Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo descends Ten-Thousand-Blade Mountain amid a spectacular display: his Thunderfire Sword releases lightning Sword Intent, and thousands of swords answer it. He sheathes the blade, allowing the lightning and Sword Intent to vanish, then presents the ordinary fire-attributed sword he officially chose.
• Wang Shechuan and the other cultivators assume Chen Zhuo’s display came from his own sword talent. When a disciple questions why a Wood-Spiritual-Root prodigy chose a fire sword, Wang invents a precedent: using one element to temper Sword Intent with another. Chen Zhuo accepts the explanation as a plausible cover for using the Thunderfire Sword openly.
• Wang privately concludes that the sect’s histories must be false: none of their celebrated past geniuses matched Chen Zhuo’s feats. He resolves to revise the record and protect the sect’s Heavenly-Spiritual-Root prodigy.
• Wang tells Chen Zhuo about the Sword Ladder, a trial built by the sect’s sole southern-era Nascent Soul True Lord, which offers rewards to those who demonstrate Sword Intent. Chen Zhuo is interested but worries that his Sword Intent comes from the Thunderfire Sword, not his own cultivation.
• Back at Heavenly Drum Peak, Chen Zhuo asks Li Changqing to obtain herbs from Sijing’s list. Li explains that the Grandmaster will cover Heavenly Drum Peak’s expenses and that Chen, as Daoist Heir, receives ten thousand contribution points annually.
• Chen returns to seclusion, deciding to focus on reaching the eighth Qi Refining layer before pursuing other opportunities.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo successfully disguises the Thunderfire Sword’s power as the result of his apparent sword genius, while recognizing the practical value of having a believable explanation. He also considers making medicine himself to reduce costs and secure supplies, but postpones that plan until he is stronger.
• Wang Shechuan shifts from astonishment to zealous admiration. He improvises an explanation to protect Chen’s reputation, then becomes convinced the sect’s past was less glorious than its records claim. He regrets not personally securing Chen earlier and decides to reshape the sect’s history around him.
• Li Changqing remains a respectful attendant, promptly carrying out Chen’s request and explaining the financial support available to him.
• Wang’s fabricated account reassures the questioning disciple, while Chen and Wang each privately draw very different conclusions from the same sword display.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: Chen’s borrowed Sword Intent is mistaken for innate mastery, and Wang’s invented story is treated as established sect history.
• Myth-making and unreliable history: Wang’s conviction that the records are false leads him to embrace making new “history” himself.
• Ambition and cultivation: Chen weighs practical opportunities—medicine, the Sword Ladder, and tournament selection—against his immediate priority of improving his cultivation.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• After more than half a month of intense cultivation in Heavenly Drum Grotto-Heaven, Chen Zhuo consolidates the seventh layer of Qi Refinement and nears the eighth. His training and bond with the ancient Moon Jade Tree have increased his tolerance for potions, though he decides not to risk injecting all nine varieties at once.
• Li Changqing reports finding more than sixty medicinal plants from Chen Zhuo’s list. Chen selects four valuable ingredients for Sijing and learns that sect elders have sent gifts and invitations to meet him. He politely declines the social invitations.
• When Dawn Vein cultivator Miao Yu invites him to explore a supposedly newly discovered Cave Abode, Chen suspects a trap. Rather than investigate himself, he takes the invitation to Golden Core elder Wang Shechuan, who promises to handle it.
• Chen visits Sijing in the Immortal Estate and trades her four herbs for a supply of powerful potions, including Violet Lightning Dragon and Black Coiled Dragon. Sijing also tells him she has arranged for him to enter an upcoming student skills competition, where he is expected to concede and gain experience as a reserve player.
• Sijing’s apparent alchemy talent is revealed to rely partly on a secret trial system: an automated Alchemy Repository gives her a 99.96% success rate for refining a Foundation Establishment elixir. She plans to rely less on it after the trial ends.
• Miao Yu is revealed to be Da Qi Yu, a spy from the Southern Barbarian Twenty-Eight Tribes. He accepted an order to kill Chen in exchange for a chance to extend his life. After Chen reports the invitation, Wang Shechuan and two other Golden Core elders confront Miao Yu, destroy his defenses, and prepare to search his soul.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo remains cautious and pragmatic: he avoids risky cultivation, manages sect relationships politely, recognizes Miao Yu’s invitation as suspicious, and lets senior cultivators investigate. He is also increasingly eager to use stronger potions to reach the eighth layer.
• Li Changqing continues to admire and trust Chen, eagerly anticipating his supposed alchemical ambitions and efficiently gathering materials.
• Sijing is grateful for Chen’s help but keeps her own technological advantage secret. Her success as an alchemy prodigy is partly due to automated refinement, though she intends to build genuine skill.
• Miao Yu/Da Qi Yu is exposed as a desperate infiltrator whose fear grows after he commits to the assassination attempt.

Significant themes

• Caution versus ambition: Chen wants rapid cultivation gains but avoids reckless experiments and suspicious opportunities.
• Secrets and appearances: Sijing’s public reputation hides her reliance on a trial system, while Miao Yu’s sect identity conceals his tribal allegiance.
• Trust and institutional protection: Chen relies on senior sect members rather than facing danger alone, and their swift response underscores the sect’s power.
• Transactional support: Chen and Sijing exchange rare ingredients and potions, while both benefit from a relationship built on practical assistance.

Character interactions

• Chen and Li Changqing discuss the gathered herbs, sect gifts, and invitations.
• Chen respectfully declines invitations from sect elders but brings Miao Yu’s message to Wang Shechuan.
• Chen and Sijing exchange four spiritual plants for potions; she also arranges his competition participation.
• Wang Shechuan, Liu Cheng, and Lu Xu confront Miao Yu, who is left terrified as Lu Xu moves to search his soul.

Plot and key events

• In the aftermath of Miao Yu’s attempted ambush, True Person Lu Xu uses the sect’s brutal soul-searching methods and discovers Miao Yu is a Southern Barbarian infiltrator. The supposed cave ruins were a false lure, staffed by hired rogue cultivators.
• Furious, Lu Xu departs to kill the conspirators. Wang Shechuan, haunted by his past failure to save Senior Brother Zhongli, gives up pursuing further cultivation and vows to protect Chen Zhuo. Liu Cheng offers to refine Miao Yu’s body into a puppet to guard Chen Zhuo’s home.
• Meanwhile, Chen Zhuo prepares a potent mixture of five “Nine Dragons Power” potions. Using Jianmu and nearby spirit-plant saplings to help temper and buffer the medicine’s effects, he injects it and breaks through to the eighth level of Qi Refinement.
• The breakthrough draws a dramatic vortex of spiritual energy over Heavenly Drum Peak. New disciples mistake it for an extraordinary pill or artifact being made; Wan Jinzhao explains that Chen Zhuo is simply cultivating.
• Wan Jinzhao welcomes the newcomers and promises to teach them sword techniques improved by Chen Zhuo. Wang Shechuan, seeing how quickly Chen Zhuo is advancing, worries that his planned trials may soon be needed much earlier than expected.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo grows more confident in his status as a prodigy, reasoning that even a “fake” prodigy can become genuine. His success strengthens his bond with the saplings, which helped him survive the potion’s force.
• Wang Shechuan shifts from cultivation toward guardianship, driven by guilt over the past and concern for Chen Zhuo.
• Liu Cheng shows practical loyalty by proposing to turn Miao Yu’s body into a protective puppet, despite the moral stigma attached to corpse refinement.
• Lu Xu reveals a ruthless, protective side: he acts decisively to prevent an attack on the sect’s heir, though his anger threatens to spill into collective revenge.
• Wan Jinzhao is relaxed and proud of Chen Zhuo’s progress. He reassures the new disciples and uses Chen Zhuo’s reputation to establish the peak’s confidence in its own methods.
• The new disciples’ awe—and one disciple’s reconsideration of stories about an old Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivator—illustrates how quickly Chen Zhuo’s achievements are becoming legend.

