Chapter Summaries

Zhang Guangmu gained two ability points from an iconic scene in Martial Way Diary and spent them to improve his Imperial Body Tempering Technique and Acting. He left the meal stronger and eager to earn more points.

• Zhang Guangmu received an ability point from an iconic scene depicting his clash with missiles, accompanied by a warning against relying on one path alone.
• Zhang Guangmu noticed fans debating his title and spending his two available points, raising Imperial Body Tempering Technique to 17 and Acting to 6.
• Zhang Guangmu awakened Spiral Force, which could boost damage to internal organs and extend through weapons.
• Li Xiaoxiao sparred with Zhang Guangmu using chopsticks, but his chopsticks shattered under Zhang Guangmu's Spiral Force.
• Zhang Guangmu reviewed his updated ability list, which showed zero available points.

After a team dinner, Zhang Guangmu discussed his progress and the coming competition for the Thirteen Dragon Generals with his teammates, then added a line of poetry to a tribute image of Zhao Zhengrong. The next day, he joined Liufeng County’s image ambassador campaign and relished the attention his heavily guarded publicity tour attracted.

• Chu Ba Zong mistook Zhang Guangmu’s stunned silence for an epiphany after Li Xiaoxiao’s chopsticks broke during their exchange, and Zhang Guangmu played along by claiming he had gained insights.
• Li Xiaoxiao explained that his sword practice limited how many films he could complete, while Zhao Zhengrong reassured Zhang Guangmu that he could hold his own against contenders for the Dragon General titles.
• Tang Lanshan pointed the team to the group chat, where She Transforms into Wine Wine had posted an image of Zhao Zhengrong’s death at Longbei Cliff, and Zhang Guangmu added a line from Song of Righteousness.
• Magistrate Lian arranged Zhang Guangmu’s Liufeng County image ambassador campaign with more than a hundred bodyguards and two official order-maintenance squads.
• A young woman recording the publicity tour first mocked Zhang Guangmu’s grand entourage, then recognized him and excitedly called out his name.

After a month of local publicity and acting practice, Zhang Guangmu received a low-magic fantasy film assignment called 'Demon Hunting Academy.' Though he disliked its rough script and planned to reject it, he accepted after considering the cast list.

• Zhang Guangmu endured an enthusiastic publicity campaign in Liufeng County, including a hulking fan's bizarre declaration of love.
• A month later, Zhang Guangmu wore a mask and sunglasses to avoid fans, while passersby debated his roles and acting.
• Zhang Guangmu used Acting Skill 6 to recreate his previous roles in videos, impressing his companions and worrying Old Zhao and Chu Fan.
• Zhang Guangmu received his spokesperson stipend, bringing his savings to 4,950 Dragon Shields.
• Zhang Guangmu reviewed the script and world overview for 'Demon Hunting Academy' and decided to accept the film after considering its cast.

Zhang Guangmu joined Tang Lanshan and Jiang Ling on their way to begin work on Demon Hunting Academy, where he hoped to challenge strong co-stars and prepare for The Path of the Great Emperor. Tang Lanshan’s divination lifted her nerves, and at the Production Building they were greeted by a young man who praised Zhang Guangmu for arriving early.

• Zhang Guangmu reviewed Demon Hunting Academy’s cast and script, noted Bai Yongsheng and Sang Shenyou among the co-stars, and decided to take the role despite doubts about director Feng Chuang.
• The next day, Zhang Guangmu, Tang Lanshan, and Jiang Ling traveled to Tianhe Command’s Production Building with Mooncake.
• Zhang Guangmu joked about Jiang Ling’s blood-red hair, and Tang Lanshan explained that it had grown that color after Jiang Ling’s self-refined pills caused a genetic mutation.
• Tang Lanshan shared her auspicious Yu hexagram reading, which eased her worries about working with Zhang Guangmu.
• Jiang Ling said a hospital had confirmed her mutation was harmless and that she had chosen not to treat it so she could spend the money on alchemical research.
• At the Production Building, a tall young man greeted Zhang Guangmu and praised him for arriving fifteen minutes early.

