Chapter Summaries

Chen Jue learned that Jade Rabbit 2 had discovered a wormhole on the moon leading to a planet rich in life ore, and that the discovery had led to the secret Homeland Project. Zhong Deyuan invited him to join its dangerous exploration mission, but Chen Jue had not yet decided whether to accept.

• Chen Jue read that Jade Rabbit 2 had found an Earth-like world beyond a wormhole in the moon’s N9527 Crater, where life ore could stimulate evolution and extend cellular lifespans.
• Zhong Deyuan explained that life ore had appeared throughout human history and that several countries had concealed their discoveries of lunar wormholes.
• Chen Jue learned that the Moon-Chasing Plan had become the Homeland Project, intended to explore the unfamiliar planet and potentially make it a second home for humanity.
• Zhong Deyuan invited Chen Jue to join as the only candidate provisionally rated Special Grade, citing his physical fitness, martial skills, and survival abilities.
• Chen Jue hesitated over the risk of the mission and asked what would happen if he refused or revealed the plan; Zhong Deyuan said he could go home and that few people would believe the story.

After learning about the Homeland Project, Chen Jue hesitated to leave Earth and chose to focus on cultivating his mind. Practicing Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra awakened a new skill on his Attribute Panel, which then began updating.

• Chen Jue told Zhong Deyuan he needed time to decide whether to join the Homeland Project, and Zhong Deyuan accepted his hesitation.
• Chen Jue wandered the research base, reflected on what he would have to leave behind, and steadied his Dao heart through cultivation.
• Chen Jue borrowed Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra, The Supreme Lord Lao's Heart Scripture of Purity and Stillness, and Wang Yangming's On Cultivating the Dao to work on his mind.
• Chen Jue read the Daoist and Confucian texts, then practiced the mudras and heart mantras in Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra.
• Chen Jue's Attribute Panel registered Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra Level 0 (1/100), then blurred and displayed an update notice.

After calming his mind through Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra, Chen Jue spent several days studying cultivation theory and martial arts at the base while the Attribute Panel updated. He focused on eye-training techniques and hard-body arts, hoping to improve his ability to withstand gunfire.

• Chen Jue used [Inner Vision] while practicing Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra and realized its seals and chanting helped calm his heart and thoughts.
• After reaching a state of understanding emptiness, Chen Jue reflected that Zhao Zhen had misunderstood the Buddha's teachings by pursuing domination rather than tranquility.
• Chen Jue noticed that the Attribute Panel was updating, then returned his borrowed books and resumed studying in the reading room.
• Over the next five days, Chen Jue studied scientific theories and martial arts manuals, using his high intelligence to absorb the material quickly.
• Chen Jue examined several eye-training arts, including Torch Dragon Secret Eyes, and searched for Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt techniques to strengthen himself against bullets.

Chen Jue cultivated three eye techniques and two hearing techniques, gaining extraordinary sight and hearing, then studied theories of aging and connected shortened telomeres to Zhao Zhen’s clones. After tiring of academic reading, he found a surviving copy of the supposedly lost Daoist Canon Bigu Skill.

• Chen Jue practiced the Wrathful Vajra Method, Giant Spirit God Eye Method, and Torch Dragon Secret Eyes, improving his vision until he could see clearly ten kilometers away.
• Chen Jue learned Striking the Heavenly Drum and Heavenly Ear Power, extending his hearing to sounds from beyond a hundred meters.
• Chen Jue studied theories of aging, including autointoxication, free radicals, and telomeres, and recalled Zhao Zhen’s clones.
• Chen Jue grew tired from studying, wandered through the bookshelves, and discovered a surviving copy of the Daoist Canon Bigu Skill.

Chen Jue studied a rare Daoist grain-abstention practice at the institute, then left and visited his former roommate Jiang Fan’s family in Tianzhu County. At a temple near Qilian Snow Mountain, he began cleansing his body with the practice and a Buddhist mantra, and an elderly lama recognized him as a reincarnated venerable one.

• Chen Jue memorized the Daoist Canon Bigu Skill, which prescribed fasting, drinking water to expel toxins, and then ingesting primordial qi while abstaining from grain.
• After seven days at the institute, Chen Jue declined to join the Homeland Plan and left for Tianzhu County instead of going straight to the airport.
• Chen Jue surprised Jiang Fan’s mother at her restaurant, spoke with Jiang Fan by video call, and stayed two nights with his family.
• Chen Jue walked to a temple near Qilian Snow Mountain and recognized its seven offering bowls of water as connected to the grain-abstention practice he had studied.
• Chen Jue chanted the Body-Purification Mantra while meditating, and his Inner Vision showed his body expelling impurities.
• An elderly lama saw Chen Jue and called him a reincarnated venerable one.

