Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “You Go Try Having Fun at the Flower-Offering Sect?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu considers entering the upcoming Prodigy Rankings competition to obtain one of the top-three Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasures. However, he worries about facing Golden Core prodigies and the unknown nature of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm.
• Scholar explains the competition’s rules and history:
  • Participants must be below fifty years old and at least Foundation Establishment First Layer.
  • Each cultivator may participate at most twice.
  • The secret realm’s format changes each year, ranging from deadly arena battles to treasure hunts.
  • Severe injuries normally result in expulsion, but contestants can truly die if killed too quickly.
• Scholar recounts his own success: he first placed fourth, later killed the three top-ranked prodigies, and eventually won first place. He also criticizes Ji Taiping for avoiding competition against him.
• Chen Qiu initially decides to wait until next year, when he expects to reach the Golden Core Realm and have better chances. Scholar then reveals the existence of a year-round Heavenly Dao Secret Realm in the Boundless Ice Wastes containing nine ancient cultivation inheritances, including the spell-cultivator inheritance.
• None of the inheritances have ever been obtained. Scholar failed the sword-cultivator trial three times but believes Chen Qiu may have a chance with the spell-cultivator inheritance.
• Chen Qiu, Scholar, Fat Dragon, and Scholar’s younger brother travel toward the Boundless Ice Wastes, hoping the inheritance will improve Chen Qiu’s strength before the Prodigy Rankings.
• During their journey, Scholar must pause to remove impurities from his Dao Foundation caused by consuming too many Qi-Replenishing Pills. Meanwhile, Chen Qiu benefits from the Fame Leaderboard, receiving an increasing number of Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills through the two hundred-plus members of the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• The Fame Leaderboard becomes a major opportunity across Great Xia after ordinary mortals begin ranking highly by distributing humiliating or scandalous Image Recording Stones.
• The Flower-Offering Sect notices this method and plans to imitate it on a larger scale, hoping to dominate the leaderboard across several provinces.
• The chapter then shifts to the Flower-Offering Sect’s Walking Celestial Maiden, who is punished by the sect master for failing to complete an assignment involving Zhao Yishi. She is abused by the sect master and later by several male disciples.
• In private, the Walking Celestial Maiden remembers Fat Dragon, who once helped her and pretended to care about her while escaping the sect. Although she knew his affection was false, his kindness and humor were the first things that made her feel valued and inspired her desire to escape.
• Fat Dragon later recalls his time in the Flower-Offering Sect, explaining that he survived by flattering and deceiving the Walking Celestial Maiden. He angrily rejects the idea that he had “fun” there, emphasizing the sect’s cruelty.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes more strategic and cautious. Though tempted by the Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasures, he recognizes that he currently lacks the strength and resources to compete safely. The possibility of obtaining the spell-cultivator inheritance renews his willingness to take risks.
• Scholar reveals more of his past arrogance and romantic disappointment. His history with Ji Taiping shows his pride as a sword cultivator, while his memories of an unrequited love expose a more vulnerable side.
• Fat Dragon is shown to be both opportunistic and compassionate. His exaggerated flattery enabled his escape from the Flower-Offering Sect, but his interactions with the Walking Celestial Maiden left a genuine emotional impression on her.
• The Walking Celestial Maiden is portrayed as a tragic, abused figure trapped by the Flower-Offering Sect. Despite her survival instincts and morally compromised role, she retains emotional sensitivity and longs for freedom and sincere affection.
• The Flower-Offering Sect’s sect master, Bao Yichao, is characterized as vain, cruel, hypocritical, and obsessed with fame. His outrage at being less famous than ordinary mortals reveals both his insecurity and opportunism.

Significant Themes

• Power and survival: Characters must constantly calculate whether strength, deception, or timing offers the best chance of survival.
• Fame as a form of power: The Fame Leaderboard turns reputation into a tangible resource, rewarding publicity regardless of whether it comes from virtue, scandal, or humiliation.
• Freedom versus oppression: The Walking Celestial Maiden’s life illustrates how the Flower-Offering Sect controls its members through abuse, surveillance, and Life Tablets.
• The complexity of false kindness: Fat Dragon’s affection was initially an act designed to escape, yet it still became deeply meaningful to the Walking Celestial Maiden.
• Ambition and timing: Chen Qiu’s decision to delay the Prodigy Rankings reflects the importance of preparation, while the ancient inheritances represent nearly impossible opportunities for advancement.
• Cruelty hidden behind respectable titles: The Flower-Offering Sect’s elegant name and cultivation status conceal a system built on exploitation and abuse.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Scholar discuss the Prodigy Rankings, Scholar’s rivalry with Ji Taiping, and the possibility of obtaining a spell-cultivator inheritance.
• Fat Dragon complains to Scholar about the Mocking Heaven Sect’s dependence on purchased pills and insists that his past in the Flower-Offering Sect was horrifying rather than pleasurable.
• Bao Yichao interrogates and punishes the Walking Celestial Maiden, treating her as both a subordinate and an object of possession.
• The Walking Celestial Maiden remembers Fat Dragon’s attempts to entertain and encourage her, including his jokes, gifts, and dream of eventually destroying the Flower-Offering Sect.
• Fat Dragon’s final exchange with Scholar reframes the chapter’s title as bitter sarcasm: surviving the Flower-Offering Sect required shameless behavior, but the experience was anything but enjoyable.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Within the Mocking Heaven Sect’s small world, Fat Dragon, Scholar, and Scholar’s younger brother share a campfire and reflect on how their lives have improved. Fat Dragon proudly vows to one day destroy the Flower-Offering Sect, while Scholar admits that his life has gained hope beyond merely caring for his disabled brother.
• Chen Qiu completes the absorption of 142 Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills, advancing from the fifth to the sixth layer of Foundation Establishment. His Lightning-Channeling Art becomes significantly stronger, producing twelve attacks through his Dual Casting and Tenfold Casting traits.
• Upon breaking through, Chen Qiu chooses the green trait Mutual Reinforcement, which expands his divine sense according to the size of his Dao Foundation. He tests it successfully, locking onto targets roughly one hundred zhang away and striking them accurately with multiple lightning spells.
• Chen Qiu plans to use his remaining 247 cultivation pills to reach the Foundation Establishment Peak before the Prodigy Rankings competition and potentially enter the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm.
• Scholar explains the dangers and costs of breaking through to the Golden Core Realm. A cultivator needs Foundation Establishment Peak cultivation, at least forty-nine Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, a Spirit-Gathering Array, and the resolve to endure repeated, excruciating scouring of the Dao Foundation.
• Failed attempts produce the Half-Step Golden Core state, but each subsequent attempt becomes more difficult. Even successful cultivators initially form only a First-Grade Golden Core; higher grades require enormous resources. Fifth-Grade Golden Cores are described as legendary and nonexistent in recorded Great Xia history.
• While traveling toward the Boundless Ice Wastes, the group detours around Qiang Province because Sword Flight has been banned there after an incident involving the emperor. The province has consequently become economically depressed and attractive to demonic cultivators.
• The Zhang Clan discovers that White Robe—the supposedly dead former foremost sword cultivator—is still alive and traveling with a powerful spell cultivator. The clan also learns that White Robe may know how to reach the Nascent Soul Realm.
• The Zhang Clan Patriarch orders an all-out investigation and plans to capture White Robe and his companions. He also arranges to have Ji Taiping sent away from the capital, fearing his personal hatred of White Robe could interfere with the clan’s plans.
• Ji Taiping receives orders to mediate a war among the Hundred Kingdoms. Before leaving, he reassures his sister Ji Renjian and reveals his intense jealousy toward White Robe’s reputation. He orders anyone praising White Robe above him to be killed.
• The chapter ends with Chen Qiu’s group reaching Fat Prefecture. Although they could proceed directly to the Boundless Ice Wastes, Scholar insists on stopping in Fat City to show them an important treasure.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Fat Dragon becomes increasingly optimistic and confident. His improved circumstances and belief in Chen Qiu’s protection give him hope for future revenge against the Flower-Offering Sect.
• Scholar grows emotionally attached to the group. He acknowledges that life now holds personal meaning for him, not merely responsibility toward his younger brother. He also serves as the group’s knowledgeable guide, explaining Golden Core advancement and regional politics.
• Scholar’s younger brother, normally quiet, openly expresses his resentment toward Scholar’s habit of claiming to live only for him, revealing a more independent emotional perspective.
• Chen Qiu continues to advance rapidly and develops a more versatile combat style. The Mutual Reinforcement trait allows him to use precise long-range spell attacks, complementing his already overwhelming ability to cast repeated lightning techniques.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar discuss Chen Qiu’s future, with Fat Dragon confidently predicting that Chen Qiu will form a Fifth-Grade Golden Core. Scholar tempers this optimism by emphasizing how legendary such a core would be.
• The Zhang Clan Patriarch is revealed to be ambitious and power-hungry. He wants to extract the secret of Nascent Soul advancement from White Robe so that the Zhang Clan can dominate Great Xia and place him on the imperial throne.
• Ji Taiping is shown to be fiercely protective of Ji Renjian but also dangerously obsessed with surpassing White Robe. His affection for his sister contrasts sharply with his ruthless slaughter of White Robe’s admirers.
• Ji Renjian has come to admire her brother after realizing that he secretly protected her during her dangerous journey outside Capital Province. She longs for peace so that Ji Taiping will no longer need to leave her to fight wars.

Significant Themes

• Hope after suffering: Fat Dragon and Scholar’s conversation emphasizes that hardship can eventually give way to belonging, purpose, and a better future.
• The cost of advancement: The Golden Core explanation presents cultivation as requiring immense wealth, preparation, physical pain, mental discipline, and luck.
• Reputation and rivalry: White Robe’s fame continues to shape political and personal conflicts, provoking both the Zhang Clan’s greed and Ji Taiping’s murderous inferiority complex.
• Power and ambition: The Zhang Clan’s desire for Nascent Soul knowledge shows how cultivation breakthroughs are tied to political domination and imperial ambition.
• Family and chosen bonds: Scholar’s relationship with his brother and the growing companionship among the Mocking Heaven Sect members contrast with the destructive rivalries of the Zhang Clan and Ji Taiping.
• Hidden identities and misunderstandings: White Robe’s survival, Chen Qiu’s concealed identity, and Ji Renjian’s mistaken belief that her brother was the sword cultivator who protected her all create tension beneath the group’s journey.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and Scholar stop in Fat City, where they see the Heavenly Dao’s second-ranked beauty being carried through the streets in a sedan chair.
• The woman is extremely obese but has become famous after reaching the First Level of Qi Refining, which transformed her appearance according to the Heavenly Dao’s rankings. Her beauty effect grants her husband a 100% pill-formation rate, making her highly coveted by alchemy sects.
• Scholar explains that many powerful alchemists follow her, hoping to marry her for this ability. Despite her wealth and status, she has not yet found someone who genuinely loves her.
• Fat Dragon looks for Heavenly Dao beauties suited to spell cultivators, but learns that all five such women are already married to Qu Qi, the capital’s wealthy and heavily supported prodigy.
• The group leaves Fat City and enters the Boundless Ice Wastes, traveling toward an inheritance secret realm associated with an ancient spell cultivator. The region is dangerously cold, dark, and psychologically oppressive.
• Meanwhile, Ji Taiping informs the Qu Family patriarch that Chen Qiu possesses the jade slip containing the valuable Tenfold Casting trait. He asks the Qu Family to recover it, since he must leave to suppress unrest among the Hundred Kingdoms.
• The Qu Family patriarch is also informed that Qu Qi has failed to immediately obtain the spell cultivator inheritance but has passed its first three trials and plans to return after the Prodigy Rankings.
• A major setback occurs when Sect Master Qiu reports that all nine of the Qu Family’s Dragon Vein Stones were stolen from the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect. He gives the patriarch one remaining stone as compensation and vows to find the thief.
• Qu Qi is shown traveling home aboard a luxurious flying boat, surrounded by servants and protected by two Golden Core Peak experts. He dismisses the inheritance and mocks those who pursue greatness through effort.
• The chapter ends with the revelation that Qu Qi’s protector and transmigrated “adoptive grandfather”—a Golden Core Peak expert—has an almost exhausted lifespan. He secretly resents Qu Qi and plans to kill him once he reaches the Nascent Soul Realm.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Remains cautious and pragmatic, avoiding conflict in Fat City. He is genuinely tempted by the second-ranked beauty’s powerful pill-forming effect, despite being a spell cultivator. His visit to the ice wastes shows his willingness to test himself against difficult inheritances, even while recognizing his low chances of success.
• Fat Dragon: Provides crude humor and expresses disdain for the second-ranked beauty’s appearance. He also becomes interested in finding Chen Qiu a Heavenly Dao beauty, revealing his concern for Chen Qiu’s future and his fascination with the rankings.
• Scholar: Acts as the group’s knowledgeable guide, explaining the Heavenly Dao beauties, Qu Qi’s exceptional wealth, and the dangers of the Boundless Ice Wastes. His commentary highlights the absurdity of the world’s power structures.
• The second-ranked Heavenly Dao beauty: Though mocked for her immense size, she is portrayed as gentle and genuinely happy after escaping the contempt she endured as a mortal. Her central conflict is that people desire her miraculous ability rather than love her sincerely.
• Qu Qi: Is revealed to be a transmigrator who has advanced rapidly through family wealth, multiple Heavenly Dao wives, elite treasures, and powerful protection. He is arrogant, lazy, entitled, and convinced that natural status and resources matter more than effort.
• Qu Family Patriarch: Deeply supports Qu Qi and is willing to spend vast fortunes to equip him with the best materials and advantages. He wants Qu Qi to place in the top three of the Prodigy Rankings.
• The Qu Family’s Golden Core Peak protector: Secretly despises Qu Qi’s arrogance but is forced to protect him. His impending death creates urgency, as he hopes Qu Qi—or someone else in the family—will reach Nascent Soul and help extend his life.
• Sect Master Qiu: Though furious about the stolen Dragon Vein Stones, he maintains a cooperative relationship with the Qu Family and accepts compensation for his losses.

