Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Six years after the collapse of the Great Chu Empire, Chen Jichuan and his younger brother Chen Shaohe remain imprisoned in the “Black Prison,” a brutal mining labor camp.
• The brothers were imprisoned as children because their father and relatives had worked as yamen officials and runners during the former Yongfeng County regime. When bandits seized the county, the entire families of the officials were implicated and punished.
• The Black Prison’s miners extract Yantie Ore under harsh conditions. After years of labor, Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe have lost most of their relatives to death from exhaustion and illness.
• The miners are unexpectedly ordered to relocate. Escorted by officials and twelve Black Armor soldiers, roughly five hundred miners travel hundreds of li to a new mine.
• At the new location, Mine Administrator Feng Mo announces that the miners will live and work inside cliffside caves. Anyone who finds twenty pieces of a rare blue ore called Spirit Ore may leave the Black Prison.
• Chen Jichuan immediately suspects the offer is dangerous and recognizes that the officials are exploiting the miners’ desperation.
• The miners begin smashing Yantie Ore inside the caves, searching for Spirit Ore. The work has no daily quota and requires no hauling, but the cave environment gradually causes severe symptoms: nausea, nosebleeds, hair loss, mouth ulcers, skin lesions, coughing blood, and bizarre deaths.
• Chen Jichuan deduces that the Spirit Ore emits radiation and realizes the miners are being exposed to a lethal environment.
• Some miners flee, commit suicide, fall from the cliff ladders, or are taken away by the overseers. The Black Armor soldiers brutally suppress all attempts to escape.
• Chen Shaohe grows increasingly ill but continues working and tries to maintain a cheerful attitude. On the seventeenth day, he discovers the brothers’ first piece of Spirit Ore.
• The chapter ends with Chen Jichuan examining the ore while trying to conceal his grim suspicions from Chen Shaohe, who hopes it may contain some life-saving secret.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan is portrayed as pragmatic, observant, and emotionally resilient. His previous-life knowledge helps him understand the danger of radiation, assess the officials’ motives, and protect his younger brother. Although hardened by suffering, he retains compassion and guilt over his family’s punishment.
• He shifts from merely enduring the Black Prison to actively seeking a way out, especially after recognizing that the new mine may be a death trap. His determination becomes increasingly desperate as Chen Shaohe’s health declines.
• Chen Shaohe has grown up almost entirely in captivity and has witnessed nearly his entire family die. Despite this, he remains hopeful, good-natured, and emotionally attached to Chen Jichuan.
• Chen Jichuan has shaped Shaohe’s worldview by retelling fantasy stories about protagonists who endure hardship before eventually finding fortune. These stories preserve Shaohe’s hope and prevent him from becoming completely despairing.
• As Shaohe begins to show serious symptoms, he becomes more aware of his mortality but continues working to help Chen Jichuan. His discovery of the first Spirit Ore briefly restores his excitement and belief in a possible turning point.
• The miners as a group have adapted to suffering and formed a subdued sense of community, but the new mine’s deadly conditions rapidly transform their resignation into panic.
• The officials and Black Armor soldiers represent institutionalized cruelty. The officials appear calculating and detached, while the soldiers enforce obedience through fear and violence.

3. Significant Themes

• Collective punishment and moral ambiguity: Chen Jichuan’s family suffers because of the crimes committed by their relatives. The chapter acknowledges that the family’s yamen background involved corruption, yet also portrays the punishment of children and innocent relatives as brutal and unjust.
• Survival and hope: The brothers endure years of misery because they continue to believe that survival may eventually lead to freedom. The recurring idea that “living is hope” becomes their emotional foundation.
• Exploitation disguised as opportunity: The promise of freedom for finding twenty Spirit Ore appears generous but is actually a mechanism to force miners into a lethal environment.
• Brotherhood and sacrifice: Chen Jichuan’s greatest motivation is protecting Chen Shaohe. Shaohe reciprocates by continuing to work and seeking ore that might help his brother escape.
• Knowledge versus ignorance: Chen Jichuan’s modern-world knowledge allows him to identify radiation as the likely cause of the illnesses, but understanding the danger does not give him an immediate way to escape it.
• Institutional powerlessness: The miners are treated as expendable labor. Rules, quotas, and punishments change according to the authorities’ needs, leaving the prisoners with no genuine control over their fate.
• Endurance under oppression: The miners preserve fragments of humanity through greetings, humor, stories, and dreams of ordinary life despite the dehumanizing conditions.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe work side by side, physically supporting one another while carrying ore and traveling.
• Chen Jichuan repeatedly cautions Shaohe to avoid attracting attention, teaching him that survival requires restraint and invisibility.
• Their conversations reveal deep trust: Jichuan encourages Shaohe through stories of future success, while Shaohe responds with humor and optimism.
• At the new mine, the brothers discuss their suspicions that the sudden freedom offer must conceal a danger.
• When Shaohe becomes ill, Jichuan initially comforts him and then works frantically to find enough Spirit Ore to secure their release, prioritizing Shaohe’s survival.
• Shaohe, despite his worsening condition, refuses to abandon Jichuan and continues working. His excitement upon finding the first Spirit Ore reflects both his devotion to his brother and his desperate hope for a miracle.
• The interaction between Li Ming and overseer Qian Lai demonstrates the miners’ helplessness: Li Ming pleads for consideration for his exhausted father, but Qian Lai responds with violence and threatens execution or death by whipping.
• Feng Mo’s interaction with the assembled miners establishes the new mine’s oppressive terms, while the silent presence of the Black Armor soldiers ensures that no one dares resist.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan touches a spirit ore, triggering the reappearance of the Azure Lotus Jade Pendant he had bought in his previous life before dying in a car accident and transmigrating.
• The pendant contains the supreme art “Dao Fruit,” created by an unknown entity called the Heavenly Palace. It recognizes Chen Jichuan as a Law Master and generates an immortal registry.
• The Dao Fruit system uses silver threads as Origin Force. Once the azure lotus blooms, Chen Jichuan will be able to enter different worlds, seize opportunities, condense Dao Fruits, and pursue eternal existence across the myriad realms.
• Chen Jichuan realizes this power may offer a way out of the Black Prison, where he and his younger brother are enslaved and slowly dying from radiation-induced mutation.
• At the same time, Chen Shaohe begins suffering violently from a dangerous awakening. Chen Jichuan uses his new Creation ability to inspect him and discovers that Shaohe’s Fire Control talent is failing because of insufficient Origin Force.
• Chen Jichuan transfers hundreds of silver threads into Shaohe, successfully stabilizing the awakening. Shaohe’s level rises from 0 to 4, and his Fire Control talent fully awakens.
• Shaohe accidentally releases a burst of flame, singeing Chen Jichuan’s hair and eyebrows. Though startled, both brothers soon laugh together, realizing their circumstances may finally begin to change.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Moves from helpless resignation to renewed hope. He discovers that the jade pendant from his former life is the source of a powerful cultivation system and gains the ability to perceive talents and provide Origin Force. His immediate instinct is to save Shaohe rather than investigate his new powers.
• Chen Shaohe: Reveals his fierce loyalty and protectiveness toward his brother, immediately viewing the pendant as a shared opportunity and being prepared to defend it with his life. His Fire Control talent awakens, giving him his first genuine power and possible means of survival.
• The Brothers’ Relationship: Their bond is strengthened through mutual trust. Chen Shaohe accepts Chen Jichuan’s “fortuitous encounter” without jealousy, while Chen Jichuan risks his newly acquired Origin Force to save him.

Significant Themes

• Hope amid oppression: The Dao Fruit appears when the brothers are trapped in the Black Prison and facing certain death, offering a possible escape from slavery and mutation.
• Family loyalty and shared destiny: The brothers treat the opportunity as belonging to both of them, emphasizing that one person’s advancement can benefit the entire family.
• Transformation and awakening: The chapter contrasts physical mutation and dangerous talent awakening with the empowering transformation brought by the Dao Fruit.
• Fate and transmigration: The jade pendant connects Chen Jichuan’s previous life to his current one, suggesting that his reincarnation and future path may have been predetermined.
• Power versus helplessness: Chen Jichuan’s new abilities mark the first reversal of his long-standing inability to control his own fate.

Important Character Interactions

• The spirit ore activates the Azure Lotus Jade Pendant while Chen Shaohe watches anxiously.
• Chen Shaohe guards Chen Jichuan during his trance, ready to kill anyone who might steal the opportunity.
• Chen Jichuan examines Shaohe’s failing talent and supplies the Origin Force necessary for its completion.
• Shaohe’s uncontrolled flame singes Chen Jichuan, creating a moment of comic relief after the crisis.
• The brothers share laughter in the cave, symbolizing the return of hope and their belief that their lives will soon change.

Chapter Summary — Immortal Register

Key Plot Points and Events

• After awakening his Fire Control talent, Chen Shaohe is overwhelmed by hatred toward Black Prison and its overseers and considers retaliating immediately.
• Chen Jichuan restrains him, emphasizing that they must first conceal Shaohe’s ability and learn more about Wusheng Sect, which controls Black Prison and may possess overwhelming forces, including archers and Martial Saint-level experts.
• Chen Shaohe accepts the warning and reflects on the danger of becoming arrogant after gaining sudden power.
• Chen Jichuan confirms that the cave’s mysterious “spirit ore” is actually a low-grade Spirit Stone. Though poisonous to ordinary people, it contains energy that can be converted into Origin Force.
• Chen Jichuan reviews his status in the Immortal Register. He has 370 Origin Force remaining after helping Shaohe awaken, but needs 1,000 points for his Dao Fruit to bloom—leaving him 630 points short.
• His talent, Creation—Insight, allows him to see through objects and perceive the mysterious internal symbols forming Shaohe’s Fire Control ability. However, copying and reproducing the talent proves mentally exhausting and technically difficult.
• Chen Jichuan decides to pursue two goals simultaneously: study and imitate Fire Control while continuing to search the cave for Spirit Stones.
• He discovers another Spirit Stone hidden inside Yan Iron Ore, gaining 63 Origin Force and confirming that his Insight talent makes locating more stones relatively easy.
• Despite their new powers, the brothers face a strict time limit. As miners continue to die or disappear, their survival and secrecy may be compromised within days or months.

