Chapter Summaries

Li Wei was trapped by Venerable Black Nightmare in the World of Dreams, where he planned to devour her soul. After he explained the arena’s rules, she revealed overwhelming power and began destroying the dream realm.

• Li Wei awoke in a strange landscape without her sword or supplies and suspected she was inside a mental space connected to the Great Dream Cult.
• Venerable Black Nightmare emerged from the fungal ground, identified himself as a follower of Great Dream Bodhisattva, and unleashed an aura that overwhelmed Li Wei.
• Black Nightmare told Li Wei that the World of Dreams let its inhabitants use any power they had truly possessed, and that only one of them could leave.
• Li Wei secretly prepared to summon a Lotus Sword, then abruptly rose into the air with nine lotus petals beneath her feet.
• Li Wei released pure white light that tore apart the dream world, called Black Nightmare an ant, and gained 4320 Abyss Essence.

After Gu Jinzhi was critically injured, Li Wei learned his recovery would take months and Liang Qiushi told her the Gu Family wanted her to divorce him and return to the Jiang Family. Li Wei realized the family was trying to shield her from its coming troubles, but remained determined to go to the Western Frontier and help.

• Yang Jianqiang told Gu Shiheng and Liang Qiushi that Gu Jinzhi had severe injuries and Soul Damage, and could not say when he would wake.
• Li Wei learned from Yun Xi that the Nirvana Creation Pill would eventually heal Gu Jinzhi, then received Liang Qiushi's thanks for saving him.
• Liang Qiushi told Li Wei that her father wanted her and Gu Jinzhi to divorce, but Li Wei protested that she had expected to take his place in the Western Frontier.
• Liang Qiushi explained that she wanted Li Wei to return to the Jiang Family for safety, while the Gu Family faced losing its Alliance status and resources.
• Li Wei understood that Gu Shiheng was trying to keep her out of the Gu Family's troubles and resolved to become stronger on the battlefield; Liang Qiushi privately hoped both she and Gu Jinzhi could live safely apart.

Li Wei resisted the Gu Family’s attempts to make her divorce Gu Jinzhi while preparing to enlist through Substitute Service. After Yun Xi secretly secured the required medical documents, Li Wei left Gu Garden and arrived alone at the Imperial Capital Branch of the Martial Arts Alliance.

• Li Wei refused to divorce Gu Jinzhi, and the Gu Family decided to relocate to Dongming once his condition stabilized.
• Gu Jinyi showed Li Wei a seaside villa she hoped to share with her and Gu Jinzhi in Dongming.
• Li Wei told Jiang Xinyue about her plans, and Jiang Xinyue supported her and agreed to keep them secret from the Gu Family.
• Yun Xi gave Li Wei the completed medical assessment and hospital certificate needed for Substitute Service.
• Li Wei retrieved her Marriage Certificate, secretly left Gu Garden, and arrived at the Imperial Capital Branch of the Martial Arts Alliance at two o’clock.

Li Wei tried to secure approval to serve in Gu Jinzhi’s place in the Western Frontier Defense Army, but Huang Lei referred her case to Chairman Yun Sheng. Yun Sheng ordered her to take the Highest Difficulty Heart-Questioning Test, leaving Li Wei uncertain whether she would pass.

• Li Wei insisted that Huang Lei approve her Substitute Service application, while he questioned why she would risk her life for Gu Jinzhi.
• Huang Lei examined Li Wei’s complete paperwork and recognized that her talent and rapid advancement made her enlistment especially concerning.
• Unable to reject the legally compliant application himself, Huang Lei called Chairman Yun Sheng and explained Li Wei’s request.
• Yun Sheng ordered Huang Lei to arrange the Highest Difficulty Heart-Questioning Test and allow Li Wei to go if she passed, but send her to Qingyun to study if she failed.
• Huang Lei warned Li Wei that hardly anyone had passed the test in the thirty years since the Mobilization Act was enacted, and Li Wei wondered what it involved.

Li Wei passed the Heart-Questioning Test for her application to serve in place of Gu Jinzhi and prepared to leave for the Western Frontier. Huang Lei told her the military review would take two days, then gave her a mysterious Jade Token as a protective talisman.

• Li Wei answered the first four questions about her understanding of substitute service, free will, coercion, and pressure.
• At the chairman’s request, Li Wei answered two additional questions and denied that she had applied in exchange for material or nonmaterial benefits.
• Huang Lei escorted Li Wei out and explained that the test’s questioner was the principal of Qingyun Martial Arts University, a Grandmaster who could discern whether answers were true.
• Huang Lei told Li Wei that her application review would take about two days and that she would set out on September first.
• Huang Lei gave Li Wei a fan-shaped Jade Token and warned her not to lose it.

