Chapter Summaries

Liuli used a Sect Breaking Pill and energy from the Heaven Burning Qi Refining Tower to break through to Dou Zong after years of seclusion. As her breakthrough drew attention from the Black Corner Region, Su Qian protected the academy and faced Han Feng, who left to reconsider his plans.

• Liuli consumed a High-grade Sixth-rank Sect Breaking Pill and endured its violent medicinal power as she refined it in the tower’s Seventh Floor.
• Liuli used Li Huo Wu Tong Zhi to absorb the tower’s fire energy and stabilize her breakthrough after the pill’s power proved insufficient by itself.
• Su Qian learned that Liuli had been secluded for more than two years, then ordered the Tower Guard Elders to protect the tower when an Energy Storm formed above it.
• After the storm continued for three days, Su Qian deployed elders to guard Jia Nan Academy against approaching experts from the Black Corner Region.
• Su Qian confronted Han Feng near Heping Town and warned him against probing the academy’s breakthrough or its possible Heavenly Flames.
• Han Feng left as the Energy Storm began to collapse, while Su Qian hoped Liuli would support Jia Nan Academy in the future.

After two years and seven months in seclusion, Liuli emerged as a one-star Dou Zong with a successfully condensed Sword Heart and went to meet Elder Huo about refining pills. In Stone Desert City, Xiao Ding and Xiao Li received news of their family’s progress and discussed Xiao Yanzi’s recovery and approaching Three Year Agreement.

• Liuli broke out of her silver cocoon, discovered that she had condensed a Sword Heart, and tested its power with a burst of Sword Qi.
• Liuli sensed the Fallen Heart Flame beneath the tower but chose to leave it alone because Xiao Yan had set his sights on it.
• Su Qian congratulated Liuli on reaching one-star Dou Zong, gave her an Elder's Pavilion Pass Token, and heard her promise to help the academy if needed.
• Elder Liu told Liuli that she had been in seclusion for about two years and seven months, then agreed to take her to Elder Huo so she could refine pills.
• Xiao Ding read a letter reporting that the Xiao Family had become Wutan City's representative and that their father had advanced to Dou Ling.
• Xiao Ding and Xiao Li discussed Xiao Yanzi’s poor spirits and approaching Three Year Agreement, believing he would overcome his setbacks.

Xiao Yan bought a mysterious black stone from an old man and discovered that burning it with the Green Lotus Core Flame revealed a map marking three Heavenly Flames. As the old man watched from afar and prepared to leave the Imperial Capital, Xiao Yan wondered whether to return the stone.

• Xiao Yan, disguised as Yan Xiao, bought a black stone from the Mysterious Old Man for 100,000 gold coins and a third-tier wood-element Magical Core, and received a scroll as a gift.
• Xiao Yan removed the Ice Silkworm Mask and found that the scroll contained the Profound Tier High Grade Nine Heavens Firefall Palm.
• Xiao Yan tested the black stone with his Mysterious Heavy Ruler, then burned it with the Green Lotus Core Flame when he sensed it reacting to Heavenly Flames.
• Xiao Yan revealed a map of the Western Region marked with locations for the Fire Cloud Water Flame, Storm Dragon Flame, and Profound Yellow Flame.
• The Mysterious Old Man admitted that Heavenly Flames were needed to open the stone, then told a black figure to leave before Jia Xingtian discovered him.

Xiao Yan, disguised as Yan Xiao, arrived at the Royal Plaza for the Alchemist Competition and met the empire's prominent figures alongside Jia Nan Academy elder Yu Gongtian. As the competition approached, several women gathered around him, while Yu Gongtian watched him with a knowing look.

• Xiao Yan hid the stone in his Storage Ring and vowed to awaken Old Yao again.
• Hai Bodong told Xiao Yan that Yu Gongtian, a powerful Jia Nan Academy elder, had arranged for academy students to enter the competition.
• Ao Tuo led Xiao Yan and the other Alchemists through security and into the VIP section, where they met President Fa Ma and reconnected with Hai Bodong.
• Jia Xingtian introduced Yu Gongtian to Fa Ma and Hai Bodong, while Yao Yue introduced Xiao Yan to her sister Yao Ye.
• Ya Fei and Nalan Yanran joined Xiao Yan, teased him about placing in the top three, and drew jealous looks from Yao Ye and Yao Yue.
• Yu Gongtian looked at Xiao Yan meaningfully as the competition's opening approached.

