Chapter Summaries

Xiao Lin told Xiao Yan about the Jia Ma Empire’s Top Ten Strongest and reassured him about the Xiao Household’s standing. Their lesson was interrupted when Xiao Zhan brought Xiao Lin a blood-written Life and Death Duel Letter, leaving its sender and challenge unresolved.

• Xiao Yan asked Xiao Lin about the Jia Ma Empire’s Top Ten Strongest, and Xiao Lin teased him before listing the experts and their ranks.
• Xiao Yan inferred that the Xiao Household had considerable influence, and Xiao Lin said few factions dared to challenge it after he destroyed the Chek Family.
• Xiao Lin noted that Gu He had stayed with the Xiao Household to teach its alchemists.
• Xiao Zhan arrived worried, sent Xiao Yan away, and told Xiao Lin that someone had left a blood-written Life and Death Duel Letter addressed to him.
• Xiao Zhan handed the letter to Xiao Lin for him to handle.

Xiao Lin received a Blood Letter challenging him to a life-and-death duel from Yan Penghong, whose brother Xiao Lin had killed. Xiao Lin accepted the duel scheduled for a month later, unaware that it matched the time of his fatal injury in the original story, though his current strength as a five-turn Dou Venerable left him in no danger.

• Xiao Lin read Yan Penghong’s Blood Letter, which challenged him to a duel at the border between the Jia Ma Empire and the Falling Goose Empire in a month.
• Xiao Lin recognized Yan Penghong as the brother of a man he had killed and accepted the challenge to end their feud.
• Xiao Zhan warned Xiao Lin that the duel might be a trap, but Xiao Lin reassured him and told him to keep the challenge secret.
• Xiao Zhan agreed to handle the matter quietly, while Xiao Lin gave the duel little further thought.
• The narration revealed that Xiao Lin had died from duel wounds at this point in the original story, but his current cultivation as a five-turn Dou Venerable made that outcome unlikely.

Yan Penghong waited for Xiao Lin at their appointed duel site after gaining Dou Huang cultivation from Protector Wu and joining the Soul Hall as a high-ranking Soul Envoy. Unbeknownst to him, the Soul Hall had tampered with his soul, and Xiao Lin arrived to face him.

• Yan Penghong spent a month waiting on a nameless border hill, consumed by grief and despair over his inability to avenge his brother.
• After leaving the Falling Goose Empire to seek power, Yan Penghong met Protector Wu and accepted his help to break through to the Dou Huang Realm.
• Protector Wu recruited Yan Penghong into the Soul Hall, where he became a high-ranking Soul Envoy.
• Yan Penghong sent Xiao Lin a Life and Death Duel Letter, convinced his new strength would let him take revenge.
• The Soul Hall had secretly tampered with Yan Penghong's soul, deepening the darkness within him without his knowledge.
• When the appointed day arrived, Xiao Lin headed straight to the agreed location without making preparations.

Xiao Lin arrived to face Yan Penghong in their life-and-death duel, after Yan Penghong had been driven by the Soul Hall to seek revenge for his brother. Yan Penghong revealed that he had become a One-Star Dou Emperor and challenged Xiao Lin to defeat him to learn how he gained that power.

• Yan Penghong waited for Xiao Lin, confident that his new Dou Emperor strength would let him avenge his brother.
• Xiao Lin arrived, and Yan Penghong asked whether Xiao Lin had killed Yan Bohong; Xiao Lin admitted it and explained that Yan Bohong had tried to kill him.
• Yan Penghong promised not to target the Xiao Household after killing Xiao Lin, and Xiao Lin promised to keep their feud between them.
• Xiao Lin identified Yan Penghong as a One-Star Dou Emperor and asked how he had gained that strength.
• Yan Penghong offered to reveal the secret if Xiao Lin defeated him, and Xiao Lin decided to fight rather than kill him immediately.

Xiao Lin defeated Yan Penghong with one strike and learned that Soul Hall and Protector Wu were behind Yan Penghong’s transformation. As Yan Penghong tried to reveal more, a soul restriction killed him, and an Iron Token absorbed his soul.

• Yan Penghong agreed to let Xiao Lin make the first move, confident that his Dou Emperor cultivation would protect him.
• Xiao Lin used Rock-Splitting Palm to crush Yan Penghong’s bones and revealed that he had concealed his true strength.
• Yan Penghong realized Xiao Lin had also hidden the truth behind his brother’s death and agreed to explain his transformation.
• Yan Penghong named Soul Hall and Protector Wu, then a restriction in his soul triggered as he began revealing the secret.
• Yan Penghong’s body exploded, and an Iron Token appeared and absorbed his pitch-black soul.

