Recaps

Mu Feng took over the breeding farm after the old man retired and began researching how spirit beasts’ bloodlines could evolve. By comparing breeding records and spiritual materials, he discovered that spirit beasts had elemental attributes and that materials capable of triggering evolution could also harm their bodies, giving him a new direction to investigate.

• The old man retired and left the breeding farm, and Mu Feng became its sole person in charge.
• Mu Feng asked his father to buy three Spiritual Turnip Pigs and supplies so he could test his ideas without using the farm’s resources.
• Mu Feng studied the breeding records and spiritual materials, then classified the farm’s eighteen spirit beast species by element.
• Mu Feng found that Wood Bone Grass changed Spiritual Turnip Pigs’ bloodline values and noticed that the materials linked to evolution all damaged the Flesh and Blood Body.
• Mu Feng consulted the old man and organized his recorded discoveries, gradually forming unconventional breeding methods and a direction for improving spirit beast bloodline potential.

Mu Feng discovered that environmental pressure and competition, combined with enough same-attribute spiritual materials, could loosen a spirit beast’s Bloodline Shackles and accelerate ancestral evolution. After Dummy evolved through fierce battles with a spirit deer, it manifested a vine-whip attack, leaving Mu Feng convinced it was gaining a new Talent Ability.

• Mu Feng’s experiments showed that injuries and same-attribute spiritual materials could raise a spirit beast’s bloodline potential, but the costly feeding method alone was inefficient.
• Mu Feng tested whether spirit beasts could evolve by devouring their own kind, but the Spiritual Turnip Pig showed no bloodline change after eating a wood-attribute spirit rabbit.
• When food ran short, three Spiritual Turnip Pigs fought over it, and Mu Feng observed a sharp bloodline increase in the one already receiving same-attribute spiritual materials.
• Mu Feng spent six months testing competition and feeding, naming the strongest Spiritual Turnip Pig Dummy and confirming that pressure plus same-attribute nourishment accelerated evolution.
• Mu Feng placed Dummy with a mid-grade spirit deer, and Dummy grew strong enough to fight it evenly and eventually overpower it.
• Dummy’s body glowed with emerald light, and its vines struck the fleeing spirit deer, leading Mu Feng to suspect that ancestral evolution had granted it a new Talent Ability.

Mu Feng’s Jade Turnip Pig proved that spirit beasts could undergo ancestral bloodline advancement, and he sought Star City’s support to continue his research. The experts recognized the discovery’s significance, then fell into an argument over their academies’ reputations before learning Mu Feng had graduated from Wisdom Academy.

• Hanpi completed its evolution into a Jade Turnip Pig, gained stronger stats and Vine Manipulation, and obeyed Mu Feng when he stopped it from killing the spirit deer.
• Mu Feng recorded Hanpi’s changes in the Spiritual Beast Bestiary and concluded that the lack of competitive pressure had slowed its evolution.
• Mu Feng contacted Star City’s departments to request support, then sent his successful results to executor Wang Hu for evaluation.
• Wang Hu shared Mu Feng’s photos and data with the Spirit Beast Studies experts, who praised the discovery and urged the highest level of support.
• The experts argued over whether Star City Academy or Dawn Academy had contributed more to Spirit Beast Studies, then fell silent when Mu Feng said he had graduated from Wisdom Academy.

After uncovering the secret of ancestral bloodline evolution, Mu Feng received Star City's full support and began investigating why Hanpi's second-stage advancement had slowed. He refused public recognition and interviews, but his father proudly spoke about him on television as Mu Feng continued his research.

• Mu Feng explained to the Spirit Beast Scholars how Xie She’s experience and his studies at Dawn Academy had helped him discover that environmental pressure and same-attribute spirit materials could trigger initial bloodline advancement.
• The Star City Highest Council gave Mu Feng’s project S-rank support, and Shi Jianping delivered resources and promised access to the spirit beasts Mu Feng needed.
• Mu Feng refused Wisdom Academy’s invitation to give a speech and declined an interview with Star City media, directing reporters to his father instead.
• Mu Feng used three Direbones to pressure Hanpi, but Hanpi’s bloodline growth slowed, so he and the scholars began investigating what could stimulate second-stage advancement.
• Mu Feng prayed daily before Feng Qi’s Faith Statue, while his father accepted a television interview and proudly described Mu Feng as smart and eager to learn since childhood.

