Chapter Summaries

After transmigrating into the body of a poor young Gu cultivator, Long Xuan discovered that his ability to see the progress of all things could help him invent Gu recipes and optimize spirit-herb cultivation. He left for Old Long’s medicine garden, where he found a way to improve yields and earn his first capital.

• Long Xuan awoke in another world and learned from the original owner’s memories that he could see the growth progress of all things.
• Long Xuan wrote a Gu recipe and Ghost Spider on paper, then realized he could use progress readings to develop new Gu recipes from scratch.
• Long Xuan went to Old Long’s medicine garden, hoping to earn the money needed to refine Gu.
• Long Xuan tested Ripening Liquid on Moonlight Flowers and discovered that different herbs absorbed different amounts before their progress stopped increasing.
• Long Xuan realized he could tailor the liquid’s dosage and schedule to increase the garden’s yields and keep the surplus as his wages.

Long Xuan used his progress-tracking ability to study spirit-herb growth and consider raising Spirit Insects and Gu, while spending a year extending the Scripture of Longevity beyond its known limits. He reached its twentieth level but found that only 20% of the manual had been completed, leaving him unsure how long further deductions would take.

• Long Xuan studied Ripening Liquid dosages in the Medicine Garden and realized that tracking the white spirit chicken’s growth could help him develop better feed for Spirit Insects and Gu.
• Long Xuan imagined using specialized feed to shorten Gu maturation periods and planned to use the Medicine Garden’s increased profits to fund his first Gu Insect.
• Long Xuan tried to take spirit chicken eggs, but the white chicken pecked his hand; over the next year, he ate its eggs while it cleared insects from the garden, and he named it Chicken Bro.
• Long Xuan read the Scripture of Longevity and discovered that the original owner’s tenth-level manual had only 10% progress, so he used his error-correcting ability to extend it to twenty levels.
• Long Xuan found that the twentieth-level Scripture of Longevity still showed only 20% progress, and its later material had become too difficult for him to deduce with his current knowledge.

Long Xuan prepared to refine his first Gu Insect using a cheap recipe built from different cockroach species, hoping to develop an undying body. After selling herbs and buying refinement materials at Far Western Market, he discovered his ability to see the progress of goods could help him find valuable bargains.

• Long Xuan gathered spiritual herbs from the Medicine Garden and went to Far Western Market to fund his first Gu refinement.
• Long Xuan sold his herbs for 307 Low-Grade Spirit Stones, then spent nearly all of them on recipe materials and ten Gu vessels.
• Long Xuan learned that first-grade spiritual herbs were cheap because they could be cultivated in bulk.
• Long Xuan explored the market and decided not to buy a secondhand Gu Insect, preferring to refine one himself.
• Long Xuan used his golden finger to inspect the progress of goods and realized it could reveal fakes and identify treasures nearing transformation.

Long Xuan spent his last ten Spirit Stones on two dying bees he recognized as rare High-grade Spirit Insects, then revived them with the Medicine Garden’s flowers. Afterward, he prepared to refine his first Gu Insect using a recipe he had devised himself.

• Long Xuan spotted two nearly dead bees at an old man's stall and recognized their unusually precise growth readings as evidence that they were High-grade Spirit Insects.
• Long Xuan haggled the old man down from one hundred Spirit Stones to ten and bought the damaged hive.
• Long Xuan hung the hive beside the Medicine Garden, where the flowers revived the bees and they began gathering nectar to make honey.
• Long Xuan took out the Spirit Insects he had bought and arranged the ingredients for his hundred-ingredient Gu Recipe, preparing to refine his first Gu Insect.

Long Xuan used his progress-reading ability to refine ten Cockroach Gu without losing any materials, then bonded with one and discovered its resilience. He decided to sell the nine extras to fund his research, while planning to create a Microscope Gu and eventually refine Water Bear Gu.

• Long Xuan saw progress readings on his Gu pots and realized they might let him identify successful refinements before wasting materials.
• After forty-nine days, all ten pots reached completion and produced Cockroach Gu, which Long Xuan separated into jars.
• Long Xuan blood-bound one Cockroach Gu and learned that it could withstand ordinary attacks from opponents of the same rank.
• Long Xuan decided to sell the nine extra Cockroach Gu to raise money for Darksteel and a High-Grade Spirit Stone.
• Long Xuan planned to create Microscope Gu so he could discover microscopic Spirit Insects and eventually refine Water Bear Gu.

