Chapter Summaries

Tang Jian arrived at the Rin Kingdom’s palace for the Sect Fellowship Assembly, where Yue Buqing welcomed him and discussed Dragon Tiger Dao’s prospects in the scholarly contest. After learning that Taiyi would compete, Tang Jian grew wary and summoned Miluo to discuss a new card concept he intended to present.

• Yue Buqing welcomed Tang Jian, Li Ruoyan, Li Bingxin, and their companions at Yuanning Hall, then asked Tang Jian about his preparations for the assembly.
• Tang Jian promised to demonstrate a Blue Star-grade card and urged Yue Buqing to aim beyond defending Dragon Tiger Dao’s title, but Yue Buqing said the sect would decide its ambitions based on the circumstances.
• Yue Buqing explained that many talented Card Makers stayed hidden or kept their best patents private, and Tang Jian later reviewed intelligence on the rival contestants.
• Tang Jian discovered that Taiyi would represent Taiyi Sect in the scholarly contest and wondered whether his old enemy would target him again.
• Tang Jian summoned Miluo and began discussing a new card concept, drawing on ideas from his previous life and information from Norman Blackhand about similar cards on Dune Star.

Tang Jian and Miluo refined plans for a second patented card, the resource-producing Moon Well Card, while Tang Jian prepared to use his dream ability to investigate Taiyi and the other sects. He discovered that Taiyi had secretly coordinated with several sects to secure victories at the fellowship assembly and suspected their meeting concerned him.

• Tang Jian decided to pursue two of the three fellowship assembly spots so Dragon Tiger Dao could gain free trading rights, and he planned to negotiate for Miracle Company to share in the benefits.
• Tang Jian and Miluo developed the Moon Well Card research plan, and Tang Jian offered Miluo another theoretical project involving spatial laws.
• Tang Jian entered a dream to investigate his opponents and learned that Taiyi had met with Three Yuan Sect, Spring Autumn Sect, and Luoyun Sect to coordinate their contest plans.
• Taiyi discussed Tang Jian with Ning Xue, while Ai Bing and the other visitors praised Taiyi and dismissed the possibility that Tang Jian could develop another patent.
• Tang Jian approached Qianyuan Hall in disguise but detected its warning Card Array, then saw Ning Xue and the other sect members leave and suspected they had plotted against him.

Tang Jian used a dream to confirm that Taiyi was likely plotting against him and the Dragon Tiger Dao, then decided to investigate Taiyi’s elder Mu Huo and secure powerful backup. A call from Bailai alerted him to reports of deities emerging and wars erupting across several Base Cities, events that matched his memories of his previous life.

• Tang Jian confronted Taiyi in a dream, accused him of plotting with Ning Xue and other sects, and caught his hostile expression before the dream ended.
• After waking, Tang Jian identified the Spring Autumn Sect, the Three Yuan Sect, and Ning Xue of the Luoyun Sect as possible enemies and decided to possess Mu Huo to learn more about Taiyi’s plans.
• Tang Jian resolved to find powerful backup because Yue Buqing was not strong enough to protect him.
• Bailai called Tang Jian and told him to check the news, then ended the call.
• Tang Jian read reports of war around Beiyu Base City and deities appearing in several cities, and recognized the events from his previous life.

As panic spread over battles across the Federation, Tang Jian judged that Guxia had won a local victory and remained confident that Wan Ling would return. He recruited Bai Le to pose as his partner and planned to confront Taiyi at the banquet.

• Bai Le told Tang Jian about the crisis in Lingdi, including a Card God’s defection, while Tang Jian reasoned that Guxia’s defenses had mostly succeeded and Beiyu had been reclaimed.
• Tang Jian told Bai Le he was not worried about Wan Ling, whom he believed could not be killed by a Celestial Pit Deity.
• Tang Jian revealed he knew Taiyi had been proposed as Bai Le’s match and suggested they pretend to be lovers to provoke him.
• Bai Le agreed to play along, and Tang Jian left with his arm around her while Li Bingxin and Miluo watched in shock.
• Tang Jian asked whether Taiyi would attend the banquet, then headed there with Bai Le.

