Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian and Du Lengning commission Xiao Xiangzi to build a compact device that converts Immortal Jade into usable electricity. It works, and Luo successfully powers a rice cooker from the Mortal Realm.
• Seeing the commercial potential, Du Lengning abandons his earlier claim that he only meant to help. He and Luo form a partnership—though both recognize their business is illicit and risky.
• They cook Jade Ying Rice in the rice cooker, but the appliance runs for three days amid crackling lightning. When it finally finishes, the rice has transformed into about ten blue-green pills.
• Du Lengning takes one to his uncle, Du Bo’an, a skilled pill refiner, for appraisal. Du Bo’an identifies it as a top-grade Spirit Pill that quickly replenishes Immortal Spirit Energy.
• Du Lengning realizes the pills have a large market and may sell for around one hundred standard Immortal Jade each. He returns to Luo with large quantities of better rice taken from Distant Hall’s kitchen, eager to produce more.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shifts from cautious inventor and opportunistic trader to the co-founder of a potentially lucrative pill-making venture. He is excited by the discovery but remains practical, testing the device and calculating costs and returns.
• Du Lengning moves from reluctant helper to enthusiastic partner once he sees the profit. His eagerness contrasts with Luo’s caution, and his uncle’s indulgence shows that Du has a history of taking advantage of family generosity.
• Xiao Xiangzi proves capable and exacting, building the power box while making clear that he considers his work valuable.
• Du Bo’an acts as an expert evaluator. Though he teases Du Lengning about his past behavior, he patiently appraises the pill and confirms its usefulness.
• Luo and Du’s friendship takes on a business dimension: they seal their partnership with a handshake, then share the excitement—and hunger—of their first strange cooking experiment.

Significant themes

• Innovation through cultural and technical collision: Mortal-world appliances and Immortal Realm materials combine in an unexpected way.
• Profit and temptation: Even wealthy Du Lengning is drawn into a risky enterprise once its earning potential becomes clear.
• Accidental discovery: A failed attempt to cook ordinary rice produces valuable pills, turning experimentation into a breakthrough.
• Practical value over prestige: The pills are low-ranking Spirit Pills, yet their ability to restore energy makes them useful to a broad market.
• Food and everyday life: The chapter humorously challenges the idea that immortals have no ordinary needs, especially hunger and enjoyment of good food.

Key events

• After six days of work, Luo Qian and Du Lengning produce three kinds of pills: Jade Luo Pills from Jade Ying Rice, stronger Red Pupil Pills from Cloud Ying Rice, and low-grade treasure-level Jade Water Pills from Azure Sea Millet.
• Luo Qian presents the Red Pupil Pills in a carefully carved jade case. He explains that attractive packaging adds perceived value, importing not just goods but ideas from the lower realm.
• The pair give the pills to Xiao Xiangzi, who is impressed and accepts them despite his polite protests. In return, he agrees to make ten power boxes for three million standard Immortal Jade each. Luo Qian pays a six-million deposit from his marriage savings.
• Worried about how to raise the remaining money, Luo Qian decides to auction his Black Massage Chair. Du Lengning enthusiastically helps recruit buyers.
• At the auction, guests conceal their identities beneath hoods. Among them are Ling Xiaose and his unusually secretive cousin, as well as Du Lengning and his entourage.
• The first lot—ten low-grade treasure-grade Jade Water Pills—draws little excitement and sells for 1.2 million standard Immortal Jade, just above the usual price. The more anticipated main item has yet to be offered.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shows his entrepreneurial instincts: he uses presentation to increase a product’s appeal, gives Xiao Xiangzi a valuable gift to secure favorable terms, and turns to an auction to finance the power-box order. His confidence contrasts with Du Lengning’s worries about the cost.
• Du Lengning is excited by the pills and trusts Luo Qian’s plans, though he initially panics over the thirty-million price tag. His enjoyment of the massage chair also reveals the strain of his increasingly demanding cultivation.
• Xiao Xiangzi shifts from suspicion and sourness to warmth after receiving the pills, illustrating how a calculated gift can improve a business relationship.
• Ling Xiaose brings his hooded cousin to the auction. The cousin remains guarded, prompting Luo Qian to briefly suspect he may be an investigator, but assures him he is there only to buy.
• Luo Qian and Du Lengning cooperate closely: Luo handles the strategy and arrangements, while Du helps spread the word and brings prospective buyers.

Significant themes

• Commerce and presentation: Packaging shapes a product’s perceived worth, not just its practical value.
• Reciprocity and negotiation: Gifts, deposits, and favorable pricing are part of building business relationships.
• Risk and resourcefulness: Luo Qian commits scarce savings and devises an auction to cover a major expense.
• Secrecy and status: The buyers’ disguises reflect the risks of dealing in contraband, while their wealth helps explain their limited interest in ordinary treasure pills.

Plot and events

• Luo Qian unveils a Massage Chair at auction and lets the guests try it. Its novelty and comfort—especially in an Immortal Realm with few leisure services—keep bidders occupied for the whole afternoon.
• Recognizing its popularity, Luo Qian raises the starting price to twenty million standard Immortal Jade. Competition pushes the price up to one hundred million, where bidder Number Thirty-Five wins.
• When another guest points out that the chair requires electricity, Luo Qian presents a Generator. He demonstrates that it runs for more than three days on one standard Immortal Jade and says it will evade detection by the Immortal Apprehension Office. Number Thirty-Five buys the sole available unit for twenty million; Luo Qian promises more will be made.
• Du Lengning is astonished by the auction’s proceeds: 120 pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade. After the sale, Ling Xiaose settles the payments, transfers the goods, and takes Luo Qian into the next room.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shows sharp commercial instincts: he turns a simple product demonstration into a prolonged attraction, raises his asking price in response to demand, and uses the Generator to answer an objection while creating another sales opportunity.
• Du Lengning is impressed—and somewhat humbled—by the wealth and spending power of the bidders.
• Number Thirty-Five begins as a quiet observer, then decisively outbids everyone for the chair and purchases its power source as well.
• The guests’ enthusiasm leads to comic disputes over who gets to try the chair and how long they may use it. One bidder even tries to claim it before the auction, but Luo Qian insists on following auction rules.

