Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing exploit the Black Qilin’s exposed belly. Their first coordinated strike with Yang’s Capital Heavenly Thunder Halberd damages its left foreleg, slowing it.
• The six fighters attack together to keep the Qilin distracted. Chen Siyao and Yang get beneath it again, and Yang drives the halberd into the weakened opening, releasing all its stored lightning. The Qilin shuts down, and the team wins.
• After treating their injuries, the group enters the main hall. They find a silk manuscript, two tokens, Wen Zhong’s Flood Dragon Twin Whips, and a patterned metal object with a red bead.
• Chen Siyao reads the inscriptions and confirms the site is Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong’s legacy. The inscription explains that the lightning and Black Qilin trials test a successor’s physique and combat skill. It also identifies the metal object as the Control Core, which can command the Qilin.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao demonstrates tactical leadership: she recognizes the Qilin’s damage, organizes the second assault, and directs the team’s coordinated pressure.
• Yang Wanqing delivers the decisive finishing blow with the halberd, proving its lightning power is an effective counter to the mechanical beast.
• Wu Tian holds the Qilin’s attention, Ying Wenjie attacks its joints, Ye Chendong distracts it, and Qin Xiaoyu restrains its tail. Their teamwork makes the final strike possible.
• The battle leaves everyone wounded, but they support one another and share Chen Siyao’s medicine. Yang is pleased with her own weapon after seeing Wen Zhong’s whips; Ying immediately imagines using the Control Core to ride the Qilin.

Significant themes

• Teamwork and cooperation: Each fighter’s role contributes to overcoming an enemy no one could defeat alone.
• Strategy and adaptation: The group learns from its first attack, then exploits the Qilin’s lingering damage before it can defend itself.
• Legacy and worthiness: Wen Zhong’s trials are designed to test whether inheritors deserve his mantle.
• Myth and technology intertwined: A mythological figure’s legacy includes a magically empowered, mechanically reforged guardian and a device to control it.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao activates the control hub, awakening the Black Qilin. The mechanical beast now responds to her commands and lowers itself so the group can climb aboard.
• The six riders discover that the Black Qilin can cross both the Thunder Zone and the sea safely. Its speed lets them reach the shore in minutes and outpace the waiting speedboats.
• Xiao Yuanfeng and his team watch the group emerge from the island on the beast. The six continue across the water to the Command Center’s main island, where a crowd has gathered after seeing the livestream.
• Chen Siyao hands Han Songyue the Silk Manuscript and token for the Special Affairs Bureau’s research. She keeps the Flood Dragon Twin Whips and control hub, and says the group will retain the Black Qilin, allowing only a later examination of its exterior—not its dismantling.
• The party returns to their lodgings.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao takes charge of the control hub and confidently leads the group. She cooperates with the Bureau by turning over the legacy documents while setting clear limits on the group’s personal treasures and the Black Qilin.
• The six companions share the exhilaration of riding the mechanical beast. Yang Wanqing celebrates its practical usefulness, while Ying Wenjie is fascinated by its engineering and asks to study it.
• Xiao Yuanfeng congratulates them, but his restrained reaction suggests a mix of shock, envy, and frustration at their extraordinary find.
• Han Songyue accepts the documents respectfully and agrees to Chen Siyao’s conditions. A professor’s excitement—and disappointment at being barred from dismantling the beast—provides a lighter moment.
• Ying Wenjie asks Chen Siyao to help him gain access to the Black Qilin, but she tells him to ask their master directly.

Significant themes

• Ancient ingenuity and wonder: The Black Qilin’s mechanism arts surpass modern expectations, blurring the line between legend and technology.
• Discovery and its rewards: The group’s dangerous expedition yields both valuable records and a powerful new means of travel.
• Cooperation with boundaries: Chen Siyao shares materials for public research while protecting the group’s hard-won possessions and control of the beast.
• Public spectacle: The livestream turns the return into a shared sensation, with viewers and officials alike struggling to believe what they see.

Summary

• After reporting on the previous day’s events, Chen Siyao’s brother, Chen Hao, gives only a casual “Not bad” and continues drinking tea. The team then takes a day off to recover from their injuries and exhaustion rather than immediately exploring the Thirty-Fourth Island.
• The next morning, the group sees that their discovery has become a global sensation. News outlets report the mechanical beast and Penglai’s ancient inheritance; the livestream peaked at 420 million viewers, with more than 40 percent watching from overseas. Reactions range from amazement and disbelief to demands for international access.
• Qin Xiaoyu relays that seven countries have formally requested a joint expedition, while global reports of strange phenomena—at Mount Fuji, Yellowstone, and the Alps—show that the mysterious resurgence is occurring worldwide. Chen Siyao recognizes that Penglai’s inheritances and treasures may become strategic resources and concludes that her team must move faster.
• Chen Siyao urges everyone to rest properly and resume the expedition the next day. Meanwhile, officials tell Han Songyue that securing the remaining islands is urgent: Japan and the United States have begun finding ruins of their own, and may soon catch up.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao is practical and attentive to the team’s condition, but the international developments sharpen her sense of urgency. She understands that their early lead may not last.
• The team remains battered and accepts the rest day without protest. Their jokes about becoming internet celebrities briefly lighten the mood.
• Chen Hao remains detached and unruffled, even when Xiao Yue destroys a chair. Chen Siyao believes that, despite his apparent indifference, he would be the first to act if danger arose.
• Han Songyue acknowledges the officials’ orders, but their insistence that the team move faster visibly worries her.

