Chapter Summaries

After the Crows’ victories over Shrek’s Outer Court students, Situ Xuan accepted the possibility of facing Inner Court challengers. That night, a masked girl lured him to No. 7 Training Hall and revealed her face, leaving her identity and purpose unknown.

• Wang Dongchen reported that the Crows had won eleven of thirteen Primary Arena matches and seven of nine Intermediate Arena matches, with no High-Level Arena challengers.
• Situ Xuan told Wang Dongchen he would accept a challenge from anyone of the same generation, including Inner Court disciples.
• That night, Situ Xuan sensed someone nearby and watched a masked girl attack his former position with earthen spikes.
• The girl led Situ Xuan through the academy to No. 7 Training Hall, where he followed her inside.
• The girl removed her silver mask and revealed a beautiful face with eyes that seemed ancient and wise.

Gu Yue challenged Situ Xuan to a fight and offered to recruit him into the Spirit Pagoda if she won. She revealed herself as a five-ring Soul King, and the battle began with her unleashing a tide of elemental attacks against him.

• Situ Xuan recognized Gu Yue when she met him in the training hall at night.
• Gu Yue challenged Situ Xuan and said he would have to join the Spirit Pagoda if she won.
• Situ Xuan attacked Gu Yue with a rapid barrage of punches, but her golden barrier blocked every strike.
• Gu Yue revealed five black Soul Rings, showing she was a Soul King, while Situ Xuan welcomed the chance to fight her.
• Gu Yue activated Elemental Tide and sent fire, water, earth, and wind surging toward Situ Xuan.

Situ Xuan and Gu Yue fought fiercely in the training hall as he countered her elemental attacks and she escalated to her Elemental Storm. Though battered by the storm, Situ Xuan remained standing and declared that he was ready to get serious.

• Situ Xuan broke through Gu Yue's elemental restraints and vacuum attack, but her Earth Element shield stopped his Sword Flash.
• Situ Xuan accelerated and used Earth Cage Domain to withstand Gu Yue's fused elemental attacks, then launched stone fragments at her.
• Gu Yue summoned the Elemental Staff and decomposed the fragments before unleashing her fifth soul skill, Elemental Storm.
• The Elemental Storm damaged the training hall and wounded Situ Xuan, but he stayed on his feet and said he would get serious.

Situ Xuan and Gu Yue fought fiercely in the training hall, trading rapid attacks and layered defenses. Situ Xuan’s Two-Finger Vacuum Hold disrupted Gu Yue’s elemental power, leaving the fight poised for his next move.

• Situ Xuan broke through Gu Yue’s Wind-Rock Wall, but discovered she had teleported away with Space Power.
• Situ Xuan dodged Gu Yue’s ice crystal storm, concealed his approach with blasts of rubble, and attacked her with Five-Finger Blazing Bullet and Blade Chaos Thunder.
• Gu Yue deflected Situ Xuan’s bullets and blocked his spinning kick with a Magma Great Shield.
• Gu Yue sent four elemental giant pythons at Situ Xuan, who sheltered inside an Earth Cage Domain and then collapsed it into a barrage with Falling Earth Flying Rock.
• Gu Yue blocked most of the flying rocks with a spatial barrier and wind blades as Situ Xuan used Fist of the North Star footwork to close in.
• Situ Xuan used Two-Finger Vacuum Hold to disrupt the air and elemental power around Gu Yue, slowing her next defense.

Gu Yue and Situ Xuan fought at full intensity, with Gu Yue unleashing a storm of elements and using a spatial trick to trap him in a barrage of Elemental Missiles. Despite being gravely wounded, Situ Xuan acknowledged Gu Yue and began drawing in black mist.

• Situ Xuan overwhelmed Gu Yue with the North Star Hundred Rending Fists, forcing her to evade and defend with her Elemental Staff.
• Gu Yue unleashed every element in a massive torrent, and Situ Xuan charged through it using the Dragon-Turning Breathing Method and Eight Extremes Heaven techniques.
• Gu Yue vanished into a folded layer of space and revealed the Elemental Missiles she had secretly positioned around Situ Xuan.
• The Elemental Missiles engulfed Situ Xuan in explosions, leaving him badly injured at the edge of a crater.
• Situ Xuan rose, laughed, told Gu Yue he acknowledged her, and drew black mist toward himself.

