Recaps

After surviving a deadly drug test, Chen Lingxi discovered that his [Divine Chamber] had transformed into a miniature map of the Baosu Marquis Residence and its surroundings. Though pain repeatedly drove him out of it, he finally reentered the chamber and saw golden characters appear.

• Chen Lingxi woke in the servants' quarters and learned that Zhou Hu and Zhu Luanwen had died from the medicine.
• Liu Changle condemned the Sage and praised Xiao Changlü's call for rebellion, while Wang Kong brought restorative medicine for Chen Lingxi and Liu Changle.
• Liu Changle described a powerful river appearing in his dreams and refused to drink the restorative medicine.
• Chen Lingxi recalled his family's destruction and realized that his [Divine Chamber] now depicted the Baosu Marquis Residence, nearby streets, woodland, and Yuan River.
• After enduring the pain through the falling snow, Chen Lingxi focused again and entered the [Divine Chamber], where golden characters flickered into view.

Chen Lingxi used Sight-Roaming to bind Lin Suri’s vision and witnessed him practicing an unusual breathing method that drew faint qi into his body. Through Lin Suri’s eyes, Chen Lingxi then saw Wang Chu report on the Yunhe Commandery Princess’s visit to Miss Longyue.

• Chen Lingxi learned that he could bind another person’s vision using an object that had passed through their hands, their name, and their eight birth characters.
• Chen Lingxi chose the incense burner Lin Suri had distributed and used it to bind Lin Suri as the second Sight-Roaming candidate.
• Chen Lingxi followed the incense smoke into Lin Suri’s room and saw faint qi entering Lin Suri as he practiced a peculiar breathing exercise and posture.
• Wang Chu reported that the Yunhe Commandery Princess had spent the afternoon practicing flower arrangement with Miss Longyue in the western courtyard garden.
• Chen Lingxi focused on Wang Chu’s mention of flower arrangement.

After using Sight-Roaming to learn Lin Suri’s posture and breathing, Chen Lingxi discovered he could cultivate a healing breath and began planning how to avoid Steward Zhao’s medicine trials. Meanwhile, Lin Longyue and Yunhe Commandery Princess discussed flower arranging and Consort Chun’s influence, leaving Chen Lingxi’s flower-arranging skill poised to offer him a way forward.

• Chen Lingxi returned from Sight-Roaming exhausted but retained Lin Suri’s posture and breathing rhythm perfectly.
• Chen Lingxi practiced the posture and breathing through the night, drawing in a mysterious qi that eased his pain and seemed to temper his body.
• Chen Lingxi feared Steward Zhao would force him to test medicine again, then recalled that Yunhe Commandery Princess visited the Baosu Marquis Residence to study flower arranging.
• Chen Lingxi found a white calyx blooming stubbornly beneath the snow and took it as a sign that he would survive.
• Lin Longyue arranged wintersweet, plum blossoms, and nandina berries for Yunhe Commandery Princess, who asked about a young general known for flower arranging.
• Lin Longyue explained that Consort Chun’s fondness for flower arranging had made it fashionable, while Yunhe Commandery Princess privately thought people feared Consort Chun’s Mirror Listening Art.

Chen Lingxi risked approaching Lin Longyue and Yunhe Commandery Princess with a vase arrangement, overcoming Wu Zheng’s chilling restraint to present it. The ladies admired the arrangement, but after the Commandery Princess departed, Lin Longyue confronted Chen Lingxi about his offense as a government slave.

• Chen Lingxi approached the pavilion with a vase arrangement, but Wu Zheng stopped him with a chilling display of power.
• Chen Lingxi used the breathing method Lin Suri taught him to speak and request an audience with Lin Longyue.
• Lin Longyue permitted Chen Lingxi to come forward, and her maid placed his arrangement on the table.
• Yunhe Commandery Princess and Lin Longyue admired the arrangement, and the Commandery Princess took it with her when she departed.
• Lin Longyue returned to the pavilion and rebuked Chen Lingxi for disturbing the masters despite the Commandery Princess’s interest in his arrangement.

