Chapter Summaries

After awakening a Dark Iron Spear with innate level ten spirit power, Lu Yuan discovered that he could see fate nodes, including a prediction that Lin Yue would die in three days in the Black Stone Forest. He decided to join Lin Yue’s spirit-hunting team, leaving the cause of the predicted death unknown.

• Lu Yuan awakened a Dark Iron Spear with innate level ten spirit power, and Lin Yue recorded his results.
• Lu Yuan saw a fate node predicting that Lin Yue would die in three days in the Black Stone Forest, then learned Lin Yue might soon travel there on a spirit-hunting errand.
• Old Zhou celebrated Lu Yuan’s talent and explained that the Black Stone Forest was a common place to hunt for first spirit rings.
• Lu Yuan practiced wielding his spear and later learned that the Eye of Destiny revealed some important figures’ and events’ changeable fate nodes.
• Lu Yuan asked Old Zhou to help arrange for him to join Lin Yue’s team for his first spirit hunt.

Lu Yuan learned that a Spirit City selection offered his branch hall one recommendation quota for centralized training, tied to the Elder Hall and the Young Lord, and he needed a first Spirit Ring to compete for it. As he set out with Lin Yue and the others for the Black Stone Forest, Lu Yuan saw that Lin Yue’s Destiny Node had changed to death today.

• Lin Yue told Lu Yuan and Old Zhou that the branch hall had one recommendation quota for Spirit City’s selection, and Lu Yuan could qualify after obtaining his first Spirit Ring.
• Lin Yue explained that Lu Yuan would compete with another child and that the branch hall would decide in five days, warning him not to choose a Spirit Ring carelessly.
• Lu Yuan bought supplies for the forest trip and practiced using a spear in the courtyard.
• Lu Yuan joined Lin Yue, two young spirit masters, and three branch hall deacons before dawn, and the group headed south toward the Black Stone Forest.
• Lu Yuan saw that Lin Yue’s Destiny Node had changed from death in three days to death today.

Lu Yuan joined Lin Yue and the others in Black Stone Forest, where a blue-patterned python’s flight led them into an ambush by a wind-rending leopard. Lu Yuan helped Lin Yue evade a fatal attack, changing Lin Yue’s death node, and Lin Yue offered to seek him a recommendation quota if he obtained his first Spirit Ring from the leopard.

• Lin Yue led the group through Black Stone Forest and warned Lu Yuan to stay back if danger arose.
• The group killed a wounded blue-patterned python, and Lin Yue realized it had been fleeing from something.
• Lin Yue ordered everyone to retreat, but Lu Yuan spotted a wind-rending leopard hiding in the trees and warned him in time to avoid its attack.
• The wind-rending leopard targeted Lu Yuan, who deflected its pounce with his spear before Lin Yue and the deacons subdued it.
• Lu Yuan’s warning changed Lin Yue’s death node and granted Lu Yuan Origin of Destiny.
• Lin Yue offered to seek Lu Yuan a recommendation quota for Spirit City and proposed the wind-rending leopard as his first Spirit Ring.

Lu Yuan killed a Wind-Rending Leopard, absorbed its spirit ring, and gained the Piercing Edge skill. After Lin Yue reported his performance, the Branch Master ranked Lu Yuan first on the recommendation list for Spirit City, though the final roster would be sealed in three days.

• Lu Yuan killed the injured Wind-Rending Leopard himself, then absorbed its spirit ring despite the pain.
• Lu Yuan tested Piercing Edge, first missing a tree and then striking its trunk accurately after adjusting his stance.
• Lin Yue promised to write the hunting report and returned with Lu Yuan and the team to the Branch Hall.
• The Branch Master questioned Lu Yuan about spotting the ambush and reviewed Lin Yue's report.
• The Branch Master added Lu Yuan above Shen Chuan on the Spirit City recommendation list, with the final decision due in three days.

Lu Yuan defeated Shen Chuan in a sparring match and secured the branch hall’s sole recommendation quota. An urgent order moved the selection schedule forward, and Lu Yuan was set to leave for Spirit City the next morning.

• Lu Yuan met Shen Chuan, who challenged him to a fight to decide which of them would receive the recommendation quota.
• Lu Yuan used Shen Chuan’s shoulder movements to anticipate his Heavy Arm attacks, then won by pressing his spear tip against Shen Chuan’s leg.
• Shen Chuan conceded the quota to Lu Yuan and said they would fight again in Spirit City.
• The Branch Master registered Lu Yuan as the branch hall’s sole recommended candidate.
• A dispatch from Spirit City ordered all candidates to arrive within three days, so the Branch Master arranged for Lin Yue to take Lu Yuan there the next morning.

