Chapter Summaries

After waking in the body of Lu Changsheng in a dangerous frontier county, he learned that his father had disappeared and that bandits had robbed him. Searching his father’s storage room, Lu Changsheng found a hidden box and discovered a mysterious system that could absorb a hundred-year-old Solomon’s Seal; a blue panel appeared before him.

• Lu Changsheng woke in an unfamiliar hut with a head injury, and Fang Tao explained that he had carried him home after finding him collapsed.
• A flood of memories revealed that Lu Changsheng had transmigrated to Great Zhou, where his father had gone missing and someone had robbed him of the compensation money.
• After Fang Tao left, Lu Changsheng searched the ransacked storage room and read books describing Great Zhou’s customs and unexplained village disasters.
• Lu Changsheng remembered his father’s hint, pried up the floor in the storage room’s northwest corner, and found a hidden box containing a yellow book and a medicinal herb.
• A voice identified the herb as a hundred-year-old Solomon’s Seal and asked whether to absorb it; Lu Changsheng agreed, and a blue panel appeared.

Lu Changsheng used Source Energy Points to recover his health and discovered that he could control a pangolin with burrowing abilities. After studying the Iron Cloth Shirt manual, he prepared to test the technique and asked Fang Tao for help, but Fang Tao warned him that it had crippled many people.

• Lu Changsheng spent one Source Energy Point to improve his weak status and regain much of his vitality.
• Lu Changsheng summoned and controlled his bound pangolin, then imagined using it to explore the dangerous Cangyun Mountain Range for resources.
• Lu Changsheng examined the Iron Cloth Shirt manual and found that its crucial medicinal-bath instructions had been torn out.
• Lu Changsheng saw that Iron Cloth Shirt had appeared on his panel as not initiated, but its modifier option was unavailable.
• Lu Changsheng ate a hard black cake, then prepared to practice Iron Cloth Shirt and sought help from Fang Tao.
• Fang Tao recognized the manual and warned Lu Changsheng that the technique had crippled many cultivators.

Lu Changsheng endured painful Iron Cloth Shirt training until his progress exceeded sixty percent, but stopped when his lack of food made continuing dangerous. Fang Tao and his sister Fang Qing brought him chicken soup and ten copper coins, giving him resources to recover before he attempted to earn money with his bound pangolin.

• Lu Changsheng had Fang Tao repeatedly strike his chest and back with a staff, advancing Iron Cloth Shirt to six percent by noon.
• Lu Changsheng trained for four more days and pushed the technique's progress past sixty percent, then stopped because black flatbread could not sustain him.
• Lu Changsheng decided to send his bound pangolin into the mountains to find herbs he could sell, since he could not afford meat or safely expose profitable inventions.
• Fang Tao returned with his older sister Fang Qing, who gave Lu Changsheng a chicken and ten copper coins and urged him to find a proper job.
• Lu Changsheng ate the chicken soup, replenishing some of the vitality depleted by his training.

Lu Changsheng controlled his pangolin Exotic Beast to burrow from Changping County to Little Cloud Mountain in search of medicinal herbs. After collecting several plants, he took a ninety-year-old ginseng and fled from the enraged tiger that guarded it.

• Lu Changsheng sent the pangolin underground toward Little Cloud Mountain, traveling several dozen li to reach its foot by the early hours of the next day.
• Lu Changsheng used the pangolin’s enhanced senses to avoid wild beasts and search the mountain for medicinal herbs.
• Lu Changsheng collected a thirty-year-old Dragon’s Roar Grass and several more herbs around twenty years old.
• Lu Changsheng found a ninety-year-old ginseng near the summit, but a powerful tiger appeared and attacked after he began collecting it.
• Lu Changsheng completed the collection just as the tiger closed in, then darted toward the dense forest to escape.

Lu Changsheng survived the fierce tiger’s attack by upgrading his Armor Enhancement and escaping underground, then recovered and learned that an old ginseng root could provide Source Energy Points. After deciding to sell some herbs for money, he visited Miao’s Herb Shop and presented three portions for sale.

• Lu Changsheng upgraded Armor Enhancement to Excellent, endured the tiger’s claw, and escaped by activating Burrowing.
• Lu Changsheng recovered underground, then absorbed a near-century-old ginseng root and raised his Source Energy Points to 9.
• Lu Changsheng went to Changping County’s eastern district to sell herbs and buy food to support his martial training.
• At Miao’s Herb Shop, Lu Changsheng placed three portions of herbs on the counter and asked Miao Qingyun for a reasonable price.

Lu Changsheng sold Dragon's Roar Grass to buy meat and began training in the Iron Cloth Shirt while keeping his plans for revenge against Zhao Erhu hidden. After five days of hard training and repeated blows from Fang Tao, he broke through and mastered the technique's entry level.

