Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan, a champion esports player, dies in a plane crash and awakens in the body of a high-school senior—only to discover he is pinned high above a river by a sword and is bleeding to death.
• At the brink of death, he awakens an ability that transports him into a game-like “match” set three hours earlier. The objective is to stop the kidnappers responsible for his body’s death; failure means death, while success promises survival and a reward.
• A guidance system opens a temporary armory stocked with weapons. Xu Yuan recognizes them as familiar equipment from the realistic shooter games he played and prepares for the attackers’ arrival.
• At the school, he ambushes the human-trafficking gang as they enter, killing two with a sniper rifle and destroying another group with a grenade disguised as a dart.
• He then learns that a second squad has abducted a girl he considers a friend. He intercepts their van, uses a rocket to stop it without hitting the hostage, and kills four kidnappers with rapid, unscoped sniper shots.
• Xu Yuan rescues the girl and completes the beginner mission. He flees with her, throwing more grenades behind him to destroy evidence.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan moves from shock and despair at his seemingly unavoidable second death to focused confidence once he realizes the crisis has become a match. His esports experience translates into calm aim, tactical planning, and quick decisions.
• His humor and irreverence persist under pressure: he treats deadly combat like a competition he would rather finish early, even as he shows enough judgment to avoid striking the hostage.
• The rescued girl is identified as Xu Yuan’s friend, though her relationship with him is not yet explained; she remains unconscious during the rescue.

Significant themes

• Second chances and survival: The match gives Xu Yuan an opportunity to change the events that killed his predecessor.
• Gaming skill applied to reality: Familiar rules, equipment, and tactical instincts help him survive, but the system emphasizes that the danger and consequences are real.
• Humor amid danger: Xu Yuan’s casual commentary and jokes contrast sharply with the violence, revealing his coping style and distinctive personality.
• Responsibility and unintended consequences: Skipping his planned visit to the gym changes events, leading to his friend’s kidnapping and forcing him to act beyond the original objective.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan interacts chiefly with the match’s guidance system, which supplies objectives, enemy information, warnings, and access to weapons.
• He confronts the kidnappers through ambushes and brief exchanges among the gang, repeatedly disrupting their plans.
• He rescues his friend from the van; she is unconscious and does not speak in the chapter.

Key plot points

• After escaping the kidnappers, Xu Yuan’s match system confirms his new identity and renames his shop the Apprentice Qi Refiner’s Battle Prep Room. A beginner’s gift pack is on the way.
• A young woman wakes in his arms. She returns a love letter supposedly written by the original Xu Yuan, but Xu Yuan doubts he wrote it and throws it away.
• The gymnasium lights go out, and the system announces a new, harder investigation match about the events that led to Xu Yuan’s death.
• A six-armed, weapon-wielding attacker appears and says he has come to kill Xu Yuan. With no weapon or supplies available, Xu Yuan seems hopelessly outmatched.
• Offered a choice between the investigation and a Nightmare-difficulty cage match, Xu Yuan embraces the danger rather than fearing death. Just as the attacker strikes, Xu Yuan activates his ability and enters the Hard investigation match, set three days earlier, to discover why the original Xu Yuan was killed.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan shifts from relief at securing a new identity to alarm at the escalating danger. His esports experience and appetite for competition eventually overcome his fear: he sees the strange world as an exciting arena and accepts the risk.
• The girl gently encourages Xu Yuan to cultivate qi and enter university, but her returned letter leaves him puzzled about the original Xu Yuan’s past.
• The six-armed attacker is contemptuous and confident, offering Xu Yuan a “clean death.” Xu Yuan’s irreverent replies unsettle him, but the confrontation ends before the fight begins.

Significant themes

• Survival through adaptation: Xu Yuan’s ability turns an apparently unwinnable attack into an investigation that may reveal how to prevent his death.
• Choice and courage: Facing a lethal threat, Xu Yuan chooses to engage with the challenge rather than simply surrender.
• Identity and hidden history: Xu Yuan has inherited a life whose past—including the love letter and the circumstances of his death—remains unclear.
• Escalating stakes: The move from an Easy match to Hard and Nightmare challenges signals that surviving one danger has only exposed deeper threats.

Key events

• Xu Yuan is pulled back from the moment a six-armed monster is about to kill him and awakens in his classroom three days earlier.
• His shop’s delayed gift pack contains a Blank Historical Branch, which can make a plausible written wish real by creating a secret personal history.
• After his first wish—“Please grant me one hundred wishes”—is rejected, he writes “Grow stronger.” The branch invents years of hidden training and grants him Qi Refining First Layer.
• Xu Yuan discovers he can sense and control spiritual energy, enhance his physical abilities, and even walk on a wall. The experience leaves him thrilled by the possibilities of cultivation.
• The shop is now called the Qi Refiners’ Combat Prep Room. He also receives a Final Enlightenment Ring, which increases Qi Refining cultivation speed by 30%. It is one of a two-piece set, and its promised “Identity Legacy” has not yet appeared.
• Back in class, Xu Yuan confronts the reality that he is still a senior student, with 191 days until the college entrance exam—and bewildering alchemy homework.

Character development

• Xu Yuan shifts from desperate survival to newfound confidence and excitement as he gains genuine cultivation power.
• He remains irreverent and humorous, joking about wish-granting, anime powers, and the absurdity of repeating high school after transmigrating.
• His excitement gives way to reluctant recognition that strength alone will not spare him from studying or the demands of his new life.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan’s classmates remain focused on their work and barely react when he returns; his sleeping deskmate is part of the quiet classroom scene.
• The branch’s generated history names Yang Xiaobing as the secret witness to Xu Yuan’s supposed years of training, though Xu Yuan has no direct interaction with him in this chapter.
• Xu Yuan’s main exchanges are with the mysterious shop and its gift items, which guide his growing power but leave important questions unanswered.

