Chapter Summaries

Long Tian and Yu Jin’s Soul Power harmonized, strengthening both their abilities and helping Yu Jin conceal his Martial Soul from tracking. After discovering that someone had searched the sealed well, Long Tian moved Yu Jin to a deserted temple and took the bronze mirror from Old Chen as the Iron Guard investigation closed in.

• Long Tian and Yu Jin joined their palms and found their Soul Power circulating together, strengthening the Origin Return Pearl and stabilizing Yu Jin’s Martial Soul.
• Long Tian explained that their merged presence could confuse tracking techniques, and Yu Jin asked to accompany him once he recovered; Long Tian agreed.
• Long Tian discovered fresh signs that someone had entered the sealed well and warned Chen Hao that the Iron Guard might soon connect it to Yu Jin’s escape.
• Long Tian moved Yu Jin from Official Well Lane to a deserted earth god temple to keep him hidden.
• Long Tian collected the locked-away bronze mirror from Old Chen and left the blacksmith shop carrying it.

Long Tian learned the Iron Guard was tracking Yu Jin and used Shen Mo’s help to escape the city with him. They rested beside the road before setting out toward the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range, where they hoped to find safety.

• Long Tian found Shen Mo’s gray stone pendant and learned from Old Chen that the Iron Guard had collected chaos-trace samples from the well.
• Long Tian met Yu Jin at the abandoned earth god temple and told him the Iron Guard could soon track his Soul Power signature.
• At the western wall, Shen Mo and his deputy Cheng Yuan revealed that Shen Mo had misdirected the Iron Guard and opened a side door for their escape.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin left the city and walked through the night to a grove beside the main road.
• After resting and eating, Long Tian and Yu Jin continued northwest toward the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range.

Long Tian and Yu Jin reached Soul Hunting Town and settled in an abandoned stone hut in the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range so Yu Jin could test his recovering Martial Soul. After discovering that Yu Jin’s fused golden-black Martial Soul could release powerful origin energy without Soul Rings, Long Tian planned to help him train and eventually hunt a Soul Beast.

• Long Tian brought Yu Jin to an inn in Soul Hunting Town, where they rested and discussed testing his Martial Soul in the mountains.
• Long Tian found an abandoned stone hut, and Yu Jin released a small golden-black dragon formed from his fused Martial Soul.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin joined their powers and sensed each other’s dantians, revealing that Yu Jin had a solid golden-black core but no Soul Rings.
• Long Tian explained that Yu Jin had used pure origin power and said that Soul Rings could strengthen his origin rather than divide his stages.
• Yu Jin recalled Long Tian carrying him out of the darkroom, and Long Tian said they would begin practicing together the next day.

Long Tian and Yu Jin discovered that joining Qi had caused Yu Jin’s core to grow a Soul Ring shell, then found a compatible Stone-Patterned Lizard whose Soul Ring Yu Jin absorbed. As they returned to the stone house, Yu Jin resolved to help Shen Mo bear the burden of investigating the Seventh Squad’s breakup.

• Long Tian and Yu Jin’s daily Qi circulation nurtured each other, and a faint ring-shaped shell formed around Yu Jin’s core.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin traveled into the middle reaches of the mountain range to find a suitable Soul Beast for Yu Jin.
• Long Tian identified a roughly four-hundred-year-old Stone-Patterned Lizard, and it approached Yu Jin after sensing his matching light-and-dark origin.
• Yu Jin allowed the Stone-Patterned Lizard to transform willingly into a Soul Ring and absorbed it, forming his first black-and-white ring.
• Long Tian explained that Shen Mo had helped Yu Jin and continued investigating the Seventh Squad’s breakup, and Yu Jin said he would not leave Shen Mo to shoulder it alone.

Yu Jin’s first Soul Ring fully fused with his core, strengthening his Martial Soul as he and Long Tian continued cultivating and combining their power. Long Tian found a coded tally that led him to plan a trip to the southern docks, while the abandoned underground chamber where Yu Jin had been held was sealed with stronger protections.

