Chapter Summaries

Summary of “Panic (First Update—Happy New Year)”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Twin Tower City falls into terror after Feng Jun and Yi Jue destroy its defenses and eliminate most of its powerful wizards. Only three grand wizards and seven ordinary wizards remain outside the burning towers.
• Feng Jun explains that he is keeping some survivors for soul-searching, since the wizard civilization does not preserve or openly share knowledge as cultivators do. Wizards are portrayed as highly individualistic and selfish about their discoveries, which has allowed cruel experiments and dangerous practices to be repeated without records.
• Yi Jue asks whether the people trapped inside the nine-story wizard tower should be rescued. Feng Jun instead adds more fire, deliberately signaling that the cultivators will not show mercy.
• The nine-story tower contains powerful defensive resources, including Extreme Frost scrolls, but they cannot safely be used from inside the tower. Combining them with the surrounding Extreme Flame Radiance would likely kill the tower’s inhabitants or cause a destructive explosion.
• Feng Jun openly rejects a demand that the cultivators stop before making enemies of the entire continent, sarcastically challenging the city’s assumption that it can speak for everyone.
• Yi Jue intensifies the attack using the Spirit Plant Dao techniques “Germination” and “Life Force.” Vines and trees erupt throughout the tower, ignite, and cause the structure to explode.
• Several burning figures escape from the ruined tower, but Yi Jue kills them before they can flee.
• Yi Jue then demands that the leaders of the Wizards’ Association, Martial Cultivators Association, and City Lord’s Manor come out and die. Her threat implies that otherwise the whole city will be destroyed.
• Panic spreads when Twin Tower City discovers that its teleportation arrays have been disabled. Wei Sancai secretly interfered with them using his mastery of spatial techniques, preventing the city’s leaders and residents from escaping.
• With evacuation impossible, the city debates whether to surrender, identify those responsible, or launch an attack against Feng Jun and Yi Jue. The chapter ends as Yi Jue gives them only until the count of three to come out and accept death.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun becomes increasingly ruthless and confident. He justifies his killings as retaliation for the city’s previous attacks and refuses to be intimidated by threats involving the entire continent.
• Yi Jue reveals a particularly unforgiving side. Her anger over Feng Jun’s earlier mistreatment and the city’s attacks leads her to destroy the nine-story tower and execute those who attempt to escape. She assumes direct control of the confrontation by issuing an ultimatum.
• Wei Sancai demonstrates his value as a powerful and reliable ally. His quiet disruption of Twin Tower City’s teleportation arrays shows his foresight and ability to coordinate strategically with the others.
• The surviving leaders of Twin Tower City are portrayed as frightened and divided. Some seek escape, others consider attacking, while many attempt to shift blame rather than accept responsibility.

Significant Themes

• Cultural differences between civilizations: Cultivators emphasize preserving and transmitting knowledge, while wizards tend to hoard discoveries as personal achievements. This difference helps explain the wizard society’s lack of records and its repeated history of unethical experimentation.
• Retaliation and justice: Feng Jun and Yi Jue view their violence as a justified response to the city’s persecution and attacks, while the city sees them as merciless invaders.
• The danger of perceived weakness: Feng Jun deliberately refuses to appear compassionate, believing that mercy would encourage enemies to exploit them.
• Panic and the collapse of power: Once the towers burn and escape routes are cut off, Twin Tower City’s confidence disappears. Its institutions can no longer protect its people, exposing the fragility beneath its apparent strength.
• Coordination among powerful allies: The cultivators’ success comes not only from individual strength but also from seamless teamwork—Feng Jun attacks, Yi Jue provides overwhelming force, and Wei Sancai prevents escape.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue discuss whether to preserve survivors for information and whether to rescue those trapped in the tower. Yi Jue ultimately supports Feng Jun’s hard-line decision.
• Twin Tower City attempts to intimidate the cultivators by accusing them of making enemies of the entire continent. Feng Jun responds with open defiance.
• Yi Jue demands that the city’s three leading organizations surrender their leaders, effectively confronting the entire ruling structure.
• Wei Sancai’s unseen intervention supports Feng Jun and Yi Jue’s assault, demonstrating effective cooperation among the cultivators even when they are not physically acting together.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the destruction of the two outer towers, Twin Tower City’s inhabitants debate whether their combined defenses and offensive forces can defeat Feng Jun and Yi Jue. They consider using the city’s weapons, the Wizards’ Association tower, True Witch-level scrolls, witcher families, and the Martial Cultivators Association.
• Before the city can organize, Yi Jue delivers her final ultimatum. When the countdown ends, she casts “Germination” and “Growth,” causing plants and seeds to erupt throughout the entire city. Wooden furniture, tools, doors, scroll handles, and defensive weapons all begin sprouting.
• The attack reveals that Yi Jue possesses the power of rules, proving that she and Feng Jun are at the Witch Ancestor—or equivalent Venerable—level. The people of Twin Tower City realize that the city’s defenses are meaningless against them.
• Jing Nian casts “Sky-Sealing,” preventing everyone in the city from flying. Even the city’s sole True Witch cannot escape, while no one present possesses the cultivation level necessary to ignore the restriction.
• The Wizards’ Association attempts to organize an evacuation, but the escape plan collapses when both witchers and martial cultivators discover they cannot fly. The only True Witch also admits that he cannot neutralize Yi Jue’s Wood Rule, and even fire would cause unacceptable destruction across the city.
• The witchers begin blaming Black Well City for involving them in the investigation and for the secret experimentation on martial cultivators that provoked the current disaster. They also recognize that the Martial Cultivators Association may benefit politically from the Wizards’ Association’s humiliation.
• Yi Jue’s Wood Rule overwhelms the city. Attempts to counter it with metal or fire fail, and the southern wall eventually collapses instantly. Flowers even bloom from the city-defense ballistae.
• Yi Jue gives the city one final chance to surrender, angrily demanding that those responsible for attacking Feng Jun come out and face death.
• Lawrence, the eldest legitimate son of the Haidai Men family, steps forward. He claims that although his family’s defensive formation was broken, he personally did not participate in hunting Feng Jun and asks for fair judgment.
• Feng Jun declares that, from a cultivator’s perspective, all witchers in the city deserve death because they chose the wrong side. He argues that the Wizards’ and Martial Cultivators Associations forced his identity into the open and caused the present conflict.
• Lawrence requests a fair duel. Feng Jun agrees but threatens to exterminate Lawrence’s entire family if he loses. He clarifies that only witchers will be killed, not non-witcher family members.
• Lawrence accepts the terms and draws his short sword, then raises a final question: whether Wizard Apprentices count as witchers, implying that he may be preparing to kill himself or protect them through the wording of the agreement.

Character Developments

• Yi Jue demonstrates overwhelming mastery of rules, transforming the entire city and neutralizing its escape routes. Her anger becomes increasingly visible because the city’s people refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
• Feng Jun adopts a cold, uncompromising stance. He refuses to show mercy merely because someone claims innocence or asks for a fair duel, emphasizing that strength and clear alignment determine survival in this world.
• Jing Nian supports Feng Jun and Yi Jue by restricting flight across the city, ensuring that the inhabitants cannot escape their judgment.
• The True Witch of the Wizards’ Association shifts from attempted leadership to despair. His inability to resist Yi Jue exposes how powerless Twin Tower City truly is.
• Lawrence emerges as one of the few people willing to accept responsibility and face Feng Jun directly. His request for a duel suggests courage, pride, and concern for his family and younger relatives.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming power and helplessness: The city’s weapons, organizations, and defensive formations become irrelevant against cultivators who can manipulate rules on a massive scale.
• Consequences of choosing a side: Feng Jun insists that neutrality or indirect involvement does not erase responsibility. By remaining part of the witcher camp, individuals become targets.
• Institutional hypocrisy: The Wizards’ Association publicly condemns or minimizes human experimentation while secretly tolerating it, particularly the use of martial cultivators as experimental subjects.
• Responsibility versus self-preservation: Many witchers attempt to flee or deny involvement, while Lawrence chooses to step forward and confront the consequences.
• Fear of weakness: Feng Jun believes that excessive mercy will be interpreted as softness. His harshness is partly an effort to establish authority and prevent others from mistaking restraint for weakness.
• Conflict between cultivators and witchers: The chapter deepens the social and political divide between the two groups, showing how the exposure of experimentation and persecution has escalated into open retaliation.

Character Interactions

• The people of Twin Tower City debate with one another, moving from confidence in their combined strength to panic and despair.
• The Wizards’ Association members blame Black Well City for dragging them into a disastrous investigation and resent the broader system of witcher experimentation.
• Yi Jue confronts the entire city with ultimatums, while Feng Jun becomes the final judge of those who step forward.
• Lawrence appeals to Feng Jun for individual consideration, but Feng Jun rejects the idea that personal nonparticipation absolves him from belonging to the witcher faction.
• Lawrence and Feng Jun establish the terms of a possible duel, with the lives of the Haidai Men family hanging in the balance.

Chapter Summary

• Feng Jun clarifies his threat: Feng Jun explains that he intended to kill only members of the wizard system, not Martial Cultivators from wizard families. Lawrence nevertheless exploits the wording, demanding that Feng Jun spare the Haidai Men Family’s non-wizard members.
• Dispute over family punishment: Lawrence argues that relatives outside Twin Tower City—and his upright Great Wizard father—should not be punished for his own actions. Feng Jun replies that Lawrence and his father chose the wrong side, though internally he had never intended to pursue the entire family.
• Yi Jue offers a harsher solution: Yi Jue asks whether Feng Jun knows the Bloodline Karmic Curse Art, a devastating curse capable of affecting an entire bloodline. Feng Jun admits he could obtain it but considers using it excessive and impractical. Yi Jue accepts his decision and promises her support.
• Lawrence sacrifices himself: Feng Jun tells Lawrence that his father should hide, since a Great Wizard is not worth pursuing deliberately, but warns that no one can save him if captured. Reassured that his father may survive, Lawrence asks an Innate Martial Cultivator to convey the message to his family, then cuts his own throat. He dies after remaining upright for nearly a minute.
• Feng Jun issues further orders: After Lawrence’s death, Feng Jun declares that every wizard-system cultivator in Twin Tower City—except members of the Haidai Men Family—must die. He also summons the Martial Cultivators Association to explain its actions.
• The City Lord’s archer is confronted: An archer from the City Lord’s Manor claims he acted only to maintain order and limit casualties and property damage. Feng Jun rejects the justification, teleports beside him with Flash Step, and strikes with his blade. The chapter ends before the result is stated.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Feng Jun remains ruthless but demonstrates restraint. Although he is willing to impose severe punishment, he rejects indiscriminate bloodline extermination because it is wasteful and beyond his actual objective. He also acknowledges Lawrence’s courage rather than mocking his suicide.
• Lawrence shifts from desperate legalistic bargaining to resigned responsibility. Once he learns his father may escape, he accepts death and ensures his sacrifice carries meaning by sending a warning to his family.
• Yi Jue acts as Feng Jun’s supportive and more ruthless counterpart, suggesting the Bloodline Karmic Curse Art but respecting his decision not to use it.
• The Wizards’ Association becomes alarmed after learning of the conversation. The mention of the Bloodline Karmic Curse Art and Feng Jun’s presence suggests that cultivators may have entered wizard-controlled territory, raising fears of a renewed war.
• The Martial Cultivators Association and City Lord’s Manor are placed under suspicion. Feng Jun demands an explanation from the former and immediately challenges the latter’s claim of acting for public safety.