Chen Lingxi pleaded with Lin Longyue for his life, using his flower-arranging talent and determination to survive to persuade her to spare and cultivate him. He moved to the western courtyard but failed to secure help for Liu Changle, leaving him a message in ashes.

• Chen Lingxi explained how his flower arrangement expressed the resilience of winter flowers and confessed that Steward Zhao Yong’s medicine tests threatened his life.
• Lin Longyue recognized Chen Lingxi’s literary and martial potential, then threatened him for presuming to understand her ambitions.
• Chen Lingxi argued that he could be useful to Lin Longyue, who ordered him to move to the western courtyard, arrange flowers every three days, and begin martial training with a manual selected by He Duan.
• Chen Lingxi asked Lin Longyue to help Liu Changle, but she refused and sent him to settle in the western courtyard before taking him to the Martial Practice Court the next morning.
• Chen Lingxi found Liu Changle absent and, unable to leave a letter, arranged the words “Live on” from incense ashes.

Chen Lingxi received a fragmentary martial manual and learned that ordinary martial training required a hundred days of foundation establishment, along with plentiful food and medicine. After noticing that Lin Suri’s breathing method had already strengthened him, Chen Lingxi suspected he might have established his foundation and prepared to test the Mountain-Winding Stance.

• Chen Lingxi failed to locate Lin Suri with Sight-Roaming and continued practicing the breathing method through the night.
• At the Martial Practice Court, Chen Lingxi watched He Duan train disciples and heard that Jiang Yuan would soon choose someone to teach his martial art.
• He Duan had Chen Lingxi choose one of three manuals, and Chen Lingxi took the Fragmentary Scroll of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War.
• Chen Lingxi studied the manual and learned that martial training began with a hundred days of foundation establishment, which typically required nourishing food and costly medicine.
• Chen Lingxi noticed that the breathing method had improved his senses and strength, then opened the manual to test himself with the nine variations of Mountain-Winding Stance.

Chen Lingxi practiced Mountain-Winding Stance with the Breath-Absorption Method and discovered that his qi and newly formed qi and blood coexisted, allowing him to enter the Iron Body Realm and recover quickly. After ten days of training, he went to the rear garden to gather materials for Lin Longyue, where Wang Kong suddenly attacked him.

• Chen Lingxi completed all nine variations of Mountain-Winding Stance and realized his Breath-Absorption qi had helped him awaken qi and blood and enter the Iron Body Realm.
• Chen Lingxi tried River-Splitting Form but lacked enough qi and blood, so he continued practicing Mountain-Winding Stance and used breath absorption to ease his exhaustion.
• Over ten days, Chen Lingxi strengthened his body, thickened the qi in his dantian, and sharpened his senses through daily training.
• Chen Lingxi searched the rear garden for four plants to account to Lin Longyue and found an old vine, withered lotus, moss, and an icicle.
• Wang Kong attacked Chen Lingxi from behind, but Chen Lingxi dodged the punch and turned to face him.

Wang Kong tested Chen Lingxi’s strength, then reported to Zhao Yong that the medicine trial had transformed him into valuable medicine bait. As Chen Lingxi recovered and practiced Sight-Roaming, he discovered that Total Perception was nearing readiness and overheard a proposal to join Lin Suri in obtaining Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi.

• Wang Kong attacked Chen Lingxi, but Liu Que intervened and sent Chen Lingxi back to his courtyard.
• Wang Kong told Zhao Yong that Chen Lingxi’s strength had advanced sharply, and Zhao Yong ordered him to be further tempered as medicine bait before receiving another dose of Dragon-Drawing Powder.
• Chen Lingxi treated his injured forearm and considered the medicine trial, concluding that Zhao Changle might still be alive.
• Chen Lingxi noticed that the Divine Chamber’s Total Perception ability had turned pale gold and suspected it was linked to his cultivation.
• While Sight-Roaming, Chen Lingxi heard someone urge Lin Suri to join forces to obtain Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi.

