Chapter Summaries

At a money house run by the Joyous Union Sect, Lady Xiao explained how the sect lent large sums to powerful cultivators and harvested their essence when they could not repay. A flood of customers kept arriving for her to cultivate with, leaving her exhausted but unwilling to share the business.

• Zhong Yan and Lou Huan confirmed that Lady Xiao had lent them 260,000 Spirit Stones, then fled after their essence was drained.
• Lady Xiao told a newly arrived woman that the sect used contracts and secret medicine to profit from borrowers’ essence.
• A burly body-refining cultivator borrowed 260,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones and left weak and unsteady after his visit.
• Lady Xiao handled successive groups of powerful customers while other women watched jealously from the shadows.
• When six more young masters arrived, Lady Xiao stiffened but ordered them all to come in.

Lady Xiao and the Joyous Union Sect women were overwhelmed by a flood of cultivators seeking loans, while Zhong Yan and Lou Huan spent their earnings on more than two million lottery bets at a Greenleaf Money House branch. The chapter ended with the exhausted pair beginning a second check of their tickets.

• Lady Xiao kept attending borrowers until the growing queue forced her to enlist the other Joyous Union Sect women and eventually stop lending for the day.
• Lady Xiao sent a maidservant to investigate the sudden surge in loan customers.
• Zhong Yan and Lou Huan arrived at a Greenleaf Money House branch in Taihao Immortal City and handed over Spirit Stones and a jade talisman listing their lottery bets.
• The shopkeeper mobilized workers to prepare more than two million bets, filling over a hundred stacks of tickets.
• Zhong Yan and Lou Huan checked the tickets once, then insisted on checking them again.

Lottery customers with panda eyes bought huge quantities of tickets across the Northern Region, leaving bank staff baffled by their repeated visits and identical purchases. Tang Qian then heard that cultivators had gathered to praise the Wanfu Lottery and its creator, and he ordered rewards for those praising it.

• Zhong Yan and Lou Huan bought lottery tickets, celebrated their imagined winnings, and agreed they would avoid women.
• A panda-eyed Cultivator returned to the bank with a jade talisman and a huge bag of Spirit Stones, ordering one ticket for every combination.
• More panda-eyed customers repeatedly arrived with similar orders, until the Shopkeeper saw seven or eight at once and feared something unclean was happening.
• Branches of the Three Great Merchant Associations noticed that customers across the Northern Region were buying nearly identical numbers of tickets for similar sums.
• Tang Qian learned that cultivators outside were praising the Wanfu Lottery and its creator, and he ordered rewards for those who had praised it.

Tang Qian discovered that Wang Mu’s Forum post about the Three Great Merchant Associations actually exposed how customers could guarantee the lottery’s grand prize for far less than it paid out. He rushed to the council hall, where Taishutong ordered thousands of stewards to verify the calculations and find a way to counter Wang Mu’s scheme.

• Tang Qian learned that Wang Mu had posted praise of the Three Great Merchant Associations on the Forum and opened the post to read it.
• Tang Qian read Wang Mu’s calculation showing that buying every lottery combination cost under 260,000 Spirit Stones and guaranteed the 30-million-Spirit-Stone grand prize.
• Tang Qian realized the post could bankrupt the Three Great Merchant Associations and feared the consequences for himself.
• Taishutong summoned Tang Qian to the council hall, where thousands of stewards were calculating the lottery odds under his orders.

The Three Great Merchant Associations confirmed that Wang Mu’s lottery method exposed a loophole, leaving them unable to pay every winner the promised prize. As they decided to divide the first prize and halt ticket sales, Ouyang Qingxuan remained gravely wounded and was found by her pursuers.

• After three days of searching, Taishutong’s stewards found that every lottery combination they checked had already been purchased.
• Taishutong learned that more than three hundred people in Lixiao Immortal City alone had bought tickets using Wang Mu’s method, and he ordered the thirty-million first prize split among the winners.
• Taishutong ordered the current round delayed and told every money-house branch to stop selling lottery tickets after paying the prizes.
• Ouyang Qingxuan hid in a barren Northern Region cave mansion, weakened by injuries and out of medicine after escaping the Three Great Merchant Associations.
• The pursuers found Ouyang Qingxuan’s hiding place.

A mysterious young man rescued a wounded woman from the Three Great Merchant Associations’ Guest Elders and revealed himself as the Primal Origin Sacred Ground’s new Holy Son. In Taihao Immortal City, Lou Huan and Zhong Yan celebrated their expected lottery winnings until they learned the prize distribution rules might be changed.

