Recaps

After the Gama Empire and Cloud Empire war ended, Xiao Lin retired from the military and helped strengthen the Xiao Household with royal rewards and assets from the fallen Intel Lineage. A year later, Xiao Lin revealed himself as a Battle King, establishing the Xiao Household as a new Battle King family in the Jia Ma Imperial Capital.

• The Gama Empire and Cloud Empire ended their war, and Xiao Lin resigned from his military post to cultivate and teach his son, Xiao Zhan.
• The royal house rewarded Xiao Lin, and the Xiao Household, Nalan Household, and Mu Household divided the Intel Lineage's assets with royal approval.
• The Jia Ma Royal House allowed the three families to rise, while Yun Shan focused on breaking through to the Nine-Star Dou Emperor stage.
• A year after the war ended, Xiao Lin released a powerful aura from the Xiao Household's ancestral grounds, revealing that the family had gained a Battle King.
• Xiao Lin displayed himself as a One-Star Battle King, though his true cultivation had advanced to Six-Star Dou Emperor, and rival forces reconsidered their relations with the Xiao Household.

Xiao Lin’s guidance helped Xiao Zhan build his Battle Qi foundation while the Xiao Household expanded its influence after Xiao Lin revealed his Battle King strength. With the Nalan and Mu Households also producing Battle Kings, the imperial capital’s powers reshuffled and the four leading families gained a new collective name.

• Xiao Zhan reached the first stage of Battle Qi at age seven under Xiao Lin’s guidance, and Xiao Lin estimated he could become a Fighter within ten years.
• After Xiao Lin revealed his Battle King strength, the Xiao Household expanded into Wutan City, raising its status and helping the city become a first-tier city.
• Xiao Lin stayed alert to possible hidden enemies, including the Hun Clan, while the Xiao Household gained resources and recognition in the imperial capital.
• Nearly another year later, the Nalan Household and Mu Household each produced a Battle King, and Nalan Jie resigned as a general while Mu Chen became Grand Marshal.
• People began calling the Mittel Family and the Xiao, Nalan, and Mu Households the Four Great Families of the Gama Empire, and the title spread across the empire and neighboring countries.

Xiao Dongcheng brought Xiao Lin a gilded invitation from the Mittel Family to a major auction, showing that the Xiao Household’s new status as a Battle King family had earned the powerful merchant family’s attention. Xiao Lin welcomed the invitation and considered the possibility of future business cooperation between the families.

• Xiao Dongcheng interrupted Xiao Lin and Xiao Zhan’s cultivation session to bring Xiao Lin some good news.
• Xiao Lin read the invitation and saw that the Mittel Family had sent it.
• Xiao Lin reflected on the Mittel Family’s wealth and influence, including its new Dou Emperor, Hai Bodong.
• Xiao Lin learned that the Mittel Family had invited the Xiao Household to its upcoming major auction.
• Xiao Lin decided to accept the invitation and welcomed the prospect of closer commercial ties.

Xiao Lin accepted the Xiao Household’s invitation to attend the Mittel Family’s grand auction, planning to use the family’s resources to buy items for his relatives and one for himself. He arrived at the auction house with four clansmen and was escorted to the family’s private VIP box.

• Xiao Lin agreed to represent the Xiao Household at the Mittel Family’s grand auction after reviewing its advance list of items, and Xiao Dongcheng gave him full authority to make purchases.
• Three days later, Xiao Lin traveled to the auction house with an elder and Xiao Ze, Xiao Zhen, and Xiao Yi, while crowds from across the empire gathered in the capital.
• Xiao Lin’s group drew attention when they arrived, and Xiao Lin calmly told his nervous clansmen to relax.
• Xiao Lin presented the Xiao Household’s VIP invitation at the reception desk, and a Mittel Family attendant escorted the group to their private box.

Xiao Lin brought the Xiao Household to the Mittel Family auction, where their VIP room and welcome showed how much the household’s status had risen. Before the auction began, he told three promising younger clansmen they could each bid on one cultivation aid, and urged them to help the household thrive without relying on him.

• Nalan Jie arrived with members of the Nalan Lineage and joined Xiao Lin and the Xiao Household on their way into the auction hall.
• The Mittel Family attendant led the Xiao Household to VIP Room Six, beside the Nalan Lineage’s Room Seven and the Mu Household’s Room Eight.
• Xiao Ze, Xiao Zhen, and Xiao Yi marveled at the Xiao Household’s VIP treatment, while Xiao Lin told them to grow accustomed to the household’s rising status.
• The Xiao Household elder explained that Xiao Ze, Xiao Zhen, and Xiao Yi could each bid on one item useful for their cultivation.
• Xiao Lin told the three clansmen he hoped they could eventually help the Xiao Household maintain or surpass its standing, then softened his expectations when they doubted they could reach the Dou Wang realm.

