Chapter Summaries

Zuo Xiaoduo and the other five completed the third touch of their Three Touches, Five Evaluations in the Star Soul Tower, where they faced choices about killing or saving a close friend from the Witch Alliance. The others finished their trials, but Zuo Xiaoduo’s encounter ended with his wounded friend asking him to kill or surrender him.

• Zuo Xiaoduo and the other five returned to invite Hu Ruoyun and the other teachers to dinner and complete their overdue evaluations.
• Hu Ruoyun arranged for Li Changjiang to join her in sending the six students into the Star Soul Tower for the third touch.
• Yu Moyan and Li Chenglong killed their Witch Alliance sworn siblings without hesitation, while Wan Lixiu, Long Yusheng, and Li Changming killed theirs after anguished hesitation.
• Yu Moyan and Li Chenglong earned grade A, while Wan Lixiu, Long Yusheng, and Li Changming received grade B.
• Zuo Xiaoduo befriended a Witch Alliance man without becoming his sworn brother, and the wounded man revealed his identity and asked Zuo Xiaoduo to kill or hand him over.

Zuo Xiaoduo rescued a wounded man, helped him escape across the border, and was carried into the Witch Alliance Lands after the man knocked him unconscious to prevent him from returning. Li Changjiang and Hu Ruoyun waited for his preliminary assessment, which appeared as four question marks.

• Zuo Xiaoduo treated the man's injuries, hid him, supplied him with medicine and provisions, and helped him flee.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and the man swore brotherhood before fighting their way across the border, where Zuo Xiaoduo's identity was exposed.
• Zuo Xiaoduo refused to join the man in the Witch Alliance Lands, but the man knocked him unconscious and carried him there.
• Li Changjiang and Hu Ruoyun watched the trial end and worried that Zuo Xiaoduo's actions would make him appear to be a traitor.
• Hu Ruoyun and Li Changjiang saw Zuo Xiaoduo's preliminary assessment appear as four question marks.

After Zuo Xiaoduo received an inexplicable assessment result, Hu Ruoyun and Li Changjiang celebrated the students’ graduation with a tearful dinner. Zuo Xiaoduo gave Hu Ruoyun fifty pieces of top-grade star soul jade, and he and Zuo Xiaonian continued training afterward.

• Hu Ruoyun and Li Changjiang found four question marks where Zuo Xiaoduo’s assessment result should have been, then praised him when he came to take them to dinner.
• Hu Ruoyun and Li Changjiang dined with the six students, and Hu Ruoyun wept as she faced their departure for higher education.
• Li Changjiang discovered that Zuo Xiaoduo had given Hu Ruoyun fifty pieces of top-grade star soul jade, and Hu Ruoyun asked him to return them.
• Zuo Xiaoduo refused to take the gift back and told Li Changjiang to make sure Hu Ruoyun used every piece.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian continued cultivating and training together in deserted places.

After returning home, Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian reunited with Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting and told them about their recent experiences. As the siblings prepared to leave for school in three days, Zuo Xiaonian noticed that their parents had aged and asked them why.

• Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian came home exhausted, saw the lights on, and rushed upstairs to find Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting waiting for them.
• Zuo Xiaoduo hugged and spun Wu Yuting around while Zuo Xiaonian greeted Zuo Changlu, and the family sat down to talk.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian described their recent experiences, while Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting listened without revealing they already knew about them.
• Wu Yuting asked about the siblings leaving for school in three days, and Zuo Xiaoduo urged his parents to move with them to Fenghai.
• Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting said they would remain in Phoenix City, and Zuo Xiaonian noticed they had aged and asked why.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian learned that their parents were aging as part of a Mortal World Trial, and the family prepared for the siblings to leave for university. Zuo Xiaonian departed before breakfast, unable to face a farewell.

• Zuo Changlu and Wu Yuting told Zuo Xiaoduo that their rapid aging was part of returning to cultivation, and Zuo Xiaonian identified it as a Mortal World Trial.
• Wu Yuting said the parents planned to move near King Qi's Tomb after the siblings left, though Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian suspected there was another reason.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Zuo Xiaonian spent several days with their parents, who repeatedly sent them out to practice and told them to leave for university.
• The siblings talked together through the night before parting, and Zuo Xiaonian beat Zuo Xiaoduo after he stole a kiss.
• Zuo Xiaonian left early the next morning without staying for breakfast, and Wu Yuting said she was probably crying on the road.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong left Phoenix City for Hidden Dragon High Martial, sharing a final look back at home before entering the dangerous Falling Star Plains. They chose to cross the meteor-struck wilderness as a trial, and Zuo Xiaoduo asked Li Chenglong what caused the showers.

