Chapter Summaries

Yi Shuyuan restored the True Records of the Pill Compendium from the pearl archive, stirring excitement throughout the Southern Sea Dragon Palace. Months later, he began combining the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace with his Heaven-Turning Furnace to strengthen the ancient furnace’s fading firepower.

• Yi Shuyuan recited the furnace formula, restored the pearl archive, and revealed that it contained the True Records of the Pill Compendium.
• Yi Shuyuan confirmed the archive was genuine, and news of its restoration spread throughout the Southern Sea Dragon Palace.
• Several months later, Yi Shuyuan brought the pearl archive to the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace, where Wu Yin urged him to wait until preparations were complete.
• Yi Shuyuan summoned the Heaven-Turning Furnace beside the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace and calmed the disturbance with his Ritual Ruler.
• Yi Shuyuan recited the formula and fed spiritual qi into the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace, then used the Heaven-Turning Furnace to bolster its weakened firepower.

Yi Shuyuan joined the Heaven-Turning Furnace’s true fire with the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace, reviving and strengthening both fires. He then began melting the ancient furnace’s contents, where something inside started to churn.

• Yi Shuyuan opened the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace and fanned the Heaven-Turning Furnace’s golden-red true fire into it.
• Yi Shuyuan guided the merging flames as they formed a blazing bridge between the two furnaces, while Wu Yin and the others watched anxiously.
• The Manifest Holiness True Lord left the Demon-Subduing Palace after announcing that the Untransformable Bone had been eliminated, leaving the Three-Pointed, Two-Edged Blade behind.
• Yi Shuyuan split the merged fire between the furnaces, sealed their lids, and restored the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace’s fire while strengthening both flames.
• Yi Shuyuan commanded the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace to blaze, and strange churning sounds came from within as its contents began to melt.

Yi Shuyuan used the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace to refine a spiritual substance while the Southern Sea Dragon Palace gathered books for a Pill Dao canon. After three years, the treasure gestating inside the furnace began to stir, unleashing a blast across the Dragon Palace.

• Yi Shuyuan took one corner of the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace and used four forms of magical power to refine impurities from the spiritual substance within.
• Wu Yin realized Yi Shuyuan might discover that he had secretly put ingredients into the furnace while attempting to refine pills.
• Wu Yin summoned books from across the world, and the Purple Mountain Sect arrived to assist with compiling the Pill Dao canon.
• A yaksha told Cai Yusheng and the Purple Mountain Sect that Yi Shuyuan had restored the True Records of the Pill Compendium and had spent three years refining the furnace’s contents.
• The Purple Mountain Sect’s party learned that a treasure had been gestating in the furnace, while the yaksha noticed dark storm clouds gathering over the sea.
• The furnace erupted with light and scorching energy, blasting people across the Dragon Palace as the spirit treasure inside began to stir.

Yi Shuyuan’s furnace drew a heavenly tribulation as its treasure neared completion, while he and Wu Yin realized the pill prosperity tribulation was also stirring the South Sea itself. With the Crystal Palace in danger and its books being destroyed, Yi Shuyuan focused his intent on forging a treasure that could steady the sea.

• Yi Shuyuan carried the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace from the Crystal Palace to a reef, where dark clouds and lightning gathered overhead.
• Yi Shuyuan and Wu Yin realized that the tribulation was aimed not only at the emerging treasure but also at the Alchemy Cauldron’s Pill Dao.
• Yi Shuyuan warned Wu Yin to return to the Dragon Palace and save the great Pill Dao compendium, and Wu Yin led the Dragonkind back beneath the sea.
• Chaotic currents battered the Crystal Palace, destroying buildings and scattering its books as the seabed fissured and scalding water surged out.
• Facing a vast tsunami, Yi Shuyuan settled on a single intention for the furnace’s treasure and asked, “What can steady the sea?”

Yi Shuyuan completed a divine weapon amid the Heavenly Tribulation and used it to break apart the chaos threatening the Southern Sea Dragon Palace. The Divine Sea-Quelling Needle settled on the seabed, leaving Wu Yin and the scattered Dragonkind able to regroup.

