Chapter Summaries

Xu Wuyi interrogated Zheng Hai about his connection to Zheng Mingchuan but found no evidence of wrongdoing, so Fourth Squad continued investigating Li Mingyuan’s case. The case concluded with twenty-eight people prosecuted over ninety-three billion, establishing Fourth Squad’s reputation and earning Captain Meng Zhishou the nickname “Black and White Impermanence.”

• Xu Wuyi questioned Zheng Hai, who said Zheng Mingchuan had once offered him business advice but had no part in his dealings with Li Mingyuan.
• Xu Wuyi reported the interrogation to Fourth Squad, and Li Zhaowen said his checks of Zheng Mingchuan’s records and assets had found no issues.
• Xu Wuyi told the team to continue following the remaining leads in Li Mingyuan’s case while keeping Zheng Mingchuan under observation.
• Li Mingyuan’s case concluded with twenty-eight of the thirty-seven implicated people formally prosecuted and the amount involved confirmed at ninety-three billion.
• Fourth Squad became well known across the Inspection Department, and people nicknamed its captain, Meng Zhishou, “Black and White Impermanence.”

From late January through March, Fourth Squad handled a record number of cases under Xu Wuyi’s leadership, and Xu Wuyi declined both a commendation and a promotion. By April, Song Ya had offered him the deputy group leader position, but Xu Wuyi chose to remain with Fourth Squad and focus on cases.

• Zhou Bin reported that Fourth Squad had handled forty cases in two and a half months, and the team credited their efficiency to Xu Wuyi’s leadership and their improved teamwork.
• Zhou Bin told Xu Wuyi that Song Ya wanted to hold a commendation meeting, but Xu Wuyi declined to attend because the cases were not finished.
• By April, Fourth Squad had solved six more cases, prompting Song Ya to visit and observe how the team worked.
• Song Ya offered Xu Wuyi the deputy group leader position, but Xu Wuyi declined and said he wanted to stay with Fourth Squad and focus on cases.
• Song Ya accepted Xu Wuyi’s decision and encouraged him to keep it up.

Xu Wuyi left the Inspection Department after three months with the Fourth Squad, seeking solitude to digest his experiences and approach the Grandmaster realm. He said goodbye to his teammates without revealing his identity, then walked out of headquarters.

• Xu Wuyi decided to leave the Inspection Department so he could quietly digest what he had learned and prepare to break through to the Grandmaster realm.
• Xu Wuyi told the Fourth Squad that he was leaving, and the team members feared that someone had pressured him.
• Xu Wuyi explained that his assignment had always been temporary and said his teammates only needed to know he had been their captain.
• Xu Wuyi shook hands and embraced the Fourth Squad, then left after telling Fang Xiaoxiao they might meet again if fate allowed.
• Xu Wuyi left headquarters after bidding farewell to Minister Luo.

After leaving the Inspection Department, Xu Wuyi settled into a secluded courtyard in Xingjing and began living alone among ordinary neighbors. As his Heart Image continued to grow, he kept his distance from society while seeking a higher understanding of order.

• Xu Wuyi entered the hidden courtyard he had bought under a false identity and took stock of his new home.
• Xu Wuyi reflected that he had finally stopped pursuing missions and goals, then sensed that his Heart Image had grown in quality but remained one step from a breakthrough.
• Xu Wuyi went to the neighborhood market, bought vegetables, and told an elderly vendor that he lived alone in the courtyard at the end of the hutong.
• Xu Wuyi returned home and considered the ordinary routines of his neighbors while deliberately avoiding closer contact with them.
• Xu Wuyi resolved to break away from society’s rules and view order from a higher vantage point so he could understand and control it.

Xu Wuyi spent months in seclusion as his Heart Image absorbed the true meaning of "Mountain" and his accumulated power. After the Great Marsh vanished and the blue sun became a pale-blue sphere, he understood that it embodied order and that he had become a Grandmaster.

