Chapter Summaries

Lu Ren fought Huang Jixuan in a fierce sword duel, enduring cuts while adapting to the Hidden Kill swordsman’s extraordinary state of Hidden Dragon Inner Vision. The chapter left Lu Ren still under pressure but rapidly learning Huang Jixuan’s rhythm and catching more of his attacks.

• Lu Ren recovered from Huang Jixuan’s near-fatal opening thrust and met his continued assault with twin swords.
• Huang Jixuan targeted the gaps in Lu Ren’s armor, cutting his exposed skin as Lu Ren avoided vital wounds and pressed closer.
• Lei Wenfeng, Lei Li, Zhang Li, and Xiao Chen watched the duel and considered Huang Jixuan’s swordsmanship and the danger to Lu Ren.
• Lu Ren recognized that Huang Jixuan’s Hidden Dragon Inner Vision let him temporarily draw on the wisdom and creativity associated with Enlightened Awareness.
• As system notifications raised his proficiency, Lu Ren adapted to Huang Jixuan’s attack patterns and began catching more of his strikes.

Lu Ren and Huang Jixuan fought a bloody duel in the mourning hall, with Lu Ren’s Burning Lamp Freedom Illuminates the Self disrupting Huang Jixuan’s focus and giving him the upper hand. After Huang Jixuan survived a lethal thrust, he broke through to Enlightened Awareness, leaving the battle poised to continue.

• Lu Ren manifested his will in battle, and Lei Li recognized that he was close to Enlightened Awareness while Zhang Li rejected Lei Li’s attempt to recruit him.
• Lu Ren endured Huang Jixuan’s sword strikes and counterattacked, using Burning Lamp Freedom Illuminates the Self to overwhelm Huang Jixuan’s focus.
• Huang Jixuan lost focus, and Lu Ren knocked his sword aside and thrust toward his chest.
• Huang Jixuan caught Lu Ren’s blade through his palm, deflected it into his shoulder, and escaped the lethal strike with a kick.
• As the wounded fighters faced each other again, Huang Jixuan understood the divine becoming clear and awakened into action, breaking through to Enlightened Awareness.

Lu Ren fought Huang Jixuan, who had just entered Enlightened Awareness, and killed him in a deadly sword exchange. Afterward, Lu Ren gained mastery in Basic Swordsmanship and comprehended True Phoenix Intent, while Huang Jixuan’s followers and witnesses faced the aftermath of his death.

• Huang Jixuan entered Enlightened Awareness, and Lu Ren used Burning Lamp Freedom Meditation to meet his growing will and aura.
• Lu Ren and Huang Jixuan exchanged sword strikes, with Lu Ren deflecting Huang Jixuan’s killing thrust and piercing his heart.
• Huang Jixuan died regretting that his injured left hand had cost him the duel, while Lu Ren acknowledged his opponent’s strength.
• Lu Ren’s system advanced Basic Swordsmanship to Mastery with the Steady effect and announced that he had comprehended True Phoenix Intent.
• Cheng Qin asked whether the authorities would intervene, and Uncle Tan explained that Lu Ren represented the authorities.
• Huang Jixuan’s disciples confirmed he was dead, while Zeng Li watched from his wheelchair in visible distress.

Lu Ren defeated Huang Jixuan and left the Hidden Kill Swordsmanship disciples cowed, earning recognition as Southwest China's martial arts number one. After recovering, he comprehended True Phoenix Intent and began exploring how it could strengthen his body and spirit.

• Yang Yanxi challenged Lu Ren's right to be called a Martial Daoist because he wore protective clothing, but backed down when Lu Ren approached him with his swords ready.
• Lei Wenfeng and the other martial arts representatives accepted Lu Ren's victory, while Zhang Li warned that the times had changed and the martial arts world would have to follow the greater trend.
• Pei Lin drove Lu Ren to a Security Administration hospital for treatment, and he returned home to recover as Zhang Li arranged a future meeting with the bureau's higher-ups.
• During his recovery, Lu Ren comprehended True Phoenix Intent and realized it could help him recover from severe injuries and gradually increase his physical strength.
• Lu Ren connected the True Phoenix's influence on his body to the Security Administration's theory that spiritual influence over the body opened the Path of Clairvoyance.

