Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Shen Leyan, a sleep-deprived transmigrant with a frail body, is traveling with fellow Outer Sect disciples of the Cloud Radiance Sect to help a village recover after a devastating fire.
• He hopes to avoid cultivation and eventually leave the sect for a quiet life. He knows the novel’s future is grim: the story ends unfinished during a catastrophic Immortal-Demon War, in which the Cloud Radiance Sect is likely to suffer heavily.
• His supposed system, Xiao Du, was damaged during transmigration and has only a 1% chance of repairing itself, leaving Shen Leyan without a useful cheat.
• In the village, the disciples distribute food and medicine. Shen Leyan notices an unnatural chill near the burned ruins, though his senior brother feels nothing. The villagers report that the fire killed several people, including children’s parents and elderly residents.
• The chill returns inside the cottage where the injured are being treated, seemingly blowing against Shen Leyan’s neck. He suspects a Demon may be involved, but jokes to himself that it is behaving in an undignified way.

Character development and interactions

• Shen Leyan is pragmatic, lethargic, and wary of the dangers he knows lie ahead. Though he wants to keep his head down, his awareness of the strange chill suggests he may be drawn into trouble.
• His senior brother is earnest and compassionate: he comforts the village chief, helps distribute supplies, and volunteers to treat the injured. He also looks after Shen Leyan when he appears unwell, but dismisses the supernatural warning because he detects nothing.
• Shen Leyan and his senior brother tease each other about Shen Leyan’s constant sleeping and discuss whether they want to cultivate. Their contrasting outlooks—his brother’s ambition and Shen Leyan’s desire for safety—are clear.

Significant themes

• Self-preservation versus duty: Shen Leyan wants a quiet life rather than heroic involvement, while his fellow disciples accept the work of helping others.
• Powerlessness and uncertain fate: Shen knows the world is headed toward disaster, yet his broken system and lack of a Spiritual Root leave him with little control.
• Hidden danger beneath ordinary tragedy: The fire appears accidental, but the recurring chill hints that a supernatural threat may be lurking in the village.

Summary

Shen Leyan tells his senior brother that a Demon teased him and breathed against his neck, leaving it icy cold. He urges the senior brother to alert their sect and have the village investigated, arguing that the disciples should leave. His senior brother dismisses the claim: no one else felt the cold, and Shen may simply have been bitten by an insect. He also explains that a Demon using its power should affect everyone nearby, making Shen’s account seem implausible.
While the Cloud Radiance Sect’s outer disciples help the villagers recover from the fire—clearing burned cottages, gathering timber, and tending the injured—Shen is given the comparatively easy task of brewing medicine. He tries to recall whether the original novel mentioned a village fire or a flirtatious Demon, but remembers nothing. Still convinced something is wrong, he plans to finish his work and find a way back to the sect to report what happened.
Shen checks in with his damaged system, Xiao Du. Its repair odds have fallen from one percent to 0.5%, and it offers no useful assistance. However, Xiao Du’s remark that keeping Shen alive is difficult reinforces his suspicion that the village is dangerous. Worried that the unknown being has singled him out, Shen decides he cannot remain there.
Just as Shen prepares to ask permission to leave, a violent thunderstorm breaks out. With no cultivation, no way to fly, and a treacherous mountain path ahead, he has to abandon his plan and stay for now. He wonders whether the storm is ordinary summer weather—or another sign of the Demon’s influence.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan is anxious but perceptive: despite being dismissed, he trusts his senses and increasingly suspects that the fire and the village’s apparent calm conceal a threat. His lack of cultivation leaves him vulnerable and limits his choices.
• His senior brother is protective and practical, but skeptical. He scolds Shen for what he believes is an excuse to avoid work, then explains why the alleged encounter does not fit what he knows about Demons.
• Xiao Du, Shen’s malfunctioning system, is a source of frustration rather than help. Its cryptic concern adds to Shen’s unease, and Shen cuts off the conversation when it becomes clear the system cannot assist him.
• The other disciples work cooperatively to support the villagers, while Shen’s assigned role keeps him close to the injured and the site of the earlier disaster.

Significant themes

• Isolation and disbelief: Shen may be right about the danger, but his account is difficult for others to verify, leaving him alone with his suspicions.
• Ignorance as a threat: The disciples’ incomplete understanding of the Demon—and Shen’s own lack of information—makes it hard to judge what is happening.
• Powerlessness and constrained choice: Shen recognizes the danger but cannot simply flee because he lacks cultivation and the storm makes travel unsafe.
• Uneasy foreshadowing: The earlier fire, the Demon’s apparent interest in Shen, the system’s warning, and the sudden storm suggest that the village’s troubles may not be over.

Plot points and events

• Shen Leyan brings medicine to the fire victims, who are badly burned and unable to speak because smoke damaged their throats. The group cannot explain how the previous fire began.
• He gives the injured child, Goudan, candied fruit and peanuts in exchange for learning that the village has a cellar beneath the hut’s courtyard.
• With a severe storm preventing their return to the sect, Shen Leyan and his senior brother go down to shelter there. They find supplies and farming tools; Shen Leyan takes a sickle for protection.
• Unable to sleep, Shen Leyan questions why the earlier fire caused so many casualties when the homes were close to the shelter. His senior brother hears people shouting outside, including a child crying that another fire has started.
• Just as the senior brother moves to open the cellar, Shen Leyan stops him: the victims’ damaged throats mean they cannot shout or cry. The apparent cries suggest something is wrong.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan is compassionate toward the victims, but also resourceful and alert. His playful bargaining with Goudan contrasts with his growing suspicion and caution.
• The senior brother is caring and eager to help, but initially overlooks the contradiction in the voices outside. Their exchanges show affection and familiar teasing.

