Chapter Summaries

Chu Bai detected and reported Killing Intent seeping through the Law Net, earning ten Dao Merit points and learning more about its reach. After the Dao Academy announced the second monthly exam, he joined his roommates in preparing to compete for first place in Spell Arts as well as combat.

• Chu Bai sensed impurities in the spiritual qi, verified that the anomaly persisted, and stopped cultivating while he gathered monitoring records.
• Chu Bai reported the abnormal readings to Supervisor Chen, who confirmed that Killing Intent was seeping through several Law Net nodes and awarded him ten Dao Merit points.
• Chu Bai learned that the Law Net recorded cause and effect, good and evil, and wondered whether these concepts related to his Fate Destiny.
• Zhou Changkong announced that the second monthly exam would take place in ten days, with assessments in cultivation, precise Spell Arts control, and combat.
• Jiang Kuo proposed that Room Seven, Yi Block practice together, and Chu Bai decided to aim for first place in Spell Arts as well as combat.

During the second monthly examination, Chu Bai stunned the students and instructors by dominating both spell arts stages, surpassing Lin Xuewei and taking first place. His performance left Lin Xuewei bewildered and Tao Mingzhi struggling to accept how quickly Chu Bai had advanced.

• Lin Xuewei retained first place in the cultivation assessment, while Chu Bai placed third behind Tao Mingzhi.
• Instructor Ji Yu introduced the spell arts assessment, which tested precision by threading spell needles through moving rings and carving Water Cloud Spirit Crystal without physical contact.
• Tao Mingzhi passed all nine rings with a fire needle, but Lin Xuewei completed the stage faster and carved a lifelike seven-petaled lotus, earning an A in both stages.
• Chu Bai controlled three Spirit Water Needles through all nine rings in seventy percent of Lin Xuewei's time and received an A-plus for the first stage.
• Chu Bai used [Formless Cloud Hand] to carve a lifelike twelve-petaled lotus and earned full marks, taking first place in spell arts.
• Lin Xuewei looked defeated and bewildered, while Tao Mingzhi clenched his fists and wondered at Chu Bai's rapid improvement.

Chu Bai defeated Tao Mingzhi and another elite student in the practical combat assessment, securing first place in both Spell Arts and combat. He planned to use his Dao Merit to improve further, while recognizing that his cultivation still lagged behind the Aristocratic Clan students.

• Instructor Lei Lie announced Chu Bai's rematch with Tao Mingzhi, who had advanced to the threshold of Qi Refining Second Layer.
• Chu Bai dodged Tao Mingzhi's Blazing Sun Slash, redirected his follow-up with Formless Cloud Hand, and struck him down.
• Chu Bai defeated a wood-element specialist by dismantling his vine formation with precise palm strikes.
• Chu Bai placed first in Spell Arts and practical combat and third in cultivation realm, earning twenty Dao Merit.
• Chu Bai counted his remaining fifty Dao Merit and planned to save for another cultivation art or a defensive spell while trying to advance his cultivation.

Zhou Changkong announced that the Midyear Examination would bring the top ten students into the Spirit Pavilion to choose spiritual qi and earn other rewards. After dining on Spirit Cuisine with Jiang Kuo and his friends, Chu Bai crossed paths with Dong Feng, leaving their rivalry unresolved.

• Zhou Changkong told Class Three that the Midyear Examination would pit more than three hundred students against one another, with the top ten earning Spirit Pavilion access, Dao Merit, and a Spell Art.
• Chu Bai considered how rare spiritual qi could strengthen his Origin Return Formula and remembered Zhang Shan's warning that high rankings opened better opportunities in the second year.
• Jiang Kuo treated Chu Bai, Zhou Tong, and Chen Shi to Spirit Cuisine after placing tenth, and Chu Bai rapidly refined the meal's spiritual energy.
• Dong Feng arrived on the dining hall's second floor, exchanged a tense look with Chu Bai, and neither challenged the other because private duels were forbidden.