Significant themes

• Cultivation as ambition and sacrifice: Chen Zhuo’s rapid progress is powered by risky potions, bodily endurance, and help from his environment.
• Loyalty, guilt, and protection: Wang’s vow and Liu’s plan show how past failures and present danger shape the elders’ choices.
• Reputation and mythmaking: Chen Zhuo’s visible breakthroughs turn him into a model of genius, while the disciples reinterpret old stories to fit what they witness.
• Innovation and changing institutions: The discussion of automated alchemy hints at tensions between new technology, established professions, and the political structure of the cultivation world.

Chapter 103 Summary

• Chen Zhuo reaches the eighth level of Qi Refinement, and his cultivation sends out so much green-wood spiritual energy that even the weeds around Heavenly Drum Grotto-Heaven become spiritually enriched. His senior brother, Wan Jinzhao, praises his apparent talent in cultivation, combat, swordsmanship, comprehension, and poetry. Chen privately grumbles that everyone credits talent rather than his hard work, but publicly dismisses his achievements as luck.
• Wan Jinzhao invites Chen to climb the Sword Ladder, a ninety-five-step trial on Sword-Seeking Peak. It tests and tempers sword intent; only sword cultivators can pass through its entrance, and the steps are notoriously difficult. Chen decides to attempt the entire climb, reasoning that if he is going to pose as a prodigy, he might as well go all the way.
• At Sword-Seeking Peak, the pair pass aspiring mortal recruits, who must climb the easier front slope for a chance to join the sect. Chen sees how much stricter the Ancient Immortal Realm’s path into cultivation is than the more resource-rich world he knows.
• Chen passes the entrance test with the Thunderfire Sword. The gate draws out two sword intents—thunder and fire—astonishing Wan Jinzhao, who had believed Chen possessed only a thunder-based ability. The watching disciples interpret this as Chen having exceptionally rare talent. Wang Shechuan assumes Chen must have comprehended Flame Sword Intent from the old sword he carries, and resolves that its former owner deserves recognition.
• Once on the ladder, Chen realizes the Nascent Soul sword intent is attacking the sword, not him. Since the weapon bears the sword intent that passed the entrance test, Chen can keep climbing while the sword struggles against the trial. He quickly passes thirty steps and then reaches sixty with little difficulty, stunning Wan Jinzhao, whose personal record is thirty-one.
• Chen deliberately slows down after sixty and pretends to struggle, even creating artificial sweat to make his progress look believable. Over half an hour, he reaches the ninetieth step, surpassing the sect’s previous record of eighty-three. At that point, the ladder’s pressure finally stirs Chen’s own Sword Qi.
• Chen recites another grand poem, then surges to the summit in a single bound, reaching the ninety-fifth step. He concludes with a line declaring that at the mountain’s highest peak, he stands above all.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Chen Zhuo continues to conceal how effortless his progress is, balancing genuine ability with calculated theatrics. He is surprised that both thunder and fire sword intents emerge, and regrets exposing the Flame Sword earlier than planned.
• Wan Jinzhao moves from impressed admiration to complete disbelief as Chen surpasses his own record and climbs farther than anyone in the sect’s history.
• Wang Shechuan interprets Chen’s achievement as evidence of exceptional talent and reconsiders the legacy of the long-forgotten cultivator whose sword Chen carries.
• The watching disciples and aspiring recruits respond with awe, while the mortals’ envy of cultivators reinforces their determination to pursue the Dao.

Significant Themes

• Talent versus effort: Others see Chen as a natural prodigy, while he insists—at least inwardly—that his success comes from exhausting work.
• Appearance and performance: Chen carefully stages signs of struggle to preserve the image of a prodigy whose triumphs still look earned.
• The gap between ordinary people and cultivators: Mortal aspirants face harsh tests and scarce opportunities, while established cultivators move through the world with status and power.
• Reputation and overlooked merit: Wang Shechuan’s response suggests that Chen’s discovery may also restore recognition to a forgotten sword cultivator.

Plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo reaches the summit of the Sword Ladder, where the climb has sharpened his Sword Qi and transformed his Thunder Seed. A fading remnant of Nascent Soul Divine Sense—left by the long-dead patriarch True Lord Chasing the Moon and Eternal Light—rewards him with a wood-aspected Foundation Establishment Spirit Object.
• The patriarch also passes on his Moon-Deficiency Sword Intent. Chen Zhuo cannot wield it directly, but his Jia Wood Thunder Seed absorbs it and rapidly grows, enabling him to unleash Sword Aura: “Sword Qi Tempered into Astral Force.”
• Chen Zhuo solemnly promises to someday unite the Eight Sects, restore the Azure Immortal Sect, and return it to the Central Lands. He descends to acclaim from the gathered disciples, then returns to Heavenly Drum Peak to recover and cultivate with Jianmu.
• Back in the Immortal Estate, Chen Zhuo discovers that True Person Que has married a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator. He worries this could end the supply of body-tempering potions provided through her fan, but resolves to rely on traditional training with Jianmu instead.
• Teacher Xiao tells Chen Zhuo that he has mastered all the swordsmanship the teacher can offer at his current level. Chen Zhuo is invited to the Dao Tournament qualifiers, beginning the next day. Although senior Sijing says he was entered as a substitute and advises him to observe, Chen Zhuo decides to compete.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo gains confidence and recognition as a prodigy, while privately acknowledging that his new Sword Aura came through the patriarch’s help rather than from Sword Intent he formed himself. He vows to develop genuine Sword Intent.
• The patriarch’s final gift reveals his lingering grief and regret over his homeland and the Azure Immortal Sect’s lost future, giving Chen Zhuo a larger purpose.
• Jianmu and Chen Zhuo continue to strengthen one another through cultivation, though Chen Zhuo carefully prevents the connected saplings from developing consciousness.
• Teacher Xiao praises Chen Zhuo’s progress, formally ends his instruction, and challenges him to prove himself in the tournament. Sijing, meanwhile, tries to shield him from the dangerous Drug Resistance Test by suggesting he wait a year or two; Chen Zhuo rejects the delay.

Significant themes

• Legacy and obligation: Chen Zhuo inherits the patriarch’s unfinished hopes and accepts responsibility for carrying them forward.
• Effort versus shortcuts: Chen Zhuo’s power has been accelerated by borrowed Sword Intent, and he recognizes the need to earn true mastery himself.
• Ambition and self-belief: Despite warnings and the risks ahead, Chen Zhuo chooses to enter the qualifiers and demonstrate his abilities.
• Two worlds and limited resources: His cultivation depends on navigating the contrast between the Ancient Immortal Realm’s abundance and the Immortal Estate’s scarcity.

