Recaps

Yan Qingchen and Ming Qi passed the first trial after quickly neutralizing poison in Demon Beasts, then Li Yan emerged unexpectedly soon and presented an unusual black pill with no visible pill patterns. The chapter left Elder Liu and Deacon Li examining Li Yan's pill while the others wondered about its quality.

• Elder Liu and Deacon Li verified Yan Qingchen's pills and confirmed that he had neutralized the Demon Beast's poison in twelve breaths, making him the first to pass.
• Ming Qi presented four fourth-grade pills and fed them to another Demon Beast, which awakened after fifteen breaths, earning her second place.
• Li Yan emerged from his stone chamber before the other recommended candidates, surprising Elder Liu, Deacon Li, Yan Qingchen, and Ming Qi.
• Li Yan presented a single black pill, and Elder Liu and Deacon Li found that it had no visible pill patterns and could not be judged by appearance alone.
• Elder Liu and Deacon Li considered whether Li Yan's pill was ineffective or made by an unconventional method, while Yan Qingchen began to suspect it might be unusual.

Li Yan shocked the alchemy assessment by neutralizing the poison in five breaths and taking first place in the opening round. After the top ten were settled, Elder Liu began the second assessment, which required the disciples to identify fifty herbs from three thousand under strict rules.

• Li Yan gave the azureflame earth dragon his disguised pill, and it recovered from the hallucinogenic poison in five breaths.
• Elder Liu announced Li Yan had passed in first place, seven breaths ahead of Yan Qingchen, while Mingqi and Liu Siyu also placed among the leading contestants.
• The first round ended with Li Yan ranked first and Mingyu among the top ten; Deacon Li investigated suspicious material requests but found nothing unusual about Li Yan's.
• Elder Liu announced the second assessment: contestants had one day and night to identify fifty specified herbs among three thousand, with severe punishment for rule violations.

Li Yan began the herb-identification assessment and discovered that many specimens were deliberately difficult to distinguish from lookalikes. After identifying ten herbs, he struggled to confirm Yangsuyun, while the other disciples used varied methods and continued to make progress.

• Li Yan memorized the fifty herb names, examined the supplied specimens, and realized Yellow Qi Valley had mixed in many near-identical varieties.
• Li Yan identified ten herbs before getting stuck choosing among four possible Yangsuyun specimens.
• Li Yan tested sap from the four Yangsuyun candidates on his arm but found only slight differences in how quickly they caused numbness.
• Yan Qingchen used yellow pill powder to distinguish one herb from a group of nine, then faced another difficult cluster.
• Ming Qi used a technique that produced white beams in her eyes to examine five herbs.
• Another cultivator refined herbs into medicinal liquid and used it to identify a specimen, as disciples across the chambers employed different methods.

Li Yan used his five-elements perception to identify medicinal herbs more accurately, then planned how to submit a result that would not draw too much attention. As the second-round results came in, Ming Qi and Liu Siyu took the lead, while Li Yan and Yan Shichen remained in their chambers.

• Li Yan concluded that his unaided knowledge had let him identify only twenty-three herbs, so he used the five elements laws to examine the remaining specimens.
• Li Yan recalled discovering that five-elements perception could reveal a herb’s attributes and authenticity, and used that method to narrow down the candidates before him.
• Li Yan planned to exchange some herbs on his way out if he identified too many, so his final submission would match what Elder Liu and Deacon Li had observed.
• Elder Liu and Deacon Li discussed the provisional rankings, noting that Li Yan had stalled at twenty-three herbs while Yan Shichen and Ming Qi had collected more than thirty.
• Liu Siyu took the provisional lead with thirty-seven correct identifications, then Ming Qi surpassed her with forty correct; Li Yan and Yan Shichen remained the only disciples in the chambers.

Yan Qingchen finished the second round in first place with forty-five herbs correctly identified, while Li Yan placed second with forty-two. After the contestants rested, Elder Liu announced that the third round would test their ability to grow Iron Su Dragonleaf Trees by purifying medicinal solutions before watering the seeds.

• Mingqi warned Mingyu to be cautious around Li Yan, who had repeatedly surprised others with his results.
• Yan Qingchen emerged from his stone chamber and submitted fifty herbs, including forty-five correctly identified ones, taking first place in the round.
• Li Yan emerged near the twelve-hour limit and was confirmed in second place with forty-two correct identifications.
• The second round's results placed four Nascent Soul Cultivators in the top ten, and Li Yan felt relieved after the round ended.
• Elder Liu announced that contestants had to purify medicinal solutions and grow an Iron Su Dragonleaf Tree to five inches tall within twelve hours, using no more than three seeds.