Character Developments

• Chen Shaohe gains a powerful supernatural talent, but his immediate emotional reaction is rage and a desire for revenge. Under Chen Jichuan’s guidance, he demonstrates self-control and maturity by recognizing the need for caution.
• Chen Jichuan remains calm, strategic, and protective. Rather than acting impulsively, he evaluates the political and military dangers surrounding Black Prison. His priorities shift from simply escaping to exploiting the cave’s Spirit Stones and developing greater strength.
• Chen Jichuan also becomes more self-critical, realizing that his assumptions about cultivation and Spirit Stones were based on limited experience and could be dangerous.

Significant Themes

• Power requires restraint: Sudden strength can lead to arrogance and reckless decisions, making caution essential.
• Survival through secrecy: The brothers must hide their abilities and discoveries while surrounded by powerful enemies.
• Knowledge versus experience: Insight lets Chen Jichuan perceive extraordinary things, but understanding and reproducing them requires theory, practice, and effort.
• Opportunity within danger: The cave that once represented death now becomes a valuable cultivation resource because of the Spirit Stones.
• Time pressure and concealment: The brothers’ growing abilities are balanced by the increasing likelihood that their unusual survival will expose them.

Character Interactions

• Chen Shaohe asks Chen Jichuan what they should do, relying on his judgment.
• Chen Jichuan warns and instructs him, reminding him of the dangers of arrogance and urging him to practice Fire Control discreetly.
• Shaohe accepts the correction and shows that years of Chen Jichuan’s guidance have shaped his thinking.
• Chen Jichuan later observes Shaohe’s training from a distance, using Insight to study the structure of his new talent while guarding the cave entrance.

Chapter Summary: “Four Hundred to One! [Seeking Investment!]”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Three more days pass in the Death Mining Area, reducing the number of miners to fewer than four hundred. Several miners die gruesomely after apparently failing to withstand the awakening threshold or the intense spiritual energy from the spirit-stone mines.
• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe continue hiding their abilities from Overseer Qian Lai. Chen Shaohe controls his flames while pretending to be exhausted, and Chen Jichuan mines spirit stones while using Origin Force to rapidly recover from fatigue.
• Chen Jichuan discovers that Origin Force can restore his physical strength and gradually strengthen his muscles. After mining ten spirit stones over three days, his Origin Force reaches 1,024.
• The Azure Lotus Jade Pendant presents him with the option to consume 1,000 Origin Force and open a new world. Chen Jichuan accepts, leaving twenty-four Origin Force behind.
• Before departing, Chen Jichuan speaks with Chen Shaohe, reassuring him that he can return instantly because his physical body remains in the Black Prison. Chen Shaohe promises to guard him while he explores.
• The new world has a time ratio of 400:1 compared with Chen Jichuan’s original world. This means Chen Jichuan can spend years there while only days pass in the Death Mining Area, giving him valuable time to seek strength and a way to escape.
• He arrives in Langning City, within the Great Yan empire’s Lingnan Circuit. Using Creation, he discovers that he can understand the local language, though he cannot yet speak it.
• After listening to passersby, he learns about several martial arts, especially the Iron Bull Technique and Golden Shovel Finger. He decides that martial power is the most useful path for surviving and escaping Black Prison.
• Chen Jichuan visits the declining Lu Family Martial Academy, whose master, Lu Peng, was recently defeated and badly injured by the martial artist Yang Xu, known as “Cactus.”
• Because the stronger martial schools charge high fees and Chen Jichuan has no money, he chooses the weakened Lu academy. He claims that he can treat Lu Peng’s injuries, prompting Lu Peng’s sons, Lu Xiong and Lu Rong, to bring him inside.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Becomes increasingly resourceful and strategic. He learns to use Origin Force not only as a supernatural resource but also as a means of physical recovery and potential bodily strengthening. The new world’s favorable time ratio significantly eases his desperation and gives him hope. He remains focused on acquiring strength rather than pursuing wealth or comfort.
• Chen Shaohe: His flame control improves dramatically. He progresses from accidentally releasing fire to controlling it at will, though he continues disguising himself as an exhausted, aged miner. His concern for Chen Jichuan reveals his emotional dependence on and loyalty to his brother.
• Lu Xiong: Introduced as a powerful martial instructor capable of carrying a massive stone drum. His calm caution contrasts with Lu Rong’s more impulsive behavior.
• Lu Rong: Demonstrates strong filial devotion and a quick, impatient temperament when he hears that Chen Jichuan may save their father.
• Lu Peng: Though absent from most of the chapter, his defeat by Yang Xu establishes the academy’s weakened position and creates the opportunity for Chen Jichuan to enter it.

Significant Themes

• Time as a precious resource: The 400:1 time ratio gives Chen Jichuan the opportunity to develop for years while only a short period passes in Black Prison.
• Survival under oppression: The miners’ deaths and Qian Lai’s brutality emphasize the desperate conditions Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe must escape.
• Adaptability and hidden strength: Both brothers conceal their abilities while quietly developing them, showing the importance of patience and deception in a hostile environment.
• Brotherhood and mutual trust: Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe protect and encourage one another without demanding complete explanations about their supernatural powers.
• The pursuit of power: Chen Jichuan recognizes that knowledge, money, and status are secondary to strength, which is necessary for protecting himself, saving his brother, and escaping the Death Mining Area.
• Renewal and rebirth: Entering a sunny, open world after six years in the bleak Black Prison gives Chen Jichuan a sense of emotional revival and renewed hope.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe discuss the risks of opening the new world. Shaohe worries that his brother may not return, while Jichuan reassures him and Shaohe vows to guard his body.
• Chen Jichuan overhears two young men discussing the rivalry between Lu Peng and Yang Xu, learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the local martial arts.
• At Lu Family Martial Academy, Chen Jichuan meets Lu Xiong and Lu Rong. His limited knowledge of the local dialect leads him to speak in short, fragmented phrases.
• When Chen Jichuan claims he can treat Lu Peng, Lu Rong reacts eagerly and respectfully, while Lu Xiong remains cautious but agrees to let him try.
• The chapter ends with Chen Jichuan being escorted to Lu Peng, setting up his attempt to gain entry into the martial academy and possibly learn the Iron Bull Technique.

Chapter Summary: “One Year!”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The day after healing Lu Peng, Chen Jichuan asks to learn the Lu Family’s martial arts: the Iron Bull Technique and Jade Belt Technique.
• Lu Peng initially warns him that both techniques require years of arduous training and that Chen’s ordinary physical aptitude may make the effort inefficient. He also cautions that their power can easily kill opponents.
• Because Chen healed Lu Peng’s injuries and saved his twenty years of martial cultivation, Lu Peng agrees to teach him fully. He provides Chen with food, lodging, instruction, and medicinal wine for one year, though he withholds the family’s medicinal-wine recipe.
• Lu Peng explains that the Iron Bull Technique develops an extremely hard, defensive body, while the Jade Belt Technique combines strength and flexibility to trap and crush enemies in an embrace.
• Chen begins rigorous training at the Lu Family Martial Academy, using his medical knowledge, source power, and the academy’s resources to support his progress.
• After a year of relentless practice, Chen reaches the Second Layer of both techniques. He proves the Jade Belt Technique’s progress by uprooting a large tree from the ground.
• Chen realizes that his source power has allowed him to advance in one year as much as an ordinary practitioner might in roughly three years. He now plans to train with heavier, smoother stone equipment and eventually surpass Lu Peng’s twenty years of cultivation.
• He also looks forward to returning to reality, where he believes the Black Prison may contain spirit stones and provide a greater source of power.

2. Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan becomes considerably stronger and more physically imposing after a year of training. His previously ordinary appearance is transformed by disciplined martial practice into a powerful, sharp-featured physique.
• He demonstrates exceptional perseverance, practicing every day regardless of weather and enduring severe fatigue and physical pain.
• Chen remains quiet and emotionally restrained, but his inner determination and satisfaction become clear when he successfully uproots the tree.
• His understanding of cultivation deepens: he recognizes how source power accelerates recovery, reduces bodily damage, and dramatically improves his training speed.
• Lu Peng develops greater respect and gratitude toward Chen. Although he worries that Chen is wasting his time on martial arts, he honors their agreement and teaches him sincerely.
• Lu Peng is characterized as cautious and responsible, especially in warning Chen about the lethal potential of the techniques and refusing to compromise his family’s inheritance by revealing the medicinal-wine formula.

3. Significant Themes

• Perseverance and disciplined effort: Chen’s progress comes from maintaining an intense daily routine for an entire year.
• The relationship between talent and determination: Although Chen’s natural martial aptitude is described as ordinary, his effort and unique abilities allow him to progress far faster than expected.
• Reciprocity and trust: Chen’s healing of Lu Peng creates a bond in which Lu Peng repays the favor through instruction, food, lodging, and medicinal support.
• Power and responsibility: The techniques are extraordinarily destructive, so mastery requires restraint and awareness of the consequences of violence.
• Cultivation through practical hardship: Training is portrayed as physically demanding and dependent on proper nutrition, medicinal wine, recovery methods, and specialized equipment.
• Hope for future advancement: Chen’s current achievement is only an early milestone. His lack of spirit stones limits him, but the possibility of obtaining them in Black Prison gives him renewed motivation.

4. Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Lu Peng: Their relationship is based on a mutually beneficial agreement. Chen provides miraculous medical treatment, while Lu Peng gives him access to the Lu Family’s martial inheritance and supports his training.
• Lu Peng and the Lu Family Martial Academy: Lu Peng’s recovery restores his ability to move and train, preventing his twenty years of martial effort from being ruined. His students and relatives observe Chen with growing amazement because of his medical skill and rapid progress.
• Chen and the Lu Family instructors/apprentices: Though Chen speaks little and interacts minimally, Lu Xiong, Lu Rong, and the apprentices watch him with curiosity and respect after witnessing his healing abilities and dedication.
• Chen and his absent brother, Chen Shaohe: Chen’s transformed appearance suggests that, after a year of training, even his own brother might no longer recognize him.
  Overall, the chapter marks Chen’s transition from a newly arrived outsider dependent on the Lu Family into a genuine martial practitioner. His first year establishes the foundation for his future strength while emphasizing his unusual combination of medical knowledge, source power, and relentless determination.

Chapter Summary: “Back to Reality”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After spending a year in the world of Great Yan, Chen Jichuan has established himself independently in Langning Prefecture. He left the Lu Family Martial Academy three months earlier, refusing to remain dependent on the Lu family.
• Using his Insight Art, he rapidly learned medicine and gained a reputation as “Doctor Chen,” accurately diagnosing and treating patients. His medical success earned him nearly one hundred taels in two months.
• He invested eighty taels in acquiring and transforming a pleasure house in the southern city, naming it White Jade Capital. By adapting entertainment from his former life—jokes, songs, comic performances, and historical stories—he made the establishment highly successful, earning more than one hundred taels in net profit within three months.
• Chen used his status as a divine physician to build relationships with local nobles, officials, and influential figures. He also placed Lu Peng’s eldest son, Lu Xiong, in charge of White Jade Capital.
• Before leaving Great Yan, Chen spends two days visiting officials and influential yamen personnel in Langning Prefecture and Xuanhua County, giving gifts and arranging connections to protect his business during his absence.
• On the third day, Chen returns to the Black Prison, his original reality, where he had been unconscious for approximately a day.
• Back in the prison, Chen reunites with his younger brother Chen Shaohe, who has been watching over him. He eats, confirms that nothing unusual happened, and prepares for the upcoming roll call.
• Chen initially speaks in the Langning dialect by habit, briefly confusing Shaohe, before switching back to their native Yongfeng dialect.
• At Shaohe’s request, Chen describes Great Yan and the natural beauty of the outside world, giving his brother a rare sense of hope and wonder before Shaohe falls asleep.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan becomes increasingly self-reliant, resourceful, and socially influential. He moves from student and outsider to physician, businessman, and respected local figure.
• His medical knowledge, business instincts, understanding of officialdom, and ability to adapt demonstrate his growing competence in Great Yan.
• Chen also shows strategic foresight by delegating White Jade Capital’s management to Lu Xiong and securing political protection before returning to Black Prison.
• Returning to Black Prison causes Chen intense discomfort and disorientation, but seeing Shaohe quickly restores his emotional balance. He recognizes that, however attractive Great Yan may be, Black Prison is his true reality.
• Lu Xiong has risen from a struggling martial escort to a respected manager in fine clothing. He is grateful to Chen and becomes concerned for Chen’s safety when he learns that his master is leaving.
• Chen Shaohe remains physically and emotionally trapped in Black Prison, but his curiosity about Great Yan reveals his longing for the outside world. Chen’s descriptions provide him with temporary comfort and hope.

Significant Themes

• Reality versus illusion: Chen reflects that Great Yan, despite its beauty and opportunities, is ultimately an alternate world, while the bleak Black Prison is his genuine reality.
• Freedom and independence: Chen rejects dependence on the Lu family and builds his own wealth, influence, and support network.
• Adaptability and self-improvement: He learns language, medicine, martial arts, business, and political etiquette to thrive in an unfamiliar world.
• Hope amid despair: The contrast between Great Yan’s sunlight, landscapes, and lively society and Black Prison’s darkness and stagnation emphasizes the importance of imagination and remembered beauty.
• Family and emotional grounding: Shaohe’s presence prevents Chen from becoming detached from his original life and reminds him why returning to reality matters.

Character Interactions

• Chen instructs Lu Xiong to manage White Jade Capital during his future absences, establishing a relationship based on trust and responsibility.
• Lu Xiong offers to accompany or protect Chen, reflecting his gratitude and loyalty, but Chen assures him that the journey is safe enough to undertake alone.
• Chen deliberately cultivates relationships with officials and yamen personnel, using banquets and discreet payments to secure White Jade Capital’s future.
• With Shaohe, Chen shifts from practical caretaker to storyteller, describing the sun, stars, mountains, rivers, and seasons of the outside world. Their conversation strengthens their brotherly bond and gives Shaohe a temporary escape from prison life.

Chapter Summary: “Forty-One Years”

Key Plot Points and Events

• In Black Prison, Chen Jichuan and his Fifth Brother, Chen Shaohe, endure worsening conditions as miners continue disappearing. Only thirty-eight miners remain in their district, and overseer Qian Lai grows increasingly violent.
• Qian Lai lashes both brothers despite their lack of wrongdoing. Chen Shaohe is badly cut across the face, while Chen Jichuan is struck in the chest. The brothers conceal their anger and endure the humiliation while planning for the future.
• Chen Jichuan suspects that emotional extremes may be connected to the awakening of supernatural talents, recalling how Chen Shaohe’s fire-control ability emerged. He also becomes more wary of Qian Lai and the Wusheng Sect.
• To obtain more spirit stones, Chen Jichuan changes caves and uses his Insight ability to locate four stones near the surface. He uses their source power to train the Iron Bull Technique and Jade Belt Technique directly, compensating for the lack of medicinal supplies in Black Prison.
• Returning to Great Yan World, Chen Jichuan realizes that his body there enters a preserved “offline” state while he is in reality. This allows him to alternate between the two worlds without his body aging, starving, or decaying.
• Recognizing that strength alone will not be enough to escape Black Prison, he decides to master lightness and movement techniques. He pays Yang Qing, the famed constable known as Wind Chaser, to teach him the Land-Flying Technique and Water-Splitting Technique.
• Chen Jichuan trains relentlessly for decades, also learning several other martial arts from various masters and martial schools:
  • Eagle Claw Technique
  • Golden Blade Exchange Palm Technique
  • Crouching Tiger Technique
  • Iron Broom Technique
  • Golden Shovel Finger
  • Wave-Wrapping Technique from captured bandit leader Ruan Mu
• Over the years, Chen Jichuan’s martial arts reach extraordinary levels:
  • Land-Flying Technique becomes highly mastered in his fourteenth year.
  • Iron Bull and Jade Belt Techniques reach great mastery two years later.
  • Water-Splitting Technique reaches great mastery in his seventeenth year.
  • Golden Shovel Finger and Iron Broom Technique reach perfection by his twenty-sixth year.
• He becomes a renowned martial artist, challenging experts across all twenty-eight prefectures of Lingnan without defeat. Alongside Tan Jinxuan, he earns the title “Southern Chen and Northern Tan,” while his wealth and control of White Jade Capital earn him the nickname “Chen of the Southern Dynasty.”
• Forty-one years after entering Great Yan World, Chen receives a visit from Lu Xiong and his descendants. He gives young Lu Changshou a martial arts manual and promises to teach him if the boy remains interested when older.
• Chen reveals that he will soon leave Langning Prefecture for an unknown and possibly extended period. He arranges for White Jade Capital and his residence to be maintained, dismisses his servants, and gives Lu Xiong a letter intended to protect the Lu family from future trouble.
• After a final banquet with the Lu family, Chen completes his preparations and returns to reality, ready to attempt his escape from Black Prison.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Develops from a cautious prisoner into a nearly unparalleled martial artist. His patience, discipline, strategic thinking, and mastery of multiple techniques allow him to build the strength and mobility necessary for escape. Despite his fame and wealth, he remains detached, unmarried, and focused on his long-term objective.
• Chen Shaohe: Becomes more confident and vengeful after Qian Lai’s abuse. He openly declares his desire to burn Qian Lai alive, showing both his growing fire-control potential and his increasing determination to survive.
• Qian Lai: His cruelty intensifies as the mine’s atmosphere deteriorates. Although he possesses Level 2 strength, he deliberately restrains himself when whipping the miners, suggesting either caution or another hidden motive.
• Yang Qing: Presented as a legendary but pragmatic martial expert. His reputation comes from his speed, archery, and years of service as a constable. He willingly teaches Chen Jichuan in exchange for money and the benefits of maintaining a relationship with a famous physician.
• Lu Xiong: Now elderly, he remains deeply loyal to and respectful of Chen Jichuan. Chen’s apparent preparations for departure leave him shocked and emotional.
• Lu Changshou: The young child admires Chen and expresses a sincere desire to learn martial arts. His enthusiasm prompts Chen to give him a chance to inherit the family’s martial tradition.

Significant Themes

• Patience and long-term preparation: Chen’s escape cannot be achieved through haste. He spends decades accumulating strength, skills, knowledge, and resources.
• The contrast between subjective and objective time: The Dao Fruit allows Chen to spend forty-one years training while only a fraction of that time affects his physical age, making his extraordinary development possible.
• Survival beneath oppression: The Black Prison sections emphasize repression, humiliation, and the need to hide one’s true abilities until the right moment.
• Martial arts as self-transformation: Training is portrayed as painful, repetitive, and gradual, but it reshapes Chen into someone capable of feats far beyond ordinary human limits.
• Legacy and mortality: Chen’s long life and unchanged appearance contrast sharply with Lu Xiong’s aging. His gift to Lu Changshou and protection of the Lu family show his concern for passing on knowledge and repaying old friendships.
• Hidden power and restraint: Chen conceals his true abilities, while Qian Lai may also be suppressing his strength. The chapter repeatedly suggests that appearances do not reveal the characters’ full capabilities.
• Loyalty and old relationships: Despite becoming wealthy and famous, Chen remembers his early ties to the Lu family and takes steps to ensure their safety before departing.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe: The brothers endure punishment together, comfort one another, and share their desire to eventually deal with Qian Lai.
• Chen Jichuan and Qian Lai: Their interaction is outwardly submissive but inwardly hostile. Chen hides his anger and studies Qian Lai’s strength and behavior.
• Chen Jichuan and Yang Qing: Chen uses his wealth and status to obtain instruction in crucial movement and strength techniques, beginning a relationship based on mutual benefit and respect.
• Chen Jichuan and the Lu family: Their reunion reflects decades of shared history. Chen critiques the family’s declining interest in martial arts but remains affectionate toward Lu Xiong and his descendants.
• Chen Jichuan and Lu Changshou: The child’s admiration appeals to Chen, who rewards him with a martial arts manual and encouragement.
• Chen Jichuan and Lu Xiong: Their final meeting is emotionally significant. Chen quietly prepares for the possibility that he will never return, while Lu Xiong struggles to understand the seriousness of his farewell and protective arrangements.

