Chapter Summaries

Xiao Lin devised a self-restraint training method that forced him to wield the Horned Dragon Staff with his own strength while cultivating the Indestructible Divine Skill. Meanwhile, Yu Xiaogang arrived at Shrek Academy and immediately tried to take charge of its training and finances, leaving Flender to resist his demands.

• Xiao Lin decided to sever his Soul Power connection to the Horned Dragon Staff during training so his body would bear its full weight while he practiced staff techniques and circulated Soul Power.
• Xiao Lin summoned the roughly fifty-jin Horned Dragon Staff, practiced two sets of the Eight Trigrams Staff Technique, and continued training as his Soul Power dwindled.
• Tang San helped Xiao Wu hold a horse stance by drawing a spiral between her brows and secretly giving her a Blue Silver Regeneration Bracelet, then began cultivating with the Mysterious Heaven Skill and gathering nearby Soul Power.
• Flender brought Yu Xiaogang to Shrek Academy, where Yu Xiaogang criticized its poor facilities and food.
• Yu Xiaogang claimed authority over student training, demanded better meals and Soul Arena betting, and tried to dismiss teachers, but Flender refused.

Xiao Lin wrote a thesis arguing that Soul Masters’ physical quality determined the age of Soul Rings they could absorb, and that improving physiques were raising the limits. After completing the paper, he stored it in his Storage Soul Tool, ready to submit it.

• Xiao Lin began writing a six-thousand-word thesis under the name Lin Dong, with Sky Mink Douluo as his advisor.
• Lin Dong’s research argued that Soul Masters from powerful families often absorbed four-hundred-year First Soul Rings because their physiques were strengthened by family methods and training.
• Xiao Lin added evidence that Soul Ring absorption limits had risen over time as Soul Masters’ physical quality improved.
• Xiao Lin used Xiao Yan’s difficult First Soul Ring absorption and easier Second Soul Ring absorption as evidence that physical quality affected Soul Ring limits.
• Xiao Lin finished and checked the thesis, then placed it in his Storage Soul Tool.

Xiao Lin trained Xiao Wu and told Tang San his theory that Soul Beasts might have originated as humans, then secretly distributed a Thesis through Spirit Hall and several powerful institutions. He left the Thesis set up so its scattered pages could draw the continent’s factions into a major event.

• Xiao Lin coached Xiao Wu to combine decisive attacks, lightning-enhanced techniques, and Teleportation into his Three-in-One style.
• Xiao Lin asked Tang San to watch Xiao Wu and then raised the possibility that Soul Beasts had human origins, leaving Tang San stunned.
• Xiao Wu overheard Xiao Lin and Tang San while training, stumbled, and was scolded by Xiao Lin for losing focus.
• Xiao Lin went to Spirit Hall, borrowed books, took a stamp, and marked his Thesis for Bibi Dong and other major academies and factions.
• Xiao Lin arranged for the Thesis’s pages to be distributed separately and warned that he would pay to publish it if no institution did.

Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu discussed Soul Beast options for Tang San’s future Spirit conversion, while Xiao Lin revealed he needed a Man Faced Demon Spider for experiments. At Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong read the beginning of a thesis on absorbing Super Limit Soul Rings and ordered Yue Guan and Gui Mei to gather the missing portions and consult other factions.

• Xiao Lin proposed aphrodisiac Blue Silver Grass as a control and Food System Spirit, but Tang San rejected the idea and asked him to suggest another Soul Beast.
• Xiao Lin recommended a Soul Gathering Pumpkin that absorbed nearby plant-type Soul Beasts’ Soul Power, and Tang San considered its potential benefits.
• Xiao Lin explained that he needed a Man Faced Demon Spider for experiments, prompting Tang San to question his interest in the Soul Beast.
• Bibi Dong received a thesis attributed to Lin Dong about Super Limit Soul Ring absorption and was impressed by its evidence before the text ended abruptly.
• Bibi Dong ordered Yue Guan and Gui Mei to seek the rest of the thesis from major academies and contact the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
• Bibi Dong wondered whether Na Na and Xie Yue could attempt two-thousand-year Soul Rings for their third Soul Rings.

