Chapter Summaries

Shi Tiexin devised the Four-Tier Secrecy Plan to conceal his growth from the people behind the Freedom Minor Method while secretly building strength. He tested the first secrecy tier against the dogs and left with a framework for hiding increasingly powerful gains.

• Shi Tiexin used Super Stinky Overlord to distract the dogs surrounding the residential complex and rode away after completing a First Level Secrecy combat test.
• Shi Tiexin reasoned that the people who gave him the Freedom Minor Method wanted to use him for their own purposes and might be monitoring his progress.
• Shi Tiexin decided to expand his influence, secretly grow stronger, and avoid provoking his hidden enemies into acting openly.
• Shi Tiexin mapped four possible levels of surveillance and named his counterstrategy the Four-Tier Secrecy Plan.
• Shi Tiexin drew four strength-growth curves to define which gains he could reveal to Old Tang, conceal from him, or hide by crossing Worldlines.

Shi Tiexin strengthened his resistance to mind-reading and tested whether his enemy had absolute surveillance. After confirming he had not been detected, he discovered that completing Scholar Stone's second Destiny Mission was continuously replenishing his essence qi.

• Shi Tiexin reasoned that Chu Feiyan's mind-reading relied on mind arts and could be resisted with stronger thought-qi and discernment.
• Shi Tiexin spent 44 points of Heavenly Gifted Golden Light to advance Basic Natural History, raising his merged Discernment attribute to +6.
• Shi Tiexin considered how to test whether the enemy had absolute surveillance and kept to his ordinary routine at Beautiful Group headquarters for a full day.
• At midnight, Shi Tiexin concluded that he was not under absolute surveillance because no one had come to capture him despite his unusual condition.
• Shi Tiexin realized that Scholar Stone's second Destiny Mission was causing essence qi to appear within his false core, rapidly replenishing and filling it.

Shi Tiexin examined the newly strengthened link between his Worldline and Scholar Stone’s, discovering that the Interlayer Mist made transmitted essence energy arrive unpredictably. He considered how to measure its distortions and concluded that he could either gather more data or complete more Destiny Missions.

• Shi Tiexin saw the star map and identified the thin connection linking him to Scholar Stone across their Worldlines.
• He compared the connection to Black Venerable’s and found that Scholar Stone’s link allowed energy to pass directly, with half of it reaching him.
• Shi Tiexin measured the essence energy arriving from Scholar Stone and found that its delivery rate fluctuated despite Scholar Stone sending it steadily.
• Shi Tiexin suspected that the Worldlines had different temporal progressions and named the clouds and mist between them the Interlayer Mist.
• Shi Tiexin concluded that the Interlayer Mist distorted energy and information, and considered extending his measurements or completing more Destiny Missions to understand its effects.

Shi Tiexin compared his connected worldlines, strengthened his resolve to work alongside Scholar Stone, and carefully planned how to conceal his abilities. The chapter left him wrestling with the consequences of Scholar Stone’s unpredictable essence transfers and the difficulty of hiding how strong his mind arts were.

• Shi Tiexin found that Destiny Missions made worldline connections clearer and sensed Scholar Stone working hard, then exchanged messages of encouragement with him.
• Shi Tiexin resumed delivery work and training, assessed his leg techniques, and sorted his abilities into secrecy levels to avoid arousing Old Tang’s suspicion.
• Shi Tiexin converted a sudden surge of essence into body-tempering progress as he advanced toward One's Own Strength, but worried about where future excess essence would go.
• Shi Tiexin planned how to gradually reveal his pseudo-elixir’s cultivation and account for his golden light, then concluded that his mind arts were too strong to conceal easily.

Shi Tiexin weighed the need to conceal his extraordinary Mind Arts while advancing his standing, then began secretly cultivating martial arts and avoiding school. He mastered the second level of Hard Qi Technique and activated Tough Hide Membrane (Partial).

• Shi Tiexin decided to reveal his abilities selectively, earn three hundred points of golden light, and aim to take the provincial examination's top rank while keeping his strength within First Level Secrecy.
• He resolved to skip school, secretly sell Auxiliary Cultivation Manuals, and build a hidden treasury while avoiding Old Tang's surveillance.
• Shi Tiexin trained his body until he had mastered One's Own Strength, then stopped because he lacked advanced body cultivation techniques and risked drawing attention.
• Shi Tiexin practiced Cloud Veil Leg in secret until he reached second-level perfection and raised his Fist Principles attribute.
• Shi Tiexin trained Hard Qi Technique for two weeks and reached second-level perfection, activating Tough Hide Membrane (Partial).