Liuli, disguised as Yu Gongtian, teased Xiao Yan about another Heavenly Flame wielder at Jia Nan Academy and revealed that she was Gongsun Liuli. The Seventh Alchemist Competition began, and Xiao Yan made a spectacular entrance onto his platform as Liuli prepared for the real performance to start.

• Liuli watched Xiao Yan surrounded by beauties, introduced him to the possibility of another Jia Nan Academy student with a Heavenly Flame, and named her as Gongsun Liuli.
• Two grey-robed figures discussed their plan to make the smaller one win the competition and use Poison Root warriors as leverage if they were prevented from escaping.
• Fa Ma announced the start of the Seventh Alchemist Competition and directed the contestants to their stations.
• Yao Yue gracefully descended from the VIP section, while Hai Bodong blasted Xiao Yan out after he refused to perform an entrance.
• Xiao Yan used precise bursts of Dou Qi to control his fall, flipped through the air, and landed on a central competition platform as the crowd applauded.
• Liuli suppressed her laughter and let her expression go vacant as the competition’s performance began.

Xiao Yan met Gongsun Liuli, Yu Gongtian’s niece and a Jia Nan Academy student, and they revealed their Heavenly Flames to each other before the first round of the Alchemist Competition began. The round opened with a demanding incomplete prescription, and Gongsun Liuli realized she had forgotten to read hers.

• Jia Xingtian and Fa Ma watched the Jia Nan Academy students arrive, and Liuli identified Gongsun Liuli as her niece.
• Xiao Yan spoke with Gongsun Liuli, and they each summoned their Heavenly Flame: the Green Lotus Core Flame and the Yin Yang Twin Flames.
• Gongsun Liuli praised Xiao Yan’s knowledge of the Yin Yang Twin Flames, and Xiao Yan credited his Master.
• Fa Ma explained the first round’s rules, including the two attempts and the time limit, then officially started the competition.
• Xiao Yan prepared his Medicine Cauldron while Gongsun Liuli panicked because she had forgotten to read the prescription.

Liuli used a Doppelganger to accompany Xiao Yan at the Alchemist Competition and keep watch over him after learning Jia Nan Academy students would participate. As Xiao Yan and Liuli refined the Bone-Growing Pill, Xiao Yan’s cauldron exploded, leaving Liuli wondering how far events had strayed from the expected plot.

• Liuli learned that Jia Nan Academy planned to send students to the Alchemist Competition, so she arranged to escort them and created a Dou Ling-strength Doppelganger with the Spirit Condensation Absolute.
• Liuli entered the competition under the name Gongsun Liuli and revealed her seven-star Medicine Cauldron while Xiao Yan admired it and began refining the Bone-Growing Pill.
• Fa Ma and Jia Xingtian praised the contestants’ skills, and Liuli told them she was an Inner Academy student.
• Several contestants failed the unusual prescription, while Xiao Yan carefully refined the ingredients and began fusing them.
• A loud blast startled Liuli and ruined her pill, and she saw that Xiao Yan’s Medicine Cauldron had also exploded.

After Xiao Yan's cauldron exploded, Liuli lent him a replacement, and both resumed the competition. When more cauldrons exploded across the plaza, Liuli realized someone had tampered with the ingredients or pill formula.

• Xiao Yan's cauldron exploded, ending his first attempt and leaving him worried he could not obtain the Spirit Fusion Pill formula for Medusa.
• Yao Ye silenced the noble youths mocking Xiao Yan, and Liuli offered him one of her medicine cauldrons for ten thousand gold coins.
• Xiao Yan chose a green cauldron, took fresh ingredients, and began refining again while Liuli started her own second attempt.
• Liuli refined and fused several ingredients, then stopped when successive cauldron explosions disrupted her concentration.
• Liuli noticed that dozens of contestants' cauldrons had exploded and concluded someone had tampered with the ingredients or pill formula.