Significant themes

• Commerce and salesmanship: Luo Qian adapts quickly to customer reactions and markets related products together.
• Novelty and unmet needs: A commonplace device from the lower realm becomes a luxury in the Immortal Realm because the local market lacks comparable comforts.
• Wealth and status: The extravagant bids expose the gap between Du Lengning’s resources and those of the richest guests.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian meets Ling Xiaose’s mysterious, masked cousin, who is impressed by Luo’s Mortal Realm goods and hires him to retrieve a carved dragon-and-phoenix jade pendant. The cousin knows where it is and offers a large reward—about a hundred High-Grade Immortal Jade.
• After the deal, Du Lengning excitedly replays footage of a Mortal Realm actress and yearns to meet her. Luo refuses to take him along on his dangerous trip, warning that personally visiting the Mortal Realm could cost Du his life.
• Luo considers opening a pharmacy on Ningyao Mountain to sell pills made with his rice cooker, but the licensing, taxes, staffing, and other expenses seem too troublesome. He decides to make the pendant retrieval his next job instead.
• On his way to the pendant’s location, Luo stops at his Mortal Realm base in City X to recharge batteries. A neighborhood auntie tells him that a beautiful young woman has been looking for him.
• The visitor is Pei Sefei, the actress known as “Number Thirty-Five.” Luo recognizes her from a magazine and is surprised she found him. Their meeting ends on a playful note as she nearly bumps into his arm when he blocks her from entering.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains resourceful and commercially minded, weighing new business opportunities but preferring simpler, dependable profits. His concern for Du shows loyalty and protectiveness. Pei Sefei’s arrival also stirs an unspoken hope in him, though he quickly dismisses it.
• Du Lengning reveals a wistful, romantic side through his fixation on the actress. He accepts Luo’s refusal to take him to the Mortal Realm, understanding the danger.
• Ling Xiaose’s cousin appears wealthy, commanding, and deliberately secretive. He treats Luo as a business partner while setting him a lucrative task.
• Pei Sefei is both wary and playful: she investigates Luo’s motives, keeps her methods of finding him private, and reacts with spirited indignation when he blocks her.
• The neighborhood auntie provides comic matchmaking interference, while also unknowingly bringing Luo and Pei together.

Significant themes

• Risk and reward: Luo’s profitable dealings depend on dangerous travel between realms.
• Commerce and bureaucracy: Even a promising business idea can be burdened by regulation, costs, and practical complications.
• Longing and attraction: Du’s frustrated romantic yearning contrasts with Luo’s sudden, uncertain emotional response to Pei.
• Appearance and authenticity: Luo finds Pei’s natural, varied charm more appealing than the polished, uniform beauty he associates with many Immortal women.

Plot points and events

• Pei Sefei confronts Luo Qian, convinced that he secretly funded the mass votes that won her a competition. She insists that spending millions on her will not win her affection, then leaves when Luo denies helping her.
• Though Luo lets her go, Pei remains suspicious and asks Uncle Xiao Liu to investigate him. Her imagined story of a secret admirer ends in disappointment at Luo’s cool, appraising manner.
• Luo travels to H County and retrieves the Dragon-Phoenix Double-Pattern Jade Pendant from beneath a sealed stone tiger. He breaks the seal easily, unaware that it guarded the Jade Demon Primordial Soul. After he leaves, a group of cultivators discover the broken formation and the missing treasure.
• On returning to his cave, Luo reflects on how poorly his flying technique works and resolves to improve his cultivation.
• Du Lengning brings back power-supply boxes and repays borrowed Immortal Jade. Luo proposes opening an apothecary that makes inexpensive, lower-grade Immortal Pills in rice cookers, including experimental pills made from different immortal rices. Du agrees enthusiastically, and they consider opening the shop on Ningyuan Mountain to save money.

Character developments and interactions

• Pei Sefei is proud, curious, and wary of hidden motives. Her hopes for a romantic benefactor are dashed by Luo’s indifference, but she remains determined to find out who supported her.
• Luo Qian stays focused on business and his errands rather than romance. His easy confidence masks gaps in knowledge: he retrieves the pendant without realizing the danger he has released, and recognizes that his cultivation and flying ability need work.
• Du Lengning is eager to invest in Luo’s schemes and quick to act, though he jokes about Luo’s “devious” ideas. Their friendly partnership balances Luo’s planning with Du’s enthusiasm.

Significant themes

• Misunderstanding and unfulfilled expectations: Pei reads Luo’s actions as romantic interest, while he sees her mainly as an unexpected consequence of Du’s matchmaking.
• Ambition and enterprise: Luo and Du turn immortal technology and rice-cooker experimentation into a plan for affordable medicine.
• Unintended consequences: Luo’s effortless destruction of the seal frees—or removes—the very treasure the formation’s guardians were protecting, without his understanding its significance.
• Limits beneath confidence: Despite his status as a Tribulation Immortal, Luo is still inexperienced, especially in cultivation and navigating hidden forces.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian and Du Lengning discuss buying land for their joint business. They reject supplying Distant Hall’s pills at half price, and Du Lengning promises to seek an internal price from his father.
• A powerful young Immortal arrives with an invitation for Luo Qian to attend his grandfather’s birthday celebration. Luo rejects it, insisting he is no longer part of the Qian Household.
• The visitor accuses Luo of betraying his Lineage and attacks him with a shout, injuring him. Luo answers that the family brought him to the Immortal Realm against his wishes, then discarded and mistreated him when he proved to be a Tribulation Immortal.
• Du Lengning learns from his father that the Qian Household is the ruling Turbulent Aristocratic Clan of the Gourd Realm, one of the Nine Immortal Realms. He is shocked that Luo belongs to such a powerful family.
• Alone afterward, Luo recalls his first love, Zhou Xin. Her kindness changed him from a wayward youth, but his Lineage forcibly took him away before he could say goodbye. When he returned five years later, she had built a life with someone else.