• Yi Shuyuan used Jade Startle and the Mystic Gold Sword Pellet to fend off lightning and a tsunami while refining the treasure.
• Yi Shuyuan added a Spirit Pearl to the Alchemy Furnace, helping the unstable spiritual object take shape.
• Wu Yin returned to the ruined Crystal Palace and confronted the undersea tribulation with his dragon might.
• Yi Shuyuan opened the furnace, and a colossal pillar emerged as lightning engulfed the reef hill.
• Yi Shuyuan guided the pillar into the sea, where it split the tribulation vortex behind the Southern Sea Dragon Palace and scattered the chaotic currents.
• The Dragonkind gathered at the Dragon Palace as Wu Yin gained a chance to face the remaining danger more calmly.

After the sea calamity destroyed most of the Crystal Palace and its Pill Dao texts, Wu Yin and the survivors examined the giant pillar that had quelled it. Yi Shuyuan named it the Sea-Calming Divine Needle and reassured Wu Yin that the Spirit Treasure belonged to him, leaving the survivors with hope that the Pill Dao could flourish again.

• Wu Yin surveyed the ruined Crystal Palace as injured Flood Dragons and Aquatic Folk apologized for failing to save it.
• The Medicine Master Star Lord comforted Wu Yin, noting that the True Records of the Pill Compendium had survived, while survivors gathered the salvageable texts.
• Wu Yin and the others discovered the giant pillar in a crater behind the Dragon Palace and realized it had stabilized the currents and extinguished the sea calamity.
• After the Heavenly Tribulation ended, Yi Shuyuan joined the group and named the pillar the Sea-Calming Divine Needle.
• Yi Shuyuan told Wu Yin that the Spirit Treasure belonged to him because it had come from his Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace, then said the Pill Dao could flourish again.

After the Pill Dao Grand Ceremony, Yi Shuyuan and the gathered experts completed the Thirty Alchemical Canons, distributed copies, and celebrated before departing the Southern Sea. As Yi Shuyuan traveled east, Yuan Jingsi caught up to him to offer a painting inspired by Yi Shuyuan’s sword stroke, then left without asking for anything.

• Yi Shuyuan and experts from the Four Seas and Four Heavens compiled the Thirty Alchemical Canons and arranged copies for the seas, heavens, and contributing immortal establishments.
• The Southern Sea Dragon Lord secured the original pearl repository of the True Records of the Pill Compendium for Yi Shuyuan by agreeing to share the Four-Pillar True Yang Furnace with the Heavenly Realm.
• Yi Shuyuan and the other guests attended the three-day Pill Gratitude Banquet before the cultivators departed.
• While traveling east with Stoneborn, Qi Zhongbin, and Hui Mian, Yi Shuyuan told them the Pill Dao would improve but likely never regain its ancient glory.
• Yuan Jingsi caught up to Yi Shuyuan and presented him with the Sword Rainbow Splitting Rain Painting, which depicted Yi Shuyuan’s sword stroke as the Mystic Gold Pill became a rainbow.
• Yuan Jingsi departed without making a request, surprising Yi Shuyuan and his companions.

Yuan Jingsi gave Yi Shuyuan the Sword Rainbow Splitting Rain Painting and taught Qi'er to keep desires within measure, while Yi Shuyuan's journey brought him back toward the mortal world and its fading ties. The chapter ended with Yi Shuyuan recognizing the aged A Fei fishing beside a martial battle.

• Yi Shuyuan admired Yuan Jingsi's painting after Yuan Jingsi departed, while Yuan Jingsi explained to Qi'er why he had offered it without asking for an Immortal Elixir.
• As dawn broke, Yi Shuyuan reflected on time and old acquaintances, then listened as Stoneborn, Qi Zhongbin, and Hui Mian recounted their encounter with the reincarnated Long-Haired Ghost.
• The group reached the lands that had once been Great Yan, where Stoneborn said farewell and rode south toward home.
• Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin landed beside a riverside fight and recognized the old fisherman as A Fei.

Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin watched the aging Fishing Old Man, whom Yi recognized as A Fei, shelter Ban Yuguang and his companions after they fled a deadly fight. Once the travelers departed, Yi visited A Fei and recited a song that stirred his tangled memories.

• Ban Yuguang used the Mad Demon Staff Technique to defeat the pursuers, then collapsed from exhaustion as his companions gathered around him.
• Ban Yuguang approached the Fishing Old Man and asked whether he knew Hero Mai; the old man dismissed the group’s appeal for help finding the Former Dynasty’s hidden treasury and aiding the Northwest righteous army.
• The Fishing Old Man rowed away, but Ban Yuguang and his companions followed him to his cottage, where he fed them and helped them recover before they departed.
• Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin went to the cottage after the group left, and Yi found A Fei lost in memories beside the fire.
• Yi Shuyuan entered the courtyard and recited a song about ambition, lost kindred spirits, and an uncomprehended mortal world.

Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin reunited with Mai Lingfei, who had lived in seclusion for nine years and shared the regrets and losses that led him to withdraw from the Rivers and Lakes. Yi Shuyuan asked whether he wanted to see those he missed and loved, while Ban Yuguang watched from afar and began to suspect he recognized Yi Shuyuan from somewhere.

• Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin arrived at Mai Lingfei’s home, and Mai welcomed them with tea and a meal.
• Mai Lingfei recognized Hui Mian, who introduced himself as the guardian of the Qiankun Lineage, and the two exchanged greetings.
• Mai Lingfei told Yi Shuyuan he had lived there for nine years and did not want to take another disciple or disturb his nephew’s family.
• Mai Lingfei recounted the joys and losses of his years in the Rivers and Lakes, including the deaths of his beloved, Chi Qinghu, and his disciple.
• Yi Shuyuan asked Mai Lingfei whether he wanted to see the people he missed and loved.
• Ban Yuguang watched the gathering from a distance and began wondering where he had heard of Yi Shuyuan.

Ban Yuguang overheard Mai Lingfei recount how Chi Qinghu was betrayed and killed, then caught the sheet containing Chi Qinghu’s martial principles. After Mai Lingfei and Yi Shuyuan departed for the Underworld, Ban Yuguang found the courtyard empty while the group continued toward the Yellow Springs.

• Ban Yuguang listened from a nearby tree as Mai Lingfei explained that Chi Qinghu’s rebel allies falsely accused him, and that Chi Qinghu was later killed after Mai Lingfei left.
• Mai Lingfei revealed that he had kept Chi Qinghu’s sheet containing the inner cultivation method and “Awaiting Heaven’s Rain,” then handed it to Yi Shuyuan.
• Yi Shuyuan tossed the sheet into the wind, and Ban Yuguang chased it down and realized the teachings explained his staff technique.
• Ban Yuguang returned to the courtyard, but Mai Lingfei, Yi Shuyuan, and the others had vanished.
• Yi Shuyuan led Mai Lingfei, Hui Mian, and Qi Zhongbin through the Ghost Gate and into the Yellow Springs, disguising them as ghosts.

Mai Lingfei, Yi Shuyuan, and Qi Zhongbin traveled along the Yellow Springs Road to the Bridge of Forgetfulness, where they found Qi Xin waiting to meet Mai Lingfei. A patrol inspector discovered Mai Lingfei was a living soul and Yi Shuyuan was using a disguise, but allowed them to speak with Qi Xin and urged her to cross the bridge before her twenty-year wait ended.

• Mai Lingfei, Yi Shuyuan, and Qi Zhongbin walked the Yellow Springs Road, and Hui Mian warned Mai Lingfei to stay away from the River of Forgetfulness.
• Yi Shuyuan hurried the group toward the Bridge of Forgetfulness, where ghost officers seized ghosts who had waited too long for someone and refused to cross.
• A patrol inspector warned Qi Xin that her permitted twenty-year wait was nearly over, and Mai Lingfei recognized her and called her name.
• The patrol inspector noticed Mai Lingfei's living yang energy and realized Yi Shuyuan had brought a living soul into the Underworld.
• The patrol inspector discreetly allowed Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin to meet Qi Xin, telling them to persuade her to cross the bridge before he returned.

