Chapter Summaries

Chen Nan settled into the Preparatory Academy, met his three dormmates, and attended his first class with instructor Li Guodong. After learning the academy’s basic rules and cultivation systems, Chen Nan looked ahead to the formal lessons beginning the next day.

• Chen Nan helped Jiang Lili settle his belongings, and she left reluctantly after discussing their planned Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot shop.
• Chen Nan met his dormmates Shen Congyun, Lu Butong, and Shi Lei, who recognized his reputation, and the group explored the academy grounds.
• Chen Nan and the other students began classes at eight the next morning, where Li Guodong introduced himself as their instructor.
• Li Guodong explained the Transcendent factions and ranks, how students could earn top-grade cultivation resources, and the rules for duels.
• Chen Nan learned that formal lessons would begin the next day and hoped Li Guodong would not teach the core subjects.

Chen Nan and the other new students learned about the academy’s tradition of allowing upperclassmen to bully them during their first month, then began their practical classes. In Meditation Class, Chen Nan used the AI in his nervous system to adapt to the harsh sounds and continued meditating long after most of the class had quit.

• At lunch, Shen Congyun told Chen Nan, Shi Lei, and Lu Butong that old students could bully new students during their first month, and Lu Butong rejected Shi Lei’s advice to avoid them.
• Chen Nan received his class schedule and learned that he and Shi Lei were assigned to Meditation Class, while Shen Congyun and Lu Butong were assigned to Body Cultivation Class.
• The next morning, Xu Xiaojing introduced the meditation basics and played harsh sounds for the students to follow during their first meditation session.
• As students vomited or gave up and put in earplugs, the AI in Chen Nan’s nervous system analyzed the sounds and adjusted his brainwaves to match their pattern.
• After about forty-five minutes, Chen Nan was still meditating, while Shi Lei and the last student besides him had stopped; Xu Xiaojing wondered whether Chen Nan could break the academy record.

Chen Nan stopped meditating after one hour, twenty-six minutes, and thirty-seven seconds, breaking Wu City Preparatory Academy's record and astonishing Xu Xiaojing. The academy concealed his talent and began planning his education, while Chen Nan resolved to grow strong enough that no one could use him.

• Chen Nan meditated for over an hour, surpassing the academy record before stopping because he feared the strain on his brain and the attention he was drawing.
• Xu Xiaojing saw Chen Nan's time, praised him, and left to report his achievement to the dean.
• Chen Nan worried that his talent would make him a prize for powerful people and decided he needed to become strong enough to resist being controlled.
• Dean Li Nanchao ordered Xu Xiaojing and the eight students to keep Chen Nan's talent secret so the academy could nurture him and use his success to build its reputation.
• Chen Nan accepted the academy's secrecy, and Wu City Preparatory Academy began preparing a discreet education plan for him.

Chen Nan attended classes on Transcendents and Nature Masters, reflecting on their different approaches after Lu Fangliang’s lesson. After Wang Bodan and Li Huaming publicly insulted him, Chen Nan faced Li Huaming in a fight, with teachers watching as the confrontation began.

• Chen Nan learned foundational principles of Transcendents before Lu Fangliang argued that Nature Masters sought harmony with nature and the Great Dao.
• Chen Nan decided he might study Nature Master knowledge while favoring harmony between it and technology, then left for the cafeteria with Shi Lei.
• Wang Bodan gathered students and mocked Chen Nan’s family, while Li Huaming challenged him and demanded he drink his piss and crawl under his crotch.
• Chen Nan tricked Li Huaming into calling him Grandpa, prompting Li Huaming to attack; Shi Lei stepped in and was knocked unconscious.
• Chen Nan sent Shen Congyun to care for Shi Lei and entered the fighting circle against Li Huaming as Lu Fangliang, Xu Xiaojing, Li Yu, and Xun Xin watched.

Chen Nan studied Li Huaming’s radiation-powered abilities while their classmates placed bets on the duel. After Li Yu tried to force Chen Nan to attack, Chen Nan made Li Huaming crash to the ground and countered with a painful grab.

• Li Yu and Xun Xin organized bets favoring Li Huaming, while Lu Fangliang bet ten thousand yuan on Chen Nan to win.
• Li Huaming launched powerful attacks, but Chen Nan used the AI System to evade them and observed that Li Huaming absorbed nuclear radiation to fuel his strength.
• Li Yu declared that Chen Nan would lose if he kept dodging without attacking for thirty seconds.
• Li Huaming suddenly crashed to the ground, startling the spectators, and Chen Nan adopted a flowing stance as Lu Fangliang and Xu Xiaojing watched closely.
• Chen Nan slid beneath Li Huaming’s charge and grabbed him between the legs.

