Recaps

After the Four Determinations, Wen Xingtian ordered Zuo Xiaoduo to raise his cultivation to Cloud Transformation within a year, while Li Chenglong received the rare evaluation of an era-defining military strategist. The chapter ended as the frontline Marshals were alerted to Li Chenglong’s evaluation and Marshal Dongfang placed a call.

• Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian concluded that Lord Zuo knew of Zuo Xiaoduo and agreed to keep the matter secret.
• Wen Xingtian dragged Zuo Xiaoduo back to class after the Four Determinations and told him to start doing missions the next day.
• Wen Xingtian set Zuo Xiaoduo the goal of reaching Cloud Transformation within his first academic year, leaving Zuo Xiaoduo stunned.
• Li Chenglong received the evaluation of an era-defining military strategist, and the Heaven and Earth Network restricted access to his file.
• The frontline Marshals received alerts about Li Chenglong’s evaluation, and Marshal Dongfang immediately placed a call.

After Li Chenglong’s exam, Ye Changqing tried to learn about his ambitions and discovered that Li Chenglong planned simply to follow Zuo Xiaoduo. Ye Changqing was stunned by the ambition behind that choice but concluded that the two made an ideal team.

• Ye Changqing warmly praised Li Chenglong and asked about his plans for the future, leaving Li Chenglong confused.
• Li Chenglong said he had no special abilities or plans, not knowing Ye Changqing considered him an era-defining military strategist with an ice nightmare soul constitution.
• Li Chenglong explained that he had long planned to follow Boss Zuo wherever he went.
• Li Chenglong said Zuo Xiaoduo’s habit of challenging stronger enemies made life exciting and would give him targets to surpass.
• Ye Changqing accepted Li Chenglong’s choice and decided that Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong would complement each other as partners.

Ye Changqing learned that Li Chenglong had been recognized as a generation's military strategist, and the four armies’ leaders began calling to claim him. The chapter ended as Beigong Hao appealed to Ye Changqing to send Li Chenglong to the Northern Army Corps.

• Ye Changqing imagined Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong working together and celebrated Hidden Dragon High Martial’s two talented students.
• Marshal Dongfang called Ye Changqing and told him to reserve Li Chenglong for the Eastern Army.
• Ximen Lie called and declared that Li Chenglong belonged to the Western Army.
• Minister Nan called to argue that the Southern Army Corps needed a strategist and invoked his oversight of Hidden Dragon High Martial’s case.
• Beigong Hao called and asked Ye Changqing whether Li Chenglong might serve the Northern Army Corps.

Ye Changqing agreed to requests from four military leaders for Li Chenglong to join the military, even though Li Chenglong wanted only to follow Zuo Xiaoduo. As Wen Xingtian threatened to resign rather than take over, Zuo Xiaoduo recognized that his lack of command and staff skills was a serious weakness.

• Ye Changqing considered how to avoid responsibility for Li Chenglong's future and asked Wen Xingtian if he wanted to become principal.
• Wen Xingtian asked whether Li Chenglong's training should focus more on military strategy, and Ye Changqing told him to assign strategy knowledge as homework while keeping up his martial training.
• Ye Changqing told Wen Xingtian that four military leaders had asked for Li Chenglong after graduation and admitted he had agreed to all of them.
• Ye Changqing explained that Li Chenglong wanted only to follow Zuo Xiaoduo, then named Wen Xingtian acting principal; Wen Xingtian responded by resigning immediately.
• Zuo Xiaoduo returned to the villa and worried that his lack of command and staff skills would hinder him on a battlefield.

After realizing he needed better command and reconnaissance skills, Zuo Xiaoduo revised his training schedule and studied missions with Li Chenglong. He rejected difficult or overcrowded assignments and decided to focus on medicinal plants and Star Beast inner cores, leaving his next outing undecided.

• Zuo Xiaoduo reflected on the risks of leading comrades into future battles and resolved to improve his abilities.
• Zuo Xiaoduo revised his schedule to include mission research, and Li Chenglong helped him study available assignments.
• Li Chenglong explained that rare medicinal plants grew deep underground and were difficult to find, while Zuo Xiaoduo's Flame Sun Divine Art could destroy them.
• Zuo Xiaoduo rejected fugitive-hunting missions because their targets were dangerous, elusive cultivators beyond his current reach.
• Zuo Xiaoduo chose to prioritize finding medicinal plants and Star Beast inner cores because their risks were more manageable.

