Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The group is relieved that Zhou Yan is temporarily safe; with the Human Realm devastated by repeated wars and calamities, they hope to prevent another disaster and focus on ending the Demonic Calamity.
• Meanwhile, the Bloodstone Grand Lord’s attack hurls Zhou Yan into a spatial storm. Before losing consciousness, Zhou Yan sees Yue Yuna rushing toward him, throws her the Crimson Sky Sword, and gives the Armor General an order.
• An innate spatial affinity awakens within Zhou Yan, unconsciously shielding him from the storm’s lethal forces. His Inner Heaven and Earth ability also continues to gain proficiency.
• Zhou Yan eventually awakens in the barren Red Grassland, badly hurt but able to recover. A young boy who found him explains where he is and introduces him to the vast world beyond his homeland.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Yan is vulnerable and disoriented after the attack, but acts instinctively to protect others before passing out. His previously hidden spatial talent emerges, though he does not yet understand it.
• Yue Yuna rushes toward Zhou Yan as he is swept away, prompting him to throw her his sword.
• The boy is curious, observant, and helpful. He tries to rouse Zhou Yan, explains the Red Grassland’s history, and correctly deduces that Zhou Yan is a foreigner from his clothing and appearance.
• Their conversation is cautious but straightforward: Zhou Yan asks where he is, and the boy gives him his first information about the Northern Wasteland and the wider world.

Significant themes

• Survival amid devastation: The Human Realm’s depleted population makes further conflict especially dangerous.
• Hidden potential and adaptation: Zhou Yan’s spatial affinity awakens under extreme pressure, turning a deadly ordeal into a source of growth.
• A wider world: Zhou Yan’s arrival in the Northern Wasteland opens the story into a much larger setting, with several vast regions and distant lands still to explore.

Key plot points and events

• Zhou Yan arrives in the Northern Wasteland, a region of the Human Realm where spiritual energy is vastly denser and purer than in the Small World. His injuries should heal in hours rather than months.
• He realizes this world can support cultivation beyond the Dao Fusion Realm, but also that its experts may be far stronger than he is. He decides to stay cautious while learning about the region and seeking a way back to the Small World.
• His near-death ordeal has greatly advanced his spatial abilities: his Inner Heaven and Earth reaches Great Achievement, becoming larger and more self-sustaining, and he gains a Sixth Rank Void Dao Domain powerful enough to rival a Dao Fusion Realm expert. He believes he could now defeat the wounded Bloodstone Grand Lord.
• A young boy explains that the Northern Wasteland is the weakest of the Five Regions. Once devastated by war and used as a place of exile, it has begun recovering as migrants arrive. The Central Province is the world’s richest and most powerful region.
• The boy introduces himself as Tian Wei and jokingly suggests Zhou Yan marry his sister, reasoning that Zhou Yan is handsome and suitable.

Character developments

• Zhou Yan shifts from relief at surviving to cautious curiosity about his new world. He recognizes both his newfound strength and the danger of underestimating local experts.
• The crisis has unlocked a major leap in Zhou Yan’s spatial cultivation, turning a near-fatal experience into a source of power.
• Tian Wei comes across as blunt, lively, and friendly. Though young, he speaks confidently and offers an unexpectedly flattering, practical view of Zhou Yan.

Significant themes

• Adversity and growth: Zhou Yan’s brush with death pushes his abilities to new heights.
• A wider world and new limits: The Human Realm offers far greater cultivation potential, but also presents stronger opponents and unfamiliar challenges.
• Fortune amid misfortune: Zhou Yan reflects that survival and progress emerged from an ordeal that nearly killed him.
• Social status and displacement: The Northern Wasteland’s history as a refuge and exile region contrasts with the Central Province’s wealth and privilege.

Character interactions

• Zhou Yan questions Tian Wei about his assumptions and learns about the boy’s family and the regions’ unequal circumstances.
• Their conversation turns playful when Tian Wei proposes Zhou Yan as a husband for his sister because of his looks. Zhou Yan teases him about the sister’s appearance, and Tian Wei insists she is the village’s prettiest girl.

Zhou Yan learned about the harsh conditions of the Northern Wasteland while staying with Tian Wei and Tian Xi, and he gave Tian Xi a false account of his origins. He discovered that the village survived through unity and left his suspicions about the siblings’ background unresolved.

• Zhou Yan coaxed Tian Wei into explaining the Northern Wasteland’s customs and dangers.
• Tian Wei brought Zhou Yan home to meet his older sister, Tian Xi, whose house stood near the edge of the fortified village.
• Zhou Yan told Tian Xi that he came from the Overseas Archipelago and had been transported to the Northern Wasteland during an expedition.
• Tian Xi questioned Zhou Yan’s cultivation, and Zhou Yan judged that she might have her own reasons for remaining composed.
• Zhou Yan stayed with the Tian Family for several days and learned from Tian Wei that the villagers relied on one another to survive.