Significant themes

• Compassion amid danger: Shen Leyan comforts the child and helps care for the injured even as he worries about their safety.
• Suspicion and survival: Practical preparations give way to close scrutiny of details that do not add up.
• Appearance versus reality: The cries of a child seem to signal an emergency, but their impossibility hints at deception or a supernatural threat.

Character interactions

• Shen Leyan and his senior brother trade jokes and mild accusations while tending the injured and preparing to sleep.
• Shen Leyan uses sweets to gain Goudan’s trust and information.
• At the cliffhanger, the senior brother’s instinct to rescue someone clashes with Shen Leyan’s reasoning, and Shen Leyan physically stops him from opening the cellar.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan and his senior brother hide in a cellar as a village burns, hoping the Cloud Radiance Sect will notice the fire and send help.
• The cries outside grow unnaturally loud, and a demon smashes through the cellar’s fireproof stone cover. The “villagers” surrounding them are charred corpses animated by something supernatural.
• Leyan fights them with a sickle while warning his senior brother to cover his mouth and nose against the smoke. The pair are badly outnumbered.
• Leyan’s system, Xiao Du, admits its repair attempt failed—missing the 0.5% chance of success—and offers compensation. Leyan negotiates for a Voice Transmission Talisman and uses it to summon sect master Lu Yuanyi.
• Just as Leyan’s senior brother doubts the sect master will come, Lu Yuanyi arrives in a flash of sword light, extinguishing the blaze and opening a path through it.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan remains practical and resourceful under pressure: he assesses the danger, protects his senior brother, and finds a way to call for help despite his poor luck and the system’s failure.
• Leyan’s senior brother admits he should have listened to Leyan earlier and sought cultivators. Though initially frozen by the sight of the corpses, he recovers and helps defend them.
• Xiao Du is unreliable but tries to make amends with compensation. It secretly withholds a complication: people destined to be connected to Leyan can hear his thoughts.
• Lu Yuanyi is introduced as a powerful, responsive sect master whose arrival contradicts the senior brother’s assumption that he would be too occupied to help.

Significant themes

• Bad luck versus persistence: Leyan’s repair chance fails, but he keeps acting rather than giving up.
• Trust and responsibility: The brothers acknowledge their part in the danger and rely on one another to survive.
• Humor amid horror: Leyan’s sarcastic internal complaints and negotiations with Xiao Du provide comic relief during a desperate fight.
• Unexpected rescue and care: The chapter builds doubt about whether help will come, then shows the sect master answering Leyan’s call.

Key plot points

• A dazzling sword technique, the sect master’s Jiangxue Sword, dispels a fiery scene that proves to be an illusion. The apparent burning village and its monstrous villagers vanish, revealing the intact village in the rain.
• An ice shard left by the sword leads Shen Leyan and his senior brother to the ancestral hall. Shen sends his senior brother to gather help, and more than twenty Cloud Radiance Sect disciples arrive.
• The disciples find the village chief and other elderly villagers worshipping blood-red spirit tablets. They assume the villagers are performing evil rites and restrain them.
• When the incense breaks and the tablets turn ordinary, the village chief breaks down, lamenting his dead son.
• Shen remembers the original novel’s explanation: the village’s fires recur every three years because the son’s resentment trapped the souls of those killed in the first fire. The souls reenact their deaths and consume new lives to avoid fading away. The villagers’ rites were an attempt to sustain their deceased children, not to serve an evil god.
• Shen realizes that, without his arrival and the changed course of events, the disciples would have died in the fire. The chapter ends with the village chief revealing that he buried gunpowder beneath the hall and declaring that he will save his son at any cost.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan stays observant and cautious, using his knowledge of the novel to understand the villagers’ motives. He also recognizes the lives his presence may have saved.
• His senior brother initially suspects Shen has a personal connection to the sect master because of the sword’s appearance, then trusts Shen’s lead and fetches the other disciples.
• The village chief shifts from apparent guilt and grief to desperate resolve. His love for his son drives him to conceal the truth and prepare violence.
• The disciples’ compassion for the villagers turns to indignation when they mistake the rites for evil worship; the villagers’ grief reveals the painful truth behind their actions.

Significant themes

• Grief and attachment: The villagers’ refusal to let their children disappear has prolonged a tragedy.
• Good intentions and harmful consequences: The rites arise from love, yet sustaining the trapped souls requires new victims.
• Misjudgment and incomplete knowledge: The disciples’ initial interpretation overlooks the villagers’ grief and the history behind the fires.
• Fate and intervention: Shen’s presence changes the novel’s events, potentially preventing the disciples’ deaths—but the chief’s final threat shows the crisis is not over.

