Chapter Summaries

Chen Xiaojun’s forces attacked and destroyed the Ghost Wolf Gang, while Xiao Yi’s vines trapped its fighters and the other Chen family members defeated the gang’s leaders. After discovering prisoners and a secret escape passage, Chen Xiaojun ordered the trafficking network destroyed and the captives rescued as a new force began rising in the city.

• Zhu Hefeng signaled the attack, and Cheng Yun, Zhu Hefeng, and Xi Li Junyi fought Lang Zhenghui while Chen Chen battled Hua Tiguang.
• Xia Ying, Mo Yuqi, and the other fighters helped overwhelm the Ghost Wolf Gang as Xiao Yi’s Ageless Evergreen Ivy trapped and killed or restrained many members.
• Xi Li Junyi killed Lang Zhenghui, and Chen Chen captured Hua Tiguang after the two-hour battle ended in the gang’s defeat.
• Cheng Hao told Chen Xiaojun that the gang had imprisoned women, children, and wounded members of the Fierce Tiger Gang, so Chen Xiaojun ordered the captives rescued and the trafficking network destroyed.
• Mo Yuqi reported that a passage beneath the manor led outside the city, and the destruction of three gangs and incorporation of two others reshaped the city’s southwestern power structure as the Brocade-Clad Guards rose.

The Ji and Liu Families thanked the Chen Clan and Sea God Island for their help, then discussed the Chen Clan’s plans to establish a medicinal materials market in Chang'an City. After Liu Ruyan chose to cooperate without taking a share of the profits, a letter from Ito Makoto revealed the Crimson Church’s apparent designs on their families, leaving Chen Xiaojun to consider whether the Chen Clan would take on the danger.

• Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan presented the Chen Clan with valuable gifts, including fifty-thousand-year Soul Bones, business properties, and veils for Xiao Yi.
• Chen Xiaojun accepted the gifts on behalf of the Chen Clan and Sea God Island after Ji Boda and Liu Ruyan insisted.
• Chen Cong and Chen Xiaojun explained their plans to open a Herbal Medicine Market in Chang'an City, and Liu Ruyan asked whether the Ji and Liu Families could participate.
• Liu Ruyan chose the third form of cooperation before hearing its terms and handed Chen Cong and Chen Xiaojun a letter left by Ito Makoto.
• Liu Ruyan explained that evidence from her grandfather’s medical records and other suspicious details supported the letter’s warning about the Crimson Church.
• Chen Xiaojun considered whether the letter was true as Liu Ruyan asked if the Chen Clan would accept the danger it could bring.

Liu Ruyan offered the Chen Clan Netherworld Blood Lilies in exchange for protection, and Chen Xiaojun recognized clues to an ancient array that could use sacrifices to strengthen the Crimson Church. The group realized the array might explain the Church’s power and its involvement in past catastrophes.

• Liu Ruyan presented more than two hundred Netherworld Blood Lilies and seeds, offering them to the Chen Clan in exchange for protection for the Ji and Liu Families.
• Xiao Yi sensed the lilies’ vigorous life force and hidden netherworld aura, prompting Chen Xiaojun to reexamine Ito Makoto’s letter.
• Chen Xiaojun identified the ritual as the ancient Death Spiral Array, which could absorb corpses and souls to help cultivators advance and might let Crimson Church members become gods.
• Chen Xiaojun explained that the array required immense sacrifices and that inheriting a god’s position involved strict conditions.
• Chen Cong concluded that the array could explain the Crimson Church’s generations of Peerless Douluo and its growing involvement in catastrophes.

After Chen Xiaojun explained that the Crimson Church sought the Death Spiral Array to break through level one hundred and become gods, Liu Ruyan pledged the Liu Clan as a follower of the Chen Clan. The Ji Clan followed suit, and Chen Cong accepted both agreements, leaving Chen Xiaojun to turn his attention to two remaining families.

