Chapter Summaries

The Pill Gathering’s contestants returned from the Pill World with unusually few casualties, and the final alchemy contest began. Xiao Yan recognized a black-robed Soul Hall participant as Mu Gu, a traitor to Yao Lao’s sect, and fixed his attention on him.

• Yun Zimo and Xuan Kongzi observed that the contestants had returned safely, while the factions celebrated their prodigies’ survival.
• Xuan Kongzi, Xuan Yi, and Tian Leizi discussed the championship contenders, Qing Hua’s secret technique, and the danger posed by the Soul Hall.
• Xuan Kongzi announced the start of the final match, and the alchemists summoned their cauldrons and flames.
• Xiao Yan recognized Cao Ying’s Blood Demon Flame and then spotted the Volcanic Stone Flame held by a black-robed contestant.
• Xiao Yan identified the black-robed contestant as Mu Gu, a Soul Hall member and Yao Lao’s former disciple, and grew hostile toward him.

Xiao Yan revealed his deep-green Heavenly Flame at the Pill Gathering and began refining a mysterious pill, silencing Mu Gu’s show of superiority. After more than ten days, the weaker alchemists were eliminated, and Xiao Yan finally moved on to the next stage of his painstaking preparation.

• Mu Gu displayed the Volcanic Stone Flame and boasted that the Soul Hall would claim the Pill Gathering championship and the Three Thousand Burning Flame.
• Xiao Yan revealed his deep-green Heavenly Flame, which overwhelmed Mu Gu’s flame, and the competitors began refining their pills.
• Yun Zimo studied Dan Chen’s unusual flame while reassuring Xiao Yi Xian after she questioned his interest in her.
• More than ten days passed as alchemists dropped out, and the first seventh-tier contestants completed their pills and were eliminated.
• After several more days of pill lightning, Xiao Yan finished processing his ingredients and formed a clump of medicinal liquid in his cauldron.

As the Pill Gathering narrowed to its final competitors, Dan Chen refined an eighth-tier pill with three-colored Pill Lightning, and Xiao Yan helped her withstand it with his Earth Demon Puppet. Qing Hua and Cao Ying also produced three-colored Pill Lightning, leaving the crowd waiting to see what Xiao Yan and Mu Gu would refine.

• By the fifth day, only a handful of alchemists remained, and six competitors advanced to the eighth-tier stone platforms, including Xiao Yan, Dan Chen, and Cao Ying.
• Xuan Yi recognized Xiao Yan's formula as the Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill, while Mu Gu dismissed it as a mere seventh-tier pill.
• Dan Chen used her essence blood and soul origin to raise her pill's quality, producing three-colored Pill Lightning before collapsing from the effort.
• Xiao Yan sent his Earth Demon Puppet into the lightning to protect Dan Chen's pill, and the bombardment advanced the puppet to peak Dou Zong as the pill revealed a rabbit-shaped spirit.
• Qing Hua and Cao Ying each produced three-colored Pill Lightning, while Xiao Yan and Mu Gu continued refining and the spectators awaited their results.

Mu Gu revealed that he was an eighth-tier intermediate alchemist and appeared poised to win the Pill Gathering, but Qing Hua Old Monster, Cao Ying, and Xiao Yan each unveiled powerful methods to raise their pills’ strength. The chapter ended with Xiao Yan revealing three Heavenly Flames, while Mu Gu recognized the Burning Mantra and stared at it with greed.

• Mu Gu refined an eighth-tier intermediate pill, summoning four-colored Pill Lightning and eclipsing the other alchemists’ three-colored clouds.
• Xiao Yan completed an eighth-tier low-grade pill, and the remaining contestants’ pills also produced pillars of light and Pill Lightning.
• Qing Hua Old Monster sacrificed his twin body to strengthen his pill and give its Pill Lightning to Xiao Yan.
• Cao Ying used her Nine-Tailed Demon Fox spirit and essence blood to strengthen her pill, burning away some of her lifespan in the process.
• Xiao Yan invoked Three Flowers Gathering Fire, Heaven and Earth Spirit Connection, revealing three Heavenly Flames and prompting Mu Gu to recognize the Burning Mantra.