Key plot points and events

• The village chief reveals that gunpowder is hidden beneath the ancestral hall’s floor tiles. A concealed villager holds a fire striker, making the threat credible and stopping the Cloud Radiance Sect disciples from fleeing.
• He demands that Shen Leyan remain behind. His dead son told him Shen is a soul from another world with enough spiritual energy to keep the son’s spirit from fading for a hundred years.
• Shen realizes help from the sect may be on the way and tries to stall. He urges the other disciples—and especially his worried senior brother—to leave, while making sure the chief stays inside with him.
• Shen clings to the chief’s leg and deliberately provokes him with absurd claims: first joking about the son marrying a female ghost, then implying the son was attracted to Shen and had been spying on him and blowing on his neck.
• The chapter ends as a calm, gentle voice from outside asks the chief to let the Cloud Radiance Sect disciples leave unharmed.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan remains quick-witted and composed under threat. He uses humor, shameless teasing, and calculated nonsense to buy time rather than panic.
• The village chief is grieving and fanatically protective of his son, willing to threaten a mass killing to preserve the son’s spirit. Shen’s claims about his son’s sexuality leave him momentarily speechless.
• Shen’s senior brother shows concern for Shen and struggles with the idea of abandoning him, while some outer disciples prioritize escaping to seek help.

Character interactions

• Shen and the village chief engage in a tense, comic battle of wills: the chief threatens violence, while Shen keeps him distracted and prevents him from leaving.
• Shen reassures his senior brother but also pushes him and the others toward safety.
• Shen’s taunts exploit the chief’s devotion to his son, turning a deadly standoff into an increasingly ridiculous argument.

Significant themes

• Humor as survival: Shen uses absurdity to manage fear and delay violence.
• Grief and obsession: The chief’s love for his son has become dangerous, blinding him to the son’s condition and the consequences of his actions.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Shen’s companions hesitate to leave him behind, while Shen tries to protect them by sending them out.
• Appearance versus reality: The chief’s belief in his son’s account—and Shen’s deliberately skewed interpretation of it—drives the conflict.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan stalls for time while held hostage in the ancestral hall, taunting the old village chief and persuading him that setting off the explosives would destroy his son’s soul as well as endanger the villagers.
• A cultivator outside promises to guide the son’s soul to the Underworld and leave the villagers’ punishment to the authorities. The village chief finally relents and lets Shen Leyan go.
• Shen Leyan escapes and meets the Cloud Radiance Sect group, led by the refined, sword-wielding Zheng Ziheng, whom Shen assumes is Lu Yuanyi’s first disciple.
• Hoping not to attract attention, Shen slips to the back of the crowd and pretends to be too weak to answer questions.
• Zheng Ziheng secretly sends Shen a healing pill, claiming it is compensation from the sect. Shen’s thoughts reveal that it is an extremely valuable Nine-Turn Soul-Replenishing Pill, prompting him to weigh selling it against keeping it for survival.
• Zheng Ziheng realizes he can hear Shen’s unspoken thoughts. Shen’s references to a coming Immortal-Demon War strike him as fanciful, since the world currently seems peaceful. He decides to ask his master about the strange ability.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan proves quick-witted under pressure, using humor and the village chief’s concern for his son to secure his release. Afterward, he remains cautious and deliberately avoids standing out, while his thoughts reveal both practical greed and anxiety about future danger.
• The old village chief shifts from threatening Shen to wavering when confronted with the consequences for his son, ultimately choosing to let Shen leave.
• Zheng Ziheng appears compassionate and composed, quietly helping Shen. His discovery that he can hear Shen’s thoughts leaves him curious, though he dismisses Shen’s alarming predictions as imagination.

Significant themes

• Survival through wit: Shen uses persuasion and comic provocation rather than force to escape.
• The gap between appearance and inner thoughts: Shen behaves meekly in public while privately calculating, worrying, and joking; Zheng Ziheng’s ability exposes that contrast.
• Fate and foreknowledge: Shen believes a catastrophic war is coming, while Zheng Ziheng sees no reason to expect one.
• Caution and self-preservation: Shen’s desire to remain unnoticed reflects his fear of being drawn into greater dangers.

Character interactions

• Shen and the village chief engage in a tense struggle of threats and persuasion, with Shen exploiting the chief’s concern for his son.
• Shen thanks Zheng Ziheng formally, then avoids further contact to keep a low profile.
• Zheng Ziheng offers help anonymously, but his ability to hear Shen’s thoughts creates an unexpected, one-sided connection between them.

Key events

• After Shen Leyan is released, the old village chief reveals he intends to die in the ancestral hall rather than face execution for the deaths caused by the village fires. He and an accomplice prepare to ignite hidden gunpowder.
• Zheng Ziheng uses a water spell to pull them safely out of the hall, then disables the gunpowder. He leaves the village chief to decide whether to surrender or take his own life, and leads the disciples back to the Cloud Radiance Sect.
• On the return journey, the Outer Sect disciples chat excitedly about rewards and the upcoming spiritual-root test. Shen Leyan instead schemes about how to avoid it.
• Zheng overhears Shen’s thoughts and discovers that he has a Wind Spiritual Root—a rare, exceptional aptitude. Shen wants no part of cultivation and only hopes to live somewhere safely and grow vegetables.
• Zheng approaches Shen, now regarding him as a precious talent. Shen notices his intense attention and nervously wonders what he has done wrong.