Long Xuan set up a market stall to sell his newly developed Cockroach Gu, priced at three hundred Spirit Stones each. After Li Erniu bought one, Old Daoist Li admitted the Gu's ability could be far more valuable in battle than its Low-Grade status suggested.

• Long Xuan covered his face, displayed nine Cockroach Gu, and set their price at three hundred Spirit Stones each.
• Old Daoist Li warned Long Xuan that obscure Low-Grade Gu Insects would struggle to attract buyers, but Long Xuan confidently defended his product.
• Li Erniu inspected the Cockroach Gu and learned that it could survive ordinary attacks from opponents of the same grade and eat almost anything.
• Li Erniu traded three Mid-Grade Spirit Stones for a Cockroach Gu to use against his sworn rival.
• Long Xuan tried to sell a Cockroach Gu to Old Daoist Li, who questioned its claims and said its ability could make it preferable to a Mid-Grade Gu Insect.

Long Xuan sold Old Daoist Li a Cockroach Gu that could regenerate severed limbs, then examined Li’s sinister parasitic Gu and realized how vulnerable he was to tiny, hidden insects. He decided to make researching the Microscope Gu his second project so he could detect such threats.

• Long Xuan challenged Old Daoist Li to test the Cockroach Gu, and Li formed a blood contract with one before paying Long Xuan three Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.
• Old Daoist Li confirmed that the Cockroach Gu could regenerate severed limbs, though the process took years, and invited Long Xuan to inspect his own wares.
• Long Xuan examined Old Daoist Li’s parasitic Gu, including Rock Gu, Rice Grain Gu, and Wart Gu, and learned how easily they could secretly kill their targets.
• Long Xuan realized his golden finger could not reliably detect microscopic Gu and resolved to focus his second research project on the Microscope Gu.

Long Xuan entered a fossil shop to search for valuable Spirit Insects and discovered that his ability could identify promising stones. He found an extraordinary reading in the shop’s Stone King and was left excited by the possibility of a rare, mature Spirit Insect inside.

• After failing to find the treasures he had previously seen at the market, Long Xuan visited a merchant association that sold fossils.
• Long Xuan considered how Spirit Insects could survive ancient Ice Ages inside stone armor, giving rise to the risky trade of stone gambling.
• Long Xuan entered the crowded fossil shop, where cultivators inspected stones in hopes of finding living insects.
• Long Xuan examined the four-meter-tall Stone King with his golden-finger ability and saw a progress reading of 82.68732%.
• Long Xuan realized the Stone King might contain a mature Supreme-grade Spirit Insect and grew excited.

Long Xuan coveted the ten-million-Spirit-Stone Stone King but could not afford to buy it, so Qian Duoduo explained how he could win it by devising a new ability for a Glow Gu. The chapter left Long Xuan with a chance to claim the Stone King by submitting an idea, backed by the Qian Clan Merchant Association’s reputation for integrity.

• Long Xuan questioned Qian Duoduo about the Stone King's steep price and asked whether he could win it through an event instead of paying Spirit Stones.
• Qian Duoduo explained that Gu cultivators could use human ingenuity to develop new abilities for Gu insects, then described the bidding contest for his young lady's Glow Gu.
• Long Xuan challenged the contest's fairness, arguing that the young lady could reject ideas at her own discretion and keep the Stone King.
• Qian Duoduo said the Qian Clan's Integrity Gu prevented its members from acting dishonestly and assured Long Xuan that a sufficiently powerful idea would win him the Stone King.

Long Xuan entered a bidding contest for the Stone King, believing Qian Duoduo’s claim that the Qian Clan Merchant Association would reward the best ability idea. As the deadline approached, Long Xuan brainstormed a range of powerful abilities for the Glow Gu, convinced that his ideas would win.

• Qian Duoduo pointed out people writing down ideas, and Long Xuan decided to submit a bid.
• Qian Duoduo privately reflected that Qian Jinjin’s impossible standards meant the contest was a trick to collect ideas without giving away the Stone King.
• Qian Duoduo told Long Xuan that less than one shichen remained before bidding closed, then left to approach other people.
• Long Xuan reasoned that the Glow Gu could manipulate light to blind people, make himself invisible, grant distant sight, create illusions, and plunge a region into darkness.
• Long Xuan imagined using different wavelengths of light and concentrating light to create powerful attacks, and he decided a few of his ideas should be enough to win.

