Chapter Summaries

Plot points and events

• Baleful Qi draws large numbers of fierce beasts to Vermilion Ridge and the Wind-Fire Ruins. The warriors defend both locations, but the ruins face a more dangerous attack and have fewer defenses.
• Feng Xu leaves the defense line to confront two powerful, corrupted beasts: a giant python and a Giant Ape. He drains Baleful Qi from the python, but the Ape ambushes him and pounds him into a crater.
• Feng Xu grows to the Ape’s size and fights it in a brutal exchange of blows. The python suddenly coils around him, but the Ape frees him and resumes their one-on-one fight. Feng Xu wins by kicking the Ape in the groin, then removes its remaining Baleful Qi. He kills the fleeing python and keeps its skin.
• The nearby warriors clear the battlefield and burn the beasts’ bodies to prevent contact with the Baleful Qi. Over the next three days, Feng Xu absorbs the residue, though it adds little to his Baleful Core.
• Feng Chi brings Feng Sui’s orders: in two days, the Wind-Fire Tribe will join over a hundred tribes in an encirclement aimed at trapping every Baleful-Qi-tainted beast while sparing other beasts when safe.
• Lin Feng arrives riding a Giant Eagle and proudly shows it off. Feng Xu reminds him that the Eagle is a partner, not a servant.

Character developments and interactions

• Feng Xu demonstrates formidable strength and resourcefulness, but also a willingness to endure punishment to train his body and will. He thinks through the Giant Ape’s contradictory behavior—first ambushing him, then rescuing him—and ultimately uses an unfair tactic to win. Afterward, he reflects humorously on the danger of a similar blow being used against him.
• The Giant Ape becomes more agile as Feng Xu drains its Baleful Qi, suggesting its mind and pain sensitivity are returning. It helps Feng Xu against the python, then treats the fight as a fair contest. Once cleansed, it leaves in pain rather than continuing to fight.
• Feng He oversees the defense and cleanup, while Feng Chi relays the next campaign’s orders. Feng Xu trusts Feng He with the preparations and plans to support the operation by absorbing Baleful Qi.
• Lin Feng is excited about his new mount, but Feng Xu corrects his assumption of ownership, emphasizing respect and partnership with the Eagle.

Significant themes

• Baleful Qi as corruption: It overwhelms beasts’ minds and dulls their ability to feel pain, but removing it can restore some of their natural awareness.
• Strength through hardship: Feng Xu treats the punishing fight as a way to temper his body and will.
• Fairness versus survival: The Ape appears to value a direct fight, while Feng Xu chooses an opportunistic, decidedly unfair move.
• Respectful partnership: Feng Xu’s rebuke of Lin Feng frames the Giant Eagle as an ally rather than property.

Chapter Summary: “Central Wilderness Envoy”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Over the past decade, the Wind-Fire Tribe has transformed the eastern fringe of the Great Wilderness through organized land clearing, farming, and trade. Rising grain production has fed nearby tribes, strengthened cooperation, and contributed to rapid population growth.
• More than a hundred tribes unite to encircle and exterminate demon beasts corrupted by Baleful Qi. The Giant Eagle clan provides aerial reconnaissance, while Feng Xu travels through the battlefield, supporting the warriors and absorbing Baleful Qi from slain beasts with the Heaven-Hanging Ruler.
• During the campaign, Feng Xu encounters Qu Shan, an envoy sent by the lord of the Great Wilderness to inspect the eastern tribes. Qu Shan approaches unnoticed, revealing himself to be a powerful Late Heavenly Immortal.
• Feng Xu explains his method of sealing and absorbing Baleful Qi, though he admits he has no way to eliminate the danger it creates inside his body. Qu Shan recognizes the potential value of such a technique but understands that it remains incomplete.
• The leaders of the surrounding tribes arrive, and Feng Xu reveals the Bloodline Secret Art, specifically the Blood Pool method that has helped them overcome cultivation bottlenecks. Qu Shan is particularly interested because the technique might theoretically help a True Immortal break through, though it requires powerful beast or Demon Race bloodlines.
• Qu Shan assists with the extermination campaign, greatly increasing its efficiency. Once the operation ends, Feng Xu’s internal Baleful Core has grown to roughly the size of a soybean.
• Impressed by the tribes’ development and military strength, Qu Shan agrees to visit the Wind-Fire Tribe. Feng Xu suspects that the envoy may be assessing whether the region should pay tribute, but remains polite and welcoming.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu continues to demonstrate leadership, caution, and generosity. He personally supports the battlefield effort, protects Bai Hao, speaks openly with Qu Shan, and shares the Bloodline Secret Art despite its potential importance.
• Feng Xu’s ability to absorb Baleful Qi has advanced, but the growing Baleful Core emphasizes the danger and unresolved cost of his technique.
• Bai Hao is shown as powerful but exhausted and somewhat lazy, complaining about continuing the mission before nevertheless remaining close to Feng Xu.
• Qu Shan emerges as a perceptive and powerful envoy. He is impressed by Feng Xu’s youth, cultivation, intelligence, fluency, and the sophistication of the eastern tribes.
• Feng Sui and the other tribal leaders have grown substantially stronger and more capable since leaving the central regions. Their development reflects the broader progress of the tribes under Feng Xu’s influence.
• The eastern tribes have evolved from scattered, impoverished groups into a coordinated regional society with large populations, agriculture, trade, writing, cultivation methods, and organized military cooperation.

Significant Themes

• Civilization through cooperation: Farming, trade, mutual defense, and shared knowledge allow formerly isolated tribes to prosper together.
• The rise of the eastern tribes: Their population, military strength, and social development now rival those of major central powers, suggesting a shift in regional influence.
• Knowledge as a force for advancement: Feng Xu’s agricultural methods, writing system, Baleful Qi technique, and Bloodline Secret Art drive collective progress.
• The risks of power: Feng Xu’s ability to absorb Baleful Qi is valuable but dangerous, and his growing Baleful Core foreshadows possible future consequences.
• Recognition and political scrutiny: Qu Shan’s arrival marks the moment when the eastern tribes’ success begins attracting attention from higher authorities, potentially bringing both opportunities and obligations.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Bai Hao share a familiar, trusting relationship, with Feng Xu caring for Bai Hao even when the latter complains.
• Feng Xu cautiously tests Qu Shan before accepting him, while Qu Shan observes Feng Xu closely and becomes increasingly impressed by him.
• Feng Xu respectfully explains his techniques to Qu Shan, establishing a relationship based on openness but also revealing the envoy’s interest in the tribes’ unusual progress.
• The tribal leaders initially hesitate to discuss their breakthroughs, but Feng Xu takes responsibility and explains the Bloodline Secret Art.
• Qu Shan’s assistance earns him the leaders’ appreciation, while Feng Xu’s final invitation to the Wind-Fire Tribe creates a more personal and politically significant connection between the envoy and the emerging regional power.

Chapter Summary: Visiting the Wind-Fire Tribe

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qu Shan and several leaders visit the Wind-Fire Tribe’s Blood Pool and later tour Vermilion Ridge, the tribe’s central settlement.
• The visitors compare the tribe’s sturdy, well-built houses with the poorer housing of the Central Wilderness Tribe. Feng Sui offers to send construction experts to help improve the Central Wilderness Tribe’s living conditions.
• Qu Shan examines the Blood Pool, which can support ten people breaking through simultaneously. Though it has little effect on him personally, he recognizes its enormous value for strengthening ordinary members of the Human Race.
• Feng Xu suggests that the Central Wilderness Tribe could construct even more powerful Blood Pools using its superior resources. Qu Shan agrees to allow selected members of the Wind-Fire Tribe to cultivate in one.
• At Vermilion Ridge, Qu Shan is astonished by the tribe’s organized society, including residential districts, workshops, warehouses, patrol facilities, an academy, communal kitchens, bathhouses, dining halls, and sanitation systems. He views the settlement as nearly comparable to an immortal paradise.
• During a meal, Qu Shan discovers that the tribe has hot, highly refined food and rice. He learns that fire was introduced to the Central Wilderness Tribe by a talented young man from the Northern Great Wilderness.
• Qu Shan praises this young man as brave, hardworking, protective of the weak, and already an early Heavenly Immortal. Feng Xu suspects he may be another extraordinary or possibly transmigrated figure.
• The Wind-Fire Tribe and Central Wilderness Tribe negotiate a trade: grain in exchange for powerful demon-beast bloodlines or corpses. They settle on one hundred thousand jin of grain for an intact early Heavenly Immortal demon corpse, with higher-level corpses increasing in value.
• Qu Shan orders three million jin of grain and inspects the granaries. He is shocked by the Wind-Fire Tribe’s immense reserves, though Feng Xu conceals that their true stores contain roughly ten million jin, with another twenty million expected after the coming harvest.

Character Development

• Qu Shan becomes increasingly impressed by the Wind-Fire Tribe’s development. His initial view of it as a minor tribe changes as he sees its advanced infrastructure, food production, organization, and cultivation methods.
• Feng Xu continues to act as the tribe’s clever negotiator. He carefully reveals information, uses the tribe’s resources to secure powerful bloodlines, and hides the full extent of their grain reserves to maintain an advantage.
• Feng Sui is shown as generous, straightforward, and hospitable. He focuses on cooperation, freely offers construction assistance, and welcomes Qu Shan with food and respect.
• The unnamed young man from the Central Wilderness Tribe is established as an important off-screen figure: talented, virtuous, courageous, and exceptionally powerful for his age.

Significant Themes

• Civilization and progress: The Wind-Fire Tribe’s housing, sanitation, agriculture, cooking, and social organization demonstrate how rapidly a tribe can advance through knowledge and planning.
• Strength through cooperation: The chapter emphasizes alliances between tribes, including sharing construction techniques, Blood Pool cultivation, food, and powerful bloodlines.
• Resource management and strategic secrecy: Feng Xu’s negotiations show that abundant resources can become diplomatic and strategic tools, but only if their true scale is kept hidden.
• The Human Race’s vulnerability: Despite the tribe’s achievements, humans remain weak compared with other Primordial World races. Greater cultivation strength is necessary to overcome fear and survive.
• Contrasting personalities: Feng Sui’s honesty and openness complement Feng Xu’s caution and scheming, creating an effective leadership partnership.
• Merit and historical destiny: Feng Xu is frustrated that another person discovered the use of fire first, suggesting that achievements and “Merit” have major significance in the world’s larger historical and supernatural order.

