Chapter Summaries

Du Shu learned that Spirit Pets could sell for enormous sums and took a Snow Monkey from Qiu Guangqiong to study the business. Meanwhile, Tang Yan received a Ninth Tier Spirit Beast and began investigating whether it could cultivate, leaving the Shadow Ape training with a staff at the newly designated Reach the Summit Forbidden Ground.

• Du Shu assured Qiu Guangqiong that the Autumn Pill Sect could attend the Pill Dao School without cooperating with Reach the Summit, and urged her to send more students.
• Qiu Guangqiong showed Du Shu two Snow Monkeys and explained that a particularly attractive female could sell for two hundred million taels of silver.
• Du Shu paid Qiu Guangqiong two hundred million taels for the female Snow Monkey and took her along to study the Spirit Pet business.
• Ten days later, Tang Yan received a Ninth Tier Shadow Ape from Heavenly Enchantress and designated Splendid Peak as the Reach the Summit Forbidden Ground.
• Tang Yan examined the Shadow Ape and found that its meridians made ordinary cultivation difficult, but he resolved to research Spirit Beast cultivation and teach it martial arts.
• The Shadow Ape chose a staff, so Tang Yan forged one to suit it and demonstrated basic movements for it to practice.

Tang Yan trained the Shadow Ape while Medicine Valley planned to challenge the Reach the Summit Academy and expand its own influence. Du Shu returned with a human-speaking Snow Monkey, which Tang Yan and Fang Xuan teased him about before asking what he had learned on his trip.

• The Shadow Ape mastered basic staff techniques, and Tang Yan taught it killing moves while training the Earth Azure Lion in assassination and survival skills.
• Medicine Valley leaders learned that Heavenly Enchantress might have reached transcendent grade and prioritized contacting her.
• Qin Donghai decided Medicine Valley would challenge Reach the Summit Academy on its opening day, then establish a rival academy and partnerships.
• Tang Yan corrected the Shadow Ape as it practiced Divine Dragon's Three Tail Swings.
• Du Shu returned with a clothed Snow Monkey that understood human speech, and Fang Xuan and Tang Yan joked that it was Du Shu's wife.
• Tang Yan asked Du Shu whether he had gained anything on his trip.

Tang Yan discovered that the snow monkey Du Shu had brought back was a human girl transformed into a spirit pet and vowed to investigate the people responsible. After the second Reach the Summit Pill Dao Academy session began, a herald announced the arrival of Medicine Valley’s Grand Elder just as Tang Yan was about to demonstrate alchemy.

• Du Shu reported that 144 factions had agreed to send 11,635 students to the second academy session and described the huge profits in the spirit pet trade.
• Tang Yan examined the snow monkey, realized she was a human girl disguised with a snow monkey’s pelt, and restored her appearance after removing the pelt.
• Tang Yan gave the girl a Primordial Divine Soul Pill, arranged for her care, and promised to investigate the trafficking and transformation of children.
• Heavenly Enchantress delivered a Gold-Entwining Green Vine Beast, which Tang Yan placed among the plants in Front Peak’s square.
• Twelve thousand and sixty-three students attended the second academy’s opening ceremony, where Tang Yan began explaining alchemy techniques and refining methods.
• A herald announced that the Grand Elder of Medicine Valley had arrived before Tang Yan could begin his alchemy demonstration.

Medicine Valley’s Grand Elder Xi Ziduan challenged Tang Yan to an alchemy contest to test Reach the Summit Academy’s reputation. Tang Yan accepted and spent the early contest explaining Xi Ziduan’s methods while delaying his own pill refinement.

• Xi Ziduan arrived with Medicine Valley’s disciples and said they had come to judge whether Reach the Summit Academy deserved its reputation.
• Tang Yan accepted Xi Ziduan’s challenge to refine an eighth-rank Void Origin Pill within four hours, with neither contestant allowed to leave the pill unfinished.
• Tang Yan proposed transparent Mystic Crystal Cauldrons, and Xi Ziduan agreed to use them despite their drawbacks for high-grade pills.
• Xi Ziduan began refining twenty-six ingredients at once while Tang Yan praised his technique and criticized his ingredient choices and refinement methods.
• Tang Yan offered Xi Ziduan an hour’s head start and continued commenting instead of refining, frustrating Xi Ziduan as the contest continued.

