Chapter Summaries

Zhang Ming explored the Earth Marrow’s origin in Mine Cave No. 13 and used some of it to nourish a hidden Demon Blood Tree. He left the mine with the tree growing in secret and plans to return after the Demon Beasts become manageable.

• Zhang Ming examined the Earth Marrow’s source and theorized that Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures were born from formations created by heaven and earth.
• Zhang Ming considered Mine Cave No. 13 as a possible secret base for hiding a large force as Zhang City’s growth attracted greater threats.
• Zhang Ming planted the Demon Blood Tree in a concealed dead-end cave because the gathered Demon Beasts made collecting their blood too dangerous.
• Zhang Ming dripped three drops of Earth Marrow onto the tree and found that one drop could nourish its growth for ten days.
• Zhang Ming secured the hidden space and left the mine with ninety-seven drops of Earth Marrow remaining.

After securing Mine Cave No. 13 and returning to Yang City, Zhang Ming received a letter from his master, Li Yan, who appeared to have been demoted again and asked Zhang Ming to come help him. Zhang Ming hesitated over whether to go to the Capital City.

• Zhang Ming soothed Lin De's emotions and ordered him to secure the defenses around Mine Cave No. 13.
• Zhang Ming considered whether controlling another person's dopamine could provide a means of control and started a research folder on the subject.
• The next day, Zhang Ming confirmed the Mine Cave Beast gathering had ended, hunted two Demon Beasts, and returned to Yang City.
• Zhang Ming's father gave him a letter from Li Yan, and Zhang Ming recalled how he had taken Li Yan as his master and borrowed his name to develop the Zhang Family.
• Zhang Ming read the letter and realized Li Yan had likely offended someone in the Capital City and wanted him to come help; Zhang Ming wondered whether to go.

Zhang Ming decided he might help Li Yan after his official appointment was confirmed, mainly to strengthen the Zhang Family’s political protection without revealing his full strength. Meanwhile, Huang Xin’s string of lucky encounters continued, though a moment of doubt about their coincidences vanished as he followed the City Lord’s daughter.

• Zhang Ming weighed whether to answer Li Yan’s summons and decided he would help if Li Yan’s new post was nearby, but might reveal more of his strength if it was too far away.
• Huang Xin recalled his rapid rise over the past month, including academy success, valuable discoveries, and the affection of several women.
• Huang Xin beat challengers who mocked him, but City Guards arrived and threatened to send him to the Dungeon.
• The City Lord’s daughter, whom Huang Xin had previously rescued, stopped the guards and helped him avoid prison while revealing who had framed him.
• Huang Xin wondered whether his recent good fortune involved too many coincidences, then immediately resumed flirting with the City Lord’s daughter.

After a month of research, Zhang Ming resolved his Thought Frenzy by breaking through to Grandmaster and awakening tangible intent. He used his new Radar Scan to occupy his mind, gaining powerful perception and deduction that advanced his research, including his Dopamine Control Method.

• Zhang Ming struggled with Thought Frenzy, which made his thoughts interfere with his everyday judgment, and rejected the idea of suppressing his intelligence to control it.
• Using [Ignite Comprehension] and the Hundred Beasts Sect’s Martial Dao texts, Zhang Ming devised a breakthrough method based on self-hypnosis and repeatedly stimulating his intent.
• Zhang Ming activated his pineal gland and smoothly broke through from the Innate Realm limit to Grandmaster.
• Zhang Ming began continuously sweeping his surroundings with his intent through Radar Scan, consuming processing power and preventing his mind from wandering.
• While using [Ignite Comprehension], Zhang Ming turned Radar Scan into a tool for predicting people’s actions and deducing their lives from minute details.
• Zhang Ming’s old research projects advanced, and his new Dopamine Control Method research began to show results.

Zhang Ming created the Dopamine Mind Control Method, a will-based Martial Skill that could influence people and beasts, and considered how it might support his ambitions. After returning to the Zhang Family estate with Demon Blood Fruits, he read a letter from Li Yan that implied he should travel to Jiangnan and assist him.

• Zhang Ming explained that the Dopamine Mind Control Method stimulated dopamine and made its targets feel pleasure, and he tested it on a fledgling.
• Zhang Ming considered combining the method with beast-taming knowledge, Demon Blood Fruit, and training to build a loyal army for his World-Conquering Plan.
• Zhang Ming reflected on Earth Marrow's benefits to his body, Vital Energy, soul, and will.
• Zhang Ming returned to the Zhang Family estate after harvesting Demon Blood Fruit and replenishing the Demon Blood Tree with Earth Marrow.
• Zhang Ming's father showed him a letter from Li Yan, who had left the capital to command the Jiangnan Town Martial Division and invited Zhang Ming to come study under him.

