Chapter Summaries

• Xu Yuan creates a third ability: With only minutes before the mist closes, Xu Yuan asks the Paper Strip about the Whisper System’s nature. It explains that Whisper expresses an Immortal Species’ individuality by making the impossible possible—or the possible impossible. Xu Yuan designs Stealing Heaven and Earth, which replaces the environment around one visible target. He intends it both to counter the parasitic ability Seeding and to exploit battlefield conditions against enemies.
• The ability awakens—and carries a warning: The skill appears as a beginner-level third-tier Whisper ability, marked by an image of Xu Yuan and his million fans. A surge of mist floods his body, briefly giving him a vision of immense, nearly eternal power. He chooses to remain human, but is warned that without increased cultivation his body may mutate and his thinking may become that of an Immortal Species. Xu Yuan resolves to strengthen his cultivation and hold on to his humanity.
• Xu Yuan tests his power: In the bathroom, he swaps his surroundings for the sky above Jiangbei City, then returns instantly. Amazed by the ability’s potential, he jokes that it could save him the cost of a Teleportation Array. The Paper Strip celebrates his success and urges him to improve the skill, while Xu Yuan says survival and learning the Dimension System come first.
• A struggle over Xu Yuan’s rising status: At the Imperial Palace, Lu Chenzhou resents Xu Yuan’s first-place popularity and superior intelligence haul. Crown Prince Lu Qingxuan, who ranks second, says Xu Yuan’s success benefits him because Xu Yuan belongs to the Heavenly Palace, which he owns. Lu Chenzhou plans to undermine Xu Yuan despite Qingxuan’s warning.
• The political stakes become clear: Qingxuan reveals that Xu Yuan is Fu Xiuyi’s final disciple. Fu, one of the world’s most powerful figures, has already confronted Demon Race Grand Elder Mo Daosheng on Xu Yuan’s behalf after Mo tried to suppress him. Qingxuan warns that targeting Xu Yuan could bring Fu’s wrath. Lu Chenzhou is shaken but decides to seek their father—or, if the revelation is true, to destroy Xu Yuan before he grows stronger.
  Character developments and interactions: Xu Yuan shows creativity under pressure, gains a formidable ability, and explicitly chooses to preserve his humanity. The Paper Strip acts as an urgent guide and enthusiastic observer. Qingxuan appears composed and politically calculating, using both warning and provocation to restrain his brother; Lu Chenzhou’s envy hardens into a more dangerous resolve.
  Themes: The chapter explores the cost of power and the tension between human identity and transformation; ingenuity as a source of strength; and how fame and patronage can turn personal success into a political threat.

Key plot points and events

• After helping reopen the Zhou Tian Instrument and lead an expedition into Border City, Lu Chenzhou enjoys the cultivators’ praise and hopes to improve on his past performance by keeping more people alive.
• At court, Lu Yiyi asks to enter Border City the next day. She wants answers about her mother’s legacy and the Flood Dragon that sought her out ten years earlier. Lu Chenzhou objects, arguing that her presence could disrupt the investigation and undo preparations.
• The emperor makes Lu Yiyi’s participation conditional on Xu Yuan’s approval, signaling that Xu’s judgment now carries unusual weight. Lu Chenzhou realizes Xu has become Fu Xiuyi’s disciple and privately resolves to stop his rise.
• The court confirms that Qianqian died in Border City ten years ago. The emperor credits Lu Yiyi for finding the instrument’s forging method and recommending Xu, and approves her request if Xu agrees.
• Once the others leave, the emperor privately recalls Lu Yiyi’s childhood and her father’s close bond with Lu Chenzhou. His hesitant, incomplete account unsettles her. She asks whether Lu Chenzhou changed after returning from Border City.

Character developments

• Lu Chenzhou presents himself as warm and approachable, but his ambition and hostility emerge beneath the façade. Learning that Xu Yuan is Fu Xiuyi’s disciple intensifies his fear and prompts a plan to eliminate him.
• Lu Yiyi remains calm under Lu Chenzhou’s insults and pursues her questions persistently. The emperor’s silences lead her to reconsider her memories and voice a dangerous suspicion.
• The emperor shifts from managing court business to revealing a deeply personal concern. His reluctance to speak suggests that the truth about Border City—and Lu Chenzhou’s return—may be troubling.
• Xu Yuan, though absent, gains influence: both Lu Yiyi’s request and the court’s plans now depend on his opinion. Fu Xiuyi’s victory over Mo Daosheng further reinforces her formidable standing.

Significant themes

• Power and influence: Xu Yuan’s rise changes the balance at court and threatens Lu Chenzhou.
• Memory and hidden truth: Childhood recollections and the emperor’s silence hint that the accepted story of Border City may be incomplete.
• Public image versus private intent: Lu Chenzhou’s friendly manner contrasts sharply with his ruthless ambition.
• Family loyalty and suspicion: Lu Yiyi’s cherished memories of Lu Chenzhou collide with the possibility that he returned from Border City changed.

Character interactions

• Lu Chenzhou and Lu Yiyi clash over whether she should enter Border City; she challenges his claims of progress, while he tries to dismiss her request.
• The emperor mediates by deferring to Xu Yuan’s judgment and publicly acknowledging Lu Yiyi’s contributions.
• After dismissing the court, the emperor speaks privately with Lu Yiyi about her family history, and his pauses prompt her to question Lu Chenzhou’s past.

