Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Starting Today, Be the Store Manager”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan repeatedly dreams of a small, beautifully decorated shop containing a coffee maker, snack shelves, display cases, and a mysterious locked iron box with an eye-shaped keyhole and countdown.
• On his twenty-sixth birthday, the countdown reaches zero. When he opens the box, the dream abruptly ends.
• He wakes up not in his apartment, but inside the exact shop from his dreams. Terrified, he runs home, but cannot later find the storefront.
• The following day, after working at a fast-food restaurant, he falls asleep and is transported back to the shop again. This time, he realizes his body feels completely rested despite sleeping only a few hours.
• Suspecting that the shop is real rather than a dream or sleepwalking episode, he explores it carefully. He successfully makes and drinks coffee, confirming that the shop exists physically.
• The display cases are empty, but the shop contains business licenses, a food-service permit, and a fire-safety certificate.
• Chen Xuan discovers that the shop’s legal representative and registered store manager are listed as himself. His identity-card photograph appears on the employee board.
• The shop seems to have been newly established specifically for him, though its exterior still bears signs of former businesses and a “for rent” notice.
• Chen Xuan begins to suspect that the shop may fulfill his long-held desire for an independent, low-pressure livelihood. The chapter ends with him wondering what the mysterious shop actually sells.

Character Development

• Chen Xuan begins as a tired, financially struggling young man dissatisfied with exhausting work and uncertain about his future.
• His initial reaction to the shop is fear and disbelief, but he gradually shifts toward curiosity and cautious acceptance.
• He demonstrates practical judgment by checking his surroundings, returning home for safety, examining the shop’s documents, and testing whether the coffee is real.
• His long-standing dreams reveal his deeper desires: financial security, freedom, personal time, and an occupation without the pressure of corporate competition.
• By the end, fear has begun to give way to excitement as he considers the possibility that the shop could become his own business.

Significant Themes

• Reality versus illusion: The dream shop becomes physically real, blurring the boundary between imagination and reality.
• Unfulfilled desires and manifestation: The shop appears connected to Chen Xuan’s childhood dreams and may represent his suppressed wishes for stability and independence.
• Freedom versus overwork: Chen Xuan’s dissatisfaction with corporate employment and part-time labor contrasts with his ideal of self-directed, low-stress work.
• Mystery and supernatural intervention: The unexplained countdown, teleportation, official documentation, and shop ownership establish a larger supernatural or fantastical mystery.
• Fate and personal identity: The fact that the shop is legally registered in Chen Xuan’s name suggests that his connection to it may have been predetermined.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan has no direct interactions with other characters in the chapter.
• His main “interaction” is with the mysterious shop itself: he tests its coffee machine, examines its furnishings, studies its legal documents, and investigates its connection to his dreams.
• The implied creator or owner of the shop—whoever arranged the licenses and appointed him manager—remains unseen, creating the central mystery for future chapters.

Chapter Summary: “The First Customer”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan discovers a red notebook titled “Shopkeeper’s Rules” hidden beneath the counter.
• The rules instruct him to:
  • Welcome every customer warmly.
  • Treat abilities carefully.
  • Prevent the world from descending into madness—a bizarre, ominous statement that contrasts with the otherwise practical instructions.
• The accompanying notes explain that:
  • Customers and their desires are the store’s most valuable assets.
  • The shop’s primary business is assessing, collecting, and trading abilities.
  • Chen Xuan must monitor inventory and avoid financial losses or excessive stock.
  • The shop cannot close, and he must work at least eight hours daily while bearing responsibility for any accidents.
• Chen Xuan opens the store’s computer program, Ability Butler, which contains store management, transaction records, and inventory functions.
• He discovers that the only available ability provider is himself, meaning that he is effectively the store’s first piece of merchandise.
• His abilities include:
  • Can Eat a Lot and Can Sleep a Lot, both low-grade abilities.
  • Free Will and Broadly Read Through the Ages, both higher-level abilities.
  • The ???th Shopkeeper, a legendary but non-transferable ability tied to his survival and role as shopkeeper.
• A young woman dressed like an immortal enters the shop, becoming Chen Xuan’s first customer.
• She questions why the store is located in a desolate wilderness. Chen Xuan then discovers that the outside world has inexplicably transformed from Tianlu Residential Area into a moonlit mountain wilderness.
• The woman carries a dark-red longsword dripping with fresh blood, revealing that she is connected to violence or a dangerous supernatural event.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan becomes increasingly aware that the store is not an ordinary business and that its rules and abilities may be genuinely supernatural.
• His practical, service-oriented personality remains intact; despite his confusion, he instinctively welcomes the woman as a customer.
• He begins to recognize that traits he considered ordinary—such as his ability to sleep, eat, endure hardship, and work long hours—are classified as supernatural abilities.
• His initial curiosity shifts toward suspicion and alarm when he sees the changed landscape and the customer’s bloodstained sword.
• The young woman is introduced as mysterious, ethereal, and potentially dangerous. Her ancient appearance, cold demeanor, and weapon suggest that she may come from another world or era.

Significant Themes

• The hidden supernatural within the ordinary: Mundane personal traits are reinterpreted as formal abilities.
• Identity and commodification: Chen Xuan discovers that even he can be categorized as inventory, raising questions about whether people and their talents can be bought, sold, or consumed.
• Responsibility and exploitation: The shop’s rules impose severe obligations on Chen Xuan, presenting his new role as both an opportunity and a potentially abusive contract.
• Reality shifting beneath appearances: The store appears ordinary, but its surroundings and business reveal a larger, unstable supernatural world.
• Customer service amid danger: Chen Xuan’s professional instinct to greet customers contrasts humorously and uneasily with the threat posed by his first visitor.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan interacts mainly with the store’s rules and computer system, questioning their logic and mocking the insulting descriptions of his abilities.
• When the young woman arrives, he immediately adopts a polite shopkeeper’s manner and asks what she wants to buy.
• She challenges his understanding of the store’s location, indirectly exposing that they are no longer in the residential district.
• Their conversation shifts from routine customer service to mutual suspicion when Chen Xuan sees the transformed landscape and the blood on her sword, ending the chapter on a dangerous cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Ability Store suddenly relocates from Tianlu Residential Area to an unknown wilderness, leaving Chen Xuan isolated in unfamiliar surroundings.
• A sword-wielding young woman, Liu Shuyue, enters the store after following the trail of a bandit attack. She has already killed the bandits responsible for murdering and robbing a group of travelers.
• Initially suspicious, Liu Shuyue investigates whether the store is connected to the bandits. Chen Xuan calmly reassures her that the store sells abilities and helps customers overcome personal shortcomings.
• Chen Xuan realizes that Liu Shuyue was drawn to the store because of her doubts and regrets after arriving too late to save the bandits’ victims.
• He explains that the Ability Store is accessible only to people with a special connection or “fate” with it, and that it can trade supernatural abilities as merchandise.
• Liu Shuyue introduces herself as a cultivator from the Lotus Cloud Sect. Chen Xuan learns that the sect’s disciples descend from the Kunlun Cloud Sea once every hundred years to assist the rulers of the Six Nations.
• She describes her duties as conducting sacrifices, praying for rain, exterminating monsters, and comforting the people.
• Chen Xuan notices her hesitation and deduces that her true concern involves the danger of becoming entangled in political and military affairs. Some Lotus Cloud Sect disciples have apparently abandoned their original ideals after becoming involved in court politics.
• The chapter ends with Liu Shuyue asking whether Chen Xuan and the Ability Store can resolve her doubts about the future.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Shows remarkable composure despite being threatened by an armed cultivator in an unknown wilderness. He begins to fully embrace his identity as the store’s shopkeeper, using calm reasoning, confident speech, and psychological insight to guide his first customer. His ability to infer Liu Shuyue’s concerns strengthens his mysterious image.
• Liu Shuyue: Is introduced as a highly capable, disciplined, and morally upright cultivator. She protects innocent people and destroys the bandits, but feels troubled by her failure to save the victims. Her initial suspicion gradually changes into curiosity and cautious trust after Chen Xuan demonstrates knowledge of her inner conflict.
• Their relationship: Chen Xuan treats Liu Shuyue as a customer rather than a threat, while Liu Shuyue moves from hostility and investigation toward openness. Their conversation establishes a balance between Chen Xuan’s mysterious confidence and Liu Shuyue’s cautious integrity.

