Chapter Summaries

Qin Fangyang taunted Luo Lie about the exceptional students he had taught, then left after making Luo promise not to talk about their results. In Phoenix City, the news of Gu Luoyan’s concert in nearby Antai City stirred excitement, and Zuo Changlu predicted she was actually headed for Phoenix City.

• Qin Fangyang told his students to return to cultivation and allowed Zuo Xiaoduo to enter the fifty-times Gravity Room.
• Qin Fangyang bragged to Luo Lie about his students while pretending that teaching Zuo Xiaoduo was exhausting.
• Luo Lie angrily accused Qin Fangyang of showing off, then promised not to reveal what he had seen.
• Gu Luoyan’s arrival in Antai City and her upcoming concert sparked excitement among her fans in Phoenix City.
• Zuo Changlu bet Wu Tiejiang that Gu Luoyan would come to Phoenix City.

Zuo Changlu tried to get Wu Tiejiang to obtain a protective garment for Xiao Nian, but their conversation turned to Gu Luoyan’s arrival in Phoenix City and the rivalry between two women with Phoenix Destiny. The guests finally arrived for Meng Tianyue’s dinner.

• Wu Tiejiang recalled how Zuo Changlu had tricked Great Shaman Liehuo into surrendering his wife and paying to ransom her back.
• Zuo Changlu asked Wu Tiejiang to get his aunt’s garment to improve Xiao Nian’s protection, and Wu Tiejiang refused to ask her for it.
• Zuo Changlu explained that Gu Luoyan might have been drawn to Phoenix City by converging forces and would see whether she or his daughter stood higher.
• Wu Tiejiang joked that Zuo Changlu’s daughter might be his and Wu Tiejiang’s aunt’s child, so Zuo Changlu clapped a hand over his mouth.
• The guests arrived for Meng Tianyue’s dinner.

Meng Tianyue welcomed Teng Guangyuan’s family to Cloudtop Pavilion, but Master Feng realized that Teng Hao was not the youth he had identified before. The Meng Family was left wondering who the intended person was.

• Teng Guangyuan and his family arrived at Cloudtop Pavilion and received a lavish welcome from Meng Tianyue and Meng Chentian.
• Teng Guangyuan admired the sightseeing elevator and recited a poem about Cloudtop Pavilion as his wife and son marveled at the view.
• Master Feng recognized that Teng Hao was not the youth he had seen before, and the other Qi-Reading Adepts questioned whether the Meng Family had found the wrong person.
• Meng Chentian stepped away from the banquet and asked Master Feng what was wrong.
• Master Feng insisted that this Teng Hao was not the person he meant and admitted he did not know who the intended youth was.

Meng Tianyue learned that Master Feng had mistaken a young man for the person they were seeking, ruining the preparations he had made with the Ning Family. Already reeling from mounting losses and the deaths of fourteen children, Meng Tianyue erupted in anger and turned on Teng Guangyuan.

• Master Feng and his companions confirmed to Meng Chentian that the young man they had met was not the person they were seeking.
• Meng Chentian told Meng Tianyue the news, and Meng Tianyue confronted Master Feng to verify it.
• After Master Feng confirmed the mistake, Meng Tianyue returned behind the curtain and recalled the disasters and deaths of fourteen of his children.
• Meng Tianyue roared in frustration, then rebuked Teng Guangyuan for calling him Brother Meng and asked whether Teng was worthy.

Meng Tianyue erupted at Teng Guangyuan and his family, beating and humiliating them before ordering them thrown out. Afterward, he told Meng Chenyu he was fine and ordered that the family not be beaten to death.

• Meng Tianyue threw wine and dishes at Teng Guangyuan, then seized him and slapped him repeatedly.
• Meng Tianyue forced Teng Guangyuan to admit he would not fight back and that the beating felt good.
• Teng Guangyuan, his wife, and Teng Hao knelt and kowtowed, begging Meng Tianyue to spare them.
• Meng Tianyue ordered his men to drag the family out and keep beating them, but not to kill them.
• Meng Chenyu asked her father what was wrong, and Meng Tianyue said he was fine.

After learning that Teng Hao was not the person they sought, Meng Tianyue left the matter to Meng Chentian, who threatened the Qi-Reading Adepts and ordered them to find the real target. The chapter ended with the badly beaten Teng Guangyuan regaining consciousness beside his wife and son outside Cloudtop Pavilion.

