Chapter Summaries

After returning to Earth, Chen Jue ate a huge meal, sampled a new Body-Tempering Supplement, and learned how Earth’s grading tests worked. He visited a training center and asked its owner, Liu Qiang, to see a class.

• Chen Jue ate three bowls of noodles and a large plate of egg fried rice, then paid the restaurant owner.
• Chen Jue bought fruit and a box of Body-Tempering Supplement at a pharmacy, and found that one bottle provided about one-tenth the energy of a Human Nutritional Supplement.
• Chen Jue visited a Body-Tempering Exercise training center and rapidly read its manuals about the Six Body-Tempering Forms and grading tests.
• Liu Qiang introduced himself as the center’s owner and explained the test fees, including that the county only issued certificates through level four.
• Chen Jue asked to watch a training class, and Liu Qiang invited him to the nearby primary school sports field.

Chen Jue checked his Body-Tempering Exercise rating at Liu Qiang’s training school and discovered that the official website listed him at level ten, with a gold verification border. Liu Qiang recognized the name as the exercise’s creator, but Chen Jue denied being that person and accidentally crushed Liu Qiang’s phone while trying to hide the result.

• Liu Qiang showed Chen Jue his level-four instructor license and explained how to verify ratings on the official website.
• Chen Jue logged in using his ID number and found a gold-bordered rating of Body-Tempering Level Ten.
• Liu Qiang saw Chen Jue’s name on the result and exclaimed that he was the creator of the Body-Tempering Exercise.
• Chen Jue denied the connection, claiming his name used a different character and the website might have a bug.
• Chen Jue snatched Liu Qiang’s phone to log out and clear the browsing history, but crushed its screen and internal components.
• Chen Jue apologized and offered to buy Liu Qiang a new domestic phone, while Liu Qiang stared at the wrecked device in shock.

Chen Jue crushed Liu Qiang’s phone with his bare hand, then returned with replacement money so quickly that Liu Qiang began to suspect he was connected to the Body-Tempering Exercise. Liu Qiang tried to dismiss his suspicions, but Chen Jue’s impossible speed and lack of a visible car left him convinced something was unusual about the young man.

• Chen Jue crushed Liu Qiang’s phone and apologized by giving him the cash he had on hand before rushing out to get more.
• Chen Jue returned in under a minute with a bundle of money and offered to buy Liu Qiang a new phone.
• Chen Jue told Liu Qiang he had retrieved the money from his car in Chen Village, and they bought a new smartphone while leaving the broken iPhone for possible data recovery.
• Xiao Jun showed Liu Qiang a phone crushed by a truck, which was less damaged than the one Chen Jue had crushed by hand.
• Liu Qiang wondered whether Chen Jue was the creator of the Body-Tempering Exercise, then tried to dismiss the idea as a coincidence.
• Liu Qiang noticed there was no unfamiliar car parked along the street and grew more suspicious of Chen Jue.

After Chen Jue returned to his hometown, the base tracked him through his Body-Tempering Exercise account and realized how much destruction he had caused on his way back to Earth. Elder Zhong sent Liu Chengdong to bring Chen Jue back, along with the unruly Candidate Camp trainees, while privately worrying about the trouble Chen Jue might cause.

• Liu Qiang took Chen Jue to the elementary school field, still suspecting that Chen Jue had lied about creating the Body-Tempering Exercise.
• Liu Chengdong reported to Elder Zhong that Chen Jue had logged into his grading account from near Chen Village, and Elder Zhong ordered him to bring Chen Jue back.
• Elder Zhong recalled that Chen Jue had crippled Eagle Country's Pacific Third Fleet, destroyed two F-35 fighters, and sunk Japan's Izumo after returning from the moon.
• Elder Zhong showed Liu Chengdong Chen Jue's route map, and they suspected Chen Jue had caused Mount Fuji's eruption near the Fukushima coast.
• Elder Zhong told Liu Chengdong to bring Chen Jue's belongings and the Candidate Camp troublemakers, so they could see what a Special Grade Candidate could do.
• After Liu Chengdong left, Elder Zhong worried about Chen Jue's return and checked the Quick-Acting Heart-Saving Pills in his desk.

Chen Jue visited Liu Qiang’s Body-Tempering Exercise class in Panlong Town and saw how the exercise had become widespread in schools and workplaces. After Liu Qiang demonstrated using spears to sense strength and correct posture, Chen Jue challenged his teaching method, saying a spear was unnecessary.