Character developments

• Luo Qian reveals the hurt and resentment beneath his businesslike composure. Though the Qian family is immensely powerful, he sees himself as rejected by it and remains haunted by the life and love he lost.
• Du Lengning shifts from seeing Luo as a capable business partner to recognizing the hidden history behind his poverty and estrangement. He contrasts the Qian clan’s cruelty with the warmth of his own smaller family.
• The armored visitor represents the Qian Household’s authority and entitlement, treating family loyalty as an obligation rather than something earned.
• Du Zhongping is established as a stern, frugal patriarch who expects his son to learn the responsibilities of their standing.

Significant themes

• Family loyalty versus personal choice: Luo rejects the idea that blood ties alone create belonging.
• Power and abandonment: A prestigious lineage can offer status and resources while still treating an inconvenient member as disposable.
• Love, separation, and regret: Luo’s first love transformed him, but his forced departure left him with lasting grief.
• Class and family warmth: Du Lengning’s modest lineage may lack great status, yet he values its genuine affection over the Qian clan’s privilege.

Character interactions

• Luo and Du negotiate as equal partners, with Luo correcting Du when he speaks as though the business belongs only to him.
• Luo’s confrontation with the Qian emissary exposes the deep rift between them; Du watches from inside and later questions Luo, but Luo initially withdraws into silence.
• Du investigates the Qian Household through his father, learning the scale of Luo’s origins and reconsidering his own family’s value.
• Luo’s memories of Zhou Xin show how one tender encounter changed his life—and how the Lineage’s intervention ultimately separated them.

Key plot points and events

• Luo Qian experiments with combining different grains in his rice cooker to make “Luo-Style Lazy Stewed Rice,” but each three-day attempt produces only ruined liquid.
• To speed up his work, he commissions Xiao Xiangzi to make a self-powered formation that conceals everything inside it. The Seven Luminaries Desert-Heaven Formation successfully hides his storeroom’s contents, but it does not make Luo Qian disappear from the Immortal Realm.
• Luo Qian’s cultivation reveals the reason: as a Tribulation Immortal, he absorbs Immortal Spirit Energy rapidly but cannot retain it. The energy instead fills a strange “gap” in him, and once it is filled, he is transported back to the Mortal Realm.
• Back in City X, he buys twenty advanced rice cookers, planning to smuggle them to the Immortal Realm in several trips to avoid detection.
• Pei Sefei visits Luo Qian. After investigating his mysterious lack of records, she guesses that he takes paid commissions and that he helped her as a client. She offers to work for him, and he hires her as his Mortal Realm agent for five thousand a month.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains resourceful and commercially minded, responding to failed experiments by seeking equipment and ways to scale up. He is also frustrated by his unexplained transportation between realms and by Pei Sefei’s unexpected visit, but recognizes that an agent could help protect his secrecy.
• Pei Sefei moves from curiosity and wounded pride to actively pursuing a connection with Luo Qian. Her suspicion that he helped her through paid work gives her a plausible explanation for his actions, and she turns that into an offer of employment.
• Xiao Xiangzi readily helps Luo Qian, motivated in part by his status as a valuable customer. Their interaction is brief and transactional.
• Luo Qian and Pei Sefei trade teasing, probing remarks. She enters his home uninvited and takes charge of the conversation; he initially tries to deflect her questions, then accepts her offer.

Significant themes

• Experimentation and persistence: Luo Qian keeps working despite repeated failures, while looking for practical ways to accelerate progress.
• Secrecy and evasion: Concealment, smuggling, and Luo Qian’s lack of records emphasize the risks of moving between realms unnoticed.
• Identity and misunderstanding: Pei Sefei tries to make sense of Luo Qian’s opaque past and interprets his help through her own assumptions.
• Pragmatic partnership: Their uneasy, playful exchange turns into a business arrangement that may help Luo Qian operate more safely.

Plot and key events

• Pei Sefei leaves Luo Qian’s hideout after agreeing to work for him, but he discovers she has become a popular celebrity and brand spokesperson. Her decision to take a humble job puzzles him.
• Luo Qian moves twenty rice cookers into the Immortal Realm and buys more power boxes, spending heavily to develop his experimental “Luo-Style” pills.
• He successfully makes a batch of Three-Color Pills from a mixture of immortal grains. Though they look and taste appealing, they contain less Immortal Spirit Energy than he hoped, making the recipe economically disappointing.
• Further experiments produce inconsistent results: one cooker burns its ingredients, while another yields ten dark, glossy pills that frighten Luo Qian. Unsure whether they are safe, he asks Du Lengning to get them appraised.
• Du Bo’an identifies the Three-Color Pill as useful for warding off poison and miasma. The dark-brown pill modestly increases the Immortal Spirit Energy stored in the body over time. Both are only around Superior-Grade Spirit Pill level, but their effects and simple ingredients make their recipes unusually promising.
• Du Bo’an hopes to learn the recipes, but Du Lengning misses his hint and rushes back to Luo Qian with the news.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains ambitious and resourceful, investing heavily in his rice-cooker experiments. His confidence is tempered by the failed batch and his sudden fear that he might be making counterfeit medicine.
• Pei Sefei’s fame contrasts with her willingness to join Luo Qian’s small operation, deepening the mystery around her motives.
• Du Lengning is exuberant and eager to help Luo Qian, but his impatience annoys his uncle. He is too distracted by the pills’ value to recognize Du Bo’an’s desire for the formulas.
• Du Bo’an is a perceptive, experienced alchemist. He recognizes that the pills’ recipes are more impressive than their low grade suggests, but cannot comfortably ask his junior for them.

