Chapter Summaries

After completing his first compression and replenishing his energy, Zuo Xiaoduo learned that a gigantic Centipede King had emerged nearby. He began tunneling toward it cautiously, hoping to find a chance for combat without being noticed.

• Zuo Xiaoduo recovered from his first compression, then cultivated for six hours and found that the Dragon Blood Flying Knife's reserves were nearly depleted.
• Little Dragon warned Zuo Xiaoduo that a centipede weighing around a hundred thousand jin had appeared, and Zuo Xiaoduo abandoned his thoughts of eating it.
• Zuo Xiaoduo emerged from the Annihilation Sky Pagoda and sensed the Centipede King's immense pressure despite being underground and two hundred li away.
• Zuo Xiaoduo dug carefully toward the Centipede King while Little Dragon repeatedly scouted and reported that the beast either had not noticed him or did not care.

Zuo Xiaoduo escaped the Centipede King's attention by changing direction underground, then used an underground river to put distance between them. Near the surface, he emerged through a tree root into two snakes, burned them with the Flame Sun True Scripture, and watched them flee in opposite directions.

• After Little Dragon warned that the Centipede King was watching, Zuo Xiaoduo changed direction and buried trigger-activated land mines near the end of his tunnel.
• Zuo Xiaoduo found an underground river, drifted away with its current, and resumed tunneling after the Centipede King's presence receded.
• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Little Dragon about the centipede's poison and learned that thousands of people were gathering outside to kill him.
• Zuo Xiaoduo emerged from a hollow in a tree root and landed between two large snakes coiled around the tree.
• Zuo Xiaoduo circulated the Flame Sun True Scripture, burning the snakes until they fled in opposite directions.

Zuo Xiaoduo encountered the Black Mountain Four Wolves after they mistook him for an easy target. He killed three and captured the last, leaving their fate in his hands.

• Zuo Xiaoduo let two charred snakes flee as four black-clad men cautiously approached.
• The Black Mountain Four Wolves recognized Zuo Xiaoduo and pursued him, hoping to kill him and claim his body.
• Zuo Xiaoduo warned the four that disaster awaited them, but they attacked anyway.
• Zuo Xiaoduo fought back with his training hammers and fire techniques, killing three of the four men.
• Zuo Xiaoduo put the three corpses into the Annihilation Sky Pagoda and asked the surviving man whether he believed the warning now.

After killing four attackers, Zuo Xiaoduo received six Fortune Points because his face-reading prediction had come true and the last man had acknowledged it. He hid nearby when thirty or forty cautious cultivators arrived, considering whether he could take advantage of them.

• Zuo Xiaoduo collected the four attackers’ corpses and the three surviving Space Rings, then cleared away traces of the fight.
• The dying man sneered, “Spot-on,” and died, triggering six Fortune Points for Zuo Xiaoduo’s fulfilled face-reading.
• Zuo Xiaoduo concluded that his greed had helped complete the face-reading process and vowed to remain stingy.
• Hearing others approach, Zuo Xiaoduo left a false footprint, returned to the tree hollow, and waited in hiding.
• Thirty or forty heavily prepared cultivators landed nearby, and Zuo Xiaoduo judged that he could not defeat them all.

Zuo Xiaoduo was discovered by a group that deduced he had a powerful hidden ally, then escaped their first attack through underground tunnels. Dozens of experts poured into the tunnels to pursue him, while more fighters quietly joined the hunt.

• A group examined the battle site and concluded that Zuo Xiaoduo had a hidden, powerful helper who had killed four attackers and erased the evidence.
• Zuo Xiaoduo sensed danger, dropped into a tunnel, and narrowly avoided having the tree where he hid blasted apart.
• Two pursuers chased Zuo Xiaoduo underground, where he struck one with his sledgehammer before escaping as their clash collapsed part of the tunnel.
• Someone shouted that Zuo Xiaoduo was underground, and thirty or forty people rushed into the tunnels, sweeping the area with Divine Sense.
• More fighters noticed the commotion and entered quietly, eager to join the pursuit without alerting their companions.

Zuo Xiaoduo hid in the Annihilation Sky Pagoda after luring dozens of pursuers into a tunnel, hoping they would encounter a dangerous centipede. As he waited and healed, Little Dragon revealed a possible Soul-Tempering Vermilion Fruit nearby.

