Chapter Summaries

Zhang Chen and Tu Shan Qing both drew winning slips for the inner academy, astonishing their classmates and enraging Zhang Gaoqiu’s party. Zhang Chen later visited Jiang Nan in secret to repay her past kindness with his token, but she rejected him and demanded they remain strangers.

• Zhang Chen drew two numbered slips, while Tu Shan Qing also won a place, and Zhang Chen rebuffed a scholar who tried to buy his help.
• Zhang Gaoqiu and Shen Ling suspected Zhang Chen had cheated, while Tu Shan Qing celebrated his admission to the inner academy.
• Zhang Chen decided not to give his token to the Three Little Ones and resolved to use it to settle an old debt.
• In the carriage, Shen Ling proposed taking Zhang Chen’s token for Zhang Gaoqiu, but Shen Qiu firmly opposed her.
• Zhang Chen secretly entered Jiang Nan’s room and said he had come to repay her for the medicinal pill she once gave him.
• Jiang Nan rejected Zhang Chen’s gesture, told him to stop pursuing her, and insisted they had no further connection.

Zhang Chen severed his ties with Jiang Nan and returned her inner-courtyard token, while Shen Qiu gave his own place to Zhang Gaoqiu. At the academy, Jiang Nan revealed that she still had a place, and the qualified students prepared to enter the inner courtyard.

• Jiang Nan insulted Zhang Chen, who left her his inner-courtyard token and declared their ties severed.
• Shen Ling and Zhang Gaoqiu persuaded Shen Qiu to give Zhang Gaoqiu his place in exchange for future benefits.
• Zhang Chen ignored Jiang Nan at the academy and found Tu Shan Qing gambling with students in a crowded classroom.
• Zhou Qiucheng announced that forty-seven people qualified for the inner courtyard, and Shen Qiu left while Zhang Gaoqiu remained.
• Jiang Nan revealed that she had her own place, then agreed with Zhang Gaoqiu that they should look after each other.
• Tu Shan Qing questioned Shen Qiu's decision, and Zhang Chen speculated that the Shen Family was declining.

Zhang Chen and the other students entered Chongzheng Academy’s Exquisite Pagoda to investigate its mysteries, while Zhang Chen discovered it was a damaged Innate Spiritual Treasure and collected Experience Points outside it. Inside, the pagoda suppressed everyone’s powers, and Zhou Qiucheng explained that the academy sought to understand a Secret Treasure linked to the Thirty-Three Heavens.

• Zhou Qiucheng explained the academy’s rules for investigating mysteries and led the students to the Exquisite Pagoda.
• Great Sovereign Demon King identified the pagoda as a damaged Innate Spiritual Treasure, and Zhang Chen noticed that its suppressive power shared the Suppression Talisman’s origin.
• Zhang Chen circled the pagoda and collected Ten Million Experience Points while Tu Shan Qing followed him and called him big brother.
• Zhou Qiucheng opened the crystal doors, and the students entered the pagoda’s vast first level, where their powers were suppressed and they became ordinary mortals.
• Zhou Qiucheng explained that the academy was studying a Secret Treasure said to communicate with the Thirty-Three Heavens.

Zhang Chen discovered that the ruler in the Exquisite Pagoda concealed a depleted network of talisman threads with thirty-six missing nodes. Zhang Xiaohua trapped Zhou Qiucheng inside the pagoda for six months and confronted Zhang Chen, but Zhou Qiucheng stepped in to protect him as Zhang Xiaohua advanced through his defenses.

• Zhang Chen used the Devouring Eye to see hundreds of millions of dim talisman threads inside the ruler and noticed thirty-six blocked nodes.
• Zhou Qiucheng invited the students to study the ruler and other sealed entities in the pavilion.
• Zhang Xiaohua used three golden talismans to seal Zhou Qiucheng in the first level of the Exquisite Pagoda for six months, while allowing the students to leave and bring him supplies.
• Zhang Xiaohua declared his intention to kill Zhang Chen for repeatedly thwarting the Pacifying Border Prince's Mansion.
• Zhou Qiucheng stood between Zhang Xiaohua and Zhang Chen and sent chains from the Exquisite Pagoda toward Zhang Xiaohua, but Zhang Xiaohua's blue barrier blocked them as he approached Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen learned that the Human King had postponed pardoning his father but allowed him to travel under an assumed origin, while he searched the Crystal Palace for the Animal Path of Reincarnation. Zhou Zhen revealed that the Treasure Pagoda’s walls held sixteen thousand sealed anomalies, and Zhang Chen faced the possibility that the Animal Path lay beneath the pagoda itself.