Chu Bai and his companions left the dining hall after a meal, where they encountered Li Han and heard his attempt to justify betraying Chu Bai to curry favor with Dong Feng. Chu Bai rejected Li Han’s explanation and declared that they would treat each other as strangers from then on.

• Chu Bai noticed Li Han eating alone as he descended from the dining hall’s second floor with Jiang Kuo, Zhou Tong, and Chen Shi.
• Li Han hurried after Chu Bai and apologized for exposing him to Dong Feng, claiming he had acted to survive in Class Two and help their fellow Anping students.
• Jiang Kuo accused Li Han of using Chu Bai as a shield to win favor with Dong Feng and challenged his claim that he had acted for others’ sake.
• Chu Bai told Li Han that they no longer had anything to do with each other and that they should treat one another as strangers at the Dao Academy.
• Chu Bai and his companions left, while Li Han remained in the doorway under the gaze of the other students.

Chu Bai strengthened his combat abilities and broke through to Qi Refining Second Layer after months of disciplined cultivation. With the Half-Year Grand Competition approaching, he set his sights on winning a high ranking and securing a place in the Spirit Pavilion.

• Chu Bai chose the Origin Guard Shield as his defensive spell art, completing a set with Spirit Water Needle and Formless Cloud Hand.
• Chu Bai spent his dao merit on daily Spirit Cuisine and saved the rest to buy pills as he steadily improved his cultivation.
• After more than two months of intense training, Chu Bai used Qi-Gathering Powder on Lone Peak and broke through to Qi Refining Second Layer.
• Chu Bai's spell power more than doubled, and his divine sense expanded from thirty feet to a hundred feet.
• Chu Bai resolved to fight for a high ranking in the Half-Year Grand Competition and earn a place in the Spirit Pavilion.

Chu Bai broke through to Qi Refining Second Layer and tested how his stronger Divine Sense and spells had improved. After reporting increased spiritual qi fluctuations near the Withered Well, he received Supervisor Chen’s advice about choosing a spiritual qi foundation before the Midyear Examination began.

• Chu Bai reached Qi Refining Second Layer, discovered his Divine Sense could sense details within ten zhang, and tested his strengthened Spirit Water Needle, Formless Cloud Hand, and Origin Guard Shield.
• Jiang Kuo, Zhou Tong, and Chen Shi noticed Chu Bai’s breakthrough, and Zhou Tong compared his progress with Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng.
• Chu Bai gave Supervisor Chen his monitoring report, noting increased fluctuations and three instances of node resonance near the Withered Well on the Back Mountain.
• Supervisor Chen recognized Chu Bai’s progress and warned him to consider his spiritual qi choice if he pursued the Scattering Spirit Dust path; Chu Bai said he would likely choose Pure-Origin Spiritual Qi.
• Supervisor Chen credited Chu Bai with another Dao Merit reward as a Teleportation Formation was assembled on the Martial Training Ground for the new students’ first contest.

The Dao Academy began its half-year competition, the Azure Prison Trial, in a spirit realm where new students had to compete alone. Chu Bai entered the realm aware that several students were watching him as a potential target.

• Chu Bai, Lin Xuewei, and Dong Feng showed off their progress at the second layer of Qi Refining during the student assembly.
• Superintendent Su announced that the competition would take place in the Azure Prison Spirit Realm and forbade students from cooperating.
• Superintendent Su branded every student with a Mind-Link Mark to track points, combat, and rule-breaking, then distributed supplies and maps.
• Superintendent Su noticed Chu Bai's refined spiritual sense and killing aura and remarked that the trial would be interesting.
• Superintendent Su and Supervisor Chen opened a rift with a Bronze Seal, and Chu Bai entered the realm as several students fixed their gazes on him.

Chu Bai hunted Demon Beasts in the Azure Prison Minor Realm, using the Origin Return Formula to withstand the realm’s harsh environment and battle without stopping to recover. After defeating a Qi Refining boar king, he reached 98th place and prepared to keep climbing the rankings.

