Chapter Summaries

You Chen, a Spirit Hall theorist seeking a quiet life away from the coming war, planned to transfer to a branch hall near Notting City and eventually claim the Blue Silver Emperor’s soul bone. A Counterattack System appeared and assigned him a mission to beat Ye Han, his longtime subordinate, just as he was heading to check on his transfer paperwork.

• You Chen decided to leave Spirit Hall’s center and sought a reassignment to a branch hall near Notting City, hoping to obtain the Blue Silver Emperor’s 100,000-year soul bone.
• You Chen imagined using the soul bone to improve his talent and grow strong enough to survive the coming conflict.
• The Counterattack System activated and displayed You Chen’s status as a level 48 Soul Ancestor.
• The system assigned You Chen a mandatory newbie mission to defeat Ye Han, who it claimed was planning to ambush him with classmates.
• You Chen recalled that Ye Han had once been his jealous classmate but had become his loyal subordinate, and he decided to complete the mission while checking on his paperwork.

You Chen learned that Ye Han had completed his transfer to Notting City, where You Chen would serve as a deacon despite his standing as a professor. Ye Han mentioned the Pope’s supposed favor, and You Chen reflected on how his research and past dealings with Spirit Hall had shaped his rise, leaving the reason for his departure tied to conflicts among the upper ranks.

• You Chen met his former classmate Ye Han, who confirmed that his transfer to Notting City was complete and that he could take up the deacon post in about three days.
• Ye Han questioned why You Chen was leaving his research position, noting that the Pope had supposedly planned to promote him to director of the Research Institute.
• You Chen laughed at the idea of the Pope’s favor and recognized that Ye Han knew nothing about the conflicts among Spirit Hall’s upper ranks.
• You Chen reflected on how he had used scientific training, a reputation for theoretical research, and a plan to study Whale Rubber to overcome his limited talent and secure resources.
• You Chen recalled that publishing a rebuttal to Yu Xiaogang’s Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul at age twelve had attracted Qian Xunji’s attention and earned him a woman’s lasting hatred.

You Chen recounted how he won Qian Xunji’s favor, gained access to Spirit Hall’s Grand Library, and advanced his cultivation before Bibi Dong sidelined him. After completing the Newbie Mission by beating Ye Han, he opened a gift pack whose useful-looking rewards were mostly suited to his younger self.

• You Chen explained that he had challenged Yu Xiaogang’s theories to attract Qian Xunji’s attention and earn full access to the first three floors of Spirit Hall’s Grand Library.
• You Chen described how his research brought him resources and help hunting soul beasts, allowing him to gain a second thousand-year soul ring at fifteen and a fourth ten-thousand-year soul ring at twenty-eight before Bibi Dong sidelined him.
• You Chen teased Ye Han about their past and beat him in the Martial Arts Arena, completing the Newbie Mission.
• You Chen opened the Newbie Gift Pack and found low-level pills and Gold Soul Coins that were useless to him as a level forty-eight Soul Ancestor.
• You Chen discovered an Aura Concealment Art that intrigued him, then saw that the final item was an Adaptive Best Age First Soul Ring despite having absorbed his first soul ring decades earlier.

You Chen considered whether the system’s First Soul Ring could be absorbed despite the rules of the Douluo world and decided the chance of surpassing his limits was worth the risk. He activated his Martial Soul and used the ring, leaving its effects unknown.

• You Chen discovered that the First Soul Ring in his inventory responded to his thoughts and displayed a prompt to use it.
• You Chen considered the danger of absorbing another Soul Ring while already possessing several, including the possibility that the rings could clash and kill him.
• You Chen reflected on his ambition to break through his limits and his belief that power offered the greatest freedom.
• You Chen decided to risk absorbing the ring, hoping to reach Rank 50 and strengthen his Martial Soul.
• You Chen activated Martial Soul Possession and used the Soul Ring as vast Soul Power surged.

You Chen began absorbing a pure First Soul Ring and used his research into Martial Soul Evolution to guide it toward developing Stardust Dragon’s abilities. He concluded that evolution came from strengthening a Martial Soul’s fundamental power, and saw the blank Soul Ring as a chance to begin that process early.

• You Chen successfully began absorbing the transparent Soul Ring and focused his will on shaping a soul skill suited to Stardust Dragon.
• You Chen recalled his research showing that a Soul Master’s will could influence soul skills, while soul beast compatibility and other limits constrained the result.
• You Chen rejected the idea that absorbing Soul Rings beyond their conventional limits alone could cause dramatic Martial Soul Evolution.
• You Chen explained that his Wind Hatchling Dragon was a weakened form of Stardust Dragon and that his earlier evolution had revealed its true potential.
• You Chen drew on decades of research and concluded that Martial Soul Evolution was a mutation caused by strengthening a Martial Soul’s fundamental power.