Chapter Summary: “The Mist Grows Thicker”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan returns from the Great Yan World to Black Prison after spending forty-one years there, while only thirty-seven days have passed in reality.
• His relentless cultivation has corrected his former hunchback and greatly strengthened his body. The Iron Bull Technique has reached the fourth layer, allowing him to train under the weight of a 120-jin stone.
• He has accumulated over 14,000 source power, though his progress in reality still lags far behind his development in the Great Yan World because of limited time, bodily absorption, and training capacity.
• Conditions in Black Prison have deteriorated severely. Of the original five hundred miners, only about two hundred remain. Spirit-stone radiation has caused widespread illness, grotesque mutations, and bizarre deaths, including self-immolation, petrification, freezing, and people transforming into water.
• Chen Jichuan realizes that waiting longer may allow him to grow stronger, but it also increases the danger of a sudden uprising or awakening among the miners. The Wusheng Sect would likely seal Black Prison completely if a transcendent talent appeared.
• He and Chen Shaohe therefore decide to begin their escape plan that day.
• Chen Shaohe’s Flame Control Technique has advanced significantly. He can now manipulate fireballs, shape flames, and control their temperature with precision.
• As part of their preparations, the brothers deliberately burn their mouths to create convincing injuries, likely connected to the first stage of their escape plan. They endure severe pain without backing down.
• Chen Jichuan destroys all their handmade training equipment and removes every trace of their activities from the cave, including scorch marks on the walls.
• With the escape attempt imminent, the brothers sit together in tense silence, listening to each other’s heartbeats as the surrounding fog grows thicker.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan has become physically stronger, more disciplined, and emotionally composed. Forty-one years of martial training and combat in the Great Yan World have transformed him from a nervous prisoner into a calm strategist capable of facing danger without panic.
• His patience has limits, however. He recognizes that continued preparation could become dangerous procrastination and decides to act before the situation in Black Prison worsens.
• Chen Shaohe has matured in both ability and resolve. Though only sixteen and visibly nervous about the escape, he has developed precise control over his newly awakened fire ability and willingly endures painful preparation for the sake of freedom.
• Their brotherly bond is emphasized through mutual reassurance, shared suffering, and coordinated planning.

Significant Themes

• Preparation versus action: Chen Jichuan must decide when to stop gathering strength and take the risk of escaping.
• The danger of delay: The miners’ worsening condition creates a “boiling frog” situation, in which waiting seems safe but steadily removes their options.
• Suffering and endurance: The brothers tolerate extreme physical pain and harsh prison conditions in pursuit of freedom.
• Transformation through time: Chen Jichuan’s decades of experience in the Great Yan World have reshaped his body, skills, and temperament despite only weeks passing in reality.
• Uncertainty and fate: Even the most comprehensive plan cannot account for every variable; once the escape begins, the brothers will have to adapt.
• Oppression and rebellion: The Wusheng Sect’s exploitation of the miners and control of Black Prison creates the pressure driving the brothers toward revolt and escape.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan reassures the anxious Chen Shaohe and carefully reviews their escape strategy with him.
• The brothers collaborate closely, repeatedly refining their plan and considering possible reactions from the Wusheng Sect.
• Chen Shaohe uses his flames to burn Chen Jichuan’s mouth, and Chen Jichuan later undergoes the same procedure, demonstrating trust and shared commitment.
• Chen Jichuan takes responsibility for concealing their preparations, while both brothers silently gather their courage before the operation begins.
• The chapter ends with them sitting side by side in tense anticipation as the “mist” surrounding their escape—and their uncertain future—grows thicker.

Chapter Summary

Plot and Events

• Qian Lai inspects the miners of Northern Zone Two, selecting eighteen who show signs of the disease, including Chen Jichuan, Chen Shaohe, Sun Fei, and Shen Liang.
• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe continue pretending to be severely ill. Chen Jichuan deliberately hunches and weakens his posture to avoid revealing that his body has recovered.
• The selected miners are transferred to a hut and then escorted out of Death Mine by eight black-armored guards.
• Chen Jichuan assesses the guards’ strength and determines that none pose a serious threat. He and Chen Shaohe could defeat them if necessary, but he chooses not to fight, preferring to leave Black Prison safely.
• During the journey, Chen Jichuan remains highly cautious, using the Great Yan World to rest and cultivate while ensuring that either he or Chen Shaohe is always alert in reality.
• The group travels for thirty-one days, stopping at relay stations established by the Wusheng Sect. Two more miners die along the way, and their deaths are handled brutally to prevent anyone from faking death and escaping.
• Chen Jichuan overhears the guards discussing the Wusheng Sect’s attempts to create “Altered Humans” from diseased miners. He realizes that the miners are being transported outside Black Prison for experimentation, confirming that he will be able to escape the prison without resorting to violence.
• At last, the group reaches a strange gate surrounded by mountains. After the guards’ comments reveal that the gate leads out of Black Prison, the desperate miners beg to be released. The guards beat them into submission before escorting them through.
• The chapter ends as Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe pass through the gate, leaving Black Prison behind.

Character Development

• Chen Jichuan remains patient, calculating, and cautious. Although he has the strength to overpower the guards, he suppresses his abilities and prioritizes survival and concealment. His understanding of the Wusheng Sect’s plans also improves.
• Chen Shaohe continues following his brother’s instructions, maintaining a controlled expression and learning to observe rather than react impulsively.
• Sun Fei appears bitter and resentful toward the Chen brothers, taking comfort in their misfortune. However, once escape becomes possible, his fear and desperation overwhelm his resentment.
• Shen Liang remains quiet, exhausted, and submissive.
• Wei Guan is revealed to be a capable but cautious guard who values safety over glory. He recognizes that advancement within the Wusheng Sect requires greater martial skill or political backing.
• Zhou Dafeng is ambitious yet cowardly, longing for status but fearing battle and death. His harsh treatment of the miners shows how thoroughly the guards have dehumanized them.

Themes

• Survival and submission: The miners endure humiliation, disease, and violence because the desire to live outweighs their willingness to resist.
• Concealment and patience: Chen Jichuan’s success depends on hiding his true strength and waiting for the safest opportunity rather than acting rashly.
• Institutional cruelty: The Wusheng Sect treats the miners as disposable test subjects, while the guards casually beat, kill, and control them.
• Hope amid oppression: The possibility of leaving Black Prison gives the miners a brief surge of hope, despite the guards’ continued brutality.
• Retribution and moral ambiguity: Sun Fei views the Chen brothers’ suffering as deserved punishment for their family’s crimes, but the chapter also shows how extreme suffering can strip everyone—guilty or innocent—of dignity.

Character Interactions

• Qian Lai humiliates and strikes Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe during the inspection.
• Sun Fei attempts to speak with the brothers, but Chen Jichuan recognizes his spiteful attitude and dismisses him, while Chen Shaohe silently studies it.
• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe communicate mostly through subtle signals, cooperating to maintain their disguise.
• Wei Guan and Zhou Dafeng discuss the Wusheng Sect’s war, advancement opportunities, and experiments with Altered Humans; Chen Jichuan secretly listens and gains crucial information.
• The miners’ desperate pleas at the gate are met with violence from the guards, emphasizing the power imbalance between captors and prisoners.

Chapter Summary: “Escape into the Open!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The chapter opens with the history of Centipede Mountain and Martial Victory City. After Great Chu’s collapse, the Li River Gang seized Yongfeng County, but the Wusheng Sect later took control and built Martial Victory City around the former Black Prison.
• Sixteen mine slaves, escorted by eight black-armored guards, are brought out of Black Prison for the first time in years. Most are overwhelmed by sunlight, fresh air, and the sight of the outside world.
• Chen Jichuan remains alert rather than emotional. He studies the city gate, guards, walls, roads, and surrounding terrain, searching for the best opportunity to escape.
• Pretending to suffer from diarrhea, Chen Jichuan approaches the guards and catches them off guard. He rapidly kills four of them using his martial techniques, overwhelming them through speed, strength, and surprise.
• Chen Shaohe also attacks, using his fourth-level fire control to burn the throats of four additional guards. Chen Jichuan finishes the wounded and fleeing men, eliminating all eight escorts.
• Chen Jichuan tells the remaining mine slaves to strip the armor and disguise themselves as guards escorting prisoners. However, he does not trust them enough to remain with them and immediately leads Chen Shaohe toward the nearby mountains.
• Carrying Chen Shaohe on his back, Chen Jichuan uses his training and speed to escape unnoticed. He chooses the mountain route rather than the main road, correctly anticipating that the city’s soldiers could easily surround them there.
• The other fourteen mine slaves panic and flee separately. They are weak from years of imprisonment and illness, and a lookout soon discovers them.
• Martial Victory City’s soldiers sound the alarm. Fifty archers fire on the escaping slaves at close range, killing all of them, along with the eight black-armored guards’ bodies left behind.
• Sun Fei dies while reaching toward the distant Chen brothers, having enjoyed only a brief moment of freedom. Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe are the only survivors.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan is shown as highly cautious, strategic, and decisive. Unlike the other prisoners, he is not distracted by the joy of freedom and immediately evaluates the danger around him. His martial strength and combat instincts allow him to kill eight guards in seconds.
• He also demonstrates a limited but significant sense of morality. Rather than killing the other mine slaves to ensure silence, he gives them a possible escape plan, though he ultimately prioritizes Chen Shaohe’s survival.
• Chen Shaohe progresses from fear and hesitation to active participation in battle. His first real life-or-death fight frightens him, but he forces himself to remain calm and successfully uses his fire ability. By the end, he personally attacks the wounded guards, showing growing ruthlessness and courage.
• Sun Fei and the other mine slaves are emotionally overwhelmed by freedom but lack the strength, preparation, and discipline to escape successfully. Their deaths highlight the gulf between Chen Jichuan’s careful planning and their desperate, impulsive actions.
• Wei Guan, Zhou Dafeng, Chu Mingrui, and the other guards display arrogance and contempt toward the mine slaves, underestimating them completely. Their cruelty and carelessness contribute directly to their sudden deaths.