Significant themes

• Power and reinvention: A fabricated past becomes real, giving Xu Yuan a new foundation and reshaping his future.
• Humor amid danger: Xu Yuan’s jokes temper the chapter’s lethal opening and the strangeness of his circumstances.
• The persistence of ordinary obligations: Even after gaining supernatural abilities, he still faces school, exams, and homework.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan studies alchemy, recalling and organizing his old knowledge. The breadth of the subject makes him take his studies more seriously.
• His friend Zhao Afei sends him a Message-Passing Talisman, recommending a book called Thirty-Six Stratagems of Love because he thinks Xu Yuan intends to write Yang Xiaobing a love letter.
• Xu Yuan learns that someone has spread the rumor that he plans to confess to Yang. The rumor recalls the earlier incident in which Yang returned a letter written in his name, damaging their friendship. Xu Yuan suspects another fake letter may be involved.
• Their teacher announces that the Eight-School Joint Examination begins the next morning. The exam includes written tests and a team battle worth 60 percent of the grade. In this cultivation-based school system, reaching Qi Refining is also essential for university admission.
• Xu Yuan defends Zhao Afei when Li Tao mocks him, turning the insult back on Li Tao.
• After class, Yang meets Xu Yuan. He tactfully warns her that someone may write a letter pretending to be him. She reveals she had planned to team up with him for the exam, despite turning down other invitations.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan becomes more focused and humble about his studies, while using his knowledge of the original timeline to anticipate trouble. He also shows loyalty by standing up for Zhao Afei.
• Zhao Afei remains playful and eager to help, but his joke about dual cultivation draws criticism from Li Tao.
• Yang Xiaobing is shown to be both popular and considerate: she had intended to support Xu Yuan in the team battle.
• Li Tao is exposed as a show-off whose teasing backfires when Xu Yuan challenges him.

Significant themes

• Education and cultivation: Mastery requires sustained study, and academic performance is closely tied to one’s future in the cultivation world.
• Rumors and trust: The false love-letter story has strained Xu Yuan and Yang’s friendship, showing how easily misinformation can cause harm.
• Second chances and foresight: Xu Yuan uses knowledge of past events to intervene before the situation worsens.
• Loyalty and social courage: Xu Yuan protects his friend rather than letting a classmate bully him.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan and Zhao Afei exchange notes through talismans, echoing ordinary classroom mischief in a magical setting.
• Xu Yuan confronts Li Tao’s mockery and helps Zhao Afei save face.
• Xu Yuan and Yang speak privately on the walk home, clarifying the rumor and revealing that she had wanted him on her exam team.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan and Yang Xiaobing realize someone has spread rumors about them, but agree not to let the gossip disrupt their upcoming monthly exam and team plans.
• Yang reveals she has reached the third level of Qi Refining and impressed the Nine Luminaries and Luofu with remarkable talent in talisman arts and spirit plants. She tells Xu Yuan about her admissions tests, trusting him with a personal secret.
• They clear up the misunderstanding caused by a fake love letter. Yang asks Xu Yuan to team up with her for the group battle, and he agrees. They plan to recruit Zhao Afei and another teammate.
• Yang mentions that Jiang Xueyao invited her to join a different team, but she has already chosen Xu Yuan.
• Song Huaijin challenges Yang’s choice, claiming Xu Yuan will hold her back. When Song threatens to pursue Xu Yuan, Yang knocks him back with a talisman and stands ready to fight him with a Thunder-Summoning Talisman. Jiang Xueyao intervenes, and Song withdraws.
• Jiang warns Yang not to let sympathy jeopardize her future. Yang defends Xu Yuan, saying he has secretly reached the first level of Qi Refining and is a formidable fighter.
• As Xu Yuan heads to the hospital, a system notice declares that Yang has made his branch history part of the main history—and that events over the next three days will begin to shift unpredictably.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is relieved to repair his friendship with Yang and becomes more deliberate about preparing for both the team battle and university entrance exams. He suspects the fake letter hurt Yang as well as himself and remains alert to whoever caused it.
• Yang Xiaobing shows deep loyalty to Xu Yuan, shares her achievements and private admissions information, and defends his right to be her teammate—even against Song’s pressure.
• Song Huaijin acts possessively and looks down on Xu Yuan, but backs down when Yang threatens him with a powerful talisman.
• Jiang Xueyao, a celebrated sword prodigy, is cautious and pragmatic. Though she questions Xu Yuan’s ability and urges Yang to prioritize her future, she stops the confrontation before it escalates.

Significant themes

• Trust and loyalty: Yang’s confidence in Xu Yuan outweighs social pressure and others’ doubts.
• Rumors and their consequences: The fake letter has strained relationships and may have altered the course of events.
• Hidden potential and recognition: Xu Yuan’s cultivation has gone unnoticed, while Yang’s unusual talents attract elite universities.
• Agency and changing fate: Yang’s choice is formally recorded as part of the “main history,” suggesting personal decisions can reshape the larger timeline.

