Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun discovers that one of his appraisal rewards is the powerful ability “Word-Enforced Action.”
• The skill forces anyone who makes a verbal promise or statement to follow through with corresponding actions, unless they possess enough mental strength to resist Chen Shaojun’s control.
• With his current mental power, Chen Shaojun believes the ability can affect ordinary people, Qi Sea Realm martial warriors, and Dao Foundation cultivators.
• He continues appraising the cellar’s calligraphy, paintings, and other treasures throughout the night, pausing after every hundred items to restore his mental energy.
• By dawn, he has finished appraising everything and gains:
  • More than one hundred Spirit-Communing Pills
  • A total of 173 points of Merit Golden Light
  • Numerous artistic and scholarly skills
  • Complete collections of the Four Books and Five Classics
• He converts 162 points of Merit Golden Light into roughly four years of arcane cultivation, bringing his total cultivation to approximately eight years.
• His increased power places him at a level comparable to a Late Dao Foundation cultivator, while his many spells give him the ability to contend with Innate Martial Warriors.
• Chen Shaojun then reads the remaining Four Books and Five Classics. The texts dramatically sharpen his wisdom, perception, and ability to trace objects and phenomena back to their origins.
• During this transformation, he discovers that his heart has developed seven openings and radiates golden light, revealing that he has acquired the legendary Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart.

Character Development

• Chen Shaojun’s confidence grows substantially. He no longer feels completely helpless before powerful enemies and believes he could now confront dangers that once forced him to retreat.
• His understanding of his own abilities becomes clearer and more realistic. Rather than relying on blind arrogance, he carefully evaluates how his cultivation, spells, and special techniques combine in battle.
• His mental and intellectual abilities advance alongside his physical power. After reading the classics, he gains heightened wisdom, spiritual perception, and a deeper understanding of the world.
• The transformation into the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart marks a major evolution in his potential, suggesting that his future cultivation and comprehension will rise to an extraordinary level.

Significant Themes

• Power creates confidence and independence: Chen Shaojun’s growing strength allows him to face the world more directly instead of constantly submitting to stronger figures.
• Words and actions: “Word-Enforced Action” emphasizes the rarity and importance of integrity, contrasting genuine commitment with the empty promises of rulers and ordinary people.
• Accumulation and transformation: The chapter portrays cultivation as the result of steadily gathering rewards, knowledge, and experience until they produce a qualitative change.
• Wisdom as a form of power: The Four Books and Five Classics do more than provide knowledge; they transform Chen Shaojun’s perception and unlock a higher state of existence.
• The relationship between auxiliary and offensive abilities: Chen Shaojun recognizes that techniques not designed purely for attack can still become deadly when supported by sufficient cultivation and strategic use.

Character Interactions

• There are no major direct conversations or confrontations in this chapter.
• Chen Shaojun reflects on the Emperor’s unreliable promises while explaining the significance of Word-Enforced Action.
• He also mentally compares his current abilities with those of powerful martial artists, Daoist cultivators, and the Saint of Painting, using these comparisons to measure his progress.
• His relationship with the broader world changes indirectly: he now feels more capable of confronting enemies and powerful figures rather than fearing them completely.

Chapter Summary: Eighth Layer of Qi Sea Realm

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun discovers that he has awakened the legendary Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, granting him an exceptionally pure spirit and the ability to divide his attention among multiple tasks.
• He realizes the heart’s practical uses, including writing and drawing simultaneously, using different techniques with each hand, reconstructing complex images without sketches, and potentially casting multiple spells at once.
• After finishing his appraisal work in the cellar, Chen leaves with valuable calligraphy and paintings. While escaping the courtyard, he is unexpectedly seen by the little old man from the previous day.
• To frighten the old man and conceal the truth, Chen summons the weakened Red-Clad Female Ghost, Lü Xiu. The old man faints immediately, later wakes, and flees, resolving never to enter the alley again.
• Chen returns to White-Stem Mountain Manor and confirms that the Spirit Tea Tree has not been harmed by the Cat Demon. The tree has grown rapidly and is already developing buds. Chen nourishes it with the Minor Spirit Rain Technique.
• On his way to the Lin Clan Pawnshop, Chen overhears two Fragrant Garden Academy students discussing the Cat Demon. He learns that it may have fallen in love with a student named Fei Xuesong, who apparently abandoned or betrayed it, prompting the Cat Demon’s attack on the academy.
• At the pawnshop, Chen appraises only a few treasures before using his free time to unseal one of five Spirit-Sealing Stones.
• With the help of divination, the Myriad Spirits Unsealing Technique, and his powerful mental strength, Chen absorbs the stone’s mixed spiritual energy and transforms it into pure Creation True Qi.
• His cultivation surges forward, breaking through the obstruction in his meridians and advancing from the peak of the Seventh Layer of the Qi Sea Realm to the Eighth Layer.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun gains greater confidence in his Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart and begins considering its military and magical potential. His enhanced spirit also removes his previous concerns about cultivating too quickly.
• His increased mental strength allows him to control complex techniques more efficiently and absorb spiritual energy at a much faster rate.
• Lü Xiu, once a terrifying Vengeful Ghost, is now significantly weakened, though her appearance remains frightening enough to incapacitate an ordinary person.
• The Cat Demon is revealed to possess strong emotional attachment and possibly romantic feelings, making its conflict with Fragrant Garden Academy more personal than merely aggressive.
• Fei Xuesong is indirectly characterized as someone who may have abandoned the Cat Demon, earning mockery and envy from the academy students.

Significant Themes

• Extraordinary talent and spiritual purity: The Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart represents rare innate potential and deep harmony with the world.
• The power of multitasking and mental control: Chen’s divided consciousness greatly expands his abilities in combat, cultivation, and craftsmanship.
• Human and supernatural relationships: The Cat Demon’s attachment to Fei Xuesong complicates the usual boundary between humans and demons.
• Rapid advancement through preparation and opportunity: Chen’s earlier efforts to master appraisal and unsealing techniques now allow him to cultivate swiftly and safely.
• Secrecy and deception: Chen repeatedly conceals his activities, using Lü Xiu’s frightening appearance to mislead witnesses and protect his identity.
• Growth and vitality: The thriving Spirit Tea Tree parallels Chen’s own rapid development and rising power.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen and the little old man interact briefly outside the hidden courtyard; Chen frightens him by summoning Lü Xiu.
• Chen indirectly learns about the Cat Demon’s history through two academy students, whose mocking conversation reveals both contempt and hidden envy.
• Chen exchanges greetings with Shopkeeper Liu and Lin Qi at the pawnshop before beginning his appraisal and cultivation work.
• Chen maintains a continuing connection with Lü Xiu, using her as both a spiritual companion and a means of intimidation.
• The unseen relationship between Fei Xuesong and the Cat Demon becomes a new mystery that captures Chen’s curiosity.

Chapter Summary: Ninth Layer of the Qi Sea Realm

Key Plot Points and Events

• After opening his seventh of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, Chen Shaojun completely absorbs the mixed spiritual energy within the first Spirit-Sealing Stone.
• The stone’s sealing power retaliates by summoning black iron chains, but Chen Shaojun easily neutralizes them using the Myriad Spirits Unsealing Technique. His spiritual power now extends twenty zhang, allowing him to form a massive net that dismantles the chains at their fundamental structure.
• The treasure inside the first stone is revealed: a blood-red, three-foot flying sword without a hilt. It emits powerful Sword Fiend and contains a deeply fused spiritual imprint left by its deceased former owner.
• Chen Shaojun uses the Divination Art and confirms that the sword can be successfully appraised, though he postpones the appraisal to focus on cultivation.
• He opens the second Spirit-Sealing Stone and rapidly absorbs its mixed spiritual energy through the Creation Heart Scripture. This energy breaks open his eighth extraordinary meridian, but it is still insufficient to reach the Ninth Layer.
• Chen Shaojun reflects that the powerful Creation Heart Scripture produces exceptionally high-grade Creation True Qi, meaning his cultivation requires far more energy than ordinary techniques, though the resulting strength is much greater.
• He opens the third Spirit-Sealing Stone and continues absorbing energy. With his Qi Sea Dantian, Twelve Primary Meridians, and Eight Extraordinary Meridians filled with Creation True Qi, he begins the difficult breakthrough to the Ninth Layer.
• Unlike ordinary techniques, the Creation Heart Scripture requires every meridian to be connected in pairs, creating an extremely complicated circulation route. Chen Shaojun repeatedly breaks through blocked connections between his meridians.
• With the support of abundant Creation True Qi and the third stone’s energy, he completes the internal Great Cycle and successfully reaches the Ninth Layer of the Qi Sea Realm, becoming an Upper-Grade Great Martial Master.

Character Development

• Chen Shaojun’s cultivation and spiritual strength have advanced dramatically. He is no longer intimidated by the backlash of Spirit-Sealing Stones and can dismantle their sealing chains with ease.
• His confidence in the Creation Heart Scripture grows. Although it demands enormous amounts of energy, he recognizes that its superior quality gives him far greater potential and combat strength.
• His ambitions and excitement as a cultivator become more apparent when he sees the flying sword. Owning and riding a sword through the sky represents not merely power, but the freedom and idealism associated with immortal cultivation.
• His ability to appraise powerful treasures has also improved. A flying sword that would previously have been beyond his capabilities is now within his reach.

Significant Themes

• Power versus efficiency: Higher-level cultivation requires increasingly greater energy, but the Creation Heart Scripture compensates by producing extraordinarily powerful true qi.
• Quality over speed: Chen Shaojun accepts that his progress is slower than that of practitioners using weaker techniques because his foundation and future potential are much stronger.
• Mastery over danger: The sealing chains and the flying sword’s Sword Fiend symbolize powerful forces that Chen Shaojun must control through knowledge, preparation, and technique.
• Cultivation as freedom: The flying sword represents Chen Shaojun’s aspiration to transcend ordinary martial practice and roam freely between heaven and earth.
• Complexity and advancement: The intricate meridian network required by the Creation Heart Scripture reflects the technique’s supreme grade and the difficulty of reaching higher realms.

