Chapter Summaries

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen, after defeating the outer sect disciple, returns to the cave where A-Nan is. He finds her in critical condition, her body expelling impurities.
• Lu Chen cleans A-Nan's face gently. He notices the City-Guarding Stele's pressure is helping A-Nan's bone transformation.
• Lu Chen sorts through the spoils from the outer sect disciple's storage bag. He swallows several century-old spirit herbs whole, using his body as a furnace to refine them.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen: He shows gentleness and care towards A-Nan, contrasting with his brutal strength. He also demonstrates his unique method of refining spirit herbs by swallowing them whole.
• A-Nan: She is in a critical state, her body undergoing a difficult transformation. She is unconscious but stable.

Significant Themes

• The harshness of the immortal sects towards the lower classes, as seen in the guards' treatment of the mud-legged peasants.
• The power of the Ultimate Dao Furnace, demonstrated by Lu Chen's ability to refine spirit herbs by swallowing them whole.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and A-Nan: Lu Chen cares for A-Nan, showing a tender side despite his brutal strength. Their bond deepens.
• The guards and the mud-legged peasants: The guards show no mercy towards the peasants, highlighting the power imbalance and harsh treatment of the lower classes by the immortal sects.

Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The City Lord's steward reports that the outer sect squad sent to Immortal-Breaking Mountain has been wiped out.
• Chen Yuanshan, a Foundation Establishment Realm retainer, arrives and accuses the City Lord of being confused. He believes a severely wounded demonic cultivator is responsible and demands the city's reserve cavalry to pursue and capture him.
• In the outer city, Old Zhang, a seemingly weak and submissive old man, kills a guard who was harassing him and his grandson, revealing a hidden strength and ruthlessness.

Character Developments

• Chen Yuanshan: Greed clouds his judgment, leading him to disregard sect rules and pursue a nonexistent treasure, putting the City Lord's life in danger.
• Old Zhang: Initially portrayed as a weak and submissive old man, he reveals hidden strength and ruthlessness when protecting his grandson, indicating a secret past or power.

Significant Themes

• Greed vs. Caution: Chen Yuanshan's greed leads him to act recklessly, while the City Lord's caution allows him to survive the encounter.
• The Powerless vs. The Powerful: Old Zhang, a seemingly powerless mortal, reveals hidden strength and defies the powerful cultivator guard, challenging the power dynamics.

Character Interactions

• Chen Yuanshan and the City Lord: Chen Yuanshan's greed and disregard for the City Lord's safety lead to a tense interaction, with the City Lord forced to comply with Chen's demands.
• Old Zhang and the Guard: Old Zhang's initial submissiveness gives way to fierce resistance and ruthlessness when protecting his grandson, leading to a violent confrontation with the guard.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen, after depleting his qi and blood, seeks high-grade blood food.
• He encounters a second-rank demon beast, a Rock-Cracking Bear, which he defeats and consumes to replenish his strength.
• Lu Chen's physical body strength breaks through to the twelfth stage of Iron Cloth Shirt.
• A-Nan, in her sleep, unconsciously crushes a boulder, demonstrating her newfound jade bone strength.
• A heavily armored cavalry force, riding Ironclad Rhinos, approaches the cave.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen's physical strength and power increase significantly after consuming the Rock-Cracking Bear.
• A-Nan's jade bones have formed, granting her immense physical strength, though she's still adapting to it.

Significant Themes

• The power of the Ultimate Dao, focused on physical strength and consuming raw flesh to replenish qi and blood.
• The awakening of A-Nan's jade bones, symbolizing her growth and potential.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and A-Nan's relationship remains one of protection and care, with Lu Chen bringing back food for A-Nan.
• The impending arrival of the heavily armored cavalry force suggests potential conflict or confrontation with Lu Chen.

Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Elder drags a guard's corpse into his cellar to hide the evidence of his murder.
• Fourth Li, the firewood seller next door, witnesses the act but helps conceal it.
• A group of guards, led by a commander, search Zhang Elder's courtyard but fail to find the corpse due to the alliance of lowly mortals' interference and the City-Guarding Stele fragment's ability to conceal blood aura.
• The guards leave, satisfied that the courtyard is empty, and Zhang Elder and Fourth Li celebrate their successful deception.

Character Developments

• Zhang Elder: Transforms from a timid, submissive old man to a ruthless and determined individual after witnessing the young man's defiance against cultivators.
• Fourth Li: Overcomes his fear and timidity, joining Zhang Elder in defying the guards and hiding the corpse.

