Chapter Summaries

Plot and events

• Dongfang Minghui remains unconscious for more than ten days. Apothecaries find no illness, while Dongfang Wanyu and Qing Mo suspect she has exhausted her spiritual power, perhaps because of her unusual affinity or her bond with the demonic plant.
• Minghui can hear what happens around her but cannot move or respond. She repeatedly calls for Little Lecher, who eventually answers, explaining that it was cultivating. It also tells her she must reach Spirit Warrior soon if she wants to see her companion again.
• Wanyu prepares to leave for the Royal Academy’s admissions in the Golden Star Empire. As she teases that she might leave Minghui behind, Minghui wakes and clutches her hand. Wanyu reassures her that she had planned to bring her along.
• Still weak, Minghui asks Wanyu to obtain medicinal ingredients and pawn her jewelry to pay for them. She uses the ingredients in a bath to cleanse her body, open three meridians, and regain some spiritual power, determined to advance her cultivation for her companion’s sake.
• Wanyu reports that the Azure Mist Sect is searching for the pair, likely because of their encounter with Mu Qing. To avoid recognition, she gives Minghui women’s clothes. Minghui changes back into them and applies makeup, surprising Wanyu with her beauty.
• They agree to head for the capital to attend the Royal Academy admissions. They leave Ningyuan County that night to evade the search. Wanyu drives the carriage while Minghui rests inside; despite offering to take a turn, Minghui falls asleep, and Wanyu covers her with an outer robe.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghui wakes relieved to find Wanyu still beside her, and her attachment to her sister is clear. She feels guilty about her companion’s injury and turns that guilt into resolve to cultivate quickly. Her habitual dependence on Wanyu remains, though she offers to help with the carriage.
• Wanyu shows growing concern and tenderness toward Minghui: she cares for her while she sleeps, stays nearby during her bath, reassures her, and later covers her with a robe. She also takes charge of their safety and travel. Minghui’s changed appearance makes Wanyu see her in a new light.
• Little Lecher returns after a long silence, relieving Minghui’s fear, but sets the urgent goal of reaching Spirit Warrior.
• Qing Mo questions Wanyu’s delay in going to the Royal Academy, then withdraws to cultivate.

Significant themes

• Family bonds and trust: Minghui’s fear of being abandoned contrasts with Wanyu’s growing unwillingness to leave her behind.
• Recovery through perseverance: Minghui endures weakness and a demanding cultivation process to regain strength and help her companion.
• Protection and dependence: Wanyu assumes the practical burdens of travel and safety, while Minghui relies on her but begins offering support.
• Appearance and identity: Changing out of men’s clothes helps them avoid detection and prompts Wanyu to notice Minghui’s feminine beauty.

Key plot points and events

• Dongfang Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui travel to Snow Capital to seek admission to the Royal Academy. Wanyu reassures Minghui that the academy should protect its students from the Azure Mist Sect, and offers her a Disguise Pill if needed.
• In Snow Capital, Minghui visits a shop hoping to buy a spatial ring. The shop has no high-grade rings capable of holding living creatures, and Wanyu pulls her away after finding her wandering.
• The sisters overhear Lu Peng, a powerful young noble, assaulting a girl in an alley. Minghui insists they intervene. Wanyu knocks Lu Peng unconscious, and the girl, Nan Nan, is rescued.
• Nan Nan warns them that Lu Peng is dangerous, then offers them shelter and a way to avoid his guards. The sisters give her their aliases, Qian Minghui and Qian Wanyu, and agree to keep her ordeal secret from her brother.
• At Nan Nan’s modest home, they meet her paralyzed older brother, Nan Fei. His handsome appearance and gentle, refined manner surprise the visitors.

Character development and interactions

• Minghui remains compassionate and impulsive: despite her anxiety about the academy and her unfamiliarity with the city, she acts when she sees someone in danger. She also feels lonely without her companion, Little Lecher, and is self-conscious about carrying a bundle.
• Wanyu is cautious and protective, thinking ahead about disguises, academy safety, and the consequences of confronting Lu Peng. Though she initially keeps walking, she ultimately takes decisive action and gently reproaches Minghui rather than remaining angry.
• Nan Nan shows courage and composure after the assault. She thanks her rescuers, worries that she has endangered them, and carefully conceals what happened so her brother will not be distressed.
• Nan Fei is introduced as Nan Nan’s dependent but dignified brother. His gentle voice and bearing contrast with the siblings’ poverty and his physical disability.
• Minghui and Wanyu cooperate in rescuing Nan Nan, then show consideration by respecting her request for secrecy and accepting her offer of shelter.

Significant themes

• Compassion versus self-preservation: Minghui chooses to help despite the risk of provoking a powerful family.
• Protection and vulnerability: The academy promises safety, while Nan Nan’s situation exposes the danger faced by people without status or influence.
• Appearances and identity: The sisters use aliases and consider disguises; Nan Nan hides her distress, while Nan Fei’s refined bearing defies assumptions based on poverty.
• Power and consequences: Lu Peng’s influence makes even a justified intervention potentially dangerous, foreshadowing conflict in Snow Capital.

