Chapter Summaries

Xie Ming explained how Wilderness Body rank let unqualified awakeners hold professorships while capable assistants did the teaching, then asked Wen Jing to help challenge the system through the Education Committee. The committee approved a three-month trial granting Wen Jing authority to assess her professors’ skill, with professors who proved less proficient than her demoted and their assistants promoted.

• Wen Jing questioned why teaching assistants taught Azure Jade classes while professors did not, and Xie Ming described how rank rather than professional ability determined advancement across the Federation.
• Xie Ming proposed using Wen Jing’s case to challenge Azure Jade and expose professors’ lack of teaching ability, and Wen Jing agreed despite the risks.
• Dean Fu told Saerjia that Ochre Soil had filed an official complaint and that he would have to defend his conduct before the Education Committee.
• The Education Committee debated Saerjia’s conduct and the broader problem of professors delegating their teaching to assistants.
• The committee approved a reformist proposal allowing Wen Jing to assess her course professors’ proficiency during her three-month exchange, demoting any professor less skilled than her and promoting their teaching assistant.

Wen Jing’s challenge to Azure Jade’s professors gained momentum as she mastered the thirty-six courses and began teaching Ocher Soil students herself. Her success turned students against the professors’ instruction, and the chapter ended with a Azure Jade student asking to join Wen Jing’s study group.

• The Education Committee’s plan spread through the academies, and Wen Jing drew attention as she began her evaluation at Azure Jade.
• Professor Ye assigned a teaching assistant to instruct Wen Jing while offering the other Azure Jade students his own teaching, splitting the class into two groups.
• During her second month, Wen Jing’s skills reached mastery in batches, and she explained techniques to the Ocher Soil students, whose progress improved.
• Sang Qing recorded Wen Jing’s lessons while Saerjia berated a Azure Jade student for watching the other group.
• The Azure Jade student left Saerjia’s group and asked to study with Wen Jing; Sang Qing agreed.

Wen Jing survived a chain of explosions that destroyed the underground world and exposed a deeper abyss, then evolved her Gravity Silk Gland. She left the chapter with new traits and a chance to explore the newly revealed depths after gathering the remains.

• Sang Qing invited Wen Jing to join her Prism Shield optimization project, and Wen Jing accepted as more teaching assistants began supporting her.
• Wen Jing's mental lashes overloaded the jellyfish, triggering a chain of explosions that engulfed the underground world in freezing flames.
• Wen Jing survived the blast with Sang Qing's optimized Prism Shield and discovered that the collapse had opened a vast abyss with strange lights below.
• Wen Jing chose to evolve Gravity Silk and upgraded her Gravity Silk Gland, gaining five traits and Spacetime Curvature Sensing.

Wen Jing used her upgraded gravity abilities to harvest the Cold Flame Jellyfish remains, then ventured deeper into the Ancient Wilderness and discovered a luminous floating island. Inside it, she found a gigantic giant worm frozen in a lifelike pose.

• Wen Jing tested her new Inertia Manipulation, Gravitational Lens, and Gravitational Field abilities, then devoured the exposed Cold Flame Jellyfish and other Wilderness Beasts.
• Wen Jing raised her attributes but failed to obtain the jellyfish's [Energy Siphon] trait.
• Wen Jing descended through the giant rift, improved her cold resistance, and traveled deeper into the underground darkness.
• Wen Jing followed a brightening light toward a vast floating island made of luminous crystal as the temperature approached absolute zero.
• Wen Jing saw a giant worm over a thousand meters long encased inside the island and realized it appeared to be dead.

Wen Jing accidentally triggered the strange light surrounding the floating islands and was sealed in place, unable to return from the Ancient Wilderness. When nightfall failed to free her, alarms sounded at Azure Jade Academy, and her friends and teachers feared for her safety.

• Wen Jing found enormous Wilderness Beasts sealed inside glowing floating islands and realized the area was like a museum of powerful creatures.
• Wen Jing cracked the crystal containing a giant scorpion, triggering a bright light that froze her body and sealed her senses and consciousness from the outside world.
• Wen Jing discovered that the panel still let her think, but she could not evolve an escape method or cross back to the material universe.
• Wen Jing waited for the day-night transition to carry her out of the Ancient Wilderness, but she remained frozen after evening arrived.
• Azure Jade Academy's transit registration center raised the alarm when Wen Jing exceeded her allotted time, and students and teachers at both academies grew anxious.