After learning that Li Yan had become the head of Jiangnan’s provincial Town Martial Division, Zhang Ming decided to travel to Jinling to help his teacher face the challenges ahead. He reached the city and saw the poverty beneath its prosperity before arriving at the fortress-like division headquarters.

• Zhang Ming realized that Li Yan’s new post would bring conflict with martial arts sects and decided to go support him.
• Zhang Ming told his father he planned to visit Li Yan, then left Yang City the next day with several guards.
• Zhang Ming and his party traveled by merchant ship to Jinling, Jiangnan’s provincial capital.
• At Jinling’s dock, Zhang Ming saw the miserable conditions of the laborers and resolved to change the world.
• Zhang Ming went with his guards to the Town Martial Division, whose walls and arrow towers made it resemble a military fortress.

Zhang Ming arrived at the Town Martial Division in Jinling, where Silver Badge Constable Zhong Zhiwen used Li Yan’s authority to assign him a task instead of letting him meet his master. Zhang Ming accepted and discovered that he was being sent to collect thirty-two years of unpaid taxes from Menliang City.

• Zhang Ming reached the heavily guarded Town Martial Division headquarters and asked a gate soldier whether Division Chief Li Yan was there.
• After the soldier went inside to report, no one came to receive Zhang Ming, and he suspected that someone had blocked the news from reaching Li Yan.
• Zhong Zhiwen introduced himself as a Silver Badge Constable and told Zhang Ming that Li Yan was too busy to meet him, then presented a task in Li Yan’s name.
• Zhang Ming accepted the task and left the headquarters while Zhong Zhiwen mocked him.
• Zhang Ming found an inn in Jinling and opened the dossier, which ordered him to collect thirty-two years of unpaid taxes from Menliang City.

Zhang Ming learned that his tax-collection mission would bring him into conflict with the Ten Absolute Sect, then used his fledgling to contact his master, Li Yan, in Jinling. Li Yan met him openly, and their reunion ended with Li Yan preparing to test Zhang Ming’s studies.

• Zhang Ming learned that Menliang City was effectively controlled by the Ten Absolute Sect and decided the difficult tax mission was not worth pursuing.
• Zhang Ming wondered how his younger brother was progressing at the Ten Absolute Sect, then sent his enhanced fledgling to find Li Yan.
• The fledgling reached Li Yan, who left the Town Martial Division with guards and went to meet Zhang Ming at an inn.
• Zhang Ming let Li Yan into his room and asked why he had not arranged a secret meeting; Li Yan said Zhang Ming could not hide after coming to Jinling.
• Li Yan asked about Zhang Ming’s studies, martial arts, and family, then announced that he would test Zhang Ming’s knowledge.

Zhang Ming discussed Menliang City's unpaid taxes with Li Yan and learned that his master planned to test the Ten Absolute Sect, whose Great Grandmaster ancestor might be near death. Zhang Ming accepted the mission, and Li Yan appointed him Chief of the Menliang City Garrison and a Silver Badge Constable.

• Zhang Ming gave Li Yan the case file for the Menliang City tax mission and said he had no personal stake in whether the taxes were paid.
• Li Yan asked Zhang Ming to accept the mission, and Zhang Ming inferred that his master planned to act against the Ten Absolute Sect.
• Li Yan revealed that the Ten Absolute Sect's Great Grandmaster ancestor had not appeared publicly for a long time and might be near death, based on intelligence from the Empire's agents.
• Zhang Ming worried that Li Yan might struggle to control the Town Martial Division, but Li Yan insisted he could handle the division's martial men.
• Zhang Ming accepted the mission, and Li Yan appointed him Chief of the Menliang City Garrison and Silver Badge Constable.
• Zhang Ming realized that Li Yan's appointment marked him as his master's man within the Town Martial Division.

Zhang Ming accepted his appointment as head of the Menliang City Town Martial Division and traveled to the city, where the Ten Absolute Sect held considerable influence. After discovering the garrison’s neglected state, he met an injured Grandmaster Warrior guarding its gate and invited him to a tavern.

• Li Yan gave Zhang Ming his appointment documents, Silver Badge Constable token, and intelligence about the Ten Absolute Sect’s influence in Menliang City.
• Zhang Ming assured Li Yan he would take the assignment and traveled south by boat to Menliang City.
• Zhang Ming saw the dilapidated Town Martial Division office and suspected its funds had been embezzled for years.
• An elderly gatekeeper stopped Zhang Ming’s group, and Zhang Ming recognized that the old man was an injured Grandmaster Warrior.
• Zhang Ming presented his appointment document, introduced himself as the new Division Head, and persuaded the gatekeeper to join him for wine and meat.

