Recaps

Li Xiuchang used his Charcoal Attribute Mana to force a Southern Spirit Plant seedling to mature, shocking the examiners and securing another perfect score. He passed the Tier 1 Spirit Planter examination and received more than five thousand seeds and a private medicine field.

• Li Xiuchang asked permission to use his own fertilizer, then used his Charcoal Attribute Mana to mature the Southern Spirit Plant seedling.
• The examiners were shocked by Li Xiuchang's success, and Yan Song reminded them to wait until the assessment ended before questioning him.
• Li Xiuchang successfully matured all the seedlings and earned a perfect score in the forced-maturation round.
• Li Xiuchang earned another perfect score in the harvesting round, while the examiners overlooked flaws in his work.
• Li Xiuchang passed the Tier 1 Spirit Planter examination and received more than five thousand Tier 1 seeds and a private medicine field.

Li Xiuchang received his Tier 1 Spirit Planter Skill Credential with a Gold Medal mark after earning full marks, and explained how he used his mutated Charcoal Attribute Mana to fertilize spirit plants. Yan Song promised to apply for his reward, while Li Xiuchang collected the sixty spirit stones he had won in their bet.

• The chief examiner gave Li Xiuchang a Skill Credential marked Gold Medal for his perfect Tier 1 Spirit Planter assessment.
• Li Xiuchang explained that his Charcoal Attribute Mana had developed through a mutation of the Fire Starting Skill and that he had discovered it could fertilize spirit plants.
• The examiners confirmed Li Xiuchang had broken no assessment rules, though they could not borrow the sect's Fire Starting Skill to study it.
• Yan Song said he would apply for Li Xiuchang's seed gift package and medicinal field, and Yan Xue paired Identity Tokens with Li Xiuchang so she could notify him when the reward arrived.
• Yan Song paid Li Xiuchang the sixty spirit stones they had wagered, while maintaining that Li Xiuchang would still face the separate punishment for practicing multiple Cultivation Techniques without a Skill Credential.

Li Xiuchang celebrated becoming a Gold Medal Spirit Planter, visited Song Yu, and met his previously unseen neighbor Chen Changsheng. After returning to Eastern Geng District, he prepared for Zhao Yuansi’s lecture while arranging access to more medicine-field space.

• Yan Song decided Li Xiuchang’s spirit-plant talent was best left to develop on its own and ordered more spiritual energy supplied to his residence using his confiscated salary.
• Li Xiuchang visited Song Yu and told him he had passed the Spirit Planter examination with full marks and become a Gold Medal Spirit Planter.
• Li Xiuchang returned to Eastern Geng District and met Chen Changsheng, his long-secluded neighbor from No. 32.
• Li Xiuchang told Zhang Wanzhi, Mo Tu, and Chen Changsheng about his examination results, and Zhang Wanzhi offered him half of a medicine field to rent.
• Li Xiuchang asked Mo Tu about buying yin souls, but Mo Tu had none he could control and offered to take him soul hunting later.
• Li Xiuchang returned to No. 18 and began preparing for Zhao Yuansi’s lecture in two days.

Li Xiuchang crammed to learn how to refine Grain-Aversion Pills before Zhao Yuansi’s alchemy lecture, with Zhang Wanzhi’s guidance helping him master the process. He attended Zhao Yuansi’s lecture and was surprised to find that his Length Value had barely increased.

• Li Xiuchang asked Zhang Wanzhi to teach him to refine Grain-Aversion Pills, and Zhang demonstrated the process.
• Li Xiuchang practiced with Zhang’s pointers, successfully forming pills by his third attempt.
• Li Xiuchang returned home to practice until his success rate exceeded eighty percent and his Length Value reached two inches.
• Li Xiuchang attended Zhao Yuansi’s lecture with the other disciples and listened to his explanations of alchemy’s basic principles.
• After the lecture, Li Xiuchang checked his Length Value and froze at how little it had increased.

