Li Yaowan

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Ambition and estrangement

Li Yaowan built her wealth through her own abilities and sought to make Central Capital Pill surpass Star Slaying Pill, then establish Huaxia’s alchemy throughout the Astral Realm. Despite her talent and financial success, her lack of a family power base obstructed her political ambitions 252 257 357.

She gave birth to Li Qingchen intending to establish her own family and hoping to produce an Alchemical Dao Heavenly Fortune Bearer. Although he was talented, he did not possess that designation. She nevertheless invested heavily in his cultivation and expected him to inherit her ambitions and continue the family line 257 333.

Her demands alienated him. Li Qingchen joined the Pill Department but minored in the Nature Department; when he learned that she wanted him to have children, he became a monk. Mother and son eventually cut off contact 257.

War and the loss of her furnace

Li Yaowan fought on the front lines against the Fenglie Clan twenty-eight years before Li Yang’s studies. Their common opposition to the invaders briefly eased her conflict with Li Qingchen 83 257.

When the Nature Department was ambushed, she detonated her life-bound pill furnace to save her students. She survived, but fell to the Sixth Grade Realm and withdrew to Zhongdu Military Academy, avoiding even her son. Li Qingchen subsequently devoted himself to searching for light-condensed titanium to restore her furnace 226 257.

She also retained a crucial clue about the Nature Department’s destruction: a Spirit Department Heavenly Fortune Bearer had remained unharmed after Divine Exalt Daowu’s attack. Suspecting that this person had been used for the Divine Descent Ritual, she had his movements monitored for twenty-eight years 255 256.

Partnership with Li Yang

Li Yaowan first approaches Li Yang during a talent assessment, mistakenly believing that she has an S-rated talent. After discovering Li Yang’s unusual pill abilities, she recruits her as a minor-study disciple and begins negotiating access to former Agronomy Department research 81 83 84.

Their negotiations become a contest over profits. Li Yaowan initially believes she can force Li Yang to accept her terms, but Li Yang demonstrates that her pill output could disrupt the market. They ultimately agree to a six-four sales split, and Li Yang changes the contract’s wording from pill purification to pill refining 85 86 87.

Their early cooperation includes:

• Research access: Li Yaowan helps Li Yang enter protected Agronomy Department cultivation records, warning that they can overwhelm her mental power 87.
• Alchemy competition: She supplies a Potent Star Recovery Pill formula, a blue-quality furnace, and equipment so Li Yang can represent Zhongdu against Star-Slaying Military Academy 114.
• Seed breeding: She sells breeding materials at cost and introduces Li Yang to Song Jinhuan for a suitable cultivation dish 131.
• Aid for Si Kui: She provides an Eighth Grade Origin Stabilizing Pill without demanding repayment before Si Kui leaves for the Astral Realm 157.

Restoration and the Nature Department’s expansion

Before Li Yang enters the Astral Realm, Li Yaowan gives her pill recipes and asks her to look for materials that could repair her furnace. Li Yang returns with Eighth Grade light-condensed titanium from the Sword Tomb, having risked her life to obtain it 191 254.

Overwhelmed by gratitude, Li Yaowan offers to help even at the cost of her own life. Li Yang instead asks her to regain the Eighth Grade Realm and protect the Nature Pavilion 254.

After her restoration, Li Yaowan publicly credits Li Yang and declares that her minor-study disciple means more to her than her personal disciples. She uses the resulting surge in influence to help secure the Blue Crystal Realm Domain’s protection rights for the Nature Department 261 262 263.

Her work supporting the department expands substantially:

• Agrees to shelter the 27,520 Masterless Swords Li Yang has promised to free 255.
• Arranges a crop research institute staffed by experienced former Nature Department minor students 277.
• Helps cultivate more than 300,000 Star Plants in Blue Crystal Soil and offers the Marquis of Wind Pavilion founder’s shares in their cultivation company 319 321.
• Identifies Wang Gexiao as the traitor connected to the Nature Department’s downfall 315.
• Helps manage the Star Core industry chain and establish an intelligence organization for Li Yang 375.

Treatment of the survivors

After Li Yang rescues 481 Nature Department survivors from the Thousand-Person Feast, Li Yaowan mobilizes Pill Division alchemists and a Star Auxiliary Master. She prepares individualized treatment while the auxiliary specialist stabilizes their conditions 394.

Repairing their damaged Star Souls proves difficult. Her 346th experiment fails, and she requests at least 100,000 Star Recovery Pills for further work. Jiang Yuqing’s rapid refining allows him to supply the pills without consuming the mental power she needs for research 440 442.

Li Yaowan later witnesses Li Yang’s rescue of Cheng Rui and the Nature Department Masters through Time Rewind, promises to treat Bai Muxue, and continues caring for the returned survivors 505 507 515.

Near the final confrontation, her exhausting work culminates in the Immortality Pill, which gives Si Kui a chance to live, alongside Li Yaowan’s advancement to Ninth-Grade Supreme 574 575. During Li Yang’s later near-death crisis, she recognizes that the Human Emperor Fortune Spirit is rebuilding Li Yang’s spirit body using Origin Soul fragments 595.

Appearance

• Before restoration: A small, hunched elderly woman with deeply wrinkled skin, white frizzy hair, small eyes, and aged, bark-like hands. Her appearance is frequently unkempt, and an abacus hangs at her waist 84 253.
• After restoration: A vigorous young woman with neat short hair, wheat-colored skin, small eyes, and a low nose bridge. She wears a sleeveless top and a string of abacuses at her waist; her energetic bearing is more striking than her individual features 261.
• During intensive research: Exhaustion can leave her haggard enough to resemble her former elderly self, with pronounced dark circles beneath her eyes 574.

