Chapter Summaries

After recovering from a mysterious illness that heightened his senses, Xu Qingtong watched a bloodied stranger collapse at his family’s gate and saw his father die after contact with him. A strange white gleam then flew from the stranger into Xu Qingtong’s birthmark, leaving the boy dizzy.

• A wandering physician gave Xu Zicai a peachwood plaque bearing the name Shentu and said Xu Qingtong needed a renowned master.
• At eight, Xu Qingtong woke from a three-day fever after dreaming that threads split him into two identical furry balls.
• After the illness, Xu Qingtong noticed his head felt larger and discovered he could see and hear things from extraordinary distances.
• Xu Qingtong heard someone at the gate and woke Xu Zicai, who opened it and was struck down beside a bloodied stranger.
• Xu Qingtong warned Chen Shi that the men might be poisoned, but found Xu Zicai had stopped breathing and revived his fainted mother.
• A pale gleam rose from the dead stranger, entered Xu Qingtong’s birthmark, and left him dizzy.

After his father’s death, Xu Qingtong and his mother sold their possessions and set out for Bingzhou to seek help from his uncle, Chen Jialiang. On the road, they shared a carriage with several travelers and approached the bandit-haunted Black Wind Pass.

• Xu Qingtong cremated his father and the stranger, then found a strange pouch among the stranger’s ashes and soaked it in limewater.
• Xu Qingtong’s mother decided they would leave for Houtang Town to stay with her brother, Chen Jialiang, and Xu Qingtong could learn a trade from him.
• Xu Qingtong tested the pouch’s soaking water on a chicken, found the bird unharmed, and kept the pouch after failing to open it.
• Xu Qingtong and his mother sold or gave away their possessions, then traveled to Bluestone Town and booked passage to Bingzhou.
• Xu Qingtong met fellow passengers Huang Yuan and Li Changde during the journey, and the carriage reached a point twenty li from Black Wind Pass.
• Huang Yuan urged the passengers to continue toward Liuqiao Town, and the driver drove the carriage onward.

Xu Qingtong and his mother were caught in a bandit ambush at Black Wind Pass, where his mother sacrificed herself to help him escape. Xu Qingtong fled into the woods and collapsed unconscious in a haystack near a farmhouse.

• Four bandits stopped the carriage and robbed its passengers, and the leader killed Huang Yuanwai.
• Liu Er killed two bandits but was wounded, while the leader sent another bandit after Li Changde.
• Xu Qingtong fled with his mother, but the bandit leader caught up with them.
• Xu Qingtong's mother begged the leader to spare her son, then bit his crotch and held him while Xu Qingtong ran.
• The bandit leader struck Xu Qingtong's mother repeatedly, and Xu Qingtong escaped into the woods, evaded pursuit, and collapsed unconscious in a haystack.

After escaping the bandit chief, Xu Qingtong fell asleep in a haystack and was attacked in his Niwang Palace by Lu Mo, the cultivator who had died at his home. With help from a second furball, Xu Qingtong defeated Lu Mo and heard his offer of cultivation knowledge and treasure in exchange for being spared.

• The wounded bandit chief abandoned his pursuit of Xu Qingtong and lamented his losses.
• Xu Qingtong hid in a haystack and fell asleep, returning in his dream to the enlarged Niwang Palace.
• Lu Mo revealed that he had sent his primordial spirit into Xu Qingtong and tried to devour him.
• Xu Qingtong called forth a second furball, and the two furballs overwhelmed and devoured most of Lu Mo's shadow.
• Lu Mo offered to teach Xu Qingtong cultivation and give him his Storage Bag if Xu Qingtong spared him and found him a suitable body.
• Xu Qingtong questioned Lu Mo about the Biluozong, spiritual roots, his near-death, and the Storage Bag.

Lu Mo explained cultivation, spirit roots, and storage bags to Xu Qingtong, hoping to persuade him to find a body and release him. Xu Qingtong instead devoured Lu Mo’s primordial spirit, and the Biluozong learned that Lu Mo’s Life Jade Token had shattered.

• Lu Mo described the three great sects and explained how spirit roots let cultivators absorb spiritual energy.
• Lu Mo explained that fewer spirit-root attributes generally meant faster cultivation, while mutated roots could be even stronger.
• Lu Mo told Xu Qingtong that a storage bag was protected by its owner’s spiritual sense imprint, which persisted as long as the owner lived.
• Xu Qingtong decided Lu Mo might betray him and lunged at him with both primordial spirits, tearing into and killing him.
• A disciple at the Biluozong saw Lu Mo’s Life Jade Token shatter and ran to report the news to the Third Elder.

