Recaps

Zhang Xiaohua returned Nie Qianyu safely to Hui Chun Valley, won its marriage contest, and earned the valley’s trust. While seeking a way to reach the Incense-Passing Cult and learn more about his missing brother, he studied Hui Chun Valley’s medical and alchemical arts and demonstrated a new way to refine pills.

• Nie Qianyu persuaded Zhang Xiaohua to stay at Hui Chun Valley, where Valley Master Nie revealed the marriage contest and the danger facing the valley, and Zhang Xiaohua agreed to compete in her place.
• Zhang Xiaohua, using the name Ren Xiaoyao, defeated Long Linye and won the final contest, then fought off a group of conspirators who used a formation and poisoned weapons.
• Valley Master Nie announced Zhang Xiaohua as the victor and postponed the wedding, and Zhang Xiaohua later helped Elder Yue release a fighter’s sealed acupoints and learned more about Nie Qianyu’s home.
• Zhang Xiaohua asked Valley Master Nie and Elder Yue about the Incense-Passing Cult, hoping to find his brother, and they offered to send him with Hui Chun Valley’s herb-tending youths when the Cult next recruited.
• Lu Meng challenged Zhang Xiaohua over whether he should stay at Peach Blossom Nunnery, but lost a strength test and agreed not to object, and Zhang Xiaohua gained jade pendants and found an Artifact Refining Compendium among them.
• Over the next two months, Zhang Xiaohua studied Hui Chun Valley’s medical, herbal, and pill-making records, and his work at Mu Qingxuan’s Qihuang Institute deepened his understanding of medicine and the Heavenly Way.
• Valley Master Nie took Zhang Xiaohua and Nie Qianyu into the inner valley, where Zhang Xiaohua saw the medicinal fields and alchemy caves and learned how Hui Chun Valley used underground fire and specialized cauldrons.
• Zhang Xiaohua used true qi to refine herbs into Blood Replenishing Pill powder, after Valley Master Nie failed to repeat the process, Zhang Xiaohua offered to teach him a Big Dipper Sect method for controlling internal force.

Zhang Xiaohua refined Hui Chun Valley’s pills, learned ancient herb lore, and deepened his cultivation while Valley Master Nie negotiated with the Jade Standing Alliance. After defeating Tong Ba in a strength contest, Zhang Xiaohua traded for a mysterious book and discovered the Azure Water Sword’s power.

• Zhang Xiaohua offered Valley Master Nie a technique for using internal force to imitate true qi, then secured permission to study Hui Chun Valley’s pill formulas and refine pills in a separate room.
• Zhang Xiaohua studied the Grain Abstinence Pill and the Five Elements, refined pills with unusually strong potency, and began exploring Hui Chun Valley for herbs.
• Zhang Xiaohua encountered Elder Zhang while gathering Sun Grass, learned its ancient name was Crimson Flame Grass, and agreed to build experience before attempting to refine the valley’s sole Crimson Flame Pill.
• Zhang Xiaohua used Elder Zhang’s furnace to refine pills, studied his Compendium of Herbs, and advanced his cultivation to the peak of the sixth layer while gaining new insight into concealing it.
• Valley Master Nie defended his trust in Zhang Xiaohua to the Jade Standing Alliance, whose leaders discussed his origins and heard that Tong Ba wanted to challenge him in strength.
• Tong Ba failed to lift Zhang Xiaohua’s heavy sword and conceded defeat, giving him the Weapon Forging Gate booklet as the contest’s wager.
• Si Yakong asked Zhang Xiaohua for the Great Evolution Five Elements Formation, and Zhang Xiaohua instead proposed a fair trade for the formation’s secrets.
• Zhang Xiaohua accepted Si Yakong’s Wordless Heavenly Book for the Big Dipper Sect to study, then tested the Azure Water Sword and found it produced a powerful sword radiance when charged with true qi.

Zhang Xiaohua unlocked the Wordless Heavenly Book, repaired the formation flags, and secretly refined Meridian Nourishing Pills that yielded six Crimson Flame Pills. As the Incense-Passing Cult arrived and Zhang Xiaohua was accepted as a medicine boy, Nie Qianyu grieved his departure, and Lord Kong recognized him at their first meeting.

• Zhang Xiaohua unlocked the Wordless Heavenly Book and received the Artifact Refining Under Heaven manual, then used it to repair his three formation flags.
• Zhang Xiaohua taught Nie Qianyu the Great Evolution Five Elements Formation and began secretly refining Meridian Nourishing Pills with Hui Chun Valley’s Crimson Flame Pill ingredients.
• Nie Qianxiu and Qiangsheng pressured Valley Master Nie to send Qiangshi to the Incense-Passing Cult, and Valley Master Nie eventually agreed.
• The Incense-Passing Cult convoy arrived, and Steward Yang agreed to recommend Zhang Xiaohua for entry after hearing how he had helped Hui Chun Valley.
• Lord Kong permitted Steward Yang to remain for a day, and Nie Qianyu told Zhang Xiaohua he had been accepted as a medicine boy, but he refused to stay with her.
• Zhang Xiaohua completed the refinement, producing nine Meridian Nourishing Pills and six Crimson Flame Pills, then gave five Crimson Flame Pills to Valley Master Nie and kept one.
• Steward Yang introduced Lord Kong to Zhang Xiaohua, and Lord Kong recognized him and stared in surprise.