Chapter Summaries

Zhou Qing revealed that his Martial Cauldron Soul Furnace had formed an Inner Scenery World, concealing his Soul Power and potentially granting him an extraordinary lifespan. He demonstrated its storage and toxin-transfer abilities, while estimating when he and others might develop similar Inner Worlds.

• Zhou Qing explained that the Light Goddess Butterfly and Lovesick Heartbreak Red had helped him form an Inner Scenery World that hid his Soul Power circulation.
• Zhou Qing said the Inner Scenery nourished him with vitality and might let him live for ten thousand years, astonishing Dugu Bo and the others.
• Romantina used Spiritual Sharing so everyone could observe the hazy Inner Scenery World formed by Zhou Qing's Meridians and Acupoints.
• Zhou Qing demonstrated that he could store a stone in the Inner Scenery and transfer harmful substances away from his body, including water from the Ice Pool.
• Zhou Qing said the Inner Scenery was incomplete and predicted that ordinary Soul Masters would need to reach the Titled Douluo stage to develop one.

Zhou Qing explained how Soul Beast soul fragments could be reborn in an Inner Scenery World and guided Dugu Bo through refining his Spirit Rings so he could attempt to create one. Dugu Bo began cultivating, and his body transformed as the process took hold.

• Zhou Qing told Tang San that Soul Beast soul fragments from refined Spirit Rings could revive in an Inner Scenery World.
• Zhou Qing shared his Inner Scenery insights with Dugu Bo, and Romantina helped him complete Secondary Soul Ring Refinement for all nine Spirit Rings.
• Zhou Qing warned Dugu Bo that he would need to endure the resentment of Soul Beasts before offering them rebirth in his Inner Scenery.
• Zhou Qing discussed the resentment he had faced with Tang San and Xiao Wu, and Tang San considered how his Plant Soul Beasts might react.
• Dugu Bo entered cultivation, and his body expanded and contracted nine times before his skin smoothed, his hair turned jade-like, and a Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor coiled across his body.

After Dugu Bo opened an Inner Scenery World, he regained his youth, reached rank ninety-three, and found his Soul Rings had changed into a projected Soul Disk. Zhou Qing explained that the Disk showed the full Inner Scenery World from any angle, and the group was left examining this strange phenomenon.

• Dugu Bo finished cultivating, regained his youthful appearance, and discovered his Soul Power had risen to rank ninety-three.
• Dugu Bo explained that he could still use his Soul Skills but could no longer sense his Soul Rings, and that his Medusa Skull Soul Bone now felt like an impurity.
• At Zhou Qing’s request, Dugu Bo activated Martial Soul Possession, revealing a radiant Soul Disk with nine serpent patterns behind him.
• Zhou Qing, Tang San, Xiao Wu, and the others found that the Soul Disk always faced each observer, regardless of where they stood.
• Zhou Qing explained that the Soul Disk was the Inner Scenery World projected into real space and could be viewed in full from any angle.

After opening his Inner Scenery, Dugu Bo chose to support Zhou Qing and his companions, while Zhou Qing explained how the Inner Scenery could be perfected. As the group prepared to leave Sunset Forest, Zhou Qing chose a Singing Summer Cicada for his fourth Soul Ring, but Dugu Bo warned that the season would make one difficult to find.

• Dugu Bo said opening his Inner Scenery had fused his Martial Soul and body and made cultivation seem free of bottlenecks, then decided to become a Guardian rather than seize the method for himself.
• Zhou Qing explained that cultivators still had to perfect their Inner Scenery by studying nature and their own Meridians.
• Zhou Qing and his companions left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with its Immortal Herbs untouched, while Romantina retained patterns of the herbs for future study.
• Tang San asked Zhou Qing about his fourth Soul Ring, and Zhou Qing chose the fire-attributed Singing Summer Cicada to strengthen systemic circulation and complete the summer element in his Heart Field.
• Dugu Bo warned that Singing Summer Cicadas were hard to find in autumn and winter.

