Chapter Summaries

Xu Wuyi settled his parents into their new home at Landscape Manor and inspected the reinforced underground training room. He hosted Zhou Heng and his family for a housewarming dinner, where Zhou Xiaoyu asked him about the dangers of the front line.

• Xu Wuyi spent several quiet days at home with his parents while the underground training room was completed.
• Chen Mo drove Xu Wuyi and his parents to Landscape Manor, where Xu Wuyi inspected the villa and approved the training room.
• Xu Wuyi invited Zhou Heng and his parents to a housewarming dinner and agreed that Zhou Xiaoyu could join them.
• Zhou Heng and his family arrived with homemade dishes, and the two families gathered for dinner.
• Zhou Xiaoyu asked Xu Wuyi whether the front line was dangerous, and he confirmed that it was a little dangerous.

Xu Wuyi spent a quiet evening with Zhou Heng’s family, then devoted himself to consolidating his cultivation at home. More than three months later, his Life Energy Level had risen to Level 47, and he remained at peace in Honghe as winter set in.

• Zhou Heng told Xu Wuyi that he was content with his ordinary life and did not regret his choices, then left with his family.
• Xu Wuyi meditated in the Cultivation Room and observed that the Great Marsh and Golden Crow had settled into a natural resonance.
• Xu Wuyi reflected on his battles and the warmth of home before returning to his room to rest.
• Over three peaceful months, Xu Wuyi consolidated his foundation and raised his Life Energy Level from Level 46 to Level 47, entering the ranks of a quasi-Grandmaster.
• In late December, Xu Wuyi watched the winter scene outside before returning to the warm living room, where his parents read and knitted.

Xu Wuyi received Linjiang Martial Arts University's invitation to teach as a visiting professor and accepted, choosing a course on condensing and tempering a Heart Image prototype. He began drafting the lesson plan, drawing on his own path to explain how martial arts will and artistic conception form a Heart Image.

• Xu Wuyi received a message from Chen Mo about a matter requiring his attention in Linjiang and went to the liaison office.
• Chen Mo gave Xu Wuyi Linjiang Martial Arts University's invitation to teach a short course, which Minister Feng had approved.
• Xu Wuyi accepted the invitation and chose the course topic “Condensing and Tempering the Heart Image Prototype.”
• Xu Wuyi went to a teahouse and began outlining a lesson plan on Heart Images for third- and fourth-year students.
• Xu Wuyi wrote that a Heart Image manifested martial arts will and that artistic conception had to be internalized and blended with a Martial Artist's spiritual traits.

Xu Wuyi planned a short course on condensing Heart Image prototypes and began turning his experience into a detailed lesson plan. After telling his parents about his visiting professorship, he continued preparing the course late into the night, leaving with the first two weeks completed.

• Xu Wuyi outlined lessons on Visualization Methods and testing Heart Images through practical combat, then drafted a course schedule at a teahouse.
• Xu Wuyi returned home and told Father Xu and Mother Xu that Linjiang Martial University had invited him to teach a short course next semester.
• Xu Wuyi watched news about the Federation Youth Martial Dao Tournament with his parents, then learned that Zhou Heng and Weiwei were expecting a child.
• Xu Wuyi developed the first week's lesson on Heart Images and self-awareness, using Flame Venerable's path and his own Golden Crow Bearing the Earth as examples.
• Xu Wuyi finished detailed plans for the first two weeks and refined the remaining outlines before going to sleep.

Xu Wuyi spent weeks refining his lesson plan, revising its explanations and advice to make the course clear, safe, and useful for ordinary Martial Artists. Near the end of the chapter, he completed his final review and opened an email to the Linjiang Martial University Academic Affairs Office.

• Xu Wuyi asked Chen Mo to review the lesson plan, and Chen Mo showed him that abstract concepts remained difficult for an ordinary Martial Artist to picture.
• Xu Wuyi revised the lesson plan with clearer examples and cautions about choosing suitable Visualization Methods and tempering the Heart Image safely.
• Xu Wuyi continued revising the document through the Little New Year and reflected that it needed the warmth and resonance of a teacher transmitting his realm.
• Xu Wuyi finished more than a dozen drafts and told Mother Xu he would make one final check before sending the lesson plan to the school.
• Xu Wuyi opened a blank email addressed to the Linjiang Martial University Academic Affairs Office.