Important Character Interactions

• Feng Sui and Feng Xu jointly persuade Qu Shan to support Blood Pool construction and future cooperation.
• Qu Shan warmly praises the unnamed fire-inventing youth, while Feng Xu questions his origins and accomplishments.
• Feng Sui’s generous hospitality leads naturally into a grain request from Qu Shan.
• Feng Xu turns the grain request into a mutually beneficial trade for powerful demon bloodlines.
• Qu Shan’s inspection of the granaries reveals the tribe’s apparent abundance, though Feng Xu carefully prevents him from discovering the full extent of its reserves.

Chapter Summary: “Trade”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qu Shan worries whether Wind-Fire Tribe can supply Great Wilderness Tribe with grain within the needed timeframe. Feng Xu reassures him that the other tribes have reserves and that the new harvest will be ready when Great Wilderness is prepared to trade.
• Qu Shan asks to see Wind-Fire Tribe’s grain-producing region, but Feng Xu deliberately postpones the visit to prevent him from learning the tribe’s true agricultural output and driving down prices.
• Feng Xu instead brings Qu Shan to the Training Camp, where Feng Xi drills more than a hundred Early Earth Immortal patrol warriors in disciplined formations.
• Qu Shan recognizes that Wind-Fire Tribe’s organized military training resembles the ideas of a mysterious “genius youth,” who introduced the concepts of soldiers and armies. Feng Xu becomes suspicious that this youth may be another transmigrator but conceals his knowledge.
• At the Armory, Qu Shan is impressed by Wind-Fire Tribe’s standardized weapons and discovers more than twenty complete sets of Dharma Artifacts usable in both Giant Transformation and normal form.
• Qu Shan assumes Wind-Fire Tribe has a powerful artifact refiner and tries to recruit or meet him. Feng Xu evasively claims the refiner is away trading, hiding the fact that Feng Xu himself is likely responsible.
• Feng Xu negotiates a trade: Wind-Fire Tribe will provide three sets of Dharma Artifact equipment in exchange for two Mid Heavenly Immortal demon corpses, after rejecting Qu Shan’s initial offer of one Early Heavenly Immortal corpse per set.
• The group tours Wind-Fire Tribe’s handicraft district, including bamboo weaving, pottery, brickmaking, blacksmithing, sewing, and other workshops. Qu Shan is fascinated, though most products are already fully ordered; only some pottery and bamboo goods can be arranged for delivery with the grain.
• That night, Qu Shan and the visiting chiefs are unable to sleep after realizing how far Wind-Fire Tribe has surpassed their tribes in strength, organization, production, and technology.
• Qu Shan secretly visits Feng Sui, apparently seeking a more candid discussion with the tribe’s honest chief. By dawn, he is waiting to speak with Feng Xu about the next day’s itinerary.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates strategic caution, commercial skill, and political maturity. He carefully controls what Qu Shan sees, conceals the tribe’s true resources, and negotiates favorable terms for artifact production.
• Qu Shan shifts from a confident inspector and potential buyer to an increasingly astonished and cautious observer. He recognizes Wind-Fire Tribe’s extraordinary military and industrial capabilities and begins considering how other tribes should respond.
• Feng Xi is shown as a capable military trainer, directing highly disciplined troops.
• Feng Sui appears as an important and trusted chief, particularly in approving the artifact trade. His straightforward nature also makes him someone Qu Shan believes he can approach honestly.
• Wind-Fire Tribe’s warriors reveal the effects of the Battle Mark and Blood Pool: Feng Xu has reached Late Earth Immortal, while the other leading chiefs have also advanced significantly.

Significant Themes

• Secrecy and strategic deception: Feng Xu withholds information about the tribe’s grain production, artifact refiner, and overall capabilities to prevent exploitation.
• Rapid advancement and inequality: In only ten years, Wind-Fire Tribe has grown vastly stronger than neighboring tribes, creating anxiety about future power imbalances.
• Organization versus individual strength: The disciplined troops reflect the emerging idea that coordinated armies can outperform loosely organized warriors, even in a world that prioritizes personal cultivation.
• Trade as diplomacy and power: Grain, tools, handicrafts, and Dharma Artifacts allow Wind-Fire Tribe to build influence while securing scarce resources such as powerful demon corpses.
• Industrial and technological development: The tribe’s workshops, standardized equipment, and production systems distinguish it from traditional tribal societies.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu politely manages Qu Shan’s expectations while repeatedly redirecting his questions and controlling the tour.
• Qu Shan praises Feng Xu but also notices that the young chief is stronger than Wind-Fire Tribe’s official chief, deepening his suspicion.
• Qu Shan and Feng Xu negotiate directly over Dharma Artifacts, with Feng Xu skillfully challenging the initial offer and securing better compensation.
• Qu Shan questions Feng Sui about the hidden artifact refiner after Feng Xu interrupts the conversation.
• The visiting chiefs privately confront the implications of Wind-Fire Tribe’s superiority, while Qu Shan seeks out Feng Sui for a more direct and possibly confidential conversation.

Summary of “A Visit to Bamboo Mountain”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qu Shan, an envoy from the Central Wilderness Tribe and a Late Heavenly Immortal, visits Bamboo Mountain Academy with Feng Xu and the leaders of the major tribes.
• He is impressed by the academy’s simple brick-and-tile architecture, orderly classrooms, and students’ disciplined reading.
• Vice Principal Feng Yuqi explains that the academy trains literate, morally qualified administrators for the tribe. Students who graduate are guaranteed employment, and children from neighboring tribes also attend.
• Qu Shan studies the academy’s textbooks and quickly learns the basic thousand characters under Feng Xu’s guidance. He becomes deeply moved by the importance of writing for preserving and transmitting knowledge.
• Feng Yuqi reveals that the academy’s principal created the writing system and teaching materials, but the principal is away recruiting new students.
• That night, Qu Shan privately meets Feng Xu on the roof of the teaching building. He explains the hidden reasons behind the Great Wilderness leader’s earlier order to scatter the Human Race.
• Qu Shan reveals that increasing conflicts with the Demon Race and the appearance of unusually vicious, Baleful Qi-infused Demon Beasts have prompted him to investigate the spread of Baleful Demons.
• Feng Xu tells him about the swarm of Baleful bees and how it was defeated. Impressed, Qu Shan invites Feng Xu to join him in the Central Wilderness Tribe, where war is approaching.

Character Developments

• Qu Shan: Initially curious about the academy, he becomes fascinated by written language after learning it himself. His admiration for the academy and its creator grows, and he begins to recognize Feng Xu as an unusually capable and important figure. His investigation also reveals him to be thoughtful, politically aware, and concerned with the survival of the Human Race.
• Feng Xu: Demonstrates both intellectual ability and political caution. He teaches Qu Shan to read, gives a measured critique of the relocation order, and shares valuable information about the Baleful Demons. His successful handling of the bee swarm establishes him as someone capable of contributing on a larger stage.
• Feng Yuqi: Appears as a competent administrator and educator. She manages the academy efficiently, guides the visitors, protects the students from disrupting Feng Xu and Qu Shan, and understands Feng Xu’s unspoken instructions.
• The academy’s principal: Though absent, becomes an important indirect presence. His creation of the writing system and educational materials establishes him as a visionary figure invested in long-term cultural development.
• The tribal chiefs and students: The chiefs show respect toward Qu Shan, while the students represent the growing educational foundation of the Human Race.

Significant Themes

• The power of education and writing: Writing is presented as essential to preserving knowledge, organizing society, and ensuring the future inheritance of civilization.
• Long-term cultural development: Bamboo Mountain Academy is not merely a school; it is training administrators and building the institutional foundations of a stronger tribe.
• Centralization versus dispersal: Feng Xu and Qu Shan debate whether the Human Race should concentrate its population for protection and development or scatter to preserve survivors. The conversation reveals that the relocation policy was partly intended to reduce internal conflict.
• Political complexity and hidden motives: Public explanations for major decisions often conceal deeper strategic purposes. Qu Shan’s revelation forces Feng Xu to reconsider the relocation order.
• The growing threat of the Demon Race: The spread of Baleful Demons signals a worsening crisis and foreshadows war in the central region.
• Talent and responsibility: Feng Xu’s abilities are recognized as valuable beyond his borderland tribe, raising the question of whether capable individuals should remain in their local communities or serve the wider Human Race.

Important Character Interactions

• Qu Shan and Feng Yuqi: She introduces him to the academy’s educational system and teaches him his first characters, sparking his intense interest in writing.
• Qu Shan and Feng Xu: Feng Xu becomes Qu Shan’s teacher during the day and later his trusted conversational partner. Their nighttime discussion moves from political caution to frank strategic analysis.
• Feng Yuqi and the tribal leaders: She guides them through the academy and asks about the progress of students from their respective tribes.
• Qu Shan and Feng Xu regarding the relocation order: Qu Shan presses Feng Xu for his personal opinion, while Feng Xu carefully balances honesty with political prudence. Their exchange reveals both men’s understanding of leadership and human survival.
• Qu Shan’s recruitment of Feng Xu: After learning of Feng Xu’s success against the Baleful Demons, Qu Shan invites him to join the coming war in the Central Wilderness Tribe, creating a major decision for Feng Xu.