Chapter Summary

Plot points and events

• Nan Nan prepares a small room for Dongfang Minghui and Dongfang Wanyu. Before bed, Wanyu gives Minghui her spatial ring, which has fifteen cubic meters of storage, and helps her attune it.
• Nervous about sharing a bed with Wanyu, Minghui stays up until she falls asleep sitting in a chair. Wanyu carries her to bed. By morning, Minghui has sprawled across Wanyu, leaving Wanyu uncomfortable and unable to sleep.
• Wanyu discovers that Nan Nan is refining pills. She suspects Nan Nan intentionally let her witness this, perhaps because she wants something from her.
• Wanyu helps Nan Fei harvest vegetables. He is sensitive about relying on Nan Nan because he cannot walk; Wanyu reassures him that Nan Nan does not see him as a burden.
• At breakfast, Nan Nan explains that she sells pills in Snow Capital’s Northern District to support herself and her brother. She and the sisters plan to go there together, though Wanyu recognizes the danger: the Lu Family may be looking for her after she defeated Lu Peng.
• Wanyu confronts Nan Nan privately about the previous day’s events. Nan Nan apologizes and urges the sisters to register at the Royal Academy instead. Wanyu bluntly asks what Nan Nan really wants.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghui remains anxious around Wanyu but is delighted by the spatial ring and increasingly comfortable with her. Her playful, trusting behavior contrasts with her fearful assumptions about Wanyu.
• Wanyu shows affection through practical generosity, giving Minghui the ring, and offers Nan Fei reassurance. At the same time, she remains observant and wary of Nan Nan’s motives.
• Nan Nan and Nan Fei show mutual concern, though Nan Fei’s insecurity reveals how much he worries about burdening his sister. Their modest home and Nan Nan’s pill-selling suggest a difficult life, despite Wanyu’s suspicion that they have a hidden past.
• Minghui and Wanyu share an awkward but increasingly intimate night; Wanyu and Nan Fei bond over gardening; and Wanyu and Nan Nan move from polite cooperation to a tense, direct confrontation.

Significant themes

• Growing intimacy and trust: The shared bed and Wanyu’s gift bring the sisters closer, even as their relationship remains awkward.
• Care, dependence, and dignity: Nan Fei’s concern about being a burden contrasts with Wanyu’s reassurance and Nan Nan’s devotion.
• Hidden motives and uncertainty: Wanyu suspects the siblings’ circumstances—and Nan Nan’s decision to reveal her alchemy—conceal something.
• Risk and responsibility: Wanyu weighs helping Nan Nan against the danger of drawing the Lu Family’s attention.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Nan Nan reveals that she knows Dongfang Wanyu is a triple-element Spirit Practitioner, thanks to her magical pet, Little Civet, whose evolved eyes can see through things. Nan Nan begs Wanyu to heal her crippled brother. Wanyu refuses to promise anything and urges Nan Nan to seek the Royal Academy’s protection instead of relying on others.
• Wanyu and Dongfang Minghui head toward the Royal Academy. Minghui worries that entering the academy could separate her from Wanyu, but the sisters observe the crowds and learn that recruitment is imminent. Minghui also discovers that spiritual energy is present in the local pastries.
• While waiting beneath a tree, Minghui uses her unusual ability to communicate with plants. She encounters a teasing young man, Situ Hao, who notices her strange wood-element spiritual power. He offers to help her enter the academy if she can heal his thorny, aggressive Blue Star Dream.
• Minghui befriends the plant by speaking gently and keeping it company. She learns that it lashes out because people have hurt it when it accidentally injured them. Blue Star Dream’s leaves contain spiritual energy, which Little Lecher absorbs through Minghui’s storage ring, briefly awakening and revealing that such energy may help it recover.
• Situ Hao agrees to arrange Minghui’s entry into the Royal Academy and lets her collect spiritually potent herbs from his garden. Wanyu later discovers Minghui’s wounded wrist, treats it, and insists on accompanying her for safety.
• At the next visit, Minghui brings Blue Star Dream spiritual liquid, but the plant dislikes its taste and gives it back. She comforts it with a story. Wanyu sees Minghui communicating with the plant and realizes the extent of her ability.
• Qing Mo warns Wanyu that Minghui may belong to the Longlife Tribe, a people said to communicate with nature and who were destroyed because their power drew disaster. Wanyu recognizes that Minghui’s gift could put her in danger if exposed.
• Minghui gathers more herbs, and the group enters the academy through a side gate. Situ Hao takes them to the Pharmacy Institute, where he intends to arrange Minghui’s admission; the chapter ends as he begins describing its vast herb garden.

Character developments

• Dongfang Minghui grows more confident in using her gift, patiently winning Blue Star Dream’s trust. She is resourceful and opportunistic too, seeking spiritual herbs to help Little Lecher and hoping to enter the academy.
• Dongfang Wanyu remains guarded and protective. Her concern deepens after seeing Minghui’s injury, and she recognizes that Minghui’s plant-communicating ability may be both valuable and dangerous.
• Nan Nan shows desperation and devotion to her disabled brother, but Wanyu pushes her to pursue protection and opportunity for herself.
• Situ Hao shifts from playful teasing to cooperation after Minghui succeeds where powerful wood-element practitioners failed.
• Blue Star Dream is revealed not to be malicious, but lonely and frightened after repeated mistreatment. It becomes affectionate toward Minghui.

Significant themes

• Kindness and understanding: Minghui succeeds with Blue Star Dream by listening and showing compassion rather than using force.
• Power and vulnerability: Exceptional abilities can bring opportunity, but also attract danger; Wanyu fears Minghui’s gift could expose her to persecution.
• Self-reliance and protection: Wanyu advises Nan Nan to seek institutional protection, while Minghui pursues entry into the academy to gain access to resources and remain near Wanyu.
• Exchange and trust: Minghui treats relationships with plants as reciprocal, offering companionship and care while receiving leaves and help.

Character interactions

• Wanyu confronts Nan Nan over how she discovered her secret, then advises her to seek safety through the academy.
• Minghui clashes playfully with Situ Hao, who mocks her aptitude but ultimately offers a path into the academy in exchange for helping Blue Star Dream.
• Minghui’s patient conversations transform Blue Star Dream’s fear into affection, while her injury prompts Wanyu to treat and protect her.
• Wanyu and Qing Mo discuss the possible danger behind Minghui’s gift, keeping their concerns from her.

