Chapter Summaries

Xiao Fan revised his plan for Han Feng’s attack on Jia Nan Academy and entrusted Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin with roles in the defense. With Han Feng’s forces gathering and Old Man Mu Gu still hidden, Xiao Fan’s group waited for the enemy while preparing to protect one another.

• Zi Yan and Qing Lin joined Xiao Fan and Xiao Yi Xian, and Xiao Fan admitted he would prioritize survival if Old Man Mu Gu attacked.
• Xiao Fan assigned Zi Yan to evacuate lower-level students and Qing Lin to watch for snake-type magical beasts, giving each a jade token carrying his Soul Seal.
• Su Qian and Elder Huo reviewed Xiao Fan’s plan to secretly evacuate students and make Han Feng believe the Heavenly Burning Qi Refining Tower’s seal had weakened.
• Hai Bodong’s letter confirmed that Han Feng had seven days to attack and had recruited several Black-Corner Region forces, while Old Man Mu Gu remained unseen.
• Xiao Fan, Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin joined hands and agreed to wait for Han Feng’s move; Xiao Fan planned to lure him toward the Fallen Heart Flame and take the Sea Heart Flame.

Xiao Fan defeated and killed Han Feng beneath the Heavenly Burning Qi Refining Tower, claiming the Sea Heart Flame, but Old Man Mu Gu learned of Xiao Fan’s suspected Tunling Clan bloodline and escaped with help from a Soul Hall Earthly Sovereign. After the battle, Xiao Fan and his companions resolved to seek out the Soul Hall before it could strike again.

• Han Feng fought Xiao Fan with the Sea Heart Flame, but Xiao Fan revealed his power and multiple flames, while Xiao Yi Xian and Zi Yan confronted Old Man Mu Gu.
• Han Feng used a blood-red pill to surge toward Dou Zong strength and injured Xiao Fan, while Qing Lin maintained the rear guard and Xiao Fan waited for Han Feng’s power to wane.
• Xiao Fan exploited a brief disruption in Han Feng’s Sea Heart Flame and killed him by burning him with the flames he had wielded.
• A Soul Hall Earthly Sovereign opened a rift and rescued Old Man Mu Gu after he identified Xiao Fan as possibly bearing Tunling Clan blood; Zi Yan was injured trying to stop them.
• Xiao Fan reunited with Zi Yan, Xiao Yi Xian, and Qing Lin, then declared that they would seek out the Soul Hall first.

Xiao Fan and his companions left Jia Nan Academy for the Central Plains, where an Ancient Void Dragon named Hei Qing confronted them over Zi Yan. Xiao Fan’s Dragon Seal revealed Zhu Kun’s aura and earned Hei Qing’s protection, just as a Soul Hall pursuer appeared in the spatial passage.

• Xiao Fan and Xiao Yi Xian agreed to travel to the Central Plains, while Zi Yan and Qing Lin said goodbye to their friends at Jia Nan Academy.
• Su Qian, Elder Huo, and Hai Bodong helped Xiao Fan’s group depart discreetly, and Xiao Fan promised to return as a Tier 8 Alchemist.
• During their journey through a Space Wormhole, spatial turbulence tore open the passage, and Hei Qing appeared after sensing Zi Yan’s imperial bloodline.
• Hei Qing demanded that Zi Yan return to the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, but Xiao Fan fought him and Zi Yan refused to leave Xiao Fan’s side.
• Xiao Fan’s Dragon Seal awakened and revealed Zhu Kun’s aura, causing Hei Qing to kneel and recognize Xiao Fan as an honored guest.
• Xiao Fan sensed a Soul Hall pursuer nearby, and Hei Qing stepped in front of the airship to protect him as black mist gathered.

Xiao Fan refused to take Zi Yan to Dragon Emperor Island after she warned that the other Dragon Islands would exploit the Ancient Dragon Emperor Seal, but Soul Hall ambushed the group in the void. Xiao Fan and his companions defeated the attackers, though Venerable Li Hun escaped with incomplete intelligence about Xiao Fan’s powers.

