Chapter Summaries

Five-year-old Su Wen trained to strengthen his body and prepare for Martial Soul Awakening, determined to gain the power to avenge his parents. At the village ceremony, he awakened a Book Martial Soul with level five Innate Soul Power, and Su Yuntao encouraged him to cultivate.

• Su Wen recalled the battle that destroyed his family and trained beside a river, using his Enhanced Perception to guide heat through his body and nourish his Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power.
• A year later, Old Jerry took Su Wen to the village Spirit Hall for his Martial Soul Awakening.
• Su Wen awakened a gray Book Martial Soul, which Su Yuntao initially judged to be useless.
• Su Yuntao tested Su Wen and discovered he had level five Innate Soul Power, then urged him not to waste his talent.
• Su Yuntao told Old Jerry that two children had awakened Soul Power, including Su Wen, and presented the Spirit Hall certificate.

Su Wen developed his Book Martial Soul, learned that Old Jerry had secretly supported his growth with Sweet Potatoes, and trained with Sun Xiaopang before they entered Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy. The chapter left Su Wen heading to the Academic Affairs Office, eager to see whether the academy could help him pursue his goals.

• Old Jerry brought Su Wen home and explained that he would try to secure Work-Study Student places for Su Wen and Xiaopang.
• Su Wen named his Book Martial Soul the Heavenly Book, separated a page, and experimented with folding it into a paper sword.
• Old Jerry revealed his Sweet Potato Martial Soul and rank-nine Soul Power, explaining that Sweet Potatoes had helped nourish Su Wen as he grew.
• Old Jerry taught Su Wen and Sun Xiaopang the Meditation Method, while Su Wen trained and worked to strengthen his Book Martial Soul.
• After three months, Old Jerry brought Su Wen and Sun Xiaopang to Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy and helped them register as Work-Study Students.
• Su Wen asked the gatekeeper where to register and headed toward the Academic Affairs Office with his documents.

Su Wen enrolled as a Work-Study Student, rejected Dorm Seven’s fight for leadership, and failed to gain Grandmaster as a mentor. He committed to developing his own cultivation methods and martial soul, reaching level ten and beginning research into martial soul foundations.

• Su Wen and Little Fatty completed their Work-Study Student enrollment, received bedding, and went to Dorm Seven, where Wang Sheng proposed a fight to decide the dorm’s boss.
• Su Wen declined to fight Wang Sheng, made his bed, and began meditating, leaving the other Work-Study Students to dismiss the challenge.
• Su Wen visited Grandmaster to seek guidance about his Book Martial Soul, but Grandmaster rejected him after learning it was an ordinary Book Martial Soul.
• Su Wen considered joining Spirit Hall but decided against it, resolving to rely on his own talent to develop cultivation methods and improve his martial soul.
• Su Wen improved his training methods and advanced four levels during his first year at the academy, then reached level ten five months later.
• Su Wen began researching martial soul foundations and set out to understand the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul better than Grandmaster.

Su Wen theorized that Soul Power cultivated beyond level ten became Original Soul Power stored in his Martial Soul Space, then tested ways to sense and use it. He discovered it could rapidly restore his Soul Power before Lin Tian interrupted him with news that Sun Xiaopang had been beaten.

• Su Wen reasoned that Soul Power cultivated after reaching level ten was stored as Original Soul Power in the Martial Soul Space, awaiting transformation after he obtained a Soul Ring.
• Su Wen strengthened his Heavenly Book pages with Soul Power and sensed Original Soul Power being drawn out as his Soul Power recovered.
• Su Wen found that drawing on Original Soul Power restored his Soul Power almost instantly and concluded that cultivation beyond level ten raised its upper limit.
• Lin Tian told Su Wen that Boss Xiao had clashed with Xiaopang and that Sun Xiaopang had been beaten.

Su Wen rescued Xiaopang and defeated Liu Long after the older student attacked him over his Staff Technique. He challenged Boss Xiao next, and as Xiao Chenyu charged with his Wolf Martial Soul, Su Wen used paper swords and replenished his soul power with Backup Hidden Energy.

• Su Wen found Liu Long beating Xiaopang and learned that Liu Long had demanded Xiaopang's Staff Technique.
• Su Wen summoned his Heavenly Book, formed a Paper Staff, and beat Liu Long in front of the gathered students.
• Su Wen challenged Boss Xiao to end their conflict, while Xiao Chenyu revealed his Wolf Martial Soul and rank-eleven strength.
• Su Wen formed paper swords to impede Xiao Chenyu's charge and drew Original Soul Power from his Martial Soul Space to recover his strength.