Trapped in spacetime amber in the underground Wilderness Beast museum, Wen Jing realized her consciousness could still evolve even though her body was frozen. She sacrificed her Howl of the Hunt trait for skill points and began evolving a way to split her consciousness, but the result was not yet clear.

• Wen Jing failed to escape the spacetime amber, while twelve hours passed outside and Azure Jade marked her missing; Dean Fu kept the rescue equipment on standby.
• Wen Jing concluded that her body and spirit body were frozen, but the part of her consciousness anchored to the panel could still think and change.
• Wen Jing conceived of evolving an ability to split her consciousness so a newly created consciousness could escape the amber.
• When she lacked enough skill points for the evolution, Wen Jing converted Howl of the Hunt into 800 skill points.
• Wen Jing spent all 1,010 skill points on the evolution and felt her sense of self become unusually distinct.

Wen Jing escaped the Spacetime Amber by splitting her consciousness and traveling to the Ancient Wilderness palace, but her body was weakened and she was trapped in a partitioned space. When bronze beast-headed statues appeared, she prepared to fight them.

• Wen Jing split her consciousness at the transition between day and night, allowing one half to escape the Spacetime Amber while the other remained sealed.
• Wen Jing’s body regenerated in the palace, and her species level rose from 613 to 11772 even as her physical attributes and abilities weakened.
• Wen Jing tried to leave the palace, but chime bells rang and white light revealed shadowy figures rising from the floor.
• Wen Jing found that her Gravitational Field, Ice Domain, and Energy Pulse could not reach beyond the four floor tiles enclosing her in a separate spacetime.
• Dozens of golden bronze statues with beast heads and human bodies emerged from the shadows, and Wen Jing readied herself for battle.

Wen Jing returned from the chime-bell world badly injured, then resumed studying and teaching on Azure Jade, where her dual consciousness accelerated her learning. The chapter ended with her considering how to obtain more skill points by devouring civilization ruins.

• Wen Jing fought a wolf-headed bronze piece after realizing the strange chamber operated like a chessboard.
• Wen Jing returned to Azure Jade on the second night of her disappearance, and Xie Ming used his energy to help restore her as Dean Fu noted damage to her Wilderness Body and spiritual body.
• Three days later, Wen Jing insisted on continuing her studies while injured, and Xie Ming agreed to let her resume them.
• Wen Jing's two independently thinking consciousnesses helped her skills break through mastery, impressing Azure Jade's professors and teaching assistants.
• Wen Jing checked that she had 105 skill points and concluded that devouring civilization ruins could provide them in larger quantities.

Wen Jing returned to the Chime Bells World to seek more skill points and advance toward the door beyond the chessboard. After defeating two wolf-headed pieces, she encountered a monkey-headed piece that challenged her to craft a stronger bronze sword, and she began improving the sword by adding material from her own shell.

• After ten days of recovery, Wen Jing left a gravity-made false image in Azure Jade's villa and entered the Chime Bells World.
• Wen Jing chose the door ahead and defeated two wolf-headed pieces in succession.
• A monkey-headed piece demonstrated how to cast a bronze sword, and Wen Jing replicated the process to earn one skill point for mastering bronze-sword casting.
• Wen Jing realized she would need to make a sword better than the monkey-headed man's and found that he would not let her leave the crafting area.
• Wen Jing added powdered material shaved from her exoskeleton to the molten bronze alloy to strengthen the sword.

Wen Jing exploited the Ancient Wilderness chessboard’s craft contests to gain skill points by improving her forged weapons, then sought ways to study metal smelting in the modern world. She left the chessboard before encountering a deer-headed piece and later asked her classmates for help pursuing her new interest.

• Wen Jing used a piece of her exoskeleton as a special casting material, won the bronze sword contest, and gained proficiency points after the weapon was tested.
• She defeated another artisan by forging a bronze dagger-axe with the same method, then earned thirty skill points after beating three monkey-headed men and two wolf-headed men.
• Wen Jing returned from the Ancient Wilderness, ate a late-night meal, and emailed Xie Ming for advice on metallic materials.
• After reading Xie Ming’s recommendations, Wen Jing found little useful information because the Federation’s materials science was far beyond her old world’s technology.
• Wen Jing told the Ocher Soil members and the teaching assistant that she was interested in refining impure minerals, surprising them with a hobby beyond studying.

Wen Jing perfected bronze spear casting and passed the deer-headed figure’s sacrifice trial, which opened the doors to a larger palace and a new board. She arrived there and began studying its grouped pieces, including unfamiliar warriors and craftsmen.