Key plot points and events

• The discussion turns to the importance of the Apothecary School at the Royal Academy.
• It is explained that students from both the General School and the Alchemy School must respect the Apothecary School, since warriors, Spirit Practitioners, and alchemists all depend on spirit medicine.
• Dongfang Wanyu agrees that spirit medicine is essential.
• Dongfang Minghui becomes excited at the prospect of abundant medicine, thinking it might help her secretly advance her cultivation.

Character developments

• Dongfang Wanyu shows practical awareness of the Apothecary School’s influence and agrees with its importance.
• Dongfang Minghui is eager and opportunistic, immediately considering how access to spirit medicine could benefit her own progress.

Significant themes

• Dependence and influence: The Apothecary School’s control of a resource needed by everyone gives it considerable status.
• Ambition and opportunity: Minghui sees the academy’s resources as a possible shortcut to personal advancement.

Character interactions

• Wanyu and Minghui respond differently to the same point: Wanyu recognizes the Apothecary School’s broad institutional power, while Minghui focuses on the personal opportunity its medicines might provide.

Key plot points and events

• Situ Hao secures Dongfang Minghui a low-profile position as a medicinal apprentice in the Pharmacy Institute’s White Angelica Garden, where she hopes to stay unnoticed until Dongfang Wanyu passes the academy entrance examination.
• Minghui oversleeps on her first morning and arrives late. She nevertheless collects morning dew faster than the other apprentices, but Apothecary Xu cancels the promised reward against her lateness. The following morning, she again finishes first, earning a stalk of pinellia—though Situ Hao interrupts before she can claim it.
• Situ Hao takes Minghui to deal with Blue Star Dream, whose thorny attacks have worsened. Minghui realizes the plant is distressed by forced feeding and lack of freedom, and confronts Situ Hao about overwatering it with spirit liquid.
• While comforting Blue Star Dream, Minghui absorbs its excess spiritual energy and opens another meridian, bringing her total to seven. Little Lecher wakes, warns her not to force a breakthrough, and helps compress the excess energy. It also beats some of Blue Star Dream’s surplus energy out of it, easing the plant’s condition.
• Minghui urges Situ Hao to let Blue Star Dream stay with her at the academy so it can recover. He refuses to part with it, so she leaves in anger, warning that it may wither if he keeps prioritizing possession over its welfare.
• Minghui wants to sneak away to watch Wanyu’s examination. An assignment gives her the chance: she correctly identifies several medicinal plants and is selected to carry one to the examination venue. She slips away toward Thunder Hall, where the entrance tests are taking place.
• At Thunder Hall, Minghui bribes her way inside with her pinellia and waits for Wanyu. She encounters Li Yunan, a renowned dual-element senior and one of Wanyu’s future romantic interests. Frightened by her past-life association with the heroine’s suitors, she insists she has never met him—until Wanyu arrives and recognizes her.

Character developments

• Dongfang Minghui shows resourcefulness, a growing knowledge of medicinal plants, and genuine compassion for living things. She increasingly challenges authority when she believes someone is being mistreated, but remains anxious about attracting attention or becoming entangled with Wanyu’s suitors.
• Situ Hao is revealed as deeply attached to Blue Star Dream but misguided in caring for it. He begins to consider Minghui’s explanation, though his possessiveness makes him resist letting the plant leave his residence.
• Blue Star Dream trusts Minghui and responds warmly to her, while its attacks reflect pain and distress rather than innate malice. Its bond with her strengthens as she comforts it.
• Little Lecher returns as Minghui’s sharp-tongued cultivation guide. Despite its scolding and pride, it protects her, corrects her dangerous mistake, and helps stabilize Blue Star Dream.
• Minghui’s relationship with Wanyu remains central to her motivations: she entered the academy partly to be near her Seventh Sister and risks trouble to watch her examination.

Significant themes

• Care versus control: Situ Hao’s attempts to force Blue Star Dream to grow harm it; Minghui argues that caring for someone means respecting its needs and choices.
• Growth requires patience: Little Lecher warns that rapid cultivation gains can damage future progress, emphasizing the value of a solid foundation.
• Compassion and communication: Minghui’s ability to understand Blue Star Dream’s distress allows her to help where force and routine care have failed.
• Belonging and distance: Minghui longs to remain close to Wanyu, yet their different institutes—and Minghui’s limited ability—make her fear that they will remain far apart.

Character interactions

• The steward looks after Minghui because of Situ Hao’s instructions, repeatedly waking her and guiding her through the garden’s rules.
• Apothecary Xu disciplines Minghui for being late but recognizes her unusual speed and plant-identification ability.
• Minghui clashes with Situ Hao over his treatment of Blue Star Dream, then tries to persuade him to let the plant recover under her care.
• Minghui and Little Lecher trade insults and arguments, but their exchange also reveals their mutual reliance.
• Minghui and Blue Star Dream share a trusting, affectionate bond; Little Lecher’s rough treatment of the plant briefly creates a comic rivalry.
• Li Yunan approaches Minghui politely, but her fear and denial confuse him. Wanyu’s arrival interrupts their exchange and reunites the sisters.

Plot and events

At the test, Dongfang Wanyu notices her ninth sister, Dongfang Minghui. When Wanyu calls to her, Minghui scrambles up and hides behind her, claiming she came to watch Wanyu take the test. Li Yunan recognizes the sisters’ pose from an earlier encounter: he had once defended two young women in a small town, but they disappeared before he learned who they were. He now says he remembers Minghui.

Character developments and interactions

• Dongfang Minghui is embarrassed and alarmed by Li Yunan’s recognition; she would rather he had forgotten her.
• Dongfang Wanyu calls out to Minghui and becomes the person she instinctively shelters behind.
• Li Yunan recalls his past encounter with the sisters and recognizes Minghui in particular.

Significant themes

The excerpt plays on recognition and mistaken expectations: Li Yunan remembers Minghui, though she thinks he ought to be directing his attention toward the heroine, Wanyu. It also highlights the sisters’ protective closeness.

