Recaps

After consuming a Golden Core, Chen Qiu assessed his cultivation and the traits he had spent to defeat Barefoot Immortal. He gathered his companions to divide their spoils and invited Scholar to join the Mocking Heaven Sect as an elder, leaving Scholar happy to belong to a group.

• Chen Qiu found his cultivation at 96% toward Foundation Establishment Third Layer and reviewed the four traits he had self-destructed to help kill Barefoot Immortal.
• Chen Qiu considered the remaining traits he could sacrifice and decided not to waste his Retrospection Talismans unless necessary.
• Fat Dragon reported that three of Barefoot Immortal's six storage rings had survived, and Chen Qiu proposed taking stock of their gains and sharing anything useful.
• Scholar declined a share of the spoils because he received monthly pay as a retainer, so Chen Qiu told him his pay would end and invited him to join the Mocking Heaven Sect as an elder.
• Scholar accepted the invitation, pleased by the chance to belong to a group and hopeful that the sect might help restore his cultivation and improve his swordsmanship.

After Chen Qiu formed the Mocking Heaven Sect with Xia Xundao and others, the group surveyed the devastation in Windward City. The new Fame Leaderboard inspired the Wang Family head and Liu Attendant to plan how to spread recordings of the head’s feats across Great Xia.

• Xia Xundao joined Chen Qiu’s group, and Fat Dragon, the scholar, and the bearded man claimed the first three elder positions in the Mocking Heaven Sect.
• The Wang Family head emerged from hiding after Windward City was devastated and wondered how the Devil Race cultivators had been killed so quickly.
• Liu Attendant explained that the Heavenly Dao had introduced a Fame Leaderboard, whose ranked figures received daily blessings.
• The Wang Family head reviewed the famous figures on the list and doubted that he and Liu Attendant could compete with them.
• Liu Attendant proposed selling recordings of the Wang Family head chopping down nine bulls to local powers throughout Great Xia to rapidly increase his fame.
• The Wang Family head worried that local powers might charge too much for the recordings, limiting how many people saw them.

Liu Attendant arranged a publicity scheme to raise the Wang Family head’s fame, while Ji Taiping reacted to the Fame Leaderboard and resolved to find and kill White Robe. The chapter ended with Chen Qiu struggling under the freezing wraith of a Fourth-Layer Golden Core cultivator as Fat Dragon and the others guarded him.

• Liu Attendant told the Wang Family head to stage a wager against the Heavenly Dao and record a catchy challenge to boost his fame.
• The Heavenly Dao introduced a Fame Leaderboard that granted lasting fame points and daily blessings to highly ranked cultivators.
• Ji Taiping saw himself ranked thirteenth and spoke with Ji Renjian about his ambition to become the strongest sword cultivator and marry her.
• Ji Taiping recognized White Robe on the leaderboard and planned to find and kill him to settle doubts about his standing as Great Xia’s foremost sword cultivator.
• Chen Qiu circulated his cultivation method in an inn while a freezing Fourth-Layer Golden Core wraith pressed down on him, and Fat Dragon and the others guarded him helplessly.

Chen Qiu’s Golden Core Wraith’s backlash left him near collapse, so he sought a vulnerable Golden Core cultivator to kill and gain another core. The Scholar identified Poison-Thunder Old Fiend at Poison-Thunder Marsh, and Chen Qiu’s group arrived at the poisonous marsh to confront him.

• Chen Qiu recovered enough to stand after the Fourth-Layer Golden Core Wraith’s resentment nearly overwhelmed him, and he wished he could kill another Golden Core cultivator.
• Chen Qiu asked the Scholar for a weak, unsupported Early Golden Core Rogue Cultivator whom his Wraith could defeat.
• The Scholar named Poison-Thunder Old Fiend, a cruel Golden Core cultivator secluded in Poison-Thunder Marsh, and explained his past grievances with him.
• Chen Qiu ordered the group to visit Poison-Thunder Old Fiend, and they traveled in fits and starts toward the marsh.
• Chen Qiu and his group reached Poison-Thunder Marsh and saw its poisonous clouds, churning mud, and foul haze.

Chen Qiu sent his wraiths into Poison Mist Marsh, where they slaughtered the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect disciples training there. Scholar helped prevent a survivor from escaping, and Chen Qiu reflected that Scholar had been a valuable partner.

