Chapter Summaries

Xu Chunniang was confronted by Zhuge Yun, who challenged her high Azure Cloud Ranking placement because it surpassed Shangguan Xue’s, but she sent him away without a fight. She bought spirit-plant seeds and farming tools, then began reclaiming fields by her cave abode to prepare for future cultivation and explain her harvests from the Little World.

• Xu Chunniang fled to the Treasure Pavilion’s second floor to escape disciples crowding around her over her Azure Cloud Ranking placement.
• Zhuge Yun confronted Xu Chunniang and questioned why she ranked higher than Shangguan Xue, whom he admired.
• Xu Chunniang insulted Zhuge Yun, who considered attacking her but put away his Iron Seal Fan and left.
• Xu Chunniang bought seeds for Moon-Gazing Grass, Apricot-like Flower, and Arhat Leaf, along with spirit rice and farming tools.
• Xu Chunniang returned to her cave abode and began reclaiming nearby fields, intending to raise them to Grade Two with her Spiritual Soil Technique.

Xu Chunniang cultivated ten spirit fields and raised one to Grade Two Low-grade before deciding to hire Qi Condensation disciples to tend the rest. She recruited nine disciples and brought them to Lesser Witch Mountain, where she began preparing their living area.

• Xu Chunniang used a Grade Two Spirit Hoe to cultivate ten spirit fields, then spent thirty-five days raising one field to Grade Two Low-grade.
• Xu Chunniang posted nine commissions for disciples to tend the spirit fields, and all nine were accepted within two hours.
• Xu Chunniang met the nine Qi Condensation disciples and assigned each one a spirit field to maintain.
• Xu Chunniang cleared a space beside the fields and brought the disciples there, then a sixth-level Qi Condensation disciple offered to build their wooden cabins.

Xu Chunniang hired disciples to build cabins and tend the spirit fields, then planted Apricot-like Flowers and bought the Rain Transformation Art. After realizing that reclaiming the small world’s land would take years, she considered cultivating an external incarnation to do the work without hindering her cultivation.

• Xu Chunniang brought timber to the disciples and assigned three of them to build nine cabins while the others tended the spirit fields.
• After the cabins were nearly finished, Xu Chunniang paid the three builders and sowed Apricot-like Flower seeds in the second-grade spirit field.
• Xu Chunniang bought the Rain Transformation Art at the Merit Pavilion and returned to study it in her cave abode.
• In the small world, Xu Chunniang reclaimed two spirit fields but realized that expanding the fields would take years and interfere with her cultivation.
• Xu Chunniang considered using an external incarnation to reclaim the land, but she lacked the knowledge and precious materials required to make one.

Xu Chunniang reclaimed one hundred Grade One spirit fields, learned to irrigate them with the Rain Transformation Art, and continued raising their quality. After discovering that Blood Soul Pills accelerated the merging of her divided divine sense, she left her attempt to multitask with formation study for later and focused on cultivating the fields, ending with five Level 2 spirit fields.

• Xu Chunniang reclaimed one hundred Grade One Low-grade spirit fields and sowed Pearl Rice in them.
• Xu Chunniang cast the Rain Transformation Art three times, irrigating thirty-five fields before her spiritual energy ran low, while Little Orange and Little White watched from a distance.
• Xu Chunniang tried to study a formation Jade Slip while calculating formations, but the strain on her divine sense forced her to stop.
• Xu Chunniang swallowed two Blood Soul Pills and found that their power accelerated the merging of her sixteen portions of divine sense.
• Xu Chunniang spent the following months tending her spirit fields, raising five to Level 2, and planting Apricot-like Flower in the fifth.

After evil cultivators attacked several market towns, Xu Chunniang learned that the sect was strengthening their defenses but could not volunteer because her cultivation was too low. She met her senior brother Zhuo Yulin as he departed to guard Yunting Market Town, then harvested a vast crop of Pearl Rice in her small world.

• Xu Chunniang received news that evil cultivators had slaughtered cultivators in several market towns and went to Thousand Mechanisms Hall.
• Elder Fang Qi announced that market towns would restrict entry, allow broad exit, and receive Golden Core and Foundation Establishment guards.
• Xu Chunniang learned she did not meet the cultivation requirements to guard a market town and spoke with Zhuo Yulin, who gave her a formation disk before leaving for Yunting Market Town.
• Xu Chunniang harvested thirty-six thousand jin of Pearl Rice from her ninety spirit fields, while Little White eagerly ate from a sack.

Xu Chunniang harvested a large crop of Pearl Rice and received a generous sect reward, but worried that selling the rice would expose her small world. She decided to turn it into spirit wine and began experimenting, adapting the brewing process when she lacked Spirit Spring Water.

