Chapter Summaries

Zhou Qing and Tang San discovered the bodies of four pregnant women in a hidden chamber and found that their wombs had been removed. The clues led Zhou Qing to suspect that the culprit was investigating the state before Martial Soul Awakening, and he recalled a missing book about the origin of Martial Souls.

• Zhou Qing and Tang San entered the secret chamber and found human skin masks, skeletons, and four dead women.
• Zhou Qing recognized the women as villagers he and Ning Rongrong had once rescued, while Tang San reassured him that their deaths were not his fault.
• Zhou Qing's conviction power surfaced briefly, and Tang San sensed its effect before Zhou Qing stopped it.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San examined the women's bodies and discovered that their wombs had been removed along with the fetuses.
• Zhou Qing connected the missing wombs to books about pregnancy and the state before Martial Soul Awakening, then recalled that a book on the origin of Martial Souls was missing from the Nuoding Spirit Hall Branch library.

Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Xiao Wu uncovered Hu Fangyuan’s crimes and found his hidden research diary. When Hu Fangyuan emerged from a secret passage and claimed his name was Gu Yue Fangyuan, Zhou Qing opened fire.

• Xiao Wu brought the Death Diary and revealed that Hu Fangyuan had conspired with Dales to murder Zhou Qing’s parents and was a Fallen One.
• Zhou Qing said he had suspected Hu Fangyuan and vowed to kill him and prevent further atrocities.
• Tang San and Zhou Qing discussed Hu Fangyuan’s diary, which revealed his plan to research Martial Soul Evolution and his desire to be remembered.
• Xiao Wu uncovered one of the women’s bodies, recoiled at the scene, and said she was disgusted rather than afraid.
• A hidden passage opened, and Hu Fangyuan emerged; when Zhou Qing asked his name, he claimed to be Gu Yue Fangyuan.
• Zhou Qing fired his Soul Tool: Divine Crossbow of Zhuge, Version 2 at Hu Fangyuan.

Zhou Qing and Tang San repeatedly shot Hu Fangyuan with the Divine Crossbow of Zhuge, leaving him apparently dead but still pulsing. When Hu Fangyuan’s swollen abdomen began to stir with strange Soul Power, Zhou Qing chose to wait and see what he had gestated.

• Zhou Qing and Tang San fired nearly three hundred Soul Power bolts into Hu Fangyuan after he entered Martial Soul Possession.
• Xiao Wu watched Hu Fangyuan collapse in a pool of blood, while Zhou Qing and Tang San suspected he was still alive.
• Zhou Qing found no breath but detected a faint pulse, then retreated when Hu Fangyuan’s abdomen swelled.
• Zhou Qing suspected Hu Fangyuan’s experiments had involved trying to evolve his Martial Soul through gestation.
• Hu Fangyuan’s abdomen trembled and displayed a dark green pattern, and Zhou Qing told Tang San to wait rather than fire.

Zhou Qing and Tang San examined Hu Fangyuan’s corpse and concluded that his Spirit Devouring Worm Martial Soul had been gestated inside a transplanted womb, altering his body and surviving his death. After the remaining worms fought and devoured one another, the last survivor cocooned and emerged as a transformed creature that could fly, leaving them facing an unknown threat.

• Hu Fangyuan’s swollen belly deflated, and Zhou Qing found that his corpse still retained its Martial Soul Possession despite having no Soul Power.
• Zhou Qing theorized that Hu Fangyuan had used a secret method to gestate his Martial Soul, which had affected his human bloodline and caused his monstrous appearance.
• Tang San and Zhou Qing found hundreds of Spirit Devouring Worms inside Hu Fangyuan’s abdomen and realized they were surviving fragments of his Martial Soul rather than real worms.
• Zhou Qing noticed stitch marks suggesting Hu Fangyuan had transplanted a womb into himself, and Tang San prepared to handle the worms with his Mysterious Jade Hand.
• The Spirit Devouring Worms fought strategically until Number One devoured the others, formed a black cocoon, and emerged as a winged, transformed creature.

