Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “The Ambiguity of Peacock Valley”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu realizes that “Peacock Valley” is a Miao euphemism for female genitalia, not merely the name of a location. He understands that when he told Yi Xiang he intended to visit Peacock Valley, she interpreted his words sexually, explaining her intense and embarrassed reaction.
• Blue Demon teases Lin Xiaosu about the misunderstanding before the conversation shifts to a serious threat: the origin of the powerful creature Little Tiger, which killed Chu Tiankuo.
• Lin reveals that Little Tiger is actually an Aoji, an ancient creature from the Primordial or Archaic Realm. A juvenile Aoji is already strong enough to kill lions, tigers, and even powerful humans; adults possess six wings and extraordinary speed.
• The white turtle from Peacock Valley is also revealed to be an otherworldly Snow Turtle, a sacred beast capable of reversing life and death and creating snowfield forbidden zones.
• Both creatures were discovered in Peacock Valley by Yi Xiang, suggesting that an interdimensional passage may exist there.
• Lin and Blue Demon discuss the possibility that the legendary descent of the Primordial World is real. If the passage opened fully, countless powerful beasts and beings could enter the human world, overwhelming humanity.
• Lin argues that the two creatures should not be attacked because they are auspicious sacred beasts rather than inherently hostile enemies. However, he insists that the passage must be found and sealed before something more dangerous emerges.
• Blue Demon suggests seeking help from Kun Cang, whose practitioners specialize in formations and might be able to locate or seal the passage. However, Kun Cang is morally unpredictable and might instead exploit or open the passage.
• Lin decides he may need to investigate a possible entry point in the northwest. Blue Demon offers assistance, but Lin says he will contact her if necessary.
• Their immediate case involving Chu Tiankuo and Gu Shan is considered resolved, and Blue Demon informs Lin that Qianlong has paid him 200,000 yuan.
• During the journey home, Blue Demon tells Lin that his childhood sweetheart, Hu Ya, has returned to Phoenix City.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu is embarrassed by his accidental sexual innuendo but quickly shifts into a determined investigator confronting a potentially world-ending threat. His concern for humanity grows beyond the immediate case, and he accepts that he may have to take responsibility for finding and sealing the interdimensional passage.
• Blue Demon moves from playful teasing to genuine alarm as she realizes the implications of the Archaic Realm creatures. Although extremely powerful herself, she becomes visibly shaken by the prospect of the Primordial World entering the human realm. She also shows practical caution regarding Kun Cang.
• Yi Xiang is indirectly characterized as both fortunate and unusually connected to supernatural forces, having discovered two sacred beasts in Peacock Valley. Her earlier reaction to Lin is reinterpreted through the Miao euphemism.
• Hu Ya is introduced as an important figure from Lin’s past. Her return to Phoenix City creates a new personal and potentially romantic complication.

Significant Themes

• Language and cultural misunderstanding: Lin’s innocent use of “Peacock Valley” carries a sexual meaning in Miao culture, demonstrating how ignorance of local customs can create unintended consequences.
• Myth becoming reality: Legends of the Primordial World are no longer abstract stories because living creatures from that realm have appeared in the human world.
• Human vulnerability: Genetic Modification represents the height of human achievement, yet the natural beings of the Primordial World possess vastly superior abilities from birth.
• Power and moral ambiguity: Kun Cang may be capable of saving the world, but its practitioners are detached from ordinary human concerns and may pursue cultivation rather than protect humanity.
• Fortune versus preparation: Although Miao Village has benefited from the arrival of two auspicious beasts, Lin rejects reliance on luck and argues for actively controlling the danger.
• Duty and self-interest: Lin balances serious responsibilities—protecting the world and accepting dangerous missions—with his love of money and playful romantic entanglements.

Character Interactions

• Lin and Blue Demon share a teasing, familiar relationship. She repeatedly mocks his misunderstanding of “Peacock Valley” and his romantic situation while still taking his warnings seriously.
• Their conversation develops from flirtatious humor into a grave strategic discussion about the Primordial World, the creatures in Peacock Valley, and the possible need for Kun Cang’s assistance.
• Lin insists that payment for his work is a matter of principle, while Blue Demon jokes about his greed and his relationships with the women around him.
• Blue Demon ends the chapter by teasing Lin about Changye, Yi Xiang, the women at his detective agency, and Hu Ya, emphasizing the growing complexity of his personal life.

Chapter Summary: “Two Bracelets for the Little Flowers”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu returns to Phoenix City after traveling hundreds of li with Blue Demon, who personally drives him home from Southern Frontier Province.
• During the journey, Lin and Blue Demon discuss Qianlong’s dangerous mission. Blue Demon believes Qianlong members are destined to die fighting evil, while Lin argues that their generation should solve the major threats and eventually retire peacefully, allowing future generations to continue the work.
• Blue Demon leaves Lin at the detective agency, joking that he wants to avoid witnessing the rivalry between Miao Ruolan and Zhou Xi over Lin’s attention.
• Both women have been emotionally depressed because Xiaoye, the beautiful woman living at the Lin family home, is believed to be Lin’s girlfriend.
• Lin reassures them that his brother has recovered fully and returned to the army. He also reveals that he earned another 200,000 yuan from helping the police solve a case in Southern Frontier Province.
• Lin gives Ruolan and Zhou Xi two exquisite jade bracelets made from stones he obtained in Southern Frontier Province. He claims they cost him nothing because one rough stone covered his expenses and another produced the bracelets.
• Ruolan initially suggests giving the bracelets to someone in Lin’s family, implicitly meaning Xiaoye. However, Lin says his mother would not be suited to wearing jade while doing farm work and tells the women to keep the bracelets.
• After Lin goes upstairs, Zhou Xi and Ruolan analyze Xiaoye’s situation. They note that:
  • Xiaoye has lived at the Lin family home for over a month.
  • Lin has avoided returning home during that entire period.
  • Xiaoye’s phone number appeared unfamiliar on Lin’s phone.
  • Her role as Lin’s supposed girlfriend seems inconsistent.
• Zhou Xi proposes that Xiaoye may actually be a housekeeper hired to care for Lin’s mother, using the “girlfriend” identity to make the arrangement acceptable to the older woman. This possibility revives Ruolan’s hopes.
• Lin later announces that he is going home. Ruolan offers him the agency’s car, but he refuses and takes a taxi instead.
• Zhou Xi leaves to handle a divorce case. After finishing, she declines the client’s offer of dinner and eats alone at a noodle restaurant.
• The chapter ends when someone recognizes and calls out to her, introducing a new cliffhanger.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: Demonstrates loyalty and emotional generosity by bringing Ruolan and Zhou Xi valuable gifts. He remains oblivious—or deliberately unconcerned—about the women’s romantic feelings and appears to have forgotten Xiaoye in his daily life. His discussion with Blue Demon also reveals his hopeful belief that Qianlong’s members can eventually live ordinary lives.
• Blue Demon: Shows unexpected warmth and loyalty by personally driving Lin home. Beneath her joking manner, she expresses deep pessimism about Qianlong’s fate and the likelihood of dying in battle.
• Miao Ruolan: Initially feels defeated by Xiaoye’s presence but becomes hopeful after Zhou Xi suggests Xiaoye may only be a hired caretaker. Her romantic feelings for Lin are strongly implied through her reaction to the bracelet and her interpretation of his words.
• Zhou Xi: Continues to act playfully and tease Ruolan, but she is also perceptive and analytical. Her detective reasoning provides a possible explanation for Xiaoye’s strange status and helps restore Ruolan’s hope.
• Xiaoye: Does not appear directly, but her ambiguous relationship with Lin remains central to the women’s emotional conflict.

Significant Themes

• Duty versus peaceful retirement: Lin and Blue Demon debate whether Qianlong members must die in service or whether their generation can complete its mission and eventually enjoy ordinary lives.
• Romantic uncertainty and hope: Ruolan and Zhou Xi’s feelings for Lin are complicated by Xiaoye’s apparent position as his girlfriend. Even limited evidence is enough to rekindle Ruolan’s hopes.
• Appearance versus reality: Xiaoye appears to be Lin’s girlfriend, but her behavior and Lin’s avoidance of home suggest that the truth may be different.
• Friendship and quiet affection: Lin’s gifts show that he values the two women, while their concern for him goes beyond ordinary professional loyalty.
• Professional integrity: Zhou Xi refuses to accept a client’s dinner invitation, maintaining the principle that business and personal favors should remain separate.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin and Blue Demon exchange teasing but sincere views about Qianlong’s future and mortality.
• Lin reassures Ruolan and Zhou Xi about his brother and gives them the jade bracelets.
• Zhou Xi and Ruolan privately discuss Lin’s relationship with Xiaoye, with Zhou Xi offering the housekeeper theory.
• Ruolan and Zhou Xi continue their playful rivalry over Lin, though both share similar romantic feelings.
• The chapter closes with Zhou Xi being recognized by an unidentified familiar person, setting up the next development.

Chapter Summary: Immortal Company, Immortal Daughter-in-Law

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhou Xi reunites with her former classmate Li Fang, who has returned from Huicheng after working for the struggling three-person startup Huanyu Technology. Li Fang describes the company as nearly bankrupt and complains about the difficulty of finding reliable employment.
• Zhou Xi reveals that she also works for a tiny company with only three employees, but earns an unusually high salary of 5,000 yuan per month and received more than 6,000 yuan after overtime.
• Suspecting that Zhou Xi’s boss may be attempting to seduce or exploit her, Li Fang questions her about gifts she has received. Zhou Xi shows her a jadeite bracelet given by her employer.
• Li Fang initially assumes the bracelet is counterfeit, but takes it to Li Dasheng Jewelry Store for appraisal. The expert confirms that it is genuine Grade A jadeite, masterfully crafted by Snow Jade Pavilion, and worth at least 200,000 yuan.
• Zhou Xi refuses to sell the bracelet, but the discovery completely changes Li Fang’s opinion of Zhou Xi’s employer. She humorously calls it an “immortal company,” arguing that a company providing real money and valuable gifts cannot be dismissed as a fraudulent “briefcase company.”
• Meanwhile, Lin Xiaosu returns to Old Tashan Village and is astonished by the transformation of his family home. Xiaoye has organized and beautified the courtyard, created vegetable plots and a flower garden, paved paths with river stones, and thoroughly cleaned the house.
• Lin Xiaosu sees Xiaoye working happily alongside his mother. His mother has become deeply fond of Xiaoye and treats her like the ideal daughter-in-law.
• After learning that Lin Xiaosu’s older brother has fully recovered and returned to the army, his mother is relieved. She then orders Xiaoye to go home with Lin Xiaosu while she finishes working.
• That evening, Lin Xiaosu plans to visit Willow Grove Temple, but his mother firmly refuses to let him leave. She insists that he stay home and properly accompany his “wonderful daughter-in-law,” leaving him alone upstairs with Xiaoye.