After entering the Faith Space, Mu Feng borrowed the Thought Acceleration ability and heard a voice he suspected belonged to Feng Qi tell him to try emotions. He tested whether extreme fear could trigger spirit-beast evolution, and Dumbass’s bloodline readings rose sharply after a near-death experience, leaving Mu Feng wondering whether other emotions could do the same.

• Mu Feng’s father explained Mu Feng’s academy choice in a news interview, and the story spread through Star City as Wisdom Academy capitalized on the attention.
• Mu Feng entered the Faith Space, examined Talent Abilities, and borrowed Thought Acceleration from the fifteenth Talent Orbit.
• As Mu Feng left the Faith Space, an unfamiliar voice told him to try emotions, so he searched the Database and found Feng Qi’s note asking whether emotions could bring power.
• Mu Feng let three Direbones attack Dumbass without intervening until Dumbass neared death, then rescued it and took it to the medical room.
• After Dumbass recovered, Mu Feng saw that its basic bloodline readings had risen by 20% and wondered whether other emotions could also help spirit beasts evolve.

Mu Feng developed a spirit beast reform plan centered on public education, battle-based cultivation, and accessible choices of spirit beasts. After the Star City Highest Council reviewed it, Zhang Daowen informed Mu Feng that it had passed and asked him to come to Star City with his team to refine the details.

• Mu Feng concluded that emotional motivation and individual care could help spirit beasts break their Bloodline Shackles, and he published Spirit Beast's Ancestral Evolution and the Spiritual Beast Bestiary.
• Mu Feng repeatedly revised his proposal after Star City's upper ranks rejected plans that failed to address combat strength and resource costs.
• Mu Feng and his team devised a reform plan promoting the Spiritual Beast Bestiary, district-based spirit beast battle rankings, and initial adoption of low-grade or mid-tier spirit beasts.
• Mu Feng submitted the revised plan to the Star City Highest Council, which reviewed its resource efficiency and potential to improve combat strength for three days.
• A week later, Zhang Daowen told Mu Feng that the proposal had passed and summoned him and his team to Star City to discuss its details.

Mu Feng’s spirit beast Hanpi advanced to its third bloodline stage, gaining Earth Attribute abilities and greatly increased potential. Mu Feng then met with Zhang Daowen and Star City’s Decision Makers to revise the spirit beast reform plan into a gradual citywide pilot program, and Zhang Daowen hinted that he had another important task for him later.

• Mu Feng agreed to meet Zhang Daowen about spirit beast reform after Hanpi’s imminent breakthrough.
• Hanpi lost another fight against Shield Guard, recovered, and advanced to its third bloodline stage after Mu Feng encouraged it and fed it spiritual materials.
• Mu Feng’s tests revealed that Hanpi’s bloodline potential had increased fifteenfold and that it had gained the Earth Attribute alongside improved Wood Attribute abilities.
• Hanpi fought Shield Guard again and gave it a much harder battle, though Shield Guard still won through its combat experience.
• Zhang Daowen proposed piloting spirit beast reform at Dawn Academy and Star City Academy before gradually expanding it across Star City, and defended universal breeding as part of the city’s future defenses.
• After three days of discussions, Zhang Daowen saw Mu Feng off and said he would entrust him with another important task once spirit beast reform was complete.

Mu Feng expanded the Spirit Beast System from two academy pilots into a citywide program, documenting new spirit beast forms and training successors. At sixty-nine, after the system had transformed Star City, he accepted Zhang Daowen’s long-delayed secret task and said he could keep moving forward.

• Mu Feng organized the Spirit Beast Champion Cup, where a mutated Spiritual Turnip Pig demonstrated that bloodline advancement could produce new forms and abilities.
• After the competition, Mu Feng announced that all academies could join the renamed Spirit Beast Academy Competition.
• Mu Feng spent years expanding the Spiritual Beast Bestiary, declined marriage, and trained two disciples to carry on Spirit Beast Studies.
• Twelve years later, Mu Feng announced that Star City would allow residents under thirty to apply to raise spirit beasts under strict rules.
• At sixty-nine, Mu Feng chose to keep working despite reaching retirement age, and Zhang Daowen called to entrust him with a secret task.
• Mu Feng told Zhang Daowen that he was not old yet and could still keep moving forward.