Significant Themes

• Retribution versus indiscriminate vengeance: Feng Jun seeks punishment for those directly responsible but struggles with the consequences of extending blame to entire families.
• The weight of wording and promises: Lawrence’s focus on Feng Jun’s exact language forces him to honor a technical distinction between wizards and Martial Cultivators.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: Lawrence’s final act portrays both the destructive consequences of choosing the wrong side and the courage of accepting responsibility.
• Political and cultural division: The forbidden study of “Cultivator Language” reflects the deep hostility between wizard- and cultivator-dominated continents, while also showing that both sides secretly learn from one another.
• The threat of renewed war: Feng Jun and Yi Jue’s appearance in wizard territory, combined with their knowledge of powerful curse arts, causes the Wizards’ Association to fear that the old division between the two factions is collapsing.

Chapter Summary: “Wrong and Still Running Your Mouth”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun kills an archer from the City Lord’s Manor with a single slash after the man fires two arrows at him.
• He demands an explanation from the City Lord’s Manor, questioning whether the archer was defending the city lord or merely protecting his own family.
• A frightened steward explains that the archer was a former Martial Sect and a rare Archery Grandmaster whose family lived inside the manor. Feng Jun argues that residence there does not make the manor responsible for sparing him.
• A Martial Sect attempts to defend the archer, emphasizing that Martial Cultivators are expected to protect others and that the archer was performing his duty.
• Feng Jun rejects this reasoning, pointing out that he did not attack the City Lord’s Manor—the Wizards’ Association did. He insists that the archer’s real offense was taking the wrong side and still speaking arrogantly to him.
• The Martial Sect then shifts to defending members of the Martial Cultivation Association, claiming that many do not deserve death. Feng Jun declares that he never intended to kill everyone, but accuses them of inaction during the conflict.
• Feng Jun offers a harsh reprieve: Martial Cultivators who kill three wizards of equivalent cultivation will be pardoned. He also warns that fleeing will not free them from imposed restrictions.
• In a distant discussion, several powerful cultivators debate whether to force the Martial Cultivators to atone through restrictions and merit-based punishment. Jing Nian proposes the Lotus Seed Heart-Clearing Art, a dangerous curse-like technique that inflicts escalating pain unless assigned tasks are completed.
• The chapter ends with the Martial Cultivation Association delivering a Martial Venerable who had close ties to the wizards. Since he had repeatedly failed to protect Martial Cultivators’ interests, many within the association were willing to sacrifice him.

2. Character Developments

• Feng Jun is shown as ruthless, dominant, and unwilling to tolerate defiance, but not entirely indiscriminate. He is willing to explain his actions once and offers conditional pardons rather than simply slaughtering everyone.
• The City Lord’s steward is terrified of Feng Jun and of the broader reputation of cultivators. His fear highlights the power imbalance between ordinary officials and high-level cultivators.
• The defending Martial Sect initially displays courage by speaking for the archer, but gradually realizes that Feng Jun’s anger is directed less at the archer’s duty than at his arrogance and political alignment. He later attempts to negotiate for the survival of the Martial Cultivation Association.
• Yi Jue remains openly hostile toward anyone who challenges Feng Jun and is quick to threaten the Martial Sect.
• Jing Nian the Venerable is revealed to be exceptionally ruthless and knowledgeable, possessing dangerous restriction and karmic curse techniques.
• The Martial Cultivation Association demonstrates political pragmatism by handing over one of its own members, particularly someone already disliked for being too close to the wizards.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and the right to enforce judgment: Feng Jun rejects secular rules and accepted customs when they conflict with his authority as a cultivator.
• Responsibility versus allegiance: The archer claims—or is perceived as claiming—the duty to protect the City Lord’s Manor, but Feng Jun argues that choosing the wrong side makes that duty a crime.
• Arrogance as a fatal flaw: The archer’s death is presented as resulting not only from attacking Feng Jun but also from being “wrong” while continuing to argue with him.
• Collective punishment and moral compromise: Feng Jun’s demand that Martial Cultivators kill three equivalent wizards forces them to choose between self-preservation and loyalty to their own system.
• Political survival: The Martial Cultivation Association sacrifices an unpopular member to appease Feng Jun, showing how institutions protect themselves through betrayal.
• Cultivator dominance over secular society: Ordinary people view cultivators as terrifying beings capable of destroying families, while the powerful cultivators casually debate restrictions, curses, and mass punishment.

4. Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and the steward: Feng Jun interrogates him about the archer’s affiliation and family, forcing the steward into a fearful defense of the City Lord’s Manor.
• Feng Jun and the Martial Sect: Their exchange begins as a defense of the archer but becomes a debate over law, protection, and the Martial Cultivation Association’s failure to act. Feng Jun allows the man one opportunity to speak, yet repeatedly shuts down arguments he considers irrelevant.
• Yi Jue and the Martial Sect: Yi Jue threatens him when he criticizes Feng Jun, reinforcing Feng Jun’s authority and intimidating the would-be negotiator.
• Feng Jun and the Martial Cultivation Association: Feng Jun accuses them of inaction and offers them survival only through violent compensation.
• The distant cultivator group: Xuanyuan Buqi, Wei Sancai, Vast Sea Venerable, Jing Nian, Qing Yao, and Qian Zhong debate the practicality, morality, and danger of using restrictions and karmic curses to control or reform the Martial Cultivators.
• The Martial Cultivation Association and its own member: By sending over the Martial Venerable aligned with the wizards, the association turns internal resentment into a political offering to Feng Jun.

Chapter Summary: “Cleansing”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A Martial Venerable sent by the Martial Cultivation Association comes to Feng Jun, knowing that refusal would mean certain death and disgrace. Although he insists that he never intended to kill Feng Jun, Feng Jun orders him to commit suicide and kills him when he resists.
• Feng Jun threatens to destroy the Martial Venerable’s family, only to learn that the man is an orphan and that his lover is a wizard. Qian Zhong then reveals that the dead man is connected to a wizard family, prompting Feng Jun to consider using curses against them.
• When the City Lord of Twin Tower City refuses to appear, Feng Jun attacks the City Lord’s Manor. Yi Jue prevents a True Witch from intervening, and Feng Jun’s enormous palm destroys the manor, killing the defenders inside.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue begin a systematic purge of Twin Tower City. Yi Jue blocks multiple True Witch-level scrolls, while resistance from the city’s martial and wizard factions is crushed.
• One Martial Sect cultivator takes advantage of the chaos to kill three wizard apprentices, explaining that he has long resented wizard oppression. He asks Feng Jun to take him to the Cultivation Continent.
• Feng Jun promises to bring martial cultivators to the Cultivation Continent in one year if each can kill five wizards of the same rank. He extends the offer to all martial cultivators without wizard relatives, deliberately widening the division between martial cultivators and wizards.
• The cleansing lasts three days and eliminates Twin Tower City’s entire wizard cultivation system, except for a small group of wizard apprentices from the Haidai Men Family.
• Many wizards in nearby castles and villages escape because Feng Jun’s assault is so sudden. Those who hesitate or attempt to flee through teleportation are trapped by Wei Sancai’s disruption of spatial laws; many die while trying to escape on mounts, while only some fleeing on foot survive.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun becomes increasingly ruthless and strategic. He no longer cares about explanations from former enemies and uses fear, family threats, and political manipulation to destroy opposition. Rather than merely eliminating enemies, he exploits the conflict between martial cultivators and wizards to build a potential force of followers.
• Yi Jue demonstrates overwhelming combat ability and precise awareness by killing the True Witch before he can interfere and blocking powerful scrolls. She also shows some regret at being forced to kill a valuable True Witch.
• The dead Martial Venerable is portrayed as a self-preserving opportunist: successful and respected, but isolated, unmarried, and prepared to live only for the present. His hidden connection to a wizard family adds irony to his claim of neutrality.
• The Martial Sect cultivator is opportunistic but perceptive. He turns a personal grudge against wizards into a chance to improve his future and quickly recognizes the usefulness of Feng Jun’s promise.
• The surrounding martial cultivators become motivated by the possibility of reaching the Cultivation Continent, revealing how desperate they are to escape the limitations of martial cultivation.

Significant Themes

• Power and the denial of fairness: Feng Jun believes weakness itself is a crime and refuses to grant enemies the explanations he was denied. The chapter presents survival and authority as determined by strength rather than justice.
• Cleansing and collective punishment: Feng Jun’s retaliation extends beyond individual enemies to entire institutions and factions, showing how personal vengeance has become a broader political purge.
• Manipulation of social divisions: Feng Jun deliberately pits martial cultivators against wizards, using the promise of cultivation to recruit allies and deepen existing resentment.
• Opportunity through danger: The offer to reach the Cultivation Continent requires martial cultivators to kill opponents of equal rank, framing advancement as a perilous opportunity that only the decisive can seize.
• The consequences of hesitation: Those who act quickly escape, while those who wait, resist ineffectively, or rely on blocked escape methods are destroyed.
• Indifference toward authority: The public’s lack of sympathy for the City Lord’s Manor suggests that its rule was unpopular, allowing Feng Jun’s destruction of it to proceed with limited resistance from ordinary observers.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun dismisses the Martial Venerable’s pleas and uses the threat of family annihilation to intimidate him, though the threat proves meaningless because the man is an orphan.
• Feng Jun questions the local martial cultivators about the Venerable’s background, while Qian Zhong supplies information that changes his understanding of the man’s origins.
• Yi Jue silently supports Feng Jun’s assault by preventing the True Witch from defending the City Lord’s Manor, though she privately regrets losing the chance to Soul Search him.
• Feng Jun negotiates with the ambitious Martial Sect cultivator, first setting a requirement of five same-rank wizards and then promising to return in one year.
• Other martial cultivators immediately seek to join the plan, and one proposes using ordinary settlers as cover. Feng Jun approves the underlying strategy, encouraging them to think creatively while further binding them to his agenda.

