Chapter Summaries

Pei Ling entered Lesser Freedom Heaven and learned that Yao Chaoyan, the examiner tracking his score, was a clone of the Medicine Fairy. Unable to leave early, he chose a no-deadline task to feed a hungry demonic beast, hoping to keep a low profile until the examination ended.

• Pei Ling awoke on a giant lotus at the peak of Foundation Establishment and met Yao Chaoyan, who explained the examination’s scoring rules and revealed she was a clone of the Medicine Fairy.
• Pei Ling asked whether he could leave Lesser Freedom Heaven early, but Yao Chaoyan did not know how.
• Yao Chaoyan described three alchemy tasks, and Pei Ling chose the one that required feeding a hungry demonic beast and had no time limit.
• Yao Chaoyan sent Pei Ling to the lakeshore, where a deer-like demonic beast asked what he had brought to eat.

Chi Jie, Zhou Miaoli, and Jue Xinzi each tried to exhaust the Medicine Fairy clones assigned to them in Lesser Freedom Heaven. Jue Xinzi began mutilating herself as Medicine Magnolia moved to heal her.

• Chi Jie arrived beside a poisoned three-headed beast and identified his task as diagnosing the poison to make an antidote.
• Chi Jie repeatedly drank poisonous lake water to test it, forcing Medicine Jasmine to spend her strength healing him each time.
• Zhou Miaoli swallowed poison pills as soon as Medicine Hopt explained the task, making the clone treat her.
• Jue Xinzi realized Medicine Magnolia could observe her actions, then tore off her left arm to make the clone heal her.
• As Medicine Magnolia tried to mend her arm, Jue Xinzi stabbed her abdomen with a bone dagger and slashed.

Pei Ling fed a ravenous demonic beast premium Grain Abstinence Pills until it rewarded him with half a formula for the Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill, which could improve cultivation aptitude. He chose to spend half his points to obtain the missing ingredients so he could deduce the formula and refine the pill.

• Pei Ling gave the deer-shaped demonic beast repeated handfuls of premium Grain Abstinence Pills, but realized its hunger came from an underlying problem.
• After Pei Ling fed it until it could eat no more, the beast spat out a stele and shattered its upper half, leaving him a partial pill formula as a reward.
• Pei Ling identified the remaining formula as the Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill, which could improve Root Bone and comprehension.
• Yao Chaoyan awarded Pei Ling ten points and offered him three new tasks, including completing the formula and refining a pill.
• Pei Ling discovered he lacked several primary ingredients and chose to spend half his points to have Yao Chaoyan procure them.

Pei Ling began refining the Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill under the system’s control while Yao Chaoyan treated the poison in his body. Elsewhere, Zhong Kui Xi struggled to diagnose his demon beast’s illness and learned that the Medicine Fairy avatars had been weakened while helping other pill refiners.

• Pei Ling exchanged half his points for the ingredients, found a quiet clearing, and started the system’s hosted pill refinement after setting a poison pill to take effect in two shichen.
• The system took control of Pei Ling and refined the pill with flawless technique, impressing Yao Chaoyan.
• Yao Chaoyan noticed the poison in Pei Ling’s abdomen and began detoxifying him as he continued refining.
• Zhong Kui Xi struggled to identify the illness afflicting his demon beast and considered how long his task might take.
• Yao Haitang told Zhong Kui Xi that she had divided half her cultivation among the other avatars to help pill refiners who were poisoned or injured.

Pei Ling completed a high-grade Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill and rose to first place, but the system immediately took control and ran off after detecting a ten-thousand-year-old immortal medicine. Elsewhere, Chi Jie and Zhou Miaoli continued exhausting their Medicine Fairy clones with poison, while Zhou Miaoli planned to search for the Main Body once her clone was gone.

