Chapter Summaries

Chen Shouyi led his aunt and Chen Yuwei through Dongning City toward the outskirts, where a flock of domesticated Warbirds carrying barbarians came after him. He killed the first Warbird and its rider, then aimed at a second as it tried to escape his attack.

• Chen Shouyi chose a route east toward Ningzhou to avoid crossing the city and checked that his damaged watch still worked.
• Near the industrial zone, Chen Shouyi noticed people tailing the group and decided to eliminate them before they could expose his whereabouts.
• Chen Shouyi sensed a flock of flying Otherworld Creatures approaching and brought his aunt and Chen Yuwei into a guard station to rest.
• Chen Shouyi recognized the creatures as domesticated Warbirds carrying riders and realized they were pursuing him.
• Chen Shouyi shot down the lead Warbird and killed its barbarian rider with another arrow.
• Chen Shouyi drew an arrow and aimed at a second Warbird as it beat its wings to climb away.

Chen Shouyi fought the warbirds and their elite barbarian escorts, then used stealth and ambushes to thin the enemy ranks. After a brutal fight against the barbarian leader and another warrior, he killed the leader but was badly wounded, while the last barbarian escaped.

• Chen Shouyi shot down three warbirds before two elite barbarians attacked him, and he killed both in close combat.
• Chen Shouyi slipped into a factory, silently killed a barbarian messenger, and ambushed the two hunters who discovered his trail.
• Chen Shouyi used stealth to kill another group of barbarians, then ate dried meat to restore his strength as three survivors approached.
• Chen Shouyi killed another barbarian with an arrow, then fought the leader and his companion while suffering several sword wounds.
• Chen Shouyi impaled the leader and killed him with a sword strike, but the remaining barbarian fled as Chen Shouyi collapsed from his injuries.

After being gravely wounded, Chen Shouyi fought off a crowd of religious fanatics and fed on a dying Warbird to recover. He then led Chen Yuwei and Qin Shufen through the mountains toward a military post, which they reached in sight as dawn broke.

• Chen Shouyi struggled to walk as his lung wound began healing and his hunger grew overwhelming.
• A crowd led by an armed middle-aged man attacked Chen Shouyi, and he killed the attackers and the man who had incited them.
• Chen Shouyi killed the wounded Warbird and ate its flesh, recovering enough strength for his wounds to heal.
• Chen Shouyi left the battlefield and took Chen Yuwei and Qin Shufen along mountain paths to evade the Warbirds searching overhead.
• Chen Shouyi led the exhausted group through an evacuated village and toward a familiar military sentry post.

After escaping fallen Dongning, Chen Shouyi brought Qin Shufen and Chen Yuwei through a tense military checkpoint and into Ningzhou, where they rested at a family inn. He reflected on the Barbarians’ mysterious beast tattoos and tried to reproduce one, but found that copying its image could not capture its power.

• Chen Shouyi, Qin Shufen, and Chen Yuwei complied with the soldiers’ inspection and passed the checkpoint after he showed his identification and train ticket.
• The group crossed a heavily militarized border zone, picked mulberries for food, and reached the outskirts of Ningzhou by evening.
• Chen Shouyi took Qin Shufen and Chen Yuwei to eat and found them a room at a family inn.
• Chen Shouyi released Shell Girl, fed her honey, and told her they would return the next day.
• While showering, Chen Shouyi recalled the Barbarians’ glowing beast tattoos and suspected they carried mysterious power.
• Chen Shouyi drew a tattoo from memory on the bathroom tiles but realized his crude copy lacked the original’s lifelike quality.

Chen Shouyi practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening and discovered that his telekinetic power had grown substantially. When he tried to take his aunt and cousin by train to Hedong, he found Ningzhou Railway Station requisitioned for a massive military mobilization, leaving the three of them waiting at a nearby hotel.

• Chen Shouyi practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening, checked his Status Panel, and found that his will and perception had increased.
• Chen Shouyi used telekinesis to lift and rotate a magazine, then concluded that his willpower’s growth was not linear.
• Chen Shouyi traveled with Qin Shufen and Chen Yuwei to Ningzhou Railway Station, where soldiers told him the station had been requisitioned for national defense mobilization.
• Chen Shouyi found a nearby hotel for his aunt and cousin, and Qin Shufen insisted on paying for the rooms.
• Chen Shouyi watched the growing concentration of troops and weapons at the station, then practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening and felt his body growing denser and tougher.

