Chapter Summaries

Yang Chan accepted a safe assignment to audit Qingyuan Sect’s iron mine in Cloud City and prepared pills and poisons before setting out. After returning from the Earth Fire Courtyard, he heard Zhao Yi urge him to join the Silver Prefecture secret-realm mission for its rare medicinal herbs.

• Yang Chan reviewed Cloud City’s records and accepted a task to oversee its iron mine and bring the account books back to Qingyuan Sect.
• Yang Chan chose the assignment to avoid a possible transfer to Silver Prefecture and assessed Cloud City’s local families and their strength.
• Yang Chan refined travel supplies, including pills and poison pills that could conceal hidden weapons.
• Han Bingyu told Yang Chan that Zhao Yi had come to see him.
• Zhao Yi told Yang Chan that rare herbs, including ingredients for Three-Cycle Viscera Nourishing Pills, had appeared in the Silver Prefecture secret realm and urged him to join the mission.

Yang Chan refused Zhao Yi’s invitation to join the Yinzhou Secret Realm mission, choosing instead to focus on advancing his alchemy. Zhao Yi set out to find other companions, while Yang Chan returned to his courtyard, wary of the dangers awaiting in the secret realm.

• Yang Chan told Zhao Yi that he had found the herbs he needed and would leave in a few days, so he would not join the Silver Prefecture mission.
• Zhao Yi tried to persuade Yang Chan by describing the secret realm’s rare medicinal materials and the resources available to participants, but Yang Chan said he would focus on becoming an Intermediate Alchemist.
• Zhao Yi accepted Yang Chan’s refusal and said he would seek other alchemists to accompany him to Silver Prefecture.
• Yang Chan saw Zhao Yi off and returned to his courtyard, deciding that the secret realm was too dangerous for him to explore.

Yang Chan chose a safer route to Cloud City and set out alone from Qingyuan Sect, carefully preparing for dangers on the road. Meanwhile, a marriage delegation hurried back to the Golden Meng Empire after Lord Nalan said trouble had arisen there.

• Yang Chan chose the broad Huayun Road instead of the faster, more dangerous route and monitored Qingyuan Sect's plans and the marriage alliance.
• Yang Chan learned that Princess Lanyue had become the marriage candidate and that the alliance had been concluded, bringing a period of peace.
• Yang Chan left Qingyuan Sect five days before its trip to Silver Prefecture, riding his Qingzhou White Horse toward Cloud City alone.
• Yang Chan followed his travel precautions and rode at full speed toward his planned lodging before nightfall.
• Lord Nalan urged the marriage delegation to hurry back to the Golden Meng Empire, while the young man in white fox fur questioned the rush and the unexplained trouble.

Yang Chan traveled toward Cloud City and reached Youjian Inn before nightfall, taking precautions to protect himself and the Qingzhou Horse. He secured the horse in the stable in an unusually elaborate way, leaving the waiter baffled.

• Yang Chan rested the Qingzhou Horse during the journey, checked his drinking water carefully, and used a Grain Pill to stave off hunger.
• Yang Chan planned to stay alert at Youjian Inn and avoid dangers on the road while the horse recovered.
• Yang Chan arrived at Youjian Inn and chose it partly because nearby farm households made it seem safer than an isolated inn.
• Yang Chan refused to hand over the Qingzhou Horse and locked its legs to sturdy stone pillars in the stable, confusing the waiter.

Yang Chan secured a superior room at Youjian Inn and took precautions to protect his valuable Qingzhou Horse. After noticing people watching him with ill intent and sensing the hidden proprietress, he settled in and waited to see whether anyone would cause trouble.

• Yang Chan approved the premium fodder the waiter brought for his Qingzhou Horse and agreed to pay for it with his lodging fee.
• Yang Chan rented the last superior room from Shopkeeper Hu for one night and noticed the shopkeeper was an External Refinement: Steel Tendons expert.
• Yang Chan declined the waiter's offer of food and shut himself in his room after noticing several people watching him.
• Yang Chan sensed ill-intentioned malice nearby and detected the hidden presence of Youjian Inn's proprietress without confronting her.

Yang Chan left Youjian Inn and killed three roadside thieves who tried to ambush him. He later hid with his Qingzhou Horse as riders pursued someone along the road, choosing not to get involved.