Character Interactions

• Chen Shaojun’s main interactions are with the sealed treasures and the forces protecting them rather than with other characters.
• He confronts the Spirit-Sealing Stone’s backlash directly, overcoming the black iron chains through his improved unsealing technique.
• His relationship with the deceased senior who created the flying sword is indirect: the sword preserves that senior’s lifeblood, spiritual imprint, and Sword Fiend, creating both a connection to the past and a challenge for Chen Shaojun to overcome.
• His interaction with the Creation Heart Scripture is central to the chapter, as the technique guides his absorption of energy and enables his breakthrough to the Ninth Layer.

Chapter Summary: Spell Inheritance

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun breaks through to the Ninth Layer of the Qi Sea Realm, becoming an Upper-Grade Great Martial Master.
• His Twelve Primary Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians form a complete Great Cycle, giving him a profound sense of connection with heaven and earth.
• Although he has not yet entered the Innate Realm, he can now perceive the barrier separating his body from the wider world. Breaking through that barrier by opening the Heaven-Earth Bridge will mark his advancement into the Innate Realm.
• After his breakthrough, Chen absorbs the remaining mixed spiritual energy from the fourth Spirit-Sealing Stone. He destroys the released restraining iron chain with the Myriad Spirits Unsealing Technique.
• He then absorbs the energy from the fifth and largest Spirit-Sealing Stone, which contains an extraordinary great seal. The enormous energy nearly causes his Qi Sea and meridians to burst, but he repeatedly compresses his True Qi until it becomes denser and more powerful.
• After seven rounds of compression, Chen reaches the absolute limit of the Ninth Layer of the Qi Sea Realm. He successfully unseals the final Spirit-Sealing Stone and neutralizes its backlash.
• With all five Spirit-Sealing Stones unraveled, Chen turns his attention to the treasures within them: a flying sword, jade box, Pure Vase, great cauldron, and great seal.
• Inside the jade box, he discovers ten Jade Slip Eyes containing cultivation methods, spells, and alchemical techniques, along with several pill bottles.

Character Development

• Chen Shaojun’s cultivation advances dramatically, bringing him to the peak of the Upper-Grade Great Martial Master realm.
• His breakthrough expands his perception beyond his physical self and gives him a clearer understanding of the transition from the Qi Sea Realm to the Innate Realm.
• He demonstrates increasing control and discipline by suppressing the violent impulses caused by excessive spiritual energy and compressing his True Qi instead of allowing it to overflow.
• His confidence grows as his power reaches a level sufficient to give him greater security during his upcoming journey to Burial Heaven Pit and the Ten-Thousand-Treasure Grotto.
• He begins planning his next goals: entering the Innate Realm and raising his arcane cultivation beyond ten years, which would bring his strength close to that of a Golden Core Realm cultivator.

Significant Themes

• 突破与超越自我 / Transcendence: Chen’s breakthrough represents not merely increased strength but a deeper perception of the relationship between the human body and heaven and earth.
• Control over power: His success depends not only on accumulating energy but also on compressing and mastering it.
• Preparation and ambition: Chen views his cultivation gains as preparation for dangerous future adventures and continues pursuing higher realms.
• Inheritance and knowledge: The jade box reveals the importance of preserving a powerful cultivator’s techniques and passing down martial, arcane, and alchemical traditions.
• Risk and sacrifice: Several discovered spells, especially the Blood-Burning Technique and Soul-Seizing Technique, offer immense power at severe physical or moral cost.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen has no direct interaction with other characters in this chapter. His main “interactions” are with the Spirit-Sealing Stones, their restraining formations, and the inherited techniques contained within them.
• He uses divination before handling the final Spirit-Sealing Stone, showing caution despite his growing confidence.
• His analysis of the inherited spells demonstrates his practical mindset: he evaluates each technique according to its combat value, cultivation potential, usefulness in alchemy, and possible risks.

Newly Discovered Inheritance

• Blazing Flame Formula: Fire-attribute cultivation method reaching the Dao Foundation Realm.
• Spirit-Burning True Scripture: Higher-level fire cultivation method reaching the Golden Core Realm.
• Raging Fire Incinerating Heart Technique: A powerful heart-targeting offensive spell.
• Body-Rending Technique: Tears apart an opponent’s body unless they possess exceptional physical strength.
• True Spirit Fire-Control Method and Three-Turn Alchemy Formula: Complementary alchemical techniques superior to Chen’s previous manual.
• Spirit-Severing Sword-Binding Technique: Allows him to refine and mentally control the discovered flying sword.
• Soul-Seizing Technique: Enables a soul to occupy another body, though with serious drawbacks.
• Blood-Burning Technique: Converts the user’s blood into powerful arcane energy for a potentially fatal attack, making it a desperate life-or-death technique.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun reflects on the new spells he has obtained, including the Raging Fire Incinerating Heart Technique, Body-Rending Technique, and Blood-Burning Technique. These techniques fill his previous lack of offensive abilities, though he recognizes that he must cultivate them before using them effectively.
• He begins appraising the second treasure: a powerful flying sword. Using the Myriad Spirits Unsealing Technique, he clashes with the sword’s intense Sword Fiend aura and its instinctive spiritual imprint.
• When the sword attempts a devastating counterattack, Chen uses the Treasure-Fixing Divine Light to immobilize it, then strikes it with the Baleful Severing Ruler, dispersing much of its power.
• After several minutes of grinding away the remaining Sword Fiend aura and spiritual imprint, Chen successfully completes the appraisal.
• The flying sword is identified as the Rainbow Sword, formerly owned by Daoist Changhong. It is revealed to be a Middle-Grade Treasure Artifact, and its former owner had been a Peak Late Dao Foundation Stage cultivator who failed to break through to the Core Formation Realm.
• The Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror rewards Chen with One Sword Shatters Ten Thousand Techniques, a legendary sword-control technique capable of unleashing extraordinarily powerful attacks.
• Excited by the reward, Chen wonders whether using the Fortune Talisman might have produced an even stronger sword technique, but reminds himself that the remaining treasures may be more valuable.
• He turns to the large seal, which contains no Killing Intent but is surrounded by crimson Dao Origin power and a tightly fused spiritual imprint. Chen suspects that it still retains the former owner’s full-force attack.
• His Divination Art produces the result “fortune and misfortune impossible to predict,” indicating that the seal is extraordinarily dangerous and difficult to appraise.
• Refusing to give up, Chen uses Money Opens All Doors to ask how he can appraise the seal safely. The technique provides the necessary information, but consumes a substantial amount of his silver and other stored wealth.

Character Development

• Chen Shaojun grows more confident in his abilities after mastering additional appraisal methods and successfully suppressing the flying sword’s powerful resistance.
• His pride and ambition become more apparent: he is delighted by the reward but immediately compares it to even stronger sword techniques and imagines how the Fortune Talisman could improve his gains.
• At the same time, Chen demonstrates growing caution and strategic judgment. Rather than recklessly appraising the dangerous seal, he consults divination and uses Money Opens All Doors to find a safe method.
• He begins to recognize the value of his profession and appraisal abilities, understanding that they have enabled him to acquire treasures that would otherwise have remained sealed or forgotten.

Significant Themes

• Power gained through knowledge and preparation: Chen’s strength comes not only from cultivation but also from his understanding of spells, appraisal techniques, and magical artifacts.
• Danger and opportunity: Every treasure offers immense benefits but may also contain lethal remnants of its former owner’s power.
• Ambition and dissatisfaction: Even after obtaining a legendary sword technique, Chen immediately longs for something greater, revealing the endless nature of cultivation desire.
• Caution versus pride: Chen’s confidence pushes him to challenge the seal, but his experience leads him to seek guidance rather than act recklessly.
• The limits of cultivation: Daoist Changhong’s failure to cross the threshold into the Core Formation Realm emphasizes how a seemingly small gap in power can determine life or death.

Character Interactions

• Chen’s primary “interactions” are with the magical treasures themselves:
  • He battles the flying sword’s instinctive spiritual imprint and Sword Fiend aura.
  • He uses the Treasure-Fixing Divine Light to suppress the sword before destroying its resistance.
  • He consults the Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror for the sword’s origins and reward.
  • He relies on the Divination Art and Money Opens All Doors to determine how to approach the mysterious seal.
• Through the appraisal visions, Chen also learns about Daoist Changhong’s past and tragic failure to reach the Core Formation Realm.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun realizes that appraising the square seal will activate the spiritual imprint and stored Dao Origin left by Daoist Changhong. The seal will unleash a full-strength attack equivalent to a Late Dao Foundation cultivator’s strike.
• After consulting the Divination Art, Chen determines that ordinary appraisal techniques will not be enough. He restores his spiritual power, sets up a Soundproof Formation to conceal the disturbance, and prepares to withstand the attack.
• When he begins the appraisal, the seal expands into a massive mountain-like object and crashes down on him. Chen counters with:
  • Treasure-Fixing Divine Light
  • Eight Swords Flying Together
  • Thunderfire
  • Fireball Technique
  • Water-Dropping Stone-Piercing Technique
  • One-Yang Finger
• His combined attacks disperse the seal’s power and damage its spiritual imprint. He nearly destroys the artifact through excessive force, then resumes the appraisal and successfully completes it.
• The treasure is identified as the Iron Mountain Seal, a Superior Treasure Artifact refined from Iron Mountain rock. It can expand dramatically, weigh tens of thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of jin, and store Dao Origin for rapid deployment in battle.
• Chen uses a Fortune Talisman before receiving the appraisal reward. The seal is judged to be of Lower Immortal Rank, granting him the divine ability Heavenly Manifestation.
• Heavenly Manifestation creates a colossal manifestation around the user and multiplies physical strength by tenfold, hundredfold, thousandfold, or even ten-thousandfold depending on its level. However, Chen discovers that his current eight years of arcane cultivation allow him to sustain even the first level for only 0.8 seconds, making it impractical for now.
• Chen then appraises the Pure Vase. It is found to condense spiritual energy into Essence Liquid, which can aid cultivation and strengthen the growth of spiritual plants. It is graded Upper Spirit Rank, rewarding him with the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang spell Heaven-Shaking Earth-Rending.