Tang Jian entered the royal banquet with Bailai on his arm, publicly challenging Taiyi’s assumption that she would become his fiancée. The confrontation left Taiyi visibly furious as Bailai rejected his claim and questioned whether they were even close.

• Taiyi received praise from other sect disciples at the banquet while Shibatian mocked him and Taisheng.
• Tang Jian arrived with Bailai on his arm, drawing the attention of the guests and making Taiyi’s smile stiffen.
• Yue Buqing hurried after Tang Jian, fearing the display would provoke Taiyi Sect and damage Dragon Tiger Dao’s interests.
• Taiyi confronted Bailai and demanded to know why she was with Tang Jian.
• Bailai held Tang Jian’s arm and coolly told Taiyi to speak clearly, then asked whether they were even close.

Tang Jian provoked Taiyi at the banquet, leaving Dragon Tiger Dao isolated as other sects feared Taiyi Sect’s retaliation at the upcoming gathering. After Yue Buqing confronted him back at their lodgings, Tang Jian revealed that he expected someone to come kill him that night.

• Taiyi questioned Bai Le about the White Feather Sect’s absence from the gathering, then exchanged veiled accusations with Tang Jian.
• Taiyi stayed outwardly composed, but Dragon Tiger Dao was shunned at the banquet as other sects feared it would be challenged by Taiyi Sect.
• A Black Tortoise Dao elder warned his disciples that Tang Jian had lost his backing and would be outmatched by Taiyi Sect’s prodigies, especially Taisheng.
• Yue Buqing angrily scolded Tang Jian for provoking Taiyi and behaving ostentatiously toward Bai Le.
• Tang Jian told Yue Buqing that he had a deeper reason for provoking Taiyi and that someone might come to kill him that night.

Tang Jian warned Yue Buqing that Taiyi might try to kill him, while Taiyi privately ordered Mu Huo to assassinate him. Tang Jian had already anticipated the attack and prepared to gather allies, leaving Mu Huo on his way to kill a target who was ready for him.

• Tang Jian told Yue Buqing that Mu Huo could easily kill him and revealed that Wan Ling's life or death was unknown, but Yue Buqing insisted Taiyi Sect would not act dishonorably and planned to offer compensation.
• Tang Jian spoke with Bailai, who cautioned him about provoking Taiyi while Wan Ling was missing, then stayed next door as Tang Jian contacted someone using his Communication Card.
• Ning Xue and Yinghe discussed Tang Jian's recklessness and expected Taiyi Sect to target him, while Yinghe prepared for the fellowship gathering's literary contest.
• Taiyi told Mu Huo that Tang Jian had become too dangerous to leave alive and ordered him to kill Tang Jian immediately; Mu Huo vanished from the hall.
• Tang Jian's narration revealed that he had anticipated Taiyi's attack and had already begun gathering allies after deciding to provoke his enemies into revealing themselves.

Mu Huo infiltrated Yuanning Hall to kill Tang Jian and the other Dragon Tiger Dao disciples, intending to blame the attack on surviving cultivators. Li Qiong and Wu Shixiong ambushed him, but Mu Huo unleashed a devastating Psionic Wave that destroyed the hall and its surroundings before Wu Shixiong publicly accused him of attacking Dragon Tiger Dao.

• Mu Huo killed a squad of palace guards and trapped Yuanning Hall in a formation, planning to frame cultivators for the massacre.
• Mu Huo identified Tang Jian and the others as his targets, then attacked Tang Jian’s residence with his clones.
• Li Qiong’s Golden Crane Qin Sound stunned Mu Huo, and Wu Shixiong’s Mutated Red-Eyed Venerable Worm struck him with a poisonous charge.
• Tang Jian retreated in an intangible state as Mu Huo unleashed a Psionic Wave that devastated Yuanning Hall and injured the Mutated Red-Eyed Venerable Worm.
• Wu Shixiong moved the survivors out of danger and publicly accused Mu Huo of attacking Dragon Tiger Dao, drawing powerful figures toward the scene.