Plot points

• While waiting at City Central Hospital for his mother’s treatment to finish, Xu Yuan studies artifact-refining exercises and thinks about the coming night, when his predecessor was abducted and killed.
• A black figure repeatedly appears at the edge of his vision, vanishing whenever he looks directly at it. Xu Yuan checks his combat-preparation shop and discovers he can spend a coin to refresh its stock.
• He buys a short saber, Night Walk, and a protective alchemy robe appears as another option. A passing group temporarily makes the shadow disappear, but it returns and whispers to Xu Yuan.
• Xu Yuan strikes first. Though his saber and Sword Qi pass through the figure without harming it, he demonstrates exceptional combat skill. The shadow evades his attacks, vanishes, and tells him to follow.
• The figure reveals that it intends to kill him and gives him ten seconds to survive. Xu Yuan responds with Flying Swallow Chain, unleashing five Sword Qi strikes, then uses Pillfire: Furnace Incineration to attack where the shadow is about to land.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan is cautious but resourceful: he keeps studying, investigates the shop’s mechanics, and quickly equips himself once he sees a threat.
• His esports-honed reflexes and combat instincts combine with the body’s memories and newly available spiritual energy. He performs a sword technique far beyond the original Xu Yuan’s usual ability and improvises a precise follow-up attack.
• His concern for his mother remains evident in his brief phone call, during which he tells her he has gone home so she can rest.

Character interactions

• The nurse kindly suggests Xu Yuan go home, but he chooses to wait nearby.
• The shadow silently watches and taunts him, dodges his attacks, and eventually announces its intent to kill him.
• During the encounter, Xu Yuan’s mother calls; the shadow allows him to answer before starting its ten-second challenge.

Significant themes

• Adaptation under pressure: Xu Yuan turns an unfamiliar shop and his new cultivation abilities into practical tools.
• Skill and instinct: His competitive-gaming reflexes prove valuable in a life-or-death fight.
• Appearance versus reality: The shadow’s eerie presence is hard to detect, and Xu Yuan’s attacks seem ineffective—yet he keeps observing and adjusting.
• Ordinary life beside danger: Homework, hospital routines, and family concern continue even as a deadly confrontation begins.
  The chapter ends with Xu Yuan’s fire attack in motion; its effect is not yet revealed.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan’s attacks—Sword Qi and pill fire—fail against the dark figure, which can teleport and pass through flames. As he tries to escape, the figure says it is not actually in the hospital and challenges him to find where it is.
• Xu Yuan realizes the figure is inside his left eyeball, formed from the black incantations there. It then opens a mist-filled passage where the restroom mirror had been.
• The figure warns that Xu Yuan is in danger but offers no explanation beyond a broken hint: something will happen soon. Remembering that he is fated to be killed by a flying sword in three days, Xu Yuan decides the passage may be his only chance and enters.
• In the foggy, nearly empty world beyond the mirror, Xu Yuan finds a bronze man covered in twenty-seven holes and holding an unusual hand seal. As the world begins to dissolve, wind passing through the holes produces rhythmic sounds.
• Xu Yuan deduces that the bronze man demonstrates a technique: spiritual energy could circulate through the holes as a pathway, guided by the hand seal. The world then vanishes, and he finds himself back in the hospital, holding his study book.
• His call history confirms that he really did speak with his mother shortly before the attack, convincing him that the experience was real.

Character development and interactions

• Xu Yuan moves from panic and attempted escape to careful reasoning. He recognizes that the figure is testing him, identifies its location, weighs the danger of entering the passage, and studies the bronze man instead of surrendering to fear.
• The dark figure is both threatening and apparently instructive: it effortlessly defeats Xu Yuan’s attacks, gives him a cryptic warning, and leads him to the technique before disappearing.
• Xu Yuan’s thoughts about his death in three days shape his decision to enter the unknown rather than simply flee.

Significant themes

• Perception and reality: The mirror, the figure inside Xu Yuan’s eye, and the return to the ordinary hospital blur the boundary between physical reality and an uncanny inner world.
• Survival through knowledge: Xu Yuan cannot overpower the figure, but his ability to observe and infer reveals the purpose of the bronze man.
• Fate and choice: Faced with a predicted death, Xu Yuan chooses a dangerous, uncertain path in pursuit of a possible way to survive.
• Hidden meaning: The strange world seems to operate by rules Xu Yuan can uncover, even as its power and purpose remain mysterious.

Key plot points and events

• After a strange shadow appears to place an unfamiliar technique in Xu Yuan’s eye, he decides not to learn it because he does not understand what it is or whether the shadow can be trusted.
• Yang Mingfu gives Xu Yuan a recommendation for cultivation guidance at Jade Balance University, arranged by Xu Yuan’s father. Xu Yuan tears it up after recalling that the professor is expected to embarrass him publicly at an exam observation the next day.
• At home, Xu Yuan cooks, eats, and studies, still wondering why the shadow chose to teach him a technique.
• A late-night joint police and Investigation Bureau inspection begins in the residential compound. The unusually large number of vehicles and the late hour make Xu Yuan suspect something is wrong.
• While checking the apartment, Xu Yuan finds a bound, desiccated corpse beneath the sofa. As officers announce they will break through the door’s protective array, he realizes they are about to discover it.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan is increasingly cautious and observant: he questions both the shadow’s motives and the suspicious inspection rather than accepting events at face value.
• He rejects the path his father arranged at Jade Balance, signaling that he intends to make his own choices.
• His composure gives way to panic when he finds the corpse, and he struggles to devise any way to conceal or explain it.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and hidden motives: The shadow’s gift, the professor’s hostility, and the corpse’s presence all raise questions about unseen agendas.
• Fate versus personal choice: Xu Yuan’s memories suggest a difficult future, but he resists being directed toward Jade Balance.
• Ordinary life amid the extraordinary: Cooking noodles and doing homework continue alongside dangerous supernatural events.
• Appearance and suspicion: A routine inspection may not be routine, while the corpse makes Xu Yuan appear implicated in something he may not understand.

