Chapter Summaries

Zhang Xuezhou learned that the Venerable One was trapped in the Yang Mausoleum and was summoned to the Palace of Peace and Happiness for an examination. As he tried to conceal his suspicious health, Medical Officer Chunyu gave him a pill that made his cultivation fluctuate.

• Zhang Xuezhou watched the battle at the Yang Mausoleum from his window, then practiced his Techniques through the night.
• Kong Ning arrived bloodied and told Zhang Xuezhou that the Venerable One seemed trapped, Lu Baibai had fled after being struck by a Law Treasure, and the Venerable One's Dharma Body had stopped responding.
• Kong Ning asked Zhang Xuezhou to investigate the Yang Mausoleum, then left for Mount Sumeru; Zhang feared the commotion would lead the authorities to him.
• At dawn, Medical Officer Chunyu and Old Eunuch Cui arrived with the Grand Empress Dowager's order for Zhang Xuezhou to go to the Palace of Peace and Happiness.
• Medical Officer Chunyu gave Zhang Xuezhou a Tenfold Complete Great Tonic Pill to disguise his health, but it caused a burning sensation and made his Yang Corporeal Soul Dharma Form's cultivation fluctuate.

Medical Officer Chunyu gave Zhang Xuezhou a Tenfold Complete Great Tonic Pill, and he used its power to cultivate the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique. At the Palace of Peace and Happiness, he pretended to be in a final burst of life and ran outside, where Li Guang and Cheng Bushi blocked his path.

• Medical Officer Chunyu explained that the Tenfold Complete Great Tonic Pill could help Zhang Xuezhou cultivate the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique and keep him alive until they reached the Palace of Peace and Happiness.
• Zhang Xuezhou used the pill's power to adjust his body and advance his cultivation of the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique.
• Eunuch Cui announced their arrival, and Grand Princess Dou ordered him to receive twenty strokes after Medical Officer Chunyu said he had disrupted Zhang Xuezhou's cultivation.
• Zhang Xuezhou jumped off the stretcher and demanded twenty strokes too, prompting Medical Officer Chunyu to claim he was showing signs of a final burst of life.
• Zhang Xuezhou forced his way out of the palace while the attendants and guards tried to catch him without hurting him.
• Li Guang and Cheng Bushi moved to block Zhang Xuezhou after Grand Princess Dou called from inside the palace.

Zhang Xuezhou acted wildly in the Palace of Peace and Happiness, while Medical Officer Chunyu persuaded Grand Princess Dou to delay treating the Grand Empress Dowager for four days. Chunyu gambled that the delay would let Zhang Xuezhou’s plan unfold and spare them from a dangerous procedure.

• Zhang Xuezhou escaped the palace maids and eunuchs long enough to pull hairs and poke the eyes of Li Guang and Cheng Bushi, who complained after he was taken away.
• Dou Ying, Tian Fen, and the Empress Dowager waited outside the palace, uncertain about what had happened at Yang Mausoleum.
• Medical Officer Chunyu explained that she had given Zhang Xuezhou a pill and taught him the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique, while Zhang shouted insults and claimed he could not control his excitement.
• Medical Officer Chunyu suggested Lord Cui had blocked Zhang’s Qiaoyin acupoint, and Grand Princess Dou ordered Cui Zhifu to receive twenty more strokes.
• Medical Officer Chunyu said the Grand Empress Dowager needed further observation, then promised to perform the procedure in four days, wagering that Zhang Xuezhou’s condition would develop as he had predicted.

Zhang Xuezhou stayed awake for two days in the Palace of Peace and Happiness, worrying Grand Princess Dou about whether his recovery would last. While recounting his village’s disappearance, he heard the Grand Empress Dowager’s theories and decided to investigate Jin Chang’s possible involvement.