Significant Themes

• Defiance against oppressive authority (cultivators and their lackeys).
• Unity among the oppressed (lowly mortals) against their suppressors.
• The power of resistance and the breaking of mental shackles.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Elder and Fourth Li: Form an alliance to hide the corpse and defy the guards, demonstrating mutual trust and determination.
• The lowly mortals of Mud Alley: Secretly work together to hinder the guards' search, showcasing their newfound unity and courage.
• The guards and their commander: Display their arrogance and disdain for the lowly mortals, contributing to their eventual downfall.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Yuanshan, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, leads thirty Black-Iron heavy cavalrymen into Immortal-Breaking Mountain, following a trail of destruction left by Lu Chen.
• They discover a massive trench, evidence of Lu Chen's passage, and Chen Yuanshan uses a Bloodthirst Compass to track Lu Chen's location.
• The heavy cavalry advances towards a cave on the mountainside, where Lu Chen is hiding.

Character Developments

• Chen Yuanshan: Initially arrogant, he becomes cautious and greedy upon realizing the power of the secret treasure Lu Chen possesses. He turns ruthless, ordering his men to seize the treasure at any cost.
• Lu Chen: Remains calm and composed, observing the enemy's approach without revealing his presence. He's ready to ambush them.

Significant Themes

• Power and Greed: Chen Yuanshan's greed for power drives him to pursue Lu Chen, disregarding the danger.
• Hunting and Prey: Lu Chen sees the cultivators as prey, reflecting his survival instincts and the harsh conditions he's faced in the forbidden zone.
• Cultivation World's Logic: Cultivators rely on their understanding of the world to deduce information, which can lead them astray (e.g., Chen Yuanshan's incorrect assumptions about Lu Chen).

Character Interactions

• Chen Yuanshan and his Men: Chen Yuanshan commands his men with authority, expecting them to follow his orders without question, even to their deaths.
• Lu Chen and the Cultivators: Lu Chen observes the cultivators from a distance, preparing to ambush them. There's no interaction yet, but the tension builds as they approach his hiding spot.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen hides in a tree above a cave, guarding A-Nan inside.
• Thirty Black-Iron Heavy Cavalry, led by Chen Yuanshan, arrive to seize the thirty-thousand-jin black stele blocking the cave.
• Lu Chen reveals himself, falling from the sky and smashing the lead Ironclad Rhino, demonstrating his overwhelming strength and brutal combat style.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen: Shows his primal, beast-like instincts in guarding his territory and A-Nan. He uses his ultimate strength and brutal combat style to devastating effect.
• Chen Yuanshan: Demonstrates his cunning and caution as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, sending subordinates to probe the cave before acting himself.

Significant Themes

• The suppression of spiritual energy and formations within the stele's domain, highlighting the power of archaic artifacts and the vulnerability of cultivators without their spells.
• The brutal nature of combat and the stark contrast between Lu Chen's primal strength and the flashy, yet ultimately fragile, spells of cultivators.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen vs. Black-Iron Heavy Cavalry: Lu Chen demonstrates his overwhelming power and brutality against the heavily armed cavalry, easily overpowering them within the stele's domain.
• Chen Yuanshan vs. Lu Chen: Chen Yuanshan attempts to use subordinates to probe the cave, revealing his cautious nature and fear of Lu Chen's power.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen, clad in twelve layers of Iron Cloth Shirt, falls from the sky and lands on an Ironclad Rhino, killing it instantly.
• He smashes the head of the heavy cavalryman riding the rhino with a single strike.
• The remaining heavy cavalrymen attack Lu Chen with their spears, but his skin membrane is too hard to penetrate.
• Lu Chen turns around, grabs two spears, and uses them to crush two cavalrymen into their armor.
• He then charges into the remaining cavalrymen, killing them all with his bare hands and sheer physical strength.
• Chen Yuanshan, watching from above, decides to intervene and uses his peak Foundation Establishment Realm power to create ten Azurewood Demon-Slaying Sword Auras to strike down Lu Chen.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen demonstrates his incredible physical strength and durability, easily overpowering the heavily armed cavalrymen.
• Chen Yuanshan shows his desperation and willingness to use his full power to stop Lu Chen.

Significant Themes

• The power of physical cultivation and the Ultimate Dao is emphasized, contrasting with the more common spiritual energy-based cultivation.
• The theme of desperation and the lengths one will go to protect their interests is shown through Chen Yuanshan's actions.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and the heavy cavalrymen clash, with Lu Chen easily overpowering them.
• Chen Yuanshan watches Lu Chen's actions from above, leading him to decide to intervene.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ten Azurewood Demon-Slaying Sword Auras descend, annihilating trees and soldiers.
• Lu Chen withstands the attack, using his Iron Cloth Shirt and blood qi to disperse the sword qii.
• Chen Yuanshan is shocked to find Lu Chen has no spiritual qi or dantian.
• Lu Chen hurls a rhino carcass and a heavy spear at Chen Yuanshan, creating a blood curtain to hide his movements.
• Lu Chen drags Chen Yuanshan out of the air using a chain and breaks his ankle.
• Chen Yuanshan uses an Azureedge Sword Jade talisman, creating a protective sword qi barrier.
• Lu Chen forcefully tears apart the sword qi barrier with his bare hands, revealing a gap.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen demonstrates immense physical strength, resilience, and ferocity, even without spiritual qi or cultivation.
• Chen Yuanshan reveals his desperation and panic as he faces Lu Chen's relentless assault.