Tang Yan defeated Medicine Valley’s Grand Elder Xi Ziduan in an alchemy contest, winning over the gathered Alchemy Masters and boosting Reach the Summit Academy’s reputation. After the demonstration, Tang Yan warned Fang Xuan and Du Shu that Medicine Valley was targeting Reach the Summit and might try to seize its market.

• Tang Yan began refining ninety-six ingredients at once, explained his man-cauldron unity technique, and purified them faster than Xi Ziduan.
• Tang Yan produced six superior-quality pills while Xi Ziduan made four middling-quality pills, and Xi Ziduan conceded defeat.
• Xi Ziduan left Medicine Valley disciples behind to study at Reach the Summit, while privately resolving to find a way to curb its rise.
• Tang Yan demonstrated simultaneous refining with eighteen Mystic Crystal Cauldrons and let Reach the Summit’s Pill Masters teach the eager audience.
• Tang Yan told Fang Xuan and Du Shu that Xi Ziduan had come to undermine the academy and that Medicine Valley might next copy its business model to take its market.

Tang Yan anticipated Medicine Valley’s efforts to dominate the Borderlands and urged Reach the Summit to prepare for retaliation while rallying its allies. Medicine Valley’s leaders considered destroying Reach the Summit, then learned that Reach the Summit had formed a Life-and-Death Alliance with several powerful forces and postponed their decision to plan more carefully.

• Fang Xuan predicted that Medicine Valley would seize the Borderlands’ pill market and seek an excuse to attack Reach the Summit, so Tang Yan ordered preparations, surveillance, and a meeting with their allies.
• Fang Xuan spread news of Xi Ziduan’s defeat, and rumors damaged Medicine Valley’s reputation while boosting Reach the Summit’s standing.
• Qin Donghai and Medicine Valley’s elders discussed using a pretext to destroy Reach the Summit, but a spy reported that Reach the Summit and its allies had formed a Life-and-Death Alliance.
• Qin Donghai decided that Medicine Valley needed a more meticulous plan and scheduled another meeting in three days.

Tang Yan completed two defensive and escape formations for Reach the Summit while Qin Donghai organized a scheme to isolate the sect and provoke conflict. The chapter ended with Tang Yan buying a Chaos Demon Turtle from the Heavenly Enchantress and trading her protective armor for a spirit herb.

• Tang Yan worked on Reach the Summit's Mountain-Guarding Formation and instructed Wind-Chasing Hall to search for a relocation site.
• Qin Donghai and Medicine Valley's elders planned to use a Spirit Shaman Clan investigation as a pretext to provoke Reach the Summit while stirring up conflicts against its allies.
• Qin Donghai assigned elders to recruit the Profound Extremity Sect, Poison Sect, and Azure Cloud Sect into schemes against the Artifact Pavilion, Fengyun Clan, and Star-Gazing Pavilion, and ordered other measures to distract their enemies.
• Tang Yan finished both formations, told Fang Xuan how to activate them, and waited for the Heavenly Enchantress instead of investigating the Snow Monkey incident.
• The Heavenly Enchantress brought Tang Yan a Chaos Demon Turtle, explaining that its mental attack could daze even a Transcendent Grade expert, and Tang Yan bought it for twenty pills.
• Tang Yan gave the Heavenly Enchantress soft armor in exchange for a ninth-tier spirit herb.

Tang Yan learned that Medicine Valley was turning Reach the Summit’s allies against one another, then received Hall Master Cui Tong, who demanded to search the sect for the Spirit Shaman Clan. Tang Yan recognized the accusation as a provocation, but Medicine Valley barred everyone in the hall from leaving and began its search.

• Heavenly Enchantress warned Tang Yan that Medicine Valley might retaliate after its defeat, and Tang Yan brought the Chaos Demon Turtle to Reach the Summit to test its mental attack.
• Fang Xuan told Tang Yan that disputes had erupted among Reach the Summit’s allies, prompting Tang Yan to order more covert scouts to monitor Medicine Valley.
• Fang Xuan reported that Cui Tong was approaching with two hundred people, and Tang Yan ordered the sect to receive them peacefully while staying alert for a trap.
• Cui Tong arrived, dispersed most of his people around Reach the Summit, and told Tang Yan that Medicine Valley suspected the Spirit Shaman Clan was hiding there.
• Tang Yan angrily rejected Cui Tong’s demand to search the sect, but Cui Tong declared that no one in the hall could leave while Medicine Valley searched the grounds.

