Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• At the Higher Academy, Wu Yu and Chen Feng meet Spirit Cultivation Association president An Jiaye and vice president Li Qingqing before Professor Wang’s lecture. An Jiaye observes and records people in a notebook, while Chen Feng is distracted by Li Qingqing.
• Professor Wang arrives dramatically through a portal-like Spirit Energy doorway and begins a lecture on the Spirit Realm. He explains its origins in the post-Cataclysm Spirit Network, its growing role in daily life, and its dangers, including black markets and trafficking.
• After two hours, Wang offers the students a firsthand tour. The class puts on Life Circlets or academy-issued Headbands to connect.
• Wang links to the group with his powerful Divine Sense. Wu Yu accepts the connection cautiously and keeps his own strength concealed. The chapter ends as the students begin uploading their consciousnesses into the Spirit Realm.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains wary and observant, especially around An Jiaye and the risks of entering the Spirit Realm. His growing strength, however, means he is less cautious than before and willing to join the tour.
• Chen Feng loses his usual composure around Li Qingqing, becoming visibly flustered and absorbed in their quiet conversation.
• An Jiaye is presented as an unusual, influential figure who avoids exploiting his status and prefers studying people.
• Professor Wang demonstrates both his authority and mastery of the Spirit Realm, commanding the lecture hall with ease.

Character interactions

• An Jiaye greets Wu Yu and Chen Feng and discusses Professor Wang’s reputation with them.
• Chen Feng and Li Qingqing share a whispered exchange that leaves him smitten.
• Wu Yu silently observes An Jiaye and remains guarded during Professor Wang’s connection, concealing his capabilities from the professor.

Significant themes

• The Spirit Realm’s promise and peril: It is a remarkable extension of human life, but also a space for crime, exploitation, and unknown threats.
• Caution and concealed power: Wu Yu carefully controls what others can perceive about him, even as his confidence grows.
• Observation and human nature: An Jiaye’s habit of recording people suggests the value—and unease—of watching others closely.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu overcomes a failed Spirit Realm login by using his Divine Sense to project his soul and seize the connection. He experiences the data-filled space between reality and the Spirit Realm before appearing with his classmates.
• Professor Wang guides the class through River City’s legal, public Spirit Realm, warning them away from corporate-protected areas and the Black Market. After the tour, the students explore freely.
• Wu Yu notices Ye Tian buying a small biological arm from a stall. Ye Tian explains that he has begun qi refining and hopes to pursue Martial Dao body refinement, eventually qualifying for powerful psionic or mythic cybernetic implants. Wu Yu cautions him not to get carried away with distant ambitions.
• Ye Tian admits he envies Wu Yu’s top-tier investment and is still trying to meet the conditions for his own. His plans leave Wu Yu wondering whether Ye Tian, an innate-spirit-body genius, has also entered the Mysterious Tower.
• After Ye Tian leaves, Wu Yu approaches the stall and realizes the cybernetically enhanced vendor looks strikingly like Bai Xiaotian.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu gains his first clear experience of soul projection and the Spirit Realm. He remains cautious and observant, while Ye Tian’s investment prospects and aspirations cause him some unease.
• Ye Tian reveals his ambition to advance through cultivation and body refinement so he can eventually use advanced cybernetic technology. His excitement contrasts with his present need to buy a basic arm.
• Wu Yu and Ye Tian share an easy friendship: Ye Tian greets him, explains his plans openly, and accepts Wu Yu’s teasing rebuke.
• Professor Wang acts as a guide and authority figure, emphasizing the difference between public spaces and dangerous or restricted parts of the Spirit Realm.
• The vendor draws Wu Yu’s attention because of her resemblance to Bai Xiaotian, setting up a possible connection.

Significant themes

• Technology and cultivation converge: Cybernetic bodies combine modern psionic engineering with ancient treasure-making, creating new paths for cultivators.
• Ambition versus present reality: Ye Tian dreams of legendary implants, but his immediate goal is a modest biological arm and further investment.
• The Spirit Realm’s limits and dangers: Though fantastical and vast, it has legal boundaries, protected zones, and illicit regions.
• Transformation of body and soul: Cultivation strengthens both, enabling increasingly powerful technological enhancements.

Plot points and events

• In the Wanjiang Spirit Realm, Wu Yu sees Ye Tian buying a child’s arm at an open stall. The seller insists the trade is legal only with the owner’s consent. Wu Yu recognizes signs of the Tiger Roar Eight-Slash Saber in the arm, including traces of the Mountain Lord’s power, and wonders about Bai Xiaotian’s talent and the girl who resembles him. His attempt to get a free sample is bluntly rejected.
• Wu Yu browses the Spirit Realm’s commercial streets and spends heavily, but keeps valuable spirit herbs in his Inventory, wary that selling them would expose him to pharmaceutical corporations. He wonders whether he can take real-world items out of his Inventory while in the Spirit Realm.
• Two girls nearly collide with Wu Yu and insult him. His Divine Sense overwhelms them with fear, forcing them to apologize. After he leaves, they reveal they run up online loans by selling stolen cards from one girl’s biological father, whom they manipulate into handing over more.
• At the end of Professor Wang’s open lecture, he distributes research data blocks and invites students to study the Spirit Realm further. Wu Yu detects suspicious data streams in his block, suspects a virus, and isolates it before logging out. He returns to the lecture hall in the real world.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains cautious and observant, using his knowledge of martial arts and his powerful Divine Sense to assess both people and threats. He resists exposing himself by selling valuable goods and handles the suspicious data carefully.
• The two girls are revealed as opportunistic scammers who exploit online loans and steal valuable cards; the one called Little Fish relies on her father’s gullibility.
• Professor Wang presents himself as a helpful, encouraging scholar, though the data block he distributes contains anomalous material that raises suspicion.

