Recaps

Xu Yi used Jiang Ming’s help to leave Ziyang Peak and escape Greedy Snake by diving into the Turning-Waves River. He hid inside a Dragon Flag Sword Crocodile, leaving Greedy Snake aware of his trick but unable to catch him immediately.

• Jiang Ming warned Xu Yi that the auction base was closing and Greedy Snake was waiting to hunt him, then gave him a map to the surrounding area.
• Xu Yi had Jiang Ming escort him to the cliff and leaped toward the river while Vice President Liu and Greedy Snake watched.
• Greedy Snake pursued Xu Yi into the water and tried to drag him out with whirlpools, but Xu Yi kept diving deeper and moving faster.
• Xu Yi used a Source Bead to lure aquatic demons and hid inside a Dragon Flag Sword Crocodile’s belly.
• Greedy Snake recognized that Xu Yi was hiding inside the crocodile, then shot back out of the water.

Xu Yi used the Soul-Summoning Banner to badly wound Greedy Snake, but failed to kill him before he recovered and resumed the fight. As Greedy Snake attacked, Xu Yi offered the Jade Dew Spiritual Milk while retreating toward the battleground he had chosen.

• Xu Yi controlled the Dragon Flag Sword Crocodile from inside its belly, but Greedy Snake caught up and burst the creature open.
• Greedy Snake sent his soul sword at Xu Yi, but the Soul-Summoning Banner drew it in and engulfed Greedy Snake's Soul Body in black mist.
• Greedy Snake used a great tree from his spiritual platform to break free, returned to his physical body, and escaped with his soul sword destroyed and his Soul Body badly injured.
• Greedy Snake took pills and plunged back into the water, then struck Xu Yi repeatedly with Water-Splitting Spikes.
• Xu Yi showed Greedy Snake the Jade Dew Spiritual Milk and offered to hand it over in exchange for a guarantee of safety as he retreated westward.

Xu Yi fled west while enduring Greedy Snake’s attacks, then turned the close-range fight against him with a beast horn. After Xu Yi escaped the water near Crimson Serpent Mountain, Greedy Snake hesitated and swallowed a rare Empathy Pill to understand his opponent’s plan.

• Xu Yi refused to trust Greedy Snake and threatened to destroy the spirit milk unless Greedy Snake swore a blood-binding oath, but Greedy Snake attacked instead.
• Xu Yi stored the spirit milk and endured Greedy Snake’s poisonous fire, leading Greedy Snake to suspect his earlier injuries had been a feint.
• Greedy Snake attacked Xu Yi at close range, but Xu Yi’s face flattened to take the water-dividing spike while his beast horn pierced Greedy Snake’s arm.
• Xu Yi taunted Greedy Snake and fled the water by hooking his spiritual energy onto a boulder near Crimson Serpent Mountain.
• Greedy Snake struggled to understand why Xu Yi had left the water there, then swallowed one of his rare Empathy Pills.

Xu Yi lured Greedy Snake into a cave on Crimson Serpent Mountain and used a planned collapse to trap him in close quarters, where Xu Yi’s Violent Ape form killed him. Xu Yi captured Greedy Snake’s soul, took his storage ring, and escaped the rubble badly injured.

• Greedy Snake used the Empathy Pill to track Xu Yi into a cave, mistaking Xu Yi’s preparations for an attempt to hide and recover.
• Greedy Snake attacked Xu Yi with a poisonous fire dragon, but Xu Yi detonated more than ten Art Treasures loaded with attacks from three Domain Sources, collapsing the cave around them.
• Xu Yi transformed into a Violent Ape and charged Greedy Snake, while the collapsed passages left them trapped in a narrow space.
• Greedy Snake’s spiritual root wounded the Violent Ape, but Xu Yi tore Greedy Snake in two and captured his fleeing soul with the Soul-Summoning Banner.
• Xu Yi took Greedy Snake’s storage ring, crushed the Star Snake, dug out of the rubble, and drank two gourds of spiritual liquid to ease his injuries.

