Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Four Cities”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Cheng Wei remains trapped or excluded within the outer layer of a mysterious Pill Formation surrounding Pill Fragrance City. The formation’s creator ignores his attempts to communicate, apparently because they know he lacks knowledge of formations.
• At the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect, Wushan debates descending the mountain to confront Cheng Wei. He is tempted by the formation’s connection to the long-lost Dao of Pill Arrays and even considers disguising himself to avoid the humiliation of going directly to Cheng Wei.
• Sect Master Tang Ji reports that Rongyuan City has disappeared completely, along with everyone inside it.
• Rongyuan City was a major northern center for artifact refining and had important ties to the Heaven-Shattering Sword Sect. Its disappearance alarms Wushan, especially because Pill Fragrance City has also been sealed off by an unknown Pill Formation.
• Wushan reveals that the formation around Pill Fragrance City belongs to the lost Dao of Pill Arrays, once associated with the destroyed Scarlet Pill Clan. Its existence suggests an extremely powerful and unknown force.
• Jun Zhaoying contacts Wushan, intending to descend the mountain as well. She reveals that Mingxuan City, a major spiritual-plant cultivation center under the Hehe Sect, has also vanished.
• Wushan and Jun Zhaoying conclude that the incidents are connected. The missing cities each represent a major aspect of cultivation: pill refining, artifact refining, and spiritual-plant production.
• Both Divine Venerables descend their mountains to investigate, despite suspecting that the disappearances may be a trap.
• Soon afterward, Bitter Crossing Temple reports that Pagoda City has also disappeared. Its primary importance was its prosperous mining industry and abundant mineral resources, bringing the total number of vanished cities to four.

Character Developments

• Wushan shifts from irritation and personal concern over Cheng Wei to serious alarm regarding the larger threat. His willingness to descend the mountain shows that he recognizes the disappearances as an unprecedented danger.
• Tang Ji progresses from skepticism to fear as he realizes that Pill Fragrance City, Rongyuan City, and possibly other cities may be connected. He is especially unsettled by the power implied by the lost Pill Array inheritance.
• Jun Zhaoying demonstrates clear judgment and courage. Rather than dismissing the disappearances as a possible trap, she decides that the danger is serious enough to investigate personally.
• Cheng Wei remains isolated within the formation, but his earlier information about the Pill Formation proves crucial in convincing Wushan and others of the gravity of the situation.

Significant Themes

• An unseen, continent-wide threat: The disappearance of several important cities suggests a deliberate plan rather than isolated incidents.
• Lost knowledge and ancient power: The reappearance of the Dao of Pill Arrays and its connection to the destroyed Scarlet Pill Clan point to forgotten forces resurfacing.
• The limits of cultivation power: Even Body Integration Divine Venerables are uncertain whether they could create or control formations capable of removing entire cities.
• Duty versus caution: Although the investigation may be a trap, Wushan and Jun Zhaoying choose to act because ignoring the threat would be more dangerous.
• Cultivation infrastructure: The vanished cities represent essential industries—alchemy, artifact refinement, spiritual-plant cultivation, and mining—suggesting that the enemy may be targeting the entire foundation of the Cultivation Realm.

Character Interactions

• Wushan attempts to deal with Cheng Wei but is ignored by the formation’s creator, reinforcing the mysterious figure’s arrogance and control.
• Tang Ji reports Rongyuan City’s disappearance to Wushan and questions whether the crisis justifies involving a Divine Venerable.
• Wushan explains the significance of the Pill Formation and the Scarlet Pill Clan, changing Tang Ji’s understanding of the situation.
• Wushan and Jun Zhaoying communicate through water mirrors and realize they are both preparing to descend the mountain.
• Jun Zhaoying’s report of Mingxuan City’s disappearance confirms Wushan’s suspicion that the incidents are part of one coordinated event.
• The chapter ends with Bitter Crossing Temple reporting the disappearance of Pagoda City, broadening the crisis from three cities to four.

Chapter Summary: “A Foreign Land”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The four mysterious cities appear to correspond to the four elemental directions or forces: Pill Fragrance City represents fire, Mingxuan City wood, Pagoda City earth, and Rongyuan City metal. The location of the city associated with water remains unknown.
• Mingxuan, Pagoda, and Rongyuan Cities have completely disappeared, while Pill Fragrance City has instead been sealed off. The sect leaders speculate that its seaside formation may be weaker or fundamentally different.
• The Five Major Sects summon powerful figures, including the four Divine Venerables, but even Spirit Transformation cultivators cannot enter Pill Fragrance City. A Divine Venerable might be able to break in, but doing so could endanger the civilians inside and allow the formation’s controller to use them as hostages.
• Three young Golden Core cultivators from Yonglu Mountain—Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and another Prodigy-Ranked disciple—entered Pill Fragrance City shortly before it was sealed. They have sent no messages, but their protective jade slip and Natal Spiritual Fires remain intact, suggesting they are not yet in mortal danger.
• News emerges of Feidu City, a settlement connected in some way to the former Pill Fragrance City. Its citizens are descendants of people who helped destroy the Scarlet Pill Clan’s sacred ground. Their strange condition—women gradually becoming men and their bloodline being cut off—may be linked to pill formations.
• The sect leaders agree to send their strongest formation disciples to investigate Feidu City. Mist Mountain’s Divine Venerable may also visit after completing his investigation of Rongyuan City.
• Inside Pill Fragrance City, Wen Xu and his companions awaken on a beach after being swallowed by seawater. They find themselves in a seemingly normal version of the city, complete with fishing boats, vendors, and ordinary citizens. In reality, they have been pushed into a deeper layer of the formation rather than escaping.
• The city’s ordinary residents appear unaware of the crisis, while more powerful cultivators may sense that something is wrong. Bian Chunchou considers whether they should spread panic, but recognizes that they must find a way out themselves.
• The chapter ends with Bian Chunchou noticing that Wen Xu has become unusually tense and expressionless, suggesting that Wen Xu may have detected something significant about their new surroundings.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Gu Wufang provides crucial information to the sect masters, explaining the limits of entering Pill Fragrance City and revealing that his junior martial uncle and the two prodigies are trapped inside.
• The sect masters shift from helpless speculation to a concrete plan: investigating Feidu City through their most capable formation experts.
• Bian Chunchou remains humorous and comparatively optimistic despite the danger. He recognizes the absurdity of expecting rescue and encourages a practical, self-reliant attitude.
• Wen Xu becomes increasingly serious and withdrawn after entering the deeper layer of Pill Fragrance City. His change in expression contrasts with Bian Chunchou’s lightheartedness and hints at his greater sensitivity to the formation or its hidden dangers.
• The three trapped cultivators remain dependent on one another, but their differing reactions—Bian Chunchou’s joking calm and Wen Xu’s ominous silence—create tension within the group.

Significant Themes

• The danger of relying on external rescue: The characters realize that waiting for powerful allies may not be enough; they must solve the crisis themselves.
• Hidden history and inherited guilt: Feidu City’s descendants suffer because of their ancestors’ involvement in the destruction of the Scarlet Pill Clan, raising questions about collective punishment and whether old crimes justify present suffering.
• Truth concealed beneath normality: Pill Fragrance City appears peaceful and ordinary, but this calm is only an artificial layer within a dangerous formation.
• Power and restraint: Even Divine Venerables cannot act freely because attacking the formation could harm innocent civilians, illustrating how strength is limited by responsibility.
• The consequences of shortcuts and greed: The discussion of the Scarlet Pill Clan suggests that past factions exploited its decline for power, while the present crisis may be connected to the long-term consequences of those actions.
• Uncertainty and distorted reality: The repeated disappearances, sealed cities, and layered formations make it unclear what is real, what is preserved, and what the formation’s true purpose may be.

