Chapter Summaries

Six-year-old Xia Yang prepared for his Martial Soul Awakening in Xiling Harbor, a coastal city shaped by Spirit Hall’s efforts to rebuild its maritime forces. His father failed to return in time, and Xia Yang entered the Martial Soul Hall Branch for the ceremony, anxious about what he would awaken.

• Xia Yang finished his morning swim and learned from Liu Feng that his father, Xia Shi, had not arrived because the storm likely delayed his fleet.
• Xia Yang regretted that Xia Shi would miss the Martial Soul Awakening, then went with Liu Feng toward the city for the ceremony hosted by his mother, Huo Yang.
• Xia Yang and Liu Feng walked through Xiling Harbor, where Xia Yang worried that his martial soul or innate soul power might disappoint him despite his parents' strength.
• Xia Yang entered the Martial Soul Hall Branch as other families left after their children's awakenings.

Xia Yang underwent Martial Soul Awakening at the Xiling Harbor branch hall while his parents, Huo Yang and Xia Shi, watched anxiously. The ceremony ended with Xia Shi identifying Xia Yang’s awakened power as a Bone Martial Soul.

• Xia Shi rushed back to Xiling Harbor after a storm delayed his return and hurried to the branch hall for Xia Yang’s awakening.
• Xia Yang waited while Huo Yang awakened the other children, then entered the room after Xia Shi arrived.
• Huo Yang channeled Soul Power into the awakening array as Xia Yang endured intense heat, cold, and pain through his body.
• Xia Yang’s awakening completed, and Xia Shi recognized the result as a Bone Martial Soul.

Xia Yang awakened a Bone Martial Soul, which his parents feared was a wasted mutation, then learned he had only half a level of Innate Soul Power and fainted. As his parents began reconsidering his future, news of his supposed failure spread across Xiling Harbor while he remained unconscious.

• Xia Yang awakened a Bone Martial Soul, and Xia Shi and Huo Yang worried that it was a Malignant Mutation and a wasted Martial Soul.
• Xia Yang reassured his parents that his Body Martial Soul might become powerful as it evolved, then tested his Innate Soul Power.
• Huo Yang revealed that Xia Yang had only half a level of Innate Soul Power, and he fainted from exhaustion and shock.
• Xia Shi used his healing soul skill to treat Xia Yang, and he and Huo Yang left him in Liu Feng's care while they discussed his future.
• News that Xia Yang had awakened a wasted Martial Soul and possessed half a level of Innate Soul Power spread throughout Xiling Harbor.

After Xia Yang woke from the strain of his Martial Soul Awakening, Zhao Yanran announced that she wanted to end their childhood engagement because of his weak Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power. Huo Yang accepted, but Xia Shi stopped Zhao Tianba and Zhao Yanran from leaving, leaving Xia Yang confused about his father's intentions.

• Xia Yang woke at the Martial Soul Branch Hall and learned that Zhao Tianba and Zhao Yanran had come to see him.
• Huo Yang asked Zhao Tianba why he had brought Zhao Yanran, and Zhao Yanran declared that she wanted to break off the engagement.
• Zhao Yanran said her rank-six Innate Soul Power meant she would not marry Xia Yang, whose Martial Soul and half-rank Innate Soul Power were weak.
• Huo Yang agreed to dissolve the engagement, and Zhao Tianba tried to leave with his daughter.
• Xia Shi arrived and blocked the doorway, insisting that Zhao Tianba stay despite Xia Yang's confusion and Huo Yang's attempt to restrain him.

Xia Yang’s family confronted Zhao Tianba over his decision to break the engagement after arranging a better match for Zhao Yanran. Zhao Tianba left with the engagement dissolved, while Xia Shi severed his ties with the City Lord Manor and vowed his son would become a powerful Soul Master.