Li Yan chose the low-grade medicinal liquid in the third round of Yellow Qi Valley’s selection, then made the top ten and became a core elite disciple. He learned that his new authority did not grant entry to the Ancient Hall of Inheritance, which he could access only by earning reward authority through sect contribution points.

• Li Yan chose the green medicinal liquid for the third assessment, while Yan Qingchen chose red liquid and Ming Qi and Liu Siyu chose yellow liquid.
• Elder Liu announced the ten successful candidates; Li Yan placed twenty-third in the third round but qualified through his strong results in the first two rounds.
• Elder Liu explained the core elite disciples’ rights and duties, and Li Yan discovered that his new identity token did not permit entry to the Ancient Hall of Inheritance.
• After two months of inquiries, Li Yan learned that core elite disciples had basic and reward authority, and that access to certain sect resources required contribution points earned through tasks.

Li Yan sought a way to earn the eighty thousand sect contribution points needed to enter the Ancient Hall of Inheritance, which would open in less than seven years. After earning three hundred points at the Pill Emperor Tower, he searched the mission hall and considered a high-risk mission to hunt a fifth-rank Earth Rhinoceros Violet-Gold Dragon Python.

• Li Yan concluded that reaching the top thousand core elite disciples through the Pill Emperor Tower was beyond his current alchemy ability, so he planned to accumulate contribution points instead.
• Li Yan challenged the Pill Emperor Tower and reached the fourth floor, where his pill furnaces exploded while he competed against a tower spirit refining third-grade pills.
• Li Yan learned that he had earned three hundred contribution points from the tower's first three floors and decided not to waste time waiting in line for another attempt.
• Li Yan searched the mission hall and focused on a mission offering one thousand five hundred contribution points for an intact horn from a fifth-rank Earth Rhinoceros Violet-Gold Dragon Python.

After four years of completing dangerous sect tasks, Li Yan returned to Yellow Qi Valley to submit a task and claim its contribution points. He had accumulated about fifty thousand points and presented a purple, starlit flower to the steward examining his completion.

• Li Yan accepted the single-person task to find a fifth-tier Earth Rhinoceros Purple-Gold Dragon Python, despite the risk of failing and owing compensation.
• Li Yan spent four years taking mostly high-risk tasks, sometimes failing and paying compensation to preserve his contribution points.
• Li Yan found and killed the Earth Rhinoceros Purple-Gold Dragon Python before other cultivators arrived, using Gui Water Immortal Sect spells and soul arts.
• Li Yan returned to Yellow Qi Valley to submit his latest task, expecting to receive one thousand sect contribution points and bring his total to around fifty thousand.
• Li Yan greeted several fellow disciples at the Elite Mission Hall and handed his token to the Nascent Soul steward surnamed Sun.
• Li Yan placed a purple flower dotted with starlight on the table, and Sun carefully examined it.

Li Yan completed a dangerous mission to retrieve a nearly five-hundred-year-old Purple Star Flower and received eight hundred sect contribution points. At the mission board, he focused on a high-risk pill escort mission offering three thousand points per person and accepted it.

• Li Yan escaped a swarm of Double-Eyed Mystic Bees after taking the Purple Star Flower, surviving the queen bee's poisonous sting with his Fragmented Poison Body.
• Cultivator Sun assessed the flower as about four hundred and eighty years old and awarded Li Yan eight hundred sect contribution points.
• Li Yan asked Cultivator Sun about lucrative missions, and Sun listed several possibilities before Li Yan checked them at the mission board.
• Li Yan chose the mission to escort pills to Idle Crane Manor, which required six middle-stage Spirit Transformation cultivators or above and paid three thousand contribution points per person.
• Li Yan swiped his token toward the pill escort mission, sending a streak of light down from the board.

Li Yan accepted a dangerous mission to escort Pills to Idle Crane Manor after learning how its rewards depended on delivering all six portions. He returned to his courtyard to rest and await the two remaining members of the team.

• Li Yan asked Senior Sister Wang how far Idle Crane Manor was and learned it lay about seven hundred thousand li from the sect.
• Senior Sister Wang explained that six cultivators had to divide the Pills among themselves and that the full reward required all six portions to reach their destination.
• Li Yan weighed the mission's high risk against the chance to earn three thousand contribution points and accepted it, hoping to help heal Senior Sister Bai.
• Li Yan returned to his courtyard to rest, knowing that four people had accepted the mission and that two more were needed before the team could depart.

Li Yan joined a mission team at the Elite Mission Hall, where a powerful elder openly objected to the number of mid-stage Spirit Transformation cultivators. The elder then tried to withdraw, but the steward said the mission could not be abandoned, leaving the team watching as the confrontation escalated.

