Chapter Summaries

Yue Mei brooded over her humiliating encounter with Lu Heng while Queen Medusa prepared to devour the Green Lotus Core Flame to break through to Dou Zong. Lu Heng flew toward the Snake-People Tribe to obtain rare medicinal ingredients and treasures.

• Yue Mei recalled how Lu Heng had defeated her and spanked her during their encounter more than a year earlier, a secret she had kept from Queen Medusa.
• Queen Medusa waited beside Ice Spirit Cold Spring Lake, preparing to devour the Green Lotus Core Flame despite the risk of death.
• Medusa resolved to seek the breakthrough to Dou Zong so she could protect the Snake-People Tribe and secure its future.
• Lu Heng flew toward the Snake-People Tribe to obtain yao cai for the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill and treasures for his Small Five Elements Spirit Body.

Lu Heng sought the Green Lotus Core Flame to strengthen his Li Fire Body and found Yue Mei’s underground palace while crossing the desert. Yue Mei recognized him as the man who had defeated and spanked her, and Lu Heng greeted her after descending into the palace.

• Lu Heng decided to pursue the Green Lotus Core Flame, reasoning that it could greatly strengthen his Li Fire Body even if it did not count as a heavenly treasure.
• Lu Heng sensed an underground structure beneath an oasis and discovered that Yue Mei’s Charm Snake Tribe lived there.
• Yue Mei ended the patrol and prepared to leave the underground palace, but sensed a powerful, familiar human aura above.
• Yue Mei ordered the guards to defend the entrance and warned them not to attack the intruder without authorization.
• Lu Heng walked down the passage, and Yue Mei recognized him before he greeted her as Commander Yue Mei.

Lu Heng subdued Yue Mei in the Charm Snake Tribe passage and asked whether the tribe possessed four rare medicinal ingredients and other elemental treasures. Yue Mei did not know, but offered to take him to the tribe’s treasury, challenging him to go with her.

• Lu Heng seized Yue Mei before she could summon help and threatened to spank her again unless she answered his questions.
• Lu Heng asked whether the Charm Snake Tribe had four named medicinal ingredients and requested a list of its treasures tied to the five elements.
• Lu Heng slapped Yue Mei’s buttocks before releasing her, then explained that he had come as an alchemist to find ingredients, not to wage war.
• Yue Mei sent her three guards away and said she did not know whether the tribe had the ingredients because snake-people rarely used medicinal materials.
• Yue Mei invited Lu Heng to inspect the Charm Snake Tribe’s treasury and challenged him to accompany her.

Lu Heng entered the Charm Snake Tribe’s treasury with Yue Mei and found several valuable materials, then offered her a Dou Ling Pill in exchange for three items. Yue Mei received an urgent message from the passage, leaving her response to his offer uncertain.

• Yue Mei tried to lure Lu Heng into the treasury so the guards could trap him and summon Medusa, but Lu Heng saw through her plan and followed her anyway.
• Yue Mei led Lu Heng through the Underground Palace, ordering the hostile guards to let him pass until they reached the treasury.
• Lu Heng searched the treasury and identified Thick Soil Dragon Scale Earth, Nine-Turn Gold Essence Powder, and a Black Water Profound Pearl, but did not find the two spiritual herbs he sought.
• Lu Heng asked to trade for the three materials and offered Yue Mei a Dou Ling Pill that could help her advance one star as a Dou King.
• A guard whispered an urgent message to Yue Mei, changing her expression before she answered Lu Heng.

Lu Heng learned that Queen Medusa had ordered Yue Mei to keep him in the Snake-People Tribe, but he offered Yue Mei a Dou Ling Pill and said he had come to find the Queen. Yue Mei led him to an open square to wait for Medusa, where he expected they would fight.

• Yue Mei learned that Queen Medusa wanted Lu Heng kept in the tribe, and Lu Heng revealed he had overheard the message sent to her.
• Lu Heng teased Yue Mei by touching her hips, then gave her a Dou Ling Pill that could raise her from Seven-Star Dou King to Eight-Star Dou King.
• Lu Heng told Yue Mei that he had come to find Queen Medusa and was not afraid she could stop him.
• Yue Mei led Lu Heng from the Underground Palace to an aboveground square and brought out wine and two clay bowls.

Lu Heng waited with Yue Mei for Queen Medusa, revealing his sharp observations and proposing a deal. Medusa arrived with Hua She'er after learning of his strength and alchemy, and Lu Heng introduced himself and his offer.