• Chu Bai killed three Qi Induction Greenback Wolves and learned they earned him only three points, so he headed deeper in search of stronger prey.
• Chu Bai saw a fire-attribute student forced to retreat because the realm’s conditions drained and disrupted his spiritual energy.
• Chu Bai relied on the Origin Return Formula to absorb the realm’s varied energies and replenish his dantian without resting or using pills.
• Chu Bai confronted a herd of Spineback Boars, blocked their spines with his Origin Guard Shield, and swept through the herd with Formless Cloud Hand.
• Chu Bai turned the Qi Refining First Layer boar king’s charge against it and killed it with a water needle, raising his score to 150 points and his rank to 98th.

Chu Bai used his new fate pattern to detect and defeat a Class One student who ambushed him at Sword-Washing Spring. After taking half the boy’s points, Chu Bai recovered at the spring and set his sights on a higher rank.

• Chu Bai followed his map to Sword-Washing Spring, where Seven Killings in the Fate Palace alerted him to an ambush.
• Chu Bai evaded the Class One boy’s shadow-blade attack and forced him out of hiding with Formless Cloud Hand.
• Chu Bai used three Spirit Water Needles to break the boy’s shadow escape and threatened to continue fighting.
• The boy transferred half his points to Chu Bai and used his Teleportation Talisman to leave.
• Chu Bai’s points reached 210 and his rank rose to 35th; he drank from the spring and began recovering while aiming for the top ranks.

On the second day in the Azure Prison Spirit Realm, the environment turned into a fire-filled furnace as Chu Bai sensed a powerful cultivator disrupting the Law Net. At the Magma Lake, he defeated Tao Mingzhi through endurance and the Formless Cloud Hand, rising to eighth place as the realm grew more sinister.

• The sky turned red and the air filled with extreme fire energy and baleful smoke, while Chu Bai noticed stronger fluctuations in the Law Net.
• Chu Bai headed for the Magma Lake, where Tao Mingzhi challenged him, hoping to test his strength in the fire-aspected terrain.
• Chu Bai used the Formless Cloud Hand to redirect Tao Mingzhi's attack and countered his fire with the Origin Guard Shield.
• After a prolonged fight, Tao Mingzhi admitted defeat, transferred half his points to Chu Bai, and teleported away.
• Chu Bai's score rose to 1,260 and his rank to eighth, but he sensed that the changing realm would make the assessment more difficult.

At the Dao Academy, Superintendent Su used his Earth Smoke Fire to raise the danger inside the Azure Prison Spirit Realm, with Supervisor Chen's approval. Chu Bai faced an approaching Qi Refining Second Layer Shadow Beast and welcomed the life-or-death challenge.

• Superintendent Su praised Chu Bai's control, while Supervisor Liu favored the combat strength and resources of Aristocratic Clan disciples.
• Supervisor Chen agreed that the students needed a harder trial and authorized Superintendent Su to unleash his Earth Smoke Fire through the Law Net.
• Superintendent Su filled the Spirit Realm with baleful gray smoke, drove the Demon Beasts into madness, and summoned ten powerful Shadow Beasts.
• The Spirit Realm's students faced the sudden escalation, and Chu Bai's Fate Destiny and Mind-Link Mark warned him of danger.
• Chu Bai resisted the strengthened fire poison and prepared three Spirit Water Needles as a Qi Refining Second Layer Shadow Beast approached.

Earth Smoke Fire turned the Azure Prison Spirit Realm into a deadly trial that eliminated most of the students, while Chu Bai fought a powerful Smoke Fire Shadow Beast. Chu Bai pierced its defenses with a compressed Spirit Water Needle attack and prepared to strike again as the supervisors watched.

