Chapter Summaries

Chen Ping asked Bei Bei to introduce him to Teacher Wang Yan so he could seek a recommendation to Shrek Academy, and Bei Bei agreed to help. After absorbing the Touch Dragon King's soul ring, Chen Ping discovered his first soul skill, Poison Stacking, which could trigger a poisonous explosion.

• Chen Ping told Bei Bei that his sect had been destroyed and asked him to help arrange a meeting with Teacher Wang Yan about a recommendation to Shrek Academy.
• Bei Bei agreed to take Chen Ping to Shrek City after Xiaoya finished absorbing her soul ring and said Teacher Wang Yan could be found at the Outer Court library in the evening.
• Chen Ping thanked Bei Bei, then agreed to explain the soul skill he had gained from the Touch Dragon King's soul ring.
• Chen Ping discovered that his first soul skill was Poison Stacking, which applied different poisons and triggered Poison Explosion once an enemy carried more than five distinct poisons.
• Chen Ping recognized that Poison Stacking could work especially well with his Movement Meditation.

Chen Ping demonstrated his poison-marking First Soul Skill to Bei Bei and discovered a Soul Bone in the Lesser Touch Dragon King's remains. He initially lamented his bad luck, but perked up after Bei Bei explained its value and began to suspect the drop followed Soul Bone rules rather than luck.

• Chen Ping demonstrated how his Willow Wood Staff applied different poison marks to the Lesser Touch Dragon King's carcass and explained that stacking five marks triggered an explosion.
• Bei Bei examined the paralyzing and corrosive marks and concluded that the Soul Skill's main strength lay in detonating five stacked poisons.
• Bei Bei spotted a faint glimmer in the corroding carcass, and Chen Ping recognized a pale golden Soul Bone.
• Chen Ping mourned that his bad luck might prevent him from ever finding another Soul Bone, but Bei Bei told him the hundred-year bone could sell for tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins.
• Chen Ping cheered at the bone's potential value and wondered whether its appearance followed Soul Bone rules instead of being a matter of luck.

Chen Ping pried a valuable right arm Soul Bone from the Lesser Touch Dragon King and debated selling it for medicinal ingredients. When his Willow Wood Staff Martial Soul reacted to the bone, he chose to absorb it, but the staff pulled it from his hand and clung to it.

• Chen Ping recalled that the Lesser Touch Dragon King’s intense resentment had helped it produce a Soul Bone.
• Chen Ping removed a nearly complete right arm Soul Bone and realized it could sell for over a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins.
• Chen Ping considered selling the bone to fund medicinal ingredients, but his Willow Wood Staff Martial Soul appeared and seemed to want it.
• Bei Bei explained that Martial Soul reactions were rare and suggested the bone’s connection to the Soul Ring might make it especially useful.
• Chen Ping decided to absorb the Soul Bone, but the Willow Wood Staff sucked it from his hand and drew it against itself.

Chen Ping's Willow Wood Staff absorbed the Touch Dragon King's liquefied right arm bone and transformed into the far stronger Insect Staff - Touch Dragon. He and Bei Bei witnessed the weapon's evolution, though Chen Ping regretted spending a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins on the Soul Bone.

• The Touch Dragon King's right arm bone melted onto Chen Ping's Willow Wood Staff, and the staff began absorbing the liquid Soul Bone.
• As the Soul Bone diminished, Chen Ping's staff grew smoother, sturdier, and faintly golden, improving its basic attributes.
• Pale golden Touch Dragon Carapace segments formed over the staff, and a pair of sharp Mandibles emerged at its ends.
• Chen Ping sensed that his Martial Soul had become Insect Staff - Touch Dragon and tested its powerful, cutting swishes in front of Bei Bei.
• Chen Ping realized the transformed staff had risen from a feeble low-grade Martial Soul to one comparable with mid-grade Martial Souls.

Chen Ping discovered that devouring the Touch Dragon King soul bone had evolved his martial soul into an intermediate-grade Insect Staff, though his cultivation speed stayed the same. After Tang Ya finished absorbing her soul ring, Bei Bei tried to distract her from catching him staring.

• Chen Ping realized his martial soul had evolved and decided the discovery could help him earn a place by Wang Yan's side.
• Chen Ping used the system to learn that his Insect Staff had improved armor penetration, stability, hardness, and toughness, and could perform Monkey Staff and Insect Glaive techniques.
• Chen Ping tested his cultivation and found that his soul power growth had not sped up, leaving doping as his only known way to improve his aptitude.
• Tang Ya finished absorbing her soul ring and stretched, and Bei Bei stared at her before she covered herself and glared at him.
• Bei Bei awkwardly changed the subject by telling Tang Ya she had missed what happened while Chen Ping remained lost in thought.