• Chen Qiu released the Fourth-Layer Golden Core wraith and ordered it to kill every living creature in the swamp.
• Scholar recognized the voices of Ten Thousand Poisons Sect disciples and warned that survivors could bring retaliation.
• Chen Qiu sent his nearly ten thousand Devil Race cultivator wraiths into the marsh and gave Scholar Lightning-Drawing Talismans to use with his flying sword.
• The wraiths killed the sect disciples, and Scholar struck down the only Golden Core that fled.
• Chen Qiu praised Scholar and admired the Golden Core impaled on their flying sword.

After the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect was wiped out, Chen Qiu’s group looted the corpses and debated who to blame for the massacre. Myriad Demon Child arrived seeking blood food and prepared to attack them.

• The Barefoot Immortal Wraith and several thousand Devil Race cultivators brought out the dead Ten Thousand Poisons Sect disciples, and Chen Qiu’s group stripped their belongings.
• Chen Qiu kept the Golden Core Wraith unconsumed, wary that its resentful energy would overwhelm him.
• Chen Qiu considered leaving evidence that blamed a Great Xia Attendant, but Fat Dragon warned that the framing would be too obvious.
• Scholar suggested blaming White Robe, then revealed he knew his and Myriad Demon Child’s Fame Leaderboard rankings.
• Myriad Demon Child arrived, saw the corpses as blood food, and advanced on Chen Qiu’s group with a blood-mist hammer.

Chen Qiu and his companions witnessed Myriad Demon Child die after a Wraith struck him, leaving Scholar shaken by the easy defeat. After storing the poison cultivators’ corpses in his Minor World, Chen Qiu entered Mountain-Cleaving City and spotted the Flower Offering Sect’s Walking Celestial Maiden being held hostage.

• A Fourth-Layer Golden Core Wraith emerged from Poison Mist Marsh and killed Myriad Demon Child with a single slap.
• Scholar confirmed Myriad Demon Child had vanished from the Heavenly Dao Leaderboard and struggled to believe he was dead.
• Chen Qiu reassured Scholar that his past wounds had left Myriad Demon Child weakened, then stored the poison cultivators’ corpses in his Minor World.
• Chen Qiu and his companions entered Mountain-Cleaving City after cleaning up the battle site.
• Fat Dragon recognized the Walking Celestial Maiden of the Flower Offering Sect, who was surrounded by men and appeared to be held hostage.

After reaching Mountain-Cleaving City, Chen Qiu rested and absorbed Poison-Thunder Old Fiend’s Golden Core, advancing to the Third Layer of Foundation Establishment and choosing the Peerless Beauty trait. Meanwhile, his name appeared on the Fame Leaderboard as White Robe’s ranking rose, and sect disciples watched a spell cultivator battle the Devil Race.

• The Flower-Offering Sect Walking Celestial Maiden recognized Fat Dragon but avoided his gaze, and Fat Dragon insisted he would never forgive her.
• Chen Qiu entered Mountain-Cleaving City, bought an Image Recording Stone depicting the Nine Oxen butcher, and booked rooms at an inn.
• After resting and stabilizing himself, Chen Qiu absorbed Poison-Thunder Old Fiend’s Golden Core, raising his cultivation to Foundation Establishment Third Layer.
• Chen Qiu rejected the traits that rewarded him for manipulating and killing women who loved him, then selected Peerless Beauty.
• Chen Qiu’s name appeared near the bottom of the Fame Leaderboard as White Robe climbed the rankings, while sect disciples watched footage of a spell cultivator bombarding Devil Race cultivators with lightning.

Heavenward Sect’s sect master planned to recruit Chen Qiu and White Robe, imagining they could restore the sect’s glory alongside Zhao Yishi. Zhao Yishi was ordered to leave his hiding place after a sect mission arrived.

• Heavenward Sect’s elders and disciples watched Chen Qiu and White Robe’s battle and doubted that their teamwork could be replicated.
• Heavenward Sect’s grand elder suggested sending Zhao Yishi to compete in the annual Sect Disciple Martial Tournament.
• Heavenward Sect’s sect master decided Zhao Yishi should seek out Chen Qiu and befriend him without revealing a recruitment plan.
• Heavenward Sect’s sect master also hoped to recruit White Robe and help him recover his cultivation.
• Zhao Yishi hid in a mountain ravine disguised as a hot spring while several young women bathed above him.
• Zhao Yishi received an urgent sect mission through his Voice-Transmission Ring and rose from the ravine.