• Yang Chan heard Shopkeeper Hu patrol Youjian Inn overnight, then checked out the next morning without seeking compensation for the attempted theft.
• Yang Chan rode away from the inn, spotted three thieves who had stretched a rope across the road, and killed them with poisoned Flying Needles and his sword.
• Yang Chan stopped beside a stream to let his Qingzhou Horse rest and drink, then tested the water before drinking himself.
• Yang Chan heard riders pursuing someone and hid behind a tree with his horse, deciding to wait until they had passed rather than interfere.

Wulan Haohuan realized that Nalan Hongbo had brought him into a doomed marriage alliance as the Golden Meng Empire prepared for war. Princess Lanyue escaped from their pursuit, leaving Wulan and Nalan to chase her while fearing capture by the Six Gates.

• Wulan Haohuan understood that the Golden Meng Empire had treated him as a disposable pawn and that controlling Princess Lanyue was their best chance to escape.
• Nalan Hongbo chased Princess Lanyue and warned her that fleeing would make her a sinner and that she could be executed if she stayed in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
• Princess Lanyue refused to return with Nalan Hongbo and warned him that the Six Gates would kill them if they kept pursuing her.
• Princess Lanyue recalled that she had fled to avoid both the Old Emperor, Yang Yu, and the Golden Meng Empire, relying on inherited resources and methods to conceal her identity.

Yang Chan stayed hidden while Princess Lanyue fled from Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan, who attacked her with specialized hidden weapons. Princess Lanyue resisted and planned her escape, while Nalan Hongbo tried to exploit her desire for revenge to make her stop.

• Yang Chan recognized Princess Lanyue and chose not to get involved in her pursuit.
• Nalan Hongbo fired three poisoned Bone-Piercing Nails at Princess Lanyue, but she deflected them with her sword and lost some speed.
• Wulan Haohuan attacked Princess Lanyue from behind with a Golden Armor Sleeve Arrow, forcing her to block again.
• Princess Lanyue urged her pursuers to turn back toward the Golden Meng Empire and considered escaping toward another border after disguising herself.
• Nalan Hongbo appealed to Princess Lanyue's desire to avenge her father, promising the Golden Meng Empire would help her take revenge.

Princess Lanyue tried to escape Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan, but they attacked her with poisoned concealed weapons and brought down her horse. Wounded and stranded, she swallowed a Detoxification Pill and prepared to fight to the death.

• Princess Lanyue warned Nalan Hongbo that the Great Zhou Dynasty would hunt him down and urged him to flee without her, but he refused and proposed they leave together.
• Princess Lanyue rejected Nalan Hongbo's offer and urged the Night-Shining Jade Lion to keep running rather than dismount and fight.
• Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan launched concealed weapons at Princess Lanyue after using their conversation to delay her.
• Princess Lanyue cut down some of the weapons, but a poisoned Bone-Piercing Nail pierced her shoulder and their attacks felled the Night-Shining Jade Lion.
• Princess Lanyue leaped from her horse, swallowed a Detoxification Pill, and resolved to fight Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan to the death.

Princess Lanyue refused Nalan Hongbo’s offer of an alliance and fought him despite her injuries and lingering poison. She unleashed her strongest sword technique as Nalan Hongbo answered with his Thunder Prison Blade, leaving their clash unresolved.

• Princess Lanyue resolved to fight rather than surrender to the Golden Meng Empire and drew her longsword.
• Nalan Hongbo stopped Wulan Haohuan from approaching, wary that the wounded Princess Lanyue might kill him.
• Princess Lanyue charged Nalan Hongbo, but he blocked her sword and counterattacked, forcing her to retreat.
• Princess Lanyue used her bright moon martial imprint and Long Moon Sword Song, Sword Drawing Style.
• Nalan Hongbo summoned his curved-blade martial imprint and unleashed Thunder Prison Blade against Princess Lanyue.

Princess Lanyue fought Nalan Hongbo while suffering from worsening injuries and poison, then saw a possible chance to survive when Yang Chan’s horse revealed his hiding place. Yang Chan stepped out hoping to leave, but Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan saw him as an easy target and wanted his Qingzhou Horse.