Xiao Lin watched the Gama Empire’s powerful figures gather at the Mittel Family’s auction, where Mittel Tengshan revealed his Battle King strength and opened the event. The auction began with a highly coveted Profound Rank mid-grade cultivation method, and the bidding was about to start.

• Xiao Lin sensed Yun Shan, Jia Xing Tian, and Fa Ma arriving at the auction, then saw Ice Emperor Hai Bodong enter VIP Room One.
• Mittel Tengshan appeared as the auctioneer, and Xiao Lin recognized that he had secretly become a Battle King.
• Mittel Tengshan announced the auction’s rules and officially began the event.
• The Mittel Family presented the Water-Transforming Spirit Art, a Profound Rank mid-grade cultivation method, with a starting price of one hundred thousand gold coins.
• Many attendees coveted the method, but most could not afford to bid.

Xiao Lin watched the auction and bought several medicinal pills and ingredients for the Xiao Household, while valuable cultivation methods and battle skills went to other bidders. The Foundation-Building Liquid he had been determined to obtain appeared, leaving Xiao Lin ready to compete for one of his two essential items.

• The guest in VIP Room No. 12 outbid VIP Room No. 10 and a bidder in the hall, buying the Water-Transforming Spirit Art for 450,000 gold coins.
• Xiao Lin used his Heavenly Realm Soul Power to discover that the buyer in Room No. 12 was a peak Nine-Star Battle Spirit with water-attributed battle qi who was preparing to break through to the Battle King realm.
• A bidder bought the Profound Rank mid-level battle skill Thunder Force for 150,000 gold coins.
• Xiao Lin bid on medicinal pills and precious ingredients, buying several items for the Xiao Household and a fourth-grade medicinal pill for Xiao Zhen.
• Foundation-Building Liquid appeared at auction, and Xiao Lin focused on obtaining it.

Xiao Lin won the first batch of Foundation-Building Liquid for 100,000 gold coins after his opening bid startled the auction hall into silence. As bidding began on the second batch, another buyer tried the same tactic, but the crowd was no longer so easily intimidated.

• Mittel Tengshan introduced three batches of Foundation-Building Liquid, and Xiao Lin decided to buy some for his son, Xiao Zhan.
• Xiao Lin bid 100,000 gold coins for the first batch, and the stunned bidders let him win it.
• Xiao Lin's clansmen praised him when the Mittel Family attendant delivered the ten bottles to his private room.
• Xiao Lin stored the Foundation-Building Liquid and continued watching the auction, hoping to obtain the remaining batches.
• A bidder opened the second batch's auction with a 100,000-gold-coin bid, but the crowd had learned from the first round.

Xiao Lin won the first batch of Foundation-Building Liquid and let the Jia Ma Royal House and Misty Cloud Sect take the next two batches, then decided the Xiao Household should train or recruit alchemists. At the auction’s end, he bought Xiao Ze a spear and won a body-tempering medicinal herb for Xiao Yi.

• Bidders raised the price of the second batch of Foundation-Building Liquid to 250,000 gold coins, and the Jia Ma Royal House won it after Xiao Lin stopped bidding.
• Xiao Lin bid on the third batch, but Yun Shan and the Misty Cloud Sect won it for 270,000 gold coins.
• After seeing the prices, Xiao Lin decided to consider training or recruiting alchemists for the Xiao Household.
• Xiao Lin spent 70,000 gold coins to win a long spear for Xiao Ze, who eagerly hugged it.
• Xiao Lin spent roughly 130,000 gold coins to win a body-tempering medicinal herb for Xiao Yi.

At the Mittel Family’s grand auction, Mittel Tengshan presented Basic Formation Annotations as a Secret Realm treasure, but the crowd dismissed it as useless. Xiao Lin was the only person interested in the item as the bidding began.

• The Mittel Family’s auction continued for hours, drawing strong interest and earning the family substantial commissions.
• Mittel Tengshan announced that the next item came from a Secret Realm and teased the crowd with claims about its potential.
• Mittel Tengshan revealed the item was Basic Formation Annotations and opened bidding at ten thousand gold coins.
• The crowd jeered and no one bid, while Xiao Lin remained interested in the annotations.

Xiao Lin bid 11,000 gold coins on the Basic Formation Annotations, saving it from being withdrawn and adding a possible new pursuit to his plans. He acquired everything he had come to the auction for and settled in to watch what happened next.