After defeating Huang Jixuan, Lu Ren recovered and reflected on how the battle had strengthened his techniques and mental power. Xiao Chen brought him to Mount Qingcheng, where Lu Ren was expected to meet Security Administration leaders and learn about a stable otherworld passage tied to his next assignment.

• Lu Ren reviewed his fight with Huang Jixuan and gained further insight into Falcon Fist, swordsmanship, and Mind-Intent Burst.
• Xiao Chen told Lu Ren that the Security Administration had dismantled the Hidden Kill Swordsmanship School and that a senior official who disliked him had been sent to Kyoto after being beaten.
• Xiao Chen said Lu Ren's next assignment involved a stable otherworld passage on Luozi Mountain and that his teacher, Li Ziqing, likely wanted to see him.
• Xiao Chen brought Lu Ren to Mount Qingcheng during the holiday crowds, then left him to go up the mountain and wait for someone to guide him.

Lu Ren climbed Mount Qingcheng, where White Ape Ji Heng appeared and challenged him to demonstrate his agility. Ji Heng raced into the forest, and Lu Ren followed after a clumsy start, leaving the tourists amazed by his movement.

• Lu Ren declined a television interview and climbed Mount Qingcheng in about an hour.
• Lu Ren recognized Ji Heng as a powerful martial artist whose blood and vitality seemed withered but concealed astonishing life force.
• Ji Heng identified Lu Ren and invited him to follow, saying he wanted to see Lu Ren's Falcon Fist and agility.
• Ji Heng vaulted over the railing and raced through the trees, astonishing the tourists who watched him go.
• Lu Ren followed by leaping over the railing, snapped a branch under his weight, then controlled his landing and sped into the forest after Ji Heng.

After witnessing Lu Ren and Ji Heng’s extraordinary abilities, tourists connected the public promotion of Martial Dao to the threat of Spatial Rifts. As Lu Ren pursued Ji Heng through the mountains, he recognized that the old Daoist had reached a profound level of boxing principle and skill.

• Tourists debated why the government was promoting Martial Dao and concluded that it was preparing people to face future Spatial Rift dangers.
• Many tourists regretted missing the chance to record Lu Ren and Ji Heng, and some considered enrolling in official Martial Dao classes.
• Lu Ren struggled to keep pace with Ji Heng as the old Daoist raced through the mountain forest by deftly borrowing strength from branches and his surroundings.
• Lu Ren realized that Ji Heng’s movements demonstrated how refined boxing skill could combine inertia, impact, and environmental forces to produce great power.
• Lu Ren reconsidered Zhang Li’s teachings and recognized boxing principle as a separate path based on comprehension, culminating in Ji Heng’s apparent unity with nature.

Lu Ren learned Ji Heng’s movement and force techniques while chasing him through the forest, greatly increasing his strength. At Qingyun Temple’s back mountain, Ji Heng asked whether Lu Ren would keep advancing, then crossed a misty cliff in a way that left Lu Ren stunned.

• Lu Ren observed Ji Heng’s movements and adapted their principles to his own body, raising his Falcon Fist proficiency and leaping speed.
• Ji Heng realized Lu Ren had absorbed the techniques without grasping their intended artistic principles, and privately praised his comprehension.
• Ji Heng led Lu Ren through the mountains to Qingyun Temple and a smooth boulder beside a mist-shrouded cliff.
• Ji Heng asked Lu Ren whether he had decided to keep moving forward, and Lu Ren challenged his dramatic manner and asked about the Security Administration Bureau’s spiritual-lineage expert.
• Ji Heng stepped into the clouds and crossed the cliff without falling, while Lu Ren watched in surprise and heard metal scraping.