Zhang Guangmu met veteran Subconscious Actor Bai Yongsheng, who praised his strength and warned him not to underestimate Jiang Shen. At the production building entrance, Zhang Guangmu sent Sang Shenyou flying after the senior deliberately rammed into him, and Sang Shenyou accused him of acting like a big shot.

• Zhang Guangmu recognized Bai Yongsheng, greeted him, and impressed him with his strong handshake.
• Bai Yongsheng praised Zhang Guangmu’s Imperial Body Forging Technique and warned him that Jiang Shen remained dangerous despite his poor performance in their earlier encounter.
• Zhang Guangmu assessed Bai Yongsheng’s strengths and weaknesses but reminded himself that Demon Hunting Academy was Bai Yongsheng’s home turf.
• Sang Shenyou rammed into Zhang Guangmu and was knocked backward when Zhang Guangmu instinctively used the Defend Chapter technique.
• Sang Shenyou landed in a showy pose and accused Zhang Guangmu of blocking the entrance and attacking a senior.

Zhang Guangmu faced down Sang Shenyou, then met Director Feng Chuang before entering the Infiltration Pod to begin filming “Demon Hunting Academy.” The film world’s opening message declared that Zhang Guangmu was already dead.

• Zhang Guangmu stood firm against Sang Shenyou, while Tang Lanshan, Jiang Ling, and Mooncake prepared to back him up; Sang Shenyou backed down and entered the Production Building.
• Bai Yongsheng explained that Sang Shenyou’s hostility came from Zhang Guangmu reminding him of a Bright Moon who had once disciplined him, then left for the world of “Demon Hunting Academy.”
• Zhang Guangmu met Director Feng Chuang, who praised him and offered to revise his script, but Zhang Guangmu declined.
• Zhang Guangmu entered the Infiltration Pod with Mooncake and successfully connected to the film world.
• A dark flame formed a message saying, “I’m Zhang Guangmu. By the time you see this message, I’ll already be dead.”

At the Demon Hunting Academy's entrance ceremony, Zhang Guangmu assessed the academy's harsh realities while acting out his role as Pitch Black Academy's aloof young dean. After noticing the Demon Forged Jade hesitate before assigning rising star Fang Yi to his academy, Zhang Guangmu suspected the Director was concealing Fang Yi's protagonist identity.

• The old dean welcomed the freshmen and explained that the Demon Forged Jade would assign them to one of the Four Great Academies.
• Zhang Guangmu studied the ceremony, questioned the dean's nature, and recalled a mysterious black-flame death proclamation.
• As the old dean assigned freshmen to their academies, Zhang Guangmu watched Fang Yi, a rising star ranked seventh on the provisional Seven Stars list.
• Zhang Guangmu stroked his black-cat companion Mooncake and maintained his aloof demeanor as freshmen recognized him as the Black Flame Demon Hunter and youngest dean of Pitch Black Academy.
• During the banquet, Zhang Guangmu reviewed his political and resource-related troubles and noticed the Demon Forged Jade hesitate before placing Fang Yi in Pitch Black Academy.
• Zhang Guangmu concluded that the Director had hidden Fang Yi's protagonist identity from the Actor list.

Zhang Guangmu accepted that vivid hair color signaled strength and began his first lesson by warning the Beginners not to be late. After his dramatic departure caused panic and confusion, the new students eventually reached the Demon Forging Theory Classroom.