Significant themes

• The Penglai discoveries transform ancient inheritance from a local mystery into an international political and strategic issue.
• The mysterious resurgence is global, suggesting a coming worldwide shift toward cultivation.
• The chapter contrasts the team’s need to recover with mounting pressure to secure its advantage before other nations catch up.

Key events

• Government official Han Songyue is told to request, rather than demand, that Chen Siyao help accelerate matters, since Chen is a partner—not a subordinate.
• Researchers survey the Thirty-Fifth Island after Wen Zhong’s legacy is claimed. Its lightning and energy field have vanished, leading them to conclude that the island’s strange environment was sustained by a Primordial-era Magical Treasure.
• Livestream footage makes the supernatural resurgence impossible for governments to conceal. Countries issue cautious statements, while people worldwide flock to sacred sites and training halls. Huaxia is portrayed as being ahead because of the Penglai legacies and Chen Hao.
• Chen Siyao and five companions set out for the Thirty-Fourth Island. Xiao Yuanfeng and his companions stay behind because they have not recovered and recognize that the legacies are beyond their current abilities.
• The island appears to be a quiet, densely wooded expanse, but Chen Siyao senses a barrier. Qin Xiaoyu identifies it as an entry-blocking formation and, with Chen’s help, quickly breaks it. The group prepares to enter the forest.

Character development and interactions

• Han Songyue shows increased respect for Chen’s position and influence, carefully revising his message to make a polite request.
• Chen Siyao remains composed and focused, leading the expedition without being distracted by online attention.
• Qin Xiaoyu demonstrates growing skill and confidence with formations. She diagnoses the barrier’s reverse node and coordinates precisely with Chen Siyao to break it.
• Yang Wanqing keeps watch while Qin works; Wu Tian cautions the group not to mistake the island’s quiet appearance for safety. Ye Chendong regards Xiao Yuanfeng’s absence as sensible, and the group accepts it without argument.

Significant themes

• A global turning point: The supernatural resurgence transforms public life and international politics overnight.
• Power and cooperation: Huaxia’s advantage depends on the Penglai legacies, while officials must treat Chen as an influential partner.
• Growth through teamwork: The formation is overcome through Qin’s expertise and Chen’s support, underscoring the group’s developing abilities.
• Caution and limits: Xiao Yuanfeng’s group chooses not to risk another expedition before recovering, while the others remain alert despite the island’s peaceful appearance.
• An approaching threat: A mysterious unmarked warship, carrying twelve powerful people, heads toward Penglai after its occupants see the Black Qilin in Chen Siyao’s livestream.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao’s six-person team enters the forest after breaking through the first formation. Unbeknownst to them, two covert groups also land on the island: twelve East Asian operatives follow them from behind, while nine Western men head northwest. Both groups are pursuing the island’s central inheritance.
• The forest proves unusually dark and ominous. Demon monkeys ambush the team, attacking in coordinated groups of three. They are resilient, but the team learns to target their heads or hearts and defeats them.
• Further into the forest, the team encounters seven upright, seal-like demon beasts. Their hides are extremely tough, and they can unleash destructive sonic waves. After a difficult fifteen-minute fight, the team kills the last one, though several members are injured.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao takes charge, warning the team, identifying the enemies’ weak points, and directing their tactics despite being struck during the second battle.
• Yang Wanqing shows sharp perception by detecting the sounds ahead and adapts quickly, killing a demon monkey with a precise strike to the head.
• Ying Wenjie fights at the front, while Ye Chendong and Wu Tian protect Qin Xiaoyu during the first attack. In the seal-beast fight, Ying is knocked down, and Wu and Ye are injured.
• Qin Xiaoyu worries when Chen Siyao is hit, while the team generally works together under pressure. The livestream audience reacts with shock and fascination to the strange creatures.

Significant themes

• Growing danger and escalation: The team faces increasingly powerful and unusual demon beasts.
• Teamwork and adaptation: Survival depends on coordination and learning each enemy’s weaknesses.
• Hidden competition: The two secret teams reveal that Chen Siyao’s group is not alone in seeking the inheritance.
• Uncanny horror: The creatures’ grotesque appearance, eerie grins, and the forest’s oppressive atmosphere heighten the threat.

Plot points and events

• After surviving increasingly powerful demonic beasts, Chen Siyao’s group pauses to recover, but eight giant black eagles attack from the sky.
• The group struggles to fight flying enemies. Ye Chendong takes a blow while protecting Qin Xiaoyu, and Chen Siyao’s energy attack injures an eagle but cannot bring it down.
• Ying Wenjie deliberately exposes himself to bait two eagles into diving, catches them by their ankles, and drags them to the ground. Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing finish them with attacks to their vulnerable undersides.
• The remaining eagles keep their distance and exhaust the group with gusts. Qin Xiaoyu creates an energy-gathering formation, allowing Chen Siyao to fire a powerful beam that kills all six in seconds.
• The group presses deeper into the island and is surrounded by more than a dozen enormous mantis beasts. Their first attack is strong enough to carve deep fissures in rock, and the chapter ends as the mantises charge from all sides.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao stays alert and tactical, directing the group through the eagle attack. She recognizes that the beasts are growing stronger, then uses Qin Xiaoyu’s support to unleash a decisive beam, though it leaves her drained.
• Ying Wenjie displays exceptional strength and courage by using himself as bait and physically grounding two eagles.
• Qin Xiaoyu contributes crucial support by creating the energy-gathering formation; Chen Siyao trusts her to do so under pressure.
• Ye Chendong protects Qin Xiaoyu from an eagle’s dive and is injured.
• Yang Wanqing identifies the eagles’ weakness and joins Chen Siyao in finishing the grounded pair. The other teammates also help hold off the attack, taking further injuries.