• Chen Jue accompanied Liu Qiang to the township school where Liu taught a summer Body-Tempering Exercise class.
• Liu Qiang explained how the exercise had become a requirement in education and employment, then gathered his trainees for a lesson on correcting posture.
• Liu Qiang handed out wooden spears and taught that they could help trainees sense strength and correct errors while practicing the first three forms.
• Liu Qiang demonstrated the forms with a spear, exciting the trainees, while Chen Jue realized that weapon practice had been added to his original exercise.
• Chen Jue raised his hand and told Liu Qiang that trainees could sense strength and correct errors without a spear.

Chen Jue challenged Liu Qiang’s teaching of the Body-Tempering Exercise, explaining how the Standing Stance could correct mistakes and prevent injuries. After Chen used sifting force to adjust Liu Qiang’s form, Liu Qiang recognized Chen as an extraordinary expert, leaving the students wondering whether they should learn from him instead.

• Chen Jue told Liu Qiang and the students that beginners should use the Standing Stance to correct their form and avoid practicing the spear too early.
• Liu Qiang tested Chen’s advice by performing the fifth form and then the Standing Stance, discovering a sharp pain around his waist and abdomen.
• Chen warned Liu Qiang that he was forcing the Roaming Dragon Form and used sifting force to adjust his posture, easing the pain.
• Liu Qiang recognized Chen’s sifting force and wondered whether Chen was the creator of the Body-Tempering Exercise.
• The students watched Chen teach Liu Qiang and began wondering whether they should learn from Chen and ask for a tuition refund.

Chen Jue left Liu Qiang with advice on the fifth form of the Body-Tempering Exercise, then returned to Chen Village and met Wang Baogang, the new commissar of the XX Regiment. Wang asked Chen to autograph a copy of the exercise for his son.

• Chen Jue explained to Liu Qiang that the fifth form required training hidden strength throughout the limbs, then left the trainees to continue practicing with Liu.
• Chen Jue returned to Chen Village and found Wang Baogang waiting outside his home on orders from his superiors.
• Wang Baogang explained that Commissar Yao had been promoted and transferred, and he had taken over as commissar of the XX Regiment.
• Wang tried to lift Chen Jue's 200-kilogram dumbbell but nearly fell when Chen released it, and Chen caught the weight with two fingers.
• Wang Baogang praised the Body-Tempering Exercise and asked Chen to sign a copy for his twelve-year-old son, and Chen signed it.

Chen Jue returned home after resolving the radiation threat and rested while the base arranged a visit. The next morning, he found Liu Chengdong waiting in a minivan near his house.

• Chen Jue accidentally splayed Wang Baogang’s fountain-pen nib while signing the Body-Tempering Exercise, then pinched it back into shape and signed again.
• Wang Baogang told Chen Jue that Director Liu and others planned to visit, but Chen Jue asked to rest, so Wang Baogang left to meet them at the airport.
• Chen Jue inspected his stabilized condition, then used the Sleeping Skill to sleep until the next morning.
• Chen Jue sensed a minivan parked nearby and found Liu Chengdong inside, exhausted from staying up all night.

Chen Jue reunited with Liu Chengdong and met four Level One Candidates who had come to see him. He casually repaired their minivan’s damaged sliding door with his bare hands, leaving them stunned as they set off for breakfast.

• Chen Jue greeted Liu Chengdong, learned he had reached the Fifth Form, and agreed to meet the experts after breakfast.
• Chen Jue accidentally pulled the minivan’s electric door handle off, tilting the vehicle and astonishing the four Level One Candidates inside.
• Chen Jue straightened the handle and door panel with his hands.
• Chen Jue heated the broken connector with a scarlet-gold gleam, bonded the handle back into place, and cooled it with a powerful breath.
• Chen Jue told Liu Chengdong to drive them to a breakfast place in Huang Family Village.

Chen Jue returned to Earth, ate a huge breakfast, and caught up on months of messages while traveling to an airfield in An County. When he leaned back against the minivan’s massage seat, his immense strength crushed its air bladders and caused all four tires to burst, leaving the vehicle airborne.