Significant themes

• Consent, legality, and exploitation: The organ stall’s legality depends on consent, while the girls’ online-loan scheme and theft expose more casual forms of exploitation.
• Corporate control and surveillance: Selling spirit herbs could place Wu Yu’s identity in corporate databases, reflecting the risks ordinary people face in a monopolized economy.
• Hidden power and danger: Wu Yu’s Divine Sense can affect others even without physical force, while the suspected virus suggests the Spirit Realm itself may carry unseen threats.
• Appearance versus reality: A respectable lecture and a seemingly legitimate data block may conceal something malicious.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu questions the organ seller, who dismisses his request for a free item.
• The girls insult Wu Yu, then cower under his Divine Sense and apologize; afterward, they discuss their loan and theft scheme.
• Professor Wang distributes data blocks and encourages students to pursue Spirit Realm research, unknowingly—or possibly knowingly—putting Wu Yu on alert.

Plot points and events

• After returning from the Spirit Realm, the students discuss their experiences. Professor Wang abruptly reacts to news of the Golden City, dismisses class, and leaves with several people.
• Wu Yu visits his uncle, Wu Yang, at the Old Wu Clinic to have a suspicious data block examined. He admits it came from Professor Wang but says he noticed it by chance, concealing his transcendent Divine Sense.
• Wu Yang identifies the data as Shadow Assassin Type Six, a newly emerged virus capable of lying dormant in a data chip, retrieving sensitive data, reading brain signals, and transmitting them—likely to corporations. He finds it odd that most Higher Academy students lack the implants the virus is designed to exploit and warns Wu Yu to be cautious.
• At home, Wu Yu encounters his furtive neighbor, Zhao Xiaoming, who asks whether Wu Yu has seen a bald man, then quickly leaves without explaining.
• Wu Yu receives his Spirit Realm purchases, charges his Diamond Badge, and stores his equipment, noting the expense ahead of the True Great Ruins.
• The next morning, he skips an open Technology lecture to cultivate. Using his Life Circlet and External Heavenly Spiritual Root, he completes a Great Heavenly Circuit, breaks through to transcendent spirit power, and manifests “One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones.”

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains cautious and secretive, seeking expert help while hiding the full extent of his abilities. His cultivation advances dramatically at the chapter’s end.
• Wu Yang shifts from teasing suspicion to serious professional concern when he learns about the virus, then analyzes it and advises caution.
• Chen Feng appears more confident after the Spirit Realm trip and warmly invites Wu Yu to eat with him and Li Qingqing; Wu Yu declines.
• Zhao Xiaoming behaves nervously and evasively, hinting at an unexplained problem involving a bald man.
• Professor Wang’s sudden alarm over Golden City suggests a larger crisis, though its details remain unknown.

Significant themes

• Secrecy and surveillance: The virus threatens privacy by extracting brain-linked data, while Wu Yu conceals his own abilities.
• Caution around sudden opportunities: An Jiaye’s written warning about windfalls foreshadows the risks tied to greed and unexpected gains.
• Progress through discipline: Wu Yu’s focused cultivation produces a major breakthrough and signals his growing power.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu completes his breakthrough into Qi Refining. His thirty-six Spirit Veins transform into Three Purities Spirit Veins, and he forms an Innate Spirit Sea.
• The breakthrough produces the phenomenon One Qi Becomes Three Pure Ones. Wu Yu suppresses its outward spread, though three indistinct figures remain above his Spirit Sea.
• His transcendent blood essence, Divine Sense, and spiritual power coexist harmoniously. The Bronze Tripod, Heaven’s Return, helps restore his blood essence, making the breakthrough sustainable.
• After rising, Wu Yu contacts the Star River Group to claim the next installment of his contract. The company promises 10,000 spirit stones and an Innate Spirit Aperture prosthetic once he perfects the first heaven of Qi Refining, and requests a spiritual-power test.
• Wu Yu also applies for an additional benefit: moving his family into the Group’s residential complex for employees’ families.
• In a parallel scene, Spirit Mountain Technology executive An Jiaye’s mother pressures him to abandon his independent life at the Academy and begin learning the company’s “Holy Maiden” operations. She argues that survival in their ruthless world means devouring others before they are devoured.

Character developments

• Wu Yu proves himself exceptionally gifted, reaching Qi Refining only three days after receiving his technique and Spirit Root. His calm, direct manner shows confidence and a growing willingness to assert his contractual rights and protect his family.
• An Jiaye remains respectful but resists his mother’s plans; her insistence dims his enthusiasm and suggests he feels trapped by family and corporate expectations.
• The Star River Group representative is astonished by Wu Yu’s speed but responds professionally, approving the investment and outlining the contract’s terms.
• An Jiaye’s mother is portrayed as stern, controlling, and shaped by a harsh, competitive worldview.

Significant themes

• Cultivation’s material demands: Even the first stage requires vast resources, underscoring the importance of wealth, methods, and support.
• Exceptional talent and hidden power: Wu Yu’s rapid breakthrough and the Bronze Tripod’s aid set him apart.
• Family and obligation: Wu Yu seeks security for his family, while An Jiaye struggles against his mother’s demands.
• Survival versus autonomy: The mother’s “devour or be devoured” philosophy contrasts with An Jiaye’s desire for a life of his own.
• Corporate power and opportunity: Wu Yu’s cultivation progress is tied to contracts, testing, and access to company resources.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu negotiates with the Star River Group representative, leveraging his breakthrough to request both his promised investment and housing for his family.
• An Jiaye respectfully challenges his mother’s expectations, but she dismisses his objections and orders him to prepare for corporate duties.

