Chapter Summaries

Lance's family crossed the White River with Golden Tiger and entered White River City, where the viscount invited Andrew to a banquet after hearing about his strength and magical beast. Andrew accepted, hoping to learn more about the Yulan Empire, and followed Clayde toward the gathering.

• Andrew and Howard cultivated through the night while Janice and Ling'er slept against Golden Tiger, and Andrew's Battle-qi increased.
• Andrew and Ling'er flew across the White River on Golden Tiger, who then carried Howard and Janice over as well.
• Lance's family entered White River City, attracting attention because of Golden Tiger, and wandered the streets with Ling'er.
• Clayde arrived with Frey Clan guards, recognized Howard and Andrew, and learned that Andrew had surpassed his father and tamed Golden Tiger.
• Clayde invited Andrew to the viscount's banquet, and Andrew agreed to go with him.

Clayde brought Andrew and his family to the Frey Clan estate, where Viscount Frey tried to recruit Andrew by offering Howard a home and status in White River City. Kate insulted the family again at lunch, and Andrew confronted her and Viscount Frey, demanding that they lick the food from the floor or be eaten by the golden tiger.

• Clayde brought Andrew's family to the Frey Clan estate, where Kate insulted Ling'er and called the family lowlifes.
• Howard stopped Andrew from attacking Kate, and Andrew warned Clayde not to let anyone insult his family again.
• Viscount Frey welcomed the visitors and learned that eleven-year-old Andrew had subdued the golden tiger.
• Viscount Frey urged Howard to settle in White River City and join the Frey Clan, but Howard refused and insisted that the family would continue to the imperial capital.
• Kate entered the lunch gathering and insulted the Lance family, prompting Andrew to overturn the table and demand that she and Viscount Frey lick up the food or face the golden tiger.

Andrew confronted Viscount Frey and Kate after they insulted his family, forcing them to crawl and lick food from the floor while Golden Tiger killed the reinforcements. Andrew then left White River City with Howard, Janice, and Ling'er.

• Andrew refused Howard's request to let the Frey family go, and Golden Tiger pinned Viscount Frey and Kate to the floor.
• Clayde attacked Andrew to defend the Frey Clan, but Andrew struck him down with Explosive Steps.
• Andrew threatened to feed Viscount Frey and Kate to Golden Tiger, so they crawled across the floor and licked up the food.
• Golden Tiger slaughtered the Frey Clan's arriving reinforcements and returned covered in blood.
• Andrew left the estate with his family, and they bought provisions and toys before departing White River City.

Andrew took his family away from White River City to avoid retaliation from the Frey Clan, then continued west toward the imperial capital. During the journey, he refined Explosive Steps and ended the day keeping watch beneath the stars, where he became absorbed in their shifting patterns.

• Andrew led Howard, Janice, and Ling'er out of White River City on the golden tiger, and mercenaries guessed he was an eighth- or ninth-level warrior.
• After traveling for two hours, Howard urged Andrew to be more cautious with nobles, while Ling'er joked that he bullied the weak and feared the strong.
• The family continued west without finding a village, city, or caravan, and Andrew practiced Explosive Steps until he could control it over ten meters.
• At night, Andrew helped Howard set up camp, and the family shared dinner and talked about their hopes for a future home.
• Andrew stayed on watch with the golden tiger, gazed at the stars, and watched them take on shifting shapes.

After realizing his spiritual energy had improved, Andrew continued traveling west with his family and became concerned about their slow, exhausting journey. He met two instructors from Divine Grace Academy at night and, after checking their story, invited them to travel with his family to the imperial capital.

• Andrew noticed he absorbed battle-qi faster and sensed lightning and fire elements more clearly, so he resolved to study at a warrior academy in the imperial capital.
• Andrew and his family traveled west for another exhausting day, and he worried that their lack of a map and the sparse population would delay their journey.
• Andrew smelled blood nearby, then spotted two approaching figures and ordered the golden tiger to wake his family and protect them.
• Andrew challenged the newcomers, who identified themselves as Divine Grace Academy instructors Bandeni and Polite, and asked why Polite's shield was bloodstained.
• Andrew accompanied Bandeni and Polite to a pit and confirmed they had buried corpses there rather than fought nearby; he apologized for suspecting them.
• Andrew told Bandeni and Polite that his family was heading to the imperial capital and invited them to travel together.