Mai Lingfei reunited with Chu Qi at the Bridge of Forgetfulness, where she was bound for reincarnation and he could not follow. After she vanished, Yi Shuyuan showed A Fei the lock of hair she had left in his hand.

• The inspector explained that Yi Shuyuan and his companions had permission to travel through the Underworld and warned that sorcerers often suffered ill karma.
• Mai Lingfei reunited with Chu Qi, who had waited nearly twenty years beside the Bridge of Forgetfulness, and they embraced.
• Chu Qi realized A Fei was still alive and urged him to visit her parents, live out his remaining months, and not forget her.
• Qi Zhongbin warned that Chu Qi could not be taken away from the Bridge of Forgetfulness without condemning her to a miserable existence as a wandering ghost.
• Chu Qi crossed the bridge and disappeared, while A Fei promised to find her again; Yi Shuyuan then led the others away from the Underworld.
• When A Fei asked how he could find Chu Qi in her next life, Yi Shuyuan pointed out the lock of silken hair still wound around his hand.

A Fei left his ruined riverside home and flew south with Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin, while Chu Hang faced growing suspicion and isolation at court. After Pei Changtian warned Tan Yuanshang that the emperor might move against Chu Hang, Tan ordered the Cinnabar Iron Writ brought so they could go to Heaven-Bearing Prefecture.

• A Fei refused Hui Mian’s offer of revenge, gathered his belongings, and burned his thatched cottage before leaving with Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin.
• Ban Yuguang saw smoke rising from the cottage and assumed Mai Lingfei had escaped the pursuers.
• Chu Hang refused to meet anxious officials, then learned that more than ten memorials accused him of corruption and that the emperor would not grant him an audience.
• Chu Hang withdrew from court affairs and spoke with Pei Changtian, who warned that the emperor might harm him.
• Pei Changtian traveled to Tan Yuanshang and told him what he feared, prompting Tan to order the Cinnabar Iron Writ and prepare to go to Heaven-Bearing Prefecture.

Tan Yuanshang returned to Heaven-Bearing Prefecture with the Cinnabar Iron Writ, intending to visit the emperor as Chancellor Chu faced uncertain circumstances. Yi Shuyuan and his companions also arrived to see Chu Hang, while Tan Yuanshang began a seemingly casual conversation with the emperor.

• Tan Yuanshang showed Pei Changtian the Cinnabar Iron Writ, then returned to Heaven-Bearing Prefecture and learned that Chu Hang was acting as though nothing had happened.
• Tan Yuanshang went straight to the Imperial Palace instead of first visiting his lodgings, while Yi Shuyuan, Qi Zhongbin, and A Fei decided to visit Chu Hang.
• Yi Shuyuan told Chu Hang's servant he was an old friend, and Chu Hang eagerly went to welcome him.
• The emperor summoned Tan Yuanshang to the Imperial Study and was surprised by his youthful appearance.
• Tan Yuanshang and the emperor discussed the Former Emperor's calligraphy before Tan Yuanshang said he had returned because old age made him miss his hometown.

Chu Hang welcomed Yi Shuyuan, Qi Zhongbin, and Mai Lingfei, and reconciled with his prospective son-in-law as they discussed his long service to Great Yong. Meanwhile, Tan Yuanshang concluded that the emperor had deliberately avoided discussing Chu Hang, and the emperor summoned several officials after learning Tan had come to Heaven-Bearing Prefecture.

• Chu Hang warmly welcomed Yi Shuyuan, Qi Zhongbin, and Mai Lingfei to the Chu Residence, where they reminisced about their past.
• Chu Hang asked Mai Lingfei whether Chu Qi feared him, and Mai Lingfei said she respected her father and missed Madam Chu; Chu Hang regretted not allowing their marriage in Heaven-Bearing Prefecture.
• Mai Lingfei offered to help Chu Hang, while Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin suggested Chu Hang should retire; Chu Hang reflected sadly on Great Yong and his family.
• Tan Yuanshang told Pei Changtian that the emperor had avoided mentioning Chu Hang during their four-hour conversation, and promised to protect Chu Hang and his family.
• The emperor asked who else had arrived in Heaven-Bearing Prefecture and summoned the Minister of Justice, the Heaven-Bearing Prefect, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, and the Deputy Censor-in-Chief.