Chen Qiu stabilized his cultivation, inspected the spoils from their recent battles, and discovered that the Fame Leaderboard had awarded him a Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill. Scholar explained the pill’s benefits, while the group’s breakfast conversation turned to celebrating the winter solstice.

• Zhao Yishi released the young women he had swallowed, thanked them for giving him an idea during the previous secret realm trial, and departed.
• Chen Qiu reached the Foundation Establishment Third Layer, tested his spiritual energy, and reviewed the storage pouches, rings, and other spoils in his Minor World.
• Chen Qiu met Fat Dragon, Scholar, and Scholar's younger brother, and they went out for breakfast.
• Fat Dragon noted that it was the winter solstice and suggested they eat dumplings later.
• Scholar discovered he had risen to 898th on the Fame Rankings, while Chen Qiu found himself at 982nd and retrieved his Heavenly Dao Blessing.
• Chen Qiu opened the gift box to find a Low-Grade Foundation Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill, and Scholar explained how it differed from ordinary Cultivation Pills.

Chen Qiu tested the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill from the Fame Leaderboard and considered how to raise his rank without attracting too much attention. As he ate with his companions, a scrawny young man being dragged out of the city recognized the Sky-Blasting Gang and begged them to save him, leaving Fat Dragon and Chen Qiu facing a potential confrontation.

• Scholar explained that Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills could be taken alongside Spirit Stones and that the leaderboard’s blessings were unusually valuable and scarce.
• Chen Qiu consumed his Low-Grade Foundation Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pill, raising his Foundation Establishment Third Layer progress from 36.1% to 36.8%.
• Scholar said temporary Fame Leaderboards tended to appear before major Heavenly Dao changes and that Chen Qiu and his companions had likely gained attention after their Windward City battle was recorded and shared.
• Chen Qiu pondered how to gain fame without drawing the notice of powerful old monsters, while considering whether his Peerless Beauty trait could help.
• Several burly men dragged a scrawny young man toward the city gate, and he called out for the Sky-Blasting Gang to save him after spotting Chen Qiu’s group.
• Fat Dragon looked to Chen Qiu as the burly men stopped, struck the young man, and threatened to cut out his tongue.

Chen Qiu and his companions followed the Fierce Tiger Gang into the wilderness to stop them from harming a young man, and Fat Dragon easily defeated their third-in-command. The young man begged them to spare the gang leader and claimed he had met them before in Windward City, leaving his explanation for the next hundred breaths.

• Chen Qiu learned that the men who had taken the young man belonged to the Fierce Tiger Gang and followed them out of Mountain-Cleaving City with his companions.
• The gang's third-in-command threatened the young man and challenged Chen Qiu's group when they appeared in the forest.
• Fat Dragon blocked the man's sword with a spiritual energy shield and knocked him down, revealing that he was a Foundation Establishment expert.
• The defeated gang member begged for his life and offered to have his boss apologize, while Fat Dragon prepared to strike him.
• The young man stopped Fat Dragon and said he had seen Chen Qiu's group killing Devil Race cultivators in Windward City, asking for a hundred breaths to explain.

Liu Zide revealed that he had used recordings of the Nine Oxen Festival to raise Chen Qiu’s fame and proposed a plan to profit from Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills. He urged Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon to help him rapidly take control of publicity across all forty-seven cities of Xuzhou.

• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon brought Liu Zide into the forest to hear his explanation while their companions kept the burly man from fleeing.
• Liu Zide introduced himself as an Attendant of the Fortune City Wang Family and claimed he had organized the Nine Oxen Festival.
• Liu Zide explained that he had recorded the festival and spread the recordings through two cities, helping Chen Qiu enter the rankings.
• Liu Zide proposed producing sensational recordings to make hundreds of people famous and collect the Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills they received.
• Liu Zide urged them to seize publicity across all forty-seven cities of Xuzhou before rivals recognized the opportunity.

Liu Zide proposed using Chen Qiu’s wealth to rapidly expand his unconventional Image Recording Stone business across Xuzhou, and Chen Qiu agreed to hear his terms. Liu Zide sought capital, protection, and a share of the profits, while offering to boost Chen Qiu’s fame; the chapter ended with him lowering his requested cut from ten percent to five.