Plot points and events

• Students gather at Taiqing City Alchemy Vocational and Technical College to select its five-person team for the Dao Tournament’s first stage. The contestants include ambitious seniors, anxious third-year Liang Ninghong, and Chen Zhuo, already named a substitute.
• The senior students discuss the likely lineup and worry that Sangluo Continent, a quiet transfer student, may be difficult to work with as captain. They also note that Chen Zhuo’s swarm-flying-sword set could help the team.
• A bank alert announces Chen Zhuo’s enormous debt, prompting the seniors to recognize him when he arrives. Sangluo confronts him about how he can remain free despite owing so much.
• Liang Ninghong explains Sangluo’s background and identity in an indiscreet whisper. Chen tries to stop him, but Sangluo hears and grows visibly angrier.
• Zhou Mu demands access to Chen’s swords and offers him a small share of the prize money. Chen refuses and insults Zhou’s drug-enhanced physique. Zhou tries to overpower him, but Chen holds his wrist, revealing unexpectedly strong body-tempering.
• Zhou, rather than continuing the confrontation, becomes curious about Chen’s training methods. Chen says he trains the old-fashioned way.
• The college president arrives and begins the selection’s Drug Resistance Test. Contestants must pay for their potions, but high finishers receive discounts. Chen immediately volunteers, hoping to win first place and get the round for free.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo enters confidently, relying on his improved body-tempering and speaking far more bluntly than he does in his other life. His physical strength surprises Zhou Mu, and his interest in free potions motivates him to join the test.
• Liang Ninghong remains anxious about earning a team place, but his attempt to explain Sangluo’s background causes an embarrassing breach of etiquette and worsens tensions.
• Sangluo Continent is shown as aloof and sensitive to being misgendered or discussed. His anger rises after overhearing Liang’s gossip.
• Zhou Mu begins as domineering and entitled, expecting to borrow Chen’s swords and dismissing him as a mere substitute. After testing Chen’s strength, he shifts to asking genuine questions about his body cultivation.
• Ruan Qiutang and Wei Junqian appear as confident seniors who assess the competition and discuss the likely team composition.

Significant themes

• Merit and opportunity: The tournament is meant to identify overlooked vocational-college talent, while contestants compete for advancement and access to better schools.
• Status and clashing cultures: Chen’s debt, Zhou’s body-cultivation practices, Sangluo’s background, and the seniors’ assumptions expose the eccentric norms of the Immortal Estate.
• Appearance versus ability: Chen looks like an unlikely contender, yet his traditional training gives him strength close to Zhou’s.
• Comedy through bluntness and misunderstanding: Rivalry, careless gossip, and Chen’s candid insults turn the selection gathering into a series of awkward confrontations.

Key plot points and events

• The Dao Tournament’s drug-resistance test begins. Contestants earn points by taking drugs over two hours; first place gets free doses, while lower rankings receive smaller discounts.
• The dean explains that the test measures not only drug resistance but also physical strength and the ability to absorb and metabolize drugs. The medicines are leftovers from an exam abolished five hundred years ago.
• Zhou Mu initially takes the lead by injecting hundreds of doses at once. Sangluo Continent overtakes him by drinking her drugs, while Chen Zhuo begins cautiously and falls to eleventh.
• Wei Junqian is refused a bathroom break and wets himself. Zhou Mu reveals he wore a diaper so he could keep competing—and even plans to recover drug potency from his urine.
• Inspired by their tactics, Chen Zhuo realizes he can metabolize drugs rapidly rather than retain all their effects. Using his Jia Wood Body Tempering Art and connection to Jianmu, he swallows whole boxes of injections and excretes the excess through sweat while absorbing useful potency.
• Chen Zhuo climbs into first place. Sangluo Continent stops before risking organ damage, and Zhou Mu panics as his enormous drug bill threatens to leave him in debt.
• Chen Zhuo wins after consuming 24,580 Spirit Coins’ worth of drugs, earning them free. Sangluo Continent and Zhou Mu must pay thousands; Wei Junqian and Liang Ninghong are relieved to have limited their losses and qualified for the next round.
• Meanwhile, the teachers discuss a stock-market boom in Yuqing Domain. The dean has borrowed money to invest and privately hopes to persuade others to keep the market rising until he can cash out.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo shows ingenuity and composure under pressure, turning his plant-based cultivation technique into an unconventional metabolism strategy. His rapid progress and extraordinary drug tolerance surprise the staff.
• Zhou Mu begins as a confident favorite but becomes desperate when Chen Zhuo and Sangluo pass him. His diaper and plan to distill his urine reveal a ruthless willingness to save money, though both fail to secure victory.
• Sangluo Continent demonstrates startling physical ability by drinking injections and transforming into a muscular giant. She nevertheless knows when to stop to avoid costly injury.
• Wei Junqian loses control of his bladder but adapts by cutting his losses. Afterward, he needles Zhou Mu about his failed strategy and warns Ruan Qiutang against approaching Chen Zhuo, citing his debts and the risk of bank liability.
• The teachers admire Chen Zhuo’s performance but briefly suspect possible cult ties. The dean dismisses the concern after confirming that Chen Zhuo shows no signs of evil-cult involvement.

Significant themes

• Resourcefulness and adaptation: Chen Zhuo wins by understanding his own abilities rather than merely copying stronger competitors.
• Cultivation’s dependence on drugs and money: Advancement is framed as inseparable from injections, medical costs, loans, and debt.
• Competitive desperation: The test pushes contestants toward grotesque, extreme measures, showing how financial stakes can distort judgment.
• Satire of institutions and markets: The college’s outdated medicine, the dean’s sales pitch about drug resistance, and the teachers’ speculative stock-market enthusiasm mock bureaucratic logic and financial greed.

Key events

• After placing first in the drug-resistance test, Chen Zhuo returns to the Heavenly Drum Grotto-Heaven. Jianmu helps him refine the huge amount of medicinal energy he absorbed into Immortal Dao Potential, while the excess is expelled and used to water Jianmu and its saplings.
• He worries that the next selection test will measure spiritual-energy quality and physical strength. Rather than turning weak medicinal power into lower-quality energy, he begins practicing the Origin Return Foundation Establishment Method, which compresses and purifies his spiritual energy. Jianmu greatly accelerates his progress.
• Chen Zhuo considers his prospects for Foundation Establishment. With the method, a high-grade Spirit Bamboo foundation object, and additional aids, he believes he may have a strong chance of success and possibly form a near-perfect Immortal Foundation. He decides to attempt Foundation Establishment at the peak of the ninth Qi Refining layer rather than deliberately accumulating extra layers.
• Returning to the Immortal Estate World, he ignores requests from supposed classmates who may want to borrow money, but accepts advertising offers from verified businesses. He negotiates endorsements worth 12,000 Spirit Coins, which are converted into Immortal Dao Potential.
• He learns that second- and third-place contestants received larger tournament contracts, but accepts that sponsors want proof of his fighting ability before committing. He plans to negotiate for more after he proves himself.
• Chen Zhuo’s next priorities are to buy legally usable Magical Artifacts and test his improved physical strength in the academy’s Advanced Training Room.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Zhuo becomes more cautious and respectful of other competitors after realizing how formidable the college students are. He remains ambitious, but avoids assuming his first-place test result guarantees success.
• His gratitude toward the Sword Gate deepens. He wants to share the Origin Return method to help the sect, but delays doing so because its origin would be difficult to explain while he is only a Qi Refinement cultivator.
• His relationship with Jianmu remains central to his cultivation: he relies on its power for rapid refinement and growth, and treats it as a trusted source of support.
• Chen Zhuo’s interactions with sponsors show his practical, opportunistic side: he cheerfully pretends to be a devoted customer of products he has never used, while sponsors flatter his prospects.
• He dismisses classmates’ friend requests as likely attempts to borrow money, reflecting his guarded attitude toward people seeking to benefit from his success.