• Xia Shi showed Huo Yang an intelligence report revealing Zhao Tianba had promised Zhao Yanran to Marshal Ge Long’s family three months earlier, while she was still engaged to Xia Yang.
• Zhao Tianba admitted he had chosen the powerful Ge Long family and insulted the Xia Family, prompting Xia Shi to condemn him for abandoning their friendship.
• Xia Shi stepped aside and declared that all ties between them were severed, and Zhao Tianba took Zhao Yanran to leave.
• Xia Yang wrote and blood-stamped a Divorce Letter, declaring the engagement truly dissolved, while Xia Shi defended his son and predicted he would become a powerful Soul Master.
• After Zhao Tianba left, Xia Shi ordered Butler Liu Feng to tell their seafaring allies that the North Mystic Black Tortoise had severed all ties with the City Lord Manor of Xiling Harbor.

As Xia Shi and Huo Yang mobilized Spirit Hall and the Xia Family for conflict with the Zhao Family, Xia Yang worried about his weak cultivation and searched for a way to improve. He decided to pursue Whale Rubber as a means of strengthening his body and hurried to tell his parents, who were planning an attack on the Zhao Family Merchant Group.

• Xia Shi ordered a full-scale campaign against the Zhao Family, while Huo Yang ordered Spirit Hall to target its Soul Master forces.
• Xia Yang worried that his half-rank Innate Soul Power would limit his growth and considered how to reach level 29 before seeking immortal herbs.
• Xia Yang concluded that suitable Spirit Rings and body training could improve his prospects, and recalled deep-sea training and Whale Rubber.
• Xia Yang decided his family could obtain Whale Rubber through trade or hunting Whale Soul Beasts and hurried to speak with his parents.
• Xia Yang arrived outside his parents' room and overheard them planning a strike against the Zhao Family Merchant Group.

Xia Yang persuaded his parents to investigate Whale Rubber’s effects, then began cultivating Soul Power at the Martial Soul Branch Hall in Xiling Harbor. As he meditated, his Bone Martial Soul absorbed and refined Heaven and Earth Energy.

• Xia Yang explained to Xia Shi and Huo Yang how Whale Rubber could improve physical quality and help Soul Masters absorb stronger Spirit Rings.
• Huo Yang agreed to investigate Whale Rubber, while she and Xia Shi privately discussed how Xia Yang might have learned about it.
• The next morning, Xia Yang entered a training room at the Martial Soul Branch Hall in Xiling Harbor, where Huo Yang began guiding his cultivation.
• Xia Yang meditated among the Awakening Stones and felt Heaven and Earth Energy flow through his Bone Martial Soul, where it became Soul Power.
• Huo Yang watched as Xia Yang’s Bone Martial Soul manifested a skeletal pattern glowing red, blue, and purple.

Xia Yang began his Soul Master training, practicing meditation in the morning before undertaking weighted beach exercises with Huo Yang and Liu Feng. After recovering from an exhausting swim, he insisted on continuing as Huo Yang introduced the day's final exercise, Tidal Body Refinement.

• Xia Yang completed his first meditation session, and Huo Yang explained that his discomfort and swollen feeling were normal and would fade as his Martial Soul absorbed the energy.
• Huo Yang took Xia Yang to Xiling Harbor and started his afternoon training with a five-hundred-year Rock Turtle Shell for weighted running and swimming.
• Xia Yang ran along the coast for an hour and a half, while Liu Feng used his first and second soul skills to restore his strength when he tired.
• Xia Yang swam along the shore with the shell for half an hour before exhausting himself, and Huo Yang carried him back to the beach.
• Liu Feng used his third soul skill to help Xia Yang recover and explained why he had saved it for after training.
• Xia Yang refused to end the session, and Huo Yang prepared him for Tidal Body Refinement.

Huo Yang trained Xia Yang against the rising tide while Xia Shi investigated Whale Rubber, which he confirmed could improve a Soul Master's physical quality. The family learned that Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber was scarce, and Xia Shi showed them the lower-grade pieces he had obtained.