Character interactions

• Yang Mingfu warmly delivers the recommendation on Xu Yuan’s father’s behalf, but Xu Yuan conceals his doubts and later rejects it.
• Xu Yuan’s parents remain absent, though their influence is evident in the cultivation guidance and the apartment’s protective array.
• Police and Investigation Bureau officers patiently explain the inspection to neighbors, then decide to force entry at Xu Yuan’s apartment—turning his private discovery into an imminent crisis.

Plot points and events

• Police arrive to inspect Xu Yuan’s apartment for illegal formation disks. With a dried, blood-marked corpse in the room, Xu fears they will mistake him for an evil cultivator.
• Recalling a mysterious figure’s warning that he must quickly learn its technique to survive, Xu uses the Bronze Man Technique. The corpse—and the evidence of what happened—disappears into a dark, icy mist in his bedroom.
• Xu conceals the scene by acting like an ordinary student: he wears headphones, does homework, and pretends not to have heard the officers. They inspect the apartment, find only a teddy bear under the sofa, and leave after promising compensation for the broken door.
• The match announces that Xu has won the first half on Hard difficulty. His reward is a “Blank Historical Branch,” which can make a plausible wished-for event real, and a voucher for random rare merchandise.
• The second half will begin in twelve hours at Nightmare difficulty; failure means death. Xu uses the blank branch to establish that he once encountered the Bronze Man Technique and learned everything about it, giving himself secret knowledge that may help him survive.

Character development

• Xu moves from panic to calculated action, using his memory of the warning and the technique to avert immediate disaster.
• He proves resourceful at maintaining a convincing cover, though his exaggerated headphones-and-homework act also supplies comic relief.
• Faced with a deadly new challenge, he shifts quickly from fear to planning, choosing to investigate the technique that may be his best means of survival.

Character interactions

• Xu’s interaction with the police is deliberately ordinary: he acts confused and anxious about the broken door while they conduct their inspection.
• The investigators’ suspicion briefly centers on the sofa, but the teddy bear beneath it ends the search without exposing Xu’s secret.
• Xu’s choices are shaped by the mysterious figure’s urgent warning, whose words continue to echo in his thoughts after the officers leave.

Significant themes

• Survival through improvisation: Xu turns a dangerous situation into an opportunity by acting quickly and using what he has learned.
• Appearance and deception: His ordinary-student performance protects him from suspicion, while the true supernatural events remain hidden.
• Knowledge as power: The new historical branch lets Xu acquire crucial personal knowledge without changing the past.
• Rising stakes and uncertainty: Winning the first half brings valuable rewards, but the Nightmare-level second half makes clear that survival is far from assured.

Plot points

• A newly unlocked memory reveals that, when Xu Yuan was seven, his father rescued him from a mist-filled world and promised to teach him Netherworld Passage through their bloodline once Xu Yuan awakened spiritual power. Xu Yuan realizes this explains the technique and the shadow in his eye.
• He tries calling his father, but gets no answer, likely because his archaeologist parents are inside a ruin. After finishing his homework, he uses a Rare-grade voucher in the Combat Prep Room to obtain a Marrow-Cleansing Pill.
• The pill expels impurities, improves his cultivation aptitude, and advances him from Qi Refining First Layer to Second Layer. He practices his high-school cultivation techniques through the night but postpones testing Netherworld Passage because his front door is unsecured.
• In the morning, he visits his hospitalized mother, Zhao Shulan, and demonstrates that he has mastered the highest level of the Swallow Song Sword Art, releasing eight streaks of Sword Qi. She is overwhelmed with pride and relief.
• Xu Yuan reaches school just before study hall. His homeroom teacher announces that the group battle exam begins at nine.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan becomes more connected to his past, recognizing that his father’s secret technique was an act of parental care. Though the word “father” still feels unfamiliar, he is moved and wants to contact him.
• The Marrow-Cleansing Pill gives Xu Yuan a major physical and cultivation breakthrough, sharpening his senses and confidence. He remains cautious about experimenting with Netherworld Passage in an unsafe home.
• Xu Yuan shows tenderness and responsibility toward his mother, feeding her breakfast and reassuring her about school. His swordsmanship demonstration gives Zhao Shulan renewed hope.
• Xu Yuan’s easy teasing with his best friend, Zhao Afei, reveals their familiar rivalry: Xu Yuan claims he will teach Afei alchemy, while Afei insists he should be the teacher. They quickly fall silent when their homeroom teacher arrives.

Significant themes

• Family bonds and inherited knowledge: Xu Yuan’s father’s promise and Zhao Shulan’s pride show how parental care shapes his path.
• Growth through effort and opportunity: The rare pill accelerates Xu Yuan’s progress, while his overnight practice reflects his determination.
• Responsibility amid ambition: Xu Yuan pursues cultivation and academic success while continuing to care for his ill mother.
• A new challenge ahead: His advancement and sword mastery raise his prospects, but the upcoming group battle exam will test them.