Significant Themes

• Fate and chosen opportunity: The store appears to people whose unresolved doubts make them suitable customers.
• Power and responsibility: Liu Shuyue’s abilities allow her to fight evil, but they also raise questions about how cultivators should use their power in service to rulers and society.
• Moral integrity versus political influence: The Lotus Cloud Sect’s disciples may begin with noble intentions but risk being drawn into court struggles and abandoning their original principles.
• Knowledge and perception: Chen Xuan’s confidence comes less from actual knowledge of Liu Shuyue’s world than from his ability to observe, reason, and present deductions convincingly.
• Cross-world misunderstanding: Everyday objects such as coffee seem unfamiliar to Liu Shuyue, while Chen Xuan is forced to recognize that he has entered a world of cultivators, sects, monsters, and dynasties.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan calmly welcomes Liu Shuyue despite her bloodstained sword and threatening demeanor.
• He prepares her a latte, using hospitality to soften the tense encounter and reinforce his role as shopkeeper.
• Liu Shuyue explains her background and the Lotus Cloud Sect, while Chen Xuan compares her duties with the political realities of his own understanding.
• Chen Xuan accurately identifies her anxiety about court affairs, surprising her and convincing her that the Ability Store may possess the answers she seeks.

Chapter Summary: “Deal”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan attempts his first Ability Transaction with Liu Shuyue, relying on the Shopkeeper’s Rule that even seemingly weak abilities may be valuable.
• He selects Broadly Read Through the Ages LV2 from his inventory and offers it to Liu Shuyue.
• Liu Shuyue offers abilities in exchange:

Heart Calming Incantation LV6

Feng Shui Secrets LV1

Alchemy LV2

Spirit Sword Technique LV5

• Chen Xuan initially refuses the first three abilities, arguing that an item’s value depends on how desperately it is needed. He compares the trade to exchanging a sword for rice during a famine.
• Liu Shuyue accuses him of exploiting her desperation, but ultimately adds the fourth ability and agrees to the deal.
• The transaction succeeds. Chen Xuan loses his knowledge-based ability, discovering that his memories of historical stories have vanished, while the four exchanged abilities appear in his inventory.
• Liu Shuyue experiences the sudden appearance of new knowledge in her mind and leaves hurriedly, seemingly affected or unsettled by the transaction.
• After she disappears and the shop returns to its normal location, Chen Xuan realizes that the Shopkeeper’s Rules and ability-trading system are genuine.
• He notices bloodstains left behind by Liu Shuyue and decides to clean them immediately to avoid attracting police attention.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan gains confidence in operating the shop and successfully completes his first transaction. He demonstrates practical business sense, prioritizing the expansion of his inventory over appearing generous.
• He also learns the personal cost of trading abilities when he loses his historical knowledge, showing that his powers are not merely abstract items but parts of his own mind and identity.
• Liu Shuyue begins as a skeptical and guarded customer but becomes willing to negotiate when she realizes how valuable Chen Xuan’s offered ability is to her.
• Her sudden departure after receiving the ability suggests that the transaction has given her important knowledge or insight, though the exact result remains unclear.
• Liu Shuyue also reveals a comparatively perceptive and cautionary side by warning Chen Xuan that his aggressive bargaining may be dangerous when dealing with less reasonable cultivators.

Significant Themes

• Value is determined by need, not objective quality: Chen Xuan emphasizes that an ordinary item can become priceless when someone urgently requires it.
• Fairness versus exploitation: The transaction raises questions about whether trading at a desperate customer’s expense is dishonest, even when the customer agrees voluntarily and receives a trial-and-return guarantee.
• Business and survival: Chen Xuan treats the shop as a real profession, focusing on inventory, performance points, and future bargaining power.
• The cost of power: Acquiring new abilities requires Chen Xuan to surrender parts of himself, as demonstrated by the disappearance of his historical memories.
• Reality of the supernatural: The successful deal confirms that the shop, its rules, and visitors from other worlds are real rather than imagined.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue engage in a tense negotiation, with Liu Shuyue challenging his pricing and Chen Xuan defending the trade through practical economic reasoning.
• Their exchange highlights their contrasting personalities: Chen Xuan is calculating and commercially minded, while Liu Shuyue is proud, skeptical, and unwilling to accept an apparently unfair deal without protest.
• Despite criticizing him, Liu Shuyue accepts the transaction and offers him a sincere warning about dealing with dangerous cultivators.
• Chen Xuan remains calm and polite throughout, treating the confrontation as a business negotiation rather than taking offense at her remarks.