Li Wei completed her enlistment procedures and prepared to leave for Western Xinjiang, but Gu Jinzhi remained unconscious after being moved out of the ICU. Sitting beside him, she admitted she had considered staying with him and quietly said farewell.

• Li Wei said goodbye to Jiang Xinyue, who embraced her as they recalled their first meeting.
• Li Wei completed enlistment procedures at the Imperial Capital Military Liaison Office and stunned onlookers by defeating the practical combat examiner in less than a second.
• Li Wei traded her Officer ID with Yun Xi for a gray-black card, then returned to the hospital and spent the night waiting.
• Zeng Yi told Li Wei that Gu Jinzhi had left the ICU and was out of danger, though he had not awakened.
• After Gu Jinzhi was settled in his hospital room, Li Wei told him she had considered staying with him, then took back the card and offered to sing him a farewell song.

Zeng Yi and the others discovered that Li Wei had enlisted in Gu Jinzhi’s place, and mistook her farewell song for a sign that she was leaving forever. They rushed into the room to plead with her to stay, while Gu Jinzhi quietly shed tears in his hospital bed.

• Liang Qiushi brought clothes and supplies for Gu Jinzhi, and Zeng Yi found an unfamiliar suitcase in the outer room wardrobe.
• Zeng Yi opened the suitcase and found military uniforms and an Officer ID issued to Li Wei under the name Jiang Xue the previous day.
• The group realized Li Wei had enlisted in Gu Jinzhi’s place, and Gu Jinyi broke down while Zeng Yi struck his head against the wall in despair.
• Hearing Li Wei sing through the inner room door, the others gathered outside and believed her lyrics meant she was saying goodbye forever.
• Gu Jinyi rushed into the room and begged Li Wei not to leave, while Zeng Yi remarked that her song sounded as if it were meant for a son.
• Gu Jinzhi quietly shed tears on the hospital bed as everyone focused on Li Wei.

As Abyssal monsters advanced toward the southeastern defenses, General Li Huaiyuan ordered exhausted forces to counterattack and reinforce the front. After powerful figures intervened on Jiang Xue’s behalf, he kept revising her assignment until she was sent to a logistics warehouse far from the fighting.

• Li Huaiyuan ordered Zhang Yansheng’s depleted Third Legion to counterattack and hold the Abyssal monsters outside a designated line.
• Li Huaiyuan ordered the 52nd Army Group to reinforce the southeastern defense zone and redirected rear fire support there.
• After Huang Lei called about Jiang Xue, Li Huaiyuan angrily threatened to send her into the stalled zone as a frontline recruit.
• A call from Chairman Yun Li made Li Huaiyuan change Jiang Xue’s assignment to an intelligence post at headquarters.
• Six Martial Immortals and seventeen Grandmasters called Li Huaiyuan, who successively moved Jiang Xue to safer positions.
• Li Huaiyuan finally ordered Jiang Xue assigned as a warehouse manager in Mingshi Town, about one thousand kilometers from the front.

Li Wei arrived at the Western Frontier Death Line without orders or a unit, then accepted Sergeant Wang Qiang’s offer to join his company as its embedded martial artist. She left the airport with Wang Qiang to head for the front lines and find equipment.

• Li Wei flew to the western frontier, reflecting on how she had persuaded Gu Litong to let her enlist in Gu Jinzhi’s place.
• After landing at a vast, busy military airport, Li Wei set out to find the dispatch center and ask where martial artists should report.
• Sergeant Wang Qiang stopped Li Wei and asked her to temporarily serve as the embedded martial artist for his company in the 52nd Group.
• Li Wei decided to bypass the formal assignment process, leaped over the airport fence, and climbed into Wang Qiang’s jeep.
• Li Wei asked whether Wang Qiang’s unit had martial artist equipment and told him to move out.

Wang Qiang brought Li Wei to the 1st Company, where the skeptical Liu Jianjie accepted her as its Third-order Martial Artist. After collecting her equipment and changing into combat gear, she joined the company as it prepared to move out.

• Wang Qiang drove Li Wei through the marching army to a temporary military station.
• Soldiers teased Wang Qiang for returning with Li Wei, and he brought her to meet Liu Jianjie.
• Liu Jianjie doubted Li Wei was a Martial Artist until Wang Qiang pointed out her rank and insignia.
• Li Wei claimed she could fight a thousand opponents of her own order, and Liu Jianjie ordered Wang Qiang to get her equipped before the company moved out.
• Li Wei returned in alloy armor with her hair cut short, and Liu Jianjie thought of his young daughter and cursed the abyssal monsters.