• Zhang Xuezhou apologized to the palace attendants for his earlier behavior but remained unusually energetic after two days without sleep.
• Grand Princess Dou checked on Zhang Xuezhou and questioned him about his family and village.
• Zhang Xuezhou described how the people of Zhang Household Village had vanished, and the Grand Empress Dowager suggested they may have been controlled or deceived into leaving.
• Zhang Xuezhou recalled that Jin Chang knew the Puppet Technique and had been near the village, though he could not identify a motive.
• Zhang Xuezhou decided to ask Lei Bei and Cigong to investigate Jin Chang’s records from his time serving the King of Huainan.

Zhang Xuezhou recounted his difficult past while being observed in the Palace of Peace and Happiness, appearing unusually healthy despite his skull surgery. After he suddenly collapsed, Medical Officer Chunyu found his life force fading and the Grand Empress Dowager ordered three more days of observation with stronger medicine.

• Zhang Xuezhou described his hardships to Grand Princess Dou and the Grand Empress Dowager, who sympathized with him.
• Medical Officer Chunyu warned the Grand Empress Dowager that Zhang Xuezhou's vigor after surgery was unusually concerning.
• Zhang Xuezhou suddenly collapsed while recounting his business travels, and Medical Officer Chunyu found his life force rapidly fading.
• Medical Officer Chunyu said the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique kept Zhang Xuezhou barely alive and prepared to use the Nine Needles Technique.
• The Grand Empress Dowager ordered three more days of observation and authorized raising Zhang Xuezhou's treatment allowance by two cultivation levels.

After returning to Western Capital City, Zhang Xuezhou planned to strengthen himself and Zhang Manqian using the gains from the Qinmeng hunt. He aimed to reach the Body Transformation Realm while urging his sister to build up her genetic strength for their next expedition.

• Zhang Manqian told Zhang Xuezhou that their debts to the Zhou Household and Luo Household were paid and that they had saved money from the Qinmeng trip.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Professor Wang Haoran was hospitalized after struggling to readjust to Western Capital City, while information about Montes Ganghao and the giant Ferocious Beast bird remained inaccessible.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Manqian to obtain high-grade tiger and leopard blood serums to strengthen her genetic abilities.
• Zhang Xuezhou planned to prepare Spirit-Forging Pill liquid and advance toward the Body Transformation Realm and Divine Ability Realm.
• Zhang Xuezhou warned that their hunting group would become divided by strength and asked Zhang Manqian to advance as far as she could, improving their team's close-combat capability.

Zhang Xuezhou prepared and repeatedly drank concentrated Spirit-Forging Pill liquid, enduring its effects as he pushed his cultivation forward. While visitors watched and misunderstood his behavior, Zhang Manqian sensed his Law Power growing frighteningly strong.

• Zhang Xuezhou prepared Spirit-Forging Pill liquid with ingredients he had bought and considered medicines for the Divine Ability Realm.
• Zhou Yueyan, Zhou Tianhao, Changkong Shenguang, Changkong Weiguang, Zuo Teng, Song Sijia, and others arrived at the North Rehe Research Institute to seek access to the Ferocious Beast Belt.
• The visitors watched Zhang Xuezhou drink a large beaker of medicinal paste and mistook his repeated drinking for strange or addictive behavior.
• Zhang Manqian beat Zhang Xuezhou when he drank too much, but he vomited and then continued drinking the paste.
• Zhang Manqian sensed Zhang Xuezhou's Law Power growing purer and stronger, then felt overwhelmed when his presence seemed to tower over her.

Zhang Xuezhou realized he had unconsciously used the Body Transformation Realm’s suppression ability and began considering how it differed from his Mental Fighting Technique. After Zhou Yueyan tasted his bitter Spirit-Forging Pill paste and became violently ill, Zhang Xuezhou told the others she would recover if they let her retch.

• Zhang Xuezhou reflected that his suppression ability had activated without his awareness and considered whether he could control it.
• Zhang Manqian recovered from the effect of Zhang Xuezhou’s glance and told him that only her legs were still shaking.
• Zuo Teng and the others entered Zhang Xuezhou’s laboratory, where Zhou Yueyan tasted the Spirit-Forging Pill paste and began vomiting.
• Zhou Yueyan recalled her harsh youth and training under Zhou Xin while she struggled with the paste’s effects.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhou Yueyan that she would be fine if she retched for a while, leaving her worried despite her Fourth Sequence cultivation.