Significant Themes

• Beauty, value, and exploitation: The second-ranked beauty’s worth is determined almost entirely by her Heavenly Dao ability, showing how people reduce individuals to the benefits they provide.
• Wealth versus merit: Qu Qi’s status raises the question of whether someone who receives every advantage through money and connections can truly be called a prodigy.
• Privilege and unequal opportunity: The Qu Family’s resources allow Qu Qi to obtain five Heavenly Dao beauties, rare treasures, elite guards, and premium cultivation resources—advantages ordinary cultivators cannot hope to match.
• Fate and sudden transformation: The second-ranked beauty rises from a despised mortal to an exalted figure overnight, while Qu Qi’s transmigration grants him extraordinary fortune from birth.
• Hidden mortality: Beneath the Qu Family’s overwhelming power lies the protector’s approaching death, emphasizing that even powerful cultivators remain constrained by lifespan.
• Arrogance and consequences: Qu Qi’s contempt for effort and other cultivators foreshadows future conflict, particularly with Chen Qiu and the people secretly resentful of him.
• Dangerous inheritance and perseverance: Chen Qiu’s decision to enter the ice wastes contrasts with Qu Qi’s disdainful retreat, setting up a conflict between earned ability and inherited privilege.

Character Interactions

• Fat Dragon’s vulgar remarks about the Heavenly Dao beauty are restrained by Chen Qiu, who warns him not to provoke unnecessary trouble.
• Scholar explains the beauty’s history and ability to Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon, shaping their understanding of why powerful alchemists pursue her.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar humorously discuss potential Heavenly Dao wives for Chen Qiu, repeatedly discovering that every spell-cultivator-compatible beauty belongs to Qu Qi.
• Ji Taiping and the Qu Family patriarch cooperate over the recovery of the Tenfold Casting jade slip, with both sides exchanging favors.
• The Qu Family patriarch and Sect Master Qiu negotiate over the stolen Dragon Vein Stones, combining businesslike politeness with concealed tension.
• The Qu Family patriarch’s concern for Qu Qi contrasts sharply with the Golden Core Peak protector’s private hatred of him.
• Qu Qi’s contemptuous attitude toward other “geniuses” is undercut by the protector’s internal judgment that Qu Qi is merely lucky and overconfident.

Chapter Summary — Sword Bone

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu and his companions arrive at the edge of the Boundless Ice Wastes, where the Inheritance Secret Realm containing nine cultivation inheritances is located.
• Chen Qiu enters the secret realm alone after sending Scholar and the others into his small world for safety.
• Inside the small world, Scholar discovers Chen Qiu’s gift: the Sword Bone, a treasure that allows people who touch the bones after the owner’s death to gain insight into sword techniques.
• The Sword Bone unlocks sealed memories in Scholar’s consciousness. He reveals that his past connection with Ji Renjian was manipulated by the Imperial Preceptor of Great Xia.
• Scholar explains that the Imperial Preceptor implanted a Heart Gu in him, arranged encounters with Ji Renjian, and used numerous expendable pawns to create karmic ties between them. His goal was to produce an unmatched sword cultivator capable of breaking Great Xia’s “cage.”
• When Scholar resisted the manipulation, the Imperial Preceptor shifted his focus to Ji Taiping, who has since reached the realm of Human-Sword Unity and appears to be forcibly advancing through external means.
• The Imperial Preceptor possesses a White Trait called Nonsense Trait, which strengthens him whenever people—especially powerful cultivators—believe his lies.
• Chen Qiu enters the Dharma Cultivator inheritance and is assigned the first trial: Cross the Sea. He must reach an island without absorbing spiritual energy from the environment.
• To overcome the challenge, Chen Qiu buys a Heavenly Dao Secret Realm-produced copy of Shrinking Earth to Inches, exploiting his Step-by-Step Precaution Trait. The technique consumes external spiritual energy but sends him to random landing points.
• After hours of random teleportation across the sea, Chen Qiu accidentally reaches the wrong island: the Formation Cultivator Continent rather than the Dharma Cultivator trial island, which lies beneath the sea.
• There he encounters the familiar fortune-telling old man, who confirms that Chen Qiu has nevertheless passed the first trial because the requirement was simply to reach “any island.”
• The old man reveals that the inheritance realms serve as places where powerful figures can continue living even after their natural lifespans should have ended.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates caution and adaptability. Rather than blindly attempting the trial, he recognizes his lack of a movement technique and purchases a suitable one before returning.
• His stubbornness becomes evident when he continues teleporting for nine hours despite losing his sense of direction, becoming soaked, and suspecting the trial may be deceptive.
• Chen Qiu also displays resourcefulness and social awareness by offering the old man Spirit Stones in gratitude and using conversation to gather information.
• Scholar receives a major emotional and narrative development. His apparent romantic history with Ji Renjian is revealed to have been artificially engineered, forcing him to confront the conflict between his personal morality and the possibility of using Ji Renjian to advance his Sword Dao.
• Scholar’s Sword Dao philosophy—cutting down injustice and resisting unfairness—explains why he ultimately rejected the path arranged for him, even though it might have allowed him to reach Nascent Soul.
• His memory seal is broken by the Sword Bone’s sword intent, allowing him to recover dangerous knowledge about Great Xia and the Imperial Preceptor.
• Fat Dragon serves as the skeptical listener, helping expose the implications of Scholar’s revelations and reacting with disbelief to the Imperial Preceptor’s influence.
• The fortune-telling old man is shown to be both secretive and nostalgic. Though he refuses to reveal much about the inheritance realms, he becomes comfortable enough with Chen Qiu to reminisce about his youth and his deceased or aging master.

3. Significant Themes

• Manipulation versus free will: Scholar’s relationship with Ji Renjian was engineered through supernatural influence, raising questions about whether his actions and emotions were truly his own.
• The cost of power: The Imperial Preceptor sacrifices countless people to create a peerless sword cultivator, while Scholar rejects advancement gained through exploiting another person.
• Integrity and personal Dao: Scholar chooses to pursue the Sword Dao according to his principles rather than rely on Ji Renjian’s Heavenly Dao Beauty effect or serve the imperial palace.
• Deception and unstable authority: The Imperial Preceptor’s Nonsense Trait makes lies a source of cultivation, suggesting that Great Xia’s political and spiritual order may be deeply corrupted.
• Persistence and improvisation: Chen Qiu succeeds through patience, trial and error, and clever use of his Traits rather than through straightforward strength.
• Mortality and continued existence: The inheritance realms are portrayed not merely as trials but as refuges for powerful beings attempting to survive beyond their destined lifespans.
• The limits of knowledge: Both the old man and Scholar possess crucial information but reveal it selectively, emphasizing the danger and value of secrets.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu entrusts Scholar and the others to the small world while he investigates the secret realm, showing mutual trust and protective concern.
• Scholar and Fat Dragon discuss the Sword Bone, Ji Renjian, and Scholar’s past, with Fat Dragon repeatedly challenging Scholar’s explanations and forcing him to clarify the truth.
• Scholar’s interaction with the Sword Bone is both physical and symbolic: its sword intent releases memories he had sealed away after faking his death.
• Chen Qiu and the fortune-telling old man recognize one another with mutual shock. Their conversation mixes hostility, humor, bargaining, and cautious cooperation.
• Chen Qiu offers the old man Spirit Stones rather than food, correctly identifying what might persuade him, though the old man still refuses to disclose confidential information.
• Over roast chicken and liquor, the old man shares fragments of his past, comparing his younger self to Chen Qiu and hinting that both were driven by youthful stubbornness and a desire to prove themselves.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu successfully completes the first trial of the spell cultivator inheritance. The white-haired trial guardian arrives after crossing the Forbidden Sea and confirms his success.
• The guardian must recover his spiritual energy after the crossing, while the fortune-telling old man explains that traveling across the Forbidden Sea is extremely exhausting and that the guardian has not visited him for thirty years.
• Chen Qiu is escorted back to the trial site and begins the second trial, “Break the Spell.”
  • Ten thousand spell cultivator puppets are supposed to attack him for five hours.
  • Their attacks are simplified Lightning-Channeling Arts that cannot seriously harm him.
  • He must keep the number of times he is hit below ten thousand.
  • Shrinking Earth to Inches is forbidden.
• Chen Qiu uses the abandoned green trait “Slippery as an Eel,” which teleports him ten zhang whenever he is struck. This allows him to evade nearly all the attacks, though the puppets become increasingly frantic as he moves around.
• Chen Qiu eventually falls asleep amid the constant teleportation and wakes on the fortune-telling old man’s beach. He learns that he passed the trial unintentionally.
• The fortune-telling old man explains the intended solution: Chen Qiu was supposed to identify a safe position—three steps left and four steps back—where he could remain stationary and receive fewer than ten thousand hits. The guardian’s ban on Shrinking Earth to Inches was meant as a hint rather than deliberate sabotage.
• The fortune-telling old man recounts how he once passed an array cultivator trial by calculating the location of the sole “gate of life” in a deadly formation, revealing that his natural talent was more suited to divination than array cultivation.
• After another exhausting crossing of the Forbidden Sea, the guardian confirms that Chen Qiu has cleared the second trial and takes him back to the starting point.
• The third trial, “Breach the Enemy,” begins:
  • Ten thousand puppets will attack with genuine Lightning-Channeling Arts.
  • One hundred are “traitor puppets,” whose attacks can actually harm Chen Qiu.
  • He must destroy the one hundred traitors within one hour.
  • Both Shrinking Earth to Inches and Slippery as an Eel are forbidden.
• Instead of identifying the traitors individually, Chen Qiu unleashes his strongest area attack. Using Lightning-Channeling Art, Nine-Poison Nether-Soul Method, Dual Casting, Tenfold Casting, Focus Power, and Overwhelming Spiritual Energy, he destroys all ten thousand puppets at once.
• The trial guardian is visibly dismayed that Chen Qiu destroyed every puppet instead of only the required one hundred. Chen Qiu excuses himself by claiming he could not distinguish the traitors and had to attack first.
• The chapter ends with the guardian collecting the destroyed puppet fragments and preparing to announce the result of the third trial.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates adaptability, creativity, and overwhelming combat power. He repeatedly finds unconventional solutions, though he often misunderstands or ignores the intended rules of the trials.
• His confidence increases after discovering that his full-strength attack can destroy all ten thousand puppets. He begins to realize that he is considerably stronger than he previously believed.
• Chen Qiu remains socially awkward and somewhat sheepish, especially when confronted by the trial guardian over his excessive methods.
• The spell cultivator trial guardian is established as powerful but physically exhausted by repeated crossings of the Forbidden Sea. His normally impassive demeanor begins to crack as Chen Qiu repeatedly forces him to make extra journeys and destroys the puppets he must maintain.
• The fortune-telling old man is revealed to be witty, hospitable, and closely acquainted with the guardian. He serves as Chen Qiu’s guide and commentator, while sharing stories about his own unconventional cultivation path.
• The fortune-telling old man’s nostalgia reveals his lingering pride and frustration over being better suited to divination than array cultivation.

3. Significant Themes

• Ingenuity versus conventional understanding: Chen Qiu passes trials through improvised methods rather than following the intended solutions.
• Hidden hints and interpretation: Restrictions that seem hostile may actually point toward the correct strategy, as shown by the ban on Shrinking Earth to Inches.
• Strength and self-perception: Chen Qiu underestimates himself, but the third trial forces him to recognize the destructive power of his cultivation and techniques.
• The relationship between talent and specialization: The fortune-telling old man’s story suggests that individuals may excel in unexpected paths, regardless of the inheritance or discipline they initially pursue.
• Comedic excess and unintended consequences: Chen Qiu’s solutions are effective but unnecessarily destructive, creating humorous tension with the exhausted trial guardian.
• Friendship and hospitality: The exchanges between Chen Qiu and the fortune-telling old man develop a warm bond, highlighted by their jokes about roast chicken and roast goose.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and the fortune-telling old man develop a friendly, teasing relationship. The old man encourages him, gives strategic explanations, and predicts that he may become Great Xia’s number one spell cultivator.
• Chen Qiu promises to treat the old man to roast goose the next time they meet and leaves his grill behind so the old man can continue roasting chicken.
• The fortune-telling old man and the trial guardian clearly share a long-standing friendship. Their teasing and familiar arguments contrast with the guardian’s otherwise cold and formal manner.
• Chen Qiu repeatedly causes the guardian inconvenience by teleporting unpredictably and returning to the fortune-telling old man’s beach, forcing the guardian to cross the Forbidden Sea multiple times.
• During the third trial, the guardian criticizes Chen Qiu for destroying all the puppets, while Chen Qiu offers an embarrassed and technically plausible justification for his actions.

