Chapter Summaries

Chen Nan’s victory drew the academy’s attention, leaving Yang Yugan and Lu Fangliang to weigh the risks of recruiting him into the Nature Master department. Meanwhile, Chen Wan’er’s group studied Qin Shou’s account of the fight as Chu Yu prepared to face Chen Nan.

• The academy’s dean and department heads praised Chen Nan, while Yang Yugan and Lu Fangliang worried that recruiting him could bring pressure down on the Nature Master department.
• Qin Shou returned to the examinees’ lounge and was mocked for losing to Chen Nan.
• Chen Wan’er had Qin Shou explain Chen Nan’s abilities so the remaining opponents could plan how to defeat him.
• Qin Shou described Chen Nan as a spellcaster with effective close-combat skills, limited spells, and a Thunderclap Art that lacked strong attack power.
• Chu Yu, a Rune Master equipped with powerful spellcasting items, was set to fight Chen Nan next and was expected to exploit his advantages in spellcasting.

Chen Nan faced Chu Yu in the second bout of the third test, relying on the Eye of AI and close combat to counter Chu Yu’s spell talismans. After dodging Chu Yu’s surprise attack and reaching him, Chen Nan struck at his feet, leaving the bout’s outcome unresolved.

• Chu Yu studied tactics against Chen Nan, while President Qiu Daqiang and the four department heads discussed Chen Nan’s chances and reaffirmed that they would choose him even if he lost.
• The second bout began with Chen Nan and Chu Yu facing each other in the battle ring, where Chu Yu asked Chen Nan to go easy on him and protect his face.
• Chen Nan noticed through the Eye of AI that Chu Yu was hiding something and charged forward, planning to rely on close combat.
• Chu Yu revealed his prepared Fire Talismans and Lightning Talismans and launched both at Chen Nan from close range.
• Chen Nan leaned back and slid beneath the attacks, then reached Chu Yu and thrust his Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes toward Chu Yu’s feet.

Chen Nan defeated Chu Yu after using lightning and his Eye of AI to expose him while he was invisible. After returning to his residence, Chen Nan ate and used the AI System to recover his strength for the afternoon assessment.

• Chu Yu vanished during his fight with Chen Nan and attacked him with fireballs while remaining invisible.
• Chen Nan spread lightning across the battlefield and argued that Chu Yu must have left the combat circle, but Chu Yu reappeared and denied it.
• Chen Nan proposed repeating the test, used the lightning field to detect Chu Yu's position, and struck him with a focused electrical attack.
• The examiner declared Chen Nan the winner, and Chu Yu was carried away for treatment.
• Chen Nan returned to his residence, ate, and meditated as the AI System helped him recover using data from the Meditation Sound Awakening Art.

Chen Nan recovered from his earlier matches and faced Chen Wan'er, who attacked him with an illusion technique and the Ice Rain Spell. Having decided not to fight a woman, Chen Nan ran out of the combat circle and conceded the match.

• Chen Yu's defeat left Zhao Yunlong's group shaken, while Chen Wan'er said she despised Chen Nan because he shared her surname and vowed to defeat him.
• Chen Nan recovered, decided to concede his match against Chen Wan'er, and traveled to Luojing Transcendent Academy.
• Chen Nan noticed Lu Fangliang, Yang Yugan, and five important observers in the stands, while Dongfang Liang and Qiu Daqiang discussed their interest in him.
• Chen Wan'er insulted Chen Nan and said he should have stayed at the Orphanage, and Chen Nan replied that she had no right to judge his life.
• Chen Wan'er used her Illusionary Body Technique and began chanting the Ice Rain Spell, but Chen Nan ran out of the circle rather than fight her.

Chen Nan withdrew from his match against Chen Wan'er, then faced Zhao Yunlong in the examination’s most anticipated battle. Zhao Yunlong gained the upper hand with his Fire Dragon Fist, and Chen Nan prepared to evade his next attack as mist began to rise around them.

• Chen Nan leapt out of the ring and forfeited his match against Chen Wan'er, leaving her furious that he had denied her a direct fight.
• Zhao Yunlong and the academy higher-ups concluded that Chen Nan had withdrawn to save his strength for Zhao Yunlong.
• Chen Wan'er asked Zhao Yunlong to cripple Chen Nan and promised him three conditions; Zhao Yunlong agreed.
• Chen Nan and Zhao Yunlong entered the ring at four, and Zhao Yunlong attacked with his silver-white gloves and the Zhao Family's Fire Dragon Fist.
• Zhao Yunlong knocked Chen Nan back and grew confident, then sent two fire dragons at him as mist began to rise around them.