• Zhang Guangmu noticed that the stronger Demon Forging Sorcerers had more vivid hair and considered how his own unusual appearance fit the setting.
• Zhang Guangmu received a Script Hint urging him to guide the new students and decided to use his strengths while addressing the Black Flame Death Declaration.
• Zhang Guangmu summoned terrifying Demonic Flame butterflies and announced that his Demon Forging Theory Class would begin in ten minutes, warning the Beginners against being late.
• Zhang Guangmu vanished into black-flame butterflies, leaving the students in confusion as academy staff tried to maintain order.
• The Beginners hurried through corridors, stairways, lakes, gardens, and a cemetery before reaching the Demon Forging Theory Classroom.

Zhang Guangmu lectured the novices on Demon Forging Staffs, demon corruption, and each academy’s corruption symptoms. He then appeared to succumb to backlash and declared that he had slaughtered the new students, prompting Fang Yi to warn everyone to flee.

• Zhang Guangmu arrived at the Demon Forging Theory classroom and asked where Demon Hunting Sorcerers gained their power.
• Fang Yi explained that the Hope Source Fire empowered Demon Forged Stone, earning five Academic Credits.
• Zhang Guangmu demonstrated that staffs were the source of a sorcerer’s magic power, suspended the students’ staffs, and awarded Fang Yi ten points while deducting one point from everyone else.
• Zhang Guangmu described how Demon Forged Stone could corrupt sorcerers and outlined the corruption of the four academies.
• Zhang Guangmu’s staff produced a vision of him slaughtering the new students before the academy principals killed him.
• Fang Yi shouted that Zhang Guangmu had been corrupted by his staff and urged everyone to run.

Zhang Guangmu suppressed the Black Flame Demon Corrupted that emerged from his staff, then used the incident to teach the novices about willpower and Demon Forged materials. He dismissed the class after just over ten minutes, while Director Feng Chuang watched from above and looked forward to the coming clash between the academies.

• The Black Flame Demon Corrupted pinned the novices down with black-flame butterflies and threatened to kill them all.
• Zhang Guangmu ordered the corrupted entity to be silent and suppressed it with his control over the staff.
• Zhang Guangmu explained that Demon Hunting Sorcery depended on desire and will, and described the ranks of Demon Forged materials.
• Zhang Guangmu crushed the Black Flame Demon Corrupted into sparks, and Fang Yi noticed his staff appeared to be made of Demon Forged Jade.
• Zhang Guangmu dismissed the class after a little over ten minutes, while Director Feng Chuang praised his performance and named several figures he expected to compete.

Zhang Guangmu dismissed his Demon Forging Theory class early, then urged the hungry beginners to join forces and fight for what they needed. Fang Yi tried to bait them into attacking him, but his plan failed; on the way to Divination Class, he saw Zhang Guangmu at the cemetery and felt his sorrow seep into him.

• Zhang Guangmu dismissed the class after giving the beginners a few blunt lessons, while privately considering how to repair his poor reputation at Demon Hunting Academy.
• Zhang Guangmu explained the academy's food shortage and recounted how he had once gathered beginners to seize food from repeating students.
• Fang Yi recognized that Zhang Guangmu was encouraging the new students to unite with beginners, and he grew more wary of the dean.
• Fang Yi bought a steak and waited for someone to try taking it so he could claim self-defense and compensation, but no one took the bait.
• On his way to Divination Class, Fang Yi saw Zhang Guangmu standing at a gravestone and felt a faint sorrow that seemed to come from him.

Fang Yi and the other novices began to see Zhang Guangmu as a grieving, caring mentor after Tang Lanshan explained his cold manner, helping him reverse his reputation. Three months passed in an instant, and Zhang found his students protesting his forced removal as Act Three began.

• Fang Yi met Tang Lanshan at the cemetery, where she explained that Zhang Guangmu had buried seventy-two graduates after the Demon Disaster and concealed his affection for his students.
• Tang Lanshan stopped the novices from disturbing Zhang and explained that his emotional distance helped spare him the pain of hearing about students' deaths.
• Zhang Guangmu used the moment to deepen the students' sympathy for him, then left after telling Tang Lanshan to mind her own business.
• The novices interpreted Zhang's coldness as grief and hidden care, while Fang Yi began to pity him despite his earlier resolve to stay away.
• After leaving the cemetery, Zhang experienced a Time Flow that skipped three months, then found students protesting the headmaster's decision to force him out.