Chapter Summary: “Incitement”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the purge of cultivators in Twin Tower City, Feng Jun’s group loots the city’s cultivation resources and books.
• The Wizards’ Association, furious that cultivators are taking wizard knowledge, destroys most of its books before they can be seized. Many wizard families follow suit.
• Yi Jue persuades Feng Jun not to dwell on the loss, arguing that wizard legacies are of limited value and that information can be obtained through Soul Search if necessary.
• Feng Jun explains that he mainly wanted higher-level Martial Cultivation techniques, partly out of curiosity and partly to gain knowledge useful to his homeland, Blue Star.
• Yi Jue explains that Martial Cultivation ultimately peaks at the Martial God level, roughly comparable to the Spirit Severing Realm, and is far inferior to the higher stages of the cultivator path.
• In contrast to the Wizards’ Association, the Martial Cultivators Association cooperates with Feng Jun and provides many of its texts, including methods for advancing from Martial Sect to Martial Venerable. Its willingness stems from viewing Feng Jun as an ally rather than an outsider.
• The purge and resource collection lasts five days. Feng Jun and Yi Jue carefully screen residents, avoid excessive slaughter, and recruit intermediaries, including Martial Cultivators seeking passage to the Divine Martial Continent.
• Feng Jun’s promise to provide Martial Cultivators with a path toward advancement spreads rapidly. Martial Cultivators begin attacking and assassinating wizards far beyond Twin Tower City, in some cases traveling tens of thousands of miles through teleportation arrays.
• The unrest becomes a broad wave of retaliation rather than a local rebellion. Wizards are forced to recognize that Martial Cultivators, if sufficiently motivated, can create unprecedented pressure.
• The chapter ends by raising the central strategic question: can Martial Cultivators unite under cultivator protection, and would cultivators consider their limited strength worth supporting?

Character Developments

• Feng Jun initially becomes attached to the wizard books and enraged when they are destroyed, but Yi Jue helps him recognize that his frustration is driven by obsession rather than necessity. He remains curious about different cultivation systems and still hopes to find knowledge useful for Blue Star.
• Yi Jue acts as Feng Jun’s rational counterbalance. She dismisses the practical importance of wizard knowledge, emphasizes the limits of Martial Cultivation, and hints that future opportunities—or harsher methods—remain available.
• Martial Cultivators shift from scattered, oppressed individuals into a population beginning to see collective resistance as possible. Feng Jun’s promise gives them both hope and a practical reason to retaliate against wizard oppression.
• Wizards lose their sense of security. They are accustomed to suppressing disorganized Martial Cultivators, but now face the possibility of coordinated unrest encouraged by outside intervention.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge, ownership, and destruction: The wizards would rather destroy their own books than allow their enemies to obtain them, highlighting their selfishness and fear of losing control over their legacy.
• Limits of cultivation paths: The contrast between Martial Cultivation, wizardry, and the broader cultivator system emphasizes that not every powerful-looking path has equal potential.
• Incitement and unintended consequences: Feng Jun’s promise to help Martial Cultivators triggers violence far beyond Twin Tower City, showing how quickly suppressed resentment can become widespread rebellion.
• Organization versus individual pride: Historical Martial Cultivator rebellions failed because Martial Cultivators lacked unity and refused to submit to common leadership.
• Hope through external support: Martial Cultivators cannot realistically defeat the wizards alone. Their potential success depends on cultivators providing protection, organization, and a viable future.
• Revenge versus strategy: The attacks on wizards are partly fueled by accumulated resentment, but the chapter suggests that lasting change requires more than retaliation—it requires a coherent structure and long-term plan.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue discuss the destruction of wizard books, with Yi Jue calming Feng Jun and reframing the loss as unimportant.
• Feng Jun reveals his interest in Martial Cultivation, and Yi Jue challenges his assumptions about its ultimate potential.
• Feng Jun acknowledges the Martial Cultivators Association’s cooperation, contrasting it with the hostile Wizards’ Association.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue work together during the five-day purge, combining Feng Jun’s deductions and resource-finding abilities with careful screening and the assistance of local agents.
• Feng Jun’s dealings with Martial Cultivators indirectly inspire them to attack wizards, transforming his promise of assistance into a catalyst for widespread unrest.

Chapter Summary: “A Complete Mess”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter explains the longstanding tension between cultivators and martial cultivators. Cultivators generally tolerate martial cultivators but consider them inferior because martial cultivation has a low ceiling, with advancement beyond Martial Saint—and especially Martial God—being extremely difficult.
• Martial cultivators, aware of their system’s limitations, resent being looked down upon but usually tolerate the insult as long as cultivators do not actively oppress them.
• The martial cultivator riot gains direction through Feng Jun’s promise to take them to the Divine Martial Continent. His status as one of the few publicly known living cultivators makes the promise unusually credible.
• Yi Jue’s reputation strengthens Feng Jun’s influence. After she killed a True Witch from afar and destroyed the witch’s protective robe, even powerful figures accepted her as being at Witch Ancestor level, roughly equivalent to a Martial God.
• Feng Jun’s group allows the purge and looting of Twin Tower City to continue for five days, rests for one day, and then travels toward Flame City, located eight thousand li away.
• They use short-range Flash Step to conserve spiritual energy and reduce disturbances, arriving in Flame City after only half an hour.
• Flame City is built around a volcanic region known to witches as a Fire Element Pool. The volcano supports fire-element cultivation, mining, and the collection of rare materials.
• Feng Jun is impressed by the witches’ methods of collecting volcanic resources, while Xuanyuan Buqi and the other powerful cultivators dismiss these techniques as insignificant compared with the wealth of their own realms.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue approach Flame City through the south gate while the others wait outside. The guards recognize Feng Jun’s red identity plaque and panic, having heard about the destruction of Twin Tower City.
• Following orders from the city authorities and Witches Association, the guards initially ask Feng Jun to wait outside. Terrified of provoking him, one guard eventually collapses to his knees and begs for mercy.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun becomes increasingly established as a leader and symbol of hope for martial cultivators. His promise gives them a possible future and turns their disorganized anger into a movement with direction. He also continues to display caution and strategic thinking, such as deliberately using the south gate and conserving energy during travel.
• Yi Jue gains near-unquestioned authority after demonstrating overwhelming power. Her destruction of a True Witch from afar confirms her Witch Ancestor-level status and makes her a major source of Feng Jun’s credibility.
• The martial cultivators shift from aimless rioting toward following Feng Jun’s leadership. Their willingness to gamble on his promise reflects both their desperation and their desire for a better future.
• Xuanyuan Buqi and the other great powers reveal their immense standards and wealth by treating Flame City’s volcanic resources as trivial. Their reactions contrast sharply with Feng Jun’s more practical appreciation.
• Vast Sea Venerable is portrayed as less cautious and somewhat impatient. He finds Feng Jun’s constant calculations exhausting, while his martial aunt, Qing Yao, stresses that careful planning is a necessary virtue.
• The Flame City guards are shown to be terrified and powerless in the face of Feng Jun’s reputation. Their fear demonstrates how thoroughly the events in Twin Tower City have spread.

Significant Themes

• Inferiority and resentment: The chapter explores how martial cultivators endure condescension because their cultivation system has genuine limitations, creating a mixture of pride, frustration, and helplessness.
• Hope through leadership: Feng Jun’s promise offers the martial cultivators something they have lacked—organization and a meaningful future.
• Power and reputation: Much of Feng Jun’s authority comes not only from his strength but from his identity and the legendary status of his companions, especially Yi Jue.
• Wealth and perspective: The cultivators’ dismissive attitude toward Flame City’s resources highlights the enormous gap between different worlds and social classes.
• Caution versus boldness: Feng Jun’s careful calculations are contrasted with Vast Sea’s impatience, reinforcing the idea that survival requires prudence rather than reckless courage.
• Oppression and fear: The guards’ submission illustrates how quickly power structures collapse when confronted by someone capable of destroying their leaders.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun’s promise unites him with the martial cultivators, even though they remain socially and culturally separate from his group.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue act together when approaching Flame City, with Yi Jue’s known presence reinforcing his authority.
• Vast Sea questions Feng Jun’s habit of using the south gate, prompting Feng Jun to explain that predictable behavior can itself serve as camouflage.
• Qing Yao counters Vast Sea’s complaints by defending caution and reminding him that courage does not mean abandoning prudence.
• At the city gate, Feng Jun’s calm questioning contrasts with the guards’ panic. His silence and stare are enough to break their confidence, revealing the overwhelming psychological impact of his reputation.

Flame City — Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue arrive at Flame City after destroying the three major factions of Twin Tower City.
• Feng Jun’s dislike of kneeling reflects his personal pride and unwillingness to submit; he even becomes more inclined to kill when people beg for mercy, though he spares a kneeling guard because the man poses no threat.
• Flame City rapidly mobilizes its defenses. When soldiers aim a city-defense ballista at the visitors, Yi Jue destroys it with a lightning strike, killing or injuring several soldiers and frightening the rest into inaction.
• A delegation approaches: a Great Wizard, a young wizard, and two Martial Venerables. The young wizard formally greets Feng Jun but asks whether he is the cultivator who destroyed Twin Tower City.
• Feng Jun deliberately insults and provokes the delegation, questioning the Great Wizard’s authority and repeatedly suggesting that Flame City should simply fight him.
• The Great Wizard explains that Flame City belongs to the Wizards’ Association, which controls access to the city even though the city lord manages its daily affairs. He also reveals that the city possesses a True Witch, but that the True Witch is wary of Feng Jun and Yi Jue.
• Feng Jun announces that he has come to obtain books. The Great Wizard explains that an established agreement forbids sharing wizard books with cultivators, then leaves to consult the True Witch.
• The city lord’s guards attempt to prevent the situation from escalating, stressing that the city does not wish to become enemies with cultivators.
• The Martial Cultivators Association offers Feng Jun books for free, hoping to maintain goodwill with him. Feng Jun refuses the free offer and insists on paying, preserving the legitimacy of the transaction.
• Feng Jun questions why no Martial King has come to meet him, despite knowing Flame City has two. At the chapter’s end, another powerful figure arrives, apologizing for being late.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun: Demonstrates his arrogance, confidence, and deliberate confrontational strategy. He wants Flame City to attack first so that he has a justified reason to retaliate. Despite his harshness, he shows restraint toward harmless people and insists on paying for books rather than accepting an excessive favor.
• Yi Jue: Remains largely silent but acts decisively and ruthlessly when the city defenses are raised. Her lightning strike establishes her overwhelming power and her willingness to protect Feng Jun. Her contemptuous remarks toward the Great Wizard reinforce her intimidating status.
• The Great Wizard: Begins as the apparent negotiator but quickly realizes that he lacks the authority and power to deal with Feng Jun directly. Although angered by Feng Jun’s insults, he suppresses his pride and adopts a cautious, diplomatic stance.
• The young wizard: Shows formal respect through ritual greeting but harbors intense resentment toward Feng Jun, likely because of the destruction of Twin Tower City or hostility toward cultivators. His emotional instability contrasts with the Great Wizard’s restraint.
• The Martial Venerables: Act pragmatically. The city lord’s representative tries to prevent conflict, while the Martial Cultivators Association immediately seeks cooperation with Feng Jun, recognizing his favorable attitude toward martial cultivators.