• Huo Yang took Xia Yang to the reefs and taught him to brace against the waves, while Liu Feng healed him between bouts.
• Xia Yang completed the day's grueling training, and Huo Yang carried him home to find Xia Shi waiting.
• Xia Shi confirmed over dinner that Whale Rubber improved a Soul Master's physical quality, giving Xia Yang hope of absorbing stronger Spirit Rings.
• Xia Shi explained that Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber was difficult to obtain because powerful whale Soul Beasts were scarce and nobles bought up the limited supply.
• Xia Shi said the best piece he had found was eleven thousand years old and had been used in his test, then placed a box of lower-grade Whale Rubber on the table.

Xia Yang swallowed Whale Rubber and recovered from its intense heat with Xia Shi’s soul skill, then settled into a routine of cultivation and study. A year later, the Xia Family’s escalating conflict with the Zhao Family had put Xiling Harbor on the brink of a larger struggle.

• Huo Yang melted the Whale Rubber with her Fire Attribute Soul Power, and Xia Yang swallowed the entire bowl despite its foul taste.
• As Xia Yang’s body overheated, Xia Shi enveloped him in his fourth soul skill, Northern Darkness Spirit Spring, while he absorbed the Whale Rubber’s energy.
• Xia Yang felt stronger and free of training fatigue, and Xia Shi promised to acquire more Whale Rubber while Huo Yang urged him to seek higher-quality supplies.
• Xia Yang followed a daily routine of morning meditation, afternoon physical training, and study at the Martial Soul Hall Branch library.
• The Xia Family and Zhao Family began fighting over Xiling Harbor and the surrounding sea, and after a year of escalating attacks, the city grew tense.

After years of training and his parents’ efforts to acquire Whale Rubber, Xia Yang reached Level Ten Soul Power at age ten and began choosing his first Spirit Ring. He proposed hunting an Ice Flame Crystal Shell, leaving Xia Shi to consider how his parents’ conflicting Spirits caused Xia Yang’s malignant mutation.

• The Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit Hall ordered Zhao Tianba, Xia Shi, and Huo Yang to end their conflict, restoring order in Xiling Harbor.
• Xia Shi and Huo Yang rejected hunting Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Soul Beasts at sea and secretly gathered Whale Rubber through scattered purchases, enduring rumors about their marriage.
• Xia Yang trained with Whale Rubber until he broke through to Level Ten Soul Power at age ten.
• At a family dinner, Xia Shi and Huo Yang asked Xia Yang what Spirit Beast and Soul Ring age he wanted for his first Soul Ring.
• Xia Yang chose an Ice Flame Crystal Shell over six hundred years old but under a thousand, then asked why his Spirit had undergone a malignant mutation.
• Xia Shi suggested that his North Mystic Black Tortoise Spirit and Huo Yang’s Blazing Flame Tiger Spirit had conflicted during inheritance because their ice and fire attributes opposed each other.

Xia Yang explained that he needed an Ice Flame Crystal Shell for his First Soul Ring to balance the Ice and Fire Energy in his body, and Xia Shi agreed to take him to an island where the Spirit Beasts might be found. The Mystic Tortoise set sail from Xiling Harbor toward Beike Island with Xia Shi, Xia Yang, and the experienced crew aboard.

• Xia Yang explained that his First Soul Ring should balance his Ice and Fire Energy, making the transitional Ice Flame Crystal Shell his ideal target.
• Huo Yang described how Ice Crystal Clams transformed into Flame Crystal Clams and confirmed that the Ice Flame Crystal Shell's Year Limit suited Xia Yang.
• Xia Shi said he knew an island where both kinds of clams could be found and agreed to prepare a voyage to hunt Xia Yang's Soul Ring.
• Three days later, Xia Shi took Xia Yang to the Mystic Tortoise at Xiling Harbor and introduced him to Sun Chuanjun, Zhang Feng, and Li Zhishu.
• Sun Chuanjun confirmed the supplies were ready, and Zhang Feng presented a route to Beike Island with nearby alternatives marked on the sea chart.
• Xia Shi ordered the Mystic Tortoise to set sail, and the ship headed for Beike Island.

