Recaps

Xiao Yan showed Frank his Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, convincing the fourth-rank alchemist to recommend him for the first-rank examination. After registering with Ya Han, Xiao Yan followed her toward the examination room.

• Frank was astonished by Xiao Yan’s blood-red heavenly flame and learned it was the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, ranked twenty-second.
• Frank agreed to recommend Xiao Yan for the first-rank alchemist examination, while Xue Mei grew jealous of the attention he received.
• Frank brought Xiao Yan into the Alchemist Guild, where Otto greeted them.
• Xiao Yan registered with Ya Han, giving his age as seventeen and naming Lu Chang as his teacher.
• Ya Han completed Xiao Yan’s registration and led him toward the first-rank alchemist examination room.

Xiao Yan entered the Black Rock City Alchemist Guild’s first-rank examination hall, where Lin Fei and Xue Mei drew attention with expensive medicine cauldrons. Chairman Frank began the examination and announced that the candidates would have two hours to refine a randomly assigned first-rank pill.

• Ya Han presented Xiao Yan’s documents to Teya, who issued him admission armband number seven.
• Xiao Yan entered the examination hall and took his station beside Lin Fei and Xue Mei.
• Lin Fei displayed her Red Fire Cauldron, and Xue Mei countered by bringing out her Cold Flame Cauldron.
• Frank began the examination, explaining that each candidate would draw a pill formula and receive three sets of ingredients to make the pill within two hours.

Xiao Yan drew the assessment’s exceptionally difficult Cyclone Qi Pill formula and began refining it while the other Alchemists worked on their assigned pills. When he ignited his blood-red flame inside the provided Medicine Cauldron, the cauldron began to crack.

• Xu Lin drew the simple Fire Condensing Pill formula, while Zhang Feng drew the difficult Power Condensing Pill formula.
• Lin Fei drew a Power-Enhancing Pill she had refined before, and Xue Mei drew a low-difficulty Blood Condensing Pill.
• Xiao Yan drew the genuine, soul-imprinted Cyclone Qi Pill formula, which was so difficult that even some Second-Rank Alchemists could not confidently refine it.
• Frank expressed regret over Xiao Yan’s bad luck, while Otto questioned why Frank thought so highly of him.
• Frank started the one-hour assessment, and all eleven candidates began refining their pills.
• Xiao Yan lit his blood-red flame inside the Medicine Cauldron, causing cracks to spread rapidly across it.

Xiao Yan’s heavenly flame destroyed his examination cauldron, but he formed a replacement from Dou Qi and used it to finish refining a Cyclone Qi Pill. Lin Fei and Xue Mei lost control of their cauldrons and failed when both exploded.

• Xiao Yan’s heavenly flame shattered his first-grade medicine cauldron, alarming the candidates and revealing to Otto and Frank that he possessed the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame.
• Xiao Yan realized no examination cauldron could withstand his flame and condensed a replacement from Dou Qi, secretly using the Divine Pattern to complete its formation.
• Xiao Yan refined the medicinal ingredients rapidly in his flame cauldron and finished a Cyclone Qi Pill.
• Xiao Yan’s progress made Lin Fei and Xue Mei rush their refining, and both of their medicine cauldrons exploded.

Xiao Yan passed the First-Rank Alchemist examination and registered with the Jia Ma Empire's Alchemist Guild. President Frank offered him a reward for a wisp of his heavenly flame, and Xiao Yan agreed in exchange for a Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill, which Frank could not make without purple spirit crystal.

• Xiao Yan caught Lin Fei and Xue Mei when their Medicine Cauldrons exploded, then dropped Lin Fei onto the floor while gently setting Xue Mei down.
• Otto ruled that only four of the eleven candidates passed, and Xiao Yan became the first to finish the examination.
• Xiao Yan and the other three successful candidates registered as First-Rank Alchemists and collected their robes and badges.
• Frank asked Xiao Yan to give the Alchemist Guild a wisp of his heavenly flame in exchange for one million gold coins and a fourth-grade pill.
• Xiao Yan requested a Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill, and Frank explained that he lacked purple spirit crystal; Xiao Yan said he happened to have some.

Xiao Yan sold his Purple Spirit Crystal to Frank and Otto’s Alchemist Guild for eight million gold coins and handed over a Child Flame from the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame in exchange for a White Flame Cauldron. The Guild promised to refine the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills within three days, while the Little Milk Puppy was left bald after Xiao Yan plucked out a handful of its flaming fur.