Character Development

• Chen demonstrates increasing caution and strategic preparation. Rather than relying solely on spiritual power, he combines formations, Dao Martial Arts, sword techniques, spells, and physical attacks to survive the seal’s activation.
• His combat ability is shown to have advanced considerably. His Ninth-Layer Qi Sea Realm cultivation greatly enhances One-Yang Finger, while his mastery of Eight Swords Flying Together allows him to coordinate multiple weapons effectively.
• Chen gains a powerful but currently impractical divine ability. His reaction shifts from astonishment to frustration when he realizes that Heavenly Manifestation’s cultivation requirements far exceed his current abilities.
• Despite his disappointment, he adopts a mature outlook, recognizing that abilities unusable now may become invaluable as his cultivation improves.
• He also becomes increasingly aware that extraordinary rewards must be matched by sufficient strength; possession of a treasure or divine technique alone does not guarantee immediate usefulness.

Significant Themes

• Power versus cultivation: Heavenly Manifestation is overwhelmingly powerful, but Chen’s limited arcane foundation prevents him from using it effectively.
• Preparation and adaptability: Successful treasure appraisal requires careful planning, divination, formations, and the coordinated use of multiple abilities.
• Delayed potential: Even seemingly impractical rewards may become crucial in the future as Chen’s cultivation grows.
• Risk and reward: The dangerous appraisal of the Iron Mountain Seal demonstrates that greater treasures demand greater sacrifices and preparation.
• Practicality versus prestige: Chen values techniques he can currently use, such as One Sword Shatters Ten Thousand Techniques, over more famous but inaccessible divine abilities.

Character Interactions

• Chen’s primary interactions are with the treasures themselves and the spiritual imprints left by their former owners, especially Daoist Changhong’s seal.
• His interaction with the Iron Mountain Seal becomes a direct confrontation: the artifact automatically attacks him, while Chen uses a combination of martial arts and spells to suppress it.
• Chen also interacts indirectly with the appraisal system and the Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror, which reveal the origins, ranks, and rewards of the treasures.
• No major dialogue with other characters occurs in this section, though Chen’s use of weapons from Wang Xinyuan and slain Red-Clad Cult members connects the appraisal scene to his earlier relationships and battles.

Chapter Summary

Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun completes the appraisal of a mysterious black cauldron sealed by Daoist Everbright Rainbow.
• Using the Myriad Spirits Unsealing Technique, he dismantles the cauldron’s concentrated killing intent and erases the mental imprint left inside it. The process consumes more than half of his spiritual power.
• The Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror identifies the treasure as the Five-Flavors Cauldron, an Upper Spirit Rank magical treasure.
• The cauldron greatly enhances the taste, quality, and medicinal effects of food. It can transform even mediocre cooking into excellent cuisine and elevate skilled cooking into peerless delicacies.
• As the appraisal reward, Chen receives A Thousand Ways to Cook Demonic Beasts, a collection of recipes involving powerful demonic beasts. He is delighted by the possibilities but worries about finding— and safely obtaining—the required ingredients.
• Chen reflects on the value of his newly acquired treasures, including One Sword Shatters Ten Thousand Techniques, Heavenly Manifestation, and Shaking Heaven and Earth, recognizing that they will greatly improve his chances of surviving his upcoming journey to the Burial Heaven Pit.
• After storing the treasures, he leaves the appraisal room and encounters several Appraiser Apprentices, who now treat him with caution and deference because of his status as a Certified Appraiser.
• His departure is interrupted when he hears that Ayong has died. Chen rushes to Appraisal Room Ten and discovers Ayong’s corpse bearing a gray-black mark on his forehead, indicating that killing intent entered his body and caused mental backlash.
• Chen is alarmed because the treasures assigned to the apprentices were supposedly low-grade and should not have been capable of killing someone, especially someone as skilled as Ayong.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun gains another powerful treasure and a large collection of culinary techniques, revealing a more playful and food-loving side of his personality.
• His growing cultivation and authority are evident in his ability to destroy the cauldron’s killing intent and mental imprint, though the effort still significantly drains him.
• He is adjusting to his new position and the changed attitudes of those around him. Rather than becoming arrogant or hostile, he intends to remain mild and helpful while accepting that others may fear him.
• Chen also demonstrates emotional awareness: after realizing his questioning frightened a servant, he deliberately softens his expression and tone.
• Ayong, previously regarded as a capable Appraiser Apprentice close to becoming a Certified Appraiser, is unexpectedly killed during an ordinary appraisal, creating a major mystery.
• Guo Haiwang, whom Chen previously taught, appears among the apprentices and respectfully greets him, highlighting Chen’s changed status.

Significant Themes

• Power and responsibility: Chen’s increased strength and official status alter how others perceive and interact with him.
• Transformation through appraisal: The cauldron’s destructive killing intent is dismantled and repurposed into a treasure that creates nourishment and enhancement, contrasting destruction with creation.
• Desire and enjoyment: Even powerful cultivators retain ordinary human appetites, and Chen’s excitement over fine food emphasizes that cultivation does not erase human nature.
• Uncertainty beneath appearances: The supposedly low-grade treasures conceal a deadly threat, suggesting that the appraisal hall may contain hidden dangers or foul play.
• Adaptation and identity: Chen must learn to navigate social changes caused by his advancement while deciding what kind of person he wants to remain.
• Foreshadowing and mystery: Ayong’s unexplained death strongly implies that the incident is not accidental and may be connected to a hidden danger within the appraisal process.

Character Interactions

• Chen interacts with the Appraiser Apprentices as a newly elevated superior. Most avoid him out of fear, while a few dare to seek his advice.
• His relationship with the apprentices is shaped by both his former identity as a peer and his new authority as a Certified Appraiser.
• A servant explains how Ayong was found dead, becoming frightened by Chen’s intense reaction before Chen consciously calms himself.
• Chen’s earlier mentorship of Guo Haiwang is briefly acknowledged when Guo respectfully greets him.
• The chapter ends with Chen examining Ayong’s death and beginning to confront a potentially serious threat within the appraisal hall.

Chapter Summary: “Ayong’s Obsession”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Guo Haiwang reveals that Ayong had become obsessed with advancing his Divine Gaze Technique to Minor Mastery and qualifying as a Certified Appraiser.
• Guo feels guilty because he had told Ayong that his own breakthrough was triggered by appraising treasures with powerful Killing Intent. Ayong appears to have imitated this risky method.
• Chen Shaojun appraises Ayong’s treasured rabbit-shaped jade pendant and uses the Divine Gaze Technique to remove its Killing Intent. The appraisal reveals Ayong’s tragic past.
• Ayong grew up poor in a village and fell in love with Xiao Qing. Her parents rejected him because of his poverty, so he went to Shengjing City to earn money and improve his status.
• The merchant caravan he joined secretly dealt in human trafficking and sold him to the Lin Family. After learning that Certified Appraisers could gain freedom and wealth, Ayong became an Appraiser Apprentice.
• Despite years of danger, including participation in Treasure Fairs, Ayong remained determined to succeed. With only six months left in Xiao Qing’s three-year promise to wait for him, his desperation intensified after failing to break through with a Spirit-Nourishing Pill.
• Believing that exposure to strong Killing Intent could force a breakthrough, Ayong sought a dangerous object to appraise. After being warned by Lin Qi, he secretly took a kitchen cleaver that had accumulated immense Killing Intent from slaughtering animals.
• Ayong was overwhelmed by the cleaver’s Killing Intent and died. Because Chen Shaojun was isolated in a soundproof room while cultivating, he did not hear the accident in time to save him.
• Chen realizes Ayong could likely have survived and succeeded if he had come to him for guidance. Chen had even intended to give him three Spirit-Nourishing Pills.
• The pawnshop prepares to handle Ayong’s death routinely, but Chen contributes one hundred taels for a better coffin and asks that Ayong receive a proper burial.

Character Developments

• Ayong: His history reveals him as hardworking, loyal, and deeply driven by love and the desire to change his fate. His obsession with becoming a Certified Appraiser grows from poverty, servitude, humiliation, and his promise to Xiao Qing. His desperation ultimately causes him to abandon caution and take a fatal risk.
• Guo Haiwang: He becomes overwhelmed with guilt, believing his explanation about using Killing Intent to achieve a breakthrough indirectly led to Ayong’s death. His grief shows his respect and affection for his senior.
• Chen Shaojun: Chen responds with sympathy and regret rather than judgment. He recognizes the harshness faced by low-ranking Appraiser Apprentices and reflects on how similar his own ambitions once were. His decision to pay for Ayong’s burial demonstrates compassion and respect.
• Lin Qi: He correctly recognizes Ayong’s dangerous state and advises him to seek Chen Shaojun’s help, but Ayong ignores the warning.
• Shopkeeper Liu: He follows the pawnshop’s established procedure but agrees to provide Ayong with a better burial after Chen’s request.

Significant Themes

• Desperation born from oppression: Appraiser Apprentices endure danger and exploitation because becoming Certified Appraisers is their only path to freedom and social advancement.
• The danger of obsession and impatience: Ayong’s single-minded pursuit of success causes him to ignore sound advice and attempt a method far beyond his capabilities.
• Fate and missed opportunities: Ayong’s death might have been prevented if he had sought Chen’s help, while Chen’s isolation unintentionally prevented him from noticing the accident.
• Love, promises, and sacrifice: Ayong’s devotion to Xiao Qing motivates his journey, but the promise that once gave him hope also increases the pressure he feels as the deadline approaches.
• Compassion amid an unjust hierarchy: Although Ayong is treated as a disposable servant by the system, Chen insists on honoring his life and giving him a proper burial.
• Guilt and responsibility: Guo blames himself for sharing dangerous knowledge, while Chen regrets that his own assistance came too late.