Chapter Summary: “Strange New Knowledge Gained”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After leaving Mala Tang, Liu Shuyue reflects on her trade with Chen Xuan. She realizes that Broadly Read Through the Ages is vastly more valuable than its description suggested because it granted her access to an enormous alternate history and the lessons of countless rulers and political struggles.
• She concludes that the ability’s misleading description was likely intentional, suggesting that Chen Xuan may have been testing her. Despite her initial dissatisfaction at trading four abilities for one, she now considers the exchange an excellent bargain and has no intention of returning it.
• Liu Shuyue connects this new knowledge to her longstanding doubts about the Lotus Cloud Sect. The sect supposedly sends disciples to aid rulers, yet its records contain almost no information about former disciples or their achievements.
• During her journey from Kunlun toward the Great Qi capital, Liu Shuyue has seen widespread disorder: bandits, abandoned roads and villages, and only limited prosperity in major cities. These observations make her suspect that the previous Lotus Cloud disciple failed.
• The ability gives Liu Shuyue renewed confidence. By studying the successes and failures of countless historical figures, she feels she has gained guidance for avoiding the mistakes of her predecessors and choosing the best path for herself.
• Back at the store, Chen Xuan cleans up and begins investigating his new authority as shopkeeper. He discovers that he can transfer abilities from the store’s inventory onto himself.
• He successfully acquires Alchemy, gaining Liu Shuyue’s knowledge of herbs and pill refinement, though this reduces the store’s inventory by one ability.
• Chen Xuan finds that he can possess only four abilities at once. He replaces less useful abilities—Can Eat a Lot and Can Sleep a Lot—with Heart Calming Incantation and Spirit Sword Technique.
• The cultivation ability immediately takes effect. Chen Xuan gains knowledge of the Pure Heart Art, including its passive circulation, body-strengthening effects, and compatibility with other abilities.

Character Developments

• Liu Shuyue becomes more optimistic and confident. Her fear that she might repeat the failure of the previous Lotus Cloud disciple is eased by the historical knowledge she has acquired.
• She also becomes more suspicious of the Lotus Cloud Sect’s hidden history and begins questioning why its former disciples have left so little trace.
• Liu Shuyue remains wary and somewhat irritated by Chen Xuan’s deceptive, merchant-like manner, though she recognizes that he may be extraordinary and hopes to question him in the future.
• Chen Xuan fully accepts his role as the shopkeeper and begins thinking strategically about the store’s mechanics. He realizes that abilities function like a valuable form of currency and that he can temporarily act as their provider.
• His successful transfer of abilities gives him access to knowledge and cultivation techniques far beyond what an ordinary person could normally achieve.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge as power: Historical experience and practical understanding prove more valuable than simple combat or survival abilities.
• Learning from history: Liu Shuyue gains the ability to study past successes and failures, reinforcing the idea that history can guide future decisions.
• Hidden truths and institutional failure: The Lotus Cloud Sect’s silence about former disciples raises questions about its actual effectiveness and whether its teachings are sufficient.
• Self-determination versus fate: Liu Shuyue believes she can avoid the failures of earlier generations by using the knowledge she has gained.
• Unequal exchange and hidden value: The apparent four-for-one trade becomes highly advantageous once the true nature of Broadly Read Through the Ages is understood.
• Power through the supernatural system: Chen Xuan’s shop allows abilities and accumulated experience to be transferred directly, bypassing normal limits of talent, aptitude, and years of training.

Character Interactions

• Liu Shuyue’s main interaction is with Chen Xuan through their earlier transaction. Although she distrusts his evasiveness and dislikes his “Mala Tang” shop’s vulgar name, she acknowledges the extraordinary value of what he gave her.
• Chen Xuan’s interaction with the store’s system reveals that the shop itself functions almost like a partner or tool, allowing him to inspect inventory, transfer abilities, and experiment with his own capabilities.
• The exchange between Liu Shuyue and Chen Xuan establishes an ongoing mystery: she wants to discover his origins and affiliation, while he is beginning to understand the extent of the power and responsibility attached to being the shopkeeper.

Chapter Summary: “Opening Day, Bankrupt on Day One”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan tests the Spirit Sword Technique, discovering that it can turn ordinary objects such as leaves into deadly projectiles. He also learns he can concentrate the technique on his fingertips, making them sharp enough to cut chopsticks and scratch ceramic.
• Concerned about the danger of the technique falling into evil hands, Chen Xuan realizes he must be extremely cautious when choosing customers.
• He investigates his newly earned Performance Points and discovers they can be used to improve his shopkeeper rating or obtain other rewards. Raising the ability from LV1 to LV2 requires four points.
• To apply for a rating increase, he must submit a formal email explaining why he deserves promotion. He suspects the unnecessary procedure may serve a deeper purpose and completes it carefully.
• A new “customer” enters the store, but instead of seeking an ability, the middle-aged man buys cigarettes and beer and complains about the lack of Mala Tang. Chen Xuan realizes the shop also functions as an ordinary neighborhood convenience store.
• The shop’s operating rules become a serious problem. Chen Xuan learns that he must personally pay for inventory, rent, utilities, and other expenses, totaling roughly 30,000–40,000 yuan per month.
• With only 50,000 yuan in savings, he estimates that the store can survive for no more than a month and a half. He resigns from his previous job to focus entirely on the shop.
• Chen Xuan confirms that sold goods are not automatically replenished, making the store function much like a normal general store aside from its ability-trading system.
• He considers earning money by charging customers cash alongside ability exchanges. His experiments show that trading away an ability does not erase basic knowledge or prevent him from performing ordinary activities, reducing his concerns about the system.
• He considers selling useful low-grade abilities such as Can Eat a Lot or Can Sleep a Lot to wealthy customers, but admits he lacks the connections to find suitable buyers quickly.
• The chapter ends with Chen Xuan deciding to explore a second plan: using his own abilities to make money.

Character Development

• Chen Xuan becomes more cautious and pragmatic. He recognizes the potential danger of the Spirit Sword Technique and understands that his role as shopkeeper carries moral responsibility.
• He shifts from curiosity about the store’s rewards and mechanics to urgent financial planning after realizing that the business can easily go bankrupt.
• His willingness to resign and devote himself to the shop shows commitment, but also reflects how heavily he is relying on the store’s success.
• Chen Xuan becomes more confident in ability transactions after testing the effects of giving up abilities and confirming that doing so causes no major harm to his normal life.

Significant Themes

• Power and responsibility: Even a low-grade ability can be lethal, raising questions about who should be allowed to possess supernatural powers.
• Economic pressure and survival: The magical store is still subject to ordinary business costs, forcing Chen Xuan to confront rent, inventory, and cash flow.
• Reality versus expectations: Chen Xuan expects a mysterious ability shop but discovers that it also requires selling everyday goods like cigarettes and drinks.
• Entrepreneurship and adaptability: Chen Xuan must quickly invent ways to monetize abilities rather than relying on conventional employment.
• Hidden rules and bureaucracy: The shop’s complicated rating system and application process suggest that the organization behind the store has a structured hierarchy and may be evaluating him.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan’s main interaction is with the unexpected middle-aged customer, whose mundane requests contrast sharply with the supernatural nature of the shop.
• The customer treats Chen Xuan like an ordinary shopkeeper, exposing the store’s dual identity as both an Ability Store and a local convenience store.
• Chen Xuan also interacts indirectly with the store’s unseen organization through the Butler APP, Red Notebook, and promotion application system.