Significant themes

• Ambition balanced by caution: Chen Zhuo pursues rapid advancement but recognizes the risks of poor spiritual-energy quality and underestimating opponents.
• Cultivation as investment: Potential, endorsements, equipment, and foundation quality are treated like assets that can be earned, traded, and leveraged.
• Gratitude and self-interest: Chen Zhuo wants to repay the Sword Gate’s kindness, yet must consider his own advancement and the practical limits of revealing his technique.
• Commerce and cultivation: Advertising and sponsorships are woven into the pursuit of immortality, and Chen Zhuo turns his brief fame into resources for his next challenge.

• Chen Zhuo weighs how to spend his prize money. After earning 12,000 Spirit Coins through endorsements, he considers buying a Magical Artifact, but learns from Sijing about a fruit that boosts Divine Sense. He sends her money for a supply and decides to invest in strengthening himself rather than buying equipment.
• Sijing offers a far more valuable bargain. She proposes giving Chen Zhuo the Foundation-Building Heavenly Swan Cultivation Essence instead of a share of her prize money. Its value is around 150,000–188,888 Spirit Coins, and Sijing claims a 99.96% success rate in refining it. Chen Zhuo realizes he already has nearly all the essentials for Foundation Establishment—the essence, a high-grade Spirit Object, and a cultivation method—though he still needs to reach the peak of Qi Refinement.
• Chen Zhuo tests his growing abilities. At the school’s Advanced Training Room, his spiritual power measures 1,326 units, roughly matching an ordinary Qi Refinement Thirteenth-Layer cultivator. In the Gravity Room, he handles up to ten times normal gravity with ease, performing Military Combat Fist at the room’s maximum setting. His physical strength has reached a level comparable to an early Foundation Establishment Spell Cultivator, making him worry that his mana is now lagging behind his body.
• Xie Yunling sees Chen Zhuo’s strength firsthand. She arrives hoping to train with him and improve their prospects for the team competition. Watching him withstand tenfold gravity, she is astonished and impressed. She assumes he might be preparing to join the team in four years, but Chen Zhuo reveals he has already entered this year’s Selection Tournament and came first in the Drug Tolerance Test. Xie is stunned by the prospect of a first-year competing against fourth-years.
• Sijing brings the Divine Sense fruit. After Xie leaves, Sijing privately calls Chen Zhuo “Dad,” continuing their joking, mutually beneficial rapport. She gives him a package of “Premium Big Fruit,” which turns out to be cultivation-world betel nuts. They can enhance Divine Sense but are harmful to the mouth unless the user has reached level-ten Body Tempering. Chen Zhuo, now strong enough to tolerate them, chews one despite its awful taste and immediately feels his mind sharpen.
• Sijing warns him about a major rival. She names several strong tournament competitors, especially Qi Panqiu, a descendant of a long-dead Nascent Soul cultivator. Qi possesses two inherited talismans: the Red Phoenix Star Talisman, which can forcibly make someone her Dao Companion through an officially recognized marriage, and the Immortal Divorce Talisman, which ends the marriage and transfers half the other person’s Immortal Dao Potential to her. Chen Zhuo is horrified to learn that an ancestor used this tactic to strip half a Golden Core cultivator’s power.
  Character development and interactions: Chen Zhuo grows more confident as his spiritual and physical abilities rise, while increasingly focusing on self-improvement and the possibility of Foundation Establishment. Sijing remains both his friend and business partner, trading valuable goods and information with him through their irreverent “Dad” jokes. Xie Yunling admires Chen Zhuo and hopes to benefit from working with him, but learns that he is already competing at a far higher level than she imagined.
  Themes: The chapter contrasts extreme wealth inequality with the rewards available to exceptional students, while emphasizing ambition, investment in personal growth, and the uneven pace of Chen Zhuo’s development. Its comedic tone also undercuts the serious stakes of cultivation and tournament competition, culminating in the disturbing misuse of magical marriage and divorce to steal another person’s power.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo learns why Qi Panqiu is competing: her fallen family possesses a powerful but improperly issued talisman, and she needs the Dao Tournament to protect it from confiscation. Her family’s decline stems from generations of rivalry with a Nascent Soul cultivator’s descendants.
• Chen Zhuo hears about other contenders. Ye Shuangning is a gifted orphan and sword cultivator; Chang Qing is the son of Golden Core cultivators and shares a teacher with her.
• Back in the Ancient Immortal Realm, Chen Zhuo eats premium big fruits and cultivates. He notices that his Divine Sense improves unusually quickly.
• He discovers Jianmu absorbs the fruit scraps, removes their toxins, and sends their Divine Sense-enhancing essence to him through a faint blue-green connection. Jianmu ignores ordinary pills and medicinal solutions, apparently valuing the fruit’s rare essence rather than spiritual energy.
• Chen Zhuo feeds Jianmu half his remaining fruit supply, then returns to the Immortal Estate World for the Dao Tournament’s second-round test. The combined test will assess magical power and physical strength; the final stage will be combat, with a team-captain position, 30,000 Spirit Coins, and a Grade C Cultivation Method at stake.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo remains anxious about the tournament’s formidable opponents and the threat of Qi Panqiu’s talisman, but resolves to make his own way despite being largely unknown.
• His curiosity and experimental mindset lead him to uncover Jianmu’s unexpected ability, giving him a new way to strengthen his Divine Sense.
• Jianmu shifts from a seemingly ordinary sapling into a valuable, if selective, partner in Chen Zhuo’s cultivation.

Significant themes

• Unequal power and collateral damage: Powerful families’ feuds leave weaker people—like Chen Zhuo and the Qi household—caught in the consequences.
• Resourcefulness and experimentation: Chen Zhuo turns discarded fruit scraps into a cultivation advantage by observing and testing Jianmu’s behavior.
• Potential hidden in humble things: Jianmu’s unexpected gift suggests that something dismissed as an “impostor” may still possess a fragment of legendary power.

Character interactions

• Sijing shares tournament gossip and background information with Chen Zhuo, then rushes off to pursue spiritual mushrooms.
• Chen Zhuo responds to Jianmu as both a companion and a tool for cultivation, encouraging it, testing what it will absorb, and finally supplying it with more fruit.
• Chen Zhuo reflects on the other contestants’ backgrounds, weighing the dangers they pose as he prepares for the next test.

Plot points and events

• Teacher Nangong arrives at the college assessment in high spirits after making a risky, heavily leveraged investment in a spell-puppet company. The dean privately suspects Nangong may soon be caught up in a market-crash investigation and is already imagining how to turn that into merit.
• The second Dao Tournament test begins. Contestants must shoulder iron vats weighing about 100 tons, project their spiritual power, and maintain it while attempting to cast a spell.
• Chen Zhuo’s unusually pure, sustained power impresses the dean. The dean explains that Chen’s implanted Spiritual Root has growth potential, and that such roots can slowly develop over time.
• Chen Zhuo, Sangluo Continent, and Ruan Qiutang dominate the field. The remaining contestants drop out; Zhou Mu, frustrated by the competition, gives up as well.
• Chen Zhuo and Sangluo are left in a final contest. Chen’s First Wood Divine Thunder counters Sangluo’s yin- and Baleful-Intent-based power, gradually giving Chen the advantage.
• Sangluo withdraws rather than risk defeat, making Chen the second-round winner—his second first-place finish. The other students worry that he may become team captain, then redirect their frustration toward Zhou Mu.
• Sangluo privately offers Chen incentives to yield the captaincy: use of his Ancestral Talisman to boost Chen’s cultivation, and even dual cultivation. Chen is startled and firmly refuses the latter.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo establishes himself as a serious contender despite being a freshman and only at the eighth Qi Refining layer. His strength and unusual spiritual power surprise both the dean and his rivals. He remains focused, though Sangluo’s offer leaves him bewildered.
• Sangluo Continent proves formidable but recognizes that Chen’s power naturally counters his own. He withdraws strategically, then tries to negotiate for the captaincy with increasingly unusual offers.
• Ruan Qiutang shows strong ability but withdraws when the contest narrows to Chen and Sangluo.
• Zhou Mu loses confidence when his strength cannot compensate for his weaker projected power. He blames the presence of exceptional rivals and quits.
• Teacher Nangong is exuberant over his investment and curious—and briefly alarmed—about the nature of implanted Spiritual Roots. The dean both explains the roots and quietly treats Nangong as a likely future target for an investigation.