Li Xiuchang compared the gains from Zhao Yuansi’s lecture with earlier lessons and suspected that profound material was less useful to him than practical instruction. After Zhao Yuansi discovered Li Xiuchang’s exceptional skill at refining Grain-Aversion Pills, Li Xiuchang asked for help with Essence Restoration Pills to compare their one-on-one teaching.

• Li Xiuchang reasoned that his small gain from Zhao Yuansi’s lecture came from struggling to absorb advanced theory, unlike the practical lessons from Mo Tu and Zhang Wanzhi.
• Zhao Yuansi answered his disciples’ alchemy questions, then asked Li Xiuchang to stay behind and discuss his progress.
• Li Xiuchang refined eight excellent Grain-Aversion Pills, shocking Zhao Yuansi, who realized his disciple had already mastered the pill.
• Li Xiuchang claimed he had been trying to learn Essence Restoration Pills and asked Zhao Yuansi for guidance so he could compare the lesson with Zhang Wanzhi’s.
• Zhao Yuansi guided Li Xiuchang through refining Essence Restoration Pills, leaving both of them with a tremendous psychological letdown.

Li Xiuchang failed to refine Essence Restoration Pills under Zhao Yuansi’s instruction and grew suspicious that Zhang Wanzhi and Mo Tu were concealing their true abilities. After receiving his reward for the Tier 1 Spirit Planter examination, he opened his new Medicine Field and was stunned by what he saw.

• Li Xiuchang repeatedly failed to refine Essence Restoration Pills, while Zhao Yuansi mistook his limited progress for a lack of talent and resolved to teach him more patiently.
• Li Xiuchang compared Zhao Yuansi’s lessons with Zhang Wanzhi’s and concluded that Zhang Wanzhi might be hiding an alchemy level above Second Tier, making him suspect that Mo Tu was concealing his skills too.
• Li Xiuchang decided to stay cautious around his neighbors and leave the Eastern Geng District if anything seemed amiss, then ended his lesson with Zhao Yuansi.
• Yan Xue notified Li Xiuchang that his full-marks reward for the Tier 1 Spirit Planter examination was ready, and he collected seeds and a token granting access to Human-grade Medicine Field No. 52.
• A senior brother guided Li Xiuchang to the plot, and Li Xiuchang activated the token to open its formation, leaving both of them stunned by the sight inside.

Li Xiuchang discovered a plot full of abandoned Thousand Year Fragrance and arranged to sell the flowers. He also accepted Senior Brother Chu Ya’s offer to grow Lovesick Moonpetals, then planned to spend his days cultivating plants and practicing his skills.

• Li Xiuchang opened medicinal herb field No. 52 and found it filled with Thousand Year Fragrance, which he learned had been abandoned by its previous owner.
• Li Xiuchang gave some flowers to the field guard and summoned Senior Brother Wang Long to help sell the rest.
• Wang Long explained that the flowers likely belonged to Senior Brother Chu Ya, known as the Inner Sect's Number One Devotion, after an Outer Sect Junior Sister rejected his confession.
• Li Xiuchang asked Senior Brother Song Yu about Chu Ya, and Song Yu offered him a job growing ninety-nine Lovesick Moonpetals for fifty spirit stones each.
• Li Xiuchang accepted Chu Ya’s job, which came with a thousand-spirit-stone deposit, then harvested the Thousand Year Fragrance with Wang Long and planned to sell or refine it into scented dew.

After a year in the Immortal Dust Sect, Li Xiuchang had built up wealth, expanded his spirit-planting work, and accumulated 20.54 inches of Length. He decided to spend some of it strengthening himself and began by summoning his Vajra Dharma Image in his medicine field.

• Li Xiuchang earned nearly seven thousand spirit stones from selling smoked meat and scented dew, and planted Senior Brother Chu Ya’s ninety-nine Lovesick Moonpetals.
• Li Xiuchang struggled to manage his expanding medicine fields, so he assigned his ghost spouses to help and asked Senior Brother Mo to find him more ghosts.
• After Senior Brother Mo invited him on a ghost hunt, Li Xiuchang declined because he distrusted the risk and chose to stay in the sect tending his fields.
• Over the next half-year, Li Xiuchang improved his spirit-planting, alchemy, and cooking skills while saving all the Length he gained.
• Li Xiuchang reached 20.54 inches of Length and decided to spend some to improve his strength and gain combat ability.
• Li Xiuchang stored his ghost spouses in the Jade Flute, activated the Vajra Dharma Form Art, and examined how adding Length changed the Skinny Dog Vajra’s proportions.