Significant themes

• Experimentation and unintended results: Luo Qian’s improvised methods produce valuable effects despite his lack of alchemical skill, while recipes that seem promising can also fail.
• Profit versus value: The Three-Color Pill is a commercial loss by Luo Qian’s calculations, yet other pills prove useful in ways he did not anticipate.
• Skill versus ingenuity: Du Bo’an’s expertise lets him assess the pills, but Luo Qian’s untrained experimentation has stumbled upon recipes that even a master finds remarkable.
• Appearances can mislead: Pei Sefei’s celebrity image, the unappetizing pills, and their modest grade all conceal more complicated realities.

Plot points and events

• Du Lengning tells Luo Qian that two pills have passed appraisal: the Poison-Repelling Obstacle-Expelling Pill and the Spirit-Accumulating Pill. Luo is excited by their value and hopes to discover their formulas.
• Du presents ten Spirit-Accumulating Pills to Qi Rongwei, an official whose support is needed for the partners’ apothecary application. Qi and his wife initially underestimate the gift, but learn that the pills steadily improve a user’s accumulation of Immortal Spirit Energy—and benefit stronger cultivators even more. The pills could help Qi win a deputy-director position.
• Du leaves before explaining his request. He later gives the steward the apothecary documents and a bribe, but is frustrated that he has not secured Qi’s help. He returns to Luo’s base to seek another solution.
• Luo remains stumped by his failed attempts to make the Three-Color Pill. He suspects that his rough measuring method has mishandled the formula’s half-portions, so he returns to his modern-world base and orders precision scales.
• Pei Sefei delivers the scales in a hurry from a photo shoot. Luo teases her after noticing a strip of costume fabric caught beneath her skirt; she takes his remark as insulting and becomes more defiant toward him.
• The apothecary is close to opening, though Luo still considers smuggling his main ambition.

Character development and interactions

• Luo Qian is inventive and commercially driven, but his confidence is checked by his inability to reproduce the Three-Color Pill. He responds by applying modern technology to the problem.
• Du Lengning is learning to use generosity and connections as Luo advises, but his eagerness leads him to leave Qi’s residence without making his request clearly. He feels guilty about relying on Luo while contributing less.
• Qi Rongwei and Madam Qi move from skepticism to excitement as they recognize the pills’ strategic value. Their private hopes contrast with Qi’s need to maintain decorum in front of his guest.
• Pei Sefei is hardworking and responsive to Luo’s request, but his careless teasing offends her and strengthens her resolve to resist him.

Significant themes

• Generosity as strategy: The valuable pills may win official support, turning a gift into an investment.
• Innovation across worlds: Luo uses modern precision equipment to solve a cultivation-world manufacturing problem.
• Ambition and partnership: The apothecary’s prospects depend on both Luo’s ingenuity and Du’s ability to navigate relationships.
• Miscommunication and status: Qi misreads Du’s visit, while Luo’s teasing is misunderstood by Pei, showing how appearances and assumptions shape interactions.

Key plot points and events

• Pei Sefei explains why she disrupted the advertising shoot: she had something hidden under her skirt. In return for Luo Qian’s help, she asks why he helped her. He says someone asked him to, but refuses to identify the person. Pei Sefei mistakenly assumes that person is dead, then evades Luo Qian’s follow-up question by slipping away.
• Pei Sefei’s agent warns that her no-show cost the company more than six million. She offers to endorse the advertiser’s next-generation product for free, making up for the loss.
• Luo Qian returns to the Immortal Realm and, after nine days of precise experiments, discovers the correct unequal proportions needed to refine Three-Color Pills. He begins producing stock for the new shop.
• Du Lengning secures approval for the medicine shop after Madam Qi unexpectedly brings the good news. In gratitude, he gives her Spirit-Accumulating Pills and promises a continuing supply.
• Pleased with his son’s newfound connections, Du Zhongping casually agrees to sell land at a steep discount. Du Lengning gets the property for ten pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade rather than the twenty he had expected; his father later realizes the size of the loss.
• The shop’s elaborate banner is made, and Du Lengning finds a location at Beautiful Water Cliff beside Xiao Xiangzi’s shop. Luo Qian hides the growing stock of rice cookers in the secured underground palace.
• On Luo Qian’s advice, Du Lengning sends invitations to Ningyao Mountain’s shopkeepers, expecting congratulatory gifts. The invitations stir anxiety and increased cooperation among merchants unsure how much to give.
• The Luo Family Medicine Shop opens with a loud celebration. Luo Qian stays off to the side and collects the gifts.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shows his usual resourcefulness and opportunism: he trades a vague secret for an answer, perfects the pill formula through disciplined experimentation, and turns the shop opening into a way to collect gifts. His playful, scheming rapport with Du Lengning is clear.
• Pei Sefei remains bold and independent, ignoring pressure from her agent and the shoot’s sponsors. She also demonstrates responsibility by offering to compensate the company for the disruption.
• Du Lengning proves more capable than his father expects, securing the shop’s approval and arranging its launch. He follows Luo Qian’s advice and enjoys the advantage gained from his father’s careless bargain.
• Du Zhongping shifts from pride in his son’s new connections to regret over the underpriced land sale.
• Madam Qi’s personal visit and acceptance of the pills strengthen ties between the Du family and the People-Benefiting Institute. Xiao Xiangzi contributes his craftsmanship to the shop’s grand presentation.

Significant themes

• Cleverness and bargaining: Luo Qian and Du Lengning repeatedly turn relationships and circumstances to their advantage.
• Status and influence: A simple invitation carries weight because of Du Lengning’s reputation, shaping the behavior of the mountain’s merchants.
• Family pride and regret: Du Zhongping’s pride in his son leads him to make a costly decision.
• Commerce and community: The shop’s opening links business, favors, gift-giving, and relationships among Ningyao Mountain’s merchants.

