Recaps

Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan interrogated Heavenly Eye about Soul Hunt, testing the limits of his ability and pressing him to cooperate. Yuan Qingshan guessed that Soul Hunt’s leader could take and transfer Awakening Objects, and Heavenly Eye’s reaction suggested he was right.

• Yuan Qingshan warned Qi Changshan that Demon Clan members could infiltrate the Human Race and cause Demonization, then summoned Heavenly Eye through a screen.
• Yuan Qingshan threatened to target Soul Hunt if it refused to cooperate, while he and Qi Changshan tested whether Heavenly Eye could appear without a network connection.
• Heavenly Eye disappeared to consult the Group Leader, then returned to ask what cooperation would involve.
• Yuan Qingshan demanded that Heavenly Eye explain Soul Hunt, but Heavenly Eye said he could not answer and continued to vanish between replies.
• Yuan Qingshan deduced that Soul Hunt’s Group Leader could strip people of their Awakening Objects and give them to others or absorb them, and Heavenly Eye’s silence confirmed the guess.

Yuan Qingshan pressured the Soul Hunt Team’s representative into revealing that he could expose one of the Evil Cult’s gods, then agreed to cooperate. After the representative left, Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan devised a plan to identify him and prepared to report the matter to Sun Yingxiong.

• Yuan Qingshan threatened to purge the Soul Hunt Team unless its representative stayed to talk, then tried to recruit him to the Ink Pavilion.
• The representative offered information about the Demon Domain invasion and the Evil Cult in exchange for six months of safety for the Soul Hunt Team.
• The representative revealed that he had uncovered the cover identity of one of the Evil Cult’s gods, and Yuan Qingshan agreed to cooperate.
• After the representative disappeared, Yuan Qingshan deduced that he likely worked in the Ink Pavilion’s Information Department and planned to find him within a week.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan left to report the discovery to Sun Yingxiong.

Xu Yuanqing mourned the failure of his business venture until Yu Sheng's fake poison prank restored his will to try again. The National Freshman Competition’s quarterfinals concluded with Yu Sheng, Wu Qianqiu, Han Jue, and Li Yihan advancing to the semifinals.

• Xu Yuanqing told Yu Sheng that his food-delivery app was unusable without a signal tower and that he had run out of money.
• Yu Sheng offered Xu Yuanqing a bottle of fake poison, then revealed it was soda and explained his harmless-prank idea.
• Xu Yuanqing regained his entrepreneurial spirit and learned Zhao Zicheng remained hospitalized with serious injuries.
• Yu Sheng reflected on the bottle he had been studying and how it related to his bottleneck.
• Yuan Qingshan, Qi Changshan, Xu Yuanqing, and Qian Shu missed the quarterfinals, while Yu Sheng, Wu Qianqiu, Han Jue, and Li Yihan advanced to the semifinals.

Yu Sheng defeated Li Yihan in two seconds, then broke a stone on his chest as promised but gained no Gray Aura. Wu Qianqiu and Han Jue were set to fight in the other semifinal.

• The teachers watched the draw nervously, and Li Yihan drew Yu Sheng for the semifinal.
• Li Yihan asked Yu Sheng not to pull his teeth or cripple his limbs, and agreed to let him break a stone on his chest if he lost.
• Yu Sheng defeated Li Yihan in two seconds, revealing that his teleportation range exceeded the two meters the other contestants had assumed.
• Yu Sheng shattered a stone on Li Yihan's chest, but the audience's applause produced no Gray Aura; Li Yihan surrendered when Yu Sheng suggested another stone.
• Yu Sheng wondered how to make the stunt work as the host reminded him to leave the stage.
• The other semifinal featured Wu Qianqiu against Han Jue, whose dominant tournament run contrasted with the ridicule Wu had faced despite reaching the semifinals.

Wu Qianqiu lost to Han Jue but earned the spectators’ respect, while Yu Sheng defeated Han Jue and won the championship, only to feel alone without his friends. Elsewhere, Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan led an Ink Pavilion raid that captured Black Angel and other Evil Cult members.