Chapter Summary: “A Little Friend, in the End, You Still Fall Short.”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu successfully completes the third trial of the Dharma Cultivator Inheritance, leaving only two trials before obtaining the inheritance.
• Outside the Mocking Heaven Sect, Fat Dragon worries that Chen Qiu may miss the upcoming Prodigy Rankings. He chats with Scholar’s silent younger brother and speculates about the “Nonsense Trait” and what kind of lie could deceive Heaven. The younger brother unexpectedly suggests that the greatest lie would be that Great Xia has no Imperial Preceptor.
• Chen Qiu enters the fourth trial, the Heart Trial. He loses all his memories and becomes an ordinary mortal in a dream realm. To pass, he must reach Foundation Establishment First Layer within one year.
• Rather than awaken a random trait at the government office, Chen Qiu spends twenty-nine days chopping wood to earn enough money for cultivation medicine. On the thirtieth day, he abandons the work—not because he lacks patience, but because he believes chopping people will be more effective once he has trained sufficiently.
• After reaching Qi Refinement, Chen Qiu gathers orphaned beggars into a gang and leads them in eliminating local bullies and thugs. He repeatedly enters secret realms, gains stronger techniques and treasures, and hunts down enemies he previously could not defeat.
• When trapped by enemies, Chen Qiu gouges out his own eyes to enhance his senses and escape. He eventually reaches Foundation Establishment within the allotted year, passing the fourth trial.
• The old gatekeeper is particularly shocked by Chen Qiu’s reasoning: Chen Qiu had wanted to kill people almost immediately but practiced chopping wood first so he would become better at using an axe.
• After recovering his depleted spiritual energy, Chen Qiu begins the fifth and final Forbidden Trial. He must survive for half an hour against ten thousand puppets matching his cultivation.
• However, Chen Qiu’s attacks from the previous trial had already destroyed the puppets. The old gatekeeper therefore takes their place, initially suppressing himself to Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer.
• Chen Qiu immediately attacks with powerful techniques, including lightning arts, poison methods, dual and tenfold casting, and divine-sense tracking. The gatekeeper easily evades him using the advanced Golden Light Earth-Flight technique.
• Chen Qiu then reveals that he has summoned a Golden Core vengeful spirit and uses it to evade the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper raises his power to Golden Core Second Layer, then Fourth Layer, claiming that the original trial would have involved increasingly powerful merged and berserk puppets.
• Chen Qiu counters each escalation with more hidden resources: the Self-Destruct Trait, Man with a Missing Heaven, additional traits, and a Blazing Seven-Kill Formation Plate capable of killing Golden Core Fifth Layer cultivators.
• When the gatekeeper boasts that Chen Qiu still falls short, Chen Qiu jokes that the berserk puppet might even give birth to another powerful puppet. The gatekeeper finally gives up and declares Chen Qiu’s fifth trial passed.
• Chen Qiu officially obtains the Dharma Cultivator Inheritance, which may include techniques such as Golden Light Earth-Flight and Transforming the Sea into Dragons.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Demonstrates extreme resilience, practical cunning, ruthlessness, and overwhelming preparation. Even after losing his memories, his instinct for survival and advancement remains intact. He also reveals a habit of concealing multiple trump cards and responding to every disadvantage with another prepared countermeasure.
• The old gatekeeper: Initially impartial and detached, he becomes increasingly astonished, irritated, and embarrassed by Chen Qiu’s unconventional behavior and endless hidden abilities. His attempts to create a fair challenge repeatedly fail because Chen Qiu has already destroyed or outmaneuvered every obstacle.
• Fat Dragon: Remains comic relief while waiting for Chen Qiu, worrying about his delayed return and entertaining himself with food and absurd speculation.
• Scholar’s younger brother: Though normally silent, he offers one unexpectedly insightful answer about the nonexistent Imperial Preceptor, suggesting that his silence conceals considerable intelligence or awareness.

Significant Themes

• Resilience and rising from obscurity: The fourth trial tests whether Chen Qiu can rebuild himself from nothing. His success emphasizes that determination and adaptability matter as much as talent or background.
• Preparation and hidden strength: Chen Qiu survives through layered preparation, stockpiled treasures, traits, summoned spirits, and formations. The chapter repeatedly shows that apparent weakness can conceal overwhelming resources.
• Unconventional thinking: Chen Qiu does not approach the trials in the expected manner. He turns woodcutting into combat training, organizes beggars into a fighting force, and treats every loophole as a legitimate strategy.
• The absurdity of “fairness”: The gatekeeper insists that his increasingly powerful forms are reasonable, while Chen Qiu uses the same logic to justify his own techniques and resources. Their argument humorously exposes how subjective fairness can be.
• Perseverance despite disadvantage: Chen Qiu repeatedly faces opponents with superior cultivation but refuses to surrender, instead finding new ways to survive or win.
• Comedy through escalation: The serious inheritance trials become increasingly ridiculous as both Chen Qiu and the gatekeeper continually reveal stronger abilities and invent increasingly far-fetched justifications.

Important Character Interactions

• Fat Dragon attempts to converse with Scholar’s younger brother, eventually prompting the younger brother’s rare comment about Great Xia having no Imperial Preceptor.
• The old gatekeeper questions Chen Qiu’s choices during the fourth trial, especially his decision to chop wood and later “chop people.”
• During the fifth trial, Chen Qiu and the gatekeeper engage in a humorous battle of escalating threats. Each claims that his abilities are perfectly reasonable for a Dharma Cultivator.
• The gatekeeper repeatedly raises his strength and invents explanations for stronger puppet stages, while Chen Qiu reveals additional traits, a Golden Core vengeful spirit, and a deadly formation plate.
• Their confrontation ends not with a decisive fight, but with the gatekeeper conceding that Chen Qiu has passed all five trials.

Chapter Summary: “A Single Stroke Made Him Famous Throughout the World”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Heavenly Dao announces across the Great Xia Kingdom that Chen Qiu, sect master of the previously unknown Mocking Heaven Sect, has obtained the Dharma Cultivator Inheritance, one of the nine great inheritances.
• As the first cultivator to obtain an inheritance, Chen Qiu receives a wisp of Heavenly Dao Fortune. His achievement shocks the entire kingdom and reignites the ambitions of countless prodigies who had previously failed.
• The Dharma Inheritance’s gatekeeper takes Chen Qiu to meet Old Cao, the fortune-teller, so the two old friends can say farewell. Chen Qiu quietly serves them food and wine while they reminisce.
• Inside Chen Qiu’s Sea of Divine Sense, the gatekeeper teaches him the core principles of the Dharma Cultivator path:
  • Constructing divine sense defenses.
  • Using the Nine-Heavens Divine Sense Formation.
  • Creating mazes and false Seas of Divine Sense to deceive enemies.
  • Employing divine sense combat techniques.
  • The Golden Core-level attack technique Heart-Piercing Thorn.
  • Methods of casting spells more efficiently by controlling spiritual energy through the meridians.
• The gatekeeper reveals that his Nascent Soul Body is the most valuable part of the inheritance. Using it as a core-forging material will guarantee Chen Qiu at least a Fourth-Grade Golden Core.
• After imparting the inheritance, the gatekeeper dies, leaving behind a condensed Nascent Soul Pill. Old Cao explains that this death is necessary for the inheritance to be passed on.
• Old Cao clarifies that Great Xia officially has no living Nascent Soul cultivators. The nine inheritance guardians are exceptions: ancient criminals imprisoned and forced to leave behind inheritances as atonement. The Dharma guardian’s death reduces their number from nine to eight.
• Chen Qiu receives two jade slips:
  1. One explaining the requirements for forming Golden Cores from the First to the Tenth Grade.
  2. One explaining how to use Heavenly Dao Fortune.
• The chapter ends with Chen Qiu discovering that a Tenth-Grade Golden Core, also called a Heavenly Dao Golden Core, is theoretically possible. Although its requirements are nearly impossible, Chen Qiu already possesses several of the rarest prerequisites.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu rises from relative obscurity to nationwide fame almost instantly. His status changes from an unknown Foundation Establishment cultivator to the recognized sect master of the Mocking Heaven Sect and the first person to claim one of the nine inheritances.
• He becomes more cautious and humble around powerful figures, deliberately acting obediently before the Dharma guardian to avoid provoking him.
• Chen Qiu gains a deeper understanding of the Dharma Cultivator path, especially the importance of divine sense after reaching the Golden Core Realm.
• He shows genuine respect and sadness toward the dying Dharma guardian, recognizing the emotional weight of inheriting another person’s life’s work.
• The Dharma guardian is revealed to be a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator who has remained in the inheritance realm for centuries. His final act is to transfer his knowledge and Nascent Soul Body to Chen Qiu.
• Old Cao reveals more of his own mysterious past and his connection to the inheritance guardians. Though outwardly casual and sarcastic, he shows affection for his old friend and helps Chen Qiu understand the significance of the inheritance.
• Scholar becomes increasingly determined to revive the Mocking Heaven Sect and promote its ancient sword-cultivator ideals.
• Fat Dragon continues to provide comic relief while also reacting with amazement to Chen Qiu’s achievements and the shocking information about high-grade Golden Cores.
• The Heavenward Sect’s master recognizes that Chen Qiu has inherited the Mocking Heaven Sect and encourages Zhao Yishi to attempt the Body Cultivator Inheritance, though Zhao remains skeptical and frustrated by his sect master’s relentless optimism.

Significant Themes

• Fame and reputation: Chen Qiu’s success transforms him into a figure known throughout Great Xia, showing how rapidly a single extraordinary achievement can alter a cultivator’s status.
• Inheritance and sacrifice: The inheritance is not merely a reward; it requires the death and release of the previous generation. Chen Qiu receives immense power at the cost of witnessing the guardian’s final passing.
• The hidden depth of cultivation: The chapter expands the known limits of the cultivation world. Golden Core quality extends far beyond the historical Fifth Grade, reaching the legendary Tenth Grade.
• Knowledge as power: Chen Qiu’s greatest gains are not only treasures but also techniques, strategic knowledge, and a better understanding of divine sense and spellcasting.
• Defying established limits: Chen Qiu’s success challenges the belief that the nine inheritances are impossible to obtain and suggests that the limits recorded in history may be incomplete or wrong.
• Possibility versus practicality: Chen Qiu possesses many prerequisites for a Tenth-Grade Golden Core, but the remaining materials are extraordinarily difficult to obtain, creating a new long-term challenge.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and the Dharma guardian: The guardian initially acts as Chen Qiu’s examiner and teacher. Chen Qiu questions why the guardian surrendered during the fifth trial, prompting an explanation about the trial’s rules and the guardian’s inability to interfere.
• Chen Qiu and Old Cao: Old Cao acts as an intermediary between Chen Qiu and the inheritance guardian, later explaining the guardian’s death, the Nascent Soul Pill, and the hidden history of the nine guardians.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar: Fat Dragon teases Scholar about Chen Qiu surpassing him by killing Myriad Demon Child and clearing an inheritance that Scholar could not. Scholar defends his past accomplishments while admitting that Chen Qiu is an extraordinary Dharma genius.
• Scholar and Fat Dragon: Their argument over whether the Mocking Heaven Sect should promote sword cultivators or Dharma cultivators highlights their differing priorities and provides comic relief.
• Heavenward Sect master and Zhao Yishi: The sect master repeatedly urges Zhao Yishi to pursue the Body Cultivator Inheritance, while Zhao sarcastically points out that his master should attempt it himself.
• Chen Qiu and the wider cultivation world: His accomplishment triggers investigations by major forces, including the Zhao Clan Merchant Association and the Huang Family, as powerful organizations begin tracing his rapid rise and past connections.

Chapter Summary: “How Obvious Was It?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu evaluates the materials needed to forge a Tenth-grade Golden Core: ten traits, two Nascent Soul Bodies, nine Second-Grade Golden Cores, an Eight Desolations Fruit, and a Fierce Baleful Wood.
• Although the requirements are extremely difficult, Chen Qiu decides that obtaining the Tenth-grade Golden Core is worth postponing the upcoming Prodigy Rankings. He believes his Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and Rainbow Trait make the opportunity too valuable to abandon.
• Scholar and Fat Dragon argue over whether Chen Qiu should settle for a Third-grade Golden Core or aim for a Fifth-grade one. Chen Qiu reveals that he already possesses a Nascent Soul Body, guaranteeing that a Fifth-grade Golden Core is possible.
• He then reveals the even more shocking fact that he possesses both Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and a Rainbow Trait, causing Scholar and Fat Dragon to realize that he intends to pursue the legendary Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu asks Scholar whether he could clear the Sword Cultivator Inheritance if his cultivation were restored. Scholar doubts himself because he has failed the inheritance several times.
• Chen Qiu suggests manipulating Ji Renjian’s feelings to help Scholar reach Human-Sword Unity, but Scholar resists because he does not want to become like Ji Taiping, whom he despises.
• Chen Qiu reveals that the Sword Cultivator Inheritance tests character: only someone who remains true to their original heart through dramatic rises and falls can pass its later trials. This gives Scholar renewed hope.
• The group considers other potential candidates for clearing inheritances, including Zhao Yishi, but rejects him because of political complications and doubts about his willingness to cooperate.
• Chen Qiu begins cultivating inside the Mocking Heaven Sect using a large supply of Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills. He advances from the Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer to the Eighth Level.
• Upon reaching the Seventh Level, he receives three random traits and selects Make It Mine, which becomes the upgraded trait Revival Wind.
• Revival Wind allows Chen Qiu to recover a small amount of spiritual energy whenever his body is injured and causes his wounds to heal as he absorbs spiritual energy. He realizes this could potentially give him an almost endless supply of spiritual energy during battles, provided allies repeatedly inflict controlled injuries on him.
• By the end of the chapter, Chen Qiu’s combat power has become overwhelmingly strong. At the Eighth Level of Foundation Establishment, he believes he could defeat any ordinary opponent of the same realm and potentially overwhelm the entire Prodigy Rankings field.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes more ambitious and strategic. Rather than chasing immediate fame or the Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasure, he prioritizes building the strongest possible foundation through a Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• His hidden advantages are exposed: Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, a Rainbow Trait, and a Nascent Soul Body. These revelations greatly alter how Scholar and Fat Dragon view him.
• Chen Qiu also shows increasing ingenuity and ruthlessness in exploiting his abilities, particularly with the potentially absurd combination of Make It Mine/Revival Wind and controlled attacks from his companions.
• Scholar is stunned by Chen Qiu’s Rainbow Trait and struggles with the moral implications of manipulating Ji Renjian. Despite his reservations, he promises to cooperate because Chen Qiu saved his life and may restore his cultivation.
• Scholar’s chances of clearing the Sword Cultivator Inheritance improve once he learns that maintaining his original character—not merely achieving Human-Sword Unity—is essential.
• Fat Dragon remains enthusiastic and supportive, immediately encouraging Chen Qiu to pursue the highest possible Golden Core and offering his accumulated cultivation pills.
• Fat Dragon also teases Scholar for asking about Chen Qiu’s Rainbow Trait, turning a potentially serious taboo into comic relief.