• Liu Ruyan declared that the Liu Clan would follow the Chen Clan, and Liu Yirong confirmed that Ruyan had the clan’s authority to decide.
• Liu Ruyan presented Chen Cong with the Liu Clan’s signed alliance agreement and property inventory, and Liu Yirong knelt beside her.
• Ji Chenglie decided that the Ji Clan would also follow the Chen Clan and asked Ji Sijian for a blank alliance agreement.
• Chen Cong accepted the agreements on behalf of the Chen Clan and welcomed the Ji and Liu Families.
• Chen Xiaojun noted that two more families remained to be brought under the Chen Clan’s banner.

Chen Xiaojun presented the Liu and Ji Families with rare treasures and martial arts suited to their inherited skills, while Chen Cong welcomed them as allies of the Chen Clan. The families accepted the gifts and reaffirmed their decision to stand alongside the Chen Clan.

• Chen Xiaojun showed Liu Yirong a top-grade Fire Dragon Stone, which she recognized as a valuable aid to the Liu Clan’s Fire Attribute techniques.
• Chen Xiaojun gave Liu Ruyan the Acupuncture Chapter of the Nine Yin Manual and Liu Yirong the Insect Breathing Technique, both tailored to the Liu Clan’s medical arts.
• Chen Xiaojun presented Ji Boda with Ninth Grade Ink Jade Bamboo and gave the Ji Clan the Ghost Prison Yin Wind Howl and Sound Breathing Technique.
• Liu Yirong and Ji Chenglie hesitated to accept the valuable gifts, but Chen Xiaojun and Chen Cong described them as tokens of the Chen Clan’s sincerity and acceptance.
• The Ji and Liu Families bowed to Chen Xiaojun and Chen Cong, accepted the gifts, and agreed to walk alongside the Chen Clan.

Chen Xiaojun explained the Chen Clan’s contribution-point system and the resources it offered the Ji and Liu Families, from martial inheritances and rare treasures to cultivation guidance, business support, and protection. Chen Cong invited them to visit the Chen Clan village in a few days to discuss merging their families into the clan.

• Chen Cong accepted the Ji and Liu Families’ gifts as contributions to the Chen Clan and converted their value into contribution points.
• Chen Xiaojun described the clan’s martial inheritances, rare treasures, cultivation guidance, business opportunities, and access to prominent academies.
• Chen Xiaojun promised the families protection from a stationed Titled Douluo and offered them the option to move their people to the Chen Clan village.
• Chen Cong clarified that Chen Yu would remain in the village, leading the Ji and Liu Families to suspect the Chen Clan had at least five Titled Douluo.
• Chen Cong invited the families to visit the village in a few days and discuss joining the Chen Clan, and they agreed to go.

Chen Xiaojun watched the women in the estate garden admire and choose the Cloud Brocade Woven Clothing gifted by the Liu Clan. The women discussed the garments and their styles, while Xia Shujing briefly remembered her deceased partner.

• Chen Xiaojun passed the garden and saw Xiao Yi, Xi Xi, Ruia, and the other women choosing Cloud Brocade Woven Clothing.
• Zhao Lingling, Cheng Jinyan, and Xia Shujing praised the clothing and discussed how useful the Liu Clan's silkworm expertise would be.
• Xia Shujing became subdued when the women mentioned partners, and Zhao Lingling comforted her by recalling Bai.
• Xi Xi admired a red garment, Ruia recommended a purple one, and the women encouraged Xiao Yi to try a qipao.
• Chen Xiaojun privately joked about Xi Xi's playful behavior, and Xi Xi regretted that Liu Ruyan had already left.

Chen Xiaojun helped the women choose Cloud Brocade Woven Clothing, impressing them with his fashion advice and becoming their self-appointed fashion consultant. He also chose a peony Court Corset for Ruia, whose hidden potential he privately admired.

• Xia Shujing and the others asked Chen Xiaojun to help choose clothes after Cheng Jinyan spotted him.
• Chen Xiaojun recommended outfits that suited Cheng Jinyan and Xia Shujing, then advised Zhao Lingling on choosing a look to attract her wooden partner.
• Zhao Lingling declared Chen Xiaojun their fashion consultant, and he modestly denied deserving the praise.
• Chen Xiaojun chose a peony-embroidered Court Corset for Ruia, who happily accepted it.
• Chen Xiaojun privately reflected that Ruia might become a powerful Titled Douluo and the head maid beside Bo Saixi.