• Wu Qianqiu lost to Han Jue in the semifinals, received applause from the spectators, and left with the medical staff.
• Yu Sheng defeated Han Jue in a one-sided final and received the championship trophy as gray aura gathered around him.
• Yu Sheng sent a trophy photo to the 140th Cohort’s class group chat, but Zhao Zicheng, Xu Yuanqing, Sun Wen, Lin Xiaoxiao, A Tai, and Mu Yu did not respond.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan led five Sixth Awakening practitioners in a raid on a village and fought Black Angel until his energy ran out.
• Qi Changshan dragged Black Angel away while Yuan Qingshan ordered the others to clear the battlefield, and Ink Pavilion members took the captured Evil Cultists back to Ink City.

Yuan Qingshan proposed a team event in which Ink Academy would face the other academies together, with Divine Beast blood offered as a reward. As the match began, Yu Sheng prepared to fight, determined to make his championship the most significant in the competition’s history.

• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan discussed their interrogation and a discreet search for a target.
• Yuan Qingshan proposed that ten students from each of the Three Major Universities fight Ink Academy, with a jin of Divine Beast blood as the prize if Ink Academy won.
• Elder Sun approved the revised team event, and Qi Changshan was tasked with announcing its format and rewards.
• Ink Academy’s official account mocked the challenge, and the announcement drew intense public attention as tickets sold out.
• Three days later, the team event began with four Sixth Awakening experts guarding the students and Sun Yingxiong seated among the judges.
• Yu Sheng prepared his weapons at the Gold Yuanbao Hotel, then left determined to win the most significant championship in the competition’s history.

Yu Sheng prepared to face the other academies alone in the team competition, but Xu Yuanqing and the rest of Ink Academy’s 140th Cohort arrived to fight beside him. As the team entered the arena, Sun Wen revealed he had reached the Fourth Awakening, and the chapter left their opponents stunned before the match began.

• Wu Qianqiu told Yu Sheng he recognized him as the tournament’s champion and promised to apologize to Ink Academy after the competition.
• Yu Sheng said he had not lost and warned a referee he might not be able to avoid killing anyone during the fight, but a Sixth Awakening expert assured him no one would die.
• The host announced the team competition, and the crowd protested when it appeared Yu Sheng would face a hundred opponents alone.
• Xu Yuanqing arrived and declared that Ink Academy had sent more than one student, followed by Sun Wen, Mu Yu, Lin Xiaoxiao, and A Tai.
• Sun Wen announced that Lin Xiaoxiao, Mu Yu, and A Tai had reached the Third Awakening, while he had reached the Fourth; injured Zhao Zicheng arrived on a stretcher to cheer them on.
• Qi Changshan questioned Yuan Qingshan about the students’ arrival, and Sun Yingxiong mocked the two elders for putting on an act.

Ink Academy began its team match with a coordinated assault, while Yu Sheng waited before joining the fight himself. A Tai defeated the heavily favored Han Jue in a contest of strength, leaving the arena stunned as the battle continued.

• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan joked about the match rules, while Sun Yingxiong stayed quiet and watched.
• Sun Wen handed Zhao Zicheng a cheerleading whistle, and the Sixth Awakening expert started the team competition.
• A Tai, Mu Yu, and Lin Xiaoxiao charged into the opposing team as Sun Wen and Zhao Zicheng cheered from the stretcher.
• Yu Sheng summoned an iron rod and struck into the crowd, prompting the teachers to rescue contestants he had knocked out.
• A Tai repeatedly overpowered Han Jue, then struck the ground to send him flying and leave him unable to move.

Ink Academy’s five defeated their opponents and celebrated their championship with an extravagant ceremony arranged by Sun Wen. The team rose above the arena amid fireworks and congratulations, while Sun Wen’s increasingly ambitious script provoked Sun Yingxiong’s anger.

