Chapter Summaries

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Li spars with Yun Fei, a Seventh Grade Peak martial artist.
• Yun Fei activates her A-Class Talent Ability, Godspeed, giving her a significant speed advantage.
• Jiang Li struggles to keep up with Yun Fei's speed but adapts over time.
• Jiang Li uses his Martial Soul's Blood Qi Amplification ability, increasing his strength and speed.
• Despite her best efforts, Yun Fei can't evade Jiang Li's final punch, which lands with Sixth Grade force.

Character Developments

• Jiang Li: Proves his prowess against a high-level opponent, learns the importance of Talent Abilities, and adapts to Yun Fei's speed.
• Yun Fei: Realizes Jiang Li's potential and the gap between their Talent Abilities, experiences difficulty defeating someone below her realm.

Significant Themes

• The importance and impact of Talent Abilities in martial arts.
• The adaptability and growth of a martial artist facing challenges.
• The pressure and struggle of facing a formidable opponent.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Li and Yun Fei engage in a intense sparring match, testing each other's limits.
• They exchange words, acknowledging each other's skills and the gap between their Talent Abilities.
• Yun Fei expresses shock and disbelief at Jiang Li's abilities, questioning his humanity.

Key plot points and events

• Yun Fei and Jiang Li spar for hours, then discuss the extraordinary growth and versatility of Jiang Li’s innate ability. Jiang Li worries about the Lifespan cost of improving it and the debt he must repay the Yellow Book.
• Yun Fei tells him he has been assigned to Donghai Training Camp, located on the dangerous Donghai Battlefield. Its high death rate comes from relentless attacks by sea beasts, but Jiang Li refuses her offer to arrange a transfer: he wants a place with Mutant Beasts to fight.
• Yun Fei offers to train him before camp. Over several days at the Heavenly River Martial Arts Hall, they spar intensely. Jiang Li’s Martial Soul Protection proves highly defensive and can also attack with extra arms, while Yun Fei uses Godspeed to evade and counter.
• As Jiang Li pushes her to move faster, Yun Fei’s Godspeed improves. He eventually lands a forceful blow that knocks her down, but the strain helps her break through to Sixth Grade and become a Martial Dao Master. She celebrates by grabbing and shaking him; he teases her after noticing her clothing has come loose.

Character developments

• Jiang Li shows confidence, combat skill, and an appetite for danger, choosing the deadliest camp without hesitation. He is also mindful of his limited Lifespan and deliberately postpones cultivation so he can spar without holding back.
• Yun Fei accepts Jiang Li’s unusual talent and increasingly admires him. Her determination in training leads to improved speed and a breakthrough to Sixth Grade.
• Their sparring becomes mutually beneficial: Jiang Li gains combat practice, while Yun Fei is pushed beyond her previous limits.

Significant themes

• Growth through challenge: Relentless training and pressure enable both fighters to improve.
• Courage and sacrifice: Jiang Li willingly accepts a dangerous assignment, while the Donghai Battlefield’s history underscores the human cost of protecting Great Xia.
• Power and its costs: Jiang Li’s ability is remarkably versatile, but developing it consumes Lifespan, and greater strength requires careful control.
• Mutual encouragement: Their competitive training helps Yun Fei achieve a breakthrough.

Character interactions

• Yun Fei warns Jiang Li about Donghai’s dangers and offers to secure him a safer camp; he declines, strengthening her admiration.
• She trains him with a mix of speed, feints, and direct attacks, while he challenges her to go faster and adapts to her improving Godspeed.
• After Yun Fei’s breakthrough, their celebration turns playful: Jiang Li jokes about her appearance, and she threatens him as he escapes into the changing room.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Lingfei, an 18-year-old Eighth Grade Peak martial artist and A-grade Talent Ability user, is the favorite to become Beihe City's top scorer in the martial arts exam.
• Jiang Li buys Qi and Blood Pills for his sister and encounters Lin Lingfei at Heavenly River Martial Arts Hall.
• Jiang Li learns from Yun Fei that his Blood Qi Value had reached 9.99 during his first martial test, and she had concealed it to protect him.
• Jiang Li visits Lin Yuanliang to return the items he borrowed and asks to borrow another ten million to help Lin Yuanliang deal with the Jiang Qing Gang's Sixth-grade Martial Arts Master.

Character Developments

• Lin Lingfei is portrayed as confident, talented, and somewhat arrogant, looking down on Jiang Li.
• Jiang Li remains calm and collected, showing no signs of jealousy or envy towards Lin Lingfei's achievements.
• Yun Fei reveals her protective nature towards Jiang Li, helping him conceal his true strength and offering guidance.
• Lin Yuanliang is shown to be struggling with the Jiang Qing Gang's intrusion into Beihe City, desperate for help.

Significant Themes

• The theme of talent and its consequences is explored through Lin Lingfei and Jiang Li's contrasting situations. While Lin Lingfei's talent brings her attention and protection, Jiang Li's talent puts him in danger, and he must keep it hidden.
• The theme of power dynamics is evident in the interactions between Lin Yuanliang and the Jiang Qing Gang, as well as between Lin Lingfei and Jiang Li.