• Lu Changsheng sold three Dragon's Roar Grass to Miao Qingyun for two taels of silver and bought a whole sheep.
• Lu Changsheng overheard Zhao Erhu and another Three Rivers Gang member bragging about extorting the Lu family, and he resolved to seek revenge once he grew stronger.
• Lu Changsheng stewed the sheep, shared meat with Fang Qing and Fang Tao, and practiced the Iron Cloth Shirt's foundational stance.
• Fang Tao repeatedly struck Lu Changsheng with a wooden stick as his technique's progress rose to 99 percent.
• Lu Changsheng endured more blows, broke through the Iron Cloth Shirt's threshold, and found that the strikes no longer caused him pain.

Lu Changsheng used the Attribute Modifier to advance Iron Cloth Shirt to Iron Skin Realm and upgrade a rusty Pig-Slaughtering Blade into a Hundred-Forged weapon. With one Source Energy Point left, he headed to the courtyard to seek an offensive method.

• Fang Tao saw that Lu Changsheng had entered martial arts and hurried off to tell Eldest Sister.
• Lu Changsheng spent Source Energy Points to train Iron Cloth Shirt to Minor Mastery, entering the Stone Skin Realm.
• Lu Changsheng used more Source Energy Points to reach Major Mastery and advance to the Iron Skin Realm.
• Lu Changsheng picked up the damaged Pig-Slaughtering Blade and upgraded it first to a Ten-Forged blade, then to a Hundred-Forged Pig-Slaughtering Blade.
• With one Source Energy Point remaining and no offensive method, Lu Changsheng walked to the center of the courtyard.

Lu Changsheng trained the Basic Blade Technique for several days until he gained entry-level mastery, then spent a Source Energy Point to advance it to Major Mastery. With his blade skills improved, he had remedied the weakness in his attack power and planned to seek a more advanced technique in the future.

• Lu Changsheng practiced the Basic Blade Technique’s Slash, reviewing each attempt and refining his posture and use of his whole body to concentrate his power.
• Over the next several days, Lu Changsheng mastered the Slash move, then trained Horizontal Sweep and Upward Slash when no skill appeared on his Attribute Modifier.
• At dawn, Lu Changsheng cut a falling leaf cleanly in two and received the prompt to record the Basic Blade Technique, which appeared on his panel at Entry-Level 40%.
• Lu Changsheng spent one Source Energy Point to advance the Basic Blade Technique to Major Mastery and realized his affinity for blade techniques was unusually strong.
• Lu Changsheng concluded that his improved blade technique had made up for his lack of attack power, though he still hoped to obtain a more profound blade manual later.

Lu Changsheng tracked Zhao Erhu, a Three Rivers Gang enforcer who had ruined families with predatory gambling debts, while searching for a chance to kill him. After days of watching Widow Zhang’s courtyard, Lu Changsheng saw Zhao Erhu arrive there armed late at night and prepared to act.

• After breaking through in martial arts, Lu Changsheng decided to investigate Zhao Erhu before attempting to kill him.
• Lu Changsheng overheard Zhao Erhu threaten Chen Yuan and his family over a gambling debt, including threatening to take Chen Yuan’s wife and daughter.
• Lu Changsheng monitored Zhao Erhu for several days and discovered that he seemed to be having an affair with Widow Zhang.
• After watching Widow Zhang’s courtyard for several nights, Lu Changsheng saw Zhao Erhu arrive there with a long blade and decided the man’s death had come.

Lu Changsheng assassinated Zhao Erhu and took his money and Iron Leg Technique, while the Three Rivers Gang began searching for the killer. After reading the manual, Lu Changsheng learned it at beginner level and discovered a fusion option on his Light Screen.

• Lu Changsheng broke into Zhao Erhu’s courtyard and killed Widow Zhang and Zhao Erhu with his Hundred-Forged Pig-Slaughtering Blade.
• Lu Changsheng searched Zhao Erhu’s body, found a hundred taels in banknotes and the Iron Leg Technique, and left.
• The Three Rivers Gang investigated Zhao Erhu’s murder, and Wang Yong ordered Wang Shouren to find and kill the murderer.
• Lu Changsheng read the Iron Leg Technique, learned it at beginner level, and saw a new fusion option appear on his Light Screen.
• Lu Changsheng decided to make collecting martial arts techniques his foremost goal, though he lacked Source Energy Points to test the fusion option.

Lu Changsheng planned to join the Demon Suppression Department for protection from the Three Rivers Gang, while reports of another mass disappearance deepened his suspicions about the world. After his pangolin found valuable herbs, he gained sixteen Source Energy Points and prepared to use them to strengthen himself.