Gongsun Liuli exposed deliberate tampering with the Alchemist Competition’s first-round ingredients and prescriptions, preventing the affected contestants from being unfairly eliminated. Fa Ma ended the round by advancing everyone who remained, while Ka Lisi was taken away for interrogation.

• Wa Ke watched contestants’ cauldrons explode, believing his sabotage had gone unnoticed.
• Gongsun Liuli asked Fa Ma to suspend the round and explained that the herbs and prescriptions had been deliberately altered to target prominent Alchemists.
• Liuli showed that the contestants whose cauldrons exploded had been given prescriptions specifying over-mature Wind Spirit Bone Eradicating Grass, unlike the prescription of a contestant whose cauldron remained intact.
• Fa Ma confronted Ka Lisi, the elder responsible for distributing the ingredients and prescriptions, and Jia Xingtian ordered guards to take him away for interrogation.
• Fa Ma advanced all contestants who had not already left the venue and promised compensation to those whose cauldrons had exploded.
• Xiao Yan praised Liuli, and she told him he could keep using her Medicine Cauldron in the next round if he paid for it.

After Xiao Yan won the second round, Liuli pulled him away from the crowd to help him find a Medicine Cauldron for the Finals. Wa Ke followed them into an alley, preparing to kill them, unaware that someone watched from the clouds.

• Wa Ke abandoned his plan to target Liuli and chose Xiao Yan as a politically convenient opponent to assassinate.
• Xiao Yan won the second round and declined Princess Yao Yue's celebratory banquet so he could rest before the Finals.
• Liuli grabbed Xiao Yan's hand and led him away, telling the others that young people's affairs should be left to them.
• Liuli reminded Xiao Yan that he needed a Medicine Cauldron for the Finals and took him to browse the market; she refused to lend him her cauldron again.
• Wa Ke spotted Xiao Yan and Liuli alone in an alley and prepared to kill them, while an unseen figure watched from the clouds.

Xiao Yan accompanied Liuli through Batna market, bought a Medicine Cauldron for the Alchemist Competition, and told her he planned to climb the Misty Cloud Sect after the competition. Liuli offered to go with him, but an unknown black-robed figure interrupted them on the cliff.

• Xiao Yan and Liuli browsed Medicine Cauldron shops in Batna, and Xiao Yan bought a Third-tier cauldron after bargaining with its owner.
• Liuli led Xiao Yan to a cliff overlooking the Imperial Capital, where he revealed his grudge against the Misty Cloud Sect and his plan to climb its mountain after the Alchemist Competition.
• Liuli offered to accompany Xiao Yan on the climb, and he welcomed her to join him.
• A black-robed figure emerged from the shadows and interrupted Xiao Yan and Liuli.

Wa Ke revealed that he had sabotaged the Alchemist Competition and attacked Xiao Yan and Liuli to secure victory for the Chu Yun Empire. Xiao Yan prepared to unleash Buddha's Fury Lotus Flame against him, but an unseen woman intervened just as the attack was about to begin.

• Wa Ke identified himself as the Chu Yun Empire's Shadow Department Leader and admitted he had arranged the competition's first round.
• Wa Ke attacked Xiao Yan and Liuli, offering to spare Xiao Yan if he surrendered his Heavenly Flames.
• Xiao Yan took to the air and began fusing his Heavenly Flames while Liuli used her sword skill to destroy Wa Ke's giant wolf attack.
• Wa Ke pursued Xiao Yan and trapped him in the air, but Xiao Yan refused to stop fusing the flames and prepared Buddha's Fury Lotus Flame.
• Xiao Yan summoned Xiao Cai to block Wa Ke's attack, then formed a Cyan-white Flame Lotus Seat as Wa Ke sensed it could kill him.
• An unseen female voice warned Wa Ke that touching Xiao Yan would lead to his death.