Key plot points and events

• On the morning of the monthly exam, the homeroom teacher reminds the final-year students to review, gather on the field, and perform well for university representatives.
• Xu Yuan gets a high-grade Grain-Repelling Pill from his wealthy best friend, Zhao Afei, who asks him to help their team do well. Afei also lends Xu his excellent-grade sword, Graceful Shadow.
• Xu Yuan sells his unsuitable dagger through a mysterious shop, refreshes its stock, and buys the excellent-grade longsword Swift Wind. He learns the shop can only be upgraded by winning a difficult-level match, and suspects his cultivation progress alone won’t change it.
• On the rooftop, Jiang Xueyao shows Yang Xiaobing a love letter supposedly written by Xu Yuan. Yang trusts Xu and destroys it; Jiang believes Song Huaijin, who claims the letter was found in Xu’s desk. The two disagree about who is lying.
• As students head to the field, Jiang decides to settle the dispute by testing Xu. She leaps from the rooftop and strikes at him without warning. Xu draws his sword and blocks her attack.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan remains resourceful and eager for combat, balancing exam preparation with experimenting with the shop. His circumstances contrast with Afei’s wealth, though their friendship is close and generous.
• Zhao Afei shows loyalty to Xu and resentment toward relatives who look down on him; he hopes to prove himself in the team battle.
• Yang Xiaobing firmly trusts Xu, even when evidence appears to implicate him. She is unsettled by Jiang’s sudden, dangerous test.
• Jiang Xueyao is poised and decisive, but her concern for Xiaobing is evident. Rather than investigate Song Huaijin directly, she chooses to test Xu with her sword, implying she wants a clear answer about his ability and honesty.

Significant themes

• Trust versus evidence: Yang and Jiang place faith in different people, making the love-letter accusation a test of loyalty as much as truth.
• Competition and self-improvement: The monthly exam, team battle, and shop’s difficult-match upgrade all push Xu toward proving himself.
• Privilege and friendship: Afei’s expensive gear highlights the gap between his wealth and Xu’s hardships, while their bond bridges that divide.
• Truth tested through action: Jiang’s belief that one sword strike can expose a lie turns an argument into a literal confrontation.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan and Jiang Xueyao engage in a fierce sword duel along the outside walls of the teaching building, thrilling the watching students. Their Sword Qi attacks are evenly matched, and the building’s protective array activates in response.
• Jiang Xueyao fights because Song Huaijin convinced her Xu Yuan was a lazy parasite who was ruining Yang Xiaobing. As the duel continues, she realizes Song’s claims were misleading.
• Xu Yuan draws on his combat instincts and sword training to keep pace with Jiang. The relentless fight sharpens his experience and brings out his growing skill.
• Jiang appears to win when she knocks Xu Yuan’s sword away, but Xu turns the moment around with a punch and a concealed Pill Flame spell. He retrieves his falling sword, revealing how carefully he anticipated the exchange.
• Excited by Xu’s tactical ability, Jiang presses for a final deciding strike. Yang Xiaobing tries to stop them, but they charge at each other anyway.
• The duel ends when Xu’s recently purchased sword snaps during their last clash. Neither is injured, and the outcome remains unsettled; Xu is mainly upset about the cost of replacing it.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan proves he is far more capable than his reputation suggests. He demonstrates composure, adaptability, strong battle instincts, and the ability to combine swordsmanship with spellcasting.
• Jiang Xueyao shifts from anger and suspicion to respect and exhilaration. She recognizes Xu as a worthy opponent and becomes absorbed in the challenge of fighting him.
• Yang Xiaobing watches anxiously and shows faith in Xu, believing he will not be easily defeated.
• Song Huaijin’s accusations are exposed as unreliable, even though he is not present in the duel.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Xu’s supposed laziness and lack of ability conceal genuine skill and discipline.
• Trust and manipulation: Jiang realizes she was misled by Song’s account of Xu.
• Competition and mutual respect: A fierce contest allows Jiang and Xu to recognize each other’s strengths.
• Adaptability under pressure: Xu’s ability to turn a losing position around is as important as his swordsmanship.

Character interactions

• Xu and Jiang’s duel moves from hostility to a spirited, respectful contest, with both matching and challenging the other’s techniques.
• Yang Xiaobing supports Xu from the sidelines and urgently calls for the fighters to stop.
• Jiang’s changing view of Xu contrasts with Song Huaijin’s negative portrayal of him.

Plot points and events

• Jiang Xueyao gives Xu Yuan Jade Clip, a rare-grade sword, to replace the weapon she broke during their rooftop fight.
• She asks how he fought. Xu explains that he relies on instinct: practicing until techniques become automatic can be faster than thinking through a strategy mid-battle. Impressed that he survived Jade Clip’s special strike, Jiang says he has earned the sword.
• Jiang leaves, convinced Xu and Yang Xiaobing genuinely trust one another. She realizes she may have misread their motives and believed they were trying to recruit Xiaobing by deceiving her.
• At the school gate, Jiang’s attendants deliver another sword, Crimson Sky. Her household has cautioned her not to kill anyone; she bristles at the implication.
• Xu returns to the athletic field with Jade Clip. The students assume it is a romantic gift, but he explains it was compensation. He invites Zhao Afei to join his and Xiaobing’s team.
• Teams of four are being formed for the monthly exam. Xiaobing expects Zhao to supply pills, while Zhao says he has prepared mechanisms and traps and will rely on her in a fight.
• Xu converts the exam into a competition. The system announces the Eight-School Joint Examination, with rewards tied to performance and observers from powerful factions watching. Success could affect a later nightmare-level competition; failure will send Xu directly into one.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is practical and candid, sharing his belief in instinctive skill and seizing the chance to turn the exam into a source of rewards. He is delighted to gain a valuable sword and focuses on building strength.
• Jiang Xueyao moves from suspicion to respect for Xu’s ability and his bond with Xiaobing. Her mistaken assumptions leave her embarrassed, though she remains proud and formidable.
• Yang Xiaobing supports Xu and helps explain their sparring to him afterward; she also welcomes Zhao as a teammate.
• Zhao Afei joins the team eagerly, bringing pills and traps rather than relying on direct combat.
• The group’s banter—especially Zhao’s excited reaction to being struck with Jiang’s sword—adds humor as the exam begins.

