Chapter Summaries

Lu Yuan arrived at the Guanghua School exam with a knife still in his chest, and Ji Yin used his authority to get him inside with two agents. After Ji Yin revealed that Lu Yuan had helped stop a cult attack, the crowd applauded him, while Li Tao became furious and vowed to remember him.

• Ji Yin supported the bloodied Lu Yuan through the crowd toward the examination venue, where Li Tao tried to block their way and Ji Yin shoved her aside.
• Lu Yuan presented his bloodstained admission ticket and identity card, and Ji Yin took responsibility for allowing him to enter with the knife still in his chest.
• Ji Yin sent two subordinates into the venue to accompany Lu Yuan, prompting parents and reporter Ding Lin to accuse him of violating the exam's fairness.
• Ji Yin told the crowd that Lu Yuan had infiltrated a cult, uncovered its plan to attack the exam, and helped the Internal Affairs Bureau destroy its Jiangzhou City stronghold.
• The crowd applauded Lu Yuan and the Internal Affairs Bureau, while Li Tao burned with anger and set herself against Lu Yuan.

After surviving surgery, Lu Yuan took the common language exam by marking C for every answer, then reunited with his worried family. The Internal Affairs Bureau arranged luxurious hotel suites for them, and the family settled in Jiangzhou City before Lu Yuan’s remaining exams the next day.

• Lu Yuan woke after surgery shortly before the common language exam and went to take it despite still recovering.
• Lu Yuan marked C for every multiple-choice answer and finished the exam before the listening section ended.
• Lu Yuan reunited with Lu Wenkai, Xu Yongmei, and Xiao Bing outside the exam room, and hugged them after seeing how worried they were.
• Lu Yuan called Ji Yin for help finding a place to stay, and Ji Yin sent an assistant to collect the family.
• The assistant drove Lu Yuan’s family to an Internal Affairs Bureau-designated hotel and arranged four suites at the Bureau’s expense.
• Lu Wenkai questioned the expense, and Lu Yuan teased the assistant while reassuring his father.

Lu Yuan and his family settled into a luxurious hotel suite, where Xiao Bing kept watch over her injured brother through the night. Meanwhile, Zuo Ling and Ji Yin investigated the cult’s Holy Descent Ceremony and concluded its dream-based technique likely involved a mysterious bird, prompting them to send the case to headquarters.

• Hotel attendants brought Lu Yuan’s family and luggage to their suites and arranged a replacement phone and SIM card for him.
• Lu Yuan fell asleep from exhaustion, and Xiao Bing stayed awake beside him, worried about his chest wound.
• The Internal Affairs Bureau launched an overnight operation against Li Tailai’s cult, while Zuo Ling and Ji Yin reviewed Lu Yuan’s account of the Holy Descent Ceremony.
• Zuo Ling and Ji Yin reasoned that the ceremony’s mental technique had been projected through dreams and suspected the hummingbird was its key.
• Ji Yin judged the matter beyond the local bureau’s capabilities, and Zuo Ling prepared to report it to headquarters.

After returning home from the college entrance exams, Lu Yuan reviewed his rewards for helping destroy the Jiangzhou cult and investigated the changes to his system. He clarified the rules for allocating Merit Points, while Return Progress and his newly advanced Body-Protecting Shield left him with further questions.

• Lu Yuan completed the math and comprehensive science exams, then traveled home with his family after the hotel arranged their ride to the station.
• Lu Yuan confirmed that his military merit would earn him 200 exam bonus points and learned that the Internal Affairs Bureau had given him the codename “Fucking Daredevil.”
• Zuo Ling called Lu Yuan and promised that he could claim a favor from the Internal Affairs Bureau when he needed one.
• Lu Yuan examined his system and established the Merit Point costs and conditions for Restoration, Upper Limit, and Beyond-Limit Point Allocation.
• Lu Yuan noticed Return Progress had risen to 11.18% and wondered whether he himself had caused the previous 11.17%.
• Lu Yuan saw that his Body-Protecting Shield had advanced to beginner after withstanding the explosion during the battle.

Lu Yuan checked his college entrance exam answers, recovered at home, and reflected on how traditional food could bring people comfort. He offered to teach Jia Shengnan hundreds of dishes for free on the condition that the Food Flavor Pavilion help revive Hua People's food culture, and Jia Shengnan set out to discuss the plan in person.

• Lu Yuan estimated strong scores in math and science but poor results in foreign language and Chinese after his essay about Qu Yuan went off topic.
• Lu Yuan enjoyed his mother's home cooking and remembered how the taste of home had comforted him in his previous life.
• After recovering, Lu Yuan called Jia Shengnan to ask for kitchen assistants for a family banquet.
• Lu Yuan offered Jia Shengnan hundreds of traditional dishes for free, asking only that the Food Flavor Pavilion promote the dishes without restricting others from learning or using them.
• Lu Yuan explained that the dishes belonged to the Hua People's shared heritage, and Jia Shengnan agreed to return to Ning City to discuss the undertaking in person.

