Chapter Summaries

Hun Ruoruo failed her bloodline test and faced expulsion from the Soul Realm, but she persuaded Hun Huan to take her on as his servant. After luring him to her home, she asked him to die.

• Hun Ruoruo's test showed no Bloodline Power, and the black-robed examiner ordered her to leave the Soul Realm or become a servant.
• Hun Ruoruo pleaded for a place to shelter and used her beauty to persuade the examiner to take her on as a servant.
• The examiner introduced himself as Hun Huan and offered to stay at Hun Ruoruo's house before taking her with him.
• At her home, Hun Ruoruo leaned close to Hun Huan and asked him to die.

Hun Ruoruo defeated Hun Huan with the Soul Absorption Technique, but her confrontation was interrupted by the father she had claimed was dead. Hun Tiandi restored Hun Huan's soul and revealed his identity, leaving Hun Ruoruo face to face with her long-absent father.

• Hun Ruoruo used the Soul Absorption Technique to incapacitate Hun Huan, who threatened her with the Soul Clan's Commander.
• Hun Ruoruo sensed a refined scholar watching them from a stone stool and confronted him.
• Hun Huan learned that the scholar was Hun Ruoruo's father, and Hun Tiandi told her not to kill the loyal attendant.
• Hun Tiandi restored Hun Huan's damaged soul, and Hun Huan asked the scholar who he was.
• Hun Tiandi introduced himself as Hun Tiandi.

Hun Tiandi revealed himself to Hun Huan and forgave him, while Hun Ruoruo confronted her father about her expulsion from the Soul Clan and her plans to leave. Hun Ruoruo refused his offer to make an exception to the rules and asked him to provide cultivation resources instead.

• Hun Tiandi identified himself to Hun Huan, who panicked, kowtowed, and begged forgiveness for offending Hun Ruoruo.
• Hun Tiandi dismissed Hun Huan and asked him to keep the encounter secret, and Hun Huan fled toward the Soul Realm’s center.
• Hun Ruoruo returned to her original appearance and reminded Hun Tiandi that her failed bloodline test meant she had been expelled and would have to leave the Soul Realm in three days.
• Hun Tiandi offered to make an exception and keep Hun Ruoruo in the Soul Clan, but she said she wanted to leave and gain experience.
• Hun Tiandi warned that Hun Ruoruo’s strength and disguise would not protect her in the Central Continent, and she asked him to give her cultivation resources instead.

Hun Ruoruo obtained cultivation resources from Hun Tiandi and left the Soul Realm, while he discovered that she had secretly stripped away her Divine Bloodline. He allowed her to go despite knowing her hatred, then ordered Hun Miesheng to send everyone who had met her to the Soul Hall’s formations.

• Hun Ruoruo asked Hun Tiandi for resources and permission to leave, offering the contents of her Storage Ring as an equal exchange.
• Hun Ruoruo departed with her black wings, and Hun Tiandi watched her go before entering her wooden house.
• Hun Tiandi used her Storage Ring to retrieve a jade bottle and a Star Disk, then activated the disk with blood.
• Hun Miesheng arrived, and Hun Tiandi revealed that Hun Ruoruo had possessed a Divine Bloodline seven years earlier but had stripped it from herself.
• Hun Tiandi dismissed Hun Miesheng’s concerns about letting Hun Ruoruo leave and ordered him to send everyone who had encountered her to the Soul Hall’s formations.

Hun Ruoruo disguised herself as a Soul Hall member to escape the Soul Realm, planning to find Xiao Yan and secure her survival. She crossed the Realm Protecting Soul River and left the place where she had lived for sixteen years.

• Hun Ruoruo crossed Sword Soul Mountain and planned to travel south through a Spatial Wormhole to the Northwest Region.
• Hun Ruoruo decided to seek out Xiao Yan and invest in him before he rose to prominence, hoping he might help her avenge herself on Hun Tiandi.
• Hun Ruoruo disguised herself in a black robe and altered her voice to impersonate a Soul Hall member.
• Hun Ruoruo showed the Guards Hun Tiandi's Heavenly Venerate Token, and they escorted her through the realm gate without inspection.
• Hun Ruoruo crossed the Realm Protecting Soul River and escaped the Soul Realm.

Hun Ruoruo exchanged Hun Tiandi’s treasures in Jiang City and prepared to travel to the Jia Ma Empire. Two months later, Xiao Yan failed to improve his Dou Qi rank in Wutan City and left the training ground as Xiao Xun'er took her turn.