Significant Themes

• Pursuit of perfection versus immediate opportunity: Chen Qiu willingly abandons the chance to compete for the Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasure because a stronger Golden Core offers greater long-term potential.
• Foundations and future strength: The chapter emphasizes that the quality of a Dao Foundation and Golden Core determines later cultivation power, making Chen Qiu’s extreme goals rational within the world’s cultivation system.
• Secrecy and rarity: Rainbow Traits are so unknown and valuable that asking about one’s trait is considered a serious taboo. Chen Qiu’s secret places him far beyond ordinary cultivators.
• Integrity and identity: The Sword Cultivator Inheritance values remaining true to oneself through success and failure. Scholar’s dilemma highlights the conflict between using emotional manipulation for power and preserving personal principles.
• Resourcefulness and unconventional power: Chen Qiu repeatedly turns strange or seemingly limited abilities into powerful strategies, such as using Revival Wind to create a “perpetual” spiritual-energy recovery method.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter balances major revelations and ambitious cultivation plans with comedic exchanges, especially Fat Dragon’s teasing and Chen Qiu’s concern that his spiritual-energy strategy would look undignified.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu, Scholar, and Fat Dragon debate which Golden Core grade Chen Qiu should pursue, with Scholar advocating a practical Third-grade Core and Fat Dragon urging him toward the strongest possible option.
• Chen Qiu shocks both companions by revealing his Nascent Soul Body, then shocks them further with his Rainbow Trait.
• Chen Qiu and Scholar discuss clearing the Sword Cultivator Inheritance and the possibility of using Ji Renjian’s influence. Scholar’s moral hesitation contrasts with Chen Qiu’s pragmatic approach.
• Chen Qiu reassures Scholar by revealing the inheritance’s hidden character-based requirements and hints that Scholar’s sincerity may actually be his greatest advantage.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar discuss Chen Qiu’s Rainbow Trait after he leaves. Fat Dragon accuses Scholar of violating a taboo, while Scholar hurriedly denies that he was investigating Chen Qiu’s secret.
• Their final exchange reveals that Fat Dragon already knew Scholar possessed Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and a Pink Trait, because Scholar’s earlier example had made the truth “obvious.”

Chapter Summary: “All or Nothing”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After reaching the Foundation Establishment Eighth Layer, Chen Qiu plans to spend the next year hunting more demonic beasts, preparing for the next Prodigy Rankings, and gathering materials for a Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• He receives three random traits:
  • All or Nothing, which would replace his existing traits.
  • Pain Beyond Endurance, which would multiply both received and inflicted pain.
  • Rebirth from Death, which resurrects him after one trillion years.
• Chen Qiu chooses Rebirth from Death because it has no practical drawbacks and can serve as material for pill fusion. He refuses All or Nothing because he values his current traits, especially Rise at Every Step, and rejects Pain Beyond Endurance as useless.
• His attempt to create a “perpetual-motion” spiritual-energy system fails because the Slippery as an Eel trait automatically teleports him whenever he is attacked, preventing Fat Dragon and the others from continuously replenishing his energy.
• Chen Qiu asks Scholar to teach him Sword Flight. Due to his abundant spiritual energy and precise control, he masters it quickly, gaining another, though relatively slow, movement technique.
• The group returns from the Boundless Ice Wastes to Fat City and stays at an inn. They discuss renovating the ruined Mocking Heaven Sect, while keeping its existence and the small world secret.
• Chen Qiu’s Fame Leaderboard ranking reaches 54th place, earning him ten mid-grade Foundation Establishment Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills. Along with additional pills gathered by Fat Dragon, these raise his cultivation to 86.3% of the Foundation Establishment Eighth Layer. He expects to break through to the Ninth Layer the following day and reach Foundation Establishment Peak within several days.
• At a snowy meat-soup stall the next morning, the group notices the arrival of Zhao Yishi and the Heavenward Sect’s sect master, Zhao Dezhu, who presumably intend to challenge the body cultivator inheritance.
• A piece of Fierce Baleful Wood, one of the rare materials needed for Chen Qiu’s Tenth-grade Golden Core, accidentally falls from their flying vessel. Zhao Dezhu gives Chen Qiu an entire storage ring filled with the wood, believing it to be ordinary fuel.
• Chen Qiu tells Zhao Dezhu that the key to passing the body cultivator inheritance is maintaining intense fighting spirit, even when gravely injured. However, he deliberately withholds the additional information needed to pass the inheritance’s later stages, especially the fifth stage.
• Zhao Dezhu abandons the immediate challenge and begins plotting an elaborate staged tragedy to awaken Zhao Yishi’s fighting spirit. He considers having the sect pretend to be massacred so Zhao Yishi will develop hatred and determination, though he worries this may instead worsen Zhao Yishi’s fear of combat.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes increasingly strategic and pragmatic. He prioritizes long-term growth over immediate power, refusing to replace his carefully chosen traits even for potentially stronger ones.
• His rapid cultivation continues to distinguish him from ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. He masters Sword Flight almost immediately and steadily approaches the Foundation Establishment Peak.
• Chen Qiu also shows growing caution about revealing his secrets. He accepts the Fierce Baleful Wood but hides the full method for clearing the body cultivator inheritance, preserving an advantage for himself.
• Fat Dragon remains energetic, practical, and food-loving. He assists with collecting cultivation pills, proposes renovating the Mocking Heaven Sect, and reacts comically to the absurd coincidence of the needed Fierce Baleful Wood falling from the sky.
• Scholar continues to serve as a knowledgeable companion and teacher. He helps Chen Qiu learn Sword Flight and shares his surprise at Zhao Dezhu’s arrival.
• Zhao Dezhu is revealed to be unusually informal and friendly despite being a powerful sect master. He quickly treats Chen Qiu as a younger brother and gives him valuable materials without realizing their importance.
• Zhao Yishi remains timid and lacking in fighting spirit, despite possessing strong potential as a body cultivator. His cultivation of the difficult Invisibility Technique shows his diligence, but his fear of battle prevents him from meeting the inheritance’s requirements.
• Zhao Dezhu’s concern for Zhao Yishi leads him to consider extreme and deceptive methods to force his disciple to develop courage.

Significant Themes

• Long-term growth versus immediate power: Chen Qiu rejects potentially powerful trait replacements because his current abilities offer better future development.
• The value of preparation: His plans revolve around cultivating steadily, gathering rare materials, increasing his combat strength, and preparing for future rankings and core formation.
• Luck and absurd coincidence: Important treasures repeatedly fall into Chen Qiu’s hands, reinforcing the chapter’s humorous contrast between his careful planning and ridiculous good fortune.
• The gap between rogue cultivators and sect-backed cultivators: The Fame Leaderboard’s rewards show how powerful lineages accumulate resources and widen the advantage over independent cultivators.
• Fighting spirit and courage: The body cultivator inheritance emphasizes determination and refusal to surrender. Zhao Yishi’s lack of aggression becomes the central obstacle to claiming it.
• Secrecy and manipulation: Chen Qiu conceals information about his small world, traits, and the inheritance, while Zhao Dezhu prepares to manipulate Zhao Yishi’s emotions through a staged crisis.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, Scholar, and their companions discuss cultivation, movement techniques, the Mocking Heaven Sect, and the use of Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills.
• Chen Qiu and Scholar have a brief teacher-student interaction when Scholar teaches him Sword Flight.
• Chen Qiu and Zhao Dezhu meet at the meat-soup stall. Zhao Dezhu adopts a familiar “big brother/little brother” relationship with him, asks about the body cultivator inheritance, and rewards his advice with the Fierce Baleful Wood.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar are stunned by the unlikely appearance of the exact material Chen Qiu needs.
• Zhao Yishi questions Zhao Dezhu after the flying vessel departs, learning that they will not immediately challenge the inheritance. Zhao Dezhu then privately plans how to provoke his disciple’s fighting spirit.

Chapter Summary: “Useless Things”

Key Plot Points and Events

• In Fat City, Fat Dragon reports that the two materials required for Chen Qiu’s Tenth-grade Golden Core—Fierce Baleful Wood and the Eight Desolations Fruit—are surprisingly ordinary and inexpensive. The wood is commonly used as fuel, while the fruit is rare but completely useless, flavorless, short-lived, and without any known effects.
• Fat Dragon learns that a local auction will sell two Trait Jade Slips, prompting Chen Qiu and his companions to attend.
• Before entering, Chen Qiu considers his limited supply of Spirit Stones. He intends to reserve his Mid-Grade Spirit Stones for his eventual Golden Core breakthrough and hopes his Lower-Grade Spirit Stones will be enough to buy the Traits.
• At the auction entrance, Ning Laiping, the arrogant grandson of renowned artifact refiner Ning Taiping, publicly mocks Chen Qiu as a “country bumpkin” and a cripple. Chen Qiu ignores him rather than responding.
• Ning Laiping reveals that Chen Qiu needs his grandfather to forge a powerful spell-cultivator treasure. He and his companions ridicule Chen Qiu for supposedly having to beg the Ning Clan for help.
• Inside the auction hall, Chen Qiu discovers that the auction’s main attraction is the opportunity to have Ning Taiping forge a supreme treasure during his public breakthrough into the Golden Core Realm.
• Ning Taiping deliberately humiliates Chen Qiu in front of the crowd, accusing him of insulting Fat City’s artifact refiners. Chen Qiu remains silent and composed, allowing Ning Taiping to believe that his intimidation has succeeded.
• Chen Qiu learns that Ning Taiping plans to form a Second-Grade Golden Core. Since Chen Qiu’s Tenth-grade Golden Core requires nine Second-Grade Golden Cores as fusion materials, he immediately sees Ning Taiping as a potential target.
• The auction begins:
  • Chen Qiu’s group obtains the White Trait Forging Aptitude, though Fat Dragon stops bidding when Ning Wuping deliberately raises the price.
  • Ning Wuping buys the Green Trait Forging God for 3,900 Spirit Stones, paying far more than its previous market price.
  • The qualification to receive Ning Taiping’s breakthrough-forged treasure is sold for an absurd 12,300 Spirit Stones, apparently to a bidder in Heaven Room Number Nine.
• The successful bidder praises Ning Taiping extravagantly, helping inflate his reputation. Ning Taiping then immediately leaves for Furnace Peak to carry out his public breakthrough.
• At Furnace Peak, Ning Taiping prepares a forty-nine-stone Spirit-Gathering Array and places a Golden Core before him. Fat Dragon recognizes that the entire event is a carefully staged campaign to build Ning Taiping’s reputation and strengthen his bid to become leader of the Artifact Refiners’ Alliance.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu remains calm and strategic despite repeated public insults. Rather than waste Spirit Stones or argue with the Ning Clan, he lets them spend heavily while revealing their methods and ambitions.
• Chen Qiu’s priorities are clarified: he is focused on obtaining the materials for his Tenth-grade Golden Core and acquiring truly powerful Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasures, not merely ordinary breakthrough-forged weapons.
• Chen Qiu also becomes more ruthless and opportunistic. Upon learning that Ning Taiping will form a Second-Grade Golden Core, he begins considering killing him to obtain the core material he needs.
• Fat Dragon continues acting as Chen Qiu’s information gatherer and commentator. He quickly sees through Ning Taiping’s publicity strategy and helps Chen Qiu avoid unnecessary spending.
• Ning Laiping is portrayed as vain, entitled, and jealous. His resentment stems from losing public attention after Chen Qiu’s rise following the acquisition of the spell-cultivator inheritance.
• Ning Taiping is revealed to be ambitious and highly calculating. He uses public humiliation, an inflated auction price, and a dramatic breakthrough location to build prestige and advance his political aspirations.
• Ning Wuping participates in the provocation by deliberately bidding against Chen Qiu’s group, apparently to force them to spend more Spirit Stones.
• The unidentified bidder in Heaven Room Number Nine appears to be a deliberate shill or ally helping Ning Taiping create the impression that his future treasure is extraordinarily valuable.

