Chapter Summaries

After students threatened Huo Yutong at Sun Moon Royal Soul Tool Master Academy, Qian Chaoguang confronted Jing Hongchen and demanded accountability. Jing Hongchen apologized and offered concessions to secure the exchange program’s continuation, and the chapter ended with Huo Yutong ensuring every Shrek exchange student received the same treatment.

• Qian Chaoguang warned Jing Hongchen that Shrek would end the exchange program unless the academy addressed the threats against Huo Yutong.
• Jing Hongchen apologized to Huo Yutong and accepted responsibility for the academy’s failure to control its students.
• Huo Yutong challenged Jing Hongchen’s compensation offer by asking whether it would apply only to her.
• Jing Hongchen promised to expel the students who threatened Huo Yutong, let her keep crafting materials, waive her Illustrious Virtue Hall assessment, and double her resources.
• Huo Yutong secured the same promised treatment for all Shrek exchange students, and Jing Hongchen left after Qian Chaoguang and Qian Duoduo agreed.

After Huo Yutong’s successful confrontation with Wang Shaojie and Ke Ke, Qian Chaoguang and Qian Duoduo praised her and discussed how power shaped people’s dignity. The pair were expelled, and Qian Chaoguang warned Huo Yutong that Ju Zi had likely orchestrated the incident before Qian Duoduo took them to lunch.

• Huo Yutong dropped her act and asked Qian Chaoguang and Qian Duoduo how she had performed during the confrontation with Jing Hongchen.
• Qian Duoduo teased Qian Chaoguang about the gifts he had bought Huo Yutong, while Qian Chaoguang recalled being caught writing a self-criticism in the Sea God Pavilion.
• Jing Hongchen returned with Wang Shaojie and Ke Ke, who apologized before leaving after their expulsion from Sun Moon Royal Soul Tool Master Academy.
• Huo Yutong said the pair deserved the consequences, and Qian Duoduo noted how status and strength affected whether people could defend their dignity.
• Qian Chaoguang warned Huo Yutong that Ju Zi was likely behind the scheme and advised her to keep her distance.
• Qian Duoduo ended the discussion and invited Qian Chaoguang and Huo Yutong to eat meat in Sun Moon City.

After Ju Zi’s departure ended the conflict without further trouble, Qian Chaoguang spent his free time practicing magic and constructing a teleportation array. He successfully teleported to the Undead Subplane, where he explored its rich source of Death Breath Power.

• Qian Duoduo informed the Inner Courtyard’s Soul Tool Department about the Ju Zi matter and its follow-up plan.
• Ju Zi quickly dropped out of Xuan Ziwen’s studies, leaving Zi Mu alone, and Qian Chaoguang was relieved that the incident caused no further trouble.
• Qian Chaoguang trained in close-combat Soul Tools with Liu Tiezhu by day and practiced magic in the Undead Subplane at night.
• Qian Chaoguang constructed a Space Teleportation Array from Magic Runes and activated it to leave his dormitory.
• Qian Chaoguang arrived in the Undead Subplane and walked toward a hillside beneath a purple-black crystal that spread Death Breath Power across the land.

Qian Chaoguang trained in spatial magic under Electrolux’s strict instruction in the Demi-plane, where a vast skeleton army awaited his command. He ended the chapter exhausted after practicing the Space Array’s transformation forms.

• Electrolux criticized Qian Chaoguang for taking thirty seconds to sketch a Space Teleportation Array and ordered him to practice its one hundred common forms.
• Qian Chaoguang walked past hundreds of skeletons, which recognized him and parted to reveal his work area.
• Qian Chaoguang reviewed his notes on Magic Language, spatial arrays, and runes before practicing Void Construction.
• Qian Chaoguang reflected that mastering spatial magic would let him use the Demi-plane as storage and summon undead forces more quickly.
• After several hours of practice, Qian Chaoguang collapsed onto a mattress, exhausted.

