Chapter Summaries

Luo Jun and the other students entered the Martial World through the Yuan Cultivation Society’s hidden base beneath the academy, received thought imprints, and were introduced to their new identities as disciples of the Hundred Rivers Sect. The Acting Head assigned them to travel to Medicine King Valley with gifts and a congratulatory letter for its master’s sixtieth birthday.

• Teacher Tie Jingang led the students into the mountain’s hidden Yuan Cultivation Society facility and explained that a machine would imprint a warning against revealing information about the Main World.
• The staff explained that the thought imprint was only a safeguard, usually lasted a few months, and worked alongside an unexplained tendency for Otherworlders to disregard information about the Main World.
• Luo Jun received the imprint, then followed the students through the Martial World Gate and changed into the Hundred Rivers Sect’s gray disciple attire.
• Tong Wenjie introduced himself as the Acting Head of the Hundred Rivers Sect and ordered the students to use the sect’s forms of address.
• Tong Wenjie assigned the students to deliver gifts and a congratulatory letter to Medicine King Valley for Valley Master Sun Yichen’s sixtieth birthday, warning them about the long journey and bandits.

Luo Jun and his fellow disciples prepared to escort birthday gifts to the Medicine King, with experienced seniors guiding the mission. Ling Xin arrived carrying a notorious thief’s severed head and joined the escort, bringing the party to fifty people.

• Luo Jun calculated that the group had about twenty days to travel eight hundred li and deliver the birthday gifts.
• The Acting Head assigned Tie Jingang and four experienced Blue Robe disciples to lead the newly initiated students on the escort mission.
• The students and senior disciples loaded ten carts with gifts, supplies, and luggage, disguising themselves as ordinary merchants.
• Ling Xin entered the sect carrying the severed head of Hua Wuyi, whom she had killed after he tried to steal the Hundred Rivers Sect’s Art of Hidden Weapons.
• Tong Wenjie ordered Hua Wuyi’s head taken to the authorities, and Tie Jingang introduced Ling Xin as their classmate and fellow escort.
• Luo Jun counted the group and felt reassured when Ling Xin’s arrival brought their total to fifty.

Luo Jun traveled with the escort convoy toward Medicine King Valley, while Ling Xin and Lao Miao Miao discussed Night and their feelings about him. As the convoy crossed a valley, Ling Xin sensed an ambush just as giant stones and logs came crashing down the mountainside.

• The convoy set out for Medicine King Valley, and Luo Jun walked with Lu Fei, who assured him the route was usually safe.
• Luo Jun tried to greet Ling Xin, but she gave him a cold response and went to the rear of the convoy.
• Lao Miao Miao asked Ling Xin about Night, and Ling Xin described him as talented but self-righteous and ill-mannered.
• Ling Xin told Lao Miao Miao she was not interested in Night, and Lao Miao Miao blushed at the reassurance.
• Ling Xin sensed something approaching, and giant stones and logs began rolling down the mountainside toward the convoy.

Luo Jun and the students were ambushed by Mountain Bandits during their escort mission, and the students fought their first battle against human enemies. Afterward, Tie Jingang warned them to treat the Martial World as a dangerous reality, while Luo Jun noticed that the attack had been staged to toughen the newcomers.

• Li Xinyu, Deng Qian, Qian Dong, Tie Jingang, Song Shan, and the students defended the convoy from rolling logs and boulders as Mountain Bandits charged from the slopes.
• Teacher Tie and the senior disciples engaged the bandit chiefs while the students fought the other attackers, and Luo Jun judged the ambush to be a staged lesson for the rookies.
• Lei Tianyang, Lu Fei, and Xiao Tian killed Mountain Bandits as the students grew more accustomed to fighting, while Luo Jun watched beside a horse chariot.
• When a bandit charged Luo Jun, Ling Xin cut him apart with golden light before Luo Jun could attack.
• The battle ended with several chiefs escaping, the five Horse Chariots intact, and no students injured; Tie Jingang then urged the students to survive by taking the Martial World seriously.