Character Interactions

• Lin Lingfei and Jiang Li have a brief encounter at Heavenly River Martial Arts Hall, with Lin Lingfei showing disdain for Jiang Li's apparent lack of focus on the exam.
• Jiang Li and Yun Fei discuss the concealment of his Blood Qi Value and the potential dangers he might face if his true strength is revealed.
• Jiang Li and Lin Yuanliang negotiate a deal, with Jiang Li offering to help Lin Yuanliang deal with the Jiang Qing Gang in exchange for a ten-million loan.

Key events

• Lin Yuanliang lends Jiang Li ten million yuan, judging that Jiang Li’s connection to Yun Fei and likely special admission to Nanfang University make the risk worthwhile.
• Jiang Li returns home and uses the Yellow Book to cultivate the Heaven-Stealing Divine Art. After burning 938 years of lifespan, he reaches Seventh Grade, opens six Heavenly Apertures, and gains exceptionally pure blood qi along with dramatically heightened senses. He has only 177 years of cultivatable lifespan left.
• Before leaving, Jiang Li leaves five million yuan and his Qi and Blood Pills for his younger sister, Jiang Qi, and writes her a note.
• He takes an expensive underground high-speed train to the Eastern Sea, eager to train on the battlefield before the official Donghai Training Camp assessment.
• During the journey, he meets a young girl called Nannan and her martial-artist mother. A middle-aged man with faint killing intent boards afterward, making the mother visibly tense. Jiang Li avoids intervening and continues on to Donghai, where he heads directly toward the battlefield.

Character development

• Jiang Li’s cultivation brings a major leap in strength and perception, but at a terrible cost: his remaining lifespan is perilously low. He recognizes that mastering the forbidden technique may require thousands more years.
• Despite his urgency and confidence, Jiang Li shows care for his family by leaving substantial resources for Jiang Qi.
• Lin Yuanliang proves cautious and politically minded, weighing Jiang Li’s potential allies and university status before lending him money.
• Nannan is cheerful and considerate, while her mother appears capable but fearful of the dangerous man who boards.

Significant themes

• Power at a cost: Jiang Li’s rapid advancement consumes an immense amount of lifespan.
• Urgency and risk: His short remaining life pushes him to seek dangerous battlefield training early.
• Family responsibility: Jiang Li provides for his sister before departing.
• A dangerous world: Mutant beasts have reshaped travel and daily life, while the tense train encounter hints at threats even within the transport system.

Character interactions

• Lin Yuanliang’s men question the loan, but he silences them and explains his reasoning privately.
• Jiang Li notices Lin Lingfei but brushes off her coldness, looking forward to facing her in the martial arts exam.
• On the train, Jiang Li and Nannan exchange a friendly greeting; her mother gently asks her not to disturb him.
• Jiang Li senses the mother’s martial ability and the newcomer’s killing intent, but chooses not to get involved.

Plot points

• Jiang Li arrives at the Donghai Battlefield, a notoriously deadly place divided into five fronts. Despite warnings that the Fifth Frontline is dangerous, he sets out alone.
• Other martial artists mock his youth and confidence, though Old Zhang senses that Jiang Li is far more formidable than he appears.
• On the Fifth Frontline, Jiang Li effortlessly kills Ninth- and Eighth-Grade mutant beasts, rapidly building a tally of kills.
• An emergency alarm sounds after a large pack of beasts—including a Sixth-Grade Beast King—breaks through toward the Fifth Defense Line. Jiang Li rushes toward the battle.
• Amid a desperate clash between soldiers and Sea Demon Lizards, Jiang Li saves a soldier by killing an Eighth-Grade beast with one slash. He then charges alone into the advancing pack, eager for the challenge.

Character developments

• Jiang Li displays overwhelming confidence and strength, treating the battlefield less as a threat than as an opportunity to fight and hunt. His calm bravado becomes unmistakable once he reaches the front.
• Old Zhang recognizes a dangerous power in Jiang Li, sensing the presence of something like a Beast King beneath the young man’s appearance.
• The soldiers and travelers shift from dismissing Jiang Li as an inexperienced student to being stunned by his abilities.

Character interactions

• Travelers warn and mock Jiang Li, while one group sincerely offers to fight alongside him. He declines and proceeds alone.
• Jiang Li’s brief encounter with the soldier under attack shows his willingness to intervene, but he immediately turns his attention toward the larger threat.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Jiang Li’s youth leads others to underestimate him, while his strength far exceeds their expectations.
• Courage and danger: The battlefield’s lethal reputation contrasts with Jiang Li’s fearless, even eager, approach.
• Individual power amid collective sacrifice: Soldiers fight desperately as a unit, while Jiang Li’s extraordinary strength allows him to confront the beast horde alone.

