Chapter Summaries

Li Changshou and the others left the Northern Continent, where Youqin Xuanya recounted how Yuan Qing had tried to control her and how she ultimately killed him. After returning to Lesser Qiong Peak, Li Changshou reunited with a relieved Ling'e, who had rushed out to greet him while bathing.

• Daoist Master Qi Yuan examined Li Changshou and told him to recuperate in quiet cultivation, while Jiu Wu led the group out of the Northern Continent.
• Youqin Xuanya recounted Yuan Qing's schemes, her encounters with Li Changshou, and how she killed Yuan Qing; Jiang Jingshan and Youqin Xuanya thanked Li Changshou.
• Lin Qi lamented his failure to recognize Yuan Qing's nature, and the group discussed Youqin Xuanya's likely light punishment under the Sect Rules.
• Jiang Jingshan hurried back to the Du Xian Sect and arranged for Yuan Qing's Mortal World power to be uprooted, while Qi Yuan and Li Changshou traveled home more slowly.
• Li Changshou returned to Lesser Qiong Peak, where Ling'e rushed out from her bath to embrace him before hurrying back into the tub when she thought Qi Yuan had returned with him.

Li Changshou planned to save Qi Yuan from his heavenly tribulation with a Melting Immortal Pill and reflected on how to improve his techniques. He then visited Lan Ling'e, explained Yuan Qing’s plot against Youqin Xuanya, and reminded her to be cautious.

• Qi Yuan returned to Lesser Qiong Peak in high spirits, praised Li Changshou for rescuing Youqin Xuanya, and began secluded cultivation.
• Li Changshou reviewed his plan to help Qi Yuan survive the tribulation by using a Melting Immortal Pill to become a Turbid Immortal, while worrying that his master would refuse it.
• Li Changshou reflected on shortcomings in his evasion techniques and avatars before visiting Lan Ling'e after the hour of the tiger began.
• Li Changshou told Lan Ling'e that Yuan Qing had plotted to marry Youqin Xuanya for political power, and that Youqin Xuanya had killed him.
• Lan Ling'e analyzed Yuan Qing’s failed scheme, and Li Changshou reminded her to learn from the incident before offering to refill her medicine pouch.

Li Changshou reprimanded Lan Ling'e for wasting most of his Poison Powder, then explained that he had deliberately let her demonstrate his poison skills to the sect’s elders. He planned to build an alchemy room on Lesser Qiong Peak, leaving Lan Ling'e to chop wood and clear the site while he began refining the plans.

• Li Changshou confronted Lan Ling'e about using most of his Poison Powder, and she confessed that two Martial Uncles had taken some of it after learning of his skill.
• Li Changshou revealed that he had anticipated the incident and hoped to form a connection with Elder Wan Linjun, whose Poison Scripture had inspired some of the formulas.
• Li Changshou ordered Lan Ling'e to chop wood and clear land without Dao arts or spiritual power as punishment and to prepare a site for an alchemy room.
• Li Changshou gave Lan Ling'e a six-petaled flower to use in her bath, and she relaxed after he left, pleased that he still cared for her.
• Li Changshou returned to his grass hut and reviewed the many old plans he had drafted for an alchemy room, considering where to build it and how to avoid drawing attention.

Li Changshou traded Divine Immortal's Brew for Jiu Jiu's help stabilizing formations, then spent two years building a dense formation network in the forest. The chapter left Jiu Jiu arriving to demand her monthly brew and Charm of the Beauty while Li Changshou remained inside his pill chamber refining pills.

• Lan Ling'e chopped down a tree without using magic power and greeted Jiu Jiu when she arrived looking for Li Changshou.
• Jiu Jiu delivered Li Changshou his Training Assembly reward and Jiang Jingshan's gift, then complained that the Elders had forbidden her from drinking for three years.
• Li Changshou offered Jiu Jiu future fine wines in exchange for her help stabilizing formation foundations, and she agreed after tasting Divine Immortal's Brew and falling asleep.
• Two years later, Jiu Jiu rushed to Li Changshou's cottage to ask for her monthly Divine Immortal's Brew and Charm of the Beauty.
• Jiu Jiu hesitated at the forest's interlocking formations, then entered after Li Changshou deactivated them while he continued refining pills.

