Chapter Summaries

After forming his Nascent Soul, Li Chengjie stood among the ruins of Dragon Lake Mountain as cultivators arrived to congratulate him and seek his favor. Fan Zhiyong declared Dragon Lake Mountain Li Chengjie's dojo, while Hu Qingling remained kneeling and regretted his earlier hesitation.

• Hu Qingling led Flowing Cloud Sect cultivators to Dragon Lake Mountain and knelt to congratulate Li Chengjie on forming his Nascent Soul.
• Hu Qingling reflected on missed chances to tie the Hu Family to Li Chengjie and welcomed him back to the Flowing Cloud Sect.
• Li Chengjie briefly looked at Zhao Changpeng, who feared punishment for urging Hu Qingling to seize Dao Yuan, then withdrew his gaze.
• Fan Zhiyong led Fan Family disciples in congratulating Li Chengjie and offered Dragon Lake Mountain as his dojo, promising the Fan Family would guard it.
• Li Chengjie nodded at Fan Zhiyong, who rejoiced at the approval, while Hu Qingling regretted that his own offer had been less persuasive.

After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, Li Chengjie destroyed the Soul Erosion Mark Talisman Liu Xingchen had planted in his Sea of Consciousness, then took control of the Cloud Shuttle and gave Gao Chen the Measuring Heaven Ruler. He decided to head to the Western Territory with Gao Chen to avoid trouble and seek out Moral True Monarch, who might know about the Lamp Wick.

• Li Chengjie used his Nascent Soul-strength divine sense to crush the Soul Erosion Mark Talisman that had haunted him for over a decade.
• Li Chengjie removed the corpses from the Treasure Pavilion Cloud Shuttle, examined its formations, and refined the Fourth Order vessel for himself.
• Li Chengjie gave Gao Chen the Measuring Heaven Ruler and told him they could now address each other as fellow disciples.
• Gao Chen warned that returning to Tianlan could bring trouble from Treasure Pavilion and the Zhou and Yu Families, so Li Chengjie chose to head for the Western Territory.
• Li Chengjie told Gao Chen he intended to meet Moral True Monarch, hoping he might know about the Lamp Wick.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen traveled southwest aboard the Cloud Shuttle, leaving the Northern Territory and entering unknown lands. When a witch curse tornado attacked Witch Curse Bay, Li Chengjie stored the Cloud Shuttle away, but Gao Chen was left caught in the tornado’s suction.

• Hu Qingling and Fan Zhiyong watched Li Chengjie leave Dragon Lake Mountain aboard the Cloud Shuttle, and Fan Zhiyong saw opportunity for the Fan Family.
• Gao Chen piloted the Cloud Shuttle southwest for three months until it passed beyond the Northern Territory map, and Li Chengjie ordered him to keep going.
• Ten days later, Gao Chen and Li Chengjie reached a strange bluish-gray bay where an invisible barrier eroded divine sense.
• A witch curse tornado formed over the bay and pulled the Cloud Shuttle toward it despite the vessel’s efforts to escape.
• Li Chengjie rushed out, fought the tornado’s soul-targeting suction, and stored the Cloud Shuttle in his Storage Bag.
• Gao Chen remained alone in midair as the tornado’s suction overwhelmed his Body Protection Spiritual Light.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen were swept into the tornado and struck by a strange divine light that sealed their cultivation and reduced them to mortals. After falling into Witch Curse Bay and nearly drowning, they were rescued by a fisherman named Yin Jie, leaving them stranded and powerless on an unfamiliar beach.

• Li Chengjie rescued Gao Chen from the tornado’s tearing force, but both were swept into its center.
• A pale-gold divine light enveloped Li Chengjie and Gao Chen, and a grayish-white curse drained their cultivation until they became mortals.
• The force supporting them vanished, and they fell into the waters of Witch Curse Bay, where they lost consciousness.
• Fisherman Yin Jie found them floating at sea and carried them to a beach near his village.
• Li Chengjie woke and learned Yin Jie had rescued them; Gao Chen then regained consciousness, and Li Chengjie told him they were alive.

After recovering at Yin Jie's home, Li Chengjie and Gao Chen sought a route to Qingyuan City and were sent off with Song Kingdom soldiers. The Yin family had secretly arranged for the outsiders to take Yin Jie's and the village chief's son's places in the military conscription, leaving Li Chengjie uneasy but unaware of the bargain.