Lu Yuan traveled to Spirit City and entered the Elder Hall Youth Special Training, where he encountered Qian Renxue during a fierce token-grabbing trial. He seized a white token as another trainee moved to take it from him.

• Lu Yuan left with Lin Yue for Spirit City, carrying a recommendation letter from the branch hall.
• After arriving, Lu Yuan registered at the East Training Area and was sent into the first trial without Lin Yue.
• The scarred instructor announced that only twenty of thirty-six children could pass by taking tokens, with extra tokens counting toward later rounds.
• As the trial began, Lu Yuan spotted Qian Renxue and saw a crucial fate node appear beneath her name.
• Lu Yuan activated Piercing Edge, grabbed a white token, and readied his Dark Iron Spear as someone rushed at him.

Lu Yuan tied for first in the token assessment and caught Qian Renxue's attention. Before the second round began, she warned him not to leave too early, while his Eye of Destiny revealed a major node in her future.

• Lu Yuan collected three bronze tokens and earned two points in the first round.
• Lu Yuan tied for first place, drawing the attention of the other children.
• Qian Renxue approached Lu Yuan, and he deduced that she had not come to take the assessment.
• Qian Renxue warned Lu Yuan not to go out too early in the second round, then left for the North Gate Exterior.
• The short-haired man lined up the remaining participants by points and announced the start of the second round.

Lu Yuan teamed up with Zhou Qi, Luo Qing, and Hu Liena to carry a box of fragile bottles through the second-round obstacle course, passing first and earning priority in the next round. After seeing Qian Renxue’s fate point clarify that she would leave Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire at age nine, Lu Yuan prepared to choose first in the third round.

• Lu Yuan drew into a group with Zhou Qi, Luo Qing, and Hu Liena, then assigned roles and balanced their box before they began the second round.
• Lu Yuan’s group crossed the trench and passed the swinging sandbags by coordinating their tools and timing, while an earlier group cracked a bottle and was eliminated.
• Lu Yuan’s group reached the finish with all four bottles intact and was recorded as first, giving them first choice in the third round.
• Lu Yuan saw Qian Renxue’s fate text reveal that she would leave Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire at age nine.
• The short-haired man announced that the third round would have no groups and gave Lu Yuan’s group first choice among five black wooden boxes.

Lu Yuan passed the Snatch assessment by retracting his Martial Soul to outwit the examiner, and he and seven others entered the Elder Hall Youth Special Training roster. Qian Renxue summoned him to practice the maneuver again the next afternoon, while a newly clarified vision showed her leaving Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire and living under another name.

• Lu Yuan chose Snatch, then retrieved the examiner’s wooden plaque by withdrawing his Dark Iron Spear and rushing in while the examiner grabbed at empty air.
• Zhou Qi passed the Strength assessment, Luo Qing failed Speed, and Hu Liena found the hidden buckle and passed Cognition.
• The final assessment left eight candidates, who joined the Elder Hall Youth Special Training roster and were told to gather the next morning.
• Qian Renxue asked Lu Yuan why he had retracted his Martial Soul mid-skill, then told him to come to the Outer Courtyard of the Consecration Hall the next afternoon to try it again.
• Lu Yuan saw Qian Renxue’s destiny node become clearer, revealing that she would leave Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire and live under another name.

Lu Yuan passed Yan Tuo’s morning training challenge by coordinating the group, then used a bamboo pole and spear to touch Qian Renxue during her afternoon test. The sight of Qian Renxue’s fate information revealed that she would leave Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire under the name Xue Qinghe.

• Yan Tuo challenged the eight trainees to touch his back, and Lu Yuan organized a surround that let him brush Yan Tuo with his spear.
• Yan Tuo excused Lu Yuan from the morning training and told him to meet the Young Lord at the Outer Courtyard of the Consecration Hall.
• Qian Renxue challenged Lu Yuan to touch her within fifteen minutes without using her Martial Soul or Soul Skills, and she evaded his initial attempts.
• Lu Yuan grabbed a long training bamboo pole to force Qian Renxue to dodge, then touched her sleeve with his spear’s butt.
• Lu Yuan saw Qian Renxue’s fate information reveal that she would leave Spirit City for the Heaven Dou Empire under the name Xue Qinghe.

Lu Yuan won Yan Tuo’s training challenge by using Piercing Edge to force Wei Cheng’s foot outside the ring, and Yan Tuo raised his training difficulty. He accepted a place in Qian Renxue’s practical combat session outside Spirit City, then saw that she was fated to be severely injured there seven days later.