• Mittel Tengshan prepared to withdraw the Basic Formation Annotations after no one bid, while Xiao Lin considered studying formations as preparation for ascending to the Greater World.
• Xiao Lin bid 11,000 gold coins, drawing the auction hall's attention to VIP Room No. 6.
• Mittel Tengshan quickly sold the Basic Formation Annotations to Xiao Lin, relieved that the item had not gone unsold.
• Xiao Lin received the book and reflected that he had acquired everything he had planned to bid on.

At the auction’s finale, Mittel Tengshan presented a Seventh-Order Magical Beast magic core, drawing the interest of the empire’s strongest factions. Xiao Lin decided not to bid, while Yun Shan asked about the core’s origins before anyone committed to buying it.

• Xiao Lin casually looked through the Basic Formation Annotations he had bought and waited as the auction neared its end.
• Mittel Tengshan unveiled a Seventh-Order Magical Beast magic core and explained its potential uses before setting the starting price at two million gold coins.
• The Xiao, Nalan, and Mu Households declined to bid, leaving the Mittel Family, Misty Cloud Sect, Jia Ma Royal House, and Alchemist Guild as the likely contenders.
• Xiao Lin recognized that Yun Shan, Jia Xing Tian, and Fa Ma had attended because they knew the magic core would be auctioned, but chose not to compete for it.
• Yun Shan asked Mittel Tengshan how the Mittel Family had obtained the magic core and whether buying it might provoke trouble from the beast’s former kin; Jia Xing Tian and Fa Ma listened closely.

Mittel Tengshan promised that the Mittel Family would reveal news about the origin of the Seventh-Order Magical Beast core after the auction. Fa Ma won the core for the Alchemist Guild, and Xiao Lin waited to hear the promised announcement.

• Mittel Tengshan assured Yun Shan that the Mittel Family would protect whoever obtained the Seventh-Order Magical Beast core and said the family would reveal important news after the auction.
• Xiao Lin became interested in the Mittel Family’s promised announcement about the core’s origin.
• Fa Ma opened bidding at two and a half million gold coins, and Jia Xing Tian and Yun Shan joined the competition on behalf of their factions.
• The Alchemist Guild, Jia Ma Royal House, and Misty Cloud Sect drove the price upward as Fa Ma repeatedly outbid the other two factions.
• Fa Ma offered seven million gold coins, and Jia Xing Tian and Yun Shan stopped bidding.
• Mittel Tengshan’s third gavel awarded the core to the Alchemist Guild, and Xiao Lin waited for the Mittel Family’s announcement.

At the auction’s conclusion, Mittel Tengshan revealed that the Mittel Family had discovered a Secret Realm and explained why it could no longer keep it to itself. With the realm’s protective formations expected to collapse in three months and the Golden Goose Sect also seeking it, the Mittel Family called on the Jia Ma Empire to help compete for it.

• Mittel Tengshan announced that the Mittel Family had good news to share after the auction ended.
• Mittel Tengshan revealed that the Mittel Family’s Secret Realm had enabled Hai Bodong to become a Dou Emperor and was connected to the Seventh-Order Magical Beast core.
• Jia Xing Tian questioned why the Mittel Family would share a valuable Secret Realm instead of keeping control of it.
• Mittel Tengshan explained that a Seventh-Order Magical Beast had damaged the realm’s formations, exposing its aura to the Golden Goose Sect of the Falling Goose Empire.
• Mittel Tengshan said the formations would likely collapse within three months and asked the Jia Ma Empire to help the Mittel Family contend for the Secret Realm.

The Jia Ma Empire’s factions agreed to unite against the Falling Goose Empire in the coming Secret Realm expedition, accepting the Mittel Family’s plan to share the contest for its resources. After the auction, Xiao Lin chose a group from the Xiao Household to join him, then returned to studying the Basic Formation Annotations.

• Jia Xing Tian, Yun Shan, Fa Ma, and the other Jia Ma Empire factions agreed to unite against the Falling Goose Empire for the Secret Realm expedition.
• Mittel Tengshan set the gathering for three months later at the eastern gate of the Jia Ma Imperial Capital, bringing the auction to an end.
• Xiao Lin returned home, gave some auction items to Xiao Dongcheng, and told him about the Secret Realm.
• Xiao Lin selected ten Da Dou Shi, including Xiao Ze, Xiao Zhen, and Xiao Yi, and a newly advanced Dou Ling elder to accompany him.
• Xiao Lin began studying the Basic Formation Annotations.