Su Wen defeated Xiao Chenyu in a fight at the academy, impressing the students and drawing the headmaster’s interest. Grandmaster dismissed the idea of taking Su Wen as a disciple, while Su Wen began training his dormmates and was summoned to discuss his First Soul Ring.

• Xiao Chenyu charged at Su Wen, who stopped using paper swords and beat him in close combat with a staff formed from Book Pages.
• Xiao Chenyu admitted defeat and promised that no one at the academy would bother Su Wen.
• Grandmaster told the bald headmaster that Su Wen’s Book Martial Soul was likely durable due to a mutation, but he did not offer to take him as a disciple.
• The Dorm Seven students praised Su Wen, but he declined to become their boss and urged Little Fatty to train with him.
• A teacher summoned Su Wen to the headmaster’s office, where the headmaster asked what target he had for his First Soul Ring.

Su Wen discussed his Book Martial Soul’s possible development paths with the Bald Headmaster, who explained how a Soul Master’s training can influence the Soul Skills gained from Soul Rings. Afterward, Su Wen concluded that he needed to research Original Soul Power before pursuing his crucial First Soul Ring.

• The Bald Headmaster explained that Book Martial Souls were usually functional support types, though some could develop into combat-focused Battle Soul Masters.
• Su Wen declined the Bald Headmaster’s implied offer of guidance, but listened as he described how Martial Soul development could shape future Soul Skills.
• The Bald Headmaster advised Su Wen to develop his Martial Soul toward his chosen path before obtaining a Soul Ring.
• Su Wen left the dean’s office and decided that his control over his Martial Soul could help him guide the Soul Skills he received.
• Su Wen judged that his weak Martial Soul needed a foundational metamorphosis from his First Soul Ring, but that even a four-hundred-year ring was unsafe for him.
• Su Wen returned to Dorm Seven and meditated while sensing his Martial Soul Space, intending to research Original Soul Power.

Su Wen continued cultivating Original Soul Power while delaying his First Soul Ring, hoping to use it to strengthen his martial soul during absorption. After meeting Tang San and Xiao Wu at Dorm Seven, he eventually decided he could no longer remain at rank ten and needed to obtain a soul ring.

• Su Wen concluded that Original Soul Power could expand the Martial Soul Space and strengthen his martial soul, but could not merge into its origin without a soul ring.
• Su Wen resolved to keep accumulating Original Soul Power before absorbing his First Soul Ring, hoping to boost its transformation to the equivalent of a stronger soul ring.
• Tang San arrived as a new Work-Study Student, and Su Wen regarded him as an enemy because Tang Hao was tied to his parents' deaths.
• Xiao Wu joined Dorm Seven, but Su Wen dismissed her as a hundred-thousand-year-old rabbit and paid her little attention.
• After remaining at rank ten for more than a year, Su Wen decided to seek a soul ring and considered asking Su Yuntao for help obtaining a Soul Hunting Forest warrant.

Su Wen decided that his First Soul Ring needed to be a Hundred-Year Soul Ring to improve his ordinary Book Martial Soul as much as possible. After learning he could join the Notting City Spirit Hall Branch without being sent to Spirit City, he chose to join Martial Soul Hall and grow under its protection.

• Su Wen prepared to seek a powerful First Soul Ring, reasoning that a ring with more soul power would better improve his martial soul and future cultivation ceiling.
• Su Wen visited Su Yuntao and requested a warrant to hunt a Hundred-Year Soul Beast, explaining that he had found a team to help him.
• Su Yuntao warned Su Wen that Soul Hunting Teams could be unreliable and offered him the option of joining Spirit Hall for support and resources.
• Su Yuntao explained that Su Wen could study and cultivate at the Notting City Spirit Hall Branch as a functional Soul Master without going to Spirit City.
• Su Wen decided to join Martial Soul Hall and planned to develop under the protection of its outer branches before eventually establishing his own faction.

Su Wen joined the Notting City Spirit Hall Branch, completed registration, and researched plant-type Soul Beasts for his first Soul Ring. He had several possible targets and met the two Deacons who would accompany him on the hunt.

• Su Yuntao welcomed Su Wen into Spirit Hall and offered to help him obtain a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.
• Su Yuntao took Su Wen to Ma Xiunuo, who tested his Soul Power and completed his registration as an official member.
• Su Yuntao showed Su Wen the branch library, where Su Wen researched plant-type Soul Beasts suited to his Book Martial Soul.
• Su Wen identified several possible Soul Beast targets after reading through the library materials.
• Su Yuntao introduced Si Si and Feng Yuan, the two Deacons who would join them on the hunt.