Character Developments

• Zhou Xi: Becomes more aware of the extraordinary generosity and wealth of her employer. Although she initially tries to defend him, the bracelet’s appraisal leaves her confused and emotionally unsettled. She appears to harbor some attraction toward him, even wishing privately that his gifts reflected romantic intentions.
• Li Fang: Shifts from suspicion and cynicism to admiration after discovering the bracelet’s authenticity. Her economic frustrations lead her to joke that she would willingly be “cheated” if it meant receiving such valuable gifts, revealing her increasingly practical and money-focused outlook.
• Lin Xiaosu: Is moved by Xiaoye’s ability to turn his ordinary rural home into a warm, beautiful place. He also becomes worried that his mother’s affection for Xiaoye is setting impossibly high standards for any future wife.
• Xiaoye: Continues to display both extraordinary competence and programmed obedience. She performs household and agricultural work with precision while forming a warm, affectionate bond with Lin Xiaosu’s mother.
• Lin Xiaosu’s mother: Grows increasingly attached to Xiaoye and views her as the perfect daughter-in-law. Her approval is based especially on Xiaoye’s helpfulness, obedience, cleanliness, and lack of resistance.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: Zhou Xi and Li Fang initially assume a tiny company must be dishonest, but the genuine jade bracelet proves that appearances can be misleading.
• Money and social values: The chapter humorously examines how financial security can alter people’s moral judgments. Li Fang’s suspicion of exploitation weakens once she learns the gift is worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.
• The idealized daughter-in-law: Xiaoye embodies traditional expectations of a perfectly obedient, capable, and accommodating wife, prompting Lin Xiaosu to worry that no ordinary woman could meet his mother’s standards.
• Technology and domestic warmth: Although Xiaoye is an intelligent robot, her labor creates a more welcoming and emotionally warm home than ordinary human effort had achieved.
• Family approval and romantic complications: Lin Xiaosu’s mother’s enthusiastic acceptance of Xiaoye strengthens their relationship but also creates future complications, since Xiaoye’s status and role in the family are not entirely straightforward.
• Ordinary life transformed by the extraordinary: Both the miraculous company and the robot daughter-in-law bring wealth, beauty, and comfort into otherwise modest lives.

Important Character Interactions

• Zhou Xi and Li Fang’s reunion develops into a humorous debate about low-paying jobs, suspicious employers, and the value of Zhou Xi’s jade bracelet.
• Li Fang acts protectively toward Zhou Xi, warning her about possible sexual or financial manipulation, though her attitude changes once the bracelet is authenticated.
• Xiaoye and Lin Xiaosu’s mother work together like close family members, laughing and cooperating in the garden.
• Lin Xiaosu observes their bond with mixed feelings: he is touched by the warmth Xiaoye has brought to the household but anxious that his mother now sees her as an impossible standard for a future wife.
• Lin Xiaosu’s mother directly asserts control over him by preventing him from leaving and ordering him to spend time with Xiaoye, forcing the two into a more intimate situation at the chapter’s conclusion.

Chapter Summary: “Meeting Hu Ya at Willow Grove Temple”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After spending the night at home with Xiaoye, Lin Xiaosu avoids intimacy by cultivating until dawn. Xiaoye’s literal interpretation of romance and her robotic behavior leave him uncomfortable, prompting him to return to the detective agency.
• Lin Xiaosu visits his second uncle, who has come home from Willow Grove Temple. He learns that Hu Ya has returned from national-team training and is staying at the temple.
• At Willow Grove Temple, Hu Ya rereads the Sea Abyss Classic, a book she once dismissed as childish fantasy. Her experiences at Qianlong Base have changed her perspective, and she now sees possible connections between mythology and the mysterious world she has entered.
• By photographing and uploading the book’s contents, Hu Ya earns three hundred points toward becoming a full Qianlong member. Her upcoming reserve missions make her goal of one thousand points seem attainable.
• Hu Ya reflects resentfully and nostalgically on Lin Xiaosu’s actions: he has opened a successful detective agency with her best friend, Miao Ruolan, and has brought Xiaoye home as another girlfriend. She wonders whether he has abandoned their childhood promise to marry.
• Lin Xiaosu arrives at the temple. Hu Ya greets him warmly, though her former habit of physically knocking him backward has been replaced by a controlled, gentle hug.
• Their reunion quickly regains its old familiarity through teasing and shared memories. Hu Ya offers to catch wild game, reviving a traditional part of their childhood relationship, though Lin Xiaosu specifically asks her not to catch wild boar.
• Hu Ya leaps from the temple platform to hunt rabbits, revealing how dramatically her abilities have improved.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: He remains awkward and restrained around Xiaoye, choosing cultivation over intimacy. His discomfort also reflects his complicated emotional history with Hu Ya and his awareness of secrets she does not know about his connection to Qianlong.
• Hu Ya: She has changed physically and psychologically after joining the Hidden Dragon Reserve. She is stronger, faster, and capable of precisely controlling her power, having mastered the Military Eight Forms. Despite her transformation, her old emotional attachment to Lin Xiaosu remains strong, mixed with jealousy, hurt, and longing.
• Xiaoye: Her literal, programmed behavior highlights her status as a robot. She approaches intimacy practically rather than emotionally, unintentionally making Lin Xiaosu uneasy.
• Lin Xiaosu’s relatives: His second uncle and aunt reveal that the families had long hoped Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya would marry. They are disappointed that their childhood-sweetheart relationship appears to have faded.

Significant Themes

• Change versus familiarity: Hu Ya has entered a new supernatural world and no longer feels entirely connected to her former village life, yet her reunion with Lin Xiaosu restores their old familiarity.
• Unspoken love and missed promises: Hu Ya still remembers Lin Xiaosu’s childhood vow, but his relationship with Xiaoye makes her fear that he has moved on.
• The widening gap between ordinary life and the hidden world: The village, temple, and childhood memories contrast with Qianlong’s secret missions, advanced technology, and supernatural abilities.
• Identity and transformation: Hu Ya struggles with becoming someone beyond the ordinary village girl she once was, while Lin Xiaosu’s life has also changed in ways she does not understand.
• Family expectations versus personal choice: The older generation believes Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya are naturally suited, but their actual relationship is shaped by their own choices and changing circumstances.

Character Interactions

• Lin Xiaosu and Xiaoye share an awkward nighttime exchange in which Xiaoye straightforwardly proposes intimacy, while Lin Xiaosu avoids it through meditation.
• Lin Xiaosu’s second uncle and aunt discuss their disappointment that he and Hu Ya have not become a couple.
• Hu Ya and Lin Xiaosu reunite with playful teasing about their appearances, her body, and his vanity. Their banter quickly restores the easy intimacy of childhood.
• Their discussion of hunting wild game recalls their shared past, showing that although their lives have diverged, familiar rituals still connect them.
• Hu Ya’s affectionate behavior conceals deeper jealousy and hurt over Xiaoye and Lin Xiaosu’s apparent relationship.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya successfully catch and cook a rabbit at Willow Grove Temple, spending the afternoon reminiscing and discussing their futures.
• Hu Ya reveals that she has joined the national team and will leave the next day for an undisclosed training camp in the Northwest. Lin Xiaosu is also preparing to leave for his Reserve Trial, which will take place somewhere in the same general region.
• That night, Hu Ya and Lin Xiaosu share a deeply intimate, nostalgic moment while sitting back-to-back beneath the stars. They promise to protect themselves and hope their paths will cross again.
• They sleep at the temple as they did in childhood. At dawn, Hu Ya quietly kisses the sleeping Lin Xiaosu goodbye and leaves. Lin Xiaosu, who was actually awake, lets her go while confirming that she is traveling to Ning City for her trial.
• Second Uncle arrives and learns that Hu Ya has already departed. Lin Xiaosu warns him that he has calculated an Ecliptic Rupture Day—the first day of the first lunar month, or Lunar New Year. This potentially dangerous celestial anomaly could allow the two realms to connect directly.
• Lin Xiaosu promises to be present and prepare for the crisis. Second Uncle, relieved to have someone influential enough to be heard by the authorities, places the responsibility largely on him.
• Returning to the detective agency, Lin Xiaosu finds Zhou Xi waiting. She tries to return the bracelet he gave her after learning it is worth at least two hundred thousand. Lin Xiaosu insists she keep it, treating the value casually and telling her to repay him by working hard.
• The chapter ends with Lin Xiaosu asking Zhou Xi about her progress with the Rejuvenation Technique.

Character developments

• Hu Ya shows that she has become an exceptionally powerful fighter, potentially matching Number 88, a Gold-ranked instructor-level expert. Her national-team position and upcoming training signal her growing independence and ambition.
• Despite her strength, Hu Ya remains emotionally attached to Lin Xiaosu. She struggles with the fact that adulthood has sent them down separate paths and quietly expresses her hope that he will remain safe.
• Lin Xiaosu continues concealing much of his true strength and cultivation. He understands Hu Ya’s feelings but responds indirectly, offering reassurance that their paths may eventually reunite.
• Lin Xiaosu also takes on greater responsibility by preparing for the predicted Ecliptic Rupture Day and acting as the link between supernatural dangers and the authorities.
• Second Uncle is both anxious about the coming celestial disaster and relieved to shift responsibility to Lin Xiaosu. His humorous reaction to Hu Ya’s absence contrasts with his genuine concern for her safety.
• Zhou Xi becomes increasingly aware of the bracelet’s value and the emotional implications of accepting such an expensive gift. Her embarrassment and concern about a future boyfriend reveal her growing awareness of her relationship with Lin Xiaosu.
• Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Xi’s relationship remains playful and trusting, though his generosity creates potential pressure in her future romantic life.

Significant themes

• Growing up and diverging paths: Hu Ya reflects on how childhood hopes give way to separate adult destinies, even when people still wish to return to the past.
• Unspoken affection and separation: Hu Ya’s kiss and her request that Lin Xiaosu stay safe convey feelings neither openly confesses. Their farewell emphasizes both emotional closeness and physical distance.
• Duty versus personal relationships: Both Hu Ya and Lin Xiaosu must leave loved ones to pursue training, missions, and larger responsibilities.
• Hidden strength and responsibility: Lin Xiaosu’s concealed abilities contrast with his increasingly important role in protecting others and preparing for a supernatural catastrophe.
• Wealth and generosity: Lin Xiaosu treats a valuable gift as insignificant, suggesting his unusual relationship with money and highlighting his casual but sincere care for Zhou Xi.
• Fate and reunion: Though their immediate paths separate, the characters hold onto the belief that they will eventually meet again.

Character interactions

• Hu Ya and Lin Xiaosu: Their shared meal, childhood memories, physical closeness, mutual promises of safety, and silent goodbye reveal a deep bond complicated by romantic feelings and impending separation.
• Lin Xiaosu and Second Uncle: Lin Xiaosu delivers the serious warning about the Ecliptic Rupture Day, while Second Uncle responds with alarm, dependence, and comic relief.
• Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Xi: Their conversation about the bracelet combines teasing, generosity, and emotional tension. Lin Xiaosu reassures her through humor before shifting the conversation toward her martial progress.