Xiao Yan used gifts from the crowd and Yao Chen’s flames to raise his pill to six-colored Pill Lightning, while Mu Gu expected the tribulation to destroy it. Xiao Yan’s Earth Demon Puppets absorbed the lightning and became Heaven Demon Puppets, and the five contestants’ spirit pills completed their transformations.

• Xiao Yan fused three Heavenly Flames into a fire lotus, but Xuan Kongzi doubted it could give his pill enough spirituality.
• Dan Chen and supporters from Starfall Pavilion and other factions sent Xiao Yan spiritual treasures, and Xuan Yi allowed him to accept their help.
• Xiao Yan used the treasures, the Life-Transforming Flame, and the Bone Chilling Flame to refine his pill until it drew six-colored Pill Lightning.
• Mu Gu warned that Xiao Yan could not survive the powerful tribulation, while Xiao Yan sent two Earth Demon Puppets into the gathered thundercloud.
• The puppets absorbed the lightning and became golden Heaven Demon Puppets, and the five pills revealed their spirit-beast illusions before the refiners received them.

Xiao Yan won the Pill Gathering after the Pill Tower judged his six-colored Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill and reduced it to five colors for breaking the rules. The event ended with Mu Gu captured and stripped of his ranking, while Holy Pill City prepared for retaliation from the Soul Hall.

• The Pill Tower evaluated the top ten alchemists' pills, including Cao Ying's Demon Spirit Pill, Qing Hua's Whale Fall Pill, Mu Gu's Tiger Roar Pill, and Xiao Yan's Bone-Growing Blood-Melting Pill.
• Xuan Kongzi named Xiao Yan champion but required him to register as a Pill Tower elder and refine pills for the factions that had helped him.
• Tian Leizi and Xuan Yi captured Mu Gu and revoked his Pill Gathering ranking and qualifications for slaughtering alchemists and provoking war in the Central Plains.
• Xuan Kongzi promoted the remaining contestants, announced the top ten would enter the Pill Tower in two days, and confirmed their chance to attempt to subdue the Three Thousand Burning Flame.
• Xuan Kongzi used recorded evidence to launch a roundup of Soul Hall members in Holy Pill City and placed the city on first-level combat readiness.
• Yun Zimo rested calmly in a courtyard after setting the events in motion.

With the Star Domain about to open, Zi Yan gave Xiao Yan a secret technique tied to the Three Thousand Burning Flame and revealed its connection to the Ancient Void Dragon Clan. Xiao Yan entered the competition with a potential advantage, while Qing Hua accepted that the flame would be won by whoever proved strongest.

• Xuan Kongzi asked Yun Zimo to stay and help guard against interference from the Soul Hall as the Star Domain opened.
• Xuan Yi warned Xiao Yan to subdue the Three Thousand Burning Flame if he could and to leave if danger arose, while Qing Hua agreed to oppose any Soul Hall trouble.
• Zi Yan gave Xiao Yan a drop of Dou Sheng essence blood and used a secret technique to place a golden dragon mark on his palm.
• Xiao Yan realized Zi Yan belonged to the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, and Zi Yan explained that an Ancient Void Dragon senior had once sealed the Three Thousand Burning Flame with a Dragon Seal.
• Zi Yan taught Xiao Yan a secret art that would resonate with the Three Thousand Burning Flame, and Qing Hua resigned himself to competing fairly for it.

Xiao Yan and the other alchemists failed to subdue the Three Thousand Burning Flame in the Star Domain. As Qiu Ling tried to evacuate them during a Soul Hall attack, the Three Thousand Burning Flame’s seal broke.

• Tian Leizi warned the ten Pill Gathering finalists not to fight in the Star Domain and entrusted them to Great Elder Qiu Ling.
• Qiu Ling led the group into the Star Domain and showed them the sealed Three Thousand Burning Flame.
• Xiao Yan used the Dragon Seal to approach the flame’s Origin Star Fire, but it rejected him and destroyed his soul clone.
• The other alchemists also failed to approach the Three Thousand Burning Flame, which burned their soul avatars.
• Tian Leizi warned Qiu Ling that Soul Hall Dou Zun were attacking, but Day Heavenly Venerate blocked their escape and spoke with Qiu Ling.
• The Three Thousand Burning Flame’s seal broke while Qiu Ling delayed Day Heavenly Venerate.