Tang Yan used Illusion Arrays to deceive Cui Tong's search party and protect Reach the Summit, then infiltrated Medicine Valley to place a Child Pearl but was detected by its defenses. Qin Donghai and the Grand Elder suspected the intruder was tied to Reach the Summit and ordered an investigation of talented disciples in five factions.

• Tang Yan trapped Cui Tong, Yun Fan, and the Medicine Valley search party in Illusion Arrays, making them believe they were searching Reach the Summit while its members saw them helplessly raging in the hall.
• After four hours, Cui Tong's group returned without finding anything, and Tang Yan angrily demanded an explanation before they left.
• Tang Yan told Fang Xuan he would return the next day, then flew to Medicine Valley and placed a Child Pearl nearby before deciding to infiltrate the sect.
• Tang Yan used the Stars-Shifting Array to pass Medicine Valley's Mountain-Guarding Formation, but a golden light exposed his shadow, so he teleported away.
• Qin Donghai and the Grand Elder concluded that the intruder might be from Reach the Summit's camp and ordered the Second Elder to investigate genius disciples under fifty from five suspected factions.

Tang Yan avoided Medicine Valley’s suspicions, then traveled to Cold Crow City to investigate the Celebrated Treasures Pavilion’s trade in children transformed into spirit beasts. He subdued the pavilion’s shopkeeper and guard and began questioning them about where the beasts came from.

• Cui Tong reported that Reach the Summit had allowed Medicine Valley to search its forbidden grounds, and the elders reviewed the guards’ memories.
• The Grand Elder proposed using Tidebirth Pavilion and other forces to attack Reach the Summit, and Qin Donghai ordered a secret gathering of troops near Three Peaks Cliff.
• Tang Yan learned that Medicine Valley had announced no plans to target Reach the Summit, but suspected the threat remained.
• Tang Yan traveled to Cold Crow City and entered the Celebrated Treasures Pavilion under the false name Yan Tang.
• Tang Yan overwhelmed Sun Jincheng and the seventh-grade Lord Rank elder, implanted Soul-Thought Gu in both, and demanded to know where the talking spirit beasts came from.

Tang Yan learned that Medicine Valley might be involved in the spirit-beast trade and received Heavenly Enchantress's warning about a force waiting at Three Peaks Cliff. He led Reach the Summit's fighters to surround the hidden group, where Ju Shanhai sensed their approach.

• Tang Yan learned that Sun Jincheng had sold spirit beasts for Qian Hun without knowing they were transformed people, then left a Child Pearl in the pavilion and returned to Reach the Summit.
• Tang Yan spent half a month waiting for Medicine Valley to act, then received a letter from Heavenly Enchantress warning him of experts at Three Peaks Cliff and a changed meeting place.
• Heavenly Enchantress gave Tang Yan a Blood Moon Demon Fox and reported that one Saint Level, ten Lord Rank, and twenty King Rank fighters were waiting at Three Peaks Cliff.
• Tang Yan brought Heavenly Enchantress and Reach the Summit's fighters to Three Peaks Cliff, divided his forces into nine squads, and surrounded the hiding place.
• Ju Shanhai heard a birdcall, sensed Tang Yan's approaching group, and warned the fighters with him to prepare for a likely attack.

Tang Yan and Heavenly Enchantress ambushed Medicine Valley’s disguised forces, captured Ju Shanhai, and learned of a plot to destroy Reach the Summit. Tang Yan summoned Nie Fan to Three Peaks Cliff and challenged him alone.

• Heavenly Enchantress exposed Ju Shanhai’s disguise, then defeated him as Reach the Summit fought the Medicine Valley group.
• Under Soul-Thought Gu, Ju Shanhai revealed that Medicine Valley, Heavenburn Palace, Tidebirth Pavilion, and Nie Fan planned to attack Reach the Summit.
• Reach the Summit defeated the Medicine Valley forces, and Tang Yan had Ju Shanhai summon Nie Fan from Hanguan City.
• Tang Yan told Nie Fan that Ju Shanhai had pledged allegiance to Reach the Summit and declared that he would eliminate Nie Fan.
• Tang Yan summoned Ninefold Mountain and attacked Nie Fan with Comrades in Arms.