Xu Yi returned to Xuanqing Sect, examined Greedy Snake’s possessions, and found an Azure Fire Furnace and alchemy texts. After preparing his Art Treasures and reconnecting with the Co-learning Society, he settled into a peaceful routine of study and cultivation.

• Xu Yi returned to his cave abode with Qiu Wa, then inspected the Soul-Summoning Banner and confirmed it still worked despite its Law Patterns fading.
• Xu Yi opened Greedy Snake’s storage ring and found an Azure Fire Furnace, a box of spiritual soil with a sprout, an Empathy Pill, and books on herbs and alchemy.
• Xu Yi studied Greedy Snake’s books and sealed attacks into the remaining eighty-odd Art Treasures.
• Xu Yi, Qiu Wa, and Desolate Ancestor went boating, making Xu Yi’s return widely known.
• Meng Fu invited Xu Yi to the Co-learning Society’s weekly gathering, and Xu Yi later treated the members to a feast at Pine Crane Tower.
• Xu Yi resumed his routine of studying cultivation techniques, focusing on Light Smoke Steps and the Hun Tian Sword.

Xu Yi completed his reconstruction of Light Smoke Steps through numerology and began experimenting with alchemy. His attempts to make the auxiliary mixture for Origin Pills repeatedly failed, leaving him unable to connect theory and practice.

• Xu Yi spent his days studying techniques and medicinal properties, refining Origin Pills, and helping Qiu Wa cultivate.
• After solving a difficult problem, Xu Yi tested Light Smoke Steps by chasing Qiu Wa and Desolate Ancestor, then rewarded Desolate Ancestor with a Spirit Nurturing Pill.
• Xu Yi reflected that he had reconstructed Light Smoke Steps from its general outline and result, and believed its spatial distortions made it an exceptionally powerful escape art.
• Xu Yi told Meng Fu he would enter seclusion, then began practicing alchemy with the Azure Fire Furnace and earthfire.
• Xu Yi repeatedly failed to make the auxiliary mixture for Origin Pills, finding that neither his theories nor his practical attempts helped him understand the process.

Xu Yi struggled to cross the threshold of alchemy, spending days refining pills without success until Qiu Wa identified the impurities causing his repeated failures. She demonstrated how to perceive the distinct energies in an herb and invited him to examine them himself.

• Xu Yi spent seven days refining pills in seclusion, using up most of his ingredients without producing a finished auxiliary agent.
• Qiu Wa found Xu Yi looking gaunt and unkempt as he worked beside the Azure Fire Furnace.
• After watching Xu Yi fail repeatedly, Qiu Wa warned him that two energy streams could not be mixed, but another attempt still failed.
• Xu Yi asked Qiu Wa how she had known what was wrong, and she explained that impure energies were being fused before purification was complete.
• Qiu Wa summoned Black Root Grass and revealed its different energy components, then told Xu Yi to send in his spiritual energy and compare them with the furnace.

Xu Yi discovered that Qiu Wa could reveal the medicinal properties of herbs, giving him a way to perceive the microscopic world and advance in alchemy. After celebrating and sharing a meal, he woke refreshed beside Qiu Wa and worried that Desolate Ancestor was pampering them too much.

• Xu Yi tested Qiu Wa’s ability and found that she could identify Black Root Grass’s medicinal properties and miscellaneous qi.
• Qiu Wa explained that drinking sweet water had gradually sharpened her senses, and Xu Yi promised her three additional gourds each month.
• Qiu Wa left to check on the honey-glazed roast duck, while Xu Yi bathed and joined her and Desolate Ancestor for dinner.
• Xu Yi praised Desolate Ancestor’s cooking after eating more than twenty roast ducks, then went to rest with Qiu Wa.
• Xu Yi woke feeling refreshed and saw Qiu Wa reading a picture book, then thought Desolate Ancestor might be spoiling them.

Xu Yi spent nearly half a year learning to identify medicinal properties by their spectra and refining Essence Pills with Qiu Wa’s help. He achieved a high but imperfect success rate, completed Spirit Nurturing Stage body-tempering, and ended the chapter exhausted after his long effort.

