Chapter Summaries

Chu Xinghe sent Mu Bai and a hundred Vast Heaven Sect disciples into Fengdu City’s full-power illusion, intending to scare away other sects from paying to enter. After Mu Bai’s terror and defeat shattered his pride, he gained a breakthrough in mindset and cultivation, leaving Chu Xinghe stunned.

• Mu Bai and the hundred disciples entered Fengdu City, where vicious ghosts overwhelmed them with terrifying illusions and destroyed their formation.
• Ma Liang questioned whether the trial was too harsh, while Chu Xinghe watched, satisfied that the ghosts’ attacks were only illusions.
• The disciples were all defeated within ten minutes, and onlookers left, convinced Fengdu City was a one-sided massacre rather than a useful trial.
• Mu Bai realized how poorly he and the others had performed compared with Chu Xinghe, and the experience extinguished his pride.
• Mu Bai broke through in mindset and then cultivation, leaving Chu Xinghe bewildered by the result.

Mu Bai and the Vast Heaven Sect disciples emerged from Fengdu City transformed by their ordeal, while Chu Xinghe’s attempt to make the formation a frightening ordeal instead made other sects eager to send in their own disciples. The chapter ended with Ma Liang stepping forward to manage the flood of bookings and spirit stones.

• Mu Bai completed breakthroughs in both cultivation and state of mind, prompting the surrounding Vast Heaven Sect disciples to enter sudden enlightenment and reflect on how they had faced the battle.
• After the disciples awoke, observers outside Fengdu City recognized the value of the ordeal, and members of other sects rushed back hoping to send their disciples in.
• Mu Bai and the other disciples left Fengdu City with a fiercer bearing, thanked Chu Xinghe, and interpreted his tears as joy and reverence for the sect’s ancestors.
• Several disciples broke through in cultivation as Chu Xinghe struggled to hide his frustration, while other sects crowded around to reserve places in Fengdu City.
• Ma Liang decided the visitors were unworthy of speaking directly to Chu Xinghe and offered to handle the bookings as Fengdu City’s chief manager.

Chu Xinghe tried to keep Fengdu City from becoming profitable by limiting entry to one hundred people a day, but the restriction angered the sects competing for slots. When Zheng Yu arrived seeking special access for Martial Emperor City, Chu Xinghe saw a chance to damage the Vast Heaven Sect’s reputation and exploit Zheng Yu’s weak-willed disciples.

• Zheng Yu arrived in Central Continent City, learned how Chu Xinghe’s Fengdu Grand Formation had strengthened the Vast Heaven Sect’s disciples, and ordered his steward to secure more slots for Martial Emperor City.
• Ma Liang told Chu Xinghe that sects were competing fiercely for Fengdu City slots and paying upfront, so Chu Xinghe limited entry to one hundred people per day.
• Chu Xinghe ordered Ma Liang to make every sect, including the ten great sects, draw lots, prompting complaints across Central Continent City about the limit and the lottery.
• After Zheng Yu arrived and asked Chu Xinghe to pull strings for Martial Emperor City, Chu Xinghe promised to make an exception and welcomed the chance to provoke the other sects.
• Zheng Yu said his disciples had not been selected for their strength of mind, and Chu Xinghe realized their fear in Fengdu City could cause a scandal and damage the sect’s prospects.

Chu Xinghe arranged for Martial Emperor City’s disciples to enter Fengdu City first, hoping the vengeful ghosts would frighten them badly enough to keep Fengdu City from becoming too popular. He left Zheng Yu convinced of his kindness and the ghosts under orders to scare Martial Emperor City’s disciples to death.

• Chu Xinghe promised Zheng Yu that Fengdu City was safe and agreed to admit a hundred Martial Emperor City disciples the next morning.
• When Ma Liang announced Martial Emperor City would enter first, other sects cursed Chu Xinghe, but Ma Liang claimed Chu Xinghe and Zheng Yu had arranged it beforehand and announced free admission for the hundred disciples.
• The sects accepted Ma Liang’s explanation and praised Chu Xinghe, while Chu Xinghe grew frustrated that no one had made trouble.
• Zheng Yu arrived at Fengdu City the next morning and learned that Chu Xinghe had gone inside to speak with the vengeful ghosts.
• Chu Xinghe threatened the vengeful ghost leaders with being refined into pills unless they frightened Martial Emperor City’s disciples to death, and they promised to try.