Su Wen and three Spirit Hall companions searched the Soul Hunting Forest for his first soul ring and found a Star Fruit Tree guarded by a Violent Bear. As Su Yuntao, Feng Yuan, and Si Si engaged the beast, Su Wen prepared his Book Martial Soul and watched for danger.

• Su Wen, Su Yuntao, Feng Yuan, and Si Si entered the Soul Hunting Forest after the guards verified their warrant.
• Su Yuntao spotted a Ghost Vine estimated to be at least six hundred years old, and the group kept searching while avoiding it.
• The group found a Star Fruit Tree with nine fruits, and Su Yuntao estimated its cultivation at three hundred and sixty years.
• Si Si explained that the Star Fruit Tree suited Su Wen's Book Martial Soul and could grant him a strengthening-type support Soul Skill, so Su Wen chose it as his first soul ring.
• Su Yuntao, Feng Yuan, and Si Si began fighting the five-hundred-year Violent Bear guarding the tree while Su Wen readied his Book Martial Soul and urged Si Si to fight with all her strength.

Su Wen and the others defeated the Violent Bear and destroyed the Star Fruit Tree so he could claim its soul ring. After recovering, Su Wen began absorbing the ring and felt its power enter his body and Martial Soul Space.

• Su Yuntao and Si Si attacked the Violent Bear while Su Wen used Book Pages to defend himself from the Star Fruit Tree’s sudden branch strike.
• Si Si bound the Violent Bear with her whip, and Feng Yuan pierced its right eye with his Gale Fist.
• Su Yuntao and Feng Yuan battered the Star Fruit Tree until Su Wen cut its purple vein, killing it and releasing a bright yellow soul ring.
• Su Wen recovered his soul power, drew the ring around his Book Martial Soul, and began absorbing its power.

Su Wen absorbed his First Soul Ring by directing its power into his Martial Soul Space, proving his theory that soul ring energy could fuel a deeper martial soul transformation. He broke through his bottleneck and revealed that his first soul skill strengthened his own martial soul, leaving Su Yuntao’s hopes for a conventional support skill unsettled.

• Su Wen sensed the Soul Ring Origin and soul power entering his Martial Soul Space, then carefully increased the flow of soul ring power into it.
• Su Wen used his Original Soul Power to help his martial soul withstand the transformation and let the soul ring power fuel it, reducing the Soul Ring Origin’s energy consumption.
• After more than two hours, Su Wen completed the martial soul metamorphosis, broke through his bottleneck, and refined the remaining soul power.
• Su Yuntao asked about Su Wen’s First Soul Skill, and Su Wen said it was a strengthening skill that acted on his own martial soul.

Su Wen tested his newly acquired Soul Skill and considered how his Book Martial Soul could develop beyond serving as a weapon. After registering as a Soul Master and receiving his monthly subsidy, he went to Spirit Hall’s library to study and test the skill.

• Su Yuntao recognized that Su Wen’s Soul Skill strengthened only himself and said it still counted as a combat-type skill.
• Su Wen acknowledged the limits of wielding a Book Martial Soul as a weapon but decided he needed combat power and could not yet pursue a Magic Book style.
• Su Wen worried that standing out might send him to Spirit City, where he feared attracting the attention of powerful Titled Douluo, and decided against going there.
• Ma Xiunuo registered Su Wen as a Soul Master, gave him one Gold Soul Coin, and reflected that Su Wen might have succeeded as a Theoretical Scholar.
• Su Wen used the rest of his leave to visit Spirit Hall’s library, released his transformed Book Martial Soul, and prepared to test his Soul Skill.

Su Wen studied the effects of his evolved martial soul and concluded that his First Soul Skill enhanced it from the source, awakening a Wisdom characteristic that accelerated his thinking and learning. After reaching rank 20, he decided to graduate early and seek a Second Soul Ring of at least nine hundred years.

• Su Wen activated his First Soul Skill and found that it consumed soul power to strengthen his martial soul while sharpening his thinking and speeding up his reading.
• Su Wen linked the Wisdom characteristic to Spiritual Power and decided that his Second Soul Ring should have a mental attribute.
• After seven days away, Su Wen returned to Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy and resumed cultivating with access to Spirit Hall's knowledge.
• Tang San reached rank 20 and prepared to hunt for his Second Soul Ring, while Su Wen revealed that he had also reached rank 20.
• Su Wen judged that his training and soul-ring absorption method would let him withstand a nine-hundred-year Second Soul Ring, so he planned to graduate early.