Significant themes

• Luck, ambition, and risk: Nangong’s investment mirrors the contestants’ pursuit of status and reward, while the dean’s calculations reveal how ambition can become opportunism.
• Merit versus circumstance: Chen’s rise challenges the seniors’ assumptions about who deserves leadership; rivals explain their losses through bad luck or outside interference.
• Power and counterplay: Raw strength matters, but the test also rewards stamina, control, and the compatibility of techniques—especially Chen’s advantage over Sangluo.
• Comedy and satire: The chapter uses exaggerated schemes, self-serving excuses, and Sangluo’s unconventional bargaining to poke fun at ambition, competition, and institutional politics.

Key events

• Chen Zhuo provokes Sangluo Continent before the qualifier’s third round, hoping his taunts will unsettle him and prevent him from using desire-inducing magic. Despite his bravado, Chen knows Sangluo is his strongest rival.
• Teacher Nangong pitches Yuqing Domain tech stocks to the students. Chen refuses to invest because he does not understand the market, while Zhou Mu is tempted.
• Breaking news reveals a disastrous defeat in the Star Realm War: faulty intelligent puppets and AI failures leave forces surrounded, cultivators dead or captured, and Yuqing tech stocks crashing. Officials blame corruption and defective equipment; the company chairman dies by suicide, and news coverage is censored.
• Teacher Nangong’s investment pitch collapses along with the market. Ruan Qiutang warns the students to flee, and Chen escapes. The dean exposes Nangong’s ties to illegal groups and attacks him, framing the arrest as a way to protect the academy.
• Chen learns from Teacher Xiao that the disaster may also have involved a scheme to raise investment money for a powerful cultivator’s breakthrough. Xiao warns that the Feathered Immortal Cult may gain strength amid the turmoil and says he will take Chen to kill some of its members.
• The qualifier’s next round is postponed for a month. Chen retreats to the Ancient Immortal Realm, where Jianmu appears to be turning oddly square after consuming premium fruit. Chen then cultivates through Jianmu and feels his Divine Sense grow rapidly.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo is calculating and cautious: he bluffs against Sangluo, avoids risky investments, fears being conscripted, and is eager to return to quiet cultivation. He also discovers that Xiao’s military contact, True Lord Chenghuai Hedao, gives him an indirect connection to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
• Sangluo Continent is enraged by Chen’s insults but remains a serious threat in the tournament.
• Teacher Nangong goes from confident stock promoter to a panicked, financially ruined figure, then attacks the dean after realizing he has been set up.
• The dean needles Nangong and uses his alleged illegal affiliations to justify arresting him.
• Ruan Qiutang reacts quickly to the crisis and gets the students moving before Nangong can lash out.
• Teacher Xiao Yugang shares sensitive military rumors, reassures Chen about the crisis reaching Taiqing, and prepares him for a more violent role.

Significant themes

• Speculation and greed: Chen’s refusal to invest contrasts with the students’ excitement, while the crash exposes how quickly confidence can collapse.
• Corruption and institutional failure: Bad equipment, bribery, political blame, and censored reporting reveal deep problems within the Immortal Estate.
• Self-preservation and ambition: Chen prioritizes his safety and cultivation, even as Xiao frames violence as a cost of success.
• Comedy amid catastrophe: Chen’s absurd financial “strategy,” the square-looking Jianmu, and his jokes about his distant powerful connections offset the war’s grim consequences.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo uses the saplings filling his grotto-heaven, along with every Qi Refining potion in his stockpile, to force a breakthrough before the third selection round.
• He reaches the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, the peak of the realm, and his strength rises dramatically. His Divine Sense expands to over thirty zhang—roughly the range of an early Foundation Establishment cultivator.
• With the third round scheduled for the next day, Chen Zhuo considers his eventual Foundation Establishment. He already has the required spirit object and method, but still needs Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid.
• Chen Zhuo visits Senior Brother Zhao Shu, who is preparing to enter seclusion for a risky attempt at forming a Golden Core. Zhao estimates his chances at only twenty percent.
• Zhao entrusts Chen Zhuo with the future safety of the Zhao clan’s young members with Spiritual Roots and gives him a Storage Bag containing valuable texts, including Zhao’s family’s Golden Core method, the Imperial Pole Suppresses the World Core Formation Register.
• Reading the method reveals that Ancient Immortal Realm Golden Cores can be individually shaped and imbued with distinctive effects. Chen Zhuo compares this with the Immortal Estate World, where most cultivators use the easier, standardized Five Elements Golden Core method; ancient-style Golden Cores remain an option mainly for exceptional cultivators.
• Chen Zhuo returns to prepare for the third round, eager to test his new strength. Meanwhile, Wang Heng arrives at the stadium hoping Chen Zhuo will lose, driven by jealousy over Little Jade.

Character development and interactions

• Chen Zhuo proves both ambitious and pragmatic: he spends his accumulated resources to advance quickly, yet declines extravagant gifts and maintains relationships by returning favors. His visit to Zhao shows respect and loyalty; he promises to protect the Zhao clan and wishes Zhao success, though he cannot help improve Zhao’s odds.
• Zhao Shu reveals his uncertainty about surviving Core Formation. He sets aside his usual indulgences to make arrangements for his family, entrusting Chen Zhuo with their protection and offering him his accumulated knowledge.
• Wang Heng remains resentful and jealous. He turns up to watch the third-round matches and even bets against Chen Zhuo, hoping to win Little Jade’s approval.
• Chen Zhuo’s growing reputation draws gifts and invitations from sect members, but he carefully balances accepting courtesy with refusing what he does not need.

Significant themes

• Ambition and the cost of advancement: Chen Zhuo trades resources for time, while Zhao risks his life for a chance to reach a higher realm.
• Duty, trust, and legacy: Zhao’s concern for his clan turns his meeting with Chen Zhuo into a transfer of responsibility and knowledge.
• Different paths to power: The contrast between personalized Golden Cores in the Ancient Immortal Realm and the standardized, higher-success method in the Immortal Estate highlights competing ideals of power, reliability, and distinction.
• Reputation and envy: Chen Zhuo’s success earns him influence and generosity, but also fuels Wang Heng’s hostility.