• Xu Chunniang calculated that her Pearl Rice harvest could earn thirty-six thousand contribution points every six months, but that repaying her debts would still take more than twenty years.
• Yue Lingzheng told Xu Chunniang that the sect would plant Pearl Rice on a large scale and rewarded her with two hundred thousand contribution points.
• Xu Chunniang asked Yue Lingzheng about external incarnations, then set aside the idea after learning how difficult it was to obtain the required materials.
• Xu Chunniang decided not to sell her abundant Pearl Rice directly because doing so could reveal her small world, and she went to the Scripture Repository to learn how to brew spirit wine.
• Xu Chunniang bought brewing supplies at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion and began making spirit rice wine after tending her ninety fields, but she had no Spirit Spring Water for the first step.

Xu Chunniang developed the Spirit Spring Technique and, after her sixteen strands of divine sense merged, reached the third level of the Refining Spirit Art and broke through to Level 2 Formation. She checked the spiritual rice she had left soaking, found it had turned out well, and served some to Little White while Little Orange watched without being offered any.

• Xu Chunniang refined the Rain Transformation Art into the Spirit Spring Technique, producing jars of spirit spring water that she used to soak spiritual rice.
• After days of meditation, Xu Chunniang's sixteen strands of divine sense fused, releasing pressure that frightened the nearby Qi Condensation disciples.
• Xu Chunniang found that her stronger divine sense let her solve a difficult formation problem and open the way to Level 2 Formation.
• Xu Chunniang entered the small world and discovered that the rice soaked for five days had become plump and translucent despite the spirit spring water losing its spiritual energy.
• Xu Chunniang cooked the rice and served Little White several bowls, while Little Orange waited nearby and grew annoyed at being left out.

Xu Chunniang practiced dividing her attention while studying formations and cultivating, then checked the ten jars of spirit wine she had brewed. She found one jar that tasted good and brought samples of all ten to the Treasure Pavilion on the Main Peak for evaluation.

• Xu Chunniang gave Little Orange a bowl of spirit rice, then prepared jars with steamed rice and Spirit Wine Yeast and tended her Apricot-like Flower fields.
• Xu Chunniang spent three days and nights using divided attention to study an array disk and manuscripts, then discovered she could study a Jade Slip while cultivating.
• Xu Chunniang began dividing her attention between her daily work and formations, continuing the practice for a month.
• Xu Chunniang tasted the wine from all ten jars and found that the tenth jar was crisp, sweet, and warming.
• Xu Chunniang filled gourds with samples from every jar and went to the Treasure Pavilion on the Main Peak to ask the wine shop clerk for guidance.

Xu Chunniang brought ten wines she had brewed to a winery for appraisal, where the clerk found that most were poor but praised numbers one and ten. She offered the two wines to the shopkeeper to taste as they began discussing business with the winery.

• Xu Chunniang visited the winery and asked the clerk to appraise ten numbered gourds of spirit wine.
• The clerk praised number one for its aroma and spiritual energy, but found number two mediocre and number three sour.
• The clerk struggled through numbers four to nine, while Xu Chunniang realized her brewing had gone poorly.
• The clerk enjoyed number ten, praised it alongside number one, and confirmed the winery might do business with Xu Chunniang.
• Xu Chunniang presented the shopkeeper with cups of the two wines, and he tasted them and complimented her brewing talent.

Xu Chunniang negotiated a contract to sell two kinds of spirit wine to a winery and brewed the first contracted batch. She delivered the wine and received the remaining payment, while future cooperation depended on how well it sold.

• Xu Chunniang bargained with the winery's shopkeeper and agreed to sell Pearl Drunk and Sweet Dew Fragrance for twenty-five spirit stones per jin, with a two-month deadline.
• Xu Chunniang accepted a five-thousand-spirit-stone deposit and returned to her cave abode to brew the contracted wine.
• Xu Chunniang fermented the wine and improved six spiritual fields, while Little Orange and Little White drank a whole jar of Pearl Drunk and passed out.
• Xu Chunniang collected the finished wine and put away every jar to keep Little Orange and Little White from sneaking more.
• Xu Chunniang delivered five jars of each wine to the shopkeeper, who paid her the remaining twenty thousand spirit stones and left future cooperation dependent on sales.

Xu Chunniang tested Sweet Dew Fragrance and concluded that spirit wine restored spiritual qi less effectively than pills, then secured a larger order from the wine shop. She inspected her spirit fields and found most disciples tending them diligently, though two sixth-level Qi Condensation disciples were shirking their duties.

• Xu Chunniang began brewing a third batch and drank Sweet Dew Fragrance, discovering that it restored less than one-tenth of her spiritual qi per gourd.
• Xu Chunniang studied Senior Brother Zhuo’s array disk while cultivating until divine-soul fatigue forced her to stop and sleep.
• The wine shopkeeper told Xu Chunniang that Pearl Drunk and Sweet Dew Fragrance were selling well and requested as much of a third batch as she could provide.
• Xu Chunniang inspected her spirit fields and saw that the disciples’ tending had improved their spiritual qi, with one field nearing Grade One Mid-grade.
• Xu Chunniang noticed that Chen Fei was diligently tending his assigned field, while two sixth-level Qi Condensation disciples were secretly spending less time on their duties.