• Xu Yi persuaded Qiu Wa to help him with alchemy before finding her a suitable cultivation method.
• Xu Yi learned the medicinal properties of Black Root Grass, He Ye Fruit, Hundred Seed Lotus, and Essence Fruit, recording their corresponding spectral colors.
• Xu Yi refined an auxiliary agent seven times without failure, then combined it with Essence Fruit to produce more than four hundred and twenty Essence Pills.
• Xu Yi’s next three Essence Fruit attempts failed, succeeded, and failed before his final attempt yielded more than three hundred and ninety pills.
• Xu Yi concluded that his Essence Pill success rate was about thirty percent because he could not control the auxiliary agent’s microscopic properties.
• Xu Yi realized that nearly half a year had passed, during which he had completed Spirit Nurturing Stage body-tempering by taking six Essence Pills a day.

Xu Yi consolidated his alchemy knowledge, reconsidered his prospects in Xuanqing Sect, and learned that the trial disciples were holding a Contention for the First Disciple. He arrived at the Seeker's Platform as Chang Feng stood unchallenged, with the First Disciple title about to be awarded.

• Xu Yi spent months consolidating ten medicinal properties, continued studying the Hun Tian Sword, and refined pills until he had accumulated more than ten thousand essence pills.
• Xu Yi realized that high-level cultivation resources could not simply be bought with essence pills and worried he might not reach the Spiritual Root stage before turning fifty.
• Desolate Ancestor told Xu Yi that the winner of the Contention for the First Disciple could enter the Outer Sect selection and potentially become an official disciple.
• Xu Yi and Qiu Wa hurried to the Seeker's Platform, where Steward Hu and two other figures oversaw the contest.
• Xu Yi recognized Chang Feng as a leading trial disciple and learned that half the incense had burned without anyone challenging him.

Xu Yi disrupted Chang Feng’s rushed promotion ceremony, and Jing Long arrived to challenge him for the first-disciple position. Steward Liu started their duel, leaving the contest underway.

• Xu Yi climbed onto the platform and challenged Chang Feng’s authority to exclude him from the ceremony.
• Xu Yi’s arrival brought Jing Long onto the platform, alarming Chang Feng and surprising Dong Qingke.
• Jing Long revealed through his thoughts that Xu Yi had threatened him into attending, despite his agreement to stay out of Chang Feng’s way.
• Steward Hu urged Steward Liu to begin the contest, and Jing Long agreed to fight Chang Feng.
• Steward Liu announced the duel, and Jing Long and Chang Feng began a fierce battle that left Xu Yi unimpressed.

Jing Long defeated Chang Feng and yielded the chief disciple position to Xu Yi, who was announced as the winner. Xu Yi then followed Steward Liu toward the Outer Sect, revealing a speed that startled him.

• Xu Yi urged Jing Long to fight with all his strength, and Jing Long overwhelmed Chang Feng and won the duel.
• Jing Long announced that he would yield the chief disciple position to Xu Yi, stunning Steward Liu, Chang Feng, and the trial disciples.
• Chang Feng objected, but Steward Hu declared that Chang Feng had lost his qualification and ordered attendants to drag him away.
• Steward Liu announced Xu Yi as chief disciple and ordered him to come along to the Outer Sect.
• Xu Yi followed Steward Liu, then suddenly appeared in front of him, leaving Steward Liu startled by his speed.

Xu Yi bribed Steward Liu for information and learned that Internal Envoy Qin had backed Chang Feng and might target him during the Outer Sect Grand Competition. After Xu Yi arrived at the competition hall, Internal Envoy Qin challenged whether he met the requirements to participate.

• Xu Yi gave Steward Liu more than two hundred Primordial Pills and paid the thousand-Primordial-Pill promotion fee, persuading him to share information.
• Steward Liu told Xu Yi that Chang Feng had gained Internal Envoy Qin's support and that Qin was one of the competition's examiners.
• Xu Yi learned that the top ten among the one hundred and sixty Outer Sect Disciples could enter the inner sect, where disciples received greater privileges and authority.
• Steward Liu brought Xu Yi to the hall, where Internal Historian Zhao and Internal Envoys Qin and Fang were waiting.
• Internal Envoy Qin stopped Xu Yi and questioned whether he met the basic requirements to compete, while Internal Historian Zhao warned that the competition was about to begin.