Plot points

• Jiang Li arrives at a besieged stretch of the Fifth Defense Line and rapidly kills dozens of Eighth Grade Sea Demon Lizards.
• He confronts a Seventh Grade Fire Sea Demon Lizard, dodges its scorching breath, and kills it with a single saber strike.
• In the ruined commercial district, Jiang Li rescues Huo Kai, a Seventh Grade martial artist nearly overwhelmed by two more Fire Sea Demon Lizards. He kills both before they can land a fatal blow.
• Huo Kai explains that most experienced martial artists have been sent to another front, leaving the Fifth Defense Line dangerously understaffed. Its only Seventh Grade defender, Rising General Li Chaofan, is battling a Sixth Grade Beast King.
• Jiang Li learns that the Beast King has been killed and returns to camp, exhausted after a day and night of fighting.
• Li Chaofan arrives at the command post and discovers the attack caused just 28 deaths and 56 serious injuries—far fewer than expected. Huo Kai credits Jiang Li with killing 56 Eighth Grade beasts and three Seventh Grade Fire Sea Demon Lizards. Li Chaofan is eager to meet him.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li displays extraordinary speed, strength, and composure, even when facing unfamiliar elemental attacks. His concern over the thinly defended line and the long war’s human cost shows that he is beginning to grasp the scale of humanity’s struggle.
• Huo Kai fights on despite being exhausted and outnumbered, apparently staying behind while his boss faces the Beast King. After Jiang Li saves him, he warns Jiang about the remaining threat and later reports his actions faithfully.
• Li Chaofan proves capable of killing the Beast King but is badly injured and recognizes that the frontline situation remains precarious. He is initially skeptical of Huo Kai’s account, then intrigued by Jiang Li’s feats.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and survival: Soldiers and martial artists risk their lives to hold the line against the Mutant Beasts.
• The cost of war: Even a “small” attack is expected to cause devastating casualties, and Jiang Li reflects on a thousand years of humanity trading lives and territory for survival.
• Exceptional strength and responsibility: Jiang Li’s power saves many soldiers, but the chapter also emphasizes the severe shortage of capable defenders.

Key plot points and events

• After helping the Fifth Defense Line survive a Mutant Beast attack, Jiang Li amazes the soldiers by eating two hundred plates of beast meat. His rapidly improved digestion reflects the changes brought by his cultivation.
• Ninth Grade General Star Li Chaofan thanks Jiang Li, awards him five hundred military merit points, and helps him register on the battlefield app. Jiang Li discovers he can use the points to obtain valuable resources, including Awakening Stones.
• Jiang Li’s Yellow Book shows that his cultivatable lifespan has risen above a thousand. He chooses to rest rather than continue practicing the Heaven-Stealing Divine Art.
• Watching satellite footage, Li Chaofan realizes Jiang Li defeated every beast in a single strike—including a Seventh Grade beast—and suspects his saber and movement techniques have reached the Perfected Realm.
• Huo Kai reports that an A-Class Beast Tide has overwhelmed the First Frontline. At least ten thousand beasts are projected to reach the Fifth Frontline within three days, while reinforcements from the Li and Rong families may not arrive in time. Li Chaofan puts the defense line on high alert and orders martial artists temporarily conscripted.
• The next day, Jiang Li learns of the approaching tide. Though he had planned to move elsewhere, he decides to stay and protect the Fifth Defense Line.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li remains modest about his strength but is delighted by the military rewards. Remembering the horrors of the battlefield—and visions of humanity’s destruction—he resolves to fight for humanity’s survival.
• Li Chaofan is grateful to Jiang Li and increasingly impressed by his abilities. His admiration gives way to urgent leadership when he learns of the coming beast tide.
• Huo Kai brings Li Chaofan the frontline warning, underscoring the uncertainty and danger facing the defense line.
• Soldiers first respond to Jiang Li with astonishment at his appetite; later, their grim mood conveys the mounting fear of another large-scale assault.

Significant themes

• Duty and sacrifice: Jiang Li chooses to defend others rather than pursue his own plans, echoing the soldiers’ willingness to risk their lives.
• Humanity’s survival: His ambition grows beyond personal power; he wants to end the era of rampant Mutant Beasts and restore peace.
• Talent and responsibility: The chapter hints that exceptional ability may carry a role in shaping humanity’s fate.
• Hope amid looming danger: The approaching tide threatens catastrophe, but Jiang Li’s resolve offers the defense line a powerful source of hope.

Plot points and events

• At the Fifth Defense Line, three martial artists are about to be killed by two Seventh-grade Tiger Sharks. Jiang Li arrives and kills both with one saber strike.
• The men recognize Jiang Li, once an underestimated high-school student, as the fighter whose name has become known across the battlefield. He leaves when another roar sounds nearby.
• In the ruins, Jiang Li encounters a Sixth-grade Tiger Shark that has killed an Eighth-grade martial artist. The beast initially challenges him, but Jiang Li draws on the six opened Heavenly Apertures of the Heaven-Stealing Divine Art and gradually gains the upper hand.
• Jiang Li finishes the Tiger Shark with a powerful saber strike, severing its claws and taking its head. He reflects that ordinary Sixth-grade opponents may no longer be a match for him, and that opening all twelve apertures might let him challenge a Fifth-grade Grandmaster.
• A group led by Yang Xiansheng, commander of the Qingyuan Mercenary Group, has watched the fight from nearby. Riding an ink-black qilin-like beast, Yang offers Jiang Li a business card and invites him to contact the group if he wants to join.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li is revealed to be far stronger than his Seventh-grade rank suggests. He is confident, eager for challenging fights, and increasingly aware of his exceptional potential. His calm rescue of the three soldiers contrasts with his excitement at facing the stronger Tiger Shark.
• Old Zhang and his companions move from terror to astonishment and embarrassment, especially because they previously underestimated Jiang Li. They now recognize his talent and the reputation he has earned.
• Yang Xiansheng appears composed and discerning. He recognizes Jiang Li’s unusual strength and makes a professional recruitment offer, though he does not press the matter when Jiang Li gives no answer.