Chapter Summary: “Saving the Store by Taking a Roundabout Route”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan investigates the Alchemy section of the mysterious store and discovers formulas for powerful pills such as the Longevity Pill, Spring Rejuvenation Water, and Great Strength Pill.
• He realizes the formulas require spiritual ingredients that do not exist in his world, so he decides to identify suitable local substitutes.
• After eating goji berries, Chen Xuan successfully uses the Tasting a Hundred Herbs ability, learning that the berries possess certain elemental properties but have little medicinal value and no spirituality.
• He visits Hundred Herbs Hall to test Chinese medicinal herbs. When the staff refuses to let him taste them, he secretly uses the Spirit Sword Technique to extract tiny samples from the medicine cabinets.
• After sampling more than thirty herbs, he finds that none are suitable for pill refinement. They lack both spiritual energy and the medicinal properties required by Alchemy.
• A sales assistant dismissively suggests he try the neighboring store, which turns out to be a fruit shop. There, Chen Xuan tastes watermelon and discovers that fresh, ordinary plants can possess both medicinal properties and spirituality.
• He realizes that his mistake was limiting his search to processed medicinal herbs. Fresh plants, fruits, leaves, bark, and other natural materials—especially those that are old or have grown in the wilderness—may be viable alchemical ingredients.
• Chen Xuan travels to Foothill Mountain and spends the day sampling plants while taking only tiny amounts to avoid damaging nature.
• At 8:30 p.m., he is forcibly transported back to the magical store. He examines his collected leaves, grasses, and other samples and confirms that several meet Alchemy’s requirements.
• Excited by this breakthrough, he prepares to begin refining pills.

Character Development

• Chen Xuan becomes more resourceful and adaptable. Rather than abandoning Alchemy because its original ingredients are unavailable, he applies its principles to his own environment.
• He demonstrates growing confidence in his inherited abilities, testing whether he can use Tasting a Hundred Herbs independently and proving that he can.
• His initial assumptions are challenged: he learns that conventional medicinal classifications do not determine an ingredient’s usefulness in Alchemy.
• He also shows patience and persistence, spending an entire day searching for suitable ingredients despite repeated failures and public ridicule.

Significant Themes

• Adaptation and innovation: Knowledge from another world must be modified to fit local conditions.
• Limits of conventional understanding: Ingredients considered medicinal by modern herbal practice may not possess the qualities required by supernatural alchemy.
• Hidden potential in ordinary things: A simple piece of watermelon proves more useful than dozens of processed herbs, suggesting that overlooked natural materials may hold extraordinary value.
• Persistence through experimentation: Chen Xuan reaches his breakthrough by testing assumptions rather than relying blindly on established knowledge.
• Humanity’s relationship with nature: His careful sampling on the mountain reflects an effort to balance exploration with environmental protection.

Character Interactions

• The sales assistant at Hundred Herbs Hall initially treats Chen Xuan politely but becomes suspicious and impatient when he asks to taste raw herbs, eventually trying to drive him away.
• Chen Xuan avoids confrontation and secretly gathers samples using his Spirit Sword Technique.
• At the fruit shop, the clerk casually allows him to sample watermelon, unknowingly helping him make his crucial discovery.
• A mother and daughter on Foothill Mountain mistake Chen Xuan for someone mentally unstable when they see him eating grass and leaves, adding a humorous contrast to his serious investigation.
• Chen Xuan’s main “interaction” throughout the chapter is with the Alchemy system itself, using its evaluations to reinterpret the natural world and develop a practical path toward pill refinement.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan successfully refines pills for the first time using the study of pills' method.
• He creates Sweet Jade Clear Pills and Blood Oranges, entry-level pills with healing properties.
• Four armored strangers, led by Joan of Arc, enter the store. They mistake Chen Xuan for an English spy due to his appearance and language.
• Joan of Arc requests medical supplies and help for an injured soldier.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan demonstrates adaptability and calmness in handling unexpected situations, such as dealing with armed customers and treating injuries.
• Joan of Arc shows confidence in her beliefs and concern for her troops, seeking help for an injured soldier.

Significant Themes

• Adaptability: Chen Xuan adapts to the situation, switching languages and accepting the unusual circumstances without panicking.
• Trust and Misunderstanding: The strangers initially mistrust Chen Xuan due to misunderstandings about his identity and intentions.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Joan of Arc: They communicate and cooperate, with Joan of Arc seeking Chen Xuan's help for her injured soldier, and Chen Xuan agreeing to assist despite the initial misunderstanding.
• Joan of Arc and her subordinates: They show loyalty and trust in Joan of Arc, following her orders and supporting her decisions.

Chapter Summary: Hero’s Last Stand

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan is led by Joan of Arc through a fleeing army to a makeshift field hospital containing around twenty severely wounded soldiers.
• Despite the army’s desperate situation, Joan refuses to abandon the injured, revealing her strong sense of responsibility and the loyalty she inspires.
• Chen orders the seven most severely wounded soldiers to be brought forward. He uses Blood Oranges—an alchemical medicine from his Ability Store—to treat them.
• Joan administers the medicine as instructed, and the soldiers’ wounds rapidly close, their bleeding stops, and their pain subsides. The miraculous treatment earns Chen the soldiers’ gratitude and admiration.
• Chen calls the Blood Oranges “Immortal Pills,” allowing Joan to interpret them as divinely blessed medicine. She offers to pay any price for more, recognizing their military value.
• Chen realizes that the army is being pursued and has likely just escaped from Compiègne. Based on Joan’s history and her reactions, he deduces that the battle was a trap involving enemy ambushes, a military traitor, and the premature closing of Compiègne’s gates.
• Joan’s emotional reaction confirms Chen’s deductions. She is enraged and troubled by the possibility that someone within her own side deliberately orchestrated her defeat.
• Chen explains that Joan stopped at his shop because, in her moment of desperation, it represented a source of hope and divine intervention.
• He offers her the Spirit Sword Technique through an Ability Transaction, explaining that she can obtain it only by exchanging something of comparable value.
• Joan is astonished by the glowing, floating interface of the transaction system. Before Chen finishes negotiating, all four transaction boxes illuminate, suggesting she is prepared to offer everything she can.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Demonstrates practical intelligence, medical knowledge, and strong observational skills. He uses the medicine not only to save lives but also to increase Joan’s trust and favorability before negotiating an Ability Transaction. He presents himself as mysterious and possibly divinely empowered.
• Joan of Arc: Her compassion and leadership are emphasized through her refusal to abandon the wounded. Her faith leads her to accept Chen’s “Immortal Pill” explanation, while her reaction to Compiègne reveals deep anger, suspicion, and emotional strain beneath her composed exterior. Her willingness to illuminate all four transaction slots shows how desperately she wants victory.
• The wounded soldiers: Initially resigned to death, they regain hope after Chen’s treatment. Their attitudes shift from uncertainty to gratitude, admiration, and near-reverence.