Chen Nan used mist illusions to exhaust and confuse Zhao Yunlong before defeating him in the assessment duel. The battle ended with Zhao Yunlong knocked out of the ring, while the department heads resolved to devote their strength to cultivating Chen Nan.

• Zhao Yunlong attacked Chen Nan's mist image, then realized Chen Nan was using a mist-like illusion technique and became determined to cripple him.
• Yang Yugan decided to recruit Chen Nan into the Nature Masters, and Qiu Daqiang and the four department heads agreed to cultivate him without regard for factional divisions.
• Chen Nan repeatedly attacked from the mist while Zhao Yunlong struggled to defend himself, suffered minor injuries, and grew exhausted.
• After more than an hour, the mist dispersed, and Zhao Yunlong charged Chen Nan for a final exchange.
• Chen Nan used the Raising Fire to Burn the Heavens Style to lift Zhao Yunlong's fists and sweep his feet, sending him out of the ring.
• The examiner declared Zhao Yunlong the loser.

After defeating Zhao Yunlong through carefully prepared tactics, Chen Nan worried that his tricks would not be enough for future battles and returned to the hotel to rest. He then encountered a hostile beastman, while Li Nanchao escorted him and discussed his exam results and Jiang Lili’s plans to open a shop in Luojing.

• Chen Nan defeated Zhao Yunlong with evasive tactics and resolved to become strong enough to win through strength in the future.
• Liu Mingtao supported Chen Nan after the exam and declared that serving him was an honor, earning the other boys’ mockery.
• At the hotel, Chen Nan received Jiang Lili’s dinner invitation and encountered a hostile beastman in the lobby.
• Li Nanchao took Chen Nan away from the beastman and said he would stay with him until the academy began.
• Chen Nan told Li Nanchao he had won three of four matches, and Li Nanchao concluded that he had secured enough points to avoid elimination.
• Jiang Lili told Chen Nan and Li Nanchao that she had selected a storefront in Luojing and planned to buy it with her savings.

After Chen Nan passed the Luojing Transcendent Academy assessment, wealthy conglomerates and other factions flooded his hotel with recruitment offers and lavish gifts. Chen Nan accepted the gifts through Li Nanchao and gave Jiang Lili three cards to help their friends and business, while an enemy Beastman regretted missing a chance to kill him.

• A Beastman told a Female Demon that he had encountered Chen Nan but backed down from killing him when a stronger human appeared.
• News of Chen Nan's clashes with Zhao Yunlong and the Seven Great Families spread, enraging Zhao Yunlong and his allies.
• Conglomerates offered Chen Nan housing, living and study expenses, and lucrative future Guest Official positions, while Li Nanchao accepted their one-million-yuan meeting gifts for him.
• Representatives from official, private, legitimate, and underworld groups visited Chen Nan with offers and additional gifts, leaving him stunned by his sudden wealth and status.
• Chen Nan gave Jiang Lili three cards so she could help provide for their friends and keep their Wu City home, and she eagerly accepted them.

Chen Nan decided to ignore the visitors seeking to recruit him and discussed his plans and the orc threat with Li Nanchao and Jiang Lili. Seven days later, he enrolled at Luojing Transcendent Academy and received elite treatment, ending the chapter in his private, fully equipped dormitory.

• Chen Nan resolved not to respond to visitors or join a conglomerate yet, while Li Nanchao advised him about departments and cultivation factions.
• Chen Nan asked about the hostile orc, and Li Nanchao explained that the orc might have targeted him because of his genius and promised to protect him before enrollment.
• Seven days after the results were announced, Li Nanchao and Jiang Lili accompanied Chen Nan to enroll at Luojing Transcendent Academy.
• Academy staff fast-tracked Chen Nan's paperwork, registered Jiang Lili as his guardian and Li Nanchao as his recommender, and gave him a Golden Key and student ID.
• Chen Nan received top-tier supplies and a private apartment in the academy's special genius housing, where Jiang Lili admired the room's amenities.

Chen Nan settled into his new dormitory after shopping with Jiang Lili and Li Nanchao, then prepared for the next day’s department assignment. At the assignment meeting, academy officials announced that his special training would combine three departments.

• Jiang Lili took Chen Nan and Li Nanchao shopping, buying clothes and accessories before returning to Chen Nan’s dormitory.
• Jiang Lili and Li Nanchao left for their hotel, and Chen Nan reflected on his ambition to pursue an extraordinary path before going to sleep.
• The next day, Chen Nan waited with Li Nanchao and Jiang Lili while the other new students received their department assignments.
• Dongfang Liang announced that Chen Nan would receive combined training from the Sorcery Department, Chang Lai'an’s Sorcery Department, and Liu Meie's Agility Department.