Andrew asked Bandeni to test Ling'er’s magical affinity, then discovered his own exceptional fire and lightning affinities. He agreed to study magic alongside martial arts, leaving Janice delighted and Howard quietly concerned that Andrew might neglect his warrior talent.

• Andrew returned to the campfire with Bandeni and Polite, and introduced his family to the instructors.
• Andrew asked Bandeni to test Ling’er’s magical affinity, and the crystal ball revealed her high-grade fire affinity.
• Andrew tested his own affinity and produced dazzling purple and red light, showing exceptional-grade lightning and fire affinities.
• Bandeni urged Andrew to study magic and predicted he could become a Saint-level magus.
• Andrew agreed to study magic with Ling'er while continuing his martial training, pleasing Janice and leaving Howard uneasy.

Andrew and his companions traveled toward Lefen City, showcasing their different ways of moving before Andrew challenged Polite to a spar. Andrew’s explosive speed and attacks astonished Polite, while Polite’s precise defense stopped the fight with a sudden halt.

• Bandeni consulted a rough map and led the group toward Lefen City, about nine hundred li to the west.
• Bandeni traveled effortlessly by moving the earth beneath him, while Polite strode forward in long, precisely controlled steps; Howard eventually rode the golden tiger to keep pace.
• The group rested after traveling nearly three hundred li, and Andrew asked Polite to spar with him in a nearby clearing.
• Andrew used Explosive Steps to attack from multiple directions, but Polite read his movements and blocked each strike with his greatshield.
• Andrew's blows carried explosive force that shook Polite through his shield and shattered nearby rocks before the impacts stopped abruptly.

After sparring with Polite, Andrew gained a new insight into handling heavy weapons and reached Lefen City, where the strange behavior of its people and a child’s story about God deepened his unease. He entered the city lord’s manor with his companions and Milly, then sensed something chilling in the city lord’s eyes.

• Andrew’s spar with Polite broke his saber, but Polite’s shield techniques helped Andrew find a direction for understanding Wielding Heavy Weapons as Though They Were Light.
• The group rested overnight, traveled to Lefen City, and Andrew felt the city’s atmosphere was strangely lifeless.
• Andrew met Milly, whose mother had gone to the city lord’s place to sacrifice herself for God, and learned that Milly believed God was there.
• Andrew decided to take Milly to find her mother and went with Bandeni and the others to the city lord’s manor.
• The city lord welcomed the party, and Andrew felt a chilling sensation when their eyes met, confirming his suspicion that something was wrong.

Andrew sensed a sinister presence in the city lord's manor, and the city lord later revealed that he intended to sacrifice Ling'er to the Nether God. The chapter ended with the city lord identifying Ling'er as the pure soul he had searched for.

• Andrew felt a cold aura in the manor, and Ling'er also grew cold while Milly and Howard felt nothing; the city lord's smile briefly left Andrew unable to feel his body.
• Andrew shielded Ling'er from the city lord's stare, then watched him closely during the garden feast while Ling'er refused to eat.
• The city lord returned with guards carrying Milly's bound mother on a cross and announced a sacrifice to the Nether God; Andrew carried Milly away and knocked her unconscious.
• Bandeni confronted the city lord, who claimed the Nether God had raised him from a fourth-rank warrior to great power and said he could defeat the High Priest.
• The city lord showed a glowing bead that supposedly revealed pure souls and declared that Ling'er was the person he had been seeking.

Andrew and his companions were captured by the lord of Lefen City, who intended to sacrifice Ling'er, Milly, and Milly's mother to a divine power. Andrew broke free of the Darkness Magic, killed the city lord, and rescued the captives, then discovered a mysterious black statue and something promising on the corpse.

• Andrew recognized that the city lord's sacrifices might be meant for a Darkness Sovereign, but the lord's gaze and Darkness Magic left Andrew and his companions unable to move.
• The city lord took Ling'er and struck Andrew with a black arrow, freezing his soul; Andrew later broke free and found himself and his companions tied to a pillar near the altar.
• Andrew saw Ling'er, Milly, and Milly's mother bound to crosses as the city lord prepared to sacrifice them.
• Andrew attacked the city lord, pierced his heart, and crushed his still-living head beneath his foot.
• Andrew freed Ling'er, Milly, and Milly's mother, then left the estate with the others after they awoke.
• Andrew inspected the altar and the city lord's corpse, finding a black statue and another object that filled him with anticipation.