Significant Themes

• Hope in desperate circumstances: Chen’s shop and medicine provide a source of light and possibility during a doomed retreat.
• Faith and manipulation: Joan interprets Chen’s abilities through her religious worldview, while Chen deliberately encourages the belief that his medicine is divinely blessed.
• Sacrifice and the price of victory: The Ability Transaction requires Joan to give up something valuable in exchange for power, raising the question of what she is willing to sacrifice to save her army.
• Leadership and loyalty: Joan’s refusal to abandon her wounded soldiers contrasts with the military pragmatism that might otherwise treat them as burdens.
• Fate versus intervention: Historical events seem destined to end in Joan’s capture, but Chen’s arrival introduces the possibility that history can be altered.

Important Character Interactions

• Joan obeys Chen’s medical instructions without hesitation, establishing trust between them.
• The soldiers’ transformation from skepticism to reverence strengthens Chen’s standing within the army.
• Joan asks to purchase more medicine, while Chen redirects the conversation toward the more important Ability Transaction.
• Chen confronts Joan with his knowledge of the Compiègne ambush, forcing her hidden fears about betrayal and abandonment into the open.
• Chen offers the Spirit Sword Technique, and Joan reacts with awe to the supernatural transaction interface, apparently ready to pay any price for the chance to defeat her enemies.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Joan of Arc displays her abilities to Chen Xuan, including a rare golden ability, "Liberty Leading the People," and a valuable green ability, "Voice of Trust."
• Chen Xuan chooses to trade for these two abilities, leaving the rest to Joan of Arc.
• The Burgundians catch up to Joan of Arc's army, and she decides to engage them in battle instead of retreating.
• Joan of Arc uses the Spirit Sword Technique, illuminating the battlefield, and raises her army's morale with the Sacred Banner.
• The two armies clash, and the battle begins.

Character Developments

• Joan of Arc regains her confidence and resolve, deciding to fight despite her previous doubts.
• Chen Xuan demonstrates his ability to assess and choose valuable abilities, showing his understanding of their worth and potential.

Significant Themes

• Faith and divine guidance: Joan of Arc's belief in God's will and her trust in Chen Xuan as a divine envoy.
• Power and ability: The importance and rarity of certain abilities, and the strategic value of choosing which abilities to trade for.

Character Interactions

• Joan of Arc and Chen Xuan: They interact as a commander and her divine envoy, with Joan of Arc displaying her abilities to Chen Xuan and him choosing which ones to trade for. Their relationship is one of trust and mutual respect.
• Joan of Arc and her army: Joan of Arc inspires her troops, raising their morale and leading them into battle against the Burgundians.

Chapter Summary: “Promotion”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan wakes after witnessing Joan of Arc’s battle from the Ability Store, which served as her temporary rear base and field hospital.
• Joan’s forces, heavily outnumbered, achieve a decisive victory because of her extraordinary power and the Spirit Sword Technique. Chen Xuan helps treat wounded soldiers, despite having no obligation to do so.
• Worried that he may have altered real-world history, Chen checks historical records. Joan of Arc’s fate remains unchanged, confirming that the version he encountered likely came from another world.
• Chen discovers two new abilities in his inventory:
  • Liberty Leading the People, a gold-rarity ability that inspires goodwill and support when people share compatible ideals.
  • Voice of Trust, which appears to affect communication and trust, though Chen has difficulty testing it.
• His experiments reveal that Liberty Leading the People cannot be used simply because two people share a desire for money; their goals must align without creating conflicting interests. Voice of Trust is demonstrated when Chen’s colleague openly rejects him, suggesting the ability may be useful against deception or scams.
• Chen’s application to become a higher-level shopkeeper is approved. He becomes a Level 2 shopkeeper, upgrading the legendary store-management ability.
• The Ability Store gains a previously nonexistent second floor containing hotel-like guest rooms. However, Chen cannot access the rooms because they require guest key cards, and the management app does not allow him to register himself as a guest.
• The upgrade also raises the ability synchronization limit to Level 2, helping explain why Joan’s use of the Spirit Sword Technique was vastly stronger than Chen’s: she had wielded it at a much higher level.
• The next promotion requires ten Performance Points, establishing that future advancement will become increasingly difficult.

Character Development

• Chen Xuan becomes more compassionate and involved. Although he could have ignored the wounded soldiers after completing the transaction, their trust and reverence compel him to help.
• He grows more cautious about the consequences of his actions, especially regarding changes to history and the limits of cross-world interactions.
• Chen begins seriously investigating his abilities instead of relying on their vague descriptions. His experiments show increasing curiosity, pragmatism, and willingness to reason through their conditions.
• His promotion makes him more aware that expanding the store’s facilities and increasing his synchronization level are essential to his future growth.

Significant Themes

• The consequences and limits of power: Chen questions whether his actions have altered history, while the store’s rules suggest strict boundaries between worlds.
• Shared ideals and cooperation: Liberty Leading the People only works when people’s goals genuinely align and do not conflict materially.
• Growth through responsibility: Chen’s willingness to aid Joan’s soldiers contrasts with his earlier detachment and demonstrates his developing sense of moral responsibility.
• Unequal mastery and potential: The synchronization limit explains the gap between Chen and Joan, emphasizing that possessing an ability is not the same as mastering it.
• Absurdity and bureaucracy: The store’s promotion system creates increasingly strange complications, such as a hotel-like second floor that its own manager cannot enter.

Character Interactions

• Chen and Joan of Arc: Their relationship remains indirect but significant. Joan’s victory and instinctive use of the abilities teach Chen about the power of shared ideals, ability mastery, and synchronization limits.
• Chen and the wounded soldiers: The soldiers treat him with deep respect and protectiveness, while Chen responds by treating their injuries and accepting a temporary caretaker role.
• Chen and his former colleague: Chen’s attempts to borrow money reveal the limitations of both new abilities. The colleague first assumes Chen may have a job opportunity, then abruptly refuses his request and ends the conversation.
• Chen and the Ability Store system: Chen interacts with the management app and store upgrades, but the system’s rigid rules prevent him from freely inspecting or using the new guest rooms.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan visits Hundred Herbs Hall to sell his pills.
• He demonstrates the effectiveness of his Blood Orange pill by healing a self-inflicted wound.
• Doctor Jiang and Boss Xu Wangxian test the pill and are amazed by its effects.
• Chen Xuan sells 26 pills (19 Blood Oranges and 7 Sweet Jade Clear Pills) for 2.6 million yuan.
• Boss Xu Wangxian expresses interest in buying more of Chen Xuan's pills in the future.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan: Shows determination and resourcefulness in selling his pills. He is willing to take risks to prove their effectiveness.
• Doctor Jiang: Initially skeptical, he becomes convinced of the pills' power after testing them. He is loyal to Boss Xu Wangxian and concerned about the pharmacy's business.
• Xu Wangxian (Boss Xu): Recognizes the extraordinary nature of the pills and sees an opportunity for Hundred Herbs Hall. He is willing to take risks and show sincerity to Chen Xuan to secure future business.

