Chapter Summaries

Jiang Lin revealed that he had suspected Pei Xuan was a soul hidden in the Soul-Containing Parchment, and the two discussed why neither had attacked the other. Pei Xuan presented a scroll called Beast Spirit Array, saying they were fated.

• Jiang Lin explained that the Purple Cloud Wings Dou Technique scroll had led him to suspect soul bodies could be sealed in scrolls, making him wary of Pei Xuan.
• Pei Xuan admitted he had not expected Jiang Lin to suspect him from the beginning and said he liked dealing with clever people.
• Jiang Lin explained that his Spiritual Sense let him recognize threats and that he had kept his Half-Step Spirit Realm Soul Power as a safeguard against Pei Xuan.
• Pei Xuan said possessing Jiang Lin would have given him only sixty years and that the Fire Spirit Colored Lotus would have prevented the possession.
• Pei Xuan produced a scroll marked Beast Spirit Array and said he and Jiang Lin were fated.

Jiang Lin learned that Black-armored Pei Xuan had once been Xuan Xin, though his memories and sense of identity had changed through repeated vessels. After comparing Pei Xuan to the old man in Xiao Yan’s ring, Jiang Lin heard that Pei Xuan needed his help.

• Black-armored Pei Xuan explained that he had used the name Pei Xuan since his second vessel and that Xuan Xin was only a fragment of his lost memories.
• Jiang Lin realized Pei Xuan’s condition was more complicated than a remnant soul awakening and asked how many times he had reincarnated.
• Pei Xuan praised Jiang Lin’s talent and fortune, comparing them to Xiao Yan’s, while warning that great fortune required a strong foundation.
• Jiang Lin asked how long Pei Xuan had followed him, and Pei Xuan answered that it had been almost three years.
• Jiang Lin likened Pei Xuan to his own pocket grandpa, and Pei Xuan said he had abilities Yao Chen lacked before asking Jiang Lin for help.

Jiang Lin heard how black-armored Pei Xuan had survived through repeated awakenings and learned that Pei Xuan wanted his help to become a Dou Saint. After Pei Xuan offered to become Jiang Lin’s Artifact Spirit, Jiang Lin agreed to work with him.

• Jiang Lin told Pei Xuan that the Spirit Clan’s Dou Saint had been hunting him and doubted he could help anyone while injured.
• Pei Xuan explained that he was an Artifact Forger who had used a forbidden soul technique to survive as a soul, but his memories and sense of self were fading over time.
• Pei Xuan described how his possessed bodies lasted only sixty years and how he had left behind the Mystic Armor Puppet Technique between awakenings.
• Pei Xuan asked Jiang Lin to help him become a Dou Saint, explaining that he could grow by devouring souls but needed a way to stabilize his soul body.
• Jiang Lin balked at the difficulty until Pei Xuan offered to become his Artifact Spirit, and Jiang Lin enthusiastically accepted.

Jiang Lin recovered on a strange island after surviving spatial turbulence and discovered that residual Spatial Power had entered his body, potentially strengthening him. Pei Xuan scouted the island and found an Azure Ancient Turtle, whose presence made him question where they had been transported.

• Jiang Lin agreed to help Pei Xuan strengthen himself and asked him to find high-tier magical beast meat and scout the island.
• Pei Xuan noted that the island's oppressive aura and distorted space felt strangely familiar, then headed into the darkness to investigate.
• Jiang Lin examined his injuries and found that residual Spatial Power had threaded through his body, which might raise his Dou Qi to Five-star Dou Ling after he recovered.
• Jiang Lin considered that his body, transformed by the Forging Fire Art and Five Elements Crystal Core, might reach the peak of Fourth-stage Mid after recovering.
• Pei Xuan killed a third-tier Azure Ancient Turtle and wondered whether the island was part of the Azure Ancient Sea, though his memories suggested that sea had once been as vast as the Dou Qi Continent.

Pei Xuan and Jiang Lin examined an Azure Ancient Turtle and discussed the Azure Ancient Sea, Jiang Lin’s mechanical puppet technology, and his recovery. Pei Xuan began using the Blood Soul Refining Method to refine the turtle’s soul into Soul Gold.

• Pei Xuan recalled the Azure Ancient Turtle from his chaotic memories, then beheaded it and dragged its corpse and head back to Jiang Lin.
• Pei Xuan reflected on Jiang Lin’s modified Mystic Armor Puppet Technique and predicted that fully mechanical puppets could transform artifact forging.
• Jiang Lin ate the turtle meat while Pei Xuan explained that the Azure Ancient Sea might be an unfamiliar or outdated name for a region of the Dou Qi Continent.
• Jiang Lin said he needed about a month to recover enough energy to use the Forging Fire Art and Dou Qi Furnace again.
• Pei Xuan used the Blood Soul Refining Method to extract pale-white vapor from the turtle’s severed head and inject it into Soul Gold.