Zhou Yueyan suffered severe vomiting after tasting Zhang Xuezhou’s cultivation medicine, while Zuo Teng and Changkong Shenguang tried to obtain some of it before Zhang disposed of it. Zhang then arranged loans of his Ferocious Beast belt in exchange for blood preparations, leaving the group to gather resources and take turns using it.

• Zhou Tianhao worried about his aunt, and Zuo Teng said he had induced vomiting and pumped Zhou Yueyan’s stomach, though Song Sijia doubted it would help.
• Zuo Teng and Changkong Shenguang considered using Zhang Xuezhou’s powerful emetic, but Zhang poured it down the drain and refused to provide a sample.
• Zhou Tianhao offered Zhang a high-grade tiger blood preparation and an intermediate-grade leopard blood preparation, and Zhang gave him second place to borrow the Ferocious Beast belt for up to half a month.
• Zhang explained that the belt could speed up blood preparation absorption but could not overcome the scarcity of preparations and the time needed to advance cultivators.
• Zuo Teng offered three intermediate-grade antelope blood preparations for about ten days with the belt, and Changkong Shenguang and others also offered preparations in exchange for borrowing it.

Zhang Xuezhou cultivated his Realm Techniques in the North Rehe Research Institute while Zhou Yueyan tried to understand his unusual behavior and Zhang Manqian used the Ferocious Beast Belt to absorb crane blood serum. The chapter ended when Professor Zhu Liangping asked Zhang Xuezhou whether his rejected paper about communicating with exotic beasts was true, since the committee had to evaluate him for an associate professor title.

• Zhou Yueyan watched Zhang Manqian use the Ferocious Beast Belt and discussed with Zhou Tianhao whether the belt could be researched or used to obtain blood serum.
• Zhou Yueyan wondered why Zhang Xuezhou was meditating and speculated that his unusual habits and intermittent vegetative symptoms came from the sinkhole.
• Zhang Xuezhou practiced his Evasion Techniques and the Nine Revolutions Harmonizing Qi Technique, reaching its second revolution in a few hours.
• Zhang Xuezhou assessed how his Realm Technique and Mental Strengthening Chapter gave him an instantly activated suppressive force with a range of a little over twenty meters.
• Professor Zhu Liangping messaged Zhang Xuezhou to ask whether his rejected paper, “Tuer God and Whispers with Exotic Beasts,” was true, because the committee had to evaluate his associate professor nomination.

Nearly two years after leaving Canglan Academy, Zhang Xuezhou returned as a lecturer and taught a class on his paper about Tuer God and communicating with exotic beasts. His demonstrations impressed the review panel and left the class lively, as he offered to develop exotic beast psychology into a new discipline.

• Zhang Xuezhou delivered his class from memory while professors evaluated his teaching and struggled to understand his paper.
• Zhu Liangping and Zhao Yingxing worried that the silent classroom showed the material was either too advanced or unconvincing.
• Zhang Xuezhou demonstrated his technique on stray cats and dogs, and Wang Haoran and others successfully tamed several.
• Zhang Xuezhou explained that belief in Tuer God was unnecessary for communicating with small animals, though it might help with exotic beasts.
• Ren Anran successfully tamed an exotic beast, and Zhang Xuezhou said a future course might teach the skill to the small share of students able to master it.

Zhang Xuezhou revealed that Ren Yisheng survived as a bodiless presence, forcing Wang Haoran to confront whether this was truly the same friend he had lost. Wang Haoran’s fear eased, but his questions about identity and life led him to take a new interest in Realm Technique.