Xia Yang and the others reached Beike Island and spotted glowing clam Spirit Beasts surrounding it at night. The next morning, they found the Golden Lake in the island’s north, and Xia Shi began freezing it to search for Ice Flame Crystal Shells.

• Xia Yang and the others sailed to Beike Island, where they saw the island and surrounding sea glow with different-colored lights after dark.
• Xia Shi identified the blue lights as Ice Crystal Clams, the red lights as Flame Crystal Clams, and the purple lights as likely Ice Flame Crystal Shells concentrated in the north.
• The group headed north the next morning and found a lake that Xia Yang called the Golden Lake.
• Xia Yang explained that Ice Flame Crystal Shells hid during the day and would not come to one another’s aid if attacked.
• Xia Shi summoned his North Mystic Black Tortoise and used his second soul skill, North Sea Cold Current, to begin freezing the lake.

Xia Yang and his companions found two Ice Flame Crystal Shells suitable for absorption, and Xia Yang chose the seven-hundred-year Spirit Beast despite Xia Shi’s warnings. As he began absorbing its Soul Ring, the violent energy battered his body and left him covered in blood, while Xia Shi watched anxiously.

• Xia Yang and Zhang Feng searched the frozen lake and marked two Ice Flame Crystal Shells of the required age.
• Sun Chuanjun blasted the two clams from the lake, and Xia Shi froze them for Zhang Feng to return to shore.
• Xia Yang identified one clam as five hundred years old and the other as seven hundred, then chose the older one despite Xia Shi’s concerns.
• Xia Shi released the seven-hundred-year clam, and Xia Yang killed it to make its Soul Ring appear.
• Xia Yang began absorbing the Soul Ring, but its savage energy tore through his body and made him bleed as Xia Shi nearly intervened.

Xia Yang successfully absorbed a seven-hundred-year spirit ring, raising his soul power to rank fifteen and gaining his first soul skill, Icefire Roar Bullet. After testing its power, Xia Yang and Xia Shi returned to the Mystic Tortoise and set sail for Xiling Harbor.

• Xia Yang subdued the spirit ring's energy after hours of struggle, reached rank fifteen, and completed the absorption.
• Xia Yang and Xia Shi searched both Ice Flame Crystal Shell corpses for spirit bones but found none.
• Xia Yang released his Skeleton martial soul and found that its colors had fused into purple and its release had become faster.
• Xia Yang demonstrated Icefire Roar Bullet, firing it from his mouth and palm to shatter Xia Shi's ice barrier.
• Zhang Feng and Sun Chuanjun checked on Xia Shi, and the group returned to the Mystic Tortoise and prepared to sail.
• After resting overnight, the crew sailed toward Xiling Harbor the next morning.

Huo Yang welcomed Xia Shi and Xia Yang home from their spirit hunt and learned that Xia Yang had reached level fifteen and become a One-Ring Soul Master. To protect the secret of Whale Rubber and Xia Yang’s unusual progress, the family decided to keep him away from Spirit Hall’s scrutiny by having him cultivate at sea while Huo Yang altered his records.

• Huo Yang worried about Xia Shi and Xia Yang until they returned to Spirit Hall after nearly half a month at sea.
• Xia Yang showed Huo Yang that he had reached level fifteen and that his Bone Martial Soul had turned purple after absorbing his First Spirit Ring.
• Xia Yang asked whether he should report his new Soul Master status to Spirit Hall, but Xia Shi warned that revealing the ring and Whale Rubber could expose their secret and drive up its price.
• Xia Shi proposed taking Xia Yang to cultivate at sea for the next few years, and Huo Yang agreed to make discreet changes to Xia Yang’s Spirit Hall records.
• Xia Yang explained that his martial soul’s ice and fire attributes had fused, though its current combat ability mainly enhanced his physical quality.

