Chapter Summaries

After returning to Shu Mountain, Chen Fan and his companions were confronted by Liu Hong and Li Du, but Peak Master Gao Yueyue intervened and invited Chen Fan to represent the Eighth Peak at an exchange conference. She revealed that the conference’s reward was Dragon Saliva True Water, leaving Chen Fan wondering whether it truly existed.

• The frail Qi Refining cultivator and the other female disciple chose not to return to Shu Mountain, while Chen Fan agreed to say they had been killed.
• Chen Fan returned to Shu Mountain with Huang Cheng and Tang Xue, where Liu Hong and Li Du blocked their way and demanded details of the mission.
• Gao Yueyue appeared, ordered Liu Hong and Li Du to withdraw, and told Chen Fan, Huang Cheng, and Tang Xue about the upcoming Immortal Arts Exchange Conference.
• Gao Yueyue selected Chen Fan for the Eighth Peak’s team, and Chen Fan refused until she privately offered a reward for surviving five exchanges.
• Gao Yueyue revealed that the reward was Dragon Saliva True Water, then left as Chen Fan wondered whether it really existed.

Chen Fan decided to join the Immortal Arts Exchange Conference for a chance at Dragon Saliva True Water, while learning that the Soul Devouring Banner was too dangerous for him to control. At the conference grounds, Gao Yueyue arranged for him to face Seventh Peak’s weakest disciple, but Chen Fan demanded half the Dragon Saliva True Water and was warned not to overestimate himself.

• Chen Fan told Bald Bird about the Dragon Saliva True Water, and Bald Bird urged him to attend the conference and asked for half of the water.
• Chen Fan showed Bald Bird the Soul Devouring Banner, and Bald Bird warned him that its main soul and resentful souls could consume him if he tried to claim it before reaching the Golden Core Realm.
• Chen Fan spent five days comprehending the Sword Dao in the Jade Slip before setting out for the exchange conference with Huang Cheng and Tang Xue.
• Huang Cheng explained the conference rules and how the weaker side could win by defeating its opponent within the prescribed rounds.
• Gao Yueyue told Chen Fan she would match him against Seventh Peak’s weakest disciple and instructed him to defend for five rounds, but Chen Fan demanded half the Dragon Saliva True Water.
• Gao Yueyue warned Chen Fan that his Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivation was no match for a Foundation Establishment Middle Stage opponent and told him not to jeopardize the conference.

Gao Yueyue assembled the Eighth Peak’s contestants for the Immortal Arts Exchange Conference, where Chen Fan stood out as the only Foundation Establishment Early Stage disciple. The Seventh Peak arrived in force, and Vice Peak Master Mo Buwu mocked Gao Yueyue and questioned whether her team had only nine competitors.

• Gao Yueyue called the ten Eighth Peak contestants forward, and Chen Fan joined the nine Foundation Establishment Middle Stage disciples despite being at the Early Stage.
• The Eighth Peak disciples questioned Chen Fan’s inclusion, while Chen Fan sensed the Seventh Peak’s arrival.
• Mo Buwu led the Seventh Peak team onto enormous flying swords, including a stubbled disciple carrying a massive sword.
• Gao Yueyue dispersed the pressure from the Seventh Peak’s arrival and exchanged cold remarks with Mo Buwu.
• Mo Buwu destroyed an empty chair, then pretended surprise and asked Gao Yueyue whether the Eighth Peak had only nine contestants.

Xia Lan of the Seventh Peak faced Lin Hu in the opening match of the Immortal Arts Exchange Conference. She froze his Fire-Wielding Sword Flower and sent the ice-bound attack back toward him.

• Mo Buwu began the conference and chose Xia Lan to fight the first match for the Seventh Peak.
• Gao Yueyue sent Lin Hu to face Xia Lan, and the two Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivators clashed with water- and fire-element sword arts.
• Lin Hu formed his Fire-Wielding Sword Flower into a flaming golden lotus and launched it at Xia Lan.
• Xia Lan used Ten-Mile Ice Seal to freeze the lotus, then struck it back toward Lin Hu.

