Chapter Summaries

Li Ping and Meng Wanjun emerged in Great Zhou, found that they were in Qing'an Commandery, and learned more about the Oceanic Continent and Great Zhou's cultivation world. Li Ping planned to travel to Qing'an Commandery's capital before continuing toward Spirit Firmament City, where he hoped to cultivate as a rogue cultivator.

• Li Ping and Meng Wanjun left the hidden cave, concealed its entrance, and flew east to find local residents.
• Li Ping followed a broad river to a mortal city, where he and Meng Wanjun entered a teahouse and learned they were in Qing'an Commandery.
• Li Ping recalled that Great Zhou was the Oceanic Continent's most flourishing cultivation region and that Spirit Firmament City could offer rogue cultivators access to spirit veins and trade.
• Meng Wanjun learned Great Zhou's language from a Jade Slip, and Li Ping decided they would first visit Qing'an Commandery's capital.

Five years after leaving Qing'an Commandery, Li Ping arrived in Spirit Firmament City with Meng Wanjun and rented a riverside cave abode in the fourth ring. He briefly thought he saw an old acquaintance, but entered the city without confirming her identity.

• Li Ping obtained eight-treasure spirit spring water in Guangde Commandery and reflected on Great Zhou's governing system and Spirit Firmament City's powerful Three Elders.
• Li Ping and Meng Wanjun registered at Spirit Firmament City's gate and received Identity Tokens as rogue cultivators.
• Li Ping flew to the fourth ring to find a long-term cave abode, briefly glimpsing a figure who resembled an old acquaintance.
• Li Ping chose a twenty-mu cave abode beside a spirit river and paid fifteen hundred spirit stones for a ten-year lease.
• Li Ping received the cave abode token and set out with Meng Wanjun to get settled.

After settling in Spirit Firmament City, Li Ping refined the Vermilion Bird Fan for the Desolate Fire Sparrow and arranged to open a shop. The newly named White-Gathering Pavilion prepared to specialize in third-tier and higher pills and the purchase of spirit materials and secondhand artifacts.

• Li Ping set up a Third-Tier Formation in his rented cave abode, released his spirit beasts into Meng Wanjun's care, and considered his plans for finding rare materials and gathering advanced craft inheritances.
• Li Ping spent more than half a year refining the Vermilion Bird Fan from the fourth-tier feather and instructed the Desolate Fire Sparrow in how to bind it as her Life-Bound Treasure.
• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping she had found a shop whose owner wanted an eight-thousand-spirit-stone transfer fee, and Li Ping went with her to inspect it.
• Li Ping rejected the shop's goods and took over the remainder of its lease for five hundred spirit stones after negotiating with its Foundation Establishment middle-stage owner.
• Several days later, Li Ping hung a sign reading White-Gathering Pavilion outside the empty shop, which would specialize in third-tier and higher pills and buy spirit materials and secondhand Magic Artifacts.

Li Ping set up the White-Gathering Pavilion with Meng Wanjun overseeing the shop and hired Chu Xiu and Chen Guang as appraisers, offering commissions for useful acquisitions. After the shop gained a measure of fame over several months, Meng Wanjun summoned Li Ping from cultivation to decide on a transaction.

• Li Ping hired Chu Xiu and Chen Guang, assigned them to report to Meng Wanjun, and left pills and a list of wanted items at the shop.
• Chu Xiu recognized that an item in a friend's collection might match Li Ping's requirements, then proposed that he and Chen Guang alternate between staffing the shop and searching the city.
• Meng Wanjun approved their plan, and Chu Xiu and Chen Guang began taking turns, though their searches initially brought back no goods.
• The White-Gathering Pavilion gained a measure of fame through its high-quality pills and commissioned alchemy services.
• Meng Wanjun roused Li Ping from secluded cultivation because a transaction required his decision.

Li Ping discovered that the damaged Wine-Brewing Cauldron Chu Xiu had found could teach him a fourth-tier Spirit Brewing Technique, and decided to buy it while concealing its true value. He offered to take the cauldron in exchange for something of Chen’s choosing, leaving Chen unsure what price to ask.

• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that Chu Xiu had found a damaged Wine-Brewing Cauldron, and Li Ping arranged to meet its owner.
• Chu Xiu brought Li Ping his childhood friend, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator surnamed Chen, who showed him the broken cauldron.
• Li Ping saw that the cauldron could teach him a fourth-tier Spirit Brewing Technique with the right nourishment and decided to acquire it.
• Li Ping called the cauldron a collectible and offered to buy it, surprising Chen, who then agonized over what to ask in exchange.

Li Ping acquired a damaged Bronze Wine-Brewing Cauldron and considered the costly materials needed to unlock its fourth-tier inheritance, then was summoned to meet a Core Formation cultivator offering golden dawn dew for pill refinement. The client turned out to be an old acquaintance who had just broken through to the middle stage of Core Formation.