Li Xiuchang discovered that enlarging the shortest dimension of his Vajra Dharma Image gave him the greatest physical improvement, then used his remaining Length Value to break through to Second Order Body Cultivation. He ended the chapter with Foundation Establishment-level combat strength, though he still lagged behind especially formidable Foundation Establishment cultivators.

• Li Xiuchang added one inch to the Vajra Dharma Image’s width and found that it greatly improved his physical strength, leading him to suspect enhancement depended on the image’s volume.
• Li Xiuchang added inches to the image’s thickness, confirmed his theory, and advanced through First Order Mid Stage to First Order Late Stage Body Cultivation.
• Li Xiuchang alternated additions to the image’s width and thickness until his body reached the First Order limit.
• Li Xiuchang spent more Length Value pushing against the Second Order bottleneck, then broke through after adding another inch and launching an all-out assault.
• Li Xiuchang reached Second Order Body Cultivation and gained strength theoretically comparable to Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Li Xiuchang became a Tier 2 Body Cultivator and raised his Qi Condensation cultivation to the peak of the Sixth Layer while concealing his true strength. After receiving messages about flying-boat profits and his sect mission, he learned that Pang Yuanfu wanted to meet him and headed back to the Eastern Geng District.

• Li Xiuchang practiced his punches, confirmed his new strength, and used the Dantian Shadow Creation Technique to conceal his cultivation.
• Li Xiuchang spent eighteen inches of Length Value to raise his magic power, advancing to the peak of the Sixth Layer of Qi Condensation.
• Li Xiuchang released the Yin Soul couple and received Zhang Wanzhi's message inviting him to collect his share of the new flying-boat profits.
• Yan Xue reminded Li Xiuchang to complete his annual sect mission, and he considered postponing it.
• Wang Long told Li Xiuchang that Pang Yuanfu had come looking for him, so Li Xiuchang asked Wang Long to have Pang wait at Number Eighteen in the Eastern Geng District.

Li Xiuchang agreed to join Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui on a sect mission to hunt a Pig Demon near White Cloud City. After arranging to leave the next day, he went to prepare supplies, while an illusory Primordial Spirit descended into Number Eight in Eastern Geng District.

• Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui visited Li Xiuchang and were shocked to learn he had reached the Fourth Layer of Qi Condensation.
• Pang Yuanfu explained that Senior Brother Song Yu had entrusted him with a sect mission to eliminate a First Order Early Stage Pig Demon near White Cloud City.
• Li Xiuchang agreed to join Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui, and the three planned to set out the next day.
• Li Xiuchang made a list of magical artifacts, pills, and talismans to prepare, then flew to the outer market district to buy supplies.
• An illusory Primordial Spirit descended from the sky and entered Number Eight in Eastern Geng District.

Gui Wuyan used a Longevity Bamboo shoot to persuade Zhang Wanzhi to give him a Heaven Seizing Pill, then warned that someone would face a calamity on this trip. Li Xiuchang finished shopping at the Immortal Dust Sect Outer Market and ran into Pang Yuanfu with his father.

• Gui Wuyan returned to his body with a Longevity Bamboo shoot and Zhang Wanzhi urged him to have it refined into a pill.
• Gui Wuyan pretended to eat the shoot so Zhang Wanzhi would give him a Heaven Seizing Pill, then wrote that someone was destined to face a calamity on this trip.
• Zhang Wanzhi guessed the warning concerned Li Xiuchang and planned to give him a protective magic treasure when he returned.
• Li Xiuchang bought healing pills and Tier 2 Talismans at the Immortal Dust Sect Outer Market while searching for Soul Master equipment.
• Li Xiuchang saw a burly man slap Pang Yuanfu, then learned the man was Pang Yuanfu's father.