• Xu Wuyi followed a quiet daily routine while watching the blue sun absorb the dark-golden Great Marsh in his sea of consciousness.
• Xu Wuyi realized that his Heart Image was transforming as his path absorbed the strength of his foundations.
• By mid-May, Xu Wuyi meditated for two days as the Great Marsh vanished and its power merged into the great sun.
• The great sun became a flawless pale-blue sphere, and Xu Wuyi understood that flame, gravity, and his other laws had fused into a higher law of order.
• Xu Wuyi touched the sphere, recognized it as the Heart of Order, and became a Grandmaster.

Xu Wuyi reached the Grandmaster realm and learned to draw upon heaven and earth through his Heart of Order. He tested his Flame of Order with a vast pillar of fire that disrupted the order of the surrounding world, leaving him aware that he was its arsonist.

• Xu Wuyi sensed his connection to heaven and earth and understood how a Grandmaster externalized the Heart Image to draw upon its power.
• Xu Wuyi summoned the Flame of Order and discovered it had become a manifestation of heaven-and-earth energy rather than his own power.
• Xu Wuyi expanded the flame into a pillar that climbed about fifteen hundred meters before the Heart of Order began to tremble.
• The pillar disrupted the air, light, and sound around it, while ordinary people nearby felt their familiar surroundings become strange.
• Xu Wuyi sensed the chaos and bewilderment caused by his flame and recognized himself as the arsonist.

Xu Wuyi’s breakthrough created an azure pillar of fire and an unfamiliar Grandmaster aura that alarmed powerful figures across Xingjing. As Grandmasters rushed toward the western district, the chapter left the source of the strange breakthrough under growing scrutiny.

• Feng Zhuohua sensed an unfamiliar Grandmaster aura, saw the azure pillar of fire in the western district, and hurried toward it.
• Zhao Cizhou recognized the aura as Xu Wuyi’s and rushed from the Zhao family residence to investigate.
• Lin Jianyi recognized Xu Wuyi’s aura, felt gratified, and left his courtyard for the western district.
• More than a dozen Grandmasters across Xingjing sensed the strange breakthrough and began heading toward its source.
• A black-robed elder and a Military Department officer questioned the unknown Grandmaster’s origins and sped toward the western district.
• A frail white-haired old woman rose from the western district as the commotion drew Grandmasters closer.

Xu Wuyi advanced to the Grandmaster realm and discovered that his Flame of Order had created a space where he could gather fragments of burned order. He began forming a domain but dispersed it to focus on stabilizing his new power, while Grandmasters across Xingjing watched him.

• An old woman recognized the pillar of blue fire as an ability that could burn order and rushed toward it as more than ten Grandmasters gathered above Xingjing.
• Xu Wuyi understood that advancing to Grandmaster let him draw on the energy of heaven and earth, then recalled the pillar of fire into his palm.
• Xu Wuyi sensed that the flame had gathered the fragments of order it burned into a disordered space beneath the old locust tree.
• Xu Wuyi drew the fragments together into a spinning sphere and realized he had begun constructing a domain, the second step of a Grandmaster.
• Xu Wuyi dispersed the sphere to give himself time to stabilize his new realm, then noticed the wary and curious gazes of Grandmasters across Xingjing.

After Xu Wuyi advanced to the Grandmaster realm, Feng Zhuohua, Zhao Cizhou, Lin Jianyi, and more than a dozen Grandmasters gathered to congratulate him. Several Grandmasters welcomed him and learned that his Heart Image burned order, and the chapter ended with Feng Zhuohua, Zhao Cizhou, and Lin Jianyi remaining after the others left.