Significant themes

• Escalating danger: Each new wave is more powerful, suggesting the island’s threats are building toward something worse.
• Teamwork and complementary strengths: The group survives by combining strategy, physical strength, defense, and energy support.
• Courage under pressure: Ying Wenjie’s risky decoy and the others’ efforts to protect one another show their willingness to take personal risks for the team.
• Endurance and cost: Victory comes at the price of injuries and exhaustion, while the approaching mantises offer little time to recover.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao’s group is overwhelmed by waves of armored mantis beasts. The creatures’ shells resist ordinary attacks, and new enemies keep replacing the ones they kill.
• Chen Siyao uses a Black Qilin Jade Pendant to frighten the mantises, but its effect is brief: it intimidates them without harming them.
• Remembering the Bronze Token her brother Chen Hao gave her, Chen Siyao recognizes it as the core of the Myriad Swords Return to the Sect Formation, a powerful pre-engraved killing formation.
• While Chen Siyao and Qin Xiaoyu activate the formation, Ying Wenjie, Yang Wanqing, Ye Chendong, and Wu Tian hold back the advancing mantises under mounting injuries and exhaustion.
• The formation activates and unleashes successive waves of sword light, killing the mantises and cutting down much of the surrounding forest. The group survives within the formation’s small safe central area.

Character developments

• Chen Siyao shifts from fighting a losing battle to thinking strategically, recognizing that survival depends on the formation rather than brute force.
• Qin Xiaoyu works with Chen Siyao to channel the formation, maintaining concentration through its most critical stage.
• Ying Wenjie, Yang Wanqing, Ye Chendong, and Wu Tian show courage and loyalty by defending the others while wounded and exhausted.
• Chen Hao, though absent, influences events through the token he gave his sister—suggesting he anticipated danger or had particular confidence in the tool.

Character interactions

• Ye Chendong warns Yang Wanqing of an attack and takes a hit while protecting her.
• Chen Siyao calls Qin Xiaoyu to help activate the formation and divides the formation work between them.
• Yang Wanqing, Ying Wenjie, Ye Chendong, and Wu Tian coordinate their defense, covering gaps and taking over when others are struck.
• The defenders repeatedly ask how much time remains, underscoring their reliance on Chen Siyao and Qin Xiaoyu to finish the formation.

Significant themes

• Cooperation and trust: The group’s survival depends on coordinated defense and the partnership between the two women channeling the formation.
• Strategy over brute force: Their strength cannot overcome endless enemies; recognizing the right tool and using it effectively changes the outcome.
• Perseverance under pressure: The defenders endure injury and exhaustion to buy the crucial minutes needed.
• Preparedness and foreknowledge: Chen Hao’s seemingly casual gift proves decisive, hinting that preparation can turn a desperate situation around.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao’s single-use treasure, given to her by her brother Chen Hao, destroys every demonic beast on the island with a sweeping sword attack. The livestream audience is stunned by its power.
• Yang Wanqing hears screams from the southeast. Chen Siyao’s group searches but finds no sign of danger.
• The screams came from twelve people secretly following the group, hoping to let Chen Siyao clear the way and then steal the inheritance. The treasure’s attack reached beyond the formation’s core and killed them all. Their commander’s radio calls go unanswered.
• The six travelers reach the island’s Main Hall and discover statues of a white crane and a beautiful woman dressed as a Heavenly Reach Sect disciple.
• Chen Siyao reads the woman’s inscription: Bai Ling, once an immortal crane whose flock was slaughtered, was welcomed into the sect despite being nonhuman. She repaid its kindness through centuries of service and left behind her inheritance.
• Chen Siyao takes Bai Ling’s glowing pill and jade slip containing the Crane Soars Through the Nine Heavens Art, a cultivation method emphasizing speed and agility. She considers Yang Wanqing a suitable recipient.
• As the group leaves the hall, they find nine people waiting in the clearing.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao remains focused and cautious, first preparing the group for a possible attack, then studying Bai Ling’s legacy. She recognizes the significance of the sect’s inclusive principles and quietly considers passing the agility-focused art to Yang Wanqing.
• Yang Wanqing shows keen hearing by detecting the distant screams, though she cannot identify their source.
• Chen Hao is characterized through the immense power of the treasure he gave his sister; the livestream viewers interpret it as evidence of his extraordinary strength.
• Bai Ling, through her inscription, emerges as devoted and grateful: the sect’s acceptance of her shaped her identity and inspired lifelong loyalty.
• The group acts collectively, staying alert and moving together, while the livestream audience reacts to the treasure and warns them to be careful.

Significant themes

• The cost of opportunism: The hidden followers’ attempt to exploit Chen Siyao’s efforts ends in their deaths.
• Gratitude and loyalty: Bai Ling repays the sect that saved and accepted her, even at great personal risk.
• Equality across species: The Heavenly Reach Sect’s willingness to accept a demonic being challenges assumptions about divisions between humans and other races.
• Inheritance and legacy: Bai Ling’s pill and cultivation art carry her teachings forward to a worthy successor.