Key plot points

• Wu Yu rejects the Inspection Bureau’s family housing in favor of a top-tier contract with the powerful Star River Group. He uses his contract benefit to secure a villa for his family, reasoning that corporate protection offers greater safety than a residence watched by competing corporations.
• Newly free of immediate family concerns, he resumes experimenting with the Mysterious Tower’s power. Combining the Bi Fang Sigil with his Divine Sense and transcendent spiritual power, he creates a far stronger Bi Fang Talisman—more than ten times as powerful as his earlier “little pebble.”
• Wu Yu spends hours making talismans, using spirit wine, pills, and the Bronze Tripod to replenish his spiritual power. He produces thirty talismans, though he realizes his newly opened spirit sea cannot yet sustain prolonged work.
• A delivery drone verifies his spiritual power and gives him a Space Chip. Wu Yu also learns that his family’s city-citizen status and Villa 18 in the Dragonblood Lake Complex are ready.
• Just as Wu Yu thinks he can return home, he senses a familiar call and sees the Bronze Tower emerging from the clouds again.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu reveals how carefully he has planned for his family’s security. He is pragmatic about the corporations’ power, but his freedom from immediate worries lets him turn toward cultivation and experimentation. His growing confidence is matched by a cautious awareness of his limits.
• The Star River Group representative tries to persuade Wu Yu to use his benefit for cultivation resources, but ultimately respects his choice and arranges the villa and protections.
• Zhao Xiaoming is again waiting furtively by the residential complex gate and casually asks where Wu Yu is going; Wu Yu gives a brief answer and continues to collect his delivery.

Significant themes

• Corporate power and security: Megacorporations dominate the city, and safety depends on choosing which powerful institution to trust.
• Family responsibility: Wu Yu’s chief priority is securing a protected home and legal status for his family.
• Ambition and preparation: Years of planning have brought him a rare opportunity, which he now uses to build his strength.
• Power, experimentation, and restraint: The new talisman demonstrates the potential of combining ancient methods with transcendent power, while Wu Yu’s depleted spirit sea reminds him that progress has limits.
• The supernatural returns: The Tower’s reappearance signals that Wu Yu’s cultivation and the mysterious force behind it are far from resolved.

Key plot points and events

• After hearing the Mysterious Tower’s call, Wu Yu rushes home and prepares for its appearance. He checks his Legendary Bronze Token, which boosts settlement points and grants extra reward options and claims, though its third effect remains mysterious.
• Wu Yu is transported to the Bronze Stairway. Nearby spacecraft—and their armed Inspection Bureau soldiers—pass through the Tower without seeing or affecting him. His bulky household items do not come with him, but smaller valuables and equipment remain in his Inventory.
• He climbs into the Tower, where a restorative “Tower Rest” quickly returns him to peak condition. A notice clarifies that it can be used only twice: once upon entering and once upon returning.
• Wu Yu reunites with Liu Yu, Chen Lingling, Liu Zheng, and Yu Tiezhu. Yu Tiezhu reveals that he has just become a trainee Inspector.

Character developments

• Wu Yu responds decisively to the Tower’s call, tests the limits of what can pass through with him, and remains cautious around Liu Yu, whose abilities are concealed by a mysterious protective force.
• Liu Yu reveals his willingness to test Tower Rest by cutting off a finger; it regrows in seconds. His true strength remains uncertain.
• Chen Lingling appears in a traditional dress and comfortably chooses to sit with Wu Yu.
• Liu Zheng arrives in light kinetic armor and is surprised by the Tower’s restrictions on carried equipment.
• Yu Tiezhu is visibly proud and excited about his new trainee Inspector position.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Liu Yu exchange familiar greetings, then discuss the Tower’s restorative power and Liu Yu’s self-inflicted test.
• Wu Yu quietly probes Liu Yu with Divine Sense but cannot determine his capabilities, increasing his suspicion.
• Chen Lingling greets Wu Yu as “Uncle” and sits beside him, avoiding Liu Yu.
• Yu Tiezhu helps Liu Zheng settle in and proudly tells Wu Yu about his appointment.

Significant themes

• The Tower’s separation from the ordinary world: spacecraft pass through it as though it were an illusion, while its interior operates by different rules.
• Limits within apparent power: Tower Rest is extraordinary but restricted, and not all possessions can enter.
• Caution amid uncertainty: Wu Yu’s assessment of Liu Yu shows the need to stay alert when others’ abilities are obscured.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Yu Tiezhu tells Wu Yu that Liu Zheng arranged secure housing for their team in a Commoner District family compound. He offers to repay Wu Yu for helping him, but Wu Yu politely brushes him off.
• A crystal arrives through the Ancient Gate, and Bai Xiaotian’s body is reconstructed on a stone chair from bones, organs, and flesh. He installs cybernetic components and uses the crystal to restore himself.
• Liu Zheng asks whether Bai uploaded his soul into a Spirit-Energy Chip and offers help through the Inspection Bureau. Bai rejects him with intense hostility, accusing the Bureau of ignoring—or enabling—the abuse of orphans used in corporate biological experiments.
• Yu Tiezhu tries to defend Liu Zheng, but Bai insults him too. Liu Zheng then reprimands Yu for taking people to the Holy Maiden Shopping Plaza without authorization; Yu nervously submits.
• The team enters the Great Ruins, their first destination beyond the Newcomer Secret Realm. They arrive in a battered, abandoned temple during a fierce wind. Wu Yu checks his Status Panel and discovers he can select [nameless chaos] again.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains composed and uninterested in Yu Tiezhu’s attempts to curry favor. He carefully observes Bai’s revival and the new surroundings.
• Yu Tiezhu is buoyed by his new connections and attention, but Wu Yu’s indifference unsettles him. He still means to help Wu someday, yet shows deference to Liu Zheng and struggles to navigate the clash between him and Bai.
• Bai Xiaotian returns to life through soul transfer and reconstructed flesh. His openly expressed hatred of Liu Zheng reveals deep anger over the orphanage’s exploitation and his distrust of official promises.
• Liu Zheng presents himself as willing to help Bai, but becomes defensive and offers no meaningful answer to Bai’s accusations. His authority over Yu is clear.
• Chen Lingling stays mostly quiet, occasionally making playful faces at Wu Yu. Earlier hostility among the group gives way to practical discussion once they enter the Great Ruins.