Shi Tiexin completed the second level of Hard Qi Technique, unlocking Muscle Armor and a way to refine his body with Red Mist that permanently strengthened his skin and fascia. After two months of rapid progress, he ran out of martial arts to practice and wondered what to do next, until a familiar call invited him to school.

• Shi Tiexin perfected the second level of Hard Qi Technique and unlocked the Muscle Armor diagram and its body-refining interface.
• Shi Tiexin used Red Mist to temper his right hand, discovering that the resulting increase in skin and fascia toughness was permanent.
• Shi Tiexin mastered the available Tough Hide Membrane after another half month of training.
• Shi Tiexin's Win badge disappeared after two months, during which he mastered Cloud Veil Leg and the second level of Hard Qi Technique and advanced the third level to proficiency.
• Shi Tiexin realized that the third level of Hard Qi Technique was the only martial art he had left to practice and considered seeking Star Bullet Legs or visiting the secret market.
• A familiar voice told Shi Tiexin that Smoking Teacher was there and invited him to go to school the next day.

Gu Shaoqiu learned that Shi Tiexin’s growing appetite suggested he was practicing the Minor Eating Method and planned to make him reveal his abilities at school. Meanwhile, Shi Tiexin tried to keep Shi Yuwei from wandering off again after she had somehow survived entering the Gravity Collision Arena.

• Gu Shaoqiu reviewed data collected by Old Tang and concluded that Shi Tiexin was quietly practicing the Minor Eating Method.
• Gu Shaoqiu ordered his subordinate to use an event at school the next day to test Shi Tiexin, while also monitoring whether he visited the martial arts market.
• The subordinate privately decided to monitor Shi Tiexin only through occasional online transaction checks and returned to his own cultivation.
• Shi Tiexin called Shi Yuwei and told her to stay home while he went out to deliver orders, worried she would wander off again.
• Shi Tiexin recalled that Shi Yuwei had once reached the Gravity Collision Arena’s outer ring pipelines and emerged unharmed after a search team rescued her.

Shi Tiexin visited Shi Yulei to take Shi Yuwei to school and learned that Shi Yulei’s new memory art did little to help her recognize faces. Shi Yuwei eventually rushed Shi Tiexin away to avoid being late for Teacher Fei Yan’s lesson.

• Shi Tiexin arrived at the sisters’ residence and found Shi Yulei at the door, but she did not recognize him.
• Shi Yulei explained that she had joined the Memory Palace Study Association and cultivated the mind art Friendship Ledger, then questioned Shi Tiexin to record him in it.
• Shi Tiexin said he had come to take Shi Yuwei to school, and Shi Yulei went to wake her younger sister.
• Shi Yulei’s attempt to wake Shi Yuwei caused a loud commotion, and she emerged without recognizing Shi Tiexin again.
• Shi Yuwei knocked Shi Yulei down with an Iron Mountain Lean, then dragged Shi Tiexin away so they could reach Teacher Fei Yan’s lesson on time.

Shi Tiexin went to First Zhengxue Academy to test whether he could hide his strength from Chu Feiyan. As Chu Feiyan arrived in the Special Advancement Class, she distorted the students’ senses with a flick of her pipe.

• Shi Yulei wrote down what Shi Tiexin had told her, mistakenly recording his name as Qin Shubao.
• Shi Tiexin rode to First Zhengxue Academy with Shi Yuwei and sensed that he could distinguish ordinary students from cultivators but not reliably judge experts.
• Shi Tiexin entered the Special Advancement Class, where Gao Chongxiao, Sima Liang, Tang Tianao, a buzz-cut man, and Gu Shaoqiu noticed him and Shi Yuwei.
• Shi Tiexin prepared to test whether Chu Feiyan could see through him as she entered the classroom.
• Chu Feiyan flicked her pipe bowl, causing the students’ senses of sight, hearing, space, time, and balance to become distorted.

Shi Tiexin’s attempt to conceal his Mind Arts cultivation failed when Chu Feiyan exposed him with an overwhelming Mind Art. She warned him about the limits of concealment and explained the next stage of body refinement, leaving him with a path toward All-Extreme Strength.