• Hun Ruoruo exchanged the treasures in her Storage Ring at Zhenjiang Auction House for medicinal ingredients, pills, and Gold Coins.
• Hun Ruoruo received maps of the Northwest Region, including one of the Jia Ma Empire, and planned to leave Central Continent.
• In Wutan City, Xiao Yan tested at Dou Qi, Third Stage, and endured the crowd’s mockery.
• Xiao Yan heard a voice echo his thoughts, but found no one beside him and left the training ground in anger.
• The examiner called Xiao Xun'er, and Xiao Yan paused to watch her before walking away.

Xiao Yan met a mysterious black-robed girl on the Xiao Family's Back Mountain, where she offered to help him become stronger and revealed that she knew about his unusual Soul Force. She vanished after giving him an ancient Storage Ring, leaving Xiao Yan to suspect she was connected to the honored guest expected at his home tomorrow.

• Xiao Yan reflected on his fifteen years of life before a black-robed girl appeared beside him and admitted she had imitated his words during the afternoon test.
• The girl praised Xiao Yan's bearing and offered to help him become stronger, but Xiao Yan refused because he distrusted her.
• The girl revealed that Xiao Yan's Soul Force was unusual and told him to give her an answer the next day.
• The girl vanished after brushing Xiao Yan's knuckles, leaving an ancient Storage Ring behind.
• Xiao Yan's father arrived without noticing the girl and told him an honored guest would visit the family tomorrow.

Xiao Yan realized that Nalan Yanran, a Misty Cloud Sect disciple, had come to dissolve their engagement, while the Mysterious Girl’s earlier riddle weighed on his mind. Ge Ye asked Xiao Zhan to end the engagement on the sect’s behalf.

• Xun'er told Xiao Yan that the visitors’ Cloud-shaped Silver Sword insignias identified them as members of the Misty Cloud Sect.
• Xun'er revealed that the girl was Nalan Yanran, Yun Yun’s personal disciple, and Xiao Yan understood why she had come.
• Xiao Yan connected the visit to the Mysterious Girl’s warning and grew angry at the prospect of a public annulment disgracing him and Xiao Zhan.
• Ge Ye told Xiao Zhan that the Misty Cloud Sect forbade its successor from romantic involvement before becoming sect master and asked him to dissolve Nalan Yanran’s engagement.

Nalan Yanran tried to break off her engagement to Xiao Yan, but he defended his family’s honor and rejected her offers. She proposed a Three-Year Pact in which Xiao Yan could challenge her at the Misty Cloud Sect, leaving him to decide whether to accept.

• Xiao Zhan lost his temper at Nalan Yanran’s demand, and she offered a Qi Gathering Powder refined by Gu He as an apology.
• Xiao Yan rejected the gift and argued that neither Nalan Yanran nor his father could dissolve an engagement made by their families’ elders.
• Nalan Yanran offered Xiao Yan three Qi Gathering Powders and a chance to join the Misty Cloud Sect, but he insisted that her demand would humiliate his father and the Xiao Family.
• After Xiao Yan’s killing intent frightened Nalan Yanran, she invoked her teacher’s authority and proposed that he challenge her in three years.
• Nalan Yanran declared the Three-Year Pact her final offer, promising to dissolve the engagement publicly if Xiao Yan lost.

Xiao Yan accepted Nalan Yanran’s challenge, wrote a divorce letter, and vowed to confront her again in three years. After leaving the hall, he met the Mysterious Girl on the Back Mountain and agreed to pursue strength.

• Nalan Yanran challenged Xiao Yan to go to the Misty Cloud Sect in three years, and Xiao Yan accepted by cutting his palm and sealing a divorce letter with his blood.
• Xiao Yan vowed to defeat Nalan Yanran in three years and left the hall after kowtowing to Xiao Zhan.
• Xiao Zhan praised Xiao Yan and declared his belief that his son would no longer be considered trash.
• Xiao Yan confronted the Mysterious Girl on the Back Mountain and admitted he could not endure Nalan Yanran’s humiliation of his father.
• The Mysterious Girl asked whether Xiao Yan wanted to become stronger, and he answered that he did.
• The Mysterious Girl proposed that Nalan Yanran someday serve Xiao Yan, but he said he would only demand that she apologize to his father.

Hun Ruoruo took Xiao Yan’s ring and revealed herself to Yao Chen, explaining that she wanted his help killing Hun Tiandi. The chapter left Yao Chen stunned by her request.

