Chapter Summaries

Li Ping discovered a third-tier spiritual vein and an old cave abode on an island in the Cold Pool, but withdrew after finding the pool crowded with powerful demon beasts. He left the secret in Daoist Ji’s care and returned to focus on his cultivation, intending to explore the cave abode when he was stronger.

• Li Ping found a third-tier formation surrounding Heart-of-the-Pool Island and realized the island held a third-tier spiritual vein.
• Li Ping spotted hundreds of demon beasts in the Cold Pool, including several with late second-tier auras, and decided not to approach the island.
• Li Ping and Daoist Ji returned to Little Plum Mountain, where Daoist Ji chose to guard the spirit land and its secret for Li Ping.
• Li Ping installed a first-tier formation around Little Plum Mountain, gave Daoist Ji pills and spirit talismans, and asked him to help the Yan Household and guide any child with a spirit root.
• Li Ping rewarded Ji Shuchen, who had found the underground passage, with a flying sword and pills before departing.

Li Ping traveled to Jixia Immortal City to seek the rare materials needed for a third-tier alchemist inheritance and to commission concealed flying-needle artifacts. After entering the city under an assumed identity, he was immediately surrounded by cultivators offering to guide him.

• Li Ping decided Windmist Immortal City could not provide the millennium spirit herbs and third-tier spirit flame he needed, so he set out for Jixia Immortal City.
• He crossed several nations on the Floating Shadow Shuttle and disguised himself as Yan Buping, a foundation establishment cultivator from the Yue Kingdom.
• Li Ping reached Donghua Mountain, followed the entry procedures at a reception hall, and obtained an Identity Jade Token.
• He passed through the Formation Gate into Jixia Immortal City, where qi refining cultivators crowded around him to offer their services.

Li Ping explored Jixia Immortal City and visited Green Zhi Pavilion to seek a millennium spirit herb and a third-tier spirit flame. After learning that Core Formation cultivators reserved such resources, he decided to try the Foundation Establishment cultivators’ Resource Exchange Fair and then sought an artifact shop to refine his snake fangs.

• Li Ping traveled by Skyway to the upper city and hired an old Qi Refining cultivator to guide him to Green Zhi Pavilion.
• At Green Zhi Pavilion, Li Ping introduced himself as Yan and asked senior steward Gongsun Yu about buying a millennium spirit herb.
• Gongsun Yu told Li Ping that Core Formation cultivators reserved millennium spirit herbs and third-tier spirit flames, leaving none for sale to outsiders.
• Li Ping learned that Foundation Establishment cultivators held a Resource Exchange Fair every few months, where rare treasures sometimes appeared.
• Li Ping left Green Zhi Pavilion and asked his guide to take him to an artifact shop capable of refining second-tier magic artifacts or higher.

Li Ping arranged for nine flying needles to be forged, then attended a Foundation Establishment exchange gathering in Jixia Immortal City. There he traded a golden Bloodline Fruit with Xiao Yunzhi for a thousand-year-old dark spirit grass, completing the set of herbs he needed for a third-tier alchemist inheritance.

• Li Ping contracted with the Heart-Refining Furnace to forge nine flying needles from the Flower-Scaled Python's venom fangs.
• A month later, Li Ping attended the upper city's exchange gathering, where Xiao Yunzhi offered rare treasures in exchange for an item that could help her second-tier spirit beast break through its bottleneck.
• Li Ping offered Xiao Yunzhi a golden Bloodline Fruit and asked to trade for a third-tier spirit flame or a millennium spirit herb.
• Xiao Yunzhi exchanged her thousand-year-old dark spirit grass for Li Ping's Bloodline Fruit, despite its reduced potency.
• Li Ping returned to his seat with the final millennium spirit herb needed for the third-tier alchemist inheritance.

Li Ping failed to find a third-tier spirit flame in Jixia Immortal City and acquired a set of poisoned flying needles before war between the Defender Alliance and the Four Demonic Sects spread toward the Qi Kingdom. When Xiao Yunzhi was gravely wounded, Li Ping decided to try saving her in exchange for the Immortal City’s promised favor, hoping to obtain a third-tier spirit flame and leave for Windmist Immortal City.

