Chapter Summaries

Chen Lin bought spirit ink and discovered that his Ten Attempts One Hit ability could produce a rank-one mid-grade talisman after repeated failures. He shared food and wine with Zhao Zhengyuan, who told him that the Zhang Family patriarch, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, had vanished.

• Chen Lin refused the starving woman’s offer to trade a night with him for rice and went inside to make porridge.
• Chen Lin failed nine times while crafting a rank-one mid-grade talisman, then succeeded on his tenth attempt through his Ten Attempts One Hit ability.
• Chen Lin ate spirit rice porridge to support his cultivation and cautiously opened the door when Zhao Zhengyuan arrived with wine and black-spotted tiger meat.
• Chen Lin and Zhao Zhengyuan shared food and drinks while the woman cursed them from her window.
• Zhao Zhengyuan told Chen Lin that the Zhang Family patriarch, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, had disappeared without a trace.

Chen Lin bought Zhao Zhengyuan’s flawed cultivation-pill formula and learned some basics of pill refining, hoping to reach the Mid Qi Refinement Realm and escape the city. At midnight, he watched the familiar red threads rise from people across the city, an unexplained sight that left him determined to grow stronger.

• Chen Lin asked Zhao Zhengyuan about pill refining, and Zhao Zhengyuan admitted his inheritance was incomplete but claimed he had altered a cultivation-pill formula himself.
• Zhao Zhengyuan offered to sell Chen Lin the flawed formula, and after bargaining they agreed on fifty spirit stones and a promise not to share it.
• Zhao Zhengyuan explained pill-refining basics and precautions before leaving, and Chen Lin studied the formula.
• At midnight, Chen Lin opened his window and saw countless red threads rising from people throughout the silent city.
• Chen Lin recalled that the threads appeared every night and that nobody else seemed to notice them, so he resolved to reach the Mid Qi Refinement Realm and escape.

Chen Lin learned that more cultivators had fallen ill after returning from the Wilderness, including members of the Five Major Families, and worried an investigation would threaten him. He went to the Market to sell a perfect Fireball Talisman and tried to negotiate a better price, leaving the shopkeeper considering his offer.

• Zhao Zhengyuan told Chen Lin that more than a dozen cultivators had fallen ill after returning from the Wilderness, including a Qi Condensation Late Stage cultivator and members of the Five Major Families.
• Chen Lin and Zhao Zhengyuan discussed the risk of an investigation and the possibility of officials extorting spirit stones, but Zhao Zhengyuan refused to flee the city.
• Chen Lin decided to improve his cultivation quickly so he could eventually escape the bizarre city, then went to the northern Outer City's Small Market.
• Chen Lin showed shopkeeper Zhang Mazi a perfect Fireball Talisman, and Zhang Mazi offered him ten spirit stones for it.
• Chen Lin asked Zhang Mazi to raise the price by promising more talismans in the future, and Zhang Mazi did not immediately refuse.

Chen Lin rejected Zhang Mazi’s offer to join the Zhang Family under an Inner Demon Oath, then spent ten days making Vigor Talismans to earn money for pill-refining materials. He sold the talismans at the Zhang Clan Trading Firm, where Zhang Mazi insulted him by proposing a marriage to his widowed cousin.

• Zhang Mazi invited Chen Lin to become the Zhang Family’s exclusive talismancrafter, but Chen Lin refused to swear an Inner Demon Oath.
• Chen Lin bought talisman materials and worked day and night for ten days, using his improved Vigor Talisman success rate to build up a stack for sale.
• Chen Lin braved the deep snow to visit the market and sold his Vigor Talismans to Zhang Mazi.
• Zhang Mazi offered to introduce Chen Lin to his widowed older cousin, and Chen Lin angrily refused before leaving the shop.

Chen Lin overheard Lu Li seeking a Soul-Detaining Talisman and watched the Multitreasure Pavilion’s Old Shopkeeper sell him a jade slip with its refining method. After buying Vigor Talisman materials, Chen Lin headed back through the snow, where Lu Li and his younger cousin suddenly appeared in front of him.

• Chen Lin entered the Multitreasure Pavilion and overheard Lu Li discussing an excursion outside the city with his younger cousin.
• Lu Li asked the Old Shopkeeper to refine a Soul-Detaining Talisman, but the shopkeeper said his weakened divine soul prevented him from doing so.
• The Old Shopkeeper claimed he had improved the talisman’s method and sold Lu Li a jade slip for a thousand spirit stones.
• Chen Lin bought materials for Vigor Talismans and left the pavilion.
• As Chen Lin trudged toward his lodgings through the snow, Lu Li and his younger cousin swept past and landed in front of him.