Character Interactions

• Guo Haiwang confesses his guilt to Chen Shaojun, explaining how Ayong may have followed his breakthrough method.
• Chen reflects on Ayong’s relationship with Xiao Qing through the memories revealed by the jade pendant.
• Ayong ignores Lin Qi’s direct warning to seek Chen’s guidance and instead approaches others for a dangerous appraisal opportunity.
• Ayong’s inability or unwillingness to ask Chen for help becomes the decisive missed interaction in the chapter.
• Chen negotiates with Shopkeeper Liu to ensure Ayong receives a more dignified funeral, emphasizing the personal bond between them.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Ayong’s death, Chen Shaojun is deeply affected and decides to help Ayong’s loved ones. Writing as Ayong’s friend, he sends letters to Ayong’s mother and Xiao Qing explaining Ayong’s fate, enclosing one hundred taels of silver with each letter.
• Reflecting on his past caution and indifference, Chen realizes that the knowledge and abilities gained through the Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror should not remain unused. Ayong’s death convinces him that showing more of his abilities might have saved his friend.
• Chen begins writing the Appraiser’s Handbook, intending it to guide Appraiser Apprentices and other practitioners. He covers the nature of appraisal, rank progression, cultivation methods, advancement paths, common problems, and practical examples drawn from his extensive experience.
• He places particular emphasis on the dangers of Killing Intent and Baleful Intent, explaining how to inspect treasures safely, detect danger, protect the spirit, and treat injuries caused by Killing Intent.
• Using his ability of Teaching the Way and Imparting Knowledge, Chen’s writing becomes unusually clear and effective, greatly increasing readers’ learning efficiency. In one afternoon, he writes over thirty thousand words across eight sheets of rice paper.
• Chen plans for the handbook to contain eight sections, ending at the Certified Appraiser level so that it matches his public identity and does not reveal his true mastery.
• He begins to suspect that writing and establishing a doctrine may itself help him grow stronger, and he takes genuine pleasure in writing.
• The chapter then shifts to Fragrant Garden Academy, a prestigious institution known for producing successful imperial examination candidates.
• Student Fei Xuesong is preparing for the upcoming imperial examination but is distressed by a powerful sense of impending danger. He fears the return of a female demon whom the academy headmaster previously injured.
• A beautiful white-robed woman suddenly appears outside Fei Xuesong’s window, calling him “Brother Fei” and accusing him of abandoning her and breaking his vows.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun moves from passive caution toward purposeful action. Ayong’s death makes him recognize that his reluctance to reveal his abilities can harm those around him.
• He develops a stronger sense of responsibility and begins using his knowledge to benefit others, rather than treating his extraordinary abilities as private possessions.
• Chen also discovers a previously suppressed love of writing and teaching. Creating the handbook gives him intellectual satisfaction and may even contribute to his cultivation.
• Fei Xuesong is shown as anxious and frightened, torn between his scholarly ambitions and his fear of the demon connected to his past.
• Fei Xuesong’s teacher appears outwardly serious and instructive, advising him to calm his mind and prepare for the imperial examination, though he is comically distracted by an erotic illustrated book.

Significant Themes

• Regret and the consequences of inaction: Ayong’s death causes Chen to reconsider how excessive caution and indifference can lead to tragedy.
• Using knowledge for the benefit of others: The chapter argues that abilities and wisdom should not be hoarded but passed on to help others grow and survive.
• Teaching and legacy: Chen’s handbook represents his attempt to establish a lasting intellectual legacy and improve the appraiser profession.
• Growth through creation: Writing is presented not merely as communication but as a possible path of spiritual and personal advancement.
• Love, broken promises, and different paths: The cliffhanger introduces a tragic relationship between a human scholar and a demon, emphasizing the conflict between emotional vows and the divide between humans and supernatural beings.
• Preparation versus fate: Both Chen and Fei Xuesong are preparing for major challenges, but each faces dangers that cannot be solved through ordinary planning alone.

Character Interactions

• Chen communicates with Ayong’s mother and Xiao Qing through letters, acting as Ayong’s final messenger and providing them with both truth and financial support.
• Chen’s internal reflections reveal his changing attitude toward the people around him and his responsibility to share what he knows.
• At Fragrant Garden Academy, Fei Xuesong’s teacher urges him to calm his heart and focus on the imperial examination, warning that the new emperor’s accession will bring important policy questions.
• Fei confesses his fear that the demon will return, while his teacher teasingly suggests that he meet her and resolve the matter.
• The demon then appears, directly confronting Fei and accusing him of betraying the promises they once made, leaving the chapter on a dramatic cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary: “Humans and Demons Walk Different Paths”

Plot Points and Events

• Fei Xuesong rejects Yueru, a cat demon who loves him, insisting that humans and demons can never be together. He begs her to release him, claiming he did not know her true identity when they were romantically involved.
• Yueru reminds him that she never hid being a demon. Fei had seen her cat ears and tail and even claimed to find them exciting, but now denies their relationship and treats her as monstrous.
• Fei’s instructor, Zhang Cheng, initially prepares to defend him but becomes increasingly embarrassed and amused by the revelation that Fei had pursued a demon. He ultimately judges Fei to be a heartless man who deceived Yueru.
• When Fei hides behind Zhang Cheng and asks for help, Yueru becomes enraged and attacks him. Zhang Cheng, along with the saber-wielding “Uncle Bing” and the spear-wielding Old Man He, engages her.
• The battle destroys Fei’s residence and causes widespread panic throughout Fragrant Garden Academy. The academy’s martial instructors have been waiting for an opportunity to eliminate Yueru because she has injured students, frightened teachers, and damaged the academy’s reputation.
• Yueru breaks through the initial encirclement by transforming into her powerful true form: a huge white cat. Her speed and strength increase dramatically, injuring several of the academy’s fighters.
• She grabs Fei and attempts to escape the academy. Although Fei is unconscious, she protects him and never uses him as a shield.
• Academy Head Wu Yingchen and scholar-instructor Li Changhe join the pursuit. Li wounds Yueru with a flying sword and later slows her with Daoist magic, while Wu attacks her with a painted folding fan.
• Yueru resists fiercely, using corrosive mist and her claws to destroy Li’s magical rope, but Li restores the severed rope and binds her legs.
• The chase ends at White-Stem Mountain Manor, where Chen Shaojun watches from his viewing platform. He realizes the battle may now damage his residence.
• Yueru pleads with Wu and Li to let her and Fei leave together, expressing her wish to live with him as mates. Wu rejects her request, declaring that humans and demons cannot be together. Fei awakens and immediately cries out for the academy’s experts to save him.

Character Developments

• Yueru: Her loving and sorrowful nature turns into anger and desperation after Fei betrays and insults her. Despite her strength and rage, she remains deeply devoted, protects Fei during the pursuit, and refuses to abandon him.
• Fei Xuesong: He is exposed as cowardly, deceitful, and superficial. He once accepted Yueru’s unusual appearance but now denies his promises and hides behind others for protection. His fear contrasts sharply with Yueru’s loyalty.
• Zhang Cheng: He shifts from a vigilant protector to an amused observer, then becomes a serious combatant defending the academy. His comments reveal his judgment of Fei’s behavior.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe: Both are introduced as exceptionally powerful academy figures. They act decisively to protect the academy and capture Yueru, combining martial skill and Daoist magic.
• Chen Shaojun: He remains an observer rather than directly intervening, but his perspective establishes Yueru as nearly comparable to an Innate Realm expert and foreshadows the danger to his home.

Significant Themes

• Human-demon prejudice and social boundaries: The repeated declaration that “humans and demons walk different paths” reflects the rigid separation between species and the belief that such relationships are inherently impossible.
• Love versus betrayal: Yueru’s unwavering devotion is contrasted with Fei’s denial and cowardice, raising questions about whether love is defined by promises or by actions.
• Appearance and acceptance: Fei initially accepts Yueru’s demonic traits but later rejects her true form, showing that his acceptance was shallow and conditional.
• Loyalty and moral hypocrisy: Yueru, though labeled dangerous, behaves loyally toward Fei, while Fei—the human victim—appears selfish and ungrateful.
• Power and persecution: The academy’s organized effort to kill Yueru demonstrates how fear, rumors, and institutional authority can turn a personal conflict into a violent public confrontation.

Character Interactions

• Yueru confronts Fei over his broken promises, while Fei repeatedly denies responsibility and seeks protection from Zhang Cheng.
• Zhang Cheng mocks Fei’s former relationship with Yueru but ultimately fights to defend him and the academy.
• Yueru battles Zhang Cheng, Uncle Bing, and Old Man He, then escapes their combined assault after transforming.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe pursue and subdue Yueru, debating her right to remain with Fei through their actions and declarations.
• Yueru continues to show tenderness toward the unconscious Fei, while Fei, upon awakening, immediately calls for others to rescue him.
• Chen Shaojun observes the conflict from nearby, becoming an unwilling witness to the confrontation as it reaches his residence.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Cat Demon, devastated by Fei Xuesong’s rejection, recalls everything she sacrificed for him: leaving her grandmother and demon cave, traveling to Shengjing City, protecting him, and suffering injuries on his behalf.
• Her grief and hatred trigger a drastic change in her aura. Chen Shaojun recognizes the dense death aura surrounding her and realizes she intends to die.
• The Cat Demon declares that since Fei Xuesong refuses to live with her, they should at least share a grave. She kills Fei by striking his head, then takes her own life in the same manner.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe are deeply shocked. They had assumed humans and demons could never coexist, but the Cat Demon’s devotion forces them to question that belief.
• When academy members arrive and assume the demon was slain, Li Changhe clarifies that she committed suicide. Wu Yingchen orders that Fei and the Cat Demon be buried together, despite objections that such a burial violates convention.
• Wu Yingchen condemns Fei’s coldness and faithlessness, arguing that he caused the tragedy and should bear its consequences.
• Chen Shaojun explains that the conflict between humans and demons should not be judged simply through the categories of good and evil. Humans depend on moral rules and social order, while demons act according to their nature; ultimately, the relationship between the two is governed by interests.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe are enlightened by Chen Shaojun’s reasoning and express their gratitude.
• Wu Yingchen invites Chen Shaojun to enroll at Fragrant Garden Academy and pursue the imperial examinations, but Chen politely refuses, preferring his freer life as an appraiser.
• Li Changhe gives Chen a jade pendant containing protective techniques, inviting him to seek help from the academy if he encounters supernatural dangers.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe return to manage the aftermath, including injured students, public rumors, official attention, and possible attacks from rival academies.

Character Developments

• The Cat Demon: Her tragic love is revealed as absolute and self-sacrificing. Her final act demonstrates both the depth of her devotion and the destructive consequences of loving someone incapable of reciprocating.
• Fei Xuesong: His apparent rejection and emotional cruelty are contrasted with the Cat Demon’s loyalty. Even after death, Wu Yingchen judges him harshly for creating a situation he could not resolve.
• Wu Yingchen: Initially committed to the separation between humans and demons, he becomes troubled by the Cat Demon’s sincerity. He ultimately accepts her final wish and shows moral flexibility by permitting their joint burial.
• Li Changhe: Like Wu Yingchen, he begins questioning the rigid belief that all demons are inherently evil. He also recognizes Chen Shaojun’s insight and offers him protection.
• Chen Shaojun: He demonstrates unusual wisdom and emotional detachment, providing a philosophical interpretation that helps the others recover their balance. His intellectual ability earns him the academy head’s respect, though he remains committed to his life as an appraiser.