Zhou Qing watched the Spirit Devouring Worms become a Dragon Gu, then survived its attempt to invade his Blood Circulation System Martial Soul. After the Innate Internal Scripture Chart destroyed the Gu’s hostile consciousness and accepted it as a blood-bound part of his Martial Soul, Zhou Qing received a cryptic message about its power.

• Tang San identified the creature formed from the Spirit Devouring Worms as a Dragon Gu and described what he knew about Gu.
• Zhou Qing considered refining the Dragon Gu but remained wary of its intelligence and origins.
• The Dragon Gu suddenly flew into Zhou Qing’s chest and tried to burrow into his heart and Martial Soul.
• Zhou Qing activated the Innate Internal Scripture Chart, whose flames destroyed the Dragon Gu’s consciousness and expelled Hu Fangyuan’s phantom soul.
• The tamed Dragon Gu accepted Zhou Qing’s heart’s blood and began circulating through his Martial Soul’s heart chambers.
• Zhou Qing felt his Blood Circulation System grow more spiritual and received the message, “Dragon Gu Nine Cycles Witness the Years! A Spiritual Heart Forges a Sacred Court!”

After refining the Nine Revolutions Years Dragon Gu, Zhou Qing grew stronger and learned that Dales had murdered his birth parents. He and Tang San and Xiao Wu left the secret chamber with the victims’ bodies, while Falling Star City’s residents began digging up the streets for Soul Crystals.

• Zhou Qing refined the Nine Revolutions Years Dragon Gu, broke through to level eighteen, and discovered that it could refine his Qi, Blood, and Soul Power over time.
• Tang San stored Hu Fangyuan’s corpse, and Zhou Qing decided the four women’s bodies were evidence against Dales and should be returned to their hometown for burial.
• Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Xiao Wu carried the bodies through another passage and emerged in a forest outside Falling Star City.
• They hid the bodies near the cave entrance, then agreed to return to the city and investigate.
• Dales invited Romantina and You Hui to dinner, but they refused and continued their mission.
• Residents began digging up Falling Star City’s roads for Soul Crystals as Sword Douluo and Ning Fengzhi watched from above.

Dales learned that the city's nobles knew little about the buried Soul Crystals and grew suspicious that Hu Fangyuan planned to silence him, while residents began digging up the roads for Soul Sand and crystals. Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Xiao Wu entered Falling Star City and saw the digging spread as Dales prepared to crack down on it.

• After learning that previous city lords had died of illness, Dales suspected Hu Fangyuan intended to make him die the same way and waited for him in the study.
• When patrolmen reported that residents were digging up roads, Dales ordered arrests, then decided to publicly behead several culprits and force the return of the stolen Soul Sand and Soul Crystals.
• Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Xiao Wu crawled through a dog hole into the city after finding its gates closed.
• The three saw residents digging up the streets and carrying away Soul Sand, while one worker explained that it could be sold for one Gold Soul Coin per jin.
• Tang San warned that the digging could destroy much of the city's Soul Tool Core Formation, and Zhou Qing predicted Dales would act the next day.
• Xiao Wu worried that leaving the passage opening unclosed might have exposed their actions, but Zhou Qing said the secret room had another exit Dales did not know about.

Tang San and Zhou Qing joined You Hui for morning exercises, after which You Hui revealed her intelligent, external Elemental Fox Martial Soul. Zhou Qing discovered signs of a mutation and learned that her Spirit Ring had made the fox more autonomous, but the cause and potential of its unusual bloodline remained uncertain.