Xu Yi passed Internal Envoy Qin’s test of his cultivation and advanced through the first round of the outer sect competition, despite Qin’s efforts to find grounds to reject him. Qin allowed Xu Yi to remain in the outer sect but sent him away before the later rounds.

• Xu Yi told the Internal Envoys he had completed replacing his spiritual energy and tempering his body with origin pills, then demonstrated both achievements.
• Internal Envoy Fang praised Xu Yi and mocked Internal Envoy Qin, who ended the exchange and began the competition.
• Xu Yi sent his divided soul into a glowing ruler and pushed its black line just past the red mark, while Qin delayed ending the test in hopes that Xu Yi would fail.
• Internal Envoy Zhao ordered the rulers collected, and a little over fifty outer disciples, including Xu Yi, passed the first round.
• Internal Envoy Qin told Xu Yi he could stay in the outer sect and leave.

Internal Envoy Fang and Internal Envoy Zhao forced Internal Envoy Qin to honor his promise and let Xu Yi compete for promotion, but Qin changed the second-round test to medicinal pills to target him. As the contest began, Xu Yi watched the other disciples channel spiritual power into their virtual pill furnaces, still unsure how the test worked.

• Internal Envoy Fang confronted Internal Envoy Qin over his broken promise to reward the first disciple among the trial disciples.
• Internal Envoy Zhao ruled that Xu Yi could compete in the second round and become eligible for promotion by placing in the top ten.
• Internal Envoy Qin abruptly announced that the second-round test would cover medicinal pills, angering Internal Envoy Zhao and Internal Envoy Fang.
• Internal Envoy Qin presented a test involving the medicinal properties and combination of Black Root Grass, He Ye Fruit, and Hundred Seed Lotus, intending to block Xu Yi's advancement.
• A light screen displayed the three ingredients in virtual pill furnaces, and Qin announced that the competitor who gathered the most light points in an hour would win.
• The Outer Sect Disciples began channeling spiritual power into their virtual furnaces while Xu Yi tried to figure out the test.

Xu Yi placed fifth in the Inner Sect advancement competition, but Internal Envoy Qin tried to have him disqualified for advancing too quickly. Xu Yi challenged the envoys’ decision, and other contestants began defending the legitimacy of his result.

• Xu Yi mastered the virtual medicinal properties, controlled his score, and earned a place among the ten finalists, finishing fifth.
• Internal Envoy Qin objected to Xu Yi advancing from probationary disciple to Inner Sect Disciple in one day and urged the crowd to reject him.
• Internal Envoy Zhao and Internal Envoy Fang faced an uproar as Internal Envoy Qin ordered guards to remove Xu Yi.
• Xu Yi argued that disqualifying him after the competition would undermine the rules and cast doubt on the other victors’ rankings.
• Zhu Mou, Hu, and other contestants spoke up in support of Xu Yi’s result.

Xu Yi defended the competition’s sanctity and provoked Internal Envoy Qin into accepting a duel to the death. Qin signed a waiver, while Xu Yi reflected on how anger could make an enemy fall into a trap and left Internal Envoy Fang uncertain about his plan.

• Xu Yi’s argument rallied the victorious Outer Sect Disciples, and Internal Envoy Qin stopped the defeated disciples from disrupting the results.
• Internal Envoy Qin said he would report the controversy to the sect, but Xu Yi challenged him to prove his accusations in a fight.
• Internal Envoy Fang tried to defuse the challenge, but an enraged Internal Envoy Qin insisted on fighting Xu Yi.
• Xu Yi claimed that a fight could bring trouble if he killed Qin, so Qin signed a waiver making the duel a matter of life and death.
• Xu Yi reflected on Qin’s anger and the danger of growing overconfident, while Internal Envoy Fang began doubting Xu Yi’s apparent hesitation.

Xu Yi killed Internal Envoy Qin in front of the witnesses, then joined the nine other victors on their way to Mingzhi Hall to complete his entry into Xuanqing Sect’s Inner Sect. The chapter ended as Xu Yi prepared to take the oath before the Heart-Restraining Stone and began to feel goodwill toward the sect.