Plot points and events

• The first-year selection matches will determine the college team’s starters, substitutes, and three individual-competition representatives. Sangluo Continent hopes to become team captain but worries that Chen Zhuo’s flying sword and First Wood Divine Thunder make him a difficult opponent.
• Chen arrives late, revealing he has advanced to Qi Refining Ninth Layer. He turns his entrance into an advertisement for a quilt he claims helped him recover after his breakthrough.
• The draw pairs Sangluo Continent with Qin Lieyang, Ruan Qiutang with Wang Xi, Wei Junqian with Liang Ninghong, and Chen with Zhou Mu.
• Zhou Mu enters the match boasting of his body cultivation and tries to deliver a paid advertisement. Chen repeatedly interrupts with his own ads while fighting with his Thunderfire Sword and defensive spell.
• Chen powers up his sword with Spirit Stones and unleashes Sword Aura formed from his First Wood Divine Thunder. The teachers are astonished that a Qi Refining cultivator can achieve such advanced swordsmanship.
• Zhou Mu’s defensive secret art cannot withstand the lightning. The referee intervenes to protect him, and Chen wins. Zhou Mu also realizes he has failed to deliver his ad and faces hefty penalties. Chen’s final question about why Zhou keeps restarting his ad leaves Zhou wondering why he did not simply continue where he stopped.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo demonstrates that his strength has grown along with his cultivation: he defeats a formidable opponent and reveals exceptional sword talent. He remains confident, commercially minded, and mischievously distracting.
• Zhou Mu shifts from cocky confidence to panic and defeat. His pride in his physique and advertising contract make him especially vulnerable to Chen’s interruptions.
• Sangluo Continent becomes more anxious about facing Chen after discovering his breakthrough, and remains uncertain whether to reveal his own secret techniques.
• The teachers gain new respect for Chen, recognizing his Sword Aura as evidence of rare talent.

Character interactions

• Chen and Zhou’s bout is shaped as much by their competing advertisements as by their fighting styles: Chen uses interruptions to frustrate Zhou, while Zhou struggles to promote his gym.
• Chen’s victory prompts grudging astonishment from Zhou and admiration from the teachers.
• The spectators amplify the humor and tension with gossip about Chen’s debt, Spirit Stones, and supposed connections, while some attempt to sway the crowd against him.

Significant themes

• Talent can emerge anywhere: Chen’s feat challenges assumptions about the limits of a vocational college.
• Modern spectacle and commercialization: The tournament is treated as both athletic competition and an advertising platform.
• Preparation versus showmanship: Zhou relies on size and bravado, while Chen combines sword skill, tactics, and psychological disruption.
• Public scrutiny and reputation: Recordings, rumors, and spectators’ commentary make competitors’ choices—and secret techniques—difficult to keep private.

Plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo defeats Zhou Mu in just one minute and twenty-two seconds, finishing his advertising obligations and restoring his spiritual energy while watching the other arenas.
• The result shocks the spectators and contestants. Wang Heng, who had wagered his family’s money on Zhou Mu, despairs—but resolves to hedge his next bet by backing Chen Zhuo.
• The second-round draw pairs Chen Zhuo with Ruan Qiutang and Sangluo Continent with Wei Junqian. Dean Wang deliberately keeps Chen and Sangluo apart, saving their likely showdown for the finals.
• Ruan Qiutang recites her advertising slogans, then concedes without fighting. She knows Chen is out of her league and wants to save her strength for the contest for third place.
• Sangluo defeats Wei Junqian, overcoming his magical-artifact tactics and demonic techniques. Chen notices Wei’s mirror and privately considers borrowing it.
• Chen accepts a sponsorship deal from Tender Meow Girl: he’ll wear its logo, earning more if he wins the championship. He then discovers Sangluo is sponsored by the same company.
• Chen and Sangluo face off. Chen immediately unleashes First Wood Divine Thunder and Sword Aura, using an aggressive, ancient-style opening rather than the cautious probing Sangluo expects.
• Chen’s lightning overwhelms Sangluo’s demonic mist, while his protective sword barrier blocks counterattacks. Sangluo’s Bewitching Technique also fails.
• With conventional tactics collapsing, Sangluo activates the Supreme-Grade Nine-Demon Jade-Cleansing Bottle and begins Yin-Yang Reversal: transforming into a woman and storing his male anatomy in the bottle to amplify his power. The chapter ends as demonic qi floods the arena and Sangluo prepares to transform again.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo grows more confident after his swift victory. He is strategic about conserving energy and sponsorships, but in battle favors decisive, overpowering strikes. His unusually strong Divine Sense renders Sangluo’s bewitching technique ineffective.
• Sangluo Continent is shaken by Chen’s reputation and fighting style. His schooling has taught him to expect careful, modern sword tactics, but he abandons those plans when Chen attacks like an ancient cultivator. He resorts to his secret technique.
• Ruan Qiutang shows pragmatic judgment: rather than risk injury against a stronger opponent, she concedes and preserves her chance at third place.
• Wang Heng shifts from despair over his lost bet to a plan for future wagers, even reframing his resentment toward Chen as a potential hedge.
• Wei Junqian demonstrates inventive use of his brush and mirror artifacts, though he ultimately loses to Sangluo.

Character interactions

• Chen’s decisive win intimidates the other contestants, who hope to avoid facing him.
• Ruan and Chen’s brief arena exchange ends in her concession; she prioritizes tournament strategy over pride.
• Chen watches Sangluo and Wei fight, assessing both Sangluo’s abilities and Wei’s equipment.
• Chen and Sangluo’s duel contrasts their approaches: Chen attacks immediately, while Sangluo initially relies on learned counters and planned tactics. Chen’s assault forces Sangluo to reveal his ultimate technique.

Significant themes

• Old versus modern combat: Sangluo’s academic training emphasizes cautious, calculated tactics, while Chen’s ancient-style approach favors striking decisively before an opponent can adapt.
• Pragmatism and survival: Ruan concedes to preserve her energy, and Chen carefully manages both stamina and advertising obligations.
• Competition and commercialization: Sponsorship deals, slogans, and wagers surround the tournament, even as contestants fight for athletic and academic prestige.
• Uneven education and opportunity: Sangluo’s doubts about the gaps between domains’ institutions reflect broader disparities in educational resources.
• Unconventional power and identity: Sangluo’s Yin-Yang Reversal secret technique uses bodily transformation and demonic artifacts to alter the balance of the fight.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Zhuo faces Sangluo Continent, who uses the Jade Purification Bottle to release alluring demonic energy. Chen’s Foundation Establishment-level Divine Sense keeps him from being bewitched, and he counters with the Thunderfire Sword’s thunder-dragon and fire-phoenix attacks.
• Sangluo transforms through the Huanxi Sect art Yin-Yang Reversal, becoming a powerful, alluring half-male, half-female figure. The transformation combines yin and yang, weakening the First Wood Divine Thunder’s usual advantage against demonic energy.
• Neither fighter can gain the upper hand. Chen’s sword attacks damage Sangluo, but her body heals rapidly; meanwhile, Sangluo’s attacks fail to penetrate Chen’s defenses. Their escalating techniques create a dangerous spectacle, so Dean Wang surrounds the arena with protective formations.
• As the fight becomes a contest of endurance, Sangluo’s spiritual power starts to run low. She uses a self-directed dual-cultivation technique to replenish it, prompting Dean Wang to obscure the arena from the young spectators.
• Chen responds by switching to the Myriad Woods Bow to Origin Skill, drawing on the power he gained from years of being nourished by Jianmu. His vines absorb some of Sangluo’s demonic energy and carry his Divine Sense into her Sea of Consciousness, overwhelming her.
• Chen’s final sword strike is stopped by Dean Wang before it can seriously injure Sangluo. Dean Wang declares Chen the tournament champion and the academy’s strongest vocational-college student.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo proves to be far more versatile and powerful than expected: besides advanced swordsmanship and First Wood Divine Thunder, he has Foundation Establishment-level Divine Sense and potent wood-element magic. The stalemate also makes him realize that relying mainly on sword attacks can limit his options.
• Sangluo Continent reveals the Yin-Yang Dao Body behind her strength and fights with fierce pride, driven by the need to prove herself and secure a future as team captain. Her confidence breaks when Chen reveals abilities she had not anticipated.
• Dean Wang shows practical judgment by protecting the crowd and managing the broadcast, while remaining preoccupied with the cost of the formations.
• The spectators and teachers are alternately astonished, fascinated, and amused by Sangluo’s transformation and the scale of the duel.