• Otto joined Frank’s deal, agreeing to share half the cost of the Heavenly Flame’s Child Flame.
• Xiao Yan showed Frank and Otto a human-head-sized Purple Spirit Crystal, and they agreed to buy it for eight million gold coins and refine Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills for him.
• Frank gave Xiao Yan a black gold card holding nine million gold coins, including the one million he had promised earlier, and said the pills would be ready within three days.
• Frank provided Xiao Yan with the tier-four White Flame Cauldron to safely contain the Child Flame.
• Xiao Yan entered the Divine Pattern Space and plucked a handful of flaming fur from the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, leaving the Little Milk Puppy bald.

Xiao Yan transferred a child flame of the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame to the Black Rock City Alchemist Guild and spent three days cultivating while waiting for his Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill. When the guild’s delivery arrived, he opened the box and found two pills inside.

• Xiao Yan transferred the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame’s child flame into the guild’s medicine cauldron and explained how the guild could nourish it.
• Frank decided to preserve the flame for a future fifth-rank alchemist, while he and Otto resumed their friendly rivalry.
• Xiao Yan returned to his inn and spent three days cultivating, but remained at Eight-Star Great Dou Master.
• The innkeeper delivered a sealed box from the Alchemist Guild, and Xiao Yan rewarded him with a bottle of pills before going into seclusion.
• Xiao Yan opened the box with his heavenly flame and discovered two Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills inside.

Xiao Yan discovered that Frank and Otto had each given him a Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill, then risked taking both at once to advance his cultivation. After enduring the pills’ searing effects and using his hourglass divine pattern to rewind his physical condition, he broke through to Dou Ling.

• Xiao Yan recognized that the two patterned Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills came from Frank and Otto’s rivalry and decided to use them both.
• Xiao Yan swallowed both pills at once and endured their intense medicinal potency as it expanded his Dou Qi Vortex beyond the Nine-Star Great Dou Master threshold.
• Xiao Yan realized the pills could raise him only to the peak of nine stars, so he activated his recovered hourglass divine pattern to rewind his physical condition.
• Xiao Yan absorbed the remaining medicinal potency, shattered the final barrier, and successfully advanced to Dou Ling.

After reaching the Dou Ling realm, Xiao Yan prepared to leave Black Rock City but was confronted at an inn by four men sent to bring him to their master. Lin Fei’s attempt to punish him ended with all four men blasted out of the inn.

• Xiao Yan stabilized his cultivation as a one-star Dou Ling, bathed, and demonstrated his ability to condense Dou Qi into a little red duck.
• Xiao Yan ordered a feast before leaving Black Rock City and devoured the food while other diners stared.
• Four Dou Shi men approached Xiao Yan and demanded that he come with them to meet their master, but he refused.
• Lin Fei and Xue Mei watched from a nearby corner as Lin Fei explained that she had arranged the confrontation to get back at Xiao Yan.
• Xue Mei warned that Xiao Yan’s Heavenly Flames could endanger the men, and Lin Fei realized she had not considered that possibility.
• An explosion sounded inside the inn, and the four men were thrown outside trailing smoke and lined up in a row.

Xiao Yan refused Lin Fei’s invitation to a gathering at Black Rock City’s City Lord’s Mansion, but Xue Mei persuaded him by offering a swift ride to the Imperial Capital aboard her family’s flying Magical Beast. He agreed and arrived at the mansion with the two women.

• Xiao Yan knocked four men unconscious with a burst of Dou Qi and discovered Lin Fei and Xue Mei watching nearby.
• Xue Mei explained that the City Lord had invited Xiao Yan to a gathering, while Lin Fei admitted she had brought the men to trouble him.
• Xiao Yan declined the invitation and started to leave, but Xue Mei offered to have her family send Abyssal Sky to take him to his destination without delay.
• Xiao Yan accepted Xue Mei’s offer, and he, Xue Mei, and Lin Fei rode a luxurious carriage to the City Lord’s Mansion.

Xiao Yan attended a banquet at Lin En’s City Lord’s Mansion, where Lin En proposed that he marry Lin Fei and promised Black Rock City’s support. Xiao Yan rejected the proposal and challenged Yuan Heng after the guard commander warned him to keep a lower profile.

