Chapter Summaries

Gu Ling and Li Xiao fought the Crimson Flame Lion King during the third trial, with Li Xiao buying time for Gu Ling to unleash his Third Soul Skill and defeat it. After Gu Ling passed, Jin Xing welcomed him and Li Xiao as specially recruited students of Martial Soul Academy and took them to rest.

• Li Xiao and Gu Ling wounded the Crimson Flame Lion King, but it awoke and attacked them with fireballs and clones.
• Li Xiao protected Gu Ling with his barrier, then used Sword King's Domain to knock back the Lion King clones and exhausted his Soul Power.
• Gu Ling completed charging his Third Soul Skill, Sacrificial Spirit Vicious Soul, and its monster swallowed the clones and the Crimson Flame Lion King.
• Dugu Bo congratulated Gu Ling, and Jin Xing confirmed that Gu Ling and Li Xiao were specially recruited students of Martial Soul Academy.
• Jin Xing promised to take them to collect soul bones after enrollment, then carried Li Xiao and led Gu Ling into the academy.

Gu Ling and Li Xiao woke in their new academy dormitory after passing the assessment, then completed their registration. Li Xiao realized he had been admitted to Martial Soul Academy and vowed to grow strong enough to avenge his mother.

• Jin Xing showed Gu Ling and Li Xiao their villa dormitory, while Dugu Bo left with him for the Worship Hall.
• Gu Ling and the unconscious Li Xiao slept in the hall for fourteen hours.
• Li Xiao woke and learned from Gu Ling that they had passed the assessment and were staying in the academy dormitory.
• A registration teacher brought forms, and Gu Ling and Li Xiao filled them out to enroll.
• Gu Ling told Li Xiao which upstairs room was his and that they would be roommates.
• Alone in his room, Li Xiao cried as he told his mother he had entered Martial Soul Academy and promised to avenge her.

Gu Ling cooked a meal for himself and Li Xiao, and the two ate together before Gu Ling asked why Li Xiao had risked his life during the trial. Li Xiao said he had gambled because he could not afford to lose, leaving his deeper reasons unspoken.

• Hungry after the trial, Gu Ling found fresh ingredients in the kitchen and cooked braised pork ribs and celery beef.
• Li Xiao came downstairs after the smell of the food drew him from his room, and Gu Ling invited him to eat.
• Li Xiao praised Gu Ling's cooking and asked how he could make such delicious food, so Gu Ling offered to teach him.
• After they finished the meal, Gu Ling asked why Li Xiao had not dodged the Inferno Lion King's attack during the trial.
• Li Xiao said he had risked his life because he did not want to lose, then kept quiet about why the trial mattered so much to him.

Gu Ling and Li Xiao settled into life at Martial Soul Academy, where they joined the Core Class and met Yu Lan and the arrogant Yan Yan. The chapter ended with Yan Yan boasting about his talent while Gu Ling chose not to argue with him.

• Gu Ling completed his morning workout around the academy grounds and returned to find Li Xiao had prepared an elaborate breakfast.
• Gu Ling tried Li Xiao’s cooking, praised it, and ate breakfast with him before hurrying to class.
• Gu Ling led Li Xiao to the Core Class, where Yu Lan recognized Gu Ling and invited him to sit with her.
• Gu Ling introduced Li Xiao to Yu Lan, and she praised both boys for passing the academy assessment.
• Yan Yan claimed he had not needed to take the assessment and said his level-thirty-two Soul Power made him a true genius.
• Yu Lan told Gu Ling that Yan Yan was a twelve-year-old descendant of a major Spirit Hall family, while Gu Ling ignored his disdainful stare.

Qin Huan began teaching Gu Ling and the Core Class by testing their awareness with an illusion. After sending the other students to run laps, she warned Gu Ling and Hu Mei not to become complacent and prepared to introduce the next lesson.

• Jin Ling defended Gu Ling and Hu Mei, praised their willpower, and urged Yan Yan to stop arguing.
• Yu Lan warned Gu Ling about the powerful families represented in the Core Class, and Gu Ling said he would answer anyone who offended him.
• A muscular man appeared to be teaching, but Gu Ling and Hu Mei saw through the illusion and recognized Qin Huan, a little girl with a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.
• Qin Huan dismissed the illusion and ordered everyone except Gu Ling and Hu Mei to run ten laps without Soul Power, reprimanding them for failing to stay alert.
• Jin Ling led the class out, and Qin Huan cautioned Gu Ling and Hu Mei that they had no reason to be proud before starting her introduction to the second lesson.

Qin Huan assigned training tasks to the Core Class, including a basketball-catching test for Gu Ling that tested his awareness and ability to handle interference. Gu Ling caught the balls while Hu Mei tried to charm him, and he remained unaffected after her soul skill landed.

• Qin Huan gave Gu Ling a training task using a Soul Tool and told Hu Mei to interfere with the class during their training.
• Qin Huan assigned combat and support exercises to the Core Class students, with missed tasks carrying a punishment of weighted laps.
• Gu Ling began catching basketballs fired from twelve directions, using their sounds to track them with his eyes closed.
• Hu Mei tried to charm Gu Ling while he caught a ball, but he dodged her soul skill and caught the next one.
• Hu Mei timed another charm with a basketball launch, and although her soul skill touched Gu Ling, he caught the ball and showed no sign of being controlled.