After waking from his encounter with Lu Mo, Xu Qingtong recovered with help from an elderly couple and made the arduous journey to Houtang Town. He found his uncle, Physician Chen Jialiang, and revealed his identity by kneeling before him.

• Biluozong's Sect Master Peng Zide ordered a discreet investigation into Lu Mo's death, while Xu Qingtong woke and realized his dream had shown him the truth about the cultivation world.
• Xu Qingtong asked an old farmer for help, and the farmer and his wife treated his wounds, gave him clothes, and fed him.
• Xu Qingtong declined the elderly couple's offer to stay and set off for Houtang Town to find his uncle.
• After more than ten days on the road, Xu Qingtong reached Houtang Town and learned that his uncle's Spring Rejuvenation Hall was nearby.
• Xu Qingtong confirmed that the physician was Chen Jialiang, then knelt and introduced himself as Chen Jialiang's nephew.

Xu Qingtong reunited with his uncle, Chen Jialiang, and told him how his parents had died and how he had survived the journey. Chen Jialiang welcomed him into the family and treated him with a costly medicinal bath that restored his strength.

• Chen Jialiang recognized Xu Qingtong, brought him inside, and introduced him to Madam Zhang and Chen Ruoling.
• Xu Qingtong told Chen Jialiang that both his parents had died, and his uncle and aunt grieved with him.
• Xu Qingtong recounted his mother's murder, his escape, and his difficult journey to find his uncle, while keeping his soul battle with Lu Mo secret.
• Chen Jialiang prepared a medicinal bath for Xu Qingtong, who fell asleep in the tub and later woke feeling much stronger.
• Xu Qingtong lifted the wooden tub and carried it outside, astonishing Chen Ruoling and Chen Jialiang.
• Chen Jialiang explained that the bath had cost ten taels of silver, and Xu Qingtong resolved to care for his uncle in return.

Xu Qingtong persuaded Chen Jialiang to teach him medicine and formally became his disciple. He began helping at the clinic and showed extraordinary talent by memorizing hundreds of medicinal ingredients in a single night.

• Xu Qingtong asked Chen Jialiang to teach him medicine, explaining that he was fascinated by medicine and hoped to develop remedies that could strengthen the body and prolong life.
• Chen Jialiang agreed after Xu Qingtong committed to studying medicine, and Xu Qingtong performed the ceremony to become his disciple.
• Chen Jialiang instructed Xu Qingtong to help dispense prescriptions during the day and study illustrated guides to medicinal substances in the evenings.
• Xu Qingtong helped at the clinic the next day, quickly locating ingredients from Chen Jialiang's explanations and impressing his uncle with his memory.
• That evening, Xu Qingtong memorized a pharmacopoeia of more than three hundred ingredients in under four hours, then read a second book until past three in the morning.

Xu Qingtong amazed Chen Jialiang and his family with his extraordinary memory and learned quickly through the medical books in his study. Three months later, he discovered the mysterious Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art, which he could neither understand nor memorize after one reading.

• Xu Qingtong suggested replacing notopterygium with angelica pubescens root, and Chen Jialiang explained that the more expensive herb would be unaffordable for the patient.
• Chen Jialiang tested Xu Qingtong's claim that he had memorized two pharmacopoeias, then watched him recite them and another medical book flawlessly.
• Chen Jialiang told Madam Zhang and Chen Ruoling about Xu Qingtong's ability, and Xu Qingtong demonstrated writing with both hands.
• Chen Jialiang assigned Xu Qingtong to study the books in the study before joining him to learn how to examine patients.
• After three months of reading, Xu Qingtong found the Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art and struggled to understand or memorize it.

Xu Qingtong realized the Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art was a cultivation method and began practicing it, sensing spiritual energy and forming a small qi current in his dantian. After discovering he could perceive his surroundings with divine sense, he told Chen Jialiang about his experience, leaving his uncle astonished.

• Xu Qingtong reinterpreted the Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art as an immortal cultivation method and began to understand its instructions.
• Xu Qingtong practiced overnight, guided bright specks of spiritual energy through his body, and formed a bean-sized current of qi in his dantian.
• Xu Qingtong's practice was interrupted at dawn, leaving his qi and blood unsettled, but he found he could sense his dantian and recover his composure.
• Xu Qingtong used his divine sense to observe the courtyard and nearby rooms, discovering that its clear range was about three to four zhang.
• Xu Qingtong told Chen Jialiang that he had practiced the arts of immortals, and Chen Jialiang reacted with disbelief.

Xu Qingtong discovered that his divine sense could detect and absorb spiritual qi from medicinal ingredients, greatly accelerating his cultivation but consuming the ingredients. After telling Chen Jialiang what happened, he found Lu Mo’s Storage Bag and opened it with his divine sense, discovering crystals, bottles, jars, and jade slips inside.