Key plot points and events

• After the Luo Family Medicine Shop’s hugely profitable opening, Luo Qian reviews the business’s progress with Du Lengning. He plans to expand the underground medicine workshop and order more power boxes from Xiao Xiangzi.
• Rather than recruit Xiao Xiangzi, Luo decides to make him a customer—and proposes a risky trade involving contraband.
• Luo visits Xiao Xiangzi in private, then moves their conversation to Xiao’s hidden crafting chamber. He offers a high-precision Electronic Scale, arguing it could reduce mistakes in artifact-making.
• Xiao recognizes the scale as contraband and realizes that exposing Luo would also implicate him: he previously made Luo’s power box. After a tense negotiation, he agrees to make 100 power boxes in installments of 15 every three days in exchange for the scale.
• Once Luo leaves, Xiao hides the scale’s aura with a formation and the Azure Jade Bowl, then privately curses his new business partner.
• Luo heads to Ningyao Mountain to shop for an illusion formation to conceal the entrance to his underground palace, where he keeps 21 rice cookers. While browsing, he envies the heavy customer traffic at other shops.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian continues to combine commercial ambition with improvisation and calculated risk. He uses his knowledge of precision measurement, a contraband device, and the power box’s incriminating history to secure Xiao’s cooperation.
• Du Lengning is a practical, loyal partner. He warns that the opening-day windfall cannot be repeated and worries about involving Xiao, but agrees to support Luo and protect him if things go wrong.
• Xiao Xiangzi shifts from welcoming neighbor to alarmed, reluctant business partner. Though tempted by the scale’s usefulness, he recognizes the danger and briefly considers attacking Luo before backing down.
• Their exchange is cordial on the surface but shaped by suspicion, leverage, and mutual vulnerability: Luo claims to be protecting Xiao by approaching him directly, while Xiao’s own involvement makes refusal risky.

Significant themes

• Profit and expansion: The shop’s success fuels plans to increase production and reach new customers.
• Risk beneath prosperity: Contraband dealings and secret equipment could bring severe consequences if discovered.
• Ingenuity as leverage: Luo turns a mundane tool—the Electronic Scale—into a valuable bargaining chip by identifying a practical weakness in artifact crafting.
• Security and concealment: Xiao hides the scale, while Luo seeks to disguise his underground palace, underscoring how secrecy is essential to their ventures.
• Envy and ambition: Luo’s admiration of busy rival shops reveals that his success has not dulled his desire for much greater commercial reach.

Plot points and events

• Luo Qian visits a formation shop and buys the Nine Realms Misty Turmoil, an expensive, 108-flag maze formation made by the renowned artifact master Xin Yezi. Its strength is not killing intruders but recreating all Nine Immortal Realms from their own memories, disorienting them and concealing his underground palace.
• The narrative shifts to Tianxia Source, home to the powerful Zuo Household, which controls Shibao Cave, a rich mine producing Water Exquisite.
• The chapter explains the harsh economics of the Immortal Realm: low-status miners depend on mining wages, while ordinary immortals must buy the pills, artifacts, and homes they cannot make themselves.
• At Shibao Cave, miners undergo strict inspections for stolen artifacts on entry and Immortal Jade on exit. A miner is flagged for carrying something, but persuades the steward that it is merely a piece of Low-Grade Immortal Jade to cover a shortfall in his quota. The steward lets him pass, only afterward wondering why anyone would risk bringing his own jade.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian shows confidence and growing financial means by purchasing the costly formation despite its price. He remains composed while the clerk is astonished by the sale.
• The shop clerk enthusiastically promotes the merchandise, then is overwhelmed with delight when Luo Qian commits to the purchase.
• The miner is quick-thinking and persuasive under suspicion, presenting his jade as a practical safeguard against missing his quota. The steward, though wary, accepts the explanation and ultimately lets the matter drop.
• The chapter also introduces the Zuo Household’s wealth and security apparatus, emphasizing the power imbalance between the ruling clan and its laborers.

Significant themes

• Power through perception: The Nine Realms formation exploits its targets’ memories and inner attachments rather than brute force.
• Class and economic dependence: Immortals’ status and livelihood vary sharply; miners have little choice but to work for powerful clans.
• Security and suspicion: Shibao Cave’s inspections and guards reflect the clans’ determination to protect their resources—and the constant tension between workers and their employers.

Key plot points and events

• Immortal Workers mine Treasure Chamber Cave, where one secretly breaks a piece of Low-Grade Immortal Jade to reveal a familiar red-glowing object: Luo Qian’s Dragon-Phoenix Double-Pattern Jade Pendant. The cave is then sealed for the night.
• Back at Luo Qian’s cave dwelling, Du Lengning is embarrassed when Luo teases him about using a magical formation that recreated Distant Hall’s female disciples’ courtyard. Du admits he followed Li Xuexiao, the sect’s celebrated young expert, because she is the only woman on Ningyao Mountain who ignores him.
• Du reports that a powerful Demon Beast escaped Treasure Chamber Cave, killed sixty-two Zuo Household guards, and is rampaging through Tianxia Source. Distant Hall is sending a rescue force under Li Xuexiao.
• Du gives three reasons for joining: friendship with the Zuo Household, Distant Hall’s duty to answer the appeal, and his concern for Li Xuexiao. His practical fourth reason is that injured fighters will need medicine—an opportunity to sell Luo’s pills.
• Luo initially fears the danger, then eagerly agrees when he sees the profit potential. To secure his safety, he offers Distant Hall Spirit Pills in exchange for protection. Du Zhongping accepts, and Luo gathers a large supply before the force departs.

Character developments

• Luo Qian is shrewd and comic: he delights in the prospect of wartime profits but sensibly trades pills for protection rather than risking his life for money alone.
• Du Lengning reveals a crush on Li Xuexiao and shows more initiative than his usual flirtatious, easily distracted manner suggests. He also thinks strategically about the commercial opportunity.
• Li Xuexiao is established as Distant Hall’s strongest young expert and leader of the rescue party. Her cool dismissal of Du makes clear that she does not return his interest.
• Du Zhongping balances public duty with personal hopes: he sends a capable rescue team and gives Li command, while also hoping the mission will bring her closer to his son.