The internship convoy arrived in Tongda Town, where the students settled into an inn reserved by the Hundred Rivers Sect and shared stories about their Wildlands experiences. When two sword-carrying women arrived seeking rooms, Luo Jun recognized the blue-clad senior sister as Liu Moyean, the woman he had fought and killed in the Miracle Chess Game.

• The convoy reached Tongda Town, and the internship team took over the Hundred Rivers Sect's largest inn for the night.
• At dinner, Zhao Jian and Xu Yiming told Luo Jun and Lu Fei that they had shared a Wildlands dormitory with Night, who had been invited by the Frost Moon Troupe's second-in-command.
• Luo Jun hid his reaction as Zhao Jian and Xu Yiming praised Night's reputation and described meeting him.
• Ying Er demanded a room at the inn, but her blue-clad senior sister urged her to leave and apologize to the innkeeper.
• Luo Jun recognized the blue-clad woman as Liu Moyean, the strongest chess piece projected by the Red Side in the Miracle Chess Game, whom he had personally killed there.

Liu Moyean and Ying Er clashed with the Hundred Rivers Sect disciples at an inn after Ying Er tried to take Luo Jun’s room. Liu Moyean led her junior sister away, warning that the inn held several formidable experts, including one whose identity she chose not to reveal.

• Ying Er threw silver at Luo Jun and demanded his room, but Ling Xin cut the silver in half with a golden sword formed from Qi.
• Xiao Tian confronted Ying Er, and she drew her sword after Ling Xin criticized Zuo Taixuan; Liu Moyean intervened and apologized before taking Ying Er away.
• Tie Jingang and the Blue-clothed Disciples watched from upstairs, and Tie Jingang praised the Hundred Rivers Sect students for standing together.
• Liu Moyean scolded Ying Er for provoking the inn’s occupants and said that several people there were experts they should not underestimate.
• Liu Moyean identified Ling Xin and Tie Jingang as two of the inn’s dangerous figures, but withheld the identity of the third before leading Ying Er to another inn.

Luo Jun and his companions strolled through Tongda Town, where Luo Jun exchanged silver for copper coins and learned about the local currency from Lu Fei. They ran into Ying Er, who accused Luo Jun of taking her money, and her Senior Brother Wu ordered his companions to attack him.

• Luo Jun, Lu Fei, Zhao Jian, and Xu Yiming explored Tongda Town and stopped to buy Sour Spirit Fruits.
• Lu Fei explained that silver was valuable in the [Martial World], so Luo Jun exchanged some of his silver for copper coins at the Gathering Treasure Pavilion.
• Lu Fei described the local economy and said he had studied the [Martial World] because he hoped to become an explorer there.
• The group recognized Ying Er at a fruit stall and tried to leave, but Ying Er's companions blocked their way.
• Ying Er accused Luo Jun of having her money, and Senior Brother Wu demanded that he return it and apologize.
• Ying Er insisted Luo Jun be punished, and Senior Brother Wu ordered his Junior Brothers to take him down.

Luo Jun used a strange smoke bomb to escape the Sword Saint Sect, then returned to the inn with Lu Fei and the others and shared Sour Spirit Fruits with the students. The Sword Saint Sect attacked the inn, accusing them of endangering Ying Er, who was carried in unconscious and badly injured.

• Luo Jun threw a purple smoke bomb and guided Lu Fei, Zhao Jian, and Xu Yiming through the disoriented crowd, taking the snack stall’s Sour Spirit Fruits as they escaped.
• Luo Jun and his companions returned late to the inn, where Tie Jingang scolded them before accepting Luo Jun’s snacks and hearing that Sword Saint Sect members had attacked them.
• Luo Jun distributed Sour Spirit Fruits to the students, including Ling Xin, who thanked him and tasted one.
• Sword Saint Sect members split the inn’s door with Sword Qi, and Tie Jingang blocked the attack as the students reached for their weapons.
• Senior Brother Wu confronted Tie Jingang and revealed Ying Er, unconscious with purple-blue skin and ulcers, carried on another disciple’s back.