• Li Ping failed to trade for a third-tier spirit flame, and Xiao Yunzhi told him he could find one in Moonfall Valley, though he refused to sell her his millennium monster-luring grass.
• After two months without finding a spirit flame, Li Ping collected nine flying needles from the Heart-Refining Furnace, named them the White Bone Soul-Reaping Needles, and coated them with venom.
• The Four Demonic Sects invaded the Yuan Kingdom, and Xiao Yunzhi won renown as the Scarlet Flame Immortal Maiden by killing demonic Foundation Establishment cultivators.
• Li Ping planned to leave the Qi Kingdom after learning that demonic cultivators were raiding its rear, but Xiao Yunzhi was ambushed while escorting supplies and left near death.
• The Immortal City Authorities promised one request to anyone who could cure Xiao Yunzhi, and Li Ping decided to treat her in hopes of securing a third-tier spirit flame before returning to Windmist Immortal City.

Li Ping, posing as physician Yan, passed an assessment by curing a Smoke Horse poisoned with the same demonic poison afflicting Xiao Yunzhi. Song Yushu brought him to examine her, where Li Ping saw the spreading black poison on her abdomen.

• Li Ping entered the courtyard and told Song Yushu that he was a physician who specialized in injuries from magical combat.
• Song Yushu explained that Xiao Yunzhi was afflicted with a strange demonic poison, then assessed Li Ping by having him treat a poisoned Smoke Horse.
• Li Ping cured the Smoke Horse, so Song Yushu immediately led him to Xiao Yunzhi on Donghua Mountain.
• Song Yushu and Junior Sister Qiao let Li Ping examine Xiao Yunzhi after Qiao asked Song Yushu to leave because the injury was in a private place.
• Junior Sister Qiao exposed Xiao Yunzhi's abdomen, and Li Ping saw a writhing black patch of poison slowly spreading across her skin.

Li Ping treated Xiao Yunzhi’s potent poison with his Longevity Art, gradually restoring her condition while concealing that he could have cured her much sooner. By the seventh day, he was ready to remove the remaining poison completely.

• Li Ping pressed his hand to Xiao Yunzhi’s abdomen and channeled his Longevity Art, slowly weakening the poison as Junior Sister Qiao watched her breathing improve.
• Li Ping told Song Yushu he needed several days to finish the treatment, and Song Yushu arranged a nearby guest room and promised a Third-Tier Spirit Flame.
• Li Ping reflected that he had deliberately feigned exhaustion and stretched out the cure to avoid drawing attention and give the Immortal City time to prepare his payment.
• Over the next three days, Li Ping continued treating Xiao Yunzhi, shrinking the poison patch from the size of a fist to the size of an egg as her consciousness began returning.
• Song Yushu gave Li Ping a third-tier Sky Thunder Flame in advance, completing the materials he needed to inherit Third-Tier Alchemist skills.
• After continuing treatment on the fourth, fifth, and sixth days, Li Ping prepared to remove all of Xiao Yunzhi’s remaining poison on the seventh day.

Yan Liming escaped a failed ambush by using the Bloodwing Escape Art and decided body possession was his only remaining option. After Li Ping cured Xiao Yunzhi, he refused to commit to staying in Jixia Immortal City and secretly planned to leave that night.

• Yan Liming used a Black Annihilation Pearl to break through the attackers’ net, then escaped with the Bloodwing Escape Art while Mr. Yan failed to catch him.
• Miao Rou thanked Mr. Yan and Windmist True Person for rescuing her, explained that Yan Liming had forced her to spy, and asked to return to the Qi Kingdom; Mr. Yan agreed.
• Yan Liming inspected his injuries in the wilderness and concluded that he had to possess another body, despite expecting he would never reach Core Formation again.
• Li Ping removed the last of Xiao Yunzhi’s poison, and she unconsciously clutched his hand before Spiritheart Physician examined her.
• Song Yushu urged Li Ping to remain in Jixia Immortal City and treat wounded cultivators, but Li Ping said he would consider it while secretly deciding to leave that night.

Li Ping became a third-tier lower-grade pill refiner and left Jixia Immortal City, while Qi Hanmo defended his decision to keep treating Lin Yue despite her master's past insult to his elder brother. Mr. Yan challenged Qi Hanmo to consider his duties, and Qi Hanmo resolved to continue treating Lin Yue even if his brother opposed it.