Lin Suri accepted Chao Dao’s offer to join forces for Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi after seeing the Candle of Time Fragment. He awakened the Cauldron Venerable and exchanged twenty years of lifespan for spiritual energy to break through to the Qi Circulation Sixth Floor, while Chen Lingxi witnessed the transaction through the Divine Chamber.

• Chao Dao offered Lin Suri a Candle of Time Fragment and another opportunity in exchange for sole possession of the Ancestral Mountain Mother Qi.
• Chao Dao revealed that he had reached the Qi Circulation Fifth Floor and vanished using the Mistwalking Technique after Lin Suri agreed to cooperate.
• Lin Suri entered a hidden chamber and awakened the Cauldron Venerable with the Candle of Time Fragment.
• The Cauldron Venerable offered enough spiritual energy for Lin Suri to reach the Sixth Floor in exchange for twenty years of lifespan, and Lin Suri accepted.
• The Candle of Time Fragment produced a towering spirit tree and began condensing Spirit Amber as Chen Lingxi watched.

Chen Lingxi witnessed Lin Suri trade twenty years of his lifespan for Spirit Amber, then hide the Candle of Time Fragment in the Yuan River. After recovering from the vision, Chen Lingxi realized the Breath-Absorption Method might lead to immortal cultivation and began practicing it.

• The Cauldron Venerable gave Lin Suri Spirit Amber in exchange for twenty years of his time, and the bargain visibly aged him.
• Lin Suri carried the Candle of Time to the Yuan River, sank it into the river sand, and formed three sigils over it, telling the Cauldron Calamity to return in two months.
• Chen Lingxi awoke from the Divine Chamber vision with a severe headache and wondered about the cultivation terms and the man in black.
• Chen Lingxi concluded that Qi Circulation and the Breath-Absorption Method belonged to a system distinct from the Martial Dao, possibly immortal cultivation.
• Chen Lingxi practiced the Breath-Absorption Method and drew clear qi into his dantian, then wondered why Lin Suri had hidden the Candle of Time in the river.

After Wang Kong and a formidable middle-aged man unsettled Chen Lingxi in the rear garden, Chen Lingxi realized his medicine-testing past had put him in danger. He decided to seek a backer by revealing his martial talent and trying to attract the new guest retainer Jiang Yuan as a teacher.

• Chen Lingxi encountered Wang Kong and an imposing middle-aged man whose gaze threw his blood and qi into turmoil.
• After the man departed, Wang Kong silently threatened Chen Lingxi with a crushing gesture and hurried after him.
• Chen Lingxi connected Wang Kong’s hostility to the medicine testing and suspected that Wang Kong and Zhao Yong regarded him as a potential target.
• He judged that he could not yet face Wang Kong or the powerful figures behind him, so he resolved to find someone who could protect him.
• Chen Lingxi identified Jiang Yuan’s plan to accept a western-courtyard disciple as an opportunity and decided to display his martial talent while continuing to prepare flowers for Lin Longyue.

Jiang Yuan assessed the West Courtyard disciples’ physiques to find candidates for his Mountain-Crushing Force, selecting Zheng Qingya as a promising student. Chen Lingxi arrived carrying a flower arrangement, and Jiang Yuan abruptly froze when he stopped beneath the corridor.

• Lin Longyue asked Jiang Yuan to assess the West Courtyard disciples’ foundations for his boxing art.
• Jiang Yuan examined the disciples and gave most of them unfavorable or mediocre evaluations.
• Jiang Yuan found Zheng Qingya’s physique suited to a fierce martial path and accepted him as his student.
• Chen Lingxi arrived at the courtyard carrying a winter flower arrangement.
• Jiang Yuan froze as soon as Chen Lingxi stopped beneath the corridor.

