Chapter Summaries

Xiao Yan was drawn into an ancient plaza, where a blurred figure demonstrated powerful combat techniques that helped him improve his Flame Emperor Armor. While he studied, Hu Gan sent the others into the Library Pavilion, warning them that previous people who tried the plaque had died.

• Xiao Yan awoke in a vast white plaza and saw a blurred figure whose crimson flame and terrifying power overwhelmed him with danger.
• The figure demonstrated combat techniques, and Xiao Yan realized it was teaching him as its energy pathways appeared under his soul’s perception.
• Xiao Yan studied the techniques and began deducing improvements to his Flame Emperor Armor, while the figure shifted to show him armor and other elemental skills.
• In the Library Pavilion, Hu Gan recognized Xiao Yan’s rapid armor changes as combat-technique deduction, and Hu Jia suggested that the others try the plaque.
• Hu Gan warned that everyone who had tried the plaque before had died, then urged the others to enter the Library Pavilion while Xiao Yan continued studying.
• Hu Jia and Lin Yan entered first, followed by Han Yue and Mo Shishi after they exchanged a quiet glance.

Xiao Yan awoke after spending half a month in the Mysterious Square, where he improved his understanding of Dou Skills and advanced the Flame Emperor Armor. Before entering the Library Pavilion, he accepted Mo Shishi's Heavenly Jade Fruit in exchange for future consideration as her sect leader.

• Xiao Yan awakened before the Library Pavilion and learned from Hu Gan that only ten minutes remained before its doors closed.
• Xiao Yan asked Lin Yan, Han Yue, Hu Jia, and Mo Shishi what they had obtained; Lin Yan had gained a low-level Earth Tier Dou Skill, while Han Yue had chosen a defensive treasure.
• Mo Shishi explained that she had chosen a Heavenly Jade Fruit because Xiao Yan was a Dou Spirit and offered it to him in exchange for future consideration.
• Xiao Yan accepted the Heavenly Jade Fruit and entered the Library Pavilion as Hu Jia grumbled and Han Yue watched Mo Shishi thoughtfully.

Xiao Yan searched the Library Pavilion and found the Mid Earth-tier Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Formula, then received a huge light sphere containing a scroll and a note signed by Mang Tian Chi. After Hu Gan discovered the strange hollow in the Pavilion, he agreed to consult the elders about whether Xiao Yan could take both items.

• Xiao Yan found the Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Formula and chose it as a technique suited to his physical weakness.
• A hollow opened in the Pavilion, and Xiao Yan restrained a huge light sphere that contained a scroll and a note from Mang Tian Chi.
• Hu Gan entered, saw the hollow, and angrily demanded to know what Xiao Yan had done.
• Xiao Yan showed Hu Gan the note, and Hu Gan recognized Mang Tian Chi as the academy's dean and hurriedly calmed down.
• Xiao Yan pretended not to have heard Hu Gan's curses and asked whether Mang Tian Chi's gift counted against the Pavilion's one-item limit.
• Hu Gan said he would consult the other elders, then led Xiao Yan out before the Pavilion closed.

Xiao Yan secured permission to keep two items from the Library Pavilion and memorized both the Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Formula and Mang Tian Chi's Dou Technique Compendium. As he prepared to leave seclusion, the new compendium and one he had memorized years earlier began to react within his mind, while his body grew hot.

• Hu Gan told Xiao Yan that the academy's higher-ups would decide his case later, but he could keep the Dou Technique for now.
• Xiao Yan returned to his cultivation room and spent more than two hours memorizing the Mid Earth-tier Dragon-Elephant Body Tempering Formula.
• Xiao Yan used his soul power to absorb Mang Tian Chi's scroll and discovered it contained another Dou Technique Compendium about creating Earth-tier Dou Techniques.
• Xiao Yan spent half a day memorizing the compendium, then found it and the earlier compendium erupting into turmoil in his mind as his body grew hot.

Xiao Yan's bloodline power transformed the two Dou Technique Compendiums into a Quasi-Heaven Tier edition, leading him to suspect the texts belonged to the fallen Xiao Tribe and might conceal an even greater legacy. He planned to judge whether the change had been arranged or was coincidence by observing Mang Tian Chi's reaction when they met again.

• Xiao Yan's bloodline power formed a chaotic sphere in his mind, which shattered and released a vastly expanded Dou Technique Compendium.
• Xiao Yan read the new text and discovered that it was a Quasi-Heaven Tier Dou Technique Compendium.
• After studying it for two days, Xiao Yan found a note identifying it as the third of seven volumes and concluded the compendiums had belonged to the Xiao Tribe.
• Xiao Yan wondered whether the compendium's hidden method had been left by an immensely powerful existence and whether the complete work could be an Imperial Scripture.
• Xiao Yan decided that Mang Tian Chi's response at their next meeting might reveal whether the compendium's evolution was a plot or a coincidence.