After three months at Demon Hunting Academy, Zhang Guangmu had won over students with his teaching and faced a vote to replace him as dean. He calmly allowed the vote to begin, then summoned Tarot Cards that showed their backs to the professors.

• Over three months, Zhang Guangmu and the other Subconscious Actors improved their abilities, while Zhang Guangmu built a strong reputation through his Demon Forging Theory classes.
• Students gathered outside Pitch Black Academy's conference hall to protest the plan to replace Zhang Guangmu as dean.
• Job Bolsolfer urged Zhang Guangmu to preside over the vote, expecting the principal and several professors to remove him from office.
• Zhang Guangmu calmly accepted the vote, saying he would remain a professor and Demon Hunter even if he lost his titles.
• As the vote began, Zhang Guangmu conjured multicolored Demon Forging radiance that formed Tarot Cards with their backs facing the professors.

Tang Lanshan defended Zhang Guangmu during the vote to remove him, and her support helped sway the professors against the motion. Zhang then called for a student representative, and Fang Yi stepped forward, binding himself to the Guangmu Faction as the dean’s disciple.

• Tang Lanshan cited seven years of rising graduate assessment results and voted against removing Zhang Guangmu.
• Job challenged Tang Lanshan’s right to speak, but she rebuked him and claimed Zhang was the only one who could lead the academy through an approaching crisis.
• Several neutral professors followed Tang Lanshan and voted against the motion, while Job argued over the voting rules.
• Zhang Guangmu stopped Job from pressing the procedural argument and asked the students to choose a representative.
• Fang Yi tore through the barrier into the conference hall, and the professors recognized his extraordinary ability.
• Fang Yi accepted the role of student representative and realized he had officially become Zhang Guangmu’s disciple and part of the Guangmu Faction.

Fang Yi defended Zhang Guangmu’s leadership, and Pitch Black Academy’s professors unanimously rejected the proposal to remove him as principal. Zhang Guangmu then answered the old principal’s summons and found him transformed into a giant in a vast office.

• Fang Yi told the professors that the other three academies’ students had stayed away because they feared Pitch Black Academy would surpass them under Zhang Guangmu, then thanked Zhang Guangmu for his guidance.
• Professor Job Bolsover’s father cast the decisive vote against the proposal, saying Zhang Guangmu had matured and shown the restraint and tolerance befitting a principal.
• All Pitch Black Academy professors, including Job, voted against the proposal, securing Zhang Guangmu’s position as principal.
• Yue Yiji announced that the principal had summoned everyone and opened a costly Teleportation Array, which Zhang Guangmu and the professors used to travel to the principal’s office.
• Zhang Guangmu arrived in a vast office and saw the old principal enlarged to several times his normal size, lying across a desk before he woke and fixed his gaze on Zhang Guangmu.

The disheveled old dean revealed that Zhang Guangmu had passed his final test and began appointing him as the next Lord of the Demon Hunting Magic Ring. The old dean died before completing the succession, and an alarm sounded as cries rose from outside.

• The old dean summoned the professors to share his last words and revealed that he had once belonged to Pitch Black Academy.
• The old dean recounted a prophecy about a gifted sorcerer from Pitch Black Academy who would kill him and take his position, and Zhang Guangmu offered to fulfill it.
• The old dean explained that his proposal to depose him had been a test, and declared that Zhang Guangmu had passed because he was wise, kind, and loved by the people.
• The old dean broke his staff and began transferring his position and power to Zhang Guangmu, but corruption emerged from his body and he died before finishing the appointment.
• Rainbow radiance began empowering Zhang Guangmu's staff, and an alarm rang as screams and sobs came from outside the corridor.