• Zuo Xiaoduo said goodbye to Wu Yuting and Zuo Changlu, who hid their grief until he left.
• Zuo Xiaoduo met Li Chenglong outside Phoenix City, and they set out together.
• The two looked back toward their homes from a mountain before heading into the Falling Star Plains.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong avoided the protected road and traveled through the meteor-struck wilderness with their trial devices activated.
• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Li Chenglong about the cause of the meteor showers, and Li Chenglong said he did not know for certain.

Li Chenglong proposed that the endless meteor shower came from a distant planet breaking apart, while Zuo Xiaoduo challenged his theory. After Zuo Xiaoduo extracted a huge piece of middle-grade star soul jade from a fallen meteorite, Li Chenglong envied his windfall and argued over sharing it and repaying his debt.

• Li Chenglong argued that the meteor shower came from a distant planet breaking apart and explained how the star soul jade supported his theory.
• Zuo Xiaoduo questioned Li Chenglong's reasoning by pointing out that Star Soul Continent had star soul jade with the same composition.
• Zuo Xiaoduo dodged a falling meteorite, split it open with his Spirit Cat Sword, and uncovered a huge piece of middle-grade star soul jade.
• Li Chenglong envied Zuo Xiaoduo's prize, but Zuo Xiaoduo explained that his strength, Flame Sun Divine Art, and Spirit Cat Sword had let him retrieve it.
• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Li Chenglong when he would repay his debt, and Li Chenglong refused and demanded half the star soul jade.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong traveled through the meteorite field, quarrelling over their finds and the debt Li Chenglong owed for his Space Ring. As they approached the Official Road to rest, they heard someone calling for help and went to investigate.

• Zuo Xiaoduo agreed to count a patch of Star Ginseng seedlings toward Li Chenglong’s Space Ring debt, but only as one ten-thousandth of what he owed.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong continued their journey, with Li Chenglong struggling under nearly twenty thousand jin of weight while searching for treasures.
• Zuo Xiaoduo suggested they rest on the Official Road, and Li Chenglong agreed after traveling another two hundred li.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong heard cries for help near the road and headed toward them to assess the situation.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Li Chenglong that protagonists like himself naturally encountered trouble wherever they went.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong found Ji Weiran and a caravan surrounded by a vast horde of Star Beasts. Zuo Xiaoduo used a Top-Grade Star Soul Jade to draw the horde toward himself, but the largest beasts stayed behind.

• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong came upon thousands of Star Beasts surrounding a group guarded by Merchant Alliance Grandmasters.
• Zuo Xiaoduo recognized Ji Weiran among the trapped people and decided he could not leave him to die.
• Zuo Xiaoduo exposed a Top-Grade Star Soul Jade, releasing a surge of spiritual energy that attracted the Star Beasts.
• The horde charged toward Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong, while nearly one hundred large Star Beasts resisted the jade's lure and remained in the center.

Zuo Xiaoduo used a piece of Top-Grade Star Soul Jade to send Li Chenglong running with a horde of Star Beasts, then approached the remaining Winged Sword Tigers and recognized an old acquaintance among them. He offered the tigers cooked meat, opening a strange and potentially useful encounter while the people trapped inside the ring of fire remained in danger.

• Zuo Xiaoduo gave Li Chenglong Top-Grade Star Soul Jade and ordered him to remove his weights and lure the Star Beasts away.
• Li Chenglong fled with thousands of Star Beasts chasing him, while Zuo Xiaoduo emerged from underground and found that only the more dangerous beasts remained.
• Zuo Xiaoduo walked unharmed through the Winged Sword Tigers and recognized the tigress he had met during an earlier trial.
• The tigress hid behind a large tiger and told him that Zuo Xiaoduo had bullied her before.
• Zuo Xiaoduo offered the tigers cooked meat, and the tigress and nearby large tigers began eating.

Zuo Xiaoduo discovered that the Winged Sword Tigers had surrounded the Merchant Alliance group because they wanted an unidentified possession, not to eat the humans. He brought the white-eared tigress to the group to help identify what the tigers sought, leaving them facing the enormous beast.