Xia Lan defeated Lin Hu, but Zhang Yifei then beat her by holding out behind a rock wall. As Zhang Yifei became the challenger, a bearded Seventh Peak disciple stepped forward and demanded a quick fight, wagering that he could defeat Zhang within five rounds.

• Xia Lan sealed Lin Hu's flaming golden lotus in ice, forcing him to jump off the arena and concede the first match.
• Gao Yueyue sent Zhang Yifei to fight Xia Lan and negotiated a twenty-round limit with Mo Buwu.
• Zhang Yifei used a rock wall to withstand Xia Lan's attacks until the twenty rounds passed, winning the match and becoming the challenger.
• A bearded Seventh Peak disciple carrying a massive sword stepped onto the arena and declared that he would send Zhang Yifei flying within five rounds or lose.

Chu Tiankuang defeated Zhang Yifei in the third match, securing the Seventh Peak’s victory at the exchange gathering. He left the remaining Eighth Peak disciples with a mocking challenge to fight him together.

• Chu Tiankuang challenged Zhang Yifei and agreed to lose if he could not defeat him within five moves.
• Zhang Yifei attacked with the Sword Python Art, but Chu Tiankuang shattered his technique with a single powerful swing.
• Chu Tiankuang struck Zhang Yifei again after he had already been defeated, knocked him out of the arena, and left him seriously injured.
• Gao Yueyue protested, but Mo Buwu defended Chu Tiankuang and declared that the Seventh Peak had won the gathering.
• Chu Tiankuang challenged the remaining eight Eighth Peak disciples to come fight him together.

Chu Tiankuang challenged Eighth Peak to send eight disciples against him, and Gao Yueyue struggled to find anyone willing to fight. Chen Fan volunteered to take the stage and demanded half of the Dragon Saliva True Water if he won, then swiftly leaped onto the arena.

• Chu Tiankuang challenged eight Eighth Peak disciples at once and threatened to kill or cripple them, while Mo Buwu encouraged him.
• Gao Yueyue found that her disciples were too afraid to accept the challenge, but Chen Fan alone remained calm.
• Mo Buwu proposed that Eighth Peak concede if its chosen disciple survived five exchanges, and Chu Tiankuang mockingly lowered the condition to three.
• Chen Fan offered to fight Chu Tiankuang and demanded half of the Dragon Saliva True Water if he won.
• Gao Yueyue began to concede, but Chen Fan stepped forward and leaped onto the Martial Arts Arena.

Chen Fan faced Chu Tiankuang in the Martial Arts Arena and revealed powerful Sword Intent by stopping his giant sword with two fingers. As the crowd recognized Chen Fan’s strength, Chu Tiankuang’s sword spirit became afraid of him.

• Chen Fan entered the arena despite Gao Yueyue’s warning, and Chu Tiankuang challenged him to withstand three moves.
• Chu Tiankuang swung his giant sword at Chen Fan, who stood still as Gao Yueyue and Mo Buwu sensed his Sword Intent.
• Chen Fan caught the descending sword between two fingers, stunning the crowd and leaving Mo Buwu in disbelief.
• Chu Tiankuang’s spirit-bearing sword trembled and tried to escape, and Chu Tiankuang realized it feared Chen Fan.

Chen Fan defeated Chu Tiankuang by overpowering his greatsword with Sword Intent, securing Gao Yueyue’s promise of half the Dragon Saliva True Water and forcing Mo Buwu to honor his bet. After returning to the bamboo grove, Chen Fan sensed a familiar figure overhead and heard a voice say it had finally found him.