Andrew escaped Lefen City with his companions and discovered that the city lord’s spatial ring contained a vast fortune, Inkstone, corpses, and a mysterious statue. Reading the city lord’s notes, he learned that the statue had granted the man power after he worshipped it, and he began investigating its origins.

• Andrew claimed the dead lord of Lefen City’s spatial ring, took Milly and her mother, and fled the city with Bandeni, Janice, and Golden Tiger.
• The group traveled west and rested in a secluded valley while Andrew and Golden Tiger kept watch.
• Andrew found that the ring held ten thousand cubic meters of space, nine million gold coins, and more than twenty million pieces of Inkstone, which he recognized as Infernal Realm currency.
• Andrew discovered modified corpses, dried bodies, the city lord’s notes, and a half-height statue inscribed with a command to sacrifice to it for power.
• Andrew learned from the notes that the city lord had begun worshipping the statue after his lover was killed and he was hunted, seeking strength for revenge.

Andrew learned from the city lord of Lefen's notes how the Nether God statue had granted power through worship and human sacrifices, then put the statue away and vowed to reach Saint-level within ten years. After traveling west with Milly and Aida, his group reached the imperial capital, where Bandeni explained that powerful magic formations protected the city.

• Andrew read that the city lord of Lefen had used the Nether God statue and sacrifices to gain strength, destroy his enemy's family, and eventually seek people with pure souls.
• Andrew decided not to worship the statue, put it away, and swore to reach Saint-level within ten years so he could protect his family.
• After the incident in Lefen City, Bandeni became more cautious, and Janice took in Milly and her mother, Aida, as the group continued west.
• A month later, Andrew's group saw the imperial capital, and Bandeni told Andrew that Saint-level experts could sense the magic formations protecting it.
• Andrew's group entered the imperial capital through its eastern gate, where Bandeni offered to take everyone to the city's best restaurant.

Andrew settled his family in a former earl’s courtyard residence in the imperial capital and arranged for Ling’er to be tested at Divine Grace Academy. He planned to access the academy library independently and asked Bandeni to find Howard the best earth-element battle-qi manual.

• Bandeni took Andrew and his family to view a courtyard residence near Divine Grace Academy, and Andrew bought it for three million gold coins.
• Andrew deposited four million gold coins at the bank, received a Magic Crystal Card, and moved his family, Milly, and Milly’s mother into the residence.
• Three days later, Bandeni brought Andrew and Ling’er to Divine Grace Academy, where Ling’er’s spiritual power tested nearly a hundred times that of an ordinary person.
• Andrew told Bandeni he wanted access to the academy library rather than to study as a student, and agreed to pay one hundred thousand gold coins for entry.
• Andrew asked Bandeni to find Howard the best earth-element battle-qi manual, and Bandeni promised to help.

Andrew settled into a routine of studying magic arrays and cultivating, while his father Howard decided to become a mercenary after breaking through to the seventh rank. Andrew persuaded Golden Tiger to protect Howard by agreeing to an Equal Contract and promising to help it reach the ninth level.

• Howard received the Saint-level battle-qi manual Earth's Fissure and secluded himself to pursue a breakthrough, while Ling'er began attending Divine Grace Academy.
• Andrew advanced to the middle stage of the seventh rank and studied magic arrays at the academy library, eventually setting up a defensive array for his home and a fire-element array for Janice.
• Howard broke through to the seventh rank and told Janice he wanted to go out as a mercenary; Andrew supported his decision, though Janice worried about his safety.
• Andrew asked Golden Tiger to accompany and protect Howard, then persuaded it to accept an Equal Contract by promising to obtain a ninth-level wind-element magic core for its advancement.

After Andrew broke through in battle-qi, he went searching for a weapon suited to his lightning-fire fusion. At the Blood Peak shop, he met a Saint-level drunk who revealed a hidden chamber filled with divine artifacts.

• Howard signed an Equal Contract with Golden Tiger, joined a mercenary squad, and left to capture an Earth Dragon Beast, leaving Janice distressed.
• Andrew broke through in battle-qi while refining it, then left the residence to find a weapon despite Janice's sadness.
• Andrew searched the imperial capital for a suitable saber but found nothing that met his expectations.
• Andrew entered the Blood Peak shop, where its drunk owner demonstrated Saint-level strength and invited him to choose a weapon.
• The drunk opened a concealed passage and showed Andrew a chamber containing racks of weapons, claiming every one was a divine artifact.

