Chapter Summaries

Xiao Shenghe defended Ning Rongrong from Ning Qing’s taunts about his lack of a Soul Ring and revealed a terrifying power when he awakened his Martial Soul. He left with Rongrong after warning Ning Qing not to underestimate him, but Ning Qing attacked him from behind with a hidden weapon.

• Ning Rongrong gave Xiao Shenghe a red string and promised to believe he could overcome the prediction that he would not live past thirty-three.
• Ning Qing and two fellow inner disciples mocked Xiao Shenghe for having Innate Full Soul Power but no Soul Ring, and Ning Rongrong stood up for him.
• Xiao Shenghe awakened his Martial Soul and unleashed an overwhelming presence that left Ning Qing nearly suffocating and his two companions on their knees.
• Xiao Shenghe withdrew the pressure, took Ning Rongrong’s hand, and walked away after telling Ning Qing not to look down on him.
• Ning Qing threw a hidden weapon at Xiao Shenghe from behind.

Sword Douluo Chen Xin arrived after Ning Qing attacked Xiao Shenghe, punished Ning Qing, and heard Xiao Shenghe’s plan to seek his first Soul Ring alone in the Star Dou Great Forest. Chen Xin allowed him to go after seeing a trace of his mother’s power, and offered to show him something his father had left behind before he departed.

• Ning Rongrong ran to Chen Xin and told him Ning Qing had bullied her and attacked Xiao Shenghe with a Hidden Weapon.
• Xiao Shenghe called the attack a sparring accident, but Chen Xin identified the anesthetic-coated needle and ordered Ning Qing to take three thousand strokes, serve three months of confinement, and copy the sect rules a hundred times.
• Chen Xin questioned Xiao Shenghe about the strange aura he had released, and Xiao Shenghe said his Martial Soul had released it on its own.
• Xiao Shenghe told Chen Xin he would seek his first Soul Ring alone in the Star Dou Great Forest and showed him a pale flame drawn from the legacy his mother had left him.
• Chen Xin warned Xiao Shenghe about the forest’s dangers and Spirit Hall’s activity, then tacitly allowed him to go; Ning Rongrong tied her red cord around his wrist and asked him to return safely.
• Chen Xin invited Xiao Shenghe to the Sword Cottage before he left, saying his father had left something there that might help him.

Chen Xin revealed that Xiao Shenghe’s father had left him a sealed treasure that could be opened only by power resonating with his origins. The treasure proved to be the Three Thousand Burning Flame, which entered Xiao Shenghe and began merging with his phoenix power as he prepared to absorb it.

• Chen Xin explained that Xiao Shenghe’s blood and the gift from his mother set him apart from ordinary Soul Masters, then led him to a sealed chamber.
• Chen Xin revealed that Xiao Shenghe’s father had entrusted the treasure box to Ning Fengzhi, who had left it in Chen Xin’s care until Xiao Shenghe was ready.
• Xiao Shenghe touched the box with his phoenix power, breaking its energy chains and opening it.
• Xiao Shenghe recognized the purplish-black flame as the Three Thousand Burning Flame, a Heavenly Flame that absorbed starlight and possessed powerful regenerative abilities.
• The Three Thousand Burning Flame entered Xiao Shenghe and began merging with his phoenix power and Martial Soul Origin, while he decided to absorb it using the Flame Mantra.

After Xiao Shenghe fused with the Three Thousand Burning Flame, his soul was drawn into the Flame Star Illusion Realm and met the flame’s original consciousness. The Three Thousand Burning Flame told him to devour it as his First Soul Ring, leaving Xiao Shenghe to grapple with the revelation that he had awakened the Earth Soul Body Martial Soul.