Character interactions

• Chen Siyao reassures and directs her companions after the apparent threat, then leads them into the hall.
• The group discusses the statues and Bai Ling’s story, with Qin Xiaoyu identifying the inheritance and Yang Wanqing unknowingly drawing Chen Siyao’s attention as a possible recipient.
• Chen Siyao’s party’s next encounter is set up by the nine figures waiting outside the hall.

Key plot points and events

• Nine heavily armed foreign men surround Chen Siyao and demand she surrender the inheritance and magical treasures. Two snipers cover the temple entrance while six riflemen block escape routes.
• Siyao recognizes that the attackers have been enhanced with Flame Spirit Stones, but lack cultivation training. She signals Yang Wanqing and Ye Chendong to prepare.
• When the leader counts down, the three cultivators attack. They evade the gunfire and disarm or incapacitate all nine men in just fifteen seconds.
• Siyao questions the leader. Suspecting the men may carry poison capsules, she has their jaws disabled—only to discover a flashing device embedded in the leader’s chest.
• Before they can investigate, the device triggers. The same sound comes from the other attackers, and all nine die, apparently killed remotely.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao remains composed under threat, quickly assesses the attackers’ abilities, and leads the response. Her practical but movie-inspired precautions show both decisiveness and a touch of naïveté.
• Yang Wanqing and Ye Chendong act immediately on Siyao’s signal, demonstrating coordination and confidence in combat.
• The attackers are disciplined and tactically trained, but their enhanced bodies cannot match the cultivators’ speed and reflexes. Their sudden deaths reveal that they were controlled or expendable.
• The livestream audience shifts from panic and pleas for help to astonishment and excitement as the cultivators defeat the armed squad.

Significant themes

• Cultivation versus modern weapons: The scene portrays cultivators’ speed and skill as overwhelming even against trained gunmen.
• Hidden control and expendability: The remote devices suggest a larger force is directing the attackers—and can silence them at will.
• Public spectacle: The livestream turns a life-threatening confrontation into a widely witnessed demonstration of supernatural power.

Key plot points and events

• The attackers’ implanted devices detonate remotely, killing all nine operatives before Chen Siyao’s team can question them. Siyao jokes that she has watched too many movies after explaining that she smashed their mouths to prevent them from taking poison.
• Han Songyue tells her that a rapid-response force is already nearby. The authorities had received an intelligence warning and stationed a team offshore, though they had not told Siyao.
• The Special Affairs Bureau arrives by helicopter and speedboat, seals off Island Thirty-Four, and begins collecting evidence and investigating the implanted devices. Its leader, Clear Wind, is astonished that Siyao and her companions defeated nine armed operatives.
• Siyao’s team prepares to leave. She asks Clear Wind to investigate an area southeast of the site, where something unexplained may have been caught within the great killing formation.
• On the boat back, Siyao reflects on the recovered Crane Soars Through the Nine Heavens Art. It describes the Heavenly Reach Sect accepting demonic beasts and other races as disciples. She reports this discovery to Han Songyue, recommending that researchers prioritize it.

Character developments

• Chen Siyao remains quick-witted under pressure, but the incident deepens her concern: the attackers were highly trained foreign operatives, and she questions whether the authorities had risked using her as bait. She ultimately concludes they had prepared cautiously rather than deliberately exposing her.
• Yang Wanqing jokes with Siyao after the battle and mentions hearing unexplained screams. Though she senses something is amiss, she cannot identify the cause.
• Clear Wind takes command professionally, directing evidence collection and accepting Siyao’s warning about the unexplained area.
• Siyao’s teammates show the cost of the fight: Wu Tian is wounded in the shoulder, Ye Chendong’s leg is being bandaged, while Yang Wanqing appears unharmed.

Significant themes

• Preparedness and institutional trust: The authorities acted on a warning but withheld it from Siyao, leaving her to weigh their caution against the possibility that she was being used.
• Escalating threats: The attackers’ equipment and remotely triggered implants suggest a more organized and dangerous enemy than ordinary intruders.
• Cross-species equality: The Heavenly Reach Sect’s willingness to accept demonic beasts and other races challenges narrow ideas of who can belong or cultivate.
• Humor amid danger: Siyao’s jokes and the livestream comments offer comic relief, even as the events reveal serious risks.

Character interactions

• Siyao and Yang Wanqing trade jokes after the operatives die, then discuss the unexplained screams.
• Siyao calls Han Songyue for help and learns why reinforcements were already positioned nearby.
• She briefs Clear Wind on the implants and later directs his team toward a possible hidden threat.
• Before leaving, she informs Han Songyue about the sect’s inclusive history and its research significance.