• Yu Jin tested his newly fused Soul Ring, and Long Tian observed that it amplified their already fused origin power with almost no delay.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin combined their power to split a mountain rock, then Yu Jin showed Long Tian a pottery shard bearing a drawing he had scratched in the dark room.
• Over the following weeks, their Qi-merging practice strengthened Long Tian’s Origin Return Pearl and Yu Jin’s core as winter began to thaw.
• Long Tian found a wooden tally marked “Ten,” interpreted it as a signal to collect a letter at the southern docks in ten days, and told Yu Jin he would be away for no more than a day.
• The underground chamber where Yu Jin had been held received a new, stronger lock and Soul Power-sensing runes.

Long Tian retrieved Shen Mo’s warning that Meng Changyuan had restarted experiments to replicate the Origin of Chaos and that Yu Jin could still be tracked. Long Tian and Yu Jin moved to a secluded ranger’s stone house in the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range to stay together, hide, and prepare to refine their fused Qi.

• Long Tian found Shen Mo’s oilpaper message hidden beneath a mooring post at the southern dock and brought it back to Yu Jin.
• Long Tian told Yu Jin that Meng Changyuan had resumed the experiments and that they could be located if they stayed apart; Yu Jin agreed they would not separate.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin chose an abandoned ranger’s stone house in the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range as their new base.
• Yu Jin mapped routes for receiving letters and messenger birds, while Long Tian assessed the roof and planned to repair it.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin repaired the roof and agreed to strengthen their fused Qi before Meng Changyuan’s live-subject tests began.
• Yu Jin watched the stars from the repaired roof, and Long Tian draped his coat over Yu Jin’s shoulders.

Long Tian and Yu Jin trained in the forest cottage, then hunted a nearly seven-hundred-year-old Shadowtail Marten so Long Tian could gain his fifth Soul Ring. After returning, Long Tian learned from Shen Mo’s note that live-subject tests would begin soon and that a trusted man at the North Peak could help them.

• Yu Jin strengthened his second ring, while his core and Long Tian’s Origin Return Pearl grew through their shared Qi cultivation.
• Long Tian sensed he was nearing the limit for a fifth ring, and Yu Jin advised him to find a Soul Beast at least six hundred years old.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin tracked and killed a Shadowtail Marten, and Long Tian absorbed its Soul Ring to complete his fifth ring.
• Long Tian said he would stabilize his rings while Yu Jin continued seeking a second Soul Beast, and they returned to the cottage.
• Long Tian read Shen Mo’s note stating that live subjects would arrive at the Iron Guard camp at the end of the month and directing them to a trusted man at the North Peak.

Long Tian and Yu Jin traveled to North Peak and met Mu Shuang, a former Iron Guard Sixth Squad member who had guarded a secret route for years. She gave them a plan to infiltrate the barracks and reach the holding area before the test subjects were transferred to the core, then Long Tian and Yu Jin returned toward the stone house.

• Long Tian memorized Shen Mo's letter, burned it, and set out for North Peak with Yu Jin.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin found Mu Shuang at a concealed stone house, where she recognized Long Tian as Tie Shan's son and explained her connection to Shen Mo.
• Mu Shuang showed Long Tian a blueprint for reaching the third underground level through a ventilation duct and identified the holding area as the chance to free test subjects before fusion.
• Long Tian chose to infiltrate through the vent rather than intercept the subjects, and Mu Shuang taught him how to disable the duty room alarm wire.
• Mu Shuang gave Long Tian a rune-carved ring that could interfere with Soul Power tracking once, and the two men left North Peak.
• Yu Jin remarked that Mu Shuang seemed to have been waiting for someone to seek her out, and Long Tian reflected on the years she had spent preparing the plan.

Long Tian, Yu Jin, and Mu Shuang infiltrated the camp’s underground processing area to investigate the arrival of live subjects. Long Tian found his father, Long Tieshan, locked in a cage, and the chapter ended with Long Tian’s token burning and a gray-white glow filling his palm.