After Ying Er was found suffering from a mysterious, body-rotting poison, the Hundred Rivers Sect members denied causing it and helped the Sword Saint Sect seek treatment. Liu Moyean arrived and offered a Divine Sword Token in exchange for help, leaving the two sects facing the urgent task of saving Ying Er.

• Wu Xiong accused Luo Jun of poisoning Ying Er, but Luo Jun explained that his purple mist only disrupted people’s sense of direction and denied harming her.
• Tie Jingang and Li Xinyu questioned the Sword Saint Sect disciples about possible Southern Borderlands poison, while Wu Xiong used a Turtle Breath Pill to halt Ying Er’s decline and sought a physician.
• Liu Moyean learned of Ying Er’s condition and rushed to the inn, where a physician admitted he could not identify the toxin or examine her sealed pulse.
• Liu Moyean trusted the Hundred Rivers Sect’s denial and asked them to help cure Ying Er, pledging a Divine Sword Token as a reward.

Tie Jingang and the Hundred Rivers Sect disciples failed to cure Ying Er’s poison with their healing abilities and Treasure Tools. Lao Miao Miao revealed a Legendary Wheel of Fate, and Tie Jingang chose Luo Jun to use it, leaving the result of the gamble unknown.

• Tie Jingang gathered the escort team to discuss ways to cure Ying Er’s mysterious poison and offered rewards for anyone who could help.
• Ling Xin, Lei Tianyang, and Lu Fei presented Treasure Tools for testing, but none of them worked.
• Tie Jingang returned the ineffective items and admitted that the group could not cure Ying Er.
• Lao Miao Miao revealed a Legendary Treasure Item called the Wheel of Fate, and Tie Jingang recognized that it might cure Ying Er.
• Tie Jingang handed the Wheel of Fate to Luo Jun and told him to use it; its attributes revealed four possible effects and a random punishment after activation.

Luo Jun used the Wheel of Fate to heal Ying Er by regressing her body in time, despite the danger of drawing a penalty. Ying Er recovered with no memory of the past day, and Luo Jun was stunned by the enormous experience reward before he could explain himself.

• Tie Jingang asked Luo Jun to use the Wheel of Fate on Ying Er because his Body Refinement Realm would protect him from Gang Qi backlash.
• Luo Jun agreed, activated the Dice of Heavenly Secrets, and drew the time regression effect, but failed to draw a blank penalty and received a tenfold cooldown penalty.
• The Wheel of Fate regressed Ying Er's condition and erased her memories of the past day, restoring her to health.
• Ying Er woke confused, heard that Luo Jun had saved her, and thanked him as her senior sisters and brothers explained what had happened.
• Luo Jun received 912 experience points for the successful healing, saw the twelve-times severity coefficient, and exclaimed, "Wait!"

Luo Jun pressured Liu Moyean and Wu Xiong to reveal Ying Er’s hidden identity after saving her from the poison. The Sword Saint Sect members left after explaining that Ying Er was Prince Yong’s daughter and suspecting a conspiracy between the imperial court and Heaven’s Gate, but Luo Jun privately concluded the poisoner was not from the imperial court.

• Luo Jun used the Dice of Heavenly Secrets and argued that the Hundred Rivers Sect needed to know why Ying Er had been poisoned, persuading Liu Moyean and Wu Xiong to disclose her secret.
• Wu Xiong revealed that Ying Er was Prince Yong’s daughter, and Liu Moyean recounted how her mother had fled to the Sword Saint Sect after Prince Yong’s defeat and death.
• Liu Moyean and Wu Xiong suspected the imperial court and Heaven’s Gate were working together to target Ying Er ahead of the Sword Saint Sect Master’s duel with the Heaven’s Gate Sect Master.
• Luo Jun pledged the Hundred Rivers Sect’s support to the Sword Saint Sect, and Liu Moyean asked everyone to keep Ying Er’s identity secret.
• After the Sword Saint Sect members left, Li Xinyu worried that Luo Jun had exposed them to the imperial court, but Luo Jun insisted the poisoner was not from the imperial court.

