Recaps

Jiang Yan used the Stone Book to master the Ingestion Method by enduring a dangerous day-and-night Water-Fire Organ Refining ritual. He emerged with the method mastered and prepared to test its effects.

• Jiang Yan bought spiritual materials and prepared a ritual altar in a market stone chamber.
• Jiang Yan used Azure Bear Blood and Spirit Ink to draw register characters around the altar, then swallowed a burning Redfire Ginseng.
• The Ninth-Rank Altar-Guarding Daoist Attendant register manifested and its characters sealed Jiang Yan's body as the ginseng's flames refined his stomach and intestines.
• Jiang Yan swallowed a Blood-Producing Pill and Ice Crystal Grass, enduring the clash of fire and ice as the register characters repeatedly sealed his injuries.
• After the ritual continued through a full day and night, Jiang Yan woke, put on a Daoist robe, and confirmed that he had mastered the Ingestion Method.

Jiang Yan tested the Ingestion Method by swallowing metal pellets and discovered it could speed up his physical cultivation. On his way back from the Market, he passed Xiao Li’s group without greeting them, then returned to his courtyard, where Zhang Yunhong teased him.

• Jiang Yan swallowed a copper pellet and used the Ingestion Method to digest it, confirming that the method could help him cultivate bronze skin and iron bones.
• Jiang Yan swallowed pellets of gold, copper, and iron to compare their benefits, then left the Market with Jinbao and refunded his remaining stone-chamber time.
• Jiang Yan spotted Xiao Li, Xiao Sheng, Li Yunshu, and Li Shun traveling together, but turned away without approaching them.
• Xiao Li recognized Jiang Yan, and Xiao Sheng, Li Yunshu, and Li Shun disparaged him while Xiao Li eventually told them to stop and focus on their trip outside Town.
• Jiang Yan returned to his courtyard, where Zhang Yunhong waited at the entrance and teased him about being bewitched by a woman.

Jiang Yan kept his distance from Zhang Yunhong and focused on cultivation while waiting for the Prefecture Academy’s annual examination to end. When lectures began, he hurried to the Preaching Plaza and saw senior disciples return displaying powerful and unusual transformations.

• Jiang Yan rebuffed Zhang Yunhong’s teasing, secured his room with an alarm talisman, and decided to stay cautious about her possible schemes.
• Jiang Yan spent the following days cultivating and studying the Fire-Element Pill Refining Method while waiting for lectures to begin.
• After the Dao Seed rang three times and the Preaching Plaza’s chimes sounded, Jiang Yan prepared himself and set off for the plaza.
• On Spirit Beast Road, Jiang Yan saw returning senior disciples with mutant bloodlines and beast-commanding abilities, and urged Jinbao to hurry so he could find a good seat.

Jiang Yan attended Daoist Caiyun’s lecture on the Qi-Feeding and Method-Practicing Dao and learned the Heart-Calming Incantation. After answering disciples’ questions, Daoist Caiyun stopped taking questions, and the crowd watched her expectantly.

• Jiang Yan passed through the barrier screening the Preaching Plaza and sat among the disciples waiting for the lecture.
• Daoist Caiyun arrived on a colorful auspicious cloud and lectured for a day and a night on the Qi-Feeding and Method-Practicing Dao.
• Jiang Yan asked about heart palpitations during cultivation, and Daoist Caiyun attributed them to excessive haste and pressure.
• A disciple with a variant white tiger bloodline asked the same question, prompting Daoist Caiyun to teach the Heart-Calming Incantation.
• Daoist Caiyun answered questions for another eight to ten hours, then stopped, drawing the older disciples’ expectant attention.

Jiang Yan attended Daoist Caiyun’s lecture, bought the Sun and Moon Worship Technique, and learned that his Dao Register could screen information entering his mind. After visiting the Market for supplies, he returned home and found two unfamiliar Daoists in the courtyard, likely his neighbors.