Zhou Qing explained why he sought a Singing Summer Cicada as his fourth spirit ring: he believed the seasons and the Twenty-Four Solar Terms corresponded to the spine’s vertebrae and could complete a Four Seasons Cycle. Tang San reconsidered the purpose and origins of cultivation techniques, while Zhou Qing framed Daoist cultivation as observing natural laws, learning to apply them, and accumulating energy to transform oneself.

• Tang San asked whether Singing Summer Cicadas had migrated to Star Dou Great Forest, and Xiao Wu said she had never seen cicadas there because the forest was too humid.
• Zhou Qing explained that Soul Masters should adjust their Soul Power cultivation to their environment instead of blindly adapting to it.
• Zhou Qing revealed that only the Singing Summer Cicada suited his goal of completing a Four Seasons Cycle, and described how his first three spirit rings had awakened vitality in different sections of his spine.
• Zhou Qing connected the four seasons’ twenty-four stages to the human spine’s Twenty-Four Vertebrae, and Tang San realized why he wanted a summer-associated spirit ring.
• Tang San questioned whether Tang Sect’s Mysterious Heaven Skill had lost its deeper cultivation method, while Zhou Qing reasoned that cultivation involved comprehending natural laws, applying them, and ultimately transforming oneself through accumulated energy.

Tang San reflected on the Dao and concluded that the Mysterious Heaven Skill may have reached the Tang Sect through the same kind of incomplete transmission he had experienced, easing his remaining guilt. As the Promotion Competition approached, Zhou Qing explained its purpose and reassured the Nuoding Academy Dean, who began considering how to help their region develop.

• Tang San considered Zhuangzi’s teaching that the Dao existed in everything and suspected the Tang Sect had acquired the Mysterious Heaven Skill indirectly, so its missing guidance might not have been deliberate.
• Wang Sheng asked why teams had to compete for rankings and byes if nobody was eliminated during the Promotion Competition.
• Zhou Qing explained that the tournament served as a recruitment fair for the empires and that its contests helped select Soul Masters for service.
• The Nuoding Academy Dean worried that powerful Soul Masters might overwhelm him if they joined the academy, and Zhou Qing promised to intervene if they misbehaved.
• The Nuoding Academy Dean reflected on the region’s growing trade and transportation links and began considering whether he should make changes himself.

Zhou Qing led the students’ observations of Heaven Dou City’s prosperity and the injustices commoners faced, then explained how people could change and how understanding the Heavenly and Human Dao could guide them toward unity. His words moved Romantina, Xiao Wu, and Tang San, before he invited everyone to lunch at North City Restaurant.

• Zhou Qing, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Romantina, Wang Sheng, Bu Yi, Bu Liu, Bu Qi, and the others led thirty-six students through observation courses in Heaven Dou City.
• The students witnessed the city’s wealth, Soul Masters’ privileges, and the unequal justice commoners suffered when Soul Masters fought.
• Zhou Qing explained that people should be judged by their actions rather than passing thoughts, since their hearts could change.
• Zhou Qing connected the students’ study of the mortal world with Comprehending the Dao, Attaining the Dao, Proving the Dao, and the Unity of Heaven and Man.
• Romantina, Xiao Wu, and Tang San were deeply struck by Zhou Qing’s explanation.
• Zhou Qing called everyone to lunch at North City Restaurant, and Tang San offered to treat them.

The Promotion Competition began without Nuoding Team, whose withdrawal puzzled the assembled teams and representatives. Dugu Yan continued processing revelations about her family, while Wei Sa left the Royal Hunting Ground for Heaven Dou City, and the story left Mu Bing discussing her talent with Ning Fengzhi.

• Xue Ye began the Promotion Competition after noticing Nuoding Team was absent.
• Yu Tianheng and Imperial Fighting Team Two wondered why Nuoding Team had withdrawn, while Dugu Yan concealed her lingering shock over Dugu Bo's transformation and her parents' deaths.
• Mu Bing asked Ning Fengzhi about Nuoding Team, and he privately reflected that Zhou Qing and his companions intended to follow their own path outside the established factions.
• Wei Sa asked to leave the competition because she was bored, and Mu Bing sent guards to escort her to the Royal Hotel in Heaven Dou City.
• Ning Fengzhi remarked on Wei Sa's level twenty-five Soul Power, and Mu Bing explained that her Snow Lotus Martial Soul made her a Support System Soul Master.