• Zhou Qiucheng used three chains to lock Zhang Xiaohua’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit, while Mr. Zhong remained motionless and the students left the Treasure Pagoda.
• Chai Wenji told Zhang Chen that the Human King had postponed pardoning his father, advised him to conceal his northern origins, and urged him to remember the Third Prince’s efforts.
• Zhang Chen searched the Crystal Palace for the Animal Path of Reincarnation, and Great Sovereign Demon King suggested it might be suppressed beneath the Exquisite Pagoda.
• Zhang Chen suspected the Exquisite Pagoda already had an owner, and Great Sovereign Demon King vanished to investigate.
• Zhou Zhen told Zhang Chen that the palace murals were sealed anomalies and that the Treasure Pagoda contained sixteen thousand of them.

Zhang Chen discovered that the aberrations sealed in the mural could not grant Experience Points and turned his attention to the Measuring Heaven Ruler. After obtaining its control incantation and forming an initial connection with it, he left the treasure behind and walked away from Zhang Gaoqiu’s taunts.

• Zhang Chen confirmed that the mural’s aberrations were sealed off from the outside world and could not drop Experience Points or skills.
• Zhang Chen examined the Measuring Heaven Ruler, recognized markings associated with White Tooth Academy’s Secret Treasure, and used his devouring power to obtain its control incantation.
• Zhang Chen learned that the Measuring Heaven Ruler was an Innate Spiritual Treasure formed from the laws of space and used Innate Qi to imprint his Primordial Spirit on one of its silver threads.
• Tu Shan Qing asked Zhang Chen about his hour spent studying the ruler, while Zhang Gaoqiu mocked him and claimed he alone could comprehend the treasure.
• Zhang Chen left the Measuring Heaven Ruler behind and walked toward the entrance, stopping Tu Shan Qing from answering Zhang Gaoqiu’s insults.

Zhang Chen restored the Measuring Heaven Ruler and began refining its restrictions, while Zhang Gaoqiu was left believing the vanished ruler might have entered his body. The chapter ended with Zhang Chen rewarding the Three Little Ones after they fought classmates who insulted them.

• Zhang Chen sent Tu Shan Qing to investigate the Shen Family Great Tomb while he returned to his courtyard and began cultivating.
• Inside the Exquisite Pagoda, the Measuring Heaven Ruler vanished from Zhang Gaoqiu's hands, and Jiang Nan wondered whether he had mastered its mysteries.
• The ruler appeared in Zhang Chen's hand; he tempered it in his Elixir Furnace, fused the thirty-six purple beads into it, and refined three Innate Restrictions.
• Zhang Chen discovered that the Three Little Ones had been injured in a fight with a student surnamed Huang after classmates demeaned them for their clothes.
• Zhang Chen healed Zhang Tuowei, praised the children for winning, and rewarded all three with cups of Yellow Springs Water.

Zhang Chen questioned Fox Immortal NanNan about the Water God Great Tomb and learned it lay beneath the Shen family's old residence, sealed since the family's ancestor. He resolved to pursue its fortune despite the danger, while NanNan warned that Zhang Xiaohua was also targeting it and that the tomb's powerful Feng Shui Array reminded her of the Emperor's Daughter Great Tomb.

• After dinner, Zhang Chen summoned Fox Immortal NanNan and noticed she had grown six tails.
• NanNan considered using Zhang Xiaohua against Zhang Chen, but Zhang Chen struck her with the Measuring Heaven Ruler and warned her not to scheme against him.
• Zhang Chen demanded information about the Water God Great Tomb, and NanNan warned that Zhang Xiaohua had reached the Eleventh Order and could kill him.
• NanNan revealed that the tomb lay beneath the Shen family's old residence and explained that it had remained sealed since the Shen family's ancestor.
• Zhang Chen considered why the Shen descendants had never opened the tomb, including the possibility of a great danger within or the blood sacrifice required to open it.
• NanNan said a powerful Feng Shui Array had blocked her attempt to enter the tomb and compared it to the Emperor's Daughter Great Tomb.

Zhang Chen returned to the Shen Family Ancestral Residence and discovered a vast, mysterious power beneath its grounds that his Water Authority might control. After Liu Ji warned him that Zhang Xiaohua had trapped Jinling City with eight gods and Tiger Strength Great Immortal, Zhang Chen considered his own plans while Tiger Strength Great Immortal realized Zhang Chen was in the city.

