Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou helped prepare to weigh a giant venomous python brought back by the village hunting party, and the hunters discovered it had swallowed a massive five-colored golden pheasant. After Zhang Zhong killed the still-living bird, a sweet-smelling mist formed, leaving the villagers facing an unexplained occurrence.

• Zhang Xuezhou prepared the steelyard as the hunting party returned to the village with a gigantic horned python.
• Zhang Baojia and Zhang Zhong ordered the villagers to drain and butcher the poisonous python for meat.
• Zhang Xuezhou estimated the python weighed over two thousand jin, far more than Zhang Baojia expected.
• Zhang Baojia pulled a huge five-colored golden pheasant from the python's belly, revealing why the python's weight estimate had been so far off.
• Zhang Zhong cut off the still-living pheasant's head, and a sweet-smelling mist gathered in the air.

Zhang Baojia cooked the demon python and golden pheasant in the ancestral cauldron, hoping the villagers could gain power by eating demon meat. After Zhang Xuezhou ate a piece, he collapsed and woke in a high-rise room, where he realized he had mastered Doctor Ren’s essential recuperation method and formed a tiny white seed within his body.

• Zhang Baojia and Zhang Zhong decided to cook the demon meat rather than give it away, after Zhang Zhong recalled seeing Colonel Lu enter the realm by eating demons.
• Zhang Baojia ordered the sacrificial cauldron prepared, while Zhang Zhong urged Zhang Xuezhou and Lady Yourong to eat only a reasonable amount.
• The villagers gathered around the cauldron, eager to eat and hoping to enter the realm, while Zhang Xuezhou remained wary of the opportunity.
• Zhang Baojia tasted the boiled python meat and invited everyone to eat, and Zhang Xuezhou took a bite as well.
• Zhang Xuezhou felt his Qi and Blood surge, collapsed, and awoke in a high-rise room with a tiny white seed formed inside him after mastering Doctor Ren’s essential recuperation method.

Zhang Xuezhou recorded his unusual perceptions and managed his family’s small sources of income while wondering whether his sister was involved in something suspicious. He left home to visit Doctor Ren’s clinic, still unsure whether his treatment was working or his symptoms were worsening.

• Zhang Xuezhou noticed sharper vision after practicing the treatment Doctor Ren prescribed, but questioned whether the change was real or a hallucination.
• Zhang Xuezhou recorded his recent experiences for Doctor Ren and wondered whether eating Demon Beast meat had caused Duan to reach a new realm.
• Zhang Xuezhou corrected and scheduled his father Zhang Weimeng’s novel, then tipped his mother Song Fengying during her sunrise livestream.
• Zhang Xuezhou exchanged messages with Song Fengying about helping her earn tips and learned that Zhang Manqian would not let her change her livestream account name.
• Zhang Xuezhou saw a message from Unrivaled Hunk asking whether Zhang Manqian had obtained the key to her genetic arsenal, copied it into a draft warning, and headed to Doctor Ren’s clinic.

Zhang Xuezhou visited Ren Anran after mastering the Essential Instruction for Recuperation in a dream, and she confirmed his progress while prescribing a second stage of treatment. He left hopeful that his illness could be cured, though Ren Anran’s higher fees left him grumbling.

• Zhang Xuezhou paid Ren Anran for a consultation and told her about his dream and his successful cultivation of the Essential Instruction for Recuperation.
• Ren Anran questioned Zhang Xuezhou about his dream and confirmed that he had cultivated unusually quickly, despite his history of schizophrenia.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked whether he could study normally and whether his illness would relapse, and Ren Anran said he could study in moderation but needed further treatment.
• Ren Anran gave Zhang Xuezhou the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation, which she said would help him detect episodes in advance and take medicine before they began.
• Ren Anran announced that future visits would cost one hundred yuan per minute, and Zhang Xuezhou left feeling hopeful but complained that she was better at fleecing people than his mother.