Plot points and events

• Chen Siyao learns that twelve foreign intelligence operatives died inside her sword formation’s range. The Special Affairs Bureau confirms they were trespassing and says the deaths will be kept confidential; the relevant livestream footage has been edited.
• Yang Wanqing had heard the operatives’ dying screams, but Chen Siyao hides the truth, joking that they were “people freeloading off our Wi-Fi.”
• On the boat back, Chen Siyao studies the jade slip’s Crane Soars Through the Nine Heavens Art and recognizes it as a systematic body-refining method.
• She connects its principles to Flame Spirit Stones, which strengthen the body rather than follow the ancient qi-refining path. The method could give the Special Affairs Bureau a framework for using its large supply of stones.
• Han Songyue rushes to the dock to examine the jade slip, visibly thrilled. He confirms that the island’s attackers were covert U.S. and Japanese operatives whose Flame Spirit Stone concentrations were over forty times normal.
• Chen Siyao realizes the livestream has exposed the team’s ability to defeat these enhanced fighters. Foreign observers are already replaying the footage.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao remains composed and strategic: she conceals the deaths from Yang Wanqing, recognizes the cultivation method’s wider value, and quickly shares it with Han Songyue.
• Yang Wanqing is curious about the screams and puzzled by the body-refining art’s name, while also recovering from the fight.
• Wu Tian explains that demonic beasts cultivate through their bodies, clarifying why the crane’s method is physical rather than qi-focused.
• Ying Wenjie and Ye Chendong, both injured, help identify the method’s potential importance to the Bureau.
• Han Songyue shifts from scientist to eager recipient, racing to the dock and carefully securing the jade slip.

Significant themes

• Changing balance of power: The fighters’ abilities undermine the assumption that guns or enhanced soldiers guarantee dominance.
• Cultivation adapted to modern systems: An ancient demonic-beast method may provide the missing structure for modern Flame Spirit Stone enhancement.
• Secrecy and exposure: The Bureau suppresses sensitive information, but the livestream has already made the team’s power visible abroad.
• Escalating international stakes: Foreign agencies are not merely observing the inheritance struggle; they are developing enhanced operatives of their own.

Plot points

• At a classified Nevada military base, U.S. officials review footage of Chen Hao’s five disciples defeating twelve enhanced “super soldiers.” They also revisit videos of Chen Hao restraining a Flood Dragon and fighting through an underwater secret realm—footage they had previously dismissed as special effects.
• Concluding that their earlier assessment was badly mistaken, Lieutenant General Morrison orders Chen Hao’s threat rating raised to SSS, the system’s highest category for an individual who could pose a strategic threat through personal power alone. His report will state that Chen Hao’s capabilities cannot currently be assessed.
• Meanwhile, Chen Hao’s team works through the Penglai waters, dismantling the formations on Islands Thirty-Three through Thirty in a week. Chen Siyao coordinates the daily operations; Yang Wanqing detects formations, Ying Wenjie identifies how to break them, and the recovering Wu Tian and Ye Chendong provide support.
• The team explores the legacies left on the islands. The excerpt describes a snake-demon legacy focused on poison and concealment, a tiger-demon legacy centered on close-combat strength, and a human cultivator’s comprehensive formation and artifact-refining arts.

Character developments and interactions

• Morrison moves from skepticism to alarm, recognizing that Chen Hao may be far more dangerous than his government previously believed. Hayes and Williams provide the evidence and intelligence behind the reassessment.
• Chen Hao’s disciples demonstrate distinct roles and formidable abilities. The legacy memories reveal that the Heavenly Reach Sect welcomed both demons and humans: the snake demon was rescued, while the tiger demon—once subdued for trespassing—was offered a place in the sect.
• Yang Wanqing is struck by how broadly the sect accepted disciples; Ying Wenjie explains that this inclusive practice was unusual in the Primordial Era, and Chen Siyao connects it to the fear the sect inspired in rival groups.
• The team’s coordinated work and discussion of the legacies show their growing understanding of the sect’s history and teachings.

Significant themes

• Underestimating the unknown: The U.S. misread extraordinary events as fabricated and now must confront the consequences.
• Power and threat: Chen Hao’s individual strength challenges conventional military measures and national security frameworks.
• Inclusive mentorship: The Heavenly Reach Sect’s willingness to accept disciples regardless of species or background distinguishes it from other sects.
• Legacy and belonging: The island memories show how rescue, acceptance, and opportunity shaped the cultivators who left their techniques behind.

Summary

• Chen Siyao continues exploring Penglai’s islands, where the discoveries reinforce the Heavenly Reach Sect’s doctrine of teaching all living beings without discrimination. She sends daily reports to Han Songyue, whose team has worked through five sleepless nights trying to reconstruct the lost civilization.
• Chen urges Han to rest, but Han refuses, overwhelmed by the historical significance of the information. Chen gives up and ends the call.
• A week of calm around Penglai feels ominous to Chen. She suspects the lack of suspicious activity is not due to her livestream deterring outsiders, but because world attention has shifted elsewhere.
• At Mount Fuji, Japanese surveyors uncover a large vein of Flame Spirit Stones. The government seals off the site, but military excavation breaks into a vast underground cavity.
• A gigantic, nine-headed serpent emerges and devastates the area. Conventional weapons fail to harm it, and its first encounter with the Self-Defense Forces kills 473 personnel.
• The serpent heads toward Fuji City, crushing buildings as it goes. Evacuation efforts lag behind its advance, and footage of the creature spreads worldwide.
• The disaster sparks public anger and mass protests. Many Japanese citizens blame the government for disturbing Mount Fuji and awakening a divine being, while the prime minister argues that the nine-headed creature is not the mythical eight-headed Yamata no Orochi.
• The serpent rampages through Fuji City for three days, destroying a third of it. Japan’s military arsenal proves ineffective, so the government requests allied assistance. The United States sends destroyers into Suruga Bay, motivated in part by its interest in the Flame Spirit Stone deposit.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao shows practical concern for Han Songyue’s wellbeing, but recognizes that his enthusiasm makes him impossible to persuade.
• Han Songyue is consumed by the chance to recover knowledge of a civilization lost for millennia, placing the work above sleep.
• Japanese officials and citizens clash over the excavation: the government tries to control the site and calm the public, while protesters blame it for the catastrophe.
• The United States offers military involvement, but its interest is portrayed as strategic and resource-driven rather than purely humanitarian.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and responsibility: The discovery of valuable ancient or supernatural resources can carry consequences beyond their apparent benefit.
• Human limits against the supernatural: Modern weapons and military power are ineffective against the awakened serpent.
• Fear, belief, and public trust: The Japanese government’s technical distinction between the creature and Yamata no Orochi fails to address public anger and dread.
• Competing motives in a global crisis: Even as a city is destroyed, nations’ responses are shaped by their pursuit of strategic resources.