Significant themes

• Talent and underestimated potential: Jiang Li’s rise from a high-school student dismissed by others to a battlefield standout overturns their assumptions.
• Growth through adversity: The Sixth-grade Tiger Shark serves as a test that helps Jiang Li sharpen his combat ability.
• Reputation and recognition: Jiang Li’s battlefield record transforms earlier skepticism into respect.
• Power and ambition: Jiang Li’s thoughts about challenging a Grandmaster show how rapidly his goals are expanding.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Li brings a Sixth Grade Tiger Shark to the Fifth Defense Line’s mess hall, startling the cooks and fighters and confirming rumors of his strength. His military merit reaches 3,277 points, and killing the beast adds 76 years to his Lifespan.
• He asks Yun Fei about Yang Xiansheng, the powerful leader of the Qingyuan Mercenary Group who had invited him to join. Yun explains that Yang is a Peak Fifth-grade Grandmaster with major accomplishments, but has a conflict with the Martial Emperor Hall, making it wise for Jiang Li to keep his distance.
• After resting, Jiang Li is awakened by the Beast Tide alarm. Countless Mutant Beasts charge the Fifth Defense Line amid artillery fire.
• Li Chaofan rallies the defenders with a defiant speech and leads the counterattack. Jiang Li joins the fighting, plunges deep into the horde, and cuts down beasts with his saber.
• As Seventh- and Eighth-Grade beasts gather around him, Jiang Li spots a Sixth Grade Beast King: the Wind-Winged Thunder Eel.

Character developments

• Jiang Li’s reputation grows as others witness his Sixth Grade kill, though he remains focused on becoming stronger and gathering high-grade beast meat to fuel his needs.
• His first full-scale battle exposes him to the terror and brutality of war, unlike his previous hunts. Despite the shock, he adapts quickly and fights fearlessly.
• Li Chaofan is presented as a courageous battlefield leader who inspires the defenders by charging first.
• Yun Fei acts as a trusted source of information, advising Jiang Li against entanglement with Yang Xiansheng’s faction.

Significant themes

• Courage and sacrifice: The defenders choose to stand firm despite overwhelming odds.
• War’s brutality: The battlefield is a chaotic “meat grinder,” far harsher than individual hunts.
• Strength and ambition: Jiang Li measures his progress through combat power, merit, and Lifespan, yet recognizes the limits of his abilities.
• Political danger: Powerful martial organizations are entangled in rivalries that can shape a newcomer’s prospects.

Character interactions

• The mess-hall staff and fighters react with awe to Jiang Li’s Tiger Shark carcass, recognizing his ability.
• Jiang Li and Yun Fei discuss Yang Xiansheng’s power and his conflict with the Martial Emperor Hall; Yun cautions Jiang Li to stay clear.
• Li Chaofan rallies the soldiers and martial artists, then leads them into battle, prompting them to follow.
• Jiang Li joins the defenders and fights his way into the Beast Tide, where he encounters the Wind-Winged Thunder Eel.

Plot points and events

• At the Fifth Defense Line, the defenders face a Sixth-grade Beast King, the Wind-Winged Thunder Eel King, whose combined wind and lightning powers seem beyond their ability to stop.
• Jiang Li engages it despite Li Chaofan’s warning. The Beast King’s lightning overwhelms him briefly, but his Headless Martial Soul protects him. Jiang Li then uses the fourth level of the Fire Spirit Breathing Technique to launch himself more than a hundred meters into the air and kill the Beast King with his Triple Thunderous Charge Saber.
• Jiang Li announces the Beast King’s death, lifting human morale and throwing the Mutant Beasts into disarray. He returns to the battle and fights for seven hours, conserving his strength amid the seemingly endless tide.
• The Rong Family’s Black Armored Army arrives with nearly a thousand Eighth-grade fighters and additional higher-ranked martial artists. Their reinforcements help end the battle within two hours.
• Afterward, Jiang Li sees more than two hundred kill records in his Yellow Book and reflects on the battlefield’s toll. He resolves to become strong enough to change the course of the war.

Character development

• Jiang Li proves his courage and extraordinary ability by defeating a Beast King far stronger than the defenders expected him to face. Yet the casualties and prolonged fighting temper his triumph: he recognizes his own limits and commits to becoming a Fifth-grade Grandmaster, then ultimately a First-grade Martial Emperor.
• Li Chaofan shifts from alarm for Jiang Li’s safety to awe at his victory. His concern reflects both their battlefield bond and his recognition of Jiang Li’s value to the defense.
• The defenders, initially demoralized by the Beast King, regain hope and fighting spirit after Jiang Li’s announcement and the arrival of reinforcements.

Significant themes

• Individual strength and collective morale: Jiang Li’s victory does more than eliminate a powerful enemy; it rallies the entire defense.
• The cost of war: Jiang Li’s kill count brings him no satisfaction. The battlefield’s dead make him confront the human cost behind victory.
• Ambition shaped by experience: Seeing the reality of the war transforms Jiang Li’s goal of getting stronger into a determination to help end the age of Mutant Beasts.
• Limits and perseverance: Jiang Li must balance his power with endurance, recognizing that even a formidable fighter can become vulnerable if he exhausts himself.