Xu Chunniang harvested her spirit rice and rewarded the disciples who tended her spirit fields, withholding the extra spirit wine from two who had not worked to their full ability. She returned to her cave dwelling and continued breaking the final formation in Senior Brother Zhuo’s array disc.

• Xu Chunniang calculated that her wine profits could repay her debt in a little over eight years, then harvested one hundred eighty bags of spirit rice.
• Xu Chunniang inspected the disciples’ spirit fields, found that all but one had improved to Grade One Mid-grade, and paid them their annual wages.
• Xu Chunniang gave spirit wine as an additional reward to the diligent disciples, including Liu Yujiao, whose lower cultivation explained her field’s limited progress.
• Two sixth level Qi Condensation disciples questioned why Liu Yujiao received wine, and Xu Chunniang explained that their greater cultivation meant they had not done their utmost.
• Xu Chunniang returned to her cave dwelling and resumed deducing the final of the eight formations in Senior Brother Zhuo’s array disc.

Xu Chunniang refined a stronger batch of spirit wine while continuing to repay her debt, and learned that the elders trapped in the Mount Wuwang secret realm had not yet escaped. She joined Huo Chunyan to accept an Essence Devouring Beast hunting commission, then saw Zhuge Yun approach as their prospective team leader.

• Xu Chunniang triggered a change in her formation disk, which reset her progress and led her to suspect it was a powerful magic artifact.
• Xu Chunniang used concentrated spirit spring water and expensive spirit rice to brew new wine, then made more Pearl Drunk and Sweet Dew Fragrance for the winery.
• Three years passed as Xu Chunniang cultivated and repaid her debt, while cultivators reported that Foundation Establishment disciples had escaped the Mount Wuwang secret realm but its elders remained trapped.
• Yue Lingzheng told Xu Chunniang that the soul lamps of her master and the sect master remained lit, easing her concern about their safety.
• Xu Chunniang and Huo Chunyan accepted an Essence Devouring Beast hunting commission, and Zhuge Yun approached them after they hoped for a reliable senior leader.

Zhuge Yun led Xu Chunniang, Huo Chunyan, Zhang Yu, and Zhao Hangsan to Primordial Chaos City to hunt the Essence Devouring Beast. After a grueling journey, the group reached the city and encountered an evil cultivator, leaving Zhuge Yun warning them to respect the city's rules.

• Zhuge Yun introduced himself as the senior brother leading the commission, and Xu Chunniang reassured Huo Chunyan that he was unlikely to cause trouble during a sect mission.
• Huo Chunyan worried about entering Primordial Chaos City, but Xu Chunniang reminded her that the city's Nascent Soul City Lord enforced rules for everyone.
• After traveling for more than a month, the group reached the city and rested for two hours after Zhang Yu asked Zhuge Yun to stop.
• Zhuge Yun warned the disciples not to absorb the area's violent spiritual energy, while Xu Chunniang relied on her Red Pearl Rice Crimson Wine to replenish her spiritual power.
• On the way to the gate, Zhang Yu insulted an evil cultivator, who retaliated with a hostile glare until Zhuge Yun stepped between them.
• After the evil cultivator entered the city, Zhuge Yun rebuked Zhang Yu for speaking recklessly, and Zhang Yu insisted that condemning evil cultivators was not wrong.

Zhuge Yun led the Carefree Sect disciples into Primordial Chaos City, where they witnessed a killing that showed how dangerous the city was despite its rules. The group settled at Auspicious Cloud Inn, and Xu Chunniang disguised herself as a man to seek a buyer for her Apricot-like Flower.

• Zhuge Yun warned the disciples that Primordial Chaos City was dangerous, and Zhang Yu followed the group after deciding not to pursue the demonic cultivator.
• The disciples paid for entry and received identity jade plaques, then witnessed a cultivator kill another for his Storage Ring while the City Lord's Mansion arrived too late to save the victim.
• Zhuge Yun led the group to Auspicious Cloud Inn, where they booked rooms and agreed to gather the day after tomorrow.
• Xu Chunniang inspected her room's formations, added a Defensive Formation and an illusion formation, and rested for the night.
• The next day, Xu Chunniang disguised herself as a tall, gaunt man and entered a small shop to ask whether it bought spirit herbs.

Xu Chunniang sold her Apricot-like Flowers in scattered batches before joining Zhuge Yun and the others on their journey into Wind Cry Mountain. After several battles with demonic beasts, the group grew tired, and Zhuge Yun sensed something behind them.