• Li Chengjie asked Yin Jie about nearby cultivation sects and learned of the feared Sand Sea Sect and its leader, Mount Carving.
• Yin Jie told Li Chengjie and Gao Chen about Qingyuan City, and Father Yin advised them to travel there with soldiers expected to visit the village.
• Three days later, Father Yin sent Li Chengjie and Gao Chen away with the soldiers while Yin Jie said goodbye.
• After the outsiders left, Father Yin revealed to Mother Yin that they had taken Yin Jie's place in the conscription and helped spare the village chief's son, earning the family three taels of silver.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen, stripped of their cultivation and reduced to mortals, joined Song Kingdom’s army to reach the capital and find cultivators who might help them. At the oath-taking ceremony, they saw the king arrive and learned that the Imperial Advisor was over two hundred years old.

• Li Chengjie and Gao Chen served as ordinary soldiers for a month and joined the campaign in hopes of reaching Lingling, where cultivators might be present.
• At the parade ground, martial artists demonstrated mortal techniques to the assembled army, impressing the soldiers while Li Chengjie watched calmly.
• King Jiang Yuanping arrived and addressed the three hundred thousand troops at the oath-taking platform.
• The soldiers announced that the Imperial Advisor was coming and said he had lived for more than two hundred years.
• Li Chengjie and Gao Chen recognized that the Imperial Advisor was likely a cultivator and looked toward the city gate.

Li Chengjie identified Imperial Advisor Xiao Qianshan as a late Golden Core cultivator sealed by a curse, then watched as Xiao called for a prisoner to be executed as a demon and sacrificed to the military banner. The prisoner raised his head as the executioners approached.

• Sixteen protectors carried Xiao Qianshan’s sedan chair onto the city wall, where the troops hailed him as Imperial Advisor.
• Li Chengjie scanned Xiao Qianshan and learned that he was a late Golden Core cultivator whose spiritual power was sealed by a curse.
• Li Chengjie told Gao Chen that Xiao Qianshan was a cultivator and was sealed like them.
• Armored soldiers dragged a scarred, shackled prisoner before Jiang Yuanping and said Xiao Qianshan had ordered his execution.
• Xiao Qianshan called the prisoner a demon and urged Jiang Yuanping to sacrifice his blood to the military banner; the executioners approached, and the prisoner raised his head.

Gao Chen recognized the so-called demon fetus extracted from an executed prisoner as a cultivator’s Nascent Soul, while Li Chengjie silently watched the Imperial Advisor exploit the killing to rally the army. Xiao Qianshan recalled his own centuries-long rise in the Mortal World before biting off part of the Nascent Soul in front of the stunned soldiers.

• An imprisoned old man was beheaded before the Song army, and Xiao Qianshan stopped the body from being removed so he could extract its demon fetus.
• Xiao Qianshan held up the infant-shaped object and claimed it was a demon fetus, rallying the soldiers to shout that Great Song would triumph.
• Gao Chen recognized the object as the prisoner’s Nascent Soul, while Li Chengjie silently identified the dead man as one of their kind.
• Xiao Qianshan remembered that he had once been a Golden Core cultivator whose Cultivation was sealed, and that he had spent two hundred years climbing to power in the Mortal World.
• Xiao Qianshan bit off one of the Nascent Soul’s tiny legs, leaving the soldiers staring in shock.

Xiao Qianshan devoured a demonic fetus and rallied Song Kingdom’s army for its expedition against Wei. As Li Chengjie and Gao Chen watched, they spotted a top-grade magic treasure in a mortal general’s hands and a sedan chair decorated with more than a hundred Storage Bags.

• Xiao Qianshan ate the demonic fetus, then raised the soldiers’ spirits by promising victory over Wei.
• Jiang Yuanping praised Xiao Qianshan, and the three hundred thousand soldiers cheered their Imperial Advisor.
• Li Chengjie examined the sword held by Zhao Huchen and identified it as a top-grade magic treasure.
• Li Chengjie used the system to learn that Zhao Huchen was a mortal general with no cultivation.
• Li Chengjie pointed out that the sedan chair carried rows of Storage Bags as ornaments, and Gao Chen counted more than a hundred of them.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen discovered that Xiao Qianshan possessed two top-grade spirit treasures, then marched with the Song Kingdom’s army toward Wei after losing their cultivation. At the Xiao River camp, a soldier spotted their Storage Bags among their clothes.

