Chapter Summaries

Jiang Yan attended the formal rite to receive his register at the Preaching Plaza, where the Immortal Dynasty’s fortune entered his body and transformed into a ninth-rank White Register. He became a ninth-rank Dao attendant officially registered to the Donghe Prefecture Academy.

• Jiang Yan traveled to the Preaching Plaza on Jinbao and considered how he would need Spirit Stones for cultivation and training.
• Li Shun, short of money after being rejected by Jiang Yan and fined for sleeping outside, watched Jiang Yan with resentment and vowed his fortunes would eventually change.
• Greenfox Daoist led the waiting disciples through the incense offering and meditation rite for receiving registers.
• Greenfox Daoist petitioned the Immortal Dynasty’s fortune to bestow ninth-rank White Registers on the disciples.
• The golden fortune entered Jiang Yan, suffused his Law Power, and formed a talisman identifying him as a ninth-rank altar-guarding Dao attendant.

After receiving the ninth-rank White Register, Jiang Yan learned that he had ten years to reach the eighth rank or be removed from the East River Dao Academy. He found Spring Breeze Tower and, after discovering it was a pleasure house, followed a Jiang Household attendant upstairs to meet Jiang Yunyao.

• Green Fox High Person completed the register bestowal and warned the new Ninth-Rank Daoist Attendants that they had ten years to reach the Eighth-Rank Fangshi Realm.
• Jiang Yan reflected on the hardship and fierce competition in the East River Realm, where some people sold their bodies to support their descendants.
• A passerby directed Jiang Yan to Spring Breeze Tower, and he realized it stood on the town’s flower street among pleasure houses.
• Jiang Yan entered Spring Breeze Tower, asked for Jiang Yunyao, and showed the attendant his verification token.
• The Jiang Household attendant led Jiang Yan upstairs to a quiet corner where Jiang Yunyao was resting.

Jiang Yan visited Jiang Yunyao, who revealed that Jiang Chi had allegedly conspired to make her a Desire Corpse Daoist’s plaything and might have been targeting Jiang Yan for the same purpose. She explained that the Prefecture Academy’s harsh conditions trained disciples to survive behind enemy lines, leaving Jiang Yan newly suspicious of Jiang Chi’s advice to explore outside town.

• Jiang Yunyao attacked Jiang Yan after learning Jiang Chi had sent him, but she believed his explanation when he showed her letters from the clan.
• Jiang Yunyao explained that Prefecture Academy disciples received annual resources and were trained to survive as Seventh-Rank Daoists on enemy battlefields.
• Jiang Yunyao said Jiang Chi had become an old bastard’s male pet and had helped scheme to make her join them, nearly ruining her Dao Path.
• Jiang Yunyao warned Jiang Yan that Jiang Chi may have arranged to meet new disciples and draw him into the same scheme.
• Jiang Yan recalled Jiang Chi’s advice to explore outside town and reconsidered its purpose.

After trusting Jiang Yunyao’s explanation, Jiang Yan visited the market to choose a Dao-supporting method. He bought the fire branch of the Five Phases Pill-Forming Method and basic pill-making supplies, leaving with most of his Spirit Stones spent and a need to find work.

• Jiang Yan asked Jiang Yunyao about Jiang Chi’s advice and the town’s rules, then entrusted her with the remaining clansmen’s letters.
• Jiang Yan rode Jinbao to the market, passed through the concealing mist, and searched its stalls and shops for a Dao-supporting method.
• At the Many Treasures Tower, Jiang Yan rejected several unorthodox pill-making methods and chose the fire branch of the Five Phases Pill-Forming Method.
• Jiang Yan spent three hundred Spirit Stones on the method, ten on Bear-Tiger Pills, and twenty on a secondhand Pill Furnace and Flame-Tending Talismans.
• Jiang Yan left the market with only about two hundred Spirit Stones remaining and decided he needed to find work.

Jiang Yan confronted Jiang Chi after learning that he planned to offer him and Jiang Yunyao to the Desire Corpse Daoist in exchange for resources. After driving Jiang Chi away, Jiang Yan decided to stay in town and focus on cultivation, beginning with the Ingestion Method.

• Jiang Yan returned to the courtyard and found Jiang Chi with Zhang Yunhong, then brought Jiang Chi into his room.
• Jiang Yan told Jiang Chi that Jiang Yunyao had revealed everything, and Jiang Chi admitted he wanted them to win the Desire Corpse Daoist’s favor by becoming his concubines.
• Jiang Yan rejected Jiang Chi’s proposal and ordered him out, keeping the twenty Spirit Stones Jiang Chi had paid for the room.
• Jiang Chi left on his pink-furred rabbit and planned to ambush Jiang Yan outside town, while Jiang Yan decided not to leave town and resolved to cultivate there.
• Jiang Yan studied the Fire-Element Pill Refining Method, judged that mastering it would take time, and turned to the Ingestion Method with the Stone Book’s help.

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.