• Xu Yi killed Internal Envoy Qin in an instant, captured his soul with the Soul-Summoning Banner, and asked Internal Envoy Zhao and Internal Envoy Fang to testify that Qin had held back.
• Internal Envoy Zhao sent Xu Yi and the other nine winning disciples to Mingzhi Hall, while Internal Envoy Fang reassured Xu Yi that he would help secure a favorable outcome.
• Xu Yi reflected that killing Qin had been a deliberate choice to end a threat and make his abilities impossible for Xuanqing Sect’s powerful figures to ignore.
• Internal Envoy Zhao led the ten disciples to Mingzhi Hall, where Xu Yi learned that new Inner Sect disciples had to swear an oath before the Heart-Restraining Stone.
• Xu Yi read the oath and found that it mainly required disciples not to harm the sect’s interests for personal gain, which gave him a measure of goodwill toward Xuanqing Sect.

Xu Yi became an Inner Sect Disciple and settled into his new privileges while reflecting on how his changed status affected his old friends. The chapter ended with Desolate Ancestor warning him that the upcoming Prayer for Heaven Ceremony was a rare chance to meet the sect master and elders.

• True Man Scarlet Fire warned the new Inner Sect Disciples about sect rules and cautioned Xu Yi over Internal Envoy Qin's death, but his stern lecture reassured Xu Yi that the law was on his side.
• Xu Yi received the privileges of an Inner Sect Disciple, while Qiu Wa enjoyed exploring their mountain and Desolate Ancestor managed the attendants and cultivated with Origin Pills.
• Xu Yi hosted Meng Fu and the Co-learning Society, then gave Meng Fu a thousand Origin Pills as a one-time contribution to the society.
• Desolate Ancestor told Xu Yi that his ceremonial garments and rules for the Prayer for Heaven Ceremony were ready, and explained that it was his rare chance to see the sect master and Spiritual Root elders.

Xu Yi used a gift of Soul Washing Grass to gain a meeting with Elder Gong, hoping to build connections among Xuanqing Sect’s upper ranks. Elder Gong agreed to meet him but clarified that their relationship would be a transaction, not a bond of the Dao.

• Xu Yi learned that the Prayer for Heaven Ceremony would let him meet Xuanqing Sect’s important figures, including Daoist Hongyi.
• Xu Yi focused on befriending Internal Envoy Zhao and, following Desolate Ancestor’s advice, sent him Soul Washing Grass to pass to Elder Gong.
• Internal Envoy Zhao invited Xu Yi to Huixue Peak and told him Elder Gong wanted to see him.
• Xu Yi met Elder Gong in the back hills, where Elder Gong accepted the gift but stated that he would not form a bond of the Dao with Xu Yi.

Elder Gong explained that reaching the Spiritual Root stage required a Spirit Derivation Pill refined with the cultivator’s own soul, and warned Xu Yi that sect seniority would keep him from obtaining one soon. After considering how to pursue the pill himself and hearing Elder Gong’s warning about Elder Hong, Xu Yi attended the Prayer for Heaven Ceremony and entered the Bright Hall.

• Elder Gong told Xu Yi how Spirit Derivation Pills were made and described the Spiritual Root stage as a bottleneck for Xuanqing Sect cultivators.
• Xu Yi asked about commissioning a Spirit Derivation Pill, and Elder Gong warned him that he was not yet qualified to seek one.
• Xu Yi decided he would not wait for seniority and would explore refining a pill himself with Qiu Wa’s help.
• Elder Gong told Xu Yi that Elder Hong would seek revenge, and that Xu Yi needed to grow stronger to stay safe in the long run.
• Xu Yi drank with Internal Envoy Zhao, then attended the Prayer for Heaven Ceremony three days later and took the cushion marked Bing Twelve in the Bright Hall.

Xu Yi attended the Xuanqing Sect’s Prayer for Heaven Ceremony, which Daoist Hongyi moved from Bright Hall to a muddy field and turned into a display of disciples presenting omens, treasures, and poetry. After the elaborate rites, Daoist Hongyi asked everyone to help plant Spiritual Seedlings.