Bibi Dong and the major factions considered how Lin Dong’s thesis on physical fitness and soul-ring limits could reshape Soul Master cultivation. As Martial Soul Hall prepared to publish the research, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan began taking drastic steps to protect itself.

• Bibi Dong ordered Yue Guan to oversee Na Na and the others’ soul rings, and tasked Yue Guan and Gui Mei with retrieving the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan’s thesis and publishing verified research.
• Heads of several Advanced Academies agreed to examine the full thesis together in Spirit City after receiving incomplete copies.
• Gu Rong vouched for the thesis’s main claim, and Ning Fengzhi decided Ning Rongrong should train harder and attempt to absorb a five-hundred-year first soul ring.
• Ning Fengzhi asked Gu Rong to take him to Spirit Hall to read the complete thesis, and Gu Rong noted that Xiao Yan and Lin Dong were the same person.
• Yu Yuanzhen ordered Yu Luomian to take part of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan into seclusion for fifty years, fearing the clan’s future was in danger.

Spirit Hall hosted the major powers in Spirit City to test the possibility of Super Limit Soul Ring Absorption, while Bibi Dong weighed the shifting balance of power. When the factions hesitated to risk a young Soul Master, six-year-old Zhu Zhuqing volunteered to try the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Medicinal Bath and left with her father to undergo the test.

• Bibi Dong confirmed the thesis was authentic and published it through Spirit Hall, while noting that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had gathered secret supporters.
• Yu Luomian presented the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Medicinal Bath and invited a junior with an awakened Beast Soul and no First Soul Ring to test the thesis.
• The gathered powers hesitated to let their young members participate because a failed absorption could permanently harm them.
• Zhu Zhuqing volunteered, and despite Zhu Zhuzhen's objections, she insisted that she wanted to become stronger.
• After the factions encouraged him, Zhu Zhuzhen accepted Yu Luomian's warning about the painful, unimproved bath and left the conference with Zhu Zhuqing to conduct the test.
• Bibi Dong did not attend the exchange conference, and support for Yu Xiaogang across the continent dwindled.

Yu Xiaogang celebrated his theory for managing Ma Hongjun’s evil fire, but a new issue of Spirit News revealed that Lin Dong’s research had overturned Yu Xiaogang’s famous soul-ring limit. Yu Xiaogang accepted that his reputation as a Grandmaster was finished and resolved to respond with another thesis.

• Yu Xiaogang explained to Flender that Ma Hongjun’s evil fire could strengthen his cultivation and Spirit, and that ice and carefully chosen Soul Rings would help control it.
• Yu Xiaogang told Flender he planned to let Ma Hongjun’s Spirit keep mutating toward becoming a true phoenix, and Zhao Wuji reported that Ma Hongjun’s evil fire had erupted again.
• Zhao Wuji showed Yu Xiaogang and Flender a new issue of Spirit News, whose circulation had reached 19,735.
• Yu Xiaogang read Lin Dong’s thesis reporting the successful absorption of a 443-year soul ring and realized that his own theory had been disproved.
• Flender caught Yu Xiaogang as he nearly fell, and Yu Xiaogang forced a smile while insisting he would train Monsters and Titled Douluo.

Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu celebrated the spread of Xiao Lin’s soul-ring theories and discussed their progress at the Secret Base. Xiao Lin planned to take them to the Soul Hunting Forest for training and proposed researching Soul Cores and Self-Condensed Soul Rings.

• Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu overheard Soul Grand Masters praising Lin Dong’s theories and felt proud that the discussion reflected their work.
• Xiao Lin noted that he had reached level 17, Tang San level 16, and Xiao Wu level 15 after nearly two and a half months of cultivation.
• Xiao Lin recounted how he, Tang San, and Xiao Wu had gained combat experience by confronting evil Soul Masters in secret.
• Xiao Lin announced they would stop targeting evil Soul Masters and train in wilderness survival and combat against Soul Beasts instead.
• Xiao Lin told Tang San and Xiao Wu that Brother Tao could take them to the Soul Hunting Forest, and they agreed to go the next day.
• Xiao Lin proposed researching whether Soul Power could be compressed into a Soul Core and whether Soul Rings could be condensed independently, astonishing Tang San and Xiao Wu.