• Xiao Shenghe searched the star-filled void for an exit until his ancestor’s bloodline and Core Flame drew him toward a purple light.
• He discovered the Three Thousand Burning Flame’s immense purple-black essence and met its human-shaped consciousness.
• The Three Thousand Burning Flame explained that Xiao Shenghe was inside the Flame Star Illusion Realm while his body underwent transformation.
• The Three Thousand Burning Flame ordered Xiao Shenghe to devour it and make it his First Soul Ring.
• The Three Thousand Burning Flame revealed that Xiao Shenghe had opened his first seal and awakened the Earth Soul, one of the three souls, as a Body Martial Soul.

Xiao Shenghe endured the Flame Soul Tempering and awakened his Earth Soul, forming a First Soul Ring. When he woke in the courtyard, Chen Xin was shocked by the ring’s strange appearance.

• The fiery figure explained that Xiao Shenghe’s Earth Soul governed Essence and warned that accepting its source could either awaken him or destroy his soul.
• Xiao Shenghe accepted the purple-black flame and endured agony as it tempered his soul.
• The flames became familiar to Xiao Shenghe, and his Earth Soul awakened as a patterned First Soul Ring formed.
• While Xiao Shenghe remained unconscious, Chen Xin watched over him as Ning Rongrong impatiently waited for him to wake.
• Xiao Shenghe woke, and Chen Xin stared in shock at his unusual Soul Ring.

Xiao Shenghe formed a Soul Ring with an unprecedented blend of purple and black, stunning Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong. Ning Fengzhi arrived and, after seeing it himself, was left equally astonished.

• Chen Xin stared at Xiao Shenghe's purple-and-black Soul Ring and said it did not fit any known Soul Ring color.
• Bone Douluo Gu Rong arrived, greeted Ning Rongrong, and initially doubted Chen Xin's claim.
• Gu Rong looked at Xiao Shenghe's Soul Ring and was stunned by its two colors.
• Ning Fengzhi arrived at the courtyard and asked why Chen Xin and Gu Rong were so astonished.
• Ning Rongrong told Ning Fengzhi that Xiao Shenghe had a Soul Ring, and she led him over to see it.
• Ning Fengzhi saw the purple-and-black ring and exclaimed that it was a two-colored Soul Ring.

Xiao Shenghe awakened a mysterious purple-black Soul Ring that baffled Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong. They agreed to keep it secret and took him to a practice ground to test his First Soul Skill, where Gu Rong was chosen to spar with him.

• Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong examined Xiao Shenghe's unusual Soul Ring and suspected his origins lay beyond the known world.
• Ning Rongrong feared Xiao Shenghe was in danger, but Ning Fengzhi reassured her that he would be fine.
• Xiao Shenghe said the Soul Ring had formed on its own as the power within him awakened, and that he felt no discomfort.
• Ning Fengzhi warned Xiao Shenghe to keep the Soul Ring's appearance secret and promised that Chen Xin and Gu Rong would guide his training.
• Chen Xin and Ning Fengzhi arranged for Gu Rong to spar with Xiao Shenghe at the sect's protected practice ground to test his First Soul Skill.

Xiao Shenghe tested his unusual first Soul Skill against Gu Rong, revealing a purplish-black flame that devoured energy and could burn spiritual power. After the elders praised its rare properties, Xiao Shenghe asked Ning Fengzhi to help him absorb ten more ten-thousand-year Soul Rings.

• Gu Rong agreed to test Xiao Shenghe's first Soul Skill and urged him to show its full power.
• Xiao Shenghe summoned a strange purplish-black flame that clung to Gu Rong's Soul Power barrier and weakened it before Gu Rong dispersed it.
• Gu Rong, Chen Xin, and Ning Fengzhi discussed the skill's energy devouring, spiritual burning, spatial effects, and boost to Xiao Shenghe.
• Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin praised Xiao Shenghe while warning him about the skill's high Soul Power cost and the need to train carefully.
• Xiao Shenghe asked Ning Fengzhi to help him absorb ten more ten-thousand-year Soul Rings.