Significant Themes

• Freedom and its fragility: The prisoners finally reach the open world, but freedom lasts only moments for most of them. The chapter emphasizes how liberation can be destroyed by weakness, panic, and oppressive power.
• Preparation versus desperation: Chen Jichuan survives because he planned his escape in advance and understands the environment. The other slaves act spontaneously and are quickly overwhelmed.
• The dehumanizing effects of imprisonment: Years in Black Prison leave the miners filthy, sick, physically weakened, and psychologically disoriented. Even outside, they struggle to function as free people.
• Survival and moral compromise: Chen Jichuan is willing to kill without hesitation when necessary, yet he does not want to slaughter the other prisoners. His actions balance pragmatism with a restrained compassion.
• Underestimation and reversal of power: The guards view the miners as helpless “trash,” only to be killed by the very people they despise. The chapter turns the former victims into lethal attackers.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan manipulates Wei Guan and the guards by pretending to be ill, exploiting their disgust and impatience.
• Zhou Dafeng and Chu Mingrui mock and threaten him, unaware that he is preparing to attack; both are killed instantly.
• Chen Shaohe and Chen Jichuan fight together for the first time in a coordinated escape. Chen Shaohe initiates the second attack while Chen Jichuan protects and assists him.
• Chen Jichuan gives Sun Fei and the other slaves a chance to escape by suggesting a disguise, but their panic and physical weakness prevent them from succeeding.
• Sun Fei’s final attempt to reach toward the fleeing Chen brothers underscores both his dependence on Chen Jichuan’s leadership and the tragic separation between the survivors and those left behind.

Chapter Summary: “Fourth Rank!”

Martial Victory City, the Wusheng Sect’s headquarters, is introduced as a heavily organized military stronghold. Its southern side connects to Black Prison and contains weapons workshops, the north houses the Martial Victory, Black Armor, and Heavenwave Army camps, the west contains medicinal gardens, and the east is reserved for sect administration and the residences of its leaders.
At the south gate, Commander Zhao Bo rushes to Heavenwave Hall with alarming news: during the transfer of Black Prison mine slaves, two slaves killed eight Black Armor Army soldiers and escaped. The Black Armor Army is the sect’s elite force, made up of soldiers who have mastered the second level of the Martial Victory Saber, so their deaths are highly unusual.
After inspecting the scene, Zhao Bo concludes that one escaped slave was at least a Fourth Rank expert, possessing extraordinary close-combat skill, experience, and the ability to kill all eight soldiers almost instantly. The second was likely a Fourth Rank Altered Human capable of controlling flames. Zhao Bo himself is a Fourth Rank fighter, but he admits that he could not have dealt with the soldiers so efficiently.
Sect Leader Wu Guangquan orders a major pursuit. The Martial Victory Army is told to assist, while the powerful Heavenwave Army is dispatched to hunt the fugitives. The sect also begins investigating the slaves’ origins in Black Prison. Wu does not blame Zhao Bo, focusing instead on capturing the escapees and uncovering how they gained such strength.
Third Elder Cao Zheng, an expert on Altered Humans, finds the situation deeply suspicious. The two fugitives came from Spirit Mountain, where hundreds of slaves have suffered severe mutations, yet none have successfully awakened powerful Altered Abilities. Normally, even Second Rank awakenings are rare, while Third or Fourth Rank mutations are usually fatal. Cao therefore doubts that the fugitives’ abilities can be explained by ordinary awakening.
Wu Guangquan suggests that the slaves may have discovered a method to awaken powerful Altered Abilities beyond their natural limits. He recognizes the enormous strategic value of such knowledge: if the Wusheng Sect could create powerful Altered Humans in large numbers, it might expand beyond its current four counties and eventually compete for control of the entire world.
Cao agrees to deploy Heaven-Deaf and Earth-Mute, powerful Altered Humans from his bureau, to aid the Heavenwave Army. Wu also recalls Elder Lü, whose Spirit Nose technique makes him highly effective at tracking fugitives. The chapter ends with the Wusheng Sect mobilizing its strongest forces, hoping to capture the two mine slaves and potentially gain a method for mass-producing high-ranking Altered Humans.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Zhao Bo is frightened by his failure but demonstrates his ability to analyze the battlefield accurately. He is relieved when Wu Guangquan does not punish him.
• Wu Guangquan is revealed as ambitious, pragmatic, and politically driven. He sees the fugitives not merely as criminals but as a possible key to conquering the world.
• Cao Zheng displays his expertise and skepticism regarding Altered Abilities. His discussion with Wu shows that he is both scientifically curious and willing to exploit Altered Humans for the sect.
• Wu and Cao work together strategically: Wu directs the military response, while Cao contributes knowledge and specialized Altered Human trackers.
• The escaped mine slaves are characterized indirectly through the aftermath of their actions as exceptionally powerful, disciplined, and dangerous.

Significant Themes

• Power and expansion: The Wusheng Sect’s growing territory has intensified its ambitions.
• Military organization: The sect’s ranked armies and specialized forces demonstrate its increasing sophistication and strength.
• The mystery of Altered Abilities: The fugitives may possess knowledge capable of overturning the existing understanding of mutation and awakening.
• Exploitation and control: Altered Humans are imprisoned, researched, and deployed as tools by the sect.
• Underestimation and transformation: Individuals dismissed as helpless mine slaves have emerged as high-level threats, challenging the sect’s assumptions about strength and status.

Chapter Summary

Plot and Key Events

• After Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe escape Black Prison and kill Wei Guan and several Black Armor Army soldiers, Wusheng Sect quickly organizes a response. However, the pursuing Martial Victory Army soldiers are ordinary troops with little courage or tracking ability, allowing the brothers to flee safely.
• Chen Jichuan carries Chen Shaohe into Centipede Mountain, where they begin to experience the joy and unreality of freedom after six years of imprisonment.
• Chen Jichuan realizes that Black Prison is likely a separate spatial realm whose entrance lies within Centipede Mountain. He also recognizes how much Great Chu has changed during his six years of isolation.
• Planning their route, Chen Jichuan avoids Wusheng Sect territory and chooses to travel north through Mausoleum-Building County toward Yangshuo County, controlled by the Li River Gang. Although the Li River Gang was responsible for destroying their family and imprisoning them, its conflict with Wusheng Sect makes it a useful place to hide temporarily.
• To avoid being tracked by their foul prison odor, the brothers gather cleansing plants, steal coarse clothing from a village, wash themselves repeatedly, shave their heads, and burn their old prison garments and hair.
• They continue fleeing through the mountains until nightfall. Chen Shaohe, exhausted by the emotional strain of the escape, eventually falls asleep beside a tree.
• Chen Jichuan reflects that freedom has turned their bitter prison experience into something hopeful, but he understands that survival in the chaotic outside world will still require caution, strength, and preparation. He then enters the Great Yan World.

Character Development

• Chen Jichuan experiences genuine emotional release for the first time in years. He is exhilarated by freedom, but remains practical and alert, carefully planning their route, removing traces of their escape, and considering how to rebuild their lives.
• His protective role toward Chen Shaohe becomes even clearer. He carries him throughout the escape, reassures him, jokes about finding him a wife, and promises to teach him martial arts.
• Chen Shaohe moves from disbelief and confusion to open joy. Experiencing sunlight, nature, clean clothes, and freedom makes him feel young and carefree again.
• He is proud of killing an enemy but also dissatisfied with his nervousness during the fight. The experience strengthens his resolve to learn martial arts instead of relying only on his Fire Control Art.
• The brothers’ bond is reinforced through humor, mutual encouragement, and their shared determination to survive and eventually seek revenge.

Significant Themes

• Freedom after oppression: The natural world, sunlight, clean clothing, and open movement sharply contrast with the misery of Black Prison.
• Survival and adaptation: The brothers must immediately abandon old identities, disguise themselves, erase their scent, and navigate dangerous political territories.
• Revenge versus practicality: Though the Li River Gang bears responsibility for their family’s destruction, Chen Jichuan is willing to seek refuge in its territory because survival comes first.
• Healing and renewal: Shaving away their prison-grown hair and burning their old clothing symbolize leaving their imprisoned lives behind and beginning anew.
• The changing world: Chen Jichuan realizes that Great Chu has transformed during his absence, with sects becoming military and political powers. He must learn the new order before deciding what to do next.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan repeatedly reassures Chen Shaohe that they have truly escaped and encourages him to look forward to becoming strong and finding a wife.
• Chen Shaohe shares his excitement over killing an enemy and admits his desire to learn martial arts. Chen Jichuan responds with approval and promises to train him.
• Their playful conversation about Chen Shaohe’s appearance and future marriage provides a moment of warmth and normalcy after years of suffering.
• The chapter ends quietly with Chen Jichuan watching over his sleeping brother, his relief tempered by awareness that their struggle is only entering a new phase.