Zuo Xiaoduo decided to leave Hidden Dragon High Martial for herb-finding missions, despite the danger, to gain experience and draw out the forces targeting him. Li Chenglong accepted his reasoning and advised him to take every school mission for finding herbs, including the inner core missions.

• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Li Chenglong to choose herb-finding missions and considered using Little Dragon to locate buried Spirit Plants.
• Li Chenglong warned that enemies from several lineages and the Witch Alliance could attack Zuo Xiaoduo once he left the school's protection, likely using powerful fighters.
• Zuo Xiaoduo explained that he needed real experience outside the school and believed the school would secretly protect him while his departure might lure enemies into the open.
• Li Chenglong agreed with Zuo Xiaoduo's decision and told him to accept all the school's herb-finding missions, including the inner core missions.

Li Chenglong mapped likely locations for the spirit plants Zuo Xiaoduo needed and urged him to search near West Mountain, where a volcano could offer refuge from danger. Zuo Xiaoduo cultivated inside the Annihilation Sky Pagoda and broke through to the second level of the Flame Sun True Scripture.

• Li Chenglong used maps of the wilderness around Fenghai to identify places where resurrection grass and netherfrost flowers might grow.
• Li Chenglong advised Zuo Xiaoduo to search near West Mountain and use the crater as a last resort if he faced a powerful enemy.
• Zuo Xiaoduo entered the Annihilation Sky Pagoda, where accumulated heat surged through his body as he cultivated the Flame Sun True Scripture.
• Zuo Xiaoduo's Dantian absorbed the space's scorching Yuan Energy, and the pathways to the scripture's second level appeared.
• Zuo Xiaoduo broke through as a white-hot flame blossomed above his head.

Zuo Xiaoduo completed the second level of the Flame Sun True Scripture and tested his new power inside the Annihilation Sky Pagoda. After leaving the space, he discovered that four hours had passed inside while only one hour had passed outside.

• Zuo Xiaoduo broke through the sealed meridians, completed the second level of the Flame Sun True Scripture, and formed a red sun in his Dantian.
• Zuo Xiaoduo tested Red Sun Golden Sun with a punch that incinerated space, then showed off and recited a boastful poem to himself.
• The little dragon watched Zuo Xiaoduo's display and was shocked by his thick skin.
• Zuo Xiaoduo left the Annihilation Sky Pagoda and noticed that his phone showed four thirty while the wall clock showed one thirty.
• Zuo Xiaoduo recalled spending four hours inside the Pagoda and wondered why only one hour had passed outside.

Zuo Xiaoduo discovered that time passed three times faster inside the Annihilation Sky Pagoda than outside, giving him far more time to cultivate. He left the chapter overjoyed at the discovery, while Little Dragon waited anxiously after being caught using the Blazing Sun Heart.

• Zuo Xiaoduo compared his phone with Li Chenglong’s and the wall clock, then entered the Annihilation Sky Pagoda to investigate the time difference.
• Zuo Xiaoduo caught Little Dragon clinging to the Blazing Sun Heart and ordered him to stay put.
• Zuo Xiaoduo cultivated for three hours inside the pagoda, using upper-grade star soul jade and the Dragon Blood Flying Knife alongside the Blazing Sun Heart.
• Zuo Xiaoduo compared the clocks again and found that only one hour had passed outside during his three hours of cultivation inside.
• Zuo Xiaoduo realized the pagoda had a three-to-one time ratio and celebrated the extra time it would give him to cultivate.

Zuo Xiaoduo discovered that time passed three times faster inside the Annihilation Sky Pagoda, giving him a major cultivation advantage. He questioned Little Dragon about the space’s limits and learned it was an artificially created realm that existed by deceiving the Heavenly Dao.

• Zuo Xiaoduo celebrated the Pagoda’s time advantage and accidentally returned Li Chenglong’s phone to his room, alarming the half-dressed Li Chenglong.
• Zuo Xiaoduo entered the Pagoda and confronted Little Dragon, asking why three days inside passed in only one day outside.
• Little Dragon said threefold time acceleration was all the space could currently achieve and claimed even gathering the Star Soul Continent’s Earth Veins might not make time flow three hundred times faster.
• Zuo Xiaoduo demanded a full explanation, and Little Dragon explained that the Pagoda was an unstable artificial space isolated from reality and created by deceiving the Heavenly Dao.