Zhang Daowen revealed to Mu Feng the truth about Feng Qi’s Talent Abilities, the Main Timeline, and humanity’s development across timelines. Mu Feng accepted a secret spirit beast breeding mission, then learned of a second mission to investigate how humans could unlock their hidden bloodline potential.

• Mu Feng traveled to Star City and met Zhang Daowen, who explained that Feng Qi gained Talent Abilities by killing other lives and stripping their abilities from their bloodlines.
• Zhang Daowen told Mu Feng about the Main Timeline, branch timelines, and Feng Qi’s sacrifices to build a foundation for humanity’s survival and development.
• Mu Feng realized Zhang Daowen wanted him to create and secretly maintain a spirit beast breeding farm so Feng Qi could harvest more Talent Abilities in the future, and he agreed.
• Zhang Daowen revealed that humanity had hidden bloodline shackles called the Pillar God Lock and said unlocking them could remove humanity’s limits on bloodline potential.

After learning that humanity’s Pillar God Lock might be studied through Mu Qing’s records, Mu Feng accepted Zhang Daowen’s mission to investigate the hidden potential in human bloodlines. He handed over his work, said farewell to his father and familiar places, then entered the secret base to begin his research.

• Zhang Daowen explained the Pillar God Lock, the sun’s role as humanity’s rule core, and his theory that Mu Yao had helped past human geniuses break through.
• Zhang Daowen urged Mu Feng to investigate Mu Qing’s modification records, and Mu Feng committed himself to researching humanity’s bloodline shackles.
• Over several months, Mu Feng transferred his Spirit Beast Base responsibilities to his team, resigned, and learned that the secret base prepared for Feng Qi was ready.
• Mu Feng visited his father at the Retiree e-13 Sanatorium, shared a final dinner with him, and accepted that he might not return.
• Mu Feng revisited his father’s former restaurant and Wisdom Academy, where he saw a statue commemorating his life.
• At the western district energy factory, Mu Feng told Zhang Daowen he would not regret his choice, entered the underground secret base, and set off down its passage.

Zuo Tianxuan joined his grandfather at the forge and reflected on the decline of the Forgemaster profession and his grandfather’s struggle to preserve it. The chapter left Zuo Tianxuan’s future tied to the family trade after he failed to qualify for the Combat Academy, while his grandfather believed he could become its successor.

• Zuo Tianxuan woke to the sound of hammering, hurried to the forge, and watched his grandfather work with help from the Flame Hound.
• Zuo Tianxuan considered how Fate City’s Equipment Black Hole had made Forgemasters slower, costlier, and less competitive, though their work could be repaired and improved.
• Zuo Tianxuan recalled that his grandfather had persuaded Star City to support the Forgemaster lineage, but decades of effort had failed to produce the advances the city hoped for.
• Zuo Tianxuan remembered that his father had rejected the family trade and worked at the Spiritual Energy Research Institute.
• Zuo Tianxuan had failed to qualify for even the lowest-tier academy, ending his hopes of going to the front lines, and his grandfather had celebrated because he saw a successor to the Forgemaster lineage.

Zuo Tianxuan learned more about his family’s declining Forgemaster craft while managing his hereditary Fire Hemp, then began forging a weapon himself. After three months of practice, he completed a sword with a Fortification Array, and Zuo Duan judged it a success.

• Zuo Tianxuan collected his monthly medicine for Fire Hemp and reflected on how his family’s exposure to spiritual ore had caused the hereditary illness.
• Zuo Tianxuan studied forging and concluded that mass-produced Spiritual Energy Weapons had made traditional Forgemasters impractical, though he intended to inherit his family’s techniques.
• Three months later, Zuo Tianxuan used the God Forging Eye to forge a sword and inscribe it with a Fortification Array.
• Zuo Tianxuan cooled the finished sword and tested its ring, and Zuo Duan praised his work and forging talent.

Zuo Tianxuan continued learning Forging Studies while facing the profession’s decline and his family’s limited resources. After his grandfather’s grief over a fellow Forgemaster’s death inspired Zuo Tianxuan to consider reviving the craft, Feng Qi realized he could use the Artifact Race’s forging knowledge to train a master and address Star City’s shortage of high-end weapons.