Xu Wuyi accepted Linjiang Martial University's invitation to teach an on-site Heart Image course, then celebrated the New Year with his family before the university announced his course and students rushed to enroll. The story left with registrations exceeding the planned capacity and the university considering a larger venue.

• Linjiang Martial University invited Xu Wuyi to teach more than a thousand students in person, and he accepted the four-week course scheduled to begin in late February.
• Xu Wuyi informed Chen Mo, who agreed to coordinate security and contact Linjiang Martial University.
• Xu Wuyi helped his family prepare for and celebrate the New Year, sharing a warm reunion with relatives and setting off fireworks with his younger cousin.
• After the New Year, Xu Wuyi visited Honghe No. 1 High School and occasionally advised its students as they trained.
• Linjiang Martial University announced Xu Wuyi's Heart Image course, and student registrations quickly exceeded a thousand, prompting the university to consider a larger venue.

Xu Wuyi arrived at Linjiang Martial University to teach a four-week course on condensing and tempering the heart image prototype. With Central Stadium packed with students, researchers, and other attendees, he introduced himself and began the first class.

• Xu Wuyi learned that more than 2,200 students, teachers, and researchers had enrolled or applied to audit his course, so the university moved it to Central Stadium.
• Xu Wuyi arrived at Linjiang Martial University, where Li Wenjuan welcomed him and showed him the student roster and seating arrangements.
• Xu Wuyi reviewed his lesson plan and composed himself in the lounge before class.
• Xu Wuyi entered the nearly full Central Stadium and spotted Qiao Zhiyao among the audience.
• Xu Wuyi introduced himself and announced that he would teach “Condensation and Tempering of the Heart Image Prototype” over the next four weeks.

Xu Wuyi began teaching a lecture on Heart Images, urging students to find the inner Dao that would guide their martial paths. Meanwhile, Qiao Tongyu and Major General Wu Dingbo confirmed that Federation Grandmasters were outclassed by the Heart-Questioning Sword Hut’s phantom in same-level duels.

• Xu Wuyi asked students why they practiced martial arts, then taught that finding one’s Dao was essential to forming a Heart Image.
• Xu Wuyi began his four-week Heart Image course as two thousand two hundred students listened.
• Qiao Tongyu emerged from a virtual duel and told Wu Dingbo that he had lasted seventeen moves against the phantom before losing.
• Wu Dingbo explained that the Heart-Questioning Sword Hut’s swordsmanship showed a generational gap in refinement and efficiency.
• Wu Dingbo reported that he had lasted twenty-three moves and that none of the Federation’s twenty-seven Grandmasters had defeated the phantom at the same energy level.

After a simulation exposed the gap between Federation martial arts and the True Dragon Star Realm, Qiao Tongyu recommended Xu Wuyi for an unconventional challenge against a powerful swordsman. Meanwhile, Xu Wuyi finished his first class at Linjiang Martial University and agreed to meet with students and teachers, unaware that the challenge was being arranged.

• Wu Dingbo and Qiao Tongyu discussed selecting an exceptional Martial Artist below Grandmaster level to face the phantom, and Qiao recommended Xu Wuyi.
• Qiao told Wu that Xu was in Linjiang as a visiting professor, and Wu agreed to prepare the evaluation materials and speak with Xu after Qiao sounded him out.
• Xu Wuyi concluded his first class at Linjiang Martial University, prompting applause from more than two thousand students.
• Li Wenjuan invited Xu to meet students and teachers, and he agreed to a brief gathering.
• Xu reviewed the course system's attendance and messages before opening the lounge door to more than twenty people waiting to meet him.

After finishing his classes, Xu Wuyi agreed to challenge a mysterious Phantom whose swordsmanship had defeated twenty-seven Grandmasters. Qiao Tongyu gave him a temporary authorization card and warned that both he and General Wu Dingbo had lost to the opponent.

• Xu Wuyi encouraged a student who doubted his ability to condense a Heart Image and offered to review his training records.
• Qiao Tongyu invited Xu Wuyi to the Tranquil Mind Tea House to discuss a powerful Phantom in a military combat program.
• Qiao Tongyu explained that the Phantom adjusted to each challenger’s level and had defeated twenty-seven Grandmasters, including him and General Wu Dingbo.
• Xu Wuyi accepted the challenge so he could test and refine his martial path.
• Qiao Tongyu gave Xu Wuyi a temporary authorization card and warned him to prepare for the Phantom’s strength.