Li Wei traveled with the 1st Company toward the front, where Deputy Company Commander Chen Fan taught her the basics of the defensive line and combat. The company learned that Death Worms had collapsed a tunnel, and Li Wei approached the battle determined to avoid becoming a liability.

• Liu Jianjie questioned Li Wei about the backpack of snacks she had brought, then called Chen Fan to explain how to fight a war.
• Chen Fan told Li Wei to stay at her position and kill Abyssal monsters that broke through the fire network, while Liu Jianjie urged her to protect herself.
• Liu Jianjie received orders that Death Worms had burrowed through and collapsed a tunnel, so the 1st Company had to hurry to assemble without its heavy equipment.
• Chen Fan taught Li Wei about the defensive line, Abyssal monsters, and military equipment during the ride, and she resolved to avoid unnecessary risks.
• The 1st Company reached a military highway, where Li Wei saw the front's stations, artillery positions, hospitals, and bombers as they headed toward the mountains.

Li Huaiyuan struggled to reinforce the southeastern front as the Third Legion faltered and the 52nd Group Army rushed to take over the trenches. Meanwhile, Li Wei arrived at the battlefield, where Chen Fan welcomed her to the brutal front line.

• Zhang Yansheng told Li Huaiyuan that the Third Legion had failed to retake the trench zone and needed relief, but Li Huaiyuan ordered it to hold until the 52nd Group Army arrived.
• Li Huaiyuan ordered the 141st and 142nd Divisions to hurry into the southeastern trenches, demanded the collapsed tunnel be cleared within two hours, and arranged air supply and protection for the route.
• A staff officer informed Li Huaiyuan that Jiang Xue had disappeared after her transport plane landed at Tulong Airport, and Li Huaiyuan ordered a search.
• Li Wei climbed toward the front with the 1st Company, carrying autocannon barrels as wounded soldiers were evacuated down the mountain.
• Li Wei saw the vast defensive zone and artillery bombardment, and Chen Fan greeted her as Captain Jiang and told her she had arrived in hell.

Li Wei helped the convoy reach the front and learned how the Western Frontier Death Line was arranged while testing her ability to absorb Abyss Essence. At the trenches, Zhong Li planned to use explosives to delay the Abyssal Monsters pursuing the Third Martial Artist Legion.

• Li Wei traveled with 1st Company and impressed the soldiers by carrying heavy equipment without assistance.
• Li Wei replaced the autocannon barrel on an infantry fighting vehicle and absorbed Abyss Essence from nearby Abyssal Monster corpses.
• Li Wei joined Zhong Li and the other commanders as they discussed defending the seventh and eighth trenches while covering the Third Martial Artist Legion's retreat.
• Zhong Li ordered the troops to plant High Explosive between the fifth and sixth trenches and detonate it after the Third Legion passed.

Zhong Li assigned the battalion’s defenses and ordered Li Wei to hold 1st Company’s position, with Zheng Ye advising her. As the enemy approached, Li Wei learned how the battlefield divided threats and entered the position to prepare for the attack.

• Zhong Li assigned the companies their defensive lines, ordered explosives placed in key pillboxes, and arranged captured tanks and anti-aircraft guns for the coming battle.
• Zhong Li tasked Li Wei with holding 1st Company’s position and supporting the flanks if she had strength to spare.
• Zheng Ye told Li Wei that Martial Artists withdrew before ordinary soldiers when a position became untenable and explained that powerful Abyssal Monsters were handled by heavy weapons and underground forces.
• Li Wei worried that the battalion’s nine Martial Artists could not stop a large attack, and Zheng Ye explained that Middle and High Order monsters were enormous targets for the rear fortress’s electromagnetic cannons.
• Whistles sounded to signal the enemy’s approach, and Zheng Ye ordered Li Wei to enter the position as she flashed forward to join Chen Fan and the others.

Li Wei reached the front-line observation post and watched wounded martial artists retreat, gaining large amounts of Abyss Essence from them. As Abyss monsters approached, the defenders opened fire and destroyed their vanguard before it could reach the line.

• Li Wei left her backpack at a medical station, kept her Officer ID and Huang Lei’s talisman, and found Zhou Dai at the forward observation post.
• Li Wei stayed with Zhou Dai and gained Abyss Essence as waves of wounded martial artists crossed the defensive line toward the rear.
• Li Wei held off on spending her essence and watched a battered group of martial artists retreat under cover of a fire-blocking barrage.
• Li Wei spotted dozens of rolling, spiked Abyss monsters emerging from the sixth trench and asked Zhou Dai why he had not detonated the explosives.
• After the firing whistle sounded, the defenders’ autocannons and Type 07 Rifles blasted the monsters’ vanguard apart before it reached the line.