Significant Themes

• The disparity between Lu Chen's mortal body and the immortal cultivators' powers highlights the theme of the underdog.
• The theme of relentless determination is shown through Lu Chen's refusal to retreat or yield, even when faced with overwhelming odds.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and Chen Yuanshan engage in a one-sided battle, with Lu Chen continuously adapting and countering Chen Yuanshan's attacks.
• The interaction between their powers and Lu Chen's mortal body emphasizes the unique nature of his strength and resilience.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen, despite lacking a dantian, uses overwhelming physical strength to tear apart Chen Yuanshan’s Azurewood Sword-Qi Barrier, a powerful Foundation Establishment defensive formation.
• Before Chen Yuanshan can surrender, Lu Chen punches through the remaining barrier and destroys his dantian. The resulting backlash of uncontrolled true essence tears Chen’s body apart, killing him brutally.
• The surviving Black-Iron cavalrymen panic and flee. Lu Chen does not pursue them—not out of mercy, but because his body is suffering severe backlash from enduring the formation’s sword aura with twelve layers of qi and blood.
• Chen Yuanshan’s corpse attracts demon beasts, which devour his remains, reducing a once-powerful immortal cultivator to mere food in the wilderness.
• Far away in Western Wasteland Province, a blood-red glow appears on an ancient ancestral bone at the Desolate Scion Altar. An elderly priest interprets this as proof that the Desolate Scion bloodline still survives.
• At the cave near Immortal-Breaking Mountain, the City-Guarding Stele reacts faintly to the bloodshed outside. Inside, A-Nan’s body continues transforming, with jade bones beginning to emerge and her senses becoming extraordinarily sharp.
• Lu Chen returns to the cave injured and covered in blood. A-Nan senses the danger and his wounds, but he hides his pain, reassures her, covers her with the wolf pelt, and promises to find her food.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen: Demonstrates that his physical body has reached a terrifying level, strong enough to destroy a Foundation Establishment formation and kill its wielder with one punch. However, the feat severely injures him, emphasizing both his immense power and its physical cost. His tenderness toward A-Nan contrasts sharply with his brutality in battle.
• Chen Yuanshan: His confidence in immortal cultivation and his protective formation collapse completely. His death illustrates the fragility of conventional cultivation before Lu Chen’s extreme physical strength.
• A-Nan: Her constitution continues evolving. Though blind, her enhanced senses allow her to detect killing intent, physical presence, and changes outside the cave with remarkable precision. She remains physically vulnerable, suffering from heat, hunger, and exhaustion.
• The Desolate Scion Priest: Experiences overwhelming excitement and renewed faith after sensing the ancestral bone’s blood-red awakening, suggesting that A-Nan—or someone connected to her—may carry the surviving Desolate Scion bloodline.

