Recaps

Lin Fan endured the strain of thirty-thousandfold Cultivation Acceleration while awaiting a valuable delivery of spirit herbs. After paying Manager Zhou for the shipment, Lin Fan resumed cultivation and spent two double-hours at it.

• Lin Fan cultivated under thirty-thousandfold acceleration, enduring intense discomfort as he aimed to strengthen himself and protect his family.
• Manager Zhou arrived with three wagons carrying the high-grade spiritual materials Lin Fan had ordered from the Ten Thousand Prosperity Medicine Depot.
• Lin Fan inspected the herbs as the workers unloaded them into his storeroom and found their condition satisfactory.
• Lin Fan paid Manager Zhou the remaining four hundred and ninety-three thousand six hundred taels, and Manager Zhou promised regular deliveries every half-month.
• Lin Fan used his Inner Qi to clean the courtyard, then returned to his cushion and cultivated for two double-hours.

Lin Fan used his Inner Qi to refine spiritual ingredients into High-Grade Pills in the Pill Room. He formed several pill embryos and began purifying them inside the furnace.

• Lin Fan ended his cultivation session after two hours and noted his progress toward the late stage of the Transforming Force Realm.
• Lin Fan selected and prepared spiritual ingredients from the storeroom using formulas he had memorized.
• Lin Fan ignited the charcoal and carefully controlled the furnace fire with his Inner Qi.
• Lin Fan added the spiritual medicines in timed batches and guided their medicinal liquids together inside the furnace.
• Lin Fan lowered the heat and compressed the fused liquid into several pill embryos, stripping away their impurities.

Lin Fan finished refining roughly sixty High-Grade Pills, then left the Pill Room and crossed his brightly lit estate toward the bedrooms. Mao Mao greeted him affectionately before he reached his family.

• Lin Fan removed six high-grade Foundation-Replenishing Pills from the furnace and stored them in a brocade box to sell at Azure Elixir Hall.
• Lin Fan spent three hours refining roughly sixty High-Grade Pills and arranged the batches in jade bottles.
• Lin Fan left the Pill Room at night and walked along the torchlit paths toward the inner courtyard.
• Lin Fan heard a baby babbling near the bedrooms and thought Su Qingwei and their two children were likely resting there.
• Mao Mao dashed out from beneath the walkway, circled Lin Fan's legs, and rubbed his head against them.

Lin Fan balanced cultivation and family life while regularly selling large quantities of pure High-Grade Pills to Azure Elixir Hall. His pills boosted the hall's business, and Lin Fan returned home with the money to continue supporting his household and advancing toward the late Transforming Force Realm.

• Lin Fan visited Su Qingwei and their sleeping twins, gave her body-nourishing elixirs, and spent a tender moment with the children.
• Lin Fan settled into a routine of cultivating, refining elixirs, and spending time with his family in Commandery City.
• Lin Fan repeatedly brought more than a thousand High-Grade Pills to Azure Elixir Hall, where the Steward welcomed him and the hall paid him handsomely.
• Azure Elixir Hall's popularity and sales surpassed those of neighboring Ten Thousand Treasures Hall as customers flocked to buy Lin Fan's pills.
• Lin Fan returned home after selling his elixirs and resumed cultivating toward the late Transforming Force Realm.

Lin Fan took Su Qingwei and Lin Ruoruo to explore Commandery City's bustling market, where Lin Ruoruo enjoyed the outing and bought many things. On the way home, Lin Fan proposed hiring a female tutor to teach Lin Ruoruo at the estate, and she agreed.

• Lin Fan arranged carriages and maids for an outing with Su Qingwei and Lin Ruoruo, leaving the infant twins at home.
• Lin Fan and Su Qingwei accompanied Lin Ruoruo through Commandery City's market, where she admired the stalls and Lin Fan bought her many things.
• As they headed home, Lin Fan told Lin Ruoruo he wanted to hire a learned woman to tutor her at the estate.
• Lin Ruoruo agreed to follow Lin Fan's plan, and Su Qingwei supported the idea.
• The family returned to the estate, where Su Qingwei hurried to check on the crying twins while Lin Fan unloaded the purchases and returned the carriages.

Lin Fan handled household arrangements before returning to cultivate, while Ten Thousand Treasures Hall’s Chief Steward learned that Lin Fan’s pills had caused its High-Grade Pill revenue to collapse. The Chief Steward decided to recruit Lin Fan, and Granny Qian stepped forward as the hall’s experienced contact with alchemists.