Chen Shouyi bought arrows in Ningzhou, then tried to get his aunt and Chen Yuwei out of the city after the war with the God of Hunting began. After three nuclear explosions, he fled with them by tricycle but saw the God of Hunting still alive in the sky.

• Chen Shouyi bought arrows and witnessed special police arresting members of a cult in Ningzhou.
• Chen Shouyi heard artillery before dawn, decided to leave Ningzhou, and bought a tricycle to carry his aunt and Chen Yuwei.
• Three nuclear bombs exploded in the distance, and Chen Shouyi hurried his family out of the city.
• Chen Shouyi spotted the God of Hunting hovering in the sky and realized the nuclear attack had failed.

After escaping Ningzhou, Chen Shouyi brought Chen Yuwei and Qin Shufen to his family in Hedong’s safe zone, where they settled in amid grief over Qin Shufen’s lost husband. A week later, he was still seeking news about Ningzhou and training his toughness, and he urged Chen Xingyue to test him with thrusts instead of blows.

• Chen Shouyi pedaled his tricycle out of Ningzhou with Chen Yuwei and Qin Shufen as the city’s last resistance collapsed behind them.
• In Hedong’s safe zone, Chen Shouyi brought the two women to his family, and they mourned Qin Shufen’s husband together.
• Qin Shufen bought a house on the outskirts of the safe zone and moved out while Chen Yuwei resumed classes.
• Chen Shouyi borrowed martial arts books through Guan Miao and asked Xiao Changming for news about Ningzhou, but learned that information had been sealed off.
• Chen Xingyue struck Chen Shouyi with an iron rod to test his toughness, and he offered to pay her three hundred an hour to continue.
• Chen Shouyi told Chen Xingyue to thrust the iron rod at him, but she protested that it was too dangerous.

Chen Shouyi absorbed the Tree God's divinity through the World Tree and became a Divine Creature, gaining greater control over the wind and sensing the world around him. After learning that a Barbarian might worship him as the God of Calamity, he considered pursuing godhood through followers but decided to rely on the Book of Knowledge and his own strength instead.

• Chen Shouyi entered the World of Wind and absorbed its insights until the space collapsed and the World Tree transformed.
• Chen Shouyi discovered that his Status Panel listed him as a Divine Creature, with improved Constitution and Intelligence and intermediate Control Atmosphere.
• Chen Shouyi tested his new wind control on Shell Girl, lifting her in a small tornado and earning her praise.
• Chen Shouyi dreamed that a Barbarian prayed to him as the God of Calamity and suspected the follower came from the tribe he had scattered on the Barbarian Small Island.
• Chen Shouyi considered gaining followers in the other world but rejected the slow path to godhood, choosing to grow stronger through the Book of Knowledge instead.

After becoming a Divine Creature, Chen Shouyi discovered new physical changes and rapid growth in his abilities as tensions rose over Ningzhou’s fall. Bai Xiaoling assigned him to protect a mission transporting recovered nuclear bombs to Hedong.

• Chen Shouyi noticed that he became full after eating less than usual and that an invisible force field kept dust away from his body.
• Over the next few days, Chen Shouyi absorbed more mysterious energy during training, and his strength and agility increased.
• Chen Shouyi saw military trucks carrying weapons toward the Ningzhou crisis and worried that the Barbarian God could threaten Hedong.
• Bai Xiaoling told Chen Shouyi that Dongning had fallen and explained that two crashed strategic airships carried unlaunched nuclear warheads, including two ten-megaton hydrogen bombs.
• Bai Xiaoling ordered Chen Shouyi to join Colonel Xiao and Minister Lei in protecting the team transporting the nuclear bombs to Hedong.

Chen Shouyi prepared to return to Ningzhou for a dangerous mission involving a nuclear weapon and struggled to decide who would look after Shell Girl. When she broke down at the thought of being left with his sister, he promised to bring her along.

• Bai Xiaoling told Chen Shouyi that they would leave for Ningzhou at nine the next morning.
• A group of soldiers and ability users arrived at Hedong Railway Station, led by a blue-haired lightning ability user.
• Chen Shouyi practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening, noted how much his defenses had improved, and packed for the trip.
• Chen Shouyi told Shell Girl he planned to leave her with his younger sister, and she cried and begged him not to hand her over.
• Chen Shouyi comforted Shell Girl, promised to take her with him, and confirmed that she could keep her gems and clothes.