Xiao Yan and the new students of Heavenly Gate faced a group of Inner Court seniors seeking to seize their Fire Energy. Xiao Yan agreed to draw Wu Xuan away from the others, leaving Hu Jia and his companions to protect the new students.

• Xiao Yan recognized Wu Xuan as a Six-Star Dou Spirit and learned the Inner Court seniors had come to seize the new students’ Fire Energy.
• Wu Xuan said he would hold Xiao Yan back while the others attacked, but Xiao Yan refused to let the seniors plunder his juniors unopposed.
• Wu Xuan and Xiao Yan agreed to fight elsewhere to keep their battle from harming the new students.
• Xiao Yan told the Heavenly Gate members to prioritize survival and put Hu Jia in charge while he was gone.
• Wu Xuan flew toward the western forest, and Xiao Yan followed using pillars of flame.

Xiao Yan battled Wu Xuan, an Inner Court expert hired by the academy elders, and broke free from his powerful wind technique. Just as Xiao Yan seemed ready to defeat him, Wu Xuan transformed into a huge beastlike form and attacked.

• Xiao Yan dodged Wu Xuan’s wind attacks and was trapped inside six tornadoes.
• Wu Xuan strengthened the tornadoes and claimed their wind blades could shred superior black iron.
• Xiao Yan emerged unharmed in flame armor and sliced the storm apart with his Black-Weight Ruler.
• Xiao Yan charged Wu Xuan, but Wu Xuan transformed into a nearly ten-foot-tall beastlike form and seized the ruler.
• Wu Xuan threatened to break Xiao Yan’s bones and swung a giant arm at his head.

Xiao Yan defeated Wu Xuan, took most of the Fire Energy from his card, and brought him back to Heavenly Gate. There, Hu Jia’s battle formation had held off the Inner Court veterans, but a Dou Spirit’s attack broke through the formation and left Heavenly Gate in danger.

• Xiao Yan struck Wu Xuan with a hidden flaming arm, broke his neck, and forced him to surrender.
• Xiao Yan took most of Wu Xuan’s Fire Energy, leaving only a few dozen on his card, then carried him back to the gathered groups.
• Hu Jia coordinated Heavenly Gate’s forty-nine members into a battle formation that let them resist the stronger Inner Court veterans.
• The Inner Court Dou Spirit struck Mo Shishi’s shield, causing members to faint and opening a breach in the formation.
• The Inner Court veterans sent attacks toward the breach as Heavenly Gate’s formation began to collapse.

Xiao Yan returned just in time to save Heavenly Gate from the Inner Court students, then helped Hu Jia stage fake injuries to demand compensation. After collecting Fire Energy and distributing it among the group, the elders led everyone out of the forest.

• Hu Jia refused to abandon Lin Yan and the other Heavenly Gate members as the Inner Court seniors prepared to attack.
• Xiao Yan arrived, blocked the seniors’ attacks with a wall of fire, and revealed that he had captured Wu Xuan.
• Xiao Yan checked on the group, and Hu Jia reported that most members were only exhausted; she jokingly asked him to give her Yaoyue as a reward.
• Xiao Yan and Hu Jia pretended that many members were seriously injured and demanded compensation from the Inner Court students.
• Xiao Yan’s group collected over five hundred Fire Energy and distributed it among Heavenly Gate’s members.
• The elders appeared and led everyone out of the forest.

Xiao Yan finished refining a large batch of pills to sell for Fire Energy before entering seclusion, while Mo Shishi helped him gather ingredients and arrange a meeting with the Medicine Gang. When Xiao Yan asked why she kept her distance from the Heavenly Gate, Mo Shishi instead asked why he had ranked her among the top five in the Inner Court Selection Tournament.

• Xiao Yan completed a batch of pills, including Ice-Clear Pills, and stored the hundreds of bottles in a Storage Ring.
• Mo Shishi delivered the final batch of ingredients and told Xiao Yan that the Medicine Gang would meet him at the northern square at nine the next morning.
• Xiao Yan explained that he intended to sell his pills through Mo Shishi and force the Medicine Gang to accept the arrangement.
• Xiao Yan thanked Mo Shishi for her help and asked why she had not entered the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower with the others.
• Mo Shishi admitted that she wanted to ask Xiao Yan why he had ranked her among the top five in the Inner Court Selection Tournament.

