Chapter Summaries

Minister Nan restrained the Crown Prince from rushing to Hidden Dragon after he learned the Central Plains King was involved, then discussed Gao Zhiyun’s future with Ye Changqing. He agreed to spare Gao Zhiyun but transferred him and his family away from the Capital City, while Zuo Xiaoduo continued getting beaten in training.

• The Crown Prince learned about the Central Plains King and nearly acted rashly, but Nan Zhengqian warned him of the danger and escorted him back to the imperial palace.
• Nan Zhengqian spoke privately with the emperor, then ordered Ye Changqing to keep the prisoner’s situation secret.
• Ye Changqing vouched for Gao Zhiyun, citing his repentance and his wife’s ties to the Ximen Lineage.
• Nan Zhengqian agreed to give Gao Zhiyun a chance but ordered him to become vice principal at Shuicheng First High School and barred his family from returning to the Capital City for a hundred years.
• Ye Changqing told Nan Zhengqian that Zuo Xiaoduo was getting beaten by his instructor, making Nan Zhengqian laugh.

Upper Capital City’s agencies struggled to process the many arrests while Minister Nan faced calls from old comrades serving across the armies. They never asked him to spare the accused, but Nan Zhengqian understood that their stories and banter were pleas for compassion on behalf of fallen brothers’ families.

• Upper Capital City’s law enforcement agencies, joined by disciplinary, military, and martial education departments, began trying the many cases at once.
• Generals across the armies called Nan Zhengqian, using old nicknames and memories to reconnect with him.
• Nan Zhengqian answered the calls for several days, unable to refuse his former comrades even as the work exhausted him.
• The veterans avoided asking for leniency, but Nan Zhengqian recognized that they hoped he would remember their bonds with the accused men’s fallen relatives.

Nan Zhengqian reassured hundreds of old generals that guilty members of the meritorious Lineages would be punished, while innocent descendants would be spared and allowed to atone through border service. Meanwhile, Zuo Xiaoduo was beaten by the rescuers who had searched for him after learning he had knowingly kept them waiting in the Star Radiance Mountain Range.

• Nan Zhengqian took calls from old generals pleading for leniency toward the descendants of their former comrades.
• Nan Zhengqian formed a group chat and promised severe punishment for the guilty, while sparing less-corrupted descendants from extermination and giving them a chance to earn merit at the border.
• Nan Zhengqian reflected that he would have spared innocent members of the Lineages even without the generals' pleas, but would execute the chief culprits.
• Ye Changqing, Wen Xingtian, Grandma Shi, Xiang Kuangren, Zhan Xiaofei, and the other rescuers repeatedly beat Zuo Xiaoduo for staying hidden while they worried about him.
• Zuo Xiaoduo protested that he had been used as bait and that powerful bodyguards had prevented him from meeting the rescuers.

After Zuo Xiaoduo endured Grandma Shi’s furious beatings, he contacted his family and admitted he had lied about going on a trial. He reassured his parents that he had made a huge haul and promised to bring them gifts when he returned home.

• Grandma Shi repeatedly chased and whipped Zuo Xiaoduo for worrying her while he was away.
• Zuo Xiaoduo messaged his family and tried to claim school had just let out, but Empress Mother called out his lie about Star Radiance Mountain Range.
• Zuo Xiaoduo confessed, apologized, and blamed Nian Nian Cat for teaching him to lie.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told his parents that his trial had yielded mountains of treasure and promised to bring them gifts when he came home.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Nian Nian Cat arranged a cultivation challenge, with the loser facing an embarrassing forfeit.
• Empress Mother told them to stop bickering and asked them to give her notice before coming home so she could make chive pancakes.

Zuo Xiaoduo brought Li Chenglong into the Annihilation Sky Pagoda to help sort his spoils, but the Blazing Sun Heart’s intense heat left Li Chenglong bald and naked. The pagoda’s interior eventually cooled to a comfortable temperature as Zuo Xiaoduo absorbed the heat.

• Zuo Xiaoduo celebrated with Nian Nian Cat after his return and called Li Chenglong upstairs to help handle his spoils.
• Zuo Xiaoduo brought out the Annihilation Sky Pagoda and dragged Li Chenglong inside.
• Li Chenglong was overwhelmed by the heat from the Blazing Sun Heart and screamed as his hair and clothes burned away.
• Zuo Xiaoduo waited before using the Flame Sun True Scripture to absorb the heat while Li Chenglong endured the furnace-like interior.
• After about twenty minutes, the pagoda became comfortably warm, but Li Chenglong had been left bald and completely naked.

Zuo Xiaoduo revealed a thousand Space Rings and recruited Li Chenglong to help sort them, while the two argued over his pay. The chapter ended with Zuo Xiaoduo raising his offer to two hundred pieces of middle-grade Star Soul Jade.