• Lu Heng and Yue Mei drank Scorpion Tail Wine while discussing his age, alchemy, and the Snake-People Tribe’s recent preparations.
• Lu Heng inferred that the Queen was monitoring outside developments, but Yue Mei refused to explain her plans.
• Medusa learned that Lu Heng was a powerful young alchemist and flew with Hua She'er to the Charm Snake Tribe.
• Lu Heng sensed Medusa and Hua She'er approaching, and Yue Mei sobered and greeted the Queen when they arrived.
• Medusa confronted Lu Heng, who rose, introduced himself, and said he had come to make a deal.

Medusa tested Lu Heng after he claimed to have the strength to speak boldly before her. Lu Heng endured her attacks and even forced the Peak Dou Emperor to shift half an inch, leaving Hua She'er and Yue Mei stunned.

• Medusa judged Lu Heng's solid aura and composure, while Hua She'er rebuked him for disrespecting the Queen.
• Medusa ordered Hua She'er to stand down and challenged Lu Heng to prove his strength.
• Lu Heng evaded Medusa's first attacks with Water Cloud Step and blocked a Snake Shadow Blade with his Earth Origin Shield.
• Lu Heng braced against Medusa's snake-tail sweep with his shield and countered with Earth Gold Mountain-Suppressing Edge.
• Medusa caught Lu Heng's attack with a purple Dou Qi membrane but was pushed back half an inch, shocking Hua She'er and Yue Mei.

Lu Heng demonstrated his strength to Medusa and offered pills and alchemical expertise to improve her chances of evolving by devouring the Green Lotus Core Flame. Medusa examined the pills and ended by asking whether he dared return to the Holy City with her.

• Lu Heng fought Medusa across the plaza, displaying his Five-Attribute Dou Qi and combat strength while both restrained their full power.
• Medusa acknowledged Lu Heng's strength and asked about his master before hearing his proposed deal.
• Lu Heng guessed that Medusa planned to devour a Heavenly Flame and offered to improve her chances of surviving the evolution.
• Lu Heng offered a Seventh-Grade Healing Pill and a Seventh-Grade Pulse Protecting Pill in exchange for access to the medicine treasury, snake-beast blood essence, and a chance to see the Green Lotus Core Flame.
• Lu Heng claimed his Seventh-Grade Alchemist skills could help with the evolution, and Medusa asked whether he dared return to the Holy City with her.

Lu Heng accepted Medusa’s invitation to return to the Holy City but suggested they first share wine with Yue Mei. As they talked, Medusa explained that she sought a Heavenly Flame to grow stronger and free the Snake-People Tribe from its confinement in the Tager Desert.

• Lu Heng calmly accepted Medusa’s invitation to the Holy City and invited her to join him and Yue Mei for wine.
• Medusa agreed, ordered Yue Mei and Hua She'er to bring more Scorpion Tail Wine, and sat across from Lu Heng.
• Lu Heng told Medusa he would not mind staying if she kept him there, while Yue Mei tried to hide her laughter and Hua She'er grew irritated.
• Lu Heng asked why Medusa would risk a Heavenly Flame despite the Snake-People Tribe’s cold constitution.
• Medusa said she wanted to grow stronger because the Snake-People Tribe was trapped in the Tager Desert, hemmed in by the Jia Ma Empire’s defenses and surrounding terrain.

Lu Heng spoke with Medusa about why they sought strength, and the Snake-People Tribe prepared to escort him to the Holy City. The next morning, Yue Mei led him toward Medusa, who was waiting, and asked whether he feared an ambush.

• Medusa explained that she needed to devour a Heavenly Flame to break through and save the Snake-People Tribe from being trapped in the desert.
• When Medusa asked why he sought strength, Lu Heng said he wanted to protect the first person who had treated him well.
• Medusa announced that they would leave for the Holy City in the morning, with Yue Mei leading the way.
• Yue Mei reflected on the potency of Lu Heng's pill and his status as a Seventh-Grade Alchemist.
• The next morning, Yue Mei summoned Lu Heng and led him toward the Holy City, then asked whether he feared the Snake-People Tribe would ambush him.

Lu Heng challenged the Snake-People Tribe to prove he was a Seventh-Grade Alchemist and negotiated a favor from Medusa in return. As they traveled toward Holy City, he decided to refine an Imperial Creation Pill, though he still needed to find the ingredients in the Holy City Treasury.