Xiao Shenghe explained that his Martial Soul could let him absorb ten Auxiliary Soul Rings in addition to his Main Soul Ring, and Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong agreed to test the claim. As they prepared to seek a powerful Soul Beast in the Heaven Dou Great Forest the next day, Xiao Shenghe reassured Ning Rongrong that he would become stronger and protect her.

• Xiao Shenghe told Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong that his Main Soul Ring could let him absorb up to ten Auxiliary Soul Rings without advancing a Soul Power Level.
• Chen Xin agreed to test Xiao Shenghe's cultivation method and initially suggested a hundred-year Soul Beast for his first Auxiliary Soul Ring.
• Xiao Shenghe said his Main Soul Ring reduced the harm of absorbing Soul Rings, so Gu Rong and Chen Xin agreed to seek a stronger Soul Beast.
• Chen Xin proposed that they search the Heaven Dou Great Forest the next day for a Soul Beast of around sixty or seventy thousand years.
• Ning Rongrong ran to Xiao Shenghe, and he promised to grow stronger and protect her before accepting her pinkie promise.

Xiao Shenghe prepared to travel with Chen Xin and Gu Rong to Heaven Dou Great Forest to obtain a Soul Ring. After promising Ning Rongrong he would return safely, he set off with the two Douluo, while Chen Xin showed signs of jealousy over Rongrong’s closeness to him.

• Xiao Shenghe and Ning Rongrong made a pinky promise, and he reassured her that he would return from the forest safely.
• Ning Rongrong asked to join the journey, but Ning Fengzhi and Xiao Shenghe persuaded her to stay at the sect.
• The next morning, Ning Rongrong tearfully hugged Xiao Shenghe goodbye, and he promised to protect her and return.
• Chen Xin noticed Ning Rongrong’s reliance on Xiao Shenghe, coughed to draw her attention, then urged the group to leave.
• Gu Rong teased Chen Xin about feeling jealous of Xiao Shenghe, and Chen Xin flew ahead on his sword with Xiao Shenghe as they traveled toward Heaven Dou Great Forest.

Xiao Shenghe entered the Heaven Dou Great Forest with Chen Xin to find a Soul Beast that could test his Auxiliary Soul Ring theory. Chen Xin killed a fifty-to-sixty-thousand-year-old Rock Armor Earth Dragon Lizard, and Xiao Shenghe began absorbing its Soul Ring.

• Chen Xin guided Xiao Shenghe through the forest and explained how they would seek a Soul Beast with abilities suited to strengthening his Main Soul Ring.
• Chen Xin spotted a Rock Armor Earth Dragon Lizard near a pool and judged that its defensive earth-aspected abilities could suit Xiao Shenghe.
• Chen Xin subdued the lizard with sword qi, then killed it with a precise strike while preserving its Soul Ring.
• Xiao Shenghe sat before the Purple Soul Ring, roused his purple-black Main Soul Ring, and reached toward the Soul Ring with his Soul Power.
• A sudden boom sounded as Xiao Shenghe began absorbing the Soul Ring.

Xiao Shenghe devoured the Rock Armor Earth Dragon Lizard’s Soul Ring into his Main Soul Ring, triggering a vast resonance of heaven and earth. He revealed that Ring Devouring broke down Soul Ring power into adaptable attributes that could strengthen one another.

• Xiao Shenghe used Ring Devouring to absorb the Rock Armor Earth Dragon Lizard’s seven-thousand-year Soul Ring, breaking through the level-twenty bottleneck.
• Heaven and Earth Origin Energy surged toward Xiao Shenghe, creating a celestial phenomenon that shocked Chen Xin and stirred hidden presences in the forest.
• Xiao Shenghe told Chen Xin and Gu Rong that the absorbed Soul Ring had been broken down and refined inside his Main Soul Ring rather than forming a separate ring.
• Xiao Shenghe shaped the absorbed earth-attribute power into miniature stone walls and named the ability Magma Stone Wall.
• Xiao Shenghe explained that Ring Devouring let him fuse Soul Beast power into his Earth Soul, allowing different Soul Ring powers to strengthen one another.