Significant Themes

• Love, sacrifice, and tragedy: The Cat Demon’s love is sincere but misplaced, turning devotion into despair and death.
• Prejudice and moral complexity: The incident challenges the assumption that humans are virtuous and demons are evil. Individuals must be judged by their actions rather than their species.
• Rules versus nature: Chen argues that human society depends on morality, hierarchy, and rules, while demons act according to instinct and inherent nature.
• Interests over absolute morality: Relations between humans and demons are portrayed less as a struggle between good and evil than as a conflict shaped by competing interests.
• Consequences and responsibility: Fei’s refusal to confront the consequences of his relationship leads to tragedy, while the Cat Demon’s final request forces the humans to acknowledge the bond they had denied.
• Reputation and social order: The academy must contain rumors about the demon disturbance to protect its standing amid competition from rival institutions.

Character Interactions

• The Cat Demon confronts Fei Xuesong emotionally, demanding that they share death if they cannot share life.
• Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe initially prepare to fight her, but afterward become reflective and uncertain about their assumptions regarding demons.
• Zhang Cheng and the others misunderstand the outcome, believing the academy leaders killed the demon, until the truth is explained.
• Wu Yingchen reprimands Zhang Cheng for objecting to the joint burial and takes responsibility for honoring the Cat Demon’s final wish.
• Chen Shaojun’s philosophical discussion with Wu Yingchen and Li Changhe transforms their grief and confusion into deeper understanding.
• Wu Yingchen attempts to recruit Chen into the academy, while Li Changhe establishes a protective and potentially lasting connection by giving him the jade pendant.

Chapter Summary: “Other People’s Children”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the Cat Demon and Fei Xuesong are removed, Chen Shaojun cleans the courtyard to eliminate the lingering smell of demon blood, preventing other monsters from being attracted.
• He discovers a wooden-and-silver hairpin left behind by the Cat Demon. Using his Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror, he appraises it and uncovers the tragic history of Fei Xuesong and the Cat Demon.
• Fei Xuesong had a devoted childhood sweetheart in his hometown who gave him the hairpin as both a love token and emergency support. While traveling to Shengjing City, he was injured and rescued by the Cat Demon.
• Fei Xuesong manipulated the inexperienced Cat Demon by pretending the hairpin came from his deceased mother. He used her affection and strength to protect him throughout their dangerous journey to Shengjing.
• Once Fei Xuesong settled at Fragrant Garden Academy, he abandoned the Cat Demon and refused to acknowledge their relationship. Desperate and heartbroken, she confronted him at the academy before ultimately killing herself, causing more than a century of cultivation to scatter.
• Chen Shaojun appraises the hairpin, which is judged to be Lower Dharma Grade because of the demonic aura and emotional attachment infused into it. He receives the ability Beast Speech, allowing him to communicate in the common language of intelligent demon beasts.
• Chen then examines the jade pendant carved and gifted to him by Li Changhe. He determines that it contains noble, righteous energy and protective power against evil spirits. Though highly valuable, Chen refuses to sell it because of its sentimental importance.
• Appraising the pendant gives Chen insight into Li Changhe’s remarkable life. Li was a prodigy in both scholarship and martial arts, advancing rapidly through the civil examinations before abandoning academics when they became too easy. He later joined a martial sect and reached the Body Tempering stage, approaching the Qi Sea realm—his first real challenge.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun: Shows practical caution by purifying the courtyard and recognizing the danger of lingering demon blood. His appraisal of the hairpin reveals his moral judgment and sympathy for the Cat Demon, while his new Beast Speech ability expands his future means of communication.
• The Cat Demon: Is portrayed as powerful but emotionally innocent and inexperienced. Her longing for the idealized romance between scholars and beautiful women leaves her vulnerable to Fei Xuesong’s deception. Despite her strength, she is ultimately destroyed by betrayal.
• Fei Xuesong: Is exposed as selfish, calculating, and cowardly. He uses his intelligence and scholarly reputation to manipulate the Cat Demon, then abandons her once she is no longer convenient.
• Li Changhe: Emerges as an almost impossibly gifted “other people’s child,” excelling in both academics and martial cultivation. His decision to pursue martial arts reflects his confidence, ambition, and desire for greater challenges.

Significant Themes

• Betrayal and misplaced trust: The Cat Demon’s tragedy comes from trusting Fei Xuesong, who exploits her devotion and abandons her.
• The danger of romantic ideals: Stories of gifted scholars and beautiful women create unrealistic expectations, causing the Cat Demon to mistake a familiar narrative for genuine love.
• Human cunning versus demonic innocence: Although the Cat Demon possesses great power and long cultivation, she is psychologically naïve compared with humans.
• Moral character versus social status: Fei Xuesong appears talented and respectable because of his scholarly achievements, but his personal conduct reveals him to be morally contemptible.
• Sentiment and value: The hairpin and jade pendant demonstrate that an object’s emotional and spiritual significance can exceed its material worth.
• Genius and pressure: Li Changhe’s extraordinary accomplishments establish the ideal of the gifted prodigy while hinting that constant success may lead to boredom and a search for more difficult challenges.

Character Interactions

• Fei Xuesong and the Cat Demon: Their relationship begins with rescue and apparent affection, but it is fundamentally unequal. She sincerely loves and protects him, while he manipulates her for survival and convenience.
• The Cat Demon and her grandmother: The Cat Demon’s fear of leaving Fei alone with her grandmother helps explain why she agrees to accompany him to Shengjing.
• Chen Shaojun and the Cat Demon’s belongings: Through the hairpin, Chen reconstructs the relationship and recognizes the injustice done to her.
• Chen Shaojun and Li Changhe: Their relationship is marked by mutual regard, represented by Li’s valuable jade pendant and Chen’s appreciation of its protective and sentimental qualities.

Chapter Summary: “Ask the Way in the Morning, Die Content at Dusk”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun’s appraisal vision reveals the history of Li Changhe, a former martial genius whose fiancée broke off their engagement after her family connected with a powerful cultivation lineage.
• Humiliated, Li Changhe returned the insult by writing a divorce document and declaring that he would rise again—an incident that became widely known.
• Li Changhe disappeared for three years to seek the Dao. When he returned, he had become a disciple of the Supreme Purity Sect.
• He ultimately excelled in three disciplines:
  • Confucian scholarship, becoming a great scholar
  • Martial arts, reaching the Ninth Layer of the Qi Sea Realm
  • Daoist cultivation, reaching the Middle Dao Foundation Stage
• Chen Shaojun recognizes that Li Changhe’s greatest weakness is also his ambition: by refusing to specialize, he has divided his energy among three paths and limited his ultimate achievements.
• The Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror grades the appraisal as Superior Dharma Grade and rewards Chen Shaojun with nine points of Merit Golden Light, bringing his total to twenty points.
• Chen Shaojun returns to his routine cultivation, continuing to practice spiritual, Daoist, and martial techniques despite possessing faster methods of advancement.
• The narrative then shifts to Lu Ping, a low-ranking servant at the Lin Clan Pawnshop who secretly aspires to become an appraiser.
• Lu Ping discovers the “Appraiser’s Handbook” in Chen Shaojun’s room and, unable to resist his curiosity, reads it.
• The handbook gives him profound insight into appraisal techniques, professional dangers, and methods of advancement. The experience leaves him feeling as though he has received a revelation of the Dao.

Character Developments

• Li Changhe: His past reveals him as proud, exceptionally talented, and unwilling to accept humiliation. His success across multiple fields demonstrates remarkable ability, but his refusal to choose a single path has caused his cultivation to stagnate below its potential.
• Chen Shaojun: He displays sharp judgment by identifying Li Changhe’s core weakness. He is also shown to be disciplined and pragmatic, continuing daily cultivation rather than relying solely on Merit Golden Light or other shortcuts. His generosity toward the deceased Ayong has also improved his reputation among the pawnshop workers.
• Lu Ping: Lu Ping is introduced as ambitious but cautious. He wants to become an appraiser to escape servitude, yet refuses to sell himself into slavery by becoming an apprentice. Reading Chen Shaojun’s handbook gives him his first major breakthrough and may set him on the path to advancement.
• Chen Shaojun’s reputation: His talent, success at the Treasure Fair, generosity, and conduct have earned him the trust and admiration of the pawnshop’s apprentices.

Significant Themes

• The cost of pursuing perfection: Li Changhe’s attempt to master scholarship, martial arts, and Daoist cultivation reflects the danger of spreading one’s efforts too thinly.
• Pride and self-knowledge: Li Changhe understands his own problem but is too proud to make the necessary sacrifice and specialize.
• Diligence versus shortcuts: Chen Shaojun values steady cultivation even though Merit Golden Light and Spirit-Sealing Stones can accelerate his progress.
• Social mobility and status: Lu Ping’s desire to become an appraiser reflects the limited opportunities available to people of humble origins and the importance of skill as a means of rising socially.
• Knowledge as transformation: The handbook’s insights have an almost spiritual power, showing that genuine understanding can produce sudden enlightenment.
• Generosity and reputation: Chen Shaojun’s decision to fund Ayong’s burial strengthens the respect others have for him.

Character Interactions

• Li Changhe’s former fiancée and her family treat him as expendable once they find a connection to a stronger cultivation lineage, prompting his dramatic rejection of the engagement.
• Chen Shaojun evaluates Li Changhe from a distance through the appraisal vision and forms a respectful but critical assessment of him.
• Chen Shaojun’s generous treatment of Ayong’s death affects how the pawnshop apprentices view him, creating goodwill and trust.
• Lu Ping admires and envies Chen Shaojun’s rapid rise from an unimpressive apprentice to a respected Certified Appraiser.
• By reading Chen Shaojun’s handbook, Lu Ping indirectly benefits from Chen’s knowledge, though he does so without permission.