Significant themes

• Profit amid danger: Conflict creates opportunities for Luo’s medicine business, though he carefully weighs risk against reward.
• Duty, loyalty, and friendship: Distant Hall answers the Zuo Household’s appeal, supported by an old friendship between the families.
• Romance and unrequited affection: Du’s attraction to Li contrasts with her indifference and his father’s matchmaking hopes.
• Comedy through contrast: Luo’s fear of the Demon Beast sits alongside his excitement about selling pills, while his teasing repeatedly unsettles Du.

Character interactions

• Luo needles Du about the female-disciples’ courtyard and his feelings for Li; Du becomes flustered and angry but eventually confesses.
• Du persuades Luo to join by framing the mission as a business opportunity; Luo then negotiates protection with Du Zhongping.
• Li’s chilly reaction to Du’s arrival frustrates Du Zhongping’s hope of matching the two, while the Sect Leader’s rescue party prepares to face the Demon Beast.

Plot points and events

• Distant Hall’s expedition, led by Li Xuexiao, sets out for Tianxia Source to aid the Zuo family against a powerful fiend. Luo Qian joins them, accompanied by disciples who know him through their part-time work at his medicine shop.
• During the journey, Du Lengning confides that he is attracted to Li Xuexiao, who is famously beautiful but cold toward men. He briefly asks Luo Qian to help a woman from the lower realm advance toward ascension, then drops the idea.
• The group receives no reply to repeated messages sent to Zuo Lingchuan, suggesting the fighting is desperate. At the Zuo family’s manor, they find the celebrated estate reduced to ruins. A later message directs them to the ongoing battle.
• Distant Hall arrives to find the Zuo forces and allies from six major sects holding the fiend inside the Eight Directions Heaven Formation. Their arrival fills the formation’s remaining gap.
• Li Xuexiao organizes Distant Hall’s disciples into position. Since she does not know Luo Qian’s abilities, he volunteers to stay back rather than risk disrupting the formation.
• Seeing an opening for Du Lengning to stand beside Li Xuexiao, Luo Qian talks him into approaching the dangerous supporting position—and then presents him to Li as a volunteer.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian remains pragmatic about survival, wealth, and romance, but enjoys meddling in Du Lengning’s love life. He uses humor and persuasion to push his friend toward Li Xuexiao, while wisely avoiding combat duties himself.
• Du Lengning is infatuated with Li Xuexiao but intimidated by her aloofness and the risks of fighting near her. He also considers an impractical, long-term plan involving a woman from the lower realm, then abandons it.
• Li Xuexiao is disciplined, decisive, and reserved. She takes command when the Zuo family cannot be reached and efficiently directs the formation, while appreciating Luo Qian’s choice not to take an unknown position.
• Luo Qian’s friendly ties with Distant Hall’s part-time shop assistants highlight his practical approach to business and mutual benefit. His banter with Du contrasts with Li’s serious leadership and the urgency of the crisis.

Significant themes

• Survival and realism: Luo Qian regards romance as unreliable in a world governed by strength and status.
• Sacrifice and risk: The formation’s key positions are dangerous, forcing characters to weigh duty, courage, and self-preservation.
• Loyalty and cooperation: Multiple sects unite to help the Zuo family, and Distant Hall’s arrival completes their defensive formation.
• Humor amid danger: Luo Qian’s matchmaking schemes provide comic relief as the group approaches a destructive battle.

Plot points and events

• To complete the Eight Directions Heaven Formation, Li Xuexiao needs an Auxiliary Position. Du Lengning volunteers, partly to impress her. She assigns him the relatively safer rear position.
• Luo Qian gives Du ten Jade Water Pills and urges him to protect himself—and, when necessary, Li Xuexiao.
• The formation traps the Demon Beast’s azure light, but the creature quickly identifies the eight pillars as the formation’s weak points. After testing them, it targets the Distant Hall’s southwest pillar, which is defended by a comparatively young and weaker group.
• Li Xuexiao and the Distant Hall disciples reinforce the pillar as the beast attacks. Its enormous blue-red fireballs send force through the formation and injure the defenders.
• When Li Xuexiao is knocked out of the Formation Core position, Du pushes her back into place, restoring the formation. During the next blast, he shares the impact through his hand on her back, taking a severe blow himself. He keeps swallowing Jade Water Pills as the beast prepares another attack.

Character developments

• Du Lengning lets pride and affection drive him to volunteer, but proves genuinely protective and courageous when Li Xuexiao is in danger. His intervention comes at significant physical cost.
• Li Xuexiao remains focused on her duty, enduring a powerful attack to hold the formation together. She is injured and does not realize Du has helped her.
• Luo Qian is pragmatic and wry: he supplies Du with pills and quietly tries to avoid being pulled into Du’s earlier, mysterious “Number Thirty-Five Development Plan.”
• The Demon Beast is revealed to be unusually intelligent, quickly diagnosing the formation’s structure and exploiting its weakest point.

Significant themes

• Courage and self-sacrifice: Du’s concern for Li Xuexiao turns into a concrete willingness to absorb harm for her.
• The vulnerability of collective defenses: The formation is strong as a whole, yet its fixed positions prevent the other groups from aiding the weakest pillar.
• Strength versus preparation: The defenders rely on formation and spiritual power, while the beast’s raw force repeatedly overwhelms them.
• Misunderstanding and unspoken affection: Du’s feelings, Li Xuexiao’s assumptions about him, and Luo Qian’s teasing create tension beneath the battle.