Li Xiuchang visited the market with Pang Yuanfu, bought a Dog Soul that its seller insisted was a Wolf Soul, and learned where he might find more Yin Souls. He returned to the Eastern Geng District planning to buy a faster flying boat from Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi before heading out to gain experience.

• Pang Yuanfu's father tried to persuade Li Xiuchang to hire him, but Pang Yuanfu interrupted and sent him away.
• Pang Yuanfu led Li Xiuchang to a stall selling a Yin Soul after Li Xiuchang asked about Soul Master equipment.
• Li Xiuchang identified the seller's supposed Wolf Soul as a Dog Soul and bought it with its storage gourd for one thousand spirit stones.
• The stall owner told Li Xiuchang about a nearby mountain with many demonic beasts, and Li Xiuchang considered going there to find more Yin Souls.
• Li Xiuchang returned to the Eastern Geng District and decided to visit Senior Brother Zhang Wanzhi to buy a newer flying boat.

Li Xiuchang collected his share of the flying boat profits and bought Zhang Wanzhi’s Deluxe Version Top-grade Magic Tool Flying Boat, while keeping his plan to leave the sect secret. The next morning, he met Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui at the outer market and invited them aboard his new boat before they set out for White Cloud City.

• Li Xiuchang visited Zhang Wanzhi and received eight thousand spirit stones from the flying boat business.
• Li Xiuchang bought Zhang Wanzhi’s unsold Deluxe Version flying boat for two thousand spirit stones and learned about its formations and Escape Mode.
• Zhang Wanzhi mentioned that a chubby inner disciple had come looking for Li Xiuchang, but Li Xiuchang dismissed the visit as catching up with a friend.
• Li Xiuchang went to the herb fields that evening, then met Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui at the outer market the next morning.
• Pang Yuanfu summoned his standard-issue flying boat, but Li Xiuchang released his new Top-grade Magic Tool Flying Boat and invited them aboard.

Li Xiuchang, Pang Yuanfu, and Chi Hui reached White Cloud City at high speed to investigate a Pig Demon that had been injuring people and stealing their food. The City Lord explained that the demon remained elusive, leaving the three to pursue a cautious creature whose motives were still unclear.

• Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui urged Li Xiuchang to fly faster, and he pushed the flying boat to its maximum speed.
• Li Xiuchang and his companions arrived in White Cloud City and declined the City Lord’s offer of a welcome feast so they could address the demon.
• Li Xiuchang recognized Nan Yue, who revealed that the Pig Demon had injured him more than a year earlier.
• Song Wan told the three cultivators that the Pig Demon had injured several people but killed no one, and that its victims had all been carrying food.
• Song Wan said the Pig Demon seemed to steal food, appeared in different places, and had not yet been traced to its lair.

Li Xiuchang used the map and a Rogue Cultivator Attendant’s encounter to identify a promising area to search for the Pig Demon’s lair. While the others searched the mountain, he released and subdued a Dog Soul, then wondered whether it thought it was a wolf.

• Li Xiuchang argued that the Pig Demon’s lair was likely in an unsearched area, and a Rogue Cultivator Attendant identified where he had once encountered the demon.
• Li Xiuchang, Pang Yuanfu, Chi Hui, Song Wan, and the others set out to search the mountain forest and split into groups.
• Li Xiuchang released the Dog Soul at the encounter site, stopped it from escaping, and repelled its attack with his Protective Treasure Light.
• Li Xiuchang beat the Dog Soul into submission, then found that it responded affectionately when he called it a little wolf.

Li Xiuchang named the Dog Demon Wangcai and followed its keen nose to a Pig Demon's cave, where the demon surprised him by attacking with a bundle of First Order talismans. He and his companions tried to smoke the Pig Demon out, but it escaped through a second exit and fighting broke out on the mountaintop.