Chen Lin was invited to a talisman-crafting convention with a huge reward, then learned that all the cultivators possessed alongside him had died and that new cases had appeared in Kaiyuan City. With rumors of either a plague or a powerful heretical entity spreading, he decided to accelerate his cultivation and left his room after making preparations.

• Lu Li and Lan Yuqing invited Chen Lin to a convention offering fifty medium-grade spirit stones for crafting a Soul-Detaining Talisman, and Chen Lin agreed to attend.
• Zhao Zhengyuan told Chen Lin that every cultivator from the previous group of possessed victims had died, while more newly possessed cultivators had appeared.
• Zhao Zhengyuan reported rumors that a plague or a powerful heretical entity outside Kaiyuan City was causing the possessions.
• Chen Lin concluded he could not safely flee through the deep snow and decided to change his plans by cultivating instead of crafting talismans.
• Chen Lin prepared a bundle and left his room that evening.

Chen Lin disguised himself to attend Lu Li’s Soul-Detaining Talisman convention, where the talisman’s method revealed that crafting it required damaging the crafter’s soul. When the gathered talisman masters refused, Lu Li killed one of them, leaving the rest afraid to resist.

• Chen Lin used a disguise mask and voice-changing pill to enter Lianyun Inn as a talisman master.
• Lu Li showed the gathered talisman masters the Soul-Detaining Talisman method, which required using their divine souls as catalysts and included a harmful soul-splitting technique.
• Chen Lin read the method and realized his Ten Attempts One Hit ability could let him craft the talisman without using the soul catalyst.
• The red-faced man and an Emaciated Old Man refused to craft the talisman because of the damage it would cause to their souls.
• Lan Yuqing mocked the Emaciated Old Man, who announced he was leaving, and Lu Li killed him with a streak of black light.
• The other talisman masters watched in shock and fear, but none dared challenge Lu Li.

Chen Lin was forced by Lu Li to attempt crafting a Soul-Detaining Talisman under threat, and he secretly completed one with mysterious energy. He hid it and went downstairs, where he found the other talisman masters had failed and Lu Li was examining whether they had used the Soul-Splitting Secret Art.

• Lu Li killed the Emaciated Old Man, then forced the talisman masters to take materials and craft Soul-Detaining Talismans or pay fifty medium-grade spirit stones.
• Chen Lin collected materials, locked himself in a room, and began trying to draw the talisman while Lu Li warned that he could detect whether they had used the Soul-Splitting Secret Art.
• After repeated failures, Chen Lin completed a talisman on his tenth attempt with the help of mysterious energy and hid the remaining supplies.
• Chen Lin waited for the others to leave their rooms, then went downstairs and saw that the talisman masters looked exhausted and none appeared to have succeeded.
• The red-faced man admitted using the secret art twice, and Lu Li examined him with a brown bead before the Cyan-Robed Old Man admitted using it once.

Chen Lin successfully crafted a Soul-Detaining Talisman for Lu Li and received fifty medium-grade spirit stones, then used multiple disguises and hideouts to avoid being followed. Back at his lodging, he celebrated his newfound wealth and began buying supplies to try pill refining.

• Lu Li tested the talisman masters, and Chen Lin avoided inspection by presenting the Soul-Detaining Talisman he had crafted.
• Lu Li praised Chen Lin, whom he knew as Wang Tiuniu, and paid him fifty medium-grade spirit stones.
• Chen Lin disguised himself as a woman and reached a rented courtyard, while Lu Li and Lan Yuqing secretly watched before leaving without capturing him.
• Chen Lin emerged from a snowbank after Lu Li and Lan Yuqing departed, then returned safely to his lodging with the spirit stones.
• Chen Lin counted his fortune, meditated with a medium-grade spirit stone, and went to the Multitreasure Pavilion the next morning to buy pill ingredients and a basic Pill Cauldron.
• Chen Lin returned home, hung a do-not-disturb sign, and began attempting pill refining.

Chen Lin repeatedly failed to refine the Chuyuan Pills until his talent ability turned the tenth attempt into ten flawless pills. After testing one on a rabbit, he swallowed a pill himself and began guiding its medicinal power in hopes of advancing from the second layer of Qi Refining.

• Chen Lin tried to refine the Chuyuan Pills with shixiang fruit, but the first nine batches exploded when he added the main ingredient.
• On his tenth attempt, Chen Lin’s talent ability gathered the splattered medicinal liquid and formed ten perfect pills.
• Chen Lin tested a pill on a white rabbit, which swelled and thrashed before recovering and appearing healthier the next morning.
• After confirming the rabbit survived, Chen Lin swallowed a Chuyuan Pill and felt its energy spread through his body.
• Chen Lin began circulating the pill’s medicinal power with his cultivation technique, hoping to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining.