• Li Yan arrived at room C Seventeen and met Xie Xingzhi, Jiang Tingye, a quiet young-looking cultivator, and a brown-robed elder who disparaged Li Yan's cultivation.
• Xie Xingzhi introduced Jiang Tingye and encouraged Li Yan and the others to cooperate on the mission.
• Ming Qi arrived and greeted Li Yan, worsening the brown-robed elder's dissatisfaction with the team's strength.
• A white-robed steward entered and confirmed everyone had arrived, prompting the brown-robed elder to ask about withdrawing from the mission.
• The steward said Senior Yang could not withdraw, and the elder erupted with anger and pressure as the others watched.

Li Yan and five fellow disciples were assigned to escort sealed storage rings, despite Yang Zun's attempt to withdraw from the mission. The group set out along Yang Zun's route, and Li Yan and Ming Qi discussed his reputation for accepting missions.

• The white-robed steward refused Yang Zun's demand to cancel the mission and distributed six sealed storage rings and a jade slip.
• Li Yan and the others found that powerful restrictions prevented them from inspecting the rings, and the steward said the recipients would be able to remove the seals.
• After studying the route, the six disciples set out, and they learned one another's names and backgrounds.
• Yang Zun drew Xie Xingzhi and Jiang Tingye into a group at the front, while Li Yan flew with Ming Qi and Xu Yihua followed behind.
• Ming Qi remarked on Li Yan's many Mission Hall assignments, and Li Yan claimed he accepted low-level missions because his cultivation resources and aptitude were limited.

Li Yan and five fellow cultivators flew toward Leisure Crane Manor through a storm and a region of dangerous floating mountains. When Li Yan sensed something amiss near two peaks, the others found nothing, but he stayed behind to keep searching as the group prepared to move on.

• Ming Qi and Li Yan discussed the Pill Emperor Tower, and Ming Qi said Yan Qingchen had recently broken through its sixth floor.
• The six cultivators flew for two days toward Leisure Crane Manor, resting twice and keeping watch over their surroundings.
• A torrential storm began as the group reached a region of floating peaks inhabited by powerful Demon Beasts and Demon Cultivators.
• Li Yan stopped before two enormous peaks and warned the others that something ahead made him uncomfortable, though he could not identify the danger.
• Yang Zun and the others searched the area, found nothing unusual, and started flying onward, but Li Yan remained in place to continue probing.

Li Yan and Ming Qi split from Yang Zun’s group after insisting on avoiding the person-shaped peaks, where Li Yan sensed an unexplained disturbance. As they detoured through the rain, an unseen assailant attacked them, and Ming Qi intercepted a giant hammer with a kick.

• Li Yan refused to enter the peaks and rejected Yang Zun’s demand to hand over his mission item, while Xie Xingzhi and Jiang Tingye confronted him.
• Ming Qi sided with Li Yan, but Xu Yihua chose to continue ahead with Yang Zun’s group, splitting the six cultivators into two parties.
• Yang Zun, Xie Xingzhi, and Jiang Tingye discussed retaliating against Li Yan and Ming Qi after the mission, while Xu Yihua stayed quiet and relieved he had avoided a fight.
• Ming Qi told Li Yan that she had briefly sensed an unsettling fluctuation near the peaks, but Li Yan said his own warning came only from an inexplicable feeling.
• Li Yan abruptly sensed danger and warned Ming Qi as an unseen attacker struck; Ming Qi accelerated and blocked a giant hammer with a powerful kick.

Li Yan and Ming Qi were ambushed by Night Eagle assassins while traveling toward Idle Crane Manor. Li Yan defeated one attacker and learned that Night Eagle had been hired to intercept Yellow Qi Valley cultivators, while Ming Qi and her pursuer vanished into the rain.

• Ming Qi was struck by a peak late-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator wielding a massive hammer and sent flying into the rain as he pursued her.
• Li Yan countered a late-stage Spirit Transformation assassin's sword with raindrops propelled by his punch, shattering the sword and badly wounding the attacker.
• Li Yan restrained the unconscious black-clothed cultivator, performed a Soul Search, and learned he belonged to the Night Eagle assassination organization.
• Li Yan found that Night Eagle had been hired to kill Yellow Qi Valley cultivators bound for Idle Crane Manor and seize their cargo, but the assassin did not know who hired them.
• Li Yan realized the attackers could be tracking the group and using the area's unavoidable, complicated terrain to set repeated ambushes.