Chen Jue purified his body through chanting and fasting, impressing the temple’s lamas, who revered him as a living Buddha. After he asked to stay at the temple and began a three-day fast, the old lama noticed Chen Jue’s lingering worries and asked what troubled him.

• Chen Jue chanted scriptures and mantras while practicing his body-purification method, calming the lamas and setting their qi and blood resonating.
• The lamas joined Chen Jue in chanting, and the old lama came to regard him as Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata.
• After sunset, Chen Jue stopped chanting, and the old lama bowed to him and thanked him for guiding the monks.
• Chen Jue asked to stay at the temple for a few days, and the old lama welcomed him into a secluded room.
• Chen Jue told the old lama he would fast for three days and drink only water.
• When the old lama asked why Chen Jue still had concerns, Chen Jue asked if he could help him let go of his attachments.

Chen Jue spent three days at a temple seeking to deepen his mental cultivation, then set out across the snow-covered grasslands toward the Qilian Mountains. After a herder family mistook him for an ascetic monk, he subdued a wild yak and decided to return it to the mountains.

• Chen Jue read the Heart Sutra and reflected that his cultivation had strengthened his body but that he still needed to overcome his attachments.
• Chen Jue spent three days practicing at the temple, then accepted a kasaya and khata from the old lama before departing.
• Chen Jue walked across the snowy grasslands and entered a herder family's tent to warm himself and buy provisions.
• A wild yak broke into the family's cattle pen, and Chen Jue carried it out and set it down on the mountainside.
• The wild yak became docile beside Chen Jue, who decided to take it into the Qilian Mountains and return it to its home.

Chen Jue traveled deeper into the snow-covered Qilian Mountains with the wild yak he had rescued, resting and practicing the Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra beneath a boulder. After calming his lunar obsession through meditation, he set off westward again with the yak at sunrise.

• Chen Jue left the herding family and walked into the mountains alongside the wild yak they had called a living Mahākāla.
• Chen Jue shared food with the yak and continued with it across snowy valleys and glaciers until they found shelter beneath a boulder.
• Chen Jue watched the stars and crescent moon, then practiced the Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra and used Unity of Heaven and Man to calm his obsession.
• Chen Jue and the yak rested through the night beneath the boulder and drank meltwater in the morning.
• Chen Jue climbed onto the yak and set off westward again, reciting about the Queen Mother and purple qi at Han Pass.

Chen Jue crossed the Qilian Mountains with a wild yak and climbed Great Snow Mountain alone, finding a new sense of communion with nature atop its summit. As he declared his path of seeking truth, his long-updating panel finally stirred.

• Chen Jue rested with the yak, studying its gaze and powerful body and reflecting on how living creatures could teach him martial arts.
• Chen Jue and the yak traveled together for five days through the Qilian Mountains, reaching Great Snow Mountain as his food ran low.
• Chen Jue left the frightened yak at the mountain's foot and climbed Great Snow Mountain's steep cliffs barehanded in under twenty minutes.
• Chen Jue reached the summit above the clouds and practiced Supreme Ultimate Fist while watching the sun and moon shine over the sea of clouds.
• Chen Jue said his path lay in exploring the universe in search of truth, and his panel finally stirred.

After reaching a new level of mental cultivation on the snowy mountain, Chen Jue gained the [Sacred Heart] state and unlocked skill fusion and state refinement. He tested skill fusion while traveling west, then decided he needed to earn more attribute points before experimenting further.

• Chen Jue comprehended the great Dao of exploration and truth, and his Attribute Panel granted him the [Sacred Heart] state.
• Chen Jue descended the mountain, found the wild yak, and continued west while inspecting the updated Attribute Panel.
• Chen Jue fused four Golden Bell Shield skills into [Golden Bell Shield Level 4], raising his strength and constitution.
• Chen Jue fused six Iron Shirt skills into [Iron Shirt Level 4], then found that combining skills with different effects cost far more attribute points.
• Chen Jue tested [State Refinement] and decided to save his remaining points and grind for more before using it.

Chen Jue fused new eye and movement skills, then ended his journey with the wild yak at Blue Sea Lake. After returning the yak to its herd, he crossed more than twenty kilometers of icy water on foot and arrived at a quiet tourist town to charge his phone.

• Chen Jue fused his three eye skills into [Three Teachings Dharma Eye Level 2] and his movement skills into [Wudang Lightness Skill Compendium Level 4], using up nearly all his free attribute points.
• Chen Jue and the wild yak reached Blue Sea Lake, where a herd was licking salt along the shore.
• Chen Jue sent the reluctant yak back to its herd and watched it rejoin the other wild yaks.
• Chen Jue walked across Blue Sea Lake for more than twenty kilometers, using his strength and lightness skills to stay above the water.
• Chen Jue reached a quiet tourist town and asked a supermarket owner if he could charge his phone.