Significant Themes

• Pride and dignity: Feng Jun’s hatred of kneeling and refusal to accept humiliation shape nearly every interaction. Both sides are concerned with status, authority, and whether they are “qualified” to speak.
• Power and intimidation: Yi Jue’s effortless destruction of the ballista and Feng Jun’s reputation after Twin Tower City force Flame City to negotiate despite its initial hostility.
• Diplomacy under threat: Although Feng Jun constantly provokes the city, Flame City’s representatives carefully avoid giving him a legitimate excuse to attack. The chapter shows negotiation taking place under the shadow of overwhelming violence.
• Factional interests: The Wizards’ Association, city lord’s manor, and Martial Cultivators Association do not act as a unified force. Each group protects its own authority and seeks the safest political position.
• Cultural conflict: Wizards and cultivators are divided by mutual suspicion, including agreements restricting the exchange of books. Their different systems of power and etiquette create tension throughout the negotiations.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun dismisses the guard but does not punish him, showing a contrast between his intolerance for submission and his limited mercy.
• Yi Jue’s attack on the ballista establishes the visitors’ dominance before formal negotiations begin.
• Feng Jun repeatedly challenges the Great Wizard’s qualifications and authority, while the Great Wizard struggles to maintain diplomatic composure.
• Yi Jue further humiliates the Great Wizard by questioning whether people of his level can truly protect Flame City.
• The city lord’s guards attempt to reassure Feng Jun that they do not seek conflict, while the Martial Cultivators Association openly aligns itself with him.
• The chapter ends with the arrival of a new, presumably important figure—likely one of the city’s Martial Kings—setting up the next stage of the confrontation.

Chapter Summary: “When Circumstances Overwhelmed People”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Saliwen, a Martial King and president of Flame City’s Martial Cultivators Association, arrives and apologizes for delaying while arranging protection for the books and managing security concerns.
• Feng Jun learns that Flame City is dominated by wizards, despite having two Martial Kings. The city lord has fled because wizard apprentices exist within his family and he cannot risk opposing the Wizards’ Association.
• The City Lord’s Manor offers to cooperate by providing books, but its Martial Venerable admits that neither he nor even the city lord has the authority to let Feng Jun and Yi Jue enter against the wizards’ wishes.
• When Feng Jun threatens to force his way into the city, the Wizards’ Association finally yields. They invite the cultivators in from a distance while insisting that they follow the city’s rules, preserving what remains of their pride.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue enter Flame City publicly, attracting large crowds of curious spectators. Saliwen uses his Martial King aura to clear a path and prevent disorder.
• At the Martial Cultivators Association, Feng Jun and Yi Jue copy roughly thirty or forty books onto obsidian using Divine Sense rather than removing them.
• They leave two gold ingots as payment, but Feng Jun and Saliwen negotiate a more valuable exchange: Innate Pills, known locally as Martial Sect Pills, in return for rare cultivation manuals.
• Saliwen reveals that his youngest son is unable to break through to the Innate realm despite extensive efforts. He asks whether Feng Jun possesses a Martial Sect Pill.
• Feng Jun agrees to trade three Innate Pills for a non-secret manual explaining how to advance from Martial Venerable to Martial King. One pill is given as a deposit, while another is intended for Saliwen’s martial uncle, who oversees the association’s library.
• Feng Jun also asks Saliwen to search for books concerning strange tales and unusual events, suggesting that the cultivators’ visit has a deeper purpose.
• The City Lord’s Manor still fails to deliver the promised books, so Saliwen offers to send someone to investigate and suggests that Feng Jun and Yi Jue look elsewhere in the meantime.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun remains calm, assertive, and willing to use force when necessary, but he also demonstrates practical diplomacy. He recognizes the value of the books and uses Innate Pills to establish useful relationships without giving them away carelessly.
• Yi Jue remains composed and detached. She contributes little to the negotiations, especially because she considers Innate Pills too low-grade to be worth much attention.
• Saliwen emerges as a capable and pragmatic mediator. He understands both the martial cultivators’ position and the wizards’ influence, speaks frankly about the city’s power structure, and protects his association’s interests while trying to help Feng Jun.
• The city lord is portrayed as weak and politically powerless. Though originally a martial cultivator, he flees rather than oppose the wizards, especially to protect wizard-potential members of his family.
• The city lord’s Martial Venerable representative is similarly helpless. He acknowledges that the manor cannot truly oppose the wizards, though he tries to preserve some usefulness by offering access to its books.
• The young wizard becomes increasingly emotional and fearful when Feng Jun threatens to enter by force, reflecting the pressure placed on ordinary wizards by the confrontation.

Significant Themes

• Power determines authority: Although Flame City has powerful martial cultivators, wizards possess superior political and social influence. Even the city lord lacks the authority to oppose them.
• Circumstances force compromise: The Wizards’ Association is compelled to allow Feng Jun and Yi Jue into the city despite viewing them as enemies.
• The unequal status of wizards and martial cultivators: Wizard potential is so highly valued that families and officials will abandon principles, positions, or safety to protect it.
• Pragmatism over ideology: Feng Jun, Saliwen, and the various officials set aside factional hostility when books, pills, and personal interests are involved.
• Information control: News of the tragedy in Twin Tower City has been restricted, leaving most wizard apprentices ignorant of the danger and the identity of the visiting cultivators.
• Knowledge as a form of power: Feng Jun’s interest in books about cultivation, strange events, and unusual phenomena suggests that information is central to his broader goals.
• Social status and humiliation: The city lord’s inability to act and the wizards’ distant invitation both reveal how humiliating it is for those in authority to be overruled by stronger circumstances.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun challenges the city lord’s representative over the city lord’s absence and lack of authority.
• Saliwen acts as a buffer between Feng Jun and the city’s wizards, explaining the political situation and helping secure access to books.
• Feng Jun confronts the young wizard, whose distress contributes to the Wizards’ Association finally surrendering.
• Feng Jun and Saliwen negotiate a three-pill exchange for a Martial King advancement manual, with both men carefully protecting their respective interests.
• Saliwen offers to use his connections at the association headquarters to locate additional books and safeguard them from wizard sympathizers.
• The unresolved delay from the City Lord’s Manor leaves Feng Jun and Yi Jue dependent on Saliwen’s assistance as the chapter ends.

Chapter Summary: “Sudden Incident”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue visit Flame City’s only three bookstores to obtain knowledge about the local world. They begin in the noble district, where Feng Jun discovers that Saliwen, president of the Martial Cultivators Association, is actually a baron.
• Feng Jun purchases every available type of book—over a hundred varieties—from the noble district bookstore, paying with two gold ingots.
• While Feng Jun and Yi Jue head toward the commercial district, the ambitious Great Wizard Meisut of the Eqi’er Family launches an unexpected attack using a True Witch scroll containing the powerful spell Flame Meteor.
• Saliwen recognizes the danger and flees while warning others of an ambush. Yi Jue, however, effortlessly destroys the fireball and reflects its remnants, though the resulting sparks kill or injure many civilians and ignite several buildings.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue identify Meisut as the attacker. Meisut is a talented but arrogant wizard who became a Great Wizard at roughly one hundred years old and hopes to elevate his family’s status.
• Using Saliwen’s warning as justification, Feng Jun declares that the witches have set an ambush. Yi Jue then kills Meisut instantly by destroying his head.
• Yi Jue begins casting large-scale spells, including Sweet Rain of Thought and Germination, Life Force, while cultivators stationed outside the city assist by gathering water vapor, strengthening the rain, and restricting flight.
• The watching witches realize that the cultivators are launching a counterattack. Unsure whether to intervene, they begin casting scattered spells of varying strength.
• Their disorganized attacks—such as Flame Spear and Fire Dragon Tornado—have little effect. A True Witch observing from a tower finally orders them to attack with their full strength.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun remains calm and opportunistic. He quickly researches Meisut’s identity, recognizes the political value of the “ambush” narrative, and uses it to justify retaliation.
• Yi Jue demonstrates overwhelming confidence and power. She treats the initial attack as insignificant, kills Meisut without hesitation, and immediately begins preparing a wider offensive.
• Meisut is portrayed as talented, ambitious, inexperienced, and reckless. His belief that past history guarantees future safety leads him to attack without proper planning or considering the consequences.
• Saliwen acts cautiously, fleeing from the attack while trying to preserve his ability to explain the incident. His warning unintentionally provides Feng Jun with the excuse he needs.
• The surrounding witches are revealed to be divided, hesitant, and poorly coordinated. Their lack of preparation contrasts sharply with the cultivators’ decisive response.

Significant Themes

• Arrogance and inexperience: Meisut’s talent and ambition make him overconfident, causing him to mistake boldness for sound strategy.
• Preparation versus complacency: The cultivators respond immediately and systematically, while the witches have no unified plan despite monitoring Feng Jun and Yi Jue.
• Power imbalance: Meisut’s supposedly formidable True Witch scroll is effortlessly neutralized, emphasizing the cultivators’ superiority.
• Political manipulation: Feng Jun turns the chaotic attack into a justification for open conflict, showing how quickly events can be reframed for strategic advantage.
• Disregard for common people: Meisut attacks in a populated area because he considers the lower-class residents expendable; the destruction exposes the social hierarchy and cruelty of the witches’ society.
• Accidents becoming inevitability: Meisut’s attack seems sudden, but the chapter suggests it results from accumulated resentment, ambition, and failure to prepare for unexpected consequences.

Character Interactions

• A count attempts to flatter Saliwen and invite the cultivators to visit his territory, but Saliwen has already refused, and Feng Jun ignores the exchange.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue communicate silently through glances and Divine Sense, coordinating their response without hesitation.
• Saliwen warns the city of an ambush, unintentionally supporting Feng Jun’s narrative.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue act in concert: Feng Jun supplies the political justification, while Yi Jue delivers the decisive physical response.
• Cultivators outside Flame City—Qian Zhong, Qing Yao, Hanhai, and Wei Sancai—coordinate support spells, revealing a broader cultivator network and organized preparation.
• The witches, by contrast, fail to coordinate until a True Witch orders them to abandon their hesitant, piecemeal attacks and commit fully.