Chapter 563 Summary

• Wen Xu’s suspicions: Wen Xu reflects on his master’s unusual decision to descend from Yonglu Mountain and concludes that Pill Fragrance City must be connected to a major hidden matter. He suspects the mystery may involve the demonic aura linked to Xue Qingmu and Venerable Chishan’s betrayal of Bitter Crossing Temple, though he admits this is only speculation.
• The Pill Formation theory: Bian Chunchou recalls that Chen Zui once said Feidu City and Pill Fragrance City felt similar. Since Pill Fragrance City is trapped inside a vast Pill Formation, they infer that Feidu City’s strange changes may also have been caused by such a formation. Wen Xu reasons that a formation large enough to cover the city must rely on one or more power-supplying altars, because even an immensely powerful cultivator could not sustain it alone.
• Their helpless situation: The formation is so powerful that it may rival the strength of a Body Integration Divine Venerable. The three realize they cannot break it by force, especially since they do not know its structure or the identity of its creator. They decide to investigate the city and search for weaknesses instead.
• Exploring the false city: Other people who fall into the inner world mistakenly believe they have returned to reality. Those who try to leave through the gates are captured by the guards and taken away. Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui avoid attracting attention by revisiting familiar locations. The city appears completely normal and prosperous, with no visible sign that it is trapped.
• The City Lord’s deception: At a pill shop, Bian Chunchou buys more pills, and the shop assistant explains that the City Lord has sealed the city while searching for the thief who stole a heaven-grade pill from the City Lord’s Office. The authorities are maintaining an appearance of order and even offering free alchemy lectures, preventing the citizens from panicking.
• Visit to the Alchemy Arts Workshop: The trio goes to the famous Alchemy Arts Workshop, where many alchemists have gathered because they cannot leave the city. Entry is free for alchemists but expensive for everyone else, revealing the enormous profits surrounding pill refining. The characters are impressed—and somewhat overwhelmed—by the wealth of the alchemy industry.
• Alchemy competition: The workshop is hosting a pill-refining competition open to anyone, without cultivation restrictions. Participants who create a new pill formula can enter a lottery for damaged formulas recovered from secret realms and labeled “ancient incomplete formulas.” Though everyone knows the formulas are simply unidentified relics, the contest offers alchemists both a chance to demonstrate their abilities and an opportunity to test their luck.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Wen Xu becomes more proactive and analytical, shifting from passive concern about his master to planning an investigation with his companions.
• Bian Chunchou contributes the key connection between Feidu City and Pill Fragrance City and enthusiastically encourages Wen Xu to analyze the situation.
• Chen Zui remains quiet and instinct-driven; although he remembers little consciously, his body’s intuition confirms Bian Chunchou’s observation.
• The trio works cooperatively, combining Wen Xu’s reasoning, Bian Chunchou’s observations, and Chen Zui’s intuition.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: Pill Fragrance City looks peaceful and prosperous despite being an artificial prison.
• Ingenuity over strength: Since the formation is too powerful to defeat directly, the characters must rely on investigation and cleverness.
• Hidden connections: The possible relationship between Feidu City, Pill Fragrance City, demonic aura, and Pill Formations suggests a wider conspiracy.
• Commerce and opportunity: The alchemy workshop demonstrates how people turn crisis, scarcity, and specialized knowledge into profitable business.

Chapter Summary

Plot and events

Bian Chunchou, Wen Xu, and Chen Zui continue exploring Pill Fragrance City while trapped inside it. Bian reflects on the dangers of pill refinement, including furnace explosions, failed experiments, and the need for both skill and a good sense of smell. He recalls that their entrapment may have begun with a furnace explosion near the Alchemy Arts Workshop, though Wen Xu warns that investigating the area is too dangerous while they are only Golden Core cultivators.
Over three days, the group tours the city and visits the Alchemy Arts Workshop, where a pill-refining competition is concluding. No one wins the promised fragmentary secret-realm formula, causing participants to suspect that the lottery is fraudulent. The organizers send out a masked Golden Core cultivator to calm the crowd. Bian, Wen Xu, and Chen immediately recognize him as their senior brother, Shi Yijian, despite his disguise.
Shi secretly approaches Bian and invites the group to meet at Prosperity Exchange Tower. In a private room, the four discuss their unexpected reunion and the situation in Pill Fragrance City. Bian gives a deliberately casual explanation for their presence, claiming they entered out of curiosity and were trapped by the theft of a heaven-grade pill. Shi pretends to share their anger toward the thief, though it is clear he understands the city’s true circumstances.

Character developments

• Bian Chunchou remains optimistic and humorous despite being trapped in a dangerous city. He is observant enough to connect the furnace explosion with their predicament, but cautious about acting prematurely. His awkwardness upon meeting Shi suggests he suspects Shi knows more than he admits.
• Wen Xu demonstrates superior memory, caution, and strategic judgment. He remembers the earlier explosion and understands that investigating it without sufficient strength would be reckless. His face-blindness also highlights his reliance on hearing, allowing him to identify Shi’s voice.
• Chen Zui is direct and perceptive, immediately confirming Shi’s identity. Although he contributes little to the negotiation, his presence reinforces the group’s shared recognition and trust.
• Shi Yijian appears composed, sociable, and deceptive. Wearing a mask and speaking publicly as an organizer, he maintains an elegant facade while concealing his knowledge of Pill Fragrance City’s crisis. His thoughts reveal a grim awareness that the group may be unable to escape or even survive.

Character interactions

Bian, Wen, and Chen jointly recognize Shi through his voice and mannerisms. Bian considers asking him for information but hesitates, anticipating that Shi may not want to reveal anything. Shi instead approaches him first, teasingly acknowledging their reunion while pretending not to notice Wen Xu and Chen. At the private meeting, Shi apologizes for failing to acknowledge Wen Xu publicly because of the need to conceal their identities. Bian and Shi exchange polite but evasive remarks, with both sides masking what they truly know. Their conversation has the atmosphere of a cautious negotiation rather than a warm reunion.

Significant themes

• Deception and concealed identities: Masks, false explanations, and public performances dominate the chapter as the characters conceal their knowledge and motives.
• Danger beneath ordinary entertainment: The lively pill competition and city tours conceal a serious crisis involving a stolen heaven-grade pill and a possible hidden altar or formation.
• Caution versus curiosity: Bian is interested in investigating the mystery, but Wen Xu emphasizes the danger of acting without adequate strength.
• Chance and unintended discovery: The failed pill competition and accidental creation of a valuable medicinal formula mirror the group’s own unexpected discovery of Shi and the city’s hidden problems.

Chapter Summary

• Shi Yijian reveals his background: Shi explains to Bian Chunchou that he despises the Shi family, which serves as a powerful but exploitative arm of the City Lord’s Office. His mother was an illegitimate daughter of the Shi family who died after refusing to become someone’s concubine. Shi himself was born without the Shi surname and was raised as a nameless sword slave, designated “Yijian” because he held the first position among the family’s sword slaves.
• Escape to Yonglu Mountain: After awakening a Spiritual Root, Shi gained the Shi surname but still disliked the family and attempted to flee. He eventually escaped by joining Yonglu Mountain as an Inner Sect disciple. However, he remained unable to break through to Foundation Establishment, partly because he had lost his motivation to cultivate.
• Bond with Bian Chunchou: Bian’s arrival and his ability to learn Shi’s unconventional method of drawing talismans renewed Shi’s interest in cultivation. Shi values Bian because Bian treats him as an equal rather than as a servant or inferior disciple. Their relationship has become unusually close, despite their relatively short acquaintance.
• Return to Pill Fragrance City: The Shi family lured Shi back by using his deceased mother’s belongings as leverage. Though he claims not to care much about his family or parents, he was forced to work for the family without pay and was recently sent to act as a mediator. He also missed the Five Sects Assembly because of these obligations.
• A hidden warning: Shi gives Bian a supposedly useless “incomplete formula.” Written within it is a secret message warning Bian that the city gates are sealed and urging him to prepare to escape, likely by sea. Bian cannot tell Shi that he and the others have already explored that route and found it nearly hopeless, so he pretends not to understand the formula.
• Shi’s departure and suspicion: After politely greeting Wen Xu, Shi leaves to report to the Shi family head and tells Bian that he can be found at Huiying Tower. Once he is gone, the group notices that his behavior no longer resembles that of an ordinary Yonglu Mountain disciple. Wen Xu suggests that Shi may be deliberately encouraging them to investigate the Shi family, while hoping Bian will continue searching for a way out through the sea.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Shi Yijian becomes more emotionally open, revealing deep resentment toward the Shi family and the trauma of being treated as property. Although he maintains a calm, indifferent manner, his concern for Bian is clear.
• Bian Chunchou is uncomfortable with Shi’s painful confession but listens sympathetically. He also recognizes the hidden warning in the fake formula and carefully conceals his knowledge of the failed sea route.
• Wen Xu analyzes Shi’s motives and notices that Shi treats Bian with special warmth, likely because Bian offers him an unusual sense of equality and companionship.
• Chen Zui reacts instinctively to the change in Shi’s demeanor, sensing that Shi has become more difficult to approach.
• The interactions reveal a growing division between Shi’s public role as the Shi family’s reluctant agent and his private loyalty to his fellow Yonglu Mountain disciples.

Significant Themes

• Oppression and inherited servitude: Shi’s history illustrates how powerful families disguise exploitation beneath respectable identities.
• Identity and self-determination: His names—first a slave designation, then the imposed surname “Shi”—reflect his struggle to define himself apart from the family that owned him.
• Trust and coded communication: The hidden message demonstrates the need for secrecy in the sealed city and suggests that alliances must be maintained through indirect means.
• Belonging and equality: Shi’s attachment to Bian stems from being treated as a genuine equal, something he has rarely experienced.
• Conflicting loyalties: Shi is trapped between the Shi family’s coercion, his connection to Yonglu Mountain, and his desire to protect Bian and the others.