• Zuo Tianxuan meditated before his family’s Feng Qi Statue, then began forging in an aging Forge Room with equipment that required manual heat control.
• His grandfather gave him a Flame Hound pup named Xiao Huo, and Zuo Tianxuan began raising it despite worrying about the cost of spirit materials.
• Over the next month, Zuo Tianxuan improved his forging skills, but few orders left him with little practice and made him doubt he could change the profession’s future.
• His grandfather returned from the funeral of an old Forgemaster friend and spent several days grieving, prompting Zuo Tianxuan to consider reviving Forging Studies through high-end customization.
• In Faith Space, Xiao You told Feng Qi that Star City relied on Fate City for high-end weapons, and Feng Qi decided to train a master using the Artifact Race’s forging legacy.

Xiao You searched for a successor to the Artifact Clan’s forging techniques and found Zuo Tianxuan, the only young person applying to become a forger in Star City. After watching him forge a sword, Feng Qi decided to keep assessing his talent, while Zuo Tianxuan’s grandfather tried to stop the job because he believed Xiao You was a minor.

• Feng Qi told Xiao You to search Star City’s forgers, and she found Zuo Tianxuan, a twenty-one-year-old whose application to register as a forger was pending.
• Xiao You visited Zuo Tianxuan’s forge and revealed that she held Star City’s Highest Authority when he checked her identity.
• Xiao You ordered Zuo Tianxuan to forge a sword while Feng Qi observed his focus and forging ability through her perspective.
• Zuo Tianxuan’s grandfather, Zuo Duan, arrived and scolded him for forging a weapon for a child, then ordered him to retrieve the identity verification device so he could contact Xiao You’s guardians.

Xiao You recognized Zuo Tianxuan’s forging talent, and Feng Qi chose him to inherit the Artifact Clan’s forging legacy. After the forging building was rebuilt and supplied, Xiao You began teaching Zuo Tianxuan on Feng Qi’s behalf and introduced the history of Artifact Clan Forging Studies.

• After inspecting Zuo Tianxuan’s sword, Xiao You told him that Feng Qi had chosen to train him, then revealed that her boss was the Feng Qi Hero Statue.
• Star City renovated the forging building, installed new equipment, and supplied it with spiritual materials for Zuo Tianxuan’s training.
• Xiao You dismantled Zuo Tianxuan’s inherited hammer and used Energy Weaving to create an Energy Forging Hammer, explaining that she would teach him real forging instead.
• Feng Qi taught Zuo Tianxuan through Xiao You because his faith connection with Zuo Tianxuan was too weak for direct instruction.
• Feng Qi explained the five stages of Artifact Clan Forging Studies and described how its Blood Sacrifice Forging Method had led the clan to its peak.

Feng Qi trained Zuo Tianxuan in Artifact Clan Forging Studies, guiding him from basic theory to his first practical forging test. After Zuo Tianxuan forged a three-element battle axe in one exhausting, uninterrupted session, Feng Qi approved his progress and planned to teach him the next section.

• Feng Qi organized Artifact Clan knowledge into four sections and had Xiao You teach Zuo Tianxuan the basics while he trained and studied for half a year.
• After confirming Zuo Tianxuan had mastered the basic theory, Feng Qi assigned him a practical test forging a battle axe from Ember Stone, Black Marrow Stone, and Wind Clear Stone.
• Zuo Tianxuan sensed the furnace temperature, smelted the ores together, and hammered their internal structures into a weapon before inscribing and quenching it.
• Zuo Tianxuan completed the battle axe after working through the night, then collapsed from exhaustion and was placed in a Healing Pod by Xiao You.
• Feng Qi judged the weapon through Xiao You, approved Zuo Tianxuan's performance, and decided to teach him the growth section before sending him to the front lines to take forging orders.

Zuo Tianxuan arrived at the Star City North Supply Zone and studied its military situation and weapon market while planning how to complete Feng Qi’s thousand forging orders. He chose a former Spiritual Food Store for his Forge Room, but Xiao You refused to provide startup funds, leaving him to find a way to finance it himself.