Li Changshou prepared to refine a Melting Immortal Pill and asked Jiu Jiu to assist him in twenty days, while concealing his plans behind careful precautions. Jiu Wu visited Jiu Jiu to ask about her frequent trips to Lesser Qiong Peak, then left after she agreed to ask Li Changshou for more spiders; Li Changshou used an illusionary paper figure to monitor the alchemy furnace.

• Li Changshou showed Jiu Jiu his new pills and wine, then asked her to keep secret that he planned to refine a Melting Immortal Pill in twenty days.
• Jiu Jiu returned to her pavilion, where Jiu Wu questioned her about her visits to Lesser Qiong Peak and asked her to request more Three-Eyed Heavy-Pupil Spiders from Li Changshou.
• Li Changshou checked the grand array and activated the alchemy furnace before replacing himself with an illusionary paper figure and hiding nearby.

Li Changshou completed a hidden, three-dimensional formation beneath Lesser Qiong Peak and sorted through his spoils from the Northern Continent. When Jiu Jiu arrived to help refine pills, Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi secretly followed her onto the peak, where they discovered Li Changshou’s formations.

• Li Changshou entered his concealed secret chamber and inspected the layered formations he had built with Jiu Jiu’s help.
• Li Changshou explained how his interwoven horizontal, vertical, and diagonal formations concealed a formidable defense beneath Lesser Qiong Peak.
• Li Changshou sorted through the spoils from his trip to the Northern Continent and set aside two sleeping Love Gu.
• Jiu Jiu flew to Lesser Qiong Peak on the day she had agreed to help Li Changshou refine pills.
• Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi watched Jiu Jiu arrive, then concealed themselves and flew toward Lesser Qiong Peak despite Jiu Wu sensing its formations.

Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi secretly approached Lesser Qiong Peak to find Jiu Jiu, but Li Changshou’s layered illusion arrays trapped them until they stumbled upon the alchemy room and left. Li Changshou confirmed his arrays had kept their secrets and began preparing to refine poison pills with Jiu Jiu.

• Jiu Shi persuaded Jiu Wu to sneak into Lesser Qiong Peak rather than visit openly, and they entered Li Changshou’s illusion arrays.
• Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi struggled for hours to escape the interconnected arrays, eventually losing their way and doubting their array skills.
• Jiu Wu and Jiu Shi found Jiu Jiu with Li Changshou in the alchemy room, then left without interrupting them after Jiu Shi decided Li Changshou seemed dependable.
• Li Changshou checked that the arrays had not revealed their secrets and brought out protective gear for himself and Jiu Jiu before beginning poison-pill refinement.

Jiu Jiu clarified that she and Li Changshou had not become Dao companions, while Jiu Wu learned that she had helped him set up arrays and refine poison pills. Recognizing Li Changshou’s unusual talents and his discreet message, Jiu Wu visited Lesser Qiong Peak at night to question him, leaving Li Changshou ready to answer while offering wine and food.

• Jiu Jiu delivered the spiders Jiu Wu had requested, and he gave her array-formations insights and new clothes while asking about her relationship with Li Changshou.
• Jiu Jiu explained that she had helped Li Changshou set up arrays and refine poison pills as repayment for his offerings, and Jiu Wu realized Li Changshou had designed the arrays.
• Jiu Jiu traded poison pills for Jiu Wu’s cultivation insights, and Jiu Wu recognized the couplet on the bottles as Li Changshou’s discreet request for him to overlook his secrets.
• Jiu Wu visited Lesser Qiong Peak at the third quarter of the Hour of the Pig, where Li Changshou welcomed him with wine and invited him to ask questions openly.

After settling Jiu Wu’s suspicions, Li Changshou completed his preparations for the First Plan to help Qi Yuan survive his tribulation. He began the Second Plan by prompting Qi Yuan to deepen his cultivation and started building a device to divert the tribulation’s lightning.