Chapter Summary: “Praise”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bian Chunchou rejects the idea of abandoning Wen Xu and Chen Zui to travel by sea, reaffirming that the three friends will act together.
• Wen Xu, encouraged by Chunchou’s loyalty, suggests visiting the Shi Household after realizing that the mysterious clue concerning the Pill Formation may have led them directly to it.
• The group decides to investigate the Shi Household and the city’s major powers while avoiding Yonglu Mountain’s local outpost so they do not alert potential enemies.
• The Shi Household is discovered only one street from the City Lord’s Office, revealing the extraordinary trust and influence the clan enjoys within Pill Fragrance City.
• The protagonists learn about Shi Muye, the current household head: a middle-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator with a Single Fire Spiritual Root and one of the continent’s youngest pill-refining grandmasters.
• Shi Muye’s ability to create flawless “Heaven-grade” pills has elevated the Shi Household from a second-rate clan to one of Pill Fragrance City’s leading aristocratic families.
• The chapter explains the importance and rarity of high-grade and Heaven-grade pills. While ordinary pills contain harmful impurities, Heaven-grade pills are completely pure and can greatly aid advancement and tribulation.
• The Shi Household’s influence is reinforced by its three Spirit Transformation attendants, who serve because of Shi Muye’s exceptional pill-refining abilities.
• Only three grandmasters in the city can refine Heaven-grade pills: Shi Muye, the retired City Lord, and the ancestor of another major clan.
• The chapter concludes by presenting the Shi Household as a successful model of aristocratic clan development, built on talent, resources, and the ability to produce exceptional heirs.

Character Developments

• Bian Chunchou is portrayed as steadfast, optimistic, and deeply loyal. His refusal to separate from Wen Xu and Chen Zui demonstrates that friendship matters more to him than personal safety or advancement.
• Wen Xu recognizes how much Chunchou’s companionship strengthens him. Although naturally pessimistic, Wen Xu remains confident that they will escape Pill Fragrance City.
• Chen Zui is indirectly characterized as a disciplined Body Cultivator who avoids relying on pills except for emergency recovery.
• Shi Yijian gains greater significance through discussion of his relationship with Chunchou and his family’s powerful position. His goodwill toward Chunchou appears increasingly meaningful given the Shi Household’s status.

Significant Themes

• Friendship and loyalty: The three protagonists’ determination to remain together provides emotional stability in a dangerous situation.
• Power through specialized talent: The Shi Household’s rise shows how extraordinary ability—in this case, pill refinement—can transform a clan’s political and social standing.
• The value and danger of cultivation resources: Pills can determine whether cultivators advance or remain trapped at a bottleneck, but ordinary pills carry hidden risks through pill toxins.
• Aristocratic survival and competition: Clans must constantly produce talented heirs to avoid decline in a world governed by strength and ruthless competition.
• Trust and hidden alliances: The Shi Household’s proximity to the City Lord’s Office suggests a privileged relationship, while the protagonists’ investigation hints that its influence may connect to the Pill Formation and the city lockdown.
• Appearances versus reality: Pill Fragrance City seems dominated by weak pill masters, but their wealth and influence are protected by powerful cultivators who serve them.

Character Interactions

• Chunchou reassures Wen Xu that he, Wen Xu, and Chen Zui will remain together rather than separating for different opportunities.
• Wen Xu reflects on Shi Yijian’s favorable opinion of Chunchou and realizes that Chunchou’s sincere character has earned even Shi Yijian’s trust.
• Wen Xu and Chunchou exchange information about the Shi Household, Shi Muye, pill grades, and the structure of Pill Fragrance City’s aristocratic clans.
• Their discussion shifts from personal loyalty to strategic investigation, as they consider how the Shi Household’s influence may relate to the Pill Formation and the city’s lockdown.

Chapter Summary: “Ascension”

Plot and key events

• Bian Chunchou and Wen Xu discuss why the Shi Household urgently summoned Shi Yijian away from the Five Sects Assembly, even using the relics of his biological mother to pressure him.
• They conclude that the family likely feared Shi Yijian becoming famous across the continent. His reputation could expose the Shi Household’s mistreatment of him and create a future threat, especially since he might one day seek revenge or destroy the family’s influence.
• Wen Xu suspects the relics were merely bait. Shi Yijian may have deliberately returned to discover what schemes the Shi Household had prepared, rather than returning because he truly valued the relics.
• Bian Chunchou reflects that Shi Yijian’s position as a Yonglu Mountain disciple protects him from direct harm. The family may even try to cultivate or manipulate him now that he has returned.
• The discussion shifts to Bian’s insecurity about his Fire-Water Spiritual Root and his imagined fate had he been born into an Aristocratic Clan. Chen Zui unexpectedly praises him, recognizing that Bian developed his own effective cultivation method despite his difficult spiritual constitution.
• Chen Zui reveals how much he values Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou as companions, insisting that neither should disappear from his path of cultivation.
• Later that night, Bian recalls his first Sect Grand Competition, when he lost to Shi Yijian in the finals. He begins reflecting on their early years in the sect and on Shi Yijian’s unusual circumstances, including his damaged Single Water Spiritual Root and failure to advance to Foundation Establishment.

Character development

• Shi Yijian: Portrayed as calculating, guarded, and possibly willing to use the Shi Household’s schemes against them. His return may have been strategic rather than emotional, suggesting he wants to understand his family’s motives and hidden plans.
• Wen Xu: Demonstrates sharp political insight and a skeptical understanding of Aristocratic Clan behavior. He challenges Bian’s tendency to assume the best of others and interprets Shi Yijian’s actions more cynically.
• Bian Chunchou: Shows loyalty toward Shi Yijian and growing awareness of the politics surrounding Aristocratic Clans. He also reveals insecurity about his own talent, though he remains humorous and self-deprecating.
• Chen Zui: Displays unusual emotional openness by sincerely praising Bian. His thoughts reveal that, despite his reserved nature, he deeply values his companions and fears eventually losing them on the solitary path of cultivation.

Significant themes

• Family manipulation and control: The Shi Household uses emotional pressure and personal relics to influence Shi Yijian, illustrating how powerful families treat their members as strategic assets.
• Reputation as power: The family fears Shi Yijian’s public success because fame could damage their standing and expose their past treatment of him.
• Loyalty versus blood ties: Bian instinctively sides with Shi Yijian as a fellow disciple, suggesting that chosen bonds may be stronger than familial relationships.
• Individual talent versus inherited status: Bian’s difficult spiritual root and self-developed cultivation method contrast with the advantages and expectations of Aristocratic Clan members.
• Companionship on the cultivation path: Chen Zui’s concern for Wen Xu and Bian highlights the emotional importance of friendship in a world where cultivation is often portrayed as lonely and competitive.

Character interactions

• Wen Xu and Bian analyze Shi Yijian’s family situation, with Wen Xu providing the more skeptical and politically perceptive interpretation.
• Bian jokes about being untalented, while Chen Zui seriously reassures him that his achievements are exceptional.
• Bian playfully teases Chen Zui for praising him, and Chen responds with embarrassed irritation, revealing their familiar, affectionate dynamic.
• Bian’s nighttime recollection begins connecting his present understanding of Shi Yijian with their first meeting and earlier years at Yonglu Mountain.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bian Chunchou reflects on Senior Brother Shi Yijian’s history. Although a Nascent Soul True Lord had chosen him as a potential disciple, Shi’s damaged Spiritual Root prevented him from becoming a true direct disciple. He therefore cultivated in isolation within the Inner Sect and became the subject of cruel gossip because his cultivation stagnated.
• Shi later shocked the sect by advancing directly from Qi Refining Peak to Foundation Establishment Late Stage, seemingly proving that his Spiritual Root had been repaired. He then made a prominent appearance in the Sect Grand Competition and was expected to excel at the Five Sects Assembly before being summoned away by the Shi Household.
• Bian Chunchou discovers that Shi is absent from the Heavenly Dao’s Prodigies Ranking, despite being under a hundred by ordinary calculations, highly talented, and powerful enough to rank among the elite. This leads him and Wen Xu to suspect that Shi may actually be over a hundred or that his Spiritual Root remains damaged.
• The discussion raises further questions about Shi’s origins. The Shi Household is a Fire-Spiritual-Root pill-refining clan, while Shi possesses a rare Single Water Spiritual Root, suggesting unusual circumstances surrounding his birth and possible connection between his Spiritual Root damage and his family.
• The group returns to their main investigation: identifying the cultivator who used a massive Pill Formation to trap the entire city. Bian Chunchou dismisses the possibility that Shi is involved.
• Chen Zui reveals a new anomaly: around midnight, the city’s spiritual energy sharply decreases before returning to normal, though its overall concentration is subtly lower than the previous day. The others consider whether this could be caused by large-scale pill refinement or another hidden event.

Character Developments

• Bian Chunchou demonstrates strong moral principles by rejecting malicious gossip about Shi. He is also observant and increasingly suspicious, noticing the inconsistency between Shi’s abilities and his absence from the Prodigies Ranking.
• Wen Xu quickly understands the significance of Shi’s omission from the ranking and encourages Bian Chunchou to ask Shi directly, believing Shi may respond more openly to him.
• Chen Zui shows his exceptional sensitivity to cultivation-related changes. Though generally inattentive to other matters, he detects the subtle decline in the city’s spiritual energy.
• Shi Yijian remains mysterious. His damaged Spiritual Root, unusual lineage, hidden age, and unexplained absence from the ranking make him an increasingly suspicious and intriguing figure.