• Zuo Tianxuan arrived at the North Supply Zone with Xiao You, who explained that Feng Qi expected him to complete a thousand forging orders on his own.
• Zuo Tianxuan checked into the Rift Sky Hotel, then read a battle report describing the factions surrounding the Supply Zone and humanity’s looming final battle against the Jupiter Clan and Crimson Moon Clan.
• Zuo Tianxuan compared the front line’s weapon sources and decided to attract customers by highlighting the unique spiritual-mineral attributes of weapons forged by the Weapon Clan.
• Zuo Tianxuan searched for a storefront and chose to take over a former Spiritual Food Store in the southern district to convert it into a Forge Room.
• Zuo Tianxuan called Xiao You for startup funds, but she relayed Feng Qi’s refusal and told him to earn the money himself before hanging up.

Zuo Tianxuan endured weeks without customers before forging his first frontline order, a kitchen knife that helped establish his reputation. Two years later, finding a sword he had made in a relic shop made him confront the loss of its owner and embrace a Forgemaster’s responsibility to protect soldiers.

• Zuo Tianxuan set up a cost-price forging stall outside a military camp, but soldiers ignored him for weeks despite Xiao You’s support.
• A middle-aged soldier commissioned a kitchen knife, and Zuo Tianxuan forged it from Black Crystal Iron with its destruction attribute inscribed into the blade.
• As soldiers learned about Zuo Tianxuan’s attribute-enhanced weapons, orders grew, and he eventually opened his own forge in the Frontline Supply Zone.
• Two years later, Zuo Tianxuan found a blue sword he had forged for a young female soldier displayed in a relic shop and realized she had likely died.
• Zuo Tianxuan understood his family’s teaching that a Forgemaster’s craft carried responsibility for soldiers’ lives and resolved to advance toward becoming a legendary Forgemaster.

Zuo Tianxuan forged a highly poisonous dagger for a veteran of Assassination Group Six, whose battlefield success later earned him a medal and brought Zuo Tianxuan recognition. As orders piled up, Feng Qi arranged for Zuo Tianxuan to train in Fate City after completing his mission, while Xiao You revealed that she had known Zhang Daowen since he was a child.

• Zuo Tianxuan selected eight dangerous spiritual ores and carefully forged a poisonous dagger and sheath for the leader of Assassination Group Six.
• The veteran tested the dagger on a pig, saw it die in under a minute, and accepted the weapon at the agreed price.
• Three months later, Zuo Tianxuan received a medal and spending card after the veteran used the dagger to kill an influential enemy spellcaster and help his side advance in battle.
• Zuo Tianxuan’s reputation grew, and he turned down most new orders that offered no challenge.
• Xiao You told Zuo Tianxuan that Feng Qi planned to send him to Fate City for training after he completed his mission, where demand for custom weapons was expected to rise.
• Xiao You revealed that the caller was Zhang Daowen and explained that she had known him when he was small, leaving Zuo Tianxuan to realize she was older and more mysterious than he had thought.

After returning from four years of frontline training, Zuo Tianxuan cultivated Feng Qi’s modified Flame Absorption Art, which cured his inherited Fire Hemp disease and prepared him to absorb a special fire seed. Xiao You then took him to the Space Technology Department to travel to a dangerous Domain Field, and Feng Qi arranged for Xiao Wen to accompany them.

• Zuo Tianxuan completed his final armor order, handed the frontline shop over to management, and returned to Star City with Xiao You.
• Feng Qi introduced the Flame Absorption Art, and Zuo Tianxuan chose to cultivate it despite the risks.
• Over three years, Zuo Tianxuan transformed his heart into an Energy Core, and the Flame Absorption Art cured his Fire Hemp disease.
• After the technique’s final step was complete, Xiao You told Zuo Tianxuan that he needed to absorb a special fire seed from a Domain Field.
• Xiao You brought Zuo Tianxuan to the Space Technology Department, where Feng Qi arranged for Xiao Wen to join their trip as her bodyguard.

While waiting for the Space Passage, Zuo Tianxuan learned about Dawn Sword and the history of Forging Studies. He traveled with Zhang Daowen and Xiao You to a volcanic Domain Field, where he risked his life to absorb a Fire Elemental Lifeform as his natal fire seed, succeeded, and then fainted.