Significant themes

• Instinct through practice: Repetition can make action faster and more reliable than conscious planning.
• Trust and misjudgment: Jiang’s assumptions contrast with the straightforward trust between Xu and Xiaobing.
• Preparation and resources: Skill matters, but Xu recognizes the need for equipment, money, and teamwork.
• Competition under observation: The exam is not merely a school test; unseen factions may judge the students, and its outcome could shape future events.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan realizes the eight-school joint exam may affect his survival in an upcoming nightmare-level challenge. Since university representatives are watching, a perfect result could attract protection from a major university or sect.
• As the team competition approaches, Jiang Xueyao confronts Song Huaijin and Li Tao under the guise of a warm-up. Her single sword strike leaves Li Tao unconscious and Song badly injured.
• Jiang reveals she knows Song’s role in the love-letter deception and condemns him for lying and underestimating Xu Yuan. She ends their relationship and warns him not to approach her again.
• Teachers confirm the fight was presented as a warm-up, but both injured students are removed from the exam. Song realizes he has lost his chance to compete—and Jiang’s trust.
• Xu Yuan, Yang Xiaobing, and Zhao Afei form a team and need one more member. Xu suggests Jiang, but she refuses, insisting she wants to fight him again. Xu tells Yang to say he’ll avoid Jiang forever unless she joins.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan becomes more focused on achieving a perfect score, seeing the exam as a way to secure powerful protection. He remains eager to fight Jiang but uses that rivalry to try to recruit her.
• Jiang Xueyao shows her formidable strength and her anger at Song’s betrayal. She cuts ties with him and redirects her attention toward challenging Xu Yuan.
• Song Huaijin is exposed as deceitful and is left injured, disqualified, and estranged from Jiang.
• Yang Xiaobing protects Jiang by keeping the incident’s background from Xu Yuan, then tries to recruit her.
• Zhao Afei silently listens, fascinated by the unfolding gossip.

Significant themes

• Competition and survival: Exam performance may determine access to influential institutions and protection.
• Trust and betrayal: Jiang’s anger stems less from the fight itself than from Song’s deception and his role in undermining Xu Yuan.
• Power and consequences: Jiang’s overwhelming strength settles the confrontation physically, while the exam rules and witnesses determine its official outcome.
• Rivalry as motivation: Jiang’s desire to fight Xu Yuan becomes a potential way to bring her onto his team.

Plot and events

• Before the monthly exam, Xu Yuan persuades Yang Xiaobing to recruit Jiang Xueyao to their team. Jiang agrees in exchange for Xu Yuan fighting her ten times after the exam. Xu Yuan accepts, though privately he has no intention of risking a duel before an exam that may affect his survival.
• Officials reveal the exam will use a newly completed artifact, the Zhou Tian Instrument, to place students inside a constructed but realistic historical event. Thirty-six teachers activate the formation, sending students from eight schools into the simulation.
• Xu Yuan’s team appears in a ruined, snow-covered city under attack. They recognize it as the slaughter of Northern Frontier City by demons and monsters ten years earlier—a traumatic event whose discussion was suppressed.
• As the group takes in the destruction, Xu Yuan senses a strange, otherworldly presence. He sees a many-legged woman clinging to a building, who silently mouths, “Release me from suffering.” When he warns the others, the figure has vanished; no one else saw or heard her.
• Xu Yuan conceals what happened, reasoning that an unknown ability could be valuable—and dangerous—especially with observers from powerful factions watching the exam.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is pragmatic and strategic: he recruits Jiang for the team while planning to prioritize the exam over her challenge. His experience with the Netherworld Communion Technique helps him recognize the apparition’s unnatural aura. Though frightened, he hides his discovery and becomes wary of surveillance.
• Jiang Xueyao remains cool and self-possessed, joining the team on her own terms and demanding ten future fights with Xu Yuan.
• Yang Xiaobing acts as the team’s intermediary, bringing Jiang over and completing the team registration.
• Zhao Afei provides practical support, burning an attacking human-skin creature with his Cinnabar Flame Art. He also notices Xu Yuan’s alarm but accepts his explanation.
• The four begin as a newly assembled team, with Xu Yuan effectively taking the lead through his assessment of their priorities and surroundings.

Significant themes

• The past as a weaponized lesson: The exam recreates a concealed atrocity, suggesting students are being tested not just on combat but on how they respond to history and its consequences.
• Power, secrecy, and surveillance: The officials’ anxiety over the artifact’s sponsor and the presence of factional observers underline how closely individual discoveries are monitored.
• The limits of reality and perception: The exam is described as both real and false, while Xu Yuan’s private encounter raises the possibility that something beyond the simulation has intruded—or that he alone can perceive it.
• Fear beneath composure: Xu Yuan experiences genuine terror but quickly masks it, showing the tension between vulnerability and the need to protect a potentially important secret.