Significant Themes

• Reputation as power: Ning Taiping treats public perception as a strategic resource, using spectacle and exaggerated praise to establish himself as a future leader.
• Momentum and manipulation: The chapter emphasizes how rising figures can build their own influence by suppressing or exploiting someone else’s reputation.
• Appearance versus reality: The auction price, the supposed value of Ning Taiping’s treasure, and the public praise surrounding him are largely manufactured. The event is more about prestige than practical value.
• Patience versus arrogance: Chen Qiu’s silence and restraint contrast with the Ning Clan’s loud boasting. What appears to be humiliation may actually give Chen Qiu an advantage.
• Fortuitous opportunities and ruthlessness: Materials that are useless to others may be essential to Chen Qiu’s cultivation. Ning Taiping’s breakthrough, celebrated by the crowd, is viewed by Chen Qiu as a potential source of a vital Golden Core material.
• Social hierarchy in cultivation society: Artifact refiners and alchemists possess exceptional status because cultivators depend on their services, allowing their disciples and descendants to look down on unaffiliated Rogue Cultivators.

Important Character Interactions

• Fat Dragon informs Chen Qiu about the heavenly materials and the auction, reinforcing their cooperative relationship.
• Ning Laiping insults Chen Qiu outside the auction, while Chen Qiu refuses to give him the reaction he wants.
• Ning Laiping and his circle belittle Chen Qiu’s Rogue Cultivator background and mock his dependence on Ning Taiping.
• Ning Taiping publicly confronts and attempts to suppress Chen Qiu, but Chen Qiu answers only with silence and composure.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar discuss the possibility that Chen Qiu can force his enemies to pay for the Traits through competitive bidding.
• Ning Taiping and the bidder in Heaven Room Number Nine exchange exaggerated compliments, openly turning the auction into a publicity performance.
• At Furnace Peak, Fat Dragon explains to Chen Qiu how Ning Taiping has used the confrontation, auction, and public breakthrough to construct a powerful narrative around himself.

Chapter Summary: “I Believe in Buddha, I Do Not Kill”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ning Wuping publicly humiliates Chen Qiu for obtaining the spell cultivator inheritance and mocks his earlier dependence on the Ning family for artifact forging.
• Encouraged by Ning Wuping, the crowd insults Chen Qiu and demands that he return to the Northern Provinces. Ning Wuping offers to forge him a treasure if Chen Qiu kneels and barks like a dog.
• While everyone watches, Ning Taiping begins his breakthrough from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core. He uses a Spirit Gathering Formation, a Golden Core, and numerous precious materials to forge a powerful longsword during the breakthrough.
• Ning Taiping successfully reaches the First Layer of Golden Core and completes the forging ceremony, believing he has gained immense prestige.
• Chen Qiu notices that Ning Taiping has a Golden Core protector and changes his assassination plan. Rather than risk using his Self-Destruct Trait, he activates the Blazing Seven-Kill Formation Plate, a powerful killing formation capable of destroying cultivators below the Golden Core Fifth Layer.
• The formation traps Furnace Peak and begins killing the gathered cultivators through successive attacks:
  • First Kill, Earthfire: Blue flames flood the ground and burn many Foundation Establishment cultivators.
  • Second Kill, Skyburn: Flame flowers spread through the air, killing more spectators and artifact cultivators.
  • Three Kills, Fire Rain: A devastating rain of fire finishes Ning Taiping and his Golden Core protector.
• Ning Wuping begs for mercy and insists that their insults were only a minor dispute. Chen Qiu silently kills him, then collects his storage ring and enjoys the cooling effect of his resentful spirit.
• Threats from other artifact cultivators, the Ning Clan, and their subordinates are ignored. Chen Qiu kills everyone who attempts to confront him.
• A mysterious young woman appears and praises Chen Qiu, but he immediately attacks her with thousands of thunder dragons before she can finish speaking. He also kills her Foundation Establishment Peak protector.
• Furnace Peak is completely destroyed, leaving no bodies or blood. Chen Qiu obtains the storage rings of Ning Taiping and his protector, discovering that both possessed Second-Grade Golden Cores. This brings him much closer to his goal of collecting nine such cores and also replenishes his Spirit Stone supply.
• Before leaving, Chen Qiu erects a mocking sign in the ruins:
  • “I believe in Buddha. I do not kill living beings.”
  • “Who said that?”
  • “They did.”
  • “—Chen Qiu, Sect Master of the Mocking Heaven Sect.”
• Back at the inn, Chen Qiu prepares to cultivate. He restores his spiritual energy by repeatedly stabbing himself and relying on his healing traits, then realizes that killing Ning Taiping was inconvenient because he currently needs an artifact cultivator.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Demonstrates extreme composure, confidence, ruthlessness, and strategic thinking. He refuses to argue with people he considers already doomed and relies on overwhelming strength rather than emotional retaliation. His strength allows him to treat public humiliation as insignificant, reinforcing the theme that power determines one’s mental freedom.
• Ning Wuping: His arrogance turns into panic when the situation reverses. He shifts from public mockery to desperate begging, but remains unwilling to accept responsibility, insisting that his insults and exploitation were trivial.
• Ning Taiping: Begins the chapter triumphant and self-satisfied after successfully reaching Golden Core, but quickly collapses into terror when faced with death. His pride in his forging ability becomes desperation as he offers to become Chen Qiu’s servant.
• Fat Dragon: Provides comic relief and insight. He recognizes the formation’s dramatic naming and explains the protective formation core, confirming that Chen Qiu’s group is safe.
• The Golden Core protector: Initially vigilant and prepared to defend Ning Taiping, but becomes helpless once the stronger formation traps him. His failed divine sense attack also confirms the protection provided by Chen Qiu’s inherited defensive formation.
• The mysterious young woman: Appears confident and seemingly interested in Chen Qiu, but is killed before she can reveal her identity or intentions.

Significant Themes

• Strength as protection and confidence: Chen Qiu’s lack of anger is not passivity but the calm assurance of someone powerful enough to respond decisively.
• Humiliation and retaliation: The Ning family treats Chen Qiu as a stepping stone, but their attempt to publicly degrade him leads to total destruction.
• The dangers of arrogance and mob mentality: The crowd follows Ning Wuping’s insults because group approval gives them false courage. Their contempt disappears once Chen Qiu reveals his overwhelming power.
• Death and self-preservation: Ning Taiping and Ning Wuping justify their behavior as harmless, but both reveal their true priorities when death approaches.
• Buddhist irony: Chen Qiu’s sign claims he does not kill living beings, even though he has annihilated Furnace Peak and everyone upon it. The statement mocks the survivors’ hypocrisy and reflects his playful, detached cruelty.
• Practical cultivation and resourcefulness: Chen Qiu carefully weighs the costs of his abilities, preserves Spirit Stones, collects Golden Cores, and even uses self-inflicted wounds to restore spiritual energy efficiently.

Important Character Interactions

• Ning Wuping repeatedly provokes Chen Qiu, but Chen Qiu refuses to respond until the final moment, when he tells Ning Taiping that his death has value.
• The crowd joins Ning Wuping in insulting Chen Qiu, revealing how quickly people adopt hostility when they believe they are protected by numbers.
• Ning Taiping begs Chen Qiu for survival and offers his forging services, but Chen Qiu rejects the offer and kills him.
• The Golden Core protector attacks Chen Qiu’s group with divine sense, only to be blocked by the formation core. Fat Dragon mocks him while explaining why the attack cannot succeed.
• After the destruction, the mysterious woman attempts to speak with Chen Qiu, but he attacks first, showing that he does not tolerate unexplained threats or theatrical posturing.
• Chen Qiu ends the chapter by reflecting that he may have killed Ning Taiping too soon, since he now needs a living artifact cultivator—an ironic contrast to the massacre he has just carried out.

Chapter Summary: “A Miracle”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu devises a Spirit Treasure armguard containing hundreds of needles. By piercing his body, it will rapidly restore his spiritual energy, allowing him to fight, retreat into his Minor World, recover, and return repeatedly.
• The Heavenly Dao Blessing grants Chen Qiu 512 Low-Grade and 10 Mid-Grade Foundation Establishment Cultivation Pills. After absorbing them, he reaches 47.5% of the Ninth Level of Foundation Establishment, nearing the peak.
• He discovers that his spoils from the destruction of Furnace Peak include twenty-three storage rings, two Second-Grade Golden Cores, and possibly the Trait Jade Slips won by Ning Wuping.
• News spreads that Chen Qiu destroyed Furnace Peak, exterminated the Ning Clan, killed nearly a hundred artifact cultivators, and left behind a mocking declaration identifying himself as the Sect Master of the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• The Fat City Lord discusses the massacre but refuses to intervene, arguing that Ning Taiping provoked Chen Qiu and that Chen Qiu did not violate the city’s laws. The Lord remains more concerned with the rumored disaster in the Boundless Ice Wastes.
• Scholar reveals that he can restore his cultivation by replacing his ruined bones with the ancient Sword Bone. Chen Qiu purchases the necessary materials and supports him.
• Scholar painfully replaces nearly all the bones in his body with the Sword Bone. He immediately regains the ability to walk and stabilizes his spiritual energy, though the toxins in his Dao Foundation remain.
• Chen Qiu abducts Li Jia, Fat City’s second-best artifact cultivator, and coerces him into forging the needle-filled armguard. The completed Low-Grade Foundation Establishment Spirit Treasure restores Chen Qiu’s spiritual energy in under three breaths.
• Chen Qiu becomes puzzled that none of the artifact cultivators’ backers have sought revenge, since he had hoped to lure out powerful Golden Core cultivators and loot them.
• In the Boundless Desert, the young Brown Bear successfully grows vast fields of Spirit Rice. He intends to use the achievement to unite the Demon Race, build an army, and invade Great Xia. His father and clansmen point out that the abundant food eliminates the need for war, leaving the young Brown Bear emotionally defeated.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu grows increasingly inventive and ruthless, turning his own body into a means of rapidly replenishing spiritual energy. His reputation shifts from lucky rogue cultivator to a dangerous, openly declared killer.
• Scholar makes a major breakthrough in his personal recovery. Replacing his bones allows him to walk again after years of disability and brings him closer to returning to the sword-cultivation path. His gratitude toward Chen Qiu deepens, though Chen Qiu dismisses formal declarations of loyalty.
• The Fat City Lord is established as powerful, pragmatic, and detached from factional revenge. Despite being a Golden Core Seventh Layer cultivator, he refuses to act against Chen Qiu without a personal or political reason.
• Li Jia is portrayed as fearful and obedient after seeing Chen Qiu’s reputation. His expertise allows Chen Qiu to acquire an important battle tool, but he is clearly intimidated into cooperation.
• The young Brown Bear appears ambitious and warlike, dreaming of unifying the Demon Race and conquering Great Xia. His grand political vision collapses comically when his people realize that the successful Spirit Rice harvest has already solved the material problem he intended to use as a justification for war.

Significant Themes

• Innovation through unconventional methods: Chen Qiu transforms a seemingly simple artifact into a powerful method of sustaining prolonged combat.
• Power and reputation: The Furnace Peak massacre dramatically enhances Chen Qiu’s fame and creates political consequences across Fat Prefecture.
• Loyalty and gratitude: Scholar’s recovery strengthens his bond with Chen Qiu, while Chen Qiu values practical repayment—such as obtaining the Sword Cultivator Inheritance—over emotional vows.
• The absurdity of grand ambitions: The Brown Bear’s dream of conquest is undercut by the very miracle meant to justify it. His people’s prosperity makes war unnecessary.
• Miracles and unintended consequences: The Spirit Rice harvest is hailed as a miracle, but it undermines the young Brown Bear’s plans instead of helping them.
• Hidden looming threats: The discussion of the Boundless Ice Wastes hints that a larger calamity may be developing beyond the current conflicts.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Scholar discuss the Sword Bone, with Chen Qiu casually funding Scholar’s dangerous treatment and urging him to recover quickly.
• Scholar attempts to express his lifelong gratitude, but Chen Qiu interrupts him and insists that practical success is enough repayment.
• Chen Qiu promises Fat Dragon that he will also arrange opportunities for his advancement, maintaining the group’s supportive but irreverent dynamic.
• Chen Qiu intimidates Li Jia into forging the armguard, joking that their interaction is exceptionally cordial despite Li Jia’s obvious terror.
• The Fat City Lord debates with his artifact-cultivator subordinate over whether Chen Qiu should be punished, demonstrating the conflict between personal sympathy and official responsibility.
• The young Brown Bear argues passionately with his father about conquest, only to be defeated by the simple observation that the Demon Race already possesses abundant food.