Character interactions

• Li Xuexiao’s remark that she had not expected Du to volunteer wounds his pride; he accepts the dangerous role partly to prove himself.
• Luo Qian gives Du pills and advice, mixing practical concern with teasing about his romantic prospects.
• Du repeatedly helps Li Xuexiao hold the Formation Core position, though she is too badly hurt and preoccupied to recognize his actions.
• The Distant Hall’s defenders depend on one another to reinforce the pillar, while the other sects can only watch as the beast focuses its assault on them.

Key plot points

• The Demon Beast’s final fire attack overwhelms the Distant Hall formation. Du Lengning and Li Xuexiao are both badly wounded and unable to move.
• Du Lengning uses his last two Jade Water Pills to save Li Xuexiao: rather than swallow them himself, he transfers them into her mouth as they fall together. The pills restore her ability to move, and she pushes him off once she realizes what happened.
• The Demon Beast flees, but Zuo Lingchuan pins it down with his bonded Great Blizzard Sword. Hundreds of Immortal Artifacts destroy its physical body, though its soul escapes at great speed.
• Luo Qian emerges from hiding to bring Du Lengning another pill. The Demon Beast’s soul strikes him, but the collision knocks it down long enough for Zuo Lingchuan to destroy it. Luo Qian is overwhelmed by the soul’s fire poison and appears to die.
• Du Lengning revives after Li Xuexiao gives him five pills, then grieves over Luo Qian. A mysterious white light carries Luo Qian’s body away.
• Imperial Constabulary officers arrive only after the battle is over.

Character developments and interactions

• Du Lengning shows self-sacrifice by giving Li Xuexiao the pills he needs to survive. Once he recovers, he is devastated by Luo Qian’s apparent death and blames himself.
• Li Xuexiao moves from helpless shock to gratitude and concern. She recognizes Du Lengning’s action as an attempt to save her, later cares for him, and rushes him to Luo Qian.
• Luo Qian overcomes his fear to help his friend, but his intervention costs him his life—or at least leaves his fate uncertain when his body is taken by the light.
• Zuo Lingchuan achieves revenge by killing the Demon Beast, but the victory brings him little comfort; seeing his wounded followers, he responds with grief rather than triumph.
• Du and Li’s rescue creates an intimate, awkward moment: she is moved by his sacrifice, while he is acutely aware of their closeness but too injured to explain himself.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and loyalty: Du risks himself for Li, and Luo risks himself for Du.
• Victory’s cost: The Demon Beast is defeated, but the survivors are gravely injured, and Zuo’s revenge is shadowed by loss.
• Fate and uncertainty: Luo Qian’s apparent death is followed by the unexplained removal of his body, leaving his ultimate fate unresolved.

Plot points and events

• Luo Qian wakes alive after falling hundreds of meters, confused by his apparent return from death. He reflects that death had felt like a release from the fear and loneliness of his precarious life in the Immortal Realm.
• Du Lengning arrives after searching for Luo Qian, but collapses from the lingering effects of the monster’s jade fire and the strain of traveling. Luo carries him to Ningyao Mountain, where Du’s uncle treats his serious injuries.
• The battle against the monster brings Distant Hall recognition and rewards, while Luo Qian feels he has gained nothing and remains puzzled by his survival.
• During his recovery, Luo receives a visit from his business contact Ling Xiaose. Ling explains that his powerful younger cousin caught him watching pornographic films, beat him, and then watched the films herself.
• Ling reveals that he has told his cousin everything about Luo and his business. Alarmed that this could expose his illegal dealings to the Immortal Apprehension Office, Luo begins packing to flee.
• Ling reassures him that his cousin will keep quiet: she is actually interested in joining Luo’s business and is waiting outside.

Character developments and interactions

• Luo Qian reveals the despair beneath his joking manner: he is isolated, fearful of being caught, and burdened by memories of the Mortal Realm. His unexpected survival leaves him unsettled, and he remains suspicious and quick to flee when threatened.
• Du Lengning shows genuine concern for Luo by pushing himself to find him despite his poisoning. Once reassured that Luo is safe, he finally collapses.
• Ling Xiaose remains timid and easily intimidated, admitting that he betrayed Luo’s confidence because he feared his formidable cousin.
• Ling’s cousin, though not yet seen, is characterized as exceptionally powerful, unruly, and unpredictable. Her interest in Luo’s work sets up a new complication.

Significant themes

• Loneliness and escape: Luo’s thoughts frame death as relief from a life of fear and isolation.
• Unequal fortunes: Du receives attentive care and social recognition, while Luo recovers alone and feels overlooked.
• Comedy amid danger: The chapter contrasts serious threats—poisoning, death, and exposure to authorities—with absurd revelations about pornographic films and Ling’s fearsome family.
• Trust and risk: Luo’s livelihood depends on secrecy, making Ling’s disclosure both a personal betrayal and a potential danger.

Plot points and events

• Ling Xiaose flees after revealing that the young woman pursuing him is a powerful fifth-rank Immortal. Luo Qian tries to escape too, but crashes into her protective barrier.
• The woman, Li Feier, wants to join Luo Qian’s company. When he hesitates, her Azure Flame makes clear that refusing her could be dangerous.
• Luo Qian sidesteps the problem by hiring her as the company’s receptionist, assigning her to greet clients and remove troublemakers. Li Feier accepts, especially when he promises she can fight without fear of complaints.
• Soon after, Li Feier mistakes Du Lengning’s unannounced entrance for a threat and defeats him. Luo Qian gives Du a Jade Water Pill and explains that Du is one of their own.
• Du laughs at the story, then argues that keeping Li Feier as both receptionist and bodyguard is a bargain: hiring a fifth-rank Immortal would normally cost five High-Grade Immortal Jade a day.

Character developments

• Luo Qian remains opportunistic and quick-thinking. He turns a threatening encounter into a free hire, though he is wary of Li Feier’s temper and aware that he is physically outmatched.
• Li Feier is introduced as powerful, impulsive, and eager for excitement. Despite her intimidating force, she readily follows Luo Qian’s instructions once she considers him a “good person.”
• Du Lengning takes his beating in stride and focuses on the practical advantages of having a formidable bodyguard.
• Ling Xiaose avoids the confrontation by abandoning Luo Qian to deal with Li Feier.

