Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• After defeating a fifth-rank ice-type beast, Lin Chen takes its magic core and follows Zi Yan into its cave, where she says she can smell a treasure.
• Lin Chen uncovers a hidden underground cavern beneath the cave. It holds many energy-rich spiritual liquids and, most importantly, earth core body tempering milk, a rare substance that can cleanse the marrow, strengthen the bones, and aid cultivation.
• Zi Yan eagerly collects the treasure with a jade spoon. They emerge with three bottles of undiluted milk and thirteen of a diluted version. Lin Chen divides it in his own favor, leaving Zi Yan annoyed but unable to stop him.
• Lin Chen offers to prepare Zi Yan’s share into a medicinal liquid so she can absorb it more effectively. When she suspects he is angling for a share as an alchemist, he teases her with the prospect that swallowing it directly would be much less effective.
• At the Outer Academy, Lin Chen meets Hu Gan and presents him with a bottle of the undiluted treasure. Hu Gan examines it in surprise and asks where Lin Chen found it.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Chen shows confidence and resourcefulness, using his skills to uncover the hidden entrance and collect the treasure. He is also playful and calculating: he negotiates the division in his favor and teases Zi Yan about the cost of refining her share.
• Zi Yan is driven by food and the hope of growing up. Her excitement over the treasure quickly turns to frustration at Lin Chen’s stingy division, though she follows him and even waits on him in hopes of influencing him.
• Lin Chen and Zi Yan have a teasing, bargaining relationship. He treats her affectionately—calling her a little sister and patting her head—but also exploits her desire for the treasure, prompting her to vow she will get even once she grows up.
• Hu Gan appears only at the end, impressed by the rare liquid and curious about Lin Chen’s discovery.

Significant themes

• Power and cultivation through rare resources: Magical beast cores and spiritual substances are valuable tools for advancement.
• Knowledge and preparation: Lin Chen understands the treasure’s proper use and the importance of jade containers and medicinal preparation.
• Self-interest beneath playful affection: Lin Chen and Zi Yan’s camaraderie is warm but full of bargaining, teasing, and competing claims to the spoils.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Chen explains to Vice President Hu Gan how he acquired a Heavenly Flame, broke through to Dou Wang, became an honorary academy elder, and went treasure hunting with Zi Yan. Hu Gan is relieved that Lin Chen’s breakthrough has eased his concerns about his future and lifespan.
• Lin Chen teases Hu Gan by suggesting he use powerful prescriptions to have another child. Hu Gan flies into a rage, and Lin Chen flees with Zi Yan.
• On the Outer Academy’s main avenue, Lin Chen proudly advertises his new status to students, accepts a gift while pretending to refuse it, and promises the giver help if he reaches the Inner Academy.
• Xun’er arrives and asks whether Lin Chen has made his decision about their earlier arrangement. Lin Chen agrees to talk, inviting her to his home for tea and bringing Zi Yan along to serve it.
• During their conversation, Lin Chen says he cannot leave the academy because Hu Gan needs him and the students need protection. He also claims he already has a Seventh-grade Alchemist Inheritance, so he wants to exchange the inheritance Xun’er offered for a Sect Breaking Pill and an Earth Tier Sound Wave Dou Technique.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Chen presents himself as generous and dutiful, but his behavior reveals a playful, opportunistic streak. He jokes at Hu Gan’s expense, enjoys flaunting his status, and carefully frames his negotiation with Xun’er to secure what he wants.
• Hu Gan shifts from anxious concern to relief after hearing about Lin Chen’s breakthrough, then loses his temper at Lin Chen’s outrageous teasing. Their exchange mixes affection with irreverence.
• Zi Yan remains dependent on Lin Chen for the pill-refining help she needs. She resents being ordered to act as his maid, but temporarily complies because she cannot overpower him.
• Xun’er approaches with composed, faintly teasing confidence. She listens to Lin Chen’s elaborate explanation and asks directly about the inheritance, while Lin Chen uses charm and excuses to steer the bargain.

Significant themes

• Self-interest beneath appearances: Lin Chen’s claims of duty and sacrifice also serve his negotiating aims.
• Power, obligation, and dependence: His new status changes how others regard him, while Zi Yan’s need for his help gives him leverage over her.
• Humor and familiarity: The teasing between Lin Chen and Hu Gan, and Lin Chen’s shameless public boasting, keep the chapter’s tone comic.
• Bargaining and exchange: The chapter culminates in Lin Chen attempting to trade an inheritance for two specific treasures.