Significant themes

• Hidden potential and misplaced labels: Chen and Sangluo are both far stronger than their educational status suggests, challenging assumptions about the difference between vocational colleges and universities.
• Adaptation and versatility: Chen wins not through his initial counter alone, but by changing tactics and drawing on a different skill set.
• Preparation for a wider world: Dean Wang argues that students should see unfamiliar demonic techniques before encountering them in the Astral Realm Battlefield.
• Pride, endurance, and limits: Sangluo’s determination keeps her fighting, but her costly techniques and finite spiritual power leave her vulnerable.
• Comedy amid danger: The dramatic battle is repeatedly undercut by spectators’ confused reactions, awkward jokes, and teachers’ concern over broadcast rules and expenses.

Character interactions

• Chen and Sangluo trade increasingly powerful attacks, each trying to break the other’s defenses; Sangluo taunts Chen’s counters, while Chen conceals the true source of his wood magic.
• Dean Wang and the teachers debate whether to censor the match. Wang lets it continue for its educational value, then shields the arena and spectators when needed.
• The crowd largely cheers for Sangluo, captivated by her allure, while Liang Ninghong, Xie Yunling, and the Pill Appraisal Department’s students support Chen—sometimes with deliberately backward encouragement.
• Dean Wang ultimately intervenes between the exhausted rivals, preventing Chen from seriously harming Sangluo and formally announcing his victory.

Plot and events

• Chen Zhuo defeats Sangluo Continent in the campus Dao Tournament preliminaries, taking first place in all three tests and eliminating Sangluo’s college. The crowd’s temporary charm-induced hysteria fades, and they recognize Chen as champion.
• At the award ceremony, Chen uses the press attention to cast himself as the champion of vocational-college students, denouncing bachelor’s-program students who enter vocational tournaments. The crowd embraces him as the “Light of Vocational College,” while Dean Wang quietly helps amplify his image.
• Sangluo, humiliated by the loss, faces criticism from his parents and former classmates. He resolves to secure the team captaincy despite his defeat.
• In Dean Wang’s office, Chen offers to share his prize money, but Wang refuses. He reveals that the college has investigated Counselor Nangong’s kickbacks and is repaying students. Chen receives 1,000 Spirit Coins—more than Nangong took from him—because Wang had arranged an additional loan in Nangong’s name. Wang grimly jokes about the generous death benefits Nangong might receive if he dies on the Astral Realm Battlefield.
• Wang encourages Chen to represent the college in the broader tournament and promises scholarships and university recommendations if he succeeds. He also makes clear that Chen’s achievements will benefit the college and his own career.
• Sangluo begs Chen for the captaincy, even changing into a female appearance and offering money and sexual favors. Chen rejects the proposition of intimacy but agrees to sell Sangluo the title for 30,000 Spirit Coins, while retaining final authority over team decisions.
• With his balance at 84,029.55 Spirit Coins, Chen ignores a payment reminder and decides he must strengthen himself. Since Foundation Establishment cultivators usually dominate the tournament, he messages Sijing to bring him pills.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo proves as ambitious off the arena as on it: he turns victory into publicity and potential Immortal Dao Potential, but remains focused on money and advancement. He acknowledges Sangluo’s strength and is willing to surrender the captain’s title for a fee, provided he keeps control.
• Sangluo Continent shifts from defeated and publicly disgraced to determined to reclaim status. Shamed by family and former classmates, he uses a dramatic plea—and his parents’ financial backing—to buy the captaincy.
• Dean Wang presents himself as an ethical protector of students by refusing Chen’s offered cut and arranging restitution, yet remains a shrewd operator. He promotes Chen’s image, sees the marketing value of vocational-college solidarity, and hopes Chen’s success will advance his own standing.
• The crowd turns Chen into a symbol of vocational-college pride, while the media amplifies his challenge to students who use vocational tournaments as a fallback.

Significant themes

• Image and ambition: Chen and Wang both understand that reputation can be converted into influence and material advantage.
• Vocational-college solidarity and resentment: Chen’s rhetoric gives overlooked students a champion and turns a local victory into a broader identity.
• Money and institutional power: Prizes, kickbacks, loans, restitution, and captaincy are all treated as negotiable assets.
• Status, shame, and belonging: Sangluo’s defeat threatens his place among former peers, while Chen embraces his college identity as a source of pride and leverage.

Chapter Summary: “Qi Refinement Peak, the Sword Gate Scripture Pavilion!”

Key plot points and events

• Unable to contact Sijing during the crucial stage of her student competition, Chen Zhuo buys cultivation supplies from Dong Xuejiao, his former supplier. He orders two sets of Nine Dragons Power, late-stage Qi Refinement injections, and Spiritual Plant Nutrient Solution. Dong offers a discount in exchange for a photo, then posts the picture online to promote her business.
• Chen takes the nutrient solution to the Heavenly Drum Grotto-Heaven and pours it onto Jianmu’s roots. The ancient tree erupts with stored spiritual energy, raising the grotto’s concentration to 42 and creating ideal conditions for cultivation.
• Chen injects Nine Dragons Power twice. Though its force is painfully violent, Jianmu helps absorb the strain. Chen’s Qi Sea progresses from gaseous spiritual energy to mist, bringing him to Qi Refinement Peak and making Foundation Establishment possible. He decides to wait until Sijing’s competition ends, both to improve further and to avoid the risks and scrutiny of a failed attempt.
• Seeking more combat techniques after his methods were exposed in his fight against Sangluo Continent, Chen visits the Qiwu Sword Sect’s Scripture Pavilion. His senior brother Wan Jinzhao is astonished by Chen’s Foundation Establishment-level Divine Sense and rapid cultivation progress.
• The pavilion’s guardian, Senior Brother Lei, welcomes Chen and explains which floors contain Foundation Establishment and Golden Core techniques. Meanwhile, Wang Shechuan learns of Chen’s progress and orders the sect to prepare a high-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, a Wood Attribute Spirit Object, and the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array for Chen’s likely breakthrough within half a year.

Character developments

• Chen Zhuo reaches Qi Refinement Peak and gains a clearer understanding of both Nine Dragons Power’s effectiveness and its dangers. He remains cautious about attempting Foundation Establishment, despite his confidence and extraordinary progress, and recognizes his need to broaden his fighting skills.
• Dong Xuejiao acts as a savvy, ambitious reseller, using Chen’s status to promote her business. She also shows some professional conscience by warning him that Nine Dragons Power is dangerous for a breakthrough.
• Wan Jinzhao is amazed by Chen’s growth but quickly reframes it as unsurprising, reflecting his deep faith in his junior brother.
• Wang Shechuan demonstrates the sect’s confidence in Chen by prioritizing his breakthrough and mobilizing major resources to protect and support him.
• Jianmu proves capable of releasing immense reserves of spiritual energy, becoming both a vital cultivation aid and a source of power that Chen is careful not to waste.

Significant themes

• Talent and privilege: Chen’s reputation as a prodigy earns him exceptional resources and protection unavailable to ordinary disciples.
• Risk versus ambition: Powerful shortcuts can accelerate cultivation, but Nine Dragons Power’s violent effects make advancement perilous.
• Modern cultivation and ancient power: Contemporary products and techniques unexpectedly unlock Jianmu’s ancient reserves.
• Reputation and commerce: Chen’s public standing has marketing value, and even a casual photograph becomes a promotional tool.
• Preparation and adaptability: Chen seeks new techniques after realizing that relying on a narrow set of combat methods could leave him vulnerable.