• Chen Fan told Chu Tiankuang he had lost, and Chu Tiankuang’s greatsword fled after Chen Fan released it.
• Chu Tiankuang conceded defeat, and Gao Yueyue promised Chen Fan half the Dragon Saliva True Water when Sixth Peak delivered it the next day.
• Gao Yueyue reminded Mo Buwu of his wager, and Mo Buwu accepted that Seventh Peak had lost.
• Chen Fan left the arena with Huang Cheng and Tang Xue, then denied being either the younger or elder brother of Chen Fan.
• Chen Fan sensed someone passing overhead in the bamboo grove and heard a familiar voice say it had finally found him.

Chen Fan returned to his hut and found the Yellow-toothed Old Man and Bald Bird fighting over a Jade Token. The old man tried to recruit Chen Fan to Sixth Peak to study artifact forging, then revealed that dismantling a damaged Spirit Treasure had uncovered a great secret and showed Chen Fan a small metal sphere.

• Chen Fan found the Yellow-toothed Old Man and Bald Bird wrestling in his hut over the old man's Jade Token.
• The Yellow-toothed Old Man reclaimed his Jade Token, then frightened Bald Bird away by pretending to rinse his mouth and threaten him with the water.
• The Yellow-toothed Old Man invited Chen Fan to Sixth Peak to study artifact forging, but Chen Fan demanded to know his real purpose.
• The Yellow-toothed Old Man said he had discovered a heaven-shaking secret while dismantling a damaged Spirit Treasure from a Shu Mountain sacrificial ceremony.
• The Yellow-toothed Old Man carefully showed Chen Fan a small sphere made of mysterious metal.

Chen Fan learned that the mysterious sphere was an Artifact Heart, a device that could turn ordinary metal into a treasure, and considered how artifact crafting might help protect him. He declined Bai Jing True Person's invitation to Sixth Peak, while Bald Bird's explanation led him to suspect that materials for Artifact Hearts might be in the Heavenly Court Immortal Cave.

• Yellow-toothed Old Man showed Chen Fan a rune-covered sphere, and Bald Bird identified it as a damaged Artifact Heart that could empower ordinary metal.
• Chen Fan decided he would not go to Sixth Peak because he feared Su Ziyue might expose him and the Soul Devouring Banner might be discovered, but he offered to discuss artifact crafting with Yellow-toothed Old Man and Bald Bird.
• Bald Bird said Artifact Hearts were made using Seven-Star Stone formed beneath Seven-Star Grass over a hundred years old, and Yellow-toothed Old Man refused to crush his sphere to test the claim.
• Chen Fan recalled the old Seven-Star Grass and Tortoise-patterned Medicinal Stone in the Heavenly Court Immortal Cave and suspected Seven-Star Stone might be there too.
• Yellow-toothed Old Man left for Sixth Peak and told Chen Fan to contact him through Yueyue; before he departed, Chen Fan learned his name was Bai Jing True Person, hall master of Shu Mountain's Artifact Refining Hall.

Bald Bird told Chen Fan that Talisman Artifact Masters were rare and influential, then prepared to test Chen Fan's artifact-refining talent. Gao Yueyue gave Chen Fan half a bottle of Dragon Saliva True Water and answered his question about her rank before Bald Bird warned him not to waste the bottle's spirituality.

• Bald Bird explained the status of Talisman Artifact Masters and said he would test Chen Fan's talent in artifact refinement.
• Gao Yueyue visited Chen Fan and awarded him half a bottle of Dragon Saliva True Water for his contribution to the Immortal Arts Exchange Conference.
• Gao Yueyue offered to compensate Chen Fan for the other half, but Chen Fan declined and used his one chance to ask her rank among Sixth Peak's Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Gao Yueyue revealed that she ranked eleventh and then left Chen Fan examining the jade bottle.
• Chen Fan opened the bottle's stopper, and Bald Bird appeared and urged him to preserve its spirituality.