Chu Xinghe sent Zheng Yu’s Martial Emperor City disciples into Fengdu City, where the ghosts’ terrifying attacks exposed several inexplicable bursts of Demonic Qi and a Demonic Corpse Technique. The chapter left Zheng Yu and Chu Xinghe baffled as the crowd suspected Martial Emperor City of secretly having ties to the Demonic Sect.

• Chu Xinghe gave each Martial Emperor City disciple a pair of pants and sent them into Fengdu City, where the vengeful ghosts began terrifying them with brutal illusions.
• Mu Bai and the Vast Heaven Sect disciples watched the ordeal and realized it was far worse than their own earlier experience in Fengdu City.
• A female Martial Emperor City disciple lost control under the ghosts’ assault, released Demonic Qi, and was killed after attacking them.
• A long-haired male disciple also erupted with Demonic Qi and was torn apart after Zheng Yu ordered Ma Liang to kill him.
• A third disciple died of fright, then exploded with the Demonic Corpse Technique, leaving Zheng Yu and Chu Xinghe stunned as onlookers questioned Martial Emperor City’s allegiance.

The Fengdu Grand Formation exposed three Demonic Sect infiltrators among Martial Emperor City's disciples while helping many others break through. Zheng Yu thanked Chu Xinghe, paid him a million spirit stones, and asked to have all Martial Emperor City disciples screened.

• After the formation's illusions ended, many Martial Emperor City disciples broke through, while three were revealed as Demonic Sect members.
• Ma Liang claimed the formation could identify infiltrators by making their sinister nature show under fear, and the onlookers accepted his explanation.
• Zheng Yu recognized the three infiltrators, including Mo Li, whom he had personally recruited, and worried that Martial Emperor City had been deeply infiltrated.
• Zheng Yu thanked Chu Xinghe, gave Ma Liang a storage ring containing a million spirit stones, and asked for all Martial Emperor City disciples to enter the formation.
• Chu Xinghe silently nodded along, while Zheng Yu took his gesture as confirmation that Chu Xinghe had known about the infiltrators.

Zheng Yu and Martial Emperor City tested their disciples in Fengdu City, revealing that the Fengdu Grand Formation could screen out Demonic Sect members and sending slot prices soaring. As Wu Xingyun and Tantai Jing planned their next move, the Vast Heaven Sect praised Chu Xinghe’s success, rewarded Ma Liang, and watched Chu Xinghe return home determined to keep his troublesome associates out of his way.

• Zheng Yu left for Fengdu City with Martial Emperor City, and the formation’s ability to screen disciples sparked a rush for slots that scalpers sold at astronomical prices.
• Wu Xingyun learned that Chu Xinghe had disrupted the Demonic Sect’s plans, while Tantai Jing prepared an operation in Gathering Star Kingdom and vowed revenge on the Vast Heaven Sect.
• Gu Mingchao received news of the formation’s screening ability, praised Chu Xinghe’s accomplishments, and summoned the palace elders to discuss rewarding Ma Liang.
• Ma Liang received the sect’s commendation and promised Chu Xinghe that he would continue supporting him, while Chu Xinghe regretted having given him advice.
• Chu Xinghe returned to the Vast Heaven Sect with Mu Bai and the Ouyang Lineage members, planning to put the Ouyang Lineage in the Artifact Refining Palace and the people from Muyue Kingdom to work refining pills.

Chu Xinghe returned to the Vast Heaven Sect and learned that Feng Yuzheng's treasure appraisal technique destroyed the treasures it examined. Seeing a possible way to counter the Ouyang Lineage, Chu Xinghe hurried to investigate the technique, wary of another unexpected drawback.

• Chu Xinghe returned to the Vast Heaven Sect, greeted the disciples, and paid his respects to Gu Mingchao, who praised his character and urged him to keep striving.
• At the Spirit Crane Palace, the Grand Elder praised the improvements of the hundred disciples who visited Fengdu City and proposed sending more disciples there in batches; he also promised Chu Xinghe a mysterious surprise.
• Chu Xinghe visited the other palaces and heard disciples praise his handling of Ouyang Ming and the Fengdu Grand Formation.
• Elder Yu Yuyu told Chu Xinghe that Feng Yuzheng's treasure appraisal attempts had left borrowed treasures covered in dust or caused them to explode.
• Chu Xinghe realized Feng Yuzheng's technique could destroy treasures and might counter the Ouyang Lineage, then hurried with Elder Yu to find Feng Yuzheng while resolving to check for hidden risks first.

