Chapter Summaries

Yunqi told the villagers the legend of Daoist Yuandan while his visualization gradually formed the deity within his Twelve-Storied Tower. On his twenty-first day in the village, he mastered solar bing fire and drew fiery essence from the villagers’ lamps, then resolved to create three-flavored true fire from the mortal world.

• Yunqi told the villagers how the divine rooster became Daoist Yuandan, the guardian figure on their door pictures and a star lord in the Hairy Head Lodge.
• Yunqi celebrated his birthday by bringing firewood and a wild boar to the village, where everyone held a bonfire feast.
• Yunqi meditated at sunrise as Red-Crest General crowed, drew golden vapor into his Twelve-Storied Tower, and completed the visualization method for solar bing fire.
• Yunqi meditated among the village lights, drew their fiery essence into the Twelve-Storied Tower, and decided to combine the essence of mortal hearths and affection into three-flavored true fire.

Yunqi left the Miao village and traveled south through demon-filled mountains, seeking shelter from heavy snow. While reflecting on his cultivation, he decided to open his lung palace with yin xin metal and recognized that the golden beetle corpse Master Sukong had given him might be the key.

• Yunqi said farewell to the Miao villagers and journeyed into the mountains with White Dragon, avoiding powerful demons along the way.
• As heavy snow fell, White Dragon found a sheltered cave, and Yunqi warmed it with his three-flavored true fire.
• Yunqi considered what palace aperture to open after his fire-aligned heart mansion and chose a lung palace nourished by yin xin metal.
• Yunqi remembered the One-Horned Rhinoceros Golden Beetle corpse Master Sukong had given him and wondered whether his teacher had intended it for this purpose.
• Yunqi considered nurturing an insect and seeking corpses, imagining that a golden corpse could become the Master of his Lung Palace.

Yunqi studied the Green Beetle Life-Transformation Scripture and considered what kind of corpse to seek before opening his Lung Palace. A fugitive called Toad and two pursuers from Redwood Ridge arrived near his cave, and Yunqi watched as the standoff grew more dangerous.

• Yunqi read about the five elemental types of corpses and decided he might need to search the northwest for a suitable Xin metal corpse.
• Yunqi heard a dog growl, extinguished his fire, and hid in the cave as Toad fled through the snow from two pursuers.
• The pursuers used Talisman Arrows to block and attack Toad, who stopped and traded insults with them from a distance.
• Yunqi recognized that the red-haired pursuers likely came from Redwood Ridge and inferred that Toad belonged to their rival Hundred Barbarian Mountain.
• Toad lost patience and bit down on one of his remaining fingers.

Yunqi watched Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu survive Toad’s bloodflame attack before meeting them in his cave. The men learned Yunqi was not Miao, and the chapter ended with them introducing themselves as members of Rong River Stockade.

• Toad used the Sacrifice Body Technique and pursued Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu with bloodflame.
• Lang Shanliu used a blood-soaked wooden stick to summon a flood dragon, which swallowed Toad and destroyed him.
• Hu Jinliu treated Lang Shanliu’s wound, and the two returned to Yunqi’s cave to speak with its occupant.
• Yunqi emerged with a white dog, and Hu Jinliu asked whether he belonged to the Immortal’s Cave or the Azure Dragon Cave.
• Yunqi said he was not Miao but had lived in a Miao stockade, and he invited the wounded men inside.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu introduced themselves as members of Rong River Stockade under Redwood Ridge.

Yunqi discussed the Miao lands and the conflict between Redwood Ridge and Hundred Barbarian Mountain with Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu. Hu Jinliu explained the sects’ origins and shared a rumor that their leaders were rival dragons fighting over the Southern Ridge dragon vein.

• Yunqi introduced himself as Cheng Qieqing and explained that he had saved a child in the Miao Stockade with a Soul-Restoring Pill.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu thanked Yunqi for his compassion, and Hu Jinliu described the Immortal’s Cave and Azure Dragon Cave.
• Lang Shanliu warned Yunqi that the Azure Dragon Cave was near the battlefront, but Yunqi said he wanted to slay monsters and vanquish demons.
• Hu Jinliu explained how the Miao and Gui people had gathered around the Red-Haired Ancestor at Redwood Ridge and the Green-Robed Ancestor at Hundred Barbarian Mountain.
• Hu Jinliu said rumors claimed the Red-Haired Ancestor was a fire-aligned Brocade Dragon and the Green-Robed Ancestor a water-aligned Black Dragon, fighting over a dragon vein that could nurture only one true dragon.