• Hun Ruoruo healed Xiao Yan’s injured palm, borrowed his mother’s ring, and vanished before a purple-clad figure approached him.
• Hun Ruoruo left the Xiao Family and summoned Yao Chen from the ring in a secluded forest.
• Yao Chen questioned Hun Ruoruo about her origins and her interest in Xiao Yan, while she inferred that he intended to make Xiao Yan his disciple.
• Hun Ruoruo denied belonging to the Soul Hall but admitted that her surname was Hun.
• Hun Ruoruo asked Yao Chen to help her kill Hun Tiandi, leaving him shocked.

Hun Ruoruo convinced Yao Chen that she was Hun Tiandi’s daughter and that he had extracted her bloodline, then persuaded Yao Chen to cooperate with her and Xiao Yan. Yao Chen agreed to bet on their potential, while Hun Ruoruo kept her real reason for making Xiao Yan wary to herself.

• Hun Ruoruo told Yao Chen that Hun Tiandi was her biological father, then showed him scars where her Dou Di bloodline had been extracted.
• Yao Chen believed Hun Ruoruo’s account and sympathized with her, though he warned that Xiao Yan would struggle to reach the strength needed to oppose Hun Tiandi.
• Hun Ruoruo urged Yao Chen not to give up on Xiao Yan, pointing to his courage in standing up to the Misty Cloud Sect’s Young Sect Master.
• Yao Chen regained his resolve and agreed to cooperate with Hun Ruoruo and place his hopes on her and Xiao Yan.
• Yao Chen questioned why Hun Ruoruo had left Xiao Yan thinking she was using him, and she dismissed it as a hobby while concealing her true motive.

Xiao Yan waited for Hun Ruoruo to return his Storage Ring, then met Old Man Yao, who revealed that he had absorbed Xiao Yan’s Dou Qi for three years. Old Man Yao offered to take Xiao Yan as his disciple, but Xiao Yan remained suspicious of him.

• Xiao Yan recalled his awkward encounter with Xun'er and wondered why Hun Ruoruo had taken his Storage Ring.
• Old Man Yao appeared at Xiao Yan’s door, and Xiao Yan slammed it shut before Old Man Yao passed through the door into his room.
• Xiao Yan realized Old Man Yao lived inside the Storage Ring and accused him of secretly absorbing his Dou Qi for three years.
• Old Man Yao admitted absorbing Xiao Yan’s Dou Qi and argued that the hardships had helped him grow.
• Old Man Yao said Hun Ruoruo had arranged for him to teach Xiao Yan everything he knew and offered to take Xiao Yan as his disciple.
• Xiao Yan distrusted Old Man Yao and wanted to get rid of him.

Old Man Yao persuaded Xiao Yan to consider becoming his disciple by revealing his ghostly flames and offering to teach him alchemy and techniques that could evolve. While gathering ingredients for Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid, Xiao Yan encountered Hun Ruoruo and asked why others could not sense her; she promised to explain Soul Force after he reached the Seventh Stage Dou Qi.

• Old Man Yao showed Xiao Yan his ghostly white flames and asked whether he wanted to become an Alchemist.
• Xiao Yan resolved to reach the Dou Zhe level and headed to the Marketplace to buy Bone Washing Flowers for Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid.
• Xiao Yan discovered Hun Ruoruo was selling the Bone Washing Flowers and complained that she had made him come to the Marketplace for them.
• Hun Ruoruo told Xiao Yan that she would teach him the uses of Soul Force after he reached the Seventh Stage Dou Qi.

Xiao Yan learned that Soul Force could be cultivated, then struggled back to the Xiao Family carrying Hun Ruoruo’s stall bundle. He ignored Xiao Mei when they crossed paths, leaving their former closeness behind as he continued home with Hun Ruoruo.

• Hun Ruoruo explained that some cultivation methods could train Soul Force, though talent depended on a person’s innate strength.
• Hun Ruoruo packed up her stall and made Xiao Yan carry her enormous bundle back through the Marketplace, where bystanders mistook him for an abused laborer and tried to help.
• Xiao Yan returned to the Xiao Family’s rear courtyard exhausted and spotted Xiao Mei walking nearby.
• Xiao Yan passed Xiao Mei without greeting her, and when she called after him, he answered coldly before continuing toward Xiao Manor.
• Hun Ruoruo asked Xiao Yan whether Xiao Mei had once been close to him, but Xiao Yan stayed silent.

Xiao Yan received Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid to aid his cultivation, while Hun Ruoruo teased him and helped temper his body with her Water attribute Dou Qi. The chapter ended with Old Man Yao telling Xiao Yan he would need to buy another Bone Washing Flower within two months, and Hun Ruoruo rejecting his hopes of getting it for free.