Chen Ping grew closer to Bei Bei and Tang Ya after they discussed Tang Ya’s new Soul Skill and his Soul Bone. He learned more about Shrek Academy and resolved to make the most of the opportunities ahead.

• Tang Ya was astonished that Chen Ping’s Soul Bone had triggered Martial Soul Evolution, and Bei Bei suggested they ask Teacher Wang Yan about it.
• Chen Ping and Tang Ya thanked each other for their gains, and Bei Bei invited Chen Ping to call them Big Brother Bei Bei and Sister Xiaoya.
• Tang Ya explained that her new Soul Skill, Touch Dragon Strangle, created eight powerful vines to bind and crush a target.
• Chen Ping considered how to prepare for Control System Soul Masters and reflected on why Shrek Academy offered better resources than other schools.
• Chen Ping learned details about Bei Bei and Tang Ya’s class, homeroom teacher, and school break, then vowed to make his mark in the Soul Master world.

Chen Ping, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya reached Shrek City, where Chen Ping realized that the academy’s nourishing soul-beast meals were far beyond his means. He decided that becoming a Core Disciple could earn him the food allowance he wanted, and entered Shrek Academy disguised as Bei Bei’s younger paternal cousin so they could find Teacher Wang Yan.

• Chen Ping, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya avoided traveling through the Star Dou Forest and followed the main road to Shrek City.
• Chen Ping saw Shrek students buying expensive food and learned that the academy’s best meals could cost over sixty Gold Soul Coins each.
• Chen Ping decided that a Core Disciple’s monthly food allowance would be worth risking his life to obtain.
• Bei Bei and Tang Ya arranged for Chen Ping to enter the academy as Bei Bei’s younger paternal cousin.
• Bei Bei led Chen Ping and Tang Ya into the academy and said they would find Teacher Wang Yan at the Library.

Chen Ping toured Shrek Academy with Bei Bei and Tang Ya, learning about its divisions and grounds while growing uneasy over Zhao Wuji’s missing statue and Tang San’s influence. Bei Bei brought him to the academy’s library, a single floor in the sixth-year teaching building, and proudly called its collection the continent’s largest and most comprehensive.

• Bei Bei showed Chen Ping the statues honoring Shrek’s founders and heroes, and Chen Ping noticed that Zhao Wuji had no statue.
• Bei Bei explained the Martial Soul and Soul Tool divisions as Tang Ya introduced Sea God Lake as a memorial to Tang San.
• Bei Bei led Chen Ping through Shrek Square and described how the colored teaching buildings marked students’ year levels.
• Chen Ping steadied himself after confronting his fear of Tang San and asked where Teacher Wang could be found.
• Bei Bei said Teacher Wang usually spent the hour in the library and took Chen Ping to the library inside the sixth-year teaching building.
• Chen Ping was taken aback by the library’s modest size while Bei Bei praised its collection.

Chen Ping found Wang Yan at Shrek Academy and told him he had sought him out because their martial souls were connected. Wang Yan was moved by Chen Ping’s hardship and took him, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya to get something to eat.

• Chen Ping, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya found Wang Yan reading in the library’s Plant-type Soul Beast subsection.
• Chen Ping introduced himself as a disciple of the Coiling Dragon Sect, shocking Wang Yan into leading them outside to talk.
• Chen Ping explained that he had wandered the continent after evil soul masters destroyed his sect and had reached rank fourteen while searching for a place to settle.
• Wang Yan realized Chen Ping had suffered greatly and was choked into silence by the boy’s scars, calluses, and cracked hands.
• Wang Yan said their families had little connection beyond sharing the Coiling Dragon Staff martial soul, then invited Chen Ping, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya to eat.

Chen Ping joined Wang Yan, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya for a meal at Hongyue Tower, where Wang Yan learned how Chen Ping's Martial Soul had evolved by devouring soul bones. Impressed by Chen Ping's independence and potential, Wang Yan offered him a room at his home and asked to study his Willow Wood Staff Martial Soul.

• Chen Ping persuaded Wang Yan to take everyone to eat, but Wang Yan explained that Shrek's dining hall had no stools.
• Wang Yan brought Chen Ping, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya to Hongyue Tower, where the three hungry youngsters eagerly ate their fill.
• Bei Bei and Tang Ya told Wang Yan how Chen Ping had obtained his first soul ring and evolved his Martial Soul by devouring a soul bone.
• Wang Yan admired Chen Ping's courage and self-reliance, and offered him a room in his staff housing until enrollment.
• Wang Yan asked Chen Ping whether he would let him study his self-evolving Willow Wood Staff Martial Soul.