Zhou Yan settled into Red Stone Village and took Tian Wei hunting after recovering, hoping to earn his keep before trading supplies and leaving the siblings gifts. As they ventured onto the Red Grassland, Zhou Yan used his cultivation instead of a bow, while memories of his family and companions left him wondering how Yue Yuna was handling matters in the Zhou Kingdom.

• Zhou Yan learned about Red Stone Village, its hunting and scavenging livelihood, and the Tian siblings’ life after their parents disappeared.
• After recovering, Zhou Yan took Tian Wei hunting and planned to trade items from his Storage Ring when the caravan arrived before leaving the siblings gifts.
• Tian Wei eagerly joined the hunt, and Zhou Yan warned him to stay alert because prey could be dangerous.
• When Tian Wei asked where his bow was, Zhou Yan revealed three black wooden spikes made from yi wood energy and assured him they would work.
• Watching Tian Wei become more cautious, Zhou Yan recalled Zhou Chuan, Zhou Jing, his family, and his companions, then wondered how Yue Yuna was managing the people in the Zhou Kingdom.

Zhou Yan reflected on how to return to his Small World before Tian Wei warned him of a Wasteland Beast. Zhou Yan killed it with one strike, impressing Tian Wei and leaving Zhou Yan feeling unusually relaxed.

• Zhou Yan considered the need to strengthen his cultivation and find a spatial Secret Art to return to his Small World.
• Tian Wei warned Zhou Yan that a Wasteland Beast was approaching and explained that divine sense could not detect the creatures.
• Zhou Yan struck the Wasteland Beast in the head with three Black Wooden Spikes, but it barely seemed injured and charged at them.
• Zhou Yan moved Tian Wei out of the way as the Wasteland Beast crashed into the forest.
• Zhou Yan killed the Wasteland Beast by cutting through its head and destroying its divine soul with White-Gold Sword Qi.
• Tian Wei admired Zhou Xing for killing the beast, while Zhou Xing laughed and felt his state of mind improve.

Zhou Yan brought a Wasteland Beast back to Tian Xi’s home and discovered that its flesh and blood could restore the bodily essence depleted by his past cultivation. After eating a large share, he felt his strength rise and realized he could eventually build vital blood beyond the average cultivator of the greater world.

• Tian Wei and Zhou Yan returned with a Wasteland Beast, and Tian Xi recognized it and concluded that Zhou Yan had killed it.
• Zhou Yan butchered the beast, then shared its meat with Tian Xi and her brothers.
• Tian Xi stopped Tian Wei from eating more when the nourishing meat made him flush and sweat, while Zhou Yan felt an intense hunger for it.
• Zhou Yan ate half the beast, including its blood, and the nourishment rapidly healed deficiencies and old injuries in his body.
• Tian Xi explained that Zhou Yan’s earlier cultivation had left his bodily essence depleted, and she wondered about his past.
• Zhou Yan felt deeply satisfied as his essence recovered and his strength increased, with the prospect of eventually having vital blood thirty percent stronger than the greater world’s average.

Zhou Yan grew stronger by eating Wasteland Beast meat and later accompanied Tian Wei to the caravan, while Tian Xi met secretly with Uncle Hu. Uncle Hu warned Tian Xi that a new regime in Tongqiu Prefecture was conscripting people across the villages, putting Red Stone Village at risk.

• Zhou Yan's strength and cultivation improved after he ate Wasteland Beast meat, and he hunted several more beasts near Red Stone Village.
• The caravan arrived, and Tian Xi sent Tian Wei to take Zhou Yan to buy supplies while she met privately with Uncle Hu.
• Tian Xi revealed that she and Tian Wei had lived in hiding for nearly ten years after their parents died and that she had begun reuniting her family's covert agents.
• Uncle Hu told Tian Xi that Tongqiu Prefecture's former prefect had died, a new prefect was replacing local leaders, and Mutong City's new lord was conscripting people throughout the villages.

Tian Xi decided to move the Tian siblings from Red Stone Village to Bamboo Water Town because upheaval in Mutong City made their refuge unsafe. At the caravan, Zhou Yan traded Wasteland Beast materials for supplies and crystal coins, getting his first look at the region’s currency.

• Tian Xi told Uncle Hu that the Tian siblings would leave Red Stone Village for Bamboo Water Town, and she asked him to go ahead and prepare for them.
• Tian Xi said she wanted to part ways with Zhou Yan soon because he might be caught up in trouble, though Uncle Hu judged him to be an extraordinary man from a powerful family.
• Tian Wei brought Zhou Yan to the caravan, where the villagers traded goods and made way for them out of respect for Zhou Yan.
• Tian Wei showed Uncle Ma Wasteland Beast materials, and Zhou Yan added a larger sack of bones for the caravan to appraise.
• Zhou Yan asked for one-third of the value in money and the rest in supplies for the Tian siblings, letting Tian Wei choose the amounts.
• Uncle Ma valued the materials at ten thousand red crystal coins and paid Zhou Yan thirty purple crystal coins and five hundred red crystal coins, which Zhou Yan examined curiously.