Chapter Summary: “Who Are You Pointing At?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A young Brown Bear Demon Race member reflects on his failed attempt to unite his clan against Great Xia. Although he secretly cultivated Spirit Rice to appear as a miracle-working leader, he realizes that ordinary demon beasts are not viewed as fellow beings by intelligent Demon Race members, so slaughtering them does not inspire hatred toward humans. He decides he must find another way to build a Demon Race army.
• Chen Qiu reaches the Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer and receives three possible traits:
  • Without Madness, No Survival, which heals him faster as he suffers greater pain.
  • Nightmoon Wolf Demon, which empowers a contracted intelligent wolf demon.
  • True and False, which creates an indistinguishable illusion with every spell attack.
• Chen Qiu rejects the pain-based trait because of its severe drawbacks and chooses to retain both the Nightmoon Wolf Demon and True and False traits, potentially using the former as Golden Core formation material if he cannot find a suitable wolf demon.
• Scholar explains that intelligent Demon Race members may exist in places such as the Boundless Ice Wastes, Boundless Sea, or Boundless Snow Mountains. The conversation turns humorous when Fat Dragon worries that Scholar is criticizing his relationship with demon beasts. Scholar clarifies that Great Xia does not prohibit humans from forming relationships with intelligent demons.
• Chen Qiu brings artifact cultivator Li Jia out of seclusion and forces him to remove restrictions from a large collection of storage rings. Li Jia can open most of them but cannot break the restrictions on Golden Core-level rings or Old Ning’s specially protected rings.
• Li Jia successfully opens the remaining rings. Chen Qiu obtains two Trait Jade Slips, Spirit Stones, pills, forging materials, and other miscellaneous items. He also insists that Li Jia be paid fairly, emphasizing that they are not evil cultivators who exploit ordinary people.
• The Stars Across the Heavens suddenly begin falling like a meteor shower. Heavenly Dao Edicts announce simultaneous Evil Race Invasions in the Boundless Desert, Ice Wastes, Snow Mountains, and Sea.
• Chen Qiu initially flees toward the capital, fearing the invasion will involve powerful Golden Core enemies. A new Heavenly Dao Edict then declares that cultivators and other beings at the Early Golden Core Realm or above cannot act or be attacked during the invasion. It also opens an Evil-Slaying Leaderboard and gives the invasion ten days before Under-Heaven Strife begins.
• Realizing the restriction removes the greatest threat, Chen Qiu turns back with Scholar and Fat Dragon to join the battle.
• On the Boundless Ice Wastes, about one hundred thousand grotesque, intelligent Evil Race members clash with Great Xia’s cultivators. The battlefield becomes chaotic and bloody, with enormous casualties.
• Chen Qiu notices a Fierce Baleful Wood tree growing in the ice fields. More than a dozen Evil Race members become unnaturally obsessed with it, attacking their own allies as they rush toward the tree, suggesting that the wood has a special connection to the invasion.

Character Developments

• Young Brown Bear: Shows ambition, self-awareness, and a desire to reshape the world, but recognizes that his initial political strategy was misguided. His transmigrator identity gives him a strong sense of responsibility toward his homeland.
• Chen Qiu: Becomes more cautious and strategically minded. He rejects an excessively painful healing method, evaluates his traits as long-term resources, and demonstrates both ruthlessness and fairness. Despite being willing to exploit enemies and forcibly recruit Li Jia, he pays for Li Jia’s work and refuses to take advantage of common people.
• Fat Dragon: Remains comic and self-conscious, but gains reassurance that his relationships with demon beasts are not uniquely shameful. He also continues acting as Chen Qiu’s practical companion and assistant.
• Scholar: Provides useful knowledge about Demon Race members and Great Xia’s cultivation customs. His dry explanations create comic tension with Fat Dragon.
• Li Jia: Initially relieved after Chen Qiu releases him, only to be forcibly summoned again. Though frightened and resentful, he proves useful by removing most of the storage-ring restrictions.
• Fat City Lord: Reveals himself as a powerful and battle-hungry figure who had been waiting thirty years for the invasion. He nearly dies facing nine Golden Core Peak enemies but is saved by the Heavenly Dao restriction, then prepares to fight again.

Significant Themes

• Leadership and political strategy: The Brown Bear’s Spirit Rice “miracle” strengthens his authority but fails to create the hatred needed for war, showing that leadership requires understanding a group’s actual values.
• Humanity and morality: The chapter repeatedly questions whether intelligent demons should be treated as enemies, partners, or people. It also contrasts Chen Qiu’s coercive behavior with his insistence on fair payment.
• Power and resource management: Traits, Trait Jade Slips, storage rings, and Golden Core materials are treated as strategic assets. Chen Qiu constantly weighs immediate strength against future potential.
• Chaos and fate: The falling stars and simultaneous invasions suggest that a much larger conflict—Under-Heaven Strife—is approaching.
• The limits of strength: Even powerful figures must retreat when Golden Core experts can act freely. Once the Heavenly Dao restricts those experts, Chen Qiu’s confidence returns immediately.
• The unknown nature of the Evil Race: Their grotesque appearance, apparent intelligence, and obsession with Fierce Baleful Wood imply that the invasion has hidden motives beyond simple conquest.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu, Scholar, and Fat Dragon joke about intelligent demon-beast partners and dual cultivation, especially Fat Dragon’s insecurity regarding his own behavior.
• Chen Qiu forcibly recruits Li Jia to unlock storage rings but later orders Fat Dragon to compensate him, balancing intimidation with a stated moral code.
• Chen Qiu and his companions first flee the invasion, then reverse course as soon as the Heavenly Dao announces that Golden Core cultivators cannot participate.
• The Fat City Lord’s encounter with the nine powerful Evil Race members highlights the danger of the invasion and the protection unexpectedly provided by the Heavenly Dao.
• Chen Qiu observes the Evil Race members turning on one another over the Fierce Baleful Wood, establishing the chapter’s final mystery and cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary: “Grandma’s”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu observes that the Evil Race is not primarily interested in fighting Fat Prefecture’s cultivators. Instead, they are desperately seeking the supposedly ordinary Fierce Baleful Wood.
• An Evil Race warrior obtains a piece of the wood and attempts to flee toward a mysterious hundred-zhang teleportation formation in the depths of the Boundless Ice Wastes. Before he can enter, Heavenly Dao Thunder Dragons destroy him, though the wood vanishes into the formation.
• Chen Qiu tests the Evil Race’s reaction by scattering thousands of pieces of Fierce Baleful Wood. The invaders abandon their attack on him and begin savagely fighting one another to obtain it, confirming that the wood is an extremely valuable treasure to them.
• The teleportation formation consists of 1,024 meteors arranged in a precise circle. It appears to connect Great Xia to the Evil Race’s homeland or another distant location.
• Chen Qiu concludes that the invasion’s true purpose is to plunder Fierce Baleful Wood. He also suspects that the supposedly useless Eight Desolations Fruit may be another major heavenly treasure.
• Nine Golden Core Peak Evil Race leaders oversee the invasion in the Boundless Ice Wastes, while similar forces apparently attack the Boundless Desert, Sea, and Snow Mountains. Because of a Heavenly Dao Edict, none of the Golden Core cultivators can act.
• Chen Qiu launches a devastating counterattack using thousands of Thunder Dragons, Green Demonic Flames, and Wraiths as fuel. He repeatedly teleports through the battlefield while recovering spiritual energy through his armguard, nearly annihilating the invading army.
• The Evil Race forces in the other three regions withdraw and converge on the Boundless Ice Wastes. A powerful Nascent Soul Evil Race cultivator, having obtained a bloodstained piece of Fierce Baleful Wood, orders hundreds of thousands of warriors through the remaining teleportation formation.
• Chen Qiu blocks the formation and kills the invaders the instant they emerge, effectively spawn-killing the incoming army. The formation permits only Evil Race members and their carried objects to pass through; humans, beasts, Wraiths, and ordinary objects cannot enter.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates exceptional strategic judgment, first observing instead of acting impulsively. He identifies the Evil Race’s true objective and exploits their obsession with Fierce Baleful Wood.
• His combat power is revealed to be overwhelmingly superior even among Foundation Establishment cultivators. His full-strength Lightning-Channeling Art reaches a level comparable to or beyond early Golden Core power.
• Chen Qiu becomes more determined to accumulate Fierce Baleful Wood and Eight Desolations Fruits, recognizing that they may be essential treasures for his future cultivation and possibly for breaking Great Xia’s restrictions.
• Scholar is deeply humbled by Chen Qiu’s performance. Though once considered “Peerless Among Equals,” he realizes Chen Qiu is on an entirely higher level and jokingly imagines a new category: a “World-Ending Prodigy.” His initial shock turns into satisfaction because Chen Qiu’s strength benefits their entire group.
• Fat Dragon continues to recognize the value of his alliance with Chen Qiu. He reflects humorously on how fortunate he was to have chosen Chen Qiu in Windward City.
• The Fat City Lord reinterprets the Imperial Preceptor’s earlier orders. He suspects the Imperial Preceptor stationed him at Fat City not merely for his cultivation, but because he was broad-minded enough not to interfere with Chen Qiu’s actions.
• The unseen Nascent Soul Evil Race cultivator is introduced as the mastermind behind the invasion and reveals the Evil Race’s extreme excitement over Fierce Baleful Wood.

Significant Themes

• Hidden value and ignorance: Fierce Baleful Wood, commonly treated by Fat Prefecture’s people as fuel, may actually be a supreme heavenly treasure. The chapter emphasizes how ignorance can lead people to waste priceless resources.
• Observation before action: Chen Qiu’s patience allows him to understand the Evil Race’s motives, discover the teleportation formation, and devise a strategy far more effective than blindly joining the battle.
• Power and hierarchy: Scholar’s reaction highlights that “peerless” strength is relative. Even the strongest geniuses can encounter someone operating on an entirely different level.
• Protection versus imprisonment: Chen Qiu reflects on Great Xia’s restrictions. Though they resemble a prison, preventing stronger cultivators from entering may actually protect the kingdom from destruction.
• Instinct overpowering reason: The Evil Race’s fixation on Fierce Baleful Wood causes them to abandon strategy, attack their own kind, and behave like starving animals.
• Strategic foresight and hidden plans: The Heavenly Dao’s timely prohibition and the Imperial Preceptor’s earlier arrangements suggest that Great Xia’s defenses—and perhaps its apparent “coincidences”—may be part of deeper, deliberate systems.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu silently directs Scholar to follow the Evil Race warrior carrying the Fierce Baleful Wood, demonstrating their efficient coordination.
• Chen Qiu shares his conclusions with Fat Dragon, who immediately understands the significance of the teleportation array and the wood’s value.
• Chen Qiu orders the Fat Prefecture cultivators to retreat before unleashing his full power, protecting them from being caught in his indiscriminate attacks.
• Scholar and Fat Dragon discuss Chen Qiu’s overwhelming strength and mutually appreciate how advantageous it is to remain allied with him.
• The Fat City Lord watches Chen Qiu’s slaughter and realizes that the invasion has effectively become Chen Qiu’s assault on the Evil Race.
• The Evil Race’s internal interactions are dominated by greed: warriors fight and kill one another for Fierce Baleful Wood, while the Nascent Soul leader rallies the withdrawn forces toward the remaining teleportation gate.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Evil Race Invasion of Great Xia ends in a complete human victory in less than an hour, largely because Chen Qiu massacres over one hundred thousand Evil Race members.
• Chen Qiu dominates the Heavenly Dao Evil-Slaying Leaderboard. His kill count exceeds the combined total of the other 999 ranked cultivators, while the counts of everyone else stop rising.
• At the teleportation array in the Boundless Ice Wastes, Chen Qiu, Scholar, and Fat Dragon annihilate wave after wave of Evil Race warriors. When the array closes, a mountain of frozen corpses and severed limbs remains behind.
• The Heavenly Dao Edict publicly praises Chen Qiu for protecting Fat Prefecture and awards him first place on the leaderboard.
• A wounded Evil Race deserter returns after the teleportation array has disappeared. He appears desperate to go home, but suddenly turns to ash, suggesting a hidden restriction or punishment connected to the Evil Race.
• Chen Qiu discovers the deserter’s storage ring, which contains—or likely contains—the Nascent Soul Body obtained from the heretical cultivator inheritance. He realizes that the heretical inheritance has already been claimed.
• Returning to the Inheritance Secret Realm, Chen Qiu confirms that both the Dharma Cultivator and heretical cultivator inheritances have been taken. With the two Nascent Soul Bodies, he is now only one body away from the three required to form a legendary Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu decides to return to the Northern Provinces to find the artifact shopkeeper capable of removing the storage ring’s restriction. He also plans to recruit Liu Zide to secretly purchase large quantities of Fierce Baleful Wood, Eight Desolations Fruit, and other potentially valuable materials.
• As first-place reward, Chen Qiu receives a Heavenly Dao Wheel that lets him choose two rewards from five options. He selects:
  • The permanent Green Trait “Edict Regular,” which doubles future exclusive Heavenly Dao Edict blessings.
  • An extra opportunity to choose one of three traits, which he saves for later.
• Chen Qiu and Scholar reach Mountain-Cleaving City before dawn. The shopkeeper examines the Evil Race storage ring and admits its restriction uses an unfamiliar method, beginning his research while Chen Qiu cultivates.
• Meanwhile, the Qu Family in the capital remains furious because Qu Qi failed to obtain the Dharma Cultivator inheritance after Chen Qiu claimed it. The Qu Family’s Supreme Elder privately mocks Qu Qi and hopes someone else will break through to Nascent Soul, allowing him to advance as well.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu demonstrates overwhelming strength, killing more Evil Race members than all other cultivators combined. His confidence and ambitions grow as he moves closer to forming a Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• He becomes increasingly strategic, planning not only to recover the second Nascent Soul Body but also to stockpile rare materials and secure trustworthy allies.
• Scholar continues recovering his cultivation after replacing his Sword Bone. Though his spiritual energy remains limited, he travels with Chen Qiu and is expected to pursue the sword cultivator inheritance.
• Fat Dragon remains Chen Qiu’s enthusiastic companion and helps fight the Evil Race, though he is puzzled by the mysterious uses of Fierce Baleful Wood.
• Zhao Yishi accepts his role as a supporting figure rather than competing with Chen Qiu, displaying unusual calm and self-awareness. His desire for a woman leads to a comedic exchange in which the Heavenward Sect master expels him.
• The Heavenward Sect master is openly jealous that Chen Qiu belongs to the Mocking Heaven Sect rather than his own, but remains impressed by Chen Qiu’s achievements.
• The artifact shopkeeper is presented as skilled but challenged by the unfamiliar Evil Race storage-ring restriction.
• Qu Qi becomes enraged and humiliated after losing the Dharma Cultivator inheritance, while the Qu Family’s Supreme Elder reveals contempt for him and focuses on surviving until a Nascent Soul breakthrough becomes possible.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming talent and disparity: Chen Qiu’s leaderboard lead emphasizes the enormous gap between a true peerless prodigy and ordinary cultivators.
• Acceptance of one’s role: Zhao Yishi’s “red flower and green leaf” philosophy contrasts with Qu Qi’s possessiveness and rage over losing the inheritance.
• Opportunity and preparation: Chen Qiu’s success comes not only from strength but from recognizing opportunities, collecting resources, and planning for future breakthroughs.
• Mystery surrounding the Evil Race: The deserter’s unexplained death, the strange storage ring, and the hidden inheritance suggest deeper laws, punishments, or secrets connected to the Evil Race.
• Ambition beyond conventional limits: The Tenth-grade Golden Core is portrayed as nearly impossible, yet Chen Qiu is steadily assembling the resources needed to attempt it.
• Humor amid danger: The sect master’s quarrel with Zhao Yishi, Fat Dragon’s casual observations, and Chen Qiu’s relaxed attitude toward enormous rewards provide comic relief after the massacre.