After Mu Huo attacked Tang Jian, Wu Shixiong intervened, and the two sects faced off over what had happened. Tang Jian and Taiyi turned the confrontation into a shameless exchange of apologies and compensation, while Tang Jian privately recognized how close he had come to being killed.

• Wu Shixiong confronted Mu Huo after the attack, and Mu Huo claimed he had been pursuing infiltrating cultivators rather than targeting Tang Jian.
• Tang Jian played along with Mu Huo’s cover story while hinting that Mu Huo had tried to kill him, and Mu Huo agreed to call the clash a misunderstanding.
• Taiyi arrived and apologized on Mu Huo’s behalf, and Tang Jian demanded five million in compensation for Red-Eyes’s injuries.
• Tang Jian pretended to be badly injured and spat blood to pressure Taiyi, who agreed to compensate him before leaving with Mu Huo.
• Bailai checked on Tang Jian, and Tang Jian admitted privately that he had summoned Wu Shixiong in time to prevent Taiyi Sect from killing him.

Tang Jian revealed that he had deliberately provoked Taiyi Sect to expose the sects plotting against Dragon Tiger Dao, while Wu Shixiong warned that Taiyi would still seek to kill him. Meanwhile, Wan Ling killed the deity Kowala and sensed that Tang Jian had encountered danger, setting off to help him.

• The king of Rin Kingdom apologized to Tang Jian, and Yue Buqing admitted he should have trusted him about Taiyi Sect’s attack.
• Wu Shixiong and Li Qiong explained that Mu Huo’s immense strength had forced them to retreat, though the public confrontation had exposed him and achieved Tang Jian’s goal.
• Tang Jian told Bailai and the others that he had provoked Taiyi to draw out the sects conspiring against Dragon Tiger Dao and catch them all together.
• Wan Ling revealed that he had used Kowala’s divine poison to strengthen his Spiritual Power, then killed her and destroyed her soul.
• Wan Ling sensed a danger warning from the Inheritance Card in Tang Jian and departed to find him.

Taiyi and Mu Huo blamed the Dragon Tiger Dao’s successful defense of Tang Jian on a Prophecy Card and planned to undermine the sect through rival factions. While the Sect Fellowship Assembly approached, Tang Jian gathered intelligence through dream possession and completed a production plan for the Moon Well Card.

• Taiyi and Mu Huo concluded that a high-grade Prophecy Card had helped Wu Shixiong and Li Qiong protect Tang Jian, and they agreed to enlist the Spring Autumn Sect and Luoyun Sect against the Dragon Tiger Dao.
• Tang Jian visited sect members to gather intelligence, then used dream possession to learn the secrets and trump cards of more than ten sects.
• Tang Jian discovered that Yinghe was actually Yingkong, the former second-ranked figure on the Divine Weapon and Steed Ranking, and learned that possessing Five-Star Card Masters cost him ten times as much energy.
• As the Sect Fellowship Assembly drew near, Tang Jian finished researching and successfully made a blue five-star Moon Well Card that produced moon well water and gradually increased local Spirit Medium Energy density.

Tang Jian completed the Moon Well Card and sold intelligence about the Taiyi Sect before the Sect Fellowship Assembly began. At the royal garden, the Dragon Tiger Dao faced hostility from rival sects, while Tang Jian and the younger members appeared nervous enough to invite suspicion.

• Tang Jian completed the Moon Well Card, his first personally researched card and his third blue card patent.
• Tang Jian sold the Taiyi Sect's strategic intelligence for ten million Federal Currency and secured a verbal promise of an additional condition.
• On October 28, the Sect Fellowship Assembly opened in the Kingdom of Rin's royal garden, with nearly forty-five sects in attendance.
• Mu Huo and Taiyi encouraged other sects to target the Dragon Tiger Dao, and the Spring Autumn Sect and Luoyun Sect voiced their hostility toward Tang Jian.
• Tang Jian and the Dragon Tiger Dao arrived to mocking and suspicious looks, while Tang Jian, Miluo, and the younger members appeared tense.
• Ning Xue interpreted Tang Jian's apparent lack of confidence as weakness, but Taiyi warned him that Tang Jian might be acting.