• Zhang Chen visited the Shen family to see Shen Xu, but learned he was away and sensed tension throughout the estate.
• Using the Devouring Eye, Zhang Chen detected deep-blue power beneath the Shen family grounds and felt that his Water Authority could command it.
• After leaving the estate, Zhang Chen followed Liu Ji to a teahouse, where Liu Ji warned him that Zhang Xiaohua had sealed Jinling City with the Eight Gates Locking Gold Great Formation.
• Liu Ji told Zhang Chen that Tiger Strength Great Immortal had come to help Zhang Xiaohua in exchange for the Innate Water God's body, while Zhang Xiaohua sought its authority.
• Zhang Chen sensed that Tiger Strength Great Immortal had returned to the Tenth Order and considered using him against Zhang Xiaohua.
• Outside Jinling City, Tiger Strength Great Immortal sensed Zhang Chen inside the city and admitted that he still feared him.

Zhang Chen summoned Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s soul and negotiated for his help, offering a Wind Immobilization Pill and the possibility of restoring his former cultivation. Tiger Strength Great Immortal agreed to help Zhang Chen seize the Innate Water God’s body and origin in exchange for the chance to reclaim his strength and take the god’s authority.

• Zhang Chen summoned Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s soul to a secluded garden, where Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s attacks could not harm him.
• Zhang Chen proposed that they join forces to kill Zhang Xiaohua, but Tiger Strength Great Immortal refused, explaining that Zhang Xiaohua was an Eleventh Order deity and an ally of the Demon Race.
• Zhang Chen offered Tiger Strength Great Immortal a Wind Immobilization Pill that could help him cross the Wind Calamity, asking him to protect Zhang Chen if someone tried to kill him.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal rejected the offer, but Zhang Chen claimed he could restore the cultivation erased from Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s previous life.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal agreed that if Zhang Chen restored his former cultivation, he would help seize the Innate Water God’s body and origin in the Shen Family Great Tomb, while taking the god’s authority for himself.

Zhang Chen learned that Zhang Gaoqiu was mistakenly believed to have obtained the Measuring Heaven Ruler, drawing attention away from Zhang Chen’s plans for the Animal Path’s reincarnation. At the Exquisite Pagoda, Zhang Gaoqiu welcomed admirers while Chai Chuanxin publicly turned against Zhang Chen to curry favor with him.

• Tiger Strength Great Immortal departed after asking Zhang Chen to summon him with a warning in the future, and Zhang Chen considered using him to reach the Animal Path’s reincarnation beneath the Exquisite Pagoda.
• Tu Shan Qing told Zhang Chen that Zhang Gaoqiu had supposedly subdued the Measuring Heaven Ruler and gained the favor of powerful figures, including Princess Chai Wenji.
• Zhang Chen realized the misunderstanding would draw attention away from him and continued toward the Exquisite Pagoda, where he sensed another layer of space beneath it.
• Zhang Chen entered the crowded pagoda and saw Zhang Gaoqiu surrounded by scholars, with Princess Chai Wenji at his side.
• Chai Chuanxin congratulated Zhang Gaoqiu and claimed he had cut ties with Zhang Chen, prompting Zhang Gaoqiu to mock him.

Zhang Gaoqiu accepted Chai Wenji’s invitation to celebrate his supposed mastery of the mystery, while Zhang Chen refused Jiang Nan’s attempt to reconcile him with Zhang Gaoqiu. Left alone, Zhang Chen used the Measuring Heaven Ruler and Yin Yang Millstone to reach toward the Animal Path of the Six Paths of Reincarnation beneath the Exquisite Pagoda, hoping to collect its Experience Points.

• Chai Chuanxin used his Law of Karma and discovered Zhang Gaoqiu had no chips, leading Tu Shan Qing to suspect Zhang Gaoqiu had never obtained the mystery.
• Chai Wenji invited Zhang Gaoqiu to a banquet, and the scholars followed them out of the pavilion.
• Jiang Nan urged Zhang Chen to reconcile with Zhang Gaoqiu, but Zhang Chen rejected her advice and mocked her.
• After everyone left, Zhang Chen considered taking the Animal Path reincarnation beneath the Exquisite Pagoda despite the risk of being noticed by Zhou Qiucheng and Zhang Xiaohua.
• Zhang Chen used the Measuring Heaven Ruler to perceive the hidden space and sent his Yin Yang Millstone through the spatial barrier toward the Animal Path reincarnation.

Zhang Chen successfully drew the Animal Path reincarnation into his disk and left the Exquisite Pagoda after learning that the Great Sovereign Demon King had a dangerous counterpart in its depths. Outside, Tu Shan Qing urged him to stay in Jinling, predicting that the Pacifying Border King would die within half a year and hinting at a Demon Race plot.