Zhang Xuezhou practiced the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation and found his concentration and ability to study improved, then went to sleep wondering about the blood he had coughed up in his dream. He remained committed to Ren Anran’s treatment as he faced the possibility that the dream world he had inhabited for years could collapse.

• Zhang Xuezhou focused on the white seed within him, which sprouted two faintly glowing leaves after he experienced it growing into a vast tree.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered visiting Ren Anran’s clinic but worried about the cost and dismissed his other ideas for finding money, settling on school examination rewards as a goal.
• After practicing the recovery instruction, Zhang Xuezhou studied clearly for three hours and resolved to improve his ranking by focusing on number theory.
• At nine in the evening, Zhang Xuezhou remembered that he had coughed up blood in his dream and recalled Ren Anran’s warning that realizing he had died could shatter his mental world.
• Zhang Xuezhou fell asleep quietly, breathing evenly.

After recovering from eating Demon Beast meat, Zhang Xuezhou learned about realm experts and became interested in entering the realm as a way out of his dreamlike confinement. The chapter left him hoping to seek help from a Daoist priest who might teach cultivation techniques.

• Zhang Xuezhou woke after a night unconscious and insisted that Zhang Zhong call him by his proper name.
• Zhang Zhong explained that realm experts could learn powerful Technique Methods and described a general whose arrows could hit a coin-sized target a thousand meters away.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked whether he could enter the realm, but Zhang Zhong said that Demon Beast meat alone was insufficient and that training and guidance were also needed.
• Lady Yourong recalled a Daoist priest at Nine-Foot Slope who possessed cultivation techniques, and Zhang Xuezhou declared himself seriously ill so he could seek the priest's help.

Zhang Zhong decided to take Zhang Xuezhou to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, hoping the priest could treat him or teach him an art. Meanwhile, Zhang Xuezhou heard Zhang Changgong and Zhang Cigong discuss their prospects after gaining a chance to enter the realm, while his own unusual progress remained unnoticed.

• Lady Yourong suggested hunting a wild boar to offer the Daoist priest, and Zhang Zhong decided the risk was worth taking Zhang Xuezhou to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple.
• Zhang Xuezhou went outside after eating and encountered Zhang Cigong and a group of young villagers discussing the changes they experienced after eating fiend meat.
• Zhang Changgong explained that defeating the python in their visions revealed a white seed that could be strengthened to advance into the realm.
• Zhang Cigong bragged that he had defeated the python with a bow, while Zhang Xuezhou falsely agreed that the python had swallowed him because he had seen no vision.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked where Zhang Changgong and Zhang Cigong planned to learn an art, and Zhang Cigong said his father wanted him to seek odd jobs at the Return to One True Sect.

Zhang Xuezhou struggled through the journey to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, hoping to receive treatment or become the Daoist master's disciple. After reaching the temple alone, he heard the master reject him as bad luck before he could enter.

• Zhang Xuezhou became exhausted and feared he was developing heatstroke, so Zhang Zhong carried him along the mountain road.
• Lady Yourong told Zhang Xuezhou about her relatives in Hibiscus City and suggested studying as a possible path for him.
• After four days, Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong reached the hill with the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple and planned to hunt a wild boar before seeking an audience.
• Zhang Xuezhou insisted on climbing to the temple by himself while Zhang Zhong and Lady Yourong went to hunt.
• Zhang Xuezhou reached the temple gates after nearly two shichen of climbing and heard the Daoist master tell him not to come through the gate.

Zhang Xuezhou visited the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple seeking a method to reach the entry stage, but Zou Bugui mistook him for a messenger of the Ten Yin Holy Son. Zhang Xuezhou exploited the misunderstanding to obtain a bamboo scroll, while Zou Bugui fled, convinced the temple was in danger.

