Chapter Summaries

Xiao Hua entered Jingbo City with Ma Dengsheng and Qing Fengmin, where he saw the city’s unusual entrance and bustling shops. Qing Fengmin decided to take him to Huayun Courtyard in Tianqi for his transmission talisman to be examined, while Xiao Hua noticed a shabby talisman shop and began considering an idea.

• Ma Dengsheng warned Xiao Hua to avoid the Xunyan Sect disciples, and the group saw True Person Zhuoming fly over the road into Jingbo City.
• Xiao Hua watched cultivators pass through the city’s strange radiance, then entered with Ma Dengsheng and saw the Xunyan children playfully leave their silhouettes on it.
• Qing Fengmin told Xiao Hua to accompany him to Huayun Courtyard in Tianqi so that a talisman maker could examine his transmission talisman, and Xiao Hua agreed.
• As they walked through Jingbo City’s busy streets, Xiao Hua spotted a shabby yellow talisman shop and privately considered an idea.
• Qing Fengmin stopped to greet many acquaintances, and Ma Dengsheng praised his extensive connections as Xiao Hua’s thoughts turned toward them.

Xiao Hua arrived at Heaven Forsaken’s Huayun Courtyard and spoke with Ma Dengsheng, learning about spatial arts, concealed cultivation, and Jingbo City’s leaders. As Ma Dengsheng explained how communication talismans were refined, Xiao Hua realized that his own familiarity with the method could expose him.

• Xiao Hua resolved to join Heaven Forsaken while keeping his desire to avenge Shang Hua Ming secret from Hundred Herbs Sect.
• Qing Fengmin brought the group to Huayun Courtyard, where Han Fei and Qiao Fengyue were received separately and Ma Dengsheng led Xiao Hua into a pavilion.
• Ma Dengsheng explained that spatial arts enlarged the pavilion and that Jingbo City’s formations helped power such techniques.
• Ma Dengsheng told Xiao Hua that cultivation-concealing arts could hide even a Golden Core cultivator’s strength, and that City Lord Liu and Old Man Muqiang belonged to no Xi Kingdom sect.
• Ma Dengsheng began explaining how communication talismans were refined, and Xiao Hua realized he could not plausibly know the method without having learned it.

Xiao Hua learned that joining Heaven's Forsaken would require a talisman-making assessment, but Qing Fengmin could not find any talisman makers to evaluate him. Qing Fengmin gave him a Fireball Talisman booklet and a spirit stone so he could practice and find an inn, and Xiao Hua later headed toward a talisman shop before a cloaked cultivator approached him.

• Ma Dengsheng explained that refining blank communication talismans required years of practice, while Qing Fengmin said Xiao Hua would need three talisman makers to assess his potential to join Heaven's Forsaken.
• Qing Fengmin gave Xiao Hua a Fireball Talisman booklet to study while he waited for an assessment, but told him he could not stay at Huayun Courtyard before joining.
• Qing Fengmin lent Xiao Hua a middle-grade spirit stone so he could stay at an inn, and Xiao Hua accepted it after deciding he should avoid drawing attention by refusing help.
• Ma Dengsheng directed Xiao Hua toward cheaper inns in southwest Jingbo City, and Xiao Hua left Huayun Courtyard before making his way to a yellow-talisman shop.
• As Xiao Hua approached the shop, a cloaked cultivator emerged from a nearby shop and walked directly toward him.

Xiao Hua visited the Fu Zhan Sect talisman shop in Jingbo City, where Fellow Daoist Bai explained the abilities and prices of its talismans. Xiao Hua bought low-grade Fireball Talismans and learned that higher-grade versions cost far more, while his plan to sell Communication Talismans seemed unlikely to work.

