Chapter Summaries

Qin Chuan accepted Gu Hao’s offer to ally with him in exchange for supporting Gu Hao’s bid to lead the Wealth and Peace Merchant Guild. After asking Gu Hao to help him obtain a future auction list, Qin Chuan was stunned when Gu Hao revealed that he had once seen heavenly lightning targeting him.

• Gu Hao treated Qin Chuan to Dao comprehension tea, which helped Qin Chuan resolve his questions about formations.
• Gu Hao offered Qin Chuan a succession token and proposed an alliance, asking for Qin Chuan’s future support in taking over the Wealth and Peace Merchant Guild.
• Qin Chuan accepted the alliance and learned that Gu Hao was the guild’s ninth succession candidate, with limited authority through his token.
• Qin Chuan asked Gu Hao to get him the detailed list of items planned for the Cloud Province Auction House over the coming year.
• As Qin Chuan prepared to leave, Gu Hao said he had once seen the heavenly lightning that wanted to strike Qin Chuan.

Qin Chuan learned from Gu Hao that heavenly lightning had once crippled Gu Xiyue when she tried to ambush Zhuge Tiansheng, and he suspected the Heavenly Dao was constrained from harming characters in the plot. He left Gu Hao’s cave abode with a new ally and a plan to test whether one supporting character could kill another without provoking the Heavenly Dao.

• Qin Chuan questioned Gu Hao about the heavenly lightning, and Gu Hao said it had also struck Gu Xiyue when she targeted Zhuge Tiansheng.
• Gu Hao recounted how the lightning had left Gu Xiyue a living corpse and killed her companions, prompting him to seek revenge and ally with Qin Chuan.
• Qin Chuan suspected the Heavenly Dao could not harm characters in the plot without paying a great cost, and considered testing this by having one supporting character kill another.
• Gu Hao gave Qin Chuan five hundred thousand low-grade spirit stones and agreed to share any new information about the lightning.
• Qin Chuan accepted the gift and the two golden scale fruits, then left Gu Hao’s cave abode.

After taking first place in both the formation and martial competitions, Qin Chuan visited Shen Qingyuan and asked her to fulfill a promise by hugging him. Shen Qingyuan embraced him before pushing him away, leaving their feelings unresolved as Qin Chuan returned to cultivate.

• Qin Chuan recalled Gu Hao's storyline and decided to help him at the Cloud Province auction, where he planned to target Zhuge Bulu.
• Qin Chuan returned to Supreme Mystery Peak and found Shen Qingyuan sitting in her cave abode.
• Shen Qingyuan congratulated Qin Chuan on winning the formation and martial competitions, and he reminded her of her promise to grant him a request.
• Qin Chuan asked Shen Qingyuan for a hug, and she crossed the distance to embrace him.
• Shen Qingyuan pushed Qin Chuan away, told him to bring up another request later, and warned him not to let distractions interfere with cultivation.
• Qin Chuan agreed and hurried out of the cave abode in embarrassment.

Qin Chuan tempered his body, advanced to the middle golden core stage, and delivered information to Jin Feng while accepting his request to watch over Jin Pang. He went looking for Shen Qingyuan in the peach grove and froze at what he saw.

• Qin Chuan absorbed two Golden Scale Fruits, then endured a night of painful body tempering with a Body-Tempering Pill as Shen Qingyuan helped draw in starlight.
• After Qin Chuan collapsed from exhaustion, Shen Qingyuan healed his meridians and overstrained body while he slept.
• Qin Chuan used the Spirit Ascension Fruit to reach the middle golden core stage, but failed three times to break through to the late stage and decided to attend the Cloud Province auction.
• Qin Chuan gave Jin Feng the information he had compiled about the Land of the Fallen Phoenix, accepted Heavenly Origin Rejuvenation Pills, and promised to advise Jin Pang about Xie An.
• Qin Chuan found Shen Qingyuan absent from her cave abode, hurried to the peach grove, and froze when he saw her.

After Qin Chuan accidentally saw Shen Qingyuan emerging from her bath, she reassured him and prepared him for his journey to the Cloud Province auction and Gale Valley. She gave him spirit stones and a jade token containing a portion of her power, while he learned that making it had left her weakened.

• Qin Chuan stumbled into Shen Qingyuan's bathing place, and she blocked his senses until he left the peach grove.
• Shen Qingyuan comforted Qin Chuan after he apologized, then invited him to her cave abode.
• Qin Chuan told Shen Qingyuan he planned to attend the Cloud Province auction and travel to Gale Valley for experience.
• Shen Qingyuan gave Qin Chuan ten thousand top-grade spirit stones, and he returned half to her.
• Shen Qingyuan gave Qin Chuan a one-use jade token holding a tenth of her power and a wisp of her soul, explaining that she had to recuperate after making it.
• Qin Chuan held Shen Qingyuan's hand and resolved to grow stronger and protect her, and she began to tell him something else.