• Zuo Xiaoduo mocked Li Chenglong for being naked after protecting his body but not his clothes.
• Zuo Xiaoduo laid out a thousand Space Rings and asked Li Chenglong to help sort through them.
• Li Chenglong demanded the two best rings and one percent of the proceeds as payment.
• Zuo Xiaoduo rejected Li Chenglong’s demand and offered him a hundred pieces of middle-grade Star Soul Jade.
• Li Chenglong called the offer inadequate, and Zuo Xiaoduo raised it to two hundred pieces.

Zuo Xiaoduo put Li Chenglong to work opening and sorting a thousand Space Rings, paying him five thousand upper-grade pieces and sending Little Dragon to haul earth veins. After fifty rings yielded mountains of supplies and many more sealed rings, Li Chenglong was exhausted and warned Zuo Xiaoduo that the space might not be large enough for everything.

• Li Chenglong bargained with Zuo Xiaoduo for payment, accepted five thousand upper-grade pieces, and began unlocking the Space Rings.
• Zuo Xiaoduo sent Little Dragon to haul earth veins, promising one droplet for each vein.
• Li Chenglong unlocked and sorted the first fifty rings, discovering that some held additional sealed Space Rings.
• The rings yielded vast amounts of star soul jade, medicinal pills, treasures, manuals, weapons, and miscellaneous goods, including a mountain of worn women's underwear.
• Li Chenglong, exhausted by the expanding workload and piles of supplies, asked Zuo Xiaoduo to deal with them before the space ran out of room.

Zuo Xiaoduo finished sorting his vast haul, gave Li Chenglong demon beast meat to cultivate with inside the Annihilation Sky Pagoda, and went out to arrange the sale of surplus goods and collect accumulated star soul jade powder. He left Boss Sun delighted with a generous reward and his business affairs settled.

• Zuo Xiaoduo offered Li Chenglong assorted goods from the loot, then gave him two jin of high-grade demon beast meat and told him to cultivate without rushing through the Dan Origin Realm barrier.
• Zuo Xiaoduo called Fang Yinuo, who eagerly agreed to handle the surplus merchandise, including the mountain of women's underwear.
• Zuo Xiaoduo visited Boss Sun and collected the star soul jade powder that had filled a nearly hundred-mu sports ground to a height of over fifty meters.
• Zuo Xiaoduo settled the bill and rewarded Boss Sun with premium cigarettes, liquor, sweets, and tea, leaving Boss Sun grateful and determined to serve him well.

Li Chenglong ate the centipede meat raw and triggered a huge surge of spiritual qi, forcing him to compress his cultivation a second time. He survived the breakthrough and was left with his dantian nearly half full again, grateful to Zuo Xiaoduo for giving him the rare spirit meat.

• Li Chenglong reasoned that the centipede meat might need to be eaten raw to preserve its spiritual qi, then chewed and swallowed one mouthful.
• Li Chenglong felt spiritual qi erupt through his body and hurriedly circulated his cultivation to absorb it.
• Li Chenglong began compressing his true essence when his dantian neared its limit, enduring two hours of pain and screaming.
• Li Chenglong completed his second compression, and the remaining spiritual qi filled his dantian almost halfway again.
• Li Chenglong examined the meat, decided to wait before eating more, and felt deep gratitude toward Zuo Xiaoduo for giving it to him.

Li Chenglong advanced through his second True Qi compression after eating a bite of Zuo Xiaoduo’s Star Beast Demon King meat, then rested and went to school. Zuo Xiaoduo considered how to distribute the vast remainder and decided to discuss it with Wen Xingtian.

• Li Chenglong thanked Zuo Xiaoduo for the meat and said one raw bite had completed his second compression and replenished much of his True Qi.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong discovered that Li had eaten the meat raw while Zuo Xiaoduo had cooked his portion, and they joked and tussled over it.
• Li Chenglong left the Annihilation Sky Pagoda, slept, and went to school, where he noticed his phone’s time was wrong before entering the Gravity Room to cultivate.
• Zuo Xiaoduo considered how little meat his friends and family would need and worried that selling the rest could let the wrong people benefit.
• Zuo Xiaoduo decided to talk with Wen Xingtian about the meat and wished Qin Fangyang were there.

While Zuo Xiaoduo considered calling Qin Fangyang, Qin was still fighting in the Star Radiance Mountain Range, unaware that his student had already escaped. After learning Zuo Xiaoduo was safe, Qin stopped hunting and prepared to visit Hidden Dragon High Martial, then found a message from him.