• Superintendent Su's Earth Smoke Fire corrupted the Spirit Realm, and more than half of the students were eliminated by the smoke and mutated Demon Beasts.
• Supervisor Liu predicted Dong Feng could endure the trial but doubted Chu Bai would last, while Supervisor Chen expressed confidence in Chu Bai.
• Chu Bai used the Formless Cloud Hand and Origin Guard Shield to survive the Smoke Fire Shadow Beast's attacks and wait for an opening.
• Chu Bai compressed a hundred Spirit Water Needles into one attack that pierced the Shadow Beast's defenses and weakened it.
• Chu Bai prepared another attack against the wounded Shadow Beast while the supervisors watched.

Jin Changyu fled a Smoke Fire Wolf while Chu Bai recovered from killing a Giant Rhinoceros and rose to second place. As night drove the smoke-fire beasts into a deadly encirclement, Jin Changyu, Dong Feng, Lin Xuewei, and another student reached Chu Bai and begged him for help.

• Jin Changyu escaped a Smoke Fire Wolf, then drew the attention of a Shadow Beast while fleeing through the smoke.
• Chu Bai replenished his spiritual power by eating and using Breath Regulation, impressing Superintendent Su and Zhou Changkong after defeating the Giant Rhinoceros.
• Chu Bai saw that he had 2,460 points and ranked second behind Dong Feng.
• At night, the smoke-fire toxicity doubled and Demon Beasts gathered into packs, shrinking the safe area around the spirit realm.
• Jin Changyu, Dong Feng, Lin Xuewei, and an unfamiliar student fled two giant Shadow Beasts toward Chu Bai, and the unfamiliar student cried out for help.

Chu Bai discovered that the Teleportation Formation had failed after a Shadow Beast burned a student to ashes, leaving the remaining students trapped with no way to escape. He rallied Jin Changyu, Dong Feng, and Lin Xuewei to face three Shadow Beasts, then accepted Dong Feng’s Golden Scale Armor before the battle began.

• Chu Bai watched a Shadow Beast kill a student with Shadowfire Burial, and the student did not teleport away.
• Chu Bai shielded Jin Changyu from the Shadow Beast’s attack and drove it back with Spirit Water Needles, then joined forces with Jin Changyu, Dong Feng, and Lin Xuewei.
• Chu Bai learned that Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng were nearly depleted while Jin Changyu still had strength, and ordered them to recover or hold a flank as he faced two Shadow Beasts.
• Dong Feng gave Chu Bai his partly powered Golden Scale Armor, saying it could block one blow, and Chu Bai put it on before ordering the others to recover for fifteen minutes.

Chu Bai and the others fought three Shadow Beasts in the Grand Canyon while Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng recovered. After Chu Bai defeated the beasts, his Mind-Link Mark displayed 4,830 points and first place, though he wondered whether the mark had ever malfunctioned.

• Chu Bai held off the Qi Refining Third Layer Shadow Beast while Jin Changyu distracted another, and Lin Xuewei and Dong Feng recovered.
• Lin Xuewei froze the Qi Refining Second Layer Shadow Beast attacking Chu Bai, and Chu Bai finished it with a Spirit Water Needle.
• Chu Bai fused hundreds of Spirit Water Needles into a powerful spear and pierced the Shadow Beast leader as it launched a black fireball.
• The three Shadow Beasts disappeared, and Dong Feng told Chu Bai he would challenge him for first place once they escaped.
• Chu Bai saw that his Mind-Link Mark listed 4,830 points and ranked him first, then questioned whether it had actually been broken.

Chu Bai and his classmates fought the Shadow Beasts in the Spirit Realm, where Lin Xuewei, Dong Feng, and Jin Changyu appeared to die before Chu Bai defeated the last beast and collapsed. He awoke at the Martial Training Ground and learned that the danger and injuries had been real, but the apparent deaths were projections created when students were teleported out, leaving him the undisputed winner of the Half-Year Grand Competition.

