Chapter Summaries

Yu Sheng returned to Ink Academy and was put to work welcoming applicants for the next day's assessment. As students grumbled about the Mountains and Seas Realm, Xu Yuanqing asked Yu Sheng to give him a home there.

• Xu Yuanqing ran into Yu Sheng while fleeing the Old Principal, who caught him and dragged him toward the Inner Courtyard.
• Ink Academy students recognized Yu Sheng and complained that they had spent years paying credits to stay in the Mountains and Seas Realm, which they believed he still owned.
• Yu Sheng considered raising the rent as he saw the resentment hanging over the academy.
• Yu Sheng welcomed applicants at the academy gates, recording their names and telling them when the next day's assessment would take place.
• Xu Yuanqing returned bruised, told Yu Sheng that his dorm room had been kept vacant in the Mountains and Seas Realm, and asked Yu Sheng to give him a home there.

Yu Sheng returned to the Mountains and Seas Realm and found the egg he had left on his windowsill still alive, so he cracked its shell and waited for the creature to hatch. The next morning, he watched the entrance exams eliminate the applicants and then headed to the Inner Courtyard.

• Yu Sheng returned to his old room in the Mountains and Seas Realm and cleaned it by hand.
• The egg on his windowsill rocked, and Yu Sheng cracked its shell after a hammer failed to damage it.
• Yu Sheng watched the creature inside the egg struggle to hatch, then carefully examined an old backpack before going to sleep.
• The next morning, Yu Sheng left the Mountains and Seas Realm while the egg's cracks continued to spread.
• At Ink Academy, the new applicants were eliminated after seeing a returning student hung from the ancient tree, and Yu Sheng headed toward the Inner Courtyard.

Yu Sheng revisited the Inner Courtyard rockery, reflected on Xu Wenxuan’s path and the drunk’s grief, and wondered about his own Dao. Five days after returning to Ink Academy, the egg hatched into a fiery-red bird.

• Yu Sheng found Xu Wenxuan’s carved words on the rockery and wondered whether Xu Wenxuan had already found his path at eighteen.
• Yu Sheng asked the drunk about his Dao, and the drunk said it had died with his brothers.
• Yu Sheng stayed in his room for several days, watching the life grow stronger inside the egg.
• On the fifth night after Yu Sheng returned to Ink Academy, the egg hatched and a fully fledged, fiery-red bird stood on the windowsill.

Yu Sheng watched the chick hatch, named it Little Red, and let it fly free in the Mountains and Seas Realm. For the next month, Little Red terrorized the Ink Academy students while Yu Sheng settled into a regular routine of watching the freshmen, the senior students, and the drunkard.

• Little Red ate its eggshell, grew slightly, and felt an instinctive closeness to Yu Sheng, who confirmed it had no Demon Aura.
• Yu Sheng named the chick Little Red, and it managed its first flight less than an hour after hatching.
• Yu Sheng opened the door, and Little Red began flying recklessly through the Mountains and Seas Realm, barging into students' homes.
• The Ink Academy leadership offered ten credits for catching Little Red and penalized students whose homes it raided, but every capture attempt failed.
• Students fortified their homes and resented Yu Sheng for letting his pet loose, while Yu Sheng smiled at them and watched Little Red cause chaos.
• Yu Sheng followed a steady routine: watching freshmen in the morning, Little Red in the afternoon, and the drunkard drinking alone at night.

Yu Sheng grew close to Drunkard, who recalled a gifted junior that had once bought him liquor in secret. At the Class of 143 graduation ceremony, Drunkard watched two students graduate, and Yu Sheng reflected on his own past.

• Drunkard continued to ask Yu Sheng to buy him liquor even after learning Yu Sheng was the Ink Pavilion Head, prompting a freshman to reflect on the encounter.
• After Yu Sheng brought him good liquor, Drunkard remembered a gifted junior from his class who had hoped to become Pavilion Master and secretly bought him liquor.
• From then on, Drunkard greeted Yu Sheng when he returned but stopped asking him to buy liquor.
• A month later, Yu Sheng noticed Drunkard was missing from his usual spot and found him at the graduation ceremony, sober and watching from a corner.
• Zhang Han and Sun Miao graduated as the only two students of Class of 143, and Yu Sheng recalled his own graduation and gained some understanding.

After the graduation ceremony, Xu Yuanqing told Yu Sheng about the drunkard’s past and helped him confront his confusion about cultivation. He advised Yu Sheng to experience the lives of the world to discover his own path.