Chapter Summary: “Little Southern Chen”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan returns to Great Yan after only thirty-two days in reality, discovering that thirty-five years have passed there because of the world’s extreme time difference.
• During heavy snowfall, he visits the Chen Residence and finds that the largely deserted estate now contains a fully equipped martial-arts training yard.
• In the backyard, he encounters a middle-aged martial artist practicing among eighteen swinging blades.
• Chen Jichuan engages the man in combat, using techniques such as Golden Shovel Finger, Eagle Claw Technique, Iron Broom Technique, and Golden Blade Exchange Palm.
• The fight reveals that Chen Jichuan has mastered the same martial arts as his opponent—and to an even higher degree. The other man is eventually forced to retreat.
• Chen Jichuan recognizes the fighter as Lu Changshou, whom he last saw as a six-year-old child thirty-five years earlier.
• Lu Changshou recognizes Chen Jichuan by both his appearance and voice, bows to him as his master, and reveals that he has spent his life following Chen’s martial teachings.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: His mastery of martial arts has advanced dramatically, allowing him to defeat a highly accomplished practitioner with ease. He remains youthful despite the thirty-five years that have passed in Great Yan, suggesting extraordinary cultivation or life-preserving abilities. His return also highlights his growing emotional disorientation caused by the different flows of time.
• Lu Changshou: Now forty-one, Lu has become an accomplished martial artist and the self-proclaimed successor of Chen Jichuan. Inspired by Chen’s childhood example and the martial manual Chen left behind, he devoted his life to training, fighting challengers, and preserving his teacher’s legacy. He is overwhelmed with joy and disbelief at their reunion.
• Their relationship: What was once a brief meeting between an influential master and a child has developed into a lifelong master-disciple bond in Lu Changshou’s eyes. Chen, meanwhile, is surprised that Lu remembers him and feels the strangeness of seeing the former child as a mature man.

Significant Themes

• The distortion of time: The contrast between thirty-two days and thirty-five years emphasizes the supernatural nature of Great Yan and creates emotional distance between Chen’s experiences and the lives of those he left behind.
• Legacy and influence: Chen’s teachings continue to shape the Lu family and the wider martial world long after his disappearance.
• Mastery and succession: Lu Changshou’s achievements demonstrate the lasting power of Chen’s instruction, while the encounter establishes a contrast between the “Little Southern Chen” who inherited his legacy and the original “Great Southern Chen.”
• Youth, aging, and immortality: Chen’s unchanged appearance after decades shocks Lu and raises questions about Chen’s cultivation and ability to preserve his youth.
• Memory and identity: Lu’s exceptional memory allows him to recognize Chen, proving that meaningful impressions and personal influence can survive across decades.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan initially tests Lu Changshou through combat rather than immediately revealing himself.
• Lu is suspicious when Chen uses techniques identical to his own, believing Chen may have another hidden disciple or connection to his martial lineage.
• After hearing Chen’s familiar voice, Lu realizes his opponent is truly his long-lost master.
• Lu kneels and addresses Chen as “Master Chen,” expressing both reverence and gratitude.
• Chen responds warmly but modestly, telling Lu that, given his accomplishments, such elaborate formalities are unnecessary.

Chapter Summary: “Tan Sect, Chen Sect”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan returns to the Lu family after thirty-five years of seclusion and is warmly welcomed by Lu Changshou, who still regards him as his grandfather and senior despite Chen’s youthful appearance.
• Lu Changshou explains the major changes that occurred during Chen Jichuan’s absence:
  • Great-Grandfather Lu died less than two years after Chen left.
  • Nearly all of Chen’s former acquaintances and the older generation of the Lu family have since passed away.
  • The current Yan Emperor is incompetent and preoccupied with beauty, causing political disorder and unrest throughout the empire.
  • As imperial authority weakened, the martial world flourished and produced many new masters.
• Tan Jinxuan, once known alongside Chen Jichuan as “Northern Tan” to Chen’s “Southern Chen,” founded the Tan Sect twenty years earlier. His newly created Ten-Route Tan Legs made the sect the dominant power in the northern martial world.
• The Tan Sect’s Thirteen Guardians have begun traveling across the empire, challenging masters from various sects. They are expected to reach Lingnan within several months to a year.
• Lu Changshou, known as Little Southern Chen, feels pressured by the Tan Sect’s advance. He fears losing the reputation associated with Chen Jichuan and worries that a defeat would dishonor his martial ancestor.
• Chen Jichuan is eager to witness the new generation of martial artists and plans to remain nearby until the Thirteen Guardians arrive.
• Because the Guardians would hesitate to fight someone of Chen Jichuan’s age, status, and seniority—and because defeating him would bring little glory—Chen suggests concealing his identity. Publicly, he will be presented as a descendant of Chen Jichuan and as someone of Lu Changshou’s generation.
• Lu Changshou reveals that he established the Chen Sect on Taiqing Mountain in Chen Jichuan’s name. Chen moves there quietly and settles in a secluded area of the back mountain.
• Lu Changshou has training facilities built for him, including a blade shed, archery targets, and wooden practice posts. After several days of explaining the sect and the changing world, Lu Changshou leaves Chen Jichuan to continue his cultivation.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Returns as an older but youthful-looking martial legend. He remains humble toward his benefactor and grandfatherly mentor, yet is largely unconcerned with reputation or social status. He is excited rather than threatened by the rise of new martial masters and wants to test the current generation.
• Lu Changshou: Demonstrates deep filial respect and gratitude toward Chen Jichuan. He has matured into the leader of the Chen Sect and is recognized as Little Southern Chen, but his concern over reputation and the Tan Sect reveals insecurity and psychological pressure. He is also burdened by problems within the Lu family.
• Tan Jinxuan: Though absent from the chapter, his influence has expanded dramatically. He has transformed from Chen Jichuan’s former equal into the founder of the most powerful sect in the northern martial world.
• The Lu Family and Older Generation: Their deaths emphasize the passage of time and the sweeping changes that occurred during Chen Jichuan’s seclusion.

Significant Themes

• The passage of time and mortality: Entire generations have died while Chen Jichuan remained secluded, highlighting the relentless movement of history and the fleeting nature of human life.
• Reputation versus personal desire: Lu Changshou is troubled by the need to defend the Southern Chen name, while Chen Jichuan dismisses reputation as insignificant compared with the opportunity to exchange techniques with worthy opponents.
• Generational change: The martial world has moved beyond Chen Jichuan’s era, with new sects, masters, and systems emerging. Chen must now observe how the current generation compares with his own.
• Lineage and seniority: Martial society places great importance on status, ancestry, and teacher-disciple relationships. Chen’s age and connection to Tan Jinxuan create complications because the Thirteen Guardians are Tan’s disciples’ disciples.
• Cultivation and experience: Chen Jichuan recognizes that martial strength depends not only on power and technique but also on combat experience, adaptability, and mental resilience.
• Political decline and martial flourishing: The Yan court’s corruption creates instability, but the resulting disorder allows the martial world to expand and produce numerous masters.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Lu Changshou share a deeply respectful grandfather-grandson relationship. Lu Changshou kneels to greet him, while Chen accepts his devotion warmly but tries to ease his anxiety.
• Lu Changshou confides in Chen about the Tan Sect, his family’s troubles, and his fear of failing to preserve the Southern Chen legacy.
• Chen reassures him indirectly by treating the coming challenges as an opportunity rather than a threat.
• Their discussion about Chen’s identity shows their mutual understanding: Lu Changshou worries about the honor and consequences of Chen fighting younger warriors, while Chen proposes a practical disguise to avoid placing the Tan Sect in an impossible position.
• Before departing, Lu Changshou assists Chen by establishing a suitable residence and training grounds at the Chen Sect on Taiqing Mountain.

Chapter Summary: “Advance on All Fronts, Leave No Weaknesses Behind!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan spends more than ten days practicing the Wave-Wrapping Technique in the river near Taiqing Mountain. He trains by swimming against currents, diving to the riverbed, treading water, and resisting buoyancy while holding his breath.
• His years of practice have allowed him to master the technique deeply. He can now move through water freely, sense changes in the current, and control the force throughout his body with great precision.
• Chen realizes that his external martial arts—such as the Iron Bull Technique, Jade Belt Technique, and Land-Flying Technique—have nearly reached their limits because ordinary medicinal aids are no longer sufficient to strengthen his already powerful body.
• He concludes that merely increasing physical strength through Origin Force is not enough. He must also understand higher levels of martial force and develop a path beyond Manifest Force toward Hidden Force.
• After training, Chen experiences a breakthrough in body coordination: his entire body’s strength seems to merge into one, producing a sharp cracking sound with movement. This confirms his growing mastery of integrated force and hard force.
• Upon returning home, Chen meets Lu Changshou, who has come back from traveling with an old letter. The letter proves that Chen once entrusted White Jade Capital to Lu Changshou’s great-grandfather, Lu Xiong.
• Lu Changshou offers to return White Jade Capital, which has grown into a vast and profitable enterprise under the Lu Family’s management. Chen refuses, recognizing that reclaiming it would create resentment and conflict within the aging Lu family.
• Instead, Chen takes an interest in the Chen Sect, which Lu Changshou founded in his name. He orders Lu Changshou to use the sect and White Jade Capital’s connections to gather martial arts manuals from across the region.
• Chen also instructs the Lu Family to recover buried gold and silver from his former residence, intending to use his resources for further martial arts research and training.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates increasingly profound martial arts understanding. He is no longer satisfied with simple physical cultivation and begins independently exploring the principles of force, especially the transition from Manifest Force to Hidden Force.
• His ambitions expand beyond becoming merely strong. He plans to develop balanced abilities in defense, strength, force, mobility, and technique, ensuring that he has no major weakness.
• Chen also displays emotional maturity and worldly insight by refusing to reclaim White Jade Capital. He understands that ownership has become complicated after decades of Lu Family stewardship and does not want to provoke a destructive family dispute.
• Lu Changshou appears loyal and respectful toward Chen, returning the old letter and offering to restore White Jade Capital. However, his family’s reluctance to surrender the enterprise leaves him caught between his loyalty to Chen and his relatives.
• Lu Changshou’s status has grown considerably: he is now a major figure in the martial world, the head of the Chen Sect, and someone with substantial influence over White Jade Capital’s operations.

