Chapter Summaries

After repelling the invasion, the Azure Elixir Sect prepared to strike back at Blackstone Valley and seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s assets. At the commerce headquarters in Azure Cloud Commandery, Granny Qian and the Chief Steward learned that their expected victory had failed when Azure Elixir Sect disciples stormed the building.

• The Azure Elixir Ancestor ordered the sect to heal its wounded, guard its mountain gate, march on Blackstone Valley, and seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s nearby businesses.
• An hour later, the Azure Elixir Ancestor led elders and elite disciples toward Blackstone Valley while other squads headed to nearby commandery cities.
• Lin Fan watched the expedition depart and wondered how Granny Qian would react when the Azure Elixir Sect reached Azure Cloud Commandery.
• Granny Qian and the Chief Steward waited at Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s headquarters, expecting the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor to defeat the Azure Elixir Sect and planning to seize Azure Elixir Hall.
• Azure Elixir Sect disciples stormed the commerce headquarters, bound its personnel, and made Granny Qian and the Chief Steward realize their sect had lost.

The Commandery City Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and other Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce stewards escaped the occupied outpost and fled toward Capital City after learning that the Azure Elixir Sect had defeated their alliance. They did not know they were fleeing into a greater danger, while Prince Gao's Manor spies observed the battle's aftermath.

• The Commandery City Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and the others escaped the Azure Elixir Sect disciples through a secret passage beneath the commerce guild's meeting hall.
• The Chief Steward and his companions concluded that Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce had lost its outposts and debated hiding in a remote town or seeking refuge in Capital City.
• Granny Qian feared Lin Fan would punish her for their old grudge, and the group chose to flee to Capital City.
• The Chief Steward, Granny Qian, and the others bought muscle refinement realm demon beast steeds and rode desperately toward Capital City.
• The fleeing stewards did not know that the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce headquarters in Capital City was their true dead end, while Prince Gao's Manor spies had witnessed the battle in Azure Elixir City.

Prince Gao learned that a masked Steel Force Realm expert had ruined his attack on the Azure Elixir Sect and killed his two covert attendants. His steward proposed seizing the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s wealth instead, and Prince Gao agreed to pursue that target.

• Prince Gao's Manor spies rushed to the Capital City and reported that the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor, Black Baleful Adept, and both of Prince Gao’s covert attendants had been killed in the defeat at the Azure Elixir Sect.
• Prince Gao reacted with fury and demanded to know how an army of over a thousand fighters and two late Transforming Force experts could have lost.
• A spy explained that a masked, black-robed expert had intervened, killed an attendant with one palm strike, and was likely a Steel Force Realm expert.
• Prince Gao lamented that he had not sent a Steel Force Realm expert and cursed the stranger for ruining his plan to seize the Azure Elixir Sect’s treasury and kill Lin Fan.
• Prince Gao’s white-haired steward suggested taking the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce’s assets in compensation, and Prince Gao recognized it as a new target.

Prince Gao ordered Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce seized and its people sent to Black Robe to be sacrificed in creating a replacement Demonic Path expert, while justifying the move as repayment for his losses. Granny Qian and the Azure Cloud Commandery Chief Steward raced toward the Capital City, arriving close behind the Prince's Manor Secret Agents carrying their report.

• Prince Gao ordered his guards to seize Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's headquarters, treasury, and branches across the Zhao Kingdom.
• Prince Gao ordered every person connected to the Commerce arrested and secretly delivered to Black Robe as material for producing a new Late Transforming Force Realm Demonic Path expert.
• Prince Gao reasoned that the Commerce's role in the battle against the Azure Elixir Sect gave him grounds to confiscate its wealth and people, and regretted that Lin Fan had survived.
• Granny Qian, the Azure Cloud Commandery Chief Steward, and their companions rode without rest toward the Capital City.
• Granny Qian's party and the Prince's Manor Secret Agents entered the Capital City only a short time apart.

Granny Qian and her party reached Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's Capital City headquarters and were taken in by the Chief Manager, unaware that Prince Gao's Manor had already targeted the organization. A purge force surrounded the headquarters and swiftly subdued its hundreds of occupants, leaving Granny Qian and her companions in danger.