Significant Themes

• Prejudice and reputation: Shi is mistreated and mocked because of his apparent stagnation, only for his later breakthrough to humiliate those who judged him.
• Hidden identity and secrets: Shi’s age, Spiritual Root, family background, and true condition remain concealed, suggesting deeper revelations.
• Appearance versus reality: The sect assumes Shi’s Spiritual Root is fully healed, but his absence from the ranking implies that the truth may be more complicated.
• Investigation and deduction: The characters piece together inconsistencies through observation rather than relying solely on conventional explanations.
• Cultivation and environmental balance: The change in spiritual energy hints that powerful cultivation, pill refinement, or the city-wide formation may be affecting the entire region.

Character Interactions

• Bian Chunchou shares his discovery with Wen Xu and Chen Zui in private, treating the ranking discrepancy as a serious mystery.
• Wen Xu recognizes the importance of the issue and proposes asking Shi directly, while Bian worries that doing so might expose a painful secret.
• The trio debates possible explanations for Shi’s absence from the ranking, including concealed age, unusual circumstances like prolonged freezing, or an incompletely healed Spiritual Root.
• Chen Zui shifts the conversation back toward the city investigation by pointing out the midnight decline in spiritual energy, prompting the others to consider whether it is natural or connected to the larger conspiracy.

Chapter Summary: “Awareness”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Zui questions the unnatural recovery of spiritual energy inside the Pill Formation, pointing out that its concentration should decline rather than increase. Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou tease him about suddenly becoming unusually clever, angering him enough to leave.
• Cheng Wei remains frustrated after failing for several days to locate suspected descendants of the Scarlet Pill Clan. Their sudden appearance suggests they are pursuing a major plan, while Demon Seeds are also manipulating events from the shadows.
• Cheng Wei casually considers letting the demons seize part of the Cultivation Realm, but thunder from the heavens immediately makes him abandon such thoughts.
• Wushan finds Cheng Wei and pressures him to lead the way to Feidu City, where a mysterious Pill Formation is believed to exist. Wushan wants Cheng Wei to investigate it first because Cheng Wei is more durable and can safely “test the waters.”
• Upon arriving, Wushan is struck by Feidu City’s extreme desolation. Cheng Wei explains that the city has always had very few inhabitants, largely because it is populated almost entirely by men.
• Wushan determines that the formation is not located in the city itself but embedded in its people. He explains that Pill Formations use specially refined pills as substitutes for heavenly treasures and Spirit Stones.
• Wushan proposes that the unknown creator may have developed “Array Pills”—pills containing embedded formations. Cheng Wei acknowledges that such an achievement would demonstrate extraordinary talent, though it may have been a secret technique already possessed by the Scarlet Pill Clan.
• Their discussion turns to the destruction of the Scarlet Pill Clan. Despite the clan’s remarkable abilities, it was exterminated by forces powerful enough to overcome them, reinforcing the idea that excessive strength may draw the Heavenly Dao’s disfavor.

Character Development

• Chen Zui shows practical intelligence by recognizing the inconsistency in the Pill Formation’s spiritual-energy recovery, though his companions respond with mockery rather than praise. His irritation and abrupt departure reveal his easily provoked temper.
• Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou continue to use humor to defuse tension. Their joking suggests that, despite the dangerous circumstances, they remain confident enough to behave casually.
• Cheng Wei appears outwardly carefree and irresponsible, joking about demons and his disciple, but his concern for his “little disciple” reveals genuine attachment beneath his flippant attitude. His history also suggests considerable power and a reckless willingness to explore dangerous places.
• Wushan is cautious, analytical, and highly knowledgeable about formations. Although he relies on Cheng Wei to investigate danger, he demonstrates superior insight into the nature of Pill Formations.
• Cheng Wei and Wushan’s friendship is shown to be longstanding and familiar. Wushan freely orders Cheng Wei around, while Cheng Wei complains but ultimately cooperates.

Significant Themes

• Hidden danger and deception: The formation cannot be detected in the city because it is concealed within the people, emphasizing how appearances can obscure powerful threats.
• Knowledge versus direct perception: Cheng Wei’s divine sense fails to identify the formation, while Wushan deduces its presence through theoretical understanding.
• The legacy of the Scarlet Pill Clan: The clan’s mysterious techniques and destruction remain central to the larger conflict, suggesting that its surviving descendants or secrets may destabilize the Cultivation Realm.
• Power and the Heavenly Dao: The chapter reflects on how extraordinary strength may provoke cosmic opposition, implying that even the most powerful beings can be destroyed when they exceed what the world—or Heaven—will tolerate.
• Humor amid danger: Characters use teasing, sarcasm, and casual conversation to cope with increasingly serious threats, balancing the ominous plot with a lighthearted tone.

Character Interactions

• Chen Zui’s argument with Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou highlights the group’s teasing dynamic and Chen Zui’s sensitivity to ridicule.
• Cheng Wei reunites with Wushan, who immediately criticizes him, demands his assistance, and jokes about his dangerous habits.
• Wushan’s expertise challenges Cheng Wei’s assumptions about the city and the Pill Formation, turning their conversation into a collaborative investigation.
• Their discussion of the Scarlet Pill Clan connects the immediate mystery in Feidu City to the broader history of powerful cultivators, secret techniques, and the clan’s mysterious annihilation.

Chapter Summary

• Wushan explains the hidden pills in Feidu City’s inhabitants. The pills are concealed within internal organs through a formation that reverses the body’s yin and yang. Because the pills are neither poison nor immediately harmful, even powerful cultivators cannot detect them spiritually. The method is extremely difficult to undo, suggesting the attacker never intended the city’s people to recover.
• Karmic consequences prevent Wushan from curing the victims. Wushan refuses to interfere directly because the people of Feidu City are connected by karma to the destruction of the Scarlet Pill Clan. Cheng Wei accepts that she cannot yet be saved but asks Wushan to investigate the source of the problem. She even volunteers to undergo dissection while alive, protected by her Nascent Soul, because she wants to understand her condition before death. Wushan agrees, impressed by her determination. Cheng Wei’s willingness to sacrifice herself highlights her courage and desperation.
• Wushan remains focused on his research. He considers examining corpses but notes that the formation causes the bodies to turn rapidly into ash after death, leaving no useful remains. His interest appears motivated by his search for clues about Pill Formations, particularly because he has found little of value in the other affected cities. Cheng Wei and Wushan maintain a blunt, pragmatic relationship, while Cheng Wei teases him for dragging her into his investigations.
• The narrative shifts to Wen Xu and his companions in Pill Fragrance City. Wen Xu’s unusually sharp sense of smell makes him sensitive to the city’s overwhelming seafood odor. He begins questioning why a city associated with pill-making would have such a strong fishy atmosphere, suspecting that the smell may conceal another scent.
• Wen Xu reconsiders the mysterious explosion. He recalls the enormous bang that transformed Pill Fragrance City and the powerful pill fragrance that spread immediately afterward. He realizes it may not have been a furnace explosion but the activation of a Pill Formation. His lack of specialized knowledge about pill fragrances prevented him from recognizing this earlier.
• The group explores the city and notices unusual activity at sea. Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui wander through the markets, buy inexpensive trinkets for the Shared Goblet Tavern, and return to the beach, which Wen Xu considers the safest place in the city. They observe increasing numbers of fishing boats carrying many Nascent Soul cultivators. Since the city’s known exit lies at sea, these cultivators are likely searching for a way out rather than fishing.
• Wen Xu identifies the seafood supplier as suspicious. He discovers that the boats belong to the city’s largest seafood supplier, but he never saw them in the surface world. Their fishy cargo may be deliberately masking another smell. Wen Xu therefore decides that he, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui will secretly investigate the seafood shop that night.

Key Themes

• Karma and moral restraint: Wushan’s refusal to interfere shows how karmic consequences limit even powerful cultivators.
• Determination in the face of death: Cheng Wei’s willingness to be dissected reflects her need to understand and resist her horrifying transformation.
• Hidden truths and deception: The concealed pills, masked odors, mysterious boats, and possibly disguised Pill Formation all suggest that appearances in both cities are deliberately misleading.
• Investigation and growing suspicion: Wen Xu’s sensory observations and attention to inconsistencies move the group closer to uncovering the true nature of Pill Fragrance City.
• Companionship and contrasting personalities: Wen Xu is perceptive and cautious, Chen Zui is direct and battle-minded, and Bian Chunchou provides humor and practicality through his love of shopping and blunt observations.