• Princess Lanyue battled Nalan Hongbo while avoiding Wulan Haohuan’s hidden weapons, but her wound and the poison steadily weakened her.
• Princess Lanyue cut Nalan Hongbo’s two Golden Meng Horses in half, angering him and undermining his plan to escape.
• Yang Chan’s frightened Qingzhou Horse neighed and exposed his hiding place to the fighters.
• Princess Lanyue offered Yang Chan a court reward and cultivation manuals if he saved her life.
• Yang Chan emerged and asked whether he could leave after passing by, while Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan prepared to kill him and seize his horse.

Yang Chan encountered Princess Lanyue and a group of Golden Meng Empire pursuers on the road to Cloud City. He killed the pursuers and turned on the poisoned Princess Lanyue, determined to leave no witnesses.

• Nalan Hongbo attacked Yang Chan and tried to take his horse, so Yang Chan blinded him with Flying Needles and killed him with a sleeve arrow.
• Wulan Haohuan fled, but Yang Chan caught him and killed him after rejecting his offers of wealth.
• Yang Chan approached Princess Lanyue, whose Bone-Piercing Nail poison was spreading through her body, and prepared to kill her too.

Yang Chan killed Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan, then prepared to kill Princess Lanyue after she recognized him. Princess Lanyue offered him a Martial Saint cultivation manual, but Yang Chan decided to make her the scapegoat for the deaths of the Golden Meng Empire’s men.

• Princess Lanyue mistook Yang Chan for an incapable young master until he defeated and killed Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan.
• Princess Lanyue recognized Yang Chan from the Alchemist Exchange Meet, and Yang Chan decided to kill her to protect his secrets.
• Princess Lanyue warned Yang Chan that the Six Gates could trace evidence back to him, but he took her recognition as another reason to silence her.
• Princess Lanyue offered Yang Chan a method for breaking through to the Martial Saint realm and considered using him to escape her troubles.
• Yang Chan rejected her attempt to save herself and planned to frame her as the person who killed the Golden Meng Empire’s men.

Yang Chan weighed Princess Lanyue’s valuable inheritances against the danger of keeping her alive, then searched her and found none of the knowledge she had offered. He used the Soul Seizing Great Method to try to extract the cultivation methods from her mind.

• Princess Lanyue offered Yang Chan her martial and alchemist inheritances and proposed a plan to fake her escape through the Qingyuan River.
• Yang Chan pretended to consider the bargain, then immobilized Princess Lanyue and searched her for hidden treasures.
• Yang Chan found only items such as armor, a mask, concealed weapons, and pills, with no inheritance or related information.
• Yang Chan used the Soul Seizing Great Method on Princess Lanyue to obtain the cultivation methods he wanted.

Yang Chan tried the Soul Seizing Great Method on Princess Lanyue, but her imperial safeguards let her resist it. He forced her to swallow a Three Flower Insect God Pill, leaving her under his control, and she helped him deal with the dead Golden Meng Empire envoys.

• Yang Chan used the Soul Seizing Great Method on Princess Lanyue, but she quickly regained her senses and explained that an imperial secret technique protected her mind and soul.
• Princess Lanyue revealed that Yang Chan would need to keep her alive to obtain the Martial Saint cultivation technique and King-level Alchemist inheritance.
• Yang Chan forced Princess Lanyue to swallow a Three Flower Insect God Pill, which would kill her within a month without an antidote.
• Princess Lanyue demanded the antidote, but Yang Chan threatened her with a Flying Needle, so she calmed down and decided to focus on surviving.
• Princess Lanyue urged Yang Chan to dispose of the Golden Meng Empire corpses, and Yang Chan sprinkled white powder over Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan, producing white smoke.

Yang Chan arranged a false death and a new identity for Princess Lanyue so she could remain near him and later enter the Qingyuan Sect as his attendant. After they planted the identity of Xiao Xiang in Xiaoyuan Village, Yang Chan also obtained several pill formulas from Princess Lanyue.

• Princess Lanyue identified Yang Chan’s substance as Rotting Corpse Powder, which erased Nalan Hongbo’s and Wulan Haohuan’s bodies.
• Yang Chan ordered Princess Lanyue to reveal her cultivation techniques and King-level Alchemist inheritance, and arranged for her to disguise herself and pose as a village girl before entering the Qingyuan Sect.
• Princess Lanyue accepted the plan, deciding the Qingyuan Sect offered safety and access to the materials she needed for alchemy.
• Yang Chan and Princess Lanyue planted false tracks toward the Qingyuan River, burned their clothes and the two men’s clothes, and disposed of the remaining traces.
• Yang Chan used the Soul Seizing Great Method on Xiaoyuan Village’s residents, making them believe a girl named Xiao Xiang lived there with her elderly grandmother.
• Yang Chan obtained several pill formulas from Princess Lanyue, all useful to Internal Refinement Grandmasters.