Xia Yang learned his father Xia Shi’s secret method for concealing Soul Power and discovered that his parents’ Icefire Cage Martial Soul Fusion Skill greatly accelerated his cultivation. After his body reached its limit, he learned he would need about a month to recover before using the skill again, and he continued training at home while waiting for the group to set out to sea.

• Xia Shi taught Xia Yang a tortoise-breathing secret method that concealed his true Soul Power from Soul Masters of Xia Shi’s level or lower.
• Huo Yang and Xia Shi revealed their Icefire Cage Martial Soul Fusion Skill and used its balanced ice-and-fire energy to help Xia Yang cultivate.
• Xia Yang sensed his Soul Power becoming more active and his first soul skill casting faster while inside the fusion skill’s range.
• After half an hour, Xia Yang stopped the skill because his body was swollen with pain and needed about a month to absorb the energy.
• Xia Shi said they would leave for sea after Zhang Feng, Sun Chuanjun, Li Zhishu, and the others finished resting, and Xia Yang resumed physical training at home.

Xia Yang sailed aboard the Mystic Tortoise to face the Sea Tiger Pirate Crew and gain experience in real combat. After the ships clashed, he boarded the pirate vessel and began fighting an opponent matched to his strength.

• Xia Yang struggled with the sun and life at sea until Zhang Feng gave him a straw hat and Xia Shi supplied sea-going clothes and a saber.
• Xia Shi ordered the Mystic Tortoise to attack the Sea Tiger Pirate Crew, and Xia Yang practiced his saber skills while the crew sailed toward the pirates.
• Zhang Feng spotted the Sea Tiger, and Xia Shi ordered the Mystic Tortoise to charge and prepare to board.
• Xia Shi, Zhang Feng, and Sun Chuanjun leaped onto the Sea Tiger and overwhelmed its strongest fighters as the rest of the crew boarded.
• Xia Yang confronted a pirate with an Albatross Martial Soul, released his Bone Martial Soul, and faced the pirate's Divine Wind Claw.

Xia Yang worried that Thousand-Year Whale Rubber no longer improved his physique, threatening his cultivation plans. After returning to Xiling Harbor, he persuaded his parents to let him join their hunt for Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber, and the family agreed to go deep-sea whale hunting together.

• Xia Yang killed the pirate with his Icefire Roar Bullet, and Xia Shi confirmed that his Soul Power Aura had stayed hidden during the battle.
• Over the next four years, Xia Yang reached Level 19 at age fourteen, but the effects of his training and Thousand-Year Whale Rubber weakened.
• Xia Yang told Xia Shi he feared he would need Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber to keep improving, and Xia Shi promised to hunt for it.
• Xia Yang insisted on joining his parents despite Xia Shi's concerns about the dangers of the deep sea.
• Xia Yang and Xia Shi arrived at Xiling Harbor, reunited with Huo Yang, and the family agreed to set out together for Deep Sea Whale Hunting.

Xia Shi led the Mystic Tortoise crew into the deep sea to hunt ten-thousand-year Whale Soul Beasts. They killed a thirty-thousand-year Split Sea Mysterious Dragon Whale, though the rest of its family escaped, and recovered its Whale Rubber.

• Xia Shi set sail from Xiling Harbor with Huo Yang, Xia Yang, and his veteran crewmates to hunt Whale Soul Beasts in the deep sea.
• Zhang Feng spotted a family group of seven or eight Split Sea Mysterious Dragon Whales, including a leader with around thirty thousand years of cultivation.
• Xia Shi and Huo Yang used their Icefire Cage Martial Soul Fusion Skill to trap the leader while the crew attacked it.
• The crew killed the trapped whale, but the remaining Split Sea Mysterious Dragon Whales escaped into the deep sea.
• Huo Yang led the crew in breaking down the whale, and Xia Shi retrieved the thirty-thousand-year Whale Rubber from its skull.