Zhang Ming questioned Hou Zhong about Menliang City and the Town Martial Division, then witnessed Ten Absolute Sect disciple Yao Pengju abduct a young woman. He chose not to intervene for fear of endangering her and her father, but ended the chapter wondering what he might do if he refused to accept that outcome.

• Zhang Ming learned that Hou Zhong claimed to be an elderly local who had guarded the Town Martial Division for ten years, while Hou Zhong evaded questions about the division's affairs.
• Zhang Ming and Hou Zhong watched Yao Pengju strike a young woman, kick her father aside, and drag her into his carriage.
• Hou Zhong explained that Yao Pengju's father was a Connate expert and his grandfather a Grandmaster elder of the Ten Absolute Sect, then warned Zhang Ming that intervening could get the woman and her father killed.
• Zhang Ming told Hou Zhong to summon all Silver Badge Constables to a meeting the next morning, and Hou Zhong warned that some might not be in the city.
• After Hou Zhong left, Zhang Ming watched the crowd return to normal and wondered what would happen if he acted despite the risks.

After rescuing a young woman, Zhang Ming questioned whether fate or his own choices had led him to Menliang City, where the Town Martial Division had little authority. When the Silver Badge Constables ignored his summons, he went to confront them at the Hundred Paths Restaurant.

• Zhang Ming gave the rescued girl money and urged her to flee Menliang City, then reflected on whether his journey there had been fated or inevitable.
• Zhang Ming waited in the Town Martial Division for its five Silver Badge Constables, but none arrived while the sun was high.
• Jin Gu arrived late and admitted the other constables were drinking at the Hundred Paths Restaurant instead of meeting Zhang Ming.
• Zhang Ming ordered Jin Gu to take him to the restaurant to meet his disobedient subordinates.
• At the Hundred Paths Restaurant, the Silver Badge Constables mocked Zhang Ming as a weak second-generation brat and complained that he had taken the position they had worked for.

Zhang Ming killed the disobedient Silver Badge Constables at a winehouse and ordered Jin Gu to handle the bodies. Back at the Town Martial Division, Zhang Ming began planning reforms, while Jin Gu warned that the Ten Absolute Sect might oppose a stronger Division.

• Zhang Ming revealed himself to the Silver Badge Constables mocking Jin Gu and killed them by triggering poison with his intent.
• Zhang Ming restrained the screaming hostesses and ordered Jin Gu to deal with the bodies before leaving for the Town Martial Division.
• Jin Gu praised himself for surviving and wondered how Zhang Ming had killed the constables without a visible technique.
• Zhang Ming returned to the rundown Division and later praised Jin Gu for arranging the cleanup and preparing a public account of the constables' deaths.
• Zhang Ming asked what the Division needed and pressed Jin Gu about its lax discipline, prompting Jin Gu to warn that reform could attract the Ten Absolute Sect's attention.

Zhang Ming ordered Jin Gu to repair the yamen and recruit constables while he planned to lie low, pursue his research, and later meet his younger brother. Meanwhile, City Lord Xu Yuanlong decided to use Yao’s father to arrange Zhang Ming’s death without drawing blame onto himself.

• Zhang Ming told Jin Gu to accept the Ten Absolute Sect’s offers and answer its questions, but to report everything to him.
• Zhang Ming reviewed his research projects, considered raising a combat Demon Beast, and planned to wait before acting against the Ten Absolute Sect.
• Zhang Ming thought about meeting his younger brother and recalled how he had prepared both his younger siblings for life in major sects.
• Xu Yuanlong learned that Zhang Ming had killed several subordinates and decided that Menliang City could not tolerate such a powerful Division Chief.
• Xu Yuanlong planned to use the murder of Yao’s son and the demands of Yao’s father to set others against Zhang Ming and kill him indirectly.

After putting the Town Martial Division in Jin Gu’s hands, Zhang Ming sailed from Menliang City to search for Electric Rays and other Water/Electric Pokemon. He found none, but spotted the father of a rich young master he had killed, who appeared to be coming after him.

• Jin Gu arranged repairs to the Town Martial Division offices and began training its constables under Zhang Ming’s instructions.
• Zhang Ming decided to search the sea for Electric Rays so he could study their electrical abilities and adapt them into a Cultivation Method using the Hundred Beasts Art.
• Zhang Ming rented a fishing boat and spent hours searching the sea, but found only ordinary fish and sharks.
• A large ship bearing the Ten Absolute Sect’s flag appeared, and Zhang Ming recognized the man at its prow as the father of the rich young master he had killed.
• Zhang Ming concluded that the man had come for him and wondered how he had been identified despite leaving no clues.