Key events

• During the Royal Academy’s second entrance trial, Dongfang Wanyu faces a powerful Silver-Fanged Thunder Wolf in a simulated forest. Her lightning attack collides with its fiery lightning, producing an explosion so strong that the academy shuts down the simulation. She passes easily, though disappointed that the fight ended before she could try close combat.
• Dongfang Minghui sneaks away from her duties to watch the trials but arrives too late for the Pharmacy Institute’s assessment. On the way, she collides with Murong Qingyi, who tries to whip her. Warrior Hall senior Bai Rou intervenes, catches the whip, and protects Minghui.
• Situ Hao agrees to let Minghui care for Blue Star Dream, a Golden Thorn Tree. After securing permission and a secluded courtyard, Minghui and Little Lecher help Blue Star Dream transform into a human child. The painful process also opens Minghui’s remaining gray meridians and triggers a dramatic heavenly phenomenon. Little Lecher temporarily lends spiritual power, then absorbs some of Blue Star Dream’s excess energy while helping it settle into a sapling in Minghui’s courtyard.
• The next day, Pharmacy Institute apothecary Xu accuses Minghui of damaging a beauty bamboo. The senior student in charge supports Minghui’s account that she had not brought the plant back, forcing Xu to postpone the accusation. Minghui suspects Xu resents her talent and may see her as a future rival.
• Xu later summons Minghui, claiming the person who returned the bamboo has been found. She has also arranged for the senior student who defended Minghui to be away, leaving Minghui without support. On the way, another apprentice warns her that her secluded courtyard is rumored to be haunted.

Character developments and interactions

• Dongfang Wanyu shows her confidence and battle-hardened excitement, while her extraordinary strength is revealed to exceed the simulation’s limits.
• Dongfang Minghui remains quick-witted and irreverent, but her loyalty and care emerge in her efforts to protect Blue Star Dream. She also begins to recognize that her unusual ability to judge spirit plants may make others threaten her.
• Blue Star Dream trusts Minghui, endures a painful transformation, and becomes a small, affectionate sapling. It tries to comfort her when she is upset.
• Little Lecher guides the transformation and lends power, but also benefits by absorbing Blue Star Dream’s excess spiritual energy. It then withdraws into seclusion.
• Situ Hao moves from anxious doubt to cooperation, showing how deeply he cares for Blue Star Dream, though he remains alarmed by the tree’s drastic change.
• Bai Rou is introduced as calm and compassionate, stepping in to stop Murong Qingyi’s attack. Murong Qingyi is established as spoiled, aggressive, and quick to use her whip.
• Apothecary Xu appears to be deliberately targeting Minghui, while the senior student in charge proves willing to defend her.

Significant themes

• Trust and sacrifice: Blue Star Dream accepts pain for the chance to change, while Minghui and Little Lecher risk themselves to help it.
• Talent and jealousy: Minghui’s plant knowledge may invite hostility from those who fear being surpassed.
• Loyalty and protection: Bai Rou protects a stranger, the senior student backs Minghui, and Blue Star Dream tries to comfort her.
• Power and control: The chapter contrasts the academy’s formal assessments with the unpredictable, dangerous forces unleashed by exceptional talent.

• Key event: Dongfang Minghui hears a story apparently intended to frighten her, but dismisses it as made up.
• Character development: Her dry laugh and skeptical inner response show that she is unconvinced and resistant to intimidation.
• Themes: Skepticism and attempted fear or manipulation.
• Character interactions: Someone has told Minghui the story, though the speaker and the story’s contents are not identified in this excerpt.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Dongfang Minghui is summoned to Pharmacist Xu Lian’s office. Xu tries to recruit her as a caretaker for her private herb garden, disguising the offer as a way to protect Minghui from punishment over the damaged beauty bamboo. Minghui refuses, insisting Xu produce evidence before accusing her.
• The supervising senior brother warns Minghui that Xu has a history of undermining talented apprentices. He then hurries to alert Senior Brother Situ.
• Dongfang Wanyu visits Minghui. The sisters discuss Minghui’s Blue Star Dream plant and consider living together, but Wanyu concludes that Minghui should remain with the plant for now. Before they can discuss it further, Minghui is summoned to the Dean’s office.
• Xu accuses Minghui of destroying the beauty bamboo, supported by a herb apprentice who claims to have seen her touch its flower. Minghui admits touching it but argues that its real problem is damage to its roots. An examination confirms that the roots and main stem had rotted, disproving Xu’s accusation.
• The Dean apologizes and offers compensation. Minghui asks for the nearly dead beauty bamboo, takes it home, and tries to save it by planting a small offshoot and burying the remaining pieces nearby.
• The Dean later reports that an intermediate pharmacist damaged the plant while experimenting with it and has been expelled. Minghui doubts that this man is the whole story, suspecting he may be a scapegoat for Xu.
• Impressed by Minghui’s skill, the Dean invites her to assist him. Minghui reveals she is already a junior pharmacist and agrees to become his assistant after taking the qualification test, in exchange for access to the institute’s herb gardens.
• The Dean announces Minghui’s junior pharmacist examination. She impresses the assembled pharmacists by correctly identifying all ten plants in the first stage.
• In the second stage, Minghui realizes she lacks three required ingredients. Wanyu unexpectedly supplies them, including a rare soulmark grass that Qing Mo warns she needs for her own future cultivation.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghui demonstrates confidence, sharp reasoning, and compassion. She refuses Xu’s coercive offer, defends herself logically, and prioritizes saving the beauty bamboo over a more valuable reward. Her knowledge and abilities win the Dean’s respect, though her impulsiveness and lack of preparation remain evident.
• Xu Lian becomes increasingly hostile when Minghui refuses to submit. Her attempted accusation fails when the plant’s damaged roots are exposed, and Minghui’s examination performance makes Xu fear that she will soon become a powerful rival.
• Dongfang Wanyu is protective and concerned about Minghui’s secrecy and recklessness. She learns that Minghui has been accused of destroying a spiritual herb, then witnesses her spirited defense and exceptional talent. Despite Qing Mo’s warnings, Wanyu gives Minghui the ingredients she needs.
• The Dean shifts from neutral judge to admirer of Minghui. He recognizes her integrity and expertise, compensates her, offers her a position, and helps arrange her qualification examination.
• The supervising senior brother acts as Minghui’s ally, warning her about Xu and taking steps to involve higher authority.
• Qing Mo remains distrustful of Minghui and worries that Wanyu’s attachment to her will cause trouble.

