Chapter Summaries

Jiang Donghua exposed and scattered an ambush of old students with his icy flame, then ordered his companions to choose opponents. Wang Han struck first against the leader surnamed Shi, and the new students launched their counterattack.

• Jiang Donghua called out the hidden old students and used his deep blue flame to freeze their hiding places and force them into the open.
• The old student surnamed Shi dismissed Jiang Donghua as a pill-dependent alchemist and demanded the group surrender its Fire Energy Cards.
• Jiang Donghua told his companions to choose opponents and said they could call on him if they struggled.
• Wang Han charged the old student surnamed Shi and drove him back with a powerful punch.
• Zhao Ming, Bai Ling, and Lin Xiu attacked opponents with similar auras while the Da Dou Shi students formed a defensive formation.

Jiang Donghua revealed overwhelming strength when he defeated Hong Tao and five other senior students who attacked him together. The battlefield fell silent as everyone questioned whether he was really a new student.

• Jiang Donghua prepared to join the battle after the senior students overwhelmed the new students.
• Hong Tao ambushed Jiang Donghua with Water Python Bind, but Jiang Donghua destroyed the water pythons and struck Hong Tao unconscious with one palm.
• Five senior students surrounded Jiang Donghua and attacked him with Mysterious-grade Combat Skills.
• Jiang Donghua used Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist to shatter their attacks and knock all five senior students unconscious.
• The battlefield went silent as both groups stared at Jiang Donghua in shock.

Jiang Donghua defeated the ambushing Inner Academy students and their fire energy was transferred to the new students’ cards. With his total exceeding five hundred, Shi Jinshui resolved to report Jiang’s strength as firsthand intelligence.

• Jiang Donghua shattered the combined attack of five Dou Lings, frightening the remaining old students into fleeing.
• Bai Ling and the other new students held off the escapees while Jiang Donghua swiftly captured them, and Wang Han knocked down Old Student surnamed Shi.
• Shi Jinshui questioned whether Jiang Donghua was truly an Outer Court student, and Jiang nodded without elaborating.
• Bai Ling urged Jiang Donghua to collect the spoils, and Zhao Ming, Wang Han, Lin Xiu, and the others searched the captured old students for their Fire Crystal Cards.
• Bai Ling transferred the old students’ fire energy to Jiang Donghua’s card, distributing the remaining share among the new students who had helped.
• Jiang Donghua’s card total passed five hundred, while Shi Jinshui decided to sell his account of Jiang’s strength as firsthand intelligence.

The Inner Academy elders watched Jiang Donghua overwhelm the old students and marveled at his strength and mysterious background. As he led the new students through the forest, he discovered another group of five old students and appeared beside them with astonishing speed.

• The elders saw Jiang Donghua defeat the old students and take their Fire Energy, then speculated about his alchemy skills and possible Central Plains origins.
• The elders concluded that Jiang Donghua was a valuable Inner Academy student and looked forward to seeing what he would do there.
• Five old students complained that they had found no new students until their captain sensed a large group approaching.
• The five spotted Jiang Donghua leading the new students, and he noticed their hiding place.
• Jiang Donghua suddenly appeared within five paces of the five old students, leaving them stunned by his speed.

Jiang Donghua defeated five old students who attacked him and took their Fire Crystal Cards, then told Bai Ling and the new students that he had become strong by practicing casually. The group was left stunned by his answer.

• The captain ordered the five old students to attack Jiang Donghua after he demanded their Fire Crystal Cards.
• Jiang Donghua used Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist to unleash a shockwave that shattered their attacks and sent all five flying.
• The injured old students handed over their Fire Crystal Cards, leaving each card with only seven Fire Energy.
• Jiang Donghua returned to the new student group, where Bai Ling asked how he had cultivated such strength.
• Jiang Donghua said he had practiced casually in his spare time and somehow ended up this strong, leaving the new students dumbfounded.

Jiang Donghua’s growing freshman force advanced through the forest as old students avoided them, while the Black Fiend Team resolved to defend the Black and White Pass’s pride with a nighttime sneak attack. The five infiltrated the outskirts of the freshmen’s camp and waited for an opening.

• Jiang Donghua’s group swelled to more than thirty freshmen as it rescued stragglers and pressed deeper into the forest.
• Old students spread warnings about Jiang Donghua’s strength and fled or detoured rather than risk losing their Fire Energy.
• The Black Fiend Team lamented the danger to their saved Fire Energy, and Captain Gao Quan learned the other old-student teams would not join them.
• Gao Quan decided the Black Fiend Team would attack the freshmen at night and target their leader or other core members.
• Gao Quan and the other four Black Fiend members crept toward the freshmen’s campsite and waited in hiding for a chance to strike.