Chapter Summary: “Chaos”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The True Witch overseeing the Wizards’ Association initially hoped to avoid open conflict, recognizing that Flame City was an important supply point and that the enemy could not be defeated easily. However, he had already established rules and prepared defenses in case the cultivators violated them.
• Meisut’s sudden attack disrupted all plans. Although the attack was intended to surprise Feng Jun and Yi Jue, the two cultivators were unaffected, while the wizards were thrown into confusion.
• Realizing that retaliation had already begun and that there was no time for negotiation, the True Witch ordered the city’s allied forces to attack.
• Flame City’s defenses consisted of the Wizards’ Association’s seven-story tower, the Flame Alliance Chamber of Commerce’s four-story tower, the Guste Family’s four-story tower, and support from major organizations such as the Mercenary Guild.
• Flame City’s wizards believed they had several advantages:
  • More experts than Twin Tower City
  • Knowledge of how Twin Tower City had been destroyed
  • Preparations centered on fire-element attacks, which were believed to counter the wood-based techniques used by Feng Jun and Yi Jue
  • Coordinated action among multiple forces
• The Wizards’ Association launched Flame Meteorite, a devastating True Witch spell from the seven-story tower. The attack destroyed much of the commercial district and caused widespread destruction without regard for civilian casualties.
• Yi Jue used Flash Step to move Feng Jun several miles away, easily overcoming a weak spatial-binding spell placed on them.
• The Guste Family’s True Witch attacked with Bone-Eroding Venomfire, a tracking divine-soul flame. Yi Jue avoided it and struck the caster with a mental attack, killing him instantly. The flames vanished with his death.
• The Flame Alliance tower followed with an improved version of Chain Fireballs, producing an extremely dense bombardment that rivaled True Witch-level power.
• The Guste Family’s tower then deployed the terrifying Finikos Net, or Apocalypse Flame Net, a red fire net containing the power of a Witch Ancestor-level divine beast and incorporating spatial laws.
• The chapter ends when rain unexpectedly begins falling on Feng Jun, suggesting that another defensive or counterattacking force has appeared.

Character Developments

• The Wizards’ Association’s True Witch is shown as pragmatic and prepared, but also increasingly desperate. He understands the danger of attacking within his own city, yet decides that destroying the enemy is preferable to waiting for his forces to be killed.
• Feng Jun is shocked by the wizards’ willingness to devastate their own city. His reaction emphasizes the extreme ruthlessness of the battle.
• Yi Jue remains calm, confident, and economical in combat. Rather than waste spiritual energy resisting the tracking flame, she attacks and kills its caster directly. Her overwhelming confidence reflects the difference between her cultivation level and that of the True Witch.
• Sullivan recognizes the danger of Flame Meteorite and retreats, realizing that the Wizards’ Association intends to launch a full-scale, indiscriminate attack.
• The Guste Family’s True Witch demonstrates caution by remaining outside the tower, having learned from Twin Tower City’s destruction that being trapped inside a wizard tower could be fatal. Nevertheless, his defenses prove inadequate against Yi Jue’s divine-soul attack.

Significant Themes

• Desperation and total war: The wizards abandon restraint and are willing to sacrifice their own city and people to eliminate the cultivators.
• Preparation versus unpredictability: Flame City has carefully prepared counters and coordinated forces, but Meisut’s impulsive attack disrupts their strategy and forces events into chaos.
• Mutual distrust and irreconcilable conflict: Neither side believes negotiation is possible once violence begins, reflecting the deep hostility between cultivators, wizards, and Martial Masters.
• Adaptation and learning from past failures: Flame City studies Twin Tower City’s destruction and adjusts its tactics, especially through the use of fire-element spells.
• Power and efficiency: Yi Jue’s approach contrasts sharply with the wizards’ overwhelming bombardment. She conserves energy and neutralizes threats by killing their sources rather than meeting every attack directly.
• The danger of technological or magical escalation: The wizard towers continue deploying increasingly destructive attacks, transforming the city into a battlefield where collateral damage becomes irrelevant.

Character Interactions

• The True Witch coordinates with the Flame Alliance, the Guste Family, the Mercenary Guild, and other forces, demonstrating a fragile alliance built around mutual survival.
• Sullivan attempts to regroup with Feng Jun and Yi Jue but is forced to retreat when the tower begins charging Flame Meteorite.
• Yi Jue repeatedly protects and relocates Feng Jun with Flash Step while responding to enemy attacks.
• Feng Jun observes and admires Yi Jue’s decisive method of eliminating the Guste Family’s True Witch.
• The chapter’s final rain interrupts the Guste Family’s Finikos Net, creating suspense and implying that Feng Jun and Yi Jue may now receive protection or assistance from an unseen counterforce.

Chapter Summary: “Super Sweet Rain”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Flame City is devastated by fire while an extraordinary rain begins falling—an almost impossible event in a city built beside the Fire Element Pool, where natural rainfall is extremely rare.
• The rain immediately dissolves the Finikos Net, an Apocalypse Flame Net fused with Finikos’s origin. This shocks the defending true wizard, who first believes the rain contains the Water of Rules and then realizes it is a powerful Water Divine Ability.
• The three wizard towers cease their attacks because the rain’s water-element rules suppress nearly all other elemental techniques. Even flight becomes impossible, trapping Flame City’s defenders.
• The true wizard orders everyone to attack, but the city’s forces are largely helpless under the influence of the water-element rules.
• The rain extinguishes much of the city’s fire, clears the smoke, and revitalizes dormant seeds and wooden objects. Even wood that has been scorched for over a century begins growing again, transforming parts of Flame City into greenery.
• After the city is subdued, Feng Jun and his allies begin purging hostile wizards, collecting books, and confiscating valuable materials and artifacts.
• The purge proves more difficult than in Twin Tower City because Flame City’s martial cultivators and wizards are closely connected through trade, manufacturing, and family relationships.
• Many wizard families destroy their books to prevent them from being seized. Feng Jun responds harshly, punishing families that refuse to cooperate.
• Merchants, however, willingly surrender many materials and items, allowing Feng Jun to acquire a substantial amount of valuable resources.

Character Developments

• Yi Jue demonstrates terrifying power by using the Water Divine Ability Sweet Rain of Thought. Her mastery is strong enough to overcome the Fire Element Pool’s oppressive environment, making her appear to be an exceptionally powerful Witch Ancestor.
• The true wizard defending Flame City becomes increasingly alarmed as he realizes the rain is not ordinary elemental magic but an advanced application of the Water Great Dao. His confidence collapses as his attacks, movement, and escape options are neutralized.
• Feng Jun continues his uncompromising campaign against Flame City’s wizard forces. He shows no leniency toward families that destroy or conceal books, while eagerly taking advantage of merchants’ cooperation.
• Saliwen, president of the Martial Cultivators Association, cooperates with Feng Jun, though the close ties between martial cultivators and wizards complicate the purge.
• The chapter also reveals that Yi Jue’s apparent feat is partly supported by two water-specialist Venerables and a True Lord from the Profound Water Sect. Their combined power greatly strengthens the divine ability.

Significant Themes

• Elemental opposition and supremacy: Water decisively suppresses Flame City’s fire-based power, illustrating how mastery of a broader cosmic principle can overwhelm local elemental advantages.
• The distinction between rules and divine abilities: The defenders initially mistake the rain for Water Rules, but it is actually a divine ability that imposes the caster’s will and penetrates or disrupts opposing rules.
• Nature’s restoration: The rain does more than extinguish flames; it restores life to scorched wood and dormant seeds, symbolizing renewal after destruction.
• Power and resistance: Flame City’s extensive defenses and fire-based infrastructure prove useless against a force that directly neutralizes the foundations of its power.
• Repression and punishment: Feng Jun’s purge raises the stakes of resistance. Refusing to cooperate—especially by destroying books—leads to severe collective punishment.
• The conflict between preservation and conquest: Books, materials, and knowledge become strategic resources, while families and institutions attempt to destroy them rather than surrender them.

Character Interactions

• The true wizard recognizes Yi Jue’s terrifying ability but cannot identify her true level or background, increasing his fear and uncertainty.
• The defending forces attempt to coordinate an attack after the true wizard’s warning, but the Water Great Dao prevents them from acting effectively.
• Feng Jun works with Yi Jue and the other water cultivators to secure the city, then relies on Saliwen’s cooperation during the purge.
• Feng Jun’s harsh treatment of uncooperative wizard families contrasts with the merchants’ voluntary cooperation, revealing different responses to the city’s defeat.
• The close relationships between Flame City’s wizards, martial cultivators, manufacturers, and ruling families make the occupation politically and socially complicated.

Chapter Summary: Skyhawk City

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the destruction of Twin Tower City and the turmoil in Flame City, Feng Jun acquires a large quantity of industrial materials. Merchants and manufacturers had been unwilling or unable to destroy or hide their goods, since doing so would cause enormous economic losses and anger the factions supporting them.
• The destruction of the commercial district intensifies public hatred toward the wizards. Many civilians and unaffiliated groups lose wealth, friends, or family, making them increasingly hostile to the wizard factions.
• Feng Jun’s group fails to seize all the resources around the Fire Element Pool because many adventurers receive warnings and flee. However, Qingyao seals the pool with an Extreme Frost Talisman. The seal is intended to preserve the resource rather than destroy it, though the collision of ice and fire creates a dangerous hidden risk for anyone who later attempts to break it.
• Saliwen confirms Feng Jun’s promise to the Martial Cultivation practitioners. Those practitioners, whose relationship with the wizards is based largely on mutual benefit, cause some trouble within Flame City after receiving Feng Jun’s answer.
• Feng Jun and his allies choose Skyhawk City as their next target. The city was once a center for specialized beast-taming wizards and still contains many valuable beast-taming inheritances, wizard families, castles, villages, and surrounding settlements. Its extensive urban cluster and strong defenses make it a difficult place to infiltrate.
• To enter the city, Feng Jun adopts the identity of Aidaofu, a deceased Martial Sect whose identity was supplied by Saliwen. He chooses Martial Sect cultivation because posing as a weaker Martial Master might invite unnecessary harassment.
• Yi Jue accompanies him initially, but the pair attract too much attention near the city. Feng Jun leaves her outside and instead travels with Xuanyuan Buqi.
• Xuanyuan Buqi disguises himself as a Wizard Apprentice and successfully reproduces a genuine wizard aura. This allows him to pass through the city’s inspection system with little difficulty, highlighting the privileged status of wizards.
• Feng Jun, however, faces intense scrutiny because Martial Cultivation practitioners have recently attacked wizards. His identity is verified by the Martial Cultivators Association, and he is questioned by a hostile wizard.
• The disguised Xuanyuan Buqi learns that Martial Cultivation practitioners and even Wizard Apprentices are suspected of colluding against the wizard establishment. Wizard Apprentices are generally trusted automatically, while Martial Cultivation practitioners are treated as dangerous outsiders.
• Feng Jun is warned not to remain in Skyhawk City for long and, especially, not to visit bookstores. This restriction implies that the wizard authorities are closely guarding their books and inheritances.
• Once inside, Feng Jun is recognized—or believed to be recognized—as Aidaofu by numerous people. Several wizards and Martial Venerables approach him, offering positions as guest or offering elders. Their offers are effectively attempts to recruit him into their factions.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun becomes more confident in using false identities and manipulating factional expectations. He chooses an identity of moderate strength rather than pretending to be weak, showing that he has learned how excessive concealment can create more trouble.
• His impersonation of Aidaofu is convincing enough to survive official inspection, though his unfamiliarity with Aidaofu’s acquaintances forces him to respond aggressively to people who approach him.
• Feng Jun also realizes that his reputation alone is creating political anxiety. He is secretly pleased that factions are already competing for his allegiance despite his having made little visible effort.
• Xuanyuan Buqi demonstrates impressive adaptability by simulating a wizard’s aura. He handles questioning naturally, using the prejudices of the wizard system to protect both himself and Feng Jun.
• Xuanyuan Buqi’s conversation with the Wizard Apprentice reveals his ability to appear naïve while subtly gathering information.
• Yi Jue reluctantly accepts Feng Jun’s decision to leave her outside Skyhawk City. Although displeased, she prioritizes the larger mission and does not act willfully.
• Qingyao shows practical judgment by using a relatively inexpensive Nascent Soul Peak talisman to seal the Fire Element Pool. Her choice conserves spiritual energy and preserves the resource, though it creates a potentially unstable seal.
• Saliwen proves useful as a political and intelligence resource, providing Feng Jun with a credible identity and helping coordinate relations with the Martial Cultivation practitioners.