• Daoist Caiyun sold the Sun and Moon Worship Technique to the disciples attending her lecture, and Jiang Yan bought a copy for ten Spirit Stones.
• Jiang Yan pressed the jade cylinder to his forehead, and his Dao Register checked the technique’s information before letting it enter his mind.
• Xiangyun asked Daoist Caiyun to accept her as a disciple, and Caiyun made her a nominal disciple who could become a direct disciple if she reached the ninth-rank upper realm within five years.
• Jiang Yan visited the Market and bought a sunflame stone, a moonshade stone, spirit ink, and food for Jinbao.
• Jiang Yan returned home and saw two unfamiliar Daoists talking in the courtyard.

Jiang Yan met the Hide-Playing Acolyte and Gu-Eater Acolyte, then studied and practiced the Sun and Moon Worship Technique. He confirmed that its paired ritual spheres increased the Spiritual Qi available for cultivation, though they would need replacing every few months.

• Jiang Yan met the Hide-Playing Acolyte and Gu-Eater Acolyte, who sized him up after he returned to his room.
• Jiang Yan used the Stone Book to master the Sun and Moon Worship Technique and shaped a sunflame stone and a moonshade stone into spheres.
• Jiang Yan carved talismanic script into the spheres, making the sun's script raised and the moon's recessed.
• Jiang Yan activated the spheres over himself and found that they increased the Spiritual Qi available for cultivation by roughly one-fifteenth or one-sixteenth.
• Jiang Yan judged the technique worth the cost, despite needing to replace the spheres after three to five months.

Jiang Yan declined an invitation to an estate banquet and returned to the Market to refine a Golden Copper Darksteel Pill. He succeeded in making the pill, which he hoped would let him gain six strands of Law Power when he advanced to the Bronze Skin and Iron Bones stage.

• Jiang Yan turned down the Skin-Playing Daoist Acolyte Qian's invitation to attend a banquet outside town.
• Qian and the Gu-Eating Daoist Acolyte speculated that Jiang Yan was avoiding someone and decided to keep their distance for now.
• Jiang Yan went to the Market, bought a golden copper cauldron, Spirit Ink, and talisman paper, then rented a stone chamber.
• Jiang Yan inscribed the cauldron, burned Flame-Rousing Talismans beneath it, and calcined darksteel essence ore until the cauldron broke apart.
• Jiang Yan retrieved the Golden Copper Darksteel Pill and recalled that it could help him develop Golden Copper Skin and Darksteel Tiegu, raising his potential Law Power to six strands.

Jiang Yan used the Golden Copper Darksteel Pill and Jinbao’s hammering to break through to Bronze Skin and Iron Bones, emerging with a much stronger body and four strands of Law Power. He left the stone chamber planning to attend the next monthly lecture on the Witchcraft and Gu Ritual Path.

• Jiang Yan swallowed the Golden Copper Darksteel Pill and used his Fushi technique to digest its golden copper and black iron essence.
• When absorption slowed, Jiang Yan lay on an anvil while Jinbao hammered his body with a round-headed hammer to temper his skin, then a pointed hammer to temper his bones.
• After the tempering, Jiang Yan tested his strength by sending the anvil flying and flattening both refined-iron hammers with kicks.
• Jiang Yan found that the pill had helped him break through and condense two additional strands of Law Power, bringing his total to four.
• Jiang Yan cleaned the stone chamber, checked out, and headed home on foot so he could attend the next monthly lecture on the Witchcraft and Gu Ritual Path.

After recovering from his breakthrough, Jiang Yan resumed cultivation and went to the Preaching Plaza, where the Jade Bottle Daoist revealed that immortal-grade realms existed beyond the first rank. The lecture ended with her offering to teach a Gu-Eating Technique, and Jiang Yan stepped forward to learn it.

• Jiang Yan slept through the day after returning home, then brewed tea and began cultivating again that night.
• Jiang Yan encountered Li Shun and Xiao Sheng on his way to the Preaching Plaza, ignored their provocation, and left them behind.
• Jiang Yan attended the Jade Bottle Daoist's lecture on curse-subjugation and heard that immortal-grade realms lay beyond the first rank.
• The Jade Bottle Daoist offered to impart a Gu-Eating Technique, and Jiang Yan stepped forward to receive it.

