Chapter Summaries

Chen Mobai explored South Stream Market, where he learned how Rogue Cultivators traded and how costly cultivation methods and Magic Artifacts were. He left with no purchases but realized the pills he had taken from his spoils might be worth selling on his next visit.

• Chen Mobai declined a sackcloth-clad boy surnamed Liu’s offer to guide him around South Stream Market, and the boys mistook his clothes and cultivation for signs that he belonged to a powerful sect.
• Chen Mobai used Liu Lengpei’s records to explore the market, which had survived for fifty years and remained busy.
• Chen Mobai learned that low-level cultivators mainly used gold, with ten thousand taels of gold ordinarily equal to one Spirit Stone.
• Chen Mobai found that Qi Cultivation methods were sold in volumes or layer by layer, and that the Black Water Technique and its matching spells cost many Spirit Stones.
• Chen Mobai remembered the bottles of pills among his spoils and decided to bring them to the market next time, then estimated that a Magic Artifact comparable to his Needle Box was worth 30 Spirit Stones.

Chen Mobai surveyed South Stream Market’s prices and tested the limits of his return-to-city ability before returning home. He began studying the Nurturing Thought God Forging Technique and chose the Jade Wutong as a visualization image.

• Chen Mobai confirmed that his foldable Hand Crossbow was worth five hundred taels of gold and that his short knife was nearly worthless, but he decided not to sell his items or unidentified pills yet.
• Chen Mobai left South Stream Market, realized he could use his return-to-city button anywhere in the Sky River Realm, and returned to the Water Mansion without testing whether his return location would change.
• Chen Mobai used his Big Account Azure Emperor to download the Nurturing Thought God Forging Technique and read it while cooking Spirit Rice.
• Chen Mobai studied the technique’s instructions on meditation and visualization, then settled on the Jade Wutong as a suitable image.

Chen Mobai cultivated his Spiritual Sense through the Nurturing Thought God Forging Technique and found his studies improving afterward. He decided to cooperate with Qing Nü to make Qi Replenishing Spirit Water, and the chapter ended as they set out to eat and attend an opera.

• Chen Mobai used the Heart-Calming Incantation and visualized the Jade Wutong, entering meditation and beginning to cultivate his Spiritual Sense overnight.
• Chen Mobai woke with a clearer mind and noticed that his learning efficiency had improved after he initially sensed Spiritual Sense.
• Chen Mobai decided to try cooperating with Qing Nü to refine Qi Replenishing Spirit Water, since he lacked time to study alchemy himself.
• Chen Mobai went to Evergreen Pharmacy, where Qing Nü invited him to eat and attend the Jade Phoenix Troupe performance.
• Qing Nü introduced herself by that name and told Chen Mobai that she had no surname.

Chen Mobai and Qing Nü discussed starting a Qi Replenishing Spirit Water partnership, with Chen Mobai investing in ingredients and Qing Nü offering to refine them. At the theater, Wang Xinying mistook Qing Nü for Chen Mobai’s sister-in-law, leaving Qing Nü flustered.

• Chen Mobai took Qing Nü to dinner, and she introduced him to her favorite grilled fish shop.
• Chen Mobai and Qing Nü reviewed the Qi Replenishing Spirit Water ingredients, and she recommended brands and suppliers for the main and auxiliary medicines.
• Chen Mobai ordered the ingredients using more than half of his Merit Points, while Qing Nü estimated that the first batch would yield only 10 to 20 tubes.
• Qing Nü planned to borrow her teacher’s medicine pool and cold extraction machine for their first refining attempt.
• At the theater, Wang Xinying asked Qing Nü if she was Chen Mobai’s sister-in-law, and Qing Nü blushed and lowered her head.

Chen Mobai watched Meng Huang'er and Jiang Yuyuan perform, awakening his Spiritual Sense again, then accompanied Qing Nü home after the show. At the bus stop near home, he met a young man whose strength his active Spiritual Sense found unfathomable.

• Chen Mobai watched the Jade Phoenix Troupe perform "Stepping on the Moon" and felt his Spiritual Sense awaken through the opera.
• Chen Mobai saw Wang Xinying safely off with her father, then rode the bus with Qing Nü, who invited him to visit the shop after dinner the next day.
• Chen Mobai gave a blue-and-white-robed young man directions to Evergreen Pharmacy and sensed that he was extraordinarily powerful.

Chen Mobai investigated his teleportation ability and explored South Stream Market, learning more about its goods and shops. After bringing four pills to Qing Nü for identification, he was shocked when she said they were poisonous.