Xiao Shenghe, Gu Rong, and Sword Douluo Chen Xin intervened as Spirit Hall’s Tian Hanyao and her followers attacked a wounded Hundred-Thousand-Year Clouded Deer and her daughter, Xiao Yao. With the two Titled Douluo revealed, Tian Hanyao’s hunt was halted, though the confrontation remained unresolved.

• Tian Hanyao prepared to kill the exhausted Clouded Deer and claim her Soul Ring as Xiao Yao rushed out to protect her mother.
• Dream Douluo Shanyue attacked Xiao Yao, and Xiao Shenghe raised a Magma Stone Wall that blocked the strike and forced Shanyue back.
• Xiao Shenghe stepped forward, followed by Gu Rong and Sword Douluo Chen Xin, whose presence frightened the Spirit Hall Soul Masters.
• Xiao Shenghe condemned Spirit Hall’s attack, and Chen Xin and Gu Rong ordered Tian Hanyao to end the hunt.

After Spirit Hall retreated, Xiao Shenghe and the two Titled Douluo approached the badly wounded Clouded Deer and her daughter, Xiao Yao. Though wary of humans, the Clouded Deer accepted their help and medicine, leaving the group to tend to her injuries while Sword Douluo watched for Spirit Hall’s return.

• Tian Hanyao ordered Spirit Hall to retreat after Xiao Shenghe, Sword Douluo, and Gu Rong blocked their attack.
• The wounded Clouded Deer warned Xiao Shenghe to stay back, while Xiao Yao watched him with fear and gratitude.
• Xiao Shenghe offered the Clouded Deer healing medicine, and Chen Xin and Gu Rong assured her they wanted neither her Soul Ring nor Soul Bone.
• Xiao Yao told her mother that Xiao Shenghe had saved her, and the Clouded Deer agreed to accept the group’s help.
• Gu Rong stabilized the Clouded Deer’s injuries as she drank the medicine, while Sword Douluo kept watch for Spirit Hall.

Xiao Shenghe, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong escorted the Clouded Deer and Xiao Yao to Spirit Creek Valley, where they discovered a hidden haven populated by nearly a hundred Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. The beasts accepted the three humans as honored guests after the Clouded Deer explained that they had saved her and her daughter.

• Xiao Yao admired Xiao Shenghe's flames and told him that human Soul Masters had killed her father, so he promised to protect her and the Clouded Deer.
• The Clouded Deer invited Xiao Shenghe, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong to rest at her home in Spirit Creek Valley, and they accepted.
• The group entered the lush valley, where dozens of powerful Soul Beasts rushed to welcome the Clouded Deer and Xiao Yao back safely.
• Xiao Shenghe, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong were stunned to find nearly a hundred Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts living in the valley.
• Xiao Yao and the Clouded Deer told the beasts that the three humans had rescued them, and the White Spirit Deer welcomed the visitors as honored guests.

Xiao Yao asked Xiao Shenghe to let her become his Soul Ring, horrifying him despite his promise to protect her. The Clouded Deer Chieftain began explaining the clan’s Secret of Symbiosis and its hope of reaching a realm beyond mortal limits.

• Xiao Yao asked her mother whether she could tell Xiao Shenghe about the Clouded Deer clan’s Secret of Symbiosis, and the chieftain gave her permission.
• Xiao Yao nervously asked Xiao Shenghe if she could become his Soul Ring.
• Xiao Shenghe recoiled in shock, remembering his vow to protect Xiao Yao and fearing that becoming his Soul Ring would mean her death.
• The Clouded Deer Chieftain explained that the clan’s divine ability let them abandon their bodies and merge with a Soul Master’s soul.
• The chieftain described how her clan was bound to the valley and said Xiao Shenghe’s ambition reminded her of an old legend about God.

