Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Su Mu’s casual identification of the stallholder as “Emperor Fengdu” shocks Zhou Hang and stirs the man’s hopes. The stallholder initially decides Su Mu cannot be the emperor, seeing no cultivation or Spiritual Energy in him, and sinks into grief.
• Su Mu then reveals that he knows the Primordial World. The stallholder becomes convinced he is speaking with Emperor Fengdu, and Su Mu takes him inside to talk privately. Zhou Hang withdraws to give them space.
• The stallholder introduces himself as Mingche, once a lowly Yin Spirit in the Great Netherworld. He says Emperor Fengdu gave him a Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir, which stabilized his spirit, enabled him to cultivate, and formed him a powerful physical body.
• Mingche recounts earning Earthly Dao Merit by fighting evil ghost cultivators, protecting weaker spirits, and restoring Netherworld Veins. He eventually rose to the Quasi-Saint realm.
• Ten Quasi-Saint opponents attacked him. His elixir-strengthened body resisted their physical attacks, but their numbers exhausted his power and left him badly injured. He fled the Great Netherworld, recovered in the Primordial World, then was nearly defeated again by Demon Race experts.
• Escaping into the poisonous far north, Mingche found an ancient ruin with twelve rune-covered pillars. Netherworld energy accidentally activated a hidden teleportation formation, transporting him to Earthstar, where he now runs a stall. The chapter ends as he begins to share his arrival’s significance.

Character developments and interactions

• Mingche shifts from an ordinary, grieving stallholder to an enthusiastic, reverent former Netherworld cultivator. His account reveals pride in his deeds and gratitude to the ruler who transformed his life.
• Su Mu remains calm and authoritative, steering the conversation indoors and listening as Mingche explains his past. He recognizes that Mingche’s extraordinary body came from the Nine Revolutions Golden Elixir.
• Zhou Hang is first bewildered by Su Mu’s words, then discreetly steps away when he realizes the exchange is private.

Significant themes

• Gratitude and loyalty: Mingche’s life and mission are shaped by the gift he received from Emperor Fengdu.
• Merit and righteous action: Protecting vulnerable spirits and repairing the Netherworld earns Mingche Earthly Dao Merit and supports his rise.
• Survival through strength and luck: Mingche endures repeated battles and escapes through a combination of unusual physical resilience, resourcefulness, and chance.
• Fate and unexpected connections: A hidden formation carries Mingche from the Primordial World to Earthstar, where he unexpectedly encounters someone he believes to be his sovereign.

Plot and events

• Mingche explains that a teleportation array in the Primordial Northland sent him to another world, damaging his spiritual treasures and suppressing his cultivation. He landed at Kunlun Mountain.
• Su Mu fears Beast Emperor Shen Ni may have used the array to escape the Primordial World and recruit allies, potentially reigniting a devastating conflict. He decides to investigate Kunlun.
• Mingche recounts how soldiers mistook him for a reclusive martial-arts master and recruited him to train promising troops. As chief instructor, he adapted the surviving Body Tempering Chapter of the True Martial Scripture for them.
• Military officer Li Mo arrives urgently: mutant beasts are attacking Kunlun Mountain again. This third assault is more violent than the previous ones, and soldiers at the pass are wounded and close to being overwhelmed.
• Mingche feels responsible for the troops and prepares to help. Su Mu agrees to accompany him, and they set out with Li Mo.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Mu shifts from worrying about threats to the Primordial World to deciding to investigate Kunlun and respond to the immediate crisis. He asks Mingche to call him “Mr. Su” in public to avoid drawing attention.
• Mingche reveals his vulnerability in the new world but has adapted by serving as a military instructor. His sense of duty drives him to aid the soldiers.
• Li Mo shows respect for Mingche and brings him news of the attack, trusting his former instructor to help.
• Su Mu and Mingche act in partnership: Su Mu supports Mingche’s decision and joins him, while Mingche continues to address him with reverence.

Significant themes

• Responsibility and loyalty: Mingche feels accountable for the soldiers he trained and refuses to abandon them.
• Hidden dangers and uncertainty: The array’s existence raises fears of Shen Ni’s escape and a wider threat to the Primordial World.
• Adaptation across worlds: Mingche survives in an unfamiliar realm by adjusting his knowledge and skills to its circumstances.

Plot points and events

• Su Mu, Mingche, and Zhou Hang arrive at Kunlun Pass. Su is overwhelmed by the mountain range’s ancient, immense beauty.
• The calm is shattered when strange, heavily armored beasts burst from the mountains and attack the pass. Soldiers hold the first line with gunfire; martial artists engage the beasts at close range.
• The defenders suffer severe injuries but hold their ground. A young fighter keeps battling after losing his forearm and stops only when the beast he is fighting dies.
• Li Mo orders his team to reinforce the line, then warns Mingche that the beasts are growing stronger while the soldiers’ cultivation is lagging behind.
• Mingche admits he has no solution: most trainees cannot understand the True Martial Scripture, and Li Mo is the only one to have mastered its Body Tempering Chapter.
• Su Mu insists they deal with the immediate attack first. Mingche accepts his direction, and Li Mo leads the team back into battle.
• Su tells Zhou Hang to join Li Mo and help defend the gate. Zhou Hang protests that he is an untrained office worker who would only hinder the fighters.

Character developments and interactions

• Su Mu shifts from awe at Kunlun’s grandeur to firm leadership under pressure, prioritizing the immediate crisis.
• Mingche shows concern and frustration at the training problem, but defers to Su Mu’s decision.
• Li Mo is decisive and courageous: he reinforces the defenders, raises the alarm about the worsening threat, and returns to battle without hesitation.
• The defenders display extraordinary resolve, refusing to retreat despite mounting casualties.
• Zhou Hang is frightened and self-deprecating when ordered into combat, providing a contrast to the experienced fighters’ bravery.