Mo Shishi confronted Xiao Yan about how his decision to place her among the selection tournament’s top five had left her insecure in Heavenly Gate and fearful of his intentions. After understanding her predicament, Xiao Yan offered to let her beat him up, but Mo Shishi instead demanded that he compensate her for the rest of her life.

• Mo Shishi told Xiao Yan that his decision to place her among the top five had put her in a position she could not live up to.
• Mo Shishi explained that she struggled to fit in with Heavenly Gate because she lacked the background and talent of its other members.
• Mo Shishi revealed that she had once feared Xiao Yan expected her to become his lover because her family had sent her to Canaan Academy as an offering to him.
• Xiao Yan realized he had caused Mo Shishi’s anxiety and considered ways to resolve her position in Heavenly Gate.
• Xiao Yan suggested that Mo Shishi beat him up, but she knocked him down, straddled him, and demanded compensation for the rest of her life.

Xiao Yan and Mo Shishi arrived at North Plaza to face the Medicine Gang after Mo Shishi had provoked them into an alchemy challenge. Xiao Yan refused to make it a contest with Sikong Ming and declared that he had come to show the Gang what true alchemy was.

• Mo Shishi woke beside Xiao Yan, and the two delayed their departure by spending the morning together.
• Xiao Yan and Mo Shishi reached North Plaza, where the Medicine Gang and a large crowd were waiting for them.
• Xiao Yan learned that Mo Shishi had insulted the Medicine Gang on his behalf to make them gather for the challenge.
• Sikong Ming introduced himself as the Medicine Gang's leader and demanded that Xiao Yan kneel and apologize.
• After Elder Hao offered to oversee a fair contest, Xiao Yan said he had no intention of competing with Sikong Ming and declared that the event did not deserve to be called a contest.

Xiao Yan challenged Sikong Ming to an alchemy contest and revealed that he would refine a difficult fifth-grade Dragon-Elephant Pill. As Xiao Yan began refining with the Volcanic Rock Flame, Sikong Ming secretly sent a Medicine Gang member away.

• Xiao Yan presented Elder Hao with the Dragon-Elephant Pill formula, and Elder Hao confirmed that Xiao Yan had obtained it from Canaan Academy's Library Pavilion.
• Sikong Ming recognized the formula as a difficult fifth-grade pill, but Xiao Yan agreed to refine it in front of the crowd.
• Elder Hao cleared the plaza and warned Xiao Yan that the Medicine Gang would retaliate if he failed.
• Xiao Yan set down his cauldron and used the Volcanic Rock Flame, causing flames around the plaza—including Sikong Ming's Beast Flame—to bow toward it.
• Elder Hao identified Xiao Yan's Heavenly Flame as the seventeenth-ranked Volcanic Rock Flame, and Sikong Ming soon regained control of his Beast Flame.
• Sikong Ming whispered instructions to a Medicine Gang member, then watched Xiao Yan refine the ingredients.

Xiao Yan refined the ingredients for a Dragon-Elephant Pill with precise flame and soul control, bringing it to the final stage of condensation. As Sikong Ming and the Medicine Gang watched, an unexpected disturbance erupted beside Xiao Yan before the pill’s outcome was revealed.

• Xiao Yan carefully refined the Dragon-Elephant Pill’s ingredients, including the magic core of a Fifth Rank elephant-type magical beast.
• Xiao Yan opened the cauldron midway to clear out medicinal residue, startling the onlookers, while Sikong Ming explained the purpose of the technique.
• Xiao Yan used his powerful soul strength to monitor the cauldron and condense the medicinal liquid into a thumb-sized pill embryo.
• The pill’s fragrance spread through the crowd, and some Medicine Gang members began doubting Sikong Ming’s standing.
• Sikong Ming briefly hoped Xiao Yan would fail, but an unexpected disturbance suddenly erupted from Xiao Yan’s direction.

Xiao Yan completed a Fifth-Grade Dragon-Elephant Pill, defeated the Medicine Gang in their pill-refining contest, and secured their promise not to interfere with Heavenly Gate’s pill sales. After refining two more pills and earning Fire Energy from sales, he left the plaza empty at night, where an unseen newcomer appeared, searching for the lingering pill fragrance.

