Chapter Summaries

Zhang Tie entered a swamp in the Immortal Herb Garden Secret Realm, where he encountered dangerous beasts and two cultivators. After capturing the pair, he learned that the realm was a place where sect and family disciples sought opportunities, not the Spirit Realm he had asked about.

• Zhang Tie arrived above a foul swamp, escaped intermittent spatial rifts, and kicked free of a crocodile-like demonic beast that had bitten his legs.
• Zhang Tie sensed abundant spiritual energy and found a late Golden Core man and woman fighting a massive brown python.
• Zhang Tie killed the python with a streak of golden sword qi, but the man and woman fled in fear.
• Zhang Tie commanded the pair to return, froze their bodies in ice, and demanded answers.
• The man told Zhang Tie that they were descendants of the Liu family, the Pill Kings, and that the location was the Immortal Herb Garden Secret Realm, not a place he knew as the Spirit Realm.

Zhang Tie left the secret realm with Liu Jiang and Liu Ying and learned about the Sea of Medicine Gods and its cultivation world. He discovered that refining a ninth-grade divine pill could open a stairway to the Upper Realm.

• Zhang Tie learned from Liu Jiang and Liu Ying that the secret realm lay in the Sea of Medicine Gods, and that the Danxia Continent was far to the east.
• Zhang Tie helped Liu Jiang and Liu Ying defeat demon beasts during their journey, then followed them through the secret realm's exit to a market valley.
• Liu Jiang brought Zhang Tie and Liu Ying to meet Liu Quan, who was shocked to learn Zhang Tie's cultivation was roughly equivalent to the Void Refinement stage.
• Zhang Tie asked Liu Quan about the world's highest cultivation realm and how to ascend to the Upper Realm.
• Liu Quan explained that a cultivator could supposedly trigger an ascension stairway by comprehending the Pill Dao and refining a ninth-grade divine pill, leaving Zhang Tie deeply shaken.

Liu Quan explained the world’s Pill Cultivation System and the requirements for ascending to the Upper Realm, prompting Zhang Tie to visit the Liu family and meet its renowned Pill King. Zhang Tie and Liu Quan reached the family’s hidden basin, where a middle-aged man flew out from the central palace to greet them.

• Liu Quan spent two days explaining how cultivators used alchemy and pill patterns to establish their foundations and ascend to the Upper Realm.
• Zhang Tie decided to return with Liu Quan to the Liu family, hoping to learn more and ask the Pill King to help restore his damaged divine sense.
• Two days later, Liu Quan controlled a Lion-headed Winged Eagle that carried him and Zhang Tie to the Liu family’s territory in less than three days.
• Zhang Tie sensed formation energy near a mountain, and the hidden basin containing the Liu family’s herb gardens, spirit fields, and palaces appeared before them.
• A middle-aged man and four others flew out from the central palace as Zhang Tie and Liu Quan approached.

Zhang Tie visited the Liu family and demonstrated his strength by absorbing a strike from their mountain-protecting formation. Liu Chengyin recognized him as a powerful senior, apologized, and invited him back to the hall to make amends.

• Liu Quan introduced Liu Chengyin and four Liu family elders to Zhang Tie, and the group went to the main hall.
• Liu Chengyin questioned Zhang Tie's cultivation, so Zhang Tie challenged the Liu family to test his strength.
• Liu Chengyin activated the mountain-protecting formation, and Zhang Tie absorbed its golden lightning strike with the Lightning Devouring Art.
• Liu Chengyin stopped the formation, bowed respectfully to Zhang Tie, and invited him back to the main hall.
• Zhang Tie understood that Liu Chengyin had mistaken him for a powerful senior and privately joked that his kind nature had spared the Liu family.

Zhang Tie accepted Liu Chengyin’s offer to become the Liu family’s guest Supreme Elder in exchange for promising to protect them once in a crisis. Settled in a cave on the first peak, he obtained a pill to restore his divine sense and considered the Little Turtle’s future and the whereabouts of Zhao Daosheng and the little toad.

• Zhang Tie teleported himself and Liu Chengyin into the hall, astonishing the gathered Liu family cultivators.
• Liu Chengyin invited Zhang Tie to serve as the Liu family’s guest Supreme Elder and asked him to protect the family once if it faced a life-or-death crisis; Zhang Tie accepted.
• The Liu family elders knelt and welcomed Zhang Tie, and Liu Chengyin told him the immortal cave on the first peak was ready.
• Zhang Tie asked Liu Chengyin for a pill to restore his divine sense, and she gave him the Liu family’s highest-quality soul pill, a tier-six grade-six Awakening Spirit Pill.
• After Liu Chengyin left, Zhang Tie checked on the Little Turtle, left it top-grade spiritual stones, and wondered how Zhao Daosheng and the little toad were doing.