Situ Xuan underwent the second form of Roaring Forest Black Tiger Transformation and gained enough speed, power, and Malevolent Qi to overwhelm Gu Yue’s defenses and disrupt her Space Shift. As he pressed his attack, Gu Yue invoked the elemental authority of the Silver Dragon King.

• Situ Xuan transformed as Malevolent Qi Black Wind healed his wounds and covered him in dark gold tiger stripes and black flames.
• Situ Xuan tore through Gu Yue’s composite barrier and struck her with a spatially disruptive Sword Flash.
• Situ Xuan attacked Gu Yue with rapid kicks, a spinning blade strike, and North Star Downfall Finger, forcing her to evade repeatedly.
• Gu Yue recognized the threat posed by Situ Xuan and began invoking the Silver Dragon King’s elemental authority.

A fierce battle at No. 7 Training Hall drew attention across Shrek Academy, but its leaders chose to conceal it and let the duel proceed. The chapter left the academy waiting to see whether the mocking plaque would still be there the next morning.

• The Outer Court dean suspected a powerful sixth-year had returned to challenge the plaque and ordered the area sealed off as a Soul Tool experiment accident.
• Peng Yunze told Wang Dongchen and the Crow cadres that Shrek's Inner Court was likely involved, and warned them not to approach the fight.
• Inner Court powerhouses decided not to intervene, treating the clash as a private contest for Outer Court morale.
• Shrek enforcement officers turned curious students away while the academy concealed the battle and awaited its outcome.

Situ Xuan fought Gu Yue in the devastated training hall, combining Malevolent Qi, brute force, and precise strikes against her overwhelming elemental control. After he broke through her defenses, Gu Yue used Space Power to slow him and launched a lethal beam at his temple.

• Situ Xuan changed tactics and charged Gu Yue with a Malevolent Qi vortex in one hand and dark-gold sharp force in the other.
• Gu Yue summoned an Earth Element mountain and ice spikes, but Situ Xuan destroyed the mountain and cut through the spikes.
• Gu Yue unleashed a fused attack of six elements, and Situ Xuan endured it with his Sha Gang armor before forcing his way forward.
• Situ Xuan smashed through five of Gu Yue's seven elemental shields with Black Tiger Steals Heart.
• Gu Yue folded and compressed space to slow Situ Xuan, then fired a beam of opposing light and darkness toward his temple.

Situ Xuan broke Gu Yue’s spatial attack but refused her offer to join the Spirit Pagoda and launched a desperate counterattack. Afterward, Gu Yue visited him as he recovered and asked why he rejected her faction despite accepting support from others.

• Situ Xuan used the Beidou Remorseful Accumulation Step Fist to shatter Gu Yue’s spatial confinement, though her attack burned his cheek.
• Gu Yue praised Situ Xuan as the strongest of his generation and offered him resources and status if he joined the Spirit Pagoda.
• Situ Xuan mocked Gu Yue’s offer, unleashed his Malevolent Qi, and charged her with a destructive punch.
• Gu Yue took the full force of the battle seriously and began chanting as the Elemental Staff radiated seven-colored light.
• Later, Gu Yue stood beside Situ Xuan’s bed in the dormitory and asked why he resisted joining the Spirit Pagoda when he accepted support from the Body Sect and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
• Situ Xuan looked toward the moon without answering immediately.

Situ Xuan confronted Gu Yue about the secrets and burdens behind her recruitment pitch, then criticized her for hiding her strength and wasting time playing house with Tang Wulin. Gu Yue admitted she envied his unrestrained way of living, leaving the two former classmates regarding each other with new understanding.

• Situ Xuan said the Body Sect and Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy offered straightforward deals, while Gu Yue and the Spirit Pagoda seemed unreal to him.
• Situ Xuan told Gu Yue he sensed she carried a heavy burden and recruited him as part of a hidden goal.
• Gu Yue acknowledged that both of them had secrets and suggested they might not be so different.
• Situ Xuan rejected the comparison, saying he pursued what he wanted directly, and challenged Gu Yue over her attention to Tang Wulin.
• Gu Yue admitted she sometimes envied Situ Xuan's freedom, and he began to see her as less irritating and perhaps pitiful.