• Zhang Xuezhou found Wang Haoran after the review and learned that Wang Haoran’s distress came from seeing Ren Yisheng while believing he could not save him.
• Zhang Xuezhou told Wang Haoran that Ren Yisheng had left his body through the Mental Strengthening Chapter, then summoned him from the Spirit Jade.
• Wang Haoran questioned whether Ren Yisheng was the original person or a new life, and challenged Zhang Xuezhou to consider whether a consciousness in another body would still be the same person.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested that Wang Haoran pursue the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation or wait until Zhang could create an external incarnation for comparison.
• Wang Haoran felt less afraid but remained uncertain about accepting Ren Yisheng, while his interest in Realm Technique grew stronger than his interest in Gene Fighting Technique.

Wang Haoran proposed forming a sect or alliance with Zhang Xuezhou and Ren Yisheng to secure their shared interests and give him access to cultivation methods. Zhang Xuezhou agreed to let Wang Haoran and Ren Yisheng establish a registered group, while promising to teach anyone willing and able to learn.

• Wang Haoran suggested that Zhang Xuezhou establish a sect and make him an elder so he could learn Realm Techniques.
• Ren Yisheng explained that Wang Haoran wanted a group bound by shared interests because he feared falling behind and could not offer Zhang Xuezhou what he needed.
• Ren Yisheng described how political and social conflicts would have prevented him from maintaining power, while Wang Haoran insisted that they still had to move forward.
• Zhang Xuezhou objected to forming a group, and Wang Haoran admitted his main reason was to learn Realm Techniques from him.
• Zhang Xuezhou said he would teach Wang Haoran if he worked hard and made progress, and urged him to improve the Poison Avoidance Art before attempting higher realms.
• Zhang Xuezhou agreed that Wang Haoran and Ren Yisheng could form an alliance themselves, provided they registered it with the authorities.

Zhang Xuezhou agreed that Wang Haoran should organize their group, recognizing that Wang’s connections could help them find mutated egret blood serum. He and Ren Yisheng also discussed why they would not spread the Realm Technique widely, and Ren Yisheng returned to the Spirit Jade.

• Wang Haoran took charge of registering the organization after Zhang Xuezhou agreed to provide the necessary information.
• Ren Yisheng explained that Wang Haoran’s influence and connections could help the group obtain resources and blood serums.
• Ren Yisheng suggested that the giant Ferocious Beast bird might spur hunters to catch mutated birds, giving Zhang Xuezhou a chance to buy egret blood serum.
• Zhang Xuezhou recognized that Wang Haoran could access laboratories and serums that were beyond his own limited connections.
• Zhang Xuezhou refused to spread the Realm Technique widely, arguing that its resources and methods could not serve everyone in the current era.
• Ren Yisheng praised Zhang Xuezhou’s matured thinking and returned to the Spirit Jade.

After securing his academic appointment and helping establish the Heart Alliance, Zhang Xuezhou returned to the North Rehe Research Institute, where Luo Burang and Luo Gaogao thanked him for arranging Luo Burang’s release. Their conversation revealed more about Luo Burang’s genetic research and the suspected leak that had exposed him to the Aomeijia Alliance.

• Zhang Xuezhou learned from Zhu Liangping that his associate professorship was secure and attended a presentation and the Heart Alliance’s establishment in Western Capital City.
• Zhang Xuezhou returned to the North Rehe Research Institute to develop and practice his Body Integration Realm techniques.
• Luo Burang and Luo Gaogao waited for Zhang Xuezhou and thanked him for securing Luo Burang’s release through the exchange for Montes Ganghao.
• Luo Burang explained how moose and salamander genes had affected his height, research, and Luo Gaogao’s inherited traits.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Luo Burang worked at the A9 Research Institute and that the leak of his research information was suspected to have passed through communications.

Zhang Xuezhou toured the Luo Household’s heavily secured A9 Research Institute and learned that Luo Burang was testing gene-based life extension. Luo Burang accidentally revealed that Professor Luo Hui’s laboratory contained a living head that was a Heavenly God General, confirming Zhang Xuezhou’s suspicion.