Character developments and interactions

• Zheng Ziheng shows compassion for the villagers’ livelihood by preventing the ancestral hall from being destroyed, while remaining firm toward the village chief. He also reveals a thoughtful, awkwardly protective side as he tries to comfort Shen—before learning the real reason for Shen’s reluctance.
• Shen Leyan remains irreverent and practical, prioritizing food, safety, and an ordinary life over fame or cultivation. His thoughts contrast sharply with the disciples’ ambitions.
• The village chief refuses the prospect of legal punishment and appears determined to die, but Zheng prevents him from carrying out the planned explosion.
• Zheng’s silent discovery of Shen’s talent creates a comic tension: the senior brother sees a future prodigy, while Shen fears he has attracted unwanted attention.

Significant themes

• Duty and consequences: The village chief must face responsibility for the harm he caused, whether through the law or by his own choice.
• Ambition versus contentment: The disciples dream of spiritual advancement, while Shen longs for a modest, peaceful life.
• Talent and expectation: A rare spiritual root is treated as a source of sect-wide excitement, even though its possessor does not want the life it promises.
• Humor through dramatic irony: Zheng misreads Shen’s distress as discouragement until he overhears the truth, and Shen mistakes Zheng’s newfound interest for suspicion.

Key plot points and events

• After helping respond to a village fire, Shen Leyan rides back to the Cloud Radiance Sect with the other Outer Sect disciples. Senior Brother Zheng Ziheng approaches him and asks about his background and life at the sect.
• Shen explains that he is an orphan who has spent years doing chores, but sincerely describes the sect as his home. When he tries to recall a recent lesson, he mistakenly says it was on the sect rules; Zheng gently points out that he learned those years ago.
• Zheng tells the group they can retake their spiritual-root tests. Shen, who wants to avoid cultivation, tries to discourage the idea. Zheng says Shen’s quick movements during the fire suggest he has a spiritual root—and reveals he will conduct the tests himself.
• Shen asks whether someone with a spiritual root can choose not to cultivate. Zheng reassures him that everyone may follow their own aspirations, then appears flustered and leaves.
• Back at the sect, Zheng excuses the exhausted disciples from morning lessons. Other disciples gossip about Shen’s voice transmission from the previous night, which had pierced the Mountain-Guarding Array and sounded across the sect. They speculate about his connection to the sect master and mistake him for a possible hidden young master.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan remains reluctant to cultivate and anxious about attracting attention. He tries to seem dutiful, but his sleepy, awkward behavior contrasts with the image others form of him. He is grateful for Zheng’s kindness.
• Zheng Ziheng comes across as perceptive, gentle, and considerate: he notices Shen’s ability, respects his choice not to cultivate, and ensures the returning disciples can rest. His momentary blush and hurried departure hint at personal embarrassment or affection.
• The disciples’ admiration for Zheng—and curiosity about Shen—adds to the social pressure Shen would rather avoid.

Significant themes

• Personal choice: Zheng affirms that spiritual talent does not obligate someone to cultivate.
• Belonging and gratitude: Shen sees the sect as family despite his orphaned past.
• Reputation versus reality: Shen’s powerful transmission fuels grand rumors, even as his ordinary, clumsy behavior contradicts them.
• Gentle humor: Shen’s anxious attempts to evade attention and his exhaustion provide comedy amid the chapter’s warmer moments.

Key plot points

• Shen Leyan returns to his shared quarters after the village-fire incident and is immediately questioned by his five roommates about the Voice Transmission Talisman that rang across the Cloud Radiance Sect.
• He recounts how the talisman breached the mountain-protecting formation, failed to enter Sect Master Lu Yuanyi’s pavilion, and then broadcast his call for help about a demon setting fires in a village. The sect master sent sword light down the mountain and dispatched Senior Brother Zheng Ziheng to investigate.
• Shen admits he met Zheng but conceals the talisman’s true origin, saying it was a keepsake from his deceased parents. His roommates accept the explanation and kindly offer to cover for him.
• Exhausted, Shen sleeps through most of the day, wakes from troubled dreams, and finds that his roommates have left him a warm lunch.
• He asks Xiao Du why the talisman broadcast to the whole sect. Xiao Du explains that Lu’s powerful cultivation blocked it from entering his pavilion, forcing it to broadcast elsewhere. Xiao Du also notes that Shen has avoided the Spiritual Root test—until a Spirit-Testing Stone suddenly flies toward his room.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen is embarrassed by the public attention but remains candid with his roommates about the village events. He keeps the system and his transmigration secret, relying on a convenient story about his parents.
• His roommates show concern and loyalty: they stop probing when he mentions his orphaned status, offer to protect his privacy, and leave him food.
• Xiao Du explains the talisman’s mishap and tries to reassure Shen, though its comment about escaping the test proves premature.

Significant themes

• Rumor and public scrutiny: The talisman’s unexpected broadcast makes Shen’s private actions the sect’s latest gossip.
• Friendship and care: His roommates respond to his ordeal with practical kindness and respect for his boundaries.
• Luck, fate, and comic reversals: Shen’s attempt to avoid attention—and the Spiritual Root test—only leads to a new, unexpected spectacle.