Li Wei stayed in the observation post to absorb Essence as the battle against the abyssal monsters intensified, but the heavy bombardment kept most enemies out of her range. When a powerful Sea Urchin broke through the defenses, it was instantly cut in half by a dark green streak, leaving Liu Jianjie stunned.

• Li Wei watched Zhou Dai detonate explosives that destroyed the fifth and sixth trenches, then refused to withdraw from the observation post so she could keep absorbing Essence.
• A new wave of Sea Urchins approached, but Dragon Tooth Bunkers and heavy mortars bombarded them from a distance, frustrating Li Wei by keeping them beyond her range.
• After the barrage shifted, the vanguard advanced within two hundred meters and 1st Company opened fire, though one agile Sea Urchin broke through toward the trench.
• Liu Jianjie prepared to detonate explosives as the Sea Urchin entered the trench, but a dark green streak split the monster in two, prompting him to exclaim, “Instant... kill?”

Li Wei left the 1st Company's line to help the 2nd Company, where she overwhelmed the Abyssal monsters attacking its position. She left Zhong Li astonished by her fighting ability and ordered the companies to coordinate with her and avoid hitting her.

• Zheng Ye fought a Sea Urchin in the 2nd Company's trench despite his injured shoulder, then found himself trapped between two more.
• Li Wei arrived and killed both Sea Urchins before Zheng Ye could use Burning Acupoints.
• Li Wei raced across the 2nd Battalion's position, killing Sea Urchins and other Abyssal monsters that broke through the defenses.
• Zhong Li called Liu Jianjie to ask where he had found Captain Jiang, whom Liu Jianjie had described as a rookie.
• Zhong Li ordered every company to coordinate with Captain Jiang and take care not to hit her.

Yun Heng teased Zhang Luye over the Zhang Family’s feud with Li Wei and warned him that his son could face trouble because of ties between Li Huaiyuan and Jiang Xue. When Ghost Mother accused Yun Heng of breaking the rules, he argued that Li Wei qualified for the third tier under the rules she had set.

• Yun Heng made Zhang Luye confirm that Li Wei was the Gu Family’s new daughter-in-law and mocked the Zhang Family for provoking her.
• Yun Heng suggested Zhang Luye’s dream had manipulated him into targeting the Gu Family, leaving Zhang Luye worried that it had contributed to his family’s decline.
• Yun Heng warned Zhang Luye to keep his son cautious, explaining the connections among Li Guitang, Ding Pojun, Min Zimo, Jiang Xue, and Li Huaiyuan.
• Ghost Mother accused Yun Heng of breaking the rules, and Yun Heng replied that Li Wei met the requirements for the third tier under those rules.

Yun Heng questioned Ghost Mother about the Abyssal Monsters and the mysterious “That One,” provoking her to disappear without answering. After Alsheni emerged, Yun Heng warned that the Western Frontier was about to descend into chaos and called for reinforcements.

• Ghost Mother warned Yun Heng that the little girl’s power had exceeded the lower ranks, and Yun Heng challenged her while questioning why she was protecting the girl.
• Yun Heng bargained with Ghost Mother for information and pressed her about what the Abyssal Monsters were and whether their existence mattered to her.
• Yun Heng speculated that the Abyssal Monsters might be a burden to the abyss, prompting Ghost Mother to interrupt him with a howl.
• Yun Heng asked whether “That One” was human, and Ghost Mother vanished without answering.
• Alsheni emerged from hiding as Yun Heng said the Western Frontier was about to descend into chaos and that it was time to call in reinforcements.

After holding the defensive line through the night, Li Wei celebrated the huge amount of Abyss Essence she had gathered and was praised by the troops. Army Commander Zhou Dingguo then told her that the higher-ups had ordered her to leave the front and take a logistics assignment at Pebble Fortress.

• Li Wei surveyed the battlefield after dawn and calculated how much Abyss Essence she needed to advance, while reviewing the limits on absorbing essence from monsters and people.
• Zheng Ye and the returning troops gathered around Li Wei, and she teased Liu Jianjie about doubting her before the soldiers cheered and tossed her into the air.
• Li Wei realized that the soldiers' response might mean she could accomplish more than gaining experience and advancing.
• Zhou Dingguo arrived with three colonels, praised Li Wei's defense of the eight-hundred-meter line, and said she was being sent to the rear for logistics work.
• Zhou Dingguo told Li Wei to board the helicopter to Pebble Fortress, where the General Commander was waiting.