• Zuo Xiaoduo fed the tigers and confirmed that they would let him approach the fire ring.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told the Merchant Alliance experts that the tigers wanted something from their belongings, but the group could not identify it.
• Zuo Xiaoduo returned to the tigers and persuaded the big tiger to send the white-eared tigress with him.
• Zuo Xiaoduo led the aggrieved tigress, more than ten meters long, toward the Merchant Alliance group, whose members recoiled at her bloody scent.

Zuo Xiaoduo discovered that Ji Weiran had unknowingly carried a cracked pearl containing fragments of a tiger elder’s inner core, which had drawn the tigers to the group. He fed the fragments to the tigress and the big male tiger, leaving the tigers in an uproar.

• The tigress searched the group’s belongings and identified Ji Weiran as the one carrying the hidden treasure.
• Zuo Xiaoduo noticed Ji Weiran’s pendant and asked whether he had fallen face-first, learning that he had cracked the pearl in a recent fall.
• Zuo Xiaoduo opened the pearl and revealed two fragments of a tiger inner core that the tigress had been seeking.
• Zuo Xiaoduo fed the smaller fragment and a piece of Top-Grade Star Soul Jade to the tigress, who swallowed them gratefully.
• The tigress called over the big male tiger, who swallowed the remaining fragment as the other tigers stirred.

Zuo Xiaoduo let the Winged Sword Tigers leave with the inner core fragment instead of claiming it for himself, then helped Ji Weiran and his classmates continue toward Fenghai. After exchanging contact details with Ji Weiran, Zuo Xiaoduo headed off alone and found no sign of Li Chenglong at their agreed meeting place.

• The tigress rubbed against Zuo Xiaoduo before she and the Winged Sword Tigers departed with the inner core fragment.
• Zuo Xiaoduo decided not to take the fragment, despite recognizing that it could greatly advance his cultivation.
• Ji Weiran thanked Zuo Xiaoduo and explained that he and his classmates had hired bodyguards to travel to university as a sightseeing adventure.
• Zuo Xiaoduo learned the group was headed to Fenghai, warned them to avoid such dangerous trips, and exchanged contact details with Ji Weiran.
• Zuo Xiaoduo continued onward and, after traveling more than five hundred li, still had not found Li Chenglong.

Zuo Xiaoduo found Li Chenglong, who had discovered a ruined Star Soul Musk Deer burrow that might contain valuable Orchid Fragrance Grass. Li Chenglong explained that the grass could help a Hidden Dragon High Martial vice principal, and Zuo Xiaoduo eagerly began harvesting it; the chapter ended with him emerging with a steaming clod of earth.

• Zuo Xiaoduo found Li Chenglong hiding in a deep hole after he had escaped the Star Beasts by running far from them with the Star Soul Jade.
• Li Chenglong told Zuo Xiaoduo that a Star Soul Stone had crashed into a hillside burrow, where he had detected the fragrance of a former Star Soul Musk Deer habitat.
• Li Chenglong explained that Orchid Fragrance Grass grew where the deer had lived and could cure Vice Principal Xiang's persistent stench.
• Zuo Xiaoduo lost interest when he thought the grass would earn only a few hundred thousand, but perked up when Li Chenglong suggested the burrow might hold at least ten stalks.
• Li Chenglong told Zuo Xiaoduo to harvest the grass with its soil and keep the soil above sixty degrees, then rested as Zuo Xiaoduo worked.
• Zuo Xiaoduo emerged carrying a large clod of steaming earth.

Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong reached Fenghai City after Zuo Xiaoduo used the lost Star Soul Jade as an excuse to make Li Chenglong serve him along the way. In the Wu Lineage, someone confirmed Zuo Xiaoduo had arrived to attend Hidden Dragon High Martial and ordered everyone not to act rashly.

• Zuo Xiaoduo found only one Orchid Fragrance Grass, while Li Chenglong admitted the Top-Grade Star Soul Jade was gone.
• Zuo Xiaoduo beat Li Chenglong and used the ring and Star Soul Jade as leverage to make him work throughout their journey.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong arrived in Fenghai City, where Li Chenglong realized Zuo Xiaoduo had used the jade as payment for his service.
• A person in the Wu Lineage confirmed Zuo Xiaoduo had come to Fenghai City for Hidden Dragon High Martial and ordered the others not to act rashly.

The Wu and Gao Lineage Heads ordered their young members to befriend Zuo Xiaoduo, while secretly planning to kill him and exploit his fame to deflect suspicion and gain powerful allies. Their scheme relied on keeping their own members ignorant and manufacturing public evidence of friendly relations with him.