• Pei Ling finished a high-grade Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill, earning enough points to take first place, and wondered why his poison pill had not taken effect.
• Medicine Fairy offered Pei Ling three further tasks, but the system detected a ten-thousand-year-old immortal medicine and took control of him, fleeing with the pill furnace.
• Chi Jie wounded himself in the poisonous lake to overwhelm Medicine Jasmine’s healing and drain her strength faster.
• Zhou Miaoli continued taking top-grade poison pills while Medicine Hopt detoxified her, leaving the clone nearly depleted.
• Zhou Miaoli planned to search for the Medicine Fairy’s Main Body after the clone vanished, but resolved not to approach until the Si Hong Clan acted.

Pei Ling followed the system into a valley guarded by powerful Wood Spirit Guards and discovered the sleeping Medicine Fairy’s Main Body. The system exchanged her with a female Nascent Soul Realm corpse and put the Medicine Fairy into the pill furnace.

• Jue Xinzi begged Pei Ling to save her, but the system-controlled Pei Ling ran past her, and Yao Chaoyan stopped to heal her.
• Pei Ling entered a valley filled with sleeping Wood Spirit Guards and continued toward its center under the system’s control.
• Pei Ling accidentally stepped on a dead branch, waking the guards, but they sensed no hostility and let him pass.
• Pei Ling found a silver-haired woman resembling Yao Chaoyan and realized she was the Medicine Fairy’s Main Body.
• The system pulled the Medicine Fairy from the vines, put her into the pill furnace, and bound a female Nascent Soul Realm corpse in her place.

Pei Ling carried the Medicine Fairy away in his pill furnace and was led by the system to Earth Fire Valley to receive a seventh-grade earth fire. Meanwhile, Zhou Miaoli set out to find the Medicine Fairy’s main body, and Jue Xinzi planned to kill Zhong Kui Xi before going after Wang Gao.

• The system detected a seventh-grade earth fire and led Pei Ling, carrying the Medicine Fairy in his furnace, through the Wood Spirit Guards and toward Earth Fire Valley.
• At the valley’s center, the Earth Vein power transformed the Jiu A Li Clan’s Nascent Soul corpse, swelling and distorting it as the vines continued feeding it.
• Zhou Miaoli exhausted Medicine Hopt’s power, neutralized her remaining poison, and hurried off to locate the Medicine Fairy’s main body.
• Jue Xinzi recovered under Yao Chaoyan’s care, decided to let Pei Ling go and kill Zhong Kui Xi, then sent Yao Chaoyan to catch up with Wang Gao.
• Pei Ling entered Earth Fire Valley, reached the fissure holding the system’s bone-white seventh-grade earth fire, and opened his pill furnace.

The system controlled Pei Ling as he used the Medicine Fairy’s hair and Seventh-grade earth fire to refine a pill while the Medicine Fairy slept inside the furnace. Yao Chaoyan and Zhong Kui Xi arrived and believed Wang Gao was refining a top-grade Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill, leaving Pei Ling unable to open the furnace.

• The system repeatedly tugged at the sleeping Medicine Fairy’s hair until a strand snapped, then swallowed it and used its medicinal power to sustain Seventh-grade earth fire.
• The system controlled Pei Ling as he refined the Medicine Fairy in the furnace, while she slept through the fire.
• Yao Chaoyan arrived, mistook Pei Ling’s work for refining a top-grade Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill, and watched without interfering.
• After a day, Zhong Kui Xi arrived and learned from Yao Chaoyan that Wang Gao was attempting the inherited pill recipe’s difficult follow-up task.
• Zhong Kui Xi was astonished that Wang Gao had advanced so far with Pill Ancestor’s inherited recipe, while Pei Ling remained afraid to open the furnace.

Pill Masters crowded into Earth Fire Valley to refine pills, while Zhou Miaoli coordinated with the Si Hong Clan’s agents and headed toward the Wood Spirit Guards. Jue Xinzi completed Medicine Magnolia’s tasks by killing the assigned beasts, then set out to find Zhong Kui Xi and decided to treat another beast along the way.