• Xiao Hua watched a cloaked cultivator threaten him and leave, then met Fellow Daoist Bai outside the Fu Zhan Sect shop.
• Fellow Daoist Bai showed Xiao Hua the Earth Evasion Talisman and explained that it concealed its user underground and hid their aura, but could not carry them far.
• Xiao Hua asked whether the shop bought talismans, but Fellow Daoist Bai refused and explained that Communication Talismans were usually made by their users.
• Xiao Hua inspected the shop's Communication Talismans and considered selling his own, then bought ten low-grade Fireball Talismans for one low-grade spirit stone.
• Fellow Daoist Bai told Xiao Hua that a mid-grade Fireball Talisman cost ten low-grade spirit stones and a high-grade one cost fifty to a hundred.

Xiao Hua bought Fireball Talismans and bargained with Bai for a tiny storage pouch before finding lodging in Jingbo City. At the inn, a shop attendant asked him for a healing pill for his gravely ill mother, and Xiao Hua remained unsure whether to trust him.

• Xiao Hua examined Bai's mid-grade and top-grade Fireball Talismans, bought talismans, and bargained for an old storage pouch.
• Xiao Hua discovered the pouch held exactly nineteen spirit stones but had only three chi of space.
• Xiao Hua paid ten low-grade spirit stones for a room at an inn and learned that a nearby Rongcao Shop branch sold ordinary medicinal pills.
• The shop attendant asked Xiao Hua for a healing pill for his mother, who had been ill for a year.
• Xiao Hua questioned why the shop attendant had chosen to ask him after stopping his requests for help two months earlier.

Xiao Hua gave Fan Yueguan a Wutuodan and followed his directions to Mò Líng Cǎo Táng, where the shopkeeper explained that a cultivator’s pill could kill Fan Yueguan’s mother. Xiao Hua realized he may have given Fan Yueguan a dangerous medicine, and the shopkeeper suspected that he had done so.

• Xiao Hua gave Fan Yueguan a Wutuodan after hearing that he sought medicine for his mother, then asked for directions to shops selling talisman supplies.
• Fan Yueguan called Xiao Hua “True Person Xiao,” and Xiao Hua set off alone toward Mò Líng Cǎo Táng after spotting a mysterious cloaked cultivator leaving a nearby inn.
• Xiao Hua found Mò Líng Cǎo Táng and clashed with its dismissive shopkeeper, who assumed he was a Rogue Cultivator.
• Xiao Hua told the shopkeeper that Fan Yueguan had recommended the shop and defended Fan Yueguan’s filial devotion.
• The shopkeeper warned that mundane people could not safely take cultivator pills, and Xiao Hua realized the Wutuodan he had given Fan Yueguan might endanger his mother.

Xiao Hua reassured himself that the Wutuodan he gave Fan Yueguan would not harm the boy, then sold aged spiritual herbs to Liang for nearly twenty middle-grade spirit stones. He left Mò Líng Cǎo Táng cautiously and went to a Yellow Talisman shop to buy materials for making talismans.

• Xiao Hua tried to retrieve the Wutuodan, but Liang told him Fan Yueguan would not return until the next morning and that the pill was safe for mortals.
• Xiao Hua offered Liang more than a dozen aged spiritual herbs, and Liang bought them for nearly twenty middle-grade spirit stones, including two extra as a token of regard.
• Xiao Hua asked Liang about obtaining a pill furnace and learning alchemy, but Liang advised him to wait until he reached the fourth layer of Qi Cultivation and explained that Rogue Cultivators lacked pill-refining methods.
• Xiao Hua left Mò Líng Cǎo Táng, checked that nobody was following him, and headed for the Yellow Talisman shop Fan Yueguan had recommended.
• Xiao Hua told the shopkeeper he wanted talisman ink, paper, and brushes, and the middle-aged cultivator showed him the supplies.

Xiao Hua bought low-grade talisman materials at the Talisman Refining Sect's shop and learned that selling ordinary yellow talismans would not earn him much. On his way back to the inn, he encountered mysterious cloaked cultivators and discovered that Fan Yueguan had already left to take the Wutuodan to his mother.