• Zhang Chen added the Animal Path reincarnation to his Yin Yang Reincarnation Disk, but could not collect the scattered Experience Points.
• The Great Sovereign Demon King warned Zhang Chen not to enter the darkness beneath the Exquisite Pagoda, where a fragment of his body had developed an independent will.
• Zhang Chen learned that Zhou Qiucheng had become the Exquisite Pagoda's master and decided not to try to take it; he considered using Ice Hell to contain sealed strange entities.
• Zhang Chen worried that he might have to leave Jinling if he failed to kill Zhang Xiaohua, then encountered Tu Shan Qing on the way down the mountain.
• Tu Shan Qing predicted that Zhang Xiaohua would leave Jinling and that the Pacifying Border King would die within half a year, prompting Zhang Chen to ask whether the Demon Race planned to attack the Pacifying Border Prince's Mansion.

Zhang Chen analyzed the growing conflict between the Pacifying Border Prince's Mansion and the Demon Race, then discovered that the Yellow Heaven Dao had sealed Jinling City as part of its campaign against the Shen family. He joined Tiger Strength Great Immortal in a secluded cave to begin restoring the latter's past-life cultivation while learning that the formation could hold even a Tenth Order god for years.

• Zhang Chen told Tu Shan Qing that the Demon Race would oppose Zhang Xiaohua if he advanced to the Twelfth Order, and said Jinling City would be a suitable place for him to die.
• Tu Shan Qing reported that the great tomb lay beneath the Shen family's old residence and that a Mysterious Power barrier had blocked his investigation.
• The Yellow Heaven Dao's Eight Gates Locking Gold Great Formation stopped Zhang Chen from leaving Jinling City, so he returned to the city and summoned Tiger Strength Great Immortal.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal agreed to let Zhang Chen help restore his past-life cultivation, and took him to a cave on a barren mountain.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal explained that the Yellow Heaven Dao was driving the Shen family's collateral branches into Jinling City to prepare a Blood Sacrifice, while the formation's eight Eighth Order gods could hold the Shen family's Tenth Order god for two or three years.

Zhang Chen used the Six Paths of Reincarnation to connect Tiger Strength Great Immortal to the power of his past life, exhausting his vital energy in the process. After revealing that the Reincarnation Seal also gave him control over Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s soul, Zhang Chen returned home to recover, where the Three Little Ones arrived looking unhappy.

• Zhang Chen used the Yin Yang Millstone and the Animal Path to draw out a chain linking Tiger Strength Great Immortal to his past self and implanted it in his soul as a Reincarnation Seal.
• Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s cultivation began recovering, and he thanked Zhang Chen while agreeing to avoid trouble and temper his foundation through the Wind Calamity.
• Zhang Chen left the cave and revealed that the Reincarnation Seal could let him pull Tiger Strength Great Immortal’s soul into reincarnation, though creating the seal had severely drained him.
• Zhang Chen passed through the Eight Gates Locking Gold Great Formation, returned home, and meditated to restore his vital energy.
• The Three Little Ones entered the residence with unhappy expressions, drawing Zhang Chen’s attention.

Zhang Chen concealed the cost of securing a powerful backer for his family while recovering from depleted vital energy. At the Exquisite Pagoda, he learned Zhang Gaoqiu had received the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon Piercing Shuttle from Chai Wenji, then watched Zhang Gaoqiu approach him with smug satisfaction.

• Zhang Chen discovered the Three Little Ones had injured a student in a fight at the academy, then reassured his worried family that his depleted vital energy would recover within half a month.
• Zhang Chen arrived at the Exquisite Pagoda and ignored students who mocked his haggard appearance and his feud with Zhang Gaoqiu.
• Zhang Chen sensed unfamiliar Mysterious Power around Zhang Gaoqiu and learned from Tu Shan Qing that Chai Wenji had given him the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon Piercing Shuttle to recruit him for the Crown Prince's faction.
• Tu Shan Qing explained that Zhang Gaoqiu's access to the Spiritual World made him valuable amid the Great Victory court's political struggle.
• After someone whispered to Zhang Gaoqiu and his companions looked toward Zhang Chen, Zhang Gaoqiu strode over and called out to him.

Zhang Chen watched Zhang Gaoqiu ally himself with Chai Wenji while Jiang Nan warned him not to betray Shen Ling, who had sacrificed much for him and was carrying his child. After Zhang Gaoqiu discussed the royal family’s demands and Chai Wenji’s plans to recruit Zhang Chen, Zhang Chen left the Exquisite Pagoda and saw Shen Ling waiting with a food box.