Chapter Summary: “Invited to the Central Wilderness”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Qu Shan, a powerful lord from the Central Wilderness Tribe, invites Feng Xu to join his tribe, praising Feng Xu’s intelligence and crediting him for the Wind-Fire Tribe’s rapid development.
• Feng Xu repeatedly declines to commit because he feels indebted to the Wind-Fire Tribe and believes he still has important work to complete there. Qu Shan reveals that Chief Feng Sui has already agreed to let him go and asks him to consider traveling with the next Central Wilderness trade delegation.
• After Qu Shan leaves, Feng Sui urges Feng Xu to accept the opportunity, arguing that serving the Central Wilderness Tribe could benefit the entire human race.
• Feng Xu explains that success depends on mutual trust. In the Wind-Fire Tribe, he and Feng Sui have complete confidence in each other, but he doubts whether the powerful factions of the Central Wilderness would trust him in the same way.
• Feng Sui encourages him to try the Central Wilderness temporarily and return if necessary. Feng Xu begins seriously weighing the opportunity, considering both the chance to earn Merit and the dangers posed by complicated politics and powerful demon races.
• Feng Xu questions Bai Hao about the Heavenly Wolf Demon Race and the Sky Wolf Demon King. Bai Hao recalls that the Wolf King once looked at him with predatory hunger, possibly revealing the nature of a Baleful Demon. Frightened by the memory, Bai Hao refuses to accompany Feng Xu to the central region.
• Feng Xu ultimately decides to make the journey, partly to gain Merit and investigate the situation in the Great Wilderness. Before leaving, he begins arranging the Wind-Fire Tribe’s future development.
• He plans to establish formal rules and expand the academy’s curriculum. New subjects will include artifact refining, herbal medicine, and etiquette.
• Artifact refining and herbal medicine will be electives, while etiquette will be compulsory. Feng Xu also compiles teaching materials, including a practical medical text based on medicinal herbs and yin-yang and five-element theory, as well as a simplified code of conduct inspired by the Book of Rites.
• He gives the materials to Feng Yuqi for copying and distribution, intending to spread knowledge throughout the tribe and eventually establish governance through ritual before introducing formal law.
• At the chapter’s end, Feng Sui brings Feng Xu to a serious meeting with several chiefs and reveals that the four major tribes want to merge with the Wind-Fire Tribe. He asks Feng Xu for his opinion.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Demonstrates humility, loyalty, foresight, and increasing political awareness. Though tempted by the Central Wilderness’s greater opportunities, he refuses to abandon the tribe that supported him. His decision to organize education, medicine, technology, and social rules shows his transformation from an individual contributor into a long-term institution builder and potential leader of the wider human race.
• Feng Sui: Shows strong trust in Feng Xu and places the tribe’s broader interests above personal attachment. Rather than preventing Feng Xu from leaving, he encourages him to serve the larger human population, revealing growing maturity and strategic thinking.
• Bai Hao: His fear of the Heavenly Wolf Demon Race and the Wolf King becomes clearer. His memories suggest the Wolf King may be more dangerous or abnormal than an ordinary demon king, deepening the threat surrounding the central region.
• Qu Shan: Recognizes Feng Xu’s extraordinary potential despite disliking his evasive and slippery manner. He appears willing to wait patiently, believing Feng Xu may transform the entire human race.

Significant Themes

• Loyalty versus ambition: Feng Xu must choose between remaining with the tribe that raised him and pursuing greater influence in the Central Wilderness.
• Trust as the foundation of leadership: Feng Xu believes major achievements require complete mutual trust between ruler and subject, something he currently shares with Feng Sui but may not find elsewhere.
• Individual talent serving the collective: The chapter emphasizes that Feng Xu’s abilities should benefit not only one tribe but the whole human race.
• Institution-building and civilization: Education, written knowledge, medicine, technology, etiquette, and law are presented as essential tools for transforming a growing tribe into an organized civilization.
• Threat beneath apparent prosperity: Feng Xu’s concern about demon beasts, the Sky Wolf Demon King, and the uncertain future of the Great Wilderness suggests that the Wind-Fire Tribe’s development may soon face external danger.
• Order through culture: Feng Xu intends to establish social stability first through ritual and education, with formal law to follow once the tribe becomes larger and more literate.

Important Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Qu Shan: Qu Shan attempts to recruit Feng Xu, while Feng Xu responds with polite refusal and cautious delay.
• Feng Xu and Feng Sui: Their discussion highlights their deep bond, shared history, and differing perspectives. Feng Sui pushes Feng Xu toward the larger stage, while Feng Xu stresses the importance of loyalty and trust.
• Feng Xu and Bai Hao: Feng Xu seeks Bai Hao’s firsthand knowledge of the wolf demons, but Bai Hao’s trauma makes him unwilling to return to their territory.
• Feng Xu and Feng Yuqi: Feng Xu entrusts her with reproducing his educational materials, showing his reliance on others to implement his reforms.
• Feng Xu and the tribal chiefs: The final meeting introduces a major political development: four powerful tribes wish to merge with the Wind-Fire Tribe, placing Feng Xu’s future plans in a much larger and more complicated context.

Chapter Summary: Eastern Wilderness Reforms

Key Plot Points and Events

• The five major tribes of the Eastern Wilderness—Wind-Fire, Marsh, Lin, Lukun, and Red Iron—agree to merge in response to growing tensions and frequent clashes in the central Great Wilderness.
• The tribes are renamed the Eastern Wilderness Tribe. Feng Sui becomes chief, while the other chiefs become elders. Most people remain at their original settlements, which become branch communities, while core members relocate to Vermilion Ridge, the new central city.
• Feng Xu reorganizes the tribe’s institutions:
  • A new Blood Pool is planned and staffed with managers from the former tribes.
  • Battle Marks containing the Five Qi Transformation Art and Soul-Nurturing Formula are distributed under strict conditions.
  • A Dharma Artifact factory is created using assembly-line production.
  • A Ritual Bureau is established to promote civilized conduct and enforce basic laws.
  • Literacy and merit-based selection are introduced for clerical and administrative positions.
• Feng Xu outlines a twenty-year development plan involving farming, housing, underground storage and shelter networks, docks, boats, roads, and expanded trade routes.
• The artifact factory successfully produces its first set of Houtian Dharma Artifacts after two months, establishing a production rate of roughly two sets per month.
• Envoys from the Central Wilderness Tribe arrive with ferocious beasts to trade. Their leader, Dashan, invites Feng Xu to visit the central Great Wilderness.
• Before leaving, Feng Xu completes the Blood Pool’s refinement process. The three Central Wilderness envoys use it and all break through from the Early to the Mid Heavenly Immortal realm.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Feng Xu emerges as the chief architect of the Eastern Wilderness’s political, economic, military, and cultural transformation. He acts as a planner, educator, administrator, and industrial organizer.
• Feng Sui is elevated to chief of the newly formed Eastern Wilderness Tribe, while the other tribal chiefs accept supporting roles as elders.
• Jiang Ze represents the other chiefs during negotiations, presenting unity as a defensive necessity while also seeking access to the Wind-Fire Tribe’s growing trade opportunities.
• Feng Xu works closely with tribe members, factory workers, Blood Pool managers, elders, and administrators, personally supervising reforms and training replacements so the tribe can function without him.
• The elders are impressed but overwhelmed by Feng Xu’s ambitious plans. When they doubt whether such projects are possible, Feng Xu reassures them that large goals can be achieved by dividing them into manageable stages.
• Feng Xu and Dashan establish a relationship between the Eastern and Central Wilderness tribes through trade and the invitation to visit the central region.

Significant Themes

• Unity and collective defense: The merger is motivated by both external danger and the recognition that cooperation will strengthen the tribes.
• Institutional reform and modernization: Feng Xu replaces informal tribal structures with organized departments, standardized production, literacy requirements, merit-based advancement, and codified punishments.
• Long-term planning: The chapter emphasizes the importance of setting distant goals and accomplishing them through gradual, measurable steps.
• Industrialization and specialization: The Dharma Artifact factory introduces division of labor, standardization, quality control, and traceability to a previously primitive society.
• Civilization and social order: The Ritual Bureau promotes propriety while using limited, non-lethal punishments suited to a small population.
• Power balanced with responsibility: Although Feng Xu’s system depends heavily on labor, he frames the work as serving the tribe and the broader Human Race rather than personal gain.
• Accumulated strength and breakthrough: The Blood Pool demonstrates how the Human Race’s long-term preparation allows multiple cultivators to advance rapidly once the necessary resources become available.

Chapter Summary: “Iron Pillar”

Key Plot Points and Events

• At Bamboo Mountain Academy, Feng Xu shares a moonlit meal with Lin Feng, Tie Zhao, and the other youths before leaving for the Central Wilderness Tribe.
• The youths jokingly ask to accompany him, but Feng Xu explains that he is going to handle problems threatening the peace of the Eastern Wilderness. Lin Feng insists on helping, though Feng Xu dismisses him as too weak and challenges him to match his physical strength.
• Feng Xu demonstrates his extraordinary power by throwing an arrow barehanded into a distant mountain, revealing the strength gained from cultivating the Eight-Nine Mystical Art and Nine-Turn Origin Art.
• The next morning, hundreds of people gather at Vermilion Ridge to see Feng Xu off. Feng Ling, Feng Sui, and nearby tribal chiefs offer heartfelt farewells and promise that the Eastern Wilderness will support him if he needs to return.
• At Bamboo Mountain Academy, Feng Yuqi pretends to be stern with the students instead of attending the farewell. Afterward, she watches Feng Xu’s departing rafts and privately laments his lack of affection, revealing deep one-sided feelings for him.
• Feng Xu and his companions travel for a month across millions of li, eventually reaching the edge of Human Race territory in the Central Great Wilderness.
• During a campfire meal, Feng Xu cooks meat soup and white-flour flatbreads. They encounter Iron Pillar, a young genius from the Northern Great Wilderness who has been sent to receive them.
• Iron Pillar eagerly devours the food, especially the salt and white flour, revealing that these luxuries are rare or unavailable in his homeland.
• When he learns that Feng Xu’s group possesses huge quantities of these supplies, Iron Pillar immediately declares Feng Xu his “brother,” while Feng Xu begins suspecting that Iron Pillar may also be a transmigrator.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Demonstrates confidence, responsibility, and exceptional physical strength. He is willing to leave home to resolve broader political or social problems and remains observant, testing Iron Pillar’s knowledge while concealing his own suspicions.
• Lin Feng: Shows loyalty and admiration for Feng Xu, wanting to accompany him despite being clearly weaker. His eagerness contrasts with his limited strength and youthful impulsiveness.
• Feng Yuqi: Her concealed romantic attachment to Feng Xu becomes clear. Though she acts cold and authoritative, his departure leaves her lonely and emotionally distressed.
• Iron Pillar: Initially appears rude and excessively hungry, but his reactions to white flour, salt, and Feng Xu’s supplies suggest unusual past experiences. His immediate friendliness is driven by his excitement over the food.
• Dashan and the companions: Help organize the journey and camp, serving as a supportive group around Feng Xu.