• Ink Academy’s five defeated the hundred opponents in ten minutes and remained standing together as the arena applauded.
• Yu Sheng reflected on the companions who had come to matter to him, while Zhao Zicheng celebrated Ink Academy from his stretcher.
• Sun Wen revealed that he had paid for elaborate flames, a fire dragon, a stone giant, and fireworks to honor the champions.
• Sun Yingxiong flew to the champions and delivered a congratulatory speech wishing them success and a future as humanity’s backbone.
• Sun Wen asked Sun Yingxiong to read more paid-for lines praising his leadership, until Sun Yingxiong glared at him with growing killing intent.

Sun Wen’s extravagant staging made Ink Academy’s Freshman Tournament victory unforgettable, but his attempts to hide his spending and abandon Zhao Zicheng on the stone palm caught up with him. Xu Yuanqing discovered Sun Wen’s recorded complaints and beat him as the group left the venue.

• Sun Yingxiong thanked the Gold Ingot Group for sponsoring the tournament, prompting Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan to conclude that Sun Wen had paid him.
• Sun Wen and the others descended from the stone palm while leaving Zhao Zicheng behind on his stretcher.
• Zhao Zicheng threatened to spar with Sun Wen after he recovered, and Sun Wen blamed Big White for refusing to carry him down.
• Xu Yuanqing confronted Sun Wen after seeing Zhao Zicheng’s Moments post revealing Sun Wen’s complaints about the staged effects and their cost.
• Yu Sheng tied Zhao Zicheng to his stretcher, A Tai carried it away, and Xu Yuanqing repeatedly battered Sun Wen as the group left.

Ink Academy celebrated its Freshman Competition championship while gamblers and rival universities reacted online. Sun Wen and then Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan were beaten by hidden attackers, and the two elders suspected Sun Yingxiong before discussing the discovery of someone who liked messing around online.

• Yu Sheng hosted Lin Xiaoxiao and the others after Ink Academy won the Freshman Competition, and the championship rewards were announced.
• Ink Academy posted a boastful message online, while Spirit Martial Academy vowed to beat it next year.
• Sun Wen returned with a swollen face and said someone had attacked him on his way back from his grandpa's place.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan discussed Sun Wen's revenge before an old man ambushed and beat them.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan recognized Sun Yingxiong's foot and suspected he had reached the Ninth Awakening.
• Qi Changshan mentioned that the person who liked messing around online had been found, and the two elders left with renewed fighting spirit.

Yuan Qingshan exposed a hidden Information Department operative by pretending to tell his fortune, and Qi Changshan captured the young man. The captive watched Black Angel being tortured before Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan began preparing to interrogate him.

• Yuan Qingshan summoned the virtual face of Luo Yu and threatened to target the Soul Hunting Hunters team to make him answer questions.
• Yuan Qingshan revealed Luo Yu’s identity and workstation number, then asked Qi Changshan whether anyone was moving at that workstation.
• Qi Changshan confirmed there was movement, captured the young man, and carried him away from the Information Department.
• The young man watched Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan torture Black Angel in the neighboring interrogation room.
• Yuan Qingshan entered the young man’s room, while Qi Changshan opened a case of interrogation tools and the captive went numb.

Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan interrogated a Soul Hunt Team member, using threats of torture before learning that the team could evolve Awakening Objects through pills, though the process permanently capped their strength. The captive revealed that his Group Leader was in Ning'an City and passed information through daily newspapers, but the Group Leader’s location changed frequently.

• Yuan Qingshan stopped Qi Changshan from pulling out the captive’s teeth and suggested locking him in with Black Angel to frighten him into talking.
• Yuan Qingshan realized the captive’s mouth had been sealed, struck it open, and then restarted the interrogation after learning he had not actually asked any questions.
• The captive said he had joined the Soul Hunt Team six months earlier after receiving an invitation, and that pills from the organization had evolved his formerly weak Awakening Object.
• The captive explained that the evolution left him permanently capped at the Fourth Awakening, disappointing Yuan Qingshan.
• The captive said his Group Leader was in Ning'an City, Jiangnan Region, moved locations often, and sent information through each day’s latest newspapers.

Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan interrogated Black Angel, then discussed the Soul Hunt Team’s threat and ordered an investigation into its history. Back at the hotel, Sun Wen’s friends asked about his fourth awakening skill, and he revealed it as Fortune Doubled.

• Yuan Qingshan questioned Black Angel about the Soul Hunt Team, but Black Angel knew little and offered to help find Evil Cult members through electronic networks.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan decided to keep Black Angel locked up and discussed using his skills against the Evil Cult while investigating the Soul Hunt Team’s possible history.
• Yuan Qingshan ordered Qi Changshan to search Guard Bureau records for missing people with unusual Awakening Objects, going back as far as twenty years.
• Lin Xiaoxiao returned from shopping with the group, while Zhao Zicheng complained that they were still stuck in Ink City a week after the Freshman Competition.
• Sun Wen told his friends that his fourth skill was Fortune Doubled, prompting the room to burst into laughter.

Xu Yuanqing explained how the Divine Beast Blood reward would be distributed and announced Ink Academy’s upcoming competition against students from the Three Major Universities. After he left, Sun Wen suggested donating money to help assess new students, while Yu Sheng quietly anticipated someone’s return.

• Sun Wen explained that his Fourth Awakening would only strengthen his fortune, prompting the others to envy his Awakening Object and Xu Yuanqing to tease him.
• Xu Yuanqing announced that the six students would receive a share of Divine Beast Blood, which would strengthen their bodies and help heal Zhao Zicheng’s injuries.
• Xu Yuanqing revealed that Ink Academy would compete against 150 students from the Three Major Universities for the chance to walk the Forerunner's Heart-Training Path and receive Fourth Awakening Demon Cores.
• Xu Yuanqing mentioned that the new students’ first summer break was confidential, then left the room with a mysterious grin.
• Sun Wen proposed donating money to gain the right to assess new students, and the others eagerly agreed while Yu Sheng thought about collecting gray aura and someone being released in six months.

Xu Yuanqing distributed the Divine Beast Blood, and the group discovered it could be applied to the skin rather than swallowed. Yu Sheng carefully absorbed his share while A Tai saved his for his fourth awakening, and the chapter ended with A Tai asking Yu Sheng to talk.

• Xu Yuanqing gave Sun Wen a bottle of Divine Beast Blood, and Sun Wen swallowed it before learning it could be applied externally.
• The others used the blood, while Yu Sheng tested its effects gradually until he reached saturation and A Tai saved his share for his fourth awakening on Mu Yu's advice.
• Sun Wen teased Zhao Zicheng about Xu Yuanqing applying the blood, and Big White bit Sun Wen after Lin Xiaoxiao's signal.
• Yu Sheng told A Tai he would be there for him, while Xu Yuanqing rushed out to use the bank card whose PIN he had finally received.
• After everyone else went to bed, A Tai came out and told Yu Sheng he wanted to talk.

Yu Sheng reassured A Tai that he trusted him as a friend, easing the tension among their group. The next morning, Xu Yuanqing brought a cheap breakfast, and the group turned on Sun Wen for training after he guarded his meat buns.

• Yu Sheng told A Tai that he did not have to reveal his secrets and that he trusted him as a friend.
• A Tai promised he would never let anyone hurt the others, and the group took comfort in his words.
• Xu Yuanqing arrived the next morning with breakfast, giving Sun Wen the only two meat buns because meat filling was expensive.
• The group decided to train Sun Wen after he finished his buns, and they attacked him while Xu Yuanqing sat down to sleep.
• Xu Yuanqing privately complained that someone had pocketed two hundred yuan from the agreed payment.

Luo Yu passed the Ink Pavilion’s test and joined its Information Department, though Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan still suspected he might be a mole. Three days later, Xu Yuanqing gave the group maps of Evil Cult locations and they began planning a sweep across Ink City and nearby cities.