After capturing Yan Penghong’s Soul Envoy Token, Xiao Lin realized the Soul Hall was active in the Northwest Continent and reconsidered the danger facing the Xiao Household. He resolved to strengthen himself and avoid Gu Yuan, while remaining wary of both the Hun Clan and the Gu Clan.

• Xiao Lin caught Yan Penghong’s Soul Envoy Token and suppressed it with his Astral Dou Qi before identifying its connection to Protector Wu and the Soul Hall.
• Xiao Lin suspected the Soul Hall’s growing activity meant Hun Tiandi was recovering, and worried that the Xiao Household might be targeted again.
• Xiao Lin reflected on the thousand-year cycle in which the Hun Clan hunted the Xiao Household, the Gu Clan concealed it, and the household relocated.
• Xiao Lin decided to stop idling and prioritize improving his strength while considering the Gu Clan’s possible plans for the Xiao Household.
• Xiao Lin planned to avoid Gu Yuan when he brought Gu Xun’er to the Xiao Household, fearing Gu Yuan could see through his secrets.

After defeating Yan Penghong, Xiao Lin returned to the Jia Ma Imperial Capital pretending to be gravely injured and unconscious, setting off panic across the city and the Xiao Household. He planned to use the ruse to leave the spotlight, push Xiao Zhan to work harder, and focus on cultivating, but the reaction proved bigger than he expected.

• Xiao Lin returned to the Jia Ma Imperial Capital coughing up blood and staggering toward the Xiao Household, causing rumors about his grave injuries to spread.
• Factions across the capital sent spies and visitors toward the Xiao Household, but the household turned away all but a few friendly groups.
• Xiao Zhan blamed himself for failing to stop Xiao Lin from attending the Life-and-Death Duel, while physicians and Gu He said they could not heal him without a Tier 7 pill.
• Xiao Lin secretly kept pretending to be gravely injured and unconscious so he could withdraw from public attention, spur Xiao Zhan's cultivation, and focus on growing stronger.
• Xiao Lin realized his staged injury had stirred nearly every faction in the Jia Ma Imperial Capital into action.

Xiao Lin remained disguised as gravely injured and unconscious while the Xiao Household grew anxious and visitors brought gifts. Yun Shan examined him, realized the injuries had to be an act, and privately confronted him, leaving Xiao Lin’s plan intact.

• Nalan Jie, Mu Chen, and representatives of several other forces visited the Xiao Household and left gifts for the supposedly unconscious Xiao Lin.
• Xiao Lin sensed the unease spreading through the household but chose not to end his act.
• Yun Shan arrived, reassuring Xiao Zhan and examining Xiao Lin, though he found no sign that the injuries were fake.
• Yun Shan sent Xiao Zhan outside, then told Xiao Lin to stop pretending.
• Xiao Lin sat up unharmed, and Yun Shan explained that Yan Penghong could not have injured him, so he had deduced that Xiao Lin was faking.

Xiao Lin explained to Yun Shan that he was pretending to be gravely injured so he could retire before a powerful visitor arrived at the Xiao Household. After Yun Shan agreed to help him, Xiao Lin woke and the household believed his strength and lifespan had been damaged.

• Xiao Lin told Yun Shan that one of the Dou Qi Continent’s three strongest people might visit the Xiao Household within three years, so he planned to hide his strength and retire.
• Yun Shan accepted Xiao Lin’s explanation and said he was also considering retiring to pursue a higher realm.
• Xiao Lin asked Yun Shan for help with several matters, and Yun Shan agreed before leaving.
• Xiao Lin soon woke, and the Xiao Household celebrated, believing Yun Shan had saved him.
• Yun Shan told the Xiao Household that Xiao Lin’s strength might never improve and could decline, and that overexertion might shorten his lifespan.

After Yun Shan spread word of Xiao Lin’s injuries, the Xiao Household relied on Xiao Zhan to manage its affairs while Xiao Lin recovered. Xiao Lin then stepped down as clan head, leaving Xiao Zhan to lead the household.

• Yun Shan returned to the Misty Cloud Sect and secretly spread news of Xiao Lin’s condition, which soon became common knowledge across the Jia Ma Empire.
• Yun Shan sent Misty Cloud Sect disciples and elders to help stabilize the Xiao Household while Xiao Lin rested and Xiao Zhan managed its affairs.
• Xiao Lin told Xiao Zhan that he intended to step down as clan head, and Xiao Zhan readily agreed to take responsibility for the household.
• Three months later, Xiao Lin formally stepped down, and Xiao Zhan became the Xiao Household’s new clan head.