Su Wen graduated early and returned to New Moon Village, where he prepared to help Old Jerry obtain his first soul ring. After securing a Spirit Hall warrant, they entered Soul Hunting Forest, where Su Wen spotted a Yellow-skinned Mouse that could provide a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

• Su Wen submitted his early graduation application and received a recommendation letter from the Bald Headmaster.
• Su Wen encouraged Little Fatty to keep cultivating and promised Old Jerry that he would help him become a soul master.
• Su Wen took Old Jerry to the Spirit Hall Branch, where Su Yuntao helped them obtain a warrant to enter Soul Hunting Forest.
• Su Wen and Old Jerry searched carefully around the forest's outskirts, and Su Wen spotted a Yellow-skinned Mouse that might yield a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

Su Wen killed a two-hundred-year Vitality Rat with Old Jerry and helped him absorb its Soul Ring. As Old Jerry began cultivating, Su Wen set his sights on becoming a Soul King two years before Tang San by turning knowledge into faster Soul Power growth.

• Su Wen fought the Vitality Rat with an iron staff while his paper swords wounded it and blocked its attempts to escape.
• Su Wen crippled the Vitality Rat and told Old Jerry to deliver the killing blow so he could absorb its Soul Ring.
• Old Jerry killed the Vitality Rat with Su Wen's dagger and began absorbing its yellow Soul Ring.
• While guarding Old Jerry, Su Wen reflected on his combat growth, his plan to kill Tang Hao himself, and why he would not involve Spirit Hall yet.
• Su Wen set a goal to become a Soul King two years before Tang San and decided to seek knowledge that could accelerate his Soul Power cultivation.

Su Wen used Old Jerry’s First Soul Ring ability, Vitality-Rich Little Sweet Potato, to greatly improve his cultivation efficiency over the next six months. At eleven, he left New Moon Village to seek experience and began considering a search for the Blue Silver Emperor near Holy Soul Village.

• Old Jerry absorbed his First Soul Ring and gained the First Soul Skill Vitality-Rich Little Sweet Potato, which restored a Soul Master’s condition and sped up recovery.
• Su Wen registered Old Jerry at the Spirit Hall, returned to New Moon Village, and incorporated the sweet potatoes into his cultivation routine.
• Over six months, Su Wen increased his cultivation efficiency by fifty percent but concluded that Mimicry Cultivation was still necessary for greater progress.
• Su Wen prepared to leave New Moon Village, and Old Jerry promised to send him a batch of sweet potatoes every month.
• After leaving the village, Su Wen considered searching near Holy Soul Village for the Blue Silver Emperor and taking its Soul Bone.

Su Wen entered the Star Dou Great Forest to find a suitable Mental Attribute Soul Beast for his Second Soul Ring, but spent weeks searching without finding a strong match. He stole and drank Lucid Wine to greatly increase his spiritual power, then encountered a Flame Cloud Fox whose unusually weak footsteps made him suspect something was wrong.

• Su Wen abandoned his plan to find the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone for now and set out alone for the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain his Second Soul Ring.
• After searching the forest outskirts for half a month, Su Wen found a Lucid Ape and quietly tracked it to its cave.
• Su Wen entered the Lucid Ape's cave, discovered its Monkey Wine, and carried a large stone jar to a nearby cave.
• Over the next ten days, Su Wen stole two more jars and drank about twenty pounds of Lucid Wine, increasing his spiritual power by at least fifty percent.
• Su Wen resumed his search and found a Flame Cloud Fox with a weak Mental Attribute, then noticed that its footsteps seemed unusually weak.

Su Wen identified and stalked a mutated Three-Eyed Illusion Spirit Fox, then used carefully prepared drugs to kill it and absorb its thousand-year Soul Ring. As the dangerous absorption eased, he began using its power to open his Sea of Consciousness.

• Su Wen sensed that the Flame Cloud Fox had chaotic mental fluctuations and traced its aura to a cave with a powerful mental presence.
• Su Wen lured out a Three-Eyed Illusion Spirit Fox with Monkey Wine and recognized its three eyes, strong illusion abilities, and potential as his Second Soul Ring.
• Su Wen watched the fox for a month, then exploited its weakened state with knockout drugs and an aphrodisiac before killing it with a dagger.
• Su Wen guided the thousand-year Soul Ring onto himself and used its power to transform his Martial Soul, enduring severe pain as he absorbed it.
• Su Wen's pain gradually eased, allowing him to use the Soul Ring absorption to begin opening his Sea of Consciousness.