The Clouded Deer Chieftain offered to merge her soul with Xiao Shenghe’s as his partner, and he accepted. When she proposed waiting until his Soul Power grew stronger, Xiao Shenghe revealed that he still had nine Soul Ring Storage Spaces, leaving her stunned.

• The Clouded Deer Chieftain asked Xiao Shenghe to carry her soul as his partner and take her to the divine realm if he reached it.
• Xiao Shenghe accepted her offer and sealed their pact with an oath of the heart.
• The Clouded Deer Chieftain suggested they wait until Xiao Shenghe passed level thirty and strengthened his soul and body.
• Xiao Shenghe revealed that he still had nine Soul Ring Storage Spaces, shocking the Clouded Deer Chieftain.

Xiao Shenghe shocked the Clouded Deer Chieftain and the gathered Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts by declaring that he could absorb nine more Soul Rings, an ability Chen Xin and Gu Rong called an anomaly beyond the rules. He offered to hear the Clouded Deer’s secret and discuss a bond before reaching level twenty, and the matriarch ended by questioning how he could do so while only at level fifteen.

• Xiao Shenghe declared that he could absorb nine more Soul Rings, stunning the Clouded Deer Chieftain and the gathered soul beasts.
• The Clouded Deer Chieftain struggled to believe his claim, while Chen Xin confirmed that their earlier perception of Xiao Shenghe’s extraordinary soul had been accurate.
• The matriarch explained that a Soul Master’s number of Soul Ring slots was fixed at birth and called Xiao Shenghe an anomaly beyond the rules.
• Xiao Shenghe offered to hear the Clouded Deer people’s Secret of Symbiosis and consider their future before he reached level twenty.
• The Clouded Deer Chieftain asked Xiao Shenghe to confirm that his Soul Power Level was only fifteen.

Xiao Shenghe revealed that his Soul Power was only level fifteen despite having the capacity for nine Soul Ring spaces, shocking the Clouded Deer and the other Soul Beasts. He then reached the Ritual Altar with Xiao Yao and met the priest Lu Xuan, who began the Secret of Symbiosis ceremony.

• Xiao Shenghe stated that his Soul Power was level fifteen, and the Soul Beasts erupted in disbelief at his extraordinary soul capacity.
• The Clouded Deer Chieftain acknowledged the anomaly, then Xiao Yao urged the group to proceed to the Ritual Altar.
• Gu Rong encouraged Xiao Shenghe to face whatever hardships lay ahead, and Xiao Shenghe promised to remember his words.
• Xiao Shenghe and Xiao Yao arrived at the Ritual Altar, where Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong were asked to wait outside.
• Xiao Yao greeted the priest Lu Xuan, and Lu Xuan began the ceremony by calling the formation to rise.

Lu Xuan began the Secret of Symbiosis ritual for Xiao Shenghe and Lu Yao, revealing the extraordinary vastness of Xiao Shenghe’s soul. When their souls failed to resonate naturally, Lu Xuan guided them to keep trying, and Lu Yao reached into Xiao Shenghe’s stillness with her life-filled aura.

• Lu Xuan activated the ancient altar and warned Xiao Shenghe and Lu Yao that the symbiotic pact would bind their souls and fates with no way to turn back.
• Lu Yao and Xiao Shenghe agreed to proceed and released their souls’ primal auras as Lu Xuan instructed.
• Xiao Shenghe’s aura made the altar flare, and Lu Xuan sensed a boundless depth within the boy’s soul.
• Lu Xuan directed the pair to seek resonance, but Lu Yao’s lively aura was absorbed into Xiao Shenghe’s stillness without producing the expected response.
• Lu Xuan told Xiao Shenghe to feel rather than control and urged Lu Yao not to fear his depth, so she reached into his soul with a persistent, life-filled aura.