Significant themes

• Unequal power and institutional complicity: Bai’s accusations suggest that corporate experimentation on vulnerable children is tolerated by the authorities.
• Distrust versus performative help: Liu Zheng’s offers of assistance fail to persuade Bai, who sees them as hypocrisy.
• Resurrection and identity: Bai’s return through a soul and a reconstructed body raises questions about what it means to come back to life.
• Status and influence: Yu Tiezhu’s growing confidence reflects his new social standing, while his obedience to Liu Zheng shows its limits.
• Exploration and uncertainty: The team’s arrival in the decayed temple marks a new stage of danger and discovery.

Plot points and events

• Each time Wu Yu enters the Great Ruins, he can select a new identity. His choices range from ordinary or combat-focused roles to a Night Watcher, or he can skip a second identity for 100,000 Great Ruins Source Points.
• Though he recognizes the risks and benefits of the varied options, Wu Yu rejects the pharmacy assistant, assassin, Brocade Guard spy, Tang Sect disciple, and goblin-loving wizard apprentice. He chooses the purple-quality Night Watcher identity.
• The choice grants him the talent Embers of the Long Night, the transcendent spirit-refinement technique Long Night Vigil, and an Evernight Lamp, alongside lamp oil and wine.
• The Night Watcher’s power transforms Wu Yu’s blood and qi, strengthening them with a radiant, righteous force that seems to exceed the ordinary power of Transcendent Martial Artists. The technique can pierce illusions and defend against soul attacks; burning his special blood further enhances that defense.
• Liu Zheng and the others inspect their Bronze Tokens and realize the group is in True Martial City, within the bronze-tier Great Ruins world called the Strange God Martial Realm. Unlike the Newcomer Secret Realm, this is the actual Great Ruins, and its first evacuation point will not appear for a day.
• Wu Yu checks the token’s detailed map. It shows True Martial City and surrounding sites, including a refugee camp, desolate village, Earth Temple, City Lord’s Manor, Hua Tuo Pharmacy, and sect outposts.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains cautious and pragmatic, weighing each identity’s usefulness against its drawbacks. He avoids choices he considers weak, unsuitable, or too strange, and selects the Night Watcher as the most promising.
• His new power appears to alter not only his ordinary blood and qi but also his previously transformed divine blood, though the full consequences are unknown.
• The identity’s sorrowful, otherworldly atmosphere briefly tempers his excitement and leads him to wonder whether these identities are forms of inheritance.

Significant themes

• Power and risk: Strong abilities come with uncertainty, and Wu Yu must choose carefully from random opportunities.
• Identity as inheritance: The Night Watcher role may carry an established legacy, not merely a set of powers and equipment.
• Light against darkness: The Night Watcher’s calling—to guard the mortal world—frames his new strength as protective and righteous.
• Adaptation to danger: The group’s arrival in the true Great Ruins marks a harsher stage with fewer newcomer advantages and a delayed evacuation point.

Character interactions

• Liu Zheng and the others compare their token information and voice concern over the evacuation countdown and their location. Their discussion alerts Wu Yu to the group’s situation, prompting him to inspect his own Bronze Token and learn more about the world.

Summary

• The team discovers a looming threat: At the ruined True Martial Temple, Wu Yu checks the Map and finds that the first Evacuation Point will not appear for 24 hours, while Weird God Pollution will descend in 12 hours. With no Mist to hide from, the team must find a way to survive the coming danger before nightfall.
• They agree to cooperate and disguise themselves: Liu Zheng urges the group to set aside their real-world disagreements and work together. Since they are in an ancient city, most change into period clothing. Liu Zheng and Yu Tiezhu forgot to bring suitable clothes, so the group plans to help them buy some.
• The team splits up to investigate: The group leaves the temple ruins and agrees to explore separately, then regroup around noon. Wu Yu stresses the urgency of learning how to resist the Pollution before night. Bai Xiaotian refuses to help with the clothes errand, while Liu Yu takes the matter in stride.
• The city’s social order comes into view: The ruined area outside the temple is inhabited by beggars. They react fearfully to Liu Yu’s elegant clothes, but greedily follow Bai Xiaotian, suggesting he has attracted the attention of local criminal gangs. Chen Lingling passes through unnoticed, displaying strange abilities that make her seem almost untouchable.
• Wu Yu tests the locals: Approaching the city, Wu Yu deliberately lets several beggars surround him. He confirms that Tower Climbers can understand the local language beyond the Newcomer Secret Realm. When the beggars threaten him, he releases a powerful pressure that forces them to their knees.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu takes a practical lead, emphasizing preparation and investigating the city. He remains observant of his companions’ unusual abilities and tests how the world works.
• Liu Zheng tries to unite the group and admits, awkwardly, that he failed to bring proper clothes. His conciliatory approach helps secure cooperation.
• Liu Yu appears lazy and dissolute, yet his presence intimidates the beggars. He supports the exploration plan without fuss.
• Bai Xiaotian is still sharp-tongued and independent, mocking Liu Zheng and refusing the clothing errand. His intimidating reputation appears to draw the attention of local gangsters.
• Chen Lingling remains playful with Wu Yu, calling him “Uncle,” but her near-invisibility and immunity to dust and puddles hint at mysterious powers and a protected identity.
• Yu Tiezhu shares Liu Zheng’s embarrassment about lacking suitable clothes and keeps quiet under Bai Xiaotian’s criticism.

Significant themes

• Cooperation under pressure: The group must work together despite unresolved real-world tensions.
• Uncertainty and survival: The missing Evacuation Point and approaching Pollution create a strict deadline and force the team to gather information quickly.
• Hidden identities and power: Disguises, concealed abilities, and the characters’ differing reactions from the beggars suggest that appearances and status shape survival in this world.
• Power and intimidation: The beggars’ responses to Liu Yu, Bai Xiaotian, and Wu Yu reveal how authority and strength influence the city’s social dynamics.