• Zi Yan warned Xiao Fan and Hei Qing that spies on the Dragon Islands would expose the Dragon Emperor Seal and urged Hei Qing to return to East Dragon Island without mobilizing its forces.
• Soul Hall sealed the surrounding space and attacked the airship with three Mid-Rank Dou Zuns, who used a formation to drain Xiao Fan’s bloodline.
• Xiao Fan turned the formation against the attackers with Heavenly Flames, killed Bone Claw Venerable, and severely injured the spatial-locking Dou Zun while Xiao Yi Xian helped protect him.
• Zi Yan trapped Venerable Li Hun as he tried to escape, but he fled through an exploding spatial passage with a severed arm and grave injuries.
• Xiao Fan killed the captured Dou Zun and absorbed his soul, while Hei Qing opened a passage for the group to leave the wrecked airship.
• Venerable Li Hun reached a Soul Hall spatial node and recorded a damaged, incomplete account of Xiao Fan’s Heavenly Flames and Dragon Seal.

Hun Miesheng sent Saint Gu You to investigate Xiao Fan’s Devouring ability, while a shattered spatial passage carried Xiao Fan and his companions into the buried Tunling Ancestral Realm. There, Xiao Fan’s bloodline awakened a response from the ruins, where a bound skeleton and a mysterious presence awaited him.

• Hun Miesheng reviewed the battle recording and ordered Saint Gu You to test Xiao Fan’s Devouring ability and capture him if possible.
• A hidden Soul Hall rune ruptured the spatial passage, and Xiao Fan led Qing Lin, Xiao Yi Xian, and Zi Yan through the storm to safety.
• Xiao Fan and the three women landed among the silent ruins of a folded world, where Zi Yan recognized that the realm had been sealed to bury everything within it.
• Xiao Fan followed his bloodline’s pull to a ruined stone gate bearing the same insignia as his Devouring mark.
• A faint voice declared that the bloodline had not been extinguished, and a chained skeleton appeared beneath the inscription Tunling Ancestral Realm.

Xiao Fan faced the Tunling Clan’s devouring legacy and learned that Xiao Xiao Yan was the part of Zi Yan’s soul she had sacrificed to help restore him. After he resisted the rampaging bloodline, the Tomb Guardian opened the path to Myriad Blood Return to Void, while a mysterious Soul Fire stirred beyond the Ancestral Realm.

• The Tomb Guardian revealed that the Tunling Clan had devoured other bloodlines until its members became monsters, warning Xiao Fan that his own powers could consume his identity.
• A remnant-blood beast devoured Xiao Fan’s Heavenly Flame, attacked the group, and briefly struck Zi Yan’s soul with its chaotic bloodline power.
• Xiao Xiao Yan explained that she was the part of Zi Yan’s soul that Zi Yan had torn away and placed within Xiao Fan to guide his fragmented remnant soul back to life.
• Xiao Fan’s Spirit Devouring Art went berserk, but Zi Yan, Xiao Yi Xian, and Qing Lin helped him regain control and reject the beast’s power.
• The Tomb Guardian judged Xiao Fan capable of restraint and opened the way to Myriad Blood Return to Void, where he could purify and stabilize his bloodline.
• Xiao Fan promised Zi Yan he would bring Xiao Xiao Yan back, as a gray-white Soul Fire appeared beyond the Ancestral Realm.

Xiao Fan learned that his parents had sacrificed themselves to save him and received a warning about a surviving Tunling Clan traitor. After the group found a Soul Hall spy and sent back a false bloodline signal, Xiao Fan led them toward the Ancestral Mausoleum while Saint Gu You ordered Soul Hall to capture him alive.

• Xiao Fan touched the green crystal core and saw his parents' final words urging him to live as a person rather than be ruled by his bloodline.
• Xiao Yi Xian reassured Xiao Fan that he had resisted devouring, and Zi Yan embraced him and pleaded with him not to disappear again or become a monster.
• The Tomb Guardian opened the Ancestral Mausoleum and revealed that someone had stolen part of the clan genealogy; before it fell silent, it warned Xiao Fan not to trust the non-Pureblood who understood the Spirit Devourer.
• Xiao Yi Xian treated Xiao Fan's injuries, and Qing Lin discovered a Soul Hall Soul Insect hiding outside the stone chamber.
• Xiao Fan used Devouring Flame to send the Soul Insect away with a false aura suggesting his bloodline was unstable, then led the group toward the Ancestral Mausoleum.
• Saint Gu You mistook the false aura for evidence that Xiao Fan was losing control and ordered Soul Hall to capture him alive while investigating the Ancient Clan Relic Realm.

After escaping the collapsing Tunling Ancestral Realm, Xiao Fan and his companions were intercepted by Soul Hall Demi-Saint Saint Gu You, who tried to force them to join the Soul Hall. Mang Tianchi arrived to protect them and opened a route to Tianbei City, leaving Xiao Fan wounded but resolved to recover and grow stronger.