• Tang San finished his Purple Demon Eye cultivation and joined Zhou Qing's morning exercises with You Hui, Xiao Mei, and Romantina, while Wang Shi sat out.
• You Hui's Soul Power reached Level 12, and Zhou Qing offered to advise her on Martial Soul cultivation.
• You Hui summoned her Elemental Fox, which could not possess her body but willingly let Zhou Qing, Xiao Wu, and Tang San pet it.
• Zhou Qing found a hidden crimson mark and a spherical protrusion on the fox's forehead, suggesting that its Martial Soul had mutated.
• You Hui explained that she had chosen an Elemental Fox for her First Spirit Ring and that the fox had since become more intelligent and could release Soul Skills on its own using her Soul Power.

Zhou Qing identified You Hui’s First Soul Skill as an incomplete form of the Elemental Fox’s refining talent and explained how it could develop. He advised her to use her next Spirit Rings to strengthen that ability, leaving open the possibility that she could eventually control all Elemental Power.

• Zhou Qing asked You Hui to demonstrate her First Soul Skill, and Xiao Ni inhaled for several minutes before spitting a short stream of water.
• You Hui explained that Xiao Ni could absorb nearby elements and release water, wind, or fire, though each effect was weak and costly in Soul Power.
• Zhou Qing concluded that You Hui’s Soul Skill involved absorbing Elemental Power and forming elemental rings, but that she would need to develop ways to use it herself.
• Zhou Qing compared You Hui’s detached Elemental Fox Martial Soul to Yu Xiaogang’s Luo Sanpao and speculated that both might conceal powerful bloodlines their owners could not yet withstand.
• Zhou Qing advised You Hui to choose Elemental Foxes that had not transformed for her Second and Third Spirit Rings, so she might make refining an active ability and eventually control all Elemental Power.

Zhou Qing encouraged You Hui to choose an Elemental Fox for her Second Spirit Ring, and the group joked together before heading to Market Head. There, Dales staged an execution to frighten residents who had dug up Soul Sand, but someone intervened just as the executioner swung.

• Zhou Qing suggested that Xiao Ni might eventually absorb elemental attacks, and You Hui chose an Elemental Fox for her Second Spirit Ring because she preferred making friends to fighting.
• Zhou Qing told You Hui they were already friends, prompting teasing from Romantina, Tang San, and Xiao Wu before the group set out to see what Dales would do.
• Dales ordered a resident who had dug up Soul Sand seized and announced that offenders could surrender their stolen materials and serve three years in prison or face execution.
• Zhou Qing gave Ning Rongrong instructions to make the first appearance and save the condemned man.
• The executioner swung his great cleaver at the kneeling man, but the blade rang out and the executioner staggered backward.

Ning Rongrong stopped Dales from executing an innocent man, and Sword Douluo’s arrival forced the official to release him. Zhou Qing then accused Falling Star City’s lord of having ties to the Soul Ancestor they had been sent to capture, leaving Dales angrily denying the claim.

• Ning Rongrong admitted she had dug up the roads and demanded that Dales arrest her before the civilian he planned to execute.
• Sword Douluo appeared, forced Dales to his knees, and protected Ning Rongrong from retaliation.
• Ning Rongrong insisted that Dales release the civilian, and Dales declared the man innocent and ordered his release.
• Zhou Qing explained that his group had come to capture a Soul Ancestor connected to an attack on Nuoding City’s lord.
• Zhou Qing accused the Soul Ancestor of having ties to Dales, who interrupted him and denied that such a powerful person could exist in Falling Star City.

Zhou Qing exposed evidence that Dales’s city hid a secret passage linked to the murder of four pregnant women and warned that Falling Star City was built as a dangerous Soul Tool Core Formation. Sword Douluo confirmed the threat, while Dales claimed he had known nothing and was left in Spirit Hall’s custody pending a decision from the Star Luo Empire.