Chapter Summary: It Was Finished

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lu Ping finishes reading the incomplete Appraiser’s Handbook and is deeply impressed by its detailed, insightful explanations of the appraisal profession. Reading it also seems to improve his spiritual power and advance his Divine Gaze Technique to the beginner stage.
• He realizes the manuscript may have been written by Chen Shaojun and becomes terrified that reading it without permission constitutes theft of secret teachings. Expecting severe punishment, he waits anxiously for Chen Shaojun.
• Chen Shaojun arrives at the pawnshop, where Lu Ping kneels and confesses. Instead of punishing him, Chen explains that he wrote the handbook for the pawnshop’s apprentices and is glad Lu Ping found it useful.
• Inspired by Lu Ping’s reaction, Chen resumes writing and completes more sections of the handbook. Lu Ping begins treating him as a teacher, calling him “Master Chen,” though Chen jokingly discourages the title.
• Chen appraises three relatively safe treasures:
  • A Mid-Grade Dharma Rank item grants the Nightfall Technique, which blinds an opponent with the illusion of total darkness.
  • A Superior Dharma Grade item grants the Qin-Making Method.
  • A Lower Dharma Grade item grants the Ghost-Nurturing Technique, which Chen rejects as cruel and spiritually corrupt.
• Chen continues writing the handbook over several days. The final section, concerning Certified Appraisers, grows far longer than expected because he wants to explain advancement methods and the level’s importance thoroughly.
• After four days, he completes the entire work: approximately 170,000 words. Satisfied with the finished manuscript, Chen begins considering how to distribute it and decides that having it printed and bound would be the best approach.

Character Developments

• Lu Ping gains greater respect for Chen and becomes eager to learn from him. His fear of punishment reveals both his humility and his awareness of the dangers surrounding secret knowledge.
• Chen Shaojun is shown as generous, thoughtful, and committed to helping lower-born apprentices. He views the handbook as a way to reduce casualties and help talented apprentices become Certified Appraisers.
• Chen also demonstrates moral judgment by refusing to practice the Ghost-Nurturing Technique, recognizing it as an unethical and harmful method.
• Chen’s excitement about publishing reveals a more personal ambition: beyond helping others, he wants to see his work formally recognized and preserved as a physical book.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge as a means of social advancement: The handbook offers poorly educated servants and apprentices a path toward mastering appraisal and improving their status.
• Teaching and mentorship: Chen’s writing reflects his desire to guide others, while Lu Ping’s attitude shows the reverence traditionally given to teachers and inherited knowledge.
• Moral responsibility: Chen distinguishes useful techniques from corrupt practices, refusing knowledge that causes excessive harm.
• Recognition and fulfillment: Completing and potentially publishing the handbook gives Chen a sense of achievement he never attained in his previous life.
• Misunderstanding and humility: Lu Ping treats the handbook as a forbidden scripture, while Chen sees it as a practical educational resource, highlighting the difference between the author’s intentions and the reader’s assumptions.

Character Interactions

• Lu Ping and Chen Shaojun: Their relationship shifts from servant and appraiser to student and teacher. Chen reassures Lu Ping after his confession, while Lu Ping responds with sincere admiration and loyalty.
• Chen and the pawnshop staff: Chen casually greets Shopkeeper Liu, Lin Qi, and the others before carrying out his regular appraisal duties, emphasizing his growing familiarity and status within the pawnshop.
• Chen and the apprentices: Although they do not interact directly in depth, Chen deliberately selects safer treasures for the apprentices, demonstrating practical concern for their survival and development.

Chapter Summary: Gold Foil Paper, Storm Pear Blossom Needles, Stacking Talisman

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun continues appraising treasures at the Lin Clan Pawnshop while considering visiting Phoenix Book House to learn about publishing and book distribution.
• Most of the treasures brought in are ordinary, yielding modest rewards. However, his Merit Golden Light increases by thirteen points, bringing his total to thirty-three—only three points short of gaining another year of Arcane Cultivation.
• He reflects on reaching the ten-year Arcane Cultivation threshold, which marks the boundary between Foundation Establishment and Dao Entry in the ancient cultivation system.
• Chen considers obtaining treasures from Wu Xun and Wu Xie, descendants of orthodox tomb-raiding Captains, because their family possesses many valuable artifacts. He also briefly considers stealing from the treasure vault of a corrupt Vice Minister of Rites but rejects the idea due to both danger and personal principles.
• From a new batch of treasures, Chen chooses four items to appraise himself. Three are ordinary family heirlooms pawned because of poverty, marriage expenses, or gambling debts.
• The fourth item is a seemingly simple sheet of gold foil paper covered in dense blood-related Killing Intent. Chen determines that it was stained by the blood of a powerful Innate expert and successfully cleanses it.
• The appraisal vision reveals the gold foil paper’s hidden history:
  • Tang Feng, the Tang Sect’s chief disciple, betrayed the sect and stole several powerful concealed weapons and crafting methods.
  • During his escape, a Thief Sect expert secretly stole some of the treasures from him, including the blueprint for the Tang Sect’s supreme concealed weapon, the Storm Pear Blossom Needles.
  • The thief was later pursued, badly wounded, and died while hiding the treasures in his illegitimate son’s home.
  • The gold foil paper was eventually pawned by the thief’s descendants after a family crisis.
• The paper contains the crafting method for the Storm Pear Blossom Needles, a weapon capable of firing tens of thousands of Barrier-Piercing Divine Needles. Its attack can break through even Spirit Astral Realm defenses.
• Chen memorizes the entire crafting method instantly. He believes he can produce the weapon because his treasure-appraisal rewards have given him expertise in numerous technical fields, although doing so would require rare materials, skilled craftsmanship, and considerable time.
• The Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror ranks the first three items as Mid-Grade Dharma Rank and the gold foil paper as High-Grade Treasure Rank.
• Chen receives three points of Merit Golden Light, seven Spirit-Communing Pills, one Realm-Breaking Pill, and a mysterious Stacking Talisman. Though the other rewards are valuable, he senses that the Stacking Talisman is the most important and becomes excited upon learning its properties.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun grows increasingly confident in his abilities, particularly his knowledge and technical versatility. He believes he can recreate the Storm Pear Blossom Needles despite their complexity.
• His cultivation is approaching the important nine-year mark and is nearing the ten-year Dao Entry threshold.
• Chen demonstrates restraint and a clear personal code by refusing to rob the Vice Minister’s vault, despite recognizing the enormous benefits it could provide.
• He becomes more ambitious about acquiring high-ranked treasures, considering future cooperation or trade with Wu Xun and Wu Xie rather than relying solely on the pawnshop’s ordinary inventory.

Significant Themes

• Power versus principle: Chen chooses not to steal from a corrupt official because crossing that line could lead him into increasingly violent and reckless behavior.
• Hidden value: The gold foil paper appears nearly worthless but contains a priceless martial secret, emphasizing that treasures are often valuable because of their history or hidden contents rather than their material form.
• Accumulation and thresholds: Chen’s gradual increase in Merit Golden Light reflects the importance of patience and steady cultivation, while the ten-year threshold symbolizes an impending transformation.
• Knowledge as power: The Storm Pear Blossom Needles’ blueprint is valuable because it grants access to specialized knowledge, but Chen recognizes that knowledge alone is useless without the materials and technical ability to apply it.
• The dangerous circulation of treasures: The gold foil paper passes through betrayals, thefts, assassinations, and family hardship, showing how powerful artifacts can create conflict long after their original owners are gone.

Character Interactions

• Chen has no major direct confrontation in the chapter, but his thoughts reference several important relationships:
  • He plans to seek out Wu Xun and Wu Xie and potentially trade with them for valuable treasures.
  • Tang Feng’s betrayal of the Tang Sect sets the historical conflict surrounding the gold foil paper in motion.
  • The Thief Sect expert steals the blueprint from Tang Feng, triggering a second pursuit and ultimately hiding the treasure with his illegitimate son.
  • The thief’s descendants unknowingly treat the gold foil paper as an ordinary family heirloom and pawn it during a crisis, allowing it to reach Chen.
• The chapter ends with Chen examining the mysterious Stacking Talisman, suggesting that its ability may be more significant than the immediate cultivation rewards.