Plot points and events

• Newly possessing Divine Sense, Wu Yu uses it to pin down a group of beggars and question them about True Martial Temple and the city.
• The beggars explain that the temple is an abandoned relic of the previous dynasty, shunned after a supposed Heavenly God fell nearby. True Martial City is a remote city devoted to the Fasting God, and the Flesh Mountain Cult has recently spread its rival teachings by distributing meat.
• The beggars know little about eerie beings or corruption. Wu Yu releases them, then kills them with the Tiger-Soul Sword. Their bodies do not dissolve, so he concludes they yield no cards.
• Looking for more useful information, Wu Yu enters Hua Tuo Pharmacy, a location marked on his map. He learns that customers are queuing for Bliss Pills and sees familiar pills among the shop’s goods.
• The assistant says Essence Recovery and Blood-Replenishing Pills cost five taels per bottle—much less than the Village Chief charged him in the Newcomer Secret Realm. Wu Yu offers a silver bar, but the assistant refuses it because it has not been “tempered with incense.”

Character development

• Wu Yu is confident in his new Divine Sense and uses it to control and intimidate others. His calm, courteous manner contrasts with his ruthless decision to kill the beggars once they have served their purpose.
• He remains practical and inquisitive, gathering local information and checking whether marked locations might offer hidden quests or benefits.
• The pharmacy assistant is helpful and respectful, but knowledgeable about the city’s unusual trade customs.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu dominates the beggars through Divine Sense, questioning them while they plead for mercy. Afterward, he kills them without warning.
• At the pharmacy, Wu Yu and the assistant have a polite exchange. The assistant gives him a tour and explains prices, then corrects him when he tries to pay with untreated silver.

Significant themes

• Power and ruthlessness: Wu Yu’s supernatural ability lets him control others, while his actions reveal that he treats them as disposable.
• Religion and conflict: The city’s rival gods—the Fasting God and the Flesh Mountain God—reflect growing tensions between their followers.
• A world with unfamiliar rules: Wu Yu’s silver is not valid currency until treated with incense, hinting at customs and systems he has yet to understand.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu buys Essence Recovery and Blood-Replenishing Pills at Hua Tuo Pharmacy, paying with silver from his inventory. He learns that ordinary silver must be “Incense Tempered” before it can be used in this world, while silver obtained through Cards is already usable.
• He discovers the pharmacy also buys spirit herbs and takes commissions to refine pills, and arranges to return when the resident pill master is available.
• A crowd erupts over a new batch of Bliss Pills. Using Divine Sense, Wu Yu finds that the customers are physically depleted but possess unusually powerful souls. He identifies the pills as gold-quality items that can eventually make the body collapse and turn the soul into a Bliss Fiend.
• At a nearby inn, he witnesses a dispute between the inn’s workers and the Flesh Mountain Cult, which is distributing cooked meat as alms. Wu Yu recognizes Liu Yu among the bystanders and learns that the meat is another gold-quality danger: eating enough of it withers the soul and turns the body into a Fragrant-Meat Wraith.
• Comparing the pills and meat, Wu Yu suspects they represent opposing forces—possibly the Fasting God and the Flesh Mountain God—and connects them to the Strange God Martial Realm. He fears that he may have to confront Eerie Gods that very night, despite only recently entering the greater realm.
• Wu Yu pays an inn worker for information. The worker warns that it is a bad time to be in True Martial City: the city lord, a disciple of the True Essence Sect, has been absent for a long time. The chapter ends before he explains further.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains composed and resourceful, using his wealth to buy supplies and information while carefully investigating unfamiliar customs and dangers.
• His Divine Sense proves crucial: it lets him uncover the hidden effects of both the Bliss Pills and the cult’s meat, turning what look like ordinary products or charity into evidence of supernatural threats.
• Liu Yu appears briefly, accepting a piece of the cult’s meat without hesitation; Wu Yu notices him but does not confront him.
• The pharmacy clerk treats Wu Yu with extra respect after seeing how much he spends. The inn worker is likewise eager to help after receiving a silver tip.
• The Flesh Mountain Cult’s representatives clash with inn staff, who reject the meat as dangerous or unlucky. Their dispute exposes how normalized the cult’s daily presence has become in the city.

Significant themes

• Hidden corruption beneath ordinary life: Medicines and charitable food conceal transformations into monsters.
• Knowledge as survival: Wu Yu’s caution, observation, and willingness to ask questions help him recognize threats before consuming anything.
• Opposing forms of bodily and spiritual ruin: Bliss Pills destroy the body to transform the soul, while the meat destroys the soul to transform the body.
• A world of escalating danger: Wu Yu has moved from fighting bandits to facing the possibility of ancient or eerie gods, with little time to prepare.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu asks an inn attendant about True Martial City’s power structure. The main authorities are the Huang, Chen, and Li families, two martial halls, the City Lord’s Manor, and the True Essence Sect. The mysterious Flesh Mountain Cult is feared because it supposedly has a Heavenly God of its own.
• He learns that the Fasting God is the city’s officially worshipped deity and that temples refine raw silver into “incense silver,” keeping nine parts out of ten. Silver is scarce because people offer it to gods in exchange for supernatural power, while the declining Silver Dynasty can no longer control the practice.
• The attendant explains that Martial Artists dominate the city; Heavenly God Warriors wield divine power, and the old True Martial temples belong to a largely forgotten faith. Wu Yu concludes that the Great Ruins is a world shaped by eerie gods and martial arts.
• Wu Yu decides his immediate priorities are surviving the nightly Weird God Pollution, finding creatures that may drop Cards, and uncovering hidden quests. He plans to avoid the city’s factional conflicts unless there is a reward.
• Reviewing his status, he realizes that his Essence, Qi, and Spirit paths have all reached transcendence. He believes this may let him challenge powerful beings, though he still needs to learn how the world’s threats compare to his abilities.
• He connects the city’s foods to its gods: Bliss Pills, associated with the Fasting God, let people go without food, while the Flesh Mountain God’s Fragrant Meat is freely available. He suspects both diets may eventually cause eerie transformations.
• When the attendant returns with clothes, Wu Yu senses and recognizes a familiar figure below: the Village Chief.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu is cautious and analytical. He uses the attendant’s explanations to build a working model of the city, assesses his own strengths, and avoids taking on unnecessary political entanglements.
• The inn attendant serves as Wu Yu’s guide to local customs, beliefs, and power structures, while showing some reluctance to discuss the Silver Dynasty’s decline.
• The Village Chief reappears unexpectedly at the chapter’s end, creating a new point of interest for Wu Yu.