Zhou Qing and Tang San ran into Ning Rongrong while shopping for groceries in Heaven Dou City, and Zhou Qing claimed he could arrange help with her spirit rings for an exorbitant fee. Ning Rongrong proposed going to the Heaven Dou Auction House gambling district to win the money, leaving the group headed there.

• Ning Rongrong blocked Zhou Qing and Tang San on Commercial Street, but Tang San initially failed to remember who she was.
• Ning Rongrong invited them to eat at the Royal Hotel, but Zhou Qing declined and went grocery shopping with Tang San instead.
• Ning Rongrong asked how Zhou Qing and Tang San had obtained thousand-year spirit rings, and Zhou Qing gave her a copy of Soul Ring Secondary Refinement Theory.
• Ning Rongrong asked Zhou Qing to help her refine her rings, and he quoted a discounted fee of one hundred and eighty million Gold Soul Coins per hour for Romantina's help.
• Ning Rongrong admitted she did not have that much money and suggested they visit the Heaven Dou Auction House gambling district to strike it rich.

Zhou Qing and Tang San accompanied Ning Rongrong to the Heaven Dou Auction House, where Tang San bought a valuable Board Crystal and they learned about the ancient ruins beneath Tianming City. The ruins’ restrictions led Zhou Qing to wonder whether Secondary Refinement could make Soul Rings count as part of a martial soul.

• Tang San bought a Board Crystal for one thousand Gold Soul Coins, recognizing it as a source of natural Dragon Beard Needles.
• Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Ning Rongrong entered the masked Stone Gambling Area and learned that its rough stones came from Tianming City.
• Ning Rongrong explained that Tianming City had existed for at least twenty thousand years and that its underground ruins had twelve layers, though only the Seventh Layer had been explored.
• Ning Rongrong described how the ruins suppressed Soul Skills while allowing Soul Bones to function at reduced strength, and Tang San realized his Swift Wind Right Palm Bone was an External Soul Bone.
• Zhou Qing reasoned that the ruins rejected powers not fully integrated into the body and wondered whether Secondary Refinement could make Soul Rings part of a martial soul.

Ning Rongrong explained the Ascension Curse and the value of stones from the Abyss Ruins before Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Ning Rongrong watched a masked girl buy a strange stone for over a million Gold Soul Coins. The girl chose to open it, leaving them waiting to see what was inside.

• Ning Rongrong told Tang San that ascending from deeper layers of the Abyss Ruins caused increasingly severe harm, and that even powerful Soul Masters could be crippled by the curse.
• Zhou Qing learned that the ruins supplied valuable ores, discarded Soul Tools, and rare Evil-Repelling Stones, while the major powers avoided exploring them because of the curse.
• Ning Rongrong warned Zhou Qing and Tang San that the ruins’ smooth black stones could not be examined by ordinary means and cost ten thousand Gold Soul Coins per jin.
• A masked girl bought a fox-shaped stone weighing fifty-three kilograms for one million and sixty thousand Gold Soul Coins and chose to open it on the spot.
• Tang San asked whether the girl could be a plant, and Ning Rongrong said the stone’s shape suggested its contents were wrapped relatively shallowly.

Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Ning Rongrong watched a strange creature emerge from a stone and identified it as a mutant from the Abyss Ruins. The mutant appeared dead, but Zhou Qing sensed its body and considered buying it for research.