After realizing the Basic Formation Annotations contained no formation diagrams, Xiao Lin set it aside and focused on cultivation, breaking through to Eight-Star Dou Emperor before the secret realm expedition. He led the Xiao Household’s group to the gathering site, where forces from the Falling Goose Empire and several small nations had already assembled.

• Xiao Lin finished reading the Basic Formation Annotations, found it nearly useless without formation diagrams, and tossed it into his Storage Ring.
• Xiao Lin cultivated for around two months and broke through to Eight-Star Dou Emperor, then spent the remaining month consolidating his cultivation and teaching Xiao Zhan and younger members of the Xiao Household.
• Xiao Lin led ten Great Dou Masters and one Battle Spirit from the Xiao Household to gather outside the eastern gate of the Jia Ma Imperial Capital.
• Several hundred people from the Gama Empire forces set out together for an ungoverned region between the Gama Empire and the Falling Goose Empire.
• Xiao Lin and the Gama Empire forces arrived to find several hundred people from the Falling Goose Empire waiting, along with groups from small nations.

The Gama and Falling Goose Empires gathered at an ancient secret realm, where their leaders traded insults but avoided fighting before its entrance opened. Once the protective formation vanished, Xiao Lin entered among the advancing experts and secretly marked a pursuing Falling Goose Battle King for death.

• Yan Luotian mocked the Gama Empire’s Mittel Family, and Yun Shan confronted him on behalf of the Gama Empire; the two leaders exchanged insults before returning to their groups.
• Xiao Lin told the Xiao Household members to search the secret realm’s outer regions while the empire’s Dou Emperors and Battle Kings headed for its center.
• The protective formation collapsed, and experts from both empires rushed into the secret realm, an ancient ruined sect.
• Yan Luotian raced toward the central hall ahead of Yun Shan and the other experts, while Xiao Lin took a separate path.
• A Five-Star Battle King from the Falling Goose Empire pursued Xiao Lin, who decided to kill him.

After entering the Secret Realm, Xiao Lin was targeted by Yan Bohong, a Five-Star Dou Wang from the Falling Goose Empire who wanted to kill Jia Ma Empire’s younger generation. Xiao Lin revealed overwhelming strength and killed Yan Bohong, leaving him to continue exploring the Secret Realm.

• After the protective formation shattered, Xiao Lin entered the Secret Realm and chose to search nearby rather than rush toward its center.
• Yan Bohong recognized Xiao Lin as a young Jia Ma Empire Dou Wang and decided to assassinate him, while other explorers avoided the route they shared.
• Yan Bohong blocked Xiao Lin near a well-preserved building and admitted that he had come to kill Jia Ma Empire cultivators rather than seek resources.
• Yan Bohong attacked Xiao Lin with Flying Swallow Slash, but Xiao Lin caught the strike with a giant hand of dou qi, revealing that his strength exceeded that of a One-Star Dou Wang.
• Yan Bohong tried to flee, but Xiao Lin struck him with God-Slaying Finger and killed the Five-Star Dou Wang.

Xiao Lin killed Yan Bohong, claimed his valuables, and entered a strange nine-story pavilion in the ancient secret realm. He found an empty first floor with a mysterious black circle, while a dormant soul awakened above and watched him.

• Xiao Lin killed Yan Bohong with the God-Slaying Finger, took his Storage Ring, and disposed of his corpse.
• Xiao Lin examined Yan Bohong's wealth and rejected the idea of making a living through murder and robbery.
• Xiao Lin judged the secret realm to be the remnant of a Dou Zong- or Dou Venerable-level force and entered the nine-story pavilion.
• A sleeping soul at the top of the pavilion awakened and watched Xiao Lin arrive.
• Xiao Lin found the first floor empty except for a huge black circular pattern and suspected the pavilion held an important secret.

Xiao Lin discovered that the Nine-Story Pavilion was a trial for learning the lost Nine Fundamental Formations. After mastering the One-Origin Formation and the Two Polarities Formation, he advanced to the second floor and devoted himself to the trial.

• Xiao Lin stepped onto the black pattern and recognized that it was the One-Origin Formation, one of the Nine Fundamental Formations.
• Xiao Lin studied the One-Origin Formation using the Basic Formation Annotations, then mastered it by breaking and resetting it.
• A watching soul grew more solid when Xiao Lin took out the Basic Formation Annotations and reacted with surprise.
• The pavilion transported Xiao Lin to its second floor, where he found the Two Polarities Formation and inferred that each floor contained another fundamental formation.
• Xiao Lin mastered the Two Polarities Formation and continued the trial, losing track of time as he pursued the remaining formations.