Chen Jue explored how his Sacred Heart let him perceive people’s emotions as colored halos, then ate and reflected on their shifting feelings before visiting a barber for a short haircut. The barber found Chen Jue’s exceptionally healthy hair was so tough that it nearly blunted his scissors.

• Chen Jue borrowed an outlet at a supermarket and discovered that the Sacred Heart let him see the owner’s changing emotions as colored halos.
• Chen Jue charged his phone, ate three bowls of beef noodles, and answered Yun Xiaomei’s questions about cultivation while warning her not to force a breakthrough.
• Chen Jue observed the noodle shop’s diners and reflected on how their emotional changes could deepen his spiritual cultivation.
• Chen Jue went to a barbershop and asked the barber for a short crew cut.
• The barber praised Chen Jue’s silky, fragrant hair, then struggled to cut it because it was as tough as iron wire.

After getting a haircut, Chen Jue heard a Mongolian singer perform Khoomei and discovered that its sound could affect listeners’ emotions and stimulate the brain. He learned the technique, combined it with [Buddhist Chant Resonance], and left town singing a new form of Khoomei that made onlookers see a seven-colored halo around him.

• Chen Jue paid the barber for his haircut after discovering that his cultivated body had made his hair unusually tough and his scalp exceptionally clean.
• Chen Jue listened to a wandering singer perform Khoomei and observed how the sound changed the crowd’s emotions and stimulated neural activity in the brain.
• Chen Jue theorized that emotional halos were mental magnetic fields produced by brain waves, and that sound could temper the brain and strengthen the spirit.
• Chen Jue quickly learned Khoomei by watching the singer, then placed a generous donation in the singer’s collection box.
• Chen Jue combined Khoomei with [Buddhist Chant Resonance] and sang as he left town, causing listeners to see a seven-colored halo around him.

After discovering that vocal resonance could project a visible-seeming halo and strengthen his brain, Chen Jue created the [Spirit Refining Longevity Method] and traveled to Western Capital to investigate the First Emperor's Mausoleum. He sensed a mysterious seven-colored pillar rising from the mausoleum, then practiced the [Hidden Dragon Sleeping Elixir Skill] and fell asleep while its proficiency increased.

• Chen Jue used vocal resonance and his mental magnetic field to make tourists perceive a halo, then realized the technique could refine and strengthen his brain.
• Chen Jue created the [Spirit Refining Longevity Method] and found that practicing it gradually increased his intelligence and free attribute points.
• After traveling more than a thousand kilometers, Chen Jue reached Western Capital to revisit the First Emperor's Mausoleum.
• Chen Jue sensed that the mausoleum resembled a signal transmitter and projected a seven-colored pillar of light toward the heavens.
• Chen Jue practiced the [Hidden Dragon Sleeping Elixir Skill], discovered how it strengthened the pineal gland, and fell into a deep sleep.

Chen Jue practiced the Hidden Dragon Sleeping Elixir Skill, visited Hangu Pass, and reflected on Laozi's writings and the limits of human life. While helping a pregnant woman and her husband change a tire on his way east, he sensed the fetus's Primordial Qi more clearly and began to suspect it came from totipotent stem cells.

• Chen Jue found that the Hidden Dragon Sleeping Elixir Skill had slightly improved his intelligence and constitution, and learned that fusing four advanced skills would cost four unallocated attribute points.
• Chen Jue walked to Hangu Pass, bought an aged copy of the Tao Te Ching, and considered Laozi's ideas, lifespan, and enduring influence.
• Chen Jue left Hangu Pass and continued east toward Chen Village, intending to observe the world with his Sacred Heart.
• Chen Jue loosened a couple's stuck wheel bolts and lifted their sedan so they could replace a flat tire.
• Chen Jue sensed the fetus in the pregnant woman's womb and theorized that its Primordial Qi might come from totipotent stem cells.

Chen Jue connected the body's primordial qi and cellular universes to stem-cell development, creation myths, and the Big Bang, then continued eastward while improving his skills. By the time he reached Yinling City, he had gained new movement and sleep states and strengthened his body, but still could not identify the Unknown Seal.