Dragon Tiger Dao arrived at the Sect Fellowship Assembly amid suspicion and anxiety after Tang Jian claimed his patent research had hit a snag. As the literary duel began, Tang Jian privately knew the judges had been bribed and prepared to use the contest’s confidential challenge process to mislead his enemies.

• Dragon Tiger Dao’s younger members worried that Tang Jian’s patent failure would leave them unable to defeat powerful sects, while Tang Jian told them to conceal their doubts and said he could still beat Luoyun Sect.
• Miluo offered to help by researching another patent direction, and Tang Jian encouraged him while privately revealing that he had staged the setback to mislead a suspected traitor.
• The king of Rin Kingdom and judges Ye Xunhuan, Huo Jiaxian, and Xi Lengyan arrived, and Tang Jian learned from Wu Shixiong that bribery seemed unlikely despite knowing two judges had been bought off.
• The judges opened the literary duel, whose rules required previous losers to settle their grudges first and kept challenges and results confidential until the contest ended.

The Luoyun Sect challenged the Dragon Tiger Dao in the literary contest, backed by the Taiyi Sect, while the judges set up a randomized Card Stroke examination. The contest began under suspicious circumstances, with Xi Lengyan secretly giving Yinghe easier subjects and Tang Jian a specially treated examination sheet.

• The Luoyun Sect challenged the Dragon Tiger Dao, hoping to defeat its old rival and win the Taiyi Sect's favor.
• Ye Xunhuan drew five Card Stroke subjects, Huo Jiaxian selected three, and Xi Lengyan prepared to distribute two subjects to each contestant.
• Tang Jian and Yinghe entered separate examination rooms, where Ye Xunhuan's Silence Card prevented contestants from using cards or cheating.
• Yan San suspected that the Taiyi Sect could manipulate the contest, while Ning Xue cautioned him not to discuss such matters openly.
• Xi Lengyan gave Yinghe the easier subjects, Mold Body and Electromagnetic Body, then slipped Tang Jian a specially treated examination sheet.

Tang Jian discovered that Xi Lengyan had secretly altered his stroke assessment from Electromagnetic Body to Current Body. Rather than expose the tampering, he decided to focus on mastering Yellow Springs Body and entered the Dream World to possess Ye Xunhuan.

• Tang Jian possessed Xi Lengyan in the Dream World and struggled to control the Five-Star Card Master's powerful body and senses.
• Tang Jian spotted the assessment materials changing Electromagnetic Body to Current Body and realized Taiyi Sect had tampered with his test.
• Tang Jian woke to find the altered assessment document delivered to him, confirming Xi Lengyan's deception.
• Tang Jian decided not to confront Xi Lengyan and instead planned to master Yellow Springs Body to overcome Yinghe's likely advantage.
• Tang Jian entered the Dream World again and possessed Ye Xunhuan so he could find a Yellow Springs Body card among the judges' decks.

Wan Ling received recognition for killing the Barbarian Insect Race deity and demanded a pursuit order against forces he accused of obstructing him, including Taiyi Sect. Meanwhile, Tang Jian mastered the four-star Yellow Springs Body and began drawing it just before the literary contest’s time limit.

• Ancient Xia’s leaders awarded Wan Ling the title of Godslayer and a Special-Class Merit Medal after he killed the Barbarian Insect Race deity.
• Wan Ling demanded a pursuit order against several forces and accused Taiyi Sect of colluding with the Celestial Pit Deities.
• Wan Ling privately gave the top leader evidence that Mu Huo had attacked Tang Jian while Wan Ling fought the deity’s poison in the Celestial Pit.
• Tang Jian possessed Ye Xunhuan, found a Yellow Spring Ascension Card with a four-star Yellow Springs Body, and spent most of his stored energy learning the stroke.
• Tang Jian withdrew from the dream and drew the Yellow Springs Body onto a Blank Card as the assessment neared its end.
• Yinghe left the literary contest room looking satisfied and glanced mockingly at Tang Jian’s closed door.