• Shen Mo sent word that the first live subjects would arrive beneath the camp the next night, and Long Tian and Yu Jin prepared to infiltrate the site.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin met Mu Shuang outside Spirit City, and she guided them through a hidden route into the camp’s ventilation system.
• Long Tian used the metal ring on his left hand to suppress a Soul Power detection wire as the three crawled through the duct.
• The group reached the empty processing chamber, where fresh straw and a wet logbook showed that the subjects had not yet arrived.
• An Iron Guard brought a hooded prisoner into a cage, and Long Tian recognized him as Long Tieshan.
• Long Tieshan silently told Long Tian not to rush, while Long Tian’s chest token burned and a gray-white glow appeared in his palm.

Long Tian, Yu Jin, and Mu Shuang freed Long Tieshan from Meng Changyuan’s facility and escaped into the wilderness. Long Tieshan gave Long Tian a more complete Return to Origin diagram, and the four continued toward the stone house in the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range.

• Long Tieshan explained that Meng Changyuan’s people had captured him to use as a control sample for their reverse deduction.
• Yu Jin gave Long Tieshan his stone pendant to mask his Soul Power, and Long Tian melted through the cage bars so they could escape.
• Long Tian led Long Tieshan, Yu Jin, and Mu Shuang through the ventilation duct and out of the city, then Mu Shuang guided them through the wilderness toward the mountains.
• Long Tieshan gave Long Tian a copy of Meng Changyuan’s original Return to Origin diagram, which Shen Mo had secretly preserved and sent to Starfall Town.
• The four continued along a hunter’s trail toward the stone house as Long Tieshan regained strength and drew closer to his son’s refuge.

Long Tian, Long Tieshan, Mu Shuang, and Yu Jin planned how to enter the Iron Guard camp and rescue the test subjects. After discussing their next steps, Long Tian and his father shared a quiet moment and looked toward a future after the mission.

• Long Tieshan explained the Iron Guard shorthand on the silk scroll and said reversing the Return to Origin path’s confluence sequence would improve its stability.
• Long Tian outlined the rescue plan, and Long Tieshan explained that a captain’s keycard could open the level-six restriction.
• Mu Shuang described Deputy Wei’s routine and where he kept his keycard, while Long Tieshan agreed to help retrieve it and support the rescue.
• Long Tieshan warned that he could fight at full strength for only about fifteen minutes before needing most of a day to recover.
• Long Tian told Long Tieshan that his mother missed him, and Long Tieshan said he would forge her a new iron wok after the mission.
• Long Tian asked Long Tieshan to teach him to work iron, and his father touched his arm before returning to the house.

Long Tian and Long Tieshan infiltrated the camp and stole Wei Yuanshan’s metal card, then activated it to prepare for a rescue mission. The group finalized their route into the holding area and stood ready to proceed.

• Long Tian memorized the Return to Origin path while Long Tieshan mapped the camp and planned their approach.
• Long Tian and Long Tieshan slipped through a gap in the camp wall, and Long Tian entered Wei Yuanshan’s office during the deputy’s absence.
• Long Tian took the unmarked Iron Guard card from Wei Yuanshan’s desk and escaped with Long Tieshan before dawn.
• Long Tian used the Origin Return Pearl’s Qi and his fingerprint to activate the card’s level-six restriction.
• Mu Shuang described the ventilation route and power shutdown, and Long Tian reviewed the group’s plan to enter the holding area and free the prisoners.

Long Tian, Yu Jin, Mu Shuang, and Long Tieshan infiltrated the compound to rescue its captives, but found Shen Mo freeing his brother Shen Qiu through a hidden passage. After the group escaped together, Meng Changyuan confronted them outside the city wall, and Long Tian and Yu Jin joined their powers as the two sides faced off.