• Chen Mobai wondered whether the polite youth who had asked him for directions was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, then calmed his restless mind with the Heart-Calming Incantation.
• Chen Mobai returned to the Water Mansion, visited South Stream Market, and later teleported from a wild mountain instead of returning to the Water Mansion.
• Chen Mobai confirmed that teleportation returned him to his previous location and discovered that Turtle Treasure displayed a map where he could name locations.
• Chen Mobai toured South Stream Market’s shops, learned that a bottle of Convergence Pills cost one Spirit Stone, and studied a book about major Eastern Wasteland sects.
• Chen Mobai brought four pills to Qing Nü at Evergreen Pharmacy, and she identified them as poisonous.

Chen Mobai learned that the pills he had acquired were dangerously contaminated, then watched Qing Nü prepare medicinal ingredients and heard about a visiting pharmacist. After returning home, he began buying supplies for a low-profile plan to profit from the differences between Earth Origin Star and the Sky River Realm.

• Qing Nü identified the marked Convergence Pills as containing nearly five percent Pill Toxin and warned Chen Mobai not to take them.
• Qing Nü tasted an unmarked pill from the Flying Needle Sect and identified its effects and toxin level, advising Chen Mobai to discard both kinds of medicine.
• Qing Nü showed Chen Mobai the medicinal ingredients soaking in vats and explained how she would extract and concentrate them before her teacher arrived.
• Qing Nü told Chen Mobai that Lan Haitan, a Second-Class Pharmacist from Huayang Cave Heaven, had visited and left a business card for her teacher.
• Chen Mobai ordered supplies with nearly half his remaining Merit Points and decided to become a reseller, avoiding pills and spirit water because their superior quality could attract attention from Returning Heaven Valley.

Chen Mobai bought talismans at his new Wood Spirit Talisman Shop, planning to resell them in the Sky River Realm for a profit. In South Stream Market, he asked Qi Er to help find buyers for his surplus cultivation goods.

• Chen Mobai surveyed the shop’s talismans, bought twenty each of five Grade 1 Low Rank talismans and one Revival Talisman for 2,000 Merit Points, and considered but declined to buy a Wood House Talisman.
• After visiting Evergreen Pharmacy and seeing Qing Nü begin preparing the medicinal ingredients, Chen Mobai went to South Stream Market to arrange the sale of his tattered belongings.
• Chen Mobai asked Qi Er about selling his mixed goods quickly or consigning them through the stall heads, and learned how the two options worked.
• Chen Mobai asked about the Six Major Powers and confirmed that the Five Elements Sect and Divine Wood Sect were among them.
• Chen Mobai gave Qi Er a short blade and asked him to find out whether the large shops would buy his Qi Cultivation method and several bottles of pills.

Chen Mobai sold the complete Black Water Technique and other goods in South Stream Market, earning Spirit Stones and Gold Notes with Qi Er's help. He learned more about the Liu Family and bought books to understand the local cultivation world.

• Chen Mobai sold He Qun the complete Black Water Technique and Ice Spell for twenty Spirit Stones after Qi Er helped negotiate.
• Chen Mobai sold three bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills for two Spirit Stones, then sold the Hand Crossbow for 450 taels of gold and exchanged the money for Gold Notes.
• Chen Mobai gave Qi Er a Green Arrow Talisman as payment and asked whether He Qun might retaliate against him.
• Qi Er explained that his Society Head was a Guest Elder of the Liu Family, which raised Blood Jade Carp and had ties to the Five Elements Sect.
• Chen Mobai bought several books about the Eastern Wasteland and local cultivation forces before leaving the market.

Chen Mobai mastered Spiritual Sense and learned to refine the Spiritual Power Vortex in his dantian, while preparing to give his father the finished Qi Replenishing Spirit Water. After leaving the Cultivation Room, he revealed his strength to Lu Hongsheng, drawing Song Zheng’s attention.

• Two immortal cultivators considered chasing Chen Mobai after he left South Stream Market but decided against it.
• Chen Mobai stored most of his twenty-two Spirit Stones in the Water Mansion and watered the Green Wutong Sapling before returning home.
• Qing Nü told Chen Mobai that the medicinal ingredients for the Qi Replenishing Spirit Water were ready for blending.
• Chen Mobai broke through the bottleneck of the Nurturing Thought God Forging Technique, mastered Spiritual Sense, and began straightening his Spiritual Power Vortex.
• Lu Hongsheng challenged Chen Mobai after reaching Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer, but Chen Mobai crushed his aura and revealed his higher cultivation.
• Song Zheng sensed Chen Mobai’s Spiritual Sense and went to tell his teacher that Chen Mobai was worth watching.

Chen Mobai rented a stall at South Stream Market to sell spiritual talismans, but earned nothing on his first day. He returned to the Water Mansion and began cultivating with Qi Replenishing Spirit Water.