You Chen analyzed how soul rings could trigger Martial Soul evolution and staked everything on shaping his first soul skill into Sacrifice Sanctuary. After an hour of absorption, the skill succeeded, leaving him with a path toward evolving the Stardust Young Dragon.

• You Chen explained that Martial Soul evolution depended on the Martial Soul's stability, the amount of origin energy gained, and the type of origin energy enhanced.
• You Chen determined that his Stardust Young Dragon held starlight, wind, and holiness within it, so pursuing only ultimate wind had been insufficient.
• You Chen chose Sacrifice Sanctuary as his first soul skill, hoping it would engrave the Stardust Dragon's signature ability and evolve his Martial Soul.
• You Chen absorbed the adaptive soul ring as it changed from white to black, and his dragon wings unfurled when the Soul Power fluctuations subsided.
• You Chen opened his eyes and confirmed that his first soul skill, Sacrifice Sanctuary, had succeeded.

You Chen examined the defensive Sacrifice Sanctuary domain and discovered that his Martial Soul had evolved into Stardust Dragon, greatly increasing its attributes. He then realized his Soul Power had fallen to Rank 20 and only one black soul ring remained, leaving him panicked about having to cultivate again.

• You Chen assessed Sacrifice Sanctuary as a powerful domain that reduced damage, redirected allies' attacks onto him, and could grant invincibility or healing.
• You Chen sensed that his Martial Soul had evolved into the high-grade Stardust Dragon and noticed his transformed dragon claw.
• You Chen used his Martial Soul Hexagram method to estimate Stardust Dragon's attributes at 17 points, placing it among the strongest high-grade Martial Souls.
• You Chen discovered that his Soul Power output was still limited to Rank 20, weakening his ability to draw out Stardust Dragon's power.
• You Chen summoned his soul rings and saw only one black ring, then feared he could not reach Rank 70 before age fifty if he had to cultivate again.

You Chen discovered that he could switch between his nine-year-old and thirty-five-year-old selves, each with the same advanced Stardust Dragon martial soul but different levels and soul rings. He accepted a mission to defeat Jiang Liu within three moves and left his former classmate unconscious after a sudden, overwhelming attack.

• You Chen checked his system panel and found that he had returned to age nine as You Chen (II), with a Level 20 Soul Master body and a 12,000-year first soul ring.
• You Chen switched to You Chen (I), returning to age thirty-five and Level 50, and reasoned that the two forms could provide separate sets of soul rings for his martial soul.
• The system assigned You Chen a mission to defeat Jiang Liu within three moves at their final exam competition, offering pills, candy, and a mental combat skill as rewards.
• You Chen stayed in Spirit City instead of immediately taking up his transfer post and invited his former classmate Jiang Liu to a soul battle.
• You Chen opened with his ten-thousand-year Starlight Avatar and Storm Airflow skills, then detonated the avatar to knock Jiang Liu unconscious.

You Chen reflected on how far his strength had surpassed Jiang Liu’s, then invited Jiang Liu and Ye Han to dinner after their reunion. Back at his mansion, You Chen learned that his invitations had been delivered and revealed that he had trained more than a hundred loyal beast-martial-soul users known as Soul Arena Beasts.

• You Chen decided his power could overwhelm Jiang Liu because of his superior skills and soul ring, while keeping his martial soul’s evolution secret.
• Jiang Liu recovered from You Chen’s attack, complained about the gap between them, and downplayed his own prospects beside You Chen’s.
• You Chen and Jiang Liu discussed their likely futures in Spirit Hall before You Chen invited him and Ye Han to dinner in Spirit City.
• You Chen returned to his mansion, where Ge Ruisi reported that she had delivered the invitations.
• You Chen praised Ge Ruisi, a former slave whom he had helped become a Level 33 Soul Elder, and reflected that he had secretly trained over a hundred similarly loyal Soul Arena Beasts.

You Chen gathered former classmates and acquaintances under the guise of a reunion, using Soul Arena Beasts to support his plans while prioritizing his own growth. He also studied the system’s mission timing and began identifying rules governing when new missions appeared.