Xiao Lin taught Tang San and Xiao Wu about compressing soul power to form Soul Cores and discussed possible ways to do it. He assigned cultivation homework and planned to take them to the Soul Hunting Forest, while deciding that Dugu Bo might be the best source of insight into Soul Cores.

• Xiao Lin explained that Soul Masters could compress gaseous soul power into mist, then liquid, and eventually a solid Soul Core.
• Xiao Wu asked whether widening their Meridians should come first, and Xiao Lin said Tang San could help open larger Meridians while they filled the rest with soul power.
• Tang San questioned how they could compress soul power before their bodies and Meridians were fully developed, and Xiao Lin proposed using freezing, gravity, or rotation.
• Xiao Wu stayed silent and realized she knew little about Soul Cores, while Xiao Lin wondered whether her existence contradicted his theories about soul beasts.
• Xiao Lin assigned Soul Core cultivation homework, told everyone to pack for a trip to the Soul Hunting Forest the next day, and left to consider learning from Dugu Bo.

Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu traveled with Su Yuntao to the Soul Hunting Forest to support Wang Fugui’s hunt for a second Soul Ring. Xiao Lin warned that Wang Fugui’s chosen Bullet Bee could be far more dangerous than the squad expected, and Su Yuntao agreed to ask whether the target could be changed.

• Xiao Lin, Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Su Yuntao set out by carriage for the Soul Hunting Forest, carrying supplies for the journey.
• Su Yuntao explained that Wang Fugui wanted a seven-hundred-year Bullet Bee Soul Ring, so the squad might have to search deep in the forest.
• Xiao Lin warned that a Bullet Bee could either belong to a vast, dangerous colony or be a lone mutant whose sting carried deadly poison.
• Tang San considered collecting Bullet Bee poison, while Xiao Wu recalled how painful its sting was.
• Xiao Lin refused to proceed with the hunt as planned and told Su Yuntao to have Wang Fugui pay for advice about a safer Soul Beast.

Xiao Lin and his companions arrived at the Soul Hunting Forest, where Wang Fugui refused to change his dangerous plan to hunt a seven-hundred-year Bullet Bee. As Su Yuntao searched for other work, Xiao Lin had Tang San prepare their healing bracelets, and Wang Fugui began berating a Soul Grandmaster over his fee.

• Xiao Lin explained to Tang San and Xiao Wu that the Soul Hunting Forest was managed by Spirit Hall and monitored to keep dangerous soul beasts from gathering there.
• Su Yuntao failed to persuade Wang Fugui to choose a safer soul beast, so Xiao Lin decided to abandon the mission and asked Su Yuntao to find another job.
• Tang San gave Xiao Lin, Xiao Wu, and himself Blue Silver Regeneration Bracelets, then discovered the surrounding Blue Silver Grass quickly restored the Soul Power he had spent.
• Wang Fugui offered a Soul Grandmaster fifty Gold Soul Coins to hunt a seven-hundred-year Bullet Bee, and the Soul Grandmaster pleaded for sixty because the prey was too dangerous.

Xiao Lin witnessed a low-level Soul Master being mocked and resolved to help Soul Masters better understand their Martial Souls. Su Yuntao then brought Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu to join the Battle Tiger Squad on a Soul Beast hunt for Xiao Gui, a poor student seeking a healing Soul Ring.

• Wang Fugui and the Soul Hunting Squad mocked a Soul Grandmaster with a Yarn Ball Martial Soul and left him behind.
• Xiao Lin reflected on the hardship faced by low-level Soul Masters and decided to write a thesis about understanding Martial Souls and choosing Soul Rings.
• Su Yuntao introduced Xiao Lin, Tang San, and Xiao Wu to the Battle Tiger Squad and its captain, Wang Neng.
• Wang Neng asked Xiao Lin to advise his nephew Wang Sheng about future Soul Rings, and Xiao Lin agreed to help without payment.
• The group entered the Soul Hunting Forest to help Xiao Gui find a healing Soul Beast, while Wang Neng explained that she hoped to support her family as a healer.