• Zuo Tianxuan read that Forging Studies talents had aided Dawn Sword Mo Yu's mechanized modifications, while Star City continued adding Mechanical Nanobots to Dawn Sword after abandoning attempts to replicate the technology.
• Zhang Daowen arrived after the Space Teleportation Array was completed, and Zuo Tianxuan traveled through it with Zhang Daowen and Xiao You to a desolate battlefield.
• Zhang Daowen and Xiao You searched for half a month before finding the volcanic Domain Field, where Zhang Daowen protected the group from the heat with his Extreme Cold Power.
• Zhang Daowen captured a palm-sized Fire Elemental Lifeform, and Zuo Tianxuan used the Flame Absorption Art to draw its fire into his heart despite nearing death from the heat.
• Zuo Tianxuan completed the fire seed's implantation and summoned purple flames, then fainted as Xiao You joked that he was cooked.

After mastering the Flame Absorption Art, Zuo Tianxuan traveled to Fate City for a forging competition and began crafting elemental-resistant exoskeleton armor for the Thorn Race. The competition was underway, and he was hammering the fused spirit ores into his planned armor.

• Zuo Tianxuan left the hospital, tested his purple flame seed, and used it to forge a short sword of improved quality.
• In 729 Dawn, Feng Qi sent Zuo Tianxuan to Fate City with Xiao You, where Fate Messenger Luo Yu guided them through the city and explained its trading market.
• Luo Yu told Zuo Tianxuan that the Thorn Race was holding a forging competition to find a Forgemaster for a divine artifact made with Doomstone.
• Zuo Tianxuan studied the diverse forging methods in Fate City and, after three months, joined the competition among hundreds of forging factions.
• After learning that the Thorn Race needed exoskeleton armor, Zuo Tianxuan chose Stormstone and eleven other spirit ores to make lightweight armor with elemental resistance.
• Zuo Tianxuan fused the twelve spirit ores and began hammering the glowing metal into shape with his purple energy hammer.

Zuo Tianxuan turned his forging talent into a lifelong contribution to humanity, developing new techniques, forging twelve divine artifacts, and training successors. After completing his book, Future Forging Studies, he died with Xiao You beside him, and Star City honored his legacy.

• Zuo Tianxuan forged a white exoskeleton for the Thorn Clan, whose elder tested it and offered him a cooperation deal in exchange for his equipment and expertise.
• Over the following decades, Zuo Tianxuan forged equipment for the Thorn Clan, married Luo Yu, and helped them defeat the Infinite Race before returning to Star City to establish a Forging Studies major.
• Zuo Tianxuan forged a divine Forging Hammer and rune engraving knife, then completed the Ten Divine Artifacts, including life-bound weapons for humanity's Gods of War.
• At the age of 147, Zuo Tianxuan finished Future Forging Studies and was hospitalized after years of overwork; he stopped receiving Gene Serum injections and died with Xiao You beside him.
• Star City held a grand funeral for Zuo Tianxuan, and his book and twelve divine artifacts continued as part of humanity's forging legacy.

Lin Guyuan struggled with the gap between his combat aptitude and his ambition to join the military’s top teams, despite receiving recruitment offers from three research institutions. At the library, he prayed to Feng Qi to protect Lin Gutian on the front line.

• Lin Guyuan compared his modest combat potential with He Zonglian’s achievements and lamented that his military application had been rejected despite early offers from three research institutions.
• Lin Guyuan resolved to keep training so he could become an outstanding front-line soldier.
• Lin Guyuan went to the library the next morning but found himself distracted by thoughts of his childhood.
• Lin Guyuan looked at a photo of Feng Qi and prayed for Lin Gutian’s safety on the front line.

Lin Guyuan received recruitment calls from three research institutions but remained determined to pursue frontline strength. After learning that humanity planned to retreat from the Thunder Race because it could not counter their spellcasters, he came up with an idea for a weapon combining Spiritual Energy Technology and Art Methods, then began considering how to prove it could work.

• Dean Wang and Dean Shi invited Lin Guyuan to join their research institutes, but he politely declined because he wanted to become a frontline warrior.
• Lin Guyuan trained in the gravity Body Tempering Room and later attended Teacher Hu's Art Method Studies class.
• After reading about the Thunder Race's advance and humanity's planned retreat, Lin Guyuan researched long-range weapons and learned that existing Spiritual Energy Technology and Art Methods each had critical limitations.
• Lin Guyuan conceived a Spiritual Energy Spell Weapon that might combine the range of Spiritual Energy Technology with the power of Art Methods.
• Netizens mocked Lin Guyuan's forum post and challenged him to build the weapon, reigniting his determination to try.