Xiao Yan handed the unstable Buddha's Fury Lotus Flame to Yu Gongtian, who pursued Wa Ke and forced him into a desperate fight. Liuli used the lotus to kill Wa Ke in a massive explosion above Jia Ma Holy City, dedicating the spectacle to Xiao Yan.

• Xiao Yan accepted a healing pill from Yu Gongtian and explained that he did not know how to undo the Buddha's Fury Lotus Flame.
• Yu Gongtian took the fire lotus from Xiao Yan and rapidly caught up with the fleeing Wa Ke.
• Yu Gongtian confronted Wa Ke and began counting down while he pleaded for his life and then attacked her.
• Yu Gongtian defeated Wa Ke's attacks as he tried to escape and fight back, while a young girl restrained him with immense gravity.
• Liuli carried Wa Ke into the sky, detonated the fire lotus against his chest, and said the explosion was for Xiao Yan.

After defeating Wa Ke with his Fire Lotus, Xiao Yan learned that Fa Ma had concerns about the alchemy competition and worked to recover from his injuries and poison. Late that night, Liuli visited him with a healing pill from her aunt, urging him to accept it so he could compete at full strength.

• Xiao Yan found Wa Ke near death in the crater and explained the battle to Jia Xingtian, Hai Bodong, and Fa Ma.
• Jia Xingtian crippled Wa Ke's Dou Qi and took him away to hold for ransom, while Fa Ma spoke privately with Xiao Yan about the competition and Yan Li.
• Hai Bodong scolded Xiao Yan for using the Fire Lotus again, and Xiao Yan assured him that his foundation was unharmed.
• Xiao Yan forced the Brand Poison from his body and decided to deal with the remaining poison after his Master awakened.
• Liuli visited Xiao Yan after midnight and offered him a Spirit Healing Pill from her aunt, but he refused until she warned him that he might lose the match without recovering.

After discovering that Yan Li might use a powerful new pill formula in the Alchemist Competition, Liuli approached Xiao Yan and offered him support in exchange for a future favor. Xiao Yan accepted her help but warned her not to threaten anyone important to him, and the two ended the night trading playful barbs.

• Liuli searched Wa Ke's Storage Ring and found correspondence about the Alchemist Competition, a mole in the Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Guild, and a Fifth-grade Dark Bamboo Barrier Breaking Pill formula held by Yan Li.
• Worried about Xiao Yan's exhaustion and Brand Poison, Liuli went to see him and revealed that she knew his identity from his reputation and portrait at Jia Nan Academy.
• Liuli proposed cooperating with Xiao Yan, but he rejected joining any organization and told her he would handle the next day's competition himself.
• Liuli apologized and offered him a Fifth-grade pill formula, ingredients, and help at the Three Year Agreement in exchange for a promise to grant her a future request that would not deliberately harm him.
• Xiao Yan accepted the deal, warned Liuli that he would fight her if she targeted anyone important to him, and then argued with her about whether he should call her Sister Liuli.

On the day of the Alchemist Competition Finals, Xiao Yan and the other contestants prepared to face Yan Li, who was determined to win and escape alive. Liuli heard Fa Ma and Jia Xingtian’s request for Jia Nan Academy’s help against the Misty Cloud Sect, then joined Xiao Yan at the competition platform as the contest approached.

• Xiao Yan, Liuli, Yao Yue, and Liu Ling arrived at the Royal Plaza, where Yan Li boasted that he would win the championship and escape Jia Ma Empire.
• Fa Ma threatened Yan Li, and Xiao Yan urged the other contestants not to let Yan Li’s provocation distract them.
• Fa Ma and Jia Xingtian asked Liuli to request more Jia Nan Academy enrollment slots for Jia Ma Empire’s disciples so they could counter the Misty Cloud Sect’s growing influence.
• Liuli agreed to pass the request to her Aunt but warned that success was unlikely, while offering possible help if the Misty Cloud Sect went too far.
• Liuli reached the competition platform and saw Xiao Yan reviewing the Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill formula, worrying that he might fail to refine it.