Emperor Yang Yu sent Jin Feihua and Six Gates to capture the Golden Meng Empire’s fugitives, while secretly accepting Princess Lanyue’s death. After reconstructing the fight at the Qingyuan River, Jin Feihua found older tracks suggesting someone had passed through and possibly helped the fugitives escape, and she followed that trail.

• Emperor Yang Yu ordered Six Gates to pursue Nalan Hongbo and the others, while Jin Feihua understood that the emperor did not want Princess Lanyue to return alive.
• Jin Feihua divided her agents to search the Qingyuan River and its banks for the fugitives, then returned with several agents to examine the first battle site.
• Jin Feihua concluded that Nalan Hongbo and Wulan Haohuan had killed Night-Shining Jade Lion with concealed weapons, and that Princess Lanyue had killed the Golden Meng Horses before someone fled toward the river.
• A Six Gates agent found older tracks from a Qingzhou Horse, and Jin Feihua suspected its rider had witnessed the battle and helped the fugitives escape.
• Jin Feihua ordered the other agents to keep searching and pursued the Qingzhou Horse tracks herself.

Jin Feihua tracked Yang Chan down while investigating Princess Lanyue’s disappearance, but his precautions convinced her that he was uninvolved. Yang Chan continued toward a crossroads to wait for a letter from Princess Lanyue, ready to kill her if the investigation uncovered his role.

• Jin Feihua followed the hoofprints to Xiaoyuan Village, questioned the villagers, and learned that a young man had passed through before the battle.
• Jin Feihua caught up with Yang Chan and questioned him about the fight involving Princess Lanyue and the Golden Meng Empire’s people.
• Yang Chan acted guarded and invoked his status as a Qingyuan Sect pharmacist, while Jin Feihua’s scrutiny confirmed that he lacked the strength to have joined the battle.
• Jin Feihua returned to the battle site, and Yang Chan resumed his journey after realizing his backup arrangements had deflected suspicion.
• Yang Chan planned to wait at a crossroads for Princess Lanyue’s letter and resolved to trigger the insects within her if the situation went wrong.

Yang Chan reached Cloud City without encountering bandits and went to Qingyuan Sect’s Qingfeng Pavilion to arrange his mission and seek medicinal ingredients. He showed Steward Li his mission document to collect a mine’s accounts, leaving the manager surprised by a Pharmacist taking such a task.

• Yang Chan learned that Cloud City’s bandits had already been suppressed, explaining his trouble-free journey.
• Yang Chan went to Qingfeng Pavilion, Qingyuan Sect’s outpost in Cloud City, before seeking the Han Family’s contact.
• Yang Chan told the pavilion’s staff that he was from Qingyuan Sect and asked to meet the manager.
• Steward Li checked Yang Chan’s identity token and invited him into the rear courtyard.
• Yang Chan presented his mission document and asked Steward Li to arrange his trip to collect the mine’s accounts.
• Steward Li’s suspicion faded after he read the document, but he still found Yang Chan’s mission unusual for a Pharmacist.

Yang Chan followed the usual procedure for his Cloud Stone Mountain assignment and visited the Han Family Trading Company to learn how he could obtain the Ghost Spirit Grass and Xiang Tian Flower. He learned that the Zhao Family held the Ghost Spirit Grass and the Zhong Family planned to auction the Xiang Tian Flower.

• Yang Chan learned from Steward Li how he would collect and inspect the Cloud Stone Mountain account books, then decided to follow the normal procedure without investigating further.
• Yang Chan went to the Han Family Trading Company to ask about the two medicinal ingredients needed for the Three-Cycle Viscera Nourishing Pill.
• Han Baiyan told Yang Chan that the Zhao Family held the two-hundred-year Ghost Spirit Grass and wanted a Pharmacist capable of refining a One-Cycle Viscera Nourishing Pill to help make a Longevity Pill.
• Han Baiyan explained that the Zhong Family held the three-hundred-year Xiang Tian Flower and planned to auction it, so Yang Chan would have to act soon if he wanted to obtain it.