• Xiao Fan emerged from the collapsing Ancestral Realm as a Three-Star Dou Zong, with Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin at his side.
• Saint Gu You immobilized the group and offered each of them a place in the Soul Hall before binding Xiao Fan with soul chains.
• Xiao Fan used Su Qian's Inner Academy Elder Token to summon Mang Tianchi, who drove back Saint Gu You and opened a path for the group.
• Xiao Xiao Yan deflected Saint Gu You's Soul Nail, but it pierced Xiao Fan's shoulder as he escaped through the spatial crack with the three women.
• Xiao Fan and his companions arrived outside Tianbei City, treated his wound, and agreed to recover before growing stronger.

Xiao Fan and his companions reached the Tianbei Region and clashed with Feng Qing'er in a night market, where he effortlessly defeated her without seriously injuring her. They headed for Tianbei City, planning to use the Han Clan’s situation and their alchemist identities to establish a foothold and build a network.

• Xiao Fan decided to enter Tianbei City and seek a foothold rather than bring Soul Hall’s attention back to Jia Nan Academy.
• Zi Yan noticed the Heaven Demon Phoenix Clan’s carriage and admitted that its members smelled delicious, prompting Feng Qing'er to demand an apology.
• Feng Qing'er attacked Xiao Fan with the Three Thousand Lightning Movement, but he blocked her moves, crushed her Lightning Phoenix Seal, and restrained her by the throat.
• Feng Qing'er's protective phoenix feather struck at Xiao Fan, but his Heavenly Flames erased it; he then released her and left with his companions.
• Xiao Fan told Xiao Yi Xian that Feng Qing'er would likely hide her defeat and seek to reclaim it herself.
• Xiao Fan decided to enter Tianbei City, start with the Han Clan, and establish the group as Alchemists so they could gather information and build a network.

Xiao Fan entered Tianbei City under an assumed identity and saved Han Yue’s father from a trap laid with Wind-Thunder Dark Seals. In return, the Han Clan sent Xiao Fan and his companions through its hidden Old Array toward the Dan Region, where he planned to seek Danta’s Alchemist assessment and conceal himself from the Soul Hall.

• Xiao Fan posed as the Tier 6 Alchemist Mu Fan and approached the Han Clan, where Han Yue explained her father’s injury and the Hong Clan’s pressure over the Space Wormhole.
• Xiao Fan discovered three hidden Wind-Thunder Dark Seals in Han Chi’s meridians and removed them with his Heavenly Flame while Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin helped protect and guide the treatment.
• Han Chi awoke and agreed to let Xiao Fan borrow the Space Wormhole, while Han Yue proposed using the unregistered Old Array to avoid the Hong Clan’s notice.
• Han Yue led Xiao Fan and his companions to the Old Array, gave him a Han Clan token, and shared her hope of someday leaving Tianbei City to attend Jia Nan Academy.
• Xiao Fan, Xiao Yi Xian, Zi Yan, and Qing Lin entered the unstable spatial passage and headed for the Dan Region, where Xiao Fan planned to take Danta’s Alchemist rank assessment and find a new identity.

Xiao Fan and his companions crossed the unstable Han Clan passage, where he turned a Wind-Thunder trap back on its makers and redirected their arrival to a Dan Region transit city. At the city’s Danta checkpoint, he identified himself as Mu Fan and requested a Tier 7 Low Rank assessment, then agreed to follow a skeptical deacon to the Branch Tower.

• Qing Lin spotted three purple Wind-Thunder lines hidden in the spatial passage, and Xiao Fan identified them as a trap meant to expose the Han Clan array’s coordinates.
• Xiao Fan used the Spirit Devouring Art and his false aura to send the thunder lines back along their route with misleading information.
• Xiao Fan treated Xiao Yi Xian’s small wrist wound while she tended to his injury, and the group emerged in a Dan Region transit city.
• Xiao Fan saw Danta in the distance and told Danta deacons that he had come as Mu Fan to take an assessment.
• After Xiao Fan requested a Tier 7 Low Rank assessment, a skeptical gray-haired deacon agreed to take him to the Branch Tower.

Xiao Fan chose the Snake-People Tribe’s Seven-Colored Transformation Pill commission for his Tier 7 high-grade Danta assessment and devised a formula that let the pill taker choose between human and snake forms. Queen Medusa revealed herself as the client, and the assessment began with Xiao Fan preparing to light the furnace.