Chapter Summary: “Water Well”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui-Zui secretly enter a seafood shop in Pill Fragrance City at night, using Invisibility Talismans.
• Bian Chunchou realizes that a massive well he clearly remembers seeing in the Surface World is missing from the shop’s rear courtyard.
• The well had been unusually large—about five or six meters wide—and seemed out of place for an ordinary seafood store. Its disappearance suggests that the trio’s senses are being manipulated rather than that the well was physically removed.
• Wen Xu concludes that the well may be connected to the mysterious Pill Formation and that the current courtyard is concealed by an illusion or other sensory-deceiving formation.
• To avoid leaving spiritual-energy traces, the three dig through the courtyard manually instead of using cultivation techniques. Their efforts eventually reveal the hidden well.
• Wen Xu refuses to let them jump into it, suspecting that doing so would trigger the formation. Instead, he proposes setting the courtyard on fire.
• They ignite the dry goods and fish oil in the rear courtyard, carefully creating what appears to be an accidental fire while protecting the night-watch staff.
• After escaping, they watch as the fire destroys the courtyard walls and their protective formations, exposing the enormous well to the entire city.
• The City Lord’s Office and representatives of the major Aristocratic Clans quickly arrive, realizing that the well may be the formation core, altar, or another crucial part of the Pill Formation. The chapter ends with officials asking who discovered it first.

Character Developments

• Bian Chunchou demonstrates strong observational ability and confidence in his memory. His Water Spiritual Root also helps him recognize that the well’s absence is unnatural.
• Wen Xu shows strategic caution and ingenuity. He trusts Bian Chunchou’s judgment, identifies the likely sensory deception, and devises a plan to expose the well without directly triggering the formation.
• Chen Zui-Zui remains practical and cooperative. Although she questions the primitive digging method and offers to use earth arts, she accepts the need for secrecy and contributes her physical strength.
• The trio collectively becomes more careful after their earlier dangerous experience probing the sea formation. They prioritize avoiding detection and spiritual traces over using faster cultivation techniques.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: The vanished well suggests that the characters’ senses can be manipulated, raising doubts about what is physically present and what is an illusion.
• Caution and indirect action: Rather than confronting the formation directly, the characters expose it through mundane labor and a carefully staged fire.
• Ingenuity over power: Though they are only Golden Core cultivators among more powerful forces, they succeed by using clever, seemingly foolish methods.
• Public exposure of hidden power: By bringing the well into view, the trio forces the City Lord’s Office and powerful clans to investigate, shifting the secret matter into the public arena.
• Risk and moral ambiguity: Their plan involves trespassing and arson, but they deliberately control the fire to avoid harming people.

Character Interactions

• Bian Chunchou reports his certainty about the well, and Wen Xu immediately trusts his judgment.
• Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou understand each other’s intentions with little explanation, especially when Wen Xu suggests digging and later burning the site.
• Chen Zui-Zui questions their primitive approach, but the others explain that using spiritual energy could expose them.
• The trio works together efficiently: they dig up the courtyard, set the fire, erase traces of their presence, and retreat before authorities arrive.
• The final arrival of the City Lord’s Office and the Aristocratic Clans introduces a new conflict over who discovered the well and who will control the investigation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• True Lord Liao investigates a recently discovered well in Martial Peace Ward. The excavation marks are obvious, suggesting someone deliberately led the authorities to it.
• The well contains seawater despite being far from the coast by ordinary standards. Explorers discover complicated underground waterways and numerous Bewildering Formations beneath Pill Fragrance City.
• The formations appear to be part of a vast, preexisting underground network, raising fears that the city has been secretly infiltrated or trapped. Authorities realize the discovery may signal a disaster capable of destroying the entire city.
• Nascent Soul cultivators are unable to navigate the waterways. The Shi Household spends two Heaven-grade Pills to hire an Early Spirit Transformation Venerable, but even he cannot see through the maze of formations.
• True Lord Liao concludes that only the old City Lord may be capable of investigating further. The various aristocratic clans seal and guard the well before returning to inform their Household Heads, each likely planning around the crisis.
• The Shi Household orders Shi Yijian, a Golden Core cultivator with a Water Spiritual Root and Shi bloodline, to investigate the well. He initially refuses, arguing that more capable cultivators should be sent and pointing out that he is also a disciple of Yonglu Mountain.
• Shi Yijian eventually agrees after being told that his status and bloodline make him more trustworthy than outsiders, though the messenger privately doubts he could successfully report anything to Yonglu Mountain.
• Meanwhile, city residents gossip about the fire in Martial Peace Ward, the excavation of corpses, and the continuing search for the bandits who stole the Heaven-grade Pills. The city gates remain closed, and everyone connected to the area is being investigated. Rumors suggest the thieves may already have consumed the pills.

Character Developments

• True Lord Liao acts decisively and responsibly, ordering a citywide investigation and recognizing the seriousness of the hidden formations. He also understands the limits of his authority and realizes that the old City Lord may need to intervene.
• The Shi Household becomes more cautious and politically calculating. Rather than openly reveal its concerns, it uses valuable Heaven-grade Pills to recruit a powerful expert and sends Shi Yijian as a trusted insider.
• Shi Yijian is shown to be alienated within the Shi Household. Although he bears the family name, his unusual Spiritual Root, unruly personality, and status as a former sword attendant leave him treated as an outsider. His connection to Yonglu Mountain gives him some independence, and he remains wary of the Household Head’s motives.
• The hired Spirit Transformation Venerable is confident and straightforward, promising to genuinely investigate rather than merely pretend, but even his immense cultivation proves insufficient against the underground formations.
• The townspeople reveal the growing public anxiety through gossip, impatience, and speculation about the stolen pills and the city’s continued lockdown.

Significant Themes

• Hidden danger and impending catastrophe: The well reveals that Pill Fragrance City may rest above an extensive and potentially destructive underground network.
• Limits of power: Even Spirit Transformation cultivators cannot overcome the Bewildering Formations, emphasizing how formidable and carefully constructed the hidden threat is.
• Political mistrust and factional maneuvering: The City Lord’s Office and aristocratic clans cooperate publicly but clearly maintain separate interests and calculations.
• Outsider identity and family relations: Shi Yijian’s treatment reflects the difference between sharing a family name and truly belonging to a powerful clan.
• Information control and rumor: With the city sealed and official answers unavailable, ordinary residents rely on speculation about the thieves, the pills, and the fire.
• The value of Heaven-grade Pills: The pills are both powerful resources and politically significant treasures, important enough to be exchanged for the aid of a Venerable.

Character Interactions

• True Lord Liao commands his subordinates and coordinates with the Shi Household after the well is discovered.
• The investigators report the underground waterways and formations, prompting the authorities’ alarm.
• The Shi Household negotiates with a Spirit Transformation Venerable by offering two Heaven-grade Pills; he then investigates alone because no one else can safely assist him.
• Shi Yijian argues with the Household’s messenger, challenging the family’s sudden reliance on him and reminding them of his ties to Yonglu Mountain. The messenger answers that the City Lord would report any discovery first, pressuring him into cooperation.
• Citizens exchange rumors in the street, reflecting the wider public’s frustration with the investigation and fear that the stolen pills may already be gone.

Summary

Pill Fragrance City remains prosperous and orderly despite being sealed off after the supposed theft of a heaven-grade pill. Because the City Lord’s Office governs effectively, ordinary citizens suffer little inconvenience, and teahouses and streets remain lively with rumors. Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui listen to the gossip while discussing the likelihood that the authorities will investigate them for their activities in Martial Peace Ward.
Their prediction quickly comes true. City Lord’s Office cultivators stop them and question them about visiting Martial Peace Ward, claiming that clues about the “thief” point there. Wen Xu calmly denies seeing anyone suspicious and argues that the three are merely passing cultivators who have been trapped in the city. When the investigators question why Golden Core cultivators spent so long in a mortal district, Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui respond arrogantly, challenging the authorities to produce evidence rather than harass innocent people.
The officials demand their travel permits, and the confrontation escalates into a fight. Chen Zui eagerly defeats the first two investigators, but when a Nascent Soul cultivator arrives, the three deliberately pretend to be overpowered so that they can be taken into custody. After being bound, Wen Xu presents their permits identifying them as disciples of Yonglu Mountain. The officials are immediately alarmed, since Pill Fragrance City falls under Yonglu Mountain’s jurisdiction. They apologize and offer healing pills, but Bian Chunchou indignantly points out that he was beaten badly, while Chen Zui silently intimidates the Nascent Soul cultivator who captured him. The officials realize they may have created trouble with an influential sect.
The chapter then shifts to Shi Yijian, who continues investigating the well while disguised as an incompetent Golden Core cultivator. Wearing his mask, he explores underwater but finds nothing unusual. His Water Spiritual Root allows him to move freely through the well and sense the direction of the currents. However, because others may possess similar abilities, he chooses not to reveal what he knows.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Wen Xu acts as the group’s composed strategist, confidently maintaining their cover and provoking the investigators without revealing their true purpose.
• Bian Chunchou plays the role of an offended, wronged cultivator, emphasizing his injuries to pressure the City Lord’s Office.
• Chen Zui shows his aggressive and battle-loving nature, easily defeating the first investigators and becoming visibly frustrated when forced to pretend to lose. He later intimidates the Nascent Soul cultivator through sheer hostility.
• Shi Yijian continues his careful undercover investigation, concealing both his abilities and his discoveries.
• The interaction between the three protagonists and the City Lord’s Office highlights their coordinated deception: they allow themselves to be captured, then use their supposed Yonglu Mountain affiliation to reverse the power dynamic.