Tang Yan defeated Nie Fan, recruited Heavenly Enchantress to attack Tidebirth Pavilion, and used a staged assault to draw Medicine Valley's forces into Reach the Summit. The attack was crushed, and Fang Xuan reassured the gathered Alchemy Masters that Reach the Summit was safe.

• Tang Yan trapped Nie Fan in repeated formations, defeated him with his Heavy Sword, implanted a Soul-Thought Gu, and took most of his supplies.
• Tang Yan persuaded Heavenly Enchantress to attack Tidebirth Pavilion in six days, counting the job as one of her remaining conditions.
• Tang Yan returned to Reach the Summit and, five days later, sent Ju Shanhai and a group of captured, gu-controlled fighters to launch the planned attack.
• Tidebirth Pavilion's forces charged into Reach the Summit, while the Mountain-Guarding Formation sealed the entrance and the Alchemy Masters waited outside.
• After four hours, a wounded Gray-Robed Elder fled north, and Fang Xuan announced that Reach the Summit had defeated the attackers and was safe.

After Reach the Summit destroyed Tides Rising Pavilion's forces, Medicine Valley debated how to undermine the rising faction and settled on a gradual campaign. Tang Yan learned its plans and approved Fang Xuan's countermeasures, leaving Reach the Summit ready to respond while keeping its informant hidden.

• A woman in red shattered Tides Rising Pavilion's Mountain-Guarding Formation as Reach the Summit demanded justice for the attack.
• Ju Shanhai told Medicine Valley's leaders that Reach the Summit had two Saint Level experts and that Tang Yan had defeated their forces, prompting Qin Donghai to call for its destruction.
• Medicine Valley's leaders chose to weaken Reach the Summit gradually by recruiting borderland alchemy factions, restricting its medicinal ingredients, and arranging assassinations.
• Tang Yan learned Medicine Valley's plans from Ju Shanhai and told Fang Xuan and Du Shu about them.
• Fang Xuan proposed matching Medicine Valley's pressure on ingredient merchants and using Reach the Summit's purchasing power to protect its supplies; Tang Yan approved the plan and ordered a campaign to damage Medicine Valley's reputation.
• Tang Yan told Fang Xuan to wait before announcing the next Pill Dao School session or stockpiling ingredients so their informant would not be exposed.

Tang Yan chose Donglai Island as a secluded base for Reach the Summit and went to inspect it, where he found an island inhabited by hostile spirit bodies. After the spirits attacked him, Tang Yan used the Divine Thunder Demon-Slaying Formation to frighten them into reconsidering their hostility.

• Fang Xuan told Tang Yan that Medicine Valley was courting borderland alchemy sects, herb merchants planned to stop supplying Reach the Summit, and the Wind-Chasing Hall had found three possible retreat locations.
• Tang Yan chose Donglai Island and secretly traveled there using the Stars-Shifting Array, then concealed the island with an Illusion Formation.
• Remembering Gu Yuanqing's account of an island filled with broken treasures and spirit bodies, Tang Yan flew to a nearby island and encountered three strange spirits.
• Tang Yan used the Spirit-Seizing Art, prompting the spirits to recognize it as a Divine Clan ability and summon thousands of spirits to attack him.
• Tang Yan formed the Divine Thunder Demon-Slaying Formation, terrifying the spirits until their red-haired leader praised him and accepted his claim that the Ancestral God had taught him the ability.

Tang Yan questioned the Spirit Bodies on Buddha-Suppressing Island and learned about the Buddha's inheritance and the island's history. At the Buddha's statue, he discovered that the Human Clan's weapons suppressed its Buddhist nature, and the Golden Dragon explained how to reveal the inheritance within it.

• Tang Yan forced the Spirit Bodies to answer his questions, learning that the Buddha was dead and his inheritance was hidden at the island's center.
• The Spirit Bodies led Tang Yan through the misty island, where he questioned a Golden Dragon about dragon ranks and learned it might help his Dragon Clan friend cultivate.
• Tang Yan reached the hundred-foot Buddha statue, found that his Divine Sense could not penetrate it, and noticed the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron react to its presence.
• Tang Yan killed three Spirit Bodies who told him to gather the Human Clan's weapons and smash the statue, suspecting their advice was a lie.
• The Golden Dragon confirmed that the weapons' killing intent suppressed the statue's Buddhist nature, and that removing them would allow Tang Yan to obtain the Buddha's inheritance.

