Recaps

Ye Luochen resumed cultivation after leaving his questions about a divine trial unanswered, but Meng Hongchen interrupted him to prepare for the Sun Moon Empire’s championship award ceremony. As the ceremony began, Ye Luochen joined the competition team for a public parade through Ming Capital.

• Ye Luochen returned to Mingde Hall and cultivated for a week until Meng Hongchen came to remind him about the award ceremony.
• Meng Hongchen urged Ye Luochen to clean up and warned him about Crown Prince Xu Tianran’s political influence and the need to avoid mentioning his paralysis.
• Ye Luochen listened to Meng Hongchen’s advice, while she and Xiao Hongchen also prepared for the ceremony.
• Ye Luochen met the Hongchen siblings and the competition team in formal attire, and they boarded a decorated soul tool vehicle for a parade through Ming Capital.
• Xiao Hongchen enthusiastically defended the parade when Ye Luochen said standing on the vehicle’s roof felt awkward.

After winning the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament, Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, Ye Luochen, and their teammates paraded through Ming Capital to a jubilant crowd. Ye Luochen marveled at the Empire’s unity, while Xiao Hongchen explained that shared rivalry with the Original Three Kingdoms helped sustain it.

• Xiao Hongchen urged Meng Hongchen and Ye Luochen to proudly celebrate their championship, and Ye Luochen agreed.
• The team rode out from the academy and paraded through Ming Capital as crowds cheered and waved flags.
• Meng Hongchen and Ye Luochen grew excited as the procession continued through the city, completing its route at sunset.
• Ye Luochen remarked on the people’s unity, and Meng Hongchen explained that Sun Moon Empire citizens celebrated any victory by one of their academies.
• Ye Luochen asked why people still sold Soul Tools to the Original Three Kingdoms, and Xiao Hongchen cited profit and the long peace, which had weakened the Empire’s focus on its common enemy.

Xiao Hongchen told Ye Luochen that the Sun Moon Empire’s leaders were preparing to purge complacent parasites, and Ye Luochen feared the Empire might be moving toward war. At a ceremony in Ming Capital, Ye Luochen saw Ju Zi pushing the disabled Crown Prince Xu Tianran, whose arrival exposed divisions within the royal family before the awards began.

• Xiao Hongchen said peace had lasted too long and that he had reported the sale of Sun Moon Empire Soul Tools to Jing Hongchen, prompting Ye Luochen to suspect the Empire’s leaders were preparing for war.
• Ye Luochen reflected that he was too insignificant to withstand the upheaval of a vast empire and resolved to become stronger.
• Ye Luochen and the team arrived at the ceremony in Ming Capital, where royal family members took their seats around the central honors.
• Xu Tianran entered in a wheelchair pushed by Ju Zi, and Ye Luochen recognized both of them and wondered at the meaning of Xu Tianran’s traditional wheelchair.
• Most attendees stood and bowed to Xu Tianran, while several remained seated, confirming Ye Luochen’s suspicion that the royal family was divided.
• Xu Tianran declared the ceremony begun and called the young talents forward to receive awards and honors.

At the award ceremony, Xu Tianran sought to reward the championship team, but rival royals challenged his authority and forced the team into the Empire’s factional struggle. Jing Hongchen publicly supported Xu Tianran, leaving Ye Luochen relieved as the Crown Prince awarded the team.

• Xu Tianran began presenting awards to the team, prompting several royal family members to accuse him of acting as though he already represented the Empire.
• Ye Luochen realized that accepting the awards could draw the team into Xu Tianran’s faction and make them targets of his opponents.
• Xu Tianran asked Jing Hongchen whether he should share his ill Emperor’s burdens, and Jing Hongchen praised the Crown Prince’s actions as an excellent strategy.
• The opposing royals recognized Jing Hongchen’s support as a declaration of allegiance to Xu Tianran, while Ye Luochen felt safe relying on Jing Hongchen’s backing.
• Xu Tianran awarded each team member twenty million Gold Soul Coins, the title of viscount, and the treatment of a baron.

Xu Tianran rewarded the tournament team with money and noble titles, granting Ye Luochen an especially valuable hereditary viscountcy to bind him to the Sun Moon Empire. After the ceremony ended, Ye Luochen joked with Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen about his new title and the pressure it brought.