Significant themes

• Religion, power, and social control: Silver offerings to gods can grant power, while rival cults and competing faiths shape city politics.
• A society in decline: The Silver Dynasty’s weakening authority has left local factions and religious powers to compete for influence.
• Eerie transformation beneath ordinary life: Everyday food customs may carry the risk of turning the rich and poor into god-linked monstrosities.
• Pragmatic survival: Wu Yu treats the city’s dangers and conflicts as problems to understand and navigate, focusing on survival and personal goals rather than saving the world.

Key plot points and events

• Wu Yu spots the village chief of Redfang Village and a young man resembling the former “Young Man in Green.” Suspecting they are headed to the True Essence Sect, he follows them.
• The pair activate a “Godspeed” blessing and disappear from Wu Yu’s ordinary sight. Tracking their lingering traces, Wu Yu follows them to a dusty, abandoned courtyard, where his Divine Sense loses their trail.
• Two gang members guarding the courtyard reveal that captives and “Fragrant Meat” are kept inside, supplied by the Flesh Mountain Cult. When Wu Yu orders them to open the house, a grotesque Fragrant-Meat Wraith kills them both.
• The wraith attacks Wu Yu, but the Mountain Lord intervenes and smashes it apart. Its fragments remain animated, prompting Wu Yu to bring out the Evernight Lamp.

Character developments

• Wu Yu shows sharp investigative instincts, using Divine Sense to pursue the village chief and grandson even after they vanish. He remains composed when confronted by the wraith.
• The Mountain Lord acts protectively and eagerly destroys the monster, though it seems self-conscious when its first strike fails to kill it.
• The gang members prove cowardly and easily intimidated by Wu Yu’s Innate Astral Force, despite their role in guarding the horrifying operation.

Significant themes

• Hidden forces behind ordinary society: A seemingly abandoned courtyard conceals captives, illicit deliveries, and a supernatural creature.
• Corruption and exploitation: The Flesh Mountain Cult’s “Fragrant Meat” trade appears tied to the creation or maintenance of monstrous beings.
• Power and responsibility: Wu Yu’s pursuit draws him into danger, while his strength gives him the ability to confront what others enable or fear.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu pursues the village chief and young man, but their use of the Godspeed blessing lets them escape.
• He intimidates the guards into revealing what is inside, then witnesses the wraith kill them.
• The Mountain Lord shields Wu Yu and attacks the wraith; Wu Yu stops it from striking again, apparently intending to use the Evernight Lamp on the still-living fragments.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu tests how to kill a Fragrant-Meat Wraith. A sword merely cuts it apart; its pieces keep writhing and rejoining. Attacks infused with Blood-and-Qi Power slow its recovery, while the Mountain Lord’s raw strength shreds the flesh but cannot permanently destroy it.
• Wu Yu concludes that Weird Objects require transcendent power—such as Blood-and-Qi Power, Spirit Power, or mental power—to kill for good. He avoids using his powerful Bi Fang Talismans, worried they could damage the house and attract attention.
• He experiments with the purple-quality Evernight Lamp. Blood and Blood-and-Qi Power can ignite its special lamp oil; blood essence makes it burn faster and strengthens its abilities. The lamp can dispel darkness, break illusions, suppress eerie power, and—most importantly—destroy the Wraith’s flesh completely.
• After the Wraith vanishes, two Cards appear: Fragrant-Meat Essence, which causes Weird God Pollution if swallowed, and the Green-quality White-Meat Body-Tempering Art, a meat-based method for increasing blood and qi.
• Wu Yu realizes killing Weird Objects yields Cards. Since the lamp cannot be extinguished without consuming its oil, he hurries to find another Wraith. He kills two gang enforcers blocking his way and uses the lamp to erase a bound, nearly escaped Fragrant-Meat Wraith.

Character developments

• Wu Yu is methodical and resourceful, testing different kinds of force before identifying what can permanently kill a Weird Object.
• His excitement at receiving Cards is balanced by caution: he conserves the scarce Bi Fang Talismans and worries about wasting the lamp’s one-hour fuel supply.
• The Mountain Lord follows Wu Yu’s direction and helps test the Wraith’s resistance, though his immense physical strength proves insufficient for a final kill.