• Chen Mobai collected the spiritual talismans he had ordered and traveled to the Water Mansion, then went to South Stream Market before closing time.
• Qi Er explained the stall rental rules and warned Chen Mobai that he should inform Jia Sui, the talisman trade's stall head, before selling high-rank talismans.
• Chen Mobai paid one Spirit Stone to Wu Hong for a stall blanket and set up at East 19 under the alias Chen Guixian.
• Chen Mobai displayed several low-rank talismans and a Green Arrow Talisman, but sold none before sunset.
• Chen Mobai returned to the Water Mansion, drank Qi Replenishing Spirit Water, and began cultivating qi with the Five Elements Technique.

Chen Mobai delivered Qing Nü’s Qi Replenishing Spirit Water and Foundation Establishment notes to his father, who urged him to focus on the College Entrance Exam. After returning to Vermilion Cloud City, Chen Mobai encountered Wu Wan, whose failed Foundation Establishment had left him severely weakened.

• Qing Nü gave Chen Mobai sixteen tubes of Qi Replenishing Spirit Water, and he took leave to deliver some to Chen Xinglan.
• Chen Mobai met Yan Xiang at Crimson Cloud Academy and discussed the upcoming College Entrance Exam.
• Chen Xinglan accepted half of the Qi Replenishing Spirit Water and told Chen Mobai to focus on his studies instead of spending time helping him.
• Chen Mobai met Lan Haitan at the bus stop, while Lan Haitan later joined the other representatives to review the year’s examination papers in place of True Person Pure Serenity.
• Chen Mobai visited Wu’s Gold Shop with exchanged gold and learned that Wu Wan’s Foundation Establishment had failed, damaging his Essence Blood and lowering his Qi Refining realm.

Chen Mobai sold gold to Wu Wan, then learned from Gu Changfeng that Qing Nü had been expelled from his school for using Gu Changfeng’s medicine pool. After Gu Changfeng rejected his offer to pay for the damage, Chen Mobai hurried to find Qing Nü.

• Chen Mobai sold forty gold bars to Wu Wan for 4,300 Merit Points and asked whether the Needle Box had been sold.
• Chen Mobai reflected on Wu Wan’s failed Foundation Establishment and the competing Immortal Sect views on family and the cultivation path.
• Chen Mobai went to Evergreen Pharmacy to see Qing Nü but encountered her teacher, Gu Changfeng, who said he had expelled her for using his medicine pool.
• Chen Mobai offered to compensate Gu Changfeng for the second-order low-grade medicine pool, but Gu Changfeng said he had already canceled Qing Nü’s apprentice registration.
• Gu Changfeng forced Chen Mobai out of the pharmacy, and Chen Mobai hurried toward Qing Nü’s residence while Gu Changfeng looked at a jade name card marked Lan Haitan.

Chen Mobai searched for Qing Nü and headed to Immortal Sect First High School, while officials finalized an unusual entrance examination and approved a Law Enforcement Hall operation. Lan Haitan arrested Gu Changfeng at Evergreen Pharmacy for practicing a Forbidden Technique.

• Chen Mobai failed to reach Qing Nü by phone, searched for her, and realized she might be in class at Immortal Sect First High School.
• True Person Scarlet Robe finalized the entrance examination after representatives presented identical instructions from their superiors, then agreed to hold it at Vermillion Cinnabar Academy.
• Lan Haitan told True Person Scarlet Robe and True Person Pure Serenity that the Law Enforcement Hall had ordered him to arrest a cultivator practicing a Forbidden Technique.
• Lan Haitan found Gu Changfeng refining medicine at Evergreen Pharmacy and explained that evidence from the Zixiao Palace incident had exposed him.
• Law Enforcement Cultivators secured the area, and Gu Changfeng surrendered to Lan Haitan, saying resistance could get him killed.

Chen Mobai met Qing Nü to apologize for her expulsion from Gu Changfeng’s school, but when they returned to Evergreen Pharmacy, they found Gu Changfeng under arrest for a forbidden technique. The authorities confirmed Qing Nü’s master-disciple status had been revoked and detained her for questioning.

• Chen Mobai waited outside Immortal Sect First High School, and Qing Nü agreed to meet him after he said he was there.
• Chen Mobai apologized to Qing Nü and asked about her expulsion, and she explained that Gu Changfeng had driven her out over her use of his medicinal pool.
• Qing Nü said she planned to apologize to Gu Changfeng, so she and Chen Mobai took a bus to Evergreen Pharmacy after eating.
• Chen Mobai and Qing Nü found Evergreen Pharmacy sealed off by Law Enforcement Cultivators, who were escorting Gu Changfeng away in handcuffs.
• A Law Enforcement Cultivator confirmed that Gu Changfeng had revoked Qing Nü’s disciple status and ordered her detained because she might have learned the forbidden technique.

After Gu Changfeng was arrested for cultivating the forbidden God Devouring Technique, Chen Mobai comforted Qing Nü while the Law Enforcement Department investigated their connection to him. Lan Haitan reported the case to True Person Pure Serenity, who recognized Qing Nü from her file.