Qian Chaoguang recovered from mental exhaustion while Electrolux finished a major magical research project. As Electrolux organized his work, Qian Chaoguang considered his plan to steal the Snow Empress and the Humanoid Soul Tool from Illustrious Virtue Hall when the Body Sect arrived in half a year.

• Qian Chaoguang rested as the Blade of Life's Watch restored his Sea of Consciousness, while Electrolux continued writing up his research.
• Qian Chaoguang reviewed plans to use the Body Sect's arrival to steal the Snow Empress and the Humanoid Soul Tool from Illustrious Virtue Hall.
• Qian Chaoguang planned to use special soul tools to dig beneath the hall and search for Rank Nine Fixed Soul Cannon Shells amid the coming chaos.
• Electrolux declared his research derivation basically complete and used magic to sort his papers, clear the desk, and put away his tools.
• Qian Chaoguang watched Electrolux's precise control of magic and resolved to keep working to improve his own abilities.

Electrolux presented Qian Chaoguang with research on artificial Martial Souls, including a feasible method for granting a second Martial Soul and promising ways to create Soul Rings from a Soul Beast’s innate talent. After discussing the research, Qian Chaoguang asked whether Electrolux could improve his undead troops, whose advancement through consuming flesh and blood was too slow.

• Electrolux gave Qian Chaoguang his research manuscript, which proposed methods for creating artificial Martial Souls, second Martial Souls, and Soul Rings from Soul Beast talents.
• Electrolux explained that using a Soul Beast’s soul to grant a second Martial Soul was feasible, and that Snow Emperor’s cooperation could make success nearly certain.
• Electrolux said extracting a Soul Beast’s innate talent into a Soul Ring should be relatively straightforward, especially if Snow Emperor was already in human form.
• Electrolux told Qian Chaoguang to practice the Soul Ring process over the next half year while he continued researching Martial Soul essence and Weapon Martial Souls.
• Qian Chaoguang stored the manuscript safely, then asked Electrolux about improving the advancement of his undead troops.
• Electrolux said he had studied the problem before but found no good method, and had later devoted his efforts to researching the curse that afflicted him.

Qian Chaoguang described the End Point Sect and its records of immortal creatures that cultivated their souls, explaining how undead could evolve into intelligent, powerful beings. Electrolux was astonished and eager to learn more, while Qian Chaoguang suggested that restoring Electrolux’s remnant soul would be necessary before he could pursue such advancement.

• Qian Chaoguang told Electrolux a fabricated account of his homeland and the End Point Sect, whose members preserved knowledge of many cultivation worlds.
• Qian Chaoguang explained that some cultivators were nonhuman beings, including psychic life-forms, silicon-based life-forms, artificial intelligences, and undead creatures.
• Electrolux asked how undead could cultivate, and Qian Chaoguang described immortal creatures that grew stronger without devouring flesh and blood.
• Qian Chaoguang outlined five main undead categories and explained how cultivating the soul and condensing an Undead Heart, Heart of Soul, and Lamenting Soul enabled successive advancement.
• Qian Chaoguang said Electrolux could become a terrifying Undead Lord if he condensed a Lamenting Soul, but first needed to restore his remnant soul.

Qian Chaoguang suggested that Electrolux could use the Heart of Eternity as a model to develop a way for undead creatures to advance, sending the old mage into an excited research frenzy. After returning to his usual routine, Qian Chaoguang continued his studies and cultivation.

• Qian Chaoguang explained that Black Crystal Soul undead could rule an Undead Empire through soul connections and a faith system, and Electrolux asked whether anything surpassed them.
• Qian Chaoguang told Electrolux that the Heart of Eternity he had created might provide a path toward an Undead Empire, prompting Electrolux to work out how to form an Undead Heart.
• Electrolux returned to Qian Chaoguang's Sea of Consciousness and announced that he would seclude himself to research undead advancement, while Sky Dream Ice Silkworm woke confused and Ice Empress slapped him away.
• Qian Chaoguang teleported back to his dormitory, then resumed classes with Liu Tiezhu without either of them mentioning what had happened in the Dean of Instruction's office.
• Qian Chaoguang spent the following days studying Soul Tools and, after dinner, practicing forging, magic, and other cultivation in the Undead Subplane.