Significant Themes

• Physical strength versus spiritual cultivation: Lu Chen’s mortal body defeats a trained Foundation Establishment cultivator and exposes the limitations of relying solely on conventional immortal power.
• The cost of power: Lu Chen wins decisively but is left convulsing and bleeding, showing that extraordinary strength demands an equally extraordinary physical price.
• The collapse of status before nature: Chen Yuanshan’s age, cultivation, and social position mean nothing after death; demon beasts consume him according to the indifferent laws of the wilderness.
• Reawakening ancestry and hidden bloodlines: The ancestral bone’s glow and the priest’s reaction hint at the return of a supposedly severed lineage and connect A-Nan’s transformation to a larger historical or racial mystery.
• Violence and tenderness: Lu Chen is a terrifying killer outside the cave but gentle and protective toward A-Nan, revealing the emotional core behind his savage survivalism.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and Chen Yuanshan: Their confrontation is entirely one-sided after Lu Chen breaks the sword formation. Chen Yuanshan’s fear and attempted surrender are ignored as Lu Chen immediately ends the threat.
• Lu Chen and the fleeing cavalrymen: The soldiers’ perception of Lu Chen changes from viewing him as an enemy to seeing him as an inhuman monster. Their panic underscores his dominance.
• The Desolate Scion priest and the ancestral altar: The priest responds to the ancestral bone’s awakening with reverence and joy, treating it as confirmation that the bloodline and ancestral dignity endure.
• Lu Chen and A-Nan: Their relationship is marked by trust and protection. A-Nan recognizes the danger surrounding him and expresses her weakness, while Lu Chen deliberately conceals his wounds and violence to preserve her sense of safety.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen forcibly destroys the Foundation Establishment cultivator Chen Yuanshan’s divine-sense seal on his storage ring, enduring severe spiritual pain and cuts to his hand. He then breaks the ring’s storage formation and scatters its contents.
• He consumes several powerful century-old snow ginseng roots, using the Ultimate Dao Furnace to neutralize their deadly cold poison and refine their medicinal power into a drop of heart’s blood.
• Lu Chen feeds the heart’s blood to the feverish, blind A-Nan, stabilizing her condition and allowing her to fall into a peaceful sleep. He also consumes Qi-Gathering and Spring-Returning Pills, extracting their life force to repair his damaged body and restore his strength.
• Carrying the thirty-thousand-jin City-Guarding Stele, Lu Chen travels deep into Immortal-Breaking Mountain. He buries the stele in a miasma-filled valley, turning it into a defensive camp and secure retreat point.
• To protect A-Nan, Lu Chen binds her against his chest beneath a clean Azure Firmament Sword Sect robe. He covers himself with a divine-sense-shielding cloak, concealing his identity and terrifying injuries.
• In Black Mud City, the city lord hears reports of Chen Yuanshan’s death and panics. Unable to understand Lu Chen’s purely physical strength, he assumes that a powerful Core Formation demonic cultivator or Blood Demon Sect expert is responsible. He orders the city sealed and its defensive formation activated.
• Chen Yuanshan’s death also causes his soul lamp in the Azure Firmament Sword Sect to shatter, alerting an inner sect elder.
• In a poor alley, Old Man Zhang mourns while holding a fragment of the Dao Stele. Inspired by its symbolism, he gives the fragment to his grandson and declares that people whose bones do not bend can still break the necks of immortals.
• Lu Chen enters the black market’s fog, intent on attacking the lawless underground market with only one arm available to fight while the other protects A-Nan. His buried stele responds with a deep hum, and the two guards at the bone gate sense his overwhelming killing intent despite detecting no true essence.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen: Demonstrates extraordinary endurance, physical dominance, and fierce determination. His actions reveal that protecting A-Nan is his highest priority; she is his “reverse scale.” Though badly injured, he restores himself through brutal consumption of spirit medicines and prepares to confront the black market directly.
• A-Nan: Remains unconscious and vulnerable, but Lu Chen’s care and the heart’s blood stabilize her illness. Her presence gives emotional purpose to Lu Chen’s violence and shapes every tactical decision he makes.
• Black Mud City’s city lord: His confidence collapses after hearing of Chen Yuanshan’s defeat. He relies on fearful speculation and scapegoating, wrongly blaming a legendary demonic cultivator rather than recognizing Lu Chen’s mortal martial path.
• Old Man Zhang: Experiences a sudden moral and emotional awakening. Once timid and resigned, he straightens his back and passes a message of defiance and courage to his grandson.
• Chen Yuanshan: Though dead, his defeat has consequences beyond the immediate battle: his death alarms the Azure Firmament Sword Sect and throws the surrounding powers into fear.