• Lu Changsheng decided to seek protection by joining the Demon Suppression Department when recruitment began in about a month.
• Fang Qing and Fang Tao warned Lu Changsheng that everyone in a village near Wulin Town had vanished and urged him to stay inside the city.
• Fang Qing offered Lu Changsheng money for meat, but he declined and kept his martial progress to himself.
• Lu Changsheng scanned the herbs found by his pangolin and absorbed eight herbs over fifty years old, gaining sixteen Source Energy Points.
• The next morning, Lu Changsheng practiced his saber and opened his panel, eager to raise his strength.

Lu Changsheng perfected Iron Cloth Shirt, reached the Bronze Skin stage, and upgraded the Pangolin’s burrowing skill to search Little Cloud Mountain for medicinal herbs. After gathering a large haul underground, he hid beneath the Snow Wolves’ territory to wait for a chance to take the guarded two-hundred-year-old Fire Cloud Flower.

• Lu Changsheng perfected Iron Cloth Shirt, reached the Bronze Skin stage, and wondered whether Skin Refining could advance beyond perfection.
• Lu Changsheng upgraded the Pangolin’s Burrowing skill and used its faster tunneling to find and collect medicinal herbs beneath Little Cloud Mountain.
• Over seven days, Lu Changsheng searched the mountain’s underground passages and gathered hundreds of herbs, including two around a hundred years old.
• Lu Changsheng identified a two-hundred-year-old Fire Cloud Flower guarded by a pack of Snow Wolves as his most valuable target.
• Lu Changsheng burrowed more than ten meters beneath the wolves’ territory and waited for an opportunity to approach the Fire Cloud Flower without being heard.

Lu Changsheng stole a two-hundred-year Fire Cloud Flower from the Snow Wolf pack and returned safely to Changping County. He used his gains to perfect the Iron Leg Technique and upgrade his blade, while the next realm remained beyond his reach.

• Lu Changsheng tunneled to the surface during a storm and waited until the Snow Wolf King moved away from the Fire Cloud Flower.
• Lu Changsheng gathered the flower as the Snow Wolf King and its pack charged, then escaped through his narrow tunnel.
• Lu Changsheng absorbed his gathered spirit herbs and found that he had 48 Source Energy Points and had perfected the Basic Blade Technique.
• Lu Changsheng spent three Source Energy Points to perfect the Iron Leg Technique, but the Iron Cloth Shirt upgrade remained unavailable.
• Lu Changsheng tested his blade's Transformation trait and spent about eight Source Energy Points upgrading it into a Sharp Weapon with the Armor-Piercing trait.

Lu Changsheng went to the Demon Suppression Department’s recruitment in Changping County, where he registered as a Skin Refining martial artist. On the way, he saw the Scent Worship Cult operating inside the city and grew wary of its intentions.

• Lu Changsheng left home with Fang Qing and Fang Tao for the recruitment, while neighbors ignored them.
• The Scent Worship Cult passed through the street, and Lu Changsheng recognized its leader as a powerful martial artist and suspected the cult had an ulterior purpose.
• Lu Changsheng arrived at the central square and saw that recruits would be tested by lifting one of three heavy cauldrons.
• Lu Changsheng registered as twenty years old, at the Skin Refining stage, and practicing Iron Cloth Shirt; the elderly registrar gave him an identification token.

Lu Changsheng entered the Demon Suppression Department’s selection, concealing his true strength as he waited to lift a cauldron. When his turn came, he chose the eight-hundred-pound cauldron, surprising the gathered martial artists, and the chapter left his test about to begin.

• Lu Changsheng waited with Fang Qing and Fang Tao as the Demon Suppression Department selection began.
• Gao Yunming oversaw the candidates as they lifted cauldrons, and several succeeded, including Li Yunhua, who raised the eighteen-hundred-pound cauldron with ease.
• Lu Changsheng judged Li Yunhua to be close to his own Copper Skin strength but decided to keep his abilities hidden.
• When his turn came, Lu Changsheng handed Gao Yunming his token and walked toward the eight-hundred-pound cauldron.
• Fang Qing and Fang Tao encouraged Lu Changsheng, while the crowd reacted with surprise and whispered about his choice to cultivate Iron Cloth Shirt.

Lu Changsheng passed the Demon Suppression Department’s cauldron assessment while concealing his true strength, then became an Apprentice Demon Suppressor under Gao Yunming’s command. He registered Fang Qing and Fang Tao as his protected relatives and received identity badges, beginning his one-year assessment period.