Zhang Tie recovered part of his divine sense with Awakening Spirit Pills, studied the Liu family's library, and learned about the world's pill cultivation system. He then summoned Liu Chengyin and set out to visit three major pill cultivation institutions.

• Zhang Tie refined all five Awakening Spirit Pills over a month, restoring more than ten percent of his divine sense and extending its range to nearly seven thousand li.
• Zhang Tie visited the Liu family's library pavilion and spent more than three months reading its entire collection with his divine sense.
• Zhang Tie learned that the world ranked pills by nine tiers and grades, and that Liu Chengyin was a Pill King who could refine seventh-tier, sixth-grade pills.
• After recovering for three days, Zhang Tie summoned Liu Chengyin and ordered him to take him to the Immortal Medicine Pavilion, Pill Saint Tower, and Profound Pill Sect.
• Liu Chengyin summoned a warship, and he and Zhang Tie departed the Liu family aboard it.

Liu Chengyin and Zhang Tie visited the Immortal Medicine Pavilion to trade Zhang Tie’s protection during a future crisis for ten Nine Spirit Pills. The pavilion’s leaders revealed they had only seven pills, and Zhang Tie warned that they could lose the opportunity to sell them to another sect.

• Liu Chengyin introduced Zhang Tie to Elder Yu, and they asked to buy the pavilion’s seventh-rank Nine Spirit Pills.
• Zhang Tie offered to protect the Immortal Medicine Pavilion through one calamity in exchange for ten pills, then demonstrated his strength to Elder Yu.
• Elder Yu summoned First Elder Tang Tianshi and four other powerful cultivators to decide the offer.
• Tang Tianshi told Zhang Tie that the pavilion had only seven Nine Spirit Pills remaining.
• Zhang Tie reminded Tang Tianshi that he could take the Liu family’s business to the Pill Saint Tower or the Profound Pill Sect, and the temperature around him dropped.

Zhang Tie secured pills from the Immortal Medicine Pavilion and later restored his divine sense with help from other factions. After learning about the Pill Dao Grand Competition, he decided to enter under an alias to reach the Pill Emperor Tower.

• Tang Tianshi gave Zhang Tie seven Nine Spirit Pills and promised to deliver the remaining three to the Liu family, while Zhang Tie left him a communication talisman.
• Zhang Tie and Liu Chengyin returned to the Liu family, where Zhang Tie used the pills to restore his depleted divine sense.
• Over five years, the Liu family gained prominence after the Immortal Medicine Pavilion confirmed Zhang Tie was a Void Refinement cultivator and the two factions formed an alliance.
• The patriarchs of the Pill Saint Tower and the Mystic Pill Sect tested Zhang Tie, then gave him eight seventh-grade pills after he defeated them with one strike.
• After reviewing Pill Dao materials, Zhang Tie decided to enter the Pill Dao Grand Competition under an alias so he could study the insights in the Pill Emperor Tower.

Zhang Tie refined a third-tier Exploding Spirit Pill after months of secluded practice, using the Blood Ash Netherflame Fire the Liu family had obtained for him. He examined the pill’s four patterns, satisfied with his progress despite the spirit fire’s dangerous cost in vital blood energy.

• Zhang Tie controlled the flames and spiritual herbs in his pill chamber, refining them into a glossy black Exploding Spirit Pill.
• Zhang Tie sealed the furnace, completed the refinement, and placed the pill in a jade bottle for inspection.
• Zhang Tie found four faint patterns on the pill and recalled that its effect greatly increased spiritual power but damaged the user’s meridians and dantian afterward.
• Zhang Tie remembered how his third-tier pill attempts had mostly failed until the Liu family purchased the Blood Ash Netherflame Fire.
• Zhang Tie reflected that the spirit fire raised pill success and sped fusion, but consumed so much vital blood energy that most cultivators could not safely use it.

Zhang Tie prepared to attend the Pill Dao Grand Competition on the Danxia Continent under a new identity, while developing his cultivation and pill-refining skills. He arranged to depart the next morning and packed for the journey, confident he could overcome the Spirit Testing Mirror's age check.