• Zhou Qing described finding four dismembered pregnant women in a secret room and connected them to women Dales’s guards had brought into the city.
• Zhou Qing suspected Soul Ancestor was one of the Fallen Ones and urged Sword Douluo to notify the local Spirit Hall.
• Zhou Qing argued that the citizens who dug up the roads had uncovered an enormous Soul Tool Core Formation made from Soul Sand and Soul Crystals.
• Sword Douluo inspected Falling Star City and confirmed that activating the formation could bring disaster to every citizen.
• Dales realized Hu Fangyuan had used him as a pawn, then insisted that he knew nothing about the secret passage or the Soul Sand beneath the city.
• The local Spirit Hall branch head arranged to hold Dales while the Spirit Hall Sub-hall contacted the Star Luo Empire’s authorities.

Zhou Qing let Dales deny involvement in the Fallen Ones’ crimes even after the secret chamber and victims’ bodies were discovered. He left Falling Star City with the others to bury the women, while Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Romantina wondered why he had withheld Hu Fangyuan’s Death Diary.

• Dales freed Zhou Qing and publicly apologized, insisting he knew nothing about Hu Fangyuan or the secret passage.
• A Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Disciple found the hidden chamber, and Tang San opened its entrance; investigators discovered bloodstains and recovered the four women’s bodies.
• Dales blamed the crime on the Fallen Ones and proposed searching the nearby wilderness, while Zhou Qing did not reveal the Death Diary.
• Zhou Qing asked the Spirit Hall Branch to help escort the bodies home for burial, then told Dales they would return to discuss hunting the Fallen Ones.
• Zhou Qing, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui left Falling Star City with the bodies, picked up Wang Shi, and set out together.

On the road home, Zhou Qing explained why he had not used the Death Diary to expose Dales and revealed his plan to let Dales act before taking revenge. The group decided to write the story themselves so Dales would be remembered as a villain for all eternity.

• Wang Shi learned that the pregnant women who had traveled to Falling Star City with her had died, and thanked Zhou Qing for saving her.
• Zhou Qing told Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui that the Death Diary could be dismissed as forged and that he wanted to avoid relying on Sword Douluo's influence.
• Zhou Qing explained that Dales might silence the guards and others who knew about Hu Fangyuan, and that he intended to let Dales carry out his plan before acting.
• You Hui said Dales had also murdered her parents, and Zhou Qing vowed to make him infamous rather than let him die easily.
• Zhou Qing proposed that the group write history themselves, and Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui eagerly joined in.

Zhou Qing, Tang San, and their companions returned to Holy Soul Village after rescuing Wang Shi and bringing the murdered women home to their families. Old Jack arrived at Zhou Qing’s house and asked why he and Tang San had gone to Falling Star City.

• The Spirit Hall guards returned Mo Niang’s body to her village, where her husband and the villagers mourned her and learned that the city lord had killed her.
• Zhou Qing gave the guards Gold Soul Coins and returned to Holy Soul Village with Wang Shi, Tang San, Romantina, You Hui, and Xiao Wu.
• Old Jack and the villagers welcomed Wang Shi, who told them how she had been rescued from Falling Star City.
• Tang San found the family Blacksmith Shop empty, then joined Zhou Qing and the others for dinner at Zhou Qing’s home.
• Old Jack visited Zhou Qing and asked why he and Tang San had gone to Falling Star City.

Zhou Qing showed Old Jack that he and Tang San had become Soul Masters, then Tang San received and tore up a letter from Tang Hao. The visit ended with Zhou Qing inviting Old Jack to eat with them.

• Zhou Qing told Old Jack that he and Tang San had joined the Adventurers' Guild, then revealed his Soul Ring and Level 18 soul power.
• Zhou Qing said Tang San had also become a Soul Master, and Tang San came out to greet Old Jack.
• Old Jack gave Tang San a letter from Tang Hao, who said he had left to reclaim what belonged to him and urged Tang San to choose his own path.
• Tang San tore up Tang Hao's letter, while Old Jack judged Tang Hao's actions to be wrong.
• Zhou Qing invited Old Jack to eat with them, but Old Jack worried the girls would judge his appearance.