• Yuan Qingshan welcomed Luo Yu into the Ink Pavilion and assigned him employee number 3021 in the Information Department.
• Luo Yu vowed to fight the Evil Cult and began work tracking its members.
• Yuan Qingshan wondered whether Luo Yu had been sent by a Group Leader to steal intelligence, while Qi Changshan suggested observing him for six months to a year.
• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan argued about their departments and fought inside the Interrogation Room.
• Xu Yuanqing gave the group smartwatches marking Evil Cult locations across Ink City and roughly ten surrounding cities.
• Sun Wen proposed starting in Ink City, Linyuan City, Dawn City, and Haicheng, where his companies could provide logistical support.

Sun Wen coordinated Ink Academy’s six-person squad as they launched a synchronized hunt for Evil Cult members, with Yu Sheng clearing targets in Ink City and the others working across nearby cities. As the purge disrupted the Divine Cult’s operations, a middle-aged man reported the crisis to Qiu Xiaoxiao and warned that even Black Angel might be involved.

• Sun Wen assigned the squad into teams, arranged transport and supplies, and directed Yu Sheng to clear Ink City alone while he coordinated intelligence and logistics.
• Yu Sheng attacked an Evil Cult hideout in a teahouse, collapsing the roof and defeating its five members before moving on to the next target.
• The Gold Ingot Group tracked the squad’s results as Zhao Zicheng, Mu Yu, and the others spread out, while rival hunters struggled to keep up with Ink Academy’s coordination.
• Li Yihan and other competitors repeatedly found Ink City hideouts already cleared, while the Spirit Martial Academy members continued taking nearby targets without following planned routes.
• A middle-aged man told Qiu Xiaoxiao that the Divine Cult’s followers were being exposed with alarming precision and raised the possibility that Black Angel was involved; Qiu Xiaoxiao rebuked him for speaking of a god.

Qiu Xiaoxiao and Zong Ren fled as Ink Pavilion’s nationwide crackdown crippled the Evil Cult and forced its members offline. The operation left the Evil Cult weakened, while the Dark Pavilion’s chief pavilion master finished interrogating Black Angel and returned to guard Ghost Gate.

• Qiu Xiaoxiao ordered the Evil Cult to use offline, single-line communications with a Thursday poetry password, then gave a God Pill to a middle-aged man and left with two documents.
• Qiu Xiaoxiao carved a strange symbol near the city gates and disappeared into the crowd after vowing to settle accounts with Ink Pavilion and the Soul Hunt Team.
• Zong Ren studied detailed information about Chu Yu, tried to find a way into Ink Academy, then smashed his computer after encountering a toxic online problem and fled his room.
• Ink Pavilion’s strike across the Human Race forced the Evil Cult to kill its communication handlers and withdraw, leaving it unable to mount major operations for the next two years.
• The sweep lasted three days, and the Dark Pavilion’s chief pavilion master spent two days interrogating Black Angel before returning to Ghost Gate.

After Ink Academy’s battle against criminal forces ended, its exhausted students returned to the hotel while Yu Sheng’s Scroll bottle neared unlocking. Sun Yingxiong announced that the students would begin the Heart-Training Path the next day, then became absorbed in an anime only he could see.

• Yuan Qingshan and Qi Changshan soothed Black Angel after interrogating him, then privately discussed matters with Sun Yingxiong and Luo Qing.
• Ink Pavilion announced that its forces had captured evil cultists and dismantled thieves’ hideouts, and the criminal forces had been purged.
• Sun Wen’s team returned to the hotel in stages: Zhao Zicheng and Lin Xiaoxiao brought back an exhausted Big White, Mu Yu returned with injured A Tai, and Yu Sheng arrived last.
• Xu Yuanqing collapsed asleep before he could speak to Sun Wen, and the exhausted students went to bed; Yu Sheng noted that the bottle in his Scroll was almost clear.
• Xu Yuanqing woke briefly and called for a grenade as a joke, but Yu Sheng offered him the two he had left, prompting Xu Yuanqing to cancel lessons and go back to sleep.
• Sun Yingxiong told his secretary that Ink Academy had won and ordered the students to gather at Ink Pavilion Tower at noon for the Heart-Training Path, then watched an unseen anime in his office.