Significant themes

• Justice and evidence: Minghui challenges accusations by demanding proof, and the truth emerges through careful examination rather than status or rumor.
• Ambition and exploitation: Xu uses her position and connections to control others, contrasting with Minghui’s refusal to accept advancement at the cost of her independence.
• Compassion and stewardship: Minghui chooses to rescue the dying beauty bamboo, reflecting her deep connection to plants and respect for living things.
• Sibling loyalty and trust: Wanyu’s support—and her willingness to sacrifice a precious resource—shows growing care for Minghui, even as others warn her against that closeness.
• Talent and recognition: Minghui’s knowledge earns respect and opportunity, but her rising prominence also sharpens Xu’s resentment.

• Plot: Dongfang Minghui is about to attempt brewing a fast-acting potion. She doesn’t know it is a difficult second-tier formula, which even a junior pharmacist may fail to make. The onlookers watch skeptically as she handles the ingredients clumsily.
• Character developments: Minghui is inexperienced and unaware of the challenge, but she remembers that she still has to make the potion. Dongfang Wanyu encourages her, while Xu Lian assumes she will fail.
• Interactions: Wanyu gently hugs Minghui and urges her not to disappoint her “seventh sister.” When Xu Lian mocks Minghui’s chances, Wanyu silences her with a cold command.
• Themes: The scene contrasts an inexperienced underdog with others’ low expectations, and highlights the value of encouragement amid public doubt. Minghui’s private thought also humorously blames Wanyu’s “protagonist halo” for distracting her.

Plot points and events

• Dongfang Minghui takes the practical potionist assessment despite having almost no formal training. She experiments with the herbs, learns through trial and error to balance their spiritual energies, and condenses a medicinal pill.
• The process triggers a breakthrough in her cultivation. With guidance from Little Lecher, she advances from Level One to Level Two Spirit Master. Dongfang Wanyu protects her during the breakthrough and secures the newly made pill.
• The dean accepts the pill and passes Minghui in the second round, praising its preserved spiritual energy while noting that her technique is still unpracticed.
• For the final round, Minghui proposes a head-to-head contest and chooses Xu Lian as her opponent. Both must diagnose and treat patients with matching symptoms. Minghui carefully questions and examines her patient, identifies mild poisoning, and gives the correct medicine. Xu Lian misdiagnoses the case and makes her patient worse, so Minghui wins and becomes a Junior Potionist.
• The dean explains that Xu Lian’s failure came from overconfidence and failing to question the patient. Xu leaves humiliated and furious, blaming Minghui.
• The dean offers Minghui a courtyard, but she declines because she does not want to move her plants. Instead, she persuades him to let Dongfang Wanyu move into her existing courtyard.
• Minghui receives the Junior Potionist uniform and celebrates with Yong Xing. She later visits Wanyu, who gives her an unidentified beast egg. Wanyu moves in, and the three share a meal Minghui has prepared.

Character developments and interactions

• Minghui shows resourcefulness, patience, and growing confidence. Though she appears calm during the assessment, she is anxious inside; she succeeds by observing, experimenting, and applying careful diagnosis. Her playful proposal to compete against Xu Lian is also a calculated way to prove her ability.
• Wanyu supports Minghui throughout: she watches the assessment, guards her during her breakthrough, gives her the pill afterward, and later accepts Minghui’s invitation to live with her. Her affection is evident, though she maintains emotional reserve.
• Xu Lian is exposed as careless and conceited. She dismisses the need for further questioning, loses the contest, and reacts with resentment rather than reflection.
• The dean recognizes Minghui’s unusual talent and comprehension, passes her, and offers her further instruction. He also uses the final test to expose the danger of diagnosing patients with undue confidence.
• Yong Xing grows more comfortable with Minghui’s friendly treatment. Her refusal to let their relationship become formal reassures him, given his painful past with Xu Lian.
• Minghui and Wanyu share increasingly warm domestic moments: Minghui is thrilled to have Wanyu nearby, while Wanyu shows care through her gift and by joining the meal.

Significant themes

• Persistence and learning through failure: Minghui’s failed attempts become the basis for success; the assessment emphasizes that mistakes need not end a person’s effort.
• Humility and attentiveness in healing: Xu Lian’s defeat demonstrates that a healer must listen to patients and examine carefully, not rely on assumptions.
• Talent and insight: Minghui’s unconventional pill-making and sudden breakthrough reveal strong spiritual perception and aptitude, even without formal training.
• Affection expressed through practical care: Wanyu’s protection and gift, Minghui’s efforts to bring her into the courtyard, and the shared meal deepen their bond.
• Reputation and social standing: Becoming a Junior Potionist brings Minghui status and recognition, while Xu Lian’s public failure threatens her standing.