Key plot points and events

• Lin Chen asks Xun’er to trade a Sect Breaking Pill for an Earth-tier sonic Dou Technique. Xun’er can provide the pill immediately but must consult her clan elders about the technique.
• Lin Chen’s display of the Sea Heart Flame impresses Xun’er and helps her decide that he is worth supporting, even if she cannot recruit him into the Gu Clan.
• Xun’er agrees to pursue the technique and gives Lin Chen a single-use Communication Jade Slip, inviting him to contact her if he finds another heavenly flame to sell.
• After Xun’er leaves, Lin Chen sends Zi Yan to deliver the Sect Breaking Pill to Hu Gan. He then begins preparing Earth Core Body Tempering Milk for her.

Character developments and interactions

• Xun’er shifts from caution to investment in Lin Chen after seeing his rapid progress and heavenly flame. She remains composed in negotiation but shows a playful side when giving him the jade slip.
• Lin Chen uses courteous hospitality—and his Sea Heart Flame—to strengthen the negotiation. He is delighted by the prospect of obtaining a technique whose value he has seen in action, and privately treats Xun’er’s gift as a sign of growing ties to the Gu Clan.
• Zi Yan resents being ordered about but obeys, largely for the promise of pills and medicinal treatment. Her threats to make Lin Chen work for her for free keep their teasing, transactional relationship intact.

Significant themes

• Strategic alliances and investment: Xun’er weighs Lin Chen’s potential and chooses to cultivate a favorable relationship with him.
• The rarity and value of soul-based techniques: The requested sonic skill is exceptionally valuable because it can affect stronger opponents and attacks the soul.
• Mutual benefit beneath humor: Deals, favors, and work—including Zi Yan’s errands—are framed as exchanges, even amid playful banter.

Plot points and events

• Lin Chen receives an earth-tier low-grade sound-wave technique, Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Subduing Roar, from the Gu Clan. He hopes it will strengthen his ability to escape powerful enemies and help him prepare for a future attempt to claim treasures near the Green Lotus Core Flame.
• Zi Yan refuses to guard his door unless he asks nicely, enjoying her new independence after fulfilling her three-day obligation. Lin Chen placates her with pills and promises to keep refining medicines she gathers.
• In seclusion, Lin Chen experiences the technique’s imprint, in which its creator, Venerable Mountain-Suppressor, demonstrates its three stages: Heavenly Dragon Roar, Elephant King Roar, and Dragon-Elephant Roar in Unison.
• Lin Chen learns that the technique uses both Dou Qi and blood and vital energy. Its strongest stage requires a powerful physique, so he plans to begin with entry-level training and later seek a body-refinement technique. He leaves for the Back Mountain to practice, and Zi Yan chases after him.
• Meanwhile, Outer Academy deputy headmaster Hu Gan swallows Lin Chen’s Sect Breaking Pill, hoping it will let him advance beyond Dou Emperor.

Character developments

• Lin Chen gains a powerful new technique and begins thinking ahead about both training his body and pursuing future opportunities. He also shows practical generosity toward Zi Yan.
• Zi Yan relishes her freedom and bargains for help, but her eagerness for Lin Chen’s pills—and her decision to follow him—show that she remains closely attached to him.
• Hu Gan is grateful and hopeful about his chance to advance, while feeling increasingly indebted to Lin Chen.

Significant themes

• Power and its price: The roar’s extraordinary force comes at the cost of strain on the user’s blood, vital energy, and physique.
• Preparation and ambition: Lin Chen plans his training and future moves well in advance.
• Reciprocity and growing obligations: Lin Chen’s gifts and assistance build bonds—and debts—with those around him.

Character interactions

• Lin Chen and Zi Yan trade playful demands: she resists being ordered around, while he wins her cooperation with pills and a promise of more.
• Lin Chen’s encounter with Venerable Mountain-Suppressor’s recorded imprint serves as a direct lesson in the technique’s power and risks.
• Hu Gan’s use of Lin Chen’s pill underscores their growing relationship and Hu Gan’s sense of obligation.