Chapter summary

• The emperor shares his suspicions with Lu Yiyi. He shows her a detailed record of the money and treasures Lu Chenzhou took from her, promising to repay her a hundredfold when she marries. But Lu Yiyi is more concerned by the emperor’s belief that Lu Chenzhou may have been possessed or replaced after the Border City Battle. He has no proof, though Lu Chenzhou’s changed behavior after the Monthly Exam has deepened his suspicions. The emperor says the exam was partly a test, and that he has been watching Lu Chenzhou’s reactions. He plans to use the Zhou Tian Instrument to revisit the past and investigate the monsters, urging Lu Yiyi to avoid provoking Lu Chenzhou or disrupting the inquiry.
• Zhang Pengcheng turns a confrontation into a wager. Several students come to Xu Yuan’s room, angry that Zhang Pengcheng helped take the Crown Prince away. Zhang defends their actions, then challenges the boys to fight for a hundred Spirit Stones per match. The group heads to the courtyard, eager to settle the dispute—and Zhang hopes to make money.
• Lu Yiyi visits Xu Yuan and explains the next investigation. She tells him what the emperor suspects and says the Border City Battle will be revisited because the Dragon’s death provided too little information. She has asked to search for the Flood Dragon herself. Xu Yuan privately doubts the possession theory: Lu Chenzhou was already foolish and fearful, and his behavior is better explained by his character and changing political circumstances. He keeps this view to himself.
• Lu Yiyi decides to revisit the past as her younger self. She hopes to meet the Flood Dragon as the child she was ten years earlier and learn whether it might have led her back to her mother. Xu Yuan agrees to find her after they enter the past, likely near the subway tunnel where they met during the Monthly Exam. Lu Yiyi leaves reassured by his promise.

Character developments and interactions

Lu Yiyi moves from suspicion to a clear purpose: she wants answers about the Dragon and her lost mother. The emperor reveals his cautious, methodical approach and his continued attachment to Lu Chenzhou, while Xu Yuan remains skeptical of the emperor’s theory and grows more wary of the political risks. His promise to find Lu Yiyi strengthens their trust. Zhang Pengcheng’s combative streak is tempered by his new, practical interest in earning Spirit Stones.

Significant themes

The chapter emphasizes trust amid uncertainty, the use and limits of evidence, and the tension between personal longing and strategic investigation. It also contrasts the emperor’s patient pursuit of a complete truth with Lu Yiyi’s more personal hope of changing—or understanding—the painful past.

Key plot points

• Xu Yuan enters a Nightmare-tier Training Match to see what happens when Jingzhe the Dragon meets child Lu Yiyi, hoping to understand how best to protect her in reality.
• He finds Yiyi in the subway tunnels and quickly takes her aboveground, avoiding the Ghost Entity that would otherwise appear. Carrying her to Black Flame Bar, he encounters Jingzhe, who recognizes her as Commandery Princess Chunle.
• Jingzhe tells Xu Yuan that Ghosts are about to attack Border City, then persuades Yiyi to come with him by showing her her mother’s seal and promising to explain the truth at the Hall of Supreme Harmony. She agrees, and Jingzhe flies her there.
• While Jingzhe is away, Qianqian pays Xu Yuan for what the Dragon told him. Xu Yuan warns her that the city is about to fall. Her checks confirm a lockdown and halted flights, so she leaves with the Parrot to protect her family.
• Jingzhe later takes Yiyi into the sky, apparently giving her a joyful escape. But the All Things Unity Society and Ghost Entities surround them. Xu Yuan intervenes with Heaven-Stealing, teleporting both Jingzhe and Yiyi back into the bar.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is cautious and observant, using the Training Match to investigate a past crisis. Though he knows the events are simulated, he cannot stand by while Yiyi is endangered and acts decisively to save her.
• Yiyi is wary of Jingzhe at first and distrustful of her mother’s care. The seal and Jingzhe’s gentle promise persuade her to go with him; she becomes delighted by the prospect of freedom.
• Jingzhe is earnest and protective: he explains the danger to Xu Yuan, offers Yiyi proof of her identity, and carries her away. His concern becomes especially clear when he faces a host of enemies while protecting her.
• Qianqian begins skeptical of Xu Yuan’s warning, but independently verifies the emergency and immediately prioritizes her family’s safety.

Significant themes

• Protection and responsibility: Xu Yuan’s experiment becomes a moral test once Yiyi is in danger.
• Trust and truth: Yiyi’s decision hinges on whether Jingzhe can prove who she is and explain her mother’s actions.
• Fragile peace and impending catastrophe: Ordinary life in Border City continues even as a Ghost invasion quietly gathers beneath it.
• Freedom at a cost: Yiyi’s joyful flight is abruptly threatened, suggesting that escape alone cannot guarantee safety.

Key plot points and events

• Xu Yuan uses Heaven-Stealing, an ability that resets events and lets him test different escape plans. He repeatedly returns to the Black Flame Bar with more information.
• Jingzhe, the Flood Dragon, cannot safely flee while protecting Lu Yiyi. Her first attempt to break through the city’s sealed boundary fails: a huge black hand knocks her back, and Ghost Entities swarm her. Xu Yuan teleports her and Yiyi away.
• Xu Yuan recruits Qianqian, revealing his apparent ability to relocate people and objects instantly. Qianqian discloses that she is a skilled Formation Arts expert who makes protective portable arrays, and that she can call on two Golden Core cultivators.
• On a later attempt, Xu Yuan brings Jingzhe and Yiyi into the plan and shares what he knows about the city’s danger. Qianqian verifies the information, then summons the two cultivators.
• Xu Yuan proposes that Jingzhe, Yiyi, Qianqian, and the two cultivators flee together while he helps deal with anything that blocks them. He identifies himself as a hidden Imperial guard protecting Yiyi and claims to be a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan becomes more strategic, using repeated resets to gather intelligence and assemble a stronger escape group. Though he presents himself as powerful and composed, repeatedly using his ability exhausts him, so he eats and drinks to recover.
• Jingzhe recognizes that protecting Yiyi limits her ability to fight or escape. She initially lacks equipment and relies on an unlikely hope that Yiyi’s family has resources, but accepts Xu Yuan’s more cautious plans.
• Qianqian shifts from skepticism to reverence after witnessing Xu Yuan’s power. Her hidden value to the group is her expertise in formations and her connections to two veteran Golden Core cultivators.
• Lu Yiyi remains largely quiet, but her identity and safety are central to the group’s decisions.
• The two cultivators are wary of Xu Yuan’s claims, but his demonstration of Heaven and Earth Shift convinces them to cooperate.