• Zuo Xiaoduo realized he could ask Qin Fangyang for advice, but waited until morning to call because it was past midnight.
• Qin Fangyang killed more than five hundred people in four days while searching the Star Radiance Mountain Range for threats to Zuo Xiaoduo.
• The Netherworld Palace announced that Zuo Xiaoduo's bounty had been withdrawn, its overseer had been killed, and it would hunt the bounty's original issuers.
• The Netherworld Palace reported that its dispatched gold-medal assassin had been killed and said the Third Palace Master would lead the hunt against the culprits.
• Qin Fangyang learned Zuo Xiaoduo had returned safely to Fenghai City, stopped hunting, and found Zuo Xiaoduo's message asking where he was.

Zuo Xiaoduo waited for Qin Fangyang’s help while Little Dragon moved an earth vein into the Annihilation Sky Pagoda Space. Qin Fangyang agreed to meet him near Fenghai, and Zuo Xiaoduo prepared to welcome him.

• Qin Fangyang told Zuo Xiaoduo he would call in two hours, then left the Star Radiance Mountain Range.
• Little Dragon returned with part of an earth vein, explaining that he had divided it into five portions to move it gradually without damaging the terrain.
• Little Dragon collected a large amount of star soul jade powder as the earth veins in the Annihilation Sky Pagoda Space grew higher.
• Qin Fangyang called Zuo Xiaoduo, who said he needed to discuss something with him in person.
• Qin Fangyang revealed that he was almost at Fenghai, and Zuo Xiaoduo excitedly invited him over for food and wine.
• Qin Fangyang agreed to meet Zuo Xiaoduo, then washed himself in a lakeshore before continuing on.

Qin Fangyang recovered, prepared himself, and set out for Hidden Dragon High Martial to visit his former students. Zuo Xiaoduo eagerly prepared for his arrival, while Wen Xingtian and the school’s leaders organized a proper welcome.

• Qin Fangyang healed his wounds, restored his strength, dressed neatly, and hurried toward Fenghai City, eager to see his students.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Grandma Shi that Teacher Qin was coming, and she urged him to inform Wen Xingtian and prepare food and wine.
• Zuo Xiaoduo called Wen Xingtian, then went to Heaven First-Class to buy groceries for the gathering.
• Wen Xingtian reflected on Qin Fangyang’s bond with Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong and informed Ye Changqing of the visit.
• Ye Changqing, Xiang Kuangren, and Vice Principal Gao agreed to help ensure Hidden Dragon High Martial gave Qin Fangyang a fitting welcome.

Hidden Dragon High Martial’s leaders prepared anxiously for Qin Fangyang’s reunion with Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong, worried about how their former teacher would judge their progress. When Qin Fangyang arrived, Zuo Xiaoduo rushed to embrace him and admitted he had feared Qin would stop caring about them.

• Ye Changqing invited Hidden Dragon High Martial’s leaders and staff to attend the gathering with Qin Fangyang, while several retired vice principals declined.
• Vice Principal Zhan sent Zhan Xiaofei away when he insisted on joining the banquet.
• Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian prepared carefully, believing Qin Fangyang’s opinion of their teaching would affect the school’s standing.
• Qin Fangyang arrived at the villa at eleven in the morning, and Zuo Xiaoduo ran over to hug him.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Qin Fangyang that he had feared Qin would no longer care about them, leaving Qin deeply moved.

Qin Fangyang reunited with Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong, listened as they recounted their lives since Phoenix City, then asked to speak privately with Zuo Xiaoduo. He warned Zuo Xiaoduo not to share every secret with friends before their loyalty had been tested by life, death, and personal gain.

• Qin Fangyang arrived and joyfully reunited with Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong, who brought him into the villa.
• Zuo Xiaoduo and Li Chenglong teased Qin Fangyang about his unusually formal clothes and cologne before they sat down to talk.
• Qin Fangyang listened as the two students recounted everything that had happened since they parted in Phoenix City.
• Li Chenglong left for class after Qin Fangyang said he wanted to speak with Zuo Xiaoduo privately.
• Qin Fangyang advised Zuo Xiaoduo to keep important secrets from friends until their loyalty had been tested under pressure.

Zuo Xiaoduo asked Qin Fangyang for advice about sharing a large supply of cultivation-enhancing Demon Beast meat. Qin Fangyang gave him a lesson about keeping some secrets from friends, then accepted a portion and explained why the meat’s benefits diminished with repeated consumption.

• Qin Fangyang told Zuo Xiaoduo that keeping some things private could protect friendships, and Zuo Xiaoduo realized he did not need to feel guilty about keeping secrets from Li Chenglong and the others.
• Qin Fangyang invited Zuo Xiaoduo to explain what was troubling him, and Zuo Xiaoduo revealed that he had acquired a huge amount of valuable cultivation-enhancing goods.
• Zuo Xiaoduo gave Qin Fangyang two hundred jin of King-level Demon Beast meat and said he had tens of thousands of jin, explaining that he had obtained it as a windfall.
• Qin Fangyang was startled by the meat’s value, then explained that Demon Beast meat stopped helping after repeated consumption because Demon Beasts stored energy differently from humans.