Significant Themes

• Mortal strength versus immortal cultivation: Lu Chen defeats cultivators without spells, true essence, or conventional techniques, challenging the assumed superiority of immortals.
• Protection and sacrifice: Lu Chen’s willingness to endure pain and limit himself to one fighting arm shows that protecting A-Nan matters more than preserving his own strength.
• Defiance against oppression: Old Man Zhang’s declaration reflects the chapter’s broader message that ordinary people can resist seemingly invincible immortals if they refuse to submit.
• Fear and misunderstanding: The city lord cannot comprehend Lu Chen’s power and therefore invents a demonic explanation, showing how fear distorts judgment.
• Burden and liberation: The massive stele represents both a physical burden and a symbol of responsibility. Once Lu Chen leaves it as a camp, he becomes faster and freer while still remaining connected to its power.
• The rise of a legend: Lu Chen’s actions begin generating rumors, panic, and symbolic resistance, transforming him from an individual fighter into a figure capable of inspiring both fear and hope.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and A-Nan: Their relationship is defined by protection and tenderness amid violence. Lu Chen uses precious medicine to save her, carries her against his chest, and refuses to leave her unguarded.
• The city lord and surviving soldiers: The soldiers report Chen Yuanshan’s death in terror, while the city lord responds with panic and orders a citywide lockdown.
• Old Man Zhang and his grandson: Their exchange turns personal grief into a lesson in courage. Zhang gives the boy the stele fragment and teaches him that unyielding people can challenge immortals.
• Lu Chen and the black-market guards: They have not yet fought, but the guards feel his approach as an overwhelming killing intent. The encounter ends on the threshold of confrontation, with Lu Chen preparing to “knock open” the black gate through sheer physical force.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen approaches the hidden underground black market beneath Immortal-Breaking Mountain, deliberately leaving an obvious trail and concealing most of his body beneath a black cloak.
• At the entrance, two impoverished early Qi Refinement Realm guards complain about Black Mud City’s sudden lockdown and the resulting price inflation in the gray market.
• Lu Chen’s powerful pure-yang blood vitality causes the surrounding miasma to stop, the air to heat dramatically, and a muddy pool beneath him to boil and dry.
• When one guard challenges him for identification, Lu Chen ignores him and demonstrates his overwhelming physical strength by stomping a bluestone into powder. The resulting force travels through the ground and drives both guards to their knees.
• A glimpse of Lu Chen’s right arm, wrapped in a bloodstained Black-Iron Chain, terrifies the guards. The lingering Foundation Establishment-level aura on the blood suggests that Lu Chen recently killed or tore apart a Foundation Establishment cultivator with his bare hands.
• Lu Chen forcibly pushes open the several-thousand-jin bone gate using only his physical strength, without true essence or spellcraft.
• He enters the underground marketplace, revealing a vast karst cavern filled with hundreds of rogue cultivators trading stolen artifacts, inferior pills, and other illicit goods.
• The marketplace falls silent as Lu Chen’s entrance causes widespread alarm. His murderous aura and blood vitality overwhelm nearby stallholders, while the other cultivators prepare weapons and defensive talismans.
• Lu Chen finally stops at the center of the market, protecting the mysterious cloth bundle against his chest while dozens of cultivators watch him with fear, suspicion, and greed.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen is portrayed as an overwhelmingly powerful body cultivator whose strength has advanced to an almost monstrous level. He relies entirely on physical force rather than spiritual techniques, emphasizing his confidence and dominance.
• His recent battle appears to have involved killing a Foundation Establishment Realm opponent, and the blood on his chain carries that enemy’s terrifying residual spiritual pressure.
• Lu Chen remains silent, composed, and purposeful. He neither explains himself nor reacts to threats, allowing his actions and aura to intimidate others.
• The two guards are established as weak, impoverished rogue cultivators. Their initial bravado collapses into panic when confronted with Lu Chen’s strength.
• The black-market cultivators are shown to be hardened and cautious, immediately reaching for weapons and talismans, yet even they are shaken by Lu Chen’s killing intent.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming physical power: Lu Chen’s ability to crush stone, boil water, shake the earth, and open a massive bone gate without spiritual energy highlights the terrifying potential of body cultivation.
• Intimidation and dominance: Rather than engaging in conversation or combat, Lu Chen controls the scene through his presence, silence, and killing intent.
• The brutality of the cultivation world: The bloodstained chain, illicit marketplace, stolen goods, and rogue cultivators “living by the blade” emphasize a violent and lawless society.
• Reputation through evidence: Lu Chen’s blood-covered chain and the aura of a slain Foundation Establishment cultivator function as silent proof of his dangerous strength.
• Hidden motives and suspense: The bundle Lu Chen carefully protects remains unexplained, creating anticipation about its contents and importance.

Character Interactions

• The guards’ casual complaints contrast sharply with Lu Chen’s arrival, and their attempted interrogation quickly turns into abject fear.
• Lu Chen does not verbally respond to the guards; instead, he communicates through demonstrations of force, forcing them to yield without a direct fight.
• His entrance transforms the relationship between him and the entire marketplace: hundreds of armed cultivators shift from conducting business to preparing for possible violence.
• Although the cultivators are numerous and initially alert, Lu Chen’s killing intent places him psychologically above them, making them hesitate while they assess whether to attack or retreat.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter begins with Zhang Elder and Fourth Li burying an immortal city guard's corpse in their cellar.
• Zhang Elder absorbs blood from the guard's corpse into a fragment of the City-Guarding Stele, which heals his broken waist and enhances his strength.
• Immortal city guards arrive, searching for the missing guard and intending to seize young children for the inner city's array.
• Zhang Elder's grandson is targeted by the guard captain.

Character Developments

• Zhang Elder: Transforms from a hunched, broken old man to a strong, determined individual after absorbing the blood and power from the City-Guarding Stele fragment.
• Fourth Li: Initially cowardly and submissive, he experiences a shift in his mindset, displaying a desire for power and a hint of blood-fierceness.
• Zhang Elder's grandson: Exhibits fear and vulnerability when targeted by the guard captain.