Chu Xinghe discovered that Feng Yuzheng’s inherited treasure-appraisal technique destroyed spirit treasures with astonishing speed, and arranged for him to cultivate it using the Vast Heaven Sect’s resources. He left Feng Yuzheng at the Artifact Refining Palace, where the Ouyang Lineage would keep supplying treasures for him to break, and watched the Misfortune Compass spin again.

• Chu Xinghe questioned Feng Yuzheng about the Feng Lineage’s treasure-appraisal inheritance and had him demonstrate it, destroying or damaging all fifteen treasures he tried.
• Chu Xinghe urged Feng Yuzheng to cultivate the technique and secured approval from Sect Master Gu Mingchao and the grand elder to use sect resources.
• Chu Xinghe took Feng Yuzheng to the sect treasury and authorized him to select whatever treasures he needed.
• Chu Xinghe arranged for Feng Yuzheng to stay at the Artifact Refining Palace while Ouyang Ming and Ouyang Ling supplied him with custom-refined treasures and refrained from giving him advice.
• Chu Xinghe heard spirit weapons exploding at the Artifact Refining Palace and saw the Misfortune Compass begin spinning again, granting him spiritual power.

Chu Xinghe expected Feng Yuzheng’s destructive treasure appraisal to anger the sect leaders and get him punished, but Elder He recognized the technique as the Divine Engraving Technique. The leaders became excited about Feng Yuzheng’s discovery, leaving Chu Xinghe confused about why his plan had failed.

• Chu Xinghe happily slacked off in the Technique Repository Tower while Feng Yuzheng’s spirit-weapon explosions caused an uproar across the sect.
• Gu Mingchao and the palace heads went to the Artifact Refining Palace to investigate Feng Yuzheng’s technique and summoned Chu Xinghe to join them.
• Chu Xinghe asked Feng Yuzheng to demonstrate his technique again, and Feng Yuzheng destroyed several more spirit treasures before the assembled leaders.
• Elder He identified Feng Yuzheng’s method as the Divine Engraving Technique, and Gu Mingchao and the other leaders eagerly examined the results.
• Chu Xinghe remained baffled as the leaders’ anger turned to excitement over Feng Yuzheng.

The Vast Heaven Sect learned that Feng Yuzheng’s failed treasure appraisals came from an incomplete Divine Engraving Technique, and decided to fund his research after Chu Xinghe’s supposed foresight impressed everyone. Feng Yuzheng vowed to master the art and challenge the Huang Clan, while Chu Xinghe remained certain he would fail; the Huang Clan likewise concluded that Feng posed no threat.

• Elder He recognized Feng Yuzheng’s methods as an incomplete Art of Awakening from the Divine Engraving Technique, and Gu Mingchao and the sect leaders agreed to support his research.
• The Grand Elder praised Chu Xinghe’s decision to back Feng Yuzheng, while Chu privately believed the technique could never be completed by him.
• Feng Yuzheng embraced Chu Xinghe and vowed to master the Divine Engraving Technique and make the Huang Clan tremble.
• News of Feng Yuzheng’s technique spread through the Vast Heaven Sect and across the world, causing widespread astonishment.
• The Huang Clan patriarch investigated Feng Yuzheng’s incomplete technique and concluded that he was no threat to the clan’s standing.

Chu Xinghe was assigned to escort Vast Heaven Sect’s resources to the Gathering Star Kingdom and collect its payment, while anticipating a mysterious surprise in his hometown. He planned to exploit the journey to lose the valuables, and Shi Biao eagerly joined him, hoping to benefit from Chu Xinghe’s luck.

• News spread that Feng Yuzheng’s Divine Engraving Technique was incomplete, and the Huang Clan claimed its standing as the strongest treasure appraisal clan was secure.
• Chu Xinghe encouraged Feng Yuzheng to keep working on the technique while Ouyang Ming also caused explosions in the Artifact Refining Palace.
• Feng Fei summoned Chu Xinghe to the Medicine King Palace, where the grand elder revealed that the Gathering Star Kingdom had bought large quantities of supreme-grade spirit stones and scarce resources.
• The grand elder put Chu Xinghe in charge of transporting the goods to the Gathering Star Kingdom and collecting its payment, and said he could visit Kaoshan Village to receive a surprise.
• Chu Xinghe accepted the assignment and imagined losing both the delivery and the payment along the way; the grand elder gave him a storage ring full of spirit stones and ordered him to travel by caravan.
• Shi Biao introduced himself as head of the Vast Heaven Chamber of Commerce’s eastern branch and hoped working with Chu Xinghe would help him advance.