• Chen Qiu confirmed that Wang Tiedan had reached rank 936 on the Fame Leaderboard through his Nine Oxen Festival, making Liu Zide’s plan to create more such figures seem feasible.
• Chen Qiu decided he was tempted by Liu Zide’s plan and asked for its specific terms.
• Liu Zide said the operation needed about fifteen thousand Spirit Stones to expand quickly across Xuzhou and place large orders for Image Recording Stones.
• Liu Zide explained that he was acting on his own after the Wang Family master abandoned the business, and that the Fierce Tiger Gang had chased him over his work duplicating Image Recording Stones.
• Liu Zide asked for hired escorts and ten percent of the profits, then offered to raise Chen Qiu’s fame through paid storytellers and staged public admiration.
• Liu Zide offered to accept five percent instead so he could return to Fortune City with something to show for his efforts.

Chen Qiu arranged for Liu Zide and the scholar to buy Qi-Replenishing Pills across Mountain-Cleaving City while he stayed behind with Fat Dragon. They waited at an abandoned temple for a specialist to break a storage ring’s restriction, where a masked man introduced himself as Wang Lao Qi.

• Chen Qiu gave Liu Zide fifteen thousand Spirit Stones and tasked him with buying Qi-Replenishing Pills, while the scholar and two others followed his orders.
• Liu Zide and the scholar left for Autumn Reach City using the scholar’s Three-Foot Azure Edge, and Chen Qiu returned to Mountain-Cleaving City with Fat Dragon.
• Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon sought someone to break a storage ring’s restriction and were directed to an abandoned temple outside the city.
• A masked middle-aged man arrived at the temple, called himself Wang Lao Qi, and asked Chen Qiu to bring out the storage ring.

Chen Qiu brought hundreds of storage rings to a shopkeeper who specialized in breaking restrictions, and the shopkeeper eagerly spent the night unlocking them. As dawn approached, Chen Qiu handed over seven more rings, including five from Golden Core cultivators and two from demonic cultivators, and the shopkeeper began working on one of the Golden Core rings.

• Chen Qiu gave the shopkeeper more than thirty storage rings, and the man proudly broke their restrictions while explaining how they worked.
• Chen Qiu produced more than three hundred additional rings, then supplied Qi-Replenishing Pills when the shopkeeper warned that the work would consume his spiritual energy.
• After several hours, the exhausted shopkeeper finished the second batch, but Chen Qiu handed him seven more storage rings.
• The shopkeeper recognized that five rings belonged to Golden Core cultivators and that two carried the sinister aura of demonic cultivators.
• The shopkeeper washed his hands with the Spring Rain Art and began examining a Golden Core poison cultivator's ring, excitedly describing its dangerous restrictions.

After the middle-aged man spent three incense sticks breaking another storage ring’s restriction, Chen Qiu paid him generously and left with Fat Dragon for the Mocking Heaven Sect’s Minor World. Chen Qiu sorted the newly opened rings and eagerly began inspecting the Golden Core poison cultivator’s storage ring.

• The middle-aged man exhausted himself breaking a storage ring’s restriction and asked Chen Qiu to meet again the following night to continue.
• Chen Qiu paid the middle-aged man the agreed price plus thirty extra Spirit Stones, and the man departed pleased.
• Chen Qiu brought Fat Dragon into the Mocking Heaven Sect’s Minor World and settled in an intact disciple dormitory to cultivate.
• Chen Qiu practiced controlling spiritual energy into a fine thread but could not make it thinner than a strand of hair.
• Chen Qiu sorted the newly opened storage rings, finding more than nine thousand Spirit Stones and various low-grade items, then discarded the Devil Race cultivators’ junk.
• Chen Qiu sent his consciousness into the Golden Core poison cultivator’s storage ring, hoping to find a great treasure.

Chen Qiu discovered a valuable storage ring containing a Supreme-Grade Foundation Establishment spell, the Nine-Poison Nether-Soul Method, and the supplies needed to cultivate it. After learning that the spell’s requirement to kill 330 people guilty of the Seven Evils had already been met, he began preparing its nine-poison bath with Fat Dragon’s help.

• Chen Qiu counted thousands of Spirit Stones, precious pills, herbs, and an Enlightenment Stone in the storage ring he had obtained from Poison-Thunder Old Fiend.
• Chen Qiu found the Nine-Poison Nether-Soul Method and learned that its requirement to kill 330 people guilty of the Seven Evils had been fulfilled, likely through the deaths of the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect disciples in Poison-Thunder Marsh.
• Chen Qiu studied the spell’s poisonous green Demonic Flame and decided it would become his second primary offensive spell.
• Chen Qiu woke Fat Dragon and prepared to cultivate the spell using the storage ring’s poisonous substances and antidotes.
• Chen Qiu extinguished the fire, entered the vat, and instructed Fat Dragon to give him antidote pills if he fainted or anything went wrong.