• Chu Feiyan’s Mind Art overwhelmed Shi Tiexin and transported him into her Golden Words Grand Classroom without his awareness.
• Chu Feiyan recognized that Shi Tiexin had perfected the second layer of Mind Arts and the Natural History in the third layer, defeating his Fourth Level Secrecy plan.
• Chu Feiyan warned Shi Tiexin that thoughts and fate could escape a cultivator’s control, then advised him to use concealment techniques while cautioning that they were not foolproof.
• Shi Tiexin asked Chu Feiyan how to advance his body refinement after cultivating One’s Own Strength.
• Chu Feiyan explained that dragon essence corresponded to the next stage of body refinement: All-Extreme Strength.

Chu Feiyan explained that All-Extreme Strength meant pushing all six physical attributes to their theoretical extremes, a realm that required a proper body-refining method. She offered Shi Tiexin the top-tier Overlord Eastern Extreme Force, while warning that body-refining divine arts were inaccessible and offered special uses rather than a higher realm.

• Chu Feiyan used a six-directional diagram to explain how One's Own Strength represented the balanced natural limit of ordinary humans.
• Chu Feiyan described self-destructive martial arts that sacrificed everything for a single devastating strike, then showed how All-Extreme Strength extended every attribute to its ultimate value.
• Chu Feiyan told Shi Tiexin that he could not cultivate toward All-Extreme Strength safely without a top-tier body-refining method.
• Chu Feiyan offered Shi Tiexin the Overlord Eastern Extreme Force cultivation method and explained that divine arts were guarded by powerful clans and did not cultivate a different realm.

Chu Feiyan explained that Shi Tiexin’s thought energy had reached the Cranial Boundary, where his brain’s capacity limited further growth, and outlined the difficult path toward breaking through Jade Gate Pass. Her final question led Shi Tiexin to realize that thought energy might affect the outside world through nerves that did not extend from the spine.

• Chu Feiyan told Shi Tiexin that the Overlord Eastern Extreme Force cost 1.8 million and urged him to earn more money.
• Shi Tiexin paid Chu Feiyan six thousand for information, then asked about the boundary he sensed while practicing mind arts.
• Chu Feiyan identified the boundary as the Cranial Boundary and explained that perfect cultivation filled the brain with thought energy, making the fourth layer difficult.
• Chu Feiyan explained that thought energy could not enter the spinal cord or pass Jade Gate Pass within foundational mind arts, and named Nether Drumbeat and Sense Three Meridians as later advances.
• Chu Feiyan asked whether all peripheral nerves extended from the spine, prompting Shi Tiexin to realize that some nerves might offer another way for thought energy to affect the outside world.

Chu Feiyan explained how opening the cranial nerves enabled Rhetoric and ocular arts, then used her mind arts to extract payment from Shi Tiexin and control the Special Advancement Class. After Shi Tiexin left, she panicked over his rapid progress before turning her attention to Sima Liang.

• Chu Feiyan explained that opening the cranial nerves strengthened Rhetoric and enabled foundational ocular arts, then demonstrated her blue-lit gaze to Shi Tiexin.
• Shi Tiexin asked Chu Feiyan about the Bell of Heaven's Chime, and she accused him of testing her after realizing he already knew the information.
• Shi Tiexin offered the standard fifty thousand payment, and Chu Feiyan released him and sent him away after collecting it.
• After Shi Tiexin left, Chu Feiyan panicked over his rapid cultivation, then subdued Sima Liang's mind and criticized his progress.
• Shi Tiexin and the other Special Advancement Class students regained awareness in their seats, while Shi Tiexin and Gu Shaoqiu were both in bad moods.

After Chu Feiyan’s Mind Arts left the Special Advancement Class dazed, Shi Tiexin accepted a public challenge from a student who had called him a coward. The challenger boasted that he had trained for two months, but Shi Tiexin struck him in the chest as soon as their secret realm opened.

• Gu Shaoqiu worried that Chu Feiyan had sensed his secrets, then tried to calm himself as she entered the classroom.
• Chu Feiyan criticized the class’s progress, dismissed the students, and left them shaken.
• A crowd gathered outside the Special Advancement Class building, where a student publicly challenged Shi Tiexin.
• Shi Tiexin entered a secret realm with the challenger, who claimed he had trained hard and was ready to avenge his previous loss.
• Shi Tiexin kicked the challenger squarely in the chest.

Shi Tiexin defeated three students who challenged him, then stopped the crowd from leaving and accused He Chong of stirring up trouble. He Chong stood isolated as Shi Tiexin called him out.