Key plot points and events

• During a day of Spiritual Root testing, the ancient Spirit-Testing Stone unexpectedly gains sentience and flies to Shen Leyan’s courtyard, declaring that it smells a Supreme Single Spiritual Root.
• The stone crashes into his lawn, crushing the scallions he recently planted. Shen, confused and alarmed, initially treats its projected little-girl spirit as a child whose guardian should pay for the damage.
• When the spirit points at him and repeats its claim, Shen shuts himself inside, hoping the other disciples will dismiss it.
• Senior Brother Zheng Ziheng arrives, calms the crowd, and says the newly sentient stone may not be reliable. He silences and binds the spirit, then prepares to return it to the Spirit Perch Pavilion.
• Shen recognizes that Zheng cannot keep the discovery secret: the sect leaders are likely to hear about the stone’s claim, especially because it is an ancient testing artifact.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan is anxious about his Spiritual Root being exposed and sees the stone’s arrival as another stroke of bad luck. His practical concern over his ruined scallions adds comic contrast to the potentially life-changing revelation.
• Zheng Ziheng protects Shen from public scrutiny by downplaying the stone’s claim, then takes control of the situation. Shen appreciates the gesture and understands its limits.
• The Spirit-Testing Stone’s spirit is excitable, outspoken, and emphatic about Shen’s exceptional aptitude. Its childish appearance and voice contrast with the authority of an ancient artifact.
• The gathered disciples spread the story and press Zheng for answers, turning Shen’s private predicament into a public spectacle.

Significant themes

• Fate and luck: Shen reflects that his luck ought to improve after transmigrating, but the incident reinforces his sense that misfortune follows him.
• Secrets versus exposure: Shen wants to conceal his Spiritual Root, but an ancient artifact and the sect’s attention make secrecy difficult.
• Humor amid high stakes: The discovery of a potentially extraordinary talent is framed through a smashed vegetable patch, Shen’s wary reactions, and the spirit’s childish behavior.

Plot points

• Zheng Ziheng tells Shen Leyan that the sect’s elders will learn he has a Spiritual Root, but promises to keep it from other disciples and says Shen may choose whether to cultivate, take a master, or leave the sect.
• The Spirit-Testing Stone’s little-girl spirit complains that Lu Yuanyi lured her to the sect with candied hawthorn a thousand years ago, then made her test Spiritual Roots for generations without changing her offerings.
• Shen Leyan defends Zheng Ziheng from her insults, then comforts her when she cries. He bargains for her silence about Shen’s Supreme Single Spiritual Root by promising a feast and swearing he will publicly claim a Wind Spiritual Root and beg Lu Yuanyi to take him as a disciple if she dislikes the food.
• She agrees—and keeps her word when Zheng later says Lu Yuanyi wants to question her: she denies ever mentioning a Supreme Single Spiritual Root.
• Shen Leyan plans an unfamiliar-to-this-world meal, including hot pot, and buys ingredients. Back at the dormitory, he meets Chen Jing, who helps carry them and asks about the food. Shen explains vaguely that he promised someone a late-night snack, then asks how Chen’s Spiritual Root test went.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows quick wit, empathy, and a knack for negotiation. Though he initially worries about revealing his root, he uses humor, food, and a deliberately dramatic oath to protect its secrecy.
• Zheng Ziheng remains principled and respectful toward his master, but gives Shen freedom to decide his future. He quietly accepts Shen’s arrangement with the Spirit-Testing Stone.
• The Spirit-Testing Stone’s spirit shifts from angry and tearful to cheerful once Shen offers her new foods. She values her principles, yet agrees to conceal Shen’s secret and honors the deal.
• Chen Jing appears considerate, helping Shen with his supplies and showing interest in his test results.

Themes

• Choice and autonomy: Zheng insists Shen should not be forced into cultivation or a sect path.
• Trust and reciprocity: Shen earns the spirit’s cooperation by making a promise she can hold him to.
• Humor and compassion: The dispute over candied hawthorn turns into a warm, playful bargain.
• Hidden histories: The spirit’s account reveals an unexpected, less flattering side of Lu Yuanyi’s past.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Jing reveals he has a Mixed Spiritual Root and will enter the Inner Sect next month. Shen Leyan congratulates him and prepares a celebratory hot pot using beef, while Chen helps cook.
• Shen Leyan is concerned when Qingli—the Spirit-Testing Stone who recently transformed—doesn’t arrive as planned. He goes to find her.
• Qingli explains she escaped questioning by telling Sect Master Lu and the elders that she had been mistaken about sensing a Supreme Single Spiritual Root. Shen Leyan doubts the elders believed her, but suspects the sect may choose to let the matter go.
• They return to Shen’s courtyard, where Qingli introduces herself to Chen Jing under the name “Qingli” and joins the meal. She eagerly enjoys Shen’s snow mochi and declares she will only accept offerings made by him.
• Qingli’s comment about offerings nearly exposes her true nature, but Shen distracts her by giving her beef.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan remains committed to avoiding cultivation, despite the possibility that the sect has discovered his extraordinary spiritual root. He is practical, food-loving, and protective of Qingli, gently warning her that the cultivation world is full of deception.
• Chen Jing is delighted by his new spiritual-root result and impending Inner Sect training. He remains unsuspecting about Qingli’s identity and Shen’s unusual situation.
• Qingli is newly transformed and innocent about human schemes. She tries to evade the sect elders but recognizes Shen as a trusted companion and is quickly won over by his cooking.