Chapter Summary: “A Misunderstanding Called Seeing with Your Own Eyes”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhou Xi struggles to sense the origin point required to practice the Rejuvenation Technique, believing herself too unintelligent despite Miao Ruolan’s instruction.
• Lin Xiaosu proposes a direct training method: while Zhou Xi lies on the bed, he guides her attention to the origin point by pressing on her lower abdomen.
• Zhou Xi initially misunderstands his intentions, becoming embarrassed and nervous, but soon realizes that the exercise is genuinely martial-arts training.
• With Lin Xiaosu’s calming energy and guidance, Zhou Xi successfully senses the Rejuvenation Origin Point. Lin Xiaosu tells her to remain still and consolidate the breakthrough.
• Lin Xiaosu goes downstairs and encounters Zhou Mei, who has recently been promoted to police captain and now wears a golden police star.
• Zhou Mei reveals that the police force is selecting officers for dangerous Genetic Modification. She is depressed because only children are excluded from consideration, and she is an only child.
• Lin Xiaosu explains the dangers behind the regulation: Genetic Modification has a low success rate, possible long-term health consequences, and a high risk of death for modified officers.
• Zhou Mei tells him that Captain Zhang and Sun Yang were selected. Captain Zhang qualifies because his wife and son were killed by an agent of Ghost-Eyed Old Seven, leaving him without a family to protect.
• While using the restroom, Zhou Mei opens the room where Zhou Xi is still lying on the bed with her clothing partly displaced. She quietly closes the door and assumes Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Xi were engaged in an improper affair.
• Lin Xiaosu insists they were practicing the Rejuvenation Technique, but Zhou Mei sarcastically interprets it as a euphemism for sexual activity. He offers to teach her the technique as an alternative to Genetic Modification, but she assumes he is merely trying to bribe her into silence.
• Zhou Mei leaves, promising not to tell Miao Ruolan.
• After Zhou Xi finishes consolidating her breakthrough, she excitedly thanks Lin Xiaosu. He becomes embarrassed by her enthusiastic physical affection.
• When Miao Ruolan returns, she notices Zhou Xi’s unusual excitement. Lin Xiaosu explains that Zhou Xi has sensed the origin point, prompting Miao Ruolan to joke that university education may improve comprehension.

Character Developments

• Zhou Xi overcomes her lack of confidence and achieves an important breakthrough in the Rejuvenation Technique. Her excitement and gratitude show how deeply she values Lin Xiaosu’s help.
• Lin Xiaosu demonstrates patience and skill as a teacher, but his ambiguous training method creates a comic misunderstanding. He also gains deeper insight into the dangers and human cost of Genetic Modification.
• Zhou Mei is shown to be ambitious and frustrated by being excluded from the Genetic Police program. Her humor and suspicion preserve her confident personality, even while she hides disappointment.
• Captain Zhang gains emotional depth through the revelation that his family was murdered, explaining his grim demeanor and obsessive dedication to police work.
• Miao Ruolan remains supportive and enthusiastic about Zhou Xi’s progress, while her final remark adds lighthearted humor.

Significant Themes

• Misunderstanding and appearance: Zhou Mei judges the situation based on what she sees, creating the chapter’s central comedic conflict.
• Martial arts versus technological enhancement: The Rejuvenation Technique is presented as a safer and potentially superior alternative to Genetic Modification.
• The human cost of duty: Captain Zhang’s tragedy highlights how police officers sacrifice personal happiness and family life to protect others.
• Self-doubt and breakthrough: Zhou Xi’s success shows that perceived stupidity may actually be a lack of proper guidance or confidence.
• Protection and sacrifice: The exclusion of only children from Genetic Modification reflects institutional concern for family continuity and the risks borne by dangerous professions.

Character Interactions

• Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Xi share a mentor-student moment complicated by Zhou Xi’s initial romantic misunderstanding.
• Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Mei exchange teasing banter about her promotion and her apparent “depression.”
• Zhou Mei’s discovery of Zhou Xi in the bedroom leads to a humorous confrontation with Lin Xiaosu, as she refuses to believe his explanation.
• Lin Xiaosu attempts to encourage Zhou Mei by offering the Rejuvenation Technique, but she interprets the offer as an attempt to silence her.
• Miao Ruolan later questions Lin Xiaosu about Zhou Xi’s excitement, closing the chapter with playful curiosity.

Chapter Summary: “This Is All Zhou Xi’s Fault”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Zhou Xi retreats to her room to study/cultivate, prompting Miao Ruolan to decide that she must also work harder.
• Because Ruolan’s sensitivity makes it difficult for her to cultivate calmly around Lin Xiaosu, Zhou Xi’s earlier suggestion leads Ruolan and Lin Xiaosu to take their relationship to an intimate level as a means of overcoming that obstacle.
• Afterward, Ruolan successfully cultivates beside Lin Xiaosu and discovers a clear path in the Rejuvenation Technique, marking a major breakthrough.
• The next morning, Ruolan discreetly washes the bedsheet and takes an emergency contraceptive pill, while trying to behave normally around Zhou Xi.
• Lin Xiaosu announces that he is leaving for the northwest. He asks Ruolan and Zhou Xi to look after the detective agency while he is gone.
• Lin departs by taxi, leaving Ruolan watching after him with concern.
• The narrative shifts to Qianlong Headquarters, where Blue Demon meets Bloodmark. They discuss Blue Demon’s recent success in eliminating Du Tiange and Chu Tiankuo.
• Blue Demon reveals that Lin Xiaosu devised the strategy behind those victories. Bloodmark becomes interested in meeting Lin, hoping he might help locate the mysterious White-Robed Heavenly King.
• Blue Demon warns that finding the Heavenly King is nearly impossible and questions what Bloodmark could accomplish even if Lin succeeded.

Character Developments

• Miao Ruolan overcomes a major psychological and physical barrier in her cultivation. Her intimacy with Lin allows her to calm herself and finally advance the Rejuvenation Technique.
• Ruolan also becomes more emotionally attached to Lin, showing both shyness and trust, especially when she willingly leans into his embrace before his departure.
• Lin Xiaosu moves forward in his relationship with Ruolan but remains focused on the dangerous situation surrounding the detective agency and the rapidly changing world. He recognizes that Ruolan’s strength is essential to the group’s survival.
• Zhou Xi remains energetic and mischievous, indirectly influencing Ruolan’s breakthrough through her unconventional advice. She also grows more confident, claiming she will soon become a true cultivator.
• Blue Demon openly credits Lin with masterminding her recent victories, demonstrating her respect for his intelligence and strategic ability.
• Bloodmark is revealed to carry a long-standing grudge or unresolved trauma connected to the White-Robed Heavenly King.

Significant Themes

• Cultivation through intimacy and trust: Physical closeness becomes a means for Ruolan to overcome emotional instability and deepen her cultivation.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter treats a serious romantic and cultivation breakthrough lightheartedly, repeatedly blaming Zhou Xi for the situation.
• Growing global crisis: Genetic modification and powerful enemies indicate that the world is entering a dangerous new era.
• Duty versus personal relationships: Lin must leave Ruolan and Zhou Xi despite their newly strengthened bond because larger threats demand his attention.
• The limits of strategy: Lin’s intelligence can defeat powerful enemies, but even his abilities may not be enough to locate the elusive White-Robed Heavenly King.

Character Interactions

• Lin Xiaosu and Miao Ruolan: Their relationship becomes physically intimate and emotionally closer. Their later cultivation together succeeds, allowing Ruolan to make significant progress.
• Miao Ruolan and Zhou Xi: Ruolan conceals the night’s events from Zhou Xi, while Zhou Xi innocently praises Ruolan’s unusually attractive appearance. Zhou’s earlier advice is presented as the indirect cause of Ruolan’s breakthrough.
• Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Xi: Lin teases Zhou about having an expert’s confidence before achieving expert abilities, while Zhou promises to improve before his return.
• Blue Demon and Bloodmark: As longtime comrades and members of Qianlong’s elite, they discuss Lin’s strategy and Bloodmark’s desire to pursue the White-Robed Heavenly King. Their exchange reveals both mutual respect and Bloodmark’s deep obsession with his old enemy.

Summary of “Mysterious Kunlun”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Bloodmark/Qianlong Heavenly King remains consumed by the humiliation inflicted on him by the White-Robed Heavenly King, who left a scar on his forehead. He refuses modern treatment because he wants to erase the mark—and the shame behind it—himself.
• For three years, he has pursued the elusive White-Robed Heavenly King across multiple countries but has been unable to locate him. Even if he succeeds, defeating him remains uncertain, and relying on Jing Lei to intervene would violate his pride and a Heavenly King’s honor. His obsession is beginning to worry Blue Demon.
• Meanwhile, Lin Xiaosu travels northwest by high-speed train to investigate Kun Cang. Recent encounters with the Archaic Realm creatures Aoji and the Snow Turtle have convinced him that legendary beings and otherworldly invasions pose a genuine danger.
• Lin is especially concerned about Yi Xiang, who lives near Peacock Valley, and about Tashan, another connection point to another world. With Ecliptic Rupture Day approaching, he believes the invasion of Archaic Realm creatures is accelerating and that Kun Cang may offer a way to break the deadlock.
• Lin suspects Ding Ruoshui is Kun Cang’s World Walker because she gave him a painting that functions as a map. However, Ding has disappeared, leaving her phone unreachable and messages unanswered, suggesting she may have entered another world.
• During the journey, Lin notices a supernatural Kunlun Divine Eagle with black-gold talons and a faint golden radiance. It carries off a lamb while a nearby herdsman watches calmly. A professor explains that, in Tibetan religious thought, Buddha-nature can exist within the natural order rather than only in acts of kindness.
• Lin meets Professor Yin and five students traveling to Huiyan Town. Among them are a handsome young man, an elegant tall woman, and a shy petite woman.
• Lin and the group arrive together at an inn in Huiyan Town beneath the Kunlun Mountains. From the terrace, he recognizes the landscape and road shown in Ding Ruoshui’s painting.
• The road, called Miyan Road, is associated with supernatural phenomena: thousand-year-old snow lotuses, eternal glaciers, preserved corpses, healing blue flames, and mysterious fruits that may contain anything from exquisite flesh to deadly worms. Its defining quality is unpredictability—every apparent opportunity may also conceal mortal danger.
• The chapter ends when the shy girl accidentally walks into the glass terrace door while Lin is studying the road.

Character Developments

• Bloodmark/Qianlong Heavenly King: His desire for revenge has become increasingly obsessive. His scar represents wounded pride and psychological humiliation rather than merely a physical injury.
• Lin Xiaosu: He becomes more cautious and determined after witnessing real Archaic Realm creatures. His concern extends beyond personal goals to protecting allies and understanding the larger threat facing the world.
• Blue Demon: She acts as a restrained observer who recognizes the Bloodmark Heavenly King’s fixation and gently attempts to bring him back to reason.
• Ding Ruoshui: Though absent, she becomes more important through the map she provided, which appears to connect Lin directly to Kun Cang.
• Professor Yin: He is introduced as a knowledgeable academic familiar with Tibetan culture and the spiritual logic behind the region’s beliefs.
• The shy student: She is characterized as timid and easily embarrassed, and her awkward collision with the door provides the chapter’s final humanizing moment.

Significant Themes

• Obsession and wounded pride: The Bloodmark Heavenly King’s physical scar symbolizes a deeper emotional wound that fuels his pursuit of revenge.
• Myth becoming reality: Lin’s direct encounters with supernatural creatures demonstrate that ancient legends are not distant stories but active forces in the modern world.
• The approaching otherworldly threat: Peacock Valley, Tashan, and Ecliptic Rupture Day establish the growing danger of invasion from the Archaic Realm.
• Nature’s ambiguity: Kunlun’s wonders are neither purely benevolent nor malicious. The eagle, healing flame, and strange fruits all embody a natural order that cannot be judged by ordinary human morality.
• Fortune and danger: Miyan Road represents the uncertainty of supernatural opportunities: the same phenomenon may offer salvation, wonder, or death.
• Beauty and vastness: The Kunlun landscape is presented as rugged yet refined, contrasting with the carefully cultivated beauty of Jiangnan.