Xiao Zhan told Xiao Lin that the Xiao Household would leave the Jia Ma Imperial Capital to prove it could thrive independently, choosing Wutan City as its new center. Xiao Lin agreed to remain at the household’s main residence in the capital while the relocation began.

• The Xiao Household’s clansmen grew frustrated with outsiders crediting Xiao Lin for the household’s standing and urged Xiao Zhan to let them prove themselves.
• After discussing the matter with the elders, Xiao Zhan decided to move the household away from the Jia Ma Imperial Capital.
• Xiao Lin approved the move but asked that the household keep its main residence in the capital.
• Xiao Zhan said Xiao Lin and several other elderly members could stay behind, and Xiao Lin accepted the arrangement.
• Xiao Zhan named Wutan City as the household’s new center of development, and the Xiao Household began preparing to relocate.

The Xiao Household relocated from the Jia Ma Imperial Capital to Wutan City, while Xiao Lin chose to stay behind at the ancestral residence. The household left its Scripture Pavilion and advanced cultivation methods in the capital as a path for talented or deserving youngsters to return, leaving Xiao Lin hopeful that they would one day come back through their own efforts.

• The Xiao Household's move to Wutan City shocked the Jia Ma Empire, and Xiao Zhan handled the factions seeking an explanation.
• Xiao Lin reassured Xiao Ding, Xiao Li, and Xiao Yan as they struggled to part with him.
• Xiao Zhan and Yang Xiyue said goodbye to Xiao Lin and led about a thousand members of the household out of the capital.
• Xiao Lin and Xiao Zhan agreed to keep the ancestral residence and its Scripture Pavilion as a place for promising Wutan City youngsters to study advanced methods and techniques.
• Xiao Lin and the other elders watched the departing household disappear before returning to the ancestral residence, where Xiao Lin expressed hope that they would return one day.

Gu Xun’er’s exceptional bloodline made the Gu Clan place immense expectations on her, forcing her to study from infancy. After finding his exhausted daughter asleep over her lessons, Gu Yuan took the books away and told her to stop, declaring that he would handle any objections from the elders.

• The Gu Clan celebrated the strong bloodlines of its new generation, especially Gu Xun’er, whose bloodline was Eighth-Tier at birth.
• Gu Xun’er was made to study cultivation theory and clan management every day, leaving her melancholy despite accepting her duties as Gu Yuan’s daughter.
• Gu Yuan saw that his daughter had exhausted herself and fallen asleep while studying.
• Gu Yuan took away Gu Xun’er’s books and told her she was too young to bear such burdens.
• When Gu Xun’er worried about the elders’ demands, Gu Yuan asserted his authority as Ancient Clan Chief and told them to come to him with any complaints.

Gu Yuan decided to secure the Tou She Ancient God Jade from the Xiao Household while giving Gu Xun'er a break from studying. He left the Gu Clan elders with a plan to send Xun'er into the Xiao Household to steal the jade unnoticed.

• Gu Yuan asked Gu Xun'er whether she enjoyed studying all day, then promised to give her a happy childhood.
• Gu Yuan convened a meeting of the Gu Clan's highest-ranking elders to decide what to do about the Tou She Ancient God Jade held by the Xiao Household.
• The elders urged Gu Yuan to take the jade, and he agreed despite silently apologizing to Xiao Xuan.
• Gu Yuan stopped an elder from setting out and proposed secretly stealing the jade rather than openly taking it.
• Gu Yuan named Gu Xun'er as the one who would enter the Xiao Household and carry out the plan.

Gu Xun'er agreed to enter the Xiao Household to gather information and seek the Tou She Ancient God Jade, and Gu Yuan approved the plan after learning about the Xiao Household's strength and recent move to Wutan City. He brought Xun'er to visit the Xiao Household, where Xiao Zhan prepared to receive them.

• Gu Xun'er insisted she could study while living in the Xiao Household, and Gu Lie's support persuaded the Gu Clan Elders to approve her assignment.
• Gu Yuan sent Ling Ying to investigate the Xiao Household, and Ling Ying reported its leaders, family, relocation to Wutan City, and suspected Earth Tier techniques.
• Gu Yuan chose the Xiao Household in Wutan City as Xun'er's destination and brought her there.
• A Xiao Household member told Xiao Zhan that an unfamiliar visitor and his young daughter had requested a meeting, and Xiao Zhan went to receive them.

Gu Yuan visited Xiao Zhan and arranged for his daughter Gu Xun'er to live with the Xiao Household, offering abundant resources in return. Xiao Zhan accepted and welcomed her as family, and she took the name Xiao Xun'er.