• Zhang Xuezhou called at the temple, and Zou Bugui mistook him for someone connected to the Ten Yin Holy Son because of a supposed fishy stench.
• Zhang Xuezhou pretended to represent the Ten Yin Holy Son and asked Zou Bugui for the Yin Yang Nine Heavens Sect's method for reaching the entry stage.
• Zou Bugui weighed the sect's rules against his fear of the Holy Son and his powerful backer, then agreed to hand over the method.
• Zhang Xuezhou caught the bamboo scroll, found its contents difficult to understand, and descended Nine-Foot Slope.
• Zou Bugui feared that trouble would reach the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, packed his valuables, and flew away beneath an umbrella.

Zhang Xuezhou returned to the Daoist temple, found Zou Bugui gone, and decided to shelter there while he waited for his parents. He memorized the cultivation method and spent the night in the temple, then woke in the real world with a vague sense that he had forgotten something.

• Zhang Xuezhou memorized most of the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation and decided he needed to ask his aunt about cultivation in Hibiscus City.
• Zhang Xuezhou returned to the mountainside temple, but Zou Bugui was nowhere to be found.
• Zhang Xuezhou climbed over the temple wall, ate the Daoist's meat congee, changed into his clothes, and settled into the bedroom for the night.
• Zhang Xuezhou waited for Zou Bugui until he fell asleep, then woke in the real world and copied the cultivation method into his diary.
• Zhang Xuezhou sensed he had overlooked something, but he could not remember what it was before his awareness returned to real life.

Zhang Xuezhou met Zhao Keqing, who secretly tested his blood with a genetic seed while investigating the Zhang family. After the test showed nothing unusual, the discarded seed grew rapidly at night and withered in daylight, leaving its purpose and significance unresolved.

• Zhang Xuezhou met Zhao Keqing outside Yucai Middle School and learned that he claimed to be Zhang Weimeng's friend.
• Zhao Keqing shook Zhang Xuezhou's hand and patted his shoulder, then left after exchanging pleasantries.
• Zhao Keqing revealed that he had used a genetic seed to test Zhang Xuezhou's blood, found no sign of a mutated gene, and discarded the spent seed.
• The discarded seed sprouted and grew nearly half a meter overnight, then withered under the morning sun.
• The plant briefly showed signs of life on the next night before withering completely and decaying into the soil.

Zhang Xuezhou spent the night alone in the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple and tried to remove any trace of the Ten Yin Holy Son before meeting his parents. When Daoist Priest Kongxu’s friend the Lonely Rogue Person arrived, he mistook Zhang Xuezhou for Kongxu’s disciple and began offering to explain cultivation.

• Zhang Xuezhou woke safely in the temple, changed into Daoist Priest Kongxu’s clothes, and used smoke and water to remove any unusual smell.
• Zhang Xuezhou decided to distance himself from the Ten Yin Holy Son because he feared attracting the Flying Feather Army’s attention.
• While waiting for his parents, Zhang Xuezhou studied the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation until the Lonely Rogue Person knocked at the temple gate.
• Zhang Xuezhou told the Lonely Rogue Person that Kongxu was away and casually claimed to be his disciple.
• The Lonely Rogue Person recognized the cultivation method and Zhang Xuezhou’s breath seed, concluded that Kongxu had invested in him, and began explaining cultivation.

Zhang Xuezhou learned about cultivation realms from Lonely Rogue Person and discovered that he could use the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation to detect illness in others. Fearing that Zou Bugui’s return would expose his false identities, Zhang Xuezhou began cultivating so he could improve his body and leave the temple.

• Lonely Rogue Person explained Realm Entry, Meridian Circulation, and the cultivation realms to Zhang Xuezhou.
• Zhang Xuezhou suspected he could detect other people’s illnesses, then recognized signs that Lonely Rogue Person was suffering from Golden Toad Poison.
• Lonely Rogue Person said he was waiting for Zou Bugui to return with a pill that could cure the poison, while Zhang Xuezhou worried that his false identities would be exposed.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered waiting for his parents or attempting cultivation, then sat in the temple hall and recited the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation.
• Lonely Rogue Person watched Zhang Xuezhou cultivate and reflected on his own path and the advantages wealthy heirs had over diligent cultivators.