Qin Fangyang explained how Demon Beast meat affected Martial Artists and accepted some Centipede King meat from Zuo Xiaoduo. Zuo Xiaoduo then entrusted him with meat and money to reward teachers, allies, and the families of those who died protecting Nian Nian Cat, leaving Qin Fangyang to carry out the heartfelt task.

• Qin Fangyang explained that Demon Beast meat could strengthen Martial Artists until their bodies became saturated with its Spiritual Qi.
• Qin Fangyang accepted one hundred jin of Zuo Xiaoduo's Centipede King meat and returned the rest of their original portion.
• Zuo Xiaoduo revealed that he had around eighty thousand jin of Beast King-level Spirit Meat and gave Qin Fangyang a thousand jin to distribute among teachers and allies.
• Zuo Xiaoduo asked Qin Fangyang to deliver one hundred million in compensation and two thousand jin of meat to families of those who had died during the Phoenix Vein Soul Impact.
• Qin Fangyang felt moved by Zuo Xiaoduo's gratitude but dreaded returning to the city filled with memories of Qianqian, and accepted responsibility for delivering the gifts.

Zuo Xiaoduo asked Qin Fangyang to deliver Spirit Meat to friends and teachers across the continent, turning his visit into a lengthy courier route. Qin Fangyang then advised Zuo Xiaoduo on how to handle his surplus Spirit Meat, affirming that he had no obligation to give it away and suggesting he invest in trusted allies or arrange a limited distribution to Sun Moon Pass.

• Zuo Xiaoduo persuaded Qin Fangyang to carry Spirit Meat to his sister and several friends and teachers across the Star Soul Continent.
• Qin Fangyang mapped out the many stops, realized the route would take about a month, and agreed to make the deliveries.
• Qin Fangyang struck Zuo Xiaoduo on the head and asked why he was troubled by having tens of thousands of jin of Spirit Meat.
• Zuo Xiaoduo admitted he felt reluctant to give away the meat, and Qin Fangyang told him that this was normal and not selfish.
• Qin Fangyang suggested Zuo Xiaoduo trade some Spirit Meat with people at Hidden Dragon High Martial whom he might want as future allies.
• Qin Fangyang also suggested arranging some Spirit Meat for the soldiers at Sun Moon Pass through Minister Nan, though he noted they did not need it much.

Zuo Xiaoduo wrestled with whether to give away the 100,000 jin of King-level Star Beast meat, while Qin Fangyang explained how sharing resources could build a fighting team and lasting connections. Zuo Xiaoduo understood Qin Fangyang’s reasoning, but the chapter ended with Qin Fangyang describing karmic debts and heart demons as obstacles to reaching the Feitian Realm.

• Zuo Xiaoduo hesitated over giving the Star Beast meat to Hidden Dragon High Martial, since it was his private property and he did not want to give it away merely to earn praise.
• Qin Fangyang explained that a core team meant companions who would face danger and fight alongside Zuo Xiaoduo, not subordinates he could lure with resources.
• Zuo Xiaoduo began to understand Qin Fangyang’s idea of building a team through shared resources.
• Qin Fangyang argued that connections were the most important resource and that those who accepted help would feel obliged to repay the karmic debt.
• Qin Fangyang said that ungrateful people would not advance far because accumulated karmic debts and heart demons could prevent martial artists from reaching the Feitian Realm.

Qin Fangyang explained why Zuo Xiaoduo should share his surplus King-level Demon Beast meat while still claiming proper credit, and Zuo agreed to let Hidden Dragon High Martial manage its distribution. Qin then suggested sharing some with the teachers and principal who had supported Zuo, while Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian continued eavesdropping.

• Qin Fangyang warned Zuo Xiaoduo that hoarding the meat could burden his state of mind and cost others chances to grow stronger.
• Zuo Xiaoduo agreed to keep what he needed and let Principal Ye and Teacher Wen distribute the rest, while Qin insisted he secure credit for it.
• Ye Changqing and Wen Xingtian revealed through their thoughts that they had been monitoring the conversation and understood Qin's hint to obtain benefits for Zuo.
• Zuo Xiaoduo told Qin Fangyang he had captured over a thousand Space Rings, leaving Qin speechless.
• Qin Fangyang urged Zuo Xiaoduo to share some meat with Ding Xiulan, Ma Changsi, Luo Yanling, and Gu Qianfan, who had defended him during the Netherworld Palace bounty incident.