Significant themes

• Power and its limits: Ordinary weapons and brute force can damage the Wraith, but only supernatural or transcendent power can destroy it.
• Experimentation and adaptation: Wu Yu learns the rules of this dangerous world by testing his tools and observing results.
• Power has a cost: The lamp consumes irreplaceable oil once lit, while the Fragrant-Meat Essence and body-tempering technique carry risks tied to pollution and consumption.
• Danger as opportunity: Defeating a Weird Object brings useful rewards, turning survival into a potential path to advancement.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu coordinates silently with the Mountain Lord, whose Divine Sense lets him understand the request to attack in his original form.
• The lamp’s light overwhelms the Wraiths without a conventional fight: one is reduced to dust, and the other crumbles before Wu Yu can reach it.
• Wu Yu’s encounter with the gang enforcers is brief and violent; they try to stop him, and he kills them to reach the second Wraith.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu obtains a Soul-Calming Incense Card, which can strengthen the soul through spirit refinement or be sacrificed to a Heavenly God.
• In a courtyard, he finds a child transformed into a Weird Object. The child turns to ash under the Evernight Lamp, leaving behind more Cards. The encounter weighs on Wu Yu.
• He sweeps through the area, killing more than twenty fully formed Fragrant-Meat Wraiths and over fifty gang thugs. Many victims remain alive but mindless and too spiritually damaged to be saved.
• With his lamp oil nearly gone, Wu Yu decides to draw the Government Office’s attention. A Black Tiger Gang party arrives, accusing him of interfering with its “meat-pig” operation, which supplies victims for Fragrant Meat.
• The gang reveals it serves the Li Family, suggesting the practice is entrenched throughout True Martial City.
• Wu Yu unleashes a talisman’s Divine Bird and its Calamity Fire, annihilating the gang members and destroying much of the surrounding street.
• Constables arrive and recognize the dead leader as the Black Tiger Gang’s Third-in-Command. Rather than investigate or risk confronting the killer, Constable Zhao orders his men to clean up.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Yu remains decisive and increasingly grim: he kills the transformed wraiths, but is troubled by the innocent victims he cannot rescue. He turns from quiet searching to deliberately making a public spectacle.
• The Third-in-Command confronts Wu Yu and tries to discover who stands behind him, while his men threaten him over the gang’s profits.
• Constable Zhao and his subordinates show caution and self-preservation, choosing cleanup over pursuing a dangerous unknown expert.
• The encounter exposes the gang’s dependence on the Li Family and its confidence that ordinary people can be treated as livestock.

Significant themes

• Exploitation and complicity: Fragrant Meat’s victims are gathered and processed through an organized criminal operation backed by powerful families.
• The limits of rescue: Wu Yu can destroy the supernatural threat, but cannot restore people whose souls have already been ruined.
• Corruption and cowardice: The gang profits from cruelty, while officials respond to mass violence with expedience rather than justice.
• Power and terror: The Divine Bird’s calamity aura overwhelms even powerful Martial Artists, and its destructive force turns Wu Yu’s intervention into an undeniable public event.

Key plot points and events

• Constables clear the site of a Flesh Mountain Cult operation where poor people were being turned into “human livestock.” Chief Constable Zhao orders them to revive and send the victims home using an expensive Bliss Pill, despite a subordinate’s concern about the cost and the Li Family’s influence. He says he cannot change the world, but can at least help these people.
• Wu Yu watches from hiding, carrying the Evernight Lamp and Bi Fang Talisman, then returns to the ruined temple.
• The group regathers after exploring True Martial City. They change into period clothing and compare what they have learned.
• The city is in turmoil: cults clash with the authorities, while families and martial arts schools compete with one another. Many commoners have disappeared. The Flesh Mountain Cult is active at a refugee camp and may use it as a base; wealthy families reportedly send daughters to join the cult.
• Wu Yu explains the local currency system. Ordinary silver must be converted into incense silver at a temple, with nine-tenths lost in the process; incense silver on their cards can be spent directly. Liu Zheng realizes he gave Liu Yu a valuable card without understanding its worth.
• The group plans to eat and then investigate how to deal with pollution from the eerie gods. They suspect the Flesh Mountain God or Fasting God, rather than the orthodox True Martial God.

Character developments and interactions

• Chief Constable Zhao shows compassion and moral resolve by using public resources to help the victims, even while acknowledging the limits of what he can do.
• Wu Yu remains cautious and observant. His past defeat has made him distrust appearances and plan carefully. He challenges Chen Lingling to be direct, questioning whether she is really a secondary-school student; her suggestive reply leaves him flustered and suspicious.
• Chen Lingling teases Wu Yu and avoids answering his question, reinforcing his sense that she is more calculating than her youthful appearance suggests.
• Liu Zheng again takes charge of the group’s discussion, but his eagerness to distribute money backfires when he learns how valuable incense silver is.
• Liu Yu accepts Liu Zheng’s card with amused confidence. Bai Xiaotian remains skeptical and quiet, while Yu Tiezhu jokes about his borrowed clothes and the group’s supply of silver.
• Wu Yu offers Liu Zheng and Yu Tiezhu spare outfits, but both decline.

Significant themes

• Compassion amid corruption: Zhao’s limited but concrete aid contrasts with the powerful families’ and cults’ exploitation of the poor.
• Pragmatism and mistrust: Wu Yu’s hard-won caution reflects a dangerous world where appearances and intentions can be deceptive.
• Power and economic control: The costly conversion of silver into incense silver shows how religious institutions govern everyday commerce.
• Competing beliefs: The distinction between the nationally revered True Martial God and local gods highlights the hierarchy and rivalry within the world’s religious system.

Plot points and events

• Liu Yu explains that the Silver Dynasty’s world is dominated by martial artists, whose powers become especially dangerous after gaining heavenly-god abilities, such as teleportation and the Substitute Death Technique.
• Wu Yu recounts his encounter with a Fragrant-Meat Wraith. The group suspects that night will bring a major wave of Weird Objects or divine pollution.
• Chen Lingling reveals that gods can survive the fall of the nations that worship them. The True Martial God, once revered by the previous dynasty, may still be an immortal force.
• The group concludes that the True Martial Temple likely offers powerful protection: the Silver Dynasty has left its temples untouched, and even a Heavenly God reportedly died there. Bai Xiaotian adds that a Heavenly Being later suppressed information about the incident.
• The group decides to fortify the ruined temple for the coming night. Liu Zheng will repair it and establish a psionic field, Liu Yu has a protective treasure, and Bai Xiaotian will prepare a Weird-Object-repelling medicine.
• Wu Yu heads toward the True Essence Sect but is approached by Chen Lingling. She offers to guide him into the Exquisite Pavilion’s inner section in exchange for his protection once under reasonable circumstances. He accepts, and they set off together.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Yu acts as a cautious strategist, weighing the danger of divine pollution against the group’s resources.
• Liu Zheng quickly proposes using his spirit-energy weapons and devices to improve their chances.
• Chen Lingling emerges as a source of hidden knowledge about the True Martial Temple and gods. She also shows that she has her own agenda, recruiting Wu Yu through a bargain.
• Bai Xiaotian contributes intelligence gathered by infiltrating the True Essence Sect and Tang Sect.
• Wu Yu remains wary of Chen Lingling but agrees to cooperate, while resisting her teasing and attempts to draw him into discussing her real-world identity.