• Key events: Dongfang Minghui enjoys a home-cooked meal so much that she eats too much. It is her first time cooking since arriving on the Seven-Colored Continent and, she reflects, the first time in ages she has been able to make herself such a meal. As she clears the table, her smooth, practiced movements reveal how at ease she is with the task.
• Character developments: Dongfang Wanyu becomes suspicious: she knows the Ninth Young Miss of the Dongfang Family was raised to be waited on, so Minghui’s cooking skill and familiarity seem out of character. Minghui, unaware that she has aroused suspicion, carries on cheerfully.
• Interaction: Wanyu quietly observes Minghui and questions how she acquired her skills; Minghui gives no explanation, seemingly because she does not realize her behavior has raised doubts.
• Themes: A mismatch between someone’s established identity and their actual abilities creates suspicion. The scene also highlights domestic competence and the small details—like habitual movements—that can reveal more than a person intends.

Key plot points

• Two months after the admissions upheaval, the Royal Academy prepares to select inner disciples through a three-round elimination assessment.
• Dongfang Minghui assists the dean with medicine-making and endures his painful, strict corrections. At his suggestion, she prepares protective pills for Dongfang Wanyu, who has been secluded in cultivation.
• Wanyu visits Minghui before leaving for the assessment. Minghui gives her more than twenty kinds of pills and explains their uses. Wanyu also notices Minghui’s messy room and tells her to clean it.
• The first assessment round is a three-day Magic Beast hunt. Students bind identity-and-score jade tokens; only 200 of roughly 500 contestants will advance. Teams of up to five are allowed.
• Wanyu, intimidating and intent on competing, initially refuses partners but eventually accepts Mu Sheng, a frail Wood Hall student. She sets firm rules and learns that he can use a summoned plant to release knockout fragrance.
• Wanyu kills beasts efficiently, aiming for a high score. She and Mu Sheng agree that she will leave some targets for him so he can qualify. After taking down two rank-three beasts, she brings him to a fire-ant nest, where his plant incapacitates the ants and both begin harvesting their magic cores.

Character developments

• Minghui grows more capable as a medicine-maker, using what she has learned from the dean to prepare substantial support for Wanyu. Her enthusiasm and disorganization remain evident.
• Wanyu emerges from seclusion focused and formidable. She shows practical judgment in choosing a useful partner, while remaining blunt, commanding, and ruthless in combat.
• Mu Sheng begins discouraged and afraid of being rejected or killed. Once Wanyu accepts him, he gains confidence, reveals the value of his ability, and gets a chance to prove himself.

Character interactions

• The dean’s harsh, almost comical discipline clashes with Minghui’s complaints, but he also offers useful advice and resources.
• Minghui’s eager gift of pills contrasts with Wanyu’s restrained response; Wanyu’s criticism of her room briefly leaves Minghui speechless.
• Wanyu’s cold manner puts off potential teammates, but her recognition of Mu Sheng’s dejection—reminiscent of Minghui—leads her to reconsider and recruit him.
• Wanyu directs the partnership, while Mu Sheng supplies support. Their arrangement is pragmatic: she handles the dangerous fighting and helps him earn points, but pushes him into difficult situations.

Significant themes

• Preparation and mutual support: Minghui’s medicines and Mu Sheng’s plant ability provide protection and practical help in a dangerous trial.
• Power and usefulness: Wanyu judges allies by what they can contribute, while Mu Sheng learns that a seemingly weak ability can be strategically valuable.
• Survival and ambition: The assessment rewards combat skill and carries real danger; Wanyu pursues a top score without hesitation.
• Hidden prejudice: The academy’s unspoken taboo against dark-attribute cultivators reveals a broader culture of fear and suppression, though it remains background context here.

Chapter Summary: “Betrayal”

Key plot points and events

• Dongfang Wanyu and Mu Sheng hunt magic beasts together. Wanyu is highly efficient, while Mu Sheng struggles at first, but Little White’s poisonous mist lets them bring down large groups.
• Wanyu’s relentless pace pushes Mu Sheng to exhaustion, yet he keeps following her. His courage and skill improve as he gains experience.
• When two Sixth-Level Magic Beasts enter the area, Wanyu recognizes the danger and predicts that the assessment will end early. She rushes to help Mu Sheng raise his score before the announcement.
• Using bait from her younger sister’s recipe, Wanyu lures a herd of Gale Rabbits into a trap. Mu Sheng and Little White kill them, bringing his final total to 687.
• The examiners abruptly end the first round because of the danger in the trial grounds. Mu Sheng places 168th and passes; Wanyu places third.
• In the second round, students receive five spirit stones and must keep or steal stones to avoid elimination. Senior students will rob them, and anyone left with none for two hours is eliminated.
• Wanyu leaves Mu Sheng to judge a group asking for help. Mu Sheng unties them, only for them to bind him and take his stones. Their leader, Xiao Ruo, admits they need his stones to avoid elimination.
• Wanyu, who watched from a tree, returns but refuses to free Mu Sheng immediately. She tells him that trusting people without considering the rules has consequences. She leaves him tied up, insisting that he learn from the betrayal.

Character developments

• Mu Sheng grows from an inexperienced, hesitant hunter into a more capable and courageous one. His success in the first round boosts his confidence, but his instinct to help others leaves him vulnerable. The theft forces him to confront the risks of naïveté.
• Dongfang Wanyu remains disciplined, strategic, and emotionally guarded. She protects Mu Sheng indirectly, but deliberately lets him experience betrayal because she believes hardship will teach him caution. Her cold approach reflects her own history with schemes and betrayal.
• Xiao Ruo shifts from a seemingly familiar fellow student to someone willing to exploit Mu Sheng’s trust to protect her own place in the competition.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and misplaced trust: Mu Sheng’s attempt to help a fellow student is repaid with theft and restraint.
• Survival and competition: Both rounds reward strength and resourcefulness, while the second makes other students potential threats.
• Growth through hardship: Wanyu believes Mu Sheng must experience the consequences of his choices to become wiser.
• Kindness versus caution: The chapter questions how to remain compassionate in an environment where generosity can be exploited.

Character interactions

• Wanyu’s blunt commands and Mu Sheng’s complaints establish their contrasting temperaments, while his growing admiration shows how much he relies on her.
• Wanyu’s practical help gets Mu Sheng through the first round, but her decision to let him face the consequences of helping Xiao Ruo creates tension between them.
• Mu Sheng’s familiarity with Xiao Ruo leads him to trust and free her group; they then use that trust to take his stones.
• Afterward, Wanyu lectures Mu Sheng rather than rescuing him outright, while he begs for help and promises to be more cautious.

Chapter Summary: “Robbery”

Key plot points and events

• Dongfang Wanyu frees Mu Sheng, who fears being eliminated unless he obtains spirit stones within an hour. While traveling, they spot senior students overpowering and robbing a group of first-years. Wanyu realizes the trial is effectively a two-sided contest: newcomers can also rob the seniors.
• Using Mu Sheng’s companion, Old Man White, Wanyu releases a confusing mist that incapacitates the senior students. She and Mu Sheng take their spirit stones, then flee before the mist wears off. Wanyu shares some of the proceeds with Mu Sheng.
• The pair hide in a cave, where they meet Xiu Qi, a mysterious white-clad youth who claims to have entered the secret realm while pursuing the sentient herb Pig Immortal Grass. He recognizes Old Man White and can apparently sense its limitations. Qing Mo warns Wanyu that Xiu Qi is powerful and advises her to conceal her dark attribute.
• After resting, Wanyu, Mu Sheng, and Xiu Qi encounter another senior team. Wanyu and Xiu Qi occupy two opponents while Mu Sheng draws the other three into a deal, then uses Old Man White’s mist to incapacitate them. The trio robs the team and escapes.
• Their exploits are broadcast through the Mystic Light Mirror, making Wanyu and Mu Sheng popular among the watching students and drawing an elder’s interest in Wanyu. The mirror briefly fails to record their second robbery.
• Later, Mu Sheng recognizes Xiao Ruo, the former friend who betrayed him. Wanyu helps him confront her team. She defeats several members with clever combinations of lightning and earth magic, while Mu Sheng takes their spirit stones and has the group tied up. He refuses Xiao Ruo’s pleas, declaring that her team’s earlier betrayal and theft deserve consequences.

Character development

• Dongfang Wanyu is bold, tactical, and increasingly confident. She spots loopholes in the trial, directs the robberies, protects Mu Sheng, and uses her elemental abilities creatively. She also shows loyalty by helping him take revenge.
• Mu Sheng shifts from fearful and hesitant to resourceful and assertive. At first he worries about being eliminated and is reluctant to rob others; repeated pressure—and the chance to settle matters with Xiao Ruo—brings out his courage and anger.
• Xiu Qi remains an enigmatic figure. His knowledge of Old Man White and his effortless control over a senior team suggest formidable power, despite his calm manner.
• Xiao Ruo is revealed as the former friend who betrayed Mu Sheng. Her appeals to friendship contrast with Mu Sheng’s refusal to forgive her.

Significant themes

• Power and reversal: The newcomers turn the seniors’ robbery strategy against them, showing that the rules can be used by anyone willing to act.
• Self-reliance and growth: Mu Sheng learns that he must defend himself and make his own choices rather than depend on others’ goodwill.
• Betrayal and accountability: Mu Sheng’s treatment of Xiao Ruo reflects the lasting consequences of her earlier betrayal.
• Cunning over brute force: Wanyu’s planning, Mu Sheng’s mist, and their coordination let them overcome stronger opponents.
• Public spectacle: The Mystic Light Mirror turns the trial into entertainment and shapes how students and elders perceive the contestants.

Character interactions

• Wanyu often takes charge of Mu Sheng, pushing him into action but also sharing resources and supporting him.
• Mu Sheng’s growing trust in Wanyu is paired with a renewed willingness to act independently.
• Xiu Qi’s calm presence unsettles both of them; Wanyu remains wary even as she allows him to travel with them.
• The watching students cheer Wanyu and Mu Sheng’s robberies, while an elder recognizes Wanyu’s courage and considers recruiting her.
• Mu Sheng’s final confrontation with Xiao Ruo marks a sharp break from their former friendship: he rejects her pleas and treats her team as opponents rather than friends.

The chapter is titled “Robbery (2)” and consists only of the sentence: “Once again, they set foot on the path of robbery.”

• Plot: The characters resume or begin another robbery.
• Character development: No individual characters or changes are described.
• Themes: Repeated criminal activity; the wording suggests a return to a familiar course.
• Interactions: No specific interactions are shown.

Plot points and events

• Dongfang Wanyu and Mu Sheng realize that the seniors’ raids are driving new students to rob one another, risking the elimination of the entire younger cohort. Wanyu concludes the assessment is really a team battle: the new students must unite against the seniors.
• Wanyu recruits several robbed students and leads them to help another group under attack. She stalls the Thunder Team while Little White’s mist is used to turn the fight. Elsewhere, Ye Feng and Ji Ye set aside their rivalry, gather dozens of students, and defeat senior teams.
• The senior leaders respond by joining five teams—twenty-five fighters—to surround Wanyu’s group before she can unite with Ye Feng and Ji Ye. Wanyu faces Frost, while Mu Sheng quietly organizes the new students to hold out.
• Wanyu defeats Frost despite being outmatched in rank, then fights on as the seniors attack. She is wounded and nearly uses a dangerous third technique, but Ye Feng and Ji Ye arrive in time to protect her and challenge the senior leaders. Wanyu subdues the other opponents, while Ye Feng and Ji Ye battle to a draw.
• After three days, the examiners end the contest and announce that Wanyu takes first place; Ye Feng and Ji Ye tie for second and third. The winners earn access to the Library Pavilion.
• After recovering, Wanyu chooses the earth-tier Reincarnation Art for herself and a mystic-tier Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers scroll for Dongfang Minghui. Minghui begins studying it, while Little Lecher warns her to master its first principle before advancing.