Significant Themes

• Departure and loyalty: Feng Xu’s journey highlights the bonds between him and the Eastern Wilderness tribes, who promise continued support.
• Responsibility versus comfort: Unlike the youths who prefer the freedom of the Great Wilderness, Feng Xu leaves familiar surroundings to confront problems affecting the wider world.
• Hidden emotions: Feng Yuqi’s farewell shows how affection may remain unspoken, even when separation makes those feelings painful.
• Cultural and material differences: Salt, white flour, cooking methods, and food supplies reveal major differences between regions and hint at economic or technological disparities.
• Shared origins and transmigration: Iron Pillar’s familiarity with rare commodities suggests that, like Feng Xu, he may possess knowledge from another world or life.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu banters with Lin Feng over strength, responsibility, and the dangers of traveling with him.
• Feng Ling and Feng Sui offer parental, affectionate advice, reinforcing Feng Xu’s importance to the Eastern Wilderness community.
• Feng Yuqi’s indirect farewell contrasts with her inner longing, creating emotional distance between her and Feng Xu.
• Dashan greets Iron Pillar warmly and introduces him as a respected genius.
• Feng Xu reprimands Iron Pillar for eating before everyone else but later questions him carefully about salt and flour.
• Iron Pillar becomes instantly attached to Feng Xu after discovering his abundant supplies, while Feng Xu quietly evaluates whether Iron Pillar is another transmigrator.

Chapter Summary: Central Wilderness Tribe

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu continues to suspect that Iron Pillar’s use of familiar terms such as “salt,” “white flour,” and especially “brother” may indicate knowledge of a transmigrator or connections to another world. Since formal family relationships and the word “brother” are not yet established among ordinary humans, Feng Xu finds Iron Pillar’s knowledge unusual.
• While traveling back to the Central Wilderness Tribe, Feng Xu, Iron Pillar, Dashan, A-Da, and another companion are stopped by Captain Shi Lin and two men. Shi Lin claims that Commander Mang is hunting a Baleful Demon and forbids them from passing through the area.
• Although the group argues that they can simply fly over, Shi Lin deliberately provokes them and refuses to move aside. To avoid conflict, Dashan leads the group on a lengthy detour. The incident reveals growing hostility toward Iron Pillar, partly because rumors claim the tribe’s chief favors outsiders over his own people.
• After six days, the group reaches the Central Wilderness Tribe. Qu Shan personally welcomes them and shows Feng Xu around.
• The Central Wilderness Tribe is far stronger and more populous than the Eastern Wilderness. Its people possess superior bloodlines, with children entering the Innate Realm at a young age and adults commonly reaching the Earth Immortal realm. Feng Xu’s Late Earth Immortal cultivation is only average there.
• Qu Shan arranges for Feng Xu to live in Iron Pillar’s remodeled beast-bone house. Feng Xu asks for a table to use for writing, and Iron Pillar agrees to make one.
• Iron Pillar reveals that the tribe currently has no artifact refiners. He wishes he had a growing and shrinking broadsword whose weight could change, especially for use while transformed into a giant.
• Meanwhile, Qu Shan informs Yunfeng, the tribe’s lord, that Feng Xu has arrived. He emphasizes Feng Xu’s accomplishments: expanding the Wind-Fire Tribe, developing farming, creating writing, refining artifacts and Dharma Treasures, and devising a Bloodline Secret Art.
• Yunfeng remains cautious, questioning whether Feng Xu’s innovations can truly solve the Human Race’s problems. Qu Shan insists that Feng Xu could greatly strengthen the Great Wilderness if allowed to build and manage a Blood Pool.
• Yunfeng agrees to prepare Feng Xu’s requested materials and eventually meet him, though Qu Shan urges him not to underestimate Feng Xu or fail to seek his advice.

2. Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes increasingly suspicious of Iron Pillar’s unusual knowledge and possible connection to a transmigrator. He also begins adapting to the Central Wilderness Tribe and considers how to introduce writing and other innovations there.
• Iron Pillar demonstrates patience and restraint when Captain Shi provokes him. Despite his status and the rumors surrounding him, he remains courteous and cooperative. His desire for a specialized broadsword also highlights his practical warrior mindset.
• Dashan acts as the group’s cautious leader, choosing to avoid confrontation and taking a longer route to ensure everyone’s safety.
• Captain Shi Lin is portrayed as arrogant, antagonistic, and possibly politically motivated. His hostility toward Iron Pillar reflects internal factional tensions within the tribe.
• Qu Shan strongly believes in Feng Xu’s importance and becomes his principal advocate. He sees Feng Xu not merely as a talented outsider but as someone capable of influencing the future of the Human Race.
• Yunfeng is powerful but pragmatic and skeptical. He recognizes Feng Xu’s potential but wants to judge him personally before fully trusting or empowering him.

3. Significant Themes

• Cultural development and civilization: Writing, farming, artifact refinement, and organized knowledge are presented as tools capable of transforming the Human Race.
• Knowledge as power: Feng Xu’s inventions and ideas may be more valuable than his personal cultivation, especially in a society where survival knowledge is easily lost.
• Internal tribal politics: Rumors about outsiders being favored reveal tensions between local warriors and newcomers, threatening unity within the Central Wilderness Tribe.
• Strength versus innovation: The Central Wilderness Tribe is vastly stronger militarily than the Eastern Wilderness, yet Qu Shan suggests that raw strength alone cannot solve the Human Race’s broader problems.
• Trust and recognition: Feng Xu must overcome his outsider status and prove his value before the Central Wilderness Tribe will accept his leadership or ideas.
• Foreshadowing of transformation: The proposed Blood Pool could dramatically enhance the tribe’s strength and may become Feng Xu’s first major contribution to the Central Wilderness Tribe.

4. Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar: Their friendship continues to deepen through practical conversations about housing, tables, artifact refinement, and weapons. Feng Xu’s questions also reveal his curiosity about Iron Pillar’s mysterious background.
• The traveling group and Shi Lin: Their confrontation exposes the political hostility surrounding Iron Pillar and establishes Commander Mang’s faction as a possible source of future conflict.
• Qu Shan and Feng Xu: Qu Shan welcomes Feng Xu and arranges comfortable lodging, signaling his support and confidence in Feng Xu’s abilities.
• Qu Shan and Yunfeng: Qu Shan passionately argues that Feng Xu’s talents could benefit the entire Human Race, while Yunfeng responds with caution and demands evidence before committing himself.
• Yunfeng and Feng Xu: They have not yet met, but the chapter builds anticipation for their first meeting. Yunfeng must decide whether Feng Xu is merely an unusual outsider or a crucial figure in the tribe’s future.

Chapter Summary: “A Heart-to-Heart Talk”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu teaches Iron Pillar the basics of refining wood by infusing it with spiritual power and manipulating its shape through techniques such as stretching, bending, pressing, carving, joining, and altering size.
• Iron Pillar enthusiastically practices and begins making a table, while Feng Xu prepares a wooden bathtub.
• Qu Shan summons Feng Xu to meet Yunfeng, the Lord of the Central Wilderness Tribe, and warns him to speak honestly rather than avoid important questions.
• Yunfeng questions the practical value of Feng Xu’s writing system, pointing out that teaching ordinary people to read will require considerable time and effort.
• Feng Xu argues that writing is valuable because it preserves information, communicates military and administrative intelligence, records cultivation methods and regional conditions, and supports education and social order.
• His discussion of rebellion appears to touch on a sensitive problem within the Central Wilderness Tribe.
• Yunfeng becomes convinced by Feng Xu’s reasoning and asks for guidance. Feng Xu modestly refuses to accept the role of teacher immediately, explaining that he first needs to inspect the tribe and understand its people.
• Yunfeng agrees and assigns Qu Shan to help him explore the region, escorting Feng Xu outside himself—an indication that his opinion of Feng Xu has improved.
• Qu Shan later arranges for Dashan and two others to guide Feng Xu through the tribe. Feng Xu also requests two hundred workers to build storage facilities for the recently traded grain and begin preparations for the Blood Pool.
• Back at home, Feng Xu bathes in Iron Pillar’s newly made wooden tub and tells him about the upcoming work. Feng Xu continues concealing his suspicions that Iron Pillar may be a transmigrator.
• The following morning, Feng Xu practices Taiji Fist while observing Iron Pillar, but cannot determine whether Iron Pillar is unfamiliar with it or deliberately pretending not to recognize it.
• Qu Shan brings two hundred low-ranking workers. Feng Xu divides them into three groups under Dashan and his companions, allowing locals to manage the workers while he begins construction and learns more about the tribe.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Demonstrates patience as a teacher, political awareness, and strategic caution. He presents writing not merely as a communication tool but as an instrument for administration, education, military coordination, and social control. He deliberately avoids appearing arrogant or overconfident before Yunfeng and plans to learn about the tribe through practical work.
• Iron Pillar: Shows childish enthusiasm and a natural aptitude for basic artifact refinement. His behavior remains ambiguous, since Feng Xu still cannot tell whether he is genuinely unfamiliar with certain techniques or hiding his knowledge.
• Yunfeng: Initially skeptical of writing, he proves intelligent and perceptive by immediately identifying its main weakness: the time required to teach it. Feng Xu’s arguments cause him to reconsider his priorities, especially concerning disorder and possible rebellion. His willingness to bow and seek instruction shows growing respect and trust.
• Qu Shan: Acts as Feng Xu’s advocate and intermediary. He has invested effort in securing Feng Xu an audience with Yunfeng and is pleased when the meeting succeeds. He continues helping Feng Xu integrate into the tribe.
• Dashan and his companions: Are positioned as practical local leaders who will help supervise workers and guide Feng Xu around the tribe.

Significant Themes

• Knowledge as power: Writing preserves knowledge, spreads useful information, and allows leaders to govern a large territory more effectively.
• Civilization versus stagnation: Feng Xu contrasts the productive development of the Wind-Fire Tribe with the Central Wilderness Tribe’s tendency to waste time through hunting, idleness, and conflict.
• Education and social order: Literacy can teach people rules, reduce mistakes, preserve collective experience, and prevent disorder from escalating into unrest.
• Trust and secrecy: Feng Xu carefully manages his relationships with both Yunfeng and Iron Pillar, revealing useful ideas while concealing his suspicions and personal knowledge.
• Practical reform: Feng Xu emphasizes that ideas must be tested through concrete work. His plan to build storage facilities and prepare the Blood Pool also gives him a way to study the tribe from within.
• Political undercurrents: Yunfeng’s reaction to the mention of rebellion hints at internal instability and unresolved power struggles within the Central Wilderness Tribe.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu patiently instructs Iron Pillar in artifact refinement, establishing a cooperative but cautious relationship.
• Qu Shan coaches Feng Xu before the meeting with Yunfeng and later helps arrange workers and guides for him.
• Feng Xu and Yunfeng engage in a serious debate over the value of writing. Their discussion gradually shifts from skepticism to mutual respect.
• Yunfeng’s bow and request for guidance mark a reversal in their relationship: he begins treating Feng Xu as a potential adviser rather than an untested outsider.
• Feng Xu remains guarded with Iron Pillar, sharing plans about the work but withholding his suspicions about Iron Pillar’s true identity or origins.