Chen Lin broke through to the third layer of Qi Refining and improved his Fireball Talisman success rate, but a strange red line attached itself to him during the nightly phenomenon and left him acting unnaturally. After nearly revealing his pill-refining secret to his neighbor, he headed to the Market for supplies, still unaware of what he had forgotten.

• Chen Lin used a Chuyuan Pill to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining, then found that making Fireball Talismans had become easier.
• Chen Lin kept refining pills a secret and cultivated with another Chuyuan Pill to advance toward the mid Qi Refinement realm.
• After the Bronze Bell rang, a hazy shadow appeared in the sky and a red line attached to Chen Lin, draining something from him and changing his demeanor before vanishing.
• The next morning, Chen Lin boasted about his breakthrough to the Sallow-Faced Female Cultivator and nearly revealed that he could refine pills himself.
• Chen Lin recognized that his behavior had changed and that he had forgotten something, then bought a large batch of materials at the Market.

After realizing the red threads had assimilated him, Chen Lin focused on cultivating and making talismans while the city grew increasingly unstable. Three months later, he broke through to Qi Condensation Layer 4 and prepared to learn spells.

• Chen Lin discovered that he could no longer see the red threads and suspected he had become a string-controlled puppet, but his alarm had helped him recognize the change.
• Chen Lin continued making talismans and refining Chuyuan Pills as the Zhang and Han Family patriarchs disappeared, supplies dwindled, and prices rose.
• After three months of secluded cultivation, Chen Lin used three pills at once and broke through to Qi Condensation Layer 4.
• Chen Lin confirmed he could project mana, then took out Detailed Explanation of Elementary Spells and the Xiaoyao Sword to prepare for learning spells.

Chen Lin struggled to learn the Object Manipulation Art and Wind-Walking Art, then visited Shuiyue Pavilion for help. After charging him ten low-grade spirit stones, a woman suggested an Enlightenment Pill or a Skill Transmission Jade Slip as ways to master spells quickly.

• Chen Lin practiced the Object Manipulation Art for several days but could barely control the Xiaoyao Sword, so he turned to the Wind-Walking Art and struggled with that as well.
• Chen Lin decided he needed guidance, disguised himself, and went to Shuiyue Pavilion to ask about learning spells.
• The woman at Shuiyue Pavilion mocked Chen Lin for failing to learn the Object Manipulation Art in ten days, then accepted ten low-grade spirit stones for advice.
• The woman suggested Chen Lin use an Enlightenment Pill or obtain a Skill Transmission Jade Slip, and Chen Lin realized he had overlooked the jade slip option.

Chen Lin discovered that legitimate sources offered no affordable way to obtain cultivation insights or pill formulas, then encountered a furtive seller offering an Enlightenment Pill formula. He paid twenty spirit stones for the scroll, but the seller’s suspiciously quick departure left him convinced he had been scammed.

• Chen Lin learned that Skill Transmission Jade Slips cost two thousand spirit stones and Enlightenment Pills cost six thousand, with none available for sale.
• Chen Lin concluded he would have to practice the Object Manipulation Art and Wind-Walking Art through repetition because pill formulas could not be obtained through ordinary shops.
• A furtive middle-aged man offered Chen Lin an Enlightenment Pill formula for three hundred spirit stones and swore an Inner Demon Oath that it was genuine.
• Chen Lin bargained the price down to twenty spirit stones, and the man handed him a scroll before rushing away.
• Chen Lin watched the man vanish and realized he had probably been scammed.

After discovering that the Enlightenment Pill formula he bought might be genuine, Chen Lin purchased its cheap ingredients and continued browsing the Inner City. He negotiated to buy a badly damaged artifact refining book, hoping his talent could still make use of its surviving contents.

• Chen Lin found that the ancient-text pill formula listed plausible ingredients and refining steps, then bought nearly all the ingredients, including eight-section root.
• While browsing the Inner City, Chen Lin noticed a damaged book labeled as an artifact refining grimoire at a poor female cultivator’s stall.
• Chen Lin questioned the woman’s claim that the book was a family heirloom and pointed out that most of its writing was illegible.
• The woman tried to persuade Chen Lin that the surviving pages still described several magical tools’ refining methods.
• Chen Lin offered ten spirit stones for the book, intending to see whether his talent could make use of its remaining contents.

Chen Lin spent nearly three hundred spirit stones on materials and finally refined a rough, foul-smelling pill that might be an Enlightenment Pill. He sought information at Shuiyue Pavilion and learned that such pills were unavailable in Kaiyuan City, leaving the pill’s identity uncertain.