Significant themes

• Preparation and teamwork: Escape seems impossible for individuals acting alone, but combining Jingzhe’s strength, Qianqian’s formations, and the cultivators’ experience offers a better chance.
• Knowledge through repeated trials: Xu Yuan learns from failed attempts and adjusts his strategy rather than relying on force alone.
• Hidden power and identity: Xu Yuan’s concealed cultivation and Qianqian’s undisclosed expertise show that appearances can obscure people’s true capabilities.
• The scale of the threat: The sealed city and the overwhelming Ghost Entities make survival uncertain, even for powerful characters.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan sends Lu Yiyi away with Jingzhe, a Flood Dragon, accompanied by a Body Cultivator, a swordswoman, and Qianqian, a Formation Master. He stays behind, warning them to protect the Commandery Princess.
• The group fights its way toward the city’s edge. Qianqian’s defensive arrays and the swordswoman’s Flying Swords repel attacks, while the Body Cultivator and Jingzhe knock the Society’s deputy leader back.
• Their escape is stopped by the city’s Black Barrier: monstrous hands reach through openings in the sky, and more attackers close in. Xu Yuan uses Heaven-Stealing to pull the long-haired old man controlling the hands into the Bar. With the old man gone, the barrier’s assault falters, and the Flood Dragon’s group escapes.
• Xu Yuan learns that the old man placed the Curse that turns people into Vengeful Ghosts. The old man explains that the barrier is heavily guarded, making escape nearly impossible. Xu Yuan returns to the subway tunnel, exhausted and uncertain how to save Yiyi during the coming test.
• Lu Yiyi appears in the tunnel and says she feels she knows Xu Yuan because she can sense his emotions. She trusts him and asks him to take her with him. She also reveals that she has always felt others’ pain and can see ghosts’ malice.
• Remembering that Yiyi’s father left her a photograph in 2026, Xu Yuan realizes it may offer a way forward. The photo’s inscription says she should receive it when she begins learning Night Rain Sword Art, hinting that it is a significant gift.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan risks exposing his power to help Yiyi escape, but recognizes that using Heaven-Stealing openly during the Special Admission Test would be dangerous. His attention shifts from brute-force escape to the clue left by Yiyi’s father.
• Lu Yiyi shows growing trust and emotional openness toward Xu Yuan. Her empathy, ability to see ghosts, and continuing grief over her father become central to their bond.
• Jingzhe and the others work together under pressure, demonstrating coordinated strength and commitment to Yiyi’s safety.
• The long-haired old man is revealed as the source of Xu Yuan’s Curse and the controller of the city’s monstrous defenses; despite his menace, he speaks calmly and tries to recruit Xu Yuan.

Themes

• Protection and sacrifice: Xu Yuan stays behind so Yiyi can escape, while the group risks itself to shield her.
• Empathy and grief: Yiyi’s gift lets her feel others’ suffering, but makes daily life painful; her longing for her father underscores her vulnerability.
• Hope through memory: The photograph and its cryptic message suggest that Yiyi’s father left more than a keepsake—possibly a path to her future.
• Limits and ingenuity: Conventional strength cannot overcome the barrier, so Xu Yuan must seek an unconventional solution.

Plot points

• Yiyi receives a photograph her father left with the notes for the Night Rain Sword Art. She is overcome with grief and admits she has barely practiced the art because it reminds her of him.
• Xu Yuan decides the group should search the Hall of Supreme Harmony for something else Yiyi’s father may have left. Qianqian uses a concealment array to get them past the dangerous guards, and Xu Yuan teleports the group inside using the hall’s Hand Seals.
• While Jingzhe takes Yiyi to complete her mother’s Soul Contract, Xu Yuan teaches Qianqian the hall’s Hand Seals. Qianqian suspects the array has a hidden function.
• Xu Yuan’s Spirit Light Thread activates a message from Yiyi’s father. The message reveals that the Night Rain Sword Art can unlock a sequence of gifts and challenges: two threads reveal a secret art, five reveal gems and battle armor, and ten are required for their next meeting.

Character developments and interactions

• Yiyi shifts from grief and regret to excited hope as her father’s messages show that he planned for her future and left her a path to follow.
• Xu Yuan acts as Yiyi’s steady protector, encouraging her and helping uncover her father’s intentions. His unexpected ability to control multiple Spirit Light Threads makes him central to the search.
• Qianqian is initially reluctant to help, but joins the mission, studies the hall’s array, and displays pride in her formation expertise. Her teasing confidence contrasts with Xu Yuan’s trial-and-error approach.
• Jingzhe supports Yiyi by accompanying her to the Soul Contract and later activates the secret art revealed by the two threads.

Significant themes

• Grief and remembrance: Yiyi has avoided the sword art because it reminds her of her father, but it also becomes the means by which she can reconnect with him.
• A parent’s enduring care: Her father’s staged messages, gifts, and challenges suggest he anticipated her needs and wanted to guide her even after his death.
• Inheritance and growth: Each milestone in mastering the sword art brings Yiyi closer to greater independence, protection, and a future reunion with her father’s message.

• Plot points: In the Training Match, Xu Yuan and the others discover that Lu Yiyi’s father left her gems, child-sized Battle Armor, and a hidden message. The message recounts a theory about the world’s history: after the strongest Ghost of the Nine Hells Era appeared, a comet arrived from beyond the heavens, and the Ghost soon vanished. Yiyi’s father then explains that Night Rain is an ancient sword art from an even earlier era, once used against Ghost Monsters, and reveals that he forged its lost weapons for Yiyi. When Yiyi gives the weapons to Xu Yuan, he releases fifteen Spirit Light Threads—but his Combat Gear warns that it has reached its limit absorbing curses and orders him to leave the match. He returns to the dormitory with the weapons and learns their name: End of the World, a set of three hundred detachable flying swords that can combine into one blade or attack together. Despite this powerful gain, Xu Yuan remains unsure how to save Yiyi from the danger awaiting her at tomorrow’s public meeting with the Dragon.
• Character developments: Yiyi is embarrassed that she has not practiced the sword art her father apparently prepared her to master, but she is moved by his message and determined to survive and grow up. She gives Xu Yuan the weapons not as a casual gift, but because she trusts him to use them to protect her. Xu Yuan accepts that trust, even as he feels the limits of his ability to control events. His focus shifts from understanding the match’s revelations to finding a way to break the Ghost Entities’ seemingly inescapable trap.
• Character interactions: Jingzhe and Qianqian help examine the treasures and recognize their significance for Yiyi. Xu Yuan reassures Yiyi and agrees to help her hear her father’s message. Yiyi, in turn, insists Xu Yuan take the weapons, directly asking him to protect her. Her father’s recorded voice addresses her with pride and reveals both the history behind Night Rain and the purpose of the weapons.
• Significant themes: The chapter explores inheritance and trust, as Yiyi receives her father’s legacy and entrusts it to Xu Yuan; ancient history and uncertain truth, through the speculative account of the Ghost Calamity and the comet; and responsibility under pressure, as Xu Yuan gains formidable weapons but still faces a crisis he may not be able to control.