Chen Nan rejected the academy leaders’ offer to study in the Strength, Agility, and Spell Departments, insisting that he wanted to join the Nature Master Department instead. After the president and department heads failed to persuade him, Qiu Daqiang offered to let him try, but asked what would happen if Nature Master refused to accept him.

• Chen Nan rejected the plan for him to join three departments and told the department heads he had another choice.
• Chen Nan claimed that fear of the Demonic Orcs’ attempts on his life made him want a quiet, unambitious life in Nature Master.
• Dongfang Liang suspected Chen Nan was making excuses and had Li Nanchao try to persuade him.
• Chen Nan refused Li Nanchao, Jiang Lili, and the department heads, and remained determined to join Nature Master.
• President Qiu Daqiang offered Chen Nan the chance to join Nature Master and asked what he would do if the department did not accept him.

Chen Nan rejected the prestigious departments and joined the Nature Master Department, despite warnings that the choice would ruin his prospects. Yang Yugan accepted him, and Chen Nan began moving out of his special apartment as other students mocked his decision.

• Li Nanchao and Jiang Lili urged Chen Nan to reconsider, but he insisted on choosing the Nature Master Department and accepting the consequences.
• Qiu Daqiang pressured Yang Yugan to decide whether to take Chen Nan, but Yang welcomed Chen and declared him a Nature Master.
• Qiu Daqiang and the other department heads left angrily, and Li Nanchao warned Chen Nan that opposing them could destroy his future.
• Yang Yugan arranged new housing for Chen Nan, who returned to his residence and was ordered to surrender his keys and move out.
• Zhao Yunlong, Qin Shou, and Jiang Wenming mocked Chen Nan for joining the Nature Master Department, while Chen Nan stopped Jiang Lili from shutting the door on them.

Chen Nan settled into the Nature Master Department and spent six years developing a cultivation theory that combined Transcendent meditation with Nature Master methods. He completed an initial model of the Myriad Laws Universe Control Art but kept it private while he worked to make it usable without his AI System.

• Chen Nan refused a room in the teachers' residence, moved into ordinary student accommodation, and spent nearly two million on tuition and other expenses.
• Chen Nan studied with the Nature Master Department while using his AI System to research how Transcendent cultivation and Nature Master methods could be combined.
• Over six years, Chen Nan advanced only to the early Object Study stage, far behind his peers, while continuing his research.
• Chen Nan and his AI System produced an initial model of the Myriad Laws Universe Control Art, which promised rapid cultivation and purer Nature Master power.
• Chen Nan decided not to share the theory with Yang Yugan, Lu Fangliang, or the department until he had addressed the problems that prevented others from using it effectively.

Chen Nan sought cultivation resources at Luojing Transcendent Academy’s task office after developing the Myriad Laws Universe Control Art but finding the Nature Master Department unable to support his training. There, he encountered a public dispute over a girl in a wheelchair and stopped her chair as she approached him.

• Chen Nan completed the Myriad Laws Universe Control Art, which could help ordinary cultivators attain the Lesser Dao while leaving gifted practitioners a path to the Great Dao.
• Chen Nan reflected on the Nature Master Department’s years of isolation and mockery, and hoped his technique could help both his cultivation and the department’s revival.
• Chen Nan asked Yang Yugan about acquiring cultivation aids, and Yang Yugan suggested earning resources through academy missions or the Diligence Ranking.
• Chen Nan chose to seek ordinary missions at the academy task office, where he could leave the academy under its more lenient task rules.
• Meina berated a boy for helping a girl in a wheelchair, slapped him, and insulted the wheelchair user as the gathered students watched.
• Chen Nan grabbed the wheelchair’s handle as the tearful girl was pushed toward him, and she looked up in surprise.

Chen Nan teamed up with Lin Xi, a disabled Level Thirty-Nine spellcasting-type Saint, for a freight escort mission and learned about her illness. Their conversation was interrupted by Jiang Wenming and several other descendants of the Seven Great Families, who mocked Chen Nan and Lin Xi.

• Chen Nan offered to team up with Lin Xi, and they accepted a Level Seven Hongda Freight escort mission through the Yellow Cloud Mountain Range.
• Chen Nan completed the mission paperwork, paid the rental fee for both mission cards, and told Lin Xi they would meet Hongda Freight in three days.
• Lin Xi learned Chen Nan's identity and said she trusted his strength, while keeping their reward split at seventy-thirty.
• Lin Xi told Chen Nan that a rare nervous-system autoimmune disease had paralyzed her legs and that she used a manual wheelchair to keep training her upper body.
• Lin Xi asked why Chen Nan became a Nature Master, and he said it was his true pursuit rather than a way to coast through life.
• Jiang Wenming arrived with several descendants of the Seven Great Families and mocked Chen Nan for teaming up with Lin Xi, prompting Chen Nan to offer to take her back.