Character Interactions

• The Heavenward Sect master questions Zhao Yishi’s lack of jealousy toward Chen Qiu. Zhao explains that he is content to be a “green leaf,” then jokes that his only problem is wanting a woman; the sect master angrily expels him.
• Chen Qiu, Fat Dragon, and Scholar fight together at the teleportation array, with Chen Qiu doing most of the killing while Fat Dragon and Scholar benefit from weakened enemies and improve their leaderboard rankings.
• Fat Dragon speculates that the fleeing Evil Race cultivator was a deserter who could no longer return home, while Chen Qiu suspects the incident is connected to the hidden inheritance realm.
• Chen Qiu shares his plans with Scholar and brings him to the Northern Provinces, intending to help him obtain the sword cultivator inheritance.
• Chen Qiu speaks reassuringly to the shopkeeper—“Take your time. I believe in you”—while urgently waiting for him to unlock the Evil Race storage ring.
• The Qu Family’s internal relationship is sharply antagonistic: Qu Qi rages over his failure, while the Supreme Elder privately insults him and views him as unworthy of the inheritance.

Chapter Summary: “Heaven’s Chosen Token”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Qu Family’s Supreme Elder reflects on his impending death. Although he possesses peak Golden Core cultivation—the highest level in Great Xia—he has only a little over a year to live unless he reaches the Nascent Soul realm.
• The elder compares his situation with that of Qu Qi, the Qu Family’s privileged young master and fellow transmigrator. Qu Qi possesses vast family resources and five Heavenly Dao Beauties who enhance Dharma cultivation, but he has been humiliated by Chen Qiu, a rogue cultivator who cleared the Dharma Cultivator Inheritance before him.
• Chen Qiu reaches the Ninth Level of Foundation Establishment at 100%, achieving Foundation Establishment Peak Great Perfection. He is now ready to attempt Core Formation, though the quality of his future Golden Core will depend on the resources he acquires.
• Chen Qiu waits in an abandoned temple outside Mountain-Cleaving City while the shopkeeper works to break the restrictions on an Evil Race storage ring. The process is exceptionally difficult because the restriction method is unknown in Great Xia.
• Once the ring is opened, Chen Qiu finds a Nascent Soul Body, over a thousand Spirit Stones, two pieces of Fierce Baleful Wood, and a mysterious diamond-shaped Heaven’s Chosen Token. The Nascent Soul Body brings him close to gathering the materials required to form a Tenth-Grade Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu asks the shopkeeper to open nine additional Golden Core storage rings and supplies him with unlimited Qi-Replenishing Pills so the man can continue working.
• While resting at the temple, Chen Qiu activates an unused Heavenly Dao Wheel reward and receives three possible traits:
  1. Love Without Regret, which grants Spirit Stones when same-sex individuals fall in love with him.
  2. A Thread Between Life and Death, which prevents him from being killed in one attack but leaves him gravely injured.
  3. Talisman Cultivator Aptitude, which allows him to draw talismans faster.
• Before selecting, Chen Qiu is ambushed by the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master, a Mid-Stage Golden Core cultivator seeking revenge for Chen Qiu’s destruction of the sect’s Dragon Vein Stones.
• The sect master launches a devastating divine-sense attack. Chen Qiu’s Sea of Divine Sense is nearly destroyed, but he activates A Thread Between Life and Death at the last moment, surviving the attack.
• The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master arrogantly prepares to finish Chen Qiu, but Chen Qiu secretly uses the trait’s power to unleash a full-strength Lightning-Channeling Art from a Golden Core Peak cultivator. The resulting lightning strike annihilates the sect master.
• The sect master’s Golden Core attempts to escape, but Scholar captures it with the Three-Foot Azure Edge.
• Chen Qiu survives but suffers severe damage to his Sea of Divine Sense, causing excruciating pain and temporarily preventing his divine sense from leaving his body. Scholar explains that Chen Qiu needs a rare Lower-Grade Golden Core Spirit-Replenishing Pill, obtainable from the Star-Dipper Sect.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu reaches Foundation Establishment Peak Great Perfection, bringing him to the threshold of Core Formation. His growing collection of high-grade resources demonstrates his ambition to form an unprecedented Tenth-Grade Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu also becomes more cautious after experiencing his first serious counterattack. Although he is usually the ambusher, he nearly dies from the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master’s surprise divine-sense assault.
• His survival highlights both his luck and his ability to make quick decisions under pressure. The newly selected trait saves his life, while his concealed counterattack kills a much stronger opponent.
• The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master is portrayed as arrogant and vengeful. His confidence in the absolute superiority of Golden Core cultivation causes him to underestimate Chen Qiu and talk instead of killing him immediately, allowing Chen Qiu to retaliate.
• Scholar continues recovering physically and is now able to walk. He also proves reliable in battle by capturing the enemy’s escaping Golden Core.
• Fat Dragon remains loyal and protective, immediately supporting Chen Qiu after the divine-sense attack and urging Scholar to flee.
• The shopkeeper gains recognition for his unusual talent in breaking storage-ring restrictions, despite the exhausting and obscure nature of his specialty.
• The Qu Family’s Supreme Elder represents powerful cultivators trapped by age and limited lifespan, contrasting with Chen Qiu’s rapidly rising cultivation and opportunities.

Significant Themes

• The cruelty of cultivation and lifespan limits: Even peak Golden Core cultivators may be powerless against aging if they cannot reach Nascent Soul.
• Talent versus resources: Qu Qi has overwhelming family support, while Chen Qiu rises through inheritance trials, luck, combat ability, and opportunistic use of rare resources.
• The importance of Golden Core quality: A cultivator’s Golden Core grade determines future strength and cannot be improved after formation, making Chen Qiu’s pursuit of a Tenth-Grade Golden Core especially significant.
• Luck and preparation: Chen Qiu survives only because he happens to activate a life-saving trait at the right moment, yet his ability to conceal and exploit that power turns a fatal ambush into victory.
• Arrogance and underestimation: The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master’s confidence in the gap between Foundation Establishment and Golden Core leads directly to his death.
• Mystery and foreshadowing: The Heaven’s Chosen Token, abandoned temples, and the unexplained decline of temple worship suggest larger unresolved developments in the world.
• The value of unconventional abilities: The shopkeeper’s seemingly narrow skill—breaking storage-ring restrictions—proves highly valuable, emphasizing that every specialized talent can matter.

Character Interactions

• The Supreme Elder internally contrasts Qu Qi’s privileged position with Chen Qiu’s sudden fame, revealing the resentment and pressure surrounding Chen Qiu’s success.
• Chen Qiu respectfully relies on the shopkeeper’s expertise, compensating him generously with Qi-Replenishing Pills and entrusting him with more storage rings.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar provide comic and emotional contrast while resting with Chen Qiu. Fat Dragon questions the abandoned temples, while Scholar exercises his recovering legs and his brother watches ants.
• The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master confronts Chen Qiu directly, boasting about the impossibility of crossing the Foundation Establishment–Golden Core gap. Chen Qiu silently counters him, allowing the sect master’s arrogance to precede his destruction.
• Afterward, Chen Qiu continues treating the innkeeper as a useful ally, handing over the surviving storage ring for inspection despite his severe pain.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu survives a full-force attack from a Fourth-Layer Golden Core cultivator, suffering severe damage to his Sea of Divine Sense but no permanent injury yet. He worries this may prevent him from forming a Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• He hides the frightened shopkeeper inside his Minor World and brings him to a Mocking Heaven Sect dormitory, asking him to crack a storage ring in exchange for double payment.
• Scholar gives Chen Qiu the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master’s Second-Grade Golden Core. Chen stores it with his other Golden Cores, bringing his total to three out of the nine he needs.
• Scholar’s life-bound flying sword is damaged during the earlier battle, though it remains usable.
• Chen Qiu, Scholar, and Fat Dragon travel to the Star-Dipper Sect to obtain a Spirit-Replenishing Pill for Chen’s damaged divine sense. They leave Scholar’s younger brother in Windward City so they can retreat through their bloodline connection if necessary.
• At the Star-Dipper Sect, they learn that ordinary Spirit-Replenishing Pills are too potent for a Foundation Establishment cultivator. However, the sect once possessed a special Earthfire capable of refining a weaker version suitable for Chen.
• The Star-Dipper Sect reveals that its Earthfire has become violently unstable over the past several months, making pill refinement impossible and threatening to destroy the sect. The First Elder asks Chen to investigate its source.
• Chen, Scholar, and Fat Dragon descend into the underground sea of Earthfire. The flames rapidly consume protective spiritual energy, forcing Chen to rely on repeated teleportation and Qi-Replenishing Pills.
• After several hours of searching, Chen discovers an Eight-Petaled Fire Lotus at the deepest point of the Earthfire. Its movements are causing the entire underground fire sea to become violent.
• Chen risks his remaining spiritual energy to seize the Fire Lotus. Ordinary containers and storage rings are destroyed by its heat, so he places it in his Minor World, where it stabilizes and becomes a sun-like source of light and heat.
• With the Fire Lotus removed, the Earthfire calms. The Star-Dipper Sect is saved from its immediate crisis, though Chen still does not know what the treasure is or how to use it.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu remains calm and pragmatic despite his damaged divine sense and the danger of the Earthfire. His concern about achieving a Tenth-grade Golden Core reveals how important cultivation potential is to him.
• He demonstrates increasing resourcefulness by using his Minor World to hide people, store dangerous treasures, and protect his companions.
• Chen also shows a strong sense of responsibility: although he initially doubts that he can solve the Star-Dipper Sect’s problem, he willingly investigates because it may be his only chance to obtain the medicine he needs.
• Scholar remains cautious and knowledgeable, explaining the dangers of the Earthfire and serving as Chen’s means of returning safely. His damaged life-bound sword highlights the lasting cost of the earlier battle.
• Fat Dragon continues to provide comic relief and practical observations, while also recognizing that the Fire Lotus is an extraordinary treasure.
• The Star-Dipper Sect elders shift from skepticism toward Chen to admiration and trust after recognizing his reputation and abilities. Their desperation becomes clear when they reveal that their founding patriarch has died and the sect may soon need to relocate.

3. Significant Themes

• Turning disaster into opportunity: Chen’s divine-sense injury, the Golden Core, and the Fire Lotus all emerge from dangerous circumstances but may ultimately benefit him.
• The limits of cultivation and knowledge: Even powerful elders and sect leaders cannot understand or control the Fire Lotus, while Chen succeeds through endurance, unusual abilities, and persistence.
• Rogue cultivator disadvantages: Chen reflects that, unlike disciples of established sects, he lacks the knowledge needed to identify or use rare treasures.
• Risk and sacrifice: The investigation requires Chen to endanger himself and expend enormous spiritual energy, while the Star-Dipper Sect has already lost its patriarch to the Earthfire.
• Reputation and trust: Chen’s title as Great Xia’s strongest spell cultivator causes others to place extraordinary expectations on him, even when he is uncertain of his own ability.
• Natural treasures as unpredictable forces: The Fire Lotus is not deliberately hostile, yet its existence destabilizes an entire underground world, showing the danger and mystery of powerful natural phenomena.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen negotiates with the shopkeeper, using both payment and confinement to secure his cooperation.
• He and Scholar discuss the value of the captured Second-Grade Golden Core and the damage to Scholar’s flying sword.
• Chen, Scholar, and Fat Dragon work together during the Earthfire descent, with Scholar providing navigation and retreat support while Chen protects both companions.
• The Star-Dipper Sect’s elders question Chen’s condition, explain the limitations of their pills, and eventually entrust him with their sect’s survival.
• Chen and the elders disagree indirectly over whether a Foundation Establishment cultivator can investigate the Earthfire, but Chen’s endurance and abilities ultimately prove their hopes justified.
• Inside the Minor World, Fat Dragon excitedly speculates about the Fire Lotus while Scholar admits that even his former peak knowledge is insufficient to identify it, emphasizing the treasure’s rarity and mystery.