Key plot points and events

• At the start of the exam, Xu Yuan organizes the team: Zhao Afei distributes supplies, Yang Xiaobing scouts, and Jiang Xueyao joins Xu Yuan at the front.
• Yang Xiaobing’s scouting talisman reveals that demonic energy surrounds the city on every side. With no clear route or reliable intelligence, Xu Yuan leads them toward distant gunfire, reasoning that it likely signals a manageable skirmish and could connect them with surviving authorities.
• They find an officer under attack by a Tree Demon. Jiang Xueyao begins a fire-aligned sword strike, but Xu Yuan kills the demon first with Sword Qi. He is chiefly excited by the seven gold coins awarded through his combat-preparation system.
• A second Tree Demon appears. Xu Yuan again beats Jiang Xueyao to the kill, spending more spiritual energy and earning another seven coins. Jiang, initially annoyed, becomes entertained by his apparent challenge and decides to compete with him.
• Zhao Afei speaks with the surviving officer, who explains that demonic beasts have been entering the city unusually often. The team realizes the larger disaster has only just begun.
• When the officer asks for identification and offers weapons, Yang Xiaobing secretly uses a talisman to fabricate a convincing badge. Xu Yuan prevents Afei from refusing the weapons, arguing that firearms will conserve their spiritual energy.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan takes charge and shows practical judgment, but his obsession with earning coins leads him to repeatedly steal Jiang’s kills. His motives are partly strategic—he is saving resources and preparing for the nightmare-level competition—but he is also excited by the system’s rewards.
• Jiang Xueyao proves capable and confident, using a sword art naturally suited to countering wood-type demons. Xu Yuan’s interruptions frustrate her briefly, then turn their encounters into a playful rivalry.
• Yang Xiaobing is a resourceful support specialist. Her scouting and identity-forging talismans help the team navigate danger and deceive the officer.
• Zhao Afei is nervous but takes responsibility for approaching the officer. His confidence in his own supplies contrasts with Xu Yuan and Yang’s insistence on conserving spiritual energy and using practical equipment.
• The group works through complementary roles: Xu Yuan directs decisions, Jiang fights, Yang provides tactical support, and Afei handles communication.

Significant themes

• Preparedness and adaptation: The team must make decisions with little information and combine cultivation with ordinary weapons.
• Competition amid danger: Xu Yuan and Jiang’s kill-stealing rivalry adds humor, even as the city’s crisis escalates.
• The gap between appearances and reality: Officials and residents see only an unusual rise in attacks, while the team recognizes that a citywide catastrophe is beginning.
• Practicality over pride: Xu Yuan argues that conserving spiritual energy matters more than dismissing firearms as beneath cultivators.

• Key events: After the students who tried to claim the group’s weapons are rebuffed, Xu Yuan offers to help Officer Liu Shanxing. Liu assigns the group to patrol Chaoyang Road and gives Xu his badge and radio. The group realizes the exam rewards students for contributing to the city during the crisis. They then detect an immense presence in the clouds: a huge black Flood Dragon, far beyond their ability to fight. Concluding that survival is the immediate priority, Xu gets everyone into a police car and drives off. While patrolling, he spots classmates fighting a Wolf Demon and kills it with a precise pistol shot, reporting the kill over the radio. Yang Xiaobing then sends a paper crane ahead to scout.
• Character developments: Xu shows initiative and strategic thinking, turning the rescue of Officer Liu into official authority and a chance to earn exam credit. He takes charge when the Flood Dragon appears and proves unexpectedly skilled with a firearm. Zhao Afei begins the chapter terrified and frozen, but gradually becomes useful by reporting what he sees; Xu’s encouragement helps him regain focus, and he vows to learn to shoot. Jiang Xueyao volunteers to watch from the car roof and is inspired to improve after Xu’s kill. Yang Xiaobing demonstrates her talisman skills by measuring the enemy’s power and creating a scout.
• Interactions: Xu negotiates respectfully with Officer Liu, who responds by trusting the group with patrol duties. Xu also guides his classmates under pressure, assigning roles and urging Afei to observe rather than panic. The group’s reactions to Xu’s shooting reveal admiration and friendly competitiveness.
• Themes: The exam tests judgment, character, and contribution—not simply combat strength. Cooperation and adaptability matter, as does recognizing when an enemy is too powerful to confront. The Flood Dragon’s arrival turns the exercise into a desperate test of survival, while the students’ improvised use of authority, weapons, and talismans shows how they respond to crisis.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan speeds through the city with Zhao Afei, Yang Xiaobing, and Jiang Xueyao as demonic attacks spread. He realizes the exam has entered its deadly phase: a Flood Dragon has appeared, and he fears it more than the mysterious many-legged woman seen earlier.
• Jiang Xueyao warns that the Flood Dragon is preparing to attack. The city’s defensive array activates across the sky, but the group doubts they can escape before the confrontation and stop at Xinzhou Subway Station to take shelter.
• The station entrance is crowded with civilians kept outside a barricade built by students from Nanshan City No. 1 High School. The students refuse to let Xu Yuan’s group in, though they offer Jiang Xueyao entry alone.
• Xu Yuan avoids a fight by using his police radio and badge. He claims police authorization to requisition the barricades and threatens to report the students for barring civilians from shelter. After hearing him cite other incidents over the radio, the students let the group through.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan shows growing resolve and resourcefulness. Though frightened and focused on survival, he takes charge, uses his police role strategically, and refuses to abandon people outside the shelter.
• Jiang Xueyao remains vigilant, tracking the Flood Dragon and warning the others. She is ready to confront the rival students when they single her out, but follows Xu Yuan’s signal to hold back.
• Zhao Afei and Yang Xiaobing voice the group’s fear—first during Xu Yuan’s reckless driving, then as the Flood Dragon prepares to strike. They recognize the danger of fighting the students directly.
• The Nanshan students, led by a mocking tall boy, are revealed as more concerned with defending their own position than helping others.