Character interactions

• Li Chaofan urgently warns Jiang Li to retreat and tries to reach him, but other beasts block his way. Believing Jiang Li has been killed, he fights on in grief and fury before witnessing the young fighter’s survival and triumph.
• Jiang Li’s declaration that the Beast King is dead connects his individual achievement to the defenders’ renewed resolve.
• The Rong Family’s arrival reinforces the beleaguered defenders, turning a costly, uncertain struggle into a victory.

Key plot points and events

• After seven hours of fighting, Jiang Li rests, then eats meat from the Sixth-grade Wind-Winged Thunder Eel King he killed. As he considers his training, he plans to ask instructors at the upcoming Donghai Training Camp about the poorly explained path to becoming a grandmaster.
• Members of the Rong Family’s Black Armored Army resent the special meal and accuse Jiang Li of receiving unfair privileges. One soldier tries to take his food; Jiang Li knocks him unconscious. More than a dozen comrades attack and are swiftly defeated.
• Rising General Li Chaofan arrives after a soldier is thrown through the mess hall doors. Rong Feida, captain of the Black Armored Army at the Fifth Defense Line, accuses Jiang Li of attacking and humiliating his men.
• Li listens to Jiang Li’s brief explanation, recognizes his service, and gives him an upgraded Meritorious Black Card bearing 13,000 military merit points. He explains that Jiang Li killed 268 Mutant Beasts in the previous battle—including two Sixth-grade beasts—and that Jiang Li is entitled to the Beast King he killed.
• Rong Feida is stunned by Jiang Li’s achievement and leaves. Li then joins Jiang Li for some eel rice, and Jiang Li welcomes him.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li is calm, confident, and focused on improving his cultivation. He responds decisively to the soldiers’ provocation, but his mood improves once he receives formal recognition for his deeds.
• Li Chaofan backs Jiang Li without hesitation, publicly validates his achievements, and enforces the rules against the Black Armored Army’s complaints. His stern authority gives way to friendly ease when he shares Jiang Li’s meal.
• Rong Feida and his soldiers begin with entitlement and resentment, but their confidence collapses when they learn the scale of Jiang Li’s battlefield record and see Li’s support for him.

Significant themes

• Merit over status: Jiang Li’s battlefield performance outweighs the Black Armored Army’s family connections and sense of privilege.
• Recognition and reward: Military honors and the right to claim a Beast King are presented as earned rewards for exceptional service.
• Strength and respect: The soldiers underestimate Jiang Li, while Li’s account of his feats forces them to confront his extraordinary ability.
• Ambition and preparation: Jiang Li’s reflections on Blood Qi, inner energy, cultivation techniques, martial skills, and grandmaster insight show his determination to keep advancing.

Key plot points and events

• Li Chaofan explains that exceptional Grandmasters can cultivate multiple Grandmaster Daos, master several high-level martial arts, and create secretive, immensely powerful Peerless Arts. He recommends Linhai University, hoping Jiang Li might eventually strengthen the Donghai Battlefield.
• Jiang Li declines because he has already been specially admitted to Nanfang University.
• Rather than rush to Sixth Grade, Jiang Li uses the Yellow Book to continue cultivating the Heaven-Stealing Divine Art and open his remaining Heavenly Apertures. After spending more than 7,000 years of Lifespan in total, he opens all twelve and perfects the art.
• The cultivation transforms his Blood Qi entirely golden and greatly heightens his senses, reaction speed, and physical awareness. His Blood Qi capacity and potency are vastly beyond the norm for a Seventh Grade martial artist.
• Jiang Li reflects that the art was apparently intended to be completed much later in a martial artist’s development, but he treats it as merely a supplementary method and considers seeking an even stronger one.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Chaofan recognizes Jiang Li’s extraordinary potential and tries to recruit him to Linhai University, explaining how elite resources and training can shape a Grandmaster’s path.
• Jiang Li remains respectful but independent: he has already chosen Nanfang University. He also accepts the enormous cost of cultivation without regret, reasoning that battlefield victories can provide more Lifespan.
• After his transformation, Jiang Li tests his strength with a punch that damages the wall, startling the neighboring martial artist. He can hear the neighbor through the wall and perceive his emotional state.

Significant themes

• Talent versus opportunity: Innate gifts matter, but elite training, mentors, and resources give privileged geniuses a major advantage.
• Choosing one’s path: Jiang Li must decide not merely whether to become a Grandmaster, but what kind of Grandmaster to become.
• Power and sacrifice: Jiang Li’s extraordinary abilities require an immense expenditure of Lifespan, which he accepts as the price of survival and strength.
• Limits and human potential: By opening all twelve apertures at Seventh Grade—something normally achieved only at Second Grade Peak—Jiang Li pushes beyond the method’s intended boundaries.