• Chen Jue stunned Liu Chengdong and the other Candidates by welding the vehicle’s door handle with his finger, then directed the minivan to a nearby village.
• Chen Jue ate an enormous breakfast at the village shop, leaving the owner delighted by the generous payment.
• Chen Jue opened the belongings Liu Chengdong had recovered and charged his phone, discovering more than 248 million yuan in royalties from the Body-Tempering Exercise.
• Chen Jue read and answered messages from friends and relatives as Liu Chengdong turned on the minivan’s seat massage.
• Chen Jue pushed his back against the seat for a stronger massage, crushing its air bladders and making all four tires burst so violently that the minivan bounced into the air.

Chen Jue stopped a minivan whose four tires had exploded by bracing against it and skidding his bare feet across the road. A dashcam video of the feat went viral, but after it was taken down, men in black broke into uploader Lin Xin’s home and demanded the original footage.

• All four tires on the minivan exploded, and Chen Jue opened the door midair and stopped the vehicle with his feet.
• Liu Chengdong called for help, and the shaken Candidates helped clear the road before a replacement minivan took them to the airport.
• Lin Xin found the accident on his dashcam, uploaded a clip titled "Foot-brake drift" to Bilibili, and watched it reach the trending list.
• Bilibili removed Lin Xin’s video, and several men in black broke into his home and demanded the original footage.

Chen Jue returned to the base and learned that its facilities and technology had advanced while he was away. Satellite footage of his reentry showed unusual electromagnetic waves reaching the sun, where a flickering flare appeared to flash in binary Morse code.

• Chen Jue arrived at the expanded base in Long Province with Liu Chengdong and noticed its new training facilities.
• Liu Chengdong explained that the base had recruited more people and built new equipment to help them practice the Ten Body-Tempering Forms.
• Chen Jue met Zhong Deyuan, who showed him the base’s upgraded wearable virtual-imaging system and promised him a smartwatch.
• Zhong Deyuan showed Chen Jue satellite footage of his return from the moon, including electromagnetic waves spreading from his reentry capsule.
• Chen Jue saw the waves reach the sun and realized that its flickering flare might be flashing binary Morse code.

Chen Jue learned that the Sun Wheel had triggered a solar flare broadcasting Earth’s coordinates into space, potentially alerting extraterrestrial civilizations. Elder Zhong explained that Earth’s governments planned to reveal Second Home in three months and were accelerating preparations for space transport and giant solar power systems.

• Chen Jue learned that the solar model had transmitted a binary Morse message that decoded as “I'm here?” and three sets of numbers.
• Elder Zhong showed Chen Jue that the numbers marked the solar system’s coordinates from the Milky Way’s center.
• Chen Jue realized that the Sun Wheel had sent an all-channel distress signal revealing Earth’s location to the universe.
• Elder Zhong reassured Chen Jue that Earth had sent signals into space before and said the higher-ups were discussing Second Home’s early disclosure with other powers.
• Elder Zhong told Chen Jue that a press conference was likely in three months and showed him plans for orbital elevators and a solar power generation system around Earth.

Elder Zhong explained that advances in the Ten Body-Tempering Forms had helped scientists make breakthroughs in controlled nuclear fusion, bringing China closer to an energy transition tied to lunar helium-3 and the Second Home plan. Chen Jue considered the risks of the Sun Wheel he had left in Eagle Country, but Elder Zhong urged him to investigate a similar artifact found at Sanxingdui instead of provoking another war.

• Elder Zhong told Chen Jue that the Ten Body-Tempering Forms had helped scientists achieve breakthroughs that could bring controlled nuclear fusion online within two years.
• Chen Jue realized that lunar helium-3 could enable abundant energy and accelerate the development of Second Home through fusion power, space-based solar power, and orbital elevators.
• Elder Zhong explained that leaders had designed three separate project routes because coordinating a shared system would be difficult.
• Chen Jue regretted leaving the signal-transmitting Sun Wheel in Eagle Country and offered to retrieve it.
• Elder Zhong warned Chen Jue that attacking Eagle Country again could trigger a world war and told him to consult an expert about a similar Sun Wheel found at Sanxingdui.

Chen Jue startled Elder Zhong with offers to obtain advanced foreign technology, then agreed to meet the base’s experts. He chose to consult the medical team first to investigate changes in his body.