• The Wu Lineage Head told its students not to seek revenge for Yun Tian and to befriend Zuo Xiaoduo, even suggesting the girls take an interest in him.
• The Gao Lineage Head likewise ordered its members not to harbor hostility toward Zuo Xiaoduo and threatened to expel anyone who disobeyed.
• That evening, the Wu and Gao Lineages' core members agreed to have their young members build genuine-looking friendships with Zuo Xiaoduo before arranging his death.
• The Lineage Heads planned to document Zuo Xiaoduo's interactions with their members and ordinary classmates, using online personalities and public accounts to shape opinion and create evidence that would clear their lineages after his death.

Zhan Xiaofei argued with the principal over Zuo Xiaoduo’s safety and lodging, only to learn the principal had arranged a cheap villa for Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong. After the principal threatened his pay, Zhan Xiaofei left and cursed him in a restroom, where someone recognized who he was talking about.

• Zhan Xiaofei went to the principal to discuss Zuo Xiaoduo’s treatment and safety after the Life-and-Death Arena incident.
• The principal said Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong could rent a vacant villa beside his home for fifty a month until they left the school.
• Zhan Xiaofei accused the principal of taking over his student, and the principal called him a recruiter and threatened to suspend his performance pay.
• Zhan Xiaofei apologized, then left the Principal’s Office after the principal ordered him out.
• Zhan Xiaofei cursed the principal in a first-floor restroom and complained about the villa arrangement.
• A person in the next stall asked Zhan Xiaofei whether the person he was cursing was the principal.

Zuo Xiaonian and Mu Yanyan neared the Upper Capital, where a powerful Witch Alliance assassin ambushed them. Realizing they had almost no chance against him, Mu Yanyan prepared to sacrifice herself so Zuo Xiaonian could try to escape and warn others.

• Zhan Xiaofei paid off Old Xiang to delete a recording and its cloud backup.
• Mu Yanyan escorted Zuo Xiaonian toward the Nine Heavens Pavilion and planned to stay in the Upper Capital to protect her.
• A masked Witch Alliance man appeared and revealed that he had come to kill Mu Yanyan and Zuo Xiaonian.
• Mu Yanyan told Zuo Xiaonian to flee toward the Upper Capital and send a warning when the battle began.
• Zuo Xiaonian accepted the plan, understanding that Mu Yanyan would likely detonate herself to give her a chance to survive.

Mu Yanyan and Zuo Xiaonian faced the man in black, who attacked them both at once and knocked Zuo Xiaonian unconscious. A palm print on Zuo Xiaonian summoned Marshal Nan’s shadow, which captured and crippled the attacker before vanishing, and Mu Yanyan revived Zuo Xiaonian.

• The man in black split his attack between Mu Yanyan and Zuo Xiaonian, forcing Mu Yanyan onto the defensive.
• The man in black knocked away Zuo Xiaonian’s sword and struck her head, but she fell without being injured.
• An ethereal palm rose from Zuo Xiaonian’s shoulder and transformed into Marshal Nan’s shadow.
• Marshal Nan’s shadow caught the fleeing man in black, broke his bones, and ordered Mu Yanyan to take him to the Nine Heavens Pavilion for interrogation.
• Marshal Nan’s shadow vanished, and Mu Yanyan confirmed Zuo Xiaonian was unharmed and brought her around.

Zuo Xiaonian and Mu Yanyan brought the defeated Witch Alliance attacker to the Nine Heavens Pavilion, where Mu Yanyan received a chance to qualify for entry if she reached God-Imperial within two years. Zuo Xiaonian began her entry challenge under the name Zuo Ling Nian.

• Zuo Xiaonian woke and learned that she and Mu Yanyan had survived the ambush, then helped carry the masked Witch Alliance attacker to the Nine Heavens Pavilion.
• The Pavilion’s elders recognized signs of Minister Nan’s White Silver Profound Origin Qi and took the attacker into a secret chamber without removing his mask.
• An elder told Mu Yanyan she could qualify to enter the Pavilion if she reached God-Imperial within two years, and she hurried back to the Kunlun Dao Sect to train.
• Zuo Xiaonian entered the Core Origin Pavilion and was told to choose one of ten challenge groups and defeat an opponent to stay.
• The Pavilion staff addressed her as Zuo Ling Nian, the name she used outside her family and the source of her title, Spirit Thought Heavenly Maiden.