• Xue Mei and Lin Fei escorted Xiao Yan into Black Rock City’s City Lord’s Mansion, where Lin En welcomed him at a banquet for the city’s prominent families.
• Xiao Yan asked Lin En to state his purpose, and Lin En proposed that Xiao Yan marry Lin Fei.
• Lin Fei objected to the marriage, and Xiao Yan firmly rejected Lin En’s offer despite the promise of Black Rock City’s support.
• Yuan Heng warned Xiao Yan that a guard commander could easily defeat him, and Xiao Yan responded by unleashing a Great Flame Palm.

Xiao Yan challenged Yuan Heng inside Black Rock City's City Lord's Mansion and overwhelmed him despite Yuan Heng's higher cultivation. After Xiao Yan defeated Yuan Heng's Thunder Wolf Kill, Yuan Heng was left crashed against the mansion's outer wall.

• Xiao Yan struck Yuan Heng with a blood-red flaming palm, sending him through the room's wall and shaking the City Lord's Mansion.
• Yuan Gang and the mansion guards surrounded Xiao Yan, but none dared attack him.
• Yuan Heng charged Xiao Yan with his Thunder Spear, but Xiao Yan's flaming greatsword sent him flying through another wall.
• Yuan Heng unleashed Thunder Wolf Kill, and Xiao Yan countered with Mad Lion's Roar, which shattered Yuan Heng's Dou Qi Armor and hurled him through the courtyard rockeries into the outer wall.

Xiao Yan defeated Yuan Heng and persuaded Lin En to abandon his attempt to recruit him, though Lin En offered valuable gifts and then shared news of a dangerous strange land. Xiao Yan left the gifts behind but became interested in exploring the poisonous place, which Lin En believed his Heavenly Flames might let him survive.

• Xiao Yan easily defeated Yuan Heng, demonstrating strength that astonished Lin En.
• Lin En withdrew his guards and gave up trying to recruit Xiao Yan, recognizing the danger of antagonizing him.
• Lin En offered Xiao Yan ten valuable treasures, but Xiao Yan refused them and prepared to leave.
• Lin En told Xiao Yan that the Black Rock City Third Guard had found a strange land filled with rare spiritual materials and dense Spiritual Energy.
• Lin En explained that deadly poisonous mist had killed explorers and resisted even a Dou Ling, but said Xiao Yan's Heavenly Flames might protect him.
• Xiao Yan paused to hear more after realizing the strange land could be valuable to him.

Xiao Yan accepted Lin En’s map to a poisonous valley and promised to help Black Rock City if needed. He then traveled with Xue Mei to the Alchemist Guild, where they arrived as two master Alchemists argued over whose signature should appear first.

• Lin En gave Xiao Yan a map to a hidden valley, and Xiao Yan accepted the favor while offering to compensate the City Lord’s Mansion through the Alchemist Guild.
• Xue Ling offered Xiao Yan a ride to the Imperial Capital on the Xue Family’s private Flying Beast, and Xiao Yan agreed to visit the guild first.
• Xue Mei accompanied Xiao Yan to the guild, where he encouraged her to focus on her own alchemy rather than worry about others’ opinions.
• Xiao Yan and Xue Mei entered the Alchemist Guild and heard two master Alchemists arguing over whose name should be listed first for helping obtain the Heavenly Flames.

Xiao Yan visited the Alchemist Guild, where Frank and Otto argued over whose name should be placed first beside the Heavenly Flame they had received from him. After learning that Pill King Gu He had gone to the Tagor Desert to investigate Heavenly Flame clues, Xiao Yan changed his plans and set out for the desert.

• Xiao Yan and Xue Mei found Frank and Otto arguing over whose name should go first on a plaque commemorating the Heavenly Flame.
• Xue Mei suggested that Frank and Otto settle the dispute by asking which of their Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills Xiao Yan had taken first.
• Xiao Yan revealed that he had taken both pills at once and reached the One-Star Dou Ling realm at age seventeen.
• Xiao Yan told Frank and Otto that he planned to seek Pill King Gu He at the Misty Cloud Sect, but Frank said Gu He had left for the Tagor Desert to search for Heavenly Flame clues.
• Xiao Yan changed his plans and hurried toward the Tagor Desert, suggesting Frank and Otto put their names side by side.