Little Dragon confessed that it had used Dragon Vein Fortune Qi to repair Zuo Xiaoduo’s space and explained what it would take to increase its time-control ability. Zuo Xiaoduo learned that around ten Dragon Veins could raise the time ratio to about one hundred days inside for every day outside.

• Little Dragon pleaded for leniency by describing how hard it had worked to bring a Dragon Vein’s residual power into Zuo Xiaoduo’s space.
• Zuo Xiaoduo stayed stern and ordered Little Dragon to explain how the space could keep developing.
• Little Dragon said the space needed Star Soul Jade Powder and more Dragon Vein earth qi, while claiming intact Dragon Veins could not be used.
• Little Dragon explained that two Dragon Veins could raise the time ratio to fifteen to one, while additional Dragon Veins would alternately expand the space and increase the ratio.
• Little Dragon estimated that about ten Dragon Veins could bring the space to a hundred-to-one time ratio, which it said was likely the limit.

Zuo Xiaoduo persuaded Little Dragon to help gather more Dragon Veins by offering him droplets, then learned that removing Dragon Veins carried karmic consequences. Little Dragon explained that they had to leave enough veins behind to sustain the land’s Fortune Qi.

• Zuo Xiaoduo offered Little Dragon many droplets and asked him to help gather a thousand or even ten thousand Dragon Veins.
• Little Dragon admitted that relocating Dragon Veins benefited him, but said ownerless, deficient veins were scarce and hard to find.
• Zuo Xiaoduo argued that Fenghai and other ancient capitals had many abandoned Dragon Veins that they could relocate.
• Little Dragon warned that removing every Dragon Vein from a region could cause space to collapse and bring karmic consequences.
• Little Dragon explained that Dragon Veins sustained the land’s Fortune Qi, so they had to leave enough behind for its normal circulation.

Zuo Xiaoduo bargained with Little Dragon over moving more Dragon Veins and letting it absorb the Fortune Qi on the Blazing Sun Heart. He agreed to let Little Dragon stay in his space and feed on the stone in exchange for help finding underground treasures.

• Zuo Xiaoduo calculated that Fenghai City could spare four more incomplete Dragon Veins and urged Little Dragon to move them.
• Zuo Xiaoduo proposed seeking Dragon Veins in the Witch Alliance and Dao Alliance Continents, where fewer needed to be left behind.
• Little Dragon asked to absorb the Fortune Qi on the Blazing Sun Heart, and Zuo Xiaoduo initially refused to give it the stone.
• Little Dragon explained that absorbing the stone's Fortune Qi would not affect Zuo Xiaoduo's cultivation or trigger an eruption, and would take about a year at his current rate.
• Zuo Xiaoduo let Little Dragon stay in his space and absorb the Fortune Qi in exchange for finding ores, medicinal herbs, and other underground treasures.

Zuo Xiaoduo persuaded Little Dragon to move Dragon Veins and gathered supplies for his mission outside the city. As he prepared to leave, Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian arrived to check on him and equip him for the dangers ahead.

• Zuo Xiaoduo convinced Little Dragon to move Dragon Veins into the Annihilation Sky Pagoda in exchange for letting him cling to the Blazing Sun Heart and promising him drops later.
• Zuo Xiaoduo left the pagoda delighted by how easily Little Dragon had agreed, then packed a map and books on military strategy for his mission.
• Zuo Xiaoduo checked his equipment and walked out of the villa, where he found Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian waiting for him.
• Ye Changqing gave Zuo Xiaoduo food, drink, healing supplies, pills, and Spirit-Calling Pills, and warned him to use a pill to summon help whenever he faced danger he could not handle.

Ye Changqing packed Zuo Xiaoduo with supplies and repeatedly warned him about the dangers of his month-long mission. Zuo Xiaoduo left at dawn with a Hundredfold Pill as a last resort, while Ye Changqing remained worried.

• Ye Changqing loaded Zuo Xiaoduo's Space Ring with supplies and gave him a Hundredfold Pill, which could boost his speed a hundredfold for ten minutes but permanently burn away his Divine Sense power and leave him unconscious for at least three years.
• Wen Xingtian explained the pill's costs and urged Zuo Xiaoduo to complete his missions, especially finding the Sun-Setting Flower, Ghost Soul Vine, and Soul-Tempering Vermilion Fruit for Vice Principal Liu's recovery.
• Ye Changqing warned Zuo Xiaoduo that the rare medicinal ingredients were difficult to find and guarded by powerful, venomous Star Beasts, then told him not to search for them.
• Wen Xingtian urged Zuo Xiaoduo to leave and reminded him that he had one month to act freely, while Ye Changqing insisted he return to school after that month.
• Zuo Xiaoduo departed at dawn, and Ye Changqing watched him go with lingering worry.