At the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, Zhang Xuezhou focused on entering the realm so he could survive outside the village, while Lonely Rogue Person explained the risks and foundations of cultivation. After hearing that his presence carried the smell of a pill refined with Demon Beast blood, Zhang Xuezhou connected it to the venomous python meat eaten in Zhang Household Village and feared they had offended the Ten Yin Holy Son.

• Zhang Xuezhou circulated the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation, and his realm-entry seed grew into a lively seedling.
• Lonely Rogue Person explained how a cultivator’s heart and cultivation method shaped their realm-entry form, and warned that Rogue Cultivators who secretly learned other sects’ methods could be punished severely.
• Lonely Rogue Person said Zhang Xuezhou smelled of a pill made with Demon Beast blood and praised his rapid progress with Daoist Priest Kongxu’s method.
• Zhang Xuezhou realized he had never taken a pill from Daoist Priest Kongxu and recalled that the unusual thing he had done was share the demon meat in Zhang Household Village.
• Zhang Xuezhou suspected the venomous python was connected to the Ten Yin Holy Son and feared that the villagers had brought a calamity upon themselves.

Zhang Xuezhou learned from the Lonely Rogue Person that the dream world held powerful yao and factions, and grew worried about the danger facing him and Zhang Household Village. As he feared being exposed when Zou Bugui returned, an injured Flying Feather Army attendant arrived seeking Zou Bugui’s help against the Golden Toad Dharma King.

• The Lonely Rogue Person explained that yao could take human form, wield powerful Techniques, and belong to major factions, leaving Zhang Xuezhou concerned that the Ten Yin Holy Son’s lingering Yao Qi could lead pursuers to Zhang Household Village.
• The Lonely Rogue Person described famous chicken yao and warned Zhang Xuezhou that his teacher’s weak backing had contributed to his senior brothers’ deaths amid conflicts between powerful groups.
• Zhang Xuezhou reflected on how his dream world had grown beyond his real-life experiences and worried that changes in the dream could worsen his illness or trap him in darkness.
• When the Lonely Rogue Person announced that Zou Bugui was returning, Zhang Xuezhou feared their conflicting assumptions about his identity would expose his scheme to obtain Zou Bugui’s method of entering a realm.
• Li Jiao, an attendant official of the Flying Feather Army, urgently asked Zou Bugui to treat two injured men, saying the Golden Toad Dharma King had attacked them.
• The Lonely Rogue Person realized the Golden Toad Dharma King was pursuing him over stolen venom, while Zhang Xuezhou felt relieved that members of the Flying Feather Army had arrived.

Zhang Xuezhou welcomed Li Jiao and two poisoned Flying Feather Army officers to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple while Daoist Priest Zou was away. Li Jiao found no antidote, accepted Zhang Xuezhou’s offer of congee, and revealed that he too was fighting the Golden Toad Poison.

• Zhang Xuezhou opened the temple gates and found Li Jiao carrying the poisoned officers Zhao Mu and Zhou Cang.
• Li Jiao learned that Daoist Priest Zou was away, while Zhang Xuezhou invited him to search the temple for an antidote.
• Zhong Rang told Li Jiao that he also suffered from Golden Toad Poison and had come seeking the Three Worms Three Flowers Secretly Made Great Pill.
• Li Jiao searched the temple but found no pills, then agreed to try Zhang Xuezhou’s congee for Zhao Mu and Zhou Cang.
• Li Jiao revealed the golden veins at his wrist and explained that he could temporarily suppress his own poison, but not cure the two officers.

Zhang Xuezhou fed the poisoned Zhao Mu and Zhou Cang meat porridge while trying to use up the temple’s supplies before leaving. When Zhou Cang neared death, Li Jiao used the Supreme Purity True Technique to revive him temporarily, and Zhang Xuezhou asked to learn the Technique.