Key plot points and events

• Over two and a half days of hunting at the Fifth Defense Line, Jiang Li kills many more Seventh- and Eighth-Grade Mutant Beasts. His lifespan rises to 2,076, and he redeems a Sixth Grade Dragon Scale Blade and an Awakening Stone with his military merit.
• He returns to Donghai Camp, collects the powerful, thousand-jin saber and the valuable stone, then heads alone toward Donghai Training Camp through the wilderness.
• In a ruined town, Jiang Li discovers a badly injured woman and her young daughter hiding beneath rubble. A pursuing group arrives, led by a Sixth-grade martial arts master, using a detector to search for Awakening Stones.
• Jiang Li recognizes the pair as the mother and daughter he met on the high-speed train. Before dying, the woman asks him to take her daughter, Nannan, to Yang Xiansheng of the Qingyuan Mercenary Group and identify her father as Yuan Jun.
• The pursuers demand Jiang Li’s Awakening Stone. He refuses, saying the stone they seek is not the one he carries. When they threaten him, he draws the Dragon Scale Blade, startling their leader.

Character developments

• Jiang Li grows more capable and self-assured: his enhanced body lets him fight with his bare hands, while his new weapon gives him a major upgrade. He remains composed in danger but shows compassion by responding to the woman’s plea.
• Nannan faces her mother’s death with frightened restraint, silently trying to suppress her grief.
• The attackers, especially Master Zhou, shift from confident intimidation to surprise once Jiang Li reveals his weapon.

Character interactions

• Jiang Li parts from Li Chaofan before returning to camp, where a sergeant respectfully delivers his rewards.
• He meets the dying woman and Nannan again and accepts the mother’s request to help her daughter.
• The hunters confront Jiang Li over the Awakening Stone. He refuses their demand and warns them against provoking him; the scene ends as Master Zhou recognizes the Dragon Scale Blade.

Significant themes

• Strength and status: Military merit commands respect, while martial ability and equipment determine survival.
• Compassion amid violence: Jiang Li’s willingness to help Nannan contrasts with the hunters’ greed.
• The cost of the wilderness: The mother’s fatal injuries and the danger surrounding the ruins show how precarious life is beyond the city walls.
• Power and intimidation: The hunters rely on numbers and rank, but Jiang Li’s calm refusal and weapon challenge their assumed authority.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Li encounters a group of martial artists led by Master Zhou, who attempt to rob him.
• Jiang Li effortlessly defeats all the martial artists, including Master Zhou, a Sixth-grade Martial Arts Master.
• Jiang Li finds a girl named Nannan, whose mother entrusted her to him before dying.
• Jiang Li decides to take Nannan to Donghai Training Camp to find her father, Yuan Jun.

Character Developments

• Jiang Li demonstrates his immense strength and skill, defeating opponents far above his cultivation grade.
• Nannan shows resilience and obedience despite her mother's death and the harsh circumstances.

Significant Themes

• Strength and power dynamics in the wilderness.
• The importance of responsibility and compassion, as shown by Jiang Li's decision to help Nannan.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Li shows no mercy to the martial artists attempting to rob him, demonstrating his ruthlessness and confidence.
• Jiang Li shows unexpected kindness and patience with Nannan, comforting her and deciding to help her find her father.
• Jiang Li and Master Zhou's interaction highlights the power gap between cultivation grades, with Jiang Li's strength defying expectations.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Li reaches Donghai Training Camp on foot, carrying the sleeping Nannan and the corpse of a Sixth Grade Red Scale Blood Tiger he killed along the way. The students and instructors are startled by the beast’s arrival and by Jiang Li’s claim that he defeated it himself.
• Instructor Zhao Kaijun takes charge of the exhausted Nannan and the tiger’s body.
• Qin Miaoyu, a formidable young instructor, begins the camp’s first assessment. She explains that only thirty of the 110 applicants will be admitted.
• Applicants advance along the starting area according to their early training, access to Qi and Blood Pills, talent ratings, and experience with high-level martial arts and breathing techniques. Jiang Li remains at the starting line because he cannot disclose his forbidden Heaven-Stealing Divine Art.
• When the race begins, Jiang Li instantly leaps over the others and reaches the mountain path first, landing hard enough to leave a crater. He declares that a person’s starting rank does not determine how they finish.

Character developments

• Jiang Li shows exceptional strength by killing a Sixth Grade Mutant Beast and remarkable athletic ability by clearing the first hundred meters in one leap. Although the assessment’s criteria make him appear inferior, he refuses to be intimidated or defined by them.
• Qin Miaoyu establishes herself as a stern, commanding instructor, but Jiang Li’s unexplained position and explosive leap surprise her.
• Zhao Kaijun initially doubts Jiang Li’s claim about the tiger, then witnesses the evidence firsthand.
• Nannan is briefly shown as weak and in need of food; Jiang Li’s concern for her motivates him to ask the instructors to handle the tiger’s body.

Significant themes

• Unequal opportunity: The assessment highlights how family resources, early training, and innate talent create different starting points.
• Merit beyond rankings: Jiang Li challenges the idea that visible credentials or an initial position determine someone’s potential.
• Concealed strength: Jiang Li’s true abilities are hidden by his need to keep a forbidden art secret, making the assessment an incomplete measure of his capabilities.