Old Ghost Bai trapped Xiao Yan and the Pill Tower elders in the Star Domain with the Three Thousand Burning Flame, forcing them to fight while Qiu Ling tried to escape. Xiao Yan escaped after sacrificing a Heaven Demon Puppet in a massive explosion, leaving the Pill Tower and Soul Hall forces to withdraw amid the chaos.

• Old Ghost Bai shifted the spatial portal away, leaving Qiu Ling and the others trapped in the Star Domain with the Three Thousand Burning Flame.
• The Eighth of the Pill Gathering attacked Qiu Ling, but Qiu Ling killed him before the Burning Flame shattered the group’s hastily raised barrier.
• Qiu Ling opened a new portal and evacuated the injured, while Xiao Yan, Qiu Ling, Qing Hua, the Dou Zun elder, and Xiao Yan’s Heaven Demon Puppets faced the Burning Flame.
• The Burning Flame targeted Xiao Yan’s Heavenly Flames, so Xiao Yan and Qiu Ling fought while retreating toward the portal.
• Xiao Yan sent Qiu Ling through the portal, then used the Three Thousand Lightning Illusory Body to draw the Star Domain’s remaining power into a Heaven Demon Puppet and make it self-destruct.
• The explosion battered both sides in the sky, and the Soul Hall forces withdrew as Day Heavenly Venerate dismissed a question about Mu Gu.

After Xiao Yan destroyed the Star Domain, Qin Lao contained the resulting chaos and took the Three Thousand Burning Flame, then invited Xiao Yan to visit the Little Pill Tower. Yun Zimo stayed in Holy Pill City to await news of Yun Yue, while Dan Chen prepared to meet him, hoping to discuss medicine.

• Qin Lao captured the Three Thousand Burning Flame, scolded the Pill Tower’s three heads, and praised Yun Zimo and Xiao Yi Xian.
• Qin Lao told Xiao Yan that the Pill Tower Ancestor had reserved the flame for a fated one and privately asked Xuan Yi to bring Xiao Yan to the Little Pill Tower.
• After the Pill Gathering, Qing Hua returned with the Starfall Pavilion group, but Yun Zimo stayed in Holy Pill City to wait for news of Yun Yue, and Xiao Yi Xian chose to stay with him.
• Yun Zimo and his companions stayed with the Dan Clan and exchanged ideas with alchemy masters, while Dan Chen asked her father for permission to visit Yun Zimo.
• Dan Pei agreed to let Dan Chen visit Yun Zimo with Dan Xuan accompanying her, and Dan Chen looked forward to meeting him.

Yun Zimo recognized that Dan Chen’s Soul Fire was consuming her life and realized she was ideally suited to the Origin Beginning Method. After Dan Chen declared that she wanted to live freely despite the risks, Yun Zimo accepted her as his disciple.

• Dan Chen revealed her Soul Fire, and Yun Zimo realized it was draining her origin and shortening her life.
• Yun Zimo confirmed that Soul Fire could be cultivated and saw that Dan Chen was exceptionally suited to the Origin Beginning Method.
• Dan Chen told Yun Zimo that Lin Xiuya had sent her to seek his help, then knelt and asked to become his disciple.
• Yun Zimo asked Dan Chen why she wanted to become his disciple, and she recalled her painful childhood and her life hidden within the Dan Clan.
• Dan Chen said she wanted to stand on her own and see the world, accepted the risks of failure or death, and Yun Zimo accepted her as his disciple.

Yun Zimo prepared Dan Chen for her new studies and negotiated with her father to take her away for training, promising he could treat her constitution. He left with Dan Chen for Starfall Pavilion, while Dan Pei stood against the clan elders to support his daughter.