• Xu Yi noticed that Daoist Hongyi and the elders were missing from Bright Hall until True Man Scarlet Fire directed the disciples to the back mountain.
• Xu Yi recognized Daoist Hongyi as the Sect Master when the Inner Sect Disciples greeted him, and Hongyi explained that he had moved the ceremony and changed its purpose.
• An Inner Sect Disciple presented a golden little dragon as an auspicious sign, and the elders praised it before Daoist Hongyi accepted it.
• Jun Wuxie recited a poem, while other Inner Sect Disciples offered treasures, omens, and poems to impress Daoist Hongyi.
• Daoist Hongyi presided over the ceremony with True Man Scarlet Fire, then revealed that the disciples would help plant Spiritual Seedlings and poured out water from a Jade Gourd.

Daoist Hongyi tested the Inner Sect Disciples by having them plant seedlings in Mount Cha Holy Water, which challenged their souls and resilience. Xu Yi outlasted the others and impressed the elders, while Jun Wuxie’s desperate bid to compete left him looking immature.

• Daoist Hongyi poured Mount Cha Holy Water over the spiritual soil and directed the elders and Inner Sect Disciples to plant seedlings as a test.
• Xu Yi discovered that planting required harmonizing his soul with the spiritual water, then steadily increased his pace while keeping his strength in reserve.
• Most Inner Sect Disciples stopped planting, leaving Xu Yi and Jun Wuxie; Xu Yi planted far more seedlings while Jun Wuxie struggled and collapsed.
• True Man Scarlet Fire carried Jun Wuxie to the field’s edge, while Xu Yi continued planting until he chose to withdraw and take medicine.
• Daoist Hongyi planted the remaining seedlings with a sweep of his sleeves, and Jun Wuxie praised him with a poem, drawing True Man Scarlet Fire’s disapproval.

Xu Yi outshone Jun Wuxie with a simple poem at the Ceremony of Praying to Heaven, earning Daoist Hongyi’s admiration and deepening Jun Wuxie’s jealousy. Later, Elder Hong discovered that Deputy Envoy Tu had brought Jun Wuxie to him hoping to advance his own position, and Tu pleaded that his motives were innocent.

• Jun Wuxie recited an ornate poem and earned Daoist Hongyi’s praise before urging him to ask Xu Yi to compose one.
• Jun Wuxie targeted Xu Yi because he feared Xu Yi might receive the next Spirit Derivation Pill instead of him.
• Xu Yi calmly recited a plain but transcendent poem, and Daoist Hongyi left repeating its final line.
• After the ceremony, Elder Hong refused to meet Jun Wuxie until Deputy Envoy Tu said Jun had a way to deal with Xu Yi.
• Elder Hong exposed Tu’s role in summoning Jun Wuxie, and Tu admitted he hoped to win Elder Hong’s favor and secure a permanent appointment.

Xu Yi accepted the appointment as master of Xuanqing Sect’s Guanglong Hall branch in Qingxing City, where he was tasked with strengthening the hall and investigating its former master’s murder. The chapter ended with True Man Scarlet Fire asking whether Xu Yi was confident he could establish the hall in the strategically important city.

• Elder Hong explained that he had chosen to reconcile with Xu Yi rather than pursue a grudge, and ordered Deputy Envoy Tu to study the Military Strategist’s Notes.
• Xu Yi learned that Elder Hong had sent him a Spiritual Jade Cake as a public gesture of goodwill and sent a generous gift in return.
• Xu Yi spent several peaceful days exchanging visits and gifts with sect figures before Desolate Ancestor brought word that True Man Scarlet Fire had summoned him.
• True Man Scarlet Fire told Xu Yi that Qing Xiu, the master of Guanglong Hall in Qingxing City, had been murdered and that the elders had unanimously selected Xu Yi to replace him.
• Xu Yi accepted the appointment and asked whether his main duty was to investigate the killer; True Man Scarlet Fire said establishing the hall and meeting the sect’s growth target came first.