• Meng Tianyue told Ning Suifeng that Teng Hao was not their target, then left and assigned the matter to Meng Chentian.
• Meng Chentian ordered Master Feng and the other Qi-Reading Adepts to find the unknown person within one day or face death along with their families.
• When a Qi-Reading Adept protested, Meng Chentian killed him by tearing off his head, frightening the others into searching.
• People from Cloudtop Pavilion threw Teng Guangyuan, his wife, and his son outside, gravely injured.
• Teng Guangyuan regained consciousness and saw that his wife and son were still alive.

Teng Guangyuan survived Meng Tianyue’s humiliation and, furious, vowed revenge before calling for help. At the Second High School cafeteria, Wan Lixiu and her friends ordered huge amounts of food, while Zuo Xiaoduo tried to grab their buns and Li Chenglong suggested he use his fortune-telling fame to get meals instead.

• Teng Guangyuan called for help after leaving Meng Tianyue’s gathering alive, privately swearing that he would retaliate against Meng Tianyue and the Meng Group.
• Wan Lixiu and Long Yusheng, Li Changming, Li Chenglong, and Yu Moyan ordered enormous quantities of food at the cafeteria.
• Wan Lixiu spat on the buns to stop Zuo Xiaoduo from stealing them, and he angrily threatened her and Long Yusheng.
• Long Yusheng said he did not mind eating buns his wife had spat on, leaving Zuo Xiaoduo and the others exasperated.
• Li Chenglong pointed out that Zuo Xiaoduo could get food from people seeking fortunes, and Zuo Xiaoduo decided to consider the idea after lunch.

Wan Lixiu invited Zuo Xiaoduo and their classmates to celebrate her birthday and asked those who would not bring presents to perform. Zuo Xiaoduo agreed to sing or dance to avoid spending money, but Li Chenglong warned him the performance would not be easy.

• Wan Lixiu invited Zuo Xiaoduo and the others to her birthday celebration, and Zuo Xiaoduo refused to promise her a present.
• Wan Lixiu told the group they could perform instead of bringing gifts, and Long Yusheng, Yu Moyan, Li Changming, and Li Chenglong said they would prepare presents.
• Zuo Xiaoduo chose to perform rather than spend money and privately congratulated himself on saving a large sum.
• Wan Lixiu made Zuo Xiaoduo promise to sing or dance instead of performing martial arts, and he sealed the agreement with a high five.
• Li Chenglong warned Zuo Xiaoduo that the performance would not be easy to pull off.

Zuo Xiaoduo learned that Wan Lixiu expected a million-value birthday gift and a public performance, then agreed to perform rather than pay more. Furious after discovering his friends had plotted against him, he dragged Li Chenglong and the others into a spar, leaving them caught as they tried to flee.

• Li Chenglong told Zuo Xiaoduo that Wan Lixiu's father planned a large celebration with a stage, and Wan Lixiu demanded a gift worth at least a million.
• The others affirmed that they could afford million-value gifts with the wealth they had gained from the Trial, and Zuo Xiaoduo reluctantly agreed to perform.
• Zuo Xiaoduo worried that Zuo Xiaonian would find out how much he had spent, then challenged Li Chenglong to spar.
• Li Chenglong confessed that he, Long Yusheng, Li Changming, and Yu Moyan had plotted to make Zuo Xiaoduo give Wan Lixiu a birthday gift.
• Long Yusheng fled through a window, while Zuo Xiaoduo grabbed Yu Moyan and then caught Long Yusheng as the others tried to escape.

Zuo Xiaoduo worried that he could no longer suppress his impending breakthrough and feared he could not match Nian Nian Cat’s past achievements. Qin Fangyang tried to reassure him, then examined his dantian and was stunned by its capacity and his meridians.

• Zuo Xiaoduo entered the fifty-times Gravity Room and felt his cultivation surge toward another breakthrough as his power converted into Flame Sun True Scripture energy.
• Worried he could not hold back his breakthrough, Zuo Xiaoduo left the Gravity Room early and told Qin Fangyang he felt miserable about progressing too soon.
• Qin Fangyang reassured Zuo Xiaoduo that his strength and progress had already exceeded expectations, but kept his true assessment to himself.
• Zuo Xiaoduo said Nian Nian Cat had suppressed her breakthrough more than fifty times, shocking Qin Fangyang, who believed the claim was impossible.
• Qin Fangyang examined Zuo Xiaoduo’s dantian and meridians with his True Qi and was overwhelmed by their extraordinary capacity and flexibility.