• You Chen reflected on how the Soul Arena Beasts could aid his research and covert plans, though the system had made strengthening himself his main priority.
• Ge Ruisi’s invitations brought nearly half of the intended guests to You Chen’s villa, including people who had clashed with him in the past.
• You Chen publicly framed the gathering as a farewell reunion and pleased his guests by analyzing their Martial Souls and recommending Soul Rings.
• You Chen checked his diary and concluded that system missions were separated by midnight and did not trigger continuously whenever someone provoked him.

You Chen reflected on the system’s rules while gathering missions, then confronted Hu Liena after she barged into his banquet with Xie Yue and Yan. The exchange ended with Yan apologizing to You Chen for Hu Liena’s intrusion and the servants she had knocked out.

• You Chen concluded that the system provided one welfare mission per month when conflicts arose and that missions could be abandoned.
• During the seventh day of his banquet, Ge Ruisi informed You Chen that uninvited visitors had arrived.
• Hu Liena entered the banquet and accused You Chen of plotting something, while Xie Yue and Yan hurried in after her.
• When a Yellow-robed Deacon scolded Hu Liena, You Chen defended the deacons and challenged her for looking down on Spirit Hall’s grassroots workers.
• Yan apologized to You Chen for failing to stop Hu Liena and admitted that she had knocked out several servants.

You Chen removed Hu Liena from the banquet after she caused a disturbance, then tried to placate her with candy that secretly made people friendlier toward him. As Yan defended You Chen and Hu Liena refused the candy, You Chen reflected on the trio’s potential and judged Yan’s Flame Lord martial soul far stronger than Hu Liena’s Demon Fox.

• You Chen stopped Hu Liena from making a scene, reassured Ge Ruisi, and arranged wine and Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast Meat to compensate the guests.
• You Chen led Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan to a meeting room, where Hu Liena demanded to know what he was planning.
• You Chen offered Hu Liena candy that he knew had a mild friendliness-inducing effect, but she refused it because she suspected it was drugged.
• Yan rebuked Hu Liena for disrespecting You Chen, whom he remembered as their teacher at Spirit Hall Academy.
• You Chen compared Hu Liena’s Demon Fox and Yan’s Flame Lord, concluding that Yan’s martial soul had far greater potential.

You Chen reflected on Bibi Dong’s lies that turned Hu Liena and Xie Yue against him, despite his contributions to Spirit Hall’s younger generation. He recalled how he had reformed Yan’s obsessive devotion to Hu Liena by teaching him to build friendships with other girls, and continued explaining why that approach could break the cycle of simping.

• You Chen concluded that Bibi Dong had falsely accused him of plagiarizing Yu Xiaogang and plotting against Spirit Hall, and that Hu Liena had believed her without checking the facts.
• You Chen noted that Spirit Hall’s younger generation had benefited from his whale jelly research, while Hu Liena and Xie Yue still sided with the Pope and distanced themselves from him.
• You Chen remembered that Yan had once asked him how to make Hu Liena like him when Yan was only eight years old.
• You Chen had argued with Yan and persuaded him to make friends with other girls, despite Yan insisting that doing so would betray Hu Liena.
• You Chen explained that encouraging Yan to widen his social circle and reduce his fixation addressed the causes of his obsessive devotion.

You Chen challenged Yan to examine why he liked Hu Liena and whether his feelings were based on genuine compatibility. Yan still insisted that he loved her, and You Chen left him considering whether a gentle childhood friend might have mattered more than Hu Liena.

• Yan told You Chen that another girl had confessed to him, but he had rejected her because he still liked Hu Liena.
• You Chen asked Yan what he liked about Hu Liena, and Yan named her looks, personality, talent, and their shared childhood.
• You Chen argued that Hu Liena did not return Yan's feelings and tested whether Yan would still love her if her looks or personality were different.
• Yan admitted he would prefer a gentle Hu Liena, and You Chen pointed out that Yan valued gentleness more than Hu Liena's actual personality.
• You Chen asked Yan whether he would like the girl who confessed if she had been his childhood friend and Hu Liena had only recently become his classmate.

You Chen guided Yan to examine whether his feelings for Hu Liena were truly about her or about beauty and companionship. Yan accepted that he should focus on cultivation for now, though his declaration of future conquests went far beyond You Chen’s advice.

• You Chen used subtle hypnotic guidance to help Yan consider whom he would choose if Hu Liena had ordinary talent, and Yan still chose Nana.
• You Chen argued that Yan’s affection depended more on Hu Liena’s beauty and their time together than on her unique qualities.
• Yan imagined finding a beautiful woman who would love him, then broke down over how shallow that made his pursuit of Nana seem.
• You Chen reminded Yan that he was only eight and urged him to study and cultivate instead of fixating on a girl unlikely to love him.
• Yan declared that women would only distract him from cultivation and vowed to pursue them after becoming invincible, prompting You Chen to call him extreme.