Plot points

• After Xu Yuan’s injury is confirmed healed, Lin Weiliang orders Xu Yuan, Zhang Pengcheng, Jiang Xueyao, and Yang Xiaobing to spend the night in the examination hall under heavy protection. The Imperial Family has raised their security because the next day’s Border City exploration is considered crucial to humanity.
• Xu Yuan reflects on the coming battle and his inability to repeat the Training Match. He messages Lu Yiyi, warning that the Flood Dragon will probably be unable to escape the forces surrounding it. He also sends her photographs of a picture he found tucked into her copy of Night Rain, leaving her to consider what it might mean.
• Xu Yuan resolves that he is not a prophet but a “player”: with events beyond his control, he will still enter the struggle and fight to win. He meditates on the Night Rain Swordsmanship.
• The following morning, the Emperor reopens Border City through the Zhou Tian Instrument, rewinding the exploration to before the Ghost Entities’ all-out assault and the Flood Dragon’s emergence. Examinees can either resume their original missions or join Xu Yuan’s team to investigate the Flood Dragon.
• Lu Chenzhou rallies the students who followed him the previous day to fight the Invasive Monsters. Han Chaoshen announces that the Nine Luminaries will send teachers and students to participate, and that courageous fighters may attract a mentor’s attention and be offered discipleship. The crowd responds enthusiastically.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan is uncomfortable with the close surveillance but accepts its necessity. His private exchanges with Lu Yiyi reveal his concern for her possible choice to follow the Flood Dragon—and his determination to tell her what he knows, despite uncertainty about how she will interpret it.
• Lu Yiyi is conflicted about whether to follow the Flood Dragon; her present self may choose differently from her younger self.
• Jiang Xueyao and Yang Xiaobing thank Lin Weiliang and settle into cultivation, while Zhang Pengcheng reluctantly gives up plans to sneak out for food and continues to crave a fight.
• Lu Qingxuan visits Xu Yuan’s team, admits he wishes he could join the Flood Dragon battle, and appreciates Xu Yuan’s public acknowledgment of his leadership.
• Lu Chenzhou demonstrates political and organizational skill by assembling support for a renewed assault, while Han Chaoshen’s announcement gives the campaign extra prestige and incentive.

Significant themes

• Choice under uncertainty: The examinees must choose between established missions and the dangerous Flood Dragon investigation.
• Agency versus prediction: Xu Yuan rejects the idea that he can foresee everything, choosing instead to act and fight amid events that have spun out of control.
• Power, security, and ambition: Imperial protection, political face-saving, and the Nine Luminaries’ promise of recognition all shape the coming battle.
• Recognition and belonging: Lu Qingxuan’s need for acknowledgment and the students’ hopes of attracting mentors show that even powerful or ambitious people seek validation and opportunity.

Plot points and events

• Han Chaoshen publicly backs Lu Chenzhou, revealing that their close friendship explains his earlier hostility toward Xu Yuan and Yang Xiaobing. Most examinees join Lu Chenzhou, especially after Han promises on-the-spot evaluations and possible opportunities at the Nine Luminaries.
• Xu Yuan’s group remains small. Tong Ni joins them, and Niu Sheng bargains with Xu Yuan to join as well, disguising their deal as a lofty declaration of Human–Demon cooperation.
• The Human Emperor uses the Zhou Tian Instrument to transport the examinees into Border City, where Xu Yuan’s group finds itself at Xinzhou Subway Station—the site of their previous Monthly Exam.
• They encounter Lu Yiyi, the Commandery Princess, who has entered the trial disguised as the little girl they rescued before. She asks for help and quietly identifies herself to Yang Xiaobing.
• A pro–Lu Qingxuan examinee confronts the group for associating with Niu Sheng and claims they should turn in anyone suspicious. Xu Yuan turns the accuser’s demand to kill Niu Sheng against him, forcing him to hesitate.
• Niu Sheng breaks free and kills the examinee. Xu Yuan reprimands him, but accepts his tearful apology and assigns him to guard the subway entrance while the group moves Lu Yiyi to safety.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan stays composed under pressure, protects his group, and uses quick thinking to expose the accuser’s hypocrisy. His easy banter with Niu Sheng masks a genuine, if unconventional, alliance.
• Niu Sheng proves capable of sudden violence, then theatrically repents and immediately resumes his place in the group. His comic bargaining with Xu Yuan contrasts with his seriousness about Human–Demon cooperation.
• Yang Xiaobing comforts Xu Yuan after Han’s slight and warmly embraces Lu Yiyi, only to panic when she learns the child is the Commandery Princess.
• Lu Yiyi participates in the trial in disguise and appears to trust Xu Yuan’s group.
• Tong Ni contributes vigilance and Soul Arts expertise, while Jiang Xueyao remains wary of Lu Yiyi’s identity and the group’s eccentric dynamics.
• The group’s interactions emphasize mutual trust, though outsiders misunderstand Xu Yuan and Niu Sheng’s odd version of “friendship.”

Significant themes

• Factional loyalty and ambition: Examinees are tempted to choose sides by the promise of elite mentorship and future advancement.
• Friendship and trust: Xu Yuan and Niu Sheng’s comic “friendship” is tested by danger and conflict.
• Political opportunism and hypocrisy: The accuser invokes security concerns to target the Demon Race, but retreats when pressed to act on his own accusations.
• Cooperation across divisions: The group’s alliance with Niu Sheng challenges old Human–Demon hostility.