• Li Ping reflected on the Jixia Lineage's kindness, chose not to remain in the dangerous city, and used his inheritance to study the third-tier alchemist skills.
• Li Ping became a third-tier lower-grade pill refiner and suspected the alchemist Xu Pingsheng resembled his master, Yan Guike.
• Two rogue cultivators chased Li Ping, but his Flying Boat outpaced them and he escaped.
• Qi Hanmo treated Lin Yue, accepted only ten spirit stones, and went to play a game with Mr. Yan.
• Mr. Yan questioned Qi Hanmo about Lin Yue and the offered payment, and Qi Hanmo explained that he feared taking advantage of her vulnerability and resented her master's treatment of his elder brother.
• Qi Hanmo declared that he would keep treating Lin Yue wholeheartedly even if his elder brother opposed him.

Mr. Yan invited Qi Hanmo to become his disciple at Jixia, but Qi Hanmo delayed leaving until he finished treating Lin Yue and informed his elder brother. Meanwhile, Li Ping was chased by two Acacia Sect demon cultivators and fought them in a canyon, where he launched hidden poisoned needles after disrupting their defenses with a thunder talisman.

• Mr. Yan revealed that he was a lecturer from Jixia and invited Qi Hanmo to cultivate under him.
• Qi Hanmo accepted Mr. Yan as his master but postponed traveling to Jixia until he had completed Lin Yue's treatment and told his elder brother.
• Li Ping witnessed the devastation caused by bandits and demon cultivators in the Qi Kingdom before two demon cultivators pursued him in a Blood Banner-powered Flying Boat.
• Li Ping lured the pursuers into a canyon, concealed nine Life-Reaping Needles, and fought them with his Purple Shadow Sword and Red Armor Shield.
• Li Ping resisted the woman’s poison, struck the demon cultivators’ defenses with a Giant Thunder Talisman, and sent the hidden needles toward them.

Li Ping killed two demon cultivators, claimed their spoils, and returned to the Jiang Kingdom, where he discovered a marriage alliance between the Ji Lineage and the Yan Household. As he headed for Windmist Immortal City, Xiao Yunzhi appeared in Jixia Immortal City, thinking of Yan Buping.

• Li Ping poisoned the demon cultivators with his White Bone Soul-Reaping Needles, then killed the ugly man with talismans and the alluring woman with his flying sword and needles.
• Li Ping sent puppets to collect the demon cultivators' spoils and kept their Blood Rakshasa Banner, a powerful flight artifact.
• Li Ping sold the remaining spoils on his way back to the Jiang Kingdom and found Daoist Ji attending six weddings joining the Ji Lineage and the Yan Household.
• Li Ping left without attending the wedding and continued toward Windmist Immortal City.
• Xiao Yunzhi emerged from an inn in Jixia Immortal City and murmured Yan Buping's name, recalling how a warm hand had saved her when she was gravely wounded.

Li Ping returned to Windmist Immortal City, recovered the demon cultivator’s hidden belongings, and kept the rare concealing artifact Nightfall. Zhang Tie told him about becoming Windmist True Person’s disciple and asked for advice on marriage, and Li Ping recommended that he marry a woman of the Meng Family.

• Li Ping retrieved the demon cultivator’s storage bags from High Ridge Mountain and kept Nightfall, a supreme-grade artifact that could conceal him even from foundation establishment cultivators.
• Zhang Tie visited Li Ping and described how he had become Windmist True Person’s thirty-seventh disciple after waiting for her to emerge from secluded cultivation.
• Zhang Tie explained that Windmist True Person had given him a second-tier upper-grade cave abode and allowed him to choose secret manuals, including an artifact refining inheritance.
• Zhang Tie told Li Ping that foundation establishment clans had proposed matches with younger women from their lineages, and asked him what to do.
• Li Ping warned that the immortal city’s factions made a careless marriage risky and advised Zhang Tie to marry a woman of the Meng Family.

Li Ping accepted Zhang Tie’s damaged Blazing Arrow Eagle egg in exchange for wiping out Zhang Tie’s debt, after discovering his Longevity Art could restore the egg’s vitality. The Meng Family Ancestor then asked Li Ping to help arrange Zhang Tie’s marriage to a Meng Family junior, and Li Ping demanded a larger reward.