Character interactions and themes

• Shen and Chen share a warm, teasing friendship as they prepare the hot pot and celebrate Chen’s good news.
• Shen and Qingli’s bond deepens through their shared meal; he guides and protects her, while she openly trusts and appreciates him.
• The chapter contrasts the intrigue and pressure of cultivation politics with ordinary pleasures. Food, fellowship, and Shen’s desire for a peaceful life take precedence over spiritual power and sect expectations.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan, Chen Jing, and Qingli share a lavish Hot Pot meal. When Chen Jing says Inner Sect cultivators must practice Grain Avoidance, Shen argues that good food need not hinder cultivation and invites Chen and Qingli to visit him whenever they crave a meal.
• Qingli senses a powerful presence nearby. Soon, Sect Master Lu Yuanyi arrives, and Qingli angrily accuses him of coming to steal her Hot Pot.
• Shen reluctantly serves Lu the remaining beef rolls, grumbling inwardly about the expense. Lu has put a barrier around the courtyard, keeping passersby from intruding or hearing them.
• Chen Jing is too overwhelmed by Lu’s presence to stay and leaves after bowing. Shen, Qingli, and Lu turn the meal into a playful chopstick battle, with Qingli winning the last piece of meat.
• Afterward, Shen thanks Lu for breaking the burning-village illusion the previous day, then asks whether Lu came because he had heard about a Single Spiritual Root. Lu confirms it. Qingli denies having said anything, and Lu suggests Shen has bribed her with the meal.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan is generous and persuasive about the pleasures of food, but fiercely protective of his expensive ingredients. His comic inner complaints contrast with his polite hospitality toward Lu. He also shifts from joking to direct questioning about Lu’s motives.
• Chen Jing initially worries that food will be forbidden in the Inner Sect, but Shen’s argument changes his mind. He is starstruck and unsettled by Lu’s arrival, leaving before the meal ends.
• Qingli delights in the Hot Pot, eagerly accepts Shen’s invitation, and openly confronts Lu despite his stature. Her denial about the Single Spiritual Root suggests she is guarding information.
• Lu Yuanyi is introduced as a legendary, aloof sect master whose reputation and mysterious power impress others. Yet he readily joins the meal and eats enthusiastically, undercutting his solemn image. His final remark shows he is observant and teasing.

Significant themes

• Cultivation versus worldly pleasure: Shen challenges the idea that enjoying food necessarily obstructs spiritual discipline.
• Reputation versus reality: Lu’s imposing legend contrasts with his casual appetite and willingness to mooch a meal.
• Humor and camaraderie: Food turns a tense encounter with a powerful authority into a lively, competitive gathering.
• Secrets and suspicion: Lu’s interest in the Single Spiritual Root, alongside Qingli’s denial, leaves an unresolved question about what she knows and who revealed it.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan explains that Qingli agreed to keep his Wind Spiritual Root secret in exchange for a meal, while Senior Brother Zheng Zi Heng also helped conceal the Spirit-Testing Stone.
• Sect Master Lu Yuanyi accepts Shen’s choice not to pursue cultivation or join the inner sect, affirming that the Dao has many paths.
• Lu reveals that he came partly because he smelled Shen’s cooking and partly to check whether Shen’s refusal to cultivate meant he was turning to demonic arts. Shen assures him he has no interest in either demonic arts or sect cultivation.
• Knowing from the original story that Lu will one day be betrayed by an evil cultivator, Shen warns him to beware of respectable-seeming people with corrupt intentions.
• Before leaving, Lu gives Shen a rare manual, the Azure Shadow Profound Art, designed only for Wind Spiritual Root disciples. It has no offensive power, but promises its practitioner will always be able to outrun pursuers.
• Shen is strongly tempted by the promise of escape—even wondering if he could outrun Lu—but refuses the manual, saying he cannot accept such a valuable gift without earning it. He feels that taking it would deepen the debt he already owes the sect.

Character developments

• Shen Leyan remains determined to avoid cultivation and the coming Immortal-Demon War, hoping eventually to live a quiet life. His desire for freedom makes the escape-focused manual tempting, but his gratitude and sense of obligation ultimately outweigh that temptation.
• Lu Yuanyi shows a flexible, non-dogmatic attitude toward cultivation and concern for Shen’s safety. He also demonstrates understated generosity by offering a manual suited to Shen’s unusual spiritual root.

Character interactions

• Shen’s nervous inner monologue contrasts with his attempts to speak casually and flatter Lu.
• Lu calmly reassures Shen that he may remain in the Outer Gate, while Shen realizes Lu had feared he might pursue demonic arts.
• Shen offers Lu a warning based on knowledge of Lu’s tragic future; Lu’s unusually penetrating gaze leaves Shen wondering whether his thoughts can be read.
• Their final exchange over the manual reveals both Lu’s quiet kindness and Shen’s reluctance to become indebted to him.

Significant themes

• Many paths through life: Cultivation is not treated as the only meaningful pursuit.
• Freedom versus obligation: Shen wants independence and escape, yet his gratitude to the sect makes accepting help difficult.
• Temptation and safety: The manual appeals to Shen because it offers survival rather than power.
• Appearance and corruption: Shen warns that evil may hide behind a respectable exterior, foreshadowing Lu’s future betrayal.