• Feng Zhuohua visited Xu Wuyi and congratulated him on reaching the Grandmaster realm.
• Zhao Cizhou and Lin Jianyi arrived and congratulated Xu Wuyi, with Lin Jianyi crediting his own comprehension for the breakthrough.
• More than a dozen Grandmasters gathered around the courtyard, and Feng Zhuohua confirmed Xu Wuyi had advanced that day.
• Zhou Boyong congratulated Xu Wuyi and praised his remarkable youth and potential.
• An elderly Grandmaster asked Xu Wuyi what his flame burned, and Xu Wuyi answered that it burned order; she offered to help him in the future.
• The other Grandmasters departed, and Zhao Cizhou explained that they welcomed Xu Wuyi as a promising ally on the battlefield.

After Xu Wuyi became a Grandmaster, Feng Zhuohua took him to meet Lu Shaoyuan, chairman of the Supreme Council. Lu Shaoyuan focused on Xu Wuyi’s unusual Heart Image and told him it qualified him to reach beyond the Grandmaster realm.

• Lin Jianyi and Zhao Cizhou left after advising Xu Wuyi to consolidate his new realm.
• Feng Zhuohua told Xu Wuyi that news of his breakthrough had reached Lu Shaoyuan, who wanted to meet him that night.
• Feng Zhuohua brought Xu Wuyi to the Supreme Council Building to meet its chairman, Lu Shaoyuan.
• Lu Shaoyuan reviewed Xu Wuyi’s background and said his Heart Image, which burned order, was unlike any he had encountered among Federation Grandmasters.
• Lu Shaoyuan told Xu Wuyi that his Heart Image qualified him to touch the realm beyond Grandmaster.

Lu Shaoyuan explained Xu Wuyi’s command of order and his path toward forming a domain, while Shen Jin revealed the Astral Battlefield’s summoning contests, rival civilizations, and outposts. The chapter ended with Xu Wuyi learning that the Federation needed him to grow strong enough to help defend its standing in future battles.

• Lu Shaoyuan described the three stages of grandmaster cultivation and told Xu Wuyi that his Heart Image of order could encompass every rule, then said the Federation needed him to carry on the fight on the Astral Battlefield.
• Xu Wuyi began drawing the courtyard’s scattered fragments of order into a forming domain, and the Military Department delivered his grandmaster supplies, upgrading Anna to a self-aware Limit-Breaking Level Smart Brain.
• Xu Wuyi agreed to make his advancement public, and the Federation announced that he was its youngest grandmaster at twenty-three, prompting reactions at Star Martial University and among Zheng Mingchuan and the Zhao family.
• Shen Jin visited Xu Wuyi and explained that the Astral Battlefield summoned grandmasters from competing civilizations, rewarded their performance, and centered its fiercest struggles on valuable Star Realm outposts.
• Shen Jin revealed that the Star Origin Federation controlled three secret outposts and faced stronger rivals in the Azure Star Realm and True Dragon Star Realm, then urged Xu Wuyi to grow strong enough to represent the Federation in a future summoning.

Xu Wuyi returned to Star Martial University after becoming the Federation’s youngest Grandmaster, reunited with Teacher Han Mo, and traveled to the Western Desert to visit Flame Venerable. After welcoming Xu Wuyi, Flame Venerable asked which stage of Grandmaster cultivation he had reached.

• Xu Wuyi reflected on Shen Jin’s warning that Grandmaster was only the beginning, then left Xingjing for Star Martial University.
• Xu Wuyi reunited with Han Mo, shared how he had advanced, and told him he planned to visit Flame Venerable in the Western Desert.
• Tana welcomed Xu Wuyi to the Western Desert, and Prince Tamur hosted a family dinner and arranged his meeting with Flame Venerable.
• Xu Wuyi met Flame Venerable at East Garden, and Flame Venerable asked which of the three Grandmaster stages he had reached.

Xu Wuyi learned how to cultivate and fight as a Grandmaster from the Flame Venerable, who warned him to develop his Heart Image slowly and strengthen his body. After sparring for several days, Xu Wuyi began attaching his order force to physical attacks and left for Honghe to develop his own martial arts.