Lu Yuan prepared an elaborate family banquet with Chef Wang while teaching the Food Flavor Pavilion’s staff his cooking techniques. After tasting the meal, Jia Shengnan planned to secure Lu Yuan’s cooperation and arranged an easier, better-paid job for Lu Wenkai.

• Jia Shengnan sent a team of kitchen staff to Lu Yuan’s small home, where Lu Yuan and Chef Wang prepared a banquet while a cameraman recorded his instructions.
• Jia Shengnan arrived and watched Lu Yuan slice tofu into fine strands for Wensi tofu.
• Lu Yuan’s family returned home and was stunned by the lavish banquet, and Lu Wenkai invited Jia Shengnan and the staff to eat with them.
• The guests were amazed by the dishes, and Jia Shengnan decided the Food Flavor Pavilion needed to hold on to Lu Yuan.
• Jia Shengnan befriended Lu Wenkai over dinner and offered him work repairing exhaust ducts, while Lu Yuan realized his father might gain an easier job and a higher salary.

At dinner, Xiao Bing announced that she had accepted an invitation to become Ning City's ambassador, while Lu Yuan and Jia Xuanxuan reconciled during a walk and discussed their plans for Cultivation University. On the day of the True Essence test, Lu Yuan reunited with Zhou Xiyun and Chen Shihe on the bus to Jiangzhou, where an unexpected passenger appeared.

• Xiao Bing told her family she had accepted the cultural bureau's invitation to become Ning City's ambassador.
• Jia Xuanxuan left dinner, and Lu Yuan caught up with her and admitted he had once planned to kidnap her for ransom.
• Lu Yuan and Jia Xuanxuan laughed away their rift, then revealed they planned to apply to New Capital Cultivation University and Azure Nascent Soul, respectively.
• On June 9, Lu Yuan boarded the bus for the True Essence test and reunited with Zhou Xiyun and Chen Shihe.
• Lu Yuan joked that he had been locked in a cell to study, and Zhou Xiyun and Chen Shihe teased him about attending a cram course.
• An unexpected person boarded the bus as the three friends prepared to travel to Jiangzhou.

Lu Yuan and his classmates waited at the Jiangzhou Education Bureau for the Cultivator University Qualification Test, while Ma Jin insisted his True Essence would make the scanner go wild and Jia Xuanxuan gave Lu Yuan Spirit-Raising Water. As the testing batches proceeded, an announcement about Shuangqiao Town Middle School caught Lu Yuan’s attention.

• Ma Jin joined Lu Yuan, Zhou Xiyun, and Chen Shihe, explaining that he had paid to take the True Essence test despite expecting his high True Essence to make the machine alarms go off.
• Jia Xuanxuan gave Lu Yuan Spirit-Raising Water, which raised his temporary True Essence cap by one point.
• Lu Yuan’s friends teased him about Jia Xuanxuan, and he explained that their families had been visiting because their fathers had business dealings.
• Lu Yuan reflected that Jia Xuanxuan was using him to get back at Xiao Bing, while he intended to act oblivious rather than encourage her feelings.
• The students waited as schools completed testing batches, and Lu Yuan reacted when an official announced that Shuangqiao Town Middle School had finished its test.

Lu Yuan sought out Xu Wenbin’s old classmates and learned about the difficult life Xu had left behind. He told Zhou Wenwen that Xu had died as a brave comrade and passed along a message of farewell, keeping the truth of Xu’s fate secret.

• Lu Yuan asked students from Shuangqiao Town Middle School whether they knew Xu Wenbin, but none recognized the name.
• Zhou Wenwen introduced herself as Xu Wenbin’s former neighbor and explained his troubled family life and that he had disappeared after saying he would do something big.
• Lu Yuan told Zhou Wenwen that he and Xu had investigated a cult for the Internal Affairs Bureau and that Xu had sacrificed his life.
• Lu Yuan said Xu had missed a girl named Wenwen and hoped she would live well, and Zhou Wenwen wept as she confirmed she was that girl.
• After Zhou Wenwen thanked him and left, Lu Yuan watched her go and resolved to keep the truth about Xu’s death to himself.

While Lu Yuan and his friends watched Guanghua School’s top examinees announce their scores, Li Tao set a new record with 192 Spirit. As she passed, she stopped before Lu Yuan and smiled at him with an icy gaze, turning him into the focus of everyone’s curiosity.

• Chen Shihe returned with a watermelon, and Lu Yuan split it with a chop of his hand so he and his friends could watch the results announcements while eating.
• Zuo Wenxuan scored 154 Spirit and Zhang Huchen scored 156, then the two joked about competing for second place because Li Tao always took first.
• The cultivator announced that Li Tao had scored 192 Spirit, a new record for the Cultivation University exams, and the crowd chanted her name.
• Lu Yuan told his friends that Li Tao had smiled at him during an earlier visit to Jiangzhou First Hospital and bragged about her 180 Spirit score there.
• Li Tao stopped in front of Lu Yuan and smiled at him coldly, leaving him under the silent, curious stare of the square.