Significant Themes

• The power of traditional Chinese medicine and its potential to defy common understanding.
• The importance of sincerity and trust in business relationships.
• The potential for extraordinary opportunities to arise unexpectedly.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Doctor Jiang: Chen Xuan proves the effectiveness of his pills to Doctor Jiang, who becomes a believer.
• Chen Xuan and Xu Wangxian: Xu Wangxian recognizes the potential in Chen Xuan's pills and expresses a desire to buy more in the future, showing sincerity and trust.
• Doctor Jiang and Xu Wangxian: Doctor Jiang expresses concern about the financial risk of buying all the pills, while Xu Wangxian sees the opportunity as a chance for Hundred Herbs Hall to enter a new circle of influence.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan receives the promised funds, totaling over two million.
• He plans to restock the store's supplies.
• The store's entrance shifts to an ancient Chinese-style courtyard, with Liu Shuyue and Shen Fang present.
• Liu Shuyue and Shen Fang are arguing about a crisis in the city.
• Chen Xuan is mistaken for an assassin and frozen by Liu Shuyue's power.
• Liu Shuyue brings Chen Xuan back to the store, revealing that five years have passed for her since their last meeting.
• She asks Chen Xuan for help with a problem she cannot solve.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan remains calm and collected despite the sudden changes and misunderstandings, demonstrating his growth and maturity.
• Liu Shuyue shows signs of weariness and vulnerability, indicating that she is facing challenges she cannot overcome alone.
• Shen Fang displays a sudden change in demeanor, suggesting he is cunning and cautious.

Significant Themes

• Time disparity: The River of Time causes a discrepancy in the passage of time between Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue.
• Trust and misunderstanding: Despite their history, Liu Shuyue initially misjudges Chen Xuan's intentions, leading to a tense situation.
• Power dynamics: Liu Shuyue's ability to freeze others highlights the power imbalance between them, while also revealing her concern for Chen Xuan's safety.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue: Their reunion is marked by surprise, tension, and eventually, a renewed sense of trust and camaraderie.
• Liu Shuyue and Shen Fang: Their interaction reveals a power struggle and differing views on how to handle a crisis, with Liu Shuyue appearing more empathetic to the common people's plight.
• Chen Xuan and the guards: Chen Xuan's calm demeanor in the face of the guards' aggression highlights his confidence and lack of fear.

Chapter Summary: “Responsibilities to Be Fulfilled”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Shuyue explains the crisis in western Qingzhou, where the monster Anba destroyed crops and caused a severe famine expected to affect over 300,000 people.
• After killing Anba, Liu discovers that eliminating the monster has not eliminated the disaster. Thousands of refugees are fleeing toward Zhangwei City, but Prefect Shen Fang refuses to admit them or redirect them elsewhere.
• Shen provides only minimal relief porridge and rejects Liu’s proposed solutions:
  • Issuing bonds to wealthy families to fund relief.
  • Organizing work-for-relief programs that would provide food while improving the city.
• Shen believes government officials should wait for aid from the Royal City and other provinces, avoiding political risk and conflict with powerful local families.
• Liu asks Chen Xuan to exchange a high-grade ability capable of resolving the famine. Chen agrees to help but first questions why she is involving herself in a government responsibility.
• Liu recounts discovering starving children in a ruined temple who had murdered and eaten their parents. She killed the entire group, including those who had participated in the cannibalism, believing that sparing them would be unjust to the innocent children they had killed.
• This experience convinces Liu that preventing famine is another form of monster-slaying: if nothing is done, desperation will transform more ordinary people into monsters.

Character Development

• Liu Shuyue: Reveals her strong sense of moral responsibility. Although she once chose to remain above politics and avoid wielding authority, the famine forces her to reconsider that position. She comes to believe that protecting people from becoming monsters is part of her duty as a sect disciple, even if it requires confronting officials and interfering in political matters.
• Chen Xuan: Shows increasing sympathy and understanding toward Liu. He recognizes that her proposals are practical and historically proven, and he challenges her motivations to ensure she is acting from genuine conviction rather than impulse. He ultimately reassures her that the Ability Store can meet her needs.
• Prefect Shen Fang: Is characterized as cautious, bureaucratic, and politically self-interested. He prioritizes following regulations and avoiding responsibility over taking immediate action to save refugees.
• The starving children: Represent how famine can destroy morality and humanity, blurring the distinction between victims and perpetrators.

Significant Themes

• Responsibility versus jurisdiction: Liu must decide whether to remain within the narrow limits of her official role or act when government authorities fail.
• The human cost of inaction: The chapter argues that refusing to act can be as destructive as committing violence directly.
• Famine and dehumanization: Extreme desperation can turn ordinary people into killers, making social disaster a source of “monsters” as dangerous as supernatural creatures.
• Moral ambiguity: Liu’s killing of the children raises difficult questions about justice, innocence, survival, and whether people transformed by catastrophe can still be treated as ordinary humans.
• Practical governance versus political caution: Liu’s effective relief plans are rejected because officials fear risk, expense, and opposition from wealthy groups.
• History repeating itself: Liu worries that ignoring the refugees will lead to riots, violence, and mass death similar to disasters recorded in history.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Chen have a candid conversation in which she explains the famine and asks for his assistance.
• Chen listens sympathetically but presses Liu to justify her decision to interfere in politics, prompting her to reveal the traumatic encounter that changed her outlook.
• Liu’s conflict with Prefect Shen illustrates the clash between moral urgency and bureaucratic self-preservation.
• Her recollection of the starving children deepens Chen’s understanding of both the famine’s severity and Liu’s determination to intervene.