Luo Jun’s explanation reassured the Hundred Rivers Sect that the imperial court was not behind Ying Er’s poisoning, and the group departed Tongda Town. Meanwhile, Ying Er and Liu Moyean faced a corpse-poisoned monster, while Yan Wushi led the recovering Shen Qiao outside and challenged his compassion and resolve.

• Luo Jun reasoned that the imperial court had no motive to poison Ying Er, gained experience and leveled up, and the Hundred Rivers Sect decided to leave Tongda Town.
• Tie Jingang promised to seek approval for an Epic Treasure Item for Luo Jun, and the students gathered around him to ask about Ying Er’s poisoning.
• Tie Jingang ordered the students to keep Ying Er’s background and the previous night’s events secret, and the convoy left through Tongda Town’s south gate.
• A corpse-poisoned monster attacked Ying Er and Liu Moyean at an inn, and Liu Moyean beheaded it with the Crimson Flame Sword before its severed head lunged at her.
• Yan Wushi helped Shen Qiao walk around their post station, dismissed his concerns about Su He, and claimed he had saved Shen Qiao only to watch him struggle.

Luo Jun and his companions reached Shannan Town and settled into an inn while traveling toward Medicine King Valley. After the boys joked about Zhao Jian’s crush on Ling Xin, explosions and fire erupted outside, leaving the group facing an unknown attack.

• Tie Jingang warned the students about danger beyond Tongda Town as the escort traveled toward Shannan Town.
• Lu Fei explained that Shannan Town charged travelers tolls and that Clear Breeze Stronghold, once a bandit group, now helped control the area.
• Tie Jingang assigned the students to three inns, and Luo Jun shared a room with Lu Fei, Zhao Jian, and Xu Yiming.
• Zhao Jian claimed Ling Xin was interested in him, and Luo Jun revealed that he and Ling Xin had been high school classmates.
• An explosion shook the inn, and Lu Fei identified its source as outside before a blaze rose beyond the window.

A fire in Shannan Town revealed burning attackers that bit residents and transformed into fast, grotesque monsters. Luo Jun identified them as Mutated Zombies from the Wasteland, infected with the Eternal Virus, while the students remained gathered in the inn.

• Song Shan and Deng Qian gathered the students in one room and told them to wait while they contacted their allies.
• Ling Xin spotted human figures walking calmly through the flames as residents fled the fire.
• Fire people attacked and bit the fire officers and townspeople trying to stop them.
• One attacker transformed into a fast monster with spider-like limbs, a split jaw, and a bladed tail, and other fire people began mutating as well.
• Song Shan suspected a secret technique from the Hundred Poisons Sect, but Lu Fei rejected the theory.
• Luo Jun identified the monsters as Mutated Zombies from the Wasteland, known as Eternal Virus Tier 1 Infected.

Luo Jun and the students learned that Tie Jingang had confirmed the outbreak was caused by the Eternal Virus and fought through infected residents to reach Yunlai Inn. The group arrived safely, though Luo Jun briefly disappeared to use the bathroom and a strange wind drifted toward the outbreak’s origin.

• Deng Qian explained that the Eternal Virus should not be able to infect people outside the Wasteland, but Tie Jingang sent word that it was responsible for the outbreak.
• A First-Order Infected burst into the inn and attacked the shop assistant, prompting Song Shan to shoot it and lead the group out.
• Song Shan and the students fought infected in the streets while their senior members warned them not to risk themselves helping the townspeople.
• The group reached Yunlai Inn, where Lu Fei noticed Luo Jun was missing and Ling Xin ran back to look for him.
• Luo Jun emerged from behind a wall after using the bathroom, and the group continued to Yunlai Inn as a strange wind blew toward the flames’ origin.