• Yun Zimo told Dan Chen about her senior sister Gouli and assigned her books to study before teaching her the Dao of the soul.
• Dan Chen explained that her father, Dan Pei, had nearly expelled her from the family for taking Yun Zimo as her teacher.
• Yun Zimo learned Xiao Yan had not returned and instructed Dan Xuan to obtain two medicines for Xiao Yi Xian and prepare to return to Starfall Pavilion.
• Yun Zimo persuaded Dan Pei to let Dan Chen leave for training by saying he could treat her constitution, and Dan Pei set a deadline for her return if she remained uncured.
• Dan Pei’s wife challenged his decision, but he declared that Dan Chen was his daughter, not a tool for the clan’s ambitions.

Yun Zimo, Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, Dan Chen, and Xiong Zhan went to God-Falling Ravine to confront the Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast that had once hunted Xiao Yi Xian. Zi Yan killed it after her Ancient Void Dragon bloodline stirred, then announced that she had avenged Xiao Yi Xian.

• Yun Zimo and his companions entered God-Falling Ravine and located the Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast.
• Xiong Zhan summoned his Ancient Dragon Bear aura to draw out the beast, but Zi Yan revealed her Ancient Void Dragon bloodline and stepped in to fight.
• Zi Yan's bloodline revulsion toward the mixed-blood beast drove her to beat it relentlessly, despite its pleas and threats invoking the West Dragon King.
• Zi Yan killed the Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast, then dragged away its corpse and told Xiao Yi Xian that she had avenged her.

After returning to Starfall Pavilion, Yun Zimo discussed the Soul Hall threat with Yao Lao and learned what was needed to resurrect him. They identified a possible Dou Sheng corpse in ancient Beast Region ruins and began planning an expedition.

• Xiao Yi Xian thanked Zi Yan for killing the Heavenly Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast, and Yun Zimo stored its corpse before leading the group back to Starfall Pavilion.
• Yun Zimo asked Yao Lao whether the Soul Hall had made a move, and they agreed Yao Lao’s resurrection needed to be prioritized.
• Yun Zimo recalled Ancient Saint Zaohua’s remains in Beast Region ruins and connected the search to the Ancient Void Dragon Clan’s knowledge of space.
• Yao Lao used a Phantom Star Scroll to narrow the likely ruins to the Beast Skeleton Mountain Range or Qiwu Mountain Range, favoring the Beast Skeleton Mountain Range.
• Yao Lao offered to accompany Yun Zimo, but Yun Zimo worried that leaving Feng Xian and Yao Lao away from Starfall Pavilion would expose it to the Soul Hall, so they decided to consult Zi Yan and the others first.

Yun Zimo realized the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit could persuade the Ancient Void Dragon Clan to help with the hidden Dou Sheng ruin, so Zi Yan contacted her family. The clan’s elders arrived at Starfall Pavilion, where Yun Zimo recognized the white-robed elder as a direct subordinate of the old Dragon Emperor.

• Mu Qingluan and Zi Yan explained that the Beast Skeleton Mountain Range’s hidden Dou Sheng ruin could not be opened without Dou Sheng-level strength.
• Yao Lao and Feng Xian resigned themselves to being unable to reach the ruin, while Yun Zimo searched for another way forward.
• Yun Zimo told Zi Yan that the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit could give her the chance to become a Dou Sheng, and she left with Xiong Zhan to consult her clan.
• Venerable Feng sensed intruders forcing their way through Starfall Pavilion’s formation, and Yun Zimo’s group hurried to the gateway.
• Zi Yan stopped the Ancient Void Dragon visitors from fighting and introduced Yun Zimo as her sworn brother.
• Yun Zimo identified Zhu Li, the Ancient Void Dragon Clan’s Third Elder, as a direct subordinate of the old Dragon Emperor.

Yun Zimo joined Zhu Li and a small group from Starfall Pavilion and the Ancient Void Dragon Clan to secretly search the Beast Skeleton Mountain Range for a hidden ruin. Zi Yan found the entrance in the Bone Sea, and Zhu Li opened a temporary passage for the group, while an unseen presence noticed their disappearance.