Zhou Qing and Tang San treated Uncle Wang before visiting the growing Spirit Rhyme Turtle with Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu described the turtle’s unusual growth and legendary ability to become an island, leaving Zhou Qing wondering whether the Sun Moon Continent might have formed from the corpse of a colossal Spirit Rhyme Turtle.

• Tang San set Uncle Wang’s broken bones and gave Wang Shi instructions for his recovery, while Zhou Qing helped with the treatment.
• Wang Shi offered Tang San her future daughter as a wife or maid, but Zhou Qing and Tang San persuaded her to accept a basket of peaches as thanks instead.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San found the Spirit Rhyme Turtle by the creek, where they saw that it had grown and its Tree of Nature had five leaves.
• Xiao Wu startled the turtle by jumping onto its shell, then explained that Spirit Rhyme Turtles could grow with age and might become living habitats or turn into islands after death.
• Zhou Qing considered whether the Sun Moon Continent could have formed from the remains of immense Spirit Rhyme Turtles, explaining how it might have collided with Douluo Continent within ten thousand years.

Zhou Qing brought Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui to his Secret Base, where they helped clean the Mushroom House. In Falling Star City, Dales mobilized residents to excavate Soul Crystals and Soul Sand, while Ning Fengzhi left town and Dales prepared to silence those who knew about Hu Fangyuan.

• Zhou Qing led Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui into Skylight Cave and put them to work cleaning the Mushroom House.
• Dales ordered Falling Star City's residents to dig up Soul Crystals and Soul Sand, promising to buy what they found at a fair price.
• Ning Fengzhi decided to leave Falling Star City with Sword Douluo and Ning Rongrong, leaving two disciples behind to investigate Zhou Qing's plans.
• Ning Rongrong asked to stay because of her agreement with Zhou Qing, but Ning Fengzhi took her with him.
• Dales saw off the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect party and planned to eliminate the servants and guards who knew about Hu Fangyuan.
• Norman questioned Dales about the Fallen Ones and warned him to govern Falling Star City properly, but Dales dismissed his advice.

Dales plotted to turn a campaign against the Fallen Ones into a way to enrich himself and weaken Spirit Hall’s standing. He proposed a tax scheme to the Four Great Families, who were shocked by its potential two-million-Gold-Soul-Coin payout but found it tempting.

• Dales ordered a trusted Soul Grandmaster to gather his escaped guards and maids at Falling Star Slope, pose as Fallen Ones, and help him claim credit for wiping out the gang and bandits.
• Dales revealed that he knew the Soul Grandmaster was tied to Hu Fangyuan and secured his loyalty by promising to care for his wife and daughter.
• Dales summoned Falling Star City’s noble and Soul Master families to discuss attacking the Fallen Ones and demanded funding, but the four representatives offered only one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins each.
• Dales proposed raising taxes for the campaign and splitting the commoners’ payments sixty-forty with the four families, estimating that their ten-percent share could reach two million Gold Soul Coins.
• The four representatives questioned the harsh per-person tax, but Dales argued that residents could surrender their homes as collateral and keep living in them while paying rent.

Zhou Qing and his companions arrived in Falling Star City and shared an extravagant meal with Dales, who asked them to demonstrate their strength at a public fundraising speech. Zhou Qing questioned whether their display would actually persuade the citizens to donate.

• Zhou Qing and Tang San persuaded Old Jack, Wang Shi, and Wang Shi's son to stop escorting them, then hurried with Xiao Wu, Romantina, and You Hui toward Falling Star City.
• The group rested along the way to accommodate You Hui and entered Falling Star City before its gates closed.
• Dales welcomed the group to the City Lord's Mansion, where Tang San checked the dishes for danger before everyone ate.
• After the meal, Zhou Qing asked where the Fallen Ones had gone, and Dales said they were at Falling Star Slope, fifty li beyond the South Gate.
• Dales explained that he planned to ask the city's citizens for donations and wanted the tournament champions to demonstrate their strength, but Zhou Qing doubted that this would convince people to pay.