• Lu Yuan remembered the name Xue Qinghe revealed by the Eye of Destiny but kept his knowledge from Qian Renxue.
• Yan Tuo had the trainees try to force Wei Cheng out of a fenced ring, and Lu Yuan used Piercing Edge to maneuver Wei Cheng’s foot across the boundary.
• Yan Tuo praised Lu Yuan’s improved control, excused him from afternoon training, and announced that his training difficulty would increase the next day.
• A deacon brought Lu Yuan a Temporary Access Token and invited him to join Qian Renxue’s combat training outside Spirit City in seven days.
• Lu Yuan saw the Eye of Destiny predict Qian Renxue’s severe injury at the training session and accepted the invitation.

Lu Yuan learned that his upcoming patrol to Qingshi Valley would include Qian Renxue and two Spirit Elders, despite reports of only minor spirit beast activity. After a patrol member vanished and Lu Yuan saw that Han Yue was fated to die there, he warned Qian Renxue not to treat the mission as training.

• Lu Yuan accepted Qian Renxue’s invitation to join a patrol leaving Spirit City in seven days and learned that the team would investigate Qingshi Valley.
• Qian Renxue chose Lu Yuan because he adapted when outmatched, and he selected a lightweight safety rope from the Armory.
• A report arrived saying a level 28 Great Spirit Master had disappeared in Qingshi Valley, leaving blood and a saber but no body or spirit beast tracks.
• Lu Yuan saw a destiny node predicting Han Yue’s death in Qingshi Valley seven days later, alongside Qian Renxue’s future severe injuries.
• Lu Yuan warned Qian Renxue that the patrol should not be treated as practical combat training.

Lu Yuan and Han Yue led a group toward Qingshi Valley, where they found Spirit Beasts fleeing the area and a thousand-year Red-Armored Rhinoceros killed by an unknown predator. As Han Yue ordered a retreat, scarlet eyes appeared in the trees on both sides of the group, leaving his death node unresolved.

• Lu Yuan joined Qian Renxue, Han Yue, Bai Li, and two other youths on a mission to meet the Patrol Team at the Old Hunter Camp.
• The group found tracks and encountered Spirit Beasts of several kinds fleeing south from Qingshi Valley.
• Han Yue led the group to investigate a bloodstained clearing, where they found a thirteen-hundred-year Red-Armored Rhinoceros killed by a single piercing wound.
• Han Yue canceled the trip to the camp and ordered everyone to return to Spirit City after discovering that the reported Spirit Beast situation was outdated.
• Lu Yuan noticed the forest had gone silent, and two pairs of scarlet eyes appeared in the trees as Han Yue prepared to defend the group.

Han Yue’s group encountered two injured Dark-Patterned Shadow Leopards in Qingshi Valley, then discovered that a Man-Faced Demon Spider had killed the Red-Armored Rhinoceros. As the spider attacked, Lu Yuan saw fate warnings of Han Yue’s death and Qian Renxue’s severe injury, and Han Yue lunged to protect her.

• Han Yue and Bai Li fought two nearly thousand-year Dark-Patterned Shadow Leopards while Lu Yuan pulled the Cyan Feather Hawk Soul Master out of danger and Qian Renxue struck one leopard with her Six-Winged Angel martial soul.
• Lu Yuan noticed that the leopards’ four-toed tracks did not match the three holes in the tree beside the Red-Armored Rhinoceros’s carcass, so Han Yue ordered the group to retreat directly to the city.
• A hidden attacker killed the fleeing injured leopard with three black spikes, then revealed itself as a Man-Faced Demon Spider over three thousand years old.
• Han Yue told Bai Li to hold off the spider while Qian Renxue led the youths away, but Qian Renxue warned that the spider was faster than them.
• Lu Yuan saw fate warnings of Han Yue’s death and Qian Renxue’s severe injury as the spider vanished from the tree, and Han Yue lunged sideways while shouting for Qian Renxue to dodge.

Lu Yuan and the others killed the Man-Faced Demon Spider after he used a spear rope to topple it, and they changed Han Yue’s death fate by slowing his poison and rushing him toward Spirit City. As Lu Yuan’s spear began to transform after he gained the Origin of Destiny, Qian Renxue’s spider-web poison spread and her fate showed severe injury.

• Uncle Han deflected the Man-Faced Demon Spider’s attack, but its web grazed Qian Renxue’s arm and its poisoned leg wounded Han Yue.
• Lu Yuan saw Han Yue’s death fate and helped Qian Renxue and Bai Li herd the spider into a spear-rope trap, allowing Han Yue, Bai Li, and Qian Renxue to strike it down.
• Bai Li found that Han Yue’s poison was still present but spreading more slowly, and she said they could reach a cure if they returned to Spirit City quickly.
• Lu Yuan’s vision showed that Han Yue’s death node had changed, and his Dark Iron Spear began to develop a Dark Gold Pattern.
• Qian Renxue’s short sword fell as the poison darkened the mark on her arm, and Lu Yuan saw that her fate node was severe injury.