• The Flame Venerable advised Xu Wuyi to let his domain form gradually, visualize his Heart Image, explore ways to apply his laws, and keep tempering his body.
• Xu Wuyi met Wufei, answered her questions about his path to becoming a Grandmaster, and encouraged her training.
• The Flame Venerable and Xu Wuyi clashed their flame and order laws, revealing that Xu Wuyi's diffuse order force could disrupt but not seriously threaten an equal opponent.
• The Flame Venerable taught Xu Wuyi different applications of laws, and Xu Wuyi discovered that attaching order force to a punch could briefly disrupt the Flame Venerable's flame laws.
• After further sparring, Xu Wuyi decided to return to Honghe to develop his own martial arts and later consult the Federation Research Institute.

After returning to Honghe City, Xu Wuyi studied how to integrate the rules of order into his spear techniques and developed a method for disrupting order through his spear. After fifteen days of training, he mastered three applications and named his first self-created spear technique “Chaos.”

• Xu Wuyi left the Western Desert, returned to Honghe City, and was welcomed at the airport by the mayor before reuniting with his parents at home.
• Xu Wuyi studied Federation martial arts materials and drew on the Nether Heaven-Balancing Spear to find a way to borrow existing order rather than merely channeling his own power.
• Xu Wuyi tested his idea in the underground training room, using his spear to disrupt order in a flowerpot and then shatter a training dummy.
• Xu Wuyi recorded and analyzed his attempts with Anna, refining three effective combinations: a focused straight thrust, an instantaneous point thrust, and continuous diagonal thrusts.
• After fifteen days of systematic practice, Xu Wuyi mastered all three applications and named his first self-created spear technique “Chaos.”

Xu Wuyi perfected new Order Law spear techniques during his training in Honghe, then answered Feng Zhuohua’s request to help guard the Dark Nether Rift while Grandmaster Ren Bai remained inside confronting a Beast King. After annihilating a massive Star Beast tide, Xu Wuyi entered the rift to find Ren Bai, leaving the outpost to request help if they did not return within ten days.

• Xu Wuyi developed Lawbreaker and Bloodbreaker, refined his perception-distorting tricks, and learned to make a spear thrust more likely to hit.
• Feng Zhuohua told Xu Wuyi that Grandmaster Ren Bai had been inside the Dark Nether Rift for two months holding off a Beast King, so Xu Wuyi agreed to reinforce the outpost.
• Xu Wuyi arrived at the outpost and learned that repeated Star Beast tides had injured Tang Xiuqi and killed seven martial artists; Tang Xiuqi was recovering in seclusion.
• A tide of over a thousand Star Beasts and two commanders emerged, and Xu Wuyi used Deconstruction to erase them all in seconds.
• Xu Wuyi warned Su Yueling and Zhao Kun to request military aid if he and Ren Bai had not returned within ten days, then walked into the Dark Nether Rift.

Xu Wuyi entered the rift to rescue Ren Bai and killed the two Beast Kings trapping him with his unusual Order Laws. Ren Bai then revealed the full power of his Shadow Sword Technique, and Xu Wuyi began collecting the Beast King's corpse for the Military Department.

• Xu Wuyi entered the rift, found Ren Bai facing two Beast Kings, and learned Ren Bai could last only half a month without fighting or three days in battle.
• Xu Wuyi killed the Ape-Form Beast King with three spear techniques that disrupted its laws, sealed its blood and energy, and cut off its senses.
• Xu Wuyi weakened the Tiger-Form Beast King with repeated spear thrusts, then shattered its attack by breaking the laws that sustained, guided, and targeted it.
• Ren Bai used his Shadow Sword Technique to kill the wounded Tiger-Form Beast King from within with countless sword rays.
• Ren Bai praised Xu Wuyi's spear techniques and told him to collect the Beast King's valuable corpse for the Military Department.