Jiang Donghua surprised the Black Fiend Team by revealing that he had been watching them, then challenged all five members to attack together. He repelled their combined strike with one punch, leaving them enraged and ready to fight again.

• Yan Sen sensed Jiang Donghua behind the Black Fiend Team and alerted Gao Quan and the other members.
• Gao Quan recognized Jiang Donghua as a Six-star Dou Ling, but Jiang Donghua taunted the team and invited them to attack together.
• Gao Quan ordered the Black Fiend Team to strike, and all five members unleashed their strongest Mysterious Tier High-grade Combat Skills.
• Jiang Donghua countered the combined attack with his Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist, forcing all five members back while remaining unharmed.
• Jiang Donghua praised the team for taking his punch, enraging them, and Tu Meng prepared to attack him again.

Jiang Donghua overwhelmed the Black Fiend Team, whose members mistook him for a top-ranked Inner Academy fighter and surrendered their fire energy. He collected their Fire Crystal Cards and headed back to the freshman camp.

• The freshmen panicked at the distant clash, but Bai Ling, Zhao Ming, and Lin Xiu calmed them by reminding them to trust Jiang Donghua.
• The Black Fiend Team reeled from Jiang Donghua’s Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist and realized he was far stronger than a Six-star Dou Ling.
• Jiang Donghua prepared two more fists charged with silver lightning, prompting Gao Quan and the others to surrender immediately.
• Gao Quan handed over the team’s Fire Crystal Cards, and Jiang Donghua accepted them before returning toward the camp.

After the Black Fiend Team surrendered to Jiang Donghua, Inner Academy seniors focused their hopes on the White Fiend Team and its captain, Chen Ming. Jiang Donghua and his freshmen reached the stone gate to confront them, and Jiang immediately demanded their Fire Crystal Cards.

• News spread that Jiang Donghua had forced the Black Fiend Team to surrender and hand over its Fire Energy, prompting debate about whether numbers and pills had secured the freshmen's victory.
• Inner Academy seniors placed their hopes on the White Fiend Team, led by Strong Ranking's twenty-fifth, Chen Ming, to stop Jiang Donghua's team.
• The White Fiend Team waited at the stone gate as senior students and elders, including Ye Tianxing, gathered to watch.
• Jiang Donghua led dozens of freshmen out of the forest and stopped thirty meters from Chen Ming and the White Fiend Team.
• Jiang Donghua greeted the five senior students and asked them to take out their Fire Crystal Cards, prompting Chen Ming to unleash his Battle Qi.

Jiang Donghua faced Chen Ming and the White Fiend Team after demanding their Fire Crystal Cards, refusing his teammates’ help and challenging all five senior students alone. The White Fiend Team unleashed its powerful Dragon Submerging Sea Formation, and Jiang Donghua met their ice-water flood dragon with his Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist.

• Chen Ming warned Jiang Donghua that the White Fiend Team would not be intimidated, while his four teammates joined their Battle Qi into a powerful combined presence.
• Bai Ling and Wang Han cautioned Jiang Donghua about the team’s coordination and offered to help, but he told them to keep the other senior students back.
• Chen Ming ordered the Dragon Submerging Sea Formation, and the five White Fiend Team members summoned a gigantic ice-water flood dragon.
• Jiang Donghua advanced without retreating, transformed his right arm with the Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist, and struck the charging flood dragon in the head.

Jiang Donghua’s silver fist was overwhelmed by the White Fiend Team’s combined Ice Water Flood Dragon, but he revealed his Pale Cold Fire and began vaporizing their attack. The veteran students’ apparent victory collapsed as Jiang Donghua prepared to teach Chen Ming a lesson about underestimating an alchemist.

• Jiang Donghua’s Heavenly Gang Overlord Fist clashed with the White Fiend Team’s Ice Water Flood Dragon, but the five students’ combined power pushed it back.
• Chen Ming urged his teammates to pour more battle qi into the formation and taunted Jiang Donghua as the flood dragon advanced.
• Bai Ling, Wang Han, and the other freshmen prepared to intervene as Jiang Donghua calmly revealed that he was a Fourth-grade Alchemist.
• Jiang Donghua released the Pale Cold Fire, which rapidly melted and vaporized the Ice Water Flood Dragon and severed the White Fiend Team’s energy connection.
• Chen Ming and the veteran students reacted with shock as Jiang Donghua declared that his lesson was not to judge an alchemist’s trump card by common sense.