Significant Themes

• Deception and disguise: The protagonists conceal their identities, manipulate the investigation, and exploit official assumptions about sect disciples.
• Power and social hierarchy: The City Lord’s Office behaves aggressively toward unknown cultivators but becomes cautious and apologetic once Yonglu Mountain is mentioned.
• Bureaucratic overreach and injustice: The officials, unable to find the nonexistent thief, begin harassing suspicious travelers and risk punishing innocents.
• Underestimation as a strategy: Shi Yijian’s “useless Golden Core” persona and the group’s deliberate defeat allow them to investigate without exposing their actual strength.
• Appearances versus reality: The supposed heaven-grade-pill thief is a false premise, while the three “ordinary” passing cultivators are secretly capable and involved in a deeper investigation.

Chapter Summary: “Distinctive”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After diving underwater three times in one day, Shi Yijian refuses to continue and is summoned by the City Lord’s Office to deal with an urgent matter.
• The matter concerns three Yonglu Mountain disciples—Bian Chunchou, Wen Xu-Xu, and Chen Zui-Zui—who have angered officials while investigating suspicious activity in Pill Fragrance City, likely connected to the well in the seafood shop and the mysterious Martial Peace Ward.
• The City Lord’s Office forces Shi Yijian to act as their host and smooth things over. Instead, he pretends not to know the three disciples and dramatically accuses the officials of mistreating his fellow sect members.
• Bian Chunchou immediately joins the performance, praising Shi as a powerful senior disciple who once competed evenly with the sect’s Little Martial Granduncle. The officials are pressured into apologizing and offering compensation before leaving.
• Shi and the three disciples continue their deception, discussing the city’s lockdown and asking whether Shi can arrange for them to leave. Shi claims that, despite his family’s connection to the City Lord’s Office, he is an unvalued member of his clan and has no influence.
• Shi offers to take the three to Yonglu Mountain’s residence and host a banquet for them on behalf of the City Lord’s Office. Meanwhile, the City Lord’s hidden observers continue monitoring the group.
• The chapter reveals that the City Lord has been investigating Shi because a heavenly divination predicted that a blessing was connected to a cultivator surnamed Shi with a Water Spiritual Root. Shi’s pure Water Spiritual Root is unusual because he comes from the fire-oriented Shi clan, a prestigious family of pill cultivators.
• The Shi family previously mistreated or undervalued him, while the City Lord’s Office considered secretly protecting or controlling him. If necessary, however, they were prepared to kill him if he threatened Pill Fragrance City.
• Despite suspicions that Shi might be a destined prodigy like Zhi Lianshan, the City Lord’s observers find him remarkably obedient and unremarkable. He even helps his family organize an alchemy competition and settle disputes instead of rebelling against them.

Character Developments

• Shi Yijian: Demonstrates his talent for improvisation, deception, and theatrical performance. Though outwardly self-deprecating, he skillfully manipulates the City Lord’s Office to protect his fellow disciples. His unusual Water Spiritual Root and strained relationship with his fire-based family are further explored.
• Bian Chunchou: Shows sharp social intelligence and excellent cooperation with Shi. He instantly understands the staged act, praises Shi convincingly, and uses indirect criticism to pressure the City Lord’s Office.
• Wen Xu-Xu and Chen Zui-Zui: Participate in the disguise and investigation, having already uncovered clues that many powerful cultivators in the city failed to find.
• The City Lord’s Office: Becomes increasingly suspicious of Shi. It views him as a possible “blessed” figure but cannot determine whether he is genuinely ordinary or merely concealing his abilities.
• The Shi Household: Is portrayed as dismissive of Shi because his Water Spiritual Root conflicts with their fire-based pill-cultivation tradition.
• The City Lord: Attempts to balance protecting Pill Fragrance City, exploiting the prophecy surrounding Shi, and avoiding conflict with Yonglu Mountain.

Significant Themes

• Deception and performance: Nearly every interaction is an act, with Shi and Bian deliberately pretending not to know each other while manipulating officials.
• Hidden identities and misunderstood potential: Shi may be far more significant than he appears, yet his quiet behavior makes others uncertain whether he is concealing his abilities or truly lacks ambition.
• Family rejection versus outside recognition: Shi’s clan undervalues him because of his Water Spiritual Root, while the City Lord’s Office sees that same trait as potentially extraordinary.
• Political maneuvering and surveillance: The city’s hospitality is a cover for monitoring, control, and competing attempts to use Shi for political advantage.
• Water and fire as opposing forces: Shi’s Water Spiritual Root conflicts with his family’s fire-based heritage, while the chapter also recalls the possibility of seemingly incompatible powers coexisting harmoniously.
• The contrast between reputation and reality: Shi is treated as a potentially heaven-blessed prodigy, yet his observed life appears mundane, obedient, and almost deliberately unimpressive.

Character Interactions

• Shi and the City Lord’s Office engage in a polite but manipulative exchange, with Shi pretending to defend the three disciples while quietly forcing the officials to compensate them.
• Shi and Bian Chunchou collaborate through improvised role-play, each recognizing and strengthening the other’s performance.
• Bian challenges the City Lord’s Office by criticizing the city’s lockdown and its treatment of Shi, prompting Shi to maintain his false image of a neglected family member.
• The City Lord’s Office keeps watch over Shi and the three disciples, treating their banquet and apparent hospitality as part of an ongoing investigation.
• The chapter also contrasts the Shi family’s cold treatment of Shi with the City Lord’s Office’s reluctant interest in him, showing that both groups view him primarily as a potentially valuable or dangerous asset.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Shi Yijian brings Bian Chunchou, Wen Xu-Xu, and Chen Zui back to Yonglu Mountain’s residence, where they are given comfortable rooms by the Outer Sect disciples.
• A group of trackers continues following them, but Shi Yijian uses a concealing artifact to hide their presence and speak privately with the three.
• Shi reveals that he investigated the well in Martial Peace Ward three times. Beneath it are extensive underground waterways connected to the sea, but a powerful formation has prevented anyone—including a Spirit Transformation Venerable—from locating their source or entrance.
• He suspects these waterways are connected to the formation imprisoning Pill Fragrance City.
• The group explains to Shi Yijian the existence and history of the Scarlet Pill Clan and Pill Formation, revealing that pills were used to create the formation surrounding the city.
• Shi is surprised and fascinated by this lost or secret knowledge. He begins to suspect that the Shi Household’s guarded inheritance may have been improperly obtained or stolen and resolves to investigate further.
• Shi leaves after promising to search for information about Pill Formation and contact Bian Chunchou if he discovers anything.
• Afterward, Bian Chunchou considers the living currents beneath the well and reasons that they must have a source and outlet, offering hope that the waterways may eventually provide a way to break the city’s formation.
• Second Dad suddenly appears as a wisp of Black Mist and reveals that Shi Yijian carries a faint trace of the aura of his physical body. This suggests that the group may have unknowingly encountered a clue—or even a connection—to Second Dad’s lost body.

Character Developments

• Shi Yijian displays greater initiative and curiosity. Learning about Pill Formation awakens his suspicion toward the Shi Household’s secret techniques and motivates him to investigate their origins.
• He also shows his characteristic decisiveness, immediately offering to gather information before departing.
• Bian Chunchou demonstrates analytical thinking by connecting the well’s currents to the broader formation and recognizing that living water must have a source and exit.
• Wen Xu-Xu continues to act pragmatically, openly sharing dangerous secrets when doing so may help the group survive.
• Second Dad remains physically unstable, able to manifest only as Black Mist, but his discovery of his body’s aura introduces a potentially major lead.
• Chen Zui remains straightforward and inquisitive, asking practical questions without disguising his thoughts.

Significant Themes

• Inherited servility and restrictive traditions: The chapter criticizes the Shi Household’s “slave mentality,” suggesting that even talented individuals can be crippled by deeply ingrained submission.
• Secrets and stolen knowledge: The origins of the Shi Household’s techniques and Pill Formation are uncertain, raising questions about whether power was inherited legitimately or seized from others.
• Curiosity versus danger: Learning forbidden history may be dangerous, but it also offers the only path toward understanding and escaping Pill Fragrance City.
• Hope amid uncertainty: Although the underground waterways have yielded no immediate solution, the existence of flowing water suggests that a hidden route may still be found.
• Chance and fate: The group’s accidental discovery of the well and Shi Yijian’s connection to Second Dad’s body imply that seemingly unrelated events may be converging.