Jiang Yuan discovered that Chen Lingxi had extraordinary martial potential and chose him to learn Mountain-Crushing Force, while Lin Longyue arranged for him to serve the Baosu Marquis Residence. The chapter ended with Lin Longyue worrying that her flower arrangement had not yet reached Consort Chun’s notice and that Jiang Yuan alone might not be enough to help her defeat Chu Linzi.

• Jiang Yuan examined Chen Lingxi’s bones and declared him better suited than Zheng Qingya to cultivate Mountain-Crushing Force.
• Chen Lingxi accepted Jiang Yuan’s offer to train him after Lin Longyue silently approved.
• Lin Longyue told Chen Lingxi that his slave registration had been transferred to the Baosu Marquis Residence and promised improved allowances and a possible path to freedom.
• The Yunhe Commandery Princess offered Lin Longyue several experts for her approaching duel with Chu Linzi, but Lin Longyue declined.
• Lin Longyue asked about her locust branch arrangement, and the Yunhe Commandery Princess said it had not yet been admired by Consort Chun.

Chen Lingxi visited Jiang Yuan, who assessed his Iron Body cultivation and explained the Copper-Red Realm. Impressed by Chen Lingxi’s mastery of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War, Jiang Yuan demonstrated Mountain-Crushing Force and began teaching him its core principles.

• Chen Lingxi completed his morning cultivation and went to Silver Peace Court to meet Jiang Yuan.
• Jiang Yuan seized Chen Lingxi’s wrist to examine his cultivation and praised his nearly perfected Iron Body.
• Jiang Yuan explained the stages and abilities of the Copper-Red Realm to Chen Lingxi.
• Chen Lingxi demonstrated the Seven Forms of Ceasing War, and Jiang Yuan was amazed by his skill and foundation.
• Jiang Yuan shattered a training stone with Mountain-Crushing Force and began teaching Chen Lingxi the technique’s core principles.

Chen Lingxi advanced to the Second Level of Qi Circulation and broke through into minor accomplishment in the Copper Scarlet Realm. Afterward, he discovered that his second Divine Chamber ability, Total Perception, was ready to use.

• Chen Lingxi practiced Mountain-Crushing Force and believed he was close to entering the Copper Scarlet Realm.
• During moonlit breathing practice, spiritual qi washed his marrow and cleared his channels, leading him to realize he had likely reached the Second Level of Qi Circulation.
• Chen Lingxi practiced River-Entering Stance and found his renewed qi and blood flowing with far greater strength and ease.
• Chen Lingxi released a thread of Copper-Molten Qi from his fingertip, confirming his breakthrough into minor accomplishment in the Copper Scarlet Realm.
• Chen Lingxi entered the Divine Chamber and saw that Total Perception was ready.

Chen Lingxi discovered that Thorough Awakening let him enter a simulated Divine Chamber where time moved forward and he could glimpse the next ten days. He realized he could use it to approach the Candle of Time safely and planned to seek the Venerable within it when he reported to the Duguan Office in four days.

• Chen Lingxi activated Thorough Awakening and found himself able to enter and control a realistic, time-moving version of his Divine Chamber.
• Chen Lingxi learned that the Divine Chamber simulated the outside world for up to ten days, letting him foresee events before returning to reality.
• Chen Lingxi observed Lin Longyue practicing and saw that she had advanced to the Silver-Bone Realm, then collected his ten-tael stipend from the accounts office.
• Chen Lingxi recalled where Lin Suri had buried the Candle of Time in the Yuan River and realized he could investigate it within the simulation.
• Chen Lingxi determined he would report to the Duguan Office in four days and use that trip to seek the Venerable within the Candle of Time.

Chen Lingxi found the Candle of Time in the Yuan River and awakened the Cauldron Venerable by channeling spiritual qi into it. The Cauldron Venerable offered to trade treasures and methods for a price, then asked Chen Lingxi what he wanted.