Chen Xiaojun joked with Xi Xi and the others after helping them choose clothes, then praised Xiao Yi in a way that made her blush and hurry off. He teased Xi Xi by calling her the green leaf beside the flowers, and she chased after him in anger.

• Xi Xi and Xiao Yi returned and found Chen Xiaojun talking with Ruia and the other women.
• Chen Xiaojun revealed that he had discussed rare materials and a special breathing technique with them, and Xi Xi said Uncle Long Ma and Uncle Ou Ya had been training diligently with the techniques he gave them.
• Ruia and Zhao Lingling praised Chen Xiaojun’s fashion advice, and Xi Xi asked him how Xiao Yi looked in her cloud brocade qipao.
• Chen Xiaojun called Xiao Yi beautiful and recited a romantic line, making her blush and leave to take clothes to Yun Yi and Ying Yi.
• Xi Xi asked Chen Xiaojun to praise her outfit, but he called her the green leaf setting off the flowers, so she chased after him and threatened to fight.

Su Ningxia asked to join the Chen family after the destruction of the Fierce Tiger Gang, and Chen Xiaojun accepted her and arranged for her and her father's surviving followers to settle in. Her rare Seven-Colored Mist martial soul and strong cultivation surprised Chen Xiaojun, while its origins remained unknown.

• Su Ningxia told Chen Xiaojun that she had no family left and asked him to take her and the surviving Fierce Tiger Gang followers in.
• Chen Xiaojun accepted Su Ningxia into the Chen family and said her father's followers could join the Brocade-Clad Guards once they recovered, while she stayed with Xiao Yi.
• Xi Xi urged Su Ningxia to reveal her martial soul, and Su Ningxia summoned the Seven-Colored Mist with two bright yellow soul rings.
• Chen Cong identified the Seven-Colored Mist as a rare elemental martial soul that might be eighth or ninth grade, but he could not identify its family origins.
• Su Ningxia told Chen Xiaojun that she was eleven, had Innate Soul Power of level 8.8, and had reached soul power level 27.

Su Ningxia’s exceptional soul power and Seven-Colored Mist martial soul impressed the Chen Clan, and Xiao Yi revealed that her Ageless Evergreen Ivy reacted to Ningxia’s martial soul. Chen Xiaojun suspected they might share a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, but Chen Cong advised them to spend more time together and investigate further.

• Zhao Lingling, Cheng Jinyan, and Xia Shujing praised Su Ningxia after learning her Innate Soul Power was level 8.8 and seeing her Top Martial Soul.
• Chen Xiaojun agreed to make Water Boiled Fish for Xi Xi that evening.
• Chen Xiaojun asked Su Ningxia to stay with Xiao Yi and Rui, and Su Ningxia pledged to serve Xiao Yi.
• Xiao Yi said her Ageless Evergreen Ivy had stirred when Su Ningxia’s martial soul appeared, and Su Ningxia sensed her Seven-Colored Mist trembling faintly.
• Chen Xiaojun proposed that Xiao Yi and Su Ningxia might have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, but Chen Cong said the signs were too weak to confirm.
• Chen Cong told Xiao Yi and Su Ningxia to spend more time together and coordinate their martial souls before drawing conclusions.

Chen Xiaojun and Chen Cong learned that Lang ZhengHui planned to sell Su Ningxia because of her rare Seven-Colored Mist Martial Soul, and Su Ningxia described her Soul Skills and her mother's guidance for developing them. Chen Cong recognized the cultivation method as resembling the Yang Family's Seven Absolute Bow and planned to ask them about it when they visited in two months.