While Chu Hang faced a political tribulation, he reunited with Mai Lingfei and heard how Chu Qi had missed her parents in the Underworld. Pei Changtian joined a banquet with Mai Lingfei, Yi Shuyuan, and Qi Zhongbin, then woke three days later to learn Chu Hang had gone to the Court Assembly.

• Yi Shuyuan told Qi Zhongbin that Chu Hang understood his tribulation and would decide how to face it himself.
• Mai Lingfei recounted Chu Qi's longing for her parents, and Chu Hang wept as he heard her words.
• Mai Lingfei welcomed Pei Changtian to the Chu Residence banquet, where Pei met Yi Shuyuan and Qi Zhongbin.
• Pei Changtian drank at the banquet and woke in the Chu Residence three days later.
• A servant told Pei Changtian that Chu Hang had gone to the Court Assembly and that the date was already the fifteenth.

Chu Hang exposed the suppression of drought reports from Lingdong Circuit and Hexi Circuit, then volunteered to lead disaster relief despite his age. After the court approved his mission, Yu Ziye questioned how Chu Hang had learned the details, raising the emperor’s suspicions.

• Chu Hang presented evidence that drought had devastated Lingdong Circuit and Hexi Circuit and that officials had suppressed more than twenty memorials.
• The emperor confronted Zhan Shiwei and the Chancellery Director, then ordered the memorials retrieved and read aloud in court.
• The emperor appointed Yu Ziye to oversee officials in the affected circuits and ordered grain relief, seed supplies, and action against hoarders.
• Chu Hang volunteered to travel to both circuits to oversee relief and water management, and the emperor approved his request.
• In the Imperial Study, Yu Ziye questioned how Chu Hang had learned about the suppressed reports, while Qi Zhongbin later sighed that he perhaps should have kept silent.

Chu Hang prepared to oversee disaster relief in Lingdong and Hexi despite his advanced age, while Pei Changtian pledged to accompany and protect him. After setting out, Chu Hang organized relief work in drought-stricken Hexi, where officials and locals rallied around him.

• Pei Changtian secretly joined Chu Hang's carriage, learned of his plan to oversee relief across two circuits, and promised to prepare to accompany him.
• Tan Yuanshang met Yi Shuyuan in the Capital City, then visited Chu Hang and spoke with him through the afternoon.
• In the sixth year of Shaoyuan, Chu Hang traveled to Hexi to coordinate disaster relief, and news of his arrival helped lower grain and medicine prices.
• Chu Hang assessed conditions in Chen Province, arranged work relief and drought-relief canal construction, and sought more grain from the Imperial Court.
• In Changyuan County, Chu Hang directed local officials to dig wells and urged them to help with what he believed would be his final disaster-relief effort, while Yu Ziye shivered in a carriage behind the party.

Chu Hang arrived in Deng Province to a jubilant welcome and urged Lingdong’s people to support a Drought-Relief Canal linking their region with drought-stricken Hexi. Yu Ziye drafted a slanted report about the welcome, then woke from a nightmare in which a man with a Golden Brush attacked him.

• Yu Ziye complained about the cold and the exhausting journey as Chu Hang prepared to leave Si Prefecture for Deng Province.
• Officials and people from Lingdong gathered along the road to welcome Chu Hang, whose arrival stirred memories of his past disaster relief.
• Chu Hang told the crowd that Hexi was suffering a severe drought and asked Lingdong to support a canal connecting the two circuits; Yi Shuyuan rallied the crowd in favor.
• Yu Ziye wrote a memorial portraying the welcome as something officials and commoners had been required to attend.
• A gust extinguished Yu Ziye’s lamp, and he dreamed that a man holding the Golden Brush attacked him before he woke at his desk.