• Chu Bai accepted Lin Xuewei's Jade Sky Essence Pills, recovered, and returned the Golden Scale Armor to Dong Feng before the Shadow Beasts attacked again.
• Chu Bai and his companions fought five Shadow Beasts, then organized a plan to keep the two Qi Refining Third Layer leaders occupied while Chu Bai and Jin Changyu killed the weaker beasts.
• Lin Xuewei was engulfed by shadow flame, Dong Feng sacrificed himself in an explosion, and Jin Changyu was killed after helping defeat one of the leaders.
• Alone against the remaining leaders, Chu Bai drew in poisonous Earthsmoke Flame Fiend Qi and destroyed the final Shadow Beast with a giant Spirit Water Needle spear before collapsing.
• Chu Bai awoke at the Martial Training Ground as Superintendent Su healed him and learned the injuries were real while the deaths were projections of students already teleported out.

After winning the Midyear Examination, Chu Bai received generous rewards and learned about three possible Dao Foundation paths. Despite Zhou Changkong's warnings, he chose to pursue the dangerous Unsteady Root and prepare for the Five Phases path.

• Superintendent Su praised Chu Bai, announced him as the examination champion, and awarded him Dao Merit, a cultivation method, and three hundred double-hours in the Spirit Pavilion.
• Zhou Changkong explained the dangers and grades of Foundation Establishment, then advised Chu Bai to choose between Scattering Spirit Dust and Misty Dew.
• Supervisor Chen proposed the perilous Unsteady Root path, gave Chu Bai a black-iron token, and urged him to seek Geng Metal Baleful Qi in the Spirit Pavilion.
• Zhou Changkong warned Chu Bai that the Five Phases path could cost him his cultivation or life, but Chu Bai decided to take the risk.
• Zhou Changkong accepted Chu Bai's decision and urged him to go to the Spirit Pavilion and pursue the path.

Chu Bai cultivated Innate Geng Metal Qi in the Spirit Pavilion, then learned from Supervisor Chen that his conduct during the assessment had earned him a chance at an Immortal Clerk appointment. The appointment would grant a White Ordination and a direct path to Foundation Establishment without the Heavenly Examination.

• Chu Bai chose Innate Geng Metal Qi, absorbed a wisp of it in the Spirit Pavilion, and advanced his Qi Refining Second Layer cultivation.
• Chu Bai returned to the dormitory, discussed Dong Feng's change with his roommates, and treated them to Spirit Cuisine during the academy's three-day break.
• Chu Bai visited Supervisor Chen after choosing the Five Phases path, and Supervisor Chen recognized the Innate Geng Metal Qi within him.
• Chu Bai explained that the assessment tested the students' character and judgment, and Supervisor Chen praised his choices during the trials.
• Supervisor Chen told Chu Bai that he qualified for one of the class's Immortal Clerk appointments, which granted a White Ordination and bypassed the Heavenly Examination.

Chu Bai learned that the cosmic cycle wheel was the ultimate five-phase Dao foundation and began cultivating metal energy to build toward it. After choosing Golden Eye Illusion-Breaker as his offensive spell, he mastered the first stage of innate Geng metal qi and prepared for practical combat training.

• Supervisor Chen explained the five virtues chariot and cosmic cycle wheel, then advised Chu Bai to cultivate innate Geng metal qi before seeking withered-and-flourishing azure qi.
• Chu Bai visited the Spell Transmission Pavilion and chose Golden Eye Illusion-Breaker for its powerful attack and ability to see through illusions and perceive energy.
• Over the next month, Chu Bai spent a hundred double-hours in the Grade A Blessed Land and established a foundation of innate Geng metal qi.
• Chu Bai ate spirit cuisine to recover and support his cultivation, reaching Qi Refining second layer with twenty-seven percent progress and improving his spell arts.
• Chu Bai reviewed his progress and headed to the Martial Training Ground, intent on using his remaining blessed-land time to strengthen Golden Eye Illusion-Breaker.