• Long Tieshan stayed behind to guard the passage while Long Tian, Yu Jin, and Mu Shuang entered the compound through a ventilation duct with the power and sensors disabled.
• Long Tian found an empty holding cell with signs of escape and followed a hidden passage north with Yu Jin.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin discovered Shen Mo freeing his imprisoned brother Shen Qiu, and the two groups agreed to escape together.
• Mu Shuang helped Shen Mo, Shen Qiu, Yu Jin, and Long Tian return through the ventilation duct and out of the compound.
• Meng Changyuan confronted the five at the city wall, and Long Tian and Yu Jin fused their powers into a protective halo as he revealed his Soul Rings.

Long Tian and Yu Jin escaped Spirit City with Shen Qiu after Meng Changyuan allowed them to leave, warning that he would take their Chaos Cores at their next meeting. At the stone house, Long Tieshan explained why he had kept Meng Changyuan’s experiments secret and let Long Tian choose whether to confront the danger.

• Meng Changyuan withdrew his pressure and let Long Tian, Yu Jin, Shen Mo, Mu Shuang, and Shen Qiu leave, saying he would claim their Chaos Cores next time.
• Shen Mo led the group out of Spirit City, and they met Long Tieshan at the agreed rendezvous point beneath a lightning-struck locust tree.
• Shen Mo checked Shen Qiu for injuries, and Long Tieshan greeted Shen Mo with a quiet pat on the shoulder.
• At the stone house, Long Tian told Long Tieshan what Meng Changyuan had said and learned that Meng’s experiments on creating a self-growing Composite Martial Soul were continuing.
• Long Tieshan explained that he had concealed the evidence to protect his pregnant wife and later passed the lead to Long Tian so his son could decide whether to face the truth.
• Long Tian placed his hand in Long Tieshan’s, while Yu Jin watched the sunrise from the doorway.

After learning that Meng Changyuan had installed a Reverse Fusion Device, Long Tian and Yu Jin trained to strengthen their fused power while the group hid in the stone house. The chapter ends with Long Tian discovering that Meng Changyuan had completed a startup test of the equipment.

• Shen Qiu told Long Tian and Yu Jin that the Reverse Fusion Device could split a stabilized Origin of Chaos into light and dark attributes, and they decided it had to be destroyed.
• Long Tieshan explained the Closed Circuit on the Return to Origin Diagram, and Long Tian and Yu Jin began practicing its more complex Qi pathway.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin gradually improved their Closed Circuit practice, while Long Tieshan and Shen Qiu helped correct their technique.
• After half a month, Long Tian's Origin Return Pearl and Yu Jin's core had strengthened, and their combined gray-white light covered the clearing.
• Yu Jin asked Long Tieshan what might have happened if he had confronted Meng Changyuan, and Long Tieshan said his retreat had allowed the others to survive.
• Long Tian read Shen Mo's note that Meng Changyuan had gone to the third underground level and completed a startup test of the core equipment.

Shen Mo reported that the Reverse Fusion Device had passed a full-load test and was taking in more living subjects, so Long Tieshan’s group planned a timed raid to dismantle it. As they prepared for the operation, Long Tian strengthened Yu Jin’s Third Ring, while an unexplained new arc appeared on the Origin Return Pearl.

• Shen Mo reported that the Reverse Fusion Device was operating steadily and that three new living subjects, including an adult Soul Master with a combined light-and-dark type, had entered the core area.
• Long Tieshan and Shen Mo agreed to draw Meng Changyuan away while Mu Shuang led Long Tian and Yu Jin through the ventilation ducts to disable the device, with Shen Qiu providing signal support.
• The group planned to exploit the north-wall supply passage shift change, dismantle the machine within half a tea’s time, and escape through an abandoned smoke-extraction shaft.
• Long Tian infused Yu Jin’s core with the Origin Return Pearl’s presence during Closed Circuit practice, making Yu Jin’s Third Ring nearly complete.
• Long Tian returned the token, silk, and key card to his robes and sensed a new shallow arc forming on the Origin Return Pearl as he fell asleep.

Long Tian, Yu Jin, and Mu Shuang infiltrated the equipment room and disabled the Reverse Fusion Device by removing its core crystal. They escaped with Long Tieshan and Shen Mo and reached the pine forest, where the crystal still resonated with Long Tian’s Origin Return Pearl.