Character interactions

• The waiting students grumble about Jiang Li’s late arrival, then react with awe and disbelief when he arrives with the dead tiger.
• Jiang Li asks Zhao Kaijun to help care for Nannan and deal with the beast, while Zhao questions how Jiang Li obtained it.
• Qin Miaoyu explains the competitive rules and emphasizes the hierarchy among the applicants. Her scrutiny of Jiang Li is met with his calm, defiant confidence.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Li enters the training camp’s assessment and ignores warnings that a fast start could exhaust him.
• At the summit, he deliberately chooses the most dangerous route, which contains a Seventh Grade Peak Ironclad Centipede.
• Qin Miaoyu hurries after him, expecting she may need to rescue him. Instead, Jiang Li kills the centipede with one punch and continues toward the camp.
• Qin and the others learn that Jiang Li had also brought a Sixth Grade Mutant Beast to the camp. They begin to suspect he is an exceptional new talent.
• Jiang Li reaches the camp gate far ahead of the other trainees. There, Li Chaofan—posing as the final-stage examiner—offers to let the trainees attack him together.
• Recognizing Li but irritated by his showy act, Jiang Li attacks before Li can finish speaking. He knocks Li into the air and stamps him into the ground.
• When Li identifies himself, Jiang Li abruptly realizes who he has hit and loudly calls for a doctor.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li is confident, thrill-seeking, and overwhelmingly powerful. His casual defeat of a peak-level beast and his rapid progress demonstrate that his abilities exceed others’ expectations. His aggression also gets the better of him when he attacks Li Chaofan before confirming the situation.
• Qin Miaoyu shifts from dismissing Jiang Li’s chances to recognizing him as a promising—and possibly extraordinary—talent. She first prepares to save him, then watches him defeat the centipede effortlessly.
• Zhao Kaijun adds evidence of Jiang Li’s strength by revealing that Jiang Li arrived with a Sixth Grade Mutant Beast. This changes his view of the year’s likely standout trainees.
• Li Chaofan tries to create an intimidating impression as the gatekeeper, but his performance collapses when Jiang Li attacks. Their familiarity makes the encounter especially awkward; Jiang’s belated concern contrasts with his violence moments earlier.

Significant themes

• Appearances versus reality: Jiang Li looks frozen before the centipede but is actually poised to strike; the imposing gatekeeper is quickly overpowered.
• Power and underestimated talent: Jiang Li repeatedly surpasses expectations, challenging assumptions based on his origins and apparent rank.
• Confidence and recklessness: Jiang’s fearlessness drives his success, but his impulsiveness leads him to injure someone he knows before checking who he is fighting.

Key plot points and events

• Jiang Li completes the Donghai Training Camp assessment in just twelve minutes, smashing the previous record of one hour and eighteen minutes. He is accepted as an official trainee, though he doubts the camp can make him stronger.
• Instructor Qin Miaoyu explains that the camp’s real test is whether a trainee has the potential to become a grandmaster. Jiang Li resists the pressure of her grandmaster presence with his own battle-forged killing aura.
• Qin takes him to an underground chamber containing ten statues, each embodying the Martial Will of a different grandmaster. Recognition from a statue proves a trainee’s potential and earns points that can be exchanged for resources.
• Alone with the statues, Jiang Li is drawn into a star-like mental realm where the ten Wills test his strength and understanding. Rather than choose one of their paths, he decides to create a Martial Path and martial arts of his own.
• Jiang Li uses the Yellow Book to spend Lifespan on comprehending Martial Will. Meanwhile, the instructors predict he may earn recognition from one or two statues at most.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li remains composed despite others’ astonishment and Qin’s intimidating presence. His confidence grows into a clear conviction that he should forge his own path rather than follow an established grandmaster’s tradition.
• Qin Miaoyu is impressed by Jiang Li’s assessment performance and tests him with her presence, then explains the camp’s standards and leads him to the Will assessment. His resistance surprises her.
• Zhao Kaijun and the other instructors recognize Jiang Li’s talent but doubt his chances in the Will test, citing his lack of grandmaster guidance and comparing him with a record-holder from a powerful family.

Significant themes

• Potential over present strength: The camp judges trainees by their capacity to become grandmasters, not simply by how strong they are now.
• Forging one’s own path: Jiang Li rejects imitation and intends to create a Martial Path uniquely his.
• Talent, experience, and opportunity: His battle experience sets him apart, while the instructors’ expectations are shaped by conventional training and inherited advantages.
• Humanity’s struggle against Mutant Beasts: Grandmasters are presented as crucial forces capable of changing the course of battlefield conflicts.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Jiang Li enters the Martial Will grounds and simultaneously comprehends the wills of ten Martial Grandmasters, reaching the entry level in a year.
• Over the next eleven years, he achieves minor success in comprehending ten Martial Ways and thoroughly integrates their wills.
• He triggers Grandmaster Will Resonance, acknowledging and being acknowledged by all ten Grandmasters at once.
• The Grandmaster statues crack upon Jiang Li's exit, indicating the formation of his own Martial Will.

Character Developments

• Jiang Li demonstrates extraordinary talent and willpower, refusing to choose a single Grandmaster's path and instead aiming to create his own supreme art.
• Qin Miaoyu, initially unsmiling and stern, shows rare admiration for Jiang Li's potential and unique approach to martial cultivation.