• Yue Mei and Hua She'er questioned whether Lu Heng had personally refined the high-grade pills he carried.
• Lu Heng said he would prove his alchemy skills in Holy City and asked Medusa to owe him a favor for doubting him.
• Medusa agreed that if Lu Heng proved himself, the Snake-People Tribe would ally with him and help him in exchange for his support during her evolution trial.
• The four continued toward Holy City, with Medusa and Hua She'er flying ahead while Lu Heng followed using his Purple Cloud Wings.
• Lu Heng chose the Peak Seventh-Grade Imperial Creation Pill to prove his skill and help Medusa pursue a breakthrough, but he needed to check whether the Holy City Treasury held its ingredients.

Lu Heng selected rare ingredients from the Snake-People Tribe's treasury and spent six hours refining a Peak Seventh-Grade Imperial Creation Pill. A pillar of golden light marked the pill's formation, and dark clouds gathered overhead as a heavenly lightning tribulation began.

• Medusa brought Lu Heng to the Snake-People Tribe's treasury and allowed him to choose the ingredients he needed while she watched.
• Lu Heng took rare medicinal ingredients, including three portions of Millennium Fire Spirit Marrow and one Purple Gold Dragon Ginseng, then set up the Chixiao Cauldron behind the Divine Temple.
• Lu Heng began refining the Imperial Creation Pill as Medusa, Hua She'er, and Yue Mei watched from a distance.
• After six hours, the Chixiao Cauldron shook and sent a pillar of golden light into the sky, signaling the pill's formation.
• Dark clouds gathered above the Tager Desert, and Lu Heng saw that the heavenly lightning tribulation had arrived.

Lu Heng refined a peak Seventh-Grade Imperial Creation Pill, enduring three bolts of Pill Lightning with Medusa’s help. His skill stunned the Snake-People and their hidden Supreme Elders, while Medusa reconsidered his value and Lu Heng grew more confident about refining the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill.

• Lu Heng shielded the Chixiao Cauldron from the first bolt of Pill Lightning, and Medusa helped him withstand the second and third.
• Lu Heng retrieved the Imperial Creation Pill and explained that it could let a Nine-Star Dou Emperor break through to Dou Zong.
• Yue Mei and Hua She'er were stunned by Lu Heng’s achievement, while the four hidden Supreme Elders agreed that he was far more valuable than they had expected.
• Lu Heng reflected on how Five Elements Dou Qi had helped him refine the pill and estimated a sixty percent chance of making the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill.
• Medusa regarded Lu Heng with a newly complicated expression as she considered the rarity of a sixteen-year-old who could refine a peak Seventh-Grade Pill.

Medusa considered using Lu Heng’s Imperial Creation Pill to safely break through to Dou Zong, but Lu Heng warned that doing so would stunt her bloodline and future potential. She agreed to pursue evolution through the Green Lotus Core Flame and led him toward it, asking why he believed she would choose the dangerous path.

• Medusa asked Lu Heng how she could trade for the Imperial Creation Pill, and he recognized that she wanted to use it instead of devouring a Heavenly Flame.
• Lu Heng warned Medusa that the pill would make her an ordinary Dou Zong but prevent her Purple Nether Flame Snake bloodline from evolving.
• Lu Heng said he wanted a future partner with greater potential, and Medusa asked what he wanted from her.
• Lu Heng explained that his pills and Five Elements Dou Qi could raise her chance of surviving the evolution to twenty or thirty percent.
• Medusa agreed to provide the blood essence Lu Heng wanted and led him through a hidden passage toward the Green Lotus Core Flame.
• Medusa asked why Lu Heng was sure she would choose the dangerous path, and he answered that she had ambition.

Lu Heng returned the Green Lotus Core Flame to its lotus pedestal and prepared to refine medicine while Medusa readied herself for bloodline evolution. Medusa named him the Snake-People Tribe’s honored guest and her first human friend, and Lu Heng asked Yue Mei to take him to the treasury.

• Lu Heng and Medusa reached the underground hall containing the Green Lotus Core Flame, and he revealed that he had seen the Fallen Heart Flame.
• Lu Heng placed the green lotus pedestal into Ice Spirit Cold Spring Lake, and the Green Lotus Core Flame settled peacefully onto it.
• Medusa agreed that Lu Heng would remain the Snake-People Tribe’s best friend regardless of whether her evolution succeeded, and called him her first human friend.
• Medusa ordered Yue Mei to attend to Lu Heng and told Hua She’er to notify the four Great Elders to behave themselves.
• Lu Heng asked Yue Mei to take him to the treasury, and she led the way.

Lu Heng searched the Snake-People Tribe's treasury and found the remaining ingredients for the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill, then discovered treasures and magical beast essence blood that could help awaken his Small Five Elements Spirit Body. He asked Yue Mei to let him take everything in the core storage room, leaving her worried that the four great elders would hold her responsible.