• Xiao Zhan met Gu Yuan and his daughter, Gu Xun'er, and invited them into the reception hall.
• Gu Yuan claimed he had known the late Xiao Dongcheng and asked Xiao Zhan to foster Gu Xun'er while he went to the Central Plains.
• Gu Yuan gave Xiao Zhan a Storage Ring filled with resources, and Xiao Zhan accepted it after Gu Yuan insisted.
• Gu Xun'er asked to take the Xiao surname, and Gu Yuan agreed, making her Xiao Xun'er.
• Xiao Zhan announced that Xiao Xun'er was a member of the Xiao Household, and Yang Xiyue and the Xiao brothers welcomed her as family.

After two years of cultivation, Xiao Lin remained at the peak of five-turn Dou Venerable and worried that ordinary training would not make him strong enough to face the Hun Clan. Ji Li hinted that he knew of a possible way to help, though the necessary item was held by Danta.

• Xiao Lin spent most of the past two years cultivating in the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace’s Realm of Formations and reached the peak of five-turn Dou Venerable.
• Xiao Lin learned that Gu Xun'er had moved to Wutan City under the name Xiao Xun'er, but avoided contacting her because Gu Yuan might be watching.
• Ji Li told Xiao Lin that Zhu Fang had become a one-star Dou Venerable and that Xi Miaoyun remained a nine-star Dou Zong.
• Xiao Lin warned Ji Li that Burning Flame Valley had a Dou Sheng ancestor and explained the history of five peak experts from a thousand years earlier.
• Xiao Lin told Ji Li that he needed to reach Dou Sheng or Half-Saint before the original plot began, and Ji Li considered suggesting an item held by Danta.

Ji Li suggested that Xiao Lin seek the Three Thousand Burning Flame to strengthen his Astral Dou Qi, and revealed a possible way around Danta’s restrictions. Xiao Lin was left considering whether he could trade with one of the Pill Region’s Five Great Clans for a chance to approach the flame.

• Ji Li offered Xiao Lin a suggestion for rapidly enhancing his strength, despite Xiao Lin’s suspicion that he wanted to stay ahead in their rivalry.
• Ji Li proposed the Three Thousand Burning Flame, which Xiao Lin recognized as a Heavenly Flame compatible with his Astral Dou Qi.
• Xiao Lin recalled the flame’s powers and explained that it was held by Danta, which ordinarily offered a chance to subdue it only through its Pill Gathering.
• Ji Li revealed that the Pill Region’s Five Great Clans could reportedly acquire a chance to approach the Three Thousand Burning Flame by paying a certain price.
• Xiao Lin learned that he might be able to trade with one of the Five Great Clans for access to the flame.

Ji Li told Xiao Lin that the Five Great Families of the Pill Region might trade him a chance to approach Danta’s Three Thousand Burning Flame. After four families rejected him, Xiao Lin headed to the Ye Family, his only remaining hope because it risked losing its Pill Tower Elder seat.

• Ji Li revealed that Danta had granted the Five Great Families only ten chances to approach the Three Thousand Burning Flame, and he offered Xiao Lin the chance to seek a trade with them.
• Xiao Lin visited the White Household, the Qiu Family, the Dan Family, and the Cao Family, but all four refused his request.
• The four families privately regarded the price as too steep because the trade would cost them their Pill Tower Elder seats, which they held securely.
• The Dan Family reasoned that the Ye Family might accept since it had finished last in two consecutive Pill Gathering assessments and could lose its seat if it finished last again.
• Xiao Lin continued toward the Ye Family, which remained his last chance to obtain access to the Three Thousand Burning Flame.

Xiao Lin visited the Ye Family after four other great families rejected his proposal, then recognized Ye Yun, a former Jia Nan Academy student whose life he had saved. Ye Yun welcomed him into the family’s reception hall and introduced him to his father, leaving Xiao Lin’s proposed deal still to be discussed.

• Xiao Lin arrived at the Ye Family gates with little hope after the Bai, Qiu, Cao, and Dan families had rejected him.
• The Ye Family guards reported Xiao Lin’s arrival, and Ye Yun hurried out to greet him as Elder Lin.
• Xiao Lin recognized Ye Yun as one of the Jia Nan Academy students he had rescued in the Black-Corner Region more than twenty years earlier.
• Ye Yun invited Xiao Lin inside and led him to the reception hall, where his father was waiting.
• Ye Yun introduced Xiao Lin to his father as the man who had saved his life and expressed regret that he had not known Xiao Lin was the Palace Master of the Myriad Formation Spirit Palace.