• The crowd dispersed after the 140th Cohort’s graduation, while the staff dismantled the platform and felt envy for a cohort in which everyone had graduated.
• Yu Sheng found the drunkard, and Xu Yuanqing described how the man had once been an outstanding, arrogant student before an incident left him a fixture at Ink Academy.
• Xu Yuanqing asked Yu Sheng how he was doing, and Yu Sheng admitted he could no longer find the path he should take.
• Xu Yuanqing explained that people discovered their paths in different ways and said Yu Sheng had advanced too quickly to consider what he was cultivating for.
• Xu Yuanqing told Yu Sheng to look with his heart and experience the many lives of the world to find the meaning of his existence.

Yu Sheng followed the drunkard to a hilltop graveyard, where the drunkard honored his dead classmates and explained that their deaths had broken his path. He admitted he had no idea what his purpose was, but offered to tell Yu Sheng about his brothers and their paths.

• Xu Yuanqing failed to offer Yu Sheng another way to address his problem, then awkwardly left him alone.
• Half a month later, the drunkard arrived at Yu Sheng's door dressed neatly and asked him to come along.
• Yu Sheng followed the drunkard from Ink Academy to a bare hill outside Jiangcheng, where the drunkard laid fruit and poured liquor before weathered wooden markers.
• The drunkard told Yu Sheng that the markers belonged to his classmates, brothers, and family, who had given him his life, though he had not wanted it.
• The drunkard said he no longer knew his path, believed it had collapsed when his brothers died, and offered to tell Yu Sheng about their paths.

Drunkard brought Yu Sheng to a hill of memorial plaques and shared the lives, dreams, and deaths of his fallen friends, hoping their stories would help Yu Sheng find his path. Yu Sheng stayed at the hill for hours after Drunkard left, then returned to Ink Academy and found him drunk again.

• Drunkard told Yu Sheng about Lin Yongjian, Wang Sanshun, and Liu Paopao, remembering their dreams and the courage they showed before they died.
• Drunkard introduced the rest of his fallen friends, laughing and crying as he recounted their lives.
• Drunkard said he had brought Yu Sheng to the hill so their stories might inspire him, and explained he had helped their village so the dead could rest easy.
• Drunkard told Yu Sheng to visit other places the next day to keep searching for his own path, then walked back toward Jiangcheng.
• Yu Sheng stayed on the hill for several hours, looking at each memorial plaque and recalling the people Drunkard had described.
• Yu Sheng returned to Ink Academy in the early morning and found Drunkard dead drunk among scattered liquor bottles.

Shi Guang fled into the forbidden Aurora Snowfield to escape two Demon Kings, but the cold and draining snow overwhelmed her before she could reach safety. She died three li from the edge, leaving her final wish for someone unfulfilled.

• Yu Sheng stayed at Ink Academy for about a month before quietly leaving with his pack.
• Wounded Shi Guang entered the Aurora Snowfield as two Demon Kings watched from outside and waited for her to die.
• The Demon Kings revealed that Lord White Ape had ordered them to kill Shi Guang to provoke Yu Sheng into improving himself, then left after keeping watch for a day.
• Shi Guang pushed deeper into the snowfield as the cold and its energy drained her strength and vital essence.
• Three li from the snowfield's edge, Shi Guang collapsed, regretted that she could not fulfill someone's final wish, and died beneath the falling snow.

Shi Guang vanished beneath the aurora after briefly breathing again, while Yu Sheng arrived in Jiangbei City for the birth of Zhao Zicheng’s child. Sun Wen used his luck-granting power to bless the delivery, and Zhao Zicheng pleaded for him to make the baby boy-girl twins.

• Night fell over the snowfield, and the aurora revealed Shi Guang’s frozen body beneath the snow.
• Shi Guang began breathing faintly, then vanished as the aurora flashed again.
• Yu Sheng passed his former home and went to the hospital, where Zhao Zicheng’s child was due to be born.
• Sun Wen invoked his luck and wished for Zhao Zicheng’s wife to have a daughter, prompting Zhao Zicheng to attack him for wanting a son.
• Yu Sheng suggested wishing for boy-girl twins, and Zhao Zicheng begged Sun Wen to use his powers to make it happen.

As Zhao Zicheng waited for his child to be born, Sun Wen reached the Ninth Awakening and revealed a never-before-seen tenth socket on his Awakening Object. Zhao Zicheng ordered the event concealed, then learned that his wife and daughter were safe and let Yu Sheng take the newborn to an incubator.