Lu Ren followed Ji Heng across a swaying iron chain suspended between mountains and reached a hidden cave. After Ji Heng led him inside, Lu Ren found Daoist Ji waiting amid a brightly lit, cultivated cavern filled with lifelike carved statues.

• Lu Ren followed Ji Heng onto the iron chain and crossed it through dense fog and fierce winds, gaining proficiency as he went.
• Lu Ren caught up with Ji Heng on the far side, and Ji Heng asked whether he had trained in similar conditions before.
• Ji Heng led Lu Ren through a polished cave passage to a spacious chamber and told him Daoist Ji was waiting inside.
• Lu Ren entered the cave and saw stalactites, a small pool, flourishing plants, and lifelike Daoist statues carved into the walls.

Lu Ren met Ji Quanzhen, the spiritually cultivated head of the Southwest Security Administration Branch, and endured a display of his powerful spiritual field. After discussing martial arts and human evolution, Ji Quanzhen invited Lu Ren to cultivate the path of the spirit, leaving Lu Ren doubtful about his eccentric beliefs.

• Ji Heng introduced Lu Ren to his master, Ji Quanzhen, who had concealed his presence while meditating before the altar.
• Ji Quanzhen's calming spiritual field influenced Lu Ren, but Lu Ren used Burning Lamp Freedom to regain control of his mind.
• Ji Quanzhen pressed Lu Ren about his fear of death and his view of martial arts, while Lu Ren's Spirit Proficiency increased under the spiritual pressure.
• Lu Ren described martial arts as a means of surpassing human limits and said the body was finite while the spirit was infinite.
• Ji Quanzhen invited Lu Ren to cultivate the spirit and declared that the flesh was weak and the spirit eternal, leaving Lu Ren silently questioning his fanaticism.

Ji Quanzhen invited Lu Ren to join Qingcheng Quanzhen Dao, but Lu Ren refused and chose to test his martial arts against the Clairvoyant Realm cultivator. Ji Quanzhen calmly received Lu Ren’s strongest punch, leaving the contest unresolved.

• Ji Quanzhen urged Lu Ren to join Qingcheng Quanzhen Dao, but Lu Ren declined because he believed modern martial arts offered a true path forward.
• Ji Quanzhen challenged Lu Ren to show how far his martial arts had advanced, and Lu Ren accepted eagerly.
• Lu Ren attacked with Falcon Wing Strike, but Ji Quanzhen effortlessly caught the punch and dispersed its force.
• Lu Ren ignited Burning Lamp Freedom and struck again with full strength, while Ji Quanzhen gathered Magnetic Fields into his palm.
• Ji Quanzhen received Lu Ren’s powerful punch with his palm, and the resulting shockwave vanished along with the force.

Lu Ren tested his strength against Ji Quanzhen and learned more about Martial Dao, the Clairvoyant Realm, and Ji Quanzhen's Jade Flesh Immortal Bones. Ji Quanzhen began explaining how he found a scorched scripture while traveling through Hua Country, leaving the source of a body-hardening technique unresolved.

• Lu Ren struck Ji Quanzhen with full force, but Ji Quanzhen absorbed the blow with Jade Flesh Immortal Bones without moving.
• Ji Quanzhen praised Lu Ren's Falcon Fist, revealed that Wen Liang had created it three hundred years earlier, and claimed Lu Ren as his Martial Granduncle's descendant.
• Ji Quanzhen explained that Enlightened Awareness required each person to discover their own path, prompting Lu Ren to gain a faint insight into Martial Dao.
• Lu Ren asked for a body-hardening technique, but Ji Quanzhen said Jade Flesh Immortal Bones was a Daoist divine ability that could not be taught to outsiders.
• Ji Quanzhen revealed that he had regained his youth through Jade Flesh Immortal Bones and began recounting how he found a scorched scripture in a Chan Buddhist temple destroyed by Wokou Pirates.