• Li Ping offered Chen a choice between two Essence-Origin Pills or refining a batch from supplied ingredients, and Chen chose to risk gathering the ingredients for a full batch.
• Li Ping rewarded Chu Xiu with eighty-eight spirit stones for finding the Bronze Cauldron, then decided not to pursue its fourth-tier Spirit Brewing Technique until he obtained the required materials.
• Two cultivators, Yi Ling and Xi Shuang, fled toward Spirit Firmament City after an ambush left Xi Shuang severely poisoned.
• Meng Wanjun woke Li Ping because a Core Formation cultivator had offered half a portion of golden dawn dew for pill refinement.
• Yi Ling arrived to meet Li Ping, and they recognized each other; Li Ping was surprised that she had reached the middle stage of Core Formation.

Li Ping reunited with Wei Yiling in Spirit Firmament City and refined an antidote pill for her sworn sister in exchange for half a portion of golden dawn dew. Learning that the Eastern Sea Four Fiends held the other half, he chose to seek it through trade rather than confront them, and arranged to spread word that he was buying golden dawn dew.

• Li Ping recognized Wei Yiling, learned her name, and heard that she needed a third-tier Antidote Pill for her poisoned sworn sister.
• Wei Yiling gave Li Ping half a portion of golden dawn dew and explained that the Eastern Sea Four Fiends had taken the other half after ambushing her and her sworn sister.
• Li Ping refined the Antidote Pill over several days, and Wei Yiling took it to treat her sworn sister.
• Li Ping considered the Four Fiends too dangerous to fight and told Meng Wanjun to spread word that he would buy golden dawn dew at a high price.

Li Ping successfully refined twelve Essence-Origin Pills for Chen Hai and discussed his cultivation needs with Meng Wanjun. When Wei Yiling arrived to thank him for saving her sworn sister, Li Ping asked her about the Eastern Sea, leaving him better informed about its dangers and cultivation world.

• Li Ping refined twelve Essence-Origin Pills for Chen Hai, who stored them and asked about future commissions.
• Li Ping told Chen Hai that he could order third-tier pill refinement through the White-Gathering Pavilion, while second-tier commissions required secondhand items.
• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that no one had brought Golden Dawn Dew and that Wei Yiling had visited several times while he was secluded.
• Wei Yiling thanked Li Ping because his antidote pill had neutralized the poison in Sister Shuang's body.
• Li Ping asked Wei Yiling about the Eastern Sea, and she described its bandits, beast hunting, and independent Rogue Cultivators.

Li Ping learned more about the Eastern Sea and refused Wei Yiling’s invitation to help kill the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, insisting he was not skilled at combat. Half a year later, a low-level cultivator arrived with a sealed jade slip about golden dawn dew, leaving Li Ping to discover what message it contained.

• Wei Yiling explained that the Eastern Sea Four Fiends raided coastal Spirit Islands and likely used bound subordinates to trade stolen goods in Spirit Firmament City.
• Wei Yiling asked Li Ping to join her and Shuang in killing the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, but Li Ping refused despite her offer of a larger share of the spoils.
• Wei Yiling told Li Ping she would welcome him if he changed his mind while Shuang recovered, then stopped visiting him during the following half year.
• Meng Wanjun told Li Ping that someone claiming to have half a portion of golden dawn dew wanted to meet him, so Li Ping arranged a private room at a tea house.
• Li Ping met a nervous seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivator, who explained he had been paid to deliver a sealed jade slip to the person in charge of the White-Gathering Pavilion.
• Li Ping drew the jade slip into his hand and its Sealing Spirit Talisman crumbled, while the messenger wondered what the slip contained.

Li Ping learned that the Eastern Sea Four Fiends had mistaken his Golden Dawn Dew purchase notice for a trap and threatened him instead of accepting his offer. He went to Wei Yiling’s cave abode to propose joining forces against them.

• Li Ping read the Eastern Sea Four Fiends’ jade slip, which threatened him and demanded that he submit to their control.
• Li Ping realized the Four Fiends had suspected his purchase notice was a ploy by Wei Yiling and had sent the insults because they thought they had uncovered his scheme.
• Li Ping decided that he and Wei Yiling’s group needed to eliminate the Four Fiends before they could grow stronger.
• Li Ping flew to Wei Yiling’s cave abode and asked to speak with her inside; Wei Yiling welcomed him with a cutting remark and led him in.

Li Ping agreed to help Wei Yiling kill the Eastern Sea Four Fiends and offered to heal her sworn sister, Feng Xishuang, so they would not have to wait decades to fight. He began treating Feng Xishuang with the Longevity Art's magic power, while Wei Yiling prepared to lead them to their enemies once the healing was complete.