After their duel, Gu Yue accepted that Situ Xuan would not join the Spirit Pagoda and left him potions and a warning about Shrek. The next morning, Shrek’s students found the humiliating plaque still hanging above No. 7 Training Hall, deepening their doubts about whether anyone could defeat Situ Xuan.

• Situ Xuan conceded that Gu Yue had won their fight, and she ended her recruitment attempt while warning him that his strength had drawn attention.
• Gu Yue gave Situ Xuan healing and Soul Power-restoring potions before leaving his dorm room.
• Situ Xuan began cultivating the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique to recover for the battle ahead.
• Gu Yue reflected that she and Situ Xuan shared a complicated connection despite following different paths.
• Shrek students gathered at No. 7 Training Hall and saw that the plaque insulting the Outer Court still hung in place.
• The students’ hopes collapsed as they wondered whether even an Inner Court expert had failed to overcome Situ Xuan.

After losing to Gu Yue, Situ Xuan recognized his weaknesses and committed to doubling his training, inspiring the other Sun Moon students to do the same. As the plaque continued to shame Shrek's Outer Court, the disciplined Crows increasingly defeated their demoralized challengers.

• Peng Yunze saw the plaque still hanging outside No. 7 Training Hall and concluded that Situ Xuan had at least not lost to Shrek's hidden forces.
• Situ Xuan recovered in his meditation room, reviewed what he had learned from his battle with Gu Yue, and decided to double his training.
• Situ Xuan began intense physical training under a heavy gravity field, and the other twenty-nine Crows followed his example.
• The plaque remained outside No. 7 Training Hall as Shrek students continued to challenge the Sun Moon students.
• The Crows fought with discipline and desperation, exploiting Shrek students' low morale and turning many matches in their favor.

Situ Xuan continued his intense training while trying to understand the boundary blocking his Body Martial Soul’s next awakening. As he cultivated in a medicinal bath, Black Tiger Xuan Sha appeared beside him.

• Shrek Outer Court’s challenge win rate rose to nearly thirty percent, but its students remained demoralized by their opponents’ resolve and relentless training.
• Situ Xuan immersed himself in the medicinal solution and used Cloud Force to examine and temper his body.
• Situ Xuan sensed the boundary of Silver Awakening but could not determine what he still lacked to cross it.
• Black Tiger Xuan Sha emerged from the Soul Spirit Contract in the form of a tiny tiger cub and watched Situ Xuan cultivate.

Situ Xuan discovered that Little Black Tiger’s instinctive purr produced a body-wide rhythm that could improve physical coordination, giving him a new insight into Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound. He began adapting that rhythm to his Cloud Force and Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique, ending with a stronger, deeper sound and more pronounced vibrations through his body.

• Little Black Tiger listened to the rhythms inside Situ Xuan’s body and unconsciously hummed in resonance with them.
• Situ Xuan sensed how the hum spread coordinated vibrations through Black Tiger Xuan Sha’s muscles, bones, blood, and Soul Power.
• Situ Xuan realized that Black Tiger Xuan Sha’s innate Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound could provide the instinctive rhythm missing from his cultivation.
• Situ Xuan guided Cloud Force into his chest and produced a muffled sound that sent vibrations through his body and smoothed the flow of Soul Power.
• Situ Xuan synchronized his breathing and Cloud Force with the chest rhythm, producing a longer, deeper sound and stronger vibrations.

Situ Xuan fused Little Black Tiger Xuan Sha’s Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound with Cloud Force and the Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique, tempering his body and sharpening his control. He found a path toward opening his acupoints and Silver Awakening, though the barrier remained unbroken.

• Little Black Tiger Xuan Sha deliberately hummed to help Situ Xuan understand and resonate with its bloodline’s vibrations.
• Situ Xuan adapted the Cloud Body Nine Turns stances to the thunder sound, using its vibrations to temper his muscles, bones, organs, and meridians.
• Situ Xuan’s body-wide hum grew strong enough to shake dust and alter the drifting steam as his scars faded and his aura grew more contained.
• Situ Xuan sensed the first crack in the barrier blocking his Silver Awakening and realized he could use Martial Dao cultivation to nourish his martial soul.
• Situ Xuan thanked Xuan Sha, who returned to his chest, then resolved to refine Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound through daily cultivation and combat.