• Tang San, Zhou Qing, and Ning Rongrong discussed whether the being inside the stone was an ancient child, a Martial Soul mutant, or a mutant from the Abyss Ruins.
• Ning Rongrong explained how Abyss Ruins curses could transform people into mutants, who might retain great strength and sometimes produce Soul Bones after dying outside the ruins.
• Workers cut open the stone and revealed a 1.2-meter-tall creature with four arms, five tails, furry ears, and red crystal-like claws.
• Ning Rongrong identified the creature as a mutant and said it was probably dead, while customers considered buying its corpse as a specimen.
• Zhou Qing sensed the corpse with the Innate Internal Scripture Chart and considered buying it for research.

Zhou Qing’s perception awakened the seemingly dead Fallen One, which revived, fed, and killed two Soul Kings before fighting Titan. The creature regenerated its head and escaped into the sky, leaving Titan gravely injured and Zhou Qing wondering whether it had understood that he helped revive it.

• Zhou Qing sensed the Fallen One’s faint organs and vitality, and his aura stirred it into awakening.
• The Fallen One escaped through a window, stole food from a street stall, and killed two Soul Kings who tried to capture it.
• Titan confronted the creature, but it burrowed underground, severed the flesh from his left arm, and forced him to tear off the injured limb.
• The headless Fallen One regenerated its head, lifted itself into the air with its five tails, and vanished.
• Ning Rongrong wondered how such a monster could be killed, while Zhou Qing and Tang San recognized its ability to shift between physical form and vapor.

After a Fallen One escaped in Heaven Dou City, Zhou Qing and Tang San met Wei Sa, while the city’s leaders prepared to search for the creature. Dugu Bo refused to help with the search and instead set out to escort Nuoding Academy’s students back, intending to visit Holy Soul Village.

• Heaven Dou and Spirit Hall investigators reported the escaped Fallen One, and Wei Sa revealed that she was a princess of the Heavenly Soul Kingdom when asked to cooperate.
• Zhou Qing recognized Wei Sa from their encounter in the Northern Forest but left without reminding her; he later compensated the stall owner whose stall the Fallen One had robbed.
• The Fallen One remained missing until the Promotion Competition ended, and Xue Ye planned a search of Heaven Dou City with Dugu Bo and Bone Douluo.
• Ning Fengzhi, Gu Rong, and Xue Ye were astonished by Dugu Bo’s youthful appearance, and he attributed it to his transformed Jade Phosphor Serpent Poison.
• Dugu Bo declined to search for the Fallen One and agreed to escort Nuoding Academy’s students back to Fasinuo Province, planning to visit Holy Soul Village.

The fifteen academies arrived in Tianming City for the Continental Elite Tournament Finals and were brought to the island where the Abyss Ruins lay. Zhou Qing and the others discovered a vast abyss surrounded by a town whose residents were unusually short and whose living standards surpassed those of the main city.

• Xue Ye ordered stronger patrols after learning of Dugu Bo's ties to Nuoding Academy, while the fifteen teams set out for Tianming City.
• Zhou Qing learned from the Nuoding Academy Dean that the Finals venue rotated among eligible main cities and that this was Tianming City's first time hosting.
• After nearly a month of travel, the academies passed through Tianming City and crossed to a large island connected to the coast by a narrow strip of land.
• The city lord explained that the island housed the Abyss Ruins and that guardian knights lived around its outer ring to keep residents away from the entrance.
• At the mountain pass, Zhou Qing and the others saw a vast, mist-filled opening surrounded by a sunken town.
• Tang San noticed that the town's residents were unusually short and round-faced, while their machinery and Soul Tools supported a higher standard of living than Tianming City's.

The Tianming City Lord explained Abyss Town’s unusual residents, their cultivation, and the risks posed by the Abyss Ruins. Zhou Qing recognized the region’s effects as a qi field phenomenon, while the visiting teams learned that staying too long could permanently damage their cultivation and turn them into Fallen Ones.