As the group searched the Soul Hunting Forest for a suitable Soul Beast for Sister Xiao Gui, Xiao Lin proposed that she could become a Food Soul Master instead of following her teacher’s plan for her osmanthus Martial Soul. He suggested a Plant-Type Soul Beast that might grant her a powerful healing skill, and Sister Xiao Gui agreed to try.

• Xiao Lin asked Sister Xiao Gui what kind of Soul Skill she wanted and heard that she preferred healing, with antidote as her fallback.
• Xiao Lin recommended an antidote skill first, but Sister Xiao Gui worried she would earn less money without a healing skill.
• Xiao Lin proposed that Sister Xiao Gui use her edible osmanthus Martial Soul as a Food Soul Master, and Tang San and Xiao Wu suspected he was treating her as an experiment.
• Xiao Lin explained that a Plant-Type Soul Beast could give Sister Xiao Gui a life-force-enhancing ring and a healing skill, and she agreed to try.

Xiao Lin explained the rare Moonlight Great Mushroom and why it was nearing extinction, then suggested it as a possible First Soul Ring for Xiao Gui. Xiao Gui chose to pursue it, and Su Yuntao offered to lead them to a likely habitat.

• Xiao Lin described the Moonlight Great Mushroom’s healing Moonlight Essence, fragile habitat, and near-extinction caused by its use of that essence to protect itself.
• Xiao Lin said he had read of a roughly four-hundred-year-old Moonlight Great Mushroom and explained how it might suit Xiao Gui’s osmanthus Martial Soul.
• Xiao Lin advised Xiao Gui to believe she was a Food Soul Master and silently recite a Soul Incantation while absorbing the Soul Ring.
• Tang San considered why the Moonlight Great Mushroom would not have suited his Blue Silver Grass and wondered whether becoming a Food Soul Master was really so simple.
• Su Yuntao said he knew a likely habitat and offered to lead the group there, and Xiao Gui decided she wanted the Soul Beast.

Xiao Lin worried that Sister Xiao Gui might not be able to kill the aquatic Moonlight Great Mushroom, while Wang Fugui's group searched Soul Hunting Forest for a Bullet Bee. The Bullet Bee attacked the squad and killed Wang Fugui.

• Xiao Lin realized that the Moonlight Great Mushroom's aquatic habitat could make it difficult for Sister Xiao Gui to kill and absorb its soul ring.
• Wang Fugui's two Soul Hunting Squads continued searching for a seven-hundred-year Bullet Bee and settled near a palm tree for the night.
• Awei sensed danger, but the squad kept watch while Chuan Kang climbed the tree to scout.
• Awei sounded the alarm after a sticky, blood-scented drop fell on him, and Chuan Kang's body crashed down from the tree.
• Wang Fugui recognized the Bullet Bee, but it appeared before him and struck his chest with its stinger.

Xiao Lin and his companions searched a lake in the Soul Hunting Forest for the Moonlight Great Mushroom and discovered it by striking the water with his Imprisoning Dragon Staff. He prepared Sister Xiao Gui to kill it and absorb its Soul Ring, leaving the group ready to turn its power into a Food System ability.

• Xiao Lin had Tang San search the lake with his Blue Silver Grass while Shi Dan flew over the water, but neither found the Moonlight Great Mushroom.
• Xiao Lin rode with Shi Dan to the lake's center and hurled his empowered Imprisoning Dragon Staff into the water, provoking the Moonlight Great Mushroom to release Moonlight Essence.
• Tang San spotted the Moonlight Essence, and Xiao Lin marked the location by pouring Blue Silver Grass juice onto the lake before returning to shore with Shi Dan.
• Xiao Lin told Sister Xiao Gui to use his Imprisoning Dragon Staff to kill the Moonlight Great Mushroom in one blow and to think of osmanthus as a small, divisible snack when focusing on her Soul Incantation.