• Hun Ruoruo stored Xiao Yan's weights as he returned home, where Old Man Yao revealed he had nearly finished refining the Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid.
• Hun Ruoruo admired Old Man Yao's Bone Spirit Cold Flame and hid her knowledge of Heavenly Flames and the dangerous location where she had stashed the Nihility Devouring Flame fragment.
• Hun Ruoruo teased Xiao Yan about asking after her background and offered to bathe and dress him, embarrassing him into changing the subject.
• Hun Ruoruo placed a sphere of Water attribute Dou Qi into Xiao Yan's wooden tub, and Old Man Yao added the Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid.
• Old Man Yao said the liquid could help Xiao Yan reach the seventh stage within a year and possibly become a Dou Zhe, then warned that Xiao Yan would need to buy another Bone Washing Flower within two months.
• Hun Ruoruo smiled at Xiao Yan's disappointment and told him he could not get the Bone Washing Flower for nothing.

After a month of cultivation with Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid and Hun Ruoruo’s help, Xiao Yan approached a breakthrough to the Fifth Stage of Dou Qi. Hun Ruoruo continued cultivating in seclusion outside Wutan City, while Xiao Yan resolved to keep advancing and restore his former reputation.

• Xiao Yan made astonishing progress over the month and neared the bottleneck of the Fifth Stage of Dou Qi.
• Hun Ruoruo cultivated in a secluded forest cabin, using barriers to hide her Soul Skills from Ling Ying.
• Hun Ruoruo concluded she could not improve her Soul Force through alchemy and planned to strengthen it through Soul Skills and later devour souls.
• Xiao Yan found that most of the medicinal power in his Foundation Building Spiritual Liquid had been used up and dreaded asking Hun Ruoruo for more Bone Washing Flowers.
• Xiao Yan reflected on Hun Ruoruo’s help, then vowed to cultivate until the Xiao Family’s former genius was renowned again.

Xiao Yan gathered low-grade Dou Techniques to practice after realizing his combat skills lagged behind his cultivation, then reunited with Xun'er at the Training Ground. When Xiao Ning arrived, Xiao Yan said he had come at just the right time and prepared to demonstrate his combat ability to Xun'er.

• Xiao Yan collected dusty Yellow-tier low-grade Dou Techniques because Hun Ruoruo had no techniques suited to his current strength.
• Xiao Yan paused to watch people sparring at the Dou Technique Training Ground and noticed the crowd looking behind him.
• Xiao Yan reunited with Xun'er, who teased him about Hun Ruoruo and criticized his choice of low-grade techniques.
• Xiao Yan spotted Xiao Ning approaching, told Xun'er to watch, and greeted Xiao Ning with a broad smile.

Xiao Ning mocked Xiao Yan and challenged him to a spar, expecting an easy victory over his supposedly weak cousin. Xiao Yan accepted and stood calm as Xiao Ning launched a Stone Piercing Hand at him.

• Xiao Ning saw Xiao Yan collecting Yellow-tier low-grade Dou Techniques and pretended to offer help, but balked when Xiao Yan asked him for a Yellow-tier Advanced close-combat technique.
• Xiao Yan called out Xiao Ning for trying to win Xun'er's attention, and Xiao Ning challenged him to a spar.
• Xiao Yan accepted the challenge and walked to the Training Ground while Xun'er guarded his sack and cheered him on.
• Xiao Ning, recently advanced to Eighth Stage Dou Qi, warned Xiao Yan about the danger of his aura, but Xiao Yan calmly told him to fight.
• Xiao Ning rushed at Xiao Yan and struck toward his chest with the Yellow-tier low-grade Dou Technique Stone Piercing Hand.

Xiao Yan defeated Xiao Ning in a fight at the Dou Technique Hall, revealing that his strength exceeded the Third Stage of Dou Qi. After returning home, he found a green-skirted girl waiting for him and reproaching him for forgetting her.

• Xiao Yan countered Xiao Ning's attack on his wrist, then revealed that his strength was around the Fifth Stage of Dou Qi.
• Xiao Ning unleashed his Dou Qi and attacked Xiao Yan with the Yellow-tier Mid-grade Dou Technique Rending Claw Strike.
• Xiao Yan endured cuts to his fists and arm, then struck Xiao Ning in the chest and defeated him.
• Xiao Yan promised Xiao Ning a chance to challenge him at the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, then left the Dou Technique Hall with Xun'er.
• Xiao Yan returned home before dusk and found a green-skirted girl waiting inside, accusing him of forgetting her.