Chapter Summary: “Farming Maniac”

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Central Wilderness Tribe begins preparing for long-term survival by assigning groups to build underground granaries, dig a Blood Pool, and gather medicinal herbs.
• Iron Pillar and Feng Xu discover a mountain basin suitable for farming. Despite lacking farming tools, Iron Pillar enthusiastically clears nearly three hundred mu of land.
• Feng Xu creates a massive stone plow, allowing Iron Pillar and several Innate Realm warriors to cultivate the basin. The grain seeds have already been germinated and are ready for planting.
• A Blood Pool is completed, waterproofed, and sheltered from rain. Iron Pillar and others begin planting the fields.
• Feng Xu observes that the harvest will not be enough to feed the tribe’s roughly forty thousand people. The tribe will remain dependent on hunting, wild plants, and future grain exchanges with the Eastern Wilderness.
• Feng Xu gathers abundant medicinal herbs from the surrounding mountains and reserves part of them for the Eastern Wilderness’s Blood Pool.
• The hunting team returns with several powerful ferocious beasts, including five Late Heavenly Immortal beasts, ten Mid Heavenly Immortal beasts, and one Early True Immortal beast.
• Feng Xu selects four beasts for the Blood Pool and proposes trading the remainder to the Eastern Wilderness in exchange for Dharma Artifacts.
• Qu Shan doubts that the Eastern Wilderness can produce Dharma Artifacts without Feng Xu, but Feng Xu explains that an assembly-line process allows them to mass-produce complete artifact sets even without individual artifact refiners.
• Feng Xu completes the Blood Pool’s preparation and uses its materials to create Battle Mark dye. He inscribes the Five Qi Transformation Art and Soul-Nurturing Formula onto Qu Shan.
• After allowing the Blood Pool’s power to stabilize, Qu Shan enters it and begins attempting a breakthrough from the Heavenly Immortal realm to the True Immortal realm.

Character Developments

• Iron Pillar reveals a strong, practical talent for agriculture. His dedication and seriousness suggest he may have been a farmer in a previous life. He becomes central to establishing the tribe’s first large-scale farmland.
• Feng Xu continues acting as the tribe’s organizer, inventor, alchemist, and strategist. He solves practical problems through innovation, such as creating a stone plow and introducing assembly-line production.
• Qu Shan remains skeptical and blunt but gradually chooses to trust Feng Xu’s claims. He also agrees to risk a breakthrough using the Blood Pool.
• Dashan assists Feng Xu in herb gathering and remains a dependable participant in the tribe’s development.
• Feng Xu recognizes growing political divisions within the Central Wilderness Tribe, particularly between the lord’s faction and the increasingly independent chief commanders.

Significant Themes

• Civilization through technology and organization: Farming, storage, medicine, artifact production, and Blood Pools demonstrate the tribe’s gradual transition from survivalism toward structured civilization.
• Resource scarcity and strategic planning: The farmland cannot feed the entire tribe, forcing reliance on hunting and trade. Feng Xu must balance immediate needs with long-term development.
• Innovation versus conventional thinking: Qu Shan believes only traditional artifact refiners can make Dharma Artifacts, while Feng Xu’s assembly-line method challenges that assumption.
• Political fragmentation: Although the people technically belong to one tribe, separate territories and disobedient chief commanders reveal deepening internal divisions.
• Cultivation and collective advancement: The Blood Pool and Battle Marks are not merely personal tools; they are part of a broader effort to strengthen the tribe and its allies.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar cooperate closely while evaluating and developing the farmland. Feng Xu provides technical solutions, while Iron Pillar supplies enthusiasm and physical labor.
• Feng Xu and Dashan work together gathering medicinal herbs, with Feng Xu relying on Dashan as a companion and assistant.
• Feng Xu and Qu Shan debate the feasibility of producing Dharma Artifacts without traditional refiners. Their exchange highlights Qu Shan’s skepticism and Feng Xu’s confidence in industrial methods.
• Feng Xu prepares Qu Shan personally for his breakthrough by refining the Blood Pool, creating Battle Mark dye, and inscribing cultivation techniques onto Qu Shan’s body. Qu Shan then begins the dangerous attempt to advance to the True Immortal realm.

Chapter Summary: “Nursery”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu draws Battle Marks for Yunfeng, Dashan, and two other trusted individuals, allowing them to learn cultivation techniques without fully understanding cultivation themselves.
• Yunfeng initially considers spreading the Battle Marks throughout the tribe but decides to keep them secret so surrounding chief commanders do not gain the same advantage.
• Feng Xu proposes giving Battle Marks to the tribe’s neglected children and creating a Nursery where they can be housed, fed, educated, and trained.
• The Central Wilderness Tribe’s children live in extreme neglect, competing for scraps and sometimes dying of starvation. Feng Xu is disturbed by this treatment and resolves to intervene.
• Iron Pillar reveals that he possesses a “System Advisor.” His cultivation is linked to another person: he remains one minor realm stronger than that individual and can automatically learn their cultivation techniques.
• Feng Xu realizes that the mysterious cultivator is probably himself. Iron Pillar demonstrates that he has learned both the Eight-Nine Mystical Art and the Nine-Turn Origin Art without suffering the usual conflict between incompatible techniques.
• Although initially frustrated at being the source of Iron Pillar’s strength, Feng Xu concludes that the arrangement is not entirely disadvantageous because he possesses the Merit Mall and can continue pursuing merit and prestige.
• Feng Xu begins improving the tribe’s homes, then establishes a large Nursery at the tribe’s center. He relocates nearby residents, provides food for workers, and attracts additional help through communal meals.
• Over more than twenty days, the tribe constructs teaching and dormitory buildings, a dining hall, walls, and furniture such as bunk beds, desks, and benches.
• Near the end of the chapter, Qu Shan emerges from a forty-day seclusion period after successfully breaking through.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes increasingly committed to social reform and the tribe’s long-term future. He sees the children as future pillars of the tribe rather than expendable weaklings.
• Feng Xu also demonstrates practical leadership by organizing construction, relocating residents, feeding laborers, and planning education and cultivation for the children.
• He experiences a brief crisis of confidence after learning that Iron Pillar’s cheat ability makes Iron Pillar stronger through Feng Xu’s cultivation. However, he regains composure by recognizing the benefits of merit, the Merit Mall, and public support.
• Yunfeng remains cautious and politically minded, worrying that the Battle Mark technique could leak to rival leaders. Nevertheless, he supports Feng Xu’s Nursery project.
• Iron Pillar is revealed to be a transmigrator-like figure with a powerful system-based advantage. Despite his immense cultivation growth, he sympathizes with the children and actively helps Feng Xu build the Nursery.
• Qu Shan completes a difficult breakthrough, confirming his continued progress as a cultivator.

Significant Themes

• Education and cultivation as tools of social change: Battle Marks make cultivation accessible to people who lack the knowledge or ability to cultivate traditionally.
• Care versus natural selection: The tribe’s adults view abandoned children as part of natural selection, while Feng Xu rejects this cruelty and argues that the tribe’s future depends on protecting and educating them.
• Leadership through service: Feng Xu gains influence not merely through strength but by improving living conditions, feeding people, organizing labor, and earning merit and public trust.
• The costs and benefits of unequal power: Iron Pillar’s system gives him extraordinary advantages, creating envy and insecurity in Feng Xu, but Feng Xu ultimately recognizes that strength is only one part of his path toward becoming Human Ancestor.
• Community building: The construction of the Nursery transforms scattered, neglected individuals into a more organized society with shared facilities, education, and mutual cooperation.

Important Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Yunfeng: They discuss whether to distribute Battle Marks. Yunfeng favors limiting the technique to trusted people, while Feng Xu focuses on helping the children.
• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar: Their conversation reveals Iron Pillar’s System Advisor and his connection to Feng Xu’s cultivation. Feng Xu reacts with disbelief and frustration but later accepts the arrangement pragmatically.
• Feng Xu and the children: Although the children initially distrust him and flee when approached, Feng Xu continues working to create a safe environment for them.
• Feng Xu and the tribe members: By cooking generous meals for workers and helping them relocate and rebuild homes, Feng Xu earns their cooperation in constructing the Nursery.
• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar during construction: Both sympathize with the children and work together to build the Nursery, with Iron Pillar temporarily setting aside farm work to help.

Chapter Summary: “Blood Pool Trade”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar continue bringing orphaned or neglected children to the newly established school and nursery. The children receive regular meals, beds, and protection, making them reluctant to leave.
• Feng Xu introduces a recruitment system: children who bring others to the nursery are rewarded with extra meat. After the first ten days, the frantic effort to gather children becomes more relaxed.
• Qu Shan informs Feng Xu that the lord has approved a trade involving Dharma Artifacts. Feng Xu prepares medicinal herbs and letters describing life in the Central Wilderness Tribe to send back to the Eastern Wilderness.
• Feng Xu begins developing workshops, starting with pottery, followed by bamboo weaving, brickmaking, and clothing production. Workers receive rice meals funded by the lord, while the finished goods belong to the lord.
• As the autumn harvest begins, the tribe becomes increasingly productive, with people divided between farming and workshop labor.
• Commander Ling, an eastern military commander, visits after hearing that Qu Shan has broken through to the True Immortal realm. He is interested in learning how the breakthrough occurred.
• Yunfeng reveals the existence of the Blood Pool, which can assist breakthroughs but requires powerful beast blood essence and medicinal herbs to reactivate.
• Ling offers the corpse of a severely wounded Mid True Immortal ferocious beast—a massive two-headed crocodile—in exchange for access to the Blood Pool.
• The beast’s blood essence is extracted and used to strengthen the Blood Pool. Ling is granted permission to send three people to cultivate in it for up to sixty days.
• The remaining corpse is reserved for artifact refinement. Yunfeng gives Feng Xu the beast’s valuable Inner Core as compensation and asks him to refine the remains into a Dharma Treasure.
• Feng Xu enters seclusion to begin refining the artifact. Five days later, Ling’s chosen cultivators enter the Blood Pool, though their success is uncertain because they lack Battle Marks.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes increasingly influential in the Central Wilderness Tribe. He acts as an organizer, educator, economic planner, negotiator, and cultivator, while also remaining cautious about revealing the Blood Pool’s full significance.
• Iron Pillar shifts from a simple laborer into a caretaker and community figure. He watches the children, works in the fields, and tells them stories, becoming more hopeful about the tribe’s future.
• Yunfeng demonstrates political judgment and generosity. He openly explains the Blood Pool’s requirements, negotiates with Ling, and gives Feng Xu the powerful Inner Core as payment for his efforts.
• Commander Ling is shown to be practical and ambitious. He risks angering Commander Mang by offering a beast bearing Mang’s mark, hoping to secure breakthrough opportunities for his people.
• Qu Shan’s breakthrough establishes the Blood Pool as a valuable strategic resource and increases interest from other tribal leaders.