Tang Yan gathered the damaged weapons while debating the Spirit Bodies about the Human Clan’s history and the hundred races’ invasion. After sensing Buddhist energy around the Buddha statue, he tried to take it but failed, then decided to strike it with his Heavy Sword.

• Tang Yan collected the damaged weapons and Magic Treasures, ignoring the Spirit Bodies’ pleas not to damage the Buddha statue.
• The snake-headed monster described an arhat who had argued that the hundred races deserved a share of the Human Clan’s lands and resources before the Buddha killed him.
• Tang Yan challenged the Spirit Bodies’ claims, arguing that the Human Clan had earned its prosperity through generations of hardship and that the hundred races had invaded to enslave and feed on humans.
• Tang Yan sensed Buddhist energy near the Buddha statue, which the Golden Dragon said was strongest at the island’s center.
• Tang Yan failed to move the statue or put it into his Storage Space, then raised his Heavy Sword and slashed at it.

Tang Yan uncovered the Spirit Bodies’ scheme to release a calamity that would destroy the Human Clan, eliminated them, and began repairing the weapons suppressing the Buddha’s seal. Elsewhere, Leng Ye’s Spirit Shaman ability was exposed when a brocade-robed man attacked him, and a tiger Natal God lunged at him as he fled.

• Tang Yan realized the Spirit Bodies were trying to release the Burning-Heaven Calamity Banner, returned to the island, and destroyed them with the Divine Thunder Demon-Slaying Formation.
• Tang Yan restored the island’s weapons and discovered that repairing them caused gratitude to flow into him, so he began fixing more.
• Leng Ye killed a seventh-tier Goldwater Mantis, gathered its Beast Core and foreclaws, and picked a Five-Color Lotus in Hanging Moon Marsh.
• A brocade-robed man and four companions confronted Leng Ye, demanded his Storage Ring, and attacked him when he tried to escape.
• Leng Ye’s green barrier revealed his Spirit Shaman Clan skill, and the brocade-robed man recognized him as a lead in the sect’s investigation.
• The brocade-robed man sent a tiger Natal God lunging after Leng Ye.

Medicine Valley discovered that Tang Yan had sheltered the Spirit Shaman Clan and planned to attack Reach the Summit with Yao Zhonglou's help. After learning that Leng Ye's capture had exposed them, Tang Yan ordered the Spirit Shaman Clan and Reach the Summit to evacuate to Donglai Island while keeping their pill shops open.

• Tian Shuiyun brought the captured Leng Ye to Medicine Valley, where the elders searched his memories and learned that Tang Yan had sheltered the Spirit Shaman Clan at Reach the Summit.
• Qin Donghai and the elders planned to have Yao Zhonglou lead a small force to capture Tang Yan and destroy Reach the Summit.
• Tang Yan learned from Ju Shanhai that Medicine Valley had captured Leng Ye and planned an attack, but he decided against trying to rescue him from the heavily guarded prison.
• Tang Yan gathered Reach the Summit's leaders and Zhu Jingkong's people, told them their refuge had been exposed, and ordered them to evacuate to Donglai Island.
• Tang Yan persuaded Zhu Jingkong to retreat with the others, explained why they should avoid drawing allies into the conflict, and ordered Reach the Summit's pill shops to remain open under centralized distribution.

Tang Yan arranged Reach the Summit’s evacuation to Donglai Island and set up plans to keep its intelligence and business networks operating safely. As Medicine Valley’s threat loomed, Shen Shan recognized that Tang Yan’s request for conspicuous reinforcements was meant to buy time for the faction to flee.

• Fang Xuan and Tang Yan agreed to evacuate Reach the Summit, and Tang Yan led Zi Yun and Little Dot to Donglai Island while the faction members traveled there in secret.
• Tang Yan built Zi Yun’s courtyard on the island, and Fang Xuan explained the plans for gathering intelligence, buying ingredients, and distributing pills.
• Tang Yan promised to create teleportation formations for goods and intelligence, then asked allies to send troops to Reach the Summit as a visible deterrent while the evacuation continued.
• Shen Tan received Reach the Summit’s request for a show of support and learned that Dongxue and Wan Fei would soon be picked up.
• Shen Shan deduced that Reach the Summit was abandoning its Southern Wilderness base to escape Medicine Valley, then decided to gather the Artifact Pavilion’s people and go help buy more time.