• Shi Tiexin knocked out the first challenger with a kick and asked who else would fight him.
• Shi Tiexin defeated two more students in separate secret realms, leaving one unconscious and another motionless.
• Shi Tiexin ordered the crowd to stay and said he would settle accounts with those who had stirred up trouble.
• Shi Tiexin pointed out He Chong as the person behind the rumors, and He Chong denied it as the crowd moved away from him.
• Shi Tiexin told He Chong to come forward and face him.

Shi Tiexin confronted He Chong and the student He Chong accused of masterminding a plot against him. He Chong was injured and the student exposed several other conspirators, whose guilt was backed by chat logs and audio recordings.

• He Chong confessed that he had helped with the plot and accused another student of masterminding it.
• Shi Tiexin fought He Chong, shattered his knee, and warned that he would keep visiting to repay He Chong for his past treatment of him.
• Shi Tiexin stopped the accused student from escaping and pressured him to identify the mastermind.
• The student denied being the mastermind, then pointed out several participants and produced chat logs and an audio recording as evidence.

Shi Tiexin attacked the five students exposed for causing trouble, but Thick Eyebrows Big Eyes stopped him from reaching the female streamer. After abandoning her when he realized Shi Tiexin was too strong, Thick Eyebrows Big Eyes left her alone to face Shi Tiexin, and she offered to show him five centimeters if he spared her.

• The crowd confirmed the evidence against five students, and Shi Tiexin kicked four male students to death as the onlookers cheered.
• Shi Tiexin approached the female streamer, but Thick Eyebrows Big Eyes stepped in and argued that her beauty entitled her to mercy.
• Thick Eyebrows Big Eyes admitted he could not beat Shi Tiexin and tried to leave, but the girl dragged him back and accused him of abandoning her.
• Thick Eyebrows Big Eyes refused to fight, mocked the girl for not showing five centimeters, and returned to his companions while the other students declined to help her.
• Shi Tiexin's shadow fell over the girl, and she offered to let him look at five centimeters if he spared her.

Shi Tiexin defeated the last student behind the encirclement challenge, then called out Tang Tianao and accused him of resenting Shi Tiexin’s closeness to Little Calf. Tang Tianao was left weighing whether to admit he liked her rather than back down in front of the crowd.

• Shi Tiexin defeated the claw-wielding girl with a flurry of kicks, ending the encirclement challenge and impressing the students watching.
• Tang Tianao, the buzz-cut boy, Gu Shaoqiu, Gao Chongxiao, Sima Liang, and Shu Wangzhou each considered Shi Tiexin’s strength and what it meant for their plans.
• As the crowd prepared to leave, Shi Tiexin announced that the main course remained and called Tang Tianao over.
• Tang Tianao tried to deny responsibility, but Shi Tiexin said he had heard Tang Tianao insulting him and accused him of being jealous of his closeness to Little Calf.
• When Shi Tiexin called Tang Tianao a coward for not admitting his feelings, Tang Tianao considered confessing rather than retreating in front of everyone.

Shi Tiexin manipulated Tang Tianao into publicly confessing that he lusted after Shi Yuwei, then shamed him before the students. Enraged, Tang Tianao charged Shi Tiexin, while Gu Shaoqiu predicted he would lose within five moves.

• Tang Tianao declared that he liked Shi Yuwei, but Shi Tiexin challenged him to prove he understood her.
• Unable to explain what he liked about Shi Yuwei, Tang Tianao admitted that he lusted after her body.
• The crowd condemned Tang Tianao for his vulgar public confession, and Shi Tiexin denounced him as shameless.
• Tang Tianao realized Shi Tiexin had led him into disgrace and charged at him in a rage.
• Gu Shaoqiu judged that Tang Tianao had wasted his vital energy and would lose within five moves.

Shi Tiexin defeated Tang Tianao with a precise kick after using mind energy to slow his perception of time, then challenged the buzz-cut student Yan Xu. Yan Xu expected Shi Tiexin to be exhausted, but was startled by his sudden speed as their fight began.

• Shi Tiexin recovered his stamina with help from Scholar Stone and Black Venerable before confronting Tang Tianao.
• Shi Tiexin forced traces of mind energy into his optic nerve, slightly slowing his perception of Tang Tianao's movements.
• Shi Tiexin killed Tang Tianao with a high side kick, ending the secret-realm match as the realm crumbled away.
• Shi Tiexin called out the buzz-cut student and accused him of watching with ill intent, and the student introduced himself as Yan Xu.
• Yan Xu assumed Shi Tiexin was exhausted and prepared to evade his attack, but Shi Tiexin charged at him so fast that Yan Xu was shocked.