Significant Themes

• Civilization through basic welfare and industry: Food, shelter, education, farming, and workshops gradually transform the tribe from a survival-based society into an organized community.
• Power and resource exchange: The Blood Pool becomes a political and economic asset, traded for rare materials and favors.
• Pragmatism over idealism: Feng Xu gathers children through incentives and even forcibly brings some in, rationalizing that improved living conditions will make them stay.
• Cooperation and mutual benefit: Feng Xu, Yunfeng, and Ling all negotiate in ways that benefit their own groups while strengthening the broader Human Race.
• Moral ambiguity: Feng Xu recognizes that his methods—especially taking children and disrupting local life—may appear exploitative, even as they produce stability and prosperity.
• The limits of cultivation aids: The Blood Pool can accelerate progress but cannot guarantee a breakthrough, particularly without Battle Marks.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar work together to gather and care for children, with Feng Xu directing the larger plan and Iron Pillar handling daily supervision.
• Feng Xu and Qu Shan discuss the Dharma Artifact trade and the materials to be sent to the Eastern Wilderness.
• Feng Xu and Yunfeng coordinate their response to Commander Ling, carefully presenting the Blood Pool as powerful but costly.
• Ling negotiates with Yunfeng and Feng Xu, trading a rare ferocious beast corpse for the opportunity to send three cultivators into the Blood Pool.
• Yunfeng entrusts Feng Xu with refining the beast’s remains, strengthening their cooperative relationship and recognizing Feng Xu’s technical value.

Chapter Summary: “Seven-Turn Baleful Core”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu attempts to refine the core of a Mid True Immortal ferocious beast. The core contains extremely dangerous Baleful Qi, which consumes mana and attacks his body.
• The Baleful Qi nearly overwhelms him, but Feng Xu uses the Nine-Turn Origin Art and his control over Baleful Qi to refine it into a completed Seven-Turn Baleful Core.
• The refined core retains only pure destructive power, though Feng Xu notes that it is still far below the level of true destructive laws, which require Dao comprehension.
• Feng Xu discovers that the beast’s Baleful Core had been deliberately tampered with. The beast’s flesh and blood are normal, suggesting a hidden enemy intended to harm whoever refined it.
• After several days of recovery, Feng Xu uses the beast’s remains to create several treasures:
  • Mid-Grade Houtian Dharma Treasure

Black-Scaled Armor

• Lower-Grade Houtian Dharma Treasure

Giant-Fang Sword

• Mid-Grade Houtian Dharma Treasure

White Bone Whip

• He also upgrades the Dragon-Snake Bow and Mysterious Feather Arrow into Lower-Grade Dharma Treasures.
• Feng Xu warns Yunfeng about the tampered core. Yunfeng connects this incident to previous unexplained appearances of Baleful Qi and suspects a problem within the Human Race.
• They plan to investigate after the next spring planting season, when the mastermind may strike again. Yunfeng also asks Feng Xu to participate in the investigation.
• Yunfeng and Feng Xu agree to establish an army. Iron Pillar is appointed to recruit and train soldiers under Yunfeng’s authority.
• Feng Xu resumes supervising the nursery, workshop, and academy. He begins teaching children basic literacy using charcoal and beast-hide boards while waiting for paper, pens, and ink from the Eastern Wilderness.
• Iron Pillar reports an exceptional harvest of nearly twelve thousand jin per mu, exceeding the Eastern Wilderness’s yield. As a reward, he receives the Giant-Fang Sword.
• The chapter ends with an unidentified shadow sneaking out into the night, implying that someone is secretly acting within the tribe.

Character Development

• Feng Xu demonstrates exceptional endurance, control, and practical skill by surviving the Baleful Qi’s backlash and refining it into a powerful core. His caution and analytical nature also lead him to recognize that the beast was deliberately sabotaged.
• Feng Xu becomes increasingly involved in broader tribal development. Beyond cultivation, he contributes to weapons production, education, agriculture, and military organization.
• Yunfeng grows more vigilant and politically strategic. He recognizes that the Baleful Qi incidents may indicate internal sabotage and begins preparing both an investigation and a stronger military force.
• Iron Pillar gains Yunfeng’s trust and is rewarded for his agricultural achievements. His long-standing desire to train soldiers is finally accepted, allowing him to take on a larger leadership role.
• The children initially resist discipline and study, but their desire to avoid reduced food rations motivates them to work seriously.

Significant Themes

• Dangerous power and control: Strength alone is insufficient; Feng Xu survives because he can control and refine Baleful Qi.
• Hidden betrayal and internal threats: The tampered demon core and recurring Baleful Qi suggest an enemy operating within or near the Human Race.
• Civilization-building: The tribe advances through agriculture, craftsmanship, education, weapons, and military organization.
• The cost of discipline: The children and future soldiers must adapt from a free tribal lifestyle to structured education and military order.
• Preparation for conflict: The characters recognize that future threats will require both individual cultivators and organized collective forces.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Yunfeng discuss the tampered core and agree that the incident must be investigated carefully.
• Yunfeng asks Feng Xu to join the future investigation, offering Qu Shan and Dashan as protection.
• They cooperate in planning the tribe’s military development, with Iron Pillar recruiting soldiers under Yunfeng’s authority.
• Feng Xu and Iron Pillar discuss the harvest and the new army. Iron Pillar credits Feng Xu with bringing good fortune and is pleased to receive the Giant-Fang Sword.
• Feng Xu instructs the academy children, using stories and practical consequences to make them study.
• The mysterious nighttime figure introduces a new element of suspense and suggests that the hidden conspiracy may already be active within the tribe.

Chapter Summary: “Baleful Demon Attack”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu meets Commander Zheng at the Central Wilderness Tribe’s western border and proposes taking all the undisciplined children to the lord’s territory for centralized training.
• To gain Zheng’s trust and support the border division, Feng Xu gives him a million jin of grain and explains that the lord respects Zheng’s years of service.
• Zheng reveals that Baleful Qi has repeatedly appeared in the rear regions, leading some commanders to accuse him of collaborating with Baleful Fiends. Feng Xu assures him that these rumors are politically motivated attempts to divide the tribe.
• Feng Xu questions Zheng about unusual border activity. Zheng reports increased Demon Race activity but no major battles, and confirms that Commanders Mang and Ling have visited the area.
• Feng Xu and A-Da continue investigating the Baleful Qi outbreaks but find no clear evidence. Feng secretly maps the terrain and studies each commander’s territory, preparing for possible future reforms.
• As Feng visits the commanders, more children join the group. Dashan eventually escorts the children back to the core region while Feng remains behind in the southeast to continue investigating.
• In a valley, Feng encounters an enormous Baleful deer, an Early True Immortal ferocious beast. He uses the Dragon-Snake Bow and his physical strength to repel it.
• A Jade Toad then attacks Feng, trapping him with its tongue and repeatedly smashing him against the ground. Feng is nearly swallowed but survives because of his exceptionally durable body.
• Commander Zeng arrives and rescues Feng by attacking the Jade Toad with a massive tree trunk. He kills both Baleful Beasts.
• Feng absorbs the Baleful Qi from their corpses. Commander Zeng realizes this ability is likely connected to Feng’s investigation, but warns that consuming Baleful Beasts is dangerous. Feng collects the corpses for medicinal use.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates diplomacy, strategic thinking, and political awareness. He uses food and grain to build goodwill with border commanders while concealing his broader mission of surveying the tribe’s territories.
• He also shows considerable combat ability and adaptability through the Eight-Nine Mystical Art, transforming into a giant and then a Giant Eagle to fight and escape the beasts.
• Feng’s ability to absorb Baleful Qi becomes more significant, though the Baleful Core within him remains unchanged, leaving the mystery of his power unresolved.
• Commander Zheng is portrayed as an honorable and hardworking border guardian who feels burdened by accusations concerning the spread of Baleful Qi. He accepts Feng’s support and agrees to send the children away for better training.
• Commander Zeng is introduced as a powerful and decisive warrior. Despite using an ordinary tree trunk, he defeats two True Immortal-level beasts and saves Feng from death.
• A-Da and A-Fei continue assisting Feng’s investigation but find no clues, highlighting how difficult it is to trace the origin of the Baleful Qi.
• Dashan takes responsibility for escorting the gathered children back to the core region.

Significant Themes

• Political trust and internal division: Rumors accusing Zheng of collusion illustrate how Baleful Qi is being used to create distrust among the tribe’s commanders.
• Duty and sacrifice: Zheng’s long-term defense of the dangerous border earns Feng’s respect, emphasizing the honor of those who protect the Human Race’s frontier.
• Reform and centralized management: The relocation and training of the children reflect the lord’s effort to strengthen the tribe and correct weaknesses in local administration.
• Hidden motives and strategic planning: Feng’s public mission is to gather children and investigate Baleful Qi, but he is also secretly surveying the land for future reforms.
• Power and survival: Feng survives despite being vastly outmatched, relying on his physical toughness, mystical transformations, and the intervention of allies.
• The danger of Baleful Qi: The Qi corrupts ferocious beasts and makes them more aggressive and resistant to pain, while Feng’s ability to absorb it suggests a potentially important but dangerous connection.

Character Interactions

• Feng and Zheng engage in a cautious but increasingly trusting negotiation over the children and the border division’s resources.
• Feng uses rice balls and grain as gestures of respect, helping ease Zheng’s suspicions and reinforcing their shared identity as members of the Central Wilderness Tribe.
• Feng reassures Zheng that the accusations against him are deliberate political fabrications rather than evidence of wrongdoing.
• Feng and A-Da compare their findings and agree that investigating the Baleful Qi is secondary to successfully relocating the children.
• During the attack, Feng struggles against the Baleful Beasts alone before Commander Zeng intervenes, creating a clear moment of mutual assistance between the two warriors.
• After the battle, Feng and Zeng disagree over the value of the corpses: Zeng considers them too dangerous to keep, while Feng sees their medicinal potential.