Chen Qiu cultivated the Nine-Poison Nether-Soul Method while Liu Zide spent Spirit Stones to create and spread Image Recording Stones across Xuzhou. Chen Qiu funded Liu Zide’s campaign again after receiving its first Heavenly Dao rewards, while Liu Zide pushed the operation to expand even faster.

• Chen Qiu endured the poisonous mist in a medicinal vat and cultivated the Nine-Poison Nether-Soul Method to Great Perfection, gaining a green demon flame as a new attack.
• Liu Zide directed actors, hired workers, and mobilized the Zhao Clan Merchant Association to produce and distribute Image Recording Stones throughout Xuzhou.
• Liu Zide spent nearly all of Chen Qiu’s fifteen thousand Spirit Stones in a day, stirring activity across Autumn Reach City and creating dozens of newly famous figures.
• Scholar delivered Liu Zide’s request for another ten thousand Spirit Stones and gave Chen Qiu sixty-seven Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills earned by the campaign.
• Chen Qiu provided the additional Spirit Stones and warned Liu Zide to produce substantial rewards; Liu Zide immediately raised his offer to triple the price of Image Recording Stones.

Chen Qiu opened the remaining storage rings and found rare Trait Jade Slips, while Fat Dragon struggled with Traits that could accelerate his cultivation but conflicted with his reluctance to have children. The next day in Mountain-Cleaving City, Chen Qiu realized the Heaven-Question Market master’s token was a formation disk capable of killing a Golden Core Fifth Layer cultivator.

• Chen Qiu consumed Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills, raising his Foundation Establishment Third Layer cultivation progress to 83.8%.
• The shopkeeper opened the six remaining storage rings, and Chen Qiu found little of value in most of them but discovered the Purple Trait Heaven-Mandated Dual Cultivation and gave it to Fat Dragon.
• Chen Qiu acquired the Gray Trait Step-by-Step Precaution, which enhanced Shrinking Earth to Inches, and gave Fat Dragon the Green Trait No Attacks on the Parents.
• Fat Dragon proposed dual cultivating with female demons to avoid his Never Misses Trait causing human pregnancies, but admitted he found the idea revolting and resolved to endure it for his cultivation.
• At an inn in Mountain-Cleaving City, Chen Qiu identified the Heaven-Question Market master’s token as a Blazing Seven-Kill Formation disk capable of killing a Golden Core Fifth Layer cultivator.

Chen Qiu gained the Dual Casting trait and then caught the falling Tenfold Casting Trait Jade Slip after Ji Taiping pursued a demonic cultivator through Mountain-Cleaving City. Fleeing to Autumn Reach City with his allies and Liu Zide’s recruited crowd, Chen Qiu hid them in his Minor World and headed for a remote cave to cultivate while Ji Taiping began searching for him.

• Scholar brought Chen Qiu 283 Low-Grade Foundation Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills, and Chen Qiu consumed 24 to break through to the fourth layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm and gain the Dual Casting trait.
• Fat Dragon invited Chen Qiu to drink and eat rabbit meat on the inn roof, where Zhao Yishi arrived, ate the rabbits, and told them that his sect master had sent him to provide support.
• A demonic cultivator threw the Tenfold Casting Trait Jade Slip toward Mountain-Cleaving City while fleeing Ji Taiping, and the slip landed in Chen Qiu’s arms before Ji Taiping sealed the city and began a search.
• Chen Qiu escaped to Autumn Reach City with Scholar, Fat Dragon, and Zhao Yishi, then urged Zhao Yishi to return to his sect and hide from the dangerous Golden Core sword cultivator.
• Chen Qiu told Liu Zide to stop expanding the Heavenly Dao Blessing scheme, paid him two thousand Spirit Stones to withdraw, and hid Liu Zide’s more than two hundred recruits in his Minor World.
• Chen Qiu rejected going to the Prodigy Rankings Competition and followed Scholar toward a remote cave dwelling where they could cultivate.

After escaping Autumn Reach City, Chen Qiu’s group reached Scholar’s hidden gorge refuge, where Scholar explained that Great Xia was surrounded by dangerous lands and might be a prison preventing Nascent Souls from emerging. As Chen Qiu cultivated there, a newly transmigrated Brown Bear in the Boundless Desert tried to unite the Demon Race by growing Spirit Rice.