Ji Quanzhen gave Lu Ren a Buddhist body-hardening art and asked him to join a second expedition into a dimensional tomb where Li Ziqing had disappeared. Before leaving the mountain, Lu Ren sparred with Ji Heng, gained a new understanding of martial arts, and awakened the Breathing Technique skill.

• Ji Quanzhen gave Lu Ren the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path and asked him to join a second team exploring the dimensional tomb where Li Ziqing and the first team had vanished.
• Lu Ren agreed to enter the tomb because Li Ziqing was trapped there.
• Ji Heng challenged Lu Ren to a spar and asked him what martial arts were.
• Ji Heng's white-ape fist intent prompted Lu Ren to understand martial arts as an unyielding spirit and a path of transcendence.
• Lu Ren's Falcon Fist neared perfection, he comprehended the Beginner-level Breathing Technique skill, and he exchanged a powerful punch with Ji Heng.

Lu Ren refined his Breathing Technique and reached the threshold of the Clairvoyant Realm, then descended Mount Qingcheng while considering his new perception and stalled physical growth. At the foot of the mountain, he encountered Song Jingxian, who reflected on their past and the order to stop investigating him.

• Lu Ren told Ji Heng that he had understood the clarity of the Clairvoyant Realm but had not yet crossed its threshold, and Ji Heng praised his achievement.
• Lu Ren descended the mountain, sensing Magnetic Fields and the elemental traits of people’s organs as he studied the silk scripture and practiced his Breathing Technique.
• Lu Ren considered the Strange Particles entering his body, checked his Status Panel, and wondered whether the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path could help him overcome his physical limits.
• After memorizing the scripture and its annotations, Lu Ren reached the foot of Mount Qingcheng and ran into Song Jingxian.
• Song Jingxian remarked that Lu Ren had changed and remembered that she had once been ordered to cease investigating him.

Lu Ren encountered the heavily armored Kui Shan, a dangerous man who had emerged from Divine Seclusion, and intervened when he attacked Song Jingxian. Lu Ren forced Kui Shan to retreat and faced him in a standoff, drawing on precise bodily control and mysterious strength.

• Lu Ren sensed Kui Shan’s arrival and saw him approach in bloodstained armor carrying a heavy saber.
• Song Jingxian identified Kui Shan as someone who may have come out of Divine Seclusion and ordered him to show identification.
• Kui Shan threatened Song Jingxian and attacked a psychiatrist, but he split a bullet with his saber and blocked most of Song Jingxian’s shots.
• Kui Shan swung his saber at Song Jingxian, and Lu Ren intercepted the strike before kicking her out of danger.
• Lu Ren pushed Kui Shan’s saber aside and counterattacked with a punch, forcing Kui Shan to retreat.
• Lu Ren ignored Kui Shan’s questions and focused on controlling his body and drawing strength through his Breathing Technique.

Lu Ren fought Kui Shan, a powerful outsider whose presence raised fears that people from other realms had begun entering the real world. After their weapons shattered in a final clash, Lu Ren launched a rapid series of Falcon Beak punches at Kui Shan.

• Lu Ren wondered why the experts on Mount Qingcheng had not reacted to Kui Shan’s strange Magnetic Field and suspected that people from other realms were entering the real world.
• Lu Ren and Kui Shan charged at each other and exchanged blows at tremendous speed, damaging both their weapons as the spectators retreated.
• Lu Ren replenished his water with a compressed water solid while Kui Shan offered to talk, but Lu Ren attacked instead.
• Lu Ren descended on Kui Shan with Burning Lamp Freedom as Kui Shan surrounded himself with crimson flames, and their weapons broke in the collision.
• Lu Ren landed and unleashed a rapid series of Falcon Beak punches at Kui Shan.