Plot points

• Xu Yuan and Zhang Pengcheng hold off two Examinees so the others can escape with the little girl, whom Xu Yuan carries without knowing she is the Commandery Princess.
• The group heads to the Black Flame Bar to rest and seek information about the Flood Dragon. There they find Crown Prince Lu Qingxuan and Han Chaoshen, a Nine Luminaries University teacher representing First Highness Lu Chenzhou.
• The Flood Dragon Jingzhe arrives, recognizes Lu Yiyi, and claims her mother sent him to take her back to the Northern Sea and form a pact with her. His story revives Lu Yiyi’s memories, but she hesitates, still grieving her inability to contact her mother.
• When Han Chaoshen questions Jingzhe about the Demon Race, Lu Yiyi rebukes him for meddling in royal affairs and orders Jingzhe to kill him. Xu Yuan intervenes, then lures Han outside and has him declared dead in battle, removing him from the Zhou Tian Instrument.
• Back in the real world, the Emperor questions Han about his conduct. Han realizes that, whatever his assignment, he had no right to tell the Commandery Princess not to take offense, and admits his guilt.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan remains protective and alert: he shields the group, instinctively cares for Lu Yiyi, and uses a calculated loophole to remove Han without alarming Jingzhe.
• Lu Yiyi shifts from playful secrecy to painful uncertainty about her mother and the Northern Sea. She asserts her royal authority when Han intrudes, yet accepts Xu Yuan’s judgment enough to stop Jingzhe.
• Yang Xiaobing recognizes Lu Yiyi’s identity but cannot reveal it, and worries as Xu Yuan unknowingly carries the princess.
• Jingzhe is exuberant and eager to escort Lu Yiyi home, but his account is questioned by Xu Yuan. His willingness to attack Han underscores his impulsive loyalty.
• Han Chaoshen begins confident in his status as Lu Chenzhou’s representative, but his disrespect toward Lu Yiyi leads to his removal from the trial and a humbling confrontation with the Emperor.
• Xu Yuan and Zhang Pengcheng work smoothly together in combat; Lu Yiyi also explicitly backs Xu Yuan’s right to question Jingzhe.

Significant themes

• Authority and boundaries: Han’s political role does not entitle him to pry into the imperial family’s private affairs or dictate how the princess should respond.
• Trust and uncertainty: Jingzhe offers Lu Yiyi a possible path home, but gaps in his story and her inability to reach her mother make certainty elusive.
• Protection and responsibility: Xu Yuan repeatedly puts himself between danger and those in his care, even before he knows Lu Yiyi’s true identity.
• Consequences of arrogance: Han’s confidence blinds him to his own overstep, while the Emperor’s questioning forces him to recognize it.

Key plot points and events

• Han Chaoshen narrowly escapes punishment from the emperor after admitting his fault. Once dismissed, he retreats in fear, shaken by how close he came to death.
• Back at the Black Flame Bar, Lu Yiyi says she cannot abandon the people of the doomed city. She asks the others to help save everyone, despite the near-impossibility of the task.
• Xu Yuan reasons that the city has been sealed to prevent news from reaching the outside—and, crucially, to keep reinforcements from disrupting the Ghost Entities’ plan. He recruits Qianqian and her companions to serve under Lu Yiyi, explaining the danger to them.
• Tong Ni leaves Xu Yuan’s group to assist Lu Qingxuan’s team at the City Yamen. Lu Yiyi explains that Tong Ni’s motives for staying with Zhang Pengcheng were not sincere; Zhang eventually understands and thanks the crown prince.
• Xu Yuan stops the livestreams to protect sensitive information, then takes Lu Yiyi to request an audience with the emperor. He asks permission to search the Hall of Supreme Harmony, suspecting that Lu Yiyi’s father left her something there.
• Xu Yuan presents a photograph he found inside a book the emperor gave him. The emperor is privately struck by what it may imply and by his late elder brother’s failure to leave clear instructions.
• The emperor’s remarks prompt Xu Yuan and the powerful cultivators present to suspect that the Hall of Supreme Harmony may contain much of the former Crown Prince’s lost knowledge.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Yiyi moves from private sorrow to openly leading the effort to save the city. Though she recognizes the situation’s hopelessness, she commits to acting according to her own will.
• Xu Yuan takes charge of strategy and recruitment, while showing political tact by protecting the Imperial Family’s privacy and approaching the emperor with a carefully reasoned request.
• Zhang Pengcheng is hurt by Tong Ni’s departure but quickly understands why she leaves and expresses gratitude to Lu Qingxuan.
• Tong Ni chooses to join Lu Qingxuan’s team rather than remain with Zhang, revealing that her loyalties had not been entirely genuine.
• The emperor conceals his grief and regret over his elder brother’s death, but approves of Xu Yuan’s discretion and recognizes the possible importance of the Hall.
• Qianqian initially questions Xu Yuan’s sudden order but verifies the danger and agrees to cooperate.

Significant themes

• Hope and responsibility: Lu Yiyi chooses to fight for others even when she believes the city’s destruction may be unavoidable.
• Trust and political secrecy: Xu Yuan limits the broadcast to prevent private or strategically vital information from becoming public.
• Loyalty and sincere motives: Tong Ni’s departure forces Zhang Pengcheng to confront the difference between friendship and self-interest.
• Loss and unfinished legacy: The emperor’s grief over his brother’s sudden death frames the possibility that the former Crown Prince left behind knowledge—and perhaps a final message—that could change the situation.

Key plot points and events

• The court considers investigating the mysterious death of the former Crown Prince, Lu Chaoxian. His former master cautiously raises the possibility that the death was suspicious, a long-standing implication that Emperor Lu Chaowu murdered his elder brother to claim the throne.
• The emperor openly permits an investigation into the Hall of Supreme Harmony and orders its inheritance—including secret arts, crafts, treasures, and intelligence—to be restored. He also insists that events involving Xu Yuan remain secret.
• To answer Xu Yuan’s claim that a message from Border City would have ended its siege, the emperor uses the Zhou Tian Instrument to replay events from ten years earlier.
• The vision shows a guard delivering an urgent message about Border City’s imminent destruction. The emperor immediately teleports there, dispels the illusion and Ghost Entity barriers, lifts the entire city out of danger, and obliterates the threat.
• The vision convinces the court that the emperor could have prevented the disaster if he had been informed. The gathering praises him, and the old suspicions surrounding his brother’s death begin to lose force.

