Chapter Summaries

Qian Renxue, disguised as Xue Qinghe, learned of Ning Chen’s exceptional talent and arranged to meet him at the Heaven Dou City Martial Soul Temple. Ning Chen accepted her recruitment, leaving the temple connected to Qian Renxue rather than joining Spirit Hall directly.

• Qian Renxue told Salas that her takeover of Xue Qinghe’s identity was still unstable and asked for his cooperation.
• A guard and a female deacon reported that twelve-year-old Ning Chen had reached the Soul Elder realm, and Qian Renxue decided to recruit him.
• The female deacon brought Ning Chen to a quiet room, where Qian Renxue introduced herself as Xue Qinghe, the Empire’s crown prince.
• Ning Chen returned to his inn that night and reflected on meeting Qian Renxue and accepting her recruitment.

Ning Chen accepted Qian Renxue’s recruitment under the alias Cao Benqi after securing considerable freedom, and she brought him to enroll at Heaven Dou Royal Academy. The chapter left him in the care of Qin Ming, who was to show him around the Heaven Dou Tier students’ class.

• Ning Chen finally accepted Qian Renxue’s offer after a month or two, provided that he retain as much freedom as possible, and she agreed to his conditions.
• Qian Renxue arranged a residence and servants for Ning Chen, then took him to Heaven Dou Royal Academy outside Heaven Dou Imperial City.
• Prince Xue Xing and the Academic Affairs Committee members welcomed Qian Renxue and praised Ning Chen when the group arrived at the academy.
• Meng Shenji summoned Qin Ming and asked him to show Cao Benqi around the Heaven Dou Tier students’ class.
• Qin Ming looked over Ning Chen with surprise and told him to follow.

Qin Ming brought Ning Chen to Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s Heaven Dou Tier and introduced him to the students preparing for a future Continental Soul Master Tournament. Ning Chen met Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan, and left the group curious about his background.

• Qin Ming explained the academy’s divisions and placed twelve-year-old Ning Chen, a level-thirty-two Soul Elder, in the Heaven Dou Tier group preparing for the tournament after the next one.
• Qin Ming introduced Ning Chen to the students, including Yu Tianheng, Dugu Yan, Shi Mo, Shi Mo, Yu Feng, Oslo, and Ye Lingling.
• The students reacted with astonishment to Ning Chen’s age and cultivation, while some showed hostility over the competition for tournament spots.
• Yu Tianheng welcomed Ning Chen and offered to help him, and Ning Chen shook his hand.
• Dugu Yan asked Ning Chen whether he came from a Soul Master family, and Ning Chen said he had not and credited his progress to good luck.

Ning Chen continued cultivating at Heaven Dou Royal Academy while concealing that his Soul Power had reached level forty, and Qin Ming arranged increasingly difficult sparring sessions to test him. The chapter ended with Ning Chen outmaneuvering Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan in training, earning Qin Ming’s approval.

• Ning Chen’s hidden Soul Power reached level forty, but he publicly claimed to have advanced only to level thirty-three and delayed hunting a Spirit Ring because he lacked a suitable excuse to leave the academy.
• Qin Ming transferred to Heaven Dou Royal Academy as a teaching assistant, reached level fifty-one after obtaining a Spirit Ring, and began using Ning Chen to motivate and train the Heaven Dou Tier students.
• Qin Ming paired Ning Chen against Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan, who combined Yu Tianheng’s lightning attacks with Dugu Yan’s venoms.
• Ning Chen used his Starlight Bracer to evade the venoms, disrupt Yu Tianheng’s attack, and separate the pair with a shockwave from a compressed Stellar Shield.
• Ning Chen stopped short of attacking Dugu Yan after gaining the advantage, and Qin Ming praised his tactics before ending the sparring session.

Ning Chen traveled to Sunset Forest to find a defensive Spirit Ring and secretly locate the Icefire Yin-Yang Well. After days of searching, he found a roughly seventeen-thousand-year-old Diamond Mammoth that seemed ideal for his fourth Spirit Ring.

• Ning Chen left Heaven Dou City for Sunset Forest after timing his trip to avoid Dugu Bo’s visits to the forest.
• Ning Chen used his Windrider Airship to reach the forest quickly and concealed it before entering.
• Ning Chen equipped his Soul Tools and searched for a defensive Spirit Ring while also hoping to locate the Icefire Yin-Yang Well.
• Ning Chen evaded several dangerous soul beasts over three days but found no suitable target.
• Ning Chen discovered a seventeen-thousand-year-old Diamond Mammoth whose powerful defense suited his needs.