Shen Qingyuan warned Qin Chuan against other female cultivators and urged him to focus on cultivation while she entered seclusion to break through. Qin Chuan stayed close to her and agreed to avoid romance and postpone confronting Yun Yao until she could protect him.

• Shen Qingyuan asked Qin Chuan whether he would join Formation Peak and marry Chu Ling'er, and he declared that he wanted to stay with her.
• Shen Qingyuan warned Qin Chuan that Chu Lanqiu was ruthless and told him to avoid other female cultivators, romance, and losing his primal yang before Soul Transformation.
• Qin Chuan grabbed Shen Qingyuan's hand, but she mistook his reaction for resistance and accidentally sent him flying with a burst of pressure.
• Shen Qingyuan caught Qin Chuan, checked him for injuries, and held him while healing him; Qin Chuan concealed his attraction and said he would focus on cultivation.
• Shen Qingyuan told Qin Chuan not to provoke Yun Yao and his fellow disciples until she had broken through, and he agreed.

Qin Chuan said farewell to Shen Qingyuan and left the Pure Void Sect with Gu Hao and Gu Jun for the Cloud Province auction. On the way, Gu Hao warned him that Pei Xuan and the other two might attend the auction to obtain a spirit herb that could regrow severed limbs.

• Shen Qingyuan told Qin Chuan to prioritize his cultivation and revealed that she expected to reach peak Tribulation Transcendence while he was away.
• Qin Chuan hugged Shen Qingyuan goodbye, cultivated through the night, and left Supreme Mystery Peak the next morning as she watched him go and sealed off the peak.
• Qin Chuan met Gu Hao and Gu Jun at the Pure Void Sect's gate, then boarded Gu Jun's flying boat for the three-day trip to Cloud Province.
• Gu Hao explained that he had arranged lodging for Qin Chuan before the auction, which would begin in a month.
• Gu Hao told Qin Chuan that Pei Xuan and his two fellow disciples had been killing black dogs and might attend the auction for a spirit herb that could regrow severed limbs.

Qin Chuan arranged with Gu Hao to limit the auction’s vitality grass to one and tried to secure the Gale Sword Art before the auction. On the way to the Cloud Province Auction House, Qin Chuan deciphered the Heavenly Dipper Nine Revolutions Formation and devised a way to assemble it from prepared parts.

• Qin Chuan asked Gu Hao to ensure that only one vitality grass would be offered at auction, and Gu Hao agreed to destroy the other herb.
• Qin Chuan asked Gu Hao to help him buy the Gale Sword Art privately, and Gu Hao planned to approach its consignor with his uncle.
• Qin Chuan studied the incomplete formation for three days and learned that the Heavenly Dipper Nine Revolutions Formation could greatly increase its user’s strength.
• Qin Chuan pondered how to make a prefabricated formation during the trip to the Cloud Province Auction House.
• Qin Chuan realized he could assemble the formation from prepared sections, then joined Gu Hao at the courtyard after the flying boat landed.

Qin Chuan settled into the courtyard Gu Hao arranged and agreed to help him defeat his Bai Clan cousin at the four families' centennial competition. After advancing his formation skills and shopping for materials, Qin Chuan followed the Will of the Heavenly Dao to a stall and bought a mysterious finger bone.

• Gu Hao offered Qin Chuan a courtyard in exchange for his help defeating Gu Hao's Bai Clan cousin in the centennial competition, and Qin Chuan agreed.
• Qin Chuan spent half a month researching formations and successfully created a fourth-grade formation.
• Qin Chuan shopped at the cultivators' stalls, buying healing pills, formation materials, and materials for the Heavenly Dipper Nine Revolutions Formation.
• The Will of the Heavenly Dao stirred and led Qin Chuan to a stall where a middle-aged man tried to sell him counterfeit and misrepresented goods.
• Qin Chuan identified the finger bone as the item he wanted and bought it for 249 low-grade spirit stones.

Qin Chuan learned little about the finger bone after killing the men who followed him, then watched the Gu family’s quarrel at the auction house and decided to provoke Jiang Lin. The chapter ended as Qin Chuan greeted the protagonist’s group by addressing someone as Martial Nephew Bai.

• Qin Chuan killed the five men who had followed him and learned that they had robbed the finger bone from a minor cultivator in the Land of the Fallen Phoenix.
• Qin Chuan discovered that the finger bone absorbed his Will of the Heavenly Dao without showing any other reaction, then returned to making formations.
• Gu Hao delivered the Taunting Sword Art and accepted fifty thousand low-grade spirit stones from Qin Chuan before they headed to the auction.
• Qin Chuan noticed that Xie An and Jiang Lin looked more effeminate, and Gu Hao agreed that their features seemed changed.
• After the Gu Xiran and Gu Xiwan quarrel was stopped, Qin Chuan noticed friction among Xie An, Pei Xuan, and Jiang Lin and decided to provoke Jiang Lin.
• Qin Chuan stepped forward and greeted the protagonist’s group by asking, “Martial Nephew Bai, you’re here too?”