Chen Shouyi joined a convoy carrying a team of capital Martial Masters and Strategic Forces soldiers on a mission to recover nuclear bombs from the barbarians. The convoy reached evacuated Luohu City, where they learned the bombs remained guarded at the airship crash site and that the barbarians had taken civilians to study the nuclear airships.

• Chen Shouyi left home and met Xiao Changming, Lei Ruiyang, and five Martial Masters from the capital at the city government square.
• Ye Zong introduced Lu Shouhu, Luo Jingwen, Zhang Wenlong, and Sun Mengyuan, then the group set out with soldiers and supplies in a convoy.
• Lu Shouhu and the others discussed the Martial Masters in the capital and revealed that Ye Zong had killed a demigod.
• The convoy arrived in evacuated Luohu City, where the Strategic Forces received an intelligence report about the nuclear bombs.
• A captain reported that roughly five hundred barbarians and many Warbirds guarded the crash site, and that the barbarians had captured civilians to research the nuclear airships.

Chen Shouyi learned that the Buddha Form supposedly marked a martial master, concluded that he qualified despite his low strength, and sharpened his combat skills in Memory Space. He then set out with the convoy on the mission to retrieve the nuclear warhead, with the outcome still uncertain.

• Ye Zong explained that barbarian gods risk losing divine power and possibly their godheads by staying on Earth, easing Chen Shouyi's concern that one might appear.
• Sun Mengyuan dismissed Chen Shouyi as an unqualified martial master, but he realized that his unusual teeth matched her description of the Buddha Form and concluded that he was a true martial master.
• Chen Shouyi let Shell Girl hide from Sun Mengyuan, then practiced a past fight in Memory Space until he defeated the two barbarians and lost his anxiety.
• Chen Shouyi awoke at twelve thirty, reassured Shell Girl, and joined the convoy as it began moving toward the nuclear-warhead mission.

Chen Shouyi and the convoy crossed a desolate battlefield, where he and Ye Zong fought off a surprise attack by barbarians. After the fight, a large enemy force approached, and the alerted guard forces signaled the threat with a red flare.

• Lu Shouhu shot down crows near the convoy, while Zhang Wenlong and the capital's martial masters picked off attacking Warbirds.
• Chen Shouyi sensed several barbarians approaching on foot, leaped onto the vehicle roof, and killed multiple attackers with rapid arrows.
• Ye Zong joined Chen Shouyi on the roof and killed the remaining barbarians with three powerful shots.
• Ye Zong told Chen Shouyi that consuming divine blood had changed his bloodline, granted him electromagnetic abilities, and turned his hair blue.
• Ye Zong spotted a large force approaching, and a red firework signaled that the nearby guard forces had been alerted.

Chen Shouyi’s convoy fought off barbarian attacks while advancing toward the crashed Nuclear Strategic Airships, and Shell Girl was accidentally exposed to the others. As the convoy reached the wreckage, a colossal giant named Gipps appeared and blocked their way.

• Ye Zong used electrically charged arrows to kill the charging barbarians, and the convoy’s soldiers and martial masters finished off the rest.
• Chen Shouyi was ordered down from the truck roof because his bow lacked sufficient power, while the convoy continued toward the airship wreckage.
• Barbarians rained short spears down from the sky, and Chen Shouyi dodged one that pierced the truck bed and knocked Shell Girl out of his clothes.
• Chen Shouyi introduced Shell Girl to the others as his daughter and tucked her away after Ye Zong tried to coax her over.
• The convoy reached the crashed Nuclear Strategic Airships and found enormous footprints on the road.
• Gipps rose behind an airship, ordered the convoy to turn back, and hurled a tree several kilometers toward them when they continued forward.

Chen Shouyi and the convoy recovered fifteen nuclear warheads from an airship after Ye Zong killed the giant attacking them. The mission ended with Major Qi reporting that one nuclear warhead was missing.

• The giant attacked the convoy, and Ye Zong, Luo Jingwen, and Zhang Wenlong drew it away while Chen Shouyi hid Shell Girl in the truck.
• Ye Zong killed the giant with an electromagnetic cannon arrow, and he and the others entered the village as the savages’ resistance collapsed.
• The convoy reached the airship and recovered fifteen nuclear warheads before moving on to another airship.
• Ye Zong identified the rescued researchers and said he had killed some who had become cultists; the soldiers screened the rest and executed five who refused to renounce their faith.
• Major Qi reported that one nuclear warhead was missing.