Xu Wuyi and Ren Bai returned from the Dark Nether Rift, and the Federation ordered it permanently closed after learning that a second Beast King had appeared. As Shen Jin’s team began the operation, a massive beast tide poured through the shrinking rift, and Xu Wuyi single-handedly killed the entire horde while preserving its corpses.

• Xu Wuyi carried a Beast King’s corpse out of the rift with Ren Bai, and Ren Bai explained that the rift’s Star Realm might be growing unstable.
• Ren Bai and Xu Wuyi recommended permanently closing the Dark Nether Rift, and the Military Department approved the plan and sent Shen Jin to lead the operation.
• Shen Jin arrived with technicians and equipment, and the team began shrinking the rift with energy neutralizers.
• As the rift narrowed, more than two thousand Star Beasts and four Grand Commander Level beasts poured into the real world.
• Xu Wuyi spread his Order Force across the horde, killed the Star Beasts while leaving their bodies intact, and finished the four commanders with four spear thrusts.

Xu Wuyi helped protect the Dark Nether Rift closure operation by suppressing a powerful Beast King’s assault, allowing Shen Jin to wound it and drive it back. After three more peaceful days, the rift closed completely, and the outpost celebrated.

• Xu Wuyi killed more than two thousand Star Beasts and four Great Commanders while preserving their corpses intact, and the Martial Artists collected the valuable materials.
• Ren Bai noticed abnormal energy fluctuations in the shrinking rift, and Shen Jin warned Xu Wuyi and the others to prepare for trouble.
• When the rift erupted and its neutralization devices exploded, Xu Wuyi used the power of order to seal the opening against a powerful Beast King.
• Shen Jin struck the Beast King with his Divine Intent blade, wounded it, and forced it to retreat into the Star Realm.
• Xu Wuyi and Shen Jin kept watch as technicians repaired the equipment, and three days later the rift vanished completely.

After helping close the Dark Nether Rift, Xu Wuyi traveled to Xingjing to refine his martial arts at the research institute. He improved his spear techniques and began exploring how to create new rules, while agreeing to help the Qiao Family harvest Star Beasts at seven rifts after his research was complete.

• Xu Wuyi left the Dark Nether Rift for Xingjing and met Ye Guanlan, who arranged his stay at the research institute.
• Xu Wuyi agreed to help Qiao Tongyu's Dongjiang Battle Group harvest Star Beasts at seven rifts for seventy percent of the profits once he finished his research.
• Ye Guanlan's team helped Xu Wuyi optimize his power-of-order transmission, reducing its loss rate to 4.3 percent and strengthening his Lawbreaker technique.
• Xu Wuyi practiced combining his spear strikes with perception interference until the effects became an automatic part of his technique.
• Ye Guanlan proposed that Xu Wuyi use his Heart Image power to create new rules, such as disrupting gravity or slowing time.

Xu Wuyi spent a month at the institute learning to create new rules, then traveled to Dongjiang to help Qiao Tongyu’s battle group clear the Green Cliff Rift. After inspecting the rift and finding seven Grand Commanders and about 3,500 ordinary Star Beasts, Xu Wuyi prepared to lead the operation, which was set to begin the next morning.

• Xu Wuyi studied flame and gravity under Ye Guanlan’s training plan and successfully created a basic Gravity Imbalance rule in a simulated space.
• Xu Wuyi completed his institute training, had his research classified as top Federation secrets, and traveled to Dongjiang.
• Zhao Kun picked Xu Wuyi up at the airport and took him to meet Qiao Tongyu and Qiao Zhiyao at the Green Cliff Rift camp.
• Qiao Zhiyao reunited with Xu Wuyi as a newly advanced Xiantian Martial Master and joined the preparations to observe the operation.
• Xu Wuyi sensed seven Grand Commanders and about 3,500 ordinary Star Beasts behind the Green Cliff Rift and agreed to lead the attack the following morning.
• Before dawn on the planned operation day, Xu Wuyi waited at camp as Qiao Tongyu approached him.