Significant Themes

• Economic interests overriding ideology: Merchants and manufacturers continue to prioritize profit, even amid a war between wizard and cultivation factions. Material resources are too valuable to destroy casually.
• Class and factional privilege: Wizards receive automatic trust and freedom of movement, while Martial Cultivation practitioners face suspicion, identity checks, and restrictions. Xuanyuan Buqi’s easy passage as a Wizard Apprentice contrasts sharply with Feng Jun’s prolonged interrogation.
• Reputation as power: Feng Jun’s assumed identity and perceived connections make people nervous and attract recruitment attempts. Political influence can arise from reputation even before a character takes decisive action.
• Pragmatism over destruction: The group repeatedly chooses preservation and efficiency over simple annihilation—most clearly in Qingyao’s sealing of the Fire Element Pool and Feng Jun’s careful use of disguises.
• Hidden dangers of forced control: The sealed fire pool represents a temporary solution that may become dangerous if disturbed, reflecting the broader instability created by the conflict.
• Hypocrisy and unequal standards: The wizard system claims to value loyalty and order, yet Wizard Apprentices may secretly collaborate with Martial Cultivation practitioners for advancement. Despite this, wizard-affiliated people are still treated with far greater trust than outsiders.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue discuss the need to separate near Skyhawk City because their appearance as a pair attracts unwanted attention; Yi Jue reluctantly agrees.
• Feng Jun and Xuanyuan Buqi coordinate their disguises and entry strategy. Xuanyuan Buqi’s simulated wizard aura becomes essential to their successful passage through the city.
• Xuanyuan Buqi questions a Wizard Apprentice during the inspection, learning about recent attacks and the authorities’ suspicion of collaboration between wizards and Martial Cultivation practitioners.
• Feng Jun deals harshly with people claiming to know Aidaofu, while remaining courteous toward more powerful wizards and Martial Venerables.
• The approaches from multiple factions transform Feng Jun’s arrival into a political encounter: each side attempts to determine or influence which faction he will support.

Chapter Summary: “Who Was More Foolish?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• News of two cities being destroyed throws the entire continent into tension. The emergence of cultivators and the instability among martial cultivators threaten the wizard civilization’s control.
• Although the wizards would prefer to suppress martial cultivators, they cannot risk doing so because martial cultivators vastly outnumber wizards and are supported by the government and the newly arrived cultivators.
• Feng Jun and Aidaofu are repeatedly approached by different factions in Skyhawk City. The wizards are trying to determine their loyalties, recruit them, or prevent them from siding with the cultivators.
• At noon, an arrogant wizard orders Feng Jun and Aidaofu to meet his master without even revealing the master’s identity. Feng Jun refuses, criticizing the wizard’s threatening attitude and warning that such behavior could drive them toward the opposing camp.
• The wizard argues that, with the cultivators’ overwhelming strength, the wizards have little left to lose and should aggressively recruit or control potential “fence-sitters.”
• The chapter contrasts wizard and cultivator civilizations:
  • Wizards rely on individual breakthroughs, secrecy, personal experimentation, and resource control.
  • Cultivators prioritize inheritance, preserving techniques, passing on experience, and maintaining organized traditions.
• Feng Jun invokes the example of the Eqi’er Family, whose destruction resulted from Mesute Erqier’s reckless attack on cultivators inside Flame City.
• Mesute, an arrogant Great Wizard seeking glory, attacked without coordinating with the Wizards’ Association, disrupting a planned operation and provoking a devastating counterattack.
• The Wizards’ Association labeled Mesute’s actions “unauthorized initiation of hostilities,” then executed the entire Eqi’er Family to contain the fallout.
• When Feng Jun compares the current wizard’s behavior to the Eqi’er Family’s foolishness, the wizard hesitates but eventually reveals that his master is a direct heir of the powerful Violet Family.
• The Violet Family is introduced as an ancient, influential wizard clan with numerous True Witches and vast territory. Its former power declined after it became too arrogant and provoked a Witch Ancestor, who destroyed five of its branches.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun: Remains calm, sarcastic, and politically perceptive. He refuses to be intimidated and recognizes that the wizards’ aggressive tactics are strategically foolish. His mention of the Eqi’er Family demonstrates both his awareness of recent events and his ability to pressure opponents psychologically.
• Aidaofu: Though he does not speak much in the excerpt, his mysterious reputation makes him a major concern for the wizards. His elusive nature and unclear loyalties cause factions to monitor him closely.
• The arrogant wizard: Begins as domineering and confident, assuming his master’s status is enough to compel obedience. Feng Jun’s refusal exposes the weakness of his approach, causing him to hesitate before relying on his master’s prestigious identity.
• Mesute Erqier: Discussed rather than directly appearing. He is characterized as talented but proud, reckless, and desperate for recognition. His unauthorized attack causes the destruction of his entire family.
• The Violet Family: Presented as powerful but historically prone to arrogance. Its decline serves as a warning that even ancient and influential clans can be ruined by overreach.

Significant Themes

• Foolish pride and arrogance: The chapter repeatedly asks who is more foolish—the reckless Eqi’er Family or the wizard still trying to bully potential allies during a crisis.
• Political miscalculation: The wizards’ attempts to pressure martial cultivators may push them into joining the cultivators instead, worsening the danger they face.
• Civilizational differences: Wizard society emphasizes individual achievement, secrecy, and resource control, while cultivator society values inheritance, continuity, and shared knowledge.
• Power and numbers: Wizards may possess greater individual strength, but martial cultivators’ overwhelming numbers and presence within the government make suppression impractical.
• The consequences of arrogance: Mesute’s actions and the Violet Family’s history both show how pride can turn a powerful faction into a target and destroy it from within.
• Survival versus honor: The wizard factions understand that fleeing would mean losing their resources and civilization, so they must stand and fight even when the odds appear bleak.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun rejects the wizard’s commanding invitation and challenges the legitimacy of his master’s authority.
• The wizard attempts to intimidate Feng Jun, but Feng Jun turns the conversation into a warning about alienating neutral parties.
• Feng Jun uses the Eqi’er Family’s fate as a pointed comparison, forcing the wizard to reconsider his approach.
• The wizard ultimately responds by invoking the Violet Family’s prestige, shifting from personal intimidation to ancestral authority.
• The broader interactions between wizards, martial cultivators, the government, and the newly arrived cultivators reveal a continent-wide struggle over allegiance, influence, and survival.

Chapter Summary: “Unwilling to Accept Defeat”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun and Xuanyuan Buqi encounter a Wizard connected to the powerful Violet Family. Feng refuses to acknowledge the family’s influence, provoking the Wizard, who leaves while hinting at future retaliation.
• Xuanyuan Buqi and Feng Jun discuss the likely consequences. They recognize that the Violet Family may attempt to attack them indirectly, since openly striking first would give Feng and Xuanyuan justification to retaliate.
• After purchasing a large quantity of ordinary Wizard materials, the pair are confronted by a Martial Venerable claiming to be a steward of the Martial Cultivators Association.
• The Martial Venerable accuses Feng Jun of being a suspiciously disguised cultivator. Xuanyuan pretends to be a genuine Wizard Apprentice employing Feng and confronts the man with a spell scroll, loudly accusing him of hunting Wizards.
• Two Wizard Apprentices from the Wizards’ Association intervene. One is hostile toward Martial Cultivators and supports Xuanyuan, while the other is more cautious because of the Violet Family’s influence.
• Rather than allow the matter to escalate inside Skyhawk City, the Wizards’ Association orders Feng and Xuanyuan to leave the city. They are escorted to the north gate despite having paid to enter.
• The Martial Venerable threatens Feng Jun after they leave, but avoids directly attacking because of the public attention and the unstable political situation.
• Feng and Xuanyuan pretend to depart, then stop outside the gate. Once the guards relax, Xuanyuan suddenly tears open the spell scroll and launches a fireball at two Martial Cultivators waiting at the gate.
• The attack demonstrates that the pair are not willing to accept humiliation or passively retreat. The apprentice shouts that the conflict with Martial Cultivators is not over.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun remains calm, provocative, and confident. He refuses to be intimidated by the Violet Family and deliberately challenges attempts to manufacture an excuse for attacking him.
• Xuanyuan Buqi displays impressive acting and strategic adaptability. He convincingly poses as an arrogant Wizard Apprentice, protects Feng’s supposed identity, and uses public pressure to prevent the Martial Venerable from taking action.
• Xuanyuan also shows a more aggressive and defiant side, openly challenging the Martial Venerable and later retaliating with the fireball attack.
• The Martial Venerable is powerful but increasingly constrained by public scrutiny and the tense political climate. Although he wants to punish Feng Jun, he must suppress his anger and rely on indirect retaliation.
• The Wizard Apprentices reveal divisions within the Wizards’ Association: one is openly prejudiced against Martial Cultivators, while the other is pragmatic and wary of provoking the Violet Family.