Chen Fan and Bald Bird prepared a body-tempering bath in a medicine cauldron using spirit herbs, poisons, and Dragon Saliva True Water. The medicinal liquid began to boil around them, and Bald Bird warned Chen Fan that the worst pain was still to come.

• Bald Bird brought out spirit herbs and a medicine cauldron it had taken from the Alchemy Hall’s storehouse.
• Chen Fan lit the cauldron with Blazing Heaven True Qi while Bald Bird added precious herbs, including a several-hundred-year-old Golden Ginseng.
• Bald Bird added poisonous insects to balance the medicinal ingredients, then climbed into the cauldron and urged Chen Fan to join it.
• Chen Fan entered the scalding, poisonous bath and poured in the Dragon Saliva True Water, easing his pain as the liquid turned white.
• Bald Bird warned Chen Fan that the real agony was about to begin.

An old woman tracked Chen Fan after finding her disciple’s body, while Chen Fan endured Bald Bird’s punishing medicinal cauldron tempering on Shu Mountain’s Eighth Peak. The chapter ended with Chen Fan awakening in the sealed cauldron and discovering a shocking change in his dantian.

• An old woman searched Tianyun City for the Soul Devouring Banner and used the Six Paths Jade Disk to pursue the person who had killed her disciple.
• Chen Fan endured the cauldron’s violent medicinal effects, using the Burning Fire Chapter and Burning Wood Chapter to absorb the medicine and heal his injuries.
• After Bald Bird emerged from the cauldron, he added the Fire-Devouring Vine’s heart to the remaining medicine and sealed Chen Fan inside with the lid.
• Chen Fan lost consciousness, saw a terrifying true dragon, and unleashed his purple, yellow, and green True Qi to swallow it in three-colored flames.
• Chen Fan awakened after a thunderous eruption, sensed that his Divine Sense had grown stronger, and stared in shock at his dantian.

Chen Fan emerged from the medicinal cauldron with a flame and a green leaf in his dantian, and discovered that he had reached the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. Bald Bird warned that the two treasures might drain his True Essence Power and compete for spiritual qi when he formed his Golden Core, while Chen Fan entered the Heavenly Court Realm thinking of the Artifact Heart.

• Chen Fan examined the flame and green leaf in his dantian, then learned Bald Bird had added the heart of a thousand-year-old Fire-Devouring Vine to the medicinal cauldron.
• Chen Fan stepped out of the cauldron and discovered his cultivation had advanced to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, while a white giant dragon and ancient runes briefly appeared in his body.
• Chen Fan told Bald Bird about the flame and leaf, and Bald Bird marveled that he had condensed them at such a low cultivation level.
• Bald Bird warned Chen Fan that the flame and leaf would consume his True Essence Power and might fight over spiritual qi during Golden Core formation, then suggested stealing herbs from Old Yellow Tooth.
• Chen Fan recalled Bai Jing True Person and the Artifact Heart, then entered the Heavenly Court Realm with his Divine Sense.

Chen Fan found a Seven-Star Stone beneath an ancient Seven-Star Grass in the Heavenly Court medicine field. He then went to Heavenly Court Hall to check for messages and encountered Yellow-toothed Old Man, who offered him a strange treasure in exchange for drawing talismans.

• Chen Fan returned to the medicine field, where Green-feathered Bird urged him to leave Lingxiao City and explore the world.
• Chen Fan dug beneath a Seven-Star Grass with his bare hands and uncovered a glowing Seven-Star Stone, which he kept from Green-feathered Bird.
• Chen Fan left the Immortal Cave and went to Heavenly Court Hall, where he noticed an unusual crowd that included Foundation Establishment cultivators and disciples of the Immortal Sect and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
• Yellow-toothed Old Man summoned Chen Fan to a corner and remarked on his conflicts with the Immortal Sect and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
• Yellow-toothed Old Man offered Chen Fan a piece of yellow hide in exchange for drawing several talismans.