Chen Shouyi and the convoy returned safely to Hedong after recovering twenty-four nuclear bombs, though one small bomb remained missing. Back home, he rewarded Shell Girl and entered the Memory Space to assess his combat ability by revisiting his clash with Sun Mengyuan.

• Major Qi reported that a one-kiloton nuclear bomb was missing, then ordered the convoy to leave with the twenty-four recovered bombs.
• Ye Zong and the researchers returned to Luohu City, where soldiers welcomed the convoy and anti-aircraft guns drove off the pursuing Warbirds.
• Chen Shouyi left the convoy at Hedong with Xiao Changming and Lei Ruiyang, then returned home and gave Shell Girl a Crystal Ball.
• Chen Shouyi concluded that his agility exceeded Martial Artist level while his strength remained at Great Martial Artist level, and entered the Memory Space to review his fight with Sun Mengyuan.

Chen Shouyi fought Sun Mengyuan in the Memory Space, then realized she had likely come there to relieve herself and left in embarrassment. He assessed his martial-master strength afterward and worried about the God of Hunting's threat to Hedong City.

• Chen Shouyi challenged Sun Mengyuan in the Memory Space and provoked her into fighting seriously.
• Sun Mengyuan's explosive power and rapid attacks pressured Chen Shouyi, but he landed a heavy blow that broke her ribs.
• Chen Shouyi noticed Sun Mengyuan's torn clothes and realized she might have hurried over to relieve herself, so he left the Memory Space.
• Chen Shouyi concluded that he was at least an ordinary martial master and that Sun Mengyuan was likely stronger than Xiao Changming.
• Chen Shouyi checked his Status Panel, resolved to save energy for optimization, and answered Chen Xingyue's call to dinner.

Chen Shouyi received his new provincial Martial Master benefits and continued studying ways to improve himself. He completed viscera refinement and discovered he could stop his heart for several minutes before growing dangerously weak.

• A deputy director of the provincial general office brought Chen Shouyi his new benefits contract, and Chen Shouyi signed it.
• Chen Xingyue tried to read the contract, but Chen Shouyi refused and destroyed it after she left.
• Chen Shouyi studied qigong and watched Shell Girl arrange her Crystal Balls.
• Chen Shouyi completed viscera refinement and felt his body become more integrated.
• Chen Shouyi stopped his heart and found that he could endure without a heartbeat for about ten minutes before becoming weak.

Chen Shouyi tested how much his body had hardened and encountered a dangerous Otherworld Creature near the woods. After killing it, he ran into Lin Yawen in Hedong and told her his name.

• Chen Shouyi found that his skin could withstand his sword unless he used considerable force, and checked his rising strength, agility, and energy.
• Chen Shouyi practiced the Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening while Shell Girl played nearby.
• Shell Girl warned Chen Shouyi that a creature was approaching, and a six-legged Otherworld Creature lunged at him and bit his arm.
• Chen Shouyi crushed the creature's neck and stomped it dead, then searched the woods and found no others.
• Lin Yawen recognized Chen Shouyi in the safe zone and asked whether he was a martial artist.
• Chen Shouyi confirmed that he was, then left after telling Lin Yawen his name.

Chen Shouyi’s parents considered opening another restaurant, while he reached 900 energy points and optimized his hardening technique for the third time. After practicing the dramatically altered forms, he was overwhelmed by painful physical sensations and had to stop after the seventh form.

• Mother Chen proposed opening another restaurant, but Chen Dawei worried about repeating their earlier losses, and Chen Shouyi urged them not to work so hard.
• Shell Girl asked Chen Shouyi to visit her home in the other world, and he promised to check whether the Space Channel in Hedong City was still open.
• Chen Shouyi’s energy points reached 900, and he spent nine points to optimize Thirty-Six Forms of Hardening for the third time.
• Chen Shouyi studied the new technique and discovered it could gather Primal Force into a blue vortex that remained after training.
• Shell Girl tried to cover Chen Shouyi with a quilt while he slept on the floor, then told him not to do it again.
• Chen Shouyi practiced the third optimized forms, but after completing the seventh, his muscles convulsed and he stopped amid pain, itching, and cold sweat.