Chen Ping settled in with Wang Yan and considered ways to earn money before enrolling at Shrek. When Wang Yan discovered Chen Ping’s manuscripts, he mistook them for the Coiling Dragon Sect’s inherited teachings and promised to keep them secret.

• Wang Yan offered Chen Ping a room and told him to call him Second Uncle in private.
• Wang Yan paid for a costly meal, then took Chen Ping shopping and brought him to the staff dormitory.
• Chen Ping considered earning money by running a food stall while balancing work with cultivation and enrollment requirements.
• Wang Yan noticed the manuscripts in Chen Ping’s bamboo basket and asked to read them.
• Wang Yan was astonished by the manuscripts and assumed they were the Coiling Dragon Sect’s inherited teachings.
• Chen Ping agreed with Wang Yan’s assumption, and Wang Yan promised not to reveal what he had read.

Chen Ping explained that the Coiling Dragon Sect’s manuscripts were compiled to help him earn money, while Wang Yan recognized their value and became captivated by the soul skill damage dilution theory. Wang Yan resolved to nurture Chen Ping into a renowned Soul Master, while Chen Ping discovered his cultivation speed was declining.

• Chen Ping told Wang Yan that he had posed as a Shrek student to sell cultivation guidance and had compiled the manuscripts from the Coiling Dragon Sect’s records.
• Wang Yan said he had visited the Coiling Dragon Sect’s ruins after the Evil Soul Masters attacked, but Chen Ping had already fled.
• Wang Yan struggled to understand the formulas in the damage dilution manuscript, yet praised its theory as a groundbreaking achievement with the potential to benefit every Soul Master.
• Wang Yan planned to use the Coiling Dragon Sect’s cultivation manuals to help Chen Ping gain fame and eventually reveal the sect’s Three Great Secret Techniques, if Chen Ping wished.
• Chen Ping cultivated while Wang Yan read, then realized his cultivation speed had fallen from that of someone with roughly four and a half ranks of innate Soul Power to someone with four.

Chen Ping realized his medicine would steadily slow his cultivation until its effects were repaid, so he resigned himself to grinding through the coming months. Wang Yan discovered that Chen Ping could meditate while performing complicated tasks, but his own attempt to imitate the feat caused his soul power to run wild.

• Chen Ping understood that his system-made medicine would make his cultivation speed decline until it fell below his normal rate and eventually repaid its borrowed gains.
• Chen Ping continued cultivating while meditating, pouring Wang Yan a cup of water without interrupting his soul power circulation.
• Wang Yan left for his room, baffled by Chen Ping’s ability to cultivate while moving.
• Wang Yan tried to stand while meditating, lost control of his soul power, and suffered intense pain without lasting injury.

Chen Ping searched Shrek City for a way to earn money but realized ordinary barbecue could not give him the unique, lucrative business he wanted. He remembered a story that might help him create food nobody else could reproduce, leaving him eager to test whether it could make him a fortune.

• Chen Ping slept soundly in Wang Yan's room, then woke late and rushed to begin cultivating and earning money.
• Chen Ping ate cold steamed buns, took Wang Yan's spare key, and went out to look for a business venture.
• Chen Ping explored Shrek City's Food Street and concluded that copying Huo Yuhao's grilled fish was difficult because he lacked Huo Yuhao's cooking talent and the Douluo Continent had no cumin.
• Chen Ping rejected selling ordinary barbecue because competitors could copy it and suppliers could be pressured to cut him off.
• Chen Ping recalled a classic story that might let him make unique food and earn money quickly.

Chen Ping decided to sell Buddha Jumps Over the Wall as a distinctive, hard-to-copy dish for wealthy students, and set out to find its ingredients. He also noticed that his Academic Genius Points were running low and eagerly anticipated school starting again.

• Chen Ping concluded that he needed a unique flavor, not merely a substitute for cumin, to protect his cooking business from imitators.
• Chen Ping chose Buddha Jumps Over the Wall because its costly ingredients and lengthy preparation would make it difficult to copy and allow him to charge high prices.
• Chen Ping rejected Boiled Cabbage in Clear Broth as a less suitable choice because customers might not appreciate its value.
• Chen Ping reasoned that Buddha Jumps Over the Wall could also be understood as Tang Jumps Over the Wall, given the Douluo Continent's use of the word Buddha and its connection to Tang San.
• Chen Ping searched the street for ingredients and saw that his Academic Genius Points were about to drop below four digits.