Significant Themes

• The pursuit of individuality and uniqueness in martial cultivation, challenging the established paths of Grandmasters.
• The power of will and determination in shaping one's martial path.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Li interacts with the ten Grandmaster statues, comprehending their wills and ultimately forming his own Martial Will.
• Qin Miaoyu interacts with Jiang Li, acknowledging his exceptional talent and making special arrangements for his training.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Li finishes contemplating Martial Will feeling energized. Instructor Zhao Kaijun gives him a points card with 300 points: 220 from his assessment and 80 as a reward from Rising General Qin Miaoyu.
• Back in his room, Jiang Li finds Nannan holding an Awakening Stone. She says it reminds her of their parents. Jiang Li gently asks her not to display it in public. Zhao tells him the handbook and cooked Mutant Beast are available, then leaves to supervise the remaining assessment.
• Elsewhere, Liu Feiyu and Zhou Jing each defeat a Seventh Grade Mutant Beast and race toward the camp, hoping to claim first place. They are joined by An Qianqian, whose Mental Influence ability had let her deceive the beasts’ senses and advance quickly.
• The trio discover that Sixth Grade instructor Qi He is guarding the gate. They attack together but cannot overcome him; after testing their strength, he lets them pass.
• They learn that rankings depend on Qi He’s assessment, not arrival order. An Qianqian ranks highest among the three, followed by Liu Feiyu and Zhou Jing—but they are actually second, third, and fourth overall.
• The instructor reveals that Jiang Li took first place after seriously injuring the original gatekeeper, Li Chaofan, a Sixth Grade Peak Ninth Grade General Star. He also shattered the Grandmaster Will during his Martial Will assessment, prompting Qin Miaoyu to seek a solution.

Character developments and interactions

• Jiang Li appears modestly dissatisfied with his reward, not yet understanding the value of training-camp points. He is also protective and gentle toward Nannan.
• Nannan’s attachment to the Awakening Stone reveals her longing for her absent parents.
• An Qianqian, Liu Feiyu, and Zhou Jing begin as rivals, then cooperate against Qi He. An Qianqian is proud of her performance but is frustrated to place second; the others are shocked by their rankings and Jiang Li’s feats.
• Zhao Kaijun provides practical guidance to Jiang Li, while Qi He evaluates the competitors and demonstrates the gap between Seventh Grade trainees and a Sixth Grade martial artist.

Significant themes

• Exceptional strength and disruption: Jiang Li’s accomplishments far exceed the other trainees’ expectations and even disrupt the camp’s assessment procedures.
• Competition and merit: Rankings are based on demonstrated ability rather than speed or confidence.
• Family and remembrance: Nannan’s use of the Awakening Stone underscores her grief and longing for her parents.
• Humility before greater power: The trainees’ combined attack fails against Qi He, forcing them to recognize the limits of their abilities.

Plot points and events

• In the training camp cafeteria, Jiang Li tells Li Chaofan that he gained recognition from all ten Martial Grandmasters’ wills, then rejected their paths. Their wills collapsed and their statues broke afterward. Li is stunned to learn Jiang Li is only a Seventh Grade martial artist—the same grade as the trainee who beat him badly.
• Humiliated, Li leaves to train harder, while Jiang Li continues caring for Nannan.
• Jiang Li studies the camp’s training manual and heads to the book hall to spend his points on martial resources.
• With an instructor’s advice, he redeems the Sixth Grade S-Class Ancient Desolate Divine Martial Art for 260 points, plus the A-Class movement art Moon-Chasing Star-Pursuing Steps for 30 points. The instructor explains that higher-level portions of such techniques require military certification.
• The instructor jokes that perfecting an S-Class technique at Seventh Grade would take thousands of years—unless someone could live forever. Jiang Li realizes this may explain how he perfected the Heaven-Stealing Divine Art.
• Returning to the dormitory, Jiang Li senses a murderous presence near his room and rushes toward it, shouting that the intruder is courting death.

Character developments

• Jiang Li remains modest about his extraordinary achievements, but his training ambitions are clear. He also begins to recognize the implications of his unusual ability to master techniques over immense spans of time.
• Li Chaofan goes from anger and humiliation to renewed determination, resolving to improve his cultivation and martial skills.
• Nannan is calmer after eating and remains close to Jiang Li, though she is frightened by Li’s arrival.

Character interactions

• Li confronts Jiang Li over the fight, then questions him about the Grandmaster wills and his rank. Jiang Li’s answers shock him and deepen his humiliation.
• Jiang Li reassures Nannan after Li leaves and asks her to rest before going to the book hall.
• The instructor helps Jiang Li choose a cultivation technique, explains the system of realm-based certification, and learns that Jiang Li has had little guidance at school.
• The chapter ends with Jiang Li reacting to an apparent threat in the dormitory.

Significant themes

• Talent and perseverance: Jiang Li’s achievements stand out even more because he lacked strong teachers or institutional support.
• Pride and resilience: Li’s defeat wounds his pride but motivates him to improve.
• The value of time and persistence: The instructor’s joke about living forever hints at Jiang Li’s extraordinary history with cultivation.
• Power and responsibility: Jiang Li’s final rush back to his room suggests that his strength may soon be tested in defense of someone or something important.