Xue Mei brought Xiao Yan to the Xue Family’s Flying Station and arranged for him to travel to the Tagor Desert aboard their Azure Sky Sparrow, Abyssal Sky. After Xue Mei woke the giant Magical Beast with her Signal Whistle, it carried them into the sky.

• Xue Mei showed Xiao Yan the Flying Station and explained how its Thick-Winged Birds transported passengers and goods.
• Xue Mei led Xiao Yan through the Xue Family’s private estate, where he learned it had cost two million gold coins to build.
• Xue Mei introduced Abyssal Sky, the Xue Family’s Fourth-Order Azure Sky Sparrow, and explained his long bond with the family.
• Xue Mei used her Signal Whistle to wake Abyssal Sky and asked him to take Xiao Yan to the Tagor Desert.
• Xue Mei and Xiao Yan climbed aboard the Sky Tower, and Abyssal Sky launched into the sky.

Xiao Yan left Xue Mei and descended into a venomous valley in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, following a marker on the map. Protected by the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame, he found a Forgetfulness River Lotus and withered Poison Lotus Seeds, then wondered what powerful presence could have poisoned them.

• Xiao Yan told Xue Mei he would investigate a nearby venomous place, thanked her for the journey, and leaped from Abyssal Sky using his Eagle Wings.
• Xue Mei watched Xiao Yan disappear into the Magical Beast Mountain Range and continued on her way.
• Xiao Yan followed the map's marker toward a region of bare mountains and descended through increasingly poisonous air, using the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame to protect himself.
• Xiao Yan carefully made his way to the bottom of a green, poison-filled lowland where the ground was littered with animal bones.
• Xiao Yan spotted a Forgetfulness River Lotus and several withered Poison Lotus Seeds, and wondered what could make them wither.

Xiao Yan harvested several Forgetfulness River Lotuses in a poisonous lowland and risked going deeper to collect a mysterious Jade Fruit. Taking the fruit awakened a colossal toad beneath the tree, and Xiao Yan fled into the air as it rose.

• Xiao Yan used the Myriad Beast Spirit Flame to protect himself while carefully harvesting a Forgetfulness River Lotus and storing its poisonous seedpod in a jade box.
• Xiao Yan collected two more lotuses as the poisonous mist intensified, then spotted a glowing Jade Fruit that kept the poison clouds away.
• Xiao Yan swallowed a Qi-Replenishing Pill and used Explosive Step to reach the fruit tree, cutting down the ripe fruit but leaving the smaller one untouched.
• The ground shook after Xiao Yan took the fruit, and he spread his Eagle Wings to escape as a gigantic toad awakened beneath the tree.

Xiao Yan tried to escape the awakened giant toad, but discovered it controlled the netherworld poison flame and was overwhelmed by its poisonous wind. He flew clear of the lowlands before losing consciousness and descending into the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

• Xiao Yan used Explosive Step and Eagle Wings to resist the toad's suction and flee, then dodged its corrosive tongue with a Great Flame Palm.
• The toad's back ignited with poisonous flames, and it unleashed a vast wind of poisonous flame across the lowlands.
• Xiao Yan recognized the toad's flame as the netherworld poison flame, ranked twentieth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.
• Xiao Yan wrapped himself in the myriad beast spirit flame, but the poisonous wind pierced his defenses and poisoned him.
• Xiao Yan flew beyond the lowlands with his Dou Qi nearly exhausted, lost consciousness, and descended into the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

After the netherworld poison flame left Xiao Yan unconscious, the Old Man and the Girl rescued him and treated his poisoning. Xiao Yan awoke in their cottage and drank a medicinal broth before learning it contained toad skin.

• Little Milk Puppy burned a Jade-Scaled Snake to ashes while protecting the unconscious Xiao Yan, but his flames spread into a wildfire.
• The Old Man and the Girl extinguished the blaze, recognized the heavenly flames and poison, and the Old Man healed Xiao Yan enough to save his life.
• The Girl carried Xiao Yan and Little Milk Puppy through a spatial path to the Old Man and the Girl's home.
• Xiao Yan awoke in a bamboo cottage, where the Girl brewed and offered him medicinal broth.
• Xiao Yan praised the broth, and the Girl told him she had added toad skin, making him spit it out.

Xiao Yan recovered at the Bamboo Lodge and watched the little girl refine superior Detoxification Pills with an unusual green flame. After learning that her grandfather was a powerful Alchemist, Xiao Yan asked him how to treat the awakened Woeful Poison Body, and the old man described two methods, beginning with the complex Poison Pill Method and then naming the Netherworld Poison Flame.