• Lin Fan searched for a suitable female tutor in Commandery City and returned to his courtyard to cultivate.
• The Chief Steward of Ten Thousand Treasures Hall confronted the shop stewards after High-Grade Pill revenue fell to thirty percent of its former level.
• A shop steward explained that Lin Fan supplied Azure Elixir Hall with about a thousand superior-grade High-Grade Pills every half month, drawing customers away from Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
• The Chief Steward decided to offer Lin Fan generous pay, medicinal herbs, cultivation resources, and an honored position to recruit him.
• Granny Qian stepped forward to address the Chief Steward.

Granny Qian accepted the task of recruiting Lin Fan for Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, but she planned to sabotage it because she feared he would retaliate for her earlier attempt to cheat him. She prepared to visit Lin Fan the next day, while he remained unaware of her scheme.

• Granny Qian volunteered to approach Lin Fan, and the chief Steward gave her a token authorizing her to negotiate generous terms on Ten Thousand Treasures Hall's behalf.
• After leaving the meeting, Granny Qian recalled how she had tried to underpay Lin Fan and concluded that he held a grudge against her.
• Granny Qian decided to ruin the recruitment effort and turn Lin Fan against Ten Thousand Treasures Hall so he could never rise within the organization.
• Lin Fan finished his evening meditation and went to check on his sleeping wife and child, unaware of Granny Qian's plan.
• Granny Qian stood beneath her residence's eaves, fingering the token as she planned what to say when she visited Lin Fan the next day.

Granny Qian visited Lin Fan on the Chief Steward’s orders and offered him the title of Chief Alchemist at the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, but attached conditions that would strip him of his freedom and control his family. Lin Fan recognized the offer as an attempt to bind and exploit him, and his anger rose as he set down his teacup.

• Granny Qian planned to make Lin Fan reject the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall’s invitation so she could blame him for the failure.
• Granny Qian arrived at Lin Fan’s residence with gifts and attendants, claiming she had come on the Chief Steward’s orders.
• Lin Fan let Granny Qian into his courtyard and asked what opportunity the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall was offering.
• Granny Qian offered Lin Fan the position of Chief Alchemist but required him to surrender his pills and formulas, obey orders at any time, accept surveillance of his family, and cut ties with Azure Elixir Hall.
• Lin Fan realized the conditions would make him a tool of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, grew angry, and set down his teacup.

Lin Fan rejected Granny Qian’s offer to join Ten Thousand Treasures Hall and sent her away with the herbs she had brought. Granny Qian then fabricated an insulting account of their meeting to turn the chief steward against Lin Fan, leaving the steward furious.

• Lin Fan refused Granny Qian’s recruitment offer and told her not to return about it.
• Granny Qian took the medicinal herbs with her and left Lin Fan’s residence, relieved that the recruitment had failed.
• On the journey back, Granny Qian planned to distort Lin Fan’s words so the chief steward would abandon any effort to recruit him.
• Granny Qian told the chief steward that Lin Fan had insulted Ten Thousand Treasures Hall and refused to sell it pills.
• The chief steward grew enraged and slammed his palm onto the desk.

The Chief Steward blamed Lin Fan for insulting Ten Thousand Treasures Hall and began plotting against him, while Lin Fan continued cultivating and selling pills. His peaceful routine was disrupted when a late, reduced herb shipment revealed that Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot had opened in the West City Medicinal Market.

• The Chief Steward believed Granny Qian's distorted report, declared Lin Fan an enemy of Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, and plotted to make him pay.
• Lin Fan cultivated and refined pills for several days, then sold more than a thousand pills to Azure Elixir Hall for over 1,300 taels of silver.
• Lin Fan received a delivery of high-tier herbs from Ten Thousand Prosperity Medicine Depot and paid over a million taels for the supplies.
• Half a month later, Lin Fan waited for his usual herb shipment, but Ten Thousand Prosperity Medicine Depot delivered late with only a fraction of the usual stock.
• The delivery Steward told Lin Fan that the herb market had changed because Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot had opened in the West City Medicinal Market.

Lin Fan discovered that Ten Thousand Treasures Hall had monopolized the Commandery City's High-Grade Spiritual Materials to force him to supply it exclusively. After refusing its terms at Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot, he left determined to oppose the guild and went to Azure Elixir Hall.