• Chen Lingxi discovered that Liu Changle had vanished from the servants' rooms and suspected Steward Zhao was involved.
• Chen Lingxi followed his memories to the stone bridge and recovered the Candle of Time from beneath the Yuan River.
• Chen Lingxi carried the Candle of Time beneath the bridge and infused it with spiritual qi.
• The Candle of Time opened a crimson eye, and the Cauldron Venerable appeared and assessed Chen Lingxi's cultivation and remaining lifespan.
• The Cauldron Venerable offered Chen Lingxi a trade and asked what he wanted in exchange.

Chen Lingxi traded fifty years of lifespan to the Cauldron Venerable for the Concealed Edge Method and Azure Edge Method, leaving him aged and wary of the Candle of Time’s influence. He walked through Yuan River Prefecture and overheard Wang Kong searching for him on Steward Zhao’s orders.

• Chen Lingxi offered fifty years of lifespan for cultivation techniques, and the Cauldron Venerable granted him the Concealed Edge Method and Azure Edge Method.
• The transaction aged Chen Lingxi from a young man into a man in his seventies, while the Candle of Time stirred an overpowering greed in him.
• A golden Luminous Mirror cleansed Chen Lingxi of the Candle’s influence, and he threw the Candle of Time into the Yuan River.
• Chen Lingxi walked west along the riverbank to see Yuan River Prefecture while his borrowed time in the Divine Chamber remained.
• Wang Kong passed Chen Lingxi while searching for him, saying Steward Zhao had ordered his capture.

Chen Lingxi was killed by Lu Baizhong at the execution ground, but the Divine Chamber’s mirrors sent him back four days earlier. He realized that the cultivation methods he had learned in the Divine Chamber remained in his memory.

• Chen Lingxi returned to the execution ground where his parents had been executed and encountered a youth who revealed he had watched him endure the Candle of Time’s cauldron calamity.
• Lin Suri arrived through the fog, recognized Chen Lingxi as an official slave from the north courtyard’s rear rooms, and identified his spiritual qi as matching the Six-Qi True Method.
• The youth, whom Lin Suri called Lu Baizhong, dismissed Chen Lingxi as a diversion and killed him with a bolt of golden lightning.
• The two bright mirrors shone over Chen Lingxi’s shattered body, and the Divine Chamber’s world collapsed around him.
• Chen Lingxi woke in the servants’ quarters four days earlier and confirmed that the cultivation methods learned in the Divine Chamber had returned with him.

Chen Lingxi reflected on what he had learned about the Divine Chamber, Lin Suri, and Lu Baizhong, then discovered that his Total Perception Divine Ability replenished as he cultivated. He mastered the Concealed Edge Method and gained initial control of the Azure Edge Method, leaving him ready to face Wang Kong.

• Chen Lingxi reviewed the Divine Chamber’s revelations about the Candle of Time, the Breath-Absorption Method, the Dao-Below Academy, and Lu Baizhong, whom he suspected belonged to the Lu Family.
• Chen Lingxi carried flowers to East Hall, collected his ten-tael allowance, and realized the Divine Chamber had reproduced four days of real events as a vision of the future.
• Chen Lingxi saw that Total Perception had begun replenishing its essence and changed its displayed measurement to a percentage.
• Chen Lingxi repeatedly practiced the Concealed Edge Method until he concealed his spiritual qi and blood-and-qi fluctuations.
• Chen Lingxi cultivated the Azure Edge Method and pierced the elmwood table with a sharp strand of Azure Qi, though the technique consumed nearly half his spiritual qi.
• Remembering that Wang Kong was searching for him on Steward Zhao’s orders, Chen Lingxi decided to test himself against Wang Kong.

Chen Lingxi discovered that the Martial Arts Hall’s medicinal bath strengthened his body and increased his spiritual qi, then prepared to prove his worth and face the killing tribulation awaiting him. On March tenth, he ambushed two men waiting for him in Willow Street Alley, beginning the confrontation he had chosen not to avoid.