• Wen Jing used ancient-style hobby videos and ores from Xia Yun’s friends to prepare for bronze casting.
• Wen Jing crafted a bronze spear with part of her forelimb and earned 26 skill points by perfecting the casting skill.
• The deer-headed figure sacrificed its antlers to calm the disasters, and Wen Jing offered the figure’s head instead, perfecting the ritual skill.
• The chime bells rang, the doors opened, and Wen Jing moved from the previous palace’s board to a larger board in a new palace.
• Wen Jing noticed that the new board grouped its pieces by type and included tiger-headed warriors and ox-headed craftsmen.

Wen Jing realized the board game was governed by social rank and gained eleven wolf-headed followers by defeating their leader and commanding them to kneel. With her movement range expanded, she headed toward the craftsmen, but two tiger-led forces moved to block her.

• Wen Jing chose the warriors’ path, and a tiger-headed leader and sixteen wolf-headed men attacked her together.
• Wen Jing recognized that the board’s rules reflected social hierarchy and that defeating a leader could let her advance and command followers.
• Wen Jing killed the tiger-headed leader and five defiant wolf-headed men, then used Mental Link to make the others kneel and submit.
• Wen Jing returned to the board with eleven wolf-headed followers, whose presence expanded her movement range to eight squares.
• Wen Jing moved toward a group of craftsmen, but the craftsmen retreated as two tiger-led forces advanced from either side to block her.

Wen Jing expanded her force in the chessboard world by defeating a tiger-headed leader and capturing its soldiers, then learned that Ji Shuang had been injured and removed from a Azure Jade expedition team. Wen Jing offered to replace Ji Shuang despite her own serious injuries.

• Wen Jing realized that becoming a faction drew the attention of every nearby army and led her troops into battle against a tiger-headed faction.
• Wen Jing ate the tiger-headed leader’s bronze battle-axe, confirmed that craftsmen provided replacement weapons, and killed the leader after disrupting its attacks with her Gravitational Field.
• Wen Jing’s soldiers captured sixteen enemies, raising her force to twenty-seven, and she returned from the chessboard world rather than pursue the craftsmen or priests.
• Two days later, Wen Jing noticed Ji Shuang was absent from Energy Structure Method class, and Song Zhi explained that she was recovering from an expedition injury.
• Eve said Azure Jade’s Operations Department had removed Ji Shuang from the team to claim a rare treasure without sharing the reward, and Wen Jing offered to take her place.

Wen Jing insisted on replacing the injured Ji Shuang in Azure Jade's exploration and secured the team's reluctant agreement. After asserting her strength at a tense tactical meeting, she entered the magma-filled world with the Azure Jade team, partly to avoid a risky unanchored transit near her clone.

• Wen Jing visited Ji Shuang in the hospital and announced she would take her place on Azure Jade's exploration team.
• Wen Jing persuaded the Ocher Soil students that she could safely help retrieve the haul, and Azure Jade's Student Council agreed she had priority under the exchange agreement.
• Two days later, Wen Jing attended the tactical meeting, where Yu Yu explained that she would freeze a magma passage in Zone C to let the team cross.
• When Chris challenged Wen Jing, she dropped the room temperature to minus twenty degrees; Yu Yu made Chris apologize and ordered the meeting to continue.
• Wen Jing joined Yu Yu, Chris, Jialong, and Peggy at the registration center and transited to the magma-filled world using its Locator Stone.

Wen Jing silently reached Zone C, collected the rare coral, and entered Zone D to hunt a powerful lava monitor lizard. As the Azure Jade team debated whether to help her, Wen Jing’s battle with the beast caused the lava lake to boil and an earthquake to shake the surrounding zones.

• Wen Jing ignored the Mental Link messages, found the purplish-red coral in Zone C, and left frozen arrows to guide the Azure Jade team.
• Wen Jing entered Zone D and attacked a giant lava monitor lizard, using Ice Domain and Frost Vein Silk against its eye.
• The lava monitor lizard retaliated with lava breath and attacks, while Wen Jing used her Gravitational Field and Prism Shield to evade and strike its weak points.
• Lu Zhou, Peggy, Chris, and Yu Yu heard the battle and debated whether to rescue Wen Jing, but Chris argued they should stay in Zone C.
• Wen Jing continued wearing down the lava monitor lizard until it stopped chasing her, then the lava lake boiled and an earthquake shook the zones.

Wen Jing killed a lava monitor lizard in Zone D, gained Advanced Heat Resistance, and returned safely to Azure Jade's registration center. She then outmaneuvered her teammates in the loot dispute and left with Ocher Soil, refusing to explain what had happened in Zone D.