• Lin Fan learned that Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce had bought up nearly all the city's High-Grade Spiritual Materials, leaving Ten Thousand Prosperity Medicine Depot with only a fraction of its usual supply.
• Lin Fan visited the West City Medicinal Market and saw that High-Grade Spiritual Materials had vanished from shops throughout the area.
• The Steward of Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot refused to sell Lin Fan materials unless he supplied every High-Grade Pill exclusively to Ten Thousand Treasures Hall and stopped supplying Azure Elixir Hall.
• Lin Fan rejected the Steward's demand and left, resolving to fight back against Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce.
• Lin Fan went directly to Azure Elixir Hall, where its Steward came forward to greet him.

After Ten Thousand Treasures Hall cut off Lin Fan's access to high-grade medicinal ingredients, he decided to travel to distant herb markets and buy them there. Worried about leaving Su Qingwei and their children exposed, he went to Artifact Hall to buy a defensive formation, where the shopkeeper showed him the available options.

• Lin Fan told Azure Elixir Hall's steward how Ten Thousand Treasures Hall had bought up local high-grade ingredients and tried to force him to supply them exclusively.
• The steward explained that Azure Elixir Hall could not quickly bring ingredients from its distant sect headquarters and suggested Lin Fan visit herb markets farther from Commandery City.
• Lin Fan decided to travel for ingredients but worried about leaving Su Qingwei and their two children at home, so he resolved to buy a defensive formation.
• The steward gave Lin Fan maps and letters of introduction for distant herb merchants, and Lin Fan left Azure Elixir Hall.
• Lin Fan visited Artifact Hall and asked its shopkeeper for a defensive formation for his residence.
• The shopkeeper led Lin Fan to the formation floor and explained that defensive formations ranged from several million to tens of millions of taels.

Lin Fan bought the powerful Mansion-Guarding Blacksteel Formation to protect his family while he traveled to obtain medicinal ingredients. He returned home and began installing it as Su Qingwei watched.

• Lin Fan rejected several formations at Artifact Hall because their defenses and alarms were not powerful enough.
• The shopkeeper showed Lin Fan the Mansion-Guarding Blacksteel Formation, which required a thousand strands of inner qi and could withstand powerful attacks while sounding a thunderous alarm.
• Lin Fan paid thirty million taels for the formation and learned how to install and activate it.
• Lin Fan hurried home carrying the heavy formation set and found Su Qingwei tending to their twins in the courtyard.
• Lin Fan explained the threat from Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce and his plan to protect their residence, then began working while Su Qingwei watched.

Lin Fan installed and tested the Mansion-Guarding Blacksteel Formation, then recorded the auras of his family, servants, and Mao Mao so they could pass through its barrier. With his residence protected, he turned to preparing for a long journey to buy medicinal herbs.

• Lin Fan buried the Formation Disc and eight flags, then activated the formation around his estate.
• He tested the barrier with attacks as powerful as those of a Peak Bright Force Realm martial artist, and it held while sounding an alarm that alerted the city guards.
• Lin Fan recorded the auras of Su Qingwei, his sister, his children, the maids, and Mao Mao in the Formation Disc.
• The recorded residents and servants passed through the barrier freely, while an unregistered stranger would be blocked.
• Lin Fan resolved to make the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce repay the thirty million taels he had spent and began preparing for his medicinal-herb journey.

Lin Fan left home for the Azure Wave Medicine Market to buy high-grade medicinal materials, relying on his true Mid Transforming Force Realm cultivation to travel there quickly. After inspecting goods at multiple shops, he bought enough materials to refine a thousand High-Grade Pills and prepared to carry the heavy crates back.

• Lin Fan told Su Qingwei and Lin Ruoruo to stay inside the residence while he traveled to the Azure Wave Medicine Market.
• Lin Fan raced more than five hundred li along the official road using his Inner Qi and reached the market after a few sticks of incense.
• Lin Fan inspected medicinal materials at several depots and rejected goods that were overpriced, weak, or moldy.
• Lin Fan placed orders at more than ten shops and bought enough high-grade medicinal materials to refine a thousand High-Grade Pills.
• Lin Fan used his Inner Qi to hold more than ten heavy medicine crates in midair as onlookers marveled at his cultivation and purchases.

Lin Fan returned from the Azure Wave Medicine Market with High-Grade Spiritual Materials, stored them safely, and cultivated while planning to outlast the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s attempted monopoly. Half a month later, the Commerce’s chief Steward received a report that left him grim and tense.