• Lu Heng found a Millennium Green Ling Ganoderma and a Millennium Fire Spirit Ganoderma Core Marrow, completing the ingredients for the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill.
• Lu Heng sensed powerful treasures in the treasury's locked core storage room and persuaded Yue Mei to open it with her Snake Bone Token.
• Lu Heng identified Seventh-Grade metal, wood, and earth treasures, which joined the Black Water Profound Pearl he had already obtained to give him four of the five attributes.
• Lu Heng discovered Sixth-Grade Magical Beast essence blood representing all five attributes among jade bottles and wooden boxes.
• Lu Heng told Yue Mei that he wanted all the treasures, and she protested that the four great elders would kill her for giving them up.

Lu Heng emptied the Snake-People Tribe’s treasury, promising to refine its unused treasures into pills, then began preparing to refine more. Medusa set the date for her evolution and ordered her elders and Hua She’er not to provoke Lu Heng if she failed to survive it.

• Lu Heng took the treasury’s valuable contents and told Yue Mei he would turn the unused materials into pills for the Snake-People Tribe.
• Lu Heng returned to his stone chamber with the ingredients and began preparing to refine pills, while Yue Mei arranged guards outside.
• Medusa told the Four Great Supreme Elders that the date of her evolution had been set and ordered them not to conflict with Lu Heng if she died or failed.
• Medusa designated Yue Mei to handle the tribe’s affairs if she did not survive, explaining that the Snake-People Tribe might need Lu Heng’s support.
• Medusa ordered Hua She’er not to cause trouble for Lu Heng and assigned her to oversee the Holy City’s defenses.

Lu Heng spent ten days refining pills to help Medusa devour the Green Lotus Core Flame, including a difficult Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill that drew fierce Pill Lightning. Medusa took the pills he prepared and began the process beside the Ice Spirit Cold Spring Lake.

• Lu Heng refined peak Fifth-Rank Blood Lotus Pills and a Seventh-Grade Ice Spirit Pill to protect Medusa and strengthen her cold-yin constitution for devouring the Heavenly Flame.
• Over the following days, Lu Heng made more auxiliary pills and refined the Five Elements Poison-Locking Pill from ingredients taken from the Snake-People Tribe's treasury.
• Pill Lightning gathered over the Holy City, and Lu Heng blocked every bolt with his Five Elements Dou Qi.
• On the tenth day, Medusa met Lu Heng and accepted four kinds of pills he had prepared for the devouring process.
• Lu Heng followed Medusa to the Ice Spirit Cold Spring Lake, where she swallowed a Blood Lotus Pill and began devouring the Green Lotus Core Flame.

Medusa devoured the Green Lotus Core Flame, evolved into a Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, and broke through to one-star Dou Zong with Lu Heng’s preparations. Her souls remained unmerged and her aura unstable, and Lu Heng caught her as she collapsed.

• Medusa swallowed the Blood Lotus Pill, Ice Spirit Pill, and Pulse Protecting Pill, then transformed into her Purple Nether Flame Snake form.
• Medusa bit down on the Green Lotus Core Flame and endured its clash with the Ice Spirit Pill’s cold energy while Lu Heng guarded the underground hall.
• The Pulse Protecting Pill kept Medusa’s meridians intact as she survived the Heavenly Flame and evolved into a Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python.
• Medusa broke through to one-star Dou Zong, but her soul and the python’s soul remained in conflict, leaving her cultivation unstable.
• Medusa returned to human form and began to fall, and Lu Heng caught her in his arms.

Lu Heng completed the Small Five Elements Spirit Body by merging five heavenly treasures and five kinds of magical beast essence blood. He remained a Nine-Star Dou King, but his five physiques and their energies had fused into one, while Medusa slept in the form of a little python.

• Medusa's evolution succeeded, and she transformed into a weak, sleeping seven-colored python; Lu Heng wrapped her in cloth and put her in his sleeve.
• Lu Heng told Yue Mei and Hua She'er that Medusa was still refining the Heavenly Flame and ordered them to keep everyone out of the Divine Temple.
• Lu Heng arranged five elemental treasures and five kinds of Sixth-Grade Magical Beast essence blood, then used his soul power to make their conflicting energies follow the Five Elements Cycle.
• Five streams of energy entered Lu Heng and merged in his dantian into a grayish-white Dou Qi vortex as his five physiques fused into one.
• Lu Heng completed the Small Five Elements Spirit Body without breaking through from Nine-Star Dou King, and the awakened little python watched him.