• Zhang Tie studied the Blood Ash Netherflame Fire and discovered that nourishing it with divine power slightly improved the quality of his regenerated power.
• Zhang Tie relied on witchcraft to raise his pill formation rate nearly to one hundred percent, though it did not increase pill patterns.
• Liu Chengyin summoned Zhang Tie to the council hall, where Tang Tianshi gave him a new identity as a gifted disciple of the Immortal Medicine Pavilion for the Pill Dao Grand Competition.
• Tang Tianshi warned Zhang Tie that the Spirit Testing Mirror would verify the competition's age limit of fifty, but Zhang Tie said he had a way to deal with it.
• Zhang Tie and the others agreed to leave the next morning for the Profound Pill Sect and travel by teleportation formation to the Danxia Continent.
• Zhang Tie checked his repaired Profound Heaven Spirit Extermination Shovel, left the oversized black chains behind, packed for the journey, and examined his new identity jade slip.

Zhang Tie traveled with the Immortal Medicine Pavilion and Liu family group to Danxia City for the Pill Dao Grand Competition, concealing his identity and power along the way. After arriving and lodging separately, he heard an urgent knock at his door.

• Zhang Tie introduced himself as Shi Lin to the Immortal Medicine Pavilion disciples and Liu Shunfeng and Liu Ganming, while Xiao Yebai questioned his place in the competition.
• Zhang Tie ignored Xiao Yebai’s disparaging remark and rested during the journey to the Profound Pill Sect.
• Zhang Tie’s group teleported to Fanghai City and continued toward Danxia City aboard the Liu family warship.
• Zhang Tie secretly immobilized three Nascent Soul bandits, and the Liu family’s Third Elder killed them before the group continued onward.
• Zhang Tie and the others entered Danxia City, received temporary residence tokens, and split among three inns.
• Zhang Tie settled into his room alone, but a hurried, forceful knock sounded at his door.

Zhang Tie went to the Alchemy Association to take the alchemist examination, accompanied by Li Chenyuan, Junior Brother Xiao Yebai, and Yun Zhiyi. After paying the examination fee, he was teleported to alchemy room A-6 and learned he could submit a pill of the rank he wanted to test for.

• Zhang Tie teleported three strangers away from his guest room after they disturbed his cultivation.
• Li Chenyuan, Junior Brother Xiao Yebai, and Yun Zhiyi met Zhang Tie the next morning and accompanied him to the Alchemy Association.
• Zhang Tie paid five hundred low-grade spirit stones and entered the teleportation array for alchemy room A-6.
• Zhang Tie read the examination rules and discovered that he could submit a pill of his chosen rank for assessment.

Zhang Tie refined Spirit Burst Pills and passed an assessment as a third-tier mid-grade alchemist, then continued and earned a fourth-tier mid-grade alchemist rating. Li Chenyuan, Xiao Yebai, and Yun Zhiyi watched the results, and Yun Zhiyi celebrated Zhang Tie’s achievement.

• Zhang Tie used the Blood Ash Netherflame Fire to refine nine pills, producing one four-pattern pill, two two-pattern pills, and six ruined pills.
• Zhang Tie submitted his pill and received an assessment result of third-tier mid-grade alchemist.
• Yun Zhiyi praised Zhang Tie, while Xiao Yebai disparaged his result and Li Chenyuan tried to smooth over the exchange.
• After waiting, Yun Zhiyi guessed that Zhang Tie was continuing his assessment.
• The A-6 bronze mirror displayed Zhang Tie’s new result: fourth-tier mid-grade alchemist, and Yun Zhiyi celebrated his achievement.

After passing the alchemist assessment, Zhang Tie tested witchcraft pill refinement and discovered its limits and connection to the Indestructible Pearl. He collected his identity token and went with Yun Zhiyi and the others to register for the Pill Dao Convention, where applicants faced an age-checking mirror.

• Zhang Tie used witchcraft to refine nine fourth-tier Spirit Calming Pills, each bearing four pill patterns, and passed the assessment with one of them.
• Zhang Tie noticed that witchcraft consumed little fortune power but caused the Indestructible Pearl to lose energy, and he concluded that witchcraft could not override laws governing pill patterns.
• Zhang Tie collected his alchemist identity token after returning to the assessment hall.
• Yun Zhiyi urged Zhang Tie to register for the Pill Dao Convention, and the group went to its registration site.
• Zhang Tie and the others found a long line of applicants who had to stand beneath a bronze mirror for an age check before registering.

After completing registration in Danxia City, Zhang Tie returned to the inn, where he banished a Nascent Soul cultivator and three younger men who confronted him. The next morning, he rented Alchemy Room Ninety-Three at the Alchemist Association and began setting up a sixth-tier Isolation Formation before resuming his alchemy work.