• Chen Jue reasoned that primordial qi arose from bioelectricity and magnetic-field fluctuations during stem-cell division, and imagined that controlling cellular differentiation might let him reshape his body.
• Chen Jue finished helping a village couple change their spare tire and left after they watched him lift their car with one hand.
• Chen Jue traveled a thousand li east from Hangu Pass to Yinling City and perfected the Wudang Lightness Skill Compendium, gaining the Divine-Traveling Taibao state.
• Chen Jue perfected the Hidden Dragon Sleeping Elixir Skill, gaining the Hidden Dragon Sleep state, and fused two hardening skills into Shaolin Bronze Man Skill.
• Chen Jue raised Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt to Lv5, saw his attributes increase, and remained frustrated that he could not analyze the Unknown Seal.

Chen Jue visited Yinling and examined the Buddha’s Crown Bone Śarīra at Niushou Mountain, where he sensed Shakyamuni’s immense mental magnetic field and considered how it might become physical. He tested his own mental cultivation by forming Mahamudra seals and chanting against the Buddha’s lingering field.

• Chen Jue failed to decipher the Unknown Seal, then checked into a hotel and explored Yinling, eating duck dishes and visiting the Qinhuai River.
• Chen Jue traveled to Niushou Mountain and entered Buddha’s Summit Palace to see the Buddha’s Crown Bone Śarīra.
• Chen Jue observed the Śarīra beads with his Heavenly Sensitivity and sensed the dense, seven-colored mental magnetic field left by Shakyamuni.
• Chen Jue reasoned that mental magnetic fields and Primordial Qi might be energies capable of taking physical form, and considered studying physics.
• Chen Jue formed Esoteric Buddhist Mahamudra seals and chanted his Spirit Refining Longevity Method, setting his mental magnetic field against Shakyamuni’s.

After communing with Shakyamuni’s śarīra, Chen Jue formed a seven-colored crystal in his forehead and awakened the [Heavenly Eye] status. His first attempt to use it showed him a disturbing vision of a bloodied woman and dying man in a mining pit, leaving him unsure whether he had glimpsed a future tied to himself.

• Chen Jue’s psychic field resonated with the Buddha’s śarīra, showing him an image of Shakyamuni beneath a bodhi tree as nearby tourists felt their minds grow calm.
• Chen Jue returned to his hotel and discovered a seven-colored crystal forming inside his forehead as his brain supplied it with nutrients.
• Chen Jue’s cultivation triggered the new [Heavenly Eye] status, which could reveal illusory fragments connected to the past and future but warned that using it consumed substantial energy.
• Chen Jue ate a large meal before testing the [Heavenly Eye], but the crystal rapidly drained his brain’s blood and nutrients.
• Chen Jue saw a bloodied woman in a silver combat suit holding a dying man in a mining pit scattered with primordial-qi life ore, then stopped the vision when dizziness overwhelmed him.
• Chen Jue recovered by stimulating digestion and circulating qi and blood, then wondered whether the vision showed his future and whether he knew the woman.

Chen Jue returned to Chen Village for the Lunar New Year after visiting his roommates on Zhou Island, then reunited with relatives in An County and Wen County. At Liu Ji’s former residence, he discovered that Liu Bowen’s calligraphy contained a mental magnetic field and began receiving the text of the Qi Observation and Dragon Slaying Scripture.

• Chen Jue realized [Heavenly Eye] had cost him a year of lifespan and resolved to use it cautiously before traveling south to meet his roommates on Zhou Island.
• Chen Jue celebrated the Gregorian New Year with his roommates, visited Putuo Island with them, and then returned to Chen Village.
• Chen Jue spent ten days cultivating in seclusion, perfected four skills, and gained new statuses and attribute points.
• Chen Jue visited his paternal relatives and his ninety-eight-year-old maternal grandfather, learning that his mother’s family traced its ancestry to the Li Tang imperial family.
• Chen Jue visited Liu Ji’s former residence and sensed a mental magnetic field in Liu Bowen’s calligraphy that transmitted the Qi Observation and Dragon Slaying Scripture into his mind.

Chen Jue learned three secret arts from Liu Ji’s scripture but could not practice them without sufficient primordial qi. At his grandfather’s home, he found his late mother’s diary and cassette, and as the New Year began, listening to her song helped him settle on where his future should lead.

• Chen Jue sensed the contents of Liu Ji’s Qi Observation and Dragon Slaying Scripture, including its three secret arts, and realized all three required sufficient primordial qi to cultivate.
• Chen Jue used his methods to improve his ninety-eight-year-old grandfather’s health, then helped him retrieve a tin box containing his mother’s diary and cassette.
• Chen Jue read his mother’s diary and was moved by her hopes for her future family and child.
• Chen Jue returned to Chen Village with the tin box, replied to New Year greetings, and prepared his mother’s cassette on an old tape recorder.
• As fireworks rang in the New Year, Chen Jue listened to his mother’s song and found clarity about the direction of his future.