• Xiao Fan registered as Mu Fan and applied for a Tier 7 high-grade assessment, drawing disbelief from the Danta hall.
• Xiao Fan chose the incomplete Seven-Colored Transformation Pill commission, recognizing its connection to Queen Medusa and the Snake-People Tribe.
• Xiao Fan rejected Danta’s three proposed formulas and explained that transformation should preserve the pill taker’s ability to choose their form.
• Xiao Fan revised the formula with four ingredients designed to preserve the pill taker’s body, spirituality, and bloodline while allowing them to transform at will.
• Queen Medusa emerged from behind the second-floor curtain, and Xiao Fan addressed her as the client before the elders began the assessment.

Xiao Fan refined a high seventh-tier Seven-Colored Transformation Pill for Die, making its form recognize Die’s own aura rather than Medusa’s royal blood. He passed the Danta examination and sent the pill and supplementary medicine to Medusa for Die, while gaining a registered Tier 7 High-Grade Alchemist identity.

• Xiao Fan used spatial power and carefully balanced medicinal forces to guide the beast nature within the pill without suppressing or destroying it.
• When the pill could not recognize its form, Xiao Fan asked Medusa for something bearing Die’s aura, and she sent him one of Die’s childhood scales.
• Xiao Fan used the scale to anchor the pill to Die, then guided three bolts of Pill Lightning to preserve her serpent nature and give her the choice to show or hide her tail.
• The gray-robed elder declared the pill a high seventh-tier, top-grade Seven-Colored Transformation Pill and announced that Mu Fan had passed the examination.
• Xiao Fan gave Medusa the main pill and supplementary medicine for Die, and the gray-robed elder presented him with a Tier 7 High-Grade Alchemist badge.

After earning a high-rank Tier 7 Alchemist badge, Xiao Fan spoke with Medusa about helping the Snake-People Tribe establish itself in the Central Plains, and she chose to trust him and walk beside him. He ended the night determined to build a future home for the people he cared about, while Three Thousand Burning Flame stirred as a danger awaiting the Pill Gathering.

• Xiao Fan reflected on completing Die's Seven-Colored Transformation Pill and on his new standing as a Danta high-rank Tier 7 Alchemist.
• Medusa visited Xiao Fan and recalled how she had kept Die's childhood scale, then admitted she had tried to shield Die from every hardship.
• Xiao Fan told Medusa he wanted to support her and laid out a plan to secure a foothold and trade routes for the Snake-People Tribe in the Central Plains.
• Medusa kissed Xiao Fan, said she could trust him, and insisted she would lead her tribe's path herself.
• Medusa left medicine for Die and Sugar Pills for Zi Yan, while Xiao Yi Xian joined Xiao Fan in the courtyard.
• Xiao Fan sensed Three Thousand Burning Flame stir in Danta's main tower and vowed to secure a place where his companions could stand firm.

Xiao Fan met the declining Ye Family after accepting Ye Zhong’s invitation, and used a high-grade sixth-tier pill to help Ye Xinlan secure an Earth Heart Green Vine from the Cao Family. Ye Xinlan agreed to record the pill as the Ye Family’s debt and led Xiao Fan to meet Ye Zhong.

• Zi Yan found the Sugar Pills Medusa had given her while Xiao Fan reviewed invitations from the Danta Branch Tower.
• Xiao Fan accepted Ye Zhong’s invitation to meet at the Danta Medicine Market and considered the Ye Family’s trade routes useful to his plans.
• Cao Xiu tried to take the Earth Heart Green Vine from Ye Xinlan because the Ye Family could not pay the remaining balance.
• Xiao Fan paid the balance with a high-grade sixth-tier Clear Meridian Pulse-Protecting Pill and warned Cao Xiu against using the market to humiliate the Ye Family.
• Zi Yan’s bloodline pressure frightened Cao Xiu and his guards, who left the market.
• Ye Xinlan agreed to put the pill on the Ye Family’s account and led Xiao Fan to meet Ye Zhong.

Xiao Fan negotiated with Ye Zhong to support the Ye Family in the Danta Five Great Families assessment in exchange for long-term usage rights to the Yang Fire Ancient Altar. Qing Lin discovered a hidden snake-shaped lock beneath the fire vein, and Xiao Fan planned to investigate the altar the next day.