Significant themes

• Survival under pressure: The exam has become a life-or-death ordeal, forcing the characters to make urgent choices.
• Power and responsibility: Xu Yuan uses official authority not to claim privilege, but to open shelter to those in danger.
• Self-interest versus solidarity: The barricade protects the students inside while leaving civilians exposed; Xu Yuan challenges this selfish calculation.
• Fear of the unknown: The Flood Dragon is terrifying, but Xu Yuan’s memory of the unexplained woman suggests that uncertainty can be more frightening than visible power.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan’s fast driving unnerves Zhao Afei and Yang Xiaobing, who warn him about the risk of a crash.
• Jiang Xueyao’s warning about the Flood Dragon prompts the group to seek cover.
• The Nanshan students confront the newcomers and try to admit only Jiang Xueyao. Xu Yuan restrains her from escalating the conflict and instead pressures the students through his police identity and radio.
• The chapter ends with Xu Yuan turning the standoff into a reluctant act of cooperation: the barricades are opened, and the group is allowed inside.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan’s team—Xu Yuan, Yang Xiaobing, Zhao Afei, and Jiang Xueyao—enters a subway-station fortification. Xu Yuan insists that civilians be allowed inside, while a group of rival students argues that they should conserve space and simply wait out the disaster.
• Xu Yuan orders an attack. The team defeats the rivals, with firearms, talismans, and Jiang Xueyao’s swordwork eliminating most of them. The remaining tall student agrees to make peace, then attacks Xu Yuan anyway.
• Xu Yuan counters with a sword technique he learned by observing Jiang Xueyao, using her exceptionally sharp Qiong Jia Sword to break the student’s weapon and defeat him.
• Xu Yuan reports the incident to Officer Liu. Praised for earlier victories and for organizing shelter, he is authorized to use force against anyone endangering the public and is formally recruited—along with his teammates—into the Fifth Special Operations Team.
• The group opens the shelter to civilians. Xu Yuan then receives an “excellent grade” spotlight and a special reward after examiner Ding Ling, playing Officer Liu, approves of his judgment, actions, and character.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan shows himself to be bold, strategic, and publicly minded. He frames protecting civilians as both a moral duty and the right response to the exam, and his contributions earn him official authority and status. He also quickly adapts Jiang Xueyao’s sword technique.
• Jiang Xueyao remains proud and reserved, but her skill and sword are central to the team’s victory. She recognizes that Xu Yuan has learned from her technique and later claims the captured formation disc as spoils.
• Yang Xiaobing and Zhao Afei support Xu Yuan in the fight and in helping the civilians. Zhao Afei voices uncertainty about eliminating other candidates, while Yang agrees with Xu Yuan’s interpretation of the exam.
• The tall rival embodies self-preservation and dismisses Xu Yuan’s concern for civilians. His supposed truce proves false, and his defeat reinforces the consequences of his approach.

Significant themes

• Public service versus selfish survival: Xu Yuan argues that a crisis calls for protecting people, not exploiting them as shields or waiting for others to die.
• The exam as a test of character: Success depends not only on technical skill but on understanding the larger purpose of the scenario and acting responsibly.
• Contribution brings authority: By helping the city, Xu Yuan earns status, resources, and the legitimate power to act.
• Practical force and moral responsibility: The team uses violence against those obstructing safety, while the story distinguishes this from indiscriminate self-interest.

Character interactions

• Xu Yuan clashes with the rival students over whether civilians should be admitted, then leads his teammates in defeating them.
• Jiang Xueyao silently observes Xu Yuan reproducing her sword technique, while Xu Yuan remains unsure how to interpret her proud, indirect behavior.
• Zhao Afei questions whether attacking fellow candidates was acceptable; Xu Yuan and Yang reassure him that the rival group misunderstood the exam.
• Officer Liu recognizes Xu Yuan’s record, grants the team official backing, and recruits them, turning their cooperation with the authorities into a new source of legitimacy and support.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan receives a tournament “spotlight” reward that lets him upgrade a skill or piece of equipment. He chooses Swallow Song Sword Art and gains a new fifth form, Swallow Departs: a basic flying-sword attack that travels three meters.
• He realizes the move is risky because the sword could be left behind, but suspects it may improve with further spotlight rewards.
• Jiang Xueyao challenges him to test the new move. Their brief exchange reveals it can unleash a powerful Sword Qi slash, which she blocks. She explains that Swallow Song Sword Art is meant to help practitioners discover their own sword style and reveals that she created a move of her own, Swallows Flying in Pairs. They postpone a proper duel to avoid endangering civilians.
• Yang Xiaobing senses the Flood Dragon’s spell. A thunderous attack blacks out the subway station and cracks its ceiling, threatening to collapse it.
• Yang calms the crowd with a burning talisman, then uses a water-based spell to grow an enormous mushroom from damp wood. Its broad cap braces the ceiling and shelters the civilians. Exhausted, she accepts a Spirit-Restoring Pill from Xu Yuan.
• Yang sends her White Crane to scout the entrance. The group waits in darkness, uncertain whether the Flood Dragon will attack again.

Character developments

• Xu Yuan gains a personalized sword technique and begins to understand his “spotlight” ability as a way to develop his skills. His humor and caution show in both his concern about losing his sword and his refusal to duel in a crowded station.
• Jiang Xueyao is shown to be a skilled formation user and an accomplished swordswoman who has independently created a technique. She is eager to test herself against Xu Yuan, but respects the danger to bystanders.
• Yang Xiaobing proves capable under pressure: she steadies the civilians, supports the damaged station, and directs reconnaissance despite the physical cost of her spell.
• Xu Yuan and Yang show growing trust as he supports her after she exhausts herself.

Significant themes and interactions

• The chapter emphasizes individual growth and personal expression: swordsmanship develops differently for each practitioner.
• It contrasts combat ambition with responsibility toward civilians. Xu Yuan and Jiang delay their duel, while the team uses its abilities to protect the crowd.
• The danger tests practical teamwork: Jiang focuses on formations, Yang handles the structural threat, Zhao Afei attends to the injured, and the others prepare for what may come next.
• Xu Yuan and Jiang exchange a brief, revealing conversation about sword techniques; Xu Yuan’s playful praise contrasts with Jiang’s restrained manner.