Key plot points and events

• Four heavy bunker-buster missiles wound the nine-headed serpent near Mount Fuji, destroying part of a head and damaging its torso. The creature survives, plunges into the Pacific, and disappears after sonar tracks it for ninety minutes.
• Japan and the United States face international condemnation and demands to pay for tracking and defense. Meanwhile, Huaxia strengthens coastal patrols and installs energy-detection stations.
• Online commentators identify the serpent as Xiangliu from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, prompting wider speculation that other ancient mythological creatures may be real.
• Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing discuss the changed world at the Penglai base. Yang is confident their master could handle the serpent; Chen remains preoccupied with breaking news from Europe.
• In France’s Vosges Mountains, a hiker records a gigantic winged wolf. French forces cannot harm it with conventional weapons, and it moves through Strasbourg, causing extensive destruction and an estimated death toll of at least 3,000.
• The wolf is identified as Fenrir. Its appearance triggers widespread panic, evacuations, and a rush to buy apocalypse shelters.
• France and the United Kingdom use three heavy warheads to wound Fenrir. It survives and flees into the Pyrenees, leaving the world facing another vanished, dangerous creature.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao recognizes how radically the world has changed, but the news of the European attack quickly overtakes her attention.
• Yang Wanqing is casual and confident, trusting that their master can deal with any threat. Their brief exchange contrasts her confidence with Chen’s growing concern.
• Most other people appear through collective reactions: officials argue over responsibility, civilians panic, and wealthy Europeans seek escape or shelter.

Significant themes

• Myth becoming reality: Xiangliu and Fenrir emerge from ancient stories as living threats, unsettling assumptions about history and folklore.
• Human limits: Even powerful modern weapons can injure these creatures but cannot kill them; military force only drives them elsewhere.
• Global responsibility and fear: Nations blame one another as threats cross borders, while uncertainty fuels public panic and profiteering.
• A world transformed: The attacks suggest the Mount Fuji incident was not isolated, but the beginning of a wider supernatural crisis.

Key plot points and events

• Western European governments release footage proving that a heavy warhead can injure the giant wolf Qiongqi, easing—but not ending—public panic.
• Huaxia’s online community identifies the creature with Qiongqi from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, fueling cultural pride and renewed speculation about other monsters.
• With Xiangliu still missing and Qiongqi wounded in Europe, Chen Siyao leaves Penglai for home with Yang Wanqing, while the rest of the team stays behind to finish exploring the inheritance islands.
• Siyao has organized more than thirty recovered magical treasures for the group, matching weapons and tools to each person’s abilities. The team also receives Qiankun Bags for carrying equipment.
• Back in Pengcheng, Siyao resumes working with cultivation materials and Bureau documents. Chen Hao and Yang Wanqing settle into tea, food, and gaming, while the world outside continues to change.
• The chapter closes on Chen Hao’s calm daily routine of basic boxing practice and tea-making, hinting that his unassuming exercises conceal extraordinary power.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao is increasingly burdened by the global crisis, but remains practical: she delegates the island work, equips her teammates thoughtfully, and continues supporting the Bureau’s cultivation research. Her unease contrasts with the normality of home.
• Yang Wanqing stays energetic and close to Siyao, helping with the departure and quickly returning to games once they are home.
• The island team accepts Siyao’s guidance and benefits from equipment suited to its members: Ying Wenjie takes close-combat gear, Wu Tian strength-enhancing gauntlets, Ye Chendong a spear and protection, and Qin Xiaoyu tools for formation-based control.
• Chen Hao reassures Siyao to focus on finishing the island mission, then welcomes her home with dinner. His relaxed behavior—and apparently ordinary training—suggests confidence and hidden strength.