Chen Nan defeated Li Huaming in a wagered duel, then fought off three senior students who ambushed him and earned a large payout. He returned to the dormitory with his roommates, while Lu Fangliang considered Chen Nan’s extraordinary potential.

• Chen Nan defeated Li Huaming by using a foul tactic, and the crowd protested even though the teachers recognized the result.
• Wang Bodan stirred up the losing bettors, prompting three senior students to attack Chen Nan.
• Chen Nan used his Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes to cut a spellcasting attacker’s throat, but Lu Fangliang saved the student before he died.
• Chen Nan warned off the other attackers and challenged Li Yu’s criticism, arguing that his harsh methods had kept him alive.
• Lu Fangliang collected the wager payments for Chen Nan, who took his roommates out to celebrate after earning nearly seventy to eighty thousand.
• Chen Nan reflected on Lu Fangliang’s abilities, while Lu Fangliang concluded that Chen Nan’s future potential was boundless.

After a month of rapid cultivation made him the strongest new student, Chen Nan accepted Headmaster Li Nanchao’s offer of exceptional resources in exchange for promising to enter Luojing Transcendent Academy with a national top-three result and promote Wu City Preparatory Academy. With new training equipment and a T-level spell technique, Chen Nan continued investigating the scientific principles behind cultivation and magic.

• Chen Nan studied and cultivated relentlessly, and a month later the strength assessment showed he had reached Zero Rank Level Three, far ahead of the other new students.
• Headmaster Li Nanchao summoned Chen Nan and offered him top-tier teachers, learning materials, and cultivation resources if he entered Luojing Transcendent Academy next year with a national top-three result and spoke well of Wu City Preparatory Academy.
• Chen Nan agreed to the conditions, and the academy provided him with special meals, a heat-dispersing cultivation helmet, an advanced Meditation Qi Yin Art, and the T-level Thunderclap Art.
• Chen Nan studied the Thunderclap Art and continued researching how meditation, incantations, and mental fluctuations produced supernatural effects, linking the world’s magic to science and technology.

Chen Nan considered which school to join at the Transcendent Academy and studied Nature Master cultivation under Lu Fangliang. After learning the Clear Heart Incantation and analyzing Thunderclap Art, he prepared to test whether the AI System could let him cast spells without incantations.

• Chen Nan weighed the benefits and drawbacks of the Transcendent schools and remained undecided about joining the struggling Nature Masters.
• Lu Fangliang explained the slow, uncertain path of Nature Master cultivation and said he had joined to pursue the Great Dao.
• Lu Fangliang gave Chen Nan the Clear Heart Incantation, which Chen Nan memorized with the help of his AI System.
• Chen Nan practiced the Clear Heart Incantation and found that it calmed his mind and strengthened his influence on electromagnetic fields.
• Chen Nan analyzed the brainwave patterns and formulas behind Thunderclap Art and planned to test casting it through the AI System without an incantation.

Chen Nan practiced his Lightning Spell and visited the booming Spicy Hot Pot shop he had helped create, bringing his dormmates along. After they sampled the food, Shen Congyun and the others considered opening franchise stores under the shop’s brand.

• Chen Nan tested his Lightning Spell in the first-class training room, where the target rated its completion and accuracy as perfect and its attack power at 97, far above his ordinary strike’s 12.
• Chen Nan spoke with Jiang Lili, who told him the Spicy Hot Pot shop was earning nearly a thousand yuan a day, and arranged to visit the next weekend.
• Chen Nan invited Shen Congyun, Shi Lei, and Lu Butong to join him on the visit, and Jiang Lili drove them to the shop after closing it for the day.
• Jiang Lili and the workers welcomed the group, and Chen Nan’s dormmates praised the Spicy Hot Pot after trying it.
• Shen Congyun asked about joining the business, and Chen Nan offered him the option of becoming a franchisee; Lu Butong and Shi Lei also took Jiang Lili’s business cards.

Chen Nan helped Jiang Lili and her partners plan how to expand Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot, while Wang Bodan and Zhang Hua plotted to destroy the business and arrange Chen Nan’s assassination. A month later, Chen Nan reached Level Six Zero Stage but worried about the time left to reach Level Fifteen before the Transcendent Academy entrance examinations.

• Chen Nan advised Jiang Lili, Feng Wu, and Chen Xiao to improve the shop, open three main stores, and expand through a chain of franchises; Shen Congyun and two others secured franchise slots.
• The shop’s popularity spread through Wu City, and Wang Bodan decided to target Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot as a way to draw Chen Nan away from the academy.
• Wang Bodan recruited Zhang Hua to help obtain information about Transcendent assassins, planning to spend his remaining hidden assets to hire one and kill Chen Nan.
• Chen Nan remained unaware of the plot and focused on cultivation, reaching Level Six Zero Stage after another month of training.
• Chen Nan estimated that reaching Level Fifteen by the September entrance examinations would be difficult, even though he expected competition for the top three places to be manageable.