• Granny Qian and her party arrived at the Capital City headquarters and told the Chief Manager that the Ten Thousand Treasures Ancestor and his allies had been defeated and their Azure Cloud Commandery base seized.
• The Chief Manager offered Granny Qian and her companions rooms, food, and work at the headquarters.
• Prince Gao's Manor's purge force surrounded the headquarters, sealing its entrances and exits.
• The purge teams rushed inside and knocked out, bound, and carried away the headquarters' staff in freight wagons.

Prince Gao's Manor captured Granny Qian and the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce leaders, while the Azure Elixir Sect rebuilt its strength and Lin Fan continued cultivating. The sect prospered under fair prices, but Lin Fan remained wary of two unidentified late transforming force realm enemies.

• Prince Gao's Manor warriors knocked out Granny Qian, the Chief Steward of Azure Cloud Commandery, and their aides, then bound and loaded them into packed wagons.
• Drivers from Prince Gao's Manor carried the captives away, leaving them destined to fuel the cultivation of a late transforming force realm demonic path practitioner.
• The Azure Elixir Sect recovered from the battle, recruited new disciples, and took over the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce's branch shops.
• The sect elders followed Lin Fan's advice and kept pill prices steady, earning the trust of cultivators across nearby commanderies.
• Lin Fan used pill refinement to temper his power and devoted most of his time to cultivation, concerned that the two unidentified experts might return.

The discovery of an enormous gold mine near the Zhao-Wei border threw the Zhao court into a struggle for control of its profits. Prince Gao suspended his plan to assassinate Lin Fan and redirected his forces to the contest, while Lin Fan remained unaware and lived peacefully at the Azure Elixir Sect.

• An herb-gathering martial artist discovered a vast gold deposit near the Zhao-Wei border, and the Imperial Court secretly sealed off the mountains and began mining.
• Prince Gao learned of the discovery and halted his plan to send a steel force realm expert to kill Lin Fan, fearing the assassination could weaken his faction's bid for gold mine rights.
• Prince Gao reassigned the expert and concentrated his manor's resources and influence on the court struggle over the mine.
• Nobles and factions battled over the mine's mining, smelting, distribution, and garrison rights while Lin Fan remained unaware of the upheaval.
• More than two months passed as Lin Fan refined pills and cultivated at the Azure Elixir Sect, spending peaceful days with Su Qingwei, the children, and Mao Mao.

Lin Ruoruo and Chu Lingxi each broke through to a new cultivation realm while Lin Fan declined the Azure Elixir Sect elders’ requests to take more disciples. As his own breakthrough to mid steel force realm neared, Lin Fan prepared to cultivate in seclusion and asked Su Qingwei to keep the courtyard undisturbed.

• Lin Ruoruo broke through to the skin tempering realm through her own effort, and Lin Fan, Su Qingwei, and Mao Mao congratulated her.
• Chu Lingxi advanced from the skin tempering realm to the muscle refinement realm with Lin Fan’s guidance and abundant resources.
• Lin Fan repeatedly refused the Azure Elixir Sect elders’ requests to accept more personal disciples, deciding that Chu Lingxi was enough.
• Lin Fan’s inner qi approached four million strands, bringing him close to the mid steel force realm.
• Lin Fan told Su Qingwei he was going to a secluded cavern to attempt his breakthrough and asked her to turn away visitors while he was gone.

Lin Fan secretly left the Azure Elixir Sect and traveled to a deep underground cavern to break through to the mid Steel Force Realm. He settled in a hidden stone chamber and activated forty-thousandfold cultivation acceleration to begin cultivating.

• Lin Fan instructed Lin Ruoruo and Chu Lingxi to stay in the courtyard under Su Qingwei’s care while he was away.
• Lin Fan replenished the Estate Protection Array’s Formation Disc and told the Azure Elixir Sect Master and elders he would cultivate in seclusion, prompting them to seal the route to his courtyard.
• Lin Fan slipped away from the sect at night and headed toward the Underground Cavern where he had first reached the Steel Force Realm.
• Lin Fan used his inner qi to navigate the cavern’s branching passages and reached a chamber about six thousand meters underground.
• Lin Fan enlarged the chamber, sat on a stone platform, and activated forty-thousandfold cultivation acceleration.