• Li Chengjie identified Xiao Qianshan’s staff and robe as top-grade spirit treasures, shocking Gao Chen.
• King Jiang Yuanping sent a three-hundred-thousand-strong army northeast, and Zhao Huchen led it out from Lingling City while Xiao Qianshan stayed behind.
• Li Chengjie and Gao Chen marched with the army, accepting that they had to stay alive and wait for a chance to act.
• After three days, the army camped beside the Xiao River and prepared to cross it at dawn.
• As Li Chengjie and Gao Chen undressed to bathe, a young soldier noticed two Storage Bags among their clothes and screamed.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen were branded as demons after soldiers discovered their Storage Bags, which the Imperial Advisor had taught people to fear. Zhou Dahu rallied the crowd to burn them, and soldiers began gathering wood as the two faced an increasingly dangerous mob.

• A soldier spotted Li Chengjie and Gao Chen's Storage Bags and raised the alarm, drawing a crowd of soldiers and civilians.
• Several soldiers recognized the bags as supposed signs of demons and accused Li Chengjie and Gao Chen of being possessed.
• A group of men tried to seize the pair, but Li Chengjie evaded them without striking hard while Gao Chen struggled.
• Zhou Dahu arrived, declared that the Imperial Advisor had ordered people to kill anyone carrying Demonic Beasts, and urged the crowd to burn the pair.
• The crowd shouted for Li Chengjie and Gao Chen to be burned, and some people began collecting branches and dry grass for a pyre.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen were captured as supposed demons and scheduled to be taken to the Imperial Advisor. In the guard tent, Gao Chen tried to bribe their guards with his jeweled boots, and the guards decided to steal them.

• Zhao Huchen stopped the soldiers from burning Li Chengjie and Gao Chen, ordering them bound and taken to the Imperial Advisor for judgment.
• Zhou Dahu's men tied up Li Chengjie and Gao Chen and locked them together in a guarded tent.
• Gao Chen told Li Chengjie he would try to buy off the guards, but Li Chengjie warned him not to underestimate them.
• Gao Chen offered his jeweled boots to the two guards in exchange for mercy.
• One guard reached for the boots, and the guards pretended to argue before agreeing to take them.

Li Chengjie reassured Gao Chen that they still had a chance to survive, and the two were taken prisoner and sent toward the capital. On the journey, Li Chengjie used the system to replicate Wang Tieshan’s mortal martial arts, preparing for the danger ahead.

• Gao Chen affirmed that he did not regret following Li Chengjie and would share life and death with him.
• Li Chengjie urged Gao Chen to live, saying their survival still left them a chance.
• Zhou Dahu’s soldiers dragged Li Chengjie and Gao Chen from their tent and escorted them toward the capital in a prison cart.
• Li Chengjie assessed Wang Tieshan and used the system to replicate the guard leader’s martial arts and combat experience.

Li Chengjie absorbed Wang Tieshan’s martial arts experience and judged that his untempered body had only reached the level of a Second-class martial artist. During the journey in the prison cart, he began replicating the guards’ skills to build his strength, and the chapter left him pondering four martial traditions.

• Li Chengjie absorbed Wang Tieshan’s Iron Bone Skill, saber techniques, lightness skills, and combat experience, then assessed himself as a Second-class martial artist.
• Li Chengjie decided he needed more experience and used the system to scan and replicate Zhang Heng’s Fierce Tiger Saber Technique and strength-training methods.
• Li Chengjie replicated Li Si’s Flying Dagger Technique and hidden-weapon skills.
• Li Chengjie replicated Zhao Xiaoliu’s Spirit Monkey Steps and scouting techniques, then reflected on how the four guards’ martial arts complemented one another.

Li Chengjie searched the remaining guards for a first-class martial artist to replicate, but found none and continued toward Lingling in the prison cart. The convoy was stopped by the famed wanted criminal Yan Xingci, who arrived to inspect the prisoners.

• Li Chengjie scanned the sixteen remaining guards and learned they were all second- or third-class martial artists, leaving him without a first-class martial artist to replicate.
• A day later, Li Chengjie and Gao Chen traveled toward Lingling under Wang Tieshan's guard, while Gao Chen drew comfort from Li Chengjie's words.
• Wang Tieshan halted the convoy after hearing a rustle in the roadside forest, and a young swordsman emerged.
• Wang Tieshan recognized the newcomer as Yan Xingci, the Song Kingdom's notorious wanted criminal and a rumored Innate expert.
• Yan Xingci said he had come to see the two demons the guards were escorting to Lingling.