Jiang Donghua overwhelmed the White Fiend Team with Pale Cold Fire and repeated Heavenly Gang Overlord Fists, revealing strength that Chen Ming recognized as the result of an Earth-grade cultivation technique. Chen Ming surrendered and yielded the Fire Crystal Cards, leaving Jiang Donghua victorious in the trial.

• Jiang Donghua's Pale Cold Fire vaporized the White Fiend Team's combined Flood Dragon attack, stunning the arena and earning Ye Tianxing's admiration.
• Chen Ming rallied his teammates to form a defensive formation, believing Jiang Donghua could not sustain the flame's cost.
• Jiang Donghua struck the formation with two Heavenly Gang Overlord Fists, cracking its ice walls and water curtains.
• Jiang Donghua immediately gathered power for another attack, and Chen Ming concluded that he possessed an Earth-grade cultivation technique.
• Chen Ming and the White Fiend Team gave up the fight and surrendered their Fire Crystal Cards to Jiang Donghua.

After Jiang Donghua defeated the White Fiend Team and broke through Black and White Pass, Great Elder Ye Tianxing awarded all new students extra Fire Energy and upgraded Jiang Donghua’s card to purple. The old students realized he had used only two moves and began to see him as a possible challenger to the Inner Academy’s strongest figures.

• The new students celebrated Jiang Donghua’s victory, and Ye Tianxing praised their performance and awarded them one hundred Fire Energy points each.
• Ye Tianxing upgraded Jiang Donghua’s Fire Crystal Card to purple, and Jiang Donghua respectfully thanked him.
• After the elders departed, the old students realized Jiang Donghua had defeated the White Fiend Team using only two moves.
• The old students speculated that Jiang Donghua could rank among the top ten or even challenge the top three on the Strong Ranking.
• Jiang Donghua accepted his Purple Fire Crystal Card calmly as his name spread across the Inner Academy.

Jiang Donghua accepted Ye Tianxing's Purple Fire Crystal Card and learned that the Great Elder recognized his imminent breakthrough to Dou Wang, while advising him to form a faction to protect the freshmen. After Ye Tianxing departed, Jiang Donghua and his companions began discussing their new faction, leaving its name undecided.

• Ye Tianxing praised Jiang Donghua's peak Dou Ling strength and advised him to form a faction for the freshmen.
• Jiang Donghua told Ye Tianxing that he and his companions had already discussed forming a faction, and Ye Tianxing praised his foresight and revealed that Mo Xuan was his teacher.
• Ye Tianxing and the other elders departed, leaving Jiang Donghua and the freshmen at the Inner Academy entrance.
• Lin Xiu, Bai Ling, Wang Han, and Zhao Ming discussed the need for a unified faction and suggested qualities for its name.
• Jiang Donghua considered what to name the faction as the freshmen waited for his decision.

Jiang Donghua founded Donghua Pavilion with the new students, who rallied behind him after his victories. News of his strength and status as a Fourth-grade Alchemy Master spread through the Inner Academy, prompting rival factions to warn their members not to provoke him.

• Jiang Donghua named the new faction Donghua Pavilion, and the new students enthusiastically accepted the name.
• Older students recognized that nearly the entire new batch had joined Jiang Donghua and hurried to warn their factions about his influence and strength.
• A faction leader heard how Jiang Donghua had defeated the White Fiend Team’s combined technique and forced Chen Ming to surrender, and his members abandoned their contempt for him.
• A messenger revealed that Jiang Donghua was also a Fourth-grade Alchemy Master, prompting the leader to order his faction not to provoke Donghua Pavilion.
• Factions across the Inner Academy cautioned their members to avoid Jiang Donghua, and the founding of Donghua Pavilion quietly shifted the balance of power.

The new students renovated Donghua Pavilion when senior student Lei Lie arrived to meet Jiang Donghua, his old acquaintance, and brought him rare medicinal herbs. Jiang Donghua examined one of the herbs, leaving its value unclear.

• The new students used Earth and Wood Element battle qi to repair and renovate Donghua Pavilion.
• Niu Er reported that a powerful older student had come asking for Jiang Donghua, prompting the new students to prepare for trouble.
• Jiang Donghua recognized Lei Lie by his familiar scent and welcomed him as an old acquaintance.
• Lei Lie gave Jiang Donghua several rare herbs he had taken from guardian magical beasts in the mountains.
• Jiang Donghua examined an herb marked by intertwined ice and fire and asked Lei Lie about it.