• Wen Jing used her Ice Domain and Gravitational Field to survive the lava monitor lizard's ultimate attack, then struck its eye and escaped its explosive death throes.
• Wen Jing ate the monitor lizard and gained over a hundred points in Life and Strength, along with Advanced Heat Resistance.
• The four Azure Jade team members returned without Wen Jing and explained to the staff that they had followed safety procedures and left her behind.
• Song Zhi, Eve, and He Yunping arrived as the Azure Jade team discussed Wen Jing's disappearance, but Wen Jing soon returned safely to the registration center.
• Wen Jing challenged her teammates' claim that she had not contributed, producing a piece of purple coral and invoking her F-rank status.
• President He pooled Wen Jing's coral with the others' loot and divided it equally among the five, and Wen Jing left with Ocher Soil without revealing what happened in Zone D.

After the joint exploration ended, Wen Jing returned to the chessboard world and captured an artisan team by sending her warrior pieces after them. The priests then challenged her with a flood ritual, and she began copying their movements on her own altar.

• Wen Jing gave her purplish-red coral spoils to the recovering Ji Shuang and returned her attention to the nighttime chessboard world.
• Wen Jing observed a team of artisans casting chime bells, then ordered her wolf-headed warrior pieces to capture them.
• Wen Jing gained control of the six artisan pieces, but sensed their loyalty was weak and that nearby factions were preparing to encircle her.
• The priest team led by a crane-headed figure attacked, placing Wen Jing's pieces on a small altar as rain and floodwaters rose around them.
• Wen Jing saw the enemy priests and shamans use a ritual to recede the flood and lessen the rain, then copied their movements on her own altar.

Wen Jing halted a ritual that threatened to convert her followers, then performed a dance from the blue-fire altar to summon flint fire and defeat the priests. Her army returned to the board with renewed loyalty, but her new ideology made the surrounding factions unite against her.

• Wen Jing stopped imitating the priests' ritual after realizing it would convert her and her followers, but the rain and spatial barrier prevented her from stopping them from crossing the rainbow bridge.
• Wen Jing used Frost Vein Silk and killed several followers, but a thunderbolt destroyed the heads she tried to sacrifice at the altar.
• Wen Jing danced the passage ritual from the blue-fire altar, summoned a flame, and expanded it into a blue sun that dispelled the rain and drew the warriors and craftsmen into worship.
• Wen Jing and her loyal army returned to the board as the defeated priests disappeared and other pieces turned toward her.
• Wen Jing led her army forward, and two tiger-headed forces joined together to attack her on the same square.

Wen Jing conquered the factions in the second palace and entered the third, where she discovered the bronze ding at the center was the ruin’s core. She learned she could bring loyal leader-class subordinates from the previous palace into the new power struggle, bringing her closer to claiming the ding.

• Wen Jing led her forces through a fierce battle against two legions, captured twenty-three enemy soldiers, and continued fighting until she had consumed every faction in the second palace.
• After defeating the final legion, Wen Jing entered the third palace and saw a tiered board crowned by a bronze ding, which she identified as the civilization ruin’s core.
• Wen Jing discovered that collisions with pieces in the third palace triggered battles, and a golden portal let her bring leader-class subordinates from the second palace when empty squares were available.
• Wen Jing defeated a bear-headed commander, then swapped out its three tiger-headed subordinates for her own pieces, raising the commander’s loyalty until it became acceptable.
• Wen Jing concluded that the third palace’s conflicts revolved around political factional struggles, then returned from the chess world to find messages from the exchange student group and the academic affairs director.

Wen Jing faced an early assessment of her skills before a packed audience, with Mystic Radiance Academy’s Professor Lei Yuan serving as judge. She outperformed several Azure Jade professors, but deliberately held back against Professor Mo'er, who passed, as the assessment continued.

• The Education Committee moved Wen Jing’s assessment up to the next day, and Xie Ming told her the conservatives had forced the change.
• Professor Lei Yuan arrived at Azure Jade Academy to judge the assessment, while Dean Fu and the academy leaders joined the judging panel.
• Wen Jing scored 8.6 times amplification against Professor Ye’s 6.9, and Dean Fu ordered Ye to step down after he failed.
• One professor after another failed the assessments, deepening the tension among the Azure Jade students and faculty.
• Professor Mo'er scored a 64.5% divergence rate against Wen Jing’s 65%, and Wen Jing said she had performed worse than before, allowing him to pass.