Xiao Lin’s plan helped Xiao Gui obtain a Moonlight Great Mushroom soul ring, giving her a healing skill with a food-like vitality boost. Xiao Gui joined Spirit Hall, while Xiao Lin and Tang San sensed that the lake explosion might have attracted trouble.

• Xiao Gui released the amplified Imprisoning Dragon Staff into the lake, creating a massive explosion that revealed the Moonlight Great Mushroom’s soul ring.
• Xiao Gui absorbed the roughly 250-year-old soul ring and gained the skill Moonlight Shines on Osmanthus Frost, which healed allies and increased their vitality when consumed.
• Xiao Gui explained her new skill and accepted Su Yuntao’s invitation to join Spirit Hall.
• Xiao Lin recorded the skill’s effects and judged Xiao Gui’s transformation into a Food System Spirit only half complete because the skill consumed too much.
• Xiao Wu took Xiao Gui to change and taste the osmanthus, while Xiao Lin and Tang San worried that the explosion had brought danger.

Xiao Lin's group followed the smell of blood and Snake Repellent Powder through the Soul Hunting Forest and discovered a massacre. Tang San's examination and Xiao Lin's deductions identified a lone, possibly mutated Bullet Bee as the likely killer, leaving the group wary that it might be stalking them.

• Tang San detected blood and Snake Repellent Powder, and Su Yuntao confirmed a strong stench of rotting corpses nearby.
• Xiao Lin moved to the rear of the group with his Imprisoning Dragon Staff as they agreed to investigate the source of the smell.
• Tang San warned Xiao Lin that his Blue Silver Regeneration Bracelet could support only four people, and Xiao Lin told him to prioritize himself and Xiao Wu if danger arose.
• The group found the corpses of Wang Fugui, Captain Awei, and others, many killed by a single strike and showing signs of poison, suffocation, and insect bites.
• Xiao Lin identified the likely attacker as a lone Bullet Bee with over a thousand years of cultivation and suspected it might be mutated and following them.

As Wang Neng’s group tried to escape the Soul Hunting Forest, Tang San used insect repellent powder and his soul skill to prepare for the Bullet Bee’s attack. The group was pursued by the bee, while a Black Robed Old Man revealed that he was controlling it to harvest the blood and vitality of soul masters and evolve his Bloody Agate martial soul.

• Wang Neng and Su Yuntao led the group toward the forest exit, keeping Xiao Gui, Tang San, and Xiao Wu protected in the middle.
• Tang San made insect repellent powder, hoping to make the Bullet Bee target someone else, while Xiao Lin considered whether they could join forces with other squads.
• Tang San heard the Bullet Bee approaching, warned the group, and used his first soul skill to give Blue Silver Grass bracelets to Xiao Lin, Xiao Wu, Su Yuntao, and himself.
• Xiao Gui distributed Moon Osmanthus flowers, which the group quickly absorbed, as the Bullet Bee continued to pursue them through the dark forest.
• A Black Robed Old Man followed the group and revealed that he controlled the Bullet Bee to collect the blood of twenty-one soul masters with different martial souls and evolve his Bloody Agate.

The Soul Hunting Squad was ambushed by a Black Robed Old Man who controlled a Bullet Bee, and Xu Yi was poisoned and knocked unconscious. As Xiao Lin charged toward the attacker, Tang San pretended to be hypnotized while Wang Neng and Shi Dan joined forces to approach the fight.

• A Bullet Bee attacked Xu Yi, who blocked its strike with his Mud Armor while Wang Neng and Su Yuntao used their soul skills to restrain it.
• The Black Robed Old Man revealed himself and poisoned Xu Yi, who lost his Martial Soul Possession and collapsed.
• Tang San recognized the old man as a Spirit System Soul Master, then pretended to fall under his hypnosis while waiting for Xiao Lin and the others.
• Xiao Lin gave Xu Yi the Blue Silver Regeneration Bracelet and sent Xiao Wu and Sister Xiao Gui to look after him before charging the Black Robed Old Man.
• Wang Neng and Shi Dan combined their abilities, with Shi Dan carrying Wang Neng low over the ground toward the enemy.