Lu Ren defeated Kui Shan but sensed otherworldly creatures crossing into the real world above Mount Qingcheng. On the mountain, Ji Quanzhen confronted Zhuo Feng and revealed himself as the Antarctic Longevity Great Emperor, while Lu Ren tried to finish Kui Shan and ordered the civilians evacuated.

• Lu Ren battered Kui Shan through his armor and sent him flying, but realized the warrior had survived.
• The system detected a reverse passage above Mount Qingcheng and several strange creatures crossing over.
• Zhuo Feng encountered Ji Quanzhen on a peak and declared his intent to turn the people below into provisions for his lord.
• Ji Quanzhen transformed his appearance and aura, proclaimed himself the Antarctic Longevity Great Emperor, and returned to a youthful form.
• After hearing Ji Quanzhen's proclamation, Lu Ren ordered Song Jingxian to evacuate civilians and charged at the recovering Kui Shan.

Ji Quanzhen used the True Court to freeze Zhuo Feng into shards of ice, then left Mount Qingcheng after wondering how many such incidents had occurred. Lu Ren killed Kui Shan after using their fight to practice the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path, and learned that foreign realm creatures had appeared around the world in hundreds of simultaneous incidents.

• Ji Quanzhen manifested the True Court and overwhelmed Zhuo Feng with a Magnetic Field that froze him into scattered shards of ice.
• Ji Quanzhen returned to his elderly appearance and wondered how many similar incidents had happened in recent years.
• Lu Ren used his battle with Kui Shan to practice the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path and gained insights through his System Prompt Sound.
• Lu Ren shot Kui Shan in the forehead before the arriving Security Administration Bureau members could take his kill.
• Liu Jiang told Lu Ren that foreign realm creatures had appeared in thirty-six incidents across China and nearly four hundred cases worldwide.
• Lu Ren prepared to return up Mount Qingcheng as Ji Heng came down the mountain, bare-chested and fatigued.

After leaving Mount Qingcheng, Lu Ren learned the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path and studied his strange Breathing Technique during the journey to Luozi Mountain. There, he learned that Li Ziqing had gone missing in the Kunlun secret realm and prepared to enter the vast otherworld himself.

• Lu Ren left Mount Qingcheng after learning from Ji Heng that Martial Ancestor Ji had dealt with the threat, and the system granted him beginner insight into the Ten-Realm Mahayana Golden Body Bodhisattva Path.
• Lu Ren traveled to Luozi Mountain, cultivating the new path and reflecting on how his Breathing Technique drew mysterious particles into his body.
• Lu Ren arrived at the military base and asked Xiao Chen for information about the Luozi Mountain secret realm.
• Xiao Chen told Lu Ren that Li Ziqing had been missing for nearly two months and that the passage led to a vast otherworld marked Kunlun, where complex pulse particles disrupted precision electronics.
• After reviewing the reports and discussing the dangers with Xiao Chen, Lu Ren asked to choose his equipment for the expedition.

Lu Ren entered the Martial Daoists’ equipment depot, where he clashed verbally with Wu Qi, a powerful Dragon Elephant Bedrock Style disciple assigned to his team. He selected experimental Power Armor and a high-frequency vibration sword for the coming mission, though the armor’s reliability in Kunlun remained uncertain.

• Xiao Chen explained that Lu Ren’s reputation had spread through China’s martial arts world, and Lu Ren encountered Wu Qi, who challenged him before Xiao Chen intervened.
• Xiao Chen warned Lu Ren that Wu Qi was a near-Clairvoyant Great Completion fighter and would be on his team, while Lu Ren considered killing him.
• Lu Ren learned that researchers had made little progress deciphering the martial arts manuals he had submitted.
• The equipment depot attendant let Lu Ren choose a Dragon Machine Type 46 Power Armor and a high-frequency vibration sword using technology derived from his otherworldly dagger.
• Lu Ren equipped the experimental armor and asked whether it would function amid Kunlun’s particle interference, prompting an excited researcher to speak up.