Chapter Summaries

Ma Shicheng clashed with Yu Wen over her idol worship, while Yang Sheng asked Jiang Ning for help with a problem. Song Sheng resolved to study for the Final Exam so he could change seats and escape Wu Xiaoqi, who vowed to keep sitting beside him.

• Ma Shicheng remembered how he had tricked a celebrity fan into rebuilding her QQ group before kicking everyone out again.
• When Yu Wen insulted the boys around her while praising Professor Do, Ma Shicheng mocked her and traded barbs with her and Jiang Yanan.
• Yang Sheng asked Jiang Ning to review a problem with her, and he told her to organize her mistake notebook first.
• Song Sheng focused on studying for the Final Exam so he could change seats and stop sitting with Wu Xiaoqi.
• After Song Sheng mocked Wu Xiaoqi's chances of scoring well, Wu Xiaoqi messaged his parents about getting high scores and declared that he would stay Song Sheng's seatmate.

As Class 8 prepared for the Final Unified Exam, Jiang Ning quietly cultivated while Xue Yuantong and Shan Kaiquan focused on their own ambitions. The exam-room assignments heightened Shan Kaiquan’s resolve to improve, while Chen Qian confidently vowed to reach the top exam room next time.

• Class 8 students studied intensely for the citywide Final Unified Exam as Shan Qingrong reminded them to prepare.
• Jiang Ning refined a Qi Gathering Pill during class, and Xue Yuantong returned with an apple for him to split and share with classmates.
• Shan Qingrong announced the post-exam plans, including when students should collect their report cards, and said there would be no parent-teacher meeting.
• Bai Yuxia read out the exam-room assignments: Xue Yuantong and Jiang Ning were in Exam Room No. 1, while she was in Exam Room No. 4.
• Xue Yuantong urged Jiang Ning to study harder so their exam seats would be closer, and Shan Kaiquan resolved to improve enough to share an exam room with Bai Yuxia.
• Chen Qian told Bai Yuxia they would be in the same exam room and confidently declared that he would reach Exam Room No. 1 next time, prompting Shan Kaiquan to vow to surpass him.

Song Sheng looked forward to leaving Wu Xiaoqi behind as the first-semester final exams began, but the examination-room drama included Lin Zida discovering his missing game console and Ding Shuyan quietly watching Jiang Ning. After the exams, Jiang Ning declined Guo Kunnan and Meng Gui’s invitation to go skating because he planned to eat hotpot with Xue Yuantong.

• Song Sheng recalled Wu Xiaoqi’s distracting classroom habits and imagined the next unlucky classmate taking his seat beside him.
• Ma Shicheng used Du Chuan’s examination seat to play a game, then left with Wang Longlong as Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong arrived.
• Ding Shuyan entered the examination room without acknowledging Jiang Ning, while Lin Zida discovered his 3ds Game was missing and vowed to find the thief.
• Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong handed in their final exam papers early, and Ding Shuyan watched them leave before returning to her test.
• Guo Kunnan invited Jiang Ning to go skating with Meng Gui, but Jiang Ning declined because he planned to eat hotpot with Xue Yuantong.

After the Final Unified Exam, Xue Yuantong went home to sleep before her hotpot feast while Jiang Ning cultivated and reached the Kindling Lamp realm in Spiritual Sense. He then learned that Linzhong Sheng Group was blocking Evergreen Liquid Group’s purchases, and ordered Shao Shuangshuang to use the company’s available funds to outbid them.

• Xue Yuantong rode home with Jiang Ning and went straight to bed, asking Aunt Gu to wake her at seven for hotpot.
• Jiang Ning cultivated with Soul Submergence Incense and discovered that his Spiritual Sense had reached the Kindling Lamp realm at Qi Refining Layer 4.
• Jiang Ning messaged Shao Shuangshuang and learned that Linzhong Sheng Group had been buying rare items first and demanding shares from Evergreen Liquid Group.
• Jiang Ning told Shao Shuangshuang to reserve money for expansion, operations, and twelve months of salaries, then use the rest to compete with Linzhong Sheng Group on price.
• Jiang Ning considered retrieving spiritual items himself once his cultivation and Spirit Boat improved.

Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong shared a hot pot dinner, where she invited him to set off fireworks together on New Year's Eve, and he agreed. Later, a returning laborer eyed the household of Aunt Gu and Xue Yuantong, but backed off after hearing how strong Jiang Ning was.

• Jiang Ning woke Xue Yuantong, and they went out to eat hot pot after Aunt Gu declined to join them.
• At the restaurant, Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong enjoyed their meal while a stern mother made her son's birthday gathering with classmates awkward.
• Xue Yuantong asked Jiang Ning to set off fireworks with her on New Year's Eve, and he agreed despite expecting to visit his parents.
• On the twenty-second day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Ning met several returning laborers outside his home.
• Leather Jacket Man considered causing trouble for Aunt Gu's household, but an old man warned him that Jiang Ning was exceptionally strong, so he abandoned the idea.

Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong headed to school after breakfast to collect their report cards. At No.4 Middle School, Ma Shicheng discovered he had ranked last in Class 8 and stood apart from the celebrating crowd, feeling like an outsider.

• Xue Yuantong generously gave Jiang Ning a rolled Shui Lao Mo, hoping to earn an excuse to play on his computer later.
• Jiang Ning and Xue Yuantong left for school after breakfast while Aunt Gu stayed behind to wash the dishes.
• Ma Shicheng arrived early at No.4 Middle School and convinced himself his exam results would be better than before.
• Ma Shicheng checked Class 8's ranking from the bottom and found himself in last place, while Song Sheng ranked ninth and Wu Xiaoqi ranked third.
• Ma Shicheng moved aside for other students and watched them celebrate their results from outside the crowd.

After the exam results showed Xue Yuantong first in the city and Jiang Ning second in the grade, the students reacted to their own rankings and celebrated their progress. On Little New Year, Xue Yuantong measured her height, then borrowed Jiang Ning’s computer to play a game while he cultivated.

• Bai Yuxia told Xue Yuantong that she had placed first in the city, and Xue Yuantong praised Jiang Ning for placing second in the grade.
• Shan Kaiquan told Bai Yuxia that she had placed fifth in the class and thirty-sixth in the grade, and he announced his own improvement to twenty-second in the class.
• Song Sheng confronted Wu Xiaoqi about placing third in the class, but Wu Xiaoqi kept quiet about how he had earned the result.
• Hu Jun brought his parrot to class, then handed it to Cui Yu after Cui Yu offered to take him to an ice rink where someone taught students to skate hand in hand.
• On Little New Year, Xue Yuantong measured herself and found that she had grown three centimeters to 153 centimeters.
• Xue Yuantong borrowed Jiang Ning’s computer to play LOL while Jiang Ning cultivated, then asked him to help beat someone who had called her an elementary schooler.

Jiang Ning considered how to trace people through internet signals after Xue Yuantong was harassed in a game, then secretly marked Xue Chuchu after learning she was being threatened by the thief who stole her QQ account. Xue Chuchu hid the threat from everyone, while Jiang Ning prepared to keep watch without telling her.

• Xue Yuantong angrily played a game after another player called her an elementary school kid, and Jiang Ning resolved to develop a technique for locating online harassers.
• Jiang Ning asked Shao Shuangshuang to contact research teams about electromagnetism and signals, rejecting the simpler suggestion of obtaining an IP address from an internet company.
• Jiang Ning cooked for Xue Yuantong, helped relieve her numb legs, and later welcomed Xue Chuchu, who came to thank Aunt Gu for helping Hua Fengmei find work.
• Xue Chuchu read messages from the person who stole her QQ account, who demanded photos and threatened to find her at school, then blocked and deleted him.
• Jiang Ning noticed Xue Chuchu’s distress and placed a sound-monitoring Divine Sense Imprint on her, while she kept the threat secret from him and Xue Yuantong.

Xue Yuantong tried to prove she had grown taller, only to learn she was shorter at night than in the morning. Meanwhile, Jiang Ning advanced to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, investigated another world, and recovered a valuable Five-Colored Law Fragment before heading home for dinner.

• Xue Yuantong measured herself at 151.5 centimeters and learned from Xue Chuchu that she was shorter at night because of her spine settling during the day.
• Meng Gui invited classmates to go ice skating, and the class group discussed winter vacation plans.
• Jiang Ning met Shao Shuangshuang, reviewed a charity-school proposal and a list of materials taken by Linzhong Sheng Group, and asked about research into network signals.
• Jiang Ning refined Essence Nurturing Pills on Tiger Perch Mountain and broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
• Jiang Ning sent a Divine Essence Shuttle into another world, heard references to Source Stone Mines and family marriage alliances, and retrieved a Five-Colored Law Fragment.
• Jiang Ning failed to obtain another Law Fragment, then answered Xue Yuantong's call and flew home for dinner.

Jiang Ning traveled to Ancheng to collect puppet materials from Linzhong Sheng Group and continued his plan to refine the Five-Colored Law Fragment into a puppet that might enter the other world. After learning that Lin Zhe’s team was coming to Yuzhou with intercepted materials to pressure Evergreen Liquid, he headed toward Century Hotel to obtain them.