• Xu Qingtong told Chen Jialiang that he had formed a dantian and cultivated magic power, and Chen Jialiang was delighted that another immortal might emerge from the Chen family.
• Xu Qingtong used his divine sense while meditating and detected spiritual qi in medicinal ingredients stored in the Front Hall.
• Xu Qingtong absorbed spiritual qi from a piece of dragon bone, a ginseng root, and an amethyst, turning all three ingredients into herbal dregs and growing his magic power.
• Xu Qingtong admitted to Chen Jialiang that he had consumed the ingredients, and Chen Jialiang encouraged him to take more if they could help his cultivation.
• Xu Qingtong found Lu Mo’s Storage Bag beneath his pillow and opened it with his divine sense, revealing crystals, bottles, jars, and jade slips.

Xu Qingtong studied a Jade Slip about cultivation and began using spirit stones to advance his practice. After ten days of cultivation, he broke through to the first level of the qi refining stage, leaving his body covered in foul-smelling impurities.

• Xu Qingtong read a Jade Slip explaining cultivation realms and techniques, then told Chen Jialiang not to disturb him while he cultivated.
• Xu Qingtong showed his family spirit stones from his Storage Bag and gave Chen Ruoling a red fire-attribute stone.
• Xu Qingtong cultivated with spirit stones overnight and continued for ten days, discovering he could not absorb energy from a metal-attribute stone.
• Xu Qingtong felt his dantian reach capacity and followed the Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art to temper his meridians and body.
• Xu Qingtong broke through to the first level of the qi refining stage as impurities seeped from his skin, then sensed Chen Jialiang returning for lunch.

Xu Qingtong stabilized his first level of Qi Refining while studying cultivation techniques, then broke into a mysterious black jade slip and received Dong Xuanzi’s True Origin Scripture. He began studying the soul-refining art, whose further teachings remained inaccessible to him.

• Xu Qingtong told Chen Jialiang’s family that he had advanced and asked Chen Ruoling to keep his immortal cultivation secret.
• Xu Qingtong tried cultivating and practicing spells at the same time, failed, then successfully studied a jade slip while cultivating until his first level of Qi Refining stabilized.
• Xu Qingtong forced his divine sense into the black jade slip and heard Dong Xuanzi reveal the True Origin Scripture and warn him not to pass on its teachings.
• The black jade slip vanished, and Xu Qingtong found that Dong Xuanzi’s voice would recite only the scripture’s first level.
• Xu Qingtong began studying the True Origin Scripture and learned that it refined the soul by transforming divine sense.

Xu Qingtong cultivated the True Origin Scripture, learned to shape his primordial spirits, and eventually forged one into a replica of his physical body. He left the chapter exhausted but determined to make the replica capable of cultivating alongside him.

• Xu Qingtong practiced the True Origin Scripture until he learned to make his primordial spirits keep the shapes he gave them.
• Xu Qingtong realized that repeated practice had made his control of a primordial spirit instinctive, allowing him to advance to the scripture’s second level.
• Xu Qingtong used one primordial spirit to help sculpt the other into his likeness, then forged the second spirit into the same form.
• Xu Qingtong tried to make a primordial spirit practice the Object Manipulation Technique, but found it lacked meridians and a dantian.
• Xu Qingtong spent five days forging a primordial spirit with the same inner structure as his physical body, succeeding despite exhaustion and repeated failures.

On New Year's Eve, an immortal sect visitor tracked down Xu Qingtong and questioned him about a dead cultivator and the magic power in his body. After Xu Qingtong explained away his cultivation and charmed the visitor, the man agreed to take him away to cultivate immortality, and Xu Qingtong left at once.

• A visitor arrived at Chen Jialiang's clinic and demanded to see Xu Qingtong.
• Xu Qingtong warned Chen Jialiang to let him handle the visitor and to hide the spirit stone and pouch if he did not return.
• Xu Qingtong told the visitor that a poisoned stranger had died at his family home alongside Xu Qingtong's father, and claimed the stranger had left no belongings.
• The visitor detected magic power in Xu Qingtong and demanded to know its source, so Xu Qingtong claimed he had practiced an ancestral body-strengthening book.
• The visitor examined the Five Elixirs Origin Refinement Art, offered to take Xu Qingtong to cultivate immortality, and Xu Qingtong agreed to leave immediately.

Xu Qingtong left Houtang Town with Elder Sun and arrived at Jade Spring Mountain, where the sect master investigated his account of Zuo Mo’s death and discovered his cultivation. The sect master judged Xu Qingtong’s four spiritual roots too poor for the sect, leaving Elder Sun to decide whether he could stay as Elder Sun thought of a solution.