Character developments and interactions

• Emperor Lu Chaowu demonstrates confidence and political skill: he welcomes scrutiny rather than resisting it, using the occasion both to authorize an investigation and to strengthen public faith in his rule. The vision also displays his overwhelming power and decisive concern for the realm.
• The white-haired elder, formerly the emperor’s and Lu Chaoxian’s teacher, tests the emperor’s willingness to investigate. The emperor’s cooperation relieves the elder of a long-held fear that his disciples killed one another.
• Xu Yuan reads the political situation carefully and answers the emperor’s question in a way that prompts the public demonstration.
• The court and assembled cultivators move from suspicion and uncertainty to awe and united praise.

Significant themes

• Power and legitimacy: The emperor turns a potentially damaging inquiry into proof of his openness and strength.
• Truth and public perception: A replay of the past challenges rumors that had shaped opinion for years.
• Leadership and responsibility: The emperor’s swift response highlights the consequences of communication—and of whether help can reach those in danger.
• Hidden crises beneath prosperity: The emperor notes that the realm’s apparent flourishing conceals serious threats, including the Northern Sea Ruins and the Ghost Entities.

Plot points and events

• The emperor orders the live stream shut down and limits observation of Xu Yuan’s investigation to himself and a few Great Cultivators. He also has Niu Sheng removed, citing his Demon Race identity, and sends Xu Yuan and Lu Yiyi back to Border City to investigate the Hall of Supreme Harmony under imperial protection.
• Xu Yuan comforts Lu Yiyi by suggesting that her father, who raised and doted on her, must have left her a gift too—just as her mother left her a Flood Dragon contract. They return to Black Flame Bar and gather their companions.
• The group enters the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Xu Yuan uses Qianqian’s explanation that Sword Qi can activate some Magic Arrays to infer how to trigger the hidden messages left there.
• Releasing Spirit Light Threads produces increasingly important clues and gifts. At fifteen threads, a voice praises Yiyi’s progress and reveals a hidden chessboard that unfolds into a miniature city: Border City Yanmen.
• The voice explains that Yanmen is a vast creation combining Artifact Refining, Magic Arrays, and Soul Art, built to test its functions on the Demon Race border. It is presented as Lu Yiyi’s birthday gift from her father.

Character developments and interactions

• Lu Yiyi shifts from doubt to hope, trusting Xu Yuan’s suggestion that her father left something for her. She also gives Xu Yuan the ancient sword End of the World, despite its importance.
• Xu Yuan proves resourceful in interpreting the hidden mechanism and tactful in encouraging Yiyi. He publicly refuses the sword on grounds that it belongs to the imperial family, though he privately already has one.
• The emperor recognizes that Yiyi’s father prepared something long ago and protects the investigation from public scrutiny.
• Jiang Xueyao grows more suspicious of the unusual understanding between Xu Yuan and Yiyi, while Yang Xiaobing is surprised by Xu Yuan’s apparent integrity.
• Jingzhe, Qianqian, and the others join the investigation; the Parrot sharply shuts down Qianqian’s suggestion to split up.

Significant themes

• Family love and remembrance: The discoveries suggest that both parents left Yiyi meaningful gifts, especially her father’s carefully prepared legacy.
• Trust and hope: Xu Yuan helps Yiyi believe that her father’s affection endured even after his absence.
• Duty and inheritance: Yanmen is more than a birthday present—it is a strategic resource intended to help Yiyi face future crises as a possible empress.
• Appearances and hidden motives: Xu Yuan’s dignified refusal of the sword impresses others, though his private calculation adds irony to the scene.

• Yiyi’s inheritance: Xu Yuan and the others discover that Night Rain Sword Art can control the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the citywide surveillance system Yiyi’s father left behind. Xu Yuan first activates a live view of Border City, then learns to search its feeds for unusually strong spiritual-power fluctuations.
• The real anchor is revealed: The search finds an old man at a grain shop negotiating with an unseen entity. He agrees to serve as an “anchor” so the Ghost Entities can locate and invade the human realm in ten years, in exchange for the corpse of a Flood Dragon. The emperor recognizes the threat and immediately orders the man hunted.
• Qianqian chooses a side: Xu Yuan presses Qianqian to decide whether she will help the enemy or stand with Yiyi. Realizing the danger to her family and city, Qianqian sides with them and identifies the old man as Qi Canghai, the Mad Demon King, leader of the All Things Unity Society’s Destruction branch. She also reveals that Bai Yuanze, of its Sword Demon branch, is in the city. The authorities launch a broader search.
• A personal complication for Xu Yuan: The discovery seems to offer a way to avert the future invasion, and the examinees expect a major reward. But Xu Yuan privately recalls being told he would soon become leader of the Society’s Tong branch—an appointment he wants no part of.
• Yiyi’s request and Xu Yuan’s breakthrough: Yiyi asks Xu Yuan to release twenty Spirit Light Threads so she can hear more from her father’s recording. He initially believes he cannot, then uses his mysterious ability, “You’ve Made Me Excited,” on the Spirit Light Threads. It raises them a level, allowing him to produce twenty. The hall begins to tremble, suggesting a new function is activating.
  Character developments and interactions: Xu Yuan demonstrates ingenuity and social bluffing, persuading Qianqian to disclose what she knows while concealing his own lack of expertise. Qianqian shifts from guarded informant to ally. Yiyi remains composed despite her grief, but her longing for her father drives her request; Xu Yuan responds with sympathy and finds an unexpected way to help.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes the choice between self-interest and collective survival, the weight of inherited memories, and the danger of hidden collaborators. It also contrasts public heroism with private burdens: while Xu Yuan appears to be saving the city, he is unsettled by the unwanted leadership awaiting him.