Pei Xuan explained how Magic Cores could carry Soul Power and how Dou Qi cultivation methods functioned as humanity’s form of artificial Magic Cores. He used the Azure Ancient Turtle’s blood essence and a Soul Pattern Magic Core to create an Azure Turtle Spirit, leaving Jiang Lin watching the process closely.

• Pei Xuan extracted the Azure Ancient Turtle’s blood essence into Soul Gold and explained the difference between soul essence and blood essence to Jiang Lin.
• Pei Xuan inscribed Soul Patterns on a Water Element Magic Core while explaining that Magic Cores could carry Soul Power and that Dou Qi cultivation methods served as humanity’s alternative form of Magic Core.
• Jiang Lin asked about artificial Magic Cores, and Pei Xuan explained that Dou Qi cultivation methods were based on energy circuits found in magical beasts’ Magic Cores.
• Pei Xuan merged the Turtle-Pattern Soul Gold into the Soul Pattern Magic Core and ignited it with dark-blue soul flames.
• The Soul Pattern Magic Core absorbed energy from its surroundings and projected an increasingly solid Azure Turtle Spirit clad in Dou Qi armor.

Jiang Lin learned how Crystal Core Technology could improve the Beast Spirit Array and discovered he could control a beast spirit through a Soul Link. He tested the Azure Turtle Spirit's combat abilities and began considering new uses for the array.

• Pei Xuan explained the Beast Spirit Array's Magic Core degradation and Soul Gold limitations, and described how Crystal Core Technology could address the first flaw.
• Jiang Lin erased the Azure Turtle Spirit's spirit soul and linked it to his own Soul Power, creating a connection that let him share its vision.
• Jiang Lin ordered the Azure Turtle Spirit to use Hydro Pump, and it blasted apart a reef with a concentrated beam of water-element Dou Qi.
• Jiang Lin tested the spirit's other skills and realized beast spirits could serve as remotely controlled, self-powered casting platforms.
• Jiang Lin told Pei Xuan that he had an idea.

Jiang Lin recovered from his injuries by devouring the Azure Ancient Turtle and hunting Sea Demon Beasts with Pei Xuan, while refining a Soul Gathering Bead that stored their souls. He kept accumulating souls in the bead despite Pei Xuan’s warning that doing so could create something extremely dangerous.

• Jiang Lin released the Azure Turtle Spirit and devoured the Azure Ancient Turtle’s remaining flesh to speed his recovery.
• Jiang Lin and Pei Xuan hunted Sea Demon Beasts around the island, and Jiang Lin used their flesh, bones, and Magic Cores to restore himself.
• With Pei Xuan’s guidance, Jiang Lin refined a Soul Gathering Bead that stored the souls of the beasts they killed.
• After fifteen days, Jiang Lin had recovered and accumulated enough souls in the bead for its Soul Strength to reach the fifth rank.
• Jiang Lin asked Pei Xuan if continuing to gather souls might create a great demon, and Pei Xuan warned that it could be extremely dangerous.

Jiang Lin used his Spirit Fire to cleanse the Soul Gathering Bead while cultivating the Forging Fire Art, creating a vast energy spectacle. After half a month, mysterious sea creatures approached the island, and Jiang Lin sensed them.

• Jiang Lin swallowed the Soul Gathering Bead and used Little Fatty Lin's Colorless Flame to remove its evil qi, restoring the bead to gray.
• Jiang Lin activated the Dou Qi Furnace and cultivated the Forging Fire Art beneath a kilometer-long funnel of multicolored energy.
• Pei Xuan guarded Jiang Lin and reflected on the Forging Fire Art and its connection to Spiritual Artifacts.
• Three mysterious black shadows moved through the sea toward Jiang Lin's island, drawn by reports of a rare treasure.
• Jiang Lin finished cultivating, examined the cleansed Soul Gathering Bead, and warned Pei Xuan that approaching sea creatures were coming.

Jiang Lin hid on a blood-stained island as Azure Merfolk Princess Kelly and her guards searched it, while Pei Xuan identified their tribe as a possible way out of the Ancient Sea. As Kelly and her guards prepared to leave, hostile fish-patterned men ambushed them and demanded a treasure.

• Jiang Lin and Pei Xuan identified the three flying women as members of the Azure Merfolk Tribe and considered seeking their help to leave the Ancient Sea.
• Kelly used the Earth-grade Secret Art Water Ripple to search the island and surrounding sea, but found no living creatures.
• Kelly, Lan Ying, and Lan Yue decided to leave for the Ancient Sea Trial, believing there was no opportunity on the island.
• Lan Ying raised a Water Lightning Break defense when a blue attack struck, and she and Lan Yue pulled Kelly out of its blast radius.
• A group of grayish-white men with fish-fin patterns arrived, demanded the treasure, and threatened to kill the merfolk.