• Long Tieshan and Shen Mo drew the camp’s defenders away while Mu Shuang led Long Tian and Yu Jin through the city’s maintenance corridor.
• Long Tian used the keycard to open the equipment room, where the Reverse Fusion Device was extracting strands of light and darkness into sealed containers.
• Yu Jin restrained the device’s rotating film while Long Tian removed its core crystal, causing the machine to collapse and the stored strands to dissipate.
• Mu Shuang signaled the retreat, and the three escaped through the ventilation duct and reunited with Long Tieshan and Shen Mo outside the city.
• Long Tian and Yu Jin reached the pine forest, where Long Tian found that the wrapped crystal continued to resonate with his Origin Return Pearl.

Long Tian and Yu Jin took the crystal from Meng Changyuan’s equipment room and learned it could stabilize their powers while preventing him from rebuilding the same Reverse Fusion Device. They trained at the stone house for two weeks, and the chapter left them preparing to meet Meng Changyuan’s next move together.

• Shen Mo explained that the crystal was formed from matter shed by the Origin of Chaos and resonated with Long Tian’s Origin Return Pearl and Yu Jin’s Power of Origin.
• Long Tieshan said the crystal could serve as a power source and that losing it would delay Meng Changyuan’s attempt to replicate the Origin of Chaos; Shen Mo reported Meng Changyuan could rebuild a weaker device within three months.
• Long Tieshan set a three-month training plan for Long Tian to improve the Closed Circuit and temper his Origin Return Pearl, while Yu Jin advanced his Soul Rings.
• Over two weeks, Yu Jin solidified his Third Ring and Long Tian strengthened the connection between his five Soul Rings and the Origin Return Pearl through practice with the crystal.
• Yu Jin asked how Meng Changyuan would attack next, and Long Tian predicted he would target people close to them or under their protection; Yu Jin vowed he would fail.

Long Tian learned steady control from Long Tieshan’s smithing and applied it to the Closed Circuit, while Yu Jin’s fourth Soul Ring completed its formation. Shen Mo then revealed that Meng Changyuan could rebuild a Reverse Fusion Device using mineral core stone, and the group planned to intercept the shipment in the Northern Territory.

• Long Tieshan taught Long Tian to forge iron with steady, even blows, and Long Tian used the lesson to stabilize his Closed Circuit practice with Yu Jin.
• Yu Jin completed the formation of his fourth Soul Ring after months of tempering, while Long Tian watched him return from the creek.
• Long Tieshan finished a small iron pot, and Shen Mo returned with news that Meng Changyuan had found mineral core stone for rebuilding a Reverse Fusion Device.
• Shen Mo revealed he had pledged his copper ring to learn that the next shipment would reach a Northern Territory transit station in twenty-five days.
• Long Tian placed the crystal on the table, and the group studied routes to the transit station and planned to intercept the shipment.

Long Tian, Yu Jin, and Shen Mo traveled to the northern border transit station and stole two crates of Ore Core Stone, delaying Meng Changyuan’s plans to restore the Reverse Fusion Device. They carried the ore back toward the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range, while Yu Jin noted that it might be refined to match the quality of the crystal stone.

• Long Tieshan planned the route, and Shen Mo joined Long Tian and Yu Jin on the mission while Mu Shuang and Long Tieshan stayed at the stone house.
• The three traveled north and scouted the transit station, identifying the guards’ patrol pattern and the warehouse’s blind spot.
• Shen Mo opened the warehouse lock and moved two crates of Ore Core Stone outside while Long Tian and Yu Jin lifted them over the wall.
• The patrolman unexpectedly paused near the wall, but Shen Mo stayed hidden until the guard resumed his circuit, and the three escaped with both crates.
• Shen Mo confirmed that the Ore Core Stone could support a lower-spec Reverse Fusion Device and said its loss would delay Meng Changyuan for at least two months.
• Yu Jin observed that the ore’s mixed light and dark content might be refined into material like the crystal stone, and he and Long Tian carried the crates toward the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range.