Significant Themes

• The disparity between immortals and mortals, with immortals exploiting and abusing mortals for their own gain.
• The transformative power of blood and the City-Guarding Stele fragment, symbolizing the potential for change and empowerment.
• The struggle between cowardice and courage, as seen in Fourth Li's internal conflict.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Elder and Fourth Li: Their dynamic shifts from a power imbalance (Zhang Elder's submissive state vs. Fourth Li's cowardice) to a potential partnership, with Zhang Elder taking a protective stance and Fourth Li experiencing a mental awakening.
• Zhang Elder and the guard captain: Their interaction highlights the power dynamics and the guard captain's disregard for mortal life.
• Zhang Elder and his grandson: Their relationship emphasizes the protective bond between them, with the grandson's fear contrasting with Zhang Elder's sudden display of strength and resolve.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• A-Nan awakens alone inside the sealed cave after Lu Chen leaves, protected by the enormous City-Guarding Stele and the Netherwind Wolf pelt.
• Following Lu Chen’s lingering scent, she reaches the stele and discovers that his powerful blood-and-vitality aura remains embedded within it.
• Her own bloodline, strengthened by the strange beast blood Lu Chen gave her, resonates with the stele’s stored energy. This causes an itching sensation in her hands.
• Without realizing her strength, A-Nan rubs the stele and effortlessly grinds part of the supposedly indestructible thirty-thousand-jin stone into fine powder, leaving a smooth indentation.
• Her newly reconstructed body proves extremely durable: walking barefoot over sharp gravel no longer injures her.
• Through a newly awakened bloodline-based perception, A-Nan senses life-forms outside the cave and detects the fear of nearby demonic beasts, which are avoiding the lingering killing aura Lu Chen left behind.
• She then senses the arrival of Song Que, an elite cultivator from the Azure Firmament Sword Sect. His overloaded spirit boat releases immense spiritual pressure as he rapidly approaches.
• A-Nan also detects the surrounding spiritual veins being disturbed as Song Que begins forming a powerful heaven-sealing formation around Immortal-Breaking Mountain.
• Frightened and uncomfortable beneath the cold spiritual pressure, A-Nan retreats beneath the wolf pelt and waits quietly for Lu Chen to return.

2. Character Developments

• A-Nan: Her physical transformation becomes increasingly evident. Her reconstructed flesh and jade-like bones are tough enough to withstand sharp stones and unconsciously pulverize powerful spiritual material. More importantly, her perception has expanded beyond ordinary sight, allowing her to sense vitality, bloodline energy, spiritual pressure, and changes in the earth’s spiritual veins.
• A-Nan remains mentally innocent and childlike. She does not understand that she has damaged the stele or demonstrated terrifying strength; she merely rubs it to relieve an itch and then worries about finding food and Lu Chen’s absence.
• Lu Chen: Although absent, his influence dominates the scene. His pure yang blood and savage killing aura protect the cave, frighten away nearby beasts, and resonate with A-Nan’s bloodline.
• Song Que: He is established as a powerful and urgent threat. His arrival is marked by overwhelming Foundation Establishment pressure and the ability to manipulate the spiritual energy of a wide region.

3. Significant Themes

• Innocence contrasted with overwhelming power: A-Nan performs an astonishing act of destruction with the casual behavior of a child, emphasizing the gap between her understanding and her actual strength.
• Bloodline awakening and transformation: The beast blood refined by Lu Chen is beginning to unlock A-Nan’s deeper abilities, connecting her to vitality, spiritual energy, and the surrounding natural world.
• Protection and dependence: Lu Chen’s lingering presence continues to shield A-Nan even while he is gone. Her final action—hiding and waiting for him—reinforces her emotional dependence on him.
• Predatory aura and territorial power: Lu Chen’s killing intent dominates the mountain and keeps weaker creatures away, suggesting that strength manifests not only through combat but also through presence and influence.
• Imminent danger: The cold spiritual pressure and heaven-sealing formation signal that the cave’s safety may soon be threatened.

4. Character Interactions

• A-Nan’s most important interaction is with Lu Chen indirectly: she follows his lingering warmth, resonates with the power he left inside the stele, and waits anxiously for his return.
• Her interaction with the City-Guarding Stele reveals her unconscious destructive strength, as the stone responds to the shared blood-and-vitality energy between her and Lu Chen.
• A-Nan perceives the surrounding demonic beasts but does not directly confront them; her presence and Lu Chen’s aura keep them at a distance.
• She also senses Song Que as a hostile external force. Although they do not meet directly, his spiritual pressure overwhelms her senses and drives her back into hiding.

Key Plot Points and Events

• An Azure Firmament Sword Sect spirit vessel arrives at Black Mud City, carrying Song Que, a steward from the inner sect.
• Song Que reveals that Chen Yuanshan, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was killed by a mortal without cultivation.
• Song Que orders the sealing of Immortal-Breaking Mountain and the diversion of water sources, aiming to trap and kill the mortal responsible for Chen Yuanshan's death.