Zhang Ming considered how to handle Yao Pengju’s approaching father and recognized that his rationality had made him coldhearted. When Yao Yuankui arrived and admitted he only suspected Zhang Ming of killing his son, Zhang Ming used his ability to cripple him and concluded someone had deliberately steered him there.

• Zhang Ming weighed killing Yao Yuankui and the Ten Absolute Sect against making them retreat, while considering increasingly ruthless ways to avoid future trouble.
• Zhang Ming reflected that his intelligence had made him instinctively dismiss emotion and contemplate extreme measures, including wiping out a sect or causing a plague.
• Yao Yuankui leaped from the Ten Absolute Sect’s ship onto Zhang Ming’s fishing boat and demanded to know whether Zhang Ming had killed his son.
• Zhang Ming questioned Yao Yuankui’s certainty and used his ability to inflict agonizing pain on him.
• Yao Yuankui’s words revealed that he only suspected Zhang Ming, so Zhang Ming concluded someone had deliberately led him to the fishing boat.

Zhang Ming subdued Yao Yuankui, convinced him to doubt the accusation that he had killed his son, and escorted him safely back to the docks. Days later, Zhang Ming received word that his younger brother Zhang Jingcheng was passing through Menliang City and went out to meet him.

• Zhang Ming poisoned Yao Yuankui, questioned the evidence against him, and released him after Yao Yuankui promised to keep searching for proof.
• Zhang Ming followed Yao Yuankui's ship back to the docks, then returned to Menliang City and wondered who had framed him.
• Zhang Ming spent several peaceful days at the Town Martial Division and searched the sea for Water- and Electric-type Pokemon without success.
• Zhang Ming received a rambling letter from Zhang Jingcheng saying he would pass through Menliang City on a mission the next day.
• Zhang Ming waited outside Menliang City and saw Zhang Jingcheng arrive with two women.

Zhang Ming reunited with his younger brother Zhang Jingcheng, who introduced him to his senior sister Luolan and junior sister Zhu Miaoyin. After hearing about the Ten Absolute Sect’s internal rivalries, Zhang Ming asked whether Zhang Jingcheng wanted to become its Sect Master and promised to help him reach that position.

• Zhang Ming welcomed Zhang Jingcheng and teased him about his close relationships with Zhu Miaoyin and Luolan.
• Zhang Jingcheng introduced the two women, and Zhang Ming invited them and his brother into the city for a welcome banquet.
• Zhang Jingcheng spent hours recounting his life in the Ten Absolute Sect while Zhang Ming listened and considered the sect’s internal affairs.
• Zhang Ming learned that Zhang Jingcheng’s master, the peak master of Wuji Peak, had a deep feud with the Sect Master.
• Zhang Ming asked Zhang Jingcheng if he wanted to become Sect Master and said he would help him become a Grandmaster and win the ancestor’s support.

Zhang Ming gave Zhang Jingcheng Earth Marrow and promised to help him reach the Innate limit faster. After discussing Zhang Jingcheng’s mission to Shattered Cloud Island, Zhang Ming told him to stay in Menliang City for a few days before heading out.

• Zhang Ming gave Zhang Jingcheng Earth Marrow and explained that he had found a spring that could provide an ample supply.
• Zhang Jingcheng said the Earth Marrow could help him reach the Innate limit within three years, but Zhang Ming said that was too slow and promised further assistance.
• Zhang Jingcheng guessed that Zhang Ming had a Golden Finger, and Zhang Ming changed the subject rather than confirm it.
• Zhang Jingcheng explained that his sect mission was to deal with pirates near Shattered Cloud Island, and he listed several possible dangers Zhang Ming had taught him to expect.
• Zhang Ming told Zhang Jingcheng to stay in Menliang City, tour the city with his senior and junior sisters the next day, and visit him that night.

Zhang Ming trained Zhang Jingcheng in the Wuji Sword Technique for several days, rapidly improving his brother’s skill before Zhang Jingcheng left on a mission by ship. Zhang Jingcheng mistook Zhang Ming’s warnings about being a protagonist for a sign that he would someday disappear, while Zhang Ming resolved to build a lasting legacy in case the hidden force behind his gift eventually claimed him.

• Zhang Ming sparred with Zhang Jingcheng outside Menliang City and used his martial expertise to correct the flaws in his swordsmanship.
• Over several days, Zhang Jingcheng’s Wuji Sword Technique advanced to major mastery, and Zhang Ming demonstrated and optimized the technique without having been taught it.
• Zhang Jingcheng boarded a ship for his mission and concluded that Zhang Ming was a protagonist who might leave one day, vowing to grow strong enough to carry on his foundation.
• Zhang Ming considered the hidden force behind [Ignite Comprehension] and decided he wanted to leave a lasting mark on the world rather than disappear without a legacy.