After Lu Yuan discovered that Qian Renxue’s soul power was driving the Man-Faced Demon Spider poison upward, she stopped circulating it and her severe-injury fate node disappeared. The Origin of Destiny triggered the Dark Iron Spear’s first evolution into the Piercing Spear, and after the group returned to Spirit City, a golden-robed elder summoned Lu Yuan to meet the grand pontiff.

• Lu Yuan spotted a strand of spider silk in Qian Renxue’s wound, and Bai Li removed it and treated the injury.
• Lu Yuan noticed Qian Renxue’s soul power made the poison spread faster, so she stopped circulating it and the poison line receded, changing her fate node.
• Lu Yuan absorbed the Origin of Destiny, and his Dark Iron Spear evolved into the Piercing Spear with dark gold patterns and improved penetration.
• The group returned to Spirit City, where healing soul masters took Han Yue and Qian Renxue for treatment.
• A golden-robed elder stopped Lu Yuan outside the city and told him the grand pontiff wanted to see him.

Qian Daoliu inspected Lu Yuan’s transformed Piercing Spear and granted him greater resources, including access to the Outer Treasury to test it against unusual materials. As Lu Yuan left, the spear reacted to a sealed door containing something the Worship Hall had hidden for more than twenty years, which he was forbidden to approach until he reached level thirty.

• Qian Daoliu examined the Piercing Spear and confirmed that its transformation was neither externally attached nor recorded in Spirit Hall archives, though he could not explain it.
• Qian Daoliu reviewed the Qingshi Valley report, credited Lu Yuan’s actions, and raised his Youth Special Training allocation with additional cultivation and archive privileges.
• Qian Daoliu gave Lu Yuan a token to visit the Outer Treasury and test whether special metals, weapon fragments, or ores affected his spear, and ordered him to return every other month for inspections.
• As Lu Yuan left with the Golden-Robed Elder, the Piercing Spear trembled beside a sealed black Iron Door in the corridor.
• The Golden-Robed Elder revealed that the Worship Hall had sealed something behind the door more than twenty years earlier and forbade Lu Yuan from touching it before reaching level thirty.

Lu Yuan and Qian Renxue searched the outer treasury for something that would make the Piercing Spear react, but its response came from a nameless fragment marked “Unmeltable.” The fragment was identified as an evolutionary opportunity, and Lu Yuan sought to keep it from being discarded.

• Qian Renxue thanked Lu Yuan for helping with her poisoning and joined him on a visit to the outer treasury.
• Lu Yuan tested the Piercing Spear against valuable materials on the treasury’s first floor, but it showed no reaction.
• Lu Yuan found that the Piercing Spear vibrated near a black fragment among the treasury’s waste materials.
• The old man revealed that the fragment had been kept for twenty-six years because it could not be melted, forged, or sensed with soul power.
• Gray text identified the fragment as an “Unknown Spear Blank Fragment” and displayed an evolutionary opportunity for the Piercing Spear.

Lu Yuan discovered that his Piercing Spear reacted to a fragment from a broken spear sealed by Spirit Hall, and the weapon’s larger remains responded from behind a locked gate. Qian Daoliu allowed him to keep interacting with the fragment but barred him from approaching the gate until he reached rank thirty.

• Qian Daoliu recognized the black fragment as a piece of a spear brought to Spirit Hall twenty-six years earlier.
• When Lu Yuan held the fragment, it attached briefly to his Piercing Spear before falling away, revealing an evolutionary opportunity but causing no change.
• Qian Daoliu explained that the fragment had broken off the spear whose remaining shaft and spear blank were sealed behind the black iron door.
• Lu Yuan’s Piercing Spear vibrated near the door, and the sealed spear answered with repeated metallic clangs for the first time in twenty-six years.
• Qian Daoliu forbade Lu Yuan from touching the door until he reached rank thirty, but let him continue interacting with the fragment in the outer treasury.

Lu Yuan tested the evolved Piercing Spear against targets and rank-twenty-two Wei Cheng, discovering that its sharpness and improved soul-power flow could threaten a Great Spirit Master. Yan Tuo ended his old training routine and named Qian Renxue as Lu Yuan’s new sparring partner, starting the next day.

• Lu Yuan demonstrated that the Piercing Spear pierced an iron-plated target and unleashed Piercing Edge without its former delay.
• Yan Tuo arranged a real fight with Wei Cheng, allowing him to use his martial soul and soul skills.
• Lu Yuan’s spear forced Wei Cheng to evade and then use Rock Armor to block a Piercing Edge strike, though it left a scratch and drove him back.
• Yan Tuo ordered Lu Yuan to replace half his old training with actual combat, since Great Spirit Masters could no longer casually block his attacks.
• Qian Renxue arrived at the training area, and Yan Tuo appointed her as Lu Yuan’s sparring partner starting the next day.