Chapter Summary: “Cast a Long Line to Catch a Big Fish”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu refines the vital blood of two True Immortal Fierce Beasts into four bottles of powerful medicinal tonic. He gives two bottles to Commander Zeng as repayment for saving him, one to the lord, and keeps one.
• While cooking with Commander Zeng, Feng Xu investigates why numerous Baleful Fiends in the Central Wilderness Tribe have unexpectedly reached the True Immortal realm, despite True Immortal Fierce Beasts being rare.
• Feng Xu explains that Baleful Qi can be used as a dangerous cultivation resource by repeatedly destroying and repairing the body. However, the Baleful Qi in this region appears sentient and corruptive, capable of turning cultivators and Fierce Beasts into puppets.
• Feng Xu reveals that he can contain Baleful Qi through a special cultivation art, though he refuses to promote it because reckless use could cause widespread destruction and even trigger an Infinite Tribulation Cycle.
• Two conspirators hiding in a natural secret realm discuss Feng Xu. They believe he may be using a method to control Baleful Qi and decide to capture him rather than kill him, hoping to learn his secret.
• Feng Xu and Commander Zeng discover the secret realm. The conspirators flee after releasing the sealed Baleful Qi into cages of mutated Fierce Beasts, leaving the creatures to become more dangerous.
• Feng Xu enters briefly, discovers that ten True Immortal Baleful Fiends are inside, and retreats. His apparent caution frustrates Commander Zeng, but Feng Xu recognizes that confronting the hidden conspirators without reinforcements would be reckless.
• After waiting, they return and find that the battle inside has ended. A powerful three-headed Black Tiger remains, having devoured the other Fierce Beasts.
• Feng Xu gives Commander Zeng the Spirit Treasure Heavenly Net and Earthly Web. Zeng uses it to subdue the Black Tiger, while Feng Xu absorbs its Baleful Qi and confirms that his internal Baleful Core remains stable.
• They find another blocked exit but lose the conspirators’ trail. Feng Xu instructs Zeng to maintain order and cooperate with the lord’s upcoming investigation.
• Feng Xu’s larger plan is to let news of the incident spread, giving the lord a legitimate reason to purge those behind the Baleful Qi experiments and strengthen control over the Central Wilderness Tribe.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates generosity by rewarding Commander Zeng, strategic caution by refusing to fight overwhelming forces, and political intelligence by using the incident to create an opportunity for a broader investigation.
• He also reveals more of his unusual ability to absorb Baleful Qi safely, though he remains cautious about its dangers and refuses to let others imitate him casually.
• Commander Zeng becomes less suspicious and more cooperative toward Feng Xu after receiving the medicine and hearing his explanation. Although irritated by Feng Xu’s seemingly reckless behavior, he gradually recognizes the wisdom behind Feng Xu’s restraint and strategy.
• The hidden conspirators are shown to be conducting experiments involving Baleful Qi and Fierce Beasts. They view Feng Xu as both a threat and a potential source of valuable knowledge, but their confidence collapses when he discovers their secret realm.

Significant Themes

• Power and danger of forbidden cultivation: Baleful Qi can increase strength, but its corruptive intelligence makes it extremely hazardous and potentially catastrophic.
• Caution versus recklessness: Feng Xu avoids unnecessary combat despite possessing unusual abilities, emphasizing survival and long-term planning over impulsive heroics.
• Political strategy and public opinion: Rather than exposing the conspiracy immediately, Feng Xu allows events to become public so the lord can act with popular and moral authority.
• Trust and cooperation: Feng Xu’s gift strengthens his relationship with Commander Zeng, while their investigation shows the importance of cooperation against internal threats.
• Hidden corruption within authority: The possibility that Grand Commanders or other Human Race officials are involved suggests the Baleful Qi crisis may be an internal conspiracy rather than an external attack.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Commander Zeng move from a guarded relationship toward practical cooperation. Feng Xu repays Zeng’s earlier rescue, shares critical information, and equips him with a Spirit Treasure.
• Zeng criticizes Feng Xu for announcing his presence before entering the secret realm, while Feng Xu counters that confronting ten True Immortal enemies would be suicidal.
• The conspirators discuss whether to kill or capture Feng Xu, revealing their fear of his abilities and their desire to exploit his method of controlling Baleful Qi.
• Feng Xu and Zeng work together to defeat the remaining Black Tiger, with Zeng restraining it and Feng Xu neutralizing its Baleful Qi.

Chapter Summary: “Future Plans”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu and his companions arrive at Commander Mang’s territory after raiding a Baleful Qi hideout. Feng Xu gives Commander Mang refined beast essence blood, four Dharma Artifacts, and a low-grade Dharma Treasure.
• Commander Mang apologizes for not helping during the previous incident and agrees to hand over the children gathered in his territory. Feng Xu deliberately stays for two days to investigate the region and gather information.
• The group then visits neighboring commanders, eventually collecting children from all fifteen commander territories. More than twenty thousand children are brought to the lord’s territory, where the Nursery is expanded to accommodate them.
• Feng Xu compiles maps and testimonies about the Baleful Qi hideouts. Based on the distribution of the hideouts and the suspicious absence of hideouts within Commander Mang’s territory, he identifies Mang as a likely accomplice or central suspect.
• Feng Xu presents his findings to Yunfeng and begins outlining a long-term plan for reforming the Great Wilderness Tribe.
• He teaches Yunfeng principles from the Dao De Jing, explaining that the Human Race needs the Dao, virtue, rites, and laws to escape its primitive and unstable way of life.
• Feng Xu divides the tribe’s future development into stages: establishing social order and improving livelihoods, perfecting rites and administration, and eventually creating further reforms once circumstances become clearer.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu becomes increasingly influential and politically active. His journey from territory to territory not only gathers children but also demonstrates the lord’s growing authority over the commanders.
• Feng Xu shows himself to be an investigator and strategist, using his sensitivity to Baleful Qi to secretly mark hideouts and organize evidence against possible conspirators.
• He also develops into a teacher and social reformer, applying his knowledge of philosophy, governance, education, agriculture, trade, and law to the tribe’s future.
• Yunfeng changes from a leader focused mainly on immediate survival into someone receptive to broader political and moral reform. He is deeply moved by Feng Xu’s teachings and recognizes their transformative potential.
• Commander Mang appears cooperative and polite, but his unusual isolation and the lack of hideouts in his territory make him suspicious.
• Iron Pillar remains an important asset because of his ability to handle Baleful Qi safely, reducing the danger of future investigations and conflicts.

Significant Themes

• Centralization of authority: The collection of children and the cooperation of the commanders show the lord’s power gradually becoming real rather than merely nominal.
• Civilization versus barbarism: Feng Xu argues that strength and fertility alone cannot ensure the Human Race’s survival; stable society requires knowledge, morality, education, and institutions.
• The importance of writing and education: Written records allow information to be organized and analyzed, while literacy becomes essential for administration and public service.
• Dao, virtue, rites, and law: Feng Xu presents a progression from understanding the Dao, to cultivating virtue, to establishing social customs, and finally to enforcing laws against harmful behavior.
• Leadership by example: Those in power must embody the standards they expect from others, since ordinary people imitate their leaders.
• Population and survival: Despite high birth rates, poverty, hunger, and violence cause most children to die young. Collective childcare and improved agriculture are proposed as solutions.
• Order and long-term planning: The chapter shifts the focus from immediate supernatural threats toward building durable political, economic, educational, and military systems.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu and Commander Mang exchange formal apologies and courtesies, but Feng Xu’s refusal to leave immediately creates an awkward, one-sided arrangement in which Mang must provide lodging.
• Feng Xu and the commanders gradually develop a more cooperative relationship, with children eventually being delivered proactively rather than collected through persuasion.
• Feng Xu shares his investigation with Yunfeng, who carefully studies the map and acknowledges that Feng Xu’s organized records reveal important political information.
• Yunfeng’s respectful prostration before Feng Xu marks a major shift in their relationship: he now regards Feng Xu not merely as a capable subordinate or adviser, but as a teacher with profound wisdom.
• Feng Xu gives Yunfeng the copied Dao De Jing and encourages him to study it through practical application, laying the foundation for future educational and governmental reforms.

Chapter Summary: “Lecturing on the Dao”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Rumors spread throughout the Central Wilderness Tribe accusing Feng Xu of deliberately releasing Baleful Qi so he could absorb it and increase his cultivation.
• Rather than suppressing the rumors, Feng Xu secretly encouraged Dashan and others to redirect them toward the Grand Commanders. The new rumors claimed that certain commanders were using Baleful Qi to pursue personal power, divide the tribe, or even collaborating with shapeshifting demons.
• As winter approached, the rumor campaign gradually quieted. Shortly afterward, Feng Xu held a three-day lecture on the Dao at a platform near the Nursery, which had been renamed Nurturing Mountain.
• Feng Xu taught general cultivation principles, natural knowledge, and methods of independent reasoning. He answered questions in an intentionally indirect way, encouraging the tribespeople to reach their own understanding.
• The lecture greatly increased Feng Xu’s reputation. Earlier accusations against him disappeared, and the people began viewing him as a wise, almost divine figure.
• Yunfeng used the occasion to appoint Feng Xu as a Sage.
• Feng Xu announced that the commanders would address the Baleful Qi problem after the spring plowing and urged those involved to confess and expose others. Repentant offenders would be spared harsher punishment but assigned compulsory labor.
• After the lecture, the Deputy Commanders carried news of the planned Baleful Qi purge back to their regions, strengthening public confidence in the lord’s leadership.
• Feng Xu, Iron Pillar, and Yunfeng began planning the clearing of new farmland. The tribe faced an approaching food shortage because of its rapidly growing population, especially the more than twenty thousand children in the Nursery.
• Feng Xu decided to return to the Eastern Wilderness in spring to obtain more grain. Iron Pillar volunteered to accompany him, and Feng Xu also requested that Dashan and the others join the journey for safety.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Demonstrates political cunning by manipulating rumors to weaken the Grand Commanders’ influence. He also establishes himself as an educator and spiritual authority, using the Dao lecture to win the people’s trust. His focus shifts toward solving the tribe’s practical problems, especially food production and supply.
• Iron Pillar: Remains loyal and protective of Feng Xu. Though initially shocked by Feng Xu’s willingness to encourage harmful rumors, he accepts the plan and continues supporting both the workshops and agricultural work.
• Yunfeng: Becomes increasingly aligned with Feng Xu. He recognizes Feng Xu’s influence and formally names him a Sage, while also helping organize the tribe’s agricultural expansion.
• Dashan and the other allies: Assist Feng Xu’s political strategy by spreading the revised rumors and are expected to accompany him to the Eastern Wilderness.
• The Grand Commanders and Deputy Commander Jian: Come under suspicion as Feng Xu’s rumor campaign turns public sentiment against them. Jian attempts to question Feng Xu about Baleful Qi, but Feng Xu responds cautiously without revealing too much.