Character developments and interactions

• Wanyu proves herself a strategic leader as well as a formidable fighter: she recognizes the seniors’ divide-and-conquer tactic, builds trust among the new students, and keeps fighting to buy time for reinforcements. Her victory earns her broad admiration.
• Mu Sheng grows more confident and dependable, helping coordinate the students under pressure. He remains devoted to Wanyu and trusts her judgment.
• Ye Feng and Ji Ye temporarily overcome their rivalry, cooperating against the seniors before resuming their contest in a draw.
• Frost underestimates Wanyu and loses; she vows to challenge her again. Other senior fighters, including Storm and Shadow, admit defeat.
• Wanyu and Minghui grow closer through quiet, caring moments: Minghui treats Wanyu’s wounds, and Wanyu gives her a skill suited to her needs. Minghui is delighted by Wanyu’s care and proud of her reputation.

Significant themes

• Unity over infighting: The assessment’s real danger is the seniors’ strategy of provoking new students to weaken one another; cooperation becomes their best chance to survive.
• Strategy and self-control: Wanyu’s leadership, timing, and ability to exploit opponents’ assumptions matter as much as raw strength. Minghui, meanwhile, must patiently master her skill rather than rush advancement.
• Care and loyalty: Wanyu’s concern for Minghui shapes her choice to give away a valuable reward, while Minghui’s devoted treatment of Wanyu shows their growing familial closeness.
• Recognition and ambition: Wanyu’s public victory raises her status among the students, while the new skill scrolls open the next stage of both sisters’ cultivation.

• Key events: Dongfang Minghui realizes her newly acquired art has real offensive potential, which could let her fight troublesome opponents rather than simply flee. She believes she must finish cultivating the first art before she can access the second. She practices through the night and discovers something that delights her, though the excerpt does not reveal what it is.
• Character development: Minghui is becoming more determined and hopeful about being able to defend herself.
• Themes: Self-reliance, perseverance, and the promise of growing strength.
• Character interactions: None occur in this excerpt.

Key plot points and events

• Dongfang Minghui’s cultivation seems to be making her complexion fairer and smoother, though she does not yet understand why.
• Nan Nan asks Minghui to help her disabled brother, Nan Fei. Minghui brings the Pharmacy Institute’s dean to examine him. The dean discovers that Nan Fei’s paralysis was caused by poison blocking his meridians—not by a failed advancement—and says he can still be cured if they obtain rare Love Flower seeds.
• The dean insists Minghui is the only person able to retrieve the seeds, which grow in the dangerous Valley of the Dead. Dongfang Wanyu volunteers to accompany her, and the dean adds Situ Hao to the party.
• The group travels toward the valley on Situ Hao’s Lightwing Flying Fox. During the journey, Minghui cultivates, while Situ and Wanyu notice that she is becoming unusually beautiful. Wanyu cannot explain the change and resolves to investigate her technique.
• At an inn near the valley, a Skeleton Bone Soldier attacks Minghui’s room. Wanyu and Situ subdue it; Situ identifies it as part of the Undead Legion. The next day, they fail to get information from the locals, who refuse to discuss the valley.
• That night, Wanyu secretly leaves to follow a ghostly green flame connected to the skeleton. Minghui wakes, realizes Wanyu is gone, and—urged by her companion Little Lecher—follows her into the Valley of the Dead alone. The chapter ends with Minghui frightened by the valley’s eerie noises and shadows but continuing onward.

Character developments

• Dongfang Minghui is compassionate and willing to take risks for Nan Nan, despite resenting how the task has fallen to her. She remains humorous and self-conscious, especially about her changing appearance, and is easily coaxed into danger.
• Dongfang Wanyu shows increasing tenderness toward Minghui, caring for her at the inn and promising to protect her. At the same time, she acts independently and conceals her nocturnal investigation.
• Nan Nan is devoted to her brother and grateful to Minghui, even offering to accompany her before recognizing she must stay to care for Nan Fei.
• The dean reveals his authority and diagnostic skill, uncovers the true cause of Nan Fei’s condition, and maneuvers Minghui into undertaking the dangerous seed-gathering mission.
• Situ Hao proves capable and considerate, providing fast transport and helping defeat the Skeleton Bone Soldier. His rapport with his Lightwing Flying Fox contrasts with Minghui’s longing for her own absent companion.
• Little Lecher reawakens briefly to guide Minghui and warn her that Wanyu has left, pushing Minghui toward the valley.

Significant themes

• Compassion and obligation: Minghui accepts a dangerous mission to save Nan Fei, even though she believes the responsibility should belong to the heroine.
• Secrets and uncertainty: Nan Fei’s disability has a hidden cause, Minghui’s transformation remains unexplained, and Wanyu’s connection to the ghostly flame and undead activity is concealed.
• Protection and trust: Wanyu’s growing care for Minghui is evident, but her secrecy leaves Minghui vulnerable and prompts her to follow.
• Danger and foreshadowing: The Love Flowers’ poisonous nature, the locals’ fear, and the Skeleton Bone Soldier establish the Valley of the Dead as a serious threat.
• Cultivation and transformation: Minghui’s training brings unexpected physical changes and hints at new abilities.

Character interactions

• Minghui and Nan Nan bond through Nan Fei’s illness; Nan Nan trusts Minghui enough to ask for help, while Minghui reassures her and takes on the retrieval mission.
• The dean alternates between joking with Minghui and using her sense of duty to secure her agreement.
• Wanyu teases and comforts Minghui, tends to her as she falls asleep, and later secretly investigates the undead connection.
• Situ teases Minghui but works with Wanyu to protect her, while his bond with his flying fox makes her wistful.
• Minghui and Little Lecher bicker affectionately: he scolds her for being tricked and then guides her into the valley, where she complains but keeps following.