• Xu Qingtong said farewell to Chen Jialiang and left Houtang Town with Elder Sun, who explained Jade Spring Mountain’s history during their flight.
• Elder Sun brought Xu Qingtong through Jade Spring Mountain’s hidden gate and reported to the sect master that Xu Qingtong knew about Zuo Mo’s death.
• Xu Qingtong recounted the night of Zuo Mo’s death, and the sect master concluded that Lu Mo had died after exploring a dangerous area on Bluestone Mountain.
• Elder Sun asked the sect master to let Xu Qingtong remain in the sect and explained that the boy had already cultivated magic power.
• The sect master discovered Xu Qingtong had four spiritual roots and left the decision about his future to Elder Sun, who thought of a plan.

After Jade Spring Mountain rejected Xu Qingtong as a disciple because of his poor aptitude, Sun Biao placed him as an assistant at the Jade Spring Commerce Association in a cultivators’ market. Xu Qingtong settled into his new room and learned about the shop’s work from Wu Zheng, then began planning his future.

• Sun Biao told Xu Qingtong that he would work at a sect shop, and Xu accepted the arrangement rather than return to his uncle in failure.
• Sun Biao took Xu Qingtong to a cultivators’ market and introduced him to Shopkeeper Gu at the Jade Spring Commerce Association.
• Shopkeeper Gu questioned Xu Qingtong about his background, introduced him to Wu Zheng, and had Wu Zheng show him to a room in the rear courtyard.
• Xu Qingtong cleaned his room, and Wu Zheng brought him steamed buns and explained the shop’s staff, goods, and business.
• After Wu Zheng left, Xu Qingtong lay down and began planning his future.

Xu Qingtong began working at the shop and learned that talismans could be sold for far more than the paper used to make them. After studying the Talisman-Making Method and practicing with his divine sense in his Niwang Palace, he successfully made a Fireball Talisman, though the effort left him exhausted.

• Xu Qingtong started his first day at the shop, where Wu Zheng explained that the man in the bamboo hat was selling talismans.
• Wu Zheng described how talismans were made and warned Xu Qingtong that the process required strong magic power and divine sense and could be costly to practice.
• Xu Qingtong asked to learn talisman making, and Wu Zheng gave him a jade slip to study before seeking the shopkeeper's approval for practical training.
• Xu Qingtong studied the Talisman-Making Method and learned the basics of talisman tiers, grades, and how spiritual energy was bound to talisman paper.
• Xu Qingtong used one primordial spirit to study while the other simulated drawing a Fireball Talisman in his Niwang Palace, and after six hours he successfully made one.
• Xu Qingtong felt drained by the effort but was satisfied with his first Fireball Talisman.

Xu Qingtong studied the Talisman-Making Method and spent the day learning to make Fireball Talismans. After producing six, he impressed Shopkeeper Gu, who offered him materials and payment, and Xu Qingtong asked for a spirit stone in advance to speed his recovery.

• Xu Qingtong told Wu Zheng he had studied talisman making, and Shopkeeper Gu supplied him with a brush, cinnabar, and ten sheets of Talisman Paper to practice.
• Xu Qingtong failed twice from rushing and losing focus, then ran out of spiritual power on a third attempt and meditated to recover.
• Xu Qingtong persisted and successfully made his first Fireball Talisman, then continued practicing throughout the day.
• Xu Qingtong used all ten sheets and produced six Fireball Talismans, astonishing Wu Zheng and Shopkeeper Gu.
• Shopkeeper Gu offered to supply materials and pay one spirit stone for every ten talismans, and Xu Qingtong asked for one spirit stone in advance to recover his magic power faster.

Xu Qingtong spent months earning spirit stones and improving his talisman-making, then experimented with infusing extra magic power into a Fireball Talisman. Shopkeeper Gu appraised his successful experiment as surpassing the upper grade of low-tier talismans and approaching the lower grade of mid-tier talismans.

• Xu Qingtong sold his talismans through Wu Zheng and earned spirit stones while limiting his daily output to avoid neglecting cultivation.
• Over half a year at the Jade Spring Commerce Association, Xu Qingtong mastered nearly every kind of low-tier talisman, strengthened his meridians, and bought a Low-Grade Storage Bag.
• Xu Qingtong tested how much extra magic power cinnabar and talisman paper could withstand, and several sheets of paper dissolved during his experiments.
• Xu Qingtong used twenty percent more magic power and both primordial spirits' divine sense to complete a stronger Fireball Talisman.
• Wu Zheng examined Xu Qingtong's new talisman, and Shopkeeper Gu appraised it as approaching the lower grade of the middle tier.