• Li Ping advised Zhang Tie that marrying into the Meng Family could bring useful support, while cautioning him not to rush into marriage.
• Li Ping offered Zhang Tie the shop’s Contract Deed back, and Zhang Tie offered a crimson egg to repay part of his debt.
• Li Ping discovered that his Longevity Art could replenish the dead egg’s vitality and agreed to accept it in exchange for clearing Zhang Tie’s entire debt.
• Li Ping visited Hu Feng’s unopened Cave Abode and left a Sound Transmission Talisman, but departed without receiving a response.
• The Meng Family Ancestor visited Li Ping and asked him to persuade Zhang Tie to marry a Meng Family junior.
• Li Ping pretended to object to interfering in Zhang Tie’s marriage, then told the Meng Family Ancestor to offer more spirit stones.

Li Ping discovered that the Blazing Arrow Eagle egg was likely undergoing a bloodline reversion and began nourishing it so it could hatch. At the Shared Boat Association’s New Year gathering, Zhang Tie reunited with the others after successfully achieving Foundation Establishment.

• Li Ping accepted five hundred spirit stones from the Meng Family Ancestor and arranged for Zhang Tie’s marriage to the Meng Family woman.
• Li Ping infused the Blazing Arrow Eagle egg with Longevity Art magical power, sensed its vigorous hunger, and suspected something unusual was happening inside it.
• Li Ping consulted the Meng Family’s scripture treasury and found Cold Moon True Person’s account of an egg whose hatchling reverted to an ancestral bloodline and became a Black Phoenix.
• Li Ping bought Beast Taming restriction methods, applied Blood Restrictions to the egg, and spent over a month replenishing its origin essence while continuing to nourish the hatchling.
• Li Ping’s companions gathered at his Cave Abode for the New Year, and they congratulated Zhang Tie on becoming the Shared Boat Association’s second Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

At the Shared Boat Association’s annual gathering, Qi Hanmo revealed that a Core Formation True Person had chosen him as a disciple, and his sworn siblings supported his move to Jixia. The chapter ended with Teng Feng reaching Luojing, where he witnessed the Sacred Empress’s display and heard Minggu speak bitterly about the Immortal Alliance.

• The association collected 570 spirit stones for the Foundation Establishment Fund, bringing its total to 990, and Zhang Tie shared news of his planned marriage to a cultivator from the Meng Family.
• Gu Musheng reported that he had brought a spirit-rooted child from Teng Feng’s village to the Immortal City and proposed giving the child Teng Feng’s remaining spirit stones; the others agreed.
• Cheng Yao concealed her financial hardship, while Qi Hanmo announced that Mr. Yan wanted to take him to Jixia as a disciple after Lin Yue recovered.
• Li Ping and the others encouraged Qi Hanmo to pursue the opportunity and offered to return his contributions, but Qi Hanmo refused to take back his spirit stones.
• Zhang Tie shared his Foundation Establishment experience, and Li Ping ended the gathering by distributing pills to the other four members.
• In Luojing, Teng Feng sought the resources Minggu had deposited at the Immortal Stipend House, witnessed the Sacred Empress play the zither, and heard Minggu say that even Great Zhou’s rulers obeyed the Immortal Alliance.

Yan Liming secretly possessed the child He Yunyi and began rebuilding his cultivation while working in the Immortal City, unaware of the kindness he encountered in righteous territory. Meanwhile, Li Ping guided his disciples and friends, and the chapter ended with the spirit bird egg nearing its hatching.

• Yan Liming, now living as He Yunyi, concealed his identity and accepted over a hundred spirit stones from Gu Musheng, resolving to recover his cultivation before retrieving his hidden Storage Bag.
• Li Ping welcomed Yan Hengchuan and Ji Shuxuan, guided their cultivation, and gave them Qi-Boosting Pills.
• Li Ping attended Zhang Tie's wedding and later gave Qi Hanmo spirit stones and Spirit Talismans before Qi Hanmo departed for Jixia.
• Zhang Tie told Li Ping that his wife was pregnant, while Li Ping urged Bai Lin to focus on cultivation so she might eventually reach Foundation Establishment.
• Li Ping continued refining Essence-Nourishing Pills, and the spirit bird egg he had received from Zhang Tie grew close to hatching.