• Wei Yiling questioned Li Ping about his visit, and he proposed joining forces to eliminate the Eastern Sea Four Fiends.
• Wei Yiling warned that Feng Xishuang's damaged vital essence left her unable to fight, so Li Ping offered to treat her injuries.
• Wei Yiling brought Li Ping to meet Feng Xishuang and asked her to keep his healing abilities secret.
• Li Ping examined Feng Xishuang and began channeling the Longevity Art's magic power through her arm.
• Wei Yiling said she could locate the Eastern Sea Four Fiends as soon as Feng Xishuang recovered.

Li Ping, Wei Yiling, and Feng Xishuang tracked the Eastern Sea Four Fiends across the Eastern Sea, only to find that the fiends' lair was likely hidden inside dangerous mirage fog. They decided to wait for the fiends to emerge on Immortal Phoenix Island, where Wei Yiling knew the Mo Household's supreme elder.

• Li Ping, Wei Yiling, and Feng Xishuang spent nearly three months crossing the Eastern Sea while Wei Yiling followed her mark on the Golden Dawn Dew.
• Wei Yiling halted the flying boat when the group reached a vast expanse of mirage fog, which blocked divine sense and could trap even Core Formation Cultivators.
• Wei Yiling used a secret art and sensed that the marked Golden Dawn Dew was only a few hundred thousand li away, suggesting the Eastern Sea Four Fiends' lair lay inside the fog.
• Wei Yiling proposed waiting for the fiends to leave the fog, and Li Ping agreed to help eliminate them.
• Wei Yiling took Li Ping and Feng Xishuang to Immortal Phoenix Island, where she planned to borrow the Mo Household's third-tier spirit vein.

Li Ping grew suspicious that the Mo Household was connected to the Eastern Sea Four Fiends and secretly surveilled its supreme elder from underground. After several months, he overheard a visitor say something that left him shocked and furious.

• The Mo Family Grand Elder welcomed Li Ping, Wei Yiling, and Feng Xishuang to the Mo Household and arranged neighboring cave abodes for them.
• Li Ping declined the young guide Qiong’er’s offer to stay, gave her cultivation pills, and searched the area with his divine sense.
• Suspecting the Mo Household might be allied with the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, Li Ping used the Earth Spirit Mouse and Desolate Fire Sparrow to reach a chamber beneath the Mo Family Grand Elder’s abode.
• Li Ping remained underground, cultivating with the Spirit-Eye Jade while secretly monitoring the Mo Family Grand Elder for several months.
• A foundation establishment early stage cultivator visited the Mo Family Grand Elder, and their conversation shocked and enraged Li Ping.

Li Ping overheard the Mo Family Grand Elder arranging for the Eastern Sea Four Fiends to attack him and his companions, then killed the grand elder and took his identity. He left the chapter strengthening the Mo Household’s protective formation to ambush the Four Fiends and investigate their secretive power.

• The Mo Family Grand Elder gave a Great Harmony Token to a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and sent him to summon the Eastern Sea Four Fiends to attack Li Ping, Wei, and Feng.
• Li Ping learned that the token was tied to a secretive power with a Holy Maiden and a spirit beast bearing Mirage Dragon blood, and decided to eliminate the threat rather than flee.
• Li Ping and his companions returned to the Mo Household, where Mysterious One used the Lotus Radiance Mirror to restrain the Mo Family Grand Elder while Li Ping killed him.
• Li Ping searched the grand elder’s remnant soul, disguised himself as the grand elder, and took spirit materials from the Mo Household’s Treasury.
• Li Ping began reinforcing the Mo Household’s protective formation so he could ambush the Four Fiends and try to capture one alive for questioning.

Li Ping modified the Mo Household’s formation to trap the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, then overheard Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang and realized Wei had deceived him about the jade slip. He held back his anger and waited at the Mo Family Grand Elder’s cave as the Four Fiends arrived at Immortal Phoenix Island, believing Mo Gui was helping them.

• Li Ping redirected the Mo Household’s formation attacks inward and added a self-destruct function before telling Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang about his plan to ambush the Eastern Sea Four Fiends.
• Wei Yiling learned Li Ping had already killed Mo Gui, and she and Feng Xishuang discussed a secret they feared Li Ping might discover.
• Li Ping eavesdropped beneath the women’s cave and guessed that Wei Yiling had deceived him about the jade slip, but decided to keep working with them until the Four Fiends were dead.
• Li Ping suppressed his anger and returned to Mo Gui’s cave abode to wait for the Eastern Sea Four Fiends.
• The Eastern Sea Four Fiends emerged from the mirage fog aboard a flying boat, accompanied by the Foundation Establishment Cultivator Mo Gui had sent to guide them.