• Xu Chunniang disguised herself and sold her Apricot-like Flowers through several shops, earning more than two hundred thousand spirit stones without attracting attention.
• Xu Chunniang and Huo Chunyan met Zhuge Yun as agreed, and the group left Primordial Chaos City for Wind Cry Mountain.
• Zhuge Yun led the group on foot into the mountain’s northern region and warned them to watch for demonic beasts and lurking cultivators.
• The group defeated three Black Gold Apes, then Xu Chunniang protected Zhang Yu from a Green-eyed Mad Lion’s soul attack and helped the others kill it.
• The group fought several more waves of demonic beasts, grew tired, and Zhuge Yun turned to look behind them with a furrowed brow.

Zhuge Yun and the others fought two Fierce Dragon Rhinos after a dark cultivator’s mark on Zhang Yu drew the beasts to them. Zhuge Yun removed the mark, and the group began heading back, but he stopped when danger appeared again.

• Zhuge Yun sensed two Foundation Establishment Late Stage Fierce Dragon Rhinos pursuing the group and led them away from the Golden-Winged Eagles’ territory before preparing to fight.
• Xu Chunniang completed a trapping formation while Zhang Yu, Huo Chunyan, and Zhao Hangsan held off one rhino, then lured it into the formation.
• Zhuge Yun killed the first rhino, and he joined the others to kill the second one inside the formation.
• Zhuge Yun found and removed a black mark inside Zhang Yu, explaining that a dark cultivator had likely used it to track them and lure the rhinos.
• Zhuge Yun decided the group should return rather than venture deeper, but he stopped shortly after they began the journey back.

The five escaped Wind Cry Mountain after an evil cultivator sent demonic wolves to block their path, and Xu Chunniang’s spiritual sense suppressed the beasts long enough for the group to kill two and flee. Once safe, Zhuge Yun warned them to stay alert, while the others praised Xu Chunniang’s strength and discussed her Azure Cloud Ranking position.

• Three Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Two-headed Demonic Wolves ambushed Zhang Yu, Huo Chunyan, Zhuge Yun, Xu Chunniang, and their companions on their return journey through Wind Cry Mountain.
• An overwhelming spiritual sense immobilized the wolves, allowing Xu Chunniang to kill one with a spirit spear and Zhuge Yun to slay another with sword light as the third fled.
• A black-clad evil cultivator found the battlefield, suspected a Golden Core cultivator had intervened, and decided not to pursue the group.
• Zhuge Yun led the five out of Wind Cry Mountain and searched the area with his spiritual sense, finding no pursuer and confirming that the mark on Zhang Yu had been erased.
• Zhang Yu apologized for endangering the group, but Zhuge Yun accepted responsibility as well and said their battles had provided valuable experience.
• Huo Chunyan and the others praised Xu Chunniang for killing a wolf in one strike, and one companion noted that her Azure Cloud Ranking position was above Shangguan’s.

After returning to Primordial Chaos City, Xu Chunniang and her companions explored the city and learned an upcoming auction might offer a Puppet Technique inheritance. They bought entry plaques, but the chapter leaves them set to attend the auction seated apart.

• Zhuge Yun silenced Zhang Yu after he compared Xu Chunniang and Shangguan on the Azure Cloud Ranking, then led the group back to Primordial Chaos City.
• Zhuge Yun told the group to rest for three days before traveling to Wind Cry Mountain to search for the Essence Devouring Beast.
• The next day, Xu Chunniang, Huo Chunyan, Zhao Hangsan, and Zhang Yu explored Primordial Chaos City and bought supplies.
• A shop assistant told Xu Chunniang that an upcoming auction might include a Puppet Technique inheritance and described the auction's offerings and entry requirements.
• The four disciples bought entry plaques, but their seats were assigned to different parts of the hall.

Xu Chunniang attended an auction where the Leaving Fire Pearl sparked a bidding contest between two Golden Core cultivators, while she waited for the Automaton Inheritance. Later, the City Lord’s Mansion entered the bidding for the Blood Jade Coral Branch, leaving the other bidders hesitant.

• Xu Chunniang put on an auction mask, found her seat, and learned the auction’s divine-sense restriction prevented attendees from freely probing one another.
• Jin Ya opened the auction with the Grade Two Leaving Fire Pearl, which Zhao Hangsan wanted for his Fire Spiritual Root but could not afford as its price rose.
• The Heavenly Cripple True Person and the owner of private room number sixteen fought over the Leaving Fire Pearl, which sold to room sixteen for three hundred thousand spirit stones.
• Xu Chunniang passed on several items and waited for the Automaton Inheritance as the auction continued.
• Bidders drove the Blood Jade Coral Branch’s price toward two hundred thousand spirit stones before private room number one offered two hundred and fifty thousand, making the remaining bidders hesitate.