Li Ping held the Shared Boat Association’s year-end gathering, learned why Bai Qing was grieving, and later heard Yan Hengchuan suspect that He Yunyi was an undercover agent. Yan Hengchuan set out to expose him despite having no evidence.

• Li Ping regretted using the thousand-year-old Jade Condensation Grass for alchemy inheritance and attended the year-end gathering with the remaining Shared Boat Association members.
• Zhang Tie reported on his artifact-refining work, Gu Musheng said he had given Teng Feng’s spirit stones to He Yunyi, and Bai Qing remained troubled.
• Bai Lin told Li Ping that Bai Qing was likely mourning his father, Bai Mingyu, who had died the previous year.
• Yan Liming endured orders from Yan Hengchuan and insults from Spiritual Chef Mo while keeping his identity as a core formation cultivator hidden.
• Li Ping praised Yan Hengchuan and Ji Shuxuan for their cultivation and gave them pills when they visited.
• Yan Hengchuan told Ji Shuxuan he suspected He Yunyi was an undercover agent sent to steal Spiritual Chef Mo’s skills, and vowed to expose him.

Li Ping sold his Essence-Nourishing Pills and bought spirit herbs in the Immortal City Market, then purchased a Blazing Fire Ring Talisman Treasure from Zhuang Yu. He returned to Immortal Peach Mountain with a fuller Storage Bag and another trump card, deciding to focus on cultivation before trying to compete for rarities.

• Li Ping visited several Market Ward shops to sell his second-tier pills and buy hundred-year-old spirit herbs, but found that Miao Rou had been replaced at the Spirit Treasure Pavilion.
• At the Jade Cliff Palace, Li Ping sold five bottles of Essence-Nourishing Pills to Zhuang Yu and bought the spirit herbs on his list.
• Zhuang Yu showed Li Ping a Blazing Fire Ring Talisman Treasure, and Li Ping bought it for two thousand spirit stones after confirming that well over half its power remained.
• Li Ping sold the rest of his pills, bought enough spirit herbs for several years, returned to his original appearance, and headed back to Immortal Peach Mountain.
• On his way home, Li Ping considered opening a shop but decided to wait until after reaching Core Formation before competing for rare treasures.

Li Ping received news from Qi Hanmo about the prolonged war between the Defender Alliance and the Four Demonic Sects, then heard about Zhang Tie’s growing family. The Blazing Arrow Eagle egg finally hatched into a Desolate Fire Sparrow with Vermilion Bird blood, which Li Ping expected could one day reach Nascent Soul Realm strength.

• Li Ping read Qi Hanmo’s letter about his studies at Jixia Immortal City and the ongoing war, then urged him to keep cultivating and send updates.
• Zhang Tie told Li Ping that his wife had borne a son named Zhang He and asked whether he should take his wife’s twin cousins as concubines.
• Li Ping advised Zhang Tie to ask whether the twins were willing, and Zhang Tie took them as concubines less than ten days later.
• Li Ping watched the Blazing Arrow Eagle egg crack and hatch after nearly two years of replenishing its vitality with Longevity Art magical power.
• Li Ping identified the hatchling as a Desolate Fire Sparrow with a trace of Vermilion Bird blood and ordered it to eat its eggshell.

Li Ping cultivated his Desolate Fire Sparrow and Blood Rakshasa Banner while the Shared Boat Association members gathered to review their progress and discuss their concerns. Gu Musheng proposed investigating He Yunyi’s character before deciding whether to recover Teng Feng’s spirit stones, and the group agreed to his plan.

• Li Ping stored the sleeping Desolate Fire Sparrow, checked that the Blood Rakshasa Banner was refining poisons, and returned to cultivating.
• At the year-end gathering, Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, Cheng Yao, and Bai Qing reported their cultivation progress, and the Foundation Establishment Fund reached two thousand one hundred spirit stones.
• Gu Musheng said He Yunyi had not visited his family in over two years and worried that he would not honor Teng Feng’s final wish.
• Gu Musheng proposed visiting Teng Feng’s village to learn more about He Yunyi, then either recovering the spirit stones or speaking frankly with him about giving back to the village; Li Ping and the others agreed.
• Zhang Tie gave a cultivation lecture, and Li Ping distributed pills to Gu Musheng and the other members.