Jiang Yan learned the Straw Effigy Technique, used it to protect himself from curses, and prepared to target Li Shun and Xiao Sheng. The chapter ended as he drove a law-power-charged needle toward an effigy bearing Li Shun’s likeness.

• Jiang Yan paid the Jade Bottle Daoist ten Spirit Stones for the Straw Effigy Technique and hurried home to study it.
• Jiang Yan used the technique to make effigies that caused stray traces of his body to turn to dust and could block curses, then placed them in different locations.
• Three days later, Xiao Li, Li Yunshu, Li Shun, and Xiao Sheng left town together, while Li Shun and Xiao Sheng secretly signaled to each other with malice.
• Jiang Yan secretly followed the group, collected traces of Li Shun and Xiao Sheng, and made three portrait-bearing effigies for each of them.
• Jiang Yan charged a silver needle with law power and thrust it toward the head of an effigy representing Li Shun.

Jiang Yan used curse techniques to kill Li Shun and Xiao Sheng after they betrayed Xiao Li and Li Yunshu and tried to capture them. Xiao Li and Li Yunshu survived, but they did not know who had rescued them, while Jiang Yan remained wary of Desire Corpse Daoist.

• Li Shun attacked Xiao Li with a hidden object, and Xiao Sheng struck Xiao Li and Li Yunshu with spirit talismans that drained their strength.
• Li Shun and Xiao Sheng revealed that they planned to hand Xiao Li and Li Yunshu over to High Person Yushi, and Li Shun began assaulting the helpless Li Yunshu.
• Jiang Yan pierced Straw Figures with Silver Needles, killing Li Shun and his Spirit Beast with a curse.
• Xiao Sheng resisted the curse briefly with a ring safeguard, but Jiang Yan strengthened the Straw Figure and killed him as well.
• After more than two hours, Xiao Li and Li Yunshu recovered, freed their Spirit Beasts, and looked at each other.

After recovering from the toll of killing Xiao Sheng, Jiang Yan visited the Market to earn Spirit Stones by selling pills. He sold his Qi and Blood Pills, bought the Bear-Tiger Pill Formula and ingredients, and returned home to study it.

• Jiang Yan recovered from his exertion but, short of Spirit Stones, decided to sell pills at the Market.
• Jiang Yan rode an Earth-Crawling Worm to the Market and rented a stall, where he displayed Qi and Blood Pills and Grain-Avoidance Pills.
• A customer bought all of Jiang Yan's Grain-Avoidance Pills, and a neighboring stallholder explained why they were more useful to local businesses than Qi and Blood Pills.
• Jiang Yan sold his Qi and Blood Pills at the Many Treasures Tower and spent his remaining Spirit Stones on the Bear-Tiger Pill Formula and its ingredients.
• Jiang Yan hurried home and began studying the Bear-Tiger Pill Formula.

Jiang Yan used the Stone Book’s help to refine Bear-Tiger Pills, producing a highly profitable yield despite a cracked pill caused by his basic Pill Furnace. After refining five batches, he prepared to sell most of the pills at the Market and planned to buy a better furnace.

• Jiang Yan refined his first batch of Bear-Tiger Pills, making seven pills, including two superior-grade pills.
• Jiang Yan refined two more batches, but a Flame-Tending Talisman ran out during the third batch and one pill cracked; he fed the ruined pill to Jinbao.
• Jiang Yan refined five batches overnight, producing thirty-six pills and keeping nine superior-grade pills for his cultivation.
• Jiang Yan packed the remaining twenty-seven pills and hurried to the Market to exchange them for Spirit Stones.

Jiang Yan sold his Bear-Tiger Pills at the Market, where Muling Daoist Boy warned him about Desire Corpse Daoist and offered a possible path into the Fire Head’s service. Jiang Yan left with a new Pill Furnace and more alchemy ingredients, while the offer remained for him to consider.