Character Developments

• Song Que: Shows his ruthless and ambitious nature, prioritizing profit over the loss of a cultivator's life. He's determined to obtain the body-tempering method that allowed a mortal to defeat a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• Black Mud City Lord: Reveals his cowardice and incompetence, kowtowing to Song Que and trying to shift blame onto remnants of the Blood Demon Sect.

Significant Themes

• Power and Greed: Song Que's desire for the mysterious body-tempering method drives his actions, demonstrating the corrupting influence of power and greed.
• Cultivators vs. Mortals: The contrast between cultivators and mortals is highlighted, with cultivators seen as powerful but ruthless, and mortals as vulnerable but resourceful.

Character Interactions

• Song Que and the City Lord: Song Que shows no respect for the City Lord, treating him harshly and dismissively. The City Lord, in turn, tries to curry favor with Song Que but is ultimately disregarded.
• Song Que and the Elite Disciples: Song Que gives orders to the elite disciples without hesitation, expecting immediate obedience. The disciples follow his commands without question, demonstrating the hierarchical structure within the Azure Firmament Sword Sect.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen, a cultivator with uncontrollable pure-yang vitality and blood, enters Myriad Treasures Pavilion, the core trading hub of the underground black market.
• He presents a bundle containing high-grade spirit herbs, broken flying swords, and a top-grade storage ring (belonging to a Foundation Establishment cultivator) to the shopkeeper.
• The shopkeeper, seeing an opportunity, invites Lu Chen to a back treasure vault to discuss a deal, intending to activate a spirit-sealing formation to drain Lu Chen's power and kill him.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen: Shows no fear or caution, displaying confidence in his abilities despite his uncontrollable vital energy and blood. He remains calm and composed throughout the encounter.
• Shopkeeper: Reveals his greedy and treacherous nature, using the opportunity to set a trap for Lu Chen, intending to kill him and take his goods.

Significant Themes

• Greed and its consequences: The shopkeeper's greed for Lu Chen's goods leads him to underestimate Lu Chen's strength and set a trap, which could ultimately lead to his downfall.
• Appearances can be deceiving: Lu Chen's appearance and uncontrollable vital energy and blood lead the shopkeeper to underestimate him, while the shopkeeper's seemingly harmless appearance hides his treacherous nature.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and the Shopkeeper: Lu Chen remains silent and composed, while the shopkeeper tries to lure Lu Chen into the trap, displaying his greed and lack of caution.
• Itinerant Cultivators and Lu Chen: The cultivators in the hall initially show greed and curiosity towards Lu Chen but later express mockery and gloating as they believe he will fall for the shopkeeper's trap.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhang Elder, a humble farmer, is about to be killed by an immortal city guard for harboring a stolen stele fragment.
• Zhang's grandson hides behind him, and Zhang's left hand secretly grips the stele fragment.
• Zhang seizes the guard's spear with his bare hand, halting it inches from his throat, and Fourth Li, a pig butcher, stabs the guard from behind.
• A guard commander arrives, kicks Zhang, and wounds Fourth Li. Zhang, critically injured, clings to the commander's boot, urging Fourth Li to escape.
• Fourth Li crawls away through a secret passage, while the commander notices the stele fragment's power and becomes greedy.

Character Developments

• Zhang Elder: Transforms from a submissive, humble farmer to a defiant, courageous figure who sacrifices himself to save Fourth Li.
• Fourth Li: Grows from a trembling, fearful bystander to a determined survivor who escapes, carrying the spark of resistance.

Significant Themes

• Defiance and resistance against oppressive power.
• Sacrifice for the sake of others.
• The power of the lowest classes and their potential for defiance.

Character Interactions

• Zhang Elder and Fourth Li: Zhang's selfless actions inspire Fourth Li to escape and carry on the fight against the immortal city.
• Zhang Elder and the guards: Zhang's defiance challenges the guards' expectations and provokes their cruelty and greed.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen enters the treasure vault of Myriad Treasures Pavilion, triggering a Spirit-Sealing Suppression Formation and a Blood Fiend Trapping Dragon Formation.
• The formations fail to affect Lu Chen due to his lack of dantian and true essence.
• Lu Chen brute-forces his way through the formations, breaking the main formation disk with his bare hands.
• The shopkeeper attempts to flee but is caught and killed by Lu Chen.
• Lu Chen ignores the magic artifacts and cultivation art jade slips, focusing instead on the raw materials in the pig-iron vats.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen demonstrates his incredible physical strength and resilience, easily withstanding the deadly formations and killing the shopkeeper.
• The shopkeeper is revealed to be arrogant and greedy, underestimating Lu Chen's capabilities.