Chen Nan developed a theory for accelerating cultivation by combining his AI System with the Clear Heart Incantation, but he had not yet tested it. Meanwhile, a smear campaign accused Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot of using addictive poppy husks, leaving the stores shut down and Chen Nan’s reputation in ruins as Shi Lei asked him to compensate his family.

• Chen Nan reasoned that resonance between his cells and external electromagnetic fields might improve cultivation, and he considered combining scientific calculations with a Nature Master's methods.
• Chen Nan noticed that his AI System evolved as his strength improved, which he believed was connected to his brain cells growing stronger.
• Reports accused Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot of putting addictive poppy husks in its broth and causing cancer and mental illness.
• People smashed the stores' windows, Jiang Lili and the others stayed home, and government departments sealed the shops for investigation.
• Franchise owners demanded compensation, while public outrage damaged Chen Nan's reputation across Wu City.
• Shi Lei visited Chen Nan and tactfully asked him to cover his family's financial losses from the franchise.

Chen Nan sought influential allies to clear his name after his Spicy Hot Pot was accused of containing poppy husks. Surveillance footage showed a recently hired worker tampering with the soup, but his identification was forged and his whereabouts were unknown.

• Chen Nan promised Shi Lei compensation for his losses and said he would sever their business relationship.
• Chen Nan asked Principal Li Nanchao to support him publicly after he proved the food was safe, and Li Nanchao said he needed time to consider.
• Lu Fangliang agreed to arrange an authoritative inspection of Chen Nan’s soup base recipe and asked how Chen Nan would prove the restaurant used the same recipe.
• Chen Nan returned to Jiang Lili’s place and reviewed footage showing a recently hired worker putting something into the soup pot.
• Jiang Lili told Chen Nan that the worker had registered with a forged ID and that the Patrol Bureau could not identify him.

Chen Nan analyzed evidence implicating a young worker in the food-poisoning scandal, then went to an underground casino to draw out its people and challenge Smiling Buddha. The chapter ended as Smiling Buddha began shaking specially made dice for a test of Chen Nan’s hearing.

• Chen Nan identified the powder in the surveillance footage as poppy husk powder and planned to find the young worker through Hualong Prefecture’s identity records.
• Jiang Lili told Chen Nan that the Patrol Bureau had barred her group from leaving town and that public pressure could force them to take the blame.
• Chen Nan left for an underground casino and rapidly won 1.28 million yuan by betting on dice outcomes.
• The casino’s manager, Smiling Buddha, challenged Chen Nan to name every face’s pips on three specially made dice after he shook them.
• Smiling Buddha began shaking the dice amid a noisy crowd, while Chen Nan listened for their overlapping sounds.

Chen Nan used his enhanced hearing, AI System, and vibration sense to beat Smiling Buddha at a dice challenge and prevent him from changing the result. Casino owner Yang Wankun paid Chen Nan five million yuan and treated him as a respected guest.

• Chen Nan analyzed the dice by their sounds and announced the numbers on all six faces of each die.
• Smiling Buddha tried to flip the dice as he lifted the cup, but Chen Nan canceled the vibration with a precisely timed slap on the table.
• The dice matched Chen Nan's announcement, stunning the crowd and forcing Smiling Buddha to admit defeat.
• Yang Wankun arrived, praised Chen Nan, and offered him five million yuan as his winnings.
• A woman brought a gold card to the table, and Chen Nan judged Yang Wankun to be no simple man.

Chen Nan turned down Yang Wankun’s attempt to pay him five million, then secured his help in meeting Yang Wangan to access the Patrol Bureau’s population database and find the person who framed him. Walking home after midnight, Chen Nan sensed an invisible assassin closing in and prepared to strike back.

• Chen Nan returned the five-million gold card at first, but Yang Wankun accepted it temporarily and invited him for tea.
• Chen Nan asked Yang Wankun to introduce him to Yang Wangan so he could use the Patrol Bureau’s population information system to find the criminal who framed him.
• Yang Wankun agreed to speak with his elder brother the next day, and Chen Nan left with the gold card and Yang Wankun’s contact information.
• After Chen Nan declined a ride and began walking toward Jiang Lili’s home, he sensed a soul-piercing chill on the empty street.
• Chen Nan used infrared vision to detect an invisible Agility Transcendent assassin approaching him, kept his discovery hidden, and waited with the Thunderclap Art ready.