Ning Chen fought the Ten-Thousand-Year Diamond Mammoth, enduring its powerful attacks while searching for a way through its diamond carapace. He wounded its soft belly and used Illusory Stars to evade another barrage, but his Fierce Slash Blade was badly damaged and the battle continued.

• Ning Chen lured the Diamond Mammoth into the forest, then attacked its foreleg and belly with his blade and Azure Flame Pearls, discovering its abdomen was vulnerable.
• The mammoth unleashed diamond fragments, but Ning Chen blocked them with his Stellar Shield and leaped onto its back to strike its nape; his attack failed to pierce the carapace.
• The mammoth tried to crush Ning Chen against a tree, then struck him with its trunk and sent him crashing into another tree.
• Ning Chen charged through smoke from Azure Flame Pearls and slid beneath the mammoth, cutting a long wound into its belly before narrowly dodging its hoof.
• Ning Chen activated Illusory Stars to hide from the mammoth's diamond-fragment barrage and moved toward its rear flank, noticing that his Fierce Slash Blade was cracked.

Ning Chen killed a seventeen-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth, absorbed its Spirit Ring, and advanced to Soul Ancestor at level forty-five. After half a month searching Sunset Forest for the Icefire Yin-Yang Well, he spotted a concealed valley covered in poisonous miasma.

• Ning Chen used the Azure Flame Pearl to topple the Diamond Mammoth and shattered its armor with a strike from the Fierce Slash Blade.
• Ning Chen absorbed the Diamond Mammoth’s black Spirit Ring, gaining the fourth soul skill, Strength, and five levels of Soul Power.
• Ning Chen salvaged several diamond armor plates from the mammoth before heading deeper into Sunset Forest.
• Ning Chen spent half a month searching Sunset Forest from the air and practicing his new fourth soul skill.
• Ning Chen spotted a concealed valley with pale green poisonous miasma and approached it aboard the Windrider Airship.

Ning Chen found the Icefire Yin-Yang Well after half a month of searching and consumed the Aromatic Silk Beauty. The herb evolved his Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda into a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, giving him the possibility of advancing beyond the seven-ring Soul Sage limit.

• Ning Chen used the Windrider Airship and Minor Cloud-Mist Spell to fly over the poisonous miasma and locate the Icefire Yin-Yang Well.
• Ning Chen landed in the basin and surveyed the springs and the rare immortal herbs growing around them.
• Ning Chen chose the Aromatic Silk Beauty because his first Martial Soul was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
• Ning Chen circulated the Nine Yang Divine Skill as he absorbed the herb’s medicinal power and his pagoda began to change.
• Ning Chen completed the transformation, revealing a nine-level Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in his hand.

Ning Chen absorbed the Blazing Apricot Delicate and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass in the Icefire Yin-Yang Well, enduring their opposing powers until they balanced within his body. Their medicinal power triggered the Silver Awakening of his Body Martial Soul, doubling his overall strength and awakening the promise of a unique innate divine ability.

• Ning Chen stored the Blazing Apricot Delicate and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass in separate storage bags, then entered the Icefire Yin-Yang Well to consume them.
• Ning Chen used the Nine Yang Divine Skill to balance the herbs' extreme heat and cold as the two medicinal forces fused within his body.
• The herbs' power awakened Ning Chen's Heart Martial Soul, strengthening his heartbeat and spreading silver-white patterns across his body.
• Ning Chen realized that his Body Martial Soul had achieved a Silver Awakening, which doubled his overall strength and would awaken a unique innate divine ability.

Ning Chen awakened the innate gift Endless Life after his Heart Martial Soul reached Silver Awakening, then used Autumn Water Dew to strengthen his spiritual power. He prepared to collect the garden’s rare medicines with a Storage Bag he had adapted to preserve living plants.

• Ning Chen discovered that his Silver Awakening had doubled his physical attributes and let his Heart Martial Soul passively absorb energy from heaven and earth.
• After absorbing the Blazing Apricot Delicate and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Ning Chen gained immunity to ice and fire, reached Soul Power level fifty, and awakened the innate gift Endless Life.
• Ning Chen deactivated Endless Life and recognized that his Heart Martial Soul continued to nourish his body with enhanced vitality.
• Ning Chen used the dewdrops of Autumn Water Dew to improve his spiritual power, sharpen his perception, and strengthen his resistance to spiritual-type soul skills.
• Ning Chen took out a bluish-gray Storage Bag he had developed to hold living things and preserve the medicinal potency of the garden’s rare herbs.