• Jiang Yan set up a stall beside Muling Daoist Boy and introduced himself as Shoulu while selling Bear-Tiger Pills.
• Muling Daoist Boy warned Jiang Yan to keep away from Desire Corpse Daoist, describing the man’s predatory conduct and his Seventh-Rank Realm Jia Corpse Dao Soldier.
• Muling Daoist Boy offered to connect Jiang Yan with a position serving under the Fire Head and asked him to meet again in three days if he was interested.
• A customer bought Jiang Yan’s Bear-Tiger Pills, leaving him with twenty-five Spirit Stones after two pills were included for free.
• Jiang Yan bought a replacement Pill Furnace, traded his remaining Spirit Stones for alchemy ingredients, and took a circuitous route home to check for followers.

Jiang Yan met Muling Daoist Boy to discuss becoming the Prefecture Academy Fire Head’s disciple, and learned that Muling would recommend him in exchange for a future promise of help advancing his cultivation. They bought a fresh Contract Gold Board and began carefully negotiating the contract’s terms.

• Jiang Yan returned to the Market, where Muling Daoist Boy asked whether he was a new Prefecture Academy disciple and had refined the Bear-Tiger Pills himself.
• Muling Daoist Boy said he could likely help Jiang Yan become the Fire Head’s disciple, explaining that the Fire Head had once aided his declining lineage and offered to take him as a disciple.
• Muling Daoist Boy asked Jiang Yan to help raise him to Seventh Grade if Jiang Yan reached Sixth Grade, and to Sixth Grade if Jiang Yan reached Fourth Grade, with an Immortal Dynasty Contract as proof.
• Jiang Yan agreed in principle but insisted they buy a new Contract Gold Board at the Many Treasures Tower rather than use Muling Daoist Boy’s prepared board.
• Jiang Yan bought a blank board, and the two began discussing its restrictions and wording.

Jiang Yan and Muling Daoist Boy finalized a contract that made Muling Jiang Yan’s follower and promised to help him become Blowing Fire High Person’s disciple. Muling left to report to Blowing Fire High Person, while Jiang Yan stayed behind rather than risk leaving town.

• Jiang Yan and Muling Daoist Boy signed a contract covering Muling’s help with Jiang Yan’s apprenticeship, their mutual obligations, and a ban on betrayal or deliberately suicidal missions.
• Muling Daoist Boy called Jiang Yan his master, but Jiang Yan told him to use “young master” and asked how he could meet the Fire Head.
• Muling revealed that Blowing Fire High Person was a sixth-grade High Person and had authorized Muling to bring a chosen candidate to him.
• Jiang Yan went with Muling to his residence, where Muling gathered his remaining belongings and explained that his family property had been lost after his parents died.
• Muling set out for Blowing Fire High Person’s cultivation grounds to report the matter, while Jiang Yan remained in town to avoid the danger posed by Desire Corpse Daoist.

Jiang Yan met Dragonflame Daoist, Blowing Fire High Person's second disciple, who brought him to the Daoist Arena and explained the academy's approach to dangerous threats. The chapter ended with Jiang Yan realizing that the academy treated most disciples as expendable while protecting its most promising geniuses.

• Jiang Yan refined a batch of eight Bear-Tiger Pills, including three upper-grade pills, before Muling Daoist Boy returned with Dragonflame Daoist.
• Dragonflame Daoist tested Jiang Yan's willpower with his heat, then apologized by giving him a Fire-Resisting Pill.
• Dragonflame Daoist carried Jiang Yan and Muling Daoist Boy toward the Daoist Arena on a Red Glaze dragon soul and dismissed Jiang Yan's fears of Desire Corpse Daoist.
• Dragonflame Daoist explained that the academy let threats like Desire Corpse Daoist create urgency among disciples, while higher-ups protected talented geniuses for the Dao Army.
• Jiang Yan understood that the academy considered most disciples expendable and felt fortunate that he had never hidden his talent.

