ate breakfast with Gu Cai Yi, who noticed the faint Pill Qi clinging to him.
• Luo Chen visited Hundred Herbs Hall, then went to Immortal Abode Residence and overheard Ailao Mountain disciples discussing the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect’s alleged killing of Martial Uncle Fei Bai Wen.
• Luo Chen bought ten strands of Earth Fire Fiend, along with the required Rock Float Stone and Fiend Control Art, for fifty spirit stones.
• Luo Chen gathered the remaining ingredients for the Blood Burning Pill, having Duan Feng purchase Exploding Ape Demon Blood for him.
• Luo Chen refined the Blood Burning Pill alone at home, carefully adding Earth Fire Fiend to the mixture.
• Luo Chen opened the Four Symbols Cauldron and found five crimson pills inside, realizing his first batch had succeeded.

Luo Chen tested his Blood Burning Pill on an injured Frost Wolf in Ever Yin Mountain and recorded the pill’s effects and drawbacks. He concluded that he needed human testers before deciding how to use or sell the pills, and considered asking Wang Yuan to help find them.

• Luo Chen used the Spirit-Hiding Array to conceal a battlefield and waited for two Demon Wolves to finish fighting.
• Luo Chen trapped the wounded Frost Wolf with the Four Symbols Cauldron and fed it a Blood Burning Pill.
• The pill made the Frost Wolf stronger and more violent, but after several minutes its power faded, allowing Luo Chen to subdue and kill it.
• Luo Chen recorded that the pill boosted strength by thirty percent for about five minutes but muddled the mind and damaged the body afterward.
• Luo Chen considered how to test the pill on humans without drawing attention and thought of asking Wang Yuan for help.

Luo Chen attended the Mountain Shattering Gang’s monthly assembly, collected his growing pill dividends, and discussed his failed attempt to use Earth Fire Fiend in pill refining with Mi Shuhua. He ended by asking the gang leader to find a place with earthfire so he could try refining pills with it.

• Luo Chen reviewed his progress, then went with Gu Cai Yi and Sikong Shoujia to the monthly gang assembly.
• Luo Chen received four bottles of Dust Transformation Pills, Soul Calming Incense, and twelve hundred Spirit Stones in dividends, bringing his savings to four thousand Spirit Stones.
• Mi Shuhua took back the Qi Refining Insights Jade Slip and explained that other members of his family still needed to use it.
• Mi Shuhua asked Luo Chen about the Earth Fire Fiend he had bought, and Luo Chen said it had made his Pill Fire go out of control during an experiment.
• Luo Chen asked Mi Shuhua to find them a place with earthfire so he could try refining pills with it.

Luo Chen learned Wang Yuan’s Bright Spirit Breaking Evil method and began enduring pain to strengthen his will, but his practice disrupted pill refining. He explored Ever Yin Mountain, discovered Mi Shuhua had renewed the spiritual mark on him, and the chapter ended with Mi Shuhua sending Sikong Shoujia to deliver him good news as concern grew over the Pill Hall’s falling output.

• Mi Shuhua warned Luo Chen that Baleful Qi was dangerous to Qi Refinement Cultivators, while Wang Yuan explained how Body Refinement Cultivators could use it to temper their bodies and spiritual power.
• Wang Yuan taught Luo Chen Bright Spirit Breaking Evil, a method for strengthening Divine Will, and then prepared to lead his subordinates to Mount Tai Market to demand the Cheng Family yield its territory.
• Luo Chen began practicing the method by obstructing acupoints to induce pain, which distracted him during pill refining and caused his Jade Marrow Pill output to fall.
• Luo Chen explored five li of Ever Yin Mountain, found fewer Demon Wolves nearby, and realized Mi Shuhua had secretly replenished the spiritual mark on him.
• Ten days later, Sikong Shoujia reported Luo Chen’s reduced pill output to Mi Shuhua, who decided to give Luo Chen more time and sent an item with Sikong Shoujia as good news.

Luo Chen endured Bright Spirit Breaking Evil cultivation and reached Great Perfection in the Evergreen Art, discovering that it could purify his spiritual power and ease his path toward Foundation Establishment. A Golden Core Sword Cultivator’s dramatic return to Great River Market left Luo Chen fearing that the unresolved death of Fei Bai Wen would bring trouble to his peaceful cultivation.

• Luo Chen stimulated all six major acupoints on his feet at once, endured the pain, and then cultivated the Evergreen Art until it reached Great Perfection.
• Luo Chen discovered that the perfected Evergreen Art actively purified his spiritual power and considered saving Spirit Stones to buy a Foundation Establishment Pill.
• Spring thunder and rain arrived in Slanting Moon Valley, and Sikong Shoujia showed Luo Chen the frozen hand of Dan Xiu, the robber cultivator who had tried to kill him.
• Luo Chen’s Jade Marrow Pill success rate recovered as he grew accustomed to the pain from his acupoints, and he secretly took several High-Grade Jade Marrow Pills.
• A powerful Sword Cultivator’s flight triggered avalanches at Nanwa Snow Mountain, and Luo Chen, Sikong Shoujia, and Gu Cai Yi recognized the returning Golden Core Immortal Pang Renxiong.
• Luo Chen suspected Pang Renxiong had returned to investigate Fei Bai Wen’s death and worried that the coming conflict might disrupt his cultivation.