• Zhang Gaoqiu tried to force Zhang Chen to leave Jinling City, but Zhang Chen refused and walked away.
• Chai Wenji offered to host a banquet for Zhang Gaoqiu, while Jiang Nan warned him not to betray Shen Ling for the princess’s favor.
• Zhang Gaoqiu told Jiang Nan that Shen Ling was pregnant with his child and claimed he accepted Chai Wenji’s recruitment to secure a better future for Shen Ling.
• Chai Wenji told Zhang Gaoqiu that he must leave no offspring with Shen Ling and offered to help him contend for the Zhang Family head position if he married her.
• Chai Wenji urged Zhang Gaoqiu to recruit Zhang Chen because of his ties to the Xie Family and the Great Manager.
• After spending the day in the Exquisite Pagoda, Zhang Chen found Shen Ling waiting at its entrance with a food box.

Zhang Chen learned that Liu Ji’s repeated use of Ten Directions Defense was consuming his lifespan, so he passed him Yellow Heaven Dao’s Contemplation Method. When a bloody messenger rushed into the Shen Family, Zhang Chen realized an attack had begun and debated whether to risk intervening to save Shen relatives.

• Zhang Chen and Tu Shan Qing ate a meal provided by Fox Immortal NanNan, then saw Zhang Gaoqiu being fed chicken soup by Shen Ling in a secluded pavilion.
• Three days later, Liu Ji told Zhang Chen that using Ten Directions Defense had made him age rapidly, and Zhang Chen explained that mysterious artifacts consumed their users’ life force.
• Zhang Chen gave Liu Ji Yellow Heaven Dao’s Contemplation Method and explained how to cultivate the Divine Soul Path.
• A blood-soaked man charged into the Shen Family, and Liu Ji warned Zhang Chen that Yellow Heaven Dao had gone into hiding before a planned strike against the family.
• After Liu Ji left, Zhang Chen considered whether to intervene for his Shen relatives but worried that his strength was inadequate to face tenth-rank experts.

Zhang Chen watched Shen Ling attach herself to Zhang Gaoqiu as signs of danger mounted around the Shen family. The Old Madam summoned Zhang Chen and entrusted him with the family’s Eight Treasures Heart-Locking Elixir formula and pills, warning him not to return if he received no further message.

• Shen Ling taunted Zhang Chen outside the Exquisite Pagoda, while Zhang Chen ignored her and went inside.
• Tu Shan Qing told Zhang Chen he doubted Zhang Gaoqiu had obtained the Secret Treasure, and Zhang Chen concealed what he knew.
• Zhang Gaoqiu rebuked Shen Ling for bringing him chicken soup, then drank it while she waited on him.
• Tu Shan Qing told Zhang Chen that bloodied Shen family relatives were fleeing into Jinling City, and Zhang Chen suspected the Yellow Heaven Dao had begun its attack.
• Lai Changrong brought Zhang Chen to the Shen estate, where the Old Madam gave him the Eight Treasures Heart-Locking Elixir formula and thirty pills as compensation for his mother’s lost possessions.
• The Old Madam told Zhang Chen not to visit the Shen family again unless he received a message.

Zhang Chen studied the Eight Treasures Heart-Locking Elixir formula, bought medicinal seeds, and asked Fox Immortal NanNan to find him an Elixir Furnace. Meanwhile, Chai Wenji urged Zhang Gaoqiu to exploit the Shen family's crisis before its collapse, and Jiang Nan withheld what she had seen from Shen Ling.

• The Shen family matriarch asked Zhang Chen to help the Shen family's disciples if they ever fell into hardship, and Zhang Chen left the estate as wounded relatives fled into Jinling City.
• Zhang Chen examined the Eight Treasures Heart-Locking Elixir formula, learned its ingredients and effects, and decided to obtain an ordinary Elixir Furnace for refining it.
• Zhang Chen bought medicinal herb seeds from Chen Chong at the Shangjia Medical Clinic and used the Measuring Heaven Ruler to shrink the sack for storage.
• Zhang Chen summoned Fox Immortal NanNan to find an Elixir Furnace, then went to the academy and overheard Chai Wenji describe the Shen family's siege to Zhang Gaoqiu.
• Chai Wenji warned Zhang Gaoqiu to act before the Shen family fell, and he promised to resolve the trouble; Jiang Nan saw them embracing and then concealed the truth from Shen Ling, asking instead about Shen Qiu.