• Ye Zhong asked Xiao Fan to represent the Ye Family in the upcoming assessment and offered him three days at the Yang Fire Ancient Altar.
• Xiao Fan countered by asking for long-term usage rights and agreed to stabilize Ye Zhong's soul injury and help the Ye Family pass the assessment.
• Ye Zhong accepted the deal, granting Xiao Fan authority over restoring the altar and restarting its underground fire while the Ye Family retained some usage rights.
• Qing Lin sensed a coiled-snake lock beneath a fire vein, and Ye Zhong found a record mentioning that a Red Snake guarded the altar.
• Xiao Fan decided to inspect the Ye Family's rear mountain and the earth fire the next day.

Xiao Fan helped Xiao Yi Xian use the Yang Fire Ancient Altar to stabilize her Poison Pill and strengthen her cultivation, bringing the two closer. The Ye Family’s ancient fire began to recover, while its assessment and other challenges still lay ahead.

• Ye Zhong opened the Yang Fire Ancient Altar, and Xiao Fan asked Xiao Yi Xian whether she wanted to use it to become stronger; she agreed.
• Xiao Fan and Xiao Yi Xian entered the altar, where he guided the Earth Heart Yang Fire into her meridians as she controlled her Nether Poison Fire.
• Xiao Yi Xian’s Poison Pill stabilized and her cultivation reached the peak of two-star Dou Zun; she leaned into Xiao Fan’s arms and kissed his cheek.
• Xiao Fan and Xiao Yi Xian emerged from the altar, and Ye Zhong confirmed that the Yang Fire could help restore the Ye Family’s fire veins.
• Xiao Fan told Ye Xinlan that the Ye Family still had a chance, while the group shared a lighthearted moment with Zi Yan and her Sugar Pills.

After Xiao Fan helped revive the Ye Family’s Yang Fire Ancient Altar, Ye Zhong explained that an outside Alchemist could represent the family in the Five Great Families assessment only through a family tie. Xiao Fan agreed to pose as Ye Xinlan’s fiancé for the assessment after asking her and his companions how they felt, and the chapter ended as Cao Xiu challenged his eligibility at registration.

• Ye Zhong told Ye Xinlan that the Ye Family still had a chance after the Yang Fire Ancient Altar was restored and Xiao Yi Xian’s Woe Poison Body stabilized.
• Ye Zhong explained that an outside Alchemist needed a marriage tie, blood relation, or formal clan-entry relationship to compete for one of the Five Great Families.
• Ye Xinlan agreed to a temporary fiancé arrangement with Xiao Fan, and he asked Zi Yan, Qing Lin, and Xiao Yi Xian how they felt before accepting.
• Xiao Fan and Ye Xinlan left their seals on a temporary marriage document under the name Mu Fan, keeping the arrangement secret.
• At the Danta Five Clans Registration Hall, Cao Xiu challenged Xiao Fan’s right to represent the Ye Family because his surname was Mu.

Xiao Fan secured permission to represent the Ye Family in the Five Great Families assessment by proving his engagement to Ye Xinlan and revealing a Spirit Realm soul. After Cao Ying invited him to join the Cao Family, Medusa summoned him that night to explain his new fiancé status.

• Ye Zhong presented a genuine marriage document naming Xiao Fan as Ye Xinlan’s fiancé, and Xiao Fan passed the Soul Stele test with seven runes and a Spirit Realm imprint.
• The Danta Deacon approved Xiao Fan to represent the Ye Family, while Ye Xinlan thanked him for defending her reputation and the family’s qualification.
• Cao Ying teased Xiao Fan about becoming the Cao Family’s fiancé, warned Cao Xiu about his disgraceful conduct, and invited Xiao Fan to meet at the assessment.
• Medusa contacted Xiao Fan and ordered him to visit that night with an explanation for being forced by his rules.

Xiao Fan represented the Ye Family in the Five Great Families' assessment and faced Cao Ying in the first of the Three Trials of Pill Soul. He tied with her in identifying herbs, giving the Ye Family a strong start as the contest moved toward the next trial.

• Xiao Fan reassured Ye Xinlan that the Ye Family's name had to be earned back, not protected by his fiancé title.
• Cao Ying teased Xiao Fan about being the Ye Family's fiancé, and he mocked Cao Xiu in reply.
• A Danta Elder announced the Three Trials of Pill Soul: identifying herbs, completing the formula, and condensing a pill.
• Cao Ying quickly identified herbs in her sealed cauldron while Xiao Fan quietly studied the medicinal vapor.
• Xiao Fan listed all 127 ingredients and identified fake, mutated, and fire-altered herbs, tying Cao Ying for first in the opening trial.