Qian Chaoguang visited Illustrious Virtue Hall with Liu Tiezhu and noticed that its enormous research hall depended on Spirit Masters and soul engineers for power. Liu Tiezhu explained that the Power Supply Team endured severe bodily damage and could never advance their Soul Power cultivation.

• Liu Tiezhu told Qian Chaoguang he would prefer Laboratory Number One to Illustrious Virtue Hall, and Qian Chaoguang promised to teach him forging.
• Liu Tiezhu guided Qian Chaoguang through Illustrious Virtue Hall’s guarded checkpoints and identity-verified lifts to its underground research hall.
• Qian Chaoguang saw the thousands of lit Experimental Tables and asked Liu Tiezhu how the huge facility’s power supply was maintained.
• Liu Tiezhu explained that the Power Supply Team worked rotating shifts, had their Soul Power repeatedly drained, and suffered lasting damage to their meridians.
• Liu Tiezhu said Power Supply Team members were transferred after at most ten years and could never improve their Soul Power cultivation.

Qian Chaoguang learned that the Power Supply Teams’ sacrifices supported Illustrious Virtue Hall and paid them respect before testing his new Experimental Table. In the God Realm, Sea God Tang San resented the Faith Power spent on Wu Tong and complained that the Lower Realm was sending him less.

• Liu Tiezhu explained that volunteers in the Power Supply Teams kept the Sun Moon Empire’s research facilities running and received lifetime support after ten years of service.
• Qian Chaoguang honored the workers, received a new identity badge and Fifth-Level Soul Tool Master emblem, and was assigned a blank Experimental Table.
• Liu Tiezhu said he disliked Illustrious Virtue Hall and told Qian Chaoguang to find him in Laboratory Number One if he needed help.
• Qian Chaoguang tested the Experimental Table’s functions and judged the Sun Moon Empire’s technological advantage formidable.
• Tang San complained that nourishing Wu Tong’s soul fragment had consumed too much Faith Power and that the Lower Realm was sending him less.
• Tang San blamed Destruction for wasting Faith Power and strode into the surveillance secret chamber.

Tang San planted another fragment of Divine Sense in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, causing her to glimpse memories of Tang Wutong. Convinced his scheme had worked, he headed to the Asura God Temple to replenish his power, accepting that Xiao Wu would bear the harmful effects.

• Tang San sent a Divine Sense fragment into the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, hoping to claim the Star Dou Great Forest’s fortune.
• The Three-Eyed Golden Lion saw strange memories of a pinkish-blue-haired girl and a blue-haired human, then dismissed her confusion to the Ten Thousand Demons King.
• The Three-Eyed Golden Lion told the Ten Thousand Demons King to help her capture Qian Chaoguang so she could shave off all his hair.
• Tang San celebrated the apparent success of his interference and flew toward the Asura God Temple to use its Faith Power to restore his Divine Sense.
• Tang San decided Xiao Wu would have to endure the damage caused by the Asura God Power, telling himself he would make it up to her later.

Qian Chaoguang explored the Cultivation Area after leaving Illustrious Virtue Hall, while Jing Hongchen assessed him as no threat in soul-tool research and ordered Lin Jiayi to impede He Caitou. The chapter ended with a receptionist explaining that the Cultivation Area offered five grades of facilities based on Spirit Ring colors.