Plot and key events

• A month later, Lin Chen practices Venerable Mountain-Suppressor’s Earth Tier Sound Wave Dou Technique in the academy’s back mountain. At first, his roars only partly disrupt a waterfall.
• Recalling his teacher’s explanation, Lin Chen realizes that mastering the technique requires more than a powerful voice: he must combine his soul power with natural energy and borrow the force of heaven and earth.
• Applying this insight, he summons an illusory water dragon whose roar amplifies his own. The sound wave cuts through the waterfall and blasts a huge crater into the cliff. Lin Chen has finally made a breakthrough in the technique.
• In high spirits, he takes Zi Yan to hunt a fifth-rank Blazing Fire Boar and later roasts it with the Sea Heart Flame while studying the Dou Ling Pill recipe.
• Zi Yan eagerly eats her share and declares that life with Lin Chen is far better than her former diet of medicinal herbs. She suggests hunting more magical beasts, including a turtle that once sprayed her.
• Lin Chen asks whether she is close to advancing to four-star Dou Wang. Zi Yan says she still needs to eat a few more fifth-rank magical beasts.

Character developments and interactions

• Lin Chen demonstrates patience and analytical skill: he overcomes difficulty by identifying the technique’s underlying principle. His fifth-grade alchemist soul power helps him control the new technique, and his growing confidence shows how significant this first Earth Tier technique is to him.
• Zi Yan remains carefree, food-obsessed, and physically formidable, but her comfortable affection toward Lin Chen is clear. She trusts him, enjoys being cared for, and treats their meals and hunts as a cherished routine.
• Their bond is playful and familiar: Lin Chen teases Zi Yan about getting fat and pinches her cheek, while she clings to him during flight, praises his cooking, and freely makes demands.

Significant themes

• Insight and disciplined practice: Progress comes from understanding a technique’s nature, not merely repeating its motions.
• Power through harmony with the world: Earth Tier sound techniques draw on natural energy and soul power to affect both the physical environment and spiritual forces.
• Companionship and everyday comfort: Shared meals and teasing provide warmth alongside Lin Chen’s serious cultivation.
• Growth through nourishment: Zi Yan’s appetite is linked to her development, suggesting that her body and magical-beast heritage may require more than ordinary energy to mature.

Plot points and events

• Lin Chen prepares a Dou Ling Pill, intending to use it to raise both himself and Zi Yan by one cultivation star. He also plans to take Zi Yan outside the academy afterward for an undisclosed task—hinted to involve stealing the Green Lotus Core Flame.
• Over two days, Lin Chen successfully refines a Peak Fifth-Grade Dou Ling Pill, relying on his Sea Heart Flame, soul control, and knowledge from a seventh-grade alchemist’s legacy.
• Hu Gan appears, having recently broken through to Dou Zong. He credits Lin Chen’s pill for helping him and gifts Lin Chen a purple Fire Crystal Card granting access to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’s ninth level, along with sixth-rank magical beast inner armor. He warns him to avoid the forbidden final level.
• Zi Yan takes the first pill and advances to four-star Dou Wang. Lin Chen refines another pill for himself and successfully advances from one-star to two-star Dou Wang.

Character developments

• Lin Chen demonstrates growing confidence and skill as an alchemist, successfully attempting a Peak Fifth-Grade pill after only a little over a month of progress. His cultivation also rises to two-star Dou Wang.
• Zi Yan eagerly accepts the pill and gains a star, remaining driven by food, adventure, and the prospect of leaving the academy.
• Hu Gan has reached Dou Zong, apparently thanks in part to Lin Chen’s earlier pill. Though proud and reserved, he shows gratitude through his practical gifts.

Significant themes

• Alchemy and cultivation reinforce one another: Lin Chen’s Heavenly Flame accelerates his alchemical progress, while his pills strengthen both himself and others.
• Mentorship and reciprocity: Hu Gan’s gifts repay Lin Chen’s help, even as he downplays his gratitude.
• Ambition and adventure: Lin Chen’s new cultivation and access to the tower’s ninth level set up further opportunities, while his concealed plan to seek the Green Lotus Core Flame points toward a dangerous journey.

Character interactions

• Lin Chen teases Zi Yan about her appetite and lack of progress, then recruits her to help with his future outing. She eagerly agrees.
• Hu Gan and Lin Chen trade playful, mildly boastful remarks; Hu Gan’s gifts reveal his appreciation despite his awkward manner.
• Lin Chen uses Zi Yan as the first test of his new pill, then follows with one for himself.