Significant Themes

• The pursuit of a complete martial path: Chen refuses to rely on strength alone and seeks to cultivate defense, force, technique, and movement together.
• Innovation beyond established limits: Since Great Yan’s martial arts system is still developing, Chen attempts to discover the path to Hidden Force through his own experimentation rather than simply copying predecessors.
• Patience and long-term cultivation: Chen recognizes that rapid improvement through Origin Force is inefficient and potentially shortsighted. He values deep understanding and gradual refinement.
• Avoiding weaknesses: The chapter’s central idea is Chen’s determination to become capable of enduring attacks, overpowering opponents, escaping danger, and hunting enemies down.
• Human nature and ownership: The White Jade Capital dispute illustrates how gifts can become sources of resentment over time. Chen understands that reclaiming something he once gave away could create bitterness and family conflict.
• Martial arts as both offense and defense: Chen embraces the principle that a martial artist must first be able to withstand attacks, while also developing the power to defeat others.

Important Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Lu Changshou: Lu Changshou returns Chen’s old letter and offers to restore White Jade Capital. Chen rejects the offer, reassuring him that the enterprise should remain with the Lu Family.
• Chen then redirects Lu Changshou’s loyalty toward the Chen Sect, asking him to help gather martial arts from every school. Lu Changshou immediately agrees, acknowledging Chen as the sect’s true patriarch.
• Their exchange highlights Chen’s authority, Lu Changshou’s devotion, and the contrast between material wealth—which Chen dismisses—and martial knowledge, which he values above all else.

Chapter Summary: “A Multitude of Skills Weighs No One Down!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan spends several months cultivating on Taiqing Mountain, practicing the Wave-Wrapping, Crouching Tiger, Eagle Claw, and Overlord Elbow techniques.
• He begins instructing the Chen Sect’s more than eighty disciples. Most joined for practical reasons—employment, protection, or family support—rather than genuine dedication to martial arts.
• Chen identifies a few promising students, especially Wang Mingzhang, the passionate “Mountain-Descending Tiger,” and three young disciples from poor families, whom he personally trains.
• Lu Changshou obtains numerous martial arts manuals and secret medicinal formulas through White Jade Capital. Chen Jichuan is able to understand and reproduce them instantly, including techniques normally guarded by sects.
• Chen studies a wide range of martial arts: hardening and body-conditioning skills, lightness techniques, leg and arm-strengthening arts, movement techniques, and specialized combat abilities.
• By combining these disciplines, Chen aims to integrate the strengths of many schools into a unified and potentially superior martial system for the Chen Sect.
• He trains the second layer of the Overlord Elbow Technique, gradually increasing the difficulty from smooth stones to rough gravel in order to harden his elbows into powerful weapons.
• Although he has been waiting to spar with the Tan Sect’s Thirteen Guardians, their delayed arrival means they may not reach Lingnan in time.
• Chen decides to leave Taiqing Mountain for roughly half a year so he can attend to matters in the real world. He asks Lu Changshou to preserve his residence and departs without revealing the true reason for his absence.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Becomes increasingly versatile and formidable by mastering techniques from many schools. He is patient and methodical, confident that his unusual access to time allows him to train gradually over years. He also shows responsibility as a teacher by nurturing promising Chen Sect disciples.
• Lu Changshou: Continues managing the Chen Sect effectively and securing outside resources. Chen’s sudden departure unsettles him, as he fears he may have offended the elder. His determination to uphold Chen’s reputation reveals both loyalty and the pressure he feels as sect master.
• Wang Mingzhang: Emerges as the most genuinely devoted martial artist among the Chen Sect disciples and earns Chen’s special attention.
• The Chen Sect disciples: Their mixed motivations are clarified: most seek livelihood or social protection, while only a small minority pursue martial arts for its own sake.

Significant Themes

• Breadth as strength: The chapter argues that mastering many complementary skills is an advantage rather than a burden. Training every part of the body creates fewer weaknesses and allows unexpected combat methods.
• Accumulation and synthesis: Chen Jichuan’s goal is not merely to collect techniques but to understand their principles and combine them into stronger, original martial arts.
• Knowledge versus lineage: Traditional sects protect their true teachings through secret formulas and oral instruction, but Chen’s extraordinary insight allows him to bypass these barriers.
• Patience and long-term cultivation: Chen is no longer constrained by time. He can practice steadily for years and gradually perfect a vast range of skills.
• Duty and survival: Although Chen desires to challenge great masters, he prioritizes returning safely to the real world, recognizing that preserving his life matters more than an immediate contest.

Character Interactions

• Chen respectfully but firmly instructs the Chen Sect disciples, selecting those with genuine potential for closer training.
• His relationship with Lu Changshou remains one of mutual respect. Chen treats him like a younger relative, encouraging him before leaving, while Lu responds with anxiety and determined loyalty.
• Chen’s casual encouragement unintentionally increases Lu Changshou’s sense of responsibility, showing the difference between Chen’s relaxed confidence and Lu’s concern over maintaining the sect’s reputation.
• The chapter ends with Chen departing swiftly into the forest, leaving Lu Changshou to manage the sect and await his return.

Chapter Summary: “Wusheng Sect Lacks Grain!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• At dawn on Centipede Mountain, Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe resume their journey after spending the night cautiously hiding in the wilderness.
• Chen Jichuan carries Chen Shaohe while using the Land-Flying Technique, covering the remaining seventy to eighty li through the mountains. They hunt wild game, eat by a stream, and reach the edge of Centipede Mountain shortly after noon.
• Traveling north toward Yangshuo County, they encounter numerous refugees abandoning villages and farmland. Chen Jichuan infers that recent warfare and repeated grain seizures have devastated the region.
• Rather than questioning the refugees directly, Chen Jichuan waits until he finds a more scattered group of strangers, believing they will be easier to approach without arousing suspicion.
• He disguises himself as the foolish traveler “Zhang Liao,” while Chen Shaohe blends into the group separately. Chen Jichuan joins the household of Bao Zhongliang by offering two pheasants in exchange for food and conversation.
• Bao Zhongliang reveals that he is a grain merchant from Reason-Settled County. The Wusheng Sect recently defeated the Li River Gang and occupied the county, then imposed another grain collection immediately after the Li River Gang had already taken taxes.
• Because the Wusheng Sect monopolizes the grain trade and has left many households without food, large numbers of villagers are fleeing north toward Yangshuo County.
• Bao Zhongliang explains that the Wusheng Sect depends on grain supplied by the Golden Sun Sect, trading weapons and metal from its Yantie Ore mine in return. He predicts that the Wusheng Sect will become vulnerable if the Golden Sun Sect eventually cuts off its food supply.
• He also reveals that the Golden Sun Sect possesses a fertile hidden domain called “Peach Haven,” while the Li River Gang has a secret fertilizer method that dramatically increases crop yields.
• Chen Jichuan suspects Peach Haven may be comparable to Black Prison, the Wusheng Sect’s own hidden space, and begins reconsidering the balance of power among the three factions.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan remains cautious, observant, and strategically minded. He approves of Chen Shaohe’s vigilance but carefully avoids exposing their identities or unusual abilities.
• He demonstrates practical intelligence by choosing whom to question, adopting a harmless persona, and using hunted pheasants to gain access to Bao Zhongliang’s household.
• Chen Jichuan’s understanding of the political and economic situation expands. He recognizes that food supply—not merely military strength—may determine the future of the competing sects.
• Chen Shaohe continues to show loyalty and discipline. He keeps watch while Chen Jichuan rests, accepts being carried without complaint, and learns to rely on his brother’s judgment.
• Bao Zhongliang is revealed as a shrewd, talkative grain merchant. Though outwardly hospitable, he is motivated partly by the desire to obtain Chen Jichuan’s pheasants and is clearly skilled at hiding his wealth.

Significant Themes

• War’s destruction of ordinary life: Villagers abandon productive farmland because armies repeatedly seize grain and devastate communities.
• Food as a foundation of power: Military strength and weapons are insufficient without a stable food supply. The Wusheng Sect’s expansion is threatened by its dependence on external grain.
• Information and deception: Chen Jichuan must disguise himself, observe carefully, and gather intelligence indirectly after six years of isolation.
• Moral ambiguity: Chen Shaohe condemns bandits, soldiers, and officials for harming civilians, while Chen Jichuan recognizes that the Chen Family once behaved similarly.
• Hidden resources and strategic advantages: Black Prison, Peach Haven, and the Li River Gang’s fertilizer technique suggest that each faction possesses special means of sustaining its power.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan encourages Chen Shaohe’s cautious nature, strengthening their close brotherly bond.
• The brothers coordinate their disguises and deliberately pretend not to know each other so they can gather information without attracting attention.
• Bao Zhongliang invites the disguised Chen Jichuan to eat after noticing his pheasants. Their conversation allows Chen Jichuan to learn about the recent battle, refugee movement, grain shortages, and the strengths of the major factions.
• Bao Zhongliang speaks confidently about the Wusheng Sect’s weakness, while Chen Jichuan silently assesses whether military force might allow it to overcome its food shortage by conquering its rivals.