• Chen Jue proposed stealing aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and advanced technology, alarming Elder Zhong, who said he would raise some ideas with the higher-ups.
• Chen Jue joked that the higher-ups could approach him for help, and he and Elder Zhong left the office together.
• Liu Chengdong told Chen Jue that Elder Zhong had reached the seventh of the Ten Body-Tempering Forms, and Elder Zhong arranged a smartwatch and expert meetings for Chen Jue.
• Liu Chengdong explained that the base had gathered experts across several fields, and Chen Jue chose to meet the medical specialists first.
• Liu Chengdong took Chen Jue to meet Academician Huang, a leading authority on the human body.

Chen Jue visited Academician Huang’s upgraded medical project group to discuss questions about his body and undergo physical testing. Huang and his researchers eagerly welcomed the creator of the Ten Body-Tempering Forms and began with basic measurements.

• Chen Jue and Liu Chengdong discussed the value of old Maotai and the base-locked features of Liu Chengdong’s smartwatch on the shuttle.
• Liu Chengdong brought Chen Jue to Academician Huang’s medical project group, where researchers monitored Candidates’ physical data.
• Liu Chengdong introduced Chen Jue as the base’s first Special Grade Candidate and the creator of the Ten Body-Tempering Forms.
• Academician Huang praised the Ten Body-Tempering Forms and proposed testing Chen Jue to gather the first data on Transcendent Level humans.
• Chen Jue agreed to cooperate, and Academician Huang began the full battery of tests with height and weight.

Chen Jue underwent his first comprehensive physical assessment at the base, where the scanner measured him at 801 kilograms and found his body density exceeded that of mercury. The researchers were left stunned and wondering how he had trained to become so dense.

• Chen Jue followed Academician Huang’s instructions and entered the body scanner for his first physical assessment.
• The scan measured Chen Jue’s height at 186.2333 centimeters.
• The scanner recorded Chen Jue’s weight as 801,816 grams, stunning Academician Huang and the researchers.
• A technician checked the equipment, but it worked normally when tested on another person.
• The researchers saw that Chen Jue’s body density was 13.6 grams per cubic centimeter, slightly greater than mercury’s, and marveled at his Transcendent Level physique.

Chen Jue underwent a series of tests at the base, revealing that his Transcendent Level body weighed over 800 kilograms. His vision test showed he could see as far as 116 kilometers and resolve details down to about 0.1 micrometers, leaving Academician Huang and the staff stunned as the tests continued.

• Academician Huang calmed the team and led Chen Jue to the next test after the body scan showed his weight exceeded 800 kilograms.
• Chen Jue explained that Martial Dao Gang Qi and his martial arts training had altered his body's density, and told Academician Huang he was at the peak of the Transcendent Level.
• Academician Huang introduced an integrated machine for testing eyesight and neural responses, and Chen Jue began its virtual vision test.
• Chen Jue's maximum visual distance reached 116 kilometers, astonishing Academician Huang and the staff.
• Chen Jue's vision test showed he could discern details down to approximately 0.1 micrometers, and Academician Huang urged the team to continue testing.

Chen Jue completed the vision tests at the base, demonstrating extraordinary visual resolution and reaction speed that left the testing team stunned. He then followed Academician Huang to a modified dynamometer to measure his strength after admitting he had broken two punch-testing machines.

• Chen Jue resolved details as small as 0.1 micrometers with his naked eyes, astounding Academician Huang and the testing team.
• Chen Jue tracked high-speed targets with an average visual response time of 0.3 milliseconds, and the team compared his reactions to those of computers and autonomous vehicles.
• Chen Jue finished the tests with an overall score more than a hundred times higher than second place, held by Instructor Zhang Feipeng.
• Academician Huang praised Chen Jue and discussed the growing number of people who were mastering the Ten Body-Tempering Forms.
• After Chen Jue said he had broken two punch-force testing machines, Academician Huang skipped ordinary strength tests and brought him to a modified dynamometer.

Chen Jue tested his strength on the base’s horsepower machine and pushed its reading to 5,236 horsepower before snapping the chain. He told Academician Huang that the machine had reached its limit, while he had used only a tiny fraction of his strength.

• Chen Jue examined the horsepower machine as the researchers discussed how much power he might produce.
• Chen Jue pulled the machine’s rings, sending the reading past a thousand horsepower as nearby Candidates gathered to watch.
• Chen Jue’s pull reached 5,236 horsepower, distorted a metal ring, and snapped the chain, sending a piece through a glass window.
• Chen Jue told Academician Huang that 5,236 horsepower was the machine’s limit, not his, and said he had used only a tiny bit of his strength.