• Li Changshou reviewed his conversation with Jiu Wu and reassured Ling'e that he had revealed some of his hidden cultivation to settle the matter.
• On his way back to Sky-Breaking Peak, Jiu Wu concluded that Li Changshou had hidden his strength to protect Lesser Qiong Peak and planned to arrange further support for him.
• Li Changshou confirmed that Jiu Wu had taken no further action, finished sugar-coating a Melting Immortal Pill, and stored the extra pills as backups and possible trade goods.
• Li Changshou asked Qi Yuan cultivation questions that led his Master into deep contemplation and meditation by the lake.
• Li Changshou began making a Secondary Transfer Lightning Needle from Falling Thunder Wood and Thunder-Containing Seven Divine Irons to draw tribulation lightning away from Qi Yuan.

Li Changshou and Lan Ling'e tested a lightning-resistant cage intended to help Qi Yuan survive his heavenly tribulation, then rushed to prepare when tribulation clouds appeared. The apparent tribulation turned out to be an azure dragon demanding to speak with Du Xian Sect, leaving Qi Yuan crouched in embarrassment inside the cage.

• Li Changshou tested his Mage Birdcage by trapping Lan Ling'e inside and striking it repeatedly with summoned lightning.
• Lan Ling'e helped Li Changshou continue testing the cage for three days, until Qi Yuan awoke and found their clearing turned into a blackened pit.
• Qi Yuan sensed gray clouds approaching and declared that his heavenly tribulation had arrived, so Lan Ling'e carried the cage to the back mountain while Li Changshou gave Qi Yuan a precious medicine.
• Li Changshou placed Qi Yuan inside the cage and urged him to withstand the first bolt, as the clouds gathered over Du Xian Sect.
• A thousand-zhang azure dragon burst from the clouds, struck the Mountain Protecting Grand Formation, and demanded that Du Xian Sect's leader come out and answer.
• Li Changshou realized the clouds were not a heavenly tribulation, and Qi Yuan crouched inside the cage in embarrassment.

Venerable Wangqing and the Du Xian Sect elders drove off a Dragon Palace emissary who invited the sect to a Demon-Quelling Assembly. Li Changshou continued preparing for Qi Yuan’s impending heavenly tribulation, which finally struck after a year and nine months.

• Venerable Wangqing stopped the Red-Scaled Azure Dragon’s attack and hurled it into the sky, while the Du Xian Sect elders confronted the dragon-headed emissary.
• The emissary delivered an invitation to a Demon-Quelling Assembly scheduled for three years later, then left after the elderly woman smoothed things over.
• Qi Yuan hurried away after his disciples witnessed his tribulation attempt fail, and Li Changshou considered the risks of repairing his master’s damaged Dao foundation.
• Qi Yuan spent two months in closed-door cultivation, then returned to answer Li Changshou’s questions but was stumped by further questions and went back to cultivating.
• Li Changshou sensed that the Heavenly Dao had locked onto Qi Yuan, and after a year and nine months, Qi Yuan’s heavenly tribulation began.

Qi Yuan faced a five-bolt Immortal Ascension Tribulation, and Li Changshou’s cage helped him evade the first strike before breaking apart. After Qi Yuan swallowed the Melting Immortal Pill, he dissolved and reformed as a Turbid Immortal, surviving the tribulation by choosing Liberation by Violence.

• Li Changshou identified Qi Yuan’s tribulation as a common five-bolt Immortal Ascension Tribulation and recorded its signs.
• The Mage Birdcage absorbed the first lightning bolt, but the Heavenly Dao destroyed it and Qi Yuan received no immortal spiritual aura from that strike.
• Qi Yuan endured the second and third lightning bolts, though each left him badly injured.
• Believing he was near death, Qi Yuan swallowed the Melting Immortal Pill as the fourth bolt gathered.
• The pill dissolved Qi Yuan into bloody water, but clear and turbid qi and three-colored immortal light gathered him back into a Turbid Immortal.
• Qi Yuan saluted Li Changshou as onlookers recognized that he had used Liberation by Violence to survive.