Jiang Lin watched Gray Star and the Golden Patterned Sacred Shark Race ambush Kelly and her Merfolk companions, demanding they hand over a rumored treasure. Kelly fought Gray Star but was badly wounded and crashed onto the island beside Jiang Lin.

• Pei Xuan identified the attackers as members of the Ashen Ancient Sea Sacred Clan, the Golden Patterned Sacred Shark Race, and realized this world differed from the one he remembered.
• Gray Star surrounded Kelly, Lan Ying, and Lan Yue with three Dou Emperors and three Dou Wangs, then demanded their treasure and threatened Kelly.
• Kelly, Lan Ying, and Lan Yue attacked the sharkmen, and the two groups clashed in the air.
• Jiang Lin realized the Merfolk and Shark Races were demi-humans rather than traditional Sea Demon Beasts.
• Kelly pierced Gray Star's chest with her spear, but Gray Star slashed her arm and sent her crashing onto the island.
• Kelly landed near Jiang Lin, who was chewing rocks, and turned to look at him.

Jiang Lin concealed his face and protected Kelly from two Shark Race Dou Wangs, then used his Star Bow to turn the fight against them. As his third arrow threatened a Shark Race Dou Wang’s life, another Shark Race warrior moved to intercept it.

• Jiang Lin appeared beside Kelly and covered his face with a Mystic Patterned Armor Plate as two Shark Race Dou Wangs launched attacks at her.
• Kelly stepped forward to shield Jiang Lin, but two metallic clangs sounded inside the dust cloud as the attacks struck.
• Jiang Lin fired a light arrow that drove one Shark Race Dou Wang back and left a crater in his tooth battle blade.
• Jiang Lin struck the same crater with a second arrow, shattering the blade and leaving its wielder terrified.
• Jiang Lin fired a five-colored wandering arrow at the disarmed Shark Race Dou Wang, and his companion rushed in to block it.

Jiang Lin used a Spatial Arrow to bypass a Shark Race Dou Wang’s defense and destroy his heart during the battle near Kelly’s island. The Shark Race saved the wounded Dou Wang with a Blood Spirit Jellyfish, but Jiang Lin’s Five Elements Dou Qi soon killed him.

• Jiang Lin sent a five-colored arrow through a Spatial Rift, striking the Shark Race Dou Wang from behind and shattering his armor and heart.
• A Shark Race Dou Emperor caught the wounded Dou Wang and used a Blood Spirit Jellyfish to restore his blood flow.
• Lan Ying and Lan Yue approached Kelly’s island, where the dispersing smoke revealed Jiang Lin as the human who had fired the arrows.
• Jiang Lin stored his damaged Black Feather Heavy Bow and replenished his Dou Qi Armor while assessing the Shark Race forces.
• Jiang Lin’s Five Elements Dou Qi disrupted the wounded Dou Wang’s organs, killing him despite the Blood Spirit Jellyfish’s efforts.

Jiang Lin killed a Gray Golden-striped Giant Shark Dou Wang and absorbed its soul, while the Merfolk treated Kelly's injured arm. The Merfolk mistook Jiang Lin for a Soul Hall emissary and explained that they had encountered a Soul Clan emissary twenty years earlier.

• The dying Shark Race Dou Wang reverted to its true form and crashed into the sea, prompting the remaining Shark Race experts to retreat.
• Jiang Lin chose not to pursue the retreating sharks and assessed the strength of the Sea Clan fighters around him.
• Kelly coughed from the rubble, and Lan Ying and Lan Yue flew to treat her injured right arm.
• Jiang Lin used his Soul Gathering Bead to draw the dead Gray Golden-striped Giant Shark's soul into it.
• Lan Ying, Lan Yue, and Kelly recognized Jiang Lin as a Soul Hall emissary, and Lan Ying said they had encountered a Soul Clan emissary twenty years earlier.

Jiang Lin tested the Soul Hall’s reputation in the Vast Ancient Sea and used it to invent a false identity as Hun Lin, a Soul Hall emissary. After helping Kelly and her guards, he learned they could provide a map and information on rare materials if he accompanied them to the Azure Merfolk Tribe.

• Jiang Lin decided to use his apparent Soul Hall affiliation to conceal his identity and investigate the Soul Hall’s presence in the Vast Ancient Sea.
• Kelly asked about Jiang Lin’s grandmaster, and Jiang Lin fabricated a story about being sent to find a rare material as a test of his strength.
• Kelly and her guards believed Jiang Lin’s story and thanked him for helping them, while Kelly inferred that his hidden presence came from Soul Hall methods.
• Jiang Lin gave them the name Hun Lin and asked for a map after storing the Gray Golden-striped Giant Shark’s corpse.
• Kelly offered to take Hun Lin to the Azure Merfolk Tribe, where he could find maps and information about precious materials.