Character Interactions

• Shi Yijian and the three disciples speak as fellow sect members, with Shi treating them openly once they are concealed from their pursuers.
• Wen Xu-Xu’s revelation about the Scarlet Pill Clan shocks Shi, who responds with genuine excitement and a desire to expose the hidden knowledge.
• Bian Chunchou privately recognizes that both Shi Yijian and Wen Xu-Xu are becoming increasingly willing to take risks, though he reframes their schemes as necessary survival instincts.
• Bian then interacts with Second Dad, whose warning transforms the group’s investigation from a search for an escape route into a possible search for his physical body.

Summary of “Three Parties”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bian Chunchou interprets Black Mist’s cryptic remark about the Prosperity Exchange Tower as possibly referring to the burial place of his unknown father. Shocked and eager for answers, he rushes to tell Wen Xu-Xu and Chen Zui-Zui, leaving Black Mist unable to stop him.
• Wushan and Cheng Wei investigate the mysterious Formation-Eye Pills implanted in Feidu City’s young city lord. Wushan explains that the pills create a hidden Bewildering Formation within the body.
• The formation disguises its true destructive nature. When its vitality is exhausted—such as when the host is near death—it breaks apart and destroys the body, explaining why Feidu City’s victims left no intact corpses.
• The pills also caused the city’s inhabitants to change sex and appearance through continuously operating Disguise and Body-Strengthening Pills. The effect was maintained by slowly consuming the host’s life force.
• Wushan concludes that the same person who created this formation may have been responsible for the destruction of the other three great cities. He decides to travel to Pill Fragrance City to determine why it has not yet vanished like Rongyuan, Mingxuan, and Pagoda City.
• Shi Yijian realizes that Pill Fragrance City is likely doomed. The city’s powerful clans and officials are trying to flee, while the city remains sealed. The overcrowded fishing boats reveal the panic caused by the unknown danger.
• After waiting for over an hour, Shi Yijian is allowed to meet the family head, Shi Muye. He seeks the keepsake left by his deceased mother, but Shi Muye also attempts to manipulate him by offering future authority within the Lineage.

Character Developments

• Bian Chunchou is shown to be innocent, impulsive, and emotionally vulnerable. His immediate belief in Black Mist’s suggestion demonstrates how deeply he longs to learn about his parentage.
• Black Mist appears protective of Bian Chunchou despite his frustration with the boy’s gullibility. He blames the escaped Primordial Spirit for raising Bian poorly.
• Wushan demonstrates exceptional expertise in formations and pills. He is fascinated by the elegance and complexity of the hidden formation, while also recognizing the danger posed by its creator.
• Cheng Wei acts as the practical outsider, questioning Wushan until the explanation becomes understandable. He shares Wushan’s growing concern about the mastermind behind the city destructions.
• Shi Yijian becomes more perceptive and politically aware. He understands that the city’s leaders know more than they are revealing and recognizes the disaster as the final struggle of people trapped by circumstances.
• Shi Muye presents himself as a benevolent family elder, but his remarks reveal an attempt to exploit Shi Yijian’s resentment over being denied entry to the Five Sects Assembly.

Significant Themes

• Deception and hidden reality: The Bewildering Formation conceals a lethal mechanism beneath an ordinary appearance, reflecting how the city’s entire population was deceived.
• Fear of the unknown: Shi Yijian observes that people fear unseen danger more than a clearly understood threat, which allows the mastermind’s plan to create widespread panic.
• Manipulation and control: The formation controls bodies from within, while political figures such as Shi Muye manipulate people through promises, guilt, and family obligations.
• Identity and origins: Bian Chunchou’s search for his father and Shi Yijian’s desire for his mother’s keepsake both reflect characters seeking answers about their past and true place in the world.
• The boundary between genius and monstrosity: Wushan admires the creator’s extraordinary skill even while recognizing that the work has been used to destroy entire cities.

Character Interactions

• Bian Chunchou’s exchange with Black Mist reveals a tense but protective relationship: Black Mist criticizes his naivety while worrying about his future.
• Wushan explains the formation to Cheng Wei, whose questions force him to translate his technical fascination into terms an outsider can understand. Their discussion establishes mutual trust and shared concern.
• Shi Yijian’s meeting with Shi Muye is outwardly respectful but emotionally tense. Shi Muye invokes Yijian’s mother and past grievances before offering him power, attempting to draw him back into the Lineage.
• The chapter links the personal conflicts—family, identity, and trust—with the larger mystery of the formations destroying the cities.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Shi Muye, the Shi Household Head, returns Shi Yijian’s mother’s relics and explains that she died attempting to repair Yijian’s defective Spiritual Root. He claims she knew his innate condition made cultivation difficult and sacrificed herself to help him.
• Shi Muye points out that although Yijian possesses a rare Single Spiritual Root, advancing through each cultivation realm is extraordinarily difficult. His successful formation of a Golden Core was considered unexpected, which explains why the Shi Household once allowed him to leave and seek another master.
• Yijian distrusts Shi Muye’s account, suspecting that the Household Head is exploiting his mother’s death to manipulate him emotionally. He rejects any attempt to make him feel guilty or return to the Shi Household’s side.
• After returning to his courtyard, Yijian discovers that the relics consist of an ancient jade slip and a letter. The letter projects an image of his mother, who confirms that the jade slip contains a method for repairing his Spiritual Root and that she paid for it with her life.
• Despite the apparent confirmation of Shi Muye’s story, Yijian remains skeptical and dismisses the relics.
• Meanwhile, at Yonglu Mountain’s residence, Bian Chunchou, Wen Xu, and Chen Zui go sightseeing in Yonglu Mountain uniforms. Their status causes people in the city to treat them more respectfully.
• At the beach, Bian Chunchou compares a recording of Pill Fragrance City’s sunset from before the city was sealed with the current sunset. The three notice that the sun repeatedly meets the sea at exactly the same central point, suggesting that something unnatural is affecting the city.

Character Developments

• Shi Yijian: Remains cynical, guarded, and resistant to emotional manipulation. His painful history with the Shi Household—particularly being hunted by blood relatives—has solidified his distrust and allegiance to Yonglu Mountain. Although he learns that his mother may have sacrificed herself for him, he refuses to accept the explanation unquestioningly.
• Shi Muye: Attempts to present himself as truthful and concerned, explaining the circumstances of Yijian’s Spiritual Root and childhood. However, he fails to rebuild Yijian’s trust and becomes frustrated when Yijian interprets his words as an attempt to induce guilt.
• Shi Yijian’s mother: Gains posthumous characterization as a compassionate and highly skilled cultivator who tried to compensate for her son’s innate deficiency. Her sacrifice may be genuine, though Yijian remains unwilling to accept it at face value.
• Bian Chunchou: His habit of recording scenery becomes important when his old Shadow Recording Stone provides evidence of a mysterious change in Pill Fragrance City.
• Wen Xu and Chen Zui: Act as perceptive companions, quickly recognizing that the repeated sunset pattern is abnormal and supporting Bian Chunchou’s observations.

Significant Themes

• Distrust and manipulation: Yijian questions whether the Shi Household is using his mother’s memory to control him, showing how deeply betrayal has shaped his worldview.
• Family, guilt, and belated regret: Shi Muye attempts to explain the Household’s past neglect, but Yijian resists the idea that late explanations can repair years of abandonment and persecution.
• Loyalty based on actions: Yijian values Yonglu Mountain because its people actually helped him when his own family pursued him, contrasting practical kindness with the Shi Household’s belated words.
• Fate versus personal choice: The discussion of Yijian’s Spiritual Root frames his cultivation as predetermined by innate limitations, while his refusal to rebuild his Dao Heart suggests his identity and choices are already firmly established.
• Hidden abnormalities: The fixed sunset pattern hints that Pill Fragrance City is governed by an artificial formation or other supernatural distortion, advancing the mystery surrounding the sealed city.

Character Interactions

• Shi Muye and Shi Yijian: Their conversation is tense and emotionally unequal. Shi Muye tries to justify the Household’s actions and evoke Yijian’s feelings for his mother, while Yijian responds with sarcasm and suspicion, refusing reconciliation.
• Yijian and his mother’s recording: Though they do not meet directly, the projected message creates an intimate posthumous encounter. Her sacrifice is revealed, but Yijian’s emotional distance prevents him from accepting it fully.
• Bian Chunchou, Wen Xu, and Chen Zui: Their relaxed outing reflects their camaraderie. They examine Bian’s recordings together and collectively identify the sunset’s unnatural consistency, shifting from casual sightseeing to investigating a possible threat.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wen Xu, Bian Chunchou, and Chen Zui investigate a suspected underwater passage connected to the mysterious well beneath the seafood shop. They theorize that the location may be either the well’s sea outlet or the eye of another formation.
• The group rents a boat and begins searching the seabed at night. Bian Chunchou dives first because his Water Spiritual Root makes him best suited to underwater exploration.
• For three nights, all three take turns digging through the seabed with an iron shovel, but they find nothing. Their repeated failures make the fisherman suspect their bad luck might affect his boat.
• On the fourth night, Wen Xu finally detects something unusual. He discovers that a seemingly ordinary shell conceals a hidden entrance surrounded by a faint halo and an invisible water passage.
• Wen Xu explains that the Bewildering Formation does not merely confuse cultivators; it disguises the entire seascape. He identified the entrance by noticing how wind and water behaved differently beneath the shell.
• Wen Xu remains behind to guard the entrance while Bian Chunchou enters the passage with a Shadow Recording Stone to investigate what lies beyond.