• Qian Chaoguang finished experimenting at his table, took the rare metals, and left Illustrious Virtue Hall.
• Jing Hongchen and Lin Jiayi watched Qian Chaoguang on a screen and agreed that his soul-tool talent appeared limited.
• Jing Hongchen told Lin Jiayi to monitor Huo Yutong’s soul tools and personally hold back He Caitou’s progress.
• Qian Chaoguang went to the Cultivation Area to investigate its facilities and whether they could improve his cultivation.
• A receptionist explained that the Cultivation Area had five grades, each offering different Heaven and Earth Origin Power concentrations and services.

Qian Chaoguang bought a two-year Red-Level Cultivation Area membership at Illustrious Virtue Hall and tested its gravity training equipment. After realizing how little the gravity affected him, he remembered Jiang Nannan’s Gravity Control and heard someone approaching in the silent cultivation area.

• Qian Chaoguang toured the cultivation areas and chose the Red-Level area, where he bought a two-year membership at a discount for Illustrious Virtue Hall Soul Tool Masters.
• The front desk gave Qian Chaoguang a VIP card that included daily massage and medicinal bath services.
• Qian Chaoguang explored a private room and tried the Gravity Room, but found even its highest setting offered little training for his unusually strong body.
• Qian Chaoguang remembered that Jiang Nannan had used her Gravity Control Soul Skill during their sparring matches.
• Blade sounds stopped, and footsteps echoed through the otherwise silent Red-Level Cultivation Area.

Qian Chaoguang met Ji Juechen in the Red-Level Cultivation Area, and the two prepared to test their weapons against each other. The chapter ended with them facing off at full strength, their blade and sword auras clashing before either struck.

• Ji Juechen entered the cultivation area with Jing Ziyan and immediately challenged Qian Chaoguang to fight.
• Qian Chaoguang agreed but asked for time to rest, and Ji Juechen waited while studying his long blade.
• Qian Chaoguang finished recovering, and he and Ji Juechen leaped apart to face each other across the Trial Area.
• Ji Juechen summoned his six Spirit Rings and raised his sword’s aura as Qian Chaoguang summoned four Spirit Rings and gathered his Blade Intent.
• Qian Chaoguang revealed his full fighting aura, and the two warriors’ power began clashing as Jing Ziyan watched in shock.

Qian Chaoguang and Ji Juechen clashed with their Blade Intent and Sword Intent in the Trial Area, pushing Qian Chaoguang’s unfinished technique toward completion. Their swords finally collided, and Qian Chaoguang completed the second form of his blade technique, Reign.

• Qian Chaoguang and Ji Juechen’s opposing intents shook the Trial Area as Qian Chaoguang’s Blade Intent suppressed Ji Juechen’s Sword Intent.
• Qian Chaoguang used the pressure of Ji Juechen’s Sword Intent to rapidly refine his technique based on Reign Over The World.
• Ji Juechen charged at Qian Chaoguang and swept his sword forward, tearing a deep trench through the floor and piercing the barrier between cultivation fields.
• Qian Chaoguang stepped forward and swung his blade in a silver arc to meet Ji Juechen’s strike.
• Qian Chaoguang’s blade struck the tip of Ji Juechen’s sword, completing his technique’s second form, Reign.

Qian Chaoguang and Ji Juechen clashed in a contest of blade and sword intent that damaged the Cultivation Area but ended with Qian Chaoguang gaining a new blade technique. After Ji Juechen conceded defeat, the two introduced themselves and Qian Chaoguang healed him.

• Qian Chaoguang and Ji Juechen exchanged a powerful strike that sent them both flying and damaged the Red-Level Cultivation Area.
• Qian Chaoguang realized his blade technique had gained a second form, Reign, while Ji Juechen recovered from the clash.
• Ji Juechen admitted defeat in their contest of Blade Intent and Sword Intent, and Jing Ziyan arranged treatment for him.
• Qian Chaoguang offered to pay Ji Juechen's treatment costs, but staff explained that both treatment and repairs were covered by the Cultivation Area.
• Qian Chaoguang and Ji Juechen introduced themselves, and Qian Chaoguang used Holy Healing to treat him.