Zuo Xiaoduo disguised himself as a flirtatious woman to leave the protected zone and mislead anyone following him. After reaching the wasteland, he shed the disguise and prepared to continue his mission in a new appearance.

• Grandma Shi left the villa after Ye Changqing tried to brief her on precautions for Zuo Xiaoduo's mission.
• Zuo Xiaoduo sent over a hundred beggars out through the city's four gates, then left in a pink car disguised as a fashionable woman named Kong Piaoyun.
• At the gate, Zuo Xiaoduo told the guard he was heading to Spruce Forest by a roundabout route and collected his pass.
• In a rocky cave, Zuo Xiaoduo removed his disguise, buried the perfumed clothes and fake breasts, and changed outfits.
• Zuo Xiaoduo put on a wig and checked his new appearance in a mirror.

Zuo Xiaoduo prepared to begin his first mission in the Ironwood Forest after exchanging messages with his family and reflecting on his desire to survive. As he searched for Resurrection Grass, a venomous snake attacked him.

• Zuo Xiaoduo read warnings from Gao Qiao'er, Wu Qing, Gao Zhiyun, Gao Shimu, and Wu Yi, and felt conflicted about his ties to people from opposing lineages.
• Zuo Xiaoduo joined a group chat with his parents, joked with them, and then muted the chat before putting his phone away.
• Zuo Xiaoduo vowed to survive, gather treasures, and become wealthy and powerful, while imagining a future with Nian Nian Cat.
• Zuo Xiaoduo entered the northern Ironwood Forest to search for underground Resurrection Grass using Li Chenglong's instructions.
• Zuo Xiaoduo caught a brightly colored snake between two fingers, but its spiked tongue lunged toward his arm.

Zuo Xiaoduo drove the Rainbow Snakes from the grass, attracting Golden-Crowned Eagles that descended on them while he searched for medicinal herbs. As Fortune Points accumulated, some entered his Incomplete Jade Pendant, whose purpose remained unknown.

• Zuo Xiaoduo burned a Rainbow Snake’s tongue when it tried to bite him, then released it; it died after its blisters burst as it fled.
• The other Rainbow Snakes panicked and emerged from the grass, drawing Golden-Crowned Eagles that swooped down to catch them.
• Zuo Xiaoduo continued searching the woods, using his Divine Sense as Fortune Points raised his total to 156 without advancing his Celestial Person Physiognomy Art.
• He noticed that half of the portion of new Fortune Points not stored in his space had begun disappearing into his Incomplete Jade Pendant.
• Zuo Xiaoduo accepted that he did not know what the pendant wanted and decided to let it absorb Fortune Points until it showed a result.

Zuo Xiaoduo had Little Dragon search the woods for valuable items and learned that resurrection grass was buried deep underground. He began digging for it himself, preparing to complete the mission despite the arduous work.

• Zuo Xiaoduo rested beneath the trees and sent Little Dragon underground to search the area.
• Little Dragon found two fo-ti melons and two patches of resurrection grass, including grass about a thousand years old.
• Little Dragon told Zuo Xiaoduo that the resurrection grass lay about 180 meters underground and marked its location.
• Zuo Xiaoduo took out his Heavenly Shaman Copper tools and began preparing to dig for the resurrection grass.

Zuo Xiaoduo dug deep underground to find the Resurrection Grass, overcoming difficult terrain and an unexpected obstacle. He uncovered fifteen valuable leaves and asked Little Dragon where the other target was.

• Zuo Xiaoduo used his large Heavenly Shaman Copper shovel to dig a tunnel toward the location Little Dragon had identified.
• Zuo Xiaoduo sealed the tunnel entrance behind him so no one could cut off his retreat.
• Zuo Xiaoduo struck a massive piece of lower-grade Star Soul Jade, dug it out, and kept it despite its poor quality.
• Zuo Xiaoduo widened the underground chamber at a depth of over a hundred and seventy meters, then carefully dug through the soil by hand.
• Little Dragon announced that they had reached the target, and Zuo Xiaoduo uncovered fifteen Resurrection Grass leaves connected to one root mass.
• Zuo Xiaoduo realized the leaves counted as fifteen mission targets and asked Little Dragon where the other one was.