Andrew chose a black Saint Warrior’s saber from the drunkard’s collection and named it the Godslaying Saber. After leaving home to seek battle and improve his understanding of force, he traveled toward the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts and confronted a passenger who shoved him aboard the boat.

• The drunkard let Andrew choose a weapon from his secret chamber, and Andrew selected a black saber despite being told that better weapons, including divine artifacts, were available.
• Andrew named the saber the Godslaying Saber, and the drunkard gave him a matching scabbard.
• Andrew returned home and shared a cheerful dinner with Janice and Ling'er, who had become a third-level mage at Divine Grace Academy.
• After Ling'er returned to the academy, Andrew left Janice a letter and traveled west toward the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, seeking battles to advance his comprehension.
• On a passenger boat crossing the Yulan River, a pale young man shoved Andrew, fell backward, and then hurried away after Andrew warned him not to try again.

Andrew entered the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts to seek powerful opponents and gathered magic cores while navigating its dangerous outskirts. After ten days, he reached a lake, where a huge magical beast surfaced and attacked him with water arrows.

• Andrew traveled west from the river and confirmed at sunrise that he had reached the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.
• Andrew entered the ancient forest, killed a Patterned Winged Serpent, and collected its magic core.
• Andrew evaded and killed an ambushing Wind Badger, then continued deeper while gathering magic cores and adapting to the perilous terrain.
• Andrew spent ten days crossing the outskirts, collecting more than a hundred magic cores and improving his control over his strength.
• Andrew reached a lake, but a large aquatic magical beast sent water arrows toward him, forcing him to leap back from the shore.

Andrew lured the One-Horned Ice Python away from the lake and fought the level nine magical beast in a dense forest. After being injured by its tremendous strength and battling its ice magic, he shattered its ice pillar with the Godslaying Saber, but the fight continued.

• Andrew recognized the One-Horned Ice Python as a powerful level nine magical beast when it emerged from the lake.
• Andrew retreated a kilometer into the forest, and the One-Horned Ice Python pursued him, freezing the ground and crushing trees and rocks along the way.
• The One-Horned Ice Python attacked with ice arrows, which Andrew blocked with his fusion battle-qi barrier.
• The python swept its tail at Andrew, sending him crashing through a tree and injuring him, so he drew the Godslaying Saber.
• Andrew and the One-Horned Ice Python reached a stalemate as he blocked its ice pillar, but he unleashed a second strike that shattered it.

After killing the One-Horned Ice Python, Andrew realized that his path was to wield something light as though it were heavy. He tested his insight against a pack of Crimson Flame Wolves and left their wolf king charging toward him.

• Andrew killed the One-Horned Ice Python, took its Magic Crystal Core and corpse, and stayed behind to reflect on the battle.
• Andrew concluded that wielding something light as though it were heavy suited his limited strength better than the path of wielding heavy weapons as though they were light.
• The next day, Andrew was surrounded by more than thirty Crimson Flame Wolves, whose intelligent wolf king directed their coordinated attack.
• Andrew used his strength and the Godslaying Saber to knock the wolves down without killing them, and realized he had grasped the essence of using strength.
• Andrew turned to leave, but the wolf king howled and charged toward him.

Andrew accepted the Crimson Flame Wolf King as a cultivation companion named Flame Wolf, and the two grew stronger together in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. After reaching the late stage of the eighth rank and deciding to pursue the path to Saint level, Andrew left to visit his family but remembered his promise to Golden Tiger and turned back to find it a ninth-level wind-element magic crystal core.

• The Crimson Flame Wolf King offered to become Andrew's master, and Andrew refused a servant contract but agreed to help it grow stronger, naming it Flame Wolf.
• Over three months, Andrew and Flame Wolf hunted high-level magical beasts and cultivated at a secluded valley where Andrew had built formations for them.
• Andrew advanced to the late stage of the eighth rank and concluded that mastering momentum was his next step toward reaching Saint level.
• After resting for three days, Andrew left the valley with Flame Wolf to visit his family.
• Andrew remembered that he had promised Golden Tiger a ninth-level wind-element magic crystal core, then turned back to make amends.