Lei Lie brought Jiang Donghua three rare medicinal herbs he had seized from powerful Demonic Beasts, and Jiang repaid him with two Fourth-grade Fire Spirit Pills. Lei Lie described his and Liu Qingsi’s training and their envy of Xiao Han’s breakthrough to Dou Wang, while Jiang encouraged him to cultivate patiently.

• Lei Lie told Jiang Donghua that he had taken three unusual herbs from a three- or four-star Tier 5 Demonic Beast and other dangerous locations.
• Jiang Donghua identified the herbs as rare ingredients for Fourth-grade and Fifth-grade Pills, then gave Lei Lie two Fire Spirit Pills in return.
• Lei Lie accepted the pills and offered to fight or search for treasures whenever Jiang Donghua needed help.
• Jiang Donghua asked why Liu Qingsi had not come, and Lei Lie explained that she was focused on training in the Heavenly Incineration Qi Tower while he preferred fighting and exploring.
• Lei Lie said he and Liu Qingsi had only recently reached Nine-Star Battle Spirit, while Xiao Han had used Earth Core Fire Jade Marrow to break through to Dou Wang and return to the Central Plains.
• Jiang Donghua told Lei Lie that a Nine-Star Battle Spirit was already first-rate in the Inner Academy and that cultivation could not be rushed.

Jiang Donghua learned about the Inner Academy's Strong Ranking and its top-ranked fighter, Qin Xiao, whose lightning-fire Dou Qi and record of killing a Tier 5 Demonic Beast excited him. Seeking resources and a place at the top, he ordered Donghua Pavilion to challenge nearly every top-ranked student, leaving the Inner Academy facing a major bout in three days.

• Lei Lie told Jiang Donghua that he ranked fourth on the Strong Ranking and Liu Qingsi ranked second.
• Lei Lie described the first-ranked Qin Xiao's fused lightning-fire Dou Qi and his fearsome combat strength, while freshmen recalled Qin Xiao had killed a Tier 5 Demonic Beast.
• Jiang Donghua welcomed the prospect of fighting Qin Xiao and explained that climbing the Strong Ranking would help him earn Fire Energy and obtain Earth-tier Dou Techniques.
• Jiang Donghua ordered Lin Xiu, Bai Ling, Wang Han, and Zhao Ming to deliver challenge letters to the top twenty-four ranked students, excluding Lei Lie and Liu Qingsi.
• Jiang Donghua scheduled the challenges for three days later at the arena and said he would fight the opponents one by one or all at once.

Jiang Donghua challenged twenty-two of the Strong Ranking’s top twenty-four students, shocking the Inner Academy and prompting most to refuse or avoid the fight. Three days later, only a handful accepted, including third-ranked Xie Ying and eighth-ranked Han Jue, who waited in the arena for Jiang Donghua to arrive.

• Jiang Donghua ordered Lin Xiu and the others to deliver challenge letters to twenty-two Strong Ranking experts, excluding Lei Lie and Liu Qingsi.
• The challenged students reacted with anger and suspicion, but most sent excuses and declined to fight.
• The Inner Academy gathered at the arena three days later, where only a handful of challengers appeared.
• Xie Ying and Han Jue arrived to accept Jiang Donghua’s challenge and declared their intent to test and teach him a lesson.
• The crowd waited for Jiang Donghua to enter the arena.

Jiang Donghua appeared at the arena to face twenty-two Strong Ranking experts, and his strangely subdued aura led Chen Ming and the elders to realize he had advanced to Dou Wang. The elders recognized that his new realm, cultivation technique, and flame made his challenge credible.

• Chen Ming and his teammates sensed that Jiang Donghua's aura had changed dramatically since their fight three days earlier and wondered whether he had reached Dou Wang.
• Chen Ming's teammates dismissed the possibility, believing he had merely concealed his strength with a technique or treasure.
• Grand Elder Ye Tianxing examined Jiang Donghua and confirmed to the nearby elders that he had broken through to Dou Wang.
• Ye Tianxing concluded that Jiang Donghua's new cultivation, technique, and flame gave him the confidence to challenge so many opponents.
• The duty elders were shaken by Jiang Donghua's achievement and began regarding him as a powerhouse on their level.