• Luo Burang showed Zhang Xuezhou the A9 Research Institute’s security systems and its isolated laboratories.
• Luo Burang presented mosquitoes and flies whose lifespans he had extended through genetic modification.
• Luo Burang said he had tested the life-extension technology on himself and believed it could eventually help ordinary people live longer.
• Luo Burang explained that his family wanted Sequence Holders to extend their lives through Mental Strengthening instead.
• Luo Burang revealed that the head in Professor Luo Hui’s laboratory was a Heavenly God General kept thinking by potions and brain stimulation.
• Zhang Xuezhou connected the revelation to Zhang Manqian’s encounter with the head and became certain it was real.

Zhang Xuezhou and Luo Burang toured each other’s laboratories and discussed their research, including Heavenly God General Medicine and blood serums. They discovered shared scientific interests, while Luo Burang remained constrained by his Lineage’s lack of funding and control.

• Zhang Xuezhou wondered if the long-lived head Luo Burang had mentioned belonged to former emperor Luo Zhong, the creator of the Mental Strengthening Chapter, and asked to meet him.
• Zhang Xuezhou described his experimental vomiting drug, and Luo Burang responded with interest in its potential as a weapon.
• Luo Burang showed Zhang Xuezhou his extensive blood-serum research, which covered many kinds of animals but remained mostly theoretical because he lacked funding and experimental materials.
• Luo Burang criticized Zhou Yueyan’s scientific aptitude and praised Zhang Xuezhou’s talent, while Zhang modestly disagreed.
• Zhang Xuezhou learned that Luo Burang struggled to borrow money, sell his products, or pursue research because his family’s Lineage restricted his resources, leaving much of his hope in Luo Gaogao.

Zhang Xuezhou recognized the value of Luo Burang’s research and proposed a joint exchange between their laboratories to address Luo Burang’s lack of resources. They agreed to cooperate, leaving the details of compensation open.

• Luo Burang and Zhang Xuezhou discussed Luo Burang’s research, laboratory shortages, and his disagreements with Professor Luo Hui.
• Zhang Xuezhou read Luo Burang’s papers and was impressed by their clear reasoning and unusually high projected success rates.
• Zhang Xuezhou proposed a joint exchange between their laboratories, offering access to resources and a path to sell stable, high-quality blood serums.
• Luo Burang questioned whether a small laboratory could attract buyers, but Zhang Xuezhou assured him that his contacts could provide a market.
• Zhang Xuezhou suggested that Luo Burang practice at the B13 Laboratory in exchange for resources, and the two established a cooperative relationship without specifying compensation.

Zhang Xuezhou arranged for Wang Li to gather customers for blood serum made with Luo Burang’s expertise. With more than a hundred potential buyers and materials available on demand, the two men found a way to fund and advance their research.

• Wang Li told Zhang Xuezhou that his friends needed blood serum, and Zhang offered to arrange orders through a lab contact.
• Zhang explained that his lab would be qualified to sell research products after his associate professor title and lab verification were complete.
• Zhang asked Wang Li to collect sequencing reports and money from interested buyers, promising serum at normal market prices in three months.
• Zhang explained to Luo Burang that he had secured more than a hundred potential customers who could afford serum.
• Luo Burang realized Zhang’s supply-and-sales network could support his research, and he hoped to use the opportunity to develop Luo Gaogao and escape the lineage’s constraints.

Zhang Xuezhou explained the risks of investing in Luo Burang’s blood-serum research and discussed with Zhang Manqian how they could avoid drawing attention. The chapter left Zhang Xuezhou considering whether greater political chaos might help keep scrutiny away from them.

• Zhang Xuezhou told Zhang Manqian that funding Luo Burang’s research could cost around two hundred million, but he was willing to take the risk because Luo had extensive research manuscripts.
• Zhang Xuezhou encouraged Zhang Manqian to learn from Luo Burang, whose main specialty was genetic life extension, and she welcomed the chance to improve her expertise.
• Zhang Manqian worried that their rapid progress might attract investigations, so Zhang Xuezhou suggested they deliberately appear unremarkable and let others win when the stakes were low.
• Zhang Xuezhou considered that turmoil between Western Capital City and the local authorities might distract people from him and Zhang Manqian.