• The Guest Elders bombarded the cave and attacked the wounded woman, but a young man arrived and crushed their fire wyrms.
• The young man forced the Guest Elders to the ground with a single word and revealed the Holy Son Token, stunning them with his identity.
• Lou Huan and Zhong Yan soaked in Rejuvenation Pavilion’s medicinal pool and imagined how they would spend their expected lottery winnings.
• Lou Huan saw a Langya Push announcing that the Three Great Merchant Associations might alter the Wanfu Lottery prize distribution rules.
• Lou Huan and Zhong Yan read the post, realized the change threatened their plans, and cursed the Three Great Merchant Associations.

Lou Huan and Zhong Yan learned that the lottery prize would be split among all first-prize winners, leaving them unable to recover their investment and burdened by debt. As furious Cultivators confronted the Three Great Merchant Associations in Lixiao Immortal City, Ye Mo arrived and challenged their threat to use force.

• Lou Huan and Zhong Yan saw that the Three Great Merchant Associations had changed the lottery rules to split the prize among all first-prize winners, leaving them in debt and bound to serve as cauldrons.
• Cultivators at the Lixiao Immortal City drawing venue demanded the full prize money, but the merchant associations offered only a one-third refund.
• The angry crowd threw objects at the stage, and the merchant associations blocked them with a formation.
• A Nascent Soul Peak elder suppressed the crowd with his Aura, while the association executives warned the Cultivators to stop protesting.
• Ye Mo appeared above the venue and challenged the Three Great Merchant Associations to show how they would show no mercy.

Ye Mo confronted the merchant association executives after Ouyang Qingxuan was nearly killed for winning a lottery prize, then used a mind-control technique on the captured Guest Elders. They revealed that the fraud and attempted murder had been ordered from above, leaving Ye Mo poised to uncover who was behind it.

• Ye Mo accused the merchant associations of sending Guest Elders after Ouyang Qingxuan and explained that she was injured while they tried to seize her prize money.
• Taishutong offered an apology and a healing Treasure Bodhi, but Ye Mo refused and brought the captured Guest Elders before the executives.
• Shen Zhong tried to take the Guest Elders away after they admitted greed had motivated their actions, but Ye Mo stopped him.
• Ye Mo used Runes to control the Guest Elders and demanded the full truth.
• The Guest Elders revealed that their superiors had ordered them to fake lottery winners, refuse genuine payouts, and kill Ouyang Qingxuan after she won first prize.

Ye Mo exposed the Three Great Merchant Associations’ lottery scam, ordered the Cloud Palace Merchant Association to compensate victims, and pressured the other associations to refund their customers. As he escorted Ouyang Qingxuan to recover, he overheard cultivators praise Wang Mu and doubt his own sincerity.

• Cultivators learned that the Three Great Merchant Associations had rigged their lotteries and erupted in anger over the fraud.
• Ye Mo ordered Shen Zhong and the Cloud Palace Merchant Association to compensate and apologize within half a month, threatening to remove the Shen Family from its position.
• Ye Mo warned the Penglai and Si Hai Merchant Associations to stop their corrupt practices, then left with his group.
• After receiving orders from their superiors, Taishutong and the other executives agreed to refund lottery buyers.
• Ye Mo rented a Heaven-class Cave Mansion for Ouyang Qingxuan and told her he would settle the score with corrupt merchants.
• Ye Mo overheard cultivators dismiss him as a performative Holy Son and say he could never compare to Wang Mu.

Ye Mo investigated Wang Mu’s growing reputation and charitable work but remained convinced that Wang Mu was hiding a sinister scheme. As the Supreme Inner Landscape neared its opening, Ye Mo was urged to return and focus on cultivation before the Northern Region Heavenly Pride Assembly.

• Ye Mo ordered his guardian to investigate why people praised Wang Mu and dismissed Ye Mo by comparison.
• The guardian reported that Wang Mu had established free spiritual-root testing and the Langya Foundation, which had aided millions in the North Sea.
• The guardian showed Ye Mo Tianwen Communication Talismans and described the Langya Forum’s valuable cultivation insights.
• Ye Mo decided to investigate Wang Mu personally and expose what he believed was a hypocritical façade.
• A golden bell arrived with a message urging Ye Mo to return before the Supreme Inner Landscape opened and prepare for the Northern Region Heavenly Pride Assembly.