Zuo Xiaoduo tried to compress his meridians again after Qin Fangyang encouraged him, then went home with his earnings. Mo Xuanyi arrived in Phoenix City with her martial uncle and senior brother, sensed a deep danger and a strange call there, and remained despite wanting to leave as she continued searching for her parents.

• Zuo Xiaoduo insisted on trying to compress his meridians once more, and Qin Fangyang reluctantly let him continue.
• After earning over a hundred thousand from reading fortunes, Zuo Xiaoduo headed home.
• Mo Xuanyi entered Phoenix City with her martial uncle and senior brother and felt both impending danger and an intense sense of longing.
• Mo Xuanyi asked to leave after a few days, but her martial uncle told her not to rush away.
• Mo Xuanyi explained that she still hoped to find her parents, and her martial uncle warned that her attachment could hinder her cultivation.
• Mo Xuanyi's martial uncle decided they would first find their own people and assess the situation instead of reporting to the envoy.

Uncle-Master Fang explained the Greedy Wolf faction’s diminished share in the Phoenix Vein affair and warned Mo Xuanyi and Yun Jueying to survive by embracing cowardice. Mo Xuanyi and Yun Jueying dismissed his lesson, while Fang feared they would understand it only when it was too late.

• Uncle-Master Fang said the Greedy Wolf faction had suffered heavy losses and its share of the Phoenix Vein undertaking had fallen from fifty percent to five percent.
• Fang said he had come mainly to accompany Mo Xuanyi and would avoid exposing himself, though he would try to save their third senior sister if necessary.
• Fang warned Mo Xuanyi and Yun Jueying not to circulate anything connected to the Greedy Wolf Heart Method.
• Fang declared that cowardice was the key to surviving, since staying alive preserved the chance to recover everything else.
• Mo Xuanyi and Yun Jueying doubted Fang’s advice, and Fang lamented that they might understand it only when it was too late.

Wo Fangyinuo recalled how surviving the massacre of the Seventeen Sects’ chosen disciples had taught him to value submission and escape above pride. After bringing his companions to Phoenix City, he let the driver head back alone and told Yun Jueying and Xuanyi to rest and learn the city before searching for Third Junior Sister.

• Wo Fangyinuo remembered surviving a massacre by kowtowing to his enemy, then watching the dead prodigies’ heads rot and concluding that staying alive mattered most.
• Wo Fangyinuo paid the driver ten times the fare and sent him back toward Ningji City, but the driver stopped on the road and died at the wheel.
• Wo Fangyinuo checked into a hotel with Yun Jueying and Xuanyi and suggested they explore Phoenix City while acting like ordinary people.
• Wo Fangyinuo told Yun Jueying to study each city’s layout, local customs, and escape routes before taking action.

Mo Xuanyi learned that Master Zuo was a young fortune-teller at Second High School and suspected he was the person she sought. At home, Zuo Xiaoduo’s cultivation neared a breakthrough, and Zuo Xiaonian’s touch unexpectedly calmed his surging spiritual energy.

• Yun Jueying and Mo Xuanyi left after their martial uncle advised them to study Phoenix City and its escape routes.
• Mo Xuanyi asked a steamed bun seller about Master Zuo and learned he read faces at Second High School three times a day.
• Zuo Xiaoduo struggled to suppress his spiritual energy and worried that he could not hold back as long as Zuo Xiaonian had.
• Zuo Xiaonian told Zuo Xiaoduo to accept his breakthrough, then touched his forehead and sent icy and scorching forces through their meridians.
• Zuo Xiaoduo felt his spiritual energy settle and recognized the cool sensation from an earlier encounter with Zuo Xiaonian.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian’s energies harmonized during cultivation, helping Zuo Xiaoduo break through the Ren and Du Meridians and complete a cycle of circulation. He expelled blood and impurities, then emerged feeling lighter, sharper, and more in control of his True Qi.

• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Zuo Xiaonian to place her hand on his forehead and use her Moon Soul True Scripture to cool his surging energy.
• Zuo Xiaonian’s energy flowed into Zuo Xiaoduo automatically, while energy from his Dragon Blood Flying Knife added to the growing pressure in his dantian.
• Zuo Xiaonian’s hand was forced away as Zuo Xiaoduo broke through and opened his Ren and Du Meridians.
• Zuo Xiaoduo’s joined forces circulated through his body for eighty-one cycles before he rushed to the bathroom and spat out blood and black impurities.
• Zuo Xiaoduo felt lighter and more agile, with sharper senses and True Qi that answered his will more readily.