• A fast pursuer warned the others that the Snake King was ahead, but the group continued into the freshly dug tunnel after Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Zuo Xiaoduo entered the Annihilation Sky Pagoda to heal and hide, leaving the pursuers to advance toward the centipede he hoped they would meet.
• Little Dragon reported that no one else was approaching from outside, and Zuo Xiaoduo chose to wait and cultivate rather than leave the pagoda.
• Little Dragon described an underground tree bearing red fruits that resembled Soul-Tempering Vermilion Fruit, and Zuo Xiaoduo planned to inspect it and promised Little Dragon a droplet if it was genuine.

Ye Changqing and his companions entered Star Beast Forest to search for Zuo Xiaoduo, unaware that he had lost contact with Grandma Shi. Meanwhile, seventy-six bounty hunters followed Zuo Xiaoduo’s long tunnel, growing wary of one another as they pressed toward its end.

• Ye Changqing learned that Zuo Xiaoduo had entered Star Beast Forest and led his team deeper into the forest to find him.
• Ye Changqing assumed Zuo Xiaoduo was safe because Yu Jiaren was with him, not knowing Zuo Xiaoduo had used the Heavenly Origin Evasion Technique and left Grandma Shi’s protection.
• Seventy-six pursuers advanced through Zuo Xiaoduo’s tunnel, including six God-Imperial experts, forty-three Cloud Transformation experts, and the concealed Starving Ghost.
• Two pursuers suggested Zuo Xiaoduo might have escaped through another route, but the others dismissed the idea after finding no sign of another tunnel.
• The pursuers remarked on the tunnel’s great length and how cleverly Zuo Xiaoduo had hidden its entrance inside a tree hollow.

Seventy-six bounty hunters followed Zuo Xiaoduo underground, mistaking the growing danger for an expected ambush by his protectors. They stepped onto Zuo Xiaoduo’s chain-triggered landmines just as the enraged centipede prepared to strike.

• The hunters praised Zuo Xiaoduo’s choice of hiding place while pressing onward to capture him for the bounty.
• The group sensed loose soil and a threatening presence ahead, assumed Zuo Xiaoduo’s helpers were waiting in ambush, and continued forward despite their growing fear.
• The enormous centipede aboveground grew furious, believing the approaching humans intended to raid its lair.
• The lead hunter triggered one of Zuo Xiaoduo’s chain-triggered landmines, then argued with the hunters behind him when they urged him to keep moving.
• A fierce baleful aura descended upon the hunters.

Zuo Xiaoduo’s landmines collapsed the tunnel and provoked both the buried experts and the Centipede King into a confrontation. The seventy-six experts blasted their way toward the surface as the enraged Centipede King prepared to face them.

• The Centipede King rushed toward the group, but Zuo Xiaoduo’s landmines exploded and brought down the tunnel.
• The collapse stirred the Centipede King’s killing intent, and the seventy-six experts attacked together and blasted through the earth.
• The experts pushed off falling chunks of soil as they surged toward the surface, bracing for a fight to the death.
• The Centipede King tried to dig up the intruders, but the upheaval below knocked its enormous body onto its back.
• The Centipede King righted itself, fixed its gaze on the ground where the experts were about to emerge, and readied itself to fight.

The Centipede King attacked the seventy-six cultivators who emerged from underground, killing many despite their coordinated efforts. Starving Ghost wounded him by severing a foreleg, but the survivors were poisoned and the Centipede King’s rampage continued.

• The seventy-six cultivators emerged underground and spotted the enormous Centipede King, then leaped into the air hoping to escape.
• The Centipede King mistook their flight for an attack, engulfed them in poisonous mist, and killed eighteen with his claws and feet.
• More than thirty masters struck the Centipede King’s legs with Body and Sword as One, but their weapons barely harmed him.
• Starving Ghost led seven God-Imperial masters in a combined attack and severed one of the Centipede King’s forelegs.
• The enraged Centipede King unleashed venom and crushed more cultivators, killing three of the seven God-Imperial masters and poisoning the remaining fighters.

Starving Ghost and three others were trapped by the Centipede King while poisoned, and a crowd rushed to Poison Mist Valley after hearing the explosions. Ye Changqing and the others dispersed the poisonous mist and entered the valley, where they found the enormous Centipede King and dozens of corpses; Ye Changqing searched anxiously for Zuo Xiaoduo.

• The Centipede King coiled around Starving Ghost and three others, trapping them as they slowly succumbed to its poison.
• Ye Changqing, Grandma Shi, and others rushed toward the explosions, suspecting that Zuo Xiaoduo had been found.
• After learning the fighting was in Poison Mist Valley, Ye Changqing and thousands of experts worked together to blow away the poisonous mist.
• Zhan Xiaofei warned Minister Nan that the poison could form clouds and fall as deadly rain, asking him to alert the major cities.
• The crowd took antidote pills and entered the valley, where they saw the Centipede King and dozens of corpses; Ye Changqing searched for Zuo Xiaoduo.