Chen Nan defeated Jiang Wenming after Jiang blocked his way, then learned that the Nature Master Department stood ready to defend him. The chapter ended with Chu Yubo demanding Chen Nan's punishment and threatening the department, while Yang Yugan challenged him to destroy it only by killing its teachers.

• Chen Nan used lightning and Eight Trigrams Steps to overwhelm Jiang Wenming, who fainted, while Lin Xi and the other students watched.
• Chen Nan sent Lin Xi away and returned to the Nature Master Department, where Lu Fangliang supported his actions and promised the department would stand with him if the academy retaliated.
• Jiang Wenming recovered at the infirmary, complained about Chen Nan, and tried to report him to the academy.
• Chu Yubo stormed into the Nature Master Department and demanded that Chen Nan be punished, threatening to smash the department.
• Yang Yugan refused to yield and dared Chu Yubo to kill him and the teachers if he intended to destroy the department.

Chu Yubo confronted Yang Yugan over Chen Nan’s victory, but Chen Nan challenged his claim that the fight had been a sneak attack and proposed a larger contest between their departments. Yang Yugan and Chu Yubo swore to the end-of-term competition with a palm clap, leaving both injured and Chu Yubo newly wary of Yang Yugan’s strength.

• Yang Yugan vowed to retaliate against Chu Yubo’s students if Chu harmed Chen Nan, forcing Chu to seek another way to challenge the Nature Master Department.
• Chen Nan told Chu Yubo that he had fought Jiang Wenming face-to-face and mocked Chu’s teaching when Chu called the victory a sneak attack.
• Chu Yubo demanded another match, and Chen Nan proposed either a public rematch or an end-of-term competition between the Nature Master Department and Strength Department.
• Chu Yubo chose the department-wide competition, and Yang Yugan insisted they seal the agreement with a palm-clap oath witnessed by the dean and department directors.
• Yang Yugan and Chu Yubo struck palms with enough force to damage the courtyard and injure them both, after which Chu left with less contempt for Yang Yugan.

After Chu Yubo left, Yang Yugan gave Chen Nan a pair of Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes forged by Lu Fangliang for his upcoming escort mission. Chen Nan began refining the weapons with help from his AI System, working to tame them before he left in three days.

• Chu Yubo left after deciding the Nature Master Department posed little threat in the final battle.
• Yang Yugan told Chen Nan that Lu Fangliang had forged him a suitable pair of weapons for his mission.
• Lu Fangliang gave Chen Nan the Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes and explained how weapon refinement worked.
• Chen Nan shattered his old weapon against the new axes and noticed that the new weapons did not yet respond smoothly to him.
• Chen Nan used his AI System to analyze how his spirit, the weapons, and the surrounding electromagnetic field interacted during refinement.
• Chen Nan began refining the axes, aiming to make them restrain their brilliance before his mission.

Chen Nan refined his Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes until they concealed their radiance in just over two days, astonishing Lu Fangliang and Yang Yugan. He visited Jiang Lili to request money and urge her to protect Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot from possible trouble, then returned to the academy to prepare for his mission the next day.

• Chen Nan used the AI System to refine his Meridian Mandarin Duck Axes until they looked ordinary.
• Lu Fangliang learned Chen Nan had completed the initial refinement, and Yang Yugan praised Chen Nan before ordering stricter cultivation for his cohort.
• Chen Nan visited Jiang Lili, whose Chen Nan Spicy Hot Pot business had prospered, and asked her for money.
• Chen Nan warned Jiang Lili that his activities might attract the great Lineages and urged her to change the business's name, but she refused.
• Chen Nan returned to the academy to prepare for completing his mission the next day.

Chen Nan reviewed the dangers of the Yellow Cloud Mountain Range and joined a freight convoy escort with Lin Xi and four other students. After Zhao Meina and Hao Fan arrived late and Zhao Meina attacked Hao Fan, the convoy set out with Chen Nan and Lin Xi riding in the middle escort vehicle.

• Chen Nan learned that Mutated Beasts were the main threat in the Yellow Cloud Mountain Range and reminded himself to stay cautious.
• Chen Nan arrived at Hongda Freight Station, met fellow students Qi Shan and Lu Zitong, and waited with Lin Xi for the last two escorts.
• Zhao Meina and Hao Fan arrived late, and Zhao Meina slapped and kicked Hao Fan after spotting Lin Xi.
• The freight station manager urged everyone to depart, and Zhao Meina agreed before warning Hao Fan to stay by her side.
• The convoy set off with Zhao Meina and Hao Fan in front, Chen Nan and Lin Xi in the middle, and Qi Shan and Lu Zitong at the rear.