Chapter Summary: “Green Fishing Rod”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu leaves the Dharma Cultivator Inheritance and plans to seek the Formation Cultivator Inheritance later in hopes of finding Old Cao.
• Returning through the Underground Sea of Fire, Chen Qiu, Scholar, and the others encounter a massive flame-covered tiger demon. Rather than fight, Chen Qiu teleports away.
• Chen Qiu returns to Scholar’s younger brother, then travels to the Star-Dipper Sect. He discovers that the sect’s Earthfire has stabilized after he removed the Eight-Petaled Fire Lotus, saving the sect from relocation.
• Grateful, the Star-Dipper Sect Master promises to make the sect Chen Qiu’s closest ally and gives him three weakened Spirit-Replenishing Pills. Chen Qiu uses them to completely heal his damaged divine sense.
• Chen Qiu reflects on his recent gains: a Golden Core Wraith, a Second-Grade Golden Core, the Eight-Petaled Fire Lotus, the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect Master’s storage ring, and numerous resources.
• In Fortune City, Chen Qiu meets Liu Zide and recruits him, along with the Wang Family Head, to travel to Fat Prefecture and purchase large quantities of Fierce Baleful Wood and Eight Desolations Fruit.
• While passing through Mountain-Cleaving City, Chen Qiu learns that a temporary “Heaven-Sea Fishing” secret realm is about to open. He joins the event with Fat Dragon, Scholar, and the others.
• Inside the secret realm, cultivators receive fishing rods and compete to catch fish for rewards. They cannot attack one another, and the realm lasts three hours.
• Chen Qiu catches a White Fish, clears the first stage by defeating three Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer fishmen, and upgrades his rod to Green grade.
• He then catches a Green Fish worth three Spirit Stones, discovering that the secret realm is both peaceful and highly profitable.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: His divine sense is fully restored, and his confidence continues to grow as his collection of treasures and resources expands. He demonstrates caution by avoiding the flame tiger, generosity by stabilizing the Star-Dipper Sect’s Earthfire, and practical judgment by recruiting Liu Zide for long-term resource gathering. In the secret realm, he quickly adapts to fishing and easily overcomes the combat trial.
• Star-Dipper Sect Master: His despair turns to overwhelming gratitude and excitement after the Earthfire crisis is resolved. He pledges strong support and free pill-refining services to Chen Qiu.
• Liu Zide: He is content with his peaceful but limited life in Fortune City, yet remains eager to follow Chen Qiu and contribute to the fight against the Evil Race. He accepts the assignment in Fat Prefecture.
• Wang Family Head: Initially reluctant to let Liu Zide leave, he immediately agrees once he recognizes Chen Qiu’s strength and importance.
• Fat Dragon and Scholar: Both successfully clear the first secret-realm trial, while Scholar’s younger brother fails. This highlights differences in combat ability despite the realm’s generally fair design.

Significant Themes

• Fortune arising from disaster: Chen Qiu’s near-death experience leads to the acquisition of the “A Thread Between Life and Death” Trait, which ultimately enables him to gain extraordinary treasures.
• Strength and reputation: Chen Qiu’s growing fame and cultivation allow him to resolve sect crises, recruit allies, and command respect even in remote regions.
• Fair competition: The fishing secret realm equalizes participants by tailoring the first-stage enemies to their cultivation levels, allowing both Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators a chance to benefit.
• Adaptability and opportunity: Chen Qiu repeatedly turns unexpected situations into advantages, whether handling the Earthfire crisis, organizing trade networks, or exploiting the secret realm’s rules.
• Peace masking hidden challenges: Though the secret realm prohibits violence between cultivators and appears harmonious, its fishing-rod upgrades require participants to complete combat trials.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu avoids confrontation with the flame tiger, prioritizing safe travel.
• The Star-Dipper Sect Master gratefully offers Chen Qiu an alliance and personally prepares healing pills for him.
• Chen Qiu and Liu Zide reaffirm their trust, with Liu expressing a desire to serve Chen Qiu again.
• Chen Qiu intimidates the Wang Family Head indirectly by revealing his own superior cultivation and Self-Destruct Trait, securing the family’s cooperation.
• Chen Qiu and his companions compare their secret-realm results, revealing that the trials are individually adjusted to each entrant’s cultivation.
• Chen Qiu begins treating the secret realm as an unexpected opportunity, quickly progressing from a White Fishing Rod to a Green Fishing Rod and earning valuable Spirit Stones.

Chapter Summary: “An Encounter Realm Indeed—He Liked It”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu quickly catches enough Green Fish to complete the first fishing-rod upgrade, then clears the second stage by effortlessly defeating four eighth-level Foundation Establishment fishmen with his Lightning-Channeling Art.
• His rod advances from Green to Yellow, then to Blue, Purple, Red, and Gold as he repeatedly:
  • Catches the required number of increasingly valuable fish.
  • Clears progressively harder combat stages.
• The fishing rewards scale dramatically:
  • Green, Yellow, and Blue Fish provide increasing numbers of Spirit Stones.
  • Purple Fish provide Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, which Chen Qiu urgently needs for forming his Golden Core.
  • Red Fish produce Trait Jade Slips containing random White Traits.
  • Gold Fish produce Eight Desolations Fruits, which Chen Qiu secretly stores after realizing their likely value.
• The combat stages become increasingly difficult for ordinary cultivators:
  • Five ninth-level Foundation Establishment fishmen.
  • Ten ninth-level fishmen.
  • Fifty ninth-level fishmen.
  • One hundred ninth-level fishmen.
  • Two First-Level Golden Core fishmen in the seventh stage.
• Chen Qiu defeats every group almost instantly with overwhelming lightning techniques. For the final Golden Core challenge, he uses two White Traits and activates the Self-Destruct Trait to unleash attacks with Golden Core Peak power.
• After clearing the seventh stage, Chen Qiu discovers a hidden eighth stage through a rainbow vortex. His Gold Fishing Rod upgrades to Pink, and he begins catching pink-grade fish.
• A pink fish produces a Heavenly Dao Detoxification Pill. Scholar recognizes it as a legendary pill capable of curing all poisons. Chen Qiu gives it to Scholar, hoping it will remove his poison, restore his Dao Foundation, and allow him to inherit the Sword cultivator inheritance.

Character Developments

• Chen Qiu becomes increasingly confident and exhilarated by his overwhelming combat superiority. The secret realm confirms his status as an unmatched spell cultivator: challenges that would stop nearly everyone else are effortless for him.
• His priorities shift from merely obtaining Spirit Stones to securing Mid-Grade Spirit Stones, Traits, Eight Desolations Fruits, and higher-level treasures. He becomes especially motivated by the possibility of gathering enough resources to form a stronger Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu also demonstrates foresight and discretion by hiding the Eight Desolations Fruits, correctly anticipating that their value could trigger a frenzy among sects and powerful lineages.
• Fat Dragon reaches his limit at the Yellow Fishing Rod, while Scholar can only manage a Green Fishing Rod because of his weakened condition and lack of offensive abilities.
• Scholar gains a major opportunity when Chen Qiu gives him the detoxification pill. His recovery may restore his Dao Foundation and enable him to pursue the Sword cultivator inheritance, potentially becoming Chen Qiu’s third Nascent Soul Body.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming strength and unequal talent: The secret realm reveals the vast gap between Chen Qiu and ordinary geniuses. Even cultivators considered “Peerless Among Equals” cannot approach his ability to defeat enemies at the same level.
• Fortune and opportunity: The realm rewards both combat ability and luck, but Chen Qiu’s strength allows him to reach treasures inaccessible to others.
• Greed, envy, and comparison: The cultivators are frustrated not only by their own meager rewards but by watching Chen Qiu obtain Spirit Stones, Traits, and rare treasures in abundance.
• Pragmatism and resourcefulness: Chen Qiu carefully evaluates every reward, conceals valuable discoveries, and balances immediate gains against long-term goals such as Golden Core formation and building additional Nascent Soul Bodies.
• Loyalty and mutual advancement: Chen Qiu’s gift to Scholar shows that he values allies who can help fulfill his larger plans, while Scholar’s recovery offers him a path to regain his former potential.

Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon discuss the deceptive fish-choice encounter, debating whether Green Fish or Rainbow Fish would have been the correct answer. The scene illustrates how the secret realm tests greed and judgment.
• Other cultivators watch Chen Qiu’s progress with admiration, jealousy, and helplessness. His success makes their own rewards seem insignificant.
• Chen Qiu’s presence indirectly motivates other cultivators to retry the difficult third stage after seeing that Blue Fish are worth ten times as much as Yellow Fish.
• Chen Qiu and Scholar share the chapter’s most important exchange: Scholar identifies the pink pill as a Heavenly Dao Detoxification Pill, and Chen Qiu entrusts it to him. Chen Qiu encourages Scholar to recover, inherit the Sword cultivator legacy, and become his third Nascent Soul Body.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Qiu has nearly fulfilled the requirements for forging a Tenth-grade Golden Core. He already possesses the necessary Traits, Nascent Soul Bodies, Heavenly Dao Foundation, Rainbow Trait, Eight Desolations Fruit, and Fierce Baleful Wood, lacking only six Second-Grade Golden Cores.
• During the eighth trial of the fortuitous secret realm, he catches eight Pink fish, earning seven Heavenly Dao Detoxification Pills and access to the hidden stage.
• He defeats five Golden Core Third Layer fishman monsters almost instantly by using White Trait self-destructions to unleash the Lightning-Channeling Art.
• His Rainbow Fishing Rod reaches its maximum level and can be taken out of the secret realm. It catches Rainbow fish that transform into Second-Grade Golden Cores.
• Before the secret realm closes, Chen Qiu catches seven Second-Grade Golden Cores. Combined with the three he already had, he now possesses the ten required to forge a Tenth-grade Golden Core.
• The group is randomly teleported to a wilderness near Mountain-Cleaving City after the secret realm ends. Chen Qiu inventories his enormous harvest, including Spirit Stones, White Trait Jade Slips, Eight Desolations Fruits, Heavenly Dao Detoxification Pills, the Rainbow Fishing Rod, and ten Second-Grade Golden Cores.
• They travel to Fat Prefecture so Scholar can cleanse the impurities in his Dao Foundation and challenge the Sword cultivator Inheritance.
• After taking a Heavenly Dao Detoxification Pill, Scholar restores his sword intent and demonstrates a powerful Azure Lotus Sword Formation, revealing strength far beyond his current Foundation Establishment cultivation.
• Scholar enters the Sword cultivator Inheritance, while Chen Qiu waits in the Boundless Ice Wastes and prepares to break through to Golden Core.
• While Chen Qiu sleeps beside a fire fueled by Fierce Baleful Wood, Fat Dragon begins suspecting that Scholar’s “younger brother” may actually be the legendary Imperial Preceptor.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Qiu: Moves from preparation to imminent breakthrough, gaining enough Second-Grade Golden Cores to attempt a Tenth-grade Golden Core. His confidence grows, and he begins considering entering the upcoming Prodigy Rankings rather than postponing his debut.
• Scholar: Receives treatment for the impurities caused by excessive Qi-Replenishing Pills and regains his former spirit. His restored sword techniques display extraordinary power, and he becomes determined to seize the Sword cultivator Inheritance despite being only at Foundation Establishment Third Layer.
• Fat Dragon: Remains humorous and observant but shows increasing insight. He pieces together a theory that Scholar’s younger brother is actually the Imperial Preceptor and that Scholar’s life—including his rise, fall, and rivalry with Ji Taiping—may have been deliberately manipulated.
• Scholar’s “younger brother”: Maintains an eerie silence and does not deny Fat Dragon’s accusations, suggesting that Fat Dragon’s suspicions may contain some truth.

3. Significant Themes

• Preparation and sudden opportunity: Chen Qiu expects to spend a year gathering the materials for his breakthrough, but a single secret realm accelerates his plans dramatically.
• Power and unequal potential: The superiority of Second-Grade and Tenth-grade Golden Cores emphasizes the vast gap between ordinary cultivators and exceptional geniuses.
• Manipulation versus destiny: Fat Dragon’s theory raises the possibility that Scholar’s hardships and development were engineered by the Imperial Preceptor rather than being accidental.
• Companionship and dependence: Scholar abandons his former arrogance and recognizes the value of relying on Chen Qiu, while the group’s relaxed campfire scene highlights their growing camaraderie.
• Hidden identities and unreliable memories: The revelation that Scholar may have no true younger brother introduces questions about hypnosis, altered memories, bloodline connections, and the Imperial Preceptor’s long-term schemes.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Qiu and Scholar discuss the timing of Scholar’s inheritance challenge; Scholar insists on proceeding while his cultivation is low because the trial difficulty will scale accordingly.
• Fat Dragon teases Scholar’s younger brother about his appearance and personality, then launches into an increasingly detailed theory identifying him as the Imperial Preceptor.
• Scholar boasts theatrically after demonstrating his sword formation, but secretly returns to the group, prompting Fat Dragon to accuse him of showing off.
• Chen Qiu shares the valuable Fierce Baleful Wood with Fat Dragon and the others as firewood, creating a warm, peaceful contrast to the chapter’s intense battles and schemes.
• The chapter closes with Fat Dragon questioning whether Scholar’s brother is both his biological sibling and the Imperial Preceptor, while the suspected Imperial Preceptor remains silent.