Ye Mo left to cultivate for the Supreme Inner Landscape and prepare for the Heavenly Pride Assembly, entrusting Ouyang Qingxuan with investigating Young Master Wang. Meanwhile, anger over the Three Great Merchant Associations' lottery scandal spread through Taihao Immortal City and turned their businesses into targets of public distrust.

• Ouyang Qingxuan offered to investigate Young Master Wang while Ye Mo focused on cultivation, and Ye Mo departed with Old Chu.
• A debt-ridden cultivator blamed the Three Great Merchant Associations for refusing to pay lottery winnings, then attacked one of their shops in Taihao Immortal City.
• Bystanders praised Langhuan Jade Pavilion and the Langya Merchant Association while condemning the Three Great Merchant Associations over the scandal.
• A woman in black stopped her red-robed companion from buying pills at a Three Great Merchant Associations shop and warned her that the association could not be trusted.

Wang Mu learned that the Three Great Merchant Associations were reeling from a region-wide boycott after their lottery scandal and ordered his own merchant association to press the attack. The associations had returned deposits, but their businesses were still losing customers as Wang Mu prepared to finish them off.

• A shop assistant tried to convince two cultivators to enter the Pill Cauldron Pavilion, but the woman in black accused her of being a man in disguise and dragged her companion away.
• At the Foundation headquarters, Wang Mu rested in the Star-Picking Tower with Little Nannan asleep on his chest while Nie Tingting brought him news from the continent.
• Nie Tingting reported that depositors had withdrawn their money from the Three Great Merchant Associations’ banks, forcing the associations to return deposits after the Taichu Saint Son confronted the Cloud Palace Merchant Association.
• A boycott had cut customer traffic at the Three Great Merchant Associations’ businesses by more than half in little over half a month.
• Wang Mu dismissed his role in the associations’ downfall as minor and ordered his merchant association to exploit their weakness and strike harder.

Wang Mu seized the Three Great Merchant Associations’ loss of public trust to expand the Langya Merchant Association into the Northern Region, while discussing new projects with Xia Yaoyao. The chapter ended with the Lixiao branch opening to an eager crowd.

• Wang Mu arranged the Langya Merchant Association’s expansion into the Northern Region as customers abandoned the Three Great Merchant Associations.
• Xia Yaoyao told Wang Mu that the Online Banking Management System and improved Money Seal were ready to launch, then asked about the entertainment game he had proposed.
• Xia Yaoyao asked whether Wang Mu would take part in the Northern Region Heavenly Pride Assembly, and Wang Mu joked that he was unable to cultivate before admitting he might be interested in watching.
• The Langya Merchant Association opened its Lixiao branch, and excited customers rushed inside to shop.

Wu Lang praised the Langya Merchant Association to Ouyang Qingxuan, recounting the Three Great Merchant Associations’ abuses and explaining why customers trusted Langya’s goods. In Lixiao Immortal City, a huge crowd gathered at Langya’s branch while the nearby Penglai Merchant Association reported it had made no sales since the opening.

• Ye Jian learned that the Langya Merchant Association had opened on Azure Dragon Street and rushed there to buy goods.
• Wu Lang told Ouyang Qingxuan that Langya offered reliable products and fair treatment, unlike the Three Great Merchant Associations, whose defective goods and schemes had harmed customers.
• Ouyang Qingxuan questioned whether Langya’s good reputation was genuine, but Wu Lang said he would gladly buy from them as long as they treated customers well.
• A crowd packed the street outside Langya’s Lixiao Immortal City branch, repeatedly returning after the city guard cleared a path.
• A Shopkeeper told a Penglai Merchant Association superior that his shop had made no sales since Langya opened across the street.

The Three Great Merchant Associations struggled as the Langya Merchant Association expanded into their strongholds and captured their customers. Langhuan Jade Pavilion launched Langhuan Pay, and the chapter ended as a curious cultivator prepared to try it at Zhong Ruyue’s shop.

• Tang Qian grew furious when he saw the Langya Merchant Association’s branch across from his Penglai shop and dismissed its inept shopkeeper.
• Langya branches spread across the Three Great Merchant Associations’ strongholds, drawing crowds and cutting the rival associations’ earnings by more than half.
• The leaders of the Three Great Merchant Associations debated burning their reserves to recover their lost business, but Taishutong received a startling message before he could respond.
• Tianwen users discovered Langhuan Pay, which let customers pay at Langya shops and transfer funds using their Communication Talismans and Langhuan Jade Pavilion accounts.
• A young cultivator asked Zhong Ruyue how to use Langhuan Pay, and she offered to show him.