Xu Wuyi taught students to begin forming a Heart Image by concentrating on one core idea, then was summoned by Qiao Tongyu and General Wu Dingbo to face a powerful Phantom in a 99%-fidelity virtual battle. The battle program loaded with the Phantom locked at Xu Wuyi’s level, and Xu Wuyi prepared to begin.

• Xu Wuyi explained that students should first push one essential Heart Image concept to its limit before expanding it, and answered their questions during class.
• Li Wenjuan told Xu Wuyi that a military representative was waiting, and a soldier drove him to the Qiao Family residence.
• Qiao Tongyu introduced Xu Wuyi to General Wu Dingbo, who asked him to represent the younger generation and test himself against the Phantom.
• Xu Wuyi signed a military confidentiality agreement and learned that the Phantom’s lethal swordsmanship would be simulated in a virtual machine with 99% fidelity.
• Xu Wuyi entered the pod as the Phantom’s level was locked at 47, and the battle program began loading.

Xu Wuyi fought a level 47 Phantom whose precise swordsmanship and sword intent pushed him to the brink. After forcing the Phantom back once, Xu Wuyi gathered his Heart Image power to meet the Phantom’s realm-infused sword strike.

• Xu Wuyi entered the pure white space and faced a gray-robed Phantom wielding an azure sword.
• The Phantom’s first strike nearly pierced Xu Wuyi’s heart, but Xu Wuyi dodged by altering gravity around himself.
• Xu Wuyi studied the Phantom’s spatial movement and defended against a relentless series of attacks, suffering a cut to his neck.
• Xu Wuyi used Nether Heaven-Balancing Spear; Mountain Suppression to force the Phantom back for the first time.
• The Phantom raised a sword strike infused with sword intent that sealed Xu Wuyi’s escape routes, and Xu Wuyi gathered weight and Burn at his spear tip to counter it.

Xu Wuyi repeatedly fought Phantom in a virtual simulation and was defeated, but studied how to counter his superior swordsmanship. He planned to preset gravitational changes along Phantom’s likely paths, though Wu Dingbo warned that predicting the elusive movement would be difficult.

• Xu Wuyi lost his third battle against Phantom after lasting seventeen seconds and enduring eleven sword strikes, but immediately demanded another attempt.
• Xu Wuyi emerged from the virtual pod, and Qiao Tongyu reported that he had improved from eleven moves survived to eighteen across three battles.
• Xu Wuyi and Wu Dingbo concluded that matching Phantom’s honed martial skill directly was futile, since such skill had been forged through countless life-and-death struggles.
• Xu Wuyi reviewed the battle data and identified gravity as a way to counter Phantom’s speed and space-compressing movement.
• Xu Wuyi proposed presetting gravitational changes along predicted movement paths, and Wu Dingbo cautioned that Phantom’s trajectory would be difficult to predict.

Xu Wuyi began a fourth virtual battle and used gravity seeds to weave a Gravity Swamp that disrupted the phantom’s movements. As the phantom intensified its sword intent and attacked again, Xu Wuyi expanded the seeds into a thirty-meter gravity domain and sensed the phantom’s trajectory.

• Xu Wuyi asked to begin a fourth attempt, and Wu Dingbo allowed at most two more battles because of his mental fatigue.
• Xu Wuyi sensed the gravity field and planted small gravity seeds across the battlefield to create a Gravity Swamp.
• Xu Wuyi used the seeds to divert the phantom’s sword, disrupt its balance, and strike it back five steps with his Long Spear.
• The phantom intensified its sword intent, and Xu Wuyi linked his seeds into a shifting gravity domain that cracked the sword-intent blockade.
• The phantom charged through the domain, and Xu Wuyi tracked its path through feedback from the disturbed gravity seeds.

Xu Wuyi drew his fourth battle against the Phantom after surviving fifty moves and inflicting a serious wound, then recovered and reflected on how to improve his Heart Image techniques. The next morning, he returned to the Qiao Family residence for his single permitted challenge of the day.

• Xu Wuyi traded wounds with the Phantom and ended their fiftieth move with both fighters unable to continue, producing a draw.
• Wu Dingbo and Qiao Tongyu praised Xu Wuyi's breakthrough, while he judged the Gravity Swamp approach promising but costly and imperfect.
• After treatment, Xu Wuyi resolved to refine his gravity control and the fusion of heaviness and burning, then went home to rest.
• The next morning, Xu Wuyi returned to the Qiao Family residence and told Qiao Tongyu he planned to challenge the Phantom once.