• Chen Mobai waited at the Police Department while Qing Nü was questioned, then accompanied her home after she was released.
• Lan Haitan kept Gu Changfeng in custody and arranged to investigate Qing Nü and Chen Mobai further.
• Gu Changfeng accused Lan Haitan of trying to provoke him into fleeing, but Lan Haitan used a Heart-Questioning Talisman to verify his answers.
• Chen Mobai learned that Qing Nü had grown up in an orphanage and that Gu Changfeng had been like a father to her; after Chen left, Qing Nü quietly sobbed alone.
• Lan Haitan reported that the five people who had obtained the forbidden technique from Zixiao Palace had been brought to justice, while suspecting the case still concealed more.
• True Person Pure Serenity read Qing Nü's file and reacted with surprise at recognizing her.

Lan Haitan tried to persuade Shang Qing to let Qing Nü join Kunpeng Daoist Academy for protection, but she refused. He then recruited Chen Mobai to watch Qing Nü for signs that Gu Changfeng’s God Devouring Technique was harming her, and left Chen with his contact information.

• Lan Haitan asked True Person Pure Serenity to mediate over Qing Nü, but Shang Qing argued against moving her to Kunpeng Daoist Academy, and Pure Serenity accepted her decision.
• Lan Haitan called Chen Mobai and summoned him to Evergreen Pharmacy, where he asked whether Chen wanted to save Qing Nü from becoming Gu Changfeng’s cauldron.
• Lan Haitan told Chen that Gu Changfeng had cultivated the God Devouring Technique and explained that Forbidden Techniques could lead cultivators to nurture cauldrons and plant Divine Seeds.
• Chen questioned Lan Haitan’s identity, and Lan showed him his Law Enforcement Hall legal officer certificate.
• Lan asked Chen to watch Qing Nü’s mental state and contact him if she became dazed or deranged, then left through the back door.

Chen Mobai investigated the Forbidden God Devouring Technique and grew worried that Gu Changfeng had planted a Divine Seed in Qing Nü. He focused on cultivating and supporting Qing Nü, then returned to South Stream Market to sell his talismans.

• Chen Mobai found a restricted account of the God Devouring Technique and learned it involved planting a Divine Seed in a cauldron's Sea of Consciousness, making Qing Nü a possible target.
• Chen Mobai felt powerless against Gu Changfeng and began cultivating with a stronger desire to gain the strength to protect Qing Nü.
• Over seven days, Chen Mobai improved his studies, cultivation, and Spiritual Sense while comforting Qing Nü, who resolved to become strong enough to clear her master's name.
• Chen Mobai and Qing Nü discussed the need to find a medicinal pool so she could keep refining Qi Replenishing Spirit Water.
• Chen Mobai returned to South Stream Market with his talismans, set up his stall, and was asked by the Yellow Gown Woman how much he wanted for a Green Arrow Talisman.

Chen Mobai sold his talismans at South Stream Market and learned that his Green Arrow Talismans had become valuable after Qi Er used one to hunt a Snow Rhino. Lu Shu gave him a book about the Divine Wood Sect, and Chen Mobai returned to the Water Mansion eager to learn more about joining it.

• Zhuo Ming bought two of Chen Mobai's Green Arrow Talismans and introduced herself as a Talisman Master.
• Lu Shu explained that Qi Er's successful hunt had made Chen Mobai's talismans sought after, then helped him price five talismans and gave him Divine Wood Sect Talisman Crafting Insights.
• Lu Shu told Chen Mobai that the Divine Wood Sect might recruit disciples the following year and could offer a Foundation Establishment Pill to its disciples.
• Chen Mobai raised his prices, sold his remaining talismans, and exchanged the Gold Notes for two Spirit Stones.
• Chen Mobai returned to the Water Mansion and read that the Divine Wood Sect had split from the Five Elements Sect and practiced a longevity-extending cultivation method.

After researching the Eastern Wasteland’s sects, Chen Mobai pieced together why the Water Mansion had been abandoned and worried that the Five Elements Sect might reclaim it. He decided to seek entry into the Divine Wood Sect and planned to break open the mansion’s sealed side halls before leaving.

• Chen Mobai read accounts of the Eastern Wasteland’s sects and learned how the Five Elements Sect and Divine Wood Sect competed for disciples and resources.
• He connected Liu Lengpei’s disappearance to the Five Elements Sect’s succession crisis and the bloody conflict that followed its Nascent Soul Ancestor’s death.
• Chen Mobai worried that the Five Elements Sect or a surviving Golden Core Ancestor might reclaim the Water Mansion, so he resolved to seek entry into the Divine Wood Sect instead.
• He identified the Ren Shui Thunder Method sealing the side halls and concluded that he would need powerful spirit talismans or Magic Artifacts to break through them.