Chapter Summary: “When There’s Trouble, Go to the Shop”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan recognizes that Liu Shuyue’s distress comes from having to confront desperate refugees who may eventually become violent. Concerned for her mental state, he agrees to inspect the refugee camp so he can better design an Ability Transaction.
• They travel outside Zhangwei City, where nearly seven thousand refugees are gathered in tents. Guards prevent them from entering the city and sometimes beat them back.
• Liu Shuyue protects Chen Xuan as they approach. The refugees beg for food, ask to enter the city, and plead for help, while others appear aggressive from prolonged starvation.
• A robbery occurs: several refugees kill a man for a small pouch of coins. Liu Shuyue apprehends the perpetrators, but the dead man’s wife commits suicide before the stolen money can be returned. Other refugees immediately discuss dividing the money to buy food.
• On the way back, Liu Shuyue explains that relief efforts are inadequate. Shen Fang’s officials still distribute only enough thin porridge for the original three thousand refugees, despite the population having more than doubled.
• Chen Xuan observes that the crisis cannot be solved by abilities alone and would primarily require money and resources. Rather than explain this directly, he begins assessing Liu Shuyue with the shop’s scanner gun.
• Meanwhile, Shen Fang and County Lieutenant Tang discuss Liu Shuyue’s relationship with Chen Xuan. They conclude that Chen is not her lover but likely a powerful outsider capable of helping her.
• Shen Fang reveals that Liu Shuyue is politically vulnerable because the King of Qi expects sect disciples to serve the state. Her refusal to participate fully in imperial schemes has kept her under suspicion for years.
• The chapter ends with Shen Fang explaining that, under the Pact between Sects and Kings, even saving civilians can be treated as a crime if it conflicts with imperial interests.

Character Developments

• Chen Xuan becomes more empathetic toward Liu Shuyue and gains a deeper understanding of the famine’s human cost. He also realizes that the central problem is material scarcity, not a lack of supernatural power.
• Liu Shuyue is shown as compassionate but emotionally burdened. She repeatedly defends the refugees, understanding that their brutality is the result of starvation rather than inherent wickedness. Her willingness to protect Chen and intervene in the robbery demonstrates her sense of responsibility.
• Shen Fang is portrayed as pragmatic and cautious. Although he sympathizes with Liu Shuyue and recognizes her desire to help, he refuses to risk his position by openly supporting her.
• County Lieutenant Tang begins questioning the morality of the government’s policies, especially after realizing that humanitarian actions may be punished.
• The refugees are depicted as victims whose desperation has eroded social order, forcing some into violence, theft, and suicide.

Significant Themes

• Starvation and moral collapse: Extreme deprivation turns ordinary people into aggressors, criminals, and victims, blurring the distinction between innocence and wrongdoing.
• Compassion versus judgment: Liu Shuyue refuses to dismiss the refugees as monsters, while Chen Xuan witnesses how easily society condemns people without addressing the conditions driving them.
• Bureaucracy versus humanitarian need: Officials prioritize permits, records, and political safety over allowing refugees to move or receive adequate food.
• Power and political control: The imperial government treats sect disciples as strategic assets rather than independent individuals. Even benevolent acts can become crimes when they challenge royal authority.
• The limits of supernatural solutions: Chen Xuan recognizes that abilities cannot replace grain, money, and effective administration.
• Self-preservation under authoritarian rule: Shen Fang and Tang understand that survival depends on avoiding actions that might anger the king, even when those actions would help the people.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan and Liu Shuyue: Their partnership deepens as he investigates her emotional burden and she trusts him enough to bring him to the refugee camp. He quietly understands that she fears losing sympathy for the refugees after witnessing their violence.
• Liu Shuyue and the refugees: She confronts their aggression but also speaks compassionately in their defense. Her intervention in the robbery reflects both authority and pity.
• Chen Xuan and the refugees: He observes their suffering directly and is shaken by the suicide and the crowd’s detached response, prompting him to end the visit.
• Shen Fang and Tang: Their conversation exposes the political forces surrounding Liu Shuyue. Tang questions the morality of the system, while Shen Fang insists that imperial authority overrides personal notions of justice.
• Shen Fang and Liu Shuyue, indirectly: Shen respects her compassion but chooses not to support her, fearing that the king will punish anyone associated with her resistance to state expectations.

Chapter Summary: “VIP Guest Room”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan presents Liu Shuyue with the rare ability “Liberty Leading the People”, explaining that it can help her unite and control the refugees gathering in Zhangwei before hunger drives them to violence and banditry.
• He argues that Liu Shuyue must become the refugees’ leader, since she can no longer remain uninvolved. He promises that the shop will solve the refugees’ food shortage once she completes the transaction.
• Accepting the logic of the arrangement, Liu Shuyue offers four powerful abilities in exchange:

Heavenly Cloud Skill

Divine Eye Method

Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell Technique

Thousand Thoughts Sword

• Chen Xuan accepts all four without requesting alternatives. The transaction earns him five Performance Points, bringing his total to nine and leaving him one point short of becoming a Level 3 shopkeeper.
• Liu Shuyue presses Chen Xuan for a timetable, worried that they may not meet again for years. Realizing that the shop’s unpredictable location could separate them, Chen Xuan offers her accommodation in the newly opened guest rooms.
• She registers as a VIP guest, though she is skeptical of Chen Xuan’s modern terminology and strange devices.
• Chen Xuan takes her to Room 201, expecting an ordinary or possibly shabby room. Instead, both are astonished to discover that it is an elaborate, otherworldly cavern resembling an immortal’s secluded dwelling.

Character Developments

• Liu Shuyue demonstrates practical judgment and growing trust in Chen Xuan. Rather than objecting to the explicit exchange, she accepts that a clear price is preferable to unreliable promises, especially after years of disappointing dealings.
• She also shows strong leadership instincts and urgency, immediately prioritizing the refugee crisis and wanting the transaction’s effects to begin quickly.
• Her willingness to offer highly valuable abilities reveals both her desperation to save Qingzhou and her confidence that Chen Xuan will honor his commitments.
• Chen Xuan becomes more personally considerate toward Liu Shuyue, offering lodging so she can remain close and supervise the arrangement. He is also surprised by the quality of the guest room and realizes that the shop contains more wonders than he expected.
• His casual, modern manner increasingly contrasts with Liu Shuyue’s ancient-world perspective, creating both humor and a sense of cultural misunderstanding.

Significant Themes

• Leadership and social order: The chapter emphasizes that survival depends on uniting desperate people before hunger turns them against one another.
• The cost of trust: Liu Shuyue accepts that valuable transactions can be worthwhile if the terms are clear and the other party keeps their word.
• Desperation versus practicality: Her decision to trade powerful abilities reflects the difficult compromises required during a crisis.
• Miscommunication across cultures: Modern words such as “VIP” and “OK,” along with the shop’s technology, appear magical and absurd from Liu Shuyue’s perspective.
• Hidden grandeur: The shop continues to defy expectations, revealing that seemingly ordinary services conceal extraordinary, almost supernatural realities.