Jiang Lin learned the Water Evasion Art and followed Kelly and the other Azure Merfolk into the sea. As they traveled toward the Azure Merfolk Tribe, he learned why Sea Clans sometimes fought above water and why they studied human Dou Techniques.

• Kelly gave Jiang Lin a Water Evasion Art scroll, and he mastered the technique almost immediately.
• Jiang Lin adapted the art with Dou Qi Silk Thread and sped through the seawater to catch up with Kelly, Lan Ying, and Lan Yue.
• Lan Ying explained that sea battles were especially fierce, so marine creatures often fought above the surface to avoid unnecessary conflict.
• Lan Ying told Jiang Lin that rare Sea Clan bloodlines could take human form, and that the Azure Merfolk could transform their tails into legs.
• Kelly explained that Sea Clans learned human Dou Techniques to pursue a better future in the distant, overlooked sea.

Jiang Lin learned from Kelly that the Vast Ancient Sea lay at the edge of the world and that Soul Hall had been investigating the boundary and the Ancient Sea Trial. As Kelly escorted him onward, he began to understand that the world's apparent edge was tied to a trial that curved around the spherical world.

• Kelly explained that the merfolk lived in the Vast Ancient Sea at the world's edge and invited Jiang Lin to consider the Ancient Sea Trial.
• Jiang Lin learned that the Ancient Sea Trial occurred roughly every hundred years and that Soul Hall described its timing as a cycle in the world's energy.
• Jiang Lin told Kelly and the others that he was a Soul Clan Venerable's disciple who had been teleported from ruins, and Kelly promised that her grandmother would help him.
• Kelly revealed that the Ancient Sea Trial lay beyond the world's boundary and that a human lord had once crossed it and emerged on the other side.
• Jiang Lin reasoned that space curved the apparently flat world into a sphere, with the Ancient Sea Trial occupying a ring at its edge.

Jiang Lin learned why Soul Hall and the Spirit Clan had once researched the Vast Ancient Sea and heard how the Sea Clans developed the Ancient Sea Trial. Kelly and the others brought him to Deep Sea City as they neared the trial’s entrance.

• Jiang Lin learned that Soul Hall’s artifact-forging research had helped advance Sea Clan civilization, while the Sea Clans maintained wary respect for Soul Hall’s power.
• Kelly and Lan Ying explained that Soul Hall and the Spirit Clan had withdrawn from the Vast Ancient Sea after finding a path toward becoming an Emperor.
• Kelly described the Ancient Sea Trial, a secret realm restricted to entrants under one hundred years old and above Dou Wang strength.
• Lan Ying explained that Sea Clan ancestors created bloodline arts to mimic human forms and let their people enter the human-oriented realm.
• Kelly led Jiang Lin through the deep sea and welcomed him to Deep Sea City.

Jiang Lin arrived at Deep Sea City and saw the Azure Merfolk Tribe’s enormous Sea Heart Flame, the Blue Sun, which rivaled a Dou Zun. As the merfolk guards approached, Pei Xuan explained how Heavenly Flames were valued and ranked, while the chapter left Jiang Lin still admiring the tribe’s treasured flame.

• Jiang Lin and Kelly spotted the Sea Heart Flame shining above Deep Sea City, and Jiang Lin marveled at its immense size and power.
• Kelly explained that the Azure Merfolk Tribe called the flame Blue Sun and regarded it as their pride and protection.
• Lan Ying and Lan Yue approached a squad of merfolk guards while Jiang Lin continued examining the flame.
• Pei Xuan explained that the Blue Sun could rival a Dou Zun and that Heavenly Flames also served specialized purposes in artifact forging.
• Pei Xuan told Jiang Lin that the Heavenly Flame Ranking had changed over time and did not reliably reflect each flame’s true strength.

Jiang Lin observed a mysterious shadow inside the Azure Merfolk Tribe’s Super Sea Heart Flame and accepted an invitation to meet the Merfolk Clan Mother. He hoped the visit would let him examine the flame more closely.

• Pei Xuan reflected that the Super Sea Heart Flame could grow to rival the most powerful Heavenly Flames, but neither he nor Jiang Lin needed to cultivate it.
• Jiang Lin spotted a dark shadow within the Super Sea Heart Flame, then turned his attention back to Kelly and the merfolk guards.
• The merfolk captain explained that Soul Hall was respected in the Vast Ancient Sea and offered Jiang Lin a Sea Heart Flame seed.
• Jiang Lin accepted the invitation to meet the Merfolk Clan Mother so he could approach and study the Super Sea Heart Flame.