Significant Themes

• Control of public opinion: Feng Xu uses rumors as a political weapon, showing that influence over public perception can be as important as physical strength.
• Leadership through knowledge: The Dao lecture establishes that teaching, guidance, and intellectual authority can strengthen a leader’s position more effectively than force.
• Education and independent thought: Feng Xu prefers encouraging people to solve problems themselves rather than simply giving them answers.
• Political legitimacy and public trust: By promising action against Baleful Qi and presenting himself as merciful toward repentant offenders, Feng Xu helps the lord’s faction gain popular support.
• Practical survival and development: Spiritual cultivation is balanced with concrete concerns such as farming, food shortages, population growth, and labor organization.
• Strategic ambiguity: Feng Xu deliberately avoids directly explaining sensitive matters, preserving room to maneuver while appearing wise and benevolent.

Character Interactions

• Iron Pillar warns Feng Xu about the original rumors, but Feng Xu reveals that he intentionally helped spread them.
• Feng Xu’s public lecture allows him to interact with the entire tribe, answering questions while cultivating an image of wisdom.
• An elderly tribesman asks about the source of the Baleful Qi, prompting Feng Xu to announce the planned purge.
• Deputy Commander Jian challenges Feng Xu about Baleful Qi and whether it can be resolved. Feng Xu gives a guarded response that subtly threatens those responsible while offering them a chance to surrender.
• Yunfeng formally elevates Feng Xu to the position of Sage, reinforcing their political alliance.
• Afterward, Yunfeng and Iron Pillar discuss the tribe’s agricultural and food-supply difficulties with Feng Xu, leading to the plan for his spring journey to the Eastern Wilderness.

Chapter Summary: “Encountering the White Ape Again”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu, Iron Pillar, and Dashan travel east toward the Eastern Wilderness, marking locations containing concealed Baleful Qi. Because of their limited time, they cannot eliminate the nests yet.
• Feng Xu explains that the Eastern Wilderness produces about twenty million jin of grain per season. After accounting for local needs and winter consumption, roughly ten million jin could be transported to aid the Central Wilderness.
• Feng Xu shares a broader plan to teach farming in the Northern and Southern Wildernesses, believing that widespread cultivation could end food shortages among the Human Race.
• While resting, the group is confronted by a massive White Ape they have encountered before. Feng Xu recognizes it and fights it himself.
• Using the Eight-Nine Mystical Art to assume a gigantic form, Feng Xu defeats the White Ape far more decisively than in their previous battle. His improved familiarity with the technique allows him to fight with much greater speed and control.
• Feng Xu persuades the White Ape to consider taking human form, explaining that its enormous body consumes excessive energy and limits its cultivation progress. The White Ape begins questioning its former pride and gradually becomes open to the idea.
• The group reaches the Eastern Wilderness Tribe at Vermilion Ridge. Feng Sui allocates thirteen million jin of grain to the Central Wilderness as repayment for its role in defending the rear territories from the Demon Race.
• Iron Pillar enthusiastically samples the Eastern Wilderness’s food, ordering every dish available in the cafeteria.
• Feng Xu inspects the Dharma Artifact factory, reviews its accounts and production lines, and points out several areas needing improvement.
• He visits Bamboo Mountain Academy and secretly leaves a copy of the Dao De Jing on Feng Yuqi’s desk. She recognizes his handwriting but chooses not to seek him out, instead having the teachers copy the book.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu demonstrates major growth in combat ability. His mastery of the Eight-Nine Mystical Art lets him overwhelm the White Ape, showing how quickly his practical skills have developed.
• He also reveals himself as a strategist and leader concerned with long-term stability: he plans agricultural expansion, supports the Central Wilderness with grain, and improves industrial production.
• Iron Pillar remains food-loving and practical, but his interest in farming and grain storage reflects his concern for the survival of the tribes. He also expresses a desire to return to his Northern Wilderness homeland.
• Dashan continues to prioritize the Central Wilderness and its starving people. Though embarrassed to accept aid, he accepts Feng Sui’s grain because his tribe desperately needs it.
• The White Ape suffers a crisis of confidence after being defeated. Its belief in the superiority of its natural strength weakens as it realizes that humans can surpass innate physical advantages through cultivation.
• Feng Sui demonstrates generosity and political awareness by providing more grain than originally expected, recognizing the Central Wilderness’s sacrifices.
• Feng Yuqi appears restrained and emotionally controlled. Although Feng Xu’s visit clearly affects her, she does not pursue him and instead focuses on preserving and sharing the knowledge he left behind.

Significant Themes

• Cultivation versus innate strength: The White Ape’s defeat illustrates that natural power alone is inferior to disciplined cultivation and adaptable techniques.
• Transformation and self-improvement: Taking human form symbolizes abandoning pride and accepting change in order to pursue a higher path.
• Resource management and collective survival: Grain production, storage, and distribution are treated as essential foundations of civilization and defense.
• Cooperation among regions: Feng Xu’s vision involves connecting the Great Wilderness through farming, trade, aid, and shared knowledge.
• Knowledge as a legacy: The Dao De Jing represents Feng Xu’s continued influence on education and culture, even when he avoids direct contact.
• Pride and humility: The White Ape must confront its arrogance, while the Eastern Wilderness demonstrates humility by supporting the Central Wilderness despite its own needs.

Character Interactions

• Feng Xu reassures Iron Pillar about the Eastern Wilderness’s food and encourages his agricultural ambitions.
• He discusses the future of the Great Wilderness with Iron Pillar, gaining his enthusiastic support.
• Feng Xu and the White Ape meet in combat again; after defeating it, Feng Xu acts as a teacher by explaining the advantages of human form and efficient cultivation.
• Iron Pillar and A-Da view the White Ape more sympathetically, suggesting that it might become an ally, though Feng Xu remains skeptical.
• Feng Sui and Dashan interact as representatives of cooperating regions, with Feng Sui framing the grain aid as repayment for the Central Wilderness’s defense of the wider Human Race.
• Feng Xu indirectly reconnects with Feng Yuqi by leaving her the Dao De Jing. Her decision not to meet him highlights the quiet emotional distance between them while also showing her respect for his knowledge and intentions.

Chapter Summary: “Confession”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Feng Xu, Iron Pillar, and A-Fei escort grain toward the Central Wilderness, which needs supplies for spring plowing. A-Fei and Dashan take the grain ahead while Feng Xu and Iron Pillar remain behind to eliminate Baleful Qi and corrupted beasts.
• Feng Xu confronts Iron Pillar, realizing that Iron Pillar has always known Feng Xu was the person selected to receive the Merit Mall. Iron Pillar explains that the System Advisor chose him after several previous candidates died.
• Iron Pillar reveals the abilities and limitations of his own cheat system: it is linked to Human Dao Destiny, can accelerate cultivation, and can temporarily grant him the highest cultivation realm among the Human Race, but he does not understand how to cultivate normally.
• Feng Xu teaches Iron Pillar the principles of cultivation, including how to refine spiritual energy rather than merely increase its quantity. After three days, Iron Pillar successfully understands the process.
• The Lord and Deputy Commander Chen conduct a coordinated campaign to destroy hidden Baleful Qi nests throughout the Central Great Wilderness. Because Feng Xu had previously marked their locations, the groups locate them with suspicious ease, alarming local commanders.
• In a secret earth-vein realm, a hidden commander and Captain Shi discuss the operation. The commander suspects Feng Xu has revealed the locations. To punish Captain Shi and test a new weapon, he forces him to merge with a Baleful Qi-corrupted beast.
• The experiment produces a powerful Fusion Baleful Fiend: a massive, three-headed tiger-like creature with eagle wings, a serpentine tail, and a human face resembling Captain Shi’s.
• Commander Mang and Deputy Commander Chen investigate the disturbance. The creature retains Captain Shi’s emotions and speech, crying out in pain and resentment while demanding that the commanders merge with it as well.

Character Developments

• Feng Xu: Becomes more open and trusting toward Iron Pillar. Though initially bitter about being manipulated into becoming the “poor sucker,” he ultimately chooses to teach Iron Pillar genuine cultivation techniques.
• Iron Pillar: Reveals the truth about his system and his lack of basic cultivation knowledge. His extraordinary abilities are shown to be powerful but inflexible, functioning more like automatically activated skills than techniques he truly understands. He begins overcoming this weakness through Feng Xu’s instruction.
• A-Fei and Dashan: Demonstrate responsibility by prioritizing the safe delivery of grain to the Central Wilderness.
• Captain Shi: Is betrayed and sacrificed by his commander. His desire for power leads directly to his forced transformation, leaving him trapped in a monstrous body while retaining much of his consciousness.
• The hidden commander: Is revealed as ruthless and exploitative, willing to sacrifice subordinates and conduct dangerous fusion experiments to create stronger Baleful Fiends.
• Commander Mang and Deputy Commander Chen: Become suspicious of one another and the hidden forces behind the Baleful Qi outbreak, particularly after seeing the creature’s resemblance to Captain Shi.

Significant Themes

• Trust between transmigrators: Feng Xu and Iron Pillar gradually move from mutual uncertainty to genuine cooperation, despite both possessing secrets and powerful abilities.
• The dangers of dependence on power: Iron Pillar’s cheat ability has allowed him to use techniques without understanding them, leaving him powerful but lacking flexibility and true mastery.
• Betrayal and exploitation: Captain Shi is sacrificed by the very commander he served, showing how ambition and hierarchy can turn allies into disposable tools.
• The loss of humanity: The Fusion Baleful Fiend preserves Captain Shi’s mind and emotions, making his transformation especially horrifying. His pain and resentment reveal the human suffering behind the monsters.
• Hidden knowledge and paranoia: Feng Xu’s prior knowledge of Baleful Qi locations causes commanders to question how much the Lord’s faction knows, increasing suspicion within the military structure.
• Cultivation as refinement: Feng Xu’s explanation of spiritual energy emphasizes that strength comes from refining and controlling power, not simply accumulating more of it.