Wen Xingtian and Ye Changqing realized Zuo Xiaoduo had likely lured his pursuers into a trap, where the Centipede King had cornered Starving Ghost and three others. Starving Ghost blamed Zuo Xiaoduo and begged his brothers to avenge him, while Wen Xingtian furiously defended his student and taunted Hanging Ghost.

• Wen Xingtian told Ye Changqing that Zuo Xiaoduo was absent and had probably used the land mines to lure pursuers to the Centipede King.
• The Centipede King trapped four humans in a circle, and Starving Ghost warned Hanging Ghost and Drowning Ghost not to try to save him because its venom had reached his organs.
• Starving Ghost blamed Zuo Xiaoduo for the trap and urged his brothers to kill him, though Starving Ghost had never met or seen Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Hanging Ghost promised to avenge Starving Ghost, and Wen Xingtian laughed at him and declared that Starving Ghost deserved to die.
• Hanging Ghost accused Wen Xingtian of failing to act like an exemplary teacher, and Wen Xingtian insulted him and said such manners were wasted on beasts.

Wen Xingtian taunted Hanging Ghost while Hidden Dragon High Martial recorded the gathered bounty hunters, and Hanging Ghost tried to rally them against the school. No one joined him, leaving him furious and trapped between protecting his brother and avoiding a hopeless fight.

• Wen Xingtian cursed Hanging Ghost for standing by while his sworn brother faced death, and Hanging Ghost stayed back rather than challenge Hidden Dragon High Martial.
• Wen Xingtian mocked Hanging Ghost as he traded curses, while Zhan Xiaofei and the others recorded the gathered people as enemies of the school.
• Hanging Ghost urged the bounty hunters to unite against Hidden Dragon High Martial before they could be picked off one by one.
• Wen Xingtian ridiculed Hanging Ghost's appeal, and the others refused to join because attacking the school's teachers would bring consequences far worse than pursuing Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Hanging Ghost seethed as he considered leaving, but his trapped brother's gaze and the shame of abandoning him held him in place.

The Great Centipede killed Starving Ghost and the other three trapped people while Hanging Ghost and Drowning Ghost watched helplessly. Wen Xingtian mocked the brothers for leaving without retrieving Starving Ghost’s body, and they departed as his corpse began to decay.

• Wen Xingtian taunted Hanging Ghost for staying to watch the fight, while Hidden Dragon High Martial’s teachers recognized where Zuo Xiaoduo’s shamelessness came from.
• Starving Ghost urged Hanging Ghost and Drowning Ghost to leave, then he and the three others made a hopeless charge at the Great Centipede.
• The Great Centipede bound the four with its antennae, bit them in half, and killed them; Hanging Ghost and Drowning Ghost grieved over Starving Ghost’s death.
• Ye Changqing led Hidden Dragon High Martial away, and Wen Xingtian mocked Hanging Ghost for not daring to retrieve his brother’s body.
• Hanging Ghost said Starving Ghost’s poisoned corpse would soon turn to pus, then led Drowning Ghost away as Wen Xingtian ridiculed them to the onlookers.

Wen Xingtian’s group traveled toward Zuo Xiaoduo while preparing for a potentially deadly confrontation, and Zuo Xiaoduo emerged from the Annihilation Sky Pagoda after compressing his True Essence Power. He learned that a giant centipede had killed his pursuers and began planning to collect their spoils, then grew curious about the treasures guarded by Star Beast kings.

• Wen Xingtian kept shouting after Hanging Ghost even as Hidden Dragon High Martial’s group traveled hundreds of li, while Ye Changqing explained that he was signaling their presence to Zuo Xiaoduo.
• Ye Changqing warned the group not to split up and said they might have to sacrifice themselves to help Zuo Xiaoduo escape.
• Zuo Xiaoduo emerged from the Annihilation Sky Pagoda at night after Little Dragon confirmed the area was safe.
• Little Dragon told Zuo Xiaoduo that the giant centipede had killed all seventy-six pursuers, and Zuo Xiaoduo sent him back to find their Space Rings and weapons.
• Little Dragon reported that the centipede was guarding a nearly ripe treasure beneath a cliff, and Zuo Xiaoduo asked about it and learned that the tiger and snake Star Beast kings guarded treasures too.