Chapter Summary: “The Peerless Divine Book, Preparations”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun realizes that the newly obtained Stacking Talisman is designed specifically for the Spirit-Seeking Treasure Mirror. Instead of receiving a separate reward after each appraisal, he can now store and accumulate those rewards.
• Once the talisman is full—or Chen Shaojun chooses to release it—the accumulated rewards will transform into a single treasure, potentially reaching Immortal Rank—Upper Grade. This solves the problem of receiving weak or useless rewards from appraising low-level treasures.
• Shopkeeper Liu informs Chen Shaojun that the expedition to Burial Heaven Pit will begin in three days, with the group gathering at the Mo Clan Trading House.
• Chen Shaojun presents his completed Appraiser’s Handbook, a detailed guide based on his appraisal knowledge and experience. He hopes it will help Appraiser Apprentices overcome difficulties and advance in the profession.
• Shopkeeper Liu and Lin Qi read the manuscript and immediately recognize its extraordinary value. They realize it could revolutionize the appraiser profession and greatly benefit the Lin Clan Pawnshop.
• Concerned that public release would harm the pawnshop’s interests, they ask Chen Shaojun to delay publication or sell the manuscript to the Lin Family. Lin Qi offers first one thousand, then three thousand taels of silver, along with the promise of securing additional recognition for Chen Shaojun.
• Chen Shaojun refuses to permanently suppress the book but agrees to let the Lin Clan control it for three months before he pursues wider publication. The manuscript is taken to the Lin Family for further discussion.
• Over the following two days, Chen Shaojun continues appraising treasures. The Stacking Talisman accumulates the rewards from seven or eight treasures and reaches Low-Grade Treasure Rank, still far below its Immortal Rank limit.
• He attempts to find Wu Xun and Wu Xie to trade for additional treasures and accelerate the talisman’s accumulation, but they are away on business. He leaves word under the name Kunlun Daoist.
• Although Chen Shaojun knows the location of their hidden treasures, he refuses to steal them, both because of his principles and because the cache is protected by dangerous mechanisms and tomb-raiding techniques.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun becomes increasingly ambitious about his influence on the appraisal profession while remaining cautious and low-profile. He wants to help other apprentices but does not seek fame or unnecessary trouble.
• His understanding of the Stacking Talisman shows his growing strategic awareness: he recognizes that accumulating many minor rewards can produce one immensely valuable treasure.
• Chen Shaojun’s moral character is reinforced when he refuses to rob Wu Xun and Wu Xie, despite knowing where their treasures are hidden.
• Shopkeeper Liu shifts from casual curiosity to deep admiration after reading the handbook. He recognizes Chen Shaojun’s work as a foundational text and worries about its effect on the pawnshop.
• Lin Qi reveals his increased confidence and influence after recovering from the Killing Intent that had affected him. He actively negotiates with Chen Shaojun and seeks to secure the book for the Lin Family.
• Lu Ping continues to admire Chen Shaojun’s knowledge and eagerly anticipates obtaining the handbook, having already recognized its value from reading earlier sections.
• Lin Qi and Shopkeeper Liu demonstrate their commercial and institutional priorities by trying to delay the book’s release and preserve the Lin Clan Pawnshop’s advantage.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge versus control: The Appraiser’s Handbook is meant to benefit the wider profession, but institutions naturally seek to restrict valuable knowledge for competitive advantage.
• Altruism and personal interest: Chen Shaojun wants to help Appraiser Apprentices because of his sympathy for their hardships, while the Lin Family views the book primarily as a source of power and profit.
• Accumulation and transformation: The Stacking Talisman symbolizes turning many small gains into a powerful, decisive reward.
• Moral restraint: Chen Shaojun’s refusal to steal demonstrates that power and opportunity do not override his principles.
• Recognition of talent: The reactions to the handbook establish that Chen Shaojun’s abilities far exceed what others previously assumed.
• Preparation for greater danger: The upcoming Burial Heaven Pit expedition provides an immediate goal and may allow Chen Shaojun to fill the Stacking Talisman rapidly.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Shaojun and Shopkeeper Liu: Liu informs him about the Burial Heaven Pit expedition and later tries to persuade him to delay publication of the handbook.
• Chen Shaojun and Lin Qi: Lin Qi negotiates aggressively, offering money and family support in exchange for control over the manuscript. Chen Shaojun counters by limiting the delay to three months.
• Chen Shaojun and Lu Ping: Their interaction is indirect in this chapter, but Lu Ping’s excitement shows his growing respect and dependence on Chen Shaojun’s knowledge.
• Chen Shaojun and Wu Xun/Wu Xie: Though they do not meet, Chen seeks a legitimate trade with them rather than taking their hidden treasures by force, highlighting his ethical boundaries.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Shaojun receives rewards for his Appraiser’s Handbook, which impressed Lin Qingfeng, head of the Lin Family. Lin Youdong personally delivers:

Three thousand taels of silver

• A set of the

Four Treasures of the Study

• A tea set
• Several bolts of silk and other goods
• Chen values the silver most, viewing the other items as largely ordinary gifts passed along by the Lin Family. After appraising them, he improves his Stacking Talisman from Low-Grade Treasure Rank to Mid-Grade Treasure Rank.
• The next morning, Chen notices that his spiritual power may be increasing faster while practicing the Sitting-in-Oblivion Scripture, though he cannot determine why.
• At the Lin Clan Pawnshop, Shopkeeper Liu explains that the Lin Family plans a major expansion:
  • Around twenty new Appraiser Apprentices will be recruited.
  • Several Certified Appraisers may also be brought in.
  • The pawnshop will receive additional support and treasures for appraisal.
  • Its success depends heavily on Chief Appraiser Qin Wenshan breaking through to the Appraisal Grandmaster realm.
• The Lin Family sends two martial experts, Lin Xi and Lin Qiang, to escort the group to and from Burial Heaven Pit. Chen identifies their cultivation as the seventh and sixth stages of the Qi Sea Realm.
• Chen, Shopkeeper Liu, and the two escorts join a large expedition organized by the Mo Clan Trading House. The caravan includes:
  • More than ten Qi Sea Realm experts
  • Over thirty Body Tempering martial artists
  • More than a hundred drivers and laborers
  • Merchants, travelers, and civilians, bringing the total number of people to roughly eight hundred
• The caravan passes Meridian Gate, where several captured assassins are publicly executed. Chen recognizes them as members of the Red-Clad Cult, including a major expert he had previously seen in appraisal visions.
• The prisoners were involved in the assassination attempt against the Fifth Prince. After the execution order is given, the executioners behead them one by one.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun continues to demonstrate practical judgment and emotional restraint. He accepts Lin Family praise politely but recognizes its insincerity and understands the difference between genuine respect and empty courtesy.
• His growing wealth and appraisal abilities reinforce his increasingly secure position within the Lin Clan Pawnshop.
• Chen shows greater confidence in assessing martial strength, immediately identifying the cultivation levels of Lin Xi, Lin Qiang, Zhou Kuang, and the caravan’s other experts.
• Shopkeeper Liu proves himself experienced and resourceful. He helps secure a comfortable and well-protected carriage for the journey and is enthusiastic about the pawnshop’s expansion.
• Chief Appraiser Qin Wenshan becomes increasingly important to the pawnshop’s future. His possible breakthrough to Appraisal Grandmaster is presented as the key to the Lin Clan Pawnshop’s rise.
• The Lin Family demonstrates increased investment in the pawnshop, suggesting that Chen’s handbook has significantly influenced its plans.
• The captured Red-Clad Cult members serve as an example of the consequences faced by those who challenge the imperial court.

Significant Themes

• Talent and social status: Chen’s useful talents gain recognition, but the chapter emphasizes that admiration from powerful figures is often superficial and limited by status.
• Wealth and practical value: Chen openly prioritizes silver over elegant but less valuable gifts, reflecting his pragmatic attitude.
• Expansion and ambition: The Lin Family’s plans reveal growing commercial and institutional ambitions, with the pawnshop seeking to become one of Shengjing’s leading establishments.
• Security and dependence: The large caravan illustrates the dangers of travel in the wilderness and the importance of joining powerful organizations for protection.
• Power and political consequences: The execution of the Red-Clad Cult assassins demonstrates the absolute danger of attacking imperial figures, especially a prince with a claim to the throne.
• Hidden growth: Chen’s subtly accelerating spiritual cultivation hints at an unexplained development in his abilities.

Character Interactions

• Chen Shaojun and Lin Youdong: They exchange polite praise and formal courtesies while both understand the underlying hierarchy between them.
• Chen Shaojun and Shopkeeper Liu: Liu briefs Chen on the pawnshop’s expansion and the upcoming journey, while Chen offers his assessment of Qin Wenshan’s prospects for advancement.
• Shopkeeper Liu and Lin Xi/Lin Qiang: Liu welcomes the two escorts and relies on them to improve the expedition’s security.
• Chen Shaojun and Lin Xi/Lin Qiang: Chen silently evaluates their cultivation and martial presence, establishing his growing awareness of the strength around him.
• The Lin Clan Pawnshop and Mo Clan Trading House: Their cooperation reflects the commercial alliances necessary to travel safely and conduct large-scale business.
• Chen Shaojun and the executed Red-Clad Cult members: Although he does not speak with them, Chen recognizes them from his visions and connects their punishment to the earlier assassination attempt against the Fifth Prince.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter opens with a public execution. Chen Shaojun observes the varying skill levels of the executioners, especially Lin Song, who beheads a powerful condemned criminal with a single, bloodless stroke.
• Lin Xi explains that Lin Song is the disciple of the renowned Six Doors constable Zhang Kaishan. Although only at the Seventh Stage of the Qi Sea Realm, Lin Song’s mastery of saber technique and comprehension of saber intent make him capable of challenging much stronger opponents. He is expected to reach the Innate Realm within a few years.
• The caravan leaves Shengjing City, passing through a sprawling slum inhabited by displaced people before reaching drought-stricken farmland.
• Concerned by the farmers’ suffering, Chen Shaojun secretly casts the Wind-and-Rain Calling Technique. After exhausting his arcane power and waiting for the spell to take effect, he successfully summons rain over an area of several dozen li.
• The rainfall is brief and not especially heavy, but it provides enough water to temporarily save the withering crops. Chen returns to the caravan and pretends that he merely happened to witness the sudden change in weather.
• He secretly restores his depleted arcane power using the Tai Shang Perception Scripture while appearing to sleep.
• During a forest rest stop, the caravan shares food with three hunters from near Shengjing: Su Daqiang, Su Yongsheng, and Su Ze. Their claim that they are traveling to Cloudpeak City merely to visit relatives seems suspicious.
• Chen secretly steals and appraises Su Ze’s Beast-Fang Necklace. Through the appraisal, he learns the hunters’ tragic history: their village was destroyed by mounted bandits, their families were slaughtered, and the three men are pursuing clues pointing to a criminal named Iron Foot Six.
• The chapter ends with the implication that the hunters’ journey is motivated by revenge and investigation rather than a family visit.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun: Demonstrates growing mastery of arcane techniques by successfully summoning rain over a large area. His concern for ordinary farmers reveals a compassionate and socially responsible side. He also continues to conceal his abilities, using stealth, theft techniques, and secret cultivation to avoid attracting attention.
• Lin Song: Is established as an exceptional martial genius. His saber technique has reached the “divine” level, and he has developed saber intent, setting him apart from other Qi Sea Realm experts and foreshadowing his future breakthrough into the Innate Realm.
• Lin Xi: Shows deep knowledge of martial figures and openly admires Lin Song, while implicitly recognizing his own inferiority in martial technique.
• Shopkeeper Liu: Acts as a capable caravan organizer, arranging food and maintaining friendly relations with the hunters, though he is unable to uncover their true purpose.
• Su Ze and his relatives: Are revealed to be survivors of a massacre. Su Ze is a skilled archer inspired by popular heroic stories and merchandise, but his youthful dreams of becoming a martial hero have been replaced by the need to seek justice for his murdered family.