Li Ping and Wei Yiling trapped the Eastern Sea Four Fiends inside the Mo Household’s Clan-Guarding Grand Formation after killing Mo Gui and taking control of the formation. The battle devastated the Mo Household, and Li Ping killed one of the Four Fiends with Mysterious One’s help.

• Li Ping told Wei Yiling and Feng to help him ambush the Eastern Sea Four Fiends inside the Mo Household’s formation.
• Li Ping activated the formation, trapping the Four Fiends beneath repeated lightning cages and icicles.
• The Four Fiends realized Mo Gui was likely dead and tried to break through the formation, but their combined attack failed.
• Wei Yiling, Feng, and Li Ping attacked the trapped Four Fiends as their battle’s shock waves devastated the Mo Household.
• Li Ping and Mysterious One immobilized and killed one of the Four Fiends’ Core Formation early-stage cultivators.

Li Ping and the two women defeated the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, while Li Ping secretly gathered the enemies’ Storage Bags and Life-Bound Treasures. After searching the captured man’s soul, he demanded that Wei Yiling explain the Jade Slip he had received in Spirit Firmament City.

• Li Ping used Mysterious One and his treasures to help kill two of the Four Fiends, then captured the hook-nosed young man alive while Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang fought the others.
• Li Ping searched the young man’s soul for information about the Great Harmony Society and the Jade Slip, then burned the man’s body to ash.
• Li Ping restored the formation’s attacks and helped Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang kill the last leader of the Four Fiends.
• Li Ping took all five Storage Bags and Life-Bound Treasures and demanded an explanation from Wei Yiling about the Jade Slip.

Li Ping confronted Wei Yiling about forging a threatening Jade Slip to manipulate him into fighting the Eastern Sea Four Fiends, then claimed their carried treasures while letting the women take the Four Fiends’ lair and bounty. As Li Ping sailed away, he reflected on the Great Harmony Society and the danger he had deliberately left for Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang.

• Li Ping used a Soul Search to prove the Eastern Sea Four Fiends had not sent the insulting Jade Slip, and Wei Yiling admitted she had forged it to provoke him into helping kill them.
• Li Ping found the golden dawn dew and claimed the Four Fiends’ valuables, offering Wei Yiling their lair, entry tokens, and the bounty instead.
• Wei Yiling protested Li Ping’s division of the spoils, but he reminded her that she had repaid his past rescue by deceiving him and prepared the grand formation for a fight.
• Feng Xishuang urged Wei Yiling to relent, and Wei Yiling accepted the division as an apology while insisting she had meant no harm.
• Aboard his Flying Boat, Li Ping recalled that the Four Fiends and Mo Gui had been peripheral members of the Great Harmony Society, whose leaders would know of their deaths.
• Li Ping realized the Spirit Island belonged to the Great Harmony Society and had left its entry tokens with Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang, hoping they would encounter the society’s investigators.

After leaving the Eastern Sea Four Fiends' spoils to Li Ping, Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang claimed the hidden Spirit Island as their refuge. Li Ping returned to Spirit Firmament City, while a Nascent Soul Cultivator confronted the two women on the island.

• Wei Yiling reassured Feng Xishuang that Li Ping would have turned against them regardless, and the two women set out to find the Four Fiends' Spirit Island.
• Li Ping found and erased Wei Yiling's tracking mark on the Golden Dawn Dew, assessed his spoils, and decided to save his materials for a stronger Puppet rather than forge a third-tier lower-grade one.
• After several months of travel, Li Ping returned to Spirit Firmament City and resolved not to leave unless necessary.
• Wei Yiling used the ancient token to locate the Spirit Island hidden in the Mirage Fog, and she and Feng Xishuang searched it and made a Cave Abode.
• A powerful divine sense reached the two women, and a Nascent Soul Cultivator accused them of killing people and staying on the island.

Li Ping returned to Spirit Firmament City, handled the White-Gathering Pavilion’s business, and resumed refining pills while waiting for news of supreme yang wood. He learned that Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang had become famous as the Eastern Sea Twin Beauties and that a powerful Fourth-Tier Pill Refiner had died.

• Li Ping questioned Meng Wanjun, learned the city had remained peaceful, and inspected four secondhand items, finding a damaged talisman brush with a third-tier middle-grade inheritance.
• Li Ping refined twelve pills for Madam Yue and gave the Earth Spirit Mouse a third-tier Earthrock Python demon core to help it prepare for a future breakthrough.
• Li Ping spent the following years cultivating, buying ordinary secondhand goods, and refining pills for five cultivators, but heard no news of supreme yang wood.
• Li Ping learned that two female Core Formation cultivators had slain the Eastern Sea Four Fiends and claimed the bounty; he suspected they were Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang.
• Li Ping heard that a supreme elder of the Heavenly Thunder Sect, a highly accomplished Fourth-Tier Pill Refiner, had recently died.