Xu Yuanqing tried to sell the students advice about the Heart-Training Path, then Sun Yingxiong led them to Ink City’s secluded mountain and sent each onto a separate path. Yu Sheng’s path began in a ruined world where desperate humans hid from a monstrous Demon Beast.

• Xu Yuanqing demanded credits to share his Heart-Training Path experience, but Zhao Zicheng bargained him down to three credits and was given only advice not to litter or talk loudly.
• Sun Yingxiong led Yu Sheng and the other students away from Ink Pavilion while Xu Yuanqing admitted he had never walked the path himself.
• Sun Yingxiong explained that the mountain and the Human Race Hall were humble places, then told the students to climb and follow the footsteps of those who came before.
• The mountain shrouded itself in mist and revealed six paths, and Sun Wen, Zhao Zicheng, Lin Xiaoxiao, Mu Yu, A Tai, and Yu Sheng each entered one.
• Yu Sheng found himself in a desolate ruin where despairing humans fled and hid as an enormous Demon Beast prowled nearby.

Yu Sheng witnessed visions of Yu Yongyan rallying humanity against the Demon Clan, founding the Ink Pavilion, and uniting survivors to build the Four Passes. The visions left Yu Sheng questioning the Heart-Training Path as he watched the sacrifices that shaped the Human Race’s history.

• Yu Yongyan killed a giant beast, urged survivors to fight the Demon Clan, and gave them Demon Crystals and Demon Cores.
• As awakened people and villages multiplied, Yu Yongyan established the Ink Pavilion to shelter humanity, and survivors endured a deadly year-long journey to gather together.
• Yu Yongyan patrolled above the united Human Race while organizations formed, awakened people grew stronger, and ordinary people helped build fortified passes.
• Yu Sheng watched defenders die protecting the unfinished Four Passes and wondered whether the visions of the Forerunners were the Heart-Training Path.

As Yu Sheng climbed the mountain, visions showed how Yu Yongyan’s sacrifice and Li Mocheng’s last stand protected the Human Race from successive Demon Clan assaults. The Human Race gained years to rebuild and prosper, though new crimes began to emerge.

• The Demon Clan launched an all-out assault, and Yu Yongyan killed the Black Dragon Demon God and devastated the Demon Domain before dying above Skyvault Ravine.
• After the first-generation ancestors vanished, three middle-aged men forced the Demon Clan to sign a treaty that limited its attacks and bought the Human Race nearly twenty years to recover.
• When the Demon Clan massed a million demons beneath Demon-Suppressing Pass, Li Mocheng broke through to the Ninth Awakening with the Black Dragon Demon Core and faced them alone.
• Li Mocheng stopped the army and died outside the pass; the Human Race left his body at the gates, and the Demon Clan stayed away for five years.
• During that respite, the Human Race rebuilt cities and expanded the Ink Pavilion, while crimes began to appear as society grew more prosperous.

Yu Sheng reached the end of the historical path and began crossing a cliff toward the future, where each step showed a new stage of his life in Sin City. The chapter left him at fourteen or fifteen, walking its streets as people avoided his gaze.

• The heart-training path showed how the Human Race’s ninth-awakened quietly scattered across its territory and rose to punish the Demon Domain when it broke the accord.
• Yu Sheng returned to the low mountain, where Sun Yingxiong declared that the path behind them was history and the path ahead was theirs to walk.
• The mountain split open, and Yu Sheng stepped into the abyss, creating a translucent step beneath his foot and seeing an image of a lonely child at the gates of Sin City.
• His next step showed the child methodically killing men and working with a girl to loot their bodies and dump them in a Dead Man’s Pit.
• Yu Sheng continued without hesitation, and his third step revealed him at fourteen or fifteen, walking through Sin City as people avoided his gaze.