Significant themes

• Nature’s overwhelming scale: Kunlun’s grandeur makes human concerns seem small, before the mountain reveals a more immediate danger.
• Courage and sacrifice: The defenders continue fighting despite devastating injuries to keep the beasts from passing the gate.
• Escalating crisis and inadequate preparation: The beasts grow stronger faster than the soldiers can develop their cultivation, threatening to overwhelm the defenses.
• Leadership under pressure: Su Mu focuses the group on the urgent battle, while each character responds according to their role and temperament.

Key plot points

• Encouraged by Mingche and Su Mu, Zhou Hang overcomes his fear and charges into the beast horde. His speed and strength astonish him: he kills two powerful beasts with a punch and a precisely placed kick, then fights through the swarm until every beast in the woods is dead or driven off.
• The surviving soldiers and martial artists are stunned. Zhou Hang feels elation and pride at finally being able to protect his country and its people.
• Li Mo and the other martial artists praise Zhou Hang and ask about his training. He reveals that he began practicing less than three months ago and studies the Body Tempering Chapter of the True Martial Scripture.
• Li Mo explains that the Scripture is the ancient foundation of human martial arts, but its meaning has long been lost. Su Mu and Mingche attribute this decline to the Heavenly Dao Shackles, which severed the world from the martial arts’ source and damaged its inheritance over generations.
• Mingche asks whether Su Mu can restore humanity’s innate bloodlines. Su Mu says his current body is mortal and lacks cultivation, but assures Mingche that he will have a role to play. Mingche is delighted.
• Li Mo is assigned to oversee cleanup while Su Mu and Mingche prepare to leave. Zhou Hang stops them and proposes using the beasts’ recent defeat to investigate their lair. Li Mo urgently warns that entering it would be extremely dangerous.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Hang transforms from anxious newcomer into a confident fighter, driven by the soldiers’ sacrifice and his desire to serve his homeland. He remains modest despite earning the martial artists’ respect, then shows initiative by proposing an advance into the lair.
• Su Mu encourages Zhou Hang and explains the deeper cause of humanity’s lost martial inheritance. Though he claims to be only a mortal, he hints at a larger plan by promising Mingche a part in it.
• Mingche remains devoted to Su Mu, addressing him as the Great Emperor and eagerly offering his help.
• Li Mo and the martial artists shift from battle comrades to admirers of Zhou Hang, honoring him as a senior. Li Mo later takes responsibility for the aftermath and cautions Zhou Hang against a reckless mission.

Significant themes

• Courage and service: Zhou Hang’s resolve grows from witnessing ordinary soldiers risk their lives to protect others.
• Inheritance and loss: The True Martial Scripture represents humanity’s ancient martial legacy, now degraded through isolation, incomplete transmission, and the Heavenly Dao Shackles.
• Humility and responsibility: Zhou Hang rejects praise even as his actions establish him as a leader and protector.
• Risk and initiative: After victory, Zhou Hang seeks to press the advantage, while Li Mo emphasizes the danger of overconfidence.

Su Mu led Mingche, Zhou Hang, and Li Mo into Kunlun Mountain to investigate an intense source of spiritual energy. After Zhou Hang subdued a valley full of young beasts, he felt an unexplained force calling him from the forest and insisted on investigating it.

• Mingche agreed to enter Kunlun Mountain with Su Mu, and Su Mu asked Li Mo to join them as well.
• The group followed Mingche's spiritual-energy sense southwest through the wreckage left by the beasts.
• They discovered hundreds of young beasts rapidly absorbing spiritual energy in a valley.
• Zhou Hang beat the beasts into submission and warned them not to harm humans again.
• Su Mu told Li Mo to remain in the valley, while Zhou Hang sensed something in the forest drawing him in and said he had to investigate.

Su Mu, Mingche, and Zhou Hang entered a hidden valley in Kunlun Mountain, where a giant crocodile attacked Zhou Hang. After the Heavenly Dao and an unknown force suppressed Mingche’s power, Su Mu used his blood essence to drive the creature away, leaving Zhou Hang alive but Su Mu weakened.

• Su Mu decided to accompany Zhou Hang into Kunlun Mountain with Mingche while Li Mo stayed behind to cultivate.
• Zhou Hang, Su Mu, and Mingche reached a secluded valley and found its eerie surroundings suspicious despite seeing no immediate danger.
• Zhou Hang approached the stream to drink, and a giant crocodile burst out and dragged him toward its jaws.
• Mingche tried to hold Zhou Hang back, but heavenly lightning and a mysterious dark force suppressed Mingche’s power and broke his spell.
• Su Mu hurled his blood essence at the crocodile, causing it to abandon Zhou Hang and flee into the stream.

Su Mu paid a severe physical price to activate the secret seal, creating an opening for Zhou Hang to gain insight. A golden spear emerged from the stream, chose Zhou Hang, and merged with his soul, leaving the group to consider what to do next.

• Su Mu merged a drop of his vital blood essence into the secret seal and nearly collapsed, but urged Zhou Hang to seize the opening for cultivation.
• Zhou Hang suppressed his concern for Su Mu and focused on gaining insight as the stream churned violently.
• The injured crocodile was blasted from the stream and lamented its misfortune as the water calmed.
• A golden spear rose from the stream, and Zhou Hang recognized it as the source of the call he had sensed.
• The spear flew to Zhou Hang and vanished when he grasped it; Mingche explained that it had merged with Zhou Hang's soul and acknowledged him as its master.