Key plot points and events

• The former Crown Prince explains how he redesigned Yanmen to counter Ghost Entities: thunderlight iron and flame spirit stone built into the city make it emit weak but widespread thunder and fire, revealing and hurting otherwise invisible spirits.
• Xu Yuan activates this power using twenty Spirit Light Threads. The Crown Prince also reveals that he forged a powerful set of Flood Dragon Battle Armor for Jingzhe, who eagerly puts it on.
• The city begins to tilt. Xu Yuan and the little girl realize the cause is underground: Yanmen rests on a vast pillar of corpses. The city’s newly activated thunder and fire are burning the corpses, causing them to writhe and destabilizing the pillar.
• As the Corpse Pillar collapses, corpses climb toward the city to attack. Xu Yuan orders Qianqian to summon trusted allies and prepares a plane.
• With the city under attack, Xu Yuan proposes a breakout: if even one person escapes and alerts the imperial court, the army can come to Yanmen’s aid. The chapter ends as the group prepares to leave.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan demonstrates his mastery of the Spirit Light Threads and Observation Magic Array, quickly identifying the crisis and taking command of the escape plan.
• Jingzhe is delighted by the dragon armor but finds it cumbersome after Xu Yuan adds Formation Discs across its body for protection.
• Qianqian acts promptly on Xu Yuan’s request, summoning her most reliable allies.
• Jiang Xueyao notices Xu Yuan’s unusual abilities and closeness with the little girl, speculating about the secrets they share and whether the Crown Prince or her own household is trying to recruit him. She also correctly identifies why the corpses are reacting.
• Yang Xiaobing watches anxiously but does not notice Jiang Xueyao’s suspicions.

Significant themes

• Knowledge turned into protection: The Crown Prince’s historical research produces a practical defense against Ghost Entities.
• Power comes with consequences: Activating Yanmen’s defenses reveals the enemy, but also provokes the buried corpses and puts the city at risk.
• Leadership and cooperation: Xu Yuan’s plan depends on allies acting quickly and on someone reaching the imperial court.
• Hope amid catastrophe: The breakout offers a way to turn Yanmen’s isolation into a larger military response.

Plot points and events

• Xu Yuan uses a bomb-laden civilian airliner as a decoy. After a monster appears aboard, he orders its destruction, drawing Ghost Entities toward the explosion on the far side of Border City.
• While the city’s fires weaken the Ghost Entities and the sealing elder is occupied, Xu Yuan’s group escapes aboard Jingzhe, a Flood Dragon. Jingzhe flies low under Qianqian’s Concealment Array, reaches the city wall, and breaks through the Black Barrier.
• Inside the barrier, Yang Xiaobing creates a living-looking Talisman decoy to draw pursuing enemies away. As they continue through the dark, the group fights off invisible monsters while conserving strength and avoiding unnecessary battles.
• The long-haired elder rises from the abyss and blocks their path. Xu Yuan tells the three Golden Core Cultivators to attack together, then retreat; he will pull them back with Spirit Light Threads. The elder unleashes darkness from every direction, setting up a major confrontation.

Character development and interactions

• Xu Yuan is resourceful and composed under pressure, coordinating the escape, directing the group’s tactics, and reassuring the frightened little girl even though he admits he cannot guarantee they will get out.
• Jingzhe is eager to fly but follows Xu Yuan’s instructions to stay low and quiet. His ability to see the invisible enemies makes him a vital guide.
• Qianqian operates the concealment array and quickly understands Xu Yuan’s strategy of delaying pursuit rather than fighting head-on.
• Yang Xiaobing contributes a clever diversion with her Talisman decoy and briefly feels self-conscious about holding Xu Yuan’s hand while he supports the little girl.
• The little girl seeks Xu Yuan’s reassurance and protection; Jiang Xueyao quietly watches over her and helps shield Yang Xiaobing from the situation.
• The Golden Core Cultivators are initially uncertain whether they can rely on one another in a desperate fight. Xu Yuan’s plan gives them a shared goal—strike, then escape—and they agree to cooperate.

Significant themes

• Ingenuity and teamwork: The escape depends on coordinated decoys, concealment, combat, and quick decisions.
• Survival over heroics: Xu Yuan insists they are escaping, not sacrificing themselves in a hopeless fight.
• Fear and hope: The group’s flight inspires hope, even as the Black Barrier’s darkness and hidden enemies keep them in danger.
• Trust under pressure: Xu Yuan’s clear leadership helps the group act together despite the uncertainty and the elder’s overwhelming power.

Plot points and events

• Trapped in a collapsing city surrounded by darkness and Ghost Entities, the group fights to escape. Qianqian’s formation and the attacks of the burly man and the swordswoman distract the old man long enough for the Flood Dragon, Jingzhe, to reach the barrier.
• The old man intercepts them and strikes Jingzhe, but the dragon’s armor blunts the blow. Jingzhe retaliates, and the clash scatters the group into the darkness.
• Xu Yuan reunites everyone by pulling them back to Jingzhe with Spirit Light Threads. As Jingzhe flies toward the barrier, the team spends its remaining strength fighting off Ghost Entities and holding the old man at bay.
• When the old man knocks Jingzhe away from the barrier again, Xu Yuan realizes the dragon’s tail can break through. He stabs Jingzhe to snap him to attention and calls for a “Divine Dragon Sweeps Its Tail.” Jingzhe’s powerful tail strike shatters the barrier, and Xu Yuan’s sword widens the opening.
• Xu Yuan gets Lu Yiyi and himself through first, then uses Spirit Light Threads to pull the others—and finally Jingzhe—out while the three Golden Core cultivators hold the old man back.
• The team reappears in the Special Admission Test hall. They confirm that escaping Border City means they succeeded in their mission to save it.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan emerges as the group’s decisive strategist, coordinating their attacks, regrouping them in the darkness, and devising the final escape. He trusts Jingzhe to understand his orders and risks himself to get everyone out.
• Jingzhe shows resilience and loyalty, enduring severe injuries and responding to Xu Yuan’s unconventional command. He recognizes the force behind the tail strike and smiles at Xu Yuan’s explanation.
• Qianqian, the burly man, and the swordswoman work together to distract and restrain the old man, even while badly outmatched. Their cooperation creates the openings the others need.
• Yang Xiaobing, Jiang Xueyao, and Zhang Pengcheng keep fighting despite exhaustion, protecting the dragon and clearing Ghost Entities. Once safe, Zhang Pengcheng and Xu Yuan celebrate wildly; Jiang Xueyao confirms their success.
• Lu Yiyi remains quiet but watches Xu Yuan with new appreciation, recognizing how much the escape depended on him.

