Yao Lao

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Yao Chen 7
Alias(es)	Yao Lao (药老)
Gender	Male
Age	One hundred years old, according to his own account 7
Affiliation	Starfall Pavilion, Central Plains; identifies himself as its master 7
Occupation/Role	Alchemist; Xiao Yan’s teacher and protector 7 8 9
Cultivation	Identifies himself as a Nine-Star Dou Zun, although his cultivation is severely damaged 7 8
Status	Exists in soul form without a physical body; resides in Xiao Yan’s Storage Ring 16 18
System	Hundredfold Apprenticeship Return System, also called the Hundredfold Disciple Teaching System 8 18
First Appearance	Mentioned in Steward Mo’s thoughts 3; directly depicted negotiating with Xiao Yan 7

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Nine-Star Dou Zun — reported original rank	7 8	States his rank while explaining his identity, but acknowledges that his cultivation has been severely damaged.
Second-tier pill-refining ability restored	16	Recovers while refining his twenty-seventh pill during lessons for Xiao Yan. System rewards increase his soul power, which determines how much strength he can use without a body.

Background / History

Yao Lao was betrayed by Han Feng and is left without a physical body. When Xiao Yan accepts him as a teacher, he promises to punish Han Feng and find a suitable body to restore Yao Lao to life. Yao Lao identifies himself as Yao Chen, the continent’s foremost alchemist and the master of Starfall Pavilion 7 8.

His system activates when he awakens, announcing that accepting disciples and giving them benefits will earn him rewards. Xiao Yan initially suspects that he is a transmigrator and presses him to reveal his secrets, even threatening to urinate into the Storage Ring. Yao Lao explains the system but does not confirm that he came from another world 7 8.

After discovering that the fifteen-year-old Xiao Yan is already a Dou Huang, Yao Lao celebrates his apparent change in fortune. That excitement gives way to alarm when Xiao Yan’s body begins to fail under his cultivation. Yao Lao saves him, diagnoses the mismatch between his Dou Huang cultivation and Dou Shi-level body, and takes responsibility for overlooking the danger 8 9.

Appearance

• Elderly features: A deeply wrinkled, withered face and a long beard that he frequently strokes 7 9 18.
• Soul manifestation: Can float beside Xiao Yan and act outside the Storage Ring despite lacking a physical body 9 18.

Personality

Yao Lao is proud of his reputation and openly boasts about his former abilities. While recruiting Xiao Yan, he presents discipleship as the solution to humiliation, slow cultivation, and the Three-Year Agreement. His confident salesmanship falters when Xiao Yan refuses to respond as expected 7 16.

He is also protective and emotionally invested in his disciple. He refuses to administer a pill that could damage Xiao Yan’s meridians, reproaches him for obtaining strength his body cannot withstand, and expresses gratification when Xiao Yan willingly accepts painful training 8 9 18.

The system’s rewards make him increasingly eager to teach. His excitement prompts Xiao Yan to privately worry that temptation might eventually corrupt him, but Yao Lao immediately shares his upgraded techniques and spends his recovered soul power on training his disciple 18.

Abilities & Skills

Hundredfold Apprenticeship Return System

Rewards Yao Lao for taking disciples, granting benefits, and sincerely teaching them 8 18.

• Soul-power restoration: Alchemy instruction produces rewards of +1, +2, and +3 soul power, allowing his pill-refining ability to recover 16.
• Cultivation-method rewards: Teaching the Flame Mantra yields the Divine Flame Mantra 18.
• Technique upgrades: Teaching Eight Extremes Collapse yields Eighteen Extremes Collapse 18.
• Consumable rewards: Supplies several dozen bottles of Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid, including some of the third grade 18.
• Conditions: Refining alone is insufficient for the documented teaching rewards; he must actively instruct his disciple. The system also reports that “nesting dolls” are forbidden 9 16.

Alchemy

Claims that he could once refine two eighth-tier pills simultaneously. His current capacity is restricted by the strength of his disembodied soul 16.

• Refines Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid and teaches Xiao Yan the process 16.
• Prescribes three intact stalks of purple leaf orchid grass, two bone-washing flowers, and one first-tier wood-element magic core for the liquid 8.
• Assesses medicinal risks, recognizing that the Marrow-Cleansing Pill is too potent for Xiao Yan’s fragile meridians 8.

Cultivation and Technique Instruction

Can transmit detailed knowledge directly into Xiao Yan’s mind through a touch to the forehead 18.

Teaching / Reward	Grade or properties	Role
Flame Mantra	Initially Yellow Tier Low Grade	Teaches it to Xiao Yan before receiving its upgraded counterpart 18.
Divine Flame Mantra	Can fuse heavenly flames, Dou Techniques, and cultivation methods of the five elements	Passes the system reward to Xiao Yan. Cannot cultivate it himself without a physical body 18.
Eight Extremes Collapse	Black Tier High Grade; eight stacked layers of force can rival an Earth-tier Low-grade technique	Uses it to test the system’s technique-return function 18.
Eighteen Extremes Collapse	Earth Tier Low Grade; eighteen stacked layers can rival an Earth-tier High-grade technique	Immediately teaches the upgraded version to Xiao Yan 18.

Diagnosis and Physical Conditioning

Recognizes that cultivation increases can become fatal when the body cannot support them 9.

• Stabilizes Xiao Yan after ruptured capillaries and unconsciousness 9.
• Prescribes foundation consolidation and painful body-strengthening training 9.
• Physically conditions Xiao Yan for techniques that his body cannot yet handle, despite his high cultivation 18.
• Recommends Spirit Liquid baths every morning and evening. One training day consumes more than half of Yao Lao’s recently recovered soul power 18.

Perception and Protection

• Detects a hidden Dou Huang guarding Xiao Xun’er, directing Xiao Yan’s attention toward Ling Ying 13.
• Serves as a deterrent against attacks on Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan estimates that Yao Lao can currently exert, at most, Dou Huang-level strength—and possibly less 27.
• Spends much of his time asleep inside the ring, leaving him poorly informed about outside events 16.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Storage Ring — His resting place and the storage location from which he retrieves medicinal supplies 7 18.
• Marrow-Cleansing Pill — A potent pill revealed while discussing the system’s beginner gift; he withholds it because of the danger to Xiao Yan’s meridians 8.
• Divine Flame Mantra scroll — A multicolored system-reward scroll given to Xiao Yan 18.
• Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid — Both personally refined and received through system rewards; used to strengthen Xiao Yan’s body 16 18.

Relationships

• Xiao Yan — Disciple and prospective restorer of his body. Their relationship combines genuine care, intensive instruction, and Xiao Yan’s continuing caution about the system’s temptations 8 9 18.
• Han Feng — Betrayed Yao Lao. Xiao Yan promises to purge him from his teacher’s lineage 8.
• Immortal Chen — Attempts to undermine Xiao Yan’s trust in Yao Lao with fabricated accusations of exploitation, possession, and eventual devouring. Xiao Yan recognizes the account as false 25 26.

Notable Quotes

“So that’s how it works! It seems I, Yao Chen, will not only be the continent’s greatest alchemist, but also its greatest teacher.” 18