Zuo Xiaoduo formed his Innate divine sense and completed his breakthrough, while Zuo Xiaonian realized her help had added many rounds of suppression to his cultivation. Afterward, he celebrated with his family, surprised that his appetite had shrunk, and Zuo Xiaonian struggled to explain the breakthrough to her parents.

• Zuo Xiaoduo formed his Innate divine sense, accidentally punching a hole in the wall with his True Qi.
• Zuo Xiaoduo washed away the impurities expelled by his body after advancing to Innate, then asked Zuo Xiaonian for clean clothes.
• Zuo Xiaonian realized that her assistance had helped Zuo Xiaoduo suppress his breakthrough repeatedly and wondered how far he might advance.
• Zuo Xiaoduo came out in pajamas, celebrated his breakthrough, and was surprised when three steamed buns filled him up.
• Zuo Xiaonian tried to explain to Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting that she had only been helping Zuo Xiaoduo cultivate, but Wu Yuting cut her off.

Zuo Xiaoduo stabilized his foundations after breaking through to Innate and discovered he could use divine sense to open Blind Hong's ring. He delighted in testing its storage ability while Zuo Xiaonian guarded him outside.

• Zuo Xiaonian fled after Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting teased her and Zuo Xiaoduo about their relationship.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Wu Yuting he was full because his breakthrough meant he no longer needed to eat as much.
• Zuo Xiaoduo cultivated with the Dragon Blood Flying Knife and middle-grade star soul jade, but found it difficult to fill his dantian with Innate power.
• Zuo Xiaonian kept watch outside Zuo Xiaoduo's window while he cultivated.
• Zuo Xiaoduo used his divine sense to open Blind Hong's ring and tested it by putting objects inside and taking them back out.

Zuo Xiaoduo explored the Space Ring Blind Hong left him and discovered it was vastly larger than expected and contained over ten thousand pieces of Top-Grade Star Soul Jade. Zuo Changlu ordered him to give half the jade to Zuo Xiaonian, who refused.

• Zuo Xiaonian warned Zuo Xiaoduo to stop repeatedly entering and leaving his Space Ring before he exhausted or damaged his spiritual sense.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Zuo Xiaonian that Blind Hong's ring seemed to hold twenty or thirty thousand cubic meters, far more than her own ring.
• Zuo Xiaoduo took out a piece of black Star Soul Jade, and Zuo Xiaonian recognized it as Top-Grade Star Soul Jade and urged him to put it away.
• Zuo Xiaoduo found that Blind Hong's ring contained over ten thousand pieces of Top-Grade Star Soul Jade.
• Zuo Changlu entered, learned what the ring contained, and ordered Zuo Xiaoduo to give half the jade to Zuo Xiaonian, who refused.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian sorted through the treasures in Zuo Xiaoduo’s ring while Zuo Changlu warned them about dangerous items and examined an ancient token and jade slips. Zuo Changlu discovered several sword and hammer techniques belonging to Blind Hong and reacted angrily to their plain names.

• Zuo Xiaonian transferred her belongings into the larger ring from Uncle Nan, and Zuo Xiaoduo took her old ring as a decoy for his invisible one.
• Zuo Xiaoduo poured out half the Top-Grade Star Soul Jade for Zuo Xiaonian to store, then briefly revealed dangerous items that Zuo Changlu warned him not to touch.
• Zuo Xiaoduo found an ancient token marked “Flood” and “Water,” and Zuo Changlu told him never to take it out.
• Zuo Xiaoduo brought out more than ten technique-transmission jade slips, and Zuo Changlu searched among the ring’s contents for a pair of hammers.
• Zuo Changlu identified sets of sword and hammer techniques among the jade slips and cursed Blind Hong over their names.

Zuo Xiaonian tested a technique-transmission jade slip and learned the exquisite Silk Rain Sword Technique. Zuo Changlu warned the siblings to conceal their inherited techniques and divine swords, leaving them to consider the deadly consequences of drawing their weapons.

• Zuo Changlu assigned the rain-named sword techniques to Zuo Xiaonian and the other techniques to Zuo Xiaoduo, and told them to rename the moves.
• Zuo Xiaonian used the Silk Rain Sword jade slip and received the technique in her spiritual sense.
• Zuo Xiaonian praised the sword technique's depth and discovered that the jade slip could not be reused without being recharged by its creator.
• Zuo Changlu told Zuo Xiaonian to keep the technique secret and use it only with the Moon Soul True Scripture, warning that its creator had many enemies.
• Zuo Changlu warned both siblings not to draw their divine swords lightly and said they must leave no survivors if forced to use them.