• Lin Fan carried more than a dozen chests of High-Grade Spiritual Materials from the Azure Wave Medicine Market to his residence in the Commandery City.
• Lin Fan reunited with Mao Mao, Su Qingwei, Lin Ruoruo, and the sleeping twins, then checked the ingredients and stored them in the storeroom.
• Lin Fan activated thirty-thousandfold Cultivation Acceleration and cultivated as he considered how the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s stockpile could lose potency if it remained unsold.
• Another half month passed, and the Commandery City’s chief Steward gripped the council-hall table after hearing a scout’s report.

Lin Fan continued supplying the Azure Elixir Hall with High-Grade Superior Pills despite the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s efforts to cut off his ingredients. As the Commerce chose to endure a long war of attrition, Lin Fan maintained his cultivation, pill-making, and family life while its stockpile of medicinal materials steadily lost potency.

• The Chief Steward learned that Lin Fan had delivered another thousand High-Grade Superior Pills to the Azure Elixir Hall after buying ingredients in the distant Azure Wave Medicine Market.
• The Ten Thousand Treasures Hall’s managers concluded that Lin Fan’s long journeys would drain his Inner Qi, while the Chief Steward recognized that neither side could easily back down.
• The Chief Steward ordered the Commerce to hold out and wagered that either Lin Fan would tire or the Commerce would be crushed by losses as its stored ingredients deteriorated.
• Lin Fan cultivated daily, refined more than sixty High-Grade Superior Pills at a time, and prepared to sell them to the Azure Elixir Hall in batches.
• Lin Fan periodically traveled to the Azure Wave Medicine Market for ingredients and spent his remaining time with Su Qingwei, their twins, Lin Ruoruo, and Mao Mao.
• The Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s medicinal stock continued to lose potency as Lin Fan and the Azure Elixir Hall captured almost all of Commandery City’s High-Grade Pill business.

Lin Fan, wealthy again from selling pills, traveled to the Azure Wave Medicine Market to buy herbs and came across Black Wind Sect members cornering the young daughter of the Thousand Three Sect’s master. He intervened to save her, but the Black Wind Sect’s leader warned him about their powerful ancestor.

• Lin Fan’s pill sales restored his silver balance to more than seventy million taels while the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce continued hoarding medicinal herbs.
• Lin Fan set out for the Azure Wave Medicine Market and heard fighting in a patch of woods along the road.
• Lin Fan found five Black Wind Sect men about to kill the wounded, terrified daughter of the Thousand Three Sect’s master, whose sect had been wiped out.
• Lin Fan knocked the attackers’ blades away with his Inner Qi and stood between them and the girl.
• The Black Wind Sect leader warned Lin Fan that their ancestor was a Mid Transforming Force Realm expert.

Lin Fan drove off the Black Wind Sect assassins and took the orphaned Chu Lingxi as his disciple. After burying her fallen guards, he brought her to the Azure Wave Medicine Market, where he bought ingredients for high-grade pills.

• Lin Fan intimidated the Black Wind Sect assassins until they fled, protecting the grieving Chu Lingxi.
• Lin Fan offered Chu Lingxi a place to stay as his disciple, while telling her he would not avenge her family; she accepted and paid her respects to him.
• Lin Fan buried Chu Lingxi’s fallen guards and made grave markers before setting off with her for the Azure Wave Medicine Market.
• Lin Fan shielded Chu Lingxi as they flew to the market, then bought ingredients for one thousand high-grade pills from several shops.
• Lin Fan considered showing Chu Lingxi around the bustling market but hesitated because they had only just met.

Lin Fan brought his new disciple Chu Lingxi back to his residence in Commandery City and introduced her to his family. As Chu Lingxi began settling into her new home with Lin Ruoruo’s help, Lin Fan stored the medicinal materials he had purchased.

• Lin Fan flew back to Commandery City with Chu Lingxi and more than a dozen medicine chests, concealing his stronger realm.
• Lin Fan recorded Chu Lingxi’s aura in the Residence-Guarding Formation and introduced her as his new disciple to Su Qingwei and Lin Ruoruo.
• Su Qingwei accepted Chu Lingxi’s arrival, while Lin Ruoruo welcomed her warmly and took her by the hand.
• Lin Fan arranged a bath, clothes, and food for Chu Lingxi, then asked Lin Ruoruo to show her around the residence.
• Lin Ruoruo showed Chu Lingxi the courtyard and its grounds, easing some of her fear and loneliness.
• Lin Fan carried the purchased High-Grade Spiritual Materials into the medicinal storeroom, checked them, and locked the doors.

Lin Fan continued cultivating and refining pills while avoiding the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s blockade. After three months of failed efforts to force him into cooperation, the Commerce’s Chief Steward ordered the herb-buying campaign stopped and its stock sold off.