Key events

• Sect Master Lu Yuanyi gives Shen Leyan the Heaven Tier Azure Shadow Profound Art as compensation for the sect’s misleading mission intelligence, which had put disciples in danger during the illusory-fire incident.
• Shen initially refuses, then checks the Sect Regulations and accepts once he confirms that the reward is required. Lu offers the option of a treasure or pill instead, but Shen keeps the art, believing it suits him.
• At Cicada Song Pavilion, Zheng Ziheng asks Lu about Shen. Lu praises Shen’s lively, decent nature, while Zheng concludes that his master is content to let Shen remain an ordinary Outer Sect disciple.
• Shen tries to study the cultivation art with Qingli, but discovers he has no Spiritual Power and cannot yet follow its instructions. Qingli agrees to write him a basic circulation art and advises him to learn meridians and acupoints first.
• Shen invites Qingli to be his “meal buddy,” and she happily accepts. He then asks her to pass a message to Zheng, since Shen cannot reach the pavilion; she sets off with a flask of taro milk tea.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows respect for the sect’s rules and accepts compensation only after verifying his entitlement. Though eager to cultivate, he recognizes how little he knows and relies on Qingli’s help.
• Lu Yuanyi shows unusual personal consideration for Shen: he selects an art suited to him and speaks approvingly of his character. Zheng notices this warmth, though Lu denies that he has chili oil on his robes after visiting Shen.
• Qingli acts as Shen’s friendly guide and tutor. Her delight at being called a friend reveals her eagerness for companionship.
• Zheng Ziheng remains devoted to his master but feels some regret that Shen may not become his fellow disciple.

Significant themes

• Rules and fairness: The sect’s regulations ensure disciples are compensated when its mistakes endanger them.
• Learning and humility: A powerful cultivation art is useless to Shen until he masters the basics.
• Friendship and belonging: Shen’s casual invitation gives Qingli a meaningful sense of connection.
• Care expressed indirectly: Lu’s choice of art and Zheng’s concern hint at relationships and regard that the characters do not openly explain.

Plot points

• Unable to find a quiet place to talk, Shen Leyan, Zheng Ziheng, and Qingli settle on the roof of the Spirit Perch Pavilion.
• Shen asks whether the Cloud Radiance Sect is short of money. Zheng confirms that funds are tight, though the sect can still support its disciples.
• Shen proposes opening a sect restaurant centered on hot pot, with desserts, drinks, and possibly rare-beast meat for Inner Sect cultivators. He argues that wealthy disciples would pay for good food and that Outer Sect disciples could work there as sect assignments.
• Zheng agrees to pass Shen’s written business plan to the sect master and elders.
• When Zheng asks why Shen wants to help, Shen says he wants to repay the sect for its kindness.
• Zheng then raises another problem: disciples are spreading absurd rumors about Qingli’s appearance, the Spirit Perch Pavilion elder, and Shen’s parentage. Shen wonders whether the sect has a newspaper to circulate reliable information, but learns it does not.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows initiative and practical thinking, turning his cooking skills into a plan that could both raise money and create work for Outer Sect disciples. He also shows gratitude toward the sect.
• Zheng Ziheng is supportive and considerate: he listens seriously, offers to submit Shen’s plan, and gently shows affection by stroking Shen’s head. He also trusts Shen enough to seek his ideas about the rumor problem.
• Qingli enthusiastically endorses Shen’s cooking and indignantly defends the falsely maligned elder.
• The trio’s conversation is warm and informal, balancing Zheng’s earnestness, Shen’s humor, and Qingli’s blunt reactions.

Significant themes

• Resourcefulness and communal responsibility: Shen seeks a way to turn personal skills into practical support for the sect.
• Gratitude and reciprocity: His business proposal is motivated by a desire to repay the kindness he has received.
• Rumor and misinformation: The disciples’ wild speculation creates a separate institutional problem, hinting at the need for better communication within the sect.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan suggests starting a sect newspaper so disciples can get reliable news instead of relying on rumors. Zheng Ziheng supports the idea, and the Law Enforcement Hall begins selecting writers.
• Zheng flies Shen back to his quarters by sword. During the journey, Shen admires the view and asks about the Nine Stars Pavilion, where Elder Xuanji is performing a rare divination.
• The divination reveals a dire warning: the Immortal-Demon War will devastate the living, and Sect Master Lu’s fate star is flickering. The effort severely injures Xuanji, who expects to lose decades recovering.
• Lu Yuanyi connects the prophecy to what he has heard of Shen’s thoughts: Shen has mentioned the coming war and Lu’s future death in madness and Karma Fire. Lu wonders whether someone without cultivation could divine the Heavenly Secrets, though Xuanji says such a person would likely die doing so.
• Three days later, Lu approves Shen’s plan to open a restaurant. Shen works on equipment, ingredients, and recipes while also beginning spiritual cultivation. Qingli supervises renovations of the restaurant’s abandoned bamboo building.
• Shen recruits Zheng to taste-test Hot Pot made with demonic-beast meat. His playful insistence that a terrible dish is delicious ends with Zheng gagging.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows practical initiative by proposing both a newspaper and a restaurant. His improved health and new spiritual root let him sustain a demanding schedule, though he is still learning cultivation.
• Zheng Ziheng takes Shen’s ideas seriously, helps advance them, and personally escorts him home. Their friendly, teasing rapport continues through the food tests.
• Qingli supports Shen’s venture by volunteering to oversee the renovation and enthusiastically directing the workers.
• Lu Yuanyi grows concerned by the prophecy and its apparent connection to Shen’s knowledge of the future. He remains guarded about what he knows.
• Elder Xuanji is shaken by the prophecy and his injury, and comically misinterprets Lu’s reminder to cultivate diligently as suspicion that he has been slacking.