Long Xuan submitted detailed theories for developing the Glow Gu Insect’s light-manipulating abilities while considering how to safely claim the Stone King. Qian Jinjin read his note and was astonished by its novel ideas.

• Long Xuan wrote and submitted several pages of ideas for the Glow Gu Insect, withholding his most powerful theories.
• Long Xuan bought several dozen fossils, then worried about how he could safely take the Stone King if he won the bid.
• Qian Jinjin arrived to inspect the bidding notes, and Qian Duoduo silenced the arguing crowd.
• Qian Jinjin found most submissions useless or misguided as she searched for ideas to improve the Glow Gu Insect.
• Qian Jinjin read Long Xuan’s note and marveled at its theories about vision, reflection, and refraction, as well as the abilities built from them.

Qian Jinjin chose Long Xuan’s idea for Glow Gu and awarded him the ten-million Stone King, prompting protests from the other bidders. Long Xuan claimed the prize and revealed himself to be a young boy, surprising Qian Jinjin and the crowd.

• Qian Jinjin sent Long Xuan’s ideas to Glow Gu, which realized its Illumination Technique could be developed in new ways.
• Qian Jinjin announced Long Xuan as the winner of the Stone King before examining the remaining slips.
• The bidders protested the decision, but Qian Duoduo defended Qian Jinjin’s fairness by invoking the Qian Clan Merchant Association’s Integrity Gu.
• Long Xuan accepted the result and headed toward the Stone King as the crowd reacted to his small stature.
• Qian Jinjin was surprised to learn that the author of the winning ideas was a youth, not an aged scholar.

Long Xuan staged repeated cuts of the Stone King to conceal the Spirit Insect inside a small piece while making the other pieces look worthless. After the crowd lost interest, he claimed the insect had to be in one of the fifty pieces and offered them for sale, leaving everyone stunned.

• Qian Duoduo offered to cut open the Stone King, and Long Xuan marked lines that avoided the Spirit Insect.
• Qian Duoduo cut along Long Xuan’s lines, but the first cut revealed no insect, so Long Xuan pretended to be disappointed.
• Long Xuan marked more cuts, and Qian Duoduo divided the fossil into fifty pieces without revealing an insect.
• The crowd lost interest and left, while Long Xuan acted as though he had lost all hope.
• Long Xuan sprang up, insisted the insect was in one of the fifty pieces, and offered to sell them to the crowd.

Long Xuan sold most of the cut Stone King fossils to eager gamblers, while the fist-sized fossil no one wanted remained with him. At home, he uncovered a rare Eye Gu and began devising a Gu Recipe for its microscopic magnification ability.

• Long Xuan offered the leftover fossils for ten thousand Spirit Stones each, and gamblers bought nearly all of them in hopes of finding a Spirit Insect.
• The tiny fossil went unsold, leaving the Supreme-grade Spirit Insect hidden inside in Long Xuan’s possession.
• Long Xuan cut open the fossil and found an eye-shaped Spirit Insect that awakened and revealed itself as an Eye Gu.
• Long Xuan decided to create an Eye Gu with microscopic magnification and named the unknown insect the Eye in the Stone.
• Long Xuan added a cow eye to the Gu Recipe, and the recipe’s progress increased.

Long Xuan spent two years completing a new Gu Recipe, funding it by selling Cockroach Gu and finding bargains, while his cultivation barely improved and his lifespan grew. The recipe required over three thousand materials, and buying one set left him nearly penniless as he prepared to refine it.

• Long Xuan realized he could add materials such as ox eyes and eagle eyes to Gu Recipes, and his cheat ability continued tracking his progress.
• He learned that his cheat ability judged incomplete recipes by the one requiring the greatest number of materials, which could make his recipes extraordinarily costly.
• Li Erniu survived a fatal heart wound after using Cockroach Gu in a duel, making the Gu famous and creating a surge in demand.
• Long Xuan sold Cockroach Gu in disguise and used market bargains to fund his work, while spending two years stuck at the Early Spirit-Gathering Stage.
• Long Xuan raised the Scripture of Longevity to its twelfth level, gained two hundred years of lifespan, and completed his new Gu Recipe after two years of work.
• Long Xuan discovered that the recipe required over three thousand materials and cost several million Spirit Stones, leaving him nearly broke after collecting one set.