The third round of the Seventh Jia Ma Empire Alchemist Competition began, allowing contestants to refine any pill they chose without assistance. Xiao Yan attempted a Fifth-grade Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill while Liuli rapidly refined a Core Condensing Pill, leaving Xiao Yan to reconsider his approach.

• Fa Ma announced that the final round had no restrictions on the pill contestants could refine, and the judges would evaluate its grade and effectiveness.
• Yao Yue and other contestants brought out their Medicine Cauldrons, while Xiao Yan chose ingredients for a Fifth-grade Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill.
• Xiao Yan used the Green Lotus Core Flame to extract medicinal ingredients, drawing the arena's attention as Yan Li mocked his chances.
• Liuli used the Crimson Dark Ghost Flame to refine a Core Condensing Pill at extraordinary speed and reached the pill-shaping stage before Xiao Yan finished extracting his ingredients.
• Xiao Yan recognized Liuli's progress and decided to extract ingredients from several sets first so he could attempt pill fusion again quickly if he failed.

Xiao Yan used a restorative pill to recover his strength and attempted to refine the Fifth-grade Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill, but the first attempt failed because he fused the ingredients too quickly. Liuli secretly signaled the mistake to him while distracting Yan Li with an argument.

• Xiao Yan finished refining the ingredients for four sets of pills, then swallowed a pill that restored his Dou Qi and Soul Power.
• Xiao Yan began fusing the ingredients for the Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill, and Fa Ma recognized that he was attempting a Fifth-grade Pill.
• Liuli became the first contestant to finish, refining a Condensing Crystal Pill before watching Xiao Yan's attempt.
• Liuli noticed that Xiao Yan had fused the ingredients too quickly, and his pill failed half an hour later.
• Yan Li mocked Xiao Yan, so Liuli insulted Yan Li and silently signaled the number ten to Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan pushed through the final stages of refining his pill as Yan Li completed a Fifth-grade Dark Bamboo Barrier Breaking Pill and taunted the Jia Ma Empire. The chapter ended with Xiao Yan suddenly transported into a crimson space before a massive Fire Bird, while Liuli realized her prepared gift had been triggered.

• Xiao Yan used Heavenly Flames to envelop his Medicine Cauldron and began fusing the medicinal ingredients, while Yan Li and Xiao Yan competed to complete their pills.
• Yao Ye and Liu Ling finished refining Fourth-grade pills, but Yan Li opened his cauldron and revealed a Fifth-grade Dark Bamboo Barrier Breaking Pill.
• Yan Li taunted the Alchemists and secretly contacted his allies, learning that sixteen dead soldiers in the plaza could release poison capable of killing or crippling those below Dou Wang.
• Xiao Yan swallowed a white pill to restore his strength and continued refining, but his Dou Qi fell below thirty percent as the pill neared completion.
• Xiao Yan's vision blurred and he found himself in a crimson space facing an enormous Fire Bird, while Liuli recognized that her gift had been triggered.

Xiao Yan passed a trial by defeating a Flame Giant Bird and returned to the Alchemist Competition with his soul power strengthened. He resumed refining the Crimson Firmament Spirit Pill in front of the startled audience, while Fa Ma suspected Xiao Yan’s master was the mysterious expert who had once taught him.

• Xiao Yan fought and killed the Flame Giant Bird in the First Floor Trial, then absorbed the fragments of light that appeared after its defeat.
• Xiao Yan returned to the arena and found that his soul exhaustion had vanished and his Soul Power had grown stronger.
• Xiao Yan realized Liuli had arranged the trial and resumed refining the pill after completing the Second Pill Fusion.
• Xiao Yan opened the Medicine Cauldron and raised the fused medicinal liquid inside a Heavenly Flames lotus bud, shocking the audience.
• Fa Ma recognized Xiao Yan’s technique and concluded that his master was the mysterious expert who had taught Fa Ma alchemy.
• Yan Li mocked Xiao Yan for taking out liquid instead of a formed pill, but Xiao Yan commanded the Heavenly Flames to refine it.