Dragonflame Daoist explained the Dao Realm’s vastness and the Immortal Dynasty’s varied methods for preparing Daoists to conquer different planes, while testing Jiang Yan’s resolve. Jiang Yan remained eager, and Dragonflame brought him to the Fire-Breathing Lineage’s volcanic foothold in the East River Realm.

• Dragonflame Daoist explained that register investiture rewarded merit in Plane Wars and aided a Daoist’s cultivation and arts.
• Dragonflame Daoist described the enormous scale of Donghe Prefecture, the nineteen provinces, and the countless subordinate planes.
• Dragonflame Daoist explained that local academies and armies followed different customs to prepare for varied opponents, including cultivating brutal Demon Daoists.
• Jiang Yan considered how the Immortal Dynasty prepared for different kinds of planes and felt anticipation rather than fear.
• Dragonflame Daoist reassured himself that Jiang Yan’s resolve was firm and urged Red Glaze toward their destination.
• Dragonflame Daoist pointed out the Fire-Breathing Lineage’s foothold, and Jiang Yan saw a vast cluster of volcanoes on the East River Realm’s plains.

Dragonflame Daoist brought Jiang Yan and Muling Daoist Boy to meet Blowing Fire High Person, who accepted Jiang Yan as his nominal disciple and promised to make him a personal disciple once he reached Eighth Grade. Afterward, Dragonflame began showing Jiang Yan around and called a giant carp out of the lake.

• Dragonflame Daoist explained that Blowing Fire High Person had created the volcanoes as a home for the Fire-Breathing Lineage and warned Jiang Yan not to underestimate geniuses from other realms.
• Dragonflame Daoist led Jiang Yan and Muling Daoist Boy to Blowing Fire High Person's hall, where the master declared Jiang Yan a nominal disciple until he reached Eighth Grade.
• Jiang Yan knelt and accepted Blowing Fire High Person as his master, who then told Dragonflame Daoist to show him around and arrange a Daoist Arena.
• Dragonflame Daoist explained that the Blowing Fire High Person they had met was an avatar and that the master had been in seclusion for over ten years.
• Dragonflame Daoist called Uncle Flame Carp from the lake, and the enormous golden-red carp emerged and asked why he had been summoned.

Flame Carp created a new magma volcano for Jiang Yan to use as his Daoist Arena, and Dragonflame Daoist introduced him to his senior brothers and sister. Jiang Yan accepted their gifts and chose a place to live on the mountainside.

• Flame Carp inspected Jinbao, then used his power to raise a volcano and solidify its magma into a new Daoist Arena for Jiang Yan.
• Dragonflame Daoist introduced Jiang Yan to Ying Leng, Fenghuo, and Liaoyuan, and explained that several of their fellow disciples had graduated or died pursuing the Dao.
• Ying Leng gave Jiang Yan a Spirit Boat, Fenghuo gave him a jade pendant, and Liaoyuan gave him a hundred Spirit Stones.
• Dragonflame Daoist brought Jiang Yan to his new volcano, and Jiang Yan agreed to live on a level spot halfway up the mountainside.

Jiang Yan settled into a courtyard gifted by Dragonflame Daoist and learned about the Fire-Breathing Lineage and its benefits. Dragonflame Daoist promised to take him to the Prefecture Academy’s Fire Vein the next day, and Jiang Yan went upstairs to process everything he had learned.

• Dragonflame Daoist gave Jiang Yan a courtyard seized from the Scale Feather Clan, whose formations kept the interior cool and purified the air.
• Dragonflame Daoist explained the lineage’s origins, its rules, and Jiang Yan’s place among its twelve disciples.
• Dragonflame Daoist listed Jiang Yan’s benefits, including an annual stipend, a Dao-Protection Law Artifact, Dao Robes, altar implements, and a chance to explore the Fire Vein.
• Dragonflame Daoist explained that Flame Carp was born in a Fire Vein and that the prefecture’s other leaders feared he could manipulate it.
• Dragonflame Daoist said he would take Jiang Yan to the Fire Vein the next day, then left him a booklet and departed.
• Jiang Yan asked Muling Daoist Boy to arrange accommodations for the attendants and went upstairs to sort through the day’s information.