• Xiao Yan used his self-created Qinglian Pill Condensation Art to draw earthfire into the Dragon-Elephant Pill and finish refining it into a Fifth-Grade Pill.
• Xiao Yan showed the pill to Sikong Ming, who conceded defeat and agreed that the Medicine Gang would not interfere with Heavenly Gate’s pill sales.
• Xiao Yan returned to refining, while Mo Shishi sold his pills at a fifty-percent markup to enthusiastic buyers.
• Xiao Yan finished refining two more Dragon-Elephant Pills, and Mo Shishi’s sales brought in two thousand Fire Energy.
• After night fell, a small fair nose appeared in the empty plaza and sniffed for the vanished pill fragrance.

Xiao Yan and Mo Shishi discussed the profits from selling pills and spent the night together before Xiao Yan entered seclusion. After Hu Jia broke into his room and confronted him, Xiao Yan pulled her inside and the door closed behind them.

• Mo Shishi reported earning 2,123 Fire Energy from pill sales and explained that sales would likely slow after the crowd dispersed.
• Xiao Yan told Mo Shishi to use the profits to buy medicinal ingredients, prepare pills for the Heavenly Gate, and reserve Fire Energy for his clan members arriving soon.
• Xiao Yan promised to make special pills for Mo Shishi, and the two spent their last night together before his planned seclusion.
• After ten days cultivating in the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, Hu Jia reached Six-Star Dou Master and went to visit Mo Shishi at Xiao Yan's loft.
• Hu Jia barged into Xiao Yan's room, accused him of being shameless and forcing Mo Shishi, and Xiao Yan pulled her into his arms before the door closed.

After Xiao Yan slept with both Mo Shishi and Hu Jia, he insisted that they become his women and tried to persuade an angry Hu Jia to accept him. He offered to let her share his harem, and she agreed, leaving Xiao Yan and Mo Shishi stunned when Hu Jia immediately suggested they begin.

• Xiao Yan kissed Mo Shishi and Hu Jia, then declared that both women were his from then on.
• That evening, Hu Jia confronted Xiao Yan angrily, but he argued that Dean Hu might support their marriage.
• Xiao Yan told Hu Jia that his harem would be hers if she became his woman, and she stopped struggling to consider the offer.
• Hu Jia agreed and eagerly suggested they get started, shocking Xiao Yan and Mo Shishi.

Xiao Yan entered the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower and provoked the Falling Heart Flame, which failed to break out of its Spatial Prison. As Canaan Academy assigned Elder Ye to guard it, Xiao Yan began closed-door cultivation on the eighth floor, unaware that Little Cai was watching him coldly.

• Xiao Yan descended to the eighth floor, sensed the Falling Heart Flame below, and hid in a cultivation room before it reached him.
• The enraged Falling Heart Flame repeatedly struck the Spatial Prison but could not break free.
• Su Qian and the other elders arrived, and Su Qian arranged for Elder Ye and a guard team to watch over the Falling Heart Flame.
• After the elders left, Xiao Yan fed Little Cai and began cultivating with the tower's energy and the Heavenly Flame energy stored in his seal.
• As Xiao Yan focused on cultivation, Little Cai's affectionate expression turned cold as she stared at him.

Xiao Yan cultivated in seclusion for ten days, reaching the peak of Two-Star Dou Spirit, before Mo Shishi brought him medicinal ingredients. After he refined the pills, the two shared an intimate moment in the cultivation chamber.

• Xiao Yan ended his ten-day meditation and found that Heavenly Flame energy and the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower had raised him to the peak of Two-Star Dou Spirit.
• Xiao Yan fed Little Cai high-grade candy pills and sensed Mo Shishi outside the cultivation chamber.
• Mo Shishi delivered medicinal ingredients, and Xiao Yan checked them before refining pills for two hours.
• Xiao Yan gave Mo Shishi the newly refined medicinal pills, then took her hand and became intimate with her.

During his seclusion in the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, Xiao Yan advanced his cultivation while growing closer to Mo Shishi and Hu Jia. On his sixtieth day, Yaoyue arrived after entering the Inner Court, and Xiao Yan reunited with her.

• Xiao Yan reached the Three-Star Dou Spirit level and spent time consolidating his strength before Mo Shishi visited and shared news about Heavenly Gate.
• On the thirtieth day, Xiao Yan did not advance, while Mo Shishi reached the Seven-Star Dou Master level.
• On the fortieth day, Hu Jia visited Xiao Yan, and later left without waiting for him to refine pills.
• Xiao Yan reached the Four-Star Dou Spirit level on his fiftieth day, then spent time with Mo Shishi and Hu Jia as their relationship became more comfortable.
• On his sixtieth day, Yaoyue visited after passing the Alchemy Department's assessment and entering the Inner Court as a Third-Grade Alchemist.
• Xiao Yan reunited with Yaoyue, refined the medicinal ingredients she had brought, and teased her afterward.