Character Developments

• Wen Xu demonstrates growing skill in understanding formations and natural phenomena. His breakthrough comes from observing the interaction between wind, water, and the formation rather than relying solely on conventional detection.
• Bian Chunchou shows confidence and physical resilience, especially in underwater movement and labor. However, he also recognizes the limits of his formation knowledge when he cannot perceive the passage even after being shown its location.
• Chen Zui remains practical and combat-focused. He volunteers to stay on the boat and asks to be summoned if a fight begins, revealing his straightforward priorities and readiness to protect the others.

Significant Themes

• Persistence and perseverance: The group’s repeated failures and exhausting excavation eventually lead to success.
• The limits of perception: The formation deceives not only people but the surrounding environment itself, emphasizing how appearances can conceal deeper truths.
• Learning from nature: Wen Xu succeeds by studying subtle changes in wind and water, suggesting that understanding natural principles is essential to mastering formations.
• Teamwork and specialization: Each member contributes according to his strengths—Bian Chunchou’s water affinity, Wen Xu’s insight into formations, and Chen Zui’s combat readiness.

Character Interactions

• Wen Xu and Bian Chunchou discuss the possible nature of the underwater location and coordinate the investigation.
• Bian Chunchou confidently volunteers to dive, while Wen Xu and Chen Zui remain on the boat to support him.
• After Bian Chunchou and Chen Zui fail to locate the entrance, Wen Xu takes over and succeeds.
• Wen Xu instructs Bian Chunchou to enter the hidden passage while he guards the opening, showing mutual trust and cooperation.
• Chen Zui accepts the supporting role without complaint, emphasizing his dependable but direct personality.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Bian Chunchou explores the vast underwater passage beneath Pill Fragrance City, but becomes disoriented in its maze-like structure. Other cultivators are also wandering aimlessly inside, suggesting the waterway traps anyone who enters.
• He eventually returns to the entrance, where Wen Xu-Xu helps him escape before the shell seals the passage again.
• Exhausted, Bian Chunchou sleeps until noon. After waking, he reveals that he sensed his “second father’s” residual power within the water, confirming that they have found the corpse—or at least the remains—of his nominal father, Shu Wenzhou.
• The three companions discuss whether retrieving the corpse is worth confronting the powerful and unknown force behind the city’s formation. Although the danger is immense, Wen Xu and Chen Zui encourage Chunchou to try rather than surrender.
• Wen Xu reasons that the formation’s creator deliberately used the body of an Integrated Body Great Talent, proving they are dangerous and morally unrestrained. Since the group is already trapped in the city, finding a way to break the formation is necessary for their survival.
• He also investigates how the formation-setter could have known about Shu Wenzhou’s hidden burial. Wen Xu suspects the person may have lived in or observed the Rogue Cultivator Alliance for a long period and discovered Shu’s true identity and extraordinary physical body.

Character developments

• Bian Chunchou is shown to be physically and mentally exhausted, but his discovery of his father’s presence gives him a reason to continue despite the overwhelming danger. He remains somewhat pessimistic and surprised by Wen Xu’s optimism.
• Wen Xu-Xu demonstrates practical care by rescuing and looking after Chunchou, while also encouraging him emotionally. His past experiences with darkness and hatred give him insight into the likely motives of the formation’s creator.
• Chen Zui is unusually quiet after viewing Chunchou’s recording, but supports Wen Xu’s conclusion that they should make the attempt. His fishing and calm behavior contrast with the seriousness of the situation.
• Shu Wenzhou, though absent and presumed dead, becomes more fully characterized through discussion: he was once a powerful cultivator who abandoned his strength, lived in obscurity for Chunchou’s sake, and concealed his true nature so successfully that few understood who he really was.

Significant themes

• Persistence despite danger: The characters recognize that retreat may be impossible, making action preferable to passive waiting.
• The consequences of hatred: Wen Xu suggests that the formation may have been created by someone driven by revenge, whose hatred has destroyed their moral judgment.
• Hidden identities and unintended consequences: Shu Wenzhou’s attempt to live quietly and protect Chunchou ultimately made him vulnerable once someone discovered his concealed past.
• Family and loyalty: Chunchou’s determination to recover his father’s remains reflects the emotional importance of family, while Wen Xu’s support shows the strength of friendship and reciprocal encouragement.
• The lingering influence of the dead: Shu Wenzhou’s body and residual power remain central to the plot, demonstrating that death does not end a powerful cultivator’s impact.

Character interactions

• Wen Xu-Xu rescues Chunchou from the waterway, watches over him while he sleeps, and provides tea and food after he wakes.
• Chunchou shares his vision or dream of his father’s power, and Wen Xu initially challenges his pessimism by urging him to attempt the recovery.
• Chunchou recalls that he once encouraged Wen Xu in the same way during their time in the Mortal Realm, creating a moment of mutual emotional support.
• Chen Zui quietly agrees with Wen Xu, reinforcing the decision to investigate further.
• Wen Xu and Chunchou engage in a deductive discussion about how the formation-setter learned of Shu Wenzhou, deepening both the mystery and their understanding of Shu’s hidden life.

Chapter 580 Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bian Chunchou and Wen Xu consider the possibility that the Rogue Cultivator Alliance may have silenced the original owner, especially because of his connection to Shu Wenzhou. This raises the possibility that the original owner’s death and Shu Wenzhou’s stolen body were deliberate acts.
• Chen Zui encourages Bian Chunchou not to be intimidated and promises to help him seek revenge if the theory proves true.
• The group reviews what they know about the crisis in Pill Fragrance City:
  • A Pill Formation has sealed the city, though it remains uncertain whether the Scarlet Pill Clan still exists.
  • An illusion formation likely covers the entire city, including its extensive underground waterways.
  • Exploring the waterways again is considered too dangerous and impractical because it may attract attention, and the group lacks sufficient formation expertise.
• They conclude that the City Lord’s Office and Shi Yijian are probably investigating the waterways as well.
• Wen Xu points out that the city’s spiritual energy is steadily declining. It drops sharply at night and only partially recovers during the day, suggesting another hidden mechanism behind the city’s imprisonment.
• The group realizes that Pill Fragrance City may eventually become uninhabitable if the spiritual energy continues to diminish. However, they have no clear way to investigate or stop it.
• Wen Xu has an unexpected breakthrough and reaches the peak of the Golden Core stage, making Nascent Soul Formation a realistic next goal. The chapter ends with Chen Zui eagerly asking how Wen Xu achieved his sudden insight.

Character Developments

• Bian Chunchou confronts the possibility that his original identity was deliberately erased or targeted. Though frightened, he regains his resolve and accepts that he may eventually need to avenge both the original owner and Shu Wenzhou.
• Wen Xu becomes more aware of his own lack of ambition. He reflects that, after severing his family ties, he lost much of his former urgency to grow stronger. The danger in Pill Fragrance City reminds him of the brutal power hierarchy of the Cultivation Realm and renews his determination to advance.
• Chen Zui remains optimistic, supportive, and fiercely protective of Bian Chunchou. His desire to grow stronger intensifies after seeing Wen Xu’s breakthrough.
• Wen Xu recognizes that his master understood him deeply, particularly in encouraging him to consider Spirit Transformation and pushing him toward greater ambition.

Significant Themes

• Powerlessness and survival: Titles, talent, sect affiliation, and reputation offer little protection when faced with genuine life-and-death danger.
• Ambition and cultivation: Wen Xu realizes that ambition is essential for cultivators, not merely a flaw or personal desire. Without the drive to grow stronger, even talented individuals remain vulnerable.
• Hidden conspiracies: The possibility that the original owner was silenced suggests a broader conspiracy involving the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, Shu Wenzhou, and the current crisis.
• Confinement and resource depletion: The Pill Formation and declining spiritual energy transform the city into a slowly tightening prison, where escape and survival become increasingly difficult.
• Friendship and mutual support: Chen Zui’s encouragement helps Bian Chunchou resist fear, while the trio works together to analyze the crisis despite their limited strength.

Character Interactions

• Chen Zui reassures Bian Chunchou that he will help him confront anyone responsible for the possible silencing.
• Wen Xu leads the group’s logical assessment of the Pill Formation, illusion formation, waterways, and spiritual-energy depletion.
• Bian Chunchou supports Wen Xu’s analysis and enthusiastically praises his breakthrough.
• Chen Zui humorously demands that Wen Xu explain his “epiphany,” eager to experience a similar improvement himself.