• Lin Fan cultivated diligently, refined pills, and occasionally guided Chu Lingxi while she studied with Lin Ruoruo.
• A Commerce intelligence subordinate reported that Lin Fan regularly traded pills with the Azure Elixir Hall and bought herbs at the Azure Wave Medicine Market.
• The Chief Steward learned that Lin Fan had not visited the Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot or any Ten Thousand Treasures Hall shop in over three months.
• The Chief Steward concluded that Lin Fan would never cooperate with the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce and ordered it to stop buying herbs and sell its stored stock in batches.
• The stewards left the council hall, while the Chief Steward remained behind, silently studying the trade-route map.

Lin Fan received a large delivery of medicinal ingredients after the Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot abandoned its attempt to restrict his supplies. He was then assigned to hunt a Demon Monk near Commandery City, unaware that the mission was the commerce’s second move against him.

• The Ten Thousand Prosperity Medicine Depot delivered three carriages of ingredients after the Ten Thousand Treasures Medicine Depot stopped buying and began selling off its stock.
• Lin Fan inspected and stored the ingredients, then resumed cultivating as he prepared to break through outside the city.
• Lin Fan spent the following day with Su Qingwei and the Dragon-and-Phoenix Twins while Lin Ruoruo and Chu Lingxi studied nearby with Mao Mao.
• Two Commandery City Messengers delivered an official order for Lin Fan to kill a Demon Monk who had injured martial artists and civilians.
• Lin Fan read that the Demon Monk had fled the Great Zhao Temple with a Demonic Fiend Weapon that drained its victims’ Inner Qi and vital blood to strengthen him.

Lin Fan accepted a mission to kill the Demon Monk for Thirty Million Taels of Silver, unaware that the Commandery Government had been misled about the monk’s strength. He traveled into the wilderness to break through first, and after hours of cultivation reached two and a half million strands of inner qi.

• Lin Fan read the mission letter and noticed that the Demon Monk’s listed cultivation was far lower than it had been when he escaped the Great Zhao Temple.
• Lin Fan explained the mission and its reward to Su Qingwei, then told his household he would leave to break through and hunt the Demon Monk.
• Lin Fan said farewell to Su Qingwei, Lin Ruoruo, Chu Lingxi, and Mao Mao, and reminded his family to stay inside the estate gates.
• Lin Fan traveled seven or eight hundred miles from Commandery City and found a secluded Mountain Valley for cultivation.
• Lin Fan split a large stone, sat down to cultivate with Thirty-Thousandfold Cultivation Acceleration, and after ten to twelve hours reached two and a half million strands of inner qi.

Lin Fan broke through to the Late Transforming Force Realm and tested his immense physical strength. Concealing his true cultivation, he set off to hunt the Demon Monk for the Demonic Fiend Weapon and the thirty-million-tael bounty.

• Lin Fan’s breakthrough unleashed a shock wave that devastated the valley and shattered falling rocks before they could reach him.
• Lin Fan sensed his enhanced strength and crushed a massive boulder with a punch using only his physical power.
• Lin Fan considered the dangers of the Demon Monk’s cultivation-absorbing weapon and judged that its wielder was unlikely to survive the pursuit it attracted.
• Lin Fan used the Hidden Dragon Breath Concealment Technique to disguise his Late Transforming Force Realm cultivation as Early Bright Force Realm.
• Lin Fan flew to a nearby mountain summit and sped toward places where the Commandery City Office’s letter said the Demon Monk had appeared.

Lin Fan tracked down the Demon Monk and witnessed him kill a martial artist and absorb the victim’s blood essence and Inner Qi through the Demonic Blade. He confronted the monk as he recited scripture, and the chapter ended with the monk scoffing at Lin Fan’s assumption that he was devoted to Buddhism.

• Lin Fan searched for two days before finding the Demon Monk in a mountain gorge, where the monk killed a martial artist with the Demonic Blade.
• The Demonic Blade absorbed the victim’s blood essence and Inner Qi, leaving behind a withered corpse and strengthening the Demon Monk.
• The Demon Monk sat beside the corpse and recited Buddhist scripture, appearing serene despite the slaughter.
• Lin Fan emerged from hiding and asked why the monk killed a man before reciting scripture.
• The Demon Monk nearly reached for his blade but stopped after judging Lin Fan to be weak, then claimed he recited scripture to cleanse his murderous thoughts.
• Lin Fan praised the monk’s devotion to Buddhism, and the Demon Monk scoffed.