Significant themes

• Myth becoming reality: Ancient Chinese monster lore gains new relevance as Qiongqi appears in the modern world.
• Crisis versus ordinary life: Global instability contrasts with the household’s familiar routines, offering comfort while also underscoring Siyao’s isolation and concern.
• Preparation and cooperation: The team’s careful distribution of artifacts reflects its growing organization and readiness for threats.
• A changing world: The monster attacks and the spread of cultivation knowledge signal that society is beginning to transform, even when daily life briefly seems unchanged.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing return to university, where the discovery of Flame Spirit Stones has sparked a surge of interest in martial arts. Students fill new clubs and practice on campus, while dubious online cultivation manuals circulate.
• Chen Hao warns that genuine methods can be dangerous without proper guidance. A student has already suffered a serious internal injury after trying a fake technique.
• Chen Siyao asks whether Chen Hao will help ordinary people, who are becoming stronger but lack safe instruction. He says officials will address it, though she suspects he is considering the problem.
• The Special Affairs Bureau reports that an adapted body-refining method passed initial testing: used with Flame Spirit Stones, it significantly improved muscle density and bone hardness.
• Over the following half month, Chen Siyao stays in Pengcheng, processing intelligence, translating Primordial Script, and working with the Bureau’s research team. New bamboo-slip documents are dated to roughly 12,000 years ago, potentially overturning established history.
• Public updates from Penglai have stopped, while official reports continue. Chen Siyao keeps in contact with Qin Xiaoyu on Dinghai Island. The excerpt ends as Yang Wanqing video-calls her to ask how things are there.

Character developments

• Chen Siyao is increasingly involved in intelligence and research work for the Special Affairs Bureau, balancing it with university life. Her gaming reflexes also hint at the effects of cultivation.
• Chen Hao remains cautious and reserved, but his response to the lack of safe cultivation guidance suggests he is weighing how to help.
• Yang Wanqing remains playful and easily bored, while showing concern about the dangers facing ordinary people.
• Qin Xiaoyu is stationed at a temporary base on Dinghai Island and maintains contact with the others despite unreliable communications.

Significant themes

• The rapid spread of power is outpacing people’s access to safe training, creating risks alongside opportunity.
• Society is adapting to a transformed world through official institutions, research, and public martial-arts programs.
• Ancient discoveries challenge accepted history, while a quiet period of preparation hints at larger upheavals ahead.

Character interactions

• Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing raise the problem of ordinary people lacking reliable cultivation instruction; Chen Hao listens but does not commit to acting.
• The three share relaxed domestic moments—dinner and gaming—contrasting with the serious changes unfolding outside.
• Chen Siyao collaborates with the Special Affairs Bureau through reports, research meetings, and translation work, while staying connected to Qin Xiaoyu by video call.

Key plot points and events

• Qin Xiaoyu reports that Wu Tian is training constantly, while his Gauntlet overheats from excessive energy output; Professor Han has restricted how long he can wear it.
• Archaeological research advances: translations from the twentieth island are nearly complete, but the nineteenth island’s older script requires more expertise. Carbon dating places the oldest bamboo slips at over 12,000 years old.
• News breaks of a seventh Demonic Beast appearing near Iceland. Some speculate it may be Kun, though its identity is unconfirmed.
• Professor Li Weihe’s team publishes a major paper on the War of Investiture, based on documents from the Penglai islands. It argues that:
  1. A sophisticated cultivation civilization existed in the Primordial Era, long before the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
  2. The War of Investiture occurred roughly 12,000–15,000 years ago and involved at least seven sects, with the Jie and Chan Sects as the chief rivals.
  3. The conflict centered on limited “great dao ranks”: only 3,000 beings could hold them, and later aspirants had to take a rank by killing its holder.
• Chen Siyao and Han Songyue discuss how the Jie Sect’s open acceptance of disciples and the Chan Sect’s selective approach created long-running tension. The Thirty-Three Heavens, apparently a place where ranks were easier to attain, became the war’s immediate flashpoint.

Character developments and interactions

• Wu Tian’s relentless training shows his determination, though equipment limits frustrate him; Qin Xiaoyu and Yang Wanqing joke about the restrictions.
• Chen Siyao acts as a link between the researchers and Chen Hao, passing along updates. Chen Hao responds tersely and remains absorbed in his reading.
• Chen Siyao studies Professor Li’s conclusions closely and questions why the sects would fight over the Thirty-Three Heavens rather than share it. Han Songyue counters that old resentment and uncertainty over who would gain the limited ranks made cooperation unlikely.
• Chen Siyao’s curiosity deepens: after discussing the paper, she continues reading and goes to seek Chen Hao.

Significant themes

• Scarcity and conflict: Limited paths to ultimate power turn ambition into a zero-sum struggle.
• History rewritten by evidence: Newly translated documents challenge familiar accounts of Huaxia’s origins and the War of Investiture.
• Ideological rivalry: The Jie Sect’s inclusiveness clashes with the Chan Sect’s emphasis on merit and selectivity.
• Uncertainty and emerging danger: The possible appearance of Kun hints that the discoveries of the past are unfolding alongside new threats in the present.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Hao agrees that Professor Li’s research on the primordial cultivation civilization is broadly correct, but notes a crucial unanswered question: are the three thousand Dao positions still occupied, or are they vacant? He explains that spiritual-energy depletion—not a shortage of Dao positions—caused the old cultivation system’s collapse. The Thirty-Three Heavens had richer spiritual energy, but the ancient civilization ultimately moved somewhere other than there.
• After the paper is published, it spreads worldwide and triggers intense public and academic debate. Scholars accept the authenticity of the Thirty-Six Legacy Islands’ documents and their dating, while disputing what the Thirty-Three Heavens and Dao positions actually are, and where the ancient civilizations went.
• Researchers begin comparing the Investiture of the Gods war with mythic conflicts elsewhere, including Ragnarök, the Greek Titanomachy, and India’s Deva-Asura War.
• A European academic statement links Fenrir—the demonic beast recently seen in Norwegian waters—to Norse accounts of Ragnarök. It suggests the ancient war’s remnants may be “unsealed.” European markets fall, and Chen Siyao concludes that the beasts, energy tides, and newly surfaced Inheritance Islands all point to something awakening.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Hao remains guarded, offering Siyao hints but not a full explanation. He says he may take her to see the Thirty-Three Heavens someday.
• Chen Siyao moves from curiosity about the ancient civilization to serious concern that its history is connected to current supernatural events.
• Yang Wanqing eagerly follows online discussions and shares theories about similar wars appearing in world mythologies. Siyao dismisses much of the speculation, though she privately wrestles with the same central mystery.