Significant themes

• Reliable information versus rumor: The proposed newspaper reflects the importance of truth and clear communication within the sect.
• Fate, prophecy, and foreknowledge: The divination raises questions about whether the future can be known or changed, especially given Shen’s apparent knowledge of coming events.
• Everyday effort amid looming catastrophe: Restaurant preparations and cultivation continue alongside warnings of a devastating war, blending practical ambition with growing danger.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Leyan chooses five tasty, affordable demonic-beast meats as the restaurant’s signature hot-pot ingredients. With Qingli supervising and Outer Sect disciples helping, the bamboo house is renovated in three days: private rooms upstairs, dining space downstairs and by the water, and an outdoor seasoning station.
• Shen, Qingli, and Zheng Ziheng create elaborate, poetic names for the dishes and display them on a menu. Shen gives the condiment station the playful name “Delicious Enough to Dip Your Shoe Sole In.”
• Planning to open in two days, Shen asks Zheng to promote the restaurant in the Cloud Radiance Sect’s first newspaper. He also wants Sect Master Lu Yuanyi to make a conspicuous appearance at the opening, hoping the famous sect leader will attract customers.
• Zheng doubts Lu will agree, so Shen asks him to record a personal invitation with a Reflection Stone. At Cicada Song Pavilion, Zheng shows it to Lu.
• The recording features Shen enthusiastically demonstrating and eating hot pot, describing the ingredients and accompaniments, then inviting Lu to the opening and promising him free food. It ends with Shen making heart gestures. Lu’s reaction is left unresolved.

Character developments and interactions

• Shen Leyan shows entrepreneurial flair, using polished dish names and publicity to make the restaurant seem distinctive. He is also playful and persuasive, willing to make an exuberant food video to secure Lu’s attendance.
• Qingli initially questions the need for fancy names, but quickly understands Shen’s marketing logic and contributes dish names.
• Zheng Ziheng helps with planning and agrees to handle the newspaper. Though surprised by Shen’s request, he indulges him by recording the invitation; he is amused by Shen’s performance and briefly embarrassed when Shen tugs his sleeve.
• Lu Yuanyi remains composed while watching Shen’s energetic pitch. He asks what Shen is up to, but neither accepts nor refuses the invitation before the chapter ends.

Significant themes

• Marketing and presentation: Clever names, publicity, and a prominent guest are treated as essential to making the restaurant succeed.
• Food as persuasion and pleasure: Shen’s vivid hot-pot demonstration turns an invitation into an enticing sales pitch.
• Enterprise and ambition: Shen’s restaurant is designed to earn money and secure him a more comfortable, independent future.
• Humor and affectionate familiarity: Shen’s shameless enthusiasm contrasts with Zheng’s restrained amusement and Lu’s unreadable calm.

Key plot points and events

• Zheng Ziheng reports that Sect Master Lu won’t attend Shen Leyan’s restaurant opening. Lu’s fishing attempt has ended in failure: the golden fish rejects his bait and swims away, leaving the bucket empty and the stream frozen.
• On his first day at the Inner Sect Study Hall, Chen Jing discovers a sect-wide printed “newspaper” distributed by the Enforcement Pavilion. Its sensational articles promote Shen Leyan’s restaurant and recount recent sect events, including the village fire and Qingli’s transformation.
• The restaurant’s publicity is already drawing interest. Shen Leyan prepares for the expected rush by limiting the opening-day service to thirty-five tables and creating numbered queue tickets.
• After preparations, Shen cultivates Spiritual Power, hoping to earn money and learn enough of the Azure Shadow Profound Art to escape ordinary threats. He begins sensing his Wind Spiritual Root.
• At nine the next morning, classes end, and a crowd of sword-flying disciples descends on the restaurant as it opens.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Jing is excited but nervous about his first Inner Sect class. The newspaper surprises and entertains him, and its restaurant advertisement tempts him into agreeing to visit with a senior brother.
• Shen Leyan proves resourceful and business-minded, using sensational publicity and practical crowd-management plans while continuing to pursue cultivation and personal safety.
• Qingli helps with restaurant preparations and attracts disciples’ attention, prompting interest in her youthful appearance.
• Sect Master Lu is shown as prideful and easily irritated after his unsuccessful fishing, and refuses the restaurant invitation.
• The disciples eagerly discuss the newspaper, Qingli, and the restaurant; even instructors are rumored to plan a visit.

Significant themes

• Entrepreneurship and publicity: Shen Leyan turns the newspaper into an effective marketing tool and anticipates the challenges of success.
• Cultivation alongside practical ambition: He balances spiritual growth with his desire to earn money and protect himself.
• Community and curiosity: Gossip, shared reading, and food bring disciples and instructors together.
• Comic contrast: Sect life’s grand cultivation practices sit alongside mundane concerns such as restaurant queues, enticing food, and a failed fishing trip.