Significant Themes

• Pride and retaliation: The Violet Family cannot tolerate being publicly disregarded, while Feng and Xuanyuan refuse to accept being bullied or expelled without responding.
• Political tension and restraint: Normally powerful factions are forced to act carefully because the current atmosphere makes public violence dangerous and difficult to justify.
• Public image and manipulation: Both sides use appearances, false identities, accusations, and witnesses to control the situation.
• Factional prejudice: Wizards and Martial Cultivators deeply distrust one another, with hostility escalating into open verbal and physical conflict.
• Strategic patience: Feng and Xuanyuan avoid striking first, but they remain alert and prepared to exploit opportunities for justified retaliation.

Character Interactions

• Feng deliberately insults the Violet Family, while the visiting Wizard struggles to contain his anger.
• Xuanyuan and Feng coordinate closely, discussing the danger of being ambushed and recognizing the limitations of their defensive strategy.
• Xuanyuan acts as Feng’s employer and protector during the confrontation with the Martial Venerable, using Wizard arrogance and social pressure to challenge him.
• The Martial Venerable attempts to isolate Feng as a suspicious Martial Cultivator, but the Wizards’ Association apprentices prevent him from taking control.
• The two apprentices disagree over whether to screen the pair or expel them, balancing sympathy for Xuanyuan against fear of the Violet Family.
• Even after being escorted out, Feng and Xuanyuan cooperate in a deceptive counterattack, ending the chapter with an abrupt fireball strike and a renewed declaration of conflict.

Chapter Summary: Riders of the Tides

Key Plot Points and Events

• At Skyhawk City’s gate, Xuanyuan Buqi and Feng Jun execute a sudden attack. Xuanyuan uses an unknown martial secret technique to carry the Wizard Apprentice away at astonishing speed.
• The Wizard Apprentice’s Advanced-wizard Fireball scrolls fatally burn two Martial Cultivators. Pursuers, including Martial Sects and a wizard from the Violet Family, fail to catch the fleeing pair; the apprentice ultimately uses a Shadow Scroll to disappear near a forest.
• After regrouping, Xuanyuan Buqi abandons the plan to infiltrate Skyhawk City. Instead, he proposes a direct assault after waiting two days.
• Xuanyuan’s real objective is to inflame tensions between Martial Cultivators and wizards. Since the city’s strict inspections mean most entering Martial Cultivators likely serve the wizard faction, he considers their deaths acceptable for creating chaos.
• His plan succeeds: over the next two days, violence escalates sharply. Both sides carry out repeated killings and retaliatory massacres, and Skyhawk City increasingly divides into two hostile camps.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue later return to the southern gate disguised as “Shi Jie.” There, a Great Wizard attacks them with a True Witch-level scroll.
• The Great Wizard is revealed to be a desperate opportunist secretly seeking advancement resources. Nearing the end of his lifespan and unable to break through to the True Witch realm, he tries to manipulate the conflict by pretending to defect to the Martial Cultivator Resistance.
• He believes attacking “Shi Jie” will prove his usefulness and allow him to escape amid the chaos. However, Feng Jun’s group kills him almost immediately with a flash of green light.
• The wizard’s failure is compounded by deception: he had contacted a counterfeit claiming to be Saliwen, the president of the Flame City Martial Association. The false contact gave him unreliable information and led him into the trap.

Character Developments

• Xuanyuan Buqi demonstrates exceptional improvisational ability, confidence, and strategic ruthlessness. He quickly turns an unexpected confrontation into a larger plan to manipulate the city’s factions.
• Feng Jun continues to cooperate with Xuanyuan while maintaining a more morally conscious perspective. Their earlier discussion suggests he is uncomfortable with Xuanyuan’s casual treatment of lives as expendable.
• Yi Jue openly admires Xuanyuan’s adaptability and recognizes that his own abilities in spontaneous scheming are weaker.
• Vast Sea Venerable becomes impressed by Xuanyuan’s tactics and treats the situation as an opportunity to learn from him, despite his own pride and high cultivation.
• The Wizard Apprentice proves resourceful under pressure. Though nearly out of mana, she helps ensure the escape by using powerful fire and shadow scrolls.
• The Great Wizard embodies desperation and moral compromise. His desire to overcome his cultivation bottleneck drives him to provoke factional violence, but his reliance on unreliable allies and mistaken identity leads to his death.
• Saliwen is indirectly characterized as cautious and politically evasive. Although he has connections to the cultivators, he has never openly organized resistance, unlike the more idealistic Qiaodis.

Significant Themes

• Chaos as a tool: Xuanyuan deliberately worsens existing factional hatred so that his group can exploit the disorder.
• The devaluation of life: Powerful cultivators treat ordinary deaths as minor or acceptable costs, revealing the brutal social hierarchy of the Ghost Shaman World.
• Moral ambiguity and rationalization: Characters justify killings by probability, factional affiliation, or strategic necessity rather than clear moral principles.
• Desperation and opportunism: The Great Wizard represents people who exploit turbulent times to pursue personal advancement, even at the risk of betrayal and mass violence.
• Deception and unreliable information: False identities, rumors, secret factions, and counterfeit contacts make it difficult to distinguish allies from enemies.
• “Riders of the tides”: The chapter emphasizes that periods of upheaval attract both capable strategists and reckless schemers seeking to profit from instability.

Character Interactions

• Xuanyuan and Feng Jun coordinate effectively during the escape, with Xuanyuan carrying the apprentice while Feng Jun supports the broader operation.
• Yi Jue praises Xuanyuan’s adaptability, prompting his smug but confident explanation of his tactical skill.
• Vast Sea Venerable questions Xuanyuan’s plan and gradually shifts from distant reserve to genuine admiration and willingness to learn.
• The wizards and Martial Cultivators become locked in a cycle of retaliation, with each side’s violence reinforcing the other’s hatred.
• The Great Wizard attempts to use the supposed “Shi Jie” incident to gain the Martial Cultivators’ trust, but instead encounters Feng Jun’s group and is killed.
• His mistaken communication with a counterfeit Saliwen highlights the dangerous misunderstandings shaping the wider conflict.

Chapter Summary: “Do Not Reveal Weaknesses”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun’s group attacks Skyhawk City, the third city targeted after Twin Tower City and Flame City. Unlike the earlier attacks, Skyhawk City is heavily prepared and activates the Witch Ancestor-level defensive scroll Earth Guard.
• Despite its formidable reputation, Earth Guard collapses in roughly ten seconds under the combined strength of Feng Jun’s allies. The city’s wizards respond with desperate, indiscriminate attacks, including spells cast by apprentices.
• Yi Jue becomes angered by the wizards’ attacks and retaliates more forcefully, using powerful wood-element techniques such as Entanglement, causing heavier casualties.
• Skyhawk City had attempted to counter Yi Jue by removing or isolating wooden materials, using secret silver and special paint to block her techniques. The city’s preparations reflect the desperation of the wizard factions, who have exhausted their resources.
• The city’s Martial Cultivators had already begun leaving after Xuanyuan Buqi publicly killed two wizard-aligned Martial Cultivators at the gates. The incident exposed tensions between the wizard and Martial Cultivator factions and caused many Martial Cultivators to abandon their duties.
• During the battle, the Wizards’ Association attacks the Martial Cultivators Association in an apparent attempt to destroy its collection of books before Feng Jun’s group can obtain them. Feng Jun suspects the confrontation may be staged and stops Yi Jue from intervening.
• Eventually, the wizards destroy the Association’s library pavilion with powerful Burst scrolls. As a result, Feng Jun’s group gains almost no books despite the enormous destruction.
• Feng Jun’s restraint is supported by Xuanyuan Buqi, who believes that appearing too eager for the books would make future acquisitions more difficult. After three days, the group leaves Skyhawk City.
• At the next destination, Flower Sea City, Feng Jun changes tactics. Rather than entering the city and risking another ambush, he demands the books from outside the gates and threatens to destroy the city.
• City Lord Qina appears and asks that the ordinary citizens be allowed to leave first, insisting that protecting them is his duty. Feng Jun is surprised by Qina’s concern but permits the evacuation while concealing his admiration.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun becomes increasingly cautious and strategic. He recognizes that showing excessive concern for the books or revealing sympathy could weaken his position, so he deliberately maintains an intimidating and emotionally distant image.
• Yi Jue displays her fierce temper and protective pride. The wizards’ attacks provoke her into using more destructive techniques, demonstrating both her power and her willingness to respond harshly to disrespect.
• Xuanyuan Buqi continues acting as a calculating strategist. He recommends restraining their forces at first and later agrees with Feng Jun’s decision not to intervene in the battle over the books.
• Vast Sea Venerable offers a naïve but revealing perspective when he suggests that frightening everyone would be beneficial. Qing Yao explains that they still need enemies to provide information.
• City Lord Qina is introduced as an unusually principled leader who values the lives of ordinary citizens, distinguishing him from the more self-interested or factional leaders encountered earlier.

Significant Themes

• Concealing weakness: Feng Jun believes that openly revealing concern, sympathy, or desire will allow enemies to exploit him. His detached behavior toward Qina reflects the chapter’s central idea.
• Factional distrust and internal division: The wizard and Martial Cultivator factions are divided even while facing an external enemy. Their mutual suspicion causes desertions, political conflict, and even fighting within Skyhawk City.
• The cost of desperation: Skyhawk City’s wizards exhaust their resources, sacrifice their own people, and destroy valuable books simply to prevent Feng Jun’s group from benefiting.
• Pragmatism versus morality: Feng Jun’s group destroys cities and kills many people, yet Qina’s appeal forces Feng Jun to confront the moral dimension of their campaign, even if he refuses to show it openly.
• Information as power: The books are valuable not merely as objects but as sources of knowledge. Both sides are willing to fight or destroy them to control who gains access.

Character Interactions

• Xuanyuan Buqi and Vast Sea Venerable discuss whether frightening the cities is useful, while Qing Yao emphasizes the need to preserve sources of information.
• Yi Jue reacts violently to the wizard attacks, but Feng Jun restrains her when she tries to interfere in the staged-looking battle at the Martial Cultivators Association.
• Feng Jun and Xuanyuan Buqi share a strategic understanding: appearing indifferent to the books may make future opponents less determined to destroy them.
• At Flower Sea City, Feng Jun confronts Qina. Qina respectfully requests protection for his citizens, and Feng Jun grants the evacuation despite pretending to be unmoved.
• The chapter ends with Feng Jun choosing to hide his respect for Qina’s principles, reinforcing the importance of never exposing one’s emotional or moral vulnerabilities.