Significant themes

• Lost history and uncertainty: Even as scholarship reconstructs the past, fundamental questions remain unanswered.
• Spiritual decline and civilization’s collapse: The loss of spiritual energy is presented as the force that broke the ancient cultivation system.
• Myth, history, and global connections: Different cultures’ divine-war myths may preserve accounts of the same primordial conflict.
• The past returning: The chapter’s final revelation is an ominous possibility that ancient forces are awakening in the present.

Plot points and events

• Research following Professor Li’s paper suggests that, around 15,000 years ago, several cognitively advanced human species coexisted. One had the biological capacity to manipulate natural energy. Genetic studies indicate that Primordial Era cultivators differed from modern humans in gene-regulating sequences.
• Professor Li and Chen Siyao conclude that the current Mysterious Resurgence is reactivating those sequences. Chen Hao corrects their interpretation: the abilities were not deliberately “locked away,” but naturally disappeared after being depleted.
• New discoveries reveal links between ancient civilizations worldwide. A linguistic study finds shared origins between Norse runes and inscriptions from Huaxia’s Inheritance Island. Chen Siyao notes that cultivation society had social classes, just as modern society does.
• Chen Siyao learns that Ye Chendong has reached Late Meridian-Penetrating energy output. Later, an intelligence briefing reports that countries are searching for ruins, with forty-seven sites confirmed globally.
• A week later, Yang Wanqing brings news of a U.S. research paper by Vernon Chase. His twelve-part “Limit Arcana” training system reportedly increases Flame Spirit Stone absorption nearly twentyfold. Chen Siyao notices that one movement resembles a variation of Huaxia’s Horse Stance, prompting her to examine the paper closely.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao acts as a bridge between academic findings and Chen Hao’s firsthand knowledge, consulting him about the genetic theory and recording Professor Li’s conclusions.
• Professor Li is exhausted from nonstop research but remains cautious, confirming the genetic evidence while admitting the reason for humanity’s lost abilities is unknown.
• Chen Hao offers a crucial correction based on his Primordial Era experience, though he stays largely quiet during dinner.
• Yang Wanqing is enthusiastic and quick to spot similarities between Chase’s exercises and Huaxia training, while Chen Siyao tempers her excitement with teasing and practical reminders.
• Qin Xiaoyu’s message about Ye Chendong’s progress prompts a light exchange between Yang Wanqing and Chen Siyao.

Significant themes

• Humanity’s lost potential: Cultivation may be an ancestral biological capacity returning through the Mysterious Resurgence.
• Global shared history: Evidence increasingly suggests ancient civilizations branched from a common system.
• Knowledge and power: Cultivation existed alongside social inequality, echoing modern divisions.
• International competition and convergence: Ruins are being sought worldwide, while researchers may independently rediscover techniques preserved in different traditions.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Siyao reviews Vernon Chase’s research paper on Limit Arcana, a twelve-routine training method that raises Flame Spirit Stone absorption from the usual 0.08% per day to roughly 1.1–1.9%, with rare individuals reaching 3–5% and one participant reaching 8%.
• Chase’s large, carefully controlled study of 10,000 participants classifies the results as C-Rank, A-Rank, and SSS-Rank. The findings and instructional videos quickly go viral, prompting jokes, speculation, and commercial attempts to sell classes.
• Siyao judges the research credible after examining its methods and data. She watches her brother Chen Hao training and reflects on Chase’s apparent genius before showing Hao the paper.
• Chase’s work attracts global attention. He explains that he used modern biomechanics to investigate the meridian system and its resonance with Flame Spirit Stone energy. His remarks provoke debate in Huaxia over cultural credit.
• Universities around the world independently reproduce the results, establishing that Limit Arcana works. Chase becomes an internationally celebrated scientific figure.
• By the end, Yang Wanqing has learned all twelve routines and practices along with Chase’s videos.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Siyao is serious and analytical: she checks the study rather than accepting the hype, then recognizes the strength of the evidence and Chase’s exceptional talent.
• Yang Wanqing is playful and excitable. She laughs at online reactions, teases Siyao, and quickly embraces the training herself.
• Chen Hao is shown practicing when the women discuss the paper; Siyao brings him the research, linking its discovery to their own training.
• Vernon Chase rises from a little-known researcher to a globally acclaimed pioneer, while his explanation also makes him a focus of cultural arguments.

Significant themes

• Science and verification: The paper’s influence rests on rigorous methods and successful independent replication.
• Human potential and inequality: Limit Arcana improves absorption broadly, but the dramatic differences between ordinary results and rare outliers raise questions about innate ability.
• Tradition and modern research: Chase’s work connects traditional Huaxia concepts with modern biomechanics, prompting disputes over ownership and recognition.
• Fame and commercialization: The discovery sparks global celebrity, viral jokes, and opportunistic businesses almost immediately.