Zuo Xiaoduo searched the wilderness with Little Dragon’s help and collected five valuable stalks of Resurrection Grass before traveling far northwest. At night, he discovered a flood of urgent messages ordering him to return, warning that danger had arisen.

• Little Dragon guided Zuo Xiaoduo to a fifteen-leaf Resurrection Grass stalk and two Fo-Ti Melons, then confirmed there were no more nearby.
• Zuo Xiaoduo cautiously left the underground chamber and dug three more pits along his route, finding three additional stalks of Resurrection Grass.
• Zuo Xiaoduo reflected that the five stalks were valuable treasures and decided not to sell them outside the school.
• By nightfall, Zuo Xiaoduo had traveled nineteen hundred li northwest and stopped in a mountain hollow to rest.
• Zuo Xiaoduo checked his phone and saw repeated messages from Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian, along with messages from Xiang Chong and Li Chenglong, all urging him to return.

Zuo Xiaoduo learned that the Underground World had placed an enormous bounty on his life and regretted traveling so far from Fenghai City. As he remained alone in the mountains, other fighters began intercepting would-be attackers while more hunters watched and waited.

• Zuo Xiaoduo read Li Chenglong's message about the bounty and cursed as he realized how far he was from Fenghai City.
• Zuo Xiaoduo considered returning but decided the journey was too dangerous and too humiliating, then wondered where his protectors were.
• Zhan Xiaofei intercepted a group of men in the sky and fought them, while another defender engaged a separate group elsewhere.
• Several hidden observers discussed whether to act, deciding to wait and see how events unfolded.
• The chapter revealed that the Underground World had posted a super bounty offering riches and rare items for Zuo Xiaoduo's death, despite warnings about his possible ties to Minister Nan.
• Mercenaries, assassins, and lone operatives across the Underground World rushed to accept the mission, while some cautious hunters questioned why the reward was so high.

A bounty on Zuo Xiaoduo drew thousands of martial artists toward Fenghai, despite the danger of provoking Minister Nan. Fang Yinuo realized Zuo Xiaoduo needed protection from the hunters, while the bounty’s organizers in Upper Capital City discovered that someone had added several valuable rewards without their knowledge.

• Underworld forum users claimed they would stay away from the bounty, but many were already heading toward Fenghai to claim it.
• Fang Yinuo saw the bounty and feared the enormous crowd of martial artists gathering to kill Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Fang Yinuo read through the extravagant rewards and wondered who Zuo Xiaoduo had offended to warrant such a price.
• In a secret location in Upper Capital City, the disguised bounty organizers asked who had added the Star Heart, Soul-Returning Pills, Star Soul Cake, and continuity-replenishing zhi.

A bounty for Zuo Xiaoduo spiraled out of control after someone added several extraordinarily valuable rewards, leaving the original sponsors fearing they had been set up. Ye Changqing and the others tried to recall Zuo Xiaoduo, but Minister Nan told them to do nothing, while three observers in Divine Capital watched the chaos unfold.

• The bounty's sponsors discovered the added treasures and feared the enlarged reward would make them scapegoats, so they moved to sever their connections and cover their tracks.
• Ye Changqing, Wen Xingtian, Xiang Kuangren, and Gao Zhiyun learned of the bounty and ordered several people to bring Zuo Xiaoduo back from the west immediately.
• Ye Changqing called Minister Nan, who told him to do nothing, leaving both men bewildered by the situation.
• Three people drinking tea in an ordinary Divine Capital office discussed the upheaval and decided to watch how events developed.

A young man visited the Three Demons Beyond Heaven, identified them by name, and revealed that he knew they controlled the Netherworld Palace. He ordered them to let his people inspect backend data, and Sword Demon challenged his authority.

• A young man entered the founders’ office and calmly made himself tea, unsettling the three men.
• The visitor identified Blood Demon as Cen Changfeng, Blade Demon as Ping Yiyou, and Sword Demon as Zhou Haotian.
• The young man revealed that he knew the Three Demons Beyond Heaven controlled the Netherworld Palace through their website.
• He said the three could keep control of the Netherworld Palace but ordered them to let his people inspect its backend data.
• Sword Demon questioned the visitor’s right to issue orders and demanded to know what he had to say.