Li Yan realized that he and his companions had been trapped in a formation controlled by a late-stage Void Refinement Realm assassin, and he tried to find a way out before the enemy could turn on him. As he searched the mountains in the rain, the formation returned him to the same passage, where he found Xu Yihua and Jiang Tingye hanging dead.

• Li Yan learned through Soul Search that the assassins had trapped all six companions and that Yang Zun's group was caught in the formation's core.
• Li Yan tried to tear open space, confirmed that the formation had sealed off the spatial currents, and flew toward the side of a mountain to search for its barrier.
• Li Yan rounded the mountain and saw the familiar passage again, with Xu Yihua hanging dead above its entrance.
• Li Yan continued around the mountain without finding Ming Qi or any sign of the others, and reasoned that the enemy was still occupied with them.
• Li Yan encountered the passage once more and saw Jiang Tingye hanging beside Xu Yihua, realizing that he had returned to the starting point.

Li Yan realized the formation was isolating and killing his companions, then encountered Xie Xingzhi's corpse hanging from a mountain pass and fled. As he fell through an endless repetition of identical mountain passages, a giant hammer suddenly struck at his waist.

• Li Yan inferred that the formation's enemies had separated his companions and were hunting them, while Ming Qi, Yang Zun, and Xie Xingzhi remained missing.
• Li Yan tried to escape by flying back around a mountain peak but found Xie Xingzhi's corpse hanging there, calling for help before accusing him of running away.
• Li Yan plunged toward the earth and planned to conceal himself, but his Divine Sense revealed identical mountain passages and three hanging corpses repeating endlessly beneath him.
• A long-handled giant hammer tore through the rain and rammed toward Li Yan's waist.

Li Yan fought Shi Ying while the others closed in, and a blue light concealed the battle at the center of the formation. Shi Ying claimed his opponent had self-destructed and destroyed his treasures, leaving the middle-aged Void Refinement cultivator frustrated that he had lost a valuable leaf-shaped treasure.

• Li Yan nearly took a blow from Shi Ying before recovering from his distraction and fighting the assassin head-on.
• The middle-aged cultivator and two companions arrived at the ren-shaped passage, where they found corpses hanging above the entrance, including Yang Zun.
• A blue light erupted below, and the three cultivators rushed down to surround the concealed battle as Shi Ying was hurled into the distance.
• Shi Ying returned bloodied and claimed that his opponent had self-destructed just before they arrived.
• The middle-aged cultivator questioned Shi Ying about the missing belongings and learned that the opponent had used a yellow, coin-sized leaf to block Divine Sense.
• The middle-aged cultivator searched the area but found no trace of the treasure or the cultivator's remains.

The middle-aged cultivator led his surviving subordinates to an ambush near Idle Crane Manor, hoping to stop the escaped female cultivator from delivering the goods. When a female cultivator secretly stole his storage rings and attacked him, he dodged and killed her with an ice spike, but the chapter left her identity and the outcome of the mission unresolved.

• The middle-aged cultivator rebuked Shi Ying for the failed ambush, then decided to head toward Idle Crane Manor and prepare another interception.
• He reasoned that the escaped female cultivator might still reach the manor and chose a concealed ambush site ten thousand li away rather than split his forces.
• The middle-aged cultivator and three subordinates hid among the riverside reeds, where he set up a formation and ordered them to wait for his signal.
• After half an hour, the female cultivator secretly tested the formation, approached the middle-aged cultivator, and took several storage rings from his fingers.
• The middle-aged cultivator evaded her sudden palm strike and killed her with an ice spike through the back of her head.

Shi Ying revealed himself as the traitor who had poisoned the middle-aged cultivator and ambushed him inside the formation. After Shi Ying intercepted the cultivator’s fleeing Nascent Soul, the dying man realized that the person before him was not truly Shi Ying.

• The poisoned middle-aged cultivator was caught off guard by a black-light attack that pierced his hand and lower back, while soul-wrenching pain left him unable to resist.
• The middle-aged cultivator’s golden Nascent Soul fled, but Shi Ying and a second streak of black light intercepted it and struck it down.
• Shi Ying accused the weakened Nascent Soul of still attempting teleportation and prepared to finish it with his water-separating spikes.
• The middle-aged cultivator recalled how he had discovered the poison, wrongly suspected the female cultivator, and recognized that she had been controlled before she attacked him.
• Shi Ying said he intended to kill the entire group and claim the mission’s credit, then attacked the Nascent Soul as it secretly gathered power to escape.
• The Nascent Soul recognized that its attacker was not Shi Ying before the black-light attack struck.