Gu Ling struggled through Qin Huan’s training, and the class learned that their performance would determine who represented the Core Class in the Academy Core Competition. Later, Gu Ling and Li Xiao were summoned to claim their assessment rewards and arrived at the Treasure Pavilion, where Jin Xing called them to the fourth floor.

• Hu Mei left after her Soul Skill failed to affect Gu Ling, while Gu Ling continued Qin Huan’s increasingly difficult basketball training until Qin Huan stopped the Soul Tool.
• Qin Huan noted that none of the students had completed their objectives, ordered them to run as punishment, and said their training would decide who represented the Core Class in the Academy Core Competition.
• After the exhausting run, Gu Ling and Li Xiao slept until a teacher sent by Jin Xing woke them to collect their assessment rewards.
• The teacher gave Gu Ling and Li Xiao mushrooms that granted them temporary wings, then led them by air to the island where the Treasure Pavilion stood.
• Gu Ling and Li Xiao entered the pavilion, admired the treasures on its first floor, and heard a voice summon them to the fourth floor.

Gu Ling chose a mysterious piece of rusted iron in the Treasure Pavilion, and it awakened his martial spirit while unleashing overwhelming divine power. As Gu Ling was about to be overwhelmed, his father Gu Yi appeared to intervene.

• Jin Xing welcomed Gu Ling and led him through the fourth floor’s rare treasures, including several Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.
• Gu Ling followed a strange pull to the rusted iron and chose it instead of a reward for passing the assessment.
• The Sacrificial Spirit Death Knell appeared on its own, and the rusted iron lost its covering, revealed a dragon-head shape, and merged with the martial spirit.
• A vast energy surged through Gu Ling, raising his Soul Power to the level-forty threshold and threatening to burst him apart.
• Jin Xing could not reach Gu Ling through the energy barrier, and Gu Yi appeared after freezing time and space.

Gu Yi saved Gu Ling from rampaging Divine Power and left the power sealed in his sea of consciousness for him to use later. After Li Xiao absorbed the Soul Bone, Gu Ling planned to test whether he could absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring the next day.

• Gu Yi absorbed the Divine Power overwhelming Gu Ling and sealed it in a red orb within his sea of consciousness.
• Gu Ling recovered, discovered his Soul Power had risen by three levels, and suspected his father had intervened.
• Jin Xing left to pursue an imminent breakthrough after sealing the fourth floor of the Treasure Pavilion.
• Gu Ling decided to ask Dugu Bo to accompany him while he tested whether he could absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
• Li Xiao awakened after perfectly absorbing the right arm Soul Bone, bringing his Soul Power to level thirty-eight, and Gu Ling led him out of the Treasure Pavilion.

Gu Ling defeated Yan Yan without a fight after Yan Yan attacked him outside the dormitory. The next day, Dugu Bo took Gu Ling to the Star Dou Great Forest to help him obtain a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, where they met Ah Rou.

• Yan Yan attacked Gu Ling, and Gu Ling challenged him to the Life and Death Arena.
• Yan Yan refused the challenge and attacked Gu Ling again, so Gu Ling used Mind-Penetrating Demonic Sound to trap him in an illusion before leaving with Li Xiao.
• Dugu Bo arrived the next morning, and Gu Ling confirmed he was determined to absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.
• Dugu Bo took Gu Ling to the Star Dou Great Forest, where Ah Rou attacked them before recognizing Dugu Bo.
• Ah Rou asked whether Dugu Bo had returned, and he told her that only he had come back.

Ah Rou led Dugu Bo and Gu Ling to a Hundred-Thousand-Year Venomous Poison Python so Gu Ling could obtain its Soul Ring. As Gu Ling began absorbing the ring, the red energy sealed inside him suddenly broke free and began to riot.

• Ah Rou spoke of waiting for someone she missed, and Dugu Bo explained that the God Realm’s rules kept him from returning to her.
• Dugu Bo introduced Gu Ling as Gu Yi’s son and said he wanted a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
• Ah Rou led them to a cave housing a Hundred-Thousand-Year Venomous Poison Python.
• Dugu Bo trapped the python with his poison and froze it in time, then Gu Ling killed it with Deathgod Summon.
• Gu Ling began absorbing the python’s Soul Ring, but the red energy sealed inside him broke free and shook his sea of consciousness.

Gu Yi descended to the Douluo Continent to save Gu Ling from a violent Divine Power that had begun taking over his body. After Gu Yi used the God Realm Central Hub to purge the threat, Gu Ling survived, reached rank ninety-nine, and returned to Martial Soul Academy to prepare for the God Trial.

• Gu Yi sensed that his seal on Gu Ling had broken and rushed to the lower realm.
• Dugu Bo saw Divine Power and crimson patterns spreading across Gu Ling as he absorbed a soul ring, then Gu Yi appeared through a spatial rift.
• Gu Yi restrained the Divine Power inside Gu Ling while a remnant consciousness revealed that it wanted to possess him and take revenge on Evil.
• Gu Ling told the remnant that Gu Yi ruled the God Realm and controlled the God Realm Central Hub, and Gu Yi used its power to erase the remnant and neutralize the Divine Power.
• Gu Ling adapted to the Divine Power, rose to rank ninety-nine, and returned to Martial Soul Academy to take part in the God Trial.