Long Xuan successfully refined an Eye Gu that granted him the Origin Realm illusion and extraordinary magnification, reaching the atomic level while the Gu was still an infant. He began brainstorming ways to turn its magnifying ability into deadly forbidden techniques.

• Long Xuan repeatedly rearranged Spirit Insects in a cauldron until the Eye Gu began forming, then waited eighty-one days for it to reach 100%.
• Long Xuan formed a blood contract with the Eye Gu and placed it in his brow, where it consumed his spiritual power and bonded symbiotically with him.
• Long Xuan learned that the Eye Gu carried the Origin Realm, an illusion that perfectly copied reality, and tested its ability to magnify his vision.
• Long Xuan magnified his sight from microorganisms and viruses to molecules, atoms, and atomic nuclei, and realized the infant Eye Gu had not reached its limit.
• Long Xuan considered using microscopic vision to analyze resources, see through thin objects, and refine his movement in combat, then sought ideas with greater killing power.

Long Xuan expanded Eye of Heavenly Secrets’ abilities and discovered that its farsight could reveal hidden underground resources, while he also imagined dangerous applications of microscopic vision. He then used the Gu to inspect Old Long’s failed attempts to complete the Hundred Flower Pill formula and realized he could identify its missing ingredients.

• Long Xuan combined Thousand-Mile Sight with his cheat ability and discovered progress hidden deep underground, suggesting he could locate veins and ancient tombs.
• Long Xuan considered manipulating atoms and molecules with soul power, but concluded he lacked the strength and that the idea had major limits.
• Long Xuan named the new Gu ability Eye of Heavenly Secrets and used it to watch Old Long attempt another failed pill refinement.
• Old Long lamented that three missing ingredients had prevented him from completing the Hundred Flower Pill formula for ten years.
• Long Xuan saw the incomplete formula and decided Eye of Heavenly Secrets could help him determine its three missing ingredients without costly experiments.

Long Xuan secretly copied Old Long’s Violet Demon Flame formula while watching him make the Hundred Flower Pill, then decided not to use the stolen secret for fear it could expose him. Instead, he began creating his own Spirit Flame, the Divine Ice Flame, and saw its formula progress after writing down saltpeter.

• Long Xuan watched Old Long refine the Hundred Flower Pill and realized he could learn alchemy by observing him with Thousand-Mile Sight.
• After Old Long finished work and fell asleep, Long Xuan wrote down the Violet Demon Flame formula he had seen.
• Long Xuan worried that refining Old Long’s secret Spirit Flame might let Old Long sense it, so he resolved to invent a Spirit Flame of his own.
• Long Xuan named his creation the Divine Ice Flame and wrote that it required a large quantity of saltpeter.
• Long Xuan saw the formula reach 0.1% progress and realized his imagined flame might be possible.

Long Xuan returned to the market to buy materials for the Hundred Flower Pill and find an alchemy furnace. He met Little Apothecary, who agreed to trade his furnace for Cockroach Gu, hoping to use the Gu to eat ruined pills safely.

• Long Xuan gathered the Hundred Flower Pill ingredients and searched the crowded market for an alchemy furnace.
• Long Xuan heard Little Apothecary arguing with a scarred Rogue Cultivator about the possible uses of useless pills.
• Long Xuan examined Little Apothecary's ruined pills and asked whether he had an alchemy furnace.
• Long Xuan offered ten thousand Spirit Stones for the furnace, but Little Apothecary asked for Cockroach Gu instead.
• Little Apothecary agreed to the trade because he planned to use Cockroach Gu to resist the poison in useless pills and consume them for their medicinal effects.

Long Xuan traded Cockroach Gu for waste pills and spirit herbs, then began refining Hundred Flower Pills for the first time. His golden finger displayed the purification progress, allowing him to extract spirit-herb essence without mistakes.

• Long Xuan traded Cockroach Gu to Little Apothecary for ten of each kind of waste pill and a pill furnace.
• A scar-faced burly man traded spirit herbs for Cockroach Gu, giving Long Xuan the three kinds of herbs he had been searching for.
• After returning from the market, Long Xuan prepared to refine Hundred Flower Pills because he knew Divine Ice Flame would require vast resources.
• Long Xuan heated the pill furnace and discovered that his golden finger displayed the spirit-herb purification progress.
• Long Xuan used the progress indicator to extract spirit-herb essence successfully on his first attempt.