Zhou Yan let Tian Wei spend more than seven thousand Red Crystal Coins on supplies, hoping to encourage his ambition, but Tian Xi reprimanded her brother for using Zhou Xing’s hunting earnings to buy her gifts. The purchases exposed the Northern Wasteland’s shortage of metal goods, and Zhou Xing accepted Tian Xi’s wariness as he prepared to leave soon.

• Zhou Yan encouraged Tian Wei to choose goods with the Red Crystal Coins and hoped to build the boy’s confidence and ambition.
• Tian Wei bought household supplies and hunting gear, including brocade for Tian Xi, though the goods were worth far less than the coins he spent.
• Zhou Xing reflected that metal goods were scarce and costly in the Northern Wasteland, and decided not to reveal weapons from his Storage Ring.
• Tian Xi scolded Tian Wei for spending Zhou Xing’s earnings on her, but Zhou Xing defended the purchase as a small repayment for the Tian Family’s kindness.
• Tian Wei resolved to hunt Wasteland Beasts himself and buy his sister gifts, while Zhou Xing understood Tian Xi’s guardedness and accepted that he would soon leave.

Zhou Yan decided to leave Red Stone Village, then cultivated through the night and broke through to the Dao Fusion Realm. At dawn, he said farewell to Tian Xi and Tian Wei, leaving Tian Wei a gift and urging him to protect himself and his sister.

• Zhou Yan told Tian Xi and Tian Wei that he planned to leave the next day, and Tian Wei reluctantly accepted his decision.
• Zhou Yan reflected on his growing attachment to the siblings, then cultivated through the night as the greater world's spiritual qi rapidly increased his magic power.
• Zhou Yan broke through the barrier to the Dao Fusion Realm and continued cultivating until his foundation stabilized.
• At dawn, Tian Xi served Zhou Yan and Tian Wei breakfast, and the three ate together in silence.
• Zhou Yan said farewell, told Tian Wei to protect himself and Tian Xi, and revealed that he had left Tian Wei a gift in his room.

Zhou Yan crossed the Shifting Sands Desert and arrived at Windsand Market, where he planned to rest and strengthen himself. Remembering the strike that fused magic and martial arts, he decided to study that path while seeking powerful zombies to subdue.

• Zhou Yan traveled through the Shifting Sands Desert after leaving Red Stone Village and reached Windsand Market.
• Zhou Yan recalled how he had fused the Nine Forms of Heavy Slash with Taibai Geng Metal Sword Qi to defeat the Bloodstone Grand Lord.
• Zhou Yan decided to study the unification of magic and martial arts because his controlled corpses could no longer keep pace with his cultivation.
• Zhou Yan entered the bustling Windsand Market and chose the Vast Sea Inn for a room and a hot meal.
• Zhou Xing paid ten Purple Crystal Coins for a room despite privately judging the price to be outrageous.

Zhou Yan explored the market town and entered the reputable Red Dawn Pavilion to inspect genuine Dao Fusion Realm goods. He found that the greater world's cultivation arts and low-level techniques were costly yet inferior to those from the Small World.

• Zhou Yan settled into an expensive inn, ate a hot meal, and went out to explore the market town.
• Zhou Yan visited ten shops and found that all of them sold crude counterfeits.
• Zhou Yan entered the Red Dawn Pavilion, whose goods were genuine but expensive, and followed an attendant to the third floor.
• Zhou Yan examined the greater world's cultivation realms and realized that Dao Fusion Realm cultivators were not especially powerful there.
• Zhou Yan compared the pavilion's cultivation arts, secret arts, spells, and martial techniques with those from the Small World and judged the lower-level offerings inferior.

Zhou Yan traded spirit ore at the Red Dawn Pavilion for a large supply of pills, then began using them to strengthen his cultivation. After seeing how effective the pills were, he resolved to advance quickly while worrying about how he would fund his progress once his reserves ran out.

• Zhou Yan found that the Red Dawn Pavilion's cultivation methods and magic treasures offered little value to him, but its pills were exactly what he needed.
• Zhou Yan asked whether the pavilion bought spirit ore and ordered several kinds of pills worth about eighty gold crystal coins.
• Zhou Yan paid with several thousand jin of spirit ore and left the Red Dawn Pavilion with several hundred pills.
• Zhou Yan swallowed a Five Spirits Pill, which increased his magic power, strengthened his internal organs, and healed old injuries.
• Zhou Yan took an Earth Spirit Pill and accelerated his circulation to keep its potent medicinal energy from going to waste.
• Zhou Yan resolved to keep improving his strength but worried that his cultivation funds would eventually run out.