Ning Chen harvested the mature immortal herbs from the Icefire Yin-Yang Well and reached level fifty after absorbing four of them. In Sunset Forest, he encountered a thirty-thousand-year Human-Faced Demon Spider and began fighting it, but his first strike barely marked its armor.

• Ning Chen carefully harvested and sealed the mature immortal herbs, leaving the seedlings at the Icefire Yin-Yang Well.
• Ning Chen left the valley and traveled through Sunset Forest to seek a soul beast for his fifth Spirit Ring.
• Ning Chen detected spider silk in a forest depression and leaped away as a massive Human-Faced Demon Spider attacked.
• Ning Chen activated Star Lake, summoned the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, and applied four boosts to himself.
• Ning Chen struck the Human-Faced Demon Spider's front leg joint, but his blade left only a shallow mark on its carapace.

Ning Chen fought a thirty-thousand-year Human-Faced Demon Spider and defeated it before its Spider God Possession could fully activate. He survived with severe wounds and was left recovering beside the slain beast.

• Ning Chen traded blows with the Human-Faced Demon Spider, enduring its attacks and poison while using his skills and endurance to wear it down.
• Ning Chen severed one of the spider's legs, but the creature began activating Spider God Possession.
• Ning Chen used Illusory Stars to disrupt the spider's senses and activated Endless Life to heal and boost his attributes.
• Ning Chen let two spider spears pierce him, then planted his last six Azure Flame Pearls in the spider's mouthparts and detonated them.
• The explosion killed the Human-Faced Demon Spider before its possession could finish, and Ning Chen collapsed, badly wounded but alive.

Ning Chen survived the Man Faced Demon Spider’s venom, healed enough to absorb its thirty-thousand-year Spirit Ring, and reached level fifty-five. His fifth Soul Skill enhanced his attack and infused his offensive Soul Power with the spider’s deadly poison, leaving him with a powerful new ability.

• Ning Chen used the Aromatic Silk Beauty and Nine Yang Divine Skill to expel the Man Faced Demon Spider’s venom, then healed his wounds with Dragon Ganoderma Leaves.
• Ning Chen absorbed the thirty-thousand-year Spirit Ring after taming its violent energy with the Nine Yang Divine Skill.
• Ning Chen’s Soul Power rose from level fifty to level fifty-five, and he collected the Man Faced Demon Spider’s remaining spider lances and severed limb.
• Ning Chen activated his fifth Soul Skill, Attack, and discovered that the Man Faced Demon Spider’s venom had infused his offensive Soul Power.

After returning to Heaven Dou City, Ning Chen attended a noble banquet with Qian Renxue and received the Thousand Mountains Formula from his monthly draw. He cultivated it to beginner level before school began, strengthening his body and discovering that its mountain aura synergized with his Nine Yang Soul Power.

• Ning Chen left Sunset Forest as a level-fifty-five Soul King and returned to Heaven Dou City, where Qian Renxue invited him to a banquet.
• Ning Chen accompanied Qian Renxue to a duke's estate and endured introductions to the empire's nobles.
• Ning Chen's monthly draw granted him the Thousand Mountains Formula, a martial skill that combined body tempering with powerful attacks and defense.
• Ning Chen cultivated the formula until he reached beginner level before the school term and toughened his flesh, skin, tendons, and bones.
• Ning Chen discovered that the mountain aura from the Thousand Mountains Formula blended with his Nine Yang Soul Power, making it fiercer and more solid.

Ning Chen cultivated the Thousand Mountains Formula for a year, improving his strength and reaching the threshold of level sixty. When Qin Ming invited him to watch the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament preliminaries with Yu Tianheng and the others, Ning Chen refused and stayed behind to cultivate.

• Ning Chen and the other Heaven Dou Tier students continued cultivating as the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament approached.
• Ning Chen practiced the Thousand Mountains Formula in a secluded forest, drawing mountain energy into his body and strengthening his Soul Power.
• After a year of cultivation, Ning Chen reached the threshold of level sixty and came close to condensing the Thousand Mountains Formula's first mountain peak phantom.
• Qin Ming found Ning Chen and invited him to join Yu Tianheng and the others in Heaven Dou City to watch the tournament preliminaries.
• Ning Chen refused, saying he would train with the others when the next tournament began, and Qin Ming left to take the group to the city.