Chu Xinghe traveled with Shi Biao and a caravan bound for the Gathering Star Kingdom, while trying to prevent his companions from causing unexpected trouble. He finally threw away the Grand Elder’s Qiankun Ring to cause a loss, but Feng Yuzheng returned it, leaving his plan in ruins.

• Shi Biao agreed to manage the caravan and obey Chu Xinghe, while Chu Xinghe gathered the assigned disciples and invited Feng Yuzheng to accompany them.
• Chu Xinghe told Ouyang Ming to rest, misread Feng Fei’s romantic troubles, and asked him whether Wan Lin was involved before the caravan departed.
• The Grand Elder sent Chu Xinghe off with a promise of a surprise, and Chu Xinghe privately resolved to give him a surprise of his own.
• After five peaceful days on the road, Chu Xinghe tossed the Qiankun Ring away and ordered the caravan to hurry onward.
• Feng Yuzheng sprang into Chu Xinghe’s carriage and returned the Qiankun Ring she had picked up, shocking him.

Chu Xinghe repeatedly tried to lose a storage ring, but Feng Yuzheng used the Treasure Seeking Art to find it every time, so Chu Xinghe shifted to a new plan to sabotage the delivery deadline. He then learned that Shi Biao’s eastern trading houses might become profitable and decided to give Shi Biao guidance designed to make them lose money.

• Feng Yuzheng repeatedly returned Chu Xinghe’s deliberately discarded storage ring, even after Chu Xinghe hid it far away and threw it into an underground river.
• After eight more failed attempts to lose the ring, Chu Xinghe gave up and planned to delay the delivery by lingering in Kaoshan Village so the caravan would miss its fifteen-day deadline.
• Shi Biao praised Chu Xinghe and explained that the eastern branch’s main business was its trading houses, which he had kept running at a small profit.
• Chu Xinghe promised to defend Shi Biao’s management from replacement, then realized the trading houses could become profitable if they continued operating under Shi Biao’s model.
• When Shi Biao asked Chu Xinghe for guidance, Chu Xinghe agreed and resolved to steer the trading houses toward massive losses.

Chu Xinghe visited the Vast Heaven Trading Company in Yan City and proposed a series of costly reforms designed to make customers freely use its goods and services. Shi Biao believed Chu Xinghe’s guarantee would protect him as he carried out the plans, while Chu Xinghe continued devising ways to increase the company’s losses.

• Shi Biao escorted Chu Xinghe to the Yan City branch, where its manager and senior staff welcomed him.
• Chu Xinghe ordered the branch to station beautiful, highly cultivated, aloof greeters at its entrance.
• After learning that the branch had begun making a profit on spirit stones, Chu Xinghe proposed free spirit stone trials to encourage customers to use them without buying.
• Chu Xinghe added free month-long spirit treasure trials with tiny deposits, full refunds, and no charge for damage, then suggested similar free trials and refunds for food and clothing.
• Chu Xinghe demanded one-on-one service for every customer, more employees, and higher pay for the trading company’s staff.

Chu Xinghe imposed doubled compensation, nine days off, and extravagant customer perks on the Vast Heaven Trading Company, convinced the changes would ruin its profits. After secretly swapping his Qiankun Ring for an empty one at the shop, he discovered Feng Yuzheng had found the treasure-filled ring and brought it to him, believing he had passed Xinghe’s test.

• Chu Xinghe doubled the trading company staff’s compensation and ordered them to take nine days off each month, including during the busiest periods.
• Shi Biao reported Chu Xinghe’s plan, and Sect Master Gu Mingchao approved it with the cryptic instruction, “Watch and wait.”
• The Vast Heaven Chamber of Commerce extended Chu Xinghe’s customer experience measures across its branches, provoking an uproar among rival companies and their leaders.
• Chu Xinghe secretly switched his treasure-filled Qiankun Ring with an empty one on the shop counter, hoping a customer would buy the valuable ring.
• Chu Xinghe headed for Kaoshan Village, but found Feng Yuzheng in the carriage holding the treasure-filled Qiankun Ring and believing he had passed Xinghe’s test.