Personality

Li Yaowan openly loves money, power, and recognition. Her office displays the inscription “Money is my real mother,” and she regards financial ambition as nothing to conceal. She is an experienced negotiator who recognizes both Li Yang’s commercial potential and the danger her abilities pose to the existing pill market 84 85 86 252.

Her self-interest coexists with loyalty to the Pill Department and a willingness to sacrifice herself for her students. Even while behaving outrageously during recruitment, she respects the assessment’s rules when reminded not to interfere 81 83 257.

Li Yaowan’s greatest personal failing is her urge to control those she loves. She acknowledges that her ambitions damaged her relationship with Li Qingchen and fears repeating the same mistake with Li Yang. Her response initially takes the form of emotional withdrawal; later, she learns to express concern while trusting Li Yang’s judgment 257 378 449.

As a teacher, she favors precision and structured guidance rather than Si Kui’s hands-off approach. Although protective and politically cautious, she accepts that helping Li Yang grow stronger can be more effective than shielding her from every danger 395 396. Her practical outlook also makes her more receptive to Li Yang’s strategic arguments than to Si Kui’s moral appeals 537.

Abilities & Skills

Alchemy

• Highly sought-after pills: Her products sell out rapidly at Zhongdu’s trading post. Her Realm-Breaking Pills command prices several tens of percent above competing products 81.
• Grandmaster-level output: As a Peak Eighth Grade alchemist, she could produce 100,000 Star Recovery Pills in a day at full effort, but cannot spare the necessary mental power while conducting her research 440.
• Medical research: Develops treatments for damaged Star Souls and coordinates individualized care for rescued Nature Department members 394 440.
• Specialized investigations: Confirms that Deep Star Water can purify Sand Fruit seeds and undertakes research toward neutralizing the Lost-Knowledge Sword Spirits’ abilities 354.
• Immortality Pill: Her late-story work produces a pill that offers Si Kui a chance of survival 574 575.

Dao of Money

• Money Points: Before reaching the Master Realm, a voice in her mind records money earned through her own abilities and converts it into points she can spend to improve herself. Unlike Li Yang, she does not possess a system 441.
• Later cultivation: Cultivates the Power of Wood after reaching the Master Realm. She reports that her cultivation slowed by more than a hundredfold, potentially a thousandfold, after that transition 441.
• Unresolved return: When Li Yang proposes returning to the Dao of Money, Li Yaowan postpones her decision until after developing a Star Soul repair pill 442.

Spiritual Power and Star Soul

• Star Soul: Takes the form of a large string of abacus beads 282.
• Spirit Connection: Can enter another person’s Spirit Sea with permission and conduct detailed examinations of their Star Soul 375.
• Mental barriers: Uses a spiritual barrier to hold confidential discussions 362.
• Diagnostic insight: Identifies the Origin Soul fragments needed for Li Yang’s spirit-body reconstruction 595.

Commerce and Intelligence

• Research resources: Controls more than a dozen research institutes and maintains extensive stores of alchemical materials 114 131.
• Market management: Handles pill sales, Blue Crystal Stone sales, and negotiations over the Blue Crystal Soil cultivation enterprise 127 263 321.
• Covert preparations: Creates a detailed Fire Fox mixed-blood identity for Li Yang, complete with history, appearance, and an informant contact 283 284.
• Long-term investigation: Tracks a suspected participant in the Nature Department’s destruction and later identifies Wang Gexiao’s involvement 256 315.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Abacus: A top-tier Star Weapon that saves her when her life-bound pill furnace explodes. It is later described as a divine artifact that has acknowledged her as its master 131 253.
• Life-bound pill furnace: Its destruction causes her fall in realm. Repairs require Eighth Grade light-condensed titanium, an Eighth Grade or higher master weaponsmith, and substantial supplementary materials 257.
• Life-Extending Pills: Offers Li Yang her entire supply before the dangerous mission to rescue Nature Department survivors; Li Yang accepts only one 378.

Relationships

• Li Yang — Minor-study disciple, business partner, and eventually a daughter-like figure. Their initially transactional partnership becomes a relationship of mutual trust; Li Yaowan comes to value her above her own life 87 261 395 426.
• Li Qingchen — Son. Her attempts to dictate his career and family life cause their estrangement, but his search for furnace-repair materials reveals his continuing concern for her. Despite their incompatible values, he considers her the greatest pill master 257 357.
• Si Kui — Fellow veteran and Li Yang’s primary teacher. Li Yaowan respects her strength but differs from her in teaching style and political caution 83 157 396 537.
• Song Jinhuan — Old friend and weaponsmith. Their relationship includes blunt teasing; Li Yaowan introduces Li Yang to her for cultivation equipment 131 132.
• Jiang Yuqing — Initially a rival academy’s alchemical prodigy; later a collaborator whose rapid pill production supports her survivor-treatment research 115 440 442.
• Marquis of Wind Pavilion — Commercial and political partner. They cooperate over Blue Crystal Soil, Li Yang’s public recognition, and treatment resources for rescued Masters 321 395 505.

Notable Quotes

“From now on, though she is my minor-discipline disciple, she means more to me than my personal disciples!” 261

“All right. There’s no way I can stop worrying when you’re going somewhere so dangerous, but I believe in you.” 449