Yunqi learned why Hundred Barbarian Mountain repeatedly waged war and traveled with Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu toward Azure Dragon Cave. They reached Spring-Gazing Mountain, where Azure Dragon Cave stood.

• Hu Jinliu explained that Hundred Barbarian Mountain often provoked wars and that Green Robe used the blood of his disciples and enemies to suppress his bloodflame.
• Yunqi, Lang Shanliu, Hu Jinliu, and White Dragon left the cave and headed for Azure Dragon Cave so Yunqi could register with the sect.
• Hu Jinliu explained that Green Robe’s snow cooled Hundred Barbarian Mountain’s bloodflame cultivators but slowed the magical power of Redwood Ridge cultivators.
• Lang Shanliu and Hu Jinliu learned that Yunqi had named White Dragon Wait-Wait and teased the dog along the way.
• The group reached the vicinity of Azure Dragon Cave, and Hu Jinliu pointed out Spring-Gazing Mountain.

Yunqi arrived at Azure Dragon Cave with Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu, where Daoist Tian Fang recognized his connection to Green God Mountain and welcomed him. Tian Fang revealed that he had been friends with Yunqi’s teacher Wen Sukong and martial uncle Chen Suxing sixty years earlier, and began leading Yunqi up the mountain.

• Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu greeted Daoist Tian Fang as their ancestor and introduced Yunqi as a wandering Daoist seeking to register at an abbey.
• Yunqi introduced himself as Cheng Qieqing of Azure Cloud Abbey, and Tian Fang recognized that Green God Mountain was too well known for the name to work as an assumed identity.
• After Hu Jinliu and Lang Shanliu departed, Tian Fang asked Yunqi about Wen Sukong and Chen Suxing, and learned that Yunqi was Sukong’s nominal disciple.
• Tian Fang led Yunqi up Spring-Gazing Mountain and explained that he had met Sukong and Suxing sixty years earlier after rescuing them from the Miasma Forest.

Yunqi registered as a guest at the Azure Dragon Cave and accepted three assignments before heading to the Seven-Mile River Market. He set up the Azure Dragon Abbey stall to draw talismans and cleanse filth, leaving himself ready to serve the frontline market.

• Tian Fang escorted Yunqi to the Azure Dragon Cave, where Yunqi registered as a temporary guest.
• Yunqi claimed command arrows for supplying talismans, cleansing filth, and slaying twenty demon soldiers.
• Yunqi thanked Tian Fang and left the abbey with White Dragon for the Seven-Mile River Market.
• Market guards recognized Yunqi's Azure Dragon Cave command arrow and led him to the abbey's unattended stall.
• Yunqi raised the stall's banners for cleansing filth and drawing talismans.

Yunqi used Solar Bing Fire to cleanse and refine a Redwood Ridge cultivator’s fouled hammer, drawing a crowd to his Azure Dragon Abbey stall. After demonstrating a powerful Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talisman, he left the market clamoring to buy talismans.

• A Redwood Ridge man named Guai Xiyin asked Yunqi to remove Corrupting Spirit Water from his golden melon hammer without damaging it.
• Yunqi used Solar Bing Fire to cleanse the hammer and burn away inferior metal impurities, making its magical power flow better than before.
• Guai Xiyin praised Yunqi’s work aloud, and cultivators gathered at the stall with fouled artifacts for him to purify.
• A cultivator asked Yunqi to draw a fire talisman, and Yunqi gave him a Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talisman to test.
• The talisman produced two powerful fire dragons that melted nearby ice and snow, prompting cultivators on both banks to call out orders for more.

After his talismans helped a group escape an ambush, Yunqi’s business surged at Seven-Mile River Market, and he opened Humble Caution Studio to sell his own goods. He stocked the shop with powerful Talisman Arrows and began trading them for silver and cultivation materials, leaving the market eager to deal with him.

• A man from Yellow Stone Stockade praised Yunqi’s Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talismans for helping his group escape a demonic cult ambush and ordered fifty more, sparking a dispute among the market’s factions.
• Yunqi limited his output to twenty talismans a day and told the factions to decide how to divide them among themselves.
• After finishing his assignments, Yunqi built Humble Caution Studio, clarified that its goods were separate from his Azure Dragon Cave commission work, and returned to the cave to collect his highest-tier payment.
• Yunqi chose a sword manual and footwork manual as his payment, then returned to the market with a hidden bundle of unfinished Talisman Arrows and worked through the night.
• Yunqi opened the shop with Bright Light Blazing Flame Talisman Arrows, set their price at fifteen taels of snowflake silver or equivalent barter, and accepted a Water Intent Four Aspects Sword Unraveling Manual in exchange for two arrows.