Xu Wuyi challenged the phantom again with a more carefully prepared Gravity Swamp, but the phantom had adapted to his tactics and defeated him in 37 seconds. After Wu Dingbo explained the system’s learning function, Xu Wuyi recognized that his own impatience had also contributed to the loss.

• Xu Wuyi planted gravity seeds across a wider area before facing the phantom in the virtual pod.
• The phantom avoided weak points in the Gravity Swamp, adapted quickly to its effects, and wounded Xu Wuyi several times.
• Xu Wuyi managed one effective counterattack before the phantom overwhelmed his defenses and ended the battle with a throat strike.
• Wu Dingbo reviewed the recording and explained that the combat system adjusted the phantom to counter tactics used in previous fights.
• Xu Wuyi studied the battle in his mind and concluded that he had been too impatient.

Xu Wuyi refined his Gravity Swamp after realizing that ambition had weakened his control, then returned to the virtual arena with a more precise trap strategy. He pierced Phantom’s right shoulder, gaining the first clear advantage in their rematch.

• Xu Wuyi identified that expanding his gravity seeds had scattered his attention and reduced his control precision, so he took two days to reflect instead of training.
• While reviewing Phantom’s movements, Xu Wuyi realized he could exploit the brief shift in Phantom’s movement mode by placing focused gravity traps at likely entry points.
• Xu Wuyi repeatedly practiced a new Gravity Swamp built from six concentrated traps before returning to the Qiao Family residence.
• In the virtual arena, Xu Wuyi activated a trap when Phantom entered from the left and used a simple spear thrust to force him back.
• Xu Wuyi disrupted Phantom’s sword strike by reversing gravity, then used another trap to evade the counterattack and pierced Phantom’s right shoulder.

Xu Wuyi defeated the phantom for the first time, and Wu Dingbo ordered him to achieve ten consecutive victories for a still-unrevealed reward tied to the Federation. After Wu Dingbo left, Xu Wuyi began refining his tactics to make his wins consistent.

• Xu Wuyi combined the weight of Heavy Water and the burn of the Golden Crow to defeat the phantom in 51 seconds.
• Xu Wuyi emerged from the virtual pod, and Wu Dingbo praised his victory before demanding ten consecutive wins.
• Wu Dingbo told Xu Wuyi the Federation needed him to meet the challenge and promised a special reward, then left Linjiang to report to the military district.
• Xu Wuyi agreed to keep challenging the phantom while Qiao Tongyu coordinated his access and scheduling.
• Xu Wuyi returned to his routine and focused on refining his gravity traps, combinations, and Heart Image power use rather than relying on improvised tactics.

Xu Wuyi studied the phantom’s movements and sword intent through repeated virtual battles, developing a more deliberate strategy to build an effective trap network. After finishing his four-week course at Linjiang Martial University, he told Qiao Tongyu he expected to begin the challenge in a few days, then returned to the basement for another battle.

• Xu Wuyi spent his first thirty exchanges observing the phantom, then analyzed its seven movement nodes and sword-intent fluctuations after the match ended in his defeat.
• Xu Wuyi changed his training approach to study the phantom’s habits, and he learned to predict five of its seven movement nodes.
• Xu Wuyi taught his final course lecture on applying Heart Images, demonstrating how Heavy Water could become a wide-ranging gravity-field interference mist.
• Li Wenjuan told Xu Wuyi that his course had received a 99.7% satisfaction rating, setting a school record.
• Qiao Zhiyao invited Xu Wuyi to dinner at the Qiao Family residence, where he told Qiao Tongyu he expected to start General Wu’s challenge in a couple of days.
• Xu Wuyi went to the basement after dinner for another virtual battle.

Xu Wuyi refined his gravity-trap tactics and adapted to Phantom until he could win consistently, then began a ten-win streak challenge. He reached eight consecutive victories and was told that Grandmaster Qiao wanted to see him in his study.

• Xu Wuyi adjusted his gravity traps and defeated Phantom again, improving on his previous victory.
• Over the following days, Xu Wuyi made tiny tactical changes that raised his win rate to nine victories out of ten and prepared to begin the streak challenge.
• Xu Wuyi won the first six challenge matches, adding Water Drop and Returning Ruins Seal to his tactics as he learned Phantom's movements.
• Xu Wuyi won his eighth consecutive match and reviewed data showing his win rate had stabilized above 87%.
• The recorder told Xu Wuyi that Grandmaster Qiao had asked him to visit his study after training.