Character interactions

• Chen and Dong negotiate a large drug purchase; she secures a promotional photo, while he treats the transaction cautiously and insists on inspecting the goods.
• Chen works with Jianmu’s spiritual-energy surge to withstand two doses of Nine Dragons Power and advance his cultivation.
• Wan escorts Chen to the Scripture Pavilion, praises his progress, and supports his request to study before attempting Foundation Establishment.
• Senior Brother Lei evaluates Chen’s abilities, welcomes him into the pavilion, and points him toward its higher-level teachings.
• Wang Shechuan receives news of Chen’s advancement and responds by arranging sect-wide preparations for his breakthrough.

Plot and events

• In the Qiwu Sword Sect’s scripture library, Chen Zhuo realizes its many manuals could earn him a fortune through the Spell Repository. To avoid attracting bank scrutiny with a sudden huge deposit, he plans to spend the rewards inside the Repository before they reach his account.
• He searches the upper floors for techniques worth improving and recognizes the depth of the sect’s inheritance from the ancient Azure Immortal Sect. He selects several manuals suited to his Wood Spiritual Root, especially the Burning Heavens Great Sun Sword Chapter. Though it is mostly incomplete, its surviving material is exceptionally refined.
• Chen Zhuo memorizes twenty-five techniques, returns to his Immortal Estate, and submits them. The Repository values the Great Sun manual at 785,200 Spirit Coins and offers costly derivations. He spends most of his rewards commissioning improvements to five techniques, including the Great Sun manual, and buys a Foundation Establishment section of the Myriad Woods Bow to Origin Skill. Only 5,200 Spirit Coins are deposited in his bank account.
• The academy’s Dao Tournament representatives are announced. Chen Zhuo, Sangluo Continent, and Ruan Qiutang will compete individually; Liang Ninghong unexpectedly takes a team slot after Zhou Mu is injured by Chen Zhuo and forfeits.
• At the team meeting, Sangluo treats Chen Zhuo as the real leader, despite Chen Zhuo being vice-captain. Chen Zhuo proposes dropping absent Zhou Mu and recruiting a substitute with strong defensive equipment. He asks teammates to lend him their Magical Artifacts, offers to share prize money, and promises to support their transfer recommendations.
• Liang offers his family’s peak-Qi-Refinement Border Collie, Wangcai, as a possible surprise weapon. Sangluo offers Chen Zhuo his unusual “Jiba,” claiming it could strengthen Chen’s spiritual power and yang energy. Chen is horrified by the suggestion and refuses.
• The tournament is still weeks away and may be delayed by the ongoing Evil Cult Turmoil. Chen expects his technique derivations and a future Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid to greatly improve his odds before competition.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo moves from excitement over potential wealth to cautious, strategic spending. He is increasingly confident in his strength and assumes an assertive leadership role, while remaining opportunistic and comically self-congratulatory.
• Sangluo Continent accepts Chen Zhuo’s dominance and acts as an eager, politically minded captain and subordinate. Their cooperation is practical, but Sangluo’s bizarre offer creates comic friction.
• Liang Ninghong is nervous in his new roster position but proves candid and resourceful by offering Wangcai. He also becomes an object of Chen Zhuo’s mock-authoritarian banter.
• Zhou Mu’s absence stems from Chen Zhuo’s earlier injury of him, though Chen jokingly treats it as a disciplinary offense. The substitutes’ equipment matters more to Chen than their competition prospects.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as wealth and power: The Repository turns inherited techniques into both currency and opportunities for improvement.
• Strategic caution: Chen Zhuo balances ambition with the risks of sudden wealth and public attention.
• Inheritance and continuity: The sect’s unbroken transmission distinguishes it from institutions that merely revive an old name.
• Competition and leadership: Chen’s strength reshapes the team hierarchy, while the roster relies on pooling resources and supporting its strongest contestants.
• Comedic irreverence: Grand cultivation ambitions sit alongside absurd schemes, blunt speech, and the increasingly strange details of the Immortal Estate world.

Key plot points and events

• Over a month, Chen Zhuo studies cultivation texts, submits them to a repository for optimization, and watches the Dao Tournament finals of 143 vocational colleges. He identifies several dangerous individual competitors, especially Li Yize, a seemingly ordinary fighter who has somehow reached Foundation Establishment. Chen Zhuo nevertheless believes he can challenge him.
• Teacher Xiao reminds Chen Zhuo to use his prize quota to select a grade-C cultivation method and connects him with a specialist. The adviser, Teacher Qin, recommends that Chen focus on developing a coherent law body rather than relying on his limited body-tempering technique.
• From a catalogue of options, Chen chooses the Cangmeng Nourishing Origin Physique, a Second Wood law body that supports his long-term goal of cultivating the Second Wood Dharma Body.
• The Spell Repository completes its optimization of the Burning Heavens Great Sun Sword Chapter. The revised version is easier to understand, improves the Great Sun Undying Physique, and includes some Foundation Establishment methods. Chen begins practicing it after obtaining a costly Weakened Three-Legged Golden Crow Potion.
• Chen asks Dong Xuejiao to help obtain the potion. Mistaking his request for a confrontation over her kickback on a previous medicine purchase, she arrives in a panic and offers to return the item. Chen clarifies that he needs a supplier; she agrees to arrange one on credit.
• Chen cultivates the Cangmeng physique using a small dose of medicine, quickly achieving its initial stage. He then injects the Golden Crow potion and begins cultivating the Great Sun sword method.
• Outside the Scripture Depository, Lei Bingwen senses Chen’s cultivation. He is astonished that Chen has developed a powerful wood-phase law body in about a month and is also mastering the notoriously difficult Great Sun method. A Great Sun phenomenon appears above the pavilion. Lei suppresses curious disciples and declares the area forbidden while explaining that Chen is comprehending the Dao.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Zhuo grows more focused and methodical: he assesses tournament threats, accepts expert guidance, and chooses cultivation paths that reinforce his long-term plans. His rapid progress confirms his extraordinary comprehension.
• Teacher Xiao shows personal investment in Chen’s future, arranging expert advice and encouraging him to serve the Immortal Estate if he eventually reaches Nascent Soul.
• Teacher Qin gives practical, tailored guidance, steering Chen toward a continuous law body suited to his attributes.
• Dong Xuejiao is revealed to profit from medicine sales and becomes comically nervous that Chen has discovered her markup. Chen is disappointed by her lack of scruples but still relies on her connections.
• Lei Bingwen, who has spent years studying the Great Sun chapter, is humbled by Chen’s speed and recognizes him as an astonishing talent. He protects Chen’s secluded cultivation from interruption.
• Chen continues his humorous, antagonistic exchanges with Sangluo Continent, particularly over Sangluo’s distasteful demonic techniques.

Significant themes

• Exceptional talent and comprehension: Chen’s ability to grasp difficult techniques in weeks contrasts sharply with cultivators who spend years making little progress.
• Strategic cultivation: Chen chooses complementary methods that build toward future goals instead of accumulating unrelated techniques.
• Mentorship and community: Teacher Xiao, Teacher Qin, and Lei each support Chen in different ways, while Chen’s interactions with Dong show how trust can be complicated by commercial self-interest.
• Ambition amid competition: Chen prepares to face powerful tournament opponents, confident but not dismissive of the challenge.
• Humor and social satire: The chapter punctures its serious cultivation drama with jokes about questionable techniques, medicine kickbacks, and Chen’s awkward dealings with sellers.