• Chen Lin bought materials for refining an Enlightenment Pill, then repeatedly failed while trying to make one.
• During a pause in his attempts, Chen Lin watched for the thin red thread and felt something being drawn from his body, but saw nothing.
• On his tenth attempt, Chen Lin’s mysterious energy gathered the spilled liquid and formed a misshapen, pungent pill.
• Chen Lin disguised himself and visited Shuiyue Pavilion, where he paid a middle-aged woman twenty spirit stones for information about Enlightenment Pills.
• The woman told Chen Lin that the pill was difficult to refine and could not be bought in Kaiyuan City, so he left without learning whether his pill was genuine.

Chen Lin learned how to complete the Thunderbolt Bead instructions and tested the pill he had acquired, while an old man and a woman planned to rely on Chen’s unusual pill-refining luck to escape a monster trapping them in the city. The chapter left Chen preparing to craft a cheap, low-success-rate weapon as Zhao Zhengyuan remained missing.

• The old man told the woman that Chen Lin had successfully refined multiple pills using Elder He’s formulas and agreed to have him try to help them escape the monster’s red lines.
• The old man explained that the Zhang and Han families’ heads had learned a secret art to sever the red lines after Foundation Establishment, and that the families were preparing to leave the city.
• Chen Lin returned to his lodgings, learned from the Sallow-Faced Female Cultivator that Zhao Zhengyuan had been gone for over half a month, and went back to his room.
• Chen Lin fed the rabbit a little powder from the pill and watched for its effects while reading the Artifact Refining Tome.
• Chen Lin reconstructed the missing instructions for the Thunderbolt Bead and decided its cheap materials and low success rate made it worth crafting for protection.

Chen Lin used Enlightenment Pills to rapidly improve his Object Manipulation Art and Wind-Walking Art, but each dose caused increasingly severe headaches. After practicing the Wind-Walking Art outside, he encountered Old Yu, who caught his flying sword and snapped it in two.

• Chen Lin swallowed an Enlightenment Pill and mastered the Object Manipulation Art in a quarter of an hour before suffering a severe headache.
• Chen Lin made and sold Fireball Talismans, refined more Enlightenment Pills, and used one to study the Wind-Walking Art.
• Chen Lin practiced the Wind-Walking Art outdoors, using the breeze to rise more than twenty feet before the pill's painful side effect struck again.
• Chen Lin found Old Yu watching him and challenged him, then launched the Xiaoyao Sword at him.
• Old Yu caught the Xiaoyao Sword between two fingers and snapped it in two.

Chen Lin discovered that his neighbor Yu Yuehai had orchestrated the Enlightenment Pill scheme and was forcing him to refine pills. Yu Yuehai revealed that he wanted Chen Lin to make a Blood Demon Pill, leaving Chen Lin alarmed by the pill’s reputed power.

• Chen Lin tried to flee after Yu Yuehai shattered his flying sword, but stopped when Yu Yuehai warned that his Enlightenment Pills had dangerous aftereffects.
• Chen Lin realized Yu Yuehai had disguised himself as Triangular Eyes and sold him the altered pill formula, while Yu Yuehai questioned Chen Lin’s sudden advances in cultivation and pill refining.
• Yu Yuehai said he needed Chen Lin to refine pills and promised to reveal how to remove the aftereffects if Chen Lin cooperated; Chen Lin agreed while secretly planning to escape or retaliate.
• Yu Yuehai took Chen Lin to his room and produced a valuable pill cauldron and a jade slip containing the Blood Demon Pill formula.
• Chen Lin recognized the Blood Demon Pill as a key pill for cultivating the Blood Demon Technique, reputed to create a super expert with a single dose.

Chen Lin learned the risks of the Blood Demon Technique as Yu Yuehai pressured him to refine a Blood Demon Pill. Yu Yuehai revealed that he could see the red threads in the sky and threatened to kill Chen Lin if he refused or failed.

• Chen Lin recalled that the Blood Demon Technique rapidly advanced cultivation but drastically shortened the practitioner's lifespan, and that it required a rare Blood Demon Pill for Initiation.
• Yu Yuehai said he was only thirty-five and asked whether Chen Lin could refine the pill, but Chen Lin denied having the skill or confidence.
• Yu Yuehai offered to cure the aftereffects of Chen Lin's Enlightenment Pill and take him away if he refined the Blood Demon Pill.
• Yu Yuehai revealed that he could see the red threads in the sky, and Chen Lin asked what they were.
• Yu Yuehai said he had given Zhao Zhengyuan the Chuyuan Pill formula to test him, then threatened Chen Lin if he failed to refine the Blood Demon Pill.