• Jiang Ning told his parents he would ride to Wencheng with a classmate’s family for New Year rather than take their high-speed rail ticket.
• Jiang Ning decided to use the Five-Colored Law Fragment in a puppet, hoping its ability to shield Heavenly Secrets might let the puppet enter the other world.
• Lin Han told Ding Shuyan that Lin Zhe was coming to Yuzhou to demand shares in Evergreen Liquid, using materials her group had intercepted as leverage.
• Jiang Ning flew to Ancheng, secretly took several puppet materials from a manor, and gave the manor’s owner a health-strengthening Pill.
• Jiang Ning learned from Shao Shuangshuang that Lin Zhe’s team was staying at Century Hotel, and he set out to collect the materials they had brought.

Jiang Ning stole the materials Han Maosheng and Lin Zhe planned to use against Evergreen Liquid Group, then crafted a puppet and fused it with a Law Fragment. He discovered the puppet could enter another world and use its Feather Symbol to erase and imprint souls, and he began testing whether it could send a dog from the Current Realm there.

• Jiang Ning took the Puppet Materials from Han Maosheng and Lin Zhe’s Safe, leaving them without their leverage for negotiations with Evergreen Liquid Group.
• Jiang Ning crafted a puppet and fused a Law Fragment into it, awakening a Feather Symbol that let it cross into another world.
• Jiang Ning found that the Feather Symbol could erase the souls of solitary creatures in that world and leave their bodies as vessels marked by a Law Imprint.
• Jiang Ning studied the symbol’s limits and concluded that matching creatures in the two worlds could be linked for a possible soul swap.
• Jiang Ning knocked out a Black Dog in the Current Realm, marked it with the puppet, and activated the Law Imprint to test sending it to the other world.

Jiang Ning tested whether animals and humans could bring Law Fragments back from the Source World through soul exchanges, but none succeeded. He suspected that a powerful soul was necessary and began planning a careful experiment to strengthen someone he trusted.

• Jiang Ning observed Black Dog arrive in the Source World, where two beggars killed it, and confirmed that its real-world body suffered intense pain but survived.
• Jiang Ning tested a Yellow Dog and several monkeys, but none brought back Law Fragments; he concluded that ordinary creatures could not obtain them.
• Jiang Ning exchanged a human patient's soul into a vessel in the Source World, but the attempt still produced no Law Fragments.
• Jiang Ning recalled that only he had brought fragments back and suspected that his powerful soul had caused the unusual result.
• Jiang Ning decided to find someone he knew well, send them to the Source World, and help them cultivate enough to strengthen their soul.

Jiang Ning left for Wencheng to visit his parents while Xue Yuantong struggled with how much she would miss him. On New Year’s Eve, she woke up in Jiang Ning’s bed and ran into her mother.

• Jiang Ning packed his belongings, gave Xue Yuantong a key to watch his place, and left for the station after setting up an array in their rooms.
• Xue Yuantong watched Jiang Ning leave, tried to reassure herself she was glad to have his room to herself, and soon found his computer and games less enjoyable without him.
• Jiang Ning traveled to Wencheng on his Spirit Boat while using Shao Shuangshuang’s research to derive a method for reaching someone through the internet.
• Jiang Ning arrived in Wencheng and spotted his parents waiting for him at the station.
• On New Year’s Eve, Xue Yuantong woke up in Jiang Ning’s bed after falling asleep there while gaming, then encountered her mother outside the room.

Xue Yuantong celebrated New Year with her family while Jiang Ning spent the afternoon alone, chatting with his classmates. Ma Shicheng went out with a girl but abandoned her to admire phones, then discovered she had left and worried his mother would be angry.

• Xue Yuantong returned home, ate her mother's Eight Treasure Rice, and lit firecrackers to welcome the New Year.
• Jiang Ning replied to New Year greetings and read the lively Class 8 group chat.
• Ma Shicheng told his classmates he was taking his mother's friend's daughter out, and they offered him dating advice.
• Ma Shicheng went shopping with the girl but became captivated by the Xiaomi 3 and Meizu MX3 phones in a store.
• Ma Shicheng eventually looked for the girl and realized she had left, then worried that his mother would be mad.

Xue Yuantong celebrated the Lunar New Year with her family and released Kongming Lanterns with Jiang Ning when he unexpectedly returned. After Jiang Ning came back to Yuzhou for good and perfected a divination spell, Xue Yuantong’s slingshot demonstration went wrong, leaving him to save her from an exploding firecracker.