Yan Xingci confronted the guards escorting Xiao Qianshan’s prison cart, driven by the memory of Xiao Qianshan murdering his sister and fiancée. As Yan Xingci fought, Li Chengjie copied his martial arts and grasped the beginnings of Heaven and Earth Momentum.

• Yan Xingci recalled returning home three years earlier and finding his sister and fiancée dead after Xiao Qianshan had assaulted and killed them.
• Yan Xingci refused Wang Tieshan’s offer to let him leave and attacked the guards, quickly overpowering several without drawing his sword.
• Li Chengjie scanned Yan Xingci and used a Replication Point to copy his martial arts inheritance, combat experience, and insights into reaching the Innate realm.
• Li Chengjie absorbed Yan Xingci’s knowledge of the Star River Sword Canon and understood how martial artists could borrow Heaven and Earth Momentum.

Li Chengjie broke through to the peak of the first-class realm and joined Yan Xingci in defeating the guards. After they killed Wang Tieshan and the wounded men, Yan Xingci questioned Li Chengjie’s ability to learn his sword technique, and the group faced the question of where to go next.

• Li Chengjie broke free of his ropes after gaining first-class strength and told Yan Xingci they would join forces.
• Li Chengjie killed several guards with techniques combining the martial arts he had absorbed, and Yan Xingci joined the fight.
• Yan Xingci and Li Chengjie killed the guards, including Wang Tieshan, and Yan Xingci finished off the four wounded men.
• Yan Xingci asked Li Chengjie how he had learned the Star River Sword Canon, and Li Chengjie said he had seen it once and learned it.
• Gao Chen emerged from the prison cart, and Yan Xingci asked where they were going next.

Li Chengjie and Gao Chen accepted Yan Xingci’s invitation to travel to Prince Rui’s western fief, where they hoped to find safety from Imperial Advisor Xiao Qianshan. After reaching Wuzhou City by crossing the Cang River, they met an elderly man on the dock who praised Li Chengjie’s skill.

• Yan Xingci introduced himself to Li Chengjie and Gao Chen and explained how Xiao Qianshan had seized control of the Song Kingdom while Prince Rui’s western fief remained a safe haven.
• Yan Xingci invited Li Chengjie and Gao Chen to join him in traveling to Prince Rui, and Li Chengjie accepted after Gao Chen deferred to his decision.
• Yan Xingci led the pair west, and three days later they arrived at the Cang River outside Wuzhou City.
• Yan Xingci crossed the river on foot, while Li Chengjie carried Gao Chen across by leaping from reeds and driftwood.
• An elderly man accompanied by two armed guards appeared on the dock and praised Li Chengjie’s skill.

Qian Wanguan revealed that he was an agent of the Imperial Advisor and surrounded Yan Xingci, Li Chengjie, and Gao Chen with armed fighters. Li Chengjie copied Qian Wanguan’s and eight Iron Guards’ martial arts, advancing to the realm of a top-tier expert as the confrontation began.

• Qian Wanguan invited the three travelers to his inn, then exposed Yan Xingci as a wanted criminal and ordered him to come see the Imperial Advisor.
• Qian Wanguan identified himself as a hidden outpost for Xiao Qianshan and called on dozens of armed fighters and eight Iron Guards to surround the group.
• Yan Xingci prepared to fight, while Gao Chen moved closer to Li Chengjie and Li Chengjie calmly assessed their opponents.
• Li Chengjie used the system to replicate Qian Wanguan’s Profound Ice Palm and internal-energy insights, along with the eight Iron Guards’ martial arts and combat experience.
• Li Chengjie absorbed the knowledge and reached the realm of a top-tier expert, though his internal energy remained shallow.

Li Chengjie and Yan Xingci fought Qian Wanguan and his eight martial artists, but Li Chengjie's shallow internal energy left him on the verge of defeat. An old farmer appeared and drove Qian Wanguan back with a single finger, then called himself a village peasant who could not stand seeing the weak bullied.

• Yan Xingci fought off Qian Wanguan's eight martial artists while Qian Wanguan attacked Li Chengjie with the Profound Ice Palm.
• Li Chengjie dodged Qian Wanguan's attacks, then wounded his palm by combining the Profound Ice Palm with Yan Xingci's Sword Intent.
• Qian Wanguan unleashed Thousand Frost Fall, leaving Li Chengjie unable to evade the final strike.
• An old farmer appeared, scattered Qian Wanguan's palm shadows, and sent him crashing into a stone pier with a finger strike.
• Qian Wanguan demanded to know who the old farmer was, and the old man said he was a village peasant who could not tolerate bullies.