• Xiao Hua asked about prices, then had the shopkeeper select low-grade materials for crafting Fireball Talismans and paid with a mid-grade spirit stone.
• Xiao Hua learned that the shop would not buy ordinary low- or mid-grade yellow talismans and that high-grade talismans could sell for varying prices.
• Xiao Hua encountered cloaked figures on the street, and one of them flew away despite the apparent flight restriction.
• Xiao Hua returned to the inn and learned from a waiter that Fan Yueguan had left for the western city about half an hour earlier.
• Xiao Hua worried that the Wutuodan might not save Fan Yueguan's mother, then asked the waiter why people were wearing cloaks.

Xiao Hua learned that Mihuan cloaks concealed their wearers’ identities, then practiced making talismans in his room. He successfully refined an improved Communication Talisman but failed repeatedly at Fireball Talismans, and began to suspect his low-grade materials were the problem.

• The waiter explained that Mihuan cloaks hid immortals’ identities and were refined by the Seven Wonders Sect, prompting Xiao Hua to consider Jingbo City’s strength and its wariness of the kingdom’s great sects.
• Xiao Hua ended the waiter’s long explanation, secured his room, and reflected that Fan Yueguan’s comments had made the waiter covet the pills he had received.
• Xiao Hua studied Qing Fengmin’s Fireball Talisman booklet and refined a Communication Talisman with all his spiritual power, producing a better result than before.
• Xiao Hua made several blank Communication Talismans and then attempted to refine Fireball Talismans, but his spiritual power faltered and every sheet of paper burned away.
• After exhausting Ma Dengsheng’s talisman paper, Xiao Hua suspected that low-grade materials were causing his failures, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

Xiao Hua abandoned the talisman brush and discovered hand seals that let him refine superior-grade Fireball Talismans with remarkable ease. After making more than three hundred, he was left wondering whether he could eventually craft talismans without ink or paper and recover the memories behind his innate techniques.

• Xiao Hua failed to refine a Fireball Talisman with the talisman brush, even after replenishing his spiritual power and switching to specialized talisman paper.
• Xiao Hua realized he could use his fingers and spiritual power to form the talisman pattern, then recalled unfamiliar hand seals that struck the pattern onto talisman paper.
• Xiao Hua successfully refined a superior-grade Fireball Talisman and found that the process consumed very little spiritual power.
• Xiao Hua wondered whether he could refine talismans without ink or paper and reflected on his missing memories and the Suo Guang.
• Xiao Hua refined more than three hundred superior-grade Fireball Talismans with the purchased ink, while more than a thousand sheets of talisman paper remained unused.

Xiao Hua discovered that refining Fireball Talismans greatly increased his magical power, then went to the Talisman Refining Sect’s shop to return his talisman brush and sell the high-grade talismans he had made. The shop’s middle-aged cultivator agreed to inspect them, while Xiao Hua remained worried that Fan Yueguan had not returned.

• Xiao Hua found that one night of refining Fireball Talismans had increased his magical power more than three days of cultivation.
• Xiao Hua learned from the inn waiter that Fan Yueguan had still not returned, paid what he could, and left the inn.
• Xiao Hua visited the Talisman Refining Sect’s shop and asked about talisman formulas, but the boy Qing Miao rebuffed him and the middle-aged cultivator directed him toward South City’s market.
• Xiao Hua claimed he could not use the talisman brush he had bought and negotiated a return for thirty low-grade spirit stones, which the middle-aged cultivator deducted from Qing Miao’s stipend.
• Xiao Hua offered to sell his high-grade Fireball Talismans, and the middle-aged cultivator asked him to show them for inspection.

Xiao Hua asked Tian Haoguang to appraise his Fireball Talisman, and Tian recognized it as a genuine superior-grade talisman despite its low-grade materials. Tian tested its power in the shop’s secret chamber, where its blast overwhelmed the protective barrier and left both cultivators stunned.