Xiao Lin mastered the Nine Fundamental Formations in the Formation Pavilion and discovered that his years of study had lasted only five days outside. He met the pavilion’s creator, Formation Old Man, and began to understand how the old soul body had helped him.

• Xiao Lin mastered the Nine Fundamental Formations and reached the Formation Pavilion’s ninth floor.
• Xiao Lin sensed a hidden presence, then worried that he had spent years studying and left the Xiao Household searching for him.
• Formation Old Man emerged and told Xiao Lin that only five days had passed outside the pavilion.
• Xiao Lin raised his guard against Formation Old Man, then relaxed and apologized after learning that the old man had established the Formation Pavilion.
• Xiao Lin suspected that Formation Old Man had altered the flow of time inside the pavilion to help him study.

Xiao Lin learned that Formation Old Man had been a hired formation master for the Savage Sect, not one of its members, and that the Basic Formation Annotations Xiao Lin had acquired were his work. With his soul nearing its end, Formation Old Man chose Xiao Lin as his inheritor and used the Formation Pavilion to help him master the Nine Fundamental Formations.

• Formation Old Man celebrated Xiao Lin's talent and explained that he had spent part of his remaining soul power helping Xiao Lin learn the Nine Fundamental Formations in only a few days.
• Xiao Lin asked whether Formation Old Man mourned the destruction of his sect, and Formation Old Man clarified that he had only been hired by the Savage Sect to build the Formation Pavilion.
• Formation Old Man explained that disaster struck just after he completed the pavilion, leaving him buried alongside the Savage Sect and his soul trapped there.
• Xiao Lin showed Formation Old Man the Basic Formation Annotations he had won at auction, and Formation Old Man confirmed that he had written and given the book to the Savage Sect.
• Formation Old Man revealed that he had originally planned to spend years testing potential heirs, but chose Xiao Lin after seeing him enter with the book, then spent his soul power to help him master the Nine Fundamental Formations.

Xiao Lin learned that mastering the Nine Fundamental Formations made him a Formation Master, but that becoming a Spirit Array Master required learning to condense Spirit Seals. He chose Formation Old Man as his master and was accepted as his disciple.

• Xiao Lin asked Formation Old Man why mastering the Nine Fundamental Formations still left him unable to use formations flexibly in battle.
• Formation Old Man explained that Spirit Array Masters could deploy formations with Spirit Seals, which replaced the materials and preparation ordinary Formation Masters needed.
• Xiao Lin recognized Spirit Array Masters from his memories of the Greater World and eagerly asked Formation Old Man to teach him to condense Spirit Seals.
• Xiao Lin kowtowed and took Formation Old Man as his master, and Formation Old Man gladly accepted him as a disciple.
• Formation Old Man told Xiao Lin to rise and asked him his name.

Xiao Lin became Formation Old Man’s disciple and learned that his master once belonged to the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace, a sect destroyed by enemies from beyond the heavens. Formation Old Man revealed a dangerous secret about the sect’s former site, and Xiao Lin vowed not to investigate it until he was strong enough.

• Xiao Lin formally paid respects to Formation Old Man, who praised his Dou Emperor cultivation and Heavenly Realm Soul Power.
• Xiao Lin asked Formation Old Man about his former sect, and Formation Old Man said it was the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace, renowned for formations before enemies from beyond the heavens destroyed it.
• Formation Old Man hesitated before telling Xiao Lin that a clue to the sect’s former site was hidden in a copy of Basic Formation Annotations.
• Formation Old Man warned Xiao Lin not to visit the former site until his Spirit Formation Master level and strength were sufficient, explaining that the enemy might also have perished there.
• Xiao Lin considered where the enemies from beyond the heavens might have come from, then vowed to leave the former site alone until he was strong enough.

Xiao Lin learned that the Basic Formation Annotations concealed a secret leading to the former site of the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace, which he could uncover only after becoming a Spirit Array Master. With Formation Old Man's final help, Xiao Lin condensed his first Spirit Seal and became a Spirit Array Master, while his teacher spent the last of his soul power.

• Formation Old Man told Xiao Lin that the Basic Formation Annotations concealed the former location of the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace and that Xiao Lin would have to unravel the book's secrets himself.
• Formation Old Man taught Xiao Lin how to condense Spirit Seals so he could advance from Formation Master to Spirit Array Master.
• Xiao Lin repeatedly failed to form his first Spirit Seal but kept trying.
• Formation Old Man poured his remaining soul power into Xiao Lin's sea of consciousness, helping the half-formed Spirit Seal take shape.
• Xiao Lin successfully condensed a Spirit Seal and realized Formation Old Man had helped him at the cost of his remaining soul power.