• Xu Tianran offered the team members baron titles and promised greater rewards for future service, and they all accepted.
• Xu Tianran promoted Ma Rulong to viscount and gave him an additional ten million Gold Soul Coins for his performance in the tournament.
• Xu Tianran promoted Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen to viscounts and awarded each an additional ten million Gold Soul Coins.
• Xu Tianran granted Ye Luochen twenty million Gold Soul Coins and a hereditary viscountcy, and Ye Luochen accepted, recognizing the reward would help make him a symbol attracting talent from the Original Three Kingdoms.
• After Xu Tianran ended the ceremony, Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen teased Ye Luochen about his hereditary title, and he said it put pressure on him.

After receiving a hereditary barony and many other rewards from the Sun Moon Empire, Ye Luochen worried about the expectations attached to its investment in him. Xu Tianran’s generous rewards made the team members viscounts and wealthy, drawing them toward his faction as Jing Hongchen watched.

• Ye Luochen reflected on the many benefits he had received and worried about what would happen if he failed to repay the Sun Moon Empire’s investment.
• Xu Tianran granted the team members viscount titles and tens of millions of Gold Soul Coins, prompting their excitement.
• The team members discussed their rewards and increasingly resolved to support Xu Tianran, while Ye Luochen recognized the political maneuver behind them.
• Ye Luochen judged that Jing Hongchen’s support had tipped the balance in Xu Tianran’s favor.
• Jing Hongchen watched the excited team members with a quiet smile.

Jing Hongchen told Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, and Ye Luochen that Shrek Academy had proposed an exchange program, but neither side expected to share valuable knowledge. He revealed that Shrek might have an Ultimate Douluo, leaving Meng Hongchen to ask who would be sent as exchange students.

• After the tournament, Jing Hongchen kept Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, and Ye Luochen behind to discuss a letter from Shrek Academy.
• Jing Hongchen explained that Shrek had proposed exchanging students to study Soul Tools and Martial Souls.
• Xiao Hongchen dismissed the proposal as an attempt to steal Soul Tool technology, while Meng Hongchen argued that Shrek might still have useful Martial Soul knowledge.
• Jing Hongchen agreed that neither side would share anything important, but warned Xiao Hongchen not to underestimate Shrek and described its powerful experts.
• Jing Hongchen revealed that Shrek might have an Ultimate Douluo, and Meng Hongchen asked whether she and the others would be sent there.

The narrator’s right eye became severely swollen and protruded despite using eye drops. They decided to go to a hospital to have it examined.

• The narrator’s right eye became red, swollen, and painfully pressurized.
• The narrator noticed that the eye protruded farther than the left eye, even with the eyelid closed.
• The narrator found that eye drops did not help and decided to visit a hospital.

Jing Hongchen worried that Shrek would mistreat the Sun Moon Empire’s young geniuses if they were sent there as exchange students, so he decided to delay the arrangement. He then told Ye Luochen to focus on his martial soul and Soul Power Level so he could absorb the soul beast embryo before others could seize it.

• Jing Hongchen explained that Shrek expected the Sun Moon Empire to send its genuine young core students as exchange students, but he feared they would be targeted behind the scenes after winning the tournament.
• Xiao Hongchen, Meng Hongchen, and Ye Luochen considered the unequal benefits and risks of going to Shrek, and Jing Hongchen chose to stall the exchange for a year or two.
• Jing Hongchen told the youngsters to continue their usual cultivation and work at Mingde Hall while he handled the exchange discussions.
• Jing Hongchen instructed Ye Luochen to prioritize improving his martial soul and Soul Power Level over soul guidance technology.
• Jing Hongchen revealed that someone had set their sights on the soul beast embryo and said Ye Luochen needed to grow stronger and absorb it quickly.

Jing Hongchen explained that the Star Luo Imperial Family had set a trap involving the Soul Beast Embryo and that the Body Sect was likely targeting it. He revealed that a ninth-rank Soul Engineer had betrayed the Sun Moon Empire by selling the embryo to Star Luo and had already been executed.

• Xiao Hongchen realized that outsiders had inferred the Soul Beast Embryo had been returned to the Sun Moon Empire and stored in Mingde Hall.
• Jing Hongchen warned that the Body Sect, rather than an ordinary force, was likely targeting the embryo.
• Jing Hongchen said Ye Luochen had recognized the auction as a scheme against the Sun Moon Empire and prompted an investigation.
• Mingde Hall's intelligence organization discovered that a ninth-rank Soul Engineer had sold the embryo to Star Luo instead of handing it over to the empire.
• Jing Hongchen revealed that the engineer had been executed several days earlier for treason and collusion with the enemy.