Significant themes

• Gods and worship: Divine power can outlast political regimes; gods’ immortality and influence depend on more than the survival of their nations.
• Sanctuary amid danger: The True Martial Temple may be one of the few places offering protection from supernatural forces.
• Preparation and cooperation: The group combines technology, local knowledge, and individual abilities to prepare for an uncertain threat.
• Trust and negotiation: Wu Yu and Chen Lingling’s deal reflects the need to cooperate while remaining cautious about motives and promises.

Plot and key events

• Wu Yu and Chen Lingling arrive at the Exquisite Pavilion. Chen uses a broken jade pendant to gain access for them both to the restricted inner pavilion.
• Wu Yu browses the outer hall, then follows Chen through a concealed entrance to an underground treasure hall.
• Chen explains the Silver Dynasty’s religious system: unlike the previous dynasty, it encourages many gods to compete for worship. The Exquisite God draws power from trade, so its pavilion branches help generate divine strength.
• Wu Yu examines the inner pavilion’s goods, including three notable treasures: a transformation-array diagram, Giant God Heavenly Spirit Pills, and a dried relic called the Third Finger.
• The attendant warns that the Third Finger’s effects are unknown. Wu Yu learns it costs 1,000 taels and cannot be bargained down; the array costs 200, and the pills cost 30 per bottle. He buys the sole bottle of pills, which may strengthen vitality, though the next supply will not arrive for three months.
• Chen then recommends another item, Pure Spirit Water, which can resist pollution from weird gods.

Character development and interactions

• Wu Yu remains guarded and blunt with Chen, responding to her teasing with dry remarks. He is also cautious and analytical, using his Status Panel to assess treasures and weighing their prices and usefulness before buying.
• Chen Lingling is playful and persistent, calling Wu Yu a “blockhead,” but also proves helpful and knowledgeable. She secures their access to the inner pavilion, explains the local religion, and points out a useful protective item.
• Wu Yu and Chen trade teasing remarks, but their relationship also shows growing practical cooperation: he follows her lead into the inner pavilion, while she offers advice without demanding anything in return.
• The attendant treats them respectfully and gives a candid account of the relic’s uncertainty and the pavilion’s fixed, deity-assessed prices.

Significant themes

• Trade and religion: In the Silver Dynasty, commerce directly fuels the Exquisite God’s power, linking economic activity with divine influence.
• Knowledge and uncertainty: Treasures can have impressive origins but unknown effects; Wu Yu’s Status Panel gives him an advantage in evaluating them.
• Pragmatism and risk: Wu Yu considers utility, cost, and scarcity before purchasing, while the chapter emphasizes that valuable items may still carry uncertainty or danger.

Plot points and events

• Wu Yu finishes shopping at the Exquisite Pavilion, buying ten bottles of a corruption-resisting item. Chen Lingling is impressed by his wealth; he explains that silver cards and treasure chests can provide money.
• After Chen Lingling departs, Wu Yu studies his map and chooses the Heavenly Prison as his next place to hunt Weird Objects. He avoids stronger organizations such as the Li Family and Tiger Might Martial Hall.
• The prison guards are drunk and negligent. Wu Yu kills them with the Mountain Lord, then uses the Evernight Lamp to dispel the unnatural chill inside.
• On the first level, he finds prisoners who seem strangely dazed and healthy—much like people who have eaten Fragrant Meat—confirming his suspicion that the prison is another “Pigpen.”
• The second level is full of Fragrant-Meat Wraiths transformed from postnatal martial artists. The lamp destroys them as Wu Yu walks by, yielding many cards and rewards. He clears more than a hundred wraiths and earns back his shopping expenses, with extra silver besides.
• On the third level, meant for innate martial artists, Wu Yu finds no ordinary prisoners. His Divine Sense reveals distorted, wandering Weird Objects instead. A nearby one recoils from the lamp, and Wu Yu suspects it is a Bliss Fiend formed from an innate martial artist’s soul. He attacks with a Bi Fang Talisman, summoning Divine Bird Carries Fire.

Character developments

• Wu Yu remains methodical and cautious: he weighs the danger of powerful factions, uses the map and Divine Sense to investigate, and relies on specialized tools rather than rushing in. The easy rewards on the second level delight him, but the third level makes him wary.
• Chen Lingling briefly displays her unusual movement ability, vanishing almost instantly after saying goodbye. She is curious about Wu Yu’s wealth but does not press him.
• The prison guards’ drunken negligence illustrates how badly order has deteriorated in the city.

Significant themes

• Corruption and exploitation: The dazed prisoners and Fragrant-Meat Wraiths suggest that vulnerable people are being turned into resources or monsters.
• Urban disorder: With the city lord and his men gone, institutions such as the prison have fallen into neglect.
• Power and preparedness: Wu Yu’s careful choices and specialized equipment let him handle threats efficiently, but the stronger, stranger creatures on the third level raise the stakes.
• Risk and reward: Clearing the second level brings substantial gains, yet greater danger lies deeper in the prison.

Character interactions

• Wu Yu and Chen Lingling share a brief, friendly exchange about his money and hunting gains before she disappears.
• Wu Yu confronts the drunken guards, who threaten him; he answers by summoning the Mountain Lord, which terrifies them, then proceeds into the prison.
• On the third level, Wu Yu faces a wary, lamp-averse Weird Object and prepares to attack it with the Bi Fang Talisman.