Chen Nan fought off an assassin sent by Wang Bodan and Zhang Hua, but the stronger opponent nearly killed him before Lu Fangliang intervened. Chen Nan killed the helpless assassin and revealed that he knew who had ordered the attack.

• The assassin launched a surprise attack on Chen Nan, who countered with the Thunderclap Art and severed the assassin’s testicles with his Twin Axes.
• The assassin protected himself with a nuclear-radiation shield and pressed Chen Nan into a prolonged fight, gradually wounding him with his superior speed and strength.
• As Chen Nan continued fighting despite his injuries, Lu Fangliang appeared and struck the assassin down with a flash of sword light.
• Chen Nan ignored Lu Fangliang’s order to spare the assassin and killed him with his axe.
• Chen Nan told Lu Fangliang that he knew who had arranged the assassination, while Lu Fangliang criticized his attitude toward killing.

After Lu Fangliang rescued Chen Nan and helped him return safely to the academy, a video of Chen Nan fighting an Assassin Association member went viral and drew attention from Transcendent factions. Chen Nan then went to the Patrol Bureau to search identity records for the criminal, proposing to identify the suspect himself.

• Lu Fangliang explained that fate had brought him to Chen Nan, then accompanied him to the Patrol Bureau, where Yang Wangan closed the assassination case pending Chen Nan's statement.
• Chen Nan returned to the academy and confirmed to Shen Congyun and the others that he was the fighter in the viral video, asking them to keep it quiet.
• Wang Bodan feared Chen Nan's revenge, while Zhang Hua regretted that Chen Nan had survived and gained attention.
• Transcendent factions and young Transcendents across the country took interest in Chen Nan after watching the video.
• Chen Nan visited Yang Wangan and offered to search Wu City's identity records himself to find the criminal shown in his surveillance footage.

Chen Nan used his extraordinary vision to identify Du Dayu in the population records and expose the plot against his Spicy Hot Pot shop. With Du Dayu arrested and evidence of the shop’s safety gathered, Chen Nan prepared a public campaign to restore its reputation, then learned Lu Fangliang could travel between cities at incredible speed.

• Chen Nan rapidly searched Wu City's and then Hualong Prefecture's population records, finding the suspect, Du Dayu.
• Yang Wangan had Chang Yutian investigate Du Dayu, and patrol officers arrested him at a hotel; Du Dayu confessed to poisoning Chen Nan's Spicy Hot Pot soup at someone else's request.
• Chen Nan asked the Prefecture Office to publicize the evidence, while Lu Fangliang returned with national food-safety certification for the recipe.
• Dean Li Nanchao agreed to cooperate with Chen Nan's plan to restore the shop's reputation through a final public campaign.
• After class, Chen Nan asked how Lu Fangliang had helped save him while handling certification in Luojing, and Lu Fangliang said he could make several round trips between Luojing and Wu City within an hour.

Chen Nan publicly cleared his hot pot business and reopened it to great success, while Wang Bodan, isolated and despairing, died by suicide. Chen Nan returned to the academy, stopped Wang Bodan’s phone video, and took responsibility for arranging his funeral.

• Lu Fangliang delivered Chen Nan’s safety certification, and Chen Nan prepared to reopen his flagship store with Li Nanchao’s help.
• At the reopening, Li Nanchao presented evidence that Chen Nan had been framed, displayed the safety certification, and invited people to taste the hot pot.
• Shi Lei regretted withdrawing from Chen Nan’s business, while Wang Bodan felt isolated, blamed Chen Nan, and jumped from the academy rooftop.
• Chen Nan learned of Wang Bodan’s death and returned to the academy with Li Nanchao.
• Chen Nan turned off the video playing on Wang Bodan’s phone and asked Li Nanchao to let him arrange Wang Bodan’s funeral.

After Wang Bodan’s death, Chen Nan arranged his funeral and then returned to the academy, determined to prepare for the annual assessment. He worked to combine Transcendent meditation with Nature Master cultivation, but the two methods resisted each other, leaving him unsure whether to keep experimenting or focus on rapid progress.

• Li Nanchao ordered Wang Bodan’s death concealed, and Jiang Lili transported the body away; Chen Nan paid for the cremation and arranged a cemetery plot and funeral.
• Chen Nan stood alone at Wang Bodan’s grave until dark, then returned with Jiang Lili and the others for a meal.
• At the shop, Chen Nan learned that Sister Li, whose name was Li Yunfeng and who came from Gusu Commandery, often asked about him and his time at the Orphanage.
• Chen Nan returned to the academy and began intensive cultivation, while Li Nanchao provided him with resources to prepare for the September assessment.
• Chen Nan considered combining meditation’s speed with the Nature Master method’s purity, but the two cultivation methods seemed incompatible, and he struggled to choose between further research and faster advancement.