Jing Hongchen explained how a Rank 9 Soul Engineer betrayed Mingde Hall by manipulating the Star Luo Imperial Family and the Body Sect, and why the soul beast embryo had to remain under his protection. He urged Ye Luochen to cultivate quickly ahead of threats expected within the next year or two, then revealed he had learned more about the embryo.

• Jing Hongchen told Meng Hongchen that the Rank 9 Soul Engineer sold Mingde Hall’s location and defenses to the Body Sect while helping the Star Luo Imperial Family set a trap for them.
• Jing Hongchen said the Body Sect would need a year or two to prepare an attack, and he rejected Meng Hongchen’s suggestion to move the embryo because the imperial family might keep it.
• Xiao Hongchen compared Jing Hongchen’s desire to keep the embryo for his own side to the Rank 9 Soul Engineer’s betrayal, so Jing Hongchen and Meng Hongchen slapped him unconscious.
• Jing Hongchen warned Ye Luochen to keep the secret and cultivate hard before the exchange with Shrek Academy and the Body Sect threat arose.
• Ye Luochen worried he could not grow strong enough to absorb the embryo in time, and Jing Hongchen reassured him that he had investigated powerful soul beasts and gained clues about the embryo.

Jing Hongchen speculated that the soul beast embryo was the Snow Empress, the third-ranked ferocious beast, and explained why Ye Luochen might still be able to absorb it. He proposed using dense ice attributes to build the embryo’s affinity toward Ye Luochen, but Meng Hongchen asked how they could give him those attributes.

• Jing Hongchen narrowed the embryo’s possible identity to the Snow Empress after investigating the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North and studying the embryo’s power.
• Ye Luochen, Xiao Hongchen, and Meng Hongchen were stunned by the possibility that a ninth-grade Soul Engineer had captured the third-ranked ferocious beast.
• Ye Luochen called absorbing the embryo a death wish, and Xiao Hongchen felt relieved that it had been assigned to someone else.
• Jing Hongchen explained that the Snow Empress was an elemental spirit in an undeveloped embryo, so dense ice attributes could help it develop an affinity toward Ye Luochen.
• Meng Hongchen asked how they could give Ye Luochen sufficiently powerful ice attributes.

Jing Hongchen explained that Ye Luochen could gain an ice attribute by enduring a dangerous process that exploited his healing ability, but even under ideal conditions his chances were under thirty percent. Ye Luochen agreed to focus on cultivation and left for the academy determined to try.

• Jing Hongchen told Ye Luochen, Xiao Hongchen, and Meng Hongchen that life energy and Ye Luochen’s healing ability made him the candidate for forcibly gaining an ice attribute.
• Jing Hongchen explained that the process would involve forcing ice-attributed treasures into Ye Luochen’s body, and estimated his chance of success at under thirty percent if he reached the Soul Sage realm.
• Jing Hongchen advised Ye Luochen to set aside Soul Tools and focus on cultivation, promising not to force him to proceed if the plan proved unfeasible.
• Ye Luochen agreed to give cultivation his all, and Jing Hongchen left for Mingde Hall.
• Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen encouraged Ye Luochen before flying away, leaving him alone in the darkened plaza.
• Ye Luochen reflected on how dramatically his circumstances had changed, then headed to the academy determined to attempt the plan.

Ye Luochen and Meng Hongchen focused on martial soul cultivation while Xiao Hongchen continued pursuing Soul Tools, and the group made rapid progress during a peaceful year. Ye Luochen reached Level 59, while Meng Hongchen reached Level 60 and awaited a Soul Ring.

• Ye Luochen advanced from Level 48 to Level 50 in less than two weeks, frustrating Xuan Ziwen, who wanted him to resume their Soul Tool research.
• Meng Hongchen shifted her training toward martial soul cultivation and explained to Jing Hongchen that Soul Tools could not yet fully complement her poison-based martial soul.
• Xiao Hongchen supported his sister and continued studying Soul Tools, leaving him as the only member of the trio in that field.
• A year passed peacefully, with Mingde Hall repelling several attacks from minor factions seeking the Soul Beast embryo.
• Xiao Hongchen gained five Soul Power levels and neared sixth-level Soul Engineer expertise, while Meng Hongchen reached Level 60.
• Ye Luochen rose from Level 48 to Level 59 over the year.