• Ji Taiping arrived above Autumn Reach City and asked the City Lord to meet, while Chen Qiu’s group and Liu Zide escaped and their rumors spread through Xuzhou.
• Scholar described Great Xia’s Golden Core system, its Nascent Soul-killing national formation, and the dangerous desert, sea, mountains, and ice field surrounding the kingdom.
• Chen Qiu concluded that Great Xia resembled a prison, then followed Scholar and the others into a gorge refuge where spiritual energy could not be used by anyone who crossed the clouds above it.
• Chen Qiu settled beside the stream and cultivated with Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills while Fat Dragon and Scholar cleaned the hut and reviewed Image Recording Stones.
• At the edge of the Boundless Desert, a transmigrated Brown Bear tried to grow Spirit Rice and told his father he wanted to unite the Brown Bear Clan against Great Xia.

Chen Qiu chose the Nonsense Trait after reaching the Fifth Level of Foundation Establishment, then destroyed it with a strike that unknowingly killed July Cat, a rabbit demon with nine lives. July Cat sought revenge, but Liu Zide killed her again while traveling back to Fortune City, where he planned to build a name for himself.

• The Walking Celestial Maiden arrived at the inn seeking Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon, then lured the men who had demanded refunds into the forest and killed them while recovering from her injuries.
• Chen Qiu absorbed Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills, reached the Fifth Level of Foundation Establishment, and chose the Nonsense Trait after rejecting two traits with permanent drawbacks.
• Chen Qiu tried to activate the Nonsense Trait by lying to Fat Dragon, but Fat Dragon saw through him, so Chen Qiu destroyed the trait with a powerful strike that killed a rabbit demon.
• July Cat, reborn as the rabbit demon, realized Chen Qiu had killed her again and vowed revenge, but Liu Zide killed her in her next life while traveling toward Fortune City.
• Liu Zide continued toward Fortune City, convinced that returning to his old master would let him build power and make his name known.

Chen Qiu followed a yellow fish to the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect’s hidden cavern and stole its Dragon Vein Stones, then learned that the upcoming Prodigy Rankings competition could grant him a Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasure. In Great Ming City, he assessed the formidable competitors and considered disrupting the competition if he could not win.

• Zhao Yishi told the Heavenward Sect master that he had not taken Ji Taiping’s Trait Jade Slip, and the sect master rejected Ji Taiping’s demands.
• Chen Qiu followed a yellow fish underground with Fat Dragon and Scholar’s younger brother, discovered a cavern in Ten Thousand Poisons Sect territory, and took more than two hundred Dragon Vein Stones before escaping a Golden Core cultivator.
• Scholar explained that the Prodigy Rankings competition would offer a Heavenly Dao Spirit Treasure to its top three contestants, and Chen Qiu agreed to travel to Capital Province despite his earlier resolve to wait until Golden Core.
• In Great Ming City, Chen Qiu gathered intelligence on the competition’s powerful contestants and learned that some had reached Golden Core.
• Chen Qiu concluded that winning would be difficult without using his Self-Destruct Trait and considered flipping the table by entering the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm alone.

Chen Qiu postponed entering the Prodigy Rankings and set out for the Boundless Ice Wastes to seek a Dharma Cultivator Inheritance, while the Fame Leaderboard stirred the Flower-Offering Sect into action. The chapter ended with the Walking Celestial Maiden remembering Fat Dragon and his vow to destroy the sect, as Fat Dragon warned Scholar about its cruelty.

• Scholar described his past Prodigy Rankings performances and the deadly, unpredictable Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, leading Chen Qiu to decide to wait until next year before competing.
• Scholar told Chen Qiu about the nine ancient cultivation inheritances in a permanently open secret realm, and Chen Qiu set off with his companions for the Boundless Ice Wastes.
• Chen Qiu collected Heavenly Dao Cultivation Pills generated by the Fame Leaderboard as ordinary mortals' names climbed its rankings.
• Flower-Offering Sect Master Bao Yichao learned that Image Recording Stones had raised hundreds of mortals' fame and summoned the elders to discuss exploiting the method.
• The Walking Celestial Maiden endured punishment and abuse in the Flower-Offering Sect while recalling how Fat Dragon had treated her kindly and vowed to destroy the sect.
• Fat Dragon told Scholar that surviving the Flower-Offering Sect had required him to flatter and appease its members, and challenged Scholar to try enduring it himself.