• Yun Zimo told Zhu Li he was eighty percent confident he could enter the ruin, and Zhu Li agreed to accompany him.
• Yun Zimo, Xiao Yi Xian, Qingluan, and others traveled in disguise to the Beast Skeleton Mountain Range and split up to search for spatial traces.
• Qingluan, Zi Yan, and Xiao Yi Xian found the Nine Nether Deep Underworld Python territory strangely unguarded and continued into the empty Bone Sea.
• Zi Yan used Xiao Yi Xian's Spiritual Strength to locate a hidden space that she could not tear open, then called the others to join her.
• Zhu Li discovered that the ruin was hidden inside a spatial interlayer and opened a temporary passage, leading the group inside.
• After the passage vanished, a wisp of black qi appeared over the Bone Sea and a voice wondered where the group had gone.

Zhu Li led the group into Ancient Saint Zaohua’s ruins, bypassing its defenses and guiding Yun Zimo to claim ten ancient puppets. They reached the buildings beyond the square, ready to explore the relic’s deeper treasures.

• Zhu Li scattered a flame guarding the palace entrance and led the group inside.
• Zhu Li exposed a hidden bluestone passage beneath the magma, allowing everyone to bypass the winding fire-path maze.
• The group found ten ownerless puppets standing before an ancient stone gate.
• Yun Zimo used his soul power to imprint and control all ten puppets, gaining their puppet arts and combined-attack formation.
• Zhu Li led the group onward toward the deeper ruins.

Yun Zimo, Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, and Zhu Li explored a vast medicinal forest hidden within the Dou Sheng ruins and gathered its rare herbs. As they ventured deeper, Zhu Li and Zi Yan sensed the aura of an Ancient Void Dragon.

• Zhu Li led the group through the opened stone gate, and Zi Yan asked Yun Zimo and Xiao Yi Xian to help investigate a place rich in medicinal ingredients.
• The group entered a seemingly endless medicinal forest, where Xiao Yi Xian and Yun Zimo began collecting and storing valuable herbs while Zi Yan ate some and gathered magical beasts as pets.
• Yun Zimo and Xiao Yi Xian spent two hours selecting the most useful herbs, including Soul Infant Fruits and Heaven Origin Grass, because the forest held too many to take everything.
• Zi Yan’s dragon aura subdued a Heaven-Reaching Flood Dragon, which joined her pets and helped search for herbs and other magical beasts.
• As Yun Zimo declared their gathering nearly finished, Zi Yan stared ahead with an unfocused expression, and Zhu Li trembled after sensing an Ancient Void Dragon’s aura.

Zi Yan and Zhu Li discovered a hidden small world containing the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit, formed where an Ancient Void Dragon and an Ancient Heaven Phoenix had fallen. Zi Yan absorbed the fruit and chose to return the Ancient Void Dragon’s corpse to the Dragon Tomb before the group left.

• Zi Yan sensed a calling from the Medicine Forest’s central area, and the Heaven-Reaching Flood Dragon led her, Zhu Li, Yun Zimo, and Xiao Yi Xian there.
• Zhu Li uncovered a spatial barrier fused with a Beast Spirit Shield and opened its passage using his blood.
• The group entered a crimson desert world and found an altar bearing the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit and the remains of an Ancient Void Dragon and an Ancient Heaven Phoenix.
• Zi Yan absorbed the Dragon-Phoenix Origin Fruit, then asked to bring the Ancient Void Dragon’s corpse back to the Dragon Tomb.
• Zhu Li collected the Ancient Void Dragon’s corpse, while Yun Zimo took the Ancient Heaven Phoenix and purple-gold tree and copied the altar’s patterns.

Yun Zimo and the others reached the ruins’ Main Hall and found the Dou Sheng skeleton guarded by a complex formation. Yun Zimo uncovered the formation’s deadly traps and realized that claiming the hall’s treasures would force them to confront the skeleton.

• Qinghua arrived with a map of the ruins, and the group marked the places they had searched after collecting most of the resources.
• Yun Zimo led everyone through the maze-like passages to the Main Hall, where they found ten floating light clusters, eighteen figures on pillars, and a skeleton seated on a white-bone throne.
• Yun Zimo warned that blood might revive the skeleton, while Zhu Li cautioned that the Dou Sheng could use hidden spatial tricks.
• Yun Zimo discovered that the figures were human puppets made from former Dou Zun experts, and that disturbing the light clusters or puppets would activate the formation.
• Yun Zimo concluded that every route to the treasures risked triggering the formation and forcing them to fight the Dou Sheng skeleton.