Chu Xinghe traveled with the caravan into the Gathering Star Kingdom, where his junior brother Gu Feng turned out to be the son of Clear River City's lord. When Chu Xinghe reached Kaoshan Village, he discovered that the road and village had undergone a massive transformation, which he suspected was the grand elder's surprise for him.

• Feng Yuzheng recovered Chu Xinghe's spatial ring after Chu Xinghe secretly switched it, leaving Chu Xinghe exasperated and determined not to lose it again.
• Chu Xinghe let the junior brothers from the Gathering Star Kingdom visit their families and continued toward Kaoshan Village with Gu Feng, whose home was in Clear River City.
• Gu Chengming, Clear River City's lord and Gu Feng's father, welcomed Chu Xinghe with a grand reception and offered him gifts, which Chu Xinghe declined.
• Chu Xinghe left Gu Feng with his family and traveled toward Kaoshan Village, noticing that the road had become wide enough for fifty carriages.
• Chu Xinghe reached Moon River and saw the enormous changes around Kaoshan Village, realizing that the grand elder had prepared a huge surprise for him.

Chu Xinghe returned to Kaoshan Village and found that the great elder had transformed it into a vast city, then chose to honor their delivery agreement rather than swindle the sect. As Chu Xinghe reunited with the villagers and Chu Youcai was beaten for cursing him, Tantai Jing waited uneasily for the shipment, convinced Chu Xinghe was plotting something.

• Chu Xinghe crossed the new Moon River bridge and discovered that the great elder had turned Kaoshan Village into a gigantic, semi-independent city.
• The villagers welcomed Chu Xinghe, and the village chief explained how the great elder had funded the city and provided for its residents.
• Moved by the surprise, Chu Xinghe decided to follow the great elder’s plan and deliver the resources within the agreed fifteen days.
• Chu Xinghe learned that Chu Youcai had repeatedly insulted the Vast Heaven Sect after the great elder struck him, and Feng Yuzheng and Shi Biao later joined villagers in beating him again.
• Tantai Jing’s Demonic Sect allies expected Chu Xinghe to deliver the supplies, while Tantai Jing suspected a hidden scheme but could not identify it.

Chu Xinghe rested in Kaoshan Village while the Demonic Sect mistook the Grand Elder’s misdirected teleportation for proof that their plot had been exposed. As five Devil Venerables arrived to kill Chu Xinghe, the Grand Elder finally teleported to the village and appeared right among them.

• Chu Xinghe enjoyed a few days in Kaoshan Village, then prepared Shi Biao and the others to deliver the goods before the deadline.
• The Grand Elder tried to teleport to Kaoshan Village but landed near the Gathering Star Kingdom’s capital, then returned to the Vast Heaven Sect.
• The Demonic Sect mistook the Grand Elder’s appearance near the capital as proof that its Blood Soul Grand Formation plot had been discovered.
• Tantai Jing ordered five Devil Venerables to massacre Kaoshan Village, kill Chu Xinghe, and seize the resources.
• The five Devil Venerables gathered outside Kaoshan Village and chanted for Chu Xinghe’s death as the Grand Elder teleported into their midst.

The Great Elder killed five Devil Venerables who had planned to assassinate Chu Xinghe, and their confession revealed the Demonic Sect’s Blood Soul Grand Formation plot. The formation summoned the Blood Soul Patriarch only halfway before Evil Repeller’s strike spun him around, leaving his lower half outside as the bloody door closed.

• The Great Elder arrived in Kaoshan Village and killed four of the five Devil Venerables before restraining the last one, who confessed the Demonic Sect’s plan.
• Chu Xinghe and Shi Biao learned that the Demonic Sect intended to use the Blood Soul Grand Formation, though Chu Xinghe privately insisted he had not discovered their secret.
• After the five Devil Venerables’ soul lamps went out, Tantai Jing ordered the Demonic Sect to activate the formation instead of retreating.
• The Great Elder reached the capital with Chu Xinghe and two Martial Venerables, where the Blood Soul Grand Formation opened and the Blood Soul Patriarch began emerging.
• Tantai Jing tried to free the Blood Soul Patriarch, but Evil Repeller struck him and spun him around, so the closing formation left only his lower half outside.