• Lu Changsheng lifted the massive cauldron above his head and passed the assessment, impressing Fang Tao and Fang Qing while keeping his real strength hidden.
• The neighbors tried to flatter Lu Changsheng after his success, but he ignored them as the remaining martial artists completed the challenge.
• Gao Yunming and the other examiners selected candidates for their teams, leaving Lu Changsheng and other ordinary martial artists under Gao Yunming’s command.
• Gao Yunming led the new Apprentice Demon Suppressors to the Demon Suppression Department office to register.
• Lu Changsheng registered Fang Qing and Fang Tao as his two protected relatives and received identity badges subject to the one-year assessment period.

Lu Changsheng joined the Demon Suppression Department and moved Fang Qing and Fang Tao into its family housing to escape the Three Rivers Gang. Wang Yong learned Lu Changsheng was suspected of killing Zhao Erhu and ordered Wang Shouren to arrange his death, while Lu Changsheng prepared to face the gang without revealing his true strength.

• Lu Changsheng registered with the Demon Suppression Department and persuaded Fang Qing and Fang Tao to move immediately because he had angered the Three Rivers Gang.
• Lu Changsheng and Fang Qing and Fang Tao left their homes with their belongings, ignoring neighbors who came to offer coarse grain after learning of his success.
• Wang Yong concluded Lu Changsheng was a suspect in Zhao Erhu's death and rejected a direct attack because Lu Changsheng had joined the Demon Suppression Department.
• Wang Shouren suggested arranging for outsiders or someone inside the department to kill Lu Changsheng, and Wang Yong ordered him to handle it discreetly.
• Lu Changsheng brought Fang Qing and Fang Tao to courtyard C-43, where they settled in and celebrated with a lavish meal.
• Lu Changsheng considered the gang's likely plans and resolved to conceal the depth of his strength as he pursued martial advancement.

Lu Changsheng joined the Demon Suppression Department’s new recruits and learned about the demons and wicked spirits threatening Great Zhou. After meeting Deputy Hall Master Qin Ruobing, he drew her attention with his strong martial arts foundation.

• Lu Changsheng left Fang Qing and her younger brother at the courtyard and went to the Demon Suppression Department offices.
• Gao Yunming gave the recruits booklets about demons and wicked spirits, and Lu Changsheng learned of the danger facing Great Zhou and the ranks of its enemies.
• Gao Yunming warned the recruits not to reveal the information to ordinary people and led them to meet Deputy Hall Master Qin Ruobing.
• Qin Ruobing addressed the recruits and noticed Lu Changsheng’s steady steps and profound martial arts foundation.
• Qin Ruobing told the recruits their recruitment rewards had been transferred to their identity jade tokens.

Lu Changsheng visited the Scripture Repository to choose martial arts manuals, using silver to persuade Xing Zhaolin to let him browse five instead of the usual limit of two. He recorded all five with his Attribute Modifier but chose the blade and movement techniques to copy before leaving.

• Lu Changsheng met the Scripture Repository's old guardian and learned that newcomers could copy only two secret manuals.
• Lu Changsheng bribed Xing Zhaolin to browse five manuals and planned to examine Iron Cloth Shirt techniques, a blade technique, a movement technique, and a desperate combat art.
• Xing Zhaolin brought Lu Changsheng the Iron Arm Technique, Iron Head Technique, Fleeting Light and Shadow, Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade, and Blood Burning Secret Art.
• Lu Changsheng read all five manuals and used his Attribute Modifier to store them, then chose Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade and Fleeting Light and Shadow to copy.
• Lu Changsheng returned the originals, received a warning from the old guardian not to spread the techniques, and left the Scripture Repository.

After Li Yunhua tried to recruit Lu Changsheng and threatened him over his feud with the Three Rivers Gang, Lu refused and resolved to grow stronger. He used his remaining Source Energy Points to perfect his martial arts, reached the Copper Skin realm, and prepared to return to Cangyun Mountain Range for more resources as his next mission and enemies loomed.

• Ye Songlin brought Lu Changsheng to meet Li Yunhua, who offered him a place in his guard squad and medicinal baths, but Lu refused.
• Li Yunhua hinted that Lu had offended people and watched him leave with murderous intent, while Ye Songlin assured him Lu would soon be dead.
• Lu Changsheng cultivated his manuals to beginner level, then spent Source Energy Points to raise several martial arts and techniques to perfection.
• Lu Changsheng reached the Copper Skin realm with roughly three thousand jin of strength, but his Source Energy Points dwindled to seven.
• Lu Changsheng decided to explore Cangyun Mountain Range again and vowed to surprise Li Yunhua on their next mission.
• A pangolin emerged from the ground beneath the moon and cautiously surveyed its surroundings.