• Li Xiuchang named the Dog Demon Wangcai, used a Soul Taming Seal to control it, and sent it to track demon beasts.
• Wangcai followed a black boar's scent past an old grave bearing the name Su Qingchun to a cave.
• Li Xiuchang lured a Pig Demon out of the cave, but it blasted Wangcai with a bundle of talismans before retreating inside.
• Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui joined Li Xiuchang, who sent smoke into the cave to force the Pig Demon out.
• Chi Hui spotted smoke escaping from a second opening on the mountaintop, and she and Pang Yuanfu went to guard it.
• Li Xiuchang heard fighting from the mountaintop and wondered whether the Pig Demon had broken out there.

Li Xiuchang reached the mountaintop to find Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui unconscious and faced a Pig Demon that had concealed its Late Qi Condensation strength. After Zhang Wanzhi captured the demon and a lurking Yin Soul, Li Xiuchang realized he had mistaken his senior brother’s rescue for an attack and punched him.

• Li Xiuchang found Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui breathing but unconscious near the cave entrance.
• Li Xiuchang revealed that the Pig Demon was a Late Qi Condensation demon that could speak and had been raised by Scholar Su Qingchun.
• The Pig Demon charged Li Xiuchang, while a Yin Soul tried to ambush him from behind.
• Zhang Wanzhi appeared, captured the Yin Soul and Pig Demon, and shielded Li Xiuchang from the charge.
• Mistaking Zhang Wanzhi for an attacker, Li Xiuchang struck him with his strongest punch, then asked whether he was all right.

Li Xiuchang reunited with Zhang Wanzhi, who had rescued him from a Pig Demon and its master’s spirit, though Li Xiuchang realized he could have handled the danger himself. He took responsibility for preserving the spirit’s consciousness and questioned the Pig Demon about its past, leaving its fate undecided.

• Li Xiuchang and Zhang Wanzhi exchanged blows, then Zhang explained that Gui Wuyan had sent him because Li Xiuchang was predicted to face danger.
• Zhang Wanzhi handed Li Xiuchang the malevolent spirit of Su Qingchun, whose fading self-awareness and unusual Righteous Qi came from his Confucian learning.
• Li Xiuchang concluded Su Qingchun could not be sent into reincarnation and decided to keep him nearby while clearing away his Malevolent Energy.
• Li Xiuchang questioned the restrained Pig Demon about its master and why it had bullied people in White Cloud City.
• The Pig Demon explained that it had become a demon after swallowing Spirit Grass and had stayed with Su Qingchun until its master died of old age.

Li Xiuchang uncovered why the Pig Demon had attacked civilians and agreed to protect Su Qingchun’s fading ghost soul. After the Pig Demon left, Li Xiuchang set out for Green Cui Mountain with a defensive magic treasure from Gui Wuyan.

• Li Xiuchang deduced that the Pig Demon had attacked civilians to draw Immortal Dust Sect disciples to save Su Qingchun’s soul, and promised to keep the ghost safe.
• The Pig Demon explained its plan, thanked Li Xiuchang, and left after learning that Su Qingchun would be cared for.
• Li Xiuchang asked where Wolf Demons were active, and the Pig Demon pointed him to Green Cui Mountain.
• Li Xiuchang decided to investigate Green Cui Mountain, while Zhang Wanzhi warned him to be careful because Gui Wuyan had predicted a tribulation.
• Zhang Wanzhi gave Li Xiuchang Gui Wuyan’s golden abacus magic treasure, which could be used once to protect him.

After completing the mission in White Cloud City, Li Xiuchang went to Green Cui Mountain with Wangcai to find its wolf kin and capture more Yin Souls. He found himself surrounded by a pack of Wolf Demons and their Wolf Souls.

• Li Xiuchang revived Pang Yuanfu and Chi Hui, explained that the Pig Demon had fled, and showed them the Yin Soul he had captured.
• Li Xiuchang left the others, visited his former boxing master at the South Mountain Martial Arts Hall, and then flew to Green Cui Mountain.
• Li Xiuchang released Wangcai and followed it deep into the mountain, killing several first-rank demonic beasts that attacked him.
• Li Xiuchang discovered that a pack of Wolf Demons had surrounded him, led by a late first-rank Wolf King.
• Wolf Souls emerged around Li Xiuchang as the pack closed in.