Li Yan used poison and Shi Ying’s appearance to kill the cultivators who had trapped him, then revealed how he had planned and carried out the deception. Alone inside the weakened formation, he began probing its core and considered how to obtain the middle-aged cultivator’s dark red blade, as someone approached.

• Li Yan’s attack stopped the middle-aged cultivator from activating the formation, and the wounded Nascent Soul figure died as the noose vanished.
• Li Yan searched the dead cultivators’ storage treasures, burned their bodies, and used a Reality-Confusing Pill to return to his own appearance.
• Li Yan recalled using Pitch-Black Night to capture Shi Ying, searching his memories, and learning that Mingqi had escaped the formation.
• Li Yan explained how he poisoned the three cultivators and nearly misjudged the middle-aged cultivator’s ability to survive the toxins.
• Li Yan recognized the formation as a weakened version of the one from the previous night and sat at its core to study how to break it.
• Li Yan considered claiming the middle-aged cultivator’s concealed dark red blade, while someone silently approached him.

Ming Qi escaped the formation with a Sky's End Talisman and continued toward Idle Crane Manor, where she encountered the badly wounded Li Yan. Li Yan claimed that Yang Zun and the others had died in the formation, and the chapter ended with Ming Qi asking whether he had brought the escorted items.

• Ming Qi used a Sky's End Talisman to escape the formation, then decided to continue toward Idle Crane Manor despite suspecting another ambush.
• Ming Qi spotted Li Yan flying ahead and followed him cautiously, wondering whether he was bait.
• Near Idle Crane Manor, Ming Qi revealed herself and called out to Li Yan, who acted surprised to see her.
• Li Yan told Ming Qi that Yang Zun and the others had died fighting the enemies in the formation, and that he had killed the last enemy after it was badly injured.
• Ming Qi asked Li Yan whether he had brought the escorted items, and he said that he had.

Li Yan and Ming Qi returned to Yellow Banner Valley after delivering their mission items and evading Night Hawk assassins, then gave matching accounts to the sect. Back in his cultivation chamber, Li Yan sorted his spoils and began studying the dark-red blade, whose former owner's lingering Divine Sense suggested an unusual technique.

• Li Yan and Ming Qi agreed not to press each other about their secrets and continued toward Leisure Crane Manor together.
• After recovering at Leisure Crane Manor, Li Yan and Ming Qi took a roundabout route back to Yellow Banner Valley while avoiding unusual cultivators and Night Hawk assassins.
• Li Yan and Ming Qi handed in their mission, answered the Mission Hall's questions and an elder's interrogation, then departed separately after being released.
• Li Yan rested at home, sorted his acquired treasures, and kept items that might cause trouble separate from the rest.
• Li Yan examined the dark-red blade and found that the middle-aged cultivator's Divine Sense imprint still lingered on it, suggesting the cultivator had used a special auxiliary technique.
• Li Yan took out the middle-aged cultivator's jade slips and three books to inspect them again.

Li Yan searched unsuccessfully for a way to refine the dark-red blade, then discovered a tiny formation restriction hidden at one corner of it. He used the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief to test the restriction, but the blade only trembled, leaving him without a clear result.

• Li Yan destroyed the lingering Divine Sense imprint in the dark-red blade and tried to refine it, but failed to establish a connection.
• Over four days, Li Yan examined the blade and tested dozens of refinement methods, finding that he could only activate it crudely.
• Li Yan noticed a pale-white dot at the junction of two blade edges and confirmed it appeared only when the blade was at its normal size.
• Li Yan recognized the dot's spiraling patterns as a formation restriction and brought out the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief.
• Li Yan shrank the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief and placed it over the dot, causing the dark-red blade to tremble without visibly breaking the restriction.

Li Yan used the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief to uncover the dark-red blade’s incantation and discovered that it was a tool for training Divine Sense through the Subtle Thought technique. After two years of dangerous missions, he earned enough sect contribution points to qualify for the Ancient Hall of Inheritance and began cultivating Subtle Thought while he waited.

• Li Yan used the Heaven-Stealing Kerchief to probe the dark-red blade and recovered the Subtle Thought technique, a method for training Divine Sense control and power.
• Li Yan realized the middle-aged cultivator he had killed might have possessed powerful Divine Sense attacks, and he reflected that his poison and cautious ambush had saved him.
• Li Yan named the dark-red blade the Cloud-Piercing Blade and spent a day studying the formation flags, managing to set up a limited confounding formation he named Ghostly Traces.
• Li Yan spent two years taking dangerous missions, then stopped after earning enough sect contribution points to qualify for the Ancient Hall of Inheritance.
• Li Yan began cultivating Subtle Thought while waiting for his next objective.