• Xiao Hua presented his Fireball Talisman to Tian Haoguang, while Qingmiao protested that Xiao had not known its grade.
• Tian invited Xiao into the secret chamber to test the talisman, and Xiao agreed after asking who would pay for it.
• Tian examined the talisman and puzzled over how its even inscriptions and low-grade materials could produce a superior-grade result.
• Tian activated the Fireball Talisman, and its explosion nearly collapsed the azure barrier before burning a huge hole in the wall.

Xiao Hua sold Tian Haoguang one hundred unusually powerful top-grade Fireball Talismans and received spirit stones, a refund, and talisman paper. He left the Yellow Talisman shop with the sale complete and Tian Haoguang hoping to learn what better materials could produce.

• Tian Haoguang tested Xiao Hua's Fireball Talisman and concluded its power exceeded that of an ordinary top-grade Yellow Talisman.
• Tian Haoguang offered Xiao Hua one mid-grade spirit stone for each Fireball Talisman, and Xiao Hua presented one hundred of them.
• Tian Haoguang inspected the talismans and paid Xiao Hua one hundred mid-grade spirit stones.
• Tian Haoguang returned two mid-grade spirit stones for the talisman brush and gave Xiao Hua one hundred sheets of top-grade talisman paper.
• Tian Haoguang asked Xiao Hua to bring more powerful talismans made with better materials, and Xiao Hua left the shop.

Xiao Hua escaped the talisman shop with a fortune and was later found by Fan Yueguan, whom he feared had come to complain about the medicine. Fan Yueguan instead thanked him for the Wutuodan and began explaining what had happened after he brought it home.

• Xiao Hua left the shop with one hundred and twenty mid-grade spirit stones, then realized he had lost his way.
• Qingmiao complained about Xiao Hua to Zhang Zhihao, drawing Zhang Zhihao’s attention to him.
• Fan Yueguan found Xiao Hua and knelt to thank him, asking him to call him A'gen.
• Xiao Hua learned that Fan Yueguan had taken the Wutuodan home for his sick mother-in-law, who refused to take it and gave it to his five-year-old daughter instead.

Fan Yueguan told Xiao Hua how his family had shared the Wutuodan and how it cured his mother, prompting Xiao Hua to realize the pills Xiao Yuehong had left were top-grade. After a city official warned Xiao Hua not to cause trouble, he decided to leave for another inn, while Fan Yueguan asked him to visit his family in West City.

• Fan Yueguan explained that his mother and wife had both wanted the young daughter to receive the pill, but he secretly gave it to his mother instead.
• Fan Yueguan described his mother’s severe reaction to the Wutuodan, followed by her recovery and renewed strength.
• Xiao Hua realized that the pill’s unusual effect came from the Wutuodan’s rare quality and understood why Xiao Yuehong had kept the top-grade pills.
• Xiao Hua became distraught over the family’s care for one another, and a city official emerged from the lake to warn him against disturbing City Lord Zhao’s visit.
• Xiao Hua decided not to return to the Flying Fish Inn, and Fan Yueguan asked him to visit West City to accept his family’s thanks.
• Xiao Hua declined the invitation and told Fan Yueguan to care well for his mother instead.

Fan Yueguan persuaded Xiao Hua to visit his mother in West City, where she wanted to discuss important matters and thank him. Xiao Hua agreed and traveled with Fan Yueguan by shuttle boat, selecting Jingfanqi as their destination.

• Fan Yueguan begged Xiao Hua to visit his home, explaining that his mother had important matters to discuss and would not let him accept the pills unless he came in person.
• Xiao Hua agreed to go to West City after hearing that Fan Yueguan’s wife and daughter might face the same illness as his mother, and promised to attend the trade fair with him the next day.
• Fan Yueguan explained that a daily trade fair let cultivators exchange items directly, and Xiao Hua decided to spend a middle-grade spirit stone on a shuttle boat because his time in Jingbo City was limited.
• Fan Yueguan led Xiao Hua to a jade pillar beside the lake, and Xiao Hua activated it to summon a shuttle boat.
• Xiao Hua paid for the ride, selected West City, and chose the map point labeled Jingfanqi after Fan Yueguan identified it as where mortals like him lived.