• Xue Yuantong set off firecrackers with her family on New Year’s Eve and missed Jiang Ning while preparing to release a Kongming Lantern.
• Jiang Ning arrived in the snowy night, used Spirit Fire to light three Kongming Lanterns, and celebrated the New Year with Xue Yuantong.
• On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Ning returned to Yuzhou for good and found Xue Yuantong had cleaned his room and derived two successful formulas.
• Jiang Ning confirmed the Yuan Three Formula, practiced the spell, and gained the ability to locate someone over a network within fifty kilometers.
• Xue Yuantong tried to demonstrate her slingshot skills by launching a lit Small Landmine, but it struck her finger and fell beside her foot.
• Jiang Ning stomped out the Small Landmine with Mana and asked Xue Yuantong if she had been putting on a face-changing act.

After discovering that Xue Chuchu’s online harasser had found her school and threatened her, Jiang Ning used the Yuan Three Spell to locate him. He confronted the man in Tu County and brutally punished him before leaving.

• Xue Yuantong pretended that she had planned the failed Small Landmine stunt, while Xue Chuchu refused to light another one.
• Xue Chuchu accepted a QQ request from the man who had stolen her account, and he threatened to track down her family, classmates, and friends.
• Jiang Ning used the Yuan Three Spell to locate the harasser and told Xue Yuantong he would return within half an hour.
• Jiang Ning flew to the man's apartment, where he discovered the man was harassing women and scamming children online.
• Jiang Ning restrained the man with Spiritual Energy and punished him, then sent the child a message warning him not to share his password.

Yuzhou No.4 Middle School reopened for the new semester, and the students returned to class with new habits, rivalries, and anticipation about changing seats. As Shan Qingrong announced a seating rearrangement, Guo Kunnan spotted Cui Yu sneaking toward the back row with his phone.

• Xue Yuantong sighed over school starting again until Jiang Ning challenged her to finish breakfast first or wash the dishes.
• Meng Gui showed off his new smoking habit to Wang Longlong, who taught him to fold cigarette-pack foil into gold ingots as a joke.
• Cui Yu arrived with a bloody face and blamed Miao Zhe, while Miao Zhe silently endured Pang Jiao’s slight and looked forward to choosing a better seat.
• Jiang Ning greeted Geng Lu and watched their classmates return as Shan Qingrong announced that he would rearrange the seats that afternoon and shift them every two weeks.
• Guo Kunnan found pleasure only in cleaning fingerprints from his phone, then noticed Cui Yu sneaking toward the back row with his phone.

Ma Shicheng accidentally threw Miao Zhe’s phone into the school dump after Cui Yu hid it in a trash bag. Jiang Ning used his Spiritual Sense to help Cui Yu find the phone, which Cui Yu cleaned before returning to class.

• Miao Zhe searched the back row for his missing phone, while Cui Yu secretly watched him.
• Ma Shicheng tossed Wang Longlong’s heavy trash bag into the school dump, unaware that it contained Miao Zhe’s phone.
• Cui Yu told Ma Shicheng what was in the bag and dragged him to the dump to search for the phone.
• Jiang Ning located the orange-peel bag with his Spiritual Sense, and Cui Yu retrieved the phone after it spilled into the garbage.
• Cui Yu cleaned Miao Zhe’s phone with tissues and saliva, then headed back to class and asked Ma Shicheng and Jiang Ning to keep it secret.

Miao Zhe celebrated escaping Pang Jiao by messaging Yun Ni, while Wang Longlong lost hope of becoming class monitor. As Wang Longlong slept, Jiang Ning and Puppet began sending him into another world through a vessel, leaving him to experience it as a dream.

• Miao Zhe moved to a back-corner seat to avoid Pang Jiao, while Song Sheng and Wu Xiaoqi sat together and Pang Jiao's group gathered around them.
• Miao Zhe messaged Yun Ni, comforted her about her grades, and happily read that she liked him.
• Wang Longlong realized Shan Qingrong had not made him class monitor and recalled how being disbelieved as a child had driven him to pursue the position.
• Jiang Ning and Puppet entered Wang Longlong's room and prepared to send his soul to a vessel in the Source World.
• Puppet touched Wang Longlong's forehead and wished him a sweet dream.

Wang Longlong awoke in the body of a Qi Family Shadow Guard and was assigned to investigate the Han Family. He recruited beggars into an intelligence organization called the Dragon Group and was hailed as its Dragon King.

• Wang Longlong learned that he had taken over a Shadow Guard's body and memories after awakening in the Qi Family residence.
• Uncle Qi Lin ordered Wang Longlong to investigate the Han Family and gave him silver and the Dark Guard Xiao Bao to assist him.
• Wang Longlong sent Xiao Bao to recruit people on Double Willow Street and devised a plan to gather intelligence through an organization.
• Wang Longlong and Xiao Bao gathered more than twenty beggars in a ruined temple and fed them meat.
• Wang Longlong invited the beggars to join his organization, named it the Dragon Group, and was acclaimed as the Dragon King.