Character Interactions

• Blue Demon indirectly challenges the Bloodmark Heavenly King’s obsessive revenge by asking what he intends to do after finding the White-Robed Heavenly King.
• Lin observes and internally evaluates the debate among train passengers over whether the sheep-stealing eagle can possess Buddha-nature.
• Professor Yin provides a cultural explanation that reframes the eagle’s behavior as part of the natural order rather than a violation of morality.
• Lin travels alongside Professor Yin and his students, eventually arriving at the same inn and destination, creating a new group connection.
• The chapter closes with Lin witnessing the shy student’s embarrassing accident, marking their first notable personal interaction.

Chapter Summary: “An Expedition Team, None of Them Simple”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu meets Dawa, a shy Tibetan student he previously encountered on the high-speed train, at a tea platform near the Gate.
• He tells her that he plans to enter the dangerous Kun Cang mountains to find the legendary Tribulation Womb Fruit, which he claims can cure his poisoned girlfriend, Xiaoye.
• Lin Xiaosu presents an emotional story about Xiaoye having fallen into “Eternal Night” and his willingness to risk his life for her. In reality, the story is fabricated to gain access to Dawa’s expedition team.
• Dawa consults Professor Yin. Impressed by Lin Xiaosu’s knowledge of the region and persuaded by his apparent devotion, Professor Yin agrees to let him join, provided he follows the team’s orders.
• Lin Xiaosu reveals that his real strategy is to avoid entering the mysterious Miyan Road alone. By joining a group, he can use the expedition members as distractions while observing and analyzing the hidden forces of Kun Cang.
• Dawa explains that the team’s true objective is the Divine Temple, where they hope to find the Other Shore Bodhi, a rare flower containing a potentially revolutionary “reverse growth” gene. Their laboratory has only one petal, and its genetic information is incomplete.
• The expedition consists of Professor Yin, four graduate students, Dawa, and a guide known as Little Hu. Lin Xiaosu notices that the group appears to contain more secrets and motives than they openly admit.
• Little Hu, who behaves like a boastful womanizer, approaches Lin Xiaosu after flirting with another tourist. He offers him liquor and jokes about their shared status as the two most handsome men on the team, while also asking Lin Xiaosu to teach him how to attract women—especially Dawa.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: Demonstrates strategic intelligence, manipulation, and psychological insight. He uses a carefully invented romance to secure a place on the team and deliberately presents himself as the “Misty Smoke Expert,” someone with extensive knowledge of the mountains and their legends. His true purpose is not merely to find medicine, but to investigate Kun Cang and its mysterious opponent from within a group.
• Dawa: Initially shy and reserved, Dawa becomes emotionally invested in Lin Xiaosu’s fabricated love story. Her admiration for his supposed devotion leads her to advocate for him joining the expedition. She gradually becomes more comfortable speaking with him, revealing a sympathetic and idealistic personality.
• Professor Yin: Practical and cautious, he initially wants to reject Lin Xiaosu. However, Lin Xiaosu’s knowledge convinces him that the newcomer could be useful rather than a burden. His decision reflects the expedition’s need for expertise in the dangerous region.
• Little Hu: Introduced as the team’s guide, he appears frivolous, flirtatious, and self-important. He claims that his involvement will ensure the protection of “Eternal Heaven,” though Dawa dismisses this as nonsense. Despite his comic behavior, Lin Xiaosu senses that the guide—and everyone else in the group—may be more complicated than he appears.
• The Expedition Team: Their scientific mission gives them a legitimate reason to enter the Divine Temple, but their differing goals and personalities suggest that the group is not a simple research expedition.

Significant Themes

• Deception and manipulation: Lin Xiaosu constructs a false identity and emotional narrative to gain access to the team. His story is persuasive because it combines factual knowledge with carefully targeted emotional appeal.
• Strategy against hidden enemies: The chapter emphasizes the danger of confronting a mysterious opponent directly. Lin Xiaosu believes entering Kun Cang alone would make him predictable and vulnerable, so he uses the team to obscure his actions.
• Appearance versus reality: Lin Xiaosu appears to be a devoted lover, but he is actually executing a calculated plan. Likewise, Little Hu appears to be merely a crude flirt, yet the chapter hints that no member of the expedition is truly simple.
• Science and legend: The expedition combines folklore, ancient treasures, dangerous mountain paths, and cutting-edge genetic research. The Other Shore Bodhi may connect mythical phenomena with the future of human biology.
• Romance as influence: The idealized love story Lin Xiaosu tells affects Dawa deeply and motivates her to help him. The chapter shows how emotional narratives can be used as powerful tools of persuasion.
• Trust and hidden motives: The team members accept Lin Xiaosu, but neither side is completely honest. Each person may be pursuing a separate objective beneath the expedition’s stated purpose.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin Xiaosu wins Dawa’s sympathy through his story about Xiaoye and persuades her to ask Professor Yin to accept him.
• Dawa’s emotional reaction contrasts with Professor Yin’s practical evaluation of Lin Xiaosu’s usefulness.
• Lin Xiaosu and Dawa grow more familiar as they discuss their respective goals.
• Dawa openly criticizes Little Hu’s flirtatious behavior and doubts his claim to be a reliable guide.
• Little Hu attempts to befriend Lin Xiaosu through liquor, humor, vanity, and curiosity about his success with Dawa, creating a lighthearted but potentially significant first interaction between the two men.

Chapter Summary: Formless Temple

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu, Dawa, and Hu Fo joke about Hu Fo’s exaggerated claims of possessing “Buddha-nature.” Hu Fo’s flirtatious, pleasure-seeking personality sharply contrasts with his name and self-proclaimed spiritual image.
• Li Sisi stops Hu Fo from drinking because the group must visit Formless Temple the next morning to obtain Peace Incense. Alcohol—or a night spent pursuing women—would leave him unfit to enter the temple.
• Lin Xiaosu and Dawa correctly realize that Li Sisi’s warning is practical rather than romantic. Hu Fo had mistakenly imagined that she was placing special restrictions on him because she cared about him.
• The group explains the practical importance of the Peace Incense: it contains bone powder from the Kunlun Divine Eagle, whose scent repels the poisonous snakes along Miyan Road. The incense is essential mountain-safety equipment, not merely a religious comfort.
• Lin Xiaosu researches Formless Temple and determines that it follows Han Buddhist customs, including abstinence from alcohol and sexual activity, despite being located in Tibetan territory.
• That night, Hu Fo struggles with the temptation to contact a woman, but ultimately deletes her number. He then tells Lin Xiaosu the unusual story behind his name.
• Hu Fo was born to a Han Chinese father and a Tibetan mother, who left him wrapped in sheepskin beside a river as part of a local survival-and-blessing tradition. After discovering that his son had survived, his father named him Hu Fo (“Hu Buddha”) and unexpectedly developed faith in Buddhism.
• Hu Fo humorously interprets his name as combining Han Buddhist compassion, Tibetan Buddhist freedom, and his father’s bizarre transformation. He even justifies seducing lonely female travelers as an act of “Buddhist compassion,” prompting Lin Xiaosu to give up on the conversation.
• The next morning, the group travels to Formless Temple, a mountain temple built into the slope beneath an ancient Bodhi tree. Its Buddha carvings are partially embedded in the rock, weathered and overgrown with vegetation.
• The temple monks demand a donation of 980 yuan per person for lamp oil. The group pays electronically, creating an amusing contrast between the ancient temple atmosphere and modern digital payment.
• After paying, the group must still worship. Lin Xiaosu performs a perfunctory bow, while Hu Fo complains that the monks are mixing business with unnecessary ceremony.
• Lin Xiaosu asks about the half-exposed Buddha carvings. Master Hongguang gives a poetic explanation about being half in the world and half beyond it, but Hu Fo bluntly suggests that the carvings may simply have been made that way to save money.
• Professor Yin redirects the conversation toward the group’s true purpose: asking whether the monk knows about the Divine Temple’s Other Shore Bodhi.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu remains observant, skeptical, and practical. He researches the temple and Peace Incense, sees through Hu Fo’s romantic misconceptions, and challenges the monks’ mystical explanations with dry humor.
• Hu Fo is established as boastful, irreverent, flirtatious, and materialistic despite his Buddhist name and spiritual rhetoric. However, he shows some self-control by deleting a woman’s contact before entering the temple.
• Dawa speaks very little but clearly dislikes Hu Fo. Her rare verbal affirmation supports Lin Xiaosu’s judgment of him.
• Li Sisi demonstrates authority and practicality by enforcing the professor’s rules and ensuring Hu Fo does not jeopardize the mission. Her actions are shown to be motivated by the expedition rather than romantic interest.
• Professor Yin remains focused on the expedition’s deeper objective, using the Peace Incense visit as an opportunity to investigate the Other Shore Bodhi.
• Hu Fo’s parents are developed through his backstory: his mother follows a harsh local custom, while his criminal father unexpectedly becomes religious after realizing his son survived.

Significant Themes

• Appearance versus reality: Hu Fo’s name and Buddhist claims contrast comically with his worldly behavior.
• Practicality versus spirituality: The Peace Incense has a religious appearance but serves a concrete survival purpose. The temple itself similarly combines ancient ritual with commercial transactions and QR-code payments.
• Cultural blending: Hu Fo’s identity reflects Han and Tibetan traditions, while Formless Temple combines Han Buddhist architecture with Tibetan surroundings and script.
• Faith and interpretation: The monks offer mystical explanations for the temple’s carvings, while Lin Xiaosu and Hu Fo question or reinterpret them in mundane terms.
• Human nature and restraint: Hu Fo’s decision to delete the woman’s contact shows a small victory over temptation and a willingness to follow the expedition’s rules.
• Commerce within religion: The temple’s required donation and electronic payment satirize the intersection of sacred ritual and ordinary business.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin Xiaosu and Hu Fo repeatedly exchange sarcastic remarks, with Lin Xiaosu puncturing Hu Fo’s inflated self-image.
• Dawa silently supports Lin Xiaosu’s interpretation of Li Sisi’s warning, reinforcing her contempt for Hu Fo.
• Li Sisi directly disciplines Hu Fo, revealing her practical leadership and forcing him to abandon drinking.
• Hu Fo shares his strange origin story with Lin Xiaosu, who listens with interest but ultimately rejects his justification for seducing women.
• At the temple, Lin Xiaosu questions Master Hongguang’s symbolism, while Hu Fo openly mocks it. Professor Yin then steers the discussion back toward the expedition’s true target: the Other Shore Bodhi.

Chapter Summary: “The Painting’s Name Held a Mystery”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The group’s objective is to find the Other Shore Bodhi, a plant with reversible-growth genes that is highly valuable to bioengineering researchers.
• Master Hongguang explains that the plant grows in a place shaped by countless tribulations and illuminated by the Buddhist Light of the Way. Ordinary Buddhist incense will not be enough; they must bring someone spiritually connected to a Buddha.
• He assigns the young monk Liaoran to accompany the seven travelers, charging them 5,000 incense-offering coins. Professor Yin agrees to pay, despite Hu Fo’s objections about having to care for a child.
• Lin Xiaosu realizes that the scenery around Formless Temple matches Ding Ruoshui’s painting, Window. He concludes that the “window” in the painting represents the ancient temple and that the painting’s perspective may have revealed the entrance to Miyan Road.
• The group returns to town to purchase supplies, since Liaoran cannot rely on begging for food in the wilderness. They buy tents, blankets, compressed food, emergency water, and other equipment.
• The expedition officially begins. The group crosses a trumpet-shaped valley and enters a narrow, cave-like passage between two mountains.
• Liaoran instructs everyone to light Buddhist incense. Its smoke drives away the large bats and venomous snakes inhabiting the cave, allowing the group to pass safely. They save the remaining incense for the return journey.
• Beyond the cave, the travelers enter a beautiful valley filled with strange flowers and plants. Hu Fo warns that its beauty conceals danger.
• He identifies the butterflies in the valley as Snake Butterflies, brightly colored insects whose patterns resemble raised venomous snakes and whose bodies are highly poisonous. Professor Yin orders his team to put on protective masks and gloves, but three members lack such equipment.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu becomes increasingly perceptive and analytical. He connects the painting’s title and perspective to Formless Temple, suggesting that Ding Ruoshui’s artwork was a deliberate guide rather than a simple landscape.
• He also evaluates the group’s hidden capabilities, recognizing Professor Yin and Li Sisi as Gene Humans, Hu Fo as a practitioner of true qi, and Dawa as possessing an unexplained but powerful sense of danger.
• Hu Fo remains irreverent and humorous, complaining about Liaoran’s presence and the expense of the incense, but he also acts as an experienced guide and recognizes the dangers of the valley.
• Professor Yin demonstrates practicality and authority. He pays for Liaoran, arranges supplies, maintains a steady pace, and immediately responds to Hu Fo’s warning about the poisonous butterflies.
• Liaoran proves that he is not merely a burden. He walks quickly, understands how to use Buddhist incense, and provides important warnings about the journey and the need to preserve supplies.
• Li Sisi remains cautious and distant toward Hu Fo, avoiding his attempts to flirt or engage her in conversation. Her graceful movements and Gene Human status contribute to her mysterious presence.
• Dawa remains quiet and shy, walking with her head lowered, but her unexplained danger continues to make Lin Xiaosu wary.
• The two graduate students quickly become exhausted, reinforcing the contrast between the physically weak “ivory tower” researchers and the more capable members of the expedition.

Significant Themes

• Hidden meaning and interpretation: The title Window contains a crucial clue. Lin Xiaosu realizes that paintings can encode not only places but also viewpoints and routes.
• Beauty concealing danger: The beautiful valley appears paradisiacal, yet it contains deadly insects, reinforcing the idea that Miyan Road is deceptive and perilous.
• Faith as practical protection: Buddhist belief and ritual are not merely spiritual concepts; Liaoran’s incense has a direct, tangible effect on the surrounding creatures.
• Trust and uncertainty: Lin Xiaosu deliberately travels with a diverse group to conceal himself from Kun Cang, but he remains unsure whether some companions may be connected to Hydra.
• Extraordinary people hidden among ordinary travelers: The expedition combines researchers, martial artists, Gene Humans, a mysterious woman, and a young monk, creating a group whose true abilities and motives remain unclear.

Character Interactions

• Master Hongguang negotiates with Professor Yin over Liaoran’s participation, while Hu Fo openly resists the idea of carrying or caring for the young monk.
• Lin Xiaosu and Hu Fo joke about researchers being naïve and discuss the burden of supplying food and equipment.
• Lin Xiaosu has his first direct conversation with Li Sisi, who questions his lack of camping gear and provisions.
• The group is forced to adapt its plans to accommodate Liaoran’s reliance on alms, leading Professor Yin to organize a resupply trip.
• Hu Fo tries to entertain the group with exaggerated commentary, but Li Sisi deliberately avoids engaging with him.
• When danger appears, Professor Yin takes command, ordering everyone to use protective equipment, while Liaoran and Hu Fo provide specialized knowledge that proves essential to the expedition.

Chapter Summary: “Butterfly Metamorphosis, Wolf Attack”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liaoran lights a mysterious black incense that produces smoke repelling the dangerous butterflies. Hu Fo initially asks for some, but Liaoran refuses because monks should only receive alms, not act as benefactors.
• The butterfly swarm rapidly multiplies from a few insects to tens of thousands, forcing the group to flee through the valley.
• Hu Fo uses his folding fan to create powerful layered air currents that clear the butterflies. Lin Xiaosu relies on his exceptional movement skills and a leafy branch to evade or scatter them.
• The group escapes after roughly half an hour. Liaoran’s black incense has covered his head and face in soot, providing comic relief.
• Wolves suddenly attack from the mountainside. The group easily repels them using their hidden abilities:
  • Professor Yin throws wolves over the cliff with seemingly casual strength.
  • Li Sisi destroys wolves with powerful kicks.
  • Dawa kills a wolf through a mysterious technique that appears to drain away its entire lifespan.
  • Hu Fo uses his fan and martial arts to inflict layered internal damage.
  • Liaoran avoids a wolf by sitting down at the precise moment it leaps over him.
  • Lin Xiaosu kills one wolf by beheading it with his dagger.
• Nearly every wolf is thrown off the cliff, apparently to conceal the unusual ways in which they were killed. Lin Xiaosu notices that the group is deliberately hiding the true nature of their abilities.
• The survivors decide to camp and roast the remaining wolf. Liaoran, unwilling to eat meat, sits apart and eats compressed biscuits while enduring the smell.
• Dawa warns Lin Xiaosu not to offer Liaoran meat, since doing so might tempt him to violate his Buddhist precepts.
• The chapter ends with comic tension between Hu Fo and Li Sisi, as Hu Fo unsuccessfully flirts with her while she dismisses him and retreats to her tent.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu continues to conceal the full extent of his abilities while observing everyone else. His Rejuvenation Technique makes the butterflies largely harmless to him, and his Heavenly Insight Eye allows him to analyze the group’s unusual powers. He becomes especially intrigued by Dawa’s deadly, life-draining technique.
• Hu Fo demonstrates that his folding fan is more than a stylish accessory: it generates powerful, layered currents capable of clearing butterflies and damaging wolves internally. He remains boastful, flirtatious, and interested in Liaoran’s strange incense.
• Liaoran remains calm and fearless throughout the dangers. His black incense protects him from the butterflies, although it leaves him covered in soot. His innocence and strict adherence to Buddhist principles contrast humorously with Hu Fo’s teasing.
• Dawa reveals that she possesses an extremely dangerous ability, seemingly a “domain” that kills or ages living things instantly. She also shows a more conversational and considerate side when speaking privately with Lin Xiaosu.
• Li Sisi proves physically formidable, easily crossing obstacles and killing wolves with powerful kicks. She remains blunt and resistant to Hu Fo’s advances.
• Professor Yin confirms his strength and status as a Gene Human through his effortless physical feats.
• The group as a whole is shown to be concealing important secrets, especially regarding their powers and identities.

Significant Themes

• Hidden power and deception: Everyone possesses unusual abilities but deliberately disguises them, suggesting mistrust and the importance of maintaining secrecy.
• Observation and revelation: Lin Xiaosu’s perspective exposes the gap between the group’s casual behavior and the terrifying nature of their true techniques.
• Tradition versus temptation: Liaoran’s Buddhist discipline is tested by the smell of roasted meat, while Dawa insists that his worldview should not be casually undermined.
• Humor amid danger: The chapter repeatedly contrasts deadly situations with comic moments, such as Liaoran’s soot-covered face, his perfectly timed evasion, and Hu Fo’s failed flirting.
• Companionship and emerging intimacy: Lin Xiaosu and Dawa develop a quieter bond through private conversation, while Hu Fo attempts—unsuccessfully—to form a closer connection with Li Sisi.

Character Interactions

• Hu Fo repeatedly teases Liaoran and tries to involve him in eating wolf meat, while Liaoran responds with calm Buddhist restraint.
• Lin Xiaosu and Dawa discuss whether people should respect the “world” or beliefs of others, subtly revealing Dawa’s guarded personality.
• Li Sisi and Dawa share amused disapproval of Hu Fo’s treatment of Liaoran.
• Hu Fo flirts with Li Sisi and boasts about his supposed “Buddha Root,” but she rejects him sharply.
• During the attacks, the group cooperates efficiently, though their combat reveals that each member is carefully avoiding exposing the full extent of their strength.

Chapter Summary: “Ancient Palace Ruins”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After surviving the previous day’s wolf attack, the expedition prepares to cross Wolf Valley, the second checkpoint before the Divine Temple.
• Hu Fo warns that the wolves will be unusually aggressive because the group killed and roasted their scouts.
• The group enters Wolf Valley, where bones—including human remains—cover the ground, revealing how starving and dangerous the wolves are.
• As they advance, wolf scouts and packs gradually surround them. Ten miles into the valley, roughly one hundred wolves launch a full attack.
• The group forms a defensive battle formation:
  • Hu Fo leads the front.
  • Lin Xiaosu guards the left flank.
  • Li Sisi guards the right.
  • Dawa protects the rear.
  • Professor Yin, Liaoran, and the two graduate students remain in the center.
• The four main fighters slaughter their way through the wolves. Hu Fo fights with palm techniques, Li Sisi relies on her legs, and Dawa mysteriously kills any wolf that enters within three feet of her, leaving bodies that appear months old.
• After fighting for hours, the group crosses the entire twenty-mile valley by sunset, leaving a trail of wolf corpses. The two graduate students collapse from exhaustion, while Liaoran remains calm and continues chanting.
• That evening, Lin Xiaosu and Dawa prepare wolf meat. Dawa privately reminds him of the Tribulation Womb Fruit, the treasure he originally claimed could save his poisoned girlfriend.
• Dawa explains that Tibetan records associate the fruit with places where water and fire meet, making the Icefire Twin-Birth Bridge their best chance to find it. She urges Lin Xiaosu to claim it before Professor Yin can take it for research.
• The following morning, the group reaches the Icefire Natural Bridge: a narrow mountain ridge with a volcano and flowing magma on one side and an icy lake and glaciers on the other.
• Professor Yin warns that the meeting of extreme heat and cold creates a natural “array,” filled with poisonous volcanic mist and dangerous distortions of direction. Becoming separated could lead to freezing, burning, or permanent entrapment.
• Despite the danger, the group must cross the bridge because it is the gateway to the Divine Temple.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu proves capable and practical in battle and survival, but his personal goal—the Tribulation Womb Fruit—becomes more urgent as the expedition nears the Divine Temple.
• Dawa reveals a compassionate and quietly loyal side. She is willing to help Lin Xiaosu obtain the fruit, even though it may conflict with Professor Yin’s interests. Her support comes from wanting Lin Xiaosu’s story about saving his girlfriend to have a happy ending.
• Hu Fo demonstrates extraordinary combat skill and composure, fighting at the front while retaining his usual relaxed, carefree manner afterward.
• Li Sisi shows that her physical abilities are deadly rather than merely seductive or impressive; she becomes an effective and ruthless fighter.
• Dawa’s combat ability becomes increasingly mysterious. Her presence causes nearby wolves to collapse and decay without any visible attack.
• Liaoran appears unusually calm and spiritually detached. Despite being a child surrounded by slaughter and while others collapse from fatigue, he remains composed and continues chanting Amitabha.
• Professor Yin remains knowledgeable and pragmatic, guiding the group while also representing the competing research interests surrounding the expedition.
• The graduate students are shown to be less physically resilient than the core fighters, collapsing after the battle.

Significant Themes

• Survival and preparation: The group’s success depends on formation, discipline, and awareness of the wolves’ behavior.
• Hidden power and mystery: Several characters possess abilities beyond ordinary human limits, especially Dawa and Liaoran.
• Competing loyalties and self-interest: The Tribulation Womb Fruit creates a potential conflict between Lin Xiaosu’s personal mission and Professor Yin’s scientific ambitions.
• Compassion and personal worlds: Dawa believes that each person’s hopes and emotional world should not be casually destroyed, motivating her to help Lin Xiaosu.
• Spiritual detachment versus worldly desire: Liaoran’s calmness contrasts with the group’s hunger and exhaustion, raising questions about whether apparent suffering is truly suffering.
• Nature as an ancient, supernatural force: Wolf Valley and the Icefire Natural Bridge are not merely hazardous landscapes; they seem connected to ancient energies, arrays, and the mysterious Divine Temple.
• The boundary between science and the supernatural: Professor Yin’s explanation of the natural “array” frames the strange phenomenon through both mystical and scientific ideas.

Important Character Interactions

• Hu Fo repeatedly teases Liaoran, including by dangling a wolf bone near him, while the group observes the exchange with amusement.
• Professor Yin encourages the group to fight decisively and later warns them about the dangers of the Icefire Natural Bridge.
• Dawa and Lin Xiaosu share a private conversation about the Tribulation Womb Fruit. She secretly aligns herself with his goal, despite being Professor Yin’s student.
• Lin Xiaosu recognizes Dawa’s kindness and reassures her that he understands her nature.
• Dawa assists Lin Xiaosu in preparing dinner, bringing them into closer physical and emotional proximity.
• The group bonds through shared danger and food, though Liaoran’s refusal or inability to eat meat creates a humorous contrast with the others.

Chapter Summary: “The Heavenly Insight Eye’s New Function”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Professor Yin leads the group across a dangerous mountain ridge, warning them to control their breathing, stay together, and avoid looking around in the dense fog.
• When the group enters the ridge, the fog suddenly thickens. Lin Xiaosu activates his Heavenly Insight Eye and discovers that the fog conceals intricate golden formation patterns created by the interaction between the volcano’s heat and the icy pool’s cold.
• Lin and Dawa secretly search for the Tribulation Womb Fruit, but they fail to find it. Lin privately questions whether the fruit is truly necessary to cure Changye, since her poison is also central to her identity.
• After crossing the ridge, the group discovers the ruins of a mysterious Divine Temple, possibly left behind by an unknown Ancient Civilization.
• Professor Yin explains how entire civilizations can disappear from history, emphasizing Earth’s immense age and the possibility that humanity is only one of many civilizations to have existed.
• Lin notices more hidden formation patterns near the ruins, suggesting that another world or secret space may be concealed within them.
• The group finds the legendary iron-blue Bodhi Tree growing atop a Buddha-shaped stone pillar. Initially, it shows no sign of blooming, causing everyone to believe their mission to obtain the Other Shore Bodhi has failed.
• A violent autumn storm forces the group to shelter in tents. During the storm, Lin studies and memorizes unfamiliar inscriptions carved into the temple pillars.
• After the rain stops, a gigantic Buddha-like mirage appears in the sky. At that moment, the Bodhi Tree suddenly blooms.
• Li Sisi retrieves the Other Shore Bodhi and gives it to Professor Yin, completing the group’s primary mission.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: His Heavenly Insight Eye gains a significant new function: it can perceive invisible formation patterns. He becomes more observant and increasingly aware that the ruins conceal mysteries beyond the group’s immediate objective. His thoughts about Changye reveal his emotional complexity and uncertainty about whether “curing” her would erase an essential part of who she is.
• Dawa: She remains deeply devoted to Eternal Heaven and disappointed when the Tribulation Womb Fruit is not found. Her prayers show that she cares about Lin and hopes for his success, deepening their bond.
• Professor Yin: He acts as the group’s calm, knowledgeable leader. His explanation of Ancient Civilizations broadens the group’s understanding of the ruins, and he remains composed enough to secure the Other Shore Bodhi once it is obtained.
• Hu Fo: His comic arrogance continues, especially when he claims the Bodhi Tree’s ability to grow without soil proves that he possesses “Buddha Root.” However, his awe at the celestial Buddha reveals genuine respect for the supernatural event.
• Li Sisi: She remains sharp-tongued and practical, initially pointing out that the Bodhi Tree will not bloom. When it finally does, she acts decisively and retrieves the flower.
• Young Monk Liaoran: He becomes more respectful toward Hu Fo after Hu Fo’s remark about Buddha-nature, but still distances himself from Hu Fo’s self-aggrandizing claims. The blooming Bodhi confirms a teaching from his master and strengthens his religious conviction.

Significant Themes

• The limits of human civilization: Professor Yin’s lecture challenges humanity’s assumption that it represents the beginning or standard of civilization. The ruins suggest that entire advanced cultures may have existed and vanished without leaving records recognizable to modern people.
• Hidden knowledge and perception: Lin’s Heavenly Insight Eye reveals invisible formations that ordinary sight cannot detect, emphasizing that reality contains layers inaccessible to normal human senses.
• Faith versus evidence: Dawa’s prayers, Liaoran’s Buddhist devotion, and the group’s scientific investigation coexist throughout the chapter. The miraculous blooming of the Bodhi Tree blurs the boundary between religious belief and observable reality.
• Fate and timing: The group initially believes the mission has failed because the Bodhi Tree will not bloom, but an unexpected storm and celestial phenomenon create the precise conditions for success.
• Identity and transformation: Lin’s thoughts about Changye raise the question of whether removing a person’s defining trait—even a poisonous one—would save them or fundamentally destroy who they are.
• The persistence of mystery: The unknown inscriptions, hidden formations, and possible alternate world within the ruins establish that the Divine Temple contains secrets far beyond the Other Shore Bodhi.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin and Dawa privately coordinate their search for the Tribulation Womb Fruit, though Lin recognizes that Dawa’s faith and inner world remain difficult for him to understand.
• Professor Yin teaches the group about Ancient Civilizations, prompting Lin to reflect on humanity’s place in the vast span of Earth’s history.
• Hu Fo jokes about possessing Buddha Root, while Liaoran unexpectedly praises him, creating a humorous but friendly exchange.
• Li Sisi challenges the group’s hopes by pointing out that the Bodhi Tree will not bloom, but later becomes the one who successfully obtains the flower.
• The appearance of the celestial Buddha affects every character differently: Liaoran responds with reverence, Hu Fo with stunned disbelief, Dawa with prayer, and Lin with astonishment and heightened curiosity.
• The chapter ends with the team united in relief and triumph as Professor Yin safely stores the newly bloomed Other Shore Bodhi.

Chapter Summary: The Companion Who Suddenly Disappeared

Key Plot Points and Events

• After completing the dangerous expedition through Miyan Road, the group explores the ruins of the Divine Temple. They find little besides mysterious patterns carved into stone pillars, which Li Sisi photographs while Lin Xiaosu memorizes them through his powerful Humanity Orchidheart.
• Two graduate students consider digging up the sacred Bodhi Tree, but the young monk Liaoran firmly discourages them by invoking his master’s Buddhist teachings about greed and karmic retribution.
• The group returns safely to Formless Temple after crossing the Icefire Twin-Birth Bridge, Wolf Valley, and Butterfly Valley. Dawa is saddened because their efforts failed to produce the Tribulation Womb Fruit or any response from Eternal Heaven.
• The travelers spend the night at the temple. The next morning, Liaoran tells Lin Xiaosu that everyone else has already left. Suspicious, Lin Xiaosu uses Temporal Reversal and discovers that only Professor Yin and the graduate students departed normally.
• Hu Fo, Li Sisi, and Dawa instead followed Liaoran into a secluded side hall and disappeared through a hidden passage concealed within a seemingly ordinary stone wall.
• Lin Xiaosu confronts Liaoran’s master, an old monk who had previously remained silent in the Buddhist Hall. By mentioning Kun Cang and Professor Yin’s possible role in selecting candidates, Lin Xiaosu provokes the monk into opening his eyes and speaking.
• The monk confirms that Professor Yin’s expedition was likely a selection trial arranged by Kun Cang. The Other Shore Bodhi was probably Professor Yin’s reward for successfully bringing back suitable candidates.
• Lin Xiaosu learns that Hu Fo, Li Sisi, and Dawa were selected for Kun Cang, while he was rejected. He asks the monk to open the passage to Kun Cang, but the monk explains that he lacks the authority to do so.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu becomes increasingly suspicious and perceptive. Rather than accepting the companions’ unexplained departure, he investigates with Temporal Reversal and uncovers the hidden connection between the expedition and Kun Cang.
• He also reveals considerable political and conversational skill. His carefully worded accusations force the old monk to confirm his theories without Lin Xiaosu making himself vulnerable to direct claims.
• Dawa shows emotional concern for Lin Xiaosu, silently worrying about his disappointment after the failed search for the Tribulation Womb Fruit. Her sadness also reinforces her attachment to him and the group.
• Liaoran remains obedient to his master but is easily flustered by Lin Xiaosu’s probing questions and unusual wager about his age. His defense of the temple reflects both his loyalty and his limited understanding of the larger conspiracy.
• The old monk shifts from apparent detachment to cautious engagement. Though he initially pretends not to hear Lin Xiaosu, he ultimately acknowledges the truth of Lin’s deductions and explains the limits of his authority.
• Hu Fo, Li Sisi, and Dawa are revealed to have been secretly chosen as candidates for Kun Cang, marking a major change in their roles and separating them from Lin Xiaosu.

Significant Themes

• Selection and worth: The chapter questions what makes someone worthy of entering a higher realm. Kun Cang’s selectors value different qualities—bloodline, cultivation techniques, or even beauty—rather than a single objective standard.
• Rejection and resentment: Lin Xiaosu is troubled that three companions were chosen while he alone was excluded. His desire to enter Kun Cang is driven not only by curiosity but also by refusal to accept being judged unworthy.
• Hidden power and secrecy: The expedition is revealed to have been more than an archaeological or supernatural mission. Kun Cang has been observing the participants from behind the scenes, while the temple conceals a gateway to another world.
• Authority and limitation: Even the eminent monk cannot open the Kun Cang Gate at will. Access is controlled by an unseen authority within Kun Cang, emphasizing the vast hierarchy and distance between ordinary powerful figures and the true forces governing the world.
• Appearance versus reality: The companions’ quiet departure conceals their true destination, the stone wall is actually a doorway, and the apparently meditating monk is deliberately pretending not to hear.

Important Character Interactions

• Liaoran rebukes the graduate students for wanting to uproot the Bodhi Tree, using Buddhist doctrine as an indirect threat.
• Dawa worries about Lin Xiaosu after the failed mission, though she never gets the chance to comfort him.
• Lin Xiaosu questions Liaoran about the missing companions and later challenges him with a wager designed to expose the monk’s true age and reactions.
• Lin Xiaosu verbally pressures the old monk by connecting him to Kun Cang and Professor Yin. The monk’s eventual response confirms Lin’s deductions.
• Their final exchange establishes that Lin Xiaosu was not selected by Kun Cang and that entering it requires approval from a mysterious authority beyond the old monk’s control.

Chapter Summary: “Breaking the Formation and Entering Kun Cang”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After Lin Xiaosu leaves the side hall, the little monk reveals that he is only twelve years old, fulfilling Lin’s wager. Lin jokingly resumes touching the monk’s bald head before departing.
• At Southern Frontier University, Professor Yin returns to study the Other Shore Bodhi but receives troubling news. He tells the White-Robed One that an unknown companion exposed Kun Cang’s assessment and reward system to the elder of Formless Temple.
• Only five people supposedly knew about Kun Cang’s secret assessment, yet none admits to revealing it. Professor Yin and the White-Robed One conclude that Lin Xiaosu must have deduced the truth himself.
• The White-Robed One suspects Lin may possess extraordinary investigative or formation-related abilities. He decides to investigate Lin’s origins and waits for him in Huiyan Town.
• Instead of returning to Huiyan Town, Lin turns back toward Miyan Road and reaches the ruins of the Divine Temple in only a day and a night.
• Lin realizes that his attempt to appear ordinary during the expedition backfired: Kun Cang selected the other three companions but overlooked him. However, by analyzing clues and trapping the elder into confirming his deductions, Lin discovered the existence of a hidden entrance into Kun Cang.
• At the Divine Temple ruins, Lin uses his Heavenly Insight Eye to perceive the formation concealing the realm behind the temple. He deliberately leaps from a cliff and passes through the formation’s illusion, landing on a broken stone bridge.
• The formation is extremely dangerous: anything that touches its patterns is silently erased, as demonstrated when a branch and a specially forged dagger are partially destroyed.
• Carefully using his Heavenly Insight Eye, Lin crosses the half-bridge while avoiding the lethal patterns. At the far end, he discovers an ancient stone stele covered in the same inscriptions found on the Divine Temple’s pillars.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: Demonstrates extraordinary deduction, observation, and investigative abilities. His Humanity Orchidheart, Spacetime Reversal, Heavenly Insight Eye, and logical reasoning allow him to reconstruct Kun Cang’s assessment without being told. Although he was overlooked because he deliberately hid his abilities, he turns this setback into an opportunity to seek entry through a concealed route.
• Professor Yin: Becomes anxious after realizing that Kun Cang’s secrets have been exposed. He recognizes that Lin is far more dangerous and mysterious than expected and asks the White-Robed One to investigate him.
• The White-Robed One: Shifts from calm confidence to serious concern about Lin’s identity. He speculates that Lin may be a rare formation prodigy and personally prepares to observe or confront him.
• The little monk: Reveals his true age and maintains a lighthearted, innocent interaction with Lin.
• The elder of Formless Temple: Though not present for most of the chapter, he is shown to have been manipulated into confirming Lin’s deductions and may have made a major mistake by failing to select him for Kun Cang.

Significant Themes

• Concealment and unintended consequences: Lin hides his abilities to avoid attention, but this causes Kun Cang to reject him. His attempt at remaining unnoticed produces the opposite of his intended result.
• Intelligence versus formal recognition: Although Lin is not selected through Kun Cang’s official assessment, his insight allows him to uncover a hidden path that the chosen candidates do not appear to know about.
• Observation and deduction: The chapter emphasizes Lin’s ability to reconstruct complex schemes from minor inconsistencies, demonstrating that intelligence can rival supernatural powers.
• The danger of underestimated talent: Kun Cang and the elder dismiss Lin as insignificant, but Lin may possess precisely the formation expertise the realm needs.
• Ancient power and hidden worlds: The Divine Temple’s formation represents the immense legacy of the Ancient Wilderness Formation Sect and guards a mysterious realm that has remained inaccessible for thousands of years.

Character Interactions

• Lin and the little monk share a playful farewell, with Lin teasing him about his age and bald head.
• Professor Yin reports to the White-Robed One about the exposure of Kun Cang’s secrets. Their conversation reveals their mutual uncertainty and concern regarding Lin.
• The White-Robed One challenges Professor Yin’s assumptions, arguing that Lin’s deductions may indicate mastery of formations rather than simple mind-reading.
• Lin’s earlier verbal exchange with the elder is revealed to have been a deliberate trap, forcing the elder to validate Lin’s theories about Kun Cang.
• The chapter ends with Lin alone inside the deadly formation, cautiously approaching the ancient stele and moving closer to the hidden realm of Kun Cang.

Chapter Summary: “Void Ruins”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu explores an ancient ruin hidden within a vast, lifeless complex beneath the Divine Temple. The area contains no plants or animals, only crumbling structures and broken formation patterns that drift like dust but never settle.
• At the highest hall, he discovers a massive stone stele covered in unfamiliar symbols. Using Humanity Orchidheart, he memorizes the entire inscription, hoping someone in Kun Cang may eventually decipher its secrets.
• Lin realizes that the ruins are protected by extraordinarily dangerous formations. They are invisible to ordinary perception, and anyone without the Heavenly Insight Eye would likely die trying to cross them.
• He finds a small gap in a ring of formations and passes through it, emerging into a beautiful, warm region filled with rivers, flowers, trees, pavilions, and towers. This appears to be Flowering Valley, a part of the mysterious Kun Cang.
• Lin is immediately confronted by Gu Yu, a young woman from Flowering Valley. She assumes he is an infiltrator from Heavenly Beauty Palace because of his attractive appearance and attacks him with an illusion-filled sword technique.
• Lin repeatedly dodges her sword strikes, but when cornered, he knocks her into the water, punches her in the face, and kicks her away. Gu Yu becomes even more enraged and continues attacking.
• Just as Lin prepares to subdue her decisively, a skeletal, purple-clad woman named Feng Ji appears and stops Gu Yu’s sword with a single finger.
• Feng Ji declares that Lin is not from Heavenly Beauty Palace. Gu Yu insists that he is a lecher because he allegedly touched her chest and buttocks, though Lin internally protests that he merely punched and kicked her during the fight.
• A mysterious voice from the mountain orders Feng Ji to bring Lin upward. Feng Ji transports him five li to the mountaintop through an impossibly swift series of movements, shattering Lin’s understanding of physics and revealing the supernatural abilities present in Kun Cang.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: Demonstrates exceptional memory through Humanity Orchidheart and relies on the Heavenly Insight Eye rather than cultivation to navigate the ruins. His curiosity and caution lead him to preserve the stele’s knowledge. Upon entering Kun Cang, he remains practical and composed despite Gu Yu’s bizarre accusations, but Feng Ji’s movement and the distant voice deeply unsettle his worldview.
• Gu Yu: Introduced as impulsive, suspicious, and highly aggressive. She is proud of being considered the smartest among Flowering Valley’s younger disciples, yet her assumptions quickly prove unreliable. Her rapid speech, exaggerated accusations, and explosive temper create a comic contrast with her refined appearance and powerful swordsmanship.
• Feng Ji: Presented as mysterious, skeletal, and extraordinarily powerful. Despite her frightening appearance, she is calm and precise, stopping Gu Yu effortlessly and correctly identifying Lin’s affiliation. Her movement suggests a level of martial or supernatural ability far beyond what Lin has previously encountered.
• The unseen speaker: Demonstrates immense power by projecting a voice across five li as though speaking beside Lin. The figure appears to hold authority within Flowering Valley and commands Feng Ji directly.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge versus understanding: Lin can copy the stele perfectly even though he cannot interpret its symbols, emphasizing that preserving knowledge is only the first step toward uncovering the past.
• Hidden worlds and perception: The ruins and their formations are invisible to ordinary sight, showing that reality in Kun Cang contains layers accessible only through special abilities such as the Heavenly Insight Eye.
• The collapse of common sense: Kun Cang’s geography, martial techniques, and movement abilities defy Lin’s scientific understanding, forcing him to reconsider the limits of physics and the nature of the world.
• Isolation and desolation: The abandoned ruins evoke profound loneliness, especially because even weeds and insects are absent. Their silence contrasts sharply with the vibrant Flowering Valley beyond.
• Appearance and prejudice: Gu Yu judges Lin based on his handsomeness and stereotypes about Heavenly Beauty Palace, demonstrating how appearance and past conflicts shape perception.
• Truth versus misinterpretation: Gu Yu repeatedly reinterprets Lin’s defensive actions as sexual misconduct, creating a humorous but tense conflict between what happened and how it is perceived.

Important Character Interactions

• Lin and the ancient ruins: Lin approaches the ruins carefully, memorizes the stele, and recognizes that his survival depends on perception rather than strength.
• Lin and Gu Yu: Their first meeting immediately becomes a fight. Gu Yu attacks under false assumptions, while Lin focuses on defense before using practical close-combat techniques to overpower her.
• Lin and Feng Ji: Feng Ji intervenes without hostility, preventing Lin from escalating the battle. Her effortless control and transportation of Lin leave him shocked and wary.
• Gu Yu and Feng Ji: Gu Yu protests Feng Ji’s judgment and continues accusing Lin, while Feng Ji remains calm and dismisses her claims with minimal words.
• The unseen authority and Feng Ji: The distant voice commands Feng Ji to escort Lin, establishing a hierarchy and suggesting that important figures in Flowering Valley are already aware of his arrival.

Chapter Summary: “Flowering Valley Overlord”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu is escorted by Senior Sister Feng Ji to meet the mysterious Overlord of Flowering Valley.
• Inside the Overlord’s cave, Lin discovers an elegant, otherworldly woman who appears to be a sixteen-year-old girl. Her presence convinces him that she may be an immortal cultivator rather than an Ancient Martial Artist.
• The Overlord recognizes that Lin comes from the mortal world outside Kunlun and learns that he entered Kun Cang through the Divine Temple at the end of Miyan Road, a place filled with deadly formations.
• After Lin reveals that he can perceive the formation patterns surrounding Flowering Valley, the Overlord realizes that he possesses extraordinary talent in the Formation Dao.
• She asks him to break the Heaven-Locking Formation that has imprisoned Flowering Valley for three hundred years.
• Believing Lin to be a formation grandmaster, the Overlord offers increasingly valuable rewards:
  • Instruction in the orthodox Secret Rejuvenation Art
  • Help constructing the Blood Pagoda in his dantian
  • Her accumulated cultivation insights from the past century
• Lin is tempted by these offers but privately knows that he is not actually skilled in formations. His unusual eyes merely allow him to see formation patterns.
• When Lin asks why the formation matters so much, the Overlord explains the long conflict between Flowering Valley and Heavenly Beauty Palace.

Background Conflict

• Heavenly Beauty Palace is portrayed as a predatory sect that uses beauty, seduction, and bedchamber techniques to steal others’ True Essence.
• Flowering Valley’s disciples possess unusually vital True Essence because of their cultivation of the Secret Rejuvenation Art, making them valuable targets.
• Three hundred years earlier, Heavenly Beauty Palace proposed merging with Flowering Valley, intending to turn Flowering Valley’s disciples into cultivation furnaces.
• The Overlord rejected the proposal, leading to a battle in which Heavenly Beauty Palace suffered losses and withdrew.
• In retaliation, Heavenly Beauty Palace hired a Formation Dao expert to seal Flowering Valley’s only passage to Kun Cang’s Eighty-Two Peaks.
• The formation transformed Flowering Valley into a prison: Heavenly Beauty Palace can enter and leave freely, while Flowering Valley’s disciples cannot escape or recruit outsiders.
• More than 1,700 disciples have been lost, reducing Flowering Valley from over 4,700 members to fewer than 3,000. Hundreds of female disciples have also been assaulted and had their cultivation damaged.

Character Developments

Lin Xiaosu

He remains cautious and guarded in the presence of the Overlord. Although he is intrigued by her offers—especially the chance to complete his Rejuvenation Technique and build the Blood Pagoda—he is troubled by the fact that he cannot truly fulfill her request. He also gains a clearer understanding of the importance of the cultivation path he has inherited.

The Overlord

She initially appears gentle, refined, and mysterious, but her desperation becomes increasingly evident. Her respectful change in tone—from speaking with authority to referring to herself as “this little woman”—shows how urgently she needs Lin’s help. Her sorrow over Flowering Valley’s decline reveals her protective responsibility toward her disciples.

Feng Ji

Feng Ji acts as Lin’s escort and becomes visibly shocked when the Overlord offers Lin access to her treasured cultivation insights. Her reactions emphasize the extraordinary value of what the Overlord is willing to sacrifice.

Significant Themes

• Desperation and survival: Flowering Valley’s willingness to offer priceless teachings reflects the sect’s desperate struggle to survive.
• Power and deception: Lin is mistaken for a formation grandmaster because of his ability to see formations, highlighting the danger of appearances and misunderstood abilities.
• Exploitation of women and sects: Heavenly Beauty Palace’s predatory practices represent the abuse of power, reducing Flowering Valley’s disciples to resources.
• Tradition versus incomplete inheritance: Lin’s Rejuvenation Technique may be an incomplete version of an ancient cultivation art, suggesting that his future depends on recovering lost knowledge.
• Imprisonment and isolation: The Heaven-Locking Formation symbolizes Flowering Valley’s political and physical marginalization from the wider world.
• Dignity and resistance: The Overlord’s refusal to merge with Heavenly Beauty Palace demonstrates her determination to protect her disciples’ autonomy, even at tremendous cost.

Character Interactions

• Feng Ji respectfully introduces Lin to the Overlord and escorts him into the cave.
• The Overlord treats Lin with unusual courtesy, serving him rare Rainbirth Tea and questioning him about his origins.
• Lin and the Overlord gradually move from a formal meeting to a negotiation based on mutual need.
• The Overlord praises Lin’s apparent formation abilities and offers increasingly valuable rewards, while Lin struggles internally because he cannot meet the expectations placed upon him.
• Their conversation shifts from cultivation and formations to the tragic history of Flowering Valley, allowing Lin to understand the true stakes of the Overlord’s request.

Chapter Summary: Idle Reading in the Library Pavilion

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Xiaosu realizes that Gu Yu’s hatred of him stems from Heavenly Beauty Palace’s involvement in the destruction or oppression of Flowering Valley. He also suspects that Li Sisi may have been accepted by the same sect, which recruits disciples based on physical appearance.
• He learns that Heavenly Beauty Palace uses attractive men and women as tools for infiltration, blurring the line between righteousness and wickedness. This deepens his understanding of Kun Cang, which is not a unified moral faction but a collection of sects and individuals with conflicting principles.
• The Hydra Overlord hopes Lin Xiaosu can help Flowering Valley escape its imprisonment by a powerful array formation. Although she doubts that someone so young can accomplish this, his successful passage through the Ancient Wilderness Formation Sect’s forbidden zone gives her hope.
• Lin Xiaosu asks for basic Formation Dao texts so he can compare Kun Cang’s methods with the Formation Dao he learned from the Outside World. The Hydra Overlord sends him to the Library Pavilion with Feng Ji.
• In the library, Lin Xiaosu rapidly reads and memorizes five foundational texts on array formations. He learns their basic principles, classifications, components, and functions, but realizes that the books are too shallow to solve Flowering Valley’s crisis directly.
• Using his Heavenly Insight Eye, he discovers a book written in Archaic Script—the same script seen in the Divine Temple and on the ancient ruins. Feng Ji can read it, so Lin Xiaosu asks her to read the book aloud while he studies the connection between the written characters and their spoken meanings.
• Feng Ji begins reading Wanderings of the Dead, allowing Lin Xiaosu to learn Archaic Script at an extraordinary speed through Humanity Orchidheart.
• Outside the library, the Hydra Overlord watches anxiously, joined by Gu Yu, who continues to insist that Lin Xiaosu is unreliable.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu: Demonstrates remarkable adaptability and intellectual ability. Though he knows little about Kun Cang’s Formation Dao, he confidently compensates by studying its foundations. He also displays caution, resisting the temptation to reveal his knowledge of the ancient inscriptions before determining whether Feng Ji can be trusted.
• Hydra Overlord: Her normally composed demeanor is shaken by the possibility that Lin Xiaosu may free Flowering Valley. Her desperation makes her treat him as the valley’s potential savior, despite his age and unfamiliar origins.
• Feng Ji: Initially skeptical of Lin Xiaosu’s claims, she begins to suspect that his rapid reading reflects genuine mastery rather than pretense. She remains observant and protective of the library’s contents but agrees to help him decipher the Archaic Script.
• Gu Yu: Remains hostile and distrustful, openly warning the Hydra Overlord that Lin Xiaosu is “no good.”
• Heavenly Beauty Palace: Though absent from the immediate action, the sect is characterized as morally ambiguous and skilled at infiltration, establishing a broader threat within Kun Cang.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge as power: Lin Xiaosu’s ability to absorb books transforms reading into a practical weapon and gives him a way to overcome unfamiliar systems.
• Moral ambiguity: Kun Cang cannot be easily divided into righteous and wicked factions; different sects pursue their own methods and ethics, often combining good and evil.
• Appearance and manipulation: Heavenly Beauty Palace’s use of beauty as an infiltrating weapon challenges conventional ideas about virtue, identity, and power.
• Hope amid desperation: Flowering Valley’s survival depends on an unlikely young outsider, showing how desperation can force people to place faith in uncertain allies.
• Caution and trust: Lin Xiaosu balances curiosity with restraint, especially regarding the ancient script and the potentially dangerous secrets connected to it.
• Foundations of knowledge: He values basic principles over advanced texts, believing that fundamental theories reveal the true structure of a discipline.

Character Interactions

• The Hydra Overlord and Lin Xiaosu discuss the need for Formation Dao texts, with her initially fearing that his request is a refusal to help but later recognizing his willingness to investigate.
• The Hydra Overlord orders Feng Ji to assist Lin Xiaosu in the Library Pavilion.
• Feng Ji watches Lin Xiaosu closely, skeptical of his claims, but his rapid and apparently purposeful reading gradually changes her assessment.
• Lin Xiaosu asks Feng Ji to read Wanderings of the Dead aloud. He courteously gives her a stool and uses the reading session to secretly learn Archaic Script.
• The Hydra Overlord observes the pair from outside, while Gu Yu joins her and voices continued opposition to Lin Xiaosu.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Gu Yu jokes crudely about Lin Xiaosu staring at Senior Sister, prompting the Hydra Overlord to punish her by suspending her with willow branches and whipping her.
• While this comic incident unfolds, Lin Xiaosu remains absorbed in studying Archaic Script. By completing the text, he learns nearly three thousand characters—enough to read many ancient records.
• He deciphers two important stone tablets from the Ancient Wilderness Formation Sect ruins:
  • The sect’s founding creed, which emphasizes following the Heavenly and Human Dao while remaining righteous during chaotic times.
  • The “Heavenly Cycle Array Formula,” the supreme inheritance of the Formation Dao.
• The formula contains both:
  • The Heavenly Cycle Yin-Yang Formation Diagram, used to construct formations.
  • The Nine Forms of Heaven-and-Earth Formation Breaking, used to dismantle them.
• Lin Xiaosu realizes that his original plan—to learn basic formations and use them with his Heavenly Insight Eye—has unexpectedly led him to the Array Sect’s greatest legacy.
• Feng Ji asks Lin Xiaosu’s opinion of the story “Wanderings of the Dead.” The story follows Feng You, a gifted cultivator defeated by Yun Fei, whose beloved Hongzhu marries Yun Fei to save Feng You’s life. After a century of cultivation, Feng You returns powerful enough to destroy the Parting Sect, but spares Yun Fei after Hongzhu protects him. Yun Fei later kills Hongzhu, driving Feng You into madness and eventually causing his death at Yun Fei’s hands.
• Lin Xiaosu summarizes the story’s central tragedies: righteousness and evil are difficult to judge, affection is difficult to measure, and life and death are difficult to separate.
• During lunch with Feng Ji, Lin Xiaosu learns that the valley and Divine Temple were originally part of the Archaic Realm. A thousand years earlier, the Array Sect’s eighty-one elders sacrificed themselves to sever their territory from the Primordial World after being besieged by the Archaic Realm’s immortal sects.
• Feng Ji reveals that Flowering Valley has waited a hundred years for a solution to its current predicament. Lin Xiaosu promises to provide his answer within seven days.

Character Developments

• Lin Xiaosu advances from merely studying basic formations to uncovering the Array Sect’s supreme inheritance. His ability to learn Archaic Script becomes the key to understanding the ruins and solving Flowering Valley’s problem.
• He also demonstrates emotional insight and restraint when interpreting Feng You’s tragic story, recognizing that morality, love, and death cannot be judged simply.
• Feng Ji becomes more open with Lin Xiaosu, sharing the history of the Divine Temple and the Array Sect. Her willingness to wait and provide assistance shows growing trust in him.
• Gu Yu remains playful and provocative, but her teasing results in a humiliating punishment from the Hydra Overlord.
• Feng You, through the embedded story, is portrayed as a tragic figure whose suffering transforms him from a brilliant disciple into a vengeful and ultimately condemned cultivator.
• Yun Fei is revealed as a morally compromised figure who gains the reputation of a righteous hero despite betrayal, cruelty, and murder.

Significant Themes

• Unexpected fortune and indirect success: Lin Xiaosu seeks minor formation knowledge but discovers the greatest Formation Dao inheritance instead—capturing the idea of “sound east, strike west.”
• The difficulty of judging good and evil: The story of Feng You and Yun Fei shows how public righteousness can conceal selfishness and cruelty.
• The complexity of love and loyalty: Hongzhu’s actions are shaped by both her past promise to Feng You and her later loyalty to Yun Fei and their children.
• The irreversible nature of life and death: Feng You can restore himself but cannot revive Hongzhu, emphasizing the limits of cultivation and immortality.
• Sacrifice and survival: The Array Sect’s elders sacrifice their bodies and souls to preserve their sect’s territory, raising the question of whether their grand strategy was ultimately a success or failure.
• History hidden beneath mystery: The Divine Temple’s mysterious origin is explained as the result of the Array Sect physically severing its land from the Primordial World.

Character Interactions

• Gu Yu teases the Hydra Overlord about Lin Xiaosu’s supposed lecherous gaze, and the Hydra Overlord responds through the willow tree rather than words.
• Feng Ji reads the tragic story to Lin Xiaosu and invites his interpretation, creating a thoughtful exchange about morality, love, and mortality.
• Feng Ji and Lin Xiaosu share a meal, allowing them to speak more personally and discuss the history of the Archaic Realm.
• Feng Ji indirectly pressures Lin Xiaosu for results by explaining Flowering Valley’s long wait, while Lin Xiaosu confidently promises an answer within seven days and asks her to remain nearby for consultation.