• Su Ningxia told Chen Xiaojun that Lang ZhengHui knew about her talent and intended to send her out of the city to hand her over to someone.
• Su Ningxia explained that her first two Soul Skills, Red Mist Raging Flames and Orange Mist Storm Whirlwind, could combine fire and wind attacks.
• Su Ningxia revealed that her father had chosen her Soul Skills based on her mother's letters about developing the Seven-Colored Mist.
• Chen Cong recognized the letter's attribute-based method as similar to the Yang Family's Seven Absolute Bow, whose ancestor Yang Junzhi's mother had the Seven-Colored Mist Martial Soul.
• Chen Xiaojun and Chen Cong decided to ask the Yang Family about the method when its people visited in two months.

Chen Cong and Chen Xiaojun examined Su Ningxia’s mother’s mental art and concluded that it revealed a hidden legacy tied to mist martial souls, not a mutation. Su Ningxia resolved to honor her mother’s hopes, received the Mist Breathing Technique, and the group prepared to study the inheritance before Ma Rulong and Ning Jiang arrived.

• Chen Cong inferred that Su Ningxia’s mother had inherited knowledge of mist martial souls and questioned Su Ningxia about her mother’s age, cultivation, and legacy.
• Su Ningxia showed Chen Cong her mother’s unnamed mental art, and Chen Xiaojun noticed that its preparation before Su Ningxia awakened contradicted the idea that her Seven-Colored Mist Martial Soul was a mutation.
• Chen Cong identified the manual as an ancient multi-attribute cultivation method containing mixed-attribute techniques, and he advised Su Ningxia to ask her residence’s surviving old servants about her mother’s Martial Soul.
• Su Ningxia grieved for her mother, then promised to keep cultivating and live up to her mother’s expectations.
• Chen Xiaojun gave Su Ningxia the Mist Breathing Technique as a return gift, and Chen Cong proposed that they study the inheritance together.
• Someone informed Chen Cong that Ma Rulong and Ning Jiang had come to visit.

After learning that the Seven Kill Sword Chen Clan had killed his nephew Lang ZhengHui, Lang Weiyuan demanded revenge despite Heavenly Wolf Gate’s elders refusing to risk a confrontation. He decided to pursue revenge on his own, with Lin Feng’s help.

• Lin Feng told Lang Weiyuan that the Seven Kill Sword Chen Clan had killed Lang ZhengHui while clearing gangs in Chang'an City.
• Lang Weiyuan vowed to make the Chen Clan pay and told Heavenly Wolf Gate’s core elders about ZhengHui’s death.
• The elders and sect master Lang ChengMing urged Lang Weiyuan not to provoke the powerful Chen Clan, and the sect declined to retaliate.
• After the elders left, Lang Weiyuan told Lin Feng he intended to take revenge outside the sect’s authority.

Lang Weiyuan sent Lin Feng to hire Unbenevolent Tower to kill a direct-line descendant of the Chen Clan in revenge for Zheng Hui. Unbenevolent Tower accepted the job for a lavish payment and estimated it would take three months, while Lang Weiyuan prepared for the Chen Clan's retaliation.

• Lang Weiyuan gave Lin Feng a coded letter and tasked him with secretly contacting Unbenevolent Tower.
• Lin Feng reached Unbenevolent Tower's stronghold in Heavenly Wolf City and delivered Lang Weiyuan's request to Li Gui.
• Li Gui accepted the assassination job for two pieces of spirit metal and three ten-thousand-year soul bones, including one fifty-thousand-year soul bone, and set a three-month timeline.
• After Lin Feng left, Li Gui told a black-robed figure that Lang Weiyuan had stolen from his own post to fund the payment and said he would leave Fasinuo Province after the mission.
• Lin Feng returned to Heavenly Wolf Gate and reported Unbenevolent Tower's agreement, and Lang Weiyuan vowed to prepare for the Chen Clan's counterattack.

Chen Xiaojun and his companions visited Chang'an Soul Master Academy, where Su Ningxia’s counselor, Mu Zilian, welcomed them and revealed that she was related to Chen Xiaojun through the Mu family. Mu Zilian guided them around the academy and explained its history, regional standing, and size.