Little Dragon explained that the three demon kings were guarding ancient Demon Race inheritances and treasures that could transform them. Zuo Xiaoduo learned what each treasure was and left eager to claim the Heavenly Tiger Moonlight Paste, even though he could not use it himself.

• Little Dragon explained that the Winged Sword Tiger, Snake King, and Centipede King had gained power from ancient Demon Race inheritances.
• Little Dragon said the Winged Sword Tiger guarded Heavenly Tiger Moonlight Paste, which would mature within days and help awaken his bloodline further.
• Zuo Xiaoduo heard about the Heavenly Tiger Moonlight Paste and wished he could take it and sell it, despite knowing it probably would not benefit him.
• Little Dragon explained that the Snake King guarded a maturing Snake Soul Fruit nurtured by the soul crystal of an ancient snake demon.
• Little Dragon revealed that the Centipede King guarded a single-horned flood dragon's intact remains and three Dragon Soul Ginseng plants, which could help the centipede awaken its dragon bloodline and possibly become a true dragon.

After learning that the Dragon Soul Ginseng could greatly increase cultivation and strengthen Star Souls, Zuo Xiaoduo reluctantly held back from confronting the centipede and prepared to retrieve the nearby Space Rings. Once Little Dragon confirmed the centipede had returned beneath the cliff, Zuo Xiaoduo crawled through a tunnel toward the loot.

• Little Dragon told Zuo Xiaoduo that the three Dragon Soul Ginseng plants could regrow and that each plant could add at least two thousand years of cultivation to a human.
• Zuo Xiaoduo imagined the benefits of the ginseng but reminded himself that he could not afford to provoke the centipede.
• Little Dragon returned at evening and reported that the centipede had gone back beneath the cliff.
• Zuo Xiaoduo unraveled clothes and twisted their threads into more than a hundred long cords to retrieve the Space Rings.
• After Little Dragon confirmed the centipede was gone, Zuo Xiaoduo crawled through the tunnel toward the spot.

Zuo Xiaoduo reached the surface beneath the Centipede King and tried to retrieve the Space Rings without being noticed. The Centipede King caught on and repeatedly snapped his threads, leaving Zuo Xiaoduo stuck underground and frustrated.

• Zuo Xiaoduo crawled through the collapsed tunnel and stopped fifty feet below the surface, where Space Rings lay scattered among the earth.
• The Centipede King repeatedly lashed the ground whenever it sensed Zuo Xiaoduo moving through the soil.
• Zuo Xiaoduo sent a thread toward a Space Ring and slowly reeled it in, but the Centipede King flicked the Ring away and snapped the thread near the surface.
• After waiting an hour, Zuo Xiaoduo tried again, but the Centipede King snapped his thread once more.
• Zuo Xiaoduo reached for another Ring with a longer thread, and the Centipede King again cut it at the last moment, amused by his repeated attempts.

Zuo Xiaoduo spent two nights trying to retrieve Space Rings from the Centipede King’s hoard, recovering thirty-six while forty remained just out of reach. After the Centipede King killed a bounty hunter who tried to take them, it immobilized Zuo Xiaoduo as he attempted to retreat.

• Zuo Xiaoduo tested the Centipede King’s limits and managed to retrieve three of his first six targeted Space Rings.
• Zuo Xiaoduo spent two nights and a day pulling at the seventy-six rings, collecting thirty-six and leaving forty piled ten meters away.
• A bounty hunter swooped down to grab the pile, but the Centipede King speared him with a feeler and dragged him away, adding his Space Ring to the pile.
• Zuo Xiaoduo decided to abandon the remaining rings and began crawling away, but a savage aura immobilized him.

Zuo Xiaoduo was trapped by the Centipede King, who repeatedly immobilized him and then used demonic power to make him retrieve a ring, revealing that he wanted Zuo Xiaoduo to keep playing with the treasure. The Centipede King killed two more treasure hunters, leaving Zuo Xiaoduo stuck beside the rings as his unwilling toy.

• The Centipede King immobilized Zuo Xiaoduo whenever he tried to flee, then released him and repeated the trick until Zuo Xiaoduo was terrified.
• The Centipede King controlled Zuo Xiaoduo’s hand with demonic power and made him use a cord to retrieve a ring.
• The Centipede King moved the remaining rings away and waited for Zuo Xiaoduo to understand that he was expected to keep retrieving them.
• Two more men tried to snatch the rings with spirit silkworm silk, but the Centipede King severed their threads and killed them with his antennae.
• The Centipede King added the two men’s Space Rings to the pile, bringing its total to forty-two.