Significant Themes

• The power of brute force and physical strength over spiritual energy and cultivation techniques.
• The disdain of cultivators for raw materials that Lu Chen values.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and the shopkeeper: The shopkeeper underestimates Lu Chen, leading to his demise. Lu Chen shows no mercy or interest in the shopkeeper's pleas.
• Lu Chen and the treasure vault: Lu Chen ignores the valuable magic artifacts and cultivation arts, focusing only on the raw materials he needs.

Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen enters the underground treasury of the merchant guild.
• He unlocks a massive iron vat containing second-tier Scarlet Flame Boar leg meat and consumes it raw to fuel his Ultimate Dao Furnace.
• He then consumes century-old blood ginseng and Fire Ganoderma, refining their medicinal power in his body.
• Lu Chen retrieves a Blood Marrow Vine from a hidden compartment, intending to extract its purest life essence for A-Nan.
• He leaves the treasury, breaking through the bronze gate with brute force.

Character Development

• Lu Chen demonstrates his immense strength and disregard for cultivation norms, consuming raw meat and spiritual herbs directly to fuel his Ultimate Dao Furnace.
• He shows no interest in the wealth left behind, focusing only on resources that can aid his and A-Nan's growth.

Significant Themes

• The power of brute force and the disregard for cultivation norms in Lu Chen's approach to cultivation.
• The importance of resources and treasures for cultivation, and Lu Chen's selective approach to them.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen's actions are driven by his desire to protect and nurture A-Nan, showing his dedication to her growth as a cultivator.
• There are no direct interactions with other characters in this chapter, but Lu Chen's actions are influenced by his bond with A-Nan.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Chen leaves the black market, destroying the entrance and causing panic among the rogue cultivators.
• The Azure Firmament Sword Sect seals Immortal-Breaking Mountain, cutting off the earth veins and plunging the black market into darkness.
• Lu Chen evades detection by the sect's disciples using the ancient tree's shadow as a blind spot.
• The sect's Heaven-Locking Array drains the moisture and vitality from the hidden miasma valley.
• Lu Chen removes the City-Guarding Stele and decides to face the immortal sect's forces, carrying A-Nan with him.

Character Developments

• Lu Chen demonstrates his immense strength and combat prowess, instilling fear in the rogue cultivators.
• A-Nan's jade-bone perception allows her to sense the array's influence on the valley.
• Lu Chen shows determination and willingness to face the sect's forces, indicating his protective instincts toward A-Nan.

Significant Themes

• The power dynamics between cultivators and mortals, with the sect's disciples displaying arrogance and oppression.
• The importance of adaptability and resourcefulness, as seen in Lu Chen's use of the ancient tree's shadow to evade detection.
• The theme of protection and responsibility, as Lu Chen decides to confront the sect's forces to safeguard A-Nan.

Character Interactions

• Lu Chen and A-Nan's bond deepens as she grasps his hand upon his return, and he later carries her while facing the sect's forces.
• Lu Chen's actions instill fear in the rogue cultivators, who recognize only fists and death in the lawless black market.
• The Azure Firmament Sword Sect disciples display arrogance and disregard for mortal life, contrasting with Lu Chen's protective instincts.

Key Plot Points and Events

• Commander Greedy Stone seizes the fragmentary stele from Zhang Elder, who is then taken away to be used as a "human pillar" in the city's formation wall.
• Fourth Li, hidden in the cellar, witnesses this and harbors hatred against the commander.
• Song Que discovers a massive gully in Immortal-Breaking Mountain, leading him to the City-Guarding Stele carried by Lu Chen.
• The Heaven-Locking Array's red light illuminates Lu Chen carrying the stele, marking the start of the great hunt.

Character Developments

• Commander Greedy Stone reveals his greed and cruelty, willing to use Zhang Elder as a sacrifice for his own gain.
• Fourth Li's hatred grows, setting the stage for future actions.
• Song Que shows his determination and resourcefulness in tracking Lu Chen, but also his arrogance and fear when confronting Lu Chen's power.

Significant Themes

• Greed and its consequences (Commander Greedy Stone's actions and his ignorance of the stele's true power).
• Hatred and its potential for growth (Fourth Li's feelings toward the commander).
• The clash between ultimate power (Lu Chen) and cultivation power (Song Que).

Character Interactions

• Commander Greedy Stone and Zhang Elder: The commander's cruelty and disregard for life are evident in his treatment of Zhang Elder.
• Fourth Li and Zhang Elder: Fourth Li's loyalty and concern for Zhang Elder are shown when he tries to protect him.
• Song Que and Lu Chen: The initial exchange between them sets the stage for their future confrontations, with Song Que underestimating Lu Chen's power.