Yuanen Yehui visited Situ Xuan to ask about the direction and rhythm of her combat style after training with the Crows. The chapter left her explaining that she could imitate their ferocity but still had not found what suited her.

• Yuanen Yehui entered the courtyard and accidentally saw Situ Xuan undressed after his medicinal bath, startling and embarrassing her.
• Situ Xuan dressed and calmly asked Yuanen Yehui why she had come.
• Yuanen Yehui told Situ Xuan that training with the Crows had greatly improved her physical abilities and battle will.
• Yuanen Yehui said her fighting still felt unnatural because she was copying Situ Xuan's form without understanding its spirit.

Yuanen Yehui asked Situ Xuan for advice on making her fighting style more varied, and he told her to attack him so they could find problems through combat. She transformed with her Third Soul Skill, Vajra Titan, but Situ Xuan effortlessly evaded her first two attacks.

• Yuanen Yehui told Situ Xuan that she felt trapped in a clumsy style of clashing strength against strength and asked for guidance.
• Situ Xuan invited Yuanen Yehui to attack him, saying that finding problems in battle was more useful than daydreaming.
• Yuanen Yehui accepted and transformed into her giant-ape form with her Third Soul Skill, Vajra Titan.
• Yuanen Yehui charged at Situ Xuan with a powerful straight punch, but he glided aside without blocking or using a Soul Skill.
• Yuanen Yehui followed with a sweeping strike, but Situ Xuan smoothly evaded that attack as well.

Situ Xuan taught Yuanen Yehui how to balance the Titan Giant Ape’s strength with agility, technique, and human judgment. Yuanen Yehui understood that she needed to command her martial soul’s power with human wisdom rather than rely on its instincts.

• Yuanen Yehui attacked Situ Xuan with a barrage of punches and Air Cannons, but he evaded each strike with subtle Wind Shadow Step movements.
• Yuanen Yehui unleashed a soul-powered roar as an area attack, but Situ Xuan stepped out of its strongest range.
• Situ Xuan explained that Yuanen Yehui’s fighting lacked balance between weight and lightness, then demonstrated how timing, angles, and controlled force could overcome her size.
• Situ Xuan tapped Yuanen Yehui’s knee with a precise vibrating force, briefly disrupting her balance and showing her how technique could counter strength.
• Yuanen Yehui returned to human form and reflected on Situ Xuan’s lesson about using human wisdom to control her Titan Giant Ape power.

Situ Xuan used water to explain how adaptability and concentrated force could overcome greater strength, then challenged Yuanen Yehui to stop being constrained by the Titan Giant Ape’s form and learn to wield its power as a human. He left her with the example of a Shrek Academy expert whose Bright Holy Dragon power had not made him imitate a dragon.

• Situ Xuan demonstrated how water adapted to different vessels and explained that its flexibility could overcome what was hard.
• Situ Xuan fired a precise stream of water through a piece of bluestone, showing Yuanen Yehui the power of concentrated force.
• Situ Xuan criticized Yuanen Yehui for treating her Titan Giant Ape martial soul as a form she had to imitate in battle.
• Situ Xuan argued that a martial soul was a source of power, not a shape its user had to become.
• Situ Xuan recalled a Bright Holy Dragon expert from Shrek Academy who had wielded his martial soul’s power while remaining in human form.

Situ Xuan urged Yuanen Yehui to master the power of her martial souls rather than imitate the Titan Giant Ape, inspiring her to seek a fighting style of her own. As she struggled to process his advice and his sudden touch, he told her that he thought she was very talented.

• Situ Xuan told Yuanen Yehui that she should understand and control her martial souls' power instead of copying their forms.
• Yuanen Yehui realized she could explore the Titan Giant Ape's strength, defense, and vitality while remaining human and develop her own fighting style.
• Situ Xuan placed his hands on Yuanen Yehui's shoulders, startling her and overwhelming her with embarrassment and confusion.
• Situ Xuan calmly told Yuanen Yehui that he thought she was very talented.