Chapter Summary: “One Month [Please Vote!]”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After escaping Black Prison, Chen Jichuan and his brother, Chen Shaohe, travel with Bao Zhongliang’s refugee group toward Yangshuo County.
• They pass through a Li River Gang checkpoint without difficulty after discarding their weapons and quietly separate from the group near the city.
• Lacking money, weapons, and supplies, the brothers decide not to enter Yangshuo County immediately. Instead, they settle in a secluded mountain hollow on Begonia Mountain, near Begonia Village and the Yi River.
• They support themselves by fishing and hunting, exchanging their catches for basic necessities at a nearby market.
• While living in hiding, they investigate Yangshuo County and gather information about the Li River Gang, the Wusheng Sect, and the region’s political situation.
• Chen Jichuan worries that the Wusheng Sect may exploit the spirit stones found in Black Prison to create more Altered Humans or powerful martial artists. He concludes that defeating the sect and the Li River Gang will require careful planning.
• The brothers train continuously. During the day, they practice martial arts and movement techniques in the mountains; at night, they enter the Great Yan World to study Manifest Force and Hidden Force.
• After a month, Chen Jichuan’s physical abilities have improved dramatically. He practices body-hardening methods, striking his body with an iron brick, and drills numerous martial and lightness techniques while using heavy sand weights.
• During an intense training run through the forest, Chen Jichuan encounters an unexpected group of people deep in the mountains. His curiosity and interest are immediately aroused, setting up the chapter’s cliffhanger ending.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Becomes more cautious, strategic, and disciplined after escaping Black Prison. Rather than rushing to make money or confront powerful enemies, he prioritizes learning the local situation and strengthening himself. His month of relentless training greatly improves his strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and martial skills.
• Chen Shaohe: Continues to rely on Chen Jichuan’s judgment and remains his companion in survival, training, and investigation. Their partnership remains close and cooperative.
• Bao Zhongliang’s group: Serves mainly as a temporary means of travel for the brothers before they separate near Yangshuo County.
• The Li River Gang and Wusheng Sect: Though not directly present for most of the chapter, both organizations become increasingly important threats. The Li River Gang controls movement in the region, while the Wusheng Sect may gain dangerous power from the spirit stones in Black Prison.

Significant Themes

• Survival and adaptation: The brothers must rebuild their lives with no money or equipment, relying on practical skills, caution, and hard work.
• Patience and strategic planning: Chen Jichuan recognizes that immediate action against powerful organizations would be reckless. Gathering information and improving their strength are necessary first steps.
• Relentless self-improvement: The chapter emphasizes discipline and endurance as Chen Jichuan trains continuously despite pain, exhaustion, and the loss of Origin Force.
• The cost of power: Origin Force accelerates Chen Jichuan’s development but is permanently consumed, creating a tension between rapid growth and limited resources.
• Hidden danger: Even seemingly ordinary plans—earning money through medicine or theft, entering wealthy estates, or traveling through the countryside—could expose the brothers to martial experts or Altered Humans.

Character Interactions

• Chen Jichuan and Chen Shaohe discuss their lack of money and decide together to settle outside the city.
• Chen Jichuan explains his cautious approach, persuading Shaohe that they should first understand Yangshuo County before taking action.
• The brothers cooperate in their daily survival, selling fish and game and maintaining a secluded life.
• Their shared training and investigations reinforce their dependence on one another, while Chen Jichuan serves as the more experienced planner and leader.
• The chapter ends before Chen Jichuan interacts with the strangers in the forest, leaving their identities and intentions unresolved.

Chapter Summary: Li River Gang’s Flying Eagle Hall

Key Plot Points and Events

• While practicing the Land-Flying Technique in the wilderness, Chen Jichuan encounters a group of Li River Gang members escorting two prisoners.
• The prisoners are Sheng Dayang, a tortured, limping man in his thirties, and his nine-year-old son, Sheng Xiaotian. Chen’s Insight Art reveals that both are rare Altered Humans with the Blood-Burning talent.
• The escorts belong to the Flying Eagle Hall, one of the Li River Gang’s three central halls. Their members are stronger martial artists who use the gang’s Divine Pounce Blade and Ghost-Fall Sword techniques.
• Chen realizes that Sheng Dayang and Xiaotian could become valuable allies. Both possess “immortal arts,” and the Li River Gang is forcing them to reveal the location of an Immortal Jujube Tree and surrender its life-prolonging fruit.
• The gang members brutalize the father and son to ensure their obedience. Zheng Biao, the lead enforcer, repeatedly threatens and beats Sheng Dayang, then slaps Xiaotian when the child shows defiance.
• Sheng Dayang endures the humiliation because he fears his son will be killed. Xiaotian secretly uses his Blood-Burning ability to ease the pain from his shackles and injuries.
• The chapter ends with Xiaotian consumed by hatred and revenge, desperately wishing that a rock would fall and crush Zheng Biao.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan: Demonstrates increased awareness of the political and martial landscape, correctly identifying the Flying Eagle Hall and assessing its members’ levels. His thoughts shift from simple observation toward planning: he sees the persecuted father and son as potential allies in his long-term revenge against the Li River Gang and Wusheng Sect.
• Sheng Dayang: Is revealed as a protective father who suppresses his anger and pride to keep his son alive. Though he deeply hates the gang for destroying his family and killing his mother, he feels helpless because resistance would mean Xiaotian’s death.
• Sheng Xiaotian: Despite being only nine, Xiaotian displays strong resentment and developing courage. His fear is mixed with hatred, grief, and a determination to avenge his father and grandmother. His ability to use Blood-Burning also suggests significant future potential.
• Zheng Biao: Emerges as a cruel, experienced enforcer who deliberately humiliates and terrorizes prisoners in order to break their will and control them.

Significant Themes

• Oppression and abuse of power: The Flying Eagle Hall exploits its authority and martial strength to enslave and torture civilians with unusual abilities.
• Parental sacrifice: Sheng Dayang accepts humiliation and pain rather than risk his son’s life.
• Revenge and inherited hatred: Both Chen brothers and the Sheng family are driven by blood feuds against powerful organizations. Xiaotian’s hatred suggests that violence and resentment may pass from one generation to the next.
• The abused becoming powerful: Though currently imprisoned, the father and son possess rare talents that could eventually transform them from victims into dangerous opponents.
• Strategic alliances: Chen recognizes that defeating the Li River Gang and Wusheng Sect will require more than individual strength, setting up a possible alliance with the Shengs.

Character Interactions

• Zheng Biao repeatedly threatens Sheng Dayang through Xiaotian, exploiting the father’s protective instincts.
• He strikes Sheng Dayang’s injured leg and later slaps Xiaotian, while the other Flying Eagle Hall members observe approvingly.
• Sheng Dayang responds with submission and pleas for mercy to protect his son, while Xiaotian silently develops hatred toward Zheng Biao.
• Chen does not yet intervene, instead observing from concealment and considering how the father and son might fit into his broader plans for revenge and survival.

Chapter Summary: Yong Prince Jujube

Key Plot Points and Events

• Chen Jichuan ambushes a group from the Li River Gang’s Flying Eagle Hall who are holding Sheng Dayang and his son, Sheng Xiaotian.
• He kills Zheng Biao with a thrown stone, then defeats Xu Lang—the gang’s Fourth Rank incense master—by shattering his blade and crushing his chest and spine.
• Using Xu Lang’s own weapon, Chen kills the remaining fighters in rapid succession. Six men die before the battle is over, while the final two attempt to flee but are quickly cut down.
• Sheng Dayang begs for mercy and explains that he and his son were captured because their unusual abilities attracted the gang’s attention.
• Chen searches the corpses and discovers weapons, books, pouches, silver, and a bag of red “immortal jujubes.”
• Through Insight Art, Chen identifies them as Yong Prince Jujubes, spiritual fruits capable of replenishing blood, lowering blood pressure, strengthening the body, and improving mental and liver health.

Character Developments

• Chen Jichuan demonstrates overwhelming martial superiority. His strength, speed, reflexes, and combat experience allow him to kill several opponents almost effortlessly, including a powerful Fourth Rank expert.
• He remains cautious despite rescuing the father and son. Rather than blindly trusting them, he keeps them under observation and deliberately warns Sheng Dayang that Zheng Biao is still alive to test whether he will act dishonestly.
• Sheng Dayang is revealed to possess an Altered Ability that lets him heat and burn blood. He has secretly used it to enhance his massage practice and earn a living.
• Sheng Xiaotian has recently awakened a similar ability after suffering a fever. Because he cannot yet control it, he accidentally injured another child, exposing the family’s secret.
• Sheng Dayang appears frightened but honest, choosing to explain everything rather than risk provoking Chen.
• Xu Lang is established as a formidable Fourth Rank fighter, but his confidence and skill prove useless against Chen’s superior abilities.

Significant Themes

• Overwhelming power and martial hierarchy: The battle emphasizes the gap between ordinary Third Rank fighters, a Fourth Rank expert, and Chen’s much greater strength.
• Caution and distrust: Although Chen acts as a rescuer, he refuses to become naïvely benevolent. He protects himself from the possibility that those he saves may betray him.
• The danger of hidden abilities: The Sheng family’s powers were useful when kept secret, but Xiaotian’s lack of control exposes them to criminal exploitation.
• The origins and value of spiritual resources: The family’s abilities came from years of eating fruit from an Immortal Jujube Tree, revealing the importance of rare supernatural plants.
• Mercy balanced with pragmatism: Chen does not needlessly kill the father and son, but he also refuses to assume they are harmless or trustworthy.

Character Interactions

• Chen’s silent, violent entrance terrifies Sheng Xiaotian and makes Sheng Dayang fear that the masked stranger may become another threat.
• Sheng Dayang immediately distinguishes himself and his son from the gang, pleading for mercy and offering information.
• Chen maintains control of the exchange by using a disguised hoarse voice, questioning Sheng Dayang while searching the bodies, and warning him not to interfere with Zheng Biao.
• Sheng Dayang’s decision not to kill the wounded Zheng Biao after Chen’s warning shows his submission and caution.
• The encounter shifts from a rescue and massacre into an investigation, with the Sheng family’s history leading Chen to the discovery of the spiritually valuable Yong Prince Jujubes.