Chapter Summary: “Glory and Honor”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun orders that everyone leaving Flower Sea City must be verified as human and warns the city’s inhabitants that any escaped wizard will have consequences.
• A Great Wizard disguises himself as an ordinary schoolteacher, but Feng Jun detects him. Yi Jue kills him and several companions with a single palm strike, injuring others nearby.
• Feng Jun prevents a young member of the Daier Family from leaving, even though the youth claims not to be a wizard. The city’s civilians turn against him because of the Daier Family’s history of cruelty and abuse.
• This decision destroys the hope that non-cultivating descendants of wizard families can escape punishment. The wizards realize that their entire clans may be held responsible for their inherited power and privileges.
• Some wizards suggest surrendering their books to save the city, but others argue that doing so would sacrifice the glory and survival of wizard civilization. They fear cultivators will absorb wizard knowledge and eventually eradicate wizard inheritance.
• Civilians, merchants, and many city guards flee. City Lord Qina remains behind, choosing to die with the city. Feng Jun accepts his resolve, allowing him to preserve his honor while Feng Jun maintains his own reputation for ruthlessness.
• Yi Jue gives the wizards one final chance to surrender the books. Before her countdown is complete, the wizards launch a coordinated spell attack.
• Angered by their defiance, Yi Jue answers with a massive palm strike. Despite the city’s defenses and carefully prepared battle formations, her overwhelming power destroys Flower Sea City and kills those remaining inside.
• The city is annihilated, including the young Daier family member. The chapter concludes by framing the destruction as the consequence of the wizards’ deliberate decision to resist.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun demonstrates strategic ruthlessness. He refuses to allow wizard-family descendants to exploit their lack of cultivation as a loophole, making clear that family affiliation and inherited privilege carry responsibility.
• Yi Jue reveals her overwhelming physical power and a harsher side of her personality. Although she initially shows restraint and allows civilians to escape, the wizards’ premature attack humiliates and enrages her, prompting her to destroy the city directly.
• City Lord Qina displays unusual loyalty and courage by remaining behind rather than abandoning his city. His willingness to die with it earns Feng Jun’s respect.
• The wizards shift from debating surrender to embracing collective resistance. Their defense of wizard “glory” turns them from potential survivors into participants in the city’s destruction.
• The Daier youth becomes a symbol of the families’ failed attempt to escape responsibility through their non-cultivating descendants.

Significant Themes

• Inherited responsibility: The chapter argues that descendants of powerful families cannot claim complete innocence when they have benefited from those families’ status and protection.
• Glory versus survival: The wizards choose the preservation of wizard identity and inheritance over surrender and personal survival.
• Honor and reputation: Qina gains honor through his resolve, while Feng Jun accepts being viewed as cold-blooded in exchange for fulfilling his strategic goals.
• Consequences of defiance: Both sides are given opportunities to retreat, but their choices make conflict inevitable. The destruction is presented as a consequence rather than an unprovoked massacre.
• Cultural extinction and historical reversal: The wizards fear that cultivators will appropriate their knowledge and reduce wizardry to a forbidden or extinct tradition, echoing how wizards once dominated lands now controlled by cultivators.
• Power beyond technique: Yi Jue’s destruction of the city reminds the wizards that cultivators are not merely spellcasters; they also possess overwhelming physical and direct combat strength.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and Yi Jue work together closely: Feng Jun identifies hidden threats, while Yi Jue provides the force necessary to eliminate them.
• Feng Jun confronts the disguised Great Wizard and later rejects the Daier youth’s attempt to escape, enforcing collective accountability.
• The civilians turn against the Daier youth, motivated both by fear of punishment and resentment toward his family’s past tyranny.
• The wizards debate surrender among themselves, with pragmatists prioritizing survival and traditionalists defending wizard honor.
• City Lord Qina’s decision to remain in Flower Sea City contrasts with the mass evacuation around him and creates a mutual understanding between him and Feng Jun.
• Yi Jue’s final confrontation with the wizards is shaped by mutual defiance: she offers surrender, they attack first, and she responds by destroying the entire city.

Chapter Summary: “Books at Last”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After destroying another city, Yi Jue destroys the distant Wizard’s Eyes monitoring the cultivators, declaring that observers will not be allowed to see where the group goes next.
• Feng Jun, Yi Jue, and their companions travel to Academy City, a vast region containing more than twenty Wizard Towers and numerous Wizard Academies.
• Most residents have already evacuated, suggesting that cities across the continent possess contingency plans for the spreading “cultivator storm.”
• The group encounters several remaining defenders, including Yika’er, dean of the small Nayi Wizard Academy.
• Yika’er explains that she stayed because her academy’s six-story Wizard Tower is her family’s most valuable asset. If it is destroyed, she—only a Great Wizard—will not be qualified to rebuild it.
• Feng Jun initially prepares to destroy the academy, refusing to spare Yika’er merely because she is attractive or claims to have no choice.
• Yika’er reveals that she has prepared more than six hundred books as an offering. Feng Jun agrees to spare her and the academy in exchange for the books.
• The collection includes novels, travel journals, wizard materials, and two rare Martial Cultivation manuals detailing advancement from Martial Venerable to Martial King.
• Yi Jue criticizes the collection’s wizard techniques for being too few and too weak, but Feng Jun dismisses this, valuing their own cultivation methods more highly.
• Yika’er becomes alarmed by Feng Jun’s apparent authority over Yi Jue, a Witch Ancestor, and wonders whether the cultivators possess an even more powerful backer or intend a large-scale invasion.

Character Developments

• Feng Jun demonstrates that his true objective is gathering knowledge rather than indiscriminate slaughter. Although he acts ruthlessly, he is willing to negotiate when offered valuable information.
• His casual authority over Yi Jue reveals that he occupies an unusual position within the group, causing Yika’er to greatly overestimate or question his hidden status.
• Yi Jue remains confident, ruthless, and unconcerned with public opinion. She destroys the surveillance devices after deciding they have seen enough, but accepts Feng Jun’s decision to spare Yika’er.
• Yika’er is shown to be desperate but resourceful. Though initially considering using her beauty to influence Feng Jun, she ultimately relies on her book collection and private family archives to save her academy.
• Her willingness to surrender forbidden Martial Cultivation manuals shows both her sincerity and the severity of her predicament.
• Difenna, Yika’er’s deceased father, is characterized through backstory as an ambitious outsider who built the academy despite lacking a powerful wizard-family heritage.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus pride: Yika’er must choose between preserving her academy’s dignity and sacrificing its most valuable knowledge to survive.
• Knowledge as power and currency: Books become the only effective means of negotiation, demonstrating that information may be more valuable than wealth or military strength.
• Cultural differences: The Ghost Shaman World values powerful adults and established wizards over apprentices, contrasting with societies that place greater emphasis on protecting children and students.
• Institutional inequality: Wizard Academies vary greatly in status, and small academies like Yika’er’s are vulnerable because they lack strong family backgrounds, resources, and influential protectors.
• Appearances and misunderstandings: Yika’er misreads Feng Jun’s relationship with Yi Jue, interpreting his ability to influence her as evidence of immense hidden power.
• Ruthlessness tempered by practicality: The cultivators are willing to destroy cities, but Feng Jun’s willingness to spare useful individuals suggests their violence is strategic rather than purely indiscriminate.

Character Interactions

• Yi Jue confronts the distant observers by destroying the Wizard’s Eyes, asserting control over the situation.
• Feng Jun and Yika’er negotiate directly, with Feng Jun rejecting her emotional appeal until she offers the academy’s books.
• Yika’er attempts to justify possessing restricted Martial Cultivation manuals, while Feng Jun recognizes their value.
• Yi Jue questions the quality of the wizard techniques, but Feng Jun reassures Yika’er that the weaknesses of her collection do not matter.
• Yika’er observes Feng Jun and Yi Jue’s dynamic and becomes increasingly fearful that Feng Jun may possess authority surpassing even a Witch Ancestor.

Chapter Summary: Ruthless

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Jun suggests that Yika’er’s tower may come under pressure if all the other academy towers are destroyed. Yika’er secretly writes a proposal while speaking aloud in the local language, hoping Feng Jun will spare two or three additional towers.
• Yika’er is willing to risk her life to negotiate and protect her academy, despite already being viewed as a traitor by the wizard camp.
• Feng Jun agrees to show some restraint because Yika’er’s tower was the first wizard force to provide books, though his motive is practical: preserving a valuable trading partner.
• A defender from the Ten-Story Tower uses Divine Sense to inspect Yika’er’s written message. Yi Jue considers this an intolerable violation and destroys the tower with a single palm strike.
• Two other powerful towers—one Ten-Story and one Eleven-Story—attack in retaliation. Yi Jue effortlessly defends Feng Jun, Yika’er, and the Six-Story Tower, then destroys both attacking towers.
• An Eight-Story Tower joins the attack by mistake before its defender hears a warning to stop. Yi Jue destroys it as well. In total, she demolishes four towers with casual palm strikes, terrifying the remaining wizards.
• The sole remaining Eleven-Story Tower does not attack. Feng Jun and Yi Jue begin copying the books gathered from the towers, completing more than five hundred volumes after nearly ten hours.
• Afterward, they approach the remaining tower and give its defenders a final opportunity to surrender their books before being attacked.

Character Developments

• Yika’er demonstrates loyalty and courage by trying to preserve her academy despite her vulnerable position. She is prepared to negotiate even though the other wizards view her as a traitor.
• Feng Jun reveals that his apparent kindness is largely pragmatic. He wants to protect Yika’er because she is an important source of books, not because he seeks a personal relationship with her.
• Yi Jue displays overwhelming strength and an extremely ruthless temperament. She is especially protective of Feng Jun and Yika’er, immediately punishing anyone who invades their privacy or threatens them.
• Yi Jue also shows a practical preference for recording knowledge on obsidian rather than copying it into paper books, while Feng Jun recognizes the potential usefulness of the wizards’ Replication Spell.
• Feng Jun insists that novels and storybooks may have cultural and research value, even though Yi Jue considers them unimportant.

Significant Themes

• Pragmatism versus compassion: Feng Jun’s protection of Yika’er appears generous but is motivated by the need to preserve future cooperation.
• Power and intimidation: Yi Jue’s destruction of the towers demonstrates the overwhelming superiority of the cultivators and convinces most defenders that resistance is futile.
• Loyalty under pressure: Yika’er risks everything to save her academy, even after being isolated from her former allies.
• Privacy and boundaries: Eavesdropping is tolerated as part of negotiation, but directly reading Yika’er’s written message is treated as a serious provocation.
• Knowledge as a valuable resource: The conflict centers not only on military power but also on the collection, preservation, and exchange of books.

Character Interactions

• Feng Jun and Yika’er communicate indirectly, with Yika’er speaking aloud while secretly writing her true request.
• Yi Jue notices Feng Jun’s concern for Yika’er and briefly appears jealous, but accepts his explanation that the relationship is transactional.
• Yi Jue protects both Feng Jun and Yika’er during the tower attacks, especially preserving Yika’er’s Six-Story Tower.
• Feng Jun and Yi Jue work together to copy the collected books, then jointly confront the final Eleven-Story Tower and demand its surrender.