• Xi Xi led Chen Xiaojun, Xiao Yi, Ruia, and Zhu Wuneng away from the crowds at the Chen Clan to visit Chang'an Soul Master Academy with Ou Ya and Cheng Yun protecting them.
• Su Ningxia introduced her companions to Mu Zilian, who had worried about Su Ningxia after hearing about changes in her family.
• Chen Xiaojun discovered that Mu Zilian was his relative because his second grandaunt, Mu Lingyun, was Mu Zilian’s Third Aunt, and they agreed to call her Older Sister Zilian.
• Mu Zilian guided the group through the academy and described its history, its place among the province’s leading academies, and its competition for students.
• Mu Zilian told the group that Chang'an Academy had junior, intermediate, and senior departments, over three thousand students, and nearly four thousand people in total.

Mu Zilian explained Chang'an Soul Master Academy’s rigorous advancement system and its focus on abilities beyond Soul Power, then guided the group around the academy grounds. The tour left them at the sports fields and Soul Duel Stages.

• Mu Zilian told Chen Xiaojun that students faced written exams, combat and team tests, specialty tasks, and mentor evaluations when advancing to the Senior Department.
• Chen Xiaojun and Mu Zilian discussed how the academy valued willpower, practical ability, teamwork, and personal strengths alongside Soul Power.
• Mu Zilian led the group across Chang'an Soul Master Academy as Su Ningxia described its buildings and facilities.
• Mu Zilian pointed out the Great Hall, faculty offices, teaching buildings, sports fields, and thirty-six Soul Duel Stages, and the group arrived beside the sports field.

Mu Zilian guided Chen Xiaojun, Zhu Wuneng, and the others through Chang'an Soul Master Academy, showing them its facilities and explaining its training sites and curriculum. Chen Xiaojun asked what students learned, and Mu Zilian began describing the lower division’s broad education.

• Zhu Wuneng remarked on the students training during summer break, and Mu Zilian explained the academy’s competitive environment and resources.
• Su Ningxia introduced the library and dormitories, while Mu Zilian led the group to the soul beast history exhibition hall.
• Zhu Wuneng admired the Darkfire Kirin specimen as Mu Zilian explained its origins and formidable flames.
• Mu Zilian described the academy’s twenty mimetic cultivation sites and said the group might tour them but likely could not enter.
• Chen Xiaojun asked about the curriculum, and Mu Zilian outlined the lower division’s soul master fundamentals, physical and combat training, teamwork, and cultural studies.

Mu Zilian explained how the academy’s broad curriculum prepared students to become capable and refined leaders, not merely powerful soul masters. She described its practical education for female students before Cheng Yun raised the barriers marriage and family placed on women’s cultivation, leaving the group in a thoughtful silence.

• Mu Zilian outlined the Middle School Department’s advanced training, teamwork, and academic and elective courses to Xi Xi and Chen Xiaojun.
• Mu Zilian explained that the academy cultivated wisdom, refinement, and practical ability, and that students generally stayed through the Middle School Department rather than skipping grades.
• Mu Zilian said the academy used a Young Mistress model to prepare female students for the family and household responsibilities many faced in their society.
• Cheng Yun told Chen Xiaojun that marriage and family responsibilities helped explain why fewer women reached the highest ranks of the Soul Master World, and the group fell silent.

Mu Zilian explained Chang'an Academy’s courses for female students and its comprehensive Advanced Department training, impressing Xi Xi, Ruia, Cheng Yun, and Xiao Yi. Chen Xiaojun wondered whether other academies used similar educational models and reflected that such courses left Grandmaster little room to compete.

• Mu Zilian described the academy’s courses for female students, including a popular class on maintaining boundaries between men and women.
• Chen Xiaojun thought Bibi Dong’s life might have been less tragic if she had studied the course, and Xi Xi said she was afraid to marry before Chen Xiaojun teased her.
• Mu Zilian outlined the Senior Department’s mentorship, combat training, electives, competitions, and career opportunities.
• Ruia and Cheng Yun praised Chang'an Academy’s educational approach, and Xiao Yi gave the academy her approval.
• Chen Xiaojun wondered whether other academies followed the same model and thought it gave Grandmaster no way to survive.