After improving his cultivation with pills in Windblown Market, Zhou Yan was ambushed by desert bandits and killed them with the Nine Forms of Heavy Slash. He collected their unusually large haul and continued toward the Corpse Demon Forest, a forbidden ground that had once been Corpse Pagoda Temple.

• Zhou Yan left Windblown Market after taking some of his pills and buying more cultivation, healing, and magic-power-restoring pills.
• Zhou Xing spotted an ambusher beneath the sand and struck first as four or five desert bandits charged Zhou Yan.
• Zhou Yan used the Nine Forms of Heavy Slash to kill the bandits, whose attacks targeted people leaving the Red Dawn Pavilion.
• Zhou Yan searched the bodies and collected crystal coins, pills, and cultivation manuals, gaining enough wealth to buy pills without using spirit ore.
• Zhou Yan headed for the Corpse Demon Forest, the former site of Corpse Pagoda Temple, whose sect had been wiped out in an accident.

Zhou Yan survived repeated desert-bandit ambushes, growing stronger and collecting valuable spoils as rumors turned him into a coveted target. Dai Qi continued pursuing him out of personal vengeance, while some other bandits began to withdraw as Zhou Yan’s strength increased.

• Zhou Yan reflected on how repeated attacks by desert bandits had improved his martial arts and helped him find a path toward unifying magic and martial arts.
• Zhou Yan replenished his magic power, collected the mounts and corpses, and escaped before dozens of bandits reached the battlefield.
• Dai Qi ordered his men to continue chasing Zhou Yan because Zhou Yan had killed his brother and lover.
• The mustached bandit decided to abandon the pursuit, warning that it would bring heavy losses without worthwhile gains.
• The other bandits hesitated over whether to keep following Zhou Yan, while Dai Qi pressed on because he saw no way to escape their mortal feud.

Du Juan and the other bandit leaders abandoned their pursuit of Zhou Yan after realizing the hunter might have become the prey. A month later, Zhou Yan arrived at the Corpse Demon Forest, prepared to test whether its zombies could become a source of troops.

• Du Juan warned the bandits that their target had grown increasingly dangerous, and the leaders dispersed rather than continue the hunt.
• Zhou Yan killed Dai Qi and more than a dozen others, collected their belongings and bodies, then confirmed no one had followed him.
• Zhou Yan used his Clear Breeze Escape Art to leave and recover from the strain of constant combat.
• A month later, Zhou Yan reached the Corpse Demon Forest and studied its dangers, planning to explore the outer forest rather than the Corpse Pagoda Temple.
• Zhou Yan bought pure-yang and fire-aspected supplies and single-use magic artifacts to prepare for the zombies.

Zhou Yan entered the Corpse Demon Forest and used his Yin-Yang Life-Death Art to resist its yin energy and corpse qi. As he ventured deeper, the forest’s rules empowered elusive zombies and weakened him, leaving him wary after several ambushes and a dangerous encounter with an assassin zombie.

• Zhou Yan entered the Corpse Demon Forest at noon and formed a protective barrier against its yin energy and corpse qi.
• Zhou Yan struck a Yin Locust Tree and found that its connection to the forest made it extraordinarily difficult to destroy.
• Zhou Yan continued into the dark forest and cut down a Void Transformation Realm zombie that had approached him silently.
• Zhou Xing realized the forest weakened him and strengthened its zombies, so he prepared for a prolonged struggle.
• Zhou Xing endured repeated ambushes by zombies using the fighting skills they had possessed in life.
• Zhou Xing survived a Unity Realm assassin zombie’s near-fatal attack with his Thousand-Layer Wood Secret Art, then killed it with his saber.

Zhou Yan escaped the Corpse Demon Forest with a bound Assassin Zombie and resolved to return after preparing for its dangers. That night, he began testing an improved Corpse Controlling method by refining the peak Unity Realm zombie, a trial that could determine whether his technique still had room to advance.

• Zhou Yan noticed that the Corpse Demon Forest rapidly drained his stamina and magic power and slowed his recovery, so he decided to leave before nightfall.
• An Assassin Zombie ambushed Zhou Yan as he withdrew, but he bound it with the Dragon-Binding Rope and used it to break through the forest’s apparent efforts to keep him inside.
• After escaping, Zhou Yan sensed yin energy leaving his body in the sunlight and gained confidence that he could survive on the forest’s outskirts and use it to find troops and gain experience.
• That night, Zhou Yan began refining the peak Unity Realm Assassin Zombie with an improved Corpse Controlling method, testing whether he could advance the technique further.