After the Demon Tide invaded the Four Academies, Zhang Guangmu took charge of organizing the professors to rescue the students while the other deans pursued their own ambitions. He headed toward the cemetery and theory-class study rooms, where he encountered a powerful demonized lion looming over an unlucky student.

• Bai Yongsheng suspected an inside traitor and learned from Yue Yiji that Shang Guizang had betrayed humanity.
• Bai Yongsheng and Sang Shenyou left the principal's office, while Zhang Guangmu persuaded the remaining professors to work together and assigned them rescue duties.
• Zhang Guangmu ordered the professors to regroup at the library after their rescues, then set off alone for the cemetery and theory-class study rooms.
• Zhang Guangmu encountered a massive, rotten lion monster and judged that fighting it head-on would likely get him killed.
• Zhang Guangmu noticed an unlucky student beneath the demonized lion and considered how to deal with the monster.

Zhang Guangmu rescued a Demon Forging Staff from a demonized lion and organized the surviving students into a fighting force that pushed through the academy. The group reached the source of the Demon Tide, where Fang Yi faced the suspected traitor Shang Guizang.

• Zhang Guangmu darted past the demonized lion, seized a nearby Demon Forging Staff, and burned the creature to ash with hellfire.
• Zhang Guangmu gathered the survivors and assigned strong upper-grade students to protect the group’s front and rear as they advanced through the academy.
• The students followed Zhang Guangmu’s orders, coordinated their Demon Hunting Sorcery, and cut down demons along the way.
• Zhang Guangmu led the group to a hole in the castle wall where demons poured into the academy and found Fang Yi confronting Shang Guizang.
• A student warned Zhang Guangmu that Shang Guizang had betrayed humanity and joined the demons.

Shang Guizang revealed that he had stolen the Forbidden Demon Staff and intended to seize the Demon Hunting Magic Ring’s power, then demonstrated its strength by killing Professor Job and Old Professor Job. He demanded that Zhang Guangmu surrender and serve as his Number One Sorcerer.

• Zhang Guangmu arrived beside the wounded Fang Yi and arranged for him to receive treatment while Shang Guizang subdued the surrounding demonic creatures and weakened the students’ staffs.
• Shang Guizang revealed that Fang Yi possessed a staff bearing destiny and confessed that he had stolen the Forbidden Demon Staff to claim the Demon Hunting Magic Ring’s power, regardless of the cost to humanity.
• Shang Guizang killed Professor Job with a flash of crimson light, and Old Professor Job warned Zhang Guangmu that the Forbidden Demon Staff could seal the power of most Demon Hunting Sorcerers’ staffs.
• Old Professor Job’s ambush failed, and Shang Guizang killed him with an Azure Death Ray; Old Professor Job handed his staff to Zhang Guangmu before dying.
• Shang Guizang told Zhang Guangmu that even a jade-grade staff would be severely weakened against the Forbidden Demon Staff and demanded that Zhang Guangmu surrender and become his Number One Sorcerer.

Shang Guizang tried to force Zhang Guangmu to surrender, but Zhang refused and stopped Fang Yi from sacrificing himself. Zhang Guangmu then used Mooncake to transform with Swiftness of the Spirit Cat, leaving his new form revealed as he faced Shang Guizang.

• Shang Guizang offered to spare the students if Zhang Guangmu agreed to become his subordinate, but Zhang rejected the offer.
• Shang Guizang revealed that Zhang Guangmu could not use his Demon Forging Staff or cast Demon Hunting Sorcery under the Forbidden Magic Staff’s suppression.
• Zhang Guangmu cast basic enhancement spells on himself, while Shang Guizang prevented Fang Yi from handing over the Fate Staff.
• Fang Yi began to transform into a monster, but Zhang Guangmu stopped him and promised he would not lose.
• Zhang Guangmu used Mooncake as a medium to cast Swiftness of the Spirit Cat and appeared in a new form.