• Zhong Kui Xi and several other Pill Masters arrived in Earth Fire Valley and began refining pills beside Pei Ling, who feared she would discover him with the Medicine Fairy.
• Zhou Miaoli confirmed the location of the Medicine Fairy’s Main Body and learned that the Old Ancestor planned to act at sunset, so she headed toward the Wood Spirit Guards.
• Jue Xinzi killed the last demon beast assigned by Medicine Magnolia, completing all three tasks without finding Zhong Kui Xi.
• Jue Xinzi decided to ask Zhou Miaoli for help locating Zhong Kui Xi and traveled to a colorful sandstone canyon.
• Jue Xinzi found an ailing demon beast in the canyon and chose to treat it.

Zhong Kui Xi finished his first task but found the demon beast he was meant to treat dead, while Pei Ling continued refining pills as a suspicious Pill Master entered Earth Fire Valley. In Lan Jing, a colossal phantom face appeared in the clouds and announced it would borrow Lesser Freedom Heaven for a hundred thousand years.

• Zhong Kui Xi finished refining his pill and left Earth Fire Valley, planning to complete another task and overtake Wang Gao.
• Zhong Kui Xi arrived at the sandstone gorge and discovered the demon beast he was supposed to treat had been killed.
• Pei Ling continued refining pills with the Medicine Fairy's power sustaining him as the other Pill Masters left Earth Fire Valley.
• A cold, suspicious Pill Master entered the valley without a Medicine Fairy clone and watched Pei Ling while pretending to prepare for pill refining.
• A gigantic phantom face appeared over Lan Jing, overwhelmed the city's inhabitants with terror, and declared it would borrow Lesser Freedom Heaven for a hundred thousand years.

Zhou Miaoli invaded the Lesser Freedom Heaven to seize the Medicine Fairy, and Jue Xinzi uncovered her mission and agreed to help. As the realm shook during Pei Ling’s pill refinement, the Pill Master attacked him while the system still controlled his hands.

• Zhou Miaoli entered the valley with blood spirits and fought the weakened Wood Spirit Guards before heading deeper into the Lesser Freedom Heaven.
• Jue Xinzi arrived, asked Zhou Miaoli to help find Zhong Kui Xi, and deduced that she was there to take the Medicine Fairy.
• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi agreed to work together against the Wood Spirits and split the Medicine Fairy between them.
• The Lesser Freedom Heaven shook as Pei Ling refined pills beside the Medicine Fairy, and cracks opened around the surging earth fire.
• The nearby Pill Master suddenly struck at Pei Ling while the system still controlled his hands.

Pei Ling regained control after Chi Jie struck him, but Yao Chaoyan protected and healed him when Chi Jie attacked again. Elsewhere, Zhong Kui Xi suspected Demonic Cultivators had infiltrated the ceremony, then Lesser Freedom Heaven began shaking under an attack from outside.

• Chi Jie struck Pei Ling, ending the system's automatic cultivation, and Pei Ling got up with only a minor injury.
• Yao Chaoyan flew to Pei Ling and began healing him, while Chi Jie realized the clone would keep him from escaping Lesser Freedom Heaven.
• Chi Jie launched fireballs at Pei Ling, but Yao Chaoyan blocked them with a translucent shield.
• Zhong Kui Xi found the demon beast he was meant to treat dead and suspected Demonic Cultivators had infiltrated the ceremony.
• Lesser Freedom Heaven shook violently, and Zhong Kui Xi concluded that a powerful cultivator outside was attacking it.

Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi reached the Medicine Fairy’s resting place and discovered her grotesque true form, then turned on each other over who would claim her. Zhong Kui Xi learned the Demonic Cultivator was heading for the Slumbering Valley and raced to stop them.

• Yao Haitang told Zhong Kui Xi that Wang Gao, Xun Wuyang, and An Wu Bin had been attacked, and she left to rescue the injured cultivators.
• Zhong Kui Xi pursued the faint trace of the Demonic Cultivator and realized the target was the Medicine Fairy in the Slumbering Valley.
• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi entered the valley’s forbidden center and found the Medicine Fairy’s swollen, blue-black Main Body wrapped in vines.
• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi condemned the Liulan Dynasty for disguising the Medicine Fairy’s appearance and reputation, then agreed they had little time to take her.
• Jue Xinzi claimed she should handle the Medicine Fairy and reached for her, but Zhou Miaoli attacked her from behind.
• Jue Xinzi evaded Zhou Miaoli’s strike and mocked her as an inferior immortal.

Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi stopped fighting to seize the Medicine Fairy before Zhong Kui Xi arrived. Zhou Miaoli began sealing the Medicine Fairy in a coffin while Jue Xinzi fought Zhong Kui Xi, who condemned the Demonic Cultivators and challenged their claim to the immortal medicine.

• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi sensed Zhong Kui Xi approaching and agreed to take the Medicine Fairy before dealing with him.
• Zhou Miaoli pulled the Medicine Fairy from the vines, placed her in a coffin, and began sealing it with talismans.
• Zhong Kui Xi forced his way into the valley, recognized Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi, and attacked Zhou Miaoli as she sealed the coffin.
• Jue Xinzi used Heavenly Divide to divert Zhong Kui Xi's golden hand, then exchanged blows with him.
• Zhong Kui Xi denounced the two Demonic Cultivators for taking the Medicine Fairy, and Jue Xinzi declared that she would teach him a lesson.

Zhong Kui Xi fought Jue Xinzi and Zhou Miaoli to keep them from taking the Medicine Fairy, while Pei Ling watched Yao Chaoyan heal him and subdue Chi Jie. The battle over the Medicine Fairy escalated as all three combatants began invoking the Law, and Chi Jie was left bound and unable to help Zhou Miaoli.

• Zhong Kui Xi struck Jue Xinzi and tried to break the coffin, but Zhou Miaoli blocked his attack with her blood river and Jue Xinzi sent the coffin flying out of his reach.
• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi attacked Zhong Kui Xi together, prompting him to unleash the aura of the Law and scatter their blows.
• Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi changed their auras in response to Zhong Kui Xi's display of the Law.
• Yao Chaoyan finished healing Pei Ling, then used the earth fire to bind Chi Jie and seal his magical power.
• Chi Jie despaired that he had failed to buy Zhou True Disciple even half an hour.

Pei Ling, disguised as Wang Gao, struggled to keep the Medicine Fairy’s Main Body hidden inside his pill furnace while Yao Chaoyan and Yao Haitang organized the rescue of Pill Masters endangered by the changing laws of Lesser Freedom Heaven. As frightened Pill Masters gathered in Earth Fire Valley, they took comfort in Wang Gao’s presence and waited for help.

• Pei Ling failed to put his pill furnace into his Storage Pouch and avoided opening it by telling Yao Chaoyan he needed time to think.
• Yao Chaoyan promised to protect Wang Gao, while Pei Ling claimed Chi Jie was a Demonic Cultivator who had attacked him.
• Yao Haitang reported that the laws of Lesser Freedom Heaven were changing, and she and Yao Chaoyan agreed to gather and evacuate the Pill Masters.
• Yao Haitang stayed in Earth Fire Valley to guard Wang Gao while Yao Chaoyan left to collect the others.
• Guan Jiu and other frightened Pill Masters arrived in Earth Fire Valley, learned that Zhong Kui Xi was missing, and found reassurance when they saw Wang Gao.

The Liulan Emperor confronted Old Demon Meng Hui as his bone puppets attacked Lanjing, while the Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor watched from afar and weighed Zhou Miaoli’s fate. In Slumbering Valley, the exhausted Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi stood over the fallen Zhong Kui Xi as Jue Xinzi prepared to strike him.

• Old Demon Meng Hui sent a giant skeletal hand and its puppet cultivators to attack Lanjing with sword energy, a falling mountain, and a sea of fire.
• The Liulan Emperor used his jade seal and sovereign power to shatter the attacks and force the puppet cultivators to kneel.
• Meng Hui attacked Lanjing again, and the Liulan Emperor raised a golden barrier before charging into the black clouds to fight him.
• Si Hong Lunshan reported that Meng Hui had engaged the Liulan Dynasty, and the Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor said Zhou Miaoli could return to the clan if she succeeded and ordered preparations to receive her.
• In Slumbering Valley, the wounded Zhong Kui Xi warned Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi that the dynasty would respond, while Jue Xinzi summoned Three Energies Return to Origin and slashed at him.