Qi Yuan survived his tribulation as a Turbid Immortal, while Li Changshou rested and received the first volume of the Wu Wei Scripture from Jiu Wu in exchange for joining a mission. The chapter ended when an unfamiliar, beautiful woman arrived at Lesser Qiong Peak asking for Li Changshou.

• Qi Yuan accepted his survival as a Turbid Immortal and followed Li Changshou's advice to claim he had used the Melting Immortal Pill.
• Li Changshou returned to the pill chamber to rest, briefly revealed signs of his Dao comprehension, then concealed his aura.
• Jiu Wu gave Li Changshou a Jade Card containing the first volume of the Wu Wei Scripture and secured his agreement to join a mission while appearing to have lower cultivation.
• Lan Ling'e noticed Jiu Jiu arriving at Lesser Qiong Peak and fretted over her frequent visits to Li Changshou.
• An icy, beautiful woman carrying a Greatsword arrived and asked whether Li Changshou lived there.

Lan Ling'e, Jiu Jiu, and Youqin Xuanya waited for Li Changshou and passed the time playing his homemade cultivation board game, where Youqin learned how the game worked and joined in. Li Changshou avoided meeting them, stabilized his breakthrough, and prepared to inspect his poisons before his upcoming trip to the Eastern Sea.

• Lan Ling'e asked Youqin Xuanya why she had come to Lesser Qiong Peak, and Youqin explained that she wanted to thank Li Changshou for saving her life twice.
• Jiu Jiu woke and suggested that Lan Ling'e and Youqin play Li Changshou's Simulated Immortal Life game while he remained unavailable.
• Youqin, Jiu Jiu, and Lan Ling'e played the game, drew event cards, and laughed together as the earlier awkwardness faded.
• Li Changshou finished stabilizing his aura after breaking through a Minor Realm, sensed Youqin's presence, and quietly returned to the pill-refining room instead of meeting her.
• Li Changshou activated the outer formation and decided to inspect his poison reserves before heading to the Eastern Sea.

Li Changshou was summoned to a meeting about Du Xian Sect’s trip to the Eastern Sea Demon-Quelling Assembly, where Elder Ge announced that he would lead the young disciples. Li Changshou tried to expose the appointment as Jiu Wu’s unauthorized scheme and decline it, but Youqin Xuanya proposed that they lead together, leaving him trapped in the role.

• Li Changshou found Ling'e, Jiu Jiu, and Youqin Xuanya passed out after drinking and playing through the night, then went to the Hall of Hundred Affairs after receiving a summons.
• Elder Ge explained that Du Xian Sect would travel to the Eastern Sea in four days for the Demon-Quelling Assembly, where young disciples would compete for Dragon Palace treasures.
• Elder Ge announced that Li Changshou would lead the young disciples, drawing astonished looks from the disciples and True Immortals.
• Li Changshou claimed Jiu Wu had arranged the appointment to save face after a drunken boast and asked Elder Ge to appoint someone else unless Venerable Wangqing had personally ordered it.
• Elder Ge agreed to find another leader, but Youqin Xuanya volunteered to serve alongside Li Changshou.

Li Changshou accepted that he would join the Eastern Sea expedition, planning to stay inconspicuous while Youqin Xuanya led the disciples. He continued preparing for his eventual heavenly tribulation and, as the group traveled, Youqin Xuanya sat beside him wearing thick gloves.

• Li Changshou reflected on Jiu Wu's attempt to make him lead the group and resolved to keep his cultivation hidden and let Youqin Xuanya take charge.
• Back at Lesser Qiong Peak, Li Changshou crafted another folding Mage Birdcage and wrote etiquette guidelines for facing heavenly tribulation.
• Four days later, Li Changshou traveled toward the Eastern Sea with sixteen True Immortals, eleven disciples, and their Celestial Immortal protectors.
• Youqin Xuanya, seated at the front as the group's leader, moved to sit beside Li Changshou and wore thick gloves that did not match her dress.