Character interactions

• Luo Qian and Li Feier trade provocations; her quick resort to force pushes him to invent the receptionist job.
• Li Feier’s lack of judgment about who is entering the residence leads her to attack Du, while Luo Qian has to explain their relationship and restore order.
• Du and Luo Qian banter over Li Feier’s role, with Du treating her employment as a business opportunity and Luo objecting to Du’s crude comments.

Significant themes

• Improvisation and self-preservation: Luo Qian uses quick thinking to manage situations he cannot control through strength.
• Power and vulnerability: His weak cultivation leaves him dependent on stronger allies and repeatedly reminds him that he should train.
• Pragmatism and profit: The company’s staffing decisions are driven by convenience and cost, even when they arise from chaotic circumstances.
• Comic contrast: Li Feier’s formidable power clashes with her childish enthusiasm, while the characters respond to danger with business-minded humor.

Key plot points

• While Du Lengning recovers, Li Xuexiao visits him. He repeatedly admires her lips but cannot bring himself to speak, eventually deciding that “delectable” describes them best.
• Du tells Luo Qian that the Zuo Household has lost Tianxia Source to the rising Li Household of Green Parasol Mountain. The Zuo clan was devastated: its five elders and household head died defending it, and its Third Uncle, Zuo Lingchuan, now leads the survivors. They have taken temporary refuge on Ningyao Mountain.
• Luo Qian suspects the monster attack at Tianxia Source involved more than meets the eye. Zheng Daoguang, the official who led the rescue, independently identifies three anomalies: the monster emerged from the Zuo Household’s Treasure Chamber Cave, its extraordinary strength had gone undetected, and it evaded the Heavenly Eye Mirror.
• Impressed by Zheng’s observations, the deputy commissioner recruits him into the secretive Secret Investigation Bureau and assigns him to pursue the case, with permission to bring his former men. Zheng realizes the promotion also places him in a dangerous and possibly politically sensitive position.
• Meanwhile, Luo expands his underground palace, sells surplus power boxes, and continues running a low-cost medicine shop. He plans to travel to the lower realm to buy more rice cookers.
• Luo’s attempt to leave fails when the strange gap in his ability to absorb Immortal Spirit Energy reappears. After a day of meditation, he restores it and finally vanishes from the Immortal Realm.

Character developments and interactions

• Du Lengning and Li Xuexiao: Their visits are marked by mutual bashfulness and unspoken attraction. Du’s private fixation on her lips reveals his growing romantic interest.
• Du Lengning and Luo Qian: Du shares the political news and the Zuo Household’s losses; Luo responds with suspicion about the monster incident.
• Zheng Daoguang: His careful reasoning earns him a role in the Secret Investigation Bureau, but his excitement turns to anxiety as he recognizes the assignment’s risks.
• Luo Qian and Li Feier: Luo tells her to watch the shop and refuses to take her to the lower realm, citing danger and his responsibility to her cousin, Ling Xiaose. Li Feier quickly guesses his destination and watches his failed departure with curiosity.
• Luo Qian: His practical business ventures continue, but his mysterious energy-absorption problem interferes with travel.

Significant themes

• Hidden truth and suspicion: The monster attack appears inconsistent, prompting an investigation into what really happened.
• Power and political upheaval: The Zuo Household’s collapse allows the Li Household to rise, while survivors depend on another clan for shelter.
• Duty and danger: Zheng accepts a perilous assignment, and Luo refuses to put Li Feier at risk.
• Unspoken feelings and mystery: Du’s shy attraction contrasts with the unresolved mystery surrounding Luo’s strange condition.

Plot points and events

• Luo Qian enjoys the privileges of being a boss, expecting Pei Sefei to deliver forty advanced rice cookers while he relaxes at his base.
• Pei, already frustrated at being treated like an errand girl, has a disastrous day filming a multinational company’s commercial. A famous foreign director, Wolslo, berates and physically grabs her; her manager restrains her from confronting him, warning that his status makes him dangerous to offend.
• Upset and afraid her family will stop her working if they learn what happened, Pei wanders through the city and ends up at Luo’s building. Though uncertain about her feelings toward him, she goes inside and breaks down in his arms.
• Luo hears her account and, assuming the director may have seriously mistreated her, searches online to identify him. He heads to Wolslo’s hotel, intent on making him pay and recovering the cost of his expensive suit.
• The chapter ends with Wolslo relaxing in his hotel suite, justifying his commercial work as necessary for his art career, when someone knocks at his door.

Character developments and interactions

• Pei Sefei feels increasingly trapped by the pressures of celebrity life and by her manager’s insistence that she accept industry power dynamics. Her vulnerability contrasts with her public success. She turns to Luo because his company feels easy and safe, despite resenting his blunt, boss-like treatment.
• Luo Qian shows a possessive, protective streak: he regards Pei as “one of his own” because she is his employee and immediately sets out to confront the person he believes harmed her. His concern is mixed with comic self-interest over the price of his suit.
• Pei and her manager clash over whether she should tolerate Wolslo’s behavior; he prioritizes career risks, while she wants to stand up for herself.
• Wolslo is arrogant and contemptuous toward the people around him, treating the commercial crew and Pei as beneath him. His artistic ambitions are tempered by financial motives.

Significant themes

• Power and exploitation: Status and money enable influential figures to mistreat others, while people with less power are pressured to endure it.
• Work, identity, and autonomy: Pei wants to pursue her career on her own terms, but family expectations and entertainment-industry rules limit her choices.
• Loyalty and protection: Luo’s sense of responsibility toward his employee prompts him to act, even if his motives and methods are unconventional.
• Art versus commerce: Wolslo frames commercial work as a compromise artists must make to fund their ambitions.