Qian Chaoguang healed Ji Juechen after their duel, then spent a month cultivating and waiting for him to return. Ji Juechen eventually came to thank Qian Chaoguang, explaining that their fight had deepened his understanding of the sword.

• Qian Chaoguang used healing Divine Arts to treat Ji Juechen, and Jing Ziyan recognized him from the Soul Fighting Tournament.
• Qian Chaoguang left the Red-Level Cultivation Area, tried its medicinal bath, and returned to the Undead Subplane to cultivate, reaching Level 45 and strengthening his Mental Power.
• Over the next month, Qian Chaoguang studied Soul Tools, cultivated, and waited for Ji Juechen, who did not appear during that time.
• While Qian Chaoguang practiced his blade in the Trial Area, Ji Juechen arrived with Jing Ziyan.
• Qian Chaoguang summoned three chairs without soul power, surprising Ji Juechen and Jing Ziyan.
• Ji Juechen thanked Qian Chaoguang, saying their duel had led him into deep meditation and deepened his understanding of the sword.

Qian Chaoguang explained to Ji Juechen that a sword’s true essence lay in protection, helping him enter another deep meditation. He then spoke with Jing Ziyan about Ji’s role at Illustrious Virtue Hall and learned she knew Liu Tiezhu.

• Qian Chaoguang told Ji Juechen that the saber represented slaughter and disorder, while the sword represented restraint, order, and protection.
• Qian Chaoguang asked Ji Juechen whether his sword had people or things it wanted to protect, and Ji Juechen entered deep meditation.
• Jing Ziyan questioned Qian Chaoguang about his apparent ability to prompt enlightenment, and he asked her name.
• Qian Chaoguang guessed that Jing Ziyan’s mother was named Zhao Xianglu, startling Jing Ziyan before he awkwardly changed the subject.
• Jing Ziyan explained that Ji Juechen was Illustrious Virtue Hall’s Control System chief and its only non-Soul Tool Master, then confirmed that she knew Liu Tiezhu.

Qian Chaoguang learned how Liu Tiezhu and Ji Juechen became estranged after a misunderstanding escalated into a fight. He showed Jing Ziyan his blade, Xuan Hui, and explained its moon-related name and abilities.

• Jing Ziyan explained that Ji Juechen and Liu Tiezhu had fought after Ji Juechen's silence following a swordcrafting duel angered Liu Tiezhu.
• Liu Tiezhu beat Ji Juechen, who then kept his distance from him for years.
• Jing Ziyan asked Qian Chaoguang about his blade, and he said he had forged it with help from his teacher.
• Qian Chaoguang named the blade Xuan Hui and explained that it incorporated a Moon Shadow Wolf King soul bone and could harness moonlight.
• Qian Chaoguang described Xuan Hui's Condensing Light and Condensing Moon abilities and noted that Zhang Lexuan's Martial Soul could enhance it.

Qian Chaoguang and the others made steady progress during six months of cultivation and study, while Ji Juechen left to seek what he wanted to protect. The chapter ended with Qian Chaoguang explaining that he had been using Illustrious Virtue Hall’s Experimental Table for more than a month.

• Electrolux enhanced the Xuan Hui Blade with seven buffs, including Soul Curse, which inflicted especially powerful damage on undead and spiritual beings.
• Ji Juechen awakened from deep meditation, realized the sword was about more than damage, and left to find what he was meant to protect.
• Qian Chaoguang continued his training and reached close to rank forty-seven, while Huo Yutong developed Lock On into a versatile skill and rapidly advanced her soul tool studies.
• Lin Jiayi watched the Shrek exchange students, especially He Caitou, whose rapid progress in standard soul tools he could not stop.
• Liu Tiezhu asked Qian Chaoguang why he had been visiting Illustrious Virtue Hall every day, and Qian Chaoguang said its Experimental Table was more convenient for making certain things.