• Sun Wen sat down after the cry from the operating room, and his Gold Yuanbao Awakening Object advanced him to the Ninth Awakening without a Demon Core.
• A tenth socket began appearing on Sun Wen's Awakening Object, making him the first person in Human Race history to manifest one.
• Zhao Zicheng issued a City Lord's decree to keep everyone inside, ordered A Tai to seal the corridor, and sent Lin Xiaoxiao to delete the surveillance footage.
• Yu Sheng offered to take the newborn to an incubator, and Zhao Zicheng handed him the baby.
• Zhao Zicheng learned that his wife and daughter were safe, then sat down in relief and celebrated having a daughter.

As Sun Wen gathered Spiritual Energy in the hospital, injured patients recovered and Zhao Zicheng’s wife woke safely after giving birth. Zhao Zicheng watched Sun Wen’s extraordinary display and wondered whether he might be the one destined to save everyone.

• Sun Wen gathered vast amounts of Spiritual Energy in the hospital, drawing the attention of Jiangbei City’s experts as patients’ wounds began healing.
• Yu Sheng sealed off the hospital entrance, and Zhao’s father grew increasingly anxious as he failed to understand Yu Sheng’s eye signals.
• Zhao Zicheng’s wife woke in the delivery room, feared that Zicheng had chosen to save her instead of their baby, and learned that both she and the baby were fine.
• The dense Spiritual Energy quickly restored Zhao Zicheng’s wife, who sat up on the operating table.
• Zhao Zicheng watched Sun Wen glowing amid golden light and wondered whether he would reach the Tenth Awakening and save everyone.

Sun Wen’s spiritual energy infusion ended, and Yu Sheng said it had healed Zhao Zicheng’s wife and would greatly benefit their child. Sun Wen woke up stronger than before and knocked Zhao Zicheng to the floor after hearing he had planned to beat him.

• Zhao Zicheng called Yu Sheng after the golden light faded, while Lin Xiaoxiao erased the surveillance footage and reassured the security guard that nothing had happened.
• Yu Sheng explained that Sun Wen needed time to digest the spiritual energy, as Awakened people across Jiangbei City discussed the incident.
• Zhao Zicheng’s wife walked out of the hospital room, and an old man confirmed she was healthier than before.
• Yu Sheng said the infusion had healed Zhao Zicheng’s wife and would benefit their child, and that Sun Wen had reached the ninth awakening during the birth.
• Zhao Zicheng denied wanting to beat Sun Wen, but Sun Wen appeared beside him and knocked him to the floor with a pat on the shoulder.

Sun Wen’s mastery of life rules made him invincible against anyone below the Ninth Awakening, establishing him as the strongest member of the 140th Cohort. He revealed that his goddaughter’s birth had sparked his insight, then celebrated while reflecting on his impending retirement and the coming final battle.

• Sun Wen’s power of rules protected him from attacks below the Ninth Awakening, and Yu Sheng explained that he was now the strongest in the 140th Cohort.
• Zhao Zicheng despaired that he had chosen the wrong protagonist and asked whether he could still ride Sun Wen’s coattails.
• When Zhao Zicheng asked about Sun Wen’s ninth skill, Sun Wen pretended it was like his earlier skills and said he needed to hide his trump cards.
• Yu Sheng identified Sun Wen’s power as life rules, and Sun Wen confirmed that he had comprehended them after his goddaughter was born.
• Sun Wen celebrated his goddaughter’s birth, said he would keep the Gold Ingot Group for the coming final battle, and boasted that reaching the Tenth Awakening would mean the Demon Domain fell.

After Zhao Zicheng’s daughter was born, he confided in Yu Sheng about his fear of dying and leaving his wife and child behind. He reaffirmed that he would keep moving forward, now with two more people beside him.

• Zhao Zicheng’s wife went home to rest while he stayed at the hospital, and Lin Xiaoxiao, Sun Wen, and A Tai left after the birth.
• Yu Sheng stayed with Zhao Zicheng, and they worried that Sun Wen’s ninth skill seemed unusual.
• Zhao Zicheng admitted he feared leaving his wife and newborn daughter, whose future he longed to see.
• Zhao Zicheng reflected on how becoming a husband and father had changed him and made him understand why many Awakened stayed single.
• Yu Sheng suggested that stopping to look back could be worthwhile, but Zhao Zicheng insisted his road would continue, now with two more people walking beside him.

Yu Sheng tried to understand Zhao Zicheng’s thoughts on responsibility and legacy, then watched a doctor save a child and questioned why saving people brought happiness while killing did not. Seeking an answer from his teacher, he returned to the Veterans' Camp, where he found Liu Qingfeng and some of the old men gone.