Zhong Ruyue introduced Langhuan Pay at a busy shop, where customers quickly embraced its convenient Scan Pay feature. At a Langya Branch, two Cultivators opened accounts to claim a discount and tried the service, but the goateed Cultivator was baffled when a payment notification sounded before he scanned anything.

• Zhong Ruyue demonstrated Langhuan Pay, and customers crowded in to try paying with their Communication Talismans.
• Zhong Ruyue sent staff to help new customers open accounts as the shop filled with payment notifications.
• A Shopkeeper persuaded a reluctant goateed Cultivator and his young companion to open Langhuan Pay accounts by offering a 10 Spirit Crystal discount coupon.
• The two Cultivators completed a Scan Pay purchase, discovered how convenient it was, and returned to shop for more items.
• The goateed Cultivator opened the Scan Pay screen, but Langhuan Pay announced receipt of twelve Spirit Crystals before he scanned anything.

A young cultivator and a goat-bearded cultivator tried Langya Pay, while Su Ziye showed off its public payment notifications at the Taihao branch. Yan Shian challenged Su Ziye by buying everything at the rival Penglai branch, and their rivalry ended in mutual insults.

• A young cultivator paid the goat-bearded cultivator’s share through Langya Pay, prompting the goat-bearded cultivator to insist on paying for the next purchase.
• Su Ziye deposited one million Spirit Stones into Langhuan Pay, and the public notification drew an impressed crowd.
• Yan Shian arrived and defended the Three Great Merchant Associations, while Su Ziye argued that he now wanted to buy from a merchant with a conscience.
• Yan Shian bought every item displayed at the Penglai Branch for 800,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones and boasted about spending freely.
• Su Ziye called Yan Shian a country bumpkin, leaving Yan Shian stunned.

Su Ziye delighted in spending his deposited money through Langhuan Pay, while Yan Shian failed to imitate the payment system. In Lixiao Immortal City, Su Mo saw Mu Shuang’s growing influence and, fearing the Three Great Merchant Associations would abandon him, quietly came to Langhuan Jade Pavilion.

• Su Ziye used Langhuan Pay to spend one million Low-Grade Spirit Stones at the Langya Branch, then mocked Yan Shian for thinking he had not paid.
• Yan Shian asked the Penglai Branch shopkeeper to imitate the payment announcement, but the shopkeeper’s attempt only enraged him.
• At Drunken Immortal Tower, Ye Changhai warned Su Mo that the Three Great Merchant Associations might no longer protect him as Mu Shuang’s Langhuan Jade Pavilion rose to prominence.
• Mu Shuang noticed Su Mo watching from the tavern and smiled at him, leaving him trembling with fear.
• Su Mo secretly listened to Langhuan Jade Pavilion’s busy stewards and realized he feared death and could not rely on the Three Great Merchant Associations.

Su Mo failed to secure a meeting with the Langhuan Pavilion Master, while the Three Great Merchant Associations debated copying Langhuan Pay to survive its impact. Langhuan Pay then expanded to independent merchants across the Northern Region, giving them a way to accept online payments.

• Su Mo learned that the Langhuan Pavilion Master would see him only before he died, cursed her, and retreated into his carriage.
• Taishutong urged the Three Great Merchant Associations to develop online payment, ordering the Communication Talisman elder to match Langya's functions and telling them to rebuild their banks.
• Half a month after Langhuan Pay launched, the Langhuan Jade Pavilion announced that merchants could open accounts and use Merchant Money Seals for a five-Spirit-Crystal fee.
• Cultivators praised the expansion, and independent merchants rushed to Langhuan Jade Pavilion branches to sign up so customers could pay them online.

Guan He refused to adopt a Money Seal for his talisman-carving shop, convinced that good craftsmanship would bring customers and that keeping money in his own hands was safest. After days without sales, he finally borrowed Old Xu’s seal when a customer asked whether he could Scan Pay.

• Old Xu urged Guan He to get a Money Seal, but Guan He refused and insisted his talisman carvings would sell on their own.
• Two female cultivators admired Guan He’s carvings but left without buying when they discovered he did not accept Scan Pay and they had no Spirit Stones.
• More customers left for the same reason, and Guan He’s shop went several days without making a sale.
• Old Xu again advised Guan He to get a Money Seal, but Guan He still said he did not feel at ease.
• When a customer asked whether his shop could Scan Pay, Guan He ran next door and grabbed Old Xu’s Money Seal to borrow it.