3. Significant Themes

• Skill and mastery: The execution scene contrasts ordinary competence with true mastery, emphasizing that refined technique and intent can allow a weaker cultivator to overcome stronger opponents.
• The relationship between power and responsibility: Chen uses a powerful spell not for personal gain but to relieve the farmers’ suffering, suggesting that supernatural ability carries a duty to help others.
• Hidden truths and appearances: Chen conceals his cultivation, the hunters hide their real mission, and official reports obscure the truth behind the village massacre. The chapter repeatedly shows that surface appearances cannot be trusted.
• Justice versus official failure: The authorities investigate the bandit raid but produce no results, forcing the survivors to investigate independently. This highlights the gap between formal law and genuine justice.
• Prosperity alongside suffering: Shengjing’s developed society includes slums, drought, poverty, violence, and displaced people, revealing the darker side of the dynasty’s prosperity.
• Heroic fiction and popular culture: Su Ze’s admiration for Biographies of Martial Heroes and his collection of carved hero figures show how martial legends influence ordinary people’s dreams and identities.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen, Lin Xi, and Shopkeeper Liu discuss Lin Song’s execution technique, allowing the chapter to establish the martial hierarchy and Lin Song’s remarkable talent.
• Chen interacts politely with Shopkeeper Liu after returning from secretly summoning rain, concealing the true cause of the storm.
• During the caravan’s rest, Shopkeeper Liu questions the three hunters about their destination, but they provide evasive answers.
• Chen does not confront the hunters directly. Instead, he uses his theft and appraisal abilities to investigate Su Ze’s necklace and uncover the truth about their family tragedy.
• The hunters’ story creates a potential future connection with Chen, since their pursuit of Iron Foot Six may lead to further conflicts involving criminals, martial practitioners, or corrupt authorities.

Chapter Summary: “Lovesick Fool and Sex Fiend”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the authorities abandon their investigation, the hunter Su Ze and his family return to the mountains. Later, Su Ze accidentally spots Iron Foot Six in the city and secretly follows him.
• Su Ze discovers that Iron Foot Six is connected to the Volcano Bandits. Before the hunters can kill him, Iron Foot Six joins the Mo Clan Trading House’s caravan, forcing Su Ze and his uncles to follow the group.
• Chen Shaojun appraises a Beast-Fang Necklace enhanced by his Stacking Talisman. The item is rated Low-Grade Treasure Rank only because of the talisman; its actual quality is merely Upper Mortal Rank. The appraisal gives Chen no reward, but he accepts this because he is saving the talisman for a potentially much greater future reward.
• Chen attempts once again to appraise the mysterious conical object stolen from Wang Xinyuan, but his Divination Technique warns him of tremendous misfortune. He postpones the appraisal, reasoning that the treasure must be extraordinarily valuable.
• While traveling with the caravan, Chen secretly borrows and appraises the travelers’ possessions. After examining more than twenty low-quality treasures, he raises the Stacking Talisman’s assessment to Mid-Grade Treasure Rank.
• Through these appraisals, Chen learns the troubling histories of several travelers, especially an infatuated older farmer and a predatory young thief named Tian Xiaoguang.
• Chen identifies Iron Foot Six and recognizes him as a vicious man connected to the hunters’ grudge. He later appraises Iron Foot Six’s longevity lock, which reveals important details about the man’s past.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaojun: He becomes increasingly cautious and strategic. Rather than recklessly appraising the mysterious cone, he trusts divination and delays the attempt. He also shows stronger moral judgment, particularly when he learns of Tian Xiaoguang’s crimes, and begins planning to kill him secretly.
• Su Ze and his relatives: Their despair turns into determined pursuit. They patiently investigate Iron Foot Six and follow him across the country to obtain justice for their family.
• Iron Foot Six: He is portrayed as suspicious, watchful, and morally corrupt. His physical appearance—especially his uneven legs and limp—reflects his harsh martial training and unpleasant character. His longevity lock hints at a difficult childhood and a strong belief in protective luck.
• The older farmer: He is revealed as a deeply devoted but naïve “lovesick fool.” Despite years of rejection, he still believes he may win back his former sweetheart and joins the caravan to seek her out.
• Tian Xiaoguang: He is exposed as a manipulative and sexually predatory criminal. Raised by an old beggar and later trained by a thief, he uses his martial inheritance and agility to prey on women, eventually murdering his former mentor, Brother Dao, when caught in an affair.
• The older farmer’s former sweetheart: She is shown to be calculating and opportunistic. She repeatedly keeps the farmer emotionally attached while pursuing wealth and status, eventually marrying a scholar who becomes a vice prefect.
• The scholar/vice prefect: His abuse of his wife is partly rooted in resentment over her previous violation, though this does not excuse his cruelty.

Significant Themes

• Justice versus official inaction: Su Ze’s family is forced to pursue Iron Foot Six themselves because the authorities refuse or fail to act.
• The danger of obsession: The farmer’s lifelong devotion is portrayed as foolish because he mistakes emotional manipulation for genuine affection.
• Predation and moral corruption: Tian Xiaoguang embodies unchecked lust and criminality, showing how repeated wrongdoing escalates into violence and murder.
• Fate, luck, and divination: The longevity lock, Chen’s Divination Technique, and the Stacking Talisman all emphasize the characters’ attempts to understand or manipulate fortune.
• Value hidden beneath appearances: Ordinary travelers possess seemingly worthless treasures but contain complex personal histories; likewise, the mysterious cone’s tremendous potential is concealed behind Chen’s inability to appraise it.
• Pragmatism and restraint: Chen repeatedly chooses patience over impulsiveness—saving the talisman, postponing the dangerous appraisal, and waiting for a discreet opportunity to eliminate Tian Xiaoguang.

Character Interactions

• Su Ze and Iron Foot Six: Their relationship is one of concealed hostility. Su Ze tracks Iron Foot Six without being recognized, waiting for a chance to avenge his family.
• Chen and the caravan travelers: Chen casually befriends them while secretly appraising their possessions. His conversations allow him to uncover their hidden histories.
• Chen and the older farmer: Chen listens to the farmer’s tragic romantic story and offers him advice, though he privately considers the man hopelessly naïve.
• The farmer and his former sweetheart: She repeatedly uses his affection while refusing to commit to him. Her later marriage and letter rekindle his unrealistic hopes.
• Tian Xiaoguang and Brother Dao’s wife: Their affair demonstrates Tian’s willingness to exploit others and her own willingness to betray her husband.
• Tian Xiaoguang and Brother Dao: Once the affair is discovered, the two fight. Tian kills Brother Dao and becomes a wanted criminal.
• Chen and Tian Xiaoguang: After learning that Tian preyed on the older farmer’s sweetheart and many other women, Chen develops intense contempt and killing intent toward him, intending to eliminate him when an opportunity arises.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Iron Foot Six grows up as the only surviving child in a desperately poor family. His parents’ other five children all die young, so they lavish special care on him and give him a longevity lock.
• Spoiled by this attention and possessing great physical strength, Iron Foot Six dominates the village children until he is defeated at thirteen by the better-trained son of a wealthy family.
• Determined to learn martial arts, he pesters a crippled former horse bandit into accepting him as a disciple. After several years, he develops respectable skills.
• Realizing he is too weak to become a true wandering hero but unwilling to return to farming, Iron Foot Six follows his master’s former path and joins the Gold Mountain Bandits as a peripheral member. He earns money by providing intelligence.
• He was responsible for guiding the bandits to Su Ze’s village, which resulted in its massacre. He is now undercover in the Mo Clan Trading House caravan, helping the bandits prepare an ambush.
• Chen Shaojun discovers Iron Foot Six’s identity and suspects that the bandits may be planning to attack the caravan despite the Mo Clan Trading House’s considerable martial strength.
• Curious about the caravan’s unusually guarded seven carriages, Chen investigates by moving through the crowd and appraising travelers’ possessions.
• Using conversation, knowledge, acting, and his Empty-Handed Sleight, Chen befriends travelers, secretly borrows their belongings for appraisal, and returns them without detection.
• His extensive appraisals raise his Stacking Talisman to High-Grade Treasure Rank and reveal that the caravan contains many criminals, assassins, kidnappers, bandits, and other dangerous people.
• Chen also learns that the seven guarded carriages are secretly carrying an enormous quantity of gold and silver, explaining why the Gold Mountain Bandits are willing to risk attacking the caravan.

2. Character Developments

• Iron Foot Six: His childhood hardship and survival create a forceful, arrogant personality. Defeat pushes him toward martial arts, but his limited talent and ambition lead him into banditry. His history reveals that he is not merely a traveler but an active accomplice in past atrocities and the planned robbery.
• Chen Shaojun: He becomes increasingly cautious and proactive. Rather than remaining passive, he uses appraisal visions to investigate hidden dangers, gather intelligence, improve his talisman, and identify evil people within the caravan. Although he does not view himself as especially righteous, he develops a willingness to eliminate criminals when he can.
• Shopkeeper Liu: He remains relaxed and good-natured, drinking and eating while traveling. He provides Chen with practical information about the caravan’s destination and cargo.
• Lin Xi: She continues to watch Chen protectively but does not interfere because he appears to be merely socializing and remains within sight.

3. Significant Themes

• Poverty and social circumstances: Iron Foot Six’s family desperately wants many children because numbers offer security, yet poverty causes repeated tragedy and limits opportunity.
• Ambition and moral decline: Iron Foot Six’s desire to escape an ordinary life leads him from martial arts training to intelligence work and eventually complicity in massacres and robbery.
• Hidden identities and appearances: The caravan appears ordinary, but it contains criminals in disguise, a bandit infiltrator, and secretly transported treasure.
• Knowledge as power: Chen’s broad knowledge allows him to gain people’s trust, investigate them, and use appraisal to uncover secrets that ordinary observation cannot reveal.
• Justice and personal responsibility: Chen acknowledges that he is not a saint, but believes that someone should oppose obvious evil when able. His discoveries force him to consider whether and how to act.
• Greed and danger: The immense gold shipment explains the bandits’ boldness and establishes the caravan as a likely site of imminent violence.

4. Character Interactions

• Iron Foot Six’s defeat by the wealthy family’s martial-arts-trained child motivates his pursuit of martial arts.
• He repeatedly pesters the lame former horse bandit until the man agrees to train him, creating the relationship that ultimately leads him into the Gold Mountain Bandits.
• Chen discusses the strange caravan cargo with Shopkeeper Liu, who explains the ordinary goods supposedly being transported to the Burial Heaven Pit.
• Chen’s conversations with travelers lower their natural suspicion and allow him to use Empty-Handed Sleight unnoticed.
• Shopkeeper Liu worries briefly that Chen may have encountered trouble, while Lin Xi quietly monitors him.
• Through appraisal, Chen mentally distinguishes innocent travelers from hidden criminals and uncovers Iron Foot Six’s role and the caravan’s secret gold shipment, placing him in a position to confront the coming bandit attack.