• Yu Sheng left Zhao Zicheng after reflecting on his words about the road, fatherhood, and responsibility.
• A middle-aged man rushed a choking child into the hospital, and the doctors saved the child.
• Yu Sheng asked a doctor why he was happy, and the doctor explained that saving a life with his hard-earned skills made him happy.
• Yu Sheng wondered whether his own feelings were the problem and left the hospital, walking through the city toward the gate.
• Yu Sheng rode a bus back to the Veterans' Camp and found that Liu Qingfeng and some of the familiar old men were gone, with more memorial tablets on Back Mountain.

Yu Sheng visited the Veterans' Camp, where Veteran Zhao De and the other old soldiers saluted him for his achievements as Pavilion Master of the Ink Pavilion. He then visited Liu Qingfeng's grave and confided that, having fulfilled his past goals, he no longer knew what he wanted from life or how to choose his path.

• Yu Sheng greeted Veteran Zhao De, who insisted that achievements deserved recognition and saluted him as Elder Yu.
• The veterans who could still stand rose to salute Yu Sheng, and Zhao De said Liu Qingfeng would have had no regrets about teaching him.
• Yu Sheng went to Liu Qingfeng's grave and told him about becoming Pavilion Master, killing Demon Beasts, earning honors, and keeping his worn schoolbag.
• Yu Sheng lay beside the grave, found peace, and fell asleep in the grass.
• After waking beneath the stars, Yu Sheng asked Liu Qingfeng what his path was and admitted he no longer knew what he wanted to do.

Yu Sheng returned from the Veterans' Camp with a clearer outlook and agreed to try living with Yu Sanshui, despite their strained relationship. Their awkward reunion left Yu Sanshui searching online for advice before he asked why Yu Sheng had returned to Jiangbei City.

• Yu Sheng spent a week listening to the Veterans' Camp elders share painful memories, then left with a steadier outlook.
• Yu Sheng unexpectedly found Yu Sanshui at his home, and Yu Sanshui proposed they try living together.
• Yu Sheng accepted and sat beside Yu Sanshui, leaving both of them in an awkward silence.
• Yu Sanshui searched online for ways to mend father-son friction, and Yu Sheng pointed out his search could use the terms “stepfather” or “wicked stepfather.”
• Yu Sanshui asked Yu Sheng why he had returned to Jiangbei City.

Yu Sheng told Yu Sanshui that he did not know how to reach the Tenth Awakening or what path to follow, and admitted that life and death mattered little to him. Yu Sanshui apologized for the life he had caused Yu Sheng to live, but Yu Sheng said he did not blame him and explained that he had kept using Yu Sanshui as a resource.

• Yu Sheng said he could not figure out how to help others reach the Tenth Awakening, crushing Yu Sanshui's hopes that the path existed.
• Yu Sheng told Yu Sanshui that he had no personal path and felt more like a tool than someone pursuing what he wanted.
• Yu Sanshui said feelings gave rise to a path and that Yu Sheng's life-and-death experiences had left him without affection, making him incomplete.
• Yu Sheng asked why feelings arose, and Yu Sanshui pointed to the living world and said love would make their purpose clear.
• Yu Sanshui apologized for ruining Yu Sheng's life, but Yu Sheng said he did not blame him and had crossed his name off the list after learning he was not his biological father.
• When Yu Sanshui asked why Yu Sheng had still relied on him, Yu Sheng replied that he would use any available resource rather than waste it.

Yu Sanshui spent several days bonding with Yu Sheng like a father before enrolling him in an intensive course at Jiangbei Second High School. Yu Sheng scored 15 points on the placement test and finished last, while Yu Sanshui insisted the schooling would help his cultivation.

• Yu Sanshui cooked a huge meal for Yu Sheng, who kept eating until Yu Sanshui assured him the leftovers could be reheated for breakfast.
• Over the next few days, Yu Sanshui and Yu Sheng settled into a father-and-son routine, though Yu Sheng resisted when Yu Sanshui bought him toys.
• Yu Sanshui told Yu Sheng he had enrolled him in a short-term intensive course at Jiangbei Second High School.
• Yu Sanshui took Yu Sheng to school with a new schoolbag and watched him enter while the principal fawned over them.
• Yu Sheng told Yu Sanshui he had scored 15 points and placed last on the enrollment test, and Yu Sanshui praised his luck before carrying his schoolbag home.