• The Tianming City Lord said Abyss Town’s residents had been changed by generations of exposure to the Abyss Ruins, though outsiders would not be affected unless they stayed for three generations.
• Zhou Qing sensed that the town’s strange qi field affected residents and prompted their bodies to adapt, and he realized its effects could be understood through qi field theory.
• The city lord explained that residents could cultivate Soul Power without Martial Souls, but could not use Meditation Methods or break through bottlenecks with Soul Rings.
• The visiting Soul Masters grew excited about cultivating in Abyss Town until the city lord warned that staying for over half a year would permanently alter their appearances, prevent them from absorbing Soul Rings, and slow their cultivation outside the region.
• The city lord warned the teams about Fallen Ones, described how people could become them, and explained that the Knights outside the mountains kept the town’s residents from leaving.

Zhou Qing and Tang San went to explore the Abyss Ruins before the Finals, hiring Riko as their guide. Riko revealed her origins and explained the explorers’ whistles, while Zhou Qing was startled to recognize that she had briefly spoken a language like English.

• The Lord of Tianming City showed the teams the Abyss Ruins entrance and arranged their lodging ahead of the Finals.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San secretly left their room at night to descend into the first layer and investigate the Ascension Curse.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San met Riko and hired her to guide them for one Gold Soul Coin.
• Riko told them she was an orphan born below the Second Layer and hoped to find her mother at the bottom of the Abyss Ruins.
• Zhou Qing recognized Riko’s unfamiliar speech as resembling English, then asked why the residents wore whistles around their necks.
• Riko explained that whistles let residents pass information and represented an Explorer’s rank.

Riko led Zhou Qing and Tang San down into the Abyss, where they learned about Explorer ranks and found that Soul Power could no longer be measured precisely. They reached the lush first layer, and Zhou Qing felt unusually close to nature while Tang San marveled at its dense Heaven and Earth Energy.

• Riko explained the colored flutes that marked Explorer ranks, from Red Whistles to the rare, owner-bound White Whistles.
• Zhou Qing and Tang San discovered that they could no longer sense their exact Soul Power Levels, and Riko asked them to explain Soul Masters and their rankings.
• Zhou Qing speculated that powerful beings could influence a world's natural environment, while Tang San considered whether the Abyss followed more natural rules than the outside world.
• Riko led Zhou Qing and Tang San through the mist and down to the Abyss First Layer, where they found a sunless but warmly lit landscape.
• Zhou Qing felt his body and senses connect deeply with nature, and Tang San exclaimed that the dense Heaven and Earth Energy could let him become a Soul Douluo in under ten years.

Riko led Zhou Qing and Tang San through the first layer of the Abyss Ruins and showed them its enormous Bronze Door. They learned that the door absorbed Soul Power and would require immense physical strength to open, leaving Zhou Qing convinced that even a level 99 Peerless Douluo could not manage it.

• Riko described the first layer, its explored ruins, and the unknown dangers of the unexplored layers below the Seventh Layer.
• Riko borrowed three Bird Horses and led Zhou Qing and Tang San across the first layer to the Bronze Door near the Black Pillar.
• Riko explained that a legend promised the door's opener would escape the Ascension Curse, receive the Abyss's blessing, and possibly become its master.
• Tang San examined the door's great thickness, while Riko explained that it absorbed any Soul Power released outside the body.
• Zhou Qing reasoned that opening the door would require at least ten million jin of strength and that even a level 99 Peerless Douluo could not push it open.

Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Riko explored the first level of the Abyss Ruins, examined the Black Pillar, and chose to return without descending. During the ascent, Zhou Qing realized that he and Tang San were unaffected by the Ascension Curse and suspected their refined Soul Power circulation was responsible.

• Tang San examined the Bronze Door and concluded only that it was not made of bronze, so Zhou Qing followed Riko toward the Black Pillar instead of trying to open it.
• At the Black Pillar, Riko explained that Explorers could descend by Guild-maintained elevators or through caves, but Zhou Qing decided to return and investigate the Ruins' time difference and Ascension Curse first.
• The group rode Bird Horses back to the village, returned them, and then began climbing toward the first level's edge.
• Riko grew pale as the ascent's curse affected her, while Zhou Qing and Tang San experienced no dizziness or nausea.
• Zhou Qing realized that their Soul Power had circulated automatically during the climb and suggested that their refined circulation and harmonious Aura Fields might explain their immunity.