After the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament ended with Martial Soul Hall winning and Heaven Dou Imperial Academy placing third, four years passed as Ning Chen cultivated in secret. At fourteen, he had reached level eighty-three while posing as the seventeen-year-old Cao Benqi, and Yu Tianheng and the others had also grown stronger.

• The Martial Soul Hall Academy Team won the tournament, while the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team lost to the Star Luo Imperial Academy Team and finished third.
• The chapter explained how the Star Luo Empire’s powerful White Tiger lineage and iron-blooded rule gave it an advantage over the Heaven Dou Empire, while the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect strengthened their ties with Heaven Dou.
• Four years of cultivation brought Ning Chen to level eighty-three at age fourteen, with ten mountain phantoms formed through the Thousand Mountains Formula.
• Ning Chen concealed his true strength behind the identity Cao Benqi, whom outsiders believed to be a seventeen-year-old Soul Ancestor at around level forty-seven.
• Yu Tianheng reached level thirty-nine, Dugu Yan reached level thirty-eight, and Shi Mo and Shi Mo each reached level thirty-eight.

Ning Chen faced six members of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy’s team in a training match arranged by Qin Ming. He evaded their coordinated attacks and disabled Yu Feng while overpowering Shi Mo’s shield, but Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan launched another assault.

• Qin Ming began a six-against-one exercise so the team could gauge Ning Chen’s strength.
• Yu Tianheng, Dugu Yan, the two Shi Mo, Yu Feng, and Ye Lingling coordinated their attacks against Ning Chen.
• Ning Chen evaded Yu Tianheng’s Thunderclap Dragon Claw and used the Starlight Bracer to throw him into Dugu Yan’s poison mist.
• Ning Chen pulled Yu Feng from the air with a starlight chain, taking him out of the fight.
• Ning Chen struck Shi Mo’s shield with Stellar Force Surge and nearly broke through it.
• Yu Tianheng charged again with Thunderous Fury as Dugu Yan surrounded Ning Chen with poison mist.

Ning Chen overwhelmed Yu Tianheng, Dugu Yan, the Shi brothers, and Yu Feng with his Self-Created Soul Skill, Thousand Peaks Shaking Mountains, during training. Qin Ming and the others praised Ning Chen’s talent, while Ning Chen concealed how far his true strength had surpassed them.

• Ning Chen evaded the team’s attacks with Voidstep while using the Starlight Bracer to restrain, block, and distract his opponents.
• Ning Chen countered Yu Tianheng’s dragon claw with the Starlight Bracer, deflected Dugu Yan’s poison, then pinned the team with Thousand Peaks Shaking Mountains while sparing Ye Lingling.
• Qin Ming stopped the match, and Ye Lingling healed the team with the Nine-Heart Begonia.
• Qin Ming praised Ning Chen’s Self-Created Soul Skill and said his combat strength could rival a Soul King’s.
• Yu Tianheng admitted he had underestimated Ning Chen’s training, and Dugu Yan said her grandfather Dugu Bo had praised him.

Qin Ming arranged a year of Great Soul Arena combat training for Emperor Team to prepare for the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament. The next morning, the team left Heaven Dou Royal Academy and headed into Heaven Dou City to begin.

• Qin Ming reviewed the team's weaknesses and urged them to improve their strength before the tournament.
• Qin Ming ordered Emperor Team to compete in individual, two-person, and team matches at Heaven Dou City's Great Soul Arena until they reached Silver Soul rank.
• Qin Ming kept Cao Benqi out of team matches except against especially strong opponents, assigning Osler to take his place, and paired Cao Benqi with Ye Lingling in Soul Ancestor-level two-person matches.
• The next morning, Qin Ming led the nine members of Emperor Team down from Heaven Dou Royal Academy toward Heaven Dou City.
• Emperor Team arrived at Heaven Dou City shortly after sunrise.

Qin Ming took the Emperor Team to Heaven Dou City and prepared them for their fights at the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena. Ning Chen spent the day cultivating before joining the team as they set out for the arena, where he would fight his first match.

• Qin Ming told the students to explore Heaven Dou City and meet at the Heaven Dou Royal Hotel before nightfall, while Ning Chen and Ye Lingling chose to go to the hotel with him.
• Qin Ming went to the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena to arrange the evening's fights, while Ning Chen cultivated in his room and reflected on how the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid had strengthened his foundation.
• Qin Ming went to Ning Chen's room and told him it was time to leave for the arena.
• Qin Ming gathered the Emperor Team at the hotel, and the group walked through the lit streets of Heaven Dou City toward the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena.