Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Three-Turn Blood Refinement”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Red Iron Tribe is extremely busy processing the wolf corpses, while Feng Xu retreats to the back mountain to cultivate in peace.
• Feng Xu begins the Third Transformation of the Eight-Nine Mystical Art: Blood Refinement, despite knowing that his foundation is not yet completely stable.
• After five days, he completes the initial Blood Refinement Cycle and activates his Bloodline Power. The awakening nearly causes cultivation deviation, reinforcing the danger of advancing too quickly.
• His Bloodline Power transforms him into a giant roughly eight zhang tall before he returns to normal. The transformation dramatically increases his combat strength but destroys his grass skirt.
• Feng Xu realizes he needs proper clothing and considers creating an animal-hide outfit that could be refined into a Merit Dharma Treasure.
• In the tribe, a dispute arises over whether the Lukun Tribe may remove the bones from the wolf carcasses before transporting them. Feng Xu mediates by allowing them to take a limited number of pelts while prioritizing wolf meat.
• Feng Xu then inspects the captured wolf cubs. He orders Little White to make them obedient and jokingly threatens to castrate or sterilize them if they remain aggressive, horrifying Little White.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Advances into Blood Refinement but recognizes that his impatience has repeatedly weakened his foundation. He gains a powerful bloodline transformation and begins thinking practically about clothing and future cultivation. He also shows authority and diplomacy by settling the tribal dispute.
• Feng Yuqi: Acts as a messenger and accidentally sees Feng Xu naked after his transformation, though she does not understand his embarrassment because the era’s people have little concept of modesty.
• Iron Mountain: Demonstrates strong resentment toward the Lukun Tribe, believing they are exploiting the Red Iron Tribe’s efforts. His rigid sense of fairness contrasts with Feng Xu’s pragmatic leadership.
• Kun Tai: Appears opportunistic, trying to maximize the Lukun Tribe’s share of wolf resources, but quickly accepts Feng Xu’s compromise.
• Little White: Continues serving Feng Xu and managing the wolf cubs, but is deeply frightened by Feng Xu’s brutal-sounding methods. He increasingly views Feng Xu as terrifying, even while acknowledging that Feng Xu offers the wolves a chance to survive.

Significant Themes

• Power and foundation: Rapid advancement brings great strength but also serious danger. Feng Xu’s bloodline awakening shows that power must be controlled through stable foundations.
• Pragmatic leadership: Feng Xu balances fairness with practical needs, preventing tribal conflict while allowing exhausted allies some compensation.
• Civilization and development: The tribe is gradually developing new technologies and customs, including clothing, animal domestication, resource processing, and possible artifact refinement.
• Humanity versus brutality: Feng Xu’s casual threats toward the wolves are both humorous and disturbing, reflecting the harsh survival conditions of the Great Wilderness.
• Strength and survival: The chapter emphasizes that the strong dominate the weak, while cooperation and adaptation are necessary for the Human Race to survive against the Demon Race.

Character Interactions

• Feng Yuqi interrupts Feng Xu after his transformation, leading to his embarrassed attempt to cover himself.
• Feng Xu mediates between Iron Mountain and Kun Tai, allowing the Lukun Tribe limited access to the wolf spoils while preserving the Red Iron Tribe’s interests.
• Feng Xu advises Kun Tai not to dwell on the Lukun Tribe’s past mistakes and acknowledges their recent exhaustion.
• Feng Xu commands Little White to train the wolf cubs, while Little White reacts with horror to the proposed punishment and privately concludes that Feng Xu is an “evil demon,” despite recognizing that he is less destructive than the Demon Race.

Chapter Summary: “Infrastructure”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu finds Iron Mountain processing a wolf and reassures him about sharing excess food with neighboring tribes. He argues that the Lukun Tribe’s timid behavior comes from generations of fear and starvation rather than inherent weakness.
• Feng Xu instructs Iron Mountain to test a new construction method using wolf bones and hides. He builds a simple, sturdy house by burying a wolf spine, using the ribs as supports, and covering the structure with wooden slats, grass, and wolfhide.
• Iron Mountain approves of the design, recognizing that it is fast, practical, and makes good use of the enormous wolf carcasses.
• Feng Xu asks to take the giant wild boar back to the Wind-Fire Tribe. Iron Mountain hesitates because Feng Xu has already taken the Wolf King, but ultimately agrees since the Red Iron Tribe has more than enough food and building materials.
• Feng Xu considers how to preserve or use the excess meat and discovers the “Devouring” ability in the Merit Mall. However, he learns that it only works properly for Fierce Beasts; humans cannot effectively gain cultivation benefits from eating raw flesh, and cooked meat loses its vitality.
• The Lukun Tribe prepares to relocate, with the Windfire Squad accompanying them. Feng Xu agrees to help construct houses there, partly to earn Merit and partly to train his people in construction.
• At the Lukun Tribe, the community works together to build earthen houses before winter. The elderly and children dig earth, women transport materials and mix mud, and men build the walls.
• The houses feature compacted earthen walls reinforced with dry grass, branch-and-grass roofs, large beds, indoor stoves, and smoke-exhaust pipes. Three sample houses are completed in two days, after which construction is expanded across the tribe.
• The Windfire Squad returns to the Wind-Fire Tribe, where large-scale preparations for housing construction are already underway. Feng Xu orders a forty-by-fifteen-zhang area cleared and a one-zhang-deep pit dug for the next phase of development.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu continues to act as an organizer, inventor, and political leader. He balances charity with strategic self-interest, helping other tribes while strengthening his own influence and monitoring potential rivals.
• He shows increasing concern for long-term tribal development, especially housing, winter survival, construction skills, and the future upbringing of children.
• Iron Mountain remains proud and blunt, but demonstrates growing trust in Feng Xu. He accepts Feng Xu’s construction methods and agrees to maintain a cooperative relationship with the Wind-Fire Tribe.
• The Lukun Tribe begins transitioning from fearful, underground survival to organized communal life above ground. Their willingness to participate in construction suggests growing confidence and dependence on Feng Xu’s guidance.
• The Windfire Squad gains practical experience in building houses, preparing them to spread improved construction techniques throughout the Wind-Fire Tribe.

Significant Themes

• Civilization through infrastructure: Housing, heating, food storage, and construction organization become the foundations of tribal advancement.
• Cooperation and mutual dependence: Feng Xu encourages alliances among tribes by sharing resources and skills, recognizing that survival will require cooperation.
• Practical adaptation: The characters creatively use available materials—wolf bones, hides, earth, grass, and branches—to solve environmental and logistical problems.
• Leadership and social reform: Feng Xu seeks not merely to provide immediate aid but to change living conditions so future generations can become stronger and less fearful.
• Strategic generosity: Feng Xu’s assistance is partly altruistic and partly calculated; helping other tribes earns Merit, builds alliances, and lets him observe their development.
• The limits of supernatural solutions: The “Devouring” ability appears promising, but its limitations remind Feng Xu that technological and organizational progress remain essential.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu persuades Iron Mountain to view the Lukun Tribe with compassion rather than contempt.
• Their negotiation over the giant wild boar reveals both Iron Mountain’s possessiveness and his willingness to cooperate with Feng Xu.
• Feng Xu and Kun Tai establish a practical partnership when Feng Xu agrees to help the Lukun Tribe build houses.
• Within the Lukun Tribe, labor is divided by age and gender, creating a coordinated communal effort under Feng Xu’s direction.
• Feng Xu returns to the Wind-Fire Tribe prepared to apply the construction knowledge gained from the Red Iron and Lukun Tribes on a much larger scale.

Chapter Summary: “Blood Pool”

Key Plot Points and Events

• With winter nearing, the Wind-Fire Tribe rapidly constructs housing inside the Wolf King’s enormous skeleton. Logs, vines, clay, wolf pelts, and packed earth are used to create a two-level-capable structure with drainage, sloped roofs, and shared passageways.
• Feng Xu leaves the finishing work to Feng Xi and checks on Feng Sui’s brick and pottery production. Brick-firing has reached an eighty-percent success rate, and the tribe begins preparing a large kiln for pottery.
• Feng Sui identifies Wild Boar Ridge as the nearest flat area suitable for planting rice. However, the tribe is not yet strong enough to attack the powerful wild boar herd there. Feng Xu considers the ridge a potential future base and a route toward the fertile plains beyond the river.
• Feng Ling presents threads made from pig tendons, intestines, and plant fibers. Feng Xu selects a common plant fiber, names the plant “Cloud Hemp,” and improves the thread-making process. He explains that needles and thread can be used not only for medical stitching but also to make proper clothing from animal hides.
• While the tribe remains busy with construction and production, Feng Xu begins creating a Blood Pool to help the warriors advance toward the Earth Immortal realm.
• Warriors excavate a five-zhang-deep stone pit in the tribe’s former cave. Feng Xu fills it with Wolf King blood, refined boar-demon essence blood, and medicinal herbs designed to fuse and stabilize different bloodlines.
• Because the Blood Pool is dangerous, Feng Xu tests it himself. He discovers that it increases the intensity of his bloodline power and greatly accelerates his Three-Turn Blood Refinement cultivation. He uses only the shallow section, as the deeper area would completely submerge him.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu continues acting as the tribe’s organizer, inventor, strategist, and cultivator. He balances immediate survival needs—housing, food production, clothing, and tools—with long-term military and cultivation plans.
• Feng Sui demonstrates growing independence and expertise. He successfully improves brick firing and studies pottery production without Feng Xu’s direct supervision.
• Feng Ling develops practical textile technology by creating usable thread. Her work begins expanding beyond medicine into clothing and domestic production.
• The tribal warriors and children take on specialized roles: warriors help excavate and build, while children assist Feng Ling in producing thread.
• Feng Xu shows caution and responsibility by testing the dangerous Blood Pool personally before allowing other warriors to use it.

Significant Themes

• Civilization through innovation: The tribe gradually develops architecture, ceramics, agriculture, textiles, and medicine, transforming survival into organized civilization.
• Balancing growth and danger: Every advancement carries risks, whether confronting the wild boars, settling near unknown tribes, or fusing dangerous beast bloodlines.
• Resourcefulness and adaptation: The Human Race compensates for its natural weakness through compatibility with beast bloodlines, technological experimentation, and collective labor.
• Preparation for the future: Feng Xu plans beyond immediate winter survival, envisioning expansion to Wild Boar Ridge and eventually the fertile plains.
• Leadership and shared responsibility: The tribe’s progress depends on Feng Xu’s direction but increasingly relies on the skills and labor of Feng Sui, Feng Ling, the warriors, and the children.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu consults Feng Sui about nearby terrain, learning about Wild Boar Ridge, the great river, and the distant Human Race tribes.
• He gives Feng Ling feedback on her threads, teaches her improved production methods, and introduces the concept of sewn clothing.
• Feng Xu delegates construction details to Feng Xi and allows Feng Sui to manage pottery production according to his own expertise.
• The tribe works collectively under Feng Xu’s guidance, with each group contributing to construction, manufacturing, cultivation, or the preparation of the Blood Pool.

Chapter Summary: “Feng Sui’s Breakthrough”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu prepares the Blood Pool to help Feng Sui attempt a breakthrough to the Earth Immortal realm. The pool’s medicinal blood and herbs stimulate existing Bloodline Power rather than supplying new power.
• Feng Sui enters the pool, endures the intense reaction, and dives to its deepest area. After four hours, the pool boils and he emerges successfully having broken through.
• His Bloodline Power becomes fully activated and controllable. Even in his normal form, he can use the strength of his activated bloodline. He demonstrates this by expanding into a giant and smashing a huge crater into a stone wall.
• The breakthrough proves that Feng Xu’s improved Blood Pool method works, suggesting that more members of the Wind-Fire Tribe may soon reach the Earth Immortal realm.
• Feng Sui gives Feng Xi encouragement and is offered the Mountain-Cleaving Axe. He declines because it does not suit his fighting preferences, so Feng Xu agrees to forge him a more appropriate weapon.
• The tribe discusses attacking Wild Boar Ridge, but Feng Sui warns that the area contains a terrifying unknown beast whose roar once frightened every creature in the region. The tribe therefore remains cautious.
• Feng Xu further improves the Blood Pool by gathering stronger medicinal herbs, including one taken from a spirit beast’s territory.
• Feng Xi subsequently enters the Blood Pool to attempt his own breakthrough. Unlike Feng Sui, he remains submerged for two days, leaving the outcome unresolved by the end of the chapter.
• While Feng Xi cultivates, Feng Xu develops clothing for the tribe using hemp thread and wolf hides. He standardizes measurements, creates wooden and soft rulers, and refines them with Merit.
• Feng Xu turns the clothing into a size-adjusting Low-grade Houtian Dharma Artifact and transforms the wooden ruler into a Mid-grade Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure. That night, he dreams of a mysterious ruler engraved with the words “Measuring Heaven,” foreshadowing a powerful future treasure.

Character Development

• Feng Sui successfully advances to Earth Immortal and gains much better control over his Bloodline Power. His increased strength greatly improves the tribe’s military potential.
• Feng Xu continues to demonstrate ingenuity and responsibility. He improves the Blood Pool, studies medicinal effects, plans better weapons, introduces standardized measurements, and uses Merit to create practical tools for the tribe.
• Feng Xi follows Feng Sui in attempting the breakthrough, showing trust in Feng Xu’s method and readiness to strengthen himself for future tribal expansion.
• Feng Ling becomes increasingly involved in producing hemp thread and making clothing, contributing to the tribe’s technological and organizational development.
• Feng Yuqi stands out among the children for her diligence and willingness to learn, suggesting future importance within the tribe.

Significant Themes

• Collective advancement: Feng Sui’s breakthrough is important not only personally but because it provides a repeatable method for strengthening the entire tribe.
• Innovation and civilization-building: Feng Xu applies knowledge of medicine, tailoring, measurement, tools, and artifact refinement to improve daily life and long-term survival.
• Caution in a dangerous world: Despite gaining an Earth Immortal expert, the tribe recognizes that unknown threats around Wild Boar Ridge may be far more powerful than expected.
• Practical merit and ingenuity: Ordinary items such as clothing and rulers can become valuable spiritual artifacts when combined with craftsmanship and Merit.
• Foreshadowing and destiny: Feng Xu’s dream of the “Measuring Heaven” ruler hints that his seemingly simple measuring tool may evolve into an extraordinary treasure.

Important Character Interactions

• Feng Xu carefully supervises Feng Sui’s breakthrough and repeatedly warns him not to damage his foundation.
• Feng Sui’s success earns the tribe’s excitement and admiration, while his demonstration reassures everyone of the Blood Pool’s effectiveness.
• Feng Xi and Feng Sui exchange mutual support: Feng Xi offers him the Mountain-Cleaving Axe, while Feng Sui encourages Feng Xi to attempt the breakthrough.
• Feng Sui challenges the tribe’s optimism about Wild Boar Ridge by sharing his earlier encounter with the mysterious roar.
• Feng Xu and Feng Ling cooperate on clothing production, with Feng Xu creating the system and tools while Feng Ling organizes the sewing work.

Chapter Summary: “Cultivating the Primordial Spirit”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu reflects on his unusual forgotten dream before examining the Heaven-Hanging Ruler, learning more about the classifications of Dharma Treasures. His middle-grade Houtian Merit Spirit Treasure is extremely valuable because it can rival Primordial Treasures and nourishes the soul.
• A loud disturbance from the Blood Pool reveals that Feng Xi has successfully broken through to the Earth Immortal realm, giving the tribe two Earth Immortal experts alongside Feng Sui.
• Feng Xu continues improving the Blood Pool with medicinal herbs, though he decides not to let the tribe members use it yet. He reasons that they are not close enough to breakthroughs and that a better spiritual environment and stronger beast blood would be needed to accelerate their cultivation.
• Feng Xu begins cultivating the Second-Turn Primordial Spirit. Although the process is dangerous and failure could cause madness, cultivation deviation, or death, he chooses speed over caution because of his responsibilities as a potential Human Ancestor and the tribe’s need for protection.
• Using the Heaven-Hanging Ruler’s soul-nourishing effects, Feng Xu successfully forms a Primordial Spirit and completes the Primordial Spirit Circuit. However, the secluded cultivation takes so long that he becomes severely weakened from exhaustion and hunger.
• Feng Xi discovers Feng Xu’s weakened state and carries him back to the tribe. After eating a large amount of food, Feng Xu recovers, reassuring the tribe that the cultivation succeeded.
• The tribe’s winter preparations progress: houses are mostly completed, pottery has been fired for storage and trade, and animal hides are being turned into clothing.
• Feng Xu inspects the twenty-six captured wolf pups. Despite their apparent tameness, several still show hostility and attempt to attack him. He brutally disciplines the aggressive wolves, anesthetizes them, sterilizes the males, and isolates them for recovery.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu grows stronger by completing his Primordial Spirit cultivation, but his willingness to take dangerous shortcuts reveals his impatient, risk-taking nature. He recognizes that this resembles gambling but believes the Heaven-Hanging Ruler gives him enough security to take the risk.
• His sense of responsibility deepens: he is motivated not only by personal ambition but also by the tribe’s survival and his goal of becoming the Human Ancestor.
• Feng Xi advances to the Earth Immortal realm and becomes a more reliable protector of the tribe. He also demonstrates concern for Feng Xu by monitoring his secluded cultivation and carrying him home when he collapses.
• Feng Sui and Feng Xi jointly safeguard Feng Xu during his seclusion, showing the tribe’s growing ability to support and protect its strongest members.
• Little White remains loyal to Feng Xu but is disturbed by his harsh treatment of the wolves, particularly the sterilization procedure. Her reaction highlights the contrast between her emotional sympathy and Feng Xu’s pragmatic, utilitarian approach.

Significant Themes

• Strength and survival: Advancement is presented as necessary for protecting the tribe in the dangerous Primordial World.
• Risk versus caution: Feng Xu knowingly endangers himself by pursuing rapid cultivation, contrasting with more conservative cultivators who value steady progress.
• Power and responsibility: His cultivation is driven by the needs of the tribe as much as by personal ambition.
• Civilization and organization: Housing, pottery, clothing, trade, animal domestication, and cultivation all show the tribe gradually developing from a primitive group into a more organized society.
• Control over nature: The wolf-training episode demonstrates Feng Xu’s willingness to use severe methods to make dangerous animals safe and useful.
• The value of treasures: The Heaven-Hanging Ruler is not primarily an offensive weapon but proves crucial through its supportive ability to nourish the soul and reduce cultivation risks.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu congratulates Feng Xi on his breakthrough and discusses the cultivation process with him.
• Feng Sui and Feng Xi protect Feng Xu during his dangerous secluded cultivation, preventing the others from disturbing him.
• Feng Xi rescues Feng Xu after finding him physically exhausted and carries him back to the tribe.
• Feng Xu works with Little White while inspecting the wolf pups. He explains the safety precautions after sterilizing the aggressive animals, while Little White reluctantly accepts his judgment despite being visibly distressed by the cruelty.
• The tribe collectively supports Feng Xu’s cultivation and later relaxes when his appetite confirms that he has recovered.

Chapter Summary: “A Visitor Arrives”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Sen arrives at the Wind-Fire Tribe before winter, accompanied by the Eagle King. The tribe provides them with lodging, including a temporary classroom where the Eagle King can observe the written characters.
• Lin Sen reports that the Lin Tribe has completed its houses, stored enough firewood for winter, and is preparing to increase its population.
• Feng Xu demonstrates the Dragon-Snake Bow. Lin Sen is impressed by its range and power, recognizing its value for the Lin Tribe’s tree-based hunting style.
• Lin Sen asks for weapons for his entire tribe. Feng Xu agrees to supply bows and a limited number of crossbows, warning that crossbows are dangerous and should only be given to trusted individuals.
• Instead of trading people, the Lin Tribe agrees to exchange detailed maps of the Great Wilderness Mountains. The Eagle King will help them survey the land from above, and the number and quality of maps will determine how many weapons they receive.
• Feng Xu and the tribe’s leaders discuss attacking Wild Boar Ridge. They conclude that they need more than six armed Earth Immortals to have a realistic chance of victory.
• Lin Sen agrees to undergo the Wind-Fire Tribe’s breakthrough process. He enters the Blood Pool while Feng Xi guards him.
• The first snow arrives, and Jiang Ze of the Marsh Tribe visits. After learning that Feng Sui is an Earth Immortal, Jiang Ze realizes that the Wind-Fire Tribe possesses a method for breaking through the Human Race’s usual cultivation limits.
• Feng Xu offers to help Jiang Ze and another Marsh Tribe warrior reach the Earth Immortal realm in exchange for their assistance in attacking Wild Boar Ridge. Jiang Ze agrees and promises to bring additional warriors the following year.
• Jiang Ze settles into the tribe’s crowded living quarters and prepares to enter the Blood Pool, while Feng Xu leaves him to his private arrangements.

Character Developments

• Lin Sen becomes more closely aligned with Feng Xu and the Wind-Fire Tribe. His admiration for Feng Xu grows as he witnesses the tribe’s weapons and hears about Feng Xu’s dangerous travels.
• Feng Xu demonstrates increasing strategic ambition. He is not merely improving the tribe’s defenses; he is building alliances, exchanging technology for intelligence, and organizing a coordinated campaign against Wild Boar Ridge.
• Feng Sui and Feng Xi contribute their knowledge to help Lin Sen break through, showing the Wind-Fire Tribe’s willingness to share cultivation methods with trusted allies.
• Jiang Ze shifts from a potential trading partner to an important military ally. He is astonished by the Wind-Fire Tribe’s Earth Immortal expert and eagerly accepts the opportunity to advance his own strength.
• The Eagle King becomes an important asset to the Lin Tribe by enabling aerial reconnaissance and helping produce more accurate maps.

Significant Themes

• Alliance-building and mutual benefit: Feng Xu strengthens the Wind-Fire Tribe by trading weapons and cultivation opportunities for maps and military support.
• Technological advancement: Bows and crossbows represent a major improvement in hunting and warfare, though Feng Xu recognizes their limits against large, powerful enemies.
• Strategic preparation: The planned assault on Wild Boar Ridge requires careful recruitment, cultivation breakthroughs, intelligence gathering, and cooperation among several tribes.
• Human unity and survival: The chapter emphasizes the dangers faced by scattered Human Race tribes and the importance of cooperation rather than internal conflict.
• Growth from isolation to organization: The tribes are gradually developing homes, trade systems, military alliances, and shared plans instead of surviving independently.

Character Interactions

• Lin Sen and Feng Xu discuss the Lin Tribe’s development and the practical use of ranged weapons.
• Lin Sen negotiates with Feng Xu, ultimately agreeing to exchange maps for bows and crossbows.
• Feng Xu, Feng Sui, and the others plan how many Earth Immortals are needed to defeat Wild Boar Ridge.
• Feng Sui and Feng Xi teach Lin Sen how to break through to the Earth Immortal realm.
• Feng Xu introduces Jiang Ze to Feng Sui, allowing Jiang Ze to recognize the Wind-Fire Tribe’s growing power.
• Feng Xu and Jiang Ze negotiate a direct exchange: breakthrough opportunities for Jiang Ze and another warrior in return for military assistance.
• The chapter closes with Feng Xu reflecting humorously on whether Jiang Ze can restrain himself from indulging in the tribe’s temporary living arrangements before his breakthrough.

Chapter Summary: Demon Race’s Revenge

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Sen breaks through to Earth Immortal in less time than Feng Xi, confirming that Feng Xu’s improved cultivation formula is effective.
• Jiang Ze enters the Blood Pool but remains in seclusion for an unusually long time, causing Feng Xu to wonder whether he has overexerted himself.
• Feng Xu begins researching Battle Marks, a Witch technique that uses beast blood and rare materials to awaken Innate Divine Abilities. Because the original method is too expensive and dangerous for the Human Race, he experiments on wild rabbits instead.
• During winter, Feng Xu keeps the tribe productive by organizing work such as weaving vine baskets, tanning hides, preparing food, and constructing improved houses. The tribe enjoys a much more comfortable and orderly life than before.
• Kun Tai and the Lukun Tribe arrive. Feng Xu deliberately places Kun Tai with Lin Sen while maintaining control over communication among the various tribes.
• Feng Xu resumes teaching literacy, instructing the tribal leaders and children in the characters he has created. Lessons cover pronunciation, meaning, and the development of each character.
• The Red Iron Tribe arrives with iron tools and materials. Feng Xu, Feng Xi, and Feng Sui forge a Superior Houtian Dharma Artifact for Feng Xi: the Redfire Saber.
• Feng Xi begins practicing saber techniques seriously after Feng Xu jokingly tells him to swing the weapon three thousand times daily. Feng Sui also asks to learn, so Feng Xu teaches him three exaggerated axe moves and tells him to develop the rest himself.
• The tribe celebrates the Red Iron Tribe’s hard work with a hotpot feast. Feng Xu encourages Iron Mountain to establish his own tribe, warning him that leadership requires responsibility rather than selfish ambition.
• The peaceful winter is disrupted when the Pig Demon emerges from seclusion and learns that his only son was killed by the Human Race.
• Seeking revenge, the late-Earth-Immortal Pig Demon gathers a large boar herd and marches toward the Wind-Fire Tribe. Along the way, he effortlessly kills and devours a powerful white Snake Demon.
• Eagle King witnesses the Pig Demon’s strength and returns to warn the tribe that a dangerous Demon Race expert is approaching.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu continues developing as an inventive leader and researcher. He adapts Witch techniques for human use, improves tribal technology and education, and strategically manages relations among neighboring tribes.
• Feng Xi grows stronger and receives the Redfire Saber, becoming deeply committed to mastering saber techniques.
• Feng Sui becomes eager to improve his combat skills and begins training with the axe, motivated by Feng Xu’s encouragement.
• Iron Mountain reveals ambitions of founding his own tribe. Feng Xu supports him but stresses the duties and accountability of leadership.
• Lin Sen successfully breaks through to Earth Immortal, strengthening his standing among the allied tribes.
• Kun Tai remains obedient toward Lin Sen, and Feng Xu uses their arrangement to prevent excessive unity among outside leaders.
• The Pig Demon shifts the chapter from domestic progress to impending conflict. His grief over his son turns into rage and a campaign of revenge.
• Eagle King acts as the tribe’s lookout and messenger, recognizing the threat before the others do.

Significant Themes

• Innovation and adaptation: Feng Xu modifies the Witches’ Battle Mark practice and combines physical forging with mana refinement to create tools suitable for the Human Race.
• Civilization and progress: Education, organized labor, improved housing, specialized cooking, and iron tools show the tribe advancing beyond mere survival.
• Leadership and responsibility: Feng Xu emphasizes that founding a tribe means caring for its people, not simply gaining status or power.
• Training and motivation: Feng Xu’s humorous or exaggerated instructions inspire genuine discipline in Feng Xi and Feng Sui.
• Peace versus revenge: The tribe enjoys its safest and most comfortable winter yet, while the Pig Demon’s personal loss threatens to bring large-scale violence.
• Strategic control: Feng Xu supports cooperation among tribes but carefully prevents rival leaders from becoming too closely connected, preserving the Wind-Fire Tribe’s influence.
• The danger of underestimating enemies: The Pig Demon initially sees the Human Race as weak, just as the humans may soon discover that the surrounding Demon Race contains far more powerful individuals.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu manages Kun Tai’s placement with Lin Sen to control intertribal relationships.
• Feng Xu teaches the leaders and children together, establishing himself as both cultural teacher and political center.
• Feng Xu collaborates with Feng Xi and Feng Sui in forging the Redfire Saber, then trains them in weapon techniques.
• Feng Xu advises Iron Mountain about the responsibilities of leadership, while Feng Sui offers him encouragement and concern.
• The tribe’s communal feast reflects growing unity and comfort among its members.
• The Pig Demon questions the boars about his son’s death, then rallies them against the Human Race.
• The Pig Demon dominates the white Snake Demon, demonstrating the overwhelming power of the approaching threat.
• Eagle King witnesses the attack and warns the Wind-Fire Tribe, setting up the chapter’s coming confrontation.

Chapter Summary: Tribal Defense Battle

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Demon Race of Wild Boar Ridge launches an unexpected winter invasion against the Wind-Fire Tribe, led by a powerful Late Earth Immortal Pig Demon.
• Because the tribe cannot safely evacuate through dangerous territory or find enough shelter elsewhere, Feng Xu decides to defend the mountain and buy time for the elderly and children to withdraw deeper into the settlement.
• The Human Race prepares the terrain rather than relying on weapons: they fell trees for clubs and rolling logs, gather boulders, flatten the snow, and freeze the path into a slippery slope.
• Feng Xu organizes the defense:
  • Feng Sui and Feng Xi lead the direct assault.
  • Lin Sen provides ranged and mobile support with the Dragon-Snake Bow.
  • Eagle King hides in the clouds with the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, prepared to restrain the Pig Demon.
  • Jiang Ze adapts to the battle, while Kun Tai and the ordinary warriors handle weaker Pig Demons.
• The first Pig Demon charge is disrupted by the slippery terrain, rolling logs, and boulders. Although the demons suffer little physical damage, their advance is repeatedly stalled.
• The Pig Demons attack for five consecutive days without success. The Human Race conserves its strength and supplies, while the demons grow increasingly exhausted due to the harsh winter and lack of food.
• The Pig Demon leader fails to recognize that its troops are weakening, assuming that a single night’s rest restores them completely.
• Iron Mountain eventually breaks through into the Earth Immortal realm, giving the Human Race another powerful fighter.
• Realizing too late that the invasion is failing while the Human Race grows stronger, the Pig Demon leader attacks personally. It sneaks into the defensive line, overwhelms a sentry, and charges through the warriors.
• Feng Xi confronts it with a great saber, but the Pig Demon blocks the strike with its arm and sends Feng Xi flying, demonstrating the immense power gap between them.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu shows strategic judgment and leadership. Rather than recklessly fighting a stronger enemy, he uses terrain, attrition, logistics, and patience to protect the tribe.
• Feng Sui and Feng Xi remain committed frontline defenders, though they recognize the danger posed by the Late Earth Immortal Pig Demon.
• Eagle King becomes an important tactical asset through his ability to use the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web, potentially giving the Human Race a way to restrain the otherwise difficult-to-harm leader.
• Lin Sen accepts a supporting combat role and receives the Dragon-Snake Bow.
• Iron Mountain reaches the Earth Immortal realm at a crucial moment, shifting the balance further toward the defenders.
• The Pig Demon leader is physically powerful but strategically incompetent. Its isolation, overconfidence, and lack of battlefield experience cause it to misjudge its troops’ exhaustion and the Human Race’s preparations.

Significant Themes

• Strategy versus brute strength: The Human Race cannot initially match the Pig Demon leader directly, so it relies on preparation, terrain, cooperation, and endurance.
• Leadership and connection to the troops: The Pig Demon leader’s detachment from ordinary demons makes it unable to understand their real condition.
• Patience and attrition: Time favors the defenders because they have supplies and a home-field advantage, while the invaders steadily run out of food and energy.
• Collective strength: Several weaker Earth Immortals and ordinary warriors can create a meaningful defense when coordinated effectively.
• Adaptation under scarcity: Without weapons or tools, the tribe turns trees, boulders, ice, and the mountain slope into defensive resources.
• The limits of individual power: A cultivator’s personal strength does not automatically translate into effective command or military success.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xi consults Eagle King about the Pig Demon’s strength, establishing the seriousness of the threat.
• Feng Xu rejects Lin Sen’s suggestion to evacuate to the Lin Tribe, prioritizing the tribe’s survival and recognizing the practical dangers of relocation.
• Feng Xu lends key treasures and weapons to Eagle King and Lin Sen, coordinating their abilities into a unified battle plan.
• Feng Sui, Feng Xi, and Jiang Ze debate whether to fight directly or continue wearing down the enemy; Feng Sui and Feng Xi persuade the others to preserve their strength.
• The Pig Demon leader’s interactions with its troops reveal its contempt and poor understanding of them, culminating in its insult—“A bunch of trash!”—when it finally realizes their condition.
• The chapter ends with the leader personally clashing with Feng Xi, establishing the next stage of the battle.

Chapter Summary — Wheel of Battles

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Human Race warriors battle the immensely powerful Pig Demon, whose nearly indestructible body shrugs off their attacks.
• Jiang Ze enlarges himself and strikes the demon, but the Pig Demon effortlessly stops his punch and uses him as a shield against Feng Sui’s attack.
• Lin Sen joins the fight with rapid-fire arrows. Even his top-grade Dragon-Snake Bow only penetrates the demon’s flesh slightly.
• To protect the tribe from the battle’s destruction, Feng Xu orders warriors below the Earth Immortal Realm to stay back while the stronger fighters lure the Pig Demon away.
• Feng Sui grows several hundred feet tall and, with Iron Mountain’s massive hammer strike, sends the Pig Demon flying. The blow finally causes the demon minor injury, prompting it to take the battle seriously.
• Five warriors—Jiang Ze, Feng Xi, Feng Sui, Iron Mountain, and Lin Sen—coordinate a rotating assault. Their varied attacks gradually exhaust the Pig Demon and prevent it from using its Devouring ability effectively.
• The Pig Demon unleashes a powerful roar, stunning the warriors, then activates Devouring to pull them into its mouth.
• Feng Xu intervenes, growing to the demon’s size and disrupting the ability. Using Taiji martial arts and wrestling techniques, he exploits the Pig Demon’s weak lower body and unstable balance, repeatedly throwing it to the ground.
• The warriors are astonished that Feng Xu, despite being a child with only Second Transformation cultivation, can hold his own against the demon.
• Angered by Feng Xu’s contempt, the Pig Demon transforms into a colossal beast over two thousand feet long and again activates Devouring.
• The Eagle King arrives and traps the giant demon with a golden net, but the Pig Demon manages to swallow Feng Xu before being fully restrained.
• Feng Sui attacks desperately, discovering that the Pig Demon’s defenses weaken after reverting to its normal form. The other warriors join him, striking every part of its body while searching for a decisive weakness.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu emerges as the chapter’s most surprising fighter. Though still a child and technically at the Second Transformation, he demonstrates exceptional strength, composure, and tactical insight.
• Feng Xu’s mastery of Taiji martial arts allows him to redirect the Pig Demon’s overwhelming power rather than oppose it directly.
• Feng Sui, Jiang Ze, Feng Xi, Iron Mountain, and Lin Sen improve their teamwork, rotating positions and combining direct attacks, heavy strikes, ranged support, and battlefield control.
• Feng Xi is forced to reconsider his earlier judgment that Feng Xu’s punches were weak; he is astonished by the child’s ability to battle the Pig Demon alone.
• The Pig Demon shifts from arrogance to genuine anger and caution. It recognizes that its brute force is being neutralized by coordinated attacks and Feng Xu’s technique, leading it to reveal its gigantic true form.
• The Eagle King enters as a crucial reinforcement, using his dharma treasure to restrain the Pig Demon and prevent Devouring from consuming the entire group.

Significant Themes

• Technique overcoming raw power: Feng Xu cannot injure the Pig Demon directly, but he defeats its attacks through redirection, balance-breaking, and timing.
• Teamwork and adaptability: The warriors’ rotating assault compensates for their inability to overpower the demon individually.
• Hidden strength and underestimated potential: Feng Xu’s youth causes the Pig Demon and others to underestimate him, yet his skill makes him one of the battle’s most effective participants.
• Limits of brute strength: The Pig Demon’s enormous physical power is less effective when its attacks are interrupted or redirected.
• Sacrifice and protection: The warriors move the battle away from the tribe and repeatedly risk themselves to prevent the demon from harming others.

Character Interactions

• Jiang Ze and Feng Sui initially work together but are forced back by the Pig Demon’s superior strength.
• Lin Sen provides constant ranged pressure, while Feng Xu retrieves and returns his arrows, showing cooperation between the two.
• The five main warriors gradually develop a coordinated formation, with some attacking directly, others delivering heavy blows, and Lin Sen disrupting the demon from the side.
• Feng Xu repeatedly frustrates the Pig Demon by throwing it and interrupting its attacks. Their verbal exchange highlights the demon’s arrogance and Feng Xu’s confidence.
• When Feng Xu is swallowed, Feng Sui reacts with alarm and immediately attacks to rescue him, while the Eagle King restrains the demon.
• The chapter ends with the warriors united against the Pig Demon’s enormous body, searching for a vulnerable point before Feng Xu’s fate is revealed.

Chapter Summary: Dreaming of the Purple Cloud Palace

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Sui and the other fighters finally concentrate their attacks on the enormous pig demon instead of striking separately. Feng Sui enlarges himself and uses his axe to pierce the demon’s abdomen, allowing the others to widen the wound.
• Meanwhile, Feng Xu remains trapped inside the pig demon after being swallowed. The creature’s interior drains his magical power and stamina, while the foul environment prevents him from finding his way out.
• Using the enlarged Heaven-Hanging Ruler, Feng Xu fights blindly through the darkness until he exhausts himself and loses consciousness.
• He awakens in the magnificent Purple Cloud Palace, where he meets Dao Ancestor Hongjun. Hongjun explains that Feng Xu was brought to this world because he was chosen by the Great Dao.
• Hongjun offers Feng Xu a chance to cultivate in the palace using the Jade Disc of Creation, promising that time spent there will barely pass in the outside world.
• Hongjun explains the danger facing the Primordial World: the Immortal Dao and Heavenly Dao are suppressing the Earthly and Human Daos. Although helping the six Sages stabilize the world was necessary to repay Hongjun’s karmic debts, their return will eventually hasten the Infinite Tribulation Cycle and bring about the world’s destruction.
• Feng Xu begins cultivating in the Purple Cloud Palace. His realm rises rapidly, eventually reaching the Quasi-Sage Peak. He perfects the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, improves the Witchblood Secret Art, and gains major accomplishments in alchemy and artifact refinement.
• He also transforms the Merit Mall into his personal Dharma Treasure, the Seventy-Two Profound Truth Swords, based on the fragment of the Jade Disc of Creation within it.
• Feng Xu develops the Martial Dao and prepares to refine the Primordial Violet Qi, which would allow him to bind with the Human Race’s destiny and attain Sagehood.
• Just before completing this final step, Feng Xu suddenly awakens in an ice-water bath surrounded by familiar people. His cultivation has vanished, revealing that the entire experience in the Purple Cloud Palace was only a dream—or possibly a mysterious vision.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates perseverance and adaptability. Even while trapped inside the pig demon, he continues fighting until exhaustion.
• His encounter with Hongjun gives him a broader understanding of the Primordial World and its impending crisis.
• Through prolonged cultivation, Feng Xu evolves from a struggling cultivator into a potential Sage. He creates and develops the Martial Dao, perfects his physical and spiritual cultivation, and gains expertise in multiple auxiliary paths.
• Feng Xu becomes more confident and ambitious, but his return to the Innate Realm leaves him confused and physically vulnerable, forcing him to confront the possibility that his vast progress was unreal.
• Hongjun is portrayed as calm, approachable, and willing to assist Feng Xu. Rather than giving him a direct mission, he offers guidance and cultivation resources while emphasizing the importance of balancing the world’s Three Daos.

Significant Themes

• Concentrated strength versus scattered effort: The fighters can injure the pig demon only after coordinating their attacks and focusing their power.
• Fate and the Great Dao: Feng Xu’s arrival in the world and his meeting with Hongjun are presented as consequences of the Great Dao’s selection.
• Karmic responsibility: Hongjun’s actions, including supporting the six Sages, are shaped by past karma and the need to repay debts.
• Balance among the Three Daos: The survival of the Primordial World depends on harmony between the Heavenly, Earthly, and Human Daos. The unchecked growth of the Immortal Dao threatens this balance.
• Cultivation and transcendence: Feng Xu’s progress reflects the pursuit of power, enlightenment, and the creation of a personal Dao.
• Reality versus illusion: The sudden ending casts doubt on whether Feng Xu truly cultivated for countless years or merely experienced a dream, vision, or hidden trial.

Character Interactions

• Feng Sui and the other fighters cooperate directly to attack the pig demon’s exposed abdomen.
• Feng Xu battles alone inside the demon, using the Heaven-Hanging Ruler to survive.
• Hongjun treats Feng Xu as an equal-minded junior, answers his questions, and offers him access to the Jade Disc of Creation and Primordial Violet Qi.
• Feng Xu respectfully questions Hongjun’s motives, especially regarding karma, the six Sages, and the dangers facing the world.
• At the end, several familiar figures revive Feng Xu by placing him in ice water, creating a sharp contrast between his imagined life as a Quasi-Sage and his actual, powerless condition.

Summary: “Clearance of Wild Boar Ridge”

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu awakens after a mysterious dream and examines the changes to his body. His cultivation has regressed, his meridians are damaged, and the Merit Mall and Xuan Zhen Sword have undergone unexplained changes. However, he has gained powerful physical and Primordial Spirit developments, including the Four-Cycle Tendon-and-Bone Circuit and Three-Cycle Yin Spirit Circuit.
• Because of his injuries, Feng Xu tells the other leaders that he cannot participate in the battle to clear Wild Boar Ridge. The Eagle King is also unavailable after entering seclusion, leaving the Human Race tribes’ Earth Immortals to handle the fighting.
• The Wind-Fire, Lin, Marsh, Red Iron, and Lukun Tribes lead their warriors in driving the remaining boars back toward Wild Boar Ridge. The Pig Demons are slaughtered, and their bodies and resources are divided according to the previous agreement, with the Wind-Fire Tribe receiving the leader’s corpse, piglets, and payment for processing the meat and blood.
• While observing the battlefield and surrounding terrain, Feng Xu recognizes Wild Boar Ridge as an excellent location for expansion. Its level land, nearby river, forests, and relatively accessible mountain paths could support farming, villages, roads, and a defensible central settlement.
• Feng Xi discovers a massive cave beneath the ridge. Deep inside, the group sees a distant violet glow at the bottom of an apparently immeasurable chasm. They cannot safely investigate and leave without discovering whether it is a treasure.
• After the battle, the tribes organize the enormous amount of spoils. Since the meat cannot all be transported immediately, it is left to be collected after winter.
• On the return journey, Feng Xu asks about nearby Human Race tribes. He proposes that the surrounding tribes exchange people for Wind-Fire pottery and iron tools so that his tribe can rapidly increase its population next year.

2. Character Developments

• Feng Xu is physically weakened and uncertain about the consequences of his dream, but he remains an effective leader and strategist. Unable to fight, he shifts his attention toward surveying land, planning infrastructure, developing trade, and expanding the tribe’s population.
• Jiang Ze reassures Feng Xu and accepts that the younger man should not risk himself in battle.
• Feng Xi continues acting as a reliable assistant and scout, discovering the cave and bringing Feng Xu to it.
• Kun Tai is curious about the possible treasure in the cave, while Feng Sui takes a more cautious and practical view of the danger.
• The surrounding tribal chiefs begin recognizing the value of Wind-Fire Tribe’s pottery and iron tools, though they remain hesitant about Feng Xu’s proposal to consolidate populations.

3. Significant Themes

• Recovery and transformation: Feng Xu’s damaged cultivation contrasts with his newly strengthened body and Primordial Spirit, suggesting that his mysterious experience may have fundamentally altered him.
• Practical survival over idealistic systems: Feng Xu argues that the Great Wilderness Lord’s policy of spreading the Human Race into many separate tribes is ineffective when most tribes lack the strength to defend themselves.
• Strength through unity: Population concentration, cooperation, and shared resources are presented as necessary for survival, even if they conflict with the original tribal distribution strategy.
• Development and civilization: Roads, farming, villages, trade, iron tools, and pottery symbolize the Wind-Fire Tribe’s transition from basic survival toward organized expansion.
• The cycle of violence: Feng Xu views the slaughter of the Pig Demons as justified retaliation because the boars previously attacked the Human Race.
• Unexplored opportunity: The mysterious violet light beneath the cave hints at hidden treasures or future dangers beneath Wild Boar Ridge.

4. Character Interactions

• Feng Xu informs Jiang Ze and the other experts that his injuries prevent him from fighting; Jiang Ze responds supportively and tells him to leave minor battles to the older warriors.
• Feng Xu discusses the cave with Feng Xi, Kun Tai, and Feng Sui. Kun Tai favors investigating the glowing object, while Feng Sui warns that the depth makes exploration too dangerous.
• Feng Xu questions Feng Sui, Lin Sen, and the other chiefs about nearby tribes, then proposes exchanging manufactured goods for population.
• The chiefs challenge Feng Xu’s plan by arguing that gathering tribes together contradicts the Great Wilderness Lord’s purpose. Feng Xu counters that the disappearance of hundreds of tribes proves the current arrangement is failing and that larger populations are better able to survive.

Key plot points and events

• After Eagle King leaves, Feng Xu moves the teaching site into the new house. Lin Sen, Jiang Ze, and Kun Tai set out to summon their tribespeople to help transport supplies.
• Feng Xu takes a group to Wild Boar Ridge to process the boars and prepare the cave as a temporary storehouse. He, Feng Sui, and Iron Mountain descend by flying Dharma Treasure into a vast cavern beneath the earth veins. They find a huge pool and abundant purple crystals, along with exceptionally dense spiritual energy.
• Feng Xu explains that the cavern could greatly benefit mana cultivation, but not the tribe’s current Bloodline Power users. He introduces the Bloodline Secret Art, his improved version of the Witchblood Battle Mark: it can help people cultivate without needing to read or learn written methods.
• The art has three forms: marks that guide cultivation according to a method, marks that may awaken an innate divine ability, and marks that gradually enable beast-like transformation. Each person can use only one at a time; the marks fade, but their effects on the body’s mana circulation remain.
• Because the tribe has access only to Wolf King and Pig Demon blood, Feng Xu recommends cultivation-method marks for now. He plans to give children marks based on the Eight-Nine Mystical Art and reserve more specialized marks for when the tribe can obtain better materials.
• The group returns, and most non-elderly members of the Wind-Fire and Red Iron Tribes receive Battle Marks, concealed beneath their coats.
• When winter ends, Feng Xu leads the tribe in reclaiming land and sowing rice. They cultivate more than 250 mu in two days, with work divided among the men, children, women, and elderly. Feng Xu urges them to farm carefully rather than simply scatter seed.

Character developments and interactions

• Feng Xu demonstrates his leadership as planner, teacher, and innovator: he explores the cavern, develops a long-term cultivation strategy, and prepares the tribe for farming. He also balances ambition with caution, keeping the secret art within his own people and postponing more dangerous options.
• Feng Sui and Iron Mountain trust Feng Xu’s expertise and follow his guidance, while asking questions about the cavern and cultivation.
• Feng Xu and the tribespeople show a familiar, practical rapport: he jokes that their enthusiasm for farm work will not last, then explains why careful labor matters.
• The tribe’s communal work reflects growing organization, including consideration for pregnant women, who are spared heavy labor.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as a foundation for progress: Feng Xu adapts complex cultivation techniques so people who cannot read can still develop.
• Prudence and long-term planning: The tribe starts with safer foundational cultivation, saving powerful bloodline options for the future.
• Collective development: Resource gathering, cultivation, and farming are presented as shared efforts that strengthen the tribes.
• Preparation for changing conditions: Feng Xu promotes disciplined farming not only for immediate food, but also in case future circumstances make survival harder.

Chapter Summary: “Spring Plowing”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu oversees the beginning of spring farming while continuing to cultivate in the Earth-Vein Spirit Pool. His body is gradually recovering from the injuries caused by opening later Grotto-Heavens ahead of time.
• Using his remaining cultivation experience from the dream of Purple Cloud Palace, Feng Xu continues advancing safely despite losing the cultivation itself. His Battle Mark allows him to cultivate constantly and accelerate the opening of new Grotto-Heavens.
• The tribe’s treated rice seeds grow extraordinarily quickly: they sprout within a day, develop leaves by the third day, and are ready for transplanting after a week. Feng Xu supervises the work and organizes the children to help.
• Feng Yuqi, having learned over a thousand characters, is appointed to teach literacy to the rest of the tribe. The children prefer farming to studying.
• After transplanting is completed, Feng Xu organizes further development:
  • Temporary adobe houses are built near the fields.
  • Wild Boar Ridge is planned as the Wind-Fire Tribe’s main residential center, using the bones of the giant boar demon.
  • The tribe’s old settlement will eventually become a trading and reception center, with its Blood Pool available to allied outsiders for a fee.
• Feng Xu gives Feng Xi woven plastic bags to carry surplus food for trade. Feng Xi leaves with two warriors to visit nearby tribes.
• Feng Xu teaches Feng Ling and the elders how to castrate the tribe’s piglets. Half are prepared for slaughter in winter, while the remainder are kept as breeding stock.
• He also reflects on the transformation of wolves into domestic dogs, using Little White as an example. The wolves have traded freedom for safety, food, and comfort, though Feng Xu tries to ease their adjustment with walks and limited restrictions.
• The entire tribe remains occupied with farming, construction, livestock, pottery, weaving, and storage. Members of the Red Iron Tribe continue helping with construction because the Wind-Fire Tribe lacks manpower.
• Once his arrangements are complete, Feng Xu returns to secluded cultivation. He intends to heal his injuries and refine the hundred-zhang boar demon’s body into artifacts for the tribe’s warriors.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu increasingly acts as an administrator and leader rather than personally handling every task. He feels slight guilt about delegating labor but becomes more confident in organizing the tribe’s development.
• He demonstrates broad practical knowledge, teaching agriculture, animal husbandry, surgery, education, construction, and trade.
• His cultivation outlook becomes more confident. Though he lost the power gained in the dream, he retains immense experience and believes future advancement will be comparatively smooth.
• Feng Yuqi has developed into the tribe’s most educated member besides Feng Xu and takes on the important role of teacher.
• Feng Xi is trusted with trade expeditions because of his Early Earth Immortal strength.
• Feng Ling begins learning surgical livestock treatment. She is cautious and hesitant, but Feng Xu encourages her to practice and improve.
• Little White continues adapting from a wild wolf to a domesticated dog, representing the broader relationship between humans and formerly wild creatures.
• The Wind-Fire Tribe is becoming more organized and prosperous, expanding its agriculture, housing, education, manufacturing, and trade systems.

Significant Themes

• Civilization and progress: The chapter portrays the tribe’s transition from a primitive settlement into an organized society with agriculture, education, trade, housing, and specialized labor.
• Leadership and delegation: Feng Xu must learn to guide others rather than do everything himself, balancing efficiency with concern for those under his authority.
• Control of nature: Wolves become dogs and boars become livestock, illustrating humanity’s ability to domesticate, reshape, and exploit the natural world.
• Knowledge as power: Feng Xu’s modern knowledge and retained cultivation experience allow him to transform the tribe’s development and widen its advantage over neighboring groups.
• Moral ambiguity: The treatment of animals raises questions about whether domestication is kindness, oppression, or both. Feng Xu frames human control as acceptable because it provides safety and comfort.
• Long-term planning: Feng Xu thinks beyond immediate survival, planning residential districts, trade centers, resource access, surplus exchange, and military equipment.
• Destiny and confidence: Feng Xu’s belief that he is favored by the Great Dao reduces his anxiety about rival claimants to the title of Human Ancestor.

Important Character Interactions

• Feng Xu supervises the tribe’s farmers and personally demonstrates rice cultivation and transplanting techniques.
• He appoints Feng Yuqi to teach the tribe, expanding her role from student to educator.
• He guides Feng Ling through the castration of piglets, encouraging her to overcome hesitation while criticizing less careful workers.
• He speaks to Little White about the fate of wolves and boars, using the contrast to justify the tribe’s treatment of domesticated animals.
• Feng Xu entrusts Feng Xi with trade and relies on Feng Sui to manage the tribe while he enters long-term seclusion.
• His interactions with the Red Iron Tribe members are primarily practical: they remain under the Wind-Fire Tribe’s direction until construction work is completed.

Chapter Summary: “A Bountiful Harvest”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu is summoned from artifact-refining seclusion when Feng Sui signals that the tribe’s rice has ripened.
• He creates twenty mana-refined, foot-operated threshing machines to improve post-harvest processing. He deliberately keeps their design simple so the Human Race can eventually reproduce and improve them independently.
• The tribe harvests over two hundred mu of rice in ten days, producing more than two million jin of grain—about ten thousand jin per mu.
• Feng Xu organizes grain storage, drying, threshing, husking, winnowing, and milling. He invents additional tools, including rice hullers, winnowing machines, and stone mills.
• These agricultural and processing improvements grant Feng Xu substantial Merit, encouraging him to consider increasing the number of annual harvests. He ultimately decides that two crops per year are sufficient, provided the soil is allowed to rest.
• Excess grain is traded to neighboring tribes, strengthening the Wind-Fire Tribe’s influence and helping dependent communities survive.
• The Red Iron Tribe returns with food, pottery, and other supplies, while Iron Mountain takes responsibility for continued development and iron production.
• During Feng Xu’s seclusion, the tribe continues farming, building houses, educating children, and expanding its population. Feng Yuqi eventually stops forcing the children to study because their labor burden becomes too heavy.
• Before the autumn harvest, Feng Xu returns from a dangerous journey with five or six hundred new people from more than fifty tribes. They are welcomed with rice but soon put to work harvesting.
• The tribe’s population grows rapidly as many women give birth safely, and Feng Sui becomes increasingly pleased and welcoming toward the newcomers.
• After the autumn harvest, Feng Xu emerges from seclusion with new weapons and armor: leather and bone armor, spears, bone shields, and three powerful mounted crossbows.
• While inspecting his supplies, he discovers familiar vegetables—radishes and cabbage—and is surprised by their presence.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes more involved in practical administration and technological development. Although immensely powerful, he focuses on creating tools that can eventually be understood and reproduced by ordinary people rather than making the tribe permanently dependent on him.
• His agricultural success brings him considerable satisfaction, and he takes pride in the tribe’s abundance. His joking thoughts about exploiting the Merit system reveal both his practicality and his mischievous humor.
• Feng Sui grows into an effective leader and administrator. He manages the tribe during Feng Xu’s absence, welcomes newcomers warmly, oversees labor, and is delighted by the tribe’s population growth.
• Feng Yuqi shows concern for the children’s education but recognizes the physical demands placed on them and gives up her strict lessons when she realizes they are exhausted.
• Iron Mountain continues serving as a leader for the Red Iron Tribe and takes charge of returning supplies and revising iron production plans.
• The children and elders take on important responsibilities: children work, study, and assist with harvesting, while elders supervise fields, granaries, and childbirth.
• The newly arrived people are integrated into the tribe quickly, receiving food and shelter but also being expected to contribute labor.

Significant Themes

• Agricultural abundance and civilization: High-yield farming transforms the tribe’s survival prospects, allowing it to feed its population, support growth, and trade with others.
• Technology as a foundation for independence: Feng Xu’s tools improve productivity, but his simple designs reflect the belief that long-term development requires people to learn, imitate, and innovate for themselves.
• Labor and social development: Hard work is portrayed as necessary not only for survival but also for discovering problems and building a capable society.
• Trade and mutual dependence: Surplus grain gives the Wind-Fire Tribe economic and moral influence over surrounding tribes, linking prosperity with responsibility.
• Population growth and expansion: Food security enables migration, childbirth, and the rapid enlargement of the tribe.
• Balance between exploitation and sustainability: Feng Xu considers maximizing harvests for Merit but acknowledges the need to let farmland rest, showing tension between rapid growth and responsible resource management.
• Power and preparation: The newly forged armor and weapons indicate that prosperity must be accompanied by defense, especially as the tribe grows and attracts more people.

Character Interactions

• Feng Sui interrupts Feng Xu’s seclusion and persuades him to oversee the rice harvest.
• Feng Xu instructs the tribespeople in harvesting and assigns them to the new threshing machines.
• He advises Feng Sui and other leaders on crop rotation, storage, trade, and food processing.
• Feng Xu’s inventions reshape how the tribe works, while the tribespeople provide the labor needed to operate and maintain them.
• Feng Yuqi interacts with the children as both teacher and caretaker, eventually prioritizing their health over continued lessons.
• Feng Xu and Iron Mountain coordinate the exchange of food, pottery, and iron-related plans between the Wind-Fire and Red Iron Tribes.
• Feng Xu welcomes hundreds of newcomers indirectly through the tribe’s food and organization, while Feng Sui takes personal responsibility for treating them kindly and integrating them into the community.
• The chapter ends with Feng Xu confronting a mystery when he finds radishes and cabbage among the supplies, suggesting that someone else has introduced or cultivated crops familiar to him.

Chapter Summary: “Guests from All Sides”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xi returns from trading with western tribes, bringing cabbage, radishes, seeds, peaches, and pale-yellow salt ore. Feng Xu realizes the ore is valuable and decides to secure its source.
• Feng Xu and Feng Xi travel for fifteen days using the Heaven-Hanging Ruler and on foot to reach a poor northwestern tribe situated near a large underground salt mine.
• Feng Xu collects salt ore and trades more than ten thousand jin of rice to the tribe. Rather than absorbing the tribe outright, he establishes an annual exchange: the tribe will provide salt ore, while the Wind-Fire Tribe supplies grain.
• Feng Xu names the group the Stone Tribe, gives its chief the name Shi Zheng, and invites them to spend the winter with the Wind-Fire Tribe. Their people eventually join the migration back.
• Along the journey, Feng Xu invites hundreds of other starving or endangered people to join them, bringing the number of newcomers to over six hundred.
• The overcrowded Wind-Fire Tribe constructs temporary grass huts, wolfskin beds, stoves, and later snow walls to protect everyone from the severe winter winds.
• Shi Zheng, already near the Earth Immortal realm, enters the Blood Pool under Feng Xu’s guidance to break through.
• The Red Iron Tribe arrives with greatly improved farming tools and is sent to Wild Boar Ridge. The Lukun, Lin, and Marsh Tribes also bring more than six hundred people acquired through trade. Feng Xu directs these newcomers to the larger Wild Boar Ridge settlement.
• Feng Xu begins planning future expansion, including reclaiming more farmland, enlarging settlements, and finding ways to protect the growing population from powerful demons.
• In a separate scene, a mysterious young man easily kills a Late Earth Immortal Tiger Monster and notes that his “luck value” has increased. He credits an adviser called the “system” for helping him find people and opportunities.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes increasingly compassionate and community-minded. Although he initially considers using food to control or acquire the salt-producing tribe, he chooses a cooperative arrangement in accordance with the Great Wilderness Lord’s intentions.
• He also shifts from focusing primarily on personal cultivation and tribal development to taking responsibility for the survival and welfare of large numbers of ordinary people. His decision to shelter refugees and build snow walls demonstrates a growing sense of leadership.
• Feng Xi proves dependable as a trader and guide, successfully acquiring useful crops, seeds, peaches, and salt information. He also assists Feng Xu with travel, administration, and winter preparations.
• Shi Zheng is established as the leader of the new Stone Tribe and is revealed to possess considerable strength, being close to the Earth Immortal threshold. Feng Xu begins actively cultivating and integrating him into the wider community.
• The Red Iron Tribe shows major progress in producing agricultural tools, increasing output fourfold and improving craftsmanship.
• The unnamed young man is portrayed as extremely powerful and confident. His casual defeat of a Late Earth Immortal monster suggests that he may become an important figure or rival.

Significant Themes

• Cooperation over conquest: Feng Xu recognizes that mutually beneficial trade can support both the Wind-Fire Tribe and smaller tribes better than simply absorbing them.
• Food as power and security: Grain is treated as a form of currency and a means of protecting vulnerable communities from starvation and dangerous hunting.
• Humanitarian leadership: Feng Xu increasingly sees the survival of ordinary people as part of his responsibility, not merely a resource for tribal expansion.
• Growth and civilization: Salt refining, agriculture, farming tools, settlement expansion, and winter construction show the tribes gradually moving toward organized civilization.
• The burden of expansion: As the population grows, Feng Xu must confront practical problems such as overcrowding, shelter, farmland, administration, and protection from demons.
• Strength and hidden forces: The final scene introduces another powerful individual whose unexplained “system” and luck-based abilities hint at broader supernatural forces and future conflict.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu praises Feng Xi’s trading efforts but reacts strongly to the discovery of salt ore, immediately deciding to visit the mine.
• Feng Xu gives the salt-producing tribe food, explains how to consume rice, names their tribe and chief, and negotiates their future cooperation.
• He encourages Shi Zheng and the Stone Tribe to spend the winter with the Wind-Fire Tribe, placing the Stone Tribe in charge of temporary administration among the newcomers.
• Feng Xu works alongside Feng Xi and others to build snow walls, emphasizing shared responsibility during the harsh winter.
• Jiang Ze consults Feng Xu about the overcrowding caused by the tribes’ arrivals. Feng Xu responds by directing the newcomers to Wild Boar Ridge and assuring the other tribes that they will accept them.
• Feng Xu guides Shi Zheng’s cultivation in the Blood Pool and coordinates the Red Iron Tribe’s movement and work.
• The young man’s brief confrontation with the Tiger Monster highlights his overwhelming confidence and strength, while his reference to his system adviser introduces an unseen relationship that may influence future events.

Chapter Summary: “New Crisis”

Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu and four youths—Kunmu, Jiang Ming, Lin Feng, and Tie Zhao—hunt a wolf-headed, tiger-bodied Fierce Beast in the Great Wilderness.
• Feng Xu secretly uses his superior Dragon-Snake Bow and Mysterious Feather Arrows to shoot the beast before Lin Feng can, then tricks Lin Feng into accepting credit for the kill.
• He further manipates the situation by promising the youths drinks while avoiding the need to carry the prey home himself. Lin Feng proudly shows off the “hunting achievement” to workers in the rice fields.
• The group returns the prey to the tribe and then goes back to Bamboo Mountain Academy, where Feng Yuqi confronts the youths for skipping class.
• Lin Feng accidentally reveals that they intended to drink liquor, violating academy rules. Feng Yuqi scolds him and Feng Xu, especially because Feng Xu, as headmaster, encouraged the students to leave class.
• Feng Xu defends the outing as practical education, claiming the youths learned mounted archery.
• After the students’ punishment, Feng Yuqi reveals the real reason for her concern: several Middle Earth Immortal Demon Beasts have been found drained dry and covered in bite marks. The suspected swarm of venomous insects is moving toward their territory, creating a new and potentially serious crisis.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu is shown as clever, mischievous, and manipulative. He exploits his superior weapons and Bai Hao’s abilities to win the hunt while making Lin Feng willingly claim responsibility. As headmaster, however, he is irresponsible and struggles to set a proper example.
• Lin Feng is competitive, proud, and easily provoked. Though he is initially angry at Feng Xu for taking the kill, he accepts the false credit and eagerly boasts about it, revealing his desire for recognition.
• Jiang Ming demonstrates that he understands Feng Xu’s schemes and privately calls him “Headmaster,” suggesting he knows Feng Xu’s true role and enjoys observing his tricks.
• Bai Hao/Little White has grown into a powerful, intelligent beast with exceptional speed and endurance. He deliberately stayed behind Lin Feng during the hunt to help Feng Xu’s plan.
• Feng Yuqi acts as the academy’s strict and authoritative teacher, but her discipline comes from concern for the students and the school. She is especially critical of Feng Xu’s failure to behave responsibly as headmaster.
• The youths are shown as mischievous but cooperative, quickly agreeing to support Feng Xu’s fabricated story in exchange for the promise of liquor.

Significant Themes

• Practical education versus formal schooling: Feng Xu argues that students can learn through real-world experiences such as hunting and mounted archery, though the chapter questions whether his methods are genuinely educational or merely irresponsible.
• Deception and reputation: Feng Xu manipulates events so Lin Feng receives public credit while Feng Xu retains control over the actual outcome. Lin Feng’s eagerness to boast highlights how reputation can matter more than truth.
• Authority and responsibility: Feng Xu possesses institutional authority but does not always act like a responsible leader. Feng Yuqi emphasizes that teachers and headmasters must set examples for their students.
• Community and collective ownership: The prey belongs to the tribe and is distributed collectively, making personal credit largely symbolic. This undercuts Lin Feng’s boasting while showing the importance of communal structures.
• An approaching external threat: The mysterious deaths of powerful Demon Beasts introduce danger beyond the youths’ playful hunting adventures and signal a shift toward a larger conflict.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu repeatedly teases and outmaneuvers Lin Feng, turning their rivalry into a comic contest over the Fierce Beast and the promised liquor.
• Jiang Ming privately exposes Feng Xu’s plan and recognizes Bai Hao’s cooperation, showing his close understanding of Feng Xu’s schemes.
• Feng Xu and Bai Hao work together subtly, with Bai Hao intentionally allowing Feng Xu’s arrows to determine the outcome.
• Feng Yuqi reprimands both the students and Feng Xu, placing particular responsibility on him as headmaster.
• The playful dynamic among the youths contrasts with Feng Yuqi’s serious warning, marking the transition from youthful mischief to an impending crisis.

Chapter Summary: “Insect Swarm Descends”

Key Plot Points and Events

• While the tribe remains on high alert, Feng Xu plays Go with several youths at Bamboo Mountain Academy and reluctantly gives them a small taste of wine.
• He warns them to keep their doors and windows shut because the situation outside may be dangerous, but Lin Feng and the others initially dismiss the warning.
• During the night, Lin Feng notices what appears to be a dark cloud approaching. With his enhanced vision, he realizes it is actually a massive swarm of flying insects.
• Lin Feng and Kunmu rush to warn the other dormitories and close the windows. However, the swarm arrives before everyone can secure their rooms.
• Kunmu is attacked and drained by the insects. Lin Feng manages to pull him indoors, while the other youths kill the insects covering him.
• Feng Xu arrives later, orders Yuqi to inspect the dormitories, and carries the unconscious Kunmu to receive treatment in the Blood Pool.
• The swarm causes a devastating disaster across the tribe. Hundreds are injured, and more than three hundred people die, many from catastrophic loss of vital energy and blood.
• Investigators initially identify the insects as Black-Winged Poison Bees, but Feng Xu determines they are actually Flower Jade Bees mutated by Baleful Qi.
• Feng Xu concludes that the Baleful Qi caused the bees to feed on blood and vital energy. Because the contamination may spread through the dead and survivors, he orders all corpses burned and the injured isolated.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu remains playful and manipulative while playing Go, but quickly becomes serious and authoritative when danger emerges. His knowledge and ability to identify the insects establish him as a crucial leader and problem-solver.
• Lin Feng shifts from careless bravado to courage and responsibility. Though he initially ignores Feng Xu’s warning, he is the first to recognize the approaching swarm and risks himself to save Kunmu and alert others.
• Kunmu demonstrates bravery by helping warn nearby dormitories, but is severely injured after being exposed to the insects. His survival is uncertain, leaving him in critical condition.
• Jiang Ming, Tie Zhao, and the other youths cooperate during the attack, driving the insects off Kunmu despite the pain and danger.
• Feng Yuqi and Feng Chi assist with organizing the response and investigating the swarm, showing the tribe’s growing reliance on coordinated leadership.
• The tribe as a whole is forced to confront the consequences of ignoring warnings and underestimating the dangers of the Great Wilderness.

Significant Themes

• The danger of complacency: The youths treat the safety rules casually, and their delay in securing the windows contributes to Kunmu’s injury.
• Nature altered by corruption: Baleful Qi transforms ordinary Flower Jade Bees into creatures capable of draining blood and vital energy, suggesting that the environment is becoming increasingly unstable.
• Leadership and crisis response: Feng Xu’s warnings, investigation, medical decisions, and orders to burn the bodies and isolate survivors show the necessity of disciplined leadership.
• The fragility of life: The enormous death toll and Kunmu’s near-fatal condition emphasize how vulnerable the tribe remains despite its defenses.
• Knowledge versus assumption: The patrols misidentify the insects, while Feng Xu uses careful observation and specialized knowledge to uncover their true nature.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu spars playfully with the youths during the Go game, teasing them about their obsession with wine.
• Lin Feng attempts to persuade Feng Xu to share more wine, revealing his youthful impulsiveness.
• Lin Feng and Kunmu work together to identify the swarm and warn the other students.
• Lin Feng rescues Kunmu, while Jiang Ming and the others help seal the room and remove the insects from Kunmu’s body.
• Feng Xu takes responsibility for Kunmu’s treatment and directs Yuqi and the tribe’s leaders during the aftermath.
• Feng Xu corrects Feng Chi and Feng Yuqi’s assumptions about the bees, explaining the role of Baleful Qi and imposing strict emergency measures.

Chapter Summary: “Nine-Turn Origin Art”

Key plot points and events

• After the stronghold is attacked, the injured remain at the old site while the uninjured relocate temporarily to Vermilion Ridge. Feng Xu visits Kunmu, the most seriously wounded survivor, whose body is saturated with dangerous Baleful Qi.
• With ordinary methods unable to remove the Qi, Feng Xu risks cultivating the Nine-Turn Origin Art—a Witch technique that uses Baleful Qi to strengthen the body. He draws some of Kunmu’s Qi into himself, easing Kunmu’s condition, then inscribes the technique on Kunmu as a Battle Mark so it can work gradually.
• Feng Xu absorbs Baleful Qi from other injured tribespeople and from the burned corpses. The accumulated Qi clashes with his mana and destabilizes him, especially because he has merged only half his Primordial Spirit into his body.
• He suppresses the immediate crisis with a spirit-cleansing incantation, then retreats to the Earth-Vein Spirit Pool. He restores his Primordial Spirit, uses Merit to contain the Qi in a Baleful Core, and applies Taishang’s principles through Taiji Fist to balance it against his mana.
• The process lets Feng Xu break through to Late Earth Immortal, but the core remains a long-term danger. He lacks the Merit to buy the World-Cleansing White Lotus, the one known method capable of gradually purifying Baleful Qi.
• On returning to the warehouse, Feng Xu learns that the Poison Bees responsible for the attack have settled nearby and are appearing almost daily, terrifying the tribe. Feng Sui is waiting for him at the stronghold tower.

Character developments

• Feng Xu takes responsibility for the survivors by experimenting on himself rather than leaving their Baleful Qi untreated. His success brings a cultivation breakthrough, but also leaves him managing a potentially volatile internal threat.
• Kunmu remains gravely weakened and unconscious, though Feng Xu’s intervention relieves some of his suffering. The Battle Mark gives him a slow means of coping, but he must guard his mind as the Qi could eventually affect his sanity.
• The tribe remains shaken and vulnerable: the injured face lingering effects, while the Poison Bees continue to threaten everyone’s safety.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and responsibility: Feng Xu accepts serious personal risk to protect the tribe.
• Power with a cost: The Nine-Turn Origin Art can turn destructive Qi into strength, but it may damage the cultivator’s foundation or mind.
• Balancing opposing forces: Feng Xu’s solution depends not on eliminating Baleful Qi, but on containing and harmonizing it with mana.
• Temporary victories and unresolved dangers: Kunmu is stabilized and Feng Xu advances, yet both the Baleful Core and the Poison Bees remain threats.

Character interactions

• Feng Xu carefully draws Baleful Qi from Kunmu and leaves him with a Battle Mark, warning that he must stay calm and guard his nature.
• Feng Xu checks in with warehouse manager Feng Zheng, who directs him to Feng Sui after reporting the Poison Bees’ continued presence and the tribe’s growing panic.

Chapter Summary: “The Strange Baleful Qi”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu and Bai Hao investigate a growing plague of dried animal corpses near Vermilion Ridge. Feng Xu decides to locate the source before attempting to remove the Baleful Qi contaminating the remains.
• They discover a massive colony of bloodsucking Poison Bees covering a cliff more than a thousand zhang high and stretching for twenty li. The swarm has already consumed countless animals and threatens the survival of the entire Eastern Great Wilderness.
• Feng Xu reports the discovery to Feng Sui, who brings several warriors to inspect the hive. Horrified by the scale of the swarm, the warriors agree to help nearby tribes while Feng Xu remains behind to study the bees.
• Over three days, Feng Xu observes the colony and identifies dozens of smaller swarms, numerous queens, workers, and drones. The bees reproduce and work continuously, with even queens dying from exhaustion.
• Feng discovers that the bees’ attacks transmit Baleful Qi, which grows by absorbing the victim’s aura and vitality. More disturbingly, the Baleful Qi appears to function as a collective intelligence, controlling the entire swarm and driving it to reproduce and feed without rest.
• Feng decides to leave after realizing how abnormal and dangerous the intelligent Baleful Qi is. Before he can escape, he finds Lin Feng sneaking toward the hive.
• Lin Feng accidentally alerts the swarm. Feng Xu, Lin Feng, and Bai Hao flee, eventually escaping by diving into a deep pool. They later discover that the pool leads to a hidden cave residence.
• Inside the cave, Feng Xu finds another connected pool and appears to form a plan. He teasingly challenges Lin Feng to “play big,” suggesting they may attempt something risky against the swarm.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates courage, physical confidence, and strategic patience. Rather than attacking blindly, he studies the swarm’s structure and behavior for several days. His investigation reveals his growing understanding of Baleful Qi and his willingness to confront highly dangerous phenomena.
• Bai Hao is openly terrified by the enormous swarm, though Feng Xu’s teasing initially dismisses his fear. His caution is ultimately justified, and he proves useful during their escape by carrying both men to safety.
• Feng Sui acts responsibly and protectively. He recognizes the danger and initially refuses to leave Feng Xu alone, but eventually respects Feng Xu’s judgment and assigns the others to aid surrounding tribes.
• Lin Feng is reckless and impulsive, leaving school to investigate the swarm because he is worried about Feng Xu. Though inexperienced, he helps during the escape and shows courage after realizing the danger. His banter with Feng Xu suggests a familiar, younger-brother-like relationship.

Significant Themes

• The danger of uncontrolled reproduction and consumption: The swarm’s endless expansion threatens to strip the wilderness of all life.
• Intelligence within corruption: The Baleful Qi is no longer merely a destructive force attached to living beings; it may possess collective intelligence and use the bees as puppets.
• Courage versus prudence: Feng Xu’s bravery is balanced by Bai Hao’s fear and caution, emphasizing that recognizing danger is not necessarily cowardice.
• Cooperation and responsibility: The crisis affects more than Vermilion Ridge, requiring Feng Sui and the warriors to protect neighboring tribes rather than focus solely on themselves.
• Curiosity and recklessness: Lin Feng’s concern for Feng Xu leads him into serious danger, highlighting the risks of acting without understanding the situation.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu repeatedly teases Bai Hao for being frightened, but Bai Hao’s fear is validated when the full danger of the swarm becomes clear.
• Feng Xu and Feng Sui disagree over whether Feng Xu should investigate alone; their exchange shows mutual concern and respect.
• Feng Xu restrains Lin Feng when he nearly exposes them, then criticizes him for coming to such a dangerous place. Lin Feng responds defensively that they are nearly the same age.
• During the escape, the three cooperate closely: Feng Xu carries Lin Feng, Bai Hao flees with them, and Lin Feng eventually pulls Feng Xu onto Bai Hao’s back.
• The chapter ends with Feng Xu proposing a dangerous plan to Lin Feng, setting up a likely attempt to exploit the hidden cave and the connected pools against the Poison Bees.

Chapter Summary: “Destroying the Insects”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Lin Feng, Feng Xu, Feng Xi, and their allies devise a plan to eliminate the Poison Bee swarm without simply burning its hive and driving the insects away.
• Feng Xu digs five sets of connected pits, each with an underground chamber and separate exits. Firewood is placed inside, and the traps are spaced far enough apart to prevent the swarms from aiding one another.
• Feng Xu attracts a swarm by firing a flaming arrow at the hive, then leads the pursuing bees into one of the pits. After escaping through an underground water route, he ignites the firewood and blocks the entrance.
• The Poison Bees are unable to escape the smoke and flames. Many burn to death or suffocate, proving that the strategy is effective.
• Over six days, the group constructs more than a dozen additional pits and destroys over half the swarm, including many queens. The method succeeds because the Baleful Qi makes the bees increasingly aggressive and instinctive, causing them to pursue bait even when it leads into traps.
• When the remaining bees recognize the danger and attempt to flee, Feng Xu uses the Heaven-Hanging Ruler to trap them in a golden net. He then absorbs the Baleful Qi from the swarm using his Devouring technique.
• Stripped of the Baleful Qi, the Poison Bees revert to Flower Jade Bees. Most die from the process, but a small number survive in weakened condition. Feng Xu stores them and their hive in a snakeskin sack, intending to raise them for honey.
• Feng Xu’s Baleful Core reaches the sixth level of condensation. Repeated refinement has made it extraordinarily pure, allowing him to faintly sense the Destruction Law. However, further compression is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous.
• The group plans a broader joint purge of nearby creatures contaminated by Baleful Qi. Feng Xi, Lin Feng, and others divide up to contact neighboring tribes and coordinate the operation.
• After Feng Xu reports to Vermilion Ridge, the fortress receives alarming news: Baleful Qi-infected beasts are moving toward the settlement in large numbers. Despite severe injuries and broken limbs, they advance like an organized horde of zombies.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates ingenuity, tactical skill, and courage by personally testing the trap and leading the Poison Bees into it. His ability to absorb and refine Baleful Qi continues to grow, though it also brings greater physical danger.
• Feng Xu begins considering whether to preserve his Baleful Core and cultivate the Destruction Law, suggesting a possible change in his future cultivation path.
• He also shows a practical and constructive attitude by choosing to raise the surviving Flower Jade Bees rather than destroy them, turning a dangerous resource into a potential source of honey.
• Feng Xi acts as a cautious leader and organizer. He supports the extermination plan, insists that the broader purge target only Baleful Qi-contaminated creatures, and forbids unnecessary hunting.
• Lin Feng contributes to the group’s strategy and supports involving multiple tribes, while also recognizing that cooperation could reduce his own obligations.
• Feng Sui expresses concern over Feng Xu’s dangerous absorption technique, revealing trust mixed with genuine worry for Feng Xu’s safety.
• Feng Chi serves as a reliable messenger and coordinator, first contacting the Marsh Tribe and later reporting the approaching beast horde.

Significant Themes

• Ingenuity over brute force: The Poison Bee crisis is solved through planning, bait, traps, fire, and smoke rather than direct combat.
• The dangers of unchecked instinct: The Baleful Qi strips the bees and beasts of rational behavior, driving them into destructive cycles of aggression and reproduction.
• Transformation and purification: Once the Baleful Qi is removed, the Poison Bees revert to their original Flower Jade Bee form, suggesting that corruption can obscure an entity’s true nature.
• Power and risk: Feng Xu’s Baleful Core becomes increasingly refined and powerful, but continued absorption threatens to overwhelm him if he exceeds his limits.
• Responsible use of nature: The characters distinguish between eliminating corrupted creatures and indiscriminately destroying wildlife. They seek to restore balance rather than exploit the crisis for hunting.
• Escalating danger: The successful extermination of the bee swarm does not end the larger crisis. The approaching horde of contaminated beasts indicates that the threat is spreading or converging on Vermilion Ridge.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu explains the trap’s logic to Feng Xi, who questions whether the plan will work and later helps assess its success.
• Feng Xu and the others cooperate closely in baiting, trapping, burning, and sealing the bee swarms.
• Feng Xi and Lin Feng help coordinate the response among the surrounding tribes, while Feng Xu focuses on removing the Baleful Qi.
• At Vermilion Ridge, Feng Sui questions Feng Xu about the surviving bees and worries that absorbing Baleful Qi may harm him. Feng Xu reassures him that he understands his limits.
• The group’s strategic discussion is abruptly interrupted by Feng Chi’s warning that a massive horde of corrupted beasts is approaching, shifting the chapter from victory over the bees to a new emergency.