Xiao Hua rode a shuttle boat through Jingbo City while Fan Yueguan explained the city’s districts and the elusive Mihuan masks. As Fan Yueguan began to tell him about his family, a huge wave violently threw the boat into the air.

• Xiao Hua activated the shuttle boat and learned that fixed routes kept the many boats from colliding.
• Fan Yueguan described Jingbo City’s four districts, the different cultivation requirements, and how West City families hoped their children would become disciples.
• Xiao Hua asked about Mihuan, and Fan Yueguan explained that masks from the Seven Wonders Sect were expensive while cheaper versions were sold by other sects.
• Xiao Hua asked Fan Yueguan about his wife and daughter, and Fan Yueguan began explaining that he had married into the Zhu family.
• A tremendous wave struck the shuttle boat and hurled Xiao Hua and Fan Yueguan toward its light barrier.

Xiao Hua witnessed the immense power of Jingbo City's Nascent Soul cultivators and resolved to reach that realm to avenge Xiao Yuehong. After the boats resumed moving, he considered how to obtain more cultivation methods and realized he needed to conceal his talent when taking Senior Qing’s talisman-crafting test.

• Xiao Hua caught Fan Yueguan and steadied him when violent waves threw them into the air, then watched as the skiffs stopped for Old Man Muqiang and honored guests to pass.
• Xiao Hua saw Old Man Muqiang, City Lord Liu Yichuan, and True Person Zhuoming aboard a dragon-shaped flying boat, and the cultivators’ pressure forced Fan Yueguan to prostrate himself.
• Xiao Hua felt the Nascent Soul cultivators’ power and vowed to reach that stage so he could avenge Xiao Yuehong and the sect against the Hundred Herbs Sect.
• After the dragon boat passed and the skiffs moved again, Xiao Hua decided he needed cultivation methods beyond the second Qi Cultivation layer and saw Tianqi’s test as his best chance to obtain one.
• Xiao Hua realized that displaying his ability to refine top-grade Fireball Talismans would expose his unusual talent, so he would need to make a low-grade talisman for Senior Qing’s test.

Xiao Hua decided to focus on his own cultivation path and declined to pursue the Hundred Zhang Old Man’s inheritance with Cai Zhuoxia. He reached Jingfanqi with Fan Yueguan, only to be stopped at its formation by a Jingbo City cultivator who questioned his ability to treat Fan Yueguan’s family.

• Xiao Hua resolved to buy a low-grade talisman brush, seek pill formulas, and rely on himself as a Rogue Cultivator.
• Xiao Hua decided not to go to Hundred Zhang Peak with Cai Zhuoxia, choosing to follow his own cultivation path instead.
• Xiao Hua and Fan Yueguan arrived at Jingfanqi, and Xiao Hua noticed that his unusual agility during the storm might be another hidden talent.
• Fan Yueguan led Xiao Hua toward the settlement’s seven-colored formation and explained that mortals needed an immortal talisman to pass through.
• A mid Foundation Establishment Jingbo City disciple confronted them, rebuked Fan Yueguan, and questioned whether Xiao Hua could treat his wife and daughter.

Xiao Hua convinced the gatekeeper to let him enter Jingfanqi and accompanied Fan Yueguan to visit his family. When Fan Yueguan’s elderly mother thanked him for saving her, the word “grandmother” stirred a faint memory in Xiao Hua.

• Xiao Hua claimed he came from a family of physicians and persuaded the old gatekeeper to let him pass.
• Xiao Hua asked Fan Yueguan to keep his healing abilities secret, and Fan Yueguan promised not to reveal them.
• Fan Yueguan led Xiao Hua through Jingfanqi, where the townspeople respectfully greeted the cultivator.
• Fan Yueguan introduced his daughter Zhu Xi'er, who asked why Xiao Hua had neither a beard nor hair.
• Old Madam Zhu came out to thank Xiao Hua and tried to kneel, stirring a hazy memory of Xiao Hua’s grandmother.