Chen Ping used his Academic Genius Training System’s Simulation Training Field to practice making Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, hoping to earn money for tuition and living expenses. As Wang Yan left to handle academy work, he warned Chen Ping that other people at Shrek Academy were interested in his Martial Soul.

• Chen Ping bought ingredients and earthenware jars, then used the system to deduce a Buddha Jumps Over the Wall recipe and train in a Simulation Training Field.
• Chen Ping rushed through the tutorial at triple speed, but his first attempt earned a score of zero because the ingredients were unevenly cooked.
• Chen Ping tried again and earned a score of one, with the system criticizing the tough abalone and gritty clams.
• Chen Ping regrouped and continued practicing, determined to master the dish and make money from it.
• Wang Yan returned with cafeteria food, and Chen Ping explained that he was recreating a Coiling Dragon Sect dish to earn money.
• Wang Yan said he would be busy for three days and warned Chen Ping that others at Shrek Academy were interested in his Soul Bone-devouring, self-evolving Martial Soul.

Chen Ping trained while learning to make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and Wang Yan grew increasingly eager to taste it. After three days, Wang Yan’s plan to return home for the finished dish was interrupted when Xuan Zi guessed what was cooking and teased him about it.

• Chen Ping comprehended the Left Circle, Right Square skill, which let him meditate while doing another task, and continued his training and cooking practice.
• Chen Ping spent three days confined to his room, progressing through the stages of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall as Wang Yan brought him meals and was tempted by the growing aroma.
• Chen Ping told Wang Yan the dish would be ready when he returned from work, after completing the difficult broth transformations.
• Wang Yan accompanied Xuan Zi from Shrek Academy and discussed researching Chen Ping’s martial soul evolution as a possible way to help Xiaotao’s evil fire.
• Xuan Zi recognized that Wang Yan was eager to get home for the dish and guessed that Chen Ping would lift the lid that night.

Chen Ping finished a potent jar of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and served it to Wang Yan and Elder Xuan Zi after the elder kicked down his door to follow its aroma. Impressed by the dish, Xuan Zi offered to supply ingredients and pay Chen Ping to cook it for him, leaving Chen Ping eager to profit from the wealthy elder.

• Chen Ping discovered that his Buddha Jumps Over the Wall had several slight effects on strength, vitality, and blood energy.
• Elder Xuan Zi kicked down Chen Ping's door and followed the dish's aroma into the kitchen, where Wang Yan introduced him to Chen Ping.
• Chen Ping served Buddha Jumps Over the Wall to Wang Yan and Xuan Zi, who devoured the food and praised it.
• Xuan Zi asked Chen Ping to cook Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for him in exchange for payment, and Chen Ping saw a chance to make money from the old man.

Chen Ping used Academic Genius Points to devise a premium, soul-beast version of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall and persuaded Xuan Zi to provide its rare ingredients. He asked for six months of free meals at the academy’s eighth serving window, while planning to profit from surplus ingredients.

• Chen Ping weighed what to charge Xuan Zi and spent a thousand Academic Genius Points to develop a soul-beast version of the dish.
• Chen Ping told Xuan Zi that his sect had a secret recipe requiring rare soul-beast ingredients, and Xuan Zi agreed to pay for it.
• Chen Ping listed eighteen rare ingredients, including an Ironhide Savage Pig hind hock, Five-Colored Phoenix Chicken eggs, and young King Sea Cucumbers.
• Xuan Zi offered to gather the ingredients and let Chen Ping name his compensation, while Chen Ping planned to use the surplus to make extra servings.
• Chen Ping asked Xuan Zi for permission to eat free at the academy’s eighth serving window for six months, surprising Xuan Zi and Wang Yan.

Chen Ping continued supplying Xuan Zi with Premium Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, and Xuan Zi agreed to cover his meals at Shrek’s counter eight while challenging him to earn a Core Disciple training slot. When Chen Ping delivered another batch, Xuan Zi told him to take one pot to Mu En, who had claimed a pot from every delivery since catching Xuan Zi eating one on the way.

• Xuan Zi agreed to pay for Chen Ping’s meals at counter eight and said he would prioritize Chen Ping’s cooking whenever he had gathered enough ingredients.
• Chen Ping prepared Premium Buddha Jumps Over the Wall for Xuan Zi and used a Storage Necklace to carry an extra pot for a new customer.
• Chen Ping called Xuan Zi with the Sound Transmission Soul Tool and brought him two pots of Premium Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
• Xuan Zi explained that Mu En had caught him eating a pot on the way and now expected one pot from each delivery.
• Xuan Zi told Chen Ping to take one pot to Mu En, who was sitting by the freshman dormitory entrance.