Li Changshou and the Du Xian Sect delegation arrived at the Dragon Palace’s Demon-Quelling Assembly, where the dragons staged an extravagant welcome. As the disciples settled into their seats, Li Changshou discovered the Dragon Palace had served them grapes with an embarrassing side effect and warned Youqin Xuanya before she ate one.

• Li Changshou and Youqin Xuanya discussed their duties as team leaders while the Du Xian Sect traveled toward the Shore of the East Sea.
• The delegation encountered other invited sects, and Li Changshou recalled the agreements meant to protect the human Qi Refiners’ reputation when they faced young dragons.
• The group reached the assembly grounds and saw the Dragon Palace’s enormous water-lotus platform, dragon forces, and three thousand True Immortal Flood Dragon Soldiers.
• The Du Xian Sect disciples were directed to their seating area, where Li Changshou identified their Ice Condensation Immortal Grapes as a trick that could make them lose control of their aura.
• Li Changshou warned Youqin Xuanya to ask the elders before eating the grapes, but she was already holding one near her mouth.

Li Changshou attended a Du Xian Sect gathering at the Dragon Palace, where poisoned fruit and wine caused an embarrassing chain reaction among the delegation. Afterward, he returned to find his master absent, leaving a letter explaining his trip to the Eastern Sea and warning him about the formations near the alchemy chamber.

• Li Changshou searched the Water Lotus Terrace for escape routes while several Du Xian Sect members ate the trapped grapes and suffered their effects.
• Youqin Xuanya warned the senior martial uncles, and Jiu Jiu joined Li Changshou after drinking the poisoned wine; the delegation raised a barrier to conceal the ensuing commotion.
• The Carefree Eastern Woods Sect arrived, and the Du Xian Sect members acted as though nothing unusual had happened while Li Changshou continued studying the formations.
• After the banquet, Qi Yuan returned to Lesser Qiong Peak but wandered into the woods without seeing the letters Li Changshou had left throughout his home.
• Li Changshou's letter congratulated Qi Yuan on becoming an immortal, explained his weeklong trip to the Eastern Sea, and warned him to avoid the area near the alchemy chamber's active formations.

Li Changshou monitored the gathering while reflecting on the Human Race, the Three Teachings, and Qi Refiners’ chances of surviving heavenly tribulations. As the Dragon Palace’s festivities began, he kept Jiu Jiu occupied with a puzzle cube and politely turned away Youqin Xuanya, hoping the assembly would remain peaceful.

• Li Changshou used the Wind Whisper Spell to monitor the crowd and overheard discussions about heavenly tribulations and the Three Teachings’ differing survival rates.
• Li Changshou considered how the Human Race had risen and privately judged the Three Teachings’ contributions and their disciples’ chances of surviving tribulations.
• Jiu Jiu asked Li Changshou for one of his amusing items, so he gave her a six-colored cube that kept her occupied.
• The Dragon Palace began a two-day performance with musicians and dancers, quieting much of the crowd’s chatter.
• Youqin Xuanya approached Li Changshou, but he asked to rest alone, and she stayed with another female True Immortal.

Li Changshou noticed that the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace’s Second Prince, Ao Yi, had singled him out at the Demon-Quelling Assembly. Ao Yi, hoping to awaken the Dragon Clan to its decline, chose Li Changshou as his opponent so he could lose publicly, but the chapter ended before their spar began.

• Li Changshou sensed a young dragon watching him and learned that the youth was a Dragon Palace prince preparing to spar.
• Li Changshou considered the Dragon Clan’s precarious position and decided to stay with Du Xian Sect rather than leave.
• Ao Yi reflected on the Dragon Clan’s decline and resolved to publicly lose to Du Xian Sect’s weakest disciple to shock his clansmen into changing their ways.
• Ao Yi took the stage and pointed at Li Changshou, calling on him to exchange a few moves.