As the group prepared to escape the infected town, Luo Jun used Tomb King and a remote-viewing Treasure Tool to investigate the burning oil workshop. Tomb King discovered an underground laboratory filled with evidence of experiments, and Luo Jun began searching its notebooks for clues about the outbreak.

• Song Shan went to the rear courtyard while Deng Qian organized the defense of the inn and waited for Tie Jingang and Li Xinyu's group.
• A student reported that Song Shan and the others had secured the horse chariots, while the students and Martial World People guarded the inn in darkness.
• Luo Jun used a paired Treasure Tool to watch through an invisible black patch attached to Tomb King.
• Luo Jun ordered Tomb King to enter the burning oil workshop, where they found charred corpses and a concealed basement entrance.
• Tomb King entered the underground laboratory and found mutated dead rabbits, unfamiliar equipment, and a modern-style dip pen beside two notebooks.
• Luo Jun ordered Tomb King to pick up a notebook and turn through it.

Luo Jun connected the Eternal Virus experiments in the notebook to Gong Shiyue’s stolen Eternal Star and suspected the basement contained a hidden compartment holding human test subjects. Tie Jingang arrived with Li Xinyu’s students and led the group toward the back courtyard as infected creatures grew more dangerous.

• Luo Jun read the notebook and pieced together that its owner had secretly swapped Gong Shiyue’s sample, likely helping her bring the Eternal Virus into the Martial World.
• The notebook described experiments in which Soul-Returning Grass stabilized infected subjects, followed by failed human trials and signs that infected people could communicate and form a hierarchy.
• Luo Jun concluded that the notebook’s owner had likely infected himself, causing the virus outbreak and fire, and wondered where the human test subjects were being held.
• Tie Jingang arrived at the inn with Li Xinyu’s students and killed a First-Order Infected that pursued them.
• Tie Jingang urged everyone to leave through the back courtyard, warning that infected creatures would evolve into stronger forms, while Luo Jun sent the Tomb King to search the basement for a hidden door.

Luo Jun's Tomb King found the Notebook Owner, a mutated zombie who had once been a Hundred Rivers Sect explorer, but could not locate the Eternal Virus sample. As the convoy reached the south gate, Clear Breeze Stronghold confronted them, and a second-order monster appeared.

• Luo Jun guided Tomb King through a hidden door and discovered cages where human test subjects had been kept, including one violently broken open.
• Tomb King fought and killed the agile zombie, then found a Hundred Rivers Sect token on its body, identifying it as the Notebook Owner.
• Luo Jun ordered Tomb King to search for the Eternal Virus sample, but Tomb King found nothing.
• At the south gate, Third Head challenged Teacher Tie and the convoy until Li Xinyu recognized him and explained the danger in town.
• A massive six-limbed monster appeared on a rooftop, and Tie Jingang recognized it as a second-order infected.

The Hundred Rivers Sect and Clear Breeze Stronghold fought a horde led by a Second-Order Mutant, but Clear Breeze Stronghold’s injured heroes began turning into zombies. After the Third Head killed the mutant, more appeared alongside a strange Old Man, who claimed he was the disaster’s first victim.

• A Second-Order Mutant summoned zombies and First-Order Mutants to attack the students and Clear Breeze Stronghold.
• Tie Jingang warned the fighters that even minor injuries could spread the Eternal Virus, but the Clear Breeze Stronghold Heroes dismissed the danger.
• The wounded Sun Laoqi turned into a zombie and attacked his companions, while other injured heroes began mutating.
• Tie Jingang led the students and vehicles out of the horde as the Third Head fought through the infected and killed the Second-Order Mutant.
• More Second-Order Mutants gathered around the Third Head, who confronted an Old Man that said he was the disaster’s first victim.