Zhong Kui Xi survived Jue Xinzi’s attack through the Death-Defying Fate-Reversing Pill and was rescued by his mother, the Empress. After hearing that Wushi Villa and Chongming Sect had targeted the Medicine Fairy, the Empress ordered the imperial court to prepare a proclamation against them.

• Jue Xinzi ordered Zhou Miaoli to destroy Zhong Kui Xi’s body, but Zhou opened a passage out of Lesser Freedom Heaven with her clan’s formation disk.
• Zhou Miaoli persuaded Jue Xinzi that Wushi Villa had masterminded the theft of the Medicine Fairy and claimed its seniors were waiting outside; the two left through the passage with the coffin.
• A crimson-gold hand pulled the recovering Zhong Kui Xi into the imperial palace, where he reunited with his mother, the Empress, and siblings Zhong Kui Shi and Zhong Kui Jingyi.
• Zhong Kui Xi told the Empress that Zhou Miaoli and Jue Xinzi had stolen the Medicine Fairy’s Main Body and urged her to rescue the trapped Pill Masters, especially Wang Gao.
• The Empress explained that Wushi Villa’s Old Devil had severed Lesser Freedom Heaven’s connection to the world, and that the Imperial Observatory was trying to locate it.
• The Empress ordered the Hanlin scholars to prepare a proclamation declaring that the court would punish the rebels and crush the guilty.

Pei Ling tried to keep the Pill Masters away from his furnace while waiting for a chance to escape, but a golden hand rescued everyone from Lesser Freedom Heaven amid a battle with a skeletal hand. After reaching Lan Jing City, Pei Ling insisted on refining a pill, leaving his rescuers to arrange a safe room for him.

• Xun Wuyang and the other Pill Masters gathered around Pei Ling, who claimed he was preparing a top-grade Mind-Opening and Acupoint-Connecting Pill and guarded his furnace from them.
• A giant golden hand seized the Pill Masters, Medicine Fairy's clone, and the ground, pulling them out of Lesser Freedom Heaven.
• A skeletal hand attacked the rescuing hand, and their clash injured the Pill Masters; Medicine Fairy's clone treated Pei Ling before it dissipated.
• The golden hand carried the survivors back to the main world near Lan Jing City, then vanished as the battle continued in the sky.
• Zhong Kui Jingyi caught Pei Ling and offered him shelter, but he demanded an undisturbed room so he could refine his pill.

Zhong Kui Jingyi rescued Pei Ling from the black rain in Lanjing, and the Medicine Fairy emerged from the Pill Furnace he carried to safety. Zhou Miaoli delivered the coffin to the Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor, who accepted her into the clan and led her and Si Hong Lunshan back toward Chongming Sect territory.

• Zhong Kui Jingyi failed to store the enormous Pill Furnace and rushed Pei Ling to the protected Xin Cui Pavilion as black rain corroded Lanjing’s defenses.
• Zhong Kui Jingyi urged Pei Ling to make healing pills before leaving to rescue the other Pill Masters, and the Medicine Fairy emerged from the furnace and asked whether he had put her inside it.
• Jue Xinzi crashed at the foot of the mountain while Zhou Miaoli was seized by a sinister force and brought before the Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor and Si Hong Lunshan.
• Zhou Miaoli presented the coffin and declared that she had fulfilled the mission; the Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor reinforced its seals and named her Si Hong Miaoli, a true disciple of the Sacred Sect.
• The Si Hong Clan Old Ancestor took the Five Elements Heavenly Net Boundary-Breaking Array Disk and led Zhou Miaoli and Si Hong Lunshan through a passage toward Chongming Sect territory.