Jiang Yan settled into his new residence at the Prefecture Academy, reviewed his plans, and cultivated through the night. After Dragonflame Daoist visited, he prepared Jiang Yan to accompany him to the Fire Vein.

• Jiang Yan memorized Dragonflame Daoist's booklet about spiritual objects in the Fire Vein and cultivated in the Spirit Gathering Formation.
• Muling Daoist Boy received four Lishi, two Celestial Maidens, and supplies for Jiang Yan, then organized the courtyard and had the Lishi build lodgings, a storehouse, and steps.
• Jiang Yan named the Lishi Niu Da, Niu Er, Ma Yi, and Ma Er, and named the Celestial Maidens Rabbit Tail and Fox Tail.
• Jiang Yan furnished the first floor and courtyard, then welcomed Dragonflame Daoist, who asked if he was ready to go to the Fire Vein.
• Dragonflame Daoist selected the Daoist Robe and sealed jade bottle from Jiang Yan's supplies and told him to put away the rest.

Dragonflame Daoist prepared Jiang Yan to enter the Fire Vein and warned him about its dangers. After jumping into the magma at the Central Main Volcano, Jiang Yan crossed into the blazing Fire Vein, adapted his protections, and set off to search for treasures.

• Dragonflame Daoist gave Jiang Yan a Fire Silkworm silk Daoist robe and two Fire-Resisting Pills, cautioning him not to stay too long in the Fire Vein.
• Jiang Yan changed into the flame-colored robe, and Dragonflame Daoist flew with him and Jinbao to Blowing Fire High Person's volcano.
• Dragonflame Daoist told Jiang Yan to jump into the crater, and Jiang Yan plunged through the magma into the Fire Vein.
• Jiang Yan swallowed one Fire-Resisting Pill, found that Jinbao could store the other in its belly, and used his robe and Law Power to protect himself.
• Jiang Yan headed toward the fiercest flames, expecting to find more spirit materials and treasures there.

Jiang Yan explored the Fire Vein, collected spiritual materials, and claimed a strange sphere and yellow mud from a cave beneath dark-yellow flames. After An Ling left without challenging him, Uncle Flame Carp expelled Jiang Yan from the hill and warned him that he had taken enough.

• Jiang Yan harvested a Red Fire Lizard and ran toward a hill burning with dark-yellow flames.
• Jiang Yan found a cave at the hilltop, took a palm-sized sphere from the yellow mud, and concealed it before An Ling arrived.
• An Ling introduced herself as a disciple of Spirit Dharma High Person, but accepted Jiang Yan's claim to the opportunity and left.
• Jiang Yan discovered Jinbao could not swallow the sphere, then collected nearly half the cave's unusually heavy yellow mud.
• Uncle Flame Carp flung Jiang Yan and Jinbao away from the hill, warning Jiang Yan that he had taken enough for Jinbao to mature.

Jiang Yan collected Fire Fruit during his exploration of the Fire Vein, then learned that the sphere he had found was a Fire Vein Spirit. Flame Carp told him to bury it in yellow clay and choose its form before it emerged, and Jiang Yan offered him half of his Fire Fruit.

• Jiang Yan found Fire Fruit Trees and gathered their fruit without digging up the trees.
• Flame Carp summoned Jiang Yan from the Fire Vein and brought him to the crater, where he rejoined Dragonflame Daoist.
• Jiang Yan showed Flame Carp the sphere, and Flame Carp identified it as a Fire Vein Spirit and said it was one of his kind.
• Flame Carp told Jiang Yan to bury the spirit in yellow clay and decide what shape it should take before it emerged.
• Jiang Yan offered half of his Fire Fruit to Flame Carp as thanks for his help.