• Chen Lingxi completed a medicinal bath that improved his qi and blood and added spiritual qi equivalent to several days of breathing exercises.
• Chen Lingxi reflected that cultivation required silver and that he had to prove his worth to Lin Longyue, then continued practicing the Azure Edge Method.
• On March tenth, Chen Lingxi went to Willow Street Alley instead of the riverbank and overheard two men discussing their abuse of women and waiting for him.
• Chen Lingxi leaped from behind a collapsed wall to confront the two men, deciding not to avoid the danger.

Chen Lingxi killed two men guarding an alley and learned from Third Brother that Wang Kong was at a brothel in Drum-Calling Alley. After recalling a vision that showed Wang Kong heading toward Willow Street Alley, Chen Lingxi decided to wait there and finish the matter.

• Chen Lingxi ambushed Scarface with a Mountain-Hoisting Fist and killed him with one punch.
• Third Brother attacked Chen Lingxi with a goose-quill saber, but Chen Lingxi broke his arm and knee before pinning him down.
• Chen Lingxi forced Third Brother to reveal that Wang Kong was at a brothel in Drum-Calling Alley, then killed him.
• Chen Lingxi hid the bodies in an abandoned house and washed the blood from his hands.
• Chen Lingxi recalled seeing Wang Kong hurry toward Willow Street Alley and decided to wait for him there.

Chen Lingxi revisited the ruined Willow Street Alley and discovered that the willow he and Xi Yu had planted as children mysteriously increased his Essence Replenishment progress. Xi Yu sensed his contact with the tree from afar but chose not to help him, while Chen Lingxi concealed himself and waited for Wang Kong.

• Chen Lingxi recalled his childhood in Willow Street Alley, his friendship with Xi Yu, and the plague that later emptied the alley.
• Chen Lingxi noticed that the willow he and Xi Yu had planted had grown to an extraordinary size and found that touching it raised his Essence Replenishment progress to 52%.
• Chen Lingxi considered sending spiritual qi into the willow but decided to wait until he could activate Total Perception.
• Xi Yu sensed Chen Lingxi through the willow-leaf mark on her hand but chose not to spend the Undying Willow's power on him, and resolved to cultivate in seclusion for a year before ascending the tower again.
• Wang Kong arrived at the alley, and Chen Lingxi hid silently on a rooftop.

Chen Lingxi ambushed Wang Kong in Willow Street Alley and overcame his Copperfire Qi Armor with a hidden azure force. After crippling Wang Kong, he forced him to reveal the name of the medicine Zhao Yong had tested on them, then asked what it was used for.

• Wang Kong entered Willow Street Alley, found his two guards and Chen Lingxi missing, and prepared to leave.
• Chen Lingxi attacked Wang Kong, but Wang Kong defended himself with Copperfire Qi Armor and fought back with his short blade.
• Chen Lingxi traded blows with Wang Kong while concealing an azure force that pierced the qi armor and left Wang Kong vulnerable.
• Chen Lingxi shattered Wang Kong's right arm and cornered him against the alley wall.
• Chen Lingxi asked about the medicine Zhao Yong had tested on them, and Wang Kong identified it as Dragon-Drawing Powder, hidden in his belt.
• Chen Lingxi repeated the medicine's name and asked what it was used for.

Chen Lingxi killed Wang Kong, learned that Dragon-Drawing Powder was a medicinal catalyst, and reported to the government office, where Chu Linzi noticed him. Back in his room, he examined the items he had taken and discovered that approaching the powder increased his Origin-Replenishing progress.

• Chen Lingxi questioned Wang Kong about Dragon-Drawing Powder and Liu Changle, then killed him and took silver, pills, and the powder.
• Chen Lingxi concealed Wang Kong's body with the other two corpses and went to the Yuan River Prefecture government office to report.
• Chu Linzi noticed Chen Lingxi's blood qi but dismissed him after learning he was an official slave of the Baosu Marquis Residence.
• Chen Lingxi returned to his room, examined the three pills and Dragon-Drawing Powder, and saw his Origin-Replenishing progress rise to 53.4.