• Xiao Yan recovered under the little girl's care and practiced refining Detoxification Pills with her and the old man's permission.
• The little girl used a green flame to quickly refine six or more superior Detoxification Pills, astonishing Xiao Yan.
• The old man returned, and Xiao Yan learned from the little girl that her grandfather was a renowned Alchemist.
• Xiao Yan asked the old man to help treat his friend's awakened Woeful Poison Body and knelt to show his sincerity.
• The old man explained that the Poison Pill Method required at least three heavenly flames and rare materials, while the simpler, riskier second method required the Netherworld Poison Flame.

Xiao Yan learned how the Netherworld Poison Flame could help Xiao Yi Xian but discovered that transferring it to her would be dangerously difficult. Sheng'er offered to teach him and became his master, giving him a possible way to gain the poison immunity needed for the transfer.

• The old man explained that Xiao Yi Xian's Woeful Poison Body could use the Netherworld Poison Flame to absorb and refine poison, but awakening her body would make controlling the flame much harder.
• The old man described a method in which a fire-attribute cultivator refined the flame and transferred it to a compatible poison cultivator, and Xiao Yan considered becoming the bridge for Xiao Yi Xian.
• The old man warned Xiao Yan that confronting the Miasma-Sky Toad and transferring the flame could kill him through its poison and Xiao Yi Xian's Woeful Poison Body.
• Sheng'er suggested that her grandfather take Xiao Yan as a disciple and help him refine a Nether Crystal Pill to protect him from poison during the transfer, but the old man refused.
• Sheng'er offered to teach Xiao Yan herself, and Xiao Yan accepted her as his master and performed the disciple's bow.

After three months of alchemy lessons with Sheng'er, Xiao Yan learned he and his teacher were about to part. Sheng'er gave him a Medicine Canon and a Little Green Bottle before she and the old man departed, leaving Xiao Yan beside the great pit.

• Xiao Yan completed a flawed Qi-Replenishing Pill, and Sheng'er revealed it had burned to ash inside while praising his progress to second-rank Alchemist.
• Sheng'er told Xiao Yan that she and her grandpa were leaving, and she gave him a Medicine Canon containing future Pill Formulas and a soul-power trace that would guide him to her if he refined the Nether Crystal Pill.
• Xiao Yan and Sheng'er pinky-swore that he would learn the prescriptions and come find her.
• Sheng'er gave Xiao Yan a Little Green Bottle with ten drops of Essence of Life, which could age medicinal ingredients by a hundred years or extend a living being's lifespan by a hundred years per drop.
• After Xiao Yan thanked Sheng'er, the Bamboo Lodge vanished, and he found himself beside the great pit with only her lingering medicinal fragrance remaining.

Xiao Yan reached Mo City at the edge of the Tagor Desert, stocked up on water and food, and searched for a map to guide his journey. He found an unusual map among the dusty papers in an old shop.

• Xiao Yan reached Mo City after wandering through the Tagor Desert and entered without paying after a guard noticed his Alchemist badge.
• Xiao Yan bought enough water and flatbread for ten days, accepting the shopkeeper's special treatment but paying for the water.
• Xiao Yan went to a long-established map shop to find a detailed map of the Tagor Desert.
• Xiao Yan searched the shop's dusty cabinet and discovered a distinctive map made from a familiar material.

Xiao Yan recognized a map fragment in an old man's shop as a piece of the Ancient Treasure Map linked to a Heavenly Flame and tried to take it. After their fight, Xiao Yan broke free of the old man's ice and summoned six Dou Ling-level Flame Beasts around him.

• Xiao Yan recognized the shop's map fragment as matching the piece he had found in the Cave with Xiao Yi Xian and tried to buy it.
• The old man refused to sell the fragment, so Xiao Yan grabbed it and attempted to flee with it.
• The old man blocked the shop entrance with ice and fought Xiao Yan with an ice spear and a high-level Dou Technique.
• Xiao Yan awakened two rounds of Divine Patterns, raising his strength from Two-Star Dou Ling to Seven-Star Dou Ling, but the old man's attack froze him.
• Xiao Yan shattered the ice, apologized for his offense, and summoned six Dou Ling-level Flame Beasts around the old man.