Chen Fan examined the Yellow-toothed Old Man’s concealed human-skin mask and agreed to draw a Talisman for him in exchange. After learning the old man had apparently swindled someone to obtain the mask, Chen Fan went to the Heavenly Court Hall, where a woman in yellow appeared before him.

• The Yellow-toothed Old Man showed Chen Fan a human-skin mask inscribed with a Concealment Array, and Chen Fan tried it on to see how it changed his appearance.
• The old man asked Chen Fan to draw a complete Talisman from the rune on the Artifact Heart, and Chen Fan agreed to exchange one for the mask.
• The Yellow-toothed Old Man left Lingxiao City to search for Seven-Star Grass, while Chen Fan heard cultivators searching for him over a human-skin mask he had allegedly swindled from them.
• Chen Fan entered the crowd and drew attention from cultivators who recognized him, challenged him, or warned that a bounty had been issued for him.
• Chen Fan headed to the Heavenly Court Hall to look for a message from Qin Xian'er and the others, but a graceful woman in a yellow dress appeared before him.

Chen Fan confronted Su Ziyue, rejected her warning about Shushan, and searched the Heavenly Court Hall for a clue from Qin Xian'er but found none. Back in his cabin, he showed Bald Bird a Seven-Star Stone, and Bald Bird began demonstrating how to refine an Artifact Heart.

• Chen Fan told Su Ziyue that Shushan could not protect her, ignored her taunts, and sealed off his Divine Sense from her transmissions.
• Chen Fan searched the Heavenly Court Hall for a message from Qin Xian'er but found only a bounty seeking high-age Seven-Star Grass.
• Chen Fan decided to remain in Lingxiao City for the time being so he could stay in contact with Qin Xian'er and Chen Jingjing.
• Chen Fan retrieved his human-skin mask and Seven-Star Stone from the Heavenly Court Immortal Cave and placed them in his Storage Ring.
• Bald Bird saw the Seven-Star Stone, heard that Chen Fan wanted to refine an Artifact Heart to prepare for Golden Core Realm enemies, and cut off a piece to demonstrate the process.

Bald Bird demonstrated how to refine an Artifact Heart from Seven-Star Stone, stopping before the final rune-inscribing step because his Divine Soul was too weak. Chen Fan examined the semi-finished Artifact Heart just as someone crashed through his door.

• Bald Bird brought out the Black Sturgeon Artifact Furnace and began refining Seven-Star Stone and a block of black iron in a bronze furnace.
• Bald Bird melted and combined the materials, then shaped the liquid into an orb and inscribed it with preliminary runes using Pure Fire Essence.
• Bald Bird explained that completing the Artifact Heart required more Divine Soul power to inscribe its final runes, and Chen Fan took the semi-finished orb.
• A figure crashed through Chen Fan's wooden door and fell sprawled across it.

The Yellow-toothed Old Man traded a Three-Colored Flower for a chance to study Bald Bird’s Artifact Heart and declared himself Bald Bird’s disciple. After Huang Cheng warned Chen Fan that Shu Mountain cultivators were searching for stolen spiritual herbs, Bald Bird and the Yellow-toothed Old Man revealed they had each stolen half, and Bald Bird agreed to take the old man as his disciple in exchange for the herbs.

• The Yellow-toothed Old Man asked to examine Bald Bird’s Artifact Heart and offered him a Three-Colored Flower in exchange.
• Bald Bird ate the flower, and the Yellow-toothed Old Man immediately called himself Bald Bird’s disciple to learn the Artifact Heart technique.
• Huang Cheng told Chen Fan that Foundation Establishment cultivators were searching the cabins for the thief who had stolen the Sixth Heaven Alchemy Hall’s spiritual herbs.
• After Huang Cheng left, Bald Bird accused the Yellow-toothed Old Man of stealing the other half of the herbs, and the old man offered to give them up for instruction.
• Bald Bird declared that he would take the Yellow-toothed Old Man as his disciple.