• Zhang Xuezhou cooked meat porridge and urged Li Jiao and the others to eat, while Li Jiao searched the temple for medicine.
• Zhou Cang and Zhao Mu reluctantly drank more porridge despite vomiting, but their golden toad poison continued to worsen.
• Zhang Xuezhou felt the seedling inside him growing stronger as the Yao Qi from the venomous python meat faded.
• Zhou Cang vomited black blood and began to die, so Li Jiao used the Supreme Purity True Technique to restore him temporarily.
• Zhang Xuezhou asked Li Jiao to teach him the Technique, and Li Jiao agreed if Zhang Xuezhou could find a way to treat Zhao Mu and Zhou Cang.

Zhang Xuezhou used his observations of Zhou Cang’s poison attacks to help Li Jiao apply the Supreme Purity True Technique and temporarily suppress the Golden Toad Poison. Li Jiao began teaching Zhang the technique, while the Lonely Rogue Person worried that Zhang’s involvement could draw the Golden Toad Dharma King’s wrath.

• Zhang Xuezhou asked about Li Jiao’s Supreme Purity True Technique and studied the fluctuations of the Golden Toad Poison in Zhou Cang.
• Zhang Xuezhou drew a graph of the poison’s changing intensity, and Li Jiao used it to time his technique more efficiently.
• Li Jiao began explaining the Supreme Purity True Technique to Zhang Xuezhou, accepting the risk of disclosing the secret manual to save Zhou Cang and Zhao Mu.
• The Lonely Rogue Person warned himself that Zhang Xuezhou might attract the Golden Toad Dharma King’s hostility without gaining the Northern Border Military Region’s protection.
• After nearly half a shichen, Zhou Cang’s breathing steadied as Li Jiao’s technique temporarily suppressed the poison.
• The Lonely Rogue Person reflected that Zhang Xuezhou was advancing recklessly and suspected Zou Bugui was deliberately cultivating students toward an exceptional successor.

Li Jiao taught Zhang Xuezhou the first three layers of the Supreme Purity True Technique and promised to obtain the complete technique when Zhang Xuezhou qualified to cultivate it. After Li Jiao and the others departed, Zhang Xuezhou remained at Nine-Foot Daoist Temple with a Qi and Blood Pill and renewed hopes of improving his health.

• Li Jiao mastered the Supreme Purity True Technique’s basic method while treating Zhao Mu and explained that Zhang Xuezhou could only learn the first three layers for now.
• Li Jiao promised to exchange for the complete technique once Zhang Xuezhou reached the required cultivation realms, and invited him to join the Northern Frontier Legion if he encountered difficulties.
• Li Jiao gave Zhang Xuezhou a Qi and Blood Pill to help restore his health before leaving with Zhou Cang and Zhao Mu.
• Li Jiao persuaded Lonely Rogue Person to accompany them to the Northern Border, where the legion’s Alchemists might cure his Golden Toad Poison.
• Zhang Xuezhou watched the four men depart, then continued reciting the Supreme Purity True Technique and considered the possible benefits of the pill.

Zhang Xuezhou improved his school ranking while reflecting on the Supreme Purity True Technique from his dream. He discovered that the technique had manifested in reality, suggesting his dream experiences could grant him real abilities.

• Zhang Xuezhou recorded the dream's cultivation methods in his patient diary and went to school.
• Mei Renteng challenged the school ranking exam with Zhang Xuezhou, who placed 218th while Mei Renteng placed 219th.
• Zhang Xuezhou planned to focus on different subjects each month and thought about using his dream world to improve his prospects.
• Zhang Xuezhou formed the Supreme Purity True Technique's hand gestures and raised the white seed inside him, producing a faint light and heat from his fingertips.
• Zhang Xuezhou realized that the technique and the white seed might have come from his dreams, and he remembered swallowing a Qi and Blood Pill.