Yan defended You Chen after Hu Liena accused him of poisoning candy, while their changed childhood friendship left Hu Liena frustrated and rebellious. You Chen declined to argue and told her that Bibi Dong would have to approve the bill for the damage and disruption she had caused.

• You Chen recalled how Yan had stopped obsessing over Hu Liena after his intervention and accepted Yan as his personal disciple.
• Yan rebuked Hu Liena for questioning You Chen, and Hu Liena resented that Yan no longer obeyed her or apologized after their quarrel.
• Hu Liena admitted that accusing You Chen of poisoning the candy was an overreaction but argued that she was right to be cautious around a powerful Soul Ancestor.
• You Chen stayed silent while preparing tea, then said Ge Ruisi would report the costs of Hu Liena's intrusion and disruption to the Finance Department for Bibi Dong to approve.
• Hu Liena accused You Chen of secretly organizing his followers before leaving Spirit City and insisted that her actions had been righteous.

You Chen confronted Hu Liena for barging into his home, and his speed and strength made Xie Yue reconsider his contempt for him. After Hu Liena stormed out, Yan asked whether the rumors that You Chen was leaving Spirit City were true.

• You Chen warned Hu Liena that he could remove her from his home, then swiftly spanked her when she acted provocatively.
• Xie Yue realized You Chen had moved too quickly for him to track and resolved to respect him until he surpassed him in strength.
• You Chen told Hu Liena that she had caused trouble without reason and hoped they could part on good terms, but she left in a huff.
• Xie Yue apologized and chased after Hu Liena, while Yan stayed to apologize for her and heard You Chen say he should not take responsibility for her actions.
• Yan asked You Chen whether he was truly about to leave Spirit City.

You Chen told Yan that they had to part so Yan could cultivate in Spirit City, then reminded him of his ambition to become a Titled Douluo. The two began a final assessment in the manor's Martial Arts Arena.

• You Chen refused to let Yan travel with him, explaining that Spirit City's resources and training environment were best for Yan's cultivation.
• Yan insisted on following You Chen, but You Chen reminded him of his promise to become a Titled Douluo and reach the summit in his teacher's stead.
• Yan vowed to become the strongest Titled Douluo and surpass Hu Liena to prove You Chen's ability as a teacher.
• You Chen proposed a final assessment, and he and Yan went to the manor's Martial Arts Arena.
• You Chen and Yan activated their martial soul possessions, taking the forms of the Stardust Dragon and Yan's dark-red beast martial soul.

You Chen assessed Yan’s cultivation and explained how his Flame Lord Martial Soul could develop, focusing on improving its speed through finer control of fire and earth energy. The chapter left You Chen considering Yan’s innate potential to manipulate those elements more precisely.

• You Chen observed that Yan had reached Soul Power Level 36 and had trained his body well, though his mental training remained a weakness.
• The chapter explained how whale jelly, high-quality resources, and soul rings exceeding their age limits had boosted the Golden Generation’s cultivation.
• You Chen noted that Yan’s first soul skill was Hell Lava Surge and reasoned that compatible soul rings could eventually evolve the Flame Lord into a super-tier Martial Soul.
• You Chen identified the Flame Lord’s relative slowness and high soul power consumption as its main weaknesses, and chose to focus on improving its speed.
• You Chen recognized that the Flame Lord’s Fire Rock Control gave Yan the potential to manipulate fire and earth energy with greater precision.

You Chen developed a training path for Yan that used elemental control and soul skills to compensate for Yan’s lack of speed and eventually create original abilities. Yan began Shape Transformation training with Lava Barrier and Yan Prison Cage, while You Chen’s methods drew ridicule before Yan’s arena victories began to restore his reputation.

• You Chen planned for Yan to combine fire and earth control, using a Flame Thruster for sudden movement and eventually becoming a flying cannon platform.
• You Chen kept Yan at the level-twenty bottleneck so he could improve his spiritual power and influence the formation of his second soul skill.
• Yan received Lava Barrier, a thousand-year skill that raised a wall, and You Chen was condemned by Spirit Hall Academy for giving his assault-type disciple a supposedly useless ability.
• You Chen stopped Yan from defending him publicly and explained that mastering Lava Barrier would teach him Shape Transformation.
• Yan later swept through opponents in the Soul Arena after reaching Soul Elder, helping clear the stigma around You Chen’s training.
• Yan began creating original skills with guidance from Lava Barrier and Yan Prison Cage, and You Chen named the series Yan's Creation Magic.