Li Xiuchang fought a wolf pack and its Wolf Souls, holding back his Abacus Magic Treasure as he relied on his defensive light and talismans. When the Tier 2 Yin Soul wolf king overwhelmed his attacks, he prepared his last talisman and wondered what would happen if he made it one inch thicker.

• Li Xiuchang used his Vajra Dharma Image and Protective Treasure Light to repel the Wolf Souls and knock down the Wolf Demons.
• Li Xiuchang bombarded the pack with Tier 1 Talismans, driving the living wolves back without killing them.
• The wolf king summoned a Tier 2 Yin Soul wolf king, which resisted Li Xiuchang's golden light and led the Wolf Souls' assault.
• Li Xiuchang used Tier 2 Talismans to wound the Yin Soul wolf king, but the other Wolf Souls merged into it and restored its strength.
• With only a Freezing Talisman left and his hand on the Abacus Magic Treasure, Li Xiuchang wondered what would happen if he made the talisman one inch thicker.

Li Xiuchang tested a Tier 2 Freezing Talisman enlarged into a powerful talisman brick, freezing the wolf pack and shattering the First-tier malevolent spirit Wolf King. After subduing the other Wolf Souls, he tried to persuade the Wolf King to accept a Soul Taming Seal, and Wangcai’s intervention left the Wolf King lying down.

• Li Xiuchang added an inch of length to his Tier 2 Freezing Talisman and detonated it, freezing the Wolf Demons and Wolf Souls across a thousand-meter radius.
• Li Xiuchang shattered the immobilized First-tier malevolent spirit Wolf King and bound its largest soul fragments to prevent them from reassembling.
• Li Xiuchang subdued more than thirty injured Wolf Souls with Soul Taming Seals and stored them in the Gourd Artifact.
• Li Xiuchang tried to bargain with the Wolf King, offering to release the frozen Wolf Demons if it accepted a Soul Taming Seal, but refused to free the Wolf Souls.
• Wangcai returned, whined to the Wolf King, and the Wolf King lowered its head and lay down.

Li Xiuchang subdued the Yin Soul Wolf King, returned safely to the Immortal Dust Sect, and began treating his newly gathered Wolf Souls. He kept Gui Wuyan’s Abacus Magic Treasure and left Su Qingchun’s recovery as a long-term task while putting him to work in the medicinal field.

• Li Xiuchang subdued the Yin Soul Wolf King, freed the Wolf Demons, and gathered more than thirty Wolf Souls into his pack.
• Li Xiuchang returned safely to the Immortal Dust Sect and reasoned that Gui Wuyan’s divination could not account for the Length Cheat.
• Zhang Wanzhi told Li Xiuchang to keep the unused Abacus Magic Treasure until Gui Wuyan returned and updated him on the Pig Demon mission.
• Li Xiuchang released his Yin Souls at the medicinal field and treated them to practice his Soul Master skills.
• Li Xiuchang began regularly dispelling Malevolent Energy from Su Qingchun, who remained muddled but obediently helped tend the fields.

Li Xiuchang advanced to the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation, healed most of the Wolf Souls, and began training Wangcai to become the new leader of Paw Patrol. He left Wangcai fired up to challenge the Ghost Wolf King.

• After a month of treating ghosts, Li Xiuchang reached First Order Soul Master skill but postponed taking the assessment.
• Li Xiuchang spent one inch of Length Value to break through into Late Qi Condensation and kept the remaining three inches in reserve.
• Li Xiuchang healed the soul-body injuries and purged Malevolent Energy from more than thirty Wolf Souls, then assigned over ten of the strongest to his combat division.
• Li Xiuchang returned to the Eastern Geng District, set up spirit stones and a Spirit Gathering Array for the combat ghosts, and began training Wangcai to grow stronger.
• Li Xiuchang urged Wangcai to strive for leadership, and Wangcai's resolve sharpened as the Ghost Wolf King overheard that he could replace it.