Tang Jian refused to let the Dragon Tiger Dao surrender when five sects challenged it, and he offered increasingly valuable assets as stakes. The other sects grew suspicious as the Fusion Card patent entered the negotiations, leaving the challenge terms unresolved.

• Tu Zhi, Zeng Wang, and three other sects challenged the Dragon Tiger Dao, while the Azure Dragon Dao refused to join them because it remained loyal to the Divine Dao.
• Wu Shixiong pretended to consider surrendering, but Tang Jian interrupted him and insisted that the Dragon Tiger Dao accept the challenges.
• Wu Shixiong accidentally revealed that Tang Jian had mistaken the Electromagnetic Body writing technique for the Current Body, and Tang Jian offered his Miracle Company shares as collateral.
• Tang Jian agreed to stake three major patents, including the Fusion Card patent, prompting the challenging elders and watching sects to take notice.
• Tu Zhi and the other elders accepted the proposed stakes but grew suspicious that Tang Jian's reckless offers might conceal a trap.

Tang Jian wagered Miracle Company and Dragon Tiger Dao’s assets against five sects, bluffing the elders into accepting his challenge. After they entered the literary duel rooms, he admitted he was not certain of victory but believed his brushstroke skill gave him the advantage, then entered a dreamlike state to make a prediction.

• Tang Jian provoked Tu Zhi and the sect disciples, then offered Miracle Company shares, card-crafting rooms, and patent rights as stakes in challenges against all five sects.
• Xi Lengyan privately signaled the elders, who accepted the wagers, while Tang Jian acted frightened and left with Bailai and Wu Shixiong.
• The five sect elders began dividing Dragon Tiger Dao’s expected spoils before the literary duel results were announced.
• Tang Jian admitted to Bailai and Wu Shixiong that he had been bluffing, but said the disciples were unlikely to beat him unless they had mastered brushstroke techniques at Four-Star proficiency.
• Tang Jian asked them to protect him, leaned against Bailai, and entered the dreamscape to make a prediction.

Tang Jian discovered a powerful spirit body hidden in Taiyi’s mind while spying on him through Xi Lengyan in the Dream World. After waking, he told Wu Shixiong and Bailai what he had seen, and suspected the spirit body was formed from Taiyi’s thoughts and consciousness.

• Mu Huo concluded that Tang Jian had failed the brushstroke trial and expected the five major sects to defeat the Dragon Tiger Dao.
• Tang Jian possessed Xi Lengyan, checked the trial materials, and found that the five major sects had received only intermediate or low-level brushstrokes.
• Tang Jian eavesdropped on Taiyi outlining a card, used the Third Divine Eye Card, and saw a red, intelligent-looking spirit body disappear into Taiyi’s brain.
• Tang Jian broke into Taiyi’s room and grabbed him, but a violent force knocked Tang Jian away and rescued Taiyi.
• Tang Jian woke beside Wu Shixiong and Bailai, described what he had seen as a vision, and asked them not to spread the matter.
• After the literary duel contestants emerged, Tang Jian reasoned that Taiyi’s spirit body might be made from thought and consciousness, which dream possession erased.

Tang Jian and Dragon Tiger Dao waited for the first literary battle results while their rivals assumed they had lost. Huo Jiaxian announced that Dragon Tiger Dao had defeated the Luoyun Sect, leaving the assembly shocked and demanding an explanation.

• Tang Jian considered the bizarre spirit entity inside Taiyi’s mind and decided to investigate it through dreams.
• Disciples from three sects boasted about their stroke performances, while Mu Huo assured Taiyi that Tang Jian could not win.
• Huo Jiaxian began announcing the results, and Dragon Tiger Dao’s disciples braced themselves for defeat.
• Huo Jiaxian announced that Yinghe had outlined the Electromagnetic Body at four-star proficiency and the Mold Body at three-star proficiency.
• Tu Zhi mocked Tang Jian, who called him an idiot, before Huo Jiaxian declared Dragon Tiger Dao the victor over the Luoyun Sect.