• Zhang Tie and his companions completed registration, and Zhang Tie declined Yun Zhiyi's invitation to explore the city before returning to the inn.
• A round-faced young man and his companions accused Zhang Tie of teleporting them into danger, and their Nascent Soul master confronted him.
• Zhang Tie distracted the four visitors and used Shift to send them ten thousand miles away to a mountain forest.
• Zhang Tie returned to the Alchemist Association, rented Alchemy Room Ninety-Three for ten low-grade spirit stones per day, and entered the room.
• Zhang Tie summoned the Spirit Gathering Cauldron and began arranging a sixth-tier Isolation Formation to block outside probing.

After spending nearly half a year refining pills, Zhang Tie joined the Pill Dao Grand Competition and entered its first-round grotto-heaven trial with the Liu family group. As they descended into the forest to search for spirit herbs, a black lightning sphere attacked Liu Shunfeng.

• Zhang Tie refined a five-pattern Exploding Spirit Pill and successfully made nine five-pattern Spirit Calming Pills in one attempt.
• Zhang Tie traveled to the gathering site northwest of Danxia City and met the Liu family's Third Elder, Yun Zhiyi, Liu Shunfeng, Liu Ganming, and the others.
• Shang JinSu announced that contestants had three months to search the grotto-heaven for spirit herbs, with the three hundred who found the most advancing.
• Zhang Tie and the five companions entered the grotto-heaven and flew down toward its mountain forest.
• Zhang Tie warned the group, appeared behind Liu Shunfeng, and struck a black lightning sphere with a golden palm.

Zhang Tie led his group through the blessed land, locating spiritual herbs with his divine sense and helping them gather more than seven hundred second-grade herbs in a month. As the group continued, Zhang Tie sensed that they had entered an encirclement and demanded that the hidden attackers reveal themselves.

• Zhang Tie killed a black thunder frog with a golden palm strike, shocking the five disciples accompanying him.
• Zhang Tie located second-grade spiritual herbs and sent the five disciples to collect them while he guarded the area.
• Zhang Tie’s group swept through the blessed land, gathering spiritual herbs and fighting demon beasts when necessary.
• Three men entered a hole that smelled of spiritual herbs, and a powerful suction force later dragged the two women guarding outside into it.
• Yun Zhiyi and Li Chenyuan praised Zhang Tie after the group collected more than seven hundred second-grade herbs in a month.
• Zhang Tie stopped and warned the hidden figures surrounding the group to show themselves.

Zhang Tie and his companions were ambushed by cultivators seeking their spirit herbs, but he froze and destroyed the attackers, then shared their spoils with his group. They headed toward the core region as another group prepared for an unknown event.

• A lean man in black and more than twenty bamboo-marked cultivators surrounded Zhang Tie and his companions, demanding their storage bags and threatening to kill them.
• Zhang Tie released a wave of frost that froze and shattered the attackers before they could resist.
• Zhang Tie told Li Chenyuan and the others to collect the abandoned storage bags and divide the spirit herbs equally among the six of them.
• Zhang Tie decided to head directly for the core region, reasoning that cultivators and their gathered herbs would converge there.
• A buck-toothed young man delivered spirit herbs to a white-haired young man, who hinted that a good show was coming as his group waited alertly in the forest.

A red-clad young woman used a false plea for protection to drain two cultivators, then fought a lewd middle-aged man who escaped after trapping her with earthen walls. Zhang Tie and his companions noticed the battle and followed, with Zhang Tie recognizing an aura like Blood Corpse Old Demon’s.

• The red-clad woman lured two young cultivators into approaching her, then drained them and took their storage pouches.
• Zhang Tie and the other five flew through the forest, and Zhang Tie turned toward a nearby fight.
• Zhang Tie recognized the red-clad woman’s aura as resembling Blood Corpse Old Demon’s as she battled a lewd middle-aged man protected by a purple barrier.
• The middle-aged man raised earthen walls around the woman, but she blasted them apart with a blood-colored barrier.
• The middle-aged man abandoned his cone-shaped artifact and fled, and the woman recovered the artifact and pursued him.

Zhang Tie exposed and killed a palace-dressed young girl possessed by a soul fragment of the Nine Blood Ancestor, then followed the fragment’s memories to the demonic cultivator’s sealed lair. He confronted a nine-headed flood dragon statue deep in the cave and called out to the unseen being within.

• The palace-dressed young girl pretended to seek help from Zhang Tie’s group, then attacked them with six red streaks.
• Zhang Tie trapped the girl and the fleeing lewd middle-aged man in ice, then froze the girl when she attacked again.
• Zhang Tie searched the girl’s soul, learned she was possessed by a fragment of the Nine Blood Ancestor, and destroyed her.
• Zhang Tie left the lewd middle-aged man and his five companions, then went alone to a blood-mist-filled cave.
• Zhang Tie reached a nine-headed flood dragon statue and challenged the being he believed was hiding there.