Character Interactions

• Chen Xuan explains the strategic purpose of the ability to Liu Shuyue, challenging her to accept leadership of the refugees.
• Liu Shuyue questions whether controlling the refugees will truly solve the food crisis, prompting Chen Xuan to reveal that he can provide food as part of the deal.
• Their negotiation reflects a developing relationship based on mutual suspicion, practicality, and increasing trust.
• Liu Shuyue worries that Chen Xuan may break his promise, while Chen Xuan reassures her through the shop’s claimed commitment to integrity.
• Their interaction becomes more relaxed and personal when Chen Xuan invites her to stay, though her unfamiliarity with the shop’s technology and terminology continues to produce humorous tension.
• Both are left stunned by Room 201, reinforcing the shop’s mysterious and extraordinary nature.

Plot points and events

• Chen Xuan lets Liu Shuyue stay in the shop’s VIP room for a made-up fee of five thousand per day. Liu accepts, convinced the room’s unusually rich Spiritual Energy makes it valuable and wanting to remain close to Chen while the refugee crisis continues.
• Liu discovers a door that opens onto her room at the Zhangwei City government office. Chen realizes the shop’s guest rooms can connect to locations outside it, allowing guests to come and go while the shop itself disappears when closed.
• Liu leaves to organize the refugees. Chen stresses that food distribution must be managed transparently and led by someone the refugees trust.
• Chen calculates that his earnings from Hundred Herbs Hall could buy enough rice to feed a large population, but wholesalers explain that his lack of a grain procurement license limits him to fifty tons a year.
• To work around the restriction, Chen decides to buy instant noodles instead. He places a large order and offers a deposit, insisting that delivery be prompt.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Xuan remains outwardly confident, improvising prices and explanations for the shop’s strange features. He grows more committed to the relief effort, shifts quickly from a failed rice plan to a practical alternative, and advises Liu to build trust and organize the refugees rather than relying on food alone.
• Liu Shuyue is initially skeptical about the fee but accepts it because she values the room and needs continued access to Chen. Discovering the doorway reassures her, and she leaves with renewed energy to lead the relief work.
• Their interactions are cooperative: Liu trusts Chen’s assurances despite not fully understanding the shop, while Chen supports her efforts and gives her practical leadership advice.

Significant themes

• Compassion and responsibility: Chen commits his own earnings to helping people endure the famine.
• Resourcefulness under constraints: When regulations block his rice purchase, he adapts by ordering instant noodles.
• Trust and leadership: Lasting relief depends not only on supplies but also on organized, accountable distribution and the confidence of the refugees.
• Mystery and misinterpretation: The shop’s supernatural workings remain unexplained; Liu interprets them as a cultivation technique, and Chen lets her believe it.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Xuan demonstrates how to prepare instant noodles to Liu Shuyue.
• Liu Shuyue is amazed by the taste and aroma of instant noodles, questioning their use as relief rations due to their complex flavor.
• Chen Xuan explains that instant noodles are cheaper than rice porridge, making them suitable for disaster relief.
• Liu Shuyue agrees to help distribute the noodles and arrange for boiling water in the refugee camp.
• Shen Fang learns that the refugees are no longer starving and are in high spirits, having received food.

Character Developments

• Liu Shuyue: She learns about instant noodles and their potential as relief rations, appreciating their taste and affordability. She becomes more determined to help the refugees.
• Chen Xuan: He demonstrates his business acumen by explaining the affordability of instant noodles and offering complimentary services for their distribution.
• Shen Fang: He is surprised and concerned about the sudden change in the refugees' situation, unaware of the source of their newfound food.

Significant Themes

• The importance of affordable and accessible food in disaster relief.
• The contrast between the refugees' desperation and their newfound hope and contentment.
• The role of business in providing solutions to societal problems.

Character Interactions

• Liu Shuyue and Chen Xuan: They discuss the suitability of instant noodles as relief rations, with Chen Xuan providing reassurance about their affordability.
• Shen Fang and County Lieutenant Tang: They discuss the sudden change in the refugees' situation, with Tang expressing his surprise and Shen Fang showing concern.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Shuyue distributes noodles made from the mysterious grain to the disaster victims, causing a sensation and gratitude among them.
• Shen Fang, the Prefect, questions Liu Shuyue about the origin of the grain, suspecting it's not from Qingzhou.
• Liu Shuyue claims it's a result of immortal techniques, which she could only use at the right time.

Character Developments

• Liu Shuyue: Establishes her authority among the disaster victims, becoming a revered figure.
• Shen Fang: Struggles to maintain his composure, trying to hide his true thoughts about the situation.

Significant Themes

• The power of food and its ability to unite people.
• The manipulation of public opinion and perception by Liu Shuyue.
• The tension between Liu Shuyue and Shen Fang, with Liu Shuyue holding the upper hand.

Character Interactions

• Liu Shuyue interacts with the disaster victims, solidifying her position as their savior.
• Liu Shuyue and Shen Fang have a tense exchange, with Liu Shuyue subtly challenging Shen Fang's happiness about the situation.

Key plot points and events

• Liu Shuyue reports that she has turned the relief noodles into a profitable citywide novelty. Wealthy customers eagerly buy them at inflated prices, allowing her to exchange some noodles for more filling staples and preserved foods. This strategy stretches the supplies far longer than Chen Xuan expected.
• Liu notices that Prefect Shen Fang seems troubled, though her inquiries reveal no scandal: he is known as an honest and fair official. Before she investigates further, she learns that disaster-relief grain will arrive in two days, meaning her work in Zhang Wei is nearly done.
• Liu may next travel to neighboring Yuanzhou to investigate reports of an evil cultivator. She thanks Chen for the abilities that helped her organize and aid the refugees, while he insists that the achievement was hers.
• After Liu leaves, Chen tests the abilities in his inventory. Heavenly Cloud Skill appears more combat-oriented than Pure Heart Art; Divine Eye Method dramatically improves his sight; Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell can avert a foretold death but may not protect against an unforeseen ambush; and Thousand Thoughts Sword can summon thought-controlled swords, though Chen can manage only a few at his current level.
• Chen learns that his shopkeeper level limits traded abilities to LV2, regardless of their original level.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu proves herself resourceful and compassionate, using market insight rather than simply distributing noodles. She sees Chen as more than a merchant—as a friend and a source of reassurance—though she fears they may not meet again for years.
• Chen remains cautious about involvement in local affairs, but trusts Liu’s judgment and recognizes her accomplishments. Their relaxed coffee conversations show growing warmth and familiarity.
• Liu playfully teases Chen about the store’s refund policy, briefly making him worry she might return her abilities. She confirms she is satisfied with them.
• Liu has technically skirted her sect’s rules by giving Chen Heavenly Cloud Skill, though she avoided formally teaching it to him.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity and resourcefulness: Liu transforms emergency aid into a trade that multiplies its value.
• Compassion and responsibility: She helps refugees out of empathy, not because their plight is formally her duty.
• Trust and friendship: Shared ideals and mutual support bring Chen and Liu closer.
• Power and its limits: Chen gains formidable abilities, but their practical use is constrained by his skill and shopkeeper level.