Significant themes

• Teamwork under pressure: Every person’s contribution—from combat and formation work to Xu Yuan’s rescue lines—helps make the escape possible.
• Trust and improvisation: Xu Yuan’s odd-sounding command succeeds because he understands Jingzhe and Jingzhe trusts him enough to act.
• Endurance and sacrifice: The group continues fighting despite injuries, depleted strength, and almost no room for retreat.
• Shared victory: Their success is not one person’s alone; it is the result of coordinated effort and mutual reliance.

Key events

• Lu Yiyi explains that Qianqian opened a Teleportation Array at the last moment, allowing the group to escape and contact the emperor. The emperor could then destroy the Ghost Entities threatening Yanmen’s Border City. The assembled cultivators accept this account, which gives the emperor public credit for the rescue.
• The emperor praises Xu Yuan’s command. Xu Yuan focuses on the mysterious old man who sealed the city and summoned Ghost Entities, wondering why a human would help them. The emperor agrees the mystery deserves investigation but says only Qi Refining cultivators can enter and affect the Zhou Tian Instrument.
• Xu Yuan sincerely thanks the Two Schools and their staff for creating an expedition where the monsters’ power was limited enough for students to fight them. He describes the battle as exhilarating and asks to return to investigate Border City’s many unresolved secrets.
• Lu Chaoxian, master of both the emperor and his late elder brother, offers to make Xu Yuan his last disciple at the Nine Luminaries. Xu Yuan declines, explaining that Han Chaoshen once dismissed him as talentless and that he has already chosen to study at Luofu under Fu Xiuyi.
• The emperor tells Lu Chaoxian that Xu Yuan already has a master and holds a grudge against the Nine Luminaries. After learning what Han Chaoshen did, Lu Chaoxian decides not to intervene in the man’s impending punishment. The emperor then orders striking moments from the battle broadcast to the public.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan emerges as a capable battlefield leader whose judgment earns the respect of cultivators and the emperor. His fascination with the old man and longing to fight again reveal his gamer-like excitement, while his restraint and genuine gratitude show awareness of his limited strength and of the people who made the expedition possible.
• Lu Yiyi presents the escape clearly and strategically, framing the group’s success as the means by which the emperor could save the city.
• The emperor welcomes both the public credit and the chance to share the battle’s dramatic moments. He also reveals that he secretly weakened the Zhou Tian Instrument to influence the old man, accepting the cost because the victory could bolster human morale.
• Lu Chaoxian recognizes Xu Yuan’s talent and offers him an extraordinary opportunity, but backs off once he learns Xu Yuan’s loyalties and the history behind his refusal.
• Xu Yuan’s rejection exposes the consequences of Han Chaoshen’s earlier insult. Lu Chaoxian had considered protecting Han from the emperor’s hidden Soul Art, but, after learning the truth, leaves him to face the consequences.

Significant themes

• Public morale and political storytelling: The rescue is presented in a way that gives the emperor credit and reassures the population that humans can stand against Ghost Entities.
• Curiosity and limits: Xu Yuan is eager to uncover the Border City’s secrets and challenge powerful enemies, but recognizes that his current cultivation level restricts what he can do.
• Gratitude and recognition: Xu Yuan’s thanks acknowledge the behind-the-scenes effort that made the dangerous expedition possible.
• Loyalty, reputation, and consequences: Xu Yuan’s past treatment by Han Chaoshen shapes his choice of school, while Lu Chaoxian’s decision shows how personal conduct can affect whether others offer protection.

Plot points and events

• The emperor publicly broadcasts the group’s escape from Border City, including the city’s collapse and the battle against the invisible monsters. He insists that everyone must see how dangerous the threat is and be prepared.
• Xu Yuan receives a Legendary-Tier Spotlight for organizing the rescue of Commandery Princess Chunle while still at Qi Refining. He uses its “Super Evolution” reward on Diamond Invulnerability.
• The technique becomes an instinctive bodily trait: Xu Yuan gains exceptional defense and resistance, and attacks that fail to destroy him outright cannot kill him immediately. Its protection will grow stronger as his cultivation advances.
• Asked about Border City, Xu Yuan suggests bringing the city—or its remains—back for study, hoping its artifact-like defenses could help protect the realm. The emperor confirms that the original city cannot be removed from the Zhou Tian Instrument, but agrees to investigate the crater where the real Border City once stood.
• Everyone is returned to the hall. The emperor announces that Xu Yuan’s team rescued Chunle and saved the city’s survivors, astonishing the other examinees.
• The emperor orders the Zhou Tian Instrument restarted so they can investigate how Border City was destroyed. This time, Xu Yuan’s team is told not to win but to remain in the city and search for clues. The contestants are sent back to the battle at a more dangerous point.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Yuan prioritizes survival over improving his other abilities, choosing Diamond Invulnerability over Sword-Flight Art. He also speaks candidly to the emperor, while deliberately avoiding further involvement in the political investigation.
• The emperor shows growing concern about the realm’s safety. He uses the broadcast to warn the public and begins questioning what caused Border City’s earlier destruction—and why so many people died.
• Lu Chenzhou is humbled by the rescue. He cannot mock Xu Yuan’s group after seeing what they accomplished, and his resentment toward Lu Yiyi remains.
• Lu Yiyi ignores Lu Chenzhou and leaves quietly, attracting the examinees’ attention.
• Xu Yuan’s team is admired—and envied—by the other contestants, who are surprised that their rescue has earned them a special assignment.

Significant themes

• Preparedness in the face of danger: The emperor argues that peace must not make people afraid to confront hard truths.
• Merit and responsibility: Xu Yuan